Root Metaphor Research Articles

Authenticity and Anthropophagy in Kayapó Film Production

Over the past three decades, films made by the Mebêngôkre-Kayapó people of Brazil have shown a distinctive and remarkably stable cinematic aesthetic, manifest in a set of filming, framing, and editing conventions first documented by Terence Turner. These films diverge significantly from Indigenous film productions documented elsewhere in Latin America, which tend to borrow more heavily from commercial cinematic codes and film genres. This contrast raises important issues about the personal, social, cultural, and political motivations behind such aesthetic and genre choices among different Indigenous peoples while posing the more fundamental question as to what exactly makes Indigenous media “Indigenous.” In this article, we describe what we identify as a Kayapó film aesthetic and discuss reasons for its continuity over time. We also consider the influence of hybridity, widely discussed by Indigenous media scholars elsewhere, but turn instead to the notion of anthropophagy as a more powerful root metaphor for understanding Kayapó film production. Although anthropophagy as an actual cultural practice and cosmological metaphor is generally associated with Tupi-speaking peoples of Brazil, culturally and linguistically distinctive from the Kayapó, the concept as applied by scholars of subaltern cultural productions helps us better understand the maintenance of Indigenous authenticity in Kayapó film production as the group navigates technological and sociocultural transformations.

A GREEN REFORMATION OF CHRISTIANITY? ANTHROPOLOGICAL, ETHICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON ECOLOGY AS ECUMENICAL THEME

This contribution builds upon and contributes to many recent ecumenical calls for an ecological reformation of Christianity. It seeks to guide such calls on the use of the term “ecology” by offering five brief statements in this regard, namely 1) on ecology as a transversal theme; 2) on ecology as an ecumenical theme; 3) on the root metaphor of the “whole household of God”; 4) on Christian doctrinal assumptions on such a household; and 5) on the (ecological) limitations of the metaphor of the whole household of God.

Metaphors of development and the development of metaphors

Development is a core theoretical issue for psychology. Yet, the root metaphors that guide theory and research on development have rarely been questioned, and the limitations and blind spots of these metaphors have not been made explicit. In this article, we propose an exercise in theoretical imagination. We start by reviewing the metaphors commonly used in developmental psychology. We then develop four alternative metaphors that, despite being present in the general semiosphere, have not received much theoretical attention. In order to evaluate these metaphors, we introduce a case study of the development evident in a woman’s diary. On this basis, we invite psychologists to examine new metaphors and thus expand the horizon of possible theorizing.

The Metaphor of the Divine as Planter of the People: Stinking Grapes or Pleasant Planting? By Jennifer Metten Pantoja

In this revision of her PhD thesis from UCLA, Jennifer Metten Panjola sets out to trace the development of the root metaphor ‘God as planter of the people’ in the poetry of the Hebrew Bible and in the literature of the Second Temple period. In chapter 1 she sets out her overarching aim: ‘to demonstrate that the biblical literature portrays the divine/human relationship as a reflection of the natural environment’ (p. 1). She takes issue with those biblical interpreters who emphasize the mystery and transcendence of God in the Hebrew Bible, maintaining that this picture of the deity is the product of Western theology rather than study of the text. But she also notes the tension within the text, which ‘depicts the divine as anthropomorphically present and unbounded at the same time’ (p. 4). It is this tension in the portrayal of YHWH as both physically present yet also transcendent that explains why the biblical authors so often use metaphors to depict the deity. Metten Panjola then notes the prevalence in the Hebrew Bible of imagery taken from the plant world and horticulture, which leads to her chosen focus of YHWH as gardener and the root (or conceptual, as she terms it) metaphor of YHWH as planter of the people.

Societal resilience – Clarifying the concept and upscaling the scope

This reflection piece explores societal resilience as an emerging field in safety science research. Based on the growing interest for safety in a societal context – and the natural continuation of the expanding scope of each of the phases in the ‘three ages of safety’ – societal resilience is portrayed as a fourth age of safety. While safety science through the decades has developed steadily, providing many different, complementary perspectives, theories and models for human, technical and organisational aspects of safety and resilience, the research on societal safety and resilience is less mature, and does not yet enjoy the same theoretical repertoire as organisational safety. Second, the reflection piece explores the possibilities for approaching resilience as a systemic trait. While there is a tradition to address resilience at the scale of individuals/teams and organisations, resilience – with its root metaphors derived from ecological systems – could also be addressed at the societal or global scale, and this reflection piece explores the translation of resilience from the organisational to the systemic realm. In doing so, the dominating scope of critical infrastructures in contemporary societal safety research is challenged. It is argued that societal resilience research should go beyond critical infrastructures and the national/inter-organisational scope, to explore the shaping of risks in the Anthropocene, including such risks as climate change and global migration, across networks of livelihood-, scientific- and political practices.

God’s patronage constitutes a community of compassionate equals

The central themes of Jesus’ preaching, the kingdom and household of God, are root metaphors expressing the symbolic universe of God’s patronage subverting patronage and patriarchy structuring contemporary Mediterranean society, thus legitimising an anti-hierarchical community of faith. This dominant focus of Jesus’ message was discarded, as society’s prevalent patronage and patriarchy became the societal structure of the later faith communities. Today, patronage and patriarchy still forms the social structure for a large sector of Christian communities and many cultures, resulting in inequality, injustice, exploitation and suffering. This article proposes that the only remedy for the faithful is a return to Jesus’ essential message, by investigating the social dynamics suggested by these root metaphors using metaphor theory and social scientific methods. Patronage is studied within contemporary Roman and Mediterranean aristocratic patriarchal society, forming an a-typical broad-based needle-like power pyramid with multiple similarly structured power pyramids within, based on a morality of indebtedness, honour and power. Jesus accepted God as his father and declared the advent of God’s patronage as king (kingdom of God) and father of the faithful (children of God). Within the kingdom and household of God, there was no hierarchy, except for the primate of the first born son, whom Jesus symbolises as broker for God’s patronage to all his followers. Within the faith communities there should be no hierarchy or any form of clientage other than God’s patronage. Rather, the faithful are equal and should serve each other and their communities with compassion, responsibility and justice.Contribution: The contribution of this research is its focus on similarity and dissimilarity of these patronage metaphors and their application to subvert the power dynamics of patronage and patriarchy within the community of the faithful, in order to proffer God’s patronage of a society of caring, selfless equals today. This research falls within the scope of HTS Theological studies, as it is a multi-disciplinary study of key biblical metaphors investigated with accepted methodology resulting in valid conclusions which are ethically sound.

The embodiment of practice thresholds: from standardization to stabilization in surgical education.

Surgeons practice their own variations on a procedure. Residents experience shifting thresholds between variations that one surgeon holds firmly as principle and another takes more lightly as preference. Such variability has implications for surgical education, but the impact is not well understood. This is a critical problem to investigate as programs seek to define procedures for competency-based medical education (CBME) and improve learning through deliberate practice. Our study analyzes the emergence of procedural variation in an early-adopter CBME program through a situational analysis of tonsillectomy, a foundation level procedure in this otolaryngology, head and neck surgical program.An earlier phase of the study identified frequent variations (n = 12) on tonsillectomy among co-located surgeons who routinely perform this procedure (n = 6). In the phase reported here we interviewed these surgeons (n = 4) and residents at different stages of training (n = 3) about their experiences of these variations to map the relations of contributing social and material actors. Our results show that even a basic procedure resists standardization. This study contributes a sociomaterial grounded theory of surgical practice as an embodied response to conditions materialized by intra-relations of human and more-than-human actors. Shifting root metaphors about practice in surgical education from standardization to stabilization can help residents achieve stable-for-now embodiments of performance as their practice thresholds continue to emerge.

Family Business Leaders’ Metaphors and Firm Performance: Exploring the “Roots” and “Shoots” of Symbolic Meanings

To investigate the complex dynamics when family members with differing perceptions and interpretations of reality jointly lead their family business, this research adopts an epistemic-operative interview technique using Morgan’s images of organization. We explore how family leaders’ root metaphors, which are symbolic frames that help understand individuals’ attitudes and behaviors, are linked to family businesses’ behavior and performance. Analyzing six Italian family hotels, we derive four structures of family symbolic meanings and explain how and why relationships and innovation are mechanisms through which firm performance is related and connected to the offshoots of the meanings of family leaders’ root metaphors.

Indeterminateness in industrial and organisational psychological research: A root metaphor analysis

Indeterminateness in industrial and organisational psychological research: A root metaphor analysis

Darwinian Pilgrim's Middle Progress

Part two of three in an autobiographical series which retraces the most significant events, collaborations, and research results of Michael Ruse’s 55-year-long career in the history and philosophy of science. In this article, Ruse’s first forays into philosophy are intertwined with his growing interest in the history of science. The main topics summarized in this second installment are considered thematically as they developed: “design” as a Kuhnian paradigm in the history of evolutionary biology (from the early 1970s onwards); the involvement in the McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education 1981 legal case which saw the rise of neo-creationism as organized pressure group; the exploration of the science-religion relationship (mid-1980s to 1990s); the problem of free will and the critical confrontation with the New Atheism (early 2000s); the question of accommodationism and the identification of “organism” as the root metaphor of evolutionary biology (2010s).

Systems Thinking applied to curriculum and pedagogy: a review of the literature

This paper proposes Systems Thinking as a methodology to better observe, learn, analyse and construct curriculum and pedagogy. Informed by von Bertalanffy’s (1950) principle of Dynamic Equilibrium (Fliessgleichgewich), Systems Thinking presents a means to consider complex systems as continuously breaking down and rebuilding to adapt and maintain function. In addition, I refer to two root metaphors applied by key systems theorists: (i) Descartes world like a machine (reductionism) and (ii) world like an Ecology (holism) and relate these to a Systems Thinking approach to curriculum construction, pedagogy and learning. I also draw upon the Aristotelian dictum: ‘the whole is greater than its parts’ (gestalt) to illustrate how elements of all systems are interconnected and how the application of Systems Thinking can inform new pedagogical approaches and curriculum design. In explaining how a Systems Thinking approach could apply to curriculum development, I draw on two key theorists who draw their perspectives from organismic biology: Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Fritjof Capra, and compare their concepts with theorists who focus on more organisational and applied perspectives, such as Russell Ackoff and Peter Senge. I link this spectrum of Systems Thinking to curriculum development, by first considering its specific relevance to education through its relationship to applied approaches to learning, such as those proposed by Kurt Fischer and Zheng Yan (1998) and Fischer (2019). I then consider the potential for Systems Thinking to act as an analytical tool, which can be applied to global/national educational policy and practice. By looking at critiques of the reductionist Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) as described by Sahlberg (2012), I consider the ways in which taking a Systems Thinking lens can shift the balance in curriculum design more towards Capra’s proposal for a deeper ecology in learning. Finally, I examine the case of the Australian Curriculum and outline how Systems Thinking provides an innovative methodology to support curriculum development of relevance to today’s context. In considering effective historic and emerging initiatives, I propose future approaches where Systems Thinking can be a co-creation tool for learners throughout the education system that is sensitive to student self-efficacy, personalised and independent learning. This is imperative if we are going to prepare students for a future world that cannot be conceived, predicted nor imagined.

Liberation or Reconstruction? Black Theology as Unfinished Business in South Africa

Abstract As a metaphor, “liberation” was at the heart of the Black theological project in South Africa. However, after centuries of colonial and apartheid rule, Black liberation and its association with Black theology need to be examined in light of democracy in South Africa. Some have asserted that the end of apartheid together with the democratization of the country renders Black theology irrelevant. These views are taken further by suggesting that it is not Black people alone who are in need of liberation. The dawn of democracy, therefore, is a significant variable for those seeking to replace liberation with metaphors deemed more “suitable” for the current context. The most significant proposal—which has generated much debate—suggests that Black theology should shift emphasis from “liberation” to “reconstruction.” Often these debates question the continued relevance of “liberation” as a root metaphor. Moreover, they highlight the need for a clearly defined framework for Black theology following the demise of apartheid.

(Un)Disciplining Interdisciplinarity

In interdisciplinary education, metaphors often provide the epistemological clarity that is lacking in our definitions and theories of interdisciplinarity. The problem is that ineffective and unsubstantiated metaphors proliferate. We lack a root metaphor or shared world view of interdisciplinarity. Is it time that we move away from thinking in terms of metaphors? Some instrumentalists in interdisciplinary studies argue yes and propose a pragmatic constructionist approach for interdisciplinary education. This theoretical study determines that this proposal is incomplete. It reveals that an intertextual view of interdisciplinarity is not only more appropriate, but it integrates the competing theoretical and pedagogical approaches in the field. This article also identifies “the matrix” as the metaphor best positioned to sustain this integration and to bridge the widening gap between disciplines.

Book Review

This textbook is a helpful addition for Social Work curriculum. It highlights the application of theory to practice and chooses some interesting theoretical models that support social work practice. The book is divided into three parts: Understanding Theories and Tools for Translation; Models, Metaphors, and Maps Applied; and Theoretical Integration. Like many HBSE texts, this one begins with a discussion of theory and theorizing. In addition, Forte adds a number of methods for understanding or translating theoretical models, including the use of core metaphors, theoretical maps, and role models from theorists and practitioners associated with each model. This introductory section describes the theoretical foundation for the discussion that follows. Ten theoretical models are presented: Ecological, Systems, Biology, Cognitive, Psychodynamic, Behaviorism, Symbolic Interactionism, Social Role, Economic, and Critical theories. The chapter titles all start with the word ‘Applied’ denoting the emphasis of understanding each model as a framework for social work practice. Each model is presented using the same structure: Introduction, Exemplary Models, Root Metaphors, Core Assumptions, Approach to Human Development, Selective Propositions, Mapping, Limits, and an example of Theory Application to a problem area of interest to Social Work. In addition each chapter ends with a number of Learning Activities suggestions which could be used for in-class exercises or for homework assignments. The final part of the book discusses a number of methods for integrating theoretical models and describes the author’s preference for a Dialogical Approach in which theoretical discussions compare, match, challenge, sequence, or synthesize different approaches.

THE WHOLE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD (OIKOS): SOME ECCLESIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES (PART 2)

Part 2 of this article continues the discussion on the ecclesiological signifiacnce of the ecumenical root metaphor of the whole household of It explores the place and mission of the church within God's household in critical dialogue with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's notion of sanctorum communion, Karl Barth's distinction between Christusgemeinde und Burgergemeinde and select contributions to ecclesiology in the context of African theology. The arguement of both parts of the article is that a Christological concentration may help the church to retrieve its distinctive place within the household of God.

THE WHOLE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD (OIKOS): SOME ECCLESIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES: PART 1

In ecumenical discourse the whole household of God has emerged as a new theological root metaphor. This metaphor integrates especially three ecumenical themes (based on the Greek root oikos), namely the quests for economic justice, ecological sustainability and ecumenical fellowship. The metaphor may be used to refer to the family's household, the feloowship of churches, but also to a wider ecumenicity (the unity of humankind) and to the earth as God's house within which we live.

Catholic Perspectives on Human Biotechnological Enhancement

Although there is some consonance in the language of transcendence between proponents of the Catholic faith and of human biotechnological enhancement (HBE), their goals are incommensurate. Nevertheless, consistent with the valuation of the body as integral to the human person, Catholic culture has in fact proven to be a fruitful context for developing external therapeutic HBEs. Catholic perspectives on internal HBEs, especially in the context of ‘transhumanism’, are, by contrast, neither clear-cut nor easy to establish. A prerequisite for progress is to understand what is meant by flourishing in a Catholic worldview, the root metaphor of which is second-person relatedness to God, culminating in divine friendship. Hence important measures of success of internal HBEs will include sustaining, or at least not impeding, thoughtful attention and the capacity to receive experiences that can sanctify the mind.

Gifted Metaphors: Exploring the Metaphors of Teachers in Gifted Education and Their Impact on Teaching the Gifted

Metaphors are devices that people employ for both poetic purposes and rhetorical elaboration and belong to the realm of extraordinary language. Metaphors are used to connect abstract ideas and information to more concrete experiences, thus making these experiences more familiar and easier to understand. Moreover, metaphors are more than symbolic intellectual processes; they influence the conceptual understanding of our experiences and help define our everyday realities. For education, there is an important and relevant practical connection between the metaphors that teachers employ and their beliefs about teaching and classroom practices. This stems from the notion that metaphors guide one’s mental framework. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the metaphors influencing teachers in gifted education, this study specifically asked teachers to describe both their metaphors concerning gifted students as well as those influencing their teaching. In this study, nine different themes were identified. This research demonstrates a clear connection between reported metaphors and how gifted students receive their education from teachers. Participants’ answers demonstrate a strong connection between their metaphors and their classroom practices. However, strict adherence to one’s root metaphor increases the chance for dogmatism in the classroom and can lead to potentially incoherent classroom differentiation and a potential disconnect between classroom practices and the actual pedagogical needs of the gifted learner.

Family Empires, Roman and Christian by Susan M. (Elli) Elliott

Reviewed by: Family Empires, Roman and Christian by Susan M. (Elli) Elliott Zeba Crook susan m. (elli) elliott, Family Empires, Roman and Christian, vol. 1, Roman Family Empires: Household, Empire, Resistance (Salem, OR: Polebridge, 2018). Pp. xii + 337. Paper $27. It is commonly said that kinship was a key feature of ancient social experience and existence. Susan Elliott takes that claim one step further to show in an accessible way how the ancient Roman family and its values were all things to all people. They provided the emperor with a governing analogy for his empire; the emperor's policies shaped family values; and both those family values and their imperial instantiation were a common point of resistance. This book is divided into five parts: (1) a comparison of two family models—the Strict Father model, and the Nurturant Parent model, based on the work of linguist George Lakoff; (2) a summary of Roman Strict Father family structure, including the players and their stages; (3) an explanation of how this structure was co-opted by the Roman Empire; (4) an illustration of intellectual, ritual, and armed resistance to the Roman Empire; and, finally, (5) an analysis of Philemon. What sets this book apart from others on the ancient family is an interest in setting the discussion in the context of modern American political debates. George Lakoff is an American linguist who has argued that Democrats and Republicans are similar to each other in that they both operate with the notion of the nation-as-parent. In chap. 1, E. compares the Strict Father model and the Nurturant Parent model of the nation-as-parent. On the Strict Father model, the father embodies moral strength, and his role is to protect the family, enforce the rules, and prepare children for survival. The mother's role is to uphold the father's authority, and the children's role is to obey. On the Nurturant Parent model, the "parent" (not only the father) protects the family and clearly explains decisions, a form of [End Page 728] egalitarianism. There is no distinct role for mothers, and the goal of children is to live fulfilled and happy lives. On the Strict Father model, moral order is timeless and traditional, while on the Nurturant Parent model it is based in fairness and human interdependence. As a root metaphor for government, the job of a "strict father" government is to uphold the moral character of the nation and protect it from external threats. The job of the "nurturant parent" government is to promote equity, to foster a climate of respect, and to cooperate with (not dominate over) other nations. After a brief chapter on the study of ancient family, empire studies, and generally reading against the grain (chap. 2), the next eleven chapters run through the usual material in the usual way on Roman domestic architecture (chap. 3), family member roles (chap. 4), slavery (chap. 5), marriage, sex, and divorce (chap. 6), Augustus as paterfamilias (chap. 7), Augustan family legislation (chap. 8), and imperial cult (chap. 9). E. then turns to the topic of resistance to the Strict Father imperial model—armed resistance (chap. 10), intellectual resistance (surely not the best way of categorizing Essenes and Cynics; chap. 11), ritual resistance (a term I really do like for the mystery religions; chap. 12), and communal meals and voluntary associations (chap. 13). The final two chapters focus on Paul's letter to Philemon, chap. 14 running through the options for the occasion of the letter, and chap. 15 covering the letter commentary-style. E.'s reading of the letter is sensitive to ancient social context, and evocative in its narrative. In it, she surmises that Paul was encouraging the audience to live in an alternative way to the Strict Father family model of the empire. This book is interesting and readable, but it is unclear who its target audience is. In some ways, the book seems directed at a nonspecialist readership: the number of images and summary tables, the use of art to situate many of the ancient analyses, the terms that are explicitly defined for the reader (alphabetic footnotes in, oddly, just one of her chapters), the infuriating...

Psalm 32: A social-scientific investigation

The article identifies the root metaphors used in Ps 32 and uses these to identify the purpose and strategy of the psalm as a means of communication between its author and its original audience. It argues that the psalm should not be read as a psalm of thanksgiving with wisdom elements, but a wisdom-teaching psalm which replicates a psalm of thanksgiving. The author and/or editors used the composition, which is ascribed to King David, as a means of exhorting members of the in-group in a post-exilic setting in Judah to trust in YHWH and to stay faithful to him. The implied author’s experience of suffering because of pent-up guilt, as well as an authoritative first-person address by YHWH, was used in conjunction with a range of wisdom features by the author to communicate this message to its original audience.