{"product_id":"metapersons-transcendence-and-life-paperback","title":"Metapersons: Transcendence and Life - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJoão Pina-Cabral\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhy do humans live with gods, spirits, and ancestors? \u003ci\u003eMetapersons\u003c\/i\u003e reveals how transcendence is not an exception, but a fundamental feature of life.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eMetapersons\u003c\/i\u003e begins from a simple yet striking observation: across the world, people live in the company of divinities, ancestors, spirits, sacred mountains, or enlivened statues. They pray with intensity, sense the presence of ghosts, and experience forms of coexistence with beings beyond the human. Drawing on fieldwork in Portugal, China, Mozambique, and Brazil, João Pina-Cabral shows how humans continually move beyond their embodied condition through lived relations with such entities. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Revisiting classic anthropological debates--from Durkheim and Mauss on prayer and the sacred to later critiques of religion--this book argues that a \"new anthropological synthesis\" has emerged in recent decades: one that understands transcendence as a fundamental feature of life itself. In this light, familiar categories such as \"superstition\" require reconsideration in new terms. Pina-Cabral develops a scalar model of life's plurality, seeing personhood as the dynamic source of transcendence. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Engaging with contemporary debates across the life sciences, social sciences, and philosophy, \u003ci\u003eMetapersons\u003c\/i\u003e offers a groundbreaking, person-centered perspective on transcendence, animism, and spirituality. It challenges disciplinary boundaries while providing an innovative framework for rethinking prayer, religion, and the very conditions of human coexistence with the more-than-human world.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoão Pina-Cabral\u003c\/b\u003e is research professor emeritus at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon in Portugal and emeritus professor of social anthropology at the University of Kent in the UK.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 350\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.81 x 8.91 x 5.91 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 27, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48826123354361,"sku":"9781914363382","price":56.7,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/GN1N8q-d_C9781914363382.webp?v=1786873697","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/metapersons-transcendence-and-life-paperback","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}