scholarly journals Ceremonies of Measurement: Rethinking the World History of Science

2015 ◽  
Vol 70 (02) ◽  
pp. 335-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Schaffer
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Historical Geography ◽  
World History ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
Cultural Boundaries ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conjectural History ◽  
Measurement Practices ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

Abstract The practices of measurement have long been taken as authoritative technologies that travel unusually well and easily across cultural boundaries, and as a sign and cause of the apparent dominance of Western modes of science. Attention to the rituals of measurement and to the emergence of the forms of knowledge that accompanied measurement, notably the sciences of metrology, helps challenge these assumptions. Stories of the silent trade, often located in western Africa, and of the ritual origins of measurement, developed within anthropology and conjectural history, can be used to explore how measurement practices traveled and changed. In particular, the work of Marc Bloch as the preeminent historian of ceremony and power can help illuminate the relation between the historical geography of metrology and the scope of the sciences. His brilliant analysis of the royal ritual of “cramp rings” and its fate provides an important example and precedent for comparably ceremonial and culturally significant episodes in the long history of the science of measurement.

The Great Influenza

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Social Behaviour ◽  
East Coast ◽  
World History ◽  
Collective Violence ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Surgeon General ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of Disease ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

This chapter examines evidence principally from the US that the Great Influenza provoked profiteering by landlords, undertakers, vendors of fruit, pharmacists, and doctors, but shows that such complaints were rare and confined mostly to large cities on the East Coast. It then investigates anti-social advice and repressive decrees on the part of municipalities, backed by advice from the US Surgeon General and prominent physicians attacking ‘spitters, coughers, and sneezers’, which included state and municipal ordinances against kissing and even ‘big talkers’. It then surveys legislation on compulsory and recommended mask wearing. Yet this chapter finds no protest or collective violence against the diseased victims or any other ‘others’ suspected of disseminating the virus. Despite physicians’ and lawmakers’ encouragement of anti-social behaviour, mass volunteerism and abnegation instead unfolded to an extent never before witnessed in the world history of disease.

scholarly journals Pierre Monbeig and the Formation of Geography in Brazil (1925-1957): Geohistory of Knowledge, Intellectual History and the Insertion of Brazilian Geography into the World-Science

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Alves de Lira
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
World Science ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
The World ◽  
University Professor ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intellectual Context

This paper aims to present the exemplarity of an intellectual meeting between a French intellectual, trained in history and geography at the Sorbonne, France (before spending time in Spain during the beginning of his doctorate), and the “Brazilian terrain”. From his training to his work as a university professor in Brazil, what I want to characterize is a transnational intellectual context in the domain of the history of science, using geographical reasoning as a reference. However, before becoming aware of these intellectual processes, it should be said that at the base of this context lies the Brazilian space. This kind of reasoning as a proposed methodology is named here the geohistory of knowledge. In this paper, I seek to present this methodology and its theoretical and empirical results, focusing on how the construction of contextualization can be related to space.

Map-Making in World History - an Interview with Kären Wigen

Itinerario ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-214
Author(s):  
Carolien Stolte
Keyword(s):  
World History ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Stanford University ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pacific Margin

This interview took place at Harvard University, where Kären Wigen, the Frances and Charles Field Professor in History of Stanford University gave the 2015 Reischauer Lectures. This year’s theme was ‘Where in the World? Map-Making at the Asia-Pacific Margin, 1600-1900.’ Carolien Stolte and Rachel Koroloff interviewed Professor Wigen to the tunes of Persian music at the Kolbeh of Kabob restaurant on Cambridge Street.

Historiosophy of N.Ya. Danilevsky

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 13-17
Author(s):  
Victor V. Aksyuchits
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
World History ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Russian People ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time

According to the author of the article, N.Ya. Danilevsky anticipated a lot of ideas of the 20th century, in particular those of O. Spengler and A. Toynbee, by offering his concept of cultural and historical types in the book “Russia and Europe”. At the same time N.Ya. Danilevsky was in many aspects the follower of Slavophils while interpreting the originality of Russian people and Russian culture. After the turn of the educated society circles to Russian national self-comprehension initiated by Slavophils, N.Ya. Danilevsky not only scientifically formulated the problems brought forth by the Slavophils, but also offered for the first time the resolution of new important questions by analyzing the world history and the history of Slavic peoples. The author especially stresses the role of N.Ya. Danilevsky in creating the historiosophic concept that forestalled the epoch for many decades.

New Projects of Faith and Power, 1304–1312

2019 ◽  
pp. 91-120
Author(s):  
Stefan Kamola
Keyword(s):  
World History ◽  
Historical Legacy ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Oljeitu Sultan (1304-1316) continued his predecessor’s pattern of commissioning histories and building programs to demonstrate his legitimacy. This included a new history of the world, which Rashid al-Din completed in 1307. Rashid al-Din also produced a series of theological collections that established an image of Oljeitu as a divinely sanctioned sovereign. These projects drew Oljeitu and Rashid al-Din into a cycle of patronage and production, which allowed Rashid al-Din to fund a series of charitable and intellectual institutions, further cementing his own historical legacy. This chapter outlines these products of the reign of Oljeitu, showing how they established a new format of kingship for subsequent Persianate courts. It also illuminates the role that ʿAbd Allah Qashani played in writing the material included in Rashid al-Din’s world history.

Introduction: Onna Monogatari

Tanaka Kinuyo ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Irene González-López ◽  
Michael Smith
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World History ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
The World ◽  
Female Authorship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Studio System

The introduction presents an overview of Tanaka’s life and career vis-a-vis the history of twentieth-century Japan, emphasising how women participated in and were affected by legal, political and socio-economic changes. Through Tanaka’s professional development, it revisits the evolution of the Japanese studio system and stardom, and explains the importance of women as subjects within the films, consumers of the industry, and professionals behind the scenes. This historical overview highlights Japan’s negotiation of modernity and tradition, often played out through symbolic dichotomies of gender and sexuality. By underscoring women’s new routes of mobility, the authors challenge the simplified image of Japanese oppressed women. The second part of the introduction posits director Tanaka as an outstanding, yet understudied, figure in the world history of women filmmaking. Her case inspires compelling questions around labels such as female authorship, star-as-author, and director-as-star and their role in advancing the production and acknowledgement of women filmmaking.

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