Secret Signals from Another World: Walter Benjamin’s Concept of Innervation

Walter Benjamin refers to the “idea of revolution as an innervation of the technical organs of the collective” as one of the articles of his politics. The significance of this assertion has received relatively little attention in the philosophical reception of his political thought compared to the alternative model of revolution – made famous from the paralipomena to the late theses ‘On the Concept of History’ – as the emergency handbrake of history. Drawing on some of the debates and tensions generated by the work of Miriam Bratu Hansen, this discussion aims at an exegesis of some of the lesser known intellectual sources that influenced Benjamin’s theory of innervation. The purpose in doing so is not an attempt to reconcile or integrate these sources with dominant philosophical reconstructions of what is sometimes characterized as Benjamin’s “Western Marxism” and elaborated, in the more familiar context of Surrealist innervation, as a synthesis of Freud and Marx, but rather to reveal an alternative constellation of Soviet biomechanics and reactionary anti-capitalist Lebensphilosophie, united in their shared rejection of Freudian psychoanalysis

Six New \u3ci\u3eEimeria\u3c/i\u3e Species from Vespertilionid Bats from North America

Twenty species of bats (Molossidae, Vespertilionidae) were collected from California, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, and Baja California Norte (Mexico), and 29 of 404 (7%) animals, including Antrozous pallidus, Eptesicusfuscus, Myotis auriculus, Myotis californicus, Myotis ciliolabrum, Myotis evotis, Myotis lucifugus, Myotis thysanodes, Myotis vivesi, Myotis volans, Myotis yumanensis, and Nycticeius humeralis were infected with Eimeria spp., which represent 6 new species. Sporulated oocysts of a new species from A. pallidus are subspheroidal, 24.8 × 21.6 (22-27 × 19-24) μm with a polar granule and a large globular residuum. The oocyst wall is sculptured, with 2 layers, ~1.5 μm thick. Ovoidal sporocysts are 11.5 × 7.8 (9-13 × 7-10) μm, with Stieda body and residuum of many large granules. Sporulated oocysts of a new species from M. californicus are subspheroidal, 20.7 × 18.2 (19-23 × 16-20) μm, with 1-7 tiny polar granules, but without oocyst residuum. The oocyst wall is rough, with 2 layers, ~1.4 μm thick. Ovoidal sporocysts are 11.2 × 7.3 (10-12 × 7-8) μm, with Stieda body and a globular residuum. Sporulated oocysts of a second new species from M. californicus are subspheroidal, 23.1 × 20.7 (20-26 × 19-23) μm, with residuum and 1 polar granule, but a micropyle is absent. The oocyst wall is rough with 2 layers, ~1.5 μm thick. Ovoidal sporocysts are 12.5 × 7.2 (11-14 × 7-8) μm, with a Stieda body and residuum. Sporulated oocysts of a new species from M. ciliolabrum are subspheroidal, 24.9 × 20.1 (18-27 × 17-23) μm, with 1-2 polar granules, but without micropyle and residuum. The oocyst wall is rough with 2 layers, ~1.5 μm thick. Ellipsoidal sporocysts are 12.5 × 9.0 (8-14 × 7-10) μm, with Stieda and substieda bodies and residuum. Sporulated oocysts of a new species from M. evotis are subspheroidal, 21.3 × 18.6 (20-24 × 15-20) μm, with a prominent polar granule, but without micropyle and residuum. The oocyst wall is smooth with 2 layers, ~1.0 thick. Ovoidal sporocysts are 12.2 × 8.0 (11-13 × 7.5-9) μm, with Stieda and substieda bodies and residuum. Sporulated oocysts of the new species from N. humeralis are subspheroidal, 22.4 × 18 (21-24 × 17-20) μm, with 1-3 polar granules, but residuum and micropyle are absent. The oocyst wall is lightly sculptured with 2 layers, ~1.4 μm thick. Ovoidal sporocysts are 10.9 × 7.7 (9-12 × 6-8) μm, with Stieda body and residuum. Sporulated oocysts of E. pilarensis Scott and Duszynski, 1997 and those of at least 12 other morphological forms were seen in the other infected bats; these latter forms were seen in too few numbers to be adequately described as new species

Introduction: spiritual landscapes of Southeast Asia

This Introduction foreshadows the main themes of this special issue on spiritual landscapes of Southeast Asia. Throughout Southeast Asia, links exist between spirit beings or potent energies and particular sites in the landscape, including trees, mountains and rivers. These are highlighted in this collection of papers via the notion of 'spiritual landscapes'. This concept also broadens anthropological approaches to the religious significance of the landscape, by problematising the separation of 'natural' and 'cultural' environments while sidestepping the implication that something called 'sacred geography' can be separated from the pragmatic activities of daily life. Following an ethnographic overview of spirit-places and environmental forces in the region, I discuss our need to take more seriously the claims of many Southeast Asian people that their landscapes have agency. In the context of religious conversion, the agency of the landscape often becomes a central concern, as reformers and missionaries seek to 'purify' the environment of such spiritual power. However, in addition to 'purification', ongoing conversion may also involve new forms of conversation with the landscape, including re-enchantments, religious syntheses or reassertions of the landscape's potency