Author: Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff Publisher: Villegas Asociados ISBN: 9588156610 Category : Colombia Languages : en Pages : 352
Book Description
Classic study with photos of gold artifacts. Book by Pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia scholar Reichel-Dolmatoff with studies of the mysterious rituals of what was undoubtedly the most important aspect of the life of the ancient ethnic communities of El Dorado: the decisive role of the Shamans and their hallucinatory world of magic and religion. The book analyses the spiritual dimensions of these cultures and the natural wisdom of century-old secrets along lavish full-page color images of the enigmatic and beautiful gold objects still known today as "gold of the ancients" that skillful craftsmen wrought for ritual use.
Author: Michael Ripinsky-Naxon Publisher: SUNY Press ISBN: 9780791413852 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
Ripinsky-Naxon explores the core and essence of shamanism by looking at its ritual, mythology, symbolism, and the dynamics of its cultural process. In dealing with the basic elements of shamanism, the author discusses the shamanistic experience and enlightenment, the inner personal crisis, and the many aspects entailed in the role of the shaman.
Author: Jeffrey Quilter Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks ISBN: 9780884022947 Category : Antiques & Collectibles Languages : en Pages : 448
Book Description
The lands between Mesoamerica and the Central Andes are famed for the rich diversity of ancient cultures that inhabited them. Throughout this vast region, from about AD 700 until the sixteenth-century Spanish invasion, a rich and varied tradition of goldworking was practiced. The amount of gold produced and worn by native inhabitants was so great that Columbus dubbed the last New World shores he sailed as Costa Rica—the "Rich Coast." Despite the long-recognized importance of the region in its contribution to Pre-Columbian culture, very few books are readily available, especially in English, on these lands of gold. Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia now fills that gap with eleven articles by leading scholars in the field. Issues of culture change, the nature of chiefdom societies, long-distance trade and transport, ideologies of value, and the technologies of goldworking are covered in these essays as are the role of metals as expressions and materializations of spiritual, political, and economic power. These topics are accompanied by new information on the role of stone statuary and lapidary work, craft and trade specialization, and many more topics, including a reevaluation of the concept of the "Intermediate Area." Collectively, the volume provides a new perspective on the prehistory of these lands and includes articles by Latin American scholars whose writings have rarely been published in English.
Author: David Lewis-Williams Publisher: Thames & Hudson ISBN: 0500770433 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
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.
Author: Cameron Adams Publisher: ISBN: 158394771X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 337
Book Description
"Presents essays and articles exploring the history, use, and benefits of psychedelics from the international conference of the same name"--
Author: Helmut Wautischer Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 0262232596 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 669
Book Description
Scholars from many different disciplines examine consciousness through the lens of intellectual approaches and cultures ranging from cosmology research and cell biophysics laboratories to pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and Tibetan Tantric Buddhism in a volume that extends consciousness studies beyond the limits of current neuroscience research. The "hard problem" of today's consciousness studies is subjective experience: understanding why some brain processing is accompanied by an experienced inner life. Recent scientific advances offer insights for understanding the physiological and chemical phenomenology of consciousness. But by leaving aside the internal experiential nature of consciousness in favor of mapping neural activity, such science leaves many questions unanswered. In Ontology of Consciousness, scholars from a range of disciplines—from neurophysiology to parapsychology, from mathematics to anthropology and indigenous non-Western modes of thought—go beyond these limits of current neuroscience research to explore insights offered by other intellectual approaches to consciousness. These scholars focus their attention on such philosophical approaches to consciousness as Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, North American Indian insights, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilization, and the Byzantine Empire. Some draw on artifacts and ethnographic data to make their point. Others translate cultural concepts of consciousness into modern scientific language using models and mathematical mappings. Many consider individual experiences of sentience and existence, as seen in African communalism, Hindi psychology, Zen Buddhism, Indian vibhuti phenomena, existentialism, philosophical realism, and modern psychiatry. Some reveal current views and conundrums in neurobiology to comprehend sentient intellection. Contributors Karim Akerma, Matthijs Cornelissen, Antoine Courban, Mario Crocco, Christian de Quincey, Thomas B. Fowler, Erlendur Haraldsson, David. J. Hufford, Pavel B. Ivanov, Heinz Kimmerle, Stanley Krippner, Armand J. Labbé, James Maffie, Hubert Markl, Graham Parkes, Michael Polemis, E Richard Sorenson, Mircea Steriade, Thomas Szasz, Mariela Szirko, Robert A.F. Thurman, Edith L.B. Turner, Julia Watkin, Helmut Wautischer
Author: Hancock, Graham Publisher: Disinformation Books ISBN: 1938875117 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 322
Book Description
This anthology is aimed at all those who are interested in the connection between consciousness, psychedelics, and the development of humankind. Bestselling author Graham Hancock has been writing and speaking about this to audience’s worldwide, including a controversial TEDx talk on ayahuasca and DMT, which some call the god molecule. Graham Hancock leads the charge in this collection of the latest thinking on consciousness with a particular focus on the use of psychedelics to open up the realm of the supernatural. Leading minds and radical thinkers including Dennis McKenna, Rick Doblin, Alex Greg, Russell Brand, and Rick Strassman illuminate the topic like never before. Contributors include: Mike Alvernia, Russell Brand, David Jay Brown, Paul Devereux, Rick Doblin, Amanda Fielding, Nassim Haramein, Martina Hoffman, Don Lattin, Eduardo Luna, Dennis McKenna, Thad McKraken, Rak Razam, Gabriel Roberts, Thomas B. Roberts, Robert Schoch, Mark Seelig, Rick Strassman, and Robert Tindall.
Author: Gary Westfahl Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 2543
Book Description
Ideal for high school and college students studying history through the everyday lives of men and women, this book offers intriguing information about the jobs that people have held, from ancient times to the 21st century. This unique book provides detailed studies of more than 300 occupations as they were practiced in 21 historical time periods, ranging from prehistory to the present day. Each profession is examined in a compelling essay that is specifically written to inform readers about career choices in different times and cultures, and is accompanied by a bibliography of additional sources of information, sidebars that relate historical issues to present-day concerns, as well as related historical documents. Readers of this work will learn what each profession entailed or entails on a daily basis, how one gained entry to the vocation, training methods, and typical compensation levels for the job. The book provides sufficient specific detail to convey a comprehensive understanding of the experiences, benefits, and downsides of a given profession. Selected accompanying documents further bring history to life by offering honest testimonies from people who actually worked in these occupations or interacted with those in that field.
Author: David Lewis-Williams Publisher: Thames & Hudson ISBN: 050077045X Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
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.
Author: Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
Author: Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
Author: Michael Ripinsky-Naxon
Author: Jeffrey Quilter
Author: David Lewis-Williams
Author: Cameron Adams
Author: Helmut Wautischer
Author: Hancock, Graham![A Day in a Working Life [3 volumes] PDF](https://books.google.com/books/content/images/frontcover/_xjOEAAAQBAJ?fife=w80-h100)
Author: Gary Westfahl
Author: David Lewis-Williams