Blood is more than a fluid solution of cells, platelets and plasma. It is a symbol for the most basic of human concerns--life, death and family find expression in rituals surrounding everything from menstruation to human sacrifice.
Comprehensive in its scope and provocative in its argument, this book examines beliefs and rituals concerning blood in a range of regional and religious contexts throughout human history. Meyer reveals the origins of a wide range of blood rituals, from the earliest surviving human symbolism of fertility and the hunt, to the Jewish bris, and the clitoridectomies given to young girls in parts of Africa. The book also explores how cultural practices influence gene selection and makes a connection with the natural sciences by exploring how color perception influences the human proclivity to create blood symbols and rituals.
Autorentext
Melissa Meyer is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on the different aspects of American Indian identity, including blood quantum requirements for tribal enrollment, intermarriage, and the historical experiences of people of mixed descent.
Zusammenfassung
This fourth edition of Practice Notes on Consumer Law contains much useful information for those dealing with problems in consumer law, from either the consumer or supplier perspective. These notes include guidance on common problems, checklists, specimen letters and precedents to help you through the common problems in this area of law, which has recently changed so rapidly. Consumer Law covers contract, tort, consumer credit, and consumer safety. Each of these areas has seen huge changes in the ways business is done, largely as a result of changing technology, enabling people to buy goods and services in new ways, including via the internet. That technology can, in itself, be the cause of difficulties, where it goes wrong, or where suppliers have inadequate systems to deal with customer. Both suppliers and consumers need advice on how to deal with the problems that arise.This fourth edition has, therefore, been updated to include:developments such as the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, and the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999changes in consumer safety law, particularly the regulations concerning general product safetychanges in civil procedure as a result of the Woolf Reforms - the book includes procedural notes relating to litigationthe influence of the European Union, particularly consumer protection for distance selling contracts.
Inhalt
1. Introduction: The Human Inclination to Symbolize and Ritualize Blood2. Women's Blood vs. Men's Blood at the Dawn of Human Culture3. Puberty: Menstruation and Imitative Ritual 4. The Blood of Pregnancy and Childbirth5. Blood and Funerary Rites6. Blood Sacrifice and Human Sacrifice7. Blood Symbolism and Gene-Culture Co-evolution8. Conclusion