Proverbial Wisdom Research Articles

Medicine for Hatred: Civil, Criminal, and Supernatural Justice at the Nae We Shrine Tribunal in Accra, Ghana

AbstractGa proverbial wisdom holds that “hate has no medicine,” but there is a sacred court in Accra where people can calm the animosity that emerges from social conflicts. A unique form of vernacular jurisprudence has emerged at the Nae We Shrine Tribunal, which manages the consequences of civil, criminal, and supernatural crimes without raising the ire of human rights activists. Using records from this shrine court, the authors of this article demonstrate how the Tribunal offers social and spiritual wellbeing in a manner that cannot be provided by the chiefly and state judicial systems.

The Book of Ruth and the Limits of Proverbial Wisdom

The intertextual connections that the book of Ruth makes to the book of Proverbs, and especially to the Valiant Woman of Prov 31, suggests that the author intended the narrative to be read in a particular way. The canonical context of the book of Ruth, when situated with wisdom literature in the Writings, is a recognition of this, as is the modern reception of Ruth as an exegesis or actualization of the Valiant Woman character. But in this essay, I argue that this latter reading strategy fails to capture exactly how Ruth relates to the book of Proverbs and to the wisdom genre in general. In contrast to commentators who have interpreted the book as a demonstration of wisdom values within a narrative setting, I suggest that the book of Ruth can be understood as an extended problematization of the limits of wisdom expressed in categorizing discourse. Ruth attempts a destabilization of some of the authoritative claims made about conventional wisdom as expressed in the book of Proverbs. Categories of conventional wisdom are set up, only to be destabilized and complicated throughout the text. This reading of the book of Ruth brings it much closer to the other two texts that make up Israelite wisdom literature: the books of Job and Qoheleth, which also reflect on and complicate conventional wisdom. Ruth can therefore be understood in relation to the wisdom genre—but the relationship is more complex and nuanced than commentators have hitherto realized.

The Book of Ruth and the Limits of Proverbial Wisdom

The Book of Ruth and the Limits of Proverbial Wisdom

Pragmatics and figurative language in individuals with traumatic brain injury: fine-grained assessment and relevance-theoretic considerations

ABSTRACT Background Difficulties in the pragmatic aspects of language are considered a hallmark of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). However, this claim is mostly based on assessments of discourse production, neglecting another relevant pragmatic aspect, namely the comprehension of figurative expressions such as idioms, metaphors, and proverbs. Accounts developed in the framework of Relevance Theory might help framing an investigation in this domain, by describing a continuum of loose uses for idioms and metaphors and the echoing of general wisdom in proverbs. Aims First, we aimed at sketching a detailed pragmatic profile of individuals with TBI, by using the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS) test, a standardized tool evaluating both production and comprehension. Second, we aimed at doing a fine-grained investigation of figurative language comprehension skills, by taking into account different figurative types and task-related issues. Methods and Procedures Thirty-nine individuals with TBI were administered the APACS test and compared to a sample of matched controls. Six subtasks considering three figurative types (idioms, metaphors, and proverbs) in two response-formats (multiple-choice and verbal explanation) were derived from the APACS test and analyzed with a mixed model approach. Outcomes and Results Results showed a diffuse pragmatic language disorder both in the expressive and receptive modality, with 56% of individuals with TBI performing below normative cut-off in the APACS Total score. The analysis of the figurative language subtasks confirmed the difficulties of the TBI group with figurative expressions compared to controls. A further model restricted to the TBI group showed that verbal explanation was more difficult than the multiple-choice format. However, we did not observe robust differences between figurative types. The only noticeable effect was related to proverbs in the verbal explanation format, which were more difficult than all other subtasks. Conclusions This study shows two main aspects. First, the pragmatic language disorder of people with TBI encompasses not only the well-known difficulties in discourse production but also a disruption of figurative language understanding. Second, such a disruption affects different figurative types, indicating a general problem in inferring the speaker’s meaning from non-literal language. Relevance-theoretic considerations helped us highlighting the commonalities across figurative types, rather than the differences, and the enhanced meta-representational efforts linked to proverbs in open response formats. Intervention could capitalize on these findings and implement training programs that target pragmatic inferences across different types of expressions to promote the most successful return to communication in its variety of situations.

Passive Heat Therapy in Sedentary Humans Improves Aerobic Capacity and Insulin Sensitivity via Increases in Skeletal Muscle Capillarisation and eNOS

OBJECTIVESNegative associations have been reported in a sedentary Finnish population between sauna bathing and all‐cause mortality1, while a joint association of sauna bathing and cardiorespiratory fitness was seen on cardiovascular and all‐cause mortality in a more recent study2. These associations give scientific support to the ‘proverbial wisdom’ in Scandinavia that frequent sauna bathing has multiple health and fitness benefits. The first objective of the current study was to investigate the hypotheses that 1) passive heat therapy (PHT, as occurs in sauna bathing) similar to moderate intensity continuous exercise training (MICT) increases whole body insulin sensitivity and VO2max and that 2) this is the result of increases both in a) skeletal muscle capillarisation and endothelial specific eNOS content and b) mitochondrial, GLUT4 and IMTG content.METHODSTwenty young sedentary males (21 ± 1 years; Body Mass Index (BMI) 25 ± 1 kg/m2) were allocated to either 6 weeks of PHT (n=10; 40–50 min at 40°C in a heat chamber, 3 x per week) or MICT (n=10; time matched cycling at ~65% VO2peak). VO2peak and whole‐body insulin sensitivity were measured and muscle biopsies were taken from the vastus lateralis muscle pre and post the interventions. Immunofluorescence microscopy was used to assess changes in capillarisation measures and endothelial specific eNOS content, as described before 3 and skeletal muscle mitochondrial density, GLUT4 content and IMTG content as described elsewhere4.RESULTSPHT and MICT increased VO2peak (PHT 5%, MICT 7%; P<0.05) and insulin sensitivity index (ISI, Matsuda) (PHT 15%, MICT 36%; P<0.05). PHT and MICT both increased capillary density, capillary–fibre perimeter exchange index, and endothelial specific eNOS content (Table 1). However, unlike MICT (P<0.05) PHT did not increase mitochondrial density (P=0.443), total GLUT4 content (P=0.217) and IMTG content (P=0.957).CONCLUSIONThis study is the first to show that 6 weeks PHT induces similar increases in aerobic capacity and whole‐body insulin sensitivity as a time matched traditional MICT intervention. The study also shows and that these improvements coincide with increases in skeletal muscle capillarisation and endothelial specific eNOS content similar in magnitude to MICT. As skeletal muscle mitochondrial density, GLUT4 content and IMTG concentration were not changed by PHT the data suggest that the microvascular adaptations alone are responsible for the observed effects. This leads to the conclusion that PHT (and sauna bathing) may be effective alternative interventions to achieve significant health benefits in the large and growing population of sedentary and elderly people unable to exercise or to chronically adhere to high physical activity levels.Support or Funding InformationNAThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Behold the Proverbs of a People: Proverbial Wisdom in Culture, Literature, and Politics

Behold the Proverbs of a People: Proverbial Wisdom in Culture, Literature, and Politics

The effect of the changing society on the Turkish proverbs

Proverbs, the product of oral literature,
 establish strong links between past and future, ensuring the continuity of
 culture. However, changes in societies have caused a contradiction between the
 daily culture and traditional proverbs; therefore, proverbs go through a
 process of transformation, mostly in a humorous way.  Individuals who do not find the appropriate
 proverbs for the new experiences have adapted the existing proverbs to the new
 life by changing the content and wisdom of proverbs through addicting,
 replacing or distracting the lexis. In other words, the transformed proverbs,
 which are then called as anti-proverbs, are created by changing the meaning and
 the structure of traditional proverbs in order to express new wisdom and
 innovations or to draw attention to the old and new. The development of
 technology, the increase within using social media, the exchange of traditional
 values ​​in society, the rise of notions such as individualism, self-interest
 and the economic problems are some of the factors that play a significant role
 in the changing of proverbs. In this study, 1368 anti-proverbs collected from
 various sources such as books, newspapers, advertisement, television, social
 media, songs have been evaluated; however, 39 anti-proverbs derived from 28
 proverbs have been analyzed based on each factor indicated in the study. The
 Turkish anti-proverbs reveal that there have been changes in the value of some
 notions such as knowledge, intellectuality, the sense of belonging, honesty,
 kindness and facts such as the increase in the events of violence, financial
 problems, the power and effect of social media, which have an immediate effect
 on the mentality and behavioral ethics of Turkish society. 

Margery Kempe and the Lonely Reader. Rebecca Krug. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017. Pp vii+241.

Margery Kempe and the Lonely Reader. Rebecca Krug. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017. Pp vii+241.

Bringing Proverbs to Policy: Classical Economics, Proverbial Wisdom, and Applications for Welfare Policy

Economists have had tremendous influence in designing antipoverty programs in both Great Britain and America over the last 200 years. However, today’s economic experts have lost some respect for the wisdom of non-experts, or ordinary people, that was held in high regard by their intellectual forerunners. This article argues that the antipoverty programs designed by experts would be improved by the incorporating the wisdom of ordinary people. Classical economists from Adam Smith (the founder of modern economics) to John Stuart Mill (“the most influential English language philosopher of the nineteenth century” according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) believed that experts should pay close attention to the wisdom of ordinary people that is captured in proverbs, or proverbial wisdom. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a proverb is a “short piece of advice” whereas wisdom is “knowledge or experience that develops within a society or period”. We can think of proverbial wisdom as advice that represents practical knowledge. In other words, proverbial wisdom is similar to aggregated anecdotal evidence that has been passed between people across time. The primary difference between economic experts today and non-experts is that experts see the world through formal models, whereas non-experts use the summation of experiences. A measure of these experiences (for instance, the experience of the median person or even the median voter) are transmittable through proverbial wisdom. The public policies of poor relief since the 1800s have been driven by debates over expert models and not debates between models and proverbial wisdom. Put another way, the rise in the expert has led to the fall of proverbial wisdom. Proverbs, as the reflection of human experience, could help to avoid injustice by guiding a system of heuristics to help with judging morality. For both Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, the “Golden Rule” which they attributed to Jesus Christ, was especially meaningful in this regard. However, reliance the proverbs without the application of reason was not only unwise, but equivalent to idolatry. This article covers the “rise of the welfare expert” and the development of antipoverty policy in both Great Britain and the United States since the 1500s. The article also covers the use of proverbs in classical economics. Finally, the article concludes by making recommendations on how antipoverty might be improved in the United States.

Prologue

Prologue Elizabeth R. Wright* We offer heartfelt thanks to Xavier Tubau for his vision and dedication as book review editor from July 2016 to June 2018. He accepted the position with the explicit goal of fomenting interdisciplinary and transatlantic scholarly conversations. In this capacity, Xavier commissioned eighty-three book reviews published in four issues. Each one reflects thoughtful deliberation from the initial assignment to the final editorial evaluation. Having successfully reconceived the Book Review section, Xavier will devote his energies to his own research agenda as well as other service to the profession. But his impact on this journal will long endure. The next two issues of the journal (volume 71, number 1–2) will be the direct result of the extensive international network of reviewers he cultivated. His scholarly engagement and rigor will continue to inspire us. Brown University's Department of Hispanic Studies is the new host of the Book Review, under the auspices of Laura Bass, with editorial assistance from Ana Garriga Espino and Carmen Urbita Ibarreta. In this issue, we inaugurate a new occasional feature—the Bulletin of Practice. This section highlights issues pertinent to the actors, directors, teachers, and musicians rethinking performance traditions for our times. Fittingly, the first edition features an interview Barbara Fuchs conducted with Ignacio García, the new director of the Festival de Teatro Clásico de Almagro. We construed the cover of this issue to spark meditation on a character type who animates the comedia de capa y espada: the dama, as paragon of vivacious urbanity. A sad and unexpected twist of fate as we entered the issue's final phase of production has reoriented the signification of Antes que todo es mi dama—from one of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's ingenious appropriations of proverbial wisdom—to the point of departure for mourning and celebrating our esteemed colleague Amy Williamsen. [End Page 5] Retrato y Semblanza Charles Victor Ganelin Retrato y semblanza de Amy Williamsen Hablan en ello las siguientes personas, en orden de apariencia Charles Victor Ganelin Miami University, Emeritus Autor, autor de comedias Gwyn E. Campbell Washington and Lee University Colega, amiga y cómplice Howard Mancing Purdue University, Emeritus Amigo y colega Catherine Larson Indiana University, Emerita Colega y amiga James Parr University of California, Riverside, Emeritus Director de tesis, colega y amigo Annette Kolodny University of Arizona, Emerita Decana y amiga Susan Fischer Bucknell University, Emerita Colega y amiga I first met Amy at an MLA (of course!) sitting next to her father Vern Williamsen (¡no faltaba más!) in the hotel bar (¡desde luego!). The year was 1984, and Amy was about to defend her dissertation and begin her rapid rise through the academic ranks. The work that would come to define her career on Cervantes, women writers, and the comedia, through a variety of theoretical lenses, has influenced scholars across generations. What will ever remain with us are her cheerfulness, her eagerness, and the surprising depth of knowledge she brought even early in her career. Although I can't recall the actual conversations of our first meeting, the tenor of critical thought leavened by joviality and jocularity—the sense of her wit, humor, and joy—remains firmly embedded in my memory, along with her keen intellect and effusive, kind smile. So how to describe a life lived to its fullest, particularly when that life is snatched away from her—and from all who knew her—in a cruel and unsuspecting way, although she was doing what she loved, swimming in the ocean? I wish not to dwell on the sadness of Amy's death but on her sharp, incisive mind and her vivacious, abundant, overflowing, and generous soul that touched the lives and careers of countless scholars who became her friends in short order. Gwyn E. Campbell remembers reading an early essay of Amy's as a newly appointed assistant professor, finding the courage to contact her out of the blue with questions, and receiving a reply written as if it had come from an old friend. Others have shared similar stories of Amy's generosity. Amy grew up in Columbia, Missouri, where Vern served on the faculty of the University...

The Writings: Job–Sirach

The WritingsJob–Sirach Martin Kessler, Bradley C. Gregory, Christopher T. Begg, Fred W. Guyette, Bradley C. Gregory, Jaime A. Banister, Paul R. Redditt, William J. Urbrock, Francis M. Macatangay, Bradley C. Gregory, and Frederick E. Greenspahn 1771. [Wisdom Literature; African Proverbs] Eleonaro Hof, "Wijsheid is niet slechts in een huis te vinden – dialog tussen spreekwoorden uit Afrika en Bijbelse wijsheidsliteratuur [Wisdom is not Found in just One House: Dialogue between Proverbs from Africa and Biblical Wisdom Literature]," ACEBT 31 (2017) 107-17. African approaches to biblical Wisdom literature tend to critique the dominant Eurocentric hermeneutic approach, emphasizing the need to interpret Wisdom literature not only with ANE parallels but also through the lens of indigenous African Wisdom. H. surveys three approaches to this dialogue. First, the African Proverbs Project has for more than twenty years been collecting a wide-ranging corpus of indigenous African proverbs which is made available on their website and Facebook pages. This Project espouses a positive outlook on African proverbs and urges pastors to root their sermons deeply in African soil by making use of indigenous Wisdom categories. Two African authors, Daniel Bediako-Akoto and Peter Kimilike take a more critical approach. Bediako-Akoto paints a particularly bleak picture of the skewed treatment of gender relationships, menstruation, and female sexuality expressed by many African proverbs. He does not discern any possibility of salvaging such sayings, but rather calls for a liberating rereading of biblical texts. Similarly, Kimilike voices his concerns about gender violence incorporated in many African sayings, but discerns a liberated potential in the sayings on poverty. This liberating potential is uncovered when wealth and poverty are seen as contingent rather than reflecting an eternal and stable order of society. For him, African proverbs have an important role to play in highlighting the communal responsibility to eradicate poverty in society. [Adapted from published abstract—M.K.] 1772. [Wisdom Literature] Jesse Rogers, "Where Is Wisdom to Be Found and How Do We Apprehend Her?," Septuagint, Sages, and Scripture, 84-98 [see #2008]. The personifications of Wisdom in Proverbs, LXX Proverbs, Job, Sirach, Baruch, and Wisdom of Solomon are compared by R. with the spatial location of Woman Wisdom (e.g., public or domestic, heaven or earth, etc.) and with the sensory modes through which humans are able to access Wisdom. In each book, Wisdom's place is with God as well as the created world but only in Proverbs does Wisdom love the public sphere. Throughout these texts, when Wisdom is inaccessible it is because she is hidden, not absent. While Proverbs emphasizes listening to gain wisdom, Sirach highlights sensuous and tactile capacities, and Wisdom of Solomon stresses the sense of sight.—B.C.G. 1773. [Job] Allan Bornapé, "'Solo soy polvo y cenizas': una mirada al problema del sufrimento en el libro de Job desde la antropología y la poética hebreas," DavarLogos 15 (2016) 5-21. The Book of Job is undoubtedly the literary work that has provoked the most comments about the issue of suffering in human existence. In this discussion, the expressive [End Page 582] richness with which man is described and his relationship with evil in the book have not been fully elucidated, however. Accordingly, in this article, B. seeks to explore the issue of human suffering in the Book of Job in accordance with the book's own vision and in light of classical Hebrew anthropology. More particularly, the article takes as its starting point (1) some linguistic observations concerning the description of the body and the expression of the emotions in the Hebrew Bible, (2) a similar survey of the Book of Job and in particular its rich anthropological vocabulary in the description of the experiences of pain and suffering, esp. as these are found in chap. 3, and (3) the scope of the anthropological conception of the Book of Job and the poetic articulation of this in the book as a whole, with the aim of thereby establishing a bridge between the present and the past (Job and ourselves), and between the figure of Job and our own daily experience of suffering. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1774...

Creating a Synthesis of Torah-centered and Proverbial Admonitions

The article primarily deals with a textual connection between two admonitory texts 4QSapiential Admonitions B (4Q185) and 4QAdmonition on the Flood (4Q370). Beside the existence of this connection very little has been done to explore it and even the direction of the influence is still open to question. This connection will be thoroughly analyzed here, in order to appreciate fully its importance for understanding the purpose of the fragmentary individual texts and the applied editing practices. It will be shown that 4QAdmonition on the Flood was one of the main sources used in the composition of 4QSapiential Admonitions B that was radically edited (e. g., additions, omissions and recontextualizing) and combined with Proverbial wisdom traditions. The purpose of this editorial activity was to create a synthesis out of the more traditional wisdom thinking and the Torah-oriented deuteronomic parenesis, as was also done by, for example, Ben Sira in his own wisdom composition around the same time period.

A Postdating ofThrow‘Time’ inTwelfth Night

IN the final act of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1600–01), Duke Orsino rebuffs Feste’s third request for payment: ‘You can fool no more money out of me at this throw’ (V.i.32). 1 The primary meaning of throw is ‘time’, from Old English þrag ‘time; season’. 2 The secondary meaning is ‘throw (of the dice)’, playing on Feste’s dice metaphor (‘ Primo , secundo , tertio is a good play’, V.i.29) and perhaps echoing Sir Toby’s rhetorical question to Maria, ‘Shall I play my freedom at tray-trip and become thy bondslave?’ (II.v.157–158). 3 Thus the Duke’s prior disbursement of two coins is likened to a player’s throws in a dice game. Feste’s third request, organized around the concept of complete sets of three (‘one, two, three’, V.i.31), places dicing alongside other metaphorical fields: proverbial wisdom (‘and the old saying is “The third pays for all”’, V.i.29–30), dancing measures (‘the triplex, sir, is a good tripping measure’, V.i.30), and campanology (‘the bells of St. Bennet, sir, may put you in mind’, V.i.31). 4 This occurrence of throw ‘time’ postdates by almost a century the last citation for that meaning at Oxford English Dictionary Online, ‘throw, n . 1 ’, 1 (‘The time at which anything happens; an occasion’), from Gavin Douglas’s Eneados (1513).

Did Ms Wisdom of Proverbs 8 become a mystery in 4QInstruction?

The Hebrew Bible is quoted and alluded to in 4QInstruction. There is an obvious similarity between the way the raz nihyeh of 4QInstruction and Lady Wisdom in Proverbs 8 function. This intertextual study investigates this phenomenon by comparing 4Q416 2 III 8–21 and 4Q417 1 I with Proverbs 8:12–21 and 8:22–31. It is concluded that apocalyptic influence changed the character of Lady Wisdom but not her essential function.

Creating a Synthesis of Torah-centered and Proverbial Admonitions

The article primarily deals with a textual connection between two admonitory texts 4QSapiential Admonitions B (4Q185) and 4QAdmonition on the Flood (4Q370). Beside the existence of this connection very little has been done to explore it and even the direction of the influence is still open to question. This connection will be thoroughly analyzed here, in order to appreciate fully its importance for understanding the purpose of the fragmentary individual texts and the applied editing practices. It will be shown that 4QAdmonition on the Flood was one of the main sources used in the composition of 4QSapiential Admonitions B that was radically edited (e. g., additions, omissions and recontextualizing) and combined with Proverbial wisdom traditions. The purpose of this editorial activity was to create a synthesis out of the more traditional wisdom thinking and the Torah-oriented deuteronomic parenesis, as was also done by, for example, Ben Sira in his own wisdom composition around the same time period.

Cultural Inequivalences from Albanian into English in the Translation of “Pallati I Ëndrrave” by Ismail Kadare

This article focuses on cultural translation, especially addressing the issue of cultural inequivalences or losses occurring in the translation of “Pallati i Ëndrrave” written by Ismail Kadare. The main aim of this article is to investigate how different cultural aspects of source text are transmitted into the target text, causing cultural losses. As we might know, cultural losses are defined as the losses of cultural norms, social customs, idioms, and proverbial wisdom that are inherited through generations and comprise the identity of the source culture. Such losses occur during the process of correlating the verbal signs of one culture to another different culture and result mainly from misrepresenting the literariness of the source text and its pragmatic forces. Therefore, to present such cases, many examples of cultural losses are given, which are divided based on different type of losses in both version. Thus, in order to illustrate cultural aspects in literature, we analyze figurative language such as culture items, idiomatic expressions, proverbs in two texts: Albanian (the source text) and English (the target text). The analysis of examples have shown that translation of cultural aspects of the source text was communicatively successful, however, it failed to represent the culture-bound words which represent the implicit level of the source text. In this sense, we argue that figurative language and cultural terms of the source text are unfamiliar for target text and they should be looked at from the perspective of a cultural insider.

Cao Wenxuan, Hans Christian Andersen Award Winner 2016

Cao Wenxuan, Hans Christian Andersen Award Winner 2016 Mingzhou Zhang (bio) There is no doubt Cao Wenxuan is a great writer—his unanimous selection by the jury as the laureate of the 2016 H. C. Andersen Award is crystal clear proof. However, the more I read by him and about him, the more curious I get as to why and how he has grown into the person he is now. In order to understand the “big river,” I decided to go to its original sources. Thus, I paid a three-day visit to his home village where he was born and grew up before he left for Beijing at the age of twenty. Cao Wenxuan’s home is in the serenity of the campus created by his father, Mr. Cao Guisheng, founding headmaster of the school which frequently appears as the main scene in novels such as The Grass House and Bronze and Sunflower. The whole area is s vast plain crisscrossed by waterways and rice fields through which Cao Wenxuan used to run and play with his youngest sister. You see the reefs waving in the breeze; you see fishing boats and flocks of ducks floating on the water in the peaceful sunshine. It was in such pleasant circumstances I interviewed the author’s youngest sister, Ms. Cao Wenfang, also a famous children’s literature writer; his teacher Mr Li Yougan, a respected author and educator; and his old friend and classmate Mr. Chen Ming, a famous scriptwriter. Each of them shared with me a lot of stories about Cao’s early years, before he came to Peking University. Cao Wenxuan was born in 1954, in a small, remote village called Hougang in Yancheng City in the Jiangsu Province. Like most Chinese people in those days, Cao Wenxuan and his family suffered from extreme poverty. He recalls that spring was his least favorite season because there was no food; last year’s reserves were all gone, and the new harvest had yet to come. He writes, I was so hungry that I even had an appetite for stones. The sun shed warm light on the earth, but I just wanted it to set in order to bring darkness to the world, so that I didn’t have to see or feel anything and didn’t have to feel hungry. “Suffering”—and not only from starvation—is a keyword when describing his childhood, but his suffering and hardship ultimately turned into his spiritual and literary wealth. In the postscript to his novel Bronze and Sunflower, Cao writes, “We should be grateful for our suffering.” And he has spoken on many occasions about how his suffering in childhood changed him, made him more empathetic: “when the suffering comes, we must remember, but we must not hate, and never remember it as a hatred. Instead, we should be more empathetic and compassionate.” There is an old Chinese saying: “only when the barns are full, may people know honor and grace.” However, in Cao’s family history, there are several examples that contradict the proverbial wisdom. Cao’s mother was always the last person to eat, after all the kids have eaten. And his father, a self-taught teacher, worked in Shanghai for five years in his youth and eventually went back home and set up a school in the countryside. Despite hardship, his vision was deepened and his horizon broadened by his experiences in Shanghai; he was no longer an isolated, [End Page 4] narrow-minded countryman. Many villagers, like Cao’s father, came back from the city changed and eager to improve life in the village. But the outside world also came calling to the village. Before and during the Cultural Revolution, artists and writers as well as young students from big modern cities like Shanghai brought books, art, music, new manners and etiquette, proper modern clothes, hygiene, etc. to Cao’s village. These changes greatly impacted the local villagers’ daily life and their understanding of the world of culture and literature. Surely, Cao Wenxuan benefited from it also. On a personal level, Cao Wenxuan’s teacher and lifelong friend, Li Yougan, the most famous local author, had a decisive influence...

MANAGEMENT WISDOM IN XITSONGA PROVERBS

Proverbial wisdom is a powerful tool that is used by the Vatsonga in their communications to instil cultural norms and values that have a powerful impact on people’s lives. This article focuses on the management ideas contained in some Xitsonga proverbs. Its emphasis is on the Vatsonga’s proverbial wisdom in relation to management and business issues. The article covers the following management principles and techniques: dealing with work; being an effective manager; dealing with business associates; dealing with competition; dealing with superiors; dealing with the workforce; dealing with middle management; dealing with communication; and dealing with finances. It challenges language practitioners and the education system – the business schools in particular – to take a new look at ways of developing modules that fit in with South Africa’s local content.

열 번째 계명, 르네 지라르, 그리고 히브리 지혜의 선한 이웃

This article explores the role of desire in OT wisdom through an examination of the common ground in desire between the tenth commandment and wisdom in Proverbs. It argues that the tenth commandment is of central importance to the ethos of the Decalogue as a whole and that Proverbs is similarly a school of desire. Following the seminal work of Rene Girard on mimetic desire, I propose that Proverbs’ concern to constrain and direct desire is of far great societal importance, not least for today, than is often recognized. In the process, light is cast on the system of values that the Ten Commandments and OT wisdom share in common.

Telling the Truth and Shaming the Devil: Using Caribbean Proverbial Wisdom for Raising the Critical Consciousness of African Caribbean People in Postcolonial Britain

This article outlines a creative, innovative and interdisciplinary approach to conscientizing ordinary Black people on the margins of British society. This approach is one I have termed “participative” Black theology. It seeks to move beyond largely theorizing to that which enables ordinary people to be active in a more praxis-based approach to building theological discourse from the bottom up. This particular, participative approach to Black theology is one in which I engage with Jamaican proverbs, as a means of utilizing African Caribbean folk wisdom in order to create a practical resource for raising the critical consciousness of ordinary Black people. This practical schema for engaging with Caribbean proverbial wisdom is used as a means of engaging critically with the Bible, in order to develop a reading strategy that will lend itself to more subversive and improvisatory approaches to understanding Black life in Britain.