They Make Themselves

They Make Themselves
Author: Jane Fajans
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 1997-08-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780226234441

For generations of anthropologists, the Baining people have presented a challenge, because of their apparent lack of cultural or social structure. This group of small-scale horticulturists seems devoid of the complex belief systems and social practices that characterize other traditional peoples of Papua New Guinea. Their daily existence is mundane and repetitive in the extreme, articulated by only the most elementary familial relationships and social connections. The routine of everyday life, however, is occasionally punctuated by stunningly beautiful festivals of masked dancers, which the Baining call play and to which they attribute no symbolic significance. In a new work sure to evoke considerable repercussions and debate in anthropological theory, Jane Fajans courageously takes on the "Baining Problem," arguing that the Baining define themselves not through intricate cosmologies or social networks, but through the meanings generated by their own productive and reproductive work.

The Song of the Earth

The Song of the Earth
Author: Jonathan Bate
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2000-09-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780674001688

In the first ecological reading of English literature, Jonathan Bate traces the distinctions among "nature," "culture," and "environment" and shows how their meanings have changed since their appearance in the literature of the eighteenth century.

Bat

Bat
Author: Tessa Laird
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1780239378

Bats have been maligned in the West for centuries. Unfair associations with demons have seen their leathery wings adorn numerous evil characters, from the Devil to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But these amazing animals are ecological superheroes. Nectar-feeding bats pollinate important crops like agave; fruit-eating bats disperse seeds and encourage reforestation; and insect-eating bats keep down mosquito populations and other pests, saving agricultural industries billions of dollars. Ranging in size from a bumblebee to creatures with a wingspan the length of an adult human, found on all continents except Antarctica, and displaying extraordinary abilities like echolocation—a built-in sonar system that enables many bats to navigate in the dark—these incredibly diverse mammals are as surprising as they are misunderstood. In Bat, Tessa Laird challenges our preconceptions as she combines fascinating facts of bat biology with engaging portrayals of bats in mythology, literature, film, popular culture, poetry, and contemporary art. She also provides a sobering reminder of the threats bats face worldwide, from heatwaves and human harassment to wind turbines and disease. Illustrated with incredible photographs and artistic representations of bats from many different cultures and eras, this celebration of the only mammals possessing true flight will enthrall batty fans, skeptics, and converts alike.

Explorations in Psychoanalytic Ethnography

Explorations in Psychoanalytic Ethnography
Author: Jadran Mimica
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2007-05-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0857456946

Whereas most anthropological research is grounded in social, cultural and biological analysis of the human condition, this volume opens up a different approach: its concerns are the psychic depths of human cultural life-worlds as explored through psycho-analytic practice and/or the psychoanalytically framed ethnographic project. In fact, some contributors here argue that the anthropological interpretation of human existence is not sustainable without psychoanalysis; others take a less extreme radical stance but still maintain that the unconscious matrix of the human psyche and of the intersubjective (social) reality of any given cultural life-world is a vital domain of anthropological and sociological inquiry and understanding.

The Fernal Songs

The Fernal Songs
Author: Bruce Rimell
Publisher: Xibalba Books
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2021-06-30
Genre: Poetry
ISBN:

What would a positive, life-affirming, cosmos-embracing and transcendent Queer mythology look like? In the years 2013-15, artist and poet Bruce Rimell got a chance to find out when he was invited to participate in a collaborative project to create an international art publication, ‘The Encyclopaedia of Fernal Affairs’. Although this was principally an art-oriented initiative, Bruce quickly went off on his own tangent, inventing a complete constructed language and two song-cycles of fernal mythology which resonated with his own burgeoning sense of his Queer identity. ‘The Fernal Songs’ are the shimmering results of that literary side project. Centred around Lucaion, a Queer Hero whose exploits around an animistic cosmos showcase a more compassionate, interactive masculine images than the traditional subduer of enemies, and Afer, an all-gendered Cosmic Creatrix, whose song reverberates across the Fernal World, these are sacred songs which move beyond satirical ‘queering’ of traditional religious forms into a transcendent queer space which simultaneously resonates with ancient memories and indigenous lifeways as well as with possible queer futures of intense beauty and humanism. The ‘Song of Lucaion’, the ‘Thirteen Songs’ and the supplemental ‘Daiarzan’ come with several essays, personal recollections and honest expressions of Bruce’s envisioning of what he calls the ‘sacred and pristine jewel of queeritude within.’

Djanggawul

Djanggawul
Author: Ronald M. Berndt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2013-10-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136538577

The Djanggawul religious cult is the focus for this study because it is more important to the Aborigines themselves than other religious cults in the north-eastern region of Arnhem land. The book includes chapters on the following: · Significance of the Djanggawul · The Djanggawul Myth and Content of the Myth · The Djanggawul Songs · The Djanggawul Song Cycle: Parts 1 The book includes an extensive glossary and index. First published in 1952.

Herd Register

Herd Register
Author: American Jersey Cattle Club
Publisher:
Total Pages: 740
Release: 1910
Genre: Cattle
ISBN:

I’ll Weave a Song for You

I’ll Weave a Song for You
Author: Sandra Leavesley
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2022-08-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1803132639

She holds the verse in the palm of her hand and tells a story she died in. When Megan dies, she leaves a promise with her twin Emily: ‘I’ll weave a song for you…it may take a while, but I’ll come back to you Em, somehow’. Her song threads a tapestry, spinning through a mosaic of memories and weaving into the present day, touching the lives of Alice and Jon. The Café by the Oak is in the heart of Crayshead, a Cornish seaside town with a sleepy tortoise, a vocal parrot, and a dog named Wellington. Emily is charmed by Alice, an old lady with secrets hidden behind the walls of a convent. Jon’s life lacks purpose. After taking up a new teaching post he feels settled enough to begin unravelling his past, but when he finds something he isn’t looking for it causes him to question everything. Emily seeks comfort in her art, reflecting on her childhood, and helping Jon pursue his past. And as Alice slowly reveals her secret, Emily breathes life into a painting on canvas… Can Megan weave a song without leaving them all with a sense of betrayal?

The Samoa Islands

The Samoa Islands
Author: Augustin Krämer
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 660
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780824822194

Augustin Kramer's account of his sojourn in the Samoa Islands from 1897 to 1899. Of particular importance to Samoans are the original documents containing ceremonial greetings and genealogical pedigrees. All Samoan language texts have been retained in this edition.