Heart of Lightness

"Edith and Victor Turner were among the most influential researchers and teachers and social and cultural anthropology in the twentieth century. Together they, and Edie alone after Vic's death, raised the idea of participant observation (and indeed of team learning) to heights and depth most anthropologists never achieve." [From the Foreword]

This fascinating memoir is a lively testimony to a remarkable partnership and to Edie Turner's own achievements during more than two decades after Victor's untimely death.

Edith L. B. Turner (1921-2016) was on the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia. She specialized in ritual, religion, healing, and aspects of consciousness, and had done fieldwork among the Ndembu of Zambia, in Mexico, among the Iñupiat of Alaska, and in rural Ireland. Her numerous publications include The Spirit and the Drum (1987), Experiencing Ritual: A New Interpretation of African Healing (1992), and Among the Healers: Stories of Ritual and Spiritual Healing around the World (2005).