Change and Continuity in Europe and the Mediterranean around 1600 bc

2015 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 239-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Risch ◽  
Harald Meller
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Thera Eruption

Based on recent evidence from both archaeological and natural sciences, in this paper we would like to sketch a historical geography of Europe and the Mediterranean around the year 1600 bc and then discuss the changes observed during the 16th century bc in relation to a possible correspondence with the Thera eruption. Our point of departure will be the sequence of events that took place during the months and years just before, during, and immediately after the Thera eruption. The available archaeological evidence permits us to explore the response of the local and regional communities, the logistics that were mobilised, and the political decisions adopted in light of these events. From this local and regional scenario we will move on to discuss the changes occurring in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East during the 16th century bc. At least four different socio-economic and political scenarios can be sketched, showing that the responses of Bronze Age societies were highly variable. At that point, we can ask how different political structures existing at the time reacted or were affected by the ecological and/or social dynamics. Basically, our itinerary concludes that the Thera eruption did not cause a severe climatic or environmental change, but touched the ideological realm particularly of those socio-political entities which were more dependent on complex ideological superstructures in order to legitimate extreme economic exploitation.

Pictures and people. Seals, figurines and Peloponnesian imagery

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 185-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Weiberg
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Initial Description ◽  
Seal Impressions ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Coastal Settlement

The point of departure for this paper is the publication of two Early Helladic sealing fragments from the coastal settlement of Asine on the north-east Peloponnese in Greece. After an initial description and discussion they are set in the context of sealing custom established on the Greek mainland around 2500 BCE. In the first part of the paper focus is on the apparent qualitative differences between the available seals and the contemporary seal impressions, as well as between different sealing assemblages on northeastern Peloponnese. This geographical emphasis is carried into the second part of the paper which is a review and contextualisation of the representational art of the Aegean Early Bronze Age in general, and northeastern Peloponnese in particular. Seal motifs and figurines are the main media for Early Helladic representational art preserved until today, yet in many ways very dissimilar. These opposites are explored in order to begin to build a better understanding of Peloponnesian representational art, the choices of motifs, and their roles in the lives of the Early Helladic people.

La politique forestière vaudoise: une orientation résolument «patrimoine multifonctionnel» | Forestry policy in the canton of Vaud: the “multifunctional heritage” option

2011 ◽  
Vol 162 (7) ◽  
pp. 209-215
Author(s):  
Jean-François Métraux
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
The Political ◽  
Wood Production ◽  
Forest Owners ◽  
Forestry Policy ◽  
Forestry Management ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Forest Managers

In the years since 2000, the authorities in charge of forests in canton Vaud have made some substantial changes as a reaction to the political decisions arising from the Swiss Forest Programme and the projected revision of the Federal forestry Law, as well as to the deterioration of the economic situation in forestry enterprises. This article gives a survey of the directions taken. Thus the canton recognises the primordial role of wood production as a driving force behind the creation of a multifunctional forest. The Service for Forests, Wildlife and Nature has invested a great deal in planning, and has redefined the management plan to be an instrument intended for forest owners and forest managers. The canton has innovated by introducing forestry groups and a scheme of equalisation of forestry costs between communes. Hence the conception of forestry management in canton Vaud is resolutely that of a multifunctional natural heritage.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Sajó ◽  
Renáta Uitz
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Practical Applications

This book examines the implications of constitutionalism for the constitutional legal order and the political community which is meant to live by it. The book demonstrates what is at stake in the debate on constitutionalism through numerous examples of political anomalies and abuse of power. It presents stories of constitutional success and failure to give a sense of the current threats, arguing that constitutions are not mere practical applications of political philosophies or opportunistic political deals. The book considers foundational issues related to constitutions and constitutionalism as reflected in influential ideas, political practices, and social dynamics behind the scenes.

scholarly journals THE PROTECTION OF THE RICH AGAINST THE POOR: THE POLITICS OF ADAM SMITH’S POLITICAL ECONOMY

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-158
Author(s):  
James A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
General Attitude ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Natural Forms ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Point Of Departure

AbstractMy point of departure in this essay is Smith’s definition of government. “Civil government,” he writes, “so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.” First I unpack Smith’s definition of government as the protection of the rich against the poor. I argue that, on Smith’s view, this is always part of what government is for. I then turn to the question of what, according to Smith, our governors can do to protect the wealth of the rich from the resentment of the poor. I consider, and reject, the idea that Smith might conceive of education as a means of alleviating the resentment of the poor at their poverty. I then describe how, in his lectures on jurisprudence, Smith refines and develops Hume’s taxonomy of the opinions upon which all government rests. The sense of allegiance to government, according to Smith, is shaped by instinctive deference to natural forms of authority as well as by rational, Whiggish considerations of utility. I argue that it is the principle of authority that provides the feelings of loyalty upon which government chiefly rests. It follows, I suggest, that to the extent that Smith looked to government to protect the property of the rich against the poor, and thereby to maintain the peace and stability of society at large, he cannot have sought to lessen the hold on ordinary people of natural sentiments of deference. In addition, I consider the implications of Smith’s theory of government for the question of his general attitude toward poverty. I argue against the view that Smith has recognizably “liberal,” progressive views of how the poor should be treated. Instead, I locate Smith in the political culture of the Whiggism of his day.

Gabriele d’Annunzio’s Notturno, the book of the Italian war: Political commitment, national regeneration and its ideological roots

2021 ◽  
pp. 001458582110054
Author(s):  
Guylian Nemegeer ◽  
Mara Santi
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Political Message ◽  
Political Project ◽  
Political Value ◽  
Cultural Message

This article argues that Gabriele d’Annunzio’s Notturno conveys a conscious political and cultural message which is consequent of his long-lasting political commitment to the nation. This political value of the book has been mainly overlooked. Therefore, the first part of the article shows the locations of the political and war-related content, and how the book can be considered as a war diary. Moreover, the first part of the article relates the Notturno to d’Annunzio’s political project for the nation at the time when the book was composed (1915–1921). The aim of this part is to dispel the enduring critical misinterpretation of the Notturno as an intimate collection of memories and visions and to foreground its national value. The second part of the article addresses the roots of the Notturno’s political message from a literary point of view by relating it to the national commitment underlying d’Annunzio’s works since the 1880s. This commitment is based on the revalorization in the author’s literary works of the Italian national past, in particular of the 16th century, where d’Annunzio continues and renews the national storytelling of the Risorgimento.

The Workers' Movement and Political Change in Spain, 1956–1977

2013 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 70-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Domènech Sampere
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Labor History ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Franco Regime ◽  
Common People ◽  
Progressive Decline ◽  
The Common ◽  
Open The Doors ◽  
Young Researchers

“That the number of our Members be unlimited” … Today we might pass over such a rule as a commonplace: and yet it is one of the hinges upon which history turns. It signified the end to any notion of exclusiveness, of politics as the preserve of any hereditary elite or property Group … To throw open the doors to propaganda and agitation in this “unlimited” way implied a new notion of democracy, which cast aside ancient inhibitions and trusted to self-activating and self-organising processes among the common people.E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class The decline of labor history in the research agenda of senior Spanish scholars matches the surprising interest in it of young researchers as indicated by the opening of new lines of research and the explosion of studies on other social movements that also have a strong class character in their origins. Moreover, despite the progressive decline of published academic research on the quintessential social movement, the truth is that its history is still crucial for understanding the political and social dynamics of the late Franco regime and the first years of democracy for at least two reasons.

CULTURAL INTERACTION BETWEEN SAFAVID IRAN AND OTTOMAN TURKEY IN 16TH CENTURY

2020 ◽  
pp. 136-148
Author(s):  
I. A. Averianov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Cultural Codes ◽  
Religious Worldview ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sufi Order ◽  
Main Support

Сoming to power of the Safavids Sufi dynasty in Iran (in the person of Shah Ismail I) in 1501 caused noticeable transformations in the political, social, cultural and religious life of the Near and Middle East. This dynasty used the semi-nomadic tribes of the Oguz Turks (‘Kyzylbash’) as its main support, which it managed to unite under the auspices of military Sufi order of Safaviyya. However, the culture of the Safavid state was dominated by a high style associated with the classical era of the Persian cultural area (‘Greater Iran’) of the 10th–15th centuries. The Iranian-Turkic synthesis that emerged in previous centuries received a new form with the adoption by the Safavids of Twelver Shiism as an official religious worldview. This put the neighboring Ottoman state in a difficult position, as it had to borrow cultural codes from ‘heretics’. Nevertheless, the Ottomans could not refuse cultural interaction with the Safavids, since they did not have any other cultural landmark in that era. This phenomenon led to a number of collisions in the biographies of certain cultural figures who had to choose between commonwealth with an ‘ideological enemy’ or rivalry, for the sake of which they often had to hide their personal convictions and lead a ‘double life’. The fates of many people, from the crown princes to ordinary nomads, were broken or acquired a tragic turn during the Ottoman-Safavid conflict of ‘spiritual paths’. However, many other poets, painters, Sufis sometimes managed to transform this external opposition into the symbolism of religious and cultural synthesis. In scholarly literature, many works explore certain aspects of the culture of the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid state separately, but there are almost no works considering the synthesis of cultures of these two largest Muslim states. Meanwhile, the author argues, that understanding the interaction and synthesis of the Ottoman and Safavid cultures in the 16th century is a key moment for the cultural history of the Islamic world. The article aims to outline the main points of this cultural synthesis, to trace their dependence on the ideology of the two states and to identify the personality traits of a ‘cultured person’ that contributed to the harmonization of the culture of two ideologically irreconcilable, but culturally complementary empires. A comparative study of this kind is supported by Ottoman sources. In the future, the author will continue this research, including the sources reflecting the perception of the Ottoman cultural heritage by the Safavids.

Towards the Socratic Mission: Imitatio Socratis

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-222
Author(s):  
Mathias G. Parding
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Climate ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Political Associations ◽  
The One ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
The Church

Abstract It is known that Kierkegaard’s relation to politics was problematic and marked by a somewhat reactionary stance. The nature of this problematic relation, however, will be shown to lie in the tension between his double skepticism of the order of establishment [det Bestående] on the one hand, and the political associations of his age on the other. In this tension he is immersed, trembling between Scylla and Charybdis. On the one hand Kierkegaard is hesitant to support the progressive political movements of the time due to his skepticism about the principle of association in the socio-psychological climate of leveling and envy. On the other hand, his dubious support of the order of the establishment, in particular the Church and Bishop Mynster, becomes increasingly problematic. The importance of 1848 is crucial in this regard since this year marks the decisive turn in Kierkegaard’s authorship. Using the letters to Kolderup-Rosenvinge in the wake of the cataclysmic events of 1848 as my point of departure, I wish to elucidate the pathway towards what Kierkegaard himself understands as his Socratic mission.

scholarly journals Big-Men and Small Chiefs: The Creation of Bronze Age Societies

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rune Iversen
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Early Late ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Big Men

AbstractThis paper investigates to what extent the significant material changes observable at the end of the Neolithic reflect transformations of the underlying social dynamics. Answering this question will help us to understand the formation of Bronze Age societies. The analysis concerns southern Scandinavia with a certain focus on Denmark. The assumption is that the creation of Bronze Age societies must be understood as a long formative process that partly originated in the culturally-heterogeneous Middle Neolithic. Four aspects seem to have been essential to this process: the rise of the warrior figure, the reintroduction of metal, increased agricultural production, and the establishment of one of the characteristic features of the Bronze Age, the chieftain hall. These aspects do not appear simultaneously but are introduced stepby- step starting out in the late Middle Neolithic and early Late Neolithic to fully develop around 2000 BC. Consequently, this paper argues that the final Late Neolithic (LN II, c. 1950-1700 BC) was de facto part of the Earliest Bronze Age.

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