Cross-species Perception and Ecological Disposition in Animation

The necessity to study the derivational potential of the word in Russian territorial dialects determines the relevance of the research. The authors of the work focus on the animalistic vocabulary from Vologda dialects reflected in the published editions and the card index of the Vologda dialects dictionary. This animalistic vocabulary contains more than 850 names, with more than 300 names of pets, about 150 names of wild mammals, more than 100 names of birds as well as names of birds, fish, insects etc. We comment on the inner form of animal names, describe general language features of these words’ structure (predominance of Russian morphemes in their structure and formation of most of these words according to general language derivational models) and their local features: presence of dialect names, conservation of more archaic distribution and general language word semantics in the analyzed words, different derivational potential of all-Russian words in the standard language and the analyzed dialects. We analyze the lexical structure and derivational relations in dialect derivational word-families either formed from names of animals or including them as derivative words. We make conclusions about the specificity of modern Vologda dialects’ “zoomorphic code” based on this information and results of content analysis of statements about animals received in expeditionary observations of the speech of villagers from Vologda Oblast. This work proves that verbalization of “animal world” in Vologda dialects is a system of one-word and composite nominations, their inner form and contextual environment represent typological properties of the dialect linguistic view of the world: priority of human biological survival in harsh environmental conditions and its social adaptation in peasant community, traditionalism and expressiveness. The “animal world” in its objective, axiological and actional components is a part of the dialect linguistic view of the world, including features of inanimate nature, flora, and the human world. The “zoomorphic code” of the analyzed dialects finds its manifestation in an inseparable connection between the “animal world” and the “human world”, which is reflected in the parallel wording of the most important physiological processes (conception, pregnancy, birth of offspring; caring for children and animals; illness and death) as well as in the realization of typical schemes of the semantic transfers linking events of the “human world” and the “animal world” in a single semiotic unit. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

The goal of our article is to review the widespread anthropological figure, according to which we can achieve a better understanding of humans by contrasting them with animals. This originally Herderian approach was elaborated by Arnold Gehlen, who characterized humans as “deficient beings” who become complete through culture. According to Gehlen, humans, who are insufficiently equipped by instincts, indirectly stabilize their existence by creating institutions, i.e., complexes of habitual actions. On the other hand, Maurice Merleau-Ponty shows that corporeal relationship to the world is already indirect because it is based on preestablished and readjusted “standards” or “norms” of interaction with the environment. Merleau-Ponty then calls these norms “institutions” and views culture as readjustment of institutions which operate already on the level of corporeal existence. The anthropological figure of confronting humans and animals thus cannot produce, as in Gehlen, a contrast between an allegedly “direct” relationship to the world in animals and a supposedly “indirect” relationship to the world in humans. The Herderian approach can be meaningfully retained only if interpreted as an invitation to confront the norms of indirect interaction with the world in animals and in people, that is, if viewed as a comparison of their respective institutions.

Forty years ago, Lehrman (1971) identified 2 orientations to the study of animal behavior. The natural history orientation conducted field and lab research designed to reveal how animals cope with the circumstances of their natural environment. Such research reveals the diversity among different types of animals and differences between the world of animals and the world of humans (i.e., "poetry"). In contrast, the anthropocentric orientation studies animals either to generate animal-derived general laws applicable to humans or to provide experimental information that, for ethical and practical reasons, cannot be acquired from human research. The primary motivation for the anthropocentric orientation is to provide workable models for investigating specifically human problems (i.e., "engineering"). Evidence is presented from the study of bird song that demonstrates the contribution that the "poetic" approach can make to anthropocentric ("engineering") concerns.

The deployment of digital technology to create captivating spectacles in films has reflected the boundlessness of man’s ingenuity in recreating his world. Such creativity reflects considerably in the fluidity of using the computer to generate human concepts of the role of costume grounded on theatrical system in animation. The world of animation is always synergized with marvels that defy the rational proofs for objectivity in the human world. This paper evaluates the use of digital technology to generate costume design to reflect the system of human thought in animation using Peter Del Velcho’s Frozen as paradigm. The paper uses qualitative research method to examine facts and bases its argument on Structuralism. Findings show that costume functions as a system in theatrical and film productions. In animation, the insight of human imagination through costume design is easily brought to bear, and the reality of creativity to man is ingrained in communication through captivating pictorials without impairment. Costume design can be generated from computer through knowledge and expertise. With the knowledge of computer, especially in the academic environment, unlimited streams of creativity may unfold to support the reality of entrepreneurial schemes in the society. When a costume is designed to conform to the order of a design system within a system of thought to pass on information, any medium can function as a dependable conduit to communicate.

The study provides archetypal characteristics analysis of animalistic metaphors in synchronic and diachronic aspects. The analysis involves the works of I. A. Krylov and modern examples from the National Corpus of the Russian Language, which enables to identify the archetypal characteristics of the animal world when representing various aspects of the life of a modern person. The latter are understood as stable in historical changes and determining the structure of the worldview of both an individual and a nation. The paper displays a classification of the characteristics of animals presented in animalistic metaphors, received through the fable, which are recognizable in modern socio-political and economic contexts. Analysis of the target area, namely the “human world”, demonstrated the presence in the content of metaphorical concepts of both personal characteristics (strength, cunning, stupidity, ignorance, arrogance) and social characteristics (hard work, unprofessionalism and incompetence, fidelity to friendship, hypocrisy, respect for experience and the collision of the new and old). At the same time, the repertoire of animalistic metaphors that verbalize the world around a person includes individual animals, groups of animals, as well as artifacts associated with animals. The conducted research testifies to the undeniable archetypal status of the metaphorical model “the world of animals → the world of man”, which made a centuries-long way to get into the Russian language and culture starting with the fables of the Russian writer I. A. Krylov.

The article deals with anthropocentric zoomorphic metaphors which disclose people’s mentality in the discourse of the British literary text. Discursive reading of the zoomorphic metaphor reveals the cognitive basis for identifying linguistic and extralinguistic components of the relationship between the human world and the animal world. Quantitative data on identified cases of using zoomorphisms shed light on the implementation of typological features in the binary opposition "man – animal". The authors classify zoomorphic metaphors, expressing various aspects of behavior, appearance, physiological and intellectual characteristics, and social background of a person. Segments of human knowledge about the world of fauna transferred to the world of people are manifested in persistent associations, which result in a vivid, imaginative, emotional and very accurate description of anthropocentric observations through the prism of zoonyms to characterize a person, his activities, and lifestyle. The article reveals some differences in the implementation of meanings by using zoonyms-hyperonyms and zoonyms-hyponyms. The authors claim that functional potential of zoomorphisms in the discourse of a literary text lies in the ability to reflect the national and cultural tradition of people with special attention to axiological and emotional parameters of the utterance. The authors also find correlations between the British and Russian worldviews regarding the use of zoomorphisms.

At the present time, acoustic contamination is one of the largest ecological problems, which people face with in a big city. It is impossible to eliminate road traffic noise, thus regulation and limitation of environmental noise pollution are important and obligatory actions. Noise can negatively affect human health, vegetal and animal world. Its harm depends on intensity, frequency and duration. Under the current conditions noise control is technically complicated, complex and economically wildly expensive. The study of noise level was performed in the territories, boarded on main traffic arteries of Kharkiv without rail transport and with rail transport. The studies showed that the roads with rail transport are 7-14 dB louder than the roads without it. The average noise level on highways of the city ranged 80-94 dB, besides on some of the highways the average noise level did not reach the statutory level at 100 m from traffic roads. Such noise load level in the urban environment requires implementation of solutions, directed at its reduction. The impact of the noise barrier and green planting on noise emission is studied.

Legal animal rights may, in the short term, offer an efficient means to improve the living conditions of animals and how they are treated by human societies. This article argues that this shift to adopt an animal rights framing of the human-animal interaction might also risk producing certain counterproductive effects. It suggests that there is a need for a broader reassessment of the relationships between the human and animal worlds. This article posits that the adoption of legal animal rights as a workable legal solution for the better protection of animals has been increasingly accepted because rights frameworks rely upon a core premise of Western jurisprudence, namely legal subjectivism and the epistemological and axiological assumptions it conveys. The article argues that such an individualistic and dualist approach to legal animal rights will ultimately reveal itself to be insufficient and unable to capture animals as members of concrete social and environmental entanglements. Rather, a true legal revolution is required, which would evoke an ecological understanding of law itself.

The panda did not become an official symbol of the PRC in a debate over worthy animal emblems, but emerged as a representation of China in various contexts by fulfilling specific needs of the nation. The giant panda became broadly relevant to human society when it was deemed a scientifically interesting animal. International research on pandas has probed most every aspect of the animal’s being. The Chinese government’s persistent endorsement of wide-ranging scientific work on the giant panda over the course of PRC history reflects the tremendous value the Chinese state has placed on the panda as an animal. What is most striking about the giant panda historically is not its curiosity as an oddity in the animal kingdom, but that it stands apart as a cute national symbol. Unlike the more commonly majestic and intimidating choices of eagle or lion, the panda elicits affection. The panda’s gentle allure has been central to its transformation into a powerful political tool. The traits that inspire anthropomorphism have enabled the panda to hold a special position as a diplomat, not only between China and the rest of the world, but also between the human and animal world.

From the Editor Julie Pfeiffer (bio) In Ways of Seeing, John Berger writes, "We never look just at one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves" (9). The eight essays gathered here all expand our field of vision, helping us to see how children's literature reflects and participates in culture. The intersections between texts and contexts in the essays that follow encourage us to understand the ways our views of the world and ourselves are shaped by perceptions of class and merit, by beliefs about our relation to the natural world, by hidden agendas and fear, and by the desire to tell stories that create coherence in the midst of a changing and unpredictable world. The volume opens with Jackie Horne's essay, "The Power of Public Opinion: Constructing Class in Agnes Strickland's The Rival Crusoes." Horne asks that we rethink the notion that children's texts of the early nineteenth century are necessarily reflective of "middle-class" ideology. Instead, she suggests that a closer examination of class, and its limitations, allows us to see the ideological work these texts do and to trace the evolution of children's literature from the pre-Victorian to the Victorian. Her close reading of The Rival Crusoes (1826) demonstrates the complexity of class relationships in the early nineteenth century and the ways that values commonly labeled "middle class" were, in fact, present in the gentry and laboring classes as well. The next two essays both call on Milton's Paradise Lost and the significance of a tempting serpent. In her essay, "Eggs and Serpents: Natural History Reference in Lewis Carroll's Scene of Alice and the Pigeon," Rose Lovell-Smith uses a natural history context to make connections between the human and animal world. By connecting Alice with images of serpents, the Pigeon scene challenged Victorian assumptions about girlhood innocence and purity. While Alice may protest that she is not a serpent, she is clearly an eater of eggs, and thus, to a mother Pigeon, has this most crucial serpent quality. Lovell-Smith sees the depiction of Alice as a serpent as drawing the human and natural worlds closer together, blurring the lines between tempter and tempted; Robert Hemmings, in his essay, "A Taste of Nostalgia: Children's Books from the Golden Age—Carroll, Grahame, and Milne," focuses on the act of eating that follows Eve's temptation by the [End Page vii] serpent as a moment of sensory pleasure which provides a clue to the longing that underlies nostalgia. Hemmings's examination of nostalgia, beginning with its medical roots and tying it to imperialism, helps us to see the ways that nostalgia both reveals anxieties and covers them up. Eve's desire to eat the fruit undercuts the supposed perfection of Eden—why, if she is a perfect woman in a perfect world, would she have any desire to change herself or her environment? Milton's re-telling of the story of Adam and Eve's fall highlights this contradiction and suggests that the fall begins long before that moment when Eve takes a bite and asserts her imperfection. In his reading of Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, and Winnie-the-Pooh, Hemmings finds that the tastes, smells, and rituals of food preparation and presentation reveal the weak points, the moments of trauma in an idealized past. Like Hemmings, Troy Boone investigates the values that lie beneath the assumption of "nostalgic pastoralism" in his essay, "'Germs of Endearment': The Machinations of Edwardian Children's Fictions." The "germ" he identifies in the apparently bucolic world of Edwardian children's fiction is a relentless focus on class that links the working classes with machinery and the middle classes with the role of supervising these human machines. His reading of The Wind in the Willows and The Railway Children concludes that both texts "work to reinforce the visionary power that the middle-class subject has over the mechanized working-class body." The use of context to provide new perspectives continues with Thomas Atwood and Wade Lee's examination of more recent young adult fiction. In "The Price of Deviance: Schoolhouse Gothic in Prep School Literature...

The philosophical study on laughter deepens our understanding of the human mind. Due to laughter, a person touches the limits of rationality, while not destroying them, only expanding. Distinguishing between non-humorous laughter and humorous one (i. e. generated by humor) helps, on the one hand, to distinguish its merely human form, and, on the other hand, to consider laughter as a universal feature, common both to the human and animal worlds. The concept of humorous amusement allows us to understand the mechanism of transformation of laughter into humorous laughter, and due to that, a conceptual shift occurs. Nevertheless, there is also a possibility for humor to transform into hype. Then, instead of stimulating conceptual changes that expand the horizon of understanding, narrowing or manipulative directing of those changes take place.

Sexes on the brain: Sex as multiple biological variables in the neuronal control of feeding

Prehistoric sites with depictions of trees are fewer and farther apart than those exhibiting their animal and human counterparts in southern African rock art. Even so, this arboreal subject matter occupies a unique position in hunter‐gatherer belief and folkloric systems. From extant ethnographic testimonies concerning trees, this report assesses the graphic features and associations of these depictions and recognizes their peculiar ontological and unifying force at the interface of the animal and human worlds. The significance of this oddity is inferable primarily from their generic physical form, which leads to their elevated metaphysical status in hunter‐gatherer folklore, cosmology, and belief. While the outward arboreal appearance may be the most obvious in registering peculiarities that were in turn granted liminal status in hunter‐gatherer cosmologies, it appears that some of this uniqueness may have derived from their invisible chemical properties of which very little is known in southern Africa at present.

Departing from Sorokin dualistic (“internal” and “external”) explanations of movement and from an extended critical hermeneutic understanding of the life-world, the article first analyzes some examples of mythologems/ideologems of migration. Furthermore, it discusses the connection between catastrophes and migrations in the animal and human world, the movements of things and ideas, especially the myth of the “migration of souls”. The main (hypo)thesis relates to the contemporary blockade of mass migration of people from the South to the North, which is taken as a result of the collapse of key development projects arising from the ideology of liberalism and socialism, where, as an anti-modernization response, a part of the South reactivates myth of the “migration of souls”. Catastrophic events thus cause (mass) migration, interpreted as a phenomenon of the life-worlds in two ways: firstly, as an object of religious and scientific worldviews that postulate nothingness or disappearance of (individual) species as a precondition for creation (of a new world or new species); secondly, catastrophes are reinterpreted from the perspective of the concept of multiple universes, which is more hermeneutic than analytical. In imperial cosmologies material or ideal element of the monistic assumption of the universe prevails. The prevalence is expressed as the conceptual split between the immortal “migrant” soul and decaying “indigenous” body (idealistic solution) or combined (materialistic solution). The exodus as a motif occurs in many cultures along with the myth of “migration of souls”. Nowadays, the myth is reactivated among populations obsessed by militaristic idea of the “holy war”. The aggression against the life-worlds is thus composed of two long-term processes that undermine (utopian) hope for a better life. One process relates to the expansion of the capitalist markets that leads to the impoverishment of most people in the South. The second process relates to substituting secular migration to safer areas by illusory, i.e. apocalyptic scenarios of survival. The author argues that only rational answer to the destructive threat is translating ideas about the multiple universe into new, yet alternative, global investments into the development of the South (and the North). This way, a potential immigrant participates in the building of his/her local environment, whereby his/her (e)migration becomes unnecessary or the subject to free choice.

This chapter explores the ways in which electronic and online data is collected about users in a variety of settings. It examines data protection through regulations such as General Data Protection Regulation and the harvest and use of data within Adtech, this being tools and software for advertising. Wider questions are raised about who owns certain electronic data, including examples from the animal and human world and even considering military applications. The role of artificial intelligence and its data-hungry requirements are discussed, contrasting the rapid push for automation with the subsequent risks for people’s data privacy. Finally, the chapter considers a range of data governance structures like data cooperatives and knowledge commons being trialled and implemented in order to combat some of the issues arising from this collecting of data.