The Dual-Ideal of the Ascetic and Healthy Body

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-50
Author(s):  
Andrea R. Jain

This article addresses institutional innovations in the Jain Śvetāmbara Terāpanth as it has adapted to a new socio-historical and cultural context. It investigates the intersections between the Terāpanth and the context of late-capitalism, particularly in India, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and discusses shifts in orientations toward the body as acts of adaptation to late capitalism. Historically, the Terāpanth held an ascetic ideal that required social withdrawal and bodily purification for the sake of spiritual release from the world. Beginning in the late twentieth century, however, the Terāpanth prescribed a form of modern yoga for enhancing the body and life in the world. I argue that this shift signifies a practical change in the everyday body maintenance regime of the practitioner. It does not, however, signify a soteriological shift for the advanced spiritual adept. Rather, a body-negating asceticism maintains its central role in the construction of the soteriological path.

Author(s):  
Melissa M. Hidalgo

Morrissey is a singer and songwriter from Manchester, England. He rose to prominence as a popular-music icon as the lead singer for the Manchester band The Smiths (1982–1987). After the breakup of The Smiths, Morrissey launched his solo career in 1988. In his fourth decade as a popular singer, Morrissey continues to tour the world and sell out shows in venues throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, Asia and Australia, and across North and South America. Although Morrissey enjoys a fiercely loyal global fan base and inspires fans all over the world, his largest and most creatively expressive fans, arguably, are Latinas/os in the United States and Latin America. He is especially popular in Mexico and with Chicanas/os from Los Angeles, California, to San Antonio, Texas. How does a white singer and pop icon from England become an important cultural figure for Latinas/os? This entry provides an overview of Morrissey’s musical and cultural importance to fans in the United States–Mexico borderlands. It introduces Morrissey, examines the rise of Latina/o Morrissey and Smiths fandom starting in the 1980s and 1990s, and offers a survey of the fan-produced literature and other cultural production that pay tribute to the indie-music star. The body of fiction, films, plays, poetry, and fans’ cultural production at the center of this entry collectively represent of Morrissey’s significance as a dynamic and iconic cultural figure for Latinas/os.


Public ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (60) ◽  
pp. 222-235
Author(s):  
Alana Staiti

This paper uses the film Looker (Michael Crichton, 1981) to highlight how a group of filmmakers and technologists imagined the sinister side of computer-automated biometrics would unfold in late twentieth century United States. The film depicts a scene in which a young female model gets her naked body scanned for a multinational corporation that will capitalize on the 3D computer model created from her likeness. An analysis of the body scanning scene and behind-the-scenes production processes raise new questions about the legacy of biometric imaginaries in the United States and helps us see in new ways how a set of concerns crystallized around the computerization of personal identifiable information, including physical bodies. While fears of computer automation existed in previous decades, by the early 1980s, the stakes heightened as biometric and photosensing technologies could sense and gather data computationally.


2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-123
Author(s):  
John Davies

... in no English city is there a greater need for prudence in ecclesiastical matters than in the great city of Liverpool. That world famous seaport has too often heard the cries of religious factions and has too often seen violence and bloodshed as the result of clashes between professing Christians. There is every reason why the heads and leaders of the various denominations should teach their people both by precept and example, to wipe out the old stain on Liverpool's good name and to gild the city's escutcheon with nobler usages.Richard Downey on becoming Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool in 1928 seems to have anticipated The Tablet’s admonition. Downey indeed seems to have begun his episcopate (1928–1953) with a determination to change the public perception of Catholicism in his diocese and in the city of Liverpool in particular. In late twentieth century terminology he engaged in a ‘re-branding exercise’. He withdrew support for a specifically Catholic political party in Liverpool, which had been favoured by his predecessor Archbishop Keating. He emphasised the civic commitment and the ‘Englishness’ of the Catholic community, moderating the impression that the Catholic community in Liverpool was essentially Irish. Thus although St. Patrick’s Day would continue to be celebrated, so would St. George’s Day. Additionally the blessings conferred on the world by the British Empire would be fulsomely acknowledged. Catholics would be seen to be part of the mainstream community contributing to its fullness and development. They would cease to be perceived as an alien irritant in the body politic.


2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-25
Author(s):  
Andrea Jain

This paper is an exploration of preksha dhyana as a case study of modern yoga. Preksha is a system of yoga and meditation introduced by Acarya Mahaprajna of the Jain Svetambara Terapanth in the late twentieth century. I argue that preksha is an attempt to join the newly emerging transnational yoga market whereby yoga has become a practice oriented around the attainment of physical health and psychological well-being. I will evaluate the ways in which Mahaprajna appropriates scientific discourse and in so doing constructs a new and unique system of Jain modern yoga. In particular, I evaluate the appropriation of physical and meditative techniques from ancient yoga systems in addition to the explanation of yoga metaphysics by means of biomedical discourse. I will demonstrate how, in Mahaprajna’s preksha system, the metaphysical subtle body becomes somaticized. In other words, Mahaprajna uses the bio-medical understanding of physiology to locate and identify the functions of metaphysical subtle body parts and processes in the physiological body.


2021 ◽  
pp. 223386592110248
Author(s):  
Yooneui Kim ◽  
Youngwan Kim

Are international organizations autonomous actors in global politics? This paper investigates whether and how major powers influence the World Bank’s official development assistance policies. Despite the World Bank’s attempts to maintain independence from its member states, we argue that major powers are still influential. Testing this expectation with the data of official development assistance provisions between 1981 and 2017, we find that the World Bank provides a higher amount of official development assistance to the recipient countries that receive a higher amount of such assistance from the major powers such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. In addition, the World Bank is prone to provide a higher amount of official development assistance to the recipients that have a similar preference to the major powers. This study sheds light on the relations between major powers and international organizations.


Author(s):  
Yi-Tui Chen

Although vaccination is carried out worldwide, the vaccination rate varies greatly. As of 24 May 2021, in some countries, the proportion of the population fully vaccinated against COVID-19 has exceeded 50%, but in many countries, this proportion is still very low, less than 1%. This article aims to explore the impact of vaccination on the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the herd immunity of almost all countries in the world has not been reached, several countries were selected as sample cases by employing the following criteria: more than 60 vaccine doses per 100 people and a population of more than one million people. In the end, a total of eight countries/regions were selected, including Israel, the UAE, Chile, the United Kingdom, the United States, Hungary, and Qatar. The results find that vaccination has a major impact on reducing infection rates in all countries. However, the infection rate after vaccination showed two trends. One is an inverted U-shaped trend, and the other is an L-shaped trend. For those countries with an inverted U-shaped trend, the infection rate begins to decline when the vaccination rate reaches 1.46–50.91 doses per 100 people.


1990 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mira Wilkins

A great deal of attention has recently been focused on the extent of Japanese direct investment in the United States. In the following historical survey, Professor Wilkins details the size and scope of these investments from the late nineteenth century, showing that Japanese involvements in America have deep historical roots. At the same time, she analyzes the ways in which late twentieth century Japanese direct investment differs from the earlier phenomenon and attempts to explain why it has aroused such concern among both business leaders and the general public.


1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-273
Author(s):  
Constance Lever-Tracy ◽  
David Ip

This article explores two new and related phenomena of the late twentieth century that will surely play a major role in shaping the world of the twenty-first: the economic development and opening up of China, and the emergence onto the world economic stage of diaspora Chinese businesses, producing a significant, identifiably Chinese current within global capitalism. Each of these has, we believe, been crucial and perhaps indispensable to the other.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document