bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Values and Limits of Qohelet’s Sub-Celestial Economy
Authors: Jones Scott C.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Qohelet draws upon the metaphors of a mercantile economy in order to assign values to human life. The primary context in which he calculates these values is time-under-the-sun. In the economy of time-under-the-sun, there are both absolute and relative credits. On the one hand, the inevitable onset of death reduces all credits or debits to zero. Yet on the other hand, Qohelet claims that the enjoyment of one’s profits during one’s lifetime is a relative credit. The sage, however, also perceives another sort of reckoning which reaches beyond his empirical observation. He speaks of a matrix outside of the rule of the sun, which he calls עולם. In this space beyond time God has ordained a judgment in which the pious will profit and the impious will suffer loss. The onset of a new order beyond the sun raises the possibility that zero might not be the final answer after all.
Psalm 2 and the Disinheritance of Earthly Rulers: New Light from the Ugaritic Legal Text RS 94.2168
Authors: Lam Joseph
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This paper offers a fresh reading of Psalm 2 with special attention to the presence of legal motifs in the poem, including that of inheritance rights as a metaphor for YHWH’s delegation of earthly authority. A new impetus for such a reading comes from the recently published Ugaritic legal text RS 94.2168, which provides the first attestation in Ugaritic of a transitive verb BHL denoting the exclusion of a biological heir from the inheritance of his father’s estate. In light of this technical usage, it will be proposed that the Piel form יְבַהֲלֵמוֹ in Psa 2:5 is best understood, not as an act of terrifying the rulers of the earth, but as YHWH’s (metaphorical) disinheritance of them, a declaration that is naturally followed by the designation of his anointed one as the exclusive heir of the nations (2:8).
The “Mock Building Account” of Genesis 11:1-9: Polemic against Mesopotamian Royal Ideology
Authors: Giorgetti Andrew
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article argues that Genesis 11:1-9 follows the well attested structure of Mesopotamian building accounts polemically addressing the main themes and motifs presented therein. Motifs of name-making, universal hegemony and colossal building projects are found in both the Genesis account and the Mesopotamian inscriptions. The Hebrew author subverts the imperial hubris presented in Mesopotamian royal building ideology by creating a “mock” building account based on components traditional to the building-account genre. Analysis of the Genesis pericope in light of the building-account genre helps explain some of the difficult interpretive contours of the text (e.g. the so-called “double descent” of YHWH) as well as highlights a main aspect of the offense inherent in the actions and attitude of the Babel builders—that building an entirely new city on virgin ground required divine consent—consent that YHWH does not give to such royal imperialistic pretensions.
Die johanneischen Zeichen und Joh 2:11 als möglicher hermeneutischer Schlüssel
Authors: Förster Hans
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The Greek term ἀρχή occurs in John 2:11, at the end of the story of the wedding at Cana. Water was changed into wine at this occasion and this is called the “beginning of the signs”. This Greek term—often translated in this context not as “beginning of the signs” but rather as “first sign”—can denote the beginning of a dynamically structured sequence. Elements in the narratives of the various signs seem to build a dynamic structure, thereby assigning each sign a fixed position in a climactic story which ends with the raising of Lazarus. This has consequences for literary criticism of the Gospel of John. It is widely held that chapters 5 and 6 should be interchanged. This, however, would destroy the narrative structure of the signs.
Corpses, Maggots, Poodles and Rats: Emotional Selection Operating in Three Phases of Cultural Transmission of Urban Legends
Authors: Eriksson Kimmo , Coultas Julie C.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In one conception of cultural evolution, the evolutionary success of cultural units that are transmitted from individual to individual is determined by forces of cultural selection. Here we argue that it is helpful to distinguish between several distinct phases of the transmission process in which cultural selection can operate, such as a choose-to-receive phase, an encode-and-retrieve phase, and a choose-to-transmit phase. Here we focus on emotional selection in cultural transmission of urban legends, which has previously been shown to operate in the choose-to-transmit phase. In a series of experiments we studied serial transmission of stories based on urban legends manipulated to be either high or low on disgusting content. Results supported emotional selection operating in all three phases of cultural transmission. Thus, the prevalence of disgusting urban legends in North America may be explained by emotional selection through a multitude of pathways.
The Big ‘Whoops!’ in the Study of Intentional Behavior: An Appeal for a New Framework in Understanding Human Actions
Authors: Rosset Evelyn , Rottman Joshua
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Distinguishing intentional behavior from accidental behavior is a crucial component of social cognition and a major developmental achievement. It has often been assumed that developmental changes in intentional reasoning result from a gradual sophistication in the ability to discern intentions in action. We take issue with this notion, demonstrating that data from cognitive, developmental, and social psychology are more consistent with the hypothesis that it is instead a gradual sophistication in the ability to understand accidents that drives developmental change.
Does Geographic Proximity Influence The Expression of Avuncular Tendencies in Canadian Androphilic Males?
Authors: Abild Miranda L. , VanderLaan Doug P. , Vasey Paul L.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Androphilia refers to sexual attraction and arousal to adult males, whereas gynephilia refers to sexual attraction and arousal to adult females. The Kin Selection Hypothesis posits that male androphilia may persevere over evolutionary time if the fitness costs of not reproducing directly are offset by increasing one’s inclusive fitness. Theoretically, this could be accomplished by allocating altruism toward close kin, thereby increasing the ability of those kin to reproduce. Evidence for this hypothesis has been garnered from research conducted in Samoa; however, no support has been garnered from research conducted in other, more industrialized cultures (i.e., Canada,usa,uk, Japan). It has been suggested that geographic disconnect from kin might mitigate the potential for androphilic males to exhibit elevated kin-directed altruism in more industrialized cultures. We examined whether Canadian androphilic males expressed elevated willingness to engage in altruistic behavior towards nieces and nephews, compared to gynephilic males and androphilic females, when the activities in question could be executed from a distance. Contrary to our prediction, when comparing groups for willingness to engage in altruistic behavior towards nieces and nephews that could be performed from a distance, we did not find that Canadian androphilic males exhibited significantly higher avuncular (uncle-like) tendencies. Other possible reasons for cross-cultural differences in avuncular tendencies by androphilic males are discussed.
The Social Cost of Atheism: How Perceived Religiosity Influences Moral Appraisal
Authors: Wright Jennifer , Nichols Ryan
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Social psychologists have found that stereotypes correlate with moral judgments about agents and actions. The most commonly studied stereotypes are race/ethnicity and gender. But atheists compose another stereotype, one with its own ignominious history in the Western world, and yet, one about which very little is known. This project endeavored to further our understanding of atheism as a social stereotype. Specifically, we tested whether people with non-religious commitments were stereotypically viewed as less moral than people with religious commitments. We found that participants’ (both Christian and atheist) moral appraisals of atheists were more negative than those of Christians who performed the same moral and immoral actions. They also reported immoral behavior as more (internally and externally) consistent for atheists, and moral behavior more consistent for Christians. The results contribute to research at the intersection of moral theory, moral psychology, and psychology of religion.
Notes on some Indo-Pacific Pontoniinae, LIII. Periclimenaeus species from the Hawaiian region
Authors: Bruce A. J.
Published: February 2014

Forty-one specimens of the pontoniine shrimp genus Periclimenaeus Borradaile, 1915, from the Hawaiian region, collected between 1923 and 1937 and reported on by Charles H. Edmondson, have been re-examined. Thirty-seven are provisionally referred to P. quadridentatus (Rathbun, 1906) and two are described and illustrated as P. edmondsoni sp. nov. The systematic status of P. quadridentatus (Rathbun, 1906) and P. stylirostris Bruce, 1969, is discussed and P. marini, from Vietnam, is designated as a new species.
Northern range extensions and biological notes for three decapods in the eastern North Pacific
Authors: Drumm David T. , Lauth Robert R. , Clark Roger N. , Orr James W.
Published: February 2014

Examination of invertebrate vouchers collected during bottom trawl surveys conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service revealed northern range extensions of three decapod species. Two of these species are caridean shrimps (Lebbeus washingtonianus(M. J. Rathbun, 1902) (Hippolytidae) andSystellaspis braueri paucispinosaCrosnier, 1987 (Oplophoridae)) and represent the first records in Alaska. The lithodid crabNeolithodes diomedeae(J. E. Benedict, 1895) was found off California, the first record in U.S. waters, extending its known range by some 2000 km. Biological notes for these three species are provided and morphometric measurements are listed forNeolithodes diomedeae.
Implementing the Sector Wide Approach for Improved Aid and Development Effectiveness: Assessing the Swaziland Experience
Authors: Hope Kempe Ronald
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This work discusses the sector wide approach (SWAP) for aid and development effectiveness and examines and analyzes the experience of Swaziland in its attempt to implement the SWAP based on an assessment of the four priority sectors (agriculture, education, health, and water and sanitation) in which they were launched. The methodology included interviews with key stakeholders in the four sectors. The work finds that, with the exception of the health SWAP, there has been very little progress in the SWAP implementation and no SWAP-related results have been delivered in support of the country’s National Development Strategy and its Poverty Reduction Strategy and Action Plan. The factors contributing to that state of affairs are also discussed and recommendations are offered on the way forward.
Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is There a Neighborhood Effect?
Authors: Doces John , Nega Berhanu
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In this paper we explore the effects of external factors on the development of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. We focus on how the level of democracy in bordering countries affects democracy in neighboring countries. Little, if any, work has considered the spatial factors associated with democracy especially within sub-Saharan Africa. Our empirical analysis—using multiple estimation strategies—reveal that a higher level of democracy (in bordering countries) is directly associated with democracy (in the neighboring country). The results from a fixed effects estimator with a large number of controls indicates a one standard deviation increase in democracy in the bordering countries increases democracy by over one full point (using the Polity IV index of democracy). A seemingly unrelated regression and instrumental variables (IV) analysis extend the discussion. The IV results indicate the effect increases to over 2.5 points. We conclude with a discussion of the broader implications of our findings.
Comparison of the Characteristics of Small Business in China and the U.S.
Authors: Ye Xinyue , Leipnik Mark
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This research deepens the existing literature on the local nature of the globalization of business. The authors argue for a comparative perspective in the study of small business in China and the U.S. At the same time, we investigate the roles of institutions and human capital in local economic development. The analysis of these phenomena are conducted based on a geographic perspective, since the desire for wealth and entrepreneurial motives may be universal, but national and regional realities and cultural differences can influence the choice and success of methods to initiate and promote small businesses.
Rethinking the Impact of Structural Adjustment Programs on Human Rights Violations in West Africa
Authors: Fonjong Lotsmart
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In this article I argue that the worsening human rights situation of West Africa in the early 1990s was largely the creation of the structural adjustment policies (SAP) of the IMF/World Bank. The austerity measures implemented through SAP plunged the region into hardship, forcing the population to demand better living conditions through public demonstrations and protests. Attempts by the West African states to contain protesters led to further human rights abuses. The implementation of a common liberalization policy across board without taking into account the specificities of each country was counterproductive. In fact, some of the excesses recorded could have been avoided if SAPs had been country specific and human rights-based.
Paramilitarism and State-Terrorism in Mexico as a Case Study of Shrinking Functions of the Neoliberal State
Authors: Chew Sánchez Martha I.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Although the drug wars in Mexico have been headline news, state violence has historically played an important role in repressing the struggle of labor, peasants and popular movements. The drug war has resulted in an expansion of the army and federal police, which has caused more corruption, social instability and growing amounts of human rights violations. Consequently, the neo-liberal project of disenfranchisement and dislocation has accelerated with the violence.
Reflections on the Status and Direction of Psychology: An External Historical Perspective
Authors: Giorgi Amedeo
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Whenever one reads internal histories of psychology what is covered is the establishment of a lab by Wundt in 1879 as the initiating act and then the breakaway movements of the 20th Century are discussed: Behaviorism, Gestalt Theory, Psychoanalysis, and most recently the Cognitive revival. However, Aron Gurwitsch described a perspective noted by Cassirer and first developed by Malebranche, which dates the founding of psychology at the same time as that of physics in the 17th Century. This external perspective shows the dependency of psychology upon the concepts, methods and procedures of physics and the natural sciences in general up until the present time. Gurwitsch argues that this approach has blocked the growth of psychology and has assured its status as a minor science. He argued that the everyday Lifeworld achievements of subjectivity are the true subject matter of psychology and that a phenomenological approach to subjectivity could give psychology the authenticity it has been forever seeking but never finding as a naturalistic science. Some clarifying thoughts concerning this phenomenologically grounded psychology are offered, especially the role of desire. The assumption of an external perspective toward the history of psychology fostered the insights about psychology’s scientific role.
Rhythmic Movement
Authors: Barbarić Damir
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article attempts a critical interpretation of Klee’s basic thoughts on the source and essence of art, based primarily on his diary entries and his lectures at the Bauhaus. The starting point of the interpretation is Klee’s fundamentally dynamic assumption of the primacy of becoming and movement vis-à-vis static being. Each work of art, for Klee, is essentially movement, although as organized and structured by rhythm. The source of the rhythmic movement he recognizes as chaos, which he defines as the most elemental fact, which precedes the difference of being and becoming, of rest and movement, and with which the artist in each of its creative acts must first identify. The elemental presence of chaos is the point, not an abstract and dead mathematical one, but one that is alive and moving, to which the force, tension, and impulse for movement essentially belongs. Every work of authentic art is the representation of the primal opposition of chaos and order, symbolized at first by the opposites of point and line. In the further development of this opposition, the multiple dimensions of contrast between straight and curved, vertical and horizontal, light and darkness as well as the various colors in their practically endless gradations coalesce within the work of art into a tension-wrought yet harmonically balanced arrangement.
Introduction to ‘The Change in the Original Plan for Marx’s Capital and Its Causes’
Authors: Kuhn Rick
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In his essay, Henryk Grossman made a powerful case for the continued relevance of Marxist economics. He argued thatCapitalis a fundamentally coherent whole, structured by Marx’s method of moving systematically from more abstract to more concrete levels of analysis. Despite considerable subsequent debate and research, Grossman’s account remains the outstanding contribution to our understanding of this aspect of Marx’s principal work.
The Matter of Capital, Christopher Nealon, Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 2011; The Zukofsky Era: Modernity, Margins, and the Avant-Garde, Ruth Jennison, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012
Authors: Niven Alex
Published: February 2014

Abstract

InThe Matter of Capital, Christopher Nealon offers a distinctive revisionary account of American poetry written in the wake of the ideological retreats of Ezra Pound and W.H. Auden around the time of the Second World War. Nealon argues that American verse of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries was profoundly influenced by an unfolding context of capitalist development and crisis, in ways that have not been fully accounted for in orthodox accounts of recent literary history. Ruth Jennison’sThe Zukofsky Era: Modernity, Margins, and the Avant-Gardeseeks similarly to highlight the centrality of leftist critiques of capitalism in modern American poetry. Her focus is the Objectivist group of poets, in particular Louis Zukofsky, a Jewish-American Marxist often regarded as the major successor to Pound in the interwar years. Jennison applies the theory of ‘combined and uneven development’ to the 1930s work of Zukofsky and his circle.
The American Civil War: A Reply to Critics
Authors: Ashworth John
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This essay replies to critics of my earlier piece in Historical Materialism (Volume 19, Issue 4, 2011) which looked at the origins of the American Civil War. The essay re-emphasises the importance of the shift to wage labour in the North, it re-asserts the need to incorporate slave resistance as a key factor in any causal account of the sectional conflict, and it argues that the ultimate northern victory in that conflict should be seen as constituting a ‘bourgeois revolution’. It engages specifically with the criticisms and some of the alternative interpretations offered by Charles Post, Eric Foner and Neil Davidson.
Lukács on Science: A New Act in the Tragedy
Authors: Burkett Paul
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The rejection of the ‘dialectics of nature’ has long been thought of as the most fundamental factor distinguishing Western Marxism from official Soviet-style Marxism. Yet, in Tailism and the Dialectic, Georg Lukács – perhaps the most influential figure in Western Marxism – strongly endorses the existence of an objective dialectic in nature. A close examination of Lukács’s main writings on science shows, however, that he still in effect denied the possibility of applying dialectical method to nature. This paradox is bound up with a dualistic conception of natural and social science with distinctly adverse implications for the development of an ecological Marxism.
E-Dan
Authors: Ackerman Susan
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Scholars have long documented the ways in which the Bible’s descriptions of Solomon’s temple, as well as the biblical descriptions of the temple’s environs, evoke the Genesis 2–3 account of the Garden of Eden. In this paper, I suggest that Israelite tradition likewise understood Edenic imagery to manifest itself at other sanctuary sites, preeminently the sacred precinct at Tel Dan that is known to us both from textual accounts and archaeological remains. More specifically, Edenic imagery is evoked at Tel Dan by the site’s topography and by certain archaeological data, as well as in a surprisingly wide-ranging corpus of biblical, deuterocanonical, and pseudepigraphical texts.
The Shaʿtiqatu Narrative from the Ugaritic Story about the Healing of King Kirta
Authors: Lewis Theodore J.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

A comprehensive and detailed study of the Shaʿtiqatu Narrative found in KTU 1.16.5.10–1.16.6.14 including philological and epigraphic analysis. The present article presents the groundwork for a counterpart article exploring the identity and function of the Ugaritic figure known as Shaʿtiqatu who plays a key role in the healing of King Kirta.1
Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment
Authors: Erskine Noel Leo
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article argues that Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment represents a breakthrough of grace as it re-enacts, for Jamaica as a nation, the divine miracle and humility of the incarnation: God speaking to Jamaicans in their own language, Patwa, just as Jesus Christ chose to be with a peasant family, Joseph and Mary. Jamaicans have always prayed and worshipped in Patwa, intuitively believing that God understands Patwa; yet, the translation of the New Testament into Patwa suggests that, as well as listening to and understanding God’s children when they speak to God in Patwa, God also speaks Patwa, not as a foreigner but as one who embraces and understands the nuances of Jamaican language and culture. The article looks at the formation of Jamaican Patwa in the nexus between Africa and Europe and questions in what ways Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment may serve as a source of liberation. Questions raised in the article include whether the translation of the New Testament in Patwa will reverse notions, among Jamaicans, of an inherent superiority of the English language; whether it is possible that Jamaicans will now begin to understand that no language or culture is excluded from being the bearer of Scripture or divine truth, and that no language or culture has an exclusive access to divine truth. The article also considers what this translation into the language of the masses of Jamaicans teaches concerning the nature of God and the missio Dei.
The Interpretability of Features in Second Language Acquisition: Evidence from Null and Postverbal Subjects in L2 English
Authors: Prentza Alexandra , Tsimpli Ianthi-Maria
Published: February 2014

We examine the microparameters of null and postverbal subjects in the Greek L1/English L2 interlanguage, exploring the role of interpretability in interlanguage representations. Our results suggest that while uninterpretable features are inaccessible in L2 acquisition, interpretable features are available and play a compensatory role. Although the abstract L1 properties of subject-verb agreement seem to transfer to the L2 representation, the effects appear scattered and transfer is not direct. We thus suggest that Greek-learner L2 English grammar exhibits non-random optionality in the properties of null and postverbal subjects, regulated by parameter-resetting (feature re-valuation) which is, however, neither the L1 (Greek) nor the target L2 (English) option.
Lamps from a Sanctuary of Eleusinian Goddesses – “Beregovoï-4”
Authors: Zavoïkin Alexeï , Zhuravlev Denis
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The sanctuary known as Beregovoï-4 is situated on the Taman Peninsula (Kerch Strait between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea), 5 km north-west of the ancientpolisof Patraios.

The large amount of terracotta figurines and other sacral objects, in conjunction with the absence of any groups of buildings, testifies clearly to the fact that this archaeological site was a sanctuary. The contexts of the finds are extremely significant – there are simple altars –escharae– made from stones and mud bricks, burnt places, sometimes covered with sea grass and containing numerous pits filled with charcoal and ash, situated in the north-west corner of the site.

All the lamps originated from the upper level, which can be dated to a period from the 4thto the first quarter of the 1stcentury BC. There is a complete absence of lamps in the earliest levels of this sanctuary (late-6thto the first half of the 5thcentury BC).

Most lamps have several tiers (ranging from 2 to 6/7) and several nozzles. They were never used for lighting (the nozzles very often do not even have holes connecting them to the oil reservoir). Small pieces predominate among the several hundred fragments of these lamps found at the sanctuary. Their state of preservation makes it clear that they must have been broken deliberately during rituals (most probably at the end of the latter). Almost complete lamps (broken into large pieces) were found in the upper level, in the turf.

Highly significant for our purposes is the fact that multi-nozzle lamps of a similar shape have been recorded at the sanctuary on Mount Maïskaya situated not far from Phanagoria – the largestpolisof the Asiatic Bosporus. A remarkable parallel for our lamps originated from the sanctuary of Demeter at Selinunt in Sicily, where many types of multi-nozzle lamps were found. Dozens of other parallels originated from the territory of Sicily, Italy and Greece, where broken multi-nozzle lamps, often without any traces of burning, have been found at sanctuaries of Demeter and Persephone.
Autour de Ġāyat al-ḥakīm (Le but du sage) (Compte rendu critique des actes du colloque Images et magie)
Authors: Coulon Jean-Charles
Published: February 2014

Résumé

Les 11 et 12 mai 2007 eut lieu un colloque sur le « Picatrix entre Orient et Occident ». Le thème central du colloque concernait un traité de magie, la Ġāyat al-ḥakīm (Le but du sage), attribué à al-Maǧrīṭī et traduit en latin au xiiie siècle sous le titre de Picatrix. Si les actes de ce colloque viennent combler un certain manque historiographique autour de l’histoire de la magie en Islam, ils soulèvent également de nombreuses questions. La vocation universalisante des approches des chercheurs en Occident médiéval chrétien semble inégale entre un évident souci de rigueur historique pour l’Occident, moins développé pour l’Orient. La difficulté de ces textes médiévaux de nature protéiforme rend en outre leur étude particulièrement difficile et certaines conclusions, de fait, méritent d’être nuancées ou interrogées.
Une stèle prismatique du Ve/XIe s. découverte en Corse
Authors: Juvin Carine , Massy Jean-Luc
Published: February 2014

Résumé

Cette courte note présente une inscription inédite : un fragment de stèle funéraire tunisienne datable du ve/xie s. Le fragment a été découvert dans les eaux du port de Calvi en Corse en 1969. L’épitaphe, le style épigraphique et le décor sont replacés au sein de la production tunisienne et principalement kairouanaise. Ce fragment vient s’ajouter à d’autres stèles musulmanes médiévales découvertes dans le sud de la France, qui témoignent des échanges entre les deux régions de la Méditerranée et des remplois insolites de ces pierres funéraires.
Aspects de l’argumentation élaborée par Taqī l-Dīn Aḥmad b. Taymiyya (m. 728/1328) dans son livre du Rejet de la contradiction entre raison et Écriture (Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql)
Authors: Zouggar Nadjet
Published: February 2014

Le présent article s’intéresse à des aspects de l’argumentation élaborée par le théologien juriste ḥanbalite Taqī l-Dīn Aḥmad b. Taymiyya (m. 728/1328) dans son traité sur le Rejet de la contradiction entre raison et Écriture (Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql), un livre dans lequel l’auteur se donne pour but de réfuter la théorie herméneutique rationaliste enseignée par les plus grandes figures de la théologie spéculative sunnite. Sur les quarante-quatre réponses ou cas (wuǧūh) qui composent l’ouvrage, nous analysons les cinq premiers. Notre objectif est de faire connaître les prémisses de la dialectique élaborée par Ibn Taymiyya dans cet ouvrage majeur.
Caught Between Aspiration and Anxiety, Praise and Exhortation: An Arabic Literary Offering to the Ottoman Sultan Selīm I
Authors: D’hulster Kristof
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article deals with a literary offering presented by Ibn Sulṭān (d. 1544)—a Mamluk Damascene ʿālim who eventually became the Ottoman muftī of Damascus—to Sultan Selīm I that dates back to shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Syria. Entitled al-Jawāhir al-muḍiyyah fī ayyām dawlat al-Turkiyyah, this hitherto unpublished work is here made available in a critical edition introduced by an extended literary analysis. With both inter- and contextual corroboration, my close reading of al-Jawāhir identifies an extended double entendre: while a “benevolent reading” shows praise fostered by the author’s ambitions, a “malevolent reading” reveals exhortation stemming from the author’s anxieties, subtly conveyed through the text’s modes of shifting between topics and interweaving of multiple voices of authority. My close reading thus reveals al-Jawāhir to be as much a specimen of a time-honored genre of elite communication as it is a product of its specific author and his time. By recognizing the personalized message conveyed by the author in turning to the highly conventionalized medium of the literary offering, this article adds to the ongoing reevaluation of other seemingly rigid genres, such as the mirror for princes and qaṣīdah.
Religion and the Formation of an Urban Educational Market: Transnational Reform Processes and Social Inequalities in Christian and Muslim Schooling in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Authors: Dilger Hansjörg
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Over the last decade in Tanzania parents’ and students’ quest for a good school has been shaped by the growing presence of religiously motivated schools, especially in urban settings. This paper argues that the diverse social positioning and educational appeal of new Christian and Muslim schools in Dar es Salaam are intimately intertwined with the continued weakening of state education that has been taking place since the mid-1990s to early 2000s as the result of privatization and World Bank educational policies. It also shows that the growing stratification and commodification of the education sector is tightly knitted with histories of inequality and religious difference in colonial and postcolonial Tanzania, as well as with the establishment and diversification of ties between actors and institutions on the East African coast on the one hand, and with those in North America, Europe, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia on the other. Finally, this paper demonstrates how macroeconomic and macrohistorical forces have become condensed in processes of subject formation and the widely varying production of religious spaces in an urban educational market. I argue that the resulting reinscription of religion in the public sphere must be understood not so much as an unintended side-effect of transnational reform processes, but more as part and parcel of multilayered histories of schooling and Christian-Muslim encounters in Tanzania that have also shaped the recent repositioning of the country’s education sector in the global and transnational context.
Christians in Medieval Shī‘ī Historiography: From Legend to History
Authors: Bertaina David
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Over the course of the early medieval period, Shī‘ī authors collected historical reports of conversations with Christians and included them in their compilations. Beginning as legendary accounts transmitted via oral tradition, the reports and stories of imams were later compiled in “historical” collections as a way to promote the Shī‘ī historiographical tradition. Utilizing motifs from the Qur’an as well as their own interpretive traditions, medieval Shī‘ī writers collected, adapted, and/or composed these encounters in order to connect past leaders with the historical vision of their community. The texts were also a method for shaping Shī‘ī communal identity within the religiously plural society of the early Islamic Middle East. This article uses examples from some dialogues with Christian participants to illustrate these key features. Some texts promoted Shī‘ī historical claims about the imams by producing hagiographical memories of the past for contemporary communities. Other reports utilized polemical strategies of biblical polemics and dialectical reasoning to construct Islamic historiographies of Christianity. It appears that most Shī‘ī historical reports about Christian figures were not interested in contrasting Shī‘ī faith with Christianity, but sought rather to highlight Shī‘ī concepts of prophetic succession, legitimate authority, and authentic community against Sunnī historical views. While this feature appears to be the consensus among the reports, some dialogues may reflect real religious encounters. In sum, the historical reports made use of Christian figures and beliefs as a vehicle for Shī‘ī historical and theological projects in the medieval Middle East.
Tamquam domino proprio: Contesting Ecclesiastical Lordship over Jews in Thirteenth-Century Castile
Authors: Irish Maya Soifer
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Bishoprics and monasteries in many parts of Western Christendom possessed various combinations of jurisdictional and fiscal rights over Jewish communities. Prelates placed high value on their rights as the Jews’ temporal lords for the same reason secular rulers did: having Jews under one’s protection brought substantial benefits. Yet, with the growth of lay institutions—royal as well as communal—many of these prelates found their jurisdictional rights disputed by secular powers eager to wrest control over Jewish communities from the church. Anchoring the argument in two case studies from Northern Spain (Sahagun and Palencia, in Castile), the present study suggests that of far greater concern to local ecclesiastical leadership than any ideological program directed at the Jews was the growing competition for Jewish services and revenues between church authorities, royal governments, and municipal councils.
Ponç Carbonell and the Early Franciscan Reception of the Pugio fidei
Authors: Fidora Alexander
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Ramon Martí’s Pugio fidei (Dagger of Faith, ca. 1280) is beyond any doubt a hallmark in the history of Christian-Jewish polemic. Nonetheless, it has been claimed that the Catalan Dominican had hardly any influence on subsequent authors. This paper draws attention to the Franciscan Ponç Carbonell (ca. 1260-ca. 1337), an eminent Biblicist of the early 14th century, who is one of the first authors to quote the Pugio explicitly. In doing so, the paper also questions the traditional scholarly distinction between Dominican mission on the one hand and Franciscan Hebraism on the other.
The Unanswered Question: Music and Theory of Religion
Authors: Lehrich Christopher I.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Several of the great “founding fathers” of theory of religion discerned a deep connection between religion and music, particularly Western “classical” music. Our relatively recent acceptance that “religion” as universal category was an early modern European invention should prompt suspicion that this connection is historically specific. Yet while scholars in many disciplines have recognized the importance of music in Western imagination, modern scholars of religion have largely ignored it. This article surveys three important discussions of music and religion, in Rudolf Otto, Johan Huizinga, and Max Weber, to provide groundwork for rethinking an important, unanswered question. In conclusion, some preliminary remarks are made about reconstituting this question in contemporary theory, using a brief discussion of Igor Stravinsky’sRite of Springto suggest the potential value of treating Western music as a discourse of imagining religion.
Making Myths and Policing Borders: NAASR and the Critical Study of Religion
Authors: Kelley Nicole
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This essay examines the evolving relationship between NAASR and the AAR, paying special attention to how the borders between NAASR and the AAR have been established and how they are patrolled. It discusses the stakes of the territorial dispute between the two organizations: symbolic capital in the form of institutional and intellectual prestige; and economic capital in the form of employment as teachers and researchers in colleges, universities, and related institutions.
A Modest Proposal on Method
Authors: McCutcheon Russell T.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This paper offers a diagnosis as to why NAASR’s identity has become more ambiguous over the past decade (i.e., the appropriation of postmodernism to authorize polemical positions) and offers a proposal on how the more precise definition of this journal’s key terms—method and theory—might assist the association to provide a hospitable home for two different groups of scholars who are equally alienated from the field’s dominant form.
Change the Name! On the Importance of Reclaiming NAASR’s Original Objectives for the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Wiebe Donald
Published: February 2014

Abstract

A response to the previous four papers.
Protective Parroting: A Rejoinder to Atalia Omer
Authors: Simmons K. Merinda
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Atalia Omer’s essay “In the Critic vs. Caretaker Dichotomy A Magic Dwells: Parroting McCutcheon, Policing ‘Religion’ (A Rejoinder to Merinda Simmons)” responds to my MTSR article “Regulating Identities: The Silences of Critical Caretaking.” In this rejoinder to her response, I answer to her main critiques of my article, and I suggest that her distinction between the academy and “the real world” is a problematic one that exempts, and thus protects, scholarship from critique.
The Prospects and Pitfalls of “Just-So” Storytelling in Evolutionary Accounts of Religion
Authors: Levy Gabriel
Published: February 2014

Abstract

I discuss problems importing evolutionary language into the study of religion. It is not impossible to do, but it is difficult to carry out properly in practice. I suggest five criteria for scholarship in the study of religion to amount to good science when incorporating such language. They are 1) avoiding just-so storytelling as much as possible 2) the requirement to add a compelling level of explanation beyond the historical narrative 3) clearly distinguishing between proximate and ultimate forms of causation and explanation, and favoring proximate causes where possible 4) addressing the specific content of religion directly as part of the narrative 5) being explicit about the genre of scholarship undertaken, whether science-writing, humanistic exploration, or some mix of the two. Wiebe and Martin’s arguments do not end up rising to the challenge that they themselves have instigated to have a truly scientific study of religion.
Fear, Disgust, and Territory: A Comment on Martin and Wiebe
Authors: Pyysiäinen Ilkka
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Martin’s and Wiebe’s use of the Hazard Precaution Theory are evaluated in the light of biological theories of territory or home range. The activation of precautionary actions is also connected to hyperactive agent detection as described by Guthrie and Barrett.
Getting on Each Other’s Nerves: Marking Territory and Policing Borders in Failure and Nerve in the Academic Study of Religion: Essays in Honor of Donald Wiebe
Authors: Wanner Kevin J.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This review essay assesses the continued relevance of Donald Wiebe’s diagnosis of problems with and prescriptions for the academic study of religion, critically reviews some of the contributions to a recent collection of essays in honor of Wiebe, identifies some issues or problems that are left lingering by these contributions, and offers some tentative proposals for dealing with them.
The Rabbis and Prophecy
Authors: Neusner Jacob
Published: February 2014

Abstract

To represent the Rabbis and their views, I cite stories and sayings that I claim characterize the canonical consensus. No contradictory findings on the fundamental issues taken up in the cited stories and sayings circulate. And a fair number of rulings confirm and reinforce the indicated conception. The upshot is simple. On fundamental issues, a coherent structure and system of theology and law sustains discourse of “the Rabbis” and “their position.” By “the Rabbis” therefore I mean the canonical consensus upon issues of law, theology, and hermeneutics of the late antique Rabbinic literature. Here I present evidence of the Rabbinic consensus on Prophecy. I cite passages that represent a common conviction—passages that do not conflict with other compositions on the same topic but that conform to a fundamental principle everywhere affirmed and nowhere contradicted. The result of this analysis is to show that the Rabbis made the heritage of ancient Israelite Prophecy their own by dismantling the Prophetic documents into bits and pieces of philological evidence. Scripture thus was treated as a collection of inert facts, sentence by sentence, available for service where and as required. Scripture lost its coherence and no longer conveyed the context in which to read complete passages. The Rabbis read the Prophetic record as a collection of random facts awaiting systematization within the Rabbinic program and only there.
Augustine’s Moulding of the Manichaean Idea of God in the Confessions
Authors: Fuhrer Therese
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The present study aims to ask whether Augustine utilised elements of Manichaean theology to give an account of and profile to the Nicene Christian doctrinal system. In the Confessions Augustine links his narrative of the encounter with the Manichaeans, right from the start, to an epistemologically grounded critique of their idea of God (conf. 3.10f.). Whereas the pagan myths can be assigned the function of referring to non-fictional and thus ‘true’ spheres of meaning, the motifs of Manichaean myth are empty forms (phantasmata) without any reference to reality, which they are supposed to explain. The paper argues that this anti-Manichaean critique of myth is the starting-point for a theory of knowledge of God which opposes the biblical imago dei to the Manichaean phantasmata and can thus be understood as having been conceptualised in opposition to Mani’s doctrine of God.
The Judicial Review Powers of the Presidency of the International Criminal Court: Safeguards for the Protection of Human Rights
Authors: Abtahi Hirad , Ogwuma Odo , Young Rebecca
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In view of the ten-year anniversary of the entry into force of the Rome Statute, this article examines the functions of a lesser-known organ of the Court – the Presidency. Focusing particularly on judicial review by the Presidency, which is grounded in administrative and human rights law, this article provides the first comprehensive account of its jurisprudence, depicting a dynamic and developing case law which embraces a wide variety of sources of international law. This article addresses the protection of fundamental human rights by analysing the decisions of the Presidency in the context of the detention of suspects, accused and detained witnesses, as well as the right to a fair trial with regard to the suspect and/or accused and victims’ representation.
Provisional Measures before the International Court of Justice
Authors: Uchkunova Inna
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The topic of provisional measures before the International Court of Justice has been relatively little explored in literature compared to other aspects of the Court’s procedure. It gained momentum particularly after its judgment in the LaGrand case where the Court clarified that its orders on interim protection are binding. This provoked renewed interest in the characteristics and effects of provisional measures. The present article discusses the traditional requirements for the indication of provisional measures, while also paying attention to one new requirement – that of plausibility of the protected rights – spelled out by the Court for the first time in the Belgium v. Senegal case.
The Sponsoring State’s ‘Obligation to Ensure’ in the Development of the International Seabed Area
Authors: Zhang Hui
Published: February 2014

Abstract

At the request of the International Seabed Authority, in 2011 the Seabed Dispute Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea rendered its first Advisory Opinion: to clarify the ambiguous rules of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea concerning the obligations and liabilities of a sponsoring State in the development of the international seabed area. According to the Opinion, the sponsoring State’s ‘obligation to ensure’ is an obligation of conduct and due diligence; the sponsoring State should take necessary and appropriate measures to fulfill the obligation under its domestic legal system; obligations and liabilities shall apply equally to the developed and developing States; the sponsoring State could avoid strict liability and compensation when fulfilling its ‘obligation to ensure’ due to the due diligence nature of the obligation. In light of this new development in the law concerning the international seabed area, East Asian States should take measures to improve their legislation and administration accordingly.
Submissions to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf: The Practice of Developing States in Cases of Disputed and Unresolved Maritime Boundary Delimitations or Other Land or Maritime Disputes. Part Two
Authors: Kwiatkowska Barbara
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This is the second part of a two-part article surveying state practice regarding Disputed and Unresolved Maritime Boundary Delimitations or Other Land or Maritime Disputes under the Rules of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). It reviews basic principles and the interpretation of the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention and the CLCS Rules. As the 2006 Barbados/Trinidad and Tobago Award and the 2012 ITLOS Bangladesh v. Myanmar Judgment reaffirmed, the CLCS Recommendations must in no way prejudice existing and prospective boundary delimitations, nor must they prejudice other land or maritime disputes. All practical means of giving effect to such “without prejudice” principles are carefully analysed. Part One covers Latin America and the Wider Caribbean, Northeast and Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific. The present Part Two covers South Asia and the Middle East, East Africa-Indian Ocean, South Africa, West Africa and North Africa.