Reviews for Durkheim and Violence (International Social Science Journal Monograph Series)

The average rating for Durkheim and Violence (International Social Science Journal Monograph Series) based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-07-04 00:00:00 Akim Jebnouni Max Freedom Long was the preeminent western scholar on Huna, the psychological philosophies of the ancient polynesian culture that incorporated "miraculous" events such as hands on healing, fire/hot lava walking, spirit communication and management, and psychic occurances. This text is a compilation of his case studies and field work that flesh out these spirtual theories. MFL arrived in Hawaii in 1917 as a teacher and became fascinated by accounts of "magic" and the beliefs of some of his Hawaiian friends. Hawaiian history is interesting -- explorer James Cook "discovered" Hawaii in 1778, but the natives had inhabited the islands for thousands of years prior. The native Hawaiian culture did not keep written records, everything was recorded in stories and encoded in the beautiful rolling language, and information was passed down from generation to generation verbally and emotionally. So in the space between the first europeons to arrive in Hawaii and the time Max Freedom Long arrived in 1917, there were a lot of changes and needless to say, a lot was lost in transition. The "well meaning" Christian missionaries attmepted to completely outlaw any Hawaiian spiritual rites and practices, and thus this way of life was forced into secrecy and continued to survive in privacy, passed down through Hawaiian families. The Hawaiian-English dictionaries made by the missionaries are incredibly short-sighted and self-serving. At the point MFL began his studies, he set out to prove to himself that the tales of firewalking and healing could not possibly be true -- on the contrary he found documented research and several accounts that confirmed the existence of this strange magic, thus his life and work became devoted to uncovering the secrets of this culture that had been all but destroyed and driven to secrecy. He was able to uncover bits and pieces of these ancient traditions, enough to form working theories and lead to some enlightened experiences, and his body of work, including this book published in 1948 are invaluable historical documents.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-06-28 00:00:00 Brian Lueders საოცრებებით სავსე წიგნია ეს :)