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The building of human towers (castells) is a centuries-old traditional sport where hundreds of men, women, and children gather in Catalan squares to create breathtaking edifices through a feat of collective athleticism. The result is a great spectacle of effort and overcoming, tension and release. Catalonia's Human Towers is an ethnographic look at the thriving castells practice--a symbol of Catalan cultural heritage and identity amid debates around national autonomy and secession from Spain. While the main function of building castells is to grow community through a low-cost, intergenerational, and inclusive leisure activity, Mariann Vaczi reveals how this unique sport also provides a social base, image, and vocabulary for the independence movement. Highlighting the intersection of folklore, performance, and sport, Catalonia's Human Towers captures the subtle processes by which the body becomes politicized and ideology becomes embodied, with all the desires, risks and precarities of collective constructions.
Squeezed between more powerful France and Spain, Catalonia has endured a violent history. Its medieval empire that conquered Naples, Sicily and Athens was crushed by Spain. Its geography, with the Pyrenees falling sharply to the rugged Costa Brava, is tormented, too. Michael Eaude traces this history and its monuments: Roman Tarragona, celebrated by the poet Martial; Greek Empuries, lost for centuries beneath the sands; medieval Romanesque architecture in the Vall de Boi churches (a World Heritage Site) and Poblet and Santes Creus monasteries. He tells the stories of several of Catalonia's great figures: Abbot Oliva, who brought Moorish learning to Europe, the ruthless mercenary, Roger de Flor, and Verdaguer, handsome poet-priest. Catalonia is famous today for its twentieth-century art. This book focuses on the revolutionary Art Nouveau buildings (including the Sagrada Familia) of Antoni Gaudi. It also explores the region's artistic legacy: the young Picasso painting Barcelona’s vibrant slums; Salvador Dali, inspired by the twisted rocks of Cap de Creus to paint his landscapes of the human mind; and Joan Miro, discovering the colours of the red earth at Montroig.
Eyewitness Travel Guides are the original illustrated travel guidebooks-and they're still the best. Since 1993, the Eyewitness brand has established itself as one of the industry leaders, with sales of more than 6.5 million copies in the U.S. alone. Featuring more than 70 worldwide destinations, new titles are being added to the best-selling Eyewitness Travel Guides series each year. In 2003, to mark the 10th anniversary of the publication of Eyewitness Travel Guides, DK is re-launching the entire series, fully updated, and with a brand-new look.
For 78 days in the summer of 1990, Canadians were transfixed by the dramatic images of Mohawk warriors in an armed standoff with the Quebec police and the Canadian army. It was a crisis that paralyzed an entire province, gripped the nation's imagination, and forever transformed the politics of aboriginal people in Canada. People of the Pines is the insider's account of the amazing events at Oka and Kahnawake in the hot summer of 1990. Written by two journalists who lived at the warrior encampment in the final weeks of the military siege; -It contains a memorable portrait of the strange and fascinating characters who plotted the warrior strategy. - It explores the ideological training grounds of the Warrior Society and hotbeds of Mohawk nationalism that continue to supply hundreds of new recruits for warrior movement. - It describes the 270 year dispute over the land at Oka and the stubborn men and women who led that fight, inspiring their grandchildren and great-grandchildren who stood together in the Pines in 1990. - It investigates the little-known history of armed conflict and guerrilla warfare at Oka and Kahnawake. - And it contains some surprising new revelations about gun-smuggling, psychological warfare, secret meetings and private deals at the highest levels of Canada's political and military circles. People of the Pines is an unforgettable saga of intense human drama and military intrigue. It tells a compelling story of the uncompromising idealists and powerful personalities who forced Canada to confront the new reality of aboriginal people in this country today.
In Ernest Games Carl Lindahl recovers a folkloric world long hidden from readers of Chaucer. Lindahl is the first critic to demonstrate how the poem reflects the social and artistic patterns of medieval folk performance. Combining current approaches from the fields of literary criticism, social history, and folklore, Earnest Games begins with a study of Chaucer's setting and characters. Lindahl discovers that Chaucer gives each community -- the gentils, the churls, and the pilgrims -- a game strategy that faithfully reflects the social realities of the English Middle Ages.
This volume examines the cultural policy of the Catalan Autonomous Government under the leadership of Jordi Pujol and his party, Convergència I Unió, who were in power from the post-Franco transitional period through Pujol's retirement in 2003. Examining issues of national identity and cultural nationalism in the context of globalization, multiculturalism, and the commodifications of culture, this book looks at how Pujol's government tackled these challenges. In addition, Kathryn Crameri analyzes the impact of devolved government on the promotion and preservation of minority cultures and the contradictions inherent in a world where national boundaries are supposedly diminishing.
Covers sights, hotels, restaurants, shopping, entertainment, and maps. Provides information that places Spain in geographical, historical and culture context.
The author of the Exorcism of Anneliese Michel “is to be commended for a stimulating and wide-reaching treatment of a compelling and much-debated subject” (Journal of Folklore Research). As part of a series that strives to introduce new or previously unrecognized folkloric phenomena—as well as new approaches and theories that result from discovery and investigation—How About Demons? provides an overview of a topic that has for many years captured the imagination of people from all walks of life. Rich in detail derived from the author’s fieldwork and anthropological literature, this work contemplates possession and exorcism in a holistic manner—discussing their effects on both the body and soul. How About Demons? paints a picture of possession as a usually positive experience occurring in a wide variety of cultures and religions around the globe. It also details the ritual of exorcism which is applied when things go wrong. “Quite an interesting book.”—Religious Studies Review “It is by far superior to anything else on demons we have seen in the past few years.”—The American Rationalist