Search Results (604)

This study examines how Black women navigate spiritual widowhood and cosmological disinheritance in contemporary America through the biblical figure of Ruth. Employing what I call a critical embodied epistemology (CEE)—a womanist methodology integrating Hortense Spillers’ hieroglyphics of the flesh, Michel Foucault’s genealogical analysis, and Emilie Townes’ ethical reimagination—this article analyzes Ruth’s transgressive movements as a template for sacred belonging beyond State-sanctioned citizenship. Against the backdrop of reproductive rights rollbacks, voting restrictions, and the political rejection of Black women’s leadership, the research reveals how African-descended cosmology offers alternative frameworks for community, covenant, and citizenship. Findings demonstrate that Ruth’s embodied risk on the threshing floor models what I term “faith in the fracture”—an insurgent spirituality that refuses to tether sacred belonging to empire. The study contributes to womanist theology, political theology, and diaspora studies by theorizing sacred citizenship as relational rather than national, and by centering embodied knowledge as theological epistemology. Implications include reconceptualizing belonging for all marginalized communities navigating displacement, State abandonment, and cosmological rupture. Full article

Recent advances in forensic genetics are rapidly transforming the field from traditional DNA profiling toward integrative and predictive genomic approaches. While short tandem repeat (STR)-based typing remains the gold standard for human identification, emerging technologies such as massively parallel sequencing (MPS), forensic genetic genealogy (FGG), and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven bioinformatics are expanding the scope of forensic investigations, with MPS also widely established in clinical genomics, further supporting its application in complex and unresolved cases. This article presents a structured narrative and conceptual review of next-generation forensic genomics, based on selected peer-reviewed studies, technical guidelines, and recent review articles relevant to MPS-based marker analysis, FGG, DNA phenotyping, ancestry inference, AI-supported bioinformatics, validation, and ethical/legal issues. We discuss the transition from STRs to single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and microhaplotypes enabled by MPS, emphasizing their applications in mixture deconvolution, kinship analysis, and degraded DNA samples. The role of FGG in cold case resolution is examined, alongside methodological, legal, and ethical considerations related to the use of public genetic databases. Furthermore, we explore recent developments in DNA phenotyping and ancestry inference, focusing on predictive models of externally visible characteristics (EVCs) and their forensic utility. Particular attention is given to the growing impact of AI and machine learning in data interpretation, probabilistic genotyping, and pattern recognition across complex genomic datasets. Finally, we address current limitations, including technical standardization, population biases, data privacy concerns, and the need for robust validation frameworks. Rather than providing a systematic review, this work aims to synthesize current developments into an operational framework for integrated forensic genomics, distinguishing forensic intelligence, probabilistic interpretation, confirmatory testing, and evidentiary use. By integrating technological, analytical, and ethical perspectives, this review proposes a conceptual framework for integrated forensic genomics, in which genomic data are used not only for identification but also for forensic intelligence generation. Full article

Many studies of human migration focus on modern issues such as economics, politics, urbanization, and commuting. Here, we seek foundational patterns by using very large genealogies to measure migration centuries before modern technologies or census data became available. In Europe and North America from 1400 to 1950 we find two distinct patterns of internal lifetime migration: in most locations and eras we find “steady-state” migration with a power–law distribution of migration distance. A very different “frontier” distribution appears suddenly in North America after 1740; it is not a simple power law and has much longer average distances. All datasets (both patterns) are well fit by a three-parameter model; the temporal and geographic patterns of the fitted parameters give new insight to American internal expansion 1620–1950. In addition, we find that frontier migration is highly directional and asymmetric; gravity models do not apply. The American frontier pattern arises from the colonial-era steady-state within two generations, plateaus, and then returns to a more mobile steady-state. This frontier pattern is enabled by large-scale technological or numeric imbalance and geographic opportunity; when these forces abate, a new steady-state begins. Full article

This study examines women’s marginalization and agency in We Need New Names by situating the novel within broader frameworks of transnational genealogies, spatial politics, and colonial migration legacies. Utilizing Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA), based on Lazar’s gender ideology and discourse approach in (de)constructing gender identities and gender equality, along with Homi K. Bhabha’s Third Space Theory, this study analyses how diaspora displacement and colonial past influence gendered identities. Through a qualitative and interpretive analysis of select textual episodes, the study reveals how spatial displacement, linguistic fragmentation, and cultural hybridity both inhibit and facilitate female empowerment. Women counter marginalization using everyday tactics such as silence, storytelling, embodied resistance, and discursive bargaining, turning marginal spaces into spaces of resistance. This paper makes a theoretical contribution to migration studies, spatial inequality, and decolonization by exploring gendered identities in transnational and postcolonial settings. Full article

As a typical representative of traditional architecture in western Sichuan, the construction techniques of traditional Tibetan dwellings carry profound cultural significance. However, with the continuous advancement of urbanization, these dwellings face multiple challenges, including the loss of traditional construction methods, functional obsolescence, and stylistic deviation. In response, the systematic study of the architectural genealogy of traditional Tibetan dwellings and their modernization has become an urgent academic issue. This study focuses on Ganzi and Aba, the two major Tibetan settlement areas in western Sichuan, conducting field surveys across 21 counties, 31 typical villages, and 161 traditional Tibetan dwellings. It systematically analyzes the building techniques of these dwellings and identifies recurrent typological features. On this basis, the paper interprets three principal regionalized constructive patterns through a genealogy-oriented analytical framework. The resulting framework provides an evidence-based foundation for conservation planning and context-sensitive contemporary translation. This research not only offers operational methods and theoretical support for the preservation of Tibetan architecture, but also proposes principles and strategies. Full article

Within the context of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), this study draws on a Web of Science dataset (n = 815, 1991–2025) and employs a mixed approach combining scientometric mapping with framework analysis and tool comparison. It systematically reviews the knowledge structure, methodological evolution, and tool genealogy of Campus Sustainability Assessment (CSA). The results reveal a paradigmatic shift from an operations-oriented focus to a whole-of-institution and impact-oriented perspective. Representative tools can be grouped into five categories by purpose—improvement-oriented, ranking and benchmarking, education and curriculum, standards and certification, and policy advocacy and recognition—and can be mapped onto the four domains of governance, academics, operations, and engagement in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Synthesizing quantitative and qualitative evidence, three systemic shortcomings are identified: excessive reliance on self-reporting with limited verification, insufficient evidence of learning outcomes and key competencies, and weak interoperability of indicators across educational stages and frameworks. Looking ahead, four actionable research pathways are proposed: (1) assessment of key competencies centered on learning outcomes with stronger curriculum–practice alignment; (2) policy–indicator interoperability and vertical integration grounded in SDGs and national or sectoral standards; (3) stakeholder co-design enabling an assessment–improvement loop; and (4) remote-sensing-based multi-scale monitoring and data governance. The contribution of this study lies in advancing a unified four-domain framework under a process–outcome–impact evidence chain, while suggesting cross-stage and cross-tool alignment and complementarity. This provides methodological support and an implementation roadmap for shifting CSA from measuring performance to empowering improvement. Full article

The ongoing academic debate on interpreting the disenchantment and re-enchantment of modern society remains unresolved. This study traces the theoretical genealogies of enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment, proposing that enchantment is not a fixed concept but a dynamically evolving and reconstructed process. Focusing on sacred mountain circumambulation—a traditional pilgrimage ritual deeply entrenched in Tibetan cultural contexts—this study employs qualitative methods, conducting semi-structured interviews with 33 contemporary Tibetan youth to examine the manifestations of enchantment within this practice. Findings reveal that, against the backdrop of globalization and China’s social transformation, Tibetan youths’ circumambulation practices exhibit several emerging characteristics in organizational patterns, material preparation, modes of action, degree of ritual participation, and intergenerational differences. Within this pilgrimage activity, the process of disenchantment is evident as Tibetan youth attain higher levels of cultural and educational literacy. Traditional foundations of enchantment, such as taboos associated with sacred mountains and utilitarian motivations, persist. Simultaneously, new forms of enchantment with distinctly modern features—including topophilia and emotional value—are steadily emerging. The results suggest that disenchantment does not entail the demise of enchantment, nor does re-enchantment signify a return to traditional enchantment. Instead, sacred mountain circumambulation embodies the cognitive and perceptual process through which Tibetan youth engage with, understand, and negotiate enchantment via their individual lived experiences. This research not only uncovers the evolving significance of circumambulation in modern society but also offers a fresh perspective on how enchantment adapts and endures within contemporary contexts. Full article

Longmeizi 龍眉子 was an inheritor of the Southern Lineage of Daoism 道教南宗 under Weng Baoguang 翁葆光. By tracing the historical documentation of Longmeizi’s Daoist lineage, it becomes evident that the narrative details were continuously enriched through textual accumulation. By tracing and analyzing the formative history of documents related to Longmeizi’s Daoist lineage, it is evident that in the process of forming this Daoist lineage, lineage identity 宗派認同 was continuously solidified and even “labeled 標籤化” within these layered texts. The transmission genealogy between patriarchs across generations gradually became clear, definite, and verifiable. After Longmeizi compiled the Jinye Huandan Yinzheng Tu 金液還丹印證圖 (Illustrations of the Return of the Liquified Gold to the Cinnabar Field) from the Jiading period (1208–1224) of the Southern Song Dynasty to the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, this book was initially transmitted within the Daoist lineage: Longmeizi → Bai Yuchan 白玉蟾 → Wang Jinchan 王金蟾. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, a literatus named Yuanyangzi Lin Jing 元阳子林静 from Wuxing 吴兴 had also read this book. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the mode of transmission for the Jinye Huandan Yinzheng Tu shifted from being primarily transmitted orally within Daoist circles to being primarily disseminated through the printing and circulation of books. This led to the emergence of many different versions and commentaries of the Jinye Huandan Yinzheng Tu. Through the compilation and printing of book series, the Jinye Huandan Yinzheng Tu gained broad circulation during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Its annotators, publishers, and readers spanned various identities and social classes, while its geographic reach extended to the Central Plains (Zhongyuan 中原), Southwest China, and Jiangnan regions. By examining the textual circulation history of the Jinye Huandan Yinzheng Tu, it can be observed that the development of the book printing industry during the Ming and Qing periods, particularly the flourishing of series publications, facilitated a shift in the primary mode of transmission for Daoist texts and even in the nature of the texts themselves. On the other hand, the case study of the Jinye huandan yinzheng tu is an example that illustrates the diversity and richness in the methods of Daoist cultural transmission and their development during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Full article

Digital tectonics is often discussed through design–production integration, computational form generation, and digital fabrication, yet frameworks that systematically explain how architectural knowledge is constituted in process remain limited. This study addresses that gap by approaching digital tectonics not as an instrumental or formal design approach, but as a knowledge regime. Methodologically, it combines a conceptual–genealogical approach with an onto-methodological reading strategy grounded in Deleuze’s ontology of becoming and De Landa’s assemblage methodology and develops a core reading matrix. The study shows that knowledge in digital tectonics intensifies across potential setup, the productive threshold, behavioral stability, and feedback. Within this model, architectural making knowledge is understood not as a fixed content represented in advance, but as an operative process that concentrates decision-making within production and is reorganized through feedback. The article concludes by proposing an analytical reading model that redefines digital tectonics not merely as a technical or formal category, but as an onto-methodological problem field in which architectural knowledge is constituted in process. Full article

There is a correlation between colonial histories and contemporary migration practices, and this paper examines these transnational enduring connections. Using a qualitative thematic synthesis of existing interdisciplinary sources, this paper argues that the politics of space, migration, and identity in the present cannot be fully comprehended without tracing their colonial genealogies. The findings demonstrate that colonial migrations in all forms (forced, enslaved, or settled) formed transnational genealogies that determine who moves, who is stopped, who belongs, and who is an outsider. The paper concludes that understanding current migration politics, spatial inequalities, and identities requires an appreciation of transnational genealogies that connect the past to the present. The paper suggests that colonial history is more than a background but a framework that sets the conditions within which migration occurs today. This paper contributes to showing that family functions as a neglected site where genealogies are transmitted and contested across generations. Full article

This article advances a method of anthropological contextualization for a Christian theological reading that applies the salvation of all Israel in Rom 11:26 to the present, by comparing Paul’s first-century people categories with those of the modern world. In Rom 9–11 Paul deals with the hardened Israelites of his day—the torah-observant descendants of Jacob who rejected Jesus—distinguishing them from gentiles and from the broader category of Jews which includes proselytes. Paul envisions alternating waves of salvation between Israelites and gentiles, so that some of the hardened Israelites of his day join the remnant Israelites (those who have already believed in Jesus), together constituting all Israel—a synchronic reference to the totality of believing Israelites in Paul’s time. Tracing those first-century Israelites forward, however, is not possible: tribal genealogies were lost and Jewish communities expanded and diversified through intermarriage, conversion, and apostasy. Consequently, equating Paul’s Israelites with modern Jews as a fixed, continuous biological entity is unwarranted. Contextualized today, the expectation of all Israel’s salvation encompasses all nations, including Jews, without reconstituting Israel as a biological or national category distinct from the church. Full article

This paper reconstructs the archive of Islamic humanism as a cultural resource for Critical Psychologists, addressing the geopolitical double-bind of the global Muslim population caught between Islamophobia and fundamentalism. This living archive spans intellectual contributions to falsafa (rationalism) and tasawwuf (mysticism), from medieval thinkers like Ibn Rushd and al-Ghazali to modern figures like Mourad Wahba and Ali Shariʿati. While primarily philosophical, these contributions offer practical implications for psychosocial liberation. Utilizing a methodology of deconstructive unsilencing, the archive is positioned as both pluriversal and metaphorical. By analyzing the ideological mechanism of virtual internment, the paper proposes a praxis of learned ignorance and decolonial resistance to subvert the panoptic look of anti-humanism through the Real Gaze of Islamic humanism. This retrieval offers a materialist praxis seeking to overturn the (post)colonial triad of fundamentalism, parasitic capitalism, and postmodernism. In sum, the article argues that a genealogical consignation of Islamic humanism facilitates a transmodernity that integrates Totality with Exteriority, effectively negating both coloniality and antimodernity. Full article

This study investigates the role of naming practices as cultural repositories that preserve family, lineage, and community identity. It explores how anthroponymy encodes histories of ancestry, migration, settlement, and sociopolitical organisation in two West African societies, Dàgáárè-speaking communities and Yorùbá communities. Adopting a comparative onomastic ethnographic approach, this research analyses names among the two selected cultures. Data is drawn from interviews, school registers, attendance sheets, and cultural practices, with emphasis on how names record genealogical descent, settlement histories, occupational roles, spiritual affiliations, and ethical expectations. In Dàgáárè and Yorùbá culture, bal/baloo yoe (clan names) and lineage names identify descent from founding ancestors, document migration and settlement, mark ritual responsibilities, memorialise historical events, and regulate kinship and marriage through totemic and spiritual identities. This study argues that names in Dàgáárè- and Yorùbá-speaking societies operate as cultural texts that preserve and transmit heritage across generations. The significant implications extend to linguistics, anthropology, and heritage studies, where names can be leveraged as tools for cultural preservation and historical analysis. Full article

The paper examines the poetics of graphomania as a productive aesthetic device within the Russian literary tradition, focusing primarily on Velimir Khlebnikov and extending the analysis to figures such as Fedor Dostoevsky’s Captain Lebyadkin and real authors such as Eduard Limonov, Dmitrii Prigov, and Sasha Sokolov. Building on the article’s central insight that Khlebnikov’s “bad writing,” stylistic shifts, and violations of canonical norms constitute not a defect but a sui generis artistic strategy, the study situates these techniques within broader historical and theoretical frameworks, including the Formalist concepts of parody, junior branch, and heteroglossic subcodes of poetic culture. The article traces the way Khlebnikov’s dynamic alternation of heterogeneous linguistic, prosodic, and generic registers produces a complex, unstable but grandstanding authorial “I” aligned with the traditional figure of the poet-as-character and the culturally embedded myth of the Poet–Tsar. Furthermore, it maps a genealogy of “graphomaniac” writing from the avant-garde to postmodernism, demonstrating how later authors transform Khlebnikov’s innovations—alternately amplifying, parodying, or ironizing them. Through close readings and extensive intertextual contextualization, the article argues that graphomania functions as a critical mechanism for destabilizing aesthetic orthodoxies, exposing, performing and producing literary authority, and redefining the boundaries between norm and deviation, author and character, poetic freedom and canonical constraint. Full article

This article argues that racism did not originate with the modern invention of race but crystallized out of a much older imperial grammar that had already learned how to naturalize domination through embodied difference. Long before race emerged as a named category, ancient and medieval empires developed durable ways of converting historically produced hierarchies into features of nature, the cosmos, and divine order. Through a comparative genealogy spanning early Mesopotamian epic, Near Eastern imperial inscriptions, Egyptian visual regimes, Greek philosophy and historiography, biblical scripture, South Asian metaphysics, late antique encyclopedism, and medieval Marian devotion, the article shows how inequality was repeatedly anchored in the body, in genealogy, in geography, and in moral psychology. Across these traditions, political authority is consistently masculinized, while subordination is feminized, animalized, or rendered reproductively vulnerable. Patriarchy and racialization thus emerge as co-constitutive imperial technologies rather than as separate or sequential phenomena. Modern racism did not invent hierarchy; it rendered an ancient logic portable, inheritable, and globally scalable by fastening domination to visible human difference. By situating race within a longue durée history of empire and male domination, the article reframes contemporary debates on racism as questions of imperial continuity rather than modern deviation. Full article