bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Torn Flesh: Julia Kristeva and the Givenness of the Stranger
Authors: Purcell Elyse
Published: February 2013

The lived body—or the flesh—in phenomenological thought, has always served to locate the individual unity of personhood, or perceptual experience, or at least one’s objective unity in the lived world. It has been what makes me “who” I am, my individuating facticity. Jean-Luc Marion, in particular, describes the capacity of the flesh to exceed all forms of phenomenological manifestation as a saturated phenomenon. The aim of this essay is to question this status of the flesh by way of an investigation into the work of Julia Kristeva’s account of the foreigner and maternity. It is argued that the status of the flesh as an individuating process is rather a dividing process, which is mediated through my relation to the other. A new Kristevan ethic is sketched.
Real Living Painting: Quasi-Objects and Dividuation in the Byzantine World
Authors: Peers Glenn
Published: February 2013

Abstract

This article examines an issue that has troubled Byzantine art historians: what Byzantines meant by “living painting.” It attempts to simplify the problem by accepting the sources at face value (painting was indeed alive) and to complicate our understanding of painting (painting occupied a subject-position just as fully as humans did). It uses the notion of ‘dividuals,’ which are opposed to discrete entities like individuals, and of ‘quasi-object,’ so that painting, metal work, stones, and people all appeared in some fashion as objects, but only superficially so. The cases used to establish this position include: Michael Psellos on paintings of Christ; Eucharistic chalices, divine geology and bloods of Christ; and the miraculous stories of interchanging identities among icons and persons. In this way, this article argues for an understanding of Byzantine materiality as relational; it assumed a participatory aspect among all things and persons in that world.
Absolute Art: Nicolas of Cusa’s De Visione Dei
Authors: Conty Arianne
Published: February 2013

Abstract

Nicolas of Cusa’s fifteenth-century textDe Visione Deirepresents his most far-reaching illustration of communication between finite “quantum” vision and the infinite spherical vision of God. Written to accompany a visual experiment, the text instructs the monks of Tegernsee to circumambulate an all-seeing icon of God. Developing the concept of infinite space that had found a geometrical representation in the vanishing point, Cusa places it within God’s eye, which retains its medieval and religious function by gazing out of the painting at the monk according to inverse perspective. This text thus constructs a veritable sociology of belief, in which believing the word of the other, of the community, is necessary for each individual’s understanding of God. In this sense, there can be no unmediated experience of the divine, for God, as infinite and absolute, cannot be reduced to a single perspective. Cusa’s experiment shows us that we cannot live together in a community based upon what we see, for what we see cannot be shared. It is only our trust in the word of others that can testify to an invisible and universal meaning. Sharing this meaning in language effectively founds the social order.
The Mystery of the Charity of Geoffrey Hill
Authors: Weinfield Henry
Published: February 2013

Abstract

This essay is essentially an analysis of Geoffrey Hill’s long and difficult poem of 1983, “The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy,” a poem that confronts the advent of modernity and the ambiguities of history by focusing on the dilemmas that the French poet and journalist named in its title faced on the eve of World War 1. Hill sees Péguy as embracing a version of Christian fatalism, and so too his own attitude toward history is deeply fatalistic in the poem. If there is a saving grace for Hill, it is not in history, which remains forever unresolved, but in poetry.
‘Illegal’ Migration as Resistance: Legality, Morality and Coercion in Indonesian Domestic Worker Migration to Malaysia
Authors: Killias Olivia
Published: February 2013

This article explores dominant discourses on ‘illegal’ migrants in the context of contemporary Indonesian labour migration to Malaysia. By focusing on the particular case of migrant domestic workers, it discusses recent political moves undertaken by both nation-states to regularise migratory movements. These state-induced efforts at regularising transnational migration have been promoted as combating trafficking and ‘illegal’ migration, but they have led to the legitimisation of a migration scheme that has much in common with colonial indentured labour. Hence, the paper argues that this ‘legal,’ state-sanctioned migration scheme gradually leads domestic workers into ‘legal’ — but bonded — labour arrangements and that the labour contract, as such, needs to be analysed as an instrument of subordination. Through the counter-narrative of Arum, an Indonesian domestic worker performing her work ‘illegally’ in Malaysia, the paper then goes on to argue that to migrate through ‘illegal’ migration channels can be interpreted as an act of voluntarily circumventing the ‘legal,’ state-sanctioned migration scheme. Thus, ‘illegal’ migration can be equated with deliberately resisting a coercive system.
Negotiating (In)dependency: Social Journeys of Vietnamese Women to Cambodia
Authors: Nguyn Phi Vân Evelyne , Gironde Christophe
Published: February 2013

Since the issue of human trafficking is subject to judicial, moral and political constraints, this research chose to study Vietnamese sex workers in Phnom Penh as a common migration phenomenon in order to see when, how and why some women ended up in situations of bondage. On the basis of four months of research in the Mekong delta, the paper explores the journeys leading Vietnamese women to Phnom Penh. It concurs with the recent literature that debt-bonded sex work is not always an unending situation and that it could be an effective means to cope with socio-cultural pressures. We argue that, in addition to labour arrangements, some women find in sex work a way to deal with their (in)dependency with regards to their families, achieving greater control over their resources and experimenting different meanings of womanhood. Far from denying human trafficking, the paper tries to explore the grey area that lies between this extreme and voluntary migration. While the results of this research are not representative of the whole phenomenon, we argue that these few elements help explain why women keep taking the risks of migration for sex work and expose themselves to situations of bonded labour.
Al-Tawassuṭ wa-l I‘tidāl: The NU and Moderatism in Indonesian Islam
Authors: Burhani Ahmad Najib
Published: February 2013

Abstract

Moderate Islam is a paradox. In the United States, Muslim intellectuals and activists use this term with super caution and reservation, avoid it when possible. In contrast to that, their counterparts in Indonesia enthusiastically and proudly claim to be the champions of moderate Islam. The question is why those intellectuals and activists from the same religion but coming from different continent and type of country responded the idea of moderate Islam differently, if not contradistinctively. Given that this term is commonly used as a translation of Qur’anic term umma wasaṭ, it is also important to ask the meaning of this term in Islamic history, how Muslim exegetes throughout Islam history conceptualise umma wasaṭ? And finally, how Indonesian Muslims define moderatism after the 9/11 and what are the criteria of moderate Islam in their views? By analysing the concept of moderate Islam as adopted by the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Islamic movement in Indonesia, this article shows that the meaning moderate in Indonesia is more theological, while in the US it is more political. Moderate Islam in Indonesia is more related to the doctrine of Aswaja, while in the US this notion has more connection with George W. Bush’s ‘war on terror.’
Malaysia’s Coming Out! Critical Cosmopolitans, Religious Politics and Democracy
Authors: Muniandy Parthiban
Published: February 2013

Abstract

This paper explores the rise of new social movements in Malaysia in the past year, with special focus on the transformations in civil society and the changing face of politics in the country. Recently, proselytisation and LGBT rights have become deeply politicised as a result of a revival in public activism and mobilisation. Here, I examine the discourse surrounding these issues through analyses of NGO websites, press releases, news articles and other sources. The analyses reveal three emergent themes beginning with the fragmentation of Islamic authority following experiments with state Islamism, the cosmopolitanisation of a society in a post-Islamist phase and finally, the increasing public visibility of social and political movements. I argue that Malaysian society is experiencing a shift from traditional ethnic politics to more critical cosmopolitan struggles, highlighting the encounter with globalisation and heightened awareness within public consciousness of the visible presence of minority communities in society.
Ditylenchus gallaeformans sp. n. (Tylenchida: Anguinidae) – a neotropical nematode with biocontrol potential against weedy Melastomataceae
Authors: Oliveira Rosângela D.L. , Santin Ângelo M. , Seni Dalila J. , Dietrich Anna , Salazar Luis A. , Subbotin Sergei A. , Mundo-Ocampo Manuel , Goldenberg Renato , Barreto Robert W.
Published: February 2013

Ditylenchus gallaeformans sp. n. was found on several hosts at numerous locations in Brazil and Costa Rica. In its native habitats it attacks several genera in the Melastomataceae, including two species ranked as among the worst invasive weeds of Pacific island forests, namely Miconia calvescens and Clidemia hirta. The new species causes a severe disease on infected plants involving the formation of gall-like structures on infected leaves, inflorescences and stems, and may cause significant impact on its hosts. Morphological study using light and scanning electron microscopy and analysis of the partial 18S rRNA, the D2-D3 expansion fragments of 28S rRNA and the ITS rRNA gene sequences showed little variations between populations from different hosts or geographical origins. The molecular study revealed that the new species is related to D. drepanocercus, which was recently found in association with M. calvescens but causing angular leaf spots on this host. Ditylenchus gallaeformans sp. n. is distinguished from D. drepanocercus by having a bursa reaching the tail tip (vs covering around 50% of tail in D. drepanocercus) and a conical tail, regularly tapering towards a variable tip (vs tail with a distinctive apical falciform appendage in both sexes in D. drepanocercus). PCR with species-specific primers was developed for diagnostics of both Ditylenchus species. Ditylenchus gallaeformans sp. n. deserves further investigation as a potential biocontrol agent against M. calvescens and C. hirta.
Description of the bark beetle associated nematodes Micoletzkya masseyi n. sp. and M. japonica n. sp. (Nematoda: Diplogastridae)
Authors: Susoy Vladislav , Kanzaki Natsumi , Herrmann Matthias
Published: February 2013

Micoletzkya masseyi n. sp. and M. japonica n. sp. from bark beetles Orthotomicus caelatus and Dryocoetes uniseriatus, respectively, are described based on morphology and molecular data. Both species are gonochoristic and can be cultured monoxenically on bacteria. Micoletzkya masseyi n. sp. is differentiated from other species of the genus by a very short male tail, P6-P8 genital papillae arranged in a triangle and with P7 being closer to P8 than to P6, and a conoid female tail to a sharp terminus. Micoletzkya japonica n. sp. is distinct from other Micoletzkya species by the arrangement of its male papillae such that P6 and P7 are close to each other and P8 is positioned apart from them, a conoid male tail with a spicate terminus, and a small gubernaculum (ca 11 μm in length). Phylogeny of the genus was inferred using nucleotide sequences of 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, COI, and two ribosomal protein genes. Biological data for the new species are presented and the associations between Micoletzkya species and bark beetles are discussed.
Selective feeding in nematodes: a stable isotope analysis of bacteria and algae as food sources for free-living nematodes
Authors: Estifanos Tafesse Kefyalew , Traunspurger Walter , Peters Lars
Published: February 2013

Laboratory experiments with stable isotopes (13C and 15N) were conducted to determine the importance of bacteria and algae as food sources for free-living nematodes. All tested bacterivorous nematodes (Caenorhabditis elegans, Acrobeloides tricornis, Poikilolaimus sp. and Panagrolaimus sp.) were found to be depleted in δ13C (on average by −1.71 ± 0.56‰) and enriched in δ15N (on average by 3.17 ± 1.27‰) relative to their bacterial diets of Escherichia coli and Matsuebacter sp. The nematode species showed considerable differences in their stable isotope composition with respect to food sources. Moreover, they differed significantly in δ13C and δ15N values when placed on the same bacterial diet of E. coli, consistent with differences in their trophic shifts. Conversely, no differences in δ13C values were observed among nematode species placed on the same Matsuebacter sp. diet. In mixed food sources of E. coli and Matsuebacter sp., E. coli contributed 71% of the carbon to C. elegans and Matsuebacter sp. more than 90% of the carbon to A. tricornis. An enrichment experiment based on 13C-enriched NaH13CO3, 13C6-glucose and 15N-enriched Na15NO3 tracers in a freshwater periphytic community showed the importance of micro-algae and diatoms over heterotrophic bacteria as the main food sources of free-living periphytic nematodes. In this respect, direct grazing may predominate, possibly together with the use of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from diatoms. In general, the use of stable isotopes to study nematode feeding ecology can be useful to investigate directly the type of ingested food item(s), different bacteria and algae, and the contribution to nematode diet, in addition to the conventional feeding type scheme.
Differential defence response due to jasmonate seed treatment in cowpea and tomato against root-knot and potato cyst nematodes
Authors:   Pankaj, Muttucumaru Nira , Powers Stephen J. , Gaur Hari S. , Kurup Smita , Curtis Rosane H.C.
Published: February 2013

Treatment of seeds with jasmonate provides significant reduction in Meloidogyne incognita and Globodera pallida infection. The number of M. incognita inside roots of cowpea and tomato plants derived from seeds treated with jasmonate was greatly reduced; however, the major effect of jasmonic acid and methyl jasmonate treatments was observed on the number of eggs produced by the nematodes wherein a significant reduction was observed in both treatments. By contrast, pre-treatment of tomato seeds with jasmonate not only reduced G. pallida infection by 63% but also affected nematode development inside the roots. These results indicate that jasmonate treatments affected nematode reproduction and/or development. We show here that germination and plant growth parameters of tomato seeds, but not of cowpea and soybean seeds, were unaffected by jasmonate treatment. The use of elicitors to prime plant immunity is a natural way of protecting plants by boosting their immunity to provide nematode resistance. Seed treatment with natural elicitors of plant immunity offers an environmentally friendly alternative for farmers and growers that can contribute to the protection of their crops from pests above and below ground.
Potential biological control of lesion nematodes on banana using Kenyan strains of endophytic Fusarium oxysporum
Authors: Waweru Bancy W. , Losenge Turoop , Kahangi Esther M. , Dubois Thomas , Coyne Daniel
Published: February 2013

The root-lesion nematode Pratylenchus goodeyi is a common pest of banana in Kenya, which results in significant yield losses. An emerging option for the management of banana nematodes includes the use of endophytic fungi, which cause no damage to their hosts but often extend benefits, such as enhanced protection against various biotic and abiotic constraints. In the current study, non-pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum strains originating from banana (Musa spp.) in Kenya (4MOC321 and 11SR23) and Uganda (V5w2) were evaluated for their efficacy against P. goodeyi in tissue culture-derived plantlets (cv. Giant Cavendish and cv. Grand Nain) in pots. Pratylenchus goodeyi densities were 47-60% lower in endophyte-inoculated relative to non-inoculated plants and root necrosis damage was reduced by >30%. Endophyte treatment had no effect on plant growth parameters compared with untreated control plants. The performance of the two Kenyan strains was equally effective as the positive control (V5w2), thus demonstrating their potential as nematode bio-control agents under Kenyan growing conditions.
Redescription of Filenchus annulatus (Siddiqui & Khan, 1983) Siddiqi, 1986 based on specimens from Iran with contributions to the molecular phylogeny of the Tylenchidae
Authors: Atighi Mohammad Reza , Pourjam Ebrahim , Pereira Tiago José , Okhovvat Seyyed Mahmoud , Alizada Bashir Ahmad , Mundo-Ocampo Manuel , Baldwin James G.
Published: February 2013

Filenchus annulatus is redescribed and males are characterised for the first time based on a population found in Northern Khorasan province, Iran. New morphological characterisation is based on light and scanning electron microscopy. In addition, molecular analyses based on 18S and 28S genes are included to test monophyly of the genus. Females from the Iranian population have a spermatheca typically filled with sperm. Generally males are similar to females, ranging from 306 to 426 μm long. Spicules are arcuate, cephalated and 11.5-14.0 μm long, the gubernaculum is minute and trough-shaped and the caudal alae are adanal. Phylogenetic analyses differed in results depending on the gene used: 28S gene strongly supports Filenchus as monophyletic whereas 18S shows Filenchus as polyphyletic. In both gene phylogenies, F. annulatus is placed as a sister taxon of F. quartus from Wyoming, USA. Although sequence divergence between these two species is only 3 base pairs and 1 base pair for 28S and 18S genes, respectively, strong morphological differences support their species status. Relationships between Filenchus and other Tylenchidae genera are also gene dependent. Such differences in tree topologies and branch support are related to the number of Filenchus species used in the analyses (greater for 18S gene) and gene resolution (greater for 28S gene). Molecular phylogenies also suggest that other Tylenchidae genera (i.e., Psilenchus, Cephalenchus and Eutylenchus) belong to separate clades, as is also suggested by some morphology-based classifications. The inclusion of more taxa and perhaps additional genes is needed further to clarify Filenchus relationships and further to test its monophyly.
Morphological and molecular characterisation of Aporcelaimellus simplex (Thorne & Swanger, 1936) Loof & Coomans, 1970 and a new concept for Aporcella Andrássy, 2002 (Dorylaimida: Aporcelaimidae)
Authors: Álvarez-Ortega Sergio , Subbotin Sergei A. , Peña-Santiago Reyes
Published: February 2013

This contribution presents a study of Iberian and Californian populations of Aporcelaimellus simplex, including morphological, morphometric and molecular data. The species is characterised and distinguished by its lip region offset by an expansion, pars refringens vaginae absent, and conical tail with a small but distinct hyaline terminal portion. No significant difference exists between American and European populations. Molecular data and the derived evolutionary tree show a topology in which this species forms a well-supported group with members of Discolaiminae, far from other representatives of Aporcelaimellus. Putting special emphasis in the absence of pars refringens vaginae, A. simplex is transferred to the genus Aporcella. The taxonomy of this genus is revised in depth, with the proposal of an emended diagnosis, the provision of a list of 13 valid species (mostly new combinations from Aporcelaimellus) as well as a key to their identification and a compendium of their main morphometrics. Aporcella debruinae sp. n. is proposed for Aporcelaimellus papillatus apud de Bruin & Heyns, 1992.
Factors Influencing Consumers’ Financial Transactions in Islamic Banks Compared with Conventional Banks: Empirical Evidence from Selected Middle-East Countries with a Dual Banking System*
Authors: Alemu Aye Mengistu
Published: February 2013

Abstract

Despite various evidences that show Islamic banking has gained popularity even by non-Muslim consumers and businesses in many parts of the world, there is still a general misconception that consumer’s choice for Islamic banking is only influenced by religious obligations and thus it is just a Muslim-only affair. Yet, our knowledge of consumer motivations for choosing Islamic versus conventional banking services is modest and the research to date is limited and ambiguous on these key issues. Therefore, this study conducts a two-step empirical analyses and first identifies the factors influencing customer’s decision whether to choose Islamic or conventional banking using Linear Probability Model (LPM) and Tobit estimation method, and as a second step, it investigates the main attributing factors to consumers overall level of satisfaction with the services provided by Islamic banks compared to conventional banks using ordinal-logistic regression model. The study was based on a randomly selected 322 bank customers from Bahrain, Jordan, and UAE. The study confirms that although religious factors such as Shari’a compliance are important, other non-religious factors including better quality of services and information disclosure are also playing crucial roles for the growing consumers’ demand for Islamic banking. Nevertheless; factors such as better rate of return, accessibility to credit, and SMS banking are found to be the main significant determinants of consumers’ choice and satisfaction with the services provided by conventional banks. Overall, the recent experience especially after the financial crisis of 2008 demonstrates that Islamic banking system can be part of the solution since it is mainly based on stronger regulatory system.
Feminizing Development: The Political Sociology of Female Tokenism in the Nigerian Project
Authors: Ebohon Sylvanus I.
Published: February 2013

Abstract

This paper interrogates the phenomena of gendered development and gendered opportunity structure in the context of the Nigerian project. On the basis of a body of empirical evidence, male dominance and female tokenism are presented. It is argued that while female participation has recorded steady growth, the emergence of women politicians in the “public face” makes a case for the exceptionality of agendered development in the Nigerian project. It is further argued that the rising profile e of women in the Nigerian ‘public space’ is not only one of the exceptionalities in the global discourse, but that it owes its emergence to post-colonial reform efforts. It is however argued that rising female profile under Goodluck Jonathan in the national executive space marks the rise of top-down approach to feminization of the public space. The paper also points out that the capacity of women to carve autonomous political space within the Nigerian project may be limited by the declining profile of bottom-up approach to female presence in elective offices. The sociological transition from biological femaleness to sociological maleness has engendered the phenomena of ‘female hybridization’ and token radicalism amongst women. The paper concludes with analysis of the sociological roots of de-empowerment located in the growth in women participation.
Towards an Ecologically Sensitive Pneumatology
Authors: van der Kooi Cornelis
Published: February 2013

Abstract

Theology of creation has liberated itself from the shadows of the debate on natural theology. After Moltmann’s explorations on the theme of pneumatology and ecology others have moved towards more reality and experience-oriented conceptions. In this contribution some of these proposals are discussed and recommendations are made in order to develop a pneumatology that is informed by trinitarian-theological insights as well as empirical ecologically informed research.
Ecology and Pneuma: Needing and Finding Each Other?
Authors: Lombard Christo
Published: February 2013

Abstract

A discussion of early contributions on ecological spirituality, such as “rediscovering the Gospel of the Earth” (Tom Hayden), “telling a New Universe Story” (Thomas Berry) and “religion as roots and wings” (Jay McDaniel), serves as sounding board for the much earlier pneumatological reflections on humanity and nature by the Dutch scholar, A.A. van Ruler. In his Trinitarian theology, Van Ruler explored ways of overcoming dualism in Christianity and countering spiritless definitions of reality in science. Christology and ‘incarnation’ need supplementation by Pneumatology and indwelling’ of God’s Spirit in humanity and nature to eschatologically properly integrate ‘all things’ in God’s ecology.
Churches Unusual: Worship and Broad-Based Organizing in Two Brooklyn Congregations
Authors: Marshall Aarian
Published: February 2013

Abstract

The following is an ethnographical study of two ‘churches unusual’ in Brooklyn, New York, USA: ‘unusual’ because all are members of a local citizen’s organization. East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC) is itself an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), a broad-based organizing network grounded in the idea that the most potent power is found in community relationships. The ethnography presented here of two EBC member institutions—Hope Christian Center and St Paul Community Baptist Church—moves back and forth between each congregation’s worship and participation in the citizens’ organization to which it belongs. In juxtaposing their religious practice and organizing, this article explores the relationship between them, asking how religious identities are changed in the organizing process.
The Arabs as Nazis? Some Reflections on “Islamofascism” and Arab Anti-Semitism
Authors: Flores Alexander
Published: February 2013

One of the main constituents of the so-called Islamofascism is, in the eyes of those who subscribe to this conception, the close affinity of Arabs (and sometimes, Muslims) to Nazi ideology and possibly practice. To bolster this notion, its proponents do basically three things: first, they try to prove that a massive majority of Arabs took a pro-Nazi stand during the Third Reich and especially during World War II and that important Arab figures collaborated with Nazi Germany during the War. Secondly, they point to widespread—real and alleged—anti-Jewish beliefs among present-day Arabs. And thirdly, they claim that there is a personal, political and ideological continuity between both phenomena and that, thus, present-day Arab Judeophobia has the same character, scope and possible effect as the anti-Semitism of the Nazis. During the War, so the argument goes, Arab attitudes were part and parcel of Nazi ideology, and they largely retained this quality although, after the War, Nazism was overcome in Europe. In this article, three more recent publications which subscribe to the above mentioned argument will be critically discussed.
Bitenosh’s Orgasm (1QapGen 2:9-15)
Authors: Van der Horst Pieter W.
Published: February 2013

Abstract

It is certain that ancient Greek concepts of embryogenesis influenced Jewish theories about the coming-into-being of a foetus. In that light the enigmatic remark of Bitenosh in 1QapGen 2 about her “pleasure” in response to Lamech’s worried question about who fathered their child (Noah) becomes clear: she refers to her orgasm considered as a sign of her own seminal emission during their begetting of the child.
How Adab Became Literary: Formalism, Orientalism and the Institutions of World Literature
Authors: Allan Michael
Published: February 2013

Abstract

Lamenting that “the concept of literary study is broadened . . . so radically that it becomes identical with the whole history of humanity,” René Wellek implores scholars instead to “face the problem of ‘literariness’.” This essay considers Wellek’s formalist conception of literariness alongside what might appear its counterpoint: the historically situated understanding of adab. Just how universal is Wellek’s concept of literariness? In what ways does adab reaffirm or undermine its pertinence across textual traditions? Rather than present Wellek’s formalism and adab as opposites, this essay notes their common grounding in the pedagogical and ethical registers of the term literature—understood less as a canon of texts than as a set of practices and disciplines. Moving between the institutional foundations of modern literary study in Egypt, a footnote from Jirjī Zaydān’s literary history, and reflections on literature by the Orientalist H.A.R. Gibb, the various subsections consider how emergent definitions of literature and adab turn on assertions of how to read, respond and relate to texts. In the end, this shifted emphasis posits world literature less as an amalgam of particular textual traditions than as the disciplines and practices that inscribe how literature comes to matter.
Al-Azhar in the Bibliographic Imagination
Authors: Gubara Dahlia E. M.
Published: February 2013

Abstract

This article interrogates the discursive substance of the library in the modern production of knowledge. It proceeds in two parts: the first section explores the locations of the idea of the Library in the modern episteme, while the second analyzes its importation and application in Egypt, and its implications for reforms at al-Azhar. Beginning with an exploration of the place of books and libraries as symbols and indices of civilizational progress in the modern West, it then moves to their mobilization in national and imperial state projects. Shifting to Egypt, it shows how modern assumptions distort readings of a pre-modern text by an Azhari scholar, before analyzing the internalization of a Western bibliographic discourse in the late nineteenth-century and beyond, culminating in today’s ‘Azhar Online’ digitalization project, where technical, didactic and ideological aims are discursively positioned in a dialectic of ‘education for heritage, heritage for education.’
Modernity and Metapoetry in Muḥammad ʿAfīfī Maṭar’s Hunt Poem: Ṭardiyyah
Authors: Stetkevych Jaroslav
Published: February 2013

Abstract

This study consists of an interpretation and full translation of a single poem by the contemporary Arab Egyptian poet Muḥammad ʿAfīfī Maṭar (1935-2010). The poet titles it Ṭardiyyah (Hunt Poem). With this title, the poem admits its link to the Umayyad-born and ʿAbbāsid-matured genre of the “poem of the courtly hunt,” ṭardiyyah. ʿAfīfī Maṭar’s understanding of his no longer courtly, modernist poem is therefore hermeneutically connected to his understanding of the old genre, informing his modern mythopoetic employ of the archaic motif of “the morning of the hunter.” This essay also discusses: ʿAfīfī Maṭar’s place among the European and American poets of radical Modernism, especially, regarding the mythopoetic stance of Wallace Stevens; the problem of the notorious difficulty and obscurity ( ṣuʿūbah and ghumūḍ ) of ʿAfīfī Maṭar’s poetic language; and the general search of modern Arab poets, among them Adūnīs, for a new poetic language. Finally, the essay singles out ʿAfīfī Maṭar’s Ṭardiyyah and his very personal mythopoesis as a total achievement in the presentation of a Modernist Arabic poem—an achievement analogous to Wallace Stevens’ “central poem,” that is, A Primitive like an Orb.
“Tremendous Damage” or “Mere Pinpricks”: The Costs of Piracy
Authors: Pearson Michael
Published: February 2013

Abstract

In the voluminous literature on historical piracy there is no convincing analysis of the actual impact of piracy on sea trade. This article attempts, in a preliminary way, such an analysis. Fragmentary data from the early modern Indian Ocean suggests that the cost of piracy was a minor imposition as compared with many other charges and dangers, some of them predictable, others not.
Bloodthirsty Pirates? Violence and Terror on the South China Sea in Early Modern Times
Authors: Antony Robert J.
Published: February 2013

Abstract

All pirates had reputations for violence and terror, but in Asia people also depicted them as bloodthirsty demons who practiced cannibalism and human sacrifices. But how deserved were those reputations? Here I examine the images, nature, and meanings of pirate violence in the South China Sea between the fifteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Pirates consciously used violence and brutality to obtain money and goods, to seek vengeance against their enemies, and to instill fear in anyone who might resist them. In this article I focus on what I call the cultural construction of violence with Chinese characteristics.
The Love of Jesus Never Disappoints: Reconstituting Female Personhood in Urban Madagascar
Authors: Cole Jennifer
Published: February 2013

Abstract

Drawing from extensive fieldwork in east Madagascar, this article examines the role of Pentecostal churches in assuaging gendered suffering among middle-aged women who have become vulnerable to social exclusion. It focuses particularly on two techniques that women use to manage their relationships with husbands and children: cultivated passivity and the creation of a relationship with Jesus through prayer and small acts of exchange. It argues that conversion and the practice of Pentecostal Christianity helps women less by changing their husband’s behavior than by offering them an alternative source of authority and a new set of practices through which to build valued personhood.
Stories beyond Life and Death: Spiritual Experiences of Continuity and Discontinuity among Parents Who Lose a Child
Authors: Ganzevoort R. Ruard , Falkenburg Nette
Published: February 2013

Abstract

This is a study of parents’ spiritual experience of the loss of a child. Many parents experience continuing bonds with their deceased child as well as forms of posttraumatic growth. Twelve parents of children dying after severe illness were interviewed about their experiences. The interviews contain stories about premonitions, the intensity of the moment of the child’s death and the child’s presence after death. Thematically the stories reflect the dialectics of continuity and discontinuity in the relationship with the child. This is interpreted in terms of attributing meaning, significance and comprehensibility.
The Law of the Sea Convention and the Integrated Regulation of the Oceans
Authors: Barnes Richard
Published: February 2013

Abstract

This article explores the extent to which an integrated approach to oceans regulation is embodied within the Law of the Sea Convention, and how subsequent developments in international law and at a regional level have advanced this approach. By examining how integration operates normatively, spatially, sectorally, and temporally, as well as across intellectual disciplines and between multiple users, it suggests that considerable progress has been made in realising this fundamental goal. However, it also notes that until proper institutional support for integration is provided, we are unlikely to make more significant progress.
The Functions and Role of the United Nations Secretariat in Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea
Authors: Tarassenko Serguei , Tani Ilaria
Published: February 2013

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the functions entrusted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and performed on his behalf by the United Nations Secretariat, namely the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the Office of Legal Affairs. In accordance with the commemorative spirit of this special issue, the article seeks to chronicle the major institutional steps through which the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea came into existence and was assigned with unique tasks in ocean and sea-related matters within the United Nations system. The functions of the Division are then briefly discussed.
The Continental Shelf Regime in the Law of the Sea Convention: A Reflection on the First Thirty Years
Authors: McDorman Ted L.
Published: February 2013

Abstract

The international legal regime of the continental shelf was largely adopted in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea without change from that in the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf. What was added in the 1982 Convention was that all States have a legal shelf out to 200 nautical miles (nm) and that beyond 200 nm there is a formula and process for States to establish their outer limit of the shelf. Amongst the several developments that have taken place in the last 30 years respecting the continental shelf regime noted in this article, the most surprising is the number of States that have indicated that they have an area of shelf beyond 200 nm, which far exceeds the number of States seen in 1982 as having such a possibility.
Genital Autonomy, Children’s Rights, and Competing Rights Claims in International Human Rights Law
Authors: DeLaet Debra L.
Published: February 2013

Claims that genital autonomy should be considered a human right call into question medically unnecessary genital alterations, including genital cutting of both boy and girl children, the forced or coerced circumcision of adults, and surgical alterations performed on the genitals of intersex children prior to the age of consent. To date, global norms suggest only a narrow applicability of any right to genital autonomy. International organizations, states, and non-governmental organizations increasingly condemn genital cutting of girls and women but generally tolerate both the genital cutting of boys and men and the surgical alteration of the genitals of intersex children. In examining assertions that genital autonomy should be considered a human right, the article considers competing rights claims, including religious and cultural rights, parental rights, and contending perspectives on health rights. Ultimately, this article highlights the limitations of international human rights law as a tool for promoting a right to genital autonomy.
Sola scriptura, An essay in comparative legal history on 'obligacions' in thirteenth century France and England
Authors: Zwalve W.J.
Published: February 2013

It is contended in this article that the doctrine of litterarum obligatio, as developed by Jacques de Révigny on the basis of Inst. 3,21, was not inspired by Roman law, but by the 'lettre scellée' of contemporary French customary law. It is also argued, that the English deed is the equivalent of the 'lettre scellée' of medieval French customary law, like the English recognizance is the equal of the publicum instrumentum, the 'lettre de baillie', of French customary law. They were primarily executory instruments, devised to prevent litigation by allowing for executory proceedings to be initiated after a summary hearing in court. They were the products of a legal culture that did not, as yet, recognize national boundaries. Nevertheless, English law was about to break away from its continental origins, by continuing to employ legal expedients, such as the deed, which, on the continent, were beginning to become obsolete, or completely changed in character, on account of the persistent pressure of canon law and Roman law. The demise of the deed on the continent was mainly, if not exclusively, due to the influence of Roman law and canon law, which allowed for parole evidence to defeat any instrument. The persistence of the deed in English law was guaranteed by the fact that it did not allow this to happen.
The deathbed marriage of Karl Knutsson Bonde: legitimization by subsequent marriage, property and family strategies in late medieval Sweden
Authors: Korpiola Mia
Published: February 2013

The article discusses the reception of the canonical doctrine of legitimization by subsequent marriage in medieval Sweden. It analyzes what legal institutions were available in Sweden for pursuing individual property strategies. The article discusses especially how the doctrine was used in practice in the fifteenth-century case involving the marriage and inheritance of King Karl Knutsson Bonde. This case study demonstrates the conflict of interest between the presumptive heirs and the person using marriage as an instrument for changing the pool of presumptive heirs and effectively reducing the inheritance lots of the then heirs or disinheriting them altogether.
A Preliminary Survey of Modern Yoga Studies
Authors: De Michelis Elizabeth
Published: February 2013

Modern yoga has emerged as a transnational global phenomenon during
the course of the twentieth century and from about 1975 onwards it has
progressively become acculturated in many different developed or developing
societies and milieus worldwide. Eventually it started to be studied more
critically, and various processes of enquiry and reflection were initiated.
Perhaps not surprisingly, this trend has been especially noticeable in academic
circles, where we see the earliest examples of research on acculturated forms of
modern yoga in the 1990s, with work picking up real momentum from about
2000.
Suggestive Therapeutics: New Thought's Relationship to Modern Yoga
Authors: Singleton Mark
Published: February 2013

Modern, transnational yoga in the early twentieth century often
defined itself in terms and ideologies borrowed from the popular current of
esoteric American Protestantism known as New Thought. Like its forebear
Transcendentalism, the New Thought movement was itself receptive to Indian
ideas, albeit radically reworked to fit the doctrine of divinised self-hood and
cosmic healing that it purveyed. Such adaptations were dialectically reabsorbed
by exponents of the yoga renaissance, in a mutually reinforcing, cross-cultural
rewriting of the theoretical bases and practices of yoga. New Thought provided a
convenient and familiar spiritual lexicon with which to convey the arcane truths
of yoga to Europeans, Americans and (increasingly) modern Hindus. The result was
a new understanding of yoga in terms of the cult of positive thinking, personal
power and affluence, and health through perfect harmony with the universe.
Eloquent Silence: The Doctrine of God in the Synopsis of Purer Theology
Authors: te Velde Dolf
Published: February 2013

This article sketches the theological profile of the Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (1625) by focusing on its exposition of the doctrine of God. Earlier disputations by Leiden theologians Franciscus Junius (1545–1602) and Franciscus Gomarus (1563–1641) are discussed as a background for the theology of Antonius Thysius (1565–1640), the author of the disputation in the Synopsis on God’s nature and attributes. For a further specification of the doctrinal position presented in the Synopsis, it is contrasted with the more innovative accounts proposed by Jacob Arminius (1559–1609) in his disputation “De natura Dei” (1603) and by Conrad Vorstius (1569–1622) in his Tractatus theologicus de Deo (1606). This analysis yields the conclusion that both Arminius and Vorstius advocated a structural differentiation between God’s inner essence and his outward operations, which leaves room for human freedom and independence. While the Synopsis does not explicitly discuss their views, in its own formulations itmaintains the common Reformed orthodox notion of divine simplicity, and keeps the balance between—on the one hand—the (hypothetical) necessity of God’s foreknowledge and decree, and—on the other hand—the contingency and freedom in the created world.
The 1906-07 Iranian Constitution and the Constitutional Debate on Islam
Authors: Arjomand Saïd Amir
Published: February 2013

Abstract

After a brief sketch of the historical background, the mutual impact of Islam and constitutionalism is examined by looking closely at the process of constitution-making in the broad context of the constitutional politics of Iran between 1905 and 1911. The modification of modern constitutional concepts under the impact of Shiʿi Islam and through its custodians in the course of the reception of Western constitutionalism in this period is followed by an analysis of the impact of modern political ideas on Islam. The analysis is based on the texts of the Fundamental Law of 1906 and its 1907 Supplement, and on the contemporary tracts for and against constitutionalism from opposite Islamic viewpoints. Our detailed examination of these sources indicates no presumption that a constitution had to bebasedon Islam. Nor was there any notion of ‘the Islamic state,’ the slogan of the Islamic revolution of 1979. For the constitutionalists and anti-constitutionalist pamphleteers of the first decade of the twentieth century alike, the counterpart to the constitutional government was not the Islamic state but the autocratic monarchy of ‘the king of Islam.’
The Islamic Republic of Iran
Authors: Chehabi H. E. , Schirazi Asghar
Published: February 2013

Abstract

Contemporary Iran plays a special role in the history of Islamic constitutionalism, as the constitution of 1979 was the first attempt since the debates over Pakistan’s Islamic Republic to derive the basic law of a modern state from Islamic principles. The Islamic Republic that came into being that year combines, as the name implies, Islamic and republican principles, which find institutional expression in a state that combines theocratic and republican organs. Iran was thus the first state in modern times in which sections of the ulema took direct control of the state. In this article we will first provide a historical context for the emergence of the idea of an Islamic state and its central principle, the dominion of the Shiʿi jurisprudent orvelāyat-e faqih(from Arabicwilāyat al-faqih). This will be followed by a discussion of the process of constitution making, leading to a close examination of the constitution itself and the debates to which its various parts gave rise.
Islam and Constitutionalism in Afghanistan
Authors: Tarzi Amin
Published: February 2013

Abstract

A constitution is adopted to regulate the relationship between political authorities and the people in a society. Traditionally, this relationship was very loose in Afghanistan; over time, however, as amirs sought to consolidate political and social authority over their society, the establishment of a constitutional framework became a priority for each new leader. This article chronicles Afghanistan’s state formation and constitutional history, beginning with Amir Dust Mohammad Khan’s state consolidation efforts in 1838, and considering all of the constitutions of the country beginning in 1923 continuing to the present. It details the central role both Islam and Afghanistan’s ethno-sectarian diversity have played in constitutional efforts throughout Afghanistan’s history and emphasizes the need for both to ensure a representative, inclusive society in Afghanistan.
Twenty-fourth Annual Margaret Mann Phillips Lecture: Erasmus’ Contribution to Rhetoric and Rhetoric in Erasmus’ Writing
Authors: Mack Peter
Published: February 2013

This paper claims that Erasmus was the most important and influential theorist of rhetoric in the Renaissance and that Erasmus’ thinking is heavily influenced by rhetoric. After showing that Erasmus wrote the most successful rhetoric textbooks of the sixteenth century and that he ontinued to compose and revise rhetoric books from the 1490s right up to his death in 1536, the paper argues that rhetorical ideas condition Erasmus’ way of thinking and arguing about editing, commentary, and religious teaching. Then the paper analyses in more detail Erasmus’ contribution as a theorist of rhetoric in the areas of: rhetoric and reading, the audience, adaptation of the three genres of classical rhetoric, invention, proverbs, descriptions, comparisons, style, imitation, emotion, and decorum. Finally the paper argues that Erasmus the writer made use of his rhetorical theories but also went beyond the prescriptions of the textbook, discussing the Adages and the Praise of Folly. Erasmus develops the deeply playful originality of his work from the rhetorical principles of declamation, topical invention, irony, ethos, and decorum.