Author: Timothy R. Pauketat
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415521289
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 246
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Book Description
An Archaeology of the Cosmos seeks answers to two fundamental questions of humanity and human history. The first question concerns that which some use as a defining element of humanity: religious beliefs. Why do so many people believe in supreme beings and holy spirits? The second question concerns changes in those beliefs. What causes beliefs to change? Using archaeological evidence gathered from ancient America, especially case material from the Great Plains and the pre-Columbian American Indian city of Cahokia, Timothy Pauketat explores the logical consequences of these two fundamental questions. Religious beliefs are not more resilient than other aspects of culture and society, and people are not the only causes of historical change. An Archaeology of the Cosmos examines the intimate association of agency and religion by studying how relationships between people, places, and things were bundled together and positioned in ways that constituted the fields of human experience. This rethinking theories of agency and religion provides readers with challenging and thought provoking conclusions that will lead them to reassess the way they approach the past.
Author: J. Grant Stauffer
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1789258464
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
This volume examines how pre-Columbian societies in the Americas envisioned their cosmos and iteratively modeled it through the creation of particular objects and places. It emphasizes that American societies did this to materialize overarching models and templates for the shape and scope of the cosmos, the working definition of cosmoscape. Noting a tendency to gloss over the ways in which ancestral Americans envisioned the cosmos as intertwined and animated, the authors examine how cosmoscapes are manifested archaeologically, in the forms of objects and physically altered landscapes. This book’s chapters, therefore, offer case studies of cosmoscapes that present themselves as forms of architecture, portable artifacts, and transformed aspects of the natural world. In doing so, it emphasizes that the creation of cosmoscapes offered a means of reconciling peoples experiences of the world with their understandings of them.
Author: Nicola Laneri
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1782976833
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 197
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Book Description
Religion is a phenomenon that is inseparable from human society. It brings about a set of emotional, ideological and practical elements that are pervasive in the social fabric of any society and characterizable by a number of features. These include the establishment of intermediaries in the relationship between humans and the divine; the construction of ceremonial places for worshipping the gods and practicing ritual performances; and the creation ritual paraphernalia. Investigating the religious dimensions of ancient societies encounters problems in defining such elements, especially with regard to societies that lack textual evidences and has tended to lead towards the identification of differentiation between the mental dimension, related to religious beliefs, and the material one associated with religious practices, resulting in a separation between scholars able to investigate, and possibly reconstruct, ritual practices (i.e., archaeologists), and those interested in defining the realm of ancient beliefs (i.e., philologists and religious historians). The aim of this collection of papers is to attempt to bridge these two dimensions by breaking down existing boundaries in order to form a more comprehensive vision of religion among ancient Near Eastern societies. This approach requires that a higher consideration be given to those elements (either artificial -- buildings, objects, texts, etc. -- or natural -- landscapes, animals, trees, etc.) that are created through a materialization of religious beliefs and practices enacted by members of communities. These issues are addressed in a series of specific case-studies covering a broad chronological framework that from the Pre-pottery Neolithic to the Iron Age. (Cover illustration © German Archaeological Institute, photo N. Becker)
Author: Fabio Silva
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1803271132
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258
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Book Description
Lionel Sims has produced an influential body of work that has challenged existing narratives about British prehistoric monuments and provided innovative ways to approach and think about skyscapes. This book, in his honour, is divided into three parts: Anthropology and Human Origins, Prehistory and Megalithic Monuments, and Theory.
Author: Annick Daneels
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784912840
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 73
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Book Description
Proceedings from a session held as part of the XVII World UISPP Congress, Burgos, 2014. The theme of the symposium was the archaeology of earthen architecture in pre- and protohistoric cultures, with an emphasis on constructive techniques and systems, and diachronic changes in those aspects.
Author: Robin A Parry
Publisher: Lutterworth Press
ISBN: 0718843940
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 303
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Book Description
Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of the Bible.Robin Parry takes the reader on a guided tour of the biblical cosmos with the goal of opening up the Bible in its ancient world. He then goes further and shows how this very ancient biblical way of seeing the world is still revelatory and can speak God's word afresh into our own modern worlds.
Author: Pabitra Banerjee
Publisher: Pabitra Banerjee
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 387
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Book Description
"Marvels of the Cosmos" invites you on an extraordinary journey through the celestial tapestry that graces our night skies. In this captivating exploration, the book unveils the wonders of the cosmos with a poetic and insightful narrative that transcends the boundaries of ordinary stargazing. Each page is an invitation to wander the vast expanses of space, where stars shimmer like ethereal jewels, planets dance in cosmic ballets, and galaxies unfold their majestic arms in celestial symphonies. Through vivid descriptions and awe-inspiring storytelling, "Marvels of the Cosmos" paints a breathtaking portrait of the universe, guiding readers beyond the veil of city lights to behold the true splendor of a dark night sky. From the ancient myths that trace constellations to the cutting-edge discoveries that unravel the mysteries of distant galaxies, the book seamlessly weaves together the threads of human fascination with the cosmos. As you turn the pages, you will find yourself immersed in the enchanting tales of ancient astronomers who first dared to map the stars, the profound revelations of modern astrophysics, and the cosmic wonders that continue to captivate our imaginations. Whether you are a seasoned astronomer or a curious stargazer, "Marvels of the Cosmos" is an odyssey that beckons you to gaze upward and contemplate the profound beauty and complexity of the universe. This literary masterpiece doesn't merely depict the cosmos as a scientific canvas but transforms it into a celestial poem, inviting readers to ponder the timeless questions that have fueled humanity's quest for understanding. "Marvels of the Cosmos" is not just a book; it's an odyssey into the heart of the night sky, a lyrical exploration that kindles a sense of wonder and reverence for the vastness that surrounds us.
Author: Stephen B. Carmody
Publisher: University Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817320423
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
Archaeological case studies consider material evidence of religion and ritual in the pre-Columbian Eastern Woodlands Archaeologists today are interpreting Native American religion and ritual in the distant past in more sophisticated ways, considering new understandings of the ways that Native Americans themselves experienced them. Shaman, Priest, Practice, Belief: Materials of Ritual and Religion in Eastern North America broadly considers Native American religion and ritual in eastern North America and focuses on practices that altered and used a vast array of material items as well as how physical spaces were shaped by religious practices. Unbound to a single theoretical perspective of religion, contributors approach ritual and religion in diverse ways. Importantly, they focus on how people in the past practiced religion by altering and using a vast array of material items, from smoking pipes, ceremonial vessels, carved figurines, and iconographic images, to sacred bundles, hallucinogenic plants, revered animals, and ritual architecture. Contributors also show how physical spaces were shaped by religious practice, and how rock art, monuments, soils and special substances, and even land- and cityscapes were part of the active material worlds of religious agents. Case studies, arranged chronologically, cover time periods ranging from the Paleoindian period (13,000–7900 BC) to the late Mississippian and into the protohistoric/contact periods. The geographical scope is much of the greater southeastern and southern Midwestern culture areas of the Eastern Woodlands, from the Central and Lower Mississippi River Valleys to the Ohio Hopewell region, and from the greater Ohio River Valley down through the Deep South and across to the Carolinas. Contributors Sarah E. Baires / Melissa R. Baltus / Casey R. Barrier / James F. Bates / Sierra M. Bow / James A. Brown / Stephen B. Carmody / Meagan E. Dennison / Aaron Deter-Wolf / David H. Dye / Bretton T. Giles / Cameron Gokee / Kandace D. Hollenbach / Thomas A. Jennings / Megan C. Kassabaum / John E. Kelly / Ashley A. Peles / Tanya M. Peres / Charlotte D. Pevny / Connie M. Randall / Jan F. Simek / Ashley M. Smallwood / Renee B. Walker / Alice P. Wright
Author: Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319217925
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 361
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Book Description
The essays in this book respond to Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka’s recent call to explore the relationship between the evolution of the universe and the process of self-individuation in the ontopoietic unfolding of life. The essays approach the sensory manifold in a number of ways. They show that theories of modern science become a strategy for the phenomenological study of works of art, and vice versa. Works of phenomenology and of the arts examine how individual spontaneity connects with the design(s) of the logos – of the whole and of the particulars – while the design(s) rest not on some human concept, but on life itself. Life’s pliable matrices allow us to consider the expansiveness of contemporary science, and to help create a contemporary phenomenological sense of cosmos.
Author: Donald A. Yerxa
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472591003
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
It is often assumed that religion is the backward-looking servant of tradition and the status quo, utterly opposed to the new. This refrain in so much of recent polemical writing has permeated the public mind and can even be found in academic publications. But recent scholarship increasingly shows that this view is a gross simplification - that, in fact, religious beliefs and practices have contributed to significant changes in human affairs: political and legal, social and artistic, scientific and commercial. This is certainly not to say that religion is always innovative. But the relationship between religion and innovation is much more complex and instructive than is generally assumed. Religion and Innovation includes contributions from leading historians, archaeologists, and social scientists, who offer findings about the relationship between religion and innovation. The essays collected in this volume range from discussions of the transformative power of religion in early societies; to re-examinations of our notions of naturalism, secularization, and progress; to explorations of cutting-edge contemporary issues. Combining scholarly rigor with clear, accessible writing, Religion and Innovation: Antagonists or Partners? is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of religion and the ongoing debates about its role in the modern world and into the future.
