Snakes in American Culture

Snakes in American Culture PDF Author: Jesse C. Donahue
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476662657
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
The literature on snakes is manifold but overwhelmingly centered on the natural sciences. Little has been published about them in the fields of popular culture or the history of medicine. Focusing primarily on American culture and history from the 1800s, this study draws on a wide range of sources--including newspaper archives, medical journals, and archives from the Smithsonian Institute--to examine the complex relationship between snakes and humans.

Snakes in American Culture

Snakes in American Culture PDF Author: Jesse C. Donahue
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476662657
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Get Book Here

Book Description
The literature on snakes is manifold but overwhelmingly centered on the natural sciences. Little has been published about them in the fields of popular culture or the history of medicine. Focusing primarily on American culture and history from the 1800s, this study draws on a wide range of sources--including newspaper archives, medical journals, and archives from the Smithsonian Institute--to examine the complex relationship between snakes and humans.

Combing the Snakes from His Hair

Combing the Snakes from His Hair PDF Author: James Thomas Stevens
Publisher: American Indian Studies
ISBN:
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
James Thomas Stevens braids language and silence, memory and longing, loss and renewal, into an utterly original and eloquent music. --Arthur Sze.

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes PDF Author: Daniel Everett
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847651224
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Although Daniel Everett was a missionary, far from converting the Pirahãs, they converted him. He shows the slow, meticulous steps by which he gradually mastered their language and his gradual realisation that its unusual nature closely reflected its speakers' startlingly original perceptions of the world. Everett describes how he began to realise that his discoveries about the Pirahã language opened up a new way of understanding how language works in our minds and in our lives, and that this way was utterly at odds with Noam Chomsky's universally accepted linguistic theories. The perils of passionate academic opposition were then swiftly conjoined to those of the Amazon in a debate whose outcome has yet to be won. Everett's views are most recently discussed in Tom Wolfe's bestselling The Kingdom of Speech. Adventure, personal enlightenment and the makings of a scientific revolution proceed together in this vivid, funny and moving book.

America's Snake

America's Snake PDF Author: Ted Levin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022604078X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
The acclaimed naturalist offers an in-depth profile of the timber rattlesnake, from its unique biological adaptations to its role in American history. The ominous rattle of the timber rattlesnake is one of the most famous—and terrifying—sounds in nature. Today, they are found in thirty-one states and many major cities. Yet most Americans have never seen a timber rattler, and only know them from movies or our frightened imaginations. Ted Levin aims to change that with America’s Snake. This portrait of the timber rattler explores its significance in American frontier history, and sheds light on the heroic efforts to protect the species against habitat loss, climate change, and the human tendency to kill what we fear. Taking us from labs where the secrets of the snake’s evolutionary adaptations are being unlocked to far-flung habitats that are protected by dedicated herpetologists, Levin paints a picture of a fascinating creature: peaceable, social, long-lived, and, despite our phobias, not inclined to bite. The timber rattler emerges here as an emblem of America, but also of the struggles involved in protecting the natural world. A wonderful mix of natural history, travel writing, and exemplary journalism, America’s Snake is loaded with remarkable characters—none more so than the snake itself: frightening, fascinating, and unforgettable. A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award-winner

Landscape with Reptile

Landscape with Reptile PDF Author: Thomas Palmer
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820354112
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
In this entertaining book, first published in 1992, Thomas Palmer introduces us to a community of rattlesnakes nestled in the heart of the urban Northeast. Recognizing the unexpected proximity of rattlers in our urban environs, he examines the ecology, evolution, folklore, New England history, and American culture that surround this native species.

Salvation on Sand Mountain

Salvation on Sand Mountain PDF Author: Dennis Covington
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458766276
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
For Dennis Covington, what began as a journalistic assignment - covering the trial of an Alabama preacher convicted of attempting to murder his wife with poisonous snakes - would evolve into a headlong plunge into a bizarre, mysterious, and ultimately irresistible world of unshakable faith: the world of holiness snake handling, where people drink strychnine, speak in tongues, lay hands on the sick, and, some claim, raise the dead. Set in the heart of Appalachia, Salvation on Sand Mountain is Covington's unsurpassed and chillingly captivating exploration of the nature, power, and extremity of faith - an exploration that gradually turns inward, until Covington finds himself taking up the snakes. University.

On the Plain of Snakes

On the Plain of Snakes PDF Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 0544866479
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
Legendary travel writer Theroux drives the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border, then goes deep into the hinterland to uncover the rich, layered world behind today's brutal headlines.

Snakes, People, and Spirits, Volume One

Snakes, People, and Spirits, Volume One PDF Author: Robert Hazel
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527542920
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 567

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Book Description
This two-volume publication offers an in-depth analysis of ophidian symbolism in Eastern Africa, while setting the topic within its regional and historical context: namely, with regards to the rest of Africa, ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Greek world, ancient Palestine, Arabia, India, and medieval and pre-Christian Europe. Through the ages, most of those areas have connected with Eastern Africa in a broad sense, where ophidian symbolism was as “rampant” and far-reaching, if not more so, as anywhere else on the continent, and perhaps in past civilisations. Much as in the wider context, snakes were held to be long-lived, closely related to holes, caverns, trees, and water, life and death, and credited with a liking for milk. Even though ophidian symbolism has always been developed out of the outstanding biological and ethological features of snakes, the process of symbolisation, which plays a crucial role in the elaboration of cultural systems and the shaping of human experience, was inevitably at work. This first volume deals with snakes as a zoological category; snake symbolism as perceived by encyclopaedists and psychologists; and ophidian symbolism as it occurred in ancient civilisations. It explores the traditional African scene in general with a view to set the scene for a more proximate baseline for comparison. The divide between animals and humans was porous, and snakes had a more or less equal footing in both the animal realm and the spiritual world. Key features of snake symbolism in traditional Eastern Africa are then examined in detail, especially phantasmagorical snakes, the rainbow serpent, snake-totems, and snake-related witches and ritual leaders, among others. In Eastern Africa, the meanings attributed to snakes were multifaceted and paradoxical. Overall, the two volumes of this publication show that African snake symbolism broadly echoed the diverse representations of ancient civilisations. The widely acknowledged assimilation of snakes to death and Evil is therefore unrepresentative, both historically and culturally.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) PDF Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338635182
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 747

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Book Description
Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price. It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined - every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

Africanisms in American Culture, Second Edition

Africanisms in American Culture, Second Edition PDF Author: Joseph E. Holloway
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253217493
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
A revised and expanded edition of a groundbreaking text.