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A Book of Balance: Kogi Wisdom for a Good Life and Thriving Earth
by Lucas BuchholzWe all need help centering ourselves to serve ourselves and our world. In this small, beautiful book, the Kogi—a remote and ancient tribe in the mountains of Colombia--offer their learnings. They pose nine thought-provoking questions to help us live harmoniously with the earth and in turn find happiness and purpose in every moment.“Just as we are both sitting here and talking, this is how we can live well. All of this you will write in the book.”—Mama Jose Gabriel, a spiritual guide of the Kogi tribe, to author Lucas BuchholzFor centuries, the Kogi have lived in seclusion in Colombia’s remote Sierra Nevadas, known as “the heart of the world.” But in recent years, concerned by the environmental degradation they have experienced in their villages and forests, a few emissaries from the tribe emerged to bring an urgent and loving message to the West—advice on how to live in harmony with the earth.Buchholz was invited to their home to receive and transcribe this message. A Book of Balance takes us on a journey into a startlingly beautiful landscape and into a sacred space: the traditional fireside circle held regularly by the tribe. In this circle, members consider key questions essential to their community.In this slim volume of spiritual introspection, they ask us to share in their practice, posing nine questions that focus our minds and hearts on who we are, who we can become.Throughout we hear the words of the Kogi elders, wisdom that offers revelations, inspiration, and direction for our everyday lives.A beautiful book to own, to share with friends, and discuss in community.
A Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland
by Rebecca SolnitTravel and history intermingle in this elegant reflection on identity and memory. In her journey through Ireland, author Rebecca Solnit portrays in microcosm a history made up of great tides of invasion, colonization, emigration, nomadism, and tourism. Her observations carve a new route through Ireland's history, literature, and landscape.
A Book of Waves (The Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures)
by Stefan HelmreichIn A Book of Waves Stefan Helmreich examines ocean waves as forms of media that carry ecological, geopolitical, and climatological news about our planet. Drawing on ethnographic work with oceanographers and coastal engineers in the Netherlands, the United States, Australia, Japan, and Bangladesh, Helmreich details how scientists at sea and in the lab apprehend waves’ materiality through abstractions, seeking to capture in technical language these avatars of nature at once periodic and irreversible, wild and pacific, ephemeral and eternal. For researchers and their publics, the meanings of waves also reflect visions of the ocean as an environmental infrastructure fundamental to trade, travel, warfare, humanitarian rescue, recreation, and managing sea level rise. Interleaving ethnographic chapters with reflections on waves in mythology, surf culture, feminist theory, film, Indigenous Pacific activisms, Black Atlantic history, cosmology, and more, Helmreich demonstrates how waves mark out the wakes and breaks of social histories and futures.
A Border Passage: From Cairo to America--A Woman's Journey
by Leila AhmedA memoir of the author's life and understanding of her identity
A Bound Man
by Shelby SteeleIn Shelby Steele's beautifully wrought and thoughtprovoking new book, A Bound Man, the award-winning and bestselling author of The Content of Our Character attests that Senator Barack Obama's groundbreaking quest for the highest office in the land is fast becoming a galvanizing occasion beyond mere presidential politics, one that is forcing a national dialogue on the current state of race relations in America. Says Steele, poverty and inequality usually are the focus of such dialogues, but Obama's bid for so high an office pushes the conversation to a more abstract level where race is a politics of guilt and innocence generated by our painful racial history -- a kind of morality play between (and within) the races in which innocence is power and guilt is impotence. Steele writes of how Obama is caught between the two classic postures that blacks have always used to make their way in the white American mainstream: bargaining and challenging. Bargainers strike a "bargain" with white America in which they say, I will not rub America's ugly history of racism in your face if you will not hold my race against me. Challengers do the opposite of bargainers. They charge whites with inherent racism and then demand that they prove themselves innocent by supporting black-friendly policies like affirmative action and diversity. Steele maintains that Senator Obama is too constrained by these elaborate politics to find his own true political voice. Obama has the temperament, intelligence, and background -- an interracial family, a sterling education -- to guide America beyond the exhausted racial politics that now prevail. And yet he is a Promethean figure, a bound man. Says Steele, Americans are constrained by a racial correctness so totalitarian that we are afraid even to privately ask ourselves what we think about racial matters. Like Obama, most of us find it easier to program ourselves for correctness rather than risk knowing and expressing what we truly feel. Obama emerges as a kind of Everyman in whom we can see our own struggle to accept and honor what we honestly feel about race. In A Bound Man, Steele makes clear the precise constellation of forces that bind Senator Obama, and proposes a way for him to break these bonds and find his own voice.The courage to trust in one's own careful judgment is the new racial progress, the "way out" from the forces that now bind us all.
A Boy I Once Knew: What a Teacher Learned from Her Student
by Elizabeth StoneIn 1995 Elizabeth Stone received an unexpected gift - a carton of notebooks, the journals of a former high-school student named Vincent. Dying of AIDS at the age of forty, Vincent willed his diaries to his former ninth-grade teacher, asking her to turn his life into a book. Stone weaves her own life story through excerpts from Vincent's diaries. As Vincent comes to terms with the deaths of friends and with his own approaching end, Stone is helped to make her own peace with loss and death as a part of life.
A Boy's Cottage Diary, 1904
by Fred Dickinson Larry TurnerFred Dickinson’s diary opens a window on youth and the world of Ontario lakeland cottages at the beginning of the 20th century."The stories we hand down, the diaries we preserve become the fabric of our social history. Young Fred Dickinson’s 1904 account of tenting and cottaging is a spirited first-hand sketch of a long-neglected part of our heritage. Larry Turner places the diary within social, historic and geographic contexts giving it wide appeal to history buffs of all ages …."- Julie Johnston, award-winning author
A Branch from the Lightning Tree
by Martin ShawMartin Shaw's writing rattles the cages of souls. In A Branch from the Lightning Tree, Shaw creates links between the wildness in landscape and language, with myth being the bridge between the two. Shaw uses four great myths from Welsh, Norwegian, Siberian, and Russian territories that explore the process of leaving what is considered safe and predictable and journeying out into wild, uncertain areas of nature and the psyche. Shaw's work focuses on both men and women's movement into wildness as part of the bigger awareness of climate change and ecology. It presents the old stories as keys into any debate on these issues, showing how the ability to think metaphorically and mythologically "re-enchants" our perspectives.
A Break in the Future: Feeling Like an Activist After the Arab Uprisings
by Fuad MusallamInvestigates how Lebanese activists work through failure to keep the possibility of political change aliveA Break in the Future considers how activists keep hope alive and work toward future change when social movements fall apart and protests fail. Anthropologist Fuad Musallam investigates the endurance of political possibility in Beirut, Lebanon, between the Arab uprisings of 2010–11 and the Lebanese uprising of October 2019. Despite a regional collapse of political hope and a local inability to effect change in the context of political stasis, postponed elections, and the degradation of civil infrastructure, between every protest cycle a sizable number of people remained engaged and built toward future political opportunities. Through an analysis of activist strategies, Musallam explores the ways in which we grasp different phases of political (dis)engagement together. The book is motivated by a desire to better understand how to keep political possibility alive.To make sense of how possibility endures, this book looks at the ebb and flow of political engagement together, that is, not only at the peaks of recent mobilizations but also at the times in between when, at first glance, little seems to be happening on the ground. Musallam explores how activists cultivated and maintained their political subjectivity—the active and engaged sense of self that motivates political action—across the decade’s high and low points. He finds this political subjectivity to be the product of heartbreak and defeat as much as victory, as it underlies several movements at any one time and can sustain activists through multiple setbacks.Musallam discovers that when political change seems most unlikely, a moment of rupture—or a “break in the future”—becomes central to Lebanese activists’ belief that their actions can and will transform their world. A Break in the Future ultimately argues that the experience of moments of rupture radically transforms what seems possible, and that the cultivation of these experiences keeps movements going even when things appear to fall apart.
A Bride for One Night: Talmud Tales
by Ilana Kurshan Dr Ruth CalderonBrowse discussion questionsRuth Calderon has recently electrified the Jewish world with her teachings of talmudic texts. In this volume, her first to appear in English, she offers a fascinating window into some of the liveliest and most colorful stories in the Talmud. Calderon rewrites talmudic tales as richly imagined fictions, drawing us into the lives of such characters as the woman who risks her life for a sister suspected of adultery; a humble schoolteacher who rescues his village from drought; and a wife who dresses as a prostitute to seduce her pious husband in their garden. Breathing new life into an ancient text, A Bride for One Night offers a surprising and provocative read, both for anyone already intimate with the Talmud or for anyone interested in one of the most influential works of Jewish literature.
A Bridge to Mathematics
by Shobha Bagai Amber HabibA bridge to the world of mathematics for readers who want to gain a good foundation in basic mathematical skills for research and other activities. This book aims to help students of social sciences, liberal arts, and humanities to develop the ability to analyze and reason mathematically, to model situations and problems, and to be able to infer, present, and communicate their analysis effectively. Mathematical concepts are presented in both historical and everyday contexts to ease their utilization in the real world. Readers are introduced to the skills of expressing mathematical ideas using the language of sets, logically analyzing arguments and their validity, processing and interpreting data, and using probability to handle the inherent randomness of our world. Chapters dedicated to symmetry, perspective, and art will enable readers to reason, model, and evaluate everyday situations. The book will also increase awareness of how mathematical patterns pervade the world around us. Key Features Gentle and non-calculus-based treatment of the topics Real-life examples and data along with numerous visual aids Plethora of solved examples and exercises to develop hands-on experience Material on computational tools for data handling, analyses, and presentation
A Brief Excursion into Human Cognition: The Evolving Influence of Social Media & Artificial Intelligence
by Hans KankamThis book offers a concise exploration of human cognition, charting its historical development and revealing how disciplines such as neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, the social sciences, and behavioral economics shape our understanding. Structured as a condensed handbook, it examines the core principles defining cognition while reflecting on how these insights influence AI advancements and social media interactions. Subsequent sections highlight how evolving cognitive research, combined with rapid AI growth, is driving a paradigm shift in how we perceive ourselves and our world. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, the book also explores the possible unintended consequences of integrating such knowledge into everyday life. By illuminating emerging trends and potential future directions, it equips both specialists and non-specialists with a fresh lens on how cognition shapes—and is shaped by—technology and society.
A Brief Guide to Celtic Myths and Legends (Brief Histories )
by Martyn WhittockA very readable guide which fills the gap between academic analysis and less critical retellings of the myths and legends. Marytn Whittock provides an accessible overview while also assessing the current state of research regarding the origins and significance of the myths. Since all records of the myths first occur in the early medieval period, the focus is on the survival of pre-Christian mythology and the interactions of the early Christian writers with these myths. A wide-ranging and enthralling introduction to Celtic mythology, from the Irish gods before gods, the Fomorians, to the children of Llyr, the sea deity; from the hunter-warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill, whose exploits are chronicled in the Fenian Cycle, to Cú Chulainn, the Hound of Ulster; and from the Welsh heroes of the Mabinogion to Arthur, King of Britain, though the mythical, Welsh version who predates the medieval legends.
A Brief Guide to Celtic Myths and Legends (Brief Histories)
by Martyn WhittockA very readable guide which fills the gap between academic analysis and less critical retellings of the myths and legends. Marytn Whittock provides an accessible overview while also assessing the current state of research regarding the origins and significance of the myths. Since all records of the myths first occur in the early medieval period, the focus is on the survival of pre-Christian mythology and the interactions of the early Christian writers with these myths. A wide-ranging and enthralling introduction to Celtic mythology, from the Irish gods before gods, the Fomorians, to the children of Llyr, the sea deity; from the hunter-warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill, whose exploits are chronicled in the Fenian Cycle, to Cú Chulainn, the Hound of Ulster; and from the Welsh heroes of the Mabinogion to Arthur, King of Britain, though the mythical, Welsh version who predates the medieval legends.
A Brief Guide to Classical Civilization (Brief Histories)
by Dr Stephen P. KershawA general introduction to the classical world from its origins to the fall of the Roman Empire. The book focuses on questions of how we know about Classical civilization from archaeology and history; deals with the Mycenaean era and the world of Myth and Epic in Homer's Iliad & Odyssey; gives an outline of Greek history in the 5th & 4th Centuries BC; looks at Greek social life and the alternative model of Sparta, and considers the achievements of the Greeks in their art and architecture, tragedy and comedy. Turning to Rome, it engages with Roman history, the Roman Epic tradition, the fascinating features of Roman social life, analyses Roman satire, explores the urban environment in Pompeii and Herculaneum, and concludes with the End of Rome.
A Brief Guide to Islam: History, Faith and Politics: The Complete Introduction (Brief Histories)
by Paul GrieveExploring the beliefs, history and politics of the ordinary people of Muslim countries, Grieve cuts through the complexities as he examines all aspects of Islam. He also addresses the big issues: can Islam support true democracy? Is true democracy what the West really wants for Muslim countries or are we merely seeking a cover of legitimacy for a policy of 'might is right'?Paul Grieve is an unbeliever - he is not a born-again Muslim, a proselytizer or a frustrated desert romantic. His aim is to inform. The result is an accessible but never simplistic guide that challengesstereotypical views, from women and banking to war and Malcolm X. Complete with advice for visitors to Muslim countries, and with carefully chosen primary sources, maps and illustrations, this is the ideal summary for the reader looking for an unbiased overview of the religious and political world issues that have become part of our everyday lives.
A Brief Guide to Islam: The Complete Introduction
by Paul GrieveExploring the beliefs, history and politics of the ordinary people of Muslim countries, Grieve cuts through the complexities as he examines all aspects of Islam. He also addresses the big issues: can Islam support true democracy? Is true democracy what the West really wants for Muslim countries or are we merely seeking a cover of legitimacy for a policy of 'might is right'?Paul Grieve is an unbeliever - he is not a born-again Muslim, a proselytizer or a frustrated desert romantic. His aim is to inform. The result is an accessible but never simplistic guide that challengesstereotypical views, from women and banking to war and Malcolm X. Complete with advice for visitors to Muslim countries, and with carefully chosen primary sources, maps and illustrations, this is the ideal summary for the reader looking for an unbiased overview of the religious and political world issues that have become part of our everyday lives.
A Brief Guide to Ministry with LGBTQIA Youth
by Cody J. SandersDespite our best efforts to create welcoming and affirming congregations, the reality is that church can still be a harmful place to LGBTQIA youth. <P><P>Inside A Brief Guide to Ministry with LGBTQIA Youth, author Cody J. Sanders challenges pastors and church leaders to reflect on the various trials that adolescence brings for LGBTQIA youth. Designed for congregations that currently have a theologically and biblically affirming stance toward the LGBTQIA community, this unique resource provides insight and practical advice for tough questions like: <P><P><ul> <li>How does an affirming stance toward LGBTQIA people affect the day-to-day experience of teenagers in a church setting? </li> <li>In what ways can a church's youth ministry have a positive impact on the lives of LGBTQIA youth who want to fully live out their Christian faith and their gender identity? </li> <li>How can a pastor, youth minister, or youth ministry volunteer embrace, nurture, and provide skillful care for LGBTQIA youth in a congregation or community?</li></ul> <P><P>A glossary of terms to use when talking about LGBTQIA issues and a list of national and location resources that can be used to support LGBTQIA youth are included.
A Brief Guide to Native American Myths and Legends: With a new introduction and commentary by Jon E. Lewis
by Lewis SpenceIn this brilliant reworking of Lewis Spence's seminal Myths and Legends of the North American Indians, Jon E. Lewis puts the work in context with an extensive new introductory essay and additional commentary throughout the book on the history of Native Americans, their language and lifestyle, culture and religion/mythology. He includes examples of myths from tribes omitted by Spence, a guide to tribes and their myths by region, a basic Lakota (Sioux) glossary, guides to key pronunciations and a bibliography.
A Brief Guide to Native American Myths and Legends: With a new introduction and commentary by Jon E. Lewis (Brief Histories)
by Lewis SpenceIn this brilliant reworking of Lewis Spence's seminal Myths and Legends of the North American Indians, Jon E. Lewis puts the work in context with an extensive new introductory essay and additional commentary throughout the book on the history of Native Americans, their language and lifestyle, culture and religion/mythology. He includes examples of myths from tribes omitted by Spence, a guide to tribes and their myths by region, a basic Lakota (Sioux) glossary, guides to key pronunciations and a bibliography.
A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths
by Stephen P. KershawThe book leads the reader through these vibrant stories, from the origins of the gods through to the homecomings of the Trojan heroes. All the familiar narratives are here, along with some less familiar characters and motifs. In addition to the tales, the book explains key issues arising from the narratives, and discusses the myths and their wider relevance.This long-overdue book crystallises three key areas of interest: the nature of the tales; the stories themselves; and how they have and might be interpreted. For the first time, it brings together aspects of Greek mythology only usually available in disparate forms - namely children's books and academic works. There will be much here that is interesting, surprising, and strange as well as familiar. Experts and non-experts, adults, students and schoolchildren alike will gain entertainment and insight from this fascinating and important volume.
A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths (Brief Histories)
by Dr Stephen P. KershawThe book leads the reader through these vibrant stories, from the origins of the gods through to the homecomings of the Trojan heroes. All the familiar narratives are here, along with some less familiar characters and motifs. In addition to the tales, the book explains key issues arising from the narratives, and discusses the myths and their wider relevance.This long-overdue book crystallises three key areas of interest: the nature of the tales; the stories themselves; and how they have and might be interpreted. For the first time, it brings together aspects of Greek mythology only usually available in disparate forms - namely children's books and academic works. There will be much here that is interesting, surprising, and strange as well as familiar. Experts and non-experts, adults, students and schoolchildren alike will gain entertainment and insight from this fascinating and important volume.
A Brief History of Archaeology: Classical Times to the Twenty-First Century
by Brian M. Fagan Nadia DurraniA Brief History of Archaeology details early digs and covers the development of archaeology as a multidisciplinary science, the modernization of meticulous excavation methods during the twentieth century, and the important discoveries that led to new ideas about the evolution of human societies. Spanning more than two thousand years of history, this short account of the discipline of archaeology tells of spectacular discoveries and the colorful lives of the archaeologists who made them, as well as of changing theories and current debates in the field. Early research at Stonehenge in Britain, burial mound excavations, and the exploration of Herculaneum and Pompeii culminate in the nineteenth-century debates over human antiquity and the theory of evolution. The book then moves on to the discovery of the world’s pre-industrial civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Central America; the excavations at Troy and Mycenae; the Royal Burials at Ur, Iraq; and the dramatic finding of the pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922. The book concludes by considering recent sensational discoveries and exploring the debates over processual and post-processual theory that have intrigued archaeologists in the early twenty-first century. The third edition updates this respected introduction to one of the science’s most fascinating disciplines. A Brief History of Archaeology is a vivid narrative that will engage readers who are new to the discipline, drawing on the authors’ extensive experience in the field and classroom.
A Brief History of Archaeology: Classical Times to the Twenty-First Century
by Brian M. Fagan Nadia DurraniThis short account of the discipline of archaeology tells of spectacular discoveries and the colorful lives of the archaeologists who made them, as well as of changing theories and current debates in the field. Spanning over two thousand years of history, the book details early digs as well as covering the development of archaeology as a multidisciplinary science, the modernization of meticulous excavation methods during the twentieth century, and the important discoveries that led to new ideas about the evolution of human societies. A Brief History of Archaeology is a vivid narrative that will engage readers who are new to the discipline, drawing on the authors’ extensive experience in the field and classroom. Early research at Stonehenge in Britain, burial mound excavations, and the exploration of Herculaneum and Pompeii culminate in the nineteenth century debates over human antiquity and the theory of evolution. The book then moves on to the discovery of the world’s pre-industrial civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Central America, the excavations at Troy and Mycenae, the Royal Burials at Ur, Iraq, and the dramatic finding of the pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922. The book concludes by considering recent sensational discoveries, such as the Lords of Sipán in Peru, and exploring the debates over processual and postprocessual theory which have intrigued archaeologists in the early 21st century. The second edition updates this respected introduction to one of the sciences’ most fascinating disciplines.
A Brief History of Atlantis: Plato's Ideal State (Brief Histories)
by Dr Stephen P. KershawThe Atlantis story remains one of the most haunting and enigmatic tales from antiquity, and one that still resonates very deeply with the modern imagination. But where did Atlantis come from, what was it like, and where did it go to?Atlantis was first introduced by the Greek philosopher Plato in two dialogues the Timaios and Kritias, written in the fourth century BC. As he philosophises about the origins of life, the Universe and humanity, the great thinker puts forward a stunning description of Atlantis, an island paradise with an ideal society. But the Atlanteans degenerate and become imperialist aggressors: they fight against antediluvian Athens, which heroically repels their mighty forces, before a cataclysmic natural disaster destroys the warring states. His tale of a great empire that sank beneath the waves has sparked thousands of years of debate over whether Atlantis really existed. But did Plato mean his tale as history, or just as a parable to help illustrate his philosophy?The book is broken down into two main sections plus a coda - firstly the translations/commentaries which will have the discussions of the specifics of the actual texts; secondly a look at the reception of the myth from then to now; thirdly a brief round-off bringing it all together.