Urbanizing Camels: Camels in Beijing, 1900-1937

2020 ◽  
pp. 009614422095516
Author(s):  
Lei Zhang

This article investigates the history of camels in Beijing from 1900 to 1937. Since the Qing period, the camel living in the villages on the western outskirts of Beijing had become the beast of burden for carrying coal from the Western Hills to the city and stimulated interconnection between the urban and rural areas. The use of camels was scrutinized during the urbanization that followed the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. However, camels did not disappear. After Beijing lost its status as the political capital in 1928, camels were reimagined as a symbol of nostalgia and part of the city’s new identity to reconstruct Beijing as a cultural capital and tourist city in a global context. The article argues that the urbanization of camels in Beijing was not a deanimalized process; instead, it was reordering of the relationship between animals and the city beyond a utilitarian perspective to address social and cultural dimensions, it was also a process that preserved the past and accommodated the present.

Author(s):  
Mary Ziegler

This article illuminates potential obstacles facing the reproductive justice movement and the way those obstacles might be overcome. Since 2010, reproductive justice—an agenda that fuses access to reproductive health services and demands for social justice—has energized feminist scholars and activists and captured broader public attention. Abortion rights advocates in the past dismissed reproductive justice claims as risky and unlikely to appeal to a broad enough audience. These obstacles are not as daunting as they first appear. Reframing the abortion right as a matter of women’s equality may eliminate some of the constitutional hurdles facing a reproductive justice approach. The political obstacles may be just as surmountable. Understanding the history of the constitutional discourse concerning reproductive justice and reproductive rights may allow us to move beyond the impasse that has defined the relationship between the two for too long.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 494-499
Author(s):  
Destin Jenkins

This essay revisits Making the Second Ghetto to consider what Arnold Hirsch argued about the relationship between race, money, and the ghetto. It explores how Hirsch’s analysis of this relationship was at once consistent with those penned by other urban historians and distinct from those interested in the political economy of the ghetto. Although moneymaking was hardly the main focus, Hirsch’s engagement with “Vampire” rental agencies and panic peddlers laid the groundwork for an analysis that treats the post–World War II metropolis as a crucial node in the history of racial capitalism. Finally, this essay offers a way to connect local forms of violence to the kinds of constraints imposed by financiers far removed from the city itself.


Urban History ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 53-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Luckin

Now that the debate about the standard of living during the first half of the nineteenth century appears to have entered a relatively quiescent phase, historians have begun to turn their attention towards the more elusive concept of the quality of life. The incidence of fatal and non-fatal disease is clearly central to research of this type and so, too, is a delineation of the physical context in which infections have flourished and in which those who have been afflicted by them have lived. Although there has been a tendency to underestimate the ferocity of epidemics in rural areas in the period after about 1750, historians working on disease in the modern period are inevitably most usually concerned with processes which are specifically urban in character. And urban historians, especially those interested in such topics as the development of utilities, the growth of administrative bureau-cracies or the spatial segregation and different life experiences of the classes, can undoubtedly benefit from a knowledge of patterns of infection in the past.


Author(s):  
David Abulafia

The relationship between Rome and the Mediterranean was already changing significantly before the fall of Carthage and of Corinth. This relationship took two forms. There was the political relationship: it was clear before the Third Punic War that the Roman sphere of influence extended to Spain in the west and to Rhodes in the east, even when the Roman Senate did not exercise direct dominion over the coasts and islands. Then there was the commercial relationship that was creating increasingly close bonds between Rome’s merchants and the corners of the Mediterranean. Yet the Senate and the merchants were distinct groups of people. Like Homer’s heroes, Roman aristocrats liked to claim that they did not sully their hands in trade, which they associated with craft, peculation and dishonesty. How could a merchant make a profit without lies, deception and bribes? Rich merchants were successful gamblers; their fortune depended on taking risks and enjoying luck. This condescending attitude did not prevent Romans as eminent as the Elder Cato and Cicero from commercial dealings, but naturally these were effected through agents, most of whom were Romans in a new sense. As it gained control of Italy, Rome offered allied status to the citizens of many of the towns that fell under its rule, and also established its own colonies of army veterans. ‘Romanness’ was thus increasingly detached from the experience of living in Rome and, besides, only part of the population of the city counted as Roman citizens, with the right to vote, a right denied to women and to slaves. There may have been about 200,000 slaves in Rome around 1 BC , about one-fifth of the total population. Their experience forms an important part of the ethnic history of the Mediterranean. Captives from Carthage and Corinth might be set to work in the fields, having to endure a harsh existence far from home, ignorant of the fate of their spouses and children. Iberian captives were put to work in the silver mines of southern Spain, in unspeakable conditions.


2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-218
Author(s):  
Karen Bassi

Abstract This paper argues that spatial contingencies, defined by the relationship between where historical actors are in the narrative and what they say, are crucial for understanding the political and ideological effects of Thucydides' History. A comprehensive approach to these contingencies is linked to two related premises. First, that the city of Athens is the principal spatial referent in the History and, second, that Athens refers both to a set of ““real”” topographical features and to a transcendent and trans-historical ideal that exceeds those features. The dynamic between these two is mediated by Athens' inevitable defeat and by the related conflict between the History as the presentation of facts about the past, on the one hand, and as the source of future predictions, on the other. Framing this analysis are the distinctive characteristics ascribed to the Athenians as a collective and to the positions of Thucydides and Alcibiades as Athenians in exile.


2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Chantal Kesteloot

De geschiedenis van de Vlaamse beweging wekt sinds lang de belangstelling van de Vlaamse vorsers. Tegelijk heeft de theorievorming rond nationalisme zich tijdens de laatste jaren volledig vernieuwd. De Gentse historicus Maarten van Ginderachter combineert in Le chant du coq zijn twee interessesferen en stelt een bijtend essay voor over de geschiedenis van de Waalse beweging. Het betreft een boeiende herlezing van de meest recente werken die aan de beweging gewijd werden, in het bijzonder L’Encyclopédie du Mouvement wallon. Zijn doel is aan te tonen dat, in weerwil van de steeds herhaalde visie, de beweging eveneens een etnisch discours gebruikt. Bijgevolg is de tegenstelling tussen een 'etnische' Vlaamse beweging en een 'civiele' Waalse beweging eerder een geloofszaak die niet bestand is tegen een wetenschappelijke analyse. De vraagstelling verdient een verder uitdieping. Om de staat van de geschiedschrijving van de Waalse beweging te begrijpen, is het essentieel de omstandigheden van de productie te bekijken net als de verhouding, in Wallonië, tussen de politieke macht en de academische sfeer. Daarenboven stelt zich de vraag naar de (on)mogelijkheid van een gedeelde nationale geschiedenis. Vlaamse en franstalige vorsers lijken meer en meer een verschillende visie op het verleden te hebben, een visie die zelfs zodanig verschilt dat er geraakt wordt aan het zelfbeeld en het beeld van de andere.________Le chant du coqFlemish researchers have been interested in the history of the Flemish movement for a long time. At the same time the theory formation about nationalism has been completely renovated during the past years. In Le chant du coq the Ghent historian Maarten Van Ginderachter combines his two areas of interest and presents a sarcastic essay about the history of the Walloon movement. It concerns an absorbing rereading of the most recent works that were dedicated to the movement, in particular the Encyclopédie du Mouvement wallon. He intends to demonstrate that in spite of the ever repeated vision, the movement also utilizes an ethnic discourse. Consequently the opposition between an 'ethnic' Flemish movement and a 'civil' Walloon movement is rather a matter of faith, which cannot stand up to scientific analysis. The issue deserves further in-depth study. In order to understand the state of the historiography of the Walloon movement, it is essential to view the circumstances of the production as well as the relationship between the political power and the academic atmosphere in Wallonia. In addition the question about the (in)possibility of a shared national history must be raised. The visions of the past held by Flemish and French-speaking researchers appear to be growing further and further apart, with the consequence that these separate visions influence both the self-image and the image of the other party.


Author(s):  
Katia Maria Paim Pozzer

We propose a reflection about the theme of slavery, from the study of the archives of an important businessman in the city of Larsa, in the south Mesopotamian, named Ubar-Šamaš, during the reign of King Rîm-Sîn (1822-1763 BCE). This merchant exercised relevant economic activities, such as buying and selling land in urban and rural areas, silver loans and slave trade. In paleobabylonian society, slave labor did not occupy an important role in the economy, and the conditions of the trade of servantswere directly linked to political conditions, such as war and its economic and social consequences. Another objective of this article is to offer Brazilian readers research sources for the study of economic history of the ancient world, from the translation of documents directly from Akkadian language and cuneiform writing into Portuguese.


2018 ◽  
pp. 82-97
Author(s):  
Miranda Levanat-Peričić

The Chronotope of Exile in the Post-Yugoslav Novel and the Boundaries of Imaginary HomelandsAlthough the chronotopic approach to the novels of exile is almost self-explanatory, certain specifics expressed by post-Yugoslav exile narrations evoke a separate chronotope interpretation. First and foremost, post-Yugoslav literature is additionally encumbered with the identity issue because the abandoned areas of the nineties for the exiled writer do not disappear at a metaphorical level, by turning into a mnemotope, but in the actual break-up of the political entity, the imaginary supranational heritage transforms itself into a kind of counterculture, mostly affirmed by exile writers. Therefore, returning to the abandoned place often becomes possible only as a return to the past. In this paper, the literary theme of exile will be followed comparatively, starting from the reflective nostalgia in the prose of Dubravka Ugrešić (The Ministry of Pain), through a global exile which reflects the history of the relationship between European persecutions and America as an unfair homeland, which breaks all identity support in the novels of Aleksandar Hemon (The Nowhere Man; The Lazarus Project), to the intra-Yugoslav, "hereditary" exile in the novels of Goran Vojnović (Chefurs Raus!; Yugoslavia, My Homeland), which fathers left to their sons like a curse of the genus. In the texts mentioned above, the chronotope of exile is dealt with at the level of genre, as the major, supreme chronotope, which includes or opens space to a series of specific local chronotopes, which are fundamental to exile narration. These motifs are also encountered in other genres, but in exile narration they are the bearing pillars of the genre. They are, by their nature, chronotopic because they are realised through the binary spatial-temporal categories of presence and absence, affiliation and non-affiliation, anchoring and nomadism. In this paper, I will look at three such chronotope motifs: 1) the motif of home as a non-place or a place of absence; 2) the motif of other/mirror country and other/”mirror” history; 3) the motif of return and travel (by train), which regularly invokes the stereotypical representation of the place and the past. Chronotop wygnania w powieści postjugosłowiańskiej i granice ojczyzn wyobrażonychChociaż chronotopiczne podejście do analizy powieści problematyzujących wygnanie wydaje się oczywiste, to specyficzne cechy postjugosłowiańskich powieści tego rodzaju wymagają szczególnej interpretacji koncepcji chronotopu, ponieważ literatura postjugosłowiańska jest dodatkowo obciążona kwestią tożsamości. Dla wygnanego pisarza opuszczone przestrzenie lat dziewięćdziesiątych nie znikają jedynie na poziomie metaforycznym, zamieniając się w przestrzeń pamięci (mnemotop), ale faktycznie przestają istnieć jako rzeczywisty byt polityczny. Tym samym, wyobrażone dziedzictwo ponadnarodowe przekształca się w swoistą kontrkulturę, w większości afirmowaną przez pisarzy na wygnaniu. Dlatego też powrót do opuszczonej przestrzeni często jest możliwy jedynie jako powrót do przeszłości. Artykuł omawia literacki motyw wygnania w perspektywie komparatystycznej. Rozpoczyna się od refleksyjnej nostalgii w prozie Dubravki Ugrešić (Ministerstwo bólu). Następnie wiedzie poprzez globalne wygnanie, które odzwierciedla historię związków między europejskimi prześladowaniami a Ameryką jako niesprawiedliwą ojczyzną łamiącą wszelkie tożsamości, w powieściach Aleksandra Hemona (Nowhere Man, The Lazarus Project). Wreszcie, dochodzi do wewnątrzjugosłowiańskiego wygnania „dziedzicznego” w powieściach Gorana Vojnovicia (Chefurs Raus!, Yugoslavia, My Homeland) – wygnania, które ojcowie pozostawili swoim synom niczym przekleństwo rodzaju. W wyżej wymienionych tekstach chronotop wygnania jest rozpatrywany na poziomie gatunku jako główny, nadrzędny chronotop, który zawiera w sobie lub otwiera przestrzeń dla szeregu specyficznych chronotopów lokalnych, fundamentalnych dla narracji wygnańczych. Chociaż podobne motywy występują także w innych gatunkach, to są one filarami w przypadku narracji wygnańczych, z natury chronotopicznych, gdyż realizowanych za pomocą binarnych kategorii czasoprzestrzennych: obecności i nieobecności, przynależności i braku przynależności, zakotwiczenia i nomadyzmu. W tym artykule przyjrzę się trzem takim motywom chronotopu: 1) motywowi domu jako nie-miejsca lub miejsca nieobecności; 2) motywowi innych/lustrzanych krajów i innych/lustrzanych historii; 3) motywowi powrotu i podróży (pociągiem), który regularnie przywołuje stereotypowe przedstawienie miejsca i przeszłości. Kronotop egzila u postjugoslavenskom romanu i granice imaginarnih domovinaPremda je kronotopski pristup romanima egzila gotovo samorazumljiv, određene specifičnosti koje iskazuje postjugoslavenske egzilne naracije prizivaju zasebnu kronotopsku interpretaciju. Prije svega, postjugoslavenska književnost opterećena je dodatnim identitetskim bremenom jer napušteni prostori devedesetih godina za pisca u egzilu ne nestaju na nekoj metaforičkoj razini seleći se u mnemotope, nego se stvarnim raspadom političke cjeline, imaginarna supranacionalna baština transformira u svojevrsnu kontrakulturu, najčešće afirmiranu upravo posredstvom egzilnih pisaca. Stoga i povratak na napušteno mjesto često postaje moguć samo kao povratak u prošlost. U ovom će se radu književna tema egzila pratiti komparativno, počevši od refleksivne nostalgije u prozi Dubravke Ugrešić (Ministarstvo boli), preko globalnog egzila u kojemu se zrcali povijest odnosa europskih progona i Amerike kao maćehinske domovine koja rastače sve identitetske oslonce u romanima Aleksandra Hemona (Čovjek bez prošlosti; Projekat Lazarus), do unutarjugoslavenskog, „naslijeđenog“ egzila u romanima Gorana Vojnovića (Čefuri raus!; Jugoslavija, moja domovina), koje, poput prokletstva roda, očevi ostavljaju sinovima. U navedenim tekstovima o kronotopu egzila govorimo na razini žanra, kao glavnom, nadređenom kronotopu koji uključuje ili otvara prostor nizu specifičnih lokalnih kronotopa ili motiva, ključnih za egzilnu naraciju. Te se motivske jedinice susreću i u drugim žanrovima, no u egzilnoj su naraciji nosivi stupovi žanra. Po svojoj su naravi kronotopični jer se realiziraju kroz binarne prostorno-vremenske kategorije prisutnosti i odsutnosti, pripadanja i nepripadanja, usidrenosti i skitalaštva. U ovom radu osvrnut ću se na tri takva kronotopska motiva: 1. motiv doma kao ne-mjesta ili mjesta odsustva; 2. motiv druge/zrcalne domovine i druge/zrcalne povijesti; 3. motiv povratka i putovanja (vlakom), koje redovito priziva stereotipnu reprezentaciju mjesta i prošlosti.


Author(s):  
Fabio Raimondi

The history explored in this chapter focused on the Florentine Histories allows us to understand the concepts and proposals for the political reform of Florence that Machiavelli advanced in the Discursus and the Minuta and which were different to any constitution in the past. Analysing the struggles that animated Florence from 1215 to 1512, Machiavelli revealed the different constitutions that emerged from the struggles, struggles that the constitutions partially caused and partially attempted to neutralize. Underlining the defects of the past constitutions of the city, he set out the two main political coordinates around which he constructed his plans for the reform of Florence: the tumults and a new idea of mixture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edson Lourenço da Silva ◽  
Adriana Josefa da Rocha ◽  
Manuella Feitosa Leal ◽  
Orianna dos Santos ◽  
João Hemerson de Sousa ◽  
...  

Abstract: The pronounced dry season determines the characteristics of the semiarid region of Brazil. Numerous small reservoirs are built to overcome this condition, accumulating multiple uses and causing important changes in the landscape and the local biota. Considering the limited amount of information about the malacofauna of reservoirs, mainly in the Northeast region of the country, this inventory provides a list of mollusks from three important reservoirs located in the city of São Julião, state of Piauí. The collections were carried out monthly between May/2017 and April/2018, sampling a total of 11,149 mollusks, corresponding to the species Melanoides tuberculata (Müller, 1774) (n = 9,724), Biomphalaria straminea (Dunker, 1848) (n = 1,361) and Pomacea lineata (Spix, 1827) (n = 64). The richness of mollusks from the three reservoirs was low, similar to those described in studies conducted in other regions of Northeast Brazil. There was a significant difference in the abundance of M. tuberculata and B. straminea among the studied reservoirs. These environments are not connected and are installed in urban and rural areas, presenting different ecological conditions. The relationship between the human population and the reservoirs, associated with the lack of sanitation, increases the risks of spreading waterborne diseases besides the development of environmental imbalance by the introduction of exotic species.


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