Fantastic Fauna in a Global Perspective: understanding composites in early Eurasian Antiquity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Petya Andreeva
Keyword(s):  
Visual Rhetoric ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Dynamic Scenes ◽  
World Views ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Eurasian Steppe ◽  
Organic Composites ◽  
Constructed Environment

Abstract Ancient tombs and hoards across the Eurasian steppe call for a thorough revision of art-historical categories associated with pastoral societies from Mongolia to Crimea. This study focuses on one such category. “Animal style” is an umbrella term traditionally used to categorise portable precious metalwork ornamented with dynamic scenes of vigorous animal fights and entwined zoomorphic designs. With its emphasis on irregular animal anatomies and deeply rooted in a “pars-pro-toto” mode of expression, steppe imagery of fantastic fauna presents a useful case study in broader investigations of composites in the ancient world and their diffusion across cultural spheres. This study views beasts through a binary lens, the structured monsters of Greco-Roman thinkers and the organic composites of nomadic steppe artisans. In the Western canon, “composites” existed within a politically-manufactured framework of governable “otherness”, in which fantastic fauna conveys a certain tension with the exotic, unknown and uncontrollable East. Meanwhile, in the visual rhetoric of steppe artisans, monsters represented a tension with the (cyclical) shifts occurring in one's biota rather than the tumultuous events in one's constructed environment. This paper explores how the contrasting steppe pastoralist and sedentary imperial world-views came to define the various functions and meanings of “composites” in Eurasian Antiquity.

A Pleasing Odour for Yahweh

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Anne Katrine De Hemmer Gudme
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
Sense Of Smell ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Crucial Part

This article investigates the importance of smell in the sacrificial cults of the ancient Mediterranean, using the Yahweh temple on Mount Gerizim and the Hebrew Bible as a case-study. The material shows that smell was an important factor in delineating sacred space in the ancient world and that the sense of smell was a crucial part of the conceptualization of the meeting between the human and the divine.  In the Hebrew Bible, the temple cult is pervaded by smell. There is the sacred oil laced with spices and aromatics with which the sanctuary and the priests are anointed. There is the fragrant and luxurious incense, which is burnt every day in front of Yahweh and finally there are the sacrifices and offerings that are burnt on the altar as ‘gifts of fire’ and as ‘pleasing odors’ to Yahweh. The gifts that are given to Yahweh are explicitly described as pleasing to the deity’s sense of smell. On Mount Gerizim, which is close to present-day Nablus on the west bank, there once stood a temple dedicated to the god Yahweh, whom we also know from the Hebrew Bible. The temple was in use from the Persian to the Hellenistic period (ca. 450 – 110 BCE) and during this time thousands of animals (mostly goats, sheep, pigeons and cows) were slaughtered and burnt on the altar as gifts to Yahweh. The worshippers who came to the sanctuary – and we know some of them by name because they left inscriptions commemorating their visit to the temple – would have experienced an overwhelming combination of smells: the smell of spicy herbs baked by the sun that is carried by the wind, the smell of humans standing close together and the smell of animals, of dung and blood, and behind it all as a backdrop of scent the constant smell of the sacrificial smoke that rises to the sky.

scholarly journals Techniques for Mitigating the Effects of Smoke Taint While Maintaining Quality in Wine Production: A Review

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1672
Author(s):  
Ysadora A. Mirabelli-Montan ◽  
Matteo Marangon ◽  
Antonio Graça ◽  
Christine M. Mayr Marangon ◽  
Kerry L. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Global Perspective ◽  
Wine Industry ◽  
Wine Production ◽  
Specific Data ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Initial Severity ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Available Information

Smoke taint has become a prominent issue for the global wine industry as climate change continues to impact the length and extremity of fire seasons around the world. Although the issue has prompted a surge in research on the subject in recent years, no singular solution has yet been identified that is capable of maintaining the quality of wine made from smoke-affected grapes. In this review, we summarize the main research on smoke taint, the key discoveries, as well as the prevailing uncertainties. We also examine methods for mitigating smoke taint in the vineyard, in the winery, and post production. We assess the effectiveness of remediation methods (proposed and actual) based on available research. Our findings are in agreement with previous studies, suggesting that the most viable remedies for smoke taint are still the commercially available activated carbon fining and reverse osmosis treatments, but that the quality of the final treated wines is fundamentally dependent on the initial severity of the taint. In this review, suggestions for future studies are introduced for improving our understanding of methods that have thus far only been preliminarily investigated. We select regions that have already been subjected to severe wildfires, and therefore subjected to smoke taint (particularly Australia and California) as a case study to inform other wine-producing countries that will likely be impacted in the future and suggest specific data collection and policy implementation actions that should be taken, even in countries that have not yet been impacted by smoke taint. Ultimately, we streamline the available information on the topic of smoke taint, apply it to a global perspective that considers the various stakeholders involved, and provide a launching point for further research on the topic.

Multi-Criteria Analysis and Consequential Lifecycle Assessment of Solid Waste Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Anna Bernstad Saraiva ◽  
João Namorado Clímaco ◽  
Rogerio de Aragão Bastos do Valle ◽  
Claudio Mahler
Keyword(s):  
Solid Waste Management ◽  
Landfill Gas ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Lifecycle Assessment ◽  
Gas Source ◽  
Vip Analysis ◽  
The City ◽  
Evaluation Parameters

Based on a case study comparing different approaches for management of organic waste generated in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this study proposes the combination of consequential lifecycle assessment (CLCA) and multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). Compared approaches were landfilling with energy recovery from landfill gas, source segregation of organics for anaerobic digestion and use of digestate as fertilizer, and finally, post-sorting of organics and landfilling of residual bio-solids. Seven different impact categories were assessed in the CLCA. In addition, recovery of electricity and macro nutrients were included as additional impact categories. The use of VIP analysis facilitates the interpretation of results aggregating them under different conditions. Furthermore, approaches for ranking of considered impact categories could be carried out both for a local or a global perspective. This, and the possibility of easily including additional context derived evaluation parameters, clearly highlights the combination of CLCA and VIP analysis for decision support.

scholarly journals CONSERVATIVE AND LIBERAL, HIERARCHICAL AND EGALITARIAN: SOCIAL-POLITICAL USES OF THE CONCEPT OF “HOME” IN GRECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY

Phronimon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Strijdom
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
House Churches ◽  
The Family ◽  
George Lakoff ◽  
The One ◽  
Roman Antiquity ◽  
Point Of Departure

The cognitive linguist George Lakoff has argued that in the human brain two concepts of the family are mapped onto two contrasting political concepts, which reveal two kinds of systemic morality: a hierarchical, strict and disciplining father morality of conservatives on the one hand, and an egalitarian, nurturing parent morality of progressives or liberals on the other. Taking Lakoff’s thesis as point of departure, I offer a critical comparison of social-political uses of the concept of “home” in the early Roman Empire and Pauline Christianity. For this case study I engage primarily with the work of John Dominic Crossan, a prominent scholar of early Christianity within its Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts. Although “home” does not constitute the focus of his analysis, a close reading of his oeuvre does allow us to identify and highlight this as a crucial theme in his work. The focus will be on the patriarchal home under Greco-Roman imperial conditions as model of the imperial system, the Pauline egalitarian concept of the Christian home and house churches, and the deutero-Pauline return to the imperial model. By comparing these case studies from another epoch and another culture, thevalidity of Lakoff’s thesis will be tested and our understanding of the concepts “liberal” and “conservative” will be enriched.

scholarly journals The Power of Political Cartoons: A Case Study of Zunar’s ‘Twit Twit Cincin’

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-180
Author(s):  
Roslina Abdul Latif ◽  
◽  
Sojoud Elgarrai ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Rhetoric ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Cartoons ◽  
The Political ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
The Way

The following study of selected works of art by Zulkiflee Anwar Haque or better known as Zunar, a Malaysian political cartoonist from his book ‘Twit Twit Cincin’. This study is guided by the visual rhetoric theory that has three areas of study - nature, function and evaluation. The study looks at selected cartoons that addressed political figures, politics and social issues. The research looked at the way the caricatures portrayed Malaysian politicians, his perspectives on the political and social issues and how these issues were addressed. The researcher also looked at metaphors used by the cartoonist to communicate his ideas to the audiences. The study found that Zunar’s portrait of Malaysian politicians is not always positive. He is critical but not in an inflammatory way. The metaphors found in Zunar’s work are found to be common themes and simple to understand. They are also very well-known, visually appealing and a tool to tie his messages together and to get his ideas across. Zunar has managed to resist the oppression of the state through his cartoons while looking at institutional reform, puts forth an alternative articulation of history and nation that juxtapose the current government. Keywords: Zunar, political cartoonist, political and social issues, Twit Twit Cincin, metaphors.

Antonio Bresciani and the sects: conspiracy myths in an intransigent Catholic response to the Risorgimento

Modern Italy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
John Dickie
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Culture War ◽  
World Views ◽  
Secret Societies ◽  
Christian Conversion ◽  
Significant Case ◽  
Female Fighters ◽  
Paranoid Style ◽  
Cultural Historiography

Antonio Bresciani’s notorious trilogy of novels about the revolutions of 1848, starting withL’Ebreo di Verona, first appeared in the earliest issues of the Jesuit periodicalLa Civiltà Cattolicafrom 1850. They constitute an intransigentist attack on the Risorgimento, and portray the events of 1848–1849 as the result of a satanically inspired conspiracy by secret societies. This article re-analyses those novels by placing Bresciani in the context of the ‘culture war’ between lay and religious world views across Europe from the middle of the nineteenth century. The article argues that Bresciani represents a significant case study in the intransigent Catholic response to the kind of patriotic motifs identified by the recent cultural historiography on the Risorgimento. The ‘paranoid style’ of Bresciani’s conspiracy myth is analysed, as is Bresciani’s portrayal of Garibaldi, female fighters, and Jews – in particular the tale of Christian conversion presented inL’Ebreo di Verona. The article argues that, despite its polarising, reactionary intentions, Bresciani’s fiction betrayed many influences from the Romantic culture of the Risorgimento that he claimed to despise.

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