The intimate and "monogamous" eroticism in the Song of Songs can be considered as a critique of economic materialism where multiple women may be "bought" in some sense or another. It is the female lover, however, who regards the lovers as belonging to each other and visualises her beloved's body as made up of precious metals and gemstones which she then owns. It therefore appears that this protest is partially self-subversive in that it equates the celebrated body with the very currency it sets out to denounce. Added to that is the body with its boundaries imaged as a building blocking out unwanted intrusions and so as expression of private property. This conflict of class psychologies might therefore contain an element of envy and the question can be asked which party is actually compensating by overinvestment for unmet needs.
The Zambian government has introduced the farm block development programme (FBDP) to facilitate agricultural land and rural development and encourage private sector investment. This study assessed whether the FBDP achieves these goals. Key obstacles and possible opportunities were also identified and, where appropriate, specific corrective actions were recommended. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted in Lusaka with various stakeholders of the FBDP. The FBDP is designed to facilitate agricultural land development and encourage private sector investment. However, the programme falls far short in terms of implementation, amidst policy uncertainty and lack of support. This is evident by the insecurity of land tenure which negatively affects small- and medium-scale producers’ access to financing, lack of infrastructure development of these farm blocks, and constraints in the agricultural sector such as low labour productivity and poor access to service expertise. It is recommended that innovative policy interventions should be created to support agricultural development. This can be achieved by following a multistakeholder approach through involving private, public and non-profit sectors such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and donors.
Traditionally, there has been a tension between psychology and religion because of the Freudian critique of religion. This research intends to show that a deeper understanding of religion leading hopefully to an even deeper religiosity can be achieved by studying bodily features portrayed in a (religious) text from a psychoanalytic perspective. Just as any literary character can be ‘psychoanalysed’ to produce new perspectives on it and on the narrative as a whole, the personality of Job invites the postmodern reader to continue understanding this book on new levels. From this approach, it becomes clear that the protagonist struggles with boundaries and individuation because of his depressive tendencies experienced in issues with reality’s harsh touch, nakedness and distance. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Just as any literary character can be ‘psychoanalysed’ to produce new perspectives on it and on the narrative as a whole, the personality of Job invites the postmodern reader to continue understanding this book on new levels. From this approach, it becomes clear that the protagonist struggles with boundaries and individuation because of his depressive tendencies experienced in issues with reality’s harsh touch, nakedness and distance.
The question about fantasy and fiction in religion is probably as old as the first interrogation and critique of revealed religion. However, the relation between fiction and religion is a two-way street. Underlying both is imagination which brings into play the psychological dimension of both but this in turn is always based on the body. Fantasy dreamily imagines the perfect body precisely to try and fill the gap left by imperfection. As an example from religious fiction, the two monstrosities in the second divine speech virtually at the end of the book of Job will be viewed through the hermeneutical lens of abjection, as explained by Julia Kristeva. As projections of the sick protagonist’s own frustrated sexual and aggressive impulses embodied as abject animal bodies they are surprisingly celebrated by the Divine who can contain the id in its protest against the superego. In the tension between play and seriousness in this transitional space negotiated by the ego creativity rooted in the chaotic and free, polymorph perversity opens the door to the revelation from the unconscious. The fundamental question remains, however, if this creativity is purely human meaning-making or tapping into the divine through some kind of intuition.
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