The Valley of Beauty

~~The Valley of Beauty~~     

Snapshots of The Himalayas

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Collation of The 'Tripitaka'

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The Book of Job – The Cyclical Progression of the Aporia

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relation between aesthetics and theology in the Book of Job. The overall aim of the article is to explain the relationship between centre and periphery (poetry and prose) and its significance for the theology of the book. The article claims that Job's problem is not the attainment of wisdom but how to reconcile wisdom with suffering—how to relate to suffering. And this theological theme is propagated through aesthetics—including stylistic, narrative, compositional and structural features.

It is impossible to point out a preferential reading in the Book of Job because of the fundamental and structural dissonance of the text. This destabilized, ambiguous, paradoxical, ironical and dissonance-producing text is the hermeneutical starting point. Qua dissonance-producing text this feature is used as foundation for the interpretative task. And to get a comprehensive grip on the book two instruments are used: the literary and compositional means are analyzed, and the structural elements are evaluated in their relation between frame and centre. Following this line of interpretation reveals that the stylistic differences of the work manifest crucial theological distinctions. In the book of Job, shape and aesthetics are meaning and theology.     

The Construction of Soviet Ethnography and “The Peoples of Siberia”

The multi-generation book project "The Peoples of Siberia" enabled a group of Leningrad-based scholars to reshape their museum into a Soviet ethnographic community. This article analyses the face-to-face performances, the legalistic stenographic documentation, the collective crafting of a single authoritative style, and a unique temporal frame as an important background to understand a hallmark volume in Siberian studies. The authors argue that the published volume indexes nearly thirty years of scholarly debates as much as it indexes the peoples it represents. The article concludes with a critical discussion of how this volume was translated and received by a Euro-American readership influencing the perception of Siberian peoples internationally. It also links the volume to contemporary post-Soviet publication projects which seem to retrace the same path. The article is based on extensive archival work and references collections recently discovered and which are presented for publication here for the first time.     

The Wapentake Courts of The Honour of Pontefract, 1427–1877

Wapentake courts continued to play an important role in the administration of the West Riding throughout the early-modern period and for much of the nineteenth century. This can be demonstrated from the surviving court records of the six wapentake courts of the honour of Pontefract. These show that wapentake courts, acting as sheriff's tourns, performed a central function in early-modern local administration. All the township officers within their jurisdictions, including constables, sworn men (bye-law men) and pinders, were sworn into office at sittings of these courts. The roles of these different township officers are made clear. These courts and the seigneurial courts with jurisdiction over civil suits were inter-dependant, as were the wapentake courts and the courts of quarter sessions. Evolutionary changes in the sittings and functions of these courts are described. The wapentake courts were undermined by nineteenth century reforms of policing and to courts for debt litigation, which eventually led to the final abandonment of these courts despite local support for their continuation.     

The unification of archaeological sites of Athens: The birth of an archaeological park?

Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing trend to present archaeological resources in the form of archaeological parks. These are an innovative way of presenting vast archaeological sites that contain a number of monuments, as a single entity, using components of the environment as interpretation features and creating an ‘invented’ integrity of the landscape. Even though the overall concept of an archaeological park emerged in Scandinavia at least three decades ago, only recently has it taken on a wider character and been applied to a variety of archaeological sites. But no clear criteria exist for them.

The current project of the Unification of the Archaeological Sites of Athens involves creating an archaeological park that includes most features considered essential for a park of this kind. However, the special characteristics of Athens (the over-built urban landscape, environmental pollution, and the mystical relationship between the ancient and modern cities), give the future park a rather individual character.     

The Americanisation of Europe after 1945? The Case of the German Universities

Academic discourse about America's influence on Europe constitutes an important contribution to the understanding of intercultural transfer-processes. In this context particularly the twentieth century has to be considered, because it was during this period when the decline of more than 400 years of the Europeanisation of the world ran parallel to the beginning of its Americanisation. The thesis presented here pursues an aspect of Amercanisation which has hardly been analysed: namely, the direct and indirect American influences on the German universities and academic system after the Second World War. In this case, the term Americanisation does not mean a one-sided transfer of the American higher education system, but rather a gradual merging of American influences with the German university tradition.     

The Story of A Photograph

SoinamZholma,motherofthelatelothPanchenErdeni,receivedanunexpectedphonecallthisspring,whenshewasattendingtheannualNationalPoliticalConsultativeConferenceinBejing.ThecallsaidthatanuniversityteachernamedZhangHongwouldvisither.SoinamZholma,81,couldn'trecalle…     

The ability of modern secretary

Modern secretaries need to master a lot of oldand new skills including some required skills and some modernabilities.And secretaries in modern offices also have to mastersome special skills to be supportive to their bosses.     

The Pasteurization of Algeria?

This essay focuses on the anti–malarial campaigns of Edmondand Etienne Sergent in colonial Algeria during the period from1900 to 1930. This Pasteur Institute of Algeria was part ofan elaborate, global network of men and institutions that constitutedthe scientific empire of Third Republic France. It was deeplyindebted to the methods pioneered by Pasteur and to the sharedfoundational myth that connected the overseas Pasteur Institutesto Paris. But the Sergent brothers’ work operated withina dynamic context of international public health too. Algeria’sEuropean settlers had also worked out a creolized identity thatwas both dependent upon and distinct from metropolitan practices.Ultimately, the Pasteur Institute of Algeria bore the mark ofthe settler colonialism that had given rise to it.     

The End of Art?

This article focuses on the arguments that Arthur Danto has advanced for alleging that the developmental history of art is over. The author is skeptical of Danto's conclusion and maintains that Danto has failed to demonstrate that art history is necessarily closed. The author also contends that Danto's end-of-art thesis is better construed as a specimen of art criticism than as an example of the speculative philosophy of art history.     

The Development of Tibetan Culture

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The Philosophy of Historiography?

Book reviewed in this article:
Encounters: Philosophy of History After Postmodernism , by Ewa Domanska.     

The Idiom of the Other: Three Francophone Writers of “The Fringe”

This paper is based on the linguistic and cultural experiences of three francophone writers: Ahmadou Kourouma (Abidjan, Ivory Coast), Suzanne Dracius (Martinique), and Barry Jean Ancelet (Louisiana, United States). Their testimonies are discussed in the opening section. A reading of Jacques Derrida's Monolingualism of the Other; or, The Prosthesis of Origin, enables us to analyze the experiences of these three writers, “whose relation to the French language is as vexed and varied as Derrida's own Algerian inheritance” (in the words of an anonymous reviewer). It leads, in the next section, to a discussion of the impossibility of absolute monolingualism demanded by “linguistic imperialism,” the multiplicity inherent in any language, and the violence of a language which claims to be unique, while serving some ideology or power. In the last part, I address the double interdict to which Derrida believes education must respond, and the double entitlement for which it is responsible.     

The co-creation (of) culture? The case of Umeå, European Capital of Culture 2014

Culture is often promoted as crucial in efforts to achieve economic growth and social cohesion. In recent debates, greater attention has been directed at the importance of culture in creating democratic and just cities. Drawing on theories concerning participation, we study the processes of citizen participation in the creation of culture in relation to the European Capital of Culture in Umeå in Northern Sweden. The city has been praised for its focus on participation and the ‘co-creation’ of culture. We scrutinize the idea of co-creation, how it is filled with meaning by different actors, the way it is operationalized by city officials and cultural actors/practitioners and the possibilities for public participation and the power relationships at play in the city. We conclude that culture tends to be depoliticized and turned into an arena available for all on supposedly equal terms and ignores the very unequal terms on which different actors participate. It ignores how power relations affect and construct who gets to speak and be heard; that there are conflicting meanings of culture and co-creation and how power influences whose definition of culture is accepted.