Δοκίμιο & Πολιτισμός

NISIOTIKA is a book about the living tradition of Greek island music. Nisiotika derives from the Greek word for island, nisi, and has come to describe in particular the music and songs that are played and sung at festivals and celebrations on the islands of the Aegean. It is music to be danced to, and, as revealed in this book, in traditional celebrations with live music it is the dancers who call the tune.
The songs tell of the sea and people whose lives are bound up with often dangerous sea trades, of love and of pretty girls, sometimes of historical events, but also of sadness and separation, of women who wait in fear for their husbands and sons to return from long voyages or faraway lands. Most of the songs are not very old and date from probably no earlier than the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, although they borrow musical and poetic motifs from older forms of Greek folk song. Like the rembetika, the songs of the underground and of urban Greece, the nisiotika only became pan-Hellenic music after the islanders emigrated, initially to the US and then later to Athens. It was then that their songs were recorded and a wider audience for their music was created.
Building on the work of pioneering musicologists and through independent research into the songs themselves, recordings and interviews, Gail Holst-Warhaft has turned the same discerning and loving eye on the nisiotika as she did in her now classic book on the rembetika, Road to Rembetika.

The Sunday Times bestseller'A monumental, gripping book ... Outstanding' Sunday TimesWherever there is human judgement, there is noise.'Noise may be the most important book I've read in more than a decade. A genuinely new idea so exceedingly important you will immediately put it into practice.

A masterpiece'Angela Duckworth, author of Grit'An absolutely brilliant investigation of a massive societal problem that has been hiding in plain sight'Steven Levitt, co-author of FreakonomicsFrom the world-leaders in strategic thinking and the multi-million copy bestselling authors of Thinking Fast and Slow and Nudge, the next big book to change the way you think. Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients - or that two judges in the same court give different sentences to people who have committed matching crimes. Now imagine that the same doctor and the same judge make different decisions depending on whether it is morning or afternoon, or Monday rather than Wednesday, or they haven't yet had lunch.

These are examples of noise: variability in judgements that should be identical.In Noise, Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein show how noise produces errors in many fields, including in medicine, law, public health, economic forecasting, forensic science, child protection, creative strategy, performance review and hiring. And although noise can be found wherever people are making judgements and decisions, individuals and organizations alike commonly ignore its impact, at great cost.Packed with new ideas, and drawing on the same kind of sharp analysis and breadth of case study that made Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge international bestsellers, Noise explains how and why humans are so susceptible to noise and bias in decision-making.

We all make bad judgements more than we think. With a few simple remedies, this groundbreaking book explores what we can do to make better ones.

Objects generate time; time does not generate or change objects. That is the central thesis of this book by the philosopher Graham Harman and the archaeologist Christopher Witmore, who defend radical positions in their respective fields. Against a current and pervasive conviction that reality consists of an unceasing flux - a view associated in philosophy with New Materialism - object-oriented ontology asserts that objects of all varieties are the bedrock of reality from which time emerges.

And against the narrative convictions of time as the course of historical events, the objects and encounters associated with archaeology push back against the very temporal delimitations which defined the field and its objects ever since its professionalization in the nineteenth century. In a study ranging from the ruins of ancient Corinth, Mycenae, and Troy to debates over time from Aristotle and al-Ash'ari through Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead, the authors draw on alternative conceptions of time as retroactive, percolating, topological, cyclical, and generational, as consisting of countercurrents or of a surface tension between objects and their own qualities. Objects Untimely invites us to reconsider the modern notion of objects as inert matter serving as a receptacle for human categories.

This is a reprint of an article published in volume 82/2 of Ekklesiastikos Pharos (Alexandria-Johannesburg, 2000), based on a postgraduate seminar delivered in August 1999 at Rand Afrikaans University (now Johannesburg University), in the seminar room of the Department of Greek and Latin Studies, organized by my host and good friend Professor Benjamin Hendrickx. Its usefulness, resting chiefly on numerous primary sources' printouts in a detailed appendix from the Byzantine History Data Bank programme of the Hellenic Research Foundation at Athens, has been observed by, among others, Johannes Koder, Sergei P. Karpov, the late Angelike E. Laiou and Cecile Morrisson, while Morrisson has also recently utilized it in her monograph on Byzantine money. However, the scarcity in research libraries of the journal where it was originally published warranted a reprint, as observed by several colleagues in recent years and I have decided to republish it as a short monograph. At the end I have also included the entry of mines and quarries ("Bergbau") which I contributed (shortly before completion of the article reprinted here) to the "Lexikon der Byzantinistik" on the invitation of Professor Johannes Irmscher; I have taken the opportunity to publish here the entire text of the entry as originally submitted before the inevitable cut and condensations in such publications.

These two lectures by Jacques Derrida, "Foreigner Question" and "Step of Hospitality/No Hospitality," derive from a series of seminars on "hospitality" conducted by Derrida in Paris, January 1996. His seminars, in France and in America, have become something of an institution over the years, the place where he presents the ongoing evolution of his thought in a remarkable combination of thoroughly mapped-out positions, sketches of new material, and exchanges with students and interlocutors. As has become a pattern in Derrida's recent work, the form of this presentation is a self-conscious enactment of its content. The book consists of two texts on facing pages. "Invitation" by Anne Dufourmantelle appears on the left (an invitation that of course originates in a response), clarifying and inflecting Derrida's "response" on the right. The interaction between them not only enacts the "hospitality" under discussion, but preserves something of the rhythms of teaching. The volume also characteristically combines careful readings of canonical texts and philosophical topics with attention to the most salient events in the contemporary world, using "hospitality" as a means of rethinking a range of political and ethical situations. "Hospitality" is viewed as a question of what arrives at the borders, in the initial surprise of contact with an other, a stranger, a foreigner. For example, Antigone is revisited in light of the question of impossible mourning; Oedipus at Colonus is read via concerns that also apply to teletechnology; the trial of Socrates is brought into conjunction with the televised funeral of Francois Mitterrand.

The orca is one of Earth's most intelligent animals. Remarkably sophisticated, they have languages and cultures and even long-term memories. Their capacity for echolocation is nothing short of a sixth sense. Despite their label as `killer whales' they are often benign and gentle, which makes the story of the captive-orca industry and the endangerment of their population around the world that much more tragic. In Of Orcas and Men, David Neiwert provides a compelling mix of cultural history, environmental reporting and scientific research on a majestic species. He explores the sometimes fraught relationship between this extraordinary animal and human beings, both in the wild and in captivity. David Neiwert's book is a triumph of reporting, observation and research, and a powerful tribute to one of the animal kingdom's most remarkable members.

A collection of recipes patiently passed down, often orally and retraced whilst touring the taverns of the islands, Athens and Thessaloniki and in mountain places. Recipes that speak of the great exodus of the people from the Black Sea and from Smyrna that with time, have enriched Greek cuisine with additional aromas, that are quite often very simple but rich in all the aromas that the Mediterranean nature can offer. A group of masters of traditional cuisine have come together to reconstruct the dishes you found in the tavernas during your vacation or that you will certainly find if you have not yet been able to come and visit us. An authentic book describing tastes just as they are, without the ingredients being suitable for either the presentation like the very homely meals in the tavern, or the authentic Mediterranean taste.

Η σύγκριση της γαστρονομίας δύο μαγειρικών παραδόσεων που εκτείνονται στο βάθος του χρόνου και που αντιστοιχούν σε δύο από τους μακροβιότερους πολιτισμούς του κόσμου, εκείνους της Ελλάδας και της Κίνας, παρουσιάζει εξ ορισμού σημαντικό ενδιαφέρον. Τόσο στο επίπεδο της γευσιγνωσίας όσο και σ' αυτό της Ιστορίας του πολιτισμού. Στην περίπτωση της αρχαίας Ελλάδας, του Βυζαντίου και της αρχαίας Κίνας, η σχετική έρευνα επιφυλάσσει μια έκπληξη: τις βαθιές ομοιότητες τόσο στην αντίληψη όσο και στις γεύσεις και τις τεχνικές. Οι ομοιότητες αυτές δύσκολα μπορούν να εξηγηθούν ως σύμπτωση ή ως αλληλεπίδραση. Βέβαια, από την εποχή του Βυζαντίου και μετά οι επαφές ανάμεσα στους δύο λαούς πυ- κνώνουν - νωρίτερα οι επαφές τους ήταν μάλλον έμμεσες. Το ελληνικό φαγητό έχει αλλάξει πολύ από την Αρχαιότητα και το Βυζάντιο, αντίθετα η Κίνα φαίνεται να διαφυλάσσει πιο αυστηρά τις παραδόσεις της. Γι' αυτό θα μπορούσε να ισχυριστεί κανείς κάτι φαινομενικά παράδοξο που όμως είναι αλήθεια: αν θέλουμε να γευτούμε αρχαιοελληνικό φαγητό πρέπει να δοκιμάσουμε κινεζικό! Πιο συγκεκριμένα, όσον αφορά τη γεύση, σίγουρα το ξινόγλυκο είναι μια πανάρχαια κοινή συνήθεια. Αν και η κινεζική γαστρονομία έχει διατηρήσει αυτή τη διάσταση, στην ελληνική χρειάζεται λίγο περισσότερο ψάξιμο για ν’ ανακαλύψουμε χοιρινό με κυδώνια, κατσικάκι βραστό με μέλι, ψάρι σαβόρο με ξίδι και μέλι ή πετιμέζι, αρνάκι με κορόμηλα, γλυκιά κολοκυθόπιττα με αλμυρό τυρί και σταφίδες κ.ά. Προκειμένου να αναδείξουν την εκλεκτική συγγένεια των δύο γαστρονομικών παραδόσεων, οι συγγραφείς του τόμου, έπειτα από πολυετή έρευνα, συγκεντρώνουν εδώ παραπλήσιες ενδιαφέρουσες συνταγές μαγειρικής από τους δύο λαούς. Συνταγές με μικρές ή μεγαλύτερες αποκλίσεις ως προς στην παρασκευή τους, καθώς και μια σειρά ελληνικών συνταγών με κινεζική προσέγγιση.

Πετάξαμε πάνω από τα 14.000 πόδια -ψηλότερα από τις κορυφές του Ολύμπου- στην καρδιά του χειμώνα, είδαμε το φως της δύσης να βάφει κόκκινα τα βράχια του Στεφανιού και του Μύτικα, σηκωθήκαμε στον αέρα πρωινά πριν την ανατολή, φέραμε γύρους το βουνό για να δούμε όλες τις αποχρώσεις στα φθινοπωρινά δάση του, ... και φτιάξαμε αυτό το λεύκωμα για να μοιραστούμε μαζί σας την απέραντη δύναμη και την αισθητική τελειότητα του θεϊκού βουνού. Η έκδοση συμπίπτει με την επέτειο των 100 χρόνων από την πρώτη ανάβαση στην κορυφή του Ολύμπου και καταγράφει τα σημαντικότερα γεγονότα της πρόσφατης ορειβατικής ιστορίας του, αλλά και αφηγήσεις ανθρώπων που συνέδεσαν τη ζωή τους με το θεϊκό βουνό.

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory." Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all. Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.