Symbol Of Beauty Research Articles

Out of the East: spices and the medieval imagination

The demand for spices in medieval Europe was extravagant and was reflected in the pursuit of fashion, the formation of taste, and the growth of luxury trade. It inspired geographical and commercial exploration ,as traders pursued such common spices as pepper and cinnamon and rarer aromatic products, including ambergris and musk. Ultimately, the spice quest led to imperial missions that were to change world history. This engaging book explores the demand for spices: why were they so popular, and why so expensive? Paul Freedman surveys the history, geography, economics, and culinary tastes of the Middle Ages to uncover the surprisingly varied ways that spices were put to use--in elaborate medieval cuisine, in the treatment of disease, for the promotion of well-being, and to perfume important ceremonies of the Church. Spices became symbols of beauty, affluence, taste, and grace, Freedman shows, and their expense and fragrance drove the engines of commerce and conquest at the dawn of the modern era.

Playing upon Fantasy: Women, Ethnic Tourism and the Politics of Identity Construction in Contemporary Xishuang Banna, China

Manchunman has been promoted as a domestic ethnic tourism destination for tourists expecting a pristine, feminine and mysterious Dai culture in the Xishuang Banna Dai Nationality Autonomous Prefecture (hereafter, Banna), P.R. China. Tourism development turns the village not only into a destination to meet tourists' thirst for cultural exoticness but also a frontier of interacting with the outside world for Dai villagers. Women in the village are actively engaged in tourism business through receiving tourists to visit their Dai-styled bamboo houses and selling tourists crafts at home. Rather than being a passive symbol of beauty and simplicity for tourist consumption, these women display skills and strategies of marketing and trading Dai culture as desirable commodities. Manchunman women as a group actively shape the construction of Dai-ness through tourism development as consumable ‘Others.’ The villagers confront their interactions between a staged self and a self in reality. The significance of women's performance in such a process underlines the importance of embracing gender analysis as a perspective in tourism and also of hearing gendered voices through a focus on women's business practices. This article shows that claiming Dai identity among these women occurs in a multilayered and heterogeneous self-construction process. They carry out the practices of being contemporary Dai women through continuously creating value-laden distances between the Dai and the Han Chinese while demonstrating diversity in self-representation due to their various business experiences in tourism.

Use of anorectic amphetamine-like drugs by Brazilian women

The history of anorectic drug use was investigated in 2370 subjects in São Paulo and Brası́lia cities. Socio-demographic data and the number of previous treatments to lose weight were obtained. When the last treatment was drug-based, the substance(s) used, its duration, the occurrence of adverse reactions, and whether it was adequate were studied. There was a prevalence of female patients, 92.7%, in both cities and as many as 72.4% of them had already undergone from 1 to >10 previous treatments. Out of those patients, 75.37% had undergone pharmacological treatment, 79.2% of those with amphetamine-like anorectic drugs. Treatment was longer than 3 months in half of the cases, and 60% of the subjects had a Body Mass Index below 29.9. Over 50% of the subjects was given amphetamine-like drugs through compounded formulas containing four or more substances, which had been specifically tailored by the doctor for each patient. On the other hand, 86.3% of all the subjects reported adverse reactions to the amphetamine-like drugs, 37.4% of them sought medical advice, and 3.9% required hospitalization. In conclusion, the use of amphetamine-like drugs in Brazil is particularly prevalent among women and this use is strongly related to the culture of slimness as a symbol of beauty.

The Aeolian Harp: Beauty and Unity in the Poetry and Prose of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Attempting to convince his audience that the unity and harmony in the Over-Soul, or "great soul," can be experienced by all people, not only through the message of the poet, but also through other sources in nature, Emerson uses the Aeolian harp as a symbol of a musical conduit that carries the spirit of the Over-Soul through nature's breeze to the soul of an individual. As Emerson ages, the Aeolian harp becomes a symbol of beauty, wisdom, and divine harmony in his poetry and writings. The Aeolian harp poems reveal Emerson's concept of beauty during the last few decades of his life. Emerson's great affection for the Aeolian harp can be observed in his poetry and journal entries as well as in the written recollections of his friends and family.

The Aeolian Harp: Beauty and Unity in the Poetry and Prose of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Attempting to convince his audience that the unity and harmony in the Over-Soul, or soul, can be experienced by all people, not only through the message of the poet, but also through other sources in nature, Emerson uses the Aeolian harp as a symbol of a musical conduit that carries the spirit of the Over-Soul through nature's breeze to the soul of an individual. As Emerson ages, the Aeolian harp becomes a symbol of beauty, wisdom, and divine harmony in his poetry and writings. The Aeolian harp poems reveal Emerson's concept of beauty during the last few decades of his life. Emerson's great affection for the Aeolian harp can be observed in his poetry and journal entries as well as in the written recollections of his friends and family.

Old Women: Statue and the Fairy Tale of Mohanpur

Mahasweta Devi is one of India's foremost literary figures. Mother of 1084 is one of her most widely read works, written during the height of the Naxalite agitation - a militant communist uprising that was brutally repressed by the Indian government and led to the widespread murder of young rebels across Bengal. This novel focuses on the trauma of a mother who awakens one morning to the shattering news that her son is lying dead in the morgue and her struggle to understand his decision to be a Naxalite. Breast Stories is a collection of short fiction about the breast as more than a symbol of beauty, eroticism, or motherhood, but as a harsh indictment of an exploitative social system and a weapon of resistance. At a time when violence towards women in India has escalated exponentially, Devi exposes the inherently vicious systems in Indian society. Old Women tells the touching, poignant tales of two timeworn women - Dulali, a widow since childhood, who is now an old woman preoccupied only with day-to-day survival, and Andi, who loses her eyesight due to a combination of poverty, societal indifference, and government apathy. All three volumes, written in Devi's hard-hitting yet sensitive prose, are significant milestones in India's feminist literary landscape.

Fictions of the Feminine in the Nineteenth-Century Spanish Press

How was the female body perceived in the popular culture of late 19th-century Spain? Using an array of images from popular magazines of the day, this text finds that women were typically presented in ways that were reassuring to the emerging bourgeois culture. The author has organized the 190 images reproduces in the text into six broad categories, or fictions of the feminine: she reads women's bodies as a romantic symbol of beauty or evil; as a privileged link with the natural order; as a font of male inspiration; as a mouthpiece of bourgeois mores; as a focalised point of male fear and desire; and as an eroticised expression of Spanish exoticism and political ambitions. These imaginary visions of femininity, argues the author, were a response to, and also helped create, gendered stereotypes by suggesting ideal feminine behaviour and poses.

Eating Attitudes of Native American and African American Women: Differences by Race and Acculturation

Thirty-tour Native American and twenty-eight African American women responded to eating disorders and acculturation measures. African Americans appeared to have greater concern about their body weight and shape than Native Americans. Among all, those who were more acculturated to the U.S. white culture reported more concerns than those who were less acculturated. Also, normal weight women tended to have higher anorexia scores than overweight women as well as a diagnosed anorexic group. Open-ended questions elicited feelings about U.S. symbols of beauty, one's physical self, and usage of standard English. The conceptualization of acculturation to white society and acculturative stress is used to understand the study.

Photoaging

Given the many ways our culture promotes deeply tanned skin as a symbol of beauty, health, and even happiness, physicians face an uphill battle in promoting the healthy aspects of a pale complexion. Not only can excessive solar exposure accelerate and intensify aging in skin, it can also lead to serious health risks. Drs Browder and Beers tell why photoaging happens and how to prevent it.

Venus

I feel very honoured at having been asked by the IAU Executive to present Prof. Sagdeev’s invited discourse on Venus in his absence. As has already been mentioned Prof. Sagdeev was summoned to the talks between the USSR and the USA in Geneva as an expert in Space Research. He went there with several very important proposals for future cooperation in scientific exploration of outer space and we all hope that the results of his mission will be beneficial for the development of space astronomy and therefore for the whole astronomical community represented by the International Astronomical Union. I am sure that all present in this room realize that it is not an easy task to present someone else’s lecture especially at such short notice and in a foreign language. Besides, it is my opinion that a talk on Venus – the brightest celestial body in the sky except the moon and the Sun – Venus which always has been the symbol of beauty, love and femininity, that such a talk should surely be given by a man.

James and Ibsen

ideas generally. There was literally a fascination, and from the beginning it was imaginatively and emotionally associated with France. The Autobiography makes clear that from his childhood the theater was a symbol of beauty and plethora: the sense of glory incarnated in the perfection of form, James's interest was also technical: he studied the theater and tried to apply what he considered successful stage technique to the novel. He wrote extensively on the theater of his time and spent five years in his fruitless-and probably desperate-attempt to become a playwright. However derisory this effort may seem now, James took it very seriously and was passionately convinced that in the theater he had found the ultimate vehicle for self-expression. His attitude toward Ibsen is particularly interesting. His views on the dramatist illustrate his ideas on the theater at a moment when he was extremely conscious of it, just as they coincide with (or immediately precede) his search for new technique and form to correspond to his developing conception of the novel. And his criticism of Ibsen is aesthetic, a function of his own ambitious aesthetic theories. This aspect of James's work and life has been generally overlooked, though certain scholars have touched on it in passing. Francis Fergusson has maintained that James was an admirer of Ibsen. So has Leon Edel in his preface to the plays, though Mr. Edel has recently balanced this assertion by mentioning James's negative opinions in the relevant volume of the biography. In fact James's criticism is not favorable, nor even ambiguous. It is most revealing where restrictive. This is equally true with respect to an Ibsen influence. Austin Warren has written of an influence on the symbolism of James's later works. But James's symbolism is very different from Ibsen's. Many influences contribute to its imaginative complexity. As it becomes more elaborate