Opium and Social Control: Coolies on the Plantations of Peru and Cuba

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn Hu-DeHart
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Premature Death ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
African Slaves ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contract Laborers ◽  
Human Trade ◽  
Coolie Trade ◽  
Almost All

AbstractThe place of opium in the history of the Chinese diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean has received scant attention. This article is a preliminary attempt to look into this history, based on fragmentary evidence available. From 1847 to l874, as many as 225,000 Chinese indentured or contract laborers (coolies), almost all men, were sent to Cuba, still a Spanish colony, and newly independent Peru. Both the human trade itself, as well as work and life on the plantations, closely resembled slavery; indeed, the coolies in Cuba worked alongside African slaves. Opium was part of the coolie trade from its inception, distributed in the holding pens in South China ports, on the long, arduous voyages across the Pacific or Atlantic, as well as on the plantations. Cuban and Peruvian planters permitted, even encouraged, the sale, barter and consumption of opium by their coolies, in effect creating a mechanism of social control by alternately distributing and withholding this very addictive substance to desperate men. But this cynical use of opium might also have backfired on them, as sustained and massive ingestion lowered productivity, caused premature death (often by suicide), and resulted in high absenteeism.

scholarly journals King Zumbi and the Male Movement in Brazil

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-409
Author(s):  
T. B. Irving
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
African Origin ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Las Casas ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Bartolome De Las Casas ◽  
Spanish Colonies ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Almost All

Three great regions of America deserve a Muslim's attedon because oftheir Islamic past: Brazil in South America; the Caribbean, which scarcely hasbeen explored in this tespect; and the United States. Over 12 percent of theUnited States' population, and even more in the Caribbean, is of African origin,whereas Brazil has a similar or greater proportion of African descent.The enslavement and transportation of Africans to the New World continuedfor another three or four centuries after the region's indigenous Indianpopulations had either been killed off or driven into the plains and wooc1s.While knowledge of the original African Muslims in Notth America is vaguely acknowledged, teseatch is still required on the West Indies. Brazil's case,however, is clearer due to its proud history of the Palmares republic, whichalmost achieved its freedom in the seventeenth century, and the clearly Islamicnineteenth-century Male movement. As a postscript, the Canudos movement in 1897 also contained some Islamic features.In the Spanish colonies, the decline of the indigenous Indian populationsbegan quickly. To offset this development, Bartolome de Las Casas (1474-1566), Bishop of Chiapas, Mexico, suggested the importation of enslavedAfricans to the new colonies, whete they could then be converted to Christianity.Few persons have exercised such a baneful effect on society as thisman, who is often called the "Apostle of the Indies." However, othes knewhim as the "Enslaver of Africans," especially the Muslims, who he called"Moots." These facts of African slavery apply to almost all of the Atlanticcoast of the Americas, from Maryland and Virginia to Argentina, as well asto some countries along the Pacific coast such as Ecuador and Peru. If thisaspect of Muslim history and the Islamic heritage is to be preserved for humanhistory, we need to devote more study to it.This tragedy began in the sixteenth century and, after mote than four hundredyears, its effects are still apparent. If those Africans caught and sold intoslavery were educated, as many of them were, they were generally Muslimsand wrote in Arabic. Thus, many educated and literate slaves kept the recordsfor their sometimes illiterate plantation masters, who often could not read ormake any mathematical calculations, let alone handle formal bookkeeping.In 1532, the first permanent European settlement was established in Brazil,a country which since that date has never been wholly cut off from WestAfrica: even today trade is carried on with the Guinea coast. Yoruba influencefrom Nigeria and Benin has been almost as pervasive in some regions of ...

Extinction & Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds.

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Harry F Recher
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Island Size ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Continental Islands ◽  
History Of ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Impact ◽  
New Britain

ALTHOUGH Steadman’s book was published in 2006, it has lost none of its value. Without question, Extinction & Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds is one of the most interesting and informative books published on the birds of the Pacific Region in the last 100 years. It ranks in importance with Ernst Mayr’s Birds of the Southwest Pacific (1945) and should be read by everyone with an interest in the ecology and history of the Pacific islands. The impact of humans on the fauna of the Pacific is well known, but I doubt many of us appreciated either the scale of that impact or the speed at which it occurred, much less who was responsible. The Pacific islands were among the last lands colonized by the world’s ever expanding human population (and some may be the first to be de-populated as sea levels rise with global warming). Some islands, such as New Zealand, may only have been colonized within the last 600–800 years. For others, such as New Britain, people arrived ~30-35,000 BP. In all instances, bar the large continental islands, and regardless of island size and isolation, the impact of humans on birds was the same — rapid extinction of almost all species. Because many, if not most, islands had evolved endemic species of flightless rails, the total number of extinctions estimated by Steadman is between 1000 and 2000 species (p.319), of which the number of extinct rails lies between 500 and 1600 (p.316). The birds that survived are a vestige of a much richer and diverse avifauna. This is what makes Steadman’s account so important.

scholarly journals Susceptibility gene discovery for common metabolic and endocrine traits

2002 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
MI McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Basis ◽  
Susceptibility Gene ◽  
Gene Discovery ◽  
Premature Death ◽  
Susceptibility Genes ◽  
Disease Pathogenesis ◽  
Autoimmune Thyroid ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Almost All

Almost all major causes of ill-health and premature death in human societies worldwide - including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many infectious diseases - are, at least in part, genetically determined. Typically, risk of succumbing to one of these illnesses is thought to depend on both the individual repertoire of variation within a number of key susceptibility genes and the history of exposure to relevant environmental factors. For many of these conditions, the molecular basis of disease pathogenesis remains obscure. This represents a major obstacle to development of improved, rational strategies for disease treatment, prevention and eradication. It is easy therefore to appreciate the importance attached to efforts to deliver more comprehensive understanding of the molecular basis of disease pathogenesis. Nor is it hard to understand that identification of major susceptibility genes should highlight those components of molecular machinery that are critical for the preservation of normal health. The benefits promised are great, but progress to gene identification in multifactorial traits has been rather disappointing to date. Why is this? This review aims to answer this question by describing current and future approaches to gene discovery in multifactorial traits. The examples quoted will mostly relate to type 2 diabetes, but the issues and approaches are generic, and apply equally to other multifactorial traits in the endocrine and metabolic arena - type 1 diabetes; obesity; hyperlipidaemia; autoimmune thyroid disease; polycystic ovarian syndrome - and beyond.

Spanish South American Mainland

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Blanchard
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Pacific Coast ◽  
South American ◽  
African Slave ◽  
Spanish Conquest ◽  
Domestic Servants ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
African Slaves ◽  
History Of

This article reviews scholarship on the history and historiography of slavery in the Spanish South American Mainland. The history of African slaves on the South American mainland began with the Spanish conquistadors in the early sixteenth century. Already present in the West Indies and Mexico following the Spanish conquest and settlement of those areas, slaves now became involved in the expansion of Spanish rule southward. Small numbers accompanied the conquistadors along the Pacific coast. While most of the African slaves and slaves of African descent who participated in the conquest were soon freed, thereby establishing the roots of a growing and important free coloured population, thousands more arrived in their footsteps. In the process, the role of the African slave changed significantly. Initially, the majority of the slaves had been retainers and servants of the conquistadors who used some of the looted wealth of the Incas to acquire what was essentially an expensive status symbol. And while the slave as status symbol remained a constant throughout the history of slavery in Spanish South America, the vast majority of the new imports were destined to occupy far more demanding and onerous positions as manual labourers and domestic servants.

From the Tower of London to the Thomas More Society of Buenos Aires: “Give me thy grace, good Lord, to set the world at nought”

Moreana ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (Number 164) (4) ◽  
pp. 187-206
Author(s):  
Clare M. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Short History ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
Tower Of London ◽  
Hebrew Poetry ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Book Of Hours ◽  
Almost All

The Thomas More Society of Buenos Aires begins or ends almost all its events by reciting in both English and Spanish a prayer written by More in the margins of his Book of Hours probably while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. After a short history of what is called Thomas More’s Prayer Book, the author studies the prayer as a poem written in the form of a psalm according to the structure of Hebrew poetry, and looks at the poem’s content as a psalm of lament.

A Short history of the post-graduate surgical training in Fiji - where to from here?

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jitoko Kelepi Cama ◽  
Sonal Singh Nagra
Keyword(s):  
Surgical Training ◽  
Training Programme ◽  
Post Graduate ◽  
School Of Medicine ◽  
Postgraduate Training Programme ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
National University ◽  
History Of ◽  
Training Of Surgeons ◽  
Pacific Island Nations

Post-graduate surgical training at the Fiji National University (FNU), previously known as the Fiji School of Medicine) has recently been updated by incorporating elements from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) training curriculum. The revised curriculum maintains strong contextual relevance to the needs and pathologies of the Pacific Island nations.  This paper outlines why the FNU surgical postgraduate training programme should be applauded as a successful programme in the training of surgeons for the region.

EXPLORING HEALTHCARE ARCHITECTURE THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF FILM: Motives and Techniques

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Stephen Verderber
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
The Real ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Behavior Setting ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
History Of

The interdisciplinary field of person-environment relations has, from its origins, addressed the transactional relationship between human behavior and the built environment. This body of knowledge has been based upon qualitative and quantitative assessment of phenomena in the “real world.” This knowledge base has been instrumental in advancing the quality of real, physical environments globally at various scales of inquiry and with myriad user/client constituencies. By contrast, scant attention has been devoted to using simulation as a means to examine and represent person-environment transactions and how what is learned can be applied. The present discussion posits that press-competency theory, with related aspects drawn from functionalist-evolutionary theory, can together function to help us learn of how the medium of film can yield further insights to person-environment (P-E) transactions in the real world. Sampling, combined with extemporary behavior setting analysis, provide the basis for this analysis of healthcare settings as expressed throughout the history of cinema. This method can be of significant aid in examining P-E transactions across diverse historical periods, building types and places, healthcare and otherwise, otherwise logistically, geographically, or temporally unattainable in real time and space.

Oceans and Landless Farms: Linking Southern and Northern Shadow Places of Industrial Livestock (1954–1975)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Floor Haalboom
Keyword(s):  
Animal Feed ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Global South ◽  
Humboldt Current ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Boom And Bust ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global North

This article argues for more extensive attention by environmental historians to the role of agriculture and animals in twentieth-century industrialisation and globalisation. To contribute to this aim, this article focuses on the animal feed that enabled the rise of ‘factory farming’ and its ‘shadow places’, by analysing the history of fishmeal. The article links the story of feeding fish to pigs and chickens in one country in the global north (the Netherlands), to that of fishmeal producing countries in the global south (Peru, Chile and Angola in particular) from 1954 to 1975. Analysis of new source material about fishmeal consumption from this period shows that it saw a shift to fishmeal production in the global south rather than the global north, and a boom and bust in the global supply of fishmeal in general and its use in Dutch pigs and poultry farms in particular. Moreover, in different ways, the ocean, and production and consumption places of fishmeal functioned as shadow places of this commodity. The public health, ecological and social impacts of fishmeal – which were a consequence of its cheapness as a feed ingredient – were largely invisible on the other side of the world, until changes in the marine ecosystem of the Pacific Humboldt Current and the large fishmeal crisis of 1972–1973 suddenly changed this.

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