Keri S Determination

Post-Enlightenment notions of culture, which have been naturalized in the West for centuries, require that art be autonomously beautiful, universal, and devoid of any practical purpose. The authors of this multidisciplinary volume seek to complicate this understanding of art by examining art objects from across Asia with attention to their functional, ritual, and everyday contexts. From tea bowls used in the Japanese tea ceremony to television broadcasts of Javanese puppet theater; from Indian wedding chamber paintings to art looted by the British army from the Chinese emperor’s palace; from the adventures of a Balinese magical dagger to the political functions of classical Khmer images—the authors challenge prevailing notions of artistic value by introducing new ways of thinking about culture. The chapters consider art objects as they are involved in the world: how they operate and are experienced in specific sites, collections, rituals, performances, political and religious events and imagination, and in individual peoples’ lives; how they move from one context to another and change meaning and value in the process (for example, when they are collected, traded, and looted or when their images appear in art history textbooks); how their memories and pasts are or are not part of their meaning and experience. Rather than lead to a single universalizing definition of art, the essays offer multiple, divergent, and case-specific answers to the question "What is the use of art?" and argue for the need to study art as it is used and experienced. Contributors: Cynthea J. Bogel, Louise Cort, Richard H. Davis, Robert DeCaroli, James L. Hevia, Janet Hoskins, Kaja McGowan, Jan Mrázek, Lene Pedersen, Morgan Pitelka, Ashley Thompson.

He's the lone human male in a sea of lethal alien warriors. He's either gifted or suicidal... Kidnapped by aliens, rescued, and now on a secret base in a system he can't even pronounce, Major Jay Stephens has given up on a wing and a prayer... he's now on kicking butt and taking names. Especially when it comes to the alien AI who's risked everything, even her 'life' to protect him. The only problem... she's gone and gotten herself a body. Beautiful and delicate, she evokes reactions in him that should be illegal. The REAL problem? An AI in physical form is totally illegal and against just about every law in Latharian society. Which means lots of lethal aliens want to kill it, and by extension, his AI. And that’s going to be a problem. Because Jay thinks… no, he knows he's in love with her, and no little (large) green (totally not green) men are going to draanth up the best thing he ever had... She never wanted a body. Until she met her human marine. One of the most advanced AI’s in the empire, Keris is used to being so much more than any biological could dream of. She never expected that saving a lone human would lead to her taking physical form… But a new form comes with a whole host of new problems. She’s gone from being able to run a ship single-handed to struggling to co-ordinate her own two legs. And when Jay is around, her new brain quits functioning. All she can think about is the handsome human, and what his lips would feel like on hers… But when the chips are down and Jay is taken from her, she'll show them that any woman scorned is a dangerous thing, AI or not...

Ritual and World Change in a Balinese Princedom is an ethnography of a contemporary Balinese princedom as it engages with globally influenced circumstances. A ritual of ancestral deification serves as a vehicle for talking about the Balinese negara (or state), power, subject formation, and local approaches to the changing nation-state. The stage is set in chapter one with a narrative of the large-scale ritual performed by a minor noble house in the highlands of eastern Bali, presented as it unfolds in counterpoint with the national political upheaval surrounding President Suharto''s fall from power in 1998. Through the lens of the ritual we observe the deliberate reconstitution of ancient forms of caste hierarchy, from where we go on to look more closely at the ritual''s political dimensions, and at how and why the various participants became involved. Two discourses join in a surprising way, as questions posed about modern politics and the broader meaning of the ritual lead back to issues debated at the level of the nature of the Balinese state. In the modern era, where the princedom lacks obvious forms of power to coerce, the question that rises to the fore is "why?". Why do the subjects still follow and work for the princes? This question recurs as subsequent chapters investigate what the ritual reveals about the dynamics of the princedom, why it was significant, and how it relates to other aspects of Balinese culture, society, history, and politics. Ritual and World Change examines local approaches to being princes and princely subjects, but also to being subjects of and agents in the nation-state in times of turmoil. This book is part of the Ritual Studies Monograph Series, edited by Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh. "An absorbing story about a small kingdom in the mountains of Bali in the process of recreating itself, exploring the contrast between the state as a material reality and as an imagined order created through performance." -- J. Stephen Lansing, Professor of Anthropology, University of Arizona and Santa Fe Institute "A remarkable portrait of a Balinese Princedom, deftly linking political and ritual lives at the local level with influences from the nation state in an era of globalization. The maligya ritual becomes a complex site where readers can negotiate the terrain between scholarly and indigenous claims concerning ritual performance, politics, and the fluctuating face(s) of kingship." -- Kaja McGowan, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, Cornell University "Pederson has produced a compelling account... A key contribution to the regional literature, this book is written well enough to appeal more widely to those interested in ritual and in the intersection of religion and politics." -- CHOICE Magazine "As well as contributing to the general theory of ritual, Pederson''s book is of additional value in that she situates Balinese royal ritual in its Southeast Asian and Austronesian context, contributing to a growing body of work concerned with the deconstruction of Bali as a unique and isolated cultural enclave." -- Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology "This lively and highly readable work -- free of turgid theoretical jargon -- will be very useful to students and teachers... This is a very good, engaging, and humane book which will be widely read and inform debate for some time to come. It is beautifully produced, elegantly written, and includes many excellent photographs." -- Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute "This is one of the best books on ritual in Bali ever published... [It] is a well-documented and well-written study with a clear and well-organised analysis... Lene Pederson has written a beautiful and accessible book that deserves a wide readership, especially among those with an interest in how kingship and ritual manifest themselves in modern contexts." -- Anthropological Forum

Earth girls might be popular...but they're definitely not easy. Alien Paladin's Redemption - She knew aliens existed. She didn’t expect them to be so damn HOT! He seeks redemption for his sins. Love and a mate are not on the cards… Alien AI's Marine - He's the lone human male in a sea of lethal alien warriors. He's either gifted or suicidal... She never wanted a body. Until she met her human marine. Alien Sentinel's Mate - Being rescued by aliens doesn’t mean she’s going to marry one… not unless he’s hot. Asking would help too. She’s his, but with tainted blood, how can he claim her? **This is a boxed set of books 11 - 13 in Warriors of the Lathar series. If you own these titles individually, you do not need to purchase this book.**