The Uruk Phenomenon

2020 ◽  
pp. 163-244
Author(s):  
Gebhard J. Selz
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Features

The city of Uruk in southern Iraq was the main force for urbanization and state formation in Mesopotamia during the Uruk period (ca. 3800–3300 BC), which takes its name from this “first city.” This chapter discusses this formative period for the social, political, and cultural history of Mesopotamia and beyond, as well as the ensuing transitional period (Uruk III/Jemdet Nasr period; ca. 3300–3000 BC). The focus lies on the key elements of Uruk culture and its spread across Western Asia, including Syria, Anatolia, and Iran; the invention of cuneiform writing; and aspects of social, religious, and political organization of this emergent state. Contextualized in climatic, demographic, and geographic observations, the chapter evaluates key cultural features, stressing the role of population growth intertwined with technological, agricultural, and administrative improvements. These cultural features’ dissemination along trade routes to the Levant, Anatolia, and Iran is linked to the establishment of strongholds that secured the exchange of goods, with the south of Mesopotamia serving as the commercial hub. While the available sources—both textual and iconographic—provide no unequivocal evidence for the alleged monocratic governance of Uruk-period society, the identifiable political structures were strongly intertwined with religious functions, indicating great societal complexity. The alleged collapse of the Uruk culture was predominantly the breakdown of the Uruk (trade) network. Culturally, however, many features of the Uruk phenomenon provided the founding charter for Mesopotamian social structures in subsequent periods.

Officers’ contributions to Britain’s anti-slavery culture

2019 ◽  
pp. 167-190
Author(s):  
Mary Wills
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
West African ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Press ◽  
History Of ◽  
Naval Officers

This chapter examines officers’ contributions to the metropolitan discourses about slavery and abolition taking place in Britain in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Furthering the theme of naval officers playing an important part in the social and cultural history of the West African campaign, it uncovers connections between the Royal Navy and domestic anti-slavery networks, and the extent to which abolitionist societies and interest groups operating in Britain during the first half of the nineteenth century forged relationships with naval officers in the field. Officers contributed to this ever-evolving anti-slavery culture: through support of societies and by providing key testimonies and evidence about the unrelenting transatlantic slave trade. Their representations of the slave trade were used to champion the abolitionist cause, as well as the role of the Royal Navy, in parliament, the press and other public arenas.

scholarly journals The Burden of the Empire and the Vocation of Russia: George Fedotov’s Philosophy of History

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 44-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. V. Klepikova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Ivan The Terrible ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Creative Role

The paper discusses the philosophical and historical doctrine of the Russian philosopher and historian George Petrovich Fedotov. The author focuses on the analysis of imperial issues in the works of G.P. Fedotov, especially of his views on the cultural history of the Russian empire and the essence of imperial project in Russia. Fedotov reconsiders the historical experience and revolutionary catastrophe of Russia and searches for the foundations of the social and cultural processes determining the events of Russian history. Fedotov’s works offer a variety of interpretations of the political and cultural phenomenon of empire. This reflects his evolution as a philosopher of history: the focus of his vision shifts from the Medieval Rus to the Empire of Peter the Great, then to the collapsed empire of Nicholas II and finally to the USSR (the latter was also an empire according to him). Fedotov’s concept of Empire evolves into a timeless cultural-philosophical phenomenon but originates from the historical description of the centralization of power in the feudal monarchy of Ivan the Terrible. The evolution of the philosophical and historical views of Fedotov is influenced by the changes of his attitude to the historical conception of Klyuchevsky. In the 1940s Fedotov considers the empire as a universal idea. The concept of empire proposed by Fedotov gives an understanding of the Russian historical development, especially the causes of the decline and fall of the Russian Empire. Fedotov associates the cause of the salvation of Russia with the study of ancient Russian culture, in which he founds a moral and political ideal of the “Republic of Saint Sophia.” The paper shows heuristic potential of Fedotov’s cultural and philosophical ideas on the vocation of spiritual elite and the creative role of personality in the process of nation-building.

scholarly journals The Role of Akashvani Kozhikode in the Radio Broadcasting History of Kerala with Emphasis on the Contributions of Khan Kavil

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Fida Yasmin
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Radio Broadcasting ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

The study examines the history of radio broadcasting in Kerala from the 1940s to the 21st century, focusing on the contributions of Akashvani Kozhikode. An attempt is made to search the social and cultural history of Akashvani Kozhikode and find out the contemporary relevance of Kozhikode station. The study's primary aim is to delve into the life history of Khan Kavil, who was an anchor, drama writer, actor, drama director, and broadcasting artist. Khan Kavil, born in a small village named Kavumthara in Kerala, was a voice artist who worked in Akashvani Kozhikode from 1978 to 1997 and carved a niche with his dynamic voice in the realm of radio broadcasting in Kerala. The study is trying to identify his contributions to the Akashvani Kozhikode and society. His life and contributions are recollected through popular memories, and an attempt is made to write a local and oral history based on this data gathered through the conversations with the eminent personalities of Khan Kavil's time who admired him and his colleagues. Further, the paper attempts to trace out why radio broadcasting still has a significant impact on ordinary people despite the advent of new forms of media. Magazines, newspapers, brochures, and interviews are used as the primary sources of this study.

Say there’s no future: The queer potential of Wicked’s Fiyero

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Gay Men ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Musical Theatre ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Broadway Musicals

This article demonstrates the queer potential and pleasure produced by the character Fiyero in Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s Wicked (2003). I mobilize two primary frameworks to examine Fiyero’s queerness; the first half of the article views Fiyero in the context of queer theories of temporality and utopia, while the second half is interested in the deep cultural history of gay men’s relationships with Broadway musicals. This analysis produces both theoretical and historical implications of Fiyero’s character as I explore how his representation disrupts heteronormative rituals and aspects of the social order, as well as how he produces a valuable figure for the communities of gay men that have historically developed around musical theatre. The queer possibility of Wicked’s women has been examined extensively in past scholarship – particularly through the insights of Stacy Wolf – and this article expands upon this previous work to account for the role of Fiyero in the musical and the queer possibilities he produces.

3. Encountering the Counter-Reformation

2006 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 706-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Laven
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Social History ◽  
Early Modern Catholicism ◽  
The People ◽  
Local Case ◽  
The Social ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of

While the Reformation has, from the very beginning, been seen as a drama which drew its cast from every sphere of society, the Counter-Reformation was until recently considered the project of elites. Even those who sought to write the social history of the Catholic reform movement allocated to “the people” the role of resisting the course of change rather than contributing to the transformation of early modern Catholicism. Swimming against this tide, a succession of local case studies, focusing in particular on rituals and objects, has demonstrated the manifold ways in which men and women of all social backgrounds participated in the reinvention of Roman Catholicism. This paper considers new emphases in the social and cultural history of the Counter-Reformation, and asks whether there remains a place for thinking about the age of reform in terms of discipline and confessionalization.

The problem of periodization of the history of religion

1997 ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Borys Lobovyk
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Religious Development ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Role Of Religion

An important problem of religious studies, the history of religion as a branch of knowledge is the periodization process of the development of religious phenomenon. It is precisely here, as in focus, that the question of the essence and meaning of the religious development of the human being of the world, the origin of beliefs and cult, the reasons for the changes in them, the place and role of religion in the social and spiritual process, etc., are converging.

Presentation

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Redacción CEIICH
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
Feminist Theories ◽  
History Of

<p class="p1">The third number of <span class="s1"><strong>INTER</strong></span><span class="s2"><strong>disciplina </strong></span>underscores this generic reference of <em>Bodies </em>as an approach to a key issue in the understanding of social reality from a humanistic perspective, and to understand, from the social point of view, the contributions of the research in philosophy of the body, cultural history of the anatomy, as well as the approximations queer, feminist theories and the psychoanalytical, and literary studies.</p>

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Sources Of Authority ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Periods

The concluding chapter highlights how the cultural history of graphic signs of authority in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages encapsulated the profound transformation of political culture in the Mediterranean and Europe from approximately the fourth to ninth centuries. It also reflects on the transcendent sources of authority in these historical periods, and the role of graphic signs in highlighting this connection. Finally, it warns that, despite the apparent dominant role of the sign of the cross and cruciform graphic devices in providing access to transcendent protection and support in ninth-century Western Europe, some people could still employ alternative graphic signs deriving from older occult traditions in their recourse to transcendent powers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document