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Includes stories about family and social roles and lay and monastic values.
Includes stories about family and social roles and lay and monastic values.
Cecilia Valdés is arguably the most important novel of 19th century Cuba. Originally published in New York City in 1882, Cirilo Villaverde's novel has fascinated readers inside and outside Cuba since the late 19th century. In this new English translation, a vast landscape emerges of the moral, political, and sexual depravity caused by slavery and colonialism. Set in the Havana of the 1830s, the novel introduces us to Cecilia, a beautiful light-skinned mulatta, who is being pursued by the son of a Spanish slave trader, named Leonardo. Unbeknownst to the two, they are the children of the same father. Eventually Cecilia gives in to Leonardo's advances; she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. When Leonardo, who gets bored with Cecilia after a while, agrees to marry a white upper class woman, Cecilia vows revenge. A mulatto friend and suitor of hers kills Leonardo, and Cecilia is thrown into prison as an accessory to the crime. For the contemporary reader Helen Lane's masterful translation of Cecilia Valdés opens a new window into the intricate problems of race relations in Cuba and the Caribbean. There are the elite social circles of European and New World Whites, the rich culture of the free people of color, the class to which Cecilia herself belonged, and then the slaves, divided among themselves between those who were born in Africa and those who were born in the New World, and those who worked on the sugar plantation and those who worked in the households of the rich people in Havana. Cecilia Valdés thus presents a vast portrait of sexual, social, and racial oppression, and the lived experience of Spanish colonialism in Cuba.
On these pages we meet adventurous princes, romantic princesses, wily peasants, tricky animals--and an abundance of monsters, djinns, gods, goddesses, and powerful magicians. In colorful, exotic settings reminiscent of The Arabian Nights, brave heroes and virtuous heroines triumph over the forces of evil, often with fantastical or comic results. These folktales, collected orally in the desert state of Rajasthan in 1986-87, are eloquent reflections of the great cultural traditions of India, and are stories that bring enchantment to audiences everywhere.
Why did hagiographers of the late Middle Ages praise mothers for abandoning small children? How did a group of female mystics come to define themselves as "apostles to the dead" and end by challenging God's right to damn? Why did certain heretics around 1300 venerate a woman as the Holy Spirit incarnate and another as the Angelic Pope? In From Virile Woman to WomanChrist, Barbara Newman asks these and other questions to trace a gradual and ambiguous transition in the gender strategies of medieval religious women. An egalitarian strain in early Christianity affirmed that once she asserted her commitment to Christ through a vow of chastity, monastic profession, or renunciation of family ties, a woman could become "virile," or equal to a man. While the ideal of the "virile woman" never disappeared, another ideal slowly evolved in medieval Christianity. By virtue of some gender-related trait—spotless virginity, erotic passion, the capacity for intense suffering, the ability to imagine a feminine aspect of the Godhead—a devout woman could be not only equal, but superior to men; without becoming male, she could become a "womanChrist," imitating and representing Christ in uniquely feminine ways. Rooted in women's concrete aspirations and sufferings, Newman's "womanChrist" model straddles the bounds of orthodoxy and heresy to illuminate the farther reaches of female religious behavior in the Middle Ages. From Virile Woman to WomanChrist will generate compelling discussion in the fields of medieval literature and history, history of religion, theology, and women's studies.
Hinduism is the world’s third largest and most ancient religion. The scope of this book ranges from the ancient history of Hinduism to the contemporary issues that Hindus face today. It explores the Hindu history, society, philosophy, theology, and culture. In addition to Hinduism, this book also touches upon religious traditions with which Hindus have had extensive interaction, such as Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Hinduism contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1,000 cross-referenced entries on deities, historical figures, festivals, philosophical terms, ritual implements, and much more. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Hinduism.
Presenting selected histories in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, this work discusses: political and economic issues; marriage practices, motherhood and enslavement; and religious beliefs and spiritual development. Famous women, including Hatshepsut, Hortensia, Aisha, Hildegard of Bingen and Sei Shonangan, are discussed as well as lesser known and anonymous women. Both primary and secondary source readings are included.
Have you ever had an ache or pain, and wished your body could talk to you and tell you what was wrong? You're not alone! Master storyteller Nancy Mellon, author of Body Eloquence, has guided scores of people through the process of giving their bodies a voice. Drawing from mythology, medicine, biology and energetic healing, she finds the essential stories that characterize each organ of the human body, and trains us how to use these resources to identify the messages that our organs are communicating to us.The heart, for instance, is not just a durable pump, sending oxygenated blood to every cell. It's also a representation of goodwill; a heart-to-heart connection, or an openhearted friend, are universal stories we can all identify. But a hard-hearted person is one we all avoid. These archetypes are found in mythologies from Native American traditions to Scandinavian tribes to Greek history, and are woven together in a fascinating matrix in Body Eloquence, showing how our organs are part of our psyche, our history, and our collective mythology.
Unlike many other ancient mythologies, Hinduism thrives in the modern world. One billion followers and countless others have been captivated by its symbolic representations of love, karma, and reincarnation. Handbook of Hindu Mythology offers an informative introduction to this dauntingly complex mythology of multifaceted deities, lengthy heroic tales, and arcane philosophies-all with a 3,000-year history of reinterpretations and adaptations. Williams offers a number of pathways by which to approach Hinduism's ever-changing gods and goddesses (e.g., Brahma, Vishnu, Siva), spiritual verses (such as the vedas), secular epics (including the Ramayana and the Mahabharata), myths within myths, devotional and esoteric traditions, psychic and yogic disciplines, and magical practices. With this handbook, readers can explore the history of Hindu mythology, follow a detailed timeline of key episodes and historical events, and look up specific elements of historical or contemporary Hinduism in a beautifully illustrated reference work. It is the ideal introduction to the origins of Hinduism, the culture that shaped it from antiquity to the present, and the age-old stories, ideas, and traditions that speak to the human condition as eloquently today as ever. Including annotated bibliographies, a glossary of cultural and mythological terms, and numerous illustrations, here is a gold mine of information on Hindu mythology. "
In Courtesans and Tantric Consorts, Serinity Young takes the reader on a journey through more than 2000 years of Buddhist history, revealing the colourful mosaic of beliefs that inform Buddhist views about gender and sexuality.