Published by De Gruyter

Challenges of Life: Essays on philosophical and cultural anthropology

Edited by: Gert Melville and Carlos Ruta

Overview
Volumes

How have different civilizations throughout different epochs mastered fundamental challenges of life? The series analyses the basic questions of cultural anthropology. All epochs and the most significant civilizations worldwide, as well as different epistemological aspects including historical sciences, sociology, ethnology, art, literature and philosophy are brought together.

Book 2014

Life Configurations

Gert Melville, Carlos Ruta

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Life Configurations focuses on the analysis and reflection on the various forms in which human beings imagine, design, conjecture, and plan their ‍“becoming”, that is to say their lives. Case studies written by an interdisciplinary circle of well-known academics explore how the capacity of designing life, the concept of free will, and the methods to calculate the future have been changed and adopted in different societies and in different ages.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110338737
ISBN:: 978-3-11-033869-0
ISBN:: 978-3-11-033873-7
ISBN:: 9783110395709
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Global History
Subject:: Cultural History
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Philosophical Anthropology
Subject:: Philosophy of Culture
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book 2018

Nature and Human

An Intricate Mutuality

Gert Melville, Carlos Rafael Ruta

Volume 5 in this series

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As the basis for human life, nature presents itself as both resource and threat. Mankind’s challenge is to subdue nature, make it useful, and understand it. This has occurred through cultural, scientific, and technical practices as well as through religion, philosophy, and magic. The volume explores these aspects across epochs and large cultural regions.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110579765
ISBN:: 9783110579765
ISBN:: 9783110577303
ISBN:: 9783110577105
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Social History
Subject:: Cultural History
Subject:: History of Religions
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Philosophical Anthropology
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book 2017

Experiencing the Beyond

Intercultural Approaches

Gert Melville, Carlos Ruta

Volume 4 in this series

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Experiencing the dimension that lies beyond our empirical grasp of the world has always been a challenge for human beings, for it can expose the limitations of our agency. Such experience, while potentially terrifying, can also furnish a basis for religious faith or hope of a better future. The intercultural essays in this volume analyze ways of dealing with the beyond, including magic, religion, myth, and all-promising utopias.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110530773
ISBN:: 9783110530773
ISBN:: 9783110528671
ISBN:: 9783110528534
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Social History
Subject:: History of Knowledge
Subject:: Cultural History
Subject:: History of Religions
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book 2016

Potency of the Common

Intercultural Perspectives about Community and Individuality

Gert Melville, Carlos Ruta

Volume 3 in this series

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The central question of the book is as follows: To what extent does the community present a challenge in the life of the individual? Well-known international Philosophers, historians, anthropologists, political scientists, theologians and sociologists attempted to find explications by intercultural comparison.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110459791
ISBN:: 9783110459791
ISBN:: 9783110457469
ISBN:: 9783110457353
Subject:: Cultural Studies
Subject:: Topics in Cultural Studies
Subject:: Society
Subject:: General Interest
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Cultural History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book 2015

Thinking the body as a basis, provocation and burden of life

Studies in intercultural and historical contexts

Gert Melville, Carlos Ruta

Volume 2 in this series

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The body is at the same time a place where we express duration and/or discontinuity in history, a witness of radical social changes, and a factor of stabilization, but also of the transformation of human life - and therefore an eminent challenge for every human being. This book will contribute in a decisively interdisciplinary and cross-cultural way to a better understanding of the place, role, and connection of the body within social, political, and cultural shifts.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110407389
ISBN:: 9783110407310
ISBN:: 9783110407389
ISBN:: 9783110407471
Subject:: Cultural Studies
Subject:: General Cultural Studies
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Global History
Subject:: Cultural History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg