scholarly journals The material turn in Religious Studies and the possibility of critique: Assessing Chidester’s analysis of ‘the fetish’

Author(s):  
Johan M. Strijdom

In recent debates the neglect of the material dimension of religion and the foregrounding of beliefs in the modern academic study of religion has been attributed to a Protestant bias. As corrective a number of researchers have shifted their attention to the study of bodily performances, sensory experiences and sacred objects in religious traditions. In this article I will enquire how David Chidester’s analysis of the cultural, political and economic uses of ‘fetishes’ under 19th century colonial conditions in southern Africa and in European centres of theory formation on the one hand, and under 20th and 21st century American imperial conditions on the other, may inform the comparative study of religions. Central to my argument will be that the realisation that religions are necessarily concretely mediated should not preclude the possibility of a systemic critique of power relations that are at work in the uses of objects in religions, the comparison of religions and the comparative study of religions.

Author(s):  
Christian Leuprecht

This chapter historicizes, contextualizes, and theorizes the triangular relationship among governments, intelligence agencies, and democratic citizens in light of the observations and comparisons in this book. It posits accountability as a means to reconcile the apparent contradictions between the openness and transparency of democratic first principles on the one hand, and the power and secrecy of state intelligence on the other. Democracies constantly have to demonstrate their steadfast commitment to playing by the same rules they claim to value and defend as this practice ultimately sets them apart from authoritarianism. Intelligence accountability thus emerges as a quintessentially social process that is both integral and existential to democracy. Accountability tethers intelligence and security communities to the democratic society they serve and the rules, authorizations, and limitations it has imposed. In response to global threats and technological change, however, intelligence now coalesces as an epistemic community that cooperates across agencies, departments, and jurisdictions. Domestic, international, and supranational coordination and collaboration within intelligence communities and across the Five Eyes, other allies, partners, and beyond, vastly complicate the seemingly straightforward task of holding any one intelligence agency or community accountable. Accountability lags changing and expanded intelligence powers and capabilities, which can have deleterious consequences for public trust and support under which intelligence operates in a democratic society. Ergo, the lessons in the comparative study of intelligence are as much about reconciling intelligence and democracy as they are about innovation and adaptation in defending democracy as hostile state and non-state threat actors and vectors proliferate.


1968 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F. Hermann

The study of the processes by which foreign policy is formed has been in the embarrassing position of falling between two academic chairs. On the one hand, students of international affairs have displayed considerable reluctance to delve into the domestic factors that distinguish one nation's policies from another's. On the other hand, scholars of comparative politics, with their knowledge of political institutions and processes, have rarely considered the effect of various political arrangements on foreign policy.


2020 ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
L. S. Dampilova ◽  
◽  
I. V. Silantiev ◽  
I. E. Kim ◽  
E. N. Kuzmina ◽  
...  

The paper deals with developing a theory of verbal culture, represented at the levels of folklore, literature, and language. On the one hand, we understand verbal culture as a part of general ethnic culture, including language and forms of literature based on it, and, on the other hand, as a reproducible component of social and linguistic practice. Thus, verbal culture has a depth and includes at least three layers: language, folklore, and literature. Also, verbal culture includes the ethno-territorial (anthropological and geographical), “plane” aspect, namely, the distribution of ethnic verbal cultures geographically, as well as their genetic and typological relations. On the basis of anthropological theories of cultural universals, reinter-preted within the framework of the ideas of linguistics (in particular, ethnolinguistic represen-tations), folklore and literary studies, a system of criteria has been developed for the for-mation of a set of cultural universals relevant for the comparative study of different verbal traditions (language, folklore, literature) of different ethnic groups. The Appendix presents a list of cultural universals, including two aspects: the conceptual series that form the “plane of content” of cultural universals and cultural codes that represent the typed “plane of expres-sion,” universals in their natural, artifact and actional components. Not only will the research results in various subject areas allow clarifying the “flat” (ethnogeographic) and “deep” (on the language, folklore, and literary layers) distribution and configuration of universals, but also to define the original model itself.


MediaTropes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. i-xvi
Author(s):  
Jordan Kinder ◽  
Lucie Stepanik

In this introduction to the special issue of MediaTropes on “Oil and Media, Oil as Media,” Jordan B. Kinder and Lucie Stepanik provide an account of the stakes and consequences of approaching oil as media as they situate it within the “material turn” of media studies and the broader project energy humanities. They argue that by critically approaching oil and its infrastructures as media, the contributions that comprise this issue puts forward one way to develop an account of oil that further refines the larger tasks and stakes implicit in the energy humanities. Together, these address the myriad ways in which oil mediates social, cultural, and ecological relations, on the one hand, and the ways in which it is mediated, on the other, while thinking through how such mediations might offer glimpses of a future beyond oil.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ophir Münz-Manor

The article presents a contemporary view of the study of piyyut, demonstrating that Jewish poetry of late antiquity (in Hebrew and Aramaic) was closely related to Christian liturgical poetry (both Syriac and Greek) and Samaritan liturgy. These relations were expressed primarily by common poetic and prosodic characteristics, derived on the one hand from ancient Semitic poetry (mainly biblical poetry), and on the other from innovations of the period. The significant connections of content between the different genres of poetry reveal the importance of comparative study. Thus the poetry composed in late antiquity provides additional evidence for the lively cultural dialogue that took place at that time.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-223
Author(s):  
Byung Mun Lee

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the rules on the formation of contracts under Korean law and the Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) in a comparative way and introduce the relevant proposed rules under the Amendment Draft of the Korean Civil Code (KCC). In addition, it attempts to compare and evaluate them in light of the discipline of comparative law. Design/methodology/approach In order to achieve the purposes of the study, it executes a comparative study of the rules as to the formation of contracts of the CISG, Korean law and the Amendment Draft of the KCC. The basic question for this comparative study is placed on whether a solution from one jurisdiction is more logical than the others and to what extent each jurisdiction has responded to protect the reasonable expectations of the parties in the rules as to the formation of contracts. Findings The comparative study finds that most of the rules under the CISG are quite plausible and logical and they are more or less well reflected in the proposals advanced by the KCC amendment committee. On the other hand, the other rules under the CISG which have brought criticisms in terms of their complexity and inconsistent case law invite us their revision or consistent interpretation. The drawbacks of the CISG have also been well responded in the Amendment Draft of the KCC. Nevertheless, it is quite unfortunate that the Amendment Draft of the KCC still has a rule that regards any purported performance with non-material alteration of the terms of an offer as an acceptance. Originality/value This study may provide legal and practical advice to both the seller and the buyer when they enter into a contract for international sales of goods. In addition, it may render us an insight into newly developed or developing rules in this area and show us how they interact with each other. Furthermore, it may be particularly useful in Korea where there is an ongoing discussion for revision of the KCC.


2006 ◽  
pp. 99-104
Author(s):  
Henryk Hoffmann

The geography of religion is one of the younger (but dynamically developing) areas of religious studies. The subject of her interests is the reciprocal ties that stand between religion and the geographical environment. On the one hand, the influence of the geographical environment on the formation of religious imaginations is investigated, and on the other hand, feedback, that is, what kind of religion does the change in the geographical environment. In addition, this area of ​​religious studies is engaged in the distribution (or reduction) of individual religions, demographic and statistical issues, as well as analysis of the topography of holy places (hierotopografia), problems of religious migration (including religious refugee), pilgrimage, missions, religious tourism, etc.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (114) ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
Tarja-Lisa Hypén

THE BRAND OF THE CELEBRITY AUTHOR IN FINLAND | In the 21st century, the celebrity author has begun to interest researchers not only as a marketing phenomenon, but also as the literary institution’s own phenomenon. In my article, I explore the relationship of the celebrity author to the so-called acclaimed authors of modern times. In Anglo-American research, the celebrity author and the bestselling author are distinguished as separate author types, but in the case of Finnish Jari Tervo, these types combine. For almost 20 years, Jari Tervo has been amongboth the most sold and the most visible celebrity authors in his home country. I examine how the publicity and brand of the Finnish celebrity author are formed. I consider how the brand affects the author’s works on the one hand, and the reception of the works on the other. I point out the limiting effects of the brand, but I also examine how, in combining the high and the low, it affords mobility in the literary fields while it also offers an opportunity to influence society.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Freytag

This work undertakes a systematic reconstruction of the debates that took place over the course of several decades up to the beginning of the 21st century between Derrida on the one hand and Searle and Habermas on the other. It shows that the linguistic theories and the theories of communicative understanding developed by Searle and Habermas are based on inferences from the contingent individual case to the general. Searle draws ontological, Habermas anthropo-political conclusions, both with essentially naturalistic signatures. Derrida, on the other hand, raises epistemological objections and consequently develops a metaphysics of free subjects for whom conversation cannot necessarlily be presumed. The explicit dedication to ethics in Derrida's late work is due to his insight that the possibility of language and understanding is due to silence. Derrida's lasting merit lies in enriching the philosophy of language with a secretology. This study has been awarded the Kant Prize of the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Bonn and the "Prix de la République Française", awarded by the French Embassy and the University of Bonn.


Author(s):  
José Teodoro Garfella ◽  
María Jesús Máñez ◽  
Joaquín Ángel Martínez

Today there are many publications or papers related with several graphic surveys of architectural heritage carried out using a variety of both traditional and cutting edge methods. Yet, the implementation of new graphical documentation systems, such as Automated Digital Photogrammetry, has introduced a fresh approach to dealing with architectural surveys by making them more accessible to the general public and, to a certain extent, increasing their usability (Garfella, Máñez, Cabeza, & Soler, 2014). The present study aims, on the one hand, to offer an overview of architectural survey systems and, on the other hand, to evaluate the differences in the degree of precision or accuracy between the latest state-of-the-art methods and the already well-established ones. This will enable us to examine the results obtained in this experiment to look for concordances and discrepancies between them that can be helpful when using such systems to deal with tasks in the future.


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