Toward a sociological theory of religion and health
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Driven by funding agencies, empirical research in the social scientific study of health and medicine has grown in quantity and developed in quality. When it became evident, in what is now a tradition of inquiry, that people's religious activities had significant health consequences, a portion of that body of work began to focus more frequently on the relationship between health and religion. The field has reached a point where book-length summaries of empirical findings, especially those pertinent to older people, can identify independent, mediating, and dependent variables of interest. Every mediating variable, even if considered as a "control" variable, represents an explanation, a small theory of some kind. However, taken in granular form, as it were, the multiple theories do not comprise mid-level theory, let alone a general theoretical framework. This volume seeks to move toward more general theoretical development.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004210844 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Difference and disability in the medieval Islamic world : blighted bodies /
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Outlines the complex significance of bodies in the late Medieval central Arab Islamic lands. Did you know that blue eyes, baldness, bad breath and boils were all considered bodily 'blights' by Medieval Arabs, as were cross eyes, lameness and deafness? What assumptions about bodies influenced this particular vision of physical difference? How did blighted people view their own bodies? Through close analyses of anecdotes, personal letters, biographies and autobiographies, erotic poetry, non-binding legal opinions, diaristic chronicles and theological tracts, Kristina Richardson brings the cultural views and experiences of disability and difference in the medieval Islamic world to life. This title investigates the place of physically different, disabled and ill individuals in medieval Islam. It is organised around the lives and works of 6 Muslim men, each highlighting a different aspect of bodily difference. It addresses broad cultural questions relating to social class, religious orthodoxy, moral reputation, drug use, male homoeroticism and self-representation in the public sphere. It moves towards a coherent theory of medieval disability and bodily aesthetics in Islamic cultural traditions.
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ix,158 page : illustrations ; 25 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references (pages 138-156) and index. :
9780748645077
Ancient Egyptian biographies : contexts, forms, functions /
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"(Auto-)biography is a genre of ancient Egyptian written discourse that was central to high culture from its earliest periods. Belonging to the nonroyal elites, these texts present aspects of individual lives and experience, sometimes as narratives of key events, sometimes as characterizations of personal qualities. Egyptian (auto-) biographies offer a unique opportunity to examine the ways in which individuals fashioned distinctive selves for display and the significance of the physical, religious, and social contexts they selected. 0The present volume brings together specialists from a range of relevant periods, approaches, and interests. The studies collected here examine Egyptian (auto-)biographies from a variety of complementary perspectives: (1) anthropological and contrastive perspectives; (2) the original Old Kingdom settings; (3) text format and language; (4) social dimensions; and (5) religious experience"--
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vii, 342 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9781948488280
Health and ritual in Morocco : conceptions of the body and healing practices /
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In Health and Ritual in Morocco , Josep Lluis Mateo Dieste analyzes the many notions of the body that appear in various Moroccan medical and religious systems. Viewing these issues from anthropological and historical perspectives to the development of Islamic medicine in Morocco, this study highlights the elements of power that define these representations and practices. Mateo Dieste shows that most of the healing rituals challenge the strict division between physical and mental afflictions. Health and Ritual in Morocco provides a valuable structure for understanding Moroccan conceptions of the person, rites of passage, gender differences, and reproductive practices. It offers insights into the weight of the notions of impurity and purification of the body in the daily life of the contemporary Moroccan population.
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Title from PDF title page (viewed on Nov. 7, 2012). :
1 online resource (vi, 366 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004234482 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Urban dreams and realities in antiquity : remains and representations of the ancient city /
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A unique variety of approaches to all aspects of urban culture in the ancient world can be found in Urban Dreams and Realities in Antiquity , a collection of 19 essays addressing ancient cities from an interdisciplinary perspective. As the title indicates, the volume considers both how ancient people lived in their cities as physical structures and how they thought with them as ideas and symbols. Essays in this volume deal with texts and sites from Spain to South India, but there is a particular focus on the archaeology and epigraphy of Roman-era Italy, civic identity in the Roman provinces, the Hebrew Bible and Early Christian literature, Vergil and other imperial Latin authors.
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1 online resource (xiv, 533 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004283893 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.