scholarly journals Images of Animals in Neolithic Chinese Ceramic

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-80
Author(s):  
Bogna Łakomska
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Decorative Motifs ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Animal Images ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
Rich Material ◽  
Neolithic Cultures

The images of animals or their (more or less) stylised motifs once depicted in the form of painting and sculpture, and nowadays through various media, have many stories to tell. Their ancient images point to the undeniably great role that animals played in human life. The rich material culture, as well as the written sources we have today, enables us to examine – both in physical and spiritual terms – the coexistence and co-creation of the worlds of people and animals in the region that we now call China. General animal research, especially within Europe, usually concerns spatial and physical differences; animals from ancient, medieval and early modern times are researched in the context of their utilitarian role, as well as their exoticism, discovering new species and deepening knowledge about those already known to man. Creating a picture of the animal images in Chinese Neolithic art, I hope to present various social and political practices that have influenced the acquisition of knowledge about animals, and thus to discover their role in human life. Chinese animal studies to date in pre-dynastic and dynastic eras regularly focus on animals as spiritual beings and sources of nutrition. It is worth looking at the significance of animals from a different angle – from the perspective of art, which can inform us about animals and people in the context of religion, magic, symbols, aesthetics and the spiritual life of both. My article focuses particularly on the decorative motifs appearing in ceramics of three Neolithic cultures: Yangshao 4000–3000 BC, Hemudu 5500-3300 BC and Longshan 2500-1900 BC.

At Home in Renaissance Bruges

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie De Groot
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Domestic Spaces ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Rich Material ◽  
At Home

How did citizens in Bruges create a home? What did an ordinary domestic interior look like in the sixteenth century? And more importantly: how does one study the domestic culture of bygone times by analysing documents such as probate inventories? These questions seem straightforward, yet few endeavours are more challenging than reconstructing a sixteenth-century domestic reality from written sources. This book takes full advantage of the inventory and convincingly frames household objects in their original context of use. Meticulously connecting objects, people and domestic spaces, the book introduces the reader to the rich material world of Bruges citizens in the Renaissance, their sensory engagement, their religious practice, the role of women, and other social factors. By weaving insights from material culture studies with urban history, At Home in Renaissance Bruges offers an appealing and holistic mixture of in-depth socio-economic, cultural and material analysis. In its approach the book goes beyond heavy-handed theories and stereotypes about the exquisite taste of aristocratic elites, focusing instead on the domestic materiality of Bruges’ middling groups. Evocatively illustrated with contemporary paintings from Bruges and beyond, this monograph shows a nuanced picture of domestic materiality in a remarkable European city.

Verbal Restrictions on the Communication of Turko-Mongols of Inner Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 134-142
Author(s):  
M. M. Sodnompilova
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Information Storage ◽  
Inner Asia ◽  
The Rich

Verbal restrictions common among the Turko-Mongol peoples of Inner Asia and Siberia are analyzed on the basis of folkloric and ethnographic sources. Their principal forms are silence, circumlocution, and whisper. The socio-cultural context of these restrictions is reconstructed. They are seen in various domains of culture, in particular relating to social norms, and are believed to refl ect fear of human life and the well-being of man and society in the communication with nature represented by deities and spirits. This is a natural reaction that has evolved under the harsh environmental and climatic conditions of Inner Asia. The sa me concerns, extending to social communication, have regulated interpersonal interactions. In a nomadic culture, verbal restrictions stem from the importance of the ritual function of language and a specifi c attitude toward spoken language, which, over the centuries, was the principal means of information storage and transfer, cognition and adaptation. This concept of speech affected the emergence of the principal behavioral stereotypes. The rigid norms of behavior account for the importance of the nonverbal context of the nomadic culture— the high informative potential of the entire space inhabited by the nomads, and the rich symbolism of their material culture, traditional outfi t, and dwelling.

scholarly journals Malthusian Biopolitics, Ecological Immunity, and the Anthropocene // Biopolítica malthusiana, inmunidad ecológica y el antropoceno

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-52
Author(s):  
Hannes Bergthaller
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Double Bind ◽  
French Population ◽  
Continuous Growth ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Significant Harm ◽  
Ecological Immunity ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
Siglo Xx

     This essay argues that Michel Foucault’s original introduction of the concept of biopolitics should be seen as responding to Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie’s notion of a “Malthusian curse” which during medieval and early modern times kept the French population in check. Biopolitics was, in its original conception, the management of human and nonhuman populations, securing them against famine and disease so as to allow for continuous growth. During the second half of 20th century, however, Neo-Malthusian thinkers pointed out that these strategies for immunizing human life against the vagaries of ecological existence had come to endanger the basic conditions of life precisely to the degree that they had been successful-ushering in the new geological epoch we have lately begun to refer to as the Anthropocene. This paradoxical dynamic can be understood in terms of what Roberto Esposito has described as an “immunitary double-bind”: existing immunitary defenses can no longer be dismantled without causing significant harm to human life, yet failure to dismantle them will increase the risk of incurring even greater harm in the future. Such an account, it is argued, yields a more ambivalent picture than the starkly negative views which continue to dominate biopolitical theory. Resumen      Este ensayo sostiene que la introducción original de Michel Foucault del concepto de biopolítica debería entenderse como respuesta a la noción de “maldición malthusiana” de LeRoy Ladurie que durante la época medieval y moderna mantuvo bajo control a la población francesa. La biopolítica era, en su concepción original, la gestión de poblaciones humanas y no humanas, protegiendolas frente a la hambruna y la enfermedad, y permitiendo un crecimiento continuo. Durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX, sin embargo, los pensadores neo-malthusianos apuntaron que estas estrategias de inmunización de la vida humana frente a los antojos de la existencia ecológica habían terminado por poner en peligro las condiciones básicas de la vida precisamente hasta el punto de que habían tenido éxito—marcando el inicio de la nueva época geológica que recientemente hemos denominado Antropoceno. Esta dinámica paradójica puede entenderse como lo que Roberto Esposito ha descrito como una “atadura doble inmunitaria”: las defensas inmunitarias existentes no pueden desmantelarse sin causar un daño significativo a la vida humana, pero fracasar en desmantelarlas aumentaría el riesgo de sufrir aún más daño en el futuro. Tal explicación, se argumenta, ofrece un retrato más ambivalente que las vistas claramente negativas que continúan dominando la teoría biopolítica.

Charlatans and Medicine in 19th-Century Latin America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Podgorny
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poor Women ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
Power Of Words

In the long view of history, the charlatan is a merchant in unconventional knowledge defined on the basis of his itinerant existence. Traveling from one marketplace to another, dealing in exotic objects and remedies, organizing shows and exhibitions, performing miraculous healings by appealing to the curative power of words and liniments, charlatans have traversed Europe since early modern times. Charlatans also crossed the boundaries between popular and learned cultures. Both celebrated and opposed by physicians, scientists and philosophers, the rich and the poor, women and men, they circulated and traded knowledge and artifacts, penetrating the most diverse cultural spheres. Far from being confined to certain countries or regions, they were everywhere, repeating almost the same sales strategies, words, and performances. The repetition of fictitious stories down the centuries and on different continents raises the question of assessing the persistence of tradition in such different contexts. Charlatans were able not only to discover what local people liked but also to speak their “local language,” as well as adopting the most sophisticated technological innovations as part of their performances. They were sharp observers of traditions and habits in the settings they visited, and they reacted quickly to what was new for attracting audiences and customers. One can say that charlatans combined very ancient products with the most innovative media.

Woman as a Stereotypical Image of National and Cultural Identity in the Context of Literary Comparativistics

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 302-316
Author(s):  
Marine Sioridze ◽  
Ketevan Svanidze
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Stereotypical Image ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Rich Material ◽  
Aforementioned Study ◽  
Repre Sentations

People live in a world of stereotypes that exist everywhere, in all spheres of human life and activity. A stereotype is a cultural phenomenon, that can be found in any society in the form of centuries-old experience of a given society, transmitted from generation to genera-tion by images transformed in accordance with the era and the level of society develop-ment.The culture and literature of any nation contain a rich gallery of stereotypes. The existence of a stereotype without culture is inconceivable. And culture itself is a certain set of stereotypes that defines and, therefore, limits human actions.One of the priority areas of modern anthropocentric and human sciences is the study of the formation and functioning of gender stereotypes, the identification and analy-sis of their intercultural specificity. Contrary to the objectives of the aforementioned study, our multilateral research is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of a woman, as repre-sentations of the stereotypical image of national-cultural identity in different literary eras. The present article deals with the study of the stereotypical image of a woman in medieval Western and Georgian literature.For this purpose we have identified and analyzed the rich material that exists in the culture and literature of different people. Our study is based on the depiction of a stereo-typical image of a woman from a different perspective, for example: woman - king, woman - diplomat, woman – public figure, woman - creator, woman - mother, woman - wife/lover, woman - strong/weak creature, woman - symbol of fidelity, etc.

scholarly journals Szlakiem białoruskich Poleszuków (raport z badań terenowych)

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 215-236
Author(s):  
Mirosław Jankowiak ◽  
Łukasz Grajewski
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Rich Material ◽  
The Village ◽  
The Russian Language

Tracing the Belorussian Poleszuks (a report on field research)The present article is a report on field research conducted in summer 2010 in order to collect dialectological material. 13 localities were researched altogether: Pinsk and 11 villages of the Pinsk district and one village of the Stolin district. During the interviews the following topics were discussed: the language situation in the village, issues of national identity, visions of Polesia and Poleszuks, traditions and customs, issues of confession, attitude towards the process of draining bogs or image of Poland and Poles. Belorussian linguists (e.g. A. Krywicki) take note of the fact that Polesia, despite frequent dialectological research, has not been described accurately enough by linguists. The rich material collected showed not only well-preserved dialects of Polesia of Ukrainian basis (slight influence mainly of the Russian language can be observed with people of the oldest generation) but also strong though disappearing spiritual and material culture of the inhabitants of Polesia. По следам белорусских полешуков (отчёт по итогам полевых исследований) Настоящая статья является рапортом полевых исследований, проведённых летом 2010 г. с целью сбора диалектологического материала. Исследование охватило 13 населённых пунктов – город Пинск, 11 деревень Пинского района и одну деревню Столинского района Брестской области Беларуси. В интервью затрагивались следующие темы: языковая ситуация в деревне, вопросы национального самосознания, образы Полесья и полешуков, традиции и обычаи, вопросы вероисповедания, отношение к процессу мелиорации, а также образ Польши и поляков. Белорусские филологи (напр. А. Кривицкий) обращают внимание на то, что несмотря на многочисленные диалектологические исследования, Полесье остаётся территорией, которая всё ещё недостаточно подробно описана языковедами. Собранный обширный материал показал не только хорошо сохранившиеся полесские диалекты с украинской основой (среди респондентов старшего поколения видны незначительные влияния в основном русского языка), но и до сих пор сильную, хотя и угасающую духовную и материальную культуру полешуков.

La otredad: ¿real o inventada? El caso de las brujas

1999 ◽  
pp. 21-33
Author(s):  
Elia Nathan Bravo
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Empirical Content ◽  
Extreme Situation ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Witch ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
The One ◽  
In Virtue Of

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. On the one hand, it offers a general analysis of stigmas (a person has one when, in virtue of its belonging to a certain group, such as that of women, homosexuals, etc., he or she is subjugated or persecuted). On the other hand, I argue that stigmas are “invented”. More precisely, I claim that they are not descriptive of real inequalities. Rather, they are socially created, or invented in a lax sense, in so far as the real differences to which they refer are socially valued or construed as negative, and used to justify social inequalities (that is, the placing of a person in the lower positions within an economic, cultural, etc., hierarchy), or persecutions. Finally, I argue that in some cases, such as that of the witch persecution of the early modern times, we find the extreme situation in which a stigma was invented in the strict sense of the word, that is, it does not have any empirical content.

Historical Representations and Recent Changes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Schaflechner
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Oral Histories ◽  
Detailed History ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Representations ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Many Sources ◽  
Over Time

Chapter 3 introduces the tradition of ritual journeys and sacred geographies in South Asia, then hones in on a detailed history of the grueling and elaborate pilgrimage attached to the shrine of Hinglaj. Before the construction of the Makran Coastal Highway the journey to the Goddess’s remote abode in the desert of Balochistan frequently presented a lethally dangerous undertaking for her devotees, the hardships of which have been described by many sources in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Sindhi, and Urdu. This chapter draws heavily from original sources, including travelogues and novels, which are supplanted with local oral histories in order to weave a historical tapestry that displays the rich array of practices and beliefs surrounding the pilgrimage and how they have changed over time. The comparative analysis demonstrates how certain motifs, such as austerity (Skt. tapasyā), remain important themes within the whole Hinglaj genre even in modern times while others have been lost in the contemporary era.

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