Since its inauguration in 1960, Brazil's capital city, Bras?lia, has become an internationally recognized center for eclectic forms of modern mysticism. Among the dozens of New Age, Spiritist, esoteric, and occult communities that have sprouted in the city and its environs, the most spectacular is the Valley of the Dawn (Vale do Amanhecer). Equal parts religious movement, enchanted city, utopian vision, and theatrical spectacle, the Valley of the Dawn is a unique psychic ecosystem. Community members consider themselves the spiritual descendants of an ancient race of extraterrestrials originally sent to galvanize humanity's cultural and spiritual evolution. Wearing dazzling garments that reference their past lives in different cultural eras, adherents perform daily ceremonies for karmic redemption and offer spiritual healing services free of charge to the public. The Valley of the Dawn was founded by a charismatic spirit medium called Aunt Neiva, a widowed mother of four who came to Bra
In this interesting study, Jenny Edkins explores how we remember traumatic events such as wars, famines, genocides and terrorism, and questions the assumed role of commemorations as simply reinforcing state and nationhood. Taking examples from the World Wars, Vietnam, the Holocaust, Kosovo and September 11th, Edkins offers a thorough discussion of practices of memory such as memorials, museums, remembrance ceremonies, the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress and the act of bearing witness. She examines the implications of these commemorations in terms of language, political power, sovereignty and nationalism. She argues that some forms of remembering do not ignore the horror of what happened but rather use memory to promote change and to challenge the political systems that produced the violence of wars and genocides in the first place. This wide-ranging study embraces literature, history, politics and international relations, and makes a significant contribution to the study of memory.
The Ojibway Indians were first encountered by the French early in the seventeenth century along the northern shores of Lakes Huron and Superior. By the time Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized the
The superb first novel from the author of The Stone Diaries, winner of the Governor General's Award, a National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize.Judith Gill is a well-respected biograp
A stirring illustrated celebration of the vanishing tribal traditions of the African continent documents a wide range of ceremonies in words and pictures, including baby namings, initiations, weddings
An accessible single-volume edition of the previous two-volume work contains more than half of the photography from the original format as well as new images, in a work that celebrates vanishing cultu
In The Book of Ceremonies, Gabriel Horn presents a tapestry of stories, poems, prayers, and love songs describing sacred Native American ways of life and what the varied Native traditions and practice
Poetry. Latinx Studies. Environmental Studies. The Japanese tea ceremony is an attempt to impart meaning to that which would otherwise go unnoticed. After all, what is so different about serving, pour
Now in its third year, this calendar, based on the critically acclaimed and popular book African Ceremonies, features breathtaking photographs of the people and rituals of Africa. African Ceremonies
