Die subjektive Objektivität der mittelalterlichen Medizin

The problem of ‘reality’ and ‘realism’ is rarely discussed in medieval medical texts, although medieval medicine is based on objectivity. There are three reasons why medieval physicians were so sure about their image of human nature: the convincing model of humoral pathology, the undoubted truth of tradition, and the suggestive similarities between worldly things and their presumed divine purpose. Thus, individual cases were only examples of the common theory of medicine and were by no means able to change it.     

古埃及护身符的制作原理、分类与文化蕴涵

护身符是古埃及宗教文化的重要艺术形式,也是古埃及人留下的文化遗产。护身符的制作遵循交感巫术原理。按照该原理可以把护身符分为3种形式:以"相似律"原理制作的护身符、以"感染率"原理制作的护身符、"相似律"与"感染律"兼有的护身符。护身符具有丰富的文化蕴涵,是古埃及人造就强势人格的法宝,也是古埃及人冥世观的集中反映,其中积淀着埃及文明的因子。护身符的运用,一方面为埃及珠宝工艺的发展带来契机,另一方面促进了埃及文明的传播。     

A local response to a wider situation: the archaeology of the clan stronghold of Dùn Èistean,Isle of Lewis

Abstract

Dùn Èistean stands at the end of a long tradition of clan strongholds seen in the MacLeod lordship of the western seaboard of north-west Scotland in the medieval and early post-medieval periods. Excavations on the site have shown that it was in repeated use for refuge in times of trouble in the 16th and early 17th centuries, acting as a power centre caught up in the wider political scene. The inhabitants of Dùn Èistean were a people with a strong local identity, using their traditional building techniques, adapting to available raw materials and drawing on the resources of the surrounding environment to support and defend the inhabitants in the face of incoming attack.     

Silver dish with fighting scenes from the lower ob region

A medieval silver dish with hunting scenes from a hoard found on the Lower Ob is described in terms of composition, style, and the iconography of separate elements. The dish was apparently manufactured in the 12th or 13th centuries in one of the toreutic workshops in northeastern Europe, specifi cally on the Kama or in the Perm area of the Urals.     

Western society and alchemy from 1200-1500

In the middle ages someone professing to be an alchemist might not actually be one in the strict sense of the word. Many frauds and charlatans posed as alchemists to make the credulous public pay for the application of their supposed knowledge of the divine art.This article will trace the development of the medieval view of alchemy as it emerges from the most important contemporary sources and will attempt to answer the question why its abuses attracted more attention than its serious exercise.     

Publishers' announcements

In the middle ages someone professing to be an alchemist might not actually be one in the strict sense of the word. Many frauds and charlatans posed as alchemists to make the credulous public pay for the application of their supposed knowledge of the divine art.This article will trace the development of the medieval view of alchemy as it emerges from the most important contemporary sources and will attempt to answer the question why its abuses attracted more attention than its serious exercise.     

Natur-Wissenschaft und Gotteserkenntnis: Das jüdische Modell

The thesis proposed here is that in Judaism creation is seen as a unique act of God at a specific point in time. In medieval philosophy the act of creation is interpreted as natural science, which concerns itself only with products of divine creation. This is contrasted with theology, which is concerned not with creation but with God. Francis Bacon takes this model from Moses Maimonides for his work Nova Atlantis. Natural science replaces theological studies for Bacon.     

The Bulgar title KANAΣYBIΓI: reconstructing the notions of divine kingship in Bulgaria, AD 822–836

This paper deals with the notions of divine kingship, formulated in the Bulgar title KANAΣYBIΓI. The author considers that ΣYBIΓI is the second part of the title and that it can be translated as '(ruler) from God', from the Indo-European *su- and baga- , i.e. *su-baga , connected with notions such as 'shining', 'glimmering' etc., which were signs of the supreme celestial god.
The Bulgars used the Byzantine formula 'ho ek Theou archon' as a translation of their original title KANAΣYBIΓI, thus emphasizing the idea of God's approval of the sovereign. This was a typical strategy for the kings in early medieval Europe, both Christians and pagans. Probably the use of KANAΣYBIΓI (AD 822–36) has to be connected with the processes of centralization of power in Bulgaria during the first three decades of the ninth century and with the influence of the two mightiest states of that time in Europe, Byzantium and the Frankish Empire, and most of all with the Bulgar aims to equal and oppose the Rhomaioi (Byzantines) and their political ideology.     

Craniometric characteristics of the Ust-Ishim people (The Southern Taiga part of the Irtysh Basin,late 1st – Early 2nd Millennia AD)

Cranial series from the Ust-Ishim burial grounds represent the medieval population of the southern taiga zone of the Middle Irtysh. Indirect data suggests that in the 5th–8th centuries AD, the area was populated by people akin to the low-faced Mongoloids who had lived in the Western Siberian forest steppe in the Early Iron Age. Apart from that, a very small Southern Siberian Mongoloid admixture is present. Generally, the Ust-Ishim people are similar to the Tobol–Irtysh group of populations belonging to the Ob–Irtysh variety of the Western Siberian race. Among the modern populations, those closest to the Ust-Ishim people are the Tobol-Irtysh Tatars, implying genetic continuity with the medieval groups studied by us.     

Simon of Tournai's Stroke: The Image of an Irate Unbeliever

For centuries after his death in the late twelfth century, Simon of Tournai, a master of theology in the Parisian schools, had a reputation for being an unbeliever punished by God with a stroke. This article gathers the eight known medieval sources for his stroke and examines them from a mythogenetic perspective to demonstrate how different authors writing with different purposes, genres, and biases recast the image of Simon as an unbeliever for their own moral or polemical programs. I argue that since Simon's stroke was interpreted as divine action, presenting him as sinful was required to preserve divine goodness. The article also discusses the representation of Simon as irate as an element of didactic intent against unbelief, blasphemy, pride, anger, and luxuria. The article revises the date of Simon's stroke from c. 1201 to the 1180s or very early 1190s.     

Some thoughts on ibex on plinths in early South Arabian art

Ibex are an important iconographic element in the art of South Arabia. The origins, geographical distribution, chronology and divine affinities of ibex are considered, drawing on both archaeological and epigraphic sources.     

At the ogre's house

The female helper identified in two recent articles in this journal is a figure in a stereotyped scene that exists in a number of different folktales. When the hero arrives at the ogre's house, this woman warns him that when the ogre returns, he will eat him. Then she protects the hero by hiding him. When the ogre comes in, he smells the human, but the woman (his wife, daughter, grandmother, or captive) prevents him from finding the visitor.     

The Literary Style of Sarmiento in Recuerdos De Provincia

I am parting from the premise that poets and writers such as Juan González de Mendoza wrote literary works commissioned by the Philippine colony oligarchy in order to influence the Habsburg Court, to continue the imperial expansion in Asia. In Historia de la China, Juan González de Mendoza offers to the Spanish Court and the King a messianic discourse proclaiming that the overtaking of Asia by the Spanish throne would be understood as a divine plan for the recuperation of the kingdom of Jerusalem and the conclusion of the medieval biblical prophecies.     

Pebbles and Peregrinatio: The Taskscape of Medieval Devotion on Inishark Island,Ireland

SINCE 2008, the island of Inishark, Co Galway, Ireland, has been the subject of archaeological research by the Cultural Landscapes of the Irish Coast (CLIC) project, directed by Ian Kuijt of the University of Notre Dame. The CLIC project’s excavations have produced new evidence for the use of water-smoothed pebbles within monastic and pilgrimage practices on the island. Using a relational perspective centred on the concept of ‘taskscape’, this article traces the formation, acquisition, manipulation, and deposition of these pebbles by human and non-human agencies and suggests how the stones may have facilitated worshippers’ embodiment of penitential devotion — peregrinatio — by evoking the divine governance of hydrological forces. Relational theory, although inspired by non-Western indigenous perspectives, is shown to be effective in shedding light on the interplay of bodies, language, objects, and environmental phenomena in early medieval and medieval Irish Christian practice.     

Presencing the divine: religion and technology in the Latin West

ABSTRACT

For over a millennium, Catholic and Protestant traditions have deployed technologies to address the central paradox of the Christian faith: God’s absence after Easter. The following essay brings together scholarship on religious technics in the Christian Latin West during the medieval and early modern periods with a focus on the performance of presence. Medieval actors utilized an array of techniques, instruments, and contraptions to manifest the divine power present in holy matter. The movement of artifacts and people across medieval and early modern horizons mobilized and multiplied the effects of sacred proximity. The Society of Jesus’ emphasis on sensuality in worship and spectacle linked older forms of ritual piety with routinized religion. The shift from a predominantly Christian to modern culture in the West did not terminate organized religion’s close association with technology, but extended the experience of spiritual presence in the West through industrial and post-industrial, digital means.     

Medieval (9th–13th Century) Combs from Northwestern Siberia

Medieval (9th–13th century) wooden and bone combs from archaeological sites in the Middle and Lower Ob basin are described. Those from Strelka and Bukhta Nakhodka are published for the ?rst time. The shape of the combs and the meaning of certain decorative patterns are discussed and comparative data is used. Until the 13th century, the native peoples of Northwestern Siberia used mostly unilateral combs made of a single piece of wood or bone. Later they were gradually replaced by imported bilateral combs of the Old Russian type or their local replicas. Apparently, medieval unilateral combs were used not only as hygiene items but also as elements of coiffure and amulets     

Front and Back Covers,Volume 39, Number 2. April 2022

Front and back cover caption, volume 39 issue 2 POLYCRISIS: FROM DIVINE INTERVENTION TO HUMAN AGENCY The front cover image is of Thanatos (Death), the fourth horseman of the apocalypse, astride a pale steed and followed by Hades (as depicted by Gustave Doré in 1868). It serves as a haunting reminder of crisis understood in religious terms. In Christian theology, the Four Horsemen were given divine authority to kill by sword, famine, plague and through the beast; four original strands of polycrisis (Revelation 6:7-8). Other eschatological traditions speak of entangled immorality, meteorological phenomena, geological violence and the coming of messianic saviours before the End Time. As our world faces an unprecedented era of interrelated and overlapping crises, we increasingly place human agency at the centre of our explanations. Yet we need to understand their underlying power dynamics and complexity better. This collection of articles invites us to examine how certain events trigger deliberation and critique of what constitutes a crisis and whether we can still identify cause and effect in an increasingly interconnected world. From socioeconomic forces to ecological thought and the coexistence of divine intervention, contributors explore how markets, solidarity, faith and future planning shape our responses to unexpected events spiralling out of control. We shift from the ‘crisis-chasing’ evident over the last two decades to a meaningful critique of emergent multiscalar events. We interrogate the usefulness of the developing polycrisis paradigm to understand better the interrelated endless crises afflicting our planet today. BEES IN CRISIS March 2023, northeastern Bosnia. A bee forager seeks out this Pink Pussy Willow, an early spring bloomer whose catkins offer up a generous supply of pollen, fuelling the hive's spring development. For the honeybees, who rely on environmental signs, such as temperature, to ascertain the seasons and sync their nest affairs with the cyclical rhythms of local weather patterns, soils and plants, willow catkin blossoms signal the beginning of a new foraging year. Yet, in the changing climate, local weather is unhinged from the seasons, and ambient cues are increasingly ambiguous and untimely. Plants, whose life cycles are likewise synced with environmental cues, interpret the changing atmosphere and respond with vigorous physiological changes. Warming temperatures and changing precipitation regimes in the Northern Hemisphere induce shorter and milder winters, earlier dates of greening in the spring and later browning in the autumn. Such changes are recorded by satellite imaging and are readily evident to lay observers. How exactly the plants and their companion insects will respond is unknown. Biologists know that responses to the changing climate and extreme weather will be idiosyncratic because ‘biodiversity’, the world of living difference, entails a vigorous differentiation of signage and meaning in an emergency. The thing to do now is to attend to these ontologically plural, interspecies signs of the times with methods and theories that are open to the unexpected and unintimidated by either the ominous or the meaningful quality of the world we share. This volume presents a joint endeavour in thinking about crisis as an ethnographic concept and an embodied, existential experience of discomfort from which to begin an earnest response.