LEWIS, I.: SYMBOLS AND SENTIMENTS. CROSS-CULTURAL STUDIES IN SYMBOLISM. , 1977, x 300 p. Encuadernacion original. Nuevo.

Symbols and Sentiments: Cross-cultural Studies in Symbolism

Politics & Social Sciences

STANISLAV GROF

I. M. Lewis

Alfred Gell

Charles Rycroft

Gillbert Lewis

Pamela Constantinides

Serge Larose

Abner Cohen

Social Sciences

ACADEMIC PRESS INC.(LONDON) LTD

First published in 1971, Ecstatic Religion was hailed as a modern classic. In this second edition, Professor Lewis offers us a new introduction in which he answers his critics and defines his current position in the field.

Ecstatic Religion: An Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism

Anthropology

Penguin??Books

This series of Classics in African Anthropology is primarily drawn from a distinct family of texts which dominated the academic analysis of society in mid-20th century Africa. The texts reproduced are significant yet often neglected, and have stood the test of time. New edition of I.M. Lewis's classic 1961 study of pastoralism in Somalia, published in association with the International African Institute North America: Transaction Books; Germany: Lit Verlag

A Pastoral Democracy: Study of Pastoralism and Politics Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa (Classics in African Anthropology)

Literature & Fiction

World Literature

James Currey

This collection of essays, based on first-hand anthropological field research spanning many years, brings together in a single volume the author's collected material on characteristics of popular Islam amongst the Somali of the Horn of Africa. The tension between mystically mediated views of man's relation to God and more ritualistic interpretations of region provides the main focus of this book-Sufism on the one hand, and skeptical criticism of this mystical understanding of Islam on the other. A universal religion here, as elsewhere, Islam has its own local emphasis and special features, and in these investigations of the cult of saints, the reader is introduced to an array of Somali saints and holy men, their reputation for mystical powers, and the pathways to veneration. The repertoire includes clan ancestors, local holy men of outstanding piety, and famous pan-Islamic figures. These essays also look at some popular practices which are at the margins of orthodox religion, such as spirit possession cults associated primarily with women. Lewis' introductory essay to this volume deserves special attention. In it he challenges single strand theories on the cult of saints espoused by some scholars and non scholars, and sets the stage for the presentation of an intricate and integrated picture of Muslim beliefs and practice among the Somali. Rigorous, outspoken, and backing his arguments with reflections based on a lifetime of research and scholarship, Lewis makes a major contribution to understanding the place and role of religion in Somali society.

Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-Based Society

Red Sea Press

This book analyzes crucial episodes in the recent political history of the Somali people. In their complicated dialogue with modernity , the Somalis illustrate the extremes of modern African statehood. In contemporary Somalia which, for twenty years has not been a functional political reality, they have produced a failed state par excellence. In the neighboring and smaller Somaliland Republic, however, they have achieved what is widely regarded as one of the more effective states in the continent. Ironically while dysfunctional Somalia, despite its collapse, is still internationally recognized, functional Somaliland has yet to receive formal recognition. The successful political integration achieved in Somaliland is the result of a long-drawn out process of indigenous, low budget, grass-roots peace-making and nation-building , without parallel in Somalia. There, the peace-process , has chiefly been the work of external agencies (at huge cost), with insufficient knowledge of, and sensitivity to, local structures and processes. Somalia is still vainly seeking peace but the process has been profoundly complicated by the invasion of Saudi fundamentalist movements such as al-Shabaab , with its al-Quaeda associations, and global jihadist aspirations. Local Somali Islamists tend to react hostilely to these extremists whom they regard as attempting to exploit the poverty and backwardness of their country for their own purposes, and with little concern for genuine Somali interests. The conflict between these fundamentalists and traditional Sufi Muslims is currently a major source of internal disunity and fuels Somalia s notoriety as a potential haven for international terrorism. The traditionally based piracy, which in the present destitute circumstances of the unemployed in Puntland (in the north-east of the country), has become a major local industry, adds to the very negative image of Somalia as a failed state, a country that can neither provide for nor protect and police its starving citizens. This is a terrible conclusion to a process of political modernization which started with such verve and promise.

Making and Breaking States in Africa: The Somali Experience. by Ioan M. Lewis

Red Sea Press(NJ)

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Books by I. M. Lewis