Ardabil Becomes a Province: Center-Periphery Relations in Iran

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. Chehabi

Amid all the attention that Iranian politics has received since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, local politics has been almost totally neglected. This neglect vitiates our understanding of contemporary Iran, as it is at the local level that state policies are carried out, contested, reshaped, resisted, or revised. Beginning with the centralizing state-building of Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1926–41), Tehran increasingly dominated Iran's politics, commercial activities, and cultural life, and most of the country's Westernized elites lived in the capital. The 1979 revolution was to some extent a populist revolt against this Westernized elite, and among the new rulers those whose social and family roots are outside Tehran abound. Among the common people, “the experience of participation in mass political activity … undermined the feeling of political abjection,” while the new rulers have attempted, not always successfully, to lessen the gap not only between rich and poor, but also between rich and poor provinces. The new prominence of provincials in national life has gone hand in hand with a greater recognition of Iran's ethnic and linguistic diversity, while at the same time the sense of common participation in the revolution and the Iran–Iraq War has knitted people of different ethnic backgrounds more closely together.

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-93
Author(s):  
Kersti Lust

AbstractThis article is a case study of wrecking, based on a database of hundreds of shipwrecks that occurred between 1780 and 1870, in what is today Estonia. Through a qualitative analysis of narrative sources, it examines the wrecking activities of manorial lords as well as of their peasants. Contrary to the international scholarly tradition, which views wrecking as an activity of the common people, this article sheds light on the deceptive and opportunistic activities of manorial lords, who were responsible for enforcing the law at the local level by performing police and court functions, but who, at the same time, benefited on a large scale from wrecking. The article contrasts this with the opportunities coastal peasants had to wreck for their own profit. In wrecking and salvage, the three characteristic elements of peasant-landlord relationships – exploitation, partnership, and patronage – emerge. In contrast with studies focusing on the friction between peasants and their lords in regions dominated by manorialism, this article argues that, in wrecking, their collaboration apparently proceeded without much conflict in this period.


Author(s):  
Simion Roșca

Cultural diversity is, as biodiversity, an element of the common heritage of humanity, whose defense is an ethical imperative inseparable from respect for the dignity of the human person. The concept of cultural diversity permits the existence of a variety of different cultures that are not, by far, isolated, but interact and intersect at all times. The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expression of 2005 stated that cultural diversity is a defining feature of humanity and is aware of the fact that cultural diversity is a common heritage of humanity, being necessary for humanity just as biodiversity is necessary for nature .     Everyone has the right to participate in cultural life, to have access to culture, has the right to respect for cultural identity and to identify with a cultural community, has the right to cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, the right to freely run cultural activities, etc. In this study the author will attempt to analyze and define the concept of "cultural diversity" as well as its basic culture component. Keywords: cultural diversity, culture, cultural heritage, cultural identity, European Union, humanity, cultural factor


Author(s):  
Marta Celati

This chapter presents a critical study of Giovanni Pontano’s De bello Neapolitano, the historical account of the ‘conspiracy of the barons’ against Ferdinando of Aragon, king of Naples, and the war that followed the rebellion (1459–65). Pontano’s work is contextualized in the historical and cultural scenario of the Aragonese monarchy and in the humanist’s broader literary and political activity, as a historian, political and literary theorist, and royal secretary. In particular the De bello Neapolitano can be placed in the realm of ‘political historiography’, a genre that enjoyed considerable fortune in Italian Renaissance. Pontano’s work is inspired by different models, both classical and contemporary, and continues the tradition of Aragonese historiography (inaugurated by Valla, Facio, and Panormita). Moreover, the chapter examines the text from a political angle by investigating its connections with Pontano’s most significant political-theoretical treatises: De principe and De obedientia. The analysis illustrates how the humanist’s princely ideology and his theory of statecraft is framed by means of different works, through the interplay of historical narrative and theoretical speculation. In this productive literary interaction, the topic of internal political conflict occupies a prominent position and its treatment in Pontano’s works reveals a developing idea of political realism. Pontano provides a concrete model of an ideal state that is based on the principle of obedience and on the hierarchical relationship between different social components: the prince, the barons, and the common people, components that play a key function, both narrative and exemplary, also in the humanist’s historical work.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Kunal Debnath

High culture is a collection of ideologies, beliefs, thoughts, trends, practices and works-- intellectual or creative-- that is intended for refined, cultured and educated elite people. Low culture is the culture of the common people and the mass. Popular culture is something that is always, most importantly, related to everyday average people and their experiences of the world; it is urban, changing and consumeristic in nature. Folk culture is the culture of preindustrial (premarket, precommodity) communities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 907-912
Author(s):  
Deepika Masurkar ◽  
Priyanka Jaiswal

Recently at the end of 2019, a new disease was found in Wuhan, China. This disease was diagnosed to be caused by a new type of coronavirus and affected almost the whole world. Chinese researchers named this novel virus as 2019-nCov or Wuhan-coronavirus. However, to avoid misunderstanding the World Health Organization noises it as COVID-19 virus when interacting with the media COVID-19 is new globally as well as in India. This has disturbed peoples mind. There are various rumours about the coronavirus in Indian society which causes panic in peoples mind. It is the need of society to know myths and facts about coronavirus to reduce the panic and take the proper precautionary actions for our safety against the coronavirus. Thus this article aims to bust myths and present the facts to the common people. We need to verify myths spreading through social media and keep our self-ready with facts so that we can protect our self in a better way. People must prevent COVID 19 at a personal level. Appropriate action in individual communities and countries can benefit the entire world.


The present work, The Struggle of My Life: An Autobiography of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, is an English translation of Sahajanand’s autobiography, written in Hindi, Mera Jeevan Sangarsh. It carries an introduction by the translator which briefly deals with the Swami’s life and legacy. It needs to be emphasized that this is not an autobiography in the common run. Its primary focus is not on Swami’s persona; its central theme is the cause of the freedom movement in general and in particular, of the peasant movement under his leadership. It tells of the life and legacy of one of the most uncompromising and fearless freedom fighters and peasant leaders. It covers the social and political history of one of the most crucial periods of our national life, 1920–47. Today, when the Indian peasantry is faced with a number of intractable problems, it reminds them of the struggles of the peasants of yesteryears and the kind of trials and tribulations they went through. It is also remarkable that despite his vast learning and command over Sanskrit, Swami chose to write in simple, colloquial Hindi. That only speaks for his total identification with the masses. Both the teaching and student community as well as general readers would find this book useful, interesting and intellectually stimulating.


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