scholarly journals Rurality, ruins and archives: mapping the architectural history of the Greek countryside.

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 08004
Author(s):  
Afroditi Maragkou

What remains unexamined and undervalued in the Greek landscape, are the extreme and abandoned limits of the small non-metropolitan regional areas. At the limits of Greek cities, we can identify a great dispersion, a marginal instability, states of transition and deposition. The architectural and planning policies of the Greek state, through the modernistic period, have set a significant number of traces on the rural part of the country. These traces on the countryside, can only be recorded and historically analysed through systematic approach and subjective mapping, such as the methodology of oral history promotes. The landscape of the lowlands of Thessaly is selected as a paradigm of a changing reality, where one can see and recognize a number of exemplary transformations and specificities. The resettlement phenomenon of the mountain populations in Karditsa region, which was affected by the reclamation infrastructure of the 1960s (construction of Megdova dam), is the springboard for a dispersion of new residential settlements in the lowlands. This relocation process had a significant impact on the transformation of the rural landscape of Thessaly, as well as on the social life of the countryside. The architectural and historical research is motivated from the current ruin condition of these promising residential settlements on the countryside of Thessaly and systematically examines the policies that lead from the construction of Megdova dam to these abandoned traces on the landscape. The methodology of this research is based on an ongoing microhistorical archive which aims to raise microhistory as the main interpretation tool. Composed by oral testimonies, historical sources, state documents, blueprints and other official recordings, this microhistorical archive will be able to map andinterpret the architectural, topological and social history of these modernistic interventions on the countryside of Thessaly.

Land ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christy Constantakopoulou

This paper explores the place of ancient Greek hunting within the Greek landscape and environment, with particular reference to the eschatia, the marginal, uncultivated (or marginally cultivated) land. It is part of a bigger project on the social history of hunting in archaic and classical Greece, where emphasis is placed on the economic and dietary contribution of hunting for Greek communities. Hunting has attracted scholarly attention, mostly as a result of the role that hunting narratives play in Greek mythology, and the importance of hunting scenes in Greek art. Rather than talking about the role of hunting in rites of passage, I would like to explore the relationships of different social classes to hunting (which is understood here to include all forms of capturing animals on land, including trapping and snaring). The ‘un-central’ landscape of the eschatia appears to be an important locus for hunting practices, and therefore, a productive landscape. Hunting in the eschatia was opportunistic, required minimum effort in terms of crossing distances, allowed access to game that could be profitable in the market, and made the transport of game easier to manage.


2001 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 273-291
Author(s):  
Sean Stilwell ◽  
Ibrahim Hamza ◽  
Paul E. Lovejoy

A powerful community of royal slaves emerged in Kano Emirate in the wake of Usman dan Fodio's jihad (1804-08), which established the Sokoto Caliphate. These elite slaves held administrative and military positions of great power, and over the course of the nineteenth century played an increasing prominent role in the political, economic, and social life of Kano. However, the individuals who occupied slave offices have largely been rendered silent by the extant historical record. They seldom appear in written sources from the period, and then usually only in passing. Likewise, certain officials and offices are mentioned in official sources from the colonial period, but only in the context of broader colonial concerns and policies, usually related to issues about taxation and the proper structure of indirect rule.As the following interview demonstrates, the collection and interpretation of oral sources can help to fill these silences. By listening to the words and histories of the descendents of royal slaves, as well as current royal slave titleholders, we can begin to reconstruct the social history of nineteenth-century royal slave society, including the nature of slave labor and work, the organization the vast plantation system that surrounded Kano, and the ideology and culture of royal slaves themselves.The interview is but one example of a series of interviews conducted with current and past members of this royal slave hierarchy by Yusufu Yunusa. As discussed below, Sallama Dako belonged to the royal slave palace community in Kano. By royal slave, we mean highly privileged and powerful slaves who were owned by the emir, known in Hausa as bayin sarki (slaves of the emir or king).


2017 ◽  
Vol 109 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-183
Author(s):  
Roberta M. Styran ◽  
Robert R. Taylor

The technological history of the building of the Welland ship canal (1913-1932) is well recorded with photographs, documents, maps and plans in various archives. On the other hand, the social history of this saga is harder for the reader to discover because the engineers, contractors, and labourers have left little trace of their experiences “on the ground.” Fortunately, a diary kept by the engineer in charge, Alexander J. Grant, has come to life. Covering the longest period of construction, it chronicles the day-to-day problems of a hard-working, intelligent professional -- but also offers glimpses into the emotional and social life of the man. It will be a valuable source for a future biographer of this remarkable engineer.


Author(s):  
Steven Conn

This chapter uses John Kouwenhoven’s 1963 essay “American Studies: Words or Things” as a touchstone to examine the history of the relationship between material culture and the study of the past. Material culture studies promised access both to the history of those who left no written records and to a different kind of cognitive insight than could be gained from traditional historical sources. While this was of a piece with the development of the “new social history” in the 1960s, the chapter looks back to the early twentieth century to put Kouwenhoven’s call for the study of material culture in a longer historical context, and it traces what happened to material culture studies over the last half-century. The chapter suggests that despite its many accomplishments, the use of material culture remains on the edges of most historical work, especially after historians took the linguistic turn, which refocused their attention on texts rather than things.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-134
Author(s):  
Lok Hang Hui

PurposeThis paper explores the sensory experiences and cultural meanings of light in Japan in relation to Japanese changing lighting practices. It demonstrates that these sensory experiences and cultural meanings form an integral part of social life in Japan.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a blended approach that combines historical research and ethnographic data in the research on the meanings of light. The findings are presented in three parts. Two of them describe the social history of light, and the third draws on ethnographic data collected in suburban Japan.FindingsThe findings suggest that light in Japan has maintained a close symbolic connection with certain positive values despite the changing lighting practices. For example, light is related to cleanliness in early historical records on candle-making. In post-war Japan, new light metaphors such as “bright family” were invented to accommodate new aspirations for modernity and progress. In the latest development, the moral dimension of light is emphasised. This is evident in the concerns on being seen as a “bright person”, a person with a cheerful personality. Light in this way is related to the sensory experience of feeling a “social weight”, the pressure for one to act according to social norms.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to our anthropological understandings of light. It also provides a local case study of Japan, supported by original ethnographic research conducted by the author.


2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 447-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Wertheimer

One of the most vexing challenges accompanying any attempt to reconstruct the legal history of the family is deciding how much interpretive weight to assign to social factors as opposed to legal factors. “Gloria's Story” is loaded with social history, in part because it focuses on a small group of decidedly non-elite characters. It discusses non-legal matters as big as the impact of wealth concentration on the Guatemalan family and as small as the social significance of home births, as opposed to hospital births, in Quetzaltenango during the 1960s. Nonetheless, the most important factors driving the analysis are legal, not social. The article's central argument—that “modernizing” legal reforms adopted in Guatemala since the mid-nineteenth century have fortified, not weakened, adulterous concubinage—emphasizes the effects of legal change.


Author(s):  
I. S. Tomilov

The study reviews scientific literature concerning the cities of the Tobolsk province in the late XVIII – early XX centuries. The article  features the works of scientists, published in the pre-revolutionary  period and affecting different sides of the subject in question. The  results of the research indicate that before 1917 the scientific works  were mainly concentrated on such aspects of urban life as  demography, trade, administration, urban space, education, local  government, and periodicals. The authors did not distinguish the  concept of «social life» as a separate phenomenon, limiting the  study of its individual components. The methodology includes the  use of techniques and tools of local, systemic, comparative- historical, and problem-chronological methods, as well as  developments «history of everyday life» and «new Imperial history». In general, the article emphasizes the expansion of scientific  knowledge about the social history of Siberian cities in the post- reform and late Imperial periods, reveals the influence of the  researchers ' views on the integration of urban life. The scope of the  study is not limited to the interest of historians, urbanists and local  historians to the subject of study. Historiographical analysis is  relevant from the point of view of modern discussions about the  prospects of urban studies, and can also be used in the preparation  of textbooks and summaries on Siberian history. 


Author(s):  
Rodrigo Cerqueira do Nascimento Borba ◽  
Sandra Escovedo Selles

The activation of diversified historical sources and methodological approaches have been requested to the production of a new socio-historical knowledge concerning the historical constitutions of the school subjects of science and biology. This approach allows the understanding of controversies and disputes about these subjects. The present paper aims to present and problematize the use of an investigative resource developed in the field of Social sciences and still unusual in the science education studies with historical perspectives: the photobiography. This device combines references from Sociology, History of Education and Curriculum. In the paper, the photobiography dialogues with a research on the social trajectory of a science teacher whose professional practices were in tune with the assumptions of the “Science Education Innovation Movement” of the 1960s and 1970. The photobiography device is used for triggering memories and the production of other meanings of science teaching at that milieu.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 397
Author(s):  
Adeng Adeng

AbstrakKegiatan penelitian dan penulisan sejarah sosial baru dilakukan sekitar tahun 1950-an, baik di negara-negara maju maupun di negara-negara yang sedang berkembang. Di negara-negara yang sedang berkembang seperti Indonesia, kegiatan penelitian dan penulisan Sejarah Sosial masih sedikit dilakukan terutama yang bercorak sejarah sosial daerah. Penelitian dan penulisan sejarah yang sering dilakukan bercorak Sejarah Politik dan Sejarah Militer. Sejarah politik isinya menguraikan tentang pemerintahan kerajaan-kerajaan di Indonesia, pada masa pemerintahan Belanda, dan pendudukan Jepang. Sejarah Militer isinya tentang pertempuran-pertempuran baik melawan agresi Belanda maupun facisme Jepang. Dengan tersusunnya Sejarah Sosial Kota Bekasi diharapkan dapat diperoleh gambaran atau potret seluruh aspek kehidupan sosial daerah Kota Bekasi pada masa kini, dengan latar belakang masa lampau untuk memberikan proyeksi pada masa yang akan datang.  Untuk merekontruksi digunakan metode sejarah yang meliputi empat tahap, yaitu:  heuristik, kritik, interpretasi, dan historiografi. Kota Bekasi sebelumnya sebuah kecamatan dari Kabupaten Bekasi. Pada tahun 1982 Kecamatan Bekasi ditingkatkan statusnya menjadi kota administrasi. Pada tahun 1996 kembali ditingkatkan statusnya menjadi kotamadya. Dalam perkembangannya Kota Bekasi menjadi kawasan industri dan kawasan tempat tinggal kaum urban. Kota yang berada dalam lingkungan megapolitan ini merupakan salah satu kota besar urutan keempat di Indonesia yang terdapat di Provinsi Jawa Barat. AbstractThe Research and writing of the new social history made around the 1950s, both in developed countries and in emerging countries. In countries like Indonesia as one of the emerging countries, research and writing of Social History is few, especially about the history of social region.  Research and writing of history is often done patterned with Political History or Military History. The contents of Political history usually outlining with the era of kingdoms, and the governments in Indonesia at the time of Dutch and Japanese occupation.  The contents of Military History usually discussed the battles either against the aggression of the Dutch and Japanese fascism.  With the completion of the Social History of Bekasi City, hopefully it can get a photograph all aspects of the social life of the city of at present, with a background in the past to provide projections of future.  This research used historical method which includes four phases: heuristic, criticism, interpretation, and historiography.  In the past Bekasi well known as sub-district of Bekasi District. In 1982 the sub-district of Bekasi upgraded to municipality or administration city. Bekasi become a city in 1996.  In their development, Bekasi become a central of industrial area and as residence of urban society. The town is located in a megapolitan city of Jakarta, and one of the biggest cities in in the province of West Java.


2021 ◽  
Vol 02 (06) ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
V.A. Koshelkov ◽  

The article presents the history, geography and content of the rumors circulating among the inhabitants of the Pskov province in the first third of the XIX century. The historiography and source base on this problem are studied. The documents revealing the content of the rumors are concentrated in the files of the 20 Fund of the State Archive of the Pskov Region. Based on the analysis of these sources, a periodization of the rumor circulation was made. The main periods of spreading rumors in the Pskov province include July – August 1812, 1822–1826, 1826–1830, and the beginning of the 1830s. The author identifies the reasons that prompted the emergence of rumors among the residents of the Pskov Region. The reaction of the ordinary population of the province to the war rumors of 1812 is revealed on separate examples. Special attention is also paid to the reaction of the provincial authorities to the spread of false rumors in all periods of their circulation. The author draws conclusions about the high importance of rumors in the study of the history of the social space of the Pskov province in the first third of the XIX century. The work is relevant due to the fact that it is in recent decades that the attention of the historical community to the issues of social history has significantly increased. The uniqueness of this study lies in the fact that a number of historical sources are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.


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