Memoir of a young American woman living in a rural community in northern Ivory Coast, West Africa. A New York Times Notable Book in 1989. Back in print.
For many, the word Druidry conjures up images of white-robed figures involved in esoteric rituals. But modern Druidry is not wrapped up in a veil of secrecy - it is celebrated openly, in the sunlight of the meadow or the shady leafiness of forest glade. Druids are passionate about the environment, and their worship is above all focused on Nature through the celebration of the changing seasons of the year. Spirits of the Sacred Grove is a very personal journey through the seasons seen through the eyes of a modern female Druid. Emma Restall Orr takes the reader through the cycles of nature, from the chaos of Samhain or Hallowe'en into the dark of winter, through the energy of spring and into the bright summer months - then back through autumn to Samhain. At the same time she acts as a guide along the paths of the sacred rituals. Spirits of the Sacred Grove reveals Druidry as an accessible and compelling spiritual path that offers enormous potential for personal healing and empowerment. Exploring rites of passage and weaving in references to many other spiritual traditions, this book is an intensely rich mixture of the ideas and images of a Pagan Druid priestess.
Although most historical and contemporary religions are governed by men, there are, scattered throughout the world, a handful of well-documented religions led by women. Most of these are marginal, subordinate, or secondary religions in the societies in which they are located. The one known exception to this rule is the indigenous religion of Okinawa, where women lead the official mainstream religion of the society. In this fieldwork-based study, Susan Sered provides the first; in-depth look at this unique religious tradition, exploring the intersection between religion and gender. In addition to providing important information on this remarkable and little-studied group, this book helps to overturn our mostly unexamined assumptions that male dominance of the religious sphere is; universal, axiomatic, and necessary.
In recent years, India's "sacred groves," small forests or stands of trees set aside for a deity's exclusive use, have attracted the attention of NGOs, botanists, specialists in traditional medicine, and anthropologists. Environmentalists disillusioned by the failures of massive state-sponsored solutions to ecological problems have hailed them as an exemplary form of traditional community resource management. For in spite of pressures to utilize their trees for fodder, housing, and firewood, the religious taboos surrounding sacred groves have led to the conservation of pockets of abundant flora in areas otherwise denuded by deforestation. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu over seven years, Eliza F. Kent offers a compelling examination of the religious and social context in which sacred groves take on meaning for the villagers who maintain them, and shows how they have become objects of fascination and hope for Indian environmentalists. Sacred Groves and Local Gods traces a journey through Tamil Nadu, exploring how the localized meanings attached to forested shrines are changing under the impact of globalization and economic liberalization. Confounding simplistic representations of sacred groves as sites of a primitive form of nature worship, the book shows how local practices and beliefs regarding sacred groves are at once more imaginative, dynamic, and pragmatic than previously thought. Kent argues that rather than being ancient in origin, as has been asserted by other scholars, the religious beliefs, practices, and iconography found in sacred groves suggest origins in the politically de-centered eighteenth century, when the Tamil country was effectively ruled by local chieftains. She analyzes two projects undertaken by environmentalists that seek to harness the traditions surrounding sacred groves in the service of forest restoration and environmental education.
Article 10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) acknowledge the protection and encouragement of customary biological resource use in accordance with traditional cultural practices aompatible with conservation. The approach of this book is to focus on sacred groves- the trackionally protected forest fragments and the past and present researches on this important community resource. The chapters presented in this book widely covers biological, social and economic status of the groves, threats arising out of various anthropogenic activities like overexploitation, developmental and mining activities, and encroachments of various types, and the strategies for their effective management. There are 7 chapters in the book, which initiate with background context and methods of field observation recording, followed by an overview of the sacred places, trees andgroves. The remaining chapters describe status of 123 sacred groves distributed troughout Rajasthan, biological diversity and invasions; soil characteristics and carbon status; livelihood and threats; and people perception and management strategies by accommodating the desire of grove dependent communities and level of participation of the local villagers in protecting and conserving these sacred groves. The ultimate objective of this publication is to equip the readers with wide ranging knowledge about the sacred groves and to promote enhanchent of grove tree cover, resilience and livelihoods of the local population and to improve the evironmental conditions of this degrading ecosystem for local, regional and global benefits. It could be useful to the policy makers, forest managers, non-government, organizations, extension agents, environmentalists as well as researchers and academician, who are involved in developing, conserving and managing community resources in benefits of local people. This book however, will be useful to both poliqy makers and researchers equally and will help in effective plannihg and transferring the knowledge in protecting and conserving the groves and promoting groves, socio-economic and ecological values.
In Gardens of the Roman Empire, the pioneering archaeologist Wilhelmina F. Jashemski sets out to examine the role of ancient Roman gardens in daily life throughout the empire. This study, therefore, includes for the first time, archaeological, literary, and artistic evidence about ancient Roman gardens across the entire Roman Empire from Britain to Arabia. Through well-illustrated essays by leading scholars in the field, various types of gardens are examined, from how Romans actually created their gardens to the experience of gardens as revealed in literature and art. Demonstrating the central role and value of gardens in Roman civilization, Jashemski and a distinguished, international team of contributors have created a landmark reference work that will serve as the foundation for future scholarship on this topic. An accompanying digital catalogue will be made available at: www.gardensoftheromanempire.org.
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU ARE SAYING? HOW CAN WE REACH INDIA FROM IRAN? It all started when destiny forced him to leave his village. 13 year old Korbin has no idea where he should go. But life has something in store for him. He ends up in a land he never knew about. But they say, it's where he belongs. Endeavors full of mysticism, beauty and mystery teaches Korbin that the life he used to ignore, now calls him.