Comprehensive survey based on secondary sources; Discusses relationship to land; theories of totemism; taboo; asceticism; ritual; rites of passage; myth; missionary influence; pentecostalism; neo-traditionalism; conditions for cultural revitalisation.

A complete religious topography of a mid-sized Canadian city in the early twenty-first century, inspired by the Harvard Pluralism Project.

This book is meant to be used as a guide to help you realize what already exists within. It will shed Light where darkness may reside. It will assist you in revealing and awakening the wisdom and knowledge that you already possess in your soul. After all, wisdom cannot be taught; it can only be attained through the medium of knowledge and experience if transmuted correctly. You cannot learn wisdom; you may only reveal it. The following ideas and concepts are not meant to give you conclusions and answers about how the universe works; rather, they are meant to simply open your doors of thought for you to explore further and perceive the world in your own unique way. What will follow is a life in which you have complete control, a higher level of consciousness, and a stronger connection to your inner true self. Take your time and read each sentence carefully. Consider reading some chapters more than once, perhaps even multiple times. Allow your soul to digest the information it is receiving and the wisdom it is revealing. Where you take it is up to you!

In Reclaiming the Discarded Kathleen M. Millar offers an evocative ethnography of Jardim Gramacho, a sprawling garbage dump on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, where roughly two thousand self-employed workers known as catadores collect recyclable materials. While the figure of the scavenger sifting through garbage seems iconic of wageless life today, Millar shows how the work of reclaiming recyclables is more than a survival strategy or an informal labor practice. Rather, the stories of catadores show how this work is inseparable from conceptions of the good life and from human struggles to realize these visions within precarious conditions of urban poverty. By approaching the work of catadores as highly generative, Millar calls into question the category of informality, common conceptions of garbage, and the continued normativity of wage labor. In so doing, she illuminates how waste lies at the heart of relations of inequality and projects of social transformation.

Since its inception over two hundred years ago, Swaminarayan Hinduism has flourished into a transnational movement described as one of the fastest growing Hindu groups in the world. Despite being one of the largest and most visible Hindu traditions both in India and the West, surprisingly little is known about what the Swaminarayan fellowship believes. An Introduction to Swaminarayan Hindu Theology provides a comprehensive doctrinal account of the Swaminarayan tradition's belief system, drawing on its rich corpus of theological literature, including the teachings of Swaminarayan himself and classical commentaries on canonical Vedāntic texts. Part I delineates the sources and tools of Swaminarayan Hindu theology, while Part II systematically expounds upon its distinctive five eternal entities - Parabrahman, Akṣarabrahman, māyā, īśvara and jīva - and mukti (spiritual liberation). In presenting these key themes theologically and lucidly, Swami Paramtattvadas makes the Swaminarayan Hindu belief system intelligible to scholars, students and serious readers.

It is a story of man’s innate quest for the answers to life and the afterlife from the mists of time. It attempts to bring forth to the surface of our consciousness the questions of what happens after death. Do we feed the worms in the burial soil or is there an immortal soul that continues existence in the universe? Man’s historical experience are depicted from Egypt’s splendor of the Pyramids, the Grecian ancient lack of fear and their universal memory of a great land where early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness. The archaic patterns and energy blue prints of life can be found in the fourth dimension where this story begins.

A practical guide for invoking the power and blessings of Tara, the beloved female buddha of Tibet Known as "the female Buddha" in Tibet and India, Tara connects us to the archetypal Divine Feminine—an energetic force that exists within us and all around us, and has been available to all humans since our earliest origin. While there are many books on Tara, this practical guide shows us how those of any tradition can directly access her, through clear instruction and authentic Tibetan Buddhist teachings. Jungian analyst, scholar, and spiritual practitioner Dr. Rachael Wooten combines the ancient Tara tradition with depth psychology to help us connect with each of Tara's manifestations and access her blessings within ourselves and in the external world. In her myriad forms, Tara has the power to protect us from inner and outer negativity, illuminate our self-sabotaging habits, cleanse mental and physical poisons, address emotional trauma, open us to abundance, give us strength and peace, help us fulfill our life purposes, and more. Here, you will explore all 22 manifestations of Tara. Each chapter begins with an epigraph that captures the spiritual and psychological essence of the emanation, explains her purpose, and teaches you specific visualizations, praises, mantra chants, and other ways of invoking her presence in yourself and the world. "If ever the voice of wisdom and compassion was needed in the form of an awakened female figure such as Tara," writes Dr. Wooten, "that time is now." This book illuminates the way to her healing, blessings, and aid.

In the first book to systematically deal with Daoism (Taoism) from a rhetorical perspective, author Steven C. Combs advances the idea that the works of Daoist (Taoist) sages Laozi (Lao Tzu), Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), and Sunzi (Sun Tzu) can be fused into a coherent rhetorical genre, which can then form a methodology for rhetorical criticism. This notion of Daoist rhetoric enables critics to examine discourse from new vantage points with novel processes and concepts that honor the creativity and complexity of human communication. Combs also critically examines four contemporary films—The Tao of Steve, A Bug's Life, Antz, and Shrek—to amplify rhetorical Daoism, to indicate clear differences between Western and Daoist values, and to offer fresh perspectives on individuals and social action. The book argues that Daoism provides a lens for viewing limitations of current Western rhetorical theorizing, positioning Daoist rhetoric as a potent critical perspective in the contemporary, postmodern world.

This book closely examines texts from Chinese and Western traditions that hold up ethics as the inviolable ground of human existence, as well as those that regard ethics with suspicion. The negative notion of morality contends that because ethics cannot be divorced from questions of belonging and identity, there is a danger that it can be nudged into the domain of the unethical, since ethical virtues can become properties to be possessed with which the recognition of others is solicited. Ethics thus fosters the very egoism it hopes to transcend, and risks excluding the unfamiliar and the stranger. The author argues inspirationally that the unethical underbelly of ethics must be recognized in order to ensure that it remains vibrant.