Monkey Business: Imitation, Authenticity, and Identity from Pithekoussai to Plautus

2004 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Connors
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Culture ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Greek Comedy ◽  
The People

Abstract This essay explores references to monkeys as a way of talking about imitation, authenticity, and identity in Greek stories about the ““Monkey Island”” Pithekoussai (modern Ischia) and in Athenian insults, and in Plautus' comedy. In early Greek contexts, monkey business defines what it means to be aristocratic and authoritative. Classical Athenians use monkeys to think about what it means to be authentically Athenian: monkey business is a figure for behavior which threatens democratic culture——sycophancy or other deceptions of the people. Plautus' monkey imagery across the corpus of his plays moves beyond the Athenian use of ““monkey”” as a term of abuse and uses the ““imitative”” relation of monkeys to men as a metapoetic figure for invention and play-making. For Plautus, imitator——and distorter——of Greek plays, monkeys' distorted imitations of men are mapped not onto the relations between inauthentic and authentic citizens, as in Athens, but onto the relation of Roman to Greek comedy and culture at large. Monkey business in Plautus is part of the insistence on difference which was always crucial in Roman encounters with Greek culture.

Remaking the People

2021 ◽  
pp. 263-290
Author(s):  
Debasish Roy Chowdhury ◽  
John Keane
Keyword(s):  
State Power ◽  
Power Monitoring ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
Social Foundations ◽  
Political Propaganda ◽  
Nationalist Party ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government ◽  
Verbal Insults ◽  
Governing Institutions

This chapter explains how a democracy weakened by damaged social foundations and corrupted governing institutions breeds despotism. The governing party machine, in the hands of a big boss leader, stirs up talk of ‘democracy’ and ‘the people’. It neuters the courts and other power-monitoring institutions and turns them into empty shells. Demagogic talk of ‘democracy’ and the need for firm rule backed by ‘the people’ grows louder, and more militant. Elections become rowdy plebiscites. Rumours, exaggerations, and bullshit are spread by its loyal media organs. The signature tactic is stirring up trouble about who counts as ‘the people’. Elections are turned upside down, they become an exercise in electing an alternative people, a ‘true’ and ‘pure’ people rid of misfits and miscreants. The government votes in the people. India is pushing in a similar direction, with the country’s 200 million Muslim citizens as the ‘non-people’ that strongman Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party seeks to disempower. They are the prime targets of verbal insults, institutional discrimination, police inaction, political propaganda, and street-level thuggery. But the country’s intrinsic plurality and a well-entrenched democratic culture remain a powerful bulwark against centralized state power.

Sulla’s Sack of Athens

2020 ◽  
pp. 195-222
Author(s):  
Ian Worthington
Keyword(s):  
Political Life ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
The People ◽  
The City

Chapter 10 begins with a consideration of the constitution and political activity in Athens, followed by a change in the Athenian attitude toward Rome and the activities of Mithridates VI of Pontus. Mithridates’ clashes with Rome led to him seek allies in Greece, especially Athens. His case polarized Athenian politics, but the people voted to support him, and hence declared war on Rome. The Romans sent Sulla to Greece, who besieged Athens. Eventually the city capitulated, and Sulla’s men then killed many citizens and destroyed many buildings. The city’s economy was destroyed; Delos defected; further restraints were made on the city’s political life; and even artistic output was affected. Yet Roman visitors to Athens began to increase in the years after Sulla, including to study there, and Greek culture continued to be attractive to Romans.

scholarly journals Factors Responsible for Weak Democratic Culture among the Political Parties of the Pakistan

2017 ◽  
pp. 252-273
Author(s):  
Syed Ali Shah Et al.,
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Third World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
The People

Democracy, as defined by Lincoln, is “government of the people by the people, and for the people” (1). Political parties around the globe function under the same ideology. On the contrary, the true democratic process is not fully observed within these parties. Though this observation is applicable globally to nearly all political parties in one way or another, in Pakistan, similar to other third world countries, the political parties have growing scarcity of the democratic culture. If party elections and voting are held to some extent, it is taken merely as a ritual or legal binding only. As a practice, one finds an authoritarian approach, hegemony, oligarchy and limited freedom of decision-making provided to members of parties.

BUDAYA DEMOKRASI DI SULAWESI SELATAN: PERSPEKTIF STRUKTURASI

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Muchid Albintani
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
The People ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This paper was presented as an attempt to understand the relationship of culture anddemocracy in the contemporary era [political reform] in perspective Structuration in SulawesiSelatan. Cultural relations and democracy as a political system becomes an important era ofreforms ongoing regime. In this context, political culture can be a pattern for rebuilding ademocratic political behavior, especially that coming, raised and developed from the values ofthe local community, such as in Sulawesi Selatan. From this culture can be the foundation tobuild democracy ‘patterned’ local. Based on this argument paper is aimed at, [i] Identify andanalyze the interaction of the instruments ‘culture of democracy’ in the contemporary SulawesiSelatan. [i]. Formulating a contemporary democratic culture in South Sulawesi.To help explain and answer relationship with the democratic culture used the theory ofDemocracy, Political Culture and Structuration. The review of this paper shows that [i] Instrumentsand cultural interaction of democracy that exists in Sulawesi Selatan, Wajo Eclectic is aform of government, a special selection mechanism that leaders and representatives tiered,based on the relationship of the people and leaders of law as well as agreements made together.Furthermore, the interaction between these instruments indicate if the form of government,election mechanism as well as representatives and leaders of government’s relationshipwith its people have significance to the structure [political institution], not the actor or elitewith ties to the past. [ii] Based on these conditions, the formulation of political culture in theera of political reform [contemporary era] in Sulawesi Selatan is characterized by [a] Thestrong primordial and paternalism and, [b] Culture conflictual still strong, do not show thecultural values inherited from the previous., Based on this argument appears that the structureremain more influential actor who should have the value of integrity and independence.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus on Rome’s Greek Musical Heritage

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Barker
Keyword(s):  
Greek Culture ◽  
The People ◽  
Dionysius Of Halicarnassus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Musical Heritage

Dionysius tells us that his main objective in writing theAntiquitates Romanae, his massive history of Rome, was to convince his fellow-Greeks that the Romans were by origin Greeks themselves, that in their customs they preserved central features of the noble Greek culture they had inherited, and that the people under whose regime the Greeks now lived were therefore not to be despised or resented as barbarians. This paper examines some of the allusions to music scattered through the text, considering the extent and nature of the support they give to this thesis, and asking whether there is anything to be learned from them about the characteristics of the culture which Dionysius regards as both admirable and essentially Greek, and which he represents as manifesting itself among the Romans from the earliest times and persisting among them to the present day.

Głos ludu w archaicznej Grecji – pomiędzy Tersytesem a Hezjodem

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
Anna Ceglarska
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece ◽  
The Self ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Full Development ◽  
The People ◽  
Archaic Greece ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Voice

The aim of this paper is to present the role that might have been played by people in archaic Greece, already before the full development of People’s Assemblies. Already at the time of formation of Greek poleis, the voice of this social group had an increasing importance and exerted an influence on the rulers. As an example, two earliest works of Greek culture will be presented: The Iliad of Homer and Works and Days by Hesiod. They will help realize how important for rulers were actions taken by their army, which in The Iliad represents the people, and what effects soldiers’ decisions could have. Contrasting the character of Thersites from The Iliad with the self-portrait of Hesiod in the Works and Days allows noticing how the role of people’s representatives evolved – from those deprived of an opportunity to express their opinions to individuals, who can present their own views and criticize the government. These elements enable us to observe the role of people and their influence on rulers at the first stage of development of polis, as well as how they gradually gained more and more extensive power to influence affairs of the state, which in turn led to a legally sanctioned possibilities to intervene and to the emergence of People’s Assemblies in ancient Greece.

A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire

ICL Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-97
Author(s):  
Yilu Zuo
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Mass Movement ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
Conventional View ◽  
The People ◽  
Human Flesh ◽  
First Time ◽  
Prairie Fire

Abstract This article examines the human flesh search (Ren Rou Sou Suo), which may be the most salient and controversial phenomenon in the Chinese cyberspace. Unlike the conventional view that treats the human flesh search as illegal or trivial, this article argues that: first, the human flesh search may indeed have some ‘bad’ aspects (eg libel and privacy infringement), but the laws we have so far are sufficient in regulating these ‘bad’ aspects without scapegoating the entire human flesh search; second, and more importantly, every human flesh search is an online free speech mass movement. It gives millions of ordinary Chinese citizens a chance to express themselves in various forms and on wide-ranging topics, and allows them to create a new and more democratic culture. For the first time, activating the long dormant Article 47 of the Chinese Constitution and creating a culture ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ may become possible in China.

scholarly journals Review Essay

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-147
Author(s):  
Nick Couldry
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Discourse Representation ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
The People ◽  
Late Modern

This review of two recent books, with further discussion of a third, addresses questions of the direction of democracy and the impacts of media circulation and data extraction on democratic culture. The reviewed books are Selena Nemorin (2018). Biosurveillance in New Media Marketing: World, Discourse, Representation, and Dipankar Sinha (2018). The Information Game in Democracy, with discussion also of Peter Csigo (2016). The Neopopular Bubble: Speculating on “the People” in Late Modern Democracy.

scholarly journals CHRIST THE PHILOSOPHER FIGURES IN LATE ANTIQUE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN ART

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (77) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
The People ◽  
Ancient Society ◽  
True Knowledge

Late Antique and Early Christian Art designates the idiosyncratic content and style of the art which was produced during the Christianity transition process of the Roman society which was nourished mostly by the ancient Greek culture. In this transition process in which the border lines were blurred and the Christian iconography was not standardized yet, the pagan elements were included to the Christian narration or the visual images which were needed by the Christians were articulated into the pagan narration. This process which was lasted between the third to sixth centuries ended by the dissolving of pagan culture into Christianity. After Christianity constructed its own content and image discourse, pagan elements disappeared except rare personifications and mythological premises of some Christian scenes of which their geneological roots cannot be settled down easily. In this period, the philosopher image, one of the prestige indications of the ancient culture, was used for Jesus depictions frequently. In ancient society the notions of morality, culture, education and philosophy were perceived as honourable and closely interrelated with each other. The philosopher figure who possesses these virtues is an educated and restained person, a wise teacher who guides the people around him by the way of his attitudes, his own life and his lectures. In relation to this perception, in Late Antique and Early Christian Art, especially on sarcophagi, Christ is depicted in the image of philosopher/teacher who leads the person to the true knowledge both in life and after-life. Christian theology has created its own sphere and conceptual framework, consequently the identity between the virtuous life and philosophy is abandoned at the end of Late Antiquity. In this milieu philosophy losts its importance, even starts to define an anti-theological sphere for Christians. The philosopher image is no longer appropriate for the ones who identify it with the pagan and hence religionless Greeks of the ancient times. By losing the previous value of the philosopher’s image in ancient society, Christ the Philosopher figures have disappeared from the representations. Key Words: Late Antiquity, Early Christian Art, Iconography, Christ the Philosopher

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