bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Language Skills in Cypriot-Greek Speaking Toddlers with Specific Language Delay
Authors: Petinou Kakia , Constantinou Astero , Kapsou Margarita
Published: June 2019

The current investigation examined longitudinally the emergence of specific linguistic parameters in toddlers with and without late onset of expressive language. The central aim of this investigation was to compare the linguistic skills of typically developing and late-talking toddlers while: (a) observing patterns of linguistic development between the two groups on specific parameters and (b) examining the impact of early language delay on language-specific parameters and comparing these with cross-linguistic data. The subjects were 18 Cypriot-Greek speaking toddlers classified as late-talkers (LTs), and 18 age-matched counterparts with normal course of language development (NLDs). Participants were assessed at 28 months, 32 months, and 36 months, using various linguistic measures such as receptive and expressive vocabulary, mean length of utterance as measured in words (MLU-W), and phonetic production. Overall, the two groups exhibited parallel developmental profiles, with a language lag favoring the LT group as compared to the NLD counterpart. The results of this study highlight the negative effect of early language delay on later language skills, even up to age three years and lend support to the current literature regarding the universal linguistic picture of early and persistent language delay. Finally, the findings are discussed in view of the need for further research with a focus on more language sensitive tools in testing later language outcomes.
The Development of a Locker System at al-Azhar
Authors: Hashmi Irfana
Published: June 2019

There is widespread scholarly agreement that al-Azhar rose to prominence as an Islamic center of learning in the sixteenth century, as Arab provinces were adjusting to Ottoman administration. This article examines the development of a locker system at al-Azhar, one of several structural changes that took place between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, in addition to the expansion of fraternities. I argue that this material infrastructure, which was supported by modest endowments, served as a crucial scaffold for teaching and learning at al-Azhar and contributed to its rising status as an educational institution. Shari‘a court records reveal that the growing importance of lockers was the result of (1) decisions made by ordinary men and women about the endowment, subdivision, and circulation of lockers and (2) Ottoman legal reforms and innovations. In this way, a seemingly peripheral material object may serve as a site for exploring al-Azhar’s development as an educational institution.
“Is the Family Waqf a Religious Institution?” Charity, Religion, and Economy in French Mandate Lebanon
Authors: Moumtaz Nada
Published: June 2019

This essay analyzes a debate among Muslim jurists in French Mandate Syria and Lebanon around whether the family waqf, a form of charitable endowment dedicated to the founder’s family, is a legitimate form of the waqf and whether it should be abolished. I argue that the new categorization of the family waqf as a deviation from real charitable giving was informed by new conceptions of the economy, religion, and charity. Because the debate was among Muslim legal scholars, it also allows us to examine modern changes in the Islamic legal tradition. I show how the debate displays the use of new scientific styles of reasoning among Muslim jurists in the derivation of rules, thereby transforming the legal tradition without rupturing it.
Sayyid Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd: An Iraqi Shiʿi Genealogist at the Court of Özbek Khan
Authors: Morimoto Kazuo
Published: June 2019

This article demonstrates that Sayyid Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, a close associate of Özbek Khan of the Golden Horde, was an expert in sayyid genealogy hailing from Najaf or Kufa and a member of a Twelver Shiʿi network that connected him to the sect’s centers in Iraq. It then discusses the implications of this finding for our understanding of the religious environment surrounding Özbek and of the activities of the Twelver Shiʿi community under Mongol rule, as well as for DeWeese’s proposal to link the historical Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd with the famous hagiographical figure Sayyid Ata, the purported converter of Özbek.
Modernity as a Code: The Ottoman Empire and the Global Movement of Codification
Authors: Rubin Avi
Published: June 2019

Codification was a founding feature of Ottoman legal reform from the 1840s until the demise of the empire. This article seeks to situate the Ottoman project of codification in the context of the global codification momentum, which set the ground for a transnational common imagination of the law during the “long nineteenth century”. When analyzed from the perspective of glocalization, Ottoman codes, much like codes elsewhere, stand out as essential signifiers of modernity in the socio-legal sphere.
Refractions of China in Russia, and of Russia in China: Ideas and Things
Authors: Gamsa Mark
Published: June 2019

This article analyses perceptions of China in Russia and of Russia in China by focusing on exchange through material culture, including the tea trade and the borrowing of architectural styles. It demonstrates that some things Chinese became domesticated in Russia, having first arrived there in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, whereas others continued to represent an exotic “China.” Fewer things Russian were familiar in imperial China. In twentieth-century China, Russia became closely associated with Communism, while the idea of “Russia” was also fashioned via cultural and material exchange. Other areas of historical contact between Russia and European countries and China and Asian countries have been mapped out by extensive research. This article argues that the field of contact between Russia and China has been neglected because historians have grown too used to conceptualizing relations between Europeans and Asians in terms of a confrontation of West and East.
Morisco Prophecies at the French Court (1602-1607)
Authors: Green-Mercado Mayte
Published: June 2019

This article presents a case study of a rebellion conspiracy organized by a group of Moriscos—Spanish Muslims forcibly converted to Catholicism—in the early seventeenth century. In order to carry out their plans, these Moriscos sought assistance from the French king Henry iv (r. 1589-1610). Analyzing a Morisco letter remitted to Henry iv and multiple archival sources, this article argues that prophecy served as a diplomatic language through which Moriscos communicated with the most powerful Mediterranean rulers of their time. A ‘connected histories’ approach to the study of Morisco political activity underscores the ubiquity of prophecies and apocalyptic expectations in the social life and political culture of the early modern Mediterranean. As a language of diplomacy, apocalyptic discourse allowed for minor actors such as the Moriscos to engage in politics in a language that was deemed mutually intelligible, and thus capable of transcending confessional boundaries.
Could Early Modern Messianic Movements Cross Religious Boundaries?
Authors: Goldish Matt
Published: June 2019

Could early modern messianic movements cross religious boundaries? Drawing on several examples of Jewish messianic movements from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, this paper argues that in certain very specific circumstances they could. The circumstances of such crossover tended to be particular to the early modern period, such as the Converso condition, the participation of Christian Hebraists, and shared messianic expectations among Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Female Labor, Merchant Capital, and Resilient Manufacturing: Rethinking Ottoman Armenian Communities through Labor and Business
Authors: Cora Yasar Tolga
Published: June 2019

The present article is a study of the social history of textile production in the city of Yerznka (Erzincan) in East-Central Anatolia. It examines textile manufacturing as a site in which gender, class, and ethnicity interacted to form the basis of an Armenian community before the Genocide. It brings a fresh perspective to studies on the persistence of Ottoman textile production in the age of European industrial production by approaching the community as a nexus of production relations. It argues that extensive female labor and a hierarchically organized production system under the control of merchant-entrepreneurs were among the main factors in the endurance of the Ottoman production system into World War i. At the same time, the control of the production system by the merchant-entrepreneurs, who were also leaders of the local Armenian community, reproduced patriarchal communal ties.
Damascius and al-Naẓẓām on the Atomic Leap
Authors: Chase Michael
Published: June 2019

Like Damascius’ ἅλµατα or leaps, al-Naẓẓām’s (died ca. 849 CE) doctrine of the leap (Arabic ṭafra) seems to be an attempt to respond to Zeno’s paradoxes of motion. After a survey of these paradoxes and Aristotle’s responses to them, I discuss some points of resemblance between the physical doctrines of Damascius and al-Naẓẓām. To explain them, I adopt Richard Sorabji’s suggestion of an historical influence by Damascius on al-Naẓẓām. After surveying objections to Sorabji’s thesis, I make use of new paleographical discoveries to suggest that after Justinian’s closure of the Platonic School of Athens, the last Neoplatonic philosophers may have taken the library of the School of Athens—including the ancestors of the core manuscripts of the Collection Philosophique—to the court of Ḫosrow I Anūšīrwān at Ctesiphon ca. 531 CE, where some texts that were the models of this Collection—which includes works by Damascius—may have been translated into Persian. This provides a new possible avenue by which al-Naẓẓām and other early Islamic theologians may have had access to some elements of late Greek philosophy even before the beginnings of the great translation movement sponsored by al-Maʿmūn (r. 813-833 CE).
Being Good Towards the People or the Democracy?
Authors: Giannotti Andrea
Published: June 2019

In this paper I investigate the formulaic language of fifth-century BCE honorific decrees and the extent to which the Athenians used specifically democratic language: were men honoured for benefiting the city or specifically the democracy? Despite the general belief that the rhetorical formula ‘being good towards the demos’ had a democratic meaning, consideration of all the readable fifth-century BCE honorific decrees demonstrates that a standard formula to indicate the addressee of the benefits did not exist; rather, it is apparent that honorific decrees enacted under the democracy used indifferently the formulae ‘being good towards the demos’, ‘being good towards the polis’ and ‘being good towards the Athenians’. Moreover, a final consideration of an oligarchic honorific decree will show that oligarchs were perhaps more careful with their language (avoiding ‘demos’ and preferring ‘polis’) than the democrats might have been.
On the Outside Looking In: Distress and Sympathy for Ethnic Victims of Violence by Out-Group Members
Authors: Gordon Nakia S. , Chesney Samantha A.
Published: June 2019

It is well documented that individuals respond with negative emotions to racial and ethnic out-groups. Yet, it is unknown whether the responses are a measure of simple emotional reactivity or if they are also influenced by emotion regulation. Given the importance of emotions in out-group evaluation (see Intergroup Emotion Theory; Smith and Mackie, 2008), we investigated emotional reactivity and regulation in response to out-group victimization. Forty-one undergraduates completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and viewed three sets of images: lynching of African-Americans, torture of Abu Ghraib prison detainees, and iaps images depicting graphic violence. Participants rated 13 emotions before and after viewing the images. A factor analysis identified four emotional response categories: Distress, Sympathy, Arousal and Avoidance. Analyses at both the individual emotion level and factor level indicated that negative emotions (e.g., anger, disgust, and guilt) were greater in response to violence against ethnic groups relative to violence depicted in the iaps images. Emotional suppression predicted blunted distress and arousal to ethnic victimization. These findings highlight that emotional responses to out-group victimization are complex and tempered by emotional suppression. Individuals’ emotion regulation may provide further insight into responses to ethnic and racial out-groups.
Facilitating Diverse Learning Contexts and Content on Children’s (School-Relevant) Cognitive Performance: Effects of Music and Movement Expression
Authors: Cunningham Rodney T. , Boykin A. Wade , Allen Brenda A.
Published: June 2019

In this study, 64 African-American and 64 White school children were exposed to two different short stories. One story was presented in a learning context with movement and music, infusing syncopated music and high levels of kinesthetic activity (hme context); while the other story was presented devoid of such factors (lme context). Further, half of the participants were presented stories with high movement content themes, embodying character and thematic content depicting high activity and kinesthetics (hmc); while the other participants were presented with stories embodying low movement content themes, depicting low levels of activity and movement expression (lmc). Performance was measured via recall of story information/encoding-inferring. Salient findings revealed the best performance emerged for African-American children when the hmc stories were presented under the hme contexts. In contrast, facilitating effects emerged for White children when the lmc stories were presented under the lme contexts. Other results are discussed in relation to previous findings. Implications for schooling practices are addressed, as are directions for future research.
Analogical Retrieval of Folktales: A Cross-Cultural Approach
Authors: Torabian Saba , Chen Zhe , Ober Beth A. , Shenaut Gregory K.
Published: June 2019

This cross-cultural study addressed how individuals retrieve and transfer naturally learned information (i.e., folktales) from long-term memory by analogy with a previously unencountered story, concept, or problem. American and Iranian participants read target stories constructed to be analogous to folktales either familiar or unfamiliar to their culture, all having high structural familiarity and either high or low surface similarity to the source folktales. Participants reported whether targets (analogues) reminded them of any specific folktale they had learned in the past; positive responses plus additional justification (i.e., the folktale’s name or its gist) were interpreted as successful analogical retrievals. The current experiment demonstrated a high overall rate of analogical retrieval for familiar folktales and essentially no retrieval for unfamiliar folktales. There was also reliably more retrieval for analogue stories having higher versus lower surface similarity to target folktales. The high salience of surface similarity was also revealed when participants rated retrieved folktales for similarity to the target. Personal familiarity with folktales increased the retrieval rate, but presenting the folktale’s name as a cue produced mixed effects on retrieval. In summary, individuals readily retrieved culturally familiar folktales from long-term memory when they encountered structurally similar analogues, but retrieval was modulated by surface similarity.
Is it a Small World After All? Investigating the Theoretical Structure of Working Memory Cross-Nationally
Authors: Alloway Tracy Packiam , Moulder Robert , Horton John C. , Leedy Aaron , Archibald Lisa M. D. , Burin Debora , Injoque-Ricle Irene , Passolunghi Maria Chiara , Dos Santos Flávia Heloísa
Published: June 2019

To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to test different theoretical models of working memory in childhood based on a computerized assessment. We tested this across several countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Italy, and uk. The present study addressed the wider macro-cultural context and how this impacts working memory. We used two economic indices (gdp and ppp) to characterize the participating countries and ranked the countries based on the Global Index of Cognitive Skills and Educational Attainment. Children between 5 and 10 years completed the same set of short-term and working memory tests. There were two main findings. First, there was a similar pattern in verbal working memory across countries, which suggests that this skill may be relatively consistent across different cultural groups. In contrast, the pattern for visuo-spatial working memory was different across countries, which may explained by cultural differences and educational rankings of the countries. The second main finding was that both a domain-general model (3-factor) and a domain-specific model (4-factor) provided a reasonably good fit with the data, there was the high relationship between the verbal and visuo-spatial working memory constructs across the countries in the latter model. Thus, it may be a more parsimonious choice to rely on a three-factor model. The data also suggest culture-similar patterns in a computerized assessment of working memory.
Brungarians Use it Differently! Children’s Understanding of Artifact Function as a Cultural Convention
Authors: Weatherhead Drew , Nancekivell Shaylene
Published: June 2019

Children not only recognize the function of an artifact, but they actively protest when others use it in an atypical way. In two experiments, we asked whether children view artifact function as universal or as culturally dependent. In both experiments children watched videos of two actors who used common artifacts atypically (e.g. a woman using a fork to comb her hair). In Experiment 1A, 6-to-7-year-old children were told that the actors were either from Canada or a far away country. Children were marginally more likely to protest a Canadian using the artifact in a novel way than when the individual was from a far away country. In Experiment 1B, the familiar or unfamiliar culture was explicitly highlighted (e.g., “in Canada it snows in winter” vs. “in Brungaria it rains in winter”). Four-to-five-year-olds were also included as a comparison group. Six-to-seven-year-olds protested the atypical use when the actor was Canadian more than when the actor was Brungarian, whereas 4-to-5-year-olds protested at non-significant rates. Additionally, when asked what appropriate function of the artifact was, 6-to-7-year olds were more likely to endorse the atypical function when it was performed by a Brungarian than a Canadian, while 4-to-5-year-olds never endorsed the atypical function, regardless of condition. These findings demonstrate that while younger children view artifact function as universal, children over the age of 6 recognize that the accepted function of an artifact may vary by culture.
Gateways to Culture: Play, Games, Metaphors, and Institutions
Authors: Kretchmar Robert Scott
Published: June 2019

In this essay I develop a case for games as a primitive form of culture and an early arrival at our ancestors’ cultural gates. I analyze the modest intellectual prerequisites for game behavior including the use of metaphor, a reliance on constitutive rules, and an ability to understand the logic of entailment. In arguing for its early arrival during the late Middle and Upper Paleolithic, I develop a case for its powerful adaptive qualities in terms of both natural and sexual selection. I accept ecological dominance coupled with an increasing sense of self as primary sources of selection pressure. I show how these two factors threatened homeostatic balances ranging from low arousal and atrophy to malaise, depression, and anomie. I suggest that an antidote or adaptation was found in culturally-enhanced forms of play — that is, formal, rule-governed games. The upshot of this analysis is a broadened discussion of cultural adaptation from one that often focuses on cooperation, social complexity, and language to other fundamental issues related to survival — namely, increased leisure time, enhanced arousal needs, and the health and physical skills required for a hunter-forager existence.
The Rhythms of Discontent: Synchrony Impedes Performance and Group Functioning in an Interdependent Coordination Task
Authors: Wood Connor , Caldwell-Harris Catherine , Stopa Anna
Published: June 2019

Synchrony — intentional, rhythmic motor entrainment in groups — is an important topic in social psychology and the cognitive science of religion. Synchrony has been found to increase trust and prosociality, to index interpersonal attention, and to induce perceptions of similarity and group cohesion. Causal explanations suggest that synchrony induces neurocognitive self-other blurring, leading participants to process one another as identical. In light of such findings, researchers have highlighted synchrony as an important evolved tool for establishing and maintaining collective identity in human groups, particularly within ritual and religious contexts. However, many aspects of group life require coordination rather than mere prosocial cooperation. In coordinative contexts, interpersonal relations and motor sequences are often complementary rather than identical, and leadership hierarchies streamline group decisions. It is thus unclear whether synchrony would benefit or hamper group outcomes in contexts requiring complex interdependent coordination and hierarchy. In a two-condition experimental paradigm, we tested the effects of synchrony on the outcomes of a three-person, complex verbal coordination task. Groups in the synchrony condition performed more poorly on the coordination exercise and reported higher levels of conflict as well as lower levels of group cohesion and similarity. We interpret these results as indicating boundary conditions on the prosocial effects of synchrony: in settings that require complex, interdependent social coordination, the self-other blurring induced by synchrony is situationally inappropriate. These findings dovetail with the anthropological observation that real-world ritual is often focused on establishing and reinforcing social distinctions rather than social unison.
Modeling Cultural Transmission of Rituals in Silico: The Advantages and Pitfalls of Agent-Based vs. System Dynamics Models
Authors: Kaše Vojtěch , Hampejs Tomáš , Pospíšil Zdeněk
Published: June 2019

This article introduces an agent-based and a system-dynamics model investigating the cultural transmission of frequent collective rituals. It focuses on social function and cognitive attraction as independently affecting transmission. The models focus on the historical context of early Christian meals, where various theoretically inspiring trends in cultural transmission of rituals can be observed. The primary purpose of the article is to contribute to theorizing about cultural transmission of rituals by suggesting a clear operationalization of their social function and cognitive attraction. Furthermore, the article challenges recent trends in the field by providing a theoretically feasible model for how, under certain conditions, cognitive attraction can influence the transmission to a relatively greater extent than social function. In the system dynamics model we reproduce the results of our agent-based model while putting some of our basic operational assumptions under scrutiny. We consider approaching social function and cognitive attraction in isolation as a preliminary but necessary step in the process of creating more complex models of the cultural selection of rituals, where the two aspects will be combined to produce ritual forms with greater correspondence to real-world religious rituals.
Multiple Axialities: A Computational Model of the Axial Age
Authors: Shults F. LeRon , Wildman Wesley J. , Lane Justin E. , Lynch Christopher J. , Diallo Saikou
Published: June 2019

Debates over the causes and consequences of the “Axial Age” – and its relevance for understanding and explaining “modernity” – continue to rage within and across a wide variety of academic disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, archaeology, history, social theory, and cognitive science. We present a computational model that synthesizes three leading theories about the emergence of axial civilizations. Although these theories are often treated as competitors (especially by their proponents), our computational model shows how their most important conceptual insights and empirically based causal claims can be integrated within a single computational architecture. The plausibility of the latter is supported by the results of our simulation experiments, which were able to simulate the emergence and growth of an axial civilization. The model shows how the relevant theories can be rendered consistent, while challenging the claims of any one to comprehensiveness.
Characterization of a protandrous hermaphroditic reproductive system in transitional and female phases of Norileca indica — morphological, histological and ultrastructural approach
Authors: Kottarathil Helna Ameri , Kappalli Sudha
Published: June 2019

The present study explores the reproductive system of Norileca indica during its transitional and female phase at morphological, histological, ultrastructural and histochemical levels. The paired and symmetrical hermaphroditic reproductive system of N. indica in the transitional and female phases lies dorsally in the thorax on either side of the gut, each consisting of a three-lobed testis (with lobes t1, t2 and t3) followed by an ovary and then a vas deferens, which opens into the paired penes located at sternite 7; the oviduct, arising laterally from the ovarian lobe, opens into the gonopore located on the 6th pereonite. In the transitional phase, the gonads show a presence of germ cells at different maturation stages: spermiogenesis in the testes has already halted, while the ovary undergoes active vitellogenesis. Spermatophores are frequently seen in the vas deferens but seldom in the testes; the size of the oocytes then is 250-1200 μm. The gonadosomatic index (GSI) and nucleocytoplasmic index (NCI) range over 0.090-0.198 and 0.46-0.11, respectively. In the female, oocyte size increases to 1500 μm; the GSI ranges 0.019-0.235 and the NCI from 2.40 to 0.09; testes and vas deferens are not prominent. This paper discusses the possible role of protandrous hermaphroditism in the reproductive life of N. indica.
Extended larval development in the hololimnetic shrimp Macrobrachium pantanalense (Decapoda, Palaemonidae) reared in the laboratory
Authors: Marco-Herrero Elena , Anger Klaus , Hayd Liliam
Published: June 2019

The postembryonic development of Macrobrachium pantanalense, a freshwater shrimp from central South America, was experimentally studied in the laboratory. In contrast to most other hololimnetic Caridea, this species passes through an extended larval phase with intraspecific variability in the number and morphology of stages. Here we describe the shortest developmental pathway comprising nine zoeal stages, the first post-zoeal stage (morphologically transitional between a late larva and an early juvenile), and an early juvenile with vestiges of larval traits. Post-zoeal development is characterized by a gradual reduction of the natatory exopods of the pereiopods (a larval character) and a concurrent transformation of the endopods to walking legs (juvenile trait). A comparison with the larvae of a closely related, often confused estuarine species from northern South America, M. amazonicum, revealed consistent interspecific differences, especially in the morphology of the fifth pereiopod, allowing for an unambiguous distinction of these two allopatric congeners.
Record of Parasesarma lenzii (De Man, 1895) (Decapoda, Brachyura, Sesarmidae) from the Cocos-Keeling Islands, with a redescription and designation of a lectotype
Authors: Shahdadi Adnan , Schubart Christoph D. , Ng Peter K. L.
Published: June 2019

The mangrove crab Parasesarma lenzii (De Man, 1895) s. str. is herewith recorded from the Cocos-Keeling Islands in the Australian Indian Ocean Territories. The species was originally described based on seven specimens from Aceh and Penang, six of which seem to be lost; and we here designate the extant syntype as the lectotype. A brief redescription of the species is provided, and in addition, a segment of the DNA sequence corresponding to the mitochondrial gene and barcoding region COI, was amplified from two individuals and submitted to GenBank for comparative purposes. Aspects of the taxonomy of this species are discussed.
New record of the non-indigenous copepod Pseudodiaptomus marinus Sato, 1913 (Calanoida, Pseudodiaptomidae) from the Guadalquivir Estuary (Gulf of Cádiz, SW Spain)
Authors: Reyes-Martínez M. J. , González-Gordillo J. I.
Published: June 2019

This paper reports the first ocurrence of the Indo-Pacific copepod Pseudodiaptomus marinus in the Guadalquivir Estuary (Gulf of Cádiz, SW Spain), and provides some data on its morphology. The record is based on hundreds of specimens (which include males, females, and ovigerous females) captured in October 2016 at the mouth of the river, a marine protected area under the Fishing Reserve regulation. This reports confirms the presence of a stable population of P. marinus in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, a locality intermediate between the previously recorded distribution areas of northern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, and thus allows an expansion of the hitherto known geographical distribution and supports, once again, the role that maritime transport plays as a vector in the colonization of new habitats by exotic species.
Record of Chaceon alcocki Ghosh & Manning, 1993 from the Arabian Sea, off Kollam, India
Authors: Josileen Jose , Maheswarudu G. , Sreesanth L.
Published: June 2019

The deep-sea crab Chaceon alcocki Ghosh & Manning, 1993 was recorded from the Arabian Sea off the Kollam coast, Kerala, India, in November 2015. A single female crab with 156 mm carapace width (CW), 146 mm carapace length (CL) and a total weight (TW) of 655 g, was collected from multiday trawl landings at the Sakthikulangara landing centre, Kollam, Kerala state. This species was first described by Ghosh & Manning in 1993, and the holotype, also a female crab, is kept in the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata [formerly known as Calcutta].
To See Oneself as Seen by Others
Authors: Westerlund Fredrik
Published: June 2019

This article develops a new phenomenological analysis of the interpersonal motives and structure of shame. I pursue the argument that shame is rooted in our desire for social affirmation and conditioned by our ability to see ourselves as we appear to others. My central thesis is that shame is what we feel when, due to some trait or action of ours, we come to perceive ourselves as fundamentally despicable and non-affirmable. By showing how our urge for affirmation fuels and informs our self-perception in shame, the analysis provides a better understanding of the simultaneously interpersonal and personal character of shame. Furthermore, it sheds new light on some central aspects of shame that have been insufficiently understood: on the emotional charge and quality of shame, on the role played by our values and identity in shame, and on the continuity, differences, and transfers between personal shame, social shame, and embarrassment.
History from Within: Identity and Interiority
Authors: Proctor Hannah
Published: June 2019

Critics of ‘identity politics’ tend to assume that any exploration of subjective experience is tantamount to an affirmation of liberal individualism. This essay attempts to counteract that assumption through an analysis of case histories and research publications by twentieth-century psychoanalysts and psychologists. Such texts demonstrate the ways in which even the most ephemeral psychological experiences – dreams, fantasies, desires – are bound up with structural forms of oppression. Furthermore, these texts – through processes of abstraction, generalisation and classification – indicate ways in which interiorities clash up against externally-defined identity categories; oppression is lived but lived experience also exceeds and complicates identity.
Surplus Histories, Excess Memories
Authors: Harootunian Harry
Published: June 2019

In the reckoning of historian Enzo Traverso, the accumulative inventory of the past’s crimes has exceeded the ‘frontiers of historical research’ and colonised the public sphere to ‘interpellate our present’. The quarrel over the crisis of historicism before World War ii has been superseded by postwar debates that have now spilled over into everyday life that demand recognition as instances of the continuing collision of claims of a past that refuses to pass and the formation of a new historical consciousness in which collective memory of the crimes occupies a central position. Traverso’s purpose has been to repair this emergent dichotomy between historical practice and memoration, event and experience, as well as to overcome attending binary couplings like subjective and objective, individual and group in order to avoid falling into an unbridgeable antinomy that risks collapsing into contradiction.
The Identity of the Standing Figures on Pithos A from Kuntillet ʿAjrud: A Reassessment
Authors: Thomas Ryan
Published: June 2019

The question of the identity of the two standing figures at the center of pithos A continues to be a subject of vigorous debate, with the scholarly community divided over whether they should be explained in light of the inscription invoking Yhwh and his asherah that is situated above them. In this article, the author contributes to the discussion by reviewing the main iconographic arguments for identifying the figures as Yhwh and his female partner and in the process responds to some of the common objections that have been raised against the hypothesis. These include the figures’ sexual dualism, overlapping pose as male and female partners, their Bes-like and bovine features and associated mythological compatibility with Yhwh, and the larger iconographic context of the individual pithoi.
Charming a Clogged Nose: A Late Coptic Magical Spell from Saqqara
Authors: van der Vliet Jacques
Published: June 2019

A reedition and analysis of a late (ca. 10th–11th cent.) Coptic magical charm found at Saqqara. The commentary links the charm to pre-Christian models and discusses the possible modes of transmission of traditional ritual knowledge in Christian Egypt.
Using Secondary School Students’ Perceptions to Develop a Structural Model for Attitude to Christianity
Authors: Dorman Jeffrey P. , McRobbie Campbell J.
Published: June 2019

Over the past 30 years, independent lines of research in the fields of classroom environment and student attitudes to Christianity have been conducted. This research brought these two fields together by hypothesizing a model for the relationship among age, gender, students’ perceptions of religion classroom environment, students’ religious behavior and attitudes to Christianity. Responses from 815 Australian Catholic secondary school students on four attitude to Christianity scales, four classroom environment scales and the religious behavior of students and their parents were analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the structure of the classroom environment and attitude to Christianity measures. Goodness of fit indices obtained from structural equation modeling revealed that the hypothesized model was a satisfactory fit to the data. Statistically significant path coefficients for the influence of students’ religious behavior and students’ perceptions of the religion classroom environment on students’ attitude to Christianity were found.
The Challenges of Multiculturalism
Authors: Hermans Chris A.M.
Published: June 2019

This paper introduces this 'issue on the challenges of religiously affiliated schools within a multicultural society from two perspectives. The first is from the perspective of the philosophical debate on multiculturalism on the basis of Taylor’s “politics of recognition’’. The second perspective is the multi-level character of this multiculturalism debate regarding religiously affiliated schools. This debate touches all levels of the educational institution: the macro-level, such as national policy on education, law, legitimization of religiously affiliated schools, relation to the churches; the meso-level, such as identity of schools, school ethos, admission of pupils, normative school leadership, or parental influences on the school board; and the micro-level such as religious education or moral education.
Religious Education in a Multicultural Society
Authors: Ziebertz Hans-Georg
Published: June 2019

This paper begins with a presentation of three concepts of pluralism found in the works of Francois Lyotard, Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor respectively. These concepts are compared and evaluated and their implications for religious education in a multicultural society are developed. On the basis of Taylor's “process of encounter” three strategies for religious education are proposed: adopt new theologies of dialogue; prove its dialogical character by turning productively to the world of the pupils, and include a relativizing self-examination in the treatment of the Christian religion.
RE-EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN NON-SECULAR SCHOOLING
Authors: Carr David
Published: June 2019

This article examines two contradictory patterns of reasoning that share the same (minor) premise that rival religious perspectives can authorise rationally non-negotiable moral principles. The first argument goes against separate religious or other culturally grounded moral education, because this would lead to indoctrination. The second argument indicates the impossibility of a common moral education, because moral perspectives are internally related to religious view-points. The author challenges both arguments on the grounds that religious perspectives need not lead to a non-rational approach to moral education.
SCHOOL CHOICE, RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Authors: Hofman Roelande H. , Hofman Adriaan
Published: June 2019

The article analyses the Dutch paradox of an education system that includes a large proportion of private religious schools in one of the most highly secularized of Western societies. Using a three - factor model of school choice, the authors analyze the most important motives for parental school choice and try to answer the question of why so many Dutch children from secularized families still attend private religious schools. Reasons for unconventional school choice and reflections of religious traditions within the schools are addressed as possible explanations for the Dutch paradox. The importance of school effectiveness is examined as a motive for school choice, along with factors contributing to effectiveness of public and private schools.
Questions and Answers in Philo and Genesis Rabbah
Authors: Niehoff Maren
Published: June 2019

This article investigates whether Philo and the rabbis were intrigued by the same problems in the Biblical text and how they solved them. Three sets of questions and answers are studied, pertaining to the trees of Life and Knowledge as well as to God's famous saying “let us make man” (Gen. 1:26). Each cluster is investigated in its historical context and in comparison to its parallel in the other corpus. Philo and Genesis Rabbah operated in radically different environments. While Philo was directly familiar with Homeric scholarship and applied certain of its methods to Scripture, Genesis Rabbah emerged in an environment where Christian exegetes rivaled their study of the same text. Questions and answers were now raised concerning the same verses and helped to define boundaries between the different groups.
History as Science: The Fifteenth-Century Debate in Arabic and Persian
Authors: Markiewicz Christopher
Published: June 2019

In the fifteenth century, scholars writing in Arabic and Persian debated the nature of historical inquiry and its place among the sciences. While the motivations and perspectives of the various scholars differed, the terms and parameters of the debate remained remarkably fixed and focused, even as it unfolded across a vast geographic space between Herat, Cairo, and Constantinople. This article examines the contours of this debate and the relationships between five historians working on these issues. Although the scholars who considered these questions frequently arrived at different conclusions, they all firmly agreed, in contrast to previous doubt regarding the status of history, that historical inquiry did indeed constitute a distinct science requiring its own particular method. Accordingly, the debate and its conclusions helped cement the place of history within the broader pantheon of the sciences as conceived by scholars in the Ottoman Empire from the sixteenth century onwards.
Soap Bars and Silk Cocoons: Microecologies of Connectivity in Late Medieval Mediterranean Architecture
Authors: Salgirli Saygin
Published: June 2019

This article discusses connectivity in late medieval Mediterranean architecture from a microecological point of view, as initially formulated by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell. Combining their approach with Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, it argues that Ottoman multipurpose buildings of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries operated as architectures of governmentality on a microecological level. Their composite architectures became relevant and meaningful through their penetrations into everyday experiences, and through their management of a multitude of relationships. On the one hand, this made them world-making institutions in their own localities, and on the other, imperceptibly connected them to distant corners of the Mediterranean, and to different but comparable experiences.
Surfaces for Reflection: Nanban Lacquer in the Iberian World
Authors: Luterbacher Samuel
Published: June 2019

In response to the arrival of Iberian traders and missionaries on the Japanese archipelago in the sixteenth century, local craftsmen developed a unique type of lacquer, called today Nanban, for European export. They adapted traditional techniques to produce chests, writing desks, reliquaries and oratories for this new peripatetic clientele. This paper will explore the assimilation of East Asian lacquered objects within the Iberian world, treating the physical and ontological transformations that occurred as they travelled throughout the vast Iberian mercantile empire in the Indo-Pacific. The very portability of such lacquered objects engendered new realms of artistic experimentation. Like the layered quality of lacquer itself, these mobile works served as vehicles of material assemblage and hermeneutic accumulation, gathering new receptions and identities as they traveled through these Pacific networks and beyond.
Post-Critical Beliefs and Religious Reflection: Religious Openness Hypothesis in Iranian University and Islamic Seminary Students
Authors: Ghorbani Nima , Watson P. J. , Sarmast Zahra , Chen Zhuo Job
Published: June 2019

Negative relationships between Post-Critical Beliefs in Iran imply that Muslim perspectives are closed-minded, but positive correlations between Religious Reflection factors point instead toward a Muslim open-mindedness. The hypothesis of this study was that this contrast reveals the Post-Critical Belief of Symbolism to be a questionable index of Muslim open-mindedness. Iranian university students and Islamic seminarians (N = 296) responded to Post-Critical Beliefs, Religious Reflection, Religious Orientation, Quest, Rumination-Reflection, and Satisfaction with Life measures. The “openness” of Symbolism correlated negatively with the “openness” of Intellect Oriented Reflection. Other relationships broadly documented Muslim potentials for openness. Evidence of open-mindedness also appeared in contrasts between university students and Islamic seminarians. These results argued against Symbolism as a culturally sensitive measure of Muslim open-mindedness and supported the claim of the Religious Openness Hypothesis that traditional religions have at least some potentials for openness that can be obscured by contextual influences.
Trauma, Substance Dependence and Religious Coping: A Narrative Spiritual Appraisal in Faith-Based Recovery Programs
Authors: Sremac Srdjan
Published: June 2019

The purpose of this article is to understand how people with substance dependence problems employ testimonies of spiritual transformation to develop, cope and sustain a sense of personal identity and create meaning from conflicting (traumatic) life experiences. The quest to undo the struggling with substance dependence is seen as a spiritual attempt to reconfigure the person’s ‘spoiled identity’. Drawing on 31 autobiographies of people who recovered from substance dependence problems I analyzed their conversion testimonies in two European contexts (Serbia and the Netherlands, including a sample of immigrants). It draws on the observation that substance dependence often (though certainly not always) develops in response to life crises or trauma and identity confusion, while spiritual transformation, including religious conversion, can foster recovery. The study focuses specifically of the role of testimony in reconstructing a viable narrative of the self, accounting for trauma, substance dependence experience, and conversion and embedding in different social, cultural, and spiritual contexts. Finally, suggestions for the helping professions and care providers of substance dependence service will be offered.
Religious Commitment and Empathic Concern
Authors: Ziebertz Hans-Georg
Published: June 2019

There is very extensive literature on whether and how religiosity and empathy are related. Such research shows very different results, with some finding a positive influence while others seeing no influence. This paper presents research conducted on German youth (N=2157) regarding the question of how young people score on empathic concern and which concepts function as predictors. Therefore, different concepts on religious commitment are included, and in order to properly assess the meaning of religiosity in the social context of young people, socio-cultural concepts and socio-demographic characteristics are similarly included. The findings show that around two thirds of the respondents score positive or very positive on empathic concern, and that empathic concern correlates with both religious and socio-cultural concepts. Our regression analysis shows that among religious concepts the centrality of religiosity has the strongest influence (β=.220) and among the socio-religious concepts the students’ support for multiculturalism is the strongest factor (β=.195). Admittedly, the beta of sex is even higher, as being female shows the strongest influence on empathic concern (β=.265).
Introduction: Mediation and Negotiation in the Global South
Authors: Garcia Denise
Published: June 2019

The practice of international mediation is widely recognized as essential for international peace and security, and its advantages have been extensively acknowledged. It is also an integral component of international negotiation and the peaceful settlement of disputes. Nevertheless, most of the governmental and non-governmental actors involved in international mediation processes come from predominantly Northern countries. Very few states and civil society institutions from the Global South are engaged in international mediation initiatives or have invested in improving their national mediation capacities. Looking into the future, the involvement of the South in these efforts is needed more than ever. World leaders, from the North and the Global South need to revitalize principled commitments and allow great negotiators to come to the fore to reverse deadlocked and perilous situations in the search for peace and prosperity.