Appropriation and Its Consequences: Archaeology under Colonial Rule in Egypt and India

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 207-226
Author(s):  
Shereen Ratnagar

Abstract The beginnings of archaeology in Egypt and in India are the subject of this paper. In both countries, antiquities were carried away by the powerful. Moreover, the hubris of the colonial powers ruling both countries made it inevitable that not only antiquities, but knowledge about the past, were appropriated in different ways. For modern Egyptians, the Pharaonic past was remote in culture and distant in time. The people themselves were until fairly recently prevented from learning the Pharaonic writing, once it was deciphered, by various ways and means. In contrast, in India the colonial administration relied on Indian scholars to teach British personnel the ancient languages, texts, and religion. In neither country was the history of the ancient period taught in schools until the foreign rulers had left. But Indian archaeology became involved in Indian identity and in the framing of the nation as Hindu, and thereby acquired an ugly twist. Self-identification in Egypt in the earlier twentieth century, on the other hand, was possibly more with the Arab world than with the pyramid builders.

Author(s):  
Yevhenii Vasyliev

The tragic events of the Revolution of Dignity and the hybrid war have been reflected in various stylistics and genre parameters of dramatic works. The brightest of them were included in two recent anthologies, which were prepared and published thanks to the efforts of the Department of Drama Projects of the National Center for the Performing Arts named after Les Kurbas. The first of them, “Maidan. Before and After. Anthology of the Actual Drama” (2016), has absorbed 9 plays by the authors of different generations (Yaroslav Vereshchak, Nadiia Symchich, Oleg Mykolaychuk, Neda Nezhdana, Oleksandr Viter, Dmytro Ternovyi, etc.). The completely new second anthology “The Labyrinth of Ice and Fire” (2019) also consists of 9 plays (three of which are also part of the previous anthology), which are the reflections of the modern history of Ukraine. The texts about the hybrid war, which are included in two anthologies, are the subject of our analysis. The focus is on the genre specificity of these drama works. The genre modifications of archaic genres inherent in the Ukrainian theatrical tradition (vertep, mystery) are studied in the plays “Vertep-2015” by Nadiia Marchuk and “Maidan Inferno, or On the Other Side of Hell” by Neda Nezhdana. The functioning of the documentary and epic drama (“The Chestnut and the Lily of the Valley” by Oleg Mykolaychuk, “The People and Cyborgs” by Olena Ponomareva and Dario Fertilio) is analysed. The processes of episation and lyricization are considered. The peculiarities of intergeneric diffusion and the creation of a specific genre type — lyrico-epic drama are analysed. The actual monodramas of Neda Nezhdana “The Cat in Memory of the Darkness” and “OTVETKA@ UA” are highlighted, as well as the intermedial character of the genre transformations of Igor Yuziuk’s drama “C-sharp Sixth Octave”


1988 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 431-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Law

The kingdom of Dahomey (or Fon) was probably founded during the first half of the seventheenth century, but emerged clearly as a major power only in the early eighteenth century when its king Agaja (ca. 1716–40) conquered its southern neighbours Allada (1724) and Whydah (1727), thereby establishing direct contact with the European slave-traders at the coast. Dahomey then remained the dominant power in the area until it was itself conquered by the French in the 1892–94. The kingdom ceased to exist as a political entity when its last king was deposed by the French in 1900, but a degree of institutional continuity has been maintained through the performance of rituals at the royal palace (now a museum) in the capital city Abomey. The history of Dahomey from the 1720s onwards is relatively well documented from contemporary European sources, enjoying in particular the unique distinction of being made the subject already in the eighteenth century of a published book—Archibald Dalzel's History of Dahomy (1793). There is also a rich and coherent corpus of narrative traditions relating to the kingdom's history, best known in the classic recension published in 1911 by the French colonial official Le Herissé, which is in fact merely a translation (and in some measure an abridgement, omitting some detailed material) of the account given to him by a single Dahomian informant, Agbidinukun, the chef de canton of the cercle of Abomey under French colonial rule and a brother of the last independent king of Dahomey, Behanzin (1889–94).


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 89-98
Author(s):  
Sergei A. Popov ◽  
◽  
Ksenia M. Gerasimova ◽  

The subject of analysis in this article is the ranks of proper names that have entered the onomastic space of Russia over the past 75 years, in which the memory of the heroes and events of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 has been preserved. The purpose of the work is to identify the specificity of onomastic units associated with the specified period in the history of our country. The authors of the article suggest calling them heroic toponyms, ergonyms, carabonyms, etc. According to the authors, the onomastic space of the Russian Federation is currently one of the most reliable types of historical memory of the people, since the names, surnames, and occupations of people who have made a significant contribution to the history of a particular settlement, region or country in overall, as well as the names of historical events. The process of this onomastic nomination is presented as part of the state policy of memory. The article examines in the aspect of commemoration toponyms, microtoponyms, oikonyms, urbanonyms, oronyms, carabonyms, astronyms, cosmonyms, ergonyms, as well as modern memorial sports events dedicated to the events and heroes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The main attention is paid to heroic toponymy, in particular, the specificity of the commemorative nomination in the settlements on the territory of which during the war years hostilities took place (hero cities, cities of military glory, settlements of military valor) are highlighted. The authors come to the conclusion that reliable information about one of the most difficult periods of Russian history will be reliably transmitted from generation to generation through the onomastic space of Russia.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kornicki ◽  
Antony Best ◽  
Hugh Cortazzi

This new scholarly study examines the history of the relations between the British and Japanese monarchies over the past 150 years. Complemented by a significant plate section which includes a number of rarely seen images, as well as a chronology of royal/imperial visits and extensive bibliography, British Royal and Japanese Imperial Relations, 1868-2018, will become a benchmark reference on the subject. The volume is divided into three sections. Part I, by Peter Kornicki, examines the ‘royals and imperials’ history during the Meiji era; Part II, by Antony Best, examines the first half of the twentieth century; Part III, by Sir Hugh Cortazzi, focuses on the post-war history up to the present day. Published in association with the Japan Society, its appearance marks the abdication of Emperor Akihito and the enthronement of Crown Prince Naruhito in May 2019. It is also a memorial volume to the late Sir Hugh Cortazzi who died in August 2018, shortly after completing his own contribution to the volume.


1978 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 153-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.D. Roberts

Work on volume 7 of the Cambridge History of Africa, covering the years 1905-1940, has obliged me to reflect on the nature of the literature for this period in African history. The past twenty years or so have of course seen some notable research on the subject, and much of this is now published. A common theme in this work, as in the study of earlier African history, has been an emphasis on African initiative and enterprise, whether among clerks and teachers, cocoa farmers or mineworkers. More recently, there has been a renewal of interest (often related to theories about “underdevelopment”) in the external forces which set limits to the scope and success of African initiatives. It has once again become acceptable in Africanist circles to study white farmers, trading companies, mine corporations, finance houses, administrative hierarchies, legislative councils, or mission headquarters. Thus the Cambridge History should now be able to achieve a more balanced appraisal of both local and alien factors in the colonial order than would have been possible even five years ago.The question I want to raise here is whether, for the purposes of such a volume, it is enough to think in terms of synthesizing the work of professional historians of Africa over the past two decades, or whether recent shifts of emphasis have exposed topics and questions on which we must still look for guidance to works written when colonial rule was still a living reality and African history, as an academic subject, had not yet been invented.


Author(s):  
Malcolm Crook

Free and fair elections, on the basis of universal suffrage, are a relatively recent achievement, their development deeply controversial, and how ordinary people voted in the past, as opposed to who they elected, has become an important object of scholarly research of late. France represents an excellent case study for exploring the history of voting on account of the long, uneven, and contested process of experimentation that was undertaken there. The sovereignty of the people, enunciated in 1789, was expressed in the frequent election of numerous representatives, at local as well as national level, while an enduring tradition of direct democracy also encouraged the use of referendums. France became an influential electoral laboratory as a result and much was demanded of its citizens as they learned to vote in some challenging circumstances. Their ensuing apprenticeship seemed to have been completed in the twentieth century, with the belated advent of a female franchise and consistently high turnout in all elections, but declining participation over the last few decades has raised serious doubts. This fascinating subject is tackled here on a thematic basis, highlighting candidatures and campaigning, as well as who could vote, how they did so and to what extent, beginning in the Ancien Régime and ending in the present day.


1995 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-133
Author(s):  
Alon Goshen Gottstein

The story of the four who enteredpardes, or the orchard, is thecrux interpretumof the study of ancient Jewish mysticism. The answer to the question of how much mysticism existed in rabbinic Judaism depends on the interpretation of this story. In the history of scholarship of the past several decades, two major approaches have been taken. One approach, spearheaded by Gershom Scholem, although by no means initiated by him, sees in this story a record or some testimony of a mystical experience. The various terms employed, and in particular the termpardes, are seen as expressive of a heavenly ascent into paradise, and thus as a testimony of a mystical experience. The other approach, which consciously seeks to tone down the mystical and ecstatic element of thepardesstory, sees in this story a parable. If it is a parable, then we do not have a record or testimony of an event of a mystical nature. Of course, even if the story is parabolic, the question of the subject of the parable remains open. Ephraim E. Urbach, who first took this line of interpretation, suggested that the story is a parable, and not a mystical record. The story refers, however, to the study ofmaʿaseh merkabah(“the work or story of the divine chariot,” referred to in the first chapter of Ezekiel), and thus retains esoteric significance.


Lituanistica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Inga Stepukonienė

The lyrical poetry of Judita Vaičiūnaitė (Lithuania) and Vizma Belševica (Latvia), modern poetesses of the second half of the twentieth century, vividly reflects the realities of urban culture. However, the centre of their lyricism, the woman, is projected not only in the urban environment, but also in nature. The four mythological elements (water, air, earth, and fire) are given special powers and are highly important in both Belševica’s and Vaičiūnaitė’s work. Water in their lyrical poetry becomes an inexhaustible source of spiritual and stylistic variations. In the poetry of Vaičiūnaitė and Belševica, the sea is not a metaphor for harmony, but for anxiety, which contrasts with the representation of earth, sky, and clouds. These elements are often opposed to water paradigms like lakes, rivers, rain, snow or frost, which hide mysterious worlds. The representation of the sea is rather controversial: the overall image is shaped from a multitude of different impulses and impressions that arise from different situations of life. One of the most typical lyrical themes in Vaičiūnaitė’s and Belševica’s work is the past and remembrance of things, people, events, and phenomena. They reflect on the existence of prominent past personalities by representing their vivid images; the reader can feel the spiritual motion and projection of dynamic actions into the future. Meanwhile, memories related to the realm of water often project passiveness. The poetry of Vaičiūnaitė and Belševica reflects a strong symbolic link between the sea and the woman. The lyrical “I”, like the sea, is silent, deep, mysterious and, at the same time, turbulent. The sea also embodies the feeling of global insecurity. The seabed metaphorically represents the threshold between the safe and the dangerous states of a woman, separating the complex world of earth from the inscrutable water world, which may instantly transform the woman’s status. The sea also implies the seme of purity and purgation, the axis of morality and value as discussed by Bachelard. Purity is one of the main value-determining categories, inseparable from the self-awareness of the lyrical “I”, which stands in opposition to the other. In their experience of nature, they share the same motif of “motherly water”. It is not by chance that the poetry of Vaičiūnaitė and Belševica merges the elements of the sea world and reality – images of love appearing in the subconscious of the subject are directed to “the shelter creature, the nourishment creature symbolic of the mother”. This semantics of the sea brings together the poetry of the two Baltic poets.


Klio ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mait Kõiv

SummaryThe article discusses the development of ethnic and political identities, and the related traditions concerning the past, in Archaic and Classical Elis and Pisa. It shows that the earliest signs of Pisatan identity can be traced to the sixth century BC, and that the Eleans of the valley of Peneios on the one hand, and the people dwelling in the valley of Alpheios (i.e. the Pisatans) and the so-called Triphylia farther south on the other, nourished distinct traditions about their heroic past, which reflect distinct ethnic identities. Instead of assuming that the Pisatans as a group was intentionally constructed and its ‚history‘ invented during the political disturbances of the fourth century BC, we must accept that the Eleans and the Pisatans had since an early period developed and mutually re-negotiated the traditions confirming their identities and promoting their interests in the changing historical conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Badarudin Badarudin ◽  
Abdul Hafiz ◽  
Abdul Rasyad ◽  
Salman Alfarisi ◽  
Rizkah Rizkah

This study focused on examining mythology and history of tomb for a person who was considered sacred by the society. The sacred tomb is the place where person factually buried or the last location seen by others according to the local people beliefs of a past figure based on the relationships of ancestral, great name, extraordinary advantages, historical traces, his services, and values and traditions inherited by the figure which is believed by the most people to grant the wishes. The sacred tomb is the tomb of a figure in the past such as wali Allah, king, and so on. The purpose of this study was to know the history of the tomb of Ramban Biaq in East Lombok, to understand the people perception of the tomb of Ramban Biaq, to know the factors influencing people to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of Ramban Biaq, and to understand the procedures of pilgrimage to the tomb of Ramban Biaq. This study used a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach. Data were collected by observation, interviews, and literature study. The result study explained that the person who was featured in the mythology of the tomb of Ramban Biaq did not die, but still alive and lived in another world. The other myth was that this tomb can grant a pray to God. 


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