scholarly journals Translating “natural selection” in Japanese: from “shizen tōta” to “shizen sentaku”, and back?

Bionomina ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taizo KIJIMA ◽  
Thierry HOQUET

This paper focuses on terminological issues related to the translation of Darwin’s concept of “natural selection” in Japanese. We analyze the historical fate of the different phrases used as translations, from the first attempts in the late 1870s until recent times. Our first finding is that the first part of the Japanese translations never changed during the period considered: “natural” was constantly rendered by “shizen”. By contrast, the Japanese terms for “selection” have dramatically changed over time. We identify some major breaks in the history of Japanese translations for “natural selection”. From the end of the 1870s to the early 1880s, several translations were suggested in books and periodicals: “shizen kanbatsu”, “shizen tōta”, “tensen”. Katō Hiroyuki adopted “shizen tōta” in 1882 and he undeniably played an important role in spreading this phrase as the standard translation for “natural selection”. The most common Japanese translation of the Origin during the first half of the 20th century (by Oka Asajirō in 1905) also used “shizen tōta”. Adramatic shift occurred after WWII, from “tōta” to “sentaku”. While a linear interpretation could suggest a move from a “bad” translation to a better one, a closer analysis leads to more challenging insights. Especially we stress the role of the kanji restriction policy, which specified which kanji should be taught in schools and thus should be used in textbooks: “tōta” was not included in the list, which may have led to the good fortune of “sentaku” in the 1950–1960s. We think the hypothesis of the influence of Chinese translations is not a plausible one. As to conceptual differences between “shizen tōta” and “sentaku”, they remain unconvincing as both terms could be interpreted as a positive or negative process: there is no clear reason to prefer one term over the other from the strict point of view of their meanings or etymology. Then, turning to the way terms are used, we compare translations of natural selection with translations of artificial or sexual selection. First we turn to the field of thremmatology (breeders): there, “tōta” (sometimes spelled in hiragana instead of kanji) often bore the meaning of culling; since 1917, breeders often used “sentaku” as a translation for “selection”. However, quite surprisingly, breeders used two different terms for selection as a practice (“senbatsu”), and “selection” as in “natural selection” (“shizen sentaku”). Finally, we compare possible translations for “sexual selection” and “matechoice”: here again, there are some good reasons to favour “tōta” over “sentaku” to avoid lexical confusion.

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-269
Author(s):  
Camila Pérez ◽  
Giuseppina Marsico

Indigenous territorial claims are a long-standing concern in the history of Latin America. Land and nature have profound meaning in indigenous thinking, which is neither totally understood nor legitimized by the rest of society. This article is aimed at shedding light on this matter by examining the meanings at stake in the territorial claims of the Mapuche people. The Mapuche are an indigenous group in Chile, who are striving to recover their ancestral land. This analysis will be based on the concept of Umwelt, coined by von Uexküll to refer to the way in which species interpret their world in connection with the meaning-making process. Considering the applications of Umwelt to the human being, the significance assigned to land and nature by the Mapuche people emerges as a system of meaning that persists over time and promotes interdependence between people and the environment. On the other hand, the territorial claim of the Mapuche movement challenges the fragmentation between individuals and their space, echoing proposals from human geography that emphasize the role of people in the constitution of places.


2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (8) ◽  
pp. 2232-2235
Author(s):  
Marius Moga ◽  
Mark Edward Pogarasteanu ◽  
Antoine Edu

The role of arthroscopy in incipient and mild arthrosis, even combined with proximal tibial ostetomy, is well known and well documented. On the other hand, its role in the treatment of advanced arthrosis of the large joints, especially the knee, is a subject of controversy. The proponents of the use of arthroscopy in advanced arthrosis claim that meniscectomy, synovectomy, ostophytectomy, chondral lesion stabilization, arthroscopic release, plica and loose body removal greatly improve the quality of life for most patients, especially if followed by the use of viscoelastic injection, by diminishing pain and improving joint range of motion. The opponents claim that, even though the advantages are clear in the cases that refuse arthroplasty, in all the other cases the surgical indication should be total knee arthroplasty, as the clinical relief is temporary, but with all the risks of a surgical intervention. We have conducted an overview of the recent literature, in order to find objective evidence to sustain either point of view. We focused on articles published that included an objective measurement of before and after clinical status through clinical scores and objective measurements. We also focused on the follow-up period and on the evolution of the pathology after arthroscopy.


1897 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-549
Author(s):  
M. Gaster

More marvellous and more remarkable than the real conquests of Alexander are the stories circulated about him, and the legends which have clustered round his name and his exploits. The history of Alexander has, from a very early period, been embellished with legends and tales. They spread from nation to nation during the whole of the ancient times, and all through the Middle Ages. Many scholars have followed up the course of this dissemination of the fabulous history of Alexander. It would, therefore, be idle repetition of work admirably done by men like Zacher, Wesselofsky, Budge, and others, should I attempt it here. All interested in the legend of Alexander are familiar with those works, where also the fullest bibliographical information is to be found. I am concerned here with what may have appeared to some of these students as the bye-paths of the legend, and which, to my mind, has not received that attention which is due to it, from more than one point of view. Hitherto the histories of Alexander were divided into two categories; the first were those writings which pretended to give a true historical description of his life and adventures, to the exclusion of fabulous matter; the other included all those fabulous histories in which the true elements were smothered under a great mass of legendary matter, the chief representative of this class being the work ascribed to a certain Callisthenes. The study of the legend centred in the study of the vicissitudes to which this work of (Pseudo-) Callisthenes had been exposed, in the course of its dissemination from the East, probably from its native country, Egypt, to the countries of the West.


1886 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 359-367
Author(s):  
J. H. Collins

My argument that at Porthalla there is a “passage” from hornblende-schist to serpentine; or rather that some beds of a common series have been changed into serpentine, others into hornblende-schist, and others again into a substance of intermediate character, is, I think, much strengthened by the fact that many such “apparent passages” are admitted to exist by all those who have examined the Lizard Coast with any degree of detail. De la Beche's description of that seen near the Lizard Town is as follows, and it would apply equally well to the others. “The hornblende slate,” he says, “supports the great mass of the Lizard serpentine with an apparent passage of the one into the other in many places—an apparent passage somewhat embarrassing,” that is, from his point of view; from mine it is perfectly natural. He goes on to say: “Whatever the cause of this apparent passage may have been, it is very readily seen at Mullion Cove, at Pradanack Point, at the coast west of Lizard Town, and at several places on the east coast between Landewednack and Kennick Cove, more especially under the Balk … and at the remarkable cavern and open cavity named the Frying-Pan, near Cadgwith.” At Kynance some of the laminse of serpentine are not more than one-tenth of an inch in thickness for considerable distances.


1898 ◽  
Vol 63 (389-400) ◽  
pp. 56-61

The two most important deviations from the normal life-history of ferns, apogamy and apospory, are of interest in themselves, but acquire a more general importance from the possibility that their study may throw light on the nature of alternation of generations in archegoniate plants. They have been considered from this point of view Pringsheim, and by those who, following him, regard the two generations as homologous with one another in the sense that the sporophyte arose by the gradual modification of individuals originally resemblin the sexual plant. Celakovsky and Bower, on the other hand, maintaint the view tha t the sporophyte, as an interpolated stage in the life-history arising by elaboration of the zygote, a few thallophytes.


Slavic Review ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Beissinger

Empire has become a common analytical frame through which the Soviet state and its collapse are interpreted. Commenting on the other contributions to this forum, Mark R. Beissinger examines the limits and utility of this concept, arguing that empire needs to be understood, not as a clearly bounded transhistorical model, but as a Wittgensteinian “family resemblance” whose meaning and referents have altered significantly over time. The article then probes the ways the concept of empire has been redeployed in the Soviet context, addressing in particular the role of nationalism in the making of empire, the injustices associated with empire, and the contested boundary between the multinational empire and the multinational state. It concludes by arguing for a more interpretive approach to Soviet empire as a way of relating to authority rather than a common set of political practices.


2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Mies

This response is focused on the following question: What may be the specific group analytic point of view on phenomena as the resurgence of nationalism in the western world, the so-called refugee crisis and the confrontation with Islamism and Islamist terror? The guideline of this response will be the idea of the ‘group of individuals’, which Norbert Elias characterized as his main contribution to group analytic theory. The response will emphasize the significance of the Other for the formation of personal and collective identities. It will argue that we face the Other, not only outside our own group, but also inside, and that xenophobia goes hand in hand with the denial of real differences and conflicts inside one’s own group. Finally, the history of the German nation-state is discussed as an exemplary case.


Author(s):  
Mª Isabel Romero Ruiz

The presence of Empire in the Victorian period and its aftermath has become a new trope in neo-Victorian studies, introducing a postcolonial approach to the re-writing of the Victorian past. This, combined with the metaphor of the sea as a symbol of British colonial and postcolonial maritime power, makes of Joseph O’Connor’s novel Star of the Sea a story of love, vulnerability and identity. Set in the winter of 1847, it tells the story of the voyage of a group of Irish refugees travelling to New York trying to escape from the Famine. The colonial history of Ireland and its long tradition of English dominance becomes the setting of the characters’ fight for survival. Parallels with today’s refugees can be established after Ireland’s transformation into an immigration country. Following Judith Butler’s and Sarah Bracke’s notions of vulnerability and resistance together with ideas about ‘the other’ in postcolonial neo-Victorianism, this article aims to analyse the role of Empire in the construction of an Irish identity associated with poverty and disease, together with its re-emergence and reconstruction through healing in a contemporary globalised scenario. For this purpose, I resort to Edward Said’s and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s ideas about imperialism and new imperialism along with Elizabeth Ho’s concept of ‘the Neo-Victorian-at-sea’ and some critics’ approaches to postcolonial Gothic. My main contention throughout the text will be that vulnerability in resistance can foster healing.


Author(s):  
Adistya Iqbal Irfani, ◽  
Moh. Yasir Alimi ◽  
Rini Iswari

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengeksplorasi bentuk toleransi dan faktor pendorong dan faktor penghambat toleransi masyarakat Jawa dengan studi kasus di Dukuh Medono Kabupaten Batang. Di dukuh tersebut, penganut organisasi agama seperti NU, Muhammadiyah dan Kristen Jawa di Dukuh Medono saling hidup rukun. Metode penelitian menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan pendekatan fenomenologi. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa toleransi antar penganut NU, Muhammadiyah, Kristen Jawa tampak berbagai bentuk. Antara NU dan Kristen Jawa dalam bentuk partisipasi dalam ritual tahlilan, sedangkan antar ketiganya tampak dalam bentuk kerja bakti, saling membantu dalam acara hajatan, perkawinan campur dan saling berkunjung bila ada yang sakit. Faktor pendorong toleransi antara lain budaya toleransi yang sudah lama, pernikahan antar penganut yang berbeda, sosialisasi toleransi dalam keluarga, dan kepemimpinan desa yang menekankan pentingnya toleransi. Sedangkan faktor penghambat toleransi yaitu perbedaan pandangan antar penganut NU dan Muhammadiyah dalam pelaksanaan ibadah, pernikahan beda keyakinan, dan sikap menyinggung keyakinan diantara penganut yang ada. The objective of this study is to explore forms of tolerance and the driving factor of religious tolerance in Dukuh Medono, Batang. In that village, the followers of NU, Muhammadiyah, and Kristen Jawa live peacefully and united in tolerance. The research method used here is a qualitative method with phenomenology approach. The result of the research shows that the tolerance between NU followers and Javanese Christians take the form of participation in tahlilan ritual. The tolerance between NU, Muhammadiyah followers, and Kristen Jawa followers are expressed through kerja bakti, mutual support in hajatan rituals, mixed marriage, visits to the sick, and social activities together. The factors which help to create tolerance include the culture of tolerance which exist in the village, marriages between religious followers, the socialization of tolerance within family, the socialization of tolerance within the society and the role of village administrative leaders. On the other hand, the factors which distract tolerance are different point of view between NU dan Muhammadiyah followers in some religious aspects, marriage between different religious followers, and the attitude of insulting others beliefs.


Author(s):  
Fayzulla Tolipov ◽  

The article describes the specifics of the system of financing of small business and entrepreneurship in the recent history of Uzbekistan, the funds allocated for small business and entrepreneurship, the activities of commercial banks and the financial and banking system, some problems in the field. It also noted that since the early days of independence, a unique business environment has been created in the country to support the interests of entrepreneurs in the framework of development programs in this area, data on the role of financial mechanisms in the further development of small business and entrepreneurship in the country have been studied from a historical point of view. The article highlights the positive situation in the country's macro and microeconomic indicators, ie the active participation of banks in attracting local entrepreneurs and foreign investment, the existing problems in this area and the measures taken to address them. It analyzes the important factors and strategies of banks' participation in the development of business and entrepreneurship.


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