scholarly journals Power from Below in Premodern Societies

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Hierarchical Networks ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Concepts

This volume challenges previous views of social organization focused on elites by offering innovative perspectives on 'power from below.' Using a variety of archaeological, anthropological, and historical data to question traditional narratives of complexity as inextricably linked to top-down power structures, it exemplifies how commoners have developed strategies to sustain non-hierarchical networks and contest the rise of inequalities. Through case studies from around the world – ranging from Europe to New Guinea, and from Mesoamerica to China – an international team of contributors explore the diverse and dynamic nature of power relations in premodern societies. The theoretical models discussed throughout the volume include a reassessment of key concepts such as heterarchy, collective action, and resistance. Thus, the book adds considerable nuance to our understanding of power in the past, and also opens new avenues of reflection that can help inform discussions about our collective present and future.

scholarly journals Ontology-Mediated Historical Data Modeling: Theoretical and Practical Tools for an Integrated Construction of the Past

Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 182
Author(s):  
Esther Travé Allepuz ◽  
Pablo del Fresno Bernal ◽  
Alfred Mauri Martí
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Data Modeling ◽  
Construction Process ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
The Past ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Past Theory

Building upon the concepts of constructed past theory, this paper introduces the outcome of ontology-mediated data modeling developed by the authors within the last 15 years. Assuming that the past is something constructed through reflection of former times, one of our major concerns is guaranteeing the traceability of the construction process of an integrated historical discourse built from all available sources of information, regardless of their origin or nature. Therefore, by means of defining key concepts such as ‘unit of topography’ and ‘actor’, we created an information system for data gathering and exploitation and applied it to some experiences of construction of the past. When applied within the archaeological domain, the result is an archaeological information system interoperable with other sources of historical information. Its strength is that it ensures the traceability of the process from the beginning avoiding the introduction and repetition of errors within the system. Along with the main case example developed in this paper, we also summarize some other data modeling examples within the same conceptual framework.

scholarly journals Ancestry.com and the Evolving Nature of Historical Information Companies

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-28
Author(s):  
Jerome de Groot
Keyword(s):  
Dna Sequencing ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
Corporate Entity ◽  
The World ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
A Company ◽  
Historical Institution ◽  
The Way

This study of the genealogy and biotech company Ancestry analyzes the ways in which the organization has evolved over the past few years. Ancestry is difficult to categorize as a corporate entity. The company trades in servicing both “traditional” types of history (genealogical records) and, more recently, biotech-based investigation through the use of DNA sequencing. Ancestry is highly influential in the way that millions of people around the world access the past. Given this, the company’s shifts in focus are of great interest. Through considering various new elements of the way that Ancestry functions, and illustrating that this complexity is foundational to its purpose, the article suggests the company is redefining what a public historian or public historical institution might be, adding a scientific dimension to historical data and also acting to present a particular model of the past through its advertising campaigns. The article suggests that public history’s models for considering such protean organizations are in need of attention, and the complexity of such a company demonstrates new challenges and opportunities for scholars in the field.

Differentiating ‘dialect’ and ‘language’ in sign languages

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Sze ◽  
Silva Isma ◽  
Adhika Irlang Suwiryo ◽  
Laura Lesmana Wijaya ◽  
Adhi Kusumo Bharato ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
The World ◽  
Language Promotion

The distinction between languages and dialects has remained a controversial issue in literature. When such a distinction is made, it often has far-reaching implications in top-down language promotion and preservation policies that tend to favor only those varieties that are labelled as ‘languages’. This issue is of critical importance for the survival of most sign language varieties in the world from a socio-political point of view. Against this background, this paper discusses how the notions of ‘dialect’ and ‘language’ have been applied in classifying sign languages in the past few decades. In particular, the paper reports on two recent studies which provide linguistic evidence that the signing varieties used by Deaf signers in Jakarta and Yogyakarta in Indonesia should be regarded as distinct sign languages rather than mutually intelligible dialects of Indonesian Sign Language. The evidence comes from significant differences in the lexicon, preferred word order for encoding transitive events, and use of mouth actions. Our result suggests that signing varieties within a country can be significantly different from each other, thus calling for more concerted efforts in documenting and recognizing these differences if the linguistic needs of the signing communities are to be met.

scholarly journals Research into professional outcomes for psychotherapists trained at a centre for psychotherapy and transactional analysis in Italy

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugo De Ambrogio ◽  
Carla Dessi
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Transactional Analysis ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
The Past ◽  
Professional Outcomes ◽  
The World ◽  
Positive Results ◽  
Statistical Results

The authors developed a questionnaire and analysed professional outcomes for 98 former students who completed trainings in psychotherapy and transactional analysis, recognised by the Italian Ministry of University & Research, during the past 15 years at the Centre of Psychology and Transactional Analysis in Milan.  Statistical results were discussed with others and factors reviewed included how students managed in the world of work, and the positive results and critical elements of applying transactional analysis in psychotherapy.  Profess-ional life facts emerge in terms of a recognisable identity, ethical attention and satisfaction with the application of tools learned.  Flexibility in coping with stimuli and issues met in professional practice, and the desire to have an exchange with colleagues and between different theoretical models, are also identified.

Hegemonic Power Structures: A Study of Midnight’s Children

Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 843-847
Author(s):  
Dr. Sudhir Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Power ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
British Raj ◽  
The Past ◽  
British Trade ◽  
The World ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Midnight's Children ◽  
Present World

At the time of the Renaissance British trade flourished and reached its zenith with outward expansion of colonialism. British dominated the nineteenth century, but soon after the world wars, colonial power could neither exert the mode of control necessary to maintain their hold over the territories overseas nor morally justify their colonial hold on these territories. In the 1950s the colonized nations vigorously asserted themselves and as a result colonialism began to decline. Consequently, these marginalized civilizations resisted to colonial exploitation and subjugation. The western ideology in the last few centuries has shown an additional existential interest in Indian religion, art, culture and philosophy.Colonialism as a state of mind remains even after the formal ending of the British Raj as the ideology of Indian people is still triumphant in past. It still haunts the present and the post-colonial natives try to escape from the past. Now these natives want to createa space for themselves. The oppressed subjects of the post-colonial world try to get rid of hangover of the colonial past and thus want to realize the present world themselves. The oppressed subjects of the colonial world were treated cruelly and exploited by the imperial structures of power. The present paper tries to critically explore hegemonic power structures in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight Children.

Gender features of social mobility in power structures of different regions of Russia and the world

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-79
Author(s):  
Evgenia I. Gromova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Political Careers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Brics Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Leading Position ◽  
Gender Characteristics

The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of gender characteristics of social mobility in the power structures of Russia and other countries. By “peculiarity” we mean the fact of the possibility and the very presence of women in power structures in comparison with men. Among the “other countries”, this article primarily examines the leading economies of the world, and also provides interesting examples of gender characteristics of social mobility in the BRICS countries and developing countries. Within the framework of Russia, not only those power structures that are federal, but also those that govern the regions are analyzed and compared. Gender frames are considered in the article not only in the international and domestic Russian context, but also in the historical paradigm. So the first part of the article is devoted to the historical stages of the development of the women's movement in Russia and in the world. Considering the concept of Pitirim Sorokin about the sources of vertical social mobility in certain territories, the article tells about the solution of issues of equality regarding the political rights and freedoms of women in the dynamics of their development. The article also shows, using statistical material, how gender equality in Russia has lost its leading position in the world over the past 30 years. Comparative analysis with a number of European countries clearly demonstrates that the levels of power for women's social lifts in Russia are still “broken”, and the effects of gender inequality in political careers have found not the most pleasant metaphors: “sticky floor” and “glass ceiling”.

Couplets

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Massumi
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Conceptual Problems

In Couplets, Brian Massumi presents twenty-four essays that represent the full spectrum of his work during the past thirty years. Conceived as a companion volume to Parables for the Virtual, Couplets addresses the key concepts of Parables from different angles and contextualizes them, allowing their stakes to be more fully felt. Rather than organizing the essays chronologically or by topic, Massumi pairs them into couplets to encourage readers to make connections across conventional subject matter categories, to encounter disjunctions, and to link different phases in the evolution of his work. In his analyses of topics ranging from art, affect, and architecture to media theory, political theory, and the philosophy of experience, Massumi charts a field on which a family of conceptual problems plays out in ways that bear on the potentials for acting and perceiving the world. As an essential guide to Massumi's oeuvre, Couplets is both a primer for his new readers and a supplemental resource for those already engaged with his thought.

Societies in Movement vs. Institutional Continuities? Insights from the Zapatista Experience

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 114-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Guillén
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
National Liberation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
America Latina

In Latin America and other parts of the world, the social volatility of the past two decades has focused attention on the traditional concepts of what political structures and practices should be, highlighting what might be characterized as an empirical bursting at the seams of the classic normative frameworks. In this context it is of interest to analyze the proposal of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation—EZLN) to establish a political-social organization parallel to the institutional framework recognized by Mexican law and contribute to the debate that has arisen about this kind of experiment and its transformational potential. En América Latina y en otras partes del mundo la efervescencia social de las últimas dos décadas ha interpelado las concepciones tradicionales sobre el deber ser de las estructuras y practices políticias, escenificando lo que podría caracterizarse como un desbordamiento empírico de los encuadres normativos clásicos. Frente a tal scenario interesa analizar la propuesta del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) para esta-blecer una organización politico-social paralela al andamiaje institucional reconocido por la legislación y abonar al debate que desde el pensamiento crítico se está promoviendo sobre este tipo de experiencia y su potencial transformador.

Putting the Mandala in its Place: A Practice-based Approach to the Spatialization of Power on the Southeast Asian ‘Periphery’—The Case of the Akha

1996 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah E. Tooker
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Similar Form ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Concentric Circles ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Hierarchical Status

In this article, I argue that the ‘mandala’ and other spatialized concepts associated with the ‘cosmic polity’ in Southeast Asia (such as ‘exemplary center’ and ‘sinking status’, ‘galactic polity’, ‘concentric circles’, ‘nested emboxment’, etc.) are key concepts with a similar form that have dominated theories of premodern Southeast Asian political and social structure. I claim that previous approaches to the mandala polity have been defined from the perspective of dominant political groups, and thus are top-down or center-out models. As a result, theorists have inadvertently reified this perspective in a set of analytical concepts that reaffirm existing power structures. As such, they have skewed our understandings of the mandala away from that of a socially enacted set of spatial codes that communicate and index hierarchical status between individuals and groups, both dominant and nondominant.

scholarly journals Earthquake in Nepal: A Miserable Environmental Hazard Visited by Nature

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 56-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiva Kant Dube
Keyword(s):  
Active Region ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Environmental Hazards ◽  
Environmental Hazard ◽  
Rescue Operation ◽  
Tectonic Plates ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
World Distribution

Indian and Tibetan tectonic plates and therefore lies in a seismically active region. Historical data evidence the occurrence of destructive great earthquakes in the past. Earthquakes are caused mainly due to disequilibrium in any part of the crust of the earth. If we look at the world distribution of earthquake, it appears that the earthquake belts are closely associated with the weaker zones of the seismotectonics of the region. It is an instrument for seismic surveillance allowing a fast post-earthquake rescue operation. This paper incorporates a case of earthquake occurred in April, 2015 as one of the environmental hazards visited by nature which proved disastrous causing massive loss of lives and properties to the vulnerable regions. It can be taken as a lesson to mitigate massive loss of lives and properties selecting isostatically proper land structure and constructing safe settlements for habitat in Nepalese context.Academic Voices Vol.5 2015:  56-66

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