Amsterdam of the 50s, 60s and 70s is viewed from the perspective of Inni Wintrop, a man who leads a capricious life, floating comfortably on open possibilities.

A New York Times Notable Book: A renowned scholar explores the way we eat across cultures and throughout history. From the wild parties of ancient Greece to the strictures of an Upper East Side meal to the ritualistic feasts of cannibals, Margaret Visser takes us on a fascinating journey through the diverse practices, customs, and taboos that define how and why we prepare and consume food the way we do. With keen insights into small details we take for granted, such as the origins of forks and chopsticks or why tablecloths exist, and examinations of broader issues like the economic implications of dining etiquette, Visser scrutinizes table manners across eras and oceans, offering an intimate new understanding of eating both as a biological necessity and a cultural phenomenon. Witty and impeccably researched, The Rituals of Dinner is a captivating blend of folklore, sociology, history, and humor. In the words of the New York Times Book Review, “Read it, because you’ll never look at a table knife the same way again.”

#2 Wall Street Journal Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller From the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Bring Your Human to Work comes an indispensable guide to taking your employee engagement to the next level. In Bring Your Human to Work, Erica Keswin laid down the rules and protocols of a human workplace. Now, in Rituals Roadmap, she shows us how to further employee engagement, explaining that workplace rituals foster a sense of belonging and help workers connect with one another and their work. From our morning cup of coffee to the standing Wednesday morning meeting with our team, our lives are steeped in rituals. Rituals Roadmap combines cutting-edge scientific research with examples from the most human companies, like Starbucks, Microsoft, Chipotle and LinkedIn, showing how they establish rituals during meetings, employee onboarding procedures, and daily interactions among coworkers. Whether you choose to pass around a stuffed penguin at your weekly meeting to express gratitude like Aria Finger of DoSomething, or decide to make lunchtime a daily ritual with your team in the same way one top performing team at Douglas Elliman does, rituals create community and change us in a way that conjures lifelong commitments. If you’re serious about employee engagement, Rituals Roadmap is your blueprint for creating a workplace full of engaged, connected employees who drive revenue and stay at their jobs long term.

This collection of 10 contributed essays is the first to explicitly address the question of ritual efficacy. The authors do not aspire to answer the question 'how do rituals work?' in a simplistic fashion, but rather to show how complex the question is. While some contributors do indeed advance a particular theory of ritual efficacy, others ask whether the question makes any sense at all, and most show how complex it is by referring to the sociocultural environment in which it is posed, since the answer depends on who is asking the question, and what criteria they use to evaluate the efficacy of ritual.

The pivotal events of our lives go by largely uncelebrated: children pass into adulthood, two people become parents, a family moves to a new home. Karyl Huntley's Real Life Rituals is a hands-on guide that offers you ways to celebrate the significant moments and passages of life. Designed to be adapted for large groups or parties of one, Huntley's rituals include spiritually grounded ways to: Celebrate the birth of a child; Honor a school graduate; Bless a new home; Commemorate an anniversary; Enhance or release romantic relationships. Real Life Rituals also provides celebrations for those special times of the year--solstices, equinox, and holidays--that have been acknowledged by people through the ages. Other rituals include: Blessing a New Home; Transitioning to a New Job; Welcoming a New Pet; Coming of Age for Girls and Boys; Blessing a Baby; Honoring a School Graduate; and Celebrating a First Driver's License, among others. From the Author: Many of life's experiences are so profound that they are difficult to describe in words. These are the precise experiences you invite when you perform a ritual: you move yourself into change or unity, surrender or gratitude, in ways that are so powerful that they are beyond words. You experience true spirituality. Though not associated with any particular denomination or philosophy, the essential nature of ritual is sacred. The rituals in this book speak to the experiences that we all share just by being born on this earth. We share the seasons of the year and the seasons of our lives. Built into these cycles are sacred lessons that you are here to experience--lessons of unity, creation, change, and release. The sacredness of a ritual allows your spirit to inhabit these lessons in a way that goes deeper than words; that is the blessing of ritual.

Offers instructions or "recipes" for creating new family rituals or traditions, in categories such as "holidays," "family festivities and ceremonies," and "rites of passage."

In the 1970s, the Thai state organized the Village Scout movement to counter communist insurgency. The movement was soon used to thwart growing demands for democratic reform, recruiting five million members to become the largest mass organization in Thai history, and, mobilized by the military-controlled media, helped topple a civilian government and restore military rule. This book bridges both the macro and micro levels of analysis to place the dynamics of a national political movement within a richly detailed account of its working at the village level.

This collection of rituals, practices, and exercises has been drawn from ancient sources, some have been preserved and some rituals have been updated by scholars from various pagan groups. This deluxe one-volume edition is specially designed to be read by candlelight.

This book explores the importance of ritual and ritual theory to discourses of authenticity and originality, thereby deepening our insight into concepts of cultural heritage, identity and nation in a globalised world. The volume is the first interdisciplinary attempt to understand the significance of rituals and related performative traditions in the creation of grounded cultural identities, ‘home’ and heritage as geographically experienceable locations. It assembles perspectives from social and cultural anthropology, performance studies, education and arts that can deal with the politics of revitalisation and preservation of ritualised traditions. While some chapters in this book emphasise on the ritualisation of cultural heritage by concentrating on power relations and politics, as well as actual processes of identification, especially for marginalised ethnic groups or migrant communities, others explore how rituals as intangible heritage are strategically employed by different groups all over the world to make their claims public and to improve and negotiate their position on a local, national or global platform. This book recognises ritualised performances as transnational and cross-cultural phenomena, which are not only tied to and defined via national territories and identities but which also demand new theoretical and methodological approaches towards the discussion of rituals and heritage.

"Written by the High Priestess and High Priest of Coven Oldenwilde, this book vividly describes their ten favorite Sabbat rituals, gatherings, and obsevances. They also teach: how to perform a full ritual in detail; circle etiquette and preparation; how to create an alter and use altar tools; scripts for covens and groups, spellwork, and more"--From back cover.