92 research outputs found
Jon Keune, Shared Devotion, Shared Food: Equality and the Bhakti-Caste Question in Western India [Ludovica Tozzi], p. 391
No full text"Shared Devotion, Shared Food: Equality and the Bhakti-Caste Question in Western India" by Jon Keune deals with an in-depth analysis of Marathi literature from 1854 to 1950, in order to find an answer to the question: "Can the idea that people are equal before God inspire them to treat each other as equals? Can theological egalitarianism lead to social equality?”. While trying to answer such a complex question, the author reveals the strengths and flaws of the so-called "most liberal Hindu religious movement"
Saumitra, Chakravarty, the goddess re-discovered. gender and sexuality in religious texts of medieval Bengal (New York: Routledge, 2023), 200 pp., Hardback, ISBN: 9781032316727, £ 31,01
No full textThe Goddess Re-Discovered: Gender and Sexuality in Religious Texts of Medieval Bengal di Saumitra Chakravarty, è un
testo innovativo che propone di rivalutare episodi e personaggi della letteratura popolare bengali come esempi di emancipazione femminile e di protesta sociale. Le opere di riferimento sono state composte nella regione
del Bengala pre-Indipendenza in epoca medievale, ovvero nel periodo compreso tra i secoli xii e xviii, e appartengono a diversi generi letterari, quali: mangal kavya, purana, padavali, caritamrta, le epiche e molti altri ancora
Il culto della dea dei serpenti del Bengala: ambiguità e potere delle sue devote
No full textNella regione del delta del Gange, all’apice del Golfo del Bengala è andato sviluppandosi, a partire dall’XI secolo, il
culto hindu-brahmanico di una dea dei serpenti nota come Manasā. La dea controlla i rettili, l’azione letale del loro veleno e gli
antidoti, la fertilità e la potenza erotica che la simbologia dei serpenti o nāga richiama in ambito hindu. Le attività previste
dalla prassi cultuale dedicata a Manasā ruotano attorno all’esercizio della medicina tradizionale, alla protezione degli spazi
sacri naturali, degli alberi e delle piante medicinali, con il fine di normare simbolicamente la potenza naturale dissipatrice
attraverso rimandi alla forza nutrice della maternità. Coloro che si rivolgono a Manasā e ai curatori tradizionali che agiscono in
suo nome sono soprattutto le donne, che con pratiche apotropaiche sperano di tenere lontane la condizione di vedovanza e
l’infertilità, situazioni socialmente ritenute conseguenze di una sessualità non regolamentata o di una condotta religiosa e
sociale inadeguata. Lo stigma che ne consegue è associato alla punizione divina che si scaglia sui corpi delle ree e li segnala
come impuri, indegni di procreare e pericolosi. Il presente articolo intende, dunque, approfondire il ruolo sociale e rituale
svolto dalle donne hindu nell’ambito delle attività rituali dedicate alla dea dei serpenti del Bengala
Il silenzio delle donne e la voce di Sa’ādat Hasan Maṇṭo: violenza e Partizione nel racconto Khol Do
No full textAll’indomani della Partizione (1947), durante gli scontri etnici e religiosi fra gli emergenti stati di India e Pakistan, l’idea di nazione era essenzialmente concepita sulla base del controllo della sessualità delle donne, rese simulacro dell’onore collettivo e, conseguentemente, target di aggressioni feroci. Il presente articolo si propone, dunque, di analizzare la rappresentazione della violenza sulle donne nel racconto Khol Do 1 di Sa’ādat Hasan Maṇṭo, opera pubblicata per la prima volta nel 1948, che dimostra come le guerre reifichino il corpo femminile che può essere oltraggiato nel tentativo di colpire i gruppi avversari. In simili circostanze di sospensione della moralità, la brutalità maschile agisce indisturbata sulle donne e viene esercitata da tutti, indistintamente. In Khol Do, infatti, l’autore denuncia l’ipocrisia nazionalista che addita l’’altro’ come unico nemico da combattere e sottolinea come abusi di ogni genere, in particolare lo stupro, siano commessi anche per mano di membri della stessa comunità o della stessa famiglia. Le violenze sessuali non sono più solo armi di guerra, ma si presentano come le conseguenze della disinibizione maschile legittimata dallo Stato
Una festa hindu in un quartiere di Roma. La Durga Puja a Tor Pignattara durante il Covid-19.
No full textA Tor Pignattara, uno dei quartieri di Roma a maggiore incidenza migrante, su impulso dei due templi hindu locali viene celebrata da anni la Durga Puja, una festa tra le più sentite dagli induisti di tutto il mondo. Durante la pandemia di covid-19 i festeggiamenti hanno dovuto confrontarsi con le restrizioni emanate dal governo italiano: distanziamento sociale, limitazione del numero dei partecipanti, dispositivi di protezione delle vie respiratorie hanno comportato nuovi modi di vivere le celebrazioni, tra online e offline, contribuendo ad arricchire il panorama “religiosamente superdiverso” della Capitale
Dentro «Il podere» di Federigo Tozzi: la 'tecnica del montaggio'
No full textThis article analyses a particular assembly technique used by Federigo Tozzi in composing his texts. The case of study is offered by one of his major novels, «Il podere» (1921), whose manuscript reveals how Tozzi deliberatly left some descriptives parts to be completed later. To reach this completion, the author could work en plein air, to catch a landscape as a painter would have done, otherwise re-use some pages written years before. In this second case, the pages here re-used are taken from the typescript of «Adele» (1979, posthumous), the well-known first novel never published by Tozzi but rather dis-mantled, put aside and kept in a drawer as a sort of tank of useful pages, to be re-used if necessary
A Novel FTIR-Based Chemometric Solution for the Assessment of Saffron Adulteration with Non-Fresh Stigmas
No full textThe development of fast, non-destructive, and green methods with adequate sensitivity for saffron authentication has important implications in the quality control of the entire production chain of this precious spice. In this context, the highly suitable sensitivity of a spectroscopic method coupled with chemometrics was verified. A total number of 334 samples were analyzed using attenuated-total-reflectance Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy; the collected spectra were processed by partial-least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) to evaluate the feasibility of this study for the discrimination between compliant saffron (fresh samples produced in 2020) and saffron samples adulterated with non-fresh stigmas produced in 2018 and 2016. PLS-DA was able to classify the saffron samples in accordance with the aging time and to discriminate fresh samples from the samples adulterated with non-fresh (legally expired) stigmas, achieving 100% of both sensitivity and specificity in external prediction. Moreover, PLS regression was able to predict the adulteration level with sufficient accuracy (the root-mean-square error of prediction was approximately 3–5%). In summary, ATR-FTIR and chemometrics can be employed to highlight the illegal blending of fresh saffron with unsold stocks of expired saffron, which may be a common fraudulent practice not yet considered in the scientific literature
On characterization of (E,M)-structures in procategories,
No full textMardesic introduced the concept of pro-reflective (dense) subcategory of a category C in order to define a categorical shape theory for topological spaces. Following the results obtained by the author introducing the (E,M)-factorisation structure on C w.r.t ProC, it is given a characterisation of those classes M for which there exists the class E in the ProC morphisms such that the pair (E,M) is a factorisation structure on C w.r.t. Pro
L’infante, la donna, la bestia: un’analisi ecocritica degli incontri non umani in Federigo Tozzi, Dino Buzzati, Anna Maria Ortese
No full textRestricted AccessThe authorial connections between Federigo Tozzi, Dino Buzzati and Anna Maria Ortese are notable and varied. Linked by a fervent animalistic and, in the case of the latter two, also environmentalist spirit, the non-human plays a central role in the works of the authors, who represent natural entities, animals, or fantastic creatures as narrative archetypes of universal pain. This thesis investigates the encounters between the human and the nonhuman in the works of Tozzi, Buzzati, and Ortese with the aim of answering the questions “what does otherness represent for the authors?”, and “how is this 'other' portrayed in their novels, short stories, and journalistic writings?”. To tackle these issues, my analysis considers three thematic areas, namely the representation of the child, the woman, and the beast, categories united by a perception of inferiority, and thus of marginalization, in a purely patriarchal social context. In the three chapters, one per individual author, the investigation of the three principal thematic areas makes use of a range of critical theories such as Ecocriticism (Garrard, Buell, Wolfe, Iovino), Animal Studies (Derrida, Cimatti, Regan, Singer), Ecofeminism (Warren, Adams, Plumwood, Ruether) and Children's Studies (Freud, Joosen, Khan, Kellert).
In the works of the three authors, the animal is portrayed as abused, castrated, and killed, and this confirms how, due to a lack of logos, the nonhuman can be easily subjugated in human society. On other occasions, the animal, as a model of otherness, is acknowledged by the authors as a fragile entity, and thus in need of protection or defense. However, animality also serves the function of representing human figures through animalistic characteristics, or portraying characters who are placed on the same social scale as beasts enslaved to man: namely, women and children.
Therefore, after having traced the narrative archetypes and symbolic connections between the child, the woman, and the animal in selected works of Tozzi, Buzzati and Ortese, the last part of the respective chapters addresses the salient themes of the three authors' attitude towards animals from an ethical-moral perspective. In the case of Tozzi, I analyze texts that draw upon his strong influence by nonhuman agents. For Ortese and Buzzati, I consider a selection of the authors’ militant journalistic production which advocates for the protection of those who have no voice to denounce their own oppression, existential imperatives of an ethical-moral order which constitute the critical building blocks of their animalist spirit. The conclusions highlight the connections between the authors through the three thematic cores examined (child, woman, and beast), and trace the positioning of the nonhuman in the authorial imaginary of Tozzi, Buzzati and Ortese, authors who are only seemingly dissimilar, but who are linked, instead, by a profound, indissoluble interest in the other
A study on middle school students' use of computer-generated representations as they solve probability tasks
No full textThis study examined the problem-solving behavior of four students from an urban, middle school as they used computer simulation software to solve probability tasks, by generating and interpreting computer data and representations to make decisions about fairness and adequacy of sample size. The questions that guided the study were: (1) How are data generated by the students from computer simulations interpreted with respect to (a) fairness and (b) significance of sample size? (2) What decisions about fairness and adequacy of sample size do students make on the basis of evidence that they collect? and (3) How are student ideas influenced, if at all, by their computer-generated representations and others? The students were video-taped during five sessions which occurred on two days of a summer institute, a component of the Informal Mathematical Learning (IML) Project at Rutgers University. Data consisted of discussions between and among students as they worked in pairs on the task, conversations between students and researchers, screen-shots of computer representations that students selected and discussed, and students’ written work recorded on CDs. These were analyzed using the Powell, Francisco & Maher (2003) model for investigating the development of mathematical knowledge using video data. Analysis of the data revealed that the simulation software, together with social interaction, resulted in students' making and testing conjectures about a sophisticated concept, the Law of Large Numbers. The type of representations that were chosen by students also influenced their arguments. The students agreed that fair dice have a uniform frequency distribution; however, they also agreed that a fair die could have an outcome that alternated between having the highest and then lowest frequencies in two separate experiments. This study contributes to the data base that documents the building of mathematical ideas as students work on investigations in supportive environments, and addresses a gap in the probability education literature for studies of middle-school students using simulation software to generate data and representations that support their claims.Ed.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Barbara Tozz
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