scholarly journals From The Wicker Man (1973) to Atlantean Kodex: Extreme music, alternative identities and the invention of paganism

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Spracklen
Keyword(s):  
Folk Music ◽  
Important Influence ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
The West ◽  
World Views ◽  
Extreme Metal ◽  
Invented Traditions ◽  
Alternative Identities

The German epic heavy/doom metal band Atlantean Kodex has written two concept albums based on the folklore and paganism of old Europe and the West: The Golden Bough and The White Goddess. The two albums owe their titles to two books that have influenced the rise of modern paganism, though they remain deeply problematical. In this article, I explore possibly the most important influence on Atlantean Kodex, which is also one of the most important influences on modern paganism: the 1973 horror film The Wicker Man. I discuss the ways in which the film uses the speculative folklore of Frazer and Graves to construct a set of invented traditions about paganism and its alternative, counter-Christian nature, which have made paganism appealing to extreme metal musicians and fans. In this discussion, I use examples from other metal bands and fans who have name-checked the themes and the traditions of the film. In discussing the folklore of the Wicker Man, I also explore the folk music used in the soundtrack, which has also contributed to the invention of modern paganism and extreme folk music. I conclude by suggesting that, although many pagans have adopted this extreme music and myth into their world-views, the myth of the Wicker Man is also used as a playful rejection of Christianity and its authority by those of a secular or humanist persuasion.

Nightmares and Prospects in Bangladesh

Worldview ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 40-42
Author(s):  
Kai Bird ◽  
Susan Goldmark
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Early Morning ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
The West ◽  
Relief Organization

It was a warm, humid Bengal evening when a small party of resident foreigners gathered in the Dacca home of an American diplomat. Two journalists, two American diplomats, a French diplomat and the director of a private relief organization in Bangladesh spent five hours talking about the country's bleak economic and political future. The discussion was heated, and the conclusions drawn in the early morning hours ought to evoke nightmares worthy of the cheapest horror film. The evening's host, a diplomat seasoned in the conflicts of Southeast Asia, reluctantly admitted that Bangladesh's rapid decline into absolute economic chaos might be averted only by a dedicated and ruthless party of Maoists. In any case, after more than two years of independence and $2 billion of international aid, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Bangladesh has nothing to expect from the West.

The Scope of Reason: An Epistle to the Persians

1984 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 195-208
Author(s):  
Renford Bambrough
Keyword(s):  
International Symposium ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Pure Reason ◽  
Critique Of Pure Reason ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
The West ◽  
World Views ◽  
Limits Of Knowledge ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Dialogue Among Civilizations

‘Does the planetary impact of Western thought allow for a real dialogue among civilizations?’ This arresting question was set to the lecturers at the first international symposium of the Iranian Centre for the Study of Civilizations, which took place in Tehran in October 1977. Plans were made for a second symposium to be held in January 1979 under the title ‘The Limits of Knowledge According to Different World-views’. The Director's letter of invitation amplified the theme in a series of questions:For instance, is the agnosticism which has now extended to a world-wide level the consequence of the destruction of objective reason, namely the universal logos, as conceived earlier in the great metaphysical doctrines of the East and the West? Is there any organic link among these: the creation of modern political myths, the individual's fragmentation and the reduction of thought to its mere instrumentality? Is knowledge limited solely to our calculating reason or can it lead to spheres raising us above the limits determined by Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason?

scholarly journals A Study of Investment Behaviour in Pakistan, 1962-70

1976 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashid Amjad
Keyword(s):  
Market Economy ◽  
Important Influence ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
The West ◽  
Industrial Countries ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Investment Behaviour

The purpose of this paper is to test how far investment by individual firms was related to profits and to sales in Pakistan in the sixties, and to explore in particular how the relationship differed between the first and second halves of the decade. These periods correspond roughly to the Second FivelYear Plan (1960/61 to 1964/65) and the Third Five Year Plan (1965/66 to 1969-70). Between these two periods, 'boom' gave way to 'stagnation' and the availability of loans to firms on favourable terms shrank considerably. These loans had an important influence on the financing of investment and the behaviour of firms in Pakistan, where the institutional framework was very different from that of a market economy of the advanced industrial countries in the West.

“Weasternization” of the West

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Fibiger
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
World Views ◽  
The Impact

This paper will, with reference to fieldwork carried out during the Kumbh Mel? 2013, the big pilgrimage among Hindus in India, discuss the impact that the East is having on the West. Cambell has termed this process for: ’The Easternization of the West’ (2007)when Eastern notion s and world views is becoming a part of the West but in a new and changed form. This process of reinterpretation or translation is also the case, when it comes to the understanding of and participation in the Kumbh Mel?; especially in relation to understanding the snaan or holy dip in the water on the most auspicious days at Kumbh Mel?. This paper will give examples of how this is interpreted or translated in such a way that it suits the Western oriented spiritual seeker or pilgrim in his or her spiritual auto biographical patchwork, constructed by the Western oriented mind.

scholarly journals ‘Roots’?: the relationship between the global and the local within the Extreme Metal scene

Popular Music ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Harris
Keyword(s):  
Developing World ◽  
Western Music ◽  
The West ◽  
Extreme Metal ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Developed World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Musical Forms

Music's ‘malleability’ (Taylor 1997) has always facilitated its export and import from one location to another. Indeed, such processes are central to the creation and dissemination of new musical forms. Yet in our contemporary globalised world, such processes occur ever more extensively and rapidly giving rise to new forms of appropriation and syncretism. Record companies from the developed world find new audiences in the developing world (Laing 1986). Musicians from the West appropriate non-Western music, sometimes collaboratively (Feld 1994; Taylor 1997). Non-Western musicians and musicians from subaltern groups within the West create new syncretic forms drawing on both Western and non-Western music (Mitchell 1996; Lipsitz 1994, Slobin 1993). The resulting ‘global ecumene’ produces considerable ‘cultural disorder’ (Featherstone 1990, p. 6) whose results cannot easily be summarised.

scholarly journals The “Europe – Russia” Dichotomy as an Invented Tradition of Modern Georgian Nationalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-54
Author(s):  
M. W. Kyrchanov
Keyword(s):  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
The West ◽  
Intellectual Discourse ◽  
Invented Tradition ◽  
Invented Traditions ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Post Soviet Period

In the article, the author analyzes the transformation of the dichotomy “Europe – Russia” in contemporary Georgian intellectual discourse as well as strategies and forms of positive and negative ideologization of the West and Russia. We state that the hypertrophied role of European and Russian images in the Georgian discourse has resulted from the belief of elites in the collective West as an alternative to Russian infl uence. We analyze the main strategies of forming a positive image of Europe in Georgian intellectual discourse, believing that the development of European motifs and images by several generations of Georgian intellectuals led to the emergence of a unique Georgian Europeanism and the concept of the “Non Typical European” Georgian nation. The development of European images depends on the formation and promotion of the image of Russia as a universal Other. It is assumed that the negative mythologization of Russia resulted from the historical trauma of the loss of statehood, Georgia’s forced history in the Russian Empire and the USSR, as well as the failures in the Russian-Georgian relations in the post-Soviet period. Overall, the author believes that Russian and European narratives have become invented traditions of Georgian identity that infl uence the strategies of elites in Georgian foreign policy.

scholarly journals Aesthetics and the African Women’s Lives Drama

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Edeh, Peter Daniel
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
African Woman ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
The West ◽  
World Views ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Other World

<p><em>The philosophy that deals with the theory of beauty and ugliness is called Aesthetics. It examines the creation, appreciation, evaluation, interpretation and critique of works of art. In the same vein African women’s live drama appreciates, creates, evaluates, criticizes, interprets and expresses her feelings with regards to the works of arts as it is viewed expressed in the live style of every woman. This paper identifies among others, crops of women, moderate and radical women as well as orthodox or traditional women who accept the traditional position of women but press for peaceful coexistence in spite of men and women distinction. It takes cognisance of the wind of modernity from the west as it affects the African woman. This paper is a critical examination of Aesthetics and the African women’s world view and in appreciation of other world views. While the paper identifies certain problems in women’s lives drama generally it concludes with possible suggestion as it lays much emphasis on African culture and tradition for African Aesthetics. </em></p>

Islamic philosophy, modern

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parviz Morewedge ◽  
Oliver Leaman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Important Influence ◽  
Active Area ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Islamic Philosophy ◽  
The West ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Mulla Sadra ◽  
Conceptual Problems ◽  
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

There are a number of major trends in modern Islamic philosophy. First, there is the challenge of the West to traditional Islamic philosophical and cultural principles and the desire to establish a form of thought which is distinctive. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, Islamic philosophers have attempted to redefine Islamic philosophy; some, such as Hasan Hanafi and Ali Mazrui, have sought to give modern Islamic philosophy a global significance and provide an agenda for world unity. Second, there is a continuing tradition of interest in illuminationist and mystical thought, especially in Iran where the influence of Mulla Sadra and al-Suhrawardi has remained strong. The influence of the latter can be seen in the works of Henry Corbin and Seyyed Hossein Nasr; Mulla Sadra has exercised an influence over figures such as Mahdi Ha’iri Yazdi and the members of Qom School, notably Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The philosopher Abdul Soroush has introduced a number of concepts from Western philosophy into Iran. Finally, there have been many thinkers who have adapted and employed philosophical ideas which are originally non-Islamic as part of the normal philosophical process of seeking to understand conceptual problems. This is a particularly active area, with a number of philosophers from many parts of the Islamic world investigating the relevance to Islam of concepts such as Hegelianism and existentialism. At the same time, mystical philosophy continues to exercise an important influence. Modern Islamic philosophy is thus quite diverse, employing a wide variety of techniques and approaches to its subject.

Differing Global and Regional Perceptions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukon Huang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
The West ◽  
World Views ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World

Deng Xiaoping’s death in 1997 marked the end of an era and provides the starting point for a discussion about public perceptions. Today’s China emerged from his reforms, which opened the country to the outside world. Views of outsiders have shifted markedly over the past several decades. The majority of Americans see China’s rise as a threat to their country’s global stature, but Europeans are less preoccupied with power politics. Both groups wrongly see China as the leading economic power contrary to the rest of the world which see the United States. Popular feelings toward China vary widely across and within regions; they are influenced by proximity and colored by history and ideology. This chapter discusses the geopolitical factors that shape these opinions in the West, among the BRICS, in the developing world, and among China’s neighbors, as well as China’s efforts to influence these opinions.

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