Radioactivity - superstition and science

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hinsch, Hermann

2010-01-01

Fairy-tales, myths, superstition - how was it fair, when we could still be afraid for witches and goblins. Where demons floated and nicks danced, the dry science has spreaded and disenchanted the life. If there would not be things like radioactivity, against which can be struggled in the collective well being. Then it is bad, clear, or good, it heals sicks, also clear. But what is now correct? In his usual humorous way the author, Dr. Hermann Hinsch, explains by means of numerous examples the phenomenon ''radioactivity'' and its effects on life. Provocantly but illustratively he illuminates, which position radioactive radiation has in our life and how and where we have already met it wantedly or unwantedly. Perhaps we must then something less shudder, but something more realism at such theme is surely not harmful.

Sex, Witchcraft and Politics in Tanzanian Kiswahili Video-Films ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The films tell stories of the problems and joys of the contemporary Tanzanian society, and revolve around themes such as gender relations, love and/or sex, witchcraft and politics. Using selected films from prominent filmmakers, this article analyses the nature of Kiswahili filmmaking in Tanzania and the ways in which some ...

The influence of numerical superstition on IPO underpricing in the People’s Republic of China

OpenAIRE

Dieben, E.V.A.

2016-01-01

In Chinese culture, certain digits are considered lucky and others unlucky. This thesis evaluates how numerical superstition affects financial decision-making in the Chinese A-share IPO market for the period between 2003-2015. Evidence has been found that suggests that numerical superstition influences the initial return on the issuing day of A-share IPOs on the Shanghai exchange. On this exchange newly listed firms with the unlucky number 4 and lucky numbers 6 and 8 in their ticker are initi...

The isles of great silence monastic life on Lake Scutari under the patronage of the Balšićs

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Tomić-Đurić Marka

2012-01-01

Full Text Available At the time Zeta was ruled by the local lords of the Balšić family, in the late fourteenth and the first half of the fifteenth century, the islets in Lake Scutari (Skadarsko jezero in Zeta were lively centres of monastic life. The paper looks at the forms of monastic life as suggested by the spatial organization and architecture of the monastic complexes founded by the Balšićs, and by the surviving written sources. The most important documentary source is the correspondence between Jelena Balšić and her spiritual father, Nikon, preserved in the manuscript known as Gorički zbornik (Gorica Collection. The letters show that Lake Scutari was a centre of monasticism touched by hesychast-inspired spirituality where both the eremitic and coenobitic ways of life were practised. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: Institutions and culture

Influence of superstition on the date of hospital discharge and medical cost in Japan: retrospective and descriptive study.

Science.gov (United States)

Hira, K; Fukui, T; Endoh, A; Rahman, M; Maekawa, M

To determine the influence of superstition about Taian (a lucky day)-Butsumetsu (an unlucky day) on decision to leave hospital. To estimate the costs of the effect of this superstition. Retrospective and descriptive study. University hospital in Kyoto, Japan. Patients who were discharged alive from Kyoto University Hospital from 1 April 1992 to 31 March 1995. Mean number, age, and hospital stay of patients discharged on each day of six day cycle. The mean number, age, and hospital stay of discharged patients were highest on Taian and lowest on Butsumetsu (25.8 v 19.3 patients/day, P=0.0001; 43.9 v 41.4 years, P=0.0001; and 43.1 v 33.3 days, P=0.0001 respectively). The effect of this difference on the hospital's costs was estimated to be 7.4 million yen (¿31 000). The superstition influenced the decision to leave hospital, contributing to higher medical care costs in Japan. Although hospital stays need to be kept as short as possible to minimise costs, doctors should not ignore the possible psychological effects on patients' health caused by dismissing the superstition.

Witchcraft in African and African-American Novel – A Perspective ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In African and therefore, African American cultural world-view, some perceive witchcraft as evil and some identify it as an art that unifies and orders ... as evil conspirators and collaborators with the demonic world who are rarely benevolent and should be purged from the society; whereas, Toni Morrison sees them as ...

"How Could They Believe That?": Explaining to Students Why Accusation of Witchcraft Made Good Sense in Seventeenth-Century New England.

Science.gov (United States)

Godbeer, Richard

2003-01-01

Explains that students must understand that, due to the beliefs of the time in New England, accusing people of witchcraft during the seventeenth century was plausible. Provides background information on societal beliefs centered upon witchcraft and the supernatural, as well as the process of accusing people of being witches. (CMK)

What American Schools Can Learn from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Science.gov (United States)

Booth, Margaret Zoller; Booth, Grace Marie

2003-01-01

A mother and daughter share their insights on what American schools can learn about cooperative, student-centered, problem-solving approaches to instruction from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter books. (Contains 11 references.) (PKP)

STUDYING OF THE PROBLEM SUPERSTITION STUDENTS AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORK RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN RESEARCHERS IN XX – XXI CENTURIES

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Ulyanchenko Anton Leonidovich

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In given article due to studies a number of scientists (sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists is done attempt to mark main purpose of superstition in our modern culture, where students faces with lacking of time, which does not give the student properly to prepare the material for passing of the session. The students have to apply by superstition in order to reduce the psychological pressure, study the culture of folk past, be prepared by session in order to pass all exams more successfully. Among patterns for analyzing of problem superstitious perception the gender aspect was chosen in our society. It is important to underline in article a general features both man superstitions and female superstitions of student environment, mentioned in work. Female (girl student superstitious views are horoscopes, fortune-telling, predicting of dreams. Man (youth is prohibition at shaving of beard before session, anecdotes, «money superstitions». It is importantly to notice in article a contribution not only Russian researches (Kondrya, Razumova, Mezencev and etc. in development of problem contemporary superstitions, but also and foreign researchers – Mark Griffiths, Carolyn Bingham, Vyse. This problem is brilliantly described by Mark Griffiths, Carolyn Bingham, who concern life of people, superstitious perception of players «bingo». Student life in during passing of exams is also «gambling». Before exam students don’t know numbers of tickets, which they will take. This procedure is lot, «gambling». Here isn’t importantly knowledge of student. It is important a fortune and chance, which will be beside with student in minutes of exam. All students have to take tickets. «To catch a fortune for tail» is a main task of student in passing of exams.

STUDYING OF THE PROBLEM SUPERSTITION STUDENTS AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORK RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN RESEARCHERS IN XX – XXI CENTURIES

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Антон Леонидович Ульянченко

2013-04-01

Full Text Available In given article due to studies a number of scientists (sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists is done attempt to mark main purpose of superstition in our modern culture, where students faces with lacking of time, which does not give the student properly to prepare the material for passing of the session. The students have to apply by superstition in order to reduce the psychological pressure, study the culture of folk past, be prepared by session in order to pass all exams more successfully. Among patterns for analyzing of problem superstitious perception the gender aspect was chosen in our society. It is important to underline in article a general features both man superstitions and female superstitions of student environment, mentioned in work. Female (girl student superstitious views are horoscopes, fortune-telling, predicting of dreams. Man (youth is prohibition at shaving of beard before session, anecdotes, «money superstitions». It is importantly to notice in article a contribution not only Russian researches (Kondrya, Razumova, Mezencev and etc. in development of problem contemporary superstitions, but also and foreign researchers – Mark Griffiths, Carolyn Bingham, Vyse. This problem is brilliantly described by Mark Griffiths, Carolyn Bingham, who concern life of people, superstitious perception of players «bingo». Student life in during passing of exams is also «gambling». Before exam students don’t know numbers of tickets, which they will take. This procedure is lot, «gambling». Here isn’t importantly knowledge of student. It is important a fortune and chance, which will be beside with student in minutes of exam. All students have to take tickets. «To catch a fortune for tail» is a main task of student in passing of exams.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-1-7

Techno-Optimism and Rational Superstition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wilson, Alexander

2017-01-01

our common understanding of reason and rationality? To adopt rational expectations about the world, after all, should we not attempt to avoid the emotional over-determination of our assessments? I show that applied reason is conceptually entangled with this superstitious optimism in the continued...... of retro-causation, where the future is held to somehow have a retroactive effect on the past. This suggests, I argue, that the underlying mechanism by which techno-optimism is supposed to be instrumental in bringing about the future is fundamentally superstitious. But does this superstition not go against...... successes of technology. The article thus reveals a curious sense in which reason is intrinsically superstitious. I offer an evolutionary explanation for this, showing that the biological origins of reason will by nature tend to produce rational agents which are superstitiously bound to realism...

Faith and Superstitions in the Frontline and in the Rear in Wartime (1941-1945

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Evgeny F. Krinko

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the faith and superstitions of the Soviet citizens in the frontline and in the rear during the Great Patriotic War. The study of the religion history in the USSR in 1941-1945 was significantly influenced by ideology. This theme has been thoroughly studied in recent years, but the attention is mainly attached to its institutional aspects and the role of religion in lives of Soviet citizens is still little-studied. Nevertheless, by the start of war, considerable part of the population maintained its religious beliefs, despite the anti-religious policy of the Soviet authorities. The war increased the faith of Soviet citizens in the frontline, in the rear and within the occupied territory. It was mainly caused by the extreme wartime situation. Different superstitions and omens gained a wide circulation. Despite the fact that they had different content, both rites and prayers, acknowledged by the church and the omens and superstitions, rejected by the church have become the necessary ways of people psychological adaptation to wartime severities and hardships. The conclusions, which were made with the help of different sources, such as official documents, statistical data, both published and collected in the course of work under the theme of participants and eyewitnesses’ recollections, help us to imagine the collective consciousness of the Soviet society during the Great Patriotic War.

To Converse with the Devil? Speech, Sexuality, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland

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Sierra Rose Dye

2012-10-01

Full Text Available In early modern Scotland, thousands of people were accused and tried for the crime of witchcraft, many of whom were women. This paper examines the particular qualities associated with witches in Scottish belief – specifically speech and sexuality – in order to better understand how and why the witch hunts occurred. This research suggests that the growing emphasis on the words of witches during this period was a reflection of a mounting concern over the power and control of speech in early modern society. In looking at witchcraft as a speech crime, it is possible to explain not only why accused witches were more frequently women, but also how the persecution of individuals – both male and female – functioned to ensure that local and state authorities maintained a monopoly on powerful speech.

“Better do not touch” and other superstitions concerning melanoma: the cross-sectional web-based survey

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Maksymilian Gajda

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Introduction :To the authors’ best knowledge, there are no data regarding the prevalence of superstitions concerning melanoma among internet users. Aim: To evaluate the prevalence and identify reasons for superstitions associated with excision of pigmented skin lesions as well as to assess the frequency of this procedure. Material and methods : Readers of the scientific portal were invited to complete a fully anonymous e-questionnaire. After collection of questionnaires (5,154 and eliminating incomplete ones, 4,919 surveys were analysed. Results : A total of 4,104 (83.4% respondents have been aware that the total surgical excision is the only efficient way of melanoma treatment. This familiarity was related to increased skin cancer awareness but was not linked to regular skin self-examination. Over half of the surveyed agreed that “it is better not to touch naevi”. Moreover, 3,510 (71.3% individuals believed that naevi located in “harmed places” may turn into melanoma. Conclusions : Superstitions associated with surgical treatment of melanoma are widespread. Conducting educational campaigns is necessary, particularly among young people, whose dangerous tanning behaviours are important risk factors for melanoma occurrence in their later life.

Demons, nature, or God? Witchcraft accusations and the French disease in early modern Venice.

Science.gov (United States)

McGough, Laura J

2006-01-01

In early modern Venice, establishing the cause of a disease was critical to determining the appropriate cure: natural remedies for natural illnesses, spiritual solutions for supernatural or demonic ones. One common ailment was the French disease (syphilis), widely distributed throughout Venice's neighborhoods and social hierarchy, and evenly distributed between men and women. The disease was widely regarded as curable by the mid-sixteenth century, and cases that did not respond to natural remedies presented problems of interpretation to physicians and laypeople. Witchcraft was one possible explanation; using expert testimony from physicians, however, the Holy Office ruled out witchcraft as a cause of incurable cases and reinforced perceptions that the disease was of natural origin. Incurable cases were explained as the result of immoral behavior, thereby reinforcing the associated stigma. This article uses archival material from Venice's Inquisition records from 1580 to 1650, as well as mortality data.

The meaning of the monastic vows stability and fidelity to the monastic way of life and their biblical background

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Tomasz Maria Dąbek

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The vows of stability (stabilitas and conversion of life (conversio, conversatio morum which differ from the typical religious vows (poverty, chastity, obedience are deeply rooted in the Bible. They indicate the important features of the attitude of the disciples of Christ who are called to exercise endurance (ὑπομονή, patience (μακροθυμία, fidelity (πίστις, the fruit of the Spirit (Ga 5 : 22 and conversion (μετάνοια. The monastic profession should be continual effort to take care of faithfulness to God and to overcome self-weakness. It can be helpful also for other consecrated people and all Christians who want to lead the consequent life of the children of God according to the baptismal promises and to grow in love of God and people.

Witchcraft illness in the Evuzok nosological system.

Science.gov (United States)

Guimera, L M

1978-12-01

The Evuzok nosological system is structured with respect to two frames of reference, one designating illness as an empirical reality (descriptive subsystem), the other designating it according to its religious, magical and social significance (etiological subsystem). The articulation of these two subsystems is brought about in the process of diagnosis. Having examined this system as a whole, the author devotes his attention to a particular set of etiological categories, those which associate illness with witchcraft (nocturnal illnesses). He attempts to define their distinctive traits and, from this, to determine their common elemental structure. This study, based on a number of years of fieldwork, is part of an ongoing research program on African folk-medicine pursued by the Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative of the Université de Paris X.

Children enacting idioms of witchcraft and spirit possession as a response to trauma: therapeutically beneficial, and for whom?

Science.gov (United States)

Reis, Ria

2013-10-01

This article examines children's enactment of spirit possession idioms and witchcraft in Africa including the meanings such idioms provide and the local healing resources they mobilize. Idioms of haunting spirits in Northern Uganda and witch-children elsewhere in Africa can be interpreted as manifestations of social crises and mass traumatic stress. On the other hand, such idioms also allow children to articulate, reflect upon, and communicate the complex feelings resulting from their precarious positions within families and communities under duress. With the help of Dow's transactional model of symbolic healing, this article explores obstacles to the effectivity of the rich variety of symbolic healing available for haunting spirits in Uganda and points to the generational gap between children and their families and communities. Elsewhere, witchcraft idioms may act as a healing resource at the group level, but at the expense of the accused child. The idioms of evil spirits and witchcraft speak of these children's navigation of the moral universe of their postconflict communities. Given that children's appraisal of their experiences through these notions may also exacerbate their anxiety, interdisciplinary research examining the microprocesses that lead to children being haunted or accused, including emotional and physiological levels effects, is urgently needed.

Witches and Indian Women, Daughters of Saturn: Arts, Witchcraft and Cannibalism

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Yobenj Aucardo Chicangana-Bayona

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The article inquires into the representation of women in the paintings and engravings about witchcraft in the XVI-XVII centuries, trying to establish an iconographic typology and covering the construction of negative stigmas attributed to the feminine body and its natural degradation. Through the support of visual sources such as paintings and engravings, mainly from the German Renaissance, the text demonstrates how the Indian women of the New World were associated to the witches of Europe and with the classic god Saturn, through the myth of cannibalism.

Children enacting idioms of witchcraft and spirit possession as a response to trauma: therapeutically beneficial, and for whom?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reis, R.

2013-01-01

This article examines children’s enactment of spirit possession idioms and witchcraft in Africa including the meanings such idioms provide and the local healing resources they mobilize. Idioms of haunting spirits in Northern Uganda and witch-children elsewhere in Africa can be interpreted as

The role of monastic embroidery workshops in the formation of the early modern Polish embroidery

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Karolina Stanilewicz

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The article presents the state of research and the research problems concerning the early modern Polish embroidery and the role of the monastic workshops in its formation. Embroidery was one of the regular occupation in the female congregations. Nuns embroidered for their churches, as well as they took the orders from outside – from male congregations, the higher clergy and the secular customers. Their importance has increased in the 17th century, and in the 18th century nearly all convents dealt with this craft. The preserved embroideries reflect the general stylish trends prevailing in the handicrafts, but they are characterized by greater conservatism. Their level is very varied, from perfect works to very weak and inept ones. Nuns rarely prepared themselves patterns for embroideries, more often they used the services of craftsmen or they were repeating the proven solutions. They certainly used the embroidery pattern books. An important inspiration for them were also patterns of fabrics. While the floral motifs showed high proficiency, in less common figural presentations we often see much incompetence. Vestments decorated with the elaborate symbolic representations are distinguished among them. At this stage of research it seems that the monastic workshops have had a major impact on the prosperity of embroidery in the Republic of Poland and that along with the guilds they developed a certain style and taste. Preserved objects are waiting for being catalogued and for insightful research that let us connect more of them with definite workshops.

COMMUNITIES OF THE LIGHTED ZONE OF HYPOGEAN MONASTIC CELLS OF THE ROCK MONASTERY "DORMITION OF GOD'S MOTHER", THE RESERVE OLD ORHEY

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Svetlana E. Mazina

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract. Aim. An analysis of species composition (phototrophic organisms and micromycetes of epibioses communities of entrance area of monastic cells of the historical and archaeological complex of Old Orhei. Comparison of species composition of epibioses communities on the surface areas and in the cells. Comparison of phototrophic species composition of abovementioned communities with similar communities of the cult chalk caves of the Voronezh region and limestone grottoes of Podolsky Tovtry. Objects. The object of the investigation was the entrance area of the monastic cells of the rocky monastery "Dormition of God’s Mother", the reserve of Old Orhei (Moldova. Methods. Phototrophic species composition was determined by the methods of microscopy and inoculation in the culture medium. Mosses and lichens from epibioses communities were studied by traditional botanical methods. Micromycetes were studied by isolation methods on the Chapec-Dox selective medium. The abundance and occurrence of species in communities was determined. Results. Biodiversity of epibioses communities of hypogean habitats was revealed. It is shown that the species diversity on the surface is similar to the species composition in caves. The dominant species in the underground and surface epibioses communities were determined. The similarity of the species composition of the flora with caves of the Voronezh region and Ukraine was not revealed. Conclusions. Cyanobacteria predominate in the flora structure of the monastic cells of the rocky monastery "Dormition of God’s Mother". Micromycetes of epibioses communities are represented by widespread soil species. The species composition of cells is similar to the species composition on the surface. It can be assumed that the species composition of hypogean habitats is determined by a complex of conditions, among which the most important is the illumination, temperature and humidity, substrate quality and species composition

Religion without fear. Plutarch on superstition and Early Christian Literature

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H-J Klauck

1997-08-01

Full Text Available After some introductory remarks on the role of fear in religious discourse. Plutarch�s treatise On Superstition is analysed according to its rhetorical outline. Questions of authenticity are discussed and answered by locating the essay in Plutarch�s early career. Then we ask for the place of �fear of God� in biblical teaching and theology, compare it to Plutarch and show some limits in Plutarch�s youthful thinking, which doesn't yet pay due respect to the life values of myth. We conclude with two New Testament passages, Romans 8:15, masterfully interpreted by Martin Luther, and 1 John 4:17f excellently explained by 20th century�s Swiss theologian and psychologian Oskar Pfister, and we show that these texts are propagating �belief without fear�.

Rewriting the Salem Witchcraft Trials in Contemporary Popular Literature

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Marta María Gutiérrez Rodríguez

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The Salem Witchcraft Trials (1692 have received a lot of attention from history and literature, although there are very few critical analysis of how this historical event has entered the literary field. Many works of historical fiction – considered the most suitable literary genre to talk about an historical event - have used it in their storylines; however, popular genres such as romance, crime fiction, fantasy and science fiction have also shown an interest in this witch hunt. The main reason for this interest can be found in the lack of final conclusions as regards what really happened in Salem. The main objective of this paper is to show how what happened in Salem has entered contemporary popular fiction with the aim of showing the interest that it still arises and to vindicate the production of more critical works about the literary construction of one of the events that most dramatically has affected the configuration of the American mind.

The San values of conflict prevention and avoidance in Platfontein

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Nina Mollema

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to identify measures that can prevent violent conflict through the maintenance of traditional cultural values that guide conflict avoidance. Moreover, the article focuses on the concepts of conflict prevention and conflict avoidance as applied by the San community of Platfontein. The causes of the inter-communal tensions between the San community members are also examined. A selected conflict situation, that of superstition and witchcraft, is assessed as factors increasing interpersonal conflict in the Platfontein community. This investigation is made to determine if the San preventive measures have an impact in the community, so as to prevent ongoing conflicts from escalating further.

Childhood trauma and the origins of paranormal belief: a constructive replication.

Science.gov (United States)

Irwin, H J

1994-02-01

Previous research suggests that, as a group, people who believe in the paranormal tend to have a history of traumatic events in childhood. This relationship has been incorporated into Irwin's 1993 model of the psychological origins and functions of paranormal belief. A constructive replication of the relationship and a test of Irwin's model was undertaken in relation to a specific context, namely, a childhood spent with an alcoholic parent. Compared to 89 control participants, a sample of 32 adults who were children of alcoholics had stronger beliefs in witchcraft, superstitions, and precognition. The results are discussed in relation to two components of Irwin's model.

The effects of religion, superstition, and perceived gender inequality on the degree of suicide intent: a study of serious attempters in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jie; Xu, Huilan

2007-01-01

Previous studies have tried to account for the uniqueness of gender ratios in Chinese suicide through physiological and psychological differences between men and women, and the means employed in the fatal act. From the point of view of the socio-psychological traits, this study examines the effects of religion (religiosity), superstition, and perceived gender inequality among Chinese women on the degree of their suicide intent. A four-page structured interviews were performed to the consecutively sampled serious attempters of suicide hospitalized to emergency rooms immediately after the suicidal act in Dalian areas, China. Both univariate analyses and the multiple regression model have found that the higher the degree the religiosity and superstition on metempsychosis, the stronger the suicide intent Chinese women had. The perceived gender inequality is positively correlated with suicide intent, and it is especially true for Chinese women. The socio-psychological traits and traditional culture values and norms have important impacts on suicide patterns in Chinese societies.

Using UAVSAR to Estimate Creep Along the Superstition Hills Fault, Southern California

Science.gov (United States)

Donnellan, A.; Parker, J. W.; Pierce, M.; Wang, J.

2012-12-01

UAVSAR data were first acquired over the Salton Trough region, just north of the Mexican border in October 2009. Second passes of data were acquired on 12 and 13 April 2010, about one week following the 5 April 2010 M 7.2 El Mayor - Cucapah earthquake. The earthquake resulted in creep on several faults north of the main rupture, including the Yuha, Imperial, and Superstition Hills faults. The UAVSAR platform acquires data about every six meters in swaths about 15 km wide. Tropospheric effects and residual aircraft motion contribute to error in the estimation of surface deformation in the Repeat Pass Interferometry products. The Superstition Hills fault shows clearly in the associated radar interferogram; however, error in the data product makes it difficult to infer deformation from long profiles that cross the fault. Using the QuakeSim InSAR Profile tool we extracted line of site profiles on either side of the fault delineated in the interferogram. We were able to remove much of the correlated error by differencing profiles 250 m on either side of the fault. The result shows right-lateral creep of 1.5±.4 mm along the northern 7 km of the fault in the interferogram. The amount of creep abruptly changes to 8.4±.4 mm of right lateral creep along at least 9 km of the fault covered in the image to the south. The transition occurs within less than 100 m along the fault. We also extracted 2 km long line of site profiles perpendicular to this section of the fault. Averaging these profiles shows a step across the fault of 14.9±.3 mm with greater creep on the order of 20 mm on the northern two profiles and lower creep of about 10 mm on the southern two profiles. Nearby GPS stations P503 and P493 are consistent with this result. They also confirm that the creep event occurred at the time of the El Mayor - Cucapah earthquake. By removing regional deformation resulting from the main rupture we were able to invert for the depth of creep from the surface. Results indicate

Moment-tensor solutions for the 24 November 1987 Superstition Hills, California, earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Sipkin, S.A.

1989-01-01

The teleseismic long-period waveforms recorded by the Global Digital Seismograph Network from the two largest Superstition Hills earthquakes are inverted using an algorithm based on optimal filter theory. These solutions differ slightly from those published in the Preliminary Determination of Epicenters Monthly Listing because a somewhat different, improved data set was used in the inversions and a time-dependent moment-tensor algorithm was used to investigate the complexity of the main shock. The foreshock (origin time 01:54:14.5, mb 5.7, Ms6.2) had a scalar moment of 2.3 ?? 1025 dyne-cm, a depth of 8km, and a mechanism of strike 217??, dip 79??, rake 4??. The main shock (origin time 13:15:56.4, mb 6.0, Ms6.6) was a complex event, consisting of at least two subevents, with a combined scalar moment of 1.0 ?? 1026 dyne-cm, a depth of 10km, and a mechanism of strike 303??, dip 89??, rake -180??. -Authors

Essence of Daylight in the Cistercian Monastic Church of S. Bento de Cástris, Évora, Portugal

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Martins, Ana M. T.; Carlos, Jorge S.

2017-10-01

Natural light in the Cistercian churches is closely linked not only with the liturgical requirements at the “officium” but also with the canonical hours based on the "ora et labora" dictated by the Rule of St. Benedict. The Cistercian architecture, in its beginnings (12th century forward) is characterized by austerity, simplicity and the play of light and shadow that gives value to the monastic architectural space itself, making it perfect for a contemplative experience. In the Cistercian Monastery the church is the central piece of the monastic building. Nave, transept and apse are the main architectural components to which is added the choir. This paper contextualizes the importance and close connections of natural light, within the Cistercian Monasteries architecture. Thus the essence of daylight is analysed within the Church of the Monastery of S. Bento de Cástris, in Évora, Portugal. This former Monastery (13th - 19th centuries) includes the church, at the south-eastern corner which has not only a high choir, but also a low lateral choir (within the presbytery). Its unchanged exterior walls are made of solid masonry. Although the function of the walls is primarily structural, the windows allow the daylight to penetrate the space of the church. The church has two external façades facing northeast and southeast. The combined orientation effect of the church’s main axis and the sun trajectory determines how the sunlight reaches the interior of this architectural structure. This study presents the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the luminous environment in the church of S. Bento de Cástris, being the first based on the authors’ perception of the effect of the daylight within the different areas of the enclosed space. The appreciation of the spatial experiences was supported by quantitative daylight simulations that were conducted in selected areas within the space. With this paper is intended to contribute to the debate about the specificity

The memorable service and monastic humility – the history of Stanisław Konarski’s heart

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Ryszard Mączyński

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The article concentrates on an interesting 130-year-old artefact located in the Krakow church of Piarists – the decoration of the place where Stanisław Konarski’s (1700–1773 heart was buried. Konarski was a monk of the Pious Schools in the 18th century, as well as publisher of a collection of national laws Volumina legum, a bold commentator calling for strengthening royal power and abolishing liberum veto, reformer of the educational system and founder of the renowned, modern Collegium Nobilium. The circumstances of the discovery and relocation of the relic in 1882 from Warsaw to Krakow and the ceremony of its introduction to the monastic Church of the Transfiguration of Jesus on February 13 are also outlined. Three significant research issues are also discussed. The first one is the problem of the authenticity of the artefact, which was discovered more than a hundred years after Konarski’s death in the possession of a Warsaw optician Jakub Pik. It was then that the question started occupying the minds of researchers, including the rector of the Krakow college Adam Słotwiński. The question is made more relevant by the lack of any direct evidence from 1773 about the removal of Stanisław Konarski’s heart from his body after his death. The information gathered so far allow us to assume, with probability bordering on certainty, that it is authentic and the only surviving part of this famous monk’s body. Another question, totally absent from past reflections on the subject, is the reason why the heart was removed. This particular aspect turns our attention at a strikingly popular early-modern Polish tradition – first in royal families, later also among magnates and nobility – of burying hearts separately, usually by entombing them in a church founded by the deceased. It was found that a considerable number of hearts removed from bodies had been inhumed in Piarist churches (Rzeszów, Warsaw or Łowicz. This tradition, however, did

THE EFFECTS OF RELIGION, SUPERSTITION, AND PERCEIVED GENDER INEQUALITY ON THE DEGREE OF SUICIDE INTENT: A STUDY OF SERIOUS ATTEMPTERS IN CHINA

OpenAIRE

ZHANG, JIE; XU, HUILAN

2007-01-01

Previous studies have tried to account for the uniqueness of gender ratios in Chinese suicide through physiological and psychological differences between men and women, and the means employed in the fatal act. From the point of view of the socio-psychological traits, this study examines the effects of religion (religiosity), superstition, and perceived gender inequality among Chinese women on the degree of their suicide intent. A four-page structured interviews were performed to the consecuti...

[French validation of the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale].

Science.gov (United States)

Bouvet, R; Djeriouat, H; Goutaudier, N; Py, J; Chabrol, H

2014-09-01

For the last decades, many researchers have focused on paranormal beliefs. Beliefs in the existence of paranormal phenomena would be common and studies conducted in westernized countries have highlighted a high prevalence of individuals believing in the existence of such phenomena. Tobacyk and Milford (1984) developed the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS) for assessing beliefs in paranormal phenomena. This 26-item self-reported questionnaire, measuring beliefs in phenomena such as witchcraft or superstition, is one of the most widely used questionnaires to assess such beliefs. While studies focusing on paranormal beliefs tend to develop, there is no French self-report instrument to assess this construct. Researchers have tried to identify specific variables that might be linked to such beliefs, and some have focused on personalities of individuals who believe in the paranormal. Schizotypy has been reported to be significantly and positively correlated with paranormal beliefs. The aim of this study was a) to validate the French version of the RPBS and b) to explore the relationship between Schizotypal Personality Disorder traits and paranormal beliefs. After being recruited using the Internet and social networks (e.g. facebook), a sample of 313 participants (mean [SD] age=31.12 [11.62]; range 18-58years) completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ-B), assessing Schizotypal Personality Disorder traits and the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale assessing paranormal beliefs. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test the proposed 7-factor structure of the RPB developed by Tobacyk. Several adjustment indices were used to evaluate the model. As the first model did not fit the original one, others models were tested. Our findings indicated that a seven-factor solution, excluding 2 items, best described the item structure: (1) spiritualism, (2) superstition, (3) witchcraft, (4) precognition, (5) traditional religious belief, (6) psi, (7) and

Le monastère Saint-Pierre d’Osor (île de Cres, Croatie : quatrième campagne d’études archéologiques

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sébastien Bully

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Comme chaque année depuis 2006, le site du monastère Saint-Pierre d’Osor a fait l’objet d’une nouvelle campagne de fouilles archéologiques durant trois semaines, du 11 au 30 mai 2009 . Le chantier de fouilles a été suivi par une campagne de prospection géophysique du 22 au 25 février 2010, conformément au programme convenu en 2008 avec le Service pour la protection des monuments historiques de Rijeka . Avec l’achèvement de l’étude des élévations de l’église Saint-Pierre intervenue l’année pré...

Childhood physical abuse and differential development of paranormal belief systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Perkins, Stefanie L; Allen, Rhiannon

2006-05-01

This study compared paranormal belief systems in individuals with and without childhood physical abuse histories. The Revised Paranormal Belief Scale and the Assessing Environments III Questionnaire were completed by 107 University students. Psi, precognition, and spiritualism, which are thought to provide a sense of personal efficacy and control, were among the most strongly held beliefs in abused subjects, and were significantly higher in abused versus nonabused subjects. Superstition and extraordinary life forms, thought to have an inverse or no relation to felt control, were the least strongly held beliefs in abused subjects, and, along with religious beliefs, did not differ between the two abuse groups. Witchcraft was unexpectedly found to be the most strongly held belief among those with abuse histories. Results suggest that by providing a sense of control, certain paranormal beliefs may offer a powerful emotional refuge to individuals who endured the stress of physical abuse in childhood.

Does monastic life predispose to the risk of Saint Anthony's fire (herpes zoster)?

Science.gov (United States)

Gaillat, Jacques; Gajdos, Vincent; Launay, Odile; Malvy, Denis; Demoures, Bruno; Lewden, Lucie; Pinchinat, Sybil; Derrough, Tarik; Sana, Claudine; Caulin, Evelyne; Soubeyrand, Benoît

2011-09-01

The consequences of the epidemiology of varicella for zoster epidemiology are still debated. We therefore compared the frequency of herpes zoster in an adult population with virtually no varicella zoster virus (VZV) exposure with that in the general population (GP). We performed a national, multicenter, observational, exposed versus nonexposed, comparative study. The nonexposed population consisted of members of contemplative monastic orders (CMO) of the Roman Catholic Church living in 40 isolated monasteries in France. The exposed population consisted of a sample of the GP representative of the French population in terms of age group, sex, socio-occupational categories, and regions. The primary analysis population comprised 920 members of CMO (41.5% nuns; mean age, 64.2 years) and 1533 members of the GP (51.9% women; mean age, 64.6 years). The reported frequency of zoster was 16.2% among CMO and 15.1% in the GP (P = .27, adjusted for sex and age). The reported mean age of onset of zoster was 54.8 and 48.6 years, respectively (P = .06). This study failed to demonstrate an increased risk or earlier onset of zoster in members of CMO not exposed to VZV, compared with that in the GP. Although adults highly exposed to VZV could have a reduced risk of zoster, compared with the GP, our results suggest that the opposite is not true: adults not exposed to VZV are not at increased risk of zoster when compared with the GP, challenging the relevance of the assumptions and forecasts of current epidemiological models.

UAVSAR observations of triggered slip on the Imperial, Superstition Hills, and East Elmore Ranch Faults associated with the 2010 M 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Donnellan, Andrea; Parker, Jay; Hensley, Scott; Pierce, Marlon; Wang, Jun; Rundle, John

2014-03-01

4 April 2010 M 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake that occurred in Baja California, Mexico and terminated near the U.S. Mexican border caused slip on the Imperial, Superstition Hills, and East Elmore Ranch Faults. The pattern of slip was observed using radar interferometry from NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument collected on 20-21 October 2009 and 12-13 April 2010. Right-lateral slip of 36 ± 9 and 14 ± 2 mm occurred on the Imperial and Superstition Hills Faults, respectively. Left-lateral slip of 9 ± 2 mm occurred on the East Elmore Ranch Fault. The widths of the zones of displacement increase northward suggesting successively more buried fault motion to the north. The observations show a decreasing pattern of slip northward on a series of faults in the Salton Trough stepping between the El Mayor-Cucapah rupture and San Andreas Fault. Most of the motion occurred at the time of the M 7.2 earthquake and the UAVSAR observations are consistent with field, creepmeter, GPS, and Envisat observations. An additional 28 ± 1 mm of slip at the southern end of the Imperial Fault over a <1 km wide zone was observed over a 1 day span a week after the earthquake suggesting that the fault continued to slip at depth following the mainshock. The total moment release on the three faults is 2.3 × 1023-1.2 × 1024 dyne cm equivalent to a moment magnitude release of 4.9-5.3, assuming shallow slip depths ranging from 1 to 5 km.

The Caries Phenomenon: A Timeline from Witchcraft and Superstition to Opinions of the 1500s to Today's Science

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John D. Ruby

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This historical treatise follows the documented timeline of tooth decay into today's understanding, treatment, and teaching of caries biology. Caries has been attributed to many different causes for several millennia, however, only since the late 1900s has research revealed its complex multifactorial nature. European writers of the 1600s to 1700s held views that general health, mechanical injuries, trauma, and sudden temperature changes all caused caries—holding a common belief that decay was due to chemical agents, faulty saliva, and food particles. Until the early 1800s most writers believed that caries was due to inflammation from surrounding diseased alveolar bone. Today's science has demonstrated that caries is caused by indigenous oral microorganisms becoming a dynamic biofilm, that in the presence of fermentable sugars produce organic acids capable of dissolving inorganic enamel and dentin followed by the proteolytic destruction of collagen leaving soft infected dentin. As bacteria enter the pulp, infection follows.

A Inquisição e a Feitiçaria: A Ritualização do Interrogatório e da Tortura * The Inquisition and Witchcraft: the Ritualization of Inquiries and Torture

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JOÃO DAVI AVELAR PIRES

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Resumo: Este trabalho se propõe a pensar a Inquisição, principalmente a medieval, como uma extensão ou organização católica que buscava a erradicação daqueles que se opunham aos dogmas e a moral pregadas pela Igreja. Fundamentados pelo conceito de ritual, apresentamos a relação entre a Inquisição e as mulheres acusadas de feitiçaria como um ritual, que se inicia desde o momento da captura das acusadas, passando pelos interrogatórios, pela tortura e chegando até o auto-de-fé, onde era queimada num local público, geralmente em feriados ou dias santos.Palavras-chave: Inquisição – Feitiçaria – Ritual. Abstract: his paper proposes to think the Inquisition, mainly medieval, as an extension or Catholic organization that sought to eradicate those who opposed the beliefs and morality preached by the Church. Basing on the concept of ritual, we present the relationship between the Inquisition and women accused of witchcraft as a ritual, which begins from the moment of capture of the accused, throughout the  inquiry and torture until  reaching the act of faith, where she  was burnt  at a public place, usually on holidays.Keywords: Inquisition – Witchcraft – Ritual.

Composition, production and procurement of glass at San Vincenzo Al Volturno: an early Medieval monastic complex in Southern Italy.

Science.gov (United States)

Schibille, Nadine; Freestone, Ian C

2013-01-01

136 glasses from the ninth-century monastery of San Vincenzo and its workshops have been analysed by electron microprobe in order to situate the assemblage within the first millennium CE glass making tradition. The majority of the glass compositions can be paralleled by Roman glass from the first to third centuries, with very few samples consistent with later compositional groups. Colours for trailed decoration on vessels, for vessel bodies and for sheet glass for windows were largely produced by melting the glass tesserae from old Roman mosaics. Some weakly-coloured transparent glass was obtained by re-melting Roman window glass, while some was produced by melting and mixing of tesserae, excluding the strongly coloured cobalt blues. Our data suggest that to feed the needs of the glass workshop, the bulk of the glass was removed as tesserae and windows from a large Roman building. This is consistent with a historical account according to which the granite columns of the monastic church were spolia from a Roman temple in the region. The purported shortage of natron from Egypt does not appear to explain the dependency of San Vincenzo on old Roman glass. Rather, the absence of contemporary primary glass may reflect the downturn in long-distance trade in the later first millennium C.E., and the role of patronage in the "ritual economy" founded upon donations and gift-giving of the time.

How to Know whether a Dog is Dangerous: Myth, Superstition and its Influence on the Human-dog Relationship

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Tanja Kovačič

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The relationship between humans and dogs is complex and ambivalent. The dog was the first animal that Homo sapiens domesticated. This means that the human-dog relationship has lasted longer than any other human-animal relationships. Despite all this, mythological, symbolic and folkloristic traditions often depict dogs in a negative light and as a dangerous and threatening force from the underworld. Due to the belief that seeing an unknown dog can lead to misfortune, accident or even death, people were often afraid of dogs. People had to invent certain rules that could help them determine which dog was dangerous and which was not. Those rules had to change over time based on the fact that human-dog relationship is culturally and historically defined. The author analyses stories from in the Glasovi (Voices collection to show that, in the last few centuries in the territory of modern Slovenia, black dogs where most feared by humans. In contrast, nowadays the most feared dogs are those of the Pit Bull and some other breeds. Nevertheless, the folk superstitions and prejudice toward black dogs is still present in modern Western societies. In the English language “black dog” symbolizes depression. And some are still reluctant to adopt large black dogs from the animal shelters.

Composition, production and procurement of glass at San Vincenzo Al Volturno: an early Medieval monastic complex in Southern Italy.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nadine Schibille

Full Text Available 136 glasses from the ninth-century monastery of San Vincenzo and its workshops have been analysed by electron microprobe in order to situate the assemblage within the first millennium CE glass making tradition. The majority of the glass compositions can be paralleled by Roman glass from the first to third centuries, with very few samples consistent with later compositional groups. Colours for trailed decoration on vessels, for vessel bodies and for sheet glass for windows were largely produced by melting the glass tesserae from old Roman mosaics. Some weakly-coloured transparent glass was obtained by re-melting Roman window glass, while some was produced by melting and mixing of tesserae, excluding the strongly coloured cobalt blues. Our data suggest that to feed the needs of the glass workshop, the bulk of the glass was removed as tesserae and windows from a large Roman building. This is consistent with a historical account according to which the granite columns of the monastic church were spolia from a Roman temple in the region. The purported shortage of natron from Egypt does not appear to explain the dependency of San Vincenzo on old Roman glass. Rather, the absence of contemporary primary glass may reflect the downturn in long-distance trade in the later first millennium C.E., and the role of patronage in the "ritual economy" founded upon donations and gift-giving of the time.

Bruxas e índias filhas de Saturno: arte, bruxaria e canibalismo Witches and indian women, daughters of Saturn: arts, witchcraft and cannibalism

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Yobenj Aucardo Chicangana-Bayona

2009-08-01

Full Text Available O artigo indaga pela representação da mulher nas pinturas e gravuras sobre a bruxaria dos séculos XVI e XVII, procurando estabelecer uma tipologia iconográfica e percorrendo a construção de estigmas negativos imputados no corpo feminino e na sua degradação natural. O texto, apoiado em fontes visuais como pinturas e gravuras, principalmente da Renascença alemã, demonstra como as índias do Novo Mundo foram associadas com as bruxas da Europa e com o deus clássico Saturno, através do mito do canibalismo.The article inquires into the representation of women in the paintings and engravings about witchcraft in the XVI-XVII centuries, trying to establish an iconographic typology and covering the construction of negative stigmas attributed to the feminine body and its natural degradation. Through the support of visual sources such as paintings and engravings, mainly from the German Renaissance, the text demonstrates how the Indian women of the New World were associated to the witches of Europe and with the classic god Saturn, through the myth of cannibalism.

On the Problem of Naming Monastic Churches in Vyatka Province at the End of the 16–17th Centuries

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Kustova Elena

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In this article, on the basis of both published and archival sources of the State Archive of Ancient Acts and the State Archive of the Kirov region for the first time addresses the formation of the religious landscape Vyatka monasteries. The author focuses on — poorly studied in the national historiography on the national level, the issue of naming the monastic churches at the end of 16–17 centuries. The study identified and analyzed the names of all the temples Vyatka monasteries that existed at the time, which made it possible to create a complete picture. In particular, identify the factors and reasons for initiation of individual church altars, and the formation of these specifi c ideological lines. The author concludes that the churches received the name, depending on local conditions for the establishment of the monastery, the time of bookmarks or consecration, the presence of churches at this point in previous time. Great was the role in the naming of church altars monks builders or ktitors. Consecration of the first church was often due to the peculiarities of the appearance of the monastery, in particular, its relationship with the revered icons (the Saviour, the Archangel Michael, the royal family of Romanov (temples in honor of Michael Malein, Alexis Man of God and so forth. In exceptional cases, the naming of individual temples and altars were built in the whole ideological lines, creating a unique «spatial icons» that can be seen, in particular, the example Khlynovsky Uspensky Trifonov monastery, which was created as a «House of the Blessed Virgin Mary.»

Paranormal believers are more prone to illusory agency detection than skeptics.

Science.gov (United States)

van Elk, Michiel

2013-09-01

It has been hypothesized that illusory agency detection is at the basis of belief in supernatural agents and paranormal beliefs. In the present study a biological motion perception task was used to study illusory agency detection in a group of skeptics and a group of paranormal believers. Participants were required to detect the presence or absence of a human agent in a point-light display. It was found that paranormal believers had a lower perceptual sensitivity than skeptics, which was due to a response bias to 'yes' for stimuli in which no agent was present. The relation between paranormal beliefs and illusory agency detection held only for stimuli with low to intermediate ambiguity, but for stimuli with a high number of visual distractors responses of believers and skeptics were at the same level. Furthermore, it was found that illusory agency detection was unrelated to traditional religious belief and belief in witchcraft, whereas paranormal beliefs (i.e. Psi, spiritualism, precognition, superstition) were strongly related to illusory agency detection. These findings qualify the relation between illusory pattern perception and supernatural and paranormal beliefs and suggest that paranormal beliefs are strongly related to agency detection biases. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On Believing in Witches | Saari | Philosophical Papers

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this paper I discuss Polycarp Ikuenobe's view that it is rational to believe, in an African context, in the existence of witches and witchcraft. First, I attempt to show that it is not possible to prove empirically that witches and witchcraft are real, as Ikuenobe assumes. I argue that even though witches and witchcraft are part of the ...

Les sources littéraires des citations peintes sur les phylactères des saints de la rangée inférieure de la façade et de l’exonarthex de l’église de la Résurrection de Dieu du monastère de Suceviţa

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Constantin I. Ciobanu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Cette étude vise à découvrir les sources littéraires des citations peintes sur les phylactères des saints de la rangée inférieure de la façade et de l’exonarthex de l’église de la Résurrection de Dieu du monastère de Suceviţa. Elle est une suite de l’article sur les sentences des pères du désert, des confesseurs, des anachorètes et des stylites peints sur la façade méridionale de l’église de l’Annonciation de la Vierge de Moldoviţa. Son objectif est de donner un aperçu précis sur la variété des sources littéraires qui ont été choisies par les auteurs du programme iconographique du dernier ensemble de peintures murales extérieures moldaves peintes au XVIe siècle. L’auteur de l’étude montre que ces citations de Suceviţa sont en grande partie tirées de la Collection alphabétique des Sentences des Pères du Désert. Cette Collection alphabétique a le rôle joué au monastère de Moldoviţa par la sélection des sources grecques primaires de la traduction russe du XIXe siècle faite par Théophane le Reclus et appelée par celui-ci Paterikon palestinien. La paternité des ces citations est plus ou moins arbitraire à Suceviţa : nous observons une attribution correcte seulement dans les cas des images des saints Antoine, Nil, Arsène, Étienne le Nouveau, Barlaam et Isaïe. De ce point de vue, la situation est semblable à celle observée aux monastères de Humor et de Moldoviţa. Dans le programme iconographique de Suceviţa il y a plusieurs répétitions des mêmes citations : elles sont attribuées à divers ou aux mêmes saints. C’est le cas des citations de Saint Chariton et de Saint Daniel le Stylite, de Saint Cyriaque l’Anachorète et de Saint Patapios, de Saint Athanase l’Athonite et de Saint Jean le Calybite, de Saint Nil et de Saint Gérasime, de Saint Jean Damascène (qui est peint deux fois : sur la façade sud et dans l’exonarthex, de Saint Théodore le Confesseur et de Saint Th

On the Margins. Minimal thoughts

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Glauco Maria Cantarella

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The topic of friendship in the medieval monastic world is rather complex because of its many sociological, psychological, social and cultural implications. The first (and perhaps main matters to examine are the ways and systems of communication within the monastic community.

FRANJEVAČKA CRKVA I SAMOSTAN NA OTOKU KOD KORČULE

OpenAIRE

Belamarić, Josip

1984-01-01

Otok, près de Korčula, où se toruve l’ensemble de ce que furent l’église et le monastère des Franciscains, est mentionné pour la première fois en 1368, en tant que »Scoleum Sancti Petri«. On y construit alors une église dédiée à Marie Miséricordieuse. Ayant obtenu, en don, Otok, du Grand Conseil, les Franciscains bosniaques commencent, en 1392, à construire un monastère. Dans cet article est mentionnée une série de documents qui accompagnent la fondation de ce monastère et analysent les const...

Erei yayepitako chupe, lo vendicheremo. Immaginario vendicatorio e stregoneria in Isoso. Un approccio antropologico giuridico

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Francesca Scionti

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This paper treats the relationship between vengeance and witchcraft in the contemporary Guaraní-speaking indigenous region of Isoso, in the Bolivian Chaco. The cases study discussed are about accusations of witchcraft that have generated a retaliation action of vengeance. The argument is that the vengeance is a language that expresses a moral idea, turning into a norm a violent behaviour if validated and substantiated by an idea of justice. Indeed, vengeance is corrects only if it is exercised as a violent retaliatory action against witchcraft. The article concludes that the vengeance in Isoso continues to be conceived as a violent reciprocity mechanism even if the homicide now is forbidden. This because the vengeance still remains a thought model that establishes the community legal imagination and represents the conflictive relationship with witchcraft.

L’Eglise de l’hopital du monastère Brâncoveni (Département Olt. Recherches iconographiques / The Church of the Hospital from Brancoveni Monastery (Olt County. Iconographic Research

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Tereza Sinigalia

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The present paper aims to provide information on the recent restoration of the murals inside the small church of the „Bolniţa” (Romanian word for a chapel lying next to a monastic hospital of the Brâncoveni Monastery (Department Olt, built by the Prince of Wallachia Constantin Brâncoveanu in 1700. All the inside of the church was covered with frescoes, but my attention focused on the paintings in the narthex. As the church is dedicated to The Archangels, the upper part of the walls is covered with 10 compositions illustrating facts from the Ancient Testament and from the inter-testamental texts in which Angels Michael et Gabriel were involved: The Sacrifice of Abraham, Lot and the destruction of Sodom; Prophet Gideon; The Fake Prophet Balaam; Prophet Daniel and the dream of the king Nabucodonosor; The dream of the Prophet Elijah; Archangel Gabriel announces Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth about the birth of a son, the future John the Baptist; Archangel Gabriel announces Joachim and Ann about the birth of a daughter, Mary; Archangel Gabriel advises Joseph to take Mary as his fiancé; Annunciation. A huge Votive composition of the ancestors of the Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu (grandfather, father, grand uncle, the Prince Matei Basarab and his father is painted on the lower register of the room. Princess Maria, Brâncoveanu’s wife, is present, too.

Housing culture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Roesdahl, Else; Scholkmann, Barbara

2007-01-01

On houses and their furniture and fittings, and on the study of this - with a comparison of rural, urban, monastic and aristocratic housing, and a special section on heating technologies.......On houses and their furniture and fittings, and on the study of this - with a comparison of rural, urban, monastic and aristocratic housing, and a special section on heating technologies....

When in Doubt...?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bubandt, Nils Ole

2016-01-01

Response to Hau Symposium on Bubandt, Nils. 2014. The empty seashell: Witchcraft and doubt on an Indonesian island. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.......Response to Hau Symposium on Bubandt, Nils. 2014. The empty seashell: Witchcraft and doubt on an Indonesian island. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press....

[Popular wisdom: its existence in the university environment].

Science.gov (United States)

Barbosa, Maria Alves; de Melo, Marcia Borges; Júnior, Raul Soares Silveira; Brasil, Virginia Visconde; Martins, Cleusa Alves; Bezerra, Ana Lúcia Queiroz

2004-01-01

Nowadays, myths and superstitions are present in spite of scientific and technological developments, especially when trying to solve problems that escape human understanding. This study was aimed at determining the existence of superstitions and myths in the university community, investigating their origins, influences, adoption and credibility, correlating them with people's level of knowledge. It is a descriptive/analytical research conducted at Teaching Units in the Area of Health of the Federal University of Goiás. The technique of content analysis was utilized for data analysis. Two categories have been created: Personal Attitudes related to Superstitions and Influences and Destruction of Superstitions. It was found out that there is a clash between popular and scientific knowledge, either leading to the exclusion of popular wisdom, to its 'veiled' maintenance, or even to an alliance between the two types of knowledge.

The lexicon manuscript by Dimitrije Čemerikić as a source for ethnolinguistic and ethnologic research

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Petrović Snežana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper highlights the importance of Dimitrije Čemerikić’s handwritten collection of words from the historic city of Prizren as a valuable resource for the ethnolinguistic and ethnologic study of its colorful, multicultural past. The manuscript, which contains around 16,000 lemmas with definitions and examples, was compiled in the middle of the 20th century. The original is nowadays archived at the Institute for the Serbian Language of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, while a digital edition has been available since 2013 via the Platform for Transcription of Serbian Handwritten Heritage, http://prepis.org. The paper shows how Čemerikić’s lexicographic treatment of the Prizren dialect reflects various aspects of popular culture (customs, superstitions, witchcraft and urban life (guilds, social and ethnic relations, etc. by analyzing exemplary lexemes such dečanska neprelja (lazy female, lit. ‘woman from Dečani who doesn’t know how to weave’, martifal (divination on St. George’s Day, dete (child, kuče (dog, magareći mozak (potion, lit. ‘donkey’s brain’, meso govecko (beef, esnaf (guild, Kaljaja (fortress, Latinka (Albanian Catholic female, kisela mrva (pejorative for Aromanian, lit. ‘sour crumb’, kožuvar (slang for Russian, lit. ‘leather-worker’, Karafera, mladoženja (groom, mladanevesta (bride, and dati (to give. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 47016: Interdisciplinarno istraživanje kulturnog i jezičkog nasleđa Srbije i izrada multimedijalnog internet portala „Pojmovnik srpske kulture“

L’iconographie de l’Hymne Acathiste dans les fresques de l’église St.Onuphre du monastère Lavrov et dans la peinture extérieure moldave au temps du premier règne de Petru Rares

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Constantin I. Ciobanu

2010-01-01

Full Text Available L’église St. Onuphre du monastère Lavrov (Ukraine occidentale, près de Staryi Sambir conserve des peintures murales qu’on a datées de la fin du XVe ou du début du XVIe siècle. Le but de la présente étude est de préciser les affinités d’ordre iconographique existentes entre les versions de l’«Hymne Acathiste» de Lavrov et des églises moldaves à peinture extérieure du temp du premier règne de Petru Rareş. Grâce à la rédaction de l’image de l’«Acathiste» de Probota, où le début du texte de la 17e strophe de l’«Hymne» est bien conservé, on peut constater qu’à Lavrov, dans l’image similaire, il ne s’agit pas de la 24e strophe de l’«Hymne» comme le croyait A. I. Rogov, maïs de la 17e strophe. Donc, on peut supposer, qu’à Lavrov il n’y avait pas de lacune dans la présentation des strophes 19–23 de l’«Hymne Acathiste».

The Liturgy and Meal in Version D of the Ακολουθία του ανοσίου τραγογένη Σπανού

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Nicholas Newman

2015-05-01

Full Text Available By applying Wolfgang Iser’s concept of the “implied reader” to the discussion of the person under attack in the Service of the Unholy, Goat Bearded Spanos (edited by Hans Eideneier, this paper attempts to show how the author uses the Spanos to create a variety of parodies, including a parody of the monastic holy man. This paper then offers a translation and interpretation of two sections of the D version of this text, which illustrates this attack on the monastics.

Tridentine renewal and spiritual education of women in the experience of female monasticism. The case of Verona in the sixteenth century

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Elisabetta Patrizi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The catholic world of the Sixteenth century, especially after the Council of Trent, exalted the condition of monastic life as the most perfect and noblest of the conditions of life traditionally reserved for women. The monastic state became the model to which the educational path of every woman had to conform to, even if she was destined to live in the world (as mother, virgin, widow, or married woman. The strong paradigmatic value exerted by the monastic condition of life is clear from the analysis of the pedagogical literature devoted to women published in this period.The present article focuses on two relevant examples of this literature: the Costituzioni per le monache (Constitutions for Nuns, 1539 by Gian Matteo Giberti and the Ricordi lasciati alle monache (Recollections left to nuns, 1575 by Agostino Valier. The two texts contain very interesting reasons for understanding the pedagogical directions of the time, which are highlighted by the author with specific references to the historical context and thanks to the support of documentary and published sources. These two works were written by two great reformer bishops, and are highly meaningful not only because they complement each other, since both were prepared for the religious women of the diocese of Verona, but mainly because they offer one very vivid insight into the growing importance assigned to the monastic modus vivendi in Sixteenth century Catholic society.

Deserts and holy mountains of medieval Serbia: Written sources, spatial patterns, architectural designs

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Popović Danica

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Essential concepts in Christian thought and practice, the desert and holy mountain denote a particular kind of monastic and sacral space. They are secluded from the world, intended for asceticism, and ambivalent in nature they are inhospitable and menacing zones populated with demons, but also a monastic paradise, places for spiritual conversion and encounter with the divine. From earliest times, deserts and holy mountains had a few distinguishing characteristics. All forms of monastic life, from communal to solitary, were practiced side by side there. Monks of a special make-up and distinction known as holy men who were also often founders of illustrious communities, future saints and miracle-workers acted there. Furthermore these locales were important spiritual and bookmaking centre's, and therefore, strongholds of Orthodoxy. When trying to research Serbian material on this topic, we face a specific situation: few surviving sources on the one hand, and devastated monuments on the other. The ultimate consequence is that the entire subject has been neglected. Therefore the study of the Serbian deserts and holy mountains requires a very complex interdisciplinary approach with systematic field work as its essential part. It should address the following issues: corroboration, on the basis of written sources, of the reception of the concept of the monastic desert and holy mountain in a particular, regional, context; the distinct means and mechanisms employed in their physical realization; interpretation of their function; the recognition of patterns preserved in the surviving physical structures. Even the results obtained so far appear to be relevant enough to become included in the sacral topography of the Christian world. The author of this study gives particular attention to the detailed analysis of written sources of various genres - diplomatic sources, hagiographic material, liturgical texts, observation notes - in order to establish the

Libros en los monasterios: producción y consumo

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Antonio Linage

2005-01-01

Full Text Available This paper highlights the value of books in monastic life, with an overview of book.s production and consumption from the origins of monasticism to the late Middle Ages. The author focuses on various codex-related issues, surveying the most relevant codices and the monastery scriptoriums where they were produced. The parallelisms between codex production and the different approaches to it are also dealt with, as well as monastic life itself, through an analysis of script and decoration, together with the inflows and relationships among the most singular production centres

Above and beyond superstition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wahlberg, Ayo

2008-01-01

Does it work? This question lies at the very heart of the kinds of controversies that have surrounded complementary and alternative medicines (such as herbal medicine) in recent decades. In this article, I argue that medical anthropology has played a pivotal and largely overlooked role in taking...... the sham out of the placebo effect with important implications for what it means to say a therapy or drug `works'. If pharmacologists and clinicians have corporeally located the concept of efficacy in terms of bio-availability, pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics, and herbalists in terms of a herbal...... and bio-efficacy co-circulate in recent attempts by herbalists, clinicians and pharmacologists to address the question of whether or not this herbal remedy `works' in the treatment of depression....

Articulating the Unsayable: An Exploration of ”Visible Voices” in Sifiso Nyathi’s the Other Presence

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Nelson Mlambo

2015-10-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the insightful nuances about narratives and contemporary life from the award winning Namibian writer, Sifiso Nyathi. The paper arises from the realisation of the paucity of literature in Namibia to tackle sensitive issues and the more often peripheral recognition of the power that fiction has to comment and bring insight to socio-cultural and economic issues. The chosen methodology is literary analysis and the concern that informs this paper is on how narratives demonstrate an apt ability to communicate concerns and sensibilities that both haunt and inspire contemporary societies. The paper demonstrates how literature (fiction and language open up fissures to spell out the ‘unsayable’, the taboo, and the often whispered and not yet said “other presence” in contemporary life. This is a way of questioning, voicing, re-examining and articulating certain truths which are supposedly veiled and unrepresentable, whose grammars of articulation often evade quantitative analysis. Through the chosen novel, the paper projected the ‘multivoiceness’ of literature in as much as it represents the gamut of HIV/AIDS in conservative communities, the contested terrain of superstition, the supernatural, belief and witchcraft. The ultimate conclusion is that literature is a powerful tool for the articulation of core concerns and issues in contemporary Africa and that through his novel; Nyathi managed to make visible the qualitative facets of life like pain, bereavement, culture, HIV/AIDS, religion and stigma. It suffices therefore say that educational, cultural, the civic society and policy makers heed the wisdom enshrined in the creative arts in order to find multifaceted ways of handling the horrors faced by the people on a daily basis.

Francesco Arcelli, an Italian monk at the service of Bourbon Spain

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Cezary Taracha

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The 18th century was a time of considerable challenges for monastic life, both in general and for specific congregations. Let us recall such events as the abolition of Jesuit reductions in Paraguay, expelling Jesuits from Portugal and Spain, the dissolution of the Society of Jesus, the closure of hundreds of monastic houses as part of Josephine reforms or cruel repressive measures towards clergy during the French Revolution. Despite attempts at questioning the presence of orders in public space, they still played a significant role in many areas of social life, in the realm of culture and education. Despite service appropriate to monastic charismata, there were monks in royal courts, monks with important functions in state administration, in diplomacy, at universities, schools, charitable and cultural institutions. Francesco Arcelli was one of such monks, who combined, with better or worse results, serving God by their involvement in lay, public and state matters. In the early modern era such activity of religious orders was nothing extraordinary, especially among the Spanish Catholic monarchy.

Child witch hunts in contemporary Ghana.

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Adinkrah, Mensah

2011-09-01

The persecution of children as witches has received widespread reportage in the international mass media. In recent years, hundreds of children have been killed, maimed and abandoned across Africa based on individual and village-level accusations of witchcraft. Despite the media focus, to date, very little systematic study has investigated the phenomenon. In this case study, the persecution of child witches in Ghana is studied to explore the nature and patterns of witch hunts against children in the West African nation. There are no reliable national data on child abuse related to witchcraft accusations in Ghana. For this study, 13 cases of child witch hunts appearing in the local media during 1994-2009 were analyzed. Case summaries were constructed for each incident to help identify the socio-demographic characteristics of assailants and victims, victim-offender relationships, the methods of attacks, the spatial characteristics, as well as the motivations for the attacks. Children branded as witches ranged in age from 1-month-old to 17-years-old, were primarily from poor backgrounds, and lived in rural areas of the country. Accusations of witchcraft and witch assaults were lodged by close family members often through the encouragement of, or in concert with Christian clergymen and fetish priests. Accused witches were physically brutalized, tortured, neglected, and in two cases, murdered. For school-aged children, imputations of witchcraft contributed to stigmatization in both the community and at school, resulting in dropping out. The most frequently expressed reason for persecution of the child was suspicion that the child had used witchcraft to cause the death or illness of family relations or someone in the community. Another reason was suspicion that the child was responsible for the business failure or financial difficulties of a perceived victim. The results of this research are consistent with findings in the witchcraft literature suggesting that seemingly

Culture as a monastic rule

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Albinus, Lars

2018-01-01

A conference paper about Peter Sloterdijk's erratic interpretation of the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein as an example of cultural elitism.......A conference paper about Peter Sloterdijk's erratic interpretation of the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein as an example of cultural elitism....

[Et d'allhora in poi, mai si sentì più bene: a historical survey to find nursing origins in post-tridentine whitchcraft lawsuits in County of Bormio (1596-1630)].

Science.gov (United States)

Arcadi, Paola; Manzoni, Edoardo

2015-01-01

The phenomenon of witch-hunting in the post-tridentine period is a crucial moment for the history of nursing care. Modern historiography tells that women accused of witchcraft were custodian of female knowledge, both in domestic and small communities. To investigate the witchcraft phenomenon in specific context of Bormio country- side, in order to identify proper nursing acts in gestures of women accused of witchcraft or sorcery. Process for witchcraft - sorcery against 7 women in Bormio, between 1590 and 1631, were reviewed through a historical research methodology: sources retrieval, description and documentary analysis characterization, interpretation. In nearly all legal proceedings analyzed an indictment due to a healthcare expertise was found in terms of touch, feed, nearness, word. By multiple daily acts of women, intention to help and to express solidarity was clear, in a scenario of disease and suffering, solidarity is shown by acts of care. As a result of this study, we can resume that the period of the witches, so hard for women , was an age of repression for history of nursing itself. Mankind lifestyle, assistance, aid are ontological and anthropological foundations of nursing. Therefore, a past research of the traces of those foundations could mean rebuilding the own sense of nursing act: we tried to get an approach to that sense also "listening to" the gestures of women in Bormio.

Роль фольклора (суеверий) США во взаимодействии культур

OpenAIRE

Лебедько, М.

1999-01-01

Being an important costituent of folklore, superstitions play a great role in cross-cultural interaction. Culture is understood here as "little-c" culture which includes way of life, customs, beliefs, behavior patterns transmitted from generation to generation. Culture patterns are well known to all native speakers. It is a shared knowledge. Because culture patterns in this case superstitions vary from culture to culture, they can easily be substituted with familiar but mostly wrong patterns ...

Social, ethnical, cultural and confessional features of architectural heritage of monasteries

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Frolov Vladimir Pavlovich

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Monasteries, their activity and lifestyle have always played an important role in the culture of various nations. Monasteries are objects of cultural heritage. Their architecture is connected with national features on a nation, particular canons of Christian (orthodox, catholic, Buddhistic or other religion. The article describes ancient monasteries in Russia amid the global development, historical national characteristics monasteries are analyzed, as well as architectural ensembles, reflecting the function and role of monasteries in public life, showing their spiritual and cultural heritage, monastic tradition, the historical value of the monastic landscape and its conservation conditions, the inclusion of the monasteries in the world cultural heritage is noted.

Superstitious behavior in sport: A literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Dömötör, Zsuzsanna; Ruíz-Barquín, Roberto; Szabo, Attila

2016-08-01

The objective of this first literature review, in this area, is to unveil the current status of knowledge on superstition in sport. Its outcome reveals that superstitious behaviors vary with the type of sport, athletic level, as well as athletic role. In agreement with past theories, they increase with the level of challenge, as reflected by the importance of the competition, as well as with the level of uncertainty. Cultural factors, in conjunction with the education level, as well as gender, have a strong influence on superstitious behaviors in sports. Based on current thoughts, religiosity and superstition are different psychological constructs used as psychological aids by several athletes. Personality factors appear to mediate the manifestation of the behavior. Elite athletes are clearly more superstitious than non-elite athletes, An interaction between athletic skill and task-difficulty emerges to be another strong predictor of superstition in sport. It is evident that a set of complex personal and situational factors interact in the manifestation of superstitious behavior in sport that is used for the regulation of emotions in a quest for optimal performance. It is concluded that the objective benefits (i.e., success) of superstition in sport may be ascribed to the placebo effect that yields an increased sense of control and mental reassurance in unpredictable contest situations. © 2016 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

MOLOSMES - Église paroissiale Saint-Marcel (anc. abbatiale Saint-Pierre - (canton de Tonnerre

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2010-08-01

Full Text Available Molosmes, vue d’ensemble (cl. C. Arnaud.InterventionUne fouille de sauvetage urgent (SU a été mise en place à l’occasion de tranchées de drainage et reprise en sous-œuvre (travaux MH, Bruno Decaris sous la responsabilité de Bernadette Soum (AFAN pendant deux mois et demi en 1998.DescriptionLe siteUn monastère y aurait été fondé au vie siècle. L’actuelle église paroissiale est l’ancien édifice du monastère. Elle date de la première moitié du xvie siècle. L’ancienne église paroissiale, vend...

In Search of the English Sabbat: Popular Conceptions of Witches’ Meetings in Early Modern England

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James Sharpe

2013-03-01

Full Text Available This article explores the evidence for belief in the witches’ sabbat in early modern England. England is generally thought of as a country where the concept of the sabbat did not exist, and it was certainly largely absent from elite thinking on witchcraft, as displayed in the witchcraft statutes of 1563 and 1604 and Elizabethan and Jacobean demonological writings. But evidence entering the historical record mainly via deposi- tions taken by justices of the peace suggests that there was a widespread popular belief in the sabbat or in parallel forms of witches’ meetings, evidence that the concept of the sabbat existed in popular culture. In this, the English evidence seems to support Carlo Ginzburg’s model of the sabbat being essentially a popular construction in its origins. The article also examines a play based on one of the historical incidents analysed, Richard Brome and Thomas Heywood’s The Late Lancashire Witches (1634, and uses it as a starting point for a brief discussion of witchcraft motifs in contemporary drama, notably Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Considerații cu privire la geneza, evoluția și aria de răspândire a unor sate mănăstirești din ținutul Iași (II

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Alexandr Furtuna

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In the present study, based on edited papers, some aspects of the genesis problem have been investigated, the evolution and the spreading of some monastic villages in the Iasi region. Thus, we have found that most of the monastery localities are lordly or boyar, less often individual property. The monastic villages were spread on both sides of the Prut River and its tributaries on the right and on the left. Monastic property, had to some extent a compact character. This was dictated by the need for efficient administration. The economy of the monastery villages, as well as other categories of villages, based on the natural household. Thus, the monastery villages were structured in the following way: the hearth of the village, tilled land, the field, grazing ground, the forest, lake, place for apiary, apiary, the mill etc. The work of the inhabitants of a monastery village was organized and watched by the representative of the monastery in the local administration. Disputes over some issues related to the breaking the boundaries of the monastery property, as well as the status of the monastery neighbors, could only be resolved with the involvement of the lord of the Country of Moldova.

Kazaklarda Batıl İnanışlar

OpenAIRE

YILMAZ, M. Ali

2013-01-01

Superstitions can be considered as those expressions and beliefs contrary to the reason and reality It is superstitions that is living in Turkish who living in Kazakh in this article We classifield belief that we compiled until the subject and we tried to ascertain arising with which aim Besides we tried to arise old belief traces and Islam’s and other belief’s effect in this beliefs As a result it can be said that the traditional practices about such beliefs coming from our ancestors a...

Review of Portuguese Cistercian Monastic Heritage

Science.gov (United States)

Martins, Ana M. T.

2017-10-01

This paper aims to present a contribution to the history of the reform and renewal in the Portuguese Cistercian monasteries throughout almost nine centuries of cultural and architectural history in this Country. The Cistercian Order played a remarkable role in the affirmation of Portugal (1143) and had unquestionable position, since the medieval period, in the construction of a significant part of the Portuguese culture. The reform of many Monasteries came with the Autonomous Congregation of Alcobaça (1567). In fact, the Portuguese Cistercian Monasteries absorbed the regional ways of construction with masonry (granite in the north and limestone in the south) but it is without a doubt in its architecture that change and renewal can be found as strength and a tool for achieving a status of cultural landmarks. The renewal and reform in the Portuguese Cistercian Monasteries was not restricted to the styles in vogue but also was related to the physical expansion of the monasteries. This could be achieved by adding new aisles and cloisters like in Alcobaça or Salzedas Monasteries. Though there are cases of unconventional renewals and reformations such as the existence of two churches in the Monastery of Salzedas and the example of the open air Museum of the Monastery of S. João de Tarouca were can be found the former medieval monastery, as a result of new archaeological research and a prospective hypothesis of its volumetric layout, in between the walls of the 17th century dormitories and the Church. This continuous architectonic renewal is still being carried out in the 21st century either by the Portuguese Government, through several heritage institutes since the 20th century, or a few individuals on their one.The history of the Portuguese Cistercian Monasteries blends itself with the history of Portugal as the continuous architectonic renewals and reforms were also a result of nine centuries of events and changes in this Country.

Conflict and compliance: Christianity and the occult in horticultural exporting.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolan, C S

1999-03-01

The introduction of export horticulture in Meru District, Kenya, brought about disadvantageous effects on female farmers. Their workload increased while their earnings did not. Women reacted by turning to Christianity for support, and resorted to traditional witchcraft to regain control. In this article, Christianity and witchcraft are presented as ways of expressing discontent with the prevailing social norms, and as means to reclaim autonomy and security within their households. Since Kenyan women are entailed to meet the standards of being a good Christian wife, in which women are submissive to their husbands, the church became a means of escaping the confinements of their marriage. In Meru, Christian conversion offers a means of coping with life and an opportunity to interact with other women who share the same experience. Another strategy adopted by women is witchcraft, a traditional relic wherein women give "potions" to their husbands to induce psychosis and eventually death, which would then leave control of the household to the woman. In conclusion, the case presented here demonstrates how failure to recognize cultural dynamics leads to gender inequity and worsens women's well being, as well as men's security.

The social dimension of the Krakow Camaldolese convent

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Rafał Szczurowski

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The charming location and the magnitude of the monastery were conducive to the large number of guests, who came for religious reasons as well as for entertainment, and generally to observe the monastic life, the form of which was quite mysterious. Had it not been for the decisions of the founder of the hermitage at the Silver Mountain, Grand Crown Marshal Mikołaj Wolski, the Camaldolese he brought from Italy back in 1604 would have had greater opportunities for realizing their monastic ideals. Mikołaj Wolski, a thoroughly educated man, an art expert and enthusiast, an apt diplomat and a Polish lobbyist for the House of Habsburg, trusted by Sigismund III Vasa, came to the conclusion that the magnificence of the temple he had built did not go against the hermits' asceticism, thereby breaking the Camaldolese rules. Not only have the monks from the Silver Mountain (to this day contributed to shaping the spiritual heritage of the place in which they settled, but also they played a part in its social history. The story of the hermitage in Bielany seconds the view that only skilful reconciliation of monastic ideals with the requirements of the world outside, abandoned to achieve a fuller unity with God, supports the good condition of the order.

[Do regional and generational differences in attitudes toward "Luck Resource Belief" exist?].

Science.gov (United States)

Murakami, Koshi

2016-04-01

This article examines whether belief in superstitions and folklore differs by age and degree of modernization specifically. This study investigated regional and generational differences in attitudes toward "Luck Resource Belief," a notion regarding luck. The 500 Japanese participants in our sample were stratified by place of residence, age, and income. The results reflected gender differences, but not regional or generational differences with regard to the "Luck Resource Belief" scale scores. Based on these results, the hypothesis that the mass media plays a major role in the dissemination of information about superstitions and folklore is discussed in this context.

Precedents, fundació i primers anys del monestir de Vallbona (1154-1185

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Sans i Travé, Josep Maria

1999-12-01

Full Text Available After reviewing the oldest documents related to the Cistercian monastery of Vallbona, this article analyzes its mixed —men and women— eremitic origin and the task and personality of its founder Ramon, who was also a promoter of other settlements in the Catalunya Nova (the lands recently conquered from the Muslims. In 1171 the community was incorporated to Cîteaux. As a consequence of that, it gained social prestige, which was increased after the visit of the Catalan king (February-March 1178 who supported the monastery with the concession of privileges and donations of lands and properties. Finally, this article studies the role played by abbess Oria, who came from the Cistercian monastery of Tulebras (Navarra to instruct the new community, and by the noble Berenguera de Cervera, who was one of the most important benefactress of the abbey.[fr] À partir d'une relecture des premiers documents relatifs au monastère cistercien de Vallbona, nous pouvons étudier ses origines érémitiques mixtes —d'hommes et de femmes— et la personnalité et la tâche de son fondateur, qui fût promoteur aussi même, d'autres centres à la Nouvelle Catalogne, les terres récemment conquises aux sarrasins. En 1171 la communauté fût incorporée à Cîteaux, ce qui lui comporta un gran prestige social spécialement après la visite des monarques catalans (février-mars 1178 qui ont favorisé le nouveau monastère avec la concession de privilèges et donations de terres et propriétés. Nous étudions, finalement, le rôle développé par l'abbesse Oria, arrivée du monastère cistercien de Tulebras (Navarra pour instruire la nouvelle communauté— et de la noble Berenguera de Cervera, une des bienfaitrices plus importantes du monastère.

Des monastères aux funérailles. La construction d’une relation ethnographique avec des chrétiennes de Damas (Syrie

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Anna Poujeau

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Des monastères aux funérailles. La construction d’une relation ethnographique avec des chrétiennes de Damas (Syrie. En juillet 2004, j’ai assisté aux funérailles d’un jeune homme de la famille au sein de laquelle je vivais à Damas. À l’époque, l’intense émotion suscitée par cet événement empêcha que je m’y intéresse de plus près. Ce n’est que deux ans plus tard, en juillet 2006, que j’ai décidé d’enquêter sur l’un des aspects majeurs de la cérémonie : les lamentations funèbres féminines. Lors de ce dernier terrain, les femmes de la famille que j’interrogeais, que j’accompagnais aux funérailles et dont j’enregistrais les chants m’assignèrent alors une place tout à fait particulière. Puisque, moi aussi, « je m’habillais en noir et je venais aux funérailles », je ne pouvais plus être considérée comme une étrangère. Dès lors, elles firent de moi la fille d’une de leur sœur émigrée à Paris et mariée avec un Français. Ce statut me fut par ailleurs confirmé lorsqu’elles m’attribuèrent une place dans leurs plaisanteries entre sœurs, tantes et neveux matrilatéraux.Dans cet article, je souhaite engager une double réflexion : sur la position et l’implication de l’ethnologue sur un terrain où l’émotion est au premier plan, ainsi que sur la façon dont être assignée à une place dans la parenté de ses informateurs donne enfin toute liberté d’action à l’ethnologue sur son terrain.From monasteries to funerals. The construction of ethnographical relations with the Christians of Damascus (Syria. In July 2004, I attended the funeral of a young man from the family with whom I was staying in Damascus. At the time, the intense emotion provoked by that event prevented me from immediately examining it more closely. It was only two years later, in July 2006, that I decided to study one of the main features of the ceremony: the women’s lamentations. During this

Hopi Indian Witchcraft and Healing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Geertz, Armin W.

2011-01-01

Artiklen undersøger hekseri, sygdom og helbredelse hos hopi-indianerne dels på baggrund af egne indsamlede interviews og af litteraturen. Hekseri anskues delvis som narrativ strategi således at sladder fungerer som en omvendt etisk redskab. Desuden inddrages kognitive teorier....

When people with dementia are perceived as witches. Consequences for patients and nurse education in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Mkhonto, Flora; Hanssen, Ingrid

2018-01-01

To explore and describe the link between culture and dementia care with the focus on the influence of the belief in dementia as witchcraft and people with dementia as witches. In South Africa, especially in townships and rural areas, dementia is often perceived as connected to witchcraft rather than to disease. Persons labelled as witches-mostly older women-may be bullied, ostracised, beaten, stoned, burned, even killed. One strand of findings from a larger international study is presented with in-depth qualitative interviews of one close family member and seven nurses caring for patients with severe dementia in nursing homes in Tshwane in South Africa. A hermeneutic analytic approach was used. Two main themes are found, namely "Belief in witchcraft causing fear of persons with dementia" and "Need of knowledge and education." Fear of and violence towards people with dementia are based on the belief that they are witches. Some of the nurses had also held this belief until they started working with patients with dementia. There is a great need for education both among healthcare workers and the populace. The "witch" belief prevents seeking professional help. As nursing homes tend to be private and expensive, professional dementia care is virtually unattainable for the poor. Dementia needs a more prominent place in nursing curricula. Nurses as educators need to know the local culture and language to be accepted in the various communities. They need to visit families affected by dementia, give awareness talks in churches, schools and clinics and facilitate support groups for carers of people with dementia in the local language. Improved nurses' education in gerontology and geriatric care is needed. Trained specialist nurses may work as mediators and help eradicate the witchcraft beliefs connected to severe dementia. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Electrocution attributed to supernatural forces in the Niger delta region of Nigeria: a report of three cases.

Science.gov (United States)

Seleye-Fubara, D; Etebu, E N

2005-01-01

Accidental deaths from electrocution in this environment are sometimes related to charm and witchcraft caused by one's enemies. The aim of this article is to highlight the problems of beliefs and accidental electrocution. We report three cases of accidental electrocution which was believed to be associated with traditional beliefs of witchcraft and charm. Autopsy findings in two cases showed characteristic electric burns (the joule burn which is the area of entry) without obvious organ changes. The third case revealed no burn but investigation of the scene of incidence and other sources of information are consistent with a diagnosis of electrocution. Post mortem examination can assist to dispel misconception and unnecessary belief on cause of death in our community.

Listina na zápis pusté vsi Jiříkovice u Milotic z roku 1425 (K sekularizaci církevních statků na jihovýchodní Moravě v 15. a 16. století)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Doležel, Jiří

2016-01-01

Roč. 52, č. 55 (2016), s. 65-81 ISSN 0449-0436 Institutional support: RVO:68081758 Keywords : Late Middle Ages * Moravia * Hussitism * monastic estates * nobility * secularism * deserted settlements Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology OBOR OECD: Archaeology

Õhtupoolik Tallinna kunstigaleriides / Andreas Trossek

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Trossek, Andreas, 1980-

2008-01-01

Moskva kunstniku Andrei Monastõrski isiknäitus Tallinna Kunstihoones. Austria kunstnike Thomas Hörl'i ja Peter Kozek'i näitus Tallinna Linnagaleriis. Näitus "Up Close and Personal" Draakoni ja Hobusepea galeriis, kuraator Marge Monko

De divinações xamânicas e acusações de feitiçaria: imagens Wauja da agência letal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aristóteles Barcelos Neto

2006-10-01

Full Text Available O artigo explora as diferenças e as relações entre feitiçaria e xamanismo entre os Wauja do Alto Xingu com ênfases nos processos de transformações corporais, nas noções de agência letal e na ontologia da predação. A feitiçaria é descrita como uma categoria de acusação de assassinato e de responsabilidade por malefícios de diversas ordens e como um dispositivo de contrapoder no cenário de chefias fortes e relativamente autoritárias. As acusações, sobretudo as de assassinato, tecem uma urdidura política que traz a feitiçaria para o centro da socialidade wauja. A hipótese principal é a de que a feitiçaria tenha um duplo efeito político, simultâneo ou sucessivo, na paisagem sociológica wauja: ela pode servir para perseguir, eliminar ou exilar os adversários de um chefe, bem como pode se voltar contra este para contestar seu status e comprometer seu prestígio. Tem também um duplo sentido estético: é a encarnação mais perfeita da fealdade e da tristeza-morte, por isso, profundamente oposta ao ritual e à matéria própria das realizações terapêuticas que caracterizam o xamanismo xinguano.This article discusses the differences and relations between witchcraft and shamanism among the Wauja Indians of the Upper Xingu river, focusing on the processes of body transformations, notions of lethal agency and the ontology of predation. Witchcraft is described as an accusation category referencing murder and also as an anti-power apparatus in the context of strong and relatively authoritarian chieftainships. Accusations, especially those of murder, weave a political plot that brings witchcraft to the center of Wauja sociality. Our main hypothesis is that witchcraft has a double political effect (simultaneous or successive in the Wauja sociological landscape: it can serve to persecute, eliminate, or exile a chief’s adversaries, but it also may turn against a chief, compromising his prestige and contesting his status

Amoraalsed filmid Polymeris

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

2007-01-01

Kultuuritehases Polymer Nongrata Kunstikonteineris näidatakse homme Benjamin Christenseni nõiakunsti filmi "Witchcraft through the ages" (1922/1968) ja Kenneth Angeri "Inauguration of the pleasure dome" (1966)

An application of desktop virtual reality to the hospitality industry

OpenAIRE

Horan, Patrick; McDonnell, Ciaran

1996-01-01

This paper discusses research being carried out to produce real-time interactive Virtual Reality (VR) models of some areas of Tourism interest in Ireland. In particular, issues concerning the development of prototype VR models of an ancient Irish monastic village are described.

Monges sob o manto de generais: aristocracia imperial galo-romana e monasticismo nas obras de Sidônio Apolinário

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matheus Coutinho Figuinha

2015-12-01

Full Text Available As cartas e os poemas do nobre Sidônio Apolinário tendem a ser ignorados pelos estudiosos do monasticismo tardo-antigo. O presente texto é uma tentativa de preencher esta lacuna historiográfica. Meu objetivo é analisar as notícias de Sidônio acerca dos monges e monastérios de sua época, focando na relação da aristocracia imperial galo-romana com o monasticismo. As obras de Sidônio sugerem que, até o início da década de 480, a aristocracia imperial galo-romana, de modo geral, pouco se envolveu com monges e assuntos monásticos. Mas, ao mesmo tempo, elas revelam o interesse que monges eruditos e taumaturgos podiam despertar em grandes aristocratas e o papel que estes podiam ter no governo e no cotidiano de determinados monastérios.

DA Masolo A Short History of African Philosophy, a Review pp165-171

African Journals Online (AJOL)

DA Masolo

Review of Barry Hallen's A Short History of African Philosophy, Second ... 2006, by African Philosophy: The Analytic Approach (Africa World Press). .... handling of culpability in witchcraft accusations as overlooking the obvious logical inference.

Augustiniánská knihovna u sv. Tomáše v Praze. I. část: Od založení kláštera do počátku 16. století

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sladká, Veronika

2016-01-01

Roč. 23, 1/2 (2016), s. 127-146 ISSN 1210-8510 Institutional support: RVO:67985971 Keywords : Augustinian convent of Saint Thomas in Prague * monastic libraries * provenance research * library history * librarian practice in the Order of Saint Augustine * Codex Thomaeus Subject RIV: AB - History

NIH Abroad: Pictures Are Crowd Pullers

Science.gov (United States)

... turn Javascript on. "Pictures Are Crowd Pullers …" Art, culture, and the Internet combine to intervene against malaria ... Not ripe mangoes. Not witchcraft. The images and words, which speak directly to local beliefs in villages ...

11- Shoko.pmd

African Journals Online (AJOL)

chifaou.amzat

2011-10-19

Oct 19, 2011 ... explores the relationship between anthropology and sociology as used .... He quotes I.M. Lewis to show that spirit possession and witchcraft represent ... such as serious illness and persistent ailments, misfortune or death.

Superstition, religion and the political / Superstição, religião e o político

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Michel Despland

2011-01-01

religious realms in modern Western civilization, provides us with “a good context for the confrontation with some of the fundamental problems of justice that remain before us today”. Religion as he sees it, therefore, is finally to be understood as psychologically and historically contingent human action. All the same, it takes place over against the irrational-rational background of some philosophically resilient categories: superstition and morality. Resumo/apresentaçãoCientista da religião reconhecido e respeitado em ambientes intelectuais da América do Norte e da Europa, Michel Despland é ainda pouco conhecido pela academia brasileira. Entre suas publicações estão, por exemplo: Kant on history and religion: with a translation of Kant's On the failure of all attempted philosophical theodicies (McGillQueen's University Press, 1973; The education of desire, Plato and the philosophy of religion (University of Toronto Press, 1985; Les hierarchies sont ebranlees, politiques et theologies au XIXe siècle, (Fides, 1998; Comparatisme et Christianisme: questions d'histoire et de methode (L'Harmattan, 2002. No texto ora publicado, apresentado durante o XII Simpósio da Associação Brasileira de História das Religiões (2011, UFJF, o prof. Despland assume a premissa antropológica de que “a religião é algo que as pessoas fazem.” Baseando-se em Espinosa, Despland elege a categoria da “superstição” como um instrumento de análise mais adequado para a análise do religioso do que, por exemplo, a do “sagrado”. O objetivo mais imediato de Despland é primeiramente entender como o próprio Espinosa constrói os âmbitos político e religioso em sua inter-relação, em continuidade e ruptura com as tradições herdadas da teologia política do Ocidente/do cristianismo. A partir daí, ele passa a sondar historiograficamente as dimensões morais e sociais da religião diante do Estado, tanto em suas próprias instituições, quanto no cada vez mais consp

Locus pietatis et vitae II, Vranov u Brna 20.–22. 9. 2010

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Freemanová, Michaela

2010-01-01

Roč. 47, č. 4 (2010), s. 407-409 ISSN 0018-7003. [Locus pietatis et vitae II. Vranov u Brna, 20.09.2010–22.09.2010] Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z90580513 Keywords : history * monastic orders * conference Subject RIV: AL - Art, Architecture, Cultural Heritage

The Sevillian collection of the images of Mercedarians by Zurbarán

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Greta Dzikowska

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The portraits of Mercedarian monks by Francisco de Zurbarán were created for the Sevillian monastery Nuestra Señora de la Merced. The artist sketched images of old-time monks based on the physiognomy of his contemporary models. The surviving paintings characterize in a simplicity of composition. Each canvas shows an image of a monk clothed in a white frock. All the presented members of the order, with the exception of Saint Serapion, are pictured with a tome, which emphasizes the intellectual skills of the selected monk. The images of the Mercedarians, which decorated the walls of monastery rooms, were the reference point, as well as a model, of the monastic life for the generations of men who were taking the veil. Francisco de Zurbarán, with the use of two colours: a dark, almost black, background and a shining white, pictured the spiritual dimension of the images, which sublimated the idea of the monastic life.

Case report

African Journals Online (AJOL)

abp

2016-02-29

&. 1All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India. &Corresponding author: Pratap Kumar Patra, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India. Key words: Branding, harmful, superstition. Received: 15/09/2015 ...

Mass hysteria among South African primary school | Govender ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

South African Family Practice ... Radio stations, such as Radio 702, presented these incidents for discussion and for concerned parents' questions to be answered. In all three episodes, the majority of the affected children were girls. Witchcraft ...

St. Anselm and Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Gillian R.

1976-01-01

Discusses the educational principles and methods of the medieval philosopher and theologian, St. Anselm. Educational practices of medieval monastic schools, town schools, private tutors, and pastoral teaching are discussed. Available from: Taylor & Francis Ltd., P.O. Box 9137, Church Street Station, New York, N.Y. 10049. (Author/DB)

A Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Changes among Thai Adolescents Participating in a Buddhist Ordination Program for Novices.

Science.gov (United States)

Thananart, Montain; Tori, Christopher D.; Emavardhana, Tipawadee

2000-01-01

Adolescent males (N=170) in Thailand were assessed regarding immediate and long-term behavioral, emotional, and devotional consequences of participation in a six-week Buddhist monastic program. Results show changes reported by the youths were highly positive and enduring. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.…

The Startling Phenomenon of the Western Tibetan Buddhist Nun ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The author concludes that despite the difficulty of adopting an ancient Asian religious tradition and transplanting its monastic institution to the West, these nuns have contributed significantly in transforming gender prejudice within the ranks of Tibetan Buddhism, and furthermore render a diversity of services in the lay and ...

Hidden Attraction - The History and Mystery of Magnetism

Science.gov (United States)

Verschuur, Gerrit L.

1996-04-01

Long one of nature's most fascinating phenomena, magnetism was once the subject of many superstitions. Magnets were thought useful to thieves, effective as a love potion, and as a cure for gout or spasms. They could remove sorcery from women and put demons to flight and even reconcile married couples. It was said that a lodestone pickled in the salt of sucking fish had the power to attract gold. Today, these beliefs have been put aside, but magnetism is no less remarkable for our modern understanding of it. In Hidden Attraction , Gerrit L. Verschuur, a noted astronomer and National Book Award nominee for The Invisible Universe , traces the history of our fascination with magnetism, from the mystery and superstition that propelled the first alchemical experiments with lodestone, through the more tangible works of Faraday, Maxwell, Hertz and other great pioneers of magnetism (scientists responsible for the extraordinary advances in modern science and technology, including radio, the telephone, and computers, that characterize the twentieth century), to state-of-the-art theories that see magnetism as a basic force in the universe. Boasting many informative illustrations, this is an adventure of the mind, using the specific phenomenon of magnetism to show how we have moved from an era of superstitions to one in which the Theory of Everything looms on the horizon.

How the families of the victims of suicide through self-incineration ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

incineration was markedly reduced after the events. It is recommended that attention be given especially to the perception of witchcraft being responsible for suicide, and that grief support groups be established in the community to assist affected ...

Cine club

CERN Multimedia

Cine club

2016-01-01

Wednesday 7 September 2016 at 20:00 CERN Council Chamber Häxan (Witchcraft Through the Ages) Directed by Benjamin Christensen Sweden, 1922, 91 minutes Fictionalized documentary showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in modern Europe. Original version Swedish / Danish ; English subtitles Wednesday 14 September 2016 at 20:00 CERN Council Chamber A Sixth Part of the World   Directed by Dziga Vertov Soviet Union, 1926, 77 minutes "Sixth Part of the World" was the size of Soviet Union of the time. Many peoples of many customs composed it. Ice and desert, forest and ocean. Bread, furs, machines. All and everything is a part of great unity. Special event: Silent film with live post-rock music from Belgian neoclassical post-rockers “We Stood Like Kings” http://www.westoodlikekings.com/

Transforming the monastic heritage of Galicia into hotels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alberta Lorenzo Aspres

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The recovery of monuments by means of the allocation of new distinct uses to the original ones is an increasingly frequent practice in the management of architectural heritage. And the number of hotel establishments located in buildings of great historical and/or artistic value is ever growing. The origin of this activity goes back to the beginning of the 20th century with the birth of a consciousness about the importance heritage possessed for the flourishing tourist industry. The creation of a varied state network of accommodations originated a new kind of hotel that it would be installed in run-down buildings which, once restored would regain their utility, achieving to harmonise the protection of the Spanish monumental heritage with the impulse of tourism. This practice quickly spread throughout the whole country, and also throughout Galicia. This research is completing an important part of the study about the impact of tourism and the cultural management in the conservation of the historical-artistic heritage in Galicia: through the analysis of five religious monuments rehabilitated as hotels we’ll see how the abandonment of the real estate supposes the start of its unavoidable ruin, showing that the option of a new use presents itself as the best guarantee for its survival, understanding this act from the perspective of the capacity of the monument to be alive and to participate in the society of the moment.

Convergence of Monastic and Modern Education in Bhutan?

Science.gov (United States)

Denman, Brian D.; Namgyel, Singye

2008-07-01

In the 1960s, the Royal Government of Bhutan began developing its modern educational system. Over time, a strategic plan was formulated to meet Education for All and Millennium Development Goals. In 2003, the Royal University of Bhutan, the country's first university, opened its doors. This paper uses comparative analysis to describe and explore the impact on the development of The Royal University of Bhutan of the national consciousness termed ‹Gross National Happiness'. It is proposed that the university is likely to become a catalyst for development, and an influential representative of and for a cultural identity. Will it become an elite institution? Will the institution offer formal degrees for all who qualify? It is suggested that the issues considered in Bhutan may be of significance for other new universities attempting to establish themselves in the developing world.

The Paranormal: A Selected Bibliography of Serials and Reference Works, with Commentary.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Charles H.

1997-01-01

Provides bibliography of references and serials to assist acquisitions librarians in selection of the paranormal. Topics include alchemy, astrology, magic, conjuring, witchcraft, paganism, demonology, satanism, voodooism, sorcery, cults, shamanism, UFOs, exobiology, curious physical and biological phenomena, ghosts, poltergeists, haunted places,…

Beliefs and attitudes toward Buruli ulcer in Ghana

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stienstra, Y; van der Graaf, WTA; Asamoa, K; van der Werf, TS

Buruli ulcer is a devastating emerging disease in tropical countries. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained by interviewing patients with this disease and control subjects in Ghana. Common perceived causes were witchcraft and curses. Other reported causes were personal hygiene,

OPTIMAL ALLOCATION OF FLOWS (WATER) WITHIN THE VOLTA ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Sir Onassis

read and write alone without scientific literacy will make learners to be victims of superstition and ... evaluation of programme impact. Keywords: ... processes required for personal decision-making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and ...

Pushing the Child Centred Approach in Myanmar: The Role of Cross National Policy Networks and the Effects in the Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Lall, Marie

2011-01-01

In Myanmar schools, rote learning is the norm. International aid and education organisations based in the country have been trying to promote the child centred approach (CCA) as a much more progressive form of teaching and learning. The CCA is being rolled out principally through monastic school networks aided by international and national…

Research

African Journals Online (AJOL)

abp

2017-10-25

Oct 25, 2017 ... stigma and superstition are known to lead to frequent presentation .... The limited documented research on challenges to help-seeking behaviour for cancer ..... to touch your breast [16] that breast self-examination may cause.

Self-Medication

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2012-09-19

Sep 19, 2012 ... Key words: Self-medication, hazards, pregnant women, Nigeria ... these substances range from protection from witches and witchcrafts, preventing ... is common among pregnant women in our environment. .... Although earlier studies have association self-medication with factors such as self-employment, ...

ISLAM IN THE NON-MUSLIM AREAS OF NORTHERN NIGERIA, c

African Journals Online (AJOL)

QUADRI Y A

or bad. Looking at the various theories on witchcraft developed by scholars, three theories ... example, sudden death of a promising young a boy or girl in a community ..... person falls sick, members of the family he/she belongs to will go to.

The astronomer and the witch Johannes Kepler's fight for his mother

CERN Document Server

Rublack, Ulinka

2015-01-01

The extraordinary tale of Johannes Kepler, one of the most admired astronomers of all time, and the six long years spent defending his mother from her neighbours' accusations of witchcraft. A story which takes us to the heart of Kepler's changing world.

Categorizing the Occult: Vodun, Sorcery and Religious Beliefs In Benin

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Strandsbjerg, Camilla

2011-01-01

In everyday life in Benin as well as in academic research on the topic, the terms of vodun, witchcraft and the occult are often used in a non distinct way covering quite similar phenomena while at the same time referring to different kinds of beliefs and practices. The problem of understanding...... confronted with this difficulty. Both because the vodun, as a recognized religion in the country - equal to Islam and Christianity - , plays an important role in society as well as in individual life, but also because all area of social life are on one level or another influenced by beliefs and practices...... characterized as witchcraft or occult. Reflecting upon earlier research and particularly on the choice of terminology of the occult in writing on religion and political change in Benin (PhD thesis 2008), this paper seeks to clarify some of the epistemological, academic and historical reasons that have formed...

Slow Reading: Reading along "Lectio" Lines

Science.gov (United States)

Badley, K. Jo-Ann; Badley, Ken

2011-01-01

The medieval monastic movement preserved and developed reading practices--lectio--from ancient Greek pedagogy as a slow, mindful approach to reading for formation. This ancient way of reading, now better known as lectio divina, challenges the fast, pragmatic reading so characteristic of our time. We propose that the present moment may be ripe for…

The Contemplative Life and the Teaching of the Humanities

Science.gov (United States)

Stock, Brian

2006-01-01

Meditation nowadays plays a part in mind/body medicine and in some branches of educational psychology. In ancient and medieval times, these functions formed a part of the humanities curriculum as it was taught in philosophical schools, monastic communities, and universities. This article claims that it is by returning to a holistic view of the…

Tridentine enclosure gaps. Controversies and Limitations of Policies for Nuns…Still with Felipe IV

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ángela Atienza López

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The Council of Trent ordered that the strict enclosure for nuns should be carried out. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the analysis of those provisions, pointing out that such monastic discipline had a highly questionable success. The process was full of problems. Even one century after Trent, King Felipe IV still cried out to the situation and deployed a political offensive to reach its imposition. The study of these sources allows us to show the Trent enclosure gaps: how the lack of consent was spread even among the elites of secular and ecclesiastical power, and it hampered its implementation; also how the reality of monastic vows and convent life imposed limits hindering its success; how nuns refused and got support from different sectors; and, on the end, how daily practice of enclosure ran through other channels, where stringency rules could be reconsidered in time and place and could meet their arrangements, more or less lenient, and could be negotiated and renegotiated in everyday life, so that strains could be overcome.

ARTICLES

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Campbell Murn

Traders identified the following traits ascribed to vulture remains: treatment of epilepsy, insanity, stroke, ease of delivery in women, spiritual protection against witches and witchcraft, evil spirits, good luck (during gambling, money doubling, competition, contest), to stimulate walking in infants, and to gain supernatural powers.

Natural and Supernatural: Intersections Between the Spiritual and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Natural and Supernatural: Intersections Between the Spiritual and Natural Worlds in African Witchcraft and Healing with Reference to Southern Africa. ... In its presentation of an essentially anthropological case study focused on southern Africa, the paper draws on various ethnographic examples of African communities in ...

Insight into Foreign Thoughtworlds for National Security Decision Makers

Science.gov (United States)

2004-01-01

Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism , their variants, and a host of less widespread traditional and syncretic systems); mystical practices (New Age, witchcraft...at the most nuanced, sophisticated end of the spectrum. But more easily comprehensible examples may be found in tastes for food (e.g., for certain

Augustiniánská knihovna u sv. Tomáše v Praze. II. část: Období reformace a protireformace (do konce 17. století)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sladká, Veronika

2017-01-01

Roč. 24, 1/2 (2017), s. 29-66 ISSN 1210-8510 Institutional support: RVO:67985971 Keywords : the Augustinian monastery at St Thomas in Prague * monastic libraries * provenance research * early modern period Subject RIV: AB - History OBOR OECD: History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)

No religion and an end to war: how thinkers see the future

CERN Multimedia

Jha, Alok

2007-01-01

"People's fascination for religion and superstition will disappear within a few decades as television and the internet make it easier to get information, and scientists get closer to discovering a final theroy of everything, leading thinkers argue today." (1,5 page)

Joan of Arc: Sanctity, witchcraft or epilepsy?

Science.gov (United States)

Nicastro, Nicolas; Picard, Fabienne

2016-04-01

The objective of this article is to describe whether Joan of Arc had epilepsy and how that may have influenced her sense of mission and ability to encourage thousands of people to help her to chase the English out of France. Documentation of her Trial of Condemnation in 1431 provides a description of her episodes of experienced voices and visions. From the age of thirteen, Joan of Arc experienced frequent episodes of auditory hallucinations associated with elementary or complex visual hallucinations (e.g., a great light or human faces). These had sudden onset, lasting seconds or minutes at most, and occurred when awake or during sleep, arousing her. Some could be triggered by an auditory stimulus. She had no disorganized thought between the episodes. The semiology of the episodes is very suggestive of epileptic seizures, which have been considered as ecstatic by some authors or as partial epilepsy with auditory features by others, which seems more concordant with the ictal symptoms. The auditory and visual hallucinations could have had a religious content because during her childhood and adolescence, she was brought up in a religious environment, insomuch as this content first undefined only appeared after a few seizures. We can suppose that such hallucinations, without the knowledge of their medical origin, gave her a sense of divine mission, hence, a real strength to try to accomplish the orders she heard during the episodes. Her role during the Hundred Years' War and her narration of her strange episodes led her to be burned for heresy at the age of nineteen, yet rehabilitated 25 years later and to be canonized for her achievements in 1920. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Epilepsy, Art, and Creativity". Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Summary of Research. 1996-1997

Science.gov (United States)

1997-10-01

female history--whether of the family, economy, religion , participation are delineated. witchcraft, popular culture, or political culture--is the The...de Amescua en candelero. Actas del Congreso Internacional sobre Mira de Amescua y el teatro español del siglo XVII, Granada, 27-30 de octubre de

Chol understandings of suicide and human agency.

Science.gov (United States)

Imberton, Gracia

2012-06-01

According to ethnographic material collected since 2003, the Chol Mayan indigenous people in southern Mexico have different causal explanations for suicide. It can be attributed to witchcraft that forces victims to take their lives against their own will, to excessive drinking, or to fate determined by God. However, it can also be conceived of as a conscious decision made by a person overwhelmed by daily problems. Drawing from the theoretical framework developed by Laura M. Ahearn, inspired by practice theory, the paper contends that these different explanations operate within two different logics or understandings of human agency. The first logic attributes responsibility to supernatural causes such as witchcraft or divine destiny, and reflects Chol notions of personhood. The second logic accepts personal responsibility for suicide, and is related to processes of social change such as the introduction of wage labor, education and a market economy. The contemporary Chol resort to both logics to make sense of the human drama of suicide.

The Javanese Lunar Calendar’s Effect on Indonesian Stock Returns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robiyanto, Robiyanto

2015-08-01

Full Text Available It is very possible for an investor to take a decision based on superstitions and common beliefs. Actually, Indonesia has a specific calendar system called the Javanese lunar calendar. The Javanese calendar contains several special days because of their sacred characteristics such as “Kamis Wage” (Thursday Wage and “Jum’at Kliwon” (Friday Kliwon. The day of Friday Kliwon is often considered to be the most frightening which is similar to Friday the Thirteenth in Western culture. This study tried to scrutinize the impact of those sacred days on Indonesian stock returns. By applying GARCH-M, the finding shows that the Javanese lunar calendar does not have any impact on the Indonesian stock returns, but does affect the investors’ risk aversion level. This study has proven that, in terms of risk aversion, investors’ behavior in Indonesia is influenced by superstition.

Cost Effectiveness Study of Wastewater Management Systems for Selected U.S. Coast Guard Vessels. Volume I. Results of Cost and Effectiveness Analyses and Selection of Optimum Candidate Systems

Science.gov (United States)

1977-04-01

extreme is the viewpoint that such analyses are modern types of witchcraft, or numerology , practiced by a priestly cast. Results and con- clusions... numerology . 3 Although such a simple buying strategy may b, adequate for products which are used or consumed at the time of purchase or soon thereafter

Religion and politics in sub-Saharan Africa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ellis, S.D.K.; Haar, Gerrie ter

1998-01-01

In the considerable number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa in which political institutions have largely broken down, religious discourse can be seen as an attempted remedy by means of a reordering of power. The numerous popular texts on witchcraft and other perceived forms of evil reflect the

Believing what we do not believe: Acquiescence to superstitious beliefs and other powerful intuitions.

Science.gov (United States)

Risen, Jane L

2016-03-01

Traditionally, research on superstition and magical thinking has focused on people's cognitive shortcomings, but superstitions are not limited to individuals with mental deficits. Even smart, educated, emotionally stable adults have superstitions that are not rational. Dual process models--such as the corrective model advocated by Kahneman and Frederick (2002, 2005), which suggests that System 1 generates intuitive answers that may or may not be corrected by System 2--are useful for illustrating why superstitious thinking is widespread, why particular beliefs arise, and why they are maintained even though they are not true. However, to understand why superstitious beliefs are maintained even when people know they are not true requires that the model be refined. It must allow for the possibility that people can recognize--in the moment--that their belief does not make sense, but act on it nevertheless. People can detect an error, but choose not to correct it, a process I refer to as acquiescence. The first part of the article will use a dual process model to understand the psychology underlying magical thinking, highlighting features of System 1 that generate magical intuitions and features of the person or situation that prompt System 2 to correct them. The second part of the article will suggest that we can improve the model by decoupling the detection of errors from their correction and recognizing acquiescence as a possible System 2 response. I suggest that refining the theory will prove useful for understanding phenomena outside of the context of magical thinking. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Приметы И Их ВерБализация В Tрадициях Двух Славянских Народов : Культурологический И Прагмалингвистический Аспекты

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Норман Борис

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The article deals with folk superstitions (predictions, beliefs common in Russian society, and the corresponding stereotypical expressions, such as: Кончик носа чешется - в рюмку смотреть; Не ешь с ножа - сердитым будешь; Через порог не здороваются; (when starting a journey Присядем на дорожку, etc. The authors show that these expressions are used with a special phatic function: their purpose is to neutralize, to smooth the effects of an uncomfortable situation (something was broken, someone took somebody for someone else, someone hiccupped, any other unpleasant happening, etc.. Therefore, these folk expressions serve as sociolinguistic factors, optimizing the course of a dialogue. The author also gives examples of the “new” superstitions that imitate already known models and that were created with a special game purpose (like Ходить на работу - к деньгам. Examples from Russian fiction and Internet sources are provided. The facts of Russian discourse are compared with the examples from the Czech language and the national specificity of the superstitions is discussed in the article.

To poeticize or the necessary superstition of language

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Antonio Santiago Sánchez

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This article attempts to theorize about poetry, proposing a immanent and entirely practical basis, and even vital in its most adaptive sense, from certain concepts as habituality, habitability (Juan Bautista Fuentes, ritornelo (Deleuze, kairós, mimesis and poiein (from the Greek tradition or Stimmung (Heidegger in which the final concepts of beauty and truth are framed. This, in turn, requires to grow apart from a visionary and metaphysical poetry, and to apply the language, be it poetic or not, understood as “superstition” of reality.

Marriage, Tradition and Superstition in Flora Nwapa's Efuru ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

tammy

To further put the woman in position of gender inequality, the man weaves such superstitious .... She is childless. As a highly revered institution in traditional Africa, the purpose for marriage ... view of African female image in our literature.

Do public attitudes affect conservation effort? Using a questionnaire ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Globally, amphibians are among the least appreciated vertebrates and are often negatively perceived by the general public. Such attitudes are particularly prevalent in South Africa, where fear, superstitions and myths associated with frogs are pervasive in some cultures. These attitudes could have harmful consequences ...

Rural development in Nigera: Problems and remedies | Eteng ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Rural development in Nigeria constitutes a fundamental problem. Over the years, rural development has been neglected. Rural areas are regarded as abodes of diseases, superstition, poverty, lethargy, low income and low productivity. This problem, which is primarily due to government non sustainable policy action ...

Batswana audience and the Thokolosi television drama controversy ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In February 2006, Botswana Television (BTV) screened a commissioned television drama series entitled Thokolosi. This drama series, which deals with witchcraft, is set in a. Botswana village called Bobonong. The contents of the drama series in relation to the village attracted criticisms from the public, which culminated in a ...

"Solid All the Way Through": Margaret Mahy's Ordinary Witches

Science.gov (United States)

Waller, Alison

2004-01-01

In "The Haunting," "The Changeover," and "The Tricksters," Margaret Mahy fuses supernatural iconography of witchcraft and magic with images of ordinary and domestic adolescence. This article argues that Mahy's "fantastic realism" illuminates aspects of female teenage experience through a blend of myth, fairy tale, folklore and history, as well as…

Big Rock Candy Mountain. Resources for Our Education. A Learning to Learn Catalog. Winter 1970.

Science.gov (United States)

Portola Inst., Inc., Menlo Park, CA.

Imaginative learning resources of various types are reported in this catalog under the subject headings of process learning, education environments, classroom materials and methods, home learning, and self discovery. Books reviewed are on the subjects of superstition, Eastern religions, fairy tales, philosophy, creativity, poetry, child care,…

View of Advertising Practitioners

OpenAIRE

O'Keeffe, Peter

2016-01-01

I am concerned to make the case for the rights and liberties to communicate commercial advertising messages to children. Consequenlly, I am amused by the identification of advertising with witchcraft; witches ceased to be burned a long time ago. However, this comparison, illustrates the excessive concern shown about how strangely influential advertising is.

The Pholela Health Centre - the origins of community-oriented ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An appreciation of the work of Sidney and Emily Kark ... article gives a detailed account of the context, work and methodologies used at ..... the examples underline the value of regular generation of ... Mean weekly weights of healthy Pholela infants 0 • 1 y~ar,. 1941 - 45 ... further complicated by persisting beliefs in witchcraft.

Five Lessons of a Dumbledore Education

Science.gov (United States)

Music, Rusmir; Agans, Lyndsay J.

2007-01-01

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the world of Harry Potter may help educators re-imagine their daily work and provide good reminders that intentional formal and informal mentoring, informed by educational theory, play an essential role in student learning and development. Mentoring principles at Hogwarts flow from Albus Dumbledore,…

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation: biomedical and biophysical analysis (Chapter XXX)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Noordergraaf, G.J; Ottesen, Johnny T.; Scheffer, G.J.

2004-01-01

The evolution of the human in caring for others is reflected in the development of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Superstition, divine intervention and finally science have contributed to the development of a technique which may allow any person to save another’s life. Fully 50% of the firs...

Science and Sanity in Special Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Dammann, James E.; Vaughn, Sharon

2001-01-01

This article describes the usefulness of a scientific approach to improving knowledge and practice in special education. Of four approaches to knowledge (superstition, folklore, craft, and science), craft and science are supported and implications for special education drawn including the need to bridge the gulf between research knowledge and…

The Relationship between African Traditional Cosmology and Students' Acquisition of a Science Process Skill.

Science.gov (United States)

Jegede, Olugbemiro J.; Okebukola, Peter Akinsola

1991-01-01

The supposition that observational skills can be influenced by students' belief in traditional African cosmology, beliefs, and superstitions was investigated. Students with a high level of belief in African traditional cosmology made fewer correct observations on the Traditional Cosmology Test (TCT) and the Test of Observational Skills (TOS) as…

Socio-economic and cultural functions of goats in Niger Delta of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Results showed that goat keeping was not popular in the study area because the people did not cherish goat meat; they see goats as destructive, dirty, and often associated with witchcraft. Forty-six percent of the respondents practised free range, and 18 per cent confined their goats. Goats were, however, found to be widely ...

The Specter of Salem in American Culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Gretchen A.

2003-01-01

Focuses on the impact of the Salem (Massachusetts) witchcraft trials on U.S. society over the centuries, particularly in relation to the trials as a metaphor for persecution and witch-hunting. Explores different events in history, such as the anti-communism evident in the 1950's and abolitionism during the U.S. Civil War. (CMK)

Harry Potter Pedagogy: What We Learn about Teaching and Learning from J. K. Rowling

Science.gov (United States)

Dickinson, Renee

2006-01-01

Being a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is not very enchanted. Despite all of its charms, Hogwarts still requires its students to attend class, read books, write exercises, take tests, and be graded on a competitive scale. The teachers do not use veritaserum to check students' homework or studiousness. Nor do students…

Harry Potter Versus Muggles: Literary Criticism and Legal Challenge

Science.gov (United States)

Carney, John; DeMitchell, Todd

2005-01-01

J. K. Rowling's series about the young, orphaned Harry Potter who escapes his often hostile, nonmagical Muggle (or human) existence for a world of ghosts, spells, and potions, magical objects, and exotic creatures to be found at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has captivated a worldwide audience. Since the publication in England of…

EDITORIAL

African Journals Online (AJOL)

has also challenged dogma and used clinical audit to replace surgical superstition with solid evidence-based praxis. Whilst the academic output of surgery in general from South. Africa has waned over the last twenty years, trauma surgery has remained a bastion of academic excellence in a sea of mediocrity and anecdote.

On Dragon and Turkeys: Physics for Future Citizens

Science.gov (United States)

Colletti, Leonardo

2010-01-01

Too often teachers describe physics solely as a technical discipline, which contributes concretely to changing our material world. In a society where prejudices and superstitions still play an important, sometimes tragic, role, there is much more to emphasise about physics. A physics teacher should introduce high school students to physics by…

Harry Potter and the Ghost Teacher: Resurrecting the Lost Art of Lecturing

Science.gov (United States)

McDaniel, Kathryn N.

2010-01-01

A significant image of classroom lectures is the one presented in J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series. At Harry's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the most torturous class is easily History of Magic, which is, incidentally, the only class in the school taught by a ghost. Being taught by a ghost could be quite exciting: not so in…

Flight and abduction in witchcraft and UFO lore.

Science.gov (United States)

Musgrave, J B; Houran, J

2000-04-01

The lore surrounding the mythical Witches' Sabbat and contemporary reports of UFO abductions share three main characteristics: the use of masks, the appearance of "Men in Black," and references to flight and abduction. We review these three commonalities with particular focus on the aspect of flight and abduction. We argue that narratives of the Witches' Sabbat and UFO abductions share the same basic structure, common symbolism, and serve the same psychological needs of providing a coherent explanation for anomalous (ambiguous) experiences while simultaneously giving the experient a sense of freedom, release, and escape from the self. This pattern of similarities suggests the possibility that UFO abductions are a modern version of tales of flight to the Sabbat.

1 SEX, WITCHCRAFT AND POLITICS IN TANZANIAN KISWAHILI ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Prof Alex C Asigbo

prominent filmmakers, this article analyses the nature of Kiswahili filmmaking in .... film makers. Such attitude has a notable effect on the growth of the video film .... The National Film Censorship Board (NFCB), or Film Board as popularly known ...

Prevalence and Patterns of Gender Violence: Major Variables in the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Polygyny (78%) and cultural belief, traditional values and superstitions (75%) were responsible for the exposure of women to HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. The first hypothesis which states that there will be a significant difference in the perception of gender violence based on type of occupation was accepted and the second which ...

Beyond the Stethoscope

African Journals Online (AJOL)

peek into the daily vicissitudes of the lives of their people – family intrigues, religious rituals, superstition, love and marriage, the challenges of Western assimilation, and even murder. As a township GP who regularly made house calls and was routinely relied upon for counsel, PN inevitably became em broiled in numerous, ...

Espacios de espiritualidad: el monasterio de Moreruela

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Bueno Domínguez, María Luisa

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Santa María de Moreruela was a Monastery of the Cistercian Order built in Zamora lands.. This study starts in the situation of this monastery that I consider it is important to approach us –by means of the solitude of the place– to the basic rules of Monastic life: it is said Loneliness, Silence and Poverty. This work doesn´t pretend to study the monastery in itself but to find through it, the essence and spirit of monastic life. I want to tansmit that the Silence allows the monks to hear to themselves and to get in touch with their private life with God.Santa María de Moreruela fue un monasterio de la Orden Cisterciense en tierras zamoranas. El estudio parte de la ubicación de este monasterio, que considero importante para poder acercarnos, por medio de la soledad del lugar, a los elementos básicos de la vida monacal: Soledad, silencio y pobreza. No se trata de estudiar el monasterio citado, sino que, a través de él, se pueda uno encontrar con la esencia y el espíritu del monacato. Transmitir que el silencio permite al monje escucharse a si mismo y ponerse en contacto en su intimidad con Dios.

Watching the witching world: The role of superstition in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

films, part of my intention is not only to draw attention to the Malawian filmmaking .... In line with the traditional storytelling structure, the force of good needs an antagonist in the .... one meddles with such power, for very little gain. One thing that ...

Geographies of superstition, myths, freedom: Ibsen and Northern Norway

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Wenche Torrissen

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Ibsen visited Northern Norway only once in his lifetime and this was in the summer of 1891. Despite this fact, Ibsen was preoccupied with the North both as symbolic and geographical locations throughout his whole literary career. Why? This article will explore how the North is represented in Ibsen’s prose plays. It will assess whether Ibsen contributed to confirm already existing images of the North or whether he contributed to the construction of new images. The article will also explore how Ibsen used images of the North to construct meaning for contemporary audiences.

Hidden attraction the history and mystery of magnetism

CERN Document Server

Verschuur, Gerrit L

1996-01-01

Long one of nature''s most fascinating phenomena, magnetism was once the subject of many superstitions. Magnets were thought useful to thieves, effective as a love potion or as a cure for gout or spasms. They could remove sorcery from women and put demons to flight and even reconcile married couples. It was said that a lodestone pickled in the salt of sucking fish had the power to attract gold. Today, these beliefs have been put aside, but magnetism is no less remarkable for our modern understanding of it. In Hidden Attraction, Gerrit L. Verschuur, a noted astronomer and National Book Award nominee for The Invisible Universe, traces the history of our fascination with magnetism, from the first discovery of magnets in Greece, to state-of-the-art theories that see magnetism as a basic force in the universe. The book begins with the early debunking of superstitions by Peter Peregrinus (Pierre de Maricourt), whom Roger Bacon hailed as one of the world''s first experimental scientists (Perigrinus held that "experi...

Tydskrif vir letterkunde - Vol 48, No 1 (2011)

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Endogenous and exogenous factors in national development: inferences from the metaphor of witchcraft (Àjé) in Olátúbòsún O.ládàpò.'s poetry. EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT. GO Ajibade. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v48i1.63828 ...

The Christianization as the strategy of resistance: the representation of indigenous Christians in the art of the sixteenth century

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José Luis Pérez Flores

2015-11-01

Full Text Available In this article I will discuss the importance for indigenous charged under Spanish rule, represent themselves as Christians. I will show that after the conquest was compelling acquire legitimacy as a devout Christian; for this native attended the images codices and monastic mural painting, I will relate the cultural and political contexts with information from written sources and visual sources contained in tlaxcaltecas codices and the convent wall painting.

Gender-based Restrictions in Tourism: An Example of the Phenomenon of Avaton in the Modern Socio-cultural Expanse

OpenAIRE

Kapilevich, L.V.; Karvounis, Y.A.

2015-01-01

The article deals with the problems of the impact of tourism, including pilgrimage, on the socio-cultural environment of modern society, changes and reformatting of the gender restrictions of religious content. Investigated the access restrictions based on gender to objects of tourist interest as an example of socio-religious phenomenon “avaton” monastic republic of Athos in Northern Greece. Avaton regarded as a characteristic example of the alignment and sustained physical boundaries of the ...

The curer as cultural intermediary in southern Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Golomb, L

1984-01-01

A glimpse at the life of an illustrious Buddhist monastic curer in Pattani, Thailand, reveals a significant multiethnic component of Southeast Asia's traditional medical systems. The prominence of this curer and the prosperity of his monastery derive in large part from his command of alien occult knowledge, which he uses to combat outside supernatural aggression. The paper concludes with a discussion of how centers of outside magical power are conceptualized among various groups in Thailand.

Escrituras de Oseira (AHN sin relación con este monasterio (S. XI-XVI

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Romaní Martínez, Miguel

2005-12-01

Full Text Available The edition of nine monastic documents never published previously in any form, belonging to the Osera fund, but without any apparent relation to this monastery, increases the knowledge about the referred monasteries.

La edición de nueve documentos monásticos inéditos pertenecientes al fondo de Oseira, pero sin relación aparente con este monasterio, complementará el conocimiento de los monasterios referidos.

Reflexões sobre o gênero e o monacato hispânico medieval

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Andréia Cristina Lopes Frazão

2010-01-01

Full Text Available From a presentation of the main approaches to the study of medieval hispanic monasticism, this article provides theoretical and methodological reflections and exposes the dilemmas resulting from the use of gender category to the study of monastic life. Such reflections are associated with the research that I am developping, which is scoped to the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla into two periods: 1076-1109 and 1227-1265.

Projet de corpus des monastères français

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Noëlle Deflou-Leca

2008-07-01

Full Text Available État des lieuxChacun connaît ce « travail de bénédictin » que représente le Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés de dom Laurent-Henri Cottineau. Publié à Mâcon en deux volumes en 1939, trois ans après la mort de son auteur, l’ouvrage a été récemment réimprimé par Brepols (Turnhout, 1996. Un troisième volume, regroupant les indispensables indices et bibliographies, est paru à Mâcon en 1970 sous la responsabilité de dom Grégoire Poras.Cette somme, tout en s’inscrivant dans la...

[Attitudes of medieval doctors on birth].

Science.gov (United States)

Lallouette, Anne-Laure

2009-01-01

In the towns practitioners taught midwives whoses attendance is noticed in well-known texts. Labour rooms might have been in lazarettos from the thirteenth century. Practice of delivery by Salerne's School was uncertain and heavy with superstition as the child birth's time was considered with fear of unknown forces and Chauliac's work seemed important during this period.

Public attitudes to organ donation in South Africa | Pike | South ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Public attitudes to organ donation may be influenced by cultural beliefs as well as racial prejudices and superstitions. In South Africa we are able to examine these issues from both a Firstand a Third-World perspective. In this study the attitudes of 1 299 urban white, 625 rural black and 826 urban black South Africans were ...

MYSTICISM AND MENTAL HEALTH : A CRITICAL DIALOGUE

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2010-04-12

Apr 12, 2010 ... Patients and physicians have begun to realize the value of ... health and quality of life has led to research in this field in an attempt to ... has caught both social scientists and religious leaders by surprise, albeit for ... self-delusion at best, or a form of uncritical superstition at worst, issues of authority arise.

Analysis of the Socio-Educational Dimension of the Cuban Woman in Negra of Wendy Guerra

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Pilar Navarro Galiano

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This job is based on the novel written by the author Wendy Guerra, Negra. Firstly, a study about social and education situation of the cuban woman since the colonial phase to the present day is accomplished as well. Finally, the main topics in her novel Negra such as racism, sex, witchcraft, music, magic and religion will be analysed.

[1848: Gregor Mendel, the monk who wanted to be a citizen].

Science.gov (United States)

Nivet, Christiane

2006-04-01

This article proposes a previously unpublished French translation of a petition, in German, addressed by six Augustinian friars to the Constitutional Parliament of Vienna in the revolutionary year 1848. The petition states that members of religious orders are deprived of civil rights and demands that they be given citizenship ; it also contains a bitter attack on the monastic institution. We suggest that Mendel was the author of this text, which he signed and actually hand-wrote.

SEM–EDS analysis of copper, glass and iron recovered from the 1st century AD shipwreck site off Godawaya, Southern Sri Lanka

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Chandraratne, W.M.; Gaur, A.S.; Rao, B.R.; Bhushan, R.; Muthucumarana, R.; Manders, M.; Khedekar, V.D.; Dayananda, A.M.A.

contaminants8, thus indicating different source materials. During the Harappan times, Khetri mines of Rajast- han, India, had been a major source of copper in addition to Oman and UAE in the Gulf region9. The copper alloy in the present study is composed... to Godawaya, there are famous monasteries at Mahanavulupura and Ramba monastic complexes, which have been either exca- vated or thoroughly explored. Results of these studies indicate active maritime activity in the historical and medieval periods...

Multiple 3d Approaches for the Architectural Study of the Medieval Abbey of Cormery in the Loire Valley

Science.gov (United States)

Pouyet, T.

2017-02-01

This paper will focus on the technical approaches used for a PhD thesis regarding architecture and spatial organization of benedict abbeys in Touraine in the Middle Ages, in particular the abbey of Cormery in the heart of the Loire Valley. Monastic space is approached in a diachronic way, from the early Middle Ages to the modern times using multi-sources data: architectural study, written sources, ancient maps, various iconographic documents… Many scales are used in the analysis, from the establishment of the abbeys in a territory to the scale of a building like the tower-entrance of the church of Cormery. These methodological axes have been developed in the research unit CITERES for many years and the 3D technology is now used to go further along in that field. The recording in 3D of the buildings of the abbey of Cormery allows us to work at the scale of the monastery and to produce useful data such as sections or orthoimages of the ground and the walls faces which are afterwards drawn and analysed. The study of these documents, crossed with the other historical sources, allowed us to emphasize the presence of walls older than what we thought and to discover construction elements that had not been recognized earlier and which enhance the debate about the construction date St Paul tower and associated the monastic church.

The Wheels of Watermills and the Wheel of Fortune

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Osvaldo Cavallar

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Along with two well rehearsed quaestiones disputatae, Bartolus de Saxoferrato’s repetitio ad l. Quominus constitutes the cornerstone of the medieval elaboration of legal issues relating to rivers. Ranging from the construction of watermills to protective embankments, and from the maintenance of water canals to the reconstruction of run-down structures, the eighteen questions of the repetitio prepared students for situations they would likely encounter when practising law. A legal opinion (consilium penned by one of Bartolus’ disciples, Donato Aldighieri, in response to the doubts the Abbot of Vallombrosa had concerning damage inflicted on his monastic estate by the Arno river, illustrates the legal fertility of Bartolus’ seminal discussion. In addition, the consilium also attests to the complexity of the efforts of a medieval commune, Florence in this specific case, to gain control of a resource like the Arno, essential for the economic development of the city. Unable to shoulder alone the financial burden of preventing floods, the commune had no other option than to enlist the help and know-how of a monastic institution. Though the whole city benefited from the preventive work of the monks, the new embankment engendered an unexpected conflict with other adjacent land owners. The politically prominent Donato was called in to negotiate the abbot’s rights against the claims of the adjacent owners and the policy of the city.

Political Science: Witchcraft or Craftsmanship? Standards for Good Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørgaard, Asbjørn Sonne

2008-01-01

Scientific debate requires a common understanding of what constitutes good research. The purpose of this article is to establish such an understanding. The purpose of political science is to uncover, understand and explain the conformist aspect of social behavior, well aware that not all behavior...... is systematically determined by society. Good political science ought to be grounded in two questions: What do we know, and what are we going to learn? Research question and theory are decisive, while all discussion about methodology and design is about subjecting our prejudices and expectations to the most...

The Greek evil eye, African witchcraft, and Western ethnocentrism

African Journals Online (AJOL)

p1243322

often projected onto non-Western cultures resulting in the problem of ethnocentrism. ..... were most susceptible to the evil eye, as were children, work places and animals .... The priest then holds the candidate upright, looks to the east and.

Sociology of religion and the occult revival

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Lennart Ejerfeldt

1975-01-01

Full Text Available The "new" that makes the cults of the occult revival to "new religions" of the Western world, is their recently increased social significance. Historically most of modern occultism is anything but new. From the research and theorizing about the occult revival we have picked up some main themes. The first is the social diffusion of the new occultism. In this field, we find some studies of superstition, especially astrology. These illuminate the differences in social connotation between the consumers of superstition and the followers of institutional religion. Secondly the study of the occult revival has made valuable contributions to the conceptualizing of "cult" and the cultic phenomenon. Thirdly, we will look upon the connection between the occult revival and the counter-culture. The problem of the rise of cults as a symptom of socio-cultural change will be briefly discussed with reference to Bell's thesis of "the disjuntion of culture and social structure". Lastly, we proffer some reflections on the occult revival and the new spiritual trends in the churches, which so sharply contrast with the theology and churchmanship of the sixties.

PENDIDIKAN MUHAMMADIYAH YANG BERKEMAJUAN BERBASIS KESANTUNAN BERBAHASA (Studi Perkembangan Amaliah Syariah Islam di Desa Karang Puluhan

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Abdul Ngalim

2015-05-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to describe the development of Islamic Shari'a charity in Karang Puluhan, Jatinom District, Klaten regency. Especially with regard to improvement of Muhammadiyah education, both informal and formal Muhammadiyah. Descriptive qualitative method. Data Obtained by experience seeing facts (empiric, observations, and the phenomenon of life in society Generally, and in particular Muhammadiyah members. Technique analysis, interpretation and interaction. There are three things as a result of research. (1 The process of improvement stems from Muhammadiyah education looked Efforts to change the system and improving the quality of life of human resources is still limited level of education, low economic situation, as well as Islamic law combines running with superstition, heresy , and  superstition (TBC Became feasible level of education, and the economy, as well as running the Islamic Shari'a, without confounding with tuberculosis. (2 The process of education to produce graduates who are godly, Lotty character, intelligent, skilled and responsible, Among the which requires effective communication concepts (Appropriate and efficient (maximum effort and prayer, the result is optimal. (3 The effective communication, Including the selection of politeness language, and can be studied in Islamic socio-pragmatics.

Microearthquake Study of the Salton Sea Geothermal Field, California: Evidence of Stress Triggering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holland, Austin A.

2002-01-01

A digital network of 24 seismograph stations was operated from September 15, 1987 to September 30, 1988, by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Unocal as part of the Salton Sea Scientific Drilling Project to study seismicity related to tectonics and geothermal activity near the drilling site. More than 2001 microearthquakes were relocated in this study in order to image any pervasive structures that may exist within the Salton Sea geothermal field. First, detailed velocity models were obtained through standard 1-D inversion techniques. These velocity models were then used to relocate events using both single event methods and Double-Differencing, a joint hypocenter location method. An anisotropic velocity model was built from anisotropy estimates obtained from well logs within the study area. During the study period, the Superstition Hills sequence occurred with two moderate earthquakes of MS 6.2 and MS 6.6. These moderate earthquakes caused a rotation of the stress field as observed from the inversion of first motion data from microearthquakes at the Salton Sea geothermal field. Coulomb failure analysis also indicates that microearthquakes occurring after the Superstition Hills sequence are located within a region of stress increase suggesting stress triggering caused by the moderate earthquakes

Understanding the role of public belief systems in perceptions of bio-physical, socioeconomic and cultural-spiritual vulnerabilities through the use of an emergent analytical framework

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Nortje, Karen

2011-01-01

Full Text Available and Spiritual Markers ? Belief in ancestors and witchcraft ? Myths and legends ? Cultural practises influence how people use natural resources ? Sacred spaces/animals and plants ? Local Knowledge ? Culturally embedded ? Contrasts and duality ? Between... bio-medicine and traditional healing ? Religious duality ? Younger generations? dis/interest in traditions ? City life vs. village life ? Old vs. new ito education ? Old vs. new ? Hierarchy of access ? Trust/belief in traditional leadership...

Cultural practice of the Midzichenda at cross roads:

OpenAIRE

Tinga, Kaingu Kalume

2012-01-01

This paper discusses the conflicts between some cultural practices of the Midzichenda (i. e. divination, healing and witchcraft) and the Kenyan Law. For decades, diviners and healers have been misconceived and condemned wholesale as `witchdoctors´, `wizards´ or `witches´. This misconception has seen many innocent diviners and healers mercilessly arrested, hurriedly arraigned in court, heavily fined and (or) eventually imprisoned, and their paraphernalia confiscated and finally destroyed by th...

Treatment of elephantiasis of the leg by fasciotomy and lymphangiectomy with skin preservation in a resource-limited setting: a case report and review.

Science.gov (United States)

Kibadi, K

2018-02-01

The author reports the surgical management of a patient with elephantiasis of the leg in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A fasciotomy and lymphangiectomy with skin preservation, combined with compression therapy, resulted in significant cosmetic, functional, and social improvement. Although challenging in a resource-limited setting, development of surgical management may make it possible to reduce beliefs that elephantiasis is incurable or due to witchcraft and may reduce time to consultation.

Area Handbook Series Kenya, A Country Study,

Science.gov (United States)

1983-06-01

preferred change by constitutional means. Discontent in Nairobi, however, caused by mounting unemploy - ment, brought control of political activities...two weeks later. His funeral was turned into a violent demonstration of opposition to the government by students and the unemployed . Many Kenyans...exercise psychic power that enables them to harm others. They may be either men or women, but more often it is women who are accused of witchcraft

Autism = Death: The social and medical impact of a catastrophic medical model of autistic spectrum disorders

OpenAIRE

Waltz, Mitzi

2008-01-01

This discussion interrogates the continuing impact of the pervasive and persistent usage of debilitating metaphors perpetuating ‘historical’ superstitions, myths and beliefs surrounding disability. This article examines the real-life consequences of the power exercised through the deployment of derogatory metaphors and their very real effects on care and treatment decisions. The article illuminates how diagnostic categories and their associative metaphors work to situate boundaries of nor...

The Spell of Homo Informaticus: Two Superstitions and Three Dreams

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marius Povilas Saulauskas

2000-01-01

Full Text Available Even at the dawn of a full-fledged information society Homo Informaticus as well as its netted counterpart - Homo Irretitus - already carries a handful of badly compatible fears and hopes. First, anxieties about an inevitable desolation of habitual patterns of human interaction and values,as well as an inexorably impending threat of horrifying global control. Second, evergreen optimism of rapidly approaching egalitarian era under the pledge of free universal access to information, cornucopian abundance of all imaginable material and spiritual goods, and unrestricted reign of knowledge once for all overthrowing unjust orders of power and brute force. The article puts under the close scrutiny the key pro et contra arguments involved in the theoretical articulation of these basic attitudes and examines the topical question: why can neither the dreadful fears nor the gay hopes of Homo Irretitus be reasonably sustained in the face of critical inquiry?

Interpretation of shallow crustal structure of the Imperial Valley, California, from seismic reflection profiles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Severson, L.K.

1987-05-01

Eight seismic reflection profiles (285 km total length) from the Imperial Valley, California, were provided to CALCRUST for reprocessing and interpretation. Two profiles were located along the western margin of the valley, five profiles were situated along the eastern margin and one traversed the deepest portion of the basin. These data reveal that the central basin contains a wedge of highly faulted sediments that thins to the east. Most of the faulting is strike-slip but there is evidence for block rotations on the scale of 5 to 10 kilometers within the Brawley Seismic Zone. These lines provide insight into the nature of the east and west edges of the Imperial Valley. The basement at the northwestern margin of the valley, to the north of the Superstition Hills, has been normal-faulted and blocks of basement material have ''calved'' into the trough. A blanket of sediments has been deposited on this margin. To the south of the Superstition Hills and Superstition Mountain, the top of the basement is a detachment surface that dips gently into the basin. This margin is also covered by a thick sequence sediments. The basement of the eastern margin consists of metamorphic rocks of the upper plate of the Chocolate Mountain Thrust system underlain by the Orocopia Schist. These rocks dip to the southeast and extend westward to the Sand Hills Fault but do not appear to cross it. Thus, the Sand Hills Fault is interpreted to be the southern extension of the San Andreas Fault. North of the Sand Hills Fault the East Highline Canal seismicity lineament is associated with a strike-slip fault and is probably linked to the Sand Hills Fault. Six geothermal areas crossed by these lines, in agreement with previous studies of geothermal reservoirs, are associated with ''faded'' zones, Bouguer gravity and heat flow maxima, and with higher seismic velocities than surrounding terranes.

Precios y crisis en una economía rioplatense. Santa Fe (1790-1850

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Carina Frid

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This study examines price evolution in Santa Fe district (Rio de la Plata since the late years of colonial domination (when Santa Fe’s prices converged with regional prices to mid-nineteenth century. Monastic sources provided information of prices of commodities (cattle, hides, wheat as well as prices of consumption goods (sugar, tobacco, yerba mate, wine, aguardiente, salt, grease, tallow, canvas. Long-term prices and price indexes offer new evidence both of inflationary cycles as well as economic breakdown from 1815 to 1850.

The historical supernovae

CERN Document Server

Clark, David H

1977-01-01

The Historical Supernovae is an interdisciplinary study of the historical records of supernova. This book is composed of 12 chapters that particularly highlight the history of the Far East. The opening chapter briefly describes the features of nova and supernova, stars which spontaneously explode with a spectacular and rapid increase in brightness. The succeeding chapter deals with the search for the historical records of supernova from Medieval European monastic chronicles, Arabic chronicles, astrological works etc., post renaissance European scientific writings, and Far Eastern histories and

Realizing the Witch

OpenAIRE

Baxstrom, Richard; Meyers, Todd

2016-01-01

Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan (The Witch, 1922) stands as a singular film within the history of cinema. Deftly weaving contemporary scientific analysis and powerfully staged historical scenes of satanic initiation, confession under torture, possession, and persecution, Häxan creatively blends spectacle and argument to provoke a humanist re-evaluation of witchcraft in European history as well as the contemporary treatment of female “hysterics” and the mentally ill. In Realizing the Witch, Baxst...

Tourette's syndrome: from demonic possession and psychoanalysis to the discovery of gene

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Francisco M.B. Germiniani

2012-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper we make a brief historical review of the hypothesis concerning the etiology of Tourette's syndrome (TS, focusing on varying trends over time: at first, its presumed relation to witchcraft and demonic possessions, followed by the psychoanalytical theory, which attributed TS to a masturbatory equivalent. Then, progressing to modern time, to the immunological theory and finally the advent of genetics and their role in the etiology of TS.

St Sava and the cloud-chasers

OpenAIRE

Loma Aleksandar

2013-01-01

A gloss in the Nomocanon of St Sava condemns folk superstitions related to magically provoking hailstorms and eclipses. St Sava’s miracle with the king of Hungary as described in his Vitae seems to go back to the same complex of popular beliefs. Its acceptance by the hagiography was probably due to the influence of the figure of prince magician as common to the Serbian and the Russian oral epics.

Isotopic examination of links between diet, social differentiation, and DISH at the post-medieval Carmelite Friary of Aalst, Belgium.

Science.gov (United States)

Quintelier, Kim; Ervynck, Anton; Müldner, Gundula; Van Neer, Wim; Richards, Michael P; Fuller, Benjamin T

2014-02-01

Stable isotope ratios (δ(13) C and δ(15) N) were measured in human burials from the post-medieval (16th-18th c. AD) Carmelite friary burial grounds at Aalst, a town in Flanders, Belgium. Dietary patterns of 39 adult individuals were analyzed, from a mixed monastic and lay population buried in three different locations, reflecting groups with differing social status. The data show significant variation in the consumption of perhaps meat, but certainly also marine protein between females and males. This result represents a remarkable continuity with medieval dietary patterns, suggesting that the social and economic changes of the early modern period had a limited effect on everyday life. When both sexes were examined together, individuals buried in the cloister garth consumed significantly less marine protein compared to people buried in the church, likely reflecting social stratification. No statistical differences were observed between isotopic values from the church and the cloister alley, suggesting a similarly diverse diet of the monastic part of the buried population and that of the richer lay population. Finally, the hypothesis that diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) is linked to a diet rich in animal protein was tested. No systematic or statistically significant differences between pathological and non-pathological bones from the same individuals affected with DISH were observed, and no statistical differences were found between individuals with DISH and individuals without DISH. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Les « Sentences » des saints de la rangée inférrieure de la façade méridionale de l’église de l’Annonciation de la Vierge du monastère de Moldoviţa / The “Sentences” of the Saints in the Lower Row of the Façade of the Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin of the Monastery of Moldoviţa

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Constantin Ciobanu

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The holy monks (Desert Fathers, confessors, hermits, founders of institutions or monastic status etc. occupy the lower row of the immense vision of the Triumphant Church which covers the eastern parts – including side apses – of the Moldavian’s churches facades with exterior painting. At the Annunciation of the Virgin’s church of Moldoviţa Monastery were preserved (in Slavonic language “sentences” written on the scrolls of following holy monks: Theodore the Sanctified, Theodotus, Gelasius, Georges of Mt. Maléon, Domentian, John the Fool-for-Christ, Hilarion, Joasaph, Bessarion, Abraham, Paul of Thebes, Nikon, John of the Lavra of St. Sabbas, Gerasimos, Theophanes, Anthony, the Angel seen by Pachomius the Great, Luke the stylite and David Thessaloniki the hermit. The purpose of our research is to find the literary sources of these “sentences”. As we'll see below, most of them are borrow from the Scripture or from the collections gathering the “quotes” of the Holy Fathers. The collection called Palestinian Paterikon (translated from Greek into Russian by Theophan the Recluse includes about 80% of “sayings” of the Holy Fathers painted at Moldoviţa. The presence in the paintings of monasteries Humor and Moldoviţa a number of “sayings” – which exists only in Russian translation in the text of this Paterikon – proves that in the 16th century in Moldavia existed some Slavonic-Bulgarian translations from Greek “collections of sayings” of the Holy Fathers – today lost or forgotten – many of which have been similar or identical to collections inspected and copied by Theophan the Recluse during his mission (from 1847 to 1853 at the Lavra of St. Sabbas in the Holy Land.

O Espírito Santo contra o feitiço e os espíritos revoltados: "civilização" e "tradição" em Moçambique

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Peter Fry

2000-10-01

Full Text Available Durante uma cerimônia conduzida por uma congregação zionista em Moçambique, para restaurar a fertilidade de um casal mediante o apaziguamento de um espírito enraivecido, foi-me dito que os brancos eram imunes a este tipo de problema pois estavam livres dos espíritos revoltados e da feitiçaria, sendo portanto mais capazes de cooperar entre si. Tal criticismo da "cultura africana" é disseminado entre muitas igrejas protestantes, em particular os Zionistas e Pentecostais, enquanto a Igreja Católica, através de sua noção de enculturação, tenta manter-se próxima à "tradição africana". O artigo examina os significados ligados à "tradição africana" e suas antinomias, "modernidade" e "civilização, em uma tentativa de demonstrar a ampla distribuição do desejo de controlar os males da feitiçaria e da bruxaria, assim como a inveja e ambição que as movem. O artigo se encerra com uma reflexão sobre a maneira como a análise antropológica falhou em considerar o sofrimento que tais crenças refletem e engendram.During a ceremony conducted by a Zionist congregation in Mozambique to restore the fertility of a barren couple by appeasing an angry spirit, I was told that whites were immune from these kinds of problems since they were free of angry spirits and witchcraft and more able to co-operate among themselves. Such criticism of "African culture" is widespread among many Protestant churches, in particular the Zionists and Pentecostals in general. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church, through its notion of enculturation, attempts to become closer to "African Tradition". The article examines the meanings attached to "African Tradition" and its antinomies, "Modernity" and "Civilization", in an attempt to demonstrate the widespread existence of a strong desire to control the evils of witchcraft, sorcery, and the jealousy and ambition that move them. The article ends with a brief reflection on the way in which much classical anthropological

STUDY REGARDING COMMUNICATION AND DISTRIBUTION ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE ROMANIAN MONASTERIES

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Ciornea Raluca

2010-07-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which Romanian monastic compounds promote their religious attraction and the degree of collaboration between monasteries and intermediaries in the religious tourism market. The study was carried on in more than 100 monasteries and showed the existence of significant differences regarding the promotion activities among monasteries because of the characteristics of the religious compounds. Moreover the results indicated there are opportunities to develop relationships and partnerships between monasteries and the other actors involved in organizing the travels with religious motivations.

Una empresa olvidada del primer gótico hispano: la fachada de la sala capitular de la Catedral de León

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Sánchez Ameijeiras, Rocío

1996-12-01

Full Text Available A group of six figurai slabs, representing a typical cloister program (Christ, Mary, Saint Peter dressed in monastic habit. Saint Paul and two leonese saint, reinstalled at the Museum of Leon cathedral can be dated at around 1200 and atributed to sculptors trained in first gothic French models. Both iconography and format let suppose that the figures' original disposition was in the portal of the chapter house. Unfortunately only written documentation remains about another decorated portal in the same cloister, that of the refectorium.No disponible

Manual Labour as praxis pietatis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bruun, Mette Birkedal

2007-01-01

This article describes the role played by the topos of manual labour in the Cistercian reform at La Trappe in the 1660s. According to the reformer Armand-Jean de Rancé, manual labour serves partly as a link from the reform to the Rule of Benedict's prescriptions about opus manuum, partly as an ep...... as an epitome of the biblical definition of the post-lapsarian condition as a matter of eating bread by the sweat of one's face and finally as a device for the cultivation of monastic humility and penitence....

The fear of the Lord as key pastoral guidance, for a healing ministry to survivors of generational ritual abuse / by Karen Hayward

OpenAIRE

Hayward, Karen

2010-01-01

Generational ritual abuse within satanic or fertility (abusive witchcraft) cults is a controversial subject. This study shows that, while not all reported memories may be true, False Memory Syndrome is not an intrinsic scientific reality of generational ritual abuse. Recent publications under the editorial pens of Noblitt and Perskin Noblitt (2008), as well as Sachs and Galton (2008), describe the types of abuse and torture perpetrated in various forms of ritual abuse (including the results o...

The dark side of the moon: Impact of moon phases on long-term survival, mortality and morbidity of surgery for lung cancer

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Kuehnl A

2009-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Objective Superstition is common and causes discomfiture or fear, especially in patients who have to undergo surgery for cancer. One superstition is, that moon phases influence surgical outcome. This study was performed to analyse lunar impact on the outcome following lung cancer surgery. Methods 2411 patients underwent pulmonary resection for lung cancer in the past 30 years at our institution. Intra-and postoperative complications as well as long-term follow-up data were entered in our lung-cancer database. Factors influencing mortality, morbidity and survival were analyzed. Results Rate of intra-operative complications as well as rate of post-operative morbidity and mortality was not significantly affected by moon phases. Furthermore, there was no significant impact of the lunar cycle on long-term survial. Conclusion In this study there was no evidence that outcome of surgery for lung cancer is affected by the moon. These results may help the physician to quite the mind of patients who are somewhat afraid of wrong timing of surgery with respect to the moon phases. However, patients who strongly believe in the impact of moon phase should be taken seriously and correct timing of operations should be conceded to them as long as key-date scheduling doesn't constrict evidence based treatment regimens.

Haunted Headwaters: Ecotourism, Animism, and the Blurry Line Between Science and Spirits

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McCann Gregory

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The highlanders of Ratanakiri, Cambodia believe that certain mountains cannot be hunted or logged because they are the abode of powerful spirits. They are convinced that mountain spirits will exact revenge on them in the form of serious injury or illness if they do not follow the animist behavioral etiquette regarding these sacred peaks. It may seem easy to dismiss these convictions as ancient superstitions, and many scientists do because biological explanations can explain the illnesses suffered in these remote locales: deep forests are home to more disease-carrying ticks, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, poisonous snakes, and dangerous microbes, parasites, and animals. However, scientific explanations do not disprove the animist beliefs; the illness are still happening, but for different reasons. In this sense, science proves the animist superstitions to be correct. We explore the blurry line between fact and fiction in the disappearing animist world of spirits, jungles, and highlander traditions in Ratanakiri, and also at how to maintain these ancient belief systems by teaching them to village youth and sharing them with ecotourists. A new type of ecotourism—what we call “Animistic Ecotourism”—might be the last chance to save what remains of highlander Animism.

St Sava and the cloud-chasers

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Loma Aleksandar

2013-01-01

Full Text Available A gloss in the Nomocanon of St Sava condemns folk superstitions related to magically provoking hailstorms and eclipses. St Sava’s miracle with the king of Hungary as described in his Vitae seems to go back to the same complex of popular beliefs. Its acceptance by the hagiography was probably due to the influence of the figure of prince magician as common to the Serbian and the Russian oral epics.

Everyday Magic: Some Mysteries of the Mantlepiece

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Ralph Mills

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Small mass-produced objects, such as ceramic figurines, that may have been displayed on mantelpieces, are found in working-class nineteenth and early twentieth century archaeological contexts. Above the hearth, at the heart of the home, objects located on the mantelpiece could be said to be central in reflecting a number of aspects of the lives of those who placed them there. These could include identity, resistance, memory and superstition.

OVERCONFIDENCE, OMENS AND EMOTIONS: RESULTS FROM A FIELD EXPERIMENT

OpenAIRE

Maria De Paola; Francesca Gioia; Vincenzo Scoppa

2013-01-01

We analyze how overconfidence is affected by superstitious beliefs and emotions induced by positive and negative stimuli in a field experiment involving about 700 Italian students who were randomly assigned to numbered seats in their written examination sessions. According to widespread superstitions, some numbers are considered lucky, while others are considered unlucky. At the end of the examination, we asked students the grade they expected to get. We find that students tend to be systemat...

The Role of Religion in the Mexican Drug War

Science.gov (United States)

2011-10-28

operations. His interest is in the “…role religion plays in motivating and justifying actions…” in the operational environment.1 His article and the...emptied of supernatural meaning and one in which ‘mystery’ no longer played a part.”18 In this form of secularization mystery, superstition, and... article /Mexico-catches-reputed-leader-of-La-Familia-cartel- 2078363.php 23 Grayson, La Familia Drug Cartel: Implications for U.S.-Mexican Security, 5

Sex, Witchcraft and Politics in Tanzanian Kiswahili Video-Films | Shule

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Creative Artist: A Journal of Theatre and Media Studies. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 9, No 2 (2015) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

Hopi Indian Witchcraft and Healing: On Good, Evil, and Gossip

Science.gov (United States)

Geertz, Armin W.

2011-01-01

One of the abiding problems in the study of American Indians is that it is plagued by stereotyping and romanticism. In the history of ideas in Europe and the United States, negative as well as positive stereotyping has been called "primitivism." Much of the author's work has been an attempt to get beyond primitivism in order to get to…

Allergic diseases in children: the science, the superstition and the stories

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Van Bever, Hugo

2009-01-01

... the spectrum of facts relevant to the understanding and appreciation of allergies in childhood is written. This is even more beneficial and useful when it encompasses the local cultural and traditional beliefs that significantly impact on its management. Professor Hugo Van Bever has been in clinical practice in pediatric allergy for more than 25 years, spending more than 15 years in Europe and more recently 7 years in Singapore. With a deep appreciation of the clinical issues in childhood allergy...

Let Superstition Cease : Investigating Anti-Pagan Violence in Late Antique Rome

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schuddeboom, F.L.

2017-01-01

This dissertation investigates Christian attitudes towards Greco-Roman religions in late antique Rome. The Introduction discusses the revisionist position, that these attitudes were essentially peaceful. This idealizing view is at odds with the generalizing observation of sociologists of religion,

The Monastery of Zelianos, the First Slavic Monastic Institution on Mount Athos

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Cyril PAVLIKIANOV

1997-09-01

Full Text Available   Cyril Pavlikianov Ἡ μονὴ τοῦ Ζελιάνου: Tὸ πρῶτο σλαβικὸ μοναστικὸ καθίδρυμα στὸ Ἅγιον ὌροςΤὸ πρῶτο ἀθωνικὸ μονύδριο ἄμεσα σχετιζόμενο μὲ ἄτομα σλαβικῆς καταγωγῆς χρονολογεῖται στὰ μέσα τοῦ ἑνδεκάτου αἰῶνος, ὅταν στὶς πηγὲς ἐμφανίζεται ἡ μονὴ τοῦ Ζελιάνου. Τὸ ὄνομα Ζελιάνος εἶναι ἀναμφίβολα σλαβικῆς προελεύσεως. Ἡ εἰδοποιὸς διαφορὰ μεταξὺ τῆς μονῆς τοῦ Ζελιάνου καὶ τῶν καθιδρυμάτων, ποὺ διατηρήθηκαν ὡς σλαβικὲς ἐστίες μέχρι σήμερα, ἔγκειται στὸ γεγονὸς ὅτι ἡ πρώτη ἔγινε γνωστὴ στὸν Ἄθωνα μὲ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ σλάβου ἱδρυτή της, ὁ ὁποῖος κάλλιστα θὰ μποροῦσε νὰ κατάγεται καὶ ἀπὸ τὰ ἐδάφη τῆς αὐτοκρατορίας. Ἀποτελοῦσε, δηλαδή, σλαβικὸ μοναστικὸ κέντρο ἀπὸ τὴν ἵδρυσή της, ἐνῶ ὅλα τὰ ὑπόλοιπα μοναστήρια, ποὺ βαθμιαία περιῆλθαν στὰ χέρια σλάβων μοναχῶν, ἱδρύθηκαν ὡς ἑλληνόφωνα. Συνεπῶς, ἤδη ἀπὸ τὸν ΙΑ ' αἰῶνα, oἱ σλαβικοὶ πληθυσμοὶ τῶν Βαλκανίων μετεῖχαν στὴν ζωὴ τῆς ἀθωνικῆς μοναστικῆς κοινότητος. 

Charles Dicken’s Use of Folklore: A Study of Elements in Bleak House

Science.gov (United States)

1981-04-21

asserts the association between death and blackness by misquoting Shakespeare ; in Hamlet Shakespeare refers to the "fell sergeant, Death," ~66 and Dickens...2t464. One can find many allusions to works by Shakespeare in Dickens’s novels. The relevance of Shakespeare as a source is a field that awaits extensive... Shakespeare Land (London: Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 1929), p.41. 3Cora Linn Daniels, ed. Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore and the Occult Sciences of

Apocalypse know-how

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Amodio, Paolo

2012-12-01

Full Text Available What can Philosophy and Science tell about “Apocalypse”? The former seems to show a nihilistic power, while the latter uses a descriptive power, thus avoiding any religious or mystic impulse. The outcome, anyway, looks like a vade mecum. In any case, all “apocalyptic nouns” range between Prophecy and Foresight, Presage and Oracle, Superstition and Faith, Archetype and Destiny, Unconscious and Power, Messianism and Nowhere, Remorse and Day After, Society Game and Ceremony

Solar Orientation of Irish Early Christian Oratories

Science.gov (United States)

Tiede, V. R.

2001-12-01

The Hiberno-Latin literary metaphor of "Xpistus sol verus" (Christ the True Sun) finds an architectural analogue in the orientation of the single eastern window of Irish monastic stone chapels or oratories. The author's field surveys in Ireland, Hebrides, Orkney and Shetlands revealed that the window of Irish rectangular dry stone oratories framed the rising solar disk on the Feast Days of selected saints of the Celtic Early Christian Church, AD 800-1100. The most frequent target skyline declinations were to sunrise on the Feast Days of St. Patrick (March 17th) and St. Aidan of Lindisfarne (August 31st). During the Early Christian period, St. Patrick's Day coincided with the Vernal Equinox, and heralded the Paschal Full Moon (i.e., Passover crucifixion) and Easter Sunday as proclaimed by Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea (AD 325). St. Aidan of Lindisfarne (d. AD 651) inspired the Irish monks who, at the Synod of Whitby (AD 664), remained loyal to the Jewish 84-year cycle determining Passover and refused to replace it with the new orthodox 19-year computus for Easter adopted by the Roman Catholic Church (AD 527). Hypothetical affiliation between monastic communities whose oratories share common solar orientation, interior length/width ratios (e.g., 4:3 and 3:2) and units of measurement (e.g., Scottish ell, Coptic cubit, or Roman pes) is discussed. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the Michael D. Coe Fund and Augusta Hazard Fund of Yale University for research grant support in 1999.

KISCH / UL AND DURABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REGIONS THAT HAVE A LARGE NUMBER OF RELIGIOUS SETTLEMENTS

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ENEA CONSTANTA

2016-06-01

Full Text Available We live in a world of contemporary kitsch, a world that merges authentic and false, good taste and meets often with bad taste. This phenomenon is găseseşte everywhere: in art, in literature cheap in media productions, shows, dialogues streets, in homes, in politics, in other words, in everyday life. Ksch site came directly in tourism, being identified in all forms of tourism worldwide, but especially religious tourism, pilgrimage with unexpected success in recent years. This paper makes an analysis of progressive evolution tourist traffic religion on the ability of the destination of religious tourism to remain competitive against all the problems, to attract visitors for their loyalty, to remain unique in terms of cultural and be a permanent balance with the environment, taking into account the environment religious phenomenon invaded Kisch, it disgraceful mixing dangerously with authentic spirituality. How trade, and rather Kisch's commercial components affect the environment, reflected in terms of religious tourism offer representatives highlighted based on a survey of major monastic ensembles in North Oltenia. Research objectives achieved in work followed, on the one hand the contributions and effects of the high number of visitors on the regions that hold religious sites, and on the other hand weighting and effects of commercial activity carried out in or near monastic establishments, be it genuine or kisck the respective regions. The study conducted took into account the northern region of Oltenia, and where demand for tourism is predominantly oriented exclusively practicing religious tourism

The effect of leprotic infection on the risk of death in medieval rural Denmark.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelmelis, K Saige; Price, Michael Holton; Wood, Jim

2017-12-01

Paleopathological studies of leprosy in Danish skeletal collections show that many individuals suffered from this stigmatized disease during the Middle Ages. This study examines the risk of death associated with leprotic infection in individuals from the Danish rural cemetery of Øm Kloster (AD 1172-1536). Specifically, we modeled the influence of leprotic infection on age-specific mortality accounting also for sex and social status (lay person / monastic). The sample consisted of 311 adult individuals from the Øm Kloster skeletal collection housed at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Southern Denmark (ADBOU). We modeled morbidity and mortality using a three-state illness-death model with the following parameterizations for the three transition hazards: (1) nonlesioned to lesioned: constant; (2) nonlesioned to dead: Gompertz-Makeham; and (3) lesioned to dead: Gompertz-Makeham, directly proportional to the hazard of the well to dead transition. The mortality hazard of lesioned individuals exceeded that of nonlesioned individuals by a factor of 1.4 (40%) across all individuals, 1.7 for females, 1.0 for males, 1.3 for lay persons, and 1.7 for monastics. Overall, 15% of the sample died with skeletal manifestations of leprosy, though it is likely that a higher percentage of the population carried the bacterium. This study improves understanding of past health and population dynamics focusing on a chronic infectious disease. The methods employed could informatively be applied to larger analyses of community health from skeletal collections by incorporating more than one disease into the multistate model and inferring individual frailty using various skeletal markers. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The prince as a Jesuit, the king as an abbot. The “monastic” theme in the iconography of John II Casimir

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Agnieszka Skrodzka

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The young Casimir Vasa was brought up at the court of his father, Sigismund III Vasa, in the atmosphere of great devotion, which made him enter the order of Jesuits. Even though he decided to leave the monastery and to take the Polish crown, he came back to the life of a monk after his abdication. The present paper presents the very few pieces of art commemorating the monastic life of John Casimir: an emblem, a medal, some prints and his tomb in Paris. All those objects demonstrate the deep piety of the king.

Les nourritures substantielles du corps et de l’Esprit

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Roselyne Roth-Haillote

2006-05-01

Full Text Available Cet article examine, dans un monastère de contemplatives1, de quelles façons s’alternent ou se superposent les nourritures du corps et de l’esprit, fournissant aux épouses du Seigneur une préservation physique et spirituelle pour mieux atteindre la finalité de leur vocation.Taking place in a monastery of contemplative nuns2, this article looks at the various ways of feeding the mind and the body, thus giving the Lord’s wives both a physical and spiritual strengh to reach the highlight of their vocation.

Menstruation in Ulysses.

Science.gov (United States)

Mullin, Katherine

2008-01-01

This article investigates James Joyce's fascination with a wide variety of medical texts, sexual folklores, religious beliefs, and persistent superstitions about menstruation. That fascination finds its way into Ulysses, which draws upon a number of intertexts to inform a curiosity about the female body most strikingly articulated by Bloom, Molly, and Gerty MacDowell. These intertexts are not simply imported into the novel but are dismantled and interrogated, as Joyce exposes, rather than endorses, clichés of essential femininity.

Dirty Hits

OpenAIRE

Clarke, Louise

2010-01-01

Issue 9 of the Saatchi Gallery Magazine: Art&Music is dedicated to Sex. The article Dirty Hits invited a cross-section of contemporary artists and musicians to answer: What makes a dirty hit? As one of the artists invited, I wrote an autobiographical piece to reveal how these fumbling, feral sexual experiences of my childhood landscape, along with irrational superstition and folk law inform my life and underpin my work. The article also included an artwork: Louise Clarke, Sip (2009)

′′Early baby teeth′′: Folklore and facts

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N Uma Maheswari

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Variations in the newborns′ oral cavity have been an enduring interest to the pediatric dentist. The occurrence of natal and neonatal teeth is a rare anomaly, which for centuries has been associated with diverse superstitions among many different ethnic groups. Natal teeth are more frequent than neonatal teeth, the ratio being approximately 3:1. The purpose of this case report is to review the literature related to the natal teeth folklore and misconceptions and discuss their possible etiology and treatment.

Triskaidekaphobia and North American Residential Real Estate Prices

OpenAIRE

James E. Larsen

2015-01-01

A previous study led its authors to conclude that superstition impacts price formation for single-family dwellings in the Vancouver area. Houses there with an address that ends in the ¡§unlucky¡¨ number 13 are found to sell at a discount compared to otherwise similar houses. The primary objective of this study is to determine whether the previous results apply in another North American housing market. Hedonic regression is applied to single-family house transactions that occurred in Montgomer...

Klasik İslam Geleneğinde Taklidi İmanın Değeri

OpenAIRE

Ünverdi, Mustafa

2012-01-01

The value of faith of taqlid is one of the subjects discussed in classical Islamic tradition. The center of these debates which discusses functioning of the mind, autonomy of people and relationship of faith in information is at the necessity of rational justification and the verdict of muqallid?s faith. The Mutazilite, which is rational face of traditional Islam, and the Kharijites have agreed that taqlid is superstition. Their estimation rely on the principle of ?murtekib-i kebire.? On the ...

Koncept śmierć w rosyjskiej frazeologii

OpenAIRE

Piasecka, Agata

2011-01-01

The phenomenon of death since the beginning of time has brought about fear as well as curiosity. The article presents the cultural aspects of the perception of the phenomenon of death. They refer to the old superstitions, customs, traditions. As linguistic data confirm, many of them are reflected in the language. The concept of death in Russian phraseology refers to the Christian concept of the binary nature of a human being (consisting of the soul and the body), to pagan legen...

Michael York, Pagan Theology

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Terry GIFFORD

2004-10-01

Full Text Available For Christian missionaries the word ‘pagan’ was a pejorative that implied ‘primitive’, either in the sense of devil worship or barren atheism. From this tradition the word has been associated with either the worship of the wrong gods immanent in the natural environment, or of a godless superstition relating to the spirits alive in nature. Of course, Christianity has been adept at incorporating a diversity of pagan beliefs, occasions and rituals into its colonising practice throughout the worl...

Albinism in Tanzanian higher education: a case study

OpenAIRE

Kiishweko, Rose Rutagemwa

2017-01-01

My thesis focuses on the experiences of people with albinism in higher education (HE)\\ud in Tanzania. Albinism is a genetically inherited condition and it affects people of all\\ud ethnic backgrounds worldwide. In Tanzania, the condition affects one in every 1,400\\ud people. People with albinism in Tanzania often face social discrimination, superstition,\\ud and prejudice including murder threats due to myths and beliefs that their body parts are\\ud a source of wealth and prosperity. They also ...

Toward a Generative Model of Legend: Pizzas, Bridges, Vaccines, and Witches

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Timothy R. Tangherlini

2017-12-01

Full Text Available We propose a generative model of the legend. The model is elaborated based on two case studies, the first of contemporary storytelling related to vaccination on parenting blogs, and the second of historical storytelling related to witchcraft and folk healing in nineteenth century Denmark. The model reveals the interdependent levels of the multiscale model, solving a problem of poor fit related to many two level models of folklore genre structure. The model supports the study of rumor, and the dynamics of storytelling, including the hyperactive transmission state of “viral” stories.

L’Inquisizione, gli indizi, le prove

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Guido Dall’Olio

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This essay focuses on some characteristics of the inquisitorial trial, comparing it with the accusatory procedure. The inquisitorial trial, which resulted in almost inevitable torture of the accused, is certainly in our eyes an injustice and a violation of the legal rights that are essential for us in a proper procedure. However, the care with which the evidence was produced and examined by the institutions that adopted the inquisitorial procedure deserves to be emphasized, especially for the consequences it had in certain types of imaginary crime such as witchcraft.

[Salem witches, flying brooms, and synthetic drugs].

Science.gov (United States)

Castellanos Tejero, Manuel; Castellanos Tejero, M de los Angeles

2002-10-01

As supplementary material to Health Education programs about synthetic drugs, the authors present a historical summary on LSD, stramonium and khat. "Tripis", Special K and other synthetic pills contain these substances and are being widely used by youths. The history of these main hallucinogenic active ingredients has a strong tie to the mythology of witchcraft and witches: a historically interesting time period bearing a large amount of religious intolerance. The objective of this review is to end the belief today's youth have that they are taking new substances which have no risks.

Cenobios leoneses altomedievales ante la europeización: San Pedro y San Pablo de Montes, Santiago y San Martín de Peñalba y San Miguel de Escalada

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Martínez Tejera, Artemio Manuel

2002-06-01

Full Text Available The following paper analyses the behaviour of three of the most important monastic communities in the reing of Asturias-Leon for the ninth and then centuries. During this period we witness the implementation of a new ordo, or liturgical ritual that replaces the Hispanic one, strongly established in the Territorium. The liturgical adaptation produces tension and conflicts among the members of different monastic communities, and even between the Episcopate and the monarchy - being King Alfonso VI. In some of the monasteries, the arrival of the new ordo causes the adaptation of the liturgical space, with subsequent changes in liturgical furniture.

El presente estudio pretende analizar el comportamiento de tres de las más importantes comunidades monásticas astur-leonesas de los siglos IX y X (San Pedro y San Pablo de Montes, Santiago y San Martín de Peñalba y San Miguel de Escalada ante la recepción e implantación de aquel nuevo ordo o ritual litúrgico que vino a sustituir al Hispánico, fuertemente asentado en el territorium. Readaptación litúrgica que, con distinta intensidad, producirá tensiones y enfrentamientos entre los miembros de las distintas comunidades monásticas, incluso entre el episcopado y la monarquía (personificada en la figura de Alfonso VI, pero no únicamente. En alguno de estos monasterios la llegada del nuevo ordo supondrá, además, la readaptación de su espacio litúrgico, lo que trajo consigo significativas modificaciones constructivas.

Études d’histoire et d’archéologie cisterciennes

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Benoît Chauvin

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Abbayes cisterciennes féminines des comté et duché de Bourgogne. Travaux 2004-2005Réactivant une démarche entreprise depuis plusieurs années dans la perspective d’une synthèse régionale sur l’histoire et le bâti des monastères cisterciens de femmes des comté et duché Bourgogne, terre de Langres comprise, aux xiie-xve siècles, les années 2004-2005 ont vu la parution de cinq études. Quatre ont permis de mettre un terme définitif à trois nouvelles monographies, portant ainsi l’avancement du proj...

Notes on byzantine Panagiaria

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Drpić Ivan

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The article offers some new insights into the significance and function of Byzantine panagiaria, small-scale containers for the bread sanctified in honor of the Virgin in a rite known as the Elevation of the Panagia. This rite, it is argued, was not limited to monastic and courtly contexts or to routine liturgical observance, as is often assumed, but could be performed by the laity as well. Proposing that the use of panagiaria as personal devotional instruments was fairly common in Byzantium, the article explores the interplay between the design, materiality, epigraphic enhancement, and ritual and devotional use of these objects.

Galileo's mistake a new look at the epic confrontation between galileo and the church

CERN Document Server

Rowland, Wade

2011-01-01

The modern understanding of the notorious 1633 trial of Galileo is that of Science and Reason persecuted by Ignorance and Superstition-of Galileo as a lonely, courageous freethinker oppressed by a reactionary and anti-intellectual institution fearful of losing its power and influence. But is this an accurate picture? In his provocative reexamination of one of the turning points in the history of science and thought, Wade Rowland contends that the dispute concerned an infinitely more profound question: What is truth and how can we know it? Rowland demonstrates that Galileo's mistak

Later Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Religion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Stig Børsen

2010-01-01

This article sets out by distinguishing Wittgenstein’s own views in the philosophy of religion from a school of thought in the philosophy of religion that relies on later Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language. After a survey of distinguishing features of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, the third...... section explores Wittgenstein’s treatment of Frazer’s account of magic among primitive peoples. The following section offers an account of Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion, including the use of the notions of a language game and superstition. I conclude by criticizing a very influential argument...

Allopathic and traditional health practitioners: A reply to Nemutandani, Hendricks and Mulaudzi

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Rudi W. de Lange

2017-04-01

Full Text Available An earlier paper in this journal reported on the perception and experience of 77 allopathic health practitioners (AHPs and health managers about working together with South African traditional health practitioners (THPs. The paper stated that the abolishment of the Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1957 and the introduction of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No. 22 of 2007 is a milestone in the development of traditional health knowledge, and for the eventual incorporation thereof into modern health care practices. The authors also comment that a decolonisation of mindset and a change of attitude is required to change one’s perception of traditional healer practices and to develop them parallel to allopathic health practice. This opinion paper is a response to the paper, to negate its claims about the Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1957 and to provide clarity on the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No. 22 of 2007 and related policies and regulations. Although this Act recognises THP, the Act and other regulations actually require THP to conform to practices analogous to those of AHP. It is rather a systematic and scientific ‘mindset’ that is required to develop THP parallel to AHP. The Traditional Health Practitioners Act of 2007 and the Draft Policy on African Traditional Medicine (TM for South Africa dictate that a substantial THP sectoral transformation is required before there can be a parallel system. Legislation and regulations have excluded THP and African TM from operating (present and future in the same space as AHP.

Beliefs, knowledge and attitudes towards Parkinson's disease among a Xhosa speaking black population in South Africa: A cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Mokaya, Jolynne; Gray, William K; Carr, Jonathan

2017-08-01

Many patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are thought to be undiagnosed and untreated, leading to poor health outcomes. Increasing rates of diagnosis and treatment, with consequent improvements in the quality of life of people with PD in SSA requires an understanding of how PD is perceived and conceptualized within communities. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a group of Xhosa speaking black South Africans. The survey involved the administration of questionnaires on beliefs, knowledge and attitudes about PD to the public, people with PD (PwPD) and traditional healers (THs). 18% of the participants could identify PD through its symptoms. Mental illness, other diseases, stress, expressing strong emotions, consumption of certain foods or drinks and witchcraft were identified as possible causes of PD. PwPD and THs had a greater knowledge of PD than the public and greater age was a significant predictor of greater knowledge. The public and THs had a greater degree of concern about a range of symptoms of PD compared to PwPD. There is a striking lack of knowledge about PD amongst black South Africans. Almost half the members of the general public interviewed felt that PwPD should not live amongst their community, and a third considered that witchcraft could be a cause of PD. Finding ways to effectively educate members of a community about PD would make it easier for PwPD to adapt to their condition within their communities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Saber popular: sua existência no meio universitário Saber popular: su existencia en el medio universitario Popular wisdom: its existence in the university environment

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Maria Alves Barbosa

2004-12-01

existe una colisión entre el saber popular y el científico, generando la exclusión del saber popular, su mantenimiento "oculto", o también, la alianza de los saberes.Nowadays, myths and superstitions are present in spite of scientific and technological developments, especially when trying to solve problems that escape human understanding. This study was aimed at determining the existence of superstitions and myths in the university community, investigating their origins, influences, adoption and credibility, correlating them with people's level of knowledge. It is a descriptive/analytical research conducted at Teaching Units in the Area of Health of the Federal University of Goiás. The technique of content analysis was utilized for data analysis. Two categories have been created: Personal Attitudes related to Superstitions and Influences and Destruction of Superstitions. It was found out that there is a clash between popular and scientific knowledge, either leading to the exclusion of popular wisdom, to its 'veiled' maintenance, or even to an alliance between the two types of knowledge.

The Hyena: Witch's Auxiliary or Nature's Fool?

OpenAIRE

Dunham, Margaret

2006-01-01

Le texte publié sera accompagné des enregistrements sonores et de l'analyse interlinéaire de deux contes mettant en scène des hyènes.; Although the hyena cannot be considered a 'keystone' animal in Valangi culture, through its associations with witchcraft, it nevertheless holds an important place in the collective imagination and in the traditional folklore.; Bien que l'hyène ne puisse pas être considérée comme animal 'clé de voûte' dans la culture Valangi, elle tient néanmoins une place impo...

La construcción del entorno del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Agua, territorio y paisaje

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Chías, P.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Studies about the Monastery of El Escorial focused traditionally on the architectural, formal qualities of the monastic buildings, eluding other essential subjects as the infrastructures. It would have been impossible to develop the daily life wihout them. The needs of the different uses in such a complex ensemble needed a great set of buildings and infrastructures such as water supply and sewage, but also water mills and roads, to access and ensure the provisions. Our research deals with the study of all these hydraulic infrastructures, which were built continuously from the 16th century onwards, not only to serve the monastic buildings, but also the town of San Lorenzo. As complex net of civil works, it introduced in the territory and the landscape an essential set of landmarks, most of which still remain unknown.Los estudios sobre el Monasterio del Escorial se han centrado tradicionalmente en las cualidades arquitectónicas, formales y estilísticas del conjunto, evitando abordar el complejo e imprescindible sistema de infraestructuras construido para su servicio y sin el que no hubiera podido desarrollar las actividades religiosas, formativas y cortesanas para las que fue proyectado. Los requisitos funcionales de un conjunto tan importante hicieron necesaria la construcción de un gran número de obras como el abastecimiento de agua y el saneamiento, pero también ingenios como los molinos o caminos para facilitar el acceso y asegurar su abastecimiento. La presente investigación aborda el estudio de las infraestructuras del agua, construidas ininterrumpidamente desde del siglo XVI para dar servicio en un primer momento al conjunto monacal, y después a la propia población de San Lorenzo. Esta compleja red ha aportado al territorio y al paisaje un formidable conjunto de hitos aún desconocidos en su mayoría

A Role of Chilendar in the history of athonite monasticism

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Warsonofiusz Doroszkiewicz

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The very destiny of Serbia has been connected with the athonite monastery Chilendar since thousand year. Monastery Chilendar since being accepted by the Serbian king had existed for 200 years before as a simple athonite monastery. However in 1198 it was officially given by the byzantine emperor Aleksios III Angelos to the Serbian king Stefan Nemania (his monastic name was Simeon and his son duke Rastko who later became monk Sava. Those two saints of the Serbian Orthodox Church caused that monastery Chilendar had become the very center of the spiritual and cultural life of the Serbian state and political life during the osman slavery as well. Here in the climate of beautiful athonite nature, in the climate of prayer and in the shelter of the reach collection of libraries. Many of Serbian outstanding personalities received here spiritual and secular training needed for the mission and political work during years of the ottoman slavery. The very help coming from orthodox Russia and Romanian and Moldavian nobility, fathers of Chilendar sheared to the all athonite monasteries being in need regardless of ethnic descend of monks. Those little sums were directed to pay large taxes and renovations of monasteries that were in very bed state. After 500 period of the political-cultural and religious non-existence, Serbia paved the way for new European reality. Also the fate of the Chilendar had not remain neutral for the reconstructed new Serbian state. Once more monastery was filled up the serbian monks. That had rebuild the structures of the monastic life and created the very base for the further development of liberated from the Islamic slavery their Serbian country.

The use of the local flora in Switzerland: a comparison of past and recent medicinal plant knowledge.

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Dal Cero, Maja; Saller, Reinhard; Weckerle, Caroline S

2014-01-01

This analysis of documented medicinal plants of the Swiss Flora over the last two millennia provides a rich source of knowledge on earlier uses of plants and use patterns of the local flora. We ask which local plant species were used during different time periods of the last 2000 years and how the numbers of species and the use intensity of specific plant families, growth forms and habitats changed over time. Totally 25 herbals from the antiquity, monastic medicine, Renaissance, early modern era and the contemporary time as well as five recent ethnobotanical studies were considered. Use patterns were analysed with the Bayesian approach. A total of 768 species, i.e. 32% of the vascular plants of the Swiss Flora have been documented as medicinal plants. Numbers increase until the monastic period (366 spp.) and the Renaissance (476) and remain relatively stable since then (modern and contemporary era: 477). But, 465 formerly documented species do not occur in the ethnobotanical studies and thus seem not to be used any more. Overall, 104 species are documented through all time periods. Archeophytes, trees and forest plants are generally overrepresented in herbals from all time periods while plants from above the timberline are generally underrepresented. Most widely used are the Lamiaceae and Apiaceae. A constant body of medicinal plant knowledge in Switzerland exists since ancient time. This knowledge was always influenced by knowledge from neighboring countries and no "typical Swiss specialties" seem to exist. Medicinal plants are not randomly chosen from the available flora. Certain species are deliberately introduced others are neglected. This process, which is still ongoing, can be traced back with the help of herbals to the antiquity. © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

REIGNY, Actes diplomatiques du XIIe siècle

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Marlène Hélias-Baron

2008-07-01

Full Text Available Tout a commencé en 1104 quand deux ermites, Guérin et Gérard, ont obtenu d’Anséric chevalier d’Avallon et de Guy de Noyers la terre de Saint-Pierre située à proximité de Joux-la-Ville, dans le diocèse d’Autun. Leur aura de sainteté attira des disciples et leur communauté, installée en un lieu fort humide, justement appelé Fons humidus, Fontemoy, se transforma progressivement en un petit monastère. A la mort du deuxième abbé, Julien, au cours de l’année 1128, comme de nombreuses autres communa...

NUNS’ DAILY LIFE AND RELIGIOUS IN THE MODERN SPAIN ACROSS HIS ACCOUNTINGS. THE CONVENT NATIVE OF CORDOBA OF HOLY ANA AT THE END OF THE FORMER REGIME.

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Soledad Gómez Navarro

2011-04-01

Full Text Available In the current effervescence of the studies on the feminine monasticism in the Modern Spain, this article approaches how his intrahistoria can be known, collaborating this way to filling a certain still existing emptiness in this plot, from the analysis of the documentation deprived of a monastic economy and of the compared history, with the objective double of presenting the possibilities and weaknesses of the above mentioned source and the panorama that his contest offers for different facets of the collective life cenobítica. Real, so, scientific contribution to the knowledge of the modernist historiography in this area for the nature of the analyzed and, documentation especially, the originality of his approach.;

WOMEN IN HUSEYIN RAHMI GURPINAR’ S WORKS

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Sevgül TURKMENOGLU

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar, with his own unique style, gets noticed in Turkish novel. He starts in writing with the support of Ahmet Mithat Efendi. Although he is offered to be included in different styles , he refuses these offers to be able to be independent. He gets acroos the dialogues such as strifes and gossips to the readers with his own bright and hued wording clearly. All bad elements of life take part in his works with the influence of Natıralism clearly. Women dialogues in his novels and tales are remarkable with their humorous ways as well. Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar sheds light on a period of Istanbul in terms of his. In this work, women heroes, who Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar mentioned in his novels and tales frequently, will be given with themes such as fight , talebearing, ignorance and bright dialogues quoted from novels together. Keywords: Istanbul, Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar, ignorance, superstitions, gossip. Because there are important clues about tradition , custom, economic situation and life in the neighborhood belonging to Istanbul in those times. Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar sheds light on a perido of Istanbul in terms of his. In this work, women heroes, who Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar mentioned in his novels and tales frequently, will be given with themes such as fight , talebearing, ignorance and bright dialogues quoted from novels together. The aim why these dialogues are teken part in works excessively is to clear how succesful he is through examples. Keywords: Istanbul, Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar, ignorance, superstition, gossip

Components of social capital and socio-psychological factors that worsen the perceived health of Japanese males and females.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsunoda, Hiroko; Yoshino, Ryozo; Yokoyama, Kazuhito

2008-10-01

Social capital refers to the quantity and quality of social relationships, such as formal and informal social connections as well as norms of reciprocity and trust that exist in a place or a community. This article analyzed the data from Japan 2004 B Survey in order to elucidate the effects of social capital and socio-psychological factors on the health of Japanese males and females. The Survey was a part of a nationwide random study on Japanese national character, which has been conducted by the Institute of Statistical Mathematics since 1953. A total of 785 (372 males and 413 females) valid data from 1,200 adult samples were used. Logistic regression analysis showed that the self-reported symptoms were increased by negative attitude to generalized trust in males, and by negative attitude to norm of reciprocity in females. Moreover, in females, health dissatisfaction was enhanced by low perceptions of support. In both genders, self-reported symptoms and health dissatisfaction were worsened by anxiety. The self-reported symptoms were increased by an adherence to religion and spirituality in males, whereas in females, the health dissatisfaction increased with low income and a concern about superstitions. Thus, from a viewpoint of social capital, perceived health is susceptible to personal relationships in females and to distrust in males. Anxiety seems a key factor affecting perceived health. In addition, females are influenced by economic status and superstitions, whereas males are more concerned about religion or the mind in relation to health. These findings are useful in developing health policies for Japanese.

The Simpsons, Gender Roles, and Witchcraft: The Witch in Modern Popular Culture

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Antinora, Sarah

2010-07-01

Full Text Available This paper analyzes "The Simpsons"' use of the witch to uncover how her constructionin this animated series reflects not only the current theoretical work on the witch but also the ambivalence about the role of women in modern American society. This paper posits that the original construction of the witch, as seen in current interpretation of Early Modern pamphletsand cultural artifacts,steemed from the time period's expetations of gender. Further, "The Simpsons"' incorporation of the witch into its episodes revels that many of these same gender constraints exist in modern culture.

Charabias et magiciens dans le théâtre des xiie-xiiie siècles

OpenAIRE

Revol, Thierry

2014-01-01

S’intéressant à l’imaginaire médiéval, Jacques Le Goff a mis en valeur trois domaines dans lesquels se manifeste le merveilleux. Le mirabilis correspond au merveilleux pré-chrétien, le magicus au surnaturel maléfique et satanique, et enfin le miraculosus au surnaturel chrétien. Dans la logique chrétienne, le dernier tend à repousser les deux autres dans le domaine de la superstition, ce qui, paradoxalement, légitime leur existence, puisque celle-ci n’est pas niée. Miraculosus et magicus appar...

Web security a whitehat perspective

CERN Document Server

Wu, Hanqing

2015-01-01

MY VIEW OF THE SECURITY WORLDView of the IT Security WorldBrief History of Web SecurityBrief History of Chinese HackersDevelopment Process of Hacking TechniquesRise of Web SecurityBlack Hat, White HatBack to Nature: The Essence of Secret SecuritySuperstition: There Is No Silver BulletSecurity Is an Ongoing ProcessSecurity ElementsHow to Implement Safety AssessmentAsset ClassificationThreat AnalysisRisk AnalysisDesign of Security ProgramsArt of War of White HatPrinciples of Secure by DefaultBlacklist, WhitelistPrinciple of Least PrivilegePrinciple of Defense in DepthPrinciples of Data and Code

Wirkende Bilder

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Tonino Griffero

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The belief in the plastic power of imagination and of imagine is a fundamental part of human Psychology’s History. A look to the ground of this belief could clarify the cohabitation of science and superstition at the beginning of the Modern Age. Although in modern treatise from the field of subjectivity and unreality, imagination does not always enjoys the benefit of science. The power of imagination, as a faculty or as magical Medium between thought and being, allows belief to consider what is imagined as fundamental part of the processes of universe.

Rethinking Students’ Dispositions towards Civic Duties in Urban Learning Ecologies

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Olugbenga Adedayo Ige

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This study explored the causative influence of thinking dispositions on secondary school students’ civic attitudes in school ecologies. 167 students from eight selected secondary schools in northern and southern Nigeria responded to the Senior Students’ Thinking Dispositions Questionnaire (SSTDQ, and Students’ Attitude to Civic Education Scale (SACES. Results of the stepwise linear regression model declared that absolutism, superstition, and dogmatism were the potent predictors that are strongly connected to students’ civic attitudes. The study has inferences for teachers’ development viz a viz teaching students’ civic attitudes from inside out (critical teaching that uses social tools as yardstick in school ecologies.

Dictionnaire insolite de l’Indonésie, Elsa Clavé-Çelik

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Laurence Husson

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Cosmopole, une petite maison d’édition parisienne a lancé une collection de dictionnaires insolites aux thèmes aussi variés que les recettes de cuisine d’Alexandre Dumas, les superstitions populaires, le français SMS, des remèdes populaires, de la modernitude, etc. Ce concept de dictionnaire insolite aussi instructif que distrayant s’est étendu aux pays étrangers avec déjà cinq titres, dont quatre concernent l’Asie – Chine, Japon, Vietnam et Indonésie. L’auteure, très familière de la langue i...

Hidden attraction the history and mystery of magnetism

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Verschuur, Gerrit L

1993-01-01

Long one of nature's most fascinating phenomena, magnetism was once the subject of many superstitions. Magnets were thought useful to thieves, effective as a love potion or as a cure for gout or spasms. They could remove sorcery from women and put demons to flight and even reconcile married couples. It was said that a lodestone pickled in the salt of sucking fish had the power to attract gold. Today, these beliefs have been put aside, but magnetism is no less remarkable for our modern understanding of it. In Hidden Attraction, Gerrit L. Verschuur, a noted astronomer and National Book Award nom

Triggered surface slips in the Salton Trough associated with the 1999 Hector Mine, California, earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Rymer, M.J.; Boatwright, J.; Seekins, L.C.; Yule, J.D.; Liu, J.

2002-01-01

Surface fracturing occurred along the southern San Andreas, Superstition Hills, and Imperial faults in association with the 16 October 1999 (Mw 7.1) Hector Mine earthquake, making this at least the eighth time in the past 31 years that a regional earthquake has triggered slip along faults in the Salton Trough. Fractures associated with the event formed discontinuous breaks over a 39-km-long stretch of the San Andreas fault, from the Mecca Hills southeastward to Salt Creek and Durmid Hill, a distance from the epicenter of 107 to 139 km. Sense of slip was right lateral; only locally was there a minor (~1 mm) vertical component of slip. Dextral slip ranged from 1 to 13 mm. Maximum slip values in 1999 and earlier triggered slips are most common in the central Mecca Hills. Field evidence indicates a transient opening as the Hector Mine seismic waves passed the southern San Andreas fault. Comparison of nearby strong-motion records indicates several periods of relative opening with passage of the Hector Mine seismic wave-a similar process may have contributed to the field evidence of a transient opening. Slip on the Superstition Hills fault extended at least 9 km, at a distance from the Hector Mine epicenter of about 188 to 196 km. This length of slip is a minimum value, because we saw fresh surface breakage extending farther northwest than our measurement sites. Sense of slip was right lateral; locally there was a minor (~1 mm) vertical component of slip. Dextral slip ranged from 1 to 18 mm, with the largest amounts found distributed (or skewed) away from the Hector Mine earthquake source. Slip triggered on the Superstition Hills fault commonly is skewed away from the earthquake source, most notably in 1968, 1979, and 1999. Surface slip on the Imperial fault and within the Imperial Valley extended about 22 km, representing a distance from the Hector Mine epicenter of about 204 to 226 km. Sense of slip dominantly was right lateral; the right-lateral component of slip

[Medical application of the art of supplication before the Tang dynasty].

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Yuan; Ding, Jieyun; Zhang, Ruqing

2015-05-01

Ample materials on diseases treated with supplication were seen on excavated texts, medical works from ancient time, and religious works before the Tang dynasty (including Tang dynasty). Since the breaking up of witchcraft from medicine, there are still supplication applied in the treatment and prevention of diseases, including those of internal medicine, external medicine, women's and children's diseases, disease of the sense organs, and infections. There are dual reasons for this phenomena, one being the diseases caused by spirit and ghostss; and the other being certain effectiveness of this art on some diseases not cured by other regular treatments, hence, its acceptance by secular people.

Medieval Architectures for Religious Tourism and Hospitality along the Pilgrimage Routes of Northern Italy

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Silvia Beltramo

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Sacred spaces are, and have always been, places of reception: hospitality is in fact a precept of God. Many biblical passages remind us of this, such as the one (Gen 18, 4-5 in which Abraham welcomes three guests, washes their feet and offers them a piece of bread and a place to rest under a tree. Saint Benedict too, in chapter 53 of the Rule, insisted on the need to honour pilgrims and travellers, who should be welcomed with a charitable service ready for devotion and stated that all guests who entered the monastery should be received as if they were Christ, washing their hands and feet. The reception of travellers, the sick, and pilgrims in religious centres in the Middle Ages has been one of the cornerstones of the life of many monastic and convent communities scattered throughout the territory. The growing number of domus hospitals and xenodochii, recorded from the early centuries of the Middle Ages until the 15th century, demonstrates the need for them and their widespread dissemination in Italy and Europe. It seems to be possible to identify some phases of this development linked to the different monastic and convent orders that dedicated themselves to relieving the suffering of travellers and the sick. An initial significant presence along the road axes was followed by a subsequent phase of settlement in the major urban centres. Each community had its rules which also influenced the choice of where the sites were positioned, the buildings in which to receive pilgrims and the architectural typologies, often clearly designed to identify the place immediately. The research findings presented here derive from research aimed at identifying religious hospitality architectures through a study of the documentary sources and an analysis of the buildings still preserved in the territory of Northern Italy. In particular, the analysis of the main cases linked to monastic hospitality, such as the Sacra di San Michele – the centre of worship of

Saint-Vivant de Vergy : un prieuré clunisien au cœur de la Bourgogne

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alain Rauwel

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Curieusement, l’un des plus anciens et des plus riches monastères de Bourgogne, Saint-Vivant de Vergy, n’a, jusqu’à une date récente, guère attiré les historiens. La brochure – exceptionnellement documentée et maîtrisée – du regretté chanoine Marilier demeurait depuis 1977 la référence obligée . C’est le constat d’une certaine effervescence autour du prieuré de l’Arrière-Côte, qui a fait naître, un quart de siècle après, l’idée d’un ouvrage de synthèse. Le point de départ est à chercher dans ...

'Ein furtrefflicher Munch': Luther and the Living out of Faith

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Else Marie Wiberg

2007-01-01

between "praecepta" and "consilia" (Bernard does not know such a differentiation, post his time; and Luther sharply confronts the arrogance he finds in such an epistemology). On the other hand, they have very different views on the raison d'être of monasticism. Bernard, who lives in a flourishing yet...... turbulent Europe of the11th century,  sees the monastery as a sublime greenhouse for growing a social and peaceful life in love of neighbour, which ought to be the ideal of all human life. Luther, living 400 years later, experiences a quite different ecclesial and monastic life, where he witnesses abuse...... and arrogance rather than devotion and love as factors ruling the everyday live....

Medications and their use in the Graeco-Roman era

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François Retief

2007-09-01

Full Text Available As from the 6th century BC Graeco-Roman medical therapy comprised three components, viz. diet and healthy lifestyle (regimen, surgery and medicaments (pharmacotherapy, of which the latter was the oldest. Although the Corpus Hippocraticum (5th century BC, with minor Egyptian influence, contained no text of medicines as such, and seemed to prefer regimen to medicaments, it nevertheless laid the foundation for the empirical use of pharmacotherapy (free of superstition and magic for the next millennium. The first Greek herbal was produced by Diocles in the 4th century BC, when the botanist Theophrastus also wrote his classic works on plants which contained a significant contribution on herbal medicines. The Alexandrian Medical School systematized and expanded Hippocratic medicine, and Herophilus introduced compound preparations. The concept that medicaments cure illness by restoring the bodily balance of humours and primary properties was largely perpetuated, but new views on physiology were gradually emerging. Unfortunately the bulk of original contributions from Hellenistic doctors are lost to posterity and only known to us through the writings of for example Celsus and Galen in Roman times. The interesting history of theriac, the so-called universal antidote, is reviewed. In the 1st century Dioscorides produced his Materia Medica which remained an authoritative pharmacopoeia up to modern times. Galen’s empiric views on pharmacotherapy (2nd century, still largely based on Hippocrates, became dogma in Medieval times, but mysticism and superstition gradually swept back into medicine. Retrospectively it is clear that with the exception of certain analgesics and narcotics like opium, Graeco-Roman medicaments were pharmacologically inert (even toxic and obtained positive results largely through a placebo effect.

Strange-face Illusions During Interpersonal-Gazing and Personality Differences of Spirituality.

Science.gov (United States)

Caputo, Giovanni B

Strange-face illusions are produced when two individuals gaze at each other in the eyes in low illumination for more than a few minutes. Usually, the members of the dyad perceive numinous apparitions, like the other's face deformations and perception of a stranger or a monster in place of the other, and feel a short lasting dissociation. In the present experiment, the influence of the spirituality personality trait on strength and number of strange-face illusions was investigated. Thirty participants were preliminarily tested for superstition (Paranormal Belief Scale, PBS) and spirituality (Spiritual Transcendence Scale, STS); then, they were randomly assigned to 15 dyads. Dyads performed the intersubjective gazing task for 10 minutes and, finally, strange-face illusions (measured through the Strange-Face Questionnaire, SFQ) were evaluated. The first finding was that SFQ was independent of PBS; hence, strange-face illusions during intersubjective gazing are authentically perceptual, hallucination-like phenomena, and not due to superstition. The second finding was that SFQ depended on the spiritual-universality scale of STS (a belief in the unitive nature of life; e.g., "there is a higher plane of consciousness or spirituality that binds all people") and the two variables were negatively correlated. Thus, strange-face illusions, in particular monstrous apparitions, could potentially disrupt binding among human beings. Strange-face illusions can be considered as 'projections' of the subject's unconscious into the other's face. In conclusion, intersubjective gazing at low illumination can be a tool for conscious integration of unconscious 'shadows of the Self' in order to reach completeness of the Self. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dynamics of Tradition and Modernity in Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta

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Hamid Farahmandian

2012-09-01

Full Text Available African Literature in recent years especially after the independence from colonialism obtained a very gigantic position in the world literature and caused manifold critics to center their look on it. Most of the African writers have done their best to indicate the drawbacks of today and gaps of past in various forms. Although there is much criticism on Buchi Emecheta’s Bride Price, in the realm of my research about the mentioned topic this aspect has been relatively overlooked. This paper is an attempt to elucidate and explore the vivid encounters of modernity and tradition with their dominances on each other from the perspective of the author who does her best to bring hope of the future back and eradicate the superstitions of the past in the sights of African varied castes by the novel Bride Price written by Buchi Emecheta. For the sake of  achieving this goal, the novel will be examined from different perspectives related to feminism and the tribe’s negative attitude towards it, slavery and its permanent root in the minds , education and its influence on the way of thinking, culture and acceptance of Superstitions as real life facts  in various settings (urban and rural. At the end of this investigation via this novel we will come to this conclusion that even in the darkest part of Africa there is always hope, and in order to obtain the success of altering peoples formed minds a man should fight with everything even destiny. By exploring mentioned aspects it is expected that modernization should have upper hand in our lives over tradition.

Females do not have more injury road accidents on Friday the 13th

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Summala Heikki

2004-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This study reinvestigated the recent finding that females – but not males – die in traffic accidents on Friday the 13th more often than on other Fridays (Näyhä S: Traffic deaths and superstition on Friday the 13th. Am J Psychiatry 2002, 159: 2110–2111. The current study used matched setting and injury accident data base that is more numerous than fatality data. If such an effect would be caused by impaired psychic and psychomotor functioning due to more frequent anxiety among women, it should also appear in injury crashes. Methods We used the national Finnish road accident database for 1989–2002. To control seasonal variation, 21 Fridays the 13th were compared in a matched design to previous and following Fridays, excluding all holidays, on number of accidents, male/female responsibility for accidents, and the number of dead, injured and overall number of active participants (drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists as a consequence of the accident. Results There were no significant differences in any examined aspect of road injury accidents among the three Fridays, either in females or males. Women were not overrepresented in crashes that occurred on Fridays 13th. Conclusion There is no consistent evidence for females having more road traffic crashes on Fridays the 13th, based on deaths or road accident statistics. However, this does not imply a non-existent effect of superstition related anxiety on accident risk as no exposure-to-risk data are available. People who are anxious of "Black Friday" may stay home, or at least avoid driving a car.

Bacteria and vampirism in cinema.

Science.gov (United States)

Castel, O; Bourry, A; Thévenot, S; Burucoa, C

2013-09-01

A vampire is a non-dead and non-alive chimerical creature, which, according to various folklores and popular superstitions, feeds on blood of the living to draw vital force. Vampires do not reproduce by copulation, but by bite. Vampirism is thus similar to a contagious disease contracted by intravascular inoculation with a suspected microbial origin. In several vampire films, two real bacteria were staged, better integrated than others in popular imagination: Yersinia pestis and Treponema pallidum. Bacillus vampiris was created for science-fiction. These films are attempts to better define humans through one of their greatest fears: infectious disease. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

The status of radioactive waste management: needs for reassessments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eisenbud, M.

1980-01-01

Plicies that dictate the procedures for management of radioactive wastes are influenced by superstition and require fresh examination. It is shown that low level wastes from biomedical and clinical laboratories could be safely disposed of without any restrictions related to their radioactivity. High level waste management should be reexamined to determine the length of isolation required; thought by some to be 1000 years, and to investigate the use of geological repositories. It is also proposed that many forms of waste could be safely disposed of in the oceans, as data has already been accumulated from the fallout of massive quantities of radioactive debris. (H.K.)

Shamanic Rites Seen from a Shamanic Perspective

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Jonathan Horwitz

1993-01-01

Full Text Available Most of the previously practiced methods of investigating the shamanic rite have only shown half the picture. For a deeper understanding, it is also necessary to examine the rite's content. Taking the shaman's point of view into consideration, listening to how the shaman describes his experiences, and honoring that description as valid, is the first step.The work of the shaman has always been a matter of experience, experience which outside observers could not accept as being "real" because of their own limited understanding of reality, and so they labeled it as religious faith, imagination, beliefs, superstitions, insanity, or even play-acting.

Nothing a very short introduction

CERN Document Server

Close, Frank

2009-01-01

What is 'nothing'? What remains when you take all the matter away? Can empty space - a void - exist? This Very Short Introduction explores the science and the history of the elusive void: from Aristotle who insisted that the vacuum was impossible, via the theories of Newton and Einstein, to our very latest discoveries and why they can tell us extraordinary things about the cosmos. Frank Close tells the story of how scientists have explored the elusive void, and the rich discoveries that they have made there. He takes the reader on a lively and accessible history through ancient ideas and cultural superstitions to the frontiers of current research

Born Again Heathenism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grodal, Torben Kragh

2008-01-01

The article discusses films with fantastic elements using evolutionary psychology. The fascination with the fantastic on film is a by-product of different evolutionary mental adaptations, like the interest in causality with the purpose of control that create interest in fantastic violation...... by invention of supernatural agents. The prominence of supernaturalism in media is not necessarily linked to an increase in religious interest vis à vis science but could also be caused by a diminished 'heresy control' allowing media to exploit a range of innate dispositions of being intrigued by different...... supernatural phenomena that might be called 'heathen' because it often reuses all kinds of folk superstitions....

The evolution of witchcraft and the meaning of healing in colonial Andean society.

Science.gov (United States)

Silverblatt, I

1983-12-01

This paper explores the ways in which traditional beliefs of Andean peoples regarding health and sickness were transformed by the process of Spanish colonization. It also examines how the colonial context devolved new meanings and powers on native curers. The analysis of these transformations in Andean systems of meanings and role structures relating to healing depends on an examination of the European witchcraze of the 16th-17th centuries. The Spanish conquest of the Inca empire in the mid-1500's coincided with the European witch hunts; it is argued that the latter formed the cultural lens through which the Spanish evaluated native religion--the matrix through which Andean concepts of disease and health were expressed--as well as native curers. Andean religion was condemned as heresy and curers were condemned as witches. Traditional Andean cosmology was antithetical to 16th century European beliefs in the struggle between god and the devil, between loyal Christians and the Satan's followers. Consequently, European concepts of disease and health based on the power of witches, Satan's adherents, to cause harm and cure were alien to pre-Columbian Andean thought. Ironically European concepts of Satan and the supposed powers of witches began to graft themselves onto the world view of Andean peoples. The ensuing dialectic of ideas as well as the creation of new healers/witches forged during the imposition of colonial rule form the crux of this analysis.

The American Dark Ages and the Terrorist Witch in Season of the Witch

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Tom Vercruysse

2013-06-01

Full Text Available In this article we argue that Season of the Witch (Sena, 2011 is not to be analyzed according to its faithfulness to the known historical sources, but only by understanding medievalist codes, traditions and (filmic intertextuality. When read from this perspective, Season of the Witch tried to create new meaning by combining a dominant interpretation of Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, European traditions on representing medieval witchcraft, contemporary perspectives on the crusades and Susan Aronstein’s concept of “Hollywood Arthuriana”. However, as this demands a lot of medievalist capital to fully understand, Season of the Witch in the end may have lost its coherence for the audience.

[Historical compilation of cystic fibrosis].

Science.gov (United States)

Navarro, Salvador

2016-01-01

Cystic fibrosis is the most common life-shortening recessively inherited disorder in the Caucasian population. The genetic mutation that most frequently provokes cystic fibrosis (ΔF508) appeared at least 53,000years ago. For many centuries, the disease was thought to be related to witchcraft and the "evil eye" and it was only in 1938 that Dorothy H. Andersen characterized this disorder and suspected its genetic origin. The present article reviews the pathological discoveries and diagnostic and therapeutic advances made in the last 75 years. The review ends with some considerations for the future. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and AEEH y AEG. All rights reserved.

South African Zulu widows in a time of poverty and social change.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenblatt, Paul C; Nkosi, Busisiwe Catherine

2007-01-01

Interviews were carried out with 16 South African Zulu widows. Much of what the widows had to say seemed like what one might hear from widows in economically developed countries, but there were also striking differences. All the widows lived in poverty, and for some their grief seemed much more about the poverty than about the husband's death. Most widows observed a year of traditional ukuzila mourning practices, which made them a threat to others and which is difficult to carry out in the social upheaval of modern South Africa. Widowhood was in some cases a struggle with witchcraft--as cause of the death or as an accusation directed at the widow.

Portuguese Cistercian Churches - An acoustic legacy

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigues, Fabiel G.; Lanzinha, João C. G.; Martins, Ana M. T.

2017-10-01

The Cistercian Order (11th century) stands out as an apologist of the simplicity and austerity of the space. According to the Order of Cîteaux, only with an austere space, without any distractions, the true spiritual contemplation is achieved. This Order was an aggregator and consolidator pole during the Christian Reconquest. Thus, as it happens with other Religious Orders, Cîteaux has a vast heritage legacy. This heritage is witness, not only of the historical, but also social, political, and spiritual evolution. This legacy resumes the key principles to an austere liturgy, which requirements, in the beginning, are based on the simplicity of worship and of the connection between man and God. Later, these requirements allowed the development of the liturgy itself and its relation with the believers. Consequently, it can be concisely established an empirical approach between the Cistercian churches and the acoustics conditioning of these spaces. This outcome is fundamental in order to understand the connection between liturgy and the conception of the Cistercian churches as well as the constructed space and its history. So, an analysis of these principles is essential to establish the relation between acoustic and religious buildings design throughout history. It is also a mean of understanding the knowledge of acoustics principles that the Cistercian Order bequeathed to Portugal. This paper presents an empirical approach on Cistercian monastic churches acoustics. These spaces are the place where the greatest acoustic efforts are concentrated and it is also the space where the liturgy reaches greater importance. On the other hand, Portugal is a country which has an important Cistercian legacy over several periods of history. Consequently, the Portuguese Cistercian monastic churches are representative of the development of the liturgy, the design of spaces and of the acoustic requirements of their churches since the 12th century until the 21st century and it is of

La question de Galilée les faits et leurs conséquences

CERN Document Server

de L'Épinois, Henri

2015-01-01

Extrait : ""Galileo Galilei, que dans la langue française nous nommons Galilée, naquit le 18 février 1564 à Pise, où se trouvaient alors sa mère, Giulia Ammanati, et son père Vincenzo Galilei, issu d'une famille noble de Florence. Après avoir fait ses premières classes dans cette dernière ville et avoir achevé ses humanités et sa logique au monastère de Vallombrosa où il revêtit un instant l'habit de novice...""À PROPOS DES ÉDITIONS LIGARANLes éditions LIGARAN proposent des versions numériques de qualité de grands livres de la littérature classique mais également des livres rares en partenari

Buddhism, Business, and Economics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brox, Trine; Williams-Oerberg, Elizabeth Lane

2017-01-01

This chapter takes the relationship that Buddhists have historically had with economic practices as a starting point for discussing contemporary entanglements of Buddhism and economy. Based on a literary review of previous studies on Buddhism and business and building upon our own research, we...... analyze the diverse range of influences that have impacted the manner in which Buddhism and business have been entwined, taking a look at historical as well as regional, national, and global impacts on the formulation of Buddhism within encounters with global market economies. Our review spans lay......-monk exchange relations, Buddhist economic ethics, monastic businesses, spiritual consumerism, globalized Buddhism, secularized Buddhist technologies in the corporate world, and Buddhist branding, all of which testify to the diverse modalities of Buddhism and economic relations, illuminating also the economic...

Patriarch Ephrem: A late medieval saintly cult

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Popović Danica

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Patriarch Ephrem, monk and hermit, writer and saint, Bulgarian-born but twice the leader of the Serbian Church (1375-78 and 1389-92, is an outstanding figure of the late medieval Balkans. His "life and works" are discussed here in the light of hagiological texts and the information provided by various types of sources with the view to drawing some historically relevant conclusions. The main source of information about Ephrem's life and activity are the eulogies, Life and service composed by bishop Mark, his disciple and loyal follower for twenty-three years. Making use of hagiographical topica combined with plentiful data of undoubted documentary value, he relates the story of Ephrem's life through all of its major stages: from his birth and youth to his withdrawal from the world and taking of a monk's habit. Of formative influence were his years on the Holy Mount Athos, where he experienced different styles of monastic life, coenobitic, as well as solitary, which he practiced in the well-known hermitages in the heights of Athos. The further course of Ephrem's life was decided by the turbulent developments in the Balkans brought about by the Ottoman conquests. In that sense, his biography, full of forced and voluntary resettlements, is a true expression of the spirit of the times. Forced to flee Mount Athos, Ephrem made a short stay in Bulgaria and then, about 1347, came to Serbia, where he spent the rest of his life. An eminent representative of the monastic elite and under the aegis of the Serbian patriarch, he spent ten years in a hesychastria of the Monastery of Decani. For reasons of security, he then moved to a cave hermitage founded specially for him in the vicinity of the Patriarchate of Pec. It was in that cell, where he lived for twenty years powerfully influencing the monastic environment, that his literary work profoundly marked by hesychast thought and eschatology, was created. Ephrem twice accepted the office of patriarch in the

Surprise: a belief or an emotion?

Science.gov (United States)

Mellers, Barbara; Fincher, Katrina; Drummond, Caitlin; Bigony, Michelle

2013-01-01

Surprise is a fundamental link between cognition and emotion. It is shaped by cognitive assessments of likelihood, intuition, and superstition, and it in turn shapes hedonic experiences. We examine this connection between cognition and emotion and offer an explanation called decision affect theory. Our theory predicts the affective consequences of mistaken beliefs, such as overconfidence and hindsight. It provides insight about why the pleasure of a gain can loom larger than the pain of a comparable loss. Finally, it explains cross-cultural differences in emotional reactions to surprising events. By changing the nature of the unexpected (from chance to good luck), one can alter the emotional reaction to surprising events. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Flaubert et l’histoire des religions

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Philippe Dufour

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Qui est-ce qui a généralisé les religions ? Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire a dit : le crâne est une vertèbre aplatie. Qui est-ce qui a prouvé, par exemple, que la religion est une philosophie devenue art, et que la cervelle qui bat dedans, à savoir la superstition, le sentiment religieux en soi, est de la même matière partout, malgré ses différences extérieures, correspond aux mêmes besoins, répond aux mêmes fibres, meurt par les mêmes accidents, etc. ?Flaubert, à Louise Colet, 7 juillet 1853Le numér...

Affiches d’Angers ou moniteur du département de Maine-et-Loire

OpenAIRE

2006-01-01

numéro 28 Du quartidi ventôse de l’an II de la République française, une et indivisible, et de l’ère vulgaire, le samedi 22 février 1794. (page 1)Profession de foi du citoyen Obrumier, membre du comité de surveillance & révolutionnaire. « J’ai 51 ans depuis plus de 30 ans je gémis de porter les noms de deux imbécilles que la sotte superstition de nos peres regardoit comme des êtres dont l’apothéose étoit bien méritée. Je renonce au premier, Louis, non seulement parce qu’il ne fut qu’un ben...

Magical thinking decreases across adulthood.

Science.gov (United States)

Brashier, Nadia M; Multhaup, Kristi S

2017-12-01

Magical thinking, or illogical causal reasoning such as superstitions, decreases across childhood, but almost no data speak to whether this developmental trajectory continues across the life span. In four experiments, magical thinking decreased across adulthood. This pattern replicated across two judgment domains and could not be explained by age-related differences in tolerance of ambiguity, domain-specific knowledge, or search for meaning. These data complement and extend findings that experience, accumulated over decades, guides older adults' judgments so that they match, or even exceed, young adults' performance. They also counter participants' expectations, and cultural sayings (e.g., "old wives' tales"), that suggest that older adults are especially superstitious. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Lycanthropy in Byzantine times (AD 330-1453).

Science.gov (United States)

Poulakou-Rebelakou, E; Tsiamis, C; Panteleakos, L G; Ploumpidis, D

2009-12-01

In this paper, the original Greek language texts of the Byzantine medical literature about lycanthropy are reviewed. The transformation of a human being into a wolf and the adoption of animal-like behaviour, which were already known from mythology and had been presented in the scientific works of ancient Greek and Roman physicians, were examined by six Byzantine physicians and explained as a type of melancholic depression or mania. In spite of the influence of Byzantine medicine, its rationality in the interpretation of lycanthropy was forgotten in medieval and Renaissance times when it was replaced by explanations based on demonic possession and witchcraft. More recently psychiatry has treated the phenomenon as a subject of medical inquiry and has again explained the condition in terms of mental disorder.

Healthcare in Pali Buddhism.

Science.gov (United States)

Giustarini, Giuliano

2017-05-02

This article addresses an apparent paradox found in Pali Buddhist literature: while the "uncompounded" (asaṅkhata) is valued over and above what is "compounded" (saṅkhata), the texts also encourage careful attention to relative (or, physical) health. The mind is the laboratory and the object of a thorough work meant to lead to final liberation from mental affliction and from the cycle of existence, whereas the body is perceived as impure, limited, and intrinsically unsatisfactory. Nonetheless, a disciple of the Buddha is supposed to take care of his/her own and others' physical wellbeing, and monastic equipment includes a set of medicines. "Ultimate health" is the final goal, but conventional healthcare supports the path to nibbāna and represents a value per se. The present article will explore the intricate connection between these two dimensions.

El Negro, el Niño, witchcraft and the absence of rain in Botswana

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gewald, J.B.

2001-01-01

In October 2000, the remains of 'El Negro', a Tswana man who had died 170 years before and who, as a stuffed specimen, had been on display in Europe for over 160 years, were flown from Spain to Botswana and given a State funeral in the capital Gaborone. In early 2001, as it became clear that the

Clients and carers perception of mental illness and factors that influence help-seeking: Where they go first and why.

Science.gov (United States)

Chilale, Harris K; Silungwe, Ndumanene Devlin; Gondwe, Saulos; Masulani-Mwale, Charles

2017-08-01

In Northern Malawi, the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is longer than that in high-income countries. The reasons for the delay in help-seeking are not known, although studies show multiple reasons. This research was conducted to establish health care help-seeking behaviours and identify barriers that exist between service users and health care providers. The study also intended to establish the beliefs that clients and family members have regarding the causes of mental illness which profoundly shape help-seeking, care giving process and outcomes. The study employed the exploratory phenomenological method, utilizing focus group discussions (FGDs) in the sampled population. The Health Belief Model and Disease Explanatory Models were conveniently chosen a priori by researchers to develop guide questions to explore clients' and carers' perceptions of the illness and their health care help-seeking behaviours. Results show a bio-psycho-social inclination of disease causation and help-seeking behaviour. Causes of mental illness are understood in three categories, namely: physical/biological, psychological and socio-cultural. The majority of participants attributed mental illness to socio-cultural factors, with witchcraft, spirit possession and curses as main determinants. Causal perceptions also influenced help-seeking pathways. Many participants reported consulting traditional healers first, for diagnosis and to know who was responsible. In this study, it has been found that help-seeking is influenced by the understanding of the source of the illness - which has a bio-psychosocial inclination. The socio-cultural explanation of witchcraft and spirit possession is dominant and a determinant of help-seeking behaviour. While participants noted benefits to hospital treatment, barriers and bio-psychosocial in nature were also noted. Guardians and not clients hold the key to choice of treatment modality and therefore a potential ally in all treatment interventions

The Disjointed Historical Trajectory of Anorexia Nervosa Before 1970.

Science.gov (United States)

Court, John P M; Kaplan, Allan S

2016-01-01

Responses in pre-modern eras to anorexia nervosa (as now understood) varied widely, from religious piety and sanctity through fear and superstition. While noting briefly the limited conceptualizations from pre-modern history this article is primarily focused from the late 19th century, commencing with helpful but tentative formulations of anorexia nervosa for early-modern medicine that were laid out, consistently between themselves, by Lesègue, Gull and Osler. Yet that promising biomedical advent was superseded for more than a half-century by deep, internal divisions and bitter rifts that festered between three medical disciplines: neurology; Freudian psychotherapy; and Kraepelinian biological psychiatry. Mid-20th century developments preceded the 1960-1980s' improved understanding of suffering and movement toward effective remediation introduced by Dr. Hilde Bruch.

Paranormal health claims.

Science.gov (United States)

Skrabanek, P

1988-04-15

Faith in paranormal cures has always been the last hope of many sufferers from chronic or incurable diseases. Magico-religious rituals of healing are still around, but some have been replaced by pseudo-scientific systems, thinly disguising old superstitions in new obscurantism, more appealing to the half-educated. In medical quackery, inventiveness seems to be limitless, and only the main paranormal healing systems can be reviewed here. The increasing popularity of 'alternative' healing indicates the extent of dissatisfaction with dehumanising aspects of modern, technological medicine and its preoccupation with curing the curable at the expense of caring for the incurable. This leaves the sufferers, and also healthy people labelled with non-existent diseases, bleeding prey for the sharks roving the seas of medical ignorance.

Paranormal beliefs of Latvian college students: a Latvian version of the revised paranormal belief scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Utinans, A; Ancane, G; Tobacyk, J J; Boyraz, G; Livingston, M M; Tobacyk, J S

2015-02-01

A Latvian version of the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS) was completed by 229 Latvian university students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed six relatively independent factors labeled Magical Abilities, Psychokinesis, Traditional Religious Belief, Superstition, Spirit Travel, and Extraordinary Life Forms. Based on the motivational-control model, it was hypothesized that the societal stressors affecting Latvian society during the last 50 yr. have led to a reduced sense of personal control which, in turn, has resulted in increased endorsement of paranormal beliefs to re-establish a sense of control. The motivational-control hypothesis was not supported. Results indicated that (except for Traditional Religious Belief in women), the majority of these students were disbelievers in paranormal phenomena. As hypothesized, Latvian women reported significantly greater paranormal belief than men.

The Stube

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Atzbach, Rainer

2012-01-01

The "stube" (Danish "stue"), here defined as a smokefree heated living room, is the most important room in the central European house. North to the Alps, being exposed to maritime or even continental climate condition, it was impossible to live without heating from late autumn until spring. Since...... prehistoric times, open fireplaces provided warmth, light and energy for preparing meals. In central Europe, two new methods of smokeless heating had been developed: the complex subfloor convection air heating and the tiled stove. The first one is usually interpreted as reduced form of antic Roman hypocaust...... heating, which survived in monastic context. Since the 10th century, archaeological sources allow to describe its spread into profane context: firstly, it was used as heating for large rooms on castles, in the late Middle Ages, also in town halls. The tiled stove is not as powerful as the convection air...

THE LANGUAGE OF FRIENDSHIP IN THE ERASMUS’LETTERS TO SERVATIUS ROGERUS

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L. V. Sofronova

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The authors analyze early letters of the Dutch humanist Erasmus Roterodam (1487-1488 in the first year of his stay in the monastery of Steyn. The Epistles addressed to his fellow countryman and the young monk of the same monastery Servatius Roger. The authors explore the possibility of interpretation this texts from three points of view: as some samples of epistolary art; as some patterns of homosexual behaviours of the young Erasmus; as evidence of sentimental masculine friendship phenomenon inherent in the medieval monastic culture and tradition of devotiomoderna. The letters allow the authors to put the question of the role of rhetorical standards in describing the emotional experiences as well as to analyze Erasmus’ views on friendship, love, regulations of everyday life and their interrelations. The first Russian translation of one of the Erasmus-Servatius correspondence is given in the issue.

Las capillas y capellanías reales castellano-leonesas en la Baja Edad Media (siglos XIII-XV: algunas precisiones institucionales

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Nogales Rincón, David

2005-12-01

Full Text Available The study of royal chapels and royal chaplaincies is focus on the analysis of the relationships between de Palace Chapel and the cathedral/monastic royal chapels from a institucional, ideologic and functional criterions, on making a systematization of them and on presenting some general notes about their characteristics, ideal patterns and development in the late Middle Ages in Castille (13th-15th centuries.

El estudio de las capillas y capellanías reales se centra en el análisis de las relaciones entre la Capilla Palacio y las capillas reales catedralicias/monásticas desde un punto de vista institucional, ideológico y funcional, en llevar a cabo una sistematización de éstas y ofrecer algunas notas generales sobre sus características, modelos ideales y evolución en la Castilla bajomedieval (siglos XIII-XV.

La fortuna del ciclo de "Daniel en el foso de los leones" en los programas escultóricos románicos de Galicia

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Moure Pena, Teresa C.

2006-09-01

Full Text Available This study is focused on the iconographic cycle of Daniel in the Lions Den within the sculptural programs of the Galician Romanesque. Analysis of the representations allows for the proposal of a series of theories concerning the connection between figuration and context, and particularly the value and signification acquired by the theme in the monastic milieu.

El objetivo de este artículo se centra en el estudio del ciclo iconográfico de Daniel en el foso de los leones en los programas figurativos del románico gallego. El análisis de las representaciones nos permitirá proponer una serie de teorías sobre la conexión entre figuración y el contexto en el que se dispone y, especialmente el valor y significado que el tema adquiere en el ámbito monástico.

Blessed alienation: the Christian monastery as a caring and restorative environment.

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Eriksson, Nadya T; Wiklund-Gustin, Lena

2014-02-01

Being mentally ill is often associated with experiencing alienation from society because sensations are not easily shared with others. Modern health care leads us to pose many questions. Some sufferers search and find their way to monasteries as they did centuries ago. We interviewed six persons staying in a monastery to understand the meaning of health and care in a monastic environment in contemporary Sweden. We analyzed the transcripts by means of a hermeneutic approach and discovered that the helping effect of the monastery was based on its contradictory/paradoxical structure that corresponded to the lifeworld of a person suffering from mental illness. The monastery was a place where one could be different but equal, and simultaneously provided freedom within boundaries, calmness and intensity, privacy and relations, demands and confirmation. This facilitated experiences of health and wholeness, necessary to manage the challenges of recovery.

Alternative Epistemologies in Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo’s TRESE

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Ana Micaela Chua

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Postmodern readings are premised on the dissolution of grand narratives, disallowing the imagination of unity or truth, and giving primacy to decentering as novelty. Working against such a tendency, this essay presents a reading of Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo’s TRESE as a text grounded in particular social epistemologies, which allows the text to speak of Metro Manila as a unified entity where people share realities and myths. TRESE, I argue here, locates the impulse for resolution in alternative systems of knowledge— often between superstition and grand narrative—that are easily available, but often too quickly dismissed as useless or outmoded. In stories such as “Wanted: Bedspacer” and “Cadena de Amor,” different ways of accessing knowledge are allowed to play vital roles in detection without totally devaluing rational analyses. These alternatives to logic and science may themselves vary: from superstitions to the properly arcane, from “common sense” to emotional and sociological understanding of human interaction. The text engages in myth-making in an effort to approximate cultural unity, where such unity has always been problematic, by imagining alternative access points to truth; this is a move that must be read in the context of a culture that is not irrational or anti-rational, but one in which rationality is only one way of accessing knowledge. TRESE empowers alternative systems of knowledge that allow us to better comprehend ourselves as a society. In this essay I employ critical insights from Kumkum Sangari’s “The Politics of the Possible,” through which TRESE can be read as a text that is not simply a novelty, but as one in which popular tropes and strategies of myth-making come together to present the possibility of a vision of a Philippine urban culture that embraces both the fantastic and the real, rather than being divided between them.

Gathering Leaves & Lifting Words. Histories of Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Thailand, Justin Thomas McDaniel

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Guillaume Rozenberg

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Depuis maintenant trois ou quatre décennies, on a vu la constitution aux États-Unis, du moins pour ce qui concerne les recherches sur les sociétés theravādin d’Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est, d’une sorte d’école qu’on qualifierait volontiers de « bouddhographique », mélange détonnant de bouddhologie et d’ethnographie. Ses représentants se distinguent par la conjonction d’une solide culture classique (maîtrise du pâli et souvent du sanskrit, une formation pluridisciplinaire à la croisée de la phil...

Sankofa: Looking Back at my Practice Encounter with Witchcraft, HIV/AIDS and Disability in Ghana

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Vyda Mamley Hervie

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Social work students are trained to develop and maintain a professional sense of integrity, particularly when working in environments beyond their control. Using critical reflection as an example, students are encouraged to pause and reflect during practice encounters, which entails a reassessment of the situation. The aim is to help transform taken for granted ways of thinking and doing things into best practices. In this sense, students are provided with perspectives on theoretical frameworks and encouraged to appreciate the essence of maximizing practice through a culture of learning and reflection. Through the approach of critical reflection, students are also encouraged to understand how power functions in society, especially through ways in which an individual attempts to maintain unequal social relations. Critical reflection therefore helps students to fill knowledge gaps on how to discover and address inequalities in practice situations.

[A nosology for supernatural phenomena and the construction of the 'possessed' brain in the nineteenth century].

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Goncalves, Valeria Portugal; Ortega, Francisco

2013-06-01

At the end of the twentieth century, supernatural phenomena such as so called trances and possession by spirits received a scientific classification, which includes the numerous diagnoses of the dominant psychiatry. At the end of the nineteenth century we can observe a process of scientific categorization of phenomena considered to have originated in superstition or popular imagination. In this work we show how trances and spiritual possession were studied by Franz Anton Mesmer and his followers when developing the concept of magnetism; by James Braid during the creation of his theory of hypnosis; and by Jean Martin Charcot, which marked the entry of hysteria into nosological classification. Despite the differences between these schools, we identify the use of the brain and cerebral metaphors as the foundation of theories of the mind.

Rumor, gossip and blame: implications for HIV/AIDS prevention in the South African lowveld.

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Stadler, Jonathan

2003-08-01

The HIV/AIDS epidemic provides fertile breeding ground for theories of the origin of HIV/AIDS, its mode of transmission, and the allocation of blame. Drawing on ethnographic research in the Bushbuckridge region of the South African lowveld, this article examines the articulation of AIDS through gossip and rumor. These oral forms create moral readings of behavior and shape folk discourses of AIDS that resist dominant epidemiological explanations. Significantly, constructions of AIDS are not uniform. Although elders claim AIDS as traditional and curable, younger men and women support theories of AIDS as a modern, foreign disease. Witchcraft beliefs are popular in explaining why certain people die and not others. At times, rumor may escalate into a moral panic. The implications of these findings for social responses to the AIDS epidemic and HIV/AIDS prevention are explored.

Coping with stress: dream interpretation in the Mapuche family.

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Degarrod, L N

1990-06-01

Dreams are shared and interpreted daily within the family unit among the Mapuche Indians of Chile. This anthropological study examines the communicative aspect of dream sharing and interpreting among Mapuche families undergoing emotional and physical stress. Specifically, it investigates the ways in which the Mapuche dream interpretation system provides the family members with another means of interaction and a way of solving their problems. It also examines how individuals influence their attitudes towards one another by communally participating in the dream interpretation process, and in its narrative performance. The data used in this research consists of dreams and of their interpretations, collected in the natural setting, from two families with members suffering of witchcraft, and fear of death. This information was collected over a period of 17 months from October 1985 to March 1987 with a Fulbright-Hayes Doctoral Dissertation Grant.

Buddhism, Copying, and the Art of the Imagination in Thailand

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Jim Taylor

2015-02-01

Full Text Available This article theorizes new urban religio-scapes in metropolitan Bangkok, a city space of contradictory modernities. Here, I look at two contrasting Buddhist monastic spaces of sanctity from periods of fieldwork between 1998 and 2002. Firstly, as found in the modern semblance of order and discipline at the radically neo-conservative Dhammakaya Movement (lit. “Body of Dhamma”. Secondly, the chaotic, disordered flamboyant and kitsch space of the Sanam Chan Monastery on the outskirts of the ever-expanding Thai post-metropolis, which has similarities with the consumerist contemporary “Buddhist” feature art of the arcades and shopping centres. I argue that Wat (Monastery Sanam Chan is a postmodern representation of sanctity; it is a response to modernity, while Dhammakaya, aside from its immense spectacle, reflects more the essentialist conditions inherent in modernity. Nevertheless, it is clear that both spaces of sanctity challenge the established religious hierarchy, its perceived orthodoxy, legitimation and the ethical bases of civic religion in Thailand.

The limitations of erudition

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Alfredo Serrai

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The aim of the Scholarship Erudition is the fact-finding, and it is to be made by the analysis of documentation. The choice of the facts to be analyzed, however, is subjective and could lead to wrong conclusions. A good example is given by the codex Cam. B. Armadio 2.I of the Classense Library in Ravenna. Inside the codex there is a note by Santi Muratori, the librarian of Classense. The note says the book is to throw away. An analysis of the codex reveals that it is a collection of dissertations and commentaries with quotations from the Fathers of the Church, from Plato and Plotinus, and sometimes the poems of Dante. Probably, the book was for aloud reading during meals of the Camaldolese monks and it reveals a remarkable intellectual liveliness of the monastic community. The codex reveals itself as a good tool for a better knowledge of the Camaldolese’s community, despite of the negative rating by Santi Muratori.

The “Enemy” of the Saint in the Vita Fulgentii

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Isabella D'Auria

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to analyze the traits that characterize the “enemy” of the saint in the Vita Fulgentii. The work tells in twenty-nine chapters the life of the bishop of Ruspe Fulgentius, troubled by exile and persecutions both in the monastic phase and in the episcopal one, in the context of the vandalic invasion in Africa between 5th and 6th century. The “enemy”, that identifies, in the most cases, with the invader of arian faith, presents a stereotyped nature, summarizing the tipical characteristics of barbarian and the ones specific to the heterodox. In order to achieve the goal of the reader’s moral edification, the text presents antithetical models, the saint ant his opposer, and all the account revolves around this dialectic; so it is worthy of interest to pick out the elements that define, throught a relationship of opposition, the collective identities, that in this text are represented by Catholics invaded and by barbarian and heretic invaders.

STUDY ON THE HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE RINZAI ZEN SECT BUDDHIST MONASTERIES IN KYÔTO

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Antariksa Antariksa

2000-01-01

Full Text Available In the middle of the 14th century, the Five Temples or Five Mountains (Gozan of Rinzai Zen sect were developed rapidly in the city of Kyôto. The ranking system of officially sponsored by Zen Buddhist monasteries were created by the Kamakura and Muromachi government. The Gozan system originally included three monasteries in Kyôto and three in Kamakura, but immediately spread to five monasteries in several cities. While the two great monasteries, are not members of the Gozan group, which belonged to the Rinka group of Rinzai Zen sect temples. The system, which corresponds to a Chinese hierarchical model, was established in Japan during the Kamakura period. The purpose of this study is to attempt to clarify the history and architecture of Rinzai Zen sect Buddhist monastery. The central functioning building of the Zen Buddhist monastery reflects the repetition, consistency, persistence, and order of the monastic ritual.

Hungry women: sin and rebellion through food and music in the early modern era

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Gioia Filocamo

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Longing for food has always had different implications for men and women: associated with power and strength for men, it tends to have a worrying proximity to sexual pleasure for women. Showing an interesting parallelism throughout the Cinquecento, Italian humanists and teachers insisted on forbidding women music and gluttony. Food and music were both considered dangerous stimulants for the female senses, and every woman was encouraged to consider herself as a kind of food to be offered to the only human beings authorized to feel and satisfy desires: men and babies. Women could properly express themselves only inside monastic circles: the most prolific female composer of the seventeenth century was a nun, as was the first woman who wrote down recipes. Elaborate music and food became the means to maintain a lively relationship with the external world. Moreover, nuns also escaped male control by using the opposite system of affirming themselves through fasting and mortifying the flesh.

Queer eye for the ascetic guy? Homoeroticism, children, and the making of Monks in late antique Egypt.

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Schroeder, Caroline T

2009-01-01

A famous instruction about children in monasteries reads: "Do not bring young boys here. Four churches in Scetis are deserted because of boys." Taken from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, this apophthegm exposes the presence of homoeroticism and anxieties about the homoerotic, especially erotic encounters with children, in early Christian ascetic communities. This essay examines the construction of male sexuality in early Egyptian monasticism, focusing on the Sayings and the rules of the monastic leader Shenoute of Atripe It argues that the masculine ascetic ideal builds upon certain classical ideals of masculinity, especially the control of the passions, but purports to eschew classical models of eroticism in which the adolescent male represents the ideal sexual partner. However, these sources are designed to be recited or retold as edifying texts; despite their overt disavowal of sexual contact between men and boys, their retelling and rereading keeps homoeroticism and the representation of boys as sexually desirable objects alive in the ascetic imagination.

Countercurrents from the West: “blue-eyed” Zen masters, Vipassanā meditation, and Buddhist psychotherapy in contemporary Korea.

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Bongseok Joo, Ryan

2011-01-01

One surprising and yet relatively unknown aspect of contemporary Korean Buddhism is the significant influence of American and European Buddhism. Between 1989 and 2009, South Koreans witnessed well-educated “blue-eyed” monastic residents via the Korean media, and the emergence of new bestsellers by authors like Thich Nhat Hahn and Jack Kornfield, written initially for Western audiences but since translated into Korean. The new teachings from the West have inspired a sudden growth of interest in vipassanā meditation as an “alternative” to Kanhwa Sŏn practice, and the emergence of a new academic field: Buddhist psychotherapy. This new wave of transnational influence from the West has changed not only the way Koreans practice Buddhism but also how they perceive Buddhist history and their own identities. In addition, the perceived “prestige” of Buddhism in the West has provided a new rhetorical strategy to defend Buddhism against other religions, particularly Korean evangelical Christianity.

Mass Media and Ideology Dissemination against Democracy in Thailand

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Songyot Buaphuean

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The study on “Mass Media and Ideology Dissemination against Democracy in Thailand” is qualitative study with the method of documentary research from text books, books, newspapers and online newspapers to find the definition of democracy which was the system of forming the elected government with the principle of sovereignty, majority, equality, freedom and laws. However, some mass media had false consciousness of democracy which included: election brought bad quality politicians; recruitment of persons to form the government was better than election; promotion of superstition; one man one vote was not for Thai society; capitalism deteriorated the nation; The Armed Forces worked for the people. Another concept was the idea that believed Thai society was praising the elite groups. The ideology said the society should obey the senior citizen who had morals, and the Armed Forces forced people to obey.

The Eternal Role of Astronomy in History and Civilization

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Theodossiou, E.; Manimanis, V. N.

2010-07-01

Astronomy is the most ancient of all natural sciences. From its roots in ancient Babylonian and Egyptian stellar observations, and through its formulation into a science from the Greek natural philosophers, it defined the measurement of time. The stellar eras and the applications of Astronomy were incorporated in temples, paintings, sculptures and in art in general. Today, the value of Astronomy on practical matters, timekeeping or the navigation, has diminished. However, the eternal questions connected with Astronomy remain: Who are we and where did we come from? How and why was the Universe born? The greatest step to answer this kind of questions came with the so-called Copernican revolution, mostly in the 17th Century. The progress of Astronomy in the 400 years since then answered questions and gave an end to all kinds of superstitions, one more contribution to human civilization.

Buddhism at Crossroads: A Case Study of Six Tibetan Buddhist Monks Navigating the Intersection of Buddhist Theology and Western Science

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Sonam, Tenzin

Recent effort to teach Western science in the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries has drawn interest both within and outside the quarters of these monasteries. This novel and historic move of bringing Western science in a traditional monastic community began around year 2000 at the behest of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism. Despite the novelty of this effort, the literature in science education about learners from non-Western communities suggests various "cognitive conflicts" experienced by these non-Western learners due to fundamental difference in the worldview of the two knowledge traditions. Hence, in this research focuses on how six Tibetan Buddhist monks were situating/reconciling the scientific concepts like the theory of evolution into their traditional Buddhist worldview. The monks who participated in this study were engaged in a further study science at a university in the U.S. for two years. Using case study approach, the participants were interviewed individually and in groups over the two-year period. The findings revealed that although the monks scored highly on their acceptance of evolution on the Measurement of Acceptance of Theory of Evolution (MATE) survey, however in the follow-up individual and focus group interviews, certain conflicts as well as agreement between the theory of evolution and their Buddhist beliefs were revealed. The monks experienced conflicts over concepts within evolution such as common ancestry, human evolution, and origin of life, and in reconciling the Buddhist and scientific notion of life. The conflicts were analyzed using the theory of collateral learning and was found that the monks engaged in different kinds of collateral learning, which is the degree of interaction and resolution of conflicting schemas. The different collateral learning of the monks was correlated to the concepts within evolution and has no correlation to the monks' years in secular school, science learning or their

« Effets-tableaux » et parergon dans Macbeth Meeting the Three Witches par Francesco Zuccarelli et par Henry Füssli d’après Macbeth Pictorialism and “ergon” in the paintings of Macbeth Meeting the Three Witches by Francesco Zuccarelli (1760 and Henry Fuseli (1793-1794 after Macbeth

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Nathalie Padilla

2006-01-01

Full Text Available During the 18th century, Shakespeare’s Macbeth was a source of inspiration for many painters who tried to underscore the pictorial quality of the play, especially that of Act 1, scene 3. The paper compares the interpretations offered by Henry Fuseli and Francesco Zuccarelli who were both foreign artists belonging to the Royal Academy of London. Their paintings after Act 1, scene 3, of Macbeth offer a visual representation articulated around contrast and convergence: if Fuseli remains faithful to the pivotal emotional intent, seen as the “ergon” here, Zuccarelli almost ignores it, finding a greater interest in the landscape of the scene that fills most of his pictorial space. However, the two works fuse together within the etymology of the term “ergon”, that equates with “work” or “action”. They illustrate the idea of active witchcraft through natural phenomena controlled by the three witches.

Problems in the study of the medieval heritage in the Lim valley

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Popović Marko

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Discussing the results of archaeological investigation at two important medieval sites - remains of the monastery of St George at Mažići near Priboj and of the church at Drenova near Prijepolje - the author puts forward his critical observations that make significant revisions to the conclusions suggested by excavators. The remains of a monastery at Mažići have long ago been identified with the monastery of St George in the župa (district of Dabar known from early 13th-century records. In the 1310s a monastery of St George is referred to in association with the toponym of Orahovica. After a long gap, the monastery is referred to again several times in the 1600s until its final destruction in 1743, as St George’s at Orahovica or simply Mažić(i. The report following systematic archaeological excavations suggests the unacceptable and unfounded conclusion, with dating and interpretation that the monastery church was built in the 13th century, received additions in the 14th, and was renovated in the 16th-17th centuries when there was a hospital attached to it. Careful analysis of the structural remains and the site’s stratigraphy clearly shows that the monastery was built on the site of a medieval cemetery of a 14th-15th-century date, which means that the church and its buildings cannot be older than the 16th century. The author also argues against the assumed presence of a monastic hospital, the assumption being based upon metal artifacts misinterpreted as "medical instruments" (parchment edge trimmer, compasses, fork!!!. The author’s inference is that the ruins at Mažići are not the remains of the monastery of St George, which should be searched for elsewhere, but possibly the legacy of a 14th-century monastic establishment which was moved there from an as yet unknown location most likely about the middle of the 16th century. The site at Drenova, with remains of a church destroyed by land slide, has been known since the late 19th

Viable Solutions for seemingly Intractable Problems

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Ashok Natarajan

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Life is filled with seemingly intractable problems. But life wisdom affirms that if there is a problem, there must be a solution. Or better yet, the solution to the problem lies within the problem itself. Problems have their roots in disharmony. Disharmony arises when a part separates itself from the whole and acts independently of the wider reality of which it is a part, as financial markets have separated themselves from the real economy and economy has detached itself from social and ecological consequences. Insistence on out-moded approaches under new conditions generates intractable problems, as when the framework of a heterogeneous nation-state is employed for the dominance of a single ethnic or religious group. Knowledge and culture are the supreme values of a society and core element of its capacity for accomplishment and development, yet both tend to be exclusively possessed by elites for their own benefit, rather than freely distributed to maximize their impact on society as a whole. Society evolves by the transformation of ignorance into knowledge. Life evolves by organization. The linking and integration of social organizations spur development. Mind itself is an organization and powerful force for development. Energy makes organization more efficient. Any problem can be solved by raising the effectiveness of energy by converting it into skill or capacity and transforming it into power through organization. What one person sees as a problem is an opportunity for another with wider vision. The difference in perception accounts for the difference in levels of accomplishment. So, those with the right perspective see opportunities where others see insolvable problems. Current problems are the result of irrationality, refusal to benefit from past experience and insistence on repeating past errors. Modern science, which was born to fight the superstition of religion, has become a source of superstition. Fully availing of the latest

Crenças no paranormal e estilos de pensamento racional versus experiencial Belief in the paranormal and rational versus experiential thinking styles

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Tatiana Severino de Vasconcelos

2004-12-01

Full Text Available Apesar dos avanços científicos e tecnológicos, as crenças em fenômenos paranormais têm aumentado nas últimas décadas. No entanto, não há um consenso sobre a estrutura multidimensional dessas crenças. Esse estudo procurou atingir dois objetivos: construir um questionário de crenças no paranormal (QCP e observar sua dimensionalidade, além de investigar sua validade concorrente correlacionando seus resultados com o Inventário do Pensamento Racional versus Experiencial. Os instrumentos foram aplicados em 206 participantes e os resultados revelaram que o QCP divide-se em quatro fatores: crenças no paranormal em geral, superstições comuns, mal versus bem e proteção espiritual. As pessoas com maiores índices de crenças no paranormal e de superstições comuns tendem a preferir o pensamento experiencial. O pensamento racional não apresentou correlações significativas com nenhum dos fatores do QCP, sugerindo que não existem evidências empíricas para fundamentar a discussão das crenças no paranormal sobre a dicotomia racionalidade versus irracionalidade.Despite of the scientific and technological advances, belief in the paranormality has been rising in the last decades. However, there is not an agreement about its multidimensional structure. This study intended to accomplish two goals: to construct a scale of paranormal beliefs (QCP and observe its dimensionality, and investigate its concurrent validity by correlating its results with those of the Rational versus Experiential Thinking Inventory. The instruments were administered to 206 participants and the results revealed that QCP is composed of four factors paranormal beliefs, common superstitions, evil vs. good, and spiritual protection. People with higher beliefs in the paranormal and common superstitions tend to prefer experiential thinking. The rational thinking style did not correlate significantly with any of the QCP factors. These results suggest the non-existence of

Enabling Philippine Farmers to Adapt to Climate Variability Using Seasonal Climate and Weather Forecast with a Crop Simulation Model in an SMS-based Farmer Decision Support System

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Ebardaloza, J. B. R.; Trogo, R.; Sabido, D. J.; Tongson, E.; Bagtasa, G.; Balderama, O. F.

2015-12-01

Corn farms in the Philippines are rainfed farms, hence, it is of utmost importance to choose the start of planting date so that the critical growth stages that are in need of water will fall on dates when there is rain. Most farmers in the Philippines use superstitions and traditions as basis for farming decisions such as when to start planting [1]. Before climate change, superstitions like planting after a feast day of a saint has worked for them but with the recent progression of climate change, farmers now recognize that there is a need for technological intervention [1]. The application discussed in this paper presents a solution that makes use of meteorological station sensors, localized seasonal climate forecast, localized weather forecast and a crop simulation model to provide recommendations to farmers based on the crop cultivar, soil type and fertilizer type used by farmers. It is critical that the recommendations given to farmers are not generic as each farmer would have different needs based on their cultivar, soil, fertilizer, planting schedule and even location [2]. This application allows the farmer to inquire about whether it will rain in the next seven days, the best date to start planting based on the potential yield upon harvest, when to apply fertilizer and by how much, when to water and by how much. Short messaging service (SMS) is the medium chosen for this application because while mobile penetration in the Philippines is as high as 101%, the smart phone penetration is only at 15% [3]. SMS has been selected as it has been identified as the most effective way of reaching farmers with timely agricultural information and knowledge [4,5]. The recommendations while derived from making use of Automated Weather Station (AWS) sensor data, Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) models and DSSAT 4.5 [9], are translated into the local language of the farmers and in a format that is easily understood as recommended in [6,7,8]. A pilot study has been started

Medicine Among New Immigrants and Arab Minorities in Israel

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Mishkin, Seymour

1965-01-01

The reaction to modern medicine and the general health of the new immigrants and Arab populations of Israel are described. The material was gathered during a threemonth visit to Israel where the author participated in the medical care of these persons. While these peoples still share many of the traditional medical superstitions and practices, the new immigrants have progressed much more during the 16 years of Israel's existence. At present over 99% of Jewish women give birth in hospital, whereas only 65% of Israeli Arabs do. The infant mortality rate among the Jews in 1963 was about 21 deaths per 1000 live births, about one-half the rate for Arabs. The importance of understanding the cultural background and social conflicts of these people as a preliminary to the provision of proper medical care is stressed. ImagesFig. 2Fig. 3Fig. 4Fig. 5Fig. 6Fig. 7 PMID:14285305

The self-attribution bias and paranormal beliefs.

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van Elk, Michiel

2017-03-01

The present study investigated the relation between paranormal beliefs, illusory control and the self-attribution bias, i.e., the motivated tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself while negative outcomes are externalized. Visitors of a psychic fair played a card guessing game and indicated their perceived control over randomly selected cards as a function of the congruency and valence of the card. A stronger self-attribution bias was observed for paranormal believers compared to skeptics and this bias was specifically related to traditional religious beliefs and belief in superstition. No relation between paranormal beliefs and illusory control was found. Self-report measures indicated that paranormal beliefs were associated to being raised in a spiritual family and to anomalous experiences during childhood. Thereby this study suggests that paranormal beliefs are related to specific cognitive biases that in turn are shaped by socio-cultural factors. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Traditional burn care in sub-Saharan Africa: a long history with wide acceptance.

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Albertyn, R; Berg, A; Numanoglu, A; Rode, H

2015-03-01

Burns are very common in sub-Saharan Africa and are considered to be a major health care problem. The management of burns in many African countries is challenged by limited financial resources, inaccessible health care facilities, lack of trained professionals and superstition. These limitations are related to the many burned patients seeking treatment from traditional healers. The use of traditional remedies, plant and animal products are seen as an important aspect of burn management as it is both an affordable and respected treatment modality. Despite its popularity, the use of traditional burn care remedies is faced with many challenges as little research has been done on its effectiveness, dosage and adverse reactions. This paper reviewed the traditions and customs associated with traditional burn care as well as the use of plant, animal and mineral products used by traditional healers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

Sorcery and publicity: the Cadière-Girard scandal of 1730-1731.

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Kuznicki, Jason T

2007-01-01

The Cadière-Girard trial of 1730-1731 is an early example of a sensational, nationally publicized French trial in which the major parties were private individuals. Cadière, a female penitent, accused Girard, her Jesuit confessor, of bewitching and raping her; Girard claimed that Cadière was guilty of slander. It was to be the last witchcraft trial in the francophone world. Another notable feature of the trial was its publicity, in which the contesting parties almost immediately became stand-ins for the Society of Jesus and for its Jansenist adversaries. This paper argues that certain anti-Jesuits, particularly Cadière's defence team and in the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence, acted to prolong the trial with the aim of creating as much bad publicity as possible for the Society of Jesus; it also shows how Jansenist publicists took advantage of the lengthy process, creating literature that "burned Girard in spirit," and with him, the Jesuits as a whole.

Review: Johanna Mutzl (2005. "Die Macht von Dreien ..." Medienhexen und moderne Fangemeinschaften. Bedeutungskonstruktionen im Internet ["Three's Power"—Media Witches and Modern Fan Communities. The Construction of Meaning on the Internet

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Angela Tillmann

2006-03-01

Full Text Available Johanna MUTZL's study is concerned with the construction of meaning on the Internet amongst fans of the TV series Charmed. Conducted in both German and English, the study is based on a discourse and genre analysis, an e-mail questionnaire, and a grounded theory evaluation of over 200 fan sites. The study persuasively demonstrates how the Internet has contributed to the development of new means of production and distribution as well as the formation of creative communities. According to this study, fans derive personal relevance for their own, daily experience from media images of womanhood and witchcraft. Constructing personally relevant discourses, their productivity is setting up new (discursive spaces on fan pages and social communication networks on the Internet. MUTZL describes these as "fan spaces", in reference to Doreen MASSEY (1994, whose approach she has elaborated into her own three-pronged model. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0602287

The Dog that Stopped Barking: Mass Legal Executions in 21st Century America

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Paul H. Blackman

2014-02-01

Full Text Available During the first two centuries of European colonization of what is now the United States, executions for a variety of offenses relatively frequently involved mass executions, that is, the execution for the same criminal incident of four or more persons. By the time of American independence, some of those crimes had largely ceased to exist or to elicit such punishment, like witchcraft and piracy. However, the punishment of slaves and Indians kept the percentage of executed persons involved in mass executions significant, if not large. During the last quarter of the 19th and first six decades of the 20th century, mass legal executions diminished as a percentage and were largely limited to punishing robbery-related homicides, including felony-homicides of conspirators. Throughout that period, the end of mass executions for a particular crime presaged the end of all executions for that offense, and the last mass legal execution occurred in 1960.

Gadè deceptions and lies told by the ill: The Caribbean sociocultural construction of truth in patient-healer encounters.

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Massé, Raymond

2002-08-01

A constructivist approach in medical anthropology suggests that the boundary between lies and truth in sickness narratives is thin. Based on fieldwork in the French (Martinique) and English (Saint-Lucia) Carribbean with gadé and quimboiseurs (local folk healers), this paper addresses the gap between naïve romanticism and radical cynicism in the anthropological analysis of patient-healer encounters. Is the sick person lying when she accuses evil spirits for her behaviour or sickness? Is the quimboiseur who is building a meaningful explanation or diagnosis simply a liar taking advantage of his client's credulity? The challenge for anthropology is not to determine whether or not a person is lying when attributing their ill fortune to witchcraft. Instead, in this paper, the author approaches lying as a language-game played by both patients and folk healers. Concepts of lying as games, tactical lies, pragmatic creativity, and constructive lies are introduced here as a perspective for a reconsideration of lying as a pertinent research object.

Beyond Democratic Tolerance: Witch Killings in Timor-Leste

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Rebecca Strating

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Newly democratising states experience challenges in reconciling “traditional” or “customary” dispute resolution practices with newly established state-based legal systems based on the rule of law. For Timor-Leste, these tensions are pronounced in continuing debates concerning the killing or injuring of women accused of witchcraft. Defences of extrajudicial punishments tend to conflate democracy with local support and fail to deal with the key institutions of democratic systems, including the rule of law, political equality, and civil rights. In Timor-Leste’s case, where equality and social rights were incorporated into the Constitution as fundamental governmental obligations, localised extrajudicial punishments threaten internal and external state legitimacy and highlight the difficulties of ensuring the primacy of state-based institutions. Extrajudicial punishments challenge Timor-Leste’s capacity to consolidate new liberal democratic political institutions.

POTENŢIALUL TURISTIC RELIGIOS ÎN SUBCARPAŢII GETICII (SECTORUL OLT-OLTEŢ

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Lăcrămioara-Florinela POPA

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Religious touristic potential in the Getic Subcarpathians (Olt – Olteţ sector Subcarpathian’s morphology and the other conditions, climate, fluid, soil, biogeographically have created a favorable climate for the emergence and development of settlements. Valleys, small depressions in contact with the mountain, depressions between hills, meadows rivers were the main points of attraction in the establishment of settlements. With the advent and evolution of settlements occurred in the landscape and facilities of public interest generated by the needs of the population. Monastic settlements occurred in the spiritual need of people to have a place to find peace of mind to reflect on the facts good or bad, to clear their thoughts clear, however making them through the call to Divinity.As token of gratitude brought divinity, people have dedicated place of worship which vary in size from the hermitage to the monastery, according to the material and the possibility of historical conjuncture. The Getic Subcarpathians have spread along them many places of worship. Monasteries and hermitages are different, by the numeric character and architectural monuments of anthropogenic nature.

Monasteries and social networks in the early medieval el Bierzo region

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Iñaki Martín Viso

2011-04-01

Full Text Available This article analyses the influence of monasteries on the creation of social networks based on the specific case of the El Bierzo region. Six monasteries were chosen (Santa Leocadia de Castañeda, Santos Cosme y Damián de Burbia, San Salvador de Bárcena, San Pedro de Montes, Santiago de Peñalba, and San Julián de Samos in order to study three different parameters: the social agents that interacted with the monasteries, the shaping of the monastical estates and the geographical scale of their domains. As a result of this analysis, a typology based on the way in which the social networks were organized (monasteries of local scale, monasteries with religious prestige, and monasteries linked to the monarchy, has been clearly identified. Additionally, it highlights the existence of a decentralized social pattern in which the different aristocratic groups coexisted without fierce competition because they developed on a local-regional scale, in which the monasteries served as stage for their power.

Investigation of the gilding technique in two post-Byzantine wall paintings using micro-analytical techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Katsibiri, Olga; Boon, Jaap J.

2004-01-01

The main churches of two important monasteries in Thessalia, Central Greece, are decorated with wall paintings that hail from the post-Byzantine period. The mural decoration of the main church of the St. Byssarionas Monastery at Doussiko has been attributed to the iconographer Tzortzis. The same painter is believed to have also operated in the main church of the Transfiguration Monastery at the monastic community of Meteora. The light microscopic (LM) examination of the cross-sections of samples taken from the gilded areas of the wall paintings, together with the direct temperature resolved mass spectrometric (DTMS) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopic (SEM-EDX) analysis, revealed a further resemblance of the materials and the methodology employed. The gold leaf was applied to the paintings by means of a mordant, which contains linseed oil mixed with a lead-containing dryer and an earth pigment or clay. The present study can constitute additional evidence to reinforce the idea that the two churches may have been painted by the same painter or workshop

Το δικαστικό προνόμιο της Νέας Μονής Χίου

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Ν. ΟΙΚΟΝΟΜΙΔΗΣ

1997-09-01

Full Text Available Nikos Oikonomides The Judicial Privilege of Nea Moni on ChiosEmperor Constantine  IX Monomachos granted (1045 to the monastery of Nea Moni on Chios a judicial privilege: any action against the monastery should be brought to court in front of the imperial tribunal only (JGR I, 629-631.In the present article it is argued that this privilege has nothing to do with the western immunitas, because the privilege does not give the monastery any right to judge other people. The privilege is compared to the similar ones granted to the monasteries of Lavra (963-964 and Iviron (1079. And it is interpreted as an effort to protect the founders of Nea Moni, who were seemingly spiritual mysticists, from the monastic establishment of Constantinople, especially the cenobitic Stoudiou movement.In fact, as we learn from Psellos, the founders of Nea Moni were eventually accused and condemned of heresy by the imperial tribunal under empress Theodora (1055-56, but were later re-instated thanks to the support of Patriarch Michael Keroularios. 

The Cunning-man, the Parson and the Inquisitor. The Saludadores and the Boundaries of the Supernatural in Baroque Spain

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Fabián Alejandro CAMPAGNE

2009-10-01

Full Text Available In a period in which the truth seemed to get confused so easily with the untruth, a new field of battle for the assignment of meanings and the capture of symbols arises in Renaissance and Baroque Spain. It is the mythical complex of the Iberian saludador, a belief that succesfully challenged the most sophisticated thelogical devices —such as the agustinian doctrine on superstition or the discernment of spirits—, which were unable to assign an unequivocal meaning to the myth. As a consequence of this theoretical disability, the mythical complex of the Iberian saludador became an object of dispute, a sensitive space for the tracing of those borders of the supernatural that so intensely obsessed the early modern culture. The most diverse social actors, such as charismatic-healers, rural priests, aspiring saints, and inquisitors, sought to turn the legend of the saludador into another device for the formation of subjectivities, into a cultural tool capable of simultaneously constructing otherness and the proper identity.

The reasons for the epilepsy treatment gap in Kilifi, Kenya: using formative research to identify interventions to improve adherence to antiepileptic drugs.

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Carter, Julie A; Molyneux, Catherine S; Mbuba, Caroline K; Jenkins, Jo; Newton, Charles R J C; Hartley, Sally D

2012-12-01

Many people with epilepsy (PWE) in resource-poor countries do not receive appropriate treatment, a phenomenon referred to as the epilepsy treatment gap (ETG). We conducted a qualitative study to explore the reasons for this gap and to identify possible interventions in Kilifi, Kenya. Focus group discussions (FGDs) were carried out of PWE and their caregivers. Individual interviews were conducted of PWE, their caregivers, traditional healers, community health workers and leaders, nurses and doctors. In addition, a series of workshops was conducted, and four factors contributing to the ETG were identified: 1) lack of knowledge about the causes, treatment and prognosis of epilepsy; 2) inaccessibility to antiepileptic drugs; 3) misconceptions about epilepsy derived from superstitions about its origin; 4) and dissatisfaction with the communication skills of health providers. These data indicated possible interventions: 1) education and support for PWE and their caregivers; 2) communication skills training for health providers; 3) and improved drug provision. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stars come down to Earth As estrelas descem à Terra

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Luiz Marcelo Brandão Carneiro

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Stars come down to Earth — A little known essay by Theodor W. Adorno, Stars Come Down to Earth is a study about horoscopes and superstition, written in the form of an analysis for the astrology column of the Los Angeles Times in the early 1950s. The German philosopher points out that the texts offered to the reader are an amalgam of the rational and the irrational, revealing the frankly ideological meanderings of their object. Obra não muito conhecida de Theodor W. Adorno, As estrelas descem à Terra é um estudo sobre horóscopo e superstição, originalmente dirigido à coluna de astrologia do Los Angeles Times do início dos anos 1950. O filósofo alemão, pontuando os textos oferecidos aos leitores como um mistura entre o racional e o irracional, revela os meandros do caráter francamente ideológico de seu objeto.

Religious diversity and patrimonialization A case study of the Nianli Festival in Leizhou Peninsula, China

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Shanshan Zheng

2017-04-01

Full Text Available With the emergence of the neologism ‘intangible cultural heritage’ in 2003 and the adoption of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law of the People’sRepublic of China in 2011 various popular religious practices in China which used to be considered as feudal superstitions started to be recognized as examples of cultural heritage worthy of protection. If we examine the concept of religious diversity at a local level in contemporary China, the process of a ‘patrimonialization’ of popular religious practices that reflect the dynamic relationships which can be detected across diverse discourses, multiple stakeholders and cultural policies in different arenas could offer us a new perspective on religious practices to explore. In this article I offer an analysis, based on fieldwork conducted between 2013 and 2016 on the Leizhou Peninsula in southern China’s Guangdong Province, of the varying degrees of acceptance, accommodation and resistance prompted by the actualization of popular religious practices in this era of patrimonialization.

Ebola Treatment and Prevention are not the only Battles: Understanding Ebola-related Fear and Stigma

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Mohammad Karamouzian

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Although Ebola Virus Disease (EVD had already taken hundreds of lives in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, it was only declared an ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’ in early August when the world started to panic from the possibility of EVD getting out of African borders - a fear that was spreading much faster than the virus itself (1,2. The underlying causes of this fear, however, go far behind the uncertainties surrounding EVD’s pathogenesis and could stem from the past (3. The western perception of associating West Africa with deadly diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and EVD, and representing the region as white man’s grave is not just fueled by superstition or ignorance and has roots in history (3,4. For instance, the yellow fever outbreak in Liberia in the 20s that led to the loss of several prominent American and British medical researchers and instructors, has left the West with painful memories of the region (3.

From monster to twin reversed arterial perfusion: a history of acardiac twins.

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Obladen, Michael

2010-05-01

A human being born without heart and head, i.e., the acardius/acranius malformation, has been described since antiquity. Superstition and fear made it a mystical disorder, a sign of God's wrath. The inquisition ruled that acranic infants should not be baptized and located the soul in the brain. Acardia was not associated with twin gestation until the reports of Mery in 1720 and Winslow in 1740. In 1850, Meckel identified the pathogenetic mechanism as reversed perfusion due to large arterio-arterial and veno-venous anastomoses; he believed the heart would fail to develop or arrest during development, and the acardiac fetus would be maintained by arterial perfusion from the pump twin. In 1859, Claudius articulated that after normal initial development, the heart degenerates when reversed flow in the aorta leads to thrombosis. Today, it is assumed that both mechanisms may exist. With the advent of prenatal ultrasound diagnosis and radiofrequency ablation of the acardiac twin's circulation, it became possible to save the pump twin.

The Tragedy of Work: Working Class Heroes in the Italian 21st-century Literature

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Claudio Panella

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The paper aims at exploring how the literary representation of the worker has changed between the end of 20th-century and the beginning of the 21st-century. With the fall of the 20th-century ideologies and raising the fragmentation of labour, texts have emerged in Italian literature which illustrated the tragic social and existential condition of the working class. Among these texts we can find some récits de filiation written by sons and daughters of workers whose health and ideals have been undermined even down to death. These typology of texts let emerged two equally tragic characters: fathers, ill and defeated but still working class heroes and sons, tragically conscious of their roles witnesses-superstites of those ‘denied heroes’. Among the texts being tackled in the paper Il nemico (2009 by Emanuele Tonon, Amianto (2012 by Alberto Prunetti, Il fuoco a mare (2015 by Andrea Bottalico, Ilva Football Club (2016 by Fulvio Colucci and Lorenzo d’Alò

Friedrich Schlegels early Romantic notion of religion in relation to two presuppositions of the Enlightenment

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Asko Nivala

2011-11-01

Full Text Available German early Romanticism was an intellectual movement that originated in the era between the great French Revolution of 1789 and the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803. Usually, it is defined in contrast to the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment is presented as the age of reason, criticism and scientific naturalism, while the Romantics are portrayed as its reactionary enemies. According to a still customary prejudice, Romanticism was the age of exaggerated emotions, authoritarian dogmatism and mystical superstition. However, our notion of the Enlightenment has undergone changes in recent decades. Because the traditional antagonism between Aufklärung and Frühromantik has become questionable, the Romantic revival of religion needs reconsideration. In this paper, Nivala proposes an argument why the Romantics did not fall into reactionary irrationalism. His discussion focuses on one person, Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829. Nivala presents how two vital presuppositions of the Enlightenment, naturalism and criticism, were reinterpreted by Schlegel as pantheism and mysticism.

Nocturnal raptors (owls: contributions to study of its popularity

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Maria Lindelia Rincón Hernández

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This research characterizes the nocturnal birds of prey on the campus of Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC; in English, Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia, in addition to the contribution to the study of its popularity, with students in fifth grade from two educational institutions, one, of the urban context, and other, of the rural context. The study involved the implementation of the didactic component to promote recognition of their biological significance in elementary school students. Among the findings two species of nocturnal birds of prey were identified: common currucutú owl (Tropical Screech Owl, Megascops choliba and the barn owl (Tyto alba, with a relative abundance of 12 individuals and 10 individuals, respectively. It also includes changes in perception from students regarding beliefs and superstitions about such species, which favors the recognition of the biological role in the ecosystem and the need for its conservation.

Cine club

CERN Multimedia

Cine club

2015-01-01

Wednesday 8 July 2015 at 20:00 CERN Council Chamber Contact Directed by Robert Zemeckis USA, 1997, 150 minutes   Contact is the story of a free thinking radio astronomer who discovers an intelligent signal broadcast from deep space. She and her fellow scientists are able to decipher the Message and discover detailed instructions for building a mysterious Machine. Will the Machine spell the end of our world, or the end of our superstitions? Will we take our place among the races of the Galaxy, or are we just an upstart species with a long way to go? Original version english; french subtitles   Wednesday 15 July 2015 at 20:00 CERN Council Chamber A Serious Man Directed by by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen USA, 2009, 106 minutes Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking. Original version english; french subtitles

Implications Of Commercial Activity Within Monastic Settlements As A Way To Maintain The Sustainable Development Of Religious Tourism In Romania

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Gabriela Cecilia Stănciulescu; Alexandra-Maria Ţîrca

2010-01-01

For hundreds years, people have been travelling to places deemed as sacred to meet or to worship Divinity. However, these travels with religious motivation or pilgrimages, which might be considered as the first form of tourism (Rinschede, 1992), were carried out without the possibility to measure the economic, social and environmental impact. Religion-motivated tourism is extremely important in many parts of the world (Timothy and Olsen, 2006). In Romania, religious ceremonies to celebrate Sa...

Belief in supernatural causes of mental illness among Malay patients: impact on treatment.

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Razali, S M; Khan, U A; Hasanah, C I

1996-10-01

The concept of aetiology of mental illness in 134 Malay patients was investigated by means of a 20-item checklist. About 53% of the patients attributed their illnesses to supernatural agents. Witchcraft and possession by evil spirits were regarded as common causes of illness. The number of patients who believed in supernatural causes of their mental illness was significantly higher among those who had consulted bomohs (Malay traditional healers) than among those who had not consulted them. The belief that mental illness is caused by supernatural agents is firmly held by bomohs, who reinforce this notion in those who seek their advice. Belief in supernatural causes of mental illness was not significantly associated with age, gender, level of education or occupation of the patients. Patients who believed in supernatural causes of mental illness were also found to show poor drug compliance, and the number of such patients at 6 months follow-up was significantly lower than the corresponding figure for those who did not believe in supernatural causes. The importance of understanding the patients' cultural background when treating psychiatric patients is highlighted.

The Belief in the Existence of Supernatural Beings in the Community of Moslem Sundanese

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Kankan - Kasmana

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The Sunda Muslims today living with modernity in various aspects. In contrast, they are still embedded their minds in the spirits which come from the view of tradition and customs and teachings of Islam. The article discusses the conception of belief in the existence of spirits in today's Sundanese society. Described descriptively, the data is the result of micro-ethnographic research through in-depth interviews of selected informants. In addition to Allah, angels, demons, jinn and qarin (Islamic teachings, there are also spirits whose its existence is regarded as reality, namely the lelembut, the subtle creatures that existed before man including the gods, the devil and the dedemit. And the lelembutan that comes from the human spirit, namely ririwa, and sileman/karuhun. It is believed there are people who can interact for a variety of interests and motives including witchcraft and pesugihan (devil worship. This research provides a new perspective on the identity of Sunda Muslims today, as a basis in mapping the Sundanese with their thinking.

South African Muslim Faith Healers perceptions of mental illness: understanding, aetiology and treatment.

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Ally, Yaseen; Laher, Sumaya

2008-03-01

The important role that religious beliefs may have on perceptions of mental illness cannot be ignored. Many religions including Islam advocate witchcraft and spirit possession--all of which are thought to influence the behaviour of a person so as to resemble that of a mentally ill individual. Thus this research explored Muslim Faith Healers perceptions of mental and spiritual illness in terms of their understanding of the distinctions between the two, the aetiologies and the treatments thereof. Six Muslim Healers in the Johannesburg community were interviewed and thematic content analysis was used to analyse the data. From the results it is clear that the faith healers were aware of the distinction between mental and spiritual illnesses. It was also apparent that Islam has a clear taxonomy that distinguishes illness and the causes thereof. Treatments are then advised accordingly. Thus this paper argues that the predominant Western view of the aetiology and understanding of mental illness needs to acknowledge the various culturally inclined taxonomies of mental illness so as to better understand and aid clients.

The Harry Potter’s Syllabus: representations of school and syllabus in children’s and adolescent literature

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Maria Carolina da Silva

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to analyze the representations of school and syllabus divulged by the Harry Potter book series. Successful all around the world, this series consists of seven books telling the adventures of a boy who, at 11 years of age, discovers himself to be a wizard, being sent to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he learns to use his magic powers. Based on the post-structuralist Cultural Studies, I consider the representation not only presents a reality, but pushes actively for its construction. The claim developed is that the school ideally understood by the books is the one serving as home to teachers and students, safe, and grouping the students according to their skills and individual features. The curricular model divulged by the series is a fusion between the scientific syllabus and the practical one. Having in mind the comprehensiveness of the books, it is important to understand how education has been divulged in a non-school cultural product addressed to young people.

What can clinical teachers learn from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?

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Conn, Jennifer J

2002-12-01

Many clinical teachers acquire a working knowledge of the principles of teaching and learning through observation, by adopting positive and rejecting negative examples of clinical instruction. Well selected vignettes of teaching behaviours taken from contemporary film and literature may provide rich substrate by which to engage clinical teachers in discourse about instructional technique. This paper draws on J K Rowling's novel and its companion film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and critically analyses the teaching styles of the staff at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft in the context of contemporary generic and medical education literature. Specifically, it argues that effective teachers demonstrate not only an in-depth knowledge of their discipline but possess a keen appreciation of the cognitive changes that occur in their students during the learning process. They are, furthermore, proficient in core instructional skills such as small group facilitation, feedback and questioning. Most importantly, effective teachers model appropriate attitudes in their professional setting and possess highly developed personal qualities such as creativity, flexibility and enthusiasm.

Parents' and professionals' perceptions on causes and treatment options for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD in a multicultural context on the Kenyan Coast.

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Joseph K Gona

Full Text Available To explore parents' and professionals' perceived causes and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD on the Kenyan Coast.In-depth interviews and focus group discussions using guiding questions were utilized in data collection. One hundred and three participants, who included parents of children with ASD, special needs teachers, clinicians, and social workers from diverse cultural background, participated in this study. The interviews and focus groups were recorded, transcribed verbatim and then translated to English. Themes were generated using content analysis.Preternatural causes were mentioned and included evil spirits, witchcraft, and curses. Biomedical causes comprised infections, drug abuse, birth complications, malnutrition, and genetic related problems. Treatment varied from traditional and spiritual healing to modern treatment in health facilities, and included consultations with traditional healers, offering prayers to God, and visits to hospitals.The results suggest that regardless of cultural backgrounds, people on the Kenyan Coast have similar views on perceived causes and treatment of ASD. These findings provide valuable conceptual understanding for professionals when planning and implementing community based rehabilitation interventions targeting children with ASD within a local context.

Paracelsus, Paracelsianism, and the secularization of the worldview.

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Webster, Charles

2002-03-01

This paper examines Paracelsus and Paracelsianism in the light of the ideas of Max Weber concerning the social consequences of the Reformation, with special reference to his theories of Entzauberung and secularization. He linked these tendencies both to the rise of capitalism and the growth of experimental science. The detailed case study of Paracelsus' account of diseases linked with saints, in common with his interpretation of many other conditions, demonstrates that he self-consciously extended the boundaries of medicine and eroded the role of magic and witchcraft associated with the church. On the other hand, Paracelsus adopted the Neoplatonic worldview, was immersed in popular magic, and evolved a system of medicine that self-consciously revolved around magic. These factors seem to place a distinct limit on his role in the demystification of knowledge. However, the magic of Paracelsus entailed a decisive break with the entrenched elitist and esoteric tradition of the occultists and hermeticists. It is argued that this reconstructed magic re-establishes the credentials of Paracelsus as a significant contributor to the disenchantment and secularization of the worldview.

WOMEN, CRIME AND THE SECULAR COURT IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CLUJ

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Andrea Fehér

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this presentation is to address the issue of female criminality in early modern Cluj, and to analyze women’s position before the law. Our investigation is based on the records of the secular Court from the town Cluj, where we have identified more than 250 cases of women accused of fornication, adultery, witchcraft, infanticide, theft and drunkenness, poisoning, swearing and slander. There were a significant number of female convictions during the century, from which most ended with light sentences, such as banishment, corporal punishments, stigmatizations with hot iron, mutilations and only occasionally death. We would like to analyze in detail the types of crime and their punishments presenting the legal background, the jurisdiction and the habitual practices of the Court. We would also like to underline the importance of the narrative strategies used in these inquisitorial trials, since our documents reveal female criminality from a male perspective, as in these times men ran the legal system, consequently the Court records, in our reading contain moral, legal and sexual elements of a male discourse on female crime.

TYPES OF BANAT RURAL TOURIST PRODUCTS REQUIRED BY INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS

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Cornelia Petroman

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Touristproducts express the training way and content of tourism offer, being a sum ofmaterial goods and services designed to meet the requirements and motivationsof tourists. Tourist services are individualized through a lot ofcharacteristics: elasticity of consumption, the material or immaterialexistence, the impossibility of storing, the simultaneity of consumption withthe production one, the impossibility of avoiding some differences. Thestructure of Banat tourist products focuses on several essential componentsbecause of the multiculturalism of this area, but also specific entrophic andnatural resources, natural reservations, historic sites, great diversity offlora and fauna due temperate or sub-Mediterranean climate subtypes. Economicactivities as support of agricultural occupations have trends of orientationtowards the tertiary sector stimulating the growth of niche tourism, ofmultiethnic space and multi confessional, being the supporting element oftourist services offered and through and through multilingualism increase theidentity of culture and civilization. The economic rural activities, populationand territory offers to Banat rural tourist product a note of originality,authenticity and attractiveness, the novelty of Banat village consisting frommanufacturing activities, habits and popular, the traditions archaicmulinologic installations and technical oil extraction, gastronomy, naturalmonuments, monastic religious services, diversity of hilly and steppe landscape.

Eco-Dimensionality as a Religious Foundation for Sustainability

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Susan Power Bratton

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Academics have critiqued the Abrahamic faiths, particularly Christianity, as inadequate to respond to today’s environmental dilemmas due to abstract theological qualities like the concept of a unified or transcendent God. Christianity and Islam are the earth’s most populous religions, however, and they are growing in the global south. A literature review finds that both indigenous and world religions develop strategies for environmental sustainability. Examples include: Amazonian fisheries, Islamic gardens, monastic forest management, Baptist LEED certified buildings, and Christian agrarian stewardship. These cases share a characteristic termed eco-dimensionality, defined as the integrative expression of environmental values, caretaking norms and sustainable practices in all aspects of religion, that recognizes and specifically adapts to keystone environmental processes and ecosystemic or geo-physical diversity. Religious eco-dimensionality incorporates: inventorying biota and ecosystems, recognizing environmental spatial and temporal dynamics at multiple scales, understanding communitarian and anti-communitarian human behaviors, structuring social networks, adopting sustainable technologies, and developing an integrative repertoire of religious symbols, aesthetic endeavors and ceremonies. Eco-dimensionality can evolve to address new issues. Negatively stereotyping faith traditions can inhibit constructive conversations concerning environmental issues and development of religious symbols and practices enhancing eco-dimensionality.

“Interpretation of garb…”. The history and symbolism of the Carmelite habit in Polish convents

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Małgorzata Łukawska

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The habit of the Carmelite Nuns of the Ancient Observance, formed on the basis of their constitutions of 1482, combined forms borrowed from the habit of the Carmelite Monks (tunics with the models that came from Polish women’s fashion (headwear used by married women and widows – mob cap, wimple. The analysis of the habit of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns is based on extensive written sources as well as iconography. Their habit demonstrated the reception of forms of women’s clothing of Spanish provenance (a dress called saya and toca – a headdress, modified in accordance with the spirit of poverty and austerity. In the dress of candidates and in the symbols introduced to the vestition ceremony, native elements are visible. The symbolism of the habit is connected with Carmelite spirituality, whose main features are the cult of the Virgin Mary, that of the Passion, and the spirit of expiation. It also contains some meanings that come from the monastic tradition: the nuptial and baptismal significance being the symbol of new life. The habit is also the tunica sacra and the armour of the Miles Christianus.

[About the acting of the brotherhood of St. Anthony in Würzburg].

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Dettelbacher, Werner

2003-01-01

The brotherhood of St. Anthony, founded in the old French province of Dauphiné in 1095, was elevated to the rank of a monastic order in 1227, complying with the rules of the Augustinian Canons. In their infirmaries the monks took care of the persons attacked by ergot poisoning. If prayers and ointments were of no avail, in most cases the lower leg was amputated, so that the vital organs were not affected by gangrene. After bad harvests this ergotism became an epidemy, as rye-flour was consumed which had been contaminated by the fungus claviceps purpurea. It was as late as the 17th and 18th centuries that the connection between ergot poisoning and the disease of ignis sacer was correctly recognized. As in the Würzburg area there were mainly cultivated wheat and barley which as selfpollinating cereals were secure against the fungus, it was in 1434 only that an Anthony monastery was founded. But its financial breakdown came as early as in 1527, as the donations of money and groceries had been declining and a provisor had stolen valuables. Henceforward the lepers were accommodated in the three municipal hospitals for the incurables.

Mount Athos: Between autonomy and statehood

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Avramović Dragutin

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Legal status of the Mount Athos is characterized by many special features that make it internationally unique legal regime. The author analyzes peculiarities of Mount Athos territorial status, legal position of residents and visitors, as well as organization of Mount Athos authorities. The author concludes that the Mount Athos is characterized by a kind of para-sovereignty. Its autonomy involves not only the internal organization, autonomous governance and religious autonomy, but it also includes many elements of secular life of their visitors. Mount Athos has its own, separate legislative, administrative and judicial powers, while the Statute of the Mount Athos has greater legal force than all the other laws of the Greek state, because the state can not unilaterally change its provisions. Having in mind that the wide self-government is vested in church authorities and that the monks have very specific way of living, the author takes a position that the Mount Athos represent 'monastic state', but without statehood. The author also states that the Mount Athos will be faced with many challenges in the context of spreading of an assimilating, universal conception of human rights.

The origins of Cenobitic Monasticism on Mount Pochayiv and the First Donations to the Monastery

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Andrzej Borkowski

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Mount Pochayiv became famous in Russia after the miraculous apparition of the Mother of God, which took place there. Presumably, already in 1240, monks from Kiev found refuge in nearby caves when fleeing the Tartar hordes. In 1559, the owner of these lands Anna Hojska provided funds for building an Orthodox monastery for the monks living in the caves and gave them a miraculous icon of the Mother of God. The most prominent abbot of the Pochayiv monastery was Job Zalizo. He was first elected exclusively by the monks as the new superior of the monastery, the fourth superior since the cenobitic rule was introduced in the monastery. The second prominent founder of the Pochayiv monastery were the Domaszewska family. Their efforts in the construction of the stone church, financial, land support and earth intended for the beautification and maintenance of the monastery, was to compensate for losses and damages applied by the magnate Firlej and the Cossack uprising. They wanted to prevent the total collapse and cessation of monastic life on Mount Pochayiv. For this reason, their names are so strongly emphasized in the history of the main spiritual center of Volyn.

[Considerations regarding the food of the hospital staff].

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Nardin, Anne

2005-02-01

The question concerning the food of the hospital staff has drawn attention only tardily. However, food is a faithful mirror in which the knowledge, the capacities, the values and the imaginary ones of an institution are reflected. It is in 1905 that the reform made by the "Administration générale de l'Assistance Publique de Paris" is specifically concerned, for the first time, by the food of the hospital staff. It is a change in the practices, founded until then on the principle of equality in food treatment, resulting probably from the monastic form of the hospital in the earliest times. The introduction of the system into force today was done gradually in the years 1930. From now on, hospital staff pay their meal to the administration which establishes the account of it on the basis of a refectory card. At the end of this evolution, nothing is similar any more in the hospital on the ground of the hierarchical relations between the administration and its staff. The era of self-service restaurants has open, transforming the consumer into an autonomous active and participative individual, in an institution converted into the play of democraty company.

Saint rulers as a category of sanctity in Orthodoxy

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Jarosław Charkiewicz

2015-11-01

Full Text Available In the wide spectre of Orthodox human sanctity, among others, there is also a category of saint rulers. Despite the fact that it’s represented by a significant number of saints, it remains, utterly undeservedly, in the shadow of the others – more known or more deeply rooted historically. On top of that, the situation may result as well from the fact that saint rulers, as a distinct category of saint, are not separately mentioned neither during the proskomedia, nor during the intercessory prayer of the anaphora. Still, the saint rulers definitely should be considered a separate type of sanctity, deserving a somehow wider presentation. Such is therefore the aim of this article.It is also an attempt of suggesting an interior systematic of this category of sanctity. Preserving, appearing in science, classifications of the saint rulers, the author gives also his own proposition. In the category of saint rulers there are four following groups: (1 rulerswho weren’t neither martyrs nor monks or passion-bearers, (2 rulers who died martyrs, (3 rulers who long before their death became monks and led monastic life, (4 rulers-passion-bearers.

Ὁ μάγιστρος Θεόκτιστος καί ὁ Θεόδωρος Στουδίτης. Μοναστηριακός Βίος καί Πολιτική

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Ελεωνόρα ΚΟΥΝΤΟΥΡΑ-ΓΑΛΑΚΗ

1998-09-01

Full Text Available Eleonora Kountoura-GalakiThe magister Theoktistos and Theodore the Studite: Monastic Life and Policy. The quaestor Theoktistos was among the leading officials who took part in the conspiracy of the logothete Nicephorus against the empress Irene (802. He was identical with the magister Theoktistos who, as a supreme member of the Senate, received in 808 the letter No. 24 by Theodore the Studite. With this letter Theodore hoped that he could persuade magister Theoktistos to intervene to the emperor Nicephorus I, in order to avoid banishment. The magister, however, did not play a prominent role under the reign of Nicephorus and Theodore was forced to abandon the City. During the brief reign of Michael I, where we can observe the weakening of the imperial institution and the simultaneous uprise of the senatorial power as well as the rise of the fanatic monks (the monastery of Studion experienced a significant prosperity at that time magister Theoktistos and Theodore the Studite had then powerfully participated in political life and had played a crucial role in it. Probably the same Theoktistos received one more letter (No 123 by Theodore the Studite after the accession of Leo V.

Ocio y ascesis aristocrática : Jerónimo y su lectio divina en Roma (382-385

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Raúl González Salinero

2011-01-01

Full Text Available A su llegada a Roma en el año 382, Jerónimo se convirtió en el guía espiritual de un grupo de mujeres aristocráticas que, influidas por el emergente espíritu del monacato oriental, llevaban una vida ascética en el interior de sus mansiones. Siguiendo la estela de la tradición intelectual que había caracterizado al otium aristocrático, aunque en este caso reorientado hacia el universo cultural cristiano, el estudio y la exégesis de las Sagradas Escrituras a través de la lectio divina se convirtió en el rasgo distintivo del propositum sanctitatis.On his arrival at Rome (382, Jerome did become the spiritual leader of an aristocratic women’s group that, influenced by the emergent spirit from the eastern monastic life, did lead an ascetic life inside their palaces. Following the trail of the intellectual tradition that had characterized the aristocratic otium, although reorientated in this case to the Christian cultural universe, the study and exegesis of the Holy Scriptures throughout the lectio divina did become into the distintive feature of the propositum sanctitatis.

The Slavonic Translation of the Life of Saint Euthymius the Great: Observations on Language and Authorship

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Dmitriy Evgenyevich Afinogenov

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The Slavonic translation of the Life of Saint Euthymius the Great (BHG 647 by Cyril of Scythopolis, attested at the earliest manuscript of the late 14th c., was probably made by a person originating from South-East Rus in the 11th c., as it displays some grammatical, lexical, and phonetic features peculiar for this area and time, and visible, in particular, in Ipatiev Chronicle and the Tale of Igor’s Campaign. It may have formed a part of the collection comprising several writings by Cyril, including the Life of Saint Sabas and the Praise of Euthymius and Sabas (lost in the Greek original. This collection was later incorporated into the Great Lectionary Menologion of Metropolitan Makarij. The details added by the translator to the description of certain realia pertaining to the Monastery of Saint Euthymius in Palestine suggest a personal knowledge of that monastic complex (the Laura and the coenobium. The proposed author of the translation is Saint Anthony of the Cave Monastery in Kiev († 1073, who could perfectly well have visited the Holy Land during his stay on Mount Athos prior to 1051.

[Fragments of an old west Nordic pharmacopoeia of the 13th century ].

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Schwabe, Fabian

2009-01-01

Only few medicine books in Norrøn language have survived till today. Concerning Norway and Iceland, just seven fragments of manuscripts are known to us. The oldest manuscript has been dated at about the 13th century, the youngest, which was found in Ireland, at about the time between 1500 and 1550. In medieval times, genuine Scandinavian medical literature did not exist. All seven manuscripts are connected with Continental European sources that are derived from monastic medicine and classical antiquity. The names of Galen, Hippocrates of Kos and Dioscorides are mentioned in some of the texts. Obviously, Norway and Iceland were the recipients of an intensive knowledge transfer from the South via Denmark to the North. Henrik Harpestraeng's book of herbs and the well-known 'Macer floridus' (11th century) are the main sources of the Norrøn manuscripts that are highly related to each other. The text and its variations was made use of during a long period of time and it was widely distributed. A diplomatic edition of the oldest fragment, manuscript AM 655 XXX, and a translation into modern German are the core of the article.

Science, art, and mistery in the statues and in the anatomical machines of the prince of sansevero: the masterpieces of the "Sansevero Chapel".

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Della Monica, Matteo; Galzerano, Domenico; Di Michele, Sara; Acquaviva, Fabio; Gregorio, Giovanni; Lonardo, Fortunato; Sguazzo, Francesca; Scarano, Francesca; Lama, Diana; Scarano, Gioacchino

2013-11-01

During the 18th century in Naples, Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero, completed works on the family chapel, the so-called "Cappella Sansevero." The chapel houses statues of extraordinary beauty and spectacularly detailed but also, in the basement, two human skeletons known as the "Anatomical Machines" ("Macchine Anatomiche"). These two skeletons, a man and a pregnant woman, are entirely surrounded by their circulatory systems, just as if these were suddenly fixed. Legend, believed as truth until few years ago, says that Prince Raimondo had prepared and injected an unknown embalming substance in the blood vessels of two of his servants convicting them to eternal fixity. Recent investigations have demonstrated that, while the bones are authentic, the blood vessels are actually extraordinary artifacts that also reproduce some congenital malformations. The dreadful aspect of these two skeletons appears to be in strident contrast with the classic beauty of the statues which glorify and celebrate the ideal of morphology. Conversely, the two Anatomical Machines, protagonists of legends and superstitions since centuries, represent a marvelous example of science mixed with art. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Scientific Premises of Geology in the Encyclopedie of Diderot and d'Alembert

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Virgili, C.

2016-10-01

The Encyclopedie (1751-1772), conceived and directed by Diderot and d'Alembert, was intended to be a critical compendium of all the learning of the time and to provide society with a rational knowledge free from dogma and superstition. It was produced with private capital and involved a large team of distinguished scientists and philosophers. It consists of 17 volumes of text and 11 of plates. At the time geology was in its infancy and the Encyclopedie collects together works by Agricola, Steno, Lehman and Wallerius. The French geologist Nicolas Desmarest (1725-1815) studied the volcanic area of Auvergne in the Central Massif of France, his ideas on volcanism and the internal structure of the Earth can be found in the Encyclopedie, which would later be published separately. Although it does not contribute much that is new to the Earth sciences, it is important in helping us to assess the environment in which the Encyclopaedists moved and better appreciate what their critical spirit and fight against dogmatism represented in the creation of modern thought. (Author)

From Folklore to Scientific Evidence: Breast-Feeding and Wet-Nursing in Islam and the Case of Non-Puerperal Lactation

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Moran, Lia; Gilad, Jacob

2007-01-01

Breast-feeding practice has an important medical and socio-cultural role. It has many anthropological aspects concerning the “power structures” that find their expression in breast-feeding and the practices that formed around it, both socially, scientifically, and legally-speaking. Breast-feeding has been given much attention by religions and taboos, folklore, and misconception abound around it making it a topic of genuine curiosity. This paper aims at expanding the spectrum of folklore associated with breast-feeding. The paper deals with historical, religious, and folkloristic aspects of breast-feeding, especially wet-nursing, in Islam and focuses on an intriguing Islamic tale on breast-feeding - lactation by non-pregnant women (or non-puerperal lactation). Apparently, accounts of non-puerperal lactation are not restricted to Islam but have been documented in various societies and religions throughout centuries. Two medical situations - hyperprolactinemia and induced lactation, appear as possible explanations for this phenomenon. This serves as an excellent example for the value of utilizing contemporary scientific knowledge in order to elucidate the origin, anthropology and evolvement of ancient myth and superstition. PMID:23675050

A Brief History of Black Holes

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Crothers S. J.

2006-04-01

Full Text Available Neither the layman nor the specialist, in general, have any knowledge of the historical circumstances underlying the genesis of the idea of the Black Hole. Essentially, almost all and sundry simply take for granted the unsubstantiated allegations of some ostentatious minority of the relativists. Unfortunately, that minority has been rather careless with the truth and is quite averse to having its claims corrected, notwithstanding the documentary evidence on the historical record. Furthermore, not a few of that vainglorious and disingenuous coterie, particularly amongst those of some notoriety, attempt to dismiss the testimony of the literature with contempt, and even deliberate falsehoods, claiming that history is of no importance. The historical record clearly demonstrates that the Black Hole has been conjured up by combination of confusion, superstition and ineptitude, and is sustained by widespread suppression of facts, both physical and theoretical. The following essay provides a brief but accurate account of events, verifiable by reference to the original papers, by which the scandalous manipulation of both scientific and public opinion is revealed

“Ghosts in the looking-glass of our minds”: i detective dell’occulto

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Maurizio Ascari

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Although Sherlock Holmes has been considered as the prototype of the scientific detective, Doyle’s curiosity notoriously embraced paranormal phenomena such as spiritualism, clairvoyance and even the existence of fairies… Far from being atypical, this attitude is revealing of the tension between the natural and the supernatural that marked the decades straddling across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when the advancement of science was regarded by many as conducive to a better understanding of what had been previously consigned to superstition. Given this climate of syncretism, it does not come as a surprise that those years saw the development of a hybrid subgenre in which ‘psychic detectives’ investigate cases often involving supernatural agencies. This article discusses four collections of stories of psychic detection published at the turn of the century, together with their reception in the Golden Age period, finally hinting at the renewed popularity psychic detectives have recently attained thanks to tv series such as Medium (2005-11 and Ghost Whisperer (2005-10.

Behavioral economics.

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Chambers, David W

2009-01-01

It is human nature to overestimate how rational we are, both in general and even when we are trying to be. Such irrationality is not random, and the search for and explanation of patterns of fuzzy thinking is the basis for a new academic discipline known as behavioral economics. Examples are given of some of the best understood of our foibles, including prospect theory, framing, anchoring, salience, confirmation bias, superstition, and ownership. Humans have two cognitive systems: one conscious, deliberate, slow, and rational; the other fast, pattern-based, emotionally tinged, and intuitive. Each is subject to its own kind of error. In the case of rational thought, we tend to exaggerate our capacity; for intuition, we fail to train it or recognize contexts where it is inappropriate. Humans are especially poor at estimating probabilities, or even understanding what they are. It is a common human failing to reason backwards from random outcomes that are favorable to beliefs about our power to predict the future. Five suggestions are offered for thinking within our means.

What does a "superstitious" person believe? Impressions of participants.

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Rudski, Jeffrey

2003-10-01

The questions in surveys in which superstitious belief is examined are based on the researcher or researchers' definitions of superstition and not on participants' definitions. In the present study, 170 undergraduates filled out 2 surveys. In the 1st survey, they were asked to rate 28 possible beliefs of a fictitious person described as "superstitious." In the 2nd survey, they were asked to rate their own level of belief for the same items. An analysis revealed several different factors describing different types of beliefs held by the fictitious person. Ratings for the fictitious person were greatest for socially transmitted beliefs (e.g., black cats, rabbits' feet) or idiosyncratic rituals related to luck and chance, followed by belief in the paranormal (e.g., ghosts), spiritualism (e.g., reincarnation), or psi (e.g., telepathy). Religious beliefs were rated as not being descriptive of the fictitious superstitious person. However, an analysis of the participants' own beliefs revealed that those with higher levels of religious belief also tended to be superstitious and believed in the paranormal.

Buddhism, the status of women and the spread of HIV/AIDS in Thailand.

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Klunklin, Areewan; Greenwood, Jennifer

2005-01-01

The common-sense construction of Buddhism is that of a general power for good; the less positive aspects of Buddhism's power, especially when reinforced by folklore and ancient superstition, is infrequently recognised. In this article we make explicit Buddhism's less positive power, particularly as it relates to the status of women and, by implication, its role in the human immunodeficiency (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in Thailand. The Buddhist, folklore, and superstitious bases of Thai misogyny are explored, together with its expression in the differential gender roles of women and men. In addition, the attitudes of both women and men to commercial sex workers (CSWs) and condom use is discussed. The implications of these attitudinal analyses to the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in Thailand is outlined. We argue that the current spread of HIV/AIDS in Thailand is primarily a function of the inferior status of women, which, in turn, is a function of Buddhism and Thai cultural beliefs. In light of this, some realistic strategies to address the problem also are discussed.

Water Footprints and ‘Pozas’: Conversations about Practices and Knowledges of Water Efficiency

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Carolina Domínguez Guzmán

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In this article we present two logics of water efficiency: that of the Water Footprint and that of mango smallholder farmers on the desert coast of Peru (in Motupe. We do so in order to explore how both can learn from each other and to discuss what happens when the two logics meet. Rather than treating the Water Footprint as scientific, in the sense that it is separate from traditions or politics, and Motupe poza irrigation as cultural and, therefore, thick with local beliefs and superstitions, we describe both as consisting of intricate entanglements of knowledge and culture. This produces a more or less level playing field for the two water logics to meet and for proponents of each to enter into a conversation with one another; allowing furthermore for the identification of what Water Footprint inventors and promotors can learn from poza irrigators, and vice versa. The article concludes that important water wisdom may get lost when the Water Footprint logic becomes dominant, as is currently about to happen in Peru.

Schizophrenia and the paranormal: more psi belief and superstition, and less déjà vu in medicated schizophrenic patients.

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Shiah, Yung-Jong; Wu, Yi-Zhen; Chen, Yueh-Hua; Chiang, Shih-Kuang

2014-04-01

The present study examined the relation between déjà vu experiences and paranormal beliefs in schizophrenic patients. A total of 522 participants (54.5% female; mean age=33.3, SD=16.02) were recruited, including 422 healthy adults (60.9% female; mean age=29.48, SD=15.07) and 100 medicated adult schizophrenic patients (27.3% female; mean age=48.98, SD=8.57). The Chinese version of the Inventory of Déjà-vu Experiences Assessment was created via back translation. Chinese versions of the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (CRPB), Beck Anxiety Inventory (CBAI), and Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS) were also used. After controlling for age, gender, education, and anxiety, the results supported the following three hypotheses. Schizophrenic persons have fewer déjà vu experiences than normal persons. These experiences are positively related to paranormal beliefs in healthy adults but not in schizophrenic patients. Schizophrenic patients have higher scores than healthy adults on the psi and superstitious subscales of the CRPB. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Influência do ciclo lunar no parto: mito ou constatação científica? Influencia del ciclo lunar en el parto: mito o constatación científica? Influences of lunar cycle in labor: myth or scientific finding?

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Aline Bueno

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Muitas superstições são encontradas em nossas vidas. Na medicina, uma profissão que se orgulha em métodos baseados em evidências para tratamentos, isso não é uma exceção. Uma superstição que abrange o parto é a influência de determinadas fases do ciclo da lua, mais especificamente a lua cheia. Embora estudos tenham demonstrado que o aumento de partos está relacionado com o ciclo lunar, existe discordância sobre quando ocorre o pico do volume de partos em cada fase da lua. Frente à divergência de resultados existentes na literatura que relaciona os eventos do ciclo lunar com parto, o objetivo desta revisão foi realizar um levantamento bibliográfico na tentativa de esclarecer esta cultura popular com base nos resultados apresentados por diferentes autores.Se encuentran las supersticiones por todas partes en nuestras vidas, y la medicina, una profesión que tiene orgullo acerca de los tratamientos con base en evidencia, no está extinta. La influencia de ciertas fases del ciclo lunar, específicamente la luna llena, es una superstición sobre el parto. Aunque algunos estudios han demostrado un aumento en los partos que se relacionan al ciclo lunar, ha habido discordancia sobre cuando, en el ciclo lunar, el volumen máximo ocurre. Afronte a la divergencia de los resultados existentes en la literatura que relacionan los eventos del ciclo lunar con los partos, el objetivo de esta revisión era explorar la literatura en el esfuerzo de explicar esta cultura popular con la base en los resultados presentado por los diferentes investigadores.Superstitions are found everywhere in our lives, and medicine, a profession that is prides itself on an evidence-based approach to treatment, is not exempt. A superstition that pervades the labor and delivery floor is that it is busier during certain phases of the lunar cycle, specifically the full moon. Although some studies have demonstrated an increase in deliveries that are related to the lunar

Δύο ἀνέκδοτα ἀφιερωτήρια ἔγγραφα ὑπὲρ τῆς μονῆς Θεοτόκου τῶν Κριβιτζῶν (ΙΓ΄-ΙΔ΄ αἰ.. Συμβολὴ στὴ μελέτη τῆς βυζαντινῆς Πελοποννήσου

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Έρα Λ. ΒΡΑΝΟΥΣΗ

1981-09-01

Full Text Available   Era VranoussiDeux actes de donation inédits en faveur du couvent de la Sainte Vierge dite de Krivitza (XIIIe-XIVe s..- Contribution à l'étude du Péloponnèse byzantin Edition diplomatique de deux documents inédits des années 1290/1 et 1327/8, en faveur du couvent de la Sainte Vierge, dite de Krivitza, dans le Péloponnèse, repérés dans un évangéliaire du XIIe siècle, conservé aux Météores (p. 17-27.- Suit un commentaire sur ces actes (p. 27 et suiv., notamment sur des termes rares (p. ex. le t. προβέντα, p. 31-34, sur le véritable sens des signatures des témoins (p. 28-31, 34-36, etc.- Par la suite l'a. expose l'historique de ce couvent, d'après des documents vénitiens, post-byzantins, etc. (p. 37-39.- Ce couvent a été localisé et identifié par l'a. avec un monastère abandonné (p. 39-42.- Enfin l'a. examine le cadre historique de ces documents (p. 43-47. 

Sziklakolostorok a Dnyeszter mentén. Útirajz Moldova kolostorairól - Rocky Monasteries along the Dniester

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LENGYEL, László

2014-03-01

Full Text Available I would like to invite you to a short trip to a mysterious country, to the land of historical Bessarabia which is called Moldova today. We are going to visit the country’s most famous monasteries located along the Dniester. This is the land of rocky monasteries. Monks have been living here since the 12–13th centuries (according to Russian Ortodox Literature, they are called „Fathers” so this is the reason why I did not use the word „monakh”, from the earliest time they lived in small cells between the river rocks. The first monastic communities grew rapidly, most of them prospered under Stephen, the Great. In critical periods of the country’s history, especially in the Mongol-Osman era they preserved the Christian culture. The territory of Moldova was liberated by the Russian Imperial Army. In the Russian Empire, the monasteries prospered again. New churches were built in the 19th-century Russian style, so the old cells became architectural memories. Nowadays, the monasteries are not only historical, but natural monuments as well. Beautiful waterfalls, rocks and forests welcome the visitors in the picturesque valleys. I hope my abstract has drawn attention to this unforgettable landscape.

Algunas cuestiones epistemológicas a propósito de la teología monástica medieval en Jean Leclercq

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Pedro Edmundo Gómez, osb

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Este artículo plantea cuatro cuestiones epistemológicas a propósito de la teología monástica medieval: existencia y significado, distinción de la escolástica, noción de ciencia y crítica neoescolástica, exponiendo reverentemente lo que Dom Jean Leclercq, osb. monje, historiador y teólogo, enseñó especialmente en L'amour des lettres et le désir de Dieu, que es a la vez el título y la conclusión de un hermoso libro publicado hace ya cincuenta años, mostrando la posible "complementariedad" y "coexistencia pacífica" entre modos diversos de hacer teologíaThis article outlines four epistemological questions apropos of medieval monastic theology: existence and meaning, the scholastic distinction, the notion of science and neo-scholastic criticism, expounding reverently what monk, historian and theologian Dom Jean Leclercq, o.s.b., taught, especially in L'amour des letters et le désir de Dieu, which is at the same time the title and the conclusion of a beautiful book published 50 years ago, showing the possible "complementarity" and "peaceful co-existence" between different modes of doing theology

The Social Epidemiology and Burden of Malaria in Bali Nyonga, Northwest Cameroon

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N. V. Pemunta

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Malaria is an infectious disease caused by the anopheles mosquito that kills at least one million people in Sub-Saharan Africa every year, leading to human suffering and enormous economic loses. This paper examines the complex web of cultural, poor socio-economic conditions and environmental factors for the prevalence of malaria in Bali Nyonga. The study outlines and assesses the multiple notions of malaria causation with dirty environment (80.76% and the mosquito (76.92% as the leading causes. Other causes are poor hygiene (46.15%, impure sources of portable water (23.08%, malnutrition (15.38%, witchcraft (11.54%, human-vector contact (34.61%,and palm wine drinking (32.69%.It reveals  that any effective management of malaria must be based on an understanding of traditional cultural views and insights concerning the cause, spread and treatment of the disease, as well as gender roles within a given community since women bear a greater  burden of the disease than men. This study further  underscores the need to incorporate folk theories of disease causation, gender and malaria issues into malaria control strategies in order to improve their coverage and effectiveness in different contexts.

Parents’ and Professionals’ Perceptions on Causes and Treatment Options for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in a Multicultural Context on the Kenyan Coast

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Gona, Joseph K.; Rimba, Kenneth; Mapenzi, Rachel; Kihara, Michael

2015-01-01

Objective To explore parents’ and professionals’ perceived causes and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) on the Kenyan Coast. Methods In-depth interviews and focus group discussions using guiding questions were utilized in data collection. One hundred and three participants, who included parents of children with ASD, special needs teachers, clinicians, and social workers from diverse cultural background, participated in this study. The interviews and focus groups were recorded, transcribed verbatim and then translated to English. Themes were generated using content analysis. Results Preternatural causes were mentioned and included evil spirits, witchcraft, and curses. Biomedical causes comprised infections, drug abuse, birth complications, malnutrition, and genetic related problems. Treatment varied from traditional and spiritual healing to modern treatment in health facilities, and included consultations with traditional healers, offering prayers to God, and visits to hospitals. Conclusions The results suggest that regardless of cultural backgrounds, people on the Kenyan Coast have similar views on perceived causes and treatment of ASD. These findings provide valuable conceptual understanding for professionals when planning and implementing community based rehabilitation interventions targeting children with ASD within a local context. PMID:26267668

Working with communities. Education and training.

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Dick, J; Van De Walt, H

1996-02-01

Encouraging people to seek and complete tuberculosis (TB) treatment is essential for successful TB care and control. Understanding local beliefs, community education, and health worker training all play important roles. Beliefs about TB and its causes are important influences upon people's behavior. There are many misconceptions and much misinformation. For example, people may be unaware of TB and its symptoms; believe that TB is a disease sent from God, or caused by magic or witchcraft; believe that TB affects only those who are bad or cursed; believe that TB cannot be cured; consider TB patients to be unclean; and link TB with AIDS, leading to social stigmatization and discrimination. These factors may cause people with TB to hide their illness from families and the community, self-treat or use traditional healers instead of modern medicine, or simply not seek health care. Understanding such attitudes and beliefs can help health workers to give more appropriate advice and to provide more relevant community health education. In Nepal, games have been used during training to help health workers reconsider their attitudes. TB education in South Africa is briefly discussed.

Witch-Hunting in Coahuila, 1748-51. “De Villa de villa, sin Dios ni Santa María”

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Lara Semboloni

2004-10-01

Full Text Available By reviewing the myths of witchcraft and sorcery, this paper analyzes the actors and social practices in a frontier  town, the last bulwark  before  total  wilderness,  in  the  Northern state of Coahuila,  Mexico. The author  studies the process of Inquisition during  1748-1751, a period  when  people  were accused of and tried  for diabolic  activities. The trials reveal a tendency  to explain the  game of human  passions  within  an unknown reality —characterized  by   an   apparent   lack   of   logic   and   formal canons—  through supernatural activities  and  satanic  pacts  atributed to  women,  regardless  of social class. In  this  context, moral  —and  political—  authorities  tried  to  stop  promiscuity, and their actions were seen as a need and determination to control a very fluid social structure,  i.e., to establish norms  for the regulation of moral standards  and collective values.

Els "clamores" de Sant Cugat contra el fill del gran senescal i altres episodis de terrorisme nobiliari

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Benito i Monclús, Pere

2000-12-01

Full Text Available Sometime during the closing days of 1161 or the beginning of 1162, the monks of the Benedictine abbey of Sant Cugat del Vallès, near Barcelona, composed a memorial of complaint addressed to Count Ramon Berenguer IV. In it they denounced acts of violence committed against the men and property of the monastery by various nobles, most notably Guillem de Moneada, son of the seneschal, Guillem Ramon. This memorial is one of the most detailed and original querimoniae to have survived. Written in correct Latin and with a certain attention to style, this product of the monastic scriptorium is a unique literary witness to the way in which the arbitrary lordship of the barons was experienced by the peasantry in twelfth-century Catalonia. This article offers an introduction, historical study, and edition of this source, to date almost entirely overlooked by scholars because it remained uncatalogued along with other undated documents from the monastery's archive. Persons named in the text are identified, the sequence of events is reconstructed, and suggestions are offered as to the date of the document, the reasons that led the monks to redact it, and their less obvious motivations.[fr] Entre la fin de l'année 1161 et les premiers mois de 1162, les moines de labbaye bénédictine de Sant Cugat del Vallès, près de Barcelone, rédigèrent un mémoire de plaintes, adressé au comte Ramon Berenguer IV, dans lequel ils dénonçaient les actes de violence perpétrés contre les hommes et les propriétés du monastère par divers nobles, parmi lesquels se détache tout particulièrement Guillem de Monteada, fils du sénéchal Guillem Ramon. Le résultat fut une des querimoniae (chartes de doléances les plus longues et les plus originales qui nous soient parvenues. Rédigée dans un latin correct et un style soigné, cette production élaborée du scriptorium monastique constitue un témoignage littéraire unique de la manière par laquelle, dans la Catalogne

The Coronary Tree of the Anatomical Machines of the Prince of Sansevero: The reality of a legend.

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Michele, Sara Di; Mirabelli, Francesca; Gregorio, Giovanni; Lama, Diana; Paolisso, Giuseppe; Galzerano, Domenico

2015-01-01

During the 18 th century in Naples, Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero, gave definitive form to the family chapel, the so-called "Cappella San Severo". The chapel houses not only extraordinarily beautiful and spectacularly detailed statues but also two human skeletons known as anatomical machines ("Macchine Anatomiche") in the basement. These two skeletons, a man and a pregnant woman, are entirely surrounded by their own circulatory system, just as they were suddenly and mysteriously, fixed. Legend, believed as truth until few years ago, tells that Prince Raimondo had prepared and injected an unknown embalming substance in their blood vessels convicting them to eternal fixity. Most recent investigations, however, demonstrated that while the bones are authentic, the blood vessels are actually an extraordinary artifact, even though the perfect reproduction of the coronary vascular tree, including congenital malformations in detail, raises some doubts about the technique used by the Prince. The dreadful aspect of these two skeletons appears to be in strident contrast with the classic beauty of the statues, which glorifies and celebrates the ideal of morphology. Conversely, the two "Anatomical Machines", protagonists of legends and superstitions since centuries, represent a marvelous example of science and art.

The relationship between epilepsy and religiosity illustrated by the story of the visionary mystic Wise-Knut.

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Brodtkorb, Eylert; Nakken, Karl Otto

2015-05-01

The story of Wise-Knut is remarkable. He was born in a poor mountain district in Norway in 1792 and lived for 84years. He had severe and untreated epilepsy with apparent ictal, postictal, and interictal religious symptoms. He heard voices and had religious delusions; a spiritual awakening after a seizure cluster was a turning point in his life. Contemporary biographers have narrated his major life events in detail, but without a precise separation between ictal and postictal spiritual symptoms. Religious and supernatural significance was attributed to his experiences; he himself believed that his extraordinary abilities were a gift from God: "The prophets have had it like myself." His story corroborates the impression that epilepsy may have had a considerable role in the history of religions. However, apart from anecdotes on visionary and healing abilities, his biographies contain nothing that is miraculous or incredible. He falls into the line of various mystics and religious figures of the past that are currently thought to have had epilepsy. Apparently, the advancing understanding of epilepsy and its complications have influenced the dynamic balance between faith, superstition, and rationalism. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sleep deprivation reduces perceived emotional intelligence and constructive thinking skills.

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Killgore, William D S; Kahn-Greene, Ellen T; Lipizzi, Erica L; Newman, Rachel A; Kamimori, Gary H; Balkin, Thomas J

2008-07-01

Insufficient sleep can adversely affect a variety of cognitive abilities, ranging from simple alertness to higher-order executive functions. Although the effects of sleep loss on mood and cognition are well documented, there have been no controlled studies examining its effects on perceived emotional intelligence (EQ) and constructive thinking, abilities that require the integration of affect and cognition and are central to adaptive functioning. Twenty-six healthy volunteers completed the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQi) and the Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI) at rested baseline and again after 55.5 and 58 h of continuous wakefulness, respectively. Relative to baseline, sleep deprivation was associated with lower scores on Total EQ (decreased global emotional intelligence), Intrapersonal functioning (reduced self-regard, assertiveness, sense of independence, and self-actualization), Interpersonal functioning (reduced empathy toward others and quality of interpersonal relationships), Stress Management skills (reduced impulse control and difficulty with delay of gratification), and Behavioral Coping (reduced positive thinking and action orientation). Esoteric Thinking (greater reliance on formal superstitions and magical thinking processes) was increased. These findings are consistent with the neurobehavioral model suggesting that sleep loss produces temporary changes in cerebral metabolism, cognition, emotion, and behavior consistent with mild prefrontal lobe dysfunction.

Veneration and Spiritual Pleading through Stone: observations and musings on current practice in rural Turkmenistan

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Glenys McLaren

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Although the population of Turkmenistan is essentially Moslem, older traditions co-exist. In the rural areas medical services are poor, infant mortality and maternal mortality and morbidity are higher than in the West, and superstition is rife. Barrenness is considered a female failing. Women of child-bearing age are under great pressure to be fertile, and make spiritual pleas at venerated sites when pregnancy fails to occur or an infant is lost. There is veneration not only of shrines and revered burial sites but also of ancient sites and old dead trees. Many offerings are in the form of stone or fossils, with continued reuse and deposition of ancient materials. Cloth strips and miniature cradles bearing 'babies' are left in association with stones in pleas for child-bearing. Some stones are handled in special ways. One large stone was used for masturbation in the hope of fecundity. The legend of Paraw Bibi incorporates many of the beliefs and features related to rock that occur across many cultures and are common to folklore of old. Resonances of the same thought processes and behaviour patterns could have originated in the ancient past.

Dracula, le monstre et les savants : entre Darwin et Bunyan Dracula, the Monster and the Scientists: between Darwin and Bunyan

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René Gallet

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Among the novel’s characters, two are well identified scientists, Seward and Van Helsing; but a third also plays a major, though covert, role in it. Mina mentions the names of Nordau and Lombroso quite late in the book (chapter XXV; however, the latter had begun to leave his mark on the narrative almost from the very start: much of Dracula’s «physiognomy» is borrowed from Lombroso’s description of the «born criminal», the anthropological type defined in L’Uomo Deliquente. The same is true with Renfield’s «temperament». Lombroso’s view was that the two human types linked in Dracula (the «born criminal» and the «morally insane man» are basically one. This theory thus proves a significant contribution to the structure of the book. The presence of such a scientific layer in it beneath the more conspicuous layer of Transylvanian legends and superstitions also leads to a reassessment of Stoker’s work which could then be seen as adapting Bunyan’s technique of multiple allegory to a Victorian intellectual context.

Reducing Pseudoscientific and Paranormal Beliefs in University Students Through a Course in Science and Critical Thinking

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Wilson, James A.

2018-03-01

This study measured the relationship between student's religion, gender, and propensity for fantasy thinking with the change in belief for paranormal and pseudoscientific subjects following a science and critical thinking course that directly confronted these subjects. Student pre-course endorsement of religious, paranormal, and pseudoscientific beliefs ranged from 21 to 53%, with religion having the highest endorsement rate. Pre-course belief in paranormal and pseudoscientific subjects was correlated with high scores in some fantasy thinking scales and showed a gender and a religion effect with females having an 11.1% higher belief across all paranormal and pseudoscience subcategories. Students' religion, and frequency of religious service attendance, was also important with agnostic or atheist students having lower beliefs in paranormal and pseudoscience subjects compared to religious students. Students with either low religious service attendance or very high attendance had lower paranormal and pseudoscientific beliefs. Following the critical thinking course, overall beliefs in paranormal and pseudoscientific subcategories lowered 6.8-28.9%, except for superstition, which did not significantly change. Change in belief had both a gender and religion effect with greater reductions among religious students and females.

Reducing Pseudoscientific and Paranormal Beliefs in University Students Through a Course in Science and Critical Thinking

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Wilson, James A.

2018-02-01

This study measured the relationship between student's religion, gender, and propensity for fantasy thinking with the change in belief for paranormal and pseudoscientific subjects following a science and critical thinking course that directly confronted these subjects. Student pre-course endorsement of religious, paranormal, and pseudoscientific beliefs ranged from 21 to 53%, with religion having the highest endorsement rate. Pre-course belief in paranormal and pseudoscientific subjects was correlated with high scores in some fantasy thinking scales and showed a gender and a religion effect with females having an 11.1% higher belief across all paranormal and pseudoscience subcategories. Students' religion, and frequency of religious service attendance, was also important with agnostic or atheist students having lower beliefs in paranormal and pseudoscience subjects compared to religious students. Students with either low religious service attendance or very high attendance had lower paranormal and pseudoscientific beliefs. Following the critical thinking course, overall beliefs in paranormal and pseudoscientific subcategories lowered 6.8-28.9%, except for superstition, which did not significantly change. Change in belief had both a gender and religion effect with greater reductions among religious students and females.

Canine Gouging: A Taboo Resurfacing in Migrant Urban Population.

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Noman, Anila Virani; Wong, Ferranti; Pawar, Ravikiran Ramakrishna

2015-01-01

Cosmopolitan cities have become a pool of migrants from different parts of the world, who carry their cultural beliefs and superstitions with them around the globe. Canine gouging is a kind of infant oral mutilation (IOM) which is widely practiced among rural population of Africa where the primary tooth bud of the deciduous canine is enucleated. The belief is that the life threatening illnesses in children like vomiting, diarrhoea, and fevers are caused by worms which infest on tooth buds. This case report is of a 15-year-old Somalian born boy, who presented at the dental institute with intermittent pain in his lower right permanent canine which was associated with a discharging intra oral buccal sinus. The tooth was endodontically treated and then restored with composite. General dental practitioners need to be vigilant when encountered with tooth presenting unusual morphology, unilateral missing tooth, and shift in the midline due to early loss of deciduous/permanent canines. Identification of any such dental mutilation practice will need further counselling of the individual and family members. It is the duty of every dental professional to educate and safeguard the oral and dental health of general public.

The skull of Chios: trepanation in Hippocratic medicine.

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Tsermoulas, Georgios; Aidonis, Asterios; Flint, Graham

2014-08-01

Cranial trepanation is the oldest neurosurgical operation and its roots date back to prehistory. For many centuries, religion and mysticism were strongly linked to the cause of diseases, and trepanation was associated with superstitions such as releasing evil spirits from inside the skull. The Hippocratic treatise "On injuries of the head" was therefore a revolutionary work, as it presented a systematic approach to the management of cranial trauma, one that was devoid of spiritual elements. Unfortunately, there are only a limited number of skeletal findings that confirm that the practice of trepanation was performed as part of Hippocratic medicine. In this historical vignette, the authors present a trepanned skull that was found in Chios, Greece, as evidence of the procedure having been performed in accordance with the Hippocratic teaching. The skull bears a parietal bur hole in association with a linear fracture, and it is clear that the patient survived the procedure. In this analysis, the authors examine the application of the original Hippocratic teaching to the skull of Chios. The rationalization of trepanation was clearly a significant achievement in the evolution of neurosurgery.

I Cammini Culturali e le Nuove Vie di Turismo Religioso. Il Progetto di Promozione Turistica "Strada Delle Abbazie. Fede Arte e Natura nella Grande Milano"

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Monica Morazzoni

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The objective of this writing is to contribute to the analysis of religious goods through a project of enhancement and protection of cultural values inherent in a territory. The project "Abbey Road" responds, in fact, the need to disseminate a cultural product through the networking of seven abbeys, belonging to monastic orders secular absolutely different, present in Milan and in the area to the South and to the south-west of the city . It was then made a tourist itinerary that from a party implements the recommendations of the Council of Europe, in the field of cultural routes, and the other connects to the theme of Expo 2015 "Feeding the planet".  The project also proposes to pry on intangible components of attractiveness, deriving both from religious meanings and historic-cultural by both elements related to the sphere of the emotionality. In the last few decades, on the other hand, the changes taking place in the tourist sector have given new models of holiday, which prefer a return to nature, the rediscovery of the spirituality, the demassification of consumption, the research of the psycho-physical well, moving toward holidays experiential-type. The project "Abbey Road" prefigures then a program in which tourists can live the size of Theoros and the territory can "tell" their own places.

BIBLICAL SYMBOLISM IN THE NOVEL “THE WANDERERS” BY V. Y. SHISHKOV

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Valentina I. Gabdullina

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The article presents the experience of reinterpretation of the novel of V. Y. Shishkov as the phenomenon of “spiritual realism”, from the point of view of identifying the role and functions of biblical symbolism and imagery in its artistic system. Biblical symbolism pervades the narration, manifesting itself both at the level of the semantics of names and imagery, and in a three-part compositional structure of the novel that conveys the author’s idea — the movement of the characters from the darkness of the underworld to the light. Life of the homeless children is depicted by the author as the “dark world”, “antiworld”, which disfigures all the concepts ontologically important for Man. The idea of spiritual commonality is replaced by the thieves brotherhood, the life of street children under the inverted barge turns into a hideous parody of monastic life, the place of the Virgin in this world is given to a prostitute girl Mashka nicknamed May Flower. In the plot of the story the motifs of the Apocalypse (destruction of the old world and of the prodigal son in the heroes’ life stories who undergo transformations take place in parallel. The interpretation of biblical symbols, which saturated Shishkov’s novel “The Wanderers” brings new connotations, still unrevealed in literature studies, that reside in the content of this work.

Església i poder comtal al territori d’Urgell. Guifré el Pilós i la reorganització de la Vall de Lord

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Riu, Manuel

1999-12-01

Full Text Available This article shows how was "La Vall de Lord" organized in four castles, their respective territories and ten rural parish churches and also their evolution during the ninth and tenth centuries. It explains the exemption land taxes in the southern part of the Urgell's county and bishopric, and the relievant role of Guifred "el Pilos" count and Seu bishops in that establishment. Two bénédictine monasteries, Sant Llorenç de Morunys and Sant Pere de Graudescales, had an important development in the "Vail de Lord". At the first time, both were regular priests'canonicals.[fr] Dans cet article, on présente l'organisation de la Vallée de Lord en quatre chatellenies et dix paroisses, et leur évolution pendant les IXème et Xème siècles, en indiquant le statut de zone franche dans la limite méridionale du comté et évêché d'Urgell, et le rôle notoire du comte Guifred "el Pilos" et des prélats de La Seu. Dans la vallée prirent leur essor également deux monastères bénédictins, celui de Sant Llorenç de Morunys et celui de Sant Pere de Graudescales, qui furent initialement des chapitres de clercs réguliers.

Anchorite monks of Srebrna Góra

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Rafał Szczurowski

2005-12-01

Full Text Available The efforts and foundation acts of Mikołaj Wolski, Great Marshal to the Crown, resulted in bringing monks of the Camaldolese Order from Italy in 1605. They settled on a hill known as the Silver Mountain at Bielany, near Cracow. The newly founded monastery appealed to local adherents of hermits’ life, who started to join the Order. In 163 lthe first Polish Prior, father Matthew (Zygmunt Brynner was elected and the Poles, who then comprised the majority of monks made an unsuccesful attempt at overthrowing the supervision of the Monte Corona Congregation in favour of the Holy See. However, these were not only ambitions and plans of local monks - controlled nevertheless by strict monastic rule - but political events that shaped the history of the Bielany monastery. The Swedish wars, policy of the annexing powers, the Nazi occupation and activities of the communists left their mark on the life of monks on the Silver Mountain. Problems within the community itself were not necessarily in short supply either and they were the result of weaknesses and limitations of people who tried to implement Evangelical ideals in a radical way. An effort to overcome the difficulties was connected with this; and it has always been proof of a fight of St. Romuald’s sons to realize the charisma of the Order.

Violante Sánchez, fille de roi et filleule de reine

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Charles Garcia

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Fière de son ascendance royale, l’infante Violante, fille illégitime de Sanche IV, arbora toujours son prestigieux lignage avec ostentation. Bien qu’elle n’ait pas joué un rôle politique de premier plan en Castille, cette femme sut utiliser sa lignée pour prendre le contrôle d’un certain nombre de monastères, par le biais de la mise en commende. C’est donc à travers la gestion de ses affaires que nous avons eu accès au sens du rang social d’une rica hembra du début du XIVe siècle, mais aussi au vécu d’une femme d’influence, si ce n’est de pouvoir.Orgullosa de su ascendencia regia, doña Violante, una hija ilegítima de Sancho IV, siempre hizo gala de sus ancestros. Aunque nunca desempeñó un papel político relevante en la Castilla de principios del siglo XIV, dicha infante consiguió hacerse con el poder de varios monasterios, mediante el conocido sistema de la encomienda. Así pues, estudiando su testamento, hemos intentado aproximarnos al significado de lo que entonces era una “rica hembra”, desde el punto de vista social, pero también a su actuación como mujer gobernadora de notable influencia.

Review: Karin Reiber (2005. Organisation im Spiegel der Regula Benedicti [Organisation in Reflection of Regula Benedicti

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Jürgen Rausch

2007-01-01

Full Text Available For 1500 years, the monastic life of the Benedictines has been defined by rules dating from the time of the first foundation of the order, suggesting an organizational structure that has outlasted historical upheavals and changes. Starting from a new understanding of organisational development as organisational learning, Karin REIBER has looked for clues to organisational formation and learning through a hermeneutic textual analysis of the Regula Benedicti of the 6th Century. Within a theoretical framework, REIBER develops three dimensions of organisational formation and three stages of organisational learning. In a historical reconstruction, the author analyses the text of the Regula Benedicti. In a second section, REIBER adapts and interprets the results of the hermeneutic analysis through a double three-stage theoretical model. She works out interesting aspects for organisational learning, which relate individual learning to organisational learning in favour of members of the organisation, for which consideration for individuality forms a part of the leadership concept and as a framework for social relationships, establishing an informal organisational structure beside the formal one. This illuminating work leads to an integrated concept of organisational learning, which extends the notion of tradition as a characteristic feature of an innovative organisation and which, through continuity and topicality, can hence guarantee the continued existence of modern organisations in the future. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs070174

Research on 18th Century Music in Poland. An Introduction

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Paczkowski Szymon

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Research on 18th-century music has been one of the key areas of interest for musicologists ever since the beginnings of musicological studies in Poland. It initially developed along two distinct lines: general music history (with publications mostly in foreign languages and local history (mostly in Polish. In the last three decades the dominant tendency among Polish researchers has been, however, to relate problems of 18th-century Polish musical culture to the political history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and more generally – to the political history of Central Europe at large. The most important subjects taken up in research on 18th-century music include: the musical cultures of the royal court in 18th-century Warsaw (primarily in the works of Alina Żórawska-Witkowska as well as Polish aristocratic residences (e.g. studies by Szymon Paczkowski and Irena Bieńkowska, the ecclesiastical and monastic circles (publications by Alina Mądry, Paweł Podejko, Remigiusz Pośpiech and Tomasz Jeż; problems of musical style (texts by Szymon Paczkowski; research on sources containing music by European composers (e.g. by Johann Adolf Hasse; the musical culture of cities (of Gdańsk, first and foremost; studies concerning the transfer of music and music-related materials, the musical centres and peripheries, etc.

Relationship between first treatment contact and supernatural beliefs in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia.

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Grover, S; Nebhinani, N; Chakrabarti, S; Shah, R; Avasthi, A

2014-06-01

OBJECTIVE. To explore the relationship between attribution of symptoms to supernatural beliefs and first treatment contact in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia attending a tertiary care hospital located in North India. METHODS. A total of 122 caregivers (aged ≥ 18 years, staying with patient ≥ 1 year and involved in patients' care) of consecutive patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia (according to the ICD-10) were evaluated for their supernatural beliefs and first treatment contact. RESULTS. The first treatment contact was a government or private psychiatrist in slightly more than half (53.3%) of the patients, while it was faith healers in 23.8% of the patients. Around three quarters (74.6%) of the caregivers attributed patients' symptoms to ≥ 1 supernatural belief (like sorcery / witchcraft, ghosts, spirit intrusion, divine wrath, planetary influences, evil spirits, and bad deeds in previous life) and more than half (57.4%) of the caregivers attributed patients' symptoms to > 1 supernatural belief. It was observed that those who contacted faith healers for their patients' treatment had significantly higher attribution of the symptoms to supernatural causes. CONCLUSIONS. Supernatural beliefs were common in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia and the majority attributed their patients' symptoms to these beliefs. It signifies an urgent need for mental health literacy in India.

Explanatory models of diabetes in urban poor communities in Accra, Ghana.

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de-Graft Aikins, Ama; Awuah, Raphael Baffour; Pera, Tuula Anneli; Mendez, Montserrat; Ogedegbe, Gbenga

2015-01-01

The objective of the study was to examine explanatory models of diabetes and diabetes complications among urban poor Ghanaians living with diabetes and implications for developing secondary prevention strategies. Twenty adults with type 2 diabetes were recruited from three poor communities in Accra. Qualitative data were obtained using interviews that run between 40 and 90 minutes. The interviews were audio-taped, transcribed and analysed thematically, informed by the 'explanatory model of disease' concept. Respondents associated diabetes and its complications with diet, family history, lifestyle factors (smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and physical inactivity), psychological stress and supernatural factors (witchcraft and sorcery). These associations were informed by biomedical and cultural models of diabetes and disease. Subjective experience, through a process of 'body-listening,' constituted a third model on which respondents drew to theorise diabetes complications. Poverty was an important mediator of poor self-care practices, including treatment non-adherence. The biomedical model of diabetes was a major source of legitimate information for self-care practices. However, this was understood and applied through a complex framework of cultural theories of chronic disease, the biopsychological impact of everyday illness experience and the disempowering effects of poverty. An integrated biopsychosocial approach is proposed for diabetes intervention in this research community.

El mundo mágico en el Madrid de los Austrias a través de las cartas, avisos y relaciones de sucesos

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Vitar, Beatriz

2001-06-01

Full Text Available The author analyzes the different expressions of the magic in Madrid under the Hapsburgs, in the context of the Baroque mentality and the morality of the Counter-Reformation. These expressions were, among others, asthrology, the casting of horoscopes, palmistry, witchcraft and the interpretation of unusual or extraordinary events. The author aims to show the way in which the Crown as well as the Church often used these expressions for their own interests, thereby preserving the status quo and the people's disfranchisement.

En este artículo se analizan las distintas manifestaciones de lo mágico en el Madrid de los Austrias, en el marco de la mentalidad del Barroco y de la moral contrarreformista. Entre los aspectos estudiados se encuentran prácticas mágicas tales como la astrología y la confección de horóscopos, la quiromancia o la brujería, así como sucesos anormales o extraordinarios. A través de este estudio se intenta mostrar el modo en que dichas manifestaciones eran manipuladas por la monarquía y la Iglesia en su provecho, a fin de mantener el statu-quo y la sumisión de los súbditos.

Occultism in an African context: a case for the Vhavenda-speaking people of the Limpopo Province

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T. D. Mashau

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Occultism in Africa is as old as the primal religion itself, or what came to be known as African Traditional Religion (ATR in mo- dern times. It dates back to time immemorial. Occultism in Africa has taken various forms and has manifested in different ways over the ages, i.e. spiritism, divination, witchcraft and ma- gic. The underlying premise of African occultism is the belief in a spiritual world with spiritual forces that have power to inflict harm on the living. In the traditional African worldview suffering of every sort – illness, barrenness, drought and death – is nor- mally explained in personal terms: “there is always somebody”. This “somebody” often belongs to the world of the occult: a “spirit” has brought pain to human beings and must therefore be repelled or accommodated. This is very common among the Vhavenda-speaking people of the Limpopo Province. This ar- ticle seeks to investigate how occultism is practised among these people and to provide a reformed perspective as to how people who are suffering under demonic attacks can be helped. Contrary to other Christian traditions that see exorcism as the only way out, reformed theology suggests a missio-pastoral approach in dealing with the problem.

Knowledge and perception of stroke amongst hospital workers in an African community.

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Akinyemi, R O; Ogah, O S; Ogundipe, R F; Oyesola, O A; Oyadoke, A A; Ogunlana, M O; Otubogun, F M; Odeyinka, T F; Alabi, B S; Akinyemi, J O; Osinfade, J K; Kalaria, R N

2009-09-01

Stroke is a growing public health problem worldwide. Hospital workers are sources of knowledge on health issues including stroke. The present study aimed at assessing the knowledge and perception of a sample of Nigerian hospital workers about stroke. Hospital-based, cross-sectional survey. Respondents selected by systematic random sampling were interviewed using a 29-item pre-tested, structured, semi-closed questionnaire. There were 370 respondents (63% female, mean age: 34.4 +/- 7.5 years; 61% non-clinical workers). Twenty-nine per cent of respondents did not recognize the brain as the organ affected. Hypertension (88.6%) was the commonest risk factor identified; 13.8% identified evil spirit/witchcraft as a cause of stroke, whilst one-sided body weakness (61.9%) was most commonly identified as warning symptom. Hospital treatment was most preferred by 61.1% of respondents whilst spiritual healing was most preferred by 13.0%. In the bivariate analysis, higher level of education and being a clinical worker correlated with better stroke knowledge (P < 0.001). This study demonstrates gaps in the knowledge of these hospital workers about stroke, and treatment choice influenced by cultural and religious beliefs. Health education is still important, even, amongst health workers and stroke awareness campaigns may need to involve faith-based organizations.

CHRISTIANITY AND COLONIALISM IN SOME ENGLISH SHORT STORIES

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Tatang Iskarna

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Colonial and postcolonial studies are often linked to the power domination of the West upon the East in the way that the East economically, politically, and socially oppressed. Colonialism is often associated with three elements, the explorers dealing with geographical information, missionaries approaching the local people culturally, and the colonial administrators ruling the colony. Gold, glory, and gospel are the European’s concern. However, in representing the relation between Christianity and colonialism there is critical dialectic amongst historians, anthropologists, Christian missions, or cultural critics. Some propose that Christianity is considered to be the religious arm of colonialism. Others state that Christianity is spread without any secular interest as it is a great commandment of Jesus Christ. A few believe that Christianity give critical resistance against colonialism. The relation between Christianity and colonialism cannot be simplified as being neutral, in complicity, or in opposition. So, it is worth-discussing to understand how European writers construct the relation between Christianity and colonialism in their literary work. How Christianity is constructed and how Christianity is related to colonialism will be discussed in this paper. Using postcolonial paradigm, two English short stories will be analyzed in that way. They are Rudyard Kipling’s “Lispeth” and Doris Lessing’s “No Witchcraft for Sale”.

Nástin společných aspektů afrického tradičního léčitelství Bantuské oblasti

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Kateřina Mildnerová

2008-12-01

Full Text Available African healing tradition is holistic by nature, involving an essential unity between the spiritual, psycho-somatic and social dimension of health. All these dimensions constitute an inseparable part of the total therapeutic system. The traditional conception of health and illness in Africa is connected to a wider framework of religion and social reality. Illness is thus not seen as a mere disruption of physical and psychological integrity of an individual, but as an affliction caused by the intervention of different invisible powers such as spirits, demons, ghosts and witches that are believed to penetrate the whole of life. Diagnostic, therapeutic and prophylactic activity of the traditional healers – ngangas (how they are called in many Bantu languages as well as prophets of African independent churches, namely those of Pentecostal and charismatic type, are based on a common culturally shared aetiology such as natural diseases, spirit possession and witchcraft. Indigenous African healing was historically shaped by process of colonialism during which the traditional medicine was rather persecuted, on the contrary the epoch of post-colonialism brought its revalorization, its recognition by most of the African national government. The traditional medicine of many African states today is thus represented as a  constitutive part of national cultural heritage.

Maternity and Absence in Shakespearean Romance

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Hopkins Helen

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The equivocation of the private life of Elizabethan and Jacobean subjects with the public life of monarchy and state endowed mothers with an import, and therefore a power, not previously acknowledged. These changes provoked a fear of female disruption to patriarchal structures which found its way onto Shakespeare’s stage by the representation of mothers as ‘unnatural’ agents of chaos, associated with witchcraft, murder, dangerous ambition, and infidelity; if not by complete absence, which “posits the sacrifice of the mother’s desire as the basis of the ideal society” (Rose, 1991: 313. I suggest that in the late romances, specifically The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, Shakespeare found a form that could demonstrate the complexity of the mother’s position, while still resolving the action with a satisfactory ending that presented a stable continuation of patriarchal lineage. The fathers rely on a fantasy of parthenogenesis to relocate the role of the mother in themselves, ensuring the children are free from her corruptive influence and the bloodlines are safe. However, as all themes return to maternity - chastity, fertility, lineage for example - the fantasy of eradicating the mother is shown to be limited even in the artificial realm of the romance.

A Healing Cult Met with the Baatombu from the North of Benin: The Kaawo.

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Abdou, Mohamed

2007-04-01

Some remarkable studies have been devoted to the healing cults in Africa; but few of them focus on the role played by their therapeutic processes in the healing of the patient. This paper aims to show the real implication of the techniques mobilized in a healing process by a cult named Kaawo on the Baatombu in Northern Benin; and of which the data have been collected between 1995 and 2002. The outcomes of the study show the techniques used, such as prayer, sacrifice, divination, witchcraft, gesture and postures, as being real healing operators that have inductive properties with direct effect on the 'disease'. Here, the healing efficiency is all the more significant as the troubles from which the subjects suffer are either of psychosomatic or psychofunctional type, and relating rather to an existential malaise than an organic disorder. In this process, the priest/healer's conviction in the efficiency of the treatment prescribed to the patient, and the faith of the latter in the efficiency of the treatment received, maximize the potential of healing. It is clear that such results move away from the classical clinical approach that consists of assessing the consequences of a disease by examining symptoms it generates-and contributes to opening up some avenues for as yet fairly unexplored research opportunities.

Bewitching sex workers, blaming wives: HIV/AIDS, stigma, and the gender politics of panic in western Kenya.

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Pfeiffer, Elizabeth J; Maithya, Harrison M K

2018-02-01

Since access to HIV testing, counselling, and drug therapy has improved so dramatically, scholars have investigated ways this 'scale-up' has interacted with HIV/AIDS-related stigma in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on data collected during ethnographic research in a trading centre in western Kenya, this paper critically analyses two violent and localised case studies of panic over the ill health of particular community residents as a nuanced lens through which to explore the dynamic interplay of gender politics and processes of HIV/AIDS-related stigma in the aftershocks of the AIDS crisis. Gaining theoretical momentum from literatures focusing on stigma, gender, witchcraft, gossip, and accusation, we argue that the cases highlight collective anxieties, as well as local critiques of shifting gender roles and the strain of globalisation and legacies of uneven development on myriad forms of relationships. We further contend that these heightened moments of panic and accusation were deployments of power that ultimately sharpened local gender politics and conflicts on the ground in ways that complicated the social solidarity necessary to tackle social and health inequalities. The paper highlights one community's challenge to eradicate the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS during a period of increased access to HIV services.

Abadía de San Juan

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Breuer, Marcel

1963-09-01

Full Text Available This abbey is organised in two main zones, one to the south east, consisting of the monastic and ecclesiastical buildings, and another to the north west, comprising the school. The church, the library and the offices are located at the convergence of the two zones. The abbey church is the outstanding feature of the whole project, and it can accommodate 1580 people as well as 360 monks in the choir. The church has been designed around the axis baptistery-altar, the latter occupying a central, separate position, and constituting the focal point of the design. The sacristy forms a link between the monastery and the church. Below the main church there is a small parish crypt with 150 seats, and a chapel for the brethren, seating 104 people, as well as a series of 34 private chapels for the monks to celebrate Mass. The construction of the project features the use of folded reinforced concrete shells for walls and roofs. The types of materials mainly adopted, bare concrete, brick, granite and oak, express the austerity of monastic life. The campanile —a thin slab resting on parabolic supports— is a symbol of our gase towards the world beyond. The church building seeks to identify closely form and function, and is noteworthy also in the choice of spatial and structural Rythm as well as for the wealth of subtle details which it incorporates.En la organización general del conjunto se aprecian dos zonas: la SE., dedicada a los edificios monásticos y eclesiásticos, y la NO., a los edificios escolares. La iglesia, la biblioteca y las oficinas se sitúan en el encuentro de estas dos zonas. El complejo se centra alrededor de la iglesia de la abadía, capaz de albergar una congregación de 1.580 personas y en cuyo coro se prevé espacio para 260 monjes y hermanos. La iglesia, ha sido diseñada alrededor del eje sacramental, baptisterio-altar, el cual aparece en situación central exento, como punto focal. El coro está dividido en dos mitades. La

Last Days of Empire: DeLillo’s America and Murakami’s Japan

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David Palmer

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Don DeLillo’s Underworld and Haruki Murakami’s The Windup Bird Chronicle anticipated in a literary way the public debate over the existence of contemporary empire in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and subsequent wars. However, these novels focus on individual experiences and specific cultural aspects of their respective economic superpowers, America and Japan, and are not explicitly political or ideological. Both novels use the history of war in the modern era as a source of memory for individuals in the novels, including memory objects, linking these individuals to specific people in the past. Historical experiences and present experiences of these people are connected through a range of related themes. These include “internal” and “external” wars and violence, with the imagery of games and war as interchangeable; nationally specific religion, superstition, and folk beliefs intersecting with contemporary electronic “magic” such as the internet; and empires past and present that are in an advanced state of decay, abroad through the legacy of lost wars and domestically in the urban “underworld” (DeLillo / “shadow world” (Murakami of the two nations’ megacities: New York and Tokyo.

A rare manifestation of burns after lightning strike in rural Ghana: a case report.

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Apanga, Paschal Awingura; Azumah, John Atigiba; Yiranbon, Joseph Bayewala

2017-07-25

Lightning is a natural phenomenon that mostly affects countries in the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe, including Ghana. Lightning strikes pose a global public health issue. Although strikes to humans are uncommon, it is associated with high morbidity and mortality. We present a case of a 10-year-old Ghanaian girl who got second-degree burns after being struck by lightning. She was put on an intravenous broad-spectrum antibiotic (ceftriaxone), Ringer's lactate, and her burns were dressed with sterile gauze impregnated with Vaseline (petroleum jelly) and silver sulfadiazine ointment. There was marked improvement on the 16 th day of treatment despite the lack in capacity of the hospital to carry out some laboratory diagnostic tests. On the 21 st day of treatment, the burns were completely healed without scars and contractures. This is evidence of burns due to lightning strike, despite its rare occurrence. This report will help inform those in doubt, particularly in communities where lightning injuries are associated with widespread superstition. The case report also revealed how rural healthcare can be challenging amid a lack of basic diagnostic equipment and logistics. However, in resource-limited settings, Vaseline (petroleum jelly) and silver sulfadiazine could be used in the treatment of burns.

Reversing one's fortune by pushing away bad luck.

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Zhang, Yan; Risen, Jane L; Hosey, Christine

2014-06-01

Across cultures, people try to "undo" bad luck with superstitious rituals such as knocking on wood, spitting, or throwing salt. We suggest that these rituals reduce the perceived likelihood of anticipated negative outcomes because they involve avoidant actions that exert force away from one's representation of self, which simulates the experience of pushing away bad luck. Five experiments test this hypothesis by having participants tempt fate and then engage in avoidant actions that are either superstitious (Experiment 1, knocking on wood) or nonsuperstitious (Experiments 2-5, throwing a ball). We find that participants who knock down (away from themselves) or throw a ball think that a jinxed negative outcome is less likely than participants who knock up (toward themselves) or hold a ball. Experiments 3 and 4 provide evidence that after tempting fate, engaging in an avoidant action leads to less clear mental representations for the jinxed event, which, in turn, leads to lower perceived likelihoods. Finally, we demonstrate that engaging in an avoidant action-rather than creating physical distance-is critical for reversing the perceived effect of the jinx. Although superstitions are often culturally defined, the underlying psychological processes that give rise to them may be shared across cultures. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

New Pedagogy in Introductory Physics and Upper-level AMO Courses

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Wieman, Carl

2005-05-01

In recent decades the need for science education has expanded in its scope and grown in its importance. We need to reevaluate science teaching to see how it can better meet these needs. Scientists often abandon the powerful intellectual tools they routinely use in their science when they go to teach science. They fall back on tradition and highly subjective judgments of the instructor (known in other contexts as ``superstition"). I will discuss the advantages of approaching the teaching of physics like a physics experiment. This approach includes: collecting and utilizing valid quantitative data (both one's own and those from the research of others), using quantitative statistical analysis to extract information from experiments involving imperfectly controlled degrees of freedom, and taking advantage of useful new technology. This discussion will include a review of some of the key findings of researchers about how people learn in general and how they learn physics specifically, and how these findings can be used to improve teaching practices. As time permits, I will also cover some surprising results my education research group has found on the study of how student beliefs shape and are shaped by their physics classes and the effective use of technology.

Architettura e magnificenza nella Palermo del primo Cinquecento : il prospetto denominato di Santa Eulalia dei Catalani

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Fulvia Scaduto

2006-01-01

Full Text Available A una attenta analisi, la misteriosa facciata nota come prospetto della chiesa di Santa Eulalia dei Catalani a Palermo risulta essere il frammento superstite di una Loggia realizzata, e forse mai completata, a partire dalla fine degli anni trenta del Cinquecento. La comunità e i banchieri catalani presenti a Palermo sono certamente i promotori di una architettura all’antica che si avvia dopo il trionfale ingresso dell’imperatore Carlo V in città nel 1535. Lo studio di questo edificio e le ipotesi sulla spazialità interna risultano estremamente illuminanti per comprendere una fase architettonica ancora poco nota nella capitale del Regno di Sicilia.At a careful analysis, the mysterious façade known as the front of St. Eulalia of the Catalans church in Palermo turns out to be the surviving fragment of a Loggia, wich construction, maybe never ended, started in the 153’s. The Catalan community and bankers living in Palermo are doubtless the promoters of an architecture in ancient style, starting after the triumphal entrance in the city of the emperor Carlo V in 1535. The study of this building and the hypothesis about its interior space are extremely evealing to understand an architectonical phase in the capital of Sicilian Reign still not well known.

The presence of Spinoza in the exchanges between Sigmund Freud and Romain Rolland.

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Vermorel, Henri

2009-12-01

Although Freud recognized his profound affinity with Spinoza, we seldom find explicit and direct references to the philosopher in his works. The correspondence between Romain Rolland, the 'Christian without a church', and Freud, the 'atheist Jew', is full of Spinozian reminiscences that nourish their works of this period and are underpinned by their mutual transference. The Future of an Illusion is written according to a Spinozian blueprint and aims at replacing religion, qualified as superstition, by psychoanalysis. A quotation from Heine, 'brother in unbelief', is a direct reference to Spinoza. Concurring with Freud's critiques of dogmas and churches, Rolland proposes an analysis of the 'oceanic feeling' as a basis of the religious sentiment. Freud replies with Civilization and Its Discontents. In 1936, on the occasion of Rolland's 70th birthday, Freud sends him an open letter, A disturbance of memory on the Acropolis, where the strange feeling that he has experienced in front of the Parthenon refers inter alia to his double culture: Jewish and German. In the light of this correspondence, the creation of psychoanalysis turns out to be a quest for the sacred that has disappeared in modernity; Freud, though, was able to find it inside man's unconscious.

Triggered surface slips in southern California associated with the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah, Baja California, Mexico, earthquake

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Rymer, Michael J.; Treiman, Jerome A.; Kendrick, Katherine J.; Lienkaemper, James J.; Weldon, Ray J.; Bilham, Roger; Wei, Meng; Fielding, Eric J.; Hernandez, Janis L.; Olson, Brian P.E.; Irvine, Pamela J.; Knepprath, Nichole; Sickler, Robert R.; Tong, Xiaopeng; Siem, Martin E.

2011-01-01

The April 4, 2010 (Mw7.2), El Mayor-Cucapah, Baja California, Mexico, earthquake is the strongest earthquake to shake the Salton Trough area since the 1992 (Mw7.3) Landers earthquake. Similar to the Landers event, ground-surface fracturing occurred on multiple faults in the trough. However, the 2010 event triggered surface slip on more faults in the central Salton Trough than previous earthquakes, including multiple faults in the Yuha Desert area, the southwestern section of the Salton Trough. In the central Salton Trough, surface fracturing occurred along the southern San Andreas, Coyote Creek, Superstition Hills, Wienert, Kalin, and Imperial Faults and along the Brawley Fault Zone, all of which are known to have slipped in historical time, either in primary (tectonic) slip and/or in triggered slip. Surface slip in association with the El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake is at least the eighth time in the past 42 years that a local or regional earthquake has triggered slip along faults in the central Salton Trough. In the southwestern part of the Salton Trough, surface fractures (triggered slip) occurred in a broad area of the Yuha Desert. This is the first time that triggered slip has been observed in the southwestern Salton Trough.

Crisis económica e identidad religiosa de un monasterio femenino en época de los Austrias: Santa Catalina de Córdoba del Tucumán (1613-1700

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Nieva Ocampo, Guillermo

2008-12-01

Full Text Available In 1613, Mrs. Leonor de Tejeda y Miraval, supported by the bishop of Tucumán Province, Mr. Fernando de Trejo y Sanabria and by the heads of the Society of Jesus, founded a monastery for daughters and granddaughters of conquerors in Córdoba City. In order to be able to fulfill its main objectives –the closure and the spiritual loads– Mrs. Leonor fully equipped the new foundation. In this way, the monastery rapidly became an active unit of interchange and credit. However, the structural difficulties of local economy in the middle of 17th century greatly affected both the structure and the identity of the monastic community.En el año 1613, doña Leonor de Tejeda y Miraval, asistida por el obispo del Tucumán don Fernando de Trejo y Sanabria y los padres de la Compañía de Jesús, fundaba en Córdoba un monasterio para hijas y nietas de conquistadores. Para poder cumplir con sus objetivos fundamentales –la clausura y las cargas espirituales– doña Leonor dotó sobradamente con sus bienes a la nueva fundación. De ese modo, el monasterio se transformó rápidamente en una activa unidad de intercambios y de crédito. Sin embargo, las dificultades estructurales de la economía local en la segunda mitad del siglo XVII afectaron significativamente la estructura y la identidad de la comunidad monástica.

Conciencia hispana y tradición monástica en la Vita Fructuosi

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Rodríguez de la Peña, Alejandro

2007-12-01

Full Text Available The author of Vita Fructuosi, probably a monk follower of Saint Fructuosus of Braga in the area of Gallaecia, shows in this biography an evident sense of rooting in the monastic Tradition, specially in the Egyptianeastern one, and also he declares a strong Roman-Catholic and Hispanic conscience. As the highest expression of it, he presents Saint Fructuosus with the same merits of the Egyptian monks and, joined to Saint Isidorus of Seville, as a light for Spain, for the Western and for the whole Catholic Church: they both are two causes of glory for a Visigothic Spain which fells herself as Roman and Catholic.El autor de la Vita Fructuosi, al parecer un monje discípulo de San Fructuoso de Braga en el área de Gallaecia, muestra en esta biografía un claro sentido de arraigo en la Tradición monástica, especialmente egipcio-oriental, y manifiesta una fuerte conciencia romano-católica e hispana. Como máxima expresión de todo ello, presenta a San Fructuoso a la altura de los méritos de los monjes egipcios y, junto con San Isidoro de Sevilla, como una lumbrera de Hispania, del Occidente y de toda la Iglesia Católica: ambos son dos motivos de gloria de la Hispania visigótica que se siente romana y católica.

Diverse Legal Significance of a Document in Byzantine Private Law

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Tamara M. Matović

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Byzantine, Graeco-Roman, law is the organic continuation of Roman law. However, the legal system itself, and many legal institutions in it, had gone through certain evolution. In this article, by researching Greek acts conserved in various monastic arhives, and confronting them with stipulations in the Byzantine law codes, we question the issues of consensuality of a contract, form of a legal deed, and acquisation of a real right in Byzantine private law. The nature of contracts in Byzantine law has not been sufficiently studied. Richful theoretical studies had been written in regards to the contract of purchase in Roman and Justinians law, however various and sometimes confronting information from the later Greek codes did not give definite answers to this question. Byzantine codices on this theme encompass already familiar stipulations and legal institutes. The attention of the lawgiver was on the notary system, on the mechanism which produced a written instrument. We believe that the issue of the παράδοσις δι̉ ἐγγράφου was not sufficiently highlighted in the field of Byzantine studies mostly due to the lack of information in the sources. However, when regarding the Athonite documents, it can be seen that the formulae describing the act of law transfer could be concidered as a relevant material to comment on this legal institute.

Paranormal phenomena in the medical literature sufficient smoke to warrant a search for fire.

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Bobrow, Robert S

2003-06-01

Paranormal phenomena - events that cannot be explained by existing science - are regularly reported in medicine. Surveys have shown that a majority of the population of the United States and Great Britain hold at least one paranormal belief. Information was retrieved by MEDLINE searches using keywords 'paranormal' and 'psychic', and from the author's own collection. Reports are predominantly by physicians, and from peer-reviewed, MEDLINE-indexed literature. This is a representative sample, as there is no database for paranormal medical phenomena. Presented and discussed are: a case of systemic lupus erythematosis ameliorated by witchcraft; an analysis of studies on distant healing; acupuncture, as a bridge between what is now accepted but recently would have been deemed paranormal; a carefully-done study of a psychic; auditory hallucinations informing a patient, correctly, that she had a brain tumor; two nearly-identical lay press reports of self-predicted death; lycanthropy (the delusion of being an animal); the development of Carl Jung's collective unconscious; hypnosis - still questioned despite documented therapeutic benefit, and a well-researched report of a person speaking a foreign language, apparently unlearned (xenoglossy) while hypnotized; and multiple examples of children who spout the details of the life of an unknown, deceased person. The inability of existing paradigms to explain these observations does not negate them; rather, it elucidates a need for more research.

Julie Taymor’s Ideographs in Her Adaptations of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and The Tempest

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Kristijan Stakor

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to show the unique visual style in director Julie Taymor’s vividly filmed adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, The Tempest and Titus Andronicus by concentrating on the visual elements called ideographs or ideograms. By definition, these ideographs are usually symbols that represent a particular idea or a thing rather than a word. I will argue that ideographs are also present in her films, Titus (1999 and The Tempest (2010, and that Taymor’s vast theatrical knowledge adds layers of meanings into filmed sequences. Shakespeare’s plays, burdened with foul deeds of war, revenge, struggle, and witchcraft almost invite the director not to settle with the ordinary, but to use contrasting colors and costumes from opposing eras, letting her show us his world through her own prism. Therefore, these adaptations are exceptional not only because of Taymor’s untypical use of familiar historical elements in production design but also because of her use of nonlinguistic devices in order to both express admiration for and criticize the situations presented in the original text. The paper also argues that Taymor’s films should be viewed as cross-cultural and intercultural adaptations, rather than American adaptations, because she uses Eastern theatrical elements and European heritage in order to underline the complexity and extravagant nature of events depicted in the plays.

IXTLAMATKI VERSUS NAHUALLI. CHAMANISMO, NAHUALISMO Y BRUJERÍA EN LA SIERRA NEGRA DE PUEBLA

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Antonella Fagetti

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Las características de ixtlamatki y nahualli, como agentes del bien y del mal en el imaginario de los nahuas de Tlacotepec de Díaz, Puebla, constituyen el punto de partida de la reflexión sobre las relaciones que privan entre el chamanismo, el nahualismo y la brujería, como parte del sistema simbólico-mágico-religioso implicado en la trama de la vida y la muerte. El caso de los nahuas de la Sierra Negra nos permite establecer un conjunto de homologías y diferencias entre estas tres grandes categorías y distinguir los rasgos que podrían guiar el estudio de las mismas en otros contextos culturales.   ABSTRACT The characteristics of ixtlamatki and nahualli, as agents of good and evil in the imaginary of the Nahua people from Tlacotepc de Díaz, Puebla, constitute the starting point for reflecting upon the relationships between shamanism, nahualism and witchcraft as part of the symbolic-magic-religious system in the web of life and death. The case of the Nahuas from the Sierra Negra allows us to establish a set of similarities and differences between these three major categories and to distinguish the features that can potentially guide their study in other cultural contexts.

The traditional healer in obstetric care: A persistent wasted opportunity in maternal health.

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Aborigo, Raymond Akawire; Allotey, Pascale; Reidpath, Daniel D

2015-05-01

Traditional medical systems in low income countries remain the first line service of choice, particularly for rural communities. Although the role of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) is recognised in many primary health care systems in low income countries, other types of traditional practitioners have had less traction. We explored the role played by traditional healers in northern Ghana in managing pregnancy-related complications and examined their relevance to current initiatives to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. A grounded theory qualitative approach was employed. Twenty focus group discussions were conducted with TBAs and 19 in-depth interviews with traditional healers with expertise in managing obstetric complications. Traditional healers are extensively consulted to manage obstetric complications within their communities. Their clientele includes families who for either reasons of access or traditional beliefs, will not use modern health care providers, or those who shop across multiple health systems. The traditional practitioners claim expertise in a range of complications that are related to witchcraft and other culturally defined syndromes; conditions for which modern health care providers are believed to lack expertise. Most healers expressed a willingness to work with the formal health services because they had unique knowledge, skills and the trust of the community. However this would require a stronger acknowledgement and integration within safe motherhood programs. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceptions of psychosocial disability amongst psychiatric service users and caregivers in South Africa

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Carrie Brooke-Sumner

2014-12-01

Objectives: This study aimed to use an explanatory model of illness framework to document experiences of illness, disability and recovery amongst service users with schizophrenia and their caregivers in a poorly resourced area in the North West Province. Data were used to provide recommendations for a contextually appropriate non-specialist facilitated group psychosocial rehabilitation intervention. Method: Eighteen in-depth individual interviews were conducted: nine with schizophrenia service users and nine with caregivers. Interviews were conducted by two trained field researchers; both clinical psychologists fluent in the first language of participants. All interviews were recorded, translated and transcribed. Data were thematically analysed using NVivo 9. Results: Participants linked the illness to witchcraft, poverty and stress. Family conflict was recognised in the course of the illness, causing stress and challenges for emotional well-being. Knowledge of diagnosis and biomedical treatment was minimal. Key factors recognised by service users as promoting recovery were the ability to work, and the support of traditional healers and religious structures. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, a group psychosocial rehabilitation intervention emerged as a recommendation, with the incorporation of psycho-education, adherence support, coping skills, and opportunities for income generation and productive activity. The importance of also enlisting the support of religious leaders and traditional healers in supporting recovery is emphasised.

Maternal perceptions of factors contributing to severe under-nutrition among children in a rural African setting.

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Abubakar, A; Holding, P; Mwangome, M; Maitland, K

2011-01-01

In developing countries, severe undernutrition in early childhood is associated with increased mortality and morbidity, and 10-40% of hospital admissions. The current study aimed to elicit maternal perceptions of factors that contribute to severe undernutrition among children in a rural Kenyan community in order to identify appropriate and acceptable targeted interventions. The study consisted of 10 focus group discussions (FGDs) of between eight and ten mothers each, in a rural coastal community in Kenya. A grounded theory approach was used to analyse the FGD data. In all FGDs 'financial constraints' was the main reason given for severe undernutrition of children. The mothers reported the additional factors of inadequate food intake, ill health, inadequate care of children, heavy workload for mothers, inadequate control of family resources by women and a lack of resources for generating income for the family. The mothers also reported their local cultural belief that severe malnutrition was due to witchcraft and the violation of sexual taboos. The mothers in the study community recognised multiple aetiologies for severe undernutrition. A multidisciplinary approach is needed address the range of issues raised and so combat severe undernutrition. Suggested interventions include poverty alleviation, medical education and psychosocial strategies. The content and approach of any program must address the need for variability, determined by individual and local needs, concerns, attitudes and beliefs.

Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century (by Marelene Rayner-Canham and Geoffrey Rayner-Canham)

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Caserio, Marjorie C.

1999-07-01

Women who made significant contributions in the chemical sciences prior to the 20th century do not come readily to mind. Yet, as this book relates so engagingly, women have been influential in chemistry since the earliest period of recorded history. However, Women in Chemistry is more than a dated collection of biographical sketches of notable women scientists. The book highlights the main periods of history when it was possible for women to have some measure of success in the chemical sciences and focuses on their changing roles from alchemical times to the mid-20th century. By glimpsing into the life and work of individuals in the context of the time in which they lived, the authors impart a credible and moving image of the restraints imposed on aspiring women scientists and the obstacles that confronted them-making the extent of their contributions all the more remarkable. Each chapter has a theme into which are woven selected biographical sketches. Chapter 1 offers a whirlwind tour of the centuries from Babylonian times (1200 B.C.E.) through the Middle Ages and into the 17th century, giving perspective on how the various civilizations did (or did not) consider women capable of intellectual achievement or permit such of them. This short but powerful chapter invokes appreciation for the major contributions made by women in the face of enormous obstacles of prejudice, superstition (witchcraft), monastic reprisals, pseudoscience (alchemy), and denial of education. The women featured include Maria Hebraea (around 300 C.E.famed for the water bath, bain Marie), Hypatia (mathematician, 400 C.E.), Western alchemists (de Gourney and Meudrac), and Chinese alchemists. By the 18th century, science had progressed and alchemy was at an end. Though enlightened scientifically, western society still considered women's intellect inferior. But, as Chapter 2 relates, the literary salons of France nurtured intellectual discussion in society women, and it was in this context that

The Black Cloud Phenomenon in Hand Surgery.

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Zhao, Emily; Tiedeken, Nathan; Wang, William; Fowler, John

2018-04-01

The term black cloud for a surgeon is generally used to describe someone who is unusually busy compared with his or her counterparts, and it is a superstition that tends to pervade the medical world. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether black clouds exist in hand surgery. We examined one academic year's worth of hand surgery-specific call at a level I trauma center and tabulated the number of hand-related patient transfers and add-on cases per surgeon. Each surgeon was given a black cloud rating by the fellows who were in training that year. Correlations were made between the black cloud rating and the surgeons' call volume. There were 12 surgeons who shared 365 days of hand call, and 5 of them are hand surgery fellowship trained. Those 5 surgeons tended to be busier on their call days, with more cases added on overnight and the next day, and also had worse black cloud ratings than the 7 non-hand fellowship trained surgeons. In regard to hand surgery, while true emergencies occur and require emergent intervention, how busy hand surgeons may be during call may be influenced by a variety of factors not related to their patients' problems but rather their daily schedules, their hospitals' ability to facilitate add-on cases, and their rapport with their fellow surgeons to share case loads.

Albinism in Africa: stigma, slaughter and awareness campaigns.

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Cruz-Inigo, Andres E; Ladizinski, Barry; Sethi, Aisha

2011-01-01

Oculocutaneous albinism is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by a lack of pigment in the hair, skin, and eyes. Albinism is caused by defective or absent tyrosinase, an enzyme necessary for melanogenesis. Although rare in the western world, albinism is quite common in sub-Saharan Africa, likely as a result of consanguinity. Albinism has long been associated with stigma and superstitions, such as the belief that a white man impregnated the mother or that the child is the ghost of a European colonist. Recently, a notion has emerged that albino body parts are good-luck charms or possess magical powers. These body parts may be sold for as much as $75,000 on the black market. As a result there have been over 100 albino murders in Tanzania, Burundi, and other parts of Africa in the past decade, which is now beginning to garner international attention and thus prompting novel legislation. To ameliorate the plight of individuals with albinism in Africa, a coordinated effort must be organized, involving medical professionals (dermatologists, ophthalmologists, oncologists), public health advocates and educators, social workers, human rights and antidiscrimination activists, law-enforcement agencies, and governmental support groups. The main issues that should be addressed include skin cancer prevention education, stigma and discrimination denouncement, and swift prosecution of albino hunters and their sponsors. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The experience of people with oculocutaneous albinism

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Mmuso B.J. Pooe- Monyemore

2012-07-01

Full Text Available This article reports the experiences of people with oculocutaneous albinism in South Africa. Oculocutaneous albinism is an inherited disorder characterised by the defective production of melanin, with little or no pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes. This condition is found globally, with a high prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa and in clusters in South America. People with this condition are often stigmatised and discriminated against owing to myths and superstitions held by the public about the condition. To date no studies have explored the psychosocial aspects of oculocutaneous albinism. A qualitative study was conducted in Johannesburg, South Africa during 2007 where a purposive sample of 15 members of the black population with oculocutaneous albinism participated in in-depth individualphenomenological interviews. One central question was posed to facilitate the interviews: Could you please share your experience as a person with albinism? Data from the interviews were analysed using Collaizi’s qualitative data analysis method and three main themesemerged: (1 perceptions of the internal environment, for example the self; (2 experiences in the external environment, for example family and community; and (3 the need for selfdevelopment and growth based on their experiences. Recommendations are made to enhance the self-concept of and promote a sense of belonging, self-development and growth in people with oculocutaneous albinism.

Controversy or consensus? Recommendations for psychiatrists on psychiatry, religion and spirituality.

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Verhagen, Peter J

2012-12-01

Although there is still a lot of controversy surrounding the debates on religion and psychiatry, working toward consensus based on clinical experience and research seems to be far more fruitful. DISCOURSE: The main idea in this contribution runs as follows. It is no longer appropriate to treat psychiatry and religion as enemies. It is argued here that they are in fact allies. This position is elucidated in the light of two statements. (1) The World Psychiatric Association, indeed representing world psychiatry, needs to change its position toward religion and psychiatry. It should do so by crossing narrow-minded scientific boundaries like reductionist and materialistic boundaries. (2) Science and religion should not be regarded as opposing adversaries against each other, but as allies against nonsense and superstition. Two recommendations are formulated. First, science-and-religion, and in our case psychiatry-and-religion, is not purely about description based on gathering evidence, systematic empirical testing and mathematical modeling. We need an approach of both descriptive and prescriptive aspects of our daily reality, not only how our world is, but also how it should be. Secondly, science-and-religion, in our case psychiatry-and-religion as allies should formulate sensible criteria and develop an appropriate attitude to discernment based on intellectual, moral and spiritual sincerity. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Information and Temporality

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Christian Flender

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Being able to give reasons for what the world is and how it works is one of the defining characteristics of modernity. Mathematical reason and empirical observation brought science and engineering to unprecedented success. However, modernity has reached a post-state where an instrumental view of technology needs revision with reasonable arguments and evidence, i.e. without falling back to superstition and mysticism. Instrumentally, technology bears the potential to ease and to harm. Easing and harming can't be controlled like the initial development of technology is a controlled exercise for a specific, mostly easing purpose. Therefore, a revised understanding of information technology is proposed based upon mathematical concepts and intuitions as developed in quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics offers unequaled opportunities because it raises foundational questions in a precise form. Beyond instrumentalism it enables to raise the question of essences as that what remains through time what it is. The essence of information technology is acausality. The time of acausality is temporality. Temporality is not a concept or a category. It is not epistemological. As an existential and thus more comprehensive and fundamental than a concept or a category temporality is ontological; it does not simply have ontic properties. Rather it exhibits general essences. Datability, significance, spannedness and openness are general essences of equiprimordial time (temporality.

Population planning broadcasts in Bangladesh.

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Ali, S A

1982-06-01

Bangladesh's growth rate of 2.36%/year is one of the highest in the world and, if present population trends continue, Bangladesh will have 153 million people by the year 2000. The Government adopted a comprehensive population policy in 1976 and seeks to reduce the population growth rate to 0 by 1992. Bangladesh's population control program further aims to raise the contraceptive acceptance rate from the current level of 14% of eligible couples to 38% by 1985, to raise the number of current contraceptive users from 2.4 to 7.3 million couples, and to achieve a sterilization level of 3.4 million people. Radio Bangladesh, which has been broadcasting programs on family planning since 1965, is playing an important motivational role in this effort. A Population Planning Cell was established within Radio Bangladesh in 1975 and 5 subcells located throughout the country broadcast independent programs on family planning 6 days/week. Evaluative surveys have confirmed the belief that radio is the most popular form of mass communication in rural areas. 47% of respondents in 1 survey identified radio as their main source of information about family planning, although only 12% reported contraceptive usage. An important task for radio in Bangladesh is to convince listeners that family planning practice is not incompatible with Islamic ideals and to overcome other superstitions and misconceptions about contraception.

A scientific defence of religion and the religious accommodation of science? Contextual challenges and paradoxes

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Cornel W. du Toit

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Few human phenomena in our time are as controversial or confusing as religion. People seem to live in two worlds: a mythical and a scientific one. They talk about either of these worlds in isolation but cannot reconcile the underlying presuppositions. Believers are less naïve than the ‘new atheists’ suppose, and atheists do not come without their quota of superstition and belief. Midway between the two opposites is a burgeoning, secular new spirituality that has assumed many forms in recent years. The groups are often marked by some form of naturalism, which try to accommodate science. The premise in this article is that religion, being a product of normal evolutionary processes, is ‘natural’. This implies that cultural evolution is ongoing and supports the thesis that religion (in this case Western Christianity is making a major transition. As for science, I briefly outline the role of metaphysics. That is because science often has to invoke metaphysical constructs to make sense of the bigger picture. Following Aristotle, the metaphysical dimension of science is a blank page which every era fills with its own interpretation. In that sense, it is ‘more than’ just empiricism, verifiability, and it is accompanied by some metaphysical baggage. At this metaphysical level, the traditional dominance of causality makes way for emergence.

Magic and reality in the literature of the Cuban revolution

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María Jesús Martín Sastre

2013-12-01

Full Text Available There is no innocent literature. Literature is made by love, by hate, by a woman, by an idea, by an injustice, by a hope, to praise or to criticize, but I think literature has never been isolated, pure, detached. [...] Literature cannot escape life and history (Manuel Cofiño Lopez, 1985: 9697. Cofiño Lopezs own literature is no exception. The clear contrast that he presents in The Last Woman and the upcoming battle between magic and reality, ignorance and culture, past and present has a purpose. The author raises the need to end with the old beliefs in order to progress.This inextricable link between magic and reality of the Revolution is present in several novels of the Cuban Revolution. It shows how the two interact, as well as how past and present intermingle. Moreover, we find that magic is present throughout, and is fully compatible with the Revolution. This does not make it erroneous to believe in the stories of Magic Realism. It is a mistake on the part of the revolution and those who write about it for attempting to deny people the magic of their superstitions and beliefs, since magic is not the enemy of progress. They are part of their lives and their culture, and are something that should be respected.

Trois documents signés du Şehzâde Mustafâ b. Süleymân conservés au monastère de Patmos

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Nicolas VATIN

1998-09-01

Full Text Available   Nicolas Vatin - Gilles VeinsteinΤρία ενυπόγραφα έγγραφα  του Şehzâde Muşţafa b. Süleymân από τη μονή της ΠάτμουΈκδοση και σχολιασμός τριών φιρμανιών, που εξεδόθησαν από τον διοικητή της Μαγνησίας Şehzâde Muşţafa, πρωτότοκο γιό του Σουλεϋμάν του Μεγαλοπρεπούς, και σώζονται στο αρχείο της μονής της Πάτμου. Τα τρία αυτά έγγραφα φωτίζουν πτυχές της ιστορίας της μονής και της Πάτμου γενικότερα, καθώς και των σχέσεών της με την Υψηλή Πύλη. Επιπλέον παρέχουν σημαντικές πληροφορίες για την λειτουργία του οθωμανικού κράτους κατά τον 16ο αιώνα.Το πρώτο έγγραφο (χρον. 1535 αφορά την πληρωμή του φόρου cizye, που οι κάτοικοι οφείλουν να καταβάλουν στο οθωμανικό κράτος. Από το έγγραφο προκύπτουν ενδιαφέρουσες πληροφορίες σχετικά με τη φορολογική υπαγωγή του νησιού, τον τύπο φορολόγησης των κατοίκων και συζητείται η ενδεχόμενη διάκριση μεταξύ μοναχών και λαϊκών ως προς τις φορολογικές τους υποχρεώσεις.Το δεύτερο έγγραφο (χρον. 1539 παρέχει σημαντικές πληροφορίες ως προς τον έλεγχο σχετικά με τη διακίνηση προϊόντων, κυρίως τροφίμων, από την μικρασιατική ενδοχώρα προς την Πάτμο. Από το περιεχόμενο της υπόθεσης διευκρινίζονται επίσης θέματα που αφορούν τα εμπορικά προνόμια προς τη μονή της Πάτμου.Το τρίτο έγγραφο (χρον. 1541 αφορά το ζήτημα της απελευθέρωσης κατοίκων του νησιού (μοναχών ή/και λαϊκών οι οποίοι είχαν εξανδραποδισθεί από Οθωμανούς levend. Με αφορμή το περιεχόμενο του εγγράφου σχολιάζονται η πειρατική πρακτική στις ακτές της Μικράς Ασίας και τα νησιά του Αιγαίου, η πιθανή υπαγωγή των levend ως κουρσάρων στην υπηρεσία του διοικητή της Μαγνησίας και ο τίτλος του kapudan της «Λευκής θάλασσας» (Akdeniz, ο οποίος πιθανότατα δηλώνει το ναυτικό διοικητή της νοτιανατολικής Μεσογείου με έδρα τη Ρόδο. 

La obra literaria de Hildegard de Bingen (1098 - 1179

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María Eugenia Góngora

2016-03-01

Full Text Available La obra lírica de Hildegard de Bingen (1098-1179 nos plantea interesantes problemas para una lectura actual. Se trata de composiciones destinadas a la liturgia de su monasterio de Rupertsberg y, si buscamos en ellas la presencia de una voz lírica propia, percibimos en primer lugar la ausencia de un "yo" gramatical y la repetida enunciación de realidades sobrenaturales y espirituales que se confirman en esta poesía como verdades objetivas. Por otra parte, la presencia frecuente de un "nosotros" gramatical y el contexto en el que esta obra fue creada, cantada y difundida, nos permite creer que la "voz propia" es aquí fundamentalmente una voz comunitaria y monástica, la voz de un "nosotros" en la comunidad modelo fundada por Hildegard. The lyrical work of Hildegard van Bingen raises interesting problems for a contemporary reading. It in eludes compositions meant for the liturgy of her monastery at Rupertsberg, and, should we loo k in them for the presence of a lyrical voice, we would first re alise the absence of a grammatical 'self', together with the repeated enunciation of supematural and spiritual realities, which confirm themselves in the poetry as objective truths. On the other hand, the frequent references toa grammatical 'we ', as well as the context within which this work was created, sung and divulged, permit the belie.f that the 'personal voice ', is, fundamentally, a monastic communitarian voice, the voice of a plurality in the model community founded by Hildegard.

Les sociétés insulaires de la Mer Égée au temps de la domination ottomane. Routes communes et trajectoires séparées

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Dimitris Dimitropoulos

2005-01-01

Full Text Available L'objectif de ce texte est d'identifier les éléments qui ont joué un rôle unificateur et, respectivement, les facteurs qui ont différencié les îles de la mer Égée, pendant la domination ottomane. Il traite notamment du rôle qu'ont joué l'emplacement géographique, l'insularité, et la grandeur de chaque île, dans la formation de leur économie et la constitution des sociétés locales. L'argumentation se concentre surtout sur les petites îles de l'Égée et sur des sujets comme la forme et le type des bourgades, le caractère de leur fortification et son évolution, le rôle et les effets du pouvoir ottoman dans les institutions locales et l'administration communale, le caractère de l'économie insulaire et ses rapports avec la mer, les réseaux de communication entre les insulaires et l'évolution indépendante et particulière de chaque île, les déplacements des populations de et vers les îles, la migration et la mobilité des groupes professionnels à l'intérieur ou à l'extérieur de la région de l'Égée, et enfin le rôle des monastères dans le développement des réseaux de communication dans l'espace insulaire.

[Hospitals' evolution through the ages].

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de Micheli, Alfredo

2005-01-01

The predecessor institutions of modern hospitals--Byzantine nosocómeion, European hospitale and Islamic maristan--were dissimilar both in their patients and their aims. The first charitable organizations in West Europe (Rome) and in the East (Cesarea in Cappadocia) were rather hospices. After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (476 A.D.), some monastic centers were prepared to provide medical assistance to religious and secular patients. Since the XI and XII Centuries in all of Christian Europe the charitable institutions, designated as hospitale, multiplied. Among the Italian ones, the Roman Santo Spirito (Holy Ghost) Hospital, built in the 1201-1204 period, reached a preeminet position. This one soon became the most important of the entire Christendom (archihospital), with a lot of affiliated hospitals in Europe and later in America. The first American hospital, Saint Nicholas Hospital, opened on December 29, 1503 in Santo Domingo, obtained in 1541 its affiliation to the Santo Spirito archihospital. Regarding continental America, the first health centers were established in Mexico: the Immaculate Conception Hospital and the Saint Lazarus Hospital, both established by Hernán Cortés. For its part, clinical teaching was systematized at the Saint Francis Hospital in Padua and by there moved to Leyden. In Mexico, the chair of medical clinics or practical medicine was established in 1806 at the Saint Andrew Hospital. During the XX century, Dr. Ignacio Chávez was the driving force behind the creation of the modern Mexican Health Institutes. These ones are dedicated to the treatment of poor patients, as well as to medical teaching and research.

Guillem IV de Cervera, cavalier i monjo de Poblet

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Gonzalvo i Bou, Gener

1998-12-01

Full Text Available Guillem IV of Cervera could be the prototype of the noble closely linked to all spheres of power. This article studies his connections as a councillor to the royal court of Pere I and during the early decades of that of Jaume I, at a time of crisis for this royal institution. Guillem of Cervera was also a key player in the difficult relations between the crown and the earldom of Urgell in the context of the absortion of the earldom into the House of Barcelona. On a spiritual level, the close ties between a lineage like the House of Cervera and the monastery of Poblet will be shown, these perhaps being in the image and reflections of the kings.[fr] Guillem IV de Cervera pourrait être le prototype de chevalier lié étroitement à toutes les spheres du pouvoir. Dans cet article, nous étudions ses relations en tant que conseiller de la cour royale de Pere I et ses relations dans la première époque du règne de Jaume I, à une époque de crise de l'institution royale. Guillem de Cervera fut aussi un personnage clé dans les rapports difficiles entre la Couronne et le Comté d'Urgell, dans un contexte d'absorption du Comté à la Maison de Barcelone. Au niveau spirituel, nous montrons les liens étroits d'une lignée comme celle des Cervera avec le monastère de Poblet, à l'image de ses rois.

Ascetismo, gênero e poder no Baixo Império Romano: Paládio de Helenópolis e o status das devotas cristãs Asceticism, gender and power in the Late Roman Empire: Palladius and the status of the holy women

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Gilvan Ventura da Silva

2007-01-01

Full Text Available As diversas modalidades de ascetismo feminino que vigoraram nas comunidades cristãs ao longo dos três primeiros séculos do Império tenderão a se integrar numa nova experiência religiosa que começa a se esboçar por volta de 270 para alcançar uma expansão considerável no final do Mundo Antigo: o monacato. Mediante a análise da História Lausíaca, de Paládio de Helenópolis, obra escrita por volta de 420, investigamos a posição social das ascetas e o tipo de atuação que desempenharam no interior de um movimento dominado pelos homens, como foi o movimento monástico. Além disso, analisamos a capacidade das mulheres de exercer alguma modalidade de poder no âmbito das suas comunidades locais em comparação aos homens divinos cristãos do Baixo Império.The several kinds of female asceticism observed in the Roman Empire during the first three centuries A.D. will be gathered in a new religious experience that begins around 270 A.D.: the monasticism. Throughout the analysis of the Lausiac History, written by Palladius, bishop of Hellenopolis, in Bitinia, we aim at researching about the female ascetics social position and their actions as monastic movement members. Besides, we reflect over the kind of power women could exercise in their local communities compared with the holy men.

Tartu as the Eastern Outpost of European Medicine in the First Half of the 17th Century

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Kaarina Rein

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The history of medicine in Tartu begins with medieval monastic Church, which were probably founded in the middle of the 13th century. The physician who arrived from Tallinn. Up to the beginning of the 17th century, the owners of the pharmacy were the only representatives of academic medicine in Tartu. Academic medical education in Tartu had its beginnings with the academic gymnasium founded in 1630 and the university founded in 1632. One of the three higher faculties at the University of Tartu at that time was the Faculty of Medicine. It was planned to have two professorships, although in reality only one professor of medicine was employed. The model of the University of Paris demanded that all “proper” universities must have a medical faculty. There were very few students studying at the Faculty of Medicine in Tartu in the 17th century. Only two names—David Cunitius and Olaus Oestenius—could be mentioned from among those who studied medicine at Academia Gustaviana and were later active as physicians. There were also students who studied in some other faculty in Tartu and However, the Swedish University of Tartu can be considered an important centre of early modern medical thought in the Eastern Europe. The article tries to give some idea about the medical situation in Tartu before the founding of the University of Tartu and during its early period of existence. The task is to investigate whether the academic medicine of the th century has introduced any changes into the history of medicine of Tartu.

Malaria, from natural to supernatural: a qualitative study of mothers' reactions to fever (Dienga, Gabon).

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Pilkington, Hugo; Mayombo, Justice; Aubouy, Nicolas; Deloron, Philippe

2004-10-01

Decision making for health care at the household level is a crucial factor for malaria management and control among young children. This study sought to determine exactly how mothers reacted when faced with fever in a child. Qualitative study based on in depth semistructured interviews of mothers and free form discussion with traditional healers (Nganga). Village of Dienga, a rural area of Gabon (Central Africa). 12 mothers and three traditional healers. All mothers thought that fever and malaria were identical. Mothers home treated or went to the village treatment centre, or both, on the last episode of fever, if they judged it to be "natural" fever. However, if fever was thought to be a result of malicious intent, then a Nganga was consulted first. It was believed that strong and above all persistent fever was "supernatural". In this case, traditional treatment was thought to be best. Results indicate that fever is perceived as a dual condition, with two distinct but non-mutually exclusive aetiologies (either "natural" or from witchcraft). In contrast with what is commonly believed, there seems to be no clear cut distinction between diseases suitable for management by western medicine and diseases to be managed solely by traditional health practitioners. Moreover, these data do not support the commonly held notion that the decision to seek western medicine to treat fever is considered a "last resort". Results strongly imply that some severe cases of fever, being initially considered supernatural, may partially or completely escape medical attention.

The role of traditional and faith healers in the treatment of dementia in Tanzania and the potential for collaboration with allopathic healthcare services.

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Hindley, Guy; Kissima, John; L Oates, Lloyd; Paddick, Stella-Maria; Kisoli, Aloyce; Brandsma, Christine; K Gray, William; Walker, Richard W; Mushi, Declare; Dotchin, Catherine L

2017-01-04

Low diagnostic rates are a barrier to improving care for the growing number of people with dementia in sub-Saharan Africa. Many people with dementia are thought to visit traditional healers (THs) and Christian faith healers (FHs) and these groups may have a role in identifying people with dementia. We aimed to explore the practice and attitudes of these healers regarding dementia in rural Tanzania and investigate attitudes of their patients and their patients’ carers. This was a qualitative study conducted in Hai district, Tanzania. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of THs and FHs and a purposive-stratified sample of people with dementia and their carers. Interview guides were devised which included case vignettes. Transcripts of interviews were subject to thematic analysis. Eleven THs, 10 FHs, 18 people with dementia and 17 carers were recruited. Three themes emerged: (i) conceptualisation of dementia by healers as a normal part of the ageing process and no recognition of dementia as a specific condition; (ii) people with dementia and carer reasons for seeking help and experiences of treatment and the role of prayers, plants and witchcraft in diagnosis and treatment; (iii) willingness to collaborate with allopathic healthcare services. FHs and people with dementia expressed concerns about any collaboration with THs. Although THs and FHs do not appear to view dementia as a specific disease, they may provide a means of identifying people with dementia in this setting.

Les peintures murales du catholicon du monastère de Gradac: Répertoire des fresques et observations sur les particularités de certaines représentations

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Pavlović Dragana

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the iconographic program of frescoes in the Church of the Annunciation in the monastery of Gradac, in which there were a number of hitherto unrecognized sections that have now been identified. It publishes the pre served inscriptions on the frescoes, as well as the texts on the scrolls of the hierarchs in the altar space. Finally, it presents observations about the typical program features of the wall painting in the Gradac church, which have not been previously considered in research. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177036: Srpska srednjovekovna umetnost i njen evropski kontekst

Literary Commitment in Bessie Head’s Maru

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Elizabeth A. Odhiambo

2013-07-01

Full Text Available This was a study of Bessie Head’s literary commitment. The objective of the study was to interrogate the extent to which the writer is committed as a woman and as a Third World person based on the text Maru. The study adopted the analytical research design. The data collected through content analysis was coded according to thematic concerns, stylistic choices, the mode of characterization and vision of the author. The postcolonial theory was employed in the reading analysis and interpretation of the selected text. The findings reveal that as a woman, Bessie Head is committed to reconstructing a positive image for her female characters by challenging stereotypical perception of women through dismantling of patriarchal structures that previously relegated women to subordinate roles. This is seen in the presentation of the female characters as strong willed, determined, assertive, independent and enterprising. In delineating the experiences of women as women, she explores their most personal convictions thereby presenting their perception of issues as women. As a Third World writer, Head is committed to social justice, exposition of suffering and dehumanization resulting from ethnic prejudice and superstition. She voices for the voiceless by advocating gender equity as a basis for development. On the political arena, she examines issues that ail African politics such as selfish and greedy leadership, oppression and discrimination on basis of race. The text particularly dwells on the racial prejudices and class difference in the society. 

Conflicts between river dolphins (Cetacea: Odontoceti and fisheries in the Central Amazon: a path toward tragedy?

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Luiz Cláudio Pinto de Sá Alves

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Dolphin interactions with fishermen have increased significantly and pose potential risks to the boto, Inia geoffrensis (Blainville, 1817, and the tucuxi, Sotalia fluviatilis (Gervais & Deville, 1853. The main objective of the present paper was to describe the existing conflicts between river dolphins and fishermen in the municipality of Manacapuru region. Sixteen fishermen were interviewed in Manacapuru, state of Amazonas, Brazil who described a situation of ongoing conflict that may be unsustainable. Two merchants from Manacapuru made unconfirmed reports on a boto carcass trade. Data collection for this study occurred between April 20th and April 25th, 2009, but the first author had been conducting research on river dolphins and fisheries in Manacapuru and nearby cities since the beginning of 2008, in order to gain the trust of the fishermen interviewed. The hunting and deliberate killing of the species is probably more threatening to botos than their incidental capture in fishing gears in the Manacapuru region. This practice may result from the fact that dolphins are prone to damaging fishing equipment, and stealing (and possibly damaging fish from the nets. They are portrayed negatively in numerous myths and superstitions of traditional Amazonian folklore, making them extremely undesired or even hated, seen as pests, and used in the piracatinga, Calophysus macropterus (Lichtenstein, 1819 fishery as bait. For tucuxis, incidental capture still represents the major threat to their conservation in the region evaluated here.

Social constraints before sanitation improvement in tea gardens of Sylhet, Bangladesh.

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Ahmed, M; Begum, Anwara; Chowdhury, M A I

2010-05-01

Sylhet, the northeastern divisional city of Bangladesh, is the major tea-producing region of the country where a large number of low-income workers completely depending on extremely labor-intensive economic activity for their bread and butter, live in and around the tea gardens. The living conditions of these communities are remarkably meager due to the lack of proper utility facilities, especially in water supply and sanitation sectors. A study was conducted at Lakkatura and Ali Bahar Tea Estates to assess the deteriorated sanitation condition of the tea garden workers community and to determine the constraints before the improvement of the condition. It was found that the existing sanitary condition of both of the tea garden slums is very poor because of the same topographical condition and socioeconomic and cultural status of the dwellers. About 50% to 60% tea garden workers still are used to open defecation causing various excreta related diseases and not practiced with washing hand after defecation. Lack of knowledge and awareness about health and hygiene, unwillingness, poverty, superstitions, etc. are responsible for the deteriorated condition of the sanitation system. Based on the analysis, providing latrines free of costs, undertaking extensive motivational and awareness programs and publicity, regular consultation of tea garden workers with the health specialists, and vector control staff of concerned utilities as well as an integrated water supply, sanitation, and hygiene promotion programs should be considered as the priority in order to improve the deteriorated sanitary conditions in two tea gardens.

["Lingue di seripi", "serpents' tongues" and "glossopetrae". Highlights from the history of popular "cult" medicine in early modern times].

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Freller, T

1997-01-01

In the 16th, 17th and 18th century "Glossopetrae", popularly known as "Lingue di Serpi", found on the Mediterranean island of Malta, were extensively used for medical purposes as antidotes. These fossil teeth, including specimens of the "Carcharodon Megalodon" (an extinct variant of the great white shark), were ground to powder or used as amulet pendants and "credence" and exported to pharmacies and shops in various cities of Europe. In antiquity, authors like Plinius or Solinus, excluding any religious connotations, had regarded "Glossopetrae" as objects "fallen from heaven on dark moonless nights". However, from the beginning of the 16th century the miraculous antidotic power of the specimens found at Malta was very strongly connected with the Pauline cult there. This cult owed ist origin to the excerpt of the shipwreck of the Apostle of the Gentiles on this island, as recorded in the New Testament. As in so many cases found in medieval and early modern medicine and pharmacy, the renown, collection, distribution and use of the antidote "Glossopetrae" or "Lingue di Serpi" was never limited to its real chemical and pharmaceutical properties. In the period of enlightenment and secular thinking mythic medicine as "Glossopetrae" had lost ist "magical" power. Consequently, with beginning of the late 18th century also the Maltese "Glossopetrae" featured in literature merely as exotic objects of curiosity or symbols of an age bound to medical superstition.

Nietzche's echo--a dialogue with Thomas Altizer.

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Moss, David M

2010-03-01

Prophets provoke psychological unrest, especially when exposing accepted beliefs as profound deceptions. The biblical prophets exemplify such confrontation as do certain atheists ardently opposed to the images of God created by those seers. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche dramatically illustrates this type of counterforce to the Judeo-Christian tradition. His prophet Zarathustra is intended to be a model for the modern mind, one free of superstitions inflicted by antiquated religious dogma. Nietzsche's credo "God is dead" served as a declaration for the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, it became a theological diagnosis. As a "movement," or "tenor," the death of God or radical theology was spearheaded by Thomas Altizer, a well-published young professor center-staged during the turbulent 1960s. His work foreshadows a new strain of atheism currently represented by biologist Richard Dawkins (2006, The God delusion. New York: Houghton Mifflin), philosopher Daniel Dennett (2006, Breaking the spell. New York: Penquin), neuroscientist Sam Harris (2004, The end of faith. New York: W.W. Norton; 2008, Letter to a Christian nation. New York: Vintage), journalist Christopher Hitchens (2007, God is not great. New York: Twelve), and mathematician John Allen Paulos (Paulos 2008, Irreligion. New York: Hill & Wang). This twenty-first century crusade against belief in God is best understood as a psychodynamic ignited by Altizer's Christian atheism. The present dialogue reflects that dynamic while the prologue and epilogue reveal evidence of Providence amidst claims of God's demise in contemporary history.

Literary Commitment in Bessie Head’s Maru

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Elizabeth A. Odhiambo

2013-07-01

Full Text Available This was a study of Bessie Head’s literary commitment. The objective of the study was to interrogate the extent to which the writer is committed as a woman and as a Third World person based on the text Maru. The study adopted the analytical research design. The data collected through content analysis was coded according to thematic concerns, stylistic choices, the mode of characterization and vision of the author. The postcolonial theory was employed in the reading analysis and interpretation of the selected text. The findings reveal that as a woman, Bessie Head is committed to reconstructing a positive image for her female characters by challenging stereotypical perception of women through dismantling of patriarchal structures that previously relegated women to subordinate roles. This is seen in the presentation of the female characters as strong willed, determined, assertive, independent and enterprising. In delineating the experiences of women as women, she explores their most personal convictions thereby presenting their perception of issues as women. As a Third World writer, Head is committed to social justice, exposition of suffering and dehumanization resulting from ethnic prejudice and superstition. She voices for the voiceless by advocating gender equity as a basis for development. On the political arena, she examines issues that ail African politics such as selfish and greedy leadership, oppression and discrimination on basis of race. The text particularly dwells on the racial prejudices and class difference in the society.

Out of Time, Out of Place: Primitivism and African Art

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Meredeth Turshen

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This article debates the proposition that artistic production mirrors humanity’s maturation from primitive superstition to scientific rationality. This effort sits at the intersection of demography, political economy and aesthetics. According to traditional demographic theory, primitive peoples are caught in a poverty trap of high birth rates, a condition inimical to industrialization, well-planned urbanization, universal education, women’s emancipation and cultural production. The analysis focuses on three dynamics: the demographic effects of mass migration on creativity: the trajectories of declining populations and their places in cultural hierarchies; and slavery and colonialism’s reduction to penury of skilled artists in pre-industrial societies. The method interrogates self-reinforcing trends of the canons of demography, political economy and aesthetics and the resulting concurrence on the path of progress, which assumes that art is a reflection of liberal historical advancement. The overarching argument of the article is that by setting the criteria and suppressing alternative accounts of the history of African art, these canons narrow and misrepresent our global cultural legacy. Background: sub-Saharan African art is classified as “primitive” according to the canons of art history, demography and political economy. This label is problematic because it conveys faulty demographic assumptions about sub-Saharan Africa and reflects the ways in which theories of human progress reinforce analyses underlying the designation of primitive. The proposition advanced is that these canons narrow, suppress alternative accounts of the history of African art, and misrepresent our global cultural legacy.

THE COMPLEX OF ASSUMPTION CATHEDRAL OF THE ASTRAKHAN KREMLIN

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Savenkova Aleksandra Igorevna

2016-08-01

Full Text Available This article is devoted to an architectural and historical analysis of the constructions forming a complex of Assumption Cathedral of the Astrakhan Kremlin, which earlier hasn’t been considered as a subject of special research. Basing on the archival sources, photographic materials, publications and on-site investigations of monuments, the creation history of the complete architectural complex sustained in one style of the Muscovite baroque, unique in its composite construction, is considered. Its interpretation in the all-Russian architectural context is offered. Typological features of single constructions come to light. The typology of the Prechistinsky bell tower has an untypical architectural solution - “hexagonal structure on octagonal and quadrangular structures”. The way of connecting the building of the Cathedral and the chambers by the passage was characteristic of monastic constructions and was exclusively seldom in kremlins, farmsteads and ensembles of city cathedrals. The composite scheme of the Assumption Cathedral includes the Lobnoye Mesto (“the Place of Execution” located on an axis from the West, it is connected with the main building by a quarter-turn with landing. The only prototype of the structure is a Lobnoye Mesto on the Red Square in Moscow. In the article the version about the emergence of the Place of Execution on the basis of earlier existing construction - a tower “the Peal” which is repeatedly mentioned in written sources in connection with S. Razin’s revolt is considered. The metropolitan Sampson, trying to keep the value of the Astrakhan metropolitanate, builds the Assumption Cathedral and the Place of Execution directly appealing to a capital prototype to emphasize the continuity and close connection with Moscow.

Democracy in understanding of the Orthodox church.

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Grigorios M. Liantas

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Subject of this paper is the notion of “democracy” in understanding and practice of the Ortho-dox Church. Beginning with genesis of the term and its application in ancient Greece author of the paper presents similarities and differences between concepts of “democracy” and “conciliarity”. “Democracy” is a form of government in which people are the source of political authority which is executed by elected representatives and rules on behalf of a nation. However, organization of the Orthodox Church is not “democratic” in common understanding of the term. Every member of the Church has the same duties and carries on the same mission, but everything is based on equality of the Apostles to whom Christ has entrusted spreading of the Gospel and establishment of the Church. “Democracy” in life of the Orthodox Church bears a name of “conciliarity” (greek „συνοδικότης” and it is lived in an unceasing community of all the Church members among themselves and their Divine Head mainly in the Mystery of Eucharist, the core of unity of the Church in Christ. Institution of conciliarity is not just a matter of Church administration or canon law but constitutes fundamental principle of ecclesiology. The fact of presence of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Trinity at each Council provides conciliarity with charismatic character. Organization of the Orthodox Church as ob-served in monastic community of Mount Athos, the world most ancient existing democracy, is set as an example for all social-political systems aiming to improve organization of society.

Actividad Monástica y acción política en Fructuoso de Braga

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López Quiroga, Jorge

2002-06-01

Full Text Available The social and political context of Hispania in the second half of 7th century was very difficult. San Fructuoso and his ideas were different from the habitual ones. His religious model and his monastic reform are new in the visigoth world. In this work we analyze the foundations of Fructuoso in the Southeastern of the Iberian Peninsula (Vid. Fruct. 14. This work reflects the religious, social and political consequences of the monacato in the reorganization of Iberian society at the end of the antiquity.

En el marco de un contexto socio-político particularmente difícil, como es el que correspondería a la Hispania visigoda de la segunda mitad del siglo VII d. C., la aparición de una figura como Fructuoso supondría un auténtico tournant no sólo en lo que respecta al modelo religioso que propugna, sino, sobre todo, en el conflicto latente entre el tipo de vida monástica «fructuosiana» y el Estado visigodo, personalizado aquí en la figura del monarca. En este breve trabajo, el episodio referente a las fundaciones monásticas de Fructuoso en el Sureste Peninsular (narrado en la Vit Fruct. 14 nos servirá de hilo conductor para hacer una pequeña reflexión sobre las implicaciones no sólo religiosas, sino, sobre todo, sociales y políticas del monacato como uno de los exponentes del proceso de desestructuración que conduce al 'final de la Antigüedad' en la Península Ibérica.

Un grand chantier communautaire en Macédoine : l’église Saint-Démètre de Bitola / Manastır (1830

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Bernard Lory

2012-01-01

Full Text Available La population chrétienne de la ville de Manastır/Bitola (actuellement en République de Macédoine s’est considérablement accrue au tournant du xixe siècle. Elle ne disposait cependant que d’une seule église de petites dimensions. En 1825, un évêque entreprenant est nommé et le chantier de la nouvelle église commence en 1830. L’analyse des comptes montre que les contributions des corporations sont loin de couvrir la dépense. Outre une forte contribution de la part de l’évêque, il faut admettre une participation significative de la part des autorités ottomanes, ce qui s’explique par le contexte historique du chantier. Le grand vizir réside précisément à Manastır et réprime violemment des mouvements centrifuges parmi les Albanais musulmans et les Bosniaques. Il semblerait qu’il ait eu besoin du soutien financier de la population locale chrétienne et que sa générosité et le permis de construire une très grande église en plein centre-ville soient la contrepartie de ce soutien. Le chantier est mené très rapidement, en quatre mois, grâce au recours au vieux plan basilical byzantin, qui revient à la mode vers cette époque. L’identité de l’architecte reste problématique, on peut vraisemblablement lui attribuer l’église du monastère de Rila en Bulgarie, ainsi que la première caserne de Manastır.

Patterns and prevalence of violence-related skull trauma in medieval London.

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Krakowka, Kathryn

2017-11-01

This study aims to identify the patterns and prevalence of violence-related skull trauma (including the cranium and mandible) among a large sample of skeletons from medieval London (1050-1550 AD). In total, data from 399 skulls, representing six different sites from across medieval London, were analyzed for evidence of trauma and assessed for the likelihood that it was caused by violence. The sites include the three parish cemeteries of St Nicholas Shambles (GPO75), St Lawrence Jewry (GYE92), and St Benet Sherehog (ONE94); the two monastic houses of London Blackfriars (PIC87) and St Mary Graces (MIN86); and the early inmate cemetery from the medieval hospital of St Mary Spital (NRT85). The overall findings suggest that violence affected all aspects of medieval London society, but how that violence was characterized largely depended on sex and burial location. Specifically, males from the lay cemeteries appear to have been the demographic most affected by violence-related skull injuries, particularly blunt force trauma to the cranial vault. Using both archaeological and historical evidence, the results suggest that violence in medieval London may have been more prevalent than in other parts of medieval England, particularly rural environments, but similar to other parts of medieval Europe. However, more studies focusing on medieval trauma, and violence specifically, need to be carried out to further strengthen these results. In particular, males from the lay cemeteries were disproportionately affected by violence-related trauma, especially blunt force trauma. It perhaps indicates a means of informal conflict resolution as those of lower status did not always have the newly established medieval legal system available to them. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Hiérarchie des esprits et esprit fort : le discours médical

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Isabelle Moreau

2010-05-01

Full Text Available L’esprit fort a-t-il un sexe au début de l’époque moderne ? Selon Londa Schiebinger (The Mind has no sex?, 1989 le cartésianisme rompt avec la tradition médicale en rendant impossible la liaison entre sexe et tempérament. En témoigne notamment le cartésien Poullain de la Barre et son livre De l’égalité des deux sexes, publié en 1673. C’est à la lumière de cette thèse que je voudrais évaluer la position des libertins érudits, et ainsi aborder la question du genre masculin, dans sa relation supposée privilégiée à l’incrédulité et au rejet des superstitions. Pour La Mothe Le Vayer, Naudé ou encore Cyrano, en effet, il n’existe pas de raison universelle « asexuée ». Ces libertins rejettent le dualisme cartésien et disqualifient la notion même de sens commun, pour mieux promouvoir une faculté de bien juger ou « Ingenium », directement héritée de Charron. Pour comprendre la masculinité de l’esprit fort, il faut ainsi revenir aux origines médicales de la hiérarchie entre les esprits, construite à partir de l’ancienne théorie humorale et tempéramentale héritée de Hippocrate, Aristote et Galien, retravaillée par Huarte en 1575, reprise ensuite par Charron et par sa postérité libertine. En revenant sur les discours médicaux et philosophiques qui construisent la masculinité de l’esprit fort, je montrerai comment cet idéal se construit sur un modèle de masculinité monologique (certes capable de degrés et de variations, plutôt que par opposition au féminin.Did the mind have a gender during the Early Modern period? According to Londa Schiebinger (The Mind Has No Sex?, 1989, Cartesian philosophy caused an abrupt change within the medical tradition by rendering the link between gender and temperament obsolete. Poullain de la Barre’s On the Equality of the Sexes, published in 1673, is a good example of this shift. It is in the light of this thesis that I intend to assess the Libertine

La storiografia sul movimento e sull'ordine monastico di Vallombrosa osb. Uno status quaestionis The historiography on the monastic movement and order of Vallombrosa osb. A status quaestionis

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Francesco Salvestrini

2001-12-01

Full Text Available

La ricerca storica sui monaci vallombrosani è rimasta a lungo un “affare” interno alla congregazione. Soltanto nel Novecento, e soprattutto nella seconda metà del secolo, si è sviluppata (anche da parte di studiosi laici una storiografia “critica”, più aperta alla comparazione con altri movimenti e congregazioni. Ancor oggi, tuttavia, le indagini prediligono la fase nascente e zenitale (XI-XIV sec., trascurando il Quattrocento. A questo bilancio storiografico si ricollega la Bibliografia vallombrosana, edita nello stesso numero di questa rivista.

The historical research into the monks from Vallombrosa was long carried out by members of the same Congregation. It was only in the 20th century, specifically in the second half of the century, that a ‘critical’ historiography, by lay scholars and interested in the comparative analysis with other religious movements and congregations, developed. Nonetheless present-day studies focus on the early stages and the zenith of the congregation (namely the period between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries and overlook the fifteenth century. This review article is related to the Vallombrosian bibliography in this same issue of the journal.

Perceptions and experiences of allopathic health practitioners on collaboration with traditional health practitioners in post-apartheid South Africa.

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Nemutandani, Simon M; Hendricks, Stephen J; Mulaudzi, Mavis F

2016-06-10

The indigenous health system was perceived to be a threat to the allopathic health system. It was associated with 'witchcraft', and actively discouraged, and repressed through prohibition laws. The introduction of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No 22 of 2007 brought hope that those centuries of disrespect for traditional health systems would change. The study examined the perceptions and experiences of allopathic health practitioners on collaboration with traditional health practitioners in post-apartheid South Africa. Qualitative descriptive research methodology was used to collect data from allopathic health practitioners employed by Limpopo's Department of Health. In-depth focus group discussions and meetings were conducted between January and August 2014. Perceptions and experiences of working with traditional health practitioners were explored. Ethical clearance was obtained from the University of Pretoria and approval from the Department's Research Committee. Dominant views were that the two health systems were not compatible with respect to the science involved and the source of knowledge. Overall, quality of health care will be compromised if traditional health practitioners are allowed to work in public health facilities. Allopathic health practitioners do not appear ready to work with traditional health practitioners, citing challenges of quality of health care, differences regarding concept of sciences and source of knowledge; and lack of policy on collaboration. Lack of exposure to traditional medicine seems to impede opportunities to accept and work with traditional healers. Exposure and training at undergraduate level regarding the traditional health system is recommended. Policy guidelines on collaborations are urgently required.

Social and cultural determinants of anticipated acceptance of an oral cholera vaccine prior to a mass vaccination campaign in Zanzibar.

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Schaetti, Christian; Chaignat, Claire-Lise; Hutubessy, Raymond; Khatib, Ahmed M; Ali, Said M; Schindler, Christian; Weiss, Mitchell G

2011-12-01

Despite improvements in sanitation and water supply, cholera remains a serious public health burden. Vaccination is included among recommendations for cholera control. Cultural concepts of illness are likely to affect vaccine acceptance. This study examined social and cultural determinants of anticipated acceptance of an oral cholera vaccine (OCV) prior to a mass vaccination campaign in Zanzibar. Using a cultural epidemiological approach, 356 unaffected adult residents were studied with vignette-based semi-structured interviews. Anticipated acceptance was high for a free OCV (94%), but declined with increasing price. Logistic regression models examined social and cultural determinants of anticipated acceptance at low (USD 0.9), medium (USD 4.5) and high (USD 9) price. Models including somatic symptoms (low and high price), social impact (low and medium) and perceived causes (medium and high) explained anticipated OCV acceptance better than models containing only socio-demographic characteristics. Identifying thirst with cholera was positively associated with anticipated acceptance of the low-priced OCV, but acknowledging the value of home-based rehydration was negatively associated. Concern about spreading the infection to others was positively associated at low price among rural respondents. Confidence in the health system response to cholera outbreaks was negatively associated at medium price among peri-urban respondents. Identifying witchcraft as cause of cholera was negatively associated at medium and high price. Anticipated acceptance of free OCVs is nearly universal in cholera-endemic areas of Zanzibar; pre-intervention assessments of community demand for OCV should not only consider the social epidemiology, but also examine local socio-cultural features of cholera-like illness that explain vaccine acceptance.

Knowledge, facilitators and barriers to cervical cancer screening among women in Uganda: a qualitative study.

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Ndejjo, Rawlance; Mukama, Trasias; Kiguli, Juliet; Musoke, David

2017-06-11

To explore community knowledge, facilitators and barriers to cervical cancer screening among women in rural Uganda so as to generate data to inform interventions. A qualitative study using focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Discussions and interviews carried out in the community within two districts in Eastern Uganda. Ten ( 10) focus group discussions with 119 screening-eligible women aged between 25 and 49 years and 11 key informant interviews with healthcare providers and administrators. Study participants' knowledge about cervical cancer causes, signs and symptoms, testing methods and prevention was poor. Many participants attributed the cause of cervical cancer to use of contraception while key informants said that some believed it was due to witchcraft. Perceptions towards cervical cancer and screening were majorly positive with many participants stating that they were at risk of getting cervical cancer. The facilitators to accessing cervical cancer screening were: experiencing signs and symptoms of cervical cancer, family history of the disease and awareness of the disease/screening service. Lack of knowledge about cervical cancer and screening, health system challenges, fear of test outcome and consequences and financial constraints were barriers to cervical cancer screening. Whereas perceptions towards cervical cancer and screening were positive, knowledge of study participants on cervical cancer was poor. To improve cervical cancer screening, effort should be focused on reducing identified barriers and enhancing facilitators. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Cross-National Analysis of Beliefs and Attitude Toward Mental Illness Among Medical Professionals From Five Countries.

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Stefanovics, Elina; He, Hongbo; Ofori-Atta, Angela; Cavalcanti, Maria Tavares; Rocha Neto, Helio; Makanjuola, Victor; Ighodaro, Adesuwa; Leddy, Meaghan; Rosenheck, Robert

2016-03-01

This quantitative study sought to compare beliefs about the manifestation, causes and treatment of mental illness and attitudes toward people with mental illness among health professionals from five countries: the United States, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, and China. A total of 902 health professionals from the five countries were surveyed using a questionnaire addressing attitudes towards people with mental illness and beliefs about the causes of mental illness. Chi-square and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to compare age and gender of the samples. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to confirm the structure and fit of the hypothesized model based on data from a previous study that identified four factors: socializing with people with mental illness (socializing), belief that people with mental illness should have normal roles in society (normalizing), non-belief in supernatural causes (witchcraft or curses), and belief in bio-psycho-social causes of mental illness (bio-psycho-social). Analysis of Covariance was used to compare four factor scores across countries adjusting for differences in age and gender. Scores on all four factors were highest among U.S. professionals. The Chinese sample showed lowest score on socializing and normalizing while the Nigerian and Ghanaian samples were lowest on non-belief in supernatural causes of mental illness. Responses from Brazil fell between those of the U.S. and the other countries. Although based on convenience samples of health professional robust differences in attitudes among health professionals between these five countries appear to reflect underlying socio-cultural differences affecting attitudes of professionals with the greater evidence of stigmatized attitudes in developing countries.

Medical and neuropsychiatric phenomena depicted in two Spanish medieval texts of Marian miracles.

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de Assis Aquino Gondim, Francisco; Bastante, Pamela; Gondim, Wilcar Cavalcante; Filha, Joana Gurgel Holanda; Thomas, Florian P

2018-03-01

In the history of Christianity, veneration of the Virgin Mary reached its greatest intensity in the XIII century. Her perceived impact on daily life was tremendous and not surprisingly this extended to the spheres of disease and healing. The purpose of this study is to compare the medical and neuropsychiatric findings in two XIII century Spanish texts of Marian miracles, both examples of the popular Catholicism (vs. official catholic doctrine). We analyzed the medical and neuropsychiatric events in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Canticles of St. Mary, CSM), composed at the court of Alfonso X and the Milagros de Nuestra Señora (The Miracles of Our Lady, MNS), written by Gonzalo de Berceo. Among the 25 miracles reported in the MNS, medically relevant facts were addressed in 19 miracles with a total of 23 recorded events (including resurrection or escape from death in five) and demonic possession in three (one with witchcraft/deicide). The most common medical subjects were ergotism, obstetric-gynecological, sudden death, intellectual disability/illiteracy, encephalopathy/alcohol intoxication, suicide (with self-mutilation/castration), infanticide, infections, and absence of body decomposition after death. The 427 canticles in the CSM contain 270 medically relevant facts. Neuropsychiatric conditions were alluded to in 98 songs. Blindness and dystonia/weakness/deformities were the most common phenomena. Illuminations detailed many of the medical facts in the CSM, but not in the MNS. Medically relevant facts were described in both texts, but with more details in the CSM. Neurological conditions were more often described in the CSM, psychiatric conditions in the MNS.

The modern legal status of the Mount Athos

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Papastatis Haralambos K.

2004-01-01

, the Elders' Assembly and the Brotherhood. Second degree administration is operated by: 1. the Holy Community. It is comprised by twenty monks members, each of whom represents one monastery, 2. the Holy Community's executive organ is the Hiera Epistassia, which comprises four monks drawn annually from four monasteries in rotation. The leader of the Hiera Epistassia is called the First (= Protos. The Hiera Epistassis also performs specific duties as police force, police court and municipality of Karyes, the capital town of MA The legislative power is in the hands of: 1. The Holy Community as far as concerns the Charter of MA, 2. the Extraordinary Biannual Twenty-Members Assembly, which draws up the regulative provisions, and 3. the Greek State, as far as concerns: a the rights and the duties of the (civil Governor of MA, b the judicial power of the Athonite authorities, and c the custom and taxation privileges granted by the State to MA The judicial power belongs to: 1. the monastic courts (the abbot with the Elders' Assembly, 2. the Holy Community, 3. the Hiera Epistassia, and 4. the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The observance of the regimes is in the spiritual field under the supreme supervision of the Patriarchate and in the administrative under the supervision of the State, which is also exclusively responsible for safeguarding public order and security. These responsibilities of the State are exercised through the (civil Governor of MA, whose rights and duties are determined by common law. All persons leading a monastic life in MA acquire the Greek citizenship without further formalities, upon admission in a monastery as novices or monks. Also persons who are not Orthodox Christians or they are schismatic Orthodox are prohibited from dwelling in MA II. The first international treaty that recognized an international protection of the MA status was that of San Stefano (1878, but only for the Russian monks. The Treaty of Berlin (also 1878 recognized the same protection

Perception of epilepsy among the urban secondary school children of Bareilly district

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Hari Shanker Joshi

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Background: There is a lack of knowledge about epilepsy among the students and the population in general, with consequent prejudice and discrimination toward epileptic patients. Objectives: Knowledge, behavior, attitude and myth toward epilepsy among urban school children in Bareilly district was studied. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among students of 10 randomly selected secondary schools of the urban areas in Bareilly district. A structured, pretested questionnaire was used to collect data regarding sociodemographic characteristics and assess the subject′s knowledge, behavior, attitude and myth toward epilepsy. Results: Of the 798 students (533 boys and 265 girls studied, around 98.6% had heard of epilepsy. About 63.7% correctly thought that epilepsy is a brain disorder while 81.8% believed it to be a psychiatric disorder. Other prevalent misconceptions were that epilepsy is an inherited disorder (71.55% and that the disease is transmitted by eating a nonvegetarian diet (49%. Most of them thought that epilepsy can be cured (69.3 and that an epileptic patient needs lifelong treatment (77.2. On witnessing a seizure, about 51.5% of the students would take the person to the hospital. Majority (72.31% of the students thought that children with epilepsy should study in a special school. Conclusions: Although majority of the students had reasonable knowledge of epilepsy, myths and superstitions about the condition still prevail in a significant proportion of the urban school children. It may be worthwhile including awareness programs about epilepsy in school education to dispel misconceptions about epilepsy.

Replicative nature of Indian research, essence of scientific temper, and future of scientific progress.

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Singh, Ajai R; Singh, Shakuntala A

2004-01-01

A lot of Indian research is replicative in nature. This is because originality is at a premium here and mediocrity is in great demand. But replication has its merit as well because it helps in corroboration. And that is the bedrock on which many a fancied scientific hypothesis or theory stands, or falls. However, to go from replicative to original research will involve a massive effort to restructure the Indian psyche and an all round effort from numerous quarters.The second part of this paper deals with the essence of scientific temper,which need not have any basic friendship, or animosity, with religion, faith, superstition and other such entities. A true scientist follows two cardinal rules. He is never unwilling to accept the worth of evidence, howsoever damning to the most favourite of his theories. Second, and perhaps more important, for want of evidence, he withholds comment. He says neither yes nor no.Where will Science ultimately lead Man is the third part of this essay. One argument is that the conflict between Man and Science will continue tilleither of them is exhausted or wiped out. The other believes that it is Science which has to be harnessed for Man and not Man used for Science. And with the numerous checks and balances in place, Science will remain an effective tool for man's progress. The essential value-neutrality of Science will have to be supplemented by the values that man has upheld for centuries as fundamental, and which religious thought and moral philosophy have continuously professed.

Dissociation, Paranormal Belief, and Quality of Life in Older People

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Tungshan Chou

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The measurement of religiosity in current health-related literature is mostly based on the traditional Christian belief system. It has been argued that such a measurement approach may misrepresent the true degree of religiosity in Taiwanese people. In this study, religiosity was measured in two ways: self-reported religion type and a qualitatively derived index of religious piety based on principles as suggested by Gries, Su, and Schak to be used in the Taiwanese context. Their effects on dissociation, paranormal belief, and quality of life were juxtaposed for comparison. In addition, the beneficial effect of religious piety was examined in the framework of McClenon’s ritual healing theory. A total of 266 healthy older adults across Taiwan were interviewed by four trained assistants over a 4-month period. Factor scores were used to represent the dissociative tendencies (depersonalization/derealization, forgetfulness, amnesia, and psychological absorption and paranormal belief facets (precognition, psi power, other forms of life, traditional religious belief, superstition, and telepathy. The results showed that older people of high religious piety display better quality of life profiles than their counterparts in the low religious piety group. The effects of self-reported religion type were mainly seen with paranormal beliefs compatible with their religious beliefs, whereas the effects of religious piety were more pronounced in relation to quality of life than dissociation and paranormal belief. The beneficial advantage of dissociation hypothesized by ritual healing theory did not receive empirical support in the nonclinical sample of this study.

Science education with the help of media. Educating science concerning the help of current news of media referring to it

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lazar, I.; Agoston, L.

2005-01-01

In the last decades, at the beginning of the 21st century high school students turn their back on science more frequently than before, therefore the generation of the community of reliable scientists and experts becomes the elder. The time spent studying science in schools is also decreasing. However, mass-communication, electronic and traditional media plays more and more part in the description and explanation of scientific problems in our time. Media is inundated with questions, facts and rumours in connection with science, therefore imaginary fears, beliefs and superstitions can get into the limelight of interests. Problems like keeping people frightened with radioactivity and the ionizing and non-ionizing radiations is probably the most popular way of making ''bad news'' (panic) in the mass-media, and they particularly call our attention to the most current tasks in education of the next generations. In order to help to keep the public informed in a precise and exact way, it's necessary to put natural science into practice in high schools. Our new method of science education could prove the necessity of science taught through the current news of the media. This means students learn by making discussions and corrections of the news. The Science and Media Project provides the possibility of applying scientific ways of thinking about questions of our environment and life and it also improves critical approach towards new information. This method is put to practice by real project works, including a lot of fieldwork and reading of papers and scientific literature, enabling the students to discover and solve problems by themselves. (author)

Ad vesice dolorem et ad eos qui urinam non faciunt (For bladder pain and when a person cannot urinate): nephrological disorders in Anglo-Saxon medicine.

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D'Aronco, Maria A

2009-01-01

The attitude of 19th century (and even of 20th century) scholars toward medieval and, particularly, Anglo-Saxon medicine has been of severe criticism. According to them it was filled with superstition and stupidities. However, in these last fifty years research has proved that, compared with the Continent, Anglo-Saxon England was not a backwater. At the end of the ninth century, medical compendia in Old English began to appear, similar in structure and contents to the Latin dynamidia and to the Latin herbals. These medical treatises were written in the vernacular of the Anglo-Saxons, not in Latin, the western European language for all significant and valuable works on medicine. Bladder, kidney and urinating problems are mentioned throughout the Old English medical treatises together with their cures, that is remedies from herbs and animals. These texts contain no theoretical reflections, only very concise descriptions of symptoms (pain in the bladder, in the kidneys, difficulty in urinating etc.), while prognosis is limited to affirmations such as "he will heal very quickly," "soon there will be no pain," "it will soon be healed," etc. Remedies are made basically out of a body of medicinal plants and materials which can be traced to Greek and Roman medicine. The remedies from plants reflect a wide rational and practical knowledge of medicinal herbs. As a matter of fact, not only there is no amuletic use of plants, but most of the herbs that appear in these recipes have diuretic or analgesic properties and have been in use for centuries.

Could robots become authentic companions in nursing care?

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Metzler, Theodore A; Lewis, Lundy M; Pope, Linda C

2016-01-01

Creating android and humanoid robots to furnish companionship in the nursing care of older people continues to attract substantial development capital and research. Some people object, though, that machines of this kind furnish human-robot interaction characterized by inauthentic relationships. In particular, robotic and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have been charged with substituting mindless mimicry of human behaviour for the real presence of conscious caring offered by human nurses. When thus viewed as deceptive, the robots also have prompted corresponding concerns regarding their potential psychological, moral, and spiritual implications for people who will be interacting socially with these machines. The foregoing objections and concerns can be assessed quite differently, depending upon ambient religious beliefs or metaphysical presuppositions. The complaints may be set aside as unnecessary, for example, within religious traditions for which even current robots can be viewed as presenting spiritual aspects. Elsewhere, technological cultures may reject the complaints as expression of outdated superstition, holding that the machines eventually will enjoy a consciousness described entirely in materialist and behaviourist terms. While recognizing such assessments, the authors of this essay propose that the heart of the foregoing objections and concerns may be evaluated, in part, scientifically - albeit with a conclusion recommending fundamental revisions in AI modelling of human mental life. Specifically, considerations now favour introduction of AI models using interactive classical and quantum computation. Without this change, the answer to the essay's title question arguably is 'no' - with it, the answer plausibly becomes 'maybe'. Either outcome holds very interesting implications for nurses. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Why do we need quantum theory?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballo, P.; Racko, J.; Harmatha, L.

2014-01-01

A good starting point of this consideration can be a question 'Why do we need quantum theory?'. What is wrong with just using the methods of classical mechanics or electrodynamics. Although there are a number of arguments for quantum theory, many people still accept the quantum theory as an intellectual achievement having many arguments for own truth. Many of them are based on superstition of elegance of classical theory. As said Ludwig Boltzmann 'Elegance should be left to shoemakers and tailors, we should keep the law of mathematics'. The aim of this paper is to discuss some arguments for quantum mechanics which are mostly technical and maybe mathematical rigorous. Whereas some mathematics overstate the beginning let's are start with a little theory. In this discussion we will use the interaction representation (also known as the Dirac picture) which is an interactive picture between the Schroedinger and the Heisenberg picture. Although it sounds ominously, it is a very effective tool in cases where the influences of disturbance simultaneously changing both the wave function and observed variable. In this case the solution is to use with the aim to express many-body solution of the Schroedinger equation. The interaction representation constructs the solution of Schroedinger equation as the solution of the free particle problem plus some unknown interaction part. In our discussion we will use a hypothetical system (not very far from reality) which contains a mixture of dissipative and other (yet unknown) subsystems with very different qualities. It has been shown that right in this configuration the interaction representation is very useful. (authors)

Recent Advances in Antiepileptic Herbal Medicine.

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Manchishi, Stephen M

2018-01-01

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders worldwide, with about 80 percent of cases thought to be in developing nations where it is mostly linked to superstition. The limited supply, high cost as well as low efficacy and adverse side effects of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) is a matter of major concern. Herbal medicine has always been traditionally part of treatment of epilepsy. Herbal medicines are generally well tolerated, with fewer side effects. To highlight some herbal extracts that have been studied for their anticonvulsant activity in animal models, literature search from PubMed and Science Direct, was performed. The keywords for the search consisted of combinations of the following terms: Herbal antiepileptic and/or anticonvulsant, botanicals + epilepsy. Literature published in the last five years was considered. Eighteen (18) anticonvulsant herbal agents are reported and discussed. Experiments mostly consisted of phenotypic screens in rodents, with little diversity in screening methods. In most experiments, the tested extracts prolonged the time to onset of seizures and decreased their duration. Most experimenters implicate potentiation of GABAergic activity as the mode of action of the extracts, even though some experimenters did not fully characterise the bioactive chemical composition of their extracts. Potential herbal remedies have shown positive results in animal models. It remains unclear how many make it into clinical trials and eventually making part of the AED list. More rigorous research, applying strict research methodology with uniform herbal combinations, as well as clinical studies are urgently needed. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Medical Culture and its Developments in Medival Europa

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Tolgahan Karaimamoğlu

2017-08-01

Full Text Available In order to start with the demolition of civilization, which had an unrivaled institutionalization during the period of Roman Empire, XV. Many changes and transformations took place in Europe during the middle ages, including the time period until the end of the century. One of the most obvious changes has been experienced in European medical developments during this period. The papal institution was greatly influenced by the medical field, while under the pressure of every field to evaluate the void that occurred after Rome. The medieval medical mentality compared with the ancienty did not survive the entrance of the church on a single occasion, while this institution faced the danger of losing its gains due to its structure which suppressed the thought and perceived the secular foci as a threat. The medical world, which the church has oppressed and brought back to the state of horticulture, is XI. Up to hundredths of all dogma and superstition. However, after this date, the study of the works and progress of the ancient and Islamic civilizations, whether in secret or in secret, by a group of physicians consisting of minority - secular societies, has started a new era for European medicine. Especially the schooling that started with Salerno provided European medicine in this new period to take over the flag from the Islamic civilization and to be saved from church domination. This study assesses and concludes by combining the cultural values and thoughtfulness of western society with how it has progressed in the medieval period after reversing the reasons for decline in European medicine.

Spectral element modelling of seismic wave propagation in visco-elastoplastic media including excess-pore pressure development

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Oral, Elif; Gélis, Céline; Bonilla, Luis Fabián; Delavaud, Elise

2017-12-01

Numerical modelling of seismic wave propagation, considering soil nonlinearity, has become a major topic in seismic hazard studies when strong shaking is involved under particular soil conditions. Indeed, when strong ground motion propagates in saturated soils, pore pressure is another important parameter to take into account when successive phases of contractive and dilatant soil behaviour are expected. Here, we model 1-D seismic wave propagation in linear and nonlinear media using the spectral element numerical method. The study uses a three-component (3C) nonlinear rheology and includes pore-pressure excess. The 1-D-3C model is used to study the 1987 Superstition Hills earthquake (ML 6.6), which was recorded at the Wildlife Refuge Liquefaction Array, USA. The data of this event present strong soil nonlinearity involving pore-pressure effects. The ground motion is numerically modelled for different assumptions on soil rheology and input motion (1C versus 3C), using the recorded borehole signals as input motion. The computed acceleration-time histories show low-frequency amplification and strong high-frequency damping due to the development of pore pressure in one of the soil layers. Furthermore, the soil is found to be more nonlinear and more dilatant under triaxial loading compared to the classical 1C analysis, and significant differences in surface displacements are observed between the 1C and 3C approaches. This study contributes to identify and understand the dominant phenomena occurring in superficial layers, depending on local soil properties and input motions, conditions relevant for site-specific studies.

VOLTAIRE’S PHILOSOPHY: HUMAN NATURE AND INTERPRETATION OF RELIGION

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Yu. Zimaryova

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the article is to determine and reconsider Voltaire’s ideas concerning religion and human nature. In order to achieve this purpose it is necessary to complete the following tasks: to analyse academic literature on Voltaire’s interpretation of the phenomenon of religion; to expose Voltaire’s basic ideas about human nature; to substantiate the importance of anthropological approach to the phenomenon of religion with the ideas of Voltaire’s philosophical works. Methodology. The achievements of anthropocentric philosophical thought of the XIX century possess great potential in the process of constructive comprehension and theoretical reconstruction of the anthropological intention that accompanies the process of philosophising. The research extensively applies hermeneutical method for interpreting Voltaire’s philosophy. Scientific novelty. In academic literature on Voltaire’s works we have ascertained the basic anthropological component of his philosophy and reconsider Voltaire’s ideas about religion as something that is rooted in human nature. Conclusions. In academic literature the interpretation of the phenomenon of religion in Voltaire’s heritage is a rather controversial one. At the one hand, Voltaire criticizes religion for its superstitions and fanaticism. On the other hand, he recognises the existence of God. In our opinion, the phenomenon of religion should be examined in the context of human nature and basic problems related to it such as the problem of soul and the problem of free will. The anthropological approach to the phenomenon of religion allows to avoid the extremity of atheistic and metaphysical approaches and to enable its anthropological interpretation.

Fifty years on: against the stigmatising myths, taboos and traditions embedded within the Suicide Act 1961 (UK).

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Shaw, Julia J A

2011-06-01

Although assisted suicide carries a maximum of 14 years imprisonment in England, courts and juries have historically demonstrated a reluctance to convict, most specifically in relation to those travelling abroad to accompany a terminally ill person seeking assisted dying. The possibility of prosecution is still present, however, and there have recently been a number of challenges to the law on assisted dying. During the consultation period of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (UK) an amendment was proposed that would have legalised, among other things, assisting suicide overseas. However, it was voted down by peers who believed it to be dangerously radical. In 2008 a multiple sclerosis sufferer requested a clear policy statement, should her partner help her to seek assisted dying abroad in the future. After her application was initially rejected, Mrs Purdy was granted leave to appeal and following a favourable ruling by the House of Lords in 2009, the Director of Public Prosecutions clarified the law on assisted suicide, introducing a Full Code Test which includes the consideration of "public interest factors". Although the new guidelines are not a direct threat to the 50-year-old Suicide Act 1961 (UK), it is clearly an historic development: the latest in a series of high-profile cases and debates which have taken place over the last decade. It is suggested that English law on assisted dying continues to rely on a range of inappropriate concepts, taboos and superstitions, and it is from this perspective that the implications for future legislative reform are addressed.

Smile Train: The ascendancy of cleft care in India

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Singh Subodh

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Though India has an estimated population of one million untreated cleft patients, facilities for its treatment have been limited and are not evenly distributed across the country. Furthermore, a paucity of committed cleft surgeons in fewer hospitals to provide quality surgical treatment to these patients, poverty, illiteracy, superstitions and poor connectivity in some remote regions severely limit the chances of an average cleft lip patient born in India from receiving rational and effective comprehensive treatment for his/her malady. The Smile Train Project with its singular focus on cleft patients started its philanthropic activities in India in the year 2000. It made hospitals and included clefts surgeon equal partners in this programme and helped them treat as many cleft patients as they possibly could. The Project encouraged improvement of the training and infrastructure in various centres across the length and breadth of the region. The Project received an unprecedented success in terms of growth of number of centres, cleft surgeons and quantum of cleft patients reporting for treatment. The G S Memorial Hospital is one such partner hospital. It started innovative outreach programmes and took a holistic view of the needs of these patients and their families. With the support of the Smile Train, it has not only succeeded in providing treatment to more than 14,500 patients in 5 years, but has also devised innovative outreach programmes and seamlessly incorporated salient changes in the hospital system to suit the needs of the target population.

Running Joke: Criticism of Italian American Culture through Comedy in The Sopranos

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Fred Gardaphe

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Often read as tragic realism, The Sopranos has rarely been seen in the light of the comedy created in every episode.   While a number of television critics and commentators have compared the series to the tragedies of Shakespeare (Bushby, Macintyre, Varble, none have focused on the comic elements, which, as I will show, are descendants of Italian Commedia dell Arte and Shakespearean comedies.  The best way of seeing this is to focus on the character Paulie Walnuts, whom I see as an Italian American version of the zanni of the Commedia or the fool/clown of Shakespeare.  In this article, I present David Chase’s serial narrative as a comedy that serves not only to create laughter but also to criticize U.S. and especially Italian American culture through the character Paulie Walnuts.  Before I launch into this reading I want to present a few words on just how we might read the seriality of Chase’s narrative.  Through Paulie Walnuts, the writers of the show are able insert a running joke throughout the entire series that enables them to poke fun at traditional notions of Italian immigrant culture, and at the same time, show that those notions also serve as viable criticisms of U.S. capitalist culture.  Paulie, who is certainly more reactionary than revolutionary, reflects the many Italian Americans who assimilated quickly into American culture, in spite of holding on to traditions and superstitions of Italian folk culture.

MAPPING FEATURES OF A CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF RYLSKY MONASTERY AND ITS ENVIRONS

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O. I. Markova

2017-01-01

Full Text Available An experience of creating maps of culture landscapes of Rylsky monastery (Kursk Region and its environs in average and large scales has been considered.This territory is historically related with Rylsky monastery of Bulgaria and its holy ascetic Ioann Rylsky. It has a cultural-historical value, gets many monuments of architecture including the monument of federal value (Assumption Cathedral of Rylsk town. During the years of Soviet rule many objects of religious architecture were lost or in a state of desolation and destruction. In connection with the process of urbanization some rural settlements were abandoned, ceased their existence and turned into tracts in some places.In the restoration and transformation of the cultural landscape of the territory, in giving it spirituality a great role was played by the elder, the abbot of the St. Nicholas Monastery archimandrite Hippolytus (Khalin, 1928-2002. The St. Nicholas Monastery in the village Prigorodnyaya Slobodka near Rylsk town was picked up from ruins, five sketes in rural settlements of Rylsk district were opened, the Kazansky Convent in the village Bolshegneuschevo was created. Opening of monasteries and sketes made it possible to establish a monastic life, to realize a spiritual care of people and created the basis for restoration of temples that existed before in these settlements.Many natural components of cultural landscapes of this region are unusual: several holy springs, geological and geomorphological objects including a field of the curative blue clay, memorial plants, landscape plans. The Monastery and its cultural landscape attract pilgrims and tourists who illustrative here not only spiritual and moral, but also physical health.Mapping of the Monastery and its environs was implemented at two scale levels in traditions of geographical cartography using methods of illustrativeness of images and completeness of display of historical-geographical information. 

Early Old Bulgarian Layer in the Office Menaion of Rostov Provenance of the 13th c. (RNL, F.p.I 37

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Роман Николаевич Кривко

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The article is dedicated to the linguistic and textual peculiarities of the Festal Menaion F. p. I 37 preserved in Russian National Library (S.-Petersburg and dated to the beginning of the 13th c. Numerous linguistic features of the manuscript testify to Old West Bulgarian (Old Macedonian literary usage of the end of the 9th — beginning of the 10th c., on the basis of which the earliest Slavonic hymnographical translations were performed. Despite of such an archaic linguistic and textual layers observed in the manuscript, its calendar, structure and content were influenced by the monastic rite based on the Typicon of Patriarch Alexius the Studite which had been translated and introduced in Kievan Rus' at the second half of the 11th c. The linguistic features of the text version as attested by F. p. I 37 have been compared to the manuscripts testifying to the Alexius the Studite text version. It has been affirmed that adaptation of the Old Bulgarian hymnographic heritage in Kievan Rus' followed the unstable trend to neglect the most remarkable South (and South West Slavonic lingustic features and aimed at establishing “neutral” over dialectal Church Slavonic literary usage. The significant part of the article contains the edition of the earliest Slavonic, i.e., Old Bulgarian, translation of the Greek kanon Τάφῳ παρθενοδόχῳ dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos. The earliest Slavonic translation of this kanon has been preserved in the unique available manuscript, that is F. p. I 37. The publication of the Slavonic translation is supplied with the first critical edition of the Greek source performed on the basis of twelve manuscripts, the linguistic commentary of the Slavonic text, and remarks concerning some metric peculiarities of the original Greek version.

Written Records about Hegumens of Chervleny Yar in the 14th century

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A.P. Nikitin

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Objective: To examine written records mentioning the hegumens in the territory of Chervleny Yar during the Golden Horde period. Materials: The study is mainly based on the charters of Metropolitans Theognost and Alexei, concerning the dispute between the Orthodox dioceses of Saray and Ryazan in the 14th century. The results of archaeological research, references to plague outbreaks, and the reconstructed text of Taidula’s charter granted to Metropolitan Theognost provide indirect information for research. Results and novelty of the research: Based on the mention of hegumens in Chervleny Yar in the 14th century in the charters of the Metropolitans Theognost and Alexei, one can assert the existence of several Orthodox monasteries in the territory of this administrative unit of the Golden Horde. The plague, the fiscal policy of Janibek, and the spread of Islam in the Jochid ulus could have been the true reasons for the disappearance of monasteries in the 14th century. The plague epidemic could have completely destroyed the inhabitants of the monastery and the rural district of the cloister. Janibek’s decision to deprive the Orthodox Church of tax benefits could have led to the liquidation of the financial basis for monastic life in the interfluve of the Don and the Khoper after the disappearance of support for monasteries. In addition to all these, the wide proliferation of Islam among the population of Chervleny Yar eliminated the possibility of functioning Orthodox spiritual centers outside of the Russian principalities. The charter of Metropolitan Theognost can be dated between 1334 and 1346–1349. Archaeological search for Christian objects of the Golden Horde period in the interfluve of the Don and the Khoper can be considered as a task for the future.

Une vie, une œuvre, des archives : note sur le fonds Dom Paul Bellot aux Archives nationales du monde du travail (Fonds n° 2003 006

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Christian Hottin

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Cet article a pour objet de présenter brièvement les archives de Dom Paul Bellot, moine bénédictin et architecte, figure de l’architecture religieuse du premier vingtième siècle, conservées depuis 2003 aux Archives nationales du monde du travail à Roubaix. Au-delà de l’importance de ces documents pour l’histoire de l’art sacré contemporain et de l’éclairage qu’ils apportent à la connaissance d’une personnalité originale et complexe, l’histoire de ce fonds d’archives témoigne de quelques aspects des difficultés inhérentes à la conservation du patrimoine religieux : vieillissement des communautés monastiques, importance du bénévolat, nécessité d’un soutien des pouvoirs publics pour leur sauvegarde et leur valorisationThe aim of this article is to give a brief presentation of the archives of Dom Paul Bellot, Benedictine monk and architect and one of the leading figures of religious architecture during the first half of the 20th century. These archives are held today at Roubaix at the Archives nationales du Monde du Travail. Beyond the intrinsic interest of these papers for the history of contemporary sacred art and for the light they bring to understanding the original and complex personality of the man, the history of the papers also illustrates some of the difficulties inherent to the conservation of the religious heritage : the ageing of monastic communities ; the importance of non-paid work ; and the need for public support in the safekeeping and interpretation of the papers.

Activation of maternal centrosomes in unfertilized sea urchin eggs

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Schatten, H.; Walter, M.; Biessmann, H.; Schatten, G.

1992-01-01

Centrosomes are undetectable in unfertilized sea urchin eggs, and normally the sperm introduces the cell's microtubule-organizing center (MTOC) at fertilization. However, artificial activation or parthenogenesis triggers microtubule assembly in the unfertilized egg, and this study explores the reappearance and behavior of the maternal centrosome. During activation with A23187 or ammonia, microtubules appear first at the cortex; centrosomal antigen is detected diffusely throughout the entire cytoplasm. Later, the centrosome becomes more distinct and organizes a radial microtubule shell, and eventually a compact centrosome at the egg center organizes a monaster. In these activated eggs, centrosomes undergo cycles of compaction and decompaction in synchrony with the chromatin, which also undergoes cycles of condensation and decondensation. Parthenogenetic activation with heavy water (50% D2O) or the microtubule-stabilizing drug taxol (10 microM) induces numerous centrosomal foci in the unfertilized sea urchin egg. Within 15 min after incubation in D2O, numerous fine centrosomal foci are detected, and they organize a connected network of numerous asters which fill the entire egg. Taxol induces over 100 centrosomal foci by 15 min after treatment, which organize a corresponding number of asters. The centrosomal material in either D2O- or taxol-treated eggs aggregates with time to form fewer but denser foci, resulting in fewer and larger asters. Fertilization of eggs pretreated with either D2O or taxol shows that the paternal centrosome is dominant over the maternal centrosome. The centrosomal material gradually becomes associated with the enlarged sperm aster. These experiments demonstrate that maternal centrosomal material is present in the unfertilized egg, likely as dispersed undetectable material, which can be activated without paternal contributions. At fertilization, paternal centrosomes become dominant over the maternal centrosomal material.

Greek Monk Theodore as the first Primate of Canterbury

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Ks. Warsonofiusz (Doroszkiewicz

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The theological climate of the young Church of Anglo-Saxon Christians was determined by Irish and Welsh monks maintaining the tradition of the Egyptian desert. The Angles and Saxons had a particular vision of the natural world, of the eternal world, a particular comprehension of sin and repentance. Rome in its missionary work used them to attach the British Christians the see of St Peter. Britain had no original link with the culture and tradition of the classical Church. It has been particularly established and enforced in VII and VIII, when England received a great dose of classical learning and theology due to the activity of archbishop of Canterbury Theodore and monk Hadrian. The formerly Greek monk Theodore – well learned in the Holy Scripture as well as Greek and Latin classics – was named the archbishop of Canterbury by pope Vitalian under the condition that he should notintroduce any typically Greek customs. Theodore named Hadrian the abbot of the Canterbury monastery of St Peter. There and in York young English could pursue classical studies of the Holy Scriptures, poetry, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, etc. It resulted in significant literary development in Britain, of which venerable Bede is an example.Theodore introduced in Canterbury proto-byzantine canonical law, during two famous synods established doctrinal and ecclesiastical foundations of English Christianity based on ancient orthodox tradition of Eastern part of the Mediterranean region. At the Synod of Hatfield,with the other bishops, Theodore confirmed the Nicean Creed, fiveformer ecumenical councils and the generally accepted Church Fathers. They worked also on practical church unity, that is established: common date of Easter with other parts of Christian world, non-intervention ofbishops in other dioceses, canonical laws regulating the attitude of bishops towards monastic communities and the decrees against monophysismonks coming from Persia.

Indagini Stratigrafiche e Sistemi Informativi Architettonici: il GIS della chiesa di S. Maria in Valle Porclaneta

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Trizio, Ilaria

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The church of Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta and its accessories are what remains of an ancient Benedictine monastery, built in the heart of Abruzzo region (Magliano dei Marsi, L’Aquila at the end of the XII century. Even if literature, starting from the end of XIX century, has been often interested in this architectural manufactured, the process of historical-critical knowledge of the complex revealed itself difficult due to the absence of archaeological data, the shortage of the documents and, above all, the numerous interventions of restoration that, followed during all last century, have deeply modified the original compages of it. Due to the difficulties met, the overlap between the few documental data and the data derived from the direct investigation of the structures, performed with the aid of an Architectural Informative System, made possible to hypothesize a chronological reconstruction of the principal phases of life of the monastic complex.[it] La chiesa di Santa Maria in Valle Porclaneta e i suoi ambienti accessori sono quanto resta di un antico monastero benedettino, edificato nel cuore del territorio abruzzese (Magliano dei Marsi, L’Aquila sul finire del XII secolo. Sebbene la letteratura, a partire dalla fine dell’Ottocento, si sia spesso occupata di questo manufatto, il processo di conoscenza storico-critica del complesso si è rivelato difficoltoso a causa dell’assenza di dati archeologici, della scarsità di fonti documentarie pervenute, e, soprattutto a causa del susseguirsi di numerosi interventi di restauro che, succedutisi senza soluzione di continuità per tutto il secolo scorso, ne hanno letteralmente stravolto la compagine originale. A fronte delle difficoltà incontrate, la sovrapposizione tra i pochi dati documentali e i dati derivati dall’indagine diretta delle strutture, eseguita con l’ausilio di un Sistema Informativo Architettonico ha consentito di ipotizzare una ricostruzione cronologica delle

Tropos, secuencias y polifonía en la Biblioteca Histórica de la UCM. Tropes, Sequencies and Poliphony in Biblioteca Histórica UCM

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Asensio Palacios, Juan Carlos

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Un pequeño manuscrito como el que nos ocupa puede contener grandes tesoros. En este caso musicales. O mejor, litúrgico-musicales. Su contenido central: la regla de san Agustín, a la que se añade un libro de costumbres con una descripción de la liturgia para una congregación monástica o secular regida por aquella norma de vida. Y al final la sorpresa: una pequeña adición de prosas monódicas dedicadas a la Virgen, alguna de ellas no localizadas en otras fuentes, un Agnus Dei tropado y un Benedicamus Domino -fórmula de despedida del oficio- a dos voces, éste si con multitud de concordancias ibéricas y europeas, algunas de ellas directamente relacionadas con el culto a San Agustín. En el texto que sigue junto a una descripción del manuscrito, presentamos todas estas piezas en edición moderna preparada ya para su interpretación. A small manuscript, that is the subject of this paper, contains great music treasures or, in this case, liturgical music treasures. It contains basically the rule of St. Augustine and a description of the liturgy used by the monastic or secular congregation. At the end, we found the surprise: a small addition of monodic proses devoted to the Virgin, some of them are not located in other sources, an Agnus Dei as a trope and a Benedicamus and Domino -formula to ending the Divine Office service- in two voices. The last presents multitude of Iberian and European concordances, some of them directly related to the worship of St. Augustine. In the following text, with a description of the manuscript, we present all these pieces in modern edition ready for its interpretation.

Tibetan Precious Pills as Therapeutics and Rejuvenating Longevity Tonics

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Barbara Gerke

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Tibetan precious pills are frequently attributed with a variety of efficacies, from “magical” powers, prevention of poisoning and infectious diseases, protection from harmful spirits and exposure to diseases while travelling, to rejuvenating and prolonging life through clearing the senses and promoting strength and vigor. They are prescribed as strong medicines for severe diseases, but are also advertised as rejuvenating tonics for the healthy. This paper explores the rejuvenating qualities attributed to precious pills in terms of how they are currently advertised, how rejuvenation is and has been explained in Tibetan works on precious pills, and how Tibetan physicians understand these attributes. How do these domains interact and refer to each other? I compare aspects of rejuvenation in precious pill formulas with contemporary presentations of precious pills online and on published leaflets given out to patients in India and elsewhere. In Tibetan medical texts certain precious pills that contain the complex and processed mercury-sulfide ash called tsotel in addition to a large variety of other medicinal substances are presented as “precious pills” or rinchen rilbu, and only some of those are said to have rejuvenating effects on the body; most are primarily prescribed for specific diseases. The practice of giving precious pills to the healthy emerges more prominently in eighteenth to nineteenth century manuals on administering precious pills (Czaja 2015, which parallels the establishment of influential medical and monastic networks that promoted the making of tsotel and precious pills. I argue that precious pills have more recently widened their specific therapeutic target beyond that of medicine into becoming popular pills for rejuvenation, even if they do not contain tsotel, as part of pharmaceutical commodification. I also show how presentations of precious pills as “rejuvenating” are deeply linked to their availability.

Methods of Preventives to keep Birth Control in the Quran

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Ahmad Yunus Mohd Noor

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This research is mainly concerned about the methods set by the Quran for preserving the human breeding, which is regarded the main pillar not only for the future survival of the humankind, but also for assuring its permanence and continuity. Taking this into consideration, the Quran has addressed this issue by setting solid preventive tools that ensure the continuity and prosperity of the human offspring in a normal manner. The objective of the research is to shed light on the importance of protecting the human offspring in the Quran, since neglecting its importance could lead to the corruption of the whole society and its members. The research attempts also to tackle the various preventive tools that the Quran has adopted for protecting the normal continuity and prosperity of the human offspring. The research proposes to study the Quranic verses that address the protection of the human offspring and the various preventive tools that should be adopted, along with the accredited analysis and statements of purpose of the Quranic verses, with reference to the approved sources of interpretation. Apart of the findings are that the Quran has set two main methods for protecting the human offspring that is; the preventive tools for protecting the amount of birth control, and the preventive tools for maintaining the quality of birth control. The preventive tools for protecting the amount of birth control include the forbidding of being monastic, the prohibiting of killing children for fear of poverty, and the forbidding of falling into immorality, either outwardly or inwardly. They also include the establishment of prayer, giving charity, reciting Dhikr (remembrance and asking of forgiveness. The preventive tools for maintaining the quality of birth control, however, include not approaching adultery, prohibiting adoption, and forbidding incest, the people of shirk and immorality and blasphemy.

La couleur des palais royaux espagnols du xvie au xviiie siècle The colour of Spanish royal palaces from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries

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Juan Hernández Ferrero

2008-05-01

Full Text Available En Espagne, l’architecture des châteaux royaux, monochrome, n’accorde aucune véritable importance esthétique à la couleur. Ainsi, le monastère de l’Escurial, également palais royal, utilise le gris (teinte quelque peu modifiée de nos jours comme élément conférant une uniformité architecturale. Mais, au cours du xviie siècle, les façades du nouveau palais du Buen Retiro reçoivent une coloration discrète qui vise à les mettre en valeur. La couleur intègre alors le vocabulaire des architectes pour finalement s’affirmer dans l’usage au xviiie siècle, comme nous le verrons avec les palais royaux de Madrid, du Pardo, de Riofrío et de La Granja de San Ildefonso. Ainsi se trouve contredite la théorie initiale d’absence de couleur dans les résidences royales d’Espagne. Cette évolution est le fruit de l’influence européenne sur l’art espagnol.In Spain, the monochromatic architecture of royal chateaux placed no real aesthetic importance on colour. The El Escurial monastery, also a royal palace, used the colour grey (a tone somewhat modified today to provide an architectural uniformity. But during the seventeenth century the facades of the new Buen Retiro palace were given a discreet colouring that aimed to enhance them. Colour began to be used by architects, and widely so in the eighteenth century, as we will see with the royal palaces of Madrid, El Pardo, Riofrío and La Granja de San Ildefonso – contradicting the initial theory that colour was absent from the royal residences of Spain. This development was a result of the European influence on Spanish art.

Isotopic Geochemistry Applied on Mortars of the Katholikon of the Monastery of Timios Prodromos in the Prefecture of Serres, Greece

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Dotsika, Elissavet; Iliadis, Efstathios; Kyropoulou, Daphne; Karalis, Petros

2017-12-01

The Monastery of Timios Prodromos is the most important Byzantine monument in the prefecture of Serres and one of the most important monastic foundations of Byzantine times in Northern Greece. It was founded in the late 13th century from Ioannikios and then renovated by his nephew, Joachim. The catholic dates back to the 14th century, and specifically between 1300-1333, under the rule of the second founder Joachim. Considering the pathology of Byzantine mural, for the most effective work on removal of over-paintings layer, fixing, restoration, recovery and maintenance of the painted surface and the substrate, it was decided the sampling from exact points of the mural painting representing the different phases, in order to determine their composition, the technology of construction materials, corrosion mechanisms and the proposal for restoration methodology. The methods to be used require very small quantities of material. The measurements are considered almost non-destructive and based on isotopic geochemistry. The techniques used are X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM / EDXA) and isotopic analyzes (d18O and d13C) in a mass spectrometer (IRMS). The study of the samples was carried out by scanning electron microscopy with X-ray microanalyser and analysis of stable isotopes. The study shows that apart from the calcite present in all pigment samples, straw was used as a binder. There is also a mixing of dyes to produce the desired tint while in many cases there are different colour layers. The decay in the mural is extensive, especially in the lower layers of the wall, which have been severely affected by humidity and candle smoke. The creation of gypsum on the surface of the murals is intense and evident in most of the spectra taken

Prophet Elijah in the woods in the high altar of the Church of Discalced Carmelites in Czerna

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Adam Organisty

2016-12-01

Full Text Available One of the most interesting early modern paintings in the vicinity of Krakow, located at the main altar of the Discalced Carmelite church in Czerna has not, to date, been the subject of a dedicated study. Although we are not in possession of archive sources which would confirm the attribution, for over a century the canvas has been held to be a work of Tommaso Dolabella. The first section of the article discusses the content of the image, which is ideologically linked to the altar. It also attempts to interpret the significance of Elijah, identified as Messiah’s predecessor, as well as the role of miraculous sustenance brought to the prophet by an angel. This part of the article focuses also on a rather inconspicuous theme of Elijah’s bare foot resting on the foot of God’s intermediary, which could symbolize a kind of successful spiritual struggle. Further in the text, the Czerna painting is subjected to a detailed stylistic analysis. By way of comparisons to works by father Venante da Subiaco, a new attribution and dating of the work presenting Prophet Elijah in the wilderness are suggested. The composition was painted in the years 1630–1632, when Venante was prior at the Selva Aurea hermitage in Rytwiany. Venante’s authorship of the Czerna painting is at least probable, as determined by three basic facts: the style of the painting, relations between Czerna’s and Rytwian’s founders (Agnieszka Firlej, née Tęczyński, was Jan Tęczyński’s sister, chronological data (the likelihood of the completion of the painting for the main altar in a small church in Czerna relatively soon after its construction had been commenced in 1629, last but not least, a fairly common tradition of monastic painters painting pictures commissioned by selected lay founders.

Diagnosis through rosary and sand: Islamic elements in the healing custom of the Yoruba (Nigeria).

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Sanni, Amidu

2002-01-01

The inhabitants of south western Nigeria are known as the Yoruba. Their earliest contact with Islam goes back to the 14th century, but it was only in the 19th century that the faith got firmly established, as Islamic mores and intellectual culture which included medical tradition - became well entrenched. Before the advent of Islam, diagnosis of ailments, witchcraft attacks etc., was carried out through a traditional procedure which involved the use of palm kernels, cowries, the latter similar to "bone throwing" among the Zulu of South Africa. This traditional system has since lost position to divination with rosary (subha) and sand (khatt al-raml), particularly among Muslims. This development notwithstanding, elements of the indigenous medical tradition medical tradition have been incorporated into the Islamic tradition. Inam Ahmad al-Buni (d.622.H) remains a point of reference among Yorouba Muslim healers and standard works on divination with sand, for example, Ahmad al-Afandi's (fl.1290 A.H.) ilm al-raml and al-Adhami's Mizan al-adl fi masqasis ahkam al-raml (1322.A.H.) continue to be popular. Nevertheless, the native Muslim diviners have developed their own literature for this and for divination with rosary, which betrays the level of their linguistic competence as well as the degree of acculturation and hybridization of indigenous and Islamic elements in a healing custom. This paper will examine how traditional elements had been grafted on Islamic divination, and how the practitioners continue to resolve the inherent contradictions between the two phenomena in their dual role as votaries of the Islamic faith and social workers in a medical tradition with a strong religious underpinning.