Voices From Four Directions

Gathers stories and songs from thirty-one native groups in North America, including the Inupiaqs, the Lushoots, the Catawbas, and the Maliseets.

The accomplishments and enduring influence of renowned anthropologist Dell Hymes are showcased in these essays by leading practitioners in the field. Hymes (1927–2009) is arguably best known for his pioneering work in ethnopoetics, a studied approach to Native verbal art that elucidates cultural significance and aesthetic form. As these essays amply demonstrate, nearly six decades later ethnopoetics and Hymes's focus on narrative inequality and voice provide a still valuable critical lens for current research in anthropology and folklore. Through ethnopoetics, so much can be understood in diverse cultural settings and situations: gleaning the voices of individual Koryak storytellers and aesthetic sensibilities from century-old wax cylinder recordings; understanding the similarities and differences between Apache life stories told 58 years apart; how Navajo punning and an expressive device illuminate the work of a Navajo poet; decolonizing Western Mono and Yokuts stories by bringing to the surface the performances behind the texts written down by scholars long ago; and keenly appreciating the potency of language revitalization projects among First Nations communities in the Yukon and northwestern California. Fascinating and topical, these essays not only honor a legacy but also point the way forward.

I Send a Voice is the gripping, first person account of what happens inside a Native American Sweat Lodge. Evelyn Eaton writes of her resolve to become worthy of participating in a Sweat Lodge healing ritual. She undergoes tests and ordeals inside and outside of the Lodge following the spiritual path to learn the shamanic secrets, and eventually daring to ask for a healing Pipe of her own. This classic book remains one of the definitive accounts of the training and work of a Pipe-carrier and provides a unique insight into Native American culture and their sacred and esoteric rites. It will be essential reading for everyone with an interest in Native American culture, shamanic rituals or holistic healing.

"In a remarkable tour de force of research, Shelley Pearen reveals the innermost thoughts of the people who assembled 150 years ago to negotiate the future of Manitoulin Island, the world's largest freshwater island. Working with long forgotten letters, reports and accounts written in English, French and Ojibwe. Pearen brings to life the people and events of 1861-63 through the actual words spoken and written by four key participants: William McDougall, head of the government's Indian Affairs department; Sasso Itawashkash, chief of the Sheshegwaning Anishinaabeg; Jean-Pierre Choné, Jesuit priest at the Holy Cross Roman Catholic Mission in Wikwemikong; and Peter Jacobs, Church of England missionary in Manitowaning, and himself Anishinaabe. For the first time, each of these players is given the stage to explain his own understanding of what actually happened before, during and after the signing of the still-contentious Great Manitoulin Island treaty of 1862. These four voices reveal fascinating personal stories of strengths and frailties."-- from back cover.

Provides a clear and accessible guide to the many different North Asian shamanic traditions, past and present. What is shamanism? Where is it from? How does one become a shaman? What are the requirements to become one? Anthropologists tell us that the word shaman derives from the Tungus language and traditions, but few people understand the full scope of what that means. In his groundbreaking book, Spirit Voices, David Shi answers all these questions and more. Drawing upon his own ancestral traditions, Shi explores the history and practice of shamanism. He guides readers through what may be the unfamiliar landscapes of North Asia—the place where shamanism was born—as well as the largely hidden and unfamiliar traditions of Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungus shamanism, exploring the subtle and unique aspects of each tradition. Shi provides a clear and accessible guide that explores the many different North Asian shamanic traditions. So, what exactly is shamanism? David Shi suggests that the most accurate definition derives from shamanologist Nicholas Breeze Wood, who writes, “A shaman is someone chosen by the spirits [typically at or before birth] and who can go into a controlled and repeatable deliberate trance state, during which they A) experience ‘spirit flight,’ where they go to the spirit worlds and meet spirits, who they either fight with, negotiate with, or trick, in order to create change in this physical world, or B) are often taken over/possessed by the spirits (normally ancestral shaman spirits, or local land spirits) while in this physical world—the spirits using the shaman’s voice and body to heal, or give advice to members of the shaman’s community. Without the spirits and their blessing, a shaman cannot exist or function. Without the trance state, it is not shamanism.” Featuring history, firsthand experiential reports, mythology, and folklore, Spirit Voices explores the spirits, spirituality, tools, and practices of true shamanism, past and present. Shi also provides practical information for those readers seeking to implement shamanic practices, including those that are appropriate to noninitiates and outsiders to the culture. As the author points out, “the purpose of shamanism can be summed up in two words: coexistence and balance—coexistence with our spirits and our communities, and the balance that must be preserved between all of us and within ourselves.”

The culture of the enigmatic from Classical Antiquity to the Renaissance -- Devising musical riddles in the Renaissance -- The reception of the enigmatic in music theory -- Riddles visualised.

This new commentary approaches Revelation from a Pentecostal perspective, but you may be surprised at what this does and doesn’t mean in this case. This is a serious commentary based on the Greek text and includes discussion of all the standard topics (authorship, date, audience, etc.). It gives interpretive priority to the original context and audience while also discussing application today. Newton eschews all populist interpretations of Revelation and questions many assumptions built on futurist or historicist readings, but includes a survey of recent scholarly Pentecostal work on Revelation and an extended discussion of what an authentic Pentecostal reading of Revelation might look like. The commentary highlights features of Revelation that Pentecostals often look for, such as its pneumatology, but also draws attention to features that Pentecostal readers should take more seriously than they often do, such as its missional focus, the narrative flow, intertextual references, and the focus on atonement. This makes it a more optimistic commentary than many available. The commentary interacts in depth with five leading commentaries over the past twenty-five years as well as over two hundred other books and articles, including the oldest existing commentary on Revelation.