Othello was written at a particular moment in history when the European construction of the ‘other’ was moving from a medieval to a modern paradigm. This involved a shift from religion to race and colour as the key signifiers of difference. In other words, Othello was written at a time when modern racial ideology and racial prejudice as we know them were coming into being but were not yet fully...

Based on the interactive features of websites, researchers have distinguished between ‘religion online’ and ‘online religion’. Approaching online religious expression as ‘vernacular religion’ can transcend the distinction by focussing on the lived experience of believers. In this study, qualitative interviews and close textual analysis are deployed to locate four traits that define the ‘vernacu...

this paper is an inquiry concerning the function of religion in tocqueville’s theory of democracy. in analyzing the ideology of democracy in america, he stated that religion plays an important role in establishing democracy, protecting it against threats such as materialism, individualism, tyranny of majority, focusing of power, and restriction of freedom versus equality. tocqueville explains t...

This paper argues that our sociological explanations of the historical advent of gender stratification in the Occident has given too much attention to techno-economic causes and too little attention to religious, cultural and ideological causes. Evidence for this claim is taken from archeology, mythology and anthropology for the relevant historical period (4500 and 3000 BC) in Eurasia. I assert...

The literary genre of dystopian fiction grew out of the larger science fiction genre during the first half of the 20th century. Distinctive of dystopian fiction is a tendency towards allegory. Books in the genre use allegory to make statements on a wide range of subjects. Dystopian novels often tackle political and religious issues, as well as societal issues more generally. Ray Bradbury’s Fahr...