Download or read book Strange Stones written by Peter Hessler and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-05-07 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler’s best reportage—a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and warm sense of humor that are the trademarks of his work. Over the last decade, as a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three books, Peter Hessler has lived in Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in these two very different regions. This unusual perspective distinguishes Strange Stones, which showcases Hessler’s unmatched range as a storyteller. “Wild Flavor” invites readers along on a taste test between two rat restaurants in South China. One story profiles Yao Ming, basketball star and China’s most beloved export, another David Spindler, an obsessive and passionate historian of the Great Wall. In “Dr. Don,” Hessler writes movingly about a small-town pharmacist and his relationship with the people he serves. While Hessler’s subjects and locations vary, subtle but deeply important thematic links bind these pieces—the strength of local traditions, the surprising overlap between apparently opposing cultures, and the powerful lessons drawn from individuals who straddle different worlds.
Download or read book Mountain Harvests written by Worcester Art Museum and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Soils Stones and Symbols Cultural Perceptions of the Mineral World written by Nicole Boivin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ethnographic and archaeological records feature a rich body of data suggesting that understandings of the mineral world are in fact both culturally variable and highly diverse. Soils, Stones and Symbols highlights studies from the fields of anthropology, archaeology and philosophy that demonstrate that not all individuals and societies view minerals as commodities to be exploited for economic gain, or as passive objects of disembodied scientific enquiry. In visiting such diverse contexts as contemporary India, colonial-period Australia and prehistoric Europe and the Americas, the papers in this volume demonstrate that in pre-industrial societies, minerals are often symbolically meaningful, ritually powerful, and deeply interwoven into not just economic and material, but also social, cosmological, mythical, spiritual and philosophical aspects of life. In addressing the theme of the mineral world, this book is not only unique within the social and geo-sciences, but also at the forefront of recent attempts to demonstrate the importance of materiality to processes of human cognition and sociality. It draws upon theoretical developments relating to meaning, experience, the body, and material culture to demonstrate that studies of rock art, landscapes, architecture, technology and resource use are all linked through the minerals that constantly surround us and are the focus of our never-ending attempts to understand and transform them.
Download or read book Stones of the Sur written by Robinson Jeffers and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The precipitous cliffs, rolling headlands, and rocky inlets of the Big Sur coast of California prompted Robinson Jeffers to extol their wild beauty throughout his long career as a poet. This extraordinary volume brings together Jeffers’s haunting poetry with magnificent photographs of Big Sur by his friend and neighbor, famed photographer Morley Baer.
Download or read book Stones Beneath the Mountain written by X.O. Hartzler and published by Writers Republic LLC. This book was released on 2021-06-30 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stones Beneath the Mountain regards the adventurous tale within the fantasy land of Bauzzurath. Hod and GaRod Gravelback are two dwarven brothers who were born and raised in the mountainous land of DuLock. One fateful day, accompanied by Hod's daughter, KaRina, they set off in search of four mysterious stones that were to be acquired by their leader, King Greyshield. Along the way, the group encounters many strange and bizarre people, creatures and events. A tale of love and of loss, and a tale of power and of hardship, new details from the adventure await on every page.
Download or read book Stories in Stone written by David B. Williams and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2019-08-19 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people do not think to observe geology from the sidewalks of a major city, but all David B. Williams has to do is look at building stone in any urban center to find a range of rocks equal to any assembled by plate tectonics. In Stories in Stone, he takes you on explorations to find 3.5-billion-year-old rock that looks like swirled pink-and-black taffy, a gas station made of petrified wood, and a Florida fort that has withstood three hundred years of attacks and hurricanes, despite being made of a stone that has the consistency of a granola bar. Williams also weaves in the cultural history of stone, explaining why a white fossil-rich limestone from Indiana became the only building stone used in all fifty states; how in 1825, the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument led to America’s first commercial railroad; and why when the same kind of marble used by Michelangelo clad a Chicago skyscraper it warped so much after nineteen years that all 44,000 panels of it had to be replaced. This love letter to building stone brings to life the geology you can see in the structures of every city.
Download or read book Loving Stones written by David L. Haberman and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Loving Stones: Making the Impossible Possible in the Worship of Mount Govardhan is based on ethnographic and textual research with two major objectives. First, it is a study of the conceptions of and worshipful interactions with Mount Govardhan, a sacred mountain located in the Braj region of north-central India that has for centuries been considered an embodied form of Krishna. In this capacity it provides detailed information about the rich religious world associated with Mount Govardhan, much of which has not been available in previous scholarly literature. It is often said in that Mount Govardhan "makes the impossible possible" for devoted worshipers. This investigation includes examination of the perplexing paradox of an infinite god embodied in finite form, wherein each particular form is non-different from the unlimited. Second, it aims to address the challenge of interpreting something as radically different as the worship of a mountain and its stones for a culture in which this practice is quite alien. This challenge involves exploration of interpretive strategies that aspire to make the un-understandable understandable, and engages in theoretical considerations of incongruity, inconceivability, and like realms of the impossible. This aspect of the book includes critical consideration of the place and history of the pejorative concept of idolatry (and secondarily, its twin anthropomorphism) in the comparative study of religions. Accordingly, the second aim aspires to use the worship of Mount Govardhan as a site to explore ways in which scholars engaged in the difficult work of representing other cultures struggle to "make the impossible possible". ""--
Download or read book The Natural History Ancient and Modern of Precious Stones and Gems and of the Precious Metals written by Charles W. King and published by . This book was released on 1865 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A View from the West written by Vicki Cummings and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2009-11-13 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the heart of this study are the early Neolithic chambered tombs of the Irish Sea zone, defined as west Wales, the west coast of northern Britain, coastal south and western Scotland, the western isles and the Isle of Man, and the eastern coast of Ireland. In order to understand these monuments, there must be a broader consideration of their landscape settings. The landscape setting of the chambered tombs is considered in detail, both overall and through a number of specific case studies, incorporating a much wider area than has been previously considered. Cummings investigates the background against which the Neolithic began in the Irish Sea zone and what led to the adoption of Neolithic practices, such as the construction of monuments. Following on from this, she considers what the chambered tombs and landscape can add to our understanding of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. This volume aims to incorporate landscape analysis into a broader understanding of the Neolithic sequence in this area and beyond. It will provide an introduction to the Mesolithic and Neolithic of the Irish Sea zone, as well as a summary of previous work on this subject. It also offers a starting point for future research and a better understanding of this area.
Download or read book The Lying Stones written by Johann Bartholomäus Adam Beringer and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Archaeology and Geology of Ancient Egyptian Stones written by James A. Harrell and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2024-05-02 with total page 1091 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to identify and describe all the rocks and minerals employed by the ancient Egyptians using proper geological nomenclature, and to give an account of their sources in so far as they are known. The various uses of the stones are described, as well as the technologies employed to extract, transport, carve, and thermally treat them.
Download or read book Special Reports on Petroleum Coke and Building Stones written by United States. Census Office 10th census, 1880 and published by . This book was released on 1884 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Mountain Empire Utah written by George E. Blair and published by . This book was released on 1904 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Biblical Cyclop dia written by John Eadie and published by . This book was released on 1883 with total page 720 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Spirit Stones written by and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2014-01-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliant photographs of scholars' rocks, or Chinese ornamental stones, from a leading collection Shaped by nature and selected by man, scholars' rocks, or gongshi, have been prized by Chinese intellectuals since the Tang dynasty, and are now sought after by Western collectors as well. They are a natural subject for the photographer Jonathan Singer, most recently acclaimed for his images of those other remarkable hybrids of art and nature, Japanese bonsai. Here Singer turns his lens on some 150 fine gongshi, ancient and modern, from the world-class collection of Kemin Hu, a recognized authority on this art form. In his photographs, Singer captures the spiritual qualities of these stones as never thought possible in two dimensions; he shows us that scholars' rocks truly are, in Hu's words, "condensations of the vital essence and energy of heaven and earth." Hu contributes an introductory essay on the history and aesthetics of scholars' rocks, explaining the traditional terms of stone appreciation, such as shou (thin), zhou (wrinkled), lou (channels), and tou (holes). She also provides a narrative caption for each stone, describing its history and characteristics.
Download or read book The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland written by Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Index of archaeological papers published in 1891, under the direction of the Congress of Archaeological Societies in union with the Society of Antiquaries.
Download or read book The Great Stone Face and Other White Mountains written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
