Author: Kathryn Rountree Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 1461433541 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 281
Book Description
Archaeology of Spiritualties provides a fresh exploration of the interface between archaeology and religion/spirituality. Archaeological approaches to the study of religion have typically and often unconsciously, drawn on western paradigms, especially Judaeo-Christian (mono) theistic frameworks and academic rationalisations. Archaeologists have rarely reflected on how these approaches have framed and constrained their choices of methodologies, research questions, hypotheses, definitions, interpretations and analyses and have neglected an important dimension of religion: the human experience of the numinous - the power, presence or experience of the supernatural. Within the religions of many of the world’s peoples, sacred experiences – particularly in relation to sacred landscapes and beings connected with those landscapes – are often given greater emphasis, while doctrine and beliefs are relatively less important. Archaeology of Spiritualities asks how such experiences might be discerned in the archaeological record; how do we recognize and investigate ‘other’ forms of religious or spiritual experience in the remains of the past?. The volume opens up a space to explore critically and reflexively the encounter between archaeology and diverse cultural expressions of spirituality. It showcases experiential and experimental methodologies in this area of the discipline, an unconventional approach within the archaeology of religion. Thus Archaeology of Spiritualities offers a unique, timely and innovative contribution, one that is also challenging and stimulating. It is a great resource to archaeologists, historians, religious scholars and others interested in cultural and religious heritage.
Author: Dragoş Gheorghiu Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 1443834076 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
This book’s aim is to go beyond the limits of the contemporary scientific paradigm of “material culture” by presenting some of the issues confronting archaeology, as it attempts to approach the spirituality of the past. It brings together archaeologists from Western and Eastern Europe, and the USA who, more or less obviously, have used their experientiality to approach the world view and mystic experience of ancient peoples. The book intends to present several arguments in support of an archaeology of spirituality through a series of seven case studies. What method should we use to approach spirituality? Are we still dependent on quantitative methods? Is phenomenology an appropriate instrument? Can experientiality approach a spiritual experience? Is the emic approach efficient enough to approach the spiritual side of a studied phenomenon? Are the analogous ethnographic models suitable instruments for this task? How much of the spirituality of the past is still accessible today? Could we build artificial contexts that would allow the recreation of the phenomenological condition analogous to the originals? Archaeology Experiences Spirituality? goes beyond the archaeological study of material culture, offering a fascinating lecture for the reader of the twenty-first century.
Author: Beth Alpert Nakhai Publisher: ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
Annotation This book discusses the role of religion in Canaanite and Israelite society, from the Middle Bronze Age through the Israelite Divided Monarchy (2000-587 BC). It contains an extensive archaeological study of all known Middle Bronze through Iron Age temples, sanctuaries, and open-air shrines, organized by period and geographic region. Social science and textually based analyses of sacrifice in antiquity reveal the many ways in which religion was related to social structure, and the author emphasizes the ways in which social, economic and political relationships determined - and were shaped by - forms of religious organization.
Author: J. David Lewis-Williams Publisher: Rowman Altamira ISBN: 9780759104327 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 302
Book Description
At the intersection between western culture and Africa, we find the San people of the Kalahari desert. Once called Bushmen, the San have survived many characterizations-from pre-human animals by the early European colonials, to aboriginal conservationists in perfect harmony with nature by recent New Age adherents. Neither caricature does justice to the complex world view of the San. Eminent anthropologists David Lewis-Williams and David Pearce present a instead balanced view of the spiritual life of this much-studied people, examining the interplay of their cosmology, myth, ritual, and art.
Author: Birendra Nath Prasad Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1000416755 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 475
Book Description
In the religious landscape of early medieval (c. AD 600-1200) Bihar and Bengal, poly-religiosity was generally the norm than an exception, which entailed the evolution of complex patterns of inter-religious equations. Buddhism, Brahmanism and Jainism not only coexisted but also competed for social patronage, forcing them to enter into complex interactions with social institutions and processes. Through an analysis of the published archaeological data, this work explores some aspects of the social history of Buddhist, Brahmanical and Jaina temples and shrines, and Buddhist stūpas and monasteries in early medieval Bihar and Bengal. This archaeological history of religions questions many ‘established’ textual reconstructions, and enriches our understanding of the complex issue of the decline of Buddhism in this area. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Author: Roberta Gilchrist Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1108496547 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 275
Book Description
Forges innovative connections between monastic archaeology and heritage studies, revealing new perspectives on sacred heritage, identity, medieval healing, magic and memory. This title is available as Open Access.
Author: Timothy Insoll Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 113452644X Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 203
Book Description
This book re-examines the definitions of 'religion' and 'ritual' through a range of archaeological examples drawn from around the world and across time. It serves as an introduction to the theory and methodology of the archaeology of religion
Author: Philip Sheldrake Publisher: OUP Oxford ISBN: 0191642436 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 152
Book Description
It has been suggested that 'spirituality' has become a word that 'can define an era'. Why? Because paradoxically, alongside a decline in traditional religious affiliations, the growing interest in spirituality and the use of the word in a variety of contexts is a striking aspect of contemporary western cultures. Indeed, spirituality is sometimes contrasted attractively with religion, although this is problematic and implies that religion is essentially dogma, moralism, institutions, buildings, and hierarchies. The notion of spirituality expresses the fact that many people are driven by goals that concern more than material satisfaction. Broadly, it refers to the deepest values and sense of meaning by which people seek to live. Sometimes these values are conventionally religious. Sometimes they are associated with what is understood as 'the sacred' in a broader sense - that is, of ultimate rather than merely instrumental importance. This Very Short Introduction, written by one of the most eminent scholars and writers on spirituality, explores the historical foundations of the thought and considers how it came to have the significance it is developing today. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Author: Raimund Karl Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 152752101X Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 201
Book Description
Archaeological heritage can be disputed, especially where it is important to religions and their practitioners. While the destruction of archaeological sites in war – often due to religious fervour – is frequently making the headlines, apparently lesser disputes about local heritage sites go unreported. This book focuses on these lesser, but much more frequent, potential conflicts between archaeological heritage management and conservation on the one hand, and practitioners of religious beliefs who use archaeological heritage in their practice on the other. By exploring case studies from Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Wales, this book examines the interaction between spiritual practice and monuments conservation. This book will be of great interest to heritage professionals, archaeologists, historians, conservationists and religious practitioners alike, through its exploration of various kinds of interactions between these different heritage communities and their interests in archaeology.
Author: Robert L. Hall Publisher: University of Illinois Press ISBN: 9780252066023 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 244
Book Description
The richness and the range of Native American spirituality has long been noted, but it has never been examined so thoroughly, nor with such an eye for the amazing interconnectedness of Indian tribal ceremonies and practices, as in An Archaeology of the Soul. In this monumental work, destined to become a classic in its field, Robert Hall traces the genetic and historical relationships of the tribes of the Midwest and Plains--including roots that extend back as far as 3,000 years. Looking beyond regional barriers, An Archaeology of the Soul offers new depths of insight into American Indian ethnography. Hall uncovers the lineage and kinship shared by Native North Americans through the perspectives of history, archaeology, archaeoastronomy, biological anthropology, linguistics, and mythology. The wholeness and panoramic complexity of American Indian belief has never been so fully explored--or more deeply understood.
Author: Kathryn Rountree
Author: Dragoş Gheorghiu
Author: Beth Alpert Nakhai
Author: J. David Lewis-Williams
Author: Birendra Nath Prasad
Author: Roberta Gilchrist
Author: Timothy Insoll
Author: Philip Sheldrake
Author: Raimund Karl
Author: Robert L. Hall