Deadly Powers

Download or read book Deadly Powers written by Paul A. Trout and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this illuminating and evocative exploration of the origin and function of storytelling, the author goes beyond the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell, arguing that mythmaking evolved as a cultural survival strategy for coping with the constant fear of being killed and eaten by predators. Beginning nearly two million years ago in the Pleistocene era, the first stories, Trout argues, functioned as alarm calls, warning fellow group members about the carnivores lurking in the surroundings. At the earliest period, before the development of language, these rudimentary "stories" would have been acted out. When language appeared with the evolution of the ancestral human brain, stories were recited, memorized, and much later written down as the often bone-chilling myths that have survived to this day. This book takes the reader through the landscape of world mythology to show how our more recent ancestors created myths that portrayed animal predators in four basic ways: as monsters, as gods, as benefactors, and as role models. Each incarnation is a variation of the fear-management technique that enabled early humans not only to survive but to overcome their potentially incapacitating fear of predators. In the final chapter, Trout explores the ways in which our visceral fear of predators is played out in the movies, where both animal and human predators serve to probe and revitalize our capacity to detect and survive danger. Anyone with an interest in mythology, archaeology, folk tales, and the origins of contemporary storytelling will find this book an exciting and provocative exploration into the natural and psychological forces that shaped human culture and gave rise to storytelling and mythmaking.

Download or read book Deadly Powers written by Paul A. Trout and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this illuminating and evocative exploration of the origin and function of storytelling, the author goes beyond the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell, arguing that mythmaking evolved as a cultural survival strategy for coping with the constant fear of being killed and eaten by predators. Beginning nearly two million years ago in the Pleistocene era, the first stories, Trout argues, functioned as alarm calls, warning fellow group members about the carnivores lurking in the surroundings. At the earliest period, before the development of language, these rudimentary "stories" would have been acted out. When language appeared with the evolution of the ancestral human brain, stories were recited, memorized, and much later written down as the often bone-chilling myths that have survived to this day. This book takes the reader through the landscape of world mythology to show how our more recent ancestors created myths that portrayed animal predators in four basic ways: as monsters, as gods, as benefactors, and as role models. Each incarnation is a variation of the fear-management technique that enabled early humans not only to survive but to overcome their potentially incapacitating fear of predators. In the final chapter, Trout explores the ways in which our visceral fear of predators is played out in the movies, where both animal and human predators serve to probe and revitalize our capacity to detect and survive danger. Anyone with an interest in mythology, archaeology, folk tales, and the origins of contemporary storytelling will find this book an exciting and provocative exploration into the natural and psychological forces that shaped human culture and gave rise to storytelling and mythmaking.

Download or read book Escaping the Deadly Embrace written by Andrea Bartoletti and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encirclement, Andrea Bartoletti argues, is an essential strategic possibility of the international system and a key trigger of major war. Using historical case studies, Escaping the Deadly Embrace examines how great powers try to escape the two-front war problem and seek to preserve their security. Encirclement is a geographic variable that occurs in the presence of one or two great powers on two different borders of the surrounded great power. The surrounding great powers may not have the capacity to initiate a joint invasion. Yet their threatening presence triggers a double security dilemma for the encircled great power, which has to disperse its army to secure its borders. When the surrounding great powers become capable of launching a two-front attack, the encircled great power initiates war. This situation, disastrous in itself, can also lead to war contagion when other great powers intervene in the new conflict owing to the rival-based network of alliances. Combining archival work and historiographical analysis, Escaping the Deadly Embrace demonstrates the efficacy of this by assessing three major wars: the Italian Wars, the Thirty Years' War, and World War I. These findings, Bartoletti shows, have important implications for future major wars. Challenging the current focus on the US-China rivalry, he argues that the most concerning strategic scenario is the encirclement of China by India and Russia.

Download or read book Science written by John Michels (Journalist) and published by . This book was released on 1886 with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Deadly Imposter written by Bob Arnone and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2010-03-22 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The seeds of a killer are sown as Billy Bonner suffers torture at the hands of his father and two older brothers on the family farm in Iowa. He commits his first two acts of murder when he is just twelve years old, and he spends the rest of his life avenging the abuse his family perpetrated on him. Forty-two-year-old Nick Powers, a seventeen-year veteran of the New York City Police Department, is assigned to investigate a special case. A serial killer is on the loose in New York City. Targeting victims over the age of sixty, this murderer disguises himself as a charming deliveryman, policeman, or priest. After gaining entrance to the victims homes, he hangs the women by their ankles while they bleed to death, and then he removes their eyes. The notes left at the scenes read: She should have seen. Powers vows to catch this diabolical killer who has successfully eluded twenty police departments for twenty years. But the chase becomes personal when the killer contacts Powers and threatens to harm his family

Download or read book Journal - Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland written by Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and published by . This book was released on 1884 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Keys of Heaven: the Lord's Words and the Pope's Pretensions. A Sermon. By a Lay Preacher written by and published by . This book was released on 1870 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: