Half Man Research Articles

“Half Man, Half Wildcat”: Itinerancy and the Myth of Frontier Manhood in the United States’ Lake Region

“Half Man, Half Wildcat”: Itinerancy and the Myth of Frontier Manhood in the United States’ Lake Region

‘Half Man, Half Chair’: Disability and the Posthuman Technological Imaginaries of Miserrimus Dexter's Sensational Body in Wilkie Collins'The Law and the Lady(1875)

Questions of identity are central to Wilkie Collins’ 1875 novel, The Law and the Lady, where we find the extraordinary and androgynous body of wheelchair-using Miserrimus Dexter. Disabled and without legs since birth, and described as ‘the new Centaur, half-man, half-chair,’ Dexter’s disfigured body is one of Collins’ most shocking and confusing characters. As a fusion of man and machinery, Dexter is even more extreme than Collins’ many other sensational characters and fascinating because of his exaggerated physical difference, eccentric behaviour, and hybrid identity. Dexter is represented as a hybrid, a bizarre mix of the human, non-human animal, and machine. He is a unique example of Collins’ sensational ability to draw on social fears and anxieties by creating an extreme body that is capable of crossing ‘natural’ boundaries, propelling Dexter towards what we now know as ‘posthumanism.’ This essay examines how the sensation genre allows Collins to test out freakish/posthuman/cyborg bodies. Dexter’s physical limitations are overcome by uniting his body with technology. However, as his identity becomes completely bound up with the mechanism he uses to move about, Collins depicts him becoming less human and increasingly unhinged. Collins’ novel expresses anxieties about the dehumanising impact of the rise of technology rather than enthusiasm for the transhuman possibilities offered.

A study on shaman costume from the perspective of Siberian shamanism spiritual culture

This study interprets Siberian shaman costumes from the perspective of Siberian shamanism’s spiritual culture by combining theoretical and empirical studies. According to the natural environment and language families, the Siberian people are classified into the Altai, Tungus, Ural, and Paleo-Siberian groups. Se Yin’s research classifies the spiritual culture of Siberian shamanism as cosmic, spiritual, and nature view. Eliade’s research has divided Siberian shaman costumes into form, headdress, and ornament. According to the present study, shaman costume form and decoration reflect the Siberian three-tiered cosmic view, such that the shaman’s head, body and feet correspond to the upperworld, middleworld and underworld. In addition, animism, totemism and ancestral worship appear in the shamanism’s spiritual view. For example, the costume’s form shows the totem of each tribe, while the costume accessories reflect animal worship, plant worship and ancestral worship. Finally, shamanism’s nature view mainly manifests through three processes: personification, deification, and ethics. As an intermediary between man and the spirits, shaman use their clothing to reproduce the image of half man and half spirit. The shaman’s costumes are deified and considered to have divine power. For example, the animals represented on the costume help the shaman travel through space. Generally, good animals help a shaman enter the upperworld, while animals that help a shaman enter the underworld are considered evil. Also, the number of hanging accessories represents the shaman’s ability.

Centaury Andrieja Biełego

Andrei Bely, like most Russian symbolists, absorbed and transposed mythical characters and stories into his work, especially those born in the ancient times. Centaurs derive their origins from Greek mythology and are most often presented as hybrid creatures (half man, half animal). In Bely’s view, they become a symbol of the dual nature of man who struggles with suffering resulting from the simultaneous belonging to two worlds: humans and animals, matter and senses, spirituality and dark urges. In Bely’s works, the image of these mythical animals serves as an element of an artistic game with the recipient (by analogy to the “games of centaurs”), in the course of which it becomes possible to read the artist’s attitude to the myth about these animals, to the surrounding reality, and finally – to oneself. The myth itself reveals its philosophical, psychological and hermeneutical potential. That is why in Bely’s works the presence of centaurs has a multidimensional character, built on the interpenetration of the tame and the alien, tempered and wild, real and cosmic. All this determines the transgressive quality of the myth of centaurs in the work of the Russian symbolist.

Blurry Finally in Too Soon Each of Us, and: Don’t

Blurry Finally in Too Soon Each of Us, and: Don’t Carl Phillips (bio) Blurry Finally in Too Soon Each of Us A water-meadow is not a flood-meadow.A working meadow’s not a fallow field.Heartbreak like a bloodhound better off abandoned because untamable.There’s a slant of light I used to call Self Portrait as a Lion, Bringing Down a Stag. [End Page 203] Don’t Though the city itself has long since beensmashed up and plundered for anything leftworth plundering, the walls that surrounded itstand unbroken, still, as if war — like time,technically — didn’t really exist. Can time exist, if it’sjust an understanding? For animals, to rise to the huntat nightfall, to lie sated by dawn — is that time? Peoplebuilt walls around cities long ago, to protect the city. Butthe walls, though they announce, or suggest at least,that there’s a city behind them, make of the cityitself — of the various lives that any cityequals — a secret, finally. So, to protect becomes alsoto make secret. To protect, to wall in, to makeunfindable, as sometimes dignity, I suppose,requires, as in “And the queen gave birthto the minotaur, half bull, half man, half monster,half shame, and they housed it at the centerof a tall maze.” For what’s a maze if not a wall [End Page 204] with too many twists in it, complete with dead endswhere it had seemed for sure they must leadsomeplace . . . Don’t do this. You, for whom sleepall but depended upon story, I’ve looked everywhere,every mirror: smell of seascape, children’s voicesthrough a fog that must lift eventually,and all I’ve got for you is myth — a kind of story,the kind that blows off of history to explain history,as if that were the kinder way, because less intimate, lesscapable of hurt, therefore, though it be most cruel. [End Page 205] Carl Phillips Carl Phillips’s new book, Pale Colors in a Tall Field, will be out from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2020. Sibling Rivalry Press will publish his chapbook, Star Map with Action Figures, this fall. Copyright © 2019 The University of the South

PENGARUH MODEL PEMBELAJARAN BERBASIS MASALAH TERHADAP HASIL BELAJAR FISIKA PADA MATERI OPTIKA GEOMETRIS DI KELAS X SEMESTER II MAN 2 TANJUNG PURA T.A 2015/2016

This study aims to determine the effect of problem based learning model for learning outcomes on geometrical optics material in class X MAN 2 Tanjung Pura T.A 2015/2016. This study is a quasi experimental design with two group pretest-posttest. The population in the study were all students of class X MAN 2 Tanjung Pura. Sampling was done by clusster random sampling by taking two classes, namely class X-2 as the experimental class and class X-3 as the control class numbering, 38 students for grade 39 students for the experimental and control classes. The instrument used to determine student learning outcomes are shaped achievement test essay test with the number of 10 questions. Achievement test in validkan by the validator. Based on the results of hypothesis testing using different test (t-test) results obtained studying the application of problem based learning model has a better improvement than the learning outcomes of students who applied by conventional learning at opyika geometric in class X the second half MAN 2 Tanjung Pura TA 2015 / 2016.

Painted depiction of Genius of Sopianae

A preceding archeological excavation opened the way for the recovery of a larger building complex on Kossuth Square, Pécs. A wall-painting islet consisting of fragmented, but contigious pieces was unearthed, was a part of a larger painting decorating the northern wall of the room of the building complex in Severan times. The half man size figure surviving in bust was created with a brilliant brushwork using rich colours on a white background. The figure can be identified as Genius based on his attributes (the cornucopia and the crown) and the inscription of the painting. This paper discusses reconstruction possibilities of the wall-painting, painting techniques and materials applied, and deals with the possible functions of the room the wall-painting was unearthed in.

The Star-Beings and stones: Petroforms and the reflection of Native American cosmology, myth and stellar traditions

Native American myths, legends and oral traditions are rich with stories of giant beings existing in ancient times. They all talk of giant Thunderers or Thunder-beings, giant snakes and great Thunderbirds. Even the first humans were said to be giants, some half man, half animal. The Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) have a name for the giant beings that their ancestors encountered during the early migration to the grasslands of the Great Plains. They called them haztova hotoxceo or “two-faced star people”. Other Plains tribes such as the Black Feet, Gros Ventres and Lakota have similar stories.
 These old stories may have real world counterparts. Discovered in a prehistoric effigy-mound group (the Kolterman Mounds) in south-eastern Wisconsin (U.S.A.) is a human-like petroform or lithic effigy with a serpentine body and wing-like arms known as the ‘Star-being’. Configured in stone, it is approximately 20 metres in length with a red coloured, bison-shaped headstone aligned to face the summer solstice sunrise. However, it is not a lone or singular occurrence. The ‘Star-being’ is but one of two human-like petroform effigies discovered in south-eastern Wisconsin. There is another of almost the same size called the Starman which also has a red coloured, bison-shaped headstone aligned to face the summer solstice sunrise. Both the Starman and Star-Being lithic complexes are codified by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin as archaeological sites of Archaic age.
 Each giant lithic effigy appears to be a reflection of certain constellations and stars. The ‘Star-being’ is a mirror-image of the (western) constellations of Scorpius and Libra (with Sagittarius); the Starman is an almost exact representation of Taurus and the Pleiades. Both giant effigies are estimated to be 3500-6000 years old, embodiments of ancient legends and traditions writ large in stone and connected to ‘The People’ through ceremony and acts of cosmic renewal.

The Star-Beings and stones: Petroforms and the reflection of Native American cosmology, myth and stellar traditions

Native American myths, legends and oral traditions are rich with stories of giant beings existing in ancient times. They all talk of giant Thunderers or Thunder-beings, giant snakes and great Thunderbirds. Even the first humans were said to be giants, some half man, half animal. The Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) have a name for the giant beings that their ancestors encountered during the early migration to the grasslands of the Great Plains. They called them haztova hotoxceo or “two-faced star people”. Other Plains tribes such as the Black Feet, Gros Ventres and Lakota have similar stories.These old stories may have real world counterparts. Discovered in a prehistoric effigy-mound group (the Kolterman Mounds) in south-eastern Wisconsin (U.S.A.) is a human-like petroform or lithic effigy with a serpentine body and wing-like arms known as the ‘Star-being’. Configured in stone, it is approximately 20 metres in length with a red coloured, bison-shaped headstone aligned to face the summer solstice sunrise. However, it is not a lone or singular occurrence. The ‘Star-being’ is but one of two human-like petroform effigies discovered in south-eastern Wisconsin. There is another of almost the same size called the Starman which also has a red coloured, bison-shaped headstone aligned to face the summer solstice sunrise. Both the Starman and Star-Being lithic complexes are codified by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin as archaeological sites of Archaic age.Each giant lithic effigy appears to be a reflection of certain constellations and stars. The ‘Star-being’ is a mirror-image of the (western) constellations of Scorpius and Libra (with Sagittarius); the Starman is an almost exact representation of Taurus and the Pleiades. Both giant effigies are estimated to be 3500-6000 years old, embodiments of ancient legends and traditions writ large in stone and connected to ‘The People’ through ceremony and acts of cosmic renewal.

Leopard-men of the Congo in literature and popular imagination

The Anyoto leopard-men, a society from eastern Congo, operated between approximately 1890 and 1935. Until now the history of the leopard-men has inspired representations of Central Africa as a barbaric and disorderly place, and the idea that a secret association of men attacked innocent people and ate their limbs remains dominant in western culture. Since the early 20th century this image has been rather faithfully perpetuated in colonial ethnography and official reports and in popular representations of Africa. The Anyoto costumes in the collection of the Royal Museum for Central Africa have in particular inspired leopard-men iconography in western sources until today. There are certain striking similarities between western fictional literature on the Anyoto society and the factual sources, such as eyewitness reports from colonists and missionaries. Both share the historically rooted and culturally-specific representation of people from outside their own areas. In Europe there has been a long tradition of representing heathens and non-Europeans as being half man, half beast and behaving like animals, including eating their own species. Such cultural predispositions have stood in the way of understanding the real purposes of this society. Anyoto men’s activities were a way of maintaining local power relations, performing indigenous justice in secret and circumventing colonial government control.

Psychological aspects of Peyronie's disease.

BackgroundPeyronie’s disease (PD) is an acquired fibrotic disorder (disorganized collagen deposition) in the tunica albuginea. This scar tissue or “plaque” builds up in the tunica albuginea and results in penile deformities. PD can have a significant negative impact on mood and quality of life. Although the psychological impact of PD has generally been understudied, there has been a growing body of literature that has assessed the impact PD can have on men’s mental health and relationships. The aim of this study is to review the current literature focused on the psychological and relationship impact of PD.MethodsWe performed a MEDLINE search limited to English language literature using the terms: “Peyronie’s Disease AND Psychological OR Psychosocial”. Select references were then included for review.ResultsThe research in this area confirms the clinical impressions of men with PD, which is that depression and relationship distress is prevalent. Approximately 50% of men with PD suffer from depressive symptoms and upwards of 80% report distress related to PD. It appears that these rates remain relatively stable over time. High rates of relationship stress were also reported as over 50% of men reported that PD had negatively impacted their relationship. Qualitative work in this area helps us understand the nature of this distress. Regarding body image and self-esteem, men described themselves as “abnormal”, “ugly”, “disgusting”, “like a cripple”, and a “half man”, and some of them described feelings of shame. Many men reported that they lost their sexual confidence, or ability to initiate sex with a partner, while most reported a decrease in sexual interest. Additionally, many men expressed a sense of stigmatization and isolation. This led to difficulties in speaking about their disease with sexual partners or healthcare professionals.ConclusionsTaken in total, these studies indicate that those who actively treat PD should assess for distress or depressive symptoms. The standard assessment of PD could include the Peyronie’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ), and at least two questions on individual and relationship distress, or the use of a validated questionnaire to assess depression.

The Minotaur: a look borgiana

This article is seeking to point how, starting with a Jorge Luis Borges’ fantastic story “La Casa de Asterion” (1949), the concept of the image of the Greek mythic character Minotaur changed for the subsequent generations, acquiring a new connotation. To be able to comprehend in its entirely the redimensioning that the Bonaire born provided to this fantastic being, half man, half bull, it is necessary to read “La Casa de Asterión” in the light of the Greek tradition, for which we will recur to utilize the ancient story and the classical sources.

The Heads of the Godhead The Number of Heads/Faces of Yoginīs and Bhairavas in Early Śaiva Tantras

This paper examines the prescriptions for multi-headed representations of śaiva deities, in particular of yoginīs and Bhairavas, in early tantric or āgamic literature. Multi-headed deities appear mostly in the prescriptions of mantra images, usually without any discussion of their material representation. The paper shows that the four-faced mantric representation of Śiva, Bhairava and other divine creatures precedes the five-headed one, as is observable in epic literature and in art history. The fifth head is associated with tantric or āgamic śaivism, whose supreme deity is the five-headed Sadāśiva. As the five-headed mantra image becomes the standard, texts are rewritten to conform to this norm. Moreover, female deities are also often assimilated to this god and can be assigned four or five heads depending on the context. It is suggested as a hypothesis that the four-faced Śiva, or rather Īśvara, was perhaps adopted from the proto-tantric currents of the Atimārga (or from one particular current), from a representation whose Eastern or frontal face represented Śiva as half man, half woman (ardhanārīśvara).

A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Labyrinth of Dreams and Myths

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the framing story presents a noble Theseus and Hippolyta. They celebrate their wedding with pomp and ceremony, while the midnight action in an enchanted Athenian forest hints at the darker tragic aspects of their myth. The dream form, which characterizes most medieval allegory and symbolism provides a ready-made mold for Shakespeare's various myth mixtures. They blend and fuse, separate and come together as the midnight moonlight glimmers and fades. The threads connecting the dream fragments to mythic reality are extremely fine and tracing out the interconnections is a labyrinthine task. But Shakespeare has left a clue in his play to help us find our way through the dreams within dreams. This clue is Bottom. As “Bottom’s Dream” is so deep that it literally has no bottom, so packed with compressed allusion that it is almost impossible to fathom, it contains within itself most of the clues we need to work out the main strands that make up the fabric of Shakespeare’s Dream. Bottom’s transformation into a monster, half man, half beast, with his “head” taken off by Oberon, recalls the Minotaur, half man, half bull, who was slain by Theseus, the hero of Shakespeare’s play. It reminds us of Ariadne’s clew, the ball of thread, by which Theseus escaped from the labyrinth. It also reminds us of one of the meanings of Bottom’s name, the ball of winding thread. The episode in “Bottom’s Dream” of a lady passionately in love with a monster recalls Pasiphae and the bull. The fact Bottom in his metamorphosed state, transported to fairyland and doted on by Titania, has taken the place of Titania’s changeling, leads us to Phaedra’s monstrous love for her step-son Hippolytus. Since Phaedra became Theseus’s wife after the death of Hippolyta, whose wedding the play celebrates, this introduces a threat of evil hanging over the about-to-be-married couple. Bottom’s vision is not merely an anticipation of nuptial joys but a prophecy of post-nuptial catastrophe. When we remember the dark parts of the story hinted at by the play, all the lovely dreamy enchantment is overcast with a dark irony.

Half beast–half man: hybrid figures in animal art

This paper seeks to explore ideas about the human-animal relationship prevailing in Scandinavian, pre-Christian society from the perspective of representations in Nordic animal art. After an introduction on art, meaning and context, it focuses on expressions of hybridity. Hybrid motifs are represented in the animal art in complex and dense expressions argued to reveal a basic transformative logic which challenges and transcends settled categories. The investment of creativity in these motifs, an investment which is argued also to be present in the periphrastic style of Old Norse poetry, is taken as an indication of their essentiality in respect of ideas of a transgressive relationship between animals and humans.

Intrecci fra oggetti umani e mondo non umano in un'ottica psicodinamica

Mythical narration has always enjoyed mixing human with non human. Jove who changes into a swan. The Minotaur half man and half bull. The mystery of this union is so fascinating that artists and poets, across time have given us and continue to give us images of this mixture. From Dante to Magritte, up to Camilleri. So much so that we are tempted to ask ourselves if there really is such a net separation between human and non-human. If a landscape, for example, is only the background within which a piece of our existence takes place. Actually many of the inanimate objects that accompany us during life have an emotionally significant role. Winnicott, through the transitional object, tells us about our profound connection with the inanimate world at the beginning of life. Searles does the same in his work with psychotic patients. He maintains that relationships with the non human open the way to human relationships. Occupational therapists know that the non human is the very essence of their profession. In many patients the doing appears at first as something raw and disorganized. Which little by little becomes a form through the use of hands, enriched with thoughts, memories, emotions that can be shared with the therapist. In today’s world we are struck by the superabundance of objects that surround us. Which we throw away with ease. Or else accumulate in order to fill in the absence of the human.

The Blonde Goddess

The Blonde Goddess

Blood and Base Ball

Before Civil War, most popular outdoor activity in New York City may have been fighting. The prize ring was popular, but rioting in streets and public squares attracted more participants. In fact, there was little distinction between professional pugilists and gang brawlers. Heavyweights like John Morrissey were also employed shoulder-hitters by political gangs like Empire Club, run by Captain Isaiah Rynders, a leading Democrat, or Boys of Bill the Butcher Poole, hero of Know-Nothings.Rynders and his crew delighted in attacking abolitionist gatherings. In May 1850 they showed up in force at antislavery convention at Broadway Tabernacle. Speaker Frederick Douglass defused attack by inviting a racist orator to share platform. To argument that Negroes were a kind of ape, Douglass, whose father was probably a slave-owner, responded:Captain Rynders, do think I am a monkey?Oh no, replied Rynders, you are half a white man.Then I am half man and half monkey?Yes.And half brother to Captain Rynders?With audience united in laughter and applause, Douglass spoke his piece. It was a short-lived triumph, however. Threats of mayhem truncated conference and, several days later, while walking with two white women in Battery Park, Douglass was assaulted.1A year later, on May 27, 1851, Elysian Fields in Hoboken was scene of what Brooklyn Eagle described as... one of most earnest and angry promiscuous fights that has ever occurred in this country. The Germans of this city, with their families, assembled in large numbers in Hoboken, for celebration of their Maifest. Scarcely two hours had elapsed when they were set upon by a party of rascals called Short Boys.At first Germans were disposed to avoid a conflict, but finding it impossible to do so, they sallied out against them, and drove them to Elysian Fields. The Boys took refuge in a house kept by one McCarthy, which was attacked by Germans, and greatly injured. McCarthy, in defense of himself and his house, shot two of Germans with a double barreled gun, killing them, it is said.2Fortunately, this incident did not disrupt plans of tenants of Club Room at McCarty's Colonnade House. The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club had been challenged to play a home-and-home series by recently formed Washington Club. After a promising start, Knickerbockers had been, in words of D. L. Adams, in pursuit of pleasure under difficulties. There was then no rivalry, he recalled, as no other club was formed until 1850, and during these five years baseball had a desperate struggle for existence.3It happened that first match, on June 3, was away game at Red House Grounds in Harlem. Down 7-3 after two innings, Knickerbockers rallied to win 21-11. Two weeks later, clubs met for a thrilling return match at Elysian Fields, with home club managing a 22-20 victory. As usual, an entertainment was given after play at McCarty's Hotel.Since 1844, waiters at Colonnade House had been privy to world of New York and Knickerbocker Base Ball clubs, had watched their game develop in neighboring fields, and were a fixture at convivial dinners when plays and points were reviewed. The Stevens family, which owned Hoboken grounds, like many upperclass New Yorkers employed colored help. Michael McCarty, born in Ireland, employed his countrymen barkeepers but conformed to expectations of his gentlemen patrons by hiring black servants (including live-in waiter Jeremiah Jackson).This link between early baseball and black New Yorkers was soon severed, however. On March 7, 1852, Brooklyn Eagle reported that Mr. McCarty of Elysian Fields Hotel, was accidentally shot and killed by his own act yesterday. Sarah McCarty, 27 years old with four children under age of nine, was leftin charge. …

Leopard-men of the Congo in literature and popular imagination

The Anyoto leopard-men, a society from eastern Congo, operated between approximately 1890 and 1935. Until now the history of the leopard-men has inspired representations of Central Africa as a barbaric and disorderly place, and the idea that a secret association of men attacked innocent people and ate their limbs remains dominant in western culture. Since the early 20th century this image has been rather faithfully perpetuated in colonial ethnography and official reports and in popular representations of Africa. The Anyoto costumes in the collection of the Royal Museum for Central Africa have in particular inspired leopard-men iconography in western sources until today. There are certain striking similarities between western fictional literature on the Anyoto society and the factual sources, such as eyewitness reports from colonists and missionaries. Both share the historically rooted and culturally-specific representation of people from outside their own areas. In Europe there has been a long tradition of representing heathens and non-Europeans as being half man, half beast and behaving like animals, including eating their own species. Such cultural predispositions have stood in the way of understanding the real purposes of this society. Anyoto men's activities were a way of maintaining local power relations, performing indigenous justice in secret and circumventing colonial government control. Keywords : Anyoto, colonialism, representation, resistance. Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Vol. 46 (1) 2009: pp. 79-94

Editorial: The fight for children's nursing and children's nurses: has the ABPN lost its marbles?

The Association of British Paediatric Nurses, known affectionately as the ABPN, was founded 70 years ago this year. Children’s nurses from London gathered at the Princess York Hospital in the East End agreeing to stand together and fight for better recognition of children’s nursing. Undeterred by World War II, the lack of recognition of children’s rights, and nursing’s weak social position, the ABPN has continued to fight for children’s nursing and children’s nurses (McNamara-Goodger 2008). Today, the association funds scholarships, connects children’s nurses through a regular newsletter and is active in many other ways. Not least of these was establishing the Journal of Child Health Care which it now publishes in partnership with Sage Publications. The ABPN is like many of the institutions beloved by the British; its methods of influence are often discreet, but powerful none the less. The ABPN, along with other organisations in the UK concern themselves with children’s health care. These organisations include: The British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, The children and young peoples section of the Royal College of Nursing, ACT (Association for Children’s Palliative Care), Action for Sick Children, to name just a few. All of these institutions have illustrious histories. But what are these institutions for? Why should we care about all their past deeds, aren’t they just historical baggage? Similar questions may well have been circulating in the heads of some friends I took to the British Museum recently. They were on a trip over from Australia and I took them to see the Elgin Marbles. I led them through the Egyptian mummies and the Syrian statues to the hall, where the marbles adorn the walls. I pointed out the huge friezes that celebrate the culture of the horse and the statues that depict the defence of the city from mythical beasts that were half man, half horse. My friends and their children went OK, what’s next! While I