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This paper enquires into the political and juridical themes underlying Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca (1900). Through the comparison of Puccini’s score, the libretto by Giacosa and Illica, and the original play by Sardou, I will present a twofold reading of the intertwinement between politics, religion, and law in this musical work. On the one hand, I will show that the police power represented by the character of Scarpia can be interpreted, from a Benjaminian standpoint, as a violent power that shapes the legal and religious order. On the other hand, I will argue that the artistic couple made by Cavaradossi and Tosca is politically significant in so far as their art represents an attempt to deactivate Scarpia’s pervading and oppressive force. The conclusion will contend that the aesthetics in this opera subtends the aspiration for an “inoperative”-wise revolution in religious institutions as well as in legal and political relations.

Sulitnya Orang Indonesia Menerima Kaum LGBT

LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) is no stranger to today’s society. Even so, it is known that LGBT people in Indonesia are actually considered as “untruthful” people from various perspectives, both from the point of view of society, religion and law. This article will look at how difficult it is for Indonesians to accept LGBT people. This paper will also look at the theological point of view on LGBT from theories about sexuality and spirituality. AbstrakLGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Biseksual, Transgender) sudah tidak asing di telinga masyarakat dewasa ini. Meski demikian dikenal, LGBT di Indonesia sebenarnya dianggap sebagai orang “tidak benar” dari berbagai sudut pandang, baik dari sudut pandang masyarakat, agama dan hukum. Tulisan ini akan melihat mengenai masih sulitnya orang Indonesia menerima kaum LGBT. Tulisan ini juga akan melihat sudut pandang secara teologis mengenai LGBT dari teori-teori mengenai seksualitas dan spiritualitas.

Teaching About Female Genital Mutilation: Complex Question of Cultural Relativism and Preventive Movement

This study aims to investigate three things. First, how is the tendency of the perspective used in discussing the issue of female circumcision in society; second, what is the value base that distinguishes the practice of female circumcision in one society from another; and third, how each value base in the practice of female circumcision is realized or transformed in the feminist movement. The research was carried out with a qualitative approach where data were obtained using a literature study method by reading books, journal articles and various reports on the practice of female circumcision. The results show that studies that discuss the practice of female circumcision tend to be discussed in five perspectives, namely in the perspective of gender, culture, health, religion and law. In practice, female circumcision has a different value base from one society to another. The value bases used in female circumcision include women's initiation into adulthood; purification or cleansing, beautification; and female fertility. Different value bases become the basis for feminists to make efforts to prevent the practice of female circumcision, starting from the level of binding regulations to prevent the practice of female circumcision, community participatory dialogue to abandon the practice of female circumcision, and empowering women through education and the economy.

Religion and Law in the European Union

All three major European supranational institutions—the European Union (EU), the Council of Europe (CoE), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)—acknowledge the importance of religion within European history and culture and give special recognition to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. As has been argued elsewhere, the attitude of both the EU and the CoE to ‘religion’ is characterized by seven principles—the value of religion and of non-religion; subsidiarity; religious freedom; religious equality and non-discrimination; the autonomy of religious associations; cooperation with religion; and the special protection of religion by means of privileges and exemptions—principles that may be induced from their laws and other regulatory instruments. In doing so, they seek to maintain a balance between Europe’s religious, humanist, and cultural elements. How that balance and recognition operate in practice, however, is far from clear-cut and is highly sensitive to individual circumstances.

The Beast in the Closet: Interrogating the Trauma of Sibling Incest in Emma Donoghue’s Neo-Victorian Novel The Wonder

Emma Donoghue’s neo-Victorian novel The Wonder (2016) is a remarkable exploration of the Victorian era’s indifference towards the issues of woman and child safety against the heinous crimes of sexual abuse. The horror of sibling incest, which eventually develops the sense of guilt within the protagonist and gradually isolates her from the entire extrinsic world, has been taken into consideration for the analysis of the unusual narratives of tremendous shock and trauma that the novel enterprises. The paper examines incest as a trope for inflicting everlasting trauma and seeks to locate if amelioration is at all achievable for the abused ‘body’. The intended study further interrogates the placid indifference of the contemporaneous behavioural patterns of the societal institutional bodies of family, religion, and law, while encountering the forever forbidden taboo of incest.

Religion and law in contemporary Ghana

<p>Employing a legal pluralist framework, this thesis examines the complex interrelationships between religion and law in contemporary Ghana, a professedly secular state characterised by high levels of religiousity. It aims to explore legal, cultural and moral tensions created by overlapping loci of authority (state actors, traditional leaders and religious functionaries). It contends that religion can function as an impediment to Ghana’s secularity and also serve as an integral tool for realising the state’s legal ideals and meeting international human rights standards. Using three case studies – legal tensions, child witchcraft accusations and same-sex partnerships – the thesis illustrates the ways that the entangled and complicated relationships between religion and law compound Ghana’s secular orientation. It suggests that legal pluralism is not a mere analytical framework for describing tensions, but ought to be seen as part of the solution. The thesis contributes to advancing knowledge in the area of the interrelationships between religion and law in contemporary Ghanaian public domain.</p>

Religion and law in contemporary Ghana

<p>Employing a legal pluralist framework, this thesis examines the complex interrelationships between religion and law in contemporary Ghana, a professedly secular state characterised by high levels of religiousity. It aims to explore legal, cultural and moral tensions created by overlapping loci of authority (state actors, traditional leaders and religious functionaries). It contends that religion can function as an impediment to Ghana’s secularity and also serve as an integral tool for realising the state’s legal ideals and meeting international human rights standards. Using three case studies – legal tensions, child witchcraft accusations and same-sex partnerships – the thesis illustrates the ways that the entangled and complicated relationships between religion and law compound Ghana’s secular orientation. It suggests that legal pluralism is not a mere analytical framework for describing tensions, but ought to be seen as part of the solution. The thesis contributes to advancing knowledge in the area of the interrelationships between religion and law in contemporary Ghanaian public domain.</p>

The Metamorphosis of a Female Subject into a Gendered subject: A Study of Easterine Iralu’s A Terrible Matriarchy

It is a universally practised phenomenon across society to conveniently create a dichotomy that is based on the physiological difference between a male and a female. This difference is further defined by the dichotomy of gendered roles and labour that are imposed on them. The hegemony of the gendered ideology makes it all so natural to assign gendered role to a baby the moment it is born. Its body serves as a continuing signifier for the gendered structure of a patriarchal society. Since these gendered ideologies are disseminated through established institutions such as education, religion and law; their manifestations can be found in culture, religion, clothes, discourse, movies, and even in gestures that this polarity between a man and a woman is accepted as natural. There still is no general consent among the cultural anthropologists that an unambiguous matriarchal society existed. Classical scholars like Johann Jakob Bachofen tried to argue that matriarchal society existed on the basis of unreliable historical sources such as Iliad and Odyssey (Bamberger, p.263). Easterine Iralu’s A Terrible Matriarchy intrigues the reader with this highly deceptive title that ironically bares the patriarchy of contemporary Naga society. However, if these reasons are taken into account that Feminism is all about equality and that matriarchy is the flip side of patriarchy with all its horrors; then she is not far from the truth in prefixing “terrible” to “matriarchy”. This article is an attempt to familiarize the milieu of a quintessential Naga girl and her resistance to the anxious process of self-denial imposed upon her by her grandmother who embodies the concept of ‘terrible matriarchy’. The article also concentrates on the typical mechanism of gender construction and how such mechanisms are responsible for metamorphosing a female subject into a gendered subject.

FORMS OF RESOLVING THE CONFLICT OF LEGAL AND RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS IN MODERN TIME

The main types of conflicts between modern forms of religion and law have been identified. One of them is headed by representatives of traditional churches. The other is the bearers of a new, non-traditional religious consciousness – "New Religious Movements". The third – representatives of the secular legal worldview. Religious expertise is determined as the most adequate form of resolving conflicts between them. The key problems arising in the process of applying this expertise are analyzed.