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The proponents of an ecologically inspired form of Marxism, or a Marx‐inspired form of political ecology, argue that eco‐Marxism transcends the anthropocentric‐ecocentric dichotomy, and this chapter assesses that claim. The concept of nature in the work of Marx is examined, as are the ecological interpretations of Marx and Engels’ account of the ‘human‐nature metabolism.’ The differences between eco‐Marxism and ‘orthodox Marxism, as well as between eco‐Marxism and other forms of ecological politics are explored. Ultimately, it is held that Marx's commitment to the humanization of nature in the fulfilment of humanity's species‐being disables any form of Marxism from being adequately ecological.

Chapter seven is based on interviews conducted from 2011 to 2014. This chapter details student, parent, and staff reactions to reading the ethnography the author created. Participants were given a copy of the manuscript, and after several weeks were asked, in semi structured one-on-one interviews or focus groups, to detail their critiques. Besides positive or developmental feedback on the manuscript itself, what emerged most commonly from the interviews were themes of identity construction and agency, commodification and generosity, and humanization and solidarity. This section brings together the threads of the author’s main argument, examines the various stances participants took on the author’s critique of the school’s model, and analyzes how students and staff construct their identities in relation to the author’s study.

Examines briefly some of the changes brought about by Independence and peninsular liberalism. It establishes that the humanization of punishment was not the abrupt result of independence and liberalism but a long-term (“developmental”) process extending back to even the 16th century

Reiterates the centrality of law and justice in the lives of late colonial Spanish Atlantic couples, even members of Indigenous communities and colored peoples. It summarizes the study’s findings about ethnic, gender and other cultural relations. Highlights, in particular, the apparent upending of stereotypes on negative legal discrimination against the natives; the exclusion of women from public life; and, the alleged male proclivity to avenge honor besmirched by morally inappropriate sexual behavior on the part of female companions. Stresses too hegemony at work, through the observance of longstanding legal rules, judicial routines, ceremonies and habitus concerning appropriate individual, familial and social behavior, as well as the right behavior on the part of Crown and Church, during times of peace and conflict.

Since ancient times, rules protecting individuals and rules governing the conduct of war have been contradictory. The Bible says: ‘Thou shalt not kill’. But in the Book of Samuel, God tells the Israelites to kill every man, woman, and child of Amalek. We are torn between our conscientious desire to uphold the sanctity of human life and acknowledging the stark reality that warfare has existed since the dawn of humankind. How do we reconcile the two? This chapter shows that such a reconciliation is already taking place, thanks to the development and authority of human rights law. Human rights have humanized the law of war, so that even in armed conflict the focus is on protecting individuals to the greatest extent possible.

Modern metamorphs sometimes take an alternative form, just like with the Beast People in The Island of Dr. Moreau, they emerge within an entire population, which must then grapple with a general and distributed corporeal transformation. In keeping with the modern understanding of evolutionary species, only the latter scenario offers plausible grounds for the depiction of a viable transformation. But then, it is only with the emergence of hard science fiction that the issue of viability arises at all, alongside the issue of verisimilitude. In the book The Island of Dr. Moreau, the topical verisimilitude of Wells's science fiction lies in its knowledgeable depiction and intermingling of vivisection and devolution. The fantasy of forcing humanization upon animals through surgical alterations pitches the ensuing failure of those experiments as an allegory of human devolution.

This chapter focuses on the 1978 film Germany in Autumn, an omnibus film that was shot in immediate response to the events of the so-called “German Autumn,” a series of terrorist attacks by the Red Army Faction (RAF). The film is about two funerals: that of the industrialist hostage Hanns-Martin Schleyer, and the joint funeral of RAF leaders Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, and member Jan-Carl Raspe. The significance of mourning and the public act of grieving evident in Schleyer’s funeral becomes apparent in contrast to the funeral of Baader, Ensslin, and Raspe, which is contested with respect to both its legitimization and its legitimacy. The chapter then examines how the question of humanization or dehumanization is confined to the question of presentation; and it is the task of cinematic presentation that the film pursues.

The themes of civic education and global citizenship are continued in chapter four. The chapter focuses on the humanities or liberal arts as central pillars of civic pedagogy or education for the common good. Dallmayr asserts that what distinguishes the humanities pre-eminently is that they cannot be instrumentalized for career objectives. Rather, humanities serve the purpose of maintaining an on-going humanization of learners. The chapter traces the development of human studies from their classical roots to their recent status in the republic of knowledge. Next, relying on insights culled from philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, the chapter highlights three features of the humanities: their reliance on prudent judgement, their contribution to human formation, and their ability to foster the growth of common sense.

This prologue discusses the impact of globalization on the writer or artist. It also examines globalization in relation to what Édouard Glissant calls ‘Globality’ and how a poetics of globality gives rise to individuation. It suggests that the individuation of globality is a negotiation between self and Others, between the multiple within (with its potential for liberation) and the diversity without (with its potential for greater self-awareness), and that within globality, individuals should — like today’s authors or artists — experience themselves as being in constant progression towards a new requirement of humanization. Finally, it analyses the phenomenon of migration today and proposes the idea of the Globe-Stone based on Glissant’s ‘Whole-Globe’.

This chapter continues the focus on Durgā and Jagaddhātrī by examining the evolution of the public, street character of the Pūjās, charting the inception and development of the sarbajanīn, or universal, format, with its outlets for revelry and rivalry and its arenas for the expression of social and political commentary. Two particular characteristics of the Pūjās—the entwining of religious rituals with a competitive search for prestige and a mirroring of social and political themes—have a common origin and make sense given their developmental history and their status as urban, largely middle-class festivals expressive of cultural identity. From their beginning, status and reputation have been the prizes of these celebrations. And at their center is a Goddess whose humanization and symbolic malleability allow her to stand for and against, inside and outside, the social contexts of her votaries.

Chapter 2 argues that in European colonialism, religion produces race. That is, imperialists conflate religious identity with skin color and their imagined attendant gradations of humanity to produce dehumanizing racial discourses. Hence, a religious mythology was necessary to counter the racial memory produced from imperial theological discourses. Chavez recognized this—as did his professed muses, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. With this in mind, this chapter compares the three leaders as prophetic agents. Chavez became a prophet and spiritual leader for Chicanas and Chicanos, performing a Chicano jeremiad. Like Gandhi and King, he became a deployed satyagraha, ahimsa, love force, and nonviolence. The chapter distinguishes between King and Chavez by their religious constructions of temporality.

The conclusion suggests how to begin the task of repairing our generational image by reversing the dehumanization of various vulnerable groups and ensuring our prescient legacy in the same process. Touching on the role of the media, government officials, teachers, schools, scholars, and all of us, it assumes that the various compassionate reforms suggested throughout the book are achievable only if we view the target groups as equally human. Although there is no silver bullet or magic formula for instilling compassion in the general public, a variety of approaches undertaken simultaneously stand the best chance of achieving success in a task of humanization that will likely span generations and that could start with our own. The conclusion offers specific suggestions for some of the vulnerable groups examined, reflecting the unique opportunities and dynamics that might exist for humanizing specific groups.

This chapter begins with a discussion of religious and scientific accounts of the beginning of life. It then considers many other ideas that bear on our evolution and anchor us in the deepest roots of life. The history of our roots, of the frail and hesitant basis of humanity, has strong philosophical and religious implications. The distinction between man and animal does not reside solely in biology. Many specialists have opinions on this subject and can pique the interest of readers, listeners, and viewers for better or worse. The endless clues reported by thousands of detectives rummaging in our distant past allow the popular media to depict the dreams or reality of the extraordinary “transmutation” of animal into human. And everyone always wants to know more, which inspires others to look further for traces that will sustain the dreams. This is why the last few decades have seen increasing introspection on the phenomenon of the humanization of ancestral ape into man.

Chapter 1 asks how people’s love of music can enable myths of music as an instrument of humanization and civilization. Although it sounds obvious that loving masterpieces doesn’t make someone a good person (think of the Beethoven-loving Nazis), the chapter emphasizes that this presumption of obviousness can itself pose problems. How immune are we really to the seductive myths of music-as-morality? Even if we claim immunity out loud, how might our verbal quandaries and silences about music loving nevertheless speak to our deep-seated vulnerabilities?

Beginning by recognizing that the idea of female divinity in Hinduism has been a mystery from the inception of Hindu theology, this Introduction proceeds to an overview of the contents of this volume. Presenting the chapters, arranged thematically and historically into four related parts, this Introduction shows how Hindu philosophy and worship practices have expounded the idea of the divine feminine by conceptualizing it as a personified goddess at once singular and manifested in multiple forms. Drawing upon a variety of Hindu philosophical traditions, the authors relate the goddess as an abstraction to belief systems that render the goddess as humanized figures. In both formal theology and popular belief, this conception has resulted in an emotional and spiritual closeness to goddesses that continues deeply to influence Hindu social life and its cultural expressions, especially in its impact on the lives of women.

China’s economic model is transforming from a traditional planned economy to a modern market economy, in which context great changes have also taken place in the field of energy. From law, policy, and reform perspectives, this chapter aims to systematically describe the new trend of China’s energy development, including marketization, humanization, and ecologicalization. Based on the theory of energy justice, in particular, distributive justice and intergenerational justice, this chapter will also analyse the coincidence between the new trend of China’s energy development and energy justice, and find out the gap between them. In the transitional period, the Chinese government has made remarkable achievements in energy justice, but there is still a long way to go.

This contribution discusses the limits to the ideal of human rights in the context of a triple dynamic: the reason of State and its limits; the ecological reason and its call to protect the planet and the ecosystem; and the techno-scientific reason as a supreme reason which ultimately could lead to the refusal of any limit. It suggests that if we consider human rights as a dynamic and transformative process and not as a static concept, these rights remain the counterpoint to the derailments of globalization. They seem more than ever necessary for the emergence of a truly common law. If the interplays of limits are well defined, human rights would make this truly common law more flexible by giving it a variable content within limits which allows it to adapt better to the diversity of the real world.

The Introduction explores the content and motivation for writing this book, beginning with glimpses into Iceland’s otherworldly terrain, the most common reason offered for the popularity of its spirit practices. The author, who came to this project despite her initial disdain for the world of mediums, finds in andleg mál something quite different, best described by using the metaphor of a bridge that is both lifesaving and dangerous. The book aims not at explaining away andleg mál but at building bridges of comprehensibility through humanization, by weaving stories of experiences and understandings of participants who are, after all, not so different from the reader. The Introduction concludes with accounts of trance sessions where spirit informants, speaking to the author through trance mediums (miðills), offer their advice for writing the book.

The chapter explores legal life-writing as a method of history within the context of international criminal law. It offers a biographical sketch of Theodor Meron and discusses some of his major works and especially his humanization thesis in light of the structural changes that occurred in the international legal order after the end of the Cold War. This account serves a triple function. The first is to draw a linkage between Meron’s scholarly works and certain developments in international criminal law. The second is to offer a critical perspective on the humanization thesis. The third is to ask questions about human agency, structural constraints, and historical causality in a self-reflective manner. Thus apart from being a work of legal life-writing in itself, the chapter simultaneously seeks to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of this form of history.