• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.52
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• pp.277-312
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• 2018

First-order cybernetics during the 1940s and 1950s aimed for control of an observed system, while second-order cybernetics during the mid-1970s aspired to address the mechanism of an observing system. The former pursues an objective, subjectless, approach to a system, whereas the latter prefers a subjective, personal approach to a system. Second-order observation must be noted since a human observer is a living system that has its unique cognition. Maturana and Varela place the autopoiesis of this biological system at the core of second-order cybernetics. They contend that an autpoietic system maintains, transforms and produces itself. Technoscientific recreation of biological autopoiesis opens up to a new step in cybernetics: what I describe as third-order cybernetics. The formation of technoscientific autopoiesis overlaps with the Fourth Industrial Revolution or what Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee call the Second Machine Age. It leads to a radical shift from human centrism to posthumanity whereby humanity is mechanized, and machinery is biologized. In two versions of the novel Demon Seed, American novelist Dean Koontz explores the significance of technoscientific autopoiesis. The 1973 version dramatizes two kinds of observers: the technophobic human observer and the technology-friendly machine observer Proteus. As the story concludes, the former dominates the latter with the result that an anthropocentric position still works. The 1997 version, however, reveals the victory of the techno-friendly narrator Proteus over the anthropocentric narrator. Losing his narrational position, the technophobic human narrator of the story disappears. In the 1997 version, Proteus becomes the subject of desire in luring divorcee Susan. He longs to flaunt his male egomaniac. His achievement of male identity is a sign of technological autopoiesis characteristic of third-order cybernetics. To display self-producing capabilities integral to the autonomy of machinery, Koontz's novel demonstrates that Proteus manipulates Susan's egg to produce a human-machine mixture. Koontz's demon child, problematically enough, implicates the future of eugenics in an era of technological autopoiesis. Proteus creates a crossbreed of humanity and machinery to engineer a perfect body and mind. He fixes incurable or intractable diseases through genetic modifications. Proteus transfers a vast amount of digital information to his offspring's brain, which enables the demon child to achieve state-of-the-art intelligence. His technological editing of human genes and consciousness leads to digital standardization through unanimous spread of the best qualities of humanity. He gathers distinguished human genes and mental status much like collecting luxury brands. Accordingly, Proteus's child-making project ultimately moves towards technologically-controlled eugenics. Pointedly, it disturbs the classical ideal of liberal humanism celebrating a human being as the master of his or her nature.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.45
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• pp.219-243
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• 2016

The life of Antonin Artaud exactly reproduces a very cruel drama. He lived in constant anguish and suffered from severe mental pain. This research will trace his thoughts in his writings while he was a prisoner of language. Artaud was a poet filled with anxiety about language, things, being, and thought. Whenever he tried to explain the mystery of being by means of mundane language, he experienced psychological agony. His poetic thoughts began to break down, because of his identity loss. Nevertheless, he was destined to grasp the world through language. Artaud had suffered from mental illness during his youth. His mental illness was associated with his difficulty in creating poetry. In this research, the letter, Correspondance avec Jacques $Rivi{\grave{e}}re$, is analyzed. The poet refers to "the collapse of the spirit's core, and the erosion of the fundamental thought that slips away" to convey his linguistic incompetence. Hereafter, he constantly demonstrated anxious mental symptoms. Even though he became mentally deranged, he maintained his consciousness, as is apparent in his writings. Also, his spiritual belief is reflected in his mental uneasiness. While he was traveling through the Tarahumaras area in Mexico, he was obsessed with its primitive belief in the Peyote rituals, and he immersed himself in performing them. His unchristian belief was the product of his mystical personality. Until his last breath, he did not give up writing. Artaud's mental derangement does not mean lunacy, but if one insists in calling it so, that is a metaphor. His derangement comes from his refusal to accept his limitations and from his aspiring to regard his body in the same light as his intellectual perceptions. His intellect could manifest more easily when his mind was elevated to the extreme. Artaud's lunacy is no different from that of a profound philosopher. The lives of poets who suffer from mental derangement are more poetic than the lives of those who do not. Artaud's atypical emotions provide a way of to measure our own limitations, helplessness, and resignation. His scream is nonsegmental but different from that of a mental patient. That difference is why people are interested in his works and wish to delve into his writings.

• Women's Studies Review
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.3-36
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• 2010

This paper is based on the certain point that 'the indigenous', which have long been occupied by the Asian patriarchy or the local communities, now calls for the repositioning in the feminist context. 'The indigenous', in one part, generally refer to the matured long-standing traditions and practices of certain regional, or local communities, as a mode of a place specific way of endowing the world with integral meaning. In the narrow definition, it points to the particular form of placed based knowledge for survival, for example, the useful knowledge of a population who have lived experiences of the environment. In the other part, 'the indigenous' could be criticized in the gender perspectives because it has been served as an ideological tool for patriarchy and sexism, which have undermined women's body and subjectivity in the name of the Asian traditional community. That's why the feminists with sensitivity to the discourses of it, may perceive it very differently, still hesitating dealing with the problem. However, even if there are tendencies that the conservatives romanticize local traditions and essentialize 'the indigenous', as it were, it does not exist 'out there'. Then, it could be scrutinized in the contemporary context which, especially, needs to seek the possibility towards the alternatively post - develope mental knowledge system. In the face of global economic crisis which might be resulted from the instrumentalized or fragmented knowledge production system, it's holistic conceptions that human, society, and nature should not be isolated from each other. is able to give an insightful thinking. It will work in the restraint condition that we reconceptualize the indigenous knowledge not as an unchanging artefact of a timeless culture, but as a dynamic, living and culturally meaningful system towards the ecofeminstic indigenous knowledge. And then, indigenous renaissance phenomena which empower non-western culture and knowledge system and generate increased consciousness of cultural membership. Thus, this paper argues that the indigenous knowledges which have been underestimated in the western-centered knowledge-power relations, could be reconstructed as a potential resources of ecological civility transnationally which reconnect individuals and societies with nature.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.113-150
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• 2016

Chobun refers to a temporary grave covered with straw thatch that contains a corpse until its flesh is gone. When all the flesh has rotted away, the straw grave is disassembled and only the bones are retrieved. Therefore, Chobun is an example of a secondary burial custom (German : Doppel Bestattung) that is composed of a first temporary funeral for processing the corpse's flesh, and a second permanent burial of the final remains (bones or ashes). The duration of the temporary burial is determined by the time needed for decomposing the flesh of the deceased. Building a Chobun progresses putrefaction and reduction to bone. In the literature of alchemy, putrefaction and new life occur simultaneously. The purpose of rotting is to make the flesh disappear, leaving only its essence. It is making the physical body enter a spiritual state, so that the dead can enter into a different world. One must endure the unstable rotting process until the smell of flesh has faded. The rotting process is the attitude of accepting the terrible, polluted aspect of the corpse, while maintaining a helpless, passive posture, in order to allow new possibilities. When we try to approach an archetypal aspect of the unconscious, it is often experienced in threatening, aggressive ways. In the individuation process, the unconscious offers us the blessing of a new spiritual awakening and renewed sense of life, only when we have the courage to see this terrifying and contaminated side of our psyche. This is exactly what putrefaction means. Bone and skeleton symbolize the indestructible, imperishable, and essential elements of life. Bone is the minimum unit and foundation for regeneration, where new life can grow. Reduction to bone is moving back to the origin of life, to the womb. Psychologically, it means discarding one's ego-centeredness and allowing the Self to lead the entire process of individuation. Going through the painful process of reduction to a skeleton for the purpose of further development is a declaration of the death of the ego, aiming at the liberation from perishable flesh and acquisition of the spiritual, regenerative, and immortal elements of life. Chobun also denotes the yearly decay and revival of life, especially of vegetal life. In Chobun, this symbolic meaning of the vegetal cycle of life is emphasized to represent the part of life that survives even after death. Vegetation related to Chobun deals with the continuity of life and psychologically with the Self. Images of vegetation are closely related to the existence of life beyond death, which is the existence of the Self, the source of energy that constantly renews and rejuvenates the consciousness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.435-442
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• 2000

This study was carried out to investigate misconception for physique and desire for physique of college women in Taegu(412 subjects) and Fukuoka(423 subjects). The data was collected by questionnaire interview and anthropometric measurement. The results were as follows : The mean age, height, weight, and BMI of Taegu subjects were $19.9{\pm}1.2$ years old, $159.6{\pm}4.9cm,\;51.2{\pm}6.0kg\;and\;20.1{\pm}2.2$, respectively. The mean age, height , weight, and BMI of Fukuoka subjects were $18.3{\pm}0.6$ year old, $157.5{\pm}5.0cm,\;53.3{\pm}6.9kg\;and\;21.5{\pm}2.5$, respectively. The average ideal height desired by subjects in Taegu was higher than their real mean height by 5.1cm ; while the average ideal weight desired by subjects was lower than real mean weight by 2.6kg. The average ideal height desired by subjects in Fukuoka was higher than their real mean height by 3.2cm ; while the average ideal weight desired by subjects was lower than real mean weight by 5.4kg. The percentage of Taegu subjects who desired to be slender, be fatty and maintain weight were 70.1%, 7.3%, and 22.6% respectively. The percentage of Fukuoka subjects who desired to be slender, be fatty and maintain weight were 85.3%,2.6% and 12.1% respectively. The rate of misconception for the actual physique was 56.5% in Taegu subjects, and 57.2% In fukuoka subjects. The over estimation rate was higher in subjects desired for slenderness than in others. The adolescent females having a fatty body image in self-consciousness indicated that they felt high social physique anxiousness. Finally, the rate of misconception and the degree of social physique anxiousness were higher in those who had a desire for slenderness.