Becoming Zarathustra

Author(s):  
Jean Kellens

This chapter examines the role of ritual and sacrifice in the most sacred Zoroastrian literature, the Gâthâs in order to explore the complex relationship between the figure of Zarathustra and the human ritual officiant. The chapter presents a very Lincoln-ian sort of history of the field of Zoroastrian studies itself, interrogating the contexts and biases of particular scholars in their various readings and misreadings of the tradition. At the same time, it offers a new way of thinking about the figure of Zarathustra himself, who is best understood not as the semi-historical “founder” of Zoroastrianism but rather as the mythical personality into which the human officiant is himself transfigured through the ritual operations.

Author(s):  
Sandro Dutra e Silva

This article presents an overview of the environmental history of the Brazilian Cerrado, its environmental characteristics and the processes related to the historical change in the landscapes of this endangered ecosystem. It highlights competing classifications of the Cerrado, the role of politics in establishing them, and the environmental consequences of such classifications. More than just describing an environment, classifying an ecosystem is a political process that involves complex socio-environmental interactions. The sources used points out the different attempts to get to know and "conquered" the Cerrado, bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from a variety of actors and institutions. Historiographic challenges go beyond environmental descriptions in that the socio-environmental interactions that made up this unique ecosystem are equally complex. This paper’s conclusions reinforce the interdisciplinary role of environmental history in the study of ecosystems and the complex relationship between culture and nature.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
Mikael Strömberg

The article’s primary aim is to discuss the function of turning points and continuity within historiography. That a historical narrative, produced at a certain time and place, influence the way the historian shapes and develops the argument is problematized by an emphasis on the complex relationship between turning points and continuity as colligatory concepts within an argumentative framework. Aided by a number of examples from three historical narratives on operetta, the article stresses the importance of creating new narratives about the past. Two specific examples from the history of operetta, the birth of the genre and the role of music, are used to illustrate the need to revise not only the use of source material and the narrative strategy used, but also how the argument proposed by the historian gathers strength. The interpretation of turning points and continuity as colligatory concepts illustrate the need to revise earlier historical narratives when trying to counteract the repetitiveness of history.


Africa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Gibbs

AbstractThe history of South Africa's urban-based ‘struggle lawyers’ – a trajectory epitomized by Nelson Mandela – is much discussed by historians and biographers, reflecting a broader vein of historiography that celebrates anti-colonial legal activism. However, it was South Africa's ‘Native Reserves’ and Bantustans that produced the majority of African lawyers for much of the twentieth century. Indeed, two-thirds of the African justices who have sat on the post-apartheid Constitutional Court either practised or trained in the Bantustans during the apartheid era. The purpose of this article is thus to reappraise South Africa's ‘legal field’ – the complex relationship between professional formation, elite reproduction and the exercise of political power – by tracing the ambiguous role played by the Native Reserves/Bantustans in shaping the African legal profession across the twentieth century. How did African lawyers, persistently marginalized by century-long patterns of exclusion, nevertheless construct an elite profession within the confines of segregation and apartheid? How might we link the histories of the Bantustans with the better-known ‘struggle historiography’ that emphasizes the role of political and legal activism in the cities? And what are the implications of South Africa's segregated history for debates about the ‘decolonization’ of the legal profession in the post-apartheid era?


Author(s):  
Sam Ferguson

An introductory discussion takes stock of previous studies of the diary, establishes the distinct approach for the present work, and sets out some useful critical concepts. This book will reconsider some of the historical landmarks identified by previous studies, and address certain gaps in the historical account (particularly the decades after the Second World War). It adopts a more sensitive and flexible approach to fictivity than previous studies. The important concept of otherness in the diary is discussed with reference to Jacques Lacan. The author-figure and the œuvre are to be treated as products of literary discourse with a complex relationship to reality (discussed with reference to Michel Foucault). The concept of the supplement (following Jacques Derrida) will be useful in examining the marginal and subversive role of the diary. Finally, the role of gender in the history of diary-writing is addressed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
Mikael Strömberg

The article’s primary aim is to discuss the function of turning points and continuity within historiography. That a historical narrative, produced at a certain time and place, influence the way the historian shapes and develops the argument is problematized by an emphasis on the complex relationship between turning points and continuity as colligatory concepts within an argumentative framework. Aided by a number of examples from three historical narratives on operetta, the article stresses the importance of creating new narratives about the past. Two specific examples from the history of operetta, the birth of the genre and the role of music, are used to illustrate the need to revise not only the use of source material and the narrative strategy used, but also how the argument proposed by the historian gathers strength. The interpretation of turning points and continuity as colligatory concepts illustrate the need to revise earlier historical narratives when trying to counteract the repetitiveness of history.


Author(s):  
Sandro Dutra e Silva

This article presents an overview of the environmental history of the Brazilian Cerrado, its environmental characteristics and the processes related to the historical change in the landscapes of this endangered ecosystem. It highlights competing classifications of the Cerrado, the role of politics in establishing them, and the environmental consequences of such classifications. More than just describing an environment, classifying an ecosystem is a political process that involves complex socio-environmental interactions. The sources used points out the different attempts to get to know and "conquered" the Cerrado, bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from a variety of actors and institutions. Historiographic challenges go beyond environmental descriptions in that the socio-environmental interactions that made up this unique ecosystem are equally complex. This paper’s conclusions reinforce the interdisciplinary role of environmental history in the study of ecosystems and the complex relationship between culture and nature.


Author(s):  
Russ Bestley

In parallel to the broad diversity of musical styles that accompanied the early punk explosion, the graphic design and visual communication strategies tell a similarly wide-ranging story. This chapter explores the complex relationship between the stereotype of “authentic” do-it-yourself (DIY) punk graphics and the music industry professionals who created many of the visual conventions that came to be closely associated with the subculture. While the groundswell of amateur artists, illustrators, photographers, typographers, and other cultural producers inspired by the subculture to create a new aesthetic should not be underestimated, their story has become almost the default history of punk graphic design. The role of design professionals—often with many years of experience within the music industry—has frequently been overlooked, an embarrassing secret kept in the closet for fear of undermining notions of authenticity and punk’s revolutionary rhetoric.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.


2001 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. A442-A442
Author(s):  
P TSIBOURIS ◽  
M HENDRICKSE ◽  
P ISAACS

Crisis ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Hamdan ◽  
Nadine Melhem ◽  
Israel Orbach ◽  
Ilana Farbstein ◽  
Mohammad El-Haib ◽  
...  

Background: Relatively little is known about the role of protective factors in an Arab population in the presence of suicidal risk factors. Aims: To examine the role of protective factors in a subsample of in large Arab Kindred participants in the presence of suicidal risk factors. Methods: We assessed protective and risk factors in a sample of 64 participants (16 suicidal and 48 nonsuicidal) between 15 and 55 years of age, using a comprehensive structured psychiatric interview, the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), self-reported depression, anxiety, hopelessness, impulsivity, hostility, and suicidal behavior in first-degree and second-relatives. We also used the Religiosity Questionnaire and suicide attitude (SUIATT) and multidimensional perceived support scale. Results: Suicidal as opposed to nonsuicidal participants were more likely to have a lifetime history of major depressive disorder (MDD) (68.8% vs. 22.9% χ2 = 11.17, p = .001), an anxiety disorder (87.5% vs. 22.9, χ2 = 21.02, p < .001), or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (25% vs. 0.0%, Fisher’s, p = .003). Individuals who are otherwise at high risk for suicidality have a much lower risk when they experience higher perceived social support (3.31 ± 1.36 vs. 4.96 ± 1.40, t = 4.10, df = 62, p < .001), and they have the view that suicide is somehow unacceptable (1.83 ± .10 vs. 1.89 ± .07, t = 2.76, df = 60, p = .008). Conclusions: Taken together with other studies, these data suggest that the augmentation of protective factors could play a very important role in the prevention of incidental and recurrent suicidal behavior in Arab populations, where suicidal behavior in increasing rapidly.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document