Graham Harvey

How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.

Respecting the Living World

Animism

The Pagan tradition celebrates the physical nature of life on earth, blending science with spiritual folklore. Considering the everyday world of food, health, sex, work, and leisure to be sacred, Pagans oppose that which threatens life such as deforestation, overdevelopment, and nuclear power and invoke ancient deities in this struggle for the well-being of the earth and its inhabitants. Contemporary Paganism presents a broad-based introduction to the main trends of contemporary Paganism, revealing the origins and practical aspects of Druidry, Witchcraft, Goddess Spirituality and Magic, Shamanism, and Geomancy, among others. Making use of both traditional history and the movement’s more imaginative sources, Harvey reveals how Paganism and its central focus on individual and social lives is evolving and how this “new religion” perceives and relates to more traditional ones. This updated and expanded new edition addresses recent developments among Pagans and includes a new chapter assessing continuing scholarly research about the religion.

Religions of the Earth from Druids and Witches to Heathens and Ecofeminists

Contemporary Paganism

Animism is an important part of many religions - from Shinto, Hinduism and Buddhism to Paganism and a range of indigenous religions - which connects the spiritual and material and holds that humans might not be unique in possessing souls or in being intentional agents. Over recent decades, research into animism has broadened its scope to consider, at one end, the vibrant roles of objects in human lives and, at the other, the possible similarities between humans and other species. "The Handbook of Contemporary Animism" brings together an international team of scholars to examine the full range of animist worldviews and practices. The Handbook opens with an examination of recent approaches to animism. This is followed by evaluations of ethnographic, cognitive, literary, performative, and material culture approaches as well as advances in activist and indigenous thinking about animism. "The Handbook of Contemporary Animism" invites readers to think creatively and critically about the world around us and will be invaluable to students and scholars of Religion, Sociology and Anthropology.

The Handbook of Contemporary Animism

Charlotte Hardman

Collection of essays providing a variety of viewpoints on modern paganism, a religion based on nature worship and ancient indigenous traditions, looking at its main magical groups and practices.

Paganism Today

Paul-François Tremlett

Liam T. Sutherland

Through revisiting and challenging what we think we know about the work of Edward Burnett Tylor, a founding figure of anthropology, this volume explores new connections and insights that link Tylor and his work to present concerns in new and important ways. At the publication of Primitive Culture in 1871, Tylor was at the centre of anthropological research on religion and culture, but today Tylor's position in the anthropological canon is rarely acknowledged. Edward Burnett Tylor, Religion and Culture does not claim to present a definitive, new Tylor. The old Tylor - the founder of British anthropology; the definer of religion; the intellectualist; the evolutionist; the liberal; the utilitarian; the avatar of white, Protestant rationalism; the Tylor of the canon - remains. Part I explore debates and contexts of Tylor's lifetime, while the chapters in Part II explore a series of new Tylors, including Tylor the ethnographer and Tylor the Spiritualist, re-writing the legacy of the founder of anthropology in the process. Edward Burnett Tylor, Religion and Culture is essential reading for anyone interested in the study of religion and the anthropology of religion.

Edward Burnett Tylor, Religion and Culture

Robert J. Wallis

A remarkable array of people have been called shamans, while the phenomena identified as shamanism continues to proliferate. This second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Shamanism contains with examples from antiquity up to today, and from Siberia (where the term “shaman” originated) to Amazonia, South Africa, Chicago and many other places. Many claims about shamans and shamanism are contentious and all are worthy of discussion. In the most widespread understandings, terms seem to refer particularly to people who alter states of consciousness or enter trances in order to seek knowledge and help from powerful other-than-human persons, perhaps “spirits”. But this says only a little about the artists, community leaders, spiritual healers or hucksters, travelers in alternative realities and so on to which the label “shaman” has been applied. This second edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and extensive bibliography. The dictionary contains over 500 cross-referenced dictionary entries on individuals, groups, practices and cultures that have been called “shamanic”. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Shamanism.

Historical Dictionary of Shamanism

Explores the common ground of shamanic traditions and evaluates the diversity of both traditional indigenous communities and individual Western seekers.

The A to Z of Shamanism

This work introduces the main movements and trends in paganism. Individual chapters focus on druidry, witchcraft, heathenism, goddess spirituality and magic. These are followed by discussions of shamanism and geomancy. Sources of inspiration are treated next: from real history to more imaginative or poetic phenomena. The book concludes with an exploration of the ecological activities, theologies and rites of passage of pagans.

Listening People, Speaking Earth

"Religions in Focus" engages with the religious lives of members of some of the most significant religions today. It presents religions as contemporary ways of life that motivate and inspire people. Because religious people refer to sacred texts, honour the founders of their religions, learn from elders, or mould their lives according to authoritative teachings, "Religions in Focus" explains the relationship between tradition and contemporary practice. It offers an introduction to religions that is rooted in the best scholarship of the Study of Religions and provides a secure foundation for further study.A team of Religious Studies scholars from many countries, all skilled communicators about the contemporary religions with which they are thoroughly familiar, introduce what it means to live as a religious person today. They insist that however old or young these religions may be, what is most interesting is the ways in which people express them today. This is not a history of religions but an insightful introduction to living religions. A guide to further study and a companion website will point to ways of building on knowledge gained in studying this book, and applying skills developed in studying people's religious lives.

New Approaches to Tradition and Contemporary Practices

Religions in Focus

Now fully updated, Who's Who in The Archers has become the indispensable companion to life in Britain's best-known village. Whether you need a quick run-down on a new character or a reminder about an on-going relationship, this handy guide is your first reference point. It'll tell you all you need to know about: Harry, the new milkman, who has wasted no time in getting himself noticed. The team running the new community shop. The unofficial "social club" founded by Eddie Grundy. Who lives at Grange Spinney. Each week five million listeners tune into the world's longest running drama series. Who's Who in The Archers will help keep you fully up-to-date on life in this ever-changing rural community. Whether you're a long-standing listener or a new-comer to Ambridge, this pocket guide is certain to add to your enjoyment.

An A-Z of Britain's Most Popular Radio Drama

Who's Who in The Archers 2011

Miguel Astor-Aguilera

Personhood and relationality have re-animated debate in and between many disciplines. We are in the midst of a simultaneous "ontological turn", a "(re)turn to things" and a "relational turn", and also debating a "new animism". It is increasingly recognised that the boundaries between the "natural" and "social" sciences are of heuristic value but might not adequately describe reality of a multi-species world. Following rich and provocative dialogues between ethnologists and Indigenous experts, relations between the received knowledge of Western Modernity and that of people who dwell and move within different ontologies have shifted. Reflection on human relations with the larger-than-human world can no longer rely on the outdated assumption that "nature" and "cultures" already accurately describe the lineaments of reality. The chapters in this volume advance debates about relations between humans and things, between scholars and others, and between Modern and Indigenous ontologies. They consider how terms in diverse communities might hinder or help express, evidence and explore improved ways of knowing and being in the world. Contributors to this volume bring different perspectives and approaches to bear on questions about animism, personhood, materiality, and relationality. They include anthropologists, archaeologists, ethnographers, and scholars of religion.

Personhood and Materiality

Rethinking Relations and Animism

Over then past fifty years the British countryside has changed out of all recognition. A wide range of wildlife species are disappearing - victims of modern intensive farming, of pesticides and fertilisers and the sheer relentless pressure to maximise output from every hedge bank and field corner. It need not have happened. The loss of our wildlife and countryside has come about through a deliberate and sustained national policy, one that costs the British people 8 billion a year. The Killing of the Countryside is a devastating attack on modern British agricultural policy and practice and a plea for a return to natural cycles, an end to subsidies and the domination of agribusiness, and for a safe, sustainable farming system. Winner of the 1997 BP Natural World Book Award.

The Killing Of The Countryside

For years we ve been told that, thanks to their high saturated fat content, the foods for which evolution has adapted us grass-fed meat, grass-fed dairy products, eggs from hens running on pasture are unhealthy. In their place we eat processed factory foods and we ve witnessed a growing epidemic of disease, from type-2 diabetes to heart disease and cancer. It s now clear that the food revolution was flawed. Saturated fat is not the cause of heart disease or diabetes. Far more likely causes are sugar and refined carbohydrates, low-fat spreads and vegetable oils. The really healthy foods turn out to be the ones our grandparents knew to be the best. There s a simple remedy. We can make sure that the meat, dairy foods and eggs we buy come from animals grazing on or running in pasture. This will also put life back into our soils and wildlife back into our fields and hedgerows. This book is an urgent manifesto for grass-fed foods for your health and for the planet."

Getting Back the Food We Deserve

Grass-Fed Nation

Jon Davies

Wilfred G. E. Watson

To mark the retirement of John F. A. Sawyer, Professor of Religious Studies in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, colleagues and former students from around the world have contributed studies on his areas of interest: the study of Hebrew, the books of the Jewish Bible, and the culture and traditions of Judaism. The essayists consider not simply the origin of the meaning of word and text, but also the many and strange ways in which word and text become transposed, re-oriented and often enough traduced by later interests and purposes. The roll call of scholars reads: Philip Alexander, Francis Andersen, Graeme Auld, Calvin Carmichael, Robert Carroll, David Clines, Richard Coggins, Jon Davies, Philip Davies, James Dunn, John Elwolde, John Gibson, Graham Harvey, Peter Hayman, Dermot Killingley, Jonathan Magonet, Robert Morgan, Takamitsu Muraoka, Christopher Rowland, Deborah Sawyer, Clyde Curry Smith, Max Sussman, William Telford, Marc Vervenne, Wilfred Watson, Keith Whitelam and Isabel Wollaston.

Essays in Honour of John F.A. Sawyer

Words Remembered, Texts Renewed

Chas Clifton

Paganism is one of the world's fastest-growing religions, practised in a huge variety of ways. The Paganism Reader provides a definitive collection of key sources in Paganism, ranging from its ancient origins to its twentieth-century reconstruction and revival. Chronologically organized sections include extracts from ancient Greek, Norse and Celtic literature, inspirational texts from the early twentieth-century, writings by leaders of the Pagan revival, and newer perspectives showing the diversity of Paganism today. Witchcraft, nature religion, shamanism and goddess worship are considered, as is the influence of environmental and feminist movements. Fully introduced, with editors' prefaces to all extracts and suggestions for further reading, this comprehensive book is an invaluable guide to Paganism and critical issues in its study.

The Paganism Reader

This is an essential tribute to the vitality and breadth of shamanic tradition both amongst the most distant tribes of America and Asia, and within seemingly ordinary aspects of modern western culture.

A Reader

Shamanism

Graham Harvey explains how the plants we eat should be full of health-giving minerals drawn from a fertile soil. Yet today's agriculture, so reliant on nitrate fertilizers and monoculture, has impoverished the soil, while the quality of much modern industrially packaged food is lacking in both taste and nutritional value.

The Local Food Lover's Bible

We Want Real Food

The insider's guide to Ambridge life is back for a special 60th Anniversary edition, fully-updated and packed with indispensable facts about the nation's favourite village. Whether it's information about an on-going relationship you're looking for - or a background briefing on a new character - Who's Who in The Archers is for you. Within these pages you'll find a wealth of essential detail about: The young entrepreneur whose business is "forging ahead" Members of the thriving Ambridge Book Club The threat to Pat's organic dairy business The wild food menu item that's causing ructions at The Bull Now in its 60th glorious year, the world's longest running drama series is a part of national life. Whether you're a new-comer to the village or you've been visiting for years, you'll want to keep this handy-sized reference guide close by. Who's Who in The Archers is certain to help you enjoy Ambridge life to the full.

Graham Harvey

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