Animals and Philosophy. The article aims at explaining the meaning of animals appearing in erotic scenes of Ancient Greek initiatory rites (in vase paintings from 6-4 centuries B. C.). What role could be accredited to these scenes in the context of Ancient Greek education and philosophy? Author analyses possible relations of animals to the fooodconsumption, game or fight, to potential attributes of beloved and lover as well and eventually also to the very paederasty and educational process.
Charles Darwin is celebrated for his claim that man and primates developed from a common ancestor. Man has been, since Darwin, treated by science as a biological species and scientists often compare his faculties to the instincts of animals. At the same time, the other side of Darwin’s discovery is forgotten – animals are similar to man in their behaviour and emotions. While for Darwin himself an anthropomorphic view of animals was self-evident, many contemporary Darwinists prefer a mechanical model. These two contradictory tendencies are established here by reference to the work of the biologists Richard Dawkins and Frans de Waal. The difference of perspective from which animals are viewed can be best seen in connection with the problem-area of morality and its evolutionary origin. It is shown that the empirical orientation of de Waal is fundamentally closer to the Darwinian tradition of research than Dawkins’ theoretical approach.
In 2018, during a rescue archaeological excavation taking place in one of the gardens of Staré Město near Uherské Hradiště, 23 early medieval graves containing skeletal remains of 26 individuals were detected. The site is situated on the northern border of the well-known Great Moravian burial ground ‘Na Valách’. In a large number of the newly excavated graves, greater or lesser deviations from the usual funeral rite were recorded. While the established burial rite in Great Moravian society means the deceased lies on their back in the supine position with extended extremities and head towards the west, here we found skeletons in very different orientations, lying in a prone or crouched position, or, at least, with unusual positions of their upper or lower limbs. Additionally, some of the graves contained incomplete or no skeletons. There is also one double burial and a triple burial, and several graves in superpositions. In nine graves, objects of material culture were found, the most important of them come from the rider’s grave 20/2018. The presented study aims to interpret the burial contexts using the bioarchaeological approach, which is, however, affected by the quality of the preserved finds, especially skeletal remains.
Although it has been generally reported that carnivorous plants of the genus Nepenthes are not very selective about their prey, the new studies have shown that the genus is under a strong selective pressure to specialize in certain prey. Moreover, novel nutrient sequestration strategies have recently been described, including leaf litter and faeces utilization. Thus the genus Nepenthes is a new and illustrative example of adaptive radiation with regard to nitrogen sequestration strategy. and Andrej Pavlovič.