Ethnic and Racial Identity in the Brotherhoods of the Rosary of Minas Gerais, 1700-1830

1999 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth W. Kiddy

The participants in the festivals of the rosary in Minas Gerais tell a story about the beginning of the devotion of the blacks to Our Lady of the Rosary. In the story, a black slave sees Our Lady of the Rosary out in the sea rocking on top of the waves. When he tells his master, the master and the priests rush down to the water, but are unable to coax her to come to shore. In frustration, they leave the task to the blacks. Blacks from different African nations, or different groups of congados in the vernacular, go one by one to the edge of the sea (or a river) and play their instruments, dance and sing to try to convince Our Lady of the Rosary to come ashore. Their efforts only become successful when the most traditional group goes to the shore and begins to play their music. Even this most traditional group has no success, however, until all the other groups return and join them to sing together. Only then does Our Lady of the Rosary come to the shore and sit on the largest drum, showing her acceptance of the devotion of the blacks. Even when the whites take her to their own chapel and lock the door, she escapes and returns to the sea, waiting for the blacks to call her out again and put her in their own chapel.

Author(s):  
Luka Bekavac

The Familiar is densely structured by divisions and hierarchies in terms of plot, focalization, vocabularies and layout, but it is primarily a book of interconnectedness. This is a principle that propels its narrative and poses the biggest challenge in its execution: is it possible to describe a genuinely new and disruptive entity, a “monster” unreadable in terms of existing codes and concepts, arriving as a series of glitches, a system breach, a breakdown of defenses, an enforced encounter with the Other?The Familiar itself could be conceived as an arena where a new genus comes into being through the corporeality of text, not represented as a character or recounted as an event, but assuming flesh on the page within the suspended temporality of print. A specific signiconic lexicon was devised to blur the borders between the textual and the pictorial, to give a voice to the voiceless (“the waves, the animals, the plants”), and to “surpass or bypass the mind” (Danielewski). Placing this enlarged semiotic spectrum of the sensible and the intelligible within the traditional frame of a multi-volume novel makes its ambition even more radical. Pushing the book-as-archive beyond its historical confines of mimesis and expression, The Familiar envisions literature as a process, a distribution of forces across an ontologically heterogeneous field, suggesting a nonlinear continuum motivated by a “non-subject-centered mode of agency” (Bennett).Starting with notions of the book to come as a locus of futurity and unexplored possibility (Blanchot, Derrida) and assemblage as a multiplicity, a corpus of becoming or a zone of emergence (Deleuze and Guattari), this article attempts to examine the tension between storytelling demands and the very materiality of The Familiar (including its asemic borders or cores) in view of its own signiconic and inherently post-anthropocentric goals.


Author(s):  
Shi Yan ◽  
Binbin He ◽  
Naizhi Zhao

Pipeline structure may generate damages during its service life due to the influence of environment or accidental loading. The damages need to be detected and repaired if they are severe enough to influence the transportation work. Non-destructive detection using smart materials combined with suitable diagonal algorithms are widely used in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM). Piezoelectric ceramics (such as Lead Zirconate Titanate, PZT) is one of the smart materials to be applied in the SHM due to the piezoelectric effect. So far, the PZT-based wave method is widely used for damage detection of structures, in particular, pipeline structures. A series of piezoelectric patches are bonded on the surface of the pipeline structure to monitor the damages such as local crack or effective area reduction due to corrosion by using diagonal waves. The damage of the pipeline structure can be detected by analysis of the received diagonal waves which peak value, phase, and arriving time can be deferent from the health ones. The response of the diagonal wave is not only correlated to the damage location through estimation of the arrival time of the wave peak, but also associated with the peak value of the wave for the reduction of wave energy as the guided wave passing through the damages. Therefore, the presence of damages in the pipeline structure can be detected by investigating the parameter change of the guided waves. The change of the wave parameters represents the attenuation, deflection and mode conversion of the waves due to the damages. In addition, the guided wave has the ability of quick detecting the damage of the pipeline structure and the simplicity of generating and receiving detection waves by using PZT patches. To verify the proposed method, an experiment is designed and tested by using a steel pipe bonded the PZT patches on the surface of it. The PZT patches consist of an array to estimate the location and level of the damage which is simulated by an artificial notch on the surface of the structure. The several locations and deep heights of the notches are considered during the test. A pair of the PZT patches are used at the same time as one is used as an actuator and the other as a sensor, respectively. A tone burst of 5 cycles of wave shape is used during the experiment. A wave generator is applied to create the proposed waves, and the waves are amplified by an amplifier to actuate the PZT patch to emit the diagonal waves with appropriately enough energy. Meanwhile, the other PZT patch is used as a sensor to receive the diagonal signals which contain the information of the damages for processing. For data processing, an index of root mean square deviation (RMSD) of the received data is used to estimate the damage level by compare of the data between the damaged and the health peak valves of the received signals. The time reversal method which aimed at increasing the efficiency of the detection is also used to detect the damage location by estimating the arrival time of the reflected wave passing with a certain velocity. The proposed method experimentally validates that it is effective for application in damage detection of pipeline structure.


Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Chiara Imperato ◽  
Tiziana Mancini

The effects of intergroup dialogues on intercultural relations in digital societies and the growing conflict, inflammatory and hate speech phenomena characterizing these environments are receiving increasing attention in socio-psychological studies. Based on Allport’s contact theory, scholars have shown that online intercultural contact reduces ethnic prejudice and discrimination, although it is not yet clear when and how this occurs. By analyzing the role of the Dialogical Self in online intercultural dialogues, we aim to understand how individuals position themselves and others at three levels of inclusiveness—personal, social, and human—and how this process is associated with attitudes towards the interlocutor, intergroup bias and prejudice, whilst also considering the inclusion of the Other in the Self and ethnic/racial identity. An experimental procedure was administered via the Qualtrics platform, and data were collected among 118 undergraduate Italian students through an anonymous questionnaire. From ANOVA and moderation analysis, it emerged that the social level of inclusiveness was positively associated with ethnic/racial identity and intergroup bias. Furthermore, the human level of inclusiveness was associated with the inclusion of the Other in the Self and ethnic/racial identity, and unexpectedly, also with intergroup bias. We conclude that when people interact online as “human beings”, the positive effect of online dialogue fails, hindering the differentiation processes necessary to define one’s own and the interlocutor’s identities. We discuss the effects of intercultural dialogue in the landscape of digital societies and the relevance of our findings for theory, research and practice.


Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
S. J. Blodgett-Ford

The phenomenon and ethics of “voting” will be explored in the context of human enhancements. “Voting” will be examined for enhanced humans with moderate and extreme enhancements. Existing patterns of discrimination in voting around the globe could continue substantially “as is” for those with moderate enhancements. For extreme enhancements, voting rights could be challenged if the very humanity of the enhanced was in doubt. Humans who were not enhanced could also be disenfranchised if certain enhancements become prevalent. Voting will be examined using a theory of engagement articulated by Professor Sophie Loidolt that emphasizes the importance of legitimization and justification by “facing the appeal of the other” to determine what is “right” from a phenomenological first-person perspective. Seeking inspiration from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948, voting rights and responsibilities will be re-framed from a foundational working hypothesis that all enhanced and non-enhanced humans should have a right to vote directly. Representative voting will be considered as an admittedly imperfect alternative or additional option. The framework in which voting occurs, as well as the processes, temporal cadence, and role of voting, requires the participation from as diverse a group of humans as possible. Voting rights delivered by fiat to enhanced or non-enhanced humans who were excluded from participation in the design and ratification of the governance structure is not legitimate. Applying and extending Loidolt’s framework, we must recognize the urgency that demands the impossible, with openness to that universality in progress (or universality to come) that keeps being constituted from the outside.


1984 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bruyn

AbstractFrom 1911 to 1961 Félix Chrétien, secretary to François de Dinteville II, Bishop of Auxerre in Burgundy, and from 1542 onwards a canon in that town, was thought to be the author of three remarkable paintings. Two of these were mentioned by an 18th-century local historian as passing for his work: a tripych dated 1535 on the central panel with scenes from the legend of St. Eugenia, which is now in the parish church at Varzy (Figs. 1-3, cf. Note 10), and a panel dated 1550 with the Martyrdom of St. Stephen in the ambulatory of Auxerre Cathedral. To these was added a third work, a panel dated 1537 with Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh, which is now in New York (Figs. 4-5, cf. Notes I and 3). All three works contain a portrait of François de Dinteville, who is accompanied in the Varzy triptych and the New York panel (where he figures as Aaron) by other portrait figures. In the last-named picture these include his brothers) one of whom , Jean de Dinteville, is well-known as the man who commissioned Holbein's Ambassadors in 1533. Both the Holbein and Moses and Aaron remained in the family's possession until 1787. In order to account for the striking affinity between the style of this artist and that of Netherlandish Renaissance painters, Jan van Scorel in particular, Anthony Blunt posited a common debt to Italy, assuming that the painter accompanied François de Dinteville on a mission to Rome in 1531-3 (Note 4). Charles Sterling) on the other hand, thought of Netherlandish influence on him (Note 5). In 1961 Jacques Thuillier not only stressed the Northern features in the artist's style, especially in his portraits and landscape, but also deciphered Dutch words in the text on a tablet depicted in the Varzy triptych (Fig. I) . He concluded that the artist was a Northerner himself and could not possibly have been identical with Félix Chrétien (Note 7). Thuillier's conclusion is borne out by the occurrence of two coats of arms on the church depicted in the Varzy triptych (Fig. 2), one of which is that of a Guild of St. Luke, the other that of the town of Haarlem. The artist obviously wanted it to be known that he was a master in the Haarlem guild. Unfortunately, the Haarlem guild archives provide no definite clue as to his identity. He may conceivably have been Bartholomeus Pons, a painter from Haarlem, who appears to have visited Rome and departed again before 22 June 15 18, when the Cardinal of S. Maria in Aracoeli addressed a letter of indulgence to him (without calling him a master) care of a master at 'Tornis'-possibly Tournus in Burgundy (Note 11). The name of Bartholomeus Pons is further to be found in a list of masters in the Haarlem guild (which starts in 1502, but gives no further dates, Note 12), while one Bartholomeus received a commission for painting two altarpiece wings and a predella for Egmond Abbey in 1523 - 4 (Note 13). An identification of the so-called Félix Chrétien with Batholomeus Pons must remain hypothetical, though there are a number of correspondences between the reconstructed career of the one and the fragmentary biography of the other. The painter's work seems to betray an early training in a somewhat old-fashioned Haarlem workshop, presumably around 1510. He appears to have known Raphael's work in its classical phase of about 1515 - 6 and to have been influenced mainly by the style of the cartoons for the Sistine tapestries (although later he obviously also knew the Master of the Die's engravings of the story of Psyche of about 1532, cf .Note 8). His stylistic development would seem to parallel that of Jan van Scorel, who was mainly influenced by the slightly later Raphael of the Loggie. This may explain the absence of any direct borrowings from Scorel' work. It would also mean that a more or less Renaissance style of painting was already being practised in Haarlem before Scorel's arrival there in 1527. Thuillier added to the artist's oeuvre a panel dated 1537 in Frankfurt- with the intriguing scene of wine barrels being lowered into a cellar - which seems almost too sophisticated to be attributed to the same hand as the works in Varzy and New York, although it does appear to come from the same workshop (Fig. 6, Note 21). A portrait of a man, now in the Louvre, was identified in 197 1 as a fragment of a work by the so-called Félix Chrétien himself (Fig. 8, Note 22). The Martyrdom of St. Stephen of 1550 was rejected by Thuillier because of its barren composition and coarse execution. Yet it seems to have too much in common with the other works to be totally separated, from them and may be taken as evidence that the workshop was still active at Auxerre in 1550.


Babel ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
Ivo R.V. Hoefkens

Marguerite Yourcenar, known as an author, is also the translator of about a dozen works. My purpose here is to trace the evolution of her oeuvre in the field of translation in relation to her literary output. I have divided the former into three distinct periods, the first of which covers the closing years of the 1930s, when Marguerite Yourcenar translated Virginia Woolf's The Waves and Henry James's What Maisie Knew. Her interest in these authors is to a large extent stylistic. On the other hand, the translation of Constantin Cavafy's poetry, which was begun during the same period, reflects the intimist themes to be found in Marguerite Yourcenar's early narratives {Alexis and the others), although she was then already seeking out other thematic sources. The translation was only published in 1958. It consequently falls within a second period: that of the "présentations critiques" (critical commentaries). These major efforts in translation {Présentation critique de Constantin Cavafy, La Couronne et la Lyre, Fleuve profonde, Sombre rivière) are marked by a manifest preoccupation with the aesthetic. But themes of a more universal character and engagement in the socio-political sphere also enter into the choice of the texts for translation (negro spirituals, Présentation critique d'Hortense Flexner). These translations were contemporaneous with the creation of Marguerite Yourcenar's most important novels, namely Mémoires d'Hadrien and L'OEuvre au Noir. The last of the three periods, the 1980s, finds her tackling far less ambitious projects, the function of which tends increasingly towards ethical communication. The only one of them that bears any resemblance to the "présentations critiques" is the essay on Yukio Mishima and the translation of Cinq Nô Modernes, assuming that these are to be considered as an ensemble. Here, as elsewhere, it also emerges that Marguerite Yourcenar is largely indifferent to the existence of other translations.


1988 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 198-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Strassler

Thucydides' full description of the harbor at Pylos is part of his discussion of the Spartan strategy for the campaign (iv 8).. . . and the Lacedaimonians . . . expected the Attic fleet from Zacynthos to come to the rescue and intended, if they had not captured Pylos by that time, to block up the entrances to the harbor, so that the Athenians could not sail in and use it as an anchorage. (The island called Sphacteria extends alongside the harbor, and lies close to it: hence the anchorage is safe and the entrances narrow–the entrance by Pylos and the Athenian fortifications giving a passage for two ships through the channel, and the entrance by the mainland on the other side a passage for eight or nine . . . ) These entrances then, they intended to block up tightly with ships lying parallel to each other, prows to the enemy: and since they were frightened that the Athenians might use Sphacteria as a military base, they ferried hoplites across to it, and stationed others along the mainland. By this plan, they thought, the Athenians would find both the island to be enemy-occupied and the mainland, which gave them no chance of landing (for the coast of Pylos itself, outside the entrance and towards the open sea, is harborless, and would give them no base of operations to help their troops): and equally they themselves would probably be able to capture the place by siege, without a sea-battle or any unnecessary danger–there was no food in it, and it had not been properly prepared for a siege. This, then, was their agreed plan . . .Although one would think this a clear and detailed geographic description, historians have not yet found a location at Pylos for the harbor which satisfactorily matches it.


PMLA ◽  
1937 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 1183-1190
Author(s):  
George W. Whiting

To the student of writing and literature few inquiries are more interesting and valuable than that into an author's practices in revising his own work. To observe the various stages in the evolution of the final version, to note carefully an artist at his work of pruning the dead wood, adding fresh material, smoothing away harsh phrases, selecting just words, and letting light into obscure places—to do this is to come somewhat nearer to an understanding of what in spite of all analysis will remain essentially a mystery. Especially fascinating and instructive is the study of Conrad's revision, for here one sees a supreme artist at work. In his vigorous hewing and rebuilding there is conclusive proof of the artist's untiring industry and consummate skill. Conrad's revision of Nostromo is of particular interest, for this novel occupies a critical place in the evolution of Conrad's prose. Mr. Richard Curie has justly characterized the change that came over Conrad's prose—a change perceptible in the “Amy Foster” of Typhoon and fully marked in from Under Western Eyes onward. This evolution has smoothed away the cadence, has concentrated the manner, has toned down the style of Conrad's former exuberance. At first glance the later and the earlier Conrad appear two totally different men. The unruly splendor of the one has given way to the subtle and elastic suavity of the other … His earlier prose is sometimes uncertain, sometimes exaggerated, but his later prose has the uniform temper of absolute mastery.


Author(s):  
Anna Frīdenberga ◽  

In the article, the verb gādāt, an entry for the Historical Dictionary of Latvian (16th–17th centuries), and other formatives with this word are discussed. In the early Latvian texts, a wide and forked word-formation nest forms around the verb gādāt, including, for example, derived words gādāties, negādāt, gādāšana, apgādāt, apgādāties, apgādāšana, atsagādāties, iesagādāties, atgādāt, atgādāties, atgādāšana, atgādināt, iegādāties, sagādāt, sagāds, gāds, gādība, etc. There are several meanings of the word gādāt in early texts, which differ from the ones used nowadays, so the authors of the Dictionary have distinguished three of them: 1) to aim, seek, strive (for something); 2) to take care, to look after; 3) to be concerned, to worry (about). The word gādāt also had a more ancient meaning, ‘to think’, from which these three meanings have developed. Though in early religious texts the meaning ‘to think’ is not common, it appears in some prefixal verbs, for example, apgādāt ‘to consider’, iesagādāties ‘to come to one’s mind’, atgādāt ‘to recall, to remember’, sagādāt ‘to consider, to think’, iegādāt ‘to remember, to recall’. The meanings of the basic word also widely fork in the meanings of the words derived from it. One group of meanings is connected with the ancient meaning of the word gādāt ‘to think’. It is dominant, for example, in such word-formation chain as atgādāt, atgādināt, atgādāšana, etc., while the other group is connected to the meaning ‘to care, to look after’. The last is more common nowadays, so the words gādāt, apgādāt, sagādāt, gādība, etc. are known with this meaning also in modern Latvian. In the texts of the 16th–17th centuries, reflexive verbs are often used; an interesting feature characteristic to these verbs – the reflexive verb is often used in the same meaning as the direct verb. For example, gādāt and gādāties, iegādāt and iegādāties, atgādāt and atgādāties.


1940 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-178
Author(s):  
J. Emilio Ramirez

Summary Over a period of six months, from July to December, 1938, an investigation on microseismic waves has been carried out in the Department of Geophysics of St. Louis University. Four electromagnetic seismographs, specially designed for recording microseisms, were installed in the city of St. Louis in the form of a triangular network. Two of these were E-W components, one at the St. Louis University Gymnasium and the other 6.4 km. due west at Washington University. The other two were arranged as N-S components, one at the St. Louis University Gymnasium and one 6.3 km. due south at Maryville College. The speed of the photographic paper was 60 mm/min., and time signals were recorded automatically and simultaneously on each paper from the same clock every minute and at shorter intervals from a special pendulum and “tickler” combination by means of telephone wires. The results have demonstrated beyond doubt that microseismic waves are traveling and not stationary waves. The same waves have been identified at each one of the stations of the network, and also at Florissant, 21.8 km. away from St. Louis University. The speed of microseismic waves at St. Louis was determined from several storms of microseisms and it was found to be 2.67±0.03 km/sec. The direction of microseisms was also established for most of the storms and it was found that about 80 per cent of incoming microseisms at St. Louis were from the northeast quadrant during the interval from July to December, 1938. No microseisms were recorded from the south, west, or southwest. The period of the waves varied between 3.5 and 7.5 sec. The average period was about 5.4 sec. The microseismic wave length was therefore of the order of 14¼ km. A study of the nature of microseismic waves from the three Galitzin-Wilip components of the Florissant station reveals in the waves many of the characteristics of the Rayleigh waves; that is, the particles in the passage of microseismic waves move in elliptical orbits of somewhat larger vertical axis and with retrograde motion. A comparison carried over a period of more than a year between microseisms and microbarometric oscillations recorded by specially designed microbarographs showed no direct relationship between the two phenomena in wave form, group form, period, or duration of storms. The source of microseisms is to be found not over the land, but rather out over the surface of the ocean. The amplitudes of microseisms depend only on the intensity and widespread character of barometric lows traveling over the ocean. Several correlations between the two phenomena seem to make this conclusion rather evident. Special emphasis is laid on the fact that all the determined directions of incoming microseisms at St. Louis point to a deep barometric low over the ocean. The period of microseisms seems to be a function of the distance between the station and the source of microseisms. The exact mechanism by which barometric lows over the ocean water result in the production of microseisms needs further investigation. Large microseisms have been produced without any indication of surf near the coasts, or with winds blowing from the land toward the ocean.


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