bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Gift That Stops Giving: HÉLÈNe Cixous's "Gift" and the Shunammite Woman
Authors: Plate S. Brent , RODRIGUEZ MANGUAL Edna M. 
Published: April 2008

Abstract2 Kgs 4:8-37 tells of a relationship between a nameless "Shunammite woman" and the prophet Elisha. This relationship revolves around a series of gift exchanges between these two figures-most notably they are exchanges centered around the sexually-charged space of a bed. However, the two figures "give" out of different economies. French writer Hélène Cixous has discussed the sexual difference involved with economies of giving and has coined the two interlapping and interfering spaces of the feminine Realm of the Gift and the masculine Realm of the Proper. This essay reads the biblical text through Cixous's economies and results in an interpretation that displays power differentials which have gone almost entirely unnoticed by biblical commentators. By reading the feminine Realm of the Gift alongside the masculine Realm of the Proper, a conflict of power is revealed between the Shunammite woman and the prophet, with the inevitable overtaking of the feminine Realm by the masculine Realm. Yet, by going further with Cixous's thought, this essay demonstrates that the story may be read in a way that escapes such a takeover.
Islamic Law and Muslim Minorities: the Juristic Discourse On Muslim Minorities From the Second/Eighth To the Eleventh/Seventeenth Centuries
Authors:   Khaled Abou El Fadl
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis essay examines the juristic discourse on Muslim minorities from the second/eighth century to the eleventh/seventeenth century with regard to (1) whether or not Muslims may reside in non-Muslim territory and under what circumstances; (2) the relationship of these Muslims to dār al-Islām; and (3) the ethical and legal duties that these Muslims owe to the Sharī'a and to their host non-Muslim polity. The juristic discussions on legality of residence in non-Muslim territory in the first Islamic centuries were cryptic and ambiguous. Systematic juristic positions developed only after the sixth/twelfth century as a response to historical challenges. The various positions adopted by the jurists were a function of historical specificity and reflected a dynamic process of legal development. In theory, the position of Muslim minorities residing in non-Muslim territory is problematic because of the traditional dichotomy between dār al-Islām and dār al-harb. In practice, the persistent existence of Muslim minorities residing outside dār al-Islām challenged this dichotomous view. The linguistic dichotomy between dār al-Islām and dār al-harb obscures a much more complex historical reality. The juristic discourse on the issue was not dogmatic and does not lend itself to essentialist positions.
Landholding and Peasantry in the Brahmaputra Valley C . 5Th-13Th Centuries a. D
Authors: Lahiri Nayanjot 
Published: April 2008

AbstractIn the world of the Brahmaputra valley inscriptions between the 5th and the 12th/13th centuries A.D. the Brahmins, traditionally at the apex of the caste hiearchy, had their position as the dominant landholding class buttressed by certain fiscal and administrative-judicial privileges that went along with the donations of land they received from the contemporary kings. However, in contrast to certain other areas of India, such as Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra where the donated plots of land were supposedly in waste areas, giving the donee Brahmins absolute land tenure rights, the rights of the already existing peasantry in the donated plots of land in the Brahmaputra valley were unlikely to have been impaired because these plots of land were in already settled regions and not in areas to be reclaimed. The reclamation of land went on in the hilly fringe of the Brahmaputra valley as late as the 19th century, and the peasants, originally tribals, cnjoyed a permanency of tenure in the land they reclaimed. The Brahmaputra valley was reclaimed before the period of our inscriptions, and this means that the Brahmins got only the rent which the resident peasantry used to give earlier to the king. The ranks of the peasantry also included such occupational groups as boatsmen, potters and weavers, suggesting on the whole a picture of occupational mobility which could be found even the early 20th century Assam, mainly because of the general availability of cultivable waste land and the insignificance of trade conducive to the growth of occupational groups. The peasant production was geared to wet rice cultivation which had an irrigational system, perhaps honed by the Kachari element of the population of our period, to fall back upon. The Kachari participation in this irrigation system can be surmised both from the occurrence of the related language words in the inscriptions and the general ethnographic literature on pre-modern irrigation in the Brahmaputra valley. The interaction between the Brahmins and the general range of peasantry which undoubtedly had a significant tribal element ushered in what would be called the process of Sanskritization of the grassroots village level in the Brahmaputra valley. The data on the systems of landholding and the general character of the peasantry are not much in the inscriptions of our period, constituting, in fact, its basic historical source, but viewed in the light of the relevant ethnographic evidence in the context of pre-modern Assam, even this limited amount of data can offer a coherent picture, howsoever brief.
La Quête Du Sens Dans Le Symbolisme Yoruba: Le Cas D'Erinle
Authors: Witte Hans 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe article shows that in Yoruba mythology Erinle is a male hunter who is named after (or associated with) an elephant and who-for diverse reasons-is finally transformed into a water-spirit. In his cult Erinle is mainly venerated as a river-god who, like the river goddesses Qsun and Yemoya, blesses his followers with children. In the iconography of his cult, however, the material symbols of a Yoruba water-spirit (terra-cotta pots with water and pebbles from the river: fans) are mixed with those that refer to the hunter and the symbol-complex of the god of iron and of the wilderness (iron chains; fly whisks; wrought iron staffs topped by birds). Outside his cult Erinle is sometimes symbolized by the image of an elephant with reference to his name. In the cult of his close friend Sango, the Oyo god of thunder, Erinle is figurated as a mudfish or a human being with mudfish legs, symbolizing him as a water-spirit. Comparison with mudfish symbolism in other Yoruba cults suggests that this mudfish symbolism refers to Erinle only when he is assimilated to Sango as the founding ancestor of the Qyo kingdom.
The Almohad Tawhid: Theology Which Relies On Logic
Authors: Fletcher Madeleine 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe Almohad dynasty of twelfth century Spain and North Africa patronized the study of Greek philosophy. Almohad scholars were largely responsible for editing and commentating the texts of Aristotle which came into the hands of Thomas Aquinas, greatly facilitating the development of scholastic theology in thirteenth century Europe. This paper investigates the theology of Ibn Tumart to describe the extent to which this taste for philosophy was consistent with the teaching of the aforementioned founder of the Almohad movement who was a Berber jurist from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. We find that Ibn Tumart's teaching assigns a radically important role to reason in theology, declaring reason to be a source of religious doctrine along with scripture (the Koran and the Hadith). Throughout the essay, internal evidence provided by an ongoing comparison between Ibn Tumart's two murshidas and what had previously been assumed to be his most important credal document, his 'aqīda, reveals the latter to have been the product of a heavy editing process which occurred after Ibn Tumart's death, probably in 1183 at the time of the writing down of the manuscript a'azzu ma yutlab which was published as Le livre d'Ibn Toumert by Luciani in 1903. The paper attempts to define Ibn Tumart's theology of tawhīd in relation to other systems in which the word functions as a concept. Possible definitions thus provided are accepted or rejected. Questions considered are: 1 Whether Almohad lawhīd can be seen as a denial of the attributes of God as in Mu'tazilite theology. 2 Whether Almohad tawhīd can be seen as the tawhīd of ittisāl or of Pantheistic monism. 2 Whether Almohad tawhīd and its aspect of anti-anthromorphism can be seen as a rejection of animistic and folkloric remnants.
The Making of an Immortal: the Exaltation of Ho Chih-Chang
Authors: Kirkland Russell 
Published: April 2008

AbstractAn unusual case of a Chinese "immortal" (hsien) was the T'ang dynasty statesman Ho Chih-chang (659-744). During his life, Ho displayed little interest in religion until a late-life ordination as a Taoist priest. During the Sung dynasty, however, he was gradually elevated to "immortality" in a series of hagiographical tales. In the 10th-century T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi, Ho appears as a character who learns humility. In the 11 th-century Kao-tao chuan, he appears as a character who yields to the Taoist ideals of restraint and orderly progress. In the 13th-century Chia-ting Ch'ih-ch'eng chih, Ho appears as a master of pharmika who ascends to heaven after a life of several centuries. In that text, the figure of Ho no longer has moral significance: he represents a romantic ideal of "the immortal," but no longer serves as a meaningful spiritual exemplar. In fact, in that text he ceases to function as a representative of Taoist values, for Taoists always aspire to a moral and spiritual elevation, a personal perfection for which the concept of "immortality" serves as a potent metaphor. I suggest that the compilers of such texts appropriated honored historical figures like Ho in an effort to persuade sceptical members of the Chinese elite that "immortality" was a valid and respectable ideal.
When Is a Theft Not a Theft? Relic Theft and the Cult of the Buddha's Relics in Sri Lanka
Authors: Trainor Kevin M. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis essay examines the phenomenon of relic theft in the Theravada Buddhist tradition of Sri Lanka. Having noted the relative paucity of scholarship on this topic, the essay first examines the canonical warrant for the practice of relic veneration in the Mahāparinibbāna-sutta, and identifies a fundamental tension that the cult of veneration poses for the tradition. Relics, as valued material objects subject to human manipulation and possession, would appear to encourage attachment. The canonical passages that deal with the cult of veneration simultaneously affirm the value of the practice, while warning of the danger that attachment to the relics poses. The essay goes on to note evidence, in the form of expanded relic lists in canonical sources, of the expansion of the relic cult and of the need to affirm the authenticity of new centers of sacrality associated with the enshrinement of particular relics. The essay then examines several accounts of relic theft in the Pali chronicle (vamsa) literature, noting that these accounts serve to simultaneously affirm the desirability of relics, and to account for the orderly movement of these valued objects from one location to another. Yet these accounts of relic theft are problematic in that they appear to endorse the practice of stealing, which is a violation of both lay and monastic Buddhist ideals. In response to this problem, the essay identifies two different models of relic theft, noting that one model is religiously affirmed, while the other is condemned. The essay concludes with a brief comparison of relic theft accounts in the Buddhist and Christian traditions.
Shrines, Medicines, and the Strength of the Head: the Way of the Warrior Among the Diola of Senegambia
Authors: Baum Robert M. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe history of warfare has long be associated with a variety of religious practices designed to lessen the likelihood of death and enhance the possibility of victory. Warriors enter a world where the expectation of a normal life span is challenged by the death of comrades and where martial skill cannot ensure survival. This paper examines the way in which the Diola of Senegambia used religious practices and ideas to lessen the uncertainty of war during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Diola warriors sought the assistance of spirit shrines to lessen the uncertainties and dangers of war. There are strong parallels between the types of ritual employed by Diola warriors and Diola wrestlers, who share a common mission of eliminating risks. These parallels are discussed briefly before a detailed examination of Diola rituals related to war, the types of ritual prophylaxis utilized by warriors, and the types of Diola (as well as Christian and Muslim) medicines used for spiritual protection. Several specific war shrines are described as well as the means by which they were created. Finally, the article discusses the "strength of the head", special powers that enable warriors to protect themselves from harm, evade capture, and even transform themselves into certain types of animals. The article concludes with an analysis of the impact of colonial wars, with their greater firepower and more far-reaching consequences, on the connections between religion and the Diola way of the warrior. A central part of the spiritual crisis accompanying the colonial conquest, not only for the Diola but for many other African peoples, was the defeat of the religious structures that provided spiritual support for the way of the warrior.
Geography and Mentality Some Aspects of Max Weber's Protestantism Thesis
Authors: Dolphin Amy C. , Ay Karl-Ludwig 
Published: April 2008

AbstractIn his essays on the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber proceeds from the observation that in Germany there is a clearly recognizable difference between the economic behaviour of Catholics and Protestants. As one of the reasons for this difference, the essays reveal-as a guiding principle for people's conduct of life-the principle of worldly asceticism inherent in Protestantism. This, Weber said, especially contributed to the formation of modern bourgeois capitalism in the occidental world. This thesis was mainly developed on the evidence of phenomena which Weber observed in Western Europe and North America and which he himself related to Calvinism. The problem now is that the Germany of Weber's time, as a leading industrial state, participated in modern western capitalism without Calvinism playing for the German Protestants a role which would have been in any way comparable to its role in the more western countries. Detailed examination of governmental, economic, and social conditions in the history of the denominalisation of some German territories and the comparison with the living conditions of Protestants in Western Europe and America leads to the conclusion that the later development of bourgeois economy and what I would like to call "Word Culture" (cf. p. 176f.) depended on the following factors: on with what methods and with what severity the rulers of the Reformation Era succeeded in imposing their own personal choice of faith upon their subjects or how far they allowed things to take their course without interference; then on whether they in this way curtailed, permitted or even supported the development of that capitalist and bourgeois economic spirit and "Word Culture" which had its roots as far back as the pre-Reformation era and which had then been boosted by Calvinism. Both individual belief and the rulers' power over this belief influenced equally vigorously and lastingly the mentality of all people concerned. Even more generalized: depending on whether and to what extent the religious and intellectual culture of a society are subjected to state oppression and coercive formation over a long period of time, the intellectual culture and economic attitude and potential of this society will develop. Life-style, economic ethic and cultural profile of many later generations depend on this.
The Martyr as Witness Coptic and Copto-Arabic Hagiographies as Mediators of Religious Memory1
Authors: Naguib Saphinaz-Amal 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis article argues for a novel reading of Coptic and Copto-Arabic hagiographies. Relying on the analysis of Coptic and Copto-Arabic traditions belonging to the Passion of Victor son of Romanos, also known as Victor the General, the author investigates issues concerning the transmission of texts, intertextuality, the dialectics between history and memory and their implications in the articulation of Coptic religious memory. In the present article the body of the martyr is viewed as a text and the memory of bodily experiences transmitted through texts as pertaining to religious memory. The author posits that far from negating his body, the martyr made it the chart of his belief and placed it in the foreground for everybody to see, to hear about and to remember. She explicates that the practices to which the martyr subordinated his body and the experience of martyrdom placed him in a state of liminality.
The Identity of the Destroyer in the Mahābhārata
Authors: Thomas Lynn 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis paper examines the identity of the deity associated with the periodic destruction of the cosmos as found in the numerous pralaya upamāna in the Mahābhārata. While this deity is usually identified as Siva in the Purānas and later texts, the present paper contends that the situation is rather different in the Mahābhārata, and probably points to an earlier stage in the myth's development. In order to establish this, the instances and characteristics of the various identifications given in these similes are considered in some detail. Antaka, Kala, Krtānta, Kalantaka, Rudra/Siva and Yama are each examined in separate sections. From this examination, the conclusion is drawn that the deity most readily identified with the role of cosmic destroyer in the Mahābhārata is Yama, either by name or, more often, by epithets associated with him. Some possible reasons for this are considered briefly, as well as the implications which this identification could have for our understanding of the myth.
Pearls From Bones: Relics, Chortens, Tertons and the Signs of Saintly Death in Tibet
Authors: Martin Dan 
Published: April 2008

AbstractAlthough there has been much work, in recent years, on the sacrum of Christianity, and some important studies have appeared on Buddhist relic cults and related facets of Buddhism, so far very little has been written on Tibetan Buddhist relics. This paper, while offering some material for a historical perspective, mainly seeks to find a larger cultural pattern for understanding the interrelationships of a complex of factors active in Tibetan religious culture. Beginning with problems of relic-related terms and classifications, we then suggest a new assessment of the role of the Terton ('treasure revealer'). Then we discuss 'miracles' in Tibet, and the intersection of categories of 'signs of saintly death' and relics. Much of the remaining pages are devoted to those items that fall within both categories, specifically the 'pearls' that emerge miraculously from saintly remains and images that appear in bodily or other substances connected with cremations. After looking at a number of testimonials on these miraculous relics, we examine the possibility that these items might be 'deceitfully manufactured', looking at a few Tibetan polemical writings which raise this possibility. In the conclusion, we suggest that there are some critical links between three spheres of Tibetan religiosity: 1. sacrum which are not relics, 2. relics, and 3. signs of sainthood. Finally, we recommend an approach to religious studies that takes its point of departure in actual practices, and particularly the objects associated with popular devotional practice.
Animal Rights and Human Social Issues
Authors: Nibert David A. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractUsing survey data from a sample of residents of Clark County, Ohio, the author explores the relationship between support for animal rights and opinions on eleven social issues pertaining to gun control, acceptance of violence, and rights for minority groups. Findings show that support for animal rights is significantly related to seven of the eleven variables, suggesting the existence of an important link between one's disposition toward human and nonhuman animals.
Conflicting Ideologies: Views of Animal Rights Advocates and Their Opponents
Authors: Atwood Lawrence Elizabeth 
Published: April 2008

AbstractIn order to understand the animal rights movement as it exists today in American society, it is necessary to explore the ways in which the beliefs of those who support the movement differ from the beliefs of their adversaries. Societal views generally determine the perceived differences and similarities between people and animals, and the issues surrounding these differences are fundamental to the animal rights controversy.
Children, Animals, and Leisure Settings
Authors: Birney Barbara Ann 
Published: April 2008

AbstractForty-eight children were interviewed on topics including the behavior of wild and captive animals. Half of the children toured a series of North American exhibits at a natural history museum and half toured a comparable series of exhibits at a zoo. Children demonstrated a high degree of recall about their visits and retained specific memories of the animals that interested them. Zoo children's remarks contained more references to behavior and were more positive in their assessment of what animals could do. Museum children made more references to environmental elements and issues such as human impact.
Who Said That? Status Presentation in Media Accounts of the Animal Experimentation Debate
Authors: Kruse Corwin R. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractIn recent years, the issue of experimentation upon nonhuman animals has become the subject of media attention. One aspect of the media presentation is the status attributed to claims-makers on either side of the issue. Research suggests that perceived expertise of the source of arguments can play a role in attitudes formed by audiences. This study examines mainstream print and broadcast media presentation of the status of individuals quoted regarding the issue of animal experimentation. Those supporting continued experimentation are significantly more likely to be presented as professionals or experts. Attitude formation is discussed in light of these findings.
Childhood Socialization and Companion Animals: United States, 1820-1870
Authors: Grier Katherine C. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractBetween 1820 and 1870, middle-class Americans became convinced of the role nonhuman animals could play in socializing children. Companion animals in and around the household were the medium for training children into self-consciousness about, and abhorrence of, causing pain to other creatures including, ultimately, other people. In an age where the formation of character was perceived as an act of conscious choice and self-control, middle-class Americans understood cruelty to animals as a problem both of individual or familial deficiency and of good and evil. Training children to be self-conscious about kindness became an important task of parenting. Domestic advisors also argued that learning kindness was critical for boys who were developmentally prone to cruelty and whose youthful cruelty had implications both for the future of family life and for the body politic. The practice of pet keeping, where children became stewards of companion animals who were then able to teach young humans such virtues as gratitude and fidelity, became a socially meaningful act.