Civilization in Color: The Multicultural City in Three Millennia

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier De Souza Briggs

How should democratic societies and the cities that propel them respond to increased social diversity? Surprisingly few studies compare cities on their capacity to manage social diversity or offer historical views of the bases for co‐existence among identity groups. Studies of this crucial theme that do offer comparative reach are limited to higher‐level analyses (e.g., of race and nation making in the modern global order) or partial views (e.g., of economic inequality by race or ethnic politics in contemporary cities). This study, an exercise in theory building, examines three large, history‐making, and famously diverse cities that relied on distinct designs for society to accommodate diversity: ancient Rome, medieval Cordoba, and contemporary Los Angeles. Comparisons across such huge spans of time and major culture shifts yield lessons obscured in current debates over inequality, multiculturalism, or the need for tolerance. Three of the most important lessons relate to the power of integrative societal projects much larger than cities; the co‐existence throughout history of separatism or cultural mosaic patterns alongside active cross‐cultural exchange and hybridization; and the need to bound pluralistic ideals within a strong, locally viable public order. In earlier periods of history, autocracy provided such order for standout pluralist cities and the civilizations they led. Come, come whoever you are. Ours is not a caravan of despair. —Rumi, 13th‐century Persian poet

Author(s):  
Eric Mendes ◽  
Michael S. Nassaney

This chapter examines archaeological remains recovered from the Lyne site (20BE10) located on the terrace in proximity to the floodplain settlement of Fort St. Joseph. Artifacts and features that were contemporaneous with the Fort suggest that a long occupational history of this area and different post-depositional formation processes have produced cultural deposits that vary considerably from what has been recovered at the nearby Fort. The authors places an emphasis on a series of smudge pits that evaded agricultural destruction. Their morphology and contents assist in placing these features into a cultural context and demonstrate the types of activities that were conducted by a multiethnic population engaged in cross-cultural exchange at a commercial fur-trading post in the western Great Lakes region.


2021 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-58
Author(s):  
Elwing Sương Gonzalez

Starting in 1975, Los Angeles attracted what would become, within a decade, the largest concentration of resettled Vietnamese refugees in the United States. A combination of legacies led to the concentration of Vietnamese in Los Angeles: decades of U.S. involvement in Vietnam; Cold War foreign policy; domestic urban planning; and public housing policies born of the city’s history of racial segregation. These structural forces also drew many other immigrant groups to Los Angeles during the same period, as Koreans, Thais, Mexicans, and Central Americans likewise concentrated in L.A., each developing their own distinctive enclaves in the same districts and neighborhoods as the Vietnamese refugees. Refugee resettlement in Los Angeles in the 1970s and ’80s meant that the Vietnamese benefited from services and institutions established earlier for prior immigrant and refugee groups who had made their way to L.A., but also competition and conflict over space, markets, services, and resources, as well as cross-cultural cooperation and convergence. However, unlike some other newcomer groups, Vietnamese refugees had access to specific government-funded resources and opportunities, in addition to personal, professional, and military-related connections, that stemmed from the United States’ decades-long imperialist project in Vietnam. This article examines the settlement and placemaking experiences of Vietnamese refugees among other immigrant groups—overlap, similarities, and differences—in Los Angeles in this era.


2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 853-873
Author(s):  
Elizabeth McGuire

This article argues that the relationship between the Russian and Chinese revolutions can be interpreted as a romance, to create an emotional history of elite revolutionary geopolitics. Tracing the stories of two prominent Sino-Soviet couples – President of Taiwan Jiang Jingguo and his wife Faina Vakhreva, and PRC Labor Minister Li Lisan and his wife Elizaveta Kishkina – against a larger backdrop of cultural exchange highlights continuities in a relationship most often described in terms of its ruptures. In the 1920s, when Jiang Jingguo first arrived in the Soviet Union, attitudes toward love and sex in both cultures were shifting, and the Chinese Revolution was celebrated in Moscow, rendering early Chinese experiences there romantic on several levels. The Liza-Li affair, begun in the difficult circumstances of the 1930s, highlights the ways in which the choices of one partner, personal or geopolitical, could come to constrain those of the other, through the 1950s and beyond. Such deeply felt and publicly prominent cross-cultural romances gave China’s relationship with Russia an emotional complexity and cultural depth that were lacking before the advent of twentieth century communism – and have survived its demise.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-207
Author(s):  
H. Mabel Preloran ◽  
Silvia Balzano

This paper explores the emotional world of a recent Mexican immigrant who lives in Los Angeles and is awaiting the results of the amniocentesis she has ambivalently agreed to. She is 45 years old and has given birth to two children with severe disabilities and two who are apparently normal. We focus our analysis on the woman's reactions and feelings during the nine days she spends waiting for the test results. We show that the standard prenatal genetic clinical protocol aimed at providing medical education and requiring professional neutrality and emotional detachment left the woman feeling rejected and subsequently unwilling to seek information or support from her clinicians. We find that while the intent of a protocol of neutrality is to enable patients to make informed decisions without feeling pressure from clinicians, some women want greater emotional engagement. We argue that professional neutrality can inhibit patient-clinician communication, hamper medical education, and ultimately detract from patients' ability to make informed medical choices. / El presente artículo explora el mundo emocional de Rocío, una inmigrante mexicana, quien se encuentra esperando los resultados de una amniocentesis que aceptó hacerse, a pesar de las dudas sobre la credibilidad y utilidad de la misma. Rocío, de 45 años, tenía ya otros hijos, dos con anormalidades severas y dos aparentemente sanos. Centramos nuestro análisis en los sentimientos y reacciones durante los nueve días que transcurren mientras espera el diagnóstico. En este trabajo mostramos cómo la forma de presentar la información médica puede llegar a entorpecer la toma de decisión de un paciente. El protocolo genético tiene por meta proveer información médica manteniendo una cierta distancia profesional y emocional. Estas condiciones hacen que, en nuestro estudio de caso, la paciente se sienta rechazada y sin deseos de acercarse al personal médico, ya sea en busca de apoyo emocional o información que aclararía sus dudas. Creemos que, mientras el objetivo de la neutralidad profesional es asegurar que el paciente decida con los conocimientos adecuados y, a la vez, sin sentirse presionado, algunas mujeres preferirían un mayor acercamiento emocional por parte del personal médico cuando deben decidir sobre pruebas o tratamientos. Creemos que la neutralidad profesional puede llegar a inhibir la comunicación médico-paciente, dificultar la comprensión de la información y, por último, obstaculizar la habilidad de tomar decisiones informadas por parte de los pacientes.


1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-128
Author(s):  
Catherine S. Ramirez

Throughout the twentieth century (and now the twenty-first), the specter of a Latina/o past, present, and future has haunted the myth of Los Angeles as a sunny, bucolic paradise. At the same time it has loomed behind narratives of the city as a dystopic, urban nightmare. In the 1940s Carey McWilliams pointed to the fabrication of a “Spanish fantasy heritage” that made Los Angeles the bygone home of fair señoritas, genteel caballeros and benevolent mission padres. Meanwhile, the dominant Angeleno press invented a “zoot” (read Mexican-American) crime wave. Unlike the aristocratic, European Californias/os of lore, the Mexican/American “gangsters” of the 1940s were described as racial mongrels. What's more, the newspapers explicitly identified them as the sons and daughters of immigrants-thus eliding any link they may have had to the Californias/os of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries or to the history of Los Angeles in general.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 23-33
Author(s):  
Alin Constantin Corfu

"A Short Modern History of Studying Sacrobosco’s De sphaera. The treatise generally known as De sphaera offered at the beginning of the 13th century a general image of the structure of the cosmos. In this paper I’m first trying to present a triple stake with which this treaty of Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1195 - c. 1256). This effort is intended to draw a context upon the treaty on which I will present in the second part of this paper namely, a short modern history of studying this treaty starting from the beginning of the 20th century up to this day. The first stake consists in the well-known episode of translation of the XI-XII centuries in the Latin milieu of the Greek and Arabic treaties. The treatise De sphaera taking over, assimilating and comparing some of the new translations of the texts dedicated to astronomy. The second Consists in the fact that Sacrobosco`s work can be considered a response to a need of renewal of the curriculum dedicated to astronomy at the University of Paris. And the third consists in the novelty and the need to use the De sphaera treatise in the Parisian University’s curriculum of the 13th century. Keywords: astronomy, translation, university, 13th Century, Sacrobosco, Paris, curriculum"


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Muhamad Murtadlo

Solor Island, East Flores considered as one gate of the presence of three major religions (Islam, Catholicism, Christianity) in East Nusa Tenggara. The existence of Lohayong fort built by Portuguese (1566) became the beginning discussionabout history of religion in that area. This study was formulated to answer the question: whether Islam first present on the Solor Island? What kinds of evidencesthat prove of existence Islam on this island? Using archaeological and literature studies, the study concluded that there is some evidence like the presence of ulama Joe Pattiduri in Menanga at 13th century, the Fort of Menanga and the alliance of the five royal beach (Solor Watanlema). This facts also shows that Islam has been present before the Portuguese presence in the island. Keywords: Sites, Menanga, Watanlema Pulau Solor, Flores Timur menjadi saksi penting masuknya tiga agama besar (Islam, Katholik, Kristen) di Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT). Keberadaan Benteng Lohayong yang dibangun Portugis (1566) menjadi awal diskusi masuknya agama di NTT. Penelitian ini dirumuskan untuk menjawab pertanyaan: apakah Islam lebih dahulu hadir di Pulau Solor? bukti apa saja yang bisa kita saksikan tentang Islam di Pulau Solor ini? Pendekatan kajian menggunakan studi arkeologi dan pustaka. Penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa ada beberapa bukti seperti hadirnya ulama Joe Pattiduri di Menanga abad 13, keberadaan Benteng Menanga dan Aliansi 5 kerajaan pantai Solor Watanlema. Fakta ini juga menunjukkan bahwa bahwa Agama Islam telah hadir sebelum Portugis hadir di Pulau Solor. Kata-kata Kunci: Situs, Menanga, Watan Lema


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