検索キーワード： 慣習・伝統

「わかりやすい文章で日本の古代史がすんなり入ってくる。なんとなく疑問に思っていたことがすっきりし、一気読みでした」〔読者カードより〕など、好評を得た単行本がついに文庫化！

Listeners of this book will gain a clear understanding of what makes the Japanese, and their society, tick.

Ghana is among the friendliest and safest countries in Africa. Visitors are warmly welcomed but are expected to be sympathetic to local customs and beliefs, and to follow certain codes of conduct. Ghana—Culture Smart! describes the complexities and nuances of Ghanaian society with clarity and humor, and offers the listener an opportunity to get to know Ghanaians on their own terms, and to enjoy all that this beautiful country has to offer.

What if the shadows held more than just stories? Beneath the dense forests, over misty lakes, and beyond the edges of the known world lurk creatures whispered about in folklore and reported by eyewitnesses for centuries. In this richly illustrated guide, veterinarian and educator Karen E. Mueller, DVM delves into thirty of the world’s most haunting cryptids—mysterious beings that challenge science, spark imagination, and endure in cultural memory.

The legend of Atlantis is one of the most captivating and enduring stories ever told. For over two thousand years, it has stirred the imagination of philosophers, explorers, mystics, and dreamers. A city swallowed by the sea in a single day and night, a mighty civilisation punished for its hubris, a radiant island where power and beauty thrived before vanishing without a trace — Atlantis is both a cautionary tale and a timeless riddle. But what do we really know about it?

You scream, but no one hears you. The coffin swallows every sound. The soil presses down, heavy and final. Your chest burns, your arms cannot rise, your legs cannot move. Death is not a quiet sleep — it is a prison without escape. For centuries, people have feared one fate above all others: being buried alive. From ancient myths and medieval plagues to safety coffins, graveyard bells, and real-life cases of the “dead” awakening beneath the earth, this book uncovers the chilling history of premature burial. Step into the shadows of folklore, superstition, and science.

A perfect gift, this book will take you room by room to discover global traditions, remedies, folklore, and rituals hiding in your house. Uncover the folklore and rituals hiding in your own home. If you’ve ever wondered which windowsill herbs repel the supernatural, which way you should hang up a horseshoe, or whether your dog can talk, crack open this book and take a tour around the beliefs and traditions that lurk under the stairs, inside the cracks and behind every cobweb of your home.

When a large, winged humanoid with glowing red eyes was spotted in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, the Mothman legend was born. Since that fateful November night, the flying cryptid has become one of the most famous monsters of all time. Richard Estep and renowned Mothman researcher Tobias Wayland document firsthand witness accounts and conduct detailed investigations with the hope of seeing the iconic cryptid themselves. This book chronicles their discoveries, which include large concentrations of sightings in the Chicago and Lake Michigan area.

Here in North America, there be monsters! Jason Offutt takes you on a thrilling adventure across all twenty-three countries―as well as every state and territory of the US, Canada, and Mexico―to meet one or more monsters in each location.

When Paul Auster was asked to join NPR's Weekend All Things Considered program to tell stories, he turned the proposition on its head: he would let the stories come to him. He invited listeners to submit brief, true-life anecdotes about events that touched their lives.

今年10年目を迎えるＮＨＫ ＢＳの人気番組『ｃｏｏｌ ｊａｐａｎ』の司会者として、世界を旅する演劇人として、人気脚本・演出家が世界の人々と聞いて議論した。

This Very Short Introduction is a general introduction to oral history from the interview to the archive. Douglas A. Boyd examines the oral history interview, recording techniques and strategies, technologies for making oral history accessible, and the legal and ethical implications throughout the work of oral history. Boyd also pays special attention to the role of the archive and the importance of memory.

Since its release in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell's revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In this book, Campbell outlines the Hero's Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world's mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction.

Culture Smart! Peru introduces you to the changing realities of modern Peru. It describes contemporary values and attitudes, key customs and traditions, and reveals what people are like at home, in business, and in their social lives. Peruvians are outgoing, sociable, and laid-back; get to know them, and they will respond with warmth and generosity.

Monsters, spirits, fantastic beings, and supernatural creatures haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yōkai, they appear in many forms, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water sprites, to shape-shifting kitsune foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Popular today in anime, manga, film, and video games, many yōkai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. The Book of Yōkai invites listeners to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them.

Thor, Odin, Loki, Freyja, the Valkyries, Valhalla, Ragnarok — many of the places we encounter these and other names, places, and events from Norse mythology in daily life and pop culture are connected to the medieval sources in name only.

Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist, presents a gorgeously lucid, science book examining some of the nature’s most fundamental questions both from a mythical and scientific perspective. Science is our most precise and powerful tool for making sense of the world. Before we developed the scientific method, we created rich mythologies to explain the unknown. The pressing questions that primitive men and women asked are the same ones we ask as children. Who was the first person? What is the sun? Why is there night and day?

A leaf from an oak tree . . . a wildflower . . . water from a sparkling stream . . . dirt from a cool dark cave-these are the age-old tools of natural magic. Born of the earth, possessing inherent power, they await only our touch and intention to bring their magical qualities to life. The four elements are powerful magical tools. Using their energies, we can transform ourselves, our lives, and our world. This much-loved, classic guide offers more than seventy-five spells, rites, and simple rituals you can perform using the marvelous powers of the natural world.

Many of the world's travails may be traced to the displacement of mythology by the age of science. Knowledge today is often deemed useful only if it enlarges our possessions or raises our station in society. If instead the criterion were to make us happier and more virtuous, mythology would have retained its proper place in society. The Age of Fable is Thomas Bulfinch's brilliant reconstruction of the ancient myths and legends that form the backbone of Western culture.

In this Very Short Introduction, Robert Segal introduces the array of approaches used to understand the study of myth. These approaches hail from disciplines as varied as anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, philosophy, science, and religious studies. Including ideas from theorists as varied as Sigmund Freud, Claude Levi-Strauss, Albert Camus, and Roland Barthes, Segal uses the famous ancient myth of Adonis to analyze their individual approaches and theories.