Rudi, Spiritual Cannibalism

Rudi, Spiritual Cannibalism PDF

Author: Swami Rudrananda

Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Rudra Press

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780915801077

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A unique effort to help those willing to fulfill their divine potential reach their goal. Beloved Swami Rudrananda outlines the concept of spiritual work, describes his life of disciplined yoga practices, puts into perspective the relationship of human beings to one another, and explores our basic need to grow--and the role played by the guru in fostering this development.

Divine Hunger

Divine Hunger PDF

Author: Peggy Reeves Sanday

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1986-07-25

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1316583279

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The practice of cannibalism is in certain cultures rejected as evil, while in others it plays a central part in the ritual order. Anthropologists have offered various explanations for the existence of cannibalism, none of which, Peggy Sanday claims, is adequate. In this book she presents a new approach to understanding the phenomenon. Through a detailed examination of ritual cannibalism in selected tribal societies, and a comparison of those cases with others in which the practice is absent, she shows that cannibalism is closely linked to people's orientation to the world, and that it serves as a concrete device for distinguishing the 'cultural self' from the 'natural other'. Combining perspectives drawn from the work of Ricoeur, Freud, Hegel, and Jung and from symbolic anthropology, Sanday argues that ritual cannibalism is intimately connected both with the constructs by which the origin and continuity of life are understood and assured from one generation to the next and with the way in which that understanding is used to control the vital forces considered necessary for the cannibalism in a culture derives from basic human attitudes toward life and death, combined with the realities of the material world. As well as making an original contribution to the understanding of the significant human practice, Sanday also develops a theoretical argument of wider relevance to anthropologists, sociologists, and other readers interested in the function and meaning of cannibalism.

A History of Cannibalism

A History of Cannibalism PDF

Author: Nathan Constantine

Publisher: Arcturus Publishing

Published: 2006-06-26

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 1848586132

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Desperation, duty and desire - the three primary motives for breaking what is the oldest taboo in the Western world, cannibalism. This book investigates all three and presents startling evidence that will challenge cultural and moral perceptions as never before. It explains how in some societies, 'duty' cannibalism has been integral to existence and viewed as both necessary and socially acceptable. If most people find such a concept difficult to comprehend, they might just be able to reserve judgement on those driven to eat companions out of sheer desperation in order to survive. But, by far the most disturbing of the three types is 'desire cannibalism', practiced by men such as Albert Fish and Ed Gein who ate human flesh simply because they wanted to. If the second type of cannibalism shows what we humans are capable of under extreme stress, this third gives a chilling insight into what some of us require for emotional and sexual gratification. A History of Cannibalism treats seriously, and with great erudition and understanding, a subject that causes many people to recoil in horror and disbelief. It examines the various - and sometime conflicting - motives, and assesses the background to many notorious cases. It offers no easy answers but a fascinating insight into the forces that lie deep within the human psyche.

Cannibalism in Literature and Film

Cannibalism in Literature and Film PDF

Author: J. Brown

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-11-14

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1137292121

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A comprehensive study of cannibalism in literature and film, spanning colonial fiction, Gothic texts and contemporary American horror. Amidst the sharp teeth and horrific appetite of the cannibal, this book examines real fears of over-consumerism and consumption that trouble an ever-growing modern world.

Columbus and Other Cannibals

Columbus and Other Cannibals PDF

Author: Jack D. Forbes

Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Published: 2011-01-04

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 1583229825

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Celebrated American Indian thinker Jack D. Forbes’s Columbus and Other Cannibals was one of the founding texts of the anticivilization movement when it was first published in 1978. His history of terrorism, genocide, and ecocide told from a Native American point of view has inspired America’s most influential activists for decades. Frighteningly, his radical critique of the modern "civilized" lifestyle is more relevant now than ever before. Identifying the Western compulsion to consume the earth as a sickness, Forbes writes: "Brutality knows no boundaries. Greed knows no limits. Perversion knows no borders. . . . These characteristics all push towards an extreme, always moving forward once the initial infection sets in. . . . This is the disease of the consuming of other creatures’ lives and possessions. I call it cannibalism." This updated edition includes a new chapter by the author.

Summoning the Powers Beyond

Summoning the Powers Beyond PDF

Author: Jay Dobbin

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2011-09-30

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 082486011X

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Summoning the Powers Beyond collects and reconstructs the old religions of preindustrial Micronesia. It draws mostly from written sources from the turn of the nineteenth century and the period immediately after World War II: reports of the Hamburg South Sea Expedition of 1908–1910, articles by German Roman Catholic missionaries in Micronesia included in the journal Anthropos, and reports by the Coordinated Investigation of Micronesian Anthropology (CIMA) and the American Board of Commissioners of the Foreign Missions (ABCFM). A detailed introduction and an overview of Micronesian religion are followed by separate chapters detailing religion in the Chuukic-speaking islands, Pohnpei, Kosrae, the Marshall Islands, Yap, Palau, Kiribati, and Nauru. The Chamorro-speaking group of the Marianas is omitted because lengthy periods of intense military and missionary activity eradicated most of the local religion. The Polynesian outliers Nukuoro and Kapingamarangi are discussed at the end primarily to underscore the contrasts between Polynesian and Micronesian religion. In a concluding chapter, the author highlights the similarities and differences between the areas within Micronesia and then attempts an appreciation or evaluation of Micronesia religion. Finally, he addresses the evidence of a tentative hypothesis that Micronesian religion is sufficiently different from that of Polynesia and Melanesia to justify the continued claim of a separate Micronesian religion.

Consuming Grief

Consuming Grief PDF

Author: Beth A. Conklin

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2001-07-15

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 0292712367

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Mourning the death of loved ones and recovering from their loss are universal human experiences, yet the grieving process is as different between cultures as it is among individuals. As late as the 1960s, the Wari' Indians of the western Amazonian rainforest ate the roasted flesh of their dead as an expression of compassion for the deceased and for his or her close relatives. By removing and transforming the corpse, which embodied ties between the living and the dead and was a focus of grief for the family of the deceased, Wari' death rites helped the bereaved kin accept their loss and go on with their lives. Drawing on the recollections of Wari' elders who participated in consuming the dead, this book presents one of the richest, most authoritative ethnographic accounts of funerary cannibalism ever recorded. Beth Conklin explores Wari' conceptions of person, body, and spirit, as well as indigenous understandings of memory and emotion, to explain why the Wari' felt that corpses must be destroyed and why they preferred cannibalism over cremation. Her findings challenge many commonly held beliefs about cannibalism and show why, in Wari' terms, it was considered the most honorable and compassionate way of treating the dead.