How to capture the ‘wow’: R.R. Marett's notion of awe and the study of religion⋆

Current scholarship in the social sciences and humanities, including the study of religion, shows a marked appraisal of bodily sensations, emotions, and experiences as eminently social and politico‐aesthetic phenomena (rather than reducing them to a matter of mere individual psychology). How to grasp the genesis of shared perceptions and feelings, and even some kind of ‘wow’ effect, in relation to a posited ‘beyond’ has become a central issue for scholars of religion today. Placed against the horizon of the material turn in the study of religion, R.R. Marett's approach to religion as an ‘organic complex of thought, emotion, and behaviour’ and his concept of awe gain renewed topicality. Engaging with Marett's ideas in the context of broader debates about religious experience, in this article (which is based on my 2014 Marett lecture) I call attention to the surplus generated in the interplay of religious things and bodily sensations and explore its role in politics and aesthetics of religious world‐making. My central point is that Marett's work offers valuable resources for an approach to religion that neither takes for granted the existence of a god or transcendental force (as in ontological approaches), nor invests in unmasking it as an illusion (as in critiques of religion as irrational), but instead undertakes a close study of the standardized methods that yield the fabrication of some kind of excess that points to a ‘beyond’ and yet is grounded in the here and now.     

Genetic mapping of cytological and isozyme markers on chromosomes 1R, 3R, 4R and 6R of rye

Cytogenetic maps involving chromosomes 1R, 3R, 4R and 6R have been developed from the analysis of offspring of crosses between multiple heterozygous rye plants. The maps include isozyme loci GpiR1, Mdh-R1 and Pgd2 (located in chromosome 1R), Mdh-R2 (located in chromosome 3R), Pgm-R1 (located in chromosome 4R) and Aco-R1 (located in chromosome 6R). Various telomeric and interstitial C-bands of these four chromosomes, the centromere split of chromosome 3R, and translocation TR01 were used as cytological markers. By means of electron microscope analysis of spread pachytene synaptonemal complexes, the breakpoint of TR01 was physically mapped in chromosome arms 4RS and 6RL. From the linkage data, conclusions were derived concerning the cytological locations of the isozyme loci and the physical extent of the evolutive translocations involving chromosome arm 6RL.     

Genome constitutions of Roegneriaalashanica,R. elytrigioides,R. magnicaespes and R. grandis (Poaceae: Triticeae) via genomic in‐situ hybridization

The genomic constitutions of Roegneria alashanica, R. elytrigioides, R. magnicaespes and R. grandis were studied using GISH. DNA of Pseudoroegneria spicata (St), P. libanotica (St), P. stipifolia (St), R. ciliaris (StY), Lopophyllum elongatum (E^e), Agropyron cristatum (P) and Hordeum bogdanii (H) were used for probing, respectively. The results indicated that: 1) R. alashanica and R. magnicaespes contained one St genome, the other genome was unidentified, however, it was not an E, P, H or Y genome; 2) R. elytrigioides contained two St genomes and should on this basis be included in Pseudoroegneria; 3) R. grandis contained an St and an St^g genome. The St^g genome is suggested to be a modified form of the St genome of Pseudoroegneria and to be homoeologous with the Y genome. It might be an intermediate type between the St and Y genomes. Therefore, R. elytrigioides should be treated as Pseudoroegneriaelytrigioides.Roegneria alashanica, R. magnicaespes and R. grandis does apparently not belong in the genus Roegneria but further studies are needed to establish their correct taxonomic position.     

48. R. Knapp: Einfluß der Laubstreu einiger afrikanischer Gräser und Trockengehölz-Arten auf die Keimung;

Laubstreu von je zwei afrikanischen Gräsern (Enneapogon scoparius, Brachiaria nigropedata) und Trockengehölzarten (Colophospermum mopane, Combretum apiculatum) hemmt die Keimung von verschiedenen einjährigen Pflanzen (als Beispiele dargestellt: Panicum miliaceum, Setaria italica, Amaranthus gangeticus, Celosia argentea) mehr oder weniger stark. In mehreren Fällen ist die Quantität des hemmenden Effektes bei den verschiedenen Temperaturen, bei denen die Untersuchungen erfolgten (16 und 32 °C), unterschiedlich. Die mögliche Bedeutung dieses Einflusses der Laubstreu für das differenzierte Auftreten von Keimlingen in der afrikanischen Savannen-, Trockengehölz- und Graslandvegetation wird erörtert.