Three Philosophers in Paradise: Kant,Tillich and Ricæur Interpret and Respond to Genesis 3

Abstract

The story of the first sin, committed by Adam and Eve in paradise, has not only attracted the attention of biblical scholars. Philosophers have also shown much interest in the story. Study of the relevant work of Kant, Tillich and Ricæur reveals two opposing ways of philosophically reading the biblical story and similar myths about the fate of the first human beings. According to the first way of reading, best represented by Kant and his followers, including Schiller, the fall was a fortunate event, one that set humanity on the path of development and progress. According to the second, represented by Tillich and Ricæur, it was a tragic event, but one that had its merits, for it allowed humans to develop their own potentialities. Freedom was obtaine at the cost of being estranged from humankind’s divine ground of being.     

An account of cultural heritage and nature conservation in Mustang,Nepal

Abstract

This article was presented as a paper to ‘World Cultural Heritage: a global challenge’, an International Symposium at Hildesheim, Germany in February 1997. The paper outlines the problems of attempting to develop a combined heritage and tourism strategy for the small, remote, Himalayan kingdom of Mustang. The development of tourism brings both opportunities and threats to local people and their identity.     

Digging deeper into the limits of ancient DNA research on syphilis

The search for the origins of syphilis has a long history in the medical and anthropological literatures. If we know more about the emergence of the pathogen that causes the disease in humans we will understand its evolution through time and space as well as shed light on its current state in living populations. Ancient DNA techniques used to isolate Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum DNA from archaeological human specimens provide direct evidence of its existence in the past. However to date, only Kolman et al. (1999) have been successful in this endeavour, while other attempts have failed (e.g., Barnes and Thomas, 2006; Bouwman and Brown, 2005). Why has there been little success? This paper serves to compliment and add relevant information to Bouwman and Brown's and Barnes and Thomas' discussion concerning our inability to apply ancient DNA techniques to study venereal syphilis in past human populations.Our approach utilized 15 different human specimens from different geographies and different temporal periods: eight samples come from medically diagnosed individuals archived during the American Civil War period; six originate from the United Kingdom and predate 1492 with four of these samples having been previously analyzed by Bouwman and Brown and one sample comes from historic Canada. Human mitochondrial and amelogenin DNA, as well as several genes from the Treponema organism were analyzed revealing the relatively good preservation of human multi-copy and single copy DNA but not treponemal DNA. This study also incorporates a unique molecular experiment using rabbits infected with venereal syphilis to help illustrate that treponemal DNA disseminates to bone early during the first stages of infection but is not present in later stages of the disease using the techniques presented in this study.     

Of mice and sparrows: Commensal faunas from the Iberian iron age in the duero valley (central spain)

This paper aims to emphasize the importance of imported commensal faunas in archaeological contexts by reporting on the earliest known house sparrows and house mice from the Iberian peninsula. The finds, which date to the Iron Age of a hinterland area of the peninsula, have been identified on the basis of osteomorphological and osteometrical criteria, which are specified in the text in order to demonstrate the reliability of the identification. The temporal and geographical coincidence of these remains in the two sites analysed with those of donkey and, secondarily, chicken remains and faunal remains of littoral origin, lends support to the hypothesis that these animals arrived with the earliest trans-Mediterranean colonizers to the southern shores of the Iberian peninsula and spread involuntarily thereafter as ‘side-products’ of the Phoenician commercial routes throughout the Iberian hinterland.     

Bone mineral content in medieval Greenland Norse

The bone mineral content (BMC) was measured using a special dual-photon scanner in 25 mandibles with normal macroscopic and radiographic bone structure. The mandibles were excavated from two Norse sites in Greenland, which date to the first and last part of the medieval Norse settlement period, respectively. The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether there was a change in BMC levels between the early and the late settlement period. The results showed no difference in male BMC between the early and the late site material. A statistically significant gender difference was found, analogous to most clinical and archaeological BMC studies. The sample did not allow testing for age-related, especially female postmenopausal-related, bone loss. It is known that Eskimos generally have a very low BMC, probably the effect of a high-protein marine diet. The lack of decrease in BMC levels for the Norse could indicate that they did not increase their overall protein intake over the 500-year settlement period. Other studies (both archaeological and anthropological) point to an increased reliance on marine foodstuffs throughout the settlement period. Thus, if the Norse increased their reliance on marine foodstuffs, they probably did not do so to the extent of an almost exclusive marine diet like that of the Eskimo. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.