“They Were Talking about Themselves”

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-16
Author(s):  
Andrew Kunze

Michael Altman’s Heathen, Hindoo, Hindu offers a major contribution to the history of Hinduism in America, as it revises the standard “Transcendentalist-Theosophist-Vivekananda-1965” trajectory with a critical eye toward the nationalist and orientalist discourses of formative episodes from the Colonial era up to Chicago’s World Parliament (xvii). Altman’s genealogical approach presumes no essence or definition of ‘Hinduism,’ which both suits his source materials and serves his interest in classification quite well. Throughout this history, a rich set of examples shows how ‘hazy notions’ of Indian religion variously served as discursive foils and straw-men against white, Protestant American identity¬–from scathing missionary accounts of barbaric ‘Juggernaut’ worship (30), to the racial hierarchies in American geography schoolbooks (59), Thoreau’s Walden Pond as a River Ganges (86), and the Indian-derived, but not Hindu, ‘wisdom religion’ of the Theosophical Society (109). As Altman convincingly argues, when white, Protestant Americans talked about religion in India, “they were not really talking about religion in India. They were talking about themselves” (xxi), and thereby constituting their own racial, national, and religious identities (140).

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (259) ◽  
pp. 15-38
Author(s):  
Clara Keating

Abstract This article presents a historical analysis of discourses about language and literacy that have emerged during different periods in the political and cultural history of Portugal. It covers six periods, from the colonial era to the present, and it considers different geopolitical spaces, including the Portuguese mainland, the Atlantic archipelagos, former Portuguese colonies and diasporic spaces created as a result of emigration from Portugal. The article traces three kinds of discursive shift: (1) shifts in discourses in Portuguese society regarding the goals of language and literacy education, along with associated discourses about appropriate language and literacy pedagogies; (2) shifts in discourses about the specific nature and significance of literacy in Portuguese; and (3) shifts in discourses about the value and symbolic power of standardized forms of spoken and written Portuguese. It shows how each historical period has been characterized by distinctive political and ideological currents which have, in turn, shaped and re-shaped ways of thinking about the role of language and literacy education in the definition of citizenship and national identity, in the construction of heritage, in the creation of a “modern” democratic state and, more recently, in the retooling of human resources to create a flexible labour force.


2014 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb J Stevens

AbstractThis article demonstrates that there has never been a clear definition of public land in Liberian legal history, although in the past the government operated as if all land that was not under private deed was public. By examining primary source materials found in archives in Liberia and the USA, the article traces the origins of public land in Liberia and its ambiguous development as a legal concept. It also discusses the ancillary issues of public land sale procedures and statutory prices. The conclusions reached have significant implications for the reform of Liberia's land sector.


Author(s):  
Sergey Vasil'ev ◽  
Vyacheslav Schedrin ◽  
Aleksandra Slabunova ◽  
Vladimir Slabunov

The aim of the research is a retrospective analysis of the history and stages of development of digital land reclamation in Russia, the definition of «Digital land reclamation» and trends in its further development. In the framework of the retrospective analysis the main stages of melioration formation are determined. To achieve the maximum effect of the «digital reclamation» requires full cooperation of practical experience and scientific potential accumulated throughout the history of the reclamation complex, and the latest achievements of science and technology, which is currently possible only through the full digitalization of reclamation activities. The introduction of «digital reclamation» will achieve greater potential and effect in the modernization of the reclamation industry in the «hightech industry», through the use of innovative developments and optimal management decisions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 166-182
Author(s):  
Iryna Tsiborovska-Rymarovych

The article has as its object the elucidation of the history of the Vyshnivetsky Castle Library, definition of the content of its fund, its historical and cultural significance, correlation of the founder of the Library Mychailo Servaty Vyshnivetsky with the Book.The Vyshnivetsky Castle Library was formed in the Ukrainian historical region of Volyn’, in the Vyshnivets town – “family nest” of the old Ukrainian noble family of the Vyshnivetskies under the “Korybut” coat of arm. The founder of the Library was Prince Mychailo Servaty Vyshnivetsky (1680–1744) – Grand Hetman and Grand Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilno Voievoda. He was a politician, an erudite and great bibliophile. In the 30th–40th of the 18th century the main Prince’s residence Vyshnivets became an important centre of magnate’s culture in Rich Pospolyta. M. S. Vyshnivetsky’s contemporaries from the noble class and clergy knew quite well about his library and really appreciated it. According to historical documents 5 periods are defined in the Library’s history. In the historical sources the first place is occupied by old-printed books of Library collection and 7 Library manuscript catalogues dating from 1745 up to the 1835 which give information about quantity and topical structures of Library collection.The Library is a historical and cultural symbol of the Enlightenment epoch. The Enlightenment and those particular concepts and cultural images pertaining to that epoch had their effect on the formation of Library’s fund. Its main features are as follow: comprehensive nature of the stock, predominance of French eighteenth century editions, presence of academic books and editions on orientalistics as well as works of the ideologues of the Enlightenment and new kinds of literature, which generated as a result of this movement – encyclopaedias, encyclopaedian dictionaries, almanacs, etc. Besides the universal nature of its stock books on history, social and political thought, fiction were dominating.The reconstruction of the history of Vyshnivetsky’s Library, the historical analysis of the provenances in its editions give us better understanding of the personality of its owners and in some cases their philanthropic activities, and a better ability to identify the role of this Library in the culture life of society in a certain epoch.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mir Kamruzzman Chowdhary

This study was an attempt to understand how the available alternative source materials, such as oral testimonies can serve as valuable assets to unveiling certain aspects of maritime history in India. A number of themes in maritime history in India failed to get the attention of the generation of historians, because of the paucity of written documents. Unlike in Europe, the penning down of shipping activities was not a concern for the authorities at the port in India. The pamphlets and newsletters declared the scheduled departure of the ship in Europe but, in India, this was done verbally. Therefore, maritime history in India remained marginalised. Hence, in this article, I make an endeavour to perceive how the oral testimonies can help shed some new light on certain aspects of maritime history in India, such as life on the ship, maritime practices, and perceptions among the littoral people in coastal societies. This article also outlines an approach on how the broader question on the transformation of scattered maritime practices among coastal societies can be adapted and transferred into an organised institution of law by the nineteenth century, and how these can be pursued in future. I also suggest in this article that the role of Europeans, especially the British, in the process of transformation, can be investigated further through oral testimonies in corroboration with the colonial archival records.


2011 ◽  
pp. 143-147
Author(s):  
L. G. Naumova ◽  
V. B. Martynenko ◽  
S. M. Yamalov

Date of «birth» of phytosociology (phytocenology) is considered to be 1910, when at the third International Botanical Congress in Brussels adopted the definition of plant association in the wording Including Flaó and K. Schröter (Flahault, Schröter, 1910; Alexandrov, 1969). The centenary of this momentous event in the history of phytocenology devoted to the 46th edition of the Yearbook «Braun-Blanquetia», which began to emerge in 1984 in Camerino (Italy) and it has a task to publish large geobotanical works. During the years of the publication of the Yearbook on its pages were published twice work of the Russian scientists — «The steppes of Mongolia» (Z. V. Karamysheva, V. N. Khramtsov. Vol. 17. 1995), and «Classification of continental hemiboreal forests of Northern Asia» (N. B. Ermakov in collaboration with English colleagues and J. Dring, J. Rodwell. Vol. 28. 2000).


Author(s):  
Katarzyna Czeczot

The article deals with the love of Zygmunt Krasiński to Delfina Potocka. The point of departure is the poet's definition of love as looking and reads Krasiński's relationship with his beloved in the context of two phenomena that fascinated him at the time: daguerreotype and magnetism. The invention of the daguerreotype in which the history of photography and spiritism comes together becomes a pretext for the formulation of a new concept of love and the loving subject. In the era of painting the woman was treated as a passive object of the male gaze; photography reverses this scheme of power. Love ceases to be a static relationship of the subject in love and the passive object – the beloved. The philosophy of developing photographs (and invoking phantoms) allows Krasiński - the writing subject to become like a light-sensitive material that reveals the image of the beloved.


2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-162
Author(s):  
Budi Setiyono ◽  
Dio Satrio Jati ◽  
Teten Jamaludin

Cepu Block located between Centre Jawa and East Java. It is known as a rich block because it has a source of oil and gas. Block Cepu, where geographically located between three districts, Blora (Centre Java), Bojonegoro and Tuban (East Java) has given a contribution to national budget (APBN) and respected local government budget (APBD). About 33 per cent of the land of Cepu Block is owned by Blora, 67 per cent owned by Bojonegoro and the rest is owned by Tuban. Ironically, however, although 33 per cent of the Block belongs to Blora, the district does not receive any financial income from the oil exploration. There is no resources share fund from Cepu Block. Moreover, the district has to deal with the negative impacts of exploration activities at the Block Cepu such as damaging of infrastructure, environmental pollution, and social disturbance. Blora District has protested to Centre Government, but so far there is no outcome. Centre Government asked that this problem should be studied first. The central government argue that if it is approved, then there will be domino impact: other districts will do the same like Blora. Blora district is struggling to get equality in resources share fund (dana bagi hasil). Efforts have done, seminars and workshops, lobby to DPD (Upper House) to find a solution. Now the district government is proposing judicial review to constitution court. This research examines the history of Block Cepu. It reveals the history of the block from the colonial era up to the reformation era. Further, the research aims to know how the tension between local government (Blora Government) and central government regarding Blok Cepu oil exploration. The research suggests that there is injustice in the distribution of revenue from the exploration and it is understandable if Blora district government struggle to get proportional revenue sharing.


Author(s):  
Kiyoteru Tsutsui

This chapter examines the complicated history of Zainichi, Korean residents in Japan, who came to Japan during the colonial era. After 1945, Zainichi lost all citizenship rights and had to fight for many rights, but the division in the Korean peninsula cast a shadow over Zainichi communities, hampering effective activism for more rights in Japan. Focusing on the issue of fingerprinting—the most salient example of rights violations against Zainichi—the chapter demonstrates how, since the late 1970s, global human rights principles have enabled Zainichi to recast their movement as claims for universal rights regardless of citizenship and to use international forums to pressure the Japanese government, leading to the abolition of the fingerprinting practice. Zainichi achieved similar successes in other areas of rights except for political rights, where international norms do not clearly support suffrage for noncitizens. Zainichi also contributed to global human rights by advancing rights for noncitizen minorities.


Author(s):  
Eve Z. Bratman

Sustainable development is among the foremost ideas that guide societal aspirations around the world. This book interrogates the concept through a critical lens, examining both its history and the trajectory of its manifestations in the Brazilian Amazon. The book argues that sustainable development is a concept that is better understood as involving embroilments and ongoing processes of contestation rather than a single end goal. The research offers historical analysis of Amazonian development from the colonial era into the discourse and praxis of sustainable development in contemporary times, and then illustrates the tensions of sustainable development plans that are experienced by people living in the areas geographically the closest to where those plans are being implemented. The history of the Brazilian Amazon is introduced to readers through focused discussions on the tensions between making grand plans for the region and the everyday practices and experiences of sustainable development, which involve considerably more muddling. Case studies explore agrarian reform initiatives that occur alongside road paving projects, the creation of extractive reserves and conservation areas that follow in the wake of assassinations, and the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam. While Amazonian sustainable development is a widely-accepted imperative, the research presented here shows how land use and infrastructure plans conducted in the name of sustainable development often perpetuate and reinforce economic and political inequalities.


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