Beyond the Assimilation Fixation: Skinner and the Possibility of a Spatial Approach to Twentieth-Century Thai History

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Montesano

AbstractG. William Skinner's early work on the Chinese of Thailand anticipated the spatial concerns that he later brought to the study of Chinese history. The present article revisits Skinner's 1957 classic “Chinese Society in Thailand” to highlight its overlooked spatial dimension and its emphasis on the role of Chinese in patterns of spatial change in Thai history. It then applies the formal approaches pioneered in Skinner's work on spatial dimensions of Chinese history to the Thai case. A two-factor regional-systems model for twentieth-century Thailand is developed in explicit imitation of Skinner's modeling of China's “macroregions.” The model illustrates long-term trends toward the tighter integration of Thailand's Bangkok-centered national-level regional system, the importance of numerous patterns of more local spatial change, the significance of extra-systemic influences on the system, and the role of Chinese as significant participants and agents in each of these processes. Results also suggest the need for further work on spatial dimensions of modern Thai and Southeast Asian history and on the role of Chinese as agents of spatial change in the region.

Author(s):  
Ann Heirman

In symbiosis with the laity, Buddhist monasticism has played a major role in the development of Buddhism in China. Starting shortly after the beginning of the Common Era, in the Later Han Dynasty, monasteries developed to become an essential part of Chinese society. Even today, although monastics are less numerous than they used to be throughout most of Chinese history, Buddhist monasteries still have an influential voice. The first monastic activities that scholars focused on were the translation efforts conducted by prominent masters and the pilgrimages undertaken by famous Chinese Buddhist monks. In their travel accounts, monks described the roads both to India and to Southeast Asia and the way they saw the land of the Buddha. The institutionalization of Buddhist monasteries also became an important topic. In historical research, the political and social role of monasteries attracted growing attention. These first studies were very text-oriented. Gradually, other materials were also analyzed, such as archaeological findings, architectural layout, inscriptions, murals, musical instruments, and other artifacts. Over recent years, interdisciplinary research combining data and studies of different fields has been published, and the study of Buddhist monasticism has expanded. It now analyzes the role of Buddhist monastics over a wide area of fields, discussing the impact of monasteries in many, often interacting, contexts: religious, historical, social, political, economic, ethical, and so on. A very new approach, still to be expanded, is based on anthropological fieldwork. The study of monasticism is relatively complex and broad, and source materials are scattered but often pertinent to the particular monastic feature one wishes to study. As far as possible, they have been included in the relevant sections of this article.


1962 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-455
Author(s):  
Howard L. Boorman

The distinctive, albeit controversial, role of the individual in history has given rise in the West to the development of biography as a special field of literature and historical writing. In China, the writing of biography has for many centuries also occupied a special position, a position shaped both by the forms and purposes of Chinese historical writing and by the fabric of Chinese society. The papers of this symposium, presented originally at the 1961 annual meeting of the American Historical Association, offer a preliminary assessment of the place of biographical writing in China and may serve to suggest avenues for further fruitful study and research.


2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 679-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Mcneal

This study presents an overview of attempts by Chinese literati during the twentieth century to articulate a coherent Chinese mythology, primarily based on ancient texts but eventually to some extent drawing from ethnographic materials and folklore as well, and all much beholden to Western examples such as Greek and Norse mythology. This examination of text-based activities sets the stage for an inquiry into a wave of monument building during the Reform Era, much of which has celebrated China's ancient myth, history, and legend. A recent park in Wuhan dedicated to the legendary sage ruler and conqueror of floods, Yu the Great, serves as a case study of how, over the last three decades, old Chinese myths have been inscribed on the new Chinese landscape, and allows exploration of this phenomenon in relation to deeper issues concerning the role of myth in Chinese society, particularly its unexpected marriage with modernity.


2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muzaffar Iqbal

This article attempts to present a comparative study of the role of two twentieth-century English translations of the Qur'an: cAbdullah Yūsuf cAlī's The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ān and Muḥammad Asad's The Message of the Qur'ān. No two men could have been more different in their background, social and political milieu and life experiences than Yūsuf cAlī and Asad. Yūsuf 'Alī was born and raised in British India and had a brilliant but traditional middle-class academic career. Asad traversed a vast cultural and geographical terrain: from a highly-disciplined childhood in Europe to the deserts of Arabia. Both men lived ‘intensely’ and with deep spiritual yearning. At some time in each of their lives they decided to embark upon the translation of the Qur'an. Their efforts have provided us with two incredibly rich monumental works, which both reflect their own unique approaches and the effects of the times and circumstances in which they lived. A comparative study of these two translations can provide rich insights into the exegesis and the phenomenon of human understanding of the divine text.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-149
Author(s):  
Aurelia Teodora Drăghici

SummaryTheme conflicts of interest is one of the major reasons for concern local government, regional and central administrative and criminal legal implications aiming to uphold the integrity and decisions objectively. Also, most obviously, conflicts of interest occur at the national level where political stakes are usually highest, one of the determining factors of this segment being the changing role of the state itself, which creates opportunities for individual gain through its transformations.


Author(s):  
باي زكوب عبد العالي ◽  
سوهيرين محمد صوليحين

الملخّصيعدّ عبد الحميد بن باديس أحد العلماء الجزائريين المبرزين بالإصلاح الاجتماعي والدّيني والسّياسي والتربوي، عاش خمسين سنة في القرن العشرين الميلادي، حيث كانت ولادته سنة 1889م، وكانت وفاته سنة 1940م، ولقد فرض الواقع الجزائري إبّان فترة الاحتلال الفرنسي الذي كان يسعى إلى طمس ثوابت الأمّة الجزائرية، وخرق تاريخها، وهُويّتها، وثقافتها، ووحدتها الدينيّة، واللّغوية على ابن باديس أن يسلك نهج التربية والتعليم، قاصداً بذلك مواجهة الاحتلال الفرنسي الغاشم من خلال عدّة جبهات ومجالات كمثل مجال الصحافة، ومجال التربية والتعليم، ومجال الجمعيات، ومجال السياسة وغير ذلك، يهدف هذا البحث إلى إبراز دور عبد الحميد بن باديس في النّهوض بالأمّة الجزائريّة نحو تربيّة أفضل، وحياة أسعد، فيبدأ أوّلاً وبشكل موجز، بالتعرّف على الفترة الصعبة التي عايشها ابن باديس والمتمثلة في فترة الاحتلال الفرنسي الغاشم، وآثاره السلبية على الصعيد السياسي والاقتصادي والاجتماعي والثقافي والديني الجزائري وقتذاك، ثم يقوم ثانياً بتسليط الضّوء على حياة ابن باديس وتكوينه العلمي ورحلاته الداخلية وأسفاره الخارجية؛ ثم يسعى ثالثاً وبتعمّق، التعرّف على أعمال ابن باديس الاجتماعيّة وجهوده التربويّة التي أخذت حظّاً وافراً من حياته اليومية، والتي تركّزت على منبرين رئيسين، هما: منبر الصّحافة، ومنبر التربيّة والتعليم.الكلمات المفتاحيّة: الإمام عبد الحميد بن باديس، الاحتلال الفرنسي، التربية، الجزائر، الإصلاح.             AbstractImÉm ‘Abd al-×amÊd ibn BÉdÊs is an Algerian scientist, and eminent social, religious, political and educational reformer. He lived fifty years in the twentieth century. He was born in 1889 and died in 1940, and lived during the French occupation that attempted to distort and undermine the foundations of the Algerian nation by destroying its history, identity, culture, and religious and linguistic unity. Ibn BÉdÊs pursued an educational approach to face the brutal French occupation on several fronts, including journalism, education, civil associations, politics, etc. This paper highlights the role of ‘Abd al-×amÊd ibn BÉdÊs in the advancement of the Algerian nation toward better education and a happier life. The paper begins with a brief canvas of the difficult times in which Ibn BÉdÊs lived, and the negative effects of the brutal French occupation from political, economic, social, cultural and religious angles, besides highlighting the life of Ibn BÉdÊs, his education and his local and international travels. The focus of this research is an in-depth examination of Ibn BÉdÊs’ social and educational efforts that consumed much of his daily routine: journalism, and education.Keywords: ImÉm ‘Abd al-×amÊd ibn BÉdÊs, the French Occupation, Education, Algeria, Reform.


Author(s):  
Marius Daraškevičius

The article discusses the causes of emergence and spreading of a still room (Lith. vaistinėlė, Pol. apteczka), the purpose of the room, the location in the house planning structure, relations to other premises, its equipment, as well as the role of a still room in everyday culture. An examination of the case of a single room, the still room, in a noblemen’s home is also aimed at illustrating the changes in home planning in the late eighteenth – early twentieth century: how they adapted to the changing hygiene standards, perception of personal space, involvement of the manor owners in community treatment, and changes in dining and hospitality culture. Keywords: still room, household medicine cabinet, manor house, interior, sczlachta culture, education, dining culture, modernisation, Lithuania.


2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Hermansen

This article provides an overview of the history and current situation of the academic study of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) at American universities. It examines Sufism’s place within the broader curriculum of Islamic studies as well as some of the main themes and approaches employed by American scholars. In addition, it explains both the academic context in which Sufi studies are located and the role of contemporary positions in Islamic and western thought in shaping its academic study.1 Topics and issues of particular interest to a Muslim audience, as well as strictly academic observations, will be raised. In comparison to its role at academic institutions in the traditional Muslim world,2 Sufi studies has played a larger role within the western academic study of Islam during the twentieth century, especially the later decades. I will discuss the numerous reasons for this in the sections on the institutional, intellectual, and pedagogical contexts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Im Sik Cho ◽  
Blaž Križnik

Sharing practices are an important part of urban life. This article examines the appropriation of alleys as communal space to understand how sharing practices are embedded in localities, how communal space is constituted and maintained, and how this sustains communal life. In this way, the article aims to understand the spatial dimension of sharing practices, and the role of communal space in strengthening social relationship networks and urban sustainability. Seowon Maeul and Samdeok Maeul in Seoul are compared in terms of their urban regeneration approaches, community engagement in planning, street improvement, and the consequences that the transformation had on the appropriation of alleys as communal space. The research findings show that community engagement in planning is as important as the provision of public space if streets are to be appropriated as communal space. Community engagement has changed residents' perception and use of alleys as a shared resource in the neighbourhood by improving their capacity to act collectively and collaborate with other stakeholders in addressing problems and opportunities in cities.


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