Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters

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Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824860713
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters by : Avron Boretz

Download or read book Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters written by Avron Boretz and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2010-10-31 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demon warrior puppets, sword-wielding Taoist priests, spirit mediums lacerating their bodies with spikes and blades—these are among the most dramatic images in Chinese religion. Usually linked to the propitiation of plague gods and the worship of popular military deities, such ritual practices have an obvious but previously unexamined kinship with the traditional Chinese martial arts. The long and durable history of martial arts iconography and ritual in Chinese religion suggests something far deeper than mere historical coincidence. Avron Boretz argues that martial arts gestures and movements are so deeply embedded in the ritual repertoire in part because they iconify masculine qualities of violence, aggressivity, and physical prowess, the implicit core of Chinese patriliny and patriarchy. At the same time, for actors and audience alike, martial arts gestures evoke the mythos of the jianghu, a shadowy, often violent realm of vagabonds, outlaws, and masters of martial and magic arts. Through the direct bodily practice of martial arts movement and creative rendering of jianghu narratives, martial ritual practitioners are able to identify and represent themselves, however briefly and incompletely, as men of prowess, a reward otherwise denied those confined to the lower limits of this deeply patriarchal society. Based on fieldwork in China and Taiwan spanning nearly two decades, Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters offers a thorough and original account of violent ritual and ritual violence in Chinese religion and society. Close-up, sensitive portrayals and the voices of ritual actors themselves—mostly working-class men, many of them members of sworn brotherhoods and gangs—convincingly link martial ritual practice to the lives and desires of men on the margins of Chinese society. This work is a significant contribution to the study of Chinese ritual and religion, the history and sociology of Chinese underworld, the history and anthropology of the martial arts, and the anthropology of masculinity.

Of Gods, Gifts and Ghosts

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429792778
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (297 download)

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Book Synopsis Of Gods, Gifts and Ghosts by : Terence Heng

Download or read book Of Gods, Gifts and Ghosts written by Terence Heng and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-02 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do individuals inscribe their spiritual identities and diasporic ethnicities in the city? Through a series of sociological and photographic essays, Terence Heng maps the various rituals, collectives, individuals and events that characterise Chinese religion practices in Singapore. From spirit mediums to the Hungry Ghost Festival, each chapter engages with the social, the spatial and the ephemeral, and in so doing it will explore the significance and relevance of Chinese religion in a secular nation-state; reveal the strategies and tactics used by diasporic individuals to perform and retain their identities; uncover the importance of flow and fluidity in the making of sacred space; and evidence the value and efficacy of the use of photographs in social research. Of Gods, Gifts and Ghosts is a ground-breaking exploration into the intersections between visual sociology, cultural geography and creative photographic practice. A visual monograph that gives equal importance to image and text, it interrogates the tensions between sacred and profane, official and unofficial, state and individual, physical and spiritual, peeling away the myriad layers of the spiritual imagination.

Hawaiian legends of Ghosts and Ghost-Gods

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Publisher : Library of Alexandria
ISBN 13 : 1465580956
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (655 download)

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Book Synopsis Hawaiian legends of Ghosts and Ghost-Gods by : William Drake Westervelt

Download or read book Hawaiian legends of Ghosts and Ghost-Gods written by William Drake Westervelt and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 1985-01-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes

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Author :
Publisher : Aviva Pub
ISBN 13 : 9781935586227
Total Pages : 251 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (862 download)

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Book Synopsis Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes by : Mark Hunnemann

Download or read book Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes written by Mark Hunnemann and published by Aviva Pub. This book was released on 2011-12 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Seeing Ghosts through God's Eyes" documents the explosive rise of interest in ghosts, and how this is affecting tens of millions of Americans concept of spirituality. Despite the fact that ghosts have become ensconced in our culture and contributed to the change in the spiritual landscape in the last few years, the church and media have taken a dismissive posture towards this issue. But the main focus of the book is to answer the question: do ghosts exist? Science,logic,and a biblical worldview are used to analyze this question-a unique methodology is employed which unearths evidence and issues never before discussed. Comprehensive and compelling new paranormal and scientific evidence that answers beyond a reasonable doubt the question of whether ghosts exist. The author proposes an empirically verifiable hypothesis which would PROVE his perspective on ghosts. Lastly, titanic issues are at stake in this debate.

For Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors

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Publisher : Hong Kong University Press
ISBN 13 : 9789622098275
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (982 download)

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Book Synopsis For Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors by : Janet Lee Scott

Download or read book For Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors written by Janet Lee Scott and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-01 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offerings of various kinds – food, incense, paper money and figures – have been central to Chinese culture for millennia, and as a public, visual display of spiritual belief, they are still evident today in China and in Chinatowns around the world. Using Hong Kong as a case study, Janet Scott looks at paper offerings from every conceivable angle – how they are made, sold, and used. Her comprehensive investigation touches on virtually every aspect of Chinese popular religion as it explores the many forms of these intricate objects, their manufacture, their significance, and their importance in rituals to honor gods, care for ancestors, and contend with ghosts. Throughout For Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors, paper offerings are presented as a vibrant and living tradition expressing worshippers' respect and gratitude for the gods, as well as love and concern for departed family members. Ranging from fake paper money to paper furniture, servant dolls, cigarettes, and toiletries – all multihued and artfully constructed – paper offerings are intended to provide for the needs of those in the spirit world. Readers are introduced to the variety of paper offerings and their uses in worship, in assisting worshippers with personal difficulties, and in rituals directed to gods, ghosts, and ancestors. We learn of the manufacture and sale of paper goods, life in paper shops, the training of those who make paper offerings, and the symbolic and artistic dimensions of the objects. Finally, the book considers the survival of this traditional craft, the importance of flexibility and innovation, and the role of compassion and filial piety in the use of paper offerings.

Needles, Herbs, Gods, and Ghosts

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Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674020545
Total Pages : 475 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Needles, Herbs, Gods, and Ghosts by : Linda L. BARNES

Download or read book Needles, Herbs, Gods, and Ghosts written by Linda L. BARNES and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When did the West discover Chinese healing traditions? Most people might point to the "rediscovery" of Chinese acupuncture in the 1970s. In Needles, Herbs, Gods, and Ghosts, Linda Barnes leads us back, instead, to the thirteenth century to uncover the story of the West's earliest known encounters with Chinese understandings of illness and healing. A medical anthropologist with a degree in comparative religion, Barnes illuminates the way constructions of medicine, religion, race, and the body informed Westerners' understanding of the Chinese and their healing traditions.

A Time of Lost Gods

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Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520972635
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis A Time of Lost Gods by : Emily Ng

Download or read book A Time of Lost Gods written by Emily Ng and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traversing visible and invisible realms, A Time of Lost Gods attends to profound rereadings of politics, religion, and madness in the cosmic accounts of spirit mediumship. Drawing on research across a temple, a psychiatric unit, and the home altars of spirit mediums in a rural county of China’s Central Plain, it asks: What ghostly forms emerge after the death of Mao and the so-called end of history? The story of religion in China since the market reforms of the late 1970s is often told through its destruction under Mao and relative flourishing thereafter. Here, those who engage in mediumship offer a different history of the present. They approach Mao’s reign not simply as an earthly secular rule, but an exceptional interval of divine sovereignty, after which the cosmos collapsed into chaos. Caught between a fading era and an ever-receding horizon, those “left behind” by labor outmigration refigure the evacuated hometown as an ethical-spiritual center to come, amidst a proliferation of madness-inducing spirits. Following pronouncements of China’s rise, and in the wake of what Chinese intellectuals termed semicolonialism, the stories here tell of spirit mediums, patients, and psychiatrists caught in a shared dilemma, in a time when gods have lost their way.

UFOs, Ghosts, and a Rising God

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Author :
Publisher : Reasonable Press
ISBN 13 : 9780981631318
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (313 download)

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Book Synopsis UFOs, Ghosts, and a Rising God by : Chris Hallquist

Download or read book UFOs, Ghosts, and a Rising God written by Chris Hallquist and published by Reasonable Press. This book was released on 2009-04 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Gods, Demons & Spirits

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Author :
Publisher : Jaico Publishing House
ISBN 13 : 8172242166
Total Pages : 350 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (722 download)

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Book Synopsis Gods, Demons & Spirits by : Dr. Abraham Kovoor

Download or read book Gods, Demons & Spirits written by Dr. Abraham Kovoor and published by Jaico Publishing House. This book was released on 2000-03-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gods, Demons and Spirits is a worthy successor to the bestseller BEGONE GODMEN. In it, Dr. Abraham Kovoor, the famed rationalist, continues his relentless crusade against charlatans and miraclemen with greater vigour. It is a scathing exposure of the conning methods employed by pseudo-gods, bogus gurus and assorted fakes to entrap their gullible victims.

Becoming Enlightened

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416565841
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Becoming Enlightened by : His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Download or read book Becoming Enlightened written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-12-22 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world's foremost Buddhist leader offers an accessible approach to relieving suffering and achieving peace. Full of personal reflections, "Becoming Enlightened" is an empowering book for people of all faiths.

God's Ghostbusters

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Publisher : Anomalos Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780983621652
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (216 download)

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Book Synopsis God's Ghostbusters by : Thomas Horn

Download or read book God's Ghostbusters written by Thomas Horn and published by Anomalos Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recently some 300 exorcists flocked to Poland for a week-long congress to examine the current fashion for vampirism the world-over and the apparent connection between this fascination and a surge in demonic possession. This comes as the world is experiencing an explosion of ancient occultism combined with wicked fascination for ghosts and all things paranormal. In the United States alone, there are now more than two hundred thousand registered witches and as many as 8 million unregistered practitioners of “the craft.” On college and high school campuses, vampires, werewolves, and other “creatures of the night” are esteemed as objects of desire and idolized by young men and women who view them as cult icons of envious mystical power. Church goers are enchanted by the darkness as well. An April 13, 2011 article “Mysticism Infecting Nazarene Beliefs” was preceded only a few days before by a Telegraph article describing how a “surge in Satanism” inside the church has sparked a “rise in demand for exorcists” within traditional religious settings.” Why is this happening now? God’s Ghostbusters provides shocking answers in this collaborative work by Gary Bates, Chuck Missler, Gary Stearman, Thomas Horn, Nita Horn, Russ Dizdar, Donna Howell, Derek Gilbert, Sharon Gilbert, Michael Hoggard, Noah Hutchings, Terry James, John McTernan, Jeff Patty, Fred DeRuvo, and Douglas Woodward.

The Japanese Myths

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Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 0500777349
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis The Japanese Myths by : Joshua Frydman

Download or read book The Japanese Myths written by Joshua Frydman and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2022-04-07 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a smart and succinct guide to the rich tradition of Japanese mythology, from the earliest recorded legends of Izanagi and Izanami, their divine offspring and the creation of Japan, to medieval tales of vengeful ghosts, through to the modern-day reincarnation of ancient deities as the heroes of mecha anime. While many around the world love Japans cultural exports, few are familiar with Japans unique mythology - enriched by Shinto, Buddhism and regional folklore. Mythology remains a living, evolving part of Japanese society, and the ways in which the people of Japan understand their myths are very different today even from a century ago, let alone over a millennium into the past. Offering much more than any competing overview of Japanese mythology, The Japanese Myths not only retells the ancient stories but also considers their place within the patterns of Japanese religions, culture and history, helping readers to understand the deep links between past and present in Japan, and the ways these myths live and grow. Joshua Frydman takes the very earliest written myths in the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki as his starting point, and from there traces Japans mythology through to post-war State Shinto, the rise of the manga industry in the 1960s, J-horror and modern-day myths. Reinventions and retellings of myth are present across all genres of contemporary Japanese culture, from its auteur cinema to renowned video games such as Okami. This book is for anyone interested in Japan, as knowing its myths allows readers to understand and appreciate its culture in a new light.

Gods, Ghosts, Witchcraft, and the Mind

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.X/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Gods, Ghosts, Witchcraft, and the Mind by : Si. Ār Candraśēkhar

Download or read book Gods, Ghosts, Witchcraft, and the Mind written by Si. Ār Candraśēkhar and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Ghost Hunter

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Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781537231464
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (314 download)

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Book Synopsis Ghost Hunter by : MARTIN J. BEST

Download or read book Ghost Hunter written by MARTIN J. BEST and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-07-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With its award winning cover, the third instalment in the ongoing Ghost Hunter series is a compelling and thought provoking supernatural thriller with a hard fantasy twist. Join Malachi, Teena, and Carolyn as they investigate a haunting that is anything but straightforward, and become embroiled in an increasingly desperate and dangerous struggle between opposing occultists for control of Camulos, the hitherto mythical Pagan God of Warfare. In the face of betrayal, fear, and mortal danger, they must find a way to prevail; or the consequences will be dire and far-reaching.

The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma and Ghosts

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Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 3110223562
Total Pages : 222 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma and Ghosts by : Stephen Feuchtwang

Download or read book The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma and Ghosts written by Stephen Feuchtwang and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2010-06-29 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been said that Chinese government was, until the republican period, government through li. Li is the untranslatable word covering appropriate conduct toward others, from the guest rituals of imperial diplomacy to the hospitality offered to guests in the homes of ordinary people. It also covers the centring of self in relation to the flows and objects in a landscape or a built environment, including the world beyond the spans of human and other lives. It is prevalent under the republican regimes of China and Taiwan in the forming and maintaining of personal relations, in the respect for ancestors, and especially in the continuing rituals of address to gods, of command to demons, and of charity to neglected souls. The concept of ‛religion’ does not grasp this, neither does the concept of ‛ritual’, yet li undoubtedly refers to a figuration of a universe and of place in the world as encompassing as any body of rite and magic or of any religion. Through studies of Chinese gods and ghosts this book challenges theories of religion based on a supreme god and that god’s prophets, as well as those like Hinduism based on mythical figures from epics, and offers another conception of humanity and the world, distinct from that conveyed by the rituals of other classical anthropological theories.

Gods of Fire and Thunder

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Publisher : JSS Literary Productions, LLC
ISBN 13 : 1937422216
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (374 download)

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Book Synopsis Gods of Fire and Thunder by : Fred Saberhagen

Download or read book Gods of Fire and Thunder written by Fred Saberhagen and published by JSS Literary Productions, LLC. This book was released on 2020-09-09 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Haraldur the northman once joined Jason on his fabled quest for the Golden Fleece, but now he wants nothing more to do with gods and adventure. Returning to his homeland for the first time in many years, he hopes only to settle down on a farm of his own—until he comes across an impenetrable wall of eldritch fire and a lovesick youth determined to breach the wall at any cost. Behind the towering flames, he is told, lies a beautiful Valkyrie trapped in an enchanted sleep, as well as, perhaps, a golden treasure beyond mortal reckoning. It is the gold that tempts Hal to agree, against his better judgment, to assist the youth in his quest. But to find a way past the fiery wall, they must first brave gnomes, ghosts, and the wrath of the gods themselves. For a mighty battle is brewing, and Hal soon finds himself caught up in a celestial conflict between Thor the Thunderer, Loki the Trickster, and most powerful of all, Wodan, the merciless Lord of Battles!

Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231526547
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts by : Zhongshu Qian

Download or read book Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts written by Zhongshu Qian and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-15 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Qian Zhongshu was one of twentieth-century China's most ingenious literary stylists, one whose insights into the ironies and travesties of modern China remain stunningly fresh. Between the early years of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and the Communist takeover in 1949, Qian wrote a brilliant series of short stories, essays, and a comedic novel that continue to inspire generations of Chinese readers. With this long-awaited translation, English-language readers can immerse themselves in the invention and satirical wit of one of the world's great literary cosmopolitans. This collection brings together Qian's best short works, combining his iconoclastic essays on the "book of life" from Written in the Margins of Life (1941) with the four masterful short stories of Human, Beast, Ghost (1946). His essays elucidate substantive issues through deceptively simple subjects-the significance of windows versus doors, for example, or the blind spots of literary critics and assert the primacy of critical and creative independence. His stories blur the boundaries between humans, beasts, and ghosts as they struggle through life, death, and resurrection. Christopher G. Rea situates these works within China's wartime politics and Qian's literary vision, highlighting significant changes that Qian Zhongshu made to different editions of his writings and providing unprecedented insight into the author's creative process.