Introduction

Author(s):  
Jamie Page

This chapter situates the book in relation to key questions relating to the themes of prostitution and subjectivity, explaining its contribution to existing scholarship on both and bringing the reader up to date on relevant historiography. It outlines several definitions of subjectivity as the term has been employed by historians and makes the case for the importance of seeing medieval prostitutes as ‘complex subjects’, both within the history of prostitution specifically and in the larger context of histories from below. A concluding section asks what ethical obligations might be at hand in the archival encounter with past subjects.

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 657-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilhelm J. Wessels

The book of Jeremiah reflects a particular period in the history of Judah, certain theological perspectives and a particular portrayal of the prophet Jeremiah. Covenant theology played a major role in Jeremiah’s view of life and determined his expectations of leaders and ordinary people. He placed high value on justice and trustworthiness, and people who did not adhere to this would in his view bear the consequences of disobedience to Yahweh’s moral demands and unfaithfulness. The prophet expected those in positions of leadership to adhere to certain ethical obligations as is clear from most of the nouns which appear in Jeremiah 5:1–6. This article argues that crisis situations in history affect leaders’ communication, attitudes and responses. Leaders’ worldviews and ideologies play a definitive role in their responses to crises. Jeremiah’s religious views are reflected in his criticism and demands of people in his society. This is also true as seen from the way the people and leaders in Judah responded to the prophet’s proclamation. Jeremiah 5:1–6 emphasises that knowledge and accountability are expected of leaders at all times, but in particular during unstable political times.


2022 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Samera Esmeir

Modern state law is an expansive force that permeates life and politics. Law's histories—colonial, revolutionary, and postcolonial—tell of its constitutive centrality to the making of colonies and modern states. Its powers intertwine with life itself; they attempt to direct it, shape its most intimate spheres, decide on the constitutive line dividing public from private, and take over the space and time in which life unfolds. These powers settle in the present, eliminate past authorities, and dictate futures. Gendering and constitutive of sexual difference, law's powers endeavor to mold subjects and alter how they orient themselves to others and to the world. But these powers are neither coherent nor finite. They are ripe with contradictions and conflicting desires. They are also incapable of eliminating other authorities, paths, and horizons of living; these do not vanish but remain not only thinkable and articulable but also a resource for the living. Such are some of the overlapping and accumulative interventions of the two books under review: Sara Pursley's Familiar Futures and Judith Surkis's Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria. What follows is an attempt to further develop these interventions by thinking with some of the books’ underlying arguments. Familiar Futures is a history of Iraq, beginning with the British colonial-mandate period and concluding with the 1958 Revolution and its immediate aftermath. Sex, Law, and Sovereignty is a history of “French Algeria” that covers a century of French colonization from 1830 to 1930. The books converge on key questions concerning how modern law and the modern state—colonial and postcolonial—articulated sexual difference and governed social and intimate life, including through the rise of personal-status law as a separate domain of law constitutive of the conjugal family. Both books are consequently also preoccupied with the relationship between sex, gender, and sovereignty. And both contain resources for living along paths not charted by the modern state and its juridical apparatus.


Author(s):  
Lucy C. M. M. Jackson

As well as bringing together all the relevant evidence for the quality and activity of the chorus of drama in the fourth century, this monograph has raised certain key questions about the current understanding of the nature and development of Attic drama as a whole. First, it shows that the supposed ‘civic’ quality of the chorus of drama is, in fact, an association loaned, inappropriately, from the genre of circular, ‘dithyrambic’, choral performance. Being attentive to the cultural differences between these two genres should prompt a further re-evaluation of how to read dramatic choruses more generally. Second, the way in which key fourth-century authors such as Plato and Xenophon use the image of the chorus to discuss the concept of leadership has profoundly shaped ways of construing choreia in ancient Greek drama, and the ancient Mediterranean more generally. Armed with this knowledge, it is possible to retell the story and history of the chorus in drama.


Cuba is not only the largest island of the Caribbean but also the most centrally located one, as it is accessible from the mainland by different routes and was therefore subject to several waves of migration. The history of the early colonization of this island—and of the Greater Antilles in general—is extremely complex. The research initiatives presented in this book strive to solve some of the main problems in understanding that complexity, and to give answers to key questions regarding the patterns of successive migrations and colonization of the island, the patterns of interaction between the foraging and the agriculturalist groups, and the fate of the indigenous groups at the time of contact with the Spanish. A methodical multidisciplinary approach, necessary to tackle the full scope of the proposed research questions, is reflected in the variety of the contributions included in this volume, such as archaeology, physical anthropology, environmental archaeology, paleoecology; paleodemography; isotope analysis; bathymetry; paleobotany; linguistics; and ethnohistory. While the immediate focus of the book is region-specific, it will also contribute to ongoing debates in anthropological archaeology concerning migration and colonization; the importance of landscape and seascape in shaping human experience; the role that contact and interaction between different groups play in building identity; and the contribution of native groups to the biological and cultural identity of post-contact and modern societies.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel B. Eisen

The intersection of brownfields redevelopment and these broader concerns presents a host of issues. Does redevelopment of brownfields connect to a larger vision for the city that links with "smart growth" and climate action goals? Retooling the original developer-centered vision of VCPs to promote broader goals is an ongoing challenge. Has the affected community been involved in planning for brownfields remediation, or has the developer controlled the process? The latter narrows the ability to view the project as part of a community-wide plan, and undermines its legitimacy. Finally, if brownfields redevelopment yields benefits, how can we measure success over the long term? Metrics for assessing this are only just now emerging. As I note in Part III, many key questions have incomplete answers today, and as a result, finality in brownfields remediation and reuse continues to elude us. I draw a number of examples from New Jersey, a Rust Belt state with many brownfields and a complex history of dealing with them. 20 Recent developments in that state, including a 2009 state statute that privatized cleanups, and well-publicized funding shortfalls and regulatory errors in 2011, highlight the challenges of contemporary brownfields redevelopment.


Author(s):  
Alina Koval ◽  

The article comprehensively deals with the evidence of the peculiarities of the formation of the Hellenistic international order in the IV century BC. The author notes that the development of the Ukrainian historiography, among other things, is characterized by a deep interest of historians in studying the problems of international interaction between Eastern and Western civilizations. The study of this question allows to find answers to key questions – whether it is possible to create a universal global order based on common political and humanitarian values, or is it just an utopia, because no unifying model can take into account all the specifics of unique cultures, initially doomed to failure. In this context, it is important for the author to consider the history of such interaction between civilizations, in particular during the creation of the Hellenistic regional order in the IV century BC. This aspect is covered in detail in the treatise „Comparative Biographies”, compiled by the ancient Greek writer Plutarch (approximately 46 - 120/127 AD), the analysis of which is the main purpose of the article. As a result of the study, the author concluded that the biography of Alexander the Great presented by Plutarch allows us to consider the process of creating a Hellenistic empire, which united the key territories of West and East, to identify the logic of certain actions of the commander. Plutarch's description also allowed the author to conclude that in creating a new international order in the East, Alexander faced the traditional challenges of the time – increasing conflict with the tribal aristocracy, which for a long time stood behind him and used for personal gain closeness to the king. As a way out of this crisis, Alexander was forced to resort to strengthening his power, in fact reproducing the foundations of Eastern despotism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengwen Liu ◽  
Yishi Yang ◽  
Guoke Chen ◽  
Shanjia Zhang ◽  
Hucai Zhang

Charcoal remains from archeological sites are used not only to reconstruct the historical composition of local woodlands but also to examine the history of the human use of wood. Nevertheless, key questions such as how and why people may have selected particular woody taxa from locations long distances from their habitat have rarely been addressed. In the present study, we analyze charcoal remains from the ancient Jingbaoer (JBR) jade mine in the Mazong Mountains (Mazong Shan) of Northwest China to explore patterns in the collection and use of wood by Iron Age people. Factors affecting the choice of wood collected at the JBR site are discussed by combining the results of pollen records and charcoal analysis. Our results suggest that tamarisk (Tamarix L.), a shrub dominant in the local area, was the main source of wood for JBR miners and was used as firewood depending upon its local availability. The miners may also have used wood from species sourced further away, such as Pinus L. and Picea L., because of the local scarcity of these trees in such a dry environment. The agropastoralist subsistence system practiced by the JBR miners supports the hypothesis of the collection of wood from distant locales. This study highlights diverse patterns of wood collection in an area scarce in woody plants and provides new evidence for understanding how Iron Age people adapted to extremely arid environments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1701-1722
Author(s):  
Stefano Lucarelli ◽  
Alfonso Giuliani ◽  
Hervé Baron

AbstractThe paper argues that Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Sozialwissenschaften (The Past and Future of the Social Sciences), a contribution not always well understood in the literature, is important to an understanding of Schumpeter’s concept of development as applied to the field of the social sciences. To this end, it addresses three key questions. First, can the book be taken as a starting point to reconstruct a Schumpeterian theory of scientific development? Second, is Vergangenheit und Zukunft merely ‘a brief outline of what first became the Epochen [der Dogmen- und Methodengeschichte] and finally the History of Economic Analysis’, as Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter wrote in her Editor’s Introduction (July 1952) to the latter work (p. XXXII), or should it be read as a complement to Epochen and perhaps the History? Third, is the eminent Japanese scholar Shionoya right to claim that Schumpeter’s work pursued the ambitious goal of developing a ‘comprehensive sociology’?


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. pocj.5000203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renzo Mignani

A case of an adult female with Fabry disease is described with discussion based on the following key questions: 1. What is the natural history of Fabry nephropathy? 2. What are the indications to perform kidney biopsy in Fabry disease? 3. How to perform the workout of the patient in recognition of systemic organ damage? 4. Is the missed recognition of Fabry disease frequent in dialysis patients? 5. When and which patients are eligible to start enzyme replacement therapy? 6. Is enzyme replacement therapy effective in Fabry nephropathy? 7. What is the outcome of the patient who underwent a kidney transplantation? 8. Is the supportive therapy important in Fabry disease nephropathy? 9. What are the future therapeutic perspectives?


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