Decline or Survival? Iron Production in West Africa from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Centuries

1982 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Pole
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Iron Production ◽  
Production Constraints ◽  
Iron Smelting ◽  
Local Sources ◽  
Non Local

In the sixteenth century most iron used in west Africa was produced within the region. Extra demand may have been met from the newly established European factors on the coast. By the end of the nineteenth century, in contrast, it was the residue in demand that was satisfied from local sources, the main bulk of iron being imported via the coast and transported inland. For the larger part of this 400-year period imported iron was cheaper than locally-produced iron. What was remarkable, then, was not that iron smelting eventually died out, but that it survived for so long and could be studied in detail in the second half of the twentieth century.It is argued that, although the decline can be related to production constraints, such as the availability of charcoal, influences originating from the rest of the community can be seen to have prolonged the survival of local iron. The organization of labour of both the iron-smelting and blacksmithing processes, together with the way in which iron was marketed, are central to the analysis. In addition, consumption factors are of the utmost importance. Apart from the prejudice against innovation, the fact that imported iron was plainly not as suitable as local iron for the purposes to which it was put, weakened its impact. Also the ritual attitude to local iron has to be taken into consideration. The present universality of non-local sources has resulted in a change in the regard paid to the metal, but it is argued that the position of the smith is unlikely to alter significantly, since it is more related to his crucial role as supplier of tools for other essential activities such as farming, than to the production of iron itself.

The Volta River Salt Trade: the Survival of an Indigenous Industry

1981 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. B. Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Commercial Production ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Motor Transport ◽  
Local Sources ◽  
Salt Trade

Salt has been produced in Ghana since at least the sixteenth century at many coastal sites. By the nineteenth century commercial production was concentrated in the lagoons east of Accra, and especially at Songor Lagoon just west of Ada. Here the Ada Manche and the priesthood controlled production. Much salt consumed in Asante and further north came from Accra, Ningo and Songor, and an increasing proportion went up the Volta River by canoe. The share of salt trade in the hands of the Ada traders is reflected in their virtual monopoly of the river traffic and their settlement in trading communities along the river. The British attempted to regulate and tax the trade, but market forces were more important in determining price. Salt from Ada was generally preferred to imported salt and to salt from other local sources, but the alternative of imported salt helped regulate the local prices. The importance of Daboya as a source of salt seems to have been somewhat exaggerated. Salt from Ada continued to predominate in much of Ghana in the twentieth century, but the river traffic was gradually replaced by motor transport, and the hold of the Adas on the distributive network broken. Salt continued to be produced by traditional methods at Songor until quite recently. It is still produced by traditional means for a fairly wide sale at Keta Lagoon, east of the Volta.

Maritime Archaeological Studies in India

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aniruddh S. Gaur ◽  
Kamlesh H. Vora
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Maritime History ◽  
Indian Coast ◽  
Indian Ocean Trade ◽  
History Of ◽  
Detailed Work

India has played a major role in Indian Ocean trade and the development of shipbuilding technology. The study of the maritime history of India commenced in the first decade of the twentieth century and was largely based on literary data. Maritime archaeological investigations have been undertaken at various places along the Indian coast, such as in Dwarka, Pindara, the Gulf of Khambhat, the Maharashtra coast, the Tamil Nadu coast, etc. Despite a long coastline and a rich maritime history, there are no proper coastal records or records of shipwrecks that are preserved, except some literary references, which suggest a large number of shipwrecks dating between the early sixteenth century and the nineteenth century. This article discusses important shipwrecks on which detailed work is in progress.

Stone Materials, Constructions Techniques and Alterations in Historic Buildings: Examples from Minas Gerais, in Brazil and from the Braga and Viseu Districts in Portugal

2013 ◽  
Vol 548 ◽  
pp. 336-347
Author(s):  
Antônio Gilberto Costa
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Granitic Rock ◽  
Minas Gerais ◽  
Historic Buildings ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Assets ◽  
Stone Materials ◽  
Made In

The use of stone materials in constructions and in the art of sculpture in Brazil, as well as the related constructions techniques employed, was strongly influenced by Portugal between the mid-sixteenth century and the early nineteenth century. One of those techniques consisted of erecting the whole constructions using stone materials, without the use of mortar, by solely juxtaposing smaller and larger stones. Some remaining buildings and descriptions dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century, involving the use of carved stone in “mineiro” – or Minas Gerais – constructions, known as minhota, or made in the fashion of Minho, bear proof to the use of that technique and, specially, to the influence this ancient Portuguese province had on the constructing style and on the way of working the stones in Minas Gerais. However, when we consider the frequency with which that technique was used, there is evidence that the use of “stone blocks” was much more common in certain regions of Portugal such as in constructions situated in the district of Braga, in the old province of Minho. Also from Portugal, from the old province of Beira Alta, there should be considered beautiful examples of constructions featuring the use of the dry stone technique which involved utilizing blocks of granitic rock as those seen in the Viseu district. In addition to the description of the stone materials utilized in these buildings, both Brazilian and Portuguese, and in the production of several sculptural elements associated with some of these architectural sets, evidence is provided which shows the occurrence of very similar deterioration processes which are responsible for the imprinting of certain features into these cultural assets, identified by the loss of materials and formation of crusts due to biological colonizations.

scholarly journals Islamization, Gentrification and Domestication: ‘A Girls’ Islamic Course' and Rural Muslims in Western Uttar Pradesh

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Jeffery ◽  
Roger Jeffery ◽  
Craig Jeffrey
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
North India ◽  
September 11Th ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Shed Light

Girls' education has been enduringly controversial in north India, and the disputes of the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century still echo in debates about girls' education in contemporary India. In this paper, we reflect on the education of rural Muslim girls in contemporary western Uttar Pradesh (UP), by examining an Islamic course for girls [Larkiyon kā Islālmī Course], written in Urdu and widely used in madrasahs there. First, we summarize the central themes in the Course: purifying religious practice; distancing demure, self-controlled, respectable woman from the lower orders; and the crucial role of women as competent homemakers. Having noted the conspicuous similarities between these themes and those in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century textbooks and advice manuals for girls and women, the second section examines the context in which the earlier genre emerged. Finally, we return to the present day. Particularly since September 11th 2001, madrasahs have found themselves the focus of hostile allegations that bear little or no relationship to the activities of the madrasahs that we studied. Nevertheless, madrasah education does have problematic implications. The special curricula for girls exemplifies how a particular kind of élite project has been sustained and transformed, and we aim to shed light on contemporary communal and class issues as well as on gender politics.

scholarly journals ‘Fifty pounds will buy me a pair of horses for my carriage’: the history of permissive subjects in English

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-744
Author(s):  
GEA DRESCHLER
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
History Of ◽  
Functional Motivations

This article investigates the history of so-called permissive subjects in English, for example The tent sleeps four: inanimate, non-agentive subjects used with verbs that normally take animate, agentive subjects. Although permissive subjects are assumed in the literature to be innovations, there is little information available on their use and frequency. Using historical corpora, I provide an account of the history of permissive subjects with five verbs – see, buy, seat, sleep and sell. The results show that permissive subjects with see and buy are already found in the sixteenth century, while those with seat and sell occur from the nineteenth century onwards, and those with sleep first occur in the twentieth century. The five types also differ in other respects, with genre and functional motivations playing an important role. Crucially, there is an increase in the overall use of these permissive subjects, which follows the increase in subject-initial clauses and a more marked use of the presubject position as described by Los & Dreschler (2012), supporting their proposal that several subject-creating strategies – passives, middles and permissive subjects – became more frequent in English due to changes in the pragmatic character of the clause-initial position, in turn caused by the loss of verb second.

Dante and the Performing Arts

2021 ◽  
pp. 601-618
Author(s):  
Rossend Arqués Corominas
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Dance Music ◽  
Vita Nuova

This chapter explores the reception of Dante in the performing arts, especially the Commedia. The first part outlines public readings of Dante, from Boccaccio to the present day (Benigni, Bene, etc.) via fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Florence. It also revisits Gustavo Modena and other nineteenth-century patriotic actors. The second part offers a chronology of the presence of Dante’s work in the theatrical field in three periods: the nineteenth century with Francesca da Rimini and some other characters from the Commedia who occupy a prominent place in the theatre scene and European opera—especially in works by Pellico and D’Annunzio; the turn of the century, when the pre-Raphaelite and symbolist Beatrice from Vita nuova gains more prominence; and the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, with a focus on dance, music, and theatre.

Opera, aesthetics of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tanner
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Original Function ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Greek Myths ◽  
Dramatic Action

Opera, which may be defined as a dramatic action set in large part to music, is an inherently unstable art form, more so than any other. It has been characteristic of its practitioners and critics to call it periodically to order, in idioms which vary but carry much the same message: the music exists to further the drama. This has often been taken to be a matter of settling the priority of two elements: music and text. But in fact three are involved: music, text and plot (or action). Opera began very abruptly in Northern Italy at the end of the sixteenth century, partly as the result of discussions about its possibility. To begin with, familiar Greek myths were employed, set in the vernacular, with simple accompaniments so that every word could be heard. This led to pre-eminence for the singers and for spectacle. After each wave of excess – vocal prowess, dance interludes, stilted plots and texts, then once again, in the nineteenth century, empty display, and later gargantuan orchestras – there was a movement of revolt. Philosophers rarely took part in these aesthetic disputes, most of them being uninterested in music, and possibly more relevantly, being uninterested in any subject which can only be studied in historical terms. But it is fruitless to think about opera apart from its manifestations; every great operatic composer makes his own treaty between the potentially warring elements, Wagner being the most passionate propagandist for his own conception. In the twentieth century the aesthetics of opera have become pluralistic, as has, to an unprecedented degree, the form itself. The perpetual danger is that opera should degenerate into entertainment, and it is always the same message that recalls it to its original function – one which most spectators and listeners are happy to ignore: opera is a form of drama.

Nijinska, Bronislava (1891–1972)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Garafola
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
Ballets Russes ◽  
The Many ◽  
Gender Boundaries

The premiere female ballet choreographer of the first half of the twentieth century, Bronislava Nijinska experienced the transformative power of the Russian Revolution and discovered untapped creative powers in the chaotic moments that followed it. Rejecting the ‘‘acrobaticism,’’ and what she perceived as the stale conventions of nineteenth-century Russian ballet, she was an architect of twentieth-century neo-classicism and an early exponent of the plotless ballet. Although ballet technique remained the foundation of her work, she augmented it with movements originating in other forms, energized it with rhythms of modernity, minimized narrative, and insisted that movement alone constituted the primary material of dance. She brought a woman’s sensibility to her choreography, evident in Les Noces (The Wedding) (1923), her greatest work, and Les Biches (also known in English as The House Party, 1924), both produced for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and many of her works rested on gender ambiguity, the probing of gender boundaries, and a mistrust of conventional gender roles. A key figure of Russia Abroad, she contributed to the many diasporic or émigré companies, including her own short-lived ensembles, which dotted the ballet landscape of the interwar years, and through her career as a freelance choreographer played a crucial role in the international dissemination of modernism. She choreographed the original versions of several modernist scores, introducing them to the ballet repertoire. In her multiple roles as teacher, choreographer, and ballet mistress she influenced the careers of numerous dancers and choreographers, including Frederick Ashton and Ninette de Valois. Finally, she was an articulate writer and the author of an acclaimed volume of memoirs, in addition to a major treatise on movement.

scholarly journals CONSTRUCTING AVATIME: QUESTIONS OF HISTORY AND IDENTITY IN A WEST AFRICAN POLITY,c. 1690s TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

2008 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
LYNNE BRYDON
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Small Group ◽  
West African ◽  
Small Scale

ABSTRACTSmall-scale societies, like Avatime in eastern Ghana, established, maintained and developed themselves in a range of ways, in spaces between large, centralized states, in West Africa in the precolonial era. This essay demonstrates the inclusivity and initiative (in terms of both economic entrepreneurship andbricolage) of this small group before its effective destruction by Asante in about 1870, and looks at the ways in which Avatime was reconstructed in the last third of the nineteenth century. In addition, issues of ethnicity and identity are broadly addressed, comparing Avatime's inclusivity with tropes of difference discussed in recent studies of small-scale societies in this journal.

scholarly journals Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jean-Michel Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Scientific Innovation ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Space Compression

The Introduction presents the historiographical context and main themes of the book. It situates the book within discussions surrounding the process of scientific innovation and industrialization during the Sattelzeit, the process of ‘time-space’ compression associated with the communications revolution, the role of networks of transport and communication in the creation of regional and national identities, and the emergence of a new, connected middle class during the nineteenth century. Bringing together these narratives, the Introduction introduces the book’s principal argument—that, once shorn of its normative connotations, modernization remains a useful concept to illuminate the process through which state and society were transformed during the nineteenth century, and that networks played a crucial role in producing the profoundly ambivalent experience of modernity most often associated with the turn of the twentieth century. It ends with a description of the structure of the book as a whole.

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