‘She Was Such an Exotic Creature’: Feeding the Orientalist Machine in Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Esther Pujolràs-Noguer
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Stranger ◽  
Inherent Tendency

The Orientalist scenario that Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia displays is an incontestable representation of the ‘Orient’ as an exoticised ‘Other’ that menaces Western civilization with its inherent tendency towards depravation and savagery. In Christie’s novel, the archaeological site configures a terrain wherein civilisation is safeguarded because controlled by Westerners and yet, civilisation is disrupted the moment a murder is committed and everything indicates that the murderer is ‘one of us’, not the oriental ‘Other’. However, the stranger that endangers the civilising integrity of an otherwise unpolluted, commendable Orientalist enterprise by murdering ‘one of us’ is none other than the victim, Mrs Leidner, who goes through an orientalising process that premeditatedly transforms her into the essential Oriental female, the Belle Dame sans Merci. This article aims at unmasking how the Orientalist plot of Murder in Mesopotamia is strategically used to condemn the woman, the victim, and exonerate the murderer, the husband. Hence, the ‘Oriental’ female that lurks behind Mrs Leidner’s ‘blonde, Scandinavian fairness’ ( Mesopotamia 28) is exposed whereas Dr Leidner’s past as a German spy is conspicuously undermined. What this Orientalist plot ultimately unveils is the prescience of ‘whiteness’ as a discursively constructed category just as elusive as gender.

Reflections on the Meaning of Study Abroad

1995 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 96-103
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Shannon
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Nursery School ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Danger Zone ◽  
Host Family ◽  
The People ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
The Moment ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Stranger

Study abroad begins long before students leave their own shores. The moment that children enter daycare, nursery school, or kindergarten for the first time, they are in foreign territory, and all their antennae are out, testing, absorbing, learning. They begin to develop the first of their many multiple identities. They are no longer "Johnny" or "Sarah" whom everyone knows and loves at home, but Johnny or Sarah whom no one knows nor initially cares about, and they have to figure out what kind of a new identity they will develop so the danger zone becomes as safe as home.  Leaving familiar surroundings- the sounds, smells, safety, and food of home- and realizing, quite abruptly, that they must learn to adapt to the demands and needs of strangers, is the first and the most challenging "trip abroad" they will ever take. They will use the same set of skills, more mature, more polished (we hope) when they arrive on a foreign campus and move in with a host family or into an international dormitory.  Learning to make the journey with ease, whether it is on the first day of school or the day a plane drops one in a foreign field, is a necessary accomplishment. We have to make friends out of our peers; we have to gain the respect of our teachers; we have to develop curiosity and concern about the people around us. The stranger they seem, the more there is to learn. To fear diversity is to fear life itself. As the world becomes smaller and more integrated, the more crucial this accomplishment grows. 

scholarly journals The case of hip dysplasia of an adult from the Roman Period site of Velebit (Serbia)

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ksenija Đukić ◽  
Petar Milenković ◽  
Tamara Pavlović ◽  
Dragoslav Nestorović ◽  
Raško Ramadanski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cause Of Death ◽  
Hip Dysplasia ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Ct Scanning ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Developmental Dysplasia ◽  
Unusual Position ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Right ◽  
Possible Cause

Objective: This study is designed to reveal the diagnosis of a rare hip condition with an estimation of the possible cause of death. Materials: Archaeological site of Velebit dated between the 3rd and 4th century AD is located in northern Serbia. Grave No 24 differs from others in the unusual position of the skeletal remains in situ. Methods: The bioanthropological analyses included an estimation of skeletal preservation, cranial and postcranial skeletal measurements, estimation of sex and age at the moment of death, dental analysis and a paleopathological examination. This skeleton was analysed for signs of bone disease, using diagnostic paleopathological procedures comprising gross examination and CT scanning. Results: The results revealed that the analysed male individual was 40 to 55 years of age. The bioanthropological analyses showed two deformities of the pelvic bones, each on the outer surface, located posteriorly and superiorly of the acetabular area. The observed lesions were characterised as type 4 of developmental dysplasia of the hip. In addition, a sharp lesion was observed in the right posterior region of squama of the occipital bone. Conclusions: Our results clearly suggest that this individual had been suffering from hip dysplasia. The possible cause of death could be the observed head lesion. In addition, there is no skeletal conformation of unfavourable living conditions related to physiological stress and diet.

1883 Vienna in the Turkish Mirror

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 101-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Healy
Keyword(s):  
East Asian ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Work In Progress ◽  
History Class ◽  
Christian Socialism ◽  
Church State Relations ◽  
The Moment ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Looking Back

In his 1883 playDie Türken vor Wien, Richard von Kralik, the Catholic writer and later doyen of Christian Socialism, recounts the story of the 1683 siege of Vienna. Habsburg military heroes, ordinary Viennese Bürger, and the Ottoman grand vizier Kara Mustafa appear on stage in Kralik's retelling of what had become a foundational moment in Austrian historiography. The defeat of the Turks at Vienna in 1683 has been hailed as Austria's finest hour, the Habsburgs' greatest service to Europe, and as the moment when Austria defended all of Western civilization from, among other things, the East, Asian barbarism, and Muslim infidels. Kralik may be the playwright here; but in a preface to the play, he introduces the two figures who are the true sources for his tale of 1683: Lady History and Lady Legend. They work together, each playing her part. Lady History and Lady Legend, he explains, sing in beautiful duet, “both accurate and truthful, neither lying nor inventing.” Kralik's juxtaposition of history and legend was astute. Any historian looking back to the events of 1683 and the stories that have since accumulated about Austria's “saving the occident” encounters a multi-century work in progress, a story under revision, a tale in which “legends” about coffee (said to be introduced to Europe by Turks fleeing Vienna) and croissants (a bun shaped, suspiciously, like a crescent) persist alongside themes more properly in the domain of “history”: class tensions, national conflict, and church-state relations.

scholarly journals Temporal phenomenology of Otherness by A. Schütz (or the birth of phenomenological sociologism)

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-225
Author(s):  
S. P. Bankovskaya
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Natural Attitude ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Pattern ◽  
Radical Reduction ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Stranger ◽  
The Continuum

The author considers the construction of the temporal sociologism by A. Schtz from the general thesis of the alter ego to the Stranger and the Homecomer. The background and starting point of this construction is Schtzs criticism of the Husserlian egological approach to the basic category of the Other and the radicalization of phenomenological reduction. The Husserlian primordial reduction to an isolated monad is replaced by a radical reduction of the cultural pattern as a phenomenon of the social a priori. Social a priori and the Stranger serve as necessary conditions for intersubjectivity as not derived from the Ego and acquire temporal features in the categories of cultural pattern of the group and Homecomer. In Schtzs interpretation, the Stranger combines temporal and functional (spatial) features, which allows to define the category of cultural pattern of the group and describe the relations of the Stranger with the group in terms of temporal sociologism. The Stranger category is the result of reduction of the taken-for-granted cultural pattern of the group. Schtzs temporal sociologism places any manifestation of the social not only in the intersubjective space but also in the continuum of alterations in intersubjectivity. After this radical reduction of the natural attitude to the cultural pattern of the group by the Stranger category, Schtz goes further and reduces the natural attitude to the belonging to/identification with any group by the Homecomer category, which allows to explore the continuum of alterations in intersubjectivity exactly at the moment of its breaching. The experience of Homecomer restoring a breach with his group represents the reduction of taken-for-granted self in itself - turning into a Stranger for oneself, which allows to find a social basis in oneself. Thus, Schtzs temporal sociologism develops as a definition of the social through changes in time and preserving social identity despite changes in the continuum of intersubjectivity.

scholarly journals Essaie de Description du Système Foncier Congolais d’avant Le Contact Formel Avec La Civilisation Occidentale

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 307
Author(s):  
Marie-Bernard Dhedya Lonu ◽  
Markus Gehrin ◽  
Marie-Claire Cordonier ◽  
Michel Ilume Moke ◽  
Salomon Mampeta Wabassa
Keyword(s):  
Land Ownership ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Collective Ownership ◽  
Land System ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The World ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Individual Ownership

The present study focuses on the description of the Congolese land system prior to formal contact with Western civilization. Contrary to what has been imagined, the natives of Congo have understood the notion behind landed property. This property is rather peculiar in that it does not fulfill all the criteria imposed by modern law. A few elements have enabled us to describe it. The notion of landed property has been made known to the natives. This property is established at the moment the pacific takes possession of it or by conquest of the soil. It is essentially influenced by the beliefs that characterize traditional Africa. However, the beliefs in the existence and interaction of the world of the dead with that of the living, and the beliefs in the divinity of the soil, makes it possible to specially guide the perception of landed property. Moreover, the community character directs land ownership towards collective ownership rather than individual ownership.

The High Resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope

1974 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 316-317
Author(s):  
A. V. Crewe
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscope ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
High Vacuum ◽  
Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope ◽  
Ultra High Vacuum ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Imaging Characteristics ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Scanning Transmission ◽  
The Moment

The high resolution STEM is now a fact of life. I think that we have, in the last few years, demonstrated that this instrument is capable of the same resolving power as a CEM but is sufficiently different in its imaging characteristics to offer some real advantages.It seems possible to prove in a quite general way that only a field emission source can give adequate intensity for the highest resolution^ and at the moment this means operating at ultra high vacuum levels. Our experience, however, is that neither the source nor the vacuum are difficult to manage and indeed are simpler than many other systems and substantially trouble-free.

Pinocytotic-Like Forms of Mitochondria From Rat Anterior Pituitary

1968 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 146-147
Author(s):  
Burton B. Silver
Keyword(s):  
Electron Micrographs ◽  
Conformational Changes ◽  
Anterior Pituitary ◽  
Dynamic State ◽  
Surrounding Cell ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Cell Medium ◽  
Sectioned Tissue ◽  
State Of Activity

Sectioned tissue rarely indicates evidence of what is probably a highly dynamic state of activity in mitochondria which have been reported to undergo a variety of movements such as streaming, divisions and coalescence. Recently, mitochondria from the rat anterior pituitary have been fixed in a variety of configurations which suggest that conformational changes were occurring at the moment of fixation. Pinocytotic-like vacuoles which may be taking in or expelling materials from the surrounding cell medium, appear to be forming in some of the mitochondria. In some cases, pores extend into the matrix of the mitochondria. In other forms, the remains of what seems to be pinched off vacuoles are evident in the mitochondrial interior. Dense materials, resembling secretory droplets, appear at the junction of the pores and the cytoplasm. The droplets are similar to the secretory materials commonly identified in electron micrographs of the anterior pituitary.

Advances in Stem Instrumentation for Biology

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 362-363
Author(s):  
J. S. Wall
Keyword(s):  
Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope ◽  
Carbon Films ◽  
Specimen Preparation ◽  
Material Deposition ◽  
Active User ◽  
Percent Improvement ◽  
Scanning Transmission ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Film Substrate ◽  
High Level

The forte of the Scanning transmission Electron Microscope (STEM) is high resolution imaging with high contrast on thin specimens, as demonstrated by visualization of single heavy atoms. of equal importance for biology is the efficient utilization of all available signals, permitting low dose imaging of unstained single molecules such as DNA.Our work at Brookhaven has concentrated on: 1) design and construction of instruments optimized for a narrow range of biological applications and 2) use of such instruments in a very active user/collaborator program. Therefore our program is highly interactive with a strong emphasis on producing results which are interpretable with a high level of confidence.The major challenge we face at the moment is specimen preparation. The resolution of the STEM is better than 2.5 A, but measurements of resolution vs. dose level off at a resolution of 20 A at a dose of 10 el/A2 on a well-behaved biological specimen such as TMV (tobacco mosaic virus). To track down this problem we are examining all aspects of specimen preparation: purification of biological material, deposition on the thin film substrate, washing, fast freezing and freeze drying. As we attempt to improve our equipment/technique, we use image analysis of TMV internal controls included in all STEM samples as a monitor sensitive enough to detect even a few percent improvement. For delicate specimens, carbon films can be very harsh-leading to disruption of the sample. Therefore we are developing conducting polymer films as alternative substrates, as described elsewhere in these Proceedings. For specimen preparation studies, we have identified (from our user/collaborator program ) a variety of “canary” specimens, each uniquely sensitive to one particular aspect of sample preparation, so we can attempt to separate the variables involved.

Traumatic Brain Injury: A Trauma Surgeon's Perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-89
Author(s):  
Oscar D. Guillamondegui
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Trauma Team ◽  
The United States ◽  
Long Term Outcomes ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Injured Brain ◽  
The Moment

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious epidemic in the United States. It affects patients of all ages, race, and socioeconomic status (SES). The current care of these patients typically manifests after sequelae have been identified after discharge from the hospital, long after the inciting event. The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of identification and management of the TBI patient from the moment of injury through long-term care as a multidisciplinary approach. By promoting an awareness of the issues that develop around the acutely injured brain and linking them to long-term outcomes, the trauma team can initiate care early to alter the effect on the patient, family, and community. Hopefully, by describing the care afforded at a trauma center and by a multidisciplinary team, we can bring a better understanding to the armamentarium of methods utilized to treat the difficult population of TBI patients.

For the moment, let's try collaboration

1981 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 652-652
Author(s):  
Morris J. Paulson
Keyword(s):  
The Moment
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