Walking with Your Ancestors


Book Description

A Genealogist's Guide to Using Maps and Geography The truth about genealogy is that, although you might believe it has something to do with history, it actually has something more to do with geography. Though of course the names and dates on your family tree are the bread and butter of genealogy, the location of the records is what reveals them. And how better to learn about location than with maps! Maps are a crucial tool in learning about your family history. They can show you how to find a courthouse, where a grave is located, or where an ancestral homestead might be. But maps are much more than that - they can reveal intimate details about the lives of your ancestors. Walk the roads that your forefathers walked with maps! Maps will reveal the clues that you need to locate ancestors that suddenly "disappear." This book will teach you how to use maps to: Find the roads, rivers, and trains that your great-grandfathers used to travel across the country and see where they might have relocated. Discover the ever-shifting boundaries of territories, counties, and towns and learn the alternate places where records might be found. Locate places that no longer exist and uncover the long-lost homes, schools, farms, and more where your ancestors spent their time. Become familiar with all the different kinds of maps, from military to topographic, and how they can assist you in your research. Walking with Your Ancestors is the perfect guide to the under-utilized revelations that are just waiting for you in maps, atlases, and gazetteers. Find out about these fascinating snapshots of history and what they can tell you about the lives of your ancestors today!




Walking with Cavemen


Book Description

Uses the live-action photography and computer-generated images from the Discovery Channel series of the same name, along with the latest archaeological discoveries, to provide a history of human evolution on Earth.




Walking with Our Ancestors


Book Description




Visiting Your Ancestral Town


Book Description

A how-to guide for researching your ancestors, discovering your ancestral towns, and planning a meaningful trip to explore your ancestral homeland.




Finding Our Way Home


Book Description

In this time of ecological crisis, all that is holy calls us into a more intimate partnership with the diverse and beautiful beings of this earth. In Finding Our Way Home, Myke Johnson reflects on her personal journey into such a partnership and offers a guide for others to begin this path. Lyrically expressed, it weaves together lessons from a chamomile flower, a small bird, a copper beech tree, a garden slug, and a forest fern, along with insights from Indigenous philosophy, environmental science, fractal geometry, childhood Catholic mysticism, the prophet Elijah, fairy tales, and permaculture design. This eco-spiritual journey also wrestles with the history of our society's destruction of the natural world, and its roots in the original theft of the land from Indigenous peoples. Exploring the spiritual dimensions of our brokenness, it offers tools to create healing. Finding Our Way Home is a ceremony to remember our essential unity with all of life.




Dwellings


Book Description

Whether she is writing about bats, bees, procupines, or wolves, contemplating the mysteries of caves, or delving into the traditions, beliefs, and myths of Native American cultures, Linda Hogan expresses a deep reverence for the dwelling we all share--the Earth. 16 line drawings.




Ladder to the Light


Book Description

Darkness will not last forever. Together we can climb toward the light. They were as troubled as we, our ancestors, those who came before us, and all for the very same reasons: fear of illness, a broken heart, fights in the family, the threat of another war. Corrupt politicians walked their stage, and natural disasters appeared without warning. And yet they came through, carrying us within them, through the grief and struggle, through the personal pain and the public chaos, finding their way with love and faith, not giving in to despair but walking upright until their last step was taken. My culture does not honor the ancestors as a quaint spirituality of the past but as a living source of strength for the present. They did it and so will we. In the same voice that has comforted and challenged countless readers through his daily social media posts, Choctaw elder and Episcopal priest Steven Charleston offers words of hard-won hope, rooted in daily conversations with the Spirit and steeped in Indigenous wisdom. Every day Charleston spends time in prayer. Every day he writes down what he hears from the Spirit. In Ladder to the Light he shares what he has heard with the rest of us and adds thoughtful reflection to help guide us to the light Native America knows something about cultivating resilience and resisting darkness. For all who yearn for hope, Ladder to the Light is a book of comfort, truth, and challenge in a time of anguish and fear.




Wanderlust


Book Description

A passionate, thought-provoking exploration of walking as a political and cultural activity, from the author of Orwell's Roses Drawing together many histories--of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores--Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. Arguing that the history of walking includes walking for pleasure as well as for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, Solnit focuses on the walkers whose everyday and extreme acts have shaped our culture, from philosophers to poets to mountaineers. She profiles some of the most significant walkers in history and fiction--from Wordsworth to Gary Snyder, from Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet to Andre Breton's Nadja--finding a profound relationship between walking and thinking and walking and culture. Solnit argues for the necessity of preserving the time and space in which to walk in our ever more car-dependent and accelerated world.




First Steps


Book Description

A Science News Best Science Book of the Year: “A brilliant, fun, and scientifically deep stroll through history, anatomy, and evolution.” —Agustín Fuentes, PhD, author of The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional Winner of the W.W. Howells Book Prize from the American Anthropological Association Blending history, science, and culture, this highly engaging evolutionary story explores how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species. Humans are the only mammals to walk on two rather than four legs—a locomotion known as bipedalism. We strive to be upstanding citizens, honor those who stand tall and proud, and take a stand against injustices. We follow in each other’s footsteps and celebrate a child’s beginning to walk. But why, and how, exactly, did we take our first steps? And at what cost? Bipedalism has its drawbacks: giving birth is more difficult and dangerous; our running speed is much slower than other animals; and we suffer a variety of ailments, from hernias to sinus problems. In First Steps, paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva explores how unusual and extraordinary this seemingly ordinary ability is. A seven-million-year journey to the very origins of the human lineage, this book shows how upright walking was a gateway to many of the other attributes that make us human—from our technological abilities to our thirst for exploration and our use of language—and may have laid the foundation for our species’ traits of compassion, empathy, and altruism. Moving from developmental psychology labs to ancient fossil sites throughout Africa and Eurasia, DeSilva brings to life our adventure walking on two legs. Includes photographs “A book that strides confidently across this complex terrain, laying out what we know about how walking works, who started doing it, and when.” —The New York Times Book Review “DeSilva makes a solid scientific case with an expert history of human and ape evolution.” —Kirkus Reviews “A brisk jaunt through the history of bipedalism . . . will leave readers both informed and uplifted.” —Publishers Weekly “Breezy popular science at its best.” —Science News




Ancestor Paths


Book Description

Have you ever had an unexplained phenomena - a knock at the door but no one is there; the hairs on your arm standing up, as though you're suddenly chilled; a gradual aroma arising from nowhere; an abrupt noise; a strange sensation on different parts of your body, like someone stroking your hair; or dreams of your deceased loved ones? These are just a few examples of how your ancestors and spirit guides may be trying to gain your attention.Perhaps you've felt empty or unfulfilled at some point in your life. Have you ever wondered if there is something waiting for you beyond your sphere of existence - your friends, your job, your loved ones, your church - do you pray for a deeper understanding of the world around you? Priestess Aladokun was a newcomer to spirituality, but through curiosity, dedication, and perseverance, she has learned to let herself be guided by the spirits of her ancestors. She has studied various schools of spirituality, primarily Afrikan, Latino, and Native American spirituality. She has made many deep connections through these forms of study and worship. Much of what she learned did not come easily, whether through a lack of resources, qualified teachers, or negative energy in her own life that blocked her spiritually. Despite the obstacles, she emerged stronger, wiser and more prepared than ever to guide others down the path paved for us. She has given us "Ancestor Paths." Simply put, "Ancestor Paths" is about ancestor reverence and communication. If you have an interest in spirituality, do not let the complexity of the ideas confuse and discourage you. Do not be disheartened by misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Let Aladokun be your guide to finding your own spirituality, through the veneration of ancestors and the spirits you can learn to access. Let your life become enriched by the knowledge and understanding that "Ancestor Paths" will give you - no matter your race or heritage."Ancestor Paths" is a tribute to all divinities within the universe that continue to guide, bless, and elevate our souls toward higher consciousness and enlightenment. No matter what path you walk, it is the ancestors and the guardian spirits who protect and guide you. This book was written to spread knowledge of how to acknowledge and communicate with your ancestors and guardian spirits on an everyday basis through cleansing rituals, constructing ancestor shrines/altars, suggested prayers, encountering spirits, and fundamental divination. For those interested in spirit contact, this book is for you!