In this paper, I attempt a comparison between the sacred significance of fat and honey in the myths and rituals of the San peoples of southern Africa and the ancient Greeks. As Biesele (1993) and ...Lewis-Williams (2015) have convincingly demonstrated, the creation narratives of the diverse linguistic groups which constitute the /Xam (San) peoples of southern Africa, arguably the first peoples to call this country ‘home’, reveal strong links between the gathering and possession of animal fat and honey, and access to spiritual power. In ancient Greek mythology, as is well known from Callimachus and many later texts (e.g., Apollodorus and Nonnus), the infant Zeus was fed on honey by the bee-woman, Melissa. Many fundamental rites in ancient Greek religion, as reflected in texts from Homer onwards—libations, some sacrifices, ritual offerings such as the ‘panspermia’, and funerary rites—all provide evidence of the Greek belief in the spiritual potency of fat and honey. I thus analyse the similarities and differences between the significance of the fat-honey nexus in these two religious traditions and reflect on cross-cultural comparisons, their history, and their purpose in contemporary South Africa.
Abstract
This paper argues for the value of the ‘strange’ as a hermeneutical tool to open fresh perspectives on an issue of widespread human concern, specifically how to deal with and relate to the ...dead. Traditional Chinese folk religion and the animistic ghost culture found within it is introduced and the role of gods, ancestors, and ghosts explained. The view that death is not the end of life but the transition to a new relationship with the living raises questions about our potential obligations to the dead. It also has implications for our thinking about intergenerational justice and the role of our memory of the past in shaping our present and future experience.
Traditional fishermen in the North Coast of Central Java commonly have a simple life economically, and their income is sometimes sufficient only for fulfilling their very basic needs, especially ...food. However, their social life and environment are worth appreciating. The tough life in the sea has taught them how to behave with others. They believe that the sea is inhabited by many supernatural creatures, and so they have to avoid doing improper behavior as reflected in seafaring myths. This paper aims to discuss the kinds of seafaring myths related to forbidden acts among fishermen in the North Coast of Central Java, and the factors causing their belief of the myths. In this case, an eco-linguistics perspective is used to uncover the phenomena of the seafaring myths. This study used the data taken from interviewing fishermen, randomly chosen as the informants, who live in fishing areas in Semarang, Kendal, and Demak. The result of the study shows that seafaring myths still exist, and they are preserved because of the empirical facts they often experience when violating the myths. From an eco-linguistic perspective, the existence of the myths cannot be separated from biological, sociological, and ideological aspects of the fishermen.
An image in technicolor. Fifty years of wars in Vietnam 1940-1990 gives a broad and innovative interpretation of the history of Vietnam between 1940 and 1990. Black and white characterisations, ...one-sided interpretations and prevailing myths are debunked. Instead, a nuanced and multifaceted picture is given in which the United States is less prominent. History is not only written by the victors and, in this case too, the history of Vietnam during this period cannot be attributed solely to Ho Chi Minh and the success of the Communists in 1975. The internal losers, that is, the other political movements and their leaders, must also be given a crucial place in Vietnam’s history. For example, the civil wars that took place between 1940 and 1990 played an unmistakable role. The older, idealised image of North Vietnam is inaccurate. This country was a dictatorial and oppressive police state. After 1954, the North Vietnamese leaders were embroiled in a fierce power struggle and were largely responsible for the war in South Vietnam. The answer to the question of who the legitimate representatives of the Vietnamese nation were also requires a more balanced judgment of non-Communist politicians, such as Bao Dai, Ngo Dinh Diem and Nguyen Van Thieu. As for the role of international players, initially, it was the Cold War that determined the United States’ interference; later, it was American credibility. In the end, it was the support from China and the Soviet Union that was the deciding factor for North Vietnam’s victory. Important new perspectives are given on the role of minorities, the meaning of ‘a third way’, the devastating effects of the strategy, the role of women and girls, and the mental and cultural aspects of the wars.
Efforts to understand rape myth acceptance (RMA) as a cognitive framework in police, unifying key cognitive/attitudinal and demographic factors into one coherent model, are lacking. Using a ...cross-sectional survey design, predictors of RMA were assessed by linear hierarchical regression, including demographic (age, length of service, gender, experience of specialist rape investigation training) and attitudinal factors (hostility towards women, sexist attitudes, and explicit power/sex beliefs) among officers from a large U.K. police force (N = 912). The final model explained 44% of variance in RMA. Gender and previous specialist training significantly predicted RMA, but to a much lesser extent than attitudinal variables, which explain 42% of RMA variance. Only specialist rape investigation training remained significant when attitudinal variables were added. The greater contribution from attitudinal variables suggests that efforts to address RMA in officers must consider the broader attitudinal structures underpinning RMA. Findings highlight implications for evidence-based training for rape investigators.
This article discusses the question whether or not Cassirer's philosophical critique of technological use of myth in The Myth of the State implies a revision of his earlier conception and theory of ...myth as provided by The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. In the first part, Cassirer's early theory of myth is compared with other approaches of his time. It is claimed that Cassirer's early approach to myth has to be understood in terms of a transcendental philosophical approach. In consequence, myth is conceived as a form of cultural consciousness which is constituted by specific symbolic processes. In the second part, the theoretical assumptions underlying Cassirer's criticism of myth are discussed and compared with his earlier theory. It is argued that there is a strong conceptual and theoretical continuity between Cassirer's early views on myth as a symbolic form and his later critique of technological use of myth.
This article offers a general presentation of the myths and legends associated with the ancient Roman lighthouse of A Coruña (Spain) known as the Tower of Hercules. It reviews legends collected by ...Alfonso X in his History of Spain (the battle between Hercules and Geryon, or invasion of the Almujuces), as well as earlier versions of them, a number of traditions with similar characteristics, and other stories related to the monument, such as the Irish tradition of the Tower of Breogan or the Iberian tale of Trezenzonius.
This study uses in-depth interviews from journalists to examine gendered norms in newsrooms in South Africa and Nigeria. It incorporates the organizational and social system levels of gatekeeping to ...identify problematic work environments and influential cultural attitudes towards gender. Participants from both countries identified sexual abuse, sexual harassment, unfair job allocations, limited access to power, unfair pay, and overall unsafe work environments as significant problems. Nigerian participants stressed the influence of culture and religion, whereas South African participants also discussed race. Participants described varying degrees of organizational interventions and restitutions, but overall agreed organizations could do more. Cultural rape myths such as excusing the seriousness of sexual abuse, slut shaming, and victim blaming were more common with Nigerian participants. Solutions from participants mainly focused on promoting more women to managerial positions and newsroom training. However, many expressed the difficulties of eradicating sexism in journalism because of its pervasiveness in society.
Although the doctrine of creation from nothing may seem to instantiate a metaphysics of privation, in which the creature’s existence is ultimately one of humiliation, further reflection shows that ...this conclusion is not justified. For God to be over against the creature as an other who might threaten its autonomy in this way would imply a gap between God’s will and creaturely substance that is inconsistent with creation ex nihilo, according to which creatures are other than God, but God, as the exclusive ground of creaturely existence, is ‘Not other’ than they. This point disrupts the relationships of privation or dependence that mark inner‐worldly acts of creating. To be (always only partly) dependent on a created other is indeed to be revealed as less than sufficient unto oneself; but to be (wholly) dependent on the ‘Not other’ is to be fully sufficient to fulfil the promise of one’s existence.
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