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House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest
A feat of historical detection--the most significant, andcertainly the most enthralling, book on American prehistory to appear indecades The greatest "unsolved mystery" of the American Southwest relates to theAnasazi, the native peoples who by the 11th century converged on ChacoCanyon (now New Mexico) and built a flourishing cultural center thatattracted pilgrims from far and wide, a vital crossroads of the prehistoricworld. The Anasazis' accomplishments--in agriculture, in art, in commerce,in architecture and engineering--were astounding, rivaling those of theMayans in distant Central America. By the 13th century, however, the Anasazi were gone from Chaco. Vanished.What was it--drought? pestilence? war? forced migration? mass murder orsuicide? Craig Childs draws on scholarly research and a lifetime ofadventure and exploration in the American Southwest to pursue the mysteryof their disappearance. Considering many possibilities, he points the wayto a new understanding of how a vibrant civilization collapsed..
Price: $13.40
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Primitive Technology II: Ancestral Skill - From the Society of Primitive Technology
The Stone Age is the common denominator of mankind, and through experimental archeology-the relearning and replication of ancient skills-we take a step of discovery and understanding into this rich past. In this collection, drawn from the pages of the Bulletin of Primitive Technology, learn to create tools to fabricate more complex technologies; master the arts of the bow and arrow; build a shelter or fashion clothing from fibers or buckskin. < BR> Primitive Technology II: Ancestral Skills provides the guide to rediscovery of the skills and crafts that bind us all into this great human family. < BR> David Wescott is author of Camping in the Old Style and editor of Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills. Formerly education director for the Boulder Outdoor School, he has been a leading figure in wilderness education for more than thirty years. He lives with his wife in Rexburg, Idaho. < BR>.
Price: $15.63
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Wise Women of the Dreamtime: Aboriginal Tales of the Ancestral Powers
Extending deep into the caverns of humanity's oldest memories, beyond 60,000 years of history and into the Dreamtime, this collection of Australian Aboriginal myths has been passed down through the generations by tribal storytellers. The myths were compiled at the turn of the century by K. Langloh Parker, one of the first Europeans to realize their significance and spiritual sophistication. Saved from drowning by Aboriginal friends when she was just a child, Parker subsequently gained unique access to Aboriginal women and to stories that had previously eluded anthropologists. In the stories, women tell of their own initiations and ceremonies, the origins and destiny of humanity, and the behavioral codes for society. Included are stories of child-rearing practices, young love in adversity, the dangers of invoking the spiritual powers, the importance of social sharing, the role of women in male conflicts, the dark feminine, and the transformational power of language. Wise Women of the Dreamtime allows us to participate in the world's oldest stories and to begin a new dream of harmony between human society and nature. .
Price: $7.52
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Understanding Chinese Characters by Their Ancestral Forms
The reader will discover that it takes little effort and imagination to understand the most common and widely used characters Ping-gam Go provides a full-color photo survey of San Francisco s Chinatown and a dictionary of 288 Chinese characters, each entry contains the Mandarin and Cantonese pronunciations, ancestral pictograph, traditional Chinese character and English definition. Dozens of practice exercises and flashcards are provided to assist in memorization of the meanings of the signs in Chinatown..
Price: $8.98
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Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales
Foreword by Vigen Guroian Widely regarded as the founder of the modern conservative movement, Russell Kirk was a noted man of letters whose prodigious literary career included a syndicated newspaper column and a regular page in National Review. This volume demonstrates another compelling side of Kirk the imaginative author who could communicate his powerful vision through the dramatic genre of the ghost story. Ancestral Shadows collects nineteen of Kirk's best ghostly tales from periodicals and anthologies published throughout his life. In the tradition of Defoe, Stevenson, Hawthorne, Coleridge, Poe, and other master writers, these frightful stories conjure the creaks and shadows of the very places where they came to life through Kirk's pen: haunted St. Andrews, the Isle of Eigg, Kellie Castle, Balcarres House, Durie House ("which has the most persistent of all country-house specters"), and Kirk's own ancestral spooky house in Mecosta, Michigan. The volume ends with "A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale," an incisive piece in which Kirk reflects on why he writes such stories." All important literature has some ethical end," Kirk says, "and the tale of the preternatural as written by George Macdonald, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and other masters can be an instrument for the recovery of moral order." Masterfully crafted, Kirk's Ancestral Shadows will enthrall and delight all lovers of ghost stories..
Price: $4.59
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Ancestral Trails. The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History, Second Edition
his is the second edition of the book that has been called the Bible of British genealogy. Originally published in 1997 in association with the Society of Genealogists (London), and now revised and updated to reflect the latest developments in the field, Ancestral Trails enables the researcher to form a coherent picture of past generations by describing virtually every class of record in every repository and library in Britain. The early chapters help beginners take their first steps by dealing with such matters as obtaining information from living relatives, drawing family trees, and starting research in the records of birth, marriage, and death, or in census records. Later chapters guide researchers to the records that are more difficult to find and use, such as wills, parish records, civil and ecclesiastical court records, poll books, and property records. So the book is ideal for the beginner and the experienced researcher alike, and will enable those who are persistent enough to trace their ancestry back to the Middle Ages..
Price: $26.40
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The Seven Dawns of the Aumakua: The Ancestral Spirit Tradition of Hawaii
An extensive examination of Hawaiian spiritual tradition and its emphasis on ancestral spirits by a descendant of an ancient lineage of Hawaiian priests • Describes the time-honored intergenerational bond between a people and a land that embodies the heart of indigenous spirituality • A powerful and authentic portrait of a culture on the cusp of extinction In Hawaiian spiritual tradition, the sacred bond formed between the land and its people is perpetuated in every new generation by the voices of the ancestors who pass on this inheritance. Just as elders are the intermediaries between these voices and the younger generations, the na aumakua, or ancestral spirits, are the intermediaries between the living and the sacred land they inhabit. In The Seven Dawns of the Aumakua Moke Kupihea takes the reader on his journey from childhood to young manhood as he experiences what remains of the spirit of his ancestors and learns the importance of remembering. The descent of the aumakua and its spiritual link through the eyes, sound, voice, touch, people, and breath constitute its seven dawns--the means by which the author is reawakened to his native tradition. The author’s desire to know this tradition leads him as a young boy to seek out his kupuna--his elders, the old men of the mountains--and learn from them the stories to be found in each feature of the landscape. These men and the people he meets as he grows older became his kahu--his ancestral guardians--who teach him to understand that the world of ancestral voices still speaks, if only in a whisper. Learning how to hear these voices is the key for returning Hawaii to its proud spiritual path and learning to live mindfully and soulfully with the land and with all who have come before us..
Price: $9.60
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