Download or read book Mesopotamia written by Jean Bottéro and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1995-06-15 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our ancestors, the Mesopotamians, invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottero attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history. To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottero begins with an account of Assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. This transmission, compounded with countless discoveries, would not have been possible without the surprising decipherment of the cuneiform writing system. Bottero also focuses on divination in the ancient world, contending that certain modes of worship in Mesopotamia, in their application of causality and proof, prefigure the "scientific mind."

Download or read book Divination and Revelation in Later Antiquity written by Elsa Giovanna Simonetti and published by . This book was released on 2023-10-25 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The period from the Late Roman Republic to the end of antiquity was marked by a wide interest in divination, and more broadly by an intense belief in the possibility of establishing close and personal connections with the gods. Divinatory practices underwent profound changes, accompanied by new trends in religious belief and philosophical reflection. Different religious, ethnic and cultural groups resorted to prophecy to define their respective identities and traditions, to articulate their peaceful or polemical interactions, and more broadly to construct their own worldview, the effects of which are still visible today. This wide-ranging volume creates a holistic picture of divination in antiquity, with perspectives from scholars of different disciplinary backgrounds. They argue that a greater focus on transcendent knowledge of the divine and cosmos influenced theories of divination among pagans, Jews, and Christians during the later part of the period.

Download or read book The Virtu written by Sarah Monette and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-06-27 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To reclaim his powers, wizard Felix Harrowgate must restore the magical talisman known as the Virtu-by confronting the dark sorcerer who destroyed it.

Download or read book Oneiromancy written by Winétt de Rokha and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oneiromancy is a book about resistance to male authority and power. First published in Chile in 1943, the book uses dreams, myths, folk-tales, 'rivers, books and disillusions' to challenge the patriarchal norms of Latin American society and the apparent triumph of Fascism in Europe. Writing on behalf of the mothers of the world facing the 'hurricane of fascism', Winétt de Rokha combined documentary realism, social protest and Magical Realism to explore the layered meanings of history and landscape, love and politics, utopian dream and dystopian reality. The book was also a reply to her husband's Morfología del espanto published the same year. Oneiromancy is an extraordinary Latin American mix of Communism and Surrealism. Frida Kahlo meets Tina Modotti.

Download or read book Fortune Telling written by Diagram Group and published by Sterling Publishing Company. This book was released on 2007-11 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: So many methods exist for getting a "jump” on time--dowsing, necromancy, different forms of astrology, tarot--and, with this complete encyclopedia of fortune telling, you can choose the one most suited to your talents. To know which way the wind blows, try aeromancy, or divining by atmospheric conditions. Do you know what it means if you see a spider web in your doorway? A dictionary of omens and superstitions says you’re about to have a guest! Or, try Oriental astrology, palmistry, and phrenology, and various forms of casting, such as runes, dice, dominoes, and the Tablets of Fate. Over 500 pages of easy-to-understand explanations, directions, charts and illustrations make this the biggest book of fortune telling ever!

Download or read book George W E Nickelsburg in Perspective written by George W. E. Nickelsburg and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2003 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selection of articles and excerpts by George Nickelsburg, with critical responses and Nickelsburg's rejoinders.

Download or read book Dreams in Early Modern England written by Janine Riviere and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-04-28 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dreams in Early Modern England offers an in-depth exploration of the variety of different ways in which early modern people understood and interpreted dreams, from medical explanations to political, religious or supernatural associations. Through examining how dreams were discussed and presented in a range of diffrerent texts, including both published works and private notes and diaries, this book highlights the many coexisting strands of thought that surrounded dreams in early modern England. Most significantly, it places early modern perceptions of dreams within the social context of the period through an evaluation of how they were shaped by key events of the time, such as the Reformation and the English Civil Wars. The chapters also explore contemporary experiences and ideas of dreams in relation to dream divination, religious visions, sleep, nightmares and sleep disorders. This book will be of great value to students and academics with an interest in dreams and the understanding of dreams, sleep and nightmares in early modern English society.

Download or read book Dreams and Dream Narratives in the Biblical World written by Jean-Marie Husser and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1999-11-01 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of dream accounts in the Bible and in ancient Near Eastern literature suggests two main lines of interpretation: on the one hand it defines the function of dream accounts from a literary, social, political and religious point of view on the basis of literary genre (practitioners' manuals, royal inscriptions, prophetic texts, etc.). On the other hand, in adopting a rather larger typology than is usual (message dreams, symbolic dreams, but also prophetic, premonitory and judgment dreams), it seeks to clarify both the relationship between the fiction implied by the literary form and the actual dream experience of individuals, as well as the different ritual practices related to this experience (interpretation, conjuration, incubation, etc.).

Download or read book The Functions of Dreaming written by Alan Moffitt and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1993-02-11 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many contemporary neuroscientists are skeptical about the belief that dreaming accomplishes anything in the context of human adaptation and this skepticism is widely accepted in the popular press. This book provides answers to that skepticism from experimental and clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, and anthropologists. Ranging across the human and life sciences, the authors provide provocative insights into the enduring question of dreaming from the point of view of the brain, the individual, and culture. The Functions of Dreaming contains both new theory and research on the functions of dreaming as well as revisions of older theories dating back to the founder of modern dream psychology, Sigmund Freud. Also explored are the many roles dreaming plays in adaptation to daily living, in human development, and in the context of different cultures: search, integration, identity formation, memory consolidation, the creation of new knowledge, and social communication.

Download or read book The Dream and Human Societies written by G. E. Von Grunebaum and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-07-28 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1966.

Download or read book A Dictionary of Hallucinations written by Jan Dirk Blom and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-06-23 with total page 797 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dictionary of Hallucinations, second edition, is an alphabetical listing of issues pertaining to hallucinations and other misperceptions. They can be roughly divided into four categories: 1. Definitions of individual hallucinatory symptoms 2. Medical conditions and substances associated with the mediation of hallucinations 3. Historical figures who are known to have experienced hallucinations 4. Miscellaneous issues Each of the definitions of individual hallucinatory symptoms includes: a definition of the term its etymological origin the year of introduction (if known) a reference to the author or authors who introduced the term (if known) a description of the current use a brief explanation of the etiology and pathophysiology of the symptom at hand (if known) references to related terms references to the literature The second edition of A Dictionary of Hallucinations serves as a reference manual for neuroscientists, psychiatrists, psychiatric residents, psychologists, neurologists, historians of psychiatry, general practitioners, and academics dealing professionally with concepts of hallucinations and other sensory deceptions. This new edition provides updated information and references, and includes newly discovered hallucinations, bringing together contributions by other authorities within the field, with all the entries edited by Prof. Blom.

Download or read book Aspects of knowledge written by Marilina Cesario and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-13 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection explores how knowledge was preserved and reinvented in the Middle Ages. Rather than focusing on a historical period or specific cultural and historical events, it eschews traditional categories of periodisation and discipline, establishing connections and cross-sections between different departments of knowledge. The essays cover the period from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, examining the history of science (computus, prognostication), the history of art, literature, theology (homilies, prayers, hagiography, contemplative texts), music, historiography and geography. Aspects of knowledge is aimed at an academic readership, including advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as specialists in medieval literature, history of science, history of knowledge, geography, theology, music, philosophy, intellectual history, history of language and material culture.

Download or read book The Secrets of Fortune Telling written by Elsie Wild and published by Summersdale. This book was released on 2021-05-13 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Would you like to be able to interpret the signs the universe is sending you? Do you want to know what’s in store for you and your loved ones? Are you interested in the deeper meaning behind everyday events? Discover the methods for divining your future with this beginner’s guide to fortune telling. Exploring the fascinating history behind divination techniques, and providing practical advice for trying them yourself, this book will teach you how to decipher the signs in the world around you. As you learn about the hidden meanings in your life, you will unlock the secrets of your destiny.

Download or read book Poems of Ambrose Bierce written by Ambrose Bierce and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ambrose Bierce is one of the most colorful figures in American literary history. A writer whose Devil's Dictionary remains the delight of misanthropes and fans of satire throughout the English-speaking world, he was also a master of the short story form. From the late 1860s through the early 1900s, he worked as a journalist, gaining wide renown in the 1890s and 1900s as a satirical columnist for William Randolph Hearst's chain of newspapers. In 1913 Bierce traveled to Mexico and joined Pancho Villa's army as an observer. He disappeared late that year and his fate has been a matter of dispute ever since. The poems that Bierce wrote throughout his career are less well known than his stories, journalistic pieces, and aphoristic observations on human folly. Nevertheless, his work as a poet, as critic Donald Sidney-Fryer has argued, "clearly merits the attention of the discriminating lover and student of poetry." Varied in form and subject matter, most of his poems are (not surprisingly) satires. This volume contains a generous selection of Bierce's poems; they are alternately ironic, melancholy, bitter, and wickedly amusing. There are also fifteen essays and letters on poetry, poets, and such topics as "Wit and Humor" and "The Passing of Satire." Certainly there have been few authors more intimately familiar with wit and satire than the brilliant, iconoclastic Bierce. As editor M. E. Grenander makes plain in her introduction, both are abundantly present in this collection of "some of the most remarkable verse in American literary history." M. E. Grenander is a Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Internationally recognized as aleading Bierce scholar, she is the author of Ambrose Bierce. Her articles on Bierce have appeared in the Western Humanities Review, American Literary Realism, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, and other publications.

Download or read book Prognostication in the Medieval World written by Matthias Heiduk and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-11-09 with total page 1039 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two opposing views of the future in the Middle Ages dominate recent historical scholarship. According to one opinion, medieval societies were expecting the near end of the world and therefore had no concept of the future. According to the other opinion, the expectation of the near end created a drive to change the world for the better and thus for innovation. Close inspection of the history of prognostication reveals the continuous attempts and multifold methods to recognize and interpret God’s will, the prodigies of nature, and the patterns of time. That proves, on the one hand, the constant human uncertainty facing the contingencies of the future. On the other hand, it demonstrates the firm believe during the Middle Ages in a future which could be shaped and even manipulated. The handbook provides the first overview of current historical research on medieval prognostication. It considers the entangled influences and transmissions between Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and non-monotheistic societies during the period from a wide range of perspectives. An international team of 63 renowned authors from about a dozen different academic disciplines contributed to this comprehensive overview.

Download or read book Society and Religion from Jahiliyya to Islam written by M.J. Kister and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02-23 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this second collection of his articles, Professor Kister has continued his investigation into the social and religious history of Arabia. The papers are based essentially on a study of the traditions preserved in the early Arabic sources, many unpublished. As the author demonstrates, these sources represent an invaluable mine of information on the history and religious life of pre-Islamic Arabia and on the transformations that affected customs, law and beliefs after the coming of Islam. Particular articles also deal with such questions as the relations and confrontation between nascent Islam and Judaism and Christianity, the contacts between tribal society and sedentary population, and the emergence of new popular customs and beliefs. Dans ce second receuil d’articles, le professeur Kister, poursuit ses recherches sur l’histoire sociale et religieuse de l’Arabie. Les essais sont essentiellement basés sur une etude des traditions conservées par les premieres sources arabes, dont beaucoup n’ont jamais été publiées. Ainsi que l’auteur le démontre, ces sources représentent une mine d’information inestimable sur la vie religieuse et l’histoire de l’Arabie pré-islamique et sur les changements qui affectèrent coutumes,lois et croyances après l’avenement de l’Islam. Certains articles , traitent plus particulierement, de sujets, tels les rapports et les affrontements entre la force naissante de l’Islam et le Judaïsme et Christianisme pré-existants; ou encore des contacts entre société tribale et population sédentaire, ainsi que de l’emergence de nouvelles coutumes et croyances poulaires.

Download or read book Understanding Human Life written by Daniel Courgeau and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the challenge of understanding human life. It compares our life experience with the attempts to grasp it by astrologers, eugenicists, psychologists, neuroscientists, social scientists, and philosophers. The main opposition among these specialties lies between understanding and misunderstanding. The book also addresses the central methodological difficulty of capturing a human life. It is first examined how certain approaches may lead to a misunderstanding of human life. The book contrasts the example of astrology—an accepted practice in ancient civilizations, but now classified among the pseudosciences—with astronomy, a full-fledged science since Galileo’s time. Another, more recent approach regards human life as predetermined by genes: the methods used by eugenicists, and later by political regimes under the name of hereditarianism, came to compete with genetics. A broader analysis shows how astrology and eugenicism are not truly scientific approaches. Next, the book looks at the ways of capturing an imaginary or real human life story. A comprehensive approach will try to fully understand their complexity, while a more explanatory approach considers only certain specific phenomena of human life. For example, demography studies only births, deaths, and migration. Another crucial factor in the collection of life histories is memory and its transmission. Psychology and psychoanalysis have developed different schools to try to explain them. The book concludes with a detailed discussion of the concepts and tools that have been proposed in more recent times for understanding the various aspects of life stories: mechanisms, systems, hermeneutics, and autonomy.