Pub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.7592/FEJF2021.81.KONSA
Kurmo Konsa
The aim of this article is to present a critical discussion of the influence of technology on humans and culture in contemporary Western society. Transhumanism is a philosophical and social movement that believes that the essential features of human life could be transformed and enhanced by applications of science and technology. In this article, I will compare transhumanist ideas about perfecting humans to the views of Roger Bacon, one of the representatives of European mediaeval alchemy. Such a treatment provides a historical background for transhumanist ideas and helps answer the moral and philosophical problems that humans are faced with due to modern technological development. Despite the fact that several transhumanist theoreticians treat it as a secular alternative to religious ideas, we can see that Christian eschatology plays a major role. Both in alchemy and transhumanism, scientific and theological aspects have been inseparably intertwined. Transhumanism can be seen as a continuation of the alchemical project in the twenty-first century. Modern science has added new tools to realise the goal of alchemical perfection. Transhumanism characterises very well the fact that the practices and theories of alchemy changed over time and adapted to changed contexts.
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Pub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.7592/FEJF2021.81.REMMEL_JONUKS
Atko Remmel, T. Jonuks
Forest plays an important role in many North European national identities. The Estonian example is one of the extreme cases as Estonians consider themselves a forest nation, the claim being backed up with references to both history and contemporary data. The article explores diachronically the formation of this motif in the Estonian national narrative and studies the nuances of intellectual and social history that have shaped the development of the concept from ethnic nature to eco-nationalism.
{"title":"From Nature Romanticism to Eco-Nationalism: The Development of the Concept of Estonians as a Forest Nation","authors":"Atko Remmel, T. Jonuks","doi":"10.7592/FEJF2021.81.REMMEL_JONUKS","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2021.81.REMMEL_JONUKS","url":null,"abstract":"Forest plays an important role in many North European national identities. The Estonian example is one of the extreme cases as Estonians consider themselves a forest nation, the claim being backed up with references to both history and contemporary data. The article explores diachronically the formation of this motif in the Estonian national narrative and studies the nuances of intellectual and social history that have shaped the development of the concept from ethnic nature to eco-nationalism.","PeriodicalId":42641,"journal":{"name":"Folklore-Electronic Journal of Folklore","volume":"3 1","pages":"33-62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86159617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.7592/FEJF2021.81.HOULBROOK
Ceri Houlbrook
It is the character of a natural holy place to shift and alter. Sometimes the changes are the product of natural causes; other times, they are the result of human intervention. The mutable character of these natural sites, however, does not impair their ability to act as holy sites; instead, it appears to benefit them, for just as nature is not static, neither is the ‘sacred’. In order to explore how appropriate natural sites are as ‘settings’ for the ‘sacred’ because of their very mutability, this paper will focus on coin-trees. These are natural places of pilgrimage in Britain and Ireland, which have sustained themselves as sacred centres for decades – in some cases, centuries – and have, during that time, undergone numerous recontextualisations, adapting themselves to the religious and cultural changes of their surroundings.
{"title":"Sustaining and Substituting the Sacred: Coin Trees in Britain and Ireland","authors":"Ceri Houlbrook","doi":"10.7592/FEJF2021.81.HOULBROOK","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2021.81.HOULBROOK","url":null,"abstract":"It is the character of a natural holy place to shift and alter. Sometimes the changes are the product of natural causes; other times, they are the result of human intervention. The mutable character of these natural sites, however, does not impair their ability to act as holy sites; instead, it appears to benefit them, for just as nature is not static, neither is the ‘sacred’. In order to explore how appropriate natural sites are as ‘settings’ for the ‘sacred’ because of their very mutability, this paper will focus on coin-trees. These are natural places of pilgrimage in Britain and Ireland, which have sustained themselves as sacred centres for decades – in some cases, centuries – and have, during that time, undergone numerous recontextualisations, adapting themselves to the religious and cultural changes of their surroundings.","PeriodicalId":42641,"journal":{"name":"Folklore-Electronic Journal of Folklore","volume":"43 1","pages":"63-80"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88357382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.7592/FEJF2021.81.KALMRE
Eda Kalmre
Hardly any other folklore subject or motif can offer a more colourful bouquet in genre than apparent death, ranging from fairy tales and romantic legends to rumours, ballads, and jokes. The historical origin of stories of apparent death extends back to antiquity, probably also relying on some true events; however, the formation and spread of folktales on this subject falls into the Enlightenment period in Europe. The emergence and development of this topic relate to medical and religious practices, journalism and literature. The article focuses on the traditional context of apparent death in eighteenth-nineteenth-century Europe, including Estonia.
{"title":"Buried Alive: The Phenomenon of Apparent Death in Estonian Tradition","authors":"Eda Kalmre","doi":"10.7592/FEJF2021.81.KALMRE","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2021.81.KALMRE","url":null,"abstract":"Hardly any other folklore subject or motif can offer a more colourful bouquet in genre than apparent death, ranging from fairy tales and romantic legends to rumours, ballads, and jokes. The historical origin of stories of apparent death extends back to antiquity, probably also relying on some true events; however, the formation and spread of folktales on this subject falls into the Enlightenment period in Europe. The emergence and development of this topic relate to medical and religious practices, journalism and literature. The article focuses on the traditional context of apparent death in eighteenth-nineteenth-century Europe, including Estonia.","PeriodicalId":42641,"journal":{"name":"Folklore-Electronic Journal of Folklore","volume":"16 12","pages":"101-120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72595977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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