Anthropological Sense Research Articles

We are Building Gods: AI as the Anthropomorphised Authority of the Past

This article argues that large language models (LLMs) should be interpreted as a form of gods. In a theological sense, a god is an immortal being that exists beyond time and space. This is clearly nothing like LLMs. In an anthropological sense, however, a god is rather defined as the personified authority of a group through time—a conceptual tool that molds a collective of ancestors into a unified agent or voice. This is exactly what LLMs are. They are products of vast volumes of data, literally traces of past human (speech) acts, synthesized into a single agency that is (falsely) experienced by users as extra-human. This reconceptualization, I argue, opens up new avenues of critique of LLMs by allowing the mobilization of theoretical resources from centuries of religious critique. For illustration, I draw on the Marxian religious philosophy of Martin Hägglund. From this perspective, the danger of LLMs emerge not only as bias or unpredictability, but as a temptation to abdicate our spiritual and ultimately democratic freedom in favor of what I call a tyranny of the past.

Идеология как феномен культуры и как цивилизационный потенциал России

The proposed work explores a range of issues that help to comprehend the phenomenon of ideology in order to understand what ideology is, whether Russia needs ideology, why Russia needs ideology, what kind of ideology Russia needs, what needs to be done in order for Russia to have the ideology it needs, and what can make the ideology Russia needs as effective as possible. As a method, a holistic-system approach is used, which makes it possible to identify the relationships and patterns of ideological parameters. Ideology is understood in an anthropological sense as a type of information management: it is the rationalization of an irrational motive, it is a belief disguised as evidence in order to present one's beliefs as true. The structure of ideology, a multifaceted narrative, is proposed to be considered as the interaction of three levels: " pictures of the world" , " matrices" , " technologies" . The logic of confrontation between the ideologies of the West and Russia is traced. A position is put forward on social mobilization as a way to achieve victory in the war of civilizations. The practical conclusion of the article is that Russia has all the necessary capabilities to create an effective and victorious ideology.

Unraveling the anthropological-existential significance of transcendental propositions

Kant labels his transcendental propositions as “principles” instead of mathematical “theorems” because they have the quite peculiar property of “making possible their ground of proof (Beweisgrund), namely experience”. The paper introduces an original reading. Importantly, this reading does not conflict with established interpretations, as it does not touch on the core focus of Kant's first Critique—examining the possibility of cognition (Erkenntnis). The emphasis is on the anthropological sense of Kant's key question: “What is man?” The proposal suggests that “possible experience” can be anthropologically understood as the possibility of understanding ourselves as human beings. Our understanding of ourselves dispenses with concepts made a priori, such as mathematical and formal ones. In contrast, without categories (and thus without transcendental propositions), we cannot comprehend ourselves as inhabitants of a world of persistent objects and events that interact causally in space and time. According to this interpretation, a “synthetic a priori proposition”, in Kant's view, is one whose truth depends on the world, not conceptual relations. Nonetheless, it is a priori in a quite specific sense—it is essential for our understanding as human beings.

Noetic system of concepts in reference to ethnological issues as exemplified in the study of traditions of upbringing among the Jews of the Republic of Moldova

The noetic system of concepts based on the thesis that ethics is originally immanent to the mythological consciousness is centered on studying the spiritual and existential manifestations of man. The term “noetic” used here implies “spiritual” in the existential aspect, in the anthropological sense not in the theological one. The mythological consciousness is defined as everything existentially significant in the depths of the unconscious, including intuition, and everything in the verbalized part of consciousness, which is conditioned by it. The system is intended for revealing and comprehending the implicit content of the activity of the mythological consciousness, highlighting the harmonizing (ethicizing) aspect of this activity, its inclination to meaningfulness/ethics, or, on the contrary, its de-harmonizing aspect or confrontation with ethics. A special system of key concepts and their definitions complies with the noetic system. The following issues have been used for their development: hermeneutical phenomenological examination of intuitions of the mythological consciousness; ideas belonging to prominent thinkers; ethno-cultural specifics. The noetic system applied to ethnology can be regarded as: a sort of development of C. Geertz’s ideas of noetic experience; an innovative way of sharing it; a tool for identifying the intrinsic meanings of ethnic experience and their verbalization. Examples of their identification in the upbringing of Moldovan Jews are provided.

Rationality and Presocratic cosmology in Sophocles’Antigone

AbstractScholars have occasionally noted that theAntigone’s abundant images of polar opposition bear resemblance to the fragments of Heraclitus and his doctrine of the ‘unity of opposites’. The present essay develops this comparison and explores its implications for our interpretation of the play, presenting a test case for the value of the Presocratics in the study of Attic tragedy. It argues that Heraclitus’ surviving work provides a valuable resource for elucidating the play’s ‘cosmology’, a term here used in its anthropological sense to refer to presuppositions, rather than explicitly articulated theories, concerning the structure of the universe and humanity’s place within it. This endeavour can affect our understanding of two points of intense interpretative disagreement: the rationality of the central protagonists and the role of polar oppositions in the play. A culturally sensitive evaluation of the characters’ rationality must take account of the rules of the cosmos they inhabit. The polar oppositions hint at a regular and systematic cosmology, but its finer details are ultimately kept obscure to the audience, and only Teiresias displays a substantial understanding of this underlying framework. Heraclitus thus enriches our understanding of the epistemological predicament in which the characters find themselves.

Devotee/Ethnographer: My Struggle at the Boundary Walls of Participant Observation

This article demonstrates the difficulty of incorporating within the methodological ambit of ‘participant observation’, a possibility of the ethnographer herself staking claim in the religious truth claims of the community that constitute the subject of research. In so doing, this article provides a critique of the concept of participant observation to point out that participant observation anticipates the work of the ethnographer in participating in the physical, performative lives of the community that she purports to study, but never the internal life, especially the life of accessing a register of truth. I found myself in a curious situation as a devotee, where I was accessing the truth-claim of the Krishna-worshipping Vaishnava community, even before I could attempt to participate in their communitarian lives of worship. I found, in the coupling of the devotee and ethnographer identities, that participant observation in the traditional anthropological sense became difficult. The article is, thus, a meditation on this difficult journey and the pendulum of my devotee/ethnographer self that it produces.

Prosthetic Symbiosis

Prosthetic Symbiosis

Ankstyvoji modernizacija Užnemunėje: luominio mentaliteto erozija XIX amžiaus pradžioje

EARLY MODERNISATION IN TRANS-NIEMEN LITHUANIA: THE EROSION OF THE ESTATE MENTALITY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 19TH CENTURY The article identifies several sources hitherto unknown in Lithuanian historiography for the study of the history of Užnemunė (Suvalkija) in the first half of the 19th century. Texts from the ‘Peasants’ Questionnaire’, which are important for getting to know the mentality of the regional nobility, and the official letters of Marijampolė council and the sub-prefect of the area, drafted improve the situation of the peasants, have been investigated. The innovative rhetoric of Marijampolė council in 1814, and its approach to the issue of the peasants, allows us to treat it as a supporter of Duke Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, the initiator of reforms, and his group. The attitude of the Marijampolė experts towards farmers supports the assumption of the greater and earlier emancipation of the peasantry of Užnemunė (Trans-Niemen) which occurred in the second half of the 19th century. The ongoing liberation process was indirectly reflected in the writings of Marijampolė landowners in 1814. Novum is that this emancipation is even earlier. It is not even the beginning of the 19th century. We can distinguish clearly the period of the Prussian occupation at the turn of the 19th century, when the peasants were given the opportunity to participate in pre-capitalist trade, taking advantage of the circulation of cash stimulated by the prewar period. At the beginning of the second decade of the 19th century, the nobility saw the peasants in the Marijampolė area as a separate and respectable class of society (no longer the lower estate in an anthropological sense), worthy of government support, familiar with philanthropy and entrepreneurship, and the principle and autonomy of personal interest.

Beyond Hegemony: An Anthropological Approach to the Study of the covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract Starting from a Gramscian perspective, this article offers anthropological understandings of time in the experience of pandemics in Italy. The Gramscian suggestion is to go beyond hegemony in order to study the bodily life of powers. The author explores the anthropological sense of pandemics, also touching on philosophical approaches among contemporary studies. Following this, some questions about Italy are raised. What was the Italian experience of quarantine? Is it true that there was a ‘failure’ of the health model, above all in the northern regions, which had been praised as a pioneering model of public–private sector collaboration? Is it true to read the covid-19 pandemic as evidence of ‘victory’ for Italy’s central regions, such as the model of Umbria, with its centres of anthropological resistance? The instruments for answering these questions can be found in the critical anthropology of public health as outlined in the article.

Chinese Folklore for the English Public: Herbert A. Giles’s 1880 Translation of Pu Songling’s Classical Tales

Chinese Folklore for the English Public: Herbert A. Giles’s 1880 Translation of Pu Songling’s Classical Tales

Linguistic Identity with Special Reference to Western Hindi Dialects

Linguistic identity is the common bond that people share when they can understand each other in their native tongues, even if they share no other common heritage. Linguistic identity gets trickier when you’re talking about two people who may share linguistic bonds but come from mutually hostile ethnic groups. With racial and ethnic identity, linguistic identity does not exist in isolation; it is frequently yet one more facet of how a person identifies. There’s what we might call “reverse linguistic identity.” As Boas demonstrated over a century ago, everyone has at least three independent identities: race (in the traditional, not the anthropological sense), culture, and language. Language (or linguistic) identity take to mean the speech community with which someone is identified. This is probably always a historical phenomenon, either of birth or of personal choice. Most subjects to personal choice are culture and language, for instance, a given person identifies with, or belongs to a particular culture, and speaks a particular language. These identities may be due to birth or socialization, or they may be the result of a deliberate choice NOT to identify with the language and culture of birth. Linguistic identities are double-edged swords because, while functioning in a positive and productive way to give people a sense of belonging, they do so by defining an “us” in opposition to a “them” that becomes all too easy to demonize. All identity markers of a social group together constitute the “culture” or cultural identity of the social group. Therefore, the loss of one marker does not automatically entails the loss of cultural identity. Given the rich multilingual tradition of India where languages act as facilitators rather than as barriers in communication, one hopes that as linguistic identity. This paper is a case study of the author’s inferences regarding the Western Hindi dialects analysis.

Liminal minds

Abstract The concept of liminality was first introduced by Arnold van Gennep in Rites de Passage in 1909. There, he observed the rites of passage or transformative rituals of social life (such as weddings, funerals, initiation rites, etc.). Liminality was described as the psychic and emotional state in-between one social status and another, in a state of ambiguity, disorientation and loss of fixed identity. In my research, I adopt the concept of liminality not in the classical anthropological sense but rather in a personal sense. I am interested in personal journeys, often secret transitions and transgressions, usually accompanied by dreams and visions placing persons outside of the society, alienating and excluding them. Yet, I believe liminality to be the state of creativity and I am interested in its transformative potential.

Is “New Culture” a Proper Translation of Xin wenhua?

For several decades, we have been witnessing a profound renewal in our understanding of the “New Culture Movement”. However, the aptness of “new culture” as a proper translation for xin wenhua 新文化 has almost never been discussed. The present paper argues that uniformly translating xin as “new” and wenhua as “culture” tends to blur the picture instead of making it clearer, for by so doing one unconsciously endorses the narrative of radical Chinese intellectuals while silencing other voices. Furthermore, the article puts forward the idea that terms such as wenhua 文化 encompassed a “multiplicity of potential readings” that have much to do with the transformation of Chinese language at the beginning of the 20th century, and with the emergence of a new conceptual repertoire. In their attempts to appropriate xin wenhua and turn it into a seemingly coherent movement with an agenda, Chinese intellectuals were fighting a war over the topic of “civilization/culture”, but also, and perhaps primarily education. Yet, by employing the term “culture” in academic writing today, we tend to produce a historical dissonance for their use of this term is not our own: we thus fall into the trap of semantic transparency, and forget that the concept of “culture” has a problematic history in both China and the West. By questioning the use of wenhua with regard to the May Fourth Movement, I provide evidence that the accepted translation of culture can be problematic if one does not clearly spell out the meaning located behind it, as the Chinese wenhua often did not mean “Chinese culture” in our modern, all too modern, anthropological sense.

Evaluating Warfare Myths about Science and Christianity and How These Myths Promote Scientism

Many people assume that there has been ceaseless conflict between science and Christianity. I argue that the real conflict has been between scientism and religion. Scientism is the view that only the sciences generate knowledge or rational belief. Scientism, as typically articulated, entails the opinion that reliable belief about divinity (theological realism) is impossible. I debunk four historic science–Christianity conflict myths and show how they have promoted scientism. These four science–religion myths function as part of a larger warfare narrative about science and Christianity. This misleading warfare thesis often comes packaged with an alternative anti-theistic “myth” in the anthropological sense—in this case, a worldview-shaping narrative that awakens the imagination to interpret the world in scientistic and non-theistic ways. I call this the scientistic warfare myth and explore its major flaws.

Angels in John Chrysostom’s Anthropology: Asceticism, Angelomorphism, and Human Bodily Composition in Flux

The purpose of this article is to investigate the role of angels in John Chrysostom’s (c. 349–407 CE) anthropology. The article provides a short overview of Chrysostom’s thought regarding angels more generally. The focus here is especially on the origins, nature, and function of angels. Thereafter, the focus moves to Chrysostom’s “thinking with angels” in his anthropology. This section extrapolates the differences and similarities between humans and angels. The important question to which the analysis leads is that of angelomorphism, or becoming like the angels. Chrysostom often states that persons adopting ascetic and sacerdotal practices have the ability to become like the angels. In Chrysostom, angelology is especially an ascetic discourse. What does this statement mean for Chrysostom? What does angelomorphism entail in the anthropological sense? The study argues that priests, monks, and virgins are able to become like angels both in a functional and even in a limited essential sense.

The Specificity of the Aesthetic Phenomenon in the Philosophical and Anthropological Search of Georg Lukács

The object of our analysis is the works by Hungarian philosopher 20th century G. Lukács. The article investigates the interpretation of the phenomenon of special in Hungarian thinker aesthetic concept. This is the subject of this article. The use of the term "special" in modern aesthetic theory, from Lukács’s point of view, determines the peculiarity of aesthetic knowledge. As a hypothesis, we assume its heuristic and methodological value for the development of modern aesthetics. We emphasize that it allows us to understand the difference between the aesthetic experience from the individual sensory experience, as a single, and abstract-theoretical, as a general one. As a result, it has been found that the humanitarian outlook of the Hungarian thinker's creative heritage is humanistic. Exactly on this basis his aesthetic concept was developed and the doctrine of the special and sensual experience of man in particular. Therefore, ideas developed by the Hungarian philosopher and esthetician need more attention, and his appeal to the value of the idea of humanism in the evaluation of current art or artistic practices makes it possible to expand the criteria in the analysis of the latest art works and aesthetic phenomena.It is stated that modern aesthetics is based on all the previous development of aesthetic thought, but it is not a simple continuation of traditions. Aesthetic anthropology is one of the promising areas of its development. However, it is more overshadowed issue of art, artistic creation. It is revealed that aesthetic works by G. Lukács expand the field of non-classical understanding of art meaning in society, they allow studying the specifics of aesthetic, artistic experience and artistic practices of the present in the anthropological sense. We point out the need for a more in-depth appeal to the works of this scientist in the analysis of modern society and his desire for formative innovation, in particular, there is a need for further study of his early works. We consider this as a prospect for further research into the philosophical and aesthetic heritage by G. Lukács. In addition, it seems necessary to investigate the impact by Lukács’s ideas on the ideological searches of thinkers of Central and Eastern Europe when it comes to aesthetic and anthropological issues. We consider it important to do on the basis of consideration of the works by the Kyiv School of Philosophy and Aesthetics. Its representatives study the role of the aesthetic component in everyday life, and features of aesthetic experience in contemporary artistic practice, and aesthetic or artistic means of harmonization of the urban environment, etc.

Farzad Sharifian, (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of language and culture. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015. Pp. xv-522. ISBN: 978-0-415-52701-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-79399-3 (ebk)7

Farzad Sharifian, (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of language and culture. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015. Pp. xv-522. ISBN: 978-0-415-52701-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-79399-3 (ebk)7

Vulnerabilidades, dilemas e dores

Este artigo está centrado em um eixo principal: uma reflexão em torno das vulnerabilidades do pesquisador em campo e o que isso pode nos dizer a respeito de questões metodológicas, éticas e de escrita, com as quais nos confrontamos ao realizar nossas pesquisas e ao redigir nossos textos. Busco dar sentido antropológico a situações marcadas por tensões, por dilemas e por vulnerabilidades que encontrei durante a realização do trabalho de campo de minha pesquisa de pós-doutorado. A primeira parte do texto é uma reflexão sobre uma cena etnográfica: tentativa de abuso sexual que sofri em campo. Esta experiência modificou todo os rumos da pesquisa de campo e representou um divisor de águas tanto em um nível pessoal, quanto para algumas reflexões teóricas. Na segunda parte, recorro novamente a uma cena etnográfica – a revelação de um agressor de crianças e adolescentes e a cadeia de reações que isso provocou em mim - , a qual tem o potencial de ajudar a refletir sobre outras adversidades encontradas ao se realizar uma etnografia das “margens”.

TRANSUMANISMO E PÓS-HUMANISMO: UMA APROXIMAÇÃO ÉTICO-TEOLÓGICA

O presente artigo pretende recolher elementos teológicos para uma relação entre a Teologia cristã, transumanismo e pós-humanismo. Enfoca especial­mente os temas da natureza humana e da Ética Teológica, ante a importância que adquiriu o movimento trans- e pós-humanista no ambiente científico e tecnológico. A partir de uma descrição histórica dos conceitos identifica-se o transumanismo como momento da aplicação massiva dos recursos da ciência e da técnica para a melhoria e aumento (enhancement) das condições e das capacidades humanas. O pós-humanismo, por sua vez, representa o resultado, na forma de uma nova condição de ser, qualificada como pós-humano. Mostra-se, num segundo momento, com recurso a K. Rahner, como a natureza humana, em seu sentido antropológico, se revela capaz de transformações, desde que se mantenha sua qualidade essencial de autonomia, relacionalidade, liberdade e responsabilidade diante do Mistério Divino. No terceiro momento, mostram-se algumas exigências éticas para uma avaliação do trans- e pós-humanismo.

Popular Culture as Educational Space – Depictions of a Utopia in Pop Culture Texts

The aim of the text is to discuss the educational potential of popular culture. The firstpart focuses on theoretical opinions on the relationships of culture and education. Pedagogical thinking about culture is dominated by its humanistic understanding, in which a special sense of culture has been understood as one of the top of human achievement. In traditional pedagogical reflection,there is noticeable concentration on culture as “valuable for educational interactions”. In such a perspective, the space of popular culture is ignored. Perceived as a bad Mr. Hyde of cultural space, it is treated as an area of threats to the development of children and youth. But culture is not only a canon of the achievements of past generations. In the anthropological sense, these are simply the ways of living a life in a society. Popular culture is the space where various aspects are commented on. Popular art plays a special role here.The second part discusses the pop cultural texts that illustrate the characteristic elements of utopia: burial of the “old world”, establishing a “perfect” order, protection against external destruction and against destruction from inside. Formed at different times and based on different means of expression, they address the dilemmas associated with thinking about a “better world”. They present the mechanisms and consequences of building a new society “with their own language”.