scholarly journals Eleven Namibian rains: A phenomenological analysis of experience in time

2021 ◽  
pp. 146349962110353
Author(s):  
Michael Schnegg
Keyword(s):  
Network Formation ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Selection Combining ◽  
Node Selection ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
The World ◽  
Discrete Moment ◽  
Phenomenological Perspective ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Meaningful Relationships

The Damara pastoralists ( ǂnūkhoen) in Namibia distinguish a diverse range of rains. Some rains kill livestock, others care for insects and still others wash away the footprints of the deceased, allowing the person to exist in the spirit realm. While anthropologists have documented cultural classifications like the Namibian rains for decades, we still lack a convincing theory to explain how they come to exist. To address this, I develop a phenomenological perspective and theorise how experience contributes to what rain becomes. I argue with Husserl that the present in which we experience the rain is not a discrete moment, but a unity across a succession of ‘nows’. In the process, perceptions, images, memories and expectations about past and future events blend. In other words, a web of meaningful relationships connects the rain we experience ‘now’ with multiple past and future entities, including people, plants, spirits and animals. I refer to this as network formation. Combining the analyses of the people's pastoral being-in-the-world and their historical–political context, including post-colonialism, allows an explanation as to why some of those combinations are singled out and become distinct ontological entities. I refer to this as node selection. Combining the two processes – network formation and node selection – allows for an explanation as to why precipitation becomes discernible and meaningful as eleven different Namibian rains.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Preyer
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

The study of meaning in language embraces a diverse range of problems and methods. Philosophers think through the relationship between language and the world; linguists document speakers’ knowledge of meaning; psychologists investigate the mechanisms of understanding and production. Up through the early 2000s, these investigations were generally compartmentalized: indeed, researchers often regarded both the subject matter and the methods of other disciplines with skepticism. Since then, however, there has been a sea change in the field, enabling researchers increasingly to synthesize the perspectives of philosophy, linguistics, and psychology and to energize all the fields with rich new intellectual perspectives that facilitate meaningful interchange. One illustration of the trend is the publication of Lepore and Stone’s ...

Pigs and Humans

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Domestic Pigs ◽  
Food Taboo ◽  
The World

Pigs are one of the most iconic but also paradoxical animals ever to have developed a relationship with humans. This relationship has been a long and varied one: from noble wild beast of the forest to mass produced farmyard animal; from a symbol of status and plenty to a widespread religious food taboo; from revered religious totem to a parodied symbol of filth and debauchery. Pigs and Humans brings together some of the key scholars whose research is highlighting the role wild and domestic pigs have played in human societies around the world over the last 10,000 years. The 22 contributors cover a broad and diverse range of temporal, geographical, and topical themes, grounded within the disciplines of archaeology, zoology, anthropology, and biology, as well as art history and history. They explore such areas as evolution and taxonomy, domestication and husbandry, ethnography, and ritual and art, and present some of the latest theories and methodological techniques. The volume as a whole is generously illustrated and will enhance our understanding of many of the issues regarding our complex and ever changing relationship with the pig.

Integration of the Tatar communityto Azerbaijani society

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (08) ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
Эллада Амирага гызы Аббасова ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Key Words ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Common Origin ◽  
The World ◽  
Future Events ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Relationship

The development of international cooperation in the field of culture is extremely important, since it ensures wide and in-depth interaction between states and peoples, makes a real opportunity for dialogue, unites the cultures of the peoples of the world. Two fraternal countries have actively taken root in international cultural exchange; Azerbaijan and Tatarstan. Azerbaijan is a multicultural country that is home to many peoples and ethnic minorities. Representatives of the peoples inhabiting this region are full citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan, including the Tatars. The radical transformations that befell these countries at the end of the twentieth century influenced future events and their development. The Azerbaijani and Tatar peoples, whose relations have a long history, are linked by a common origin, similarity of language, culture and traditions. The relationship between the two peoples has strengthened even more during the years of independence. Key words: Tatars in Azerbaijan, activities of the Tatar community, cultural exchange, Tugan-Tel, Yashlek, Ak-Kalfak

The Uncanny in the Time of Pandemics

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Kevin Aho ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Lived Space ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
The World ◽  
At Home

This paper offers a phenomenological analysis of Heidegger’s account of “the uncanny” (das Unheimliche) as it relates to the coronavirus pandemic. It explores how the pandemic has disrupted Dasein’s sense of “homelike” (heimelig) familiarity and how this disruption has undermined our ability to be, that is, to understand or make sense of things. By examining our experience of temporality, lived-space, and intersubjectivity, the paper illuminates different ways in which the pandemic has left us confused and anxious about our self-interpretations and future projects. The paper concludes by showing how the uncanny is not simply something we feel in times of crisis; it is, for Heidegger, who we are. This means the secure feeling of familiarity that we embodied prior to the pandemic was an illusion all along, that we are not and never have been at-home in the world.

scholarly journals Four pandemics: lessons learned, lessons lost

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
World Health ◽  
Swine Flu ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The World ◽  
Spanish Flu ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Health Organization

In the past 100 years, the world has faced four distinctly different pandemics: the Spanish flu of 1918-1919, the SARS pandemic of 2003, the H1N1 or “swine flu” pandemic of 2012, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Each public health crisis exposed specific systemic shortfalls and provided public health lessons for future events. The Spanish flu revealed a nursing shortage and led to a great appreciation of nursing as a profession. SARS showed the importance of having frontline clinicians be able to work with regulators and those producing guidelines. H1N1 raised questions about the nature of a global organization such as the World Health Organization in terms of the benefits and potential disadvantages of leading the fight against a long-term global public health threat. In the era of COVID-19, it seems apparent that we are learning about both the blessing and curse of social media.

Eschatological Awareness without Apocalyptic or Millenarian Expectations: Facing the Future in the Ottonian World (from the 10th to the Early 11th Century)

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-250
Author(s):  
Stefano Manganaro
Keyword(s):  
Clear Distinction ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Future Events ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Existential Dimension ◽  
End Times ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Eternal Salvation

Abstract This article reconstructs the perception of the future in Ottonian culture by investigating a variety of sources produced within the chronological and geographical framework of the Roman–Germanic Empire (Germany, Italy, and Lotharingia) at the time of Saxon kings and emperors (919–1024). Traditional scholarly interest in end times at the turn of the first millennium is here intertwined with a more recent transdisciplinary perspective that focuses on the notion of contingency. Ottonian sources provide evidence of how a real concern about historical contingencies, which affect this-worldly future events, could coexist with an eschatological awareness that induced patterns of thought and behavior in view of eternal salvation, in connection with the belief that the last age of the world had already begun long ago. This belief, not to be confused with speculations about the imminence of the end, should be properly understood and contextualized, and a clear distinction among eschatology, apocalypticism, and millenarianism is therefore required. Although each Ottonian author had a particular approach toward the future, influenced by various circumstances and different authorial intentions (doctrinal reflection, pastoral responsibilities, devotion, political reasons, rhetorical purposes, and propaganda), the analysis of these sources reveals an appropriation of Augustinian themes and teachings that seems to have been widespread, deep, and genuine. What emerges is a complex picture of how prominent Ottonian authors conceived and coped with the future, passing from the cosmic to existential dimension, from spiritual commitment to ordinary business, and from the uncertainty of terrestrial future to the transcendent certainty of the Last Things.

scholarly journals Poetic Storytelling in Contemporary Photography. Relation to Nature and the Poesis of Everyday Life in Works of Selected Artist in Iceland and Other Nordic Countries

Arts ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Sigrún Alba Sigurðardóttir
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Phenomenological Perspective ◽  
The One ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Narrative Medium

The past 20 years have seen a shift in Icelandic photography from postmodern aesthetics towards a more phenomenological perspective that explores the relationship between subjective and affective truth on the one hand, and the outside world on the other hand. Rather than telling a story about the world as it is or as the photographer wants it to appear, the focus is on communicating with the world, and with the viewer. The photograph is seen as a creative medium that can be used to reflect how we experience and make sense of the world, or how we are and dwell in the world. In this paper, I introduce the theme of poetic storytelling in the context of contemporary photography in Iceland and other Nordic Countries. Poetic storytelling is a term I have been developing to describe a certain lyrical way to use a photograph as a narrative medium in reaction to the climate crisis and to a general lack of relation to oneself and to the world in times of increased acceleration in the society. In my article I analyze works by a few leading Icelandic photographers (Katrín Elvarsdóttir, Heiða Helgadóttir and Hallgerður Hallgrímsdóttir) and put them in context with works by artists from Denmark (Joakim Eskildsen, Christina Capetillo and Astrid Kruse Jensen), Sweden (Helene Schmitz) and Finland (Hertta Kiiski) artists within the frame of poetic storytelling. Poetic storytelling is about a way to use a photograph as a narrative medium in an attempt to grasp a reality which is neither fully objective nor subjective, but rather a bit of both.

Disorienting Neoliberalism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin L. McKean
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Global Inequality ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Du Bois ◽  
The World ◽  
Iris Marion Young

In a dizzying global economy full of injustices that threaten our freedom, people who want to promote justice should be disposed to solidarity with each other. When global supply chains assemble products from every corner of the global and workers’ economic futures seem ever more uncertain, the very neoliberal theories that helped usher in this world also provide a powerful way to understand and navigate it. Those who want to resist the injustices of today’s global economy need to reorient their way of seeing so that it is possible to act more effectively. By drawing on a diverse range of thinkers from G. W. F. Hegel and John Rawls to W. E. B. Du Bois and Iris Marion Young, Disorienting Neoliberalism provides an account of freedom that can inform transnational movements for justice. By explaining how neoliberal institutions and ideas constrain the freedom of people throughout the supply chain from worker to consumer, the book provides a new orientation to the global economy in which it is possible for people to see one other as partners in resisting a shared obstacle to freedom and thus be called to collective action. Cultivating this disposition to solidarity better expresses freedom than the pity and resentment which global inequality so often gives rise to. In doing so, the book shows how political theory can be a source of orientation to the world, illuminating how ideals can help guide action even when they may be impossible to realize.

Fiji: What Kind Of Militocracy?

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-417
Author(s):  
JAN-ERIK LANE
Keyword(s):  
Regional Integration ◽  
Military Regime ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Fiji Islands ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The World ◽  
Future Events ◽  
The Republic

AbstractThe Republic of Fiji Islands has been under military rule since December 2006. Yet, the regime of Frank Bainimarama is not really like any other military regime in the world, nor does the 2006 coup resemble the earlier military interventions in the country. It is attempting development without freedom, but can it succeed? It is important to recognize that dictatorships can be of very different kinds. What happens with the Bainimarama regime will have a major impact upon the Pacific scene, not only for the Fiji Islands but also for the Pacific Forum and the role of China in regional integration. And the course of future events will depend much upon what strategy Fiji's strongman chooses and what kind of constitution is put in place.

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