Connecting and Correcting is a case study of Sami healers in Porsanger, Finnmark, Norway, and focuses on two Coastal Sami healers, their worldview and healing practices. The cultural and historic... Show moreConnecting and Correcting is a case study of Sami healers in Porsanger, Finnmark, Norway, and focuses on two Coastal Sami healers, their worldview and healing practices. The cultural and historic context of Sami healing practices is explored, most notably Sami folk beliefs, the Laestadian branch of Lutheranism, and the changes in the discourse on the noaidi, a Sami term that is often translated as __shaman__. Healers today may be connected historically to the noaidi of the past, but they cannot be identified with the noaidi. The healers are Christian and conceive of their healing gift as a special connection to God. This gift resembles important Laestadian concepts. In Laestadianism the __congregation of the reborn__ holds the Keys to Heaven, which are the binding and unbinding keys received from the Savior. Having inherited the gift the healer can diagnose; bodily experiences, visions and/or thoughts are their guide. The leading principle for Sami healers, their __inside__ knowledge, is that a __correct connection__ is required. The local discourse concerning healers active during the twentieth century, shows that expectations are quite consistent, most notably healers can prophesize and render immobile. These were features already recorded by Schefferus (1674) and Laestadius (1843). Show less
"Grounding the Past" addresses archaeological field praxis and its role in the political present of Santiago Tilantongo and Santiago Apoala, two communities in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca,... Show more"Grounding the Past" addresses archaeological field praxis and its role in the political present of Santiago Tilantongo and Santiago Apoala, two communities in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, Mexico. Efforts to involve local stakeholder communities in archaeology have become an important issue worldwide. In this study, Alexander Geurds argues that projects of participatory archaeology, many of which go under the heading of ‘community archaeology’, cannot dispense with reflexive analysis of field praxis, if they are to avoid idealized and thus untenable narratives of harmonious local collaboration. Past and present archaeological praxis often carries negative connotations in the Mixteca Alta, because archaeological projects have failed to recognize conflicting interests and issues of representation of local and non-local parties. Geurds reviews the constitutive elements of their partnerships, such as official meetings, public presentations and conferences, where the involved local and non-local parties produce conflicting agendas by creating and transforming power relations. He identifies and analyzes the attendant influences on participatory elements through the application of qualitative techniques derived from ethnography and social geography. The first part of the book follows an approach consistent with consistent with the regional archaeological tradition focused on materialist analysis of surface artefacts. Information derived from surface surveying and mapping receives special emphasis. The second part explores alternative means for embedding the production of historical knowledge into local perceptions of landscape and monuments. For this purpose, oral history and in particular knowledge of local placenames is focused on. Show less
How do multinationals respond to political risk? Especially in non-Western countries, foreign investors are frequently confronted with political insecurity. This book takes a close look at the... Show moreHow do multinationals respond to political risk? Especially in non-Western countries, foreign investors are frequently confronted with political insecurity. This book takes a close look at the relationship between multinational corporations and political factors in early twentieth-century China, when political change in this country was highly dramatic. Revolutions and war tore apart many of the traditions of imperial China, and threatened the interests of foreign companies in one of the world's most promising markets. This study focuses on the interests of Dutch firms and their response to political risk in China before the Pacific War. This includes very large corporations that are again active in the Chinese market today, such as Shell, Philips, Unilever, and ABN-Amro. Their behaviour in China up to 1941 is analysed and explained in order to gain a better understanding of the attitude of foreign investors towards political developments during a turbulent and formative phase in Chinese history. Show less
