Search results for ""Equinox Publishing Ltd""

This book investigates teacher and student boredom from the perspective of the teacher and illustrates how thinking about different aspects of this negative emotion might enhance reflective practices. It consists of seven chapters. The first four (Chapters 1-4) are devoted to the role of positive and negative emotions in L2 learning, conceptualizations of boredom, theories accounting for this negative emotion, and a brief overview of student and teacher boredom-related studies carried out in educational psychology and L2 education. The second part (Chapters 5-6) is empirical in nature. It reports on a mixed-methods investigation which tapped learner and teacher boredom from the perspective of EFL secondary school practitioners. It focused on: (1) teacher-perceived causes of learners' boredom, (2) causes of teachers' own boredom, (3) ways in which teachers confront student boredom in the classroom, (4) ways in which teachers deal with their own boredom, (5) factors that underpin teacher and student boredom, (6) ways of combating student and teacher boredom. The third part of the book (Chapters 6-7) integrates teachers' recommendations with outcomes of previous research to propose a reflective practice model of dealing with boredom in the classroom as well as strategies that can be employed to minimize teacher boredom.

Read more less

This book offers an expansive survey and analysis of local and regional musical responses to the global coronavirus moment.

Read more less

This volume explores current challenges pertinent to cross-cultural research on religion in today's world. It reflects important aspects of global cultural and religious diversity. All articles stem from the international research project Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective.

Read more less

This volume explores the role of religious discourse in the construction of the concept of peace from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, analyzing the narratives which in Europe gave extrahuman value to peace, with a focus on the processes of idealization of peace and the relationship with the concept of toleration.

Read more less

The twelve chapters collected in the volume criticise, analyse, and discuss the issue of peace in Arab literature, philosophical and theological thought, and both institutional and grassroots practices of intercultural and interreligious mediation.

Read more less

The values of liberalism, pluralism, and democratic governance are under sustained attack from right-wing Christian fundamentalists, white ethnonationalists, and economic populists. At the same time, liberal democracies are failing at cultivating and transmitting the values, wisdom, and virtues that are the perquisites for individual and collective flourishing. Liberal democracies seem increasingly unable to negotiate diverse visions of the good life rooted in regional, ethnic, racial, religious, generational, and socioeconomic differences. Aspiring autocrats and social media organizations exploit these divisions to enhance their power or profit, resulting in increased tribalization and affective polarization. Solving these problems requires a renewed understanding of human flourishing and the wisdom and virtues that make it possible. The House We Live In explores the commonalities underlying three classical approaches to virtue ethics--Aristotelean, Buddhist, and Confucian--to develop a flourishing-based ethics capable of addressing the problems of liberal democracies. The book examines the moral and intellectual virtues that promote flourishing, the diversity of ways in which we may flourish, and the factors all flourishing lives share. It shows how a flourishing-based ethics can serve as a corrective to the historical Western over-emphasis on individualism at the expense of community. Finally, it addresses problems in domestic and foreign policy and the difficulties in talking to each other across the political divide from a flourishing-based perspective. The book is a reaffirmation of pluralism, the liberal democratic tradition, and the necessity of a pragmatic approach to living together despite seemingly incommensurable differences.

Read more less

Language is both a socially distributed system, unknowable to any one individual, and an individually embodied biological system. As such it is subject to recursive biological and societal pressures which enable it to function and change. The Language Dynamic identifies a number of mechanisms that enable the meaning potential of language from the phoneme through grammar and discourse and onto ideological systems. These core mechanisms are: (i) articulation and stratality, by which meaningful units combine in context to form higher-order meanings which are greater than the sum of their parts; (ii) redundancy, as the mutually re-enforcing yet unstable relation between strata which allows for creativity and change; (iii) prospection, as the means by which speakers effectively and automatically recycle the syntagmatic patterns that emerge from language as a contextualised system. In providing an integrated account of the interconnections between these core mechanisms, the book allow us to conceptualise the dynamics of language change and growth as at once a motivated and agentless process. The book, which underpins functional theories of language with concepts from biological and cultural evolution, social semiotics and systems theory, will be relevant to all who are interested in how and why we can mean and what it means for us as humans to be semiotic agents.

Read more less

Language is both a socially distributed system, unknowable to any one individual, and an individually embodied biological system. As such it is subject to recursive biological and societal pressures which enable it to function and change. The Language Dynamic identifies a number of mechanisms that enable the meaning potential of language from the phoneme through grammar and discourse and onto ideological systems. These core mechanisms are: (i) articulation and stratality, by which meaningful units combine in context to form higher-order meanings which are greater than the sum of their parts; (ii) redundancy, as the mutually re-enforcing yet unstable relation between strata which allows for creativity and change; (iii) prospection, as the means by which speakers effectively and automatically recycle the syntagmatic patterns that emerge from language as a contextualised system. In providing an integrated account of the interconnections between these core mechanisms, the book allow us to conceptualise the dynamics of language change and growth as at once a motivated and agentless process. The book, which underpins functional theories of language with concepts from biological and cultural evolution, social semiotics and systems theory, will be relevant to all who are interested in how and why we can mean and what it means for us as humans to be semiotic agents.

Read more less

The Shepherd of Hermas (70-150 CE) is one of the oldest Christian works from a major urban center. While the majority of manuscript evidence of the Shepherd is concentrated in North Africa, the work has long-standing association with the city of Rome. It consists of three major sections: the Book of Visions, the Mandates, and the Similitudes. The Shepherd was enormously popular during the early centuries as a catechetical text used for moral formation. Its manuscript evidence during the early centuries far exceeded that of the Gospels. This book uses cognitive literary theory, specifically the approach known as enactive reading, to investigate why a work that was exceedingly popular among readers in antiquity has failed to receive the same reception by modern scholars. The study focuses on the first section of the Shepherd known as the Book of Visions, which narrates Hermas's visionary experiences in first-person voice. The book argues that enactive reading can help to generate immersive experiences of Hermas's visions and explain the success and appeal of the Book of Visions among ancient readers. Cognitive approaches also highlight how modern scholars trained to read apocalypses 'against the grain' to search for historical or theological information fail to notice and appreciate the very things that made apocalypses engaging and entertaining to a broad range of ancient readers and hearers.

Read more less

The brand of jazz that developed in the Kansas City area in the period from the late 1920s to the late 1930s is recognised as both a distinct stylistic variation within the larger genre and a transitional stage between earlier forms of African-American music, such as ragtime and blues, and later, more modern forms, up to and including bebop. Kansas City’s brand of jazz has been described as “the most straightforward and direct style which has been developed outside New Orleans,” by Hughues Panassié and Madeleine Gautier in their Dictionary of Jazz. Kansas City jazz has inspired the creation of a museum and has been the subject of a feature-length film, Robert Altman’s 1996 “Kansas City,” and even a sentimental rock song, “Eternal Kansas City” by Van Morrison. The first comprehensive work on the subject in over 15 years, this book draws on new research to delve deeper into music of the American Midwest that evolved into Kansas City jazz, and includes profiles of individual musicians who developed very different styles within or beyond the framework of the sub-genre. Kansas City Jazz focuses on the broader themes and the stories of the major personalities whose individual talents came together to create the larger whole of Kansas City’s distinctive brand of jazz.

Read more less

This introductory text points to some of the diverse tapestries of Hindu worldviews where scriptural revelation, logical argumentation, embodied affectivity, moral reasoning, and aesthetic cultivation constitute densely interwoven conceptual threads. It begins with an exploration of some classical iterations of the quest for a fundamental ontology amidst the diversities of the everyday world. This quest is often embedded in both a diagnosis of the human condition as structured by suffering and a therapy for recovery from worldly fragmentation. A crucial aspect of this therapeutic structure is the analysis of the means of knowledge and the categories of reality, since in order to know the nature of the world one must proceed along truth-tracking routes. Such dynamic mind-world encounters are mediated through language, and Hindu philosophical texts extensively discuss the motif of whether or not deep reality can be comprehended through linguistic structures. These philosophical exercises also shape reflections on themes such as aesthetics, social organization, the meaning of life, and so on. As Hinduism increasingly migrates to western locations through practices of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, and along with sensibilities relating to vegetarianism, ecology, and pacifism, we encounter multiple translations of these classical motifs relating to the self, language, and consciousness.

Read more less

This introductory text points to some of the diverse tapestries of Hindu worldviews where scriptural revelation, logical argumentation, embodied affectivity, moral reasoning, and aesthetic cultivation constitute densely interwoven conceptual threads. It begins with an exploration of some classical iterations of the quest for a fundamental ontology amidst the diversities of the everyday world. This quest is often embedded in both a diagnosis of the human condition as structured by suffering and a therapy for recovery from worldly fragmentation. A crucial aspect of this therapeutic structure is the analysis of the means of knowledge and the categories of reality, since in order to know the nature of the world one must proceed along truth-tracking routes. Such dynamic mind-world encounters are mediated through language, and Hindu philosophical texts extensively discuss the motif of whether or not deep reality can be comprehended through linguistic structures. These philosophical exercises also shape reflections on themes such as aesthetics, social organization, the meaning of life, and so on. As Hinduism increasingly migrates to western locations through practices of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, and along with sensibilities relating to vegetarianism, ecology, and pacifism, we encounter multiple translations of these classical motifs relating to the self, language, and consciousness.

Read more less

How does a polar bear pooping on a rug turn into a lesson on Alzheimer’s behaviors of paranoia and hallucinations? Or a pregnant aunt turn into a lesson about long-term care decisions? The innocent dialogue and anecdotes the author has recorded for years between her and her grandchildren serve as introductions – and lessons learned – to managing the daily responsibilities in Alzheimer’s care. These poignant stories and insightful perspectives offer a fresh approach in understanding the disease. Thought-provoking, humorous, and endearing, this book will have you experiencing the journey of Alzheimer’s disease in a most light-hearted and non-threatening way, so much so that you will hardly realize how much knowledge and how many skills you are acquiring along the way. From understanding the components of the disease, to discovering various ways to communicate, to coping with difficult behavioral expressions; from weaving through all the emotions experienced by the caregiver, to understanding person-centered care, to the importance of social engagement, and much more, this book is a vital and handy resource for anybody affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

Read more less

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.

Read more less

Krishnamacharya on Kundalini explores a distinctive teaching of 'the father of modern yoga', T. Krishnamacharya. Whereas most yoga traditions teach that kundalini is a serpentine energy that rises, Krishnamacharya defined it differently. To him, kundalini is a serpentine blockage which prevents prana (breath or life-force) from rising and which represents avidya (spiritual ignorance). Simon Atkinson draws from over 20 years of study and practice under teachers following Krishnamacharya. He combines analysis of quotations from yoga workshops with a detailed study of traditional Sanskrit texts. He traces the textual origins of Krishnamacharya's position to two sects of Visnu-worshiping temple priests, and shows how it is compatible with a stream of South Asian thought where snakes represent something to be overcome. Atkinson challenges claims that Krishnamacharya's position can be found in his religious tradition of Srivaisnavism. He questions the tradition's reliance on textual sources, showing how the coherence of Krishnamacharya's position can only be maintained by employing elaborate arguments and rejecting texts that teach otherwise. Atkinson also explores how Krishnamacharya's teaching on kundalini influences how yoga is practised. He argues that Krishnamacharya's position is best viewed as a model for experience that guides practice.

Read more less

Healing, Disease and Placebo in Graeco-Roman Asclepius Temples narrates a story of religious healing that took place at sanctuaries dedicated to the ancient Greek god Asclepius, the so called asclepieia. The Asclepius cult, which attracted supplicants afflicted by various illnesses, appeared in Greece in the sixth century BCE, thrived in the Hellenistic period and spread throughout the Graeco-Roman world only declining during the final dominance of Christianity in the fifth century CE. This study analyses inscriptions from the asclepieia which were supposed to record personal stories of healing. Using the archaeological and historical evidence it looks at the placebo effect and the role it may have played in healing at the Asclepius sanctuaries in light of contemporary theories and neurocognitive research on placebo effects. It explores the specific biological, cognitive, and psychological processes as well as the external cultural and social influences that would have shaped personal healing experiences. It is the first historical study of the Asclepius cult which integrates theoretical insights into the human mind provided by neurocognitive sciences. It can be considered a cognitive historiography of patients who visited the asclepieia as supplicants which aims to deepen our understanding of past minds and, more generally, of human cognition.

Read more less

Although there are many aspects of language education that have been covered extensively in the literature, from methodologies to technologies, Leadership in Language Education (LiLE) has received very little attention - until recently. As the world saw, during the global pandemic, poor leadership at the highest levels costs lives. The world needs better leaders -- at every level of society - and Reflecting on Leadership in Language Education represents the first time that Reflective Practice has been positioned at the forefront of leadership development in language education. It is also the first book ever to bring together 300 years of LiLE experience into a single volume, capturing the insights from three centuries of lived LiLE experiences for the generations of leaders to come.

Read more less

For centuries, the priest John Ball was one of the most infamous or famous figures in the history of English rebels, best known for his saying 'When Adam delved and Eve Span, Who was then the gentleman'. But over the past hundred years his memory has faded dramatically. Along with Wat Tyler, Ball was one of the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, a historically remarkable event in that leading figures of the realm were beheaded by the rebels. For a few days in June 1381, the rebels dominated London but soon met their demise, with Ball executed. Ball provided the theological justification for the uprising which he saw in apocalyptic terms. After the revolt, he was soon vilified and received an overwhelmingly hostile press for 400 years as an archetypal enemy of the state and a religious zealot. His reputation was rescued from the end of the eighteenth century onward and for over one hundred years he rivalled Robin Hood and Wat Tyler as a great English folk (and even abolitionist) hero. But his 640-year reception involves much more, of course, and is tied up with the story of what England is or could be. Overall, the book explains how we get from an apocalyptic priest who promoted a theocracy favouring the lower orders and the decapitation of the leading church and secular authorities to someone who promoted democracy and vague notions about love and tolerance. The book also explains why he has gone out of fashion and whether he can make another comeback.

Read more less

In late modernity theology has to perform an aesthetic turn, if it wants to break out of its current isolation. Theologians cannot limit themselves to biblical texts and Christian tradition as a frame of reference but also have to search for traces of God's presence in cultures and religions. God/Terror addresses the quest for God in the context of oppression, violence and terror from an aesthetic perspective. It looks at how artists and writers approach the relationship between God and Terror. Statements such as that from composer Karl Heinz Stockhausen: "9/11 was the greatest work of art ever" or from South African writer Adam Small: "Only literature can perform the miracle of reconciliation" - are occasions to reflect again about the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, theology and the arts. As in a medieval diptych, the theme is mirroring god talk in memory of 9/11 and in the context of political conflicts in Germany, South Korea and South Africa. First published in German as Gott - Terror: ein Diptychon by Kohlhammer.

Read more less

In late modernity theology has to perform an aesthetic turn, if it wants to break out of its current isolation. Theologians cannot limit themselves to biblical texts and Christian tradition as a frame of reference but also have to search for traces of God's presence in cultures and religions. God/Terror addresses the quest for God in the context of oppression, violence and terror from an aesthetic perspective. It looks at how artists and writers approach the relationship between God and Terror. Statements such as that from composer Karl Heinz Stockhausen: "9/11 was the greatest work of art ever" or from South African writer Adam Small: "Only literature can perform the miracle of reconciliation" - are occasions to reflect again about the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, theology and the arts. As in a medieval diptych, the theme is mirroring god talk in memory of 9/11 and in the context of political conflicts in Germany, South Korea and South Africa. First published in German as Gott - Terror: ein Diptychon by Kohlhammer.

Read more less

Simone de Beauvoir, one of the most famous existential philosophers of the 20th century, is a confirmed atheist. Despite this, she also engages and reassigns faith, that faith that is usually associated with 'religion, ' and iterates it in the service of her existential ethics. Beauvoir's ethic is founded in the axiom that 'I concern others, and they concern me. There we have an irreducible truth.' From this assumption, she articulates the principles for living an ethical life which honours above all the freedom of the other in a world fraught with contingency and ambiguity. In so doing, she enjoins us to undertake our efforts in generosity and risk, in faith toward each other, because only by doing so can we achieve the transcendence given in the existential condition. In this movement, Beauvoir confirms and performs a different reading of religion: religion as the scene of the self and other, of the appeal and response, of the holy and the faithful, which constitutes the history of European civilization. Following a certain thread in the discourse on religion given in Jacques Derrida and Michel de Certeau, this study proposes a theoretical apparatus for 'religion' which offers a different appreciation of Beauvoir's ethics. This study has two agendas: to interrogate popular notions of religion by reading it, out of Derrida and Certeau, as a signifier for a situated historical scene; and to show the existential philosophy of Beauvoir as a performance of that scene. In particular, it will show how the structure of relationships she presents in her ethics clearly reproduces the rhythms of the scene of religion. One of the implications of this reproduction is that existential philosophy can only emerge in the context of religion, and is necessarily an iteration of religion. The other implication is that we might reassess how we code the category 'religion' in our public and private discourse, with all the disruption that such a different coding might entail.

Read more less

Play, Pain and Religion is the first consideration of the practices associated with BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Submission and Masochism) in the context of Religious Studies scholarship. The focus is an exploration of BDSM experience as it emerges from the complex interactions of kink activities and relationship. The book examines practitioner accounts of BDSM experience alongside those practitioner's personal identification with terms such as 'religious' and 'spiritual'. Experiences categorised by BDSM practitioners as spiritual are commonly described in the same terms, and given the same value, as descriptions of experiences which are not so categorised. The book thus argues that the significance of a given experience is not located solely within any intrinsic quality ascribed to it but in subsequent constructions around the nature and meaning of the event. It examines some such constructions, moving away from absolute definitions of religion or religions to consider the religious as an active process of meaning-, world- and story-making. By using this 'religioning' framework some ways in which BDSM can potentially be used in such processes are examined.

Read more less

This book is the first substantive scholarly book on project-based and cross-curricular language learning using digital technologies. The book includes new empirical research on project-based language learning utilizing CALL technologies and conceptual and theoretical chapters that address new methodological approaches for researching project-based and cross-curricular language learning in digitally-mediated learning environments. This dual focus distinguishes the volume from previous books on project-based learning in which digital technologies have not been the main focus. CALL research involving a variety of languages is also offered. The book is timely in that, inspired by OECD reports and curriculum reforms in several countries, a repositioning and re-evaluation of foreign language education in school-based education has been taking place in which foreign language learning is taught in a multi-disciplinary approach involving an emphasis on collaborative literacies, including problem-solving, civic engagement, social justice and telecollaboration. In this mix, language learning, particularly driven by developments in CLIL (content and integrated language learning), is being taught as one of several disciplines in a way that firmly emphasizes communication and creativity rather than a traditional functional approach.

Read more less

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.

Read more less

Jung's Red Book, finally published only in 2009, is a highly ambiguous text describing a succession of extraordinary visions, together with Jung's interpretation of them. Red Book, Middle Way offers a new interpretation of Jung's Red Book, in terms of the Middle Way, as a universal principle and embodied ethic, paralleled both in the Buddha's teachings and elsewhere. Jung explicitly discusses the Middle Way in the Red Book (although this has been largely ignored by scholars so far) as well as offering lots of material that can be understood in its terms. This book interprets the Red Book in relation to the archetypes met in its visions - the hero, the feminine, the Shadow, God and Christ, and follows Jung's process of integrating these different internal figures. To do this Jung needs to find the Middle Way between absolutes at every point, in a way similar to the Buddha.

Read more less

This transdisciplinary and theoretically innovative edited volume contains seven original, research-led chapters that explore complex intersections of ritual and democracy in a wide range of contemporary, cultural and geographic contexts. The volume emerged out of a workshop held at the Open University in London, organized as part of the international research project, 'Reassembling Democracy: Ritual as Cultural Resource' (REDO) funded by the Norwegian Research Council and led by Jone Salomonsen. The chapters document entanglements of the religious and the secular in political assembly and iconoclastic protest, of affect and belonging in pilgrimage and church ritual and politics and identity in performances of self and culture. Across the essays emerges a conception of ritual less as scripts for generating stability than as improvisational spaces and as catalysts for change.

Read more less

In 2004 there were estimated to be 2.5 million yoga practitioners in Britain alone, and numbers are still rising today. Previous published research has considered the history and science of yoga, but rarely the ways in which it has been shared. This book aims to change that. From the very advent of group classes, yoga teachers have dictated the movement, and experience, of their students. But threaded through yoga's history is a more democratic, more individualised way of sharing practice with others. With the recent #MeTooinYoga movement, and the growing popularity of accessible yoga, yoga teachers are increasingly turning to this hidden history for answers. In a diverse profession strongly resistant to official regulation, it is vital for scholars and policy makers alike to understand the risks and rewards of this development. This book presents a ground-breaking model for scholars to understand the contemporary teaching and practice of yoga. As more and more people enjoy the practice, this book asks: in communities based more on peer-networks than hierarchal leadership structures, how are the highest ethical standards negotiated? How does practice relate to life off the mat? What does best practice look like, in 'post-lineage' yoga?

Read more less

Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival explores the lives and song traditions of two of the most influential English traditional singers: Sam Larner and Harry Cox. Using extensive primary evidence, including recorded interviews with both men, the book provides the first detailed biographies of these great singers, placing their singing and repertoires within the social and cultural contexts in which they lived. Larner and Cox were born within six years and 15 miles of each other, in late-nineteenth century Norfolk. Both men grew up in large, working-class, families, started work before their teens, spent their working lives in hard manual labour - Sam as a trawlerman, Harry as a farm labourer - married late and lived into their 80s. Crucially, both men were singers from an early age, amassed large repertoires of songs that are now established in the traditional canon and became key figures in the 'folk revival' of the 1950s and 60s. They directly influenced performers such as Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins, Peggy Seeger, Young Tradition and Steeleye Span, and indirectly influenced Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. Their impact extends to the current generation of performers and composers in the folk, Americana and singer/songwriter fields and even to Hollywood.

Read more less

Carl W. Ernst devoted his academic life to translating Islam, linguistically and culturally, typically within the intellectual context of religious studies. His work has focussed on how Islamic concepts have travelled across time and space and his influence on Islamic studies and religious studies is far-reaching. This volume features contributions from long-standing colleagues, scholars whose own work has built on Ernst’s contributions, and former students. It looks at themes in Islamic studies which Ernst has addressed and expands on his major contributions. Essays in this volume touch nearly every major element in Islamic studies – from the Qur’an to Sufism, Islamophobia to South Asian Islam, historical and contemporary praxis, music and more. This collection demonstrates one core tenant of Ernst’s work, specifically the argument that Islam is not rooted in one place, time or language, but is a vast network, routed though myriad places, times and languages.

Read more less

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.

Read more less

This collection brings together scholarly contributions relating to the research of Lance Cousins (1942-2015), an influential and prolific scholar of early Buddhism. Cousins' interests spanned several related fields from the study of Abhidhamma and early Buddhist schools to Pali literature and meditation traditions. As well as being a scholar, Cousins was a noted meditation teacher and founder of the Samantha Trust. The influence of Cousin's scholarship and teaching is felt strongly not only in the UK but in the worldwide Buddhist Studies community. The volume is introduced by Peter Harvey and the following chapters all speak to the core questions in the field such as the nature of the path, the role of meditation, the formation of early Buddhist schools, scriptures and teachings and the characteristics and contributions of P?li texts. The volume is of interest to students and scholars in Buddhist Studies, Religious Studies and Asian Studies as well as Buddhist practitioners.

Read more less

The main purpose of this Pocket Guide is to ensure that a clear and accurate definition of key terms and aspects of language learning and teaching is provided to the reader. Curriculum and language teaching materials must be genuinely informed by what we know about the nature and role of language and language acquisition. This Pocket Guide peels back the complexity of some of the key terms and aspects in language learning and teaching to reveal some basic notions that readers should know about. Key features of this guide are: easy, reader friendly style with no citations jargon avoided where possible and technical terms explained in context summaries of main points provided suggestions for additional readings Eighteen main entries are chosen for the Pocket Guide. Each entry is easily readable and accessible to specialist and non-specialist readers. It is written avoiding a scholarly style and tone using a reader-friendly approach. Key readings are provided at the end of each entry. Each entry contains the following features: Can we take a minute to think about this? What is the nature and role of....? What are the main points? What else can we read?

Read more less

The main purpose of this Pocket Guide is to ensure that a clear and accurate definition of key terms and aspects of language learning and teaching is provided to the reader. Curriculum and language teaching materials must be genuinely informed by what we know about the nature and role of language and language acquisition. This Pocket Guide peels back the complexity of some of the key terms and aspects in language learning and teaching to reveal some basic notions that readers should know about. Key features of this guide are: easy, reader friendly style with no citations jargon avoided where possible and technical terms explained in context summaries of main points provided suggestions for additional readings Eighteen main entries are chosen for the Pocket Guide. Each entry is easily readable and accessible to specialist and non-specialist readers. It is written avoiding a scholarly style and tone using a reader-friendly approach. Key readings are provided at the end of each entry. Each entry contains the following features: Can we take a minute to think about this? What is the nature and role of....? What are the main points? What else can we read?

Read more less

The contributions in this book all concern the Building Block Approach to the study of religions as proposed and explored by Professor Ann Taves (University of California, Santa Barbara) during the last 30 years. This approach suggests that analysis of and explanations for complex cultural phenomena such as religion should entail dividing these phenomena into “the constituent parts that interact to produce them”, in terms of basic cognitive, psychological and biological proc-esses. In this way, the approach opens up a path to achieving consil-ience between the humanistic, behavioural and natural sciences. The book provides a short and user-friendly introduction to the Building Block Approach suitable for use in the undergraduate classroom as well as by graduate and more advanced scholars. The book opens with a lengthy introduction by Ann Taves and Egil Asprem (Stockholm University, Sweden) outlining the Building Block Approach and its rele-vance for the study of religions. The introduction is followed by seven responses, comments and critiques that identify pros and cons of the approach from different perspectives and areas of study within the larger field of the study of religions. In the concluding chapter, Taves and Asprem provide their responses to the comments and critiques raised.

Read more less

Myth Theorized provides a survey of some key figures and topics in the modern study of myth. The first part of the book discusses the psychoanalysis of myth including a chapter on the extraordinary changes that psychoanalytic theory has undergone, and one on Otto Rank and his break with Freud which helped transform the focus of psychoanalysis, including myth, from the Oedipal stage to the pre-Oedipal one. This section finishes with a chapter which argues that Freud and Jung are more akin than opposed. The next section looks at hero myths including a detailed history of the study of hero myths, and surveys approaches to hero myths by Otto Rank, Joseph Campbell and Lord Raglan. The author then applies Rank and Raglan to the life of the first king of Israel, Saul, showing how their theories transform the figure to whom they are applied. The following part of the book considers the relationship of myth to natural science including a discussion of the range of views that have arisen over the past 150 years - those of EB Tylor, JG Frazer, Claude Levi-Strauss and Karl Popper. The next section covers myth and politics with an assessment of Bruce Lincoln's Theorizing Myth and Robert Ellwood's The Politics of Myth. The final chapter in this section argues that the theories of Frazer, Rene Girard and Walter Burkert all make violence in religion natural rather than unnatural. The final part of the book discusses the Jungian concept of synchronicity, uses DW Winnicott's idea of make-believe to support the argument that Hollywood stars and their treatment as gods can be said to being divinity back to the world, and asks whether James Lovelock has brought myth back to the world through the Gaia theory.

Read more less

Harmonic serialism is an active research programme in phonology and syntax but has so far not been pursued in morphology. This book delivers a proof of concept: It shows that harmonic serialism can be substantiated as a viable approach to inflectional morphology, covering roughly the same ground as standard models like Distributed Morphology or Paradigm Function Morphology. Furthermore, based on empirical evidence from a variety of typologically different languages, Inflectional Morphology in Harmonic Serialism offers a fresh perspective on the composition of inflected words that is made possible by a strictly derivational orientation incorporating repeated optimization procedures. This gives rise to new and convincing solutions to some recalcitrant problems in inflectional morphology, related to phenomena like affix order, extended exponence, disjunctive blocking, non-local stem allomorphy, *ABA patterns, impoverishment effects, deponency, and paradigm gaps. The book introduces harmonic serialism from scratch and develops morphological analyses against the background of applications of the theory in phonology and syntax. It will be of use to students and scholars interested in morphology, phonology, syntax, and grammatical theory more generally.

Read more less

This book offers the first ethnographically informed, in-depth historical study of the Cameroonian popular music genre bikutsi. The thriving dance music in Cameroon’s day-to-day life has its foundation in the specific historical processes of the 1970s and 1980s, which led to the recognition of bikutsi as a distinct genre of Cameroonian dance music. Examining these processes in detail, this book analyses the various factors involved in the rise of a popular music genre within a national music scene. The book begins by tracing the roots of bikutsi in the musical traditions of the ethnic groups of the Beti who live in and around Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé, as well as in the manifold popular dance music practices fashionable in mid-twentieth-century Cameroon. The volume then considers the musical work of successful groups and musicians, framing their musical practices and success within the socio-political circumstances, musical environment, and ambitions of individuals. Offering an explanation for the changes in Cameroon’s musical life, these analyses illustrate the interplay between the innovative ambitions of individual musicians, a specific political situation within the power structure of the post-colonial state, dedicated individuals in media and the music market, and technological changes in recording and disseminating music.

Read more less

This book examines attentiveness, which is briefly defined as a demonstrator's pre-emptive responses to a recipient's verbal or non-verbal cues or situations surrounding a recipient and a demonstrator, which takes the form of offering. It elucidates what attentiveness is, and addresses the importance of attentiveness in im/politeness research. It also suggests the importance of taking an interdisciplinary perspective in im/politeness research, the importance of non-linguistically manifested politeness and the heart perspective. Evaluation by a recipient of attentiveness is considered since recent research suggests that im/politeness resides in evaluation. Thus, both demonstration and evaluation of attentiveness are investigated in the book. Attentiveness may be demonstrated or evaluated differently within different cultures. Generation can be considered as one of the sub-groups of culture. Therefore, cross-cultural and cross-generational comparisons on demonstration and evaluation of attentiveness are included. Although some differences in demonstration or evaluation of attentiveness are found cross-culturally, similarities outweigh differences. This suggests that attentiveness, which is thought to be a virtue in Japanese culture, is not unique to Japanese culture, and that attentiveness is an important interpersonal notion elsewhere, too. It is also shown that attentiveness is one of the constituents of politeness, which indicates that attentiveness is closely related to politeness.

Read more less

In recognition of the significant contribution that Suzanne Richard has made to the archaeology of the Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant, this Festschrift represents the best of scholarship in her areas of interest and publication in the field. Professor Richard is known for her work on the Early Bronze Age, especially the EB III-IV. Her first major articles (BASOR 1980; BA 1987) are still standard references in the field. More recently, she is concerned with interconnectivity, social organization in rural periods, and urban-rural transitions in the Levant in the fourth and third millennia BCE in particular. With an international cadre of leading scholars, the volume reflects recent scholarship on the nature of Bronze Age urbanism and cultural transitions at key junctures. The volume is an important contribution to the field of late 4th through the 2nd millennia BCE.

Read more less

Investigative Creative Writing is Mark Spitzer's lively and original treatment of creative writing practice and teaching within a college/university environment. The author presents an experiential, discovery-based approach that builds on teaching theories of established writers and scholars as well as current innovators and his own extensive experience as a creative writer, editor, and university academic. Teachers, students, and writers in the fields of English, literary studies, composition and rhetoric, applied linguistics, and education should find this book, written by a prolific creative writer and enthusiastic writing teacher, not only enlightening and engaging, but also useful. Investigative Creative Writing can be envisioned as a practical tool illustrating ways of overcoming hurdles that impede writers from venturing into unknown territory where discoveries take place. In addition to assisting in developing and honing cutting-edge creative writing programs, this book will be helpful for writers in getting to the meat of the matter, generating narratives and dialogue, identifying arguments, fleshing out character traits, discovering direction for plots, and developing a host of other skills that foster and embolden a literary freedom of the imagination. The text includes examples of teaching techniques and assignments from the author's classes which are intended for instructors to adjust according to their needs, along with extensive discussion of his own practices of investigative creative writing and experience in teaching and developing writing curricula.

Read more less

This volume brings together contributions to a key area of interest within the framework of systemic functional linguistics: the role of meaning in the lexicogrammar. A key figure in the debate on this role is Robin Fawcett who has long argued for a fully semantic lexicogrammar where the relevant systems are seen as representing `choices between meanings'. This volume, a festschrift in honour of Fawcett's long-standing contribution to the field, raises important questions related to lexicogrammatical meaning within systemic functional linguistics by examining the meaning-form interface, lexicogrammatical meaning in theme and transitivity, as well as lexis, intonation and its role in computational models. Importantly, discussions in the volume also explore the relationship between alternative approaches to systemic functional lexicogrammar, notably between the Hallidayan model and the Cardiff Grammar model developed primarily by Robin Fawcett.

Read more less

The concept of reflective practice has proliferated over the last few decades in many professions such as medicine, law, business and education. Within the field of education reflective practice has become a very popular concept within teacher education and development programs and perhaps its main appeal according to Loughran (2000: 33) is that it 'rings true for most people as something useful' to practice. Indeed as McLaughlin (1999:9) has remarked, 'Who would want to champion the unreflective practitioner?' The general consensus is that teachers who are encouraged to engage in reflective practice can gain new insight of their practice. There have been similar developments in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) where the allure of reflective practice seems to have also been embraced as an important educational paradigm that should be supported in teacher education and development programs. This book is the first in a new series consisting of several practical oriented books that introduce cutting-edge research and practical applications of that research related to reflective practice in language education. Written by the series editor, it acts an introduction to the series and outlines and discusses the concept of reflective practice in general, the various models and approaches to reflective practice and gives guidance on cultivating reflective practice.

Read more less

Provincial Headz: British Hip Hop and Critical Regionalism draws upon spatial practice, material culture, human geography, ethnomusicology and cultural theory in order to present an interdisciplinary counter-narrative to that of hip hop as a strictly urban phenomenon; providing an insight into the relocation of hip hop culture from its inception in New York ghettos to its practices in provincial and rural Britain. Hip hop culture truly arrived in Britain in 1983, a decade after its origin in New York City, and although many important events, artists and recordings that evidence hip hop’s existence in 1980s Britain are well documented, these are almost exclusively urban. Additionally, the narratives embedded in these representations remain too convenient and unchallenged. This book reveals parallel and dialectical experiences of British hip hop pioneers and practitioners dwelling outside the metropolis, discussed under the recurring themes of relocation, territory, consumption, production and identity. These narratives are framed within a rich contextual discourse drawing upon Bhabha, Bourdieu, Foucault, DeLanda and contemporary hip hop scholarship. Shifting hip hop research from urbanism to rurality, the book serves as an introduction to the complexities of its historical narratives in Britain and reveals another hip hop history and how we understand it.

Read more less

All the human senses become engaged in ritualizing sacred texts. These essays focus especially on ritualizing the iconic dimension of texts through the senses of sight, touch, kiss, and taste, both directly and in the imagination. Ritualized display of books engages the sense of sight very differently than does reading. Touching gets associated with reading scriptures, but touching also enables using the scripture as an amulet. Eating and consuming texts is a ubiquitous analogy for internalizing the contents of texts by reading and memorization. The idea of textual consumption reflects a widespread tendency to equate humans and written texts by their interiority and exteriority: books and people both have material bodies, yet both seem to contain immaterial ideas. Books thus physically incarnate cultural and religious values, doctrines, beliefs, and ideas. These essays bring theories of comparative scriptures and affect theory to bear on the topic as well as rich ethnographic descriptions of scriptural practices with Jewish, Sikh, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and modern art and historical accounts of changing practices with sacred texts in ancient and medieval China and Korea, and in ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures..

Read more less

Evil: A Critical Primer begins with the claim that evil is a concept that is contextually bound. This means that we should not expect to find shared or similar notions of evil across cultures. Addressing evil in a way that is at once contextually specific and applicable to cross-cultural settings, this primer breaks with moral conceptions of evil by redescribing it within a new framework of dangers and aversions (i.e., things that cause harm and things to avoid). Doing so provides an empirical and heuristic framework as a new starting point for the study of religion, deemphasizing things associated with evil (like the devil, wickedness, or a diabolic will) and focusing instead on attitudes and practices (like rituals of purity and impurity, notions of clean and dirty, or expressions of disgust). Introducing and reflecting on cultural and cognitive aspects of classification, myth, ritual, emotions, and morality, Evil: A Critical Primer argues that our colloquial conception of evil, as related exclusively to the moral domain, is usefully illuminated by attending to historical and cultural context and cross-cultural comparison.

Read more less

Thirty or forty years ago, the phrase "method and theory" in Religious Studies scholarship referred to more social scientific approaches to the study of religion, as opposed to the more traditional theological hermeneutics common to the field. Today, however, it seems that everyone claims to do "theory and method," including those people who shun social scientific approaches the academic study of religion. Method Today brings together the contributions of scholars from a recent North American Association for the Study of Religion conference to explore the question of what it means to do "theory and method" in an era where the phrase has no distinct meaning. Contributors specifically address the categories of description, interpretation, comparison, and explanation in Religious Studies scholarship.

Read more less

This volume presents a cultural history of Alex Haley’s Roots, examining the strategy and tactics Haley employed in developing a family origin story into an acclaimed national history. More than an investigation into Alex Haley’s legacy, Identifying Roots unearths the politics of beginnings and belongings. While we all come from somewhere, this book examines the terms on which our roots can work as a tradition to embrace rather than a past to leave behind. And it investigates why some of the texts we read also seem to read us back. Identifying Roots invites readers to reimagine the way we tell stories. A provocative study that draws upon Black studies, the history of religions, and anthropology, the book underscores the social drama and dynamics that define our scriptures. Nimbly moving between the stories of Alex Haley, his characters, and the world that received them, Newton reminds us that our roots are stories of consequence.

Read more less

The first volume presents new archaeological and ecological data and analyses on the relation between human subsistence and survival, and the natural history of North-Western Europe throughout the period 10000 - 6000 BC. The volume contains contributions from ecological oriented archaeologists and from the natural sciences, throwing new light on the physical and biotic/ecological conditions of relevance to the earliest settlement. Main themes are human subsistence, subsistence technology, ecology and food availability pertaining to the first humans, and demographic patterns among humans linked to the accessibility of different landscapes.

Read more less