Description: Theft is probably one of the most annoying aspects of social life. It is by no means the most dramatic one, but it is one of those things you constantly have in mind. In most Slavic languages, a thief (‘złodziej’ in Polish, ‘злодій’ in Ukrainian, ‘zloděj’ in Czech) literally means an evildoer, as it was this kind of wrongdoing that almost everybody had to deal with. But while theft likely existed in all human societies, it changed over time: how much the thieves stole, what they stole, who stole and from whom, and how people protected themselves - all of these evolved over time. In short, theft has its history and can be a subject of historical research. Late Antiquity is a good period to study it because, in this era, thieves become more visible than before. This paper, examining documentary and literary evidence, will seek to answer questions about how people dealt with theft, attempted to apprehend thieves and recover goods, and, most importantly, what impact theft and the methods of dealing with it had on communities and individuals.
kind of a persnickety question for Japan and religious studies scholars, which may not have an answer - but I thought I'd ask anyway:
yomi or "yomi-no-kuni" is often translated as 'land of the dead' or 'underworld'. I am trying to find the Japanese inverse to this phrase, which would translate to "land of the living". Several journal articles use the english words "land of the living" in contradistinction to yomi, but provide no Japanese translation of the phrase. does one exist?
Any of my #ReligiousStudies friends know why some scholars render the /x/ in Hebrew terms as <k>—so e.g. Tanak rather than Tanakh?
My Hebrew is very minimal, so I’m just perplexed by a romanization that seems to encourage mispronunciation. (I get that kaf and khaf aren’t always differentiated in writing, but that doesn’t seem to be a good reason to conflate them in romanization?)
I need your help #bookstodon. One of the classes I'm taking at the graduate level this semester is Religion & Science Fiction. I read more fantasy, and would like to do my research paper on something that's not obvious (like ST/BS5/Matrix/etc.) & I'd love to use more modern sf rather than the golden age classics.
Anyone have any interesting ideas for my research paper on regarding the intersection of religion and science fiction?
I've been looking a good online, more academic, #religiousstudies glossary. I'm amazed how many don't define basic terms. For example, they will define a word and use "ritual" in the definition, but they don't have a separate entry for "ritual." Takes me back to my Intro to the Study of Religion class where we had to learn all the base terms, people, ideas, before we could even consider a term that uses something like "ritual" in its definition.
My big take home from the Anarchist Bookfair yesterday was that most anarchists who don’t teach in conventional schools see the word “teacher” and (perhaps rightly) think “cop” 😂 However there are many of us anarchist teachers out there trying to do better than the school system is built to allow and offer, often at great psychic cost, our students and colleagues glimpses of better alternatives to the current system from WITHIN the current system. Because, for the most part, that’s where the people are. It’s a constant daily battle and involves a lot of holding our noses and making compromises to balance our values with the antithetical demands of the job. But there are a lot of us out there trying to make a difference and struggling with the mental toll of it.
I was chatting with a friend tonight about radicals within organized religion. The 1960s Latin American Liberation Theology movement came up, as did the Sister of the Immaculate Heart, the nuns features in the amazing documentary Rebel Hearts.
The trailer is just over a minute long, and I absolutely lose it at 0:48.
The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart marched at Selma in 1965 & the Women's March in 2018 + they've never stopped fighting for justice.
If you'd like to use Rebel Hearts about these radical nuns to teach with film in your classroom, my friends at Journeys in Film put together a free teaching guide for the film. (It's free for everyone, not just teachers.)
#CFP Online Workshop: “Armenian Society under Caliphal Rule”
7–8 December 2023
Proposals due 31 May 2023
Topics may include, but are not limited to, social hierarchies, government, church structures, labour relations, urbanism, taxation, civic architecture, etc