The Contribution of Catholic Orthodoxy to Caribbean Syncretism: The Case of la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre in Cuba

La politique de l’empire espagnol pendant la période baroque reposait sur deux définitions de l’espace : l’espace local, celui où la nation était célébrée à travers une série de coutumes et de traditions ; et l’espace global, celui où le catholicisme et son défenseur, la Couronne d’Espagne, protégeait les diverses nations présentes contre les forces de division incarnées par l’hérésie et le rationalisme. La dévotion à la madone cubaine, Notre Dame de la Charité d’El Cobre, se développe pendant la période baroque espagnole. L’auteur affirme qu’à cette époque, la chrétienté s’efforce de « lier entre eux des groupes appartenant à des classes sociales et à des races différentes », grâce, notamment, à la dévotion mariale. Le syncrétisme consiste dans le fait que, plutôt que de faire correspondre, pour un même ensemble de rites et de symboles religieux, un système de sens propre à chacun des deux groupes antagonistes, on se trouve en présence d’un système de sens transculturel. Une fusion a été opérée entre le local et des origines raciales mélangées. Cette Vierge étant une sainte patronne nationale commune à tous les Cubains, quelle que soit leur race et leur origine, ce syncrétisme aurait incité les pratiquants des religions afro-cubaines à adopter Notre Dame de la Charité en lui attribuant une identité d’Ochun Yoruba. Ce processus syncrétique d’africanisation d’une Vierge catholique cubaine aurait eu pour effet symétrique de « cubaniser » une religion africaine. Se référant à Mikhail Bakhtin (1986) l’auteur pose la question : s’agit-il seulement d’un cas de syncrétisme monologique, où chaque religion, chrétienne ou africaine, n’absorbe que quelques bribes de l’autre, ou ne s’agirait-il pas plutôt d’un syncrétisme dialogique où l’échange serait multilatéral ?The polity of the Spanish Empire during the baroque period rested on two definitions of place: the local, where nationality was celebrated by a plethora of customs and traditions; and the global, where Catholicism and its defender the Spanish Crown, protected the assorted nationalities from the divisive forces of heresy and rationalism. The devotion towards the Cuban madonna, Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, develops during the baroque period of Spanish history. I maintain that during the baroque, Christianity “knit together disparate class and racial groups” particularly by developing a Marian devotionalism. In other words, instead of merely two different coded meanings for the same set of religious rites and symbols corresponding to two antagonistic classes as proof of syncretism, can we find an example of syncretism in one transculturated meaning. There was a fusion of local place with mixed racial background. Since this madonna is a national patron for all Cubans of all racial origins, syncretism has led practioners of Afro-Cuban religions to incorporate Our Lady of Charity under the identity as the Yoruba Ochun. In the process of making the Cuban Catholic Virgin African, this syncretism also makes the African religion Cuban. We may perhaps invoke Mikhail Bakhtin (1986) and ask if we have not only a case of monological syncretism, wherein Christianity or African religions talk past each other in order to absorb only bits and pieces from each other, but also a dialogical syncretism in which the exchanges go in several directions.La política del imperio español durante el período barroco se basaba en dos definiciones del espacio: el espacio local donde se celebraba la nación por medio de una serie de costumbres ytradiciones; yel espacio global, donde le catolicismo ysu defensor, la Corona de España, protegían a las distintas naciones presentes contra las fuerzas de división representadas por la herejía yel racionalismo. La devoción a la madona cubana, Nuestra Señora de la Cardidad d’el Cobre, se desarrolla durante el período barroco español. El autor sostiene que en esa época, la cristiandad se esfuerza por « crear lazos entre grupos pertenecientes a clases sociales yrazas diferentes », sobre todo a través del culto a la Virgen María. Más que hacer corresponder a un mismo conjunto de ritos ysímbolos reliogosos, un sistema de significados propio a cada uno de los grupos antagónicos, con el sincretismo estamos en presencia de un sistema de significados transcultural. Una síntesis se operó entre lo local yorígenes raciales mestizados. Siendo esta Virgen una santa patrona nacional común a todos los cubanos, independientemente de su raza yorígen, este sincretismo habría favorecido la adopción de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad por los practicantes de las religiones afro-cubanas, atribuyéndole una identidad de Ochun Yoruba. Este proceso sincréto de africanización de una Virgen católica cubana, habría tenido un efecto simétrico: « cubanizar » una religión africana. Refiriéndose a Mikhail Bakhtin (1986) el autor plantea esta pregunta: se trata simplemente de un caso de sincretismo monológico, en el que cada religión, cristiana o africana, sólo absorbe algunos rasgos de la otra, o se tratoría más bien de un sincretismo dialógo en el que el intercambio sería multilateral

Investigation of late Pleistocene and early Holocene palaeoenvironmental change at El Mirón cave (Cantabria, Spain): insights from carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of red deer

Abstract: El Mirón Cavewas occupied by humans for over 40,000 years. Evidence of LateMousterian,Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian, Azilian, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Mediaeval occupations has been found in the cave. Understanding the local environmental conditions during the occupations is crucial for gaining an insight into the lifeways of El Mirón's inhabitants as they relied on the surrounding region and its natural resources for their subsistence. 170 bones of hunted red deer recovered from the cave were sampled for carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses with the aim of reconstructing the palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate during the human occupation. The results show that the surrounding landscape underwent considerable environmental change during the Late Pleistocene and Early to Mid-Holocene. Shifts in d13C values between the Last Glacial Maximum, Heinrich stadial 1, Heinrich event 1, the Late-glacial interstadial and the onset of the Holocene are likely to reflect changes in water availability and temperature. Deer d15N generally increased over time indicating the regeneration of soil biological activity and nitrogen cycling, which was temporarily halted during the Younger Dryas. Comparison of the El Mirón results with those of 300 deer from other regions of Europe shows geographical variations in the timing and magnitude of the variation in d13C and d15N values. This variation tracks local climate (temperature andwater availability) and environmental (vegetation and forest development) change

Neanderthals on the Lower Danube: Middle Palaeolithic evidence in the Danube Gorges of the Balkans

The article presents evidence about the Middle Palaeolithic and Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition interval in the karst area of the Danube Gorges in the Lower Danube Basin. We review the extant data and present new evidence from two recently investigated sites found on the Serbian side of the Danube River – Tabula Traiana and Dubočka-Kozja caves. The two sites have yielded layers dating to both the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic and have been investigated by the application of modern standards of excavation and recovery along with a suite of state-of-the-art analytical procedures. The presentation focuses on micromorphological analyses of the caves’ sediments, characterisation of cryptotephra, a suite of new radiometric dates (accelerator mass spectrometry and optically stimulated luminescence) as well as proteomics (zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry) and stable isotope data in discerning patterns of human occupation of these locales over the long term

Neanderthals on the Lower Danube: Middle Palaeolithic evidence in the Danube Gorges of the Balkans

The article presents evidence about the Middle Palaeolithic and Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition interval in the karst area of the Danube Gorges in the Lower Danube Basin. We review the extant data and present new evidence from two recently investigated sites found on the Serbian side of the Danube River – Tabula Traiana and Dubočka-Kozja caves. The two sites have yielded layers dating to both the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic and have been investigated by the application of modern standards of excavation and recovery along with a suite of state-of-the-art analytical procedures. The presentation focuses on micromorphological analyses of the caves’ sediments, characterisation of cryptotephra, a suite of new radiometric dates (accelerator mass spectrometry and optically stimulated luminescence) as well as proteomics (zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry) and stable isotope data in discerning patterns of human occupation of these locales over the long term

Slogging and Stumbling Toward Social Justice in a Private Elementary School: The Complicated Case of St. Malachy

This case study examines St. Malachy, an urban Catholic elementary school primarily serving children traditionally marginalized by race, class, linguistic heritage, and disability. As a private school, St. Malachy serves the public good by recruiting and retaining such traditionally marginalized students. As empirical studies involving Catholic schools frequently juxtapose them with public schools, the author presents this examination from a different tack. Neither vilifying nor glorifying Catholic schooling, this study critically examines the pursuit of social justice in this school context. Data gathered through a 1-year study show that formal and informal leaders in St. Malachy adapted their governance, aggressively sought community resources, and focused their professional development to build the capacity to serve their increasingly pluralistic student population. The analysis confirms the deepening realization that striving toward social justice is a messy, contradictory, and complicated pursuit, and that schools in both public and private sectors are allies in this pursuit

Promised Land? Immigration, Religiosity, and Space in Southern California

This article looks at how immigrants and their supporters appropriate and use religious space and other public spaces for religious and socio-political purposes in Southern California. While the everyday living conditions of many immigrants, particularly the unauthorized Latino immigrants, force unto them an embodied disciplinarity that maintains spatialities of restricted citizenship, the public appropriations of space for and through religious practices allow for them -even if only momentarily -to express an embodied transgression. This practice in public space helps realize spaces of freedom and hope, however ephemerally. Potentially, these rehearsing exercises can help revert internalized disempowering subjectivities and create social empowerment. Negative stereotypes about immigrants held by the larger public can also be challenged through these spatial practices, as the public demonstrations make visible the invisible. We focus on “Posadas Without Borders” and “the New Sanctuary Movement,” considering both the role of progressive civic and religious institutions in supporting immigrants and the agency of the immigrants themselves. The theoretical analysis builds on concepts drawn from a conversation between geography and religious and theological studies. We use a triangulated methodological approach that includes observation and participant observation, content-analysis of multimedia, interviews, and intellectual advocacy for the immigrant movement. The cases discussed here show that progressive religious groups and coalitions can be important allies to progressive planners, geographers, and policy makers in advancing social and environmental justice for the disenfranchised. They also show that the theological underpinnings of such groups share a lot in common with planning epistemologies for the just city

Changing environments during the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in the eastern Cantabrian Region (Spain): direct evidence from stable isotope studies on ungulate bones

Environmental change has been proposed as a factor that contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals in Europe during MIS3. Currently, the different local environmental conditions experienced at the time when Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) met Neanderthals are not well known. In the Western Pyrenees, particularly, in the eastern end of the Cantabrian coast of the Iberian Peninsula, extensive evidence of Neanderthal and subsequent AMH activity exists, making it an ideal area in which to explore the palaeoenvironments experienced and resources exploited by both human species during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. Red deer and horse were analysed using bone collagen stable isotope analysis to reconstruct environmental conditions across the transition. A shift in the ecological niche of horses after the Mousterian demonstrates a change in environment, towards more open vegetation, linked to wider climatic change. In the Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian, high inter-individual nitrogen ranges were observed in both herbivores. This could indicate that these individuals were procured from areas isotopically different in nitrogen. Differences in sulphur values between sites suggest some variability in the hunting locations exploited, reflecting the human use of different parts of the landscape. An alternative and complementary explanation proposed is that there were climatic fluctuations within the time of formation of these archaeological levels, as observed in pollen, marine and ice cores.This research was funded by the European Commission through a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (FP7- PEOPLE-2012-CIG-322112), by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (HAR2012-33956 and Ramon y Cajal-2011-00695), the University of Cantabria and Campus International to ABMA. Radiocarbon dating at ORAU was funded by MINECO-HAR2012-33956 project. J.J was supported initially by the FP7- PEOPLE-2012-CIG-322112 and later by a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014-656122). Laboratory work, associated research expenses and isotopic analysis were kindly funded by the Max Planck Society to M.R

Reproductive Ecology and Severe Pollen Limitation in the Polychromic Tundra Plant, Parrya nudicaulis (Brassicaceae)

Pollen limitation is predicted to be particularly severe in tundra habitats. Numerous reproductive patterns associated with alpine and arctic species, particularly mechanisms associated with reproductive assurance, are suggested to be driven by high levels of pollen limitation. We studied the reproductive ecology of Parrya nudicaulis, a species with relatively large sexual reproductive investment and a wide range of floral pigmentation, in tundra habitats in interior montane Alaska to estimate the degree of pollen limitation. The plants are self-compatible and strongly protandrous, setting almost no seed in the absence of pollinators. Supplemental hand pollinations within pollinator exclusion cages indicated no cage effect on seed production. Floral visitation rates were low in both years of study and particularly infrequent in 2010. A diversity of insects visited P. nudicaulis, though syrphid and muscid flies composed the majority of all visits. Pollen-ovule ratios and levels of heterozygosity are consistent with a mixed mating system. Pollen limitation was severe; hand pollinations increased seed production per plant five-fold. Seed-to-ovule ratios remained low following hand pollinations, indicating resource limitation is likely to also be responsible for curtailing seed set. We suggest that pollen limitation in P. nudicaulis may be the result of selection favoring an overproduction of ovules as a bet-hedging strategy in this environmental context of highly variable pollen receipt

Estimating Trends of Population Decline in Long-Lived Marine Species in the Mediterranean Sea Based on Fishers' Perceptions

We conducted interviews of a representative sample of 106 retired fishers in Italy, Spain and Greece, asking specific questions about the trends they perceived in dolphin and shark abundances between 1940 and 1999 (in three 20 year periods) compared to the present abundance. The large marine fauna studied were not target species of the commercial fleet segment interviewed (trawl fishery). The fishers were asked to rank the perceived abundance in each period into qualitative ordinal classes based on two indicators: frequency of sightings and frequency of catches (incidental or intentional) of each taxonomic group. The statistical analysis of the survey results showed that both incidental catches and the sighting frequency of dolphins have decreased significantly over the 60+ years of the study period (except for in Greece due to the recent population increase). This shows that fishers' perceptions are in agreement with the declining population trends detected by scientists. Shark catches were also perceived to have diminished since the early 1940s for all species. Other long-lived Mediterranean marine fauna (monk seals, whales) were at very low levels in the second half of the 20th century and no quantitative data could be obtained. Our study supports the results obtained in the Mediterranean and other seas that show the rapid disappearance (over a few decades) of marine fauna. We show that appropriately designed questionnaires help provide a picture of animal abundance in the past through the valuable perceptions of fishers. This information can be used to complement scientific sources or in some cases be taken as the only information source for establishing population trends in the abundance of sensitive species

An Ontological Approach to Inform HMI Designs for Minimizing Driver Distractions with ADAS

ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) are in-vehicle systems designed to enhance driving safety and efficiency as well as comfort for drivers in the driving process. Recent studies have noticed that when Human Machine Interface (HMI) is not designed properly, an ADAS can cause distraction which would affect its usage and even lead to safety issues. Current understanding of these issues is limited to the context-dependent nature of such systems. This paper reports the development of a holistic conceptualisation of how drivers interact with ADAS and how such interaction could lead to potential distraction. This is done taking an ontological approach to contextualise the potential distraction, driving tasks and user interactions centred on the use of ADAS. Example scenarios are also given to demonstrate how the developed ontology can be used to deduce rules for identifying distraction from ADAS and informing future designs