The "Disgusting" Spider: The Role of Disease and Illness in the Perpetuation of Fear of Spiders

1994 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham C. L. Davey
Keyword(s):  
Avoidance Response ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Spider Phobia ◽  
Disease Avoidance ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Middle Ages

AbstractRecent studies of spider phobia have indicated thatfearof spiders is closely associated with the disease-avoidance response of disgust. It is argued that the disgust-relevant status of the spider resulted from its association with disease and illness in European cultures from the tenth century onward. The development of the association between spiders and illness appears to be linked to the many devastating and inexplicable epidemics that struck Europe from the Middle Ages onwards, when the spider was a suitable displaced target for the anxieties caused by these epidemics. Such factors suggest that the pervasive fear of spiders that is commonly found in many Western societies may have cultural rather than biological origins, and may be restricted to Europeans and their descendants.

“The Truth of Reliable Tradition”: Saadya Gaon, Arabic Rhetoric, and the Challenge to Rhetorical Historiography

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-188
Author(s):  
Brandon Katzir
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Medieval Rhetoric ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Latin Language ◽  
Arabic Rhetoric ◽  
Rhetorical Traditions ◽  
The Middle Ages

This article explores the rhetoric of medieval rabbi and philosopher Saadya Gaon, arguing that Saadya typifies what LuMing Mao calls the “interconnectivity” of rhetorical cultures (Mao 46). Suggesting that Saadya makes use of argumentative techniques from Greek-inspired, rationalist Islamic theologians, I show how his rhetoric challenges dominant works of rhetorical historiography by participating in three interconnected cultures: Greek, Jewish, and Islamic. Taking into account recent scholarship on Jewish rhetoric, I argue that Saadya's amalgamation of Jewish rhetorical genres alongside Greco-Islamic genres demonstrates how Jewish and Islamic rhetoric were closely connected in the Middle Ages. Specifically, the article analyzes the rhetorical significance of Saadya's most famous treatise on Jewish philosophy, The Book of Doctrines and Beliefs, which I argue utilizes Greco-Islamic rhetorical strategies in a polemical defense of rabbinical authority. As a tenth-century writer who worked across multiple rhetorical traditions and genres, Saadya challenges the monocultural, Latin-language histories of medieval rhetoric, demonstrating the importance of investigating Arabic-language and Jewish rhetorics of the Middle Ages.

Vir Dei: secular sanctity in the early tenth century

1972 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 41-53
Author(s):  
Derek Baker
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Social Organisation ◽  
Life Crisis ◽  
Literary Convention ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Middle Ages

As recent anniversary studies have emphasised, the vir Dei, the man of God, has been a christian type since the time of St Antony, and whatever pre-christian elements were embodied in the Athanasian picture the Vita Antonii possessed a christian coherence and completeness which made of it the proto-type for a whole range of literature in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. In hagiography the Antonine sequence of early life, crisis and conversion, probation and temptation, privation and renunciation, miraculous power, knowledge and authority, is, in its essentials, repeated ad nauseam. Martin, Guthlac, Odo, Dunstan, Bernard are all, whatever their individual differences, forced into the same procrustean biographical mould: each is clearly qualified, and named, as vir Dei, and each exemplifies the same - and at times the pre-eminent – christian vocation. Yet if the insight provided by such literature into the mind of medieval man is instructive about his society and social organisation, and illuminating about his ideal aspirations, the literary convention itself is always limiting, and frequently misleading. As Professor Momigliano has said, ‘biography was never quite a part of historiography’, and one might add that hagiography is not quite biography.

Gelehrte Autorität und die Ordnung der Dinge. Über Wissen, Macht und die Vermessung der Wirklichkeit im Mittelalter

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-66
Author(s):  
Marcel Bubert
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Organizing Principles ◽  
The Middle Ages

AbstractAlthough the medieval period was not part of Michel Foucault’s seminal study on ‘The Order of Things’, there are good reasons to believe that the learned cultures of the Middle Ages were to a certain degree based on specific epistemic orders, general organizing principles which were unconsciously presupposed in concepts of reality. Nevertheless, the extent as to which these concepts are in fact committed to the assumption of a metaphysically determined measuring of reality, is not altogether clear. This article aims to discuss this question in general, based on recent views of the role of the ‘subject’ in epistemic orders.

scholarly journals The Thingness of the Thing: The Role of Everyday Objects in Becket Miracle Windows

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-157
Author(s):  
Dana Vasiliu
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Phenomenal World ◽  
Ordinary Objects ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract In “The Waning of the Middle Ages”, J. Huizinga has pointed out that “all things would be absurd if their meaning would be exhausted by their function and their place in the phenomenal world, if by their essence they did not reach into a world beyond this.” (1924:201) Starting from this assumption, I purport to analyze the role/roles played by everyday/ordinary objects in the miracle stories depicted in the Trinity Chapel glazing and argue that their individuation/haecceity is subject to practices of ritualistic and artistic encodings

scholarly journals composer phenomenon in a historical retrospect of an authorship idea formation in European musical culture of the middle ages

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 284-302
Author(s):  
Iryna Yu Konovalova
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Historical Retrospect ◽  
Idea Formation ◽  
The Middle Ages

The article is devoted to comprehension of specifics and formation prerequisites of composer’s and musical authorship phenomena historical formation in European culture of the Middle Ages. Genesis of composer’s phenomenon and individual musical authorship model is considered on the basis of historical, socio-cultural and aesthetic-artistic transformations, on awareness about their dynamic’s tendencies and general cultural institutionalization of an authorship phenomenon, as well as on an increasing role of individual creativity in an artistic realm. It is stated that multi-ethnic and anonymous culture of oral tradition, folklore and Christian singing practices, as well as instrumental improvisation’s traditions, became spiritual sources of this phenomena and turn into a strong foundation of musical professionalism and creative impulse for European authorial music evolution. It is emphasized that process of composer’s formation as a creativity subject and musical professionalism carrier was stimulated by the necessity of everyday vocal-choral practice, conditioned by the spiritual context of time, by intention on theocentric world’s picture and religious – Christian outlook dominance. Significant role of secular direction development in the context of music-author’s discourse formation and composer’s figure assertion in the late Middle Ages is highlighted. 

scholarly journals Las técnicas constructivas en las murallas medievales de Almería

X ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Gurriarán Daza
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Rammed Earth ◽  
Construction Techniques ◽  
Typical Scheme ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Middle Ages

Building techniques in the medieval walls of AlmeríaAlmería was one of the most important cities in al-Andalus, a circumstance that was possible thanks to the strength of its port. Its foundation as an urban entity during the Caliphate of Córdoba originated a typical scheme of an Islamic city organized by a medina and a citadel, both walled. Subsequent city’s growths, due to the creation of two large suburbs commencing in the eleventh century, also received defensive works, creating a system of fortifications that was destined to defend the place during the rest of the Middle Ages. In this work we will analyse the construction techniques used in these military works, which cover a wide period from the beginning of the tenth century until the end of the fifteenth century. Although ashlar stone was used in the Caliphate fortification, in most of these constructions bricklayer techniques were used, more modest but very useful. In this way, the masonry and rammed earth technique were predominant, giving rise to innumerable constructive phases that in recent times are being studied with archaeological methodology, thus to know better their evolution and main characteristics. 

History and formation of hospitals in the Middle ages

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-87
Author(s):  
O.A. Oparin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
The Middle Ages

The article shows and analyzed the development of hospitals in the Middle Ages. The main features of hospitals in its different periods are shown. The deterrent role of medieval religious beliefs and dogma in the development of hospitals is shown and revealed

The Enduring Interim

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Saint Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter discusses the basic economic life in the Middle Ages, noting the absence of trade or a market during the period. It first considers the legacy of the Romans with respect to economic and political life, including their commitment to the sanctity of private property and Christianity. In particular, it describes Christian attitudes toward wealth and the link between morality and the market. It also examines the ideas of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Nicole Oresme before turning to the role of markets in the Middle Ages, along with their special characteristics. Finally, it looks at other aspects of economic life during the medieval period, such as the intrusion of ethics on economics—the fairness or justice of the relationship between master and slave, lord and serf, landlord and sharecropper.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document