Lulik: Taboo,Animism, or Transgressive Sacred? An Exploration of Identity,Morality, and Power in Timor‐Leste

This article explores the continued significance of lulik for people living in the central highlands of Timor‐Leste today, lulik being a term frequently translated as ‘sacred’. In contrast to the straightforward definition of lulik as the sacred property of religious places or objects set apart from everyday life, it shows that lulik is understood as a potency that animates the environment and that is concentrated in specific sites in the landscape, in ancestral objects and houses. As a vital energy that sustains life, yet that is connected to prohibitions, danger, and restrictions, lulik shares an affinity with similar phenomena found in Melanesia, Polynesia, and Southeast Asia (such as mana, tapu, or semangat). Engaging with recently reinvigorated approaches to animism and Durkheim's notion of the sacred, this article examines how lulik that emerges when distinctions between human and non‐human entities are collapsed. The analysis of how Funar residents maintain a distance from this transgressive force leads to an exploration of how lulik is connected to the constitution of the self, and how lulik is mobilized as a source of power and morality.     

Deutsche Literatur an der Indianergrenze

The thirteenth-century Spanish poem Libro de Apolonio (LA) shares many features with other works of the cuaderna vía; among them is the frequency with which the personified figure of sin makes its appearance. One finds the word pecado in the opening scene of the LA, where the narrator says that sin, always restless, manages to stir up desire in King Antioco and makes him turn his gaze on his own daughter (6). Soon again, in reference to the same incestuous king, the narrator writes that “metiólo en locura la muebda del pecado” (26). With two early references in the LA to sinful impulses, the narrator suggests that pecado is the root cause of Byzantine-like adventures that take Apolonio across the Mediterranean world. To further underscore its importance, the author uses the word pecado in a variety of contexts a minimum of thirty-one times. Given its near omnipresence, it is essential that one consider the nature and role of sin when interpreting the work. As a window through which to view sin, this essay focuses on the hero’s status as king. If Apolonio is referred to as pilgrim on occasion, it is no less significant that the main character is referred to as king no less than thirty-five times in the work. It could be that the author wants us to bear in mind that we are not dealing with “everyman,” but with a king. By viewing Apolonio in this light, one can proceed to examine his royal performance to assess to what degree his shortcomings might be considered pecado.     

Polis and Oikos: The Art of Politics in the Greek City-State

ABSTRACT

The Greek city-state has traditionally been viewed as an entity that was divided into two distinct spheres (oikos and polis) and governed by two distinct arts (oikonomia and politikê technê). The aim of this article is to show that this image of the Greek city-state is not very accurate. The relationship between the oikos and the polis was not exclusive in classical poleis. Particularly in Athens during the democratic period, the polis was depicted as a family writ large, and to the extent that oikos was seen as an entity of its own, it was a part of the polis, not excluded from or opposed to it. My aim is to show that the art of the household and the art of politics were not distinct arts as has been claimed in modern political theory. Furthermore, although the collapse of the classical city-state during the Hellenistic era entailed a privatization of the household, it was not until modern times, from the late eighteenth century onwards—when the concept of the natural right to life and property became firmly established in juridical and political discourses—that the private sphere attained genuine autonomy.     

Trying to Make Sense of Catullus 67

This reading is based on the assumption that the first five lines deal with the following three members of a Veronese family: (I) the younger Balbus (nato 5 identified by viro 1 and Caecilius 9), (II) his father, the older Balbus (parenti at 1 and senex at 4), and (III) the wife of Balbus the younger seen as the main target of the poem (the marita of 6 and, paradoxically, the virgo of 19); the assumption is that virgo is a reference to the sexual incapacity of a former husband from her time in Brixia. Badian's conjecture pacta (6) is defended, and two conjectures are proposed: incestus for illius (23) and quaerendu’ vir unde (27).     

An Italian city-state geared for war: urban knights and the cavallata of Todi

The prominent presence of noble families in towns is generally accepted as a distinguishing feature of medieval Italy's communal city-states. Paradoxically, the nobility, as the exclusive supplier of trained and fully equipped cavalrymen, would retain a pivotal position in the communal armies when, in the Duecento, their political power was questioned. In this article a detailed study has been made of the nobility's role in the organisation of the [ac]cavallata (the public obligation to maintain warhorses) as well as in the militia (cavalry service) of the Umbrian town of Todi in the decades around 1300, when Todi as a city-state reached the zenith of its power. It is argued that in Todi cavallata and militia did not coincide in all respects, and also that both institutions were to some extent open to members of the sizeable class of the sergentes. The sergentes were responsible for the ‘rural’ part of the cavallata, and they provided the cavalry of the communal army with light horsemen.     

Establishing the Public Sphere and Abolishing the Private Domain: The Rise of a Doctrine and Its Social Significance in the Spring and Autumn Period

The dominant views regarding the concepts of “the public” (gong) and “the private” (si) took shape in the Spring and Autumn period and matured in the succeeding years of the Warring States period. This paper is an attempt to trace both the growth of the vocabulary containing “gong” and “si” and the development of philosophical views regarding issues that center on the relation between the individual and the larger social/communal/political body, of which that individual is a member; it also touches on issues related to the proper handling of public affairs and the relation between state, sovereign, and the individual. The era is often characterized as “The Contention of the Hundred Schools of Thought,” notwithstanding it ended with but one view that is universally accepted by thinkers of diverse persuasion, namely, si is the source of all social evil and, therefore, should be condemned. This is the doctrine known as ligong miesi (abolishing si so gong may be established), which contributed to the orthodox for that era and the millennium to come. By extolling gong and condemning si, it painted a portrait of the pair as two irreconcilable norms or forces in social and political life; it provided a justification for the then emerging new social arrangement and ways of distribution of power and resources, and it also led to acute conflicts between the sovereign and the state, the ruled and the ruler, the state and the subject, as well as the public sphere and the private domain. Translated from Nankai Journal, Vols. 4, 5, 2004     

Kāi Tahu me te Hopu Tītī ki Rakiura:

This article examines te hopu tītī ki Rakiura — the customary harvesting of tītī or ‘muttonbirds’ (sooty shearwaters/puffinus griseus) from islands adjacent to Rakiura (Stewart Island), by members of Kāi Tahu — the iwi (tribe) that has traditional authority over the majority of Te Wāhi Pounamu (the South Island of New Zealand). The article illustrates the pre and post-contact importance of te hopu tītī to Kāi Tahu and argues that, because the harvest is now and has always been the sole domain of the iwi, this sets it apart from prevailing settler society narratives whereby indigenous people usually lose out. The article also shows how the harvest did and continues to contribute to Kāi Tahu tribal identity. The author is both Kāi Tahu and an active participant in the tītī harvest as well as a post-graduate history student. This enables him to offer both a unique reading of the archives relating to the harvest as well as access to oral histories and early photographs associated with it.     

Simone Weil's Political Theology

This article suggests that Simone Weil's political theology is characterized by the idea of labor and the event of laboring. I begin by arguing that her thinking is shaped by a materialist reading of Christianity that employs Marx's concepts — labor, capital and alienation — to examine the political implications of three theological ideas, fall, slavery and sin. Next, I suggest that although laboring should be understood as a creative endeavor, Weil argues that it is always conditioned and constrained by a force she terms social matter. This constraint produces what Marx called alienation and Weil will refer to as enslavement (and even sin). Finally, I contend that Weil's idea of labor — and its call for a minimization of constraint — provides a counter-force to social matter. I conclude by suggesting that Weil's labor provides a different way of conceptualizing not just the political subject, but political theology itself.     

Entropy vs. human ontogeny: the Shannon information measure; a reliable general indicator of human health?

ABSTRACT

A measure of health based on exact sciences is not considered by social sciences to evaluate human development. We propose the H measure of information of Shannon ([1948]. “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” The Bell Systems Technical Journal 27 (3): 379–423, 623–656), renamed as H _cto , as a general indicator of human health which can be subsequently aggregated at any statistical level. Several advantages of H _cto are explained: (i) connections with thermodynamics and information theory; (ii) combination of physical and statistical elements; (iii) measurements of entropy and/or information depending on the reference point, and (iv) a collection of examples based on the scientific literature that supports the application of H _cto . Simplified graphical models of the ontogeny of health condition are also shown. The empirical feasibility of using H _cto is also analysed, by concluding that it could be a tangible reality in the near future.     

Taxonomy and historical inertia: Clidastes (Squamata: Mosasauridae) as a case study of problematic paleobiological taxonomy

I review the taxonomic history of two problematic mosasaur species, Clidastes liodontus and Clidastes moorevillensis. The genus Clidastes is thought to represent an early radiation of a diverse clade known as the Mosasaurinae. However, most phylogenetic analyses recover the genus as paraphyletic with respect to more highly nested mosasaurines such as Mosasaurus, Prognathodon, and Globidens. The fragmentary holotype of Clidastes liodontus was never figured or fully described, and was destroyed in World War II. Over 20 years after destruction of the holotype, relatively complete specimens were referred to Clidastes liodontus based upon a single, variable character. Another taxon, originally designated Clidastes liodontus moorevillensis in a master’s thesis and then elevated to Clidastes moorevillensis in a separate dissertation, has never been formally described and lacks definitive diagnostic characters that differentiate it from the contemporary concept of Clidastes liodontus. Clidastes provides an excellent example of how historical inertia in taxonomic nomenclature can build over decades and skew our interpretations of the diversity, paleobiology, biogeography, and biostratigraphy of a taxon. Clidastes liodontus is a nomen dubium and Clidastes moorevillensis a nomen nudum. I recommend that both names be abandoned. Removal of those names frees us from a burdensome taxonomy and eliminates cognitive biases that hinder objective understanding and exploration of early-diverging mosasaurines, and is a necessary first step toward a taxonomic revision of the lineage(s) involved.     

Placing Plato in the history of liberty

ABSTRACT

This paper explores and reevaluates the place of Plato in the history of liberty. In the first half, reevaluating the view that he invents a concept of ‘positive liberty’ in the Republic, I argue for two claims: (1) that he does not do so, insofar as this is not the way that virtuous psychological self-mastery in the Republic is understood, and (2) that the Republic works primarily with the inverse concept of slavery, relying on entrenched Greek ideas about the badness of the status of being a slave and the actions and dispositions associated with it. Turning in the second half to seek Platonic innovation not in the domain of ‘positive liberty’ but in reflection on liberty as a political value, understood as the liberty of action of citizens within the laws, I argue for two further claims: (3) that as such a political value, liberty is limited and reshaped in both the Republic and the Laws to be compatible with obedience to rule / willingness to be ruled, ideally willing obedience; and (4) that for this limited and reshaped value to be secured, such obedience must be manifested not only in regard to a constitution’s laws, but also to the magistrates who hold office within it.     

Programming Models for Facility Dispersion: The p-Dispersion and Maxisum Dispersion Problems

The p-dispersion problem is to locate p facilities on a network so that the minimum separation distance between any pair of open facilities is maximized. This problem is applicable to facilities that pose a threat to each other and to systems of retail or service franchises. In both of these applications, facilities should be as far away from the closest other facility as possible. A mixed-integer program is formulated that relies on reversing the value of the 0–1 location variables in the distance constraints so that only the distance between pairs of open facilities constrain the maximization. A related problem, the maxisum dispersion problem, which aims to maximize the average separation distance between open facilities, is also formulated and solved. Computational results for both models for locating 5 and 10 facilities on a network of 25 nodes are presented, along with a multicriteria approach combining the dispersion and maxisum problems. The p -dispersion problem has a weak duality relationship with the (p-1)-center problem in that one-half the maximin distance in the p-dispersion problem is a lower bound for the minimax distance in the center problem for (p-1) facilities. Since the p-center problem is often solved via a series of set-covering problems, the p-dispersion problem may prove useful for finding a starting distance for the series of covering problems.     

Religion,secularisation and nationalism in Quebec and the Basque Country: a comparative approach

This article analyses the relationship between religion, secularisation and nationalism in Quebec and the Basque Country using a comparative approach. I will first outline the ethnic‐religious origin of these nationalist movements. Second, I will examine the extent to which the ‘new’ secular and violent nationalism (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna and Front de Libération du Québec) that emerged in the 1960s was fuelled in its origin by a transfer of sacrality. Third, I will address an aspect that has led some theorists to view religion and nationalism as analogous phenomena, in which nationalism is construed as a religion of blood sacrifice. Fourth, I will examine another aspect that leads to this view of religion and nationalism as analogous phenomena, as the latter also provides a framework of transcendent meaning through an imaginary of continuity between the different generations. The article concludes with a series of general considerations on the relations between nationalism, secularisation and religion.     

White and Coloured Marbles of the Roman Town of Urbs Salvia (Urbisaglia,Macerata, Marche,Italy)

The results of an archaeometric study concerning the coloured stones and 14 white marble sculptures found in the ancient city of Urbs Salvia (Urbisaglia, Macerata) – one of the main Roman archaeological sites of the Marche region (east central Italy) – are presented here. Data show the presence of the most important decorative stones used by the Romans, originating in all of the Mediterranean provinces, from Egypt and North Africa to Asia Minor, Greece, Gallia, Iberia and Italy. Thirty‐one different coloured lithotypes have been identified, including red and green porphyries as well as marmor phrygium and numidicum, namely the four most expensive stones cited in Diocletian's edict. Crustae of marmor chium, taenarium, chalcidicum, scyreticum, lucullaeum and sagarium also feature. Another significant presence is that of coloured stones that are generally rare, even in Rome and Ostia, such as cipollino mandolato (which is very abundant at Urbs Salvia, more than anywhere outside Gallia), broccatello di Spagna, alabastro a pecorella, lapis ophytes, brecciated facies of marmor iassene and cottanello antico. Worthy of mention, too, is the abundant presence of so‐called Roman breccia from Lez (Upper Garonne valley, French Pyrenees), a stone never reported outside Gallia. The 14 marble sculptures analysed come from public and private buildings of the Roman city and are now exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Urbisaglia. Our petrographic and isotopic analyses show that they are made of Lunense (five), Pentelic (three), Parian lychnites (three), Thasian (three) and Proconnesian (one Corinthian capital) marbles. The quality of the coloured stones identified, together with the presence of sculptures made of precious imported white marble varieties, reveals an opulent town and a local patronage wishing to decorate public buildings and rich houses with the most sought‐after marbles of Rome.     

Wills,deeds, acts: women's civic gift-giving in Ottoman Istanbul

The waqf (plural awqaf) is the Islamic pious endowment founded for charitable purposes. The Ottoman waqf, especially between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, became a gift-giving practice of solidarity in which women played an active role in founding and maintaining endowments as benefactors. These endowments served almost exclusively civic public services. While there has been considerable research on women and waqf, by moving beyond interpreting the ostensible motives that are always intertwined with women's role as ‘family caretakers’ or ‘devout Muslims’, we attempt to suggest that, interpreted as acts of piety, awqaf, and especially those that were founded as organized spaces known as külliyes, became institutions by which women were able to cultivate (in themselves and others) civic identities, and articulate civic solidarities as citizens of their cities. This image of women as civic gift-givers recasts them as active citizens of Ottoman cities, especially Istanbul.     

Umkomasia (megasporophyll): part 1 of a reassessment of Gondwana Triassic plant genera and a reclassification of some previously attributed

The genus Umkomasia, a megasporophyll, belonging to the pteridosperms (seed ferns) in the family Umkomasiaceae (Corystospermaceae), is reassessed comprehensively worldwide. All previous records are analysed. Certain fertile structures previously attributed are reclassified. Umkomasia is shown to be restricted to the Triassic of Gondwana where it is associated with the genus Pteruchus, a microsporophyll, and the genus Dicroidium, a vegetative leaf. It is well represented from Argentina, Australia and southern Africa where the Molteno Formation is by far the most comprehensively sampled with eight species described. Two specimens from the upper Permian of India attributed to Umkomasia are reclassified as cf. Arberiopsis sp. A whorled fertile structure from Antarctica, previously assigned to Umkomasia, is reclassified in a new genus as Axsmithia uniramia. Another compression fossil and the permineralized Umkomasia resinosa remain as valid records from Antarctica. The material described as Umkomasia from the Triassic of China is reclassified as Stenorachis asiatica. The Lower Jurassic record from Germany is placed in a new genus as Kirchmuellia franconica. The records of Umkomasia sp. from the Rhaetic of Germany are reclassified as cf. Kirchmuellia sp. and the single specimen from the Jurassic of Libya as genus et sp. indet. The Lower Cretaceous record from Mongolia has been reclassified by other researchers as Doylea mongolica. A pictorial key to Umkomasia species is provided, geographic and stratigraphic distributions are tabulated.     

Stanley Hauerwas,With the Grain of the Universe: The Church's Witness and Natural Theology

Abstract

The dualism between logos and praxis is still a root-cause of contemporary theological and religious discourse. Consequently, interreligious dialogue is divided as a field either related to comparative theology or philosophy or in pursuit of a common action for social justice. Instead of the traditional logos and the liberationist praxis, this paper will argue the Tao as an alternative paradigm that overcomes this dualism and is more germane to this age of globalization in the ecological crisis. It will propose three reconfigurations of interreligious dialogue; (1) from an "either-or" mode of thinking to a "bothand" way of life (T'ai-chi), (2) from an epistemology of knowing to a discernment of the way toward life in and through sociocosmic narratives of the exploited life (ch'i), and (3) from an ideologically motivated action based on a historico-anthropocentric subjectivity to a participatory embodiment in an intersubjective communion with the theanthropocosmic trajectory (Tao).     

This Is Not an Improvisation: Letitia Landon and the Slipperiness of Taxonomy

ABSTRACT

Writing in 2007, in The Wordsworth Circle, Jeffrey Robinson remarked on the “ephemerality” of improvisational poetry, its fundamental resistance to being “preserved.” Printed poetry is typically regarded as “fixed” and static: what any poem represents as improvisation is, at best, only a record, executed in a fixed medium, of a performance whose infinite variability is inherent in the nature of improvisation itself. Partly an homage to Rene Magritte’s This is Not a Pipe (1928–29) and to Michel Foucault’s 1973 essay on that painting, and using as a test case The Improvisatrice (1825), the long poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon, herself a devotee of interdisciplinary and multimedia performance, this essay considers the physical, structural, and methodological challenges and limitations posed to printed “word art” by works that purport to be, or aspire to the condition of, “improvisations.” The improvisatrice who is the poem’s narrator claims to be both a painter and a songstress, but her “speech,” captured and rendered in printed words by Landon (who ventriloquizes that speech), can neither “be” nor even “represent” a work produced (“performed”) in visual art or vocal song. In her long poem Landon effectively creates a literary trompe l’oeil, an illusion that depends for its “completion” upon the reader’s implied participation in that performative act of completion. In the process, Landon’s poem reveals the fundamental incompatibility of improvisational literary production with the performative nature of improvisation.     

‘The vehicle he has chosen’: Pointing out the theatricality of Caleb Williams

This article challenges the critical view that Godwin's association with the theatre is limited to the ill-fated Antonio (1800), and argues that the theatrical world was extremely important to Godwin the writer and political reformer. It considers Caleb Williams (1794) in this theatrical context and suggests a reading of it as a ‘theatrical novel’ in the light of St. Dunstan (1790), Godwin's historical tragedy. It argues that the novel is structured in such a manner that it reflects contemporary dramatic technique, especially in its incorporation of the practice peculiar to the Georgian stage known as ‘pointing’. I will suggest that this deliberate attempt to ‘narrativize’ this performative technique in fictional prose has profound implications in terms of explaining how Godwin saw his novel interact with its reader and is consistent with the philosophy of Political Justice.