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.

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.

Organizational archives and historical narratives

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 280-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amon Barros ◽  
Adéle de Toledo Carneiro ◽  
Sergio Wanderley
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Contextual Understanding ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Multiple Characteristics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the role of reflexivity in relation to archives and narratives. Design/methodology/approach The authors problematize the concept of “archive,” by engaging with debates in philosophy and the archival theory. The authors also revisit historical theories and debates on the role of the narrative within historiography. Finally, the authors consider reflexivity as a methodological attitude taken by the researcher at all stages of the investigation from challenging theoretical assumptions of empirical materials to questioning the very narrative that is created when looking for alternative ones. Findings This paper poses questions about documents and archives that emerge from reflexivity. The authors claim that reflexivity is an ethos that allows researchers to keep the multiple narratives in which they are entangled in check. The paper brings a framework that allows researchers to use reflexivity to become more conscious of the complexities and ambiguities within the research process that leads to the writing of historical narratives. Research limitations/implications This paper points to the need to enhance the reflexivity at every stage of the research, including “interrogating” the archives and documents, which are compiled under a narrative. Practical implications The authors highlighted the multiple characteristics of archives, their meanings and the possibilities of writing narratives about them through reflexivity. The authors have the historical narrative as one possible reconstruction of a historical object, which is connected to the production conditions of the text. Through reflexivity, the authors discussed the socially constructed nature of the documents and the archives. Finally, the authors believe that debates around the production of this knowledge should continue, focusing especially on building bridges with the field of history. Social implications Historical narratives do not depend on the scientific character of historical sources, but it considers reflexivity by the researcher regarding the search, collection, reading and analysis of historical documents. In addition, it is necessary to think about the use of documents and archives and histories in a reflective way for a writing of history and, indirectly, for a contextual understanding of the time observed and as forged sources – or discarded – and made available. Originality/value Challenging the use of documents and archives in a reflexive way for the writing of historical narratives and for contextual understanding of the past is key to a richer relationship between management and history. This paper points to the role of reflexivity in relation to archives and narratives in the practice of (re)constructing the organizational past from memories and silences. It also highlights how reflexivity can be incorporated in the research process to enrich the writing of the historical narrative.

Strindberg's A Dream Play: Postmodernist Visions on the Modernist Stage

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-70
Author(s):  
Klaus van den Berg
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Spatial Relationships ◽  
Theatre History ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Architectural Styles ◽  
Theatre Theory ◽  
Theatre Historiography ◽  
Historical Periods

Since the 1980s, new approaches to theatre historiography, the study of what Sue-Ellen Case has called the “convergence of history and theory,” have begun to arise in a challenge to generally accepted principles of theatre history, such as the supremacy of independent facts, the autonomy of dramatic texts, and the hierarchy of text, performance, and culture. The French critic and philosopher Michel Foucault has pointed out that the grouping and ordering of events into historical periods creates a “space of reference,” which lends some events a heightened meaning, while obscuring or submerging others. In a substantial challenge to traditional methods of theatre history, historiographers influenced by this view have begun to examine the theoretical underpinnings of historical periodization. In theatre theory, Thomas Postlewait has investigated the often unarticulated assumptions by which theatre historians isolate a group of historical events and designate them with period names.Many scholars now center their attention on historical discontinuity: searching for ruptures in the historical narrative, focusing on dynamics which lend instability rather than stability to historical periods, and reconceptualizing temporal historical narratives into spatial relationships. For example, from a perspective of discontinuity, a play is conceived not simply as a fixed entity created at some moment in history, but as a representation of layers of historical influences; likewise, a theatre building is not simply a material location in space, but a physical expression of historically emergent architectural styles and sociopolitical circumstances, and a performance is not simply a translation of a text to the stage, but a collage of past and emergent cultural and aesthetic processes.

Historical Narratives and Understanding

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-44
Author(s):  
Stefan Petkov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The Past ◽  
Epistemic Criteria

This paper defends the view that narratives that bring understanding of the past need not be exhaustively analyzable as explanatory inferences, nor as causal narratives. Instead of treating historical narrative as explanations, I argue that understanding of history can be analyzed by the general epistemic criteria of understanding. I explore one such criterion, which is of chief importance for good historical narratives: potential inferential power. As a corollary, I dispute one of the distinctive features of narratives described by some philosophers: the non-aggregativity of narrative histories. Instead, I propose that historical narratives modestly aggregate and this aggregation depends on the success of the colligatory concepts they offer.

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.

Rīgas humānistu motīvs Roalda Dobrovenska romānā „Magnus, dāņu princis”

2021 ◽  
pp. 172-180
Author(s):  
Ausma Cimdiņa
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Human Society ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Russian State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Role

The novel “Magnus, the Danish Prince” by the Russian diaspora in Latvia writer Roald Dobrovensky is seen as a specific example of a biographical and historical genre, which embodies the historical experience of different eras and nations in the confrontation of globalisation and national self-determination. At the heart of the novel are the Livonian War and the historical role and human destiny of Magnus (1540–1683) – the Danish prince of the Oldenburg dynasty, the first and the only king of Livonia. The motif of Riga’s humanists is seen both as one of the main ideological driving forces of the novel and as a marginal reflection in Magnus’s life story. Acknowledged historical sources have been used in the creation of the novel: Baltazar Rusov’s “Livonian Chronicle”; Nikolai Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State”; Alexander Janov’s “Russia: 1462–1584. The Beginning of the Tragedy. Notes of the Nature and Formation of Russian Statehood” etc. In connection with the concept of Riga humanists, another fictitious document created by the writer Dobrovensky himself is especially important, namely, the diary of Johann Birke – Magnus’s interpreter, a person with a double identity, “half-Latvian”, “half-German”. It is a message of an alternative to the well-known historical documents, which allows to turn the Livonian historical narrative in the direction of “letocentrism” and raises the issue of the ethnic identity of Riga’s humanists. Along with the deconstruction of the historically documented image of Livonian King Magnus, the thematic structure of the novel is dominated by identity aspects related to the Livonian historical narrative. Dobrovensky, with his novel, raises an important question – what does the medieval Livonia, Europe’s common intellectual heritage, mean for contemporary Latvia and the human society at large? Dobrovensky’s work is also a significant challenge in strengthening emotional ties with Livonia (which were weakened in the early stages of national historiography due to conflicts over the founding of nation-states).

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.

The story of humanity and the challenge of posthumanity

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Boldizsár Simon
Keyword(s):  
Human Subject ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
New Era ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The One ◽  
Better Than

Today’s technological-scientific prospect of posthumanity simultaneously evokes and defies historical understanding. On the one hand, it implies a historical claim of an epochal transformation concerning posthumanity as a new era. On the other, by postulating the birth of a novel, better-than-human subject for this new era, it eliminates the human subject of modern Western historical understanding. In this article, I attempt to understand posthumanity as measured against the story of humanity as the story of history itself. I examine the fate of humanity as the central subject of history in three consecutive steps: first, by exploring how classical philosophies of history achieved the integrity of the greatest historical narrative of history itself through the very invention of humanity as its subject; second, by recounting how this central subject came under heavy criticism by postcolonial and gender studies in the last half-century, targeting the universalism of the story of humanity as the greatest historical narrative of history; and third, by conceptualizing the challenge of posthumanity against both the story of humanity and its criticism. Whereas criticism fragmented history but retained the possibility of smaller-scale narratives, posthumanity does not doubt the feasibility of the story of humanity. Instead, it necessarily invokes humanity, if only in order to be able to claim its supersession by a better-than-human subject. In that, it represents a fundamental challenge to the modern Western historical condition and the very possibility of historical narratives – small-scale or large-scale, fragmented or universal.

Diaries and Oral Histories as Ego-Documents in the Representations of the Taiwanese Nation

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-73
Author(s):  
Ann Heylen
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Period ◽  
Thematic Issue ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Oral Histories ◽  
History Writing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Taiwanese Identity ◽  
Japanese Colonial ◽  
Research Questions

Abstract This article positions published personal or ego-documents—with a focus on diaries and oral histories—within the framework of Taiwan historical studies. It specifically deals with the complexities involved in defining the literary generic of historical narratives against the background of the transition of Taiwanese society from the Japanese colonial period onwards. In tandem with this thematic issue, it offers a close-up on how the collection and analysis of data in resonance with general changes in history writing over the past decades raises research questions about the nature of an inclusive Taiwanese identity.

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