Identity and the theme of belonging in Seamus Heaney's Selected Poems

The heritage and history of the ancestors and the country are important parts of the history and culture of peoples. It is the vessel which their faith, traditions, authentic values, language, ideas, and way of life derived from. It also shapes their personality by culture, national identity, and creates the bridge of communication between generations. The identity and the sense of belonging can be traced in the early poems of Seamus Heaney: Digging (1966), Gravities (1966), Traditions (1972) and Anahorish (1972). Many critics consider this as only self-revelation or as a result of feeling guilty for leaving his family, land, and career. This study aims at proving that in spite of the fact that Heaney had left his place of birth and his parent’s tradition for choosing to be a writer, he presented poems that carry out the continuity of searching for the past and roots. The study concludes with that the sense of belonging has appeared through Heaneys early poems, reflecting his desire to plant the spirit of devotion to family, tradition, and Ireland.

Catholicism among the Chinese Diaspora in Europe

In Paris, as in Milan, the establishment of Catholic communities of Chinese origin, which developed throughout the twentieth century, has followed the rhythms of migration from Asia. The French and Italian ecclesiastical authorities have welcomed these migrants and have set up a number of special structures for them. Based on a comparative ethnographic study carried out over several years in the Chinese parishes of Paris and Milan, this article analyzes the ways in which the family environment of Chinese believers shapes their faith and durably anchors their religious practices. In particular, it examines how this spiritual family tradition is significant in the trajectory and vocation of Chinese Catholic priests and church members. This article also addresses the challenge represented by the transmission of the Catholic faith from Chinese migrants to the younger generations who grew up in Europe. Finally, it looks at the role of the sociocultural support that parishes provide for migrants far from their country of origin and roots.

‘the most beautifully bound book in the University Library’: The Seventeenth-Century Embroidered Wardlaw Bible in the Special Collections of the University of St Andrews

In 2001 Wardlaw family descendants gifted to the University of St Andrews a pair of embroidered seventeenth-century gauntlet gloves and an embroidered seventeenth-century Geneva Bible bound with The CL. Psalmes of David in Meeter. Family tradition purports that the bible and gloves were given by Charles I to Sir Henry and Lady Wardlaw. Although it is feasible that the gloves were gifted to the first Sir Henry by Charles I, the bible was published after 1640—its 1599 date of imprint is false—and it, therefore, cannot have been given to Sir Henry, who died in 1637. It is also questionable if Charles I would have gifted a Geneva Bible, rather than the King James Version. Following a detailed description of the binding and the conservation it has undergone, the Wardlaw family legend is re-examined through comparing the embroidered binding to others of the seventeenth century, examining the provenance within the bible, and discussing the Geneva version of the bible.

Does the Source of Inheritance Matter in Bequest Attitudes? Evidence from Japan

A better understanding of the reasons for bequests can be pivotal for fiscal policy and wealth inequality management, as the different motives underlying bequest behavior have varied implications. This study examines bloodline-based indirect reciprocity in bequest attitudes over three generations. In doing so, it extends the family tradition model to a bloodline-based family tradition model. This extended model suggests that the source of the inheritance impacts the amount of the bequest left to one’s children or spouse. To test the hypothesis, this study empirically analyzes survey data from the 2009 wave of the Preference Parameters Study for Japan. The results suggest that with some socioeconomic characteristics controlled for, those who have received an inheritance from their parents are more likely to intend to bequest as much as possible to their children, while Japanese females (males) who have received an inheritance from their spouse’s parents are more likely to intend to bequest as much as possible to both their children and their spouse (their spouse only). Hence, the source of the inheritance does matter in bequest attitudes, suggesting bloodline-based indirect reciprocity in bequest attitudes.

Joseph Ber Soloveitchik

Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (b. 1904–d. 1993) was a major 20th-century American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish ‎philosopher. Scion of a distinguished Lithuanian rabbinical family, Soloveitchik was born in Belarus before relocating with his family to Warsaw. Under his father’s tutelage, the adolescent Soloveitchik devoted himself almost exclusively to traditional Talmudic study, mastering his grandfather Hayyim Soloveitchik’s “Brisker Derekh,” a modern methodology emphasizing scientific clarity and abstract jurisprudential conceptualism. He entered the Free Polish University in 1924, studying political science. In 1926, Soloveitchik commenced his studies at the University of Berlin, where he majored in philosophy and was attracted to Neo-Kantian thought, particularly philosophy of science. During this time, he also attended classes at the Orthodox Rabbiner-Seminar zu Berlin. In 1932, he received his doctorate under Heinrich Maier and Paul Natorp. His dissertation, “Das reine Denken und die Seinskonstituierung bei Hermann Cohen” (Berlin, 1933), dealt with the epistemological idealism of Hermann Cohen. He immigrated to the United States in 1932, and in 1941 he succeeded his father as the head of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University in New York. In this role, Soloveitchik trained several generations of Orthodox rabbis. From 1953, Soloveitchik also exerted a decisive influence on the Orthodox Jewish world in his capacity as chairman of the Halakhah Commission of the Rabbinical Council of America. His rulings included his unequivocal opposition to mixed seating in synagogues. He also served as honorary president of the Religious Zionists of America (Mizrachi). Soloveitchik was a remarkable orator in his native Yiddish and in English and Hebrew. The annual halakhic and aggadic discourse, which he delivered on the anniversary of his father’s death, attracted thousands of listeners and lasted from four to five consecutive hours. The tension between modernity and traditionalism manifested itself in every area of Soloveitchik’s public life. He staunchly defended the authority of the rabbinate, fought against unwarranted halakhic change, stood against the religious changes of the Reform and Conservative movements, and opposed theological dialogue with the Christian churches. Yet he pioneered Talmudic education for girls, broke with his family tradition in supporting Zionism, and advocated cooperation with the non-Orthodox—and even with Christians—in the pursuit of social justice and security for the Jewish people. His writings, marshalling a distinctively ambitious blend of Talmudic analysis with neo-Kantian, phenomenological, and existentialist motifs toward often-poetic explorations of themes in modern Jewish life and the modern religious predicament generally, have achieved currency well beyond the Orthodox Jewish world that constituted his primary audience.

Element of Irishness in Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Digging’

Seamus Heaney is considered one of the greatest poets of the postmodern era, his name and fame travelled across the Irish borders by winning the 1995 Nobel Prize in literature. Seamus Heaney was born in Ireland; he was the only child in his family to attend the school, His family members were traditional potato farmers. Seamus Heaney broke his family tradition of farming by choosing to become a writer. While growing up to become a first graduate among his family Seamus Heaney’s mind was captured by this sense of gloom that he was unable to follow his family tradition of farming. Seamus Heaney promises himself that he will pay rich tribute and let the world know about the hardships of Irish farming life. Seamus Heaney’s main concern for writing poetry was to keep alive Irish culture and its heritage alive. Since Ireland was under the colonial rule of England and Seamus Heaney was of the view that colonization is not only a political problem, but it destroys the country's culture and identity. This was the main reason that Heaney’s poetry revolves around Irishness, its people and culture. There is an enormous reflection of Irish identity and culture in his poetry. This paper will focus on elements of Irishness in Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Digging’.

‘When the Waves Roll High’: Religious Coping among the Amish and Mennonites during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Religious beliefs, practices, and social support facilitate coping with psychologically distressful events and circumstances. However, COVID-19 and governmental mandates for social distancing and isolation make in-person communal forms of religious coping difficult. While some congregations began holding virtual rituals, this was not an option for Amish and conservative Mennonite groups that restrict communication and media technologies as a religious sacrament. Governmental mandates placed a disproportionate burden on these groups whose members could not conduct rituals or interact virtually with other members and family. What religious coping strategies did the Amish and Mennonites use to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic given their restricted ability to participate in in-person rituals? We collected data from The Budget and The Diary, two Amish and Mennonite correspondence newspapers, which provide information on the experiences of community members. We content analyzed all entries from March 2020 to April 2020 and identified several themes related to religious coping focused on the positive benefits of the pandemic, specifically how it helps and reminds the Amish and Mennonites to refocus on the simple and important things in life, including God, spirituality, family, tradition, gardening, and other at-home hobbies, all of which reflect their religious commitment to a slower pace of life.

Who Are Gun Owners in the United States? A Latent Class Analysis of the 2019 National Lawful Use of Guns Survey

We used data from the 2019 National Lawful Use of Guns Survey to segment the gun-owning population into different subcultural categories. Performing a latent class analysis, we introduce six types of indicators: (1) the types of firearm owned, (2) the reported primary reason for owning a firearm, (3) involvement in various gun-related activities, (4) Second Amendment activism, (5) the extent to which those in one’s social network own guns, and (6) measures of symbolic meanings attached to firearms. We introduce gender, race, U.S. region, and political affiliation as covariates. We find six classes of gun owners. The largest group (28 percent) is composed of family protectors who go to the shooting range and feel empowered by their guns. The second largest category (19 percent) is made up of incidental gun owners motivated by protection or family tradition. The third group (18 percent) consists of Second Amendment activists who engage in multiple gun-related activities and are resistant to social change. The fourth category (13 percent) contains target shooters. The fifth group (12 percent) is made up of hunters. The sixth category (11 percent), self-protectors, has a majority of women (51 percent). Our findings add to a very recent body of literature on variations in the meanings that guns have for people. In particular, we demonstrate that there are stark cultural differences between gun owners and that the body of existing research on this topic has mostly focused on the Second Amendment activists, who only represent about 18 percent of all gun owners.

The Chicken and the Egg

Which comes first, divine agency or the calculations of diviners? Both are integral to divination, other predictive methods, and the ‘hatching out’ of new creation stories among the Nuosu of Southwest China. In this article, I present ethnography on divination in which eggs evoke the person’s position in the world while the bodies or bones of chickens are indices of health or prosperity. When cracking open raw eggs, peeling open slaughtered chickens, or reading chicken bones, diviners creatively draw upon the assistance of spirits and their own calculatory reflections in ways that encourage internal variation within their craft. Through case studies on illnesses and a new family tradition, I show that Nuosu inhabit a hybrid world that features cosmological proliferation, to which the creativity of divination responds.