This article builds on a range of work analysing interactive properties of text-based technologically mediated communication which has revealed its deeply interactive properties. Based on a corpus of 1250 SMS text messages, it examines in detail the sequential organization revealed in extended series of text exchanges. Adopting methods and findings from conversation analysis, the study looks at the internal construction of texts as interactive artefacts, focusing on the production of both single-unit and multi-unit messages, and analyses how participants construct exchanges (...) that show both similarities and differences with sequential organization in verbal conversation. (shrink)

Through an engagement with Massimiliano Tomba’s work Insurgent Universality, this paper explores the possibilities and limitations that reside at the heart of historical thinking.

_Europe’s Indians_ forces a rethinking of key assumptions regarding difference—particularly racial difference—and its centrality to contemporary social and political theory. Tracing shifts in European representations of two different colonial spaces, the New World and India, from the late fifteenth century through the late nineteenth, Vanita Seth demonstrates that the classification of humans into racial categories or binaries of self–other is a product of modernity. Part historical, part philosophical, and part a history of science, her account exposes the epistemic conditions (...) that enabled the _thinking_ of difference at distinct historical junctures. Seth’s examination of Renaissance, Classical Age, and nineteenth-century representations of difference reveals radically diverging forms of knowing, reasoning, organizing thought, and authorizing truth. It encompasses stories of monsters, new worlds, and ancient lands; the theories of individual agency expounded by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau; and the physiological sciences of the nineteenth century. European knowledge, Seth argues, does not reflect a singular history of Reason, but rather multiple traditions of reasoning, of historically bounded and contingent forms of knowledge. _Europe’s Indians_ shows that a history of colonialism and racism must also be an investigation into the historical production of subjectivity, agency, epistemology, and the body. (shrink)

A number of feminist critics of Latin American women writers in exile have suggested that women in exile may flourish as they are freed from the traditional gender restrictions imposed on them in their home countries. In this article I reexamine the association of exile with liberation through analysing Cristina Peri Rossi’s 1984 novel La nave de los locos (The Ship of Fools) in the light of the tension between Rosi Braidotti’s Deleuzian affirmation of feminism as a ‘joyful nomadic force’ (...) (1994: 8) and Sara Ahmed’s critique of compulsory happiness (2010). Peri Rossi juxtaposes the prescriptive worldview of the captivating medieval ‘Tapestry of the Creation’ in the Cathedral of Girona in Catalonia, which depicts the Biblical story of Genesis, and the diasporic and unpredictable wanderings of the protagonist Ecks on his journey to feminist enlightenment. I argue that while the novel seems to champion nomadic subjectivity, it also highlights the deceptive charm of imperative positive affect that may function as a disciplinary force, compelling subjects to follow a conventional path in life, and invalidating those who ‘stray’ from it. My reading of the novel calls for a nuanced approach to exile and diaspora that takes into account wider questions of the privilege and ease of movement – or, indeed, settling – enjoyed by or denied to various subjects. (shrink)

This article examines the phenomenon of same-sex unions, both joint suicides and weddings, mostly among young, low-income, non-English speaking women, that have been reported from many parts of India over the last three decades. Most of the women were Hindus and many of the weddings took place by Hindu rites. None of these women had contact with any LGBT or women's movement or activists before their weddings. Ancient as well as modern texts show that people can and do draw on (...) traditional Hindu ideas about love (as the product of attachments formed in former lives), rebirth (attachments persist from one birth to another) and marriage (which is supposed to outlast one lifetime) to legitimize socially disapproved unions, both cross-sex and same-sex. Right-wing Hindu forces today mistakenly argue that the idea of same-sex love and marriage, and indeed of marriage based on love itself, are Western imports. In fact, same-sex marriages were reported from rural areas and small towns long before the Indian LGBT movement took cognizance of the issue. When families accept them, female couples are generally able to stay together but when families violently oppose them, often with the collusion of local police, couples may be forced to separate or driven to suicide, even though law courts have uniformly upheld the right of consenting adults to live together. Modern Hindu teachers and priests are divided on the question of the validity and desirability of same-sex marriage; a doctrinal debate is now developing. (shrink)

The British Romantics and American Transcendentalists were deeply influenced by translations of Indian philosophical and literary texts. These writers in turn influenced English-educated Indians in the late colonial period. Living at opposite ends of the globe at different times and in vastly different societies, Thoreau and Tagore, in different but overlapping ways, drew on the Hindu concept of rebirth to explore human relationships with non-human animals. This essay presents an overview of their imaginative forays in this regard, and examines in (...) particular Thoreau’s translation of an extract from the ancient Sanskrit text, the Harivaṃsha and Tagore’s story Strīr Patra (A Wife’s Letter). (shrink)

ABSTRACT This narrative synthesis based on a literature review undertaken for the project ?Creating Citizenship Communities? (funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation) includes discussion, principally, about what research evidence tells us about young people?s definitions of community, of types of engagement by different groups of young people, actions by schools and what they might do in the future to promote engagement. Community is seen as a highly significant and contested area. Young people are viewed negatively by adults but are in (...) some contexts already positively engaged in communities. There seem to be gaps in the literature about what young people understand about community. There is, broadly, some consensus about how to promote engagement. (shrink)

Although social justice is an integral component of medical professionalism, there is little discussion in medical education about how to teach it to future physicians. Using adult learning theory and the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, medical educators can teach a socially-conscious professionalism through educational content and teaching strategies. Such teaching can model non-hierarchical relationships to learners, which can translate to their clinical interactions with patients. Freirian teaching can additionally foster professionalism in both teachers and learners by ensuring that (...) they are involved citizens in their local, national and international communities. (shrink)

Das Aufgreifen tradierter Motive, speziell des frühneuzeitlichen Vanitas-Topos, lässt sich in zeitgenössischer Literatur, Theater und bildender Kunst beobachten. Insbesondere die Videokunst weist dabei eine Affinität zum malerischen Genre des Stilllebens auf, welches im Kontext des Topos mit moralisch-religiösen und philo- sophischen Fragen verbunden ist und eine Integration unterschiedlicher Zeitmodi ermöglicht. In Anlehnung sowohl an frühneuzeitliche Zeitkonzepte als auch an aktuelle Theorieansätze werden Gestaltungsformen von Zeitlichkeit untersucht, die durch Film- und Videotechnik entstehen, dabei die innerbildlichen Tempora- litäten statischer Stillleben erweitern und (...) die Symbolik der Vanitas resemantisieren, verfremden oder negieren. Es wird nicht nur gezeigt, wie diese Symbole in der Gegenwartskunst eingesetzt werden, um über Vergänglichkeit und Tod zu reflek- tieren, sondern insbesondere, welche Möglichkeiten neue Technologien aufweisen, das Vergehen von Zeit ästhetisch zu gestalten. Der Beitrag präsentiert eine erste Systematisierung von Vanitas-Stillleben in der Videokunst und gibt einen Einblick in facettenreiche Auseinandersetzungen mit einem klassischen Genre. (shrink)

La sección de literatura de esta edición N.° 31, nos brinda un paisaje poético dibujado por el escritor Adriano (de San Martín) Corrales Arias, oriundo de Costa Rica, territorio cuyo relieve y herencia mesoamericana recorre a través de palabras sinuosas, vertidas en los poemas 12, 29 y 34 de su libro Vanitas, publicado en la capital costarricense por la Editorial Arlekín, en 2021.

Bilder haben seit je her das Vermögen, sich als Metamalerei reflexiv mit den Bedingungen ihrer eigenen Bildlichkeit auseinander zu setzen. In Momenten,medialer Vanitas’, wie sie der Beitrag nachvollzieht, ist es die Symbolik der Vanitas, welche gegen das Bild als solches gerichtet wird. Schon im Barock entstehen sie mit so unterschiedlichen Werken wie jenen Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts und Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggios, die als spezifisch,thanatologische Metamalerei‘ bezeichnet werden können. Sie zielen auf die mortifzierenden Strukturen bildlicher Repräsentation, ihre Medialität und Materialität. Doch (...) auch in zahlreichen zeitgenössischen Bildern von Marlene Dumas finden sich solch selbstreflexive Momente medialer Vanitas und damit moderne Transformationen eines vormodernen Topos. (shrink)

Beginning with the representation of age in extremis in the nature morte or still life, a depiction of aged artifacts and representations of vanitas, artistic representations particularly in painting associate woman and death. Looking at artistic allegories for age and ageing, raising the question of aura for Walter Benjamin along with Ivan Illich and David Hume, this essay reflects on Heidegger on history together with reflections on the ‘death of art’ as well as Arakawa and Gins and Bazon Brock, both (...) as artists ‘at your service,’ as Brock would say, contra death, and including a brief discussion of wabi sabi and kintsugi. The ‘ageing’ of art includes a review of the (ongoing) debate concerning Michelangelo’s forging of the Laocoon as well as ancient views of age together with contemporary philosophic reflections (Simone de Beauvoir and Michel de Certeau). The figure of Baubô in ancient Greek sculpture and cultic context can make it plain, as Nietzsche shows (as Sarah Kofman follows him on this), that laughter and death are connected (along with fertility cults in antiquity). Satire preserves the Greek tradition of laughing at death and the essay closes with Swinburne. (shrink)

Tinguelys gesamtes Œuvre scheint vom Vanitas-Motiv grundiert: seine sinnlosen Maschinen aus Schrott, sich selbst vernichtenden, ephemeren Artefakte, die in Form von Flügelaltären stattfindende Auseinandersetzung mit dem Tod und erst recht der eine barocke Tragikomödie referierende Cenodoxus. Dass dieser Eindruck trügt, zeigt sich sobald das scheinbar Evidente mit den frühneuzeitlichen Spielarten der Vanitas konfrontiert wird. Dennoch adaptiert und inszeniert Tinguely das Motiv mit dem melancholischen Gestus des seines Heilshorizonts verlustig gegangenen Subjekts.

Il fascino di un libro, tra Reuchlin e Bruno. -/- RINASCIMENTO ESOTERICO Speciale V centenario De arte cabalistica (1517-2017) -/- Nella sua rinomata libreria antiquaria, nel cuore di Firenze, Paolo Pampaloni sta sfogliando un grazioso volumetto in ottavo, rilegato in pelle scura. Si tratta di un esemplare del De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum di Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim.

This opinion paper takes aim at an error made recently by Clarivate Analytics in which it sent out an email that congratulated academics for becoming exclusive members of academia’s most cited elite, the Highly Cited Researchers. However, that email was sent out to an undisclosed number of non-HCRs, who were offered an apology shortly after, through a bulk mail, which tried to down-play the importance of the error, all the while praising the true HCRs. When Clarivate Analytics senior management was (...) contacted, the company declined to offer an indication of the number of academics who had been contacted and erroneously awarded the HCR status. We believe that this regrettable blunder, together with the opacity offered by the company, fortify the corporate attitude about the value of the journal impact factor, and what it represents, namely a marketing tool that is falsely used to equate citations with quality, worth, or influence. The continued commercialization of metrics such as the JIF is at the heart of their use to assess the “quality” of a researcher, their work, or a journal, and contributes to a great extent to driving scientific activities towards a futile endeavor. (shrink)

Dieser Beitrag untersucht drei Beispiele zur Überwindung von Vergänglichkeit und Endlichkeit, einer Inversion der Vanitas-Motivik, vor allem in den Klangkünsten: Wie ist es technisch möglich und kulturell zu bewerkstelligen, dem Verwehen von Klängen entgegenzuwirken? Die transhistorische Übertragungstheorie der médiologie von Régis Debray wird hierbei genutzt, um Formen und Strategien zur ‚ewigen Übertragung’ jeweils näher zu bestimmen. Ausgehend von Edisons Bewerbung des Phonographen als eines Hilfsmittels für hörbare Testamente von Verstorbenen wird die Aufführung von John Cages ORGAN 2/aslsp in Halberstadt, das (...) Vorhaben einer Millennium Clock der Long Now Foundation von Stewart Brand und Brian Eno sowie die Pressung der kremierten Asche eines Verstorbenen in einer Vinylschallplatte durch die Firma Andvinyly untersucht. (shrink)

Vergänglichkeitsthematisierungen sind in den Romanen Houellebecqs omnipräsent. Doch in welchen Kontexten erscheinen sie, was ist ihre Funktion, und inwiefern sind sie mit barocken Vanitas-Szenarien vergleichbar? Im Zentrum des Aufsatzes steht die Frage, inwiefern die Vanitas-Thematisierung bei Houellebecq im Zusammenhang steht mit einer Statuszuschreibung an die Literatur – und welche Konsequenzen daraus für das Bedeutungspotential seiner Romane abzuleiten sind. Das Zusammenspiel von Vanitas-Szenarien im Werk und Vanitas-Performanz des Autors jenseits seines Werkes lässt gerade vor dem Hintergrund der frühen poetologischen Überlegungen in (...) Gegen das Leben, gegen die Welt ein Literaturverständnis Houellebecqs hervortreten, das im politischen Sinne höchst zweifelhaft ist. Unterwerfung erweist sich als postmoderne Erbauungsliteratur, die ihren Leser irritiert mit der Frage zurücklässt, ob er sich von François emanzipieren sollte – oder ob er einfach nur liest. (shrink)

Marías’ Romane setzen die kontingente Verfasstheit großstädtischen Lebens in Szene, indem sie das Zeitbewusstsein der Figuren in ein Spannungsverhältnis zur Unausweichlichkeit des – oft plötzlichen – Todes setzen, und dabei die Ambivalenz von Ordnung und Chaos, von Freiheit und Emanzipation in Indifferenz und Beliebigkeit überführen. Sie spiegeln heutige Formen ausgeprägter Individualität in der Großstadt, für die Vanitas zur Erscheinungsweise der als kontingent erfahrenen Selbst- und Welterfahrung wird. Der Roman Morgen in der Schlacht denk an mich thematisiert solche Ambivalenzen der Kontingenz (...) in unterschiedlichen Figurenkonstellationen. Nicht einmal die Möglichkeiten der libidinösen Befriedigung greifen noch, wie Marías’ Roman Die sterblich Verliebten bestätigt. Vielmehr werden Konfigurationen der Vanitas in den skizzierten Rahmen rekontextualisiert, wodurch sich ein Schwinden von Identität, eine Aushöhlung des Subjekts, vollzieht. (shrink)

Dieser Beitrag nimmt drei Perspektiven ein. Zunächst geht es um Ikonografien der Fliege und des Totenkopfes innerhalb der Stilllebenmalerei seit der Frühen Neuzeit und um die doppelte Vergänglichkeitsmetaphorik, die aus der Kombination von Motiv und Genre resultiert. Zudem geht die Untersuchung der Frage nach, welche medialen und semantischen Verschiebungen bei dem Übertrag dieser dichten Vanitas-Konfiguration in die Fotografie entstehen. Mein Fokus liegt dabei auf den zeitgenössischen Arbeiten der amerikanischen Fotografin Paulette Tavormina und ihren zwischen 2013 und 2015 entstandenen Re-Inszenierungen historischer (...) Stillleben-Darstellungen. Aus der motiv- und gattungsspezifischen sowie der medialen Perspektive ergeben sich schließlich Fragestellungen, die das Thema Vanitas in seiner moralisierenden wie auch zeitlichen Dimension thematisieren. So stelle ich zwei konträre Formen der Temporalität in den Stillleben mit Fliege und Totenkopf zur Diskussion: das Enden und das Sich-Verflüchtigen. (shrink)

Motive des Todes und der Vanitas kennzeichnen den Italo-Western auf markante Art, was ihn sowohl vom klassischen Hollywood-Western als auch von den deutschen Karl May-Verfilmungen deutlich unterscheidet. Das Genre erfährt in den italienischen Western eine umfassende Adaptation an die katholisch-mediterrane Kultur Italiens. Neben ihrer spezifischen Ikonographie betrifft dies auch die Hervorhebung der Zeitlichkeit als filmisches Darstellungsmittel und eine spezifische negative Anthropologie und Naturauffassung mit quasi-barocken Zügen. Die Zitation und Verwendung dieser traditionellen Elemente dient aber nicht nur der Kritik des amerikanischen (...) Westernmythos und der Anpassung an das Ethos der eigenen Kultur. Sie steht zugleich im Dienst der kulturellen Erneuerungsprozesse der 1960er-Jahre, des Individualismus und Hedonismus der Popkultur, der ‚Coolness‘ ihrer neuartigen Heldenfiguren und dem spielerischen Traditionsverhältnis ihrer postmodernen künstlerischen Darstellungsweisen. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics: Debates on Gender, Varna, and Species by Ruth VanitaBrian Black (bio)The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics: Debates on Gender, Varna, and Species. By Ruth Vanita. Oxford: Oxford Unity Press, 2021. Pp. 298. Hardcover £70.00, isbn 978-0-19-285982-2. Ruth Vanita's The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics: Debates on Gender, Varna, and Species examines how the Mahābhārata (...) and Rāmāyaṇa discuss questions of justice. She reads the epics as bhakti texts to focus on their depictions of discrimination based on social categories such as gender, varṇa, species, age, and disability. The book claims that the epics criticize oppression in two main ways: by articulating philosophical ideas about social justice and by celebrating characters of a low social status. Six of the twelve chapters are devoted to themes related to gender, including marriage, independence, consent, gender-crossing, parenting, and masculinity. Focusing on the words and actions of characters in the narrative, Vanita does not directly address the question of whether we can take the marginal voices in the text as representing authentic voices of its social context. She also sidesteps the issue of patriarchy: "Every written text ever composed is, in the widest sense, patriarchal, since it was composed in a male-dominated society. Patriarchy is the air we breathe. Therefore, explaining the meaning of a text as patriarchal is as useful as explaining people's actions by the fact that they breathe" (p. 22). I was left wondering, however, if this explanation serves the interests of her study. In a book about oppressed characters, it seems crucial to say more about how systems of oppression operate. Even if we assume that all societies are patriarchal, this does not mean that they are all patriarchal in the same ways or to the same degree. Vanita is an imaginative reader, whose often speculative interpretations offer some valuable perspectives and raise interesting questions. One of the most refreshing features of the book is its extensive discussions of a number of characters and sub-stories rarely analyzed in scholarly literature. In particular, I enjoyed reading Vanita's take on the Mahābhārata's story of Diśā and Aṣṭāvakra (Mbh 13.19–22), where she shows her sensitivity to the ambiguities of this intriguing episode. This story, which appears in the Anuśāsana Parvan, begins when the ascetic Aṣṭāvakra wants to marry the sage Vadānya's daughter, Suprabhā. Before offering his consent, Vadānya sends Aṣṭāvakra to visit the aged female sage Diśā. As Vanita observes, this episode "maps a landscape of desire" [End Page 1] (p. 77) and raises a number of interesting questions about female sexuality as well as female independence. Vanita sees Diśā's motives, rather than merely testing Aṣṭāvakra's desires, as combining her role as a teacher with her own sexual yearnings. Vanita concludes that Diśā's message is that "desire cannot be entirely overcome" (p. 82). From this, she sees Diśā as advocating the conversion of "feverish agitation into happiness within marriage" (p. 83). Vanita's analysis of this story is both engaging and compelling, yet her claim that this episode is an integral part of Yudhiṣṭhira's education as a king remains undeveloped. I wanted to hear more about how this one story fits into the context of the countless others that Bhīṣma recounts to Yudhiṣṭhira. Moreover, her conclusion at the end of the chapter (ch. 4), that the epics "celebrate single women" (p. 85), seems a bit of a stretch considering the few examples she discusses. In chapter 6, Vanita revisits the encounter between Sulabhā and King Janaka (Mbh 12.308), which she discussed in detail twenty years ago.1 Her return to this episode examines the sexual power dynamics between the female sage and the legendary king from Upaniṣadic lore. As Vanita observes, Sulabhā takes the form of a beautiful young woman to test Janaka's claim to be liberated. Vanita explains:We may expect ordinary people to notice a person's looks first of all, but one who claims to be... (shrink)

RésuméCet article étudie la contribution de Montaigne au débat qui a lieu au xvi e siècle sur l’utopie comme forme de réflexion en sciences politiques. Nous montrons qu’il s’agit d’un apport à la fois important et marginal, dans la mesure où l’auteur des Essais reste visiblement en retrait du débat, ainsi que d’autres controverses politiques. C’est précisément le lieu de retrait qu’il invente qui nous intéressera surtout ici. Notre hypothèse est qu’il s’agit d’un lieu textuel dont l’auteur espère qu’il sera (...) capable d’abriter une communauté virtuelle de personnes qui ont en commun une culture de la dispute comme « exercice de notre esprit ». Or, cet exercice met Montaigne aussi souvent en désaccord avec lui-même qu’avec les autres, d’où l’ambivalence dont il témoigne à l’égard des utopies dans les Essais. (shrink)

Carel Fabritius left behind few but important works of art. We are concerned here with the View in Delft, and attempt to make two points about it. The first is that this small painting manages to break away from the classical perception of perspective, an endeavor informed mostly by new findings in the field of optics of the time. The second point, theoretically related to the first, stresses compositional elements that would bring View in Delft closer to a meditation on (...) the fleetingness of life, making it a "town-scape" vanitas. (shrink)

In a chapter that hones in on certain Renaissance portraits by Hans Holbein, Giorgione, and Jan van Scorel, Hans Maes examines how it is that we can be deeply moved by such portraits, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that we don’t know anything about their sitters. Standard explanations in terms of the revelation of an inner self or the recreation of a physical presence prove to be insuffi cient. Instead, Maes provides a more rounded account of what makes (...) said portraits moving and memorable, thereby relying on Barthes’ notion of ‘punctum,’ James Elkins’ account of why people cry in front of paintings, and a phenomenological exploration of the parallel between portraiture and the tradition of the Vanitas painting. (shrink)

Natural and supernatural explanations are used to interpret the same events in a number of predictable and universal ways. Yet little is known about how variation in diverse cultural ecologies influences how people integrate natural and supernatural explanations. Here, we examine explanatory coexistence in three existentially arousing domains of human thought: illness, death, and human origins using qualitative data from interviews conducted in Tanna, Vanuatu. Vanuatu, a Melanesian archipelago, provides a cultural context ideal for examining variation in explanatory coexistence (...) due to the lack of industrialization and the relatively recent introduction of Christianity and Western education. We argue for the integration of interdisciplinary methodologies from cognitive science and anthropology to inform research on explanatory coexistence. (shrink)

Mounting evidence suggests that endorsement of psychological continuity and the afterlife increases with age. This developmental change raises questions about the cognitive biases, social representations, and cultural input that may support afterlife beliefs. To what extent is there similarity versus diversity across cultures in how people reason about what happens after death? The objective of this study was to compare beliefs about the continuation of biological and psychological functions after death in Tanna, Vanuatu, and the United States. Children, adolescents, (...) and adults were primed with a story that contained either natural or supernatural cues. Participants were then asked whether or not different biological and psychological processes continue to function after death. We predicted that across cultures individuals would be more likely to endorse the continuation of psychological processes over biological processes and that a theistic prime would increase continuation responses regarding both types of process. Results largely supported predictions; U.S. participants provided more continuation responses for psychological than biological processes following both the theistic and non-theistic primes. Participants in Vanuatu, however, provided more continuation responses for biological than psychological processes following the theistic prime. The data provide evidence for both cultural similarity and variability in afterlife beliefs and demonstrate that individuals use both natural and supernatural explanations to interpret the same events. (shrink)

We examine the opportunities children have for interacting with others and the extent to which they are the focus of others’ visual attention in five societies where extended family communities are the norm. We compiled six video-recorded datasets collected by a team of anthropologists and psychologists conducting long-term research in each society. The six datasets include video observations of children among the Yasawas, Tanna, Tsimane, Huatasani, and Aka. Each dataset consists of a series of videos of children ranging in (...) age from 2 months to 12 years in their everyday contexts. We coded 998 videos and identified with whom children had opportunities to interact as well as the number of individuals and the proportion of observed time that children spent with these individuals. We also examined the proportion of time children received direct visual gaze. Our results indicate that children less than 5 years old spend the majority of their observed time in the presence of one female adult. This is the case across the five societies. In the three societies from which we have older children, we find a clear shift around 5 years of age, with children spending the majority of their time with other children. We also coded the presence or absence of a primary caregiver and found that caregivers remained within 2 ft of target children until 7 years of age. When they were in the company of a primary caregiver, children older than seven spent the majority of their time more than 2 ft from the caregiver. We found a consistent trend across societies with decreasing focal attention on the child with increasing child age. These findings show remarkable consistency across these societies in children’s interaction opportunities and that a developmental approach is needed to fully understand human development because the social context is dynamic across the lifespan. These data can serve as a springboard for future research examining social development in everyday contexts. (shrink)

Examining variation in reasoning about sustainability between diverse populations provides unique insight into how group norms surrounding resource conservation develop. Cultural institutions, such as religious organizations and formal schools, can mobilize communities to solve collective challenges associated with resource depletion. This study examined conservation beliefs in a Western industrialized (Austin, Texas, USA) and a non‐Western, subsistence agricultural community (Tanna, Vanuatu) among children, adolescents, and adults (N = 171; n = 58 7–12‐year‐olds, n = 53 13–17‐year‐olds, and n = 60 (...) 18–68‐year‐olds). Participants endorsed or rejected four types of justifications for engaging in land and animal conservation: sustainability, moral, religious, or permissible. In both populations, participants endorsed sustainability justifications most frequently. Religious justifications increased with age in Tanna and decreased with age in Austin. Tannese participants were also more likely to endorse multiple justifications for conservation than Austin participants. Data across all justification types show a main effect of age in both communities; endorsement of conservation decreased with age in Austin, but increased with age in Tanna. Across age groups, participants were more likely to endorse the conservation of animals than land in Austin, yet equally as likely to endorse the conservation of land and animals in Tanna. Overall, these results reveal similarities and differences in the beliefs that support the conservation of natural resources across populations. (shrink)

Dieser Beitrag untersucht eine Videoinstallation des belgischen Künstlers Koen Theys, die er als Remediation einer monumentalen skulpturalen Installation angefertigt hat. Beide Werke sind extensive zeitgenössische Auseinandersetzungen mit dem frühneuzeitlichen Vanitas-Stillleben. Sie reflektieren und exponieren dessen mediale Form und ästhetische Eigenzeit auf potenzierte Weise, indem der Prozess des ‚Aufzeichnens von Vergänglichkeit’ sowohl erlebbar gemacht als auch ironisch kommentiert wird. Wesentliche Bezüge sind dabei die kunsthistorische Tradition und die Kunstkritik der Gegenwart.

Freuds Arbeit über Vergänglichkeit wird in den Kontext der Auseinandersetzung mit Endlichkeit und Sterblichkeit gestellt, wie sie in Literatur und bildender Kunst bis in die Gegenwart hinein geführt wird. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die Spannung zwischen carpe diem und memento mori in Freuds Text als Spannung zwischen manischer Verleugnung und depressiver Reaktion – also in der Sprache der Psychoanalyse – wieder auftaucht. Es wird gefragt, inwiefern der leicht manische Einschlag, den Freuds Verteidigung des Genusses des Schönen angesichts der Vergänglichkeit annimmt, (...) auch dem Umstand geschuldet sein könnte, dass er sich dem Thema Verlust, insbesondere der sicher geglaubten kulturellen Errungenschaften, nicht aus einer Perspektive der Theorie der Objektbeziehungen nähert. Mit Bezug auf Roger Money-Kyrle lässt sich zeigen, dass auf diese Weise ein Weg eröffnet wird, dem Ringen um Genuss und Freude angesichts der Vergänglichkeit, die zum einen in der verstreichenden Zeit und zum anderen in der menschlichen Destruktivität begründet liegt, konzeptionell eine andere Wendung zu geben. Ferner wird die Vergänglichkeit zusammen mit dem psychoanalytischen Konzept der Nachträglichkeit diskutiert. Hier rückt die spezifische Zeitlichkeit in den Fokus und es eröffnet sich eine neue Perspektive, die für eine kurze Reflexion der Popularität von Vanitas-Topoi in der Gegenwartskunst genutzt wird. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:A Milanese Quartet FRED LICHT Milan, so often thought of as the heartless capital of grinding industry and heedless hedonism, is nevertheless home to at least four of the highest achievements of western art. Considered as a quartet, they represent both the greatness and the equivocal nature of human endeavor. Two of them, Raphael’s Sposalizio and Bramante’s Church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro, deal with the harmonious congruence (...) of human aspirations and human achievement attained by the grace of Providence. The limitations of human experience are accepted not as a curse but as a blessing because they are imposed by Divine Will. For Raphael as for Bramante, the artist’s obligation is to penetrate to the uttermost limits that circumscribe human existence. Having reached those limits he transmits to us the assurance that supreme fulfillment and serenity lie within and not beyond our grasp. The other two works, Leonardo’s Last Supper and Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini, conceive of the limits so gratefully acknowledged by Raphael and Bramante as nothing but the tragic starting point for their art. We can assume that all four artists had read Eccclesiastes and knew that “All is Vanity!” and consequently knew of the inevitable ruination that befalls everything terrestrial. Bramante and Raphael never mentioned the knowledge they had acquired from Ecclesiastes. Leonardo and Michelangelo made their recognition of Vanitas the very essence of their art. i. of this quartet, Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin is by far the least popular today (fig. 1). The most obvious factor that arion 27.2 fall 2019 tends to make us wary of Raphael’s early work is its criminal overuse by religious as well as profane publicity. It has been massively reproduced in edulcorated colors, fragmented to yield sentimental details, visually bowdlerized. We cannot help but be heartily sick of Raphael Madonne on those hideous little catechism-class handouts and on expensive as well as cheap bonbonnières. We have become wary of seductive paintings and Raphael’s Sposalizio is eminently seductive. We may have sloughed off nearly all the Victorian hypocrisies and strictures, but in art we continue to be stoutly puritanical. We are more than a little convinced that seduction must necessarily be the result of a false or calculating appeal for our sympathies which we should resist. And there can be no doubt about it, Raphael, especially during his youth and early maturity, seduces and intends to seduce. Since we have little reason for self-esteem, we dismiss out of hand the possibility that Raphael might genuinely love us sight unseen. Indeed, who are we that he should want to seduce us? The love he bears us is a nuisance because it is hard to deserve or live up to such affection. So it is natural to suspect him of ulterior motives that might demean or disappoint us were we to fall victim to his seduction. Yet love is one of Raphael’s great gifts. If we feel unworthy of what he offers us, if we have been conditioned to distrust anyone who courts us without an obvious motive, then that’s our loss, not his. Perhaps if we look a little more closely at this particular seducer’s methods, we will find that they are practiced in good faith. He loves us because he sees the world sub specie amoris. The particular task he sets himself is not an easy one. The narrative, the wedding of the Virgin, is both intimate in spirit and minuscule in action. It hardly seems suitable for an altar that has to have an immediate effect on the faithful who approach it. It is a story that has been illustrated by many artists before Raphael—Perugino’s painting of the same subject is rightly and frequently cited—but it was Raphael who gave it its ideal and definitive representation. Just as paint20 a milanese quartet ings of the Last Supper painted after Leonardo’s version always strike us as a bit of a failure even when attempted by such giants as Tintoretto, Rubens or Tiepolo, so is it impossible to think of any Sposalizio after Raphael’s without an edge of disappointment. In fact... (shrink)

In this paper I investigate the representation of self-consciousness in the still life tradition in the Netherlands around the time of Descartes’ residence there. I treat the paintings of this tradition as both a phenomenological resource and as a phenomenological undertaking in their own right. I begin with an introductory overview of the still life tradition, with particular attention to semiotic structures characteristic of the vanitas still life. I then focus my analysis on the representation of self-consciousness in this tradition, (...) identifying both a Cartesian mode of representation of self-consciousness but also a counter trend. (shrink)

l Discorso sull’ineguaglianza sembra scandito, come una via crucis, in una serie di tappe che dall’aurora dell’umanità condurrebbero direttamente alle tenebre del dispotismo: l’assoggettamento alle comodità della vita domestica, il trionfo della vanità, la strutturazione dei rapporti di dominio, la trappola di un patto iniquo, la concentrazione del potere nelle mani di una casta privilegiata e infine del solo tiranno. Come mostra questo libro, la linearità apparente di questa traiettoria è tuttavia contestata dal contrappunto di una serie di sentieri interrotti, (...) da una temporalità plurale nella quale i tempi si accavallano, si intrecciano, collidono. È la storia dell’affetto e della libertà che cementano la famiglia; la storia del desiderio di stima e rispetto che fissa i primi doveri della civiltà; la storia dell’eroe che in nome della comunione delle terre contrasta la loro recinzione o del brigante che si sottrae alla servitù del lavoro salariato. È la storia dell’uguaglianza che salva chi sa custodirla dal reciproco asservimento di proprietari e nullatenenti e, soprattutto, la storia della democrazia, dei popoli soggetti unicamente alle leggi che loro stessi si sono dati, risollevati dall’avvilimento della tirannide al costo del sacrificio delle comodità e della vita. È la storia delle eccezioni che infrangono la linearità della caduta e rendono visibili le possibilità sepolte ma mai annientate dall’avanzata dell’ineguaglianza. (shrink)

Der vorliegende Aufsatz untersucht vor dem Hintergrund der barocken Vanitas-Symbolik des Rauches das Zigarettenrauchen in den beiden zeitgenössischen Hamburger Inszenierungen Don Giovanni. Letzte Party und Rocco Darsow. Der Akt des Rauchens auf der Bühne und die durch Rauch im Theater erzeugten Atmosphären werden unter semiotischer und phänomenologischer Perspektive untersucht. Das Rauchen kann als zeichenhafte und leiblich erfahrbare Reflexion der Flüchtigkeit und Vergänglichkeit von Zeit und Leben gedeutet werden.

Wie kann eine auf Erhaltung angelegte konservatorische Praxis den Aufführungen des Verfalls als einer zeitgenössischen Vanitas-Darstellung gerecht werden? Die enge Verknüpfung der konservatorischen Handlungen und Reflexionen mit dem Einsatz ephemerer, auf den Ablauf in der Zeit hin gedachten Materialien wird von der These flankiert, dass es in diesen Werken um die fortwährende Präsenz des Vanitas-Gedankens geht.

An einer Serie von Studien Cy Twomblys zum antiken Orpheus-Mythos versucht der Beitrag, in Rekurs auf Walter Benjamins Überlegungen zu Zeitlichkeit, Schrift und Allegorie, Transpositionen des barocken Vanitas- Verständnisses nachzuzeichnen. Der Fokus liegt auf paradoxen Figuren von Entschwinden und überzeitlichem Nachleben, Verstummen und Nachhallen, die sich als Spuren eines transitorischen Prozesses inmitten entrinnender Zeit lesen lassen. Anklänge an barocke Vergänglichkeits-Allegorien manifestieren sich über die Verschränkung von Temporalitäten in der materialen Faktur von Schrift und Schreibgesten. Sie weisen auf Bedeutungsschichten antiker Mythologie, (...) auf die klangliche Dimension poetischer Sprache und führen auf ein Nachleben der Antike in musikalischer Skripturalität. (shrink)