Mountains of Discourse: History, Ethnography, and the Cosmology of China’s Sacred Mountains
Robert André LaFleur On a foggy day in October 2006, I stared at a wall of stone rising before me. Few images in China are as familiar to everyone who has ever lived there than the picture of the winding staircase—and the steep final climb—up to the South Gate of Heaven on Mt. Tai, in […]
Exploring the Minangkabau Healing System
Alexander Stark For a long time, I have been interested in Minangkabau studies. The Minangkabau reside mainly in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra and in the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan. With more than seven million people, they are arguably the largest matrilineal society in the world. They have attracted many scholars because their […]
Spirits and Commemoration at Sacred Sites in Kyrgyzstan
Nestor A. Manichkin Social anthropologists have long studied and recognized the therapeutic effect of practices aimed at freeing spirits from suffering and anger. Parallel to the changing state and image of spirits, there is a psychological recovery of those people who are connected with these spirits and who rethink their personal history through such a […]
