Indigenous African Religions

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Baum
Keyword(s):  
Slave Trade ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Religious History ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
African Religions ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Indigenous Religions

This chapter focuses on the history of religions created by African communities and which have relied primarily on the inspiration of prophets, mediums, and elders, rather than on sacred texts. Anthropologists, colonial administrators, and missionaries dominated the study of indigenous African religions until the 1970s and relatively few studies emphasized historical approaches. This reflects long-standing Western assumptions about Africa as a place without history or religions, as well as the paucity of written documents about African religious history. The chapter begins with E. E. Evans-Pritchard’s historical analysis of Nuer prophetism, and examines the role of the Atlantic slave trade as a catalyst for religious change, the role of indigenous religions in resistance to colonial conquest, and the ways in which they changed in response to colonial occupation. It examines forms of witchcraft, constructions of gender, and new challenges to indigenous African religions during the postcolonial era.

Perfection Makes Practice

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 98-100
Author(s):  
Muhamad Ali
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Psychological Dimension ◽  
South Sulawesi ◽  
Complex Dimensions ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of

Studies of Islam in Southeast Asia have sought to better understand its multifacetedand complex dimensions, although one may make a generalizedcategorization of Muslim beliefs and practices based on a fundamental differencein ideologies and strategies, such as cultural and political Islam.Anna M. Gade’s Perfection Makes Practice stresses the cultural aspect ofIndonesian Muslim practices by analyzing the practices of reciting andmemorizing the Qur’an, as well as the annual competition.Muslim engagement with the Qur’an has tended to emphasize the cognitiveover the psychological dimension. Perfection Makes Practice analyzesthe role of emotion in these undertakings through a combination ofapproaches, particularly the history of religions, ethnography, psychology,and anthropology. By investigating Qur’anic practitioners in Makassar,South Sulawesi, during the 1990s, Gade argues that the perfection of theQur’an as a perceived, learned, and performed text has made and remade thepractitioners, as well as other members of the Muslim community, to renewor increase their engagement with the holy text. In this process, she suggests,moods and motivation are crucial to preserving the recited Qur’an and revitalizingthe Muslim community.In chapter 1, Gade begins with a theoretical consideration for her casestudy. Drawing from concepts that emphasize the importance of feeling andemotion in ritual and religious experience, she develops a conceptualizationof this engagement. In chapter 2, Gade explains memorization within thecontext of the self and social relations. She argues that Qur’anic memorizershave a special relationship with its style and structure, as well as with thesocial milieu. Although Qur’anic memorization is a normal practice for mostMuslims, its practitioners have learned how to memorize and recite beautifullysome or all of the Qur’an’s verses, a process that requires emotion ...

International Legal Thought

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kleinlein
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Critical Potential ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Legal Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries

This contribution reflects on the role of tradition-building in international law, the implications of the recent ‘turn to history’ and the ‘presentisms’ discernible in the history of international legal thought. It first analyses how international legal thought created its own tradition in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These projects of establishing a tradition implied a considerable amount of what historians would reject as ‘presentism’. Remarkably, critical scholars of our day and age who unsettled celebratory histories of international law and unveiled ‘colonial origins’ of international law were also criticized for committing the ‘sin of anachronism’. This contribution therefore examines the basis of this critique and defends ‘presentism’ in international legal thought. However, the ‘paradox of instrumentalism’ remains: The ‘better’ historical analysis becomes, the more it loses its critical potential for current international law. At best, the turn to history activates a potential of disciplinary self-reflection.

Doing Things with Legal History

2018 ◽  
pp. 922-940
Author(s):  
Alfred L. Brophy
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
First Century ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Alternative Vision ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Support Property ◽  
Late Twentieth

This chapter discusses the role of historical analysis in property law. The history of property has been used to offer support for property rights. Their long history makes the distribution of property look normal, indeed natural and something that cannot or should not be challenged. However, historically in the U.S there have been competing visions of property. From the Progressive era onward especially, the history of property has been used to show the unequal distribution of property and to offer an alternative vision that expands the rights of non-owners of property. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the history of opposition to feudalism and protection of the rights of non-owners was used to protect the rights of non-owners. Thus, the history of property has been a tool of judges and legislators to support property rights and it has also been, less frequently, a tool of critique.

scholarly journals Small Business And Entrepreneurship Financing System In Uzbekistan: Historical Analysis And Approaches

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (04) ◽  
pp. 393-401
Author(s):  
Fayzulla Tolipov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Banking System ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Financing System ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
History Of

The article describes the specifics of the system of financing of small business and entrepreneurship in the recent history of Uzbekistan, the funds allocated for small business and entrepreneurship, the activities of commercial banks and the financial and banking system, some problems in the field. It also noted that since the early days of independence, a unique business environment has been created in the country to support the interests of entrepreneurs in the framework of development programs in this area, data on the role of financial mechanisms in the further development of small business and entrepreneurship in the country have been studied from a historical point of view. The article highlights the positive situation in the country's macro and microeconomic indicators, ie the active participation of banks in attracting local entrepreneurs and foreign investment, the existing problems in this area and the measures taken to address them. It analyzes the important factors and strategies of banks' participation in the development of business and entrepreneurship.

Before Kṛṣṇa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanika Kishore Saxena
Keyword(s):  
Historical Data ◽  
Religious History ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Coherent Picture

Mathura is famous for its association with Vāsudeva‒Kṛṣṇa, an important deity of the Hindu pantheon. However, apart from the sanctity attached to this place by Hindus, it has also provided conditions for the nurturing of Buddhist, Jaina, nāga and yakṣa traditions. This book engages in a wide range of epigraphic, archaeological and art historical data from the various sites in the Mathura area and weaves this to present a coherent picture of the variegated religious history of the area from c.600 CE to c.1000 CE, which witnessed various religions/cults/sects competing for attention and patronage. The chapters in this book have been divided according to religious traditions, namely, Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, along with the Kṛṣṇa, yakṣa, nāga, and mātṛkā cults. It raises many important issues related to Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism as well as older cults of the yakṣas and nāgas. The objects of donation ranged from images, stūpas, temples to tanks and gardens. Donations by monks and nuns; together with laity from different locations within and beyond Mathura, amply reflect on the social mosaic of the time. The role of monastics and laity, the nature of patronage, and the social and political underpinnings of the religious history are also examined, all within a long, diachronic frame. This book reveals the complexity of the religious history of Mathura to provide the reader a taste of its diversity and plurality.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Elena A. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
African Descent ◽  
Event History ◽  
Major Event ◽  
Black Soldiers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Temporal And Spatial

The introduction sketches the contours of the British six-week invasion and eleven-month occupation of Havana in 1762–1763, a major event in the history of the Atlantic world. It describes the framework of the book, “an event history” that relies on multiple, overlapping temporal and spatial frames in order to tie together many different strands of history, historical actors, perspectives, and scales. In giving a long-term history of the causes, central dynamics, and enduring consequences of this event, the book focuses on the crucial role of the slave trade and people of African descent. The actions of people of African descent and imperial rivalry over the slave trade shaped both the invasion and occupation of Havana in ways yet to be fully understood. The rest of the book explores the painful irony that black soldiers’ brave service in Havana during the British siege helped lead to new Spanish policies that endorsed and expanded slavery and the slave trade.

Officers’ contributions to Britain’s anti-slavery culture

2019 ◽  
pp. 167-190
Author(s):  
Mary Wills
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
West African ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Press ◽  
History Of ◽  
Naval Officers

This chapter examines officers’ contributions to the metropolitan discourses about slavery and abolition taking place in Britain in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Furthering the theme of naval officers playing an important part in the social and cultural history of the West African campaign, it uncovers connections between the Royal Navy and domestic anti-slavery networks, and the extent to which abolitionist societies and interest groups operating in Britain during the first half of the nineteenth century forged relationships with naval officers in the field. Officers contributed to this ever-evolving anti-slavery culture: through support of societies and by providing key testimonies and evidence about the unrelenting transatlantic slave trade. Their representations of the slave trade were used to champion the abolitionist cause, as well as the role of the Royal Navy, in parliament, the press and other public arenas.

Presenting the Past: The Genre of Commentary in Theoretical Perspective

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
Traditional Concept ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of

AbstractThis article provides a theoretical discussion of the genre of commentary writing. Rather than examining the role of commentary in a specific religion, it attempts to articulate a set of useful questions to begin the process of rethinking what this genre is and, in the process, help create a theoretical vocabulary and conceptual framework for an analysis of commentary from the history of religions. The article is divided into three parts. The first broadens the traditional concept of a "canon", ostensibly the raw data upon which the commentary imposes a taxonomy. The second argues that the human condition, what Heidegger calls the way in which we are thrown into the world, demands that we interpret it. Finally, it is suggested that commentary is fundamentally about location or space, thereby providing the classificatory schema that is necessary for contextualizing both past and present. The main goal of this article is to problematize the current discussion of commentary in a theoretical way.

Conceptualisations of xoshbaxti (‘happiness / prosperity’) and baxt (‘fate / luck’) in Persian

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farzad Sharifian ◽  
Mehri Bagheri
Keyword(s):  
Word Association ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
European Language ◽  
Association Task ◽  
Married Life ◽  
Multidisciplinary Nature ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Linguistics ◽  
The Way

Abstract This paper explores conceptualisations of xoshbaxti (‘happiness / prosperity’) and baxt (‘fate / luck’) in Persian, adopting a combined historical and contemporary analysis. The expression xoshbaxti consists of the free morphemes xosh (‘pleasant’) and baxt (‘fate’). The root of baxt originates from the Proto-Indo-European language (bʰeh₂g). An historical analysis returning all the way to the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion shows that the concept of baxt captured the idea of a pre-determined destiny by conceptualising Bhaga as a god who dispenses fortune. Data from a number of Persian encyclopaedias, dictionaries and weblogs, as well as a word association task carried out by a group of speakers of Persian, revealed that xoshbaxti in contemporary Persian is largely associated with what is considered to be a “good” married life. Overall, the findings of this study illustrate the usefulness of combining diachronic and synchronic approaches when analysing cultural conceptualisations. The study also shows that attempts to trace the historical roots of cultural conceptualisations may benefit from insights gained in other fields, such as the history of religions. In this context, the multidisciplinary nature of the newly developed field of Cultural Linguistics provides an effective basis for cross-disciplinary openness, which has the potential to deepen the scope of analyses undertaken.

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