At Christmas, Christians celebrate that Jesus was born on December 25 as the son of God andthe Virgin Mary. But this event is not unique. In this article, I show that the birth of Jesus hasseveral non-Christian predecessors, whereby various elements of the ritual dynamics have beenChristianized and implemented into the figure we know today as Jesus Christ.

In this essay, we share how a small, independent, academic open access (OA) press, punctum books, has survived and can maybe thrive financially, but also in terms of human quality of life dividends, in the very precarious landscape of making and funding open books. Tracing the history of the press and our bumpy road to better financial…[Read more]

The term “alchemy,” born out of early modern professional polemics among chemists, is problematic as a historical category. The present article shifts away from asking what pre-modern alchemy “really” was, to asking how medieval scholars writing in Greek and Arabic thought about the practice of treating and combining naturally occurring substan…[Read more]

The term “alchemy,” born out of early modern professional polemics among chemists, is problematic as a historical category. The present article shifts away from asking what pre-modern alchemy “really” was, to asking how medieval scholars writing in Greek and Arabic thought about the practice of treating and combining naturally occurring substan…[Read more]

Dr Farra “Our models are out reality. But our models are not reality!” That coincides with the immortal philosopher Kant who argue we do not perceive the real world – but “representations” of the real world. Similarly, Bargh – from unconscious research – emphasizes mental categories and norms/stereotypes. Jung emphasizes symbols – which he argues…[Read more]

Citizenship and the posthuman have not been often theorized together. In this paper, I want to think about their coalition both as a new episode in the efforts of politics for citizenship, including knowledge politics, and as a source of rebalancing power against governmental and corporate interests in citizenship politics. Here, I seek to address…[Read more]

According to the medical tradition, the temperament of bodies came from the balance of their primary qualities – hot, cold, dry, and moist. However, physicians associated additional sensory properties with temperament in the field of pharmacology. These sensations included taste, color, and odor, which allow an appraisal of the constitution and a…[Read more]

Criminally Insane AssassinS * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-ND

1963.11.22-12:30 * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

JUSTICE FOR ALL! * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

In his introduction to The New Testament in the Original Greek, F. J. A. Hort laid out a taxonomy of evidence for text-critical judgments that is still followed today. In addition to the external evidence pertaining to the textual affinities, dates, and provenances of manuscripts, versions, and patristic quotations, he divided the internal…[Read more]

In comics: how ancient rabbis upend “traditional” ideas of reproduction, gender, and humanity. A blog post commissioned by UC Press Blog about the book When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species.

Link: htt…[Read more]

South African universities’ use of digital technologies in learning has increased in recent years. Given that
social exposure, the context and pedagogic uses of technology influence learning expectations and
learner involvement, it is important to understand students’ experiences of the use of different
technological tools. This article emp…[Read more]

Illnesses, murders, accidents, one battle death and one suicide – a wide variety of deaths were attributed to the Holy Roman kings and emperors of the 12th to 14th centuries. This book is dedicated to the contemporary tradition of the deaths of rulers in the ‘Staufer period’, the ‘interregnum’ and the first half of the 14th century from a…[Read more]

This article compares the accounts of Pope Innocent IV’s death in Salimbene de Adam’s „Cronica“ and Matthew Paris’ „Chronica Majora“, focusing on the narrative strategies employed to ascribe a good or a bad death to the deceased through the depiction of his final hours. Each chronicler attributed different misdeeds to the pope, for which he was…[Read more]

Globally, student support mechanisms focus almost exclusively on academically ‘under-performing’
students, especially as insofar as academic development practices are concerned. This article makes a
case for a shift in approach. Using the context of one country, South Africa, we sought to better
understand the strengths that academically…[Read more]

This booklet serves as documentation and manual for the app Creative Museum, the new participatory platform of the Badisches Landesmuseum. The goal of the app is to create a digital space for debate. Museum employees, experts and citizens are invited to get into conversation with each other and share their contributions on equal terms. The topics…[Read more]

Studies on the Prussian writer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and editions of his work are abundant. Among the many outstanding chapters of his famous journey through the American tropics, the two visits to Cuba (1800–1801/1804) stand out as a particular case. To this day very few original documents are known about his actual visits, the c…[Read more]

Se revisa y discute el concepto de edición digital académica (EDA), así como las diversas denominaciones empleadas para hacer referencia a la misma. El estudio indaga en el alcance de los estándares de calidad planteados para este tipo de edición y explora los softwares para la publicación. Se completa el trabajo con un análisis evaluativo de una…[Read more]