Social Change in Town and Country in Eleventh-Century Byzantium

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
South West ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

The history of Byzantium pivots around the eleventh century. For it was then that it reached its apogee, in terms of power, prestige, and territorial extension, only to plunge into steep political decline in the second half of the century. It is therefore well worth taking a thorough look at the social order in this age of change, to see how it was affected by economic growth and political expansion, and what were the consequences of the social changes which occurred. The approaches of individual contributors vary according to their subject matter. The social order is surveyed from the bottom-up in four archaeologically founded papers which examine three regions of the Byzantine world (Asia Minor, in general (Niewoehner) and with respect to the Sagalassos area (Kaptijn and Waelkens), Greece (Armstrong), and Southern Italy (Noye)). The top-down view, drawing on textual evidence, documentary and literary, is presented by four contributors, who again focus on different places—the metropolis (Cheynet), the country in the core regions of Asia Minor and Greece (Smyrlis), and two peripheral regions, Taron in south-west Armenia (Greenwood) and southern Italy (Noye). These detailed studies are complemented by a venture into the sphere of political ideas, as manifest in the thinking of one high-flying servant of the state (Krallis), and an overview of eleventh-century developments (Howard-Johnston).

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
James Howard-Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
The Third ◽  
Literature And Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

The fundamental structures of Byzantium in the eleventh century have not been subjected to close and sustained scrutiny since the 1970s: it was during the eleventh century that Byzantium reached its apogee, in terms of power, prestige, and territorial extension, only to then plunge into steep political decline in the second half of the century. It is therefore well worth taking a thorough look at the social order in this age of change, to see how it was affected by economic growth and political expansion, and what were the consequences of the social changes which occurred. The Introduction sets out the origins of the volume in a workshop on the social order in eleventh-century Byzantium held in Oxford in May 2011, the third in a series of workshops funded by the British Academy on The Transformation of Byzantium: Law, Literature and Society in the Eleventh Century. It provides brief abstracts of the individual chapters, summarizing the approaches of their authors, in addition to a longer outline of the paper given by Mark Whittow on the Feudal Revolution at the workshop in 2011.

George Hoggart Toulmin: politics and geology

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-481
Author(s):  
ROY PORTER
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Great Distance ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Christian View ◽  
The Social ◽  
French Enlightenment ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
History Of

The physician George Hoggart Toulmin (1754–1817) propounded his theory of the Earth in a number of works beginning with The antiquity and duration of the world (1780) and ending with his The eternity of the universe (1789). It bore many resemblances to James Hutton's "Theory of the Earth" (1788) in stressing the uniformity of Nature, the gradual destruction and recreation of the continents and the unfathomable age of the Earth. In Toulmin's view, the progress of the proper theory of the Earth and of political advancement were inseparable from each other. For he analysed the commonly accepted geological ideas of his day (which postulated that the Earth had been created at no great distance of time by God; that God had intervened in Earth history on occasions like the Deluge to punish man; and that all Nature had been fabricated by God to serve man) and argued they were symptomatic of a society trapped in ignorance and superstition, and held down by priestcraft and political tyranny. In this respect he shared the outlook of the more radical figures of the French Enlightenment such as Helvétius and the Baron d'Holbach. He believed that the advance of freedom and knowledge would bring about improved understanding of the history and nature of the Earth, as a consequence of which Man would better understand the terms of his own existence, and learn to live in peace, harmony and civilization. Yet Toulmin's hopes were tempered by his naturalistic view of the history of the Earth and of Man. For Time destroyed everything — continents and civilizations. The fundamental law of things was cyclicality not progress. This latent political conservatism and pessimism became explicit in Toulmin's volume of verse, Illustration of affection, published posthumously in 1819. In those poems he signalled his disapproval of the French Revolution and of Napoleonic imperialism. He now argued that all was for the best in the social order, and he abandoned his own earlier atheistic religious radicalism, now subscribing to a more Christian view of God. Toulmin's earlier geological views had run into considerable opposition from orthodox religious elements. They were largely ignored by the geological community in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain, but were revived and reprinted by lower class radicals such as Richard Carlile. This paper is to be published in the American journal, The Journal for the History of Ideas in 1978 (in press).

Byzantine Religious Law in Medieval Italy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Religious Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Church

This book is a historical study of these manuscripts, exploring how and why the Greek Christians of medieval southern Italy persisted in using them so long after the end of Byzantine rule. Southern Italy was conquered by the Norman Hauteville dynasty in the late eleventh century after over 500 years of continuous Byzantine rule. At a stroke, the region’s Greek Christian inhabitants were cut off from their Orthodox compatriots in Byzantium and became subject to the spiritual and legal jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic popes. Nonetheless, they continued to follow the religious laws of the Byzantine church; out of thirty-six surviving manuscripts of Byzantine canon law produced between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, the majority date to the centuries after the Norman conquest. Part I provides an overview of the source material and the history of Italo-Greek Christianity. Part II examines the development of Italo-Greek canon law manuscripts from the last century of Byzantine rule to the late twelfth century, arguing that the Normans’ opposition to papal authority created a laissez faire atmosphere in which Greek Christians could continue to follow Byzantine religious law unchallenged. Finally, Part III analyses the papacy’s successful efforts to assert its jurisdiction over southern Italy in the later Middle Ages. While this brought about the end of Byzantine canon law as an effective legal system in the region, the Italo-Greeks still drew on their legal heritage to explain and justify their distinctive religious rites to their Latin neighbours.

From Theophilus to C.S.Smith: Discovery of an Eleventh Century AD Bell-Casting Mold From Venosa (Southern Italy)

1992 ◽  
Vol 267 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Vidale ◽  
A. Melucco Vaccaro ◽  
M.R. Salvatore ◽  
M. Micheli ◽  
C. Balista
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Casting Mold ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Medieval Church

ABSTRACTThe recent discovery and excavation of the remains of a well preserved mold for bell-casting below the floor of the medieval church of the SS. Trinita′ of Venosa (southern Italy) provides a singular opportunity to reconstruct aspects of ancient bell-making technology and to compare the new archaeological data with the textual evidence on the same subject written by the famous monk Theophilus in the XIth chapter of his treatise “De Diversis Artibus”. Stratigraphical excavation and video-endoscopic inspection of the mold's interior allowed a preliminary reconstruction of the structure and use of this unique craft installation.

The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) leadership’s trial in 1938.

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-82
Author(s):  
Tatiana Melnichenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Political History ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Black Spots ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic

This article is devoted to one of the most tragic topics in the history of this party and the history of the Spanish Republic as a whole, namely, the trial of the leaders of the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification. The following unpublished documents stored in the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History were used for the analysis (F. 495. Op. 183): letters, personal files, protocols of interrogations after May Days, lists and reports on the “connection” between Trotskyi and the POUM, reports on the preparation and course of the trial of the POUM. Members of the POUM were accused of participating in a “rebellion”, moving to change the social order of the Republic. The accusation of the POUM connections with Franco did not seem convincing, either in Spain or abroad. The international public’s attention was focused on the trial of the POUM. Despite the fact that Spain failed to organize a show trial in the style of the “Moscow trials” and the “conspiracy between Trotskyi and Fascists” was not confirmed, the verdict had a negative impact on the POUM reputation. Thus, the trial of the POUM remained in history as one of the “black spots” in the interaction between the Spanish Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. However, the prisoners of the POUM resisted pressure, they were supported morally by participants of the campaign of solidarity in Spain and abroad. The struggle for a kind of rehabilitation of the party continued in emigration.

The cycle of the new left in the recent history of Argentina

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 252-279
Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Tortti ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
New Left ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multiple Actors

This paper aims at outlining the main processes that, in Argentina’s recent past, may enable us to understand the emergence, development and eventual defeat of the social protest movement and the political radicalization of the period 1960-70s.Here, as in previous papers, we resort to the concept of new left toname the movement that, though heterogeneous and lacking a unified direction, became a major unit in deeds, for multiple actors coming the most diverse angles coincided in opposing the vicious political regime and the social order it supported. Consequently, we shall try to reinstate the presence of such wide range of actors: their projects, objectives and speeches. Some critical circumstances shall be detailed and processes through which protests gradually amalgamated will be shown. Such extended politicization provided the frame for quite radical moves ranging from contracultural initiatives and the classism in the workers’ movement to the actual action of guerrilla groups. Through the dynamics of the events themselves we shall locate the peak moments as well as those which paved the way for their closure and eventual defeat in 1976.

Beyond Recognition

2019 ◽  
pp. 84-124
Author(s):  
Sarah Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Married Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

One of the greatest sadnesses of married life for Mrs. A. was the loss of the lead role in a college production of the play Shakuntala. Mrs. A. identified closely with Shakuntala, a heroine whose story is typically told as an ethical narrative of recognition. Skanutala’s story is the most detailed and thoroughly explored myth in the case, and its moral lessons are part of a long history of establishing identities and ethics of reform in the midst of colonial rule, histories that shaped Mrs. A.’s own world and the social and political ideas available to her. But its dimensions also establish starkly gendered conditions for the ethical ideal of recognition. As Mrs. A. imagined life after marriage, she reimagined alternate versions of Shakuntala’s story, transforming a story of recognition into one containing the personal and political possibilities of non-recognition. She did so not through interpretation, but through a dancerly orientation that cast ethics as feeling, gesture, movement, play, and even artifice, reimagining not only the content of ethics, but the very form ethics might take.

Psychoterapeutki i psychoterapeuci wobec konsekwencji pandemii COVID-19. Analiza z perspektywy teorii traumy zmian społecznych

2021 ◽  
pp. 223-246
Author(s):  
Monika Frąckowiak-Sochańska ◽  
◽  
Marcin Hermanowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Mental Condition ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Helping Professions ◽  
Global Context ◽  
The Social ◽  
Psychotherapy Clients ◽  
Late Modern

This paper aims to analyze the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the individuals’ mental conditions, focusing on psychotherapy clients. The sources of knowledge about mental condition changes analyzed here are psychotherapists’ reports. One of the research purposes was to examine to what extent the problems resulting from the pandemic are visible from the perspective of psychotherapists’ offices. Moreover, the authors explore the changes in psychotherapists’ functioning and the adjustments of psychotherapy understood as one of the expert systems in a late modern society affected by social changes’ trauma. Adopting the theory of social trauma (Alexander 2004, Sztompka 2002) as the frame of analysis enables examining the relation between personal but repeatable experiences of emotional crises and their global context determined by the pandemic. This paper’s empirical foundation is the survey research on a sample of 384 Polish psychotherapists carried out between August 10 and September 30 as a part of the project „Psychotherapeutic work in the pandemic time” supported by the Faculty of Sociology at Adam Mickiewicz University. The research results enable registering the increased intensity of problems resulting from social stress among people searching for psychotherapeutic support and those working in the helping professions. Simultaneously, changes in the functioning of the whole expert system of psychotherapy may be interpreted as the attempts to compensate for the social order destabilization that results in the growing stress and overburden of individuals.

scholarly journals UMA HISTÓRIA DA IDÉIA DE UTOPIA: O REAL E O IMAGINÁRIO NO PENSAMENTO POLÍTICO DE THOMAS MORUS

2004 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos Antônio Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
The Social ◽  
Agrarian Communities ◽  
Article Analysis ◽  
History Of

Morus não é o criador do pensamento político utópico, mas é o teórico que fez circular o ideal utópico, em sua corrente mais influente. Foi ele quem criou a palavra Utopia. Morus foi o primeiro a criticar a ordem social orientada pela exploração do trabalho e pela força do dinheiro. Ele é crítico da agricultura intensiva que leva à desestruturação das comunidades agrárias. Como Maquiavel, ele transita pela esfera do poder, uma esfera de ligações perigosas. De um modo diferente, ele tentou também separar a ética da política. Este artigo analisa estes aspectos de seu pensamento político. A history of the idea of utopia: reality and imagination in the political thought of Thomas More Abstract Morus is not the creator of the utopian political thought, but it is the theoretical that makes to circulate the utopian ideal, in its more important version. It went him who created to word Utopia. Morus was the first to criticize the social order guided by the exploration of the work and for force of the money. He is critical of the intensive agriculture that upside down the agrarian communities. As Maquiavel, he walk for the sphere of the power, a sphere of dangerous connections. In a different way, he also tried to separate the ethical of the politics. This article analysis these aspects of its political thought.

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