A Goddess with Bird’s Claws: An Exploration of the Image of Magu

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is an intelligent and well-researched essays that offers important contributions to the fields of art history and religious studies. I did catch some typos, especially in terms of the formatting at the end of sentences. There should always only be one period per sentence, never two, so watch out for that. And also watch out for spacing. Be sure to read through carefully before publication. 

Overall, the quality of English language is good. 

Author Response

Thanks to your instructive suggestions, I have reworked the manuscript and corrected the typos in it, and made changes in the typography. 

Reviewer 2 Report

The article tries to explain the development of the goddess Magu arguing that in the first phase, Magu was a reflection of the Neolithic beliefs because of its bird features, and in the second phase, the image of Magu was transformed due to ideological influence of Daoism. While the second part of the argument seems reasonable, the first, appears somewhat weak. I would like to see more robust discussion about the bird goddesses in the Neolithic period that would hopefully strengthen the main argument as well as more academic references to the Neolithic goddess studies, and not only to the works of Gimbutas, which are already outdated. 

The following changes need to be carried out: 

16, “has believed to be immortal” change to has believed to embody 

50, change “archeological vision” to archeological perspective 

59, “which has a brief summary”, change to has a brief summary of Magu’s hands, as follows:

70, “there are also many words”, change to there are also many adjectives

71, “the criteria are white, soft, and pointed”, change to: the ideal hands should be white, soft, etc.

72, generally speaking? Clarify, according to Chinese perception? Certainly, the comparison between the bird’s toes and human hands is unheard of in Western and other Asian cultures. 

77, “based on the image of Magu, her status as a female immortal”, change to her image assumed the status of a female immortal

119, the goddess of fertility, the goddess of fertility, repetition, please delete one. 

143, The syntax is off, please correct  to but the hands of Magu that are similar to the feet of a bird and can scratch

155, “he believed” change to where he stated that the sense of touch

157, change to imagines scratching his own itch using Magu’s long, thin…. 

English requires minor corrections, as indicated to the author 

Author Response

    Thanks to your instructive suggestions, I have rewritten the manuscript, citing much of the relevant literature on Neolithic bird goddesses in the first part of the article, and, in the manuscript, I have removed the references to the writings of Gimbutas.

    I have corrected all of the changes you suggested that needed to be made in my original manuscript, especially with regard to place 72、where you suggested, "Generally speaking? Clarify, according to Chinese perception? Certainly, the comparison between the bird’s toes and human hands is unheard of in Western and other Asian cultures." In the original manuscript, I gave descriptions of human hands compared to bird feet, which have been removed in the revised manuscript. In addition, after the manuscript was revised, I had it revised again by a teacher who specializes in teaching English writing.

Reviewer 3 Report

Apart from sprucing of language required at places (for instance line 16 itself), the paper remains largely descriptive and premised on general attributes regarding matriarchy/patriarchy; forms of gods/goddesses etc. It can be improved by a more strongly stated conclusion that ties together all that is attempted to be stated in the paper. 

Sprucing of language required at places (for instance line 16 itself).

Author Response

    I appreciate your instructive suggestions, and I have rewritten the manuscript and made a theoretical analysis of some descriptive phenomena.

    After the manuscript was revised, I also gave it to a teacher who specializes in teaching English writing. In response to this manuscript, he revised the manuscript in terms of English language modification.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report