Heaven, Heroes and Happiness explores Western culture and its pervasive ideology while tracing its roots back to an ancient Proto-Indo-European homeland. This book explores ancient myth, the evidence of language history, and the archaeological record in an endeavor to show that the origin of Western civilization lies much deeper than had been anticipated. Contents: Patterns and Themes of Indo-European Ideology; Unveiling the Indo-European Legacy; The Ideology of Tripartite Completeness; Class, Conflict, and Compromise; 'Fear God'; Heroes with a Cause; The Pursuit of Happiness; Origins and Destinies Reinterpreted; In the Beginning; Ancient Myth in Disguise; The Armageddon Cycle; Indo-European Expansion and Ideological Impact; Twilight of the Goddess; A Collision of Cultures; Linguistic Paleontology; Quest for a Homeland.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is interesting, informative, and enlightening.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Heaven, Heroes and Happiness: The Indo-European Roots of Western Ideology (Paperback)
The author makes a wondeful effort of compiling knowledge and research from many fields - archaelogy, anthropology, linguistics, mythology - to name a few. An excellent introduction to Indo-European culture and language both for the formal Indo-Europeanist, and for someone new to this area of study. The style is clear, and many good examples are given to explain the various themes. I highly recommend this book to anyone, even those who are not formal linguists or Indo-Europeanists.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This book challenges many traditions and is life-changing.,
By stronghnds@aol.com (Pensacola, FL, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Heaven, Heroes and Happiness: The Indo-European Roots of Western Ideology (Paperback)
Extensive research has gone into the writing of this book. There are footnotes on practically every page. I recommend taking notes and posing questions to oneself as one reads. It is extremely enlightening and life-changing in it's impact on the reader.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good beginner's book,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Heaven, Heroes and Happiness: The Indo-European Roots of Western Ideology (Paperback)
In this work, Shan Winn summarizes up the generally accepted views of Indo-European comparative mythology, archaeology, and so forth. Summarizing the theories of Georges Dumezil, Marija Gimbutas and others, as well as critically reviewing the less accepted theories of Colin Renfew etc. In general, we are treated to a wonderful summary of thoughts plus a few of the author's own. This is a book I can recommend to beginners along with J P Mallory's IN SEARCH OF THE INDO-EUROPEANS: Language, Archaeology, and Myth.
At the same time, I that this book shows how much need there is for rethinking some of Gimbutas's mythological theories in the light of Victor Turner's field work and theories (especially his theories regarding liminality and communitas (see The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures) (Foundations of Human Behavior)), and the role of the non-inheritance gender in non-hierarchical elements of society. However, this is hardly something that can be held against the author since it is a matter of a need for greater interdisciplinary studies in relation to this field. In my view Dr Turner's field work and theories in relation to it substantially undermine Gimbutas's theories regarding mythology and non-stratified, matrifocal (and sometimes what she even claims to be matriarchal) Old European society. Consequently I mention this as a caution for people trying to read introductions to this field to branch out into related ones, such as anthropology, as well. I certainly wouldn't expect a book written for non-specialists to venture into this area however. On the whole, this is one of the best beginner books out there, as an ideal complement to JP Mallory's book mentioned above, and a useful book to read before getting onto more specialized books like Jaan Puhvel's Comparative Mythology or the works of Georges Dumezil. It neatly summarizes the state of the consensus regarding Indo-European comparative mythology and so forth. The writing is clear and easy to understand. He makes the case well (though see the above caveat). On the whole, I'd highly recommend this work.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
