Early African Pasts: Sources, Interpretations, and Meanings

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Schoenbrun
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Environmental Studies ◽  
Early History ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
African History ◽  
Art Objects ◽  
The People ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
Written Sources

Writing Africa’s history before the 10th century almost always means relying on sources other than written documents, which increase in number especially from the 16th century onward. Archaeology (including the study of art objects), the comparative study of historically related languages, paleo-environmental studies, and oral traditions provide the bulk of information. Writing Africa’s early history ideally involves collaboration among experts in using each kind of source, an increasingly common practice. Despite the challenges of analysis and interpretation posed by this base of sources, early African history has a depth and breadth akin to the histories made from the written sources in archives. Even so, whereas written documents provide details about individuals and precise dates, the sources for writing early African histories more often provide detail about conceptualization, for example, of time, hospitality, and individualism and about larger, environmental contexts shaping those concepts and shaped by the actions of the people who held them. Translating such concepts and scales of action into accounts accessible to those—including many historians—not steeped in the methodological conventions underlying the analysis of each source is a major challenge facing historians of Africa’s earlier past.

scholarly journals COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SOME LYRIC AND EPIC GENRES IN AZERBAIJANI AND ENGLISH CHILDREN’S FOLKLORE

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-21
Author(s):  
Nigar Aghayeva
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Children's Songs ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Tongue Twister ◽  
The Comparative Study

Children's folklore genres play a very important role in children’s development. Article is devoted to the comparative study of some lyric and epic genre features of Azerbaijani and English children's folklore. Children folklore has a lot of common peculiarities. But there are also some differences. In this regard, the subject of the research is fundamental and comparative typological analysis of the lyric and epic genres of Azerbaijani and English children’s folklore were involved to the research. Article provides a comparative analysis of both Azerbaijani and English lullabies, riddles, tongue twister, and children's songs. Thus, the similarity of folklore genres in the study is linked to the closeness of human thought and its relation to reality. The similar life conditions of Azerbaijani and English peoples and the stereotypes of behavior formed according to these situations, oral traditions, especially comparisons of children's folklore texts revealed parallels in terms of information. Similarities in connection with life conditions are clearly observed in many children's folklore genres, as well as in some lyric and epic genres.

scholarly journals Paving the Way for Interreligious Dialogue, Tolerance, and Harmony: Following Mukti Ali’s Path

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faisal Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
Academic Careers ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Muslim Scholar ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The People ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Way

A known Indonesian Muslim scholar Mukti Ali (1923-2004) was very much concerned with dialogue, tolerance, and harmony among the people of different traditions, cultures, and religions. In his many academic works, he stressesed the importance of promoting, strengthening, and maintaining intercultural and interreligious dialogue, tolerance, and harmony. Not only did he produce various academic works, but also made efforts in putting his intercultural and interreligious ideas into practice. Both as a scholar and expert in the comparative study of religions and as Minister of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia (1971-1978), Mukti Ali endlessly promoted intercultural and interreligiuos diologue, tolerance, and harmony. Realizing that Indonesia is a pluralistic society, Mukti Ali adopted an approach called ‘agree in disagreement’ in the effort of creating and supporting tolerance, harmony, and security among people of different religious traditions. This paper will highlight the principles and values which Mukti Ali struggled for during his long administrative and academic careers.[Mukti Ali (1923-2004) adalah salah seorang intelektual Muslim ternama di Indonesia. Dia dedikasikan hidupnya untuk menyemai dialog, toleransi dan kehidupan harmonis antar tradisi, budaya dan agama yang beragam. Dalam berbagai karya akademiknya, Mukti Ali selalu menekankan pentingnya kehidupan harmonis dan toleransi antar pemeluk agama dan budaya. Lebih dari itu, dia melampaui hanya sekedar batas pemikiran dengan mengimplementasikan gagasan-gagasannya tersebut. Sebagai seorang ilmuwan dengan keahlian perbandingan agama dan sebagai Menteri Agama RI (1971-1978), Mukti Ali dengan kukuh memperjuangkan dialog, toleransi dan kehidupan harmonis antar agama dan budaya. Mukti Ali sadar, Indonesia adalah negara yang plural, karena itu dia menawarkan pendekatan “agree in disagreement” untuk menciptakan harmoni dan toleransi tersebut. Tulisan ini mengulas prinsip dan nilai yang diperjuangkan Mukti Ali selama karir akademiknya dan sebagai Menteri Agama.]

Other Peoples’ Scriptures: Mythical Texts of Imagined Communities

Numen ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-333
Author(s):  
David R. Vishanoff
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Imagined Communities ◽  
The People ◽  
The Comparative Study

The essays in this issue of Numen exemplify a shift in the comparative study of scriptures, highlighting their evanescence, their non-informative dimensions, and the ways in which they and the people who hold them sacred are reimagined across religious boundaries.

Afrika-Archiv: A New Series of the Frobenius Institute for the Purpose of Publishing Source Material

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 437-439
Author(s):  
Beatrix Heintze
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The Other ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
African History ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Written Sources

“[D]as Wirkungsvolle wird gepflegt, die Gewissenhaftigkeit schwindet; an Stelle der Fähigkeit zu bergründen, der Kraft zu überzeugen, tritt die Sicherheìt im Behaupten.”[T]hat what impresses is cultivated, conscientiousness dwindles; the capability to explain, the power to convince are replaced by self-confidence in asserting.There is nothing more absurd—yet also nothing more common—than a scholarly lifetime of publishing based on materials to which no one else has access.The series “Afrika Archiv” (“Africa Archives”) was founded recently with the aim of publishing source material referring to the history and anthropology of Africa. In this connection the term “source material” shall be considered in a very broad sense. Thus, beside the usual library and other written sources, as well as written records of oral traditions, for instance, even editions of ethnographic collections or photographic documentation will be taken into consideration. African scholars will be able to publish material from their own countries to which we Europeans and Americans have only difficult access. Western scholars, on the other hand, could publish sources from public and private European or American archives, museums, or even widely dispersed articles in periodicals and newspapers on African history of the nineteenth century which are available only with great difficulty and expenditure of time. As a reviewer once commented, such source editions will still continue to be valued when contemporary interpretations have already long fallen into oblivion.Endeavors to record systematically varied sources on the history of the continent, the cultural and scientific history of Africa, and to make the essentials generally available to the scientific public still appear inadequate.

Sacred Sites: Nature and Nation in the U.S. National Parks

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Ross-Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
National Parks ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
Sacred Sites ◽  
American Values ◽  
The People ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The U.S

AbstractThe U.S. National Parks, which first developed as the nation fragmented during the civil war, have played a central role in the unifying discourse of America. The parks are able to serve this role because of the close alliance between nature and nation in U.S. discourse. Nature “set apart” in the parks becomes the embodiment of an archetypal America, which is the ever-pristine source of the greatness of the nation and the people. As such, it serves as a sacred site and a unifying symbol in U.S. American culture.By approaching the parks as pilgrimage sites, we can examine the American values that have been embodied in them. Using a model that assumes the heterogeneity of any religio-cultural event, we can see the often conflicting values both in the spiritual, scientific, national and economic discourses that make up the parks and in the embodiment of those discourses in the physical developments in the parks. Central to both is the paradoxical ideal behind the parks: to preserve wilderness.The goal of the essay is two-fold: 1) as part of the comparative study of religions, to suggest the usefulness of a heterogeneous, spatialized model for analyzing sacred places and to apply the model to the study of American culture in order to understand more about how the embodiment of nature and nation in the National Parks has worked as a unifying symbol while at the same time disclosing contested and conflicting values in American society, and 2) to show how the meanings surrounding this symbol are being transformed today.

Pandhawa Gubah sebagai Representasi Interaksi Metafisik Manusia Jawa dan Perbandingannya dengan Cheritera Pandawa Lima

Manuskripta ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Novarina Novarina
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Literary Study ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Research Objects ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Comparative Study

Abstract: This research is a comparative literary study that uses Malay and Javanese versions of Mahabarata text sources. The research objects used were the text edition of Pandhawa Gubah (PG) by Sudibjo Z. Hadisutjipto and the text of Cheritera Pandawa Lima (CPL) by Khalid Hussain. The research method used is descriptive-analysis method. In the comparative study used a comparative literary theory proposed by Endraswara (2011). The results of the text comparison reveal the similarities and differences in the image of Bima figures in the Javanese and Malay versions. The equation as a whole is that both texts contain the same heroic storyline and heroic character, Bima. In addition, Indian influence is still evident in the two texts seen from the nuances of Hinduism that exist in both texts. While the difference is seen in the events that accompany Bima's struggle in achieving his victory. Based on these similarities and differences, it can be seen that the authors attempt to represent the concept of metaphysical interactions vertically and horizontally expressed through PG text. --- Abstrak: Penelitian ini adalah satu kajian sastra bandingan yang menggunakan sumber teks Mahabarata versi Melayu dan Jawa. Objek penelitian yang digunakan adalah edisi teks Pandhawa Gubah (PG) karya Sudibjo Z. Hadisutjipto dan teks Cheritera Pandawa Lima (CPL) karya Khalid Hussain. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode deskriptif-analisis. Dalam telaah perbandingan digunakan teori sastra bandingan yang dikemukakan Endraswara (2011). Hasil perbandingan teks mengungkapkan adanya persamaan dan perbedaan citra tokoh Bima dalam versi Jawa maupun versi Melayu. Persamaan secara keseluruhan adalah kedua teks tersebut mengandung alur cerita kepahlawanan dan tokoh pahlawan yang sama yaitu Bima. Selain itu, pengaruh India masih tampak dalam kedua teks tersebut dilihat dari nuansa Hinduisme yang ada dalam kedua teks. Sementara perbedaannya tampak pada peristiwa-peristiwa yang menyertai perjuangan Bima dalam mencapai kemenangannya. Berdasarkan persamaan dan perbedaan tersebut tampak adanya upaya penulis untuk merepresentasikan konsep interaksi metafisik secara vertikal dan horizontal yang diungkapkan melalui teks PG.

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