Representations of the Human/ Nonhuman Primate Divide: the Influence of Science, Fiction, and Science-Fiction on the Concept of 'Being Human'

For as far back as human history can be traced, mankind has questioned what it means to be human. One of the most common approaches throughout Western culture's intellectual tradition in attempts to answering this question has been to compare humans with or against other animals. I argue that it was not until Charles Darwin's publication of The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) that Western culture was forced to seriously consider human identity in relation to the human/ nonhuman primate line. Since no thinker prior to Charles Darwin had caused such an identity crisis in Western thought, this interdisciplinary analysis of the history of how the human/ nonhuman primate line has been understood focuses on the reciprocal relationship of popular culture and scientific representations from 1871 to the Human Genome Consortium in 2000. Focusing on the concept coined as the "Darwin-Müller debate," representations of the human/ nonhuman primate line are traced through themes of language, intelligence, and claims of variation throughout the popular texts: Descent of Man, The Jungle Books (1894), Tarzan of the Apes (1914), and Planet of the Apes (1963). Additional themes such as the nature versus nurture debate and other comparative phenotypic attributes commonly used for comparison between man and apes are also analyzed. Such popular culture representations are compared with related or influential scientific research during the respective time period of each text to shed light on the reciprocal nature of Western intellectual tradition, popular notions of the human/ nonhuman primate line, and the development of the field of primatology. Ultimately this thesis shows that the Darwin-Müller debate is indeterminable, and such a lack of resolution makes man uncomfortable. Man's unsettled response and desire for self-knowledge further facilitates a continued search for answers to human identity. As the Human Genome Project has led to the rise of new debates, and primate research has become less anthropocentric over time, the mysteries of man's future have become more concerning than the questions of our past. The human/ nonhuman primate line is reduced to a 1% difference, and new debates have begun to overshadow the Darwin-Müller debate. In conclusion, I argue that human identity is best represented through the metaphor of evolution: both have an unknown beginning, both have an indeterminable future with no definite end, and like a species under the influence of evolution, what it means to be human is a constant, indeterminable process of change.

Must We Forgive?: Exploring the Limits and Possibilities of Forgiveness and Resentment

Conflict has marked civilization from Biblical times to the present day. Each of us, with our different and competing interests, and our desires to pursue those interests, have over time wronged another person. Not surprisingly then, forgiveness is a concern of individuals and groups¿communities, countries, religious groups, races¿yet it is a complex idea that philosophers, theologians, political scientists, and psychologists have grappled with. Some have argued that forgiveness is a therapeutic means for overcoming guilt, pain, and anger. Forgiveness is often portrayed as a coping mechanism¿how often we hear the phrase, ¿forgive and forget,¿ as an arrangement to help two parties surmount the complications of disagreement. But forgiveness is not simply a modus vivendi; the ability to forgive and conversely to ask for forgiveness, is counted as an admirable trait and virtue. This essay will explore the nature of forgiveness, which in Christian dogma is often posited as an unqualified virtue. The secular world has appropriated the Christian notion of forgiveness as such a virtue¿but are there instances wherein offering forgiveness is morally inappropriate or dangerous? I will consider the situations in which forgiveness, understood in this essay as the overcoming of resentment, may not be a virtue¿when perhaps maintaining resentment is as virtuous, if not more virtuous, than forgiving. I will explain the various ethical frameworks involved in understanding forgiveness as a virtue, and the relationship between them. I will argue that within Divine Command Theory forgiveness is a virtue¿and thus morally right¿because God commands it. This ethical system has established forgiveness as unconditional, an idea which has been adopted into popular culture. With virtue ethics in mind, which holds virtues to be those traits which benefit the person who possesses them, contributing to the good life, I will argue unqualified forgiveness is not always a virtue, as it will not always benefit the victim. Because there is no way to avoid wrongdoing, humans are confronted with the question of forgiveness with every indiscretion. Its limits, its possibilities, its relationship to one¿s character¿forgiveness is a concern of all people at some time if for no other reason than the plain fact that the past cannot be undone. I will be evaluating the idea of forgiveness as a virtue, in contrast to its counterpart, resentment. How can forgiveness be a response to evil, a way to renounce resentment, and a means of creating a positive self-narrative? And what happens when a sense of moral responsibility is impossible to reconcile with the Christian (and now, secularized imperative of) forgiveness? Is it ever not virtuous to forgive? In an attempt to answer that question I will argue that there are indeed times when forgiveness is not a virtue, specifically: when forgiveness compromises one¿s own self-respect; when it is not compatible with respect for the moral community; and when the offender is unapologetic. The kind of offense I have in mind is a dehumanizing one, one that intends to diminish another person¿s worth or humanity. These are moral injuries, to which I will argue resentment is a better response than forgiveness when the three qualifications cannot be met.

Phenotypic and functional analysis of human fetal liver hematopoietic stem cells in culture

Steady-state hematopoiesis and hematopoietic transplantation rely on the unique potential of stem cells to undergo both self-renewal and multilineage differentiation. Fetal liver (FL) represents a promising alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), but limited by the total cell number obtained in a typical harvest. We reported that human FL nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) repopulating cells (SRCs) could be expanded under simple stroma-free culture conditions. Here, we sought to further characterize FL HSC/SRCs phenotypically and functionally before and following culture. Unexpanded or cultured FL cell suspensions were separated into various subpopulations. These were tested for long-term culture potential and for in vivo repopulating function following transplantation into NOD/SCID mice. We found that upon culture of human FL cells, a tight association between classical stem cell phenotypes, such as CD34(+) /CD38(-) and/or side population, and NOD/SCID repopulating function was lost, as observed with other sources. Although SRC activity before and following culture consistently correlated with the presence of a CD34(+) cell population, we provide evidence that, contrary to umbilical cord blood and adult sources, stem cells present in both CD34(+) and CD34(-) FL populations can sustain long-term hematopoietic cultures. Furthermore, upon additional culture, CD34-depleted cell suspensions, devoid of SRCs, regenerated a population of CD34(+) cells possessing SRC function. Our studies suggest that compared to neonatal and adult sources, the phenotypical characteristics of putative human FL HSCs may be less strictly defined, and reinforce the accumulated evidence that human FL represents a unique, valuable alternative and highly proliferative source of HSCs for clinical applications.

Street-Ball: The Myth of the Ghetto Basketball Star

In recent decades, countless scholars have examined the developing trend of African American dominance in United States’ professional sports. Many have hypothesized that this over-representation is caused by the presumed reliance on sports as an avenue out of poverty for the African American youths. This trend, it is believed, has a highly detrimental effect the African American community. In actuality, this argument is flawed because it works under the stereotypical assumption that the overwhelming majority of African Americans come from abject poverty. To dispel this fallacy, the author has analyzed the upbringings of each All-National Basketball League First Team player over the past thirty years. The author discovered that while the majority of the players selected were African American, only a small percentage of these athletes were raised in a poverty-stricken environment. Logically, this would not be the case if poor African Americans relied more heavily on sports than middle-class African Americans. This data proves that stereotypes, not empirical evidence, are the substance of nearly every previous study conducted on the topic.

The Sweet Script: A Critical Analysis of American Sportswriting

This thesis analyzes the sportswriting genre as a form of personal essay. It explores the art over time through writers Red Smith, A.J. Liebling, Roger Angell, George Plimpton, Bart Giamatti, Frank Deford, and Rick Reilly, as well as anthologized writers from 2008 and blogs.

La estética de lo bello y la exaltación de la cultura popular

Alegato en favor del concepto clásico de belleza y en contra de la concepción postmodernista de que todo puede ser arte y todos artistas. Se trata de rescatar la concepción de estética contenida en las obras de la Escuela de Frankfurt, especialmente de Theodor W. Adorno y Herbert Marcuse: el arte como lealtad a la promesa de felicidad. Se rescata la función crítica y anticipativa del gran arte y se pone en cuestión el carácter presumiblemente progresista y democrático del arte contemporáneo. Las élites actuales, legitimadas democráticamente, comparten las mismas inclinaciones estéticas de las masas, pero ejerciendo una función manipulativa en la configuración de la vida cotidiana.

La asunción de lo popular el teatro didáctico anarquista de Alberto Ghiraldo y su programa poético de «dar al pueblo la palabra»

Este trabajo aborda la conexión entre prácticas de comunicación y movimientos sociales a través de la particular asunción de lo popular que realizó el anarquismo en nuestro país a principios del siglo XX. Tomamos como caso particular el teatro didáctico propuesto por Alberto Ghiraldo, para describir algunas de las estrategias comunicacionales puestas en función, en relación con la cultura popular, con el fin de concientizar a las masas de los aspectos ideológicos del anarquismo.

La cultura popular en la obra de Mário de Andrade

Este proyecto pretende analizar, desde una perspectiva comparativa, el modo en que la obra poética, narrativa y ensayística del escritor brasileño Mário de Andrade se integra en el proyecto estético de una vanguardia enraizada en lo folklórico y en lo popular. En ese sentido además, busca evaluar en qué medida ese modelo forma parte de una reflexión más amplia, tanto en el seno del modernismo paulista de las décadas del veinte y del treinta como de otras vanguardias latinoamericanas, que aspira a problematizar y redefinir la identidad nacional desde el punto de vista cultural

Cultura popular y poesía narrativa medieval: contactos productivos

El presente artículo propone focalizar la pertinencia de la configuración teórica del concepto de literatura y cultura popular para el estudio de la poesía narrativa medieval en su pasaje del universo de la oralidad al de la escritura, y de la escritura manuscrita a la imprenta. Los ejemplos serán aportados a su vez por los géneros narrativos paradigmáticos medievales, la épica y el romancero, en el dominio lingüístico específico del castellano.

La lírica popular-tradicional argentina : Límites difusos

La sociedad argentina puede caracterizarse como "nueva", producto de proyectos poblacionales y migraciones internas y externas. Esta condición determinó que la cultura popular, y la poesía en particular, se manifestaran en distintas tradiciones superpuestas. Una tradición hispánica procedente del período colonial se asentó en el noroeste del país, área de población más antigua en la que fueron documentados romances y coplas tradicionales. Paralelamente, una tradición criolla heredera de la hispánica tuvo expresiones autóctonas en relación con los movimientos independentistas (romancero criollo, pero también décimas y coplas). Por último, una tradición europea se incorporó entre fines del siglo xix y principios del xx con el denominado aluvión inmigratorio. Esta última corriente impregnó todo lo anterior con nuevos temas procedentes especialmente de España, pero en contacto con diversas formas populares de otros países como Italia, Francia y Portugal. El propósito de este artículo es ofrecer un panorama de la superposición de estos distintos estratos culturales tal como se manifiesta en las coplas que se cantaron y se imprimieron en la primera mitad del Siglo xx

Arquetipos populares, arquetipos cultos y sagrada escritura en la poesía popular española

En las coplas reunidas por Margit Frenk bajo el epígrafe: "Que si soy morena", así como en varias referidas a fiestas de la Virgen o agrupadas en otros temas, de índole amorosa, se cruzan varias tradiciones: el tema paneuropeo evocado por la misma investigadora de la afirmación del color moreno, la tradición asociada al nivel culto o noble de la belleza clara, incluso expresamente rubia y de ojos verdes estudiada desde Faral, Lecoy, Dámaso Alonso o María Rosa Lida y en fin una clara presencia bíblica, sobre todo del Cantar de los Cantares. Dada la intensa difusión y comentarios de este libro bíblico en los monasterios, especialmente benedictinos y cistercienses, y en la liturgia mariana, son muchas las vías posibles de interpenetración con la cultura popular.

La cultura popular en la obra de Mário de Andrade

Este proyecto pretende analizar, desde una perspectiva comparativa, el modo en que la obra poética, narrativa y ensayística del escritor brasileño Mário de Andrade se integra en el proyecto estético de una vanguardia enraizada en lo folklórico y en lo popular. En ese sentido además, busca evaluar en qué medida ese modelo forma parte de una reflexión más amplia, tanto en el seno del modernismo paulista de las décadas del veinte y del treinta como de otras vanguardias latinoamericanas, que aspira a problematizar y redefinir la identidad nacional desde el punto de vista cultural

Cultura popular y poesía narrativa medieval: contactos productivos

El presente artículo propone focalizar la pertinencia de la configuración teórica del concepto de literatura y cultura popular para el estudio de la poesía narrativa medieval en su pasaje del universo de la oralidad al de la escritura, y de la escritura manuscrita a la imprenta. Los ejemplos serán aportados a su vez por los géneros narrativos paradigmáticos medievales, la épica y el romancero, en el dominio lingüístico específico del castellano.