scholarly journals Against Disease, Suffering, and Other Plagues: the Magic-healing Role of Thunderstones in the Middle Ages and Modern Times

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Tomasz Kurasiński
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Folk Medicine ◽  
Therapeutic Use ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Lightning Fire ◽  
Harmful Effects ◽  
The Middle Ages

Prehistoric stone objects (most often Neolithic) referred to as ‘thunderstones’ in the Middle Ages and modern times have been assigned various meanings – primarily they are supposed to have been used to protect against lightning, fire, and other natural disasters. They have also found application in folk medicine and healing magic (protection against the harmful effects of disease and loss of fertility, and neutralisation of misfortune when it has already occurred). Trust in their magical (apotropaic) properties was probably associated with the belief that these objects originated from outside the sphere of the ‘tame’ world. Folklore and ethnographic data, as well as traces of use preserved in archaeological monuments, support a long tradition of therapeutic use of thunderstones, which is a pan-European phenomenon.

scholarly journals The Medieval Tradition in the Prose of V. P. Astafiev: Genre and Cycle

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 342-366
Author(s):  
Alla Yu. Bolshakova
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Structural Organization ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
Russian Literature ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Middle Ages

<p>The article contributes to the study of implementation of the genre traditions of the Russian Medieval literature in the prose of the second half of the twentieth century, specifies categorical coordinates and challenges research approaches, artificially separating a single movement of Russian literature from the time of Ilarion and Avvakum to the present day. On the example of V.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;Astafiev&rsquo;s book &ldquo;Zatesi&rdquo; which united the writer's small prose on the principle of cyclization of works based on the common stylistic and thematic features, the author comes to the conclusion about the artistic relevance of this technique, which originates in the medieval collections, in the aspiration of their compilers to work &ldquo;outside of genre traditions&rdquo; (D.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;Likhachev). But if in the Middle Ages this aspiration is more due to the subject-thematic tasks, in the New and Modern times the super-genre unity of the collection, of the book is a&nbsp;result of strengthening the compositional role of the author in their structural organization and the individualization of his image.</p>

scholarly journals The Role of Fire in the Posthumous Customs of Podlachia on the Border of Poland and Belarus

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Wawrzeniuk
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Basic Element ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Special Respect ◽  
The Middle Ages ◽  
The Way ◽  
At Home

In this article, I would like to describe the role of fire in the customs of All Souls’ Day in the Easter period called przewody or radunica. The burning of the fires most commonly took place overnight at home and in cemeteries to illuminate the way for the transmigration of souls so they would not harm the living. The reflection of special respect for fire is known from the funeral rites from the area of Podlachia in the Middle Ages. It also served as a basic element of the ritual related to cyclical visits to the dead, as evidenced by the remains of charcoals or ash. Different kind of sources from the Middle Ages and modern times, from the region of eastern Poland (Podlachia and Belarus, in particular) shall be used to confirm that the rite lasted for many years.

ISLAMIC COINS FROM EASTERN GIZA (EGYPT)

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-62
Author(s):  
E. Yu. Goncharov ◽  
◽  
S. E. Malykh ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Ancient Rock ◽  
Oriental Studies ◽  
The Middle Ages

The article focuses on the attribution of one gold and two copper coins discovered by the Russian Archaeological Mission of the Institute of Oriental Studies RAS in the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Giza. Coins come from mixed fillings of the burial shafts of the Ancient Egyptian rock-cut tombs of the second half of the 3rd millennium B.C. According to the archaeological context, the coins belong to the stages of the destruction of ancient burials that took place during the Middle Ages and Modern times. One of the coins is a Mamluk fals dating back to the first half of the 14th century A.D., the other two belong to the 1830s — the Ottoman period in Egypt, and are attributed as gold a buchuk hayriye and its copper imitation. Coins are rare for the ancient necropolis and are mainly limited to specimens of the 19th–20th centuries. In general, taking into account the numerous finds of other objects — fragments of ceramic, porcelain and glass utensils, metal ware, glass and copper decorations, we can talk about the dynamic nature of human activity in the ancient Egyptian cemetery in the 2nd millennium A.D. Egyptians and European travelers used the ancient rock-cut tombs as permanent habitats or temporary sites, leaving material traces of their stay.

Protestant Rivalry — Metaphysics and Rhetoric in Germany c. 1590–1620

1990 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
The Middle Ages

One of the most remarkable changes to take place at German Protestant universities during the last decade of the sixteenth century and the first twenty years of the seventeenth century was the return of metaphysics after more than halfa century of absence. University metaphysics has acquired a reputation for sterile aridity which was strengthened rather than diminished by its survival in early modern times, when such disciplines are supposed deservedly to have vanished with the end of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, this survival has attracted some attention this century. For a long urne it was assumed that German Protestants needed a metaphysical defence against the intellectual vigour of the Jesuits. Lewalter has shown, however, that this was not the case.

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. 

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document