Mana: A History of a Western Category

Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-90-04-34870-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 10, 208 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 454 g

Reihe: Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion

In Mana: A History of a Western Category Nicolas Meylan proposes a critical account of Western imaginations of mana, a word belonging originally to Oceanic languages but borrowed by European languages in which it acquired the meaning ‘supernatural power.’
While mana is best known for its tenure in the disciplines studying religion, Nicolas Meylan situates such academic uses in a wider context, analyzing the ways Westerners conceptualized mana in the earlier colonial context as well as its mobilizations in the late 20th and early 21st centuries by (video)game designers and Neo-Pagan witches. This focus on various Western uses of mana allows for the critical investigation of the ways power has been mystified in conjunction with religion.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Meylan, Nicolas

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Über Autor(innen)

Nicolas Meylan, Ph.D. (2010), University of Chicago, is Senior Lecturer at the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva. He has published on Medieval Scandinavia and the history of the study of religion, including Magic and Kingship in Medieval Iceland (Brepols, 2014).