Author: Robert G. Hamerton-Kelly File Type: pdf Burkert, Girard, and Smith hold important and contradictory theories about the nature and origin of ritual sacrifice, and the role violence plays in religion and culture. These papers and conversations derive from a conference that pursued the possibility and utility of a general theory of religion and culture, especially one based on violence. The special value of this volume is the conversations as suchthe real record of working scholars engaged with one anothers theories, as they make and meet challenges, and move and maneuver. Girard and Burkert present different versions of the same conviction that a single theory can account for ritual and its social function, a theory that posits original acts of group violence. Smith sharply questions both the possibility and the utility of such a general theory. Among the highlights of this stimulating interchange of ideas is a searching criticism of Girards theory of generative scapegoating, which he answers with clarity and conviction, and a challenging of Burkerts theory of the origin of sacrifice in the hunt by Smiths argument, posed as a jeu desprit, that sacrifice originates with the domestication of animals. **

Author: Herbert G. Ruffin Ii File Type: pdf Between 1940 and 2010, the black population of the American West grew from 710,400 to 7 million. With that explosive growth has come a burgeoning interest in the history of the African American Westan interest reflected in the remarkable range and depth of the works collected in Freedoms Racial Frontier. Editors Herbert G. Ruffin II and Dwayne A. Mack have gathered established and emerging scholars in the field to create an anthology that links past, current, and future generations of African American West scholarship. The volumes sixteen chapters address the African American experience within the framework of the West as a multicultural frontier. The result is a fresh perspective on western-U.S. history, centered on the significance of African American life, culture, and social justice in almost every trans-Mississippi state. Examining and interpreting the twentieth century while mindful of events and developments since 2000, the contributors focus on community formation, cultural diversity, civil rights and black empowerment, and artistic creativity and identity. Reflecting the dynamic evolution of new approaches and new sites of knowledge in the field of western history, the authors consider its interconnections with fields such as cultural studies, literature, and sociology. Some essays deal with familiar places, while others look at understudied sites such as Albuquerque, Oahu, and Las Vegas, Nevada. By examining black suburbanization, the Information Age, and gentrification in the urban West, several authors conceive of a Third Great Migration of African Americans to and within the West. The West revealed in Freedoms Racial Frontier is a place where black Americans have foughtand continue to fightto make their idea of freedom live up to their expectations of equality a place where freedom is still a frontier for most persons of African heritage. **