A Cognitive Theory Of Magic

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A Cognitive Theory of Magic

Author : Jesper Sørensen
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
ISBN 13 : 9780759110403
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis A Cognitive Theory of Magic by : Jesper Sørensen

Download or read book A Cognitive Theory of Magic written by Jesper Sørensen and published by Rowman Altamira. This book was released on 2007 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magic is a universal phenomenon. Everywhere we look people perform ritual actions in which desirable qualities are transferred by means of physical contact and objects or persons are manipulated by things of their likeness. In this book S rensen embraces a cognitive perspective in order to investigate this long-established but controversial topic. Following a critique of the traditional approaches to magic, and basing his claims on classical ethnographic cases, the author explains magic's universality by examining a number of recurrent cognitive processes underlying its different manifestations. He focuses on how power is infused into the ritual practice; how representations of contagion and similarity can be used to connect otherwise distinct objects in order to manipulate one by the other; and how the performance of ritual prompts representations of magical actions as effective. Bringing these features together, the author proposes a cognitive theory of how people can represent magical rituals as purposeful actions and how ritual actions are integrated into more complex representations of events. This explanation, in turn, yields new insights into the constitutive role of magic in the formation of institutionalised religious ritual.

Experiencing the Impossible

Author : Gustav Kuhn
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 026203946X
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Experiencing the Impossible by : Gustav Kuhn

Download or read book Experiencing the Impossible written by Gustav Kuhn and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the scientific study of magic reveals intriguing—and often unsettling—insights into the mysteries of the human mind. What do we see when we watch a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat or read a person's mind? We are captivated by an illusion; we applaud the fact that we have been fooled. Why do we enjoy experiencing what seems clearly impossible, or at least beyond our powers of explanation? In Experiencing the Impossible, Gustav Kuhn examines the psychological processes that underpin our experience of magic. Kuhn, a psychologist and a magician, reveals the intriguing—and often unsettling—insights into the human mind that the scientific study of magic provides.Magic, Kuhn explains, creates a cognitive conflict between what we believe to be true (for example, a rabbit could not be in that hat) and what we experience (a rabbit has just come out of that hat!). Drawing on the latest psychological, neurological, and philosophical research, he suggests that misdirection is at the heart of all magic tricks, and he offers a scientific theory of misdirection. He explores, among other topics, our propensity for magical thinking, the malleability of our perceptual experiences, forgetting and misremembering, free will and mind control, and how magic is applied outside entertaiment—the use of illusion in human-computer interaction, politics, warfare, and elsewhere. We may be surprised to learn how little of the world we actually perceive, how little we can trust what we see and remember, and how little we are in charge of our thoughts and actions. Exploring magic, Kuhn illuminates the complex—and almost magical—mechanisms underlying our daily activities.

Sound and Communication

Author : Annette Wilke
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 3110240033
Total Pages : 1137 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis Sound and Communication by : Annette Wilke

Download or read book Sound and Communication written by Annette Wilke and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-01-28 with total page 1137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Hindu India both orality and sonality have enjoyed great cultural significance since earliest times. They have a distinct influence on how people approach texts. The importance of sound and its perception has led to rites, models of cosmic order, and abstract formulas. Sound serves both to stimulate religious feelings and to give them a sensory form. Starting from the perception and interpretation of sound, the authors chart an unorthodox cultural history of India, turning their attention to an important, but often neglected aspect of daily religious life. They provide a stimulating contribution to the study of cultural systems of perception that also adds new aspects to the debate on orality and literality.

Stolen Lightning

Author : Daniel Lawrence O'Keefe
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 9780394716343
Total Pages : 598 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (163 download)

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Book Synopsis Stolen Lightning by : Daniel Lawrence O'Keefe

Download or read book Stolen Lightning written by Daniel Lawrence O'Keefe and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1983 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interdisciplinary investigation of the role of magic in human societies, past and present, asserts that magic remains an important element in contemporary civilizations

Functions of Psalms and Prayers in the Late Second Temple Period

Author : Mika S. Pajunen
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110449269
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Functions of Psalms and Prayers in the Late Second Temple Period by : Mika S. Pajunen

Download or read book Functions of Psalms and Prayers in the Late Second Temple Period written by Mika S. Pajunen and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-07-24 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When thinking about psalms and prayers in the Second Temple period, the Masoretic Psalter and its reception is often given priority because of modern academic or theological interests. This emphasis tends to skew our understanding of the corpus we call psalms and prayers and often dampens or mutes the lived context within which these texts were composed and used. This volume is comprised of a collection of articles that explore the diverse settings in which psalms and prayers were used and circulated in the late Second Temple period. The book includes essays by experts in the Hebrew bible, the Dead Sea scrolls, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, and the New Testament, in which a wide variety of topics, approaches, and methods both old and new are utilized to explore the many functions of psalms and prayers in the late Second Temple period. Included in this volume are essays examining how psalms were read as prophecy, as history, as liturgy, and as literature. A variety methodologies are employed, and include the use of cognitive sciences and poetics, linguistic theory, psychology, redaction criticism, and literary theory.

Mind, Morality and Magic

Author : Istvan Czachesz
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317544404
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Mind, Morality and Magic by : Istvan Czachesz

Download or read book Mind, Morality and Magic written by Istvan Czachesz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The cognitive science of religion that has emerged over the last twenty years is a multidisciplinary field that often challenges established theories in anthropology and comparative religion. This new approach raises many questions for biblical studies as well. What are the cross-cultural cognitive mechanisms which explain the transmission of biblical texts? How did the local and particular cultural traditions of ancient Israel and early Christianity develop? What does the embodied and socially embedded nature of the human mind imply for the exegesis of biblical texts? "Mind, Morality and Magic" draws on a range of approaches to the study of the human mind - including memory studies, computer modeling, cognitive theories of ritual, social cognition, evolutionary psychology, biology of emotions, and research on religious experience. The volume explores how cognitive approaches to religion can shed light on classical concerns in biblical scholarship - such as the transmission of traditions, ritual and magic, and ethics - as well as uncover new questions and offer new methodologies.

Magic in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean

Author : Nina Nikki
Publisher : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
ISBN 13 : 364752218X
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (475 download)

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Book Synopsis Magic in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean by : Nina Nikki

Download or read book Magic in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean written by Nina Nikki and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. This book was released on 2020-12-14 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magic in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean: Cognitive, Historical, and Material Perspectives brings together articles with the shared conviction that the category of magic remains useful in religious studies and provides new insights to biblical and related texts and artifacts. Historically, magic has been considered in both scholarly and popular discourse to be questionable, obscure, and potentially subversive. 19th century scholars of religion viewed magical beliefs and practices as primitive and inferior compared to Judeo-Christian forms of worship, which were considered true "religion". More recently, the category has been defended especially by scholars of the cognitive science of religion, who find it useful for delineating a set of beliefs and practices fundamental to all forms of religion. The volume joins current scholarship in refraining from using the concept as an othering device and in arguing that it can still serve as a helpful analytical tool. In addition to analyzing the discourse on magic in both ancient literature and modern scholarship, the articles provide individual examples of how literary and material culture attest to the existence of magical beliefs and practices in sources from the Ancient Near East to the Byzantine Period. The book is divided into three parts. The contributions in the first part approach magic from the theoretical perspective of cognitive studies, ritual studies, and cultural evolution, while the rest of the book focuses on how magic and magicians are understood in ancient sources. The second part discusses a specific set of textual material dealing with blessings and curses. The third part of the volume discusses the world of various destructive celestial beings, from which one and one's loved ones had to be defended, as well as the multitude of protective beings such as angels.

The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual

Author : Risto Uro
Publisher : Oxford Handbooks
ISBN 13 : 019874787X
Total Pages : 753 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual by : Risto Uro

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual written by Risto Uro and published by Oxford Handbooks. This book was released on 2019 with total page 753 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars of religion have long assumed that ritual and belief constitute the fundamental building blocks of religious traditions and that these two components of religion are interrelated and interdependent in significant ways. Generations of New Testament and Early Christian scholars have produced detailed analyses of the belief systems of nascent Christian communities, including their ideological and political dimensions, but have by and large ignored ritual as an important element of early Christian religion and as a factor contributing to the rise and the organization of the movement. In recent years, however, scholars of early Christianity have begun to use ritual as an analytical tool for describing and explaining Christian origins and the early history of the movement. Such a development has created a momentum toward producing a more comprehensive volume on the ritual world of Early Christianity employing advances made in the field of ritual studies. The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual gives a manifold account of the ritual world of early Christianity from the beginning of the movement up to the end of the fifth century. The volume introduces relevant theories and approaches; central topics of ritual life in the cultural world of early Christianity; and important Christian ritual themes and practices in emerging Christian groups and factions.

Theoretical and Empirical Investigations of Divination and Magic

Author : Jesper Sørensen
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 900444758X
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Theoretical and Empirical Investigations of Divination and Magic by : Jesper Sørensen

Download or read book Theoretical and Empirical Investigations of Divination and Magic written by Jesper Sørensen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-05-03 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Theoretical and Empirical Investigations of Divination and Magic ten leading scholars of religion provide up-to-date investigations into these classic domains from historical, anthropological, cognitive, philosophical and theoretical perspectives.

Savage Theory

Author : Rachel O. Moore
Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780822323884
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (238 download)

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Book Synopsis Savage Theory by : Rachel O. Moore

Download or read book Savage Theory written by Rachel O. Moore and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ambitious and original work which uses early film theory, anthropological insights, and avant--garde film to explore the relation of cinema to ritual healing.

A General Theory of Magic

Author : Marcel Mauss
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113452224X
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (345 download)

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Book Synopsis A General Theory of Magic by : Marcel Mauss

Download or read book A General Theory of Magic written by Marcel Mauss and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-07-05 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First written by Marcel Mauss and Henri Humbert in 1902, A General Theory of Magic gained a wide new readership when republished by Mauss in 1950. As a study of magic in 'primitive' societies and its survival today in our thoughts and social actions, it represents what Claude Lévi-Strauss called, in an introduction to that edition, the astonishing modernity of the mind of one of the century's greatest thinkers. The book offers a fascinating snapshot of magic throughout various cultures as well as deep sociological and religious insights still very much relevant today. At a period when art, magic and science appear to be crossing paths once again, A General Theory of Magic presents itself as a classic for our times.

Textual, Comparative, Sociological, and Cognitive Approaches

Author : Peter Antes
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 3110211718
Total Pages : 505 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis Textual, Comparative, Sociological, and Cognitive Approaches by : Peter Antes

Download or read book Textual, Comparative, Sociological, and Cognitive Approaches written by Peter Antes and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2008-12-19 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its founding by Jacques Waardenburg in 1971, Religion and Reason has been a leading forum for contributions on theories, theoretical issues and agendas related to the phenomenon and the study of religion. Topics include (among others) category formation, comparison, ethnophilosophy, hermeneutics, methodology, myth, phenomenology, philosophy of science, scientific atheism, structuralism, and theories of religion. From time to time the series publishes volumes that map the state of the art and the history of the discipline.

Defining Magic

Author : Bernd-Christian Otto
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317545044
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Defining Magic by : Bernd-Christian Otto

Download or read book Defining Magic written by Bernd-Christian Otto and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magic has been an important term in Western history and continues to be an essential topic in the modern academic study of religion, anthropology, sociology, and cultural history. Defining Magic is the first volume to assemble key texts that aim at determining the nature of magic, establish its boundaries and key features, and explain its working. The reader brings together seminal writings from antiquity to today. The texts have been selected on the strength of their success in defining magic as a category, their impact on future scholarship, and their originality. The writings are divided into chronological sections and each essay is separately introduced for student readers. Together, these texts - from Philosophy, Theology, Religious Studies, and Anthropology - reveal the breadth of critical approaches and responses to defining what is magic. CONTRIBUTORS: Aquinas, Augustine, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Dennis Diderot, Emile Durkheim, Edward Evans-Pritchard, James Frazer, Susan Greenwood, Robin Horton, Edmund Leach, Gerardus van der Leeuw, Christopher Lehrich, Bronislaw Malinowski, Marcel Mauss, Agrippa von Nettesheim, Plato, Pliny, Plotin, Isidore of Sevilla, Jesper Sorensen, Kimberley Stratton, Randall Styers, Edward Tylor

The Routledge History of Medieval Magic

Author : Sophie Page
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317042751
Total Pages : 550 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis The Routledge History of Medieval Magic by : Sophie Page

Download or read book The Routledge History of Medieval Magic written by Sophie Page and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge History of Medieval Magic brings together the work of scholars from across Europe and North America to provide extensive insights into recent developments in the study of medieval magic between c.1100 and c.1500. This book covers a wide range of topics, including the magical texts which circulated in medieval Europe, the attitudes of intellectuals and churchmen to magic, the ways in which magic intersected with other aspects of medieval culture, and the early witch trials of the fifteenth century. In doing so, it offers the reader a detailed look at the impact that magic had within medieval society, such as its relationship to gender roles, natural philosophy, and courtly culture. This is furthered by the book’s interdisciplinary approach, containing chapters dedicated to archaeology, literature, music, and visual culture, as well as texts and manuscripts. The Routledge History of Medieval Magic also outlines how research on this subject could develop in the future, highlighting under-explored subjects, unpublished sources, and new approaches to the topic. It is the ideal book for both established scholars and students of medieval magic.

Magical Consciousness

Author : Susan Greenwood
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317517202
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Magical Consciousness by : Susan Greenwood

Download or read book Magical Consciousness written by Susan Greenwood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does a mind think magically? The research documented in this book is one answer that allows the disciplines of anthropology and neurobiology to come together to reveal a largely hidden dynamic of magic. Magic gets to the very heart of some theoretical and methodological difficulties encountered in the social and natural sciences, especially to do with issues of rationality. This book examines magic head-on, not through its instrumental aspects but as an orientation of consciousness. Magical consciousness is affective, associative and synchronistic, shaped through individual experience within a particular environment. This work focuses on an in-depth case study using the anthropologist’s own experience gained through years of anthropological fieldwork with British practitioners of magic. As an ethnographic view, it is an intimate study of the way in which the cognitive architecture of a mind engages the emotions and imagination in a pattern of meanings related to childhood experiences, spiritual communications and the environment. Although the detail of the involvement in magical consciousness presented here is necessarily specific, the central tenets of modus operandi is common to magical thought in general, and can be applied to cross-cultural analyses to increase understanding of this ubiquitous human phenomenon.

Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices

Author : Christian H. Bull
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004212078
Total Pages : 561 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices by : Christian H. Bull

Download or read book Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices written by Christian H. Bull and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-10-28 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a wide array of sources, this anthology sets out to analyze the concepts of mystery and secrecy that occur in the ritual and rhetoric of antique Mediterranean religion, with an emphasis on Gnosticism, Christianity, and Paganism.

Evolution, Cognition, and the History of Religion: A New Synthesis

Author : Anders Klostergaard Petersen
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004385371
Total Pages : 702 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (43 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolution, Cognition, and the History of Religion: A New Synthesis by : Anders Klostergaard Petersen

Download or read book Evolution, Cognition, and the History of Religion: A New Synthesis written by Anders Klostergaard Petersen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 702 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution, Cognition, and the History of Religion: A New Synthesis comprises 41 chapters that push for a new way of conducting the study of religion, thereby, transforming the discipline into a genuine science of religion. The recent resurgence of evolutionary approaches on culture and the increasing acknowledgement in the natural and social sciences of culture’s and religion’s evolutionary importance calls for a novel epistemological and theoretical framework for studying these two areas. The chapters explore how a new scholarly synthesis, founded on the triadic space constituted by evolution, cognition, cultural and ecological environment, may develop. Different perspectives and themes relating to this overarching topic are taken up with a main focus on either evolution, cognition, and/or the history of religion.