Rites of Power

Rites of Power PDF Author: Sean Wilentz
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812216950
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Rites of Power provides a sweeping overview of the symbolism of power from tenth-century France to modern Britain. Approaching their topic from an eclectic range of intellectual traditions, the authors turn the study of politics, social relations, and cultural creation into a single endeavor. The essays begin with three assumptions: that all societies are ordered and governed by "master fictions" (divine right, equality for all) which make political hierarchy appear natural; that political rhetoric includes nonverbal communication (royal portraits, statistics on crop yields); and that common rhetoric can mean different things to various segments of a culture ("states' rights" during the American Civil War). Societies studied include France and Spain in the Middle Ages, post-Revolutionary France, the modern British monarchy, tsarist Russia, colonial Virginia, and industrial Germany. The essays were selected to provide methodological as well as historical coverage; the result is a comprehensive treatment along the cutting edge of several disciplines. This book will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of history, political science, sociology, anthropology, and art history.

Rites of Power

Rites of Power PDF Author: Sean Wilentz
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812216950
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Rites of Power provides a sweeping overview of the symbolism of power from tenth-century France to modern Britain. Approaching their topic from an eclectic range of intellectual traditions, the authors turn the study of politics, social relations, and cultural creation into a single endeavor. The essays begin with three assumptions: that all societies are ordered and governed by "master fictions" (divine right, equality for all) which make political hierarchy appear natural; that political rhetoric includes nonverbal communication (royal portraits, statistics on crop yields); and that common rhetoric can mean different things to various segments of a culture ("states' rights" during the American Civil War). Societies studied include France and Spain in the Middle Ages, post-Revolutionary France, the modern British monarchy, tsarist Russia, colonial Virginia, and industrial Germany. The essays were selected to provide methodological as well as historical coverage; the result is a comprehensive treatment along the cutting edge of several disciplines. This book will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of history, political science, sociology, anthropology, and art history.

Ritual, Politics, and Power

Ritual, Politics, and Power PDF Author: David I. Kertzer
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300043624
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Examines the history and purpose of political rituals, discusses examples from Aztec cannibal rites to presidential inauguration, and argues that the use of ritual determines the success of political groups.

Lesbian Rites

Lesbian Rites PDF Author: Ramona Faith Oswald
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317992334
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
Explore affirmation and coping rituals for lesbian singles, couples, and communities! This pioneering book is a multidisciplinary compilation of scholarship addressing lesbians, the rituals in their lives, and the meaning and impact of those rituals for the women involved and the people and communities around them. It offers a diverse range of perspectives on what it means to be a lesbian, what ritual is, what it means to enact a ritual, and how we can understand lesbian ritual experiences. Lesbian Rites: Symbolic Acts and the Power of Community presents five explorations of ritual that bring forth themes of lesbian-centered social change. In “Death's Midwife,” Sharon Jaffe creates a narrative that illustrates the power of ritual to reconcile straight and gay, Christian and Pagan, in end-of-life situations. Next, Ruth Barrett's exploration of Dianic traditions provides a brief history of the importance of Goddess-worship to radical lesbian feminists, and uses those traditions to create life-course rituals. Marla Brettschneider's “Ritual Encounters of the Queer Kind” challenges notions of a static “lesbian self” and instead reworks Judaism and anarchist politics to propose rituals of continuous “becoming.” Krista McQueeney then analyzes the paradoxes of a lesbian commitment ceremony held within a gay-affirmative African-American congregation in the southern United States. Elizabeth Suter and editor Ramona Faith Oswald use exploratory survey data to examine how lesbian couples may use name changing as a strategy to claim family status. In addition, Lesbian Rites also includes two chapters that examine how lesbians have been compromised, if not harmed, by the ritualization of heterosexism and homophobia. The first is an insightful analysis of the community response to the feminist retreat known as Camp Sister Spirit. In this chapter, Kate Greene uses Mary Daly's seven patterns of sado-ritual syndrome to show how the people opposed to the camp were organized to uphold heterosexual patriarchy through an obsession with purity that defined the camp as a refuge for immorality. The second chapter on this subject reviews the editor's own experiences of being hidden and devalued at heterosexual family weddings.

Deeply Into the Bone

Deeply Into the Bone PDF Author: Ronald L. Grimes
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520236750
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Providing a personal, informed and cultural perspective on rites of passage for general readers, this text illustrates the power of rites to help us navigate life's troublesome transitions.

Ancient Christian Magic

Ancient Christian Magic PDF Author: Marvin W. Meyer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691004587
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
This thought-provoking collection of magical texts from ancient Egypt shows the exotic rituals, esoteric healing practices, and incantatory and supernatural dimensions that flowered in early Christianity. These remarkable Christian magical texts include curses, spells of protection from "headless powers" and evil spirits, spells invoking thunderous powers, descriptions of fire baptism, and even recipes from a magical "cookbook." Virtually all the texts are by Coptic Christians, and they date from about the 1st-12th centuries of the common era, with the majority from late antiquity. By placing these rarely seen texts in historical context and discussing their significance, the authors explore the place of healing, prayer, miracles, and magic in the early Christian experience, and expand our understanding of Christianity and Gnosticism as a vital folk religion.

Liberating Rites

Liberating Rites PDF Author: Tom F. Driver
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429711093
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
This book shows how necessary ritual is to human freedom and to social processes of liberation. It aims to reflect upon the deep human longing for ritual and to interpret it in the light of our physical, social, political, sexual, moral, aesthetic, and religious existence. .

Blood Rites

Blood Rites PDF Author: Barbara Ehrenreich
Publisher: Twelve
ISBN: 1455543713
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
A New York Times Notable BookAn ALA Notable Book "Original and illuminating." --The Washington Post What draws our species to war? What makes us see violence as a kind of sacred duty, or a ritual that boys must undergo to "become" men? Newly reissued in paperback, Blood Rites takes readers on an original journey from the elaborate human sacrifices of the ancient world to the carnage and holocaust of twentieth-century "total war." Ehrenreich sifts deftly through the fragile records of prehistory and discovers the wellspring of war in an unexpected place -- not in a "killer instinct" unique to the males of our species, but in the blood rites early humans performed to reenact their terrifying experiences of predation by stronger carnivores. Brilliant in conception and rich in scope, Blood Rites is a monumental work that continues to transform our understanding of the greatest single threat to human life.

Magical Rites from the Crystal Well

Magical Rites from the Crystal Well PDF Author: Ed Fitch
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN: 9780875422305
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Now you can get the collection of rituals and wisdom that has helped start thousands of people on a Pagan path for over thirty-five years-Magical Rites from the Crystal Well by Ed Fitch. "The Crystal Well" was a small magazine that was published at a time when little information was available on Wicca, Witchcraft, and Paganism. Because of this, the rituals from that magazine circulated far and wide. Today, decades later, they are still popular. Why? Because they're some of the most beautiful, magical, and lyrical rituals ever written. These wonderful rituals have been collected in a beautifully illustrated book. Among the many rituals and techniques you'll find in Magical Rites from the Crystal Well are: - Rites for all of the seasons, including Midsummer, Lammas, Winter, and more. - The Rite of Calling Down the Moon - The Ceremony of Cakes and Wine - The Feast of the Full Moon - Storm Magic - Magical Dance - Building an Astral Temple - Pathworking - A Handfasting Rite - Rite of Dedication and Protection for an Infant Each rite includes complete instructions, with every word and every action clearly explained. The book also includes Pagan lore, such as the Rede of Chivalry, tips on forming a Pagan training group, how to tell if your pet is also your familiar, and much more. Almost every page has an elegant illustration. This book is not just filled with important ideas and rites that you can use, it's also beautiful to behold.

Ritual

Ritual PDF Author: Malidoma Patrice Some
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101177209
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
?The stories within these books have the poignancy of new discoveries as well as the unworn imagination of the ancestors. The commentary has the sharp edge of modern thought and the intricacy which results from the intellect being woven through the ritual complexities of tribal life. The purpose of constructing thresholds that bring this world together is to find the powers that can heal the rends in tribal as well as modern communities.? --Michael Meade, from the IntroductionVersed in the languages of psychology, comparative literature, as well as ancient mythology, healing, and divination, Malidoma Patrice Some bridges paths between the ancient tribal world of the West African Dagara culture and modern Western society. Ritual is written with wild imagination, careful critical reflection, and intuitive insights that will force the reader to encounter the world anew.

Rites of Love

Rites of Love PDF Author: Vladimir Megre
Publisher: Ringing Cedars Press LLC
ISBN: 9780980181289
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Over 10 million copies sold in 20 languages