Scribes, Cooks, and Artisans: Breaking Zhou Tradition

Early China ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 241-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance A. Cook

Bronze Inscriptions of the Western Zhou period show how ritualists were once dedicated to maintaining the ritual apparatus supporting the divine authority of the royal Zhou lineage. Bronze and bamboo texts of the Eastern Zhou period reveal, on the other hand, that ritualists able to manipulate local rulers reliant on their knowledge subsequently subverted power into their own hands. Ritualists such as scribes, cooks, and artisans were involved in the transmission of Zhou “power” through the creation and use of inscribed bronze vessels during feasts. The expansion and bureaucratization of their roles in the Chu state provided economic and ultimately political control of the state. This was particularly the case as the Chu, like the Zhou before them, fled east to escape western invaders.

Early China ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 1-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Feng

Traditional studies of Western Zhou bronze inscriptions have long centered on the issue of dating, but have ignored technical aspects regarding the creation of the inscriptions. In these studies, scholars generally considered bronzes with “identical” inscriptions to have been produced simultaneously. This article demonstrates, with the example of the newly excavated Ke lei and Ke he, that an inscription could be reproduced during the Western Zhou. The Ke lei was cast at the outset of the Zhou dynasty to celebrate the granting of the state of Yan, while the Ke he was probably cast somewhat later, with inscriptions imitating the original inscriptions. This article also demonstrates that “identical” inscriptions can display different calligraphy, the calligraphic styles corresponding to sets in the original composition of bronzes. For example, the thirteen “identical” inscriptions on the extant eight Ci gui and three Ci ding vessels were inscribed in three different calligraphic styles; the ornamentation and size or weight of these eleven bronzes show them to have belonged originally to three different sets, corresponding to the three calligraphic styles. These cases of “identical” inscriptions not only provide solid evidence for the contemporary co-existence of different calligraphic styles within the Western Zhou period, but also provide critical information on the organization of technology and labor in the creation of Western Zhou bronzes.


Itinerario ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 143-153
Author(s):  
Robert Ross

What is, and was, South Africa? This is clearly not a question which has a single answer, nor has it ever had one. On the one hand, there is a constitutional answer. In these terms, South Africa did not exist before the creation of the Union in 1910 and since then has been the state created then, transformed into the Republic of South Africa in 1961 and transformed once again with the ending of white minority rule in 1994. On the other hand, there are innumerable answers, effectively those to be found in the minds of all South Africans, and indeed all those foreigners who have an opinion about the country. Nevertheless, these opinions are not random. Clearly, there are regularities to be found within them, such that it is possible, in principle, to describe at the very least the range of answers to this question which were held within particular groups of the population, either within the country or outside it, and also to use specific sources, emanating from a single person, or group of individuals, as exemplary of the visions held by a far wider group.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Dian Septiandani ◽  
Abd. Shomad

Zakat is one of principal worship requiring every individual (<em>mukallaf</em>) with considerable property to spend some of the wealth for zakat under several conditions applied within. On the other hand, tax is an obligation assigned to taxpayers and should be deposited into the state based on policies applied, with no direct return as reward, for financing the national general expense. In their development, both zakat and tax had quite attention from Islamic economic thought. Nevertheless, we, at first, wanted to identify the principles of zakat and tax at the time of Rasulullah SAW. Therefore, this study referred to normative research. The primary data was collected through library/document research and the secondary one was collected through literature review by inventorying and collecting textbooks and other documents related to the studied issue.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (14) ◽  
pp. 7582
Author(s):  
Evgenii Gusev ◽  
Alexey Sarapultsev ◽  
Desheng Hu ◽  
Valeriy Chereshnev

The COVID-19 pandemic examines not only the state of actual health care but also the state of fundamental medicine in various countries. Pro-inflammatory processes extend far beyond the classical concepts of inflammation. They manifest themselves in a variety of ways, beginning with extreme physiology, then allostasis at low-grade inflammation, and finally the shockogenic phenomenon of “inflammatory systemic microcirculation”. The pathogenetic core of critical situations, including COVID-19, is this phenomenon. Microcirculatory abnormalities, on the other hand, lie at the heart of a specific type of general pathological process known as systemic inflammation (SI). Systemic inflammatory response, cytokine release, cytokine storm, and thrombo-inflammatory syndrome are all terms that refer to different aspects of SI. As a result, the metabolic syndrome model does not adequately reflect the pathophysiology of persistent low-grade systemic inflammation (ChSLGI). Diseases associated with ChSLGI, on the other hand, are risk factors for a severe COVID-19 course. The review examines the role of hypoxia, metabolic dysfunction, scavenger receptors, and pattern-recognition receptors, as well as the processes of the hemophagocytic syndrome, in the systemic alteration and development of SI in COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinashe Mawere

In the context of the hashtag movement #ThisFlag, this paper examines the sensual affects drawn from flag symbolism and why the Zimbabwean flag is policed by the state. It uses the symbolism and politics of the hashtag movements by focusing on Evan Mawarire’s national lament and the Zimbabwean flag. It employs a literary and discursive analysis of Mawarire’s lament using desktop research on the contestations surrounding the flag. It shows that in dominant nationalist discourses, the flag is imaged as the land/nation and feminised to warrant it utmost respect, protection, sanctity and re/productive capacity. On the other hand, the #ThisFlag has made use of the flag to resist and subvert grand and naturalised dominant discourses of nationalism and citizenship to foster new imagi/nations of the nation. The use of the flag by the movement provoked ZANU-PF’s ownership of the national flag, which is quite similar to and has been drawn from the flag of the party, hence the movement was challenging the identity of the party, its ownership and its relevance. The paper shows the fluidity of symbols and symbolic meanings and why #ThisFlag had symbolic radical power and the possibilities of using the state’s and ZANU-PF’s cultural tools to challenge ZANU-PF’s hold on national knowledge and power. It contributes to our understanding of both state-power retention and how subaltern voices can uncover the agency of subjects within the very instruments of control incessantly used by dominant regimes.


Author(s):  
Sumit Ganguly ◽  
William R. Thompson

This concluding chapter focuses on India's state-capacity problems and prospects. Its population may become the world's largest, its economy is becoming one of the world's largest, and its military power will probably move along at least a similar upward trajectory. Yet just about everything concerning India is characterized by developmental handicaps of one sort or another. Too many people are poor, infrastructure is lacking, and demands on the state for action to remedy these problems are multiplying. The Indian state, on the other hand, is characterized by a mixture of strengths and weaknesses. It scores high on its democratic attributes but much less so on its overall effectiveness. It has been and continues to be plagued by peripheral insurgencies and separatist movements. Moreover, its extraction capacity has improved but still has a long way to go, given the tasks the state needs to undertake.


2012 ◽  
pp. 330-344
Author(s):  
Daniel Cerdas Sandí

El trabajo busca presentar teorías o propuestas conceptuales sobre la relación cultura y desarrollo, pero no se limitará a una exposición de las mismas, sino que pretendemos realizar una crítica de la conceptualización de varias de estas nociones consideradas hegemónicas. Por otra parte, se presentará una propuesta alterna considerada más precisa y válida para entender la relación cultura y desarrollo en cuanto responde a un análisis propio de las estructuras socioeconómicas que condicionan dicho vínculo. ABSTRACT This paper aims to present the theoriesor proposals about the relationship between culture and development but this does not limited the exposition of both of them, but the creation of a critical of the conceptualization of some of the notions considered as hegemonic. In the other hand, we present an alternative proposal considered as more accurate and valid for us to understand the relationship culture – development as the response to an analysis from the socioeconomics structures that determine that link.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
Mahaarum Kusuma Pertiwi

This paper finding is the existence of recurring unsettled negotiation between the Islamists and the Nationalists during three important constitutional works in Indonesia (the making of 1945 Constitution; the work of Konstituante to draft a new constitution in 1955-1959; and the constitutional amendment 1999-2002). Such fragile political consensus creates a legal gap in the Indonesian legal system: constitutional guarantee on religious liberty on one hand, and discriminative derivative laws and court decisions in relate to religious liberty on the other hand. This paper argues the legal gap happens because historically, discourse over religious liberty never settled during constitutional debates. It leads to ambiguous constitutional articles on religious liberty such as the seemingly contradicting Article 28 I (1) on absolute rights and Article 28 J (2) on the limitation of rights. The ambiguous constitutional articles give no solid basis for protecting religious liberty, especially for minority, although explicitly Article 29 (2) of the Constitution stating, ‘The State guarantees freedom of every inhabitant to embrace his/ her respective religion and to worship according to his/ her religion and faith as such’. This paper will explain the unsettled negotiations during the making of Pancasila and the Jakarta Charter in 1945; the debate within Konstituante’s work in 1959; and the debate during constitutional amendment in 1999-2002.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Andry Indrady

This paper discusses the implementation of free visa policy in Indonesia from a neorealist perspective. By utilizing the perspective of interdependence sovereignty and domestic sovereignty, this paper critically assesses the implementation of the free visa policy in Indonesia. From the interdependence sovereignty perspective, which elaborates the economic benefits, reciprocal and security approaches the paper finds that the free visa policy in Indonesia has yet to formulate a rational and objective policy that would lead to potential security – order threat. On the other hand, from the domestic sovereignty perspective the paper finds that although the state performs its immigration control capabilities effectively, however the said immigration control measures are implemented at a rather repressive level, instead of at the ideal prevention level. In the end, the paper suggests further research that fills the gap from findings on the specific methods to enhance the state’s capability in managing challenges posed by the free visa policy in more detail, as well as providing a method to measure public perception on the performance of immigration control.


2006 ◽  
pp. 29-56
Author(s):  
Michal Sládecek

In first chapters of this article MacIntyre?s view of ethics is analyzed, together with his critics of liberalism as philosophical and political theory, as well as dominant ideological conception. In last chapters MacIntyre?s view of the relation between politics and ethics is considered, along with the critical review of his theoretical positions. Macintyre?s conception is regarded on the one hand as very broad, because the entire morality is identified with ethical life, while on the other hand it is regarded as too narrow since it excludes certain essential aspects of deliberation which refers to the sphere of individual rights, the relations between communities, as well as distribution of goods within the state.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document