Catherine Conybeare
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199240722
- eISBN:
- 9780191600494
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199240728.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The heart of this book is a reading of the letters of Paulinus of Nola, aristocratic convert to Christianity of the late fourth‐century, and his correspondents, most notably St Augustine of Hippo. We ...
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The heart of this book is a reading of the letters of Paulinus of Nola, aristocratic convert to Christianity of the late fourth‐century, and his correspondents, most notably St Augustine of Hippo. We begin with an analysis of letter writing in late antiquity; we investigate the letters as traces of fuller historical events, emphasize the importance of the letter carriers, and conclude that the letters have a sacramental function. The notion of spiritual community created and sustained by the letters is explored through discussions of Christian friendship, and of the patterns of imagistic thought which facilitate the spiritual interpretation of mundane events. Finally, we demonstrate how Paulinus’ notion of spiritual community leads to a novel conception of the self as truly relational. The impact of these letters, and of the epistolary mode, on the formation of Christian ways of life and thought is extraordinary.Less
The heart of this book is a reading of the letters of Paulinus of Nola, aristocratic convert to Christianity of the late fourth‐century, and his correspondents, most notably St Augustine of Hippo. We begin with an analysis of letter writing in late antiquity; we investigate the letters as traces of fuller historical events, emphasize the importance of the letter carriers, and conclude that the letters have a sacramental function. The notion of spiritual community created and sustained by the letters is explored through discussions of Christian friendship, and of the patterns of imagistic thought which facilitate the spiritual interpretation of mundane events. Finally, we demonstrate how Paulinus’ notion of spiritual community leads to a novel conception of the self as truly relational. The impact of these letters, and of the epistolary mode, on the formation of Christian ways of life and thought is extraordinary.
Hugh B. Urban
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195139013
- eISBN:
- 9780199871674
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195139011.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book is a companion volume to the author's The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy, and Power in Colonial Bengal, but while The Economics of Ecstasy engages the theoretical issues of secrecy ...
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This book is a companion volume to the author's The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy, and Power in Colonial Bengal, but while The Economics of Ecstasy engages the theoretical issues of secrecy and concealment associated with the Kartābhajās — a Bengali sect devoted to Tantra, an Indian religious movement notorious for its alleged use of shocking sexual language and rituals, this book presents the first English translation of the sect's body of highly esoteric, mystical poetry and songs. The period from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, during which these lyrics were written, was an era of change, experimentation, and transition from the older medieval styles to the new literary forms of “modern” Bengal. The original songs presented are an important part of this transitional period, reflecting the search for new literary forms and experimentation in new poetic styles. Long disparaged as an inferior, low‐class, or corrupt form of Bengali literature, these songs are concerned with contemporary social life in colonial Calcutta and with the real lives of common lower‐class men and women. With their vision of a universal “religion of humanity,” open to men and women of all classes, the Kartābhajā songs offer an alternative model of community, which made a special appeal to the working classes of colonial Calcutta. They delight in ridiculing and satirizing the foppish British rulers and pretentious upper classes, although at the same time, however, the satirical urban imagery is mingled with older Tantric connotations and employed in ingenious new ways to express profoundly esoteric and mystical religious ideas.Less
This book is a companion volume to the author's The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy, and Power in Colonial Bengal, but while The Economics of Ecstasy engages the theoretical issues of secrecy and concealment associated with the Kartābhajās — a Bengali sect devoted to Tantra, an Indian religious movement notorious for its alleged use of shocking sexual language and rituals, this book presents the first English translation of the sect's body of highly esoteric, mystical poetry and songs. The period from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, during which these lyrics were written, was an era of change, experimentation, and transition from the older medieval styles to the new literary forms of “modern” Bengal. The original songs presented are an important part of this transitional period, reflecting the search for new literary forms and experimentation in new poetic styles. Long disparaged as an inferior, low‐class, or corrupt form of Bengali literature, these songs are concerned with contemporary social life in colonial Calcutta and with the real lives of common lower‐class men and women. With their vision of a universal “religion of humanity,” open to men and women of all classes, the Kartābhajā songs offer an alternative model of community, which made a special appeal to the working classes of colonial Calcutta. They delight in ridiculing and satirizing the foppish British rulers and pretentious upper classes, although at the same time, however, the satirical urban imagery is mingled with older Tantric connotations and employed in ingenious new ways to express profoundly esoteric and mystical religious ideas.
C. B. Martin
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199234103
- eISBN:
- 9780191715570
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199234103.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter begins with a brief discussion of tactile-motor-kinaesthetic perceiving. It argues that through use of the tactile-motor-kinaesthetic sensory input and imagery that we learn the ...
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This chapter begins with a brief discussion of tactile-motor-kinaesthetic perceiving. It argues that through use of the tactile-motor-kinaesthetic sensory input and imagery that we learn the boundaries of self and not-self, and the geography of our own bodies and the three-dimensionality of things and of spaces between them. It then introduces the ‘Feeling Once, Feeling Twice Phenomenon’ that is manifested when you place your hands on a surface and what you feel with your hands does not feel back; then, as you move your hands to come into contact with one another, what you feel does (even quite sensuously so) feel back. What feels back, and what is felt as continuous (for instance, ends of the hair) with that, forms the geography of your body and its limits against what is not your body, namely, what does not feel back.Less
This chapter begins with a brief discussion of tactile-motor-kinaesthetic perceiving. It argues that through use of the tactile-motor-kinaesthetic sensory input and imagery that we learn the boundaries of self and not-self, and the geography of our own bodies and the three-dimensionality of things and of spaces between them. It then introduces the ‘Feeling Once, Feeling Twice Phenomenon’ that is manifested when you place your hands on a surface and what you feel with your hands does not feel back; then, as you move your hands to come into contact with one another, what you feel does (even quite sensuously so) feel back. What feels back, and what is felt as continuous (for instance, ends of the hair) with that, forms the geography of your body and its limits against what is not your body, namely, what does not feel back.
Henry B. Wonham
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161946
- eISBN:
- 9780199788101
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161946.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This book asks why so many of the writers who aligned themselves with the social and aesthetic aims of American literary realism apparently violated their most basic principles in relying on stock ...
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This book asks why so many of the writers who aligned themselves with the social and aesthetic aims of American literary realism apparently violated their most basic principles in relying on stock conventions of ethnic caricature in their treatment of immigrant and African American figures. As a self-described “tool of the democratic spirit”, designed to “prick the bubbles of abstract types” (William Dean Howells), literary realism would seem to have little in common with the aggressively dehumanizing comic imagery that began to proliferate in American magazines and newspapers after the Civil War. Indeed, Howells touted the democratic impulse of realist imagery, and Alain Locke hailed realism's potential to accomplish “the artistic emancipation of the Negro”. Yet in practice, Howells and his fellow realists regularly employed comic typification of ethnic subjects as a feature of their representational practice. Critics have generally dismissed such lapses in realist technique as vestiges of a genteel social consciousness that failed to keep pace with the movement's avowed democratic aspirations. Such explanations are useful to a point, but they overlook the fact that the age of realism in American art and letters was simultaneously the great age of ethnic caricature. This book argues that these two aesthetic programs, one committed to representation of the fully humanized individual, the other invested in broad ethnic abstractions, operate less as antithetical choices than as complementary impulses, both of which receive full play within the era's most demanding literary and graphic works.Less
This book asks why so many of the writers who aligned themselves with the social and aesthetic aims of American literary realism apparently violated their most basic principles in relying on stock conventions of ethnic caricature in their treatment of immigrant and African American figures. As a self-described “tool of the democratic spirit”, designed to “prick the bubbles of abstract types” (William Dean Howells), literary realism would seem to have little in common with the aggressively dehumanizing comic imagery that began to proliferate in American magazines and newspapers after the Civil War. Indeed, Howells touted the democratic impulse of realist imagery, and Alain Locke hailed realism's potential to accomplish “the artistic emancipation of the Negro”. Yet in practice, Howells and his fellow realists regularly employed comic typification of ethnic subjects as a feature of their representational practice. Critics have generally dismissed such lapses in realist technique as vestiges of a genteel social consciousness that failed to keep pace with the movement's avowed democratic aspirations. Such explanations are useful to a point, but they overlook the fact that the age of realism in American art and letters was simultaneously the great age of ethnic caricature. This book argues that these two aesthetic programs, one committed to representation of the fully humanized individual, the other invested in broad ethnic abstractions, operate less as antithetical choices than as complementary impulses, both of which receive full play within the era's most demanding literary and graphic works.
Alastair Fowler
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183402
- eISBN:
- 9780191674037
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183402.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This book explores the extraordinary prominence of astronomical imagery in Renaissance literature. Although the stars were important astrologically, this is at best a ...
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This book explores the extraordinary prominence of astronomical imagery in Renaissance literature. Although the stars were important astrologically, this is at best a partial explanation for the popularity of such imagery, and the impact of astronomical discoveries (particularly their implications for stellification, or translation to the stars) is also an important factor. Seventeenth-century culture was both religious and materialistic and the literature of the period shows a great variety of negotiated reconciliations of the two.Less
This book explores the extraordinary prominence of astronomical imagery in Renaissance literature. Although the stars were important astrologically, this is at best a partial explanation for the popularity of such imagery, and the impact of astronomical discoveries (particularly their implications for stellification, or translation to the stars) is also an important factor. Seventeenth-century culture was both religious and materialistic and the literature of the period shows a great variety of negotiated reconciliations of the two.
Alvin I. Goldman
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195138924
- eISBN:
- 9780199786480
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195138929.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Simulation is first examined in the domains of visual and motor imagery, where brain imaging confirms that many of the same regions are activated in both visual imagery and vision, and in motor ...
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Simulation is first examined in the domains of visual and motor imagery, where brain imaging confirms that many of the same regions are activated in both visual imagery and vision, and in motor imagery and motor execution. An analogous use of simulation characteristically occurs in high-level mindreading. Since an important stage of simulation for mindreading requires reflection on one’s own current states, it is confirming evidence that neuroimaging studies find loci of activation in mindreading tasks that are also found in self-reflective thought. A distinctive feature of simulation is that it invites the risk that one’s own genuine states will contaminate the process; so it is further confirming evidence that mindreading studies consistently find pronounced egocentric errors. High-level mindreading involves assignment of contentful states, and content assignment follows the procedure predicted by simulation theory, viz., default use of one’s own concepts and combinatorial operations in assigning contents to others.Less
Simulation is first examined in the domains of visual and motor imagery, where brain imaging confirms that many of the same regions are activated in both visual imagery and vision, and in motor imagery and motor execution. An analogous use of simulation characteristically occurs in high-level mindreading. Since an important stage of simulation for mindreading requires reflection on one’s own current states, it is confirming evidence that neuroimaging studies find loci of activation in mindreading tasks that are also found in self-reflective thought. A distinctive feature of simulation is that it invites the risk that one’s own genuine states will contaminate the process; so it is further confirming evidence that mindreading studies consistently find pronounced egocentric errors. High-level mindreading involves assignment of contentful states, and content assignment follows the procedure predicted by simulation theory, viz., default use of one’s own concepts and combinatorial operations in assigning contents to others.
DAVID G. PEARSON
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264195
- eISBN:
- 9780191734540
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264195.003.0009
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
Mental imagery is the quasi-perceptual state of consciousness in which the mind appears to be able to create sensory-like experience. It is often cited as having a crucial role in creative thought; ...
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Mental imagery is the quasi-perceptual state of consciousness in which the mind appears to be able to create sensory-like experience. It is often cited as having a crucial role in creative thought; it is often associated with successful acts and performances across a wide range of creative tasks, including the development of scientific models, the conceptualization of architectural design, and the aspects of everyday problem-solving. Despite its assumed role in creative thought, its exact contribution remains a debated issue. This chapter outlines some of the anecdotal evidence that supports the link between imagery and creative thought. It also reviews evidence garnered from a number of experimental studies that have examined the use of imagery under controlled conditions. It also discusses the extent to which representational theories of imagery have failed to directly account for the phenomenology that is associated with imagery.Less
Mental imagery is the quasi-perceptual state of consciousness in which the mind appears to be able to create sensory-like experience. It is often cited as having a crucial role in creative thought; it is often associated with successful acts and performances across a wide range of creative tasks, including the development of scientific models, the conceptualization of architectural design, and the aspects of everyday problem-solving. Despite its assumed role in creative thought, its exact contribution remains a debated issue. This chapter outlines some of the anecdotal evidence that supports the link between imagery and creative thought. It also reviews evidence garnered from a number of experimental studies that have examined the use of imagery under controlled conditions. It also discusses the extent to which representational theories of imagery have failed to directly account for the phenomenology that is associated with imagery.
Ron Johnston (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264775
- eISBN:
- 9780191734984
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264775.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This volume contains sixteen chapters which contain the text of lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2008–10. From romantic love in sub-Saharan Africa to the British industrial revolution, ...
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This volume contains sixteen chapters which contain the text of lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2008–10. From romantic love in sub-Saharan Africa to the British industrial revolution, from John Donne to Arthur Miller, from surrealism to Chinese flower imagery, this book demonstrates unparalleled breadth and depth of scholarship.Less
This volume contains sixteen chapters which contain the text of lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2008–10. From romantic love in sub-Saharan Africa to the British industrial revolution, from John Donne to Arthur Miller, from surrealism to Chinese flower imagery, this book demonstrates unparalleled breadth and depth of scholarship.
P.R.S. Moorey
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262801
- eISBN:
- 9780191734526
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262801.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This book presents work that investigates the numerous miniature baked clay images from Canaan, Israel and Judah (c.1600–600 bc). They constitute vital evidence for the imagery and domestic rituals ...
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This book presents work that investigates the numerous miniature baked clay images from Canaan, Israel and Judah (c.1600–600 bc). They constitute vital evidence for the imagery and domestic rituals of ordinary people, but significantly are not explicitly mentioned in the Old Testament. These terracottas are treated as a distinctive phenomenon with roots deep in prehistory and recurrent characteristics across millennia. Attention is focused on whether or not the female representations are worshippers of unknown deities or images of known goddesses, particularly in Early Israelite religion.Less
This book presents work that investigates the numerous miniature baked clay images from Canaan, Israel and Judah (c.1600–600 bc). They constitute vital evidence for the imagery and domestic rituals of ordinary people, but significantly are not explicitly mentioned in the Old Testament. These terracottas are treated as a distinctive phenomenon with roots deep in prehistory and recurrent characteristics across millennia. Attention is focused on whether or not the female representations are worshippers of unknown deities or images of known goddesses, particularly in Early Israelite religion.
Stuart Weeks
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199291540
- eISBN:
- 9780191710537
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199291540.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Proverbs 1-9 is often characterized as an anthology of materials, loosely related to the ‘instructions’ composed in Egypt and elsewhere, and possibly originating in an educational setting. This book ...
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Proverbs 1-9 is often characterized as an anthology of materials, loosely related to the ‘instructions’ composed in Egypt and elsewhere, and possibly originating in an educational setting. This book argues that it is, instead, a sophisticated poetic work, with a basic unity of composition and message. Beginning with an examination of the Egyptian instructions, which are themselves poetic and testamentary rather than pedagogical, the study explores the way in which Proverbs 1-9 combines conventions of the instruction genre with a figurative representation of the reasons for instruction. Drawing on a traditional association of foreign women with the corruption and apostasy of Jewish youths-which was given added impetus by the post-exilic controversy over mixed marriages-Proverbs 1-9 sets a foreign seductress in opposition to a personified figure of Wisdom. The two compete for those youths who are uncommitted, and who can only hope to recognize which invitation they should accept if they have already received and internalized instruction. In this context, instruction is associated with the Torah, and is the prerequisite for the wisdom by which God's will can be recognized. These ideas, and elements of the imagery, persist into later Jewish literature, but the linking of wisdom with traditional concepts in Jewish piety goes back to Proverbs 1-9 itself.Less
Proverbs 1-9 is often characterized as an anthology of materials, loosely related to the ‘instructions’ composed in Egypt and elsewhere, and possibly originating in an educational setting. This book argues that it is, instead, a sophisticated poetic work, with a basic unity of composition and message. Beginning with an examination of the Egyptian instructions, which are themselves poetic and testamentary rather than pedagogical, the study explores the way in which Proverbs 1-9 combines conventions of the instruction genre with a figurative representation of the reasons for instruction. Drawing on a traditional association of foreign women with the corruption and apostasy of Jewish youths-which was given added impetus by the post-exilic controversy over mixed marriages-Proverbs 1-9 sets a foreign seductress in opposition to a personified figure of Wisdom. The two compete for those youths who are uncommitted, and who can only hope to recognize which invitation they should accept if they have already received and internalized instruction. In this context, instruction is associated with the Torah, and is the prerequisite for the wisdom by which God's will can be recognized. These ideas, and elements of the imagery, persist into later Jewish literature, but the linking of wisdom with traditional concepts in Jewish piety goes back to Proverbs 1-9 itself.
Anne Marie Oliver and Paul F. Steinberg
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195305593
- eISBN:
- 9780199850815
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305593.003.0020
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter describes a display suggesting an entire cosmology, composed of 20 to 30 hand-colored mimeographs that have been taped together end on end. Two men in the central panel of the display ...
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This chapter describes a display suggesting an entire cosmology, composed of 20 to 30 hand-colored mimeographs that have been taped together end on end. Two men in the central panel of the display are shown crouching atop a blue Star of David, the major symbol of the state of Israel, loading their pistols, while in the row of panels above them, the theme of promised vanquishment is repeated again in the form of more armed men standing victoriously atop the star, which is cracked and bleeding. Visual imagery such as this abounded in all the media of the intifada — images of spitting, shaking, shuddering, riding, cutting, writhing, stabbing, and bleeding.Less
This chapter describes a display suggesting an entire cosmology, composed of 20 to 30 hand-colored mimeographs that have been taped together end on end. Two men in the central panel of the display are shown crouching atop a blue Star of David, the major symbol of the state of Israel, loading their pistols, while in the row of panels above them, the theme of promised vanquishment is repeated again in the form of more armed men standing victoriously atop the star, which is cracked and bleeding. Visual imagery such as this abounded in all the media of the intifada — images of spitting, shaking, shuddering, riding, cutting, writhing, stabbing, and bleeding.
Reiko Ohnuma
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199915651
- eISBN:
- 9780199950058
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199915651.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This book is an exploration of maternal imagery and discourse in premodern South Asian Buddhism, drawing primarily on textual sources preserved in Pali and Sanskrit. It argues that Buddhism in India ...
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This book is an exploration of maternal imagery and discourse in premodern South Asian Buddhism, drawing primarily on textual sources preserved in Pali and Sanskrit. It argues that Buddhism in India had a complex and ambivalent relationship with mothers and motherhood—symbolically, affectively, and institutionally. Symbolically, motherhood was a double-edged sword, sometimes extolled as the most appropriate symbol for buddhahood itself, and sometimes denigrated as the most paradigmatic manifestation possible of attachment and suffering. On an affective level, too, motherhood was viewed with the same ambivalence: In Buddhist literature, warm feelings of love and gratitude for the mother’s nurturance and care frequently mingle with submerged feelings of hostility and resentment for the unbreakable obligations thus created, and positive images of self-sacrificing mothers are counterbalanced by horrific depictions of mothers who kill and devour. Institutionally, the formal definition of the Buddhist renunciant as one who has severed all familial ties seems to co-exist uneasily with an abundance of historical evidence demonstrating monks’ and nuns’ continuing concern for their mothers, as well as other familial entanglements. Some of the topics covered in the book are Buddhist depictions of maternal love and maternal grief, the role played by the Buddha’s own mothers, Māyā and Mahāprajāpatī, the use of pregnancy and gestation as metaphors for the attainment of enlightenment, the use of breastfeeding as a metaphor for the compassionate deeds of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the relationship between Buddhism and motherhood as it actually existed “on the ground.”Less
This book is an exploration of maternal imagery and discourse in premodern South Asian Buddhism, drawing primarily on textual sources preserved in Pali and Sanskrit. It argues that Buddhism in India had a complex and ambivalent relationship with mothers and motherhood—symbolically, affectively, and institutionally. Symbolically, motherhood was a double-edged sword, sometimes extolled as the most appropriate symbol for buddhahood itself, and sometimes denigrated as the most paradigmatic manifestation possible of attachment and suffering. On an affective level, too, motherhood was viewed with the same ambivalence: In Buddhist literature, warm feelings of love and gratitude for the mother’s nurturance and care frequently mingle with submerged feelings of hostility and resentment for the unbreakable obligations thus created, and positive images of self-sacrificing mothers are counterbalanced by horrific depictions of mothers who kill and devour. Institutionally, the formal definition of the Buddhist renunciant as one who has severed all familial ties seems to co-exist uneasily with an abundance of historical evidence demonstrating monks’ and nuns’ continuing concern for their mothers, as well as other familial entanglements. Some of the topics covered in the book are Buddhist depictions of maternal love and maternal grief, the role played by the Buddha’s own mothers, Māyā and Mahāprajāpatī, the use of pregnancy and gestation as metaphors for the attainment of enlightenment, the use of breastfeeding as a metaphor for the compassionate deeds of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the relationship between Buddhism and motherhood as it actually existed “on the ground.”
David Wengrow
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159041
- eISBN:
- 9781400848867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159041.003.0002
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter examines what led Mikhail Rostovtzeff, an ancient historian, almost a century ago to compare distributions of composite figures from China to Scandinavia. Rostovtzeff is known for his ...
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This chapter examines what led Mikhail Rostovtzeff, an ancient historian, almost a century ago to compare distributions of composite figures from China to Scandinavia. Rostovtzeff is known for his controversial view that the true architects of classical civilization were not those tied to the land, whether as peasant laborers or feudal aristocracy, but rather the middling professional classes of merchants, industrialists, and bankers whose social aspirations were most closely in tune with the civic values of an expanding urban society. Rostovtzeff was also embroiled in debates over the chronological position and cultural affiliations of Bronze Age metal hoards, unearthed along the shores of the Caspian and Black Seas. The chapter considers Rostovtzeff's approach to the interpretation of imagery, and his particular attraction to the imaginary creatures of nomadic art. It might be argued that the movements of monsters offered a kind of visual counterpart to Rostovtzeff's story of an ever-expanding Bronze Age civilization.Less
This chapter examines what led Mikhail Rostovtzeff, an ancient historian, almost a century ago to compare distributions of composite figures from China to Scandinavia. Rostovtzeff is known for his controversial view that the true architects of classical civilization were not those tied to the land, whether as peasant laborers or feudal aristocracy, but rather the middling professional classes of merchants, industrialists, and bankers whose social aspirations were most closely in tune with the civic values of an expanding urban society. Rostovtzeff was also embroiled in debates over the chronological position and cultural affiliations of Bronze Age metal hoards, unearthed along the shores of the Caspian and Black Seas. The chapter considers Rostovtzeff's approach to the interpretation of imagery, and his particular attraction to the imaginary creatures of nomadic art. It might be argued that the movements of monsters offered a kind of visual counterpart to Rostovtzeff's story of an ever-expanding Bronze Age civilization.
Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.003.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter first discusses the new style of imagery and ornament that emerged during the fifth century BC. The new style has been the source of endless controversy since the latter half of the ...
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This chapter first discusses the new style of imagery and ornament that emerged during the fifth century BC. The new style has been the source of endless controversy since the latter half of the nineteenth century. Strange creatures, part human, part beast, were crafted onto gold and bronze jewelry and cast onto the handles and lids of bronze vessels. Metalsmiths created lush new forms of decoration—incised and relief ornament based on floral motifs such as leaves and petals, with spirals, S-curves, and whirligigs decorating objects ranging from pottery to sword scabbards. This style was a radical departure from the forms of representation and decoration that preceded it. The chapter then sets out the book's purpose, namely to study a two-thousand-year period in Europe, from 2000 BC to the Roman conquests during the last century BC and the first century AD, known by the terms “Bronze Age” and “Iron Age.”Less
This chapter first discusses the new style of imagery and ornament that emerged during the fifth century BC. The new style has been the source of endless controversy since the latter half of the nineteenth century. Strange creatures, part human, part beast, were crafted onto gold and bronze jewelry and cast onto the handles and lids of bronze vessels. Metalsmiths created lush new forms of decoration—incised and relief ornament based on floral motifs such as leaves and petals, with spirals, S-curves, and whirligigs decorating objects ranging from pottery to sword scabbards. This style was a radical departure from the forms of representation and decoration that preceded it. The chapter then sets out the book's purpose, namely to study a two-thousand-year period in Europe, from 2000 BC to the Roman conquests during the last century BC and the first century AD, known by the terms “Bronze Age” and “Iron Age.”
Stuart Weeks
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199291540
- eISBN:
- 9780191710537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199291540.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Proverbs 1-9 uses figurative language intensively, and certain themes or motifs occur throughout. In particular, the work seems to develop an imagery based on competing characters, who invite the ...
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Proverbs 1-9 uses figurative language intensively, and certain themes or motifs occur throughout. In particular, the work seems to develop an imagery based on competing characters, who invite the uninstructed to turn in their direction. Wisdom's invitation, with its genuine promise of benefits, can be distinguished from more dangerous ones (especially that of the ‘foreign woman’) only by those who have accepted instruction. This motif is linked to a figurative use of paths and ways through life.Less
Proverbs 1-9 uses figurative language intensively, and certain themes or motifs occur throughout. In particular, the work seems to develop an imagery based on competing characters, who invite the uninstructed to turn in their direction. Wisdom's invitation, with its genuine promise of benefits, can be distinguished from more dangerous ones (especially that of the ‘foreign woman’) only by those who have accepted instruction. This motif is linked to a figurative use of paths and ways through life.
Alvin I. Goldman
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195138924
- eISBN:
- 9780199786480
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195138929.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter clarifies the notion of simulation and explores the relationship between simulating and theorizing. Generic simulation is the resemblance or imitation of one thing by another, so mental ...
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This chapter clarifies the notion of simulation and explores the relationship between simulating and theorizing. Generic simulation is the resemblance or imitation of one thing by another, so mental simulation is the resemblance or imitation of one mental process by another. For example, visual imagery may simulate vision by using much of the same neural machinery that vision uses. The main empirical question here is whether third-person mindreading is substantially based on attempts to simulate selected processes and states in the head of a target. The possibility of limited compatibility between simulation and theorizing undercuts arguments that mental simulation inevitably “collapses” into theorizing, and the prospects for simulation-theory hybrids are explored.Less
This chapter clarifies the notion of simulation and explores the relationship between simulating and theorizing. Generic simulation is the resemblance or imitation of one thing by another, so mental simulation is the resemblance or imitation of one mental process by another. For example, visual imagery may simulate vision by using much of the same neural machinery that vision uses. The main empirical question here is whether third-person mindreading is substantially based on attempts to simulate selected processes and states in the head of a target. The possibility of limited compatibility between simulation and theorizing undercuts arguments that mental simulation inevitably “collapses” into theorizing, and the prospects for simulation-theory hybrids are explored.
Janet Martin Soskice
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198269502
- eISBN:
- 9780191683657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269502.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Religion and Literature
This chapter introduces different metaphorical names for God in the Biblical literature and highlights the anthromorphic titles among them. Biblical anthromorphic titles can be classified into three ...
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This chapter introduces different metaphorical names for God in the Biblical literature and highlights the anthromorphic titles among them. Biblical anthromorphic titles can be classified into three registers: those appropriate to offices of governance, such as God is Lord, King, and Judge; those related to offices of service, in which God is Shepherd, Watchman, or Servant; and those representing offices of love — Father, Brother, or Son. It examines kinship imagery and kinship titles in the Bible. The chapter argues that the spirit of from in the anthropology of the early fathers was constrained by particular notions of human perfection. It concludes that metaphors of kinship open up an eschatological anthropology wherein a person's constant becoming is the way of being children of God.Less
This chapter introduces different metaphorical names for God in the Biblical literature and highlights the anthromorphic titles among them. Biblical anthromorphic titles can be classified into three registers: those appropriate to offices of governance, such as God is Lord, King, and Judge; those related to offices of service, in which God is Shepherd, Watchman, or Servant; and those representing offices of love — Father, Brother, or Son. It examines kinship imagery and kinship titles in the Bible. The chapter argues that the spirit of from in the anthropology of the early fathers was constrained by particular notions of human perfection. It concludes that metaphors of kinship open up an eschatological anthropology wherein a person's constant becoming is the way of being children of God.
Peter Carruthers
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199207077
- eISBN:
- 9780191708909
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207077.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter argues that all creative thought ultimately reduces to creative action. On this account, action schemata are activated creatively and rehearsed, issuing in globally broadcast imagery ...
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This chapter argues that all creative thought ultimately reduces to creative action. On this account, action schemata are activated creatively and rehearsed, issuing in globally broadcast imagery (including inner speech). It is argued that the proper function of childhood pretend play is to practice creative supposition, and the absence of pretence in autism as a test case is examined. The chapter closes with some discussion of creative hypothesis generation and creative language use in adulthood.Less
This chapter argues that all creative thought ultimately reduces to creative action. On this account, action schemata are activated creatively and rehearsed, issuing in globally broadcast imagery (including inner speech). It is argued that the proper function of childhood pretend play is to practice creative supposition, and the absence of pretence in autism as a test case is examined. The chapter closes with some discussion of creative hypothesis generation and creative language use in adulthood.
Richard L. Zettler
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263907
- eISBN:
- 9780191734687
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263907.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter examines the evolution of seal imagery and sealing practices in southern Mesopotamia during the latter half of the third millennium BCE or the late Early Dynastic period and succeeding ...
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This chapter examines the evolution of seal imagery and sealing practices in southern Mesopotamia during the latter half of the third millennium BCE or the late Early Dynastic period and succeeding Dynasty of Agade and Third Dynasty of Ur. It describes changes in glyptic imagery as well as sealing practices and elucidates the timing of those changes. It concludes that seal imagery and sealing practices were not static, but evolved over the course of the late third millennium and that the introduction of new imagery and changing administrative practices were gradual and seemingly lagged decades behind dynastic change.Less
This chapter examines the evolution of seal imagery and sealing practices in southern Mesopotamia during the latter half of the third millennium BCE or the late Early Dynastic period and succeeding Dynasty of Agade and Third Dynasty of Ur. It describes changes in glyptic imagery as well as sealing practices and elucidates the timing of those changes. It concludes that seal imagery and sealing practices were not static, but evolved over the course of the late third millennium and that the introduction of new imagery and changing administrative practices were gradual and seemingly lagged decades behind dynastic change.
Christopher Gauker
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199599462
- eISBN:
- 9780191729225
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199599462.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind
At least since Locke, philosophers and psychologists have usually held that concepts arise out of sensory perceptions, thoughts are built from concepts, and language enables speakers to convey their ...
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At least since Locke, philosophers and psychologists have usually held that concepts arise out of sensory perceptions, thoughts are built from concepts, and language enables speakers to convey their thoughts to hearers. This book holds that this tradition is mistaken about both concepts and language. The mind cannot abstract the building blocks of thoughts from perceptual representations. More generally, we have no account of the origin of concepts that grants them the requisite independence from language. The book's alternative is to show that much of cognition consists in thinking by means of mental imagery, without the help of concepts, and that language is a tool by which interlocutors coordinate their actions in pursuit of shared goals. Imagistic cognition supports the acquisition and use of this tool, and when the use of this tool is internalized, it becomes the very medium of conceptual thought.Less
At least since Locke, philosophers and psychologists have usually held that concepts arise out of sensory perceptions, thoughts are built from concepts, and language enables speakers to convey their thoughts to hearers. This book holds that this tradition is mistaken about both concepts and language. The mind cannot abstract the building blocks of thoughts from perceptual representations. More generally, we have no account of the origin of concepts that grants them the requisite independence from language. The book's alternative is to show that much of cognition consists in thinking by means of mental imagery, without the help of concepts, and that language is a tool by which interlocutors coordinate their actions in pursuit of shared goals. Imagistic cognition supports the acquisition and use of this tool, and when the use of this tool is internalized, it becomes the very medium of conceptual thought.
