Architecture has been indebted to geometric surfaces since ancient times, as books of descriptive geometry are witness: “Any architectonic creation is Geometry”. However, such geometries have evolved from classical surfaces to those designed with the help of a new discipline: Computer Aided Geometric Design (CAGD). The author reviews pre-computer geometric design exemplified by the use of hyperbolic paraboloids (Gaudí and Candela), its origin in the automotive industry and how it has been used brilliantly by Gehry in the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.

Between 1925 and 1975, the Sahara desert grew, especially southward, about 645,000 km2, and in some parts of Sudan, the southern boundary of the desert moved

The genome and the complexity of living beings. The genome of an organism is the whole DNA content of its cells, including genes and intergenic regions. In prokaryotes (Archaea and

Wine: culture and economy. Above all, wine is a food product, which, on gaining commercial importance, has also become a part of our economy. At the same time, wine also

The position held by women in scientific fields has greatly improved in recent years, above all in the last decade with the adoption of gender equality policies. However, although there are ever increasing numbers of women in academia, there is clearly still some way to go.

ABSTRACT Scientific and, particularly, medical discourses have played a key role in the creation and dissemination of the standard model of motherhood envisaged as a vocation in itself, an exclusive task,

Social and cultural anthropology has studied reproduction from numerous viewpoints.

ABSTRACT A scientific career is often like an obstacle course, but for women there are additional problems and specific mechanisms of exclusion. This article shows us the strategies used to overcome

This article is a personal reflection about the context and determining aspects that have caused the exclusion of women from the scientific sphere, from the viewpoint of cultural history.

The traditional exclusion of women from the public sphere, from education, politics, art and culture, as well as women's confinement to the domestic realm, have –little by little– undergone steady

Many festivals held in Italy feature ceremonial bread as an offering. The presence of votive breads, sometimes made in human form, is widespread in several regions. In Sicily one can still encounter a wide range of ceremonial breads, in particular during the festivities celebrating Saint Joseph and Easter. These «special» breads are also given as offerings during many other festivals and celebrations of special relevance to particular communities. Given their shape and ritual use, anthropomorphic breads are of particular interest, which are ex-votives proffered to restore order in the body and the cosmos.

Food plays a major role in the traditional calendar, and many festivals are inextricably linked to food-related customs. The culinary heritage of the Piedmont region of Italy is currently subject to reassessment and reinterpretation, at the service of creative logic, which is proposing to overcome the economic crisis by recovering traditional savoir faire. There are movements within this school of thought, like Slow Food and initiatives such as those taken by the University of Gastronomic Sciences, which has made a survey on the role of food in festivals.

This article deals with festivities linked to rites of passage, which serve to sanction changes in social status based on age and gender. Therefore, it looks at rituals related to the life cycle, such as baptism, first communion, marriage or death, symbolic actions intertwined with a thoroughly culture-defined biological cycle and occurring in unequivocally festive contexts.

Immersed in modernity the festival has become a reflexive celebration of identity, a gateway to transcend everyday life. It is a special time to regain consciousness in front of

Els dos modes bàsics d’elaboració de calendaris, el de dies assenyalats i el de cicles estacionals o mensuals, els mostren com una sèrie de codificacions que revelen una concepció qualitativa del temps, i ambdós són formes institucionalitzades.

© Antonio Ariño I seem to recall my first memories of the Muixeranga1 were set in the street Molí de la Vila, just where

  To trace the evolutionary origins of festive celebrations as specific forms of ritualistic interactions, we will pinpoint the repertoire of festive activities (playing, singing, dancing, music making

Like any social institution, festivals are universal: a society without a festive ritual of its own is unknown. But what is a festival? Beyond any normative definition, we can state

© Vicenç M. RossellóCala d'Or (Mallorca). The wave of tourism-driven urban development that hit the Balearic Islands from the mid-twentieth century on has greatly

A la literatura balear, la cala no ha centrat el protagonisme de la poesia, tot i la seua predominança en el paisatge de les Illes, però sí que hi té una presència selecta.

Caves are an essential part of thee Mediterranean coast and they have a close relationship with coves. The article explores Mallorca's caves and coves.