This article explores the miracles and ex-votos (votive offerings) associated with the Ta' Pinu shrine on Gozo, Malta's northernmost island. Drawing from ethnographic data, analysis of various personal accounts, and observations of people's interactions with the bricolage of Ta' Pinu ex-votos, I seek to show that Gozitans perform a highly personal yet ritualised form of empathy in the context of miracle worship. The miracles associated with Ta' Pinu are thus seemingly 'contagious' and meaningful, because they elicit existential connections and reflections on the nature of supplication and Gozitan social relations.
In Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2012
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 126–145
The "Moving" Image
Empathy and Projection in the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool
Silke Arnold-de Simine
The moving image has become ubiquitous in museums that deal with traumatic, violent, and difficult histories and could be described as "memorial museums." This article investigates exhibition practices in the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool, in which large-scale video installations provide evocative recreations of traumatic experiences that are designed to unsettle and disturb visitors, providing them with a visceral and vicarious experience that calls for witnessing and "empathic unsettlement." It also queries the assumption that the capacity for empathy forms the basis for responsible moral agency, and whether museums aiming to encourage social responsibility should rely on such technologies.
In Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2012
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 23–40
Gal Raz and Talma Hendler
This article reviews significant developments in affective neuroscience suggesting a refinement of the contemporary theoretical discourse on cinematic empathy. Accumulating evidence in the field points to a philogeneticontogenetic-neural boundary separating empathic processes driven by either cognitive or somato-visceral representations of others. Additional evidence suggests that these processes are linked with parasympathetically driven mitigation and proactive sympathetic arousal. It presents empirical findings from a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) film viewing study, which are in line with this theoretical distinction. The findings are discussed in a proposed cinematographic framework of a general dichotomy between eso (inward-directed) and para (side by side with)—dramatic cinematic factors impinging on visceral representations of real-time occurrences or cognitive representations of another's mind, respectively. It demonstrates the significance of this dichotomy in elucidating the unsettling emotional experience elicited by Michael Haneke's Amour.
Alan Voodla, Elen Lotman, Martin Kolnes, Richard Naar, and Andero Uusberg
Empathy-related processes such as feeling the emotions of others, seeing the world from their perspective, and reacting to this information are fundamental constituents of cinematic experiences ( Oatley 2012 ; Tan 2008 ). Filmmakers therefore seek
Sarah Kozloff
This article seeks to prompt a reevaluation of the efficacy of mainstream fiction films to convey liberalism's political and ethical values. First, it challenges still-influential Marxist claims about counter-cinema and distanciation, then it deplores the influence of contemporary irony and postmodernism. The article proceeds to enumerate the characteristics of “a cinema of engagement”; for example, moving us to empathy—even empathetic anger—rather than distancing us or making us feel superiority; manifesting a level gaze; analyzing structures of power; basing scripts on real events; employing both the realist and melodramatic modes; and inspiring viewers to work against social injustice. It invokes the theories of liberal philosophers, literary scholars, cognitive scientists, and psychologists, and draws supporting evidence from a close reading of The Insider (1999).
David Davies
is only extreme pessimists like McFee who share Fodor’s belief that the most we can get from neuroscience is an implementation model. Empathy: Its Value in Film Experience Empathy plays a central role in Smith’s account of the nature of film reception
“Mind the Gap”
Between Movies and Mind, Affective Neuroscience, and the Philosophy of Film
Jane Stadler
representation and expression of emotion in film. My particular interest is in the account Smith advances of the nature of emotion and its role in relation to empathy and imagination in the film experience. As Smith contends, quantitative empirical research adds
Teaching globalisation in the social sciences
The effectiveness of a refugee simulation
Stacy Keogh George
of society’ (Lubbers 2002) while generating empathy for the refugees who are forced into the migratory process. By participating in the simulation, students develop a realistic view of the refugee resettlement process. Furthermore, the Refugee
Anthropological Reflections on Lebanese Art
How Empathy, the Human Rights Topos and Ideological Attitudes Interact with Aesthetic Perceptions
Gerald A. P.-Fromm and Bariaa Mourad
This article analyses attitudes of the art public related to subjects of the 2011 art exhibition 'Beirut', shown at the Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna. Some Lebanese artworks, especially those of the (pre-)war generation, were oriented towards utopias of their time and socio-political criticism, and still today revolve around the topoi of human rights. Socio-cultural milieux and institutions seem habited by adherents with congruent values. Art, science and education are thus particularly disputed fields since their common creative quests produce knowledge and, depending on the theme, ideology. We contextualise these topics and highlight a few empirically corroborated explanatory models developed by anthropology in order to elucidate the complex interplay between the individual and society. We appeal to those in academia, education and critical art to play a role in the debate on essential humanistic and ethical principles.
In Anthropology of the Middle East
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2013
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 92–114
Joerg Fingerhut
relation to social interactions (as, e.g., in the case of empathy). He, therefore, does not fully address in which ways they become re-appropriated in our interactions with cultural artifacts and factor in our appreciation of these artifacts. Following