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AbstractReligion in our world is not just a contested category, it is also one which does political work, having implications for the distribution of power in society. Classifying social action and symbols as religion or as something else, above all culture or spirituality, has political implications and is used to carry out political struggles. Starting from two concrete contemporary examples drawn from the Canadian context having to do with smudging and the crucifix, the article argues that the historical form that religion has taken functioned in earlier modern centuries as a way of favourably distributing power to religion's carriers; but that with the progressive development of secular forms of power, religion has progressively been moving towards become a form that is mostly neutral in terms of social power distribution but can also be a source of power loss, these through interrelated processes of privatization, pluralization, and voluntarization. In current circumstances, therefore, in order for what is or was religious form to preserve or regain its erstwhile function for privileged power distribution, one sees attempts in various instances to dissolve religion into other categories and forms; here the prime instances are (national) culture and (instrumental) spirituality. If this process continues and counter-movements do not succeed, then this points to the progressive deinstitutionalisation of religion in the future, its dissolution into collective culture and personal spirituality, while maintaining its religious form in smaller local and transnational organizations and movements.

This paper discusses Khalid Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns and Qaisra Shahraz's novel Typhoon as social commentaries on the socio-cultural oppressive structures both established and perpetuated by patriarchy, and by patriarchal interpretations of religion to subordinate and victimise women in Pakistani and Afghani societies. The paper also examines these texts as narratives of confession, unfolding crimes and injustices as committed in the name of religion and culture against weak and vulnerable members of the society. Both of these narratives, as forms of confession, voice through, not only their female characters but also men, that ‗the sacred' is an effective patriarchal apparatus centred on justifying male control and dominance while denying basic human rights to women, thus relegating them to a secondary position. Through a critical examination of centuries-old socio-cultural norms, which have achieved the status of ‗sacred' in such societies, these texts reveal various practices of domestic and structural violence through which the sins of injustice, cruelty, oppression and victimisation of women in the name of culture and religion are justified and exercised in daily life. Both Typhoon and A Thousand Splendid Suns, as narratives of confession, document emotional, psychological, physical, sexual and structural violence committed against women and voice resistance against the oppressive social practices of their respective societies. As narratives of confession, these two texts authenticate the truth presented in the form of fiction.

Heat stroke (HS) is an ancient illness dating back more than 2000 years and continues to be a health threat and to cause fatality during physical exertion, especially in military personnel, fire-fighters, athletes, and outdoor laborers. The current paradigm in the pathophysiology and prevention of HS focuses predominantly on heat as the primary trigger and driver of HS, which has not changed significantly for centuries. However, pathological and clinical reports from HS victims and research evidence from animal and human studies support the notion that heat alone does not fully explain the pathophysiology of HS and that HS may also be triggered and driven by heat- and exercise-induced endotoxemia. Exposure to heat and exercise stresses independently promote the translocation of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from gram-negative bacteria in the gut to blood in the circulatory system. Blood concentration of LPS can increase to a threshold that triggers the systemic inflammatory response, leading to the downstream ramifications of cellular and organ damage with sepsis as the end point i.e., heat sepsis. The dual pathway model (DPM) of HS proposed that HS is triggered by two independent pathways sequentially along the core temperature continuum of >40 °C. HS is triggered by heat sepsis at Tc 42 °C, where the direct effects of heat alone can cause cellular and organ damage. Therefore, heat sepsis precedes heat toxicity in the pathophysiology of HS.

Heat stroke (HS) is an ancient illness dating back more than 2000 years and continues to be a health threat and to cause fatality during physical exertion, especially in military personnel, fire-fighters, athletes, and outdoor laborers. The current paradigm in the pathophysiology and prevention of HS focuses predominantly on heat as the primary trigger and driver of HS, which has not changed significantly for centuries. However, pathological and clinical reports from HS victims and research evidence from animal and human studies support the notion that heat alone does not fully explain the pathophysiology of HS and that HS may also be triggered and driven by heat- and exercise-induced endotoxemia. Exposure to heat and exercise stresses independently promote the translocation of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from gram-negative bacteria in the gut to blood in the circulatory system. Blood concentration of LPS can increase to a threshold that triggers the systemic inflammatory response, leading to the downstream ramifications of cellular and organ damage with sepsis as the end point i.e., heat sepsis. The dual pathway model (DPM) of HS proposed that HS is triggered by two independent pathways sequentially along the core temperature continuum of >40 °C. HS is triggered by heat sepsis at Tc 42 °C, where the direct effects of heat alone can cause cellular and organ damage. Therefore, heat sepsis precedes heat toxicity in the pathophysiology of HS. ; Published version

Heat stroke (HS) is an ancient illness dating back more than 2000 years and continues to be a health threat and to cause fatality during physical exertion, especially in military personnel, fire-fighters, athletes, and outdoor laborers. The current paradigm in the pathophysiology and prevention of HS focuses predominantly on heat as the primary trigger and driver of HS, which has not changed significantly for centuries. However, pathological and clinical reports from HS victims and research evidence from animal and human studies support the notion that heat alone does not fully explain the pathophysiology of HS and that HS may also be triggered and driven by heat- and exercise-induced endotoxemia. Exposure to heat and exercise stresses independently promote the translocation of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from gram-negative bacteria in the gut to blood in the circulatory system. Blood concentration of LPS can increase to a threshold that triggers the systemic inflammatory response, leading to the downstream ramifications of cellular and organ damage with sepsis as the end point i.e., heat sepsis. The dual pathway model (DPM) of HS proposed that HS is triggered by two independent pathways sequentially along the core temperature continuum of >40 °C. HS is triggered by heat sepsis at Tc 42 °C, where the direct effects of heat alone can cause cellular and organ damage. Therefore, heat sepsis precedes heat toxicity in the pathophysiology of HS. ; Published version

Heroic Śāktism is the belief that a good king and a true warrior must worship the goddess Durgā, the form and substance of kingship. This belief formed the bedrock of ancient Indian practices of cultivating political power. Wildly dangerous and serenely benevolent at one and the same time, the goddess's charismatic split nature promised rewards for a hero and king and success in risky ventures. This book is the first expansive historical treatment of the cult of Durgā and the role it played in shaping ideas and rituals of heroism in India between the 3rd and the 12th centuries CE. Within the story of ancient Indian kingship, two critical transitions overlapped with the rise of heroic Śāktism: the decline of the war-god Skanda-Mahāsena as a military symbol, and the concomitant rise of the early Indian kingdom. As the rhetoric of kingship once strongly linked to the older war god shifted to the cultural narratives of the goddess, her political imagery broadened in its cultural resonance. And indigenous territorial deities became associated with Durgā as smaller states unified into a broader conception of civilization. By assessing the available epigraphic, literary and scriptural sources in Sanskrit, and anthropological studies on politics and ritual, Bihani Sarkar demonstrates that the association between Indian kingship and the cult's belief-systems was an ancient one based on efforts to augment worldly power.

En-gendering security is as much a political exercise as it is a methodological one. An earlier paper ( Ahmed, 1995 ) flagged the limits of positivism in understanding woman's state of insecurity in a world informed and dictated by masculinity or what could be referred to as the purush jat. The critique was done by taking recourse to dialectics, of a kind that had its roots in the works of Hegel and Marx. However, after two decades, I see the limits of the effort, particularly when it comes to addressing the dialectic of gender relationship and the disempowered status of women in South Asia. This is not because Western dialectical method is at fault (which surely has a tendency of harbouring determinism) or because the utopias put forward by the Hegelians and the Marxists, although qualitatively different in nature, have foundered and transformed into living dystopias, but more because of a serious appreciation of the diversity in dialectics, including the contributions of the Chinese and Indian dialectics over the centuries. Put differently, approaching woman's state of insecurity from the standpoint of yin-yang relationship and/or prasangika can make a far more meaningful contribution to the task of demystifying masculinity and ensuring women's rights. En-gendering security in South Asia otherwise requires not only reimagining dialectics in the light of its diversity but also making the methodological quest local, indeed, related to the lived experience of the South Asians.

Durante los siglos XVI y XVII surgieron dos nuevas propuestas iconográficas para la representación de San Miguel arcángel, que no recogen los manuales de iconografía. Una de ellas, elaborada por Martín de Vos, le muestra con la mano derecha aureolada por el sol, y portando una palma en la mano izquierda. La otra, desarrollada en Andalucía por Francisco Pacheco y los seguidores de Zurbarán, le representa con indumentaria militar del siglo XVI, sosteniendo una rodela y un bastón de mando. Ambas imágenes responden a nuevos enfoques en la devoción de San Miguel propiciadas por la Contrarreforma. Las dos fueron incorporadas a las series angélicas, y alcanzaron gran popularidad tanto en España como en América. ; During the 16th and 17th centuries two new iconographic designs appeared for the representation of San Miguel archangel that did not reflect the manuals of iconography. One of which, elaborated by Martín de Vos, shows him with his right hand ringed by the sun, and carrying a palm tree leaf in his left hand. The other, developed in Andalucía by Francisco Pacheco and the followers of Zurbarán, represented San Miguel with military attire of the 16th century, holding a shield and baton. Both images respond to new focuses in the devotion of San Miguel favored by the Counter-reform. Both were incorporated in the angelic series and achieved great popularity both in Spain and America.

Este ensayo tiene por objetivo el análisis de una de las formas de construcción ideológica que subjetiva al indígena a la luz de dos textos: La brevíssima relación de la destruyción de las Indias, de Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, y la compilación de las crónicas indígenas de la Visión de los vencidos, de Miguel León-Portilla. Estas obras relatan el grave sufrimiento y trauma histórico que dejó la Conquista en los pueblos ab(origen)es de este continente. Dichas narraciones del desastre se convierten en discursos de reclamo y denuncia política que de alguna u otra manera marcarían el tenor de la defensa indígena en los siglos subsecuentes, y por ende, de una de las formas en que sería construida su imagen. ; This paper aims to analyse one of the forms of ideological construction that makes Indian people a subject, as it is seen in two texts: La brevíssima relación de la destruyción de las Indias, by Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, and the compilation of native chronicles Visión de los vencidos, by Miguel León-Portilla. These works tell us the great suffering and historical trauma that the Conquest left on native people in this continent. These stories of the disaster become political protest discourses, which somehow inform the native defence in the centuries afterwards, and so, one of the forms in which their image was built.

Military architecture is a cultural heritage that arises and develops between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, with an economic-mercantile purpose. The fortifications had the function of guaranteeing the stability of the colonial trade and of protecting the port commercial places from contraband, corso and piracy, which was practiced through the sea. The fortress of San Juan de Ulua-Veracruz, a commercial port in the Gulf of Mexico with transcendent and certain historical-cultural characteristics, one of the most important and renowned throughout the history of the American Continent. It is a colonial fortification of those that still remain in the route of the Caribbean, where many important events have taken place. The Peñíscola Castle built at the end of the 13th century is an urban fortress located on a small peninsula of the Mediterranean, on the east coast. In the highest part of the rock is preserved a medieval castle, is surrounded by a perimeter of walled enclosure realized in different stages. This work describes the investigation of the original stone construction materials, in order to propose an adequate conservation treatment in these two fortifications in Mexico and Spain. Analytical techniques of X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Image Analysis were used in order to know its punctual composition and based on the results of the analyzes performed, very important data were obtained to propose suitable treatments for its preservation.

The article discusses the evolution of theories of social revolution from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries. The author analyzes the basic concepts of theorists and practitioners of the armed revolutionary struggle - from the founder of the classical Communist theory of Karl Marx to the Mexican guerrilla leader Subcomandante Marcos. The author focuses on the analysis of changes in the understanding of the subject ("driving forces") of the left political revolution, as well as the strategy of armed revolutionary struggle. The author comes to the conclusion about the historical evolution of the subject of the revolutionary struggle from major sustainable macro-groups ("classes"), targeted at the armed struggle, to self-born (by the network principle) unstructured protest groups, situational leaders, mild forms of the revolutionary struggle, which minimize the armed violence, though do not eliminate it completely. The author substantiates the conclusion about the absence in the modern protest movement of social forces, able to become the subject of revolution socialist orientation. This increases the danger of dominance of the social protest of extremist nationalist and religious political spectra. The author offers two models of response to this threat: the growing influence of the reigning centre-right conservative parties of Russia; return to center-left positions of the social democratic movement of the countries of the European Union.

Este ensayo tiene por objetivo el análisis de una de las formas de construcción ideológica que subjetiva al indígena a la luz de dos textos: "La brevíssima relación de la destrucción de las Indias", de Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, y la compilación de las crónicas indígenas de la "Visión de los vencidos", de Miguel León-Portilla. Estas obras relatan el grave sufrimiento y trauma histórico que dejó la Conquista en los pueblos ab(origen)es de este continente. Dichas narraciones del desastre se convierten en discursos de reclamo y denuncia política que de alguna u otra manera marcarían el tenor de la defensa indígena en los siglos subsecuentes, y por ende, de una de las formas en que sería construida su imagen. ; This paper aims to analyse one of the forms of ideological construction that makes Indian people a subject, as it is seen in two texts: "La brevíssima relación de la destrucción de las Indias", by Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, and the compilation of native chronicles "Visión de los vencidos", by Miguel León-Portilla. These works tell us the great suffering and historical trauma that the Conquest left on native people in this continent. These stories of the disaster become political protest discourses, which somehow inform the native defence in the centuries afterwards, and so, one of the forms in which their image was built.

Living in remote places can strain the adaptive capacities of human settlers. It can also protect communities from external social, political and economic forces. In this paper, we present an archaeological population history of the Kuril Islands. This string of small volcanic islands on the margins of the Northwest Pacific was occupied by maritime hunting, fishing and gathering communities from the mid-Holocene to recent centuries. We bring together (1) 380 new and previously published archaeological radiocarbon dates, (2) a new paleodemographic model based on a radiocarbon-timestamped temporal frequency distribution of archaeological deposits, (3) recently published paleoclimate trends, and (4) recently published archaeological proxy evidence for changes in the extent of social networks. We demonstrate that, over the last two millennia, inhabitants of the Kuril Islands underwent dramatic demographic fluctuations. Explanations of these fluctuations are considered in the context of environmental hazards, social networks and the emergence of an East Asian "World System", elucidating the tension between local and external adaptive strategies to social and ecological uncertainty. Results suggest that population resilience to local climate and environmental variability was achieved by virtue of social networks that maintained non-local support in times of crisis. Conversely, the expansion of the East Asian political economy into neighboring regions of the southern margin of the Kuril Islands perhaps in conjunction with exposure to epidemic diseases appears to have undermined the adaptive strategies, resulting in an increase in the vulnerability of Kuril populations to environmental fluctuations.

В современной научной литературе остаются дискуссионными вопросы, связанные с cоставом и компетенцией самнитских магистратов. Проанализировав комплекс имеющихся в нашем распоряжении источников, можно констатировать наличие в Капуе самнитского периода магистратов, непосредственно подчинявшихся меддиксу тутикусу, верховному главе города: MEDDÍS MINIVE и MEDDÍS VEREHIAS. Первый был заместителем меддикса тутикуса, под вторым должен пониматься командующий военным отрядом. Предположительно должность MEDDÍS VEREHIAS в Капуе в 214 г. до н.э. занимал Статий Метий. Эта магистратура была коллегиальной, преимущество для занятия данной должности имели представители знатных кампанских родов.The questions related to the composition and competence of Samnite magistrates still remain debatable in the current scientific literature. After analyzing the full range of all available sources (iuvilu from Capua, Tabula Bantina, Cippus Abellanus and some other Oscan inscriptions), it is possible to ascertain the presence in Capua between 5-3 centuries BC two magistrates meddis minive and meddis verehias, who were directly under the meddix tuticus, the supreme ruler of the city. The first was the deputy meddix, we can't do any more specific conclusions about his competence. Under the second should be understood commander of the military unit. Presumably Statius Metius served as meddis verehias in Capua in 214 BC. The post of meddis verehias has been collegial, this position could be held by representatives of noble Campanian families. We can assume that, by analogy with meddix tuticus, other officials of Capua were elected for one year.

This article focuses on the trade routes in the western Sichuan borderlands that facilitated contact and trade between Chinese counties and Eastern Tibet. In particular, the article offers a description of "official routes" (guandao)—which the Chinese emperor twice proclaimed to be the vital mode of access between China and Tibet—from Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital, to Khampa areas, with Lhasa as the final destination. The exchange of goods in this region followed various routes during different periods. From the tenth to sixteenth centuries, transactions occurred primarily along the borders of Amdo (Tib. A mdo, Northeastern Tibet), but for political, economic, and practical reasons, such exchanges became more limited geographically and eventually focused along the Sichuan–Kham/Ngawa border. Many routes shifted to the towns of Kangding (Tib. Dartsedo) and Songpan (Tib. Zungchu), the main sites of distribution, where rich opportunities for trade and a strictly limiting transport geography made them important entrepôts that evolved into centers of prosperity. The geographic range of this article reaches to these two towns and leaves the investigation of the routes that led to western centers such as Derge, Batang, Chamdo, and Jyekundo for future research. Keywords: Tibet, China, trade routes, official routes, guandao, tea, chama gudao, tea-horse trade, commodities, borderlands, Songpan, Kangding, Dartsedo, Kham, Ngawa, Sichuan, Luding, Dadu He, Kangxi, Manchu