Heart of Lightness: The Life Story of an Anthropologist / Edition 1

by Edith L. B. Turner

Overview

"Edith and Victor Turner were among the most influential researchers and teachers and social and cultural anthropology in the twentieth century. Together they, and Edie alone after Vic's death, raised the idea of participant observation (and indeed of team learning) to heights and depth most anthropologists never achieve." [From the Foreword]

This fascinating memoir is a lively testimony to a remarkable partnership and to Edie Turner's own achievements during more than two decades after Victor's untimely death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845451264
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	11/01/2006
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Edith L. B. Turner was on the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia. She specialized in ritual, religion, healing, and aspects of consciousness, and had done fieldwork among the Ndembu of Zambia, in Mexico, among the Iñupiat of Alaska, and in rural Ireland. Her numerous publications include The Spirit and the Drum (1987), Experiencing Ritual: A New Interpretation of African Healing (1992), and Among the Healers: Stories of Ritual and Spiritual Healing around the World (2005).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements

Foreword
Ronald Frankenberg

Introduction: A Strangely Directed Path

Chapter 1. Childhood: Leading to Wordsworth’s Presences
Chapter 2. Courtship and Marriage: Wild Life Force
Chapter 3. The First Brush with Anthropology
Chapter 4. Africa: Head over Heels into Ritual
Chapter 5. Hairpin Bend
Chapter 6. A Center Out There: Following the Mexican Pilgrim’s Instinct
Chapter 7. Wandering in the Path of a Vision: Ireland
Chapter 8. Back and Forth: Experiencing Four Religions
Chapter 9. The Loss of My Life Mate: I was Broken in Half but Had to Become a Whole Person
Chapter 10. Returning to Africa: Another Door Opens to the Soul
Chapter 11. Searching for Healing: The Arctic
Chapter 12. From the Inuit to the Celts: Returning to Ireland
Chapter 13. A Small Spiritual Group: Cloud Nine
Chapter 14. Up Front and Arguing: The Spiritual Direction Institute
Chapter 15. Unknown Realms
Chapter 16. Ely

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

“…a bright and very personal journey into the work and life of Edith Turner…an important text for those interested in humanistic anthropology and the life of a remarkable anthropologist that has contributes to the study of ritual, religion, healing, consciousness and many other subjects.  ·  Social Anthropology

From the Publisher