David F. Armstrong and Sherman E. Wilcox
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195163483
- eISBN:
- 9780199867523
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195163483.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
This book uses evidence from and about sign languages to explore the origins of language as we know it today. According to the model presented in this book, it is sign, not spoken languages, that is ...
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This book uses evidence from and about sign languages to explore the origins of language as we know it today. According to the model presented in this book, it is sign, not spoken languages, that is the original mode of human communication. The book demonstrates that modern language is derived from practical actions and gestures that were increasingly recognized as having the potential to represent and hence to communicate. In other words, the fundamental ability that allows us to use language is our ability to use pictures of icons, rather than linguistic symbols. Evidence from the human fossil record supports the book's claim by showing that we were anatomically able to produce gestures and signs before we were able to speak fluently. Although speech evolved later as a secondary linguistic communication device that eventually replaced sign language as the primary mode of communication, speech has never entirely replaced signs and gestures.Less
This book uses evidence from and about sign languages to explore the origins of language as we know it today. According to the model presented in this book, it is sign, not spoken languages, that is the original mode of human communication. The book demonstrates that modern language is derived from practical actions and gestures that were increasingly recognized as having the potential to represent and hence to communicate. In other words, the fundamental ability that allows us to use language is our ability to use pictures of icons, rather than linguistic symbols. Evidence from the human fossil record supports the book's claim by showing that we were anatomically able to produce gestures and signs before we were able to speak fluently. Although speech evolved later as a secondary linguistic communication device that eventually replaced sign language as the primary mode of communication, speech has never entirely replaced signs and gestures.
Erik N. Jensen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195395648
- eISBN:
- 9780199866564
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395648.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, European Modern History
Body by Weimar argues that male and female athletes fundamentally recast gender roles during Germany's turbulent post‐World War I years and established the basis for a modern body and ...
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Body by Weimar argues that male and female athletes fundamentally recast gender roles during Germany's turbulent post‐World War I years and established the basis for a modern body and modern sensibility that remain with us to this day. Athletes in the 1920s took the same techniques that were streamlining factories and offices and applied them to maximizing the efficiency of their own flesh and bones. Sportswomen and men embodied modernity — quite literally — in all of its competitive, time‐oriented excess and thereby helped to popularize, and even to naturalize, the sometimes threatening process of economic rationalization by linking it to their own personal success stories. Enthroned by the media as the new cultural icons, athletes radiated sexual empowerment, social mobility, and self‐determination. Champions in tennis, boxing, and track and field showed their fans how to be “modern,” and, in the process, sparked heated debates over the limits of the physical body, the obligations of citizens to the state, and the relationship between the sexes. If the images and debates in this book strike readers as familiar, it might well be because the ideal body of today — sleek, efficient, and equally available to men and women — received its first articulation in the fertile tumult of Germany's roaring twenties. After more than eighty years, we still want the Weimar body.Less
Body by Weimar argues that male and female athletes fundamentally recast gender roles during Germany's turbulent post‐World War I years and established the basis for a modern body and modern sensibility that remain with us to this day. Athletes in the 1920s took the same techniques that were streamlining factories and offices and applied them to maximizing the efficiency of their own flesh and bones. Sportswomen and men embodied modernity — quite literally — in all of its competitive, time‐oriented excess and thereby helped to popularize, and even to naturalize, the sometimes threatening process of economic rationalization by linking it to their own personal success stories. Enthroned by the media as the new cultural icons, athletes radiated sexual empowerment, social mobility, and self‐determination. Champions in tennis, boxing, and track and field showed their fans how to be “modern,” and, in the process, sparked heated debates over the limits of the physical body, the obligations of citizens to the state, and the relationship between the sexes. If the images and debates in this book strike readers as familiar, it might well be because the ideal body of today — sleek, efficient, and equally available to men and women — received its first articulation in the fertile tumult of Germany's roaring twenties. After more than eighty years, we still want the Weimar body.
Philip Lutgendorf
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195309225
- eISBN:
- 9780199785391
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309225.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
The chapter opens with a description of Hanuman's traditional role as a guardian of spatial boundaries, and shows how this “peripheral” status has changed in recent times as his shrines have grown in ...
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The chapter opens with a description of Hanuman's traditional role as a guardian of spatial boundaries, and shows how this “peripheral” status has changed in recent times as his shrines have grown in size and have appeared in diverse and often central locations in villages and cities. Drawing on temple surveys and recently published guides to Hanuman shrines, it offers a verbal pilgrimage to well-known temples throughout India, and then presents more detailed descriptions of five major sites, each suggestive of a different aspect of Hanuman's character. The sites include two prominent temples in Delhi, a healing shrine specializing in the treatment of possession by ghosts, a martial arts club devoted to wrestling, and a New Age temple in the American Southwest. The chapter then turns to the implications of Hanuman's bodily immortality: the lore and experience of his embodied presence in particular locales and forms, as well as his occasional manifestation in human avataras.Less
The chapter opens with a description of Hanuman's traditional role as a guardian of spatial boundaries, and shows how this “peripheral” status has changed in recent times as his shrines have grown in size and have appeared in diverse and often central locations in villages and cities. Drawing on temple surveys and recently published guides to Hanuman shrines, it offers a verbal pilgrimage to well-known temples throughout India, and then presents more detailed descriptions of five major sites, each suggestive of a different aspect of Hanuman's character. The sites include two prominent temples in Delhi, a healing shrine specializing in the treatment of possession by ghosts, a martial arts club devoted to wrestling, and a New Age temple in the American Southwest. The chapter then turns to the implications of Hanuman's bodily immortality: the lore and experience of his embodied presence in particular locales and forms, as well as his occasional manifestation in human avataras.
Judith Herrin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153216
- eISBN:
- 9781400845217
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153216.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History
From classical times onward, one of the basic tasks of women was to take care of the household lares, representatives of the ancient gods, whose presence was felt to protect and assist the family. In ...
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From classical times onward, one of the basic tasks of women was to take care of the household lares, representatives of the ancient gods, whose presence was felt to protect and assist the family. In every dwelling with a hearth female members attended these deities with appropriate rituals. In the form of statuettes, often gilded, as well as framed wooden panel paintings, local deities occupied a prominent domestic space long into the Christian era. When the family converted to Christianity the ancient household gods were replaced by Christian icons, which took over the same role and protected the same space. It seems likely that women's responsibility for, and devotion to, the household protectors was transferred from the old deities to the new Christian God. Although there is no direct evidence for a removal of the older representations in order to institute new ones, when icons are later found in a domestic setting, they are in precisely that part of the home that is the particular preserve of women. It is this association between domestic cult and the veneration of icons in Byzantium that this chapter explores.Less
From classical times onward, one of the basic tasks of women was to take care of the household lares, representatives of the ancient gods, whose presence was felt to protect and assist the family. In every dwelling with a hearth female members attended these deities with appropriate rituals. In the form of statuettes, often gilded, as well as framed wooden panel paintings, local deities occupied a prominent domestic space long into the Christian era. When the family converted to Christianity the ancient household gods were replaced by Christian icons, which took over the same role and protected the same space. It seems likely that women's responsibility for, and devotion to, the household protectors was transferred from the old deities to the new Christian God. Although there is no direct evidence for a removal of the older representations in order to institute new ones, when icons are later found in a domestic setting, they are in precisely that part of the home that is the particular preserve of women. It is this association between domestic cult and the veneration of icons in Byzantium that this chapter explores.
J. Kameron Carter
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195152791
- eISBN:
- 9780199870578
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152791.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Here this chapter engages the work of Albert Raboteau, the elder statesman of contemporary African American religious history, particularly his early work, Slave Religion (1978). The ambiguity of ...
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Here this chapter engages the work of Albert Raboteau, the elder statesman of contemporary African American religious history, particularly his early work, Slave Religion (1978). The ambiguity of this text, which is emblematic of the field, lies in its impression that black religion generally and Afro‐Christianity particularly is a reflex of race, an (essentialist) echo of “Africanity” or “blackness” itself. Thus, black cultural nationalism is at the root of black religion. However, such a reading of black faith only lodges it within, rather than seeing it as trying to disrupt, modernity's racial imagination.The chapter then reexamine Raboteau's early work in light of his post‐Slave Religion work, inspired as it is by icon theology. Raboteau can now historically call attention to how Afro‐Christianity disrupts the racial gaze. The book later refines and presses Raboteau's fledgling and sketchy insights in a theologically robust direction.Less
Here this chapter engages the work of Albert Raboteau, the elder statesman of contemporary African American religious history, particularly his early work, Slave Religion (1978). The ambiguity of this text, which is emblematic of the field, lies in its impression that black religion generally and Afro‐Christianity particularly is a reflex of race, an (essentialist) echo of “Africanity” or “blackness” itself. Thus, black cultural nationalism is at the root of black religion. However, such a reading of black faith only lodges it within, rather than seeing it as trying to disrupt, modernity's racial imagination.The chapter then reexamine Raboteau's early work in light of his post‐Slave Religion work, inspired as it is by icon theology. Raboteau can now historically call attention to how Afro‐Christianity disrupts the racial gaze. The book later refines and presses Raboteau's fledgling and sketchy insights in a theologically robust direction.
Phillip Cary
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195336498
- eISBN:
- 9780199868629
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336498.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
One can reject Augustine's inward turn without rejecting classical theism. The crucial alternative is to find the eternal being of God in external things, as in the Orthodox reverence for icons, the ...
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One can reject Augustine's inward turn without rejecting classical theism. The crucial alternative is to find the eternal being of God in external things, as in the Orthodox reverence for icons, the Catholic piety of the sacraments, the Protestant faith in the word of God, and, behind them all, the church's devotion to Christ's life‐giving flesh. This outward turn means finding God as another person, which is to say, someone outside us. It also means, contrary to liberal theology and the modern turn to experience, that Christian experience is not the source of Christian faith but is derived from external things in which we believe—external things that form our hearts by giving form to our life in community.Less
One can reject Augustine's inward turn without rejecting classical theism. The crucial alternative is to find the eternal being of God in external things, as in the Orthodox reverence for icons, the Catholic piety of the sacraments, the Protestant faith in the word of God, and, behind them all, the church's devotion to Christ's life‐giving flesh. This outward turn means finding God as another person, which is to say, someone outside us. It also means, contrary to liberal theology and the modern turn to experience, that Christian experience is not the source of Christian faith but is derived from external things in which we believe—external things that form our hearts by giving form to our life in community.
Magdi Guirguis
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789774161520
- eISBN:
- 9781617971013
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774161520.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
Trying to understand any particular trend out of a historical setting can easily lead to a distorted view of the matter. The same is true for the legacy of an artist like Yuhanna al-Armani. This ...
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Trying to understand any particular trend out of a historical setting can easily lead to a distorted view of the matter. The same is true for the legacy of an artist like Yuhanna al-Armani. This study has argued that Yuhanna's icons developed and flourished in the second half of the eighteenth century as a result of a combination of factors that coincided at that time. It has argued against the dominant view among many scholars that the artist had recently arrived in Egypt and had come with his cultural luggage, for the most part a set of exogenous cultural traditions that flourished in the new society he moved to. The traditions that Yuhanna introduced are assumed to have been more modern and more developed than those that could be found locally.Less
Trying to understand any particular trend out of a historical setting can easily lead to a distorted view of the matter. The same is true for the legacy of an artist like Yuhanna al-Armani. This study has argued that Yuhanna's icons developed and flourished in the second half of the eighteenth century as a result of a combination of factors that coincided at that time. It has argued against the dominant view among many scholars that the artist had recently arrived in Egypt and had come with his cultural luggage, for the most part a set of exogenous cultural traditions that flourished in the new society he moved to. The traditions that Yuhanna introduced are assumed to have been more modern and more developed than those that could be found locally.
Tony K. Stewart
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195392722
- eISBN:
- 9780199777327
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195392722.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Subsequent authors perpetuated the Gauḍīya tradition mimicking the Caitanya caritāmṛta. Narahari Cakravartī’s Bhaktiratnākara most successfully emulated its rhetoric, writing his generation’s history ...
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Subsequent authors perpetuated the Gauḍīya tradition mimicking the Caitanya caritāmṛta. Narahari Cakravartī’s Bhaktiratnākara most successfully emulated its rhetoric, writing his generation’s history in parallel to the model. Others adopted these techniques for personal political agendas, for example elevating personal gurus. The text conditioned subsequent Vaiṣṇava discourse, even outside the mainstream, for example the Dīnamaṇicandrodaya of otherwise unknown Manohara Dāsa, which warned against literal erotic emulation of Caitanya’s androgyny. Ironically the Caitanya caritāmṛta provided theological justification for tāntrika interpretations, eventually articulated as sahajiyā. Calling itself commentary, Ākiñcana Dāsa’s Vivarta vilāsa challenged the master narrative of the book’s loss and proof-texted the Caitanya caritāmṛta to proclaim sahajiyā legitimacy, turning Kṛṣṇadāsa’s rhetoric back on itself. The elevation of the Caitanya caritāmṛta to the final word of tradition can be seen in its gradual symbolic change to icon, installed on the altar beside the images of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and Caitanya.Less
Subsequent authors perpetuated the Gauḍīya tradition mimicking the Caitanya caritāmṛta. Narahari Cakravartī’s Bhaktiratnākara most successfully emulated its rhetoric, writing his generation’s history in parallel to the model. Others adopted these techniques for personal political agendas, for example elevating personal gurus. The text conditioned subsequent Vaiṣṇava discourse, even outside the mainstream, for example the Dīnamaṇicandrodaya of otherwise unknown Manohara Dāsa, which warned against literal erotic emulation of Caitanya’s androgyny. Ironically the Caitanya caritāmṛta provided theological justification for tāntrika interpretations, eventually articulated as sahajiyā. Calling itself commentary, Ākiñcana Dāsa’s Vivarta vilāsa challenged the master narrative of the book’s loss and proof-texted the Caitanya caritāmṛta to proclaim sahajiyā legitimacy, turning Kṛṣṇadāsa’s rhetoric back on itself. The elevation of the Caitanya caritāmṛta to the final word of tradition can be seen in its gradual symbolic change to icon, installed on the altar beside the images of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and Caitanya.
Magdi Guirguis
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789774161520
- eISBN:
- 9781617971013
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774161520.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This book offers an unique window onto the social history of Cairo in the eighteenth century. Yuhanna al-Armani has long been known by historians of Coptic art as an eighteenth-century Armenian icon ...
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This book offers an unique window onto the social history of Cairo in the eighteenth century. Yuhanna al-Armani has long been known by historians of Coptic art as an eighteenth-century Armenian icon painter who lived and worked in Ottoman Cairo. Here for the first time is an account of his life that looks beyond his artistic production to place him firmly in the social, political, and economic milieu in which he moved and the confluence of interests that allowed him to flourish as a painter. Who was Yuhanna al-Armani? What was his network of relationships? How does this shed light on the contacts between Cairo's Coptic and Armenian communities in the eighteenth century? Why was there so much demand for his work at that particular time? And how did a member of Cairo's then relatively modest Armenian community reach such heights of artistic and creative endeavor? Drawing on eighteenth-century deeds relating to al-Armani and other members of his social network recorded in the registers of the Ottoman courts, this book offers a fascinating glimpse into the ways of life of urban dwellers in eighteenth-century Ottoman Cairo, at a time when a civilian elite had reached a high level of prominence and wealth. Al-Armani's life and career tell us much about the immediate world to which he belonged and about the wider context of the Ottoman Empire, which constituted a vast trading area under a single juridical whole.Less
This book offers an unique window onto the social history of Cairo in the eighteenth century. Yuhanna al-Armani has long been known by historians of Coptic art as an eighteenth-century Armenian icon painter who lived and worked in Ottoman Cairo. Here for the first time is an account of his life that looks beyond his artistic production to place him firmly in the social, political, and economic milieu in which he moved and the confluence of interests that allowed him to flourish as a painter. Who was Yuhanna al-Armani? What was his network of relationships? How does this shed light on the contacts between Cairo's Coptic and Armenian communities in the eighteenth century? Why was there so much demand for his work at that particular time? And how did a member of Cairo's then relatively modest Armenian community reach such heights of artistic and creative endeavor? Drawing on eighteenth-century deeds relating to al-Armani and other members of his social network recorded in the registers of the Ottoman courts, this book offers a fascinating glimpse into the ways of life of urban dwellers in eighteenth-century Ottoman Cairo, at a time when a civilian elite had reached a high level of prominence and wealth. Al-Armani's life and career tell us much about the immediate world to which he belonged and about the wider context of the Ottoman Empire, which constituted a vast trading area under a single juridical whole.
Adam G. Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199546626
- eISBN:
- 9780191720208
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546626.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
For the church Fathers the human body presents a focal symbol impinging upon nearly all theological reflection. Their doctrines of creation, Scripture, incarnation, salvation, church, sacraments, ...
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For the church Fathers the human body presents a focal symbol impinging upon nearly all theological reflection. Their doctrines of creation, Scripture, incarnation, salvation, church, sacraments, asceticism, morality, and eschatology all hinge upon the specific nature and function of the human body in the divine economy. Christ's flesh, present in and as the church, is the effective locus of human and cosmic deification.Less
For the church Fathers the human body presents a focal symbol impinging upon nearly all theological reflection. Their doctrines of creation, Scripture, incarnation, salvation, church, sacraments, asceticism, morality, and eschatology all hinge upon the specific nature and function of the human body in the divine economy. Christ's flesh, present in and as the church, is the effective locus of human and cosmic deification.
Werner Hüllen
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199553235
- eISBN:
- 9780191720352
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199553235.003.0010
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Lexicography
The chapter provides a concept of synonymy which all my historical and book-orientated research has as its basis. Synonymy is not merely an anomaly in the semiotic system because it disregards the ...
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The chapter provides a concept of synonymy which all my historical and book-orientated research has as its basis. Synonymy is not merely an anomaly in the semiotic system because it disregards the elementary rule that the difference of form creates the meaning; synonymy is a basic phenomenon of lexis because words can only be semanticized by words, which means that every word in a language has its synonyms. Besides, the rules of textual constitution demand that there be perfect synonyms to avoid repetition. However, the meaning of words is not what we find in dictionary definitions. On the level of the system, so-called synonyms are still different from each other. But in performance and within given bounds, which are delimited by the lexemes, the meanings of words adapt certain senses following the constraints of co-texts and contexts. This is a highly economic principle which avoids creating new lexemes for every shade of meaning. In performed language—not in the system created out of reflection—words can therefore also adopt perfect synonymy. These ideas are explained in greater detail and with illustrative examples. They follow the lines given by cognitive linguists (e.g. Pustejowsky, Greenberg).Less
The chapter provides a concept of synonymy which all my historical and book-orientated research has as its basis. Synonymy is not merely an anomaly in the semiotic system because it disregards the elementary rule that the difference of form creates the meaning; synonymy is a basic phenomenon of lexis because words can only be semanticized by words, which means that every word in a language has its synonyms. Besides, the rules of textual constitution demand that there be perfect synonyms to avoid repetition. However, the meaning of words is not what we find in dictionary definitions. On the level of the system, so-called synonyms are still different from each other. But in performance and within given bounds, which are delimited by the lexemes, the meanings of words adapt certain senses following the constraints of co-texts and contexts. This is a highly economic principle which avoids creating new lexemes for every shade of meaning. In performed language—not in the system created out of reflection—words can therefore also adopt perfect synonymy. These ideas are explained in greater detail and with illustrative examples. They follow the lines given by cognitive linguists (e.g. Pustejowsky, Greenberg).
Stefan Helmreich, Sophia Roosth, and Michele Friedner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691164809
- eISBN:
- 9781400873869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691164809.003.0010
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines how digital media represent seawater, relying upon, but also making invisible, the built infrastructures—commercial, political, military—that have permitted the oceanic world to ...
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This chapter examines how digital media represent seawater, relying upon, but also making invisible, the built infrastructures—commercial, political, military—that have permitted the oceanic world to be described as something like a “global ocean” in the first place. Drawing on the work of Charles Sanders Peirce, it explores how Earth and its ocean, as they have been ported into the digital, have become a confusing mixture of different kinds of signs—the sorts Peirce would have called indexes, icons, and symbols. It considers a kindred image-object, Google Ocean, and how Google Earth politics is connected to it, as well as what sort of representation of the planetary sea is in the making in these digital days. It argues that Google Ocean is a mottled mash of icons, indexes, and symbols of the marine and maritime world as well as a simultaneously dystopian and utopian diagram of the sea.Less
This chapter examines how digital media represent seawater, relying upon, but also making invisible, the built infrastructures—commercial, political, military—that have permitted the oceanic world to be described as something like a “global ocean” in the first place. Drawing on the work of Charles Sanders Peirce, it explores how Earth and its ocean, as they have been ported into the digital, have become a confusing mixture of different kinds of signs—the sorts Peirce would have called indexes, icons, and symbols. It considers a kindred image-object, Google Ocean, and how Google Earth politics is connected to it, as well as what sort of representation of the planetary sea is in the making in these digital days. It argues that Google Ocean is a mottled mash of icons, indexes, and symbols of the marine and maritime world as well as a simultaneously dystopian and utopian diagram of the sea.
Glenn Peers
A. Long (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520224056
- eISBN:
- 9780520925137
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520224056.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Non-Classical
Throughout the course of Byzantine history, Christian doctrine taught that angels have a powerful place in cosmology. It also taught that angels were immaterial, bodiless, invisible beings. But if ...
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Throughout the course of Byzantine history, Christian doctrine taught that angels have a powerful place in cosmology. It also taught that angels were immaterial, bodiless, invisible beings. But if that were the case, how could they be visualized and depicted in icons and other works of art? This book describes the strategies used by Byzantine artists to represent the incorporeal forms of angels and the rationalizations in defense of their representations mustered by theologians in the face of iconoclastic opposition. The book demonstrates that these problems of representation provide a unique window on Late Antique thought in general.Less
Throughout the course of Byzantine history, Christian doctrine taught that angels have a powerful place in cosmology. It also taught that angels were immaterial, bodiless, invisible beings. But if that were the case, how could they be visualized and depicted in icons and other works of art? This book describes the strategies used by Byzantine artists to represent the incorporeal forms of angels and the rationalizations in defense of their representations mustered by theologians in the face of iconoclastic opposition. The book demonstrates that these problems of representation provide a unique window on Late Antique thought in general.
John Cort
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195385021
- eISBN:
- 9780199869770
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385021.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, World Religions
This book is an interpretive analysis of the role of icons (images) of the Jina (the perfected, liberated, and enlightened teachers) in Jainism. The book places different interpretive frames around ...
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This book is an interpretive analysis of the role of icons (images) of the Jina (the perfected, liberated, and enlightened teachers) in Jainism. The book places different interpretive frames around the icon to understand some of the many ways that Jina icons have functioned in Jainism. Most of these frames are iconophilic narratives to account for and defend the origin, presence, and history of the Jina icons. There are also iconoclastic critiques of icons as idols that depict the introduction and worship of icons as a corruption of original Jainism. The Jain narratives include cosmological depictions of the universe, “mythical” accounts from Jain narrative history, and “historical” accounts located within India. Interpretation of the frames involves comparative discussions of materials from Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. It also involves comparative analysis of scripture and mandalas. The book fits within the growing field of scholarship on images and icons in the world's religious traditions.Less
This book is an interpretive analysis of the role of icons (images) of the Jina (the perfected, liberated, and enlightened teachers) in Jainism. The book places different interpretive frames around the icon to understand some of the many ways that Jina icons have functioned in Jainism. Most of these frames are iconophilic narratives to account for and defend the origin, presence, and history of the Jina icons. There are also iconoclastic critiques of icons as idols that depict the introduction and worship of icons as a corruption of original Jainism. The Jain narratives include cosmological depictions of the universe, “mythical” accounts from Jain narrative history, and “historical” accounts located within India. Interpretation of the frames involves comparative discussions of materials from Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. It also involves comparative analysis of scripture and mandalas. The book fits within the growing field of scholarship on images and icons in the world's religious traditions.
John E. Cort
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195385021
- eISBN:
- 9780199869770
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385021.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, World Religions
The book is introduced by two exemplary narratives of Jains who were “converted” from, and to, an acceptance of the role of religious icons of Jinas. Lonka Shah was a fifteenth‐century Shvetambara ...
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The book is introduced by two exemplary narratives of Jains who were “converted” from, and to, an acceptance of the role of religious icons of Jinas. Lonka Shah was a fifteenth‐century Shvetambara Jain layman who became convinced that icons were in fact idols, while Atmaramji (Vijay Anandsuri) was a nineteenth‐century monk who left his aniconic Shvetambara Sthanakavasi Jain tradition to join the Shvetambara Murtipujaka Jain tradition and become a staunch advocate of icons. These narratives introduce a number of terms that are central to the book: icon, image and idol; iconophile and iconoclast; and Sthanakavasi and Murtipujaka. The introduction also discusses the book's use of history and narrative as discursive categories for understanding the past as relevant to the present. It discusses the use of the concept of “frame” as an alternative to context, as it recognizes the role of the interpreter in deciding which “contexts” to use in the interpretive process.Less
The book is introduced by two exemplary narratives of Jains who were “converted” from, and to, an acceptance of the role of religious icons of Jinas. Lonka Shah was a fifteenth‐century Shvetambara Jain layman who became convinced that icons were in fact idols, while Atmaramji (Vijay Anandsuri) was a nineteenth‐century monk who left his aniconic Shvetambara Sthanakavasi Jain tradition to join the Shvetambara Murtipujaka Jain tradition and become a staunch advocate of icons. These narratives introduce a number of terms that are central to the book: icon, image and idol; iconophile and iconoclast; and Sthanakavasi and Murtipujaka. The introduction also discusses the book's use of history and narrative as discursive categories for understanding the past as relevant to the present. It discusses the use of the concept of “frame” as an alternative to context, as it recognizes the role of the interpreter in deciding which “contexts” to use in the interpretive process.
John E. Cort
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195385021
- eISBN:
- 9780199869770
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385021.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, World Religions
Both the Digambara and Shvetambara icon‐worshipping Jains posit that the cosmos is filled with eternal icons. This cosmological “narrative” is analyzed as a defense of icons: if they are eternal and ...
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Both the Digambara and Shvetambara icon‐worshipping Jains posit that the cosmos is filled with eternal icons. This cosmological “narrative” is analyzed as a defense of icons: if they are eternal and uncreated, then their ritual use is appropriate. According to Jain cosmology, there are eternal icons on the continent of Nandishvara Dvipa, on the axial Mount Meru, and at the four gateways to Black‐Plum Continent (Jambu Dvipa). These eternal icons are described in cosmological texts, and are vectored into contemporary Jain ritual culture through hymns, temple architecture, rituals, and annual festivals. In each of the cosmological examples, the icons are found in temples that in turn are arranged in highly geometric formations. These formations, whether square or circular, are closely related to mandalas. The chapter then frames the eternal icons as mandalas, and also shows how a more adequate understanding of mandalas in Asian religions should see that they are three‐dimensional formations of icons, and not just two‐dimensional painted representations. Descriptions of the eternal icons are found in many Shvetambara scriptures, texts that are accepted by both the iconophilic Murtipujakas and the iconoclastic Sthanakavasis. The Sthanakavasis, therefore, have had to develop a scriptural hermeneutic that interprets the key term of chaitya (“image”) as referring not to images but to knowledgeable people. This chapter therefore allows us to see how icons and scriptural exegesis are linked in Jainism.Less
Both the Digambara and Shvetambara icon‐worshipping Jains posit that the cosmos is filled with eternal icons. This cosmological “narrative” is analyzed as a defense of icons: if they are eternal and uncreated, then their ritual use is appropriate. According to Jain cosmology, there are eternal icons on the continent of Nandishvara Dvipa, on the axial Mount Meru, and at the four gateways to Black‐Plum Continent (Jambu Dvipa). These eternal icons are described in cosmological texts, and are vectored into contemporary Jain ritual culture through hymns, temple architecture, rituals, and annual festivals. In each of the cosmological examples, the icons are found in temples that in turn are arranged in highly geometric formations. These formations, whether square or circular, are closely related to mandalas. The chapter then frames the eternal icons as mandalas, and also shows how a more adequate understanding of mandalas in Asian religions should see that they are three‐dimensional formations of icons, and not just two‐dimensional painted representations. Descriptions of the eternal icons are found in many Shvetambara scriptures, texts that are accepted by both the iconophilic Murtipujakas and the iconoclastic Sthanakavasis. The Sthanakavasis, therefore, have had to develop a scriptural hermeneutic that interprets the key term of chaitya (“image”) as referring not to images but to knowledgeable people. This chapter therefore allows us to see how icons and scriptural exegesis are linked in Jainism.
John E. Cort
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195385021
- eISBN:
- 9780199869770
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385021.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, World Religions
Narratives of the miraculous or otherwise special origin of icons betray anxiety about the authenticity of icons. This chapter investigates the Shvetambara narratives of a sandalwood icon of ...
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Narratives of the miraculous or otherwise special origin of icons betray anxiety about the authenticity of icons. This chapter investigates the Shvetambara narratives of a sandalwood icon of Mahavira, the twenty‐fourth and final Jina of this period, that was carved during his lifetime. Because it portrayed the Lord while he was still alive—and in fact before he renounced the world and was still a prince, not yet a monk—it is known as the Living Lord (jivantasvami) icon. The existence of both narratives and actual Living Lord icons from the mid‐first millennium CE indicates that we are dealing with a regional icon tradition, one that lasted in western India into the medieval period. Since the icons all derive their legitimacy (and, in many cases, their iconography) from a single icon, and so all are copies of the single original icon, this is analyzed as an example of a “replication cult.” The iconography of the Living Lord icons—standing with unbent body and arms at side, and wearing a crown and royal robes—bears strong resemblances to the contemporaneous iconography in western India of Vishnu, Surya, and some Buddha icons. Further, the fact that the Jains, Buddhists, and Pancharatra (P_ñcar_tra) Vaishnavas all developed sets of twenty‐four deities further indicates the ways these traditions interacted. The Living Lord replication cult is an example of one of the several ways that the Jains expanded their pantheon beyond the standard icons of the twenty‐four Jinas. Other examples are the Digambara cult of Gommateshvara (Gommate_vara) B_hubali, the Shvetambara cult of Simandhara Svami, and the worship of either anthropomorphic or footprint icons of deceased monks. A central character in the narrative of the lifetime icon of Mahavira was King Udayana. This same king figures prominently in a Buddhist narrative of a lifetime icon of the Buddha Shakyamuni. The Buddhist narrative duplicates itself, and involves also the story of King Prasenajit and another lifetime icon of the Buddha. Analysis of narratives of lifetime icons in these two religions leads to a comparative analysis involving Christian defenses of icons through narratives of lifetime icons of Christ and Mary: the Mandylion, the Veronica handkerchief relic, the Turin shroud, and the tradition of icons of Christ and Mary painted by Luke. Narratives from the Hindu, Greek, and Semitic traditions of the “self‐born” (called svayambhu in Hinduism) icons also fit within this interpretive frame of narratives that counter anxiety about icons.Less
Narratives of the miraculous or otherwise special origin of icons betray anxiety about the authenticity of icons. This chapter investigates the Shvetambara narratives of a sandalwood icon of Mahavira, the twenty‐fourth and final Jina of this period, that was carved during his lifetime. Because it portrayed the Lord while he was still alive—and in fact before he renounced the world and was still a prince, not yet a monk—it is known as the Living Lord (jivantasvami) icon. The existence of both narratives and actual Living Lord icons from the mid‐first millennium CE indicates that we are dealing with a regional icon tradition, one that lasted in western India into the medieval period. Since the icons all derive their legitimacy (and, in many cases, their iconography) from a single icon, and so all are copies of the single original icon, this is analyzed as an example of a “replication cult.” The iconography of the Living Lord icons—standing with unbent body and arms at side, and wearing a crown and royal robes—bears strong resemblances to the contemporaneous iconography in western India of Vishnu, Surya, and some Buddha icons. Further, the fact that the Jains, Buddhists, and Pancharatra (P_ñcar_tra) Vaishnavas all developed sets of twenty‐four deities further indicates the ways these traditions interacted. The Living Lord replication cult is an example of one of the several ways that the Jains expanded their pantheon beyond the standard icons of the twenty‐four Jinas. Other examples are the Digambara cult of Gommateshvara (Gommate_vara) B_hubali, the Shvetambara cult of Simandhara Svami, and the worship of either anthropomorphic or footprint icons of deceased monks. A central character in the narrative of the lifetime icon of Mahavira was King Udayana. This same king figures prominently in a Buddhist narrative of a lifetime icon of the Buddha Shakyamuni. The Buddhist narrative duplicates itself, and involves also the story of King Prasenajit and another lifetime icon of the Buddha. Analysis of narratives of lifetime icons in these two religions leads to a comparative analysis involving Christian defenses of icons through narratives of lifetime icons of Christ and Mary: the Mandylion, the Veronica handkerchief relic, the Turin shroud, and the tradition of icons of Christ and Mary painted by Luke. Narratives from the Hindu, Greek, and Semitic traditions of the “self‐born” (called svayambhu in Hinduism) icons also fit within this interpretive frame of narratives that counter anxiety about icons.
John E. Cort
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195385021
- eISBN:
- 9780199869770
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385021.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, World Religions
The conclusion returns to the theoretical concept of the frame, and reviews the interpretive frames that are placed around the Jina image in the book. It concludes with an argument that one way to ...
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The conclusion returns to the theoretical concept of the frame, and reviews the interpretive frames that are placed around the Jina image in the book. It concludes with an argument that one way to see Jainism is as a religion in which icons are of central importance.Less
The conclusion returns to the theoretical concept of the frame, and reviews the interpretive frames that are placed around the Jina image in the book. It concludes with an argument that one way to see Jainism is as a religion in which icons are of central importance.
Lorna Hardwick
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199288076
- eISBN:
- 9780191713439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288076.003.0016
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores the paradox that translations of classical texts are necessary both because the texts are valuable and because they are inadequate and that therefore the translations ensure ...
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This chapter explores the paradox that translations of classical texts are necessary both because the texts are valuable and because they are inadequate and that therefore the translations ensure that the notion of ‘the classic’ is constantly being both reasserted and subverted. The discussion considers examples of overt and covert translation in the work of creative writers and scholarly translators, and demonstrates how translations can become hybrid texts that occupy new sites within and between cultures, transforming temporal and aesthetic relationships as well as provoking resistance and conflict. The impact of recent classical translations in poetry and theatre shows there is a continuing central and catalytic role for Greek and Roman texts. However, this activity challenges some traditional formulations of classical genealogies and values, and requires models of translation theory that conceptualise dialogue and exchange rather than emphasising invasion and violence.Less
This chapter explores the paradox that translations of classical texts are necessary both because the texts are valuable and because they are inadequate and that therefore the translations ensure that the notion of ‘the classic’ is constantly being both reasserted and subverted. The discussion considers examples of overt and covert translation in the work of creative writers and scholarly translators, and demonstrates how translations can become hybrid texts that occupy new sites within and between cultures, transforming temporal and aesthetic relationships as well as provoking resistance and conflict. The impact of recent classical translations in poetry and theatre shows there is a continuing central and catalytic role for Greek and Roman texts. However, this activity challenges some traditional formulations of classical genealogies and values, and requires models of translation theory that conceptualise dialogue and exchange rather than emphasising invasion and violence.
Andrew Louth
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199252381
- eISBN:
- 9780191600654
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199252386.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
A study of the theological achievement of St John Damascene, set in its historical context. John Damascene was born between 650–75 in Damascus and died in or near Jerusalem about 750. His early life ...
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A study of the theological achievement of St John Damascene, set in its historical context. John Damascene was born between 650–75 in Damascus and died in or near Jerusalem about 750. His early life was spent as civil servant under the Umayyad caliphate, the rest as a monk in one of the monasteries of the Palestinian Desert. Palestinian monasticism had acquired a reputation of support for the Christian orthodoxy defined by the church councils of the Byzantine Empire, a reputation that it retained after the Middle East passed from the Byzantines to the Arabs. John Damascene is the most notable representative of this tradition. The bulk of the book explores in detail John's understanding of Christian Orthodoxy, as set out principally in his three‐part Fountain Head of Knowledge. This includes the logical tools needed to argue theologically, set out in the first part, the Dialectica, an understanding of the nature and variety of heresy, in the second part, On Heresies, which includes the first Christian reflection on the new religion of Islam, and an exposition of Christian doctrine, in the third part, On the Orthodox Faith, which was to become immensely influential for all later Christianity, both East and West. Three final chapters discuss John's understanding of Christian art (icons), developed in opposition to Byzantine iconoclasm, his preaching, for which he was famous in his lifetime, and his enormous contribution to Byzantine liturgical poetry, especially the canon. A final chapter draws the threads together by means of a comparison between John Damascene and his nearly exact contemporary in the West, the Venerable Bede.Less
A study of the theological achievement of St John Damascene, set in its historical context. John Damascene was born between 650–75 in Damascus and died in or near Jerusalem about 750. His early life was spent as civil servant under the Umayyad caliphate, the rest as a monk in one of the monasteries of the Palestinian Desert. Palestinian monasticism had acquired a reputation of support for the Christian orthodoxy defined by the church councils of the Byzantine Empire, a reputation that it retained after the Middle East passed from the Byzantines to the Arabs. John Damascene is the most notable representative of this tradition. The bulk of the book explores in detail John's understanding of Christian Orthodoxy, as set out principally in his three‐part Fountain Head of Knowledge. This includes the logical tools needed to argue theologically, set out in the first part, the Dialectica, an understanding of the nature and variety of heresy, in the second part, On Heresies, which includes the first Christian reflection on the new religion of Islam, and an exposition of Christian doctrine, in the third part, On the Orthodox Faith, which was to become immensely influential for all later Christianity, both East and West. Three final chapters discuss John's understanding of Christian art (icons), developed in opposition to Byzantine iconoclasm, his preaching, for which he was famous in his lifetime, and his enormous contribution to Byzantine liturgical poetry, especially the canon. A final chapter draws the threads together by means of a comparison between John Damascene and his nearly exact contemporary in the West, the Venerable Bede.
