Customer Reviews:
Great, but too expensive.......2004-02-15
If it weren't for the price, this would be the single best introduction to the anthropology of religion yet composed. In fact, even with the price, it's the best. Too bad about the price....
In essence, the volume is a compendium of classic works on the anthropology of religion, from across the twentieth century. Everybody's here, jammed in hugger-mugger. The organization is thematic, and you can certainly argue that the particular themes are weak or that the works chosen don't always fit them, but really it's the sheer breadth of the articles that makes the volume so useful.
If you are interested in the anthropology of religion, the table of contents will stun you. You already have some of these articles xeroxed somewhere -- but where? You may have made copies for your students, or put them on reserve. But then you have to do it again, because chances are the reserve desk has lost them, or some stinker student has taken the copies away so only he can study for the exam.
If this book cost, let's say, $50, you could simply assign it and save the trouble. You'd probably require the students to read half the articles, and the rest would serve admirably for additional background reading or alternative viewpoints. Leach, Levi-Strauss, Malinowski, Frazer, Radcliffe-Brown, Homans, Turner, Ortner, Geertz, etc. etc.
If you are a professional and don't own this, go buy it: you'll thank me later, when the bills are paid. Try reading it cover to cover: I promise you will learn something, however expert you are, simply by being confronted with this mass of great work in the field.
My only criticism, really, is that it's so exclusively anthropolgical in a strictly disciplinary sense. Eliade and his ilk simply don't show up on the horizon, nor the developments that arose from his influence (e.g. Jonathan Z. Smith). Beyond that, I have nothing but praise for the book.
Pity it's so damn expensive!
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- Comprehensive introduction to Girard's work
- Amazing . . . simply Amazing Stuff
- The Key to All Mythologies
- A Strong Introduction to a Visionary Thinker
- Girard may just be the most profound thinker in 2500 years
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The Girard Reader
Rene Girard
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ASIN: 0824516346 |
Book Description
In one volume, an anthology of seminal work of one of the twentieth century's most original thinkers.
Customer Reviews:
Comprehensive introduction to Girard's work.......2003-02-11
One of the most interesting aspects of this good general introduction to the brilliant work of Rene Girard is the interview with editor James G. Williams, which touches on Girard's biography and his conversion to Catholicism. The other texts included here span the entirety of his long career as literary critic, groundbreaking anthropologist, and Biblical exegete. The texts address all facets of mimetic theory, from triangular desire to scapegoating, sacrifice, Satan, and the paradoxical place of Nietzsche in the history of mimetic anthropology.
Amazing . . . simply Amazing Stuff.......2002-08-01
In the academic landscape of victimization theories, deconstruction and post-modernism, here arises a singular voice that cuts to an all encompassing generative theory of civilization. It is a theory that explains why we buy Nike, why we go to war, and how we achieve peace. It would be better known in academia except this poor soul has the unfortunate timing of discovering a theory that objectively validates the truth of Catholicism, when Christianity (and even worse Catholicism) is out of vogue.
His theories have been described as "among the most profound intellectual discoveries of our time" and "a comprehensive vision of the psychological, sociological, political, and religious processes of sin and redemption"
If you are a thinker interested in social critique and a theory that has the power to restore Western Civilization - buy this book.
The Key to All Mythologies.......2001-05-31
This is a remarkably complete introduction to Rene Girard's ideas. His key theory has the clarity and simplicity of a mathematical proof--desire is not an innate drive but a behavior we learn through imitation (mimesis). When we mimic our model's desire for the same object, violence breaks out. Through ritual scapegoating, human communities manage to divert this violence by directing it at a random victim (thus hiding its real source in mimetic rivalry). According to Girard, this mechanism is at work across all times and cultures, and shapes the plot of nearly every major novel. For those with a suspicion of grand unifying theories, his idea raises many questions. Even more controversial is his belief that Christianity brings an end to myth by exposing the scapegoat's innocence. Christ doesn't die as a sacrifice to God for human sin; instead, the crucifixion reveals the fiction at the root of all sacrifice--the victim's culpability. This helps to humanize one of Christianity's more troubling doctrines, but it also asks us to believe that the authors of the New Testament understood the workings of mimetic desire 2000 years before Girard articulated the theory. Read the book and come to your own conclusions. Whatever you decide, after reading Girard you'll look at myth and religion with new eyes.
A Strong Introduction to a Visionary Thinker.......2001-01-23
This is one book that takes time to fully digest. I first encountered Girard in 1998, and his work becomes more significant for me with each passing year. The basic ideas are pretty easy to grasp, but they have a nasty habit of reorienting any context you place them in. His scapegoat theory has something urgent to say to many disciplines: literature, religion, philosophy, psychology, and ultimately anthropology--Girard engages them all. His analysis of the Judeo-Christian scriptures is definitely the most illuminating that I have read, and there is evidence that his influence is spreading.
If you are looking for a thoughtful book that takes the Bible seriously without the tired liberal/conservative food-fight, this one won't disappoint.
Girard may just be the most profound thinker in 2500 years.......1998-11-23
I don't think there is any doubt that Rene Girard is the most profoud thinker in the past 2500 years. I go back that far to include his transcendence of both Plato and Aristotle. Translate his insight into the human condition into the waning years of the 20th century--the most murderous century in human history--and we may yet survive the 21st century with some measure of humanity. Thank God we have a thinker who empathizes the human condition and has the ability to articulate it. Right now, he is as close to the "second coming"`as we have.As one of Shakespeare's characters put it: "I thank God for you, sir!"
Book Description
A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion is a collection of some of the most significant classic and contemporary writings within the anthropology of religion. Editor Michael Lambek has taken care to avoid reifying the category of religion and the various topics often subsumed within it. Indeed, a major contribution by anthropologists has been to challenge these kinds of categories, which stem from Western thought and language, Christianity, and ethnocentric views of non-Western people. This Reader includes material whose theme is religion in a straightforward and obvious sense, as well as contributions that expand how we might look at religion - and the horizons of what we mean by religion - linking it to broader questions of culture and politics.Designed for maximum utility, the volume includes a general introduction as well as an extensive bibliography indexed according to both ethnographic region and religious topics and practices, in order to enhance its accessibility. Each section and individual entry in the volume includes brief prefatory remarks by the editor and suggestions for further reading.
Customer Reviews:
The best anthology on the market, at least for the price.......2005-07-01
As an anthropologist who teaches a course on the anthropology of religion, I looked at all the available anthologies, as well as textbooks. This is by far the best anthology, especially for the price. Some are up to $100, which is an awful lot to ask an undergrad to spend. Even compared to those, which can be large and dense, this one stands out for a particular reason.
Most of its competitors present their offerings in a kind of mechanical and sequential way: "here is a section on myth, here is a section on ritual, etc." After using Lambek's text for the second time, I really began to appreciate how his book has a trajectory. It is really "up to something." Unlike the others, he is subtly developing a perspective, and the selections contribute almost universally to that perspective. I think even the students began to realize what he was trying to accomplish and approved of it.
The book is not perfect. It is heavy on ritual and short on some other topics. It does little or nothing with specialists, and nothing at all with altered states of consciousness/hallucinogens. Some of the selections are probably too hard for undergrads, and the piece by Wittgenstein, while he is important, does not convey enough of his thinking to be particularly helpful.
I understand a new edition is forthcoming. I know that I will be using it and encourage others to do so as well.
Book Description
At a time in our post-9/11 world when fundamentalist forces appear to dominate Islam, a vibrant and consequential discourse has emerged from many prominent writers seeking to change the direction of Muslim thought. This timely volume, representing a broad cross-section of this reformist trend in countries ranging from Malaysia to Algeria and Morocco, brings together the writings of thirteen of the most renowned and influential Muslim thinkers alive today. Individually and collectively, they argue for reforms in Islamic theology and jurisprudence and for reinterpretations of popular notions of Islam that are consistent with and supportive of the tenets of modern life. Their essays include broad overviews of Islam, its core principles, and the complex relationship between Islam, democracy, and civil rights; three works by Muslim feminist intellectuals; and more. The volume also places the life, career, and arguments of each thinker in national and historical context.
Copub: I.B. Tauris
Book Description
To enable the reader to shape, or perhaps reshape, an understanding of the Islamic tradition, F. E. Peters skillfully combines extensive passages from Islamic texts with a fascinating commentary of his own. In so doing, he presents a substantial body of literary evidence that will enable the reader to grasp the bases of Muslim faith and, more, to get some sense of the breadth and depth of Islamic religious culture as a whole. The voices recorded here are those of Muslims engaged in discourse with their God and with each other--historians, lawyers, mystics, and theologians, from the earliest Companions of the Prophet Muhammad down to Ibn Rushd or "Averroes" (d. 1198), al-Nawawi (d. 1278), and Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406). These religious seekers lived in what has been called the "classical" period in the development of Islam, the era when the exemplary works of law and spirituality were written, texts of such universally acknowledged importance that subsequent generations of Muslims gratefully understood themselves as heirs to an enormously broad and rich legacy of meditation on God's Word.
"Islam" is a word that seems simple to understand. It means "submission," and, more specifically in the context where it first and most familiarly appears, "submission to the will of God." That context is the Quran, the Sacred Book of the Muslims, from which flow the patterns of belief and practice that today claim the spiritual allegiance of hundreds of millions around the globe. By drawing on the works of the great masters--Islam in its own words--Peters enriches our understanding of the community of "those who have submitted" and their imposing religious and political culture, which is becoming ever more important to the West.
Download Description
To enable the reader to shape, or perhaps reshape, an understanding of the Islamic tradition, F. E. Peters skillfully combines extensive passages from Islamic texts with a fascinating commentary of his own. In so doing, he presents a substantial body of literary evidence that will enable the reader to grasp the bases of Muslim faith and, more, to get some sense of the breadth and depth of Islamic religious culture as a whole. The voices recorded here are those of Muslims engaged in discourse with their God and with each other--historians, lawyers, mystics, and theologians, from the earliest Companions of the Prophet Muhammad down to Ibn Rushd or "Averroes" (d. 1198), al-Nawawi (d. 1278), and Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406). These religious seekers lived in what has been called the "classical" period in the development of Islam, the era when the exemplary works of law and spirituality were written, texts of such universally acknowledged importance that subsequent generations of Muslims gratefully understood themselves as heirs to an enormously broad and rich legacy of meditation on God's Word. "Islam" is a word that seems simple to understand. It means "submission," and, more specifically in the context where it first and most familiarly appears, "submission to the will of God." That context is the Quran, the Sacred Book of the Muslims, from which flow the patterns of belief and practice that today claim the spiritual allegiance of hundreds of millions around the globe. By drawing on the works of the great masters--Islam in its own words--Peters enriches our understanding of the community of "those who have submitted" and their imposing religious and political culture, which is becoming ever more important to the West.
Customer Reviews:
A summary of Concept.......2001-06-26
Peters in this book gives an overview of Islam based on Islamic sources. He describes the religion, beliefs and concepts. He provides quotations from Islamic thinkers. sometimes he includes his views. He does not separate if the sources are reliable or not.Areas covered, birth of Prophet(SA), expansion of Islam, Islamic sciences, islamic thinkers, Islamic Theology, Hadith Science, Sufism.There are certainly some statements that are disputed by others but it is not Newton's Physics so that all get the same results. I would not take the book as an absolute source book but rather as a refernce point to help to make up ones mind and go to the referenced sources directly. Book has considerable references for comparison or see the quotations in content. It is not written from the point of a Sufi who has belief in Islam but rather as a Theology.
Try something else.......2001-04-27
If one wants to get to know about Islam, F.E. Peters is not the person to get your information from. He presents many parts of Islam but he presents them in such a way that it would turn a person off of Islam. Some things are complete lies, and Peters does a good job of putting suspicion in the right places while leaving out key points. I've also experianced Peters first hand, I took a class on Islamic Societies he taught at NYU. If one wants to see Islam from a Western perspective that person may want to try Denny, from what I hear he is better, but really one should talk to a learned man of Islam if they really want to learn about the religion.
Book Description
Paganism is not only a contemporary faith movement of increasing popularity, but also an area of considerable interest to scholars in a number of disciplines. The Paganism Reader provides a definitive selection of primary sources in Paganism, ranging from its ancient beginnings to its 20th century reconstruction and revival. Chronologically organised sections, each with an editor's introduction, present extracts from Greek, Norse and Celtic literature and from writings on witchcraft, folk beliefs, shamanism and goddess worship. The recent influences of environmental and feminist movements and of Neopagan interpretations are also considered. Giving full coverage of Paganism's diverse forms and alerting readers to critical academic debates, this is an invaluable guide to Pagan origins and practices.
Customer Reviews:
Beth.......2006-09-22
If you are interested in the historical, philisophical, and cultural dimensions of Paganism, Clifton's book is the best on the market. Relevant to Wiccans, Reconstructionists, Hermetics, and everything in between, this book will add real depth and color to your spiritual practice. The Paganism Reader is a lovely alternative to academic works about paganism written 'from the outside.' Chas Clifton is Pagan himself and is sensitive to our issues and experiences. An excellent book!
Find a place for this book in your library.......2004-06-16
Sometimes we do not need 'how to' books because our need is not 'how to' but 'why'. Sometimes we need reminders of why we are, as opposed to who we are or what we do. Sometimes we need books that inspire us, or give us a reason for our lives.
The Paganism Reader is a well put together volume that provides us with material that offers inspiration, gentle teachings and insights into the very nature of our spirituality.
Mr. Clifton and Mr. Harvey have put together various works, classified by the time of their writings (classical, proto-revival, revival and diversification) that touch the heart of what it is to be pagan. The material is fresh for the most part, well chosen for content and it's appeal to the pagan reader in a variety of applications. The material can be read as individual pieces, or taken as a whole. It can be used for private meditation or as a group exercise for study.
The classical is represented by various excerpts; from the 'Book of Jeremiah' to 'Pliny the Elder' and material from the 'Irish Cycles' to Geoffrey of Monmouth. The material covers a wide range of myths and mysticism.
The proto-revival material is characterized by excerpts from "Aradia', Aleister Crowley's 'The Book of the Law', Margaret Murray on 'Witchcraft' and Rudyard Kipling's 'A Tree Song', to name a few.
Revival and diversification contains material selected from the writings of Doreen Valiente, Gerald Gardner, Robert Heinlein, Marion Bradley, Mr. Clifton and others. There is also a 'Further Reading' list that is quite in depth and a well thought out Index.
The material presented is as diverse as the many paths of paganism. The book offers to the general pagan some wonderful material that will provoke discussion as well as contemplation.
A must have book on your library shelf, it should be included in your 'must read' lists and is a very useful tool for any teacher, as well as a book I would consider a primer for anyone looking at the pagan path.
As diverse as nature..........2004-05-07
Routledge Press has a strong reputation for putting out fine scholarship and helpful editions for students, scholars, and other interested readers, as this book on Paganism, edited by Chas S. Clifton and Graham Harvey, is no exception to that tradition. This is a reader; it is not a single narrative-strand history nor is it simply a collection of works under the guise of scholarship but really saddled with an agenda. There are three primary sections, largely based on historical division - Part One introduces classical texts from the ancient world, Part Two looks at what are called `proto-revival' texts, and Part Three looks at the revival and diversification of paganism over the past century or so.
The Classical Texts draw on literature from many different cultures (British Isles, Nordic/Icelandic culture, and ancient Egypt as well as the more well-known Israel, Greece, and Rome). There was no one systematic religious framework called `paganism', as these texts indicate, but rather Paganism is a term used to cover a wide range of religious and spiritual ideas. These texts include a diversity of literary forms - autobiography, poems, narrative stories, histories, and even an epistle/letter.
The proto-revival texts include texts that reawaken to a celebration of the natural world and the spirituality inherent in it during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Again, the motivations are diverse (Romantic views of nature, a disillusionment with progress and urbanism, etc.) as well as the types of literature - included here pieces from Rudyard Kipling, Robert Graves, Aleister Crowley and Kenneth Grahame, among others. There is also the entry written by Margaret Murray for the 1929 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica on witchcraft, a rather sympathetic account of the history of witchcraft, making it something very different than it is popularly envisioned.
The third part explores twentieth century scholarship as well as works written by and for Pagans. Some of the tensions that exist in the diversity that is Paganism have to do with the emphasis on nature versus the emphasis on the self and personal reflection/discovery. Another tension has to do with hierarchy - are there those with power and position or not? Among the many titles given to Pagans today are Witches, Druids, Shamans, Eco-activists, Goddess worshippers, and several others. Magic sometimes plays a role, but not always. Paganism is far from the kind of devil worship sometimes portrayed by church hiearchs.
In the introduction, Clifton and Harvey clearly state that it is not the intention of this collection to steer the reader in any particular direction regarding this texts; to that end, the introduction is but a few pages long, and the list of further readings is quite generous at the end of the book. Clifton does contribute a few articles in Part Three, on nature religion and Western shamanism.
A fascinating study.
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Religion, Diaspora and Cultural Identity: A Reader in the Anglophone Caribbean (Library of Anthropology)
J.W. Pulis
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 905700545X |
Book Description
Although the religions of the Caribbean have been a subject of popular media, there have been few ethnographic publications. This text is a much-needed and long overdue addition to Caribbean studies and the exploration of ideas, beliefs, and religious practices of Caribbean folk in diaspora and at home. Drawing upon ethnographic and historical research in a variety of contexts and settings, the contributors to this volume explore the relationship between religious and social life. Whether practiced at home or abroad, the contributors contend that the religions of Caribbean folk are dynamic and creative endeavors that have mediated the ongoing and open-ended relation between local and global, historical and contemporary change.
Book Description
The myths and legends in this collection have been selected both for their excellence as stories and because they illustrate the distinctive nature of Native American storytelling. They are drawn from oral traditions of the major culture areas of aboriginal North America, and include trickster tales, origin myths and stories of domestic sexual conflict.In a substantial introduction and headnotes to each story, editor Karl Kroeber highlights the otherness of Native American narratives, in which suspense is insignificant, metaphors hardly used, protagonists are often unnamed and ambiguity of motives is stressed. He reveals the highly practical functions of myths and legends in Native American societies, demonstrating how they helped listeners to explore the efficacy of social practices and cultural institutions, and how they reinforced American Indians ' profound spiritual engagement with their natural environment. This collection makes accessible to any reader the uniqueness and diversity of Native American storytelling.
Customer Reviews:
Do stories reflect values or shape them?.......2007-07-18
Native American Storytelling - A Reader of Myths and Legends - edited Karl Kroeder starts out with the interesting, and for me new, idea that stories shape our ideas, cultures and way of life. Instead of stories just being there to support old ideas, morals and explain how things came about Native American stories may have been used to test out new ideas. Instead of stories changing over the centuries, reflecting changes within the norms of society it may be that stories, for whatever reason, were used to change society, to explore taboos and question values.
Most of the stories were new to me. Many deal with sex and adult themes so not a book for kids.
Very serious work and a must for any library.
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Islam, Postmodernism And Other Futures: A Ziauddin Sardar Reader
Manufacturer: Pluto Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 074531984X |
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Ritual and Religious Belief A Reader (Critical Categories in the Study of Religion)
Graham Harvey
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0415974488 |
Book Description
What is ritual's relation to belief? to performance? Does ritual have its own logic?
Ritual and Religious Belief is a reader that brings together material exploring the problem of ritual from many perspectives. Selections from the sixteenth century to the present explore the idea of ritual as a type of religious behavior, ritual in relation to belief and thought, and ritual as "vain repetition." This anthology considers many perspectives, enabling the student and scholar to consider the richness of the questions surrounding the concept of ritual.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing.......2006-01-26
Rituals permeate our existence; from our social etiquette rituals to our political rituals. Religion especially is rife with rituals, and the study of rituals and religious belief can be very interesting and engaging. However, this book is not. It falls flat.
This academic compilation (A Reader) is disjointed and convoluted. Except for a few articles, very little insight is given to `religious rituals'. The book attempts to cover too much in too little space. Readers would have been better served if the focus was on the rituals of one world religion, not the world of religious belief.
"Ritual and Religious Belief" is the cacophony of sixteen very erudite authors, all singing solos under no ones' direction.
Conditionally recommended for academia for upper graduate, graduate levels and scholars, but not for the general reader. 1.5 stars
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