778 research outputs found
The mad dog and the Englishman : a critical history of the running amok as sponteneous naked savage : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Art in Psychology at Massey University
I began this work with the intention of writing a genealogy of amok, the Malay malaise, not long now incorporated into the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), as a culture-bound syndrome. A reading of Foucault's genealogy, and especially of its innumerable critiques, convinced me of the incompatibility of matching an approach steeped in the Western tradition with a 'syndrome' of a people who were long colonised by this West. Foucault's conceptualization, and attributions, of power were also instrumental in my rejection of his incitement to 'write genealogies' (Sawicki, 1991; p. 15), as a method of resisting the 'often oppressive rationalities of discourse in the human sciences' (Lash, 1991; p. 259). In departing from the genealogical approach I have also gravitated to a postcolonial critique of the writing of the Malay and his amok, which I consider to be far more compatible, given his/ her colonisation by a succession of European imperial powers. Not coincidentally, as he is one of Foucault's most vehement critics, I have refracted this critical history of amok through Edward Said's secular-ethical working of the postcolonial thesis. This is my attempt to avoid what Said views to be the 'retreat of intellectual work' from the 'actual society in which it works' (Ashcroft, 2003; p. 264), and into 'the 'labyrinth of textuality' constructed out of 'the mystical and disinfected matter of literary theory' where a 'precious jargon has advanced' (Said, 1983; p. 4). I have then very deliberately attempted to minimise this 'precious jargon' to make this work more accessible. I have not included a literature review in this work and instead furnish the excuse that it is (this work) a literature review of sorts. It is a literary critique of the historical writing of the Malay and his malaise. A final word concerns the likely controversial use of the term, the 'White Man', which reprises a longstanding, and antagonistic, racial dichotomy which I and many others believe to be fundamental to 'modern' history. Though I explain my use of this term in my work, I make my sincere apologies to those who feel aggrieved with my continual reference to the 'White Man'. At times I have felt as aggrieved but, in considering various alternatives, could not in all honesty disregard the only too apparent authority this self-proclaimed 'White Man' has exerted on history, and more particularly, in the context of this thesis, on the Malay World
Impact of technology on Indian fisheries
The large increase in world output from fisheries and its increased use as food by people all over the world have been the result of successful application of newer knowledge in fisheries technology. The paper deals with some of the important fields in which modern technology has influenced the course of events in the development of Indian fisheries
Viewpoints: The Ongoing Dialogue
Dialogue is more than a flippant or merely well-intentioned conversation. And the Hindu Christian Dialogue, in the present state of affairs, demands both a deep experience of one\u27s own tradition and a sufficient knowledge of the other one. We do not begin anew. This dialogue is not of yesterday. It requires a certain knowledge of what has already happened. The history of this Encounter has a loaded karma
L'APOSTA DE PASCAL
Si fos un artista us contaria una història: ja història de l'intel
·lectual, per no dir d'un comerciant o d'un pagès, que havent llegit Pascal, aquell filòsof francès del segle disset, i veient-ne la «racionalitat» de l'aposta, va decidir de seguir-la..
The Methodic of Hindu-Christian Studies
After more than half a century struggling to find my own identity just following the universal sapiential counsel of knowing oneself , whereby the self is not just the individual, the new editor of the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies has put to me the most difficult question to answer in words: Where do I now stand? . Aware that there are no stupid questions but certainly silly answers, I take the risk of summarizing my perhaps too many writings on this topic in these few pages, as a tribute to the magnificent task of this Journal, which is a practical example that splendid isolation is no longer possible. The Body of God , to use a South Indian expression, spreads everywhere -- as also most Christians would agree. Ultimately, all my writings are autobiographic -- not about myself, but trying to give voice to the self
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