Duran Bell and Cynthia Werner From the earliest days of the field, economic anthropologists have observed that material objects often are imbued with sacred qualities whose values can never be reduced to material necessity or monetary equivalent. In 2002, the Society for Economic Anthropology hosted a conference to reconsider these ideas in the world today. We invited Professor Maurice Godelier...

Dynamic psychology is based on a concept of mind that is opposed to mechanism and the cause/effect relationship; indeed, it is essentially phenomenological and is founded on a system of principles articulated according to the mind/body itinerary. As such, dynamic psychology is based on the dynamics of the unconscious, the principle of field in terms of conflict and communication, the superficia...

The ancient Maya, like many other early cultures, developed a body of beliefs and myths on which they based their explanations for the origin and order of the cosmos. Everything that exists and happens was understood as the action of invisible and impalpable divine energies, beings or deities, who found representation through art and whose exploits were told in the sacred books. Some gods dealt...

Feel lonely? What about reading books? Book is one of the greatest friends to accompany while in your lonely time. When you have no friends and activities somewhere and sometimes, reading book can be a great choice. This is not only for spending the time, it will increase the knowledge. Of course the b=benefits to take will relate to what kind of book that you are reading. And now, we will conc...

i had an opportunity to translate the two most famous letters of imam ‘alī (a.s.) in nahj al-balāghah (peak of eloquence), the famous collection of the preaching and letters of imam ‘alī and one of the most sacred books of shia islam after the qur‘an, from arabic into japanese. one of them is his letter to imam ḥasan, his eldest son and the second imam, and the other is an appointment letter to...

Arabic language is the most spoken languages in the Semitic languages group, and one of the most common languages in the world spoken by more than 422 million. It is also of paramount importance to Muslims, it is a sacred language of the Islamic Holly Book (Quran) and prayer (and other acts of worship) in Islam is performed only by mastering some of Arabic words. Arabic is also a major ritual l...

Sacred values, such as those associated with religious or ethnic identity, underlie many important individual and group decisions in life, and individuals typically resist attempts to trade off their sacred values in exchange for material benefits. Deontological theory suggests that sacred values are processed based on rights and wrongs irrespective of outcomes, while utilitarian theory suggest...

The ancient Maya, like many other early cultures, developed a body of beliefs and myths on which they based their explanations for the origin and order of the cosmos. Everything that exists and happens was understood as the action of invisible and impalpable divine energies, beings or deities, who found representation through art and whose exploits were told in the sacred books. Some gods dealt...