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Food Rules and Rituals includes selected papers from the 2023 Oxford Food Symposium. Grounded in a number of different disciplines, writers from around the globe consider how rules and rituals structure the experiences and meanings of consuming foods in a wide variety of contexts.

The Art of Cookery is the only book of its kind to have come out of an English religious community. It is also that very rare thing, a cookery book of the English 18th-century that has the author's own recipes throughout; nothing seems to have been plagiarized or borrowed from other writers. The Dean of Durham Cathedral, who employed the author, had a lavish grant for entertaining and his generous hospitality meant that his cook had to cater for all levels of society, from canons of the Cathedral with sophisticated tastes such as the gourmand Dr. Jacque Sterne, to tradesmen, poor widows, and those of even more modest status. Thacker's book keeps many pre-Reformation recipes and thus shows the gradual transition in the Cathedral's eating habits. This facsimilie is introduced by the well-known food historian Ivan Day who examines the recipes and reveals the remarkable tradition of ecclesiastical hospitality that survived at Durham for more than eight hundred years.

Given the continued challenges that face the higher education job market in the Humanities in North America, this multi authored volume offers (i) a critical assessment of the current situation of Humanities doctoral students, early career scholars, and those now working in doctoral degree-granting institutions in the U.S. along with (ii) concrete proposals for a way forward. In turn, these proposals (iii) are the starting point for constructive reflections by faculty now working in leading American doctoral programs. The aim for the volume is therefore to initiate and then move forward a conversation among future, current, and recent graduate students as well as those who train them concerning the content, process, and purpose of acquiring advanced research skills in the early twenty-first century university. For this is a time when most everyone in higher ed. knows that a decreasing few who earn these degrees will ever attain work as tenured faculty members while an ever increasing number will, instead, end up either in perpetually insecure contingent faculty positions or, for a variety of reasons, will opt to seek careers outside academia, where the explicit relevance of their training is, at least at present, uncertain and uncharted. The volume asks what the role of these students' faculty, supervisors, degree programs, and Departments ought to be in helping them-and thereby helping these doctoral programs themselves, along with their affiliated faculty-to excel in an economic, and sometimes political, environment that is often not kind to scholarship in the Humanities.

Ray Brown: His Life and Music is the first full-length biography of Ray Brown, one of the most outstanding practitioners of bass playing in jazz music. Brown's career spans the most popular and creative eras of jazz, from 1940 to the dawn of the 21st century. During his early professional career, Ray Brown first toured with territory bands, and by 1946, he was hired by Dizzy Gillespie to play in his small group and big band. At this time, Brown became the first call New York bassist to accompany other bop musicians like Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. He also served as the bassist with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic and frequently recorded with an impressive stable of jazz musicians. In 1947 Ray Brown married legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald and soon divided his time by working as the leader of Fitzgerald's trio while playing with Gillespie, Jazz at the Philharmonic, and as a guest accompanist. After first playing together at Carnegie Hall in 1949, Ray Brown began regularly working with Canadian piano sensation Oscar Peterson until 1965. The Peterson Trio would become one of the most lucrative acts in jazz history. After leaving Peterson, Ray Brown worked as a Los Angeles studio musician and played on numerous commercial recordings but never abandoned swing-based jazz. During these years, he also became involved as a manager, promoter, and teacher. Throughout the mid-1970s until he died in 2002, Ray Brown remained one of the most excellent practitioners of mainstream jazz during a time when some elements of the music moved far away from this style. With so many jazz musicians from his generation succumbing to drugs and tragedy, Ray Brown's longevity and professionalism are a testament to his talents, intelligence, and professionalism.

Pagan Religions in Five Minutes provides an accessible set of essays on questions relating to Pagan identities and practices, both historically and in contemporary societies as well as informative essays on different Pagan groups, such as Druidry, Wicca, Heathenry and others. The book includes answers to a range of questions such as: How many Pagans are there? What do Pagans believe? Is Paganism a real religion or is it just made-up? Is Satanism a type of Paganism? Do all Pagans celebrate the solstices? Why is it written "Pagan" and other times "pagan"? Do they have sacred texts? Is Druidry the indigenous religion of Europe? What does the pentagram symbol mean? Can anyone be a witch? Are Pagans anti-Christian? The book also covers issues with terminology, including the labelling of ancient, non-Western and indigenous groups as 'pagan', common assumptions and misconceptions about Pagans, and more. Each essay is by a leading scholar in the field, offering clear and concise answers along with suggestions for further reading. The book is ideal for both the curious and as an entry book for classroom use and studying Paganism. Because each chapter can be read in about five minutes, the books offer ideal supplementary resources in classrooms or an engaging read for those curious about the world around them.

Creative arts professions (music, media, and performance) remain in a period of flux. As the music industry and related fields adapt to changing business models, student interest in training for a career in the entertainment sector continues to rise. Though the expansion of global degree offerings in the creative industries expands each year, a "state of the field" on educational and pedagogical issues in the music business and the creative industries has yet to be created. Creative arts research encompasses a broad range of sectors in the music and entertainment industries; among these subfields include performance, technology, entrepreneurship, marketing, and social justice. Globally, formal training for such pathways happens most often in higher education.The Handbook provides a practical and engaging resource for faculty, staff, administrators, graduate students, and industry members working on the "front lines" in teaching and learning. It presents a wide range of global perspectives from academics, BIPOC voices, and ECRs from the United States, the UK, Europe, Australia, and Canada. Another factor that affects HE stakeholders is the absence of a versatile resource on the teaching and learning issues in music business and related fields. While The Handbook avoids overly prescriptive models of teaching and learning, the volume includes topical research through case studies, ethnographies, and a thorough cross-section of qualitative and quantitative methods. Such a resource may be germane particularly to educators transitioning from industry to faculty appointments in HE. Authors are encouraged to draw from their expertise and use narrative analysis to support their perspectives.

Skyscape Archaeology, only recognised as such in 2014, as a method of investigating the connections between the ground and the sky, brought archaeology and archaeoastronomy closer together, while imbuing the latter with the diverse and up-to date set of methodologies and theoretical frameworks that characterise modern archaeology and anthropology. Although several important strides still need to be made in order to fully bridge the interdisciplinary gap, the approach of skyscape archaeologists has proven successful, with the skyscape being increasingly recognised by archaeologists at large as an important component of any research project that tries to understand the lifeworlds of past societies. This volume commemorates the tenth anniversary of Skyscape Archaeology by assembling a series of papers (collected from the volumes of the Journal of Skyscape Archaeology) that demonstrate the theoretical and methodological breadth, as well as the socio-cultural depth of interpretation, that define this new wave of archaeoastronomy. It serves not only as a celebration of research accomplished over the last decade, but also as a testament to what skyscape research can look like.

The unexpected re-discovery and the ensuing excavation of the African Burial Ground - known in the 18th century as the "Negro Burial Ground" - lifted the lid on the early history of African presence in this part of the United States East Coast. The African Burial Ground Memorial is today one of the land-mark managed by the National Park Service, as a tribute to these men, women, and children, enslaved to build the wealth of that extraordinary and vibrant metropolis. The author of Archaeology of Urban Bondage has been part of the African Burial research project from its beginning in 1993 to its end in 2006 and this volume is the only comprehensive presentation of this unique project in its multidisciplinary dimension. It looks at the enslavement of Africans in the Atlantic world from their origins in Africa, their life and death in New Amsterdam-New York in the 17th-18th East coast, relying on history, archaeology, and bio-anthropology. The argumentation is rigorously fact-based and inferences data driven. The archaeology and history of the African presence in northeast United States are not limited to a European-African face to face. The genesis of the "Negro Burial Ground" is the result of different strands of history. Some issues, like the location of the African burial ground, generally taken for granted as starting point, are problematized in this book. Important questions as "why is the African burial ground located where it was?", "how was the cemetery built up?", "what are the key patterns of the buried population?", "can agency and intentionality be discerned in the archaeological record at hand?", are framed and addressed. Organized in two parts and framed from the "Global Africa" theoretical perspective, the book weaves data from history, archaeology, and biological anthropology to craft an integrated narrative on the deceased buried in the African Burial Ground.

Based on ethnographic research among contemporary Pagan communities in Southern Italy (Salento, Apulia), The Spider Dance challenges (uni)linear ideas and experiences of time and temporality by showing the interconnectedness of alternative historicities, healing, and place-making among persons engaged in reviving, continuing, or re-creating traditional Pagan practices. The Spider Dance looks at local Pagans and at their ritual practice and interpretation of the traditional dance and music called pizzica. Pizzica is associated with tarantismo, a phenomenon present in that area for hundreds of years and attested until the second half of the XX century. Affecting mostly (but not only) women, tarantismo has been described in the form of malaise and physical suffering thought to be provoked by the bite of tarantula spiders and cured with pizzica music and dance. At the turn of the century tarantismo disappeared and new forms, called neotarantismi, emerged. The Spider Dance describes a novel "spiritual" form of neotarantismo and highlights its connections with contemporary forms of magic and healing. The relevance of The Spider Dance is not limited to a description of particular Pagan groups and practices. It also makes some key practical and theoretical contributions to the anthropological study of magic, of contemporary religions, of "historicities," and to scholarly debates around complementary medicine and "well-being," in Italy and abroad.

Stimulated by the vast scholarly output of James Lewis, experts opine on violence, conspiracies, and new religious movements. On violence, Mark Juergensmeyer explains his "epistemic worldview analysis" in interviewing religious terrorists; Michael Barkun describes transnational conspiracy theories such as the Sovereign Citizens Movement and QAnon; David Bromley highlights the "lost cause movement" which built up confederate identity for Southerners long after the Civil War; Mattias Gardell explores the link between bibliocaust and holocaust from 1499 Granada through the National Socialists of WWII to the Qur'an burnings of Rasmus Paladan in contemporary Sweden. On new religious movements, Rebecca Moore critiques the reputed pathology of the leader in "suicide cults," the problem with "monolithic inferences" in examining members' willingness to die, and the elusiveness of comparative new religions to rigid stereotyping; Catherine Wessinger investigates the extraordinary charisma of David Koresh of the Branch Davidians at Waco, 76 of whom died in the 1993 conflagration with U.S. agents. On media and the law, Carole Cusack traces arguments about religious dress codes in liberal versus illiberal societies; Stefano Bigliardi and his students point out the misleading portrayal of religious sects in films; Zang Xinzhang clarifies the Chinese concept of Xie Jiao in application to Falun Gong. Margo Kitts summarizes the stellar contributions in the introduction.

Stimulated by the vast scholarly output of James Lewis, experts opine on violence, conspiracies, and new religious movements. On violence, Mark Juergensmeyer explains his "epistemic worldview analysis" in interviewing religious terrorists; Michael Barkun describes transnational conspiracy theories such as the Sovereign Citizens Movement and QAnon; David Bromley highlights the "lost cause movement" which built up confederate identity for Southerners long after the Civil War; Mattias Gardell explores the link between bibliocaust and holocaust from 1499 Granada through the National Socialists of WWII to the Qur'an burnings of Rasmus Paladan in contemporary Sweden. On new religious movements, Rebecca Moore critiques the reputed pathology of the leader in "suicide cults," the problem with "monolithic inferences" in examining members' willingness to die, and the elusiveness of comparative new religions to rigid stereotyping; Catherine Wessinger investigates the extraordinary charisma of David Koresh of the Branch Davidians at Waco, 76 of whom died in the 1993 conflagration with U.S. agents. On media and the law, Carole Cusack traces arguments about religious dress codes in liberal versus illiberal societies; Stefano Bigliardi and his students point out the misleading portrayal of religious sects in films; Zang Xinzhang clarifies the Chinese concept of Xie Jiao in application to Falun Gong. Margo Kitts summarizes the stellar contributions in the introduction.

This book examines the ways in which scriptures are accepted and appropriated by religious people in Korea. It explores how sacred texts in various religions, including Protestantism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shamanism, attain their sacred status and power. It also delves into how the performative aspect of scriptures is often intrinsically linked to their iconic status. The book highlights the close relationship between the performative use and the iconic nature of these scriptures, showing how they are ritualized and performed in religious practices. In Korea, a distinct mix of religions coexists, each contributing to the country's religious diversity. Christianity, as the largest religion, represents a significant portion of the population, yet Buddhism, as Korea's major traditional religion, holds a comparable influence. Confucianism, with its deep historical roots and impact on Korean customs and values, continues to shape the society, particularly through ancestral rites and customs that prioritize elders. Many contemporary Koreans still resort to shamanic rituals and divinations, which have prevailed among the common people for thousands of years. Examples from these religions in Korea vividly illustrate that the iconic and performative dimensions of scriptures are generally witnessed in religions that recognize sacred texts. The interplay and complementary functions of these dimensions in the lives of the religious are also examined. The book presents compelling examples showing how the content, physical form, recitations, written characters, and imagery of scriptures are ritualized to exert sacred power

This edited collection brings together academics and practitioners to explore six physical and three socio-cultural senses in relation to death and dying: the senses of sight, of smell, of sound, of taste, of touch, of movement, of decency, of humour, and of loss. Each sense section will comprise two chapters to provide differing examples of how death and dying can be viewed through the lens of human physical and cultural senses. Chapters will include historical and contemporary examples of ways in which death, dying and grieving are inextricable from their physical sensual expressions and socio cultural mores. Most books about death explore how death can be theorised, theologised, and philosophised, or attend to the particular needs of health professionals working in palliative or pastoral care, with little attention to how people engage with and attend to, death, dying and grief sensually. The uniqueness of this collection lies in two areas, firstly its deep engagement with a range of physical and socio-cultural sensual responses to death and dying, and secondly, through its contributors who are drawn from a wide spectrum of professional, practical, and theoretical expertise and scholarship in fields which continue to redefine our understanding of mortality.

In a series of publications in the 1960s culminating in the 1967 book Intonation and the Grammar of English and the three articles Notes on Transitivity and Theme, Halliday proposed a system of information structure. Tonic items were presented as New or as if they were not recoverable from the context and cotext. Post tonic items were Given or recoverable. The status of pre-tonic items was ambiguous and needed to be considered in context. Halliday's view has proven to be reliable over the past 50 years but this book aims to revise it. The book argues that Halliday's system was premised on two views both of which have been questioned over the years. The first is that Halliday's notion of recoverability was influenced by Shannon and Weaver's mathematical theory of information predictability where information can be encoded in terms of bits which are transmitted from source A to source B. This is not how SFL theory sees language functioning. Languaging is not simply the transmitting of information but rather a social semiotic practice which interactants deploy to affiliate with others while pursuing their individual needs. Secondly the binary division of information as either New (1 bit) or Given (0 bit) has been questioned in recent years by work which has looked at presuppositions and implications. In addition to these issues the book argues that Halliday's definition blurs the important distinction between referentiality and identification. The book concludes by presenting an updated Hallidayan model which is sensitive to the above issues.

The book is a collection of eight seminal works on translation studies empowered by full-fledged Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The chapters can all be characterized as text based, meaning-oriented and metafunctional, involving different aspects of language operating in the context of culture, serving to explore the notion of translation as recreation of meaning in context. It is a book that centres on the theoretical and methodological framework in this research area, with instances of translation between different languages being treated as illustrations of phenomena that arise in translation. Arranged chronologically to reflect the development of ideas and based on Hallidayan SFL, the chapters are all written by M.A.K. Halliday and Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen.

Just as light reflects on a mirror, the source of awareness, the true Self, is projected onto the mind, reflecting the world of phenomena and enabling cognition. However, the mind, which carries within it the sense-of-self as the agent or ego, is wrongly convinced that it is the source of primary awareness, the true Self. Moreover, similar to a dusty and murky mirror, the mind reflects reality in a distorted manner, as its reflections become misrepresented through habitual tendencies and mental processes. And it is such distortion which produces confusion and suffering. Yoga in action redirects attention to the mind itself and seeks to remove the psychological blemishes, just like polishing a mirror. At the culmination of this process, the mind is liberated from mental processes and the causes of affliction and abides in an empty yet clear state. This is how the clear discerning gaze of yoga can be realised, by distinguishing between the source of light, which represents the true Self, and the mirror itself, which represents the mind and sense of self. Such a gaze has the power to liberate one from the misconceptions and emotions that hinder cognitive clarity. This study explores the road map of yoga as reflected in the Yogasutra of Patanjali (third century CE) and the Samkhyakarika of Isvarakrsna (350-450 CE) which leads to the rise of this discerning insight, evading interpretations motivated by naivety on the one hand, and excessive suspicion on the other. Inspired by the psychology of yoga, the author offers a meditation focused on the sense of self and the cultivation of a discerning clear gaze.

Although Community (or Public) Archaeology originated in western countries, it has now spread all over the world. It integrates the archaeological past with living peoples in new and unique ways. It is however, a rather loosely-defined field; to some it means an attitude and a theoretical concept, which is, or should be, valid for archaeology as a whole and for every archaeologist. For others it is a certain practice or sub-field of archaeology, which by now has its own experts - that is, community archaeologists. It is perhaps not surprising that in Israel/Palestine Community Archaeology touches heavily upon the present, perhaps more than upon the past. No archaeology in this region is 'neutral' and the living communities are part of the heated, on-going political, social and religious conflicts that have shaped the past, and are shaping this land for over more than a hundred years. The question is whether archaeology, including Community Archaeology, strive to neutrality? Can Community Archaeology free us from the hegemonic position of the archaeologies of nations and states? This is the first volume dedicated to Community Archaeology in Israel/Palestine. Chapters in the book challenge (in several ways, though not always explicitly) the traditional "Biblical Archaeology" approach to the archaeology of Israel/Palestine. They present their individual concepts and ideas about Community Archaeology in Israel/Palestine, bringing different questions and treating different case studies, and also reaching different though not unrelated conclusions. The volume gives a first, refreshing look of a new archaeology in an old land.

Deixis and the use of demonstratives are widely studied topics across languages. The fundamental purpose of this book is to provide an account of the semantics and pragmatics of Hungarian nominal demonstratives by examining why a speaker opts for a given demonstrative form in a particular speech situation and by investigating how the meaning of a demonstrative interacts with contextual clues during the process of reference resolution. These questions are addressed from an empirical perspective; the study incorporates the results of experimental work and corpus-based analyses. The present volume emphasizes the need to rely on various types of data source obtained by the application of diverse methods (including elicitation, corpus-linguistic and experimental methods) to develop a comprehensive account of demonstrative use. The empirical findings reported contribute to our understanding of demonstrative practice as an interactional process between the speaker and the addressee; it is argued that demonstrative reference in Hungarian is a dynamic, highly context-dependent, interactive and addressee-oriented process. The volume not only expands current approaches to the use of Hungarian nominal demonstratives, it also provides new insights on demonstrative use in a language where this phenomenon has not been explored by empirical tools before. The data collected and the research findings make valuable contributions to the current international debate on the role of factors that govern the choice of demonstratives in different languages.

How to Do Things with Myths assembles a radically updated collection of the author's oft-cited publications on myth. Together, they tell how theories of myth have changed and led to a novel "performative" theory of myth. Beginning from its mid-19th-century foundations with philologist, Friedrich Max Muller, myths had been conceived in textual terms as quasi-biblical, static narratives. Not until the impact of ethnographic studies of traditional societies in the early 20th century did myths come to be regarded in situ as living agents shaping their societies. Leading a movement against Muller's static, textual view of myths were his French sociological critics, notably Emile Durkheim and his equipe. The Durkheimians felt that myths mattered because of what they "did" by functioning within human societies. Adopting the Durkheimian notion of function was Bronislaw Malinowski. But as a pragmatist and positivist, Malinowski narrowed his conception of myths to utilitarian terms. In place of Malinowski's utilitarianism, the author proposes a "performative theory" of myths - a theory freeing myths for a wider range of agency in culture, unrestricted by Malinowski's behaviorism and positivism. Conceived as "important stories," myths can thus "do things" in many, often subtle and unquantifiable, ways, depending upon a given culture's own value system. Conceptually and theoretically, a performative theory situates itself with respect to the efforts of some of the most popular contemporary myth theorists -- Bruce Lincoln, Mircea Eliade, Claude Levi-Strauss, Georges Dumezil, Robert A. Segal and Jonathan Z. Smith.

The southern Levant linked the major powers of the ancient Near East. More often than not, peoples of this land were politically and economically dominated by greater kingdoms and empires. During the transition between the Iron I and II Ages (late eleventh to early ninth centuries BCE) however, imperial occupation and active colonization diminished, and local leadership emerged. Fertile Crossroads examines how, despite the lack of large-scale institutional support throughout the ancient world, small-scale leaders persisted in long-distance interactions and established the foundations for Iron Age polities. Malena critically examines the most direct evidence of these developments with the aid of historical and anthropological approaches regarding intercultural interaction and social change. Despite challenging disparity among historical, literary, and archaeological sources, Fertile Crossroads demonstrates that interactions (including diplomacy, commerce, competitive emulation, and aggression) were taking place within the southern Levant and with more distant neighbors, such as Egypt, Arabia, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and even the Aegean. In this new application of interaction models and synthesis of evidence, Malena shows how small scale exchange had a significant impact on socio-political changes in the region, especially involving shifts in elite networks, territories, group identities, and political power.

This volume investigates contemporary bodily practices as a mode of transmitting and receiving South Asian religious and spiritual traditions. The collection's essays explore processes of adoption and adaptation, and the ways in which somatic religious practices are transplanted into new contexts, acquiring new meanings and generating dynamics of their own. Using the concept of "embodied reception" as a heuristic, the contributions address the dialectic between inscribing knowledge on practitioners' bodies and opening new avenues for meaning-making through bodily experiences. The collection assembles a range of empirical cases: contemplative bodily techniques such as postural yoga, mindfulness, and meditation; ritual practices in modern advaitic satsang; South Indian martial art; tantric goddess veneration; contemporary Samkhyayoga practices. The empirical studies span devotional communities, yoga institutions, New Age milieus, and secularized contexts, providing a rich tapestry of contemporary embodied reception in and outside South Asia. Assembling research on embodied forms of reception both in South Asia and in Western countries, the volume advocates for paying close attention to entangled histories of knowledge. Grounded in this empirical outlook, the volume also speaks to theoretical and methodological debates on travelling bodily practices. The contributions suggest theoretical and methodological frameworks ranging from aesthetics of religion to sociology of knowledge, from ethnographical to cognitive approaches.

Fabricating Authenticity expands on revised posts that originally appeared on the blog for Culture on the Edge - an international research collaborative that analyzes strategies of identification. The newly envisioned main chapters in this volume draw on a variety of sites, topics, and case studies to explore what is at stake in claims of authenticity. Here, authenticity is examined as a socially contested and constructed label that is used to manage and codify a variety of choices in relation to understandings of identity formation. Building on the main chapters, Fabricating Authenticity is a collaborative enterprise that engages early career scholars to respond, critique, and press further the approaches and arguments put forth by members of Culture on the Edge. Following the format of the earlier volumes in the Working with Culture on the Edge series, the introduction and afterword provide a more substantive, theoretical analysis on the discourse of authenticity. Together with the main chapters and responses, Fabricating Authenticity explores everyday examples that work as productive conversation-starters for those wanting to complicate and examine authenticity claims, thus making this an ideal volume for the introductory classroom and beyond.

This book is the first detailed comparative study of the philosophical and meditative concepts of Nik?ya Buddhism and early Chan. It is inspired by the passages in the texts of both these traditions which appear to express similar and at the same time very unconventional ideas about meditation, cognition and reality. It draws out and discusses the implications of these passages and attempts to assess their coherence and plausibility. It argues that they constitute a specific paradigm of meditation, different from the historically dominant, mainstream Buddhist one. The book uses a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary approach and compares Nik?ya and early Chan concepts with the relevant developments in Western philosophy of mind and cognitive science. The problems discussed include: * Can altered psychosomatic meditative states be attained without a meditation method in the sense of a deliberately implemented technique? If so, by what mechanism? * Can insight occur in a meditative state characterized by an absence of thoughts? If so, by what process? What concept of mind is implied by such an idea? * Can the most basic elements of the world that we experience cease in a meditative state which is not a form of insentience or unconsciousness? In what way could such cessation occur? What philosophical vision of reality is implied by this concept? * How can pre-meditative elements of the Buddhist path, such as leading a particular lifestyle and maintaining a specific mindset, contribute to the attainment of altered psychosomatic states? * Are there some crucial elements of the Buddhist path which cannot be straightforwardly practiced by following instructions? If so, what contributes to their development and what pattern does it follow?

Systemic history is an approach to explaining the past, that tries to maximize our understanding of context. Unlike most history, it does not do this by just narrating a chain of causal relationships for a given group through time. Instead, it shows how simpler systems become more complex over time through the interaction of reinforcing and balancing feedback loops. Systemic history offers the best way of understanding the processes that shape the Middle Way, because the Middle Way involves improving responses to complexity, rather than falling back on shortcut simplifications (absolutizations). This book examines the history of the Middle Way in four inter-related ways: as the biological development of organisms in relation to reinforcing or balancing feedback loops, as the psychological development of individual humans during a lifetime, as a succession of reinforcing and balancing feedback tendencies in human culture through history, and as a successive development of integrative practice. This shows how the Middle Way is a path distinctive to the human response to complexity, but nevertheless one rooted in the wider processes of all life. In the process it provides a detailed exploration of the relationship between the Middle Way and systems theory, biology, developmental psychology, and world history.

This book provides an overview of the various ways the concepts enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment have been used both within religious studies scholarship and in related fields. Despite the prevalence of these concepts in recent scholarship, no introductory text on the subject of enchantment has yet been written. The first half of the book provides a concise overview of theoretical work on disenchantment, a critical exploration of empirical evidence for premodern enchantment and modern disenchantment, and an account of how enchantment has been used in scholarly and popular works to mark specific beliefs and practices as unacceptable, dangerous, or delusional. The second half of the book explores recent scholarship on re-enchantment and distinguishes between two main varieties: rational re-enchantment, which involves heightened emotions that are free from negative appraisals of premodern belief in magic and spirits, and spiritual re-enchantment, which involves the recovery of premodern beliefs and practices or the development of new alternative spiritual paths. The final chapter outlines a novel theoretical model for explaining modern enchantment as a variety of playful half-belief. This book will be useful for scholars and students working on a variety of topics including religion in modernity, theories of secularization, conflicts between science and religion, new religious movements, new materialisms, and immanent justifications for environmentalism.

Extensively based on fieldwork material, From Tapas to Modern Yoga primarily analyses embodied practices of ascetics belonging to four religious orders historically associated with the practice of yoga and hatha yoga. This focus on ascetics stems from the fact that yogic techniques probably developed in ascetic contexts, yet scholars have rarely focused their attention on non-international ascetic practitioners of yoga. Creating a confrontation between textual sources and ethnographic data, the book demonstrates how 'embodied practices' (austerities, yoga and hatha yoga) over the centuries accumulated layers of meanings and practices that coexist in the literature as well as in the words of contemporary sadhus. Drawing from conversations with these interlocutors, the book demonstrates the importance of ethnographic fieldwork in shedding light on past historical developments, transmissions, contemporary reinterpretation and innovation. The strength of the work lies in its methodological approach and in the richness of its materials: by analysing present situations through comparisons and the support of past evidence, the book not only fills an academic gap but also stimulates further research on this highly complex topic.

Venue Stories is an anthology of creative non-fiction that remembers, celebrates and reinvigorates our complex and plural relationship with small and independent music spaces. Written by musicians, promoters, fans and academics who have a shared passion for small music venues and musical cultures in all their splendid variety, this anthology features memoir, essays, life writing, historiography and autoethnography. Each chapter is united by a focus on the personal, the sensory and half-remembered. These are stories that cross disciplinary lines and blur distinctions between creativity, reportage and critical analysis. Venue Stories pays a visit to the toilet venues, back rooms and ad-hoc club nights that make up so much of our musical landscape. It spends time in small and local venues and asks what they mean in personal and cultural terms. Writers visit celebrated spots, long forgotten spaces and emergent venues. Whatever the lineage, they are independent, original and wonderfully weird. The stories are memories of seismic gigs and life-altering raves. They are mosaic remembrances and recollections; funny, heart-breaking, rage induced and sometimes a combination of all of these things. This is a collection of stories by and for fans, band members, merch sellers, pint pullers, journalists with a freebie, roadies with a backache and sound techs with an earache.

Decision-making in institutional/professional settings has remained an established theme for social science and communication researchers. In contemporary western societies, the conditions of decision making are rapidly changing with the foregrounding of division of professional labour and distributed expertise against the backdrop of a client-centred ideology that legitimises shared decision-making. Increasingly, in health and social care settings, key decisions concerning clients are arrived at in team meetings, which have consequences both for the decisional processes and outcomes. This edited volume for the first time brings together a number of empirically grounded studies focusing on how team talk is functional to decision-making (in terms of problem formulation, generation of options, assessment of solutions etc.), with tensions, at the interactional level, between institutional and professional ways of categorising people, events and evidence.