Sacred Inception

This interdisciplinary book examines the shifting meaning of spirituality and birth practices in the modern world in the context of biomedical advances as well as colonial incursions. It indicates that spirituality in the birth place has managed to reemerge in many parts of the world.

Sacred Pregnancy is a retrospective on evolving feminist discourse of motherhood, a sociological study of religious demographics and experience in the U.S., and an exploration of the spiritually guided reproductive health services. The book allows readers to more deeply understand the life-changing experiences of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood.

In this detailed study, Russia's rural Muslim religious institutions in the Volga-Ural region and the Kazakh steppe, during the imperial period, are examined. It is based on the Turkic manuscript history Tavarikh-i Alti Ata.

Every human being is born and has gone through a process of birth. This book explores how imagery is used in religious, secular, and nonreligious ways during the contemporary rituals of birth, through analysis of a wide variety of art, iconography, poetry, and material culture.

The image of the nurse is ubiquitous, both in life and in popular media. One of the earliest instances of nursing and media intersecting is the Edison phonographic recording of Florence Nightingale's voice in 1890. Since then, a parade of nurses, good, bad or otherwise, has appeared on both cinema and television screens. How do we interpret the many different types of nurses--real and fictional, lifelike and distorted, sexual and forbidding--who are so visible in the public consciousness? This book is a comprehensive collection of unique insights from scholars across the Western world. Essays explore a diversity of nursing types that traverse popular characterizations of nurses from various time periods. The shifting roles of nurses are explored across media, including picture postcards, film, television, journalism and the collection and preservation of uniforms and memorabilia.

This book is an in-depth conversation between philosophies of Dialogue, particularly as espoused by Martin Buber, and teachings from the wisdom traditions of the East, particularly Zen Buddhism and its Pure Land School. It argues that God is the between of I and Thou. Writings from Sufism, Hasidism, Hinduism and other spiritual traditions are excerpted as well, as they all draw their teachings from similar primordial moments of deep poetic insight. Dialogical philosophy articulates the principle of relationship, which is discussed throughout the book in its various contexts and different modalities.

With contributions from leading experts, this edited collection presents original research on the skills brought by immigrant communities to the textile and fashion industries, from the early modern to postmodern periods in Asia and the Islamic World, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Manufacturing of textiles and apparel is arduous work, which historically depended on skilled artisans, inexpensive labor, and the introduction of labor-saving technology. Immigrant communities supplied much of the work force, bringing their own skill sets to new locations, leading to the development of new manufacturing centers and an increase in both production and technical expertise. Throughout the volume, the role of migration and immigrant involvement in manufacturing is also examined in relation to trade, politics, and socio-religious circumstances prompting relocation. Deconstructing the question of provenance by examining the cultural identity of migrant populations, the research brings to light ongoing dilemmas and practices of diaspora communities. By analyzing material, mythical, and technical aspects of textile and apparel production, contributors create a new narrative about textile- and garment-making as a collective endeavor, requiring diversity of skill and methodology to thrive.

Ananda is a bright youngster with a keen and questioning mind who enjoys life. He and friend Sukarma grow together, but circumstances take them along different paths. Sukarma becomes an ascetic, foreasking worldly pleasures, while Ananda encounters frustrations and tragedies. When his father dies, he follows the rituals, but finds them to be of no avail. He rejects all traditional beliefs, proclaims his atheism and becomes a preacher of hedonism. In the end, Ananda and Sukarma are drawn to a confrontation and the opposing worldviews are brought into the open. This is the story of how Ananda became Cârvâka.