This interdisciplinary account of a contemporary Great Lakes Algonkian community explores how the ethical system underlying Odawa (Ottawa) myth and ritual sustains traditionalists' efforts to confront the legal and social issues threatening tribal identity. Because many Odawa are not members of federally recognized communities, anthropologist Melissa A. Pflug focuses on their struggle to overcome long-term social marginalization and achieve collective sovereignty. In profound ways, contemporary Odawa people are "walking the paths" of their ancestors Neolin, Pontiac, The Trout, and Tenskwatawa. Those prophetic leaders, together with mythic Great Persons, established a legacy tied to land, language, and tradition - a sovereign identity that defines Odawa life in terms of pimadaziwin: life-sustaining, moral, and healthy interrelationships.

The Christian Right is arguably the most significant social movement in the United States today. In recent years, these religious conservatives have loudly protested a public education system they believe no longer represents their interests or values. Educators often dismiss critiques based on religious values as irrational or flimsy, failing to appreciate the coherence of these criticisms from the Christian Right's own perspective. While the Christian Right has become ever more sophisticated in its lobbying and powerful in its influence, educators and parents find themselves lacking the background knowledge necessary to respond effectively to its efforts. Standing on the Premises of God speaks directly to this dilemma, explaining current incarnations of the Christian Right, its leadership, its intellectual and theological foundations, and its tactics, so that those interested in the debates over education will be better prepared to engage them constructively. Taking the novel approach of framing the Christian Right as a revitalization movement, Detwiler shows how it seeks to effect cultural transformation in order to bring public education-and our society more generally-in line with its worldview. His theoretical model provides insights into why education is so pivotal to the Christian Right and also assesses the religious viability of the Christian Right as a social movement.

Voices of the Ritual analyzes the revival of rituals performed at female saint shrines in the Middle East. In the midst of turbulent political contention over land and borders, Nurit Stadler shows, religious minorities lay claim to space through rituals enacted at sacred spaces in the Holy Land. Using ethnographic analysis, Stadler explores the rise of these rituals, their focus on the body, female materiality, and their place in the Israeli-Palestinian landscape. Stadler examines the varied features of the practice and implications of the rituals, looking at themes of femininity and material experience. She considers the role of the body in rituals that represent the act of birth or the circle of life and that aim to foster an intimate connection between the female saint and her worshippers. Stadler underscores the political, cultural, and spatial elements of this practice, bringing attention to how religious minorities (Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Druze, among others) have utilized these rituals to assert their right to the land. Voices of the Ritual offers a valuable assessment of religious ritual practice that encrypts female themes into a landscape that has historically been defined by war and conflict.

This volume offers a stimulating, multidisciplinary set of essays by noted Native and non-Native scholars that explore the problems and prospects of understanding and writing about Native American spirituality in the twenty-first century. Considerable attention is given to the appropriateness and value of different interpretive paradigms for Native religion, including both traditional religion and Native Christianity. The book also investigates the ethics of religious representation, issues of authenticity, the commodification of spirituality, and pedagogical practices. Of special interest is the role of dialogue in expressing and understanding Native American religious beliefs and practices. A final set of essays explores the power of and reactions to Native spirituality from a long-term, historical perspective.

This comprehensive title is among the first to extensively use newly released 2010 U.S. Census data to examine multiculturalism today and tomorrow in America. This distinction is important considering the following NPR report by Eyder Peralta: “Based on the first national numbers released by the Census Bureau, the AP reports that minorities account for 90 percent of the total U.S. growth since 2000, due to immigration and higher birth rates for Latinos.” According to John Logan, a Brown University sociologist who has analyzed most of the census figures, “The futures of most metropolitan areas in the country are contingent on how attractive they are to Hispanic and Asian populations.” Both non-Hispanic whites and blacks are getting older as a group. “These groups are tending to fade out,” he added. Another demographer, William H. Frey with the Brookings Institution, told The Washington Post that this has been a pivotal decade. “We’re pivoting from a white-black-dominated American population to one that is multiracial and multicultural.” Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia explores this pivotal moment and its ramifications with more than 900 signed entries not just providing a compilation of specific ethnic groups and their histories but also covering the full spectrum of issues flowing from the increasingly multicultural canvas that is America today. Pedagogical elements include an introduction, a thematic reader’s guide, a chronology of multicultural milestones, a glossary, a resource guide to key books, journals, and Internet sites, and an appendix of 2010 U.S. Census Data. Finally, the electronic version will be the only reference work on this topic to augment written entries with multimedia for today’s students, with 100 videos (with transcripts) from Getty Images and Video Vault, the Agence France Press, and Sky News, as reviewed by the media librarian of the Rutgers University Libraries, working in concert with the title’s editors.

This work examines the world's indigenous peoples, their cultures, the countries in which they reside, and the issues that impact these groups.

Indigenous religions are the majority of the world's religions. This Companion shows how much they can contribute to a richer understanding of human identity, action, and relationships.An international team of contributors discuss representative indigenous religions from all continents. The book is in three parts--Persons, Powers, and Gifts.Relevant to everyone interested in human religiosity today.

This authoritative and cutting edge companion brings togethera team of leading scholars to document the rich diversity andunique viewpoints that have formed the religious history of theUnited States. A groundbreaking new volume which represents the firstsustained effort to fully explain the development of Americanreligious history and its creation within evolving political andsocial frameworks Spans a wide range of traditions and movements, from theBaptists and Methodists, to Buddhists and Mormons Explores topics ranging from religion and the media,immigration, and piety, though to politics and social reform Considers how American religion has influenced and beeninterpreted in literature and popular culture Provides insights into the historiography of religion, butpresents the subject as a story in motion rather than a snapshot ofwhere the field is at a given moment

Arguing that Native Americans' religious life and history have been misinterpreted, author Kenneth M. Morrison reconstructs the Eastern Algonkians' world views and demonstrates the indigenous modes of rationality that shaped not only their encounter with the French but also their self-directed process of religious change. In reassessing controversial anthropological, historical, and ethnohistorical scholarship, Morrison develops interpretive strategies that are more responsive to the religious world views of the Eastern Algonkian peoples. He concludes that the Eastern Algonkians did not convert to Catholicism, but rather applied traditional knowledge and values to achieve a pragmatic and critical sense of Christianity and to preserve and extend kinship solidarity into the future. The result was a remarkable intersection of Eastern Algonkian and missionary cosmologies.