Historical Ambiguity Research Articles

Genesis of legal protection of animated audiovisual works

The article is devoted to studying of the history of legal protection of animated audiovisual works in the course of development of technologies for production of such works. The author establishes that the creation of ‘live’ images, which was carried out to conduct scientific experiments in physics and mathematics, eventually became the starting point for the development of animation and cinematography. The history of animation is divided into six main periods. These periods naturally do not coincide with the stages of development of legal protection of objects created by animation and cinematography. It is determined that the stages of animation development as a field of creative activity and a business area are distinguished by the criteria of technology and economic development. They are also associated with the development of cinematography due to the similarity of the production process. The conclusions reflect that it is difficult to divide the genesis of the legal protection of animated audiovisual works into stages due to the diversity of legal provisions in different jurisdictions. Using the example of the evolution of national legislation of certain countries of the world and the provisions of the Berne Convention, the article reveals theoretical approaches to the legal protection of animated audiovisual works. The article provides an overview of the following approaches: 1) protection of a cinematographic work (film) as a dramatic work if it is original and does not infringe the rights of the authors of dramatic works on which it was created; 2) protection of an animated work (film) as a photographic work, according to which protection is provided for a cinematographic work that does not have any features of originality; 3) protection of an animated work (film) as a moving image, which is inherent in US law; 4) protection of an animated work (film) as a cinematographic work, which provides for the protection of such a work as a separate object; 5) protection of an animated audiovisual work, which is a new approach to legal protection. It is concluded that the reason for the diversity of terminology such as cinematographic work, film, moving image, and audiovisual work in modern legislation is the result of the historical ambiguity of approaches to legal protection of this type of work.

Saeed’s, the protagonist, character in a comparative analysis in: Saeed Abi Al-Nahs the Pessoptimist “Al Mutasha’l” (Habibi, 2006) and Guardian of the Lost City “Haris Al Madena Ad Die'aa” (Nasrallah, 1998) novels

This study presents a depiction of the character of the protagonist (Saeed) in two contemporarynovels, Saeed Abi Al-Nahs the Pessoptimist by Emile Habibi, first published in 1974 (Habibi,1997), and (The Guardian of the Lost City) by Ibrahim Nasrallah (Nasrallah). Both arecontemporary Palestinian novelists. The first lived most of his life, died, and was buried inoccupied Palestine; the second lived most of his life in Jordan, and is still alive. Saeed's characterin the two novels plays the heroic role, who suffers from his own crises that shape hisrelationships in society as well as his perception of the difficult reality he lives in. This studypresents a comparison between these two ambiguous personalities who present a specialperception of unhappiness, anxiety, sadness, and falling into historical ambiguities and lifecircumstances. This comparison was made by examining the following aspects: An introductionto Saeed's character in the two novels: Saeed Abi Al-Nahs the Pessoptimist and the Guardian ofthe Lost City, Saeed character in The Strange Facts in the Disappearance of Saeed, Abi Al-Nahsthe Pessoptimist, Symbolism of Saeed Abi Al-Nahs the Pessoptimist character, Saeed Abi Al-Nahs the Pessoptimist who represents Emile Habibi, character formation of Saeed Abi Al-NahsThe Pessoptimist, the fateful fate of Saeed in Saeed Abi Al-Nahs the Pessoptimist, irony and ambiguity in The Guardian of the Lost City title, Saeed the Guardian of the Lost City, Saeed'sjourney in his city in The Guardian of the Lost City, and finally, a conclusion and results.

The Kurdish Janus: The intersocietal construction of nations

AbstractExisting accounts of Kurdish nationalism can be mapped onto the main theories of nationalism, that is, primordialism, ethnosymbolism and modernism. These theories, however, suffer, respectively, from essentialism, circularity and aporia, manifest in their common inability to digest the Janus‐like character of nations, that is, their display of simultaneous modernity and antiquity. This paper develops an alternative account through a critical application of the theory of ‘uneven and combined development’ (UCD) to the Republic of Kurdistan of 1946. The argument unfolds in three steps. First, we argue that the failure of mainstream theories of nationalism to explain the nation's historical ambiguity lies in their ‘internalism’. Second, we show that UCD overcomes internalism through its plural social ontology and enables a retheorising of nations as interactive products of the geopolitical mediation of historical capitalism's expansion through societal multiplicity. Central to this process was the emergence of nationalism as a defensive and emulative ideology of geopolitical self‐preservation. This involved reversing the sociological and political moments of the originary formation of the British imperial nation. We argue that this historical reversal underpins the Janus‐like form of nations, including the Kurdish nation. Third, we substantiate the argument through a brief case study of the Republic of Kurdistan.

Critical Analyses of Liberia’s Bicentennial Celebration: A Way Forward to a New Historical Narrative and Development Tangibility

The land known today as Liberia existed with rich civilizations; well institutionalized tribal governance and political structures that functioned well to meet the political, economic and spiritual demands before the Western Civilization that came along with repatriation of the Americo-Liberians or the settlers in the early 1800s. Before 1822, there were socio-political establishments and institutions, the likes of Condo Confederation of the Mandingo leader, King Sa Bosso Kamara, King Jack Ben of Jumbo Town of Grand Bassa, King Brister, a Dei ruler, King Zolu Duma or Peter Careful as known by European of Gon (the Capital City of his Kingdom on North Lofa River) and others are some of the historical indigenous figures and their leadership ability and kingdoms are illustrations of existing socio-political civilizations before the docking and berthing of the Elizabeth; a Ship that brought the first batch of America-Liberians ( Freed Slaves) in 1822 at Dozoa Island ( Providence Island), from North America. Further, this year marks the exact two centuries since the arrival of settlers. The event has been widely celebrated in the midst of incomparable development and economic successes as per the years of the nation’s existence; the so-celebrated class (the settlers) governed the State from 1847-1980 under the Republican and the True Whig Parties respectively with the same injustice and socioeconomic apartheid-like of leadership that they escaped from, from the USA, and from 1980-2022 under the so-called majority native people led-admirations, the country stays economically and developmentally bleeding . Thus, there is a dire need to a radically change the State’s behaviour by fighting corruption and prioritizing sustainable development and shared economic prosperity that has been compromised over the last 200 years to meet the aspiration of the people (Liberians). Hence, this paper aims at exploring some of the historical ambiguities and factors that led and contributed to incomparability of Liberia’s 200 years with her development and economic achievement. Nations’ success are measured by their tangible achievement not only how long they have been in nationhood.

Smile of the Crescent: Constructing a Future Identity Out of Historical Ambiguity in İstiklal Marşi (with Translation)

Abstract This article analyses identity construction in İstiklal Marşi (“Independence March”), the national anthem of the Republic of Turkey, within the theoretical framework of Eurocentric nation-state rhetoric. It argues that the continuing success of the text, written by Mehmet Akif [Ersoy] in 1921, is independent of the ideological stand of its author, and lies instead in its conveyance of a modern nation-state identity. In order to demonstrate this, the article first depicts the circumstances of the adoption of the national anthem and its immediate reception in Turkey. Afterwards, it examines identity construction in the anthem and reveals that the war against European forces determined the self-perception of the nation by both the negation and mirroring of the other. It concludes that, by foregrounding certain elements such as l’esprit frondeur and faith, and by interpreting the convention of Ottoman Divan poetry, the poet infused the cultural and aesthetic legacy of the past into the future needs of a nation-state.

Scattering matrix pole expansions for complex wave numbers inR-matrix theory

In this follow-up article to [Shadow poles in the alternative parametrization of R-matrix theory, Ducru (2020)], we establish new results on scattering matrix pole expansions for complex wavenumbers in R-matrix theory. In the past, two branches of theoretical formalisms emerged to describe the scattering matrix in nuclear physics: R-matrix theory, and pole expansions. The two have been quite isolated from one another. Recently, our study of Brune's alternative parametrization of R-matrix theory has shown the need to extend the scattering matrix (and the underlying R-matrix operators) to complex wavenumbers. Two competing ways of doing so have emerged from a historical ambiguity in the definitions of the shift $\boldsymbol{S}$ and penetration $\boldsymbol{P}$ functions: the legacy Lane \& Thomas "force closure" approach, versus analytic continuation (which is the standard in mathematical physics). The R-matrix community has not yet come to a consensus as to which to adopt for evaluations in standard nuclear data libraries, such as ENDF. In this article, we argue in favor of analytic continuation of R-matrix operators. We bridge R-matrix theory with the Humblet-Rosenfeld pole expansions, and unveil new properties of the Siegert-Humblet radioactive poles and widths, including their invariance properties to changes in channel radii $a_c$. We then show that analytic continuation of R-matrix operators preserves important physical and mathematical properties of the scattering matrix -- cancelling spurious poles and guaranteeing generalized unitarity -- while still being able to close channels below thresholds.

Reaching for texts: Evidence and ambiguity in narratives of lineage history in a northern Vietnamese village

ABSTRACT We examine how lineage elders in a rural northern Vietnamese village weave textual evidence into oral lineage histories. Through amateur historical detective work and performative rituals of belonging, lineage elders creatively manoeuvre around historical ambiguity to establish connections with prestigious historical figures and lineage branches elsewhere to claim local and national prestige.

How the diversity of human concepts of nature affects conservation of biodiversity.

Protecting nature has become a global concern. However, the very idea of nature is problematic. We examined the etymological and semantic diversity of the word used to translate nature in a conservation context in 76 of the primary languages of the world to identify the different relationships between humankind and nature. Surprisingly, the number of morphemes (distinct etymological roots) used by 7 billion people was low. Different linguistic superfamilies shared the same etymon across large cultural areas that correlate with the distribution of major religions. However, we found large differences in etymological meanings among these words, echoing the semantic differences and historical ambiguity of the contemporary European concept of nature. The principal current Western meaning of nature in environmental public policy, conservation science, and environmental ethics–that which is not a human artifact–appears to be relatively rare and recent and to contradict the vision of nature in most other cultures, including those of pre‐Christian Europe. To avoid implicit cultural bias and hegemony–and thus to be globally intelligible and effective–it behooves nature conservationists to take into account this semantic diversity when proposing conservation policies and implementing conservation practices.

Inventing Culinary Heritage through Strategic Historical Ambiguity

Studies have shown how organisations create and use historical narratives to ‘outpast’ competing narratives, in attempts to claim authenticity through antiquity. We extend this work by exploring how organisations deliberately use historical narratives located in a vaguely defined past as a tool to craft legitimate historical narratives of a common cultural heritage. We theorise a link between strategic ambiguity and historical narratives by explaining how organisational actors construct a vaguely defined past and how historical narratives help these actors invent a cultural heritage. Conducting an in-depth case study of a culinary movement based in Istanbul, Turkey, we identify three forms of ambiguity that enable the construction of a common cultural heritage. These forms include ambiguity of origin, ambiguity of artefacts and ambiguity of ownership, and enable actors to concretise and perform a vaguely defined past in the present. Our study advances understanding of organisational uses of the past and suggests the term ‘strategic historical ambiguity’ to capture how ambiguity is deliberately used as a tool to craft legitimate historical narratives of a common cultural heritage.

Some Critical Remarks on the Migration of Iranian Poets to India in the Safavid Era

AbstractMany scholars still firmly believe that the Safavid period was one of hostility towards poets and men of letters. Numerous learned men fled Iran to India, for both religious and ideological reasons, which in turn affected both the quality and quantity of Persian literature from this era. There is evidence that corroborates this line of argument, but there are other socio-political, religious and cultural factors that must also be addressed in relation to this historical phenomenon. Drawing on original sources, this paper aims to analyze this historical ambiguity.

Cuéntame: Narrative in the Ecclesial Present by Natalia Imperatori-Lee

Reviewed by: Cuéntame: Narrative in the Ecclesial Present by Natalia Imperatori-Lee Michelle A. Gonzalez Cuéntame: Narrative in the Ecclesial Present. By Natalia Imperatori-Lee. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018. 166 pp. $35.00. "Tell me a story." Before one even opens the book, the title of Natalia Imperatori-Lee's contribution to contemporary ecclesiology invites the reader to listen to and learn from grassroots stories that inform her constructive understanding of the church. Drawing heavily from U.S. Latino/a and Latin American theologies and literature, this interdisciplinary study explores the manner in which different types of narratives can inform the story of the contemporary church. After a brief introduction, chapter 1 presents history as narrative in all its complexity, and proposes a multi-local view of the Americas that emphasizes historical ambiguity. Latina spirituality and popular religion feature prominently in this chapter. The following chapter focuses on one particular genre of narrative, literature, as a source for [End Page 82] theology through Imperatori-Lee's analysis of "The Battle of the Virgins" the short story by Rosario Ferré and the art of Yolanda López. Literature, in this chapter, is a source of data for ecclesiology, particularly through its connection to everyday life. The emphasis on literature continues in chapter 3, where the novel El Hombre, la Hembra, y el Hambre by Daína Chaviano serves as a theological source. Incorporating the insights of the late Mujerista theologian Ada María Isasi-Díaz, Imperatori-Lee lifts them as models for approaching a thick description of the contemporary ecclesiological community. The emphasis on two women's voices is a methodological gesture to counter their historical exclusion from ecclesiological constructions. Chapter 4 turns to demographic data that points to an increasing decline in traditional ecclesial affiliation and proposes new ecclesial models that are lay led rather than parish focused as an alternative for the future of the church in the Americas. The final chapter concludes with aspects of her narrative ecclesiology, highlighting the importance of the sense of the faithful and connaturality, or shared reality. Some themes found in her constructive proposal are interculturality, the importance of the laity, a clear awareness of the fragility of traditional ecclesial institutions, and a lifting of the marginalized. From the outset, Imperatori-Lee highlights her methodology as one that begins from the ground up, using human experience as the starting point of her ecclesiology. The combination of accessibility and depth make this a truly significant book. Imperatori-Lee's ability to present complex theological analysis in an accessible voice makes the text highly appropriate in the classroom, particularly in courses that focus on ecclesiology, constructive systematic theology, and Latino/a theology. In addition to its pedagogical value, this book makes significant contributions to the discipline as a whole. The underlying premise of the book, that the church, like us, has stories, reminds us that the church is very much alive and is not a stagnant institution. In addition, by highlighting the manner in which the particularity of the Latino/a experience contributes to the broader [End Page 83] narrative of the global church, Imperatori-Lee argues that the church cannot be reduced to one exclusive narrative. At the same time, one must be cautious not to create an essentialized notion of what a Latino/a or Cuban-American ecclesiology looks like. Imperatori-Lee is very clear that the book emerges from her particularity. What is not clear is how that particularity comes to apply to one national or racial-ethnic group as a whole. While Imperatori-Lee warns against universalizing her narrative, one is left to wonder if this text should be read as a Latino/a ecclesiology or merely her individual contribution to ecclesiology. This is a tension that many scholars in the field who foreground their identity or characterize their work within a particular cultural or racial-ethnic group must constantly negotiate. While the title of the book is Narrative in the Ecclesial Present, highlighting its emphasis on narrative, the book could also have easily been titled Narratives in the Ecclesial Present, highlighting the complex stories that create the story of the church today. As Imperatori-Lee admits...

An update on classification, genetics, and clinical approach to mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL).

Mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) is an uncommon diagnosis, representing only about 2-5% of acute leukemia cases. The blast cells of MPAL express multilineage immunophenotypic markers and may have a shared B/T/myeloid phenotype. Due to historical ambiguity in the diagnosis of MPAL, the genetics and clinical features of this disease remain poorly characterized. Based on the 2008 and 2016 World Health Organization classifications, myeloid lineage is best determined by presence of myeloperoxidase, while B and T lymphoid lineages are demonstrated by CD19 and cytoplasmic CD3 expression. MPAL typically carries a worse prognosis than either acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL). Given the rarity of MPAL, there is a lack of prospective trial data to guide therapy; treatment generally relies on ALL-like regimens followed by consolidation chemotherapy or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). Here, we review the updated classification, biology, clinical features, and treatment approach to MPAL.

Capitalized Body Parts: Race, Sexuality, and Commodification in Harry Crews's <em>Car</em> (1972)

This article explores racial and sexual discourses that mediate the experience of post-Fordist commodification. It does so by focusing on tropes of corporeal dismantling and reassembly that appear throughout Harry Crews’s 1972 novel Car. After considering the political, conceptual, and historical ambiguities of the novel’s representation of capital as a seduction of and assault on white masculine embodiment, the article concludes with a meditation on what cultural analysis might stand to gain from accounts of fetishism that locate this concept at the intersections of race, sexuality, and commerce.

Natural occurrence of all eight stereoisomers of a neosecurinane structure from Flueggea virosa

All eight stereoisomers (1–8) of a neosecurinane-type Securinega alkaloid were isolated and identified from a Chinese medicinal plant, Flueggea virosa. Structures of the four pairs of enantiomers were characterized and differentiated from one another based on comprehensive spectroscopic analyses especially specific optical rotation and electronic circular dichroism measurements. While clarifying some historical ambiguities, the discovery of these molecules also brings new puzzles to the natural products community, which will be surely leading to further attention and studies. This case investigation also reminds that future researchers who work with natural products should pay more attention to the enantiomeric purity of their samples.

Linguistic Alterity and the Multiplicitous Self: Critical Phenomenologies in Latina Feminist Thought

Latina feminists like Gloria Anzaldúa and Mariana Ortega have developed anti‐essentialist accounts of selfhood that are responsive to the problem of alterity and hermeneutic alienation experienced by multiplicitous subjects, understood as those who must navigate between multiple cultural norms and often conflicting interpretive traditions (due to colonial legacies and intersectional oppressions). These accounts can be fortified by examining the sense of inarticulacy that arises from having to name conditions of existence undergirded by social and historical contradictions and ambiguities—especially under the experiential stress of gendered social violence, cultural trauma, and state terror. To address phenomenological accounts of “linguistic terrorism” and the role language plays in multiplicitous accounts of selfhood, I turn to a strategic reading of Nietzsche's existential conception of the self as a living multiplicity, and to his related account of the impoverishment of language. In doing so, I argue more generally that philosophies of agency that critique agential narratives of rupture, instability, and interpretive loss (as part of liberal emancipatory projects) often do so without sufficient attunement to the ways concepts of alterity and liminality operate in North–South contexts or Latina feminist thought. I end by highlighting the critical, decolonial impetus of these concepts as responses to cultural violence.

Scylla and charybdis 2.0: reconstructing colonial Spanish American territories between metropolitan dream and effective control, historical ambiguities and cybernetic determinism

This paper tries to outline the main methodological obstacles that have to be addressed and overcome at reconstructing late colonial Spanish American territories and their development by means of a historical Geographic Information System (HGIS). First we try to show how historians with a broad gamut of research interests could profit from such a territorial HGIS infrastructure for that time and space. In a second step we try to show how certain aspects complicate the task. These include: vernacular concepts of territory (definitions of what actually is a “province”); the quality, focus, and methods of data gathering in contemporary geographic descriptions, cartographies, and other sources; the lack of definition of interior borders; the sometimes contradictory divisions in military, civil, ecclesiastical, and financial districts; as well as the general discrepancy between administrative control and political claims. And as if these aspects were not enough, there are the competing claims on territories of sovereignty in Latin America, which —by applying the uti possidetis juris principle— are largely based on colonial territories. In the last part, we outline the basic concept of a spatial database which tries to respond to the raised issues and furthermore incorporates a chronological axis. The model is illustrated by giving the example of the Puno-region.

Historical Ambiguity: Is the Alliance between China and DPRK still Subsisting?

Historical Ambiguity: Is the Alliance between China and DPRK still Subsisting?

Constructing Familiarity in Finnish–Russian Karelia: Shifting Uses of History and the Re-Interpretation of Regions

This paper will present evidence of regionalization processes taking shape in “Finnish–Russian” Karelia based on the construction of “familiarity”. This region-building strategy harks back to the well-known Euroregion model developed within the context of European integration. However, if Euroregions can be seen as largely public sector projects of “place-making” the construction of familiarity is a much more socially grounded process. The major shift under consideration is that of transcending the national appropriations of Karelia that have characterized Finnish, Russian and Soviet policies in the past. The focus will be on two aspects: (1) notions of a common regional space in order to promote cross-border co-operation and (2) the re-framing of history and the influence of tourism in developed multifaceted (partly post-national) regional ideas of Karelia. Rather than understand Karelia within the framework of nationalizing historiographies, these contemporary interpretations depict Karelia as a borderland—as a space of cultural and historical ambiguity marked but not dominated by alternating phases of Russification, Finnishization and Sovietization.

Land, Race, and Citizenship: The Political Spaces of Monumentalism in South Africa

This essay discusses the nature of (old and new) national monuments in post-apartheid South Africa which even now, twenty years after the first free elections, remains a democracy in transition. The discourse of monumentalism in transitional political systems is marked by concrete political interests that, in the case of South Africa, are centered on questions of race and citizenship as well as on territorial claims. Monumentalism in South Africa is inextricably linked to the spatial organization of political community, before and after apartheid, and as such it runs parallel to developments in public law and constitutionalism. On the one hand, officially sanctioned forms of monumentalism, such as the Voortrekker Monument, the Taal Monument, or Pretoria’s Freedom Park, tend to camouflage the political and social tensions of post-apartheid South Africa. On the other hand, new forms of monumentalism create accidental and liminal spaces that expose the political paradoxes and historical ambiguities of the new South Africa as in the case of the spatial relationship between the Women’s Monument and the cooling towers of the power station, painted with ANC motifs, in the urban landscape of Bloemfontein.

Introduction: The What, When and Where of Live Art

Live Art is a contested category, not least because of the historical, disciplinary and institutional ambiguities that the term often tends to conceal. Live Art is used to describe a wide range of ...