To Sicily and North Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 114-145
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Clark
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Local Churches ◽  
North African ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Italian Peninsula

Chapter 7 narrates the adventures of Melania, Pinian, and Albina as they left the Italian peninsula, encountering danger in their sea travel, first to Sicily. In Sicily, a favored location for the estates of Roman aristocrats, Melania gathered sixty women, slave and free, to join her in ascetic practices. Whether Melania’s estate was as lush as the Villa del Casale at Piazza Armerina remains unknown. From Sicily also comes the ascetic treatise On Riches (probably by a Pelagian author), the most scathing critique of wealth from late antiquity. Roman Christian aristocrats, including Melania and her circle, expressed considerable interest in the Pelagian branch of Christianity, away from which bishop Augustine of Hippo tried to steer them. From Sicily, the trio left for agriculturally rich Roman North Africa before the end of 410. On one of their North African estates, Melania built monasteries, developed her ascetic practices, and enriched local churches. North African Christians in this era were divided between Donatist and Catholic factions; pagans and Manicheans were also present. To service the area’s agricultural production, vast numbers of slaves and seasonal laborers were needed. The trio lived in North Africa for seven years before departing for Jerusalem.

scholarly journals Society of North Africa on the Eve of the Empire’s War with the Vandals and Its Attitude to Justinian’s Reconquista

2020 ◽  
pp. 198-205
Author(s):  
Natalya Zolotukhina ◽  
Nikolay Bolgov
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
African Society ◽  
North African ◽  
Extreme Caution ◽  
Latin Culture ◽  
Military Campaign ◽  
The Military

Introduction. The article presents an analysis of North African society on the eve of Belisarius’s campaign against the vandals in North Africa (533–534). The campaign directed by Justinian under the leadership of Belisarius aimed to return the territory of North Africa to the Roman Empire. Methods. The methodological basis of this work is the concept of the Late Antiquity, the core of which is studying the people’s mentality, since the existing work on this issue focuses solely on socio-economic and political cause-and-effect relationships of the further confrontation between the Moorish and Roman tribes. Actually, the methods are the following: the historical-systemic method was the most important (an attempt to analyze the specifics of North African society on the eve of the war with the Vandals). Analysis. We divided North African society into three groups: the Vandals, the Libyans, the Moorish. The last two groups and their attitude towards the inclusion in the Roman Empire were of the greatest interest. Some of the tribes supported Justinian’s idea of the Reconquista and fought against the Vandals. Some supported the vandals. Nomadic tribes remained neutral. In our opinion, supporting the military campaign against the Vandals was due not only to economic reasons, but also mental ones. Thus, the research interest was caused by the transition period but not only in relation to the “Late Roman – Early Byzantium” line, but also because the region was romanized (presence of Latin culture, including the language segment), then it was part of the Vandal kingdom, after that – part of the Roman Empire (synthesis of Greek and Latin culture, with the predominance of Greek one). Results. In the course of the campaign against the vandals, North African society was represented by several social groups: the Vandals, the Libyans and the Мооrish – tribes that have their own cultural characteristics. Some tribes, who were in the Romanized zone (before the arrival of the Vandals), were on the side of Belisarius and fought against the Vandals. With extreme caution, we can say that this was due not only to socio-economic or political reasons, but also to mental ones. In our opinion, Byzantine Africa was a synthesis of Latin and Greek with the prevalence of the latter, and the Romanized population still wanted to feel part of the Roman Empire.

The Donatist Church in an Apocalyptic Age

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse A. Hoover
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
North African ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Significant Aspect ◽  
The Face

This book explores how a schismatic ecclesiastical movement in Roman North Africa known as Donatism incorporated apocalyptic motifs into its literature. In contrast to previous assessments, it will argue that such eschatological expectations are not out of sync with the wider world of Latin Christianity in late antiquity, and that they functioned as an effective polemical strategy designed to counter their opponents’ claim to be the true church in North Africa. After examining how eschatological passages were interpreted by earlier North African Christians prior to the schism, the book will explore appeals to the apocalyptic chronologically during the first two centuries of its existence (roughly 300–500 CE). Two competing trajectories in particular will be noted: a “mainstream” hermeneutic which defined the dissident communion as a prophesied “remnant” which had remained faithful in the face of widespread apostasy, and the radical alternative proposed by the Donatist theologian Tyconius, who interpreted the schism as a symbolic foreshadowing of a still-future “separation” between the true church and the false brothers who currently reside within it. By exploring these and other instances of apocalyptic imagery within the dissident movement’s surviving literary corpus, it is possible to reveal a significant aspect of Donatist self-perception which has so far gone unexamined.

Carceral Practices and Geographies in Roman North Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-580
Author(s):  
Matthew D. C. Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
North African ◽  
The Real ◽  
Letter Exchange ◽  
Carceral Studies

I explore the landscape of carceral practices and geographies in late antique Roman North Africa by applying a comparative lens to carceral punishments of exile and condemnation to the mines. I situate the research within the field of carceral studies, using the concept of carceral practices and geographies (as opposed to the narrower concepts of prison and imprisonment). I first offer a contextualization of the punishments of exile and condemnation to the mines as carceral punishments, remaining especially sensitive to the legal, material, and spatial aspects of each punishment. I then consider how different North African Christians used their carceral punishments and geographies to negotiate issues of political and social power in the broader Roman Mediterranean, specifically the letter exchange between Cyprian and three other groups of Christians condemned to the mines (Ep. 76–79). I use the letter correspondence as a case study to explore the “real-and-imagined” aspects of carceral practices and geographies in Roman North Africa. The carceral punishments of exile and condemnation to the mines have legal, material, social, gendered, rhetorical, and lived-experience components, all of which are treated as distinct, yet also fluid and intersectional with each other. I conclude by gesturing to how the case study adds texture to our understanding of how carceral punishment worked in Late Antiquity.

Transitions Within Queer North African Cinema

Screen Bodies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter S. Temple
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Film Festivals ◽  
Global Awareness ◽  
Critical Factors ◽  
North African ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
African Cinema ◽  
Queer Cinema

In recent years, North African queer cinema has become increasingly visible both within and beyond Arabo-Orientale spaces. A number of critical factors have contributed to a global awareness of queer identities in contemporary Maghrebi cinema, including the dissemination of films through social media outlets and during international film festivals. Such tout contemporain representations of queer sexuality characterize a robust wave of films in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, inciting a new discourse on the condition of the marginalized traveler struggling to locate new forms of self and being—both at home and abroad.

scholarly journals Identification and Characterization of the Most Common Genetic Variant Responsible for Acephalic Spermatozoa Syndrome in Men Originating from North Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 2187
Author(s):  
Caroline Cazin ◽  
Yasmine Boumerdassi ◽  
Guillaume Martinez ◽  
Selima Fourati Ben Mustapha ◽  
Marjorie Whitfield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Posterior Part ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Variant Filtering ◽  
North African Population ◽  
Sperm Nuclei

Acephalic spermatozoa syndrome (ASS) is a rare but extremely severe type of teratozoospermia, defined by the presence of a majority of headless flagella and a minority of tail-less sperm heads in the ejaculate. Like the other severe monomorphic teratozoospermias, ASS has a strong genetic basis and is most often caused by bi-allelic variants in SUN5 (Sad1 and UNC84 domain-containing 5). Using whole exome sequencing (WES), we investigated a cohort of nine infertile subjects displaying ASS. These subjects were recruited in three centers located in France and Tunisia, but all originated from North Africa. Sperm from subjects carrying candidate genetic variants were subjected to immunofluorescence analysis and transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed on sperm nuclei to assess their chromosomal content. Variant filtering permitted us to identify the same SUN5 homozygous frameshift variant (c.211+1_211+2dup) in 7/9 individuals (78%). SUN5 encodes a protein localized on the posterior part of the nuclear envelope that is necessary for the attachment of the tail to the sperm head. Immunofluorescence assays performed on sperm cells from three mutated subjects revealed a total absence of SUN5, thus demonstrating the deleterious impact of the identified variant on protein expression. Transmission electron microscopy showed a conserved flagellar structure and a slightly decondensed chromatin. FISH did not highlight a higher rate of chromosome aneuploidy in spermatozoa from SUN5 patients compared to controls, indicating that intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) can be proposed for patients carrying the c.211+1_211+2dup variant. These results suggest that the identified SUN5 variant is the main cause of ASS in the North African population. Consequently, a simple and inexpensive genotyping of the 211+1_211+2dup variant could be beneficial for affected men of North African origin before resorting to more exhaustive genetic analyses.

scholarly journals The COVID-19 Outbreak in North Africa: A Legal Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962098358
Author(s):  
Francesco Tamburini
Keyword(s):  
Population Health ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
North African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Legislative Measures

North African nations, especially Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco, have been heavily affected by COVID-19 if compared to other African countries. Governments in North Africa took proactive legal measures to manage the virus threat, safeguarding population health, but also triggering repressive and invasive mechanisms that in some cases jeopardized basic freedoms and rights. This work will analyze comparatively the anti-COVID-19 legislations, pointing out how the legislative measures mirrored the level of transition of democracy, the opacity of some regimes, exploitation of the pandemic to foster repressive control, and highlighting the weakness of new democratic institutions unprepared to balance health security and democracy.

First North African record of a melanistic common genet (Genetta genetta Linnaeus, 1758)

Mammalia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mourad Ahmim ◽  
Hafid Aroudj ◽  
Farouk Aroudj ◽  
Saaid Saidi ◽  
Samir Aroudj
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
North African ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Genetta Genetta ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
True Occurrence

Abstract The common genet (Genetta genetta Linnaeus, 1758) is a rare and protected mammal species in Algeria. We report the first melanistic individual of this species ever recorded in North Africa. Such animals have only been recorded in Spain and Portugal so far. It is unclear why melanistic common genets seem to be so rare in its African range. More research is needed to determine the true occurrence of melanistic individuals, and what the evolutionary history of melanism is in common genets.

scholarly journals Negation in Berber: Variation, evolution, and typology

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 967-1008
Author(s):  
Mena B. Lafkioui ◽  
Vermondo Brugnatelli
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
North African ◽  
Double Negation ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Area North

AbstractDouble and triple negation marking is an ancient and deep-rooted feature that is attested in almost the entire Berber-speaking area (North Africa and diaspora), regardless of the type of negators in use; i. e., discontinuous markers (preverbal and postverbal negators) and dedicated negative verb stem alternations. In this article, we deal with the main stages that have led to the present Berber negation patterns and we argue, from a typological viewpoint, that certain morphophonetic mechanisms are to be regarded as a hitherto overlooked source for new negators. Moreover, we present a number of motivations that account for the hypothesis that, in Berber, those languages with both a preverbal and a postverbal negator belong to a diachronic stage prior to the attested languages with a preverbal negator only. Consequently, the study demonstrates that the Jespersen Cycle is back to the beginning in certain Berber languages. In doing so, we also show that Berber is to be regarded as a substrate in the development of double negation in North African Arabic. In addition, the study accounts for the asymmetric nature of Berber negation, although some new developments towards more symmetrical negation configurations are also attested.

scholarly journals Further observations on North African and South Iberian Bathyporeia (Crustacea, Amphipoda), with the description of a new species

2005 ◽  
Vol 74 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 279-300
Author(s):  
Cédric d’Udekem d’Acoz ◽  
Hind Myrieme Chams Echchaoui ◽  
Mohamed Menioui
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
North Africa ◽  
New Records ◽  
Southern Spain ◽  
North African ◽  
Characteristic Species ◽  
South Portugal ◽  
First Time ◽  
A New Species

A new species of amphipod, Bathyporeia watkini sp. nov. from the Atlantic coasts of North Africa is described. This very characteristic species is abundant in some lagoons and estuaries near 28°N. New morphological information on B. elkaimi d’Udekem d’Acoz and Menioui, 2004 is given after specimens that were recently collected on the Atlantic coasts of southern Spain and South Portugal. The male of B. ledoyeri d’Udekem d’Acoz and Menioui, 2004 is described for the first time and new records of North African B. guilliamsoniana (Bate, 1857) and B. chevreuxi d'Udekem d'Acoz and Vader, 2005a are discussed.

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