From the Madrasah to the Museum: The Social Life of the “Kietaabs” of Cape Town

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 369-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saarah Jappie
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Living Room ◽  
Family Tree ◽  
Personal Journey ◽  
The Social ◽  
Arabic Script ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Place Of Origin ◽  
First Time

Ebrahiem Manuel sits opposite me, about to embark upon his story. His living room is filled with material manifestations of his research: boxes overflowing with books and papers cover his entire sofa, newspapers and articles line the floor, and collages of images and texts hang on the walls and sit in the cabinets. It is clear that he is consumed by his passion for heritage, and his personal journey of discovery. He speaks in an animated, almost theatrical tone, raising and lowering his voice, stressing certain syllables, alive as he tells his story of “the ancient kietaabs.”The journey began in 1997, when Ebrahiem returned to South Africa after years at sea, working as a cook on shipping vessels. Upon his return, he began a quest to learn about his personal heritage, inspired by a dream he had had about his grandfather. This search led him to an oldkietaab, given to him by an elderly aunt. This was not the first time he had come across the old book; he remembered seeing it as a child, amongst other kietaabs, stored out of reach of the children, on top of his grandfather's wardrobe. It was inside this book that a possible key to his ancestors was to be found.This significant find was a range of hand-written inscriptions inside the book, in Arabic, English, and an unknown script. The Arabic script and its corresponding English transliteration read “Imaam Abdul Karriem, son of Imaam Abdul Jaliel, son of Imaam Ismail of Sumbawa.” Here was his family tree, starting from his great-grandfather and leading to two generations before him and, it seemed, their place of origin, the island of Sumbawa in eastern Indonesia. Ebrahiem then decided to go to Indonesia to solve what had become the mystery of “the ancient kietaab.”

The Relics of Saint Petroc

Antiquity ◽  
1939 ◽  
Vol 13 (52) ◽  
pp. 403-415
Author(s):  
Canon G. H. Doble
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
The Social ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Middle Ages

The incident of the theft of the relics of Saint Petroc from his shrine in Bodmin priory church by a canon of Bodmin in 1177, their removal to the abbey of St.-Méen in Brittany, and their subsequent restoration owing to the vigorous action of Henry 11, is well-known. It is briefly referred to by the chroniclers Roger of Hoveden and Benedict of Peterborough. The long Vita Petroci in the newly discovered Gotha MS.; however, contains a full and detailed account of the whole affair by a contemporary writer of considerable literarypowers. It abounds in lifelike touches, and is one of the most interesting glimpses into the social life of the Middle Ages which we possess. It is here printed for the first time.

Ancestors, class, and contingency

Focaal ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (62) ◽  
pp. 70-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanette Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Family Tree ◽  
Class Identity ◽  
English Class ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Local Family

Local family historians in the north of England are not only intent on "finding" their ancestors but in adding "flesh" to the bones of genealogy. Many are as interested in the social life of their ancestors as they are in their family tree or pedigree and, through their research, they excavate particular social and classed histories which combine discourses of land, labor, love, and loss. As well as deepening a sense of the workings of class in England, their research renders class identity more contingent than other contemporary public and media-driven versions. This article argues that family history and genealogical research destabilizes readings of English class identities as fixed, bounded and inescapable by revealing the vagaries of fate and chance and by making explicit other relevant and overlapping social distinctions in the provenance of one's ancestors.

scholarly journals The Way of the Firang: Illustrating European Social Life and Customs in Mughal Miniatures (1580 CE -1628 CE)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Soujit Das ◽  
◽  
Ila Gupta ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Mughal Empire ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
Cultural Alienation ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
First Time

During the sixteenth century, along with the rise of the Mughal Empire, the social landscape of India changed drastically with the advent of the European colonial powers. In 1580 CE, following the First Jesuit Mission to the Court of Emperor Akbar, a new cross-cultural dialogue was initiated that not only impacted the socio-economic and political fabric but also the artistic productions of the time. The growing presence of the European traders, ambassadors, soldiers, and missionaries in the Mughal world also lead to several curious narratives that were widely circulated. These tales also gave birth to cultural misconceptions as the Europeans on several occasions were seen as social evils. They were often collectively addressed as Firang/Farang or ‘Franks’ and were perceived as ‘strange and wonderful people’ or ‘ajaib-o-ghara’ib’. It was during the Mughal reign when for the first time in Indian visual culture, a conscious attempt was made to document the life and customs of the European people. This paper attempts to understand how the processes of cultural alienation and Occidentalism had influenced the representation of Europeans in Mughal miniatures. It also argues how Mughal artists innovate new iconographic schemes to represent and perpetuate a sense of the ‘other’. How artists used these identity markers to establish notions of morality as well as of Islamic cultural superiority. The select illustrations also attempt to elucidate how these representations of Europeans were culturally appropriated and contributed to the Mughal ‘fantasy excursions’.

scholarly journals Podstawy społecznej koncepcji Rosyjskiego Kościoła Prawosławnego: problemy bioetyki i ekologii

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Artur Aleksiejuk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Social Concept ◽  
Official Position ◽  
The Social ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Church

The foundations of the social concept are one of the most important normative acts issued by the Russian Orthodox Church. The unanimous adoption of this document by the Holy Council of Bishops of the Russian Church, which took place on August 13-16, 2000 in Moscow, was not only a local event, but a significant fact on the scale of the entire Orthodox Church worldwide. For the first time in history, one of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches decided to formulate an official position on current social, economic, economic and cultural issues, as well as define the Church-state relationship in the conditions of historical reality in which it found itself at the threshold of the third millennium. The promulgation of the Foundations of the Social Concept has become a powerful impulse for the renewal of spiritual life, greater involvement of the Orthodox clergy in social life, the development of institutional and non-institutional forms of mission and evangelization, and the multidimensional dialogue of Orthodoxy with the world of science, politics and economy. The aim of this publication is to familiarize the Polish reader with the content of chapters twelve and thirteen of the document, which relate to bioethical and ecological issues. It is worth noting that this is their first translation into Polish. The translator hopes that they will contribute to a better understanding of the Orthodox Church’s position on issues that are currently among the most discussed social topics.

scholarly journals Determinants of visitor spending: The Wacky Wine Festival as a case study

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melville Saayman ◽  
Waldo Krugell
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Behavioural Determinants ◽  
Place Of Origin ◽  
First Time ◽  
Repeat Visits

The Wacky Wine Festival in Robertson, South Africa, is one of the country’s largest wine festivals. The uniqueness of this wine festival is that it takes place on an existing wine route where 48 wine farms actively participate in the event. Events such as these have long been used to promote a destination or region and its products in order to generate revenue and grow tourism. This paper presents the results of a survey that was conducted during the festival in June 2009 in which 420 questionnaires were completed by visitors to the festival. The aim was to identify the determinants of visitors’ spending at the festival. Factor analysis was applied to differentiate three types of wine tourists: Festinos, Epicureans and Social Adventurists. Consequently, these three groupings and other sociodemographic and behavioural attributes of festival attendees were regressed as independent variables against expenditure in an attempt to refine future marketing strategies. It was the first time that this type of research was conducted at a wine festival in South Africa, and the findings indicated that determinants of visitor spending differ from event to event. Results also showed that a variety of socio-demographic and behavioural determinants influence spending. These include age, days spent at the festival, place of origin and repeat visits. The study also identified the high spending market (“epicureans”) that could assist marketers and event organisers in increasing the economic effects of the event.

scholarly journals Steder smitter: hiv, aids-medicin og tavshedens sociale liv i Khayelitsha

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (26) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Houmøller
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Social Contagion ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
The Social ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon ◽  
Living With Hiv ◽  
Hiv Aids

Denne artikel undersøger, hvordan tavshed udspiller sig i hverdagslivet i Khayelitsha township i Cape Town, Sydafrika, og hvad der driver dens udbredelse. I Sydafrika lever 5,6 millioner mennesker med hiv, og landet har verdens største aids- behandlingsprogram. Et udbredt fravær af mellemmenneskelig kommunikation om hiv og aids har ført til, at aids-epidemien i Sydafrika har været beskrevet som en epidemi af tavshed. Mens tidligere studier har fokuseret på smittevejen mellem tavshed og den sociale betydning af hiv og aids som en dødelig og stigmatiserende sygdom, belyser artiklen, hvordan tavshed også skal forstås i dens forbindelse til Khayelitsha som et specifikt sted, der intensiverer særlige vilkår for tavshed som en form for socialitet, der ikke er særlig for hiv og aids. Med et perspektiv på social smitte er det således artiklens argument, at det også er selve stedet - et hverdagsliv i tvungen intimitet – der smitter. Place is Contagious: hiv, aids medicine and the social life of silence in KhayelitshaThis article explores practices of silence in Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, South Africa, and seeks to investigate what drives silence as a widespread phenomenon. In South Africa, 5,6 million people are currently living with hiv and the country has the largest aids treatment programme in the world. The aids epidemic has often been paralleled to an epidemic of silence with reference to a significant absence of direct verbal communication about the disease. While previous studies have focused on the connection between silence and the association of hiv with death and stigma, the article argues that the spread of silence cannot be understood disconnected from Khayelitsha as a particular place that intensifies silence as a form of sociality not specific to hiv and aids. From a perspective on social contagion, the article argues that it is also the place itself – an everyday life in enforced intimacy – that is contagious. 

Economic Changes in South African Native Life

Africa ◽  
1928 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Schapera
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political System ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
The Other ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
European Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Economic Development

The native problem as it exists to-day in South Africa is not a phenomenon of recent growth. The issues which confront the country are the product of many decades of inter-racial contact and adjustment, during which Europeans and Natives have exercised a steadily growing influence upon each others' lives. Under the influence of European culture many of the Natives have abandoned their original tribal customs, and their social life is being reorganized on a new basis by the adoption of European habits and ideas. On the other hand, the presence of the Natives has so profoundly affected the social and economic development of the Europeans as to have become almost an integral part of the whole structure of civilization in South Africa. It is no longer possible for the two races to develop apart from each other. The future welfare of the country now depends upon the finding of some social and political system in which both may live together in close contact, without that increasing unrest and disturbance that seems to develop as the inevitable result of the lack of stability and unity in any society.

scholarly journals “Foreword” to the First American edition of “Community and Society” by F. Tönnies. Transl. from Eng., notes and comments by N.A. Golovin

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-156
Author(s):  
Pitirim A. Sorokin
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Russian Edition ◽  
The Social ◽  
University Professor ◽  
German Edition ◽  
Complete Translation ◽  
First Time

The currently being prepared for publication “Foreword” to F. Tönnies’ work “Community and Society” was written by Harvard University professor P.A. Sorokin (1889–1968), who was a Russian/American sociologist. It was first published alongside the English translation of Tönnies’ book, issued in New York back in 1940. According to P.A. Sorokin, Tönnies’ community and society dichotomy represents a universal categorical description of two opposing forms of social organization. They appear in the social evolution of various civilizations and in the writings of their founders. P.A. Sorokin considered Tönnies to be one of the contemporary successors to the tradition of describing society in such a way. Tönnies’ book was ahead of its time. It is mentioned in “Foreword” that the first German edition, published in 1887, did not attract readers’ attention. However, when the 20th century came around — this book became a point of reference for German social scientists, as well as for educated individuals among the general public. “Foreword” mentions the reason for its rapid increase in popularity, which turned out to be a rapid and widespread transition from “community” to a “society” based on contractual relations. P.A. Sorokin points out that Tönnies created his essay during a time when the “Gesellschaft type of society” was “triumphantly rooting out the Gemeinschaft”. However, even back then Tönnies highlighted the shortcomings of capitalism as a form of social life. The American edition of Tönnies’ book, published in 1940, was its first complete translation to a foreign language (the 1927 Japanese edition had been shortened). P.A. Sorokin’s “Foreword” to this edition marked the beginning of this writing’s worldwide fame. This is the first time “Foreword” has ever been published in Russian. It was not included in the 2002 Russian edition of Tönnies’ book. This publication, however, makes up for such an omission in theoretical sociology. The publication together with commentary has been prepared by N.A. Golovin.

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