The Weather

2019 ◽  
pp. 86-88
Keyword(s):  
Human Institution

Reaffirming the idea that "that which is first worth knowing is that which is nearest at hand," Bailey writes about the "proper attitude" towards the weather, arguing that it cannot be "bad" since it is not a "human institution" and that, instead, any kind of weather puts us in sympathy with our environment.

scholarly journals The cultural evolution of shamanism

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manvir Singh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
Entry Requirements ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Uncertain Outcomes ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Folk Intuitions ◽  
Human Institution

AbstractShamans, including medicine men, mediums, and the prophets of religious movements, recur across human societies. Shamanism also existed among nearly all documented hunter-gatherers, likely characterized the religious lives of many ancestral humans, and is often proposed by anthropologists to be the “first profession,” representing the first institutionalized division of labor beyond age and sex. In this article, I propose a cultural evolutionary theory to explain why shamanism consistently develops and, in particular, (1) why shamanic traditions exhibit recurrent features around the world; (2) why shamanism professionalizes early, often in the absence of other specialization; and (3) how shifting social conditions affect the form or existence of shamanism. According to this theory, shamanism is a set of traditions developed through cultural evolution that adapts to people's intuitions to convince observers that a practitioner can influence otherwise unpredictable, significant events. The shaman does this by ostensibly transforming during initiation and trance, violating folk intuitions of humanness to assure group members that he or she can interact with the invisible forces that control uncertain outcomes. Entry requirements for becoming a shaman persist because the practitioner's credibility depends on his or her “transforming.” This contrasts with dealing with problems that have identifiable solutions (such as building a canoe), in which credibility hinges on showing results and outsiders can invade the jurisdiction by producing the outcome. Shamanism is an ancient human institution that recurs because of the capacity of cultural evolution to produce practices adapted to innate psychological tendencies.

The Family: The Evolution of Our Oldest Human Institution

1979 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-361
Author(s):  
CARLOS E. SLUZKI
Keyword(s):  
The Family ◽  
Human Institution

A State Like Any Other? The Fourteenth-Century Papal Patrimony Through The Eyes of Roman Law Jurists

1991 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 245-260
Author(s):  
Joseph Canning
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
State Power ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
The State ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Modern State ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Human Institution

In the fourteenth century, and notably under Cardinal Albornoz, the papal patrimony began its uneven development into a form of early modern state. As Paolo Prodi has pointed out, these early stages, although interrupted by retrogression caused by the Great Schism, served as the foundations for the construction of the state of the Renaissance papacy. In reality, the popes exercised sovereignty in a state whose origin and nature were essentially temporal: to this extent their regnum was no different from those of secular monarchs. There was, however, a problem impeding the perception of the true nature of the growth of papal state power: a certain ambiguity hung over the papal lands in that the papacy justified its rule both by hierocratic arguments and by reference to grants of jurisdiction from emperors and kings. The spiritual office of the popes could obscure the fact of the kind of state of which they were the sovereign. In the works of the fourteenth-century Commentators on the Roman law, however, there gradually emerged a clear recognition of the direction which the papacy was taking: that the Patrimony of St Peter was no more and no less than a state created by human institution.

Church

2019 ◽  
pp. 433-450
Author(s):  
Paul T. Nimmo
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Fourth Section ◽  
The World ◽  
Doctrine Of The Church ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Ultimate Purpose ◽  
Human Institution

This chapter exposits and analyses the central contours of Barth’s mature doctrine of the church, in which the church is innovatively characterized by a twofold ec-centricity—a double decentring of its life and work. In a first section, it considers Barth’s radical understanding of the being of the church in relation to Jesus Christ and the Spirit, and the way in which the church has its originating centre outwith itself, in its being from God. In a second section, it attends to the creative way in which Barth conceives of the church as a divine event, and thereby relativizes the church as human institution. In a third section, it focuses on the significance and content of the human activity of the church, and the provocative way in which Barth locates the ultimate purpose of the church outwith itself, in its being for the world. In a fourth section, the chapter explores in outline some of the critical responses to Barth’s groundbreaking doctrine of the church. Finally, by way of conclusion, the chapter considers the relationship of Barth’s ecclesiology to ecumenical conversation.

Coping with Modern Challenges and Anticipating the Future of Criminal Jury Trials

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shari Seidman Diamond
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Jury Trials ◽  
Jury Behavior ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Full Picture ◽  
Human Institution

This chapter analyzes how researchers and courts can cope with modern challenges for 21st-century criminal jury trials and discusses what should be expected from criminal juries and future jury research. The chapter asks how a receptive legal system interested in making changes to maximize the fairness of criminal jury trials might respond. It reviews the important themes and massive empirical literature that this remarkable collection presents in vivid and thoughtful detail, highlighting the persistent issues of race and ethnicity, as well as new challenges and opportunities that have accompanied the dramatic advances in technology. The chapter raises questions about the application of empirical findings on jury behavior in the context of the legal system and considers the omissions and incomplete understandings that future research needs to address in order to provide a full picture of this important human institution.

Sanctuary: an institutional vision for the digital age

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Tim Gorichanaz
Keyword(s):  
Digital Age ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Contemplative Studies ◽  
Institutional Vision ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Human Institution

PurposeTrends in information technology and contemplative practices compel us to consider the intersections of information and contemplation. The purpose of this paper is to consider these intersections at the level of institutions.Design/methodology/approachFirst, the notion of institution is defined and discussed, along with information institutions and contemplative institutions. Next, sanctuary is proposed and explored as a vision for institutions in the digital age.FindingsSanctuary is a primordial human institution that has especial urgency in the digital age. This paper develops an info-contemplative framework for sanctuaries, including the elements: stability, silence, refuge, privacy and reform.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a conceptual paper that, though guided by prior empirical and theoretical work, would benefit from application, validation and critique. This paper is meant as a starting point for discussions of institutions for the digital age.Practical implicationsAs much as this paper is meant to prompt further research, it also provides guidance and inspiration for professionals to infuse their work with aspects of sanctuary and be attentive to the tensions inherent in sanctuary.Originality/valueThis paper builds on discourse at the intersection of information studies and contemplative studies, also connecting this with recent work on information institutions.

CATULLUS 61: EPITHALAMIUM AND COMPARISON

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 70-97
Author(s):  
Denis Feeney
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Human Institution ◽  
The Way

Similes are a prominent feature of epithalamia, with poets comparing the bride and groom to characters from myth or to elements of the natural world. Catullus wrote two epithalamia (61 and 62), together with two other poems with marked epithalamian characteristics (64 and 68). This paper examines the question of why similes are so important to the genre of epithalamium, concentrating on Catullus 61, which is particularly rich in its deployment of comparison. The paper argues that comparison is crucial to the themes of Roman marriage: similes locate the human institution of marriage between the poles of myth and nature, and they afford a vehicle for considering the way marriage links together the disparate terms of male and female.

scholarly journals The cultural evolution of shamanism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manvir Singh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
Entry Requirements ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Uncertain Outcomes ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Folk Intuitions ◽  
Human Institution

Shamans, including medicine-men, mediums, and the prophets of religious movements, recur across human societies. Shamanism also existed among nearly all documented hunter-gatherers, likely characterized the religious lives of many ancestral humans, and is often proposed by anthropologists to be the “first profession”, representing the first institutionalized division of labor beyond age and sex. This paper proposes a cultural evolutionary theory to explain why shamanism consistently develops, and in particular, (1) why shamanic traditions exhibit recurrent features around the world, (2) why shamanism professionalizes early, often in the absence of other specialization, and (3) how shifting social conditions affect the form or existence of shamanism. According to this theory, shamanism is a set of traditions developed through cultural evolution that adapts to people’s intuitions to convince observers that a practitioner can influence otherwise unpredictable, significant events. The shaman does this by ostensibly transforming during initiation and trance, violating folk-intuitions of humanness to assure group-members that he or she can interact with the invisible forces that control uncertain outcomes. Entry requirements for becoming a shaman persist because the practitioner’s credibility depends on them “transforming”. This contrasts with dealing with problems that have identifiable solutions (like building a canoe), where credibility hinges on showing results and outsiders can invade the jurisdiction by producing the outcome. Shamanism is an ancient human institution that recurs because of the capacity of cultural evolution to produce practices adapted to innate psychological tendencies.

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