The Rohingya ‘Origin’ Narrative

2018 ◽  
pp. 73-106
Author(s):  
Anthony Ware ◽  
Costas Laoutides
Keyword(s):  
Historical Record ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Intractable Conflict ◽  
Sociopolitical Context ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
Ethic Identity

Chapters Three and Four articulate the competing historical narratives and representations of memory sustaining Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ conflict. This chapter examines what the authors designate the Rohingya ‘Origin’ narrative, and interrogates it against the available historical record; the next chapter considers the Rakhine and Burman perspectives. Drawing on the concept of intractable conflict, this chapter commences with an assessment of ‘Rohingya’ written historical sources and their sociopolitical context, then presents an overview and critique of these historical accounts. The chapter summarizes the key narrative of Rohingya origins, examining their representation of various waves of Muslim migration in the distant past, seeking to establish the Rohingya as a national race with deep historical roots in Arakan—and a people integral to Arakan’s political and socioeconomic life until its 1784 conquest by the Burmans. The chapter then offers an analysis of the pre-colonial Muslim population, and assesses their perspectives about the origins of the contemporary conflict. The chapter thus documents and analyses Rohingya claims that various waves of settlers have been assimilated, over centuries, into what is now a single ethic identity with a strong historical connection to the land, and a distinct language, culture and history which should now be considered indigenous to the region.

Rakhine–Burman Narratives

2018 ◽  
pp. 107-136
Author(s):  
Anthony Ware ◽  
Costas Laoutides
Keyword(s):  
Historical Record ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Intractable Conflict ◽  
Sociopolitical Context ◽  
Shared Ancestry

Chapters Three and Four articulate the competing historical narratives and representations of memory sustaining Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ conflict. The last chapter examined the Rohingya ‘Origin’ historical narrative; this chapter considers the Rakhine and Burman perspectives, and interrogates them against the available historical record. This chapter documents and analyses three Rakhine—Burman perspectives, which the authors designate: a) the Rakhine ‘Independence’ narrative, which justifies demands for their autonomy from Burman domination; b) the Burman ‘Unity’ narrative, which claims a shared ancestry and historical unity between all of Myanmar’s national races (excluding Rohingya) as the basis for expectations that minorities will unite with them, to form a political community at the heart of the Union of Myanmar; and c) the Rakhine-Burman ‘Infiltration’ narrative, which claims an influx of Bengali Muslims during the colonial and post-Independence period poses an existential threat to the ethnic Rakhine, to Buddhism and to the Myanmar nation. Discussion of each of these narratives includes an assessment of written historical sources and their sociopolitical context, and an overview and critique of these narratives in the light of known history and Bar-Tal’s (2013) ideas about intractable conflict. The chapter concludes with a demographic analysis highlighting the growth of the Muslim population in Rakhine during the colonial period.

Maize on the Move: The Diffusion of a Tropical Cultivar across Europe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loren Galesi
Keyword(s):  
Gene Pool ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Columbian Exchange ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
The Way

This article examines the transfer and reception of maize into Europe in the wake of the Columbian Exchange. Treating maize as a plant – and reviewing familiar historical sources through the lens of the plant’s likes and dislikes, its requirements and inherent traits – provides us with a novel source of information about how maize might have moved through European spaces, even in cases where the traditional historical record is silent. This article will make use of such data, employing current genetic research to interpret art and textual sources. I will show that all maize originally transported to Europe hailed from one slim gene pool. I will argue that the unique characteristics of those seeds impacted on the way maize fit into European ecosystems, and consequently into European cultures.

Migrating Meanings

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Underhill ◽  
Mariarosaria Gianninoto ◽  
Mariarosaria Gianninoto
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Broad View ◽  
European Languages ◽  
The People ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Historical Accounts

Exploring the roots of four keywords for our times: Europe, the citizen, the individual, and the people, Mariarosaria Gianninoto’s and James Underhill’s Migrating Meanings (2019) takes a broad view of conceptualization by taking on board various forms of English, (Scottish, American, and English), as well as other European languages (German, French, Spanish & Czech), and incorporating in-depth contemporary and historical accounts of Mandarin Chinese. The corpus-based research leads the authors to conclude that the English keywords are European concepts with roots in French and parallel traditions in German. But what happens to Chinese words when they come into contact with migrating meanings from Europe? How are existing concepts like the people transformed? This book goes beyond the cold analysis of concepts to scrutinize the keywords that move people and get them excited about individual rights and personal destinies. With economic, political and cultural globalisation, our world is inseparable from the fates of other nations and peoples. But how far can we trust English to provide us with a reliable lingua franca to speak about our world? If our keywords reflect our cultures and form parts of specific cultural and historical narratives, they may well trace the paths we take together into the future. This book helps us to understand how other languages are adapting to English words, and how their worldviews resist ‘anglo-concepts’ through their own traditions, stories and worldviews.

scholarly journals The State of school system in Bosanska Krupa and its surroundings during Austro-Hungarian administration

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
Mirza Ahmetbašić ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Starting Point

Very few papers have been written about the development of education in the wider area of Bosanska Krupa during the Austro-Hungarian administration (1878-1918). No comprehensive historical study is known that treats exclusively the development of education in this area during the occupation period. An exception is the book by Elvira Islamović entitled „Schooling and education in the Bihać district during the Austro-Hungarian administration“, published in Bihać in 2008, which in one part deals with the development of schooling in the Bosnian Krupa area. The starting point for the study of the past of Bosanska Krupa and its surroundings is the work of a group of authors entitled „Bosnian-Krupska municipality in the war and revolution“ published in Bosanska Krupa in 1969, which presents a rough overview of Bosnian Krupa's history until the first years after World War II. war and partly the development of education during the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and the period between the two world wars, and more recently the following works: Mithad Kozličić, „Population and settlements of the Una-Sana area 1879-1921. godine“, Bihać 1999; Mirza Ahmetbašić, Adnan Hafizović, Osnovna škola “Otoka“ od osnivanja do danas, Bihać 2008; Emin Mesić, Fikret Midžić, “Mali Pset 1272. Tvrđava Krupa, Prilozi za monografiju Bosanska Krupa“, Bosanska Krupa 2012; Asmir Crnkić, Mirza Ahmetbašić, „Bosanska Krupa during the Austro-Hungarian administration”, Bihać 2020 and others. The development of school opportunities during the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian administrations was partially addressed by bringing them into context when dealing with other topics. In this paper, the author talks about school opportunities in the area of Bosanska Krupa and its surroundings at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Attention is paid to the establishment and operation of confessional primary and secondary schools that operated during the Ottoman period, and whose work continued after 1878, and the establishment and operation of the first state primary schools in the wider Bosnian Krupa area. The development of school conditions in the area of Bosanska Krupa during the Ottoman rule did not differ from other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the needs of the Muslim population, sibjan mektebs were opened, somewhat later ruždija and madrasas, and for the needs of Orthodox children of the Orthodox primary school. Orthodox primary schools in the Bosnian Krupa area were first opened in Jasenica, Bosanska Krupa and Velika Rujiška. The Austro-Hungarian government also encountered an extremely high level of illiteracy in the area of Bosanska Krupa and its surroundings. At the end of the Ottoman rule, the illiteracy of the population was more than 95%. In addition, the regular educational process was very often interrupted by various infectious diseases that affected this area, as evidenced by numerous historical sources. There was also a great lack of professional teaching staff. A large number of students who are old enough to start school, the need for education of children of immigrant foreigners, etc. it was a sufficient signal to the competent authorities that a state primary school be established in Bosanska Krupa as well. In the villages around Bosanska Krupa, state primary schools opened relatively late. In the period from 1887 to 1913, public primary schools began operating in Otoka, Veliki Radić, Hasanbegova Jasenica, Ivanjska, Vranjska, Hasani and Bužim. However, in the year of establishment of certain schools, e.g. Otoka, Veliki Radić and Hasanbegova Jasenica there are differences between researchers. The Orthodox population was far more in favor of opening interfaith primary schools in their communities than the Muslim population, despite the fact that the Austro-Hungarian authorities, where possible, regulated the formation of special women's classes in public primary schools. The year 1880 marked a turning point in the development of education in the wider Bosnian Krupa area. That year, the People's Primary School in Bosanska Krupa started operating, which operated throughout the Austro-Hungarian period. However, certain researchers claim that this educational institution began operating in 1884 and 1885, respectively. It was one of the main educational centers and a nursery for numerous cultural and educational activities in this area.

scholarly journals BUDDHIST LAW IN EARLY TIBET: THE EMERGENCE OF AN IDEOLOGY

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 406-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernanda Pirie
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Historical Accounts

AbstractTibet is distinct within the Buddhist regions of Asia for its claims to have developed religious laws. The rulers of its early empire civilized their people by creating laws on the basis of Buddhist principles—or so it is claimed by the writers of Tibetan historical narratives. In fact, the earliest Tibetan laws were not linked in any significant way with Buddhist principles, even after the religion had been firmly established in the region. In this article I explore why and how the idea of Buddhist law first emerged, examining its development through a number of texts from the empire (sixth to ninth centuries) and the immediate postimperial period (tenth to twelfth centuries). It turns out that more ideological accounts of Buddhist law were developed only as the structures of the empire were collapsing. Nevertheless, they do seem to have resonated with at least one, tenth-century ruler. These narratives set the scene for a long series of historical accounts in which the idea that Tibetan law was based on Buddhist principles took hold—an idea that was maintained well into the twentieth century.

Doing Justice to History

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barrie Sander
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Historical Justice ◽  
Mass Atrocity ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
Historical Function

As communities—both local and international—have struggled to make sense of mass atrocity situations, expectations have increasingly been placed on international criminal courts to render authoritative historical accounts of the episodes of mass violence that fall within their purview. Taking these expectations as its point of departure, Doing Justice to History seeks to understand international criminal courts through the prism of their historical function—critically examining how such courts confront the past by constructing historical narratives concerning both the culpability of the accused on trial and the broader mass atrocity contexts in which they are alleged to have participated. The book argues that international criminal courts are host to struggles for historical justice, discursive contests between different actors vying for judicial acknowledgement of their preferred interpretations of the past. By examining these struggles within different institutional settings, the book surfaces the legitimating qualities of international criminal judgments—illuminating, in particular, what tends to be foregrounded and included within, as well as marginalised and excluded from, the narratives of international criminal courts in practice. What emerges from this account is a sense of the significance of thinking about the emancipatory limits and possibilities of international criminal courts in terms of the historical narratives that are constructed and contested both within and beyond the courtroom in different institutional and societal contexts.

Narrating Brunei: Travelling histories of Brunei Indians

2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 718-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
SRIDEVI MENON
Keyword(s):  
Historical Record ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Indian Diaspora ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Japanese Occupation ◽  
Narrative Agency ◽  
Archival Record ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
Petroleum Company

AbstractBetween the late 1950s and the 1960s, a significant community of Indians appeared in Seria, an oil town in Brunei. Most of these Indians were recruited from India by the British Malayan Petroleum Company to staff its company offices in the wake of the rehabilitation of the Seria oilfields after the end of the Japanese occupation of Borneo. However, in official hagiographies of the Sultanate and historical accounts of Brunei, the Indians of Seria are invisible. Juxtaposed against this silence in the historical record, I pose the narrative agency of these Indians in asserting their place in the emergence of the modern state of Brunei and in historicizing their presence in a frontier oil town in Borneo. This article is based on extensive fieldwork in India, where most of these Indians retired to after decades of expatriate life in Brunei. Recalling their work and youth in Seria, they collectively claim an ‘origin’ in Seria while improvising a Brunei-Indian diaspora in India through their shared memories. In the absence of an archival record for the Indians in Seria, this article seeks to affirm the historical value of story-telling and diasporic remembering in recording a partisan genealogy of migration and settlement.

Contesting the past on the Chinese Internet: Han-centrism and mnemonic practices

2019 ◽  
pp. 175069801987599
Author(s):  
Yi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Nationalist Movement ◽  
Online Groups ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Truth ◽  
Historical Accounts

Digital technology has brought critical changes to mnemonic practices in China, such as the empowerment of social groups to discover previously underrepresented historical accounts and produce alternative historical narratives. This article examines the mnemonic practices of Han-centrism, a type of ethnic and cultural nationalist movement based on the Chinese Internet. It analyzes how Han-centrist netizens reinterpret national history through their efforts to rediscover forgotten historical narratives of glory and trauma. It suggests that digital technology in China facilitates the emergence of online groups that are dedicated to the struggle for “historical truth” and social-cultural changes, motivated by a crisis of identity. Their mnemonic practices may be partly tolerated by the authoritarian state under some conditions. However, given China’s complicated and conflictual history, such online groups can easily turn the Internet into a battlefield of nationalism. This article highlights the confusion and contestation of memory and identity in contemporary China and the role of digital technology in the long battle.

Zur Autonomie indirekter Redewiedergabe – Eine diachrone Perspektive

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-101
Author(s):  
Ulrike Demske
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
Verbal Mood

Abstract Regarding verbal mood and complementation patterns of reporting verbs, the distinction between direct and indirect reported speech is well established in present-day German. This paper looks into the history of German: Common knowledge has it that both the use of verbal mood as well as the quality of clause linkage undergo considerable changes giving rise to the question how these changes affect the manifestations of indirect reported speech in earlier stages of German. The historical record of the 16th century (with an outlook on the 17th century) shows that the distinction between direct and indirect reported speech is not yet grammaticalized in historical sources at the time. In particular with respect to dependent (in)direct reported speech, both types prefer V2-complements with only verbal mood differentiating between the types. Although present and past subjunctive have a much wider distribution in earlier stages of German, the occurrence of free indirect speech likewise testifies to its increasing use as a marker of indirect reported speech. The growing conventionalization of patterns of indirect reported speech in the course of Early Modern German may be considered as an example for an increase of subjectification in its development.

“Gendered Narratives,” History, and Identity: Two Centuries Along the Juba River among the Zigula and Shanbara

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 93-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Declich
Keyword(s):  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Women's Roles ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Female Voices ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Historical Discourses ◽  
Gender Specific

The argument that a process of “making tribes” has invested Africa from early colonial times has been used to explain the emergence of some ethnicities which appear not to have existed before colonialism. This emergence was often accompanied by the creation of written records of male historical discourse, thus not only giving them undue prominence but also suppressing female historical discourses which were not considered pertinent to “history.”Yet whenever history is recounted orally by either men or women, it contains messages directed to a “gendered” audience (i.e., an audience composed of people of both genders) whose participants perceive messages differently and reproduce separate but interacting discourses. Such diverse perceptions result from certain aspects in oral genres as well as small, coded markers which can evoke immensely potent but gender-specific experiences. Such instances may become public symbols and, along with more obviously historical narratives, greatly influence how people relate to their past. Thus men and women in the same audience, hearing the same story, can make connections between elements of a narrative which are obscure to outside researchers.Recently, it has become quite common for historians of Africa to deconstruct written historical sources on the basis of the agendas of both the original writer and his informants. These agendas are rarely explicit and thus hiddenly selective. Such deconstruction is a legitimate scholarly procedure; however, as female voices have rarely been recorded—the resulting analysis reinforces the omission of women's roles in the process of remaking history and creating identity.

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