Kaze Yamazaki is on a mission for revenge. The latest master of a rural sword school, Kaze finds his clansmen murdered and vows to find the men responsible. Blindly rushing into a city built of his dreams and nightmares, Kaze searches the capital city of Vivoura for the killers that made him the last of his clan and finds himself thrust into a power struggle for the continent itself. Followed by a motley crew of thieves and artists, Kaze is recruited by the ruthless Kazzanoff Syndicate. While piecing together the clues of his clans murder, he must survive a constant barrage of mutants and militants pledging allegiance to the mysterious Dog King, Lykos Streuhund. If he can not overcome the monstrosities of the Capital, his clan will die with him.
This book is primarily meant for the general public and the students, who desire to understand the history and culture of their country. Though a general work encompassing historical, cultural, economic, political and administrative features, the book is none the less authentic and authoritative. A Comprehensive History of India is the product of a joint venture undertaken by a group of historians who do not go by conformist views but by critical, objective and analytical assessment of events and developments in accordance with the methodical discipline of scientific research.
What is the role of leadership in society? Why do people surrender their political autonomy to the decision-making authority of leaders and rulers? Why do people follow the commands of their leaders? Who gets to be king/chief/emperor and why? Why are some societies centralized while others are not? The papers in this volume draw on the archaeological record of societies from around the world to address these critical issues in contemporary social science.
This book explores multiple burials, the presence of more than one individual within a grave, within the Viking Age mortuary landscape throughout Scandinavia and the lands of their westward diaspora. Even though a number of spectacular examples have captured the imagination of professionals and the public alike, multiple burials have not been the subject of dedicated and systematic archaeological investigation. By adopting a perspective grounded in relationality and an analysis that centres on three types of beings—humans, animals and things—this book explores the ways in which each being entered into entangled relationships with the other, thereby mutually constituting the nature of their existence in Viking Age minds. For the first time, the corpus of Viking Age multiple burials located across the lands of the Western Scandinavian diaspora and their counterparts in the urban trading centres of Kaupang (Norway) and Hedeby (formerly Denmark) is synthesised into a single study, firmly situating the multiple burial rite within the wider suite of normative burial practices observed across the Viking World. The book meaningfully engages with a developing discourse in the Scandinavian tradition increasingly revealing the fluidity of being across human, animal and thing bodies in Iron Age mentalities and material culture. Ultimately, it poses the question: are humans, animals, and things similar forms of bodies and beings in the Viking World? This book will appeal to students and researchers of death and burial in the Viking World.
In Achaios, thirty-five scholars from six different countries have contributed with thirty-one papers, as a small token of appreciation, gratitude and affection to a true scholar, who devoted his life studying and revealing the long journeys of the Mycenaeans and their culture.
Introduction : beginning to rethink twins / Philip M. Peek -- Twins and double beings among the Bamana and Maninka of Mali / Pascal James Imperato and Gavin H. Imperato -- Twins and intertwinement : reflections on ambiguity and ambivalence in northwestern Namibia / Steven Van Wolputte -- Sustaining the oneness in their twoness : poetics of twin figures (ère ìbejì) among the Yoruba / Babatunde Lawal -- "Son dos los jimagüas" ("the twins are two") : worship of the sacred twins in Lucumí religious culture / Ysamur Flores-Pena -- Twins, couples, and doubles and the negotiation of spirit-human identities among the Win / Susan Cooksey -- Double portraits : images of twinness in West African studio photography / C. Angelo Micheli -- Forever liminal : twins among the Kapsiki/Higi of north Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria / Walter E.A. Van Beek -- Snake, bush, and metaphor : twinship among Ubangians / Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers -- Fiction and forbidden sexual fantasy in the culture of Temne twins / Frederick John Lamp -- Embodied dilemma : Tabwa twinship in thought and performance / Allen F. Roberts -- Children of the moon : twins in Luba art and ontology / Mary Nooter Roberts -- Two equals three : twins and the trickster in Haitian vodou / Marilyn Houlberg -- Divine children : the ibejis and the erês in Brazilian candomblé / Stefania Capone -- The ambiguous ordinariness of Yoruba twins / Elisha P. Renne -- Twins, albinos, and vanishing prisoners : a Mozambican theory of political power / Paulo Granjo.
The ancient city of Teotihuacan, North America’s first metropolis, flourished for nearly eight centuries in central Mexico until its demise in 650 C.E. Known primarily for its massive architecture and monumental wall paintings, the city—and its dazzling artwork—inspired awe in its time, and continues to do so today. Made to Order, the first systematic study of more than 150 painted portable artworks produced in Teotihuacan, offers a unique, deeply informed perspective on the cultural practices and artistic techniques of the largest urban community in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. The painted vessels Cynthia Conides considers—featured here in finely reproduced full-color photographs—constitute nearly the entire body of material now available for analysis. With attention to their origins and provenance, wherever possible, the author views these objects from a range of vantage points, using ceramic chronologies to measure the changing characteristics and cultural significance of pictorial paintings on portable media. Her approach—ranging from stylistic analysis and narrative theory to theoretical perspectives on artistic exchange among artisans living and working in a thriving urban setting—reveals the importance of such objects to a city where social status, and the acquisition and display of its symbols, were paramount. This perspective is in turn grounded in new interpretations of the religious, social, and ritual contexts in which the objects functioned. The most complete analysis of both ceramics from excavations at Teotihuacan and those held in museum collections worldwide, Made to Order will become a standard source for specialists and students of pre-Columbian visual culture and archaeology, and a vital resource for those interested in cross-cultural ceramic studies.
The North European megaliths are among the most enduring structures built in prehistory; they are imbued with symbolic meanings which embody physical and conceptual ideas about the nature of the world inhabited by the first Northern farmers. The Megaliths of Northern Europe provides a much needed up-to-date synthesis of the material available on these monuments, incorporating the results of recent research in Holland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. This research has brought to light new data on the construction of the megaliths and their role in the cultural landscape, and Magdalena Midgley offers a fascinating interpretation of the symbolism of megalithic tombs within the context of early farming communities. This wealth of new evidence suggests the Northern European megaliths were important foci in the wider north-west European context. The construction of dolmens and passage graves, using huge glacial boulders, demanded both great communal effort and considerable skill. In addition to this technical expertise the master builders also made use of their esoteric knowledge of rituals. This was expressed in the use of exotic building materials and special architectural features, and in the placement of tombs within the natural and cultural landscapes, creating new metaphors and images. Fully illustrated, this book will be of interest to both undergraduate and postgraduate students of European Prehistory, Archaeology and Prehistoric Anthropology, as well as architects who study ancient architecture and social anthropologists who study modern megaliths.
"The Silla Kingdom, which flourished in Korea from 57 B.C. to 935 A.D., is known for its intricately crafted ornaments, many in resplendent gold, and for the creation of prominent Buddhist temples. Silla focuses on the striking artistic traditions of the Old and Unified Silla Kingdoms (4th-8th century), and is the first publication in English to explore the artistic and cultural legacy of this ancient realm. Among the topics explored are Korea's position as the eastern culmination of the Silk Road in the first millennium A.D. and the character and evolution of Buddhism, as illuminated by objects from major monuments, temples, and tombs. The book also presents new research about Silla's ancient capital, Gyeongju, which is known for the Gyerim-ro Dagger, as well as the pottery, glass, and beads discovered in tombs located there." -- Publisher's description.
