Comprendo que están Vds. hartos del Covid-19 y de Mascarillas, Vacunas, Pautas, Cierres Primetrales e Incidencias Acumuladas. Más que yo, no. Y sin embargo les ofrezco más información al respecto, en tres fases para no agobiarles. Primero: tres recomendaciones nada más—una conferencia, un artículo y un vídeo. Es información esencial—…[Read more]

English abstract: ‘Verses of Love’, an Islamic film on the extended couple, features a melodramatic plot in which love triumphs after many difficulties, and the virtuous protagonists Fahri and Aisha are happy in their marriage, having shown the value of their Islamic faith amidst the trials of life—accepting these with sumbission, which is the s…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: La cibernética, la neurología, la semiótica y la narratología han de emprender conjuntamente el estudio interdisciplinar de la consciencia entendida como la circulación retroalimentativa compleja entre distintos sistemas y circuitos cerebrales—así como entre distintas modalidades de representación en el cerebro. Se entender…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: ‘Modernidad Líquida’ de Zygmunt Bauman ofrece perspectivas iluminadoras para la interpretación de muchos fenómenos característicos de cultura y la economía del siglo XXI. Leemos a su luz la política de endeudamiento y déficit sistemático de los estados nacionales, y en concreto de España, promovida en años recientes por el establ…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: La película ‘Contagio’ (dir. Steven Soderbergh, 2011) pertenece al género ‘catástrofe – multiprotagonista’, aquí potenciado por varias circunstancias. La catástrofe es mundial y creíble, una epidemia de una gripe mortífera, como la Peste Negra, o como la Peste Escarlata de Jack London. Y la catástrofe se difunde por las relacione…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: Comentarios sobre la guerra desde un punto de vista etológico y evolucionista, sugeridos por el libro de Javier Falgueras ‘Somos Hijos de la Guerra’. _________________________________________________________________________________ English abstract: Disquisitions on war from an ethological and evolutionary perspective, suggested…[Read more]

How else can we grow out of the complacency of the familiar but to seek the unfamiliar? We remember that it has been common practice for artists to be inspired by outside sources in their quests for maximum beauty and truth. My impulse is not to appropriate nor to commercialize that imagery, but through it, with reverence, to expand our capacity…[Read more]

Poland has been recognized as important in the widespread migration of the Vikings, yet subject to little theoretical inquiry. I became particularly interested in the ways in which the Vikings in Poland understood and negotiated their world. To my knowledge, nobody has drawn together the pan-European evidence about the image of the two mythical…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: El inmaterialismo del siglo XVIII nos enseñó que el mundo que habitamos no es de naturaleza física sino básicamente informacional o semiótica. Yendo más allá del constructivismo psicológico y de la fenomenología, nos sugieren Berkeley y otros que el mundo es una construcción mental—que habitamos, sin sospecharlo, en una realida…[Read more]

The article uses Eric Voegelin’s ontology to address domestic processes in contemporary Ukraine. It explains how interpretations of experiences of history and transcendence evoke political order and justice. It also outlines the nature of political symbols deriving from these experiences. The article argues that Ukraine’s social architecture is…[Read more]

A note on the existential significance of Miguel de Unamuno’s metafiction. His novels question the ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ which is the bedrock of workaday human reality. (A retropost from 2011).

The paper presents for the first time to the public some wooden fragments of an ancient Egyptian ‘mummy cover’, kept in the ‘Egyptian Corner’ of the University of Pavia Archaeology Museum (Italy). The fragments, belonging to an original ancient Egyptian artefact which dates back to the end of the New Kingdom, are here published after a restora…[Read more]

We offer an archaeological analysis of the visual display of “space heroes” and Orthodox icons in the Russian Zvezda module of the International Space Station (ISS). This study is the first systematic investigation of material culture at a site in space. The ISS has now been continuously inhabited for 20 years. Here, focusing on the period 200…[Read more]

We offer an archaeological analysis of the visual display of “space heroes” and Orthodox icons in the Russian Zvezda module of the International Space Station (ISS). This study is the first systematic investigation of material culture at a site in space. The ISS has now been continuously inhabited for 20 years. Here, focusing on the period 200…[Read more]

A bibliographical listing, including audio, video, etc., from the perspective of critical and cultural studies, on the 2020-2021 SARS-CoV-2 pandemic scare (Coronavirus, COVID-19). From ‘A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology’, 2021.

Spanish abstract: Los paleantropólogos de Atapuerca van descubriendo más datos sobre la alimentación de los Homo heidelbergensis y Homo antecessor que habitaron la Península Ibérica antes del Homo sapiens y de los neandertales. Aquí reflexionamos sobre el componente de canibalismo en la dieta de estos y otros humanos primitivos… así como de alg…[Read more]

A 12-page paper illustrating the likely presence, in geoglyph form, of a probably long-established cult art form in the UK, as elsewhere.

The aim of space archaeology is to understand the interaction of technology and human behaviour in off-Earth environments. This paper presents the methodology and results of the first archaeological study focused on human habitation in outer space. The International Space Station (ISS) is the only extant, continuously-occupied location in space,…[Read more]

The aim of space archaeology is to understand the interaction of technology and human behaviour in off-Earth environments. This paper presents the methodology and results of the first archaeological study focused on human habitation in outer space. The International Space Station (ISS) is the only extant, continuously-occupied location in space,…[Read more]

Space archaeology is defined as the study of “the material culture relevant to space exploration that is found on Earth and in outer space (i.e., exoatmospheric material) and that is clearly the result of human behavior” (Gorman & O’Leary 2013: 409). The aim of space archaeology is to understand the interaction of technology and human behav…[Read more]