The Minorities of Chinese Philosophy: Ideology and Identity in the Academic Discipline of “Ethnic Minority Philosophy”

The academic discipline of “ethnic minority philosophy,” which emerged at the beginning of the 1980s in the People’s Republic of China, has thus far remained virtually unstudied in Western-language scholarship. The aim of this article is to place the genesis and development of this little-known discipline against the wider background of modern Chinese scholarly and political discourses on the interrelated issues of national, ethnic, cultural, philosophical, and religious identity. In doing so, this article analyzes what I call the “hierarchical inclusion” of minority traditions into the history of Chinese philosophy, the perceived proximity between ethnic minority philosophies and “primitive religion,” and the role of the problematic concept of “culture” in the reinvention of minoritarian traditions of thought as philosophy.

Judeo-Spanish Manuscripts in the Firkovitch Collections

This paper presents several rather unexpected manuscripts that have been discovered in the Firkovitch collections. These collections, which are preserved in the National Library of Russia, are best known for Hebrew, Karaite, Samaritan, and Judeo-Arabic manuscripts, and have attracted the interest of specialists in Middle-Eastern languages and cultures. It is generally not known that they also contain manuscripts written in a western language. In the course of my research on the collections, however, I have come across approximately twenty manuscripts in Judeo-Spanish.

IL LIBRO DELLA CERTEZZA (KITĀB AL-YAQĪN) DI IBN ʿARABĪ. Edizione, traduzione e note a cura di Maurizio Marconi

Riassunto: Questo testo è la prima traduzione in lingua occidentale del Libro della certezza, redatto da Ibn ʿArabī in una mattina dell’anno 602 H. mentre era in visita alla Moschea della Certezza, ad alcuni chilometri da Hebron. Il tema dell’opera non è la “nostra” certezza, che Ibn ʿArabī assimila alla convinzione, bensì la certezza in se stessa, intesa come una realtà intellegibile che è dotata di scienza, occhio, verità e realtà essenziale, e nell’esporre questa dottrina Ibn ʿArabī fa ampio ricorso alla scienza delle lettere. Data la loro rilevanza sull’argomento è stata annessa anche la traduzione di tre capitoli delle al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya. Il testo include inoltre una edizione araba dell’opera basata sui quattro manoscritti più antichi. Abstract: This text is the first translation in Western language of the Book of certainty, written by Ibn ʿArabī during a morning of the year 602 H. while visiting the Mosque of Certainty, some miles afar Hebron. The main subject of the work is not “our” certainty, which Ibn ʿArabī assimilates to conviction, but certainty in itself, considered as an intelligible reality provided with science, eye, truth and essential reality, and in the exposition of this doctrine Ibn ʿArabī has recourse to the science of letters. Due to their relevance to the subject, the translation of three chapters of the al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya has been annexed. The text includes also an Arabic edition of the work, based on the four oldest manuscripts.

IL LIBRO DELLE RISPOSTE ARABE (KITĀB AL-AǦWIBA AL-ʿARABIYYA) DI IBN ʿARABĪ. Edizione, traduzione e note a cura di Maurizio Marconi

Riassunto: Questo testo è la prima traduzione in lingua occidentale di un’opera poco nota di Ibn ʿArabī, redatta nel primo decennio della sua permanenza a Damasco per un amico che non riusciva a comprendere gli insegnamenti ricevuti dal suo Maestro e che aveva chiesto ad Ibn ʿArabī di spiegarli. Commentando frase per frase gli insegnamenti di quel Maestro Ibn ʿArabī espone le varie fasi della Via, dagli inizi fino a gradi elevati di realizzazione spirituale. La traduzione è accompagnata da copiose note che riportano passi analoghi di altre opere di Ibn ʿArabī, soprattutto delle al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya. Il testo include inoltre una edizione araba dell’opera basata sui due manoscritti più antichi, confrontati, laddove necessario, con quattro manoscritti più recenti. Data la lunghezza del testo è stato inserito anche un indice analitico. Abstract: This text is the first translation in Western language of a little known work of Ibn ʿArabī, written during the first decade of his stay in Damascus for a friend who did not understand the teachings received from his Master, and who had asked Ibn ʿArabī to explain them. Providing a commentary, sentence by sentence, for the teachings of that Master, Ibn ʿArabī expounds the different stages of the way, from the beginnings up to high degrees of spiritual realization. The translation is provided with copious annotations, quoting similar passages drawn from other works of Ibn ʿArabī, mainly from the al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya. The text includes also an Arabic edition of the work, based on the two oldest manuscripts, compared, when needed, with four later manuscripts. Due to the length of the work an analytical index has been added.

KELAKAR BETHOOK IN PALEMBANG MALAY LANGUAGE: A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

This paper examines distinctive culturally-linguistic humour and directives in Palembang Malay language (hereafter referred as Palembangnese) in Indonesia. Two transcribed samples of Kelakar Bethook (KB) in Palembangnese humour were selected. The data analyses and discussion show the uniqueness of humour and directives in KB in Palembangnese. This present research contributes to the nature of linguistics in language documentation and extends the scope of speech act research in a non-western language. This study also contributes to enhancing the linguistic-cultural theory in Eastern language and culture. This research thereby contributes to distinguishing one facet of language Malay civilization by exploring distinctive cultural-linguistic practices and promoting a wider awareness of Palembangnese culture and humour.

The Language

Phoenician is the conventional name (from Greek) of a language belonging to the Canaanite group of the Semitic languages, spoken in a group of cities of the Lebanese coast and by inhabitants of their settlements abroad, established in the western Mediterranean since about the early eighth century bce. The western language, from about the sixth century bce, is usually called Punic, with a Late Punic phase. The Phoenician language is written from right to left, in a consonantal alphabetic script, and is attested from the beginning of the Iron Age until the second century bce; several dialects were probably used, but only some of them can be identified, particularly the Byblian dialect. In the West, in the Roman period, a group of inscriptions in the Latin alphabet, called Latino-Punic, attest the latest phase of the language (from the second until the fourth–fifth centuries ce). The grammar of the Phoenician language is based almost only on inscriptions; consequently it is still incomplete in several respects. The chapter summarizes the main features of the language, mainly in regard to phonology and morphology; some specific features of syntax are described, too.

Exploring the Extent of the Hikikomori Phenomenon on Twitter: Mixed Methods Study of Western Language Tweets (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Hikikomori is a severe form of social withdrawal, originally described in Japan but recently reported in other countries. Debate exists as to what extent hikikomori is viewed as a problem outside of the Japanese context. OBJECTIVE We aimed to explore perceptions about hikikomori outside Japan by analyzing Western language content from the popular social media platform, Twitter. METHODS We conducted a mixed methods analysis of all publicly available tweets using the hashtag #hikikomori between February 1 and August 16, 2018, in 5 Western languages (Catalan, English, French, Italian, and Spanish). Tweets were first classified as to whether they described hikikomori as a problem or a nonproblematic phenomenon. Tweets regarding hikikomori as a problem were then subclassified in terms of the type of problem (medical, social, or anecdotal) they referred to, and we marked if they referenced scientific publications or the presence of hikikomori in countries other than Japan. We also examined measures of interest in content related to hikikomori, including retweets, likes, and associated hashtags. RESULTS A total of 1042 tweets used #hikikomori, and 656 (62.3%) were included in the content analysis. Most of the included tweets were written in English (44.20%) and Italian (34.16%), and a majority (56.70%) discussed hikikomori as a problem. Tweets referencing scientific publications (3.96%) and hikikomori as present in countries other than Japan (13.57%) were less common. Tweets mentioning hikikomori outside Japan were statistically more likely to be retweeted (P=.01) and liked (P=.01) than those not mentioning it, whereas tweets with explicit scientific references were statistically more retweeted (P=.01) but not liked (P=.10) than those without that reference. Retweet and like figures were not statistically significantly different among other categories and subcategories. The most associated hashtags included references to Japan, mental health, and the youth. CONCLUSIONS Hikikomori is a repeated word in non-Japanese Western languages on Twitter, suggesting the presence of hikikomori in countries outside Japan. Most tweets treat hikikomori as a problem, but the ways they post about it are highly heterogeneous.