Medusa's Hair

Medusa's Hair PDF Author: Gananath Obeyesekere
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022618921X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
The great pilgrimage center of southeastern Sri Lanka, Kataragama, has become in recent years the spiritual home of a new class of Hindu-Buddhist religious devotees. These ecstatic priests and priestesses invariably display long locks of matted hair, and they express their devotion to the gods through fire walking, tongue-piercing, hanging on hooks, and trance-induced prophesying. The increasing popularity of these ecstatics poses a challenge not only to orthodox Sinhala Buddhism (the official religion of Sri Lanka) but also, as Gananath Obeyesekere shows, to the traditional anthropological and psychoanalytic theories of symbolism. Focusing initially on one symbol, matted hair, Obeyesekere demonstrates that the conventional distinction between personal and cultural symbols is inadequate and naive. His detailed case studies of ecstatics show that there is always a reciprocity between the personal-psychological dimension of the symbol and its public, culturally sanctioned role. Medusa's Hair thus makes an important theoretical contribution both to the anthropology of individual experience and to the psychoanalytic understanding of culture. In its analyses of the symbolism of guilt, the adaptational and integrative significance of belief in spirits, and a host of related issues concerning possession states and religiosity, this book marks a provocative advance in psychological anthropology.

Medusa's Hair

Medusa's Hair PDF Author: Gananath Obeyesekere
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022618921X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
The great pilgrimage center of southeastern Sri Lanka, Kataragama, has become in recent years the spiritual home of a new class of Hindu-Buddhist religious devotees. These ecstatic priests and priestesses invariably display long locks of matted hair, and they express their devotion to the gods through fire walking, tongue-piercing, hanging on hooks, and trance-induced prophesying. The increasing popularity of these ecstatics poses a challenge not only to orthodox Sinhala Buddhism (the official religion of Sri Lanka) but also, as Gananath Obeyesekere shows, to the traditional anthropological and psychoanalytic theories of symbolism. Focusing initially on one symbol, matted hair, Obeyesekere demonstrates that the conventional distinction between personal and cultural symbols is inadequate and naive. His detailed case studies of ecstatics show that there is always a reciprocity between the personal-psychological dimension of the symbol and its public, culturally sanctioned role. Medusa's Hair thus makes an important theoretical contribution both to the anthropology of individual experience and to the psychoanalytic understanding of culture. In its analyses of the symbolism of guilt, the adaptational and integrative significance of belief in spirits, and a host of related issues concerning possession states and religiosity, this book marks a provocative advance in psychological anthropology.

Little Medusa's Hair Do-Lemma

Little Medusa's Hair Do-Lemma PDF Author: Jennifer Buchet
Publisher: Spork
ISBN: 9781950169474
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
Little Medusa comes from a long line of snake-loving, serpentine-wearing Gorgons. When she receives her very first snake, Little Medusa discovers that having a snake slither and slide through her hair isn't so great after all. And to make matters more difficult, she begins questioning if she really wants to scare her friends to stone with her new forever friend. Using her imagination and heart, Little Medusa tries her best to please her family, her best-pet snake, and herself. Based on Greek Mythology, Little Medusa features Common Core Connections and explores the universal themes of following family tradition and staying true to oneself.

When They Severed Earth from Sky

When They Severed Earth from Sky PDF Author: E. J. W. Barber
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691127743
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Why were Prometheus and Loki envisioned as chained to rocks? What was the Golden Calf? Why are mirrors believed to carry bad luck? This groundbreaking book points the way to restoring some of that lost history and teaching about storytelling.

Representations of Hair in Victorian Literature and Culture

Representations of Hair in Victorian Literature and Culture PDF Author: Galia Ofek
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351904183
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
Galia Ofek's wide-ranging study elucidates the historical, artistic, literary, and theoretical meanings of the Victorians' preoccupation with hair. Victorian writers and artists, Ofek argues, had a well-developed awareness of fetishism as an overinvestment of value in a specific body part and were fully cognizant of hair's symbolic resonance and its value as an object of commerce. In particular, they were increasingly alert to the symbolic significance of hairstyling. Among the writers and artists Ofek considers are Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Margaret Oliphant, Charles Darwin, Anthony Trollope, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Eliza Lynn Linton, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Herbert Spencer, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Aubrey Beardsley. By examining fiction, poetry, anthropological and scientific works, newspaper reviews and advertisements, correspondence, jewellery, paintings, and cartoons, Ofek shows how changing patterns of power relations between women and patriarchy are rendered anew when viewed through the lens of Victorian hair codes and imagery during the second half of the nineteenth century.

Medusa's Ankles

Medusa's Ankles PDF Author: A. S. Byatt
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593321596
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
A ravishing, luminous selection of short stories from the prize-winning imagination of A. S. Byatt, "a storyteller who could keep a sultan on the edge of his throne for a thousand and one nights" (The New York Times Book Review). With an introduction by David Mitchell, best-selling author of Cloud Atlas Mirrors shatter at the hairdresser's when a middle-aged client explodes in rage. Snow dusts the warm body of a princess, honing it into something sharp and frosted. Summer sunshine flickers on the face of a smiling child who may or may not be real. Medusa's Ankles celebrates the very best of A. S. Byatt's short fiction, carefully selected from a lifetime of writing. Peopled by artists, poets, and fabulous creatures, the stories blaze with creativity and color. From ancient myth to a British candy factory, from a Chinese restaurant to a Mediterranean swimming pool, from a Turkish bazaar to a fairy-tale palace, Byatt transports her readers beyond the veneer of the ordinary—even beyond the gloss of the fantastical—to places rich and strange and wholly unforgettable.

Medusa's Gaze

Medusa's Gaze PDF Author: Marina Belozerskaya
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199739315
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
The long and intricate history of the beautifully carved Hellenistic style Egyptian bowl, from the days of Cleopatra to Constantinople, the French Revolution, and to near destruction by a deranged museum guard in 1925.

Medusa's Stony Stare

Medusa's Stony Stare PDF Author: Jessica Gunderson
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1404878203
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 18

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Book Description
Medusa, once a bewitching beauty, has become a hideous monster with snakes for hair. When men look at her, they turn to stone. Whe King Polydectes sends Perseus for Medusas head, he thinks Perseus will soon be another one of Medusas stone men. Or will he?

Medusa

Medusa PDF Author: Rosie Hewlett
Publisher: Silverwood Books
ISBN: 9781800420663
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Gorgon. Killer. Monster. Victim. Survivor. Protector. Medusa breathes new life into an ancient story and echoes the battle that women throughout millennia have continued to wage.

The World's Wife

The World's Wife PDF Author: Carol Ann Duffy
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 057119995X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
Mrs Midas, Queen Kong, Mrs Lazarus, the Kray sisters, and a huge cast of others startle with their wit, imagination, lyrical intuition and incisiveness.

The Medusa Plot (The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers, Book 1)

The Medusa Plot (The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers, Book 1) PDF Author: Gordon Korman
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545344654
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Are you ready to save the world? The bestselling series returns with an adventure spanning 6 explosive books, 2 secret-filled card packs, and a website that places readers right in the action. Thirteen-year-old Dan Cahill and his older sister, Amy, thought they belonged to the world's most powerful family. They thought the hunt for 39 Clues leading to the source of that power was over. They even thought they'd won. But Amy and Dan were wrong.One by one, distress calls start coming in from around the globe. Cahills are being kidnapped by a shadowy group known only as the Vespers. Now Amy and Dan have only days to fulfill a bizarre ransom request or their captured friends will start dying. Amy and Dan don't know what the Vespers want or how to stop them. Only one thing is clear. The Vespers are playing to win, and if they get their hands on the Clues . . . the world will be their next hostage.