Narratives of Tradition

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirrilly Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Past ◽  
Invented Tradition ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
History Of ◽  
Narrative Process ◽  
Invented Traditions

In this article I consider the bottom-up, narrative process through which traditions are invented, using rejoneo (mounted bullfighting) as a case study. I explore the construction of rejoneo as “the newest but also the oldest” form of bullfighting. To understand this apparent contradiction, I synthesize “narratives of tradition” with Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger's (1995 [1983]) “invented tradition.” In doing so, I consider rejoneo through multiple and overlapping narratives structured into historical “chapters” with common narrative elements of heroes, villains, tragic downfalls, and triumphant comebacks. These narratives are contextualized in periods of intense social, political, and economic transformation in Spain over the past three centuries. This article combines a review of the lay and expert understandings of the history of the Spanish bullfight with ethnographic fieldwork undertaken with mounted bullfighters in Andalusia from 2000 and 2001. It redresses a significant lack of attention to the mounted bullfight in relation to the footed bullfight, thereby contributing to a more comprehensive literature of bullfighting in Spain. Moreover, this article provides a model for understanding that one of the ways traditions are invented is through narratives of tradition, contextualized by the wider social, political, and economic forces emphasized by the invented traditions approach.

scholarly journals Layered journeys: Experiences of fragmented journeys among young Afghans in Greece and Norway

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 316-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moa Nyamwathi LØnning
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Considerable Increase ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Past ◽  
Migration History ◽  
History Of ◽  
War And Conflict ◽  
Migratory Movements

Abstract This article focuses on the fragmented journeys towards and within Europe among a group of young people originating from a country marked by war and conflict. It explores how the journey towards Europe may be part of a complex migration history that leads to layered journeys. I use the term ‘layered journeys’ to refer to multidimensional and multi-experiential journeys in which past, present and future experiences of mobility are intertwined. They may include multiple stages and various statuses. The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork, creative methods and life-history interviews. It focuses on a case study of a group of young Afghan males who arrived in Greece and Norway between 2008 and 2015, looking at their journeys in the context of mobility, undocumentedness and return. Young Afghans have represented the largest group of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers arriving in Europe between 2008 and 2018. While the last decade saw a considerable increase in the number of young Afghans arriving in Europe, migration itself is not a new phenomenon in the Afghan context. Afghanistan has a long history of migratory movements as part of livelihood and survival strategies, of which the past four decades of war and conflict in Afghanistan and its resulting millions of refugees are part.

COMBINING ORAL TRADITIONS AND BAYESIAN CHRONOLOGICAL MODELING TO UNDERSTAND VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT IN THE GULF OF PAPUA (PAPUA NEW GUINEA)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Chris Urwin ◽  
Quan Hua ◽  
Henry Arifeae
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Spatial History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gulf Of Papua ◽  
The Village

ABSTRACT When European colonists arrived in the late 19th century, large villages dotted the coastline of the Gulf of Papua (southern Papua New Guinea). These central places sustained long-distance exchange and decade-spanning ceremonial cycles. Besides ethnohistoric records, little is known of the villages’ antiquity, spatiality, or development. Here we combine oral traditional and 14C chronological evidence to investigate the spatial history of two ancestral village sites in Orokolo Bay: Popo and Mirimua Mapoe. A Bayesian model composed of 35 14C assays from seven excavations, alongside the oral traditional accounts, demonstrates that people lived at Popo from 765–575 cal BP until 220–40 cal BP, at which time they moved southwards to Mirimua Mapoe. The village of Popo spanned ca. 34 ha and was composed of various estates, each occupied by a different tribe. Through time, the inhabitants of Popo transformed (e.g., expanded, contracted, and shifted) the village to manage social and ceremonial priorities, long-distance exchange opportunities and changing marine environments. Ours is a crucial case study of how oral traditional ways of understanding the past interrelate with the information generated by Bayesian 14C analyses. We conclude by reflecting on the limitations, strengths, and uncertainties inherent to these forms of chronological knowledge.

African Studies Keyword: Malaria

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 959-985
Author(s):  
Melissa Graboyes ◽  
Zainab Alidina
Keyword(s):  
African Continent ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
The Past ◽  
Moral Problems ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global Eradication ◽  
Biomedical Interventions ◽  
Scientific Questions

AbstractFrom nearly any perspective and metric, the effects of malaria on the African continent have been persistent and deep. By focusing on the malady of malaria and the last century of biomedical interventions, Graboyes and Alidina raise critical historical, ethical, and scientific questions related to truth telling, African autonomy, and the obligations of foreign researchers. They provide a condensed history of malaria activities on the continent over the past 120 years, highlighting the overall history of failures to eliminate or control the disease. A case study of the risks of rebound malaria illustrates the practical and moral problems that abound when historical knowledge is ignored. In light of current calls for renewed global eradication efforts, Graboyes and Alidina provide evidence for why historical knowledge must be better integrated into global health epistemic realms.

What is NORML? Sedimented Meanings in Ambiguous Organizational Identities

2021 ◽  
pp. 017084062110577
Author(s):  
Matthew C.B. Lyle ◽  
Ian J. Walsh ◽  
Diego M. Coraiola
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Identity ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
National Organization ◽  
The Past ◽  
Organizational Identities ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Identity Threats ◽  
History Of ◽  
Identity Labels

Organizational identity scholarship has largely focused on the mutability of meanings ascribed to ambiguous identity labels. In contrast, we analyze a case study of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to explore how leaders maintained a meaning ascribed to an ambiguous identity label amid successive identity threats. We found that heightened dissensus surrounding meanings attributed to the organization’s “reform group” label at three key points spurred theoretically similar manifestations of two processes. The first, meaning sedimentation, involved leaders invoking history to advocate for the importance of their preferred meaning while mulling the inclusion of others. The second, reconstructing the past, occurred as leaders and members alike offered narratives that obscured the history of disavowed meanings while sharing new memories of those they prioritized. Our work complements research on identity change by drawing attention to the processes by which meaning(s) underlying ambiguous identity labels might survive.

scholarly journals Use, Purpose, and Function—Letting the Artifacts Speak

Heritage ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 587-605
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Loughmiller-Cardinal ◽  
J. Scott Cardinal
Keyword(s):  
Functional Categories ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Basic Premise ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contradictory Evidence ◽  
And Function

Archaeologists have likely collected, as a conservative estimate, billions of artifacts over the course of the history of fieldwork. We have classified chronologies and typologies of these, based on various formal and physical characteristics or ethno-historically known analogues, to give structure to our interpretations of the people that used them. The simple truth, nonetheless, is that we do not actually know how they were used or their intended purpose. We only make inferences—i.e., educated guesses based on the available evidence as we understand it—regarding their functions in the past and the historical behaviors they reflect. Since those inferences are so fundamental to the interpretations of archaeological materials, and the archaeological project as a whole, the way we understand materiality can significantly bias the stories we construct of the past. Recent work demonstrated seemingly contradictory evidence between attributed purpose or function versus confirmed use, however, which suggested that a basic premise of those inferences did not empirically hold to be true. In each case, the apparent contradiction was resolved by reassessing what use, purpose, and function truly mean and whether certain long-established functional categories of artifacts were in fact classifying by function. The resulting triangulation, presented here, narrows the scope on such implicit biases by addressing both empirical and conceptual aspects of artifacts. In anchoring each aspect of evaluation to an empirical body of data, we back ourselves away from our assumptions and interpretations so as to let the artifacts speak for themselves.

The invention of transitions: History as a symbolic site for discursive struggles over organizational change

Organization ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sierk Ybema
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Editorial Staff ◽  
Rhetorical History ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
The Past ◽  
Organizational Resource ◽  
Everyday Talk ◽  
Common Purpose ◽  
Invented Traditions

Studies interested in the discursive use of ‘the past’ often view history as an organizational resource designed to create a shared origin and a common purpose, promoting a sense of continuity and commitment among organizational stakeholders. In this article, I view ‘history’ instead as a symbolic site for discursive struggles between proponents and opponents of organizational change. It shows how organizational actors use ‘traces’ of a collective past in their version of ‘the’ history to win consent for change and to counter competing views. They do so by creating a sense of discontinuity from the past. The case study presented in this article combines a historian’s account of a newspaper’s history with an ethnographic account of the use of history prevalent among newspaper editors. While the historian’s narrative suggests the continuance of some vigorous traditions alongside identity change, the editors narratively construct or ‘invent’ transitions between periods or episodes while disregarding the organization’s traditions in their everyday talk. Storying the past, present and future in terms of a temporal dichotomy and ‘inventing’ transitions departs from existing studies of rhetorical history that tend to highlight invented traditions which establish or reaffirm continuity with the past. The case analysis shows how the editors selectively and strategically deploy history to accomplish or oppose change as part of ongoing negotiations within the editorial staff.

ORGANISED CRIME AND PROSTITUTION: ‘DUBAI-ING’ AS A NEW CONCEPT OF HUNGARIAN PROSTITUTION

2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
pp. 94-108
Author(s):  
ISTVÁN KOVÁCS
Keyword(s):  
Organised Crime ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Rich People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Criminal Groups ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Work Done

The study deals with a brief history of organised crime in Hungary in the past and today. One of the biggest sources of revenue for organised crime is prostitution. Hundreds of victims are reported daily. In addition to this, a new strategic approach has emerged, linked to the upward management of organised crime. Prostitutes volunteer for work, the organised groups do not use violence, and illicit earnings are distributed among themselves on the basis of work done. The girls are transferred to rich countries where rich people can enjoy their services through a built-in agency system. Many girls are referred to Dubai, where the new form of Hungarian prostitution is thriving: the ‘dubai-ing’ phenomenon. The study presents, through a case study, the phenomenon of ‘dubai-ing’, and the activities of organised criminal groups. The method used is critical source analysis, basic historical research, as well as case and judgement/verdict analysis. This is not a classic analysis, but a criminal analysis of specifi c cases. The strategic aim is to collect data which can show the new profi le of organised crime in the 21st century.

The Role of Chinese Art in Influencing Thai Traditional Cupboard Furniture Designs

2014 ◽  
Vol 556-562 ◽  
pp. 6631-6637
Author(s):  
Somchai Seviset
Keyword(s):  
Ming Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
National Museum ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

China has had her relations with Thailand for many centuries since the Sukhothai Period (A.D. 1250-1438) including trade contact, diplomatic relations set forth as per an abundance of documentary evidences, architectural works, and artistic object with significant artistic evidences of a long history of Thai-China relations. In Ayutthaya Period (A.D.1350-1767) which was corresponding to China’s Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644) there were Xi Yuan’s supporting written literature (A.D. 1565-1628). He was a Chinese historian who noted that China sent a large junk ship for trade to Ayutthaya fetching goods of silk, and chinaware from China for sale to Siam Court. Thai Traditional Cupboard Furniture in the past also had an interesting mix of Chinese art. Chinese artwork which appeared in the Thai Traditional Cupboard Furniture made from hardwood with surrounding decoration around it were created during the period of A.D. 18-19. From a number of Thai ancient cupboard furniture exhibited in the Phra Nakhon National Museum (the Largest National Museum in Bangkok Metropolis). This case study will explain the inspiration of Chinese art which the Thai craftsmen applied on the design to decorate the cupboard.

Modern Pentecostalism as an Urban Phenomenon: The Case of the Family of God Church in Zimbabwe

Exchange ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lovemore Togarasei
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
The Past ◽  
Pentecostal Movement ◽  
Family Of God ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

AbstractThe past twenty to thirty years in the history of Zimbabwean Christianity have witnessed the emergence of a new breed of Pentecostalism that tends to attract the middle and upper classes urban residents. This paper presentsfindings from a case study of one such movement, the Family of God church. It describes and analyses the origins, growth and development of this church as an urban modern Pentecostal movement. Thefirst section of the paper discusses the origins and development of the church focusing on the life of the founder. The second section focuses on the teaching and practices of the church. The church's doctrines and practices are here analysed tofind out the extent to which these have been influenced by the socio-political and economic challenges in the urban areas. The paper concludes that the modern Pentecostal movement is meant to address urban needs.

Links between meteorites and asteroids

1981 ◽  
Vol 374 (1757) ◽  
pp. 271-279
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Parent Body ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

During the past decade, there has been a rapid growth in studies of the physical properties of the asteroids. In consequence, there now exists a much better basis than there was hitherto for comparing the properties of meteorites, determined in the laboratory, with those of asteroids. The way in which recent measurements of asteroids and meteorites can be interrelated to determine the nature and history of a meteorite parent body is illustrated via a case study of the asteroid Vesta and the Ca-rich achondrite Kapoeta.

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