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5 books match the query 'Realm'

cover of Coin of the Realm: A Novel

Coin of the Realm

A Novel

Zoe Zolbrod

Northwestern University Press, 2027

Can liberation be found in the unexpected corners of a Renaissance faire?

In a near-future United States, the government has just stripped away the protections of birthright citizenship, and eighteen-year-old Raven is facing deportation. Her best hope: finding her long-gone father, an off-the-grid Renaissance faire entrepreneur called Tom the Hunter. If Raven can convince Tom to affirm his paternity, she will be able to remain in the only country she has ever known.

But Tom is no easy man locate, let alone tell what to do. The charismatic leader of an underground resistance movement based at a Ren faire in Bristol, Wisconsin, he has spent his life agitating against the ever-increasing reach of corporate and government surveillance while avoiding its gaze. In a society overrun by drones, self-driving cars, and wearable devices that track mood and behavior, he sends messages by pigeon and trains hawks to attack invaders. The only thing from the “regular world” allowed to enter his self-contained realm has been Gwen, his new lover. Facing economic and emotional headwinds after losing her job, Gwen has fled her family and a home dangerously in need of remediation, and she dives headfirst into an affair with the passionate yet conniving Tom. But when Tom’s machinations threaten those around him, Gwen begins to question her choice to leave her children behind for a world that may not be as empowering as it seems.

As Raven and Gwen become enmeshed in the vibrant and insurgent community of Bristol’s Ren faire and Tom’s antics reach unsettling new heights, each must make a choice on where they stand—and with whom.

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cover of In the Realm of Nachan Kan: Postclassic Maya Archaeology at Laguna De On, Belize

In the Realm of Nachan Kan

Postclassic Maya Archaeology at Laguna De On, Belize

Marilyn A. Masson

University Press of Colorado, 2000

The prevailing view of the lowland Maya during the Postclassic period (A.D. 1050-1500) has been one of an impoverished, "degenerated" society devoid of cultural accomplishment. However, Marilyn A. Masson offers a fresh interpretation of this society as one that represented a complex, sophisticated, extensive organization of semiautonomous units that were closely integrated, yet embraced a decentralized political economy.

In the Realm of Nachan Kan opens a window on Postclassic Maya patterns of cultural development and organization through a close examination of the small rural island of Laguna de On, a location that was distant from the governing political centers of the day. Using diachronic analysis of regional settlement patterns, ceramic traditions, household and ritual features, and artifacts from the site, Masson tracks developmental changes throughout the Postclassic period. These data suggest that affluent patterns of economic production and local and long-distance exchange were established within northern Belize by the eleventh century, and continued to develop, virtually uninterrupted, until the time of Spanish arrival.

In addition, Masson analyzes contemporary political and religious artistic traditions at the temples of Mayapan, Tulum, and Santa Rita to provide a regional context for the changes in community patterns at Laguna de On. These cultural changes, she maintains, are closely correlated with the rise of Mayapan to power and participation of sites like Laguna de On in a pan-lowland economic and ritual interaction sphere. Offering a thoroughly new interpretation of Postclassic Mayan civilization. In the Realm of Nachan Kan is a must for scholars of Mesoamerican history and culture.

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cover of Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism

Realm of the Saint

Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism

By Vincent J. Cornell

University of Texas Press, 1998

In premodern Moroccan Sufism, sainthood involved not only a closeness to the Divine presence (walaya) but also the exercise of worldly authority (wilaya). The Moroccan Jazuliyya Sufi order used the doctrine that the saint was a "substitute of the prophets" and personification of a universal "Muhammadan Reality" to justify nearly one hundred years of Sufi involvement in Moroccan political life, which led to the creation of the sharifian state.

This book presents a systematic history of Moroccan Sufism through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries C.E. and a comprehensive study of Moroccan Sufi doctrine, focusing on the concept of sainthood. Vincent J. Cornell engages in a sociohistorical analysis of Sufi institutions, a critical examination of hagiography as a source for history, a study of the Sufi model of sainthood in relation to social and political life, and a sociological analysis of more than three hundred biographies of saints. He concludes by identifying eight indigenous ideal types of saint that are linked to specific forms of authority. Taken together, they define sainthood as a socioreligious institution in Morocco.

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cover of The Harbour of all this Sea and Realm: Crusader to Venetian Famagusta

The Harbour of all this Sea and Realm

Crusader to Venetian Famagusta

Michael J.K. Walsh

Central European University Press, 2014

The Harbour of All This Sea and Realm offers an overview of the Lusignan, Genoese and Venetian history of the main port city of Cyprus, a Mediterranean crossroads. The essays contribute to the understanding of Famagusta's social and administrative structure, as well as the influences on its architectural, artisan, and art historical heritage from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. We read of crusader bishops from central France, metalworkers from Asia Minor, mercenaries from Genoa, refugees from Acre, and traders from Venice. The themes of the city's diasporas and cultural hybridity permeate and unify the essays in this collaborative effort. Some of the studies use archival sources to reconstruct the early stages of appearances of various buildings. Such research is of vital importance, given the threat to Famagusta's medieval and early modern heritage by its use as a military base since 1974.
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cover of The Realm Of Prester John

The Realm Of Prester John

Robert Silverberg

Ohio University Press, 1996

In this modern account of the genesis of a great medieval myth, celebrated science fiction author Robert Silverberg’s explores the mysterious origins of Prester John, the astonishing Christian potentate of the East.

Prester John was a legendary figure who cast a powerful spell over Latin Christendom for almost five centuries. Rumors of the warrior-king-prelate’s fabulous realms first reached Europe in the eleventh century and quickly assumed an exalted status alongside such fabled wonders as El Dorado, The Fountain of Youth, and the Holy Grail.

The defeat of a Moslem Turkish tribe by a Buddhist Chinese warlord seems to have been the unlikely historical nugget around which the Prester John myth grew, but contributions to this strange saga have also been traced all around the globe to the Apostle Thomas' apocryphal preaching in India, to the actual existence of small colonies of Nestorian schismatics in central Asia, and even to Genghis Khan.

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