Animal Symbolism Research Articles

The use of symbols in the praise-naming of chiefs in selected Igbo folk music

Praise names are repositories and means through which ideologies and socio-cultural identities are transmitted in Igbo culture. In ‘praise naming’, symbols with socio-cultural meanings are deployed to represent ideological realities of Igbo naming in communities. The symbols which are infused with the Igbo beliefs of philanthropy and display levels of stratification have not been subjected to adequate linguistic studies. This study, therefore, undertakes a critical appraisal of the strategic deployment of symbols in praise naming chiefs in selected folk songs of two popular and foremost Igbo folk musicians with a view to uncovering the underlying ideological meanings and significance of the symbols. Analysing the data through the lens of Martin and White’s appraisal theory reveals that symbols derived from five sources – plants, animals, nature, body parts and deities – construct the chiefs in terms of five images of God as protector, benefactor, saviour, dreaded being and as the almighty. While the plant symbols conceptualise chiefs as impartial and all-round providers, the animal and god symbols represent them as supreme and as inspiring dread. The nature symbols depict them as unquantifiable, while body parts represent them as rescuers. These culturally-based symbols, which have both positive and negative connotations, have generally reconstructed the rich as gods of the poor in the songs.

Intertexuality and intermediality of modern drama-parabola (based on material by Koki Mitany "The Academy of Laugh")

The article deals with the problem of finding the manifestations of intertextual reminisces in the English drama of the Renaissance in the context of contemporary drama parabole consideration. On the basis of the play “Akademy of Laugh” by the famous modern Japanese playwright Koki Mitani the categories of “intertextuality” and “intermediality”are investigated, namely, the features of the manifestations of these aspects in the light of modern parabolic drama. In the process of analyzing the play, the author draws attention to the context of intermedial connections of literature with theatrical art, considers the implementation of the principle of “game in play”, traces the manifistations of intercultural interaction between Eastern and Western culture. The events in the drama take place against a backdrop of complicated historical events – The Japan – China War, when the ideological beliefs of the ruling elite of the monarchy took the vector of the Nazi-fascist trend, and the times of general mobilization didn’t encourage the development of a light entertainment genre. The work contains references to the intertextual elements of the dramatic works of the English playwright William Shakespeare (the tragedies "Romeo and Juliet", "Hamlet" and "Macbeth"). The article raises the issue of communicative model of the work, considers the sphere of characters of drama. The comic interpretation of the play is a juxtaposition of cultures and literary genres. The genre features of the work are investigated. The specifity and minimalism of the structure are noted. The attention is focused on the chronotopic specificity of the parabolic work. The article deals with animal symbols, which are considered in the context of ambivalence and ambiguity. The study postulates the idea that through the visualization of intertextual manifestations the intermediality of the work becomes present, as a result of which there is communication of epochs, authors and thoughts. The context of intermedial connections between literature and theatrical art is demonstrated. The author applies the concept "the theater in the theather", structures the work minimally through dialogue between the author and the censor. Intermediality acts as a system of interaction of one kind of art in the works of another and reveals mechanisms of mutual influence of kinds of art in the artistic culture of this or that historical period.

Cultural Memory and Urban Space in Shaping Cultural Identity

Nowadays, in the age of massive spatial transformations in the built environment, cities witness a new type of development, different in size, scale and momentum that has been thriving since late 20th century. Diverse transformation of historic cities under modernisation has led to concerns in terms of the space and time continuity disintegration and the preservation of historic cities. In a similar approach, we can state that city and city space do not only consist of present, they also consist of the past; they include the transformations, relations, values, struggles and tensions of the past. As it could be defined, space is the history itself. Currently, we would like to display how Chernivtsi cultural and architectural heritage is perceived and maintained in the course of its evolution. Noteworthy, Chernivtsi city is speculated a condensed human existence and vibes, with public urban space and its ascriptions are its historical archives and sacred memory. Throughout the history, CHERNIVTSI’s urban landscape has changed, while preserving its unique and distinctive spirit of diversity, multifacetedness and tolerance. The city squares of the Austrian, Romanian and Soviet epochs were crammed with statuary of royal elites and air of aristocracy, soviet leaders and a shade of patriotic obsession, symbolic animals and sacred piety – that eventually shaped its unique “Bukovynian supranational identity”.
 Keywords: Chernivtsi, cultural memory, memory studies, monuments, squares, identity.

A LEOPARD OR A PANTHER? The Pairs of the Stag and the Predator in Vittore Carpaccio's Meditation on the Passion

The current paper will suggest an interpretation of two pairs of animals featured in Vittore Carpaccio's Meditation on the Passion, i.e., a stag and a predator of the Felidae family, which in one case devours the stag, and in the other – follows it. The paper will attempt to answer the question why did Carpaccio choose to paint the same motif twice, and why in two differing variations?
 
 The aim of this paper is to contribute to the research of the iconography of Job, and to the research on animal symbolism in art, and particularly the ongoing effort to decipher Carpaccio's Meditation on the Passion. Its specific and unique contribution will be to suggest a new interpretation to the peaceful predator, presented on right-hand side in Carpaccio's Meditation, seeing it in a new light – not as a wild animal tamed by a religious transformation, as suggested in previous literature, but rather as an inherently positive one. This reading will be informed by primary sources, which will be connected here with the stag and their predators in Carpaccio's Meditation for the first time.

An Analysis of the Sesotho Folktale Kgubetswana Le Talane Using the Binary Opposition Approach

This study is based on an analysis of the Sesotho folktale Kgubetswana le Talane. The folktale is analysed using the theory of binary opposition. This theory is also consolidated with Vladimir Propp’s approach to folktales, which is used to analyse the meanings of symbols and character roles in the story. The implications of the differences and similarities of Kgubetswana le Talane with other folktales are discussed. Efforts to interpret the meanings of symbols in the story were also made by analysing the animal characters and examining these animal symbols through the understanding of the Basotho culture. The paradox between the protagonist and the antagonist is essential in the creation of the story and its themes.

Symbols of leadership and conceptions of power in Hausa Literature: An intertextual reading of a Dodo folktale and a popular song

This article presents a brief exploration of the interface between the collective or ancestral archetype of the “Dodo”, symbolising destructive power in Hausa tales and the more individual interpretation and stylistic concerns of a contemporary popular singer, Ali Na Maliki, addressing, at another level, the subject of power and leadership portrayed by the traditional chief. The paper will focus on the interaction between genres, seen in the light of intertextuality as defined by Michael Riffaterre and M.H. Abrams among others. It highlights, moreover, the thematic and aesthetic contribution of the oral artist Ali Na Maliki to contemporary Hausa orature and culture. It reposes on an analysis of the manipulation of certain images and animal symbols of leadership and power borrowed from the world of tales used with a certain degree of innovation in order to evoke, symbolically, the mythical attributes of power in the artistic universe of his songs.

New Scholarship

New Scholarship

Bahasa Mantra Sasak Tinjuan Makna Asosiatif

This study describes and explains in detail the linguistic meaning of the Sasak mantra, the function of the mantra, and the text structure of the Sasak mantra. The meaning of the mantra is also related to the culture that exists in the area that is the location of the research. The method used in this study is a descriptive qualitative method and ethnographic method. wind, jelo, full moon, sea, gumi, sky, and betu are used to produce a strong suggestion. (2) plant symbols, namely angn, apuh, buaq, mako, glemper, shoots, tojang, paoq kayuk, and flower are used to cause the suggestion of attractiveness. (3) animal symbols, namely yellow kecial, jaran guying, kolo, ptuk and propeller. The term 'kecial kuning' is used to give rise to suggestion of attractiveness, the term jaran guyang has the effect of suggesting strength. The term kolo, ptuk, balang has the effect of suggesting damage. (4) mythical symbols, namely the terms bidederi-bidedere, mas bejeboh, mentinggang mentang, crazy singang, betara guru, betara lenjang, and goldfish. Bidederi-bidedere is used to cause the effects of beauty suggestion. Mas Bejeboh authority. Singgang mentune, singang crazy, betara guru is used to cause suggestions of the authorities of the springs. Betara levels are used to cause the suggestion of the ruler of the rain. (5) Islamic religious symbols, namely basmlah, creed, kun fayakun, Prophet Muhammad, alif, Allah, prophet David, prophet Sulaiman, Syaidina Ali, Assalamu, Prophet Allah Adam, Jibrail, Fatimah-Fatimah. The existence of a term in Islamic religious signifies the language of the mantra that the people of Lombok are very religious and believe that chosen beings such as prophets, guardians, angels, prophet's friends can be used as mediators in asking for something.

Neuroethology of the Waggle Dance: How Followers Interact with the Waggle Dancer and Detect Spatial Information.

Since the honeybee possesses eusociality, advanced learning, memory ability, and information sharing through the use of various pheromones and sophisticated symbol communication (i.e., the “waggle dance”), this remarkable social animal has been one of the model symbolic animals for biological studies, animal ecology, ethology, and neuroethology. Karl von Frisch discovered the meanings of the waggle dance and called the communication a “dance language.” Subsequent to this discovery, it has been extensively studied how effectively recruits translate the code in the dance to reach the advertised destination and how the waggle dance information conflicts with the information based on their own foraging experience. The dance followers, mostly foragers, detect and interact with the waggle dancer, and are finally recruited to the food source. In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge on the neural processing underlying this fascinating behavior.

The Stuplime Loops of Becoming-Slug: A Prosthetic Intervention in Orientalist Animality

The Stuplime Loops of Becoming-Slug: A Prosthetic Intervention in Orientalist Animality

Environmental and Cultural History of the Death's Head Hawkmoth

Abstract Acherontia atropos is a large, migratory sphingid moth that has played a significant symbolic role in literature and the arts in Europe since the eighteenth, and particularly the nineteenth, century. Its appearance north of the Alps is comparatively well documented for the fears and superstitions attached to this species. The fact that the cultural record of Acherontia atropos sets in rather suddenly in the early eighteenth century suggest that the species was previously too rarely seen to leave a major footprint in human culture. It is suggested that the occurrence of this striking moth was dramatically increased by the introduction of potatoes as a food plant. It is therefore suggested here that the cultural history of Acherontia atropos presents a case in which environmental change due to a new crop also leads to a cultural change in the example of a new iconic animal symbol emerging in the arts.

“Every Living Beast Being a Word, Every Kind Being a Sentence”: Animals and Religion in Reformation Europe

The ability of animals to convey meaning, either sacred or profane, features prominently in the dialectic of natural knowledge and sacred histories. Animals, particularly those that exhibited irregularities of nature, symbolised and revealed God’s wrath and favour, fulfilling a polemical and pastoral purpose in the communication of God’s anger and assiduous care for humanity. The language of readable nature ran through the ancient natural histories of Pliny and Aristotle, the words and images of the medieval bestiaries, and the natural histories and popular discourses of Reformation Europe. In the history of the natural world, ‘God’s great book in folio’, ideas about connections between the written word and human observation, miracles, wonders and providences, were interleaved with theological and biological taxonomies. In so doing, discussions of irregularities and portents in nature expose the conceptualisation of human relationships with the world, with the past, with the present, and with the divine. This article explores the connections between real and symbolic animals, religious, and the plasticity of God’s creation in the natural histories and polemical literature of the Reformation. It explores the multivalent positioning of particular sea creatures as providential signs of God’s continued presence in the world, natural phenomena, and man-made objects, and the ongoing syncretism between natural history, religion, ancient texts and human observation in the dialectic of this period.

Does Animation Facilitate Understanding of Graphic Symbols Representing Verbs in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Purpose The effects of animation on identification of graphic symbols for verbs were studied using the Autism Language Program Graphic Symbols Set in children diagnosed with mild-to-severe autism spectrum disorder between the ages of 3 and 7 years. Method The participants were randomly assigned to an animated symbol condition or a static symbol condition. Static symbols were spliced from the animated symbols to ensure that the symbols differed only in terms of the absence or presence of movement. The participants were asked to identify a target symbol among foils given the spoken label. Results There were no significant differences between the groups with respect to chronological age, autism severity, and receptive target verb knowledge. An independent t test revealed that animated symbols were more readily identified than static symbols. Conclusions Animation enhances the identification of verbs in children with autism spectrum disorder. Clinicians are encouraged to take advantage of animation when introducing graphic symbols representing verbs. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

“Orders Behind the Visible” – Puritan Elements in the Polish Translation of "Gravity’s Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon

The article discusses contemporary American writer Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, a leading representative of postmodernism in literature. The study contains an examination of possible references to Puritanism in his novel, Gravity’s Rainbow. Religious motifs seem to play a crucial role in the interpretation of Pynchon’s work where the past is combined with the present and the Puritan religious doctrine merges with a paranoid approach to reading. Then, fragments from Gravity’s Rainbow in Polish translation are analyzed in terms of preserving the source text’s productive potential regarding the most important Puritan themes in the novel, e.g. animal symbolism and the doctrine of Preterition. Finally, the study offers conclusions related to the extent to which Puritan elements are recreated in the target text, highlighting the most considerable losses and gains in the translation process.

Genetic Origin of the Two Galápagos Tortoises in the Ueno Zoo, Japan Based on Mitochondrial DNA Sequences

Galapagos tortoises are a symbolic animal in terms of conservation biology as well as evolutionary biology, and both in situ and ex situ conservation programs are currently underway. For endangered species, captive individuals can perform a certain role as genetic reservoirs for ongoing and future breeding programs We examined the genetic identities of two giant tortoises in Ueno Zoo, Japan. The mitochondrial genotype of the older tortoise, Taro, as appeared to be that of Chelonoidis porteri from Santa Cruz island. The mitochondrial genotype of the younger tortoise, Kamekichi, was identified as either C. becki from the northern area of Isabela island, or C. darwini from Santiago island. These genetic analyses serve as reference data for the future conservation management of captive Galapagos tortoises.

The Projection of National (Di)vision through Animal Symbolism in Remi Raji’s Lovesong for My Wasteland and A Harvest of Laughters

Modern African poets have shown a consistent commitment to the socio-political and economic trends of their various nations, becoming both the mouthpieces of the people and the watchdogs of leaders in all spheres of the society. This article examines animal symbolism as markers of Nigeria’s socio-political history. To do this, it relies on the animals’ behavioural traits as an interpretative paradigm. The article adopts semiotics, particularly symbolism, a meaning-expanding literary device, in interpreting Remi Raji’s Lovesong for My Wasteland (2005) and A Harvest of Laughters (1997). The semiotic ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce undergird the basic framework for the explications. Moreover, the selected symbols are analysed within the context of socio-cultural beliefs and historical events in Nigeria. Hence, the study reveals that the poet’s usage of cultural semiotic markers such as “the Elephant,” “the Wolf,” “the Dog,” and “the Hyena” to indicate Nigeria’s socio-political trajectory underscores his poetic elegance and social vision. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the poetry collections are symbionts and in dialogue with each another.

Decoding European Palaeolithic Art: Extremely Ancient knowledge of Precession of the Equinoxes

A consistent interpretation is provided for Neolithic Gobekli Tepe and Catalhoyuk as well as European Palaeolithic cave art. It appears they all display the same method for recording dates based on precession of the equinoxes, with animal symbols representing an ancient zodiac. The same constellations are used today in the West, although some of the zodiacal symbols are different. In particular, the Shaft Scene at Lascaux is found to have a similar meaning to the Vulture Stone at Gobekli Tepe. Both can be viewed as memorials of catastrophic encounters with the Taurid meteor stream, consistent with Clube and Napier's theory of coherent catastrophism. The date of the likely comet strike recorded at Lascaux is 15,150 BC to within 200 years, corresponding closely to the onset of a climate event recorded in a Greenland ice core. A survey of radiocarbon dates from Chauvet and other Palaeolithic caves is consistent with this zodiacal interpretation, with a very high level of statistical significance. Finally, the Lion Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel, circa 38,000 BC, is also consistent with this interpretation, indicating this knowledge is extremely ancient and was widespread.

ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ СИМВОЛІКИ ТВАРИН У ПОЛЬСЬКОМУ ЛІТЕРАТУРОЗНАВСТВІ

У статті аналізуються праці польських літературознавців, присвяче-ні зображенню тварин та їх символіці в літературі. Автор підкреслює, що літературознавці по-різному окреслюють специфіку та сутність символі-ки образів тварин. Тим не менш, можна виділити два напрямки символі-ки тварин у літературі: антропоморфізм (проектування людських якостей на тварини) та зооморфізм (уявлення людей як тварин). Антропоморфізм цілісно не відтворює природнє життя тварин, бо антропоморфічний текст завжди має на меті увиразнити типові риси схожості між твариною та людиною. Основним об’єктом зооморфічного тексту виступає людина. Приписувані їй бестіарні риси зазвичай дозволяють авторові художнього твору більш детально та точно, ніж в антропоморфічному тексті, змалювати і тварину. Таким чином, змальовується водночас характер і людини, і тварини. Отже, антропоморфізм і зооморфізм втілюють різні підходи до подолання відмінностей між людьми і тваринами, а також до трактування схожості між ними. Наголошується, що важливою проблемою символіки тварин є презентація у літературних творах питання: чи можливе взаєморозуміння між людиною та твариною. Автор констатує, що багато польських літературознавців присвятили свої праці дослідженню символіки образів тварин у польській і світовій літературі. Наведені приклади вказують на те, що у польському літературознавстві є праці, у яких аналізується так звана історія зображення тварин у літературі загалом (К. Ґурскі, А. Мартушевска, В. Пшибила, П. Зих, В. Варгас, К. Обремскі, Ґ. Скотніцка), символічне використання образу певної тварини у творі (Л. Ґінкова, А. Хоєцкі), символіка тварин у творах конкретного автора (К. Ґурскі, Ю. Бахуж, Я. Дата) або конкретної літературної епохи (С. Кобєлюс, А. Мартушевска, А. Осіньска-Шпур, Я. Котарска, М. Слівіньскі, В. Ґутовскі, Е. Кузьма, Д. Домбровска).

Reading the Hebrew Bible with Animal Studies by Ken Stone

Reviewed by: Reading the Hebrew Bible with Animal Studies by Ken Stone Michael Seufert ken stone, Reading the Hebrew Bible with Animal Studies ( Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018). Pp viii + 227. $24.95. Ken Stone's recent work brings the diverse field of "animal studies" into dialogue with a selection of biblical texts. The goal is to recover something of "the significance of animals and animal symbolism in biblical literature," which "has been significantly underemphasized by biblical scholars and underestimated by other readers of the Hebrew Bible" (pp. 3-4). After sketching the diversity of the field of "animal studies" in the introduction, drawing on Matthew Calarco's map of boundary construals between animals and humans (see Calarco, Thinking through Animals: Identity, Difference, Indistinction [Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015]), S. proceeds with six chapters engaging biblical texts with insights and questions culled from this diverse interdisciplinary field. In chap. 1, S. offers an introductory exploration of the "enabling role of animal bodies." He highlights the recurring significance of animals in stories of Jacob, Israel's eponymous ancestor. He subsequently reads these stories with attention to Donna Haraway's "companion species" (The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness [Chicago: Prickly Paradigm, 2003]), the unstable binary of animal–human, and "carnophallogocentrism," the final two frames drawing from Jacques Derrida (The Animal That Therefore I Am [ed. Marie-Louise Mallet; trans. David Wills; New York: Fordham [End Page 714] University Press, 2008]). Haraway's insight attends to the complexity of culture's emergence in relation to "nature," insisting that the line between "nature" and "culture" or "nature" and "history" is blurry. The traditional animal–human binary is far more complex, though not entirely undermined, as Derrida observes. Early Genesis texts and the Jacob stories bear out this maintenance and complexification. For instance, humans are tasked with rule over the nonhuman creatures (whatever the specific contours of this rule). This assumes a fundamental distinction. Simultaneously, human and nonhuman animals are both nepeš, each designated "good" by God, and they receive the same command to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:22, 28). Derrida's neologism "carnophallogocentrism" suggests that "the exclusion of animals from ethical considerations cannot be separated from the exclusion of other humans from subjectivity and ethics, including women … feminized men … and other men deemed less than human on the basis of … race, ethnicity, nation, class or religion" (pp. 40-41). For instance, the classic distinction between "wild" and "domesticated" animals at the outset of the Jacob–Esau narrative "has gendered connotations," as masculine symbols attend Esau, while Jacob is (initially) effeminate (p. 41). In chap. 2, S. develops the complications of the animal–human binary from the viewpoint of dogs, specifically through the eyes of the dogs of Exodus 11 and 22 as evoked by the short essay "The Name of a Dog, or Natural Rights," by Emmanuel Levinas. These two biblical canine passages create a web of associations between humans and animals. The associations variously identify and differentiate animals and humans in ways that cut across the traditional distinction. In chap. 3, S. examines the sacrificial system, primarily with Derrida and Jonathan Klawans taking the lead (see Klawans, "Sacrifice in Ancient Israel: Pure Bodies, Domesticated Animals, and the Divine Shepherd," in Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics [ed. Paul Waldau and Kimberley Patton; New York: Columbia University Press, 2006]; idem, Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006]). Stone explores the implications of the idea of sacrifice, which generates the category of a "noncriminal putting to death." This category potentially facilitates the ease of killing (physically and symbolically) any nonmember of the dominant group (summed up by Derrida's "carnophallogocentrism"). Klawans suggests an expanded view of sacrifice as a prolonged ritual including not just death dispensed but the intimate domestication process preceding it. The intimacy of this process appears in images of shepherd and flock, used—terrifyingly from this vantage point—of God's relation to Israel. This association, via the sacrificial exchange, invites further recasting of boundaries between God, humans, and animals. Stone closes with a quiet and reasonable reflection on how...

Translation of the culture-bearing symbolism of animals in the poem «Turkestan» of Magzhan Zhumabayev (Turkish, Russian and English languages)

Translation of the culture-bearing symbolism of animals in the poem «Turkestan» of Magzhan Zhumabayev (Turkish, Russian and English languages)