Search results for ""Author V""

Addictive and immersive, this series is a must-read. -Entertainment WeeklyA Darker Shade of Magic gets an updated cover design in this repackaged hardcover edition with special extras including beautiful colored endpapers and a foil stamped design under the jacket. This edition also features a glossary of Antari spells and Arnesian words, and bonus short stories from within the Shades Universe.Enter #1 New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab's beloved Shades of Magic trilogy-a dazzling world of parallel Londons where magic thrives, starves, or lies forgotten, and where power can destroy just as quickly as it can create.Kell is one of the last Antari-magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.Kell was raised in Arnes-Red London-and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling betw

Read more less

The real challenge of programming isn't learning a language's syntax it's learning to creatively solve problems so you can build something great. In this one-of-a-kind text, author V. Anton Spraul breaks down the ways that programmers solve problems and teaches you what other introductory books often ignore: how to Think Like a Programmer. Each chapter tackles a single programming concept, like classes, pointers, and recursion, and open-ended exercises throughout challenge you to apply your knowledge. You'll also learn how to: Split problems into discrete components to make them easier to solve Make the most of code reuse with functions, classes, and libraries Pick the perfect data structure for a particular job Master more advanced programming tools like recursion and dynamic memory Organize your thoughts and develop strategies to tackle particular types of problems Although the book's examples are written in C++, the creative problem-solving concepts they illustrate go beyond a

Read more less

AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA KIRKUS BEST BOOKA USA TODAY BESTSELLERA NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER“A bone-chilling standalone . . . which fuses Shirley Jackson’s gothic horror sensibilities with the warmth and dark whimsy of Neil Gaiman.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Gripping worldbuilding, well-rounded characters, and fantastic horror.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Unsettling and intriguing.”—Bulletin of the Center for Children''s Books (starred review)Everything casts a shadow. Even the world we live in. And as with every shadow, there is a place where it must touch. A seam, where the shadow meets its source.#1 New York Times-bestselling author V. E. Schw

Read more less

With a preface by the author.V. S. Naipaul's The Mimic Men is a profound, moving and often humorous novel that evokes a colonial man’s experience in the post-colonial world. Born of Indian heritage, raised in the British-dependent Caribbean island of Isabella, and educated in England, forty-year-old Ralph Singh has spent a lifetime struggling against the torment of cultural displacement. Now in exile from his native country, he has taken up residence at a quaint hotel in a London suburb, where he is writing his memoirs in an attempt to impose order on a chaotic existence. His memories lead him to recognize the cultural paradoxes and tainted fantasies of his colonial childhood and later life: his attempts to fit in at school, his short-lived marriage to an ostentatious white woman. But it is the return to Isabella and his subsequent immersion in the roiling political atmosphere of a newly self-governing nation – every kind of racial fantasy taking wing – that ultimately provide Singh with the necessary insight to discover the crux of his disillusionment.‘A Tolstoyan spirit . . . The so-called Third World has produced no more brilliant literary artist’ John Updike, New Yorker

Read more less

With a preface by the author. V. S. Naipaul’s legendary command of broad comedy and acute social observation is on abundant display in these classic works of fiction – two novels and a collection of stories – that capture the rhythms of life in the Caribbean and England with impressive subtlety and humour. The Suffrage of Elvira is Naipaul’s hilarious take on an electoral campaign in the back country of Trinidad, where the candidates’ tactics include blatant vote-buying and supernatural sabotage. The eponymous protagonist of Mr Stone and the Knights Companion is an ageing Englishman of ponderously regular habits whose life is thrown into upheaval by a sudden marriage and an unanticipated professional advancement. And the stories in A Flag on the Island take us from a Chinese bakery in Trinidad – whose black proprietor faces bankruptcy until he takes a Chinese name – to a rooming house in London, where the genteel landlady plays a nasty Darwinian game with her budgerigars. Unfailingly stylish, filled with intelligence and feeling, The Nightwatchman's Occurrence Book is the work of a writer who can do just about anything that can be done with language. ‘V. S. Naipaul has a substantial claim as a comic writer . . . This humour, conducted throughout with the utmost stylistic quietude, is completely original’ Kingsley Amis, Spectator

Read more less

The complete Shades of Magic trilogy by New-York-Times-bestselling author, V. E. Schwab.

Read more less

A business organization, like a human body, is only as effective as its various processes. Pretty obvious, right? Yet, as V. Daniel Hunt demonstrates in this groundbreaking book, the failure to appreciate this obvious fact is the reason most reengineering schemes fail. Managers whose job it is to improve company performance, like physicians who work to improve patient health, must develop a clear picture of how each process fits into the overall organizational structure; how it ought to function; and how well it is performing at any given moment; before they can form a diagnosis or devise a treatment strategy. Fortunately, a powerful new analytical tool that has emerged in recent years helps you to do all of that and much more. Developed at General Electric, process mapping has been implemented in companies around the globe, and the results have been simply astonishing. Now find out how to make this breakthrough reengineering technology work for your organization in Process Mapping. The first and only hands-on guide of its kind, Process Mapping arms you with a full complement of state-of-the-art tools and techniques for assessing existing business processes and developing a detailed road map for ongoing change and improvement. Internationally known management consultant and bestselling author V. Daniel Hunt guides you step-by-step through the entire process. He helps you assess the need for process reengineering in your organization and determine whether or not a process map is what you need. He shows you how to create a process mapping team and helps you select the best-buy process mapping tools for the job. He explains how to gather vital information about your business processes via focused interviews and other interview techniques, and how to use this data in implementing process mapping. He also offers expert advice on how to apply your process map to significantly improve business functions and bottom-line performance. Hunt draws upon the experiences of companies around the world whose process mapping success stories will be a source of inspiration and instruction. You'll find out just how process mapping was put to use--and the results it achieved--at General Electric, IBM, NASA, Tandy Electronics, Shawmut National Bank, Fluor Daniel, Exxon, and other leading product and service firms. Find out all about today's most important new management tool and how to put it to work for continuous improvement in your organization in Process Mapping. The first and only hands-on guide to a powerful new process mapping tool The most important new process improvement tool to come along in more than a decade, process mapping enables managers to easily identify and assess the various business processes that make up their organizations and to develop a road map for continued performance improvement. Now find out how to make this breakthrough management tool work in your organization by applying Process Mapping. V. Daniel Hunt, the bestselling author of Reengineering, Quality in America, and The Survival Factor, guides you step-by-step through the entire process. He gives you all the proven process mapping tools and techniques you need to: * Assess the need for process improvement in your company * Decide if process mapping is right for you * Create a process mapping team * Select the best process mapping software tools for the job * Collect vital information about business processes * Use the data to build your own process map * Use your process map to significantly improve bottom-line business performance Hunt also provides detailed case studies of product and service companies around the globe that have discovered the value of process mapping. You'll find out how General Electric, IBM, NASA, Tandy Electronics, Shawmut National Bank, Fluor Daniel, Exxon, and other leading companies achieved stunning results when they made process mapping part of their business improvement efforts.

Read more less

The definitive reference for thermal constants Thermal Constants of Substances is an authoritative reference for chemists and physicists in a wide range of disciplines. Provided as an eight-volume set, this reference provides critically selected and self-consistent thermal constants for all inorganic, simple organic, and metallo-organic substances studied — over 25,000 in all. Over 51,500 references are included for further information, with some literature dating back to the 1800s. Organized alphabetically and cross-referenced for convenience, this reference has a permanent home on the bookshelves of labs around the world.

Read more less

Recent achievements in sunlight concentration techniques haveincreased the potential of solar power as a viable source ofrenewable energy. Through its critical analysis of current methods,Photovoltaic Conversion of Concentrated Sunlight provides acomprehensive treatment of the issues involved in the creation ofan efficient and cost-effective sustainable power resource. Theauthors introduce significant new original research and offer aninsight into previously inaccessible Russian studies. Logicallystructured, the text presents both theoretical and practicaladvances in the field. Features include: * Discussion of fabrication problems for both terrestrial and spacephotovoltaic installations * Investigation of the impact of resistive losses on the operationof solar cells and new procedures for measuring components ofinternal resistance * Explanation of the semiconductor physics underlyingphotovoltaics * Examination of the most efficient concentrator solar cellstructures and materials plus exploration of ways to improve cellperformance * Original theoretical and experimental results on luminescencephenomena in concentrator cells * Useful measurement techniques for the determination of diagnosticcell parameters * Analysis of energy characteristics of photovoltaic installationswith high and low concentration ratios An invaluable asset to industrialists and academics concerned withsemiconductors and photovoltaics, this book will also serveenvironmental scientists through its examination of the problemsassociated with large-scale use of this ecological technology.

Read more less

This book presents selected research papers on current developments in the fields of soft computing and signal processing from the Fifth International Conference on Soft Computing and Signal Processing (ICSCSP 2022). The book covers topics such as soft sets, rough sets, fuzzy logic, neural networks, genetic algorithms and machine learning and discusses various aspects of these topics, e.g., technological considerations, product implementation and application issues.

Read more less

This book brings together technical expertise, best practices, case studies and ground-level application of the ideas for empowering the rural population of the world to live economically prosperous, environmentally sustainable, and socially progressive lives, on par or comparable with the quality of life enjoyed by the global urban population. The idea of Smart Villages takes on greater urgency in light of the investments made in this millennium on “Smart Cities”, taking advantage of the technological advances, particularly in digital connectivity. These investments have and will continue to expand the urban-rural divide, unless similar investments are made in the villages as well. The book provides a much-needed guide for a holistic development of a Smart Village, by defining the need, developing the framework, and describing the delivery, complete with successful case studies. Contributors to the book, from Canada, USA, Africa and India bring years of academic, industry and governmental experience, including organization of several Smart Village conferences. The knowledge base in the book will be of great value to anyone interested in or active in rural planning, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, industrial solution providers, public healthcare professionals, public policy professionals and students, as well as rural communities around the world. Consolidates all the aspects of creating/developing a Smart Village; Delivers an effective tool-kit for practitioners in the area of Smart Villages; Provides a policy-based framework for the development of an ideal Smart Village; Illustrates, through case studies, the fulfillment of key requirements of a Smart Village; Brings together experts from around the world to share their vision of a Smart Village; Highlights the importance of balancing development with social/gender equity and cultural traditions.

Read more less

High brightness metal vapor lasers have become the most bright and powerful in the visible spectral range among all existing laser types, resulting in numerous applications ranging from purely fundamental research to practical application in large-scale commercial problems such as isotope selection. This book presents a full series of fundamental problems on the development of physical fundamentals and mathematical models for practical realization of a high-power laser radiation on self-contained transitions in metal atoms. It is the first fundamental review on physics and the technique of high-brightness metal vapor lasers.

Read more less

Electromagnetic and mechanical oscillators are crucial in such diverse fields as electrical engineering, microwave technology, optical technology, and experimental physics. For example, such oscillators are the key elements in instruments for detecting extremely weak mechanical forces and electromagnetic signals are essential to highly stable standards of time and frequency. The central problem in developing such instruments is to construct oscillators that are as perfectly simple harmonic as possible; the largest obstacle is the oscillator's dissipation and the fluctuating forces associated with it. This book, first published in Russian in 1981 and updated with new data for this English edition, is a treatise on the sources of dissipation and other defects in mechanical and electromagnetic oscillators and on practical techniques for minimizing such defects. Written by a team of researchers from Moscow State University who are leading experts in the field, the book is a virtual encyclopedia of theoretical formulas, experimental techniques, and practical lore derived from twenty-five years of experience. Intended for the experimenter who wishes to construct near-perfect instrumentation, the book provides information on everything from the role of phonon-phonon scattering as a fundamental source of dissipation to the effectiveness of a thin film of pork fat in reducing the friction between a support wire and a mechanically oscillating sapphire crystal. The researchers that V. B. Braginsky has led since the mid-1960s are best known in the West for their contributions to the technology of gravitational-wave detection, their experimental search for quarks, their test of the equivalency principle, and their invention of new experimental techniques for high-precision measurement, including "quantum nondemolition movements." Here, for the first time, they provide a thorough overview of the practical knowledge and experimental methods that have earned them a worldwide reputation for ingenuity, talent, and successful technique.

Read more less

From the author of The Vagina Monologues, one of the most influential works of the twentieth century, comes a powerful, life-changing examination of abuse and atonement.One of the most shatteringly brilliant books I have read. As soon as I finished it, I read it again, and again, and again' Decca Aitkenhead, Sunday Times A masterpiece. Truly one of the most courageous and original works of our time' Naomi Klein One of the most original and profound books of the decade' Johann HariLike millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused by her father, Eve has struggled her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an anti-violence activist, she decided she would wait no longer; an apology could be imagined, by her, for her, to her. The Apology, written by Eve from her father''s point of view in th

Read more less

In May 2009, the Sri Lankan government officially announced the end of a civil war that had been ravaging the island for almost three decades. During all these years, Tamil poets have commented on the war and its vicissitudes in what constitutes an extraordinary body of poetry. We find poems on violence and trauma, loss and exile, as well as courage and hope. Together these poems can be read as an alternative history of the war. This collection of up to 50 poems translated from the original Tamil, comes with an afterword that will provide readers with the historical and political context of Sri Lanka's war, while also mapping literary developments during that period. Among the poets included are internationally acclaimed poets, such as Cheran, V. I. S. Jeyapalan, M. A. Nuhman, and S. Sivasegaram, less well-known voices, such as Balasooriyan, S. Vilvaratnam, or Solaikili, as well as a significant number of women poets, such as Sivaramani, Urvasi, Avvai, and others. Both Lakshmi Holmstrom and Sascha Ebeling have previously published translations of these poets, which we plan to include in addition to a number of new translations made specifically for this volume.

Read more less

The two cemeteries of Amara West in Sudan, a town founded in around 1300 BC as a new centre for the colonial pharaonic administration of Kush (Upper Nubia), were excavated by the British Museum’s Amara West Research Project between 2009 and 2016. This book focused on the ceramic vessels placed in the burials, between c. 1300 BC and the 8th century BC. The comprehensive analyses of the pottery, accompanied by a full catalogue, provides insights into the role of ceramic vessels for funerary purposes, trade networks between Upper Nubia, Egypt and farther afield. The inclusion of Nubian hand-made vessels with some burials reflects aspects of cultural entanglement, and raises questions of identity and cultural affiliation, particularly in the transition between the period of pharaonic occupation and its aftermath. An introduction by Michaela Binder provides an orientation to the architecture and archaeology of the cemeteries.

Read more less

With this Festschrift colleagues and friends honor Terrence Merrigan on the occasion of his retirement from the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven. The thirty-two contributions in this volume all show the exceptional quality of his research in different domains of theological study. Since the theology of John Henry Newman has inspired Terrence Merrigan throughout his entire career, the volume opens with a number of outstanding studies on various aspects of Newman’s theology: his interaction with high church Anglicanism, his understanding of conscience, the theology of purgatory, but also the neglect of liturgical spirituality in Newman’s theology. The contributions in the second part are devoted to the fields of Christology and Trinity, which comprise Merrigan’s favorite theological disciplines. The contributions are situated on the intersection of contemporary Christology and its soteriological impact within a pluralistic and secularized context. The third part deals with the theology of interreligious dialogue, with special focus on the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, Jacques Dupuis’s theology of religions, comparative theology, Jewish and Christian approaches to interreligious dialogue, and the phenomenon of double religious belonging. The fourth part explores the challenging relationship between faith and culture in an attempt to bridge the Christian tradition with the contemporary world. The present volume makes a distinguished and original contribution to these four important fields of theological research.

Read more less

L’ouvrage Ougarit, un anniversaire, bilans et recherches en cours (Ras Shamra – Ougarit XXVIII), édité grâce au soutien du Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères, de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres et de la Fondation Hugot du Collège de France, rassemble vingt-cinq contributions. Deux-tiers des articles correspondent à des communications données lors du colloque international Ougarit, 90 ans après (Collège de France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris, 13-16 novembre 2019). Trois volets structurent l’ouvrage. Le premier est consacré aux activités de la mission (missions, publications, actions de valorisation). Le second volet rassemble des synthèses consacrées à plusieurs champs disciplinaires, la publication d’inédits, les résultats d’études techniques et archéométriques, ainsi que des mises au point sur des recherches en cours. L’éventail des thématiques traitées est large. L’ouvrage n’illustre toutefois qu’une partie des travaux menés dans la cadre de la mission de Ras Shamra – Ougarit. La troisième partie du livre accueille des études consacrées à d’autres documentations, archéologiques ou épigraphiques, dont l’analyse apporte un éclairage sur Ougarit et sur le contexte dans lequel s’est développée la civilisation ougaritique. De Chypre au Kurdistan, le cadre chronologique est celui de l’âge du Bronze. Les trente-trois auteurs sont des membres et collaborateurs (post-doctorants, chercheurs, enseignants-chercheurs) de la mission ou des chercheurs extérieurs, spécialistes de la Méditerranée orientale et du Proche-Orient. Archéologues, historiens, épigraphistes, géographes... croisent leurs regards, confrontent leurs idées, pour faire revivre cette civilisation du Levant nord, tout en convoquant une réflexion historiographique et épistémologique.

Read more less

Le volume Ras Shamra – Ougarit XXVI est le second opus de l’opération Archéologie, patrimoine et archives, qui rassemblent des études portant plus spécifiquement sur l’exploitation scientifique des archives des fouilles anciennes de la Mission archéologique de Ras Shamra. L’ouvrage comporte quatorze articles auxquels ont contribué douze membres de la mission, rejoints par une collaboratrice extérieure. Ces recherches sont fondées sur l’édition d’une riche documentation pour une grande part inédite. Les fouilles conduites sous la direction de Claude Schaeffer sont de loin les mieux représentées et nombre de documents font partie du «Fonds C. Schaeffer» du Collège de France. D’autres fonds ont aussi été exploités parmi lesquels les sources documentaires gérées par la mission et les archives du Département des Antiquités orientales du musée du Louvre. Plusieurs études abordent l’histoire des recherches à Ras Shamra et à Minet el-Beida, avec des éclairages plus spécifiques sur le début des fouilles ou encore sur des pièces de la correspondance scientifique du fonds C. Schaeffer. D’autres articles analysent des témoins de la civilisation ougaritique, objets, inscriptions en louvite hiéroglyphique ou en hiéroglyphes égyptiens, productions locales ou importations datant en majorité de la période du Bronze récent. Ils livrent une documentation neuve sur des constructions, sur des objets inédits (poids, scarabée, bulle étiquette, harpè), apportent des données permettant une meilleure contextualisation de ces ÷uvres, ou sur d’autres déjà connues par les publications. Un troisième dossier, consacré aux études géographiques, livre la seconde contribution du programme en cours d’analyse diachronique des paysages (XVIIe–XXIe siècles), ainsi que trois nouvelles cartes numériques thématiques et une étude sur le climat de la région de Lattaquié.

Read more less

Das 5. Buch Esra gehört wohl zu den am wenigsten bearbeiteten 'jüdisch/christlichen' Apokryphen des (wahrscheinlich) 2. Jahrhunderts unserer Zeitrechnung. Dabei wird der Text gemeinsam mit 4 Esra im Anhang der Vulgata überliefert und zeigt vielfältige Beziehungen zu kanonisch gewordenen Texten auf. Auf eben solche Bezugnahmen blickt diese Arbeit und untersucht intertextuelle Bezüge zwischen 5 Esra und dem Buch Baruch, Jeremia 7, dem Matthäus-Evangelium, der Offenbarung des Johannes und 4 Esra. Dabei stehen größere und grundsätzliche Fragen im Hintergrund: Wie lässt sich die 'Kommunikation' verschiedener Texte miteinander erfassen? In welchem Verhältnis stehen 'prophetische' und 'apokalyptische' Texte zueinander? Wie ist das Verhältnis von 'Christentum' und 'Judentum' im zweiten Jahrhundert zu denken? Und wie spiegelt sich die Beziehung und vielleicht auch die Spannung zwischen Israel und der 'Kirche' in den Texten dieser Zeit wider? Spuren für mögliche Antworten sind in 5 Esra, dieser spannenden, kurzen und oft unterschätzten Schrift erkennbar.

Read more less

This book is one of the first modern collections of studies on important aspects of the Ezra figure that combines both Jewish and Christian traditions. The volume opens with a study of Ezra in rabbinic literature and continues with four chapters on 4 Ezra, discussing its dimensions of time, future agents and visionary practices as well as reminiscences of 4 Ezra in the Armenian Script of the Lord's Infancy. The following chapters study the relationship of 4, 5 and 6 Ezra, the nature of 5 Ezra and dissimulation strategies in 6 Ezra. The last chapters concentrate on the important discovery in 1984 of a longer version of the Vision of Ezra. Studies of its place, date, tour of hell as well as its scheme of atonements make a start with integrating this text in the study of early Christianity. Analyses of the Apocalypse of Sedrach and of anxieties of discontinuity in the Testament of Abraham and in Ezra traditions further contribute to a better understanding of this text. The final chapter offers the first German translation of this exciting discovery. As has become customary, the volume concludes with an extensive bibliography and detailed index.

Read more less

Le volume Ras Shamra - Ougarit XXIV est dédié à la mémoire de Pierre Bordreuil. Chercheur de renommée internationale, épigraphiste, professeur, Pierre Bordreuil avait rejoint, en 1971, l'équipe de la mission archéologique de Ras Shamra. L'ouvrage collectif, qui correspond aux Études ougaritiques IV, comprend seize articles auxquels ont contribué neuf membres de l'équipe de Ras Shamra et cinq chercheurs extérieurs à la mission. Plusieurs textes sont directement consacrés à la personnalité et à l'oeuvre de Pierre Bordreuil. La plupart des études, qu'elles abordent l'archéologie ou les textes, sont des contributions à la civilisation ougaritique et plusieurs livrent des données inédites issues soit de l'exploitation des archives de la mission concernant les fouilles anciennes, soit des recherches de terrain actuelles sur le site de Ras Shamra et sur celui de Tell Shamiyeh.

Read more less

This volume continues the series of five previous Roman Family publications, and puts special focus on social history and living conditions in the familial contexts. It concentrates on three interlinked aspects of family life and interaction: liminal situations regarding demography and ecological factors that lay down the framework for family life, liminal conditions on the edges of familial life regarding child labour, child slaves and sexual attitudes towards children, and local traditions which confront us with people and cultures at the borders of the Roman Empire. By focusing on three recurring points of departure (Late Antiquity, children and childhood, and the encounter between various cultures), and by presenting a wide variety of methodological approaches (from rhetorical analysis of discourses to statistical analysis, and from experiential life stories to iconographic analysis), the present volume offers a view on the status quaestionis of Roman family studies, and widens the thematic points of departure for the study of the Roman family, thus hopefully pointing to fruitful directions for further studies.

Read more less

Dit boek is gebaseerd op de resultaten van langdurig en intensief antropologisch veldwerk onder de Garifuna van de Baai van Tela gelegen aan de Atlantische kust van de Centraal-Amerikaanse Republiek Honduras. Het is de eerste uitvoerige studie van het magisch-religieuze systeem van dat volk dat ontstond in de zeventiende eeuw op het eiland San Vicente uit de kruising van een Afrikaanse en een Amerindiaanse populatie.Een eerste deel behandelt de geschiedenis, het identiteitsbesef, de sociale structuur, het economisch leven en de fundamentele beginselen van het waardesysteem van de Garifuna. Speciale aandacht wordt besteed aan de manier waarop deze kustbewoners de ruimte omvormen tot woongebied en aan de symbolisering van dat proces. In een tweede deel worden de verschillende bewoners van het Garifuna pantheon voorgesteld: God, Christus en de katholieke heiligen huizen er zij aan zij met traditionele natuurgeesten, hulpgeesten en voorvaderen. Waar vroegere studies nauwelijks melding maakten van de duivel, stelt dit onderzoek ruim de specifieke bemiddelende functie in het licht die dat personage vervult in het dagelijkse leven van een bevolking ten prooi aan de gevolgen van diepgaande socio-culturele verandering. Deel drie handelt over het Garifuna sjamanisme, terwijl het laatste deel gewijd is aan de religieuze rituelen, in het bijzonder aan de bij de Garifuna zo belangrijke dodencultus met als hoogtepunt de "dugu". Het was bekend dat bij de Garifuna sjamanen bedrijvig zijn, maar in dit boek worden voor het eerst de roeping, de vorming, de activiteiten, de sociale positie en het sexueel statuut van deze religieuze experten, evenals hun verhouding tegenover het christendom, uitvoerig beschreven. Ook van het dagenlange complexe "dugu" ritueel vindt men hier de eerste uitgebreide beschrijving en dito interpretatie.De brede eruditie, de voortdurende aandacht voor de diachronische dimensie, de voorbeeldige gedetailleerde etnografie, de gedurfde maar evenwichtige interpretatie van de symbolische aspecten van de cultuur, de diepgang van de psychologische analyse en van de antropologische inzichten maken "Zwarte indianen en hun symbolen" tot een standaardwerk onder de Caribische studies en voor lange jaren de referentie voor alle verder onderzoek bij de Garifuna. Voor niet-specialisten vormt de lectuur van dit vlot geschreven boek bovendien een boeiende en verrassende ontdekkingstocht.

Read more less

Ces dernieres annees le christianisme a commence a gagner un nombre croissant d'adeptes parmi certaines sections des Maasai, societe guerriere de pasteurs semi-nomades occupant un territoire s'etendant au sud du Kenya et au nord de la Tanzanie. Cette expansion recente constitue un fait nouveau qui attend description et explication. Entretemps aucune science n'est encore parvenue a donner une reponse satisfaisante a une question beaucoup plus vieille: pourquoi, pendant plus d'un siecle, l'histoire religieuse de ce peuple, entoure d'ethnies qui ont toutes repondu positivement a l'action missionnaire, a-t-elle ete caracterisee par un refus categorique, oppose avec une constance remarquable, aux efforts des missionnaires occidentaux pour l'attirer vers la religion du Christ?Le livre presente une analyse critique des diverses solutions que sociologues, anthropologues, historiens et missiologues ont proposees pour resoudre une question qu'ils ont ete habitues a considerer comme une enigme et a ressentir comme une croix. La discussion des differentes hypotheses conduit l'auteur a relater divers aspects de l'ecologie, de l'histoire, de l'economie, de la structure sociale, du monde des valeurs, de l'univers symbolique et des methodes de socialisation d'une des societes les plus fascinantes d'Afrique Noire. Au bout du periple il propose sa propre lecture des origines de la resistance maasai, une interpretation dont l'originalite consiste tant dans le rejet de toute "monoculture theorique" que dans le refus des schemes de causalite deterministe. Dans la mesure ou la socialisation des membres d'une societe implique l'interiorisation de normes et de valeurs, il est clair que son impact ne peut etre analyse exclusivement en termes de causes au sens strict du mot, mais aussi en termes d'intentions, d'objectifs, de motifs et de raisons; en d'autres mots il est indiscernable de l'activite par laquelle le sujet octroie a son comportement sens et signification.Avant tout contribution originale a l'anthropologie est-africaine, cet essai interessera egalement les specialistes de l'univers culturel des pasteurs nomades et les etudiants du changement social. Il constitue aussi un echantillon de ce que pourrait etre une missiologie vraiment scientifique.

Read more less

Employing the traditional tools of historical-critical methodology as well as a selected mix of techniques from newer literary criticism, this book provides a close analysis of the syntactic and semantic content of Phil 3:7-11 in its immediate and broader context, concluding that this passage represents a very high christological statement on the part of Paul, and discusses some of the implications of these findings in regard to the interpretation of Phil 2:5-11, the wisdom ambience of the letters of Paul, and relevance for modern christologies. In Philippians 3:7-11, Paul makes a very strong statement about how much Christ Jesus means to him. This study seeks to demonstrate how the passage within its context gives expression to a high christological statement which is frequently disregarded in treatments of Pauline christology. Chapter One presents a concise summary of the history of exegesis of Phil 3:7-11 and identifies the elements present within that history which indicated the desirability of a more in-depth treatment. Chapter Two focuses on the entire letter to the Philippians as the context of interpretation of Phil 3:7-11, beginning with a discussion of the methodology employed in the remainder of the work. Chapter Three focuses on Phil 3:7-11, first considering the textual variants within these verses, then describing in detail the relation of the complex sentence consisting of vv. 8-11. Chapters Four and Five deal with those issues of semantics in vv. 8-11 which require more extensive treatment. Chapter Six returns to a consideration of the meaning of knowledge of Christ, concluding with a consideration of the results of this study for current discussions of New Testament Christology.

Read more less