Dante's Gluttons

Dante’s Gluttons: Food and Society from the Convivio to the Comedy explores how in his work medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) uses food to articulate, reinforce, criticize, and correct the social, political, and cultural values of his time. Combining medieval history, food studies, and literary criticism, Dante’s Gluttons historicizes food and eating in Dante, beginning in his earliest collected poetry and arriving at the end of his major work. For Dante, the consumption of food is not a frivolity, but a crux of life in the most profound sense of the term, and gluttony is the abdication of civic and spiritual responsibility and a danger to the individual body and soul as well as to the collective. This book establishes how one of the world’s preeminent authors uses the intimacy and universality of food as a touchstone, communicating through a gastronomic language rooted in the deeply human relationship with material sustenance.

Profetismo e resistência: crítica à cidade injusta a partir do olhar de um camponês (Mq 3, 9-12) | Prophetism and resistance: criticism of the unjust city from the perspective of a peasant (Mic 3, 9-12)

Este estudo aborda o profetismo bíblico em Miqueias (Mq 3,9-12). Em uma terra devastada, em que não há mais profetas, justifica-se o resgate do profetismo como missão em denunciar a injustiça e anunciar o direito, mais especificamente em relação aos vulneráveis. O objetivo deste estudo é compreender os atos proféticos de Miqueias, apropriando-se deles como chave de leitura para a atualidade, à luz da História da Salvação, conceituando-se resistência como resgate da relação humana com a terra, enquanto vínculo sagrado com a Promessa de Deus a seu Povo. Este intento será conseguido mediante revisão bibliográfica e aproximação bíblico-teológica, buscando-se a reflexão e a entrega do significado do texto conforme o contexto histórico vivido com as lideranças político-religiosas em Miqueias (Mq 3,9-12). Ao investigar a ruptura da Aliança, a perda da posse da terra e a perda do vínculo como nação em Israel, vividas pelos camponeses contemporâneos a Miqueias, procura-se delimitar a responsabilidade pela relativização do direito à terra, como aliança sagrada e consequente perda da condição de identidade como Povo de Deus. Resultados: O estudo demonstrou a função social do profeta como decodificador do momento histórico, atemporal, levado pela força da indignação, da qual procede sua resistência, não solitária, mas, solidária, amparada no sonho coletivo e comunitário, organizado e possível. Considerações Finais: A pesquisa ampliou a compreensão bíblica e teológica da necessidade do resgate da dignidade humana em periferias urbanas, construindo a cidade justa, fundada na agroecologia urbana e na bem-aventurança da simplicidade. This study speaks about the theme of biblical prophetism in Micah (Mic 3,9-12). In a devastated land, where there are no more prophets, the rescue of prophetism as a mission to denounce injustice and announce the right, more specifically in relation to the vulnerable, is justified. The objective of this study is to understand the prophetic acts of Micah, appropriating them as a key for reading today, in the light of the History of Salvation, conceptualizing resistance as a rescue of the human relationship with the earth, as a sacred connection with the Promise of God to his People. This intent will be achieved through a bibliographic review and a biblical-theological approach, seeking to reflect and rescue the meaning of the text according to the historical context experienced with the political-religious leaders in Micah (Mic 3,9-12). In investigating the rupture of the Alliance, loss of land ownership, loss of the bond as a nation in Israel, experienced by contemporary peasants to Micah, it seeks to delimit the responsibility for the relativization of the right to land as a sacred alliance, and consequent loss of the condition of identity as People of God. Results: The study seeks to demonstrate the social function of the prophet as a decoder of the historical, timeless moment, driven by the force of indignation, from which comes his resistance, not solitary, but, solidary, supported by the collective and community dream, organized and possible. Final Considerations: The research intends to base biblically and theologically the rescue of human dignity in urban peripheries, building the just city, founded on urban agroecology and the bliss of simplicity.

CARNIVALIZATION IN DANARTO’S ASMARALOKA: A STUDY OF BAKHTINIAN DIALOGISM

Asmaraloka, a novel written by Danarto, is a non-realistic novel that contains many voices, ideas, discourses, and thoughts that construct the carnivalesque elements in the novel. Within the context of diversity and various phenomena in the world, the carnivalization of the story shapes the behaviors and the identities of the characters in it.Drawing on this idea, this study aims to reveal the internal and external elements that contribute to the carnivalization of Asmaraloka. The novel’s text is examined qualitatively using Bakhtinian dialogism and a sociological approach to dialogic behavior for the purpose of understanding the complete construction of meanings as the reflection of the author’s world view.The study finds that there are two categories of carnivalesque elements in Asmaraloka, namely the external and internal elements of carnival. The external carnivalization of the story creates the non-realistic world in it in relation to other texts that contribute to the diversity of ideas/ meanings in the novel. The internal carnivalization of the story generates the following structural aspects: (1) the battlefield as a means of carnival performance, (2) the occurrence of an abnormal human relationship between the characters, (3) the carnivalesque phenomena that are constructed in the story through the dialogues between peace and chaos and between obedience and denial, and (4) the effects of carnivalesque behaviors on the characters’ personality. Asmaraloka merupakan novel nonrealis karya Danarto yang berisi banyak suara, gagasan, wacana, dan pemikiran yang membentuk unsur-unsur karnival di dalamnya. Dalam konteks keberagaman dan berbagai fenomena di dunia, karnivalisasi karya sastra merupakan hal yang dapat mempengaruhi tingkah laku dan pembentukan jati diri para tokoh dalam cerita.Berkaitan dengan gagasan di atas, penelitian ini bertujuan mengungkap karnivalisasi teks Asmaraloka baik yang bersifat internal maupun yang eksternal dan pengaruhnya terhadap pembentukan karakter dari tokoh-tokoh dalam novel Asmaraloka. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif. Analisis dilakukan berdasarkan dialogisme Bakhtin dan pendekatan sosiologis pada perilaku dialogis untuk memahami jalinan makna utuh sebagai pandangan dunia pengarang. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan adanya unsur karnival eksternal dan internal yang membangun cerita.Karnivalisasi eksternal membentuk dunia nonrealis dari cerita dan berkaitan dengan teks-teks lain yang berperan membangun keragaman makna dalam Asmaraloka. Karnivalisasi internal cerita mengungkap adanya aspek-aspek berikut ini: (1) medan pertempuran sebagai sarana pertunjukkan, (2) hubungan manusia yang tidak normal yang terjadi antar tokoh, (3) fenomena-fenomena karnivalistik yang terbangun melalui interaksi antara kedamaian dan kekacauan dan juga antara ketaatan dan pengingkaran, dan (4) unsur-unsur karnival yang merupakan dialog antara gagasan pengarang dan fenomena-fenomena sosial di masyarakat.

Language-ing the Earth: Experiential Renewal for a Relationally Sensitive Environmentalism

This paper investigates human relationship with the larger living landscape that is grounded in experiential renewal. Phenomenology is antithesis to the process of abstraction and objectification through which the world as we experience it is diminished by conceptualization and categorization. Recent studies to understand the natural world as a hermeneutic text offers important reflections on the human mediation of the meaning of the more-than-human-world and assists in understanding the implications of our encounters with the world. Phenomenology, however, is unique in its capacity to bring to expression, rather than silencing, our relationship with the natural world and our human inherency in it. This paper explores phenomenologically sensate reciprocity as it is encountered in lived experience. Through deepening our attunement for our embodied integration in a living world we may relearn and restore a capacity to dwell more thoughtfully with newfound sensitivity, respect, and restraint in the ecosystems on which we wholly depend.

Breed group differences in the unsolvable problem task: herding dogs prefer their owner, while solitary hunting dogs seek stranger proximity

The communicating skills of dogs are well documented and especially their contact-seeking behaviours towards humans. The aim of this study was to use the unsolvable problem paradigm to investigate differences between breed groups in their contact-seeking behaviours towards their owner and a stranger. Twenty-four dogs of ancient breeds, 58 herding dogs, and 17 solitary hunting dogs were included in the study, and their behaviour when presented with an unsolvable problem task (UPT) was recorded for 3 min. All breed groups interacted with the test apparatus the same amount of time, but the herding dogs showed a longer gaze duration towards their owner compared to the other groups and they also preferred to interact with their owner instead of a stranger. Interestingly, the solitary hunting dogs were more in stranger proximity than the other groups, and they also showed a preference to make contact with a stranger instead of their owner. Hence, we found differences in contact-seeking behaviours, reflecting the dog–human relationship, between breed groups that might not only be related to their genetic similarity to wolves, but also due to the specific breeding history of the dogs.

Jeremiah and Gender

This chapter explores salient features of gendered language and gender performance in Jeremiah from a feminist perspective. At first sight, the book witnesses a patriarchal world of male privilege and female subordination, which is expressed by gendered language and sexualized metaphors. The personification of Jerusalem—Judah as adulterous wife of YHWH and the devastation of her female body—generates horrific images that express the shame and humiliation of its ancient audiences, but are unbearable for postmodern readers. Inspecting some passages more closely, this chapter reveals flaws in this rhetoric of shaming and breaches in gender performance that help to deconstruct an allegedly rigid gender hierarchy and to seek ways to alternative interpretations of the divine-human relationship.

Dialogue or Narrative? Exploring Tensions between Interpretations of Genesis 38

We examine dialectical tensions between “dialogue” and “narrative” as these discourses supplant one another as the fundamental discourse of intelligibility, through juxtaposing two interpretations of Genesis 38 rooted in changing interpretative paradigms. Is dialogue properly understood as a narrative genre, or is narrative the content about which people are in dialogue? Is the divine–human relationship a narrative drama or is it a dialogue between a god and human beings? We work within parameters laid out by the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer (primarily representing dialogue) and Ricoeur (primarily representing narrative). On the one hand, a feminist approach can develop Tamar as a courageous hero in impossible circumstances, strategizing to overturn Judah’s patriarchal naïveté. On the other hand, Judah seems to be able to be read as a tragic hero, seeking to save Tamar. These readings challenge one another, where either Tamar’s or Judah’s autonomy is undermined. By putting these interpretations into dialogue, our aim is to show that neither dialogue nor narrative succeeds the other with finality, and that we can achieve a fragile integration of the two (dialogue and narrative) despite their propensity toward polarization.