Journal articles on the topic 'Geometry, religious aspects'

The degrees of human perfection depend on the extent of his knowledge, and the extent of his knowledge depends on his existence capacity. Man's ascent to the highest levels of existence is the basic plan of Islam for human education, and the role of the religious lifestyle geometry in the realization of this plan is more effective than any other factor. Practice based on trust in divine promises is one of the sides of this geometry. The present study, in a descriptive-analytic way tries to examine the functions of trustworthy action based on trust in divine promises - as one of the important aspects of lifestyle in a meaningful relationship with the category of human cognition and desires - based on Qur’anic verses. The findings are as follow: 1) Achieving evidence is a valid argument for accepting religion and entering the realm of religiosity. 2) Observing the fulfillment of one of the divine promises is one of the examples of evidence. 3) The fulfillment of divine promises as a verse in the path of religious life occurs regularly, completes the religious faith and gradually brings the believer to the levels of certain knowledge. 4) Achieving religious Fiqh is one of the unique functions of trustworthy practice. 5) Continuation of action based on divine promises leads to the overcoming of the deep innate desire for patience in human beings, and the Tafaqquh of some religious truths flows from this context.

Abstract The use of guide ways in apparatus, devices and machines construction is frequent that the aspects concerning their accuracy and durability are elements defining technical performances. The paper proposes a mathematical model for calculating the wear of torques with sliding motion. The proposed model makes it possible to establish a link between wear and tear and the accuracy of the movement of the moving part during operation. The model can be applied in the design phase for a known geometry and operating conditions.

Bell towers are essential elements of religious architecture, which have been part of villagers’ lives for centuries and have marked their identity and orientation from a far distance. This research provides widens our knowledge of geometrical aspects of bell towers through a search for common building patterns. Throughout the history of construction and architecture, there have been specific studies about particular bell towers, but few have taken a more general approach, studying 18th-century architectural treatises and building warnings for ecclesiastical buildings after the Council of Trent. In the Spanish ecclesiastical territorial organisation, the Diocese of Orihuela and its region (Bajo Segura) had great importance, with outstanding social development and territorial expansion due to the colonising action of the clergy and nobility in the 18th century. In 1829, an earthquake had destructive effects on the area’s architectural heritage. This paper studies the bell towers that endured the earthquake by recording data in situ, generating a catalogue, and analysing and comparing the data obtained. The results outline a construction model that meets the established guidelines of the architectural treatises as far as geometrical proportions and building patterns are concerned.

The Domus Aurea, Nero’s last “palace” constructed in the very heart of ancient Rome, is a true masterpiece of Roman architecture. We explore here symbolic aspects of the emperor’s project, analyzing the archaeoastronomy of the best preserved part of the Domus, the Esquiline Wing. In particular, we study the so-called Octagonal Room, the huge vaulted room which is in many respects a predecessor of the Pantheon. The project of the room turns out to be connected with astronomy, as is Hadrian’s Pantheon sixty years later. Indeed, the divinization and “solarization” of the emperor — placed at the equinoxes as a point of balance in the heavens — are shown to be explicitly referred to in the rigorous orientation of the plan and in the peculiar geometry of the design of the dome.

The Jameh Mosque of Varamin is one of the few structures manifesting a transformation from Iranian architecture toward Iranian-Islamic architecture. The study presented here tries to deal with some of the geometric principles implemented by Iranian architects to express the concept of unity. The research decodes the sacred architectural elements and illustrates the ideas used to design the Jameh Mosque of Varamin from different aspects. In the first step, geometric principles such as dynamic rectangles, the golden ratio, and the lute of Pythagoras have been discussed. In the second step, the mentioned geometric principles are adapted to the architectural documents of the building. In addition, the general form of the building and the location of the dome are determined, and the hierarchy beginning from the Mosque's entrance to the dome has been analyzed. The results show that the architects tried to induce unity and monotheism through sacred geometry in a predetermined hierarchy. Also, Findings indicate that the Jameh Mosque of Varamin can be considered the intersection of Iranian architectural ideals adapted and integrated with Islamic principles.

AbstractThe success of reductionism as a method in the natural sciences has heavily influenced modern theology, much of which attempts to reduce theology to other disciplines. However, the past few decades in science have shown the limitations of reductionism and the importance of emergence. The properties of complex systems with many constituents cannot be understood solely in terms of the constituent components and their interactions. I illustrate emergent properties and concepts with specific examples from geometry, condensed matter physics, chemistry and molecular biology. Emergence leads to a stratification of reality which affirms that ontology determines epistemology. To show the significance of emergence for the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences parallels are drawn with the theology of Karl Barth. The approach here is distinctly different from most writing on emergence and theology which embraces ‘strong’ emergence (which most scientists consider speculative), an immanent God and does not engage with orthodox Christian theology. Aspects of Barth's theology which are particularly relevant include his view that theology is an autonomous discipline which is not reducible to anthropology or history, the irreducible character of revelation, and the emphasis that ontology determines epistemology.

In 1921, on the 600th anniversary of Dante Alighieri, the Silver Age philosopher and priest Pavel Florensky finished writing his book “Imaginaries in Geometry”, in which he demonstrated how the medieval picture of cosmos unfolded in “Divine Comedy” was confirmed in the light of modern science. The book was published in 1922 and has since been commented from various points of view. This article raises a question that has hardly been touched upon in the Florenskian scholarship: i.e. in what aspects does Florensky’s view of Dante fit into the “Danteana” (“Dante’s text”) of the Silver Age? In this respect, other approaches to Dante’s work in the context in which Florensky’s position was developed are considered, with a special focus on the views of Russian religious thinkers. One of the main hypotheses of this article is that such a way of posing this question is useful to explain the phenomenon of “Russian Dante”, whose originality is mentioned in a number of relevant studies. This article also reveals the way in which the perception of Dante by Russian thought is connected with the assessment of the historical and cultural position that his work occupies. In this regard, particular attention is paid to the re-evaluation of the consolidated vision of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance undertaken by Russian thought. In conclusion, the reason for the increased interest in the phenomenon of Dante within the Silver Age religious and philosophical thought is the recognition of proximity to their own ideological attitudes of the symbolic worldview as is presented in the “Divine Comedy”. In Pavel Florensky’s thought this type of worldview receives not only a philosophical, but also a scientific justification, and is defined by the concept of “concrete metaphysics”.

The paper treats the topic of hermeticism — an esoteric tradition of teachings — with the view to its origins and varying interpretations. In setting research objectives, the text aims at identifying the common structural foundations of myths and ideas of the hermetic genesis and to establish the main vectors of the formation and transformation of esoteric teachings presented in the spiritual domain and reflected in the material culture of Western Europe from the 4th century BC to the present. For the needs of such a comparative study that embraces philosophical, religious and historical phenomena of culture, the following methods are used. As it is mostly the texts that are analyzed, the methodological framework consists of the interpretation of texts and artifacts – all along the line of presentation of historical sequences, of their recursion, of structural and functional aspects. The sources included not only texts, mathematical operations and chemical formulas of previously known alchemic artifacts are also introduced into the comprehensive analysis. The examination of cultural phenomena leads to the systematization of religious origins, historical and philosophical traditions and scientific achievements that underlie the formation of hermeticism. This structuralisation is possible due to the tools for the analysis of the hermetic body developed in this text. The mapping of the historical development of hermeticism is proposed in a three-level paradigm model based on the image of the Thrice-Great Hermes. It is concluded that the basis of the image of Hermes is the invariant of the historical three-level model of cognition of esoteric teachings, for descriptions of which the terms of ABC — paradigm are introduced. Each of the Hermea has own disciplinary paradigm. The first level of Hermes I, the author of cosmogonic visions, A — paradigm, is represented by inner visions (revelations of the cosmic mind or daimonic visions), thus forming the cultural level of mythology, theology. The level of Hermes II, the founder of writing and counting, lies in the realm of concepts of visions ‒ e.g. the Platonic philosophy, geometry, mathematics (B — paradigm). The third level (C — paradigm) is represented by texts and alchemical artifacts (Alexandrian crystal) of Hermes III, the founder of the art of healing and chemistry, that further embodied in empirical sciences, chemistry and astronomy, as well as ancient technological knowledge of the production of metals, glass and dyes. In general, all hermetic disciplines and practices emerge on the basis of this three-level paradigm.

O artigo tem por objetivo apresentar aspectos que podem ser destacados em uma Aritmética do 4º ano primário, editada pela Irmã Franciscana Valesca Volkmer, para o público feminino. Possui uma abordagem qualitativa, por meio de análise documental, sendo um livro de Aritmética do século XX, editado por uma religiosa da Congregação das Irmãs Franciscanas da Penitência e Caridade Cristã de São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, a principal fonte primária desta pesquisa histórica, analisada com base em referenciais sobre história cultural. Trata-se de uma obra voltada para o estudo das quatro operações fundamentais com números naturais, múltiplos e divisores, frações ordinárias e decimais, sistema métrico decimal e elementos de geometria plana e espacial. Verificou-se que a autora apresenta definições, procedimentos de cálculo, exemplos, exercícios repetitivos e problemas associados a contextos reais, buscando uma sólida formação em conhecimentos matemáticos práticos e úteis ao público feminino. Com base no exposto, pondera-se que essa obra revela uma proposta de ensino que educava as gerações de alunas das instituições franciscanas para o desenvolvimento de habilidades com o cálculo oral e o cálculo escrito, a partir de um material didático próprio para as aulas de Matemática. Dessa forma, desejava-se que as egressas propagassem a tradição da Ordem das Irmãs Franciscanas, especialmente através de sua ação no magistério de escolas primárias em diferentes comunidades do Rio Grande do Sul. Palavras-chave: História da Educação Matemática. Irmãs Franciscanas. Livro de Aritmética. Cálculo Oral e Escrito. Protagonismo Feminino. AbstractThe paper aims to present aspects that can be highlighted in an Arithmetic of the 4th year primary, edited by Sister Franciscana Valesca Volkmer, for the female audience. It has a qualitative approach, through documentary analysis, being a book of Arithmetic of the 20th century, edited by a religious from the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Penance and Christian Charity of São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, the main primary source of this historical research, analyzed based on references on cultural history. It is a work focused on the study of the four fundamental operations with natural numbers, multiples and divisors, ordinary and decimal fractions, decimal metric system and elements of plane and spatial geometry. It was found that the author presents definitions, calculation procedures, examples, repetitive exercises and problems associated with real contexts, seeking a solid formation in practical and useful mathematical knowledge for the female audience. Based on the foregoing, it is considered that this book reveals a teaching proposal that educated generations of students from Franciscan institutions to develop skills with oral and written calculus, based on own didactic material for classes of Mathematics. In this way, it was hoped that the graduates would propagate the tradition of the Order of Franciscan Sisters, especially through their action in teaching primary schools in different communities in Rio Grande do Sul. Keywords: History of Mathematics Education. Franciscan Sisters. Arithmetic Book. Oral and Written Calculus. Female Protagonism.

A questão norteadora deste estudo é quais conhecimentos algébricos estão presentes nos problemas recreativos da seção Para Pequenos Mathemáticos da revista O Echo, publicada na primeira metade do século XX. O artigo tem por objetivo investigar os conhecimentos algébricos envolvidos nos problemas recreativos da seção Para Pequenos Mathemáticos da revista O Echo. Como o tema se insere na História da Educação Matemática no Rio Grande do Sul, este estudo qualitativo e documental se ampara na história cultural para análise das edições da revista, editada pelo Colégio Anchieta de Porto Alegre, no período de abril de 1914 a dezembro de 1931. O público-alvo do Echo era a comunidade escolar e a mocidade católica brasileira, por meio de textos, histórias, informações e curiosidades, enfatizando os aspectos morais, religiosos e a formação em geral. A seção Para Pequenos Mathemáticos fez parte da revista nos anos de 1919, 1920, 1921 e 1924, destacando-se 63 problemas recreativos propostos nessa seção. Esses estão relacionados, principalmente, com conhecimentos de aritmética, álgebra e geometria. Nos problemas recreativos envolvendo conhecimentos algébricos se observaram aplicações de equações do 1º grau, equações irracionais, equações lineares, sistemas com equações lineares, funções do 1º grau, progressões aritméticas e demonstrações de teoremas algébricos. Também envolvem educação financeira, operações comerciais, carreira profissional e comportamento humano. Diante do exposto, observa-se que os editores da revista O Echo buscavam despertar o interesse e a curiosidade da mocidade estudiosa, contribuindo para a formação da juventude católica nos colégios onde essa revista circulava. Palavras-chave: História da Educação Matemática. Educação Jesuítica. Problemas Recreativos. Álgebra. AbstractThe guiding question of this study is what algebraic knowledge are present in the recreational problems of the section For Small Mathematicians of The Echo magazine, published in the first half of the 20th century. The article aims to investigate the algebraic knowledge involved in the recreational problems of the section For Small Mathematicians of The Echo magazine. As the theme if inserted of the History of Mathematical Education in Rio Grande do Sul, this qualitative and documentary study is based on cultural history for the analysis of the editions of the magazine, published by the Anchieta College of Porto Alegre, from April 1914 to December 1931. The audience of The Echo was the school community and the Brazilian Catholic youth, through texts, stories, information and curiosities, emphasizing the moral, religious aspects and the formation in general. The section For Small Mathematicians section was part of the magazine in the years 1919, 1920, 1921 and 1924, highlighting 63 recreational problems proposed in this section. These are mainly related to knowledge of arithmetic, algebra and geometry. In the recreational problems involving algebraic knowledge, applications of 1st degree equations, irrational equations, linear equations, systems with linear equations, 1st degree functions, arithmetic progressions and demonstrations of algebraic theorems were observed. They also involve financial education, business operations, professional careers and human behavior. Given the above, it is observed that the editors of The Echo magazine sought to arouse the interest and curiosity of the studious youth, contributing to the formation of Catholic youth in the colleges where this magazine circulated. Keywords: History of Mathematics Education. Jesuit Education. Recreational Problems. Algebra.

The article considers creationism as a historically relevant principle in the scientific and philosophic aspects denoting the ontological structure of the world. Outside of the religious interpretation, the author speaks of the dialectics of creation, which is revealed as an implicative connection of the one and nothing. Logical inversion (logical turn), acting from within this implicative connection, is postulated as the principle of a fundamental negation, which, according to the author, forms the true and dramatic essence of the world as a creation. The author distances himself from the widespread discussion between evolutionism and scientific creationism, stating that it does not correspond to the very subject of creationism, understood as the implication of a real from nothing. The author focuses on considering ‘nothing’ as a purely dialectical / metaphysical principle and relies partly on the Hegel’s dialectic of ‘being’ and ‘nothing’, and partly on the neoplatonic concept of the one. Rejecting the medieval interpretation of the temporal beginning and the Hegel’s identity, he deduces a scheme of the logical connection between the one and the difference, which postulates the inversion (turnover) forming the creation - the one and the difference disjunctively change places, the one becomes the real, and the difference out of the one becomes nothing. It is argued that this postulate, in particular, refutes the thesis about the ‘fall into sin’. In the second part of the article, a spatial-phenomenological hypothesis is presented: the author provides a description of the space as a geometrical-semantic plane (projective structure). This hypothesis follows from the phenomenological problem of the duality of a geometric object, which results in the problem of ontological transition between a point and a line (in the aporia of the Eleats) and the related problem of spatial congruence / parallelism. According to the author, the potential for solving these not essentially mathematical, but metaphysical questions is the projective geometry, in which parallel lines intersect at ‘point at infinity’, and space is complemented by the ‘plane at infinity’. The essence of the solution consists, firstly, in the assumption of the single plane, which underlies the transition, and secondly, in the description of the perceived world as a result of a specific turn over and closure of this plane, forming the projective structure. The key in this part is the demonstration of the surface of a three-dimensional object as a phenomenon of perceptual-semantic unfolding, which can be imagined as an action of consciousness, consistently reducing the usual scheme. An important aspect of considering the projective structure is the correlation with ‘the Plane’ by G. Deleuze. The general idea of the article is that the dialectical scheme of creation and the projective structure of the space coincide: the logical inversion (logical turn), acting in connection of the one and nothing, and projective structural turnover – are the same things.

This essay explores circular compositions in medieval and early modern art. Delving into the intersection of religious, philosophical, and scientific ideas, the text examines the prevalence of circular depictions in medieval and early modern aesthetics. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, the author draws from primary Hermetic and Neoplatonic sources, providing four reasons for this preference. Firstly, this essay explores the scientific understanding of the shape of the universe, planets, and stars. The second reason delves into the psychological, symbolic, and geometric aspects associated with circular compositions, connecting them to Christian cosmological diagrams and symbolism in the visual arts. Furthermore, the essay investigates the conceptualisation of the universe as a mirror reflecting the divine, emphasising the role of beauty in religious art. The essay concludes by examining the visual culture of medieval and early modern periods, tracing the evolution of circular representations from Roman coins and shields to illuminated manuscripts and paintings. The article sheds light on a hitherto underexplored aspect of medieval and early modern cultures, despite its significance in shaping symbolism and organizing iconographic programs within these periods.

Recent analyses use geometric morphometrics (GM), the quantitative study of shape and its variation, to examine aspects of the archaeological record. Our research builds on such applications to examine the organization of production by applying GM analysis to whole ceramic vessels from the Casas Grandes culture of northwest Mexico. We quantify variation in vessel shape and size and conclude that specialists made at least some of the Ramos and Babicora Polychromes, but that the other Casas Grandes ceramic types were generally made by nonspecialists. This bolsters arguments for Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) specialized production above the household level but indicates that specialized production was limited to a subset of economically valuable goods. We further suggest some Ramos Polychrome was made by attached specialists associated with elites at Paquime, the religious center of the Medio period, whereas some Babicora Polychrome was made by independent specialists. The analysis contributes to three important anthropological topics: (1) the study of the Medio period Casas Grandes culture, and by extension the organization of production in mid-level hierarchically organized societies; (2) geometric morphometric analysis of archaeological collections; and (3) the Standardization Hypothesis and the relationship between artifact standardization and the organization of production.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO) was founded in 1850 with the first exhaustive Population Census, which from then on was conducted on a ten-year cycle until 2000, and which was replaced after that by the annual “structural surveys” based on a population sample and the use of data from administrative registers. In 2018, the FSO started a project aiming to emphasize the full value of historical data from these previous Population Censuses records in order to publish some significant historical results and present on that basis some of the major developments that have occurred in Switzerland in the last 150 years. In this context, analog data have been digitized, and with this raw material, stories on important themes concerning the development of modern Switzerland have been written. These stories consist of a narrative approach that focuses on visual communication by mixing cartographic visualizations, charts and historical photographs, which support the written text and significantly contribute to the narrative.</p><p>Eight stories were drafted under this project, and their choice is based on both the availability of data over time, as well as the importance of these topics for the Swiss population and society – with the activity of official statistics always being a mirror that reflects society’s concerns. The various topics addressed in this project are population dynamics and demographic structure, cultural and religious aspects, the development of building area and the occupation of the territory, the structural development of the economy and finally the changes in the institutional structure of the country. These topics are addressed in their temporal and spatial dimension, and cover a period of more than 150 years.</p><p>This narrative approach – unique in the context of the FSO’s statistical dissemination – requires important work in the field of data visualization in particular with regard to thematic maps. Indeed, the spatial resolution of the digitized data –the smallest institutional spatial division; the Swiss municipalities – has required the production of new historicized geometries for every single Population Census since 1850. The fusions and dissociations of spatial units that have occurred during the past 150 years have profoundly marked the institutional structure of Switzerland. This dynamic is a challenge in the ongoing work of data management and cartographic production, and the FSO is proud to now have basemaps that precisely describe the state of the geometry for every census. This enables the production of numerous series of thematic maps at municipality level, and provides map readers the opportunity to observe changes in Swisssociety and its structures with unprecedented resolution over a very long time.</p><p>The dissemination of these stories is ensured through a website created ad hoc for the occasion. The production work is carried out in close collaboration with a web developer, a graphic designer and the FSO’s cartography competence center. The aim is to produce a new, original web publication intended for a broad audience, that is both relevant and attractive, and has a layout optimized to invite the user onto a visual journey in time along the history of the Federal Population Census.</p><p>With regard to cartographic visualizations, the produced maps have been the subject of a rehabilitated layout for maximum readability and efficiency and a high aesthetic quality. The addition of comments and the focus on specific observations facilitates reading and interpreting maps and supports the narrative. To provide maximum flexibility with respect to the graphics and enable quick loading of visualizations, these are integrated into HTML pages as SVG, which can subsequently be animated in the website. In a concurrent and complementary way, the produced maps are also made available in the Interactive Statistical Atlas of Switzerland (which is the FSO’s main means of thematic maps dissemination). This allows for the interactive exploration of maps, the visualization of animated time series, and data dissemination in the form of downloadable Excel files directly from the application.</p><p>This attempt at (carto)graphic narration is an opportunity to question narrative approaches in the field of graphic visualization in a very concrete framework of historical data valorization. Since storytelling and its cartographic variants in the form of story maps are an important trend today, this project provides an example and a contribution to this approach. The presentation will focus on presenting the structure and content of the stories, focusing on the cartographic and technical aspects of storytelling, and presenting the different choices and challenges encountered. In addition, editorial and technical strengths and weaknesses will also be discussed. As this project is a work in progress that will take place throughout 2019, this contribution also aims to be submitted to peer review, in order to improve our products in the future.

In this paper I argue that Miranda Fricker’s account of blame in “What’s the Point of Blame? A Paradigm Based Explanation” can assist in explaining why cancel culture is ultimately unproductive. In particular, the phenomenon of cancel culture possesses pathological forms of blame. There are three specific pathologies outlined by Fricker that can be observed in cancel culture. They are as follows: cancel culture does not leave room for people to learn from their mistakes, it does not express its blame in the proper ethical register, and cancel culture allows for blame to fester and spread. In the first half of my paper, I will lay out the distinct aspects of Fricker’s paper that relate to cancel culture and a definition of the term cancel culture. In the second half, I will explore the real-life cancelation of actor Lea Michele so as to validate the presence of cancel culture in our society today. Furthermore, I will expand on three of Fricker’s pathologies that are present in cancel culture and refute a counter argument people may pose who are supportive of cancel culture.

В публикации предлагается интерпретирующий анализ «Записок чудака» Андрея Белого. Исследуются исторические, философские, естественнонаучные и литературные аспекты этого сложного автобиографического модернистского текста. В центре рассмотрения находятся так называемые «лондонские» главы книги. Реконструируется история замысла цикла романов Андрея Белого, объединенных общим заглавием «“Я”. Эпопея». Проясняется смысл заглавия «Записки чудака». В качестве авторов, на которых ориентировался Андрей Белый, указаны Ф.М. Достоевский, Ч. Диккенс и Гёте («Фауст»). Приводятся доводы в пользу предположения, что изображение военного Лондона в «Записках чудака» отразилось в «Возвращении Мюнхгаузена» Сигизмунда Кржижановского. Исследуется место и семантика лексемы «вихрь» в образном языке Андрея Белого. Обнаружено, что ассоциация вихря со злом и небытием присутствует в прозе Белого уже в 1903 году. Особое внимание уделено анализу представленной в «Записках чудака» теме распадения мира в атомных вихрях. Посредством привлечения доступных Белому научных публикаций Оливера Лоджа и Уильяма Томсона (лорда Кельвина) показано, что соответствующие образы в «лондонских главах» представляют собой художественное переосмысление конкретных научных теорий физики конца XIX – начала XX века; это касается рассуждений Андрея Белого об энтропии, вихревом атоме, демоне Максвелла и пр. Отмечено значительное влияние на Андрея Белого публикаций Н.А. Умова, его наставника в Московском университете. В качестве параллели вихревым теориям мира у Андрея Белого указано на художественное течение «вортицизм», придуманное Эзрой Паундом после знакомства с учением У. Томсона о вихревом атоме. Делается вывод, что пост-классическая физика для Андрея Белого — это учение не об устройстве мира, но об уничтожении физической вселенной. Обсуждается тема шпиономании периода первой мировой войны, которая ассоциировалась у Белого с мировым оккультным заговором. Установлена личность неназванного друга, с которым автор встречался в Лондоне: им является эсер Николай Маликов. Указано, что тема «расплющивания», понятого как переход от трехмерного существования к двумерному, заимствована Андреем Белым из работ Д.С. Мережковского, где образы многомерных пространств и неэвклидовой геометрии часто встречаются. Обсуждаются соответствующие построения Андрея Белого. The publication offers an interpretive analysis of Andrei Bely’s “Diaries of an Idiot”. The historical, philosophical, scientific, literary, religious etc. aspects of this most complex autobiographical modernist text are investigated. In the center of consideration are the so-called London Chapters of the book. The genesis of a cycle of novels by Andrei Bely, united by the common title «“I”. Epopee» is reconstructed. The meaning of the title “Diaries of an Idiot” is clarified. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens and Goethe (“Faust”) are pointed out as the authors whom Andrei Bely was guided by. In turn, it is demonstrated that the representation of wartime London in the “Diaries of an Idiot” was reflected in the “The Return of Baron Munchausen” by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky. The place and semantics of the lexeme “vortex” in the figurative language of Andrei Bely are investigated. It was found that the association of the whirlwind with evil and non-existence was present in Bely’s prose as early as 1903. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the theme of the disintegration of the world in atomic vortices presented in the “Diaries of an Idiot”. By drawing on the scientific publications of Oliver Lodge and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) available to Bely, it is shown that the corresponding images in the London Chapters are an artistic rethinking of specific scientific theories of physics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This concerns Andrei Bely’s reasoning about entropy, the vortex atom, Maxwell’s demon, etc. It is noted, that a significant impact on Andrei Bely’s knowledge of physics was made by the publications of Nikolai Umov, his professor at Moscow University. As a parallel to Andrei Bely’s vortex theories of the world, it is pointed to the artistic movement “Vorticism”, invented by Ezra Pound after getting acquainted with the teachings of W. Thomson about the vortex atom. It is concluded that post-classical physics for Andrei Bely was not the science about the arrangement of the world, but about the destruction of the physical universe. The topic of spy mania during the First World War, which at that time Bely associated with the world Masonic or “astral” conspiracy, is discussed. The identity of an unnamed friend with whom the author met in London has been established: he turned out to be the Socialist-Revolutionary Nikolai Malikov. It is shown for the first time that the theme of “flattening”, understood as a transition from a three-dimensional existence to a two-dimensional one, was borrowed by Andrei Bely from the works of Dmitry Merezhkovsky, in which images of multidimensional spaces and non-Euclidean geometry often occur. The corresponding speculations of Andrei Bely are discussed.

Территория традиционного проживания любой группы людей наполнена зданиями, сооружениями, а также различными объектами, которые, наряду с их повседневными утилитарными бытовыми хозяйственными функциями, наделены религиозными, сакральными, мистическими, тотемическими и другими смыслами. Такими объектами являются традиционные якутские столбы-коновязи, так называемые сэргэ. Современные ученые рассмотрели многие аспекты ритуального назначения сэргэ, значительный материал был получен современными археологическими исследованиями во многих районах Якутии. Были поставлены вопросы: какими были пропорции геометрических размеров частей исторических сэргэ? Какое соотношение диаметра и высоты сэргэ можно было бы считать «идеальным»? Источником необходимой информации выбрана юбилейная книга-альбом художника-графика А.П. Мунхалова. Сканированы графические работы А. Мунхалова, выполнены замеры геометрических размеров изображений сканированных сэргэ в программе AutoCAD, результаты сведены в таблицу для определения пропорций – соотношения диаметров и высоты сэргэ. Обработано 47 изображений сэргэ. Обработка результатов замеров позволяет сделать вывод о том, что идеальная пропорция хозяйственных сэргэ заключается в отношении диаметра сэргэ к его высоте, выражаемой отношением 1:6. The territory of traditional residence of any group of people is filled with buildings, structures, as well as various objects, which, along with their daily utilitarian household economic functions, are endowed with religious, sacred, mystical, totemic and other meanings. Such objects are the traditional Yakut tethering posts sergeh. Modern researchers have considered many aspects of the ritual purpose of the sergeh; significant material has been obtained by modern archaeological research in many regions of Yakutia. The questions were posed: what were the proportions of the geometric dimensions of the parts of the historical serge? What ratio of the diameter and height of the sergeh could be considered “ideal”? The source of the necessary information is the jubilee album of the graphic artist Afanasy Munkhalov. Munkhalov’s graphic works were scanned, the geometric dimensions of the images of the scanned sergeh were measured in the AutoCAD program, the results were tabulated to determine the proportions – the ratio of the diameters and the height of the sergeh. 47 images of sergeh were processed. The processing of the measurement results allows us to conclude that the ideal proportion of household sergeh is the ratio of the diameter of the sergeh to its height, expressed by a ratio of 1: 6.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the formative characteristics of Beuron Art in the paintings of Chang Bal(雨石 張勃, 1901-2001) who is known as the pioneers of Korean Catholic paintings. In the early 1920s, while studying in Japan and the United States, Chang Bal worked as a Catholic paintings in Korea from the mid-20s. Born into a Catholic family, he developed a close relationship with the Catholic Church from an early age and naturally became interested in Catholic paintings. In addition, the St. Otilien Benedictine in Germany played a direct role in conveying the style of German Beuron Art to Chang Bal, who had a deep interest in Christian art. Beuron Art, which was centered on Father Lenz, believed that holiness and absolute beauty could be reached by applying geometric shapes and canons to paintings. Influenced by Chang Bal Beuron's Art, religious absolute beauty is expressed in the simple form of strict symmetry, solemn expression of figures, frontality, and decorativeness in his paintings.

There is a tendency in academic literature to compare and contrast reli- gions to try to understand the motivations of the convert. What are the costs and benefits of conversion? What is gained and what is lost? Thinking in these utilitarian terms can lead to a focus on causality and materiality, rather than the metaphysical and ephemeral aspects of religious thought and practice. Furthermore, religious conversion to Islam is often mired in the same prejudices and stereotypes of the orient found in western and predominantly Judeo-Christian depictions of the Middle East, the region that Islam is most often associated with. In Everyday Conversions: Islam, Domestic Work, and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait, Attiya Ahmad moves away from the emphasis on what distinguishes religious traditions and discursive communities to focus on what religious conversion means to the individual convert. Ahmad seeks to counter the notion that conver- sion must have some material benefit to the convert and instead looks at the quotidian character of religious transformation. Ahmad argues in her eth- nographic work that conversion can be understood through the minutiae of daily interactions, conversations, and affections that develop over time. She follows the lives of migrant domestic workers in the Gulf and their relationships with their employers as well as their own families over the course of their conversions and argues that it is neither the strength of the da'wa movement in Kuwait, nor the benefits gained by conversion to the employee/employer relationship that effectively describes the reason the women convert (although Ahmad is admittedly not looking for causality). Instead, Ahmad writes: “I have sought to tell a more modest and mundane set of stories that convey moments of slippage, tension and traces of feel- ings, thoughts and impressions of everyday conversion” (194). The strengths of Ahmad’s ethnography lie in its attention to detail and equanimity in representing the challenges of migration and domestic labor. Ahmad is careful not to create victims, nor inflate the value of the women’s migration and conversion to their economic or personal well-being. In this approach, there are hints of Lila Abu-Lughod’s and Saba Mahmood’s work with women who appear to be in marginal or precarious positions. Like these feminist ethnographers, Ahmad is attuned to the ethics and politics of representation, but with an eye towards transnational and cultural stud- ies. In its theoretical framing, the ethnography calls to mind the work of Michel DeCerteau in The Practice of Everyday Life, which rejects theories of production to focus on the consumer. Furthermore, by placing conversion in light of transnational migration, Ahmad also shows how the individu- al convert navigates her conversion through the complex nexus of Kuwait City as well as her own home town. Thus, the individual convert as artist of her own conversion is the primary subject of Ahmad’s book. My one cri- tique of the book would be in the area of theory, where Ahmad is hesitant to challenge others who have written on the subject of Islamic religious faith and practice, despite the theoretical weight evident in her ethnography. In the introduction, Ahmad begins with Talal Asad and Saba Mah- mood’s seminal arguments in the field of anthropology of Islam, which she argues “relativize and provincialize secular modern understandings of sub- jectivity, agency and embodied practice” (9). She distinguishes her work from Asad and Mahmood’s by utilizing a transnational feminist framework that highlights the process of “mutual constitution and self-constituting othering, as well as sociohistorical circumstances” (10). Ahmad wants to go beyond discursive narratives of secular liberalism and the Islamic piety movement. Specifically, Ahmad follows the approach of Eve Sedgewick, who eschews Judith Butler’s “strong theory” in exchange for an approach that looks at factors that “lie alongside” gender performativity (23). Ahmad does this by showing “how religious conversion also constitutes a complex site of interrelation through which religious traditions are configured and reconfigured together” (24). Instead of showing conflict or contrasting discursive traditions, Ahmad contends that the best way to understand the lives and stories of her interlocutors are in the quotidian affairs of the households they work and live in. She divides the chapters into the affec- tive experiences the women have as a result of their migration experiences, which in turn spur their conversions. Chapters one and two cover the political and geographic terrain that the women must cut across, which produces an overwhelming feeling of being neither here nor there, but temporarily suspended between states, households, and religions. Chapter one paints a somewhat grim picture of the politically precarious position of migrant women within the kefala sys- tem, labor laws, and bans on migrations often creating impossible condi- tions for migrant woman. Chapter two sets out to “discern, document and describe” (66) the migratory experience and why it produces uncertainty about one’s place in the world. It follows the women back and forth between Kuwait and their home countries, emphasizing the socio-historical context that requires a transnational feminist framework. The four women that Ah- mad follows throughout the book share their migratory journeys and their sense of “suspension” between two households. This chapter segues neatly into chapter three, where the women share how being a female migrant and domestic laborer requires knowledge of cross-cultural norms regarding gender, all of which require the women to be naram, “a gendered, learned capability of being malleable that indexes proper womanhood” (122). In their own eyes, a successful domestic worker from South Asia bends to the norms of the society they are in, and they attribute male and female migrant failure to being too sakht, or hard and unyielding. Here, I would have liked a stronger connection between how she describes naram and how Mahmood describes malaka. Does being naram lay the groundwork for women’s conversion to Islam, a religion which requires the ability to engage in rituals entailing patience, modesty, and steadfastness? Ahmed hints at this connection in the conclusion to the chapter—“Being naram resonates with the fluid, flexible student-centered pedagogies of Kuwait’s Islamic dawa movement, thus facilitating domestic worker’s deepening learning of Islamic precepts and practices” (123)—but she could have spent more time discussing the overlap in the concepts in either chapter three or five, where she discusses the da'wah movement. Chapters four and five deal directly with questions of religious thought and practice and illustrate how the women grapple with Islamic practices in the household as their relationships with their employers deepen. Chapter five is about the household and the everyday conversations or “house talk” that Ahmad argues are the touchstones for the women’s conversion. The daily relations in the household make blending and layering practices of Is- lam onto older traditions and rituals seem easy and natural. Ahmad argues that “the work undertaken by domestic workers—such as tending to family members during trips and caring for the elderly or the infirm—necessari- ly involves the disciplining and training of their comportment, affect and sense of self ” (129) and makes Islamic practices easier to absorb as well. Chapter 6 is a foray into the da'wah movement classroom. Like Mahmood’s Politics of Piety, Ahmad shows how the teachers and students use the space to create “intertwining stories” of patience in the face of hardship and the eventual rewards that come from this ethical re-fashioning, which mirror their own hardships as converts and help them deal with the dilemmas of being female migrant and domestic workers. The chapter ends with a sense of uncertainty, returning to the themes of temporality and suspension that began the book. Ahmad can’t say whether the conversions will remain fixed pieces or will bend and move with the women as their circumstances change. In the epilogue, Ahmad follows the “ongoing conversions” of her inter- locutors as some of them return home as Muslims and encounter new chal- lenges. As a book that focuses on the everyday, it is fitting to end on a new day and possibly, a new conversion. The strength of Ahmad’s ethnography is in giving center-stage to the considerable creativity and diligence mi- grant women show in piecing together their own conversions. This piecing together is perfectly captured by the book’s cover, which features Azra Ak- samija’s “Flocking Mosque”. The structure of a flower illustrates how believ- ers form a circular and geometric shape when gathered in devotion to God. Like Aksamija’s patterns, which build into a circular design, Ahmad’s chap- ters each represent a key piece of the story of migrant domestic workers’ conversion to Islam as a gradual process that blends nations, households, and individuals together to create a narrative about the women’s newfound faith. Scholars should read this book for its textured and detailed observa- tions about migrant women’s daily lives and for its treatment of religious conversion as a gradual process that unfolds in the everyday experiences of individuals. It would also be a great book for students as theory takes a back seat to the ethnography. The book is a refreshing, graceful approach to the subject of religious conversion and Islamic faith. Ahmad stays focused on telling her interlocutors’ stories while navigating often conflicting posi- tions. Rehenuma AsmiAssistant Professor of Education and International StudiesAllegheny College

There is a tendency in academic literature to compare and contrast reli- gions to try to understand the motivations of the convert. What are the costs and benefits of conversion? What is gained and what is lost? Thinking in these utilitarian terms can lead to a focus on causality and materiality, rather than the metaphysical and ephemeral aspects of religious thought and practice. Furthermore, religious conversion to Islam is often mired in the same prejudices and stereotypes of the orient found in western and predominantly Judeo-Christian depictions of the Middle East, the region that Islam is most often associated with. In Everyday Conversions: Islam, Domestic Work, and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait, Attiya Ahmad moves away from the emphasis on what distinguishes religious traditions and discursive communities to focus on what religious conversion means to the individual convert. Ahmad seeks to counter the notion that conver- sion must have some material benefit to the convert and instead looks at the quotidian character of religious transformation. Ahmad argues in her eth- nographic work that conversion can be understood through the minutiae of daily interactions, conversations, and affections that develop over time. She follows the lives of migrant domestic workers in the Gulf and their relationships with their employers as well as their own families over the course of their conversions and argues that it is neither the strength of the da'wa movement in Kuwait, nor the benefits gained by conversion to the employee/employer relationship that effectively describes the reason the women convert (although Ahmad is admittedly not looking for causality). Instead, Ahmad writes: “I have sought to tell a more modest and mundane set of stories that convey moments of slippage, tension and traces of feel- ings, thoughts and impressions of everyday conversion” (194). The strengths of Ahmad’s ethnography lie in its attention to detail and equanimity in representing the challenges of migration and domestic labor. Ahmad is careful not to create victims, nor inflate the value of the women’s migration and conversion to their economic or personal well-being. In this approach, there are hints of Lila Abu-Lughod’s and Saba Mahmood’s work with women who appear to be in marginal or precarious positions. Like these feminist ethnographers, Ahmad is attuned to the ethics and politics of representation, but with an eye towards transnational and cultural stud- ies. In its theoretical framing, the ethnography calls to mind the work of Michel DeCerteau in The Practice of Everyday Life, which rejects theories of production to focus on the consumer. Furthermore, by placing conversion in light of transnational migration, Ahmad also shows how the individu- al convert navigates her conversion through the complex nexus of Kuwait City as well as her own home town. Thus, the individual convert as artist of her own conversion is the primary subject of Ahmad’s book. My one cri- tique of the book would be in the area of theory, where Ahmad is hesitant to challenge others who have written on the subject of Islamic religious faith and practice, despite the theoretical weight evident in her ethnography. In the introduction, Ahmad begins with Talal Asad and Saba Mah- mood’s seminal arguments in the field of anthropology of Islam, which she argues “relativize and provincialize secular modern understandings of sub- jectivity, agency and embodied practice” (9). She distinguishes her work from Asad and Mahmood’s by utilizing a transnational feminist framework that highlights the process of “mutual constitution and self-constituting othering, as well as sociohistorical circumstances” (10). Ahmad wants to go beyond discursive narratives of secular liberalism and the Islamic piety movement. Specifically, Ahmad follows the approach of Eve Sedgewick, who eschews Judith Butler’s “strong theory” in exchange for an approach that looks at factors that “lie alongside” gender performativity (23). Ahmad does this by showing “how religious conversion also constitutes a complex site of interrelation through which religious traditions are configured and reconfigured together” (24). Instead of showing conflict or contrasting discursive traditions, Ahmad contends that the best way to understand the lives and stories of her interlocutors are in the quotidian affairs of the households they work and live in. She divides the chapters into the affec- tive experiences the women have as a result of their migration experiences, which in turn spur their conversions. Chapters one and two cover the political and geographic terrain that the women must cut across, which produces an overwhelming feeling of being neither here nor there, but temporarily suspended between states, households, and religions. Chapter one paints a somewhat grim picture of the politically precarious position of migrant women within the kefala sys- tem, labor laws, and bans on migrations often creating impossible condi- tions for migrant woman. Chapter two sets out to “discern, document and describe” (66) the migratory experience and why it produces uncertainty about one’s place in the world. It follows the women back and forth between Kuwait and their home countries, emphasizing the socio-historical context that requires a transnational feminist framework. The four women that Ah- mad follows throughout the book share their migratory journeys and their sense of “suspension” between two households. This chapter segues neatly into chapter three, where the women share how being a female migrant and domestic laborer requires knowledge of cross-cultural norms regarding gender, all of which require the women to be naram, “a gendered, learned capability of being malleable that indexes proper womanhood” (122). In their own eyes, a successful domestic worker from South Asia bends to the norms of the society they are in, and they attribute male and female migrant failure to being too sakht, or hard and unyielding. Here, I would have liked a stronger connection between how she describes naram and how Mahmood describes malaka. Does being naram lay the groundwork for women’s conversion to Islam, a religion which requires the ability to engage in rituals entailing patience, modesty, and steadfastness? Ahmed hints at this connection in the conclusion to the chapter—“Being naram resonates with the fluid, flexible student-centered pedagogies of Kuwait’s Islamic dawa movement, thus facilitating domestic worker’s deepening learning of Islamic precepts and practices” (123)—but she could have spent more time discussing the overlap in the concepts in either chapter three or five, where she discusses the da'wah movement. Chapters four and five deal directly with questions of religious thought and practice and illustrate how the women grapple with Islamic practices in the household as their relationships with their employers deepen. Chapter five is about the household and the everyday conversations or “house talk” that Ahmad argues are the touchstones for the women’s conversion. The daily relations in the household make blending and layering practices of Is- lam onto older traditions and rituals seem easy and natural. Ahmad argues that “the work undertaken by domestic workers—such as tending to family members during trips and caring for the elderly or the infirm—necessari- ly involves the disciplining and training of their comportment, affect and sense of self ” (129) and makes Islamic practices easier to absorb as well. Chapter 6 is a foray into the da'wah movement classroom. Like Mahmood’s Politics of Piety, Ahmad shows how the teachers and students use the space to create “intertwining stories” of patience in the face of hardship and the eventual rewards that come from this ethical re-fashioning, which mirror their own hardships as converts and help them deal with the dilemmas of being female migrant and domestic workers. The chapter ends with a sense of uncertainty, returning to the themes of temporality and suspension that began the book. Ahmad can’t say whether the conversions will remain fixed pieces or will bend and move with the women as their circumstances change. In the epilogue, Ahmad follows the “ongoing conversions” of her inter- locutors as some of them return home as Muslims and encounter new chal- lenges. As a book that focuses on the everyday, it is fitting to end on a new day and possibly, a new conversion. The strength of Ahmad’s ethnography is in giving center-stage to the considerable creativity and diligence mi- grant women show in piecing together their own conversions. This piecing together is perfectly captured by the book’s cover, which features Azra Ak- samija’s “Flocking Mosque”. The structure of a flower illustrates how believ- ers form a circular and geometric shape when gathered in devotion to God. Like Aksamija’s patterns, which build into a circular design, Ahmad’s chap- ters each represent a key piece of the story of migrant domestic workers’ conversion to Islam as a gradual process that blends nations, households, and individuals together to create a narrative about the women’s newfound faith. Scholars should read this book for its textured and detailed observa- tions about migrant women’s daily lives and for its treatment of religious conversion as a gradual process that unfolds in the everyday experiences of individuals. It would also be a great book for students as theory takes a back seat to the ethnography. The book is a refreshing, graceful approach to the subject of religious conversion and Islamic faith. Ahmad stays focused on telling her interlocutors’ stories while navigating often conflicting posi- tions. Rehenuma AsmiAssistant Professor of Education and International StudiesAllegheny College

Около 150 древних поселений разной величины, зарегистрированных в низовьях старой дельты реки Мургаб на юге Туркменистана и датированных периодами средней и поздней бронзы, а также несколько синхронных памятников, обнаруженных в приамударьинских районах на севере Афганистана и на юге Узбекистана, дали впечатляющий материал для новой версии начала истории архитектуры этого региона мира. Все найденные поселения принадлежат Бактрийско-маргианскому археологическому комплексу (БМАК), часто именуемому также «Цивилизацией Окса», и входили в состав микрооазисов - так называемых номов, если следовать месопотамской традиции. В некоторых из них присутствуют явные признаки административных и культовых центров, резко контрастирующих с окружающей бытовой застройкой. Археологи, открывшие и раскопавшие эти объекты, наметили векторы влияний и обозначили процесс эволюции местной строительной практики. Была также предпринята попытка выявить заимствования из протоиндийской цивилизации, Месопотамии и сиро-анатолийского мира. Уточнялась степень проникновения элементов БМАК в античную и средневековую архитектуру Ирана и Центральной Азии. Тем не менее вопросов здесь больше, чем ответов. В статье представлен обзор изученных сооружений, позволяющий увидеть вероятные истоки основных архитектурно-планировочных принципов, распространенных на означенной территории в доахеменидский период. Генезис БМАК - тема дискуссионная, и пока можно лишь предполагать, кем были носители этой бесписьменной культуры, откуда они пришли, какие образы служили эталонами в их строительной деятельности. Как бы то ни было, мы имеем большой фактический материал, который слабо представлен в историографии архитектуры Древнего мира и должен быть рассмотрен в техническом, функциональном и социальном аспектах. Попытка наметить контуры такого исследования, решающего проблемы интерпретации остатков монументальной архитектуры, предпринята в настоящей статье. Самобытность бактрийско-маргианской архитектуры определяет совершенно новый тип сооружений, которого не было прежде. Это «крепости», чьи планировочные схемы в виде квадрата или прямоугольника с прямоугольными или круглыми башнями на углах и по периметру стен, а также с круглым планом отличаются от более ранних энеолитических структур четким построением геометрических форм, стремлением придерживаться правил симметрии. Такие схемы получили самое широкое распространение несколько веков спустя, когда другие уникальные формы материальной культуры БМАК (керамика, глиптика, мелкая пластика и др.) были совершенно забыты. И только в архитектуре последующих эпох - от восточного эллинизма до вернакуляра XIX в. - продолжал воспроизводиться древний фортификационный канон. Все упомянутые в статье памятники наглядно свидетельствуют о зарождении монументальности в архитектуре раннеземледельческих цивилизаций, оказавшихся на периферии древневосточного мира и не знавших прежде ни такой масштабности, ни такого геометризма. Это стало возможным в результате глубоких изменений в социальной жизни местных сообществ, которые накопили материальные ресурсы и идеологический капитал для осуществления беспрецедентных по объему строек. Монументальность как формальное свойство элитных резиденций и религиозных зданий стала выражением культурной мутации, происходившей в процессе включения Бактрии и Маргианы в обширную сеть межрегиональных контактов. Репрезентативная архитектура БМАК была самобытной новацией на рубеже III-II тысячелетий до н. э. и сошла со сцены, оставив после себя угасшие храмы, которые сменились укрепленными сооружениями дворцового типа. Сама эта цивилизация исчезла, когда единство условий, предопределявших ее существование, было нарушено. Жречество как особая каста частично потеряло свое прежнее высокое положение, хотя явно привнесло старую символику и традиции в преемственный цикл развития монументальной архитектуры Центральной Азии в раннем железном веке и значительно позже. About 150 ancient settlements of different sizes, recorded in the lower reaches of the old delta of the Murgab River in southern Turkmenistan and dated to middle and late Bronze Age, as well as several contemporaneous monuments found in the Amur-Darya regions in northern Afghanistan and southern Uzbekistan, supplied impressive material for the new version of the beginning of the history of architecture in this region of the world. All the settlements found belong to the Bactrian-Margiana archeological complex (BMAK), often also called the Oxis Civilization, and were part of the micro-oases, the so-called noms, according to the Mesopotamian tradition. In some of them there are clear traces of administrative and religious centers, in sharp contrast to the surrounding residential buildings. Archaeologists who discovered and excavated these objects, outlined the vectors of influence and outlined the process of evolution of local construction practices. An attempt was also made to uncover borrowings from the Indus Civilization, Mesopotamia and the Syro-Anatolian world. The degree of penetration of the elements of the BMAK into the ancient and medieval architecture of Iran and Central Asia was clarified. However, there are more questions than answers. The article presents an overview of the structures studied, which makes it possible to see the likely origins of the main architectural and planning principles prevalent in the designated area in the pre-Achaemenid period. The genesis of the BMAC is a debatable topic and so far one can only guess who the bearers of this pre-writing culture were, where they came from, what images served as benchmarks in their construction activities. Albeit, we have a large amount of factual material that is poorly represented in the historiography of the architecture of the Ancient World and must be considered in technical, functional and social aspects. An attempt to outline the contours of such a study, which solves the problems of interpreting the remnants of the monumental architecture, has been made in this article. The originality of the Bactrian-Margiana architecture defines a completely new type of structure, which was not there before. These are “fortresses” whose planning schemes in the form of a square or rectangle with rectangular or round towers at the corners and along the perimeter of the walls, as well as with a circular plan, differ from the earlier Eneolithic structures by the precise construction of geometric forms, by the desire to adhere to the rules of symmetry. Such schemes became most widespread a few centuries later, when other unique forms of BMAK material culture (ceramics, glyptics, small works of plastic art, etc.) were completely forgotten. And only in the architecture of the subsequent epochs - from Eastern Hellenism to Vernacular of the 19th century did the ancient fortification canon continue to be reproduced. All the monuments mentioned in the article clearly indicate the origin of monumentality in the architecture of early agricultural civilizations that turned out to be on the periphery of the ancient Eastern world and did not know any such scale and such geometricism before. This became possible as a result of profound changes in the social life of local communities, which have accumulated material resources and ideological capital for the implementation of unprecedented construction projects. Monumentality as a formal property of elite residences and religious buildings became an expression of a cultural mutation that occurred in the process of incorporating Bactria and Margiana into an extensive network of interregional contacts. The representative architecture of the BMAK was a distinctive innovation at the turn of the III-II millennia BC and left the stage, leaving behind the dead temples, which were replaced by fortified palace buildings. This civilization itself disappeared when the unity of the conditions predetermining its existence was disrupted. The priesthood as a special caste partially lost its former high position, although it clearly introduced the old symbolism and traditions into the successive developmental cycle of the monumental architecture of Central Asia in the early Iron Age and much later.

El objeto de este trabajo es el estudio del simbolismo de las aves en el ámbito tartésico y fenicio-púnico en la península ibérica durante el Bronce Final y el Hierro I. Se han recogido y analizado aquellas piezas con representaciones de aves, así como los restos orgánicos de éstas, si bien esto último no ha dado muchos frutos debido a las dificultades que existen tanto para su conservación como para la posterior identificación de especies. En total se han podido determinar ánades, gallos, palomas, flamencos, cisnes, lechuzas y halcones, todas ellas representadas en el Mediterráneo oriental y cuya iconografía se vincula al mundo funerario, al tránsito al Más Allá y a las divinidades. Gran parte de esa iconografía llegó a la península de mano de los fenicios, si bien su acogida y aceptación entre la población local fue variable. Palabras clave: aves, simbolismo, tartesios, fenicios, púnicosTopónimos: península ibéricaPeriodo: Hierro I. ABSTRACTThe aim of this paper is to study the symbolism of birds in Tartessian and Phoenician-Punic cultures within the Iberian Peninsula during the late Bronze and early Iron Age. To this end, items with any sort of symbolism connected with birds have been analysed. Organic remains have also been examined, although the latter did not make a relevant contribution to the study due to problems of conservation of the organic remains and subsequent identification of species. I have identified ducks, roosters, pigeons, flamingos, swans, owls and hawks, all located around the East Mediterranean basin and related to funerary contexts, the journey to the hereafter and deities. Most of this iconography reached the Iberian Peninsula via Phoenician culture, albeit its acceptance among the local population varied. Keywords: birds, symbolism, Tartesian, Phoenicians, PunicPlace names: Iberian PeninsulaPeriod: Iron Age REFERENCIASAlmagro Gorbea, M. J. 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The article analyses Waishu Miao costume characteristics, revealing the place of batik in the culture of Waishu Miao and its artistic characteristics, summarising the history, cultural traditions, religious beliefs and other aspects of the Waishu Miao nationality compressed into batik patterns. The article presents an analysis of the batik fabric painting technique based on the materials from the history of traditional Chinese decorative and applied art. The batik of the Waishu Miao nationality from the Guizhou province (an offshoot of the Miao nationality) is a decorative part of the traditional costume, combining both practical and cultural functions. The author of the article describes Waishu Miao’s male and female clothes and gives basic information about decorative batik fabric painting. The author also analyses batik motifs, ornament themes, their compositions, and explaines the symbolic meaning of ancient decorative elements in geometric and natural patterns. The role of Waishu Miao women in the development and preservation of traditions and beliefs is emphasised.

Candlesticks, which are functionally utilized as a means of illumination in religious and civil architecture, have also reflected symbolic meanings in many beliefs, especially within the framework of light symbolism, and this symbolism has also affected the design of the works. Candlesticks produced from materials such as ceramic, glass and metal were produced in different sizes according to the place they were used and named accordingly. One of the places where candlesticks used in mosques in religious architecture in Turkish-Islamic societies draw attention to with their symbolic meanings as well as functionality are dervish lodges. In this study, after giving information about candlesticks as a type of work and the functional and symbolic aspects of the concepts of candlestick-candle-candle-cerag in Sufism and sects, thirteen lodge candlesticks, which are in the Çankırı Museum and brought to the museum from the Çankırı Taş Mescid Mevlevihane, are the discipline of art history, in this context, they were introduced and evaluated by dating in terms of material-technical-ornamentation. In this study, it is aimed to determine the place of the lodge candlesticks in Turkish-Islamic art by examining the works within the framework of the art history discipline, as well as the symbolic expressions in the Sufi literature, and to contribute to the literature for further research with the studies on this subject. Although cerag and oil lamps, which are among the lighting tools used in lodges, are mentioned a lot in the sources, both written and visual works and works dated to the 13th-14th centuries, which came to museums from different dervish lodges, show that the candelabra was also used as a lighting tool in the lodge since the early periods, and those adorned with herbal, geometric, figural and written compositions as well as it has also shown the artistic aspects of these works. Nowadays, lodge candlesticks in different museums and collections differ in form. In general, the candlesticks in the squares are similar, however there are also different examples such as the Kırk Budak Candlestick in Bektaşiyya or the eighteen-armed candelabra in Mevleviyye. In the formation of these different forms, the symbolic reflections of the Sufi literature in general and the relevant sect were effective within the framework of Islamic belief. In addition to the symbolic elements that affect the form of candlesticks, there are also some meanings which represent these items. Candlesticks in dervish lodges, like cerag andcandes, were an element that reminds the light of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, the Qur'an, the leader of the relevant sect, which must be followed constantly by the dervish in the course of his journey and enable him to walk on his path. While the cerags and candles among the lighting tools in the lodges, especially those belonging to the Bektashi order, are the subject of different researches with special names and symbolic aspects in their designs, there are few studies on the lodge candlesticks, which are important examples of Turkish Islamic art with their designs and the symbolic meanings they reflect such as oil cerags and candles. All candlesticks reviewed in this study are metal and were produced by forging and casting techniques. While some of the works with different candle holder, there are also single examples which body and pedestal forms were produced in pairs. There is no decoration element in some of the works except the tulip form seen on the candle holders and the writing texts. When the candlesticks without the date inscription are compared with the similar foundation and lodge candlesticks in different museums and considering the historical process of the Çankırı Mevlevihane, it is seen that they are examples from the 19th century. Nevertheless, while it is realized from the inscription on many candlesticks in different collections that they are foundation works, in the studies there is no any record in the pieces. Apart from dating, another important thing is the issue of the artist. There is no any artist-master expression on the works. However, when the works are compared with the candlesticks utilized in different areas belonging to the same period, it is seen that they reflect the common language of the period because they exhibit the common forms of candlestick found in the 19th century. These examples of the pieces, which reflect the characteristics of the period in which they were produced, are important examples of Turkish-Islamic metal art with their forms and symbolic meanings.

The Silk Route Between Past and Present. A Paradigm Beyond Space and Time. On the threshold of the third millennium, in an atmosphere of anachronisms and contradictions, dominated and conditioned by scientific and technological discoveries, new ideas seem to take flight whilst regional barriers and territorial boundaries are collapsing to give way to a new form of comprehensiveness. Sharing ideas and intellectual stimuli, amalgamating cultural elements circulating along its intertwining branches, the Silk Route has more than once given life to new scientific forms, cultural and intellectual systems and, amongst these, artistic shapes and religious syncretism. The “Silk Route”, which, with its articulated network of twisting routes and sub-routes, even now well represents the challenging paradigm of a new age yet standing at its threshold. A paradigm beyond time and space. The following paper aims at focusing on the Silk Route’s Religious-Cultural dimension in the middle-inner Asia of the 13th-15th Centuries, when, whatever may have happened regarding local realms and rulers, it played the role of junction and meeting point of different worlds and their civilisations. Even now we are confronted with a political trend that is at once and the same time a cultural current; emanating from the past, it is re-linking Europe and Asia and, re-uniting territories with their individual and traditional cultural forms, is shaping a renewed kaleidoscopic framework. We are confronted with new forces deeply rooted in the past, which, emanating from the far eastern fringes of Asia, by the second decade of the 21st century have reached the far western fringes of Europe, dynamics that are not only ‘economics’ and ‘scientific technologies’ but also thought, religion, and other intellectual values. These forces are heir of past times, nevertheless they endure in the present and are the active lively projection of a future time…though still largely to be understood and matured. A vision of life and universe where speculative and religious values coexist with astounding technological and scientific discoveries in a global dimension without space and time. At the verge of this millennium, the Information and Communication Revolution has given life with its advanced technologies to a new space conditioned and dominated by no-distances. And this space with its always-evolving scientific discoveries today involves the society in its entirety (what is commonly named as “global space” actually symbolised by the Silk Route), endeavours to amalgamate it creating new links between civil and political society and positioning them in a new military dimension. New forms and structures that are rapidly evolving in search of some balance between technological development and preservation of ancient traditions, which might make possible social and economic justice, yet an utopia more than a reality. However, both (social and economic justice) form the ideological basis of order and stability, anxiously pursued by the young generation in search of an economic and speculative order where stability, security (hard and soft security) and religious structures should in their turn become the platform of new political-institutional structures. Be that as it may, this is not a new phenomenon. Technological advancements are astoundingly new, but not the process and its aims. We are confronted with a phenomenon that has already occurred in more than one historic phase. Epochal phases. That is the human search for economic and social justice, and their framing into new conceptual schemes. And within this ratio, it would be unrealistic to ignore an additional key-factor. It would be unrealistic to deny that Religion has always been a major player. It has been at the basis of more than one revolution, it has represented the culturalpolitical response to foreign challenges, it has legitimised military action, it has given life to new spaces and political systems, it has filled with its pathos cultural and political voids. It has given to Mankind and Universe a new centrality, creating a new space within which Man and Mankind, History and Philosophy, Cosmos and Universe with their laws meet and merge in new systems and structural orders. The World and its Destiny, core of lively debates, conditioned by the eternal dialectic between economics and society, between society and religion, between science and technology on the one hand, and religion on the other, between formal ratio and ideologies or myths, which underline with their voice the eternal antithesis between cultures and civilisations. At the verge of the third millennium, the intellectual world is facing a new historiographical debate, into which the Religious Factor has also entered. Knowledge and the vision of the world and its new order/disorder are translated into a new philosophy of culture and history, of society and religion. Rationality, historicity of scientific knowledge, nature and experience, nature and human ‘ratio’, science and ethics, science and its language, science and its new aims and objectives are amongst some of the major themes of this debate. But not only this: which aims, which objectives? And within which new order that might ensure security and stability, social and economic justice? Thence, revolution and power are coming to the fore with another factor: Force and its use…a stage that, however, does not disregard dialogue and tolerance, or, as recently stated by Francesco Bergoglio, more than tolerance, “reciprocal respect”. These are only ‘some’ amongst the main issues discussed and heard of also in the traditional culture of ordinary people. Undoubtedly, the end of the Cold War and the well-known “global village” dealt with by Samuel Huntington, the global village with its technological revolutions, have induced to re-think our own speculative parameters, traditional paradigms and models of society and power, mankind and statehood. And once again we have been confronted with elements that might bring to new forms of sharp opposition and a global disorder. However, beyond and behind the Huntingtonian cliché of the “clash of civilizations”, a new cultural current seems to take flight spurring from the roots of a traditional past, which however has not yet disappeared. The Silk Route stems out emanating from the far-eastern lands of Asia as the conceptual image, the paradigm of a conceivable new order. By merging the material, scientific-technological and economic dimension of life with a new cultural (or neo-cultural) vocation it seeks (and seems to be able) to give life to a new social body and new systemic-structural answers, a comprehensive order capable of tackling the challenges opened by the collapse of the traditional cultural parameters and the dramatic backdrop of a mere clash of civilisations. Middle-Inner Asia of the 13th -15th Centuries: the Silk Route and its Reflection on Painting and Architectonic Forms. As just pointed out, nothing is new in the course of History. Professor Axel Berkowsky has authoritatively lingered on the Silk Route – or better “the New Silk Route” – with specific regard on practical aspects of these last decades. In the following text, I wish to linger on a past historic period, particularly fertile when confronted with the collapse of traditional values and the challenges posed by new fearful forces and their dynamics: the Mongols with their hordes (ulus) and, some later, Tamerlane with his terrible Army. Sons of the steppe and its culture, these people suddenly appeared on the stage, raced it from Mesopotamia to the north-eastern corner of Asia with their hordes and their allied tribal groups, shattered previous civilisations and imposed a new dominion, a new political-military order and new models of life. But, with their Military superiority, they also brought the codes and the ancient traditional knowledge of the nomadic world. It is misleading to watch to this epochal phase only as a phase of devastation and horrors. With their codes, Mongols and Timurids brought with them the Chinese algebraic, mathematical and scientific knowledge, and fused it with Mesopotamian mathematical and medical sciences reaching peaks of astronomical, arithmetical, numerical, geometric, algebraic theoretical and practical knowledge. They also brought with them from vital centres of religious scholarship and life a large number of theologians, pirs, traditionists and legal religious scholars with their individual religious features and systems. Shamanism, Buddhism, Muslim forms, Nestorianism and other cults vigorously practised in the mobile world of the steppe gave life to an important phase of religious culture and multifarious practices largely imbued with mystic feelings and traditional emotional states. Then, and once again, within the global space created by the military conquests of the new-comers, the Silk Route – or more precisely, the Silk and its Routes – reorganised and revitalised trades and business, gave life to close diplomatic connections and matrimonial allegiances reinforced by a vigorous traditional chancery and official correspondence, that tightly linked Asia with Europe. Within this new global order, the Silk and its routes played the crucial role, shaped new political, institutional, scientific and intellectual formulae, gave life to new conceptual forms that – at their core – had Man and Mankind as centre of the entire Universe. We are confronted with a cultural development begun at a time when the sons of the steppe were taking over lands of the classical Arabic civilisation (like Syria, Iraq and al-Jaszīra), at a time when the Iranian world was still centre of intellectual life and its social norms were still spreading over large spaces of Inner Asian territories. Visual Arts wonderfully mirror this phenomenon. We witness a process that renovated itself ‘from within’ in the course of three centuries and did not stop even when the arrival of the European Powers on the Asian markets seemed to sign, with the decay and end of the traditional market economy, also the closing of the cultural interactions created by the Silk Routes of the time. Once again, Visual Arts wonderfully mirror this phenomenon: a dramatic transitional, fluid period, marked by a distinctive timeless reality, which had no longer territories well delimited by frontiers to conquer or defend. Herewith I have dealt, as an example, with the reflection of the new conceptions of Life and Universe on visual Fine Arts in the 13th-15th centuries, specifically painting and architectonic forms. Ideological values that aimed to forge new relationships among different peoples and their individual human values, religious thinking, moral codes…and economic, scientific, technological achievements. ‘Fine Arts’. Visual fine arts, in my case painting and architecture, are the mirror of feelings shared by the Lords of the time, registered by painters and architects in plastic forms, the signal of these stances to an often confused Humanity. Here, I linger on two pictorial themes: Nature and Landscape on the one hand, and Religion with its very images on the other. With regard to architectonic forms, these reflect the same conceptual paradigm shaped through technical features. By those ages, Nature and Landscape were perceived by contemporary painters and architects with formal, stylistic and technical characteristics which strongly reflected the impact with a world which lived its life in close, intimate contact with nature, a world and a culture which observed Nature and the Cosmos, and perceived them in every detail over the slow rhythmical march of days and nights, of seasons and the lunar cycles. These artistic features depict a precise image, that of a world which lives its life often at odds with nature for its very survival, a world which conditions nature or is conditioned in its turn. At that time, it was a world and a cosmic order which were often perceived by the artist in their tension with uncertainty and the blind recklessness of modern-contemporary times. However, to a closer analysis, these same artistic forms shape a celestial order which was at one and the same time a culture and a religion. In the vast borderless space of the Euro-Asiatic steppes, cut by great rivers, broken by steep rocky mountainous chains and inhospitable desert fig.aux, the Silk succeeded in building and organising its own network of twisting routes and sub-routes, along which transited (albeit, yet still transit) caravans with their goods…but also cultural elements and their conceptual-philosophical forms. Of these latter and their syncretic imageries and dreams, the fine arts have left evocative pictures and architectonic images, which depicted a world that is the projection of a precise social and political reality and its underlying factors, such as the restlessness of a nomadic pattern of life and the culture of the Town and its urban life. Little is changed today despite the collapse of the Soviet empire and its order. Features and forms change, but in both cases they announce a different world with its order built on a robust syncretism, which is at the same time science, knowledge, harmony and religion (divine or human, or both). A world that is the projection of a precise political, social and economic reality. A reality that, at one and the same time, is the silent voice of a humanity often disregarded by contemporary writers, an ‘underground world’ that echoes traditional forms and their dynamics, and a no less authoritative de facto power that politically, economically and militarily conditions and dominates its times. A reality that finds an authoritative voice through the Silk Route.