scholarly journals Religion, Nonreligion and the Sacred: Art and the Contemporary Rituals of Birth

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 941
Author(s):  
Anna M. Hennessey

This paper looks at the role of art and material culture in the rituals of birth, first taking into consideration research on material culture in traditional rituals of birth and then turning to the primary topic, which is how art in the contemporary rituals of birth often holds sacred meaning even when the ritual is of a nonreligious nature. A discussion about the sacred in the context of a nonreligious ritual hinges upon an understanding of that which is “sacred”; thus, the paper looks at research on modern theology and the sacred to examine the term in the context of birth as a contemporary rite of passage. Giving examples of how material culture has been important in several traditional birth rituals from different cultures, the paper then traces a similar occurrence in which participants in contemporary nonreligious rituals of birth also uphold art and material culture as sacred elements of the rituals. The paper provides the reader with description of a rich array of art and material culture used across cultures in different rituals of birth. Taking into consideration the numerous contributions that scholars have made to the emerging field of birth and religion, including the interdisciplinary importance of theories related to birth as a rite of passage, the paper also presents new research on the materiality of the contemporary rituals of birth.

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-20
Author(s):  
Péter Telek ◽  
Béla Illés ◽  
Christian Landschützer ◽  
Fabian Schenk ◽  
Flavien Massi

Nowadays, the Industry 4.0 concept affects every area of the industrial, economic, social and personal sectors. The most significant changings are the automation and the digitalization. This is also true for the material handling processes, where the handling systems use more and more automated machines; planning, operation and optimization of different logistic processes are based on many digital data collected from the material flow process. However, new methods and devices require new solutions which define new research directions. In this paper we describe the state of the art of the material handling researches and draw the role of the UMi-TWINN partner institutes in these fields. As a result of this H2020 EU project, scientific excellence of the University of Miskolc can be increased and new research activities will be started.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-18
Author(s):  
Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff

This state of the field essay examines recent trends in American Cultural History, focusing on music, race and ethnicity, material culture, and the body. Expanding on key themes in articles featured in the special issue of Cultural History, the essay draws linkages to other important literatures. The essay argues for more a more serious consideration of the products within popular culture, less as a reflection of social or economic trends, rather for their own historical significance. While the essay examines some classic texts, more emphasis is on work published within the last decade. Here, interdisciplinary methods are stressed, as are new research perspectives developing by non-western historians.


2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW BAINES

In reading archaeological texts, we expect to be engaged in a characteristically archaeological discourse, with a specific and recognisable structure and vocabulary. In evaluating the published work of 19th Century antiquarians, we will inevitably look for points of contact between their academic language and our own; success or failure in the identification of such points of contact may prompt us to recognise a nascent archaeology in some writings, while dismissing others as naïve or absurd. With this point in mind, this paper discusses the written and material legacies of three 19th Century antiquarians in the north of Scotland who worked on a particular monument type, the broch. The paper explores the degree to which each has been admitted as an influence on the development of the broch as a type. It then proceeds to compare this established typology with the author's experiences, in the field, of the sites it describes. In doing so, the paper addresses wider issues concerning the role of earlier forms of archaeological discourse in the development of present day archaeological classifications of, and of the problems of reconciling such classifications with our experiences of material culture.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Bellows ◽  
Giuseppe Gagliardi ◽  
Lorenzo Bacigalupo

Abstract New research has addressed many of the early concerns of Computed Tomographic colonography (CTC) and these studies are now beginning to shape clinical practices. A review of the literature demonstrates that the sensitivity of CTC in screening for large polyps (≥ 1cm) or cancers in the large intestine is as high as that of conventional optical colonoscopy, however, the sensitivity decreases with the diameter of the polyp. Despite this, CTC is well tolerated, more acceptable to patients than optical colonoscopy and therefore may improve colorectal cancer screening compliance. This review not only describes the diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity of CTC, and the evolving role of CTC as a primary colon cancer screening option, but also the recent studies that have demonstrated the additional value of CTC utilization for practicing clinicians.


This book critically assesses the expanding field of global health. It brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to address the medical, social, political, and economic dimensions of the global health enterprise through vivid case studies and bold conceptual work. The book demonstrates the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in global health, arguing for a more comprehensive, people-centered approach. Topics include the limits of technological quick fixes in disease control, the moral economy of global health science, the unexpected effects of massive treatment rollouts in resource-poor contexts, and how right-to-health activism coalesces with the increased influence of the pharmaceutical industry on health care. The chapters explore the altered landscapes left behind after programs scale up, break down, or move on. We learn that disease is really never just one thing, technology delivery does not equate with care, and biology and technology interact in ways we cannot always predict. The most effective solutions may well be found in people themselves, who consistently exceed the projections of experts and the medical-scientific, political, and humanitarian frameworks in which they are cast. This book sets a new research agenda in global health and social theory and challenges us to rethink the relationships between care, rights, health, and economic futures.


Author(s):  
Замира Сейткожоева

Аннотация: В статье обращено внимание на исключительную роль книги в жизни человека, воспитание молодежи. Книга сопровождает человека всю жизнь. Однако в последние годы замечается снижение интереса к чтению книг. Отдается предпочтение компьютеру, играм, телевизору, слушанию музыки через наушники. Во избежание деградации личности, в воспитании грамотной, гуманной, толерантной личности необходимо приучать подрастающее поколение к вдумчивому чтению книг. Значительное место в развитии личности занимает внеклассное чтение, к которому нужно прививать интерес еще во время учебы в младшем возрасте. В мире особая роль принадлежит межличностным отношениям, формированию такой личности, которая могла бы жить в согласии с носителями разных культур. Для формирования поликультурной личности важная роль принадлежит культурному наследию, основу которого составляют книги. Ключевые слова: роль книги, гуманная личность, толерантная личность, библиографические материалы, указатели библиографических данных, справочная литература, поликультурная личность, внеклассное чтение, информатизация, интерес к чтению. Аннотация: Макалада адамдын жашоосундагы жаштарды тарбиялоодогу китептин өзгөчө мааниси, ролуна өзгөчө көңүл бурулган. Бир эле мезгилде, соңку жылдарда китептерибизге болгон адамдардын кызыгууларды төмөндөп бараткандыгы байкалган.Учурда поли- же ар кандай оюндарга, телевизор көрүүгө, кулакчын аркылуу модалуу музыка угууга, артыкчылык берилип жатат. Билимдүү, гумандуу толеранттуу инсанды тарбиялап чыгууга да, анын деградацияга кабылышынан сактап калыш үчүн, өсүп келе жаткан муундарды өзүнүн айкалыштыра алуусу менен китептерди берилип жана ой жүгүртүп алууга үйрөтүү- өтө зарыл талап болуп эсептелет. Инсандын онүгүндө окуудан тышкаркы окуунун маанилүү орду бар. Мындай окууга буга кызыгуусун өркүндөтүүнун башталгыч каласстардан тарта үйрөтүү абзел. Инсандар аралык байланыштар дүйнөдө өзгөчө орун ээлейт, алар башка маданий өкүлдөрү менен макулдуктулукта жашоого даяр. Полимаданиятту инсандын калыптанышына ар маданияттын мурасы өтө чоң ролду ойнойт, анын негизин китептер түзөт. Түйүндүү сөздөр: китептин мааниси жана ролу, гумандуу инсан, толеранттуу инсан, библиографиялык материалдар, библиографиялык маалыматтарды көрсөтүү сурантыла билүү адабияты, полимаданиятуу инсан, окуудан тышкаркы окуу,маалымдуулук, окууга кызыгуу The article draws attention to the exceptional role of the book in human life, education of young people. The book accompanies a person all his life. However, in recent years, there has been a decline in interest in reading books. Preference is given to a computer, games, TV, listening to music through headphones. In order to avoid degradation of the personality, it is necessary to accustom the younger generation to thoughtful reading of books. a significant place in the development of personality takes extracurricular reading, to which you need to instill interest even while studying at a younger age. In the world a special role belongs to interpersonal relationship, the formation of such a personality, who could live in harmony with speakers of different cultures. To form a multicultural personality an important role belongs to cultural heritage, the basis of which are books Keywords: the role of the book, humane personality, tolerant personality, bibliographic materials, indexes of bibliographic data, reference literature, multicultural personality, extracurricular reading, informatization, interest in reading.


Author(s):  
Matylda Szewczyk

The article presents a reflection on the experience of prenatal ultrasound and on the nature of cultural beings, it creates. It exploits chosen ethnographic and cultural descriptions of prenatal ultrasounds in different cultures, as well as documentary and artistic reflections on medical imagery and new media technologies. It discusses different ways of defining the role of ultrasound in prenatal care and the cultural contexts build around it. Although the prenatal ultrasounds often function in the space of enormous tensions (although they are also supposed to give pleasure), it seems they will accompany us further in the future. It is worthwhile to find some new ways of describing them and to invent new cultural practices to deal with them.


Author(s):  
I-Chieh Michelle Yang

This conceptual paper proposes a new research agenda in travel risk research by understanding the role of affect. Extant scholarship tends to focus on travel risk perception or assessment as a cognitive psychological process. However, despite the phenomenal growth of the tourism industry globally, research related to travel risk perception remains stagnant with no significant breakthrough. Drawing on the existing empirical evidences in risk-related research, this paper asserts that affect plays a potent role in influencing travel risk perception – positive affect leads to more positive travel risk perception, vice versa. In this paper, existing empirical evidences and theories are presented to provide support for this proposition.


Author(s):  
Philippa Adrych ◽  
Robert Bracey ◽  
Dominic Dalglish ◽  
Stefanie Lenk ◽  
Rachel Wood

The Conclusion to this volume returns to the three main questions posed in the Introduction, examining how a shared name, alongside material culture, can affect our understanding of ancient religious practices. The first section explores the benefits of a collaborative and comparative endeavour, drawing out examples from the earlier chapters and showing how they informed our perceptions of what a name can mean. The second and third parts ask more theoretical questions about how we can use our case studies to explore broader problems of interpreting ancient religious practices, and the role of objects within them. Finally, we return to the main theme of the volume: the name Mithra, and the ideas, expectations, and traditions that have been attached to it in antiquity and in modern scholarship. We suggest a new way of approaching the phenomenon of the shared name, and what that can entail for those interested in ancient religion.


Author(s):  
Carrie Figdor

Chapter 10 provides a summary of the argument of the book. It elaborates some of the benefits of Literalism, such as less conceptual confusion and an expanded range of entities for research that might illuminate human cognition. It motivates distinguishing the questions of whether something has a cognitive capacity from whether it is intuitively like us. It provides a conceptual foundation for the social sciences appropriate for the increasing role of modeling in these sciences. It also promotes convergence in terms of the roles of internal and external factors in explaining both human and nonhuman behavior. Finally, it sketches some of the areas of new research that it supports, including group cognition and artificial intelligence.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document