"Sub Tiberio quies"? Judaea’s Political Situation under the Prefects (6-41 c.e.), between Reality and Ideology

Deeply conflicting views on the political situation of Judaea under the Roman prefects (6-41 c.e.) have been offered. According to some scholars, this was a period of persistent political unrest and agitation, whilst according to a widespread view it was a quiescent period of political calm (reflected in Tacitus’ phrase sub Tiberio quies). The present article critically examines again the main available sources –particularly Josephus, the canonical Gospels and Tacitus– in order to offer a more reliable historical reconstruction. The conclusions drawn by this survey calls into question some widespread and insufficiently nuanced views on the period. This, in turn, allows a reflection on the non-epistemic factors which might contribute to explain the origin of such views.

Antiguas comunidades judías en Macedonia, Tracia y Épiro Superior

Evidencias de carácter literario, epigráfico y arqueológico-arquitectónicas, atestiguan la existencia de comunidades judías en Macedonia, Tracia y Épiro Superior (hoy Albania) durante los períodos romano y bizantino temprano. Los Hechos de los Apostoles mencionan la presencia de comunidades judías, y sus sinagogas, en Filipos, Tesalónica y Verroia, en Macedonia. El descubrimiento de inscripciones griegas en Bizya (Tracia), en Tesalónica y Dión, y en la antigua sinagoga de Stobia, sugieren que dichas comunidades preservaron su independencia religiosa y gozaron de un seguro estatus social, económico y cultural. Una antigua tumba judía encontrada en Tesalónica, decorada con una menorah, la sinagoga de Claudius Tiberius Polycharmos en Stobia y la de Saranda (Épiro Superior), añaden pruebas arqueológico- arquitectónicas a las fuentes literarias. A pesar de que las fuentes literarias, los datos epigráficos y los hallazgos arqueológicos son relativamente escasos, parece que en estas regiones, y en otras de la Península Balcánica, existieron también otras comunidades judías.

Deconstrucción de los relatos evangélicos de la pasión. Sobre el arraigo de la ficción en la Historia de las religiones

Las más elementales exigencias de rigor crítico e independencia siguen a menudo sin cumplirse hoy en día en la reconstrucción histórica de la figura del judío Yeshua ben Yosef (Jesús el galileo), en parte porque el carácter inconsistente de las fuentes evangélicas no es tomado en serio. El presente artículo analiza las incongruencias de los relatos de la pasión, muestra en ellos los indicios de un proceso de despolitización, y señala el carácter insostenible de varias afirmaciones clave de muchos historiadores contemporáneos sobre el predicador galileo.

La música en el desarrollo de la espiritualidad y la religiosidad. Una aproximación al Cristianismo y al Budismo

La música puede afectar al individuo en todos sus niveles –físico, mental y espiritual–. El presente artículo se centra en el papel que ésta desempeña en el desarrollo de la vida espiritual y trascendental. Para ello, realizaremos un repaso histórico de su evolución estética y social, abordaremos dicho fenómeno a nivel fisiológico y presentaremos sus aplicaciones clínicas y sociales. Seguidamente y a modo de ejemplo de las concepciones de pensamiento occidental y oriental, trataremos la forma en que el cristianismo y el budismo conciben la música dentro de su doctrina. Finalizaremos con algunas reflexiones sobre el tema.

"Et occidetur virtute Domini Antichristus a Mikaele arcangelo". Paisaje y escatología en Sant Miquel de Llíria (s. XIV d. C.)

El presente articulo intenta determinar las razones por las que el santuario de Sant Miquel de Llíria, uno de los más importantes de la actual provincia de Valencia, se consagró al arcàngel guerrero. Se estudia para ello la historia de su culto en Occidente, haciendo hincapié en aspectos como su relación con los lugares elevados y la frecuente proximidad de sus santuarios con aquellos dedicados a la Virgen. Atenderemos también a aspectos fundamentales del contexto histórico, como los movimientos de renovación espiritual medievales, la influencia del médico y teólogo Arnau de Vilanova en la Valencia de principios del siglo XIV y las profecías escatológicas vinculadas a la llegada del Anticristo.

Judaísmo y judaísmos: una realidad plural y compleja

En este artículo se presenta una visión panorámica de la situación actual del judaísmo así como de los principales problemas y desafíos que afronta en la actualidad. De manera especial se reflexiona sobre el concepto de identidad judía, pues son muchas y diferentes las respuestas a las preguntas ¿quién es judío? y ¿qué significa ser judío?

The intertextual pilgrimage to Compostela in the Spanish nineteenth-century travel narratives written in French

Pilgrimage to Compostela was decreasing in the nineteenth century. This situation was still worse in France, where the number of pilgrims dwindled dramatically. In fact, there are not many travel narratives in this period, as no relevant French author showed any interest in this religious event. An analysis of these works reveals that the worship to Santiago was somehow considered by these authors a mere historical remnant with an aura of prestige. They allow almost no space for factual descriptions, and therefore used documentary sources to discuss the topic in their own texts. As a consequence, their knowledge of this universe became indirect and intertextual.

Sanctity of Human Life in the Context of Human Genetic Research

The study on the concept of sanctity of human life is a journey in finding out what is it said to be “human” in human life. It is an evaluation of the universal concept and the role it plays in controlling and moulding human conduct and relationships. This concept is a foundational principle of human rights law and the grundnorm of every legal system. However, of late, the challenges by way of certain advances in human genetic research had prompted the need to evaluate the significance and extent of the concept in human endeavours. Scientific advances by way of human genetic research promises significant diagnostic and therapeutic advances but at the same time pose threat to fundamental notions and assumptions on humanity, hence there is a global concern to derive common legal standards, Thus the major challenge is to analyse universal principles which can be a common criteria for evolving legal standards to control certain advances in human genetic research. Hence the relevance of the study. The study aims at analysing the content, scope, extent and limitation of the concept of sanctity of human life. In this attempt it evaluates the extent to which the concept had been accommodated by legal systems and international human rights regimes. The problem which had been undertaken in the study is the extent of intrusion made to the concept by virtue of certain advances in human genetic research.

"You Don't Have to be Filmish": The Toronto Jewish Film Festival

The Toronto Jewish Film Festival is a one-week celebration of Judaism and Cinema that occurs in downtown Toronto, at the Bloor Cinema, early every May. The folkloristic literature on festival notes that these kinds of events are ways that communities and groups celebrate themselves, and although film festivals are frequently excluded from consideration of traditional festivity, I shall demonstrate that such an omission is unfortunate, since like traditional festivity, film festivals, in particular ethnic film festivals, explore the same issues of liminality for the celebrating culture.

Cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea forest, West Africa

The cultural valuation of biodiversity has taken on renewed importance over the last two decades as the ecosystem services framework has become widely adopted. Conservation initiatives increasingly use ecosystem service frameworks to render tropical forest landscapes and their peoples legible to market-oriented initiatives such as REDD+ and biodiversity offsetting schemes. Ecosystem service approaches have been widely criticized by scholars in the social sciences and humanities for their narrow focus on a small number of easily quantifiable and marketable services and a reductionist and sometimes simplistic approach to culture. We address the need to combine methods from each of the “three cultures” of natural science, quantitative social science, and qualitative social science/humanities in conceptualizing the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation. We combine qualitative data with forest inventories and a quantitative index of cultural value to evaluate the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in Upper Guinea forest in Liberia, West Africa. Our study focuses on “sacred agroforests,” spaces that are associated with Mande macro-language speaking groups such as the Loma. We demonstrate that sacred agroforests are associated with different cultural values compared with secondary forests. Although biodiversity and biomass are similar, sacred agroforests exhibit a different species composition, especially of culturally salient species, increasing overall landscape agro-biodiversity. Sacred agroforests are also shaped and conserved by local cultural institutions revolving around ancestor worship, ritual, and the metaphysical conceptual category “salɛ.” We conclude that to understand the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation, interpretivist approaches such as phenomenology should be employed alongside positivist ecosystem service frameworks.

La invocación de los antepasados en "De divinatione" y "De natura deorum" de Cicerón. "Religio e identidad" romana a fines de la república

La invocación del ideal del mos maiorum, entendido como conjunto de virtudes o rasgos ejemplares de los romanos, ha sido estudiada repetidamente en los textos de Cicerón. Analiza el tópico en relación con la discusión en torno a la identidad romana en textos del siglo I a.C. y delimita tres empleos diferentes: uno al que define como típicamente aristocrático, referido a la ascendencia noble de un individuo en particular; un segundo uso que, en vez de individualizar, amalgama a todos los ancestros en un mismo conjunto y establece una continuidad entre pasado y presente; finalmente, una tercera modalidad que propone una ruptura total entre el mundo de los antepasados y el de los contemporáneos. En este trabajo indagaremos el funcionamiento de este tópico en De diuinatione y De natura deorum de Cicerón. Desde nuestro punto de vista, el ideal del mos maiorum no solamente involucra virtudes éticas y morales sino que también supone una especial actitud con respecto a los dioses y el culto que resulta central en la definición de la identidad romana.

Espirito de catimbo: a moral magico-religiosa da jurema

This participative research interested in the social praxis attempts to understand the moral principles that set the magic rituals and the places of worship of three jurema centers of the potiguar region of Canguaretama. Among other inner particularly aspects of each focused catimbó-jurema center, it is being discussed the collective standards involved in the reliance and fellowship values assumed in the private magical gatherings by the juremeiras leaders and their partners, in contrast to the prestige seeking and the individualism that influence both the symbolic competitions and the witchcraft works that link these agents to the broader catimbozeiro universe of this region. Finally, the moral practices which make part of the juremeiro left-right dualism are investigated based on the understanding that the referred native pantheonic-ritual dichotomy does not necessarily express two moralities substantially adversed in terms of benefits or harms, but a series of moral actions subject to the specular logic of the tit-for tat. Thus, this research seeks to prove that this moral structure of symbolic reciprocity, as well as the witchcraft centrality in the catimbozeiro world, finds a certain causal link in a world view which guiding principle is the ontological evil of the catholic cosmology

The Auld Alliance: Organ music from Scotland and France.

CD recording of the Rieger organ of St Giles' Cathedral Edinburgh, performed by Michael Harris, with music from Scottish composers, and composers based in Scotland, as well as French organ music from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. Works by James MacMillan, Thomas Wilson, Kenneth Leighton, Alfred Hollins, de Grigny, Guilmant, Fleury and Franck.

Del sacrificio al ocio en Jalisco, México

El turismo religioso, turismo en espacios religiosos o las peregrinaciones, han crecido considerablemente, más de 30 millones de personas se desplazan anualmente en México sólo por motivación religiosa y se estima una derrama económica de 680 millones de dólares. Este trabajo pretende establecer la motivación de la visita de santuarios en seis localidades del estado de Jalisco y analizar si se relaciona con la idea de sacrificio y fe del peregrino o con el ocio y placer del turista dedicado a la experiencia y vivencia del fenómeno religiosos, así como el grado de transición entre recinto religioso y atractivo turístico., desde una perspectiva del turismo cultural, lo que enfrenta la idea de un turismo alternativo. Se puede afirmar que en Jalisco, con relación al turismo religioso, predomina la condición de peregrino (sacrificio) en los visitantes y los espacios sacros y sus contenidos culturales aún cumplen la función de generar entornos propicios para la veneración, la contemplación y la adoración.

Percepcja walorów turystycznych przez osoby niesłyszące na tle słyszącej części społeczeństwa w Polsce

The article aims at showing similarities and differences in the perception of tourist attractions among tourists with and without hearing impairment. The first part depicts perception problems from the theoretical point of view. Complexities of studies on the perception system have been described. The perception itself is channelled via senses, including mainly sight (reception of approximately 87% of outside factors), hearing (7%), smell (3–5%), touch (1–5%) and taste (1%) (Visual Landscape… 1994, after: Pietrzak 2008). The data suggests that people with hearing impairment, owing to dominative position of sight perception and to other senses (except hearing), should perceive outside factors similarly to people with no hearing impairment, also in terms of tourist attractions. Is this really a fact? The attempt to answer this question resulted in conducting questionnaire study among the tourists, both with and without hearing impairment. The data was collected, based on questionnaire study, conducted nationwide in years 2004–2010 among the 292 deaf (for whom Polish Sign Language is the main method of communication) and 1780 people without hearing impairment. The aim of this study was to reveal, if tourists with hearing dysfunction have different tourist preferences than those without any hearing disabilities and to indicate which tourist attractions are the most significant for tourists with hearing impairment. The percentage values and the level of signi-ficance (p), calculated on the basis of Pearson’s chi-square test (with border value of p ≤ 0.05), were used in the analysis It was determined, that in case of perception of natural tourist attractions, there is a major similarity (both, people with and without hearing impairment indicated such attractions as sea, lake, clean natural environment, natural landscape, climate and diversified land relief, including mountains). As far as cultural attractions are concerned, a similarity in perception of both studied groups can also be observed. The most popular attractions include those, which can be perceived with sight: monuments, historic landmarks, museums, open-air museums, places of worship and modern architecture. The biggest differences are related to culture and entertainment, which indicates a social aspect of the disability of people with hearing impairment (a discomfort of being in environ-ment, where sound is the main carrier of information). The conclusions from the conducted analyses are applicative in their nature. They contain hints for tour operators, involved in creating tourist offer for people using Polish Sign Language, taking into account their preferences, perception abilities and ensuring pleasant tourist experience.