Diseased Bodies and the Invaded Social Body in Biblical Depictions of the Census

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Jason R. Price
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Social Body ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Tribal Society ◽  
Political Centralization ◽  
Village Life ◽  
Body Theory

The question of why biblical literature links census-taking with plague has long puzzled scholars. I propose looking at the problem through the lens of body theory, where one understanding of the body is to see it as a place upon which society and culture are mapped. Several studies anchored in this approach have found that diseased bodies are sometimes understood as symptoms of the “sick” or malfunctioning society. I propose that this representation of the sick body as a consequence of the sick society lends credibility to the interpretation that the biblical census-plague link stemmed from perceived dangers about political centralization under the monarchy. Some factions in ancient Israel viewed the census as an affront to tribal society with an emerging monarchy invading traditional village life. I argue that the diseased bodies of Israelites in these texts articulated concern for the invaded and deteriorating social body of the tribes.

A body without a head

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Chavoshian ◽  
Sophia Park
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
The Body ◽  
Women's Spirituality ◽  
Passive Condition ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Logical Square ◽  
The Social ◽  
Feminine Sexuality ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Body Theory

Along with the recent development of various theories of the body, Lacan’s body theory aligns with postmodern thinkers such as Michael Foucault and Maurice Merlot-Ponti, who consider body social not biological. Lacan emphasizes the body of the Real, the passive condition of the body in terms of formation, identity, and understanding. Then, this condition of body shapes further in the condition of bodies of women and laborers under patriarchy and capitalism, respectively. Lacan’s ‘not all’ position, which comes from the logical square, allows women to question patriarchy’s system and alternatives of sexual identities. Lacan’s approach to feminine sexuality can be applied to women’s spirituality, emphasizing multiple narratives of body and sexual identities, including gender roles. In the social discernment and analysis in the liberation theology, we can employ the capitalist discourse, which provides a tool to understand how people are manipulated by late capitalist society, not knowing it. Lacan’s theory of ‘a body without a head’ reflects the current condition of the human body, which manifests lack, yet including some possibilities for transforming society.

On Agricultural Imagery in Biblical Descriptions of Catastrophes

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-14
Author(s):  
Nili Samet
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Mass Killing ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Ancient Israel

This article examines the use of agricultural imagery in biblical literature to embody the destructive force of war and other mass catastrophes. Activities such as vintage, harvest, threshing, and wine-pressing serve as metaphors for the actions of slaughtering, demolition and mass killing. The paper discusses the Ancient Near Eastern origins of the imagery under discussion, and presents the relevant examples from the Hebrew Bible, tracing the development of this absorbing metaphor, and analyzing the different meanings attached to it in different contexts. It shows that the use of destructive agricultural imagery first emerges in ancient Israel as an instance of popular phraseology. In turn, the imagery is employed as a common prophetic motif. The prophetic books examined demonstrate how each prophet appropriates earlier uses of the imagery in prophetic discourse and adapts the agricultural metaphors to suit specific rhetorical needs.

Slender-body theory for slow viscous flow

1976 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph B. Keller ◽  
Sol I. Rubinow
Keyword(s):  
Integral Equation ◽  
Incompressible Fluid ◽  
Viscous Incompressible Fluid ◽  
Unit Length ◽  
The Body ◽  
Slender Body ◽  
Slow Flow ◽  
Slender Body Theory ◽  
Slow Viscous Flow ◽  
Body Theory

Slow flow of a viscous incompressible fluid past a slender body of circular crosssection is treated by the method of matched asymptotic expansions. The main result is an integral equation for the force per unit length exerted on the body by the fluid. The novelty is that the body is permitted to twist and dilate in addition to undergoing the translating, bending and stretching, which have been considered by others. The method of derivation is relatively simple, and the resulting integral equation does not involve the limiting processes which occur in the previous work.

scholarly journals Body experience in the east-slavonic culture tradition

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 74-82
Author(s):  
Ye. I. Kirilenko
Keyword(s):  
Special Interest ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Medical Discourse ◽  
The Body ◽  
Emotional Intensity ◽  
Social Body ◽  
Body Experience ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ambivalent Attitude ◽  
Culture Tradition

In the modern science, the body is an object of interest not only to the natural science and medicine, but also the humanities. Of special interest, in particular, for the medical discourse, is the ethnic body experience. The paper reveals features of the body experience in the east-slavonic culture from the analysis of the mythological tradition. This experience is characterized by the pronounced interest and ambivalent attitude to the body’s life, natural body standards; and emotional intensity. The experience of the social body is of highest priority in the culture.

scholarly journals Oppression and Female Body: A Feminist Critique of the Novel 'Half the Sky'

2021 ◽  
Vol VI (I) ◽  
pp. 79-85
Author(s):  
Ayesha Khaliq ◽  
Mamona Yasmin Khan ◽  
Rabia Hayat
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
The Body ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
Interpretive Paradigm ◽  
A Site ◽  
Body Theory

The female body is more than often used as a site to perpetuate violence and oppress women in patriarchal societies. The current study aims to explore how patriarchal oppression targets the female body and how it enforces women to become subalterns having no voice in the selected fictional work, Half the Sky by Kristoff and WuDunn. For this purpose, Simone De Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949) and Bryan Turner's The Body theory (1984) are used as theoretical frameworks to explore the selected novel. The research is descriptive qualitative, and placed within the interpretive paradigm. The data for the present study is in the form of textual paragraphs, which is taken from the selected novel and is collected through the purposive sampling technique. The study argues on women's oppression and violence. The findings of the study revealed that the dominancy of male counterpart in every field of life is the basic reason for women oppression which leads to the women being subalterns.

scholarly journals Actual, social and ideal body image in Mexican adolescents and their relation with body dissatisfaction: gender differences (Imagen corporal actual, social e ideal y su relación con el descontento corporal en adolescentes mexicanos: diferencias por género

Retos ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 189-192
Author(s):  
Armando Cocca ◽  
José René Blanco Ornelas ◽  
Jesús Enrique Peinado Pérez ◽  
Jesús Viciana Ramírez
Keyword(s):  
Body Dissatisfaction ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Images ◽  
School Students ◽  
Social Body ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Ideal Body

The purpose of the present study was to compare the perception of current (CBI), ideal (IBI), social body images (SBI), and body dissatisfaction (BD) by gender in Mexican primary and secondary school students. A total sample of 1,146 participants (550 girls and 596 boys) aged 11-16 participated in the study. All participants completed the Mexican computerized adaptation of the Contour Drawing Rating Scale. Results of one-way multivariate analysis of variance, followed by one-way univariate analyses of variance, showed that girls (ABI = 4.26; IBI = 3.53; SBI = 4.28; BD = 0.89) expressed a greater discrepancy between ideal and actual body shape, as well as lower scores of ideal body shape than boys (ABI = 4.28; IBI = 3.93; SBI = 4.31; BD = 0.61). However, no statistical differences were found between boys and girls in actual and social body shape. Although current and social body images are perceived in a similar way by adolescents in our sample regardless of gender, yet girls seem to be more responsive to social and environmental pressures related with body stereotype, this being reflected by a higher dissatisfaction and a thinner idealization of the body. Our findings suggest that we need to focus our attention on girls, especially in a phase of changes such as puberty, if we aim to design any intervention that could positively impact youth’s health through a proper body image.Resumen. El propósito de este estudio fue de comparar por género la percepción de la imagen corporal actual (CBI), ideal (IBI) y social (SBI), así como el descontento con el propio cuerpo (BD), en una muestra de estudiantes mexicanos de escuelas primarias y secundarias. Se seleccionó una muestra de 1.146 participantes (550 niñas y 596 niños) de entre 11 y 16 años de edad, que completaron la adaptación mexicana de la Contour Drawing Rating Scale. Los resultados de los análisis multivariados y univariados demuestran que las niñas (ABI = 4.26; IBI = 3.53; SBI = 4.28; BD = 0.89) sufren un mayor descontento corporal que los niños (ABI = 4.28; IBI = 3.93; SBI = 4.31; BD = 0.61), así como consideran que el cuerpo ideal sea mucho más delgado. No se encontraron diferencias significativas entre niños y niñas en la imagen corporal real y social. Aunque los adolescentes perciban de una manera similar su cuerpo independientemente del género, las niñas son más receptivas en lo que refiere a las presiones sociales del estereotipo corporal, reflejándose esto en un mayor descontento y en un ideal excesivamente magro de su cuerpo. Nuestros resultados sugieren la necesidad de enfocar la atención en las niñas, especialmente durante la pubertad, de cara a implementar intervenciones apropiadas que tengan un impacto real sobre la salud de los jóvenes a través de la construcción de una apropiada imagen corporal.

The Japanese Village in the Seventeenth Century

1952 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Vital Function ◽  
The West ◽  
Social Body ◽  
The Social ◽  
Physical Barriers ◽  
The Middle Ages

As in the Middle Ages in the West, so in Tokugawa Japan (1600–1868) men were fond of explaining the hierarchical society in which they lived by comparing it to an organism. Social classes, Confucian scholars said, were like parts of the body: each had a vital function to perform, but their functions were essentially different and unequal in value. In this scheme the peasants were second in importance only to the ruling military class. Just as the samurai officials were the brains that guided other organs, so the peasants were the feet that held the social body erect. They were the “basis of the country,” the valued producers whose labor sustained all else. But, as a class, they tended innately to backsliding and extravagance. Left alone they would consume more than their share of the social income, ape the manners and tastes of their betters, and even encroach upon the functions of other classes to the perilous neglect of their own. Only the lash of necessity and the sharp eye of the official could hold them to their disagreeable role. They had to be bound to the land; social distinctions had to be thrown up around them like so many physical barriers; and, to remove all temptation to indolence and luxury, they had to be left only enough of what they produced to let them continue producing.

Large-amplitude undulatory fish swimming: fluid mechanics coupled to internal mechanics

1999 ◽  
Vol 202 (23) ◽  
pp. 3431-3438 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.J. Pedley ◽  
S.J. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Vortex Ring ◽  
Large Amplitude ◽  
Muscle Activation ◽  
Bending Moment ◽  
Hydrodynamic Pressure ◽  
Moment Equation ◽  
Panel Method ◽  
The Body ◽  
Undulatory Swimming ◽  
Body Theory

The load against which the swimming muscles contract, during the undulatory swimming of a fish, is composed principally of hydrodynamic pressure forces and body inertia. In the past this has been analysed, through an equation for bending moments, for small-amplitude swimming, using Lighthill's elongated-body theory and a ‘vortex-ring panel method’, respectively, to compute the hydrodynamic forces. Those models are outlined in this review, and a summary is given of recent work on large-amplitude swimming that has (a) extended the bending moment equation to large amplitude, which involves the introduction of a new (though probably usually small) term, and (b) developed a large-amplitude vortex-ring panel method. The latter requires computation of the wake, which rolls up into concentrated vortex rings and filaments, and has a significant effect on the pressure on the body. Application is principally made to the saithe (Pollachius virens). The calculations confirm that the wave of muscle activation travels down the fish much more rapidly than the wave of bending.

A Gold Ring in a Swine’s Snout (Prov 11:22)

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-150
Author(s):  
Laura Quick
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dominant Model ◽  
Golden Calf ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Votive Offerings

This chapter explores jewellery in the Hebrew Bible in light of the material evidence from the ancient Levant. I consider the function of jewellery in biblical texts, focused upon how these objects modify and ritualize the body. The ability of jewellery to index personhood is utilized in order to explore and unpack the use of jewellery in votive offerings. Moving beyond these insights, I then turn to the recovery of amulets inscribed with biblical passages—the earliest written evidence for biblical literature. As amulets, these objects served an apotropaic, ritual function. In biblical texts, we see this in action in the production of the golden calf, which is made from the jewellery of the Israelites. Such items therefore provide access to dimensions of personal religion and religious worship carried out outside of the official sphere. But by making sure that jewellery was utilized in the furnishing of the Temple, the biblical writers circumscribe this personal piety, making it compliant to the larger dominant model of the official Temple cult.

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