Download or read book Nine Nights of Power written by Ute Hüsken and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The autumnal Navarātri festival—also called Durgā Pūjā, Dassehra, or Dasain—is the most important Hindu festival in South Asia and wherever Hindus settle. A nine-night-long celebration in honor of the goddess Durgā, it ends on the tenth day with a celebration called "the victorious tenth" (vijayadaśamī). The rituals that take place in domestic, royal, and public spaces are closely connected with one's station in life and dependent on social status, economic class, caste, and gender issues. Exploring different aspects of the festival as celebrated in diverse regions of South Asia and in the South Asian diaspora, this book addresses the following common questions: What does this festival do? What does it achieve, and how? Why and in what way does it sometimes fail? How do mass communication and social media increase participation in and contribute to the changing nature of the festival? The contributors address these questions from multiple perspectives and discuss issues of agency, authority, ritual efficacy, change, appropriation, and adaptation. Because of the festival's reach beyond its diverse celebrations in South Asia, its influence can be seen in the rituals and dances in many parts of Western Europe and North America.
Download or read book Nine Nights of the Goddess written by Caleb Simmons and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the contemporary nature and the diverse narratives, rituals, and performances of the Navar?tri festival. Nine Nights of the Goddess explores the festival of Navarātri—alternatively called Navarātra, Mahānavamī, Durgā Pūjā, Dasarā, and/or Dassain—which lasts for nine nights and ends with a celebration called Vijayadaśamī, or "the tenth (day) of victory." Celebrated in both massive public venues and in small, private domestic spaces, Navarātri is one of the most important and ubiquitous festivals in South Asia and wherever South Asians have settled. These festivals share many elements, including the goddess, royal power, the killing of demons, and the worship of young girls and married women, but their interpretation and performance vary widely. This interdisciplinary collection of essays investigates Navarātri in its many manifestations and across historical periods, including celebrations in West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Collectively, the essays consider the role of the festival's contextual specificity and continental ubiquity as a central component for understanding South Asian religious life, as well as how it shapes and is shaped by political patronage, economic development, and social status.
Download or read book Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power written by Laura Amazzone and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2010 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Amazzone's voice is strong and clear. Goddess Durga promises the transformation, empowerment, and dignity that is our birthright."--Marisa Tomei, Academy Award-winning actor.
Download or read book The Fast written by John Oakes and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2024-02-13 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With fasting at an all-time high in popularity, here is the first deep exploration into the surprising history and science behind the practice—essential to many religions and philosophies. Whether for philosophical, political, or health-related reasons, fasting marks a departure from daily routine. It involves doing less but doing less in a radical way. Based on extensive historical, scientific, and cultural research and reporting, The Fast illuminates the numerous facets of this act of self-deprivation. John Oakes interviews doctors, spiritual leaders, activists, and others who guide him through this practice—and embarks on fasts of his own—to deliver a book that supplies readers curious about fasting with profound new understanding, appreciation, and inspiration. In recent years, fasting has become increasingly popular for a variety of reasons—from health advocates who see fasting as a method to lose weight or to detox, to the faithful who fast in prayer, to seekers pursuing mindfulness, to activists using hunger strikes as an effective means of peaceful protest. Notable fasters include Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Gandhi, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Cesar Chavez, and a long list of others who have drawn on its power over the ages and across borders and cultures. The Fast looks at the complex science behind the jaw-dropping biological phenomena that occur inside the human body when we fast. Metabolic switching induced by fasting can prompt repair and renewal down to the molecular level; such fasting can provide benefits for those suffering from obesity and diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disorders, and more. Prolonged fasting can serve both to reinvigorate the immune system and to protect it against damage. Beyond the physical experience, fasting can be a great collective unifier, an instant leveler that connects us purely by virtue of being an act accessible to all, and it has been adopted by religions and political movements all over the world for millennia. Fasting is central to holy seasons and days such as Lent (Christianity), Ramadan (Islam), Yom Kippur (Judaism), Uposatha (Buddhism), and Ekadashi (Hinduism). On an individual level, devout ascetics who master self-deprivation to an extreme are believed to be closer to the divine, ascending to enlightenment or even sainthood. Through the ages, fasting in the name of justice—a hunger strike—has signaled purity of intent and action. It’s a tactic that demands commitment, serves to highlight the cruelty of those in authority, and appeals to shared values: that we’re united by a common humanity and we deserve to be heard. Advocates who have waged hunger strikes include Gandhi in India, Bobby Sands in Ireland, and the Taxi Workers Alliance in New York City. Fasting reminds us of the virtues of holding back, of not consuming all that we can. Ultimately, this book shows us that fasting is about much more than food: it is about taking control of your life in new and empowering ways and reconsidering your place in the world.
Download or read book The Life of a Text written by Philip Lutgendorf and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1991-07-23 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Life of a Text offers a vivid portrait of one community's interaction with its favorite text—the epic Ramcaritmanas—and the way in which performances of the epic function as a flexible and evolving medium for cultural expression. Anthropologists, historians of religion, and readers interested in the culture of North India and the performance arts will find breadth of subject, careful scholarship, and engaging presentation in this unique and beautifully illustrated examination of Hindi culture. The most popular and influential text of Hindi-speaking North India, the epic Ramcaritmanas is a sixteenth century retelling of the Ramayana story by the poet Tulsidas. This masterpiece of pre-modern Hindi literature has always reached its largely illiterate audiences primarily through oral performance including ceremonial recitation, folksinging, oral exegesis, and theatrical representation. Drawing on fieldwork in Banaras, Lutgendorf breaks new ground by capturing the range of performance techniques in vivid detail and tracing the impact of the epic in its contemporary cultural context.
Download or read book The Dark Powers of Tolkien written by David Day and published by Pyramid. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion are some of the greatest tales of good versus evil ever told. From the creation of Arda to the War of the Ring, Tolkien's Middle-earth has seen war and rebellion, devastation and loss, in which the powers of darkness emerged. Here in his latest book, best-selling author and Tolkien expert David Day explores Tolkien's portrayal of evil, and the sources that inspired his work: from myth, literature and history. This work is unofficial and is not authorized by the Tolkien Estate or HarperCollins Publishers.
Download or read book Nine Worlds in Nine Nights written by Hiawyn Oram and published by Walker Studio. This book was released on 2019-10 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: View more details of this book at www.walkerbooks.com.au
Download or read book Let s Celebrate Navratri Nine Nights of Dancing Fun Maya Neel s India Adventure Series Book 5 written by Ajanta Chakraborty and published by Culture Groove / Bollywood Groove. This book was released on 2021-03-22 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A festival that celebrates the female power in its nine different forms? Navratri or the festival of Nine Nights is exactly that. One of the most widely celebrated festivals of India, it is the perfect combination of mesmerizing Dandiya & Garba dances, brilliantly colorful clothes, delicious treats, and more. Join our traveling adventurers Maya, Neel, and Chintu, the squirrel, as they experience Navratri in its full splendor in Gujarat and also learn about how Navratri is celebrated in the rest of the country including Durga Puja, Golu tradition, and more. . Check out this incredibly fun festival book from Bestselling series with Award-winning authors! **Also See** Check out the bestseller book on 5 days of Diwali along with an activity book with 50 activities! . **Did you know?** All of our books are non-religious with stories are retold for a global audience. Maya & Neel’s India Adventures 10+ Book Series is written with the mission to RAISE MULTICULTURAL KIDS! We are Indie authors and 1st generation Indian immigrants, who have dedicated the past decade to spreading multiculturalism through our local dance & culture company as well through this book series whose extreme popularity has taken even us by surprise. You can follow our cultural journey on social media at Bollywood Groove and Culture Groove. To all our little and grownup readers: Thank You for supporting our work & mission! -------------- For bulk orders! or author visits! contact [email protected] Our Series Available Worldwide (CultureGroove.com/Books):! Festivals: Diwali, Navratri, Holi, Vaisakhi, Ramadan & Eid | Mythology: Ganesha, Krishna | Places: Delhi & Taj Mahal, Mumbai | Wedding | Diwali 50 Activity Book Holi 50-Activity Book | Gift Sets 1 & 2
Download or read book Everything But the Burden written by Greg Tate and published by Crown. This book was released on 2003-01-14 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White kids from the ’burbs are throwing up gang signs. The 2001 Grammy winner for best rap artist was as white as rice. And blond-haired sorority sisters are sporting FUBU gear. What is going on in American culture that’s giving our nation a racial-identity crisis? Following the trail blazed by Norman Mailer’s controversial essay “The White Negro,” Everything but the Burden brings together voices from music, popular culture, the literary world, and the media speaking about how from Brooklyn to the Badlands white people are co-opting black styles of music, dance, dress, and slang. In this collection, the essayists examine how whites seem to be taking on, as editor Greg Tate’s mother used to tell him, “everything but the burden”–from fetishizing black athletes to spinning the ghetto lifestyle into a glamorous commodity. Is this a way of shaking off the fear of the unknown? A flattering indicator of appreciation? Or is it a more complicated cultural exchange? The pieces in Everything but the Burden explore the line between hero-worship and paternalism. Among the book’s twelve essays are Vernon Reid’s “Steely Dan Understood as the Apotheosis of ‘The White Negro,’” Carl Hancock Rux’s “The Beats: America’s First ‘Wiggas,’” and Greg Tate’s own introductory essay “Nigs ’R Us.” Other contributors include: Hilton Als, Beth Coleman, Tony Green, Robin Kelley, Arthur Jafa, Gary Dauphin, Michaela Angela Davis, dream hampton, and Manthia diAwara.
Download or read book Lost in the Imagination A Journey Through Nine Worlds in Nine Nights written by Hiawyn Oram and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a trip into the fantastical world of the imagination in this lavishly illustrated gift book. Enter the elaborate “found” notebooks of the formerly fact-bound professor Dawn Gable and follow her on nine nightly journeys to extraordinary worlds. From King Arthur’s Round Table at Camelot to the majestic hall of slain heroes in Asgard, visit marvelous lands from myth, legend, and fairy tale. Intricate vistas and diagrams usher readers into a city of intelligent machines, the ancient African city of Kor, the miniature world of Lilliput, the flying island of Laputa, a mountainous home of mythical beasts, the primeval island of Buyan, the island of Atlantis, Captain Nemo’s Nautilus, and more. A mesmerizing gift for anyone who believes in the transformative power of stories, this is a book that readers will pore over again and again.
Download or read book Nine Nights Djerba written by Alexis Debary and published by BookRix. This book was released on 2018-06-07 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under-cover agent Monica is on Djerba, in Tunisia, to trace down the mastermind behind the recent 4/11 terror attack, when the dead body of a tourist woman washes up and she's torn into a mesh of black magic, romance, and international intrique that are all connected to the Djerba Nights, the most exclusive nightclub on the holiday island. Alexis Debary's debut work of fiction is based on the 4/11 terrorist blast on Djerba, in 2002. The author studied Islamic Studies and German Literature at the University of Hamburg and has travelled extensively in Arabic speaking countries. She binds first-hand experiences with action and vibrant imagery while playing with the cultural prejudice that began with 9/11.
Download or read book An Encyclopedia of Tolkien written by David Day and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: List of illustrations -- Introduction -- A dictionary of sources -- Charts -- Battles -- Three primary ring legends -- Tolkien's ring -- Index of sources -- Index.
Download or read book Witches and Witchcraft written by Dean Miller and published by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magical phenomenon, pagan worship, sorcery, and religion have all at one time been thought of as witchcraft. Witches, were labeled magical wizards, or sorcerers who had powers to conjure ill feeling or will toward non-magical people. These ideas predate the Anglo-Saxon period. This engaging and meticulously illustrated atlas reveals cultural ideas, from a global perspective, about witches and witchcraft, their place in their society, and the sometimes cruel punishments they were subjected to. Sidebars and boxes highlight interesting facts, glossary, an index, and resources for further study conclude this fascinating book.
Download or read book Reclaimed Powers written by David Gutmann and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique feature of human development is that mothers and fathers are bound to a long period of child-rearing, during which the continuity of our species depends on the fulfilment of distinct parental roles and on the suppression of psychological potentials that conflict with those roles. But once the parental emergency is over, the author argues, men and women can assert those parts of their personalities curbed by the restrictions of raising children. It is this shift in roles - a product of evolution found throughout our species - that led David Gutmann to propose a new psychology of ageing, based not on the threat of loss but on the promise of important new pleasures and capacities.
Download or read book Norse Mythology written by Rasmus Bjørn Anderson and published by . This book was released on 1891 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Norse Mythology written by Rasmus Björn Anderson and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Faith Hope and Poetry written by Malcolm Guite and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-04-15 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faith, Hope and Poetry explores the poetic imagination as a way of knowing; a way of seeing reality more clearly. Presenting a series of critical appreciations of English poetry from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day, Malcolm Guite applies the insights of poetry to contemporary issues and the contribution poetry can make to our religious knowing and the way we 'do theology'. This book is not solely concerned with overtly religious poetry, but attends to the paradoxical ways in which the poetry of doubt and despair also enriches theology. Developing an original analysis and application of the poetic vision of Coleridge, Larkin and Seamus Heaney in the final chapters, Guite builds towards a substantial theology of imagination and provides unique insights into truth that complement and enrich more strictly rational ways of knowing. Readers of this book will return to their reading of poetry equipped with new insights and enthusiasm and will be challenged to integrate imaginative ways of knowing into their other academic and intellectual pursuits.
