Alternative Culture

ALTERNATIVE CULTURE NOW: THE POLITICS OF CULTURE AT THE PRESENT CONJUNCTURE

Call for Proposals:

‘Alternative Culture Now: The Politics of Culture at the Present Conjuncture’
Conference and Event
Budapest, Hungary
April 8-10, 2010

Proposal Deadline: January 25, 2010

How do things stand with respect to the fate of the alternative? Branded and normativized, incorporated into a whole ensemble of mainstream discourses, and no longer the threat it once posed to capitalist and communist states alike, the political and social force of the alternative seems to have faded away. And yet the dream of the alternative continues to inspire political and social movements, artists, theorists, and all kinds of creative practices. How might we begin to situate and think alternativity as a global phenomenon at this precise conjuncture in world history? What is alternative about culture today? And what might or can it become?

The alternative, of course, has always been phraseable in the singular and the plural. On the one hand, it is a phenomenon locked into local configurations, a multi-polar and non-totalizable practice of myriad deviation. Here, its ambit can be that of a family drama or workplace, a national concatenation, or the homogenizing logic of a dominant cultural medium or genre. The dreams it holds in reserve are vitally minor: the fissuring of a regime with a joke or dissidence, the freedom mobilized in small, almost imperceptible defections or reversals. The production of the alternative is in this sense the aggregate, spontaneous effort of innumerable cultural agents to resist every species of stasis and capture, every grammar and vernacular, every gestural hierarchy and total system.

At the same time, this molecular vision of the alternative, of a plurality of fissions and margins, has always been accompanied by attempts to think what it is in the tendency of a moment which suppresses cultural possibilities on a global level. This is a dream of a communication or inter-mediation between margins, a system of deviances which comprehensively address the conditions which negatively hypostatize the life of the virtual. Global patriarchy, violent state expansionisms, the inhibiting logics of capital, and the globalization of the English language can be envisioned as transnational, systematized normativities that threaten cultural specificity or possibility in a way that is never exhausted by its expression on the register of the local. Is there, in this sense, only one alternative: an alternative to which there is no alternative? This notion of a single alternative-a universal difference necessary to shelter the future lives of difference–immediately sets into motion its own paradoxical dialectics of alternativity, itself appearing to erase the thing it promises. How do we escape this vortex, or at least make its impasses productive?

Is one alternative more important than another? Can alternatives be exhausted or rendered obsolete? What kind of method could we develop to test the valences of alternatives? Can or should alternative culture polemically charge the space of its own marginality, or would this degenerate into an infinite sectarianism?

We understand “alternative culture” to include diverse forms of cultural expression and activity, which are connected by their shared goal of creating just, humane, and equitable human relations by means of their opposition to existing cultural, social, and political forms.

This conference encourages contributions from scholars, educators, artists, cultural workers, policy makers, journalists, and others involved in alternative culture and international cultural policies. We are especially interested in contributions addressing alternative culture in Central/Eastern Europe and countries/regions of the former Soviet Union.

Areas of inquiry for submissions may include, but are not limited to, the following general topics in relation to the politics of alternative culture today:

Aesthetics – Collectivity – post-Communist Culture – Creativity – Cultural Studies – Eastern Europe – Geography -Globalization – Higher Education – Media – Memory/Nostalgia – Music – New Media – ex-Socialist History – ex-Soviet Urban Spaces – Visual Culture

The “Alternative Culture Now: The Politics of Culture at the Present Conjuncture” conference will take place at the OSA Archivum in Budapest, Hungary, April 8-10, 2010. It is organized and sponsored by the International Alternative Culture Center, with the support of the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology (Central European University) and the Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies (University of Alberta). The conference format will be diverse, including paper presentations, panels, round-table exchanges, artistic performances, and exhibitions. We encourage individual and collaborative paper and panel proposals from across the disciplines and from artists and community members.

Paper Submissions should include: (1) contact information; (2) a 300-500 word abstract; and (3) a one page curriculum vitae or a brief bio.

Panel Proposals should include: (1) a cover sheet with contact information for chair and each panelist; (2) a one-page rationale explaining the relevance of the panel to the theme of the conference; (3) a 300 word abstract for each proposed paper; and (4) a one page curriculum vitae for each presenter.

Please submit individual paper proposals or full panel proposals via e-mail attachment by January 25, 2010 to 
alternativeculturenow@gmail.com with the subject line “Alternative Culture Now.” Attachments should be in .doc or .rtf formats. Submissions should be one document (i.e. include all required information in one attached document).

Website: http://www.alternativeculture.org

Conference Organizing Team: Sarah Blacker (University of Alberta, Canada), Jessie Labov (Ohio State, USA), Andrew Pendakis (University of Bonn, Germany), Justin Sully (McMaster University, Canada), Imre Szeman (University of Alberta, Canada), Maria Whiteman (University of Alberta, Canada), and Olga Zaslavskaya (OSA, Hungary)

Sarah Blacker
Department of English and Film Studies
3-5 Humanities Centre
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
T6G 2E5

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Health

HEALTH, EMBODIMENT AND VISUAL CULTURE: ENGAGING PUBLICS AND PEDAGOGIES

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Conference: “Health, Embodiment, and Visual Culture: Engaging Publics and Pedagogies”

November 19-20, 2010
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Conference Co-Chairs:
Sarah Brophy, Associate Professor, Department of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University
Janice Hladki, Associate Professor, School of the Arts, McMaster University

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: January 15, 2010

CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION:
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore how visual cultural practices image and imagine unruly bodies and, in so doing, respond to Patricia Zimmermann’s call for “radical media democracies that animate contentious public spheres” (2000, p. xx). Our aim is to explore how health, disability, and the body are theorized, materialized, and politicized in forms of visual culture including photography, video art, graphic memoir, film, body art and performance, and digital media. Accordingly, we invite proposals for individual papers and roundtables that consider how contemporary visual culture makes bodies political in ways that matter for the future of democracy. Proposals may draw on fields such as: visual culture, critical theory, disability studies, health studies, science studies, autobiography studies, indigenous studies, feminisms, queer studies, and globalization/transnationalism.

CONFERENCE EVENTS:
Confirmed Keynote Speakers:
*Rebecca Belmore,* internationally recognized Anishinabekwe artist, Vancouver (exhibitions of her performance, video, installation, and sculpture include: Venice Biennale, Sydney Biennale, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Art Gallery of Ontario, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts);
*Lisa Cartwright,* Professor of Communication and Science Studies and Affiliated Faculty in Gender Studies, Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego (/Screening the Body: Tracing Medicine’s Visual Culture/; /Moral Spectatorship: Technologies of Voice and Affect in Postwar Representations of the Child/)
*Robert McRuer,* Professor and Deputy Chair, Department of English, George Washington University, Washington, DC (/Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability/; /The Queer Renaissance: Contemporary American Literature and the Reinvention of Lesbian and Gay Identities/);
*Ato Quayson,* Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto (/Aesthetic Nervousness: Disability and the Crisis of Representation/; /Relocating Postcolonialism/).

The conference will also feature /Scrapes: Unruly Embodiments in Video Art,/ an exhibition curated by Sarah Brophy and Janice Hladki, at the McMaster Museum of Art.

POSSIBLE THEMATICS:

1. Technologies
– medical technologies (e.g. medical imaging, drug therapies, prosthetics and other devices) and their implications for embodiment, subjectivity, community, kinship, and politics
– corporeality and the senses as sites/forms of knowledge-making
– biopolitics and surveillance
– the relationship between “old” and “new” technologies
– how technologies mediate social spaces of embodiment and interaction
– interrogations of the human and posthuman in medicine, science, and art

2. Cultural Production
– cultural pedagogy; the production of knowledge in sites of cultural production (e.g. galleries, festivals, classrooms, online, etc.)
– counter-publics (e.g. disability culture)
– indigenous modes of cultural production
– diasporic/transnational issues and practices
– new representational modes (e.g. digital arts, graphic memoir)
– documentary practices
– “doing politics in art” (Bennett)

3. Disability
– medical, scientific, and cultural discourses of disability
– performing and witnessing embodied difference
– interrogations of impairment
– genetics, reproduction, eugenics
– dis-ease and disorder
– “ability trouble” (McRuer)
– “radical crip images” (McRuer)

4. Affect
– explorations of “ugly feelings” (Ngai), “aesthetic nervousness” (Quayson), “moral spectatorship” (Cartwright), “empathic vision” (Bennett), and “seeing for” (Bal)
– relationships to medicalization, regulation, and surveillance
– affect as generative/productive in relation to concepts of ethical spectatorship and witnessing
– relationships between corporeality and theorizations of nature as dynamic and agentic (Barad, Grosz, Haraway)
– can we/should we move beyond the theories that posit /negative/ affect as a prime site for ethics?
– affect and global politics: representations of global mobilities, violence, war, terrorism

HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL:
We kindly invite submissions from scholars, artists, health professionals, community members, and activists in all areas and disciplines. Concurrent sessions will be 90 minutes in length. Proposals for the following formats will be considered:
1) Individual papers: 15 minutes in length
2) Roundtables: 4-5 participants, including a designated moderator and a plan for facilitated discussion of ideas
All submissions will be peer-reviewed.

Individual paper submissions should include:
1) affiliation and contact information
2) a biographical note of up to 200 words
3) paper title and a 300-500 word abstract; the description of the paper’s content should be as specific as possible and indicate relevance to one or more of the conference thematics.
4) Details of audiovisual needs (e.g. DVD, LCD projection, and/or VH S). Note that participants will need to bring their own laptops.

Roundtable submissions should include:
1) affiliation and contact information for each participant
2) a biographical note of up to 200 words for each participant
3) roundtable title and a 500 word proposal. The proposal should both indicate the relevance of the roundtable to one or more of the conference thematics and outline the organization of the proposed discussion.
4) details of audiovisual needs (e.g. DVD, LCD projection, and/or VHS). Note that participants will need to bring their own laptops.

All submissions should be sent via email attachment to
viscult@mcmaster.ca <mailto:viscult@mcmaster.ca> by January 15, 2010.
Please use the subject line “Proposal for Health, Embodiment, and Visual Culture.” Attachments should be in .doc or .rtf formats.

If electronic submission is not possible, please mail or fax proposals to arrive by January 15, 2010.
Address: Sarah Brophy & Janice Hladki: Health, Embodiment, and Visual Culture Conference
c/o Department of English & Cultural Studies
Chester New Hall 321
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4L9
Fax: 905-777-8316

ACCESSIBILITY:
Presenters are encouraged to explore ways to make physical, sensory, and intellectual access a fundamental part of their presentation. Suggestions include: large print (18 point font) copies of handouts, large-print copies of paper or panel outlines, and/or audio descriptions of any film or video clips and images. Presenters are also encouraged to consider open or closed captioning of films and video clips.

POST-CONFERENCE PUBLICATION PLANS:
Papers from the conference will be considered for a special issue of /The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies/.

CONFERENCE SPONSORSHIP:
Sponsored by the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario (John Douglas Taylor Fund).

Sarah Brophy
Associate Professor
Department of English and Cultural Studies
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
L8S 4L9
brophys@mcmaster.ca

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Temple University Press publicist Gary Kramer describes his experiences at a cumbia sonidero event he attended with Música Norteña author Cathy Ragland in Mexico City.

Last week I attended the Society for Ethnomusicology conference in Mexico City on behalf of Temple University Press. The conference exhibition helped Temple University Press promote the recent Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant (awarded to Indiana University Press and Kent State University Press as well) to develop and publish ethnomusicology multimedia.

There was considerable scholarly interest in our books and ethnomusicology multimedia at the conference. However, my ethnomusicological education came from an experience I shared with Temple University Press author Cathy Ragland (Música Norteña). Cathy invited me to a cumbia sonidero DJ event, held in a big warehouse-sized space in a neighborhood far from the conference hotel.

Even the cab ride to the site was exciting. A driver pulled up in an old, beat-up VW bug with the front passenger seat missing. We got in and Cathy tried to explain where we were going. I admired the Day of the Dead skeleton that hung from his windshield. (The skeleton “chattered” when the driver pulled its string, which he did for our amusement at every opportunity.) As we crawled through traffic, the cab driver would stop to spit or buy loose cigarettes from men in the street.

The event was held in this huge space—a warehouse for cabs, I understand. When we arrived, the ticket takers patted us down twice(!)—for weapons, I suspect. They didn’t charge us—perhaps because we were two of the three gringos at the event. Cathy later explained that the organizer was told to keep an eye out for us.

The space had a row of bright rod-like lights against one wall that flashed while the first DJ spun the music—which featured conga (drums), keyboards, guitar, and other instruments. Another wall had a huge sign where many folks (including us) took photos. We heard four DJs spin during the two hours we were there, and peering into their CD racks, I spied everything from Mexican musicians to Depeche Mode.

Many of the attendees wrote dedications on sheets of paper that they hoped the DJs would read as the music played. The facial expressions of some of the guys trying to get their messages read showed how meaningful these events were to them. It was often quite difficult to hear the actual music over the constant announcements, and the volume was extremely loud. (Cathy regretted she’d not brought earplugs, as I did the next day, when the hearing in my left ear wasn’t so good.)

As we got our bearings amid the lights, the noise, and the smoke—cigarettes were plentiful, infusing the air and our clothes with a pungent odor—men and women started salsa dancing all around us. At times, many dancers were encircled by a modest crowd, and they were the best performers to watch; they moved gracefully and fluidly to the music—it was simply hypnotizing. I wanted to dance, and although Cathy egged me on to ask a peroxide blonde in skin-tight pants to salsa, she was a bit intimidating for a non-pro like me. I did eventually line dance with two guys because I felt I could actually follow the moves. (I didn’t do so well, but at least I can say I dance, or tried to salsa).

Part of the allure was seeing the people—a diverse mix of working-class Mexicans in all their fabulousness. Guys dressed to the nines in suits and sport jackets, or sported only T-shirts and ripped jeans. Some women were heavily made-up and bejeweled while others sported bad dye jobs, overly tight clothes, or “chic” body-hugging sweat suits. The coolness of these individuals, all of whom glistened with perspiration was palpable.

What I most admired from what I observed was how everyone got along and, like us, was there to have fun. Men danced with women and then switched partners; men danced with men and women with women. The attendees ranged from teenagers to middle aged couples. One older gentleman, who was quite drunk, asked Cathy and me what we thought of the event, and if it was like anything we’d ever attended before. It wasn’t, I replied. When he put his hand on my shoulder to talk, the pure heat from it burned under my shirt.

At one point, we went over to one of the refreshment stands to get a drink. I ordered a Coke, and the server wiped it down with a dirty rag that prompted me to pour the contents of the can into a huge paper cup. The power from all of the music/sound made my cup vibrate in my hand. My throat soon vibrated too. But I found this exciting. The sensation mirrored my excitement.

As the event continued, I wandered around and found some promotional materials—the publicist in me never rests. I took some promotional flyers and a huge colorful poster for the next event. The poster is now hanging in my office, a souvenir from a memorable, musical night in Mexico.

Do you already have a dissertation subject, Kara? Because this video basically distills everything about 90s feminism, from the male gaze to symbols of aggression to whether or not Bettie Page was in fact an icon of oppression or of liberation. Also, wow do the two of them look hot.

Cultural imperialism rests on the power to universalize particularisms linked to a singular historical tradition by causing them to be misrecognized as such. (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1999, p. 41)

If the social sciences are Eurocentric, does this also mean that they are imperialist?

Where Immanuel Wallerstein finds liberalism as the underpinning of the geoculture of the capitalist world-system, rooted in Eurocentrism, Bourdieu and Wacquant (1999) find their counterparts in the hegemonic theories current in academia. They speak of commonplace notions and theses with which one thinks, but about which one does not think (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1999, p. 41). And why not?

these presuppositions of discussion which remain undiscussed, owe much of their power to convince to the fact that, circulating from academic conferences to bestselling books, from semi-scholarly journals to expert’s evaluations, from commission reports to magazine covers, they are present everywhere simultaneously, from Berlin to Tokyo and from Milan to Mexico, and are powerfully supported and relayed by those allegedly neutral channels that are international organizations…and public policy think tanks. (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1999, p. 41)

The work of “theorization” not only abets but furthers the universalization of certain texts, while obscuring their historical origins. Bourdieu and Wacquant are here essentially in agreement with what Wallerstein argued in terms of the Eurocentrism of the social sciences, taking it deeper and linking it to a form of epistemic colonialism. As they explain it,

these commonplaces of the great new global vulgate that endless media repetition progressively transforms into universal common sense manage in the end to make one forget that they have their roots in the complex and controversial realities of a particular historical society, now tacitly constituted as model for every other and as yardstick for all things. (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1999, p. 42)

It’s not just the theories, or philosophical fashions that are globalized, as the origins of these are fairly easy to spot. Instead, what Bourdieu and Wacquant note really escapes scrutiny is the sudden, apparent globalization of seemingly technical terms and single concepts such as “multiculturalism.” We all end up on the same page either way, speaking an international lingua franca that is historically and ideologically situated within the authorized mindsets of a dominant world power (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1999, pp. 43-44). Here they move us from Eurocentrism to its more contemporary and specifically American variant.

The American Mecca (“By the way, will you be in Philadelphia?”)

Innocently and just out of curiosity, I was asked by a colleague if I would be in Philadelphia. I asked in return: “Why? What’s in Philadelphia that should interest me?” Of course my colleague was simply referring to the upcoming annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, when whole departments in Canada lose their faculty to this annual pilgrimage to the centre of anthropological power, to catch some of the light of the American luminaries, and (unintentionally?) massaging the ego of the monster. When I try to reverse the question, for fun, with American colleagues – “Will you be at CASCA this year?” – I get mild expressions of surprise at the question. We all travel to the AAA, it’s the centre; we don’t all go to CASCA, it’s the periphery. If one does not see the geoculture of the world-system at work in the political economy of academia, then one is just not looking.

Turning their attention specifically to the United States, and dominant theories there for discussing race and ethnicity, Bourdieu and Wacquant find the emergence of a globalized sociological orthodoxy, “one of the most striking proofs of the symbolic dominion and influence exercised by the USA over every kind of scholarly and, especially, semi-scholarly production, notably through the power of consecration they possess and through the material and symbolic profits that researchers in the dominated countries reap from a more or less assumed or ashamed adherence to the model derived from the USA” (1999, pp. 45-46). Where Wallerstein spoke of the original Eurocentrism of the social sciences, Bourdieu and Wacquant find this has particularly developed into contemporary Americanization, the Americanization of the Western world, and the Americanization of the universal. The products of American research, they say (quoting Thomas Bender), acquire “‘an international stature and a power of attraction’ comparable with those of ‘American cinema, pop music, computer software and basketball’” (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1999, p. 46). If the analysis of this as a simplistic form of imperialism, of violent imposition, does not work, it does not mean that a more subtle, more “collaborative” form of imperialism is not at work:

Symbolic violence is indeed never wielded but with a form of (extorted) complicity on the part of those who submit to it: the ‘globalization’ of the themes of American social doxa, or of its more or less sublimated transcription in semi-scholarly discourse, would not be possible without the collaboration, conscious or unconscious, directly or indirectly interested, of all the passeurs, ‘carriers’ and importers of designer or counterfeit cultural products (publishers, directors of cultural institutions such as museums, operas, galleries, journals, etc.) who, in the country itself or in target countries, propound and propagate, often in good faith, American cultural products, and all the American cultural authorities which, without being explicitly concerted, accompany, orchestrate and sometimes even organize the process of collective conversion to the new symbolic Mecca. (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1999, p. 46)

However, that is not sufficient for explaining the domination of American academic research products. What we need to pay attention to, Bourdieu and Wacquant argue, is the role of research granting agencies and philanthropic foundations, such as the Rockefeller Foundation (1999, p. 46). We could go further and point to a bevy of other granting foundations, from the Ford Foundation, to the Fullbright Scholar Program, and Wenner-Gren, all of which could be seen as performing the academic equivalent of the U.S. military’s former School of the Americas (known now as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). Aside from these foundations, internationally scholarly publishing tends to reinforce the conceptual priorities of the dominant (Anglo-)American centre, and here Bourdieu and Wacquant single out Basil Blackwell in particular, for imposing titles that are more in accord with “planetary common sense” (such as the existence of an “underclass”), even with texts that not only debunk the concept, but whose authors and editors vigorously protest the imposition. Similarly, though “cultural studies” does not exist as an entity in French universities, this did not stop Routledge from publishing a compendium on French Cultural Studies (1999, p. 47).

Back to Anthropology and Imperialism

As has been set forth so far, the imperialism of anthropology is not simply based on the role of anthropologists in the service of this or that colonial administration. If that was the mere extent of the relationship, then that would be good news. Instead the relationship goes much deeper, one that is more structural, and less a collection of individual tales from the field. Anthropology was born in the Western world and institutionalized in a specific manner, in particular universities, at a critical point in capitalist world history. Interestingly, for those who study imperialism in the media, and the rise of visual anthropology, this was the same period that marked, as Shohat and Stam (2002, p. 117) put it, “the giddy heights of the imperial project, with an epoch where Europe held sway over vast tracts of alien territory and hosts of subjugated peoples.” Like cinema, institutionalized anthropology also emerged at the end of the 1800s, as the U.S. conquered the Philippines in a bloody war that some say killed at least 200,000 people in outright fighting, and as many 1.5 million people in the first four years of occupation; born around the same time as the American massacre of the Sioux at Wounded Knee in 1890; at roughly the same time as the 1884 Berlin Conference, when European powers agreed on the division of Africa into colonial possessions; again, in the same period as the British occupation of Egypt in 1882, and the Battle of Rorke’s Drift between the British and Zulus in 1879. The leading cinema-producing countries, were also the leading imperialist countries, and the leading seats of anthropology: Britain, France, Germany, and the U.S. Imperialism provided the subject matter, the supporting structures, the dominant conceptual concerns, and the motive for anthropology.

Institutional anthropology has been located within one particular centre, specifically a North American and northwestern European one. In terms of the continued dominance of American anthropology in particular, one has to bear in mind the sheer quantitative dominance in terms of number of scholars, number of university departments, associations, conferences, journals and research funds, a dominance that is so massive in quantitative terms that it acquires a qualitative value.

The very fact of “world anthropologies” makes reference to this domination, and is supposedly, presumably, an answer to it. More on that in later posts.

References:

Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loïc Wacquant. 1999. “On the Cunning of Imperialist Reason.” Theory, Culture & Society 16 (1): 41-58.

Shohat, Ella, and Robert Stam. 2002. “The Imperial Imaginary.” In Kelly Askew and Richard R. Wilk, editors, The Anthropology of Media: A Reader, pp. 117-147. Oxford: Blackwell.

What do you see in this photograph? If you’re a fan of AMC’s period piece hit “Mad Men” you might recognize Don Draper and his wife Betty out for an evening of dinner and dancing. But you don’t have to be a fan of the show to look at this photograph and take in the dense layers of meaning and exquisite constructedness of this scene. This is more than a man and wife at dinner, it’s a picture of a vibrant culture in progress. Take some time to study this picture. Everything in this frame is loaded with connotation, a plethora of cultural information coded into visual symbols. This is the true genius at the crux of “Mad Men’s” high brow appeal – it takes us back to a culture that valued and communicated with these symbols. A pre-post-modern culture where signifiers had a clear association to signified. A culture of meaning.

In many ways “Mad Men” traces the fall of this perfectly constructed 1950’s society, reminding us as it nostalgizes that this straight-jacket society was far from perfect. “Mad Men” never forgets to show us that this culture was socially and behaviorally homogenized, racist, sexist, and severely limited opportunity for many. But it was something. A shared something hanging over everything, inflecting life by its mere presence, inescapably shaping you by your relationship to it. It was constructed and agreed upon and provided a stable narrative and worldview based on shared mythologies, dreams, and values.

And in the midst of our aggressively egalitarian politically correct efforts to erase society as our grandparents knew it, people are finding that they miss something about the good old days. The sophistication of a man in a suit and top hat, the elegance of a lady in an evening gown, the chivalry of a traditional date. The cultural codes that shaped our world for so long have been replaced by a one-size fits all code of jeans and whatever-you-want. A deconstructed, post-modern, supply-your-own meaning culture.

And it works. To an extent. Because it offers people ample freedom to do their own thing. But people are finding that they miss some of the benefits of construction. We are living in an age of overwhelming and disorienting freedom. Freedom is a great thing, but like music without measures there comes a point when the absence of structure leads to the dissolution of meaning. Music becomes noise.

And as a society we’re getting tired of the noise. Young people shaping culture today are making important efforts to bring back rhythm and meter from the void. Costumes, customs, ways of standing and moving and speaking, a return of construction is in progress all around us. In entertainment the recent popularity of pageantry flaunting shows like “Gossip Girl” and “Mad Men” remind us of the good and bad sides of construction. But there’s no denying there is a fascination with these shows, in large part because the worlds they take us into are heavily constructed and an appealing fantasy in a time when no such layers exist in most of our everyday lives.

I see this fascination as the early stages of a movement to re-embrace the construction of society, one that will hopefully learn from the mistakes of cultures past, respecting the importance of freedom and individual choice while steering away from the dangers of mindless, culture-less, Wal-Mart shopping sweat-pants wearing apathy.

Venerdì sarò impegnato nel convegno  Le reti socievoli. Fare ricerca nel/sul web sociale.

La mattina durante la plenaria terrò una relazione dal titolo “Connessi in pubblico. Forme e pratiche della socievolezza in Rete”. Dentro la dimensione conversazionale, che è costitutiva del web sociale, le dinamiche della socievolezza sono esaltate attraverso forme espressive diverse: opinioni e giudizi, analisi ed illusioni, frustrazioni e speranze, fantasie ed esperienze. Tra flirting e flaming, tra disinibizione e sovraesposizione. Si tratta di forme costitutive dello stato di connessione che caratterizza le nostre vite. Ma anche una forma che rappresenta la base per la costruzione di una nuova “semantica” della società in Rete.

Nel pomeriggio seguirò i workshop. Ho lavorato – con altri – alla selezione dei molti paper proposti e credo che in questi si possa trovare uno spaccato delle metodologie di ricerca sul web sociale che la sociologia oggi affronta.

È un’occasione anche per discutere in pubblico del libro scritto con i colleghi del LaRiCA :“Network effect. Quando la rete diventa pop” (Codice Editore).

Il mio saggio ha come titolo “SuperNetwork. Vite connesse e culture partecipative” e cerca di porre alcune domande (e tentare delle risposte):

Cosa accade nel momento in cui milioni di persone nel mondo non sono più semplicemente pubblico di massa, non sono più semplicemente connesse attorno a comunicazioni di massa secondo un principio “gravitazionale” – come il pulviscolo attorno ad un pianeta la cui unica relazione è la condivisione di un’orbita – ma possono produrre connessioni “di massa” tra loro, con e attraverso contenuti che imparano non solo a fruire ma a produrre?

Qual è la natura delle vite quando sono connesse in pubblico attraverso siti di social network che ne raccontano dettagli privati, quando vengono condivisi con un pubblico potenzialmente di massa pensieri e rapporti, quando le discussioni coinvolgono persone che non conosci – in senso tradizionale – ma con cui sei più che in semplice contatto?

Cosa accade quando la consapevolezza di questo stato di connessione delle vite aumenta ed è capace di realizzare nuove concretezze nell’immateriale?

Quello che si sta creando è un nuovo senso della posizione nella comunicazione per gli individui. E questo alimenta la mutazione che vedo attorno a me.



Diese essentialistische Frage bot sich mir gestern Nachmittag geradezu aufdrängend an, während ich einen Kaffee in einem Fast-Food-Restaurant schlürfte. Eigentlich war ich gerade beim Auftakt des dritten Teils einer hardgeboilden Privatdetektivin in New Orleans, die gesellschaftsrelevante Fälle lösen muss, um a) ihre gefräßige Katze zu füttern und um sich b) nicht von ihren stinkreichen Freundin aushalten zu lassen. Konflikte, Skurilitäten vorprogrammiert – einfach Klasse. Doch der Versuch, beim Lesen den Zucker und die Milch in den Kaffee zu gießen, der scheiterte. Und mein Blick fiel auf einen Werbezettel auf dem mein Kaffee stand. Headline: „Für Männer und Alle, die einer werden woll(t)en“. Ich war interessiert. Zunächst überprüfte ich die Adressaten in besagtem Fast-Food-Restaurant. Eine ältere Frau, die ohne Brille eine Zeitung zu lesen versuchte, ein kräftigerer älterer Herr, der nach seinem Nachmittagsmahl seine Beine unter dem Tisch auszustrecken versuchte und zwei Teenager, die rot anliefen, während ich meine qualitative Zielgruppen-Stichprobe durchführte…

Also waren die Adressaten dieser wahrlich ausgeklügelten Lifestyle-Zielgruppen-Werbekampagne nicht vorhanden und ich befasste mich mit den größten Stereotypen dieses Erdballs, die ich auf diesem Werbezettel vorfand. In Anlehnung an Umerziehungslager für Menschen, die sich nicht innerhalb der heterosexuellen Matrix bewegen, kamen diese Sensationswerbestrategen, auf die grandiose Idee, Männer dazu zu bringen, endlich gegen ihre Verweichlichung in der Welt etwas zu unternehmen – in einer „vermännlichten Academy“ [der Werbeclou/Claim anscheinend] – natürlich. Denn es soll aus ihnen ja schließlich keine Sissy sondern ein Siegfried herauskommen, entnahm ich dem Werbezettel. Und so stellte ich mir die Frage: Wann ist ein Mann ein wirklicher Mann? Laut diesem Werbezettelchen: wenn er Fleisch isst (wäre ich in einem Fast-Food-Restaurant nie drauf gekommen), wenn er nicht lange im Bad braucht, wenn er keine Telenovelas schaut, keine Diskussionen (mit Frauen) führen will und einfach nicht so verweichlicht ist! Im Umkehrschluss bedeutet dies ja, dass Frauen die Weicheier der Nation sind, grundsätzlich zu Dauervegetariern avancieren (essen eh nur Salat), im Bad Stunden brauchen, natürlich alles diskutieren müssen, vor allem ihre Dauer-Telenovela. Was passiert also, wenn Frau auch Fleisch isst, keine Telenovelas schaut, im Karatekurs kurz vor dem schwarzen Gürtel steht, Diskussionen eher mässig interessant findet, keine Schminke sondern nur Deo im Bad benutzt und überhaupt so was von cool ist, um bspw. auch einen Burger zu grillen? Dann wäre sie doch ein Mann? Oder sagen dann alle, kann sie ja gar nicht, weil sie doch eine Frau ist? Was ist dann eine Frau oder ein Mann? Ich konnte die Frage nicht beantworten, ohne in den Kreis der Stereotypen einzutreten und ende zum einen mit Derridas großer Erkenntnis: „Es gibt keine Natur, nur die Effekte von Natur: Entnaturalisierung oder Naturalisierung.“ Und zum anderen mit Herbert Grönemeyers Versuch den popkulturellen Rahmen für die Männerdefinition abzustecken:

Reprinted from: http://www.nzherald.co.nz

The man who drove his car through glass doors at the Inland Revenue Department building in Christchurch says he warned the department about terrorism but it had no security measures in place.

David Jerrold Theobald, 47, of St Albans, pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court today to charges of intentional damage and reckless driving.

He had worked at the Inland Revenue for 25 years and has said he had a long running employment dispute with the department.

In the summary of facts read to the court, Theobald told the police that he had warned the department about terrorism but they had no security measures there.

He drove his Mazda 626 through the foyer of the building in Cashel Street at 6.30am on a Saturday.

He crashed through two sets of glass doors and smashed a third.

Defence counsel Simon Clay asked Judge Stephen Erber to request a pre-sentence report for the November 17 sentencing.

Judge Erber ordered a reparation report and a pre-sentence report, and prohibited Theobald from driving while he was on bail.

- NZPA

Reprinted from: http://www.stuff.co.nz

A disgruntled Inland Revenue employee who quit spectacularly by driving his car through the doors of the tax department’s Christchurch building has been handed a hefty sentence of community work and ordered to pay $13,000 in reparations.

David Theobald, 48, took his dissatisfaction with his employer of 25 years straight to the front counter at 6.30am on August 15.

He crept his Mazda 626 up to the Inland Revenue building on Cashel St and, after making sure no staff were present, slowly drove through three sets of plate-glass doors causing more than $40,000 in damage.

Theobald, a long-time Christchurch musician whose stage name is Mick Elborado, admitted the crime, quipping to police when they arrived: “It’s OK officer, I work here.”

Photos of his exploits quickly emerged on the website of his band, The Axemen, and a Mick Elborado is Innocent page was set up on Facebook.

Theobald pleaded guilty and yesterday was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court by Judge Jane McMeeken.

Defence lawyer Simon Clay said Theobald’s actions were in the nature of a protest, the culmination of a conflict at work that had lasted for some time.

There was a medical background to the offending, he said.

Theobald had checked there was no risk to any staff and smashed the windows early on a Saturday. He had been “disarmingly frank” with police, admitting his crime at the first opportunity.

The judge wanted to know why Theobald, a worker for 25 years, had no assets and no savings to make reparations.

He said he spent his money on drinks for friends and “being generous”.

The judge said Theobald deliberately drove through plate-glass doors. His actions were completely inappropriate. “It’s one thing to protest, it’s quite another thing to deliberately and wantonly destroy property.”

The building’s owner, Rapaki Property Group, sought reparation of $27,000; Inland Revenue sought $14,500. The judge sentenced Theobald to 300 hours community work. Reparations of $8000 to Rapaki and $5000 to Inland Revenue were ordered at $20 per week from Theobald’s sickness benefit.

Axemen do TNV’s “Sick ‘n tyred” and their “Rocks In My Heart” tune done to death by Times Neu Vikin’ – wicked 7” (ONLY AVAILABLE AT GIGS) and a limited eedition of 350 discs – each one individually enhanced by the artist band members. Ultra collectable sh*t. Check out some evidence below. See you at the NY show.

Newell Rubbermaid's corporate self-image

One point the text makes, at least implicitly, is that there is a limit to how far the cultural studies and cultural apparatuses approaches can get on their own. Relations of production matter. They are involved in the determination of the specific content of culture, however much other factors also come into play. Whoever ignores them does so at the peril of terminal irrelevance. Whoever would be rolling up their sleeves and wading into the mess that is our form of life with the thought in mind of lending a hand to the cleaning up best be respecting them.

That’s no solution, but it does seem to be something to keep in mind in thinking about what the territory to be traveled on the way to one will surely look like.

I’m sure you’ve all heard the story of how the Irish became white, but have you heard the story of how our first black president became Irish?

• Josh McCabe

The Hi-Tone - Elvis's Dojo

Playing in Elvis’s old dojo was always gonna be a tall order. For a bunch of middle-class kiwis with a passion for rock’n'roll, Memphis is a trigger-word for what can be so right and also so wrong in the genre – the full spectrum of green lily-livered-nigger-music-lovin southern boy with just the right amount mixture of sass, sasparilla, and god-given ass and hips.

These coloureds don't run!

Thankfully it was an awesome gig and elvis even made an appearance and winked at me, he dug it i know…

He kissed me – and it felt like a punch….

Quote generator:

“i gotta say i was “

* shocked

* disgusted

* enthralled

* appalled

with your lastest show in the US.

I was expecting the unexpected, with the proviso that i was forewarned that the act was going to be unpredictable and the attitude factor would play a good part in what would eventuate into the axemen’s set, very much a reflection of the local conditions and atmosphere, once we can establish a base anywhere

don’t be cruel… to a heart thats true

When I told friends I was planning a trip to Iran to do a preliminary tour in preparation for a program I would lead in April for my Educational Travel Company, Integral Expeditions, I got some immediate and varied responses.

“Are you insane?”

“Can I buy you an insurance policy and put myself as beneficiary?”

“Hey that sounds exciting.”

It was as if Iran was some sort of personal or cultural Rorsach, unleashing peoples unconscious fears and dreams to be projected onto a nebulous canvas in the heart of the Middle East. It wasn’t surprising however, given the designation by President Bush of Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil”, the countries regular appearance on the front pages of our newspapers, being described as a primary threat to global security, and also our deep Orientalist fascination with this ancient culture. But as the stated mission of Integral Expeditions is to bring people out into the world, to meet others who might be different culturally yet bonded with us through our common humanity, Iran seemed a natural and logical place to explore.

When the plane landed at Imam Khomeini Airport, I must admit I felt some trepidation as all the women on the flight donned headscarves, the Hejab, in compliance with the laws of the Islamic Republic. There were conspicuously few foreigners on the KLM flight from Amsterdam, and as I disembarked, I felt hyper-aware that I had arrived in a very distant, foreign land. Trying to clear customs, I was delayed, having been shunted to another section of the airport for finger printing, a special requirement for Americans. Once through, I was met by my local guide Houman, and Assad, the owner of the agency that was hosting me. Finally, at 2 AM, we got into the car and took the thirty km ride into the city of Tehran. Dazed and disoriented by the twenty hours of travel, I collapsed into my bed at the Hotel Lalleh.

The next morning I awoke to a hazy light coming through my twelfth floor window and stumbled down to the breakfast buffet. I looked around the dining room. Mostly business men it appeared, a smattering of tourists, women all in Hejab or Chodor, the fuller, black fabric covering, indicating a more conservative Islam. I felt like a character in an old Graham Greene novel, the solitary traveler, exploring a “dark” world in some outpost beyond the edges of empire.

But that vision dissolved quickly as I stepped into the crisp sunshine of the Tehran morning. The streets were bustling, traffic humming in every direction. I looked up to see post-modern architecture reaching into a pure blue Iranian sky. The crowds were young, and beautiful, stylishly coiffed women and men, with perfect hair, impeccable make-up, and fabulous clothing. I even noticed great shoes beneath full Chodor. To my Western eye, it was a bit jarring, the modern and traditional, together in some sort of post fashion. But as I explored this modern city of 14 million with my guide, I marveled at its energy, its smooth running subway system and mad traffic, its shops of every sort, the green spaces dotted with public art, its ancient torquoise mosques, and the ever present faces of Ayatollah Khomeini, the “Father of the Revolution” and his current heir, Ayatollah Khamenei, staring watchfully from billboards high above. I felt a strange disconnect between the Iran described at home, and the streets I now walked down, an oddly felt break between external perceptions and internal realities.

Houman and I walked for hours, visiting the Carpet Museum, the old Tehran Bazaar, and finally ended up for dinner in Darband, at the northern edge of the city, in the mountains that stretch to the Caspian Sea, an area of traditional restaurants built around waterfalls and rushing streams. We reclined on a traditional Persian table, on soft rugs inside a tent that protected us from the early winter chill, drinking tea, eating kabobs, and smoking a hookah full of sweet apple tobacco.

We began to talk of the connections between Iran and “The West”. How it was Cyrus the Great who, 2500 years ago, after conquering Babylon, allowed the Jews to return to Israel to rebuild their destroyed Temple and that he had in fact, also been the first known ruler to issue a declaration of human rights. That of all the known works of Greek tragedy, the only one that refers to a non-Greek subject is Aeschylus’ play “The Persians”. That it is believed by many scholars that Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Iran, was the first great Monotheism and had a profound influence on the development of Judeo-Christianity. (After all, where were those “Kings from the East” coming from to congratulate Mary on the birth of her son, the Messiah?) And that it was in the great centers of learning in Persia that the works of Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates were preserved, while what was to become Europe descended into a long cultural darkness, and that this Eastern preservation and cultivation of that knowledge would ultimately contribute to the births of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution. Clearly, this part of the world played a powerful role in the shaping of Western consciousness and its philosophic discourse.

Houman asked me if this is what I thought Iran would be like. If it is what I had imagined. Sitting there, in the cool evening, reflecting on his questions and feeling the weariness of the long journey from West to East, my mind ran wild, flooded with a thousand images of my first day. What I knew for sure was that I was not insane and that I did not need a special insurance policy in case of my demise at the hands of some jihadis. In fact, the concerns of my worried friends back home highlighted why I was here. Why would they fear that to which we were so intimately connected? What was really at the root of our cultural perception of Iranian “otherness”? Why would they not want to explore the soil out of which our collective awareness had risen? The obvious answers seemed overly simplistic. I was now in a place so very different than my ordinary world, yet at the same time one that felt so familiar, a mysterious shadow of knowing that tugged like some lost memory. And there seemed no better place to begin the untangling of that mystery than by a waterfall on the rocky outskirts of Tehran.

DRAFT

It started with a metaphor: The El-Zekkum is a thorny tree which symbolizes a very severe punishment and bitter remorse for those who lack spiritual discernment. By deceiving themselves and choosing an unhealthy path, they prefer an illusion of reality— a tree whose fruit resembles the almond but is extremely bitter– to the delicious, merciful and spiritual food of Divine Reality.

So I tried to map the metaphor.

See My Google Map entitled Mapping Metaphors: Zeqqumhere. This map will be updated as I find new relevant links.

View Larger Map

Metaphor (metapherein Gr. meta: between phero:to bear) the description of one thing as something else, can be traced as far back as Ur. Since the 1960s and 1970s continental philosophers such as Derrida and Ricoeur have revisited the term.

A friend who has lived in Saudi Arabia has seen this plant which is also referred to in the Koran the as Tree of Zaqqum ( Surah 44 verse 43). And she found this photo of of a Zaqqum Tree in At Ta’if by Naseem Najd whose site includes great travel photos of Ta’if.

Then I found this photo of the similar Eltham Indian Fig, or Sweet Prickly Pear (Opuntia dillenii) with the fruits. Coastal semidesert altitude zone, Teno peninsula. North-west coast of the Tenerife Island, Canary Archipelago taken by Alexander Bogolyubov, January, 2008.

In wikipedia the reference claims that Zaqqum (Arabic: زقوم‎) is a tree that Muslims believe grows in Jahannam (hell). The Khati’un are compelled to eat Adh-Dhari, bitter fruit, to intensify their torment (Qur’an 69:36-37). The Khati’un may eat only the fruit or Ghislin (foul pus from the washing of their wounds) (Qur’an 69:36). Its fruits are shaped like devils’ heads (Qur’an 37:62-68). According to Shaykh Umar Sulayman Al-Ashqar, a professor at the University of Jordan, once the palate of the sinners is satiated, the fruit in their bellies churns like burning oil. Some Islamic scholars believe the fruit tears their bodies apart and releases bodily fluids. The Qur’an says: [44.43] Surely the tree of the Zaqqum, [44.44] Is the food of the sinful [44.45] Like dregs of oil; it shall boil in (their) bellies,
[44.46] Like the boiling of hot water.[1] The name zaqqum has been applied to the species Euphorbia abyssinica by the Beja people in eastern Sudan.[2] In Jordan, it is applied to the species Balanites aegyptiaca.[3]

“Is that better entertainment or the Tree of Zaqqum? For We have truly made it (as) a trial for the wrongdoers. For it is a tree that springs out of the bottom of Hellfire: The shoots of its fruit-stalks are like the heads of devils: Truly they will eat thereof and fill their bellies therewith. Then on top of that they will be given a mixture made of boiling water… (Surah Al-Saffat Those Ranged in Ranks Surah 37:Verse 62 – 67)”

“Verily the tree of Zaqqum will be the food of the sinful, -like molten brass; it will boil in their insides, like the boiling of scalding water. (Surah Al-Dukhan – Smoke – Surah 44:Verse 43 – 46)”

“Then will you truly, O you that go wrong, and treat (Truth) as falsehood! ‘You will surely taste of the Tree of Zaqqum. Then will you fill your insides there with. (Surah Al-Waqi’ah-The Inevitable Event-Surah 56:Verse 51 – 53)”

Zakkum is listed by L. J. Musselman (2003) in his publication entitled “Trees in the Koran and the Bible.” Of the 22 trees of the Bible, the date palm, fig, olive, pomegranate and tamarisk are also included in the Koran. Unique to the Koran are the talh (scholars are undecided as to whether this is the banana plant, which is not a tree, or a species of the widespread genus Acacia), the sidr (a thorn bush, probably Zizyphus spina-christi) and the mysterious and foul “tree of Hell”, or zaqqm (As-Saffat 37:65, Ad-Dukhn 44:49, Al-Waqi’a 56:51): “Is this not a better welcome than the zaqqm tree? We have made this tree a scourge for the unjust. It grows in the nethermost part of Hell, bearing fruit like devils’ heads: on it they shall feed, and with it they shall cram their bellies, together with draughts of scalding water. Then to Hell shall they return.” Musselman also noted that “Similarly, in eastern Sudan, the Beja people call the large, arborescent cactus Euphorbia abyssinica “zaqqm” after the tree of Hell mentioned in the Koran. It is unlikely that the conception of the zaqqm in the Koran was based on this succulent, since the zaqqm fruit was described as resembling a devil’s head, for instance. It is perhaps owing to its very bitter sap that Euphorbia abyssinica has been likened to the zaqqm.” He also added that, “In the Koran, trees are most frequently cited as gifts of a beneficent Creator, with the notable exception of the tree of Hell, zaqqm. In both scriptures, fruits from trees are highly valued (Musselman 2003:45-7) .”

Notes:

1. Jean Léonard, whose work (1981-1992) entitled “Contribution à l’étude de la flore et de la végétation des déserts d’Iran (Dasht-e-Kavir, Dasht-e-Lut, Jaz Murian)” was published by the Jardin Botanique National de Belgique (The National Botanic Garden of Belgium) may have insight into the plant referred to be .

2. maps work on the basis of a totalizing classification (Anderson 1991 [1983]).

3. In her book entitled Naming Nature: the Clash between Instinct and Science, (2009) biologist, science writer (New York Times, Science, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times Carol Kaesuk Yoon calls for a reclamation of the scientific field of taxonomy, the ordering and naming of things. As science educator-consultant (Cornell University, Microsoft) she encourages critical thinking in biology.

4. “O thou who art partaking of the Heavenly Food! Know thou verily the Divine Food is descending from heaven, but only those taste thereof who are directed to the light of guidance, and only those can enjoy it who are endowed with a sound taste. Otherwise every diseased soul disliketh the delicious and merciful food and this is because of the sickness which hath seized him, whereby the El-Zekkum [1] is sweet (to his taste) while he fleeth from the ripe fruit of the Tree of the Living and Pre-existent God — and there is no wonder in that. [1 El-Zekkum -- a thorny tree so called, which bears fruit like an almond, but extremely bitter. Therefore the tree symbolizes a very severe punishment and bitter remorse for the unbelievers.] In a similar way, thou beholdest some women who have abandoned the Testament, and to them the bitterness of discord is sweet. They keep aloof from the Extended Shadow and dwell under the shade of a “black smoke.” Alas for them and grief for them! They will surely lament and find themselves in loss. Verily, this is but an evident truth! (Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha v1, p. 130-1).

5. “Yet I had planted thee, a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?” Jeremiah 2:21. 21st Century King James Version. Try <a href="“>also

 ²¹Yet I had planted thee, a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?

6. For an image and botanical description of Euphorbia abyssinica [zaqqum]:“Montane vegetation of the Red Sea hills: Up to 2 260 m high, these hills are situated in the north-eastern edge of the Sudan. The seaward facing slopes of the hills have a winter rainfall, while those not facing the sea have a very low summer rainfall. Mist and clouds have an important effect on the vegetation. A few localities enjoy both summer and winter rains. Near the Eritrean border, forests of Juniperus procera are found, with a few well-stocked areas but most ravaged by fire and overgrazing. Associated with Juniperus is Olea chrysophylla. Characteristic plants of the drier parts of this range include Dracaena ombet and Euphorbia abyssinica [zaqqum].” (www.euphorbia.de/e_abyssinica).”

7. For a botanical illustration of Balanites aegyptiaca [zaqqum]

Paradeiooj Greek? – Garden

My Webliography and Bibliography

Tigay, Jeffrey Howard. Paradise.

Léonard, Jean. 1981-1992. “Contribution à l’étude de la flore et de la végétation des déserts d’Iran (Dasht-e-Kavir, Dasht-e-Lut, Jaz Murian). Jardin Botanique National de Belgique.

Jeffrey Howard Tigay’s Bibliography

J. Frazer, Folklore in the Old Testament, 1 (1919), 45–77; Th. C. Vriezen, Orderzoek naar de paradijs-voorstelling bij de oude Semietische Volken (1937), incl. bibl.;

P. Humbert, Etudes sur le rMcit du paradis et de la chute dans la GenIse (1940), incl. bibl.; U. Cassuto, in: Studies in Memory of M. Schorr (1944), 248–58;

J. L. Mc-Kenzie, in: Theological Studies, 15 (1954), 541–72; E. A. Speiser, in: BASOR, 140 (1955), 9–11; idem, in: Festschrift Johannes Friedrich (1959), 473–85;

R. Gordis, in: JBL, 76 (1957), 123–38; B. S. Childs, Myth and Reality in the Old Testament (19622), 43–50; N. M. Sarna, Understanding Genesis (1966), 23–28;

T. H. Gaster, Myth, Legend and Custom in the Old Testament (1969), 6–50, 327–71; J. A. Bailey, in: JBL, 89 (1970), 137–50. See also Commentaries to Genesis 2:4–3.

R. H. Charles, Eschatology (19632); K. Kohler, Heaven and Hell in Comparative Religion (1923);

H. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament, 4 (1928), 1928), 1016–65.

http://wp.me/p1TTs-iV

but a young, unwary reporter is being used (by the secret services) to follow him, in order to frame him.