Kalash Solstice

Kalash Solstice PDF Author: Jean-Yves Loude
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Festivals
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description

Kalash Solstice

Kalash Solstice PDF Author: Jean-Yves Loude
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Festivals
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description


Entheogens and the Development of Culture

Entheogens and the Development of Culture PDF Author: John A. Rush
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
ISBN: 1583946241
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 673

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Book Description
Entheogens and the Development of Culture makes the radical proposition that mind-altering substances have played a major part not only in cultural development but also in human brain development. Researchers suggest that we have purposely enhanced receptor sites in the brain, especially those for dopamine and serotonin, through the use of plants and fungi over a long period of time. The trade-off for lowered functioning and potential drug abuse has been more creative thinking--or a leap in consciousness. Experiments in entheogen use led to the development of primitive medicine, in which certain mind-altering plants and fungi were imbibed to still fatigue, pain, or depression, while others were taken to promote hunger and libido. Our ancestors selected for our neural hardware, and our propensity for seeking altered forms of consciousness as a survival strategy may be intimately bound to our decision-making processes going back to the dawn of time. Fourteen essays by a wide range of contributors—including founding president of the American Anthropological Association’s Anthropology of Religion section Michael Winkelman, PhD; Carl A. P. Ruck, PhD, Boston University professor of classics and an authority on the ecstatic rituals of the god Dionysus; and world-renowned botanist Dr. Gaston Guzma, member of the Colombian National Academy of Sciences and expert on hallucinogenic mushrooms—demonstrate that altering consciousness continues to be an important part of human experience today. Anthropologists, cultural historians, and anyone interested in the effects of mind-altering substances on the human mind and soul will find this book deeply informative and inspiring.

Himalayan Drawings

Himalayan Drawings PDF Author: Robert Powell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317709101
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
First published in 2002. Following twenty-five years in the Himalayas tirelessly documenting different forms of vernacular architecture and different local customs and beliefs as reflected in material objects, this book is the result. The arrangement of the works selected for the present show and for the accompanying catalogue is by region in a rough chronological order. The plates within carry inscribed a local traditional universe, for the better understanding of which the expert remarks have been added.

Pagan Christmas

Pagan Christmas PDF Author: Augusto S. Cacopardo
Publisher: Gingko Library
ISBN: 1909942855
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
This authoritative work sheds light on the religious world of the Kalasha people of the Birir valley in the Chitral district of Pakistan, focusing on their winter feasts, which culminate every year in a great winter solstice festival. The Kalasha are not only the last example of a pre-Islamic culture in the Hindu Kush and Karakorum mountains but also practice the last observable example anywhere in the world of an archaic Indo-European religion. In this book, Augusto S. Cacopardo takes readers inside the world of the Kalasha people. Cacopardo outlines the history and culture of this ancient but still extant people. Exploring an array of relevant literature, he enriches our understanding of their practices and beliefs through illuminating comparisons with both the Indian religious world and the religious folklore of Europe. Bringing together several disciplinary approaches and drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, this book offers the first extended study of this little-known but fascinating Kalasha community. It will take its place as a standard international reference source on the anthropology, ethnography, and history of religions in Pakistan and Central South Asia.

Maṇḍala and Landscape

Maṇḍala and Landscape PDF Author: Alexander W. Macdonald
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
This Volume Highlights, Perhaps For The First Time, The Techniques Whereby Mandala-Schemes Are Projected In Thought, Belief And Action, On To Widely Differing Natural Landscapes. The Emphasis Is On Geographical Contexts And Socio-Cultural Traditions.

Our Women are Free

Our Women are Free PDF Author: Wynne Maggi
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472067831
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
An exploration of the lives of women among the Kalasha, a tiny, vibrant community in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province

Dealing with Disasters

Dealing with Disasters PDF Author: Diana Riboli
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030561046
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Providing a fresh look at some of the pressing issues of our world today, this collection focuses on experiential and ritualized coping practices in response to a multitude of environmental challenges—cyclones, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, warfare and displacements of peoples and environmental resource exploitation. Eco-cosmological practices conducted by skilled healing practitioners utilize knowledge embedded in the cosmological grounding of place and experiences of place and the landscapes in which such experience is encapsulated. A range of geographic case studies are presented in this volume, exploring Asia, Europe, the Pacific, and South America. With special reference throughout to ritual as a mode of seeking the stabilization, renewal, and continuity of life processes, this volume will be of particular interest to readers working in shamanic and healing practices, environmental concerns surrounding sustainability and conservation, ethnomedical systems, and religious and ritual studies.

Frontier Ethnographies

Frontier Ethnographies PDF Author: Nafay Choudhury
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1805397613
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Ethnography destabilizes the notion of the frontier as merely a geographic space and conveys its limitations—that lead researchers to reflect on their methodological approaches. Frontier Ethnographies explores the ethnographic edges of contemporary anthropological inquiry in Afghanistan and Pakistan by assembling voices of emerging scholars who have conducted field research within the region in the past two decades. Through examining moments of insecurity, vulnerability, doubt, fear, failure, and daydreaming, researchers reflect on their own experiences of field research and how—faced with frontiers—they have been forced to reimagine or reconstruct their understanding of the social world.

Being a Buddhist Nun

Being a Buddhist Nun PDF Author: Kim Gutschow
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674038088
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
They may shave their heads, don simple robes, and renounce materialism and worldly desires. But the women seeking enlightenment in a Buddhist nunnery high in the folds of Himalayan Kashmir invariably find themselves subject to the tyrannies of subsistence, subordination, and sexuality. Ultimately, Buddhist monasticism reflects the very world it is supposed to renounce. Butter and barley prove to be as critical to monastic life as merit and meditation. Kim Gutschow lived for more than three years among these women, collecting their stories, observing their ways, studying their lives. Her book offers the first ethnography of Tibetan Buddhist society from the perspective of its nuns. Gutschow depicts a gender hierarchy where nuns serve and monks direct, where monks bless the fields and kitchens while nuns toil in them. Monasteries may retain historical endowments and significant political and social power, yet global flows of capitalism, tourism, and feminism have begun to erode the balance of power between monks and nuns. Despite the obstacles of being considered impure and inferior, nuns engage in everyday forms of resistance to pursue their ascetic and personal goals. A richly textured picture of the little known culture of a Buddhist nunnery, the book offers moving narratives of nuns struggling with the Buddhist discipline of detachment. Its analysis of the way in which gender and sexuality construct ritual and social power provides valuable insight into the relationship between women and religion in South Asia today.

Globalization and Marginalization in Mountain Regions

Globalization and Marginalization in Mountain Regions PDF Author: Raghubir Chand
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331932649X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
This book looks at the global importance of mountain systems, emphasizing their ecological and socio-economic role in light of climate change and globalization. With a special focus on the Himalayas, it also examines the Czech–German–Austrian mountain borderland, the Alps, the Andes, the highland regions of Malaysia, and the Arctic. The contributors, specialists in their fields, all use an integrative approach that develops and argues the concept of mountain regions as a global common good. Readers also discover that mountain systems and mountain communities are often marginalized and left behind by the process of globalization. Case studies throughout detail the effects of climate change and global warming on both nature and local/regional societies, such as declining water supplies, a shifting vegetation line, and other important issues facing not only mountains but also the vast regions depending on them. In addition, the comprehensive coverage offers authenticated viewpoints from some of the most eminent explorers of Tibet in the nineteenth century. More than 50 percent of the global human population draws benefits directly or indirectly from mountain resources and services. This book provides practitioners, researchers, students, and other interested readers with a compelling look at the global importance of this imposing, yet sensitive ecosystem.