scholarly journals Moopa or barren: A rereading of the 1840 English–Setswana gospel of Luke 1:36–38 from a Setswana traditional practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Itumeleng D. Mothoagae
Keyword(s):  
Gospel Of Luke ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Traditional Practice ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Patriarchal System

The 1840 gospel of Luke as translated by Moffat presents us with the cultural and imperial surveillance performed by a patriarchal system through the institutionalisation of motherhood and womanhood (bosadi). Motherhood or womanhood (bosadi) as a patriarchal institution has been a space in which patriarchal discursive practices have been realised through an act of politicising motherhood or womanhood. At the centre of this act of politicisation of motherhood or womanhood (bosadi) is the ability to carry and bear children (pelegi). The institution of motherhood or womanhood has facilitated a binary between motherhood (bosadi) and bareness (moopa). The womb/popelo as a symbol of fertility becomes the space of mothering women, of labelling, categorising and naming women that the system locates as moopa or barren. The article seeks to reread the narrative on childbearing in the 1840 gospel of Luke from a decolonial framework. I will argue that childbearing, as a patriarchal institution, has been a space in which the gaze of patriarchy has been produced to subjugate women through cultural and imperial masculinist gaze. I will also argue that there is a need to decolonise and liberate such a space (womb) as not a determinant of motherhood.

Can the Subaltern Speak?

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Behnaz Farahi
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Domestic Abuse ◽  
Interactive Design ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Sexual Predator ◽  
American Soldier ◽  
Rapid Succession ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Morse Code ◽  
Patriarchal System

This paper presents AI-controlled robotic masks intended to empower women and allow them to communicate with one another. These are inspired by the historical masks worn by the Bandari women from southern Iran. Legend has it that these masks were developed during Portuguese colonial rule as a way of protecting the wearer from the gaze of slave masters looking for attractive women. In this project two robotic masks seemingly begin to develop their own language to communicate with each other, blinking their eyelashes in rapid succession using AI-generated Morse code. This project draws upon a Facebook experiment where two AI bots apparently began to develop their own language. It also draws upon an incident when an American soldier used his eyes to blink and spell out the word "TORTURE" using Morse code during his captivity in Vietnam, as well as stories of women using code to report domestic abuse during the COVID-19 lockdown. The aim is to sow anxiety within the patriarchal system where the "wink" of the sexual predator is subverted into a language to protect women from the advances of a predator. The project bridges AI, interactive design, and critical thinking (Figure 1).

Orientalist Speech-acts and Israeli Middle East Studies: Cautions and Criticisms of Edward Said Beyond the Battle of Ideas

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-237
Author(s):  
Eyal Clyne
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Academic World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Middle East Studies

Drawing on speech acts theory, this article discusses the illocutionary and perlocutionary forces of discursive practices with which certain academic circles seek to discredit the Saidian ‘Orientalism’ framework. Identifying the unusual value attached to Said as object of attachment or detachment, desirability and exceptionality, this analysis turns away from deliberations about ‘orientalism’ as a party in a battle of ideas, and studies common cautionary statements and other responses by peers as actions in the social (academic) world, that enculture and police expectations. Cautioning subjects about this framework, or conditioning its employment to preceding extensive pre-emptive complicating mitigations, in effect constructs this framework as undesirable and ‘risky’. While strong discursive reactions are not uncommon in academia, comparing them to treatments of less-controversial social theories reveals formulations, meanings and attentions which are arguably reserved for this ‘theory’. Conclusively, common dismissals, warnings and criticisms of Said and ‘Orientalism’ often exemplify Saidian claims, as they deploy the powerful advantage of enforcing hegemonic, and indeed Orientalist, views.

The Treaty of Northampton (1290): A Scottish Charter of Liberties?

2007 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy B. Stevenson
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Written Expression ◽  
Traditional Practice ◽  
Detailed Consideration ◽  
Constituent Part ◽  
Community Or ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Edward I

Although little detailed consideration has been given to the Treaty of Northampton of 1290 by Scottish historians, it seems to have been implicitly accepted as the sort of treaty which might have been expected in connection with the marriage of two independent rulers at that time. This is in spite of the fact that throughout the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the traditional practice of the rulers of the Angevin and Plantagenet dominions was to rule each constituent part according to its own law and customs. This article examines the reasons why the Scots were not prepared to rely on tradition but insisted on a written promise from Edward I that Scotland would remain independent of England. It also suggests that the treaty is more than a written expression of traditional practice. It has a number of specific clauses which, it is argued, give the treaty the character of a charter of liberties. These were intended to prevent the imposition on the Scots of particular aspects of Plantagenet rule in England which burdened its subjects much more severely than the rule of Scottish kings had burdened the Scots. The Scots' wish to remain independent after the proposed union of the crowns and their struggle to maintain that independence after the death of the Maid are generally seen as manifestations of a sense of community or regnal solidarity. The terms of the Treaty of 1290 suggest that it was not just from a desire to be a separate political entity per se that the Scots fought during the so-called Wars of Independence but also because the Scots were anxious to avoid the more oppressive aspects of Plantagenet rule even before they had experience of this after Edward I's conquest of 1296.

Roses for the Revolution

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-384
Author(s):  
Ulises Moreno Tabarez
Keyword(s):  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Performative Writing ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Love Story ◽  
Experimental Project ◽  
The Revolution

Representations of Mexican revolutionary hero, Emiliano Zapata, migrate across the Mexico/US borders. His specters inform and reflect sexual identities migrating across these borderlands. Theoretically guided by Madison's model of performative writing and Muñoz's disidentification, this experimental project highlights and challenges the heteronormativity that pervades these migratory representations and the discursive practices that bring them to life. Through a performative writing exercise, I travel through theory and time to (re)present the figure of Zapata in an intimate love story whose backdrop is violence and war.

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