SanterÃa is an African-inspired; Cuban diaspora religion long stigmatized as witchcraft and often dismissed as superstition; yet its spirit- and possession-based practices are rapidly winning adherents across the world. Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús introduces the term "copresence" to capture the current transnational experience of SanterÃa; in which racialized and gendered spirits; deities; priests; and religious travelers remake local; national; and political boundaries and reconfigure notions of technology and transnationalism.Drawing on eight years of ethnographic research in Havana and Matanzas; Cuba; and in New York City; Miami; Los Angeles; and the San Francisco Bay area; Beliso-De Jesús traces the phenomenon of copresence in the lives of SanterÃa practitioners; mapping its emergence in transnational places and historical moments and its ritual negotiation of race; imperialism; gender; sexuality; and religious travel. SanterÃa's spirits; deities; and practitioners allow digital technologies to be used in new ways; inciting unique encounters through video and other media. Doing away with traditional perceptions of SanterÃa as a static; localized practice or as part of a mythologized "past;" this book emphasizes the religion's dynamic circulations and calls for nontranscendental understandings of religious transnationalisms.
#1146590 in Books Xiang Liu 2014-01-28Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 5.00 x 1.00l; 1.05 #File Name: 0231163096384 pagesExemplary Women of Early China
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Moral EducationBy John S. MajorFor more than 2;000 years the Lienü zhuan (“Categorized Biographies of Womenâ€) played a central role in the education of young women; teaching them the norms of behavior that Confucian society demanded of them. They learned to be modest and self-effacing; yielding gracefully to their fathers; brothers; and husbands and avoiding anything that would bring discredit to their families. They learned that death was preferable to dishonor; and that suicide was an honorable way out of situations that offered only bad moral choices. Young women; generation after generation; learned to emulate the conspicuous virtues of the exemplary women depicted in these pages; and to shrink in horror from (though perhaps they were secretly fascinated by) the counter-examples of “bad†women; like the sexually voracious serial widow Lady Xia Ji. Anne Kinney’s graceful and faithful translation of this important text is both instructive and entertaining; these biographies make wonderful stories. Her extensive introduction places the work in context; her voluminous notes enhance the biographies but do not get in their way. This is an indispensible guide to the position of women in imperial China; and a fascinating read.7 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Women in Ancient ChinaBy E. N. AndersonThis is a fantastic job. The translation is very readable (I don't have the original by me to check for accuracy but it seems extremely good). The introduction is a really superior job of putting the book in context. This is a must-read for anyone interested in China or in the status of women in early societies. The stories often reflect incredible courage in the face of a society not only very sexist by modern standards; but pretty blood-drenched by any standards; including its own. The book causes me to speculate at great length; but; being a nonexpert in this field; I will spare the reader and confine myself to recommending the book.
