bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Agricultural Research in a Centrally Planned Economy: The Case of Rapeseed Research in the People's Republic of China (PRC)
Authors: Tanaka Keiko 
Published: April 2008

AbstractRapeseed has played an important role in the agriculture of the PRC for millennia as a source of edible oil, industrial products, organic fertilizer and, recently, animal feed. For the last 46 years, the PRC has experienced several dramatic shifts in the political and social environment for rapeseed research. This paper examines the scientific and technical literature on rapeseed since 1949 and identifies the relationship between agricultural research activities and major political and economic transitions in China. The analysis of the rapeseed literature shows: (1) how vulnerable agricultural research in the PRC has been to fluctuations in the political and economic environment, and (2) how the foci of rapeseed research shifted from the pre-reform to the post-reform era. This paper concludes with: (1) some observations about the differences in the role of agricultural research in a socialist and capitalist country, (2) implications about the relationship between political and economic reforms, and agricultural research.
The Changing Roles of Thailand's Lay Nuns (Mae Chii)
Authors: Gosling David L. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractWhile the community development activities of Thai monks have received a good deal of attention, little consideration has been given to women, who are traditionally excluded from full membership of the sangha. These are, however, women lay practitioners of Buddhism known as mae chii, who are increasingly undertaking social roles which are similar and, in some cases, complementary to those of the monks. Such roles on the part of both monks and mae chii need to be set within the context of Tambiah's work on the worldly aspects of Thai Buddhism and his emphasis on the need to explore the continuities and the transformations between the anthropology and the history of religion.
Parent-Child Coresidence and Quasi-Coresidence in Peninsular Malaysia
Authors: Ngin ChorSwang , DaVanzo Julie 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis paper reports the findings from focus group discussions and ethnographic interviews that were conducted in 1996 in Malay, Chinese and Indian communities in Peninsular Malaysia. Whereas a common perception in the literature is that formal parent-child coresidence remains the ideal, many urban participants of all ethnic groups felt that quasi-coresidence-parents and their adult children living nearby and assisting each other but not actually coresiding was a desirable arrangement, but there were different degrees of emphasis and different motivations, depending on the traditional pressure on coresidence and their experience with urban living. Multiple forces are shaping decisions regarding intergenerational living arrangements, including religion, traditional ideals regarding post-marital residence, labour market opportunities and women's participation in urban employment, availability and cost of housing, needs for childcare, people's experience with rural and urban living, and the health status and socioeconomic status of the elderly.
The Role of Formal Versus Informal Support of the Elderly in Singapore: Is There Substitution?
Authors: Chan Angelique 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis paper examines the relationship between formal and familial support of Singaporean elderly using data from the 1995 National Survey of Senior Citizens. We test whether the availability of formal support is associated with a decrease in the propensity of elderly individuals to rely on children. The findings show that elderly respondents with CPF accounts are significantly less likely to rely on children as their main source of financial support. Other socioeconomic characteristics of seniors have significant effects on reliance on children. Older seniors, females, seniors with little or no education, widowers, and seniors in poor health, and Chinese elderly, are significantly more likely to rely on children. The evidence suggests that as CPF coverage widens, reliance on children will probably decrease.
Intergenerational Exchanges: Qualitative Evidence from Singapore
Authors: Mehta Kalyani 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe paper compares the findings on intergenerational exchanges from two sets of focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted in Singapore. The FGDs were held among the Chinese, Malay and Indian elderly (above 60 years), the near elderly (50-59 years) and adult children (30-49 years). The findings indicated that there was a considerable amount of support exchanges between the older generations and their children. Elderly men tended to perform tasks outside the home, while elderly women's functions were usually restricted within the home. While the near elderly were active both in the workforce and at home, they had lower expectations from their children regarding support in old age in contrast to the elderly. Cross-cultural nuances emerged. The Chinese tended to state their future expectations, especially financial, clearly to their children while the Malays and Indians left it to the conscience of their offspring. Across all the ethnic groups, participants reiterated their desire to save and provide inheritance to their children, although cultural priorities differed.
Gandhi On Daniel 6
Authors: Smith-Christopher Daniel L. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractCultural exegesis represents an attempt to take seriously the issue of the perspective and background of the contemporary reader of the biblical text, particularly given differences in culturally determined perception. The promise of a "cultural exegesis" is not merely the recognition of cultural influence in textual interpretation, but the possibility that these culturally influenced interpretations can provide new directions for critical analysis for all scholars, and not only for those who share the cultural orientation of the specific reader suggesting a particular reading or interpretation. This paper takes Mahatma Gandhi's observations on Daniel 6 as a possible case of "culturally influenced" interpretation. Some of Gandhi's comments anticipate some of the more recent trends in the analysis of Daniel 1-6, while others lead in new critical directions entirely. At issue is not whether or not Gandhi was "correct" in his interpretation and use of the Daniel motif, but whether his comments (which drew on his particular cultural background by comparing Daniel to such Hindu figures as Mirabai) provide the basis for new scholarly investigations of historical as well as contemporary interpretations of the Daniel stories.
The System and the Speaking Subject in the Hebrew Bible: Reading for Divine Abjection
Authors: Beal Timothy K. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractWhat appears to be self-evident in biblical studies—what "can be assumed"— may in fact be quite problematic. Invariably and unquestionably, scholars of Micah 1:8-9 identify its speaker as the prophet rather than YHWH. Yet when one tugs at a few loose threads, that supposedly self-evident reading unravels. After problematizing that identification, this paper argues for reading YHWH as the profoundly unstable speaking subject of this abjectionable dirge. As such, the divine subject of this prophetic discourse is rendered entirely ambivalent, sweeping through and among the people with all the rage and all the grief of absolute disorientation. Understood thus, the book of Micah opens with a theophany of, in Julia Kristeva's terms, a "subject on trial," brought about by the "fracture of a symbolic code which can no longer 'hold' its (speaking) subjects" (1986a:30). This reading, which draws inspiration from Kristeva's theories of textuality and the construction of the speaking subject in discourse, is placed in intertextual tension with Kristeva's own reading of the biblical God in The Powers of Horror (1982), which, ironically, depicts that divine subject as the stable, univocal Guarantor of patriarchal order. Thus this paper is intended to problematize Kristeva's reading of the divine subject of biblical discourse, even while it depends heavily on her theoretical work to evolve a new reading of the text.
Kinship, Discipleship, and Movement: an Anthropological Study of John's Gospel
Authors: Destro Adriana , Pesce Mauro 
Published: April 2008

AbstractIn John's Gospel, the Jesus movement is represented as developing in an environment in which kinship was the primary social matrix. Combining exegetical research and anthropological analysis, the article highlights the relation between two Jewish-Palestinian social forms, coexisting within the Jesus movement: discipleship and kinship (1:35-51). In the social imagination of John, the group of disciples allows for the participation of the mother and the brothers (2:12). Kinship, however, undergoes some modifications. First, the kinship system is no longer a unique instrument for the attribution of roles. Jesus, his mother and the brothers interact dialectically, moving between acceptance and rejection (at Cana and Sukkot). Second, the kinship system is characterized by the absence of the fathers. This anomaly introduces flexibility and indefiniteness into the roles. The disappearance of wide lineages and of male relatives of women modifies contexts and re-situates all the characters. Male functions are taken on by women in substitutive ways. On the other hand, discipleship is influenced in turn by kinship, which offers unquestionable social support to Jesus and his disciples, as is shown by the mediating function of the mother at Cana and the "adivising" function of the brothers. Kinship also takes on an integrative role in the movement, as in the case of the unnamed disciple and the mother at the cross (19:25-27). In Jesus' last words, discipleship is remodelled on the basis of kinship criteria and logic. To be "in possession of" Mary, the mother, alters the balance of power within the movement.
Making and Breaking an Agreement Mediterranean Style: a New Reading of Galatians 2:1-14
Authors: Esler Philip F. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractBuilding on earlier research by the author indicating that the situation which Paul had previously encountered in Antioch was closely related to that facing him in Galatia, in that both involved demands by Jewish Christians that Gentile members of the congregations be circumcised to solve the problem caused by mixed eucharistic table-fellowship, this article develops one aspect of this position by arguing that Peter was actively advocating the circumcision of the Antiochean Gentiles and that this involved a direct breach of the agreement previously reached in Jerusalem (Gal. 2:1-10). It is suggested that much contemporary opposition to this possibility rests upon the anachronistic imposition of modern notions of fair play upon ancient Mediterranean social relations. To avoid this outcome, the author employs a model of social interaction based on the agonistic pattern of challenge and response within the framework of the honour/shame culture as developed recently within the field of Mediterranean anthropology. The model is used to pose a set of new and socially realistic questions to the text. The central issues which emerge in a fresh light using this methodology include: (a) the impact of bringing the uncircumcised Titus into Jerusalem as a provocative challenge to those advocating circumcision of Gentile members of the congregations; (b) the severe shame occasioned to those in Jerusalem who had actively but unsuccessfully sought the circumcision of Titus; (c) an interpretation of the meaning of the agreement in Gal. 2:9 as the declaration of peace after a period of hostility, a peace which consisted of an acknowledgement of the legitimacy of mixed Jewish-Gentile table-fellowship in Paul's communities; (d) pressure motivated by the desire for revenge by those shamed in Jerusalem with respect to Titus as explaining the subsequent change of attitude of James (and Peter); and (e) the meaning of 'Ioin Gal. 2:14 as "to become Jews (through circumcision)," for which there is shown to be ancient support in the commentary of Ambrosiaster.
Killing Two Birds With One Stone: the Utter De(Con)Struction of Matthew and His Church
Authors: Bubar Wallace W. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractSince its very inception, the institutional church has interpreted Matt. 16:13-20 in such a way as to confer authority upon itself. Roman Catholics especially, but Protestants too, have claimed that the passage bestows power, prestige, and supremacy upon their respective structures. As long as the passage continues to be examined in isolation, it will certainly lend itself to that sort of interpretation. I propose, however, a radical departure from this hermeneutic. Deconstruction provides the biblical exegete with a whole new set of critical tools-tools that allow him or her to read the Gospel of Matthew in an innovative way. In this paper I apply several techniques of deconstructive theory to the aforementioned passage in an effort to uncover alternative meanings which, though perhaps not evident upon superficial inspection, are valid nonetheless. By creatively analyzing how Matt. 16:13-20 functions within the larger context of the Gospel of Matthew, I shall demonstrate that the text undermines itself.
Unfaithful Passions: Coding Women Coding Men in Jeremiah 2-3 (4:2)
Authors: PETE DIAMOND A.R. , O'Connor Kathleen M. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis close reading of Jeremiah 2:1-4:2 uses critical theory on narrative, metaphor and reader response to investigate the gender symbolism in the text in order to assess its governing symbolic grammar, rhetorical function and reception. Jeremiah's metaphor of the broken marriage functions as a root metaphor that unifies and narratizes the disparate materials in these chapters. The variants between the MT and the LXX Vorlage appear as alternative performances of Jeremiah's metaphor. The majority of variants cluster around the female addressee as a means to ruin the latter's image and sharpen national application of the metaphor. Jeremiah re-encodes Hosea's version of the marriage metaphor to serve new circumstances and create a new configuration of readers. The essay concludes with a contemporary, feminist assessment of Jeremiah's gender symbolism in relation to violence against women.
Job and Religion At Its Best
Authors: Lacocque Andre 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis essay takes seriously (1) the non-Israelite provenance of every character in Job; (2) the shift in the use of general appellations of God in the dialogues to the one of the Tetragrammaton in the final theophany; and (3) the common error on the part of every protagonist of deducing from the natural order a principle of retributive justice in the social and moral world. It is here suggested that these elements create a framework of (onto)logical theism that is broken by the intervention of YHWH, of whom Job previously had only an intuition, when Job discovered that the retributive justice principle of wisdom could not be maintained on the basis of his experience. But if indeed everything is not following cosmic laws, but depends upon dialogical relations, then God is shown vulnerable and expecting as much from Job as Job is expecting from God. As for Job, innocent as he was in the light of justice, he realizes that he is guilty in the light of love. Hence, the whole book pivots around the fundamental question at the beginning: "Is it for nought ... ?"
Rocking the Boat: Jonah and the New Historicism
Authors: Sherwood Yvonne 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis reading is about critical versions of texts and how they survive (or over-live) in the critical imagination. It looks at three readings of the book of Jonah, from 1550, 1781-2 and 1860, the first freezing the moment where Jonah is catapulted from the boat as the narrative's single defining moment, the second abstracting the image of Jonah looking out over Nineveh and snarling over God's change of mind, and the third zooming in on the body of the whale, its species, jawsize and body weight. In each case it is clear that the book of Jonah (and thus the Bible) is not hermetically sealed off from culture nor merely read against a cultural background, but that the "Bible" and "Society," text and context, are held in complex and reciprocal lines of force. The story of Jonah, the whale, God and the Ninevites is a stage where the transformed fears and anxieties of cultures are acted out, and gives back to society a transformed, idealised, picture of itself.
Rahab: a Hero/Ine?
Authors: Mckinlay Judith E. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractCan Rahab be regarded as a hero/ine? I ask this question, aware that the context of my reading is that of twentieth-century Aotearoa New Zealand, and that different communities read textual dynamics in different ways, and that texts allow this. But if there is an interpretive open-endedness, so that in narrative terms one may ask whether Rahab is saviour, or traitor, or victim, the story as it is told appears to have been shaped for Israelite listeners, with Israel's interests encoded. For whose voice do we hear in Rahab's long speech to the spies? A Canaanite Rahab? Or a Rahab who is an Israelite construct? The text has led the reader to accept its assumptions that foreign/outsider women are sexually available and can be bought, just as their land lies there for the taking. The reader is provided with Rahab as the model in reading the situation as an Israelite, for she herself has read and entered Israel's ideological world. The making of Rahab the hero/ine is part of the "semiotic economy" of Israel. But if Rahab is a hero/ine, not only is there a danger here for ancient Canaanites, but other dominant cultures may identify with the voice of the text which justifies taking others' land, and those who have already lost to Christian invaders may be led to read against their history and identity. Such issues force me to face the costliness of such co-opting. If Rahab is a hero/ine, then let the reader read again.
Physiognomie Oder Gotteslob? 4Q301 3
Authors: Lange Armin 
Published: April 2008

AbstractAus paläographischen, formalen und inhaltlichen Gründen kann 4Q301 3 nicht physiognomisch interpretiert werden. Bei dem noch erhaltenen Text handelt es sich vielmehr um einen Hymnus auf Gottes Gnade und Zorn sowie sein eschatologisches Heilshandeln an seinem heiligen Volk. Die Aufnahme dieser Theologumena in einen Weisheitstext wie Myst. legt beredtes Zeugnis über die integrative Kraft der am Tempel beheimateten weisheitlichen Kreise in der ersten Hälfte des 2. Jh. v.Chr. ab.
Muhammad Al-'Abbāsī Al-Mahdi (D. 1897), Grand Mufti of Egypt, and His Al-Fatāwā Al-Mahdiyya
Authors: Peters Rudolph 
Published: April 2008

AbstractAn analysis of fatwas issued by the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Muhammad al'Abbāsī al-Mahdī (d. 1897), and of related legal texts, indicates that during the second half of the nineteenth century, the Grand Mufti played an increasingly important role in ensuring the correct and uniform application of Hanafi law, thereby preventing him from serving as an agent of legal change.
Definition and Interpretation of Muslim Law in South Asia: the Case of Gifts To Minors
Authors: Carroll Lucy 
Published: April 2008

AbstractBecause the personal law applicable to Muslims in South Asia is almost totally uncodified, it is almost totally to be found in the decisions of the Courts which discover and apply it. Development of law on a case-law basis provides scope for both error and evolution. This paper focuses on the question of gifts to minors by looking at a pivotal Privy Council decision of 1928; the restrictive interpretation placed on that decision by the Courts of British India; and the manner in which the decision of the Privy Council has been distinguished, ignored, or superseded by the Courts of post-Partition India and Pakistan in decisions resurrecting pre-1928 case-law and invoking the authorities which underlay, and the textbook comments which reflected, the earlier position.
Indo-European Tripartition and the Ara Pacis Augustae: an Excursus in Ideological Archaeology
Authors: Freibergs Gunar , Littleton C. Scott , Strutynski Udo 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe Ara Pacis Augustae or Altar of Augustan Peace, erected by the Emperor outside Rome in 9 B.C., expresses perhaps more clearly than any other monument the ideology of the Augustan Age: the peaceful union of Rome with her Empire. At the same time, in the iconography of the east and west fronts, and especially in the images on the altar table, pedestal and plinth, it contains several expressions whose structures appear consonant with the tripartite Indo-European ideology that was derived from the earliest phases of religion at Rome and elsewhere in the ancient Indo-European speaking domain by Georges Dumézil. Finally, this monument also appears to constitute a crystallized cognitive map-a visible set of reference points-in terms of which the Romans of the period could orient themselves to their contemporary circumstances, future expectations, and a past studded with subconscious echoes of their Indo-European heritage.
Explaining Religious Ideas: Elements of a Cognitive Approach
Authors: Boyer Pascal 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis paper outlines an anthropological approach to religious representations that is grounded in recent findings and hypotheses in cognitive psychology. The argument proceeds in four points. First, the main goal of this framework is to account for the recurrence of certain types of mental representations in religious systems. Recurrent features are not necessarily universal. They are the outcome of cognitive systems that make certain representations easier to acquire than others. Second, a cognitive approach must take into account the diversity of religious representations. It is argued here that religious systems bring together ontological assumptions, causal claims, episode types and social categories. These four "repertoires" may have different functional properties, and may therefore be acquired and represented in different ways. Third, universal features of tacit, intuitive systems may impose strong constraints on the variability of religious ideas. This is illustrated on the basis of ethnographic data. Finally, the type of representations one finds in religious belief-systems consists in conjectures, the cognitive salience of which is variable and should be evaluated in precise terms.
Silent Prayer in Antiquity
Authors: Van Der Horst Pieter W. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractIn antiquity prayers were said out loud and silent prayer was regarded as an anomalous practice that was looked upon with great suspicion. It was brought into connection with a variety of base motives which it was feared would be strongly objected to by others, foremost among which are wishes to practice magic, to have illicit sex, or to conceal crimes or criminal plans. It was also feared that one's prayer might be counteracted or undone by more powerful prayers of the opponents. It is only in circles of later (esp. Neo-)Platonism, in the framework of the increasing transcendentalisation in its concept of deity and the corresponding downgrading of anything material or corporeal, that complete silence as the purest form of worship was gradually accepted. This new trend had its influence on the Jewish philosopher Philo and especially on Churchfathers from Clement of Alexandria onwards (and also on some Hermetic and Gnostic circles). But in Jewish and Christian documents there was also another motive that facilitated a gradual acceptance of silent prayer as a respectable form of worship, namely, the biblical story (in 1 Samuel 1) about Hanna's inaudible prayer that was heard by God. It is the combination of these Platonic and biblical influences that brings about a change of attitude towards speechless prayer in both Judaism and Christianity, but the evidence clearly demonstrates that this was a very slow process, because the old suspicions surrounding this phenomenon did not easily disappear.