I was required to read this book for an Anthropology class I took at Temple University and this was a great book. The Professor even went as far as locating the video through our video library for the class to view and it was interesting as well. This book was great! I would recommend it for reading even if you don't have to read it for a class!

Loved It!

I read this book a while ago and reread it every few years. It is wonderful and moving, unsparing but kind. I often buy it for friends.

Myerhoff, who was a leading cultural anthropologist, led the way in moving anthropological studies from exotic far-off locations to the study of near-by and familiar cultures. In her case, Myerhoff, a Jew herself, studied an elderly East European immigrant Jewish community in Southern California. The book is a subtle and compassionate ethnographic portrayal of their struggles, relationships, and religious lives centered at a local Jewish Community Center. Though materially poor and burdened by old age, Myerhoff shows that the people's lives are rich in tradition and ceremony. An Academy Award winning documentary was also made of the community carrying the same title.

This book is superbly written and offers an exemplary analysis of an intriguing ritual pilgrimage practiced by the the Huichol people in northcental Mexico.

This is the greatest ethnography i have ever read... While that's not saying an enormous amount, it is also one of the most fascinating and worthwhile books of non-fiction i've read, and that is saying a lot. Cohesive, illuminating, not too long, focussing on a culture which is very simple except for its complex religion, which, as with many native peoples, is really its entire life. Not being long, it reads like an essay with this as its thesis. A must for anyone interested in the cultural ecology of religion, or in native American peoples; the Huichol are one of the most interesting.