Sueño, trabajo, sexualidad... Entre la represión y la libertad, la Cuaresma y el Carnaval, el cuerpo de la Edad Media es el lugar donde se producen algunas de las más importantes tensiones de la época en Occidente. De la abstinencia de los frailes a las delicias profanas de la carne, del auge del cristianismo a la persistencia del paganismo, de la risa a las lágrimas, de la moda en el vestir a las costumbres del comer, del celibato al amor cortés, este esbozo de "historia total" del cuerpo permite comprender los códigos, los gestos y los significados que el Occidente medieval legó a nuestra modernidad. Se trata, en suma, de dar cuerpo a esta Edad Media de la que todos procedemos.
The book presents and analyzes some of the most important issues related to the body seen as a rich and complex anthropological and semiotic object, capable of playing a decisive role in the meaning making processes of cultural and social life. The analysis presented in this book opens a whole set of new venues for the study of body performances and representations, and shows how the embodiment of social and cultural life shape our world. In all of its relationships and in itself, our body works in a sort of corposphere, which is, in turn, part of the semiosphere, defined by Lotman as a continuum occupied by different types of semiotic formations. It is from/in/by the body that all semiosis begins and ends; it is in its presence and absence, in its being and in its presentation amidst the lived situational life where we might discover and shape the senses of the world. Many different academic fields will find in this book deep insights about how the body is at the center of cultural and social processes.
The “THINKING: Bioengineering of Science and Art” is to discuss about philosophical aspects of thinking at the context of Science and Art. External representations provide evidence that the fundamental process of thinking exists in both animal subjects and humans. However, the diversity and complexity of thinking in humans is astonishing because humans have been permitted to integrate scientific accounts into their accounts and create excellent illustrations for the effects of this integration. The book necessarily begins with the origins of human thinking and human thinking into self and others, body, and life. Multiple factors tend to modify the pattern of thinking. They all will come into play by this book that brings thinking into different disciplines: humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, formal sciences, and applied sciences. The thinking demands full processing of information, and therefore, the book considers the economy of thinking as well. The book thoroughly intends to explore thinking beyond the boundaries. Specifically, several chapters are devoted to discipline this exploration either by artistic thinking alone or by art and mathematics-aided engineering of complexities. In this manner, the book models variations on thinking at the individual and systems levels and accumulates a list of solutions, each good for specific scenarios and maximal outcomes.
In Chilam Balam of Ixil Laura Caso Barrera translates for the first time a Yucatec Maya document that resulted from the meticulous reading by the Colonial Maya of various European texts such as the Bible and the Poem of the Mío Cid, as well as various studies on astronomy, astrology, calendars, and medicine. The Maya, showing considerable astuteness and insight, appropriated this knowledge. With this study and facsimile, experts can further their knowledge of Mayan calendars or traditional medicine; and Mayan enthusiasts can discover more about the culture’s world view and history. En el Chilam Balam de Ixil Laura Caso Barrera traduce por primera vez un documento en maya yucateco, que resultó de la minuciosa lectura que realizaron los mayas coloniales de distintos textos europeos como la Biblia o el Cantar del Mío Cid, así como de diversos estudios de astronomía, astrología, calendarios y medicina. Con astucia y perspicacia, los mayas hicieron propio ese saber. Con esta edición, los expertos podrán ahondar en las anotaciones calendáricas o la medicina tradicional maya; y los amantes de esta cultura conocerán otros aspectos de su pensamiento e historia.
This book examines the concept of piracy as an instrument for the advancement of legal, economic, and political agendas associated with early modern imperial conflicts in the Caribbean. Drawing on historical accounts, literary texts, legal treatises, and maps, the book traces the visual and narrative representations of Sir Francis Drake, who serves as a case study to understand the various usages of the terms "pirate" and "corsair." Through a comparative analysis, the book considers the connotations of the categories related to maritime predation—pirate, corsair, buccaneer, and filibuster—and nationalistic and religious denominations—Lutheran, Catholic, heretic, Spaniard, English, and Creole—to argue that the flexible usage of these terms corresponds to unequal colonial and imperial relations and ideological struggles. The book chronologically records the process by which piracy changed from an unregulated phenomenon to becoming legally defined after the Treaty of London (1604) and the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). The research demonstrates that as piracy grew less ambiguous through legal and linguistic standardization, the concept of piracy lost its polemical utility. This interdisciplinary volume is ideal for researchers working in piracy studies, early modern history, and imperial history.
Antología de escritoras españolas de la Edad Media y el Siglo de Oro ofrece una selección de obras literarias de ocho escritoras medievales, renacentistas y barrocas. Cada capítulo presenta una extensa introducción sobre la autora y su obra. Esta antología contribuye a mejorar el conocimiento de los estudiantes sobre la lengua, la literatura y la cultura españolas, al igual que ofrece una lectura desde la perspectiva de género de estas escritoras. Acompañada de textos originales modernizados al castellano actual, notas aclaratorias, actividades y una extensa y actualizada bibliografía, Antología de escritoras españolas de la Edad Media y el Siglo de Oro muestra la evolución de voces femeninas a lo largo de estos siglos. Las actividades sugeridas para cada capítulo ayudan a exponer y a reflexionar sobre la relevancia cultural que en la actualidad tienen los argumentos que estas mujeres proponent en sus trabajos. Esta antología será de gran utilidad para estudiantes de literatura y cultura españolas de niveles de grado y graduado e, igualmente, para los estudiantes hispanohablantes de literature comparada y de estudios de género.
Eulalia Valldosera has created an oeuvre of unusual beauty since 1990. Valldosera works in the media of sculpture, installation, photography and performance in a variety of combinations. She distills a constellation of dreamlike moments centering on the female body, domestic environments and the everyday objects. Her intimate work is crafted from light, shadow, reflection and movement. This book presents a significant body of her work first time and is co-producted with Fundacio Antoni Tapies.
History of the Air and Other Smells is a text that puts in discussion the relationship with the Earth and the participation of human beings, the implications on the health of the people of the past and present in Mexico City; however, it is a large mirror for any megalopolis without a plan. Begin a discussion on the quality of air to understand the process of a geography that is subjected to devastation by the separation with nature.
This title was first published in 2000: Reverent memorial for the dead was the inspiration for the production of a significant category of artworks during the Middle Ages - artworks aimed as much at the laity as at the clergy, and intended to maintain, symbolically, the presence of the dead. Memoria, the term that describes the formal, liturgical memory of the dead, also includes artworks intended to house and honour the deceased. This book explores the ways in which medieval Christians sought to memorialize the deceased: with tombs, cenotaphs, altars and other furnishings connected to a real or symbolic burial site. A dozen essays analyze strategies for commemoration from the 4th to the 15th century: the means by which human memory could be activated or manipulated through the interaction between monuments, their setting, and the visitor. Building upon from the growing body of literature on memory in the Middle Ages, the collection focuses on the tomb monument and its context as a complex to define what is to be remembered, to fix memory, and to facilitate recollection. Remembering depended upon the emotionally charged interaction between the visitor, the funerary monument, strategically placed images or inscriptions, the liturgy and its participants. Commemorative artworks may consolidate social bonds as well as individual memory, as put forth in this volume. Parallels are drawn between mnemonic devices utilized in the Middle Ages, the design of monuments and contemporary scientific research in cognitive neuropsychology. The papers were originally presented at the 1994 meetings of the College Art Association and the International Congresses of Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, and the University of Leeds, England, in 1995.
