LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE AND HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAN VANSINA
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
Agrarian Change ◽  
African History ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa

A Green Place, a Good Place: Agrarian Change, Gender and Social Identity in the Great Lakes Region to the Fifteenth Century. By David Lee Schoenbrun. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann: Oxford: James Currey, 1998. Pp. xiv+301. £40 (ISBN 0-325-00041-7); £15.95, paperback (ISBN 0-325-00040-9).An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 B.C. to A.D. 400. By Christopher Ehret. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia; Oxford: James Currey, 1998. Pp. xvii+354. £35 (ISBN 0-8139-1814-6).Recently several historical reconstructions based on linguistic evidence and dealing with ancient times have been published in African history. In 1998 alone there are the two books reviewed here as well as a major work by Gerda Rossel. Linguistic sources contribute much to the recovery of aspects of the past, which would otherwise remain out of reach, and the standard methodologies of historical linguistics are well known to readers of this journal. Yet in practice many historians remain all too often disconcerted by such studies because they have great difficulty in evaluating them: i.e. in linking assertions made to the evidence provided and so to establish the credibility of such statements. This is not just because many historians are unfamiliar with linguistic evidence but because all the evidence necessary for evaluation is usually not available in the work studied, and often enough authors do not clearly indicate where it can be found. Indeed sometimes it is not available at all. In such cases one has to take the statements made by the authors on faith: one believes the author or not. That is clearly unacceptable. For is it not a fundamental rule in history writing that assertions must be substantiated and hence evidence must be cited or provided? Any work without substantiation cannot be considered to be a work of history at all.

Cattle-Keeping and Milking in Eastern and Southern African History: The Linguistic Evidence

1967 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Ehret
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Early Period ◽  
African History ◽  
East African ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa

Cattle have been known in northern East Africa for a long time. A single people initiated the spread of cattle farther south through southern East Africa, and partly into southern Africa, at a time prior to the expansion of Bantu-speakers into these regions. This spread was not accompanied by knowledge of milking. The milking of cattle, although very likely practised by some northern East African peoples since a very early period, diffused to Bantu peoples after their advance into eastern and southern Africa was well under way. The practice was probably borrowed from Southern Cushites first by Bantu in northern Tanganyika and through them transmitted to the rest of the eastern and southern Bantu.

Constructing a Precolonial Owan Chronology and Dating Framework

1994 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 219-249
Author(s):  
Onaiwu W. Ogbomo
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
African History ◽  
Accurate Assessment ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The Past ◽  
Relative Chronology ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Genealogical Data

Oral tradition has been recognized by historians as a vital source for historical reconstruction of non-literate societies. However, one of its “deficienc[ies] is an inability to establish and maintain an accurate assessment of the duration of the past [it] seeks to reconstruct.” As a result of its time-lessness it has been declared ahistorical. In the same vein R.A. Sargent argues that [c]hronology is the framework for the reconstruction of the past, and is vital to the correlation of evidence, assessment of data, and the analysis of historical sources. Any construction of history [which] fails to consider or employ dating and the matrix of time to examine the order and nature of events in human experience can probably be labelled ahistorical.Basically, the concern of critics of oral tradition is that, while they are veritable sources of history, the researcher “must work and rework them with an increasing sophistication and critical sense.” Because dating is very pivotal to the historian's craft, different techniques have been adopted alone or in combination to create a relative chronology. In precolonial African history, the most commonly used have been genealogical data which include dynastic generations, genealogical generations (father-to-son succession) and the age-set generation. Also systematically charted comets, solar eclipses, and droughts have been employed by historians in dating historical events, or in calculating the various generational lengths.A dynastic generation is determined by “the time elapsing between the accession of the first member of a given generation to hold office and the accession of the first representative of the next.”

Chaucer, Gower, and Fifteenth-Century Poetry in English

2019 ◽  
pp. 228-254
Author(s):  
Derek Attridge
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Confessio Amantis ◽  
Speaking Voice ◽  
Century Poetry ◽  
Iambic Pentameter

By the end of the fourteenth century, a sizeable audience for poetry in English among the gentry and the commercial classes had emerged. Chaucer wrote for this readership, and his poetry shows a successful absorption of French and Italian models. This chapter scrutinizes his work for evidence of the manner in which it was performed and received. Throughout his oeuvre, Chaucer appeals to both hearers and readers, using images both of books and of oral performers. His invention of the English iambic pentameter made possible a fuller embodiment in verse of the speaking voice, unlike Gower, who chose to write his major work, Confessio Amantis, in strict tetrameters. In the fifteenth century, the changing pronunciation of English made writing in metre a challenge, as is evident in the work of Hoccleve and Lydgate. The chapter ends with a consideration of the Scottish poets Henryson, Dunbar, and Douglas.

scholarly journals Historians, are Archeologists Your Siblings?

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 369-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Vansina
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
African History ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Relative Scarcity

The historian of pre-nineteenth century Africa…cannot get far without the aid of archaeology.Nevertheless, historians have good reason to be cautious about historical generalisations by archaeologists and about their own use of archaeological material…: it would be a rash historian who totally accepted the conclusions of Garlake and Huffman with the same simple-minded trust as I myself accepted the conclusions of Summers and Robinson.In the beginning, historians of Africa put great store by archeology. Was its great time depth not one of the distinctive features of the history of Africa, a condition that cannot be put aside without seriously distorting the flavor of all its history? Did not the relative scarcity and the foreign authorship of most precolonial written records render archeological sources all the more precious? Did not history and archeology both deal with the reconstruction of human societies in the past? Was the difference between them not merely the result of a division of labor based on sources, so that historical reconstruction follows in time and flows from archeological reconstruction? Such considerations explain why the Journal of African History has regularly published regional archeological surveys in order to keep historians up to date.

The Date and Significance of the Imbangala Invasion of Angola

1965 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Birmingham
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
African History ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Late Fifteenth

The study of Central African history is still in its infancy. Valuable indications can, however, be obtained by combining the study of oral traditions with that of Portuguese documentary evidence for events taking place near the coasts. It has long been known, for instance, that the overthrow of the powerful Songye rulers of the Luba country indirectly caused long-distance migrations, one of which, that of the Imbangala, came into contact with the Portuguese in Angola. Previous analyses of this migration have suggested that it culminated in the early seventeenth century. In this paper an attempt has been made to show that the Imbangala arrived in Angola much earlier, probably by the mid sixteenth century and certainly before 1575. This date indicates that the Luba invasion of Lunda, which was the direct cause of the migration, probably took place in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Finally, it has been tentatively suggested that the overthrow of Songye rule and the establishment of a new, expansionist Luba empire might have taken place as much as a century earlier, from the fourteenth to the fifteenth century.

scholarly journals The Turkification of Toponyms in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2 (7)) ◽  
pp. 149-162
Author(s):  
Lusine Sahakyan
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Eastern Anatolia ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Strategic Value ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Armenian Highland ◽  
Republic Of Turkey

The present article examines the methods and stages of the policy of Turkification of the non-Muslim toponyms in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. Being stable linguistic facts, toponyms supply valuable material for topography and studies of dialects, ethnography, history and geography. They also contain important linguistic facts which can confirm the national belonging of a given settlement. Hence, realizing the strategic value of toponyms, the Turkish authorities have changed, distorted and have tried to get hold of the Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Laz toponyms through translations ascribing them Turkish and at times Kurdish origins. The article contains the translated version of Enver Pasha’s decree on Turkification of toponyms issued on January 5, 1916 – a document which aims to conceal the traces of the Armenian Genocide. The article also examines the political aims of the Turkish authorities to replace the term Western Armenia with Eastern Anatolia as well as the dangerous consequences of the use of this term we could face. The Armenian toponyms that have been around since ancient times do not serve as linguistic evidence only. Rather, they provide unbiased historical evidence that reveals the whole truth of the real native masters of the Armenian Highland. Therefore, the protection, preservation and restoration of the Armenian toponyms is of great strategic significance for us.

scholarly journals Pitanje ilirske komponente stanovnistva jugoistocnog dela Donje Panonije u savremenim istrazivanjima

Balcanica ◽  
2002 ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Milena Milin
Keyword(s):  
The Balkans ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Northern Border ◽  
Sava River ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Village ◽  
Important Evidence ◽  
The Sava River

Following the Symposium on distribution of the Illyrians (4th to 2nd centuries B.C., Sarajevo, 1964), the view that the northern border of the Illyrians ran along the line even much southerner than the Sava (nn.2-8) has been firmly established in our archeology; this attitude has been extended to the Illyrian tribes in Roman times (n.7). At the same time, historians of the pre-Roman and Roman periods in the Balkans still hold the view of predominantly Illyrian origins of the tribes from Lower Pannonia, between the Danube and the lower course of the Sava river (n.9), based on contemporary historiographic epigraphic and linguistic evidence. Therefore, the author dwelled on the issue whether the Illyrian name, and in which meaning, may be applied to the inhabitants of Lower Pannonia in the Roman times as well. According to ancient literary sources (Strabo and Apian) it follows that the Pannonian tribes in the ancient times were deemed to be Illyrian (pp. 2-3). Furthermore in mythology, the Pannonios was the descendant of Illyrians (App. Illyr. 2; cf. Papazoglu 1969, 265 n. 233), which points to the common awareness of being part of Lower Pannonia and other Illyrian tribes. Important evidence for this issue is deemed to be anthroponyms as well; Pannonian names in the research to date have shown to be different from Illyrian (p. 7 with note). The author gives the examples of names Dassius and Liccaius, epigraphically confirmed with Breuck and Amantino (6, note 30, and p. 7 with note), which she considers to have originated from Illyrian territory proper; that is proved by a wax tablet from Dacia, where the words Dassius Verzonis, Pirusta ex Kavieretio and Liccaius Epicadi were written (tab. cer. VI; cf. p. 8). As is well known, parts of the Illyrian population from southern Dalmatia were relocated to work in Dacia mines; that this is the case here as well is proved by referring to an Illyrian ethnic, Pirust, as well as the name of the village. On account of the closeness in spiritual and cultural spheres, the awareness of the common mythical forefather, similarities or sameness in anthroponyms, there is no justification, at least regarding the Roman times, for distinguishing the inhabitants of Pannonia from (other) Illyrians, even if the issue of their ethnical connection or identicalness is not considered.

scholarly journals Applied History

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 135-154
Author(s):  
Harm Kaal ◽  
Jelle van Lottum
Keyword(s):  
Historical Thinking ◽  
Research Centers ◽  
Current Development ◽  
Academic Journal ◽  
History Writing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Actual Application ◽  
Methods And Techniques ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Ancient Times

Abstract The past few years, the field of applied history has witnessed the publication of several manifestoes, the establishment of dedicated research centers, and the foundation of an academic journal. Conceptual discussions about the notion of applied history and the very fact that the methods and techniques of applied history are now part of the discipline of history provide further evidence of the field’s maturity. By offering an historiographical overview tracing the roots of applied history, this article will show that both discussions about the contemporary relevance and application of historical thinking, and the actual application of history to current events, possess a long history: applied history has been part and parcel of history writing since ancient times. Moreover, the article offers a discussion of recent debates about the concept and methods of applied history and concludes by mapping the trends that are shaping its current development.

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