Remote Past Research Articles

Vahit Lütfi Salcı’s Studies on Alawi Music as an Example of Anthropological Orthogenesis

AbstractVahit Lutfi Salci’s studies on polyphonic Alawi music are among the most interesting examples ofthe Early Republican Turkish elite’s seeking a pure national essence harmonious with Western music.According to Salci, Turkish folk music is divided into two main branches: Manifest and secret. Secretfolk music represented by Alawi tribes organized as closed circles is the authentic expression of pureTurkish culture, since it has been isolated from the cosmopolite Ottoman culture and the urban musicwhich was stigmatized as Oriental music. At the same time, this secret folk music is the pride of theTurkish nation against the civilized Western world since it involves polyphonic elements denotingharmony and counterpoint. The aim of this study is to scrutinize this formulation developed by Salci about secret Alawi music as an example of anthropological orthogenesis and discuss its relationwith the official music policy. Anthropological orthogenesis is a concept developed by the authorof this article, inspired by both Grunebaum’s distinction between orthogenetic and heterogeneticcultural change and Neuman’s adaptation of this concept to Cevdet Pasha’s ideas. In this article,orthogenesis is defined as the interpretation of heterogenetic cultural changes, which are basedon foreign models, as orthogenetic changes, descending from native sources and is divided asarchaeological and anthropological orthogenesis. Archaeological orthogenesis refers to the discoursethat seeks the source of cultural change in the remote past of the nation as in the Turkish HistoryThesis. On the other hand, anthropological orthogenesis refers to the discourse that seeks a nationalessence harmonious with Western culture in closed communities of the villages and attempts to builda narrative of historical continuity as Salci did. Keywords: Alawi Music, Sociology of Music, Cultural Influence, Turkish Music, Vahit Lutfi Salci,Orthogenesis

Analysing the role of Kollam Port in the maritime intercourse of Kerala

Kerala had maintained active trade relations with countries of outside world from very ancient time onwards. Among the ancient Port of Kerala, Kollam or Quilon had enjoyed a prominent place from the remote past and has a long drawing attraction worldwide. It is an old sea Port town on the Arabian coast had a sustained commercial reputation from the days of Phoenicians and the Romans. The spices which produced Kollam had great demand in oriental world. Early Christian and Arab travellers spoke very high of Kollam and its commercial significance. The Kollam was one of the most important Ports in the east west trade of the Indian Ocean. The present paper seeks to analyse the space of Kollam in the maritime relations of Kerala. In 2014 the Port trust had discovered thousands of Chinese coins and Stone Age weapons from the Kollam Port, which is revealing the amazing historic background and trade culture of the Port city. This is first time that these much of artefacts are getting from a Port in India. The emergence of antiques from Kollam Port area reveals that Kollam was the most famous Port city in India which served as the business hub of people from China , Middle East, Dutch, Portugal, Brazil and other Eastern Mediterranean Countries. The archaeologists believe that there is an engulfed city in the seabed of current Kollam Port. It is an established fact that Kollam was a repository of all sorts of conceivable commercial centre. For a long time and today Kollam was famous as an emporium of the east.

Semantic and episodic memory performances of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and minor neurocognitive disorder

AbstractBackgroundModified Dead‐Alive Test (M‐DAT), which was developed and validated by Ozel‐Kizil et. al. (2018) evaluates semantic and episodic memory together. The original form was developed by Kapur et al. (1989), however it was not adequately studied.MethodM‐DAT consists of 45 names of celebrities who had died in remote past (15), died in the last five years (15) and who are still alive (15) and participants are asked whether they are alive or dead. Correct number of items concerning celebrities who died in remote past gives the semantic memory performance, while half of the the sum of correct number of items concerning celebrities who are still alive and had died in the last five years is accepted as episodic memory performance. Semantic and episodic memory performances of patients with DSM‐5 major neurocognitive disorder due to Alzheimer’s Disease‐MND‐AD (n=69), patients with DSM‐5 minor neurocognitive disorder‐MiND (n=27) who were admitted to geriatric psychiatry clinic and volunteered healthy controls‐HC (n=29) were compared. The groups were compared either by one‐way ANOVA or Kruskal‐Wallis tests and Bonferroni or Mann Whitney U tests was used for post‐hoc analysis.ResultMND‐AD group was older and less educated. Also MND‐AD group had lower MMSE scores while MiND and HCs had similar scores. MND‐AD had lower semantic and episodic scores than MiND and HC, also the scores of MiND group were lower than HCs. Both M‐DAT semantic and episodic scores were positively correlated with education in the whole sample (R=.53, p<0.001; R=.43, p<0.001). Although semantic memory performances were higher than episodic memory performances in all groups, two scores were positively correlated (R=.71, p<0.001).ConclusionThe results of the study suggested a semantic memory impairment as well as episodic memory deficit in patients with major and minor neurocognitive disorder. Although previous studies have conflicting results, semantic memory deficit early in Alzheimer’s disease and in mild cognitive impairment was also reported (3). M‐DAT is an alternative for the assessment of semantic memory that is usually evaluated by verbal fluency tests. Evaluating episodic and semantic memory together is an important advantage however M‐DAT is affected by education and the items require updating.

Lineage through time analyses have their limitations: the case of the New Zealand flora

ABSTRACT Lineage through time plots (LTTs) are often used to explore past patterns of lineage diversification and community assembly. However, as they are based solely on extant species their ability to accurately depict past events can be questioned. Here, simulation models based on neutral processes are used to explore immigration and extinction scenarios to assist with interpretation of LTT plots generated from molecular clock age estimates for a nearly complete set of extant New Zealand vascular plant genera. With significant genus turnover, model simulations yield smooth exponential and linear semi-log LTT plots. Abrupt changes in extinction and immigration rates imposed in the scenarios caused only slight alterations of the curves. The vast majority of New Zealand vascular plant genera derive from trans-oceanic dispersal, and LTT plots generated from divergence dates and fossil data indicate consistently high turnover. Even major geological and climatic events leave minor signatures on LTT plots. Most notably, the maximum Oligocene Marine Transgression (27–22 Ma), when at least 85% of the current landmass was inundated, isn’t clearly registered. By themselves, LTT plots shed little light on the biotic effects of climatic or geomorphic change in the remote past and need to be interpreted in the light of fossil and geological data.

Simulating time-dependent thermoelectric transport in quantum systems

We put forward a gauge-invariant theoretical framework for studying time-resolved thermoelectric transport in an arbitrary multiterminal electronic quantum system described by a non-interacting tight-binding model. The system is driven out of equilibrium by an external time-dependent electromagnetic field (switched on at time $t_0$) and possibly by static temperature or electrochemical potential biases applied (from the remote past) between the electronic reservoirs. Numerical simulations are conducted by extending to energy transport the wave-function approach developed by Gaury et al. and implemented in the t-Kwant library. We provide a module that allows us to compute the time-resolved heat currents and powers in addition to the (already implemented) charge currents, and thus to simulate dynamical thermoelectric transport through realistic devices, when electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions can be neglected. We apply our method to the non-interacting Resonant Level Model and verify that we recover the results reported in the literature for the time-resolved heat currents in the expected limits. Finally, we showcase the versatility of the library by simulating dynamical thermal transport in a Quantum Point Contact subjected to voltage pulses.

An Early Cretaceous branchiopod community in northeastern China: Discovery of daphniid (Cladocera: Anmopoda) ephippia in the early assemblage of the Jehol Biota

Freshwater branchiopod communities exhibit morphological and ecological stasis with the remote past. Here, we describe a new freshwater branchiopod community from the Lower Cretaceous Dabeigou Formation near Weichang County, northern Hebei Province (China), representing an early assemblage of the famous Jehol Biota. This branchiopod community consists of notostracans, conchostracans and cladocerans. Our new discovery of cladoceran ephippia in this community is described and discussed. These Ceriodaphnia-like ephippia are saddle-shaped in outline, and each ephippium has one oval egg with its long axis parallel to dorsal margin. They represent the oldest known ephippia record from China. Our discovery broadens our knowledge about reconstruction of the early assemblage and palaeoecology of the Jehol Biota.

Cognitive Intervention Targeting Autobiographical Memory Impairment in Patients With Schizophrenia Using a Wearable Camera: A Proof-of-Concept Study.

Autobiographical memory (AM) impairment in schizophrenia affects the richness of detail in personal memories and is one of the major predictors of patients’ social functioning. Despite the empirical evidence attributing these difficulties to a defective encoding process, cognitive remediation interventions targeting AM in schizophrenia often focus on the remote past, making it difficult to address the consequences of poor encoding. Our study evaluated the efficacy of an innovative approach using a wearable camera (NarrativeClip®) in reinforcing the encoding of recent daily life events in patients with schizophrenia. Seventeen patients with schizophrenia and 15 control participants wore the camera during four consecutive days. Then, memories of events experienced during these days were reinforced using different types of retrospective, i.e. interventions designed to promote a re-encoding of the event. We evaluated two types of retrospective using the camera pictures: a simple visual retrospective and a visual retrospective associated with a specific event-cueing (VisR+EC). These two techniques were compared to a verbal retrospective and to the absence of retrospective. Our results showed that the VisR+EC allowed patients to retrieve as many details as the control group at a two-week interval. However, patients’ memories remained impaired when a simple visual or a verbal retrospective was used. Our study provides encouraging results to foster the use of a wearable camera in individualized cognitive remediation programs for AM impairment in schizophrenia.

MON-347 Osteitis Fibrosa Cystica and Pathological Fractures: The Classic but Neglected Skeletal Manifestation of Primary Hyperparathyroidism

Background: Osteitis fibrosa cystica is one of the classic manifestations of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT), yet it has become increasingly rare due to early detection of PHPT. Clinical case: A 37-year-old woman was referred to our hospital for fixation of multiple fractures. Before transferring to our hospital, she was admitted to a local hospital due to right distal humerus and left tibial fractures without history of trauma. During the hospitalization, a new fracture at left femur had occurred. Her past medical history was significant for fractures of right shoulder, left elbow and right femur when she fell on the ground 5 years ago and treated by fixation. She had a history of kidney stones in the remote past. She denied family history of calcium or skeletal disorders.Clinical examination revealed gross deformities at right elbow, left thigh and painful swelling of the left tibia. On HEENT examination, there were no palpable neck masses.Upon review of plain radiographs from outside hospital, we found not only fractures but diffuse osteopenia and brown tumors at multiple sites including shaft of right humerus, right proximal radius, left proximal femoral shaft and left tibia. Skull X-ray showed salt-and-pepper appearance. There were prominent subendplate densities at multiple lumbar spines (Rugger-jersey spine). These findings were consistent with osteitis fibrosa cystica which prompted further laboratory investigation for PHPT. The patient had a high corrected serum calcium level of 13.6 (8.6-10.0) mg/dl, low serum phosphate of 2.2 (2.5-4.5) mg/dL, serum creatinine of 1.16 (0.51-0.95) mg/dL, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 60.29 ml/min, high serum alkaline phosphatase of 1,482 (35-105) U/L. The serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) level was significantly high at 3,850 (15-65) pg/mL. Vitamin D level was low at 5.98 (≥30) ng/mL.The patient was diagnosed with PHPT. The left lower parathyroid adenoma was identified by 99mTc-Sestamibi scan with single photon emission computed tomography and neck ultrasound. Given severe skeletal manifestations and extremely elevated PTH level, urgent parathyroidectomy was performed. A 2.5-cm parathyroid adenoma was removed which was histologically confirmed by a pathologist. Postoperatively, she developed a hungry bone syndrome which resolved 10 months after. Clinical lesson: In current practice, skeletal manifestation of PHPT is uncommon with a reported incidence of 1.4% in US. Osteitis fibrosa cystica is a radiographic feature of PHPT characterized by demineralized skeleton, salt-and-pepper appearance of the skull, subperiosteal resorption of the phalanges, bone cysts, and brown tumors. Although PHPT has evolved to asymptomatic disease in majority of patients, the classic skeletal involvement should not be overlooked, particularly in young patients who present with multiple pathological fractures.

The Habitual Past in Amele, Papua New Guinea

This study attempts to clarify the tense systems in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea; particularly, the past tense and habitual past forms in the sample three languages in the area: Amele, Waskia, and Kobon. This study thus investigates past tense and habitual features, and discusses how the people in the area interpret past events. The study then discusses how these people map their temporal frames in their grammars (“anthropology of time,” Gell 1996). To aid analysis, I have collected data through observing descriptive grammars and fieldwork, finding that Amele exhibits three types of past tense and habitual tense forms, as in (1). Kobon has two distinct simple and remote past tenses, as in (2). Kobon has habitual aspect with the help of the verb “to be.” Waskia, in contrast, has a distinction between realis and irrealis meanings, and the realis forms can indicate past and habitual meanings (two habitual forms: one is include in realis, another is with the help of the verb “stay”), as shown in (3). Amele: Today’s past: Ija hu-ga. “I came (today).” Yesterday’s past: Ija hu-gan. “I came (yesterday).” Remote past: Ija ho-om. “I came (before yesterday).” Habitual past (by adding the habitual form “l”): Ija ho-lig. “I used to come.” (2) Kobon (Davies 1989): Simple past: Yad au-ɨn. “I have come.” Remote past: Nöŋ-be. “You saw” Habitual aspect (by using the verb “mid” to be): Yad nel nipe pu-mid-in. “I used to break his firewood.” (3) Waskia (Ross and Paol 1978): Realis: Ane ikelako yu naem. “I drank some water yesterday.” (simple past) Realis: Ane girako yu no-kisam “In the past I used to drink water” (habitual past) Habitual (by using the verb “bager“ (stay)): Ane girako yu nala bager-em. “In the past I used to drink water.“ We claim that Amele and Kobon have remoteness distinctions; near and remote past, but no such distinction appears in Waskia. The observed habitual usages differ to each other. Nevertheless, the three languages have a grammatical viewpoint of habitual past mapping.

Regal Resonances: Ovid, theprinceps, and the Remote Past inFasti2, 4, and 6

AbstractThrough a network of verbal echoes and allusions, Ovid invites readers to forge connections between three events disparate in time and in their placement in the Fasti: the rape and suicide of Lucretia (2.685-852); the death of Remus (4.807-62); and the murder of Servius Tullius (6.585-636). The many lexical and thematic correspondences between these regal narratives have largely gone unnoticed yet combine to offer powerful statements about the relationship of Rome’s past to its present and future. The narratives expose concerns about the reemergence of monarchic power and tensions within the domus Augusta brought about by deaths, scandals, and dynastic struggles. Together the three narratives can be read as a meditation on contemporary political affairs in late Augustan and early Tiberian Rome.

Association of cataract and sun exposure in geographically diverse populations of India: The CASE study. First Report of the ICMR-EYE SEE Study Group

To determine the prevalence of cataract and its association with sun exposure and other environmental risk factors in three different geographically diverse populations of India. Population based cross sectional study during 2010-2016. People aged ≥ 40 years residing in randomly sampled villages were enumerated (12021) and 9735 (81%) underwent ophthalmic evaluation from plains, hilly and coastal regions (3595, 3231, 2909 respectively). A detailed questionnaire-based interview about outdoor activity in present, past and remote past, usage of sun protective measures, exposure to smoke, and detailed ophthalmic examination including assessment of uncorrected and best corrected visual acuity, measurement of intraocular pressure, slit lamp examination, lens opacities categorization using LOCS III and posterior segment evaluation was done. Lifetime effective sun exposure was calculated using Melbourne formula and expressed as quintiles. These were supplemented with physical environmental measurements. Lifetime sun exposure hours, smoking, indoor kitchen smoke exposure and their association with cataract and subtypes. Prevalence of cataract calculated based on lens opacities or evidence of cataract surgery. Cataract was identified in 3231 (33.3%) participants. Prevalence of cataract in males (32.3%) and females (34.1%) was similar. Nuclear cataract was the commonest sub-type identified in 94.7% of affected eyes. Sun exposure had a significant association with cataract with odds ratio (OR) increasing from 1.6 (95% Confidence Intervals [CI]: 1.4, 1.9) in 3rd quintile, to 2.6 (CI: 2.2, 3.1) in 4th quintile and 9.4 (CI: 7.9, 11.2) in 5th quintile (p<0.0001). Cataract also showed a significant association with smoking (OR: 1.4, CI: 1.2, 1.6) and indoor kitchen smoke exposure (OR: 1.2, CI: 1.0-1.4). Nuclear cataract showed a positive association with increasing sun exposure in 3rd (β coefficient 0.5, CI:0.2-0.7), 4th (β: 0.9, CI: 0.7-1.1) and 5th (β: 2.1, CI:1.8-2.4) quintiles of sun exposure, smoking (β: 0.4, CI: 0.2-0.6) and indoor kitchen smoke exposure (β: 0.3, CI: 01-0.5) while cortical cataract showed a positive association with sun exposure only in 5th quintile (β: 2.6, CI:1.0-4.2). Posterior subcapsular cataract was not associated with any of the risk factors. Cataract is associated with increasing level of sun exposure, smoking and exposure to indoor kitchen smoke.

Epilepsy over the centuries: a disease survived at the time.

In this study, we have made a historical review of epilepsy through the centuries, from pre-Christian era to the present time. The epileptic was examined by Hippocrates, the first to recognize epilepsy as a disease and not as a supernatural manifestation called Morbus Sacer. The dark years of the Middle Ages were the worst for the disease, where the sufferer was even subjected to torture. The period of the Renaissance saw the epileptic isolated from society while the Enlightenment century improved the knowledge about the disease, thanks also to the first autopsies that showed post traumatic neurological lesions. However, some stigmata of the disease that prevented the marriage of epileptics persisted. It was the prelude to the years 1800-1900, characterized by Lombrosian concepts and Nazi convictions. Lombroso included epileptics among delinquents and criminals, identifying them as such on the basis of physical alterations. Nazi racism introduced the concept of eugenics excluding the epileptic from the so-called pure race. Today, epilepsy is considered a treatable neurological disorder. Morbus Sacer belongs to a remote past.

Why are myths true: Plato on the veracity of myths

Distinguishing myths in terms of their veracity had almost been neglected in Plato’s studies. In this article, the author focuses on Plato’s controversial claims about the truth-status of myths. An attempt is made to elucidate what he really had in mind when assessing the veracity of myths. The author claims that Plato, while discussing the epistemic status of myths, actually distinguished three kinds of myths in regard to what they narrate. Additionally, it is argued that he endorses three different kinds of truth value for myths: they can be either true or false, probable, or factually false but conveying some valuable truths. In the Republic II and III, Plato implicitly distinguishes the truth value of theological myths from the truth value of aetiological and normative ones, each of which are explained in detail in the article. In Plato’s view, the theological myths can be either true or false, because he determines the divine nature a priori. When ascribing the probable character to myths, Plato has in mind mostly aetiological myths. Given that we are unable to establish the truths on the origins and development of many phenomena, because they originated in the remote past, what we can do is to reconstruct plausible and consistent myths of these phenomena, which, among others, might contain the arguments and even proofs, such as the proof of the cosmic destruction in Plato’s own myth in the Politicus. In the third case, when Plato says that myths are lies, yet containing some truth, he had in mind myths which might be the product of our imagination like eschatological myths, for example. Being a kind of fiction, they are false, in the sense they do not correspond to any real state of affairs. Since they convey profound ethical norms or religious insights, they can be regarded as true.

Two Versions of Ni‘matallāh Haravī’s Book on the History of Afghans

The book by Niʿmatallāh Haravī, the Mughal chronicler of the early seventeenth century, was the first and the only attempt to recount the entire history of Afghans (Pashtuns) in the vein of Persian medieval historiography. The text of the book has survived in two versions which strongly vary in its content, volume and structure. An opinion prevails that the book’s extended version (Tārīkh-i Khānjahānī va Makhzan-i Afghānī) is the original author’s edition, while its smaller variant (Makhzan-i Afghānī) is a later revised edition, probably compiled by another person. The article offers a correction of this view through the rereading of the author’s introduction and afterword to the book, and the analysis of the work’s structure and occasional editorial remarks. It is very likely that the book’s extant versions were different editions of its first preliminary variant (1610–1611) which bore the title Makhzan-i Afghānī (“The Afghan Treasury”) and contained mainly mythologized stories about Afghans’ poorly known origins and remote past. The book’s extended version (1612–1615), supplemented with data from authoritative written sources on the history of the Afghans in North India in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern times, was bound to meet the standards of professional historiographical literature. Besides, this version was supposed to gain official endorsement of the book’s dedicatee, the Afghan general Khānjahān Lōdī, whose name appeared in its title (Tārīkh-i Khānjahānī). An unknown compiler of the third edition, which was translated into Pashto in the beginning of the eighteenth century, took as a basis the original short variant of the book, having added to it selected material from the extended second edition.

MINARETS AS EXISTENCE OF THE ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE IN URBAN ENVIRONMENT OF AZERBAIJAN CITIES

Azerbaijan is a country of rich artistic and architectural heritage with the sources in remote past. The country has been at the crossroads of important trade routes, leading from Asia to Europe for long times. Islam spread on the territory of Azerbaijan in 7th -8th centuries. There were Muslim states on the territory of Azerbaijan such as Shirvanshahs with the capital in Shamakhi and Ravvadids (979-1054) with the capital Tabriz, Sheddadids (951- 1088) with the capital Ganja. At the same time, there were a large number of worshipers - Yaqut al-Hamavi (8th century), he noted that there were major temples of fire worshipers in the cities of South Azerbaijan (in present-day Iran), in Shize and Kazna. The main idea of this abstract is to show how different schools of architecture influenced to all minarets for mosques in all these territories. Arran, Shirvan-Apsheron, Nakhichevan and Tabriz architectural schools of Azerbaijan - four regional architectural schools have developed on the territory of Azerbaijan that were formed around major centers of the country. In the typology of Islamic architecture, we can establish the following structures of the group such as: the mosque; minaret, holy; madrasah; khanege, tekie. The minaret is one of the features of Islamic architecture. According to the principle of minaret locations we can distinguish different types of mosques with minarets here and the results of all these researches provide clear information about how these different schools influenced in the territory. Analysis of the planning and compositional features of Azerbaijan minarets revealed compositional differences of monuments around regions.

Introduction: Ruins in Contemporary Greek Literature, Art, Cinema, and Public Space

Introduction:Ruins in Contemporary Greek Literature, Art, Cinema, and Public Space Maria Boletsi (bio) and Ipek A. Celik Rappas (bio) Panos Koutras's film Ξενία (Xenia, 2014) provokes a debate about the social value of ruins. In this travel and coming-of-age narrative, the title stands for the "hospitality" provided by a dilapidated hotel, in the ruins of which the Greek-Albanian characters Ody and his brother Dany find refuge. In an earlier scene on Ody's balcony overlooking the city of Athens, Dany points into the distance and asks, "Is that the Acropolis?" Ody listlessly acknowledges that it is, and they continue a heated discussion about their family's past. While the ancient ruin in the capital becomes a background against which the characters fight over their memories, the modern ruin on the periphery—the hotel—becomes the setting for reconciliation and for dreams of a possible future. In the middle of the film, the heroes reach the ruined hotel—the scene was shot in the Kozani Xenia hotel, one of the Xenia hotels built by the Greek National Tourism Organization and an epitome of the modernist architecture of the 1960s—where they finally bond, drink, and dance to an Italian song from the 1970s. The ruined hotel invites an alternative view of ruins: instead of representing a distant eternal uninhabited beauty, ruins here are an inhabited space that accommodates, and is re-made by, the so-called xenoi, the "foreigners." The former luxury hotel, in its peripheral and abandoned state, provides refuge from the xenophobic and homophobic attacks that have threatened the characters on their journey thus far. Iakovos Panagopoulos argues that the name of the hotel, Xenia, is a reference to xenophobia rather than philoxenia (hospitality), "as the heroes are located in a hostile place, which is strongly illustrated in the abandonment of the hotel and the isolation of heroes in it" (2017, 59). The abandonment and isolation of this modernist architectural ruin, however, need not be seen as representing hostility, especially in light of the amount of relief, diversion, and ease the ruin provides both for the protagonists and for the narrative itself. [End Page vii] For Dimitris Papanikolaou, the Xenia hotel is a space of "mending" for the characters and, more importantly, a "queer" space of hope that allows them to "make that space together, nominating it with their bodies. This is how the symbol of Greece's abandonment and noxious debt is turned into a queer refuge—with a possible future" (forthcoming [b]).1 According to Papanikolaou, this ruined space becomes the setting for a new meaning of hospitality, and also of citizenship, to emerge. In the Xenia hotel, hospitality and citizenship are not defined and offered by the state, but by "what bodies make, when bodies orient towards one another" (ibid.). Reflecting on the function of the same ruined site in the film, Stathis Gourgouris notes that, in the characters' attempt to be liberated from the "debilitating dialectic of being xenoi (foreigners) at home without a home," the ruined hotel (and the film itself that bears that hotel's name) becomes a space to accommodate their "foreignness"—not only a space of hospitality but also one that calls for a new emancipatory identity, detached from "the binds of their inherited filiation" (2019, 534–535). This special section aims to trace such alternative meanings and operations of ruins and ruined spaces in contemporary Greek culture, literature, film, memoirs, art, and public space. It thereby draws attention to cases that revise, complicate, thwart, or defamiliarize common valuations of (Greek) ruins as burdens of the past, signifiers of loss, failure, and nostalgia, or sources of national pride that are idealized, fetishized, or commodified. The contributing authors revisit ruins of the remote and recent past, as well as new, contemporary ruins in Greece, both in urban centers and on the periphery. They approach ruins as foreign objects with unsettled meanings that haunt and are haunted by the contemporary moment, opening up to debate our assumed familiarity with ruins as spaces of "inherited filiation" (Gourgouris 2019, 535). The contributions also inquire into how ruins can become productive materialities or contested spaces, partaking in unexpected encounters and critical debates...

An inquiry into the use and meaning of the forms ἔθηκε(ν) and θῆκε(ν) in the Iliad: Syntax and semantics

Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis » 2020 » Volume 137, Issue 2 » An inquiry into the use and meaning of the forms ἔθηκε(ν) and θῆκε(ν) in the Iliad: Syntax and semantics A A A

Protective face masks through centuries, from XVII century plague doctors to current health care professionals managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The adoption of items similar to face masks by human beings dates back to the remote past. With specific regard to the use of face protections for medical purposes, from the beginning of the XVII century onwards in Europe physicians in charge of curing patients with plague wore a complicated, and subsequently typical, costume. The face mask included eye sockets of glass and leather headdresses with long, pointed beaks. These beaks were filled with scented spices, aromatic substances and perfumes to filter out the plague and to mask "bad air", which was considered to be the vehicle of the disease. In the XVIII and XIX centuries a number of advances regarding personal protection devices in health care were achieved. In the course of the 1918 influenza pandemic (Spanish flu), health care professionals began to use face masks in a routine way to protect themselves and their patients. From the sixties (XX century) onwards, the explosion of health care technology has led to a continuous refinement in the study of individual protection devices, also because, even in the presence of an increasing number of powerful antimicrobial agents, infectious diseases have remained dominant during these last decades. It is not by chance, therefore, that one of the consequences of the 2020 ongoing COVID-19 pandemic should be the fact that face masks have become essential again both inside and outside health care environments. Even if more than a century has passed from Fluegge's historical definition of bacteria-laden droplets, the role of certain medical-preventive achievements of the past, including the paradigmatic model of protective face masks, continues to remain pivotal in this third millennium.

Ethno archaeological Clues to Stone Exploitation in Ancient Dangme-land, Greater Accra Region, Ghana

Dangme-land is naturally replete with abundant stone resources whose exploitation facilitated the peoples’ adaptation to their environment. The objective of the researcher in this paper was to investigate for what purposes the ancient indigenous Dangme populations that occupied Sega Hill, Kpone, Shai and Prampram exploited and used stones in the remote past. It also documented the techniques and methodologies utilized by the people to exploit this resource. Data for the study were derived from ethnographic and archaeological investigations and from early European sources relating to the area. The combined evidence revealed that the people of the aforementioned settlements exploited stone for a variety of purposes, such as for the construction of agricultural terraces and protective enclosures against slavers. The ethno archaeological evidence also indicated that the four principal early vocations of the people namely; fishing, crop farming, hunting and trapping were facilitated greatly by the use of a variety of tools manufactured from stone.

La serpiente y la muerte: historia de un secular romance desde el Poema de Gilgameš hasta nuestros días

From time immemorial, almost instinctively, man has feared and avoided the snake. Nonetheless, at same time, fascinated by this animal, he seems to have envied some of its attributes.This dual impulse, responsible for opposing and contradictory feelings, has also left its mark, since the remotest past, on cultural manifestations, such as literature or plastic arts, which often reveal entrenched religious beliefs.Thus, from a contemporary perspective, it would be possible to find, as early as on literary texts of ancient Mesopotamia, the origins of that role played by this reptile within the narrative of terror and, more broadly, inside the rich fantastic literature of 19th and 20th centuries.