bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Early History of Heaven
Authors: Edward Wright J 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
When we think of “heaven,” we generally conjure up positive, blissful images. Heaven is, after all, where God is and where good people go after death to receive their reward. But how and why did Western cultures come to imagine the heavenly realm in such terms? Why is heaven usually thought to be “up there,” far beyond the visible sky? And what is the source of the idea that the post mortem abode of the righteous is in this heavenly realm with God? Seeking to discover the roots of these familiar notions, this volume traces the backgrounds, origin, and development of early Jewish and Christian speculation about the heavenly realm — where it is, what it looks like, and who its inhabitants are. Wright begins his study with an examination of the beliefs of ancient Israel’s neighbors Egypt and Mesopotamia, reconstructing the intellectual context in which the earliest biblical images of heaven arose. A detailed analysis of the Hebrew biblical texts themselves then reveals that the Israelites were deeply influenced by images drawn from the surrounding cultures. Wright goes on to examine Persian and Greco-Roman beliefs, thus setting the stage for his consideration of early Jewish and Christian images, which he shows to have been formed in the struggle to integrate traditional biblical imagery with the newer Hellenistic ideas about the cosmos. In a final chapter Wright offers a brief survey of how later Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions envisioned the heavenly realms. Accessible to a wide range of readers, this provocative book will interest anyone who is curious about the origins of this extraordinarily pervasive and influential idea.
Chinatown Gangs
Authors: Chin Ko-lin 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In Chinatown Gangs, Ko-lin Chin penetrates a closed society and presents a rare portrait of the underworld of New York City’s Chinatown. Based on first-hand accounts from gang members, gang victims, community leaders, and law enforcement authorities, this pioneering study reveals the pervasiveness, the muscle, the longevity, and the institutionalization of Chinatown gangs. Chin reveals the fear gangs instill in the Chinese community. At the same time, he shows how the economic viability of the community is sapped, and how gangs encourage lawlessness, making a mockery of law enforcement agencies. Ko-lin Chin makes clear that gang crime is inexorably linked to Chinatown’s political economy and social history. He shows how gangs are formed to become “equalizers” within a social environment where individual and group conflicts, whether social, political, or economic, are unlikely to be solved in American courts. Moreover, Chin argues that Chinatown’s informal economy provides yet another opportunity for street gangs to become “providers” or “protectors” of illegal services. These gangs, therefore, are the pathological manifestation of a closed community, one whose problems are not easily seen—and less easily understood—by outsiders. Chin’s concrete data on gang characteristics, activities, methods of operation and violence make him uniquely qualified to propose ways to restrain gang violence, and Chinatown Gangs closes with his specific policy suggestions. It is the definitive study of gangs in an American Chinatown.
“Our Poetry Is Like an Orange Grove” : Anthologies of Hebrew Poetry in Eretz Yisrael
Authors: Hever Hannan 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
And it is indeed possible to view [this] book as the orange grove of our poetry, with its great and little trees, a grove whose earth is also covered with shrubs, flowers, and weeds. A spirit of sadness stalks the garden, and the gay sound of birdsong is heard there only seldom. But many are the paths of the orange grove, royal roads and side paths, mountain ranges and valleys, and it is full of breezes and pleasant odors, sights, and colors that take the breath away and that expand the mind. Since the earliest days of the Jewish settlement (yishuv) in pre-State Israel, the literary form of the anthology has served as an instrument for creating as well as documenting Hebrew cultural discourse. Once it was included within anthology and thereby transmitted to the community of writers and readers, even an individual poem or story played a role in the construction of what Benedict Anderson has called the “imagined national community.” Yet in contrast to Anderson’s description of the formation of such a national community-as a linear, homogeneous process-the case of anthology shows that this process is profoundly hybrid, simultaneously encoded as natural and yet always bound up with the operation of mechanisms of production and distribution.
The Ernteric Origini of the American Renaissance
Authors: Versluis Arthur 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The term “Western esotericism” refers to a wide range of spiritual currents including alchemy, Hermeticism, Kabbala, Rosicrucianism, and Christian theosophy, as well as several practical forms of esotericism like cartomancy, geomancy, necromancy, alchemy, astrology, herbalism, and magic. The early presence of esotericism in North America has not been much studied, and even less so the indebtedness to esotericism of some major American literary figures. In this book, Arthur Versluis breaks new ground, showing that many writers of the so-called American Renaissance drew extensively on and were inspired by Western esoteric currents.
Poe
Authors: Versluis Arthur 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Although there have been many books and articles written about Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49), there has been startlingly little work done on the esoteric sources from which he drew so much of his work. In the first issue of the Poe Newsletter in 1968, its editor, J. Albert Robbins, remarked on the contradiction between the enormous quantity of critical work published about Poe, and its mostly poor, unsophisticated quality. Robbins called Poe a “ctitical orphan.” As Kent Ljungquist noted in 1995, various academic theoretical fashions contrived to make this situation worse, if anything, chiefly by encouraging a tendency to examine Poe’s works without reference to the existing body of Poe scholarship, or to Poe’s specific historical antecedents.1 Although it is obvious that our discussion of how Western esoteric traditions informed Poe’s thought and work cannot remedy this larger problem, we can certainly begin to shed light on an important, indeed, a central aspect of Poe’s work that has not yet been adequately explored.
Time Exposure
Authors: Fenn Richard K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In his new book, Richard Fenn looks at the way in which we experience time in a secular society. He argues that secularization is virtually synonymous with individualism. Fenn shows that the Church created the idea of individualism through its demysitification of the universe, its insistence on individual self-discipline, and its intensification of individual responsibility for the use of time. Required to take responsibility for his or her own standing in the eyes of God, the individual emerged from the protection of the Church into the full current of time. No longer protected by Providence or connected to Eternity, our lives have become radically temporal and contingent. Fenn explores the modern experience of time, as expressed in such phrases as “wasting time” and “making up for lost time.” In particular, he is interested in the idea of waiting, which he believes is a defining characteristic of modern life. He also argues that the secularization of time produced anxiety about death, and shows the various strategies we have created for dealing with this anxiety. Beautifully written and thoughtfully argued, this volume raises the secularization debate to a new level of depth and sophistication.
Transformations of Subjectivity and Memory in the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana
Authors: Doniger Wendy 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Many myths in the Epics and Pural)aS involve either transvestism (dressing as someone of the other gender) or transsexuality (transformation into someone of the other sex). Vedantic philosophy produced many male dream doubles, of whom the most famous is Narada, who became a woman and lived a full life but eventually returned to his life as a man. Much has been written about transsexual myths in Hinduism, but I wish to concentrate here on transsexual myths that shed light upon the nature of human identity. In the great Sanskrit epic the Mahābhārata composed between about 300 B.C.E. and 300 C.E., several people lose their subjectivity, often their memories, to become someone else, sometimes as the result of a curse, sometimes out of a desire to become other. Nala is transformed into a deformed dwarf; Arjuna disguises himself as a transvestite who may or may not be impotent; Yayati becomes a young man. In the other great Sanskrit Epic, the Valmiki Rāmāyana (which I will call, henceforth, the Rāmāyana), composed within roughly the same period, the transformations generally take place on both a higher and a lower register: the demons create spectacular illusions, but the human characters in general do not undergo nearly so many transformations as their counterparts in the Mahābhārata. One story on the margins of the Ramaya,:za, however, depicts the transformation of a human being, not one of the central characters - in ways strikingly similar to the transformations of a slightly more central character in the Mahābhārata -Amba. Both are stories of sexual transformation: in one, a man becomes a woman (known as MTF in the trade nowadays, male to female), and in the other, a woman a man (FTM, female to male). Let us consider these stories of male and female sexual transformation one by one, and then together.
The Self and Its Transformation in Sūfīsm With Special Reference to Early Literature
Authors: Sviri Sara 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The question “What is the ‘self’ that is transformed?” has, from the perspective of medieval Arabic literature, an intriguing semantic aspect. The immediate equivalent for “self’’ in Sūfīsm literature, with which this essay is concerned, is nafs. This, as the dictionaries will testify, is a homonym for a variety of meanings, ranging from “soul” and “spirit” to “appetite” and “desire.” It also designates reflexivity; thus, nafsf denotes “myself,” bi-nafsihi - “by himself,” and so on. This equivocalness made possible the employment of the term in two disparate meanings by two disciplines, both interested in psychological questions. In the psycho-philosophical terminology that was coined during the process of translating Greek into Arabic, nafs became the equivalent of psyche (or anima) and was hence understood as soul, essentially a subtle and transcendent substance. Thus, for example, for lbn Sina, one of the most influential Islamic philosophers of the Middle Ages, “nafs, in relation to ‘matter’ in which it resides ... deserves to be called ‘form’ ( ra), and in relation to the perfection of a species which it brings about ... deserves to be called ‘perfection’ (kamal).” In Sūfīsm psychology, on the other hand, nafs became, primarily, the designator of a negative, earth-bound fiery entity that needs to be constantly condemned and watched over. In addition, the reflexive aspect of the term yielded a discourse on nafs that was centered around egocentricity and selfishness. Although classical Sūfīsmsm and medieval Islamic philosophy represent two autonomous disciplines, each with its own distinct terminology, neither can be said to have been impervious to the other.
Sacrificing the Self
Authors: Cormack Margaret 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Acts of martyrdom have been found in nearly all the worlds major religious traditions. Though considered by devotees to be perhaps the most potent expression of religious faith, dying for ones god is also one of the most difficult concepts for modern observers of religion to understand. This is especially true in the West, where martyrdom has all but disappeared and martyrs in other cultures are often viewed skeptically and dismissed as fanatics. This book seeks to foster a greater understanding of these acts of religious devotion by explaining how martyrdom has historically been viewed in the worlds major religions. It provides the first sustained, cross-cultural examination of this fascinating aspect of religious life. Margaret Cormack begins with an introduction that sets out a definition of martyrdom that serves as the point of departure for the rest of the volume. Then, scholars of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam examine martyrdom in specific religious cultures. Spanning 4000 years of history and ranging from Saul in the Hebrew Bible to Sati immolations in present-day India, this book provides a wealth of insight into an often noted but rarely understood cultural phenomenon.
The Goddesses’ Henchmen
Authors: Harlan Lindsey 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
This book examines the worship of ancestral heroes in Rajasthan, India. Arguing that Rajput hero stories and songs encapsulate and express ideals of perfection and masculinity, it analyzes representations of wives and goddesses as tacit allies dispatching sacrificed heroes to heavenly paradise (Virgati) and rendering them Bherujis, their goddesses’ divine henchmen.
Fallen Blue Knights
Authors: Ivković Sanja Kutnjak 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Despite its suspected prevalence, no comprehensive analysis of police corruption has been published for nearly three decades. Fallen Blue Knights provides a systematic, in-depth analysis of the subject, while also addressing the question of what can be done to ensure successful corruption control. Ivkovic argues that the current mechanisms for control--the courts, prosecutors, independent commissions, and the media, as well as the internal control mechanisms within a police agency itself--suffer from severe shortcomings that substantially limit their effectiveness. In this much-needed analysis, Ivkovic redefines the roles of major players and develops a novel, comprehensive model of corruption control.
The Critical Reception and the Generation Gap
Authors: Palmer R Barton 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Pauline Kael, the era’s most influential critic and tastemaker, observed that the largely unforeseen success that Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey achieved at the box office was due to the younger viewers who crowded that nation’s theaters to see it, turning the film’s exhibition into one of the signal cultural events of the decade. And yet the enthusiasm of the fifteen- to twenty-five-year-olds for the film, so Kael opined, was not to be explained on purely cinematic grounds. Instead, 2001’s appeal to the young was to be traced to the “new tribalism” that had emerged by the end of the 1960s. Kael suggested that what most commentators at the time termed the “counterculture” had also responded enthusiastically earlier in the decade to European art films that were characterized by ostentatious visual and aural stylizations, which were indisputably prominent elements of Kubrick’s new release as well.
Ecosystem Services
Authors: Melillo Jerry , Sala Osvaldo 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Earth’s mosaic of ecosystems—forests, grasslands, wetlands, streams, estuaries, and oceans—when functioning naturally, provides materials, conditions, and processes that sustain all life on this planet, including human life. The benefits that all living things obtain from ecosystems are called “ecosystem services.” Some are very familiar to us, such as food and timber that are essential for our lives and important parts of the global economy. What are equally important, but certainly less well recognized, are the array of services delivered by ecosystems that do not have easily assigned monetary values but that make our lives possible. These include the purification of air and water, the decomposition of wastes, the recycling of nutrients on land and in the oceans, the pollination of crops, and the regulation of climate.
Threatened Groups of Organisms Valuable to Medicine
Authors: Chivian Eric , Bernstein Aaron 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In this chapter, we look at seven groups of threatened organisms, four from the land and three from the ocean—amphibians, bears, nonhuman primates, gymnosperms (a group of plants that includes the conifers, cycads, and the Ginkgo Tree), cone snails, sharks, and horseshoe crabs—all of which are critically important to human medicine. These case studies are really at the heart of this book, for they provide specific examples of what we are now losing, and what we will be losing to a much greater degree, when we degrade the natural world, and serve to demonstrate concretely some of the many ways that human health depends on biodiversity.
Biodiversity and Food Production
Authors: Hillel Daniel , Rosenzweig Cynthia 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Human beings, originally children of Nature, representing one species among many that shared the terrestrial environment, have gradually increased in numbers and expanded the extent and range of their activity so that we have now gained dominance over, and drastically modified, entire terrestrial and even marine biomes throughout the world. (Biomes are the world’s major biological communities, defined by their predominant vegetation types, e.g., forests, deserts, and grasslands.) As a result, numerous other species have been deprived of their natural habitats and have been endangered or even eradicated. As mentioned in chapter 1, recent calculations suggest that rates of species extinctions are now on the order of 100 to 1,000 times greater than those before humans dominated Earth. For some well-documented groups, extinction rates have been even greater. Unless checked, the continued increase of human population and the intensified manipulation of the environment for short-term advantage are more than likely to result in serious consequences for human health. Having tampered with Nature in hopes of gaining control over it, humans are now more dependent on Nature than ever, especially on the diversity and intrinsic mutuality of all life forms that are its essential features.
Sterne and the “New Species of Writing”
Authors: Keymer Thomas 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Of the plurality of discourses and traditions that bump up against one another in Tristram Shandy, two have dominated critical attempts to make generic (and hence interpretative) sense of Sterne’s richly heteroglot text. One strain of criticism reads Tristram Shandy as a belated exercise in Renaissance learned wit; the other as a parody (or, if the implications of its parodic gestures are pursued, a deconstruction) of representational conventions in the modern novel. Each identity, all too often, is presented as exclusive of the other, and the critical dichotomy persists not least because its most evident point of stress—the overtly Cervantic aspect of Tristram Shandy—has been obscured by readings that present Cervantes himself as primarily an exponent of Erasmian satire, or of fideistic skepticism in the vein of Montaigne, rather than in his alternative guise as a proto-novelist.
Laurence Sterne and Literary Celebrity in 1760
Authors: Briggs Peter M 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
On the evening of 31 December 1759, David Garrick presented at Drury Lane a new afterpiece of his own composition called Harlequin’s Invasion, complete with music by William Boyce. Advertised as a “Christmas Gambol, after the manner of Italian comedy,” the piece imagines an invasion from France by Harlequin and the forces of Pantomime, aiming to scale the heights of British Parnassus. Harlequin himself is a protean comic villain, dangerously able to improvise new behaviors and to assume what disguises he will.
Teaching Native American Religious Traditions and Healing
Authors: Talamantez Inés M 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Living in balance and harmony within one’s Native culture is said to be at the heart of indigenous peoples’ concerns for healing the community, the land, and the natural world. This chapter will discuss an interdisciplinary and comparative course about representative Native cultures of the American Southwest, and their different religiomedical systems. The course introduces students to these cultures’ different understandings of experimentation, the long-term observation of nature, the historical evaluation of changes over time and place, and the sacralization of the biosphere in order to meet human physical and spiritual needs. Through this course, I attempt to guide students toward an understanding of diverse perspectives on the relationship between humans, the numinous, the biosphere and the multiple layers of meaning and experience in which healing is practiced and understood. We also examine the significant role of language in wellbeing, particularly through reestablishing the inter-connectedness between oral traditions and the importance of taking responsibility for our actions. One of my larger objectives is to provide paradigms for decolonizing the minds of native and non-Native students, by deconstructing colonization, missionization and assimilation. In the process, I hope to offer contemporary possibilities for theories of resistance, wellbeing and survival in a multi-ethnic society.
Newtonian Women
Authors: Feingold Mordechai 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
One of the most interesting manifestations of the struggle for hegemony between the Cartesians, Newtonians, and Leibnizians was the campaign for the allegiance of women, who by the late seventeenth century had become consumers of all matters scientific. Descartes had been instrumental in this reorientation of women’s interests, as he was perceived early on as the philosopher of women – a perception he himself fostered. Not only had he composed his Discours de la méthode (“Discourse on Method,” 1637) in French rather than Latin, thereby ensuring its accessibility to a broadly nonacademic audience, but he had simplified his proof of God’s existence, he told a correspondent,so that even women “could understand something.” His 1644 dedication of the Principia philosophiae to Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia gave public voice to this new inclusiveness; after complimenting his royal correspondent for escaping the common fate of women – to be condemned to ignorance – he singled her out asthe only person who had “completely understood” his philosophy.
Changing the Guard
Authors: Bayley David H 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Every day the American government, the United Nations, and other international institutions send people into non-English speaking, wartorn, and often minimally democratic countries struggling to cope with rising crime and disorder under a new regime. These assistance missions attempt to promote democratic law enforcement in devastated countries. But do these missions really facilitate the creation of effective policing? Renowned criminologist David H. Bayley here examines the prospects for the reform of police forces overseas as a means of encouraging the development of democratic governments. In doing so, he assesses obstacles for promoting democratic policing in a state-of-the-art review of all efforts to promote democratic reform since 1991. Changing the Guard offers an inside look at the achievements and limits of current American foreign assistance, outlining the nature and scope of the police assistance program and the agencies that provide it. Bayley concludes with recommendations for how police assistance could be improved in volatile countries across the world. This book is required reading as an instruction manual for building democratic policing overseas.