Lothar Becker: a German naturalist in Victoria, 1849–52, 1855–65

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Darragh

Warning Readers of this article are warned that it may contain terms, descriptions and opinions that are culturally sensitive and/or offensive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Lothar Becker (1825–1901?), an unpretentious Silesian naturalist, twice visited the colony of Victoria and published rich and original observations on its natural history and Indigenous people on his return to Germany. On his first visit, 1849 to 1852, Becker recorded his encounter with Black Thursday, a devastating bushfire, its aftermath, and the, by then, still relatively uncleared landscape. He also related his experiences living for a time with an Indigenous family in the Omeo district. After adding to his store of natural history observations on a second visit, 1855 to 1865, Becker tried to make money from writing articles on diverse Australian topics such as ant nests, the sequence and timing of flowering, the distribution of weeds, the natural history of fungi and the world history of tobacco, in all but the latter characterised by a remarkable proto-ecological approach. Becker’s publications have been overlooked by subsequent scientific researchers, in part because he wrote for the popular press, and because his language was German. The life and work of Lothar Becker is introduced here for the first time, and translations provided of six of his articles on Victorian natural history, botany, mycology, horticulture, and anthropology. Reflections on Becker’s contribution to anthropology and to mycology are published in two associated articles by Howes, and May and Darragh.

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 13-17
Author(s):  
Victor V. Aksyuchits

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.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner Gephart

The historical-critical edition of Max Weber’s writings on sociology of law (MWG I/22-3) revealed deep layers of Max Weber’s legal texts that thus became readable for the first time. Weber breaks out from the legal centrism of the normative world and designs an Interpretation that follows the "world history of law“ in a cultural-comparative sense, thereby making him appear particularly topical for today’s debates on the relationship between globalization and legal analysis. With his text "Die Wirtschaft und die Ordnungen“ ("Economics and the Orders“), Weber anticipated the idea of "legal pluralism“ that emphasizes the diversity of


1970 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-94
Author(s):  
Søren Holm

Grundtvigs skoleverden, i tekster og udkast. Ed. by K. E. Bugge. I—II.Rev. by Søren HolmThis edition is a collection of the most important parts of Grundtvig’s writings on education, and it has been made by a very competent editor. Mr. Bugge knows Grundtvig’s ideas as well as their historical background, the selection is reasonable, and the get-up is very attractive. Grundtvig’s belief in the spoken word was too strong for him to trust a particular method. Methods may be delusions and mistakes, and, like forms of government, they belong to specific periods. In “Lærebog i verdenshistorien for de tvende øverste klasser i Schouboes Institut” ( 1807) (A History of the World for the two Upper Forms in Schouboe’s School), which he dictated to the pupils, his view on examinations is quite sober: they should be kept in mind, but our real aims are higher. In the same period Grundtvig says about country schools that the villager has the same ultimate objectives as other people. He does not have the time to ponder everything, but then he is entitled to demand that other people should make their results accessible to him. He needs geography rather than natural history. But the clergymen, who were to be the pioneers of knowledge, seem to be more interested in farming. Judging from his “Leksjons- og karakterbog for den unge Stensen Leth” (Report on the lessons of young Stensen Leth) from 1806—here published for the first time—Grundtvig appears to have done a solid piece of work for his salary at Egeløkke. - Several of the later essays are concerned with “the school at Sorø”, others with universities, education of the people, citizenship, and general education. Grundtvig’s capacity for work was inconceivable.


2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-336
Author(s):  
PIOTR DASZKIEWICZ ◽  
MICHEL JEGU

ABSTRACT: This paper discusses some correspondence between Robert Schomburgk (1804–1865) and Adolphe Brongniart (1801–1876). Four letters survive, containing information about the history of Schomburgk's collection of fishes and plants from British Guiana, and his herbarium specimens from Dominican Republic and southeast Asia. A study of these letters has enabled us to confirm that Schomburgk supplied the collection of fishes from Guiana now in the Laboratoire d'Ichtyologie, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. The letters of the German naturalist are an interesting source of information concerning the practice of sale and exchange of natural history collections in the nineteenth century in return for honours.


Author(s):  
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.

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.


Author(s):  
Thomas Linke

Abstract This is a new (and for the first time complete) edition of a speech about Buddhism by Rudolf Otto from 1913. This speech is his first academic reflexion of his journey around the world and his most detailed explanation of his view on this religion. In the first part of his speech Otto compares Buddhism with Christianity and finds a lot of parallels. In the second part he defines differences between these two religions and proclaims – from a Christian perspective – Christianity as more valuable than Buddhism. The preface puts the speech into its context: Otto’s relationship to and his knowledge of Buddhism (1), the history of publication of this speech (2), Otto’s specific view on Buddhism in comparison to his contemporaries (3), the meaning of this speech in his œuvre (4) and explanations about the edition (5). The editor has the opinion, that this speech is an important transition from Ottos philosophy of religion to his main work The Idea of the Holy. It further is a good example of what Otto means when speaking about the comparison of religions.


Author(s):  
Mauricio Onetto Pavez

The year 2020 marks the five hundredth anniversary of the “discovery” of the Strait of Magellan. The unveiling of this passage between 1519 and 1522 allowed the planet to be circumnavigated for the first time in the history of humanity. All maritime routes could now be connected, and the idea of the Earth, in its geographical, cosmographic, and philosophical dimensions, gained its definitive meaning. This discovery can be considered one of the founding events of the modern world and of the process of globalization that still continues today. This new connectivity awoke an immediate interest in Europe that led to the emergence of a political consciousness of possession, domination, and territorial occupation generalized on a global scale, and the American continent was the starting point for this. This consciousness also inspired a desire for knowledge about this new form of inhabiting the world. Various fields of knowledge were redefined thanks to the new spaces and measurements produced by the discovery of the southern part of the Americas, which was recorded in books on cosmography, natural history, cartography, and manuscripts, circulating mainly between the Americas and Europe. All these processes transformed the Strait of Magellan into a geopolitical space coveted by Europeans during the 16th century. As an interoceanic connector, it was used to imagine commercial routes to the Orient and political projects that could sustain these dynamics. It was also conceived as a space to speculate on the potential wealth in the extreme south of the continent. In addition, on the Spanish side, some agents of the Crown considered it a strategic place for imperial projections and the defense of the Americas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. v-vi
Author(s):  
Claudia Mitchell

This Special Issue of Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal represents another milestone in the history of the journal, coming, as it does, out of the second international conference of the International Girls’ Studies Association (IGSA) that was hosted by Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana, in 2019. As the guest editors, Angeletta Gourdine, Mary Celeste Kearney, and Shauna Pomerantz highlight in their introduction, the conference itself and the Special Issue set in motion the type of dialogue and conversation that is crucial to challenging and changing the world of inequities and disparities experienced by girls. For a relatively new area of study that has roots in feminism and social change, critical dialogue about inclusion and exclusion and about ongoing reflexivity and questioning must surely be at the heart of girls studies. The guest editors capture this admirably when they replace the question “What is girlhood studies?” with the provocative and generative question, “What can girlhood studies be?” The articles and book reviews in this Special Issue tackle what girls studies could be in so many different ways, ranging from broadening and deepening notions of intersectionality and interdisciplinarity to ensuring a place for the article, “Where are all the Girls and Indigenous People at IGSA@ND?” co-authored by the girls who belong to the Young Indigenous Women’s Utopia group. Such an account offers a meta-analysis of the field of girlhood studies, but so did the call for the Special Issue as a whole. It is commendable that this team of co-editors assembled and curated a series of articles that reveal the very essence of the problematic that girlhood studies seeks to address.


Author(s):  
Alexander Sukhodolov ◽  
Tuvd Dorj ◽  
Yuriy Kuzmin ◽  
Mikhail Rachkov

For the first time in Russian historiography, the article draws attention to the connection of the War of Khalkhin Gol in 1939 and the conclusion of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939. For a long time, historical science considered these two major events in the history of the USSR and history of the world individually, without their historic relationship. The authors made an attempt to provide evidence of this relationship, showing the role that surrounding and defeating the Japanese army at Khalkhin Gol in August 1939 and signing in Moscow of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact played in the history of the world. The study analyzes the foreign policy of the USSR in Europe, the reasons for the failure in the conclusion of the Anglo-Franco-Soviet military union in 1939 and the circumstances of the Pact. It shows the interrelation between the defeat of the Japanese troops at Khalkhin Gol and the need for the Soviet-German treaty. The authors describe the historic consequences of the conclusion of the pact for the further development of the Japanese-German relations and the course of the Second World War. They also present the characteristics of the views of these historical events in the Russian historiography.


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