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The Timucua

The Timucua

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Based on the latest research findings, this is the moving story of the demise of one of the oldest of the American Indian peoples. This text looks at the Native American people, the Timucua, using information gathered from archaeological excavations and from the interpretation of historical documents left behind, mainly by Spain and France, who sought to colonize Florida and to place the Timucua under their sway.Contents: Preface. 1. The Beginning. 2. Who Were the Timucua? 3. The Invasion. 4. Spanish Missions. 5. Mission Settlements and Subsistence. 6. The Organization of Societies. 7. Beliefs and Behavior. 8. The End. Bibliography.

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The Anthropology of Performance (PAJ Books)

The Anthropology of Performance (PAJ Books)

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Turner is all over the globe as he addresses issues of cultural performance, carnival, film, theatre, and performing ethnography to break new ground in anthropological thinking about event, spectacle, and audience. One of his last writings, Body, Brain, and Culture links cerebral neurology and anthropology studies in a fascinating interface.

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Blind Spot: How Neoliberalism Infiltrated Global Health (Volume 30) (California Series in Public Anthropology)

Blind Spot: How Neoliberalism Infiltrated Global Health (Volume 30) (California Series in Public Anthropology)

OTHER ARTICLES

Neoliberalism has been the defining paradigm in global health since the latter part of the twentieth century. What started as an untested and unproven theory that the creation of unfettered markets would give rise to political democracy led to policies that promoted the belief that private markets were the optimal agents for the distribution of social goods, including health care. A vivid illustration of the infiltration of neoliberal ideology into the design and implementation of development programs, this case study, set in post-Soviet Tajikistan’s remote eastern province of Badakhshan, draws on extensive ethnographic and historical material to examine a “revolving drug fund” program—used by numerous nongovernmental organizations globally to address shortages of high-quality pharmaceuticals in poor communities. Provocative, rigorous, and accessible, Blind Spot offers a cautionary tale about the forces driving decision making in health and development policy today, illustrating how the privatization of health care can have catastrophic outcomes for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

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Landmarks in Humanities

Landmarks in Humanities

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Landmarks in Humanities is a single-volume survey of global culture designed to help students of humanities, cultural history, and history of the arts to understand and appreciate the relevance of historical works and ideas to their own daily lives. In chronological sequence, Landmarks guides students on a journey of the most notable monuments of the human imagination and the most prominent ideas and issues that have shaped the course and character of the world's cultures from prehistory to the present. The landmarks that mark this journey are the great works of their place and time and, in some cases, of all time.Enhanced by McGraw-Hill's SmartBook, Gloria Fiero delivers a learning experience tailored to the needs of each institution, instructor, and student. With the ability to incorporate new extended readings, streaming music, and artwork, Landmarks in Humanities renews the understanding of the relationship between world cultures and humankind's creative legacy.

 

Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall (Princeton Studies in Complexity, 26)

Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall (Princeton Studies in Complexity, 26)

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Many historical processes are dynamic. Populations grow and decline. Empires expand and collapse. Religions spread and wither. Natural scientists have made great strides in understanding dynamical processes in the physical and biological worlds using a synthetic approach that combines mathematical modeling with statistical analyses. Taking up the problem of territorial dynamics--why some polities at certain times expand and at other times contract--this book shows that a similar research program can advance our understanding of dynamical processes in history.Peter Turchin develops hypotheses from a wide range of social, political, economic, and demographic factors: geopolitics, factors affecting collective solidarity, dynamics of ethnic assimilation/religious conversion, and the interaction between population dynamics and sociopolitical stability. He then translates these into a spectrum of mathematical models, investigates the dynamics predicted by the models, and contrasts model predictions with empirical patterns. Turchin's highly instructive empirical tests demonstrate that certain models predict empirical patterns with a very high degree of accuracy. For instance, one model accounts for the recurrent waves of state breakdown in medieval and early modern Europe. And historical data confirm that ethno-nationalist solidarity produces an aggressively expansive state under certain conditions (such as in locations where imperial frontiers coincide with religious divides). The strength of Turchin's results suggests that the synthetic approach he advocates can significantly improve our understanding of historical dynamics.

 

Secrets of Voodoo

Secrets of Voodoo

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Secrets of Voodoo traces the development in Haiti and the Americas of this complex religion from its sources in the brilliant civilizations of ancient Africa. This book presents a straightforward account of the gods of loas and their function, the symbols and signs, rituals, and the ceremonial calendar of Voodoo and the procedures for performing magical rites are given.Voodoo, derived from the words meaning introspection and mystere is a system of belief about the formation of the world and human destiny with clear correspondences in other world religions. Rigaud makes these connections and discloses the esoteric meaning underlying Voodoo's outward manifestations, which are often misinterpreted. Translated from the French by Robert B. Cross. Drawings and photographs by Odette Mennesson-Rigaud.Milo Rigaud was born in Port au Prince, Haiti, in 1903, where he spent the greater part of his life studying Voodoo tradition. In Haiti he studied law, and in France ethnology, psychology and theology. The involvement of Voodoo in the political struggle of Haitian blacks for independence was one of his main concerns after he returned to his country.

 

Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences

Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences

OTHER ARTICLES

The book is clearly written for the general reader and includes many descriptions of trance experiences. It may serve as a good introduction to the nature and appeal of the shamanic revival in modern Western cultures. --Theological Book Review... a case study in experiential anthropology that offers a unique mix of autobiography, mythology, experiential research, and archaeological data to support a challenging thesis--that certain body postures may help induce specific trance states. --Shaman's DrumThis is a spellbinding and exceptionally readable book by an extraordinary woman. --Yoga JournalAnd suddenly the understanding of my own vision washed over me like a mighty wave... For life or for death, I was committed to that mighty realm of which I was shown a brief reminder, the world where all was forever motion and emergence, that realm where the spirits ride the wind. --from the PrologueGoodman reexamines our notions of the nature of reality by studying the ritual postures of native art assumed by her subjects during trance states. For readers desiring to discover this world of ancient myths, she has included a practical guide on how to achieve such ecstatic experiences.