The aim of this essay is to return to the genesis of the American agrarian myth in the eighteenth century, as a path to investigate the origins of the American national identity. This will be done by means of a comprehensive reassessment of St. John de Crèvecoeur, the Norman noble whose name is bound to the success of Letters from an American Farmer. His work contains the origins of the agrarian ideal as a peculiarly American phenomenon, prior to independence and (...) before Republican ideology placed agrarian democracy at its foundations, making the project of agrarian development and democratic participation inseparable one from another. A Frenchman who became American and then, after 25 years, French again, Crèvecoeur represents an ideal lens through which to analyse the hitherto insufficiently explored contribution of French economic culture to the creation of American national identity. As a multi-faceted figure whose richness has been dominated by his image as the author of a best-selling autobiographical novel, Crèvecoeur is here also seen as an agronomist who was no stranger to physiocracy and as a diplomat and French intellectual who always felt profoundly American. It was precisely this attachment to the land, seen as fundamental to the vision of a new and distinct form of peaceful cohabitation and democratic partnership, that became a political theme and an economic development project of the new nation and, as such, was a main plank of the agrarian ideology of Thomas Jefferson's Republicans. (shrink)

El objeto de estudio de la presente investigación está constituido por las discriminaciones legales sufridas por las mujeres migrantes trabajadoras del hogar en España. Específicamente, aborda las discriminaciones que resultan de la intersección entre las diferentes relaciones de poder que afectan a este sector, con la finalidad de contribuir a la visibilización de las problemáticas existentes y de las demandas respectivas. Para ello, además de los estudios disponibles, se han tomado en consideración las voces de las propias trabajadoras a partir (...) de la observación participante en el sindicato de mujeres trabajadoras del hogar Sindihogar. (shrink)

The paper tackles the controversial question of the affinities between the work of Aby Warburg and Carl Gustav Jung. Instead of focussing her interest exclusively on the concepts of collective memory and primordial images, though, the author critically compares the different ways Warburg and Jung looked at the renaissance of ancient practices of Paganism at the beginning of the Twentieth century, and questions the extent to which the cultural crisis heralded by Modernity, and the challenges brought about by secularisation influenced (...) their reading of the revivals. (shrink)

Although we are beginning to understand the neurocognitive processes that underlie the emergence of dreaming, what accounts for the bizarre phenomenology of dreams remains debated. I address this question by comparing dreaming with waking mind wandering and challenging previous accounts that utilize bizarreness to mark a sharp divide between conscious experiences in waking and sleeping. Instead, I propose that bizarreness is a common, non-deficient feature of spontaneous offline simulations occurring across the sleep-wake cycle and can be tied to the specific (...) characteristics of spontaneous thought as being dynamic, unconstrained, (hyper)associative and highly variable in content. Rather than misrepresenting waking reality, bizarreness can be employed to investigate the very building blocks of spontaneous cognition. The absence of bizarreness in thought processes is imposed by automatic and deliberate cognitive constraints. By contrast, thought and memory processes operating on their own without such constraints are inherently marked by different degrees and types of bizarreness. (shrink)

El concepto de generación, con casi dos siglos de presencia en las Humanidades y las Ciencias Sociales, si bien conserva todo su vigor para la construcción de imaginarios, o simples imágenes, con las que captar la atención, y por tanto reaparece de tanto en tanto, sigue planteando no obstante serios problemas conceptuales, epistemológicos y sobre todo metodológicos, cuando intentamos aplicarlo desde presupuestos positivos en la Sociología, más allá del colorismo de los “estudios culturales”, los “estudios de juventud” o el marketing. (...) El presente trabajo parte expone justamente parte de los problemas encontrados, a nivel teórico, a la hora de intentar una operatividad del concepto en el marco de una investigación, en curso, sobre valores y actitudes medioambientales entre distintas --según se mire-- generaciones, cohortes, momentos del ciclo vital o periodos del curso de vida. (shrink)

Este artículo explora la aplicación de un modelo de cognición encarnada como lente para entender la ira en Lisístrata de Aristófanes. Se argumenta que la representación de la ira en esta comedia sigue un patrón encontrado en diferentes géneros de la literatura griega en que la emoción es asociada a un elemento de placer. Este elemento sensorial es encontrado desde una manera más articulada en Aristóteles hasta una variedad de metáforas que conectan la ira y el erotismo en otros autores. (...) La teoría de metáforas conceptuales, cuya principal aserción es que nuestro aparato cognitivo produce su propio mundo de significado que depende del hecho de tener un cuerpo biológico y un contexto psicológico y cultural, provee una herramienta importante para entender las emociones en un texto. La idea de que nuestro lenguaje acarrea información acerca de la forma en que conceptualizamos las cosas arroja luz sobre la relación entre eros e ira en Lysistrata. (shrink)

A study of the conflict between philosophy and poetry in four Platonic dialogues: the Ion, the Symposium, the Republic, and the Sophist.

Word learning is basic to foreign language acquisition, however time consuming and not always successful. Empirical studies have shown that traditional (visual) word learning can be enhanced by gestures. The gesture benefit has been attributed to depth of encoding. Gestures can lead to depth of encoding because they trigger semantic processing and sensorimotor enrichment of the novel word. However, the neural underpinning of depth of encoding is still unclear. Here, we combined an fMRI and a behavioral study to investigate word (...) encoding online. In the scanner, participants encoded 30 novel words of an artificial language created for experimental purposes and their translation into the subjects’ native language. Participants encoded the words three times visually, audiovisually, and by additionally observing semantically related gestures performed by an actress. Hemodynamic activity during word encoding revealed the recruitment of cortical areas involved in stimulus processing. In this study, depth of encoding can be spelt out in terms of sensorimotor brain networks that grow larger the more sensory modalities are linked to the novel word. Word retention outside the scanner documented a positive effect of gestures in a free recall test in the short-term. (shrink)

We previously showed that owner personality and human-dog relationship predicted the performance of a human-dog dyad in a practical task. Based on the same data set we presently investigate the effects of individual and social factors on the social attraction of dogs to their owners. Twenty-two male and female owners and their intact male dogs were observed during a “picture viewing” test, where we diverted the owner's attention away from their dog whilst it was permitted to move freely around the (...) room. Owner personality axis “neuroticism” and dog personality axis “vocal and aggressive” were, respectively, positively and negatively related to the time the dog stayed in proximity to the owner. Quality of relationship and attachment also had significant effects on this proximity. We conclude that personality and the nature of the human-dog relationship may all influence dogs' social attraction to their owners. (shrink)

To date, we know very little about the effects of the differences in attachment classifications on the physiological correlates of stress regulation in adolescent age groups. The present study examined for the first time heart rate and heart rate variability during an attachment interview in adolescents. HR and HRV data were collected during a baseline assessment as well as during the administration of the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System in a community-based sample of 56 adolescents. We additionally used the Adult (...) Attachment Interview in 50% of our sample to test the convergent validity. Adolescents with a secure attachment representation showed a higher HRV from baseline to the AAP interview compared to those with an insecure-dismissing and the unresolved group. A comparison between the two insecure attachment groups showed no significant difference related to HR and HRV. Cohen’s Kappa revealed an almost perfect agreement between the AAP and the AAI for the four-group classification. Our results indicate that adolescents with a secure attachment representation are more capable of dealing with attachment-related distress which is represented in higher HRV during an attachment interview. (shrink)

Observations on Two Mural Paintings from Early Medieval Rome. Fresco of St Agatha and an Unknown Painting with a Bust of the Saint Little is known about the two fragments of early medieval Roman paintings with female saints considered here. One was first exhibited in 2016; the other remained totally obscure until it came onto the antiquarian art market 2019. The goal of this study is to provide context for these two pieces by attempting to reconstruct their original art historical (...) environment. The study also aims, through archival and documentary research, to offer plausible dates by means of stylistic comparisons (e.g., frescoes in Santa Maria Antiqua, in the Catacombs of Generosa, in the narthex of Santa Sabina etc.) and to explore the fragments’ possible original provenance. For the painting with the bust of St Agatha, the study proposes a date around the late seventh-early eighth centuries; for the other, the first half of the eighth century. For both paintings, a Roman context is assumed. (shrink)

Résumé L’association entre industrie de la construction et sous-traitance est une évidence à la fin du XIXe siècle, tout comme aujourd’hui. Pourtant l’histoire des mutations du statut du sous-traitant et des formes du travail au forfait dans le bâtiment au début du XXe siècle est encore peu étudiée. Pour aborder cette question, cet article prend pour objet un virement institutionnel majeur dans la définition du « tâcheron » en France : la réforme sur les abus du marchandage dans la seconde (...) moitié des années 1930. Ce dispositif classifie et ordonne les relations entre les acteurs économiques aux intérêts divergents impliqués dans la chaîne de la sous-traitance : maître d’ouvrage, maître d’œuvre, sous-traitant, ouvriers travaillant pour le sous-traitant. Formalisant l’état des lieux de la jurisprudence et détaillant les modalités de la mise en œuvre du marchandage, il permet ainsi de s’interroger sur les caractères marquants d’une forme clé d’organisation du travail de la deuxième industrialisation. (shrink)

Resumen: Este trabajo tiene como objetivo mostrar que el análisis sistémico aplicado a los espacios locales facilita la generación de propuestas para su desarrollo integral en el ámbito de la sostenibilidad. Los territorios están compuestos por elementos físicos y sociales que se interrelacionan y generan productos que los benefician o perjudican. Estos recursos pueden ser explotados o encontrarse ociosos por falta de actores que los desarrollen. Reaccionan ante las acciones internas y externas tanto humanas como naturales, entre las que se (...) encuentran las políticas para el desarrollo local. Para que estas políticas sean eficientes, necesitan estudios integrales que contengan una información que muestre las deficiencias estructurales, relacionales y funcionales del territorio y, con esta información, adoptar las medidas que las corrijan. Este estudio muestra que el análisis sistémico es una herramienta útil para la elaboración de estas políticas.This paper shows how system analysis applied to local spaces facilitate the generation of proposals for integral development in the field of sustainability. Regions are composed of physical and social components generating products that benefit or harm themselves. These resources can be exploited or remained idle for lack of actors to develop them. They react to internal and external actions, both human and natural. Among these actions are the policies for local development. For these policies to be efficient, they need comprehensive studies that contain information that shows the structural, relational and functional deficiencies of the territory and, with this information, adopt the necessary political actions to correct them. This study supports system analysis as an information tool for policy-making. (shrink)

All humans share a universal, evolutionarily ancient approximate number system (ANS) that estimates and combines the numbers of objects in sets with ratio-limited precision. Interindividual variability in the acuity of the ANS correlates with mathematical achievement, but the causes of this correlation have never been established. We acquired psychophysical measures of ANS acuity in child and adult members of an indigene group in the Amazon, the Mundurucú, who have a very restricted numerical lexicon and highly variable access to mathematics education. (...) By comparing Mundurucú subjects with and without access to schooling, we found that education significantly enhances the acuity with which sets of concrete objects are estimated. These results indicate that culture and education have an important effect on basic number perception. We hypothesize that symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical thinking mutually enhance one another over the course of mathematics instruction. (shrink)

Motivated by Kalman residuated lattices, Nelson residuated lattices and Nelson paraconsistent residuated lattices, we provide a natural common generalization of them. Nelson conucleus algebras unify these examples and further extend them to the non-commutative setting. We study their structure, establish a representation theorem for them in terms of twist structures and conuclei that results in a categorical adjunction, and explore situations where the representation is actually an isomorphism. In the latter case, the adjunction is elevated to a categorical equivalence. By (...) applying this representation to the original motivating special cases we bring to the surface their underlying similarities. (shrink)

This paper aims to contribute to an integrated understanding of what goes missing in adverse meditation experiences and in cases of depersonalization disorder. Depersonalization disorder is characterized by distressing alterations in, and sometimes the complete disappearance of, the 'I'-sense. This paper examines the nature of the 'I'-sense and what it means to lose it from a Buddhist perspective. We argue for a nihilist position that the loss of the sense of self arises from misidentifications of the psychophysical complex with non-self (...) elements, such as memories, thoughts, or body movements. Drawing from meditation experiences and depersonalization symptoms, we propose that the sense of self is not a static entity given in experience but fluctuates between various senses of self (and no-self) depending on circumstances. This pluralistic understanding of the various senses of self offers a more nuanced understanding of symptoms in depersonalization disorder and adverse effects of meditation practices. (shrink)