Birgit Capelle
Birgit Capelle
Institution: University of Bonn; North American Studies Program; Department of English, American, and Celtic Studies;
Email: bcapell1@uni-bonn.de
This article explores the epic poem Mountains and Rivers Without End (1996) by Gary Snyder and a Song/Chin dynasty Chinese landscape painting. I illustrate how the poem and the painting, together with Henry David Thoreau’s autobiographical narrative A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849...
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This article explores the epic poem Mountains and Rivers Without End (1996) by Gary Snyder and a Song/Chin dynasty Chinese landscape painting. I illustrate how the poem and the painting, together with Henry David Thoreau’s autobiographical narrative A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) and Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums (1958), form a complex web of intertextual and intermedial references. All four works, I argue, tell similar narratives of spiritual journey and paths through mountain and river landscapes; all four speak of moments of heightened awareness in the sense of Buddhist “no-mind” (Chinese: wu-shin; Japanese: mushin). I show how they converge in exhibiting ontologies of non-substantiality, emptiness, and becoming. Taking the philosophies of Zen Buddhism and Taoism as a theoretical frame, I argue that the American transcendentalist and Beat works poetically and narratively convey relational rather than substantialist views of Being and life. They depict the world as a dynamic and open field of tension between two non-oppositional forces from which we as subjects are not essentially separate in a dualistic way. I substantiate my argument by drawing on the French sinologist and philosopher François Jullien, who refers to the Chinese understanding of landscape (“mountains and waters”) in his critical treatment of (European) philosophy’s centuries-long subject-centered epistemology and substantialist “ontology of Being.”
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Posted 1 year ago
Andrés Teira-Brión
Andrés Teira-Brión
Institution: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Departamento de Historia, Praza da Universidade 1, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Email: andres.teira.brion@usc.es
The Roman economy of the Iberian Peninsula has habitually been characterised in terms of prestige goods and economic activities such as trade, mining and metallurgy. The analysis of plant-based foods –less prestigious but more essential in everyday life– has commonly been marginalised in state-o...
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The Roman economy of the Iberian Peninsula has habitually been characterised in terms of prestige goods and economic activities such as trade, mining and metallurgy. The analysis of plant-based foods –less prestigious but more essential in everyday life– has commonly been marginalised in state-of-the-art reviews. The O Areal saltworks is exceptional in terms of the large number of organic materials it preserves, and the excellent state of that preservation. After its abandonment (end of the 3rd/4th century AD), the saltworks was briefly used as a dumping ground for the surrounding area. The site's archaeobotanical remains, preserved under anoxic, waterlogged conditions, consist of the building materials used at the saltworks, tools and other artefacts, organic objects employed in activities such as fishing, and refuse. The assemblage suggests a wide diversity of species to have been introduced into northwestern Iberia during the Roman Period, including the mulberry, peach, fig, plum, grapevine, and melon. The notable presence of other edible fruit species that normally grew wild during this period, such as chestnut, walnut, stone pine, and cherry trees, might be related to the start of their cultivation.
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Posted 1 year ago
This paper aims to show how local civic communities, nominally subject to the Seleucid dynasts, integrated Roman magistrates into an existing framework of authority during the late second and early first centuries BCE. I argue that as Roman magistrates played
an increasingly significant role in th...
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This paper aims to show how local civic communities, nominally subject to the Seleucid dynasts, integrated Roman magistrates into an existing framework of authority during the late second and early first centuries BCE. I argue that as Roman magistrates played
an increasingly significant role in the region, cities initially framed them in quasi-regal terms, which their interlocutors consciously accepted. Through a close reading of two Roman letters to the Cilician city of Mopsuestia, dated to 87 BCE (SEG 44.1227), and analysis of literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence for the final collapse of Seleucid authority in the early 60s BCE, I reveal that this was a locally driven process. Consequently, local agents played a critical role in both legitimising Roman hegemony in local contexts and encouraging Roman intervention within the region
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Posted 1 year ago
Augustine Owusu-Addo
Augustine Owusu-Addo
Institution: Dean, Faculty of Education, Catholic University College of Ghana,
Email: info@res00.com
The main aim of this paper is to visualize the historical development and the belief system of Confucianism. Confucianism is a term used in Western literature as the name for the philosophy and religion based on the teachings of its founder Confucius.). Confucius believed that political order can be...
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The main aim of this paper is to visualize the historical development and the belief system of Confucianism. Confucianism is a term used in Western literature as the name for the philosophy and religion based on the teachings of its founder Confucius.). Confucius believed that political order can be restored if the ideals, standards, and rites found in the ancient classics were put into practice. This practice developed from an ethico-political system of a paternal government based on the doctrine of humaneness. Confucianism has also spread well beyond China, and its principles and values are highly honoured in East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam (Morgan 2001). The adoption of Confucianism as the official state ideology made Confucian learning the only legitimate content of state education during the Han dynasty. Confucianism has sometimes been purely humanistic, void of any religious elements. While it is true that Confucius did not dwell much into the religious dimension, there is sufficient inferences in his writings that points to this dimension. The basic tenets of Confucianism are captured in the teachings of Confucius which deal with social and moral values. The texts of Confucianism are traditionally known as the “Four Books and Five Classics”. One common practice derived from of this religion is ancestral worship. This is probably the most recognisable influence of Confucius on Chinese culture. The last section of this review takes a comparative look at Confucianism and Christianity. It points out gaps and the bridges that’s between Christians and Confucianism and how interreligious dialogues and the preaching of the gospel relates to Confucian teachings.
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Posted 1 year ago
IVA PEŠA
IVA PEŠA
Institution: University of Groningen Contemporary History — Research Centre for Historical Studies Oude Kijk in 't Jatstraat 26 9712 EK
Email: i.pesa@rug.nl
Since the early twentieth century, the copper-mining industry on the Zambian and Congolese Copperbelt has moved millions of tonnes of earth and dramatically reshaped the landscape. Nonetheless, mining companies, governments and even residents largely overlooked the adverse environmental aspects of m...
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Since the early twentieth century, the copper-mining industry on the Zambian and Congolese Copperbelt has moved millions of tonnes of earth and dramatically reshaped the landscape. Nonetheless, mining companies, governments and even residents largely overlooked the adverse environmental aspects of mining until the early 1990s. By scrutinising environmental knowledge production on the Central African Copperbelt from the 1950s until the late 1990s, particularly regarding notions of 'waste', this article problematises the silencing of the environmental impacts of mining. To make the environmental history of the Copperbelt visible, this article examines forestry policies, medical services and environmental protests. Moreover, by historically tracing the emergence of environmental consciousness, it contextualises the sudden 'discovery' of pollution in the 1990s as a local and (inter)national phenomenon. Drawing on rare archival and oral history sources, it provides one of the first cross-border environmental histories of the Central African Copperbelt.
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Posted 1 year ago
Y. L. Lucy Wang
Y. L. Lucy Wang
Institution: Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, US
Email: yw3056@columbia.edu
The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong became a named entity around 1810 and was demolished in 1994, but its architecture had long been unclassified. Not until the years just prior to its demolition did this dense slum of informal multi-story buildings receive sustained attention from architects and a...
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The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong became a named entity around 1810 and was demolished in 1994, but its architecture had long been unclassified. Not until the years just prior to its demolition did this dense slum of informal multi-story buildings receive sustained attention from architects and architectural historians. However, the architectural nature of the six-acre area predated its late-20th-century state. After its founding as a Qing military outpost, it underwent various structural additions and renovations, including an imperial Chinese administrative complex known as a yamen [衙門] and an outer wall, after which the Walled City was named. Against the grain of scholarship that has focused on the Walled City’s postwar, informal architecture, this article considers the site’s early years, arguing that the Walled City’s yamen and outer wall played a crucial role in the region’s land management practices. These two architectural structures make legible the Walled City’s evolution from a Qing administrative zone to a crowded slum. The Convention of 1898 ushered in a British-led land surveying effort throughout the New Territories region of Hong Kong, followed by the creation of an intricate bureaucracy for managing land lots. This clash of empires saw the use of two forms of land knowledge, Qing land deeds and British cadastral land surveys. In between these systems existed the Walled City, its inhabitation falling outside the British conception of land division but its historical contours very much shaped by the architectural boundaries that gave it its name.
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Posted 1 year ago
Fadlil Munawwar Manshur
Fadlil Munawwar Manshur
Institution: Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Jl. Sosio Humaniora, Bulaksumur, Sagan, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta,
Email: fadlil@ugm.ac.id
This study discusses the story of Ashab al-Kahf in the book of Fadhâ’il al-Khamsah min al-Shihahi al-Sittah by As-Sayyid Murtadha Al-Huseiny Fairuzabadi in which there are interesting and intelligent dialogues between Ali bin Abi Talib and a Jewish priest. Ali bin Abi Talib was one of the Prophet...
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This study discusses the story of Ashab al-Kahf in the book of Fadhâ’il al-Khamsah min al-Shihahi al-Sittah by As-Sayyid Murtadha Al-Huseiny Fairuzabadi in which there are interesting and intelligent dialogues between Ali bin Abi Talib and a Jewish priest. Ali bin Abi Talib was one of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions who was smart and very trusted. The story of Ashabul-Kahf contains many lessons and life’s wisdom for humans who consistently maintain their faith and stay away from the power oppressive center to their people. The formal object of this research is the story of Ashabul-Kahf which is very popular in Islamic society, both in the Arab world and outside the Arab world. The material object uses Fadhâ’il al-Khamsah min al-Shihahi al-Sittah Book. This study uses the naturalistic hermeneutic theory by Mantzavinos. The results showed that the actions of seven young men who fled to the cave due to they were being chased by the tyrannical King Dikyanus and they did not feel like sleeping in the cave for 309 years. This research reveals a series of material events since they fled from the kingdom and were chased by King Dikyanu’s army and finally they fell asleep in the cave for more than three centuries until they woke up from their long sleep and were again killed by God. Between one event material with others each other has a relationship of interrelated meaning. In this study, it is proven that the use of naturalistic hermeneutic theory can guide researchers in revealing the hidden actions meaning of the seven young men from the pursuit of King Dikyanus in the cave. The meaning revealed is that there is a causal relationship between the story of Ashabul-Kahf text and its readers (researchers). The story complexity in the story’s text is later explained through the nexus concept, which essentially looks for material that occurs in the historical reality area and expresses it through an exclusive causal relationship. Therefore, through this nexus, the problematic meaning of Ashabul-Kahf story can be revealed.
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Posted 1 year ago
Dhaneshwar Shah
Dhaneshwar Shah
Institution: School of Art and Design, Wuhan University of Technology,
Email: dhaneshwar005@yahoo.co.in
Welcome to New York in the 1960s! “Art and Design in 1960s New York,” a key component of Amanda Gluibizzi’s Doctor of Philosophy research at the “Graduate School of The Ohio State University,” has been first published in the UK and USA in 2021 by Anthem Press, and the book is now available...
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Welcome to New York in the 1960s! “Art and Design in 1960s New York,” a key component of Amanda Gluibizzi’s Doctor of Philosophy research at the “Graduate School of The Ohio State University,” has been first published in the UK and USA in 2021 by Anthem Press, and the book is now available to acquire on major websites. Anthem Press is a leading independent academic, professional, and trade publisher with a strong international and interdisciplinary focus in the established and emerging social sciences, business/law, and humanities fields of study. The Rail’s art editor is Amanda Gluibizzi, who is the co-founder and co-director of the New Foundation for Art History, as well as the author of the book titled “Art and Design in 1960s New York.” She is a well-known art historian, researcher, and associate professor. She has a background in history, education, teaching, and publishing, as well as a specialisation in modern and contemporary art and design. Two of her notable research talks and papers are “Design Systems: What Not to Include” at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston and “Making New York Understandable”: Revolutionary Proposals for a City in Crisis-Design, History, and Revolution at Parsons New School in New York. The author takes a broader view of New York’s “Visual World” in the 1960s. The author uses a formal approach to explore the relationship between art and design and highlight their mutual influence, which has been overlooked throughout history. The author employs ethnographic and multidisciplinary methods throughout the book to highlight the art and design experiments and challenges in 1960s New York. The author examines design and art side-by-side to explore how their relationship manifests itself. The author included quotations and excerpts from journals, books, magazines, newspapers, interviews, and film scenes, in addition to diverse analyses of visuals and literature cognate to art and design. This research-based book gives readers an opportunity to take a look back with curiosity at the art and graphic design of 1960s New York.
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Posted 1 year ago
Sou Hyun Jang
Sou Hyun Jang
Institution: Department of Sociology, Korea University,
Email: soujang@korea.ac.kr
Most studies on COVID-19 preventive behaviors have focused on single-level factors such as national policy, community social capital, or individuals' sociodemographic characteristics. Through a social-ecological model, this study attempts to comprehensively examine the multilevel factors associated ...
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Most studies on COVID-19 preventive behaviors have focused on single-level factors such as national policy, community social capital, or individuals' sociodemographic characteristics. Through a social-ecological model, this study attempts to comprehensively examine the multilevel factors associated with COVID-19 preventive practices in South Korea. Accordingly, a web survey involving 1,500 participants was conducted in December 2020. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to examine the multilevel factors (individual, interpersonal, community, and policy levels) related to COVID-19 preventive measures, which are based on wearing a mask, washing hands, covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing, and social distancing. When factors at each level were investigated, higher scores of COVID-19 fear and correct knowledge at the individual level, COVID-19 information share at the interpersonal level, and better evaluation of the national government policies in regard to COVID-19 at the policy level were positively associated with COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Community-level factors-neighborhood perception and community participation-were negatively significantly related to COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Additionally, older age, being female, and having a graduate-level education were positively related to better preventive behaviors. The findings of the current study suggest that multilevel efforts are needed to promote preventive behaviors. Specifically, more effort to alleviate COVID-19-related fear and disseminate correct knowledge among Korean citizens is needed as the individual-level characteristics explained the preventive behaviors more than the factors at upper levels.
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Posted 1 year ago
The COVID-19 pandemic has spread to all countries in the world after more than six months since it was first reported in late 2019, and different countries have been impacted differently. Correlation analysis between COVID-19 death numbers and different demographic and socioeconomic factors for all ...
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The COVID-19 pandemic has spread to all countries in the world after more than six months since it was first reported in late 2019, and different countries have been impacted differently. Correlation analysis between COVID-19 death numbers and different demographic and socioeconomic factors for all world countries (n=210) as of June 1, 2020, reveals that COVID-19 deaths per million population in a country significantly correlates with the country's median age (r=0.48, p=4.8e-4) and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) (r=0.55, p=4.14e-5), and inversely correlates with the country's Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination rate (r=-0.63, p=9.9e-7). COVID-19 death is found not significantly associated, however, with a country's policy stringency index, population density, extreme poverty rate, hospital beds availability per thousand people, and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) immunization. Old age is likely a confounding factor for the correlation between COVID-19 and per capita GDP (r=0.66, p=2.3e-7). To control for possible confounding effects of age, countries with similar median age were grouped and analyzed. The inverse correlation between BCG vaccination rates and COVID-19 case (r=-0.338, p=0.0082) and death (r=-0.411, p=0.0011) remained significant among the top 61 countries with highest median age. The current study suggests that BCG might be protective against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Posted 1 year ago
