Bones, behaviour and belief

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Molly H. Bassett

"Following their first contact in 1519, accounts of Aztecs identifying Spaniards as gods proliferated. But what exactly did the Aztecs mean by a 'god' (teotl), and how could human beings become gods or take on godlike properties? This sophisticated, interdisciplinary study analyzes three concepts that are foundational to Aztec religion--teotl (god), teixiptla (localized embodiment of a god), and tlaquimilolli (sacred bundles containing precious objects)--to shed new light on the Aztec understanding of how spiritual beings take on form and agency in the material world. In The fate of earthly things, Molly Bassett draws on ethnographic fieldwork, linguistic analyses, visual culture, and ritual studies to explore what ritual practices such as human sacrifice and the manufacture of deity embodiments (including humans who became gods), material effigies, and sacred bundles meant to the Aztecs. She analyzes the Aztec belief that wearing the flayed skin of a sacrificial victim during a sacred rite could transform a priest into an embodiment of a god or goddess, as well as how figurines and sacred bundles could become localized embodiments of gods. Without arguing for unbroken continuity between the Aztecs and modern speakers of Nahuatl, Bassett also describes contemporary rituals in which indigenous Mexicans who preserve costumbres (traditions) incorporate totiotzin (gods) made from paper into their daily lives. This research allows us to understand a religious imagination that found life in death and believed that deity embodiments became animate through the ritual binding of blood, skin, and bone"--

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Jean-Paul Sartre

The book, consisting of Sartre distancing himself from writing and making his farewells to literature was very successful for the author and was hailed nearly unanimously as a "literary success"[citation needed]. In November of the same year, 1964, he refused the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded for his work, described as "rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, [it] has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age."[3]

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Charles P. Hanson

In Necessary Virtue Charles P. Hanson explores the disruptive effects of the American Revolution on the religious culture of New England Protestantism. In this book, Hanson raises questions about difference, tolerance, and the role of religious belief in politics and government that help us see the American Revolution in a new light. Necessary Virtue is timely in pointing to the historical contingency and, perhaps, the fragility of the church-state separation that is very much a political and legal issue today.

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Stanley A. Freed, Ruth S. Freed

"Festivals are the most visible feature of village Hinduism. All common ritual practices are on display. The relationship of festivals to family life, the agricultural year, and to the everyday concerns of village people are clearly seen in offerings to deities, gifts exchanged between relatives, songs, drama, and storytelling. Festivals are the best point of entry into the study of Hinduism in ethnographic context."--BOOK JACKET. "In Hindu Festivals in a North Indian Village the authors describe each festival, tracing its relationship to other important village institutions, such as caste, kinship, and seasonal agricultural activities. Their analysis goes beyond the festivals as practiced in Shanti Nagar to include comparisons with practices in other villages and references to Indian and Hindu history, mythology, astronomy, and astrology. They note differential participation in festivals by caste, sect, age, and gender. The study covers a period of two decades. Although the festivals continued almost unchanged during this time, the authors point out the few discernible differences."--BOOK JACKET.