Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods

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Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 050077045X
Total Pages : 355 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods by : David Lewis-Williams

Download or read book Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods written by David Lewis-Williams and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2005-10-01 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of how brain structure and cultural content interacted in the Neolithic period 10,000 years ago to produce unique life patterns and belief systems. What do the headless figures found in the famous paintings at Catalhoyuk in Turkey have in common with the monumental tombs at Newgrange and Knowth in Ireland? How can the concepts of "birth," "death," and "wild" cast light on the archaeological enigma of the domestication of cattle? What generated the revolutionary social change that ended the Upper Palaeolithic? David Lewis-Williams's previous book, The Mind in the Cave, dealt with the remarkable Upper Palaeolithic paintings, carvings, and engravings of western Europe. Here Dr. Lewis-Williams and David Pearce examine the intricate web of belief, myth, and society in the succeeding Neolithic period, arguably the most significant turning point in all human history, when agriculture became a way of life and the fractious society that we know today was born. The authors focus on two contrasting times and places: the beginnings in the Near East, with its mud-brick and stone houses each piled on top of the ruins of another, and western Europe, with its massive stone monuments more ancient than the Egyptian pyramids. They argue that neurological patterns hardwired into the brain help explain the art and society that Neolithic people produced. Drawing on the latest research, the authors skillfully link material on human consciousness, imagery, and religious concepts to propose provocative new theories about the causes of an ancient revolution in cosmology and the origins of social complexity. In doing so they create a fascinating neurological bridge to the mysterious thought-lives of the past and reveal the essence of a momentous period in human history. 100 illustrations, 20 in color.

Inside the Neolithic Mind

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (128 download)

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Book Synopsis Inside the Neolithic Mind by : J. David Lewis-Williams

Download or read book Inside the Neolithic Mind written by J. David Lewis-Williams and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Realms of the Gods

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1439132097
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis The Realms of the Gods by : Tamora Pierce

Download or read book The Realms of the Gods written by Tamora Pierce and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-12-08 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During a dire battle against the fearsome Skinners, Daine and her mage teacher Numair are swept into the Divine Realms. Though happy to be alive, they are not where they want to be. They are desperately needed back home, where their old enemy, Ozorne, and his army of strange creatures are waging war against Tortall. Trapped in the mystical realms Daine discovers her mysterious parentage. And as these secrets of her past are revealed so is the treacherous way back to Tortall. So they embark on an extraordinary journey home, where the fate of all Tortall rests with Daine and her wild magic.

Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushmen Rock Art

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Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 0500770468
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushmen Rock Art by : David Lewis-Williams

Download or read book Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushmen Rock Art written by David Lewis-Williams and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Goes to the heart of contemporary arguments about the "primitive" and the "modern" minds, and draws new social, anthropological, and ethnographic conclusions about the nature of ancient societies. How did ancient peoples—those living before written records—think? Were their thinking patterns fundamentally different from ours today? Researchers over the years have certainly believed so. Along with the Aborigines of Australia, the indigenous San people of southern Africa—among the last hunter-gatherer societies on Earth—became iconic representatives of all our distant ancestors and were viewed as either irrational fantasists or childlike, highly spiritual conservationists. Since the 1960s a new wave of research among the San and their world-famous rock art has overturned these misconceived ideas. Here, the great authority David Lewis-Williams and his colleague Sam Challis reveal how analysis of the rock paintings and engravings can be made to yield vital insights into San beliefs and ways of thought. This is possible because we possess comprehensive transcriptions, made in the nineteenth century, of interviews with San informants who were shown copies of the art and gave their interpretations of it. Using the analogy of the Rosetta Stone, the authors move back and forth between these San texts and the rock art, teasing out the subtle meanings behind both. The picture that emerges is very different from past analysis: this art is not a naive narrative of daily life but rather is imbued with power and religious depth.

Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

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Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 0500770441
Total Pages : 347 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art by : David Lewis-Williams

Download or read book Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art written by David Lewis-Williams and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2004-04-17 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The breathtakingly beautiful art created deep inside the caves of western Europe has the power to dazzle even the most jaded observers. Emerging from the narrow underground passages into the chambers of caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet, and Altamira, visitors are confronted with symbols, patterns, and depictions of bison, woolly mammoths, ibexes, and other animals. Since its discovery, cave art has provoked great curiosity about why it appeared when and where it did, how it was made, and what it meant to the communities that created it. David Lewis-Williams proposes that the explanation for this lies in the evolution of the human mind. Cro-Magnons, unlike the Neanderthals, possessed a more advanced neurological makeup that enabled them to experience shamanistic trances and vivid mental imagery. It became important for people to "fix," or paint, these images on cave walls, which they perceived as the membrane between their world and the spirit world from which the visions came. Over time, new social distinctions developed as individuals exploited their hallucinations for personal advancement, and the first truly modern society emerged. Illuminating glimpses into the ancient mind are skillfully interwoven here with the still-evolving story of modern-day cave discoveries and research. The Mind in the Cave is a superb piece of detective work, casting light on the darkest mysteries of our earliest ancestors while strengthening our wonder at their aesthetic achievements.

The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story (The Rediscovered Series)

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Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 0500771804
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story (The Rediscovered Series) by : Dimitra Papagianni

Download or read book The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story (The Rediscovered Series) written by Dimitra Papagianni and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2013-10-07 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Even-handed, up-to-date, and clearly written. . . . If you want to navigate between the Scylla and Charybdis of Neanderthal controversies, you’ll find no better guide.” —Brian Fagan, author of Cro-Magnon In recent years, the common perception of the Neanderthal has been transformed thanks to new discoveries and paradigm-shattering scientific innovations. It turns out that the Neanderthals’ behavior was surprisingly modern: they buried the dead, cared for the sick, hunted large animals in their prime, harvested seafood, and spoke. Meanwhile, advances in DNA technologies have forced a reassessment of the Neanderthals’ place in our own past. For hundreds of thousands of years, Neanderthals evolved in Europe very much in parallel to the Homo sapiens line evolving in Africa, and, when both species made their first forays into Asia, the Neanderthals may even have had the upper hand. Here, Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse look at the Neanderthals through the full dramatic arc of their existence—from their evolution in Europe to their expansion to Siberia, their subsequent extinction, and ultimately their revival in popular novels, cartoons, cult movies, and TV commercials.

Religion in the Emergence of Civilization

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139492179
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion in the Emergence of Civilization by : Ian Hodder

Download or read book Religion in the Emergence of Civilization written by Ian Hodder and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an interdisciplinary study of the role of spirituality and religious ritual in the emergence of complex societies. Involving an eminent group of natural scientists, archaeologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and theologians, this volume examines Çatalhöyük as a case study. A nine-thousand-year old town in central Turkey, Çatalhöyük was first excavated in the 1960s and has since become integral to understanding the symbolic and ritual worlds of the early farmers and village-dwellers in the Middle East. It is thus an ideal location for exploring theories about the role of religion in early settled life. This book provides a unique overview of current debates concerning religion and its historical variations. Through exploration of themes including the integration of the spiritual and the material, the role of belief in religion, the cognitive bases for religion, and religion's social roles, this book situates the results from Çatalhöyük within a broader understanding of the Neolithic in the Middle East.

Neolithic

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0415364132
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (153 download)

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Book Synopsis Neolithic by : Susan Foster McCarter

Download or read book Neolithic written by Susan Foster McCarter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This easy-to-read textbook introduces reader to the Neolithic era, the dawn of agriculture and the origins of modern culture. Lavishly illustrated, this enjoyable book is an ideal introduction for archaeology students and anyone interested in our past.

Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion

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Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 0500770433
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion by : David Lewis-Williams

Download or read book Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion written by David Lewis-Williams and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A controversial exploration of the origin of religion in the neurology of the human brain. In this book the noted cognitive archaeologist David Lewis-Williams confronts a question that troubles many people in the world today: Is there a supernatural realm that intervenes in the material world of daily life and leads to the evolution of religions? Professor Lewis-Williams first describes how science developed within the cocoon of religion and then shows how the natural functioning of the human brain creates experiences that can lead to belief in a supernatural realm, beings, and interventions. Once people have these experiences, they formulate beliefs about them, and thus creeds are born. Forty thousand years ago, people were leaving traces in the archaeological record of activities that we can label religious, and Lewis-Williams discusses in detail the evidence preserved in the Volp Caves in France. He also shows that mental imagery produced by the functioning of the human brain can be detected in widely separated religious communities such as Hildegard of Bingen’s in medieval Europe or the San hunters of southern Africa.

The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191666890
Total Pages : 1303 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe by : Chris Fowler

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe written by Chris Fowler and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 1303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neolithic --a period in which the first sedentary agrarian communities were established across much of Europe--has been a key topic of archaeological research for over a century. However, the variety of evidence across Europe, the range of languages in which research is carried out, and the way research traditions in different countries have developed makes it very difficult for both students and specialists to gain an overview of continent-wide trends. The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic --from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta --offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation. Chapters written by leading experts in the field examine topics such as the movement of plants, animals, ideas, and people (including recent trends in the application of genetics and isotope analyses); cultural change (from the first appearance of farming to the first metal artefacts); domestic architecture; subsistence; material culture; monuments; and burial and other treatments of the dead. In doing so, the volume also considers the history of research and sets out agendas and themes for future work in the field.

Religion at Work in a Neolithic Society

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107047331
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion at Work in a Neolithic Society by : Ian Hodder

Download or read book Religion at Work in a Neolithic Society written by Ian Hodder and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-10 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique collaboration between archaeologists and a range of specialists in ritual and religion, looking at the role of religion in early human societies.

The First Farmers of Europe

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108397301
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (83 download)

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Book Synopsis The First Farmers of Europe by : Stephen Shennan

Download or read book The First Farmers of Europe written by Stephen Shennan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-03 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knowledge of the origin and spread of farming has been revolutionised in recent years by the application of new scientific techniques, especially the analysis of ancient DNA from human genomes. In this book, Stephen Shennan presents the latest research on the spread of farming by archaeologists, geneticists and other archaeological scientists. He shows that it resulted from a population expansion from present-day Turkey. Using ideas from the disciplines of human behavioural ecology and cultural evolution, he explains how this process took place. The expansion was not the result of 'population pressure' but of the opportunities for increased fertility by colonising new regions that farming offered. The knowledge and resources for the farming 'niche' were passed on from parents to their children. However, Shennan demonstrates that the demographic patterns associated with the spread of farming resulted in population booms and busts, not continuous expansion.

Mesopotamia

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226067278
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (672 download)

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Book Synopsis Mesopotamia by : Jean Bottéro

Download or read book Mesopotamia written by Jean Bottéro and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1995-06-15 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our ancestors, the Mesopotamians, invented writing and with it a new way of looking at the world. In this collection of essays, the French scholar Jean Bottero attempts to go back to the moment which marks the very beginning of history. To give the reader some sense of how Mesopotamian civilization has been mediated and interpreted in its transmission through time, Bottero begins with an account of Assyriology, the discipline devoted to the ancient culture. This transmission, compounded with countless discoveries, would not have been possible without the surprising decipherment of the cuneiform writing system. Bottero also focuses on divination in the ancient world, contending that certain modes of worship in Mesopotamia, in their application of causality and proof, prefigure the "scientific mind."

Being and the Cosmos

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Publisher : Catholic University of America Press
ISBN 13 : 0813231175
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (132 download)

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Book Synopsis Being and the Cosmos by : Robert E. Wood

Download or read book Being and the Cosmos written by Robert E. Wood and published by Catholic University of America Press. This book was released on 2018-09-19 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Wood’s aim in Being and the Cosmos\i is to reestablish a speculative view of the cosmos that goes back to the ancient Greeks and that corresponds to the holism of contemporary physics. There are two sets of problems in contemporary thought that militate against any such attempt. Most widespread is scientific reductionism in biology and neuroscience that explains awareness in terms of the mechanisms that underlie it. The second is the widespread attack in philosophy itself on speculative holism by deconstruction and anti-foundationalism. In Being and the Cosmos\i, the tack against both is to make explicit the character of the mind that sees and thinks, that actively takes up commitment to the truth available in the disciplines involved. The basic ground of this position rests upon the functioning of the notion of Being that opens up the question of the character of the Whole and the human being’s place in it. Thus position the treatment of the notion of Being as foundation and as orientation toward the Whole between the attack on reductionism and on deconstruction and anti-foundationalism. Wood concludes with a multidimensional sketch of an evolutionary view of the cosmos whose initial phases contain the potentialities for life, sensibility, and intellect as cosmic telos. The holism of contemporary physics has to be reconfigured in terms of this observation. Both reductionists and dualists should know that matter itself has to be re-minded and that mind itself matters.

Warfare in Neolithic Europe

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Publisher : Pen and Sword
ISBN 13 : 1473879876
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (738 download)

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Book Synopsis Warfare in Neolithic Europe by : Julian Maxwell Heath

Download or read book Warfare in Neolithic Europe written by Julian Maxwell Heath and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-07-31 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neolithic ('New Stone Age') marks the time when the prehistoric communities of Europe turned their backs on the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that they had followed for many thousands of years, and instead, became farmers. The significance of this switch from a lifestyle that had been based on the hunting and gathering of wild food resources, to one that involved the growing of crops and raising livestock, cannot be underestimated. Although it was a complex process that varied from place to place, there can be little doubt that it was during the Neolithic that the foundations for the incredibly complex modern societies in which we live today were laid. However, we would be wrong to think that the first farming communities of Europe were in tune with nature and each other, as there is a considerable (and growing) body of archaeological data that is indicative of episodes of warfare between these communities. This evidence should not be taken as proof that warfare was endemic across Neolithic Europe, but it does strongly suggest that it was more common than some scholars have proposed.Furthermore, the words of the seventeenth-century English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, who famously described prehistoric life as 'nasty, brutish, and short', seem rather apt in light of some of the archaeological discoveries from the European Neolithic.

Neolithic Britain

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198823894
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis Neolithic Britain by : Keith W. Ray

Download or read book Neolithic Britain written by Keith W. Ray and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neolithic Britain is an up to date, concise introduction to the period of British prehistory from c. 4000-2200 BCE, covering key material and social developments, and reflecting on the nature of cultural practices, tradition, genealogy, and society across nearly two millennia.

Way of the Bushman

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1591437849
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (914 download)

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Book Synopsis Way of the Bushman by : Bradford Keeney

Download or read book Way of the Bushman written by Bradford Keeney and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-05-29 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive presentation of the core teachings of the Kalahari Bushmen as told by the Tribal Elders • Reveals how the Bushmen are able to receive direct transmissions of God’s love for healing and spiritual transformation • Explores tribal legends and teaching tales, the importance of dreams and animals, and the origins of their dances, rituals, and ceremonies Step into the imaginative realm of one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth, the Kalahari Ju/’hoansi Bushmen. Translated by Beesa Boo, a Bushman, and interspersed with detailed commentary from Bradford and Hillary Keeney, this book presents the core teachings of the Kalahari Bushmen as told by the tribal elders themselves. Decades in the making, it constitutes the first comprehensive work on the world’s oldest tradition of healing and spiritual experience. Told in their own words, these teachings reveal how the Bushmen are able to receive direct transmissions of God’s love in the form of the universal life force, n/om. The individuals who are filled with this force describe it as an awakened, energized feeling of love that inspires a spontaneous and heightened ecstatic awareness that opens mystical perception. Having your heart transfixed by this force enables true healing and spiritual growth to occur. Experiencing the force in your entire being, through a vision of “God’s egg”, awakens deep spiritual wisdom and extraordinary healing gifts. Those who “own the egg” are blessed with the ability to have direct communication with the Divine, a “rope to God,” and can communicate with others for all “ropes” are connected. Conveying the deep love that is the dominant emotion of Bushman spirituality, the book explores tribal legends and teaching tales, the importance of dreams and encounters with animals, the origins of their dances, such as the giraffe dance, and specific rituals and ceremonies, including puberty rites for boys and girls. “As the elder teachers of the Ju’/hoan Bushman (San) people, we hold the most enduring traditional wisdom concerning healing and spiritual experience. This book is a testimony of our ecstatic ways. We happily share our basic teachings about spirituality and healing with those whose hearts are sincerely open.”