Ritual and Power in Stone

Ritual and Power in Stone PDF Author: Julia Guernsey
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029277916X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
The ancient Mesoamerican city of Izapa in Chiapas, Mexico, is renowned for its extensive collection of elaborate stone stelae and altars, which were carved during the Late Preclassic period (300 BC-AD 250). Many of these monuments depict kings garbed in the costume and persona of a bird, a well-known avian deity who had great significance for the Maya and other cultures in adjacent regions. This Izapan style of carving and kingly representation appears at numerous sites across the Pacific slope and piedmont of Mexico and Guatemala, making it possible to trace political and economic corridors of communication during the Late Preclassic period. In this book, Julia Guernsey offers a masterful art historical analysis of the Izapan style monuments and their integral role in developing and communicating the institution of divine kingship. She looks specifically at how rulers expressed political authority by erecting monuments that recorded their performance of rituals in which they communicated with the supernatural realm in the persona of the avian deity. She also considers how rulers used the monuments to structure their built environment and create spaces for ritual and politically charged performances. Setting her discussion in a broader context, Guernsey also considers how the Izapan style monuments helped to motivate and structure some of the dramatic, pan-regional developments of the Late Preclassic period, including the forging of a codified language of divine kingship. This pioneering investigation, which links monumental art to the matrices of political, economic, and supernatural exchange, offers an important new understanding of a region, time period, and group of monuments that played a key role in the history of Mesoamerica and continue to intrigue scholars within the field of Mesoamerican studies.

Ritual and Power in Stone

Ritual and Power in Stone PDF Author: Julia Guernsey
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029277916X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Get Book Here

Book Description
The ancient Mesoamerican city of Izapa in Chiapas, Mexico, is renowned for its extensive collection of elaborate stone stelae and altars, which were carved during the Late Preclassic period (300 BC-AD 250). Many of these monuments depict kings garbed in the costume and persona of a bird, a well-known avian deity who had great significance for the Maya and other cultures in adjacent regions. This Izapan style of carving and kingly representation appears at numerous sites across the Pacific slope and piedmont of Mexico and Guatemala, making it possible to trace political and economic corridors of communication during the Late Preclassic period. In this book, Julia Guernsey offers a masterful art historical analysis of the Izapan style monuments and their integral role in developing and communicating the institution of divine kingship. She looks specifically at how rulers expressed political authority by erecting monuments that recorded their performance of rituals in which they communicated with the supernatural realm in the persona of the avian deity. She also considers how rulers used the monuments to structure their built environment and create spaces for ritual and politically charged performances. Setting her discussion in a broader context, Guernsey also considers how the Izapan style monuments helped to motivate and structure some of the dramatic, pan-regional developments of the Late Preclassic period, including the forging of a codified language of divine kingship. This pioneering investigation, which links monumental art to the matrices of political, economic, and supernatural exchange, offers an important new understanding of a region, time period, and group of monuments that played a key role in the history of Mesoamerica and continue to intrigue scholars within the field of Mesoamerican studies.

Cultures of Stone

Cultures of Stone PDF Author: Gabriel Cooney
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789088908910
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This volume establishes a rich cross-disciplinary dialogue about the significance of stone in society across time and space. The material properties of stone have ensured its continuing importance; however, it is its materiality which has mediated the relations between the individual, society and stone. Bound up with the physical properties of stone are ideas on identity, value, and understanding. Stone can act as a medium through which these concepts are expressed and is tied to ideas such as monumentality and remembrance; its enduring character creating a link through generations to both people and place. This volume brings together a collection of seventeen papers which draw on a range of diverse disciplines and approaches; including archaeology, anthropology, classics, design and engineering, fine arts, geography, history, linguistics, philosophy, psychology and sciences.

The Power of Ritual in Prehistory

The Power of Ritual in Prehistory PDF Author: Brian Hayden
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108426395
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Secret societies in tribal societies turn out to be key to understanding the origins of social inequalities and state religions.

Stones, Bones and Skin

Stones, Bones and Skin PDF Author: Anne Trueblood Brodzky
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art and religion
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description


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.

101 Power Crystals

101 Power Crystals PDF Author: Judy Hall
Publisher: Fair Winds Press (MA)
ISBN: 1592334903
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
The definitive resource for working with powerful crystals! Sparkling, luminous, and colorful, it is no wonder crystals have always been regarded as a source of power from ancient times to present day. But with the enormous number of crystals now on the market, it is difficult to choose exactly the right stone. In 101 Power Crystals, internationally renowned crystal expert Judy Hall brings together 101 crystals that are powerful across a wide spectrum of uses and suitable for all types of user. Not all crystals suit everyone, and the selection has been specially chosen to offer alternatives and new possibilities that may not have been thought of before. This distinctive collection includes high vibration crystals that experienced crystal practitioners will want to explore as well as those with earthier vibrations that are suited to beginners or those developing their sensitivities. It also features some rare and recently discovered crystals and stones that have not been included in any other volume, such as Aurora Quartz, Que Sera, Trigonic Quartz, and Preseli Bluestone. Each entry covers the history, mythology, and symbolism of the crystal in addition to its healing properties and environmental effects. There are crystals and stones for love, health, protection, abundance, and many other powers.

The Crystal Seer

The Crystal Seer PDF Author: Judy Hall
Publisher: Fair Winds Press (MA)
ISBN: 1592338224
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
An essential, accessible, and portable volume for using crystals for divination and ritual.

Rituals and Power

Rituals and Power PDF Author: S. R. F. Price
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521312684
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Simon Price attempts to discover why the Roman Emperor was treated like a god.

Deathpower

Deathpower PDF Author: Erik W. Davis
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231540663
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Cambodia, Erik W. Davis radically reorients approaches toward the nature of Southeast Asian Buddhism's interactions with local religious practice and, by extension, reorients our understanding of Buddhism itself. Through a vivid study of contemporary Cambodian Buddhist funeral rites, he reveals the powerfully integrative role monks play as they care for the dead and negotiate the interplay of non-Buddhist spirits and formal Buddhist customs. Buddhist monks perform funeral rituals rooted in the embodied practices of Khmer rice farmers and the social hierarchies of Khmer culture. The monks' realization of death underwrites key components of the Cambodian social imagination: the distinction between wild death and celibate life, the forest and the field, and moral and immoral forms of power. By connecting the performative aspects of Buddhist death rituals to Cambodian history and everyday life, Davis undermines the theory that Buddhism and rural belief systems necessarily oppose each other. Instead, he shows Cambodian Buddhism to be a robust tradition with ethical and popular components extending throughout Khmer society.

Ancient Magic and Ritual Power

Ancient Magic and Ritual Power PDF Author: Paul Mirecki
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004283811
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
This volume contains a series of provocative essays that explore expressions of magic and ritual power in the ancient world. The essays are authored by leading scholars in the fields of Egyptology, ancient Near Eastern studies, the Hebrew Bible, Judaica, classical Greek and Roman studies, early Christianity and patristics, and Coptology. Throughout the book the essays examine the terms employed in descriptions of ancient magic. From this examination comes a clarification of magic as a polemical term of exclusion but also an understanding of the classical Egyptian and early Greek conceptions of magic as a more neutral category of inclusion. This book should prove to be foundational for future scholarly studies of ancient magic and ritual power. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.