scholarly journals A genetic perspective on human origins

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-10
Author(s):  
Matthew Williams ◽  
João Teixeira

Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? These fundamental questions have been widespread throughout human history, shared across different cultures from distant epochs and geographical locations. The search has been as much a philosophical as an empirical one, capturing the imagination of the philosopher, the theologian, the artist and the scientist alike. Hence, the quest for unveiling our origins is probably as old as humanity itself. From a scientific point of view, which we address in the present article, the question of human origins became deeply intertwined with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in the late 19th century. This led to the development of scientific fields such as palaeoanthropology, which analyses fossil remains, stone tools and cultural artefacts to piece together our past. Recently, however, the possibility to assess genetic information from thousands of individuals across the world and, more importantly, to obtain DNA from specimens that lived thousands of years in the past (so-called ancient DNA [aDNA] analyses) is rapidly transforming long-held beliefs about our origins. As such, we have never been in a better position to ask what do our genomes have to tell us about where we came from. Ultimately, however, can they tell us who we are?

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 255-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimír Bačík ◽  
Michal Klobučník

Abstract The Tour de France, a three week bicycle race has a unique place in the world of sports. The 100th edition of the event took place in 2013. In the past of 110 years of its history, people noticed unique stories and duels in particular periods, celebrities that became legends that the world of sports will never forget. Also many places where the races unfolded made history in the Tour de France. In this article we tried to point out the spatial context of this event using advanced technologies for distribution of historical facts over the Internet. The Introduction briefly displays the attendance of a particular stage based on a regional point of view. The main topic deals with selected historical aspects of difficult ascents which every year decide the winner of Tour de France, and also attract fans from all over the world. In the final stage of the research, the distribution of results on the website available to a wide circle of fans of this sports event played a very significant part (www.tdfrance.eu). Using advanced methods and procedures we have tried to capture the historical and spatial dimensions of Tour de France in its general form and thus offering a new view of this unique sports event not only to the expert community, but for the general public as well.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ii (15) ◽  
pp. 146-182
Author(s):  
Haroula Hatzimihail ◽  
Ioannis Pantelidis

In this announcement, the various –linguistic and non-linguistic- symbols used in the literary work 'Around the world in 80 days', written by Jules Verne, are examined from an intertemporal and contemporary point of view. The references through these points of view, in matters of multiculturalism and multilingualism, are becoming classical in nature: they concern the necessity of the applied ability to communicate between individuals who belong to different social classes and age groups, speak the same or different languages, come from different cultures, with rights and obligations in their various areas of life, etc. Key-words: linguistics, multilingualism, multiculturalism, semiotics, semiotic systems, symbols


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Sze ◽  
Silva Isma ◽  
Adhika Irlang Suwiryo ◽  
Laura Lesmana Wijaya ◽  
Adhi Kusumo Bharato ◽  
...  

The distinction between languages and dialects has remained a controversial issue in literature. When such a distinction is made, it often has far-reaching implications in top-down language promotion and preservation policies that tend to favor only those varieties that are labelled as ‘languages’. This issue is of critical importance for the survival of most sign language varieties in the world from a socio-political point of view. Against this background, this paper discusses how the notions of ‘dialect’ and ‘language’ have been applied in classifying sign languages in the past few decades. In particular, the paper reports on two recent studies which provide linguistic evidence that the signing varieties used by Deaf signers in Jakarta and Yogyakarta in Indonesia should be regarded as distinct sign languages rather than mutually intelligible dialects of Indonesian Sign Language. The evidence comes from significant differences in the lexicon, preferred word order for encoding transitive events, and use of mouth actions. Our result suggests that signing varieties within a country can be significantly different from each other, thus calling for more concerted efforts in documenting and recognizing these differences if the linguistic needs of the signing communities are to be met.


Author(s):  
Giovanni Stanghellini

This chapter discusses how perspectivism is the device through which each one of us, who first and foremost sees the world from his point of view, is able to recognize that precisely as just one point of view, and thereby to change it. A healthy mental condition implies the ability to change one’s point of view and temporarily take the perspective of another person. The stronger the reciprocity of perspectives between my former and my present ego, and between my own vantage and the Other’s, the weaker the tendency to perceive my motivations as absolutely necessary. Perspectivism allows me to see myself as not strictly determined by the past and by the involuntary, and may restore a sense of agency. This explains why the reciprocity of perspectives is a therapeutic goal and perspectivism—the attempt to see things from the point of view of the Other—is a therapeutic device.


SIASAT ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-52
Author(s):  
Mohammad Taghi Sheykhi ◽  
Muhammad Ridwan

The present article intends to reflect the appearance of different pandemics in different periods from sociological point of view. Earlier pandemics used to appear without being able to control them; at the historical times without medications, hospitals, motor vehicles, without communications etc. Millions of people died because of spreading unknown diseases such as flu, cholera, black death, plague and the like. Estimates show that the first 15 events killed over 85 million people. Plague in Italy during some years in the 17th century perished many people vs the least of facilities within reach. Similarly, great plague in Spain in mid 17th century took the lives of a large number of people. Great plague of London also in the second half of the 17th century killed more than 100,000 of citizens. Such events not only directly killed older household members, but created bad lives and deprivation for the younger remaining members in such households. Many of such children had to resort to orphanages. Cholera outbreak also appeared in early 19th century in India, Russia and Africa leaving behind a great number of deaths. The flu pandemic at the end of 19th century killed many people. Many countries came to know more on influenza since then. The outbreak of Coronavirus in 2020 is the worst very widespread and global affecting and infecting many people in all corners of the world. Coronavirus pandemic is wide spreading without being prevented. Despite all the existing facilities, it is killing more than the earlier pandemics in terms of time and space. As education and understanding of people are currently higher than before, they highly feel distressed and disordered.    


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2S11) ◽  
pp. 3862-3866

Questions such as What is beauty? What is beautiful? Who's handsome? are as ancient as the world itself. The answers to these questions are of interest to everyone from Plato to the present generation. These questions, first of all, require an understanding of the philosophical and aesthetic nature of "beauty". However, the problem of analyzing the expression of the concept of "beauty" in the language (in the English, Uzbek and Tajik national cultures) has not been studied from the point of view of cognitive linguistics and linguistic Culturology. Consequently, the aesthetic picture of the world in English, Uzbek and Tajik languages, the possibility of expressing and reflecting the concept of "beauty" on the phraseological and lexical tiers of the language, the interpretation of values in different cultures, comparative analysis of linguistic and cultural features, and the study in direct connection with cognitive linguistics, linguoculturology, general linguistics determine the relevance of the topic of the article


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana María Aguilar López ◽  
Marta Miguel Borge

Our model of the world that we perceive within ourselves, our conscience, in short, our psychological balance is influenced by our surroundings. Part of the input to which we are exposed in this immediate environment is related to texts, self-managed discourse, which can also influence our internal model of the world; hence they are deserving of our attention. In the same way as the models of the world that we construct throughout our lives, reality is not static and also changes as time goes by. From a social point of view, we can see that the roles of women in modern-day society and the ways that those roles can be perceived today are a consequence of changes initiated in the past within different areas and in a prolonged process over time up until our day. With the aim of evaluating whether female drama has contributed to that change, we present an analysis in this paper of the play La Cinta Dorada [The Golden Ribbon] by María Manuela Reina, written and set in the 1980s, a decade that for Spain implied a more obvious abandonment of the most traditional conceptions of the role of women. In the analysis of the play, we see how the models of the world of the older people are counterposed with those of the younger people, a generational divide that is enriched with the gender difference, as we also analyze how the psychological structures of the female and male characters confront the clichés pertaining to another era in reference to such topics as success, infidelity, matrimony, and gender. The results of our analysis demonstrate how Reina responds to archaic conceptions, thereby inciting the audiences of the day to question their respective models of the world, especially, with regard to the role of the woman in society. 


Author(s):  
Frank F. Schambach

I am pleased and very honored that you have invited me here today to tell you something about the past of the Caddo people as it is known to archaeologists. This is a subject that has been both my occupation and my major preoccupation for more than 25 years. The story that I and other archaeologists have been piecing together over many years is long, complex, and endlessly fascinating. It is a heritage that anyone could be proud of. Let me give you some of the highlights. The story began over 11,500 years ago--or about 9,500 B.C.--when the first people arrived in the historic Caddo territory of Northwest Louisiana, Southwest Arkansas, East Texas, and Southeast Oklahoma. There were not many of them, perhaps only a hundred or so in this whole area at first. And the world they lived in was very different from the world today. It was cold, about like northern Maine or northern Michigan today, with forests of spruce and birch, because the Ice Age was still going on. They were probably dressed like Eskimos in carefully sewn parkas, trousers, and boots. We know this because many of the stone tools they left behind are tools for preparing hides and for making the bone needles necessary to sew them into clothing. They probably lived in skin tepees like those of the historic Plains Indians, but smaller, because they did not have horses to carry their gear from place to place. They did have dogs and they probably trained them to work as pack animals.


Author(s):  
Putri Ayuni ◽  
Anni Zuhro Syafrida Hasibuan ◽  
Suhairi Suhairi

Intercultural communication develops based on two interconnected premises. First, you live in a time when changing technology, travel, economic and political systems, immigration patterns, and population density have resulted in a world in which you regularly interact with people from different cultures. Second, nowadays, people are very sensitive to the fact that the influence of culture on communication is very close and great. Your cultural background and experience help you determine how the world should be for you and how you will interact with it. Anthropological perspective in intercultural communication is looking at intercultural communication from an anthropological point of view, because the communication already contains cultural values. Intercultural communication is part of the marriage between the disciplines of anthropology and communication which later became a separate discipline both in communication science and in anthropology. Anthropology is one of the fields of science that is the root or foundation of the birth of communication science. In subsequent developments, cultural experts realized the importance of communication in the cultural field.


Food Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (S1) ◽  
pp. 34-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.A. Abdullah ◽  
M.S.E. Azam

Entrepreneurship has become one of the vital activities for economic development. It is synonymous with job creation, innovation, improvement in the societal well-being and economic growth in developed and developing countries alike. There is great interest in entrepreneurship globally as well as in Malaysia. Over the past few years, many individuals, as well as families, are actively engaged with the small business. Also, in light of the 2013 GEM study, 12.7% of Americans are effectively occupied with beginning a business or are the proprietor/director of a business that is under three years of age. Simultaneously, the Halal industry, that represents the global Islamic economy, is the fastest-growing market in the world with $2.3 trillion market value. Halal entrepreneurs (Halalpreneurs) are the major contributors to this achievement as they constitute a significant portion of the total establishment in most of the Muslim countries. That is the reason Entrepreneurship has turned into a conventional term that depicts a wide range of practices that include being innovative, devilish and tricky. Entrepreneurship has been defined by many scholars, researchers, industry players, and academicians globally which have also been perceived in the same way by most of the economies around the world. However, the Islamic economy looks at the concept of ‘entrepreneurship’ in a different way and perceives it as ‘Halalpreneurship’. To define entrepreneurship in the halal industry, although, the term ‘Halalpreneurship’ is being used, surprisingly the term has not been defined properly yet. It is essential for the Muslim entrepreneurs to have a proper understanding of Halalpreneurship from Maqasid-al-Shariah perspective. Such point of view is crucial to justify the term in the Halal industry and differentiate from conventional entrepreneurs. On this context, this paper provides concept and definition of Halalpreneurship justifying from the perspective of Maqasid-al-Sharia’h. It also identifies the differences between Halalpreneurs and entrepreneurs using secondary resources available in the forms of literature, research papers, journal papers, articles, conference papers, online publications, etc. The findings of the study will clarify the concept of Halalpreneurship from Maqasid-al-Sharia’h perspective and recognize Halalpreneurs distinguished from conventional entrepreneurs.


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