Search results for ""Equinox Publishing""

Baron Justus von Liebig was one of the greatest organic chemists of the nineteenth century. When his book "The Chemistry of Food" was translated into English in 1847, Eliza Acton altered the second (1855) edition of her bestselling "Modern Cookery for Private Families" to include his ideas for the cooking of meat, so that they came into the English cooking repertoire. Liebig's discovery of the nutritional properties of beef extract had already been in use for invalids when he and four others decided to go into production in Uruguay, using the flesh of cattle that had been killed for their hides alone. He founded his factory at Villa Independencia, later to be called Fray Bentos, and his purpose was very largely philanthropic - to provide in predigested form a cheap and nutritious food which could enhance the lives of the growing population of the world's poor. His beef extract later became Oxo. Hannah Young was a well-known food writer of the era. The company's cookery book came out in a number of languages, with recipes tailored to the country in question and each compiled by a different food writer. Hannah's English version was compiled in 1894.

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Introducing students at the tertiary level to both Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, this book aims at developing analytical skills. It offers explanations along with sample analyses to illustrate theory and provide applications of the methodologies introduced. It also includes examples of analyses by researchers.

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What do dogma, repression, and conflict have in common? They all result from human judgement blocked from wider understanding by a false assumption of completeness. This book puts forward a theory of absolutization, bringing together a multi-disciplinary understanding of this central flaw in human judgement, and what we can do about it. This approach, drawing on Buddhist thought and practice, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, embodied meaning and systems theory, offers a rigorous introduction to absolutization as the central problem addressed in Middle Way Philosophy, which is a synthetic approach developed by the author over more than twenty years in a series of books. It challenges disciplinary boundaries as well as offering a substantial framework for practical application.

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When Mark Murphy died in October 2015, the world lost one of the greatest jazz singer in history. Murphy was the last of his kind, a hipster of the Kerouac generation, who rejected the straight life of prosperity and numb consumerism. With a catalogue of more than 40 albums under his own name, Mark Murphy was a consummate improviser, who never sang a song the same way twice. He could have enjoyed a successful mainstream career in the vein of Mel Tormé or Jack Jones. But his ambition was greater – to be an artist, to rebel against the commercial music industry and to carry the jazz vocal flame wherever it led him. Murphy was a master of scat and vocalese, of songwriting and the spoken word. He expanded the jazz singing repertoire, adding his own lyrics to instrumentals like John Coltrane’s Naima, Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay, and Oliver Nelson’s Stolen Moments. Unrivalled as an interpreter of ballads, he was able to express longing and regret to a degree lacking in any other jazz singer. For years he roamed the world, playing thousands of gigs. Rediscovered in the Eighties by a new audience of jazz dancers, and again in the 21st century by a digital generation who invited him to guest on their recordings, he remains a crucial though unjustly neglected figure in vocal jazz. This Is Hip is more than a biography: it also explores Murphy’s innovative approaches both to singing and to the teaching of singers. Based on numerous interviews with those who knew him best, the book delves into a performing and recording career that spanned 60 years and earned him five Grammy nominations.

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Global Phenomenologies of Religion offers a new way of looking at the past, current and future trajectory of the study of religion. The phenomenology of religion was once widely acknowledged to be the core of the study of religion as an autonomous discipline. First used as a term by the Dutch scholar Chantepie de la Saussaye in 1887, it was developed by Gerardus van der Leeuw in the 1930s and 40s, became popular in the 1960s and 70s and then met severe criticism, virtually disappearing by the beginning of the twenty-first century. This book adds to our global understanding of the history of the study of religion. Interviews with scholars from ten different countries offer a lived history, covering more than half a century. The resulting picture is diverse and nuanced, revealing important national and regional differences, and challenging long-held views about the rise and decline of this venerable approach to the study of religion.

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A Short Introduction to the Study of Language provides an accessible and up-to-date invitation to key concepts of modern language study. Readers gain awareness of the scientific approach to language through examination of varied topics of current research interest. The book explores the following issues: How are young children, who have limited general cognitive capability, able to automatically pick up and use any language that is in their environment, quickly, easily and without effort? Do other animals have language - what about the complex communication systems of apes, bees and cephalods? What happens when an individual is raised in an environment in which they are not exposed to language? Are some languages simpler than others - do some languages lack grammar? Is English getting worse over time, and is there one "correct" way to speak English? This book introduces readers to work that linguists are engaged in today which explores these questions, and sheds light on a number of widespread myths and misconceptions about language.

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In the early twentieth century The Eastern Buddhist not only shared in pioneering presentations of Buddhism to the west but invited interaction with non-Japanese authors. This interactive process increased dramatically in the post-war period, when dialogue between Buddhist and Christian thought began to take off in earnest. Significant here was the philosophical Buddhism of the frequently cited Kyoto School, a tradition of thought and teaching named after Kyoto University where it was largely based. At the same time these debates and dialogues brought in not only Zen voices but also thinkers from the Shin Buddhist tradition. Both of these orientations are reflected here. While the contributions stem mainly from the fifties, sixties and seventies, they have significantly influenced subsequent Buddhist-Christian dialogue. It was still a time of exciting mutual discovery. Anybody wishing to enter into this process of dialogue and exchange will therefore find it of great interest and value to approach it by considering the ideas and insights presented here. Because of the wealth of materials the selection has been spread across two volumes in the series Eastern Buddhist Voices and the present volume includes contributions from the earlier part of the period (Interactions with Japanese Buddhism includes contributions from the later part).

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'Mario Liverani's work is among the most original and penetrating in the discipline of ancient Near Eastern studies. I recommend this brilliant and fascinating book with high enthusiasm.' Benjamin R. Foster, Laffan Professor of Assyriology and Babylonian Literature and Curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection, Yale University 'This collection of his classic essays, selected by Liverani himself, and presented in English for the first time, displays Liverani's brilliance in dissecting a variety of myths, treaties, royal inscriptions, letters and Biblical narratives. Liverani's influence on the interpretation of history is generously acknowledged by professional historians of the Ancient Near East and by the Italian reading public. This collection will bring his substantive contributions and his method to a wider audience of historians, anthropologists, and literary critics. The editors have done a splendid job introducing the essays, revising Liverani's own translations and providing handy references to studies that have appeared since Liverani's original work.' Norman Yoffee, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan The essays collected in this volume represent a selection of studies, previously published mainly in Italian, that make explicit use of anthropological and semiological tools in order to analyze important texts of historical nature from various regions of the Ancient Near East. They suggest that these historiographical texts were of a 'true' historical nature, and that the literary forms and mental models employed were very apt at accomplishing the intended results. Two different aspects are especially emphasized: myth and politics.

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Why did some Buddhist translators in China interpolate terms designating an agent which did not appear in the original texts? The Chinese made use of raw material imported from India; however, they added some seasoningsA" peculiar to China and developed their own recipesA" about how to construct the ideas of Buddhism. While Indian Buddhists constructed their ideas of self by means of empiricism, anti-Brahmanism and analytic reasoning, the Chinese Buddhists constructed their ideas of self by means of non-analytic insights, utilising pre-established epistemology and cosmogony. Furthermore, many of the basic renderings had specific implications that were peculiar to China. For example, while shen in philosophical Daoism originally signified an agent of thought, which disintegrates after bodily death, Buddhists added to it the property of permanent existence. Since many Buddhists in China read the reinterpreted term shen with the implications of the established epistemology and cosmogony, they came to develop their own ideas of self. After the late 6C, highly educated Buddhist theorists came to avoid including the idea of an imperishable soul in their doctrinal system. However, the idea of a permanent agent of perception remained vividly alive even during the development of Chinese Buddhism after the 7C.

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Since her death in 2003, Nina Simone has continued to be revered as a cultural icon and role model for scores of fans and fellow musicians. Much of her fame derives from her association with the civil rights movement, for which she wrote such classic songs as 'Mississippi Goddam', 'Four Women' and 'Young, Gifted and Black'. The defiance and affirmation of such anthems was accompanied by an equal dedication to songs of melancholy, yearning and spiritual questing. Placing Simone and her music firmly within the socio-historical context of the 1960s, this book also argues for the importance of considering the artist's entire career and for paying greater attention to her music than is often the case in biographical accounts. Simone defied musical categories even as she fought against social ones and the result is a body of work that draws upon classical and jazz music, country blues, French chanson, gospel, protest songs, pop and rock tunes, turning genres and styles inside out in pursuit of what Simone called "black classical music". The book begins with a focus on the early part of Simone's career and a discussion of genre and style.Connecting its analysis to a discussion of social categorization (with particular regard to race), it argues that Simone's defiance of stylistic boundaries can be seen as a political act. From here, the focus shifts to Simone's self-written protest material, connecting it to her increasing involvement in the struggle for civil rights. The book also provides an in-depth account of Simone's 'possession' of material by writers such as Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Sandy Denny and Judy Collins, while exploring the relationship between the personal and the political. In considering material from the Simone's lesser-known work from the 1970s to the 1990s, the study proposes a theory of the "late voice" in which issues of age, experience and memory are emphasised. The book concludes with a discussion of Simone's ongoing legacy.

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Citadel and Cemetery in Early Bronze Age Anatolia is the first synthetic and interpretive monograph on the region and time period (ca. 3000-2200 BCE). The book organizes this vast, dense and often obscure archaeological corpus into thematic chapters, and isolates three primary contexts for analysis: the settlements and households of villages, the cemeteries of villages, and the monumental citadels of agrarian elites. The book is a study of contrasts between the social logic and ideological/ritual panoply of villages and citadels. The material culture, social organization and social life of Early Bronze Age villages is not radically different from the farming settlements of earlier periods in Anatolia. On the other hand the monumental citadel is unprecedented; the material culture of the Early Bronze Age citadel informs the beginning of a long era in Anatolia, defined by the existence of an agrarian elite who exaggerated inequality and the degree of separation from those who did not live on citadels. This is a study of the ascendance of the citadel ca. 2600 BCE, and related consequences for villages in Early Bronze Age Anatolia.

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Buddy Holly occupies an enigmatic position in pop and rock music history, partly because of his premature death at the age of 22 in a plane crash in February 1959. Designated in Don MacLean's hit "American Pie" as 'the day the music died', this enabled him to be included in the trope 'the death of rock 'n roll', alongside the less drastic musical demises of Elvis Presley (joined army), Chuck Berry (imprisoned), Jerry Lee Lewis (disgraced) and Little Richard (joined priesthood). The view that Holly belongs only to the 1950s has often obscured the originality of his music. In an era when the music world was divided into hard rockers, soft pop balladeers and hardcore Nashville country & western singers, his songs transcended the boundaries. Equally innovatory was his use of the recording studio as a laboratory, a place to experiment with sounds. In addition, the two guitars, bass and drums line-up of his group the Crickets was the major contributor to the small group template for generations of rock musicians down to the present day. As well as becoming an influence on other musicians in a conventional sense, Buddy Holly has had his own lengthy musical and cultural afterlife.From the vantage point of 2009, a half century after 'the day the music died', Holly has been the longest-serving member of the rock immortals club, those singers and musicians for whom death seemed to inaugurate a new phase of their career. He has been re-embodied in a biopic, a stage show, in iconic images and numerous reissues of his recordings. While he cannot rival Elvis Presley in terms of sightings (nobody, I think, believes Buddy is still alive) or in terms of 'virtual' performance with his old band, he has been re-embodied in a biopic, a stage show, in iconic images and numerous reissues of his recordings. This book is partly based on the author's 1970 study in the "Rockbooks" series. But it aims to provide a new perspective on Buddy Holly by discussing his career and art in the context of his unique contribution to the swiftly-evolving music scene of the late 1950s and his posthumous 50 year multi-media career through films, stage-shows and copious reissues of his oeuvre.

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The history of Soul music has been defined, first and foremost, by a succession of exceptional vocalists. It is impossible to conceive of the genre without them. This does not mean, however, that those who back singers, those who play instruments - bassists; drummers; guitarists; keyboardists; saxophonists - were reduced to nothing other than walk on parts. If Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding were able to move audiences, then their band members and arrangers, the likes of King Curtis and Booker T. Jones, played a key role in creating tracks that had commensurate emotional depth and technical ingenuity. These lesser known figures have heightened our listening pleasure. In Soul Unsung Kevin Le Gendre celebrates the contribution of players of instruments to soul. He analyses, in forensic detail, the inspiring creativity and imagination that several generations of musicians have brought to black pop, and highlights how they have broadened its sound canvas by adopting unusual stylistic approaches and embracing the latest available technology. Furthermore, the book offers insights into the state of contemporary soul and its relationship with jazz, rock and hip-hop. It is precisely because soul has not evolved in a vacuum that it has a canon that is enviably rich in variety. Soul Unsung shines a light on the plethora of mesmerising sounds that constitute this heritage and explains why they affect the listener as much as a great singer. Placing the focus squarely on the band, Le Gendre sets out to change perceptions of one of the great forms of expression to have marked popular culture in the 20th century, so that those who play are given, alongside those who sing, their rightful place in the pantheon of contemporary music.

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In the past, Bronze Age painted plaster in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean has been studied from a range of different but isolated viewpoints. One of the current questions about this material is its direction of transfer. This volume brings both technological and iconographic (and other) approaches closer together: by completing certain gaps in the literature on technology and, by investigating how and why technological transfer has developed and what broader impact this had on the wider social dynamics of the late Middle and Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean. This study approaches the topic of painted plaster by a multidisciplinary methodology.Moreover, when human actors and their interactions are placed in the centre of the scene, it demonstrates the human forces through which transfer was enabled and how multiple social identities and the inter-relationships of these actors with each other and their material world were expressed through their craft production and organization. The investigated data from sixteen sites has been contextualized within a wider framework of Bronze Age interconnections both in time and space because studying painted plaster in the Aegean cannot be considered separate from similar traditions both in Egypt and in the Near East. This study makes clear that it is not possible to deduce a one-way directional transfer of this painting tradition. Furthermore, by integrating both technology and iconography with its hybrid character, a clear 'technological style' was defined in the predominant al fresco work found on these specific sites.The author suggests that the technological transfer most likely moved from west to east. This has important implications in the broader politico-economic and social dynamics of the eastern Mediterranean during the LBA. Since this art/craft was very much elite-owned, it shows how the smaller states in the LBA, such as the regions of the Aegean, were capable of staying within the large trade and exchange network that comprised the large powers of the East and Egypt. The painted plaster reflects a very visible presence in the archaeological record and, because it cannot be transported without its artisans, it suggests specific interactions of royal courts in the East with the Aegean peoples. The painted plaster as an immovable feature required at least temporary presence of a small team of painters and plasterers.Exactly this factor forms an argument in support of travelling artisans, who, in turn, shed light onto broader aspects of contact, trade and exchange mechanisms during the late MBA and LBA.

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In his short life, Parker was one of the most influential musicians in jazz, and together with Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, he was the main architect of the modern jazz revolution of the 1940s known as bebop. Addicted to drugs and alcohol, and with a tangled private life, Parker died young, and a legend grew up about his tragic genius. "Chasin' the Bird" is a completely revised and expanded edition of the short biography of Charlie Parker by Brian Priestley, first published in 1984, which quickly established itself as the most succinct, accurate and readable book on Parker. This edition, which is twice the length of the original, incorporates material which has come to light since the first edition was published. It also provides an expanded discussion of performances and recordings, with a complete discography, notes and bibliography.

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This book brings together pioneering studies on the world's oldest literature, which was composed before and after 2000 BCE in the extinct language Sumerian. All the contributions are based on the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL), a project of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University that has edited and published nearly four hundred compositions and acts as a repository for research in Sumerian grammar, lexis, and style. The ETCSL, which is accessible through the internet and can be read for pleasure as well as study, is the only linguistically annotated and translated corpus of an ancient Near Eastern language. Each chapter of this book uses the ETCSL to approach a specific question relating to one or more compositions in the corpus, exploiting the new possibilities it offers to use quantitative methods and verify results. In addition to the themed studies, the book includes introductions to Sumerian literary language and corpus-linguistic approaches to research, as well as a catalogue of compositions. The material, methods, and results will be of great value to Assyriologists, literary scholars, and others investigating languages through a corpus.

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Since 1985, Spanish archaeology has radically improved its organisation and effectiveness, supported by law and the transfer of powers to deal with archaeology from central to regional governments. There have been many excavations on development sites in towns and the countryside, but also new studies of rural landscapes and monuments. As in other European countries, this has produced a mountain of as yet undigested information about the history and archaeology of this fascinating country over four centuries. Now two Spanish archaeologists, aided by a large number of colleagues in Spain, France, Germany and Britain, have produced the first survey in either English or Spanish of the last 30 years of investigations, new discoveries and new theories. Chapters deal with the rural and urban habitat, daily life, trade and technology, castles and fortifications, the display of secular power and all three religions of medieval Spain: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. This is a major contribution to the archaeology of medieval Europe and a handbook for archaeologists and travellers.

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After the attack of 9/11, the FBI discovered at three different locations a document disclosing how the attackers of 9/11 conceived of their violence and prepared for it. The book contains the first scholarly edition of the "Arabic text of the Manual of the Attackers of 9/11", along with an English translation and commentary, and studies concerning its context. The 19 young attackers prepared for their action by spiritual means and this preparation is at the centre of the exercises of the "Manual", while the military character of the attack on the economic, military and political centres of today's "paganism" is merely tacitly presumed. Religious practices during the last night turn the young man into a warrior hero. A second stage addresses the perils at the airport. By recitations, the "warrior" gets protection in a world dominated by the mighty technology of the "Western Civilization". Finally, at the third stage in the plane, the perpetrator prays to become a martyr. By his readiness to die, he gives a practical proof for the existence of a power superior to "Western Civilization". Though it is based on scholarly research, this book is written for a broader audience. It makes a document available that is crucial in understanding the attacks of 9/11. It addresses all the issues debated in public: is the text a forgery? What is its content? Are suicidal attacks typical for Islam? Does Islam allow such kind of violence? How did the perpetrators perceive of the situation of Islam today? How did they justify the massacre? Were the attackers convicted Muslims? How did the theology of Usama bin Ladin affect the "Manual" and the attack? And is the "War on terror" an adequate response? The book is of interest for scholars in Islamic and Religious Studies and other disciplines dealing with the issue of 9/11, for journalists and politicians, and will serve as textbook in colleges and universities.

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A revealing, impartial, exhaustive and definitive account, Longs Agos and Worlds Apart lays to rest several myths about the Small Faces while at the same time seeking to redress the lack of credit accorded a truly great band.

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Chapters in the book challenge the traditional Biblical Archaeology approach. They present their ideas about Community Archaeology in Israel/Palestine, bringing different questions and treating different case studies, and also reaching different though not unrelated conclusions.

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Examines the history of the Middle Way as the biological development of organisms in relation to reinforcing or balancing feedback loops, as the psychological development of individual humans during a lifetime, as a succession of reinforcing and balancing feedback tendencies in human culture through history.

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Extensively based on fieldwork material, From Tapas to Modern Yoga primarily analyses embodied practices of ascetics belonging to four religious orders historically associated with the practice of yoga and hatha yoga.

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Sasson's new book is a retelling of the story of the women's request for ordination. Inspired in particular by the Therigatha and building on years of research and experience in the field, Sasson follows Vimala, Patachara, Bhadda Kundalakesa, and many others as they walk through the forest to request full access to the tradition. The Buddha's response to this request is famously complicated and multi-faceted; he eventually accepts women into the Order, but attaches specific and controversial conditions (garudhammas). Sasson invites us to think about who these first Buddhist women might have been, what they hoped to achieve, and what these conditions might have meant to them thereafter. By shaping her research into a story, Sasson invites readers to imagine a world that continues to inspire and complicate Buddhist narrative to this day.

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Teaching Awareness in the Buddhist Tradition provides important contributions to understanding the teaching of mindfulness or awareness (Pāli sati, Sanskrit smṛti) in Buddhism and related traditions, examined in original ways through a collection of articles that approach this theme from different perspectives including philosophical, philological, exegetic, and anthropological. This volume is dedicated to Professor Corrado Pensa, a well-known Buddhist scholar and practitioner who has played an important role in spreading Buddhist practice through Italy and internationally. The majority of this book is based on the scholarly output of Professor Pensa’s former students, who engage in research on various topics concerning Buddhist awareness and other related topics. The last section consists of essays by contemporary meditation teachers offered as tribute to Corrado Pensa through reflections on practical topics such as developing attention in ordinary life, mindfulness of breathing, and awareness as wisdom. This volume integrates the theory and practice of the Buddhist tradition, and will be a valuable resource to both academics and practitioners of Buddhism.

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This book examines the lived experiences of oppression and opportunities encountered by contemporary Tibetan Buddhist nuns living in the People’s Republic of China and the Tibetan exile community in India. It investigates how the intersections of the nuns’ female gender, their Buddhist religion and their Tibetan nationality on the one hand produce subordination and an unequal distribution of power but, on the other, provide the nuns with opportunities and agency. Depending on the intersection of her status positions, the Tibetan nun can be either disadvantaged or privileged, and sometimes both at the same time. Power structures and relations that disadvantage nuns as women, as religious practitioners, and as Tibetans, are constructed and maintained in different domains of power. In the structural domain, traditional but still dominant institutions – such as the distribution of work, marriage, educational practices and religious institutions – disadvantage Tibetan nuns. In the disciplinary domain of power, the nuns are monitored by traditional culture and the Chinese authorities. The unequal distribution of power in these domains is justified by hegemonic ideas based on religious and cultural beliefs, ideas of religion and modernity, and religion and gender. These domains of power find their expression in the everyday life in the interpersonal sphere. Analysis also reveals that many nuns were highly active in choosing and determining their life course. Monastic life offers Tibetan women freedom from the suffering faced by laywomen. The juncture of their gender, religion and nationality also provides them with agency in their nationalism, which is both visible and more subtle. Monastic life also offers them religious agency as compassionate bodhisattvas, who aim to not only benefit other living beings but also themselves.

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This book aims to shed light on the ways in which Reflective Practice (RP) is exploited in the Turkish context, by introducing the research and practical applications in different language education settings. It is important to note that in Turkey there is a great amount of knowledge and research in ELT in general, and RP in particular. Extensive publications and national and international conference presentations on reflection related topics are increasingly common in Turkey. The book includes examples of this scholarly work, so that ELT professionals in different parts of the globe may benefit from the advances made in context-dependent RP applications in Turkey. This book, overall, is a call to action for all ELT professionals, whether experienced, novice or student teachers, leaders, managers or teacher educators, who wish to invest in their own professional development by engaging in Reflective Practice. It is hoped that the book contributes to the diversity of understanding and interpretations of this practice, by sharing a variety of perspectives from scholars in Turkey.

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The U.S. Constitution was written more than 230 years ago for a new country on the periphery of the world. Two centuries later, it governs the most powerful nation on earth, and its meaning is constantly debated. The U.S. Constitution in Five Minutes presents fifty-nine essays on subjects central to the meaning and application of the U.S. Constitution. Written by scholars, these essays cover origins; institutions, processes, and structural features; civil rights and liberties; and modes of interpretation and address common questions and misunderstandings about the Constitution, such as: • Can the president start a war? • Does the Constitution protect hate speech? • Does the Second Amendment give everyone the right to have a gun? • Does the Constitution protect noncitizens? • How can we tell what the Constitution means? Intended for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the underlying principles of the U.S. political system, the book will also be a valuable supplement to political science courses. As with all the “Five Minutes” books, the essays are written in lively and accessible prose and are brief enough to be read in five minutes.

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Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Second Edition) presents a fully updated introduction to the religion of Islam and the various social groups who define themselves as Muslim. Unlike other such works, it presents both insider and outsider accounts with the aim of striking a unique balance between overly apologetical and overly Orientalist perspectives. With the first edition described as a “truly outstanding book”, and “the very best introduction currently available in English for non-Muslims seeking a sound approach to Islam” (Journal of Islamic Studies), this new edition offers both students and general readers a comprehensive and balanced introduction to the world’s second-largest religion.

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The cognitive science of religion does not have its own methodology, and yet from the very beginnings of the discipline, methodology has defined it not only in relation to the general study of religion in the humanities but also to the sciences interested in the mind. Scholars of the cognitive science of religion are using a range of methodologies, borrowing mostly from the cognitive sciences and experimental psychology, but also from biology, archaeology, history, philosophy, linguistics, the social and statistical sciences, neurosciences, and anthropology. In fact, this multi-disciplinarity defines the cognitive science of religion. Such multi-disciplinarity requires hard work and truly interdisciplinary teams, but also continual reflections on and debates about the methodologies being used. In fact, no study of the cognitive science of religion worth its name can rely on only one methodology. Triangulation is standard, but often even more approaches are used. This book consists of selected papers from the Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion and the Journal of Cognitive Historiography. Each chapter demonstrates a particular method or group of methods and how those methods advance our knowledge of the religious mind from the ancient past up to today.

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Among the many challenges of translating the Qur’ān are its unpredictable complexity, evocative associativity, and polysemy. For these reasons, as well as more demanding theological ones, most translations cut, compress, paraphrase, and invent freely. In this meticulously crafted translation of the Qur'an, A.J. Droge takes a different approach by revealing the Qur'an's distinctive idiom in a rendition that strives to remain as close as possible to the way it was expressed in Arabic. His goal has been to make the translation literal to the point of transparency, as well as to maintain consistency in the rendering of words and phrases, and even to mimic word order wherever possible. Originally published in 2013 in an edition with annotations, commentary and other scholarly apparatus, Droge's widely praised translation is presented here as a stand-alone text, with a new introduction, ideal for students and general readers alike.

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Archaeology at Home takes a deep dive into the entanglements between humans and their things. It explores the notion that things themselves “remember” when left by “their” people and illustrates how the integration of humans and things involves connections running all the way from the present into deep time. Combining methods from contemporary and deep-time archaeology and balancing scholarly archaeology with personal narrative, Hein Bjerck presents three case studies of homes all intimately known to him — the home of his father after his abrupt passing, the home of his uncle that was lost in a fire, and a Stone Age home he excavated many years ago. This evocative approach to archaeologies of memory will be appreciated by professional archaeologists, and by general readers who are drawn to the study of the past and the things that connect us with it.

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The scientific study of religion has made significant advances in recent decades, explaining how the mind produces religious ideas, the motivations underlying religious behaviour, and the transmission of religious cultures within and across generations. In Religion Evolving: Cultural, Cognitive, and Ecological Dynamics, Purzycki and Sosis argue that further progress requires integration of isolated research findings on the various components - ritual, supernatural agent belief, myth, taboo, and so forth - that constitute religion. Religions, they contend, need to be understood as adaptive systems. Drawing from a wealth of ethnographic and experimental evidence, they situate religious systems within their local socioecological contexts, showing how religious culture adaptively responds to economic, environmental, and human health problems, as well as costly threats to cooperation and reproduction. Based in the evolutionary, cognitive, and anthropological sciences, Religion Evolving offers a holistic approach that attends to the complex, interacting features of religious systems.

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This volume celebrates the contribution of Diana V. Edelman to the field and celebrates her personally as researcher, teacher, mentor, colleague, and mastermind of new research paths and groups. It salutes her unconventional, constantly thinking and rethinking outside the box and her challenging of established consensuses. It includes essays addressing biblical themes and texts, archaeological fieldwork, historical method, social memory and reception history. Contributors include Yairah Amit, James Anderson, Bob Becking, Ehud Ben Zvi, Kare Berge, Anne Fitzpatrick-McKinley, Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher, Lester L. Grabbe, Philippe Guillaume, David Hamidovic, Lowell K. Handy, Maria Hausl, Kristin Joachimsen, Christoph Levin, Aren M. Maeir, Lynette Mitchell, Reinhard Muller, Jorunn Okland, Daniel Pioske, Thomas Romer, Benedetta Rossi, Cynthia Shafer-Elliott, Jason Silverman, Steinar Skarpnes, Pauline A. Viviano, Anne-Mareike Wetter.

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The Religious Body Imaginedexamines the ways in which the human body has been imagined, imaged, and discursively produced in particular places, times, and religious traditions.

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Shinto permeates the religious landscape of Japan and is a major key to the understanding of Japanese culture and society. But what is it? If ideological shortcuts are avoided there is no simple answer. Yet this book will guide students and general readers through many aspects of Shinto both today and in its history. It contains much information about sacred Shinto shrines and the divinities (the kami) which are the focus of devotion there. These numerous divinities have been viewed in different ways in the course of time, and contributions by specialists shed much light on the role played by Buddhism in this regard. Moreover, several fascinating religious movements or “sects” which share in the wider pattern of Shinto are also introduced and discussed. Oversimplified views may be challenged here, but the result is a volume in which “Shinto” is explored in a wide and illuminating perspective by an international team of scholars. It provides a refreshing and much-needed resource for all who are interested in the subject.

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Key Categories in the Study of Religion builds upon the groundwork laid by previous NAASR Working Papers titles in order to bring us full circle to the symbiotic relationship between context and critique. This volume assembles diverse sets of data to consider pertinent categories in which critique occurs. By looking at intentionally disparate case studies, the volume centers on four key contextual categories which stand at the heart of the academic study of religion: Citizenship and Politics, Class and Economy, Gender and Sexuality, and Race and Ethnicity. The contributors to this volume explore questions concerning how scholars construct such categories and/or critique scholars who do? Who decides how to approach the critical study of these topics? What impact does the context of a scholar's research have on the means and method of a given critique? Using these enquiries as a starting point, Key Categories in the Study of Religion investigates the ways that method, theory, and data are mobilized via context as the primary impetus for critical analysis. Each section begins with an orienting essay that explores its category. These introductory chapters include: i) an analysis of the construction of categories in academic literature; ii) an argument either advocating or critiquing scholarship carried out in that vein; and iii) an exploration of its implications for the study of religion. Each chapter is followed by four responses authored by scholars intentionally selected to highlight diverse contexts: subjects, fields, and methods. They extend the orienting essay's conclusions by offering novel analysis vis-a-vis their own scholarly expertise and subject matter. These chapters underscore instances of both congruence and difference to further refine our understanding of possible forms of critique relevant to each category.

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Komeda: A Private Life in Jazz is the biography of Krzysztof (Trzcinski) Komeda (1931-1969), composer of no fewer than 40 soundtracks, including film scores to all of Roman Polanski's early films such as Knife in the Water and Rosemary's Baby; and revered figure in the world of jazz, which regards his album, Astigmatic (released in 1966), as a key album in the history of European jazz. This biography of Komeda, originally published in Polish by Znak in 2018, the first to be published in the English language, not only traces Komeda's life, but also the development of Polish jazz during this period, showing how this arose in large part out of a need for self-expression and personal freedom during a repressive period of Soviet communist dominance. The book is full of interviews between the biographer and people who worked with and knew Krzysztof Komeda personally, and, while thoroughly-grounded in primary sources, it is written in a playful, questioning, engaging style.

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Animals pervade our lives, both today and in the past. From the smallest bug through pets and agricultural animals to elephants and blue whales, the animals themselves, animal-derived products and representations of animals can be found everywhere in our daily lives. This book focuses on the representations of animals in the past: How were animals represented in iconography, and how is the craftsperson interpreting animals within his or her own cultural context? What do the representations tell us about the role and function of both animals and the representations themselves? A series of papers explore these questions through images of animals. This is, for example, done by using technologies like 3D models to emphasize the dimensionality of objects, or through theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches that examine the intersection of the human and the animal. The papers challenge the notion of animals purely as objects, instead focusing on the many ways in which humans and animals interact. The importance of animals in all aspects of our lives means that the study of human-animal relations is an extremely relevant one both in the past and today. The papers take us on a journey through time and space, demonstrating exactly this relevance. Starting in the Neolithic and ending in the Medieval period, from the Mediterranean and Northern Europe through Siberia and the Baltic to the other side of the world in Australia, we have the privilege of encountering lions, horses, dogs, monkeys, birds, kangaroos and octopuses, among many other wonderful creatures. The book is an important and exciting contribution to the study of human-animal relations. It should be of interest to anyone working on this topic and the interpretation of images - both modern and ancient.

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Global Phenomenologies of Religion offers a new way of looking at the past, current and future trajectory of the study of religion. The phenomenology of religion was once widely acknowledged to be the core of the study of religion as an autonomous discipline. First used as a term by the Dutch scholar Chantepie de la Saussaye in 1887, it was developed by Gerardus van der Leeuw in the 1930s and 40s, became popular in the 1960s and 70s and then met severe criticism, virtually disappearing by the beginning of the twenty-first century. This book adds to our global understanding of the history of the study of religion. Interviews with scholars from ten different countries offer a lived history, covering more than half a century. The resulting picture is diverse and nuanced, revealing important national and regional differences, and challenging long-held views about the rise and decline of this venerable approach to the study of religion.

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Systemic Functional Linguistics is unique among linguistic theories in treating the concept of system as the central organising principle of language (and also of other semiotic systems, including context), most theories being focussed on syntagmatic structure. This book introduces the notion of system as the foundation of the systemic functional architecture of language, relating the general notion of system in systems thinking (holistic approaches) to the principle that language is organised as a system of systems (the polysystemic principle) and, by another step, to the technical sense of system in SFL as the basic category of paradigmatic patterning – i.e. the organisation of language as a resource for making meaning. The concept of system is then used to explore the emergence of complexity in language (within different semogenetic timeframes), to show how it is manifested in the organisation of all subsystems of language (the fractal principle), to illustrate the system at work in the development of language descriptions and in the process of text analysis, to reveal the power of the system in different areas of application, e.g. in computational modelling, in educational analysis and curriculum development, in multilingual and multimodal studies. Finally, challenges are identified e.g. in the relationship between the paradigmatic axis and the syntagmatic one, in the representation of logical iteration and interpersonal continua; and current and new opportunities are suggested.

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Writing Better Essays, now in its second edition, is an authoritative but accessible guide to writing successful argumentative essays that combines classical approaches with practical advice tailored to contemporary students. Designed to be effective either in the classroom or for independent learning, the book will appeal students at all levels, ranging from advanced placement to post-graduate, its detailed explanations of key steps of the writing and editing process from conception through planning and execution ensuring that students will be able to create a coherent argumentative essay that features the classical circular and reiterative structure. The conversational style and tone of the book serves to give students much-needed confidence as they approach their writing, as does its extended explanation of the key skill of paragraphing and its commonsense advice on punctuation. Students should find that its extensive use of exercises, its well-chosen examples of good practice, and its emphasis on imitation makes it an ideal primary or secondary textbook for courses. Teachers of writing should appreciate the instructor’s guide at the beginning of the book as well as the consistent emphasis throughout on the need for students to commit themselves to practice and revision if they want to write effective argumentative essays.

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This book offers a comprehensive account of Systemic Functional Translation Studies (SFTS) - a research area that applies Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to study translation, and to relate researches by scholars in the community of both SFL and translation studies. The important trends as well as contributions in SFTS will be summarised. Various topics in SFTS will be covered in the six chapters of this book, including the basic issues and concepts in SFTS; the relationship between SFTS, the cognate functional approaches, translation studies and translation practice; SFTS and different modes of meaning; registerial variation and SFTS; technologies and SFTS as well as a future outlook on SFTS. The objectives of this book include to provide a comprehensive introduction to SFTS; to relate SFTS to translation studies; to summarise the important contributions and limitations of SFTS; and to offer directions for future researches in SFTS, reflecting on what is currently missing from the SFL theory.

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The Middle Way was first taught explicitly by the Buddha. It is the first teaching offered by the Buddha in his first address, and the basis of his practical method in meditation, ethics, and wisdom. It is often mentioned in connection with Buddhist teachings, yet the full case for its importance has not yet been made. This book aims to make that case. The Middle Way can be understood from the Buddha's life as well as his teachings. His early life follows a symbolic quest through the extremes of the Palace and the Forest, followed by the discovery of the Middle Way. His similes, such as the raft, the lute-strings, the arrow, and the blind people with the elephant are not just allegories of Buddhist teachings, but relate closely to the universal human experience of balanced judgement. This book also has a critical case. Although it has transmitted the Middle Way, the Buddhist tradition has also often ignored or distorted it. The Middle Way is experiential, authentic and creative, and thus threatening to the power of a tradition that has instead emphasised the Buddha's authority as a source of abstract, absolute revelation. The Buddha's Middle Waya aims to differentiate the universal Middle Way from Buddhist tradition.

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