Water Beings: From Nature Worship to the Environmental Crisis

This document was uploaded by one of our users. The uploader already confirmed that they had the permission to publish it. If you are author/publisher or own the copyright of this documents, please report to us by using this DMCA report form.

Simply click on the Download Book button.

Yes, Book downloads on Ebookily are 100% Free.

Sometimes the book is free on Amazon As well, so go ahead and hit "Search on Amazon"

Looking to the vast human history of water worship, a crucial study of our broken relationship with all things aquatic—and how we might mend it.
 
Early human relationships with water were expressed through beliefs in serpentine aquatic deities: rainbow-colored, feathered or horned serpents, giant anacondas, and dragons. Representing the powers of water, these beings were bringers of life and sustenance, world creators, ancestors, guardian spirits, and lawmakers. Worshipped and appeased, they embodied people’s respect for water and its vital role in sustaining all living things. Yet today, though we still recognize that “water is life,” fresh- and saltwater ecosystems have been critically compromised by human activities. This major study of water beings and what has happened to them in different cultural and historical contexts demonstrates how and why some—but not all—societies have moved from worshipping water to wreaking havoc upon it and asks what we can do to turn the tide.

Author(s): Veronica Strang
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Year: 2023

Language: English
Pages: 279
City: London

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Introduction
1. Being Ubiquitous
2. Original Beings
3. Living Beings
4. Nature Beings
5. Cultivating Beings
6. Irrigating Beings
7. Travelling Beings
8. Supreme Beings
9. Demonized Beings
10. Reformed Beings
11. Transformational Beings
Turning the Tide
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index