On the Trail of the Bush King: A Dahomean Lesson in the Use of Evidence

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edna G. Bay
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Close Observation ◽  
Court Life ◽  
Major Cycle

Twentieth-century historians of the Fon kingdom of Dahomey have been blessed with an unusually rich and accessible body of primary source material. Published in English and French by a succession of visitors to the kingdom, this literature includes references to Dahomean affairs beginning as early as the seventeenth century and continuing with regularity through its conquest in 1892/93 by the French. The accounts, however, are fullest in number of writers and in detail of observation for the period of the reigns of kings Gezo (1818-58) and Glele (1858-89).European observers of the Dahomean polity approached the state for a variety of commercial, religious, and political reasons, but typically they were permitted to visit the capital, Abomey, only in conjunction with the major cycle of annual ceremonies, Xwetanu. Because Xwetanu -- or Customs, as the ceremonies were dubbed by the Europeans -- ranged in duration from several weeks to several months, travelers drew their information about the kingdom from the advantageous point of a relatively long period of time spent in close observation of the court at what was unquestionably the most important period of the year. Fascinated and sometimes repelled by the sights they witnessed, they set down their own observations, describing land forms and economic activities, court life and ceremonial, and officers and institutions of the state.

Spiritualité, Spirituality, and Espiritualidad

2021 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 496-525
Author(s):  
Rady Roldán-Figueroa
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Modern Concept ◽  
Colonial Latin America ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
Academic Study

Abstract This article offers a corrective to the widely held idea that the modern concept of spirituality is traceable to the seventeenth century French notion of spiritualité. Instead, the argument is made that the sixteenth and seventeenth century Spanish terms spiritual and spiritualidad are earlier expressions of the modern concept of spirituality. The article opens with an examination of the place of spirituality in the academic study of religion and proceeds to a discussion of the premises of conceptual history and modern lexicography. In the closing section, the author analyses a plethora of lexicographical and other primary source material from the medieval to the early modern periods that demonstrate the usage of the terms spirital and espiritualidad in Spain as well as in colonial Latin America. Among the sources examined are Sebastián de Covarrubias Orozco, Tesoro de la lengua castellana (Madrid: Luis Sánchez, 1611); Fernando de Valverde, Vida de Jesu Christo nuestro señor (Lima: Luis de Lyra, 1657); and Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Madrid: En la imprenta de Francisco del Hierro, 1726–1739).

Churchill’s Wars

2021 ◽  
pp. 56-91
Author(s):  
Ian Ward
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Radical Politics ◽  
History Plays ◽  
Contemporary Theatre ◽  
Caryl Churchill ◽  
And Gender

This is the first of three chapters which focus, in their different ways, on the writing of history in contemporary theatre. This chapter concentrates on two ‘history’ plays written by Caryl Churchill during the 1970s; Light Shining in Buckinghamshire and Vinegar Tom. Churchill emerged as one of the most influential voices in radical British theatre during the closing decades of the last century. Both plays were set in the mid-seventeenth-century, but were written to resonate with themes familiar in modern legal and political thought. The title of the first play is taken from a Leveller tract published in the second part of the 1640s. Churchill uses it to explore the state of radical politics in later twentieth-century Britain. The second play, Vinegar Tom, is a contribution to a distinctive sub-genre of ‘witchcraft’ plays, which use the ‘crime’ of witchcraft as a vehicle for revisiting the relation of law and gender in modern society.

Art and Society in England and France in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Two Paintings before the Public

1972 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 119-139
Author(s):  
Alan Bowness
Keyword(s):  
Primary Source ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The State ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Fact ◽  
Art And Society ◽  
The Moment ◽  
State Of Art

The primary source material for the art historian is of course the work of art, and this in itself places him in a fortunate position because the permanent relevance of the work of art is, I take it, self-evident. For the art historian, the work of art is an historical fact, pre-selected for generally accepted aesthetic reasons. But the work of art has no absolute meaning: it does not exist in a vacuum. It has both what we might call a history and a geography—the history being that record of interpretation and evaluation which accrues to the work of art from the moment of its creation down to the present day; and the geography being the particular artistic and social context of its original creation. The history can at times be very misleading: it is obvious that each generation is going to interpret the past as it wishes, and no judgment can be objective. So it is the geography that is more important, and this is extremely difficult to define. But if we are to understand the work of art, we need to enquire into the circumstances of its creation: we must ask, what did this painting or sculpture or building signify when it first appeared? Only from such specific investigations can one proceed to general propositions about the state of art at any particular moment, and perhaps also about the state of society which produced the art.

A Worthwhile Effort? History of Organized Youth Sport in the United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Wiggins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Youth Sports ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Youth Sport ◽  
The United States ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Sports Programs ◽  
History Of

This essay examines the evolution of highly organized youth sports in the United States. Through an examination of both secondary and primary source material, an analysis is made of children's participation in sport from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day. Particular attention is paid to the types of sports programs established for children as well as the various discussions involving the supposed benefits and negative aspects of youth sports. Included is information on Progressive Reformers, youth sport programs outside of educational institutions, and guidelines, reports, assessments, and scholarly evaluation of children and their involvement in sport.

Adivasis and the State Politics in Jharkhand

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-116
Author(s):  
Sujit Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Economic ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Close Observation ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Everyday Interaction

This article attempts to analyse the political behaviour of the adivasi groups in Jharkhand as rooted in the interplay of their interactions with different religions, exposure to non-agricultural economic activities and diverse nature of association with the state. The questions considered for inquiry are: Is the political terrain in Jharkhand moving towards ‘detribalization’ of governance? And, what are the factors influencing the voting behaviour of the adivasis? The article argues that the ambivalences occupying the interstices of the intra-community political behaviour are crucial in deciphering the adivasi politics. Ostensibly, the political choices of the adivasi community are largely framed in accordance with their everyday interaction with the local state as well as remote experiences of the latter as evident in cases of resource grab. The article is based upon the close observation of events concerning adivasis, analysis of assembly election data as well as news in local and national newspapers.

Beyond the Steppe Frontier

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sören Urbansky
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Local Population ◽  
The State ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Physical Force ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Global Flows ◽  
Scant Attention

The Sino-Russian border, once the world's longest land border, has received scant attention in histories about the margins of empires. This book rectifies this by exploring the demarcation's remarkable transformation—from a vaguely marked frontier in the seventeenth century to its twentieth-century incarnation as a tightly patrolled barrier girded by watchtowers, barbed wire, and border guards. The book explores the daily life of communities and their entanglements with transnational and global flows of people, commodities, and ideas. It challenges top-down interpretations by stressing the significance of the local population in supporting, and undermining, border making. Because Russian, Chinese, and native worlds are intricately interwoven, national separations largely remained invisible at the border between the two largest Eurasian empires. This overlapping and mingling came to an end only when the border gained geopolitical significance during the twentieth century. The book demonstrates how states succeeded in suppressing traditional borderland cultures by cutting kin, cultural, economic, and religious connections across the state perimeter, through laws, physical force, deportation, reeducation, forced assimilation, and propaganda. It sheds critical new light on a pivotal geographical periphery and expands our understanding of how borders are determined.

Duidelijkheid over de Amsterdamse St. Lukasfeesten in 1653 en 1654

1991 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-38
Author(s):  
Hugo Postma ◽  
Marjo Blok
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Correct Order ◽  
Nineteen Twenties ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Material ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Incorrect Information

AbstractVarious sources record the St. Luke's Feasts which were held in Amsterdam in 1653 and 1654. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, the two feasts had already become confused with one another in some texts. Twentieth-century expositions drawing on these sources convey an erroneous impression of the actual course of events. This article discusses the possible causes of the confusion. The most important facts pertaining to the festivities are stated in their correct order, and a few new ideas are offered for consideration. All the known source material and relevant secondary literature are subjected to close scrutiny, and some new material is presented. The confusion which has misled so many authors in the past stems from a discussion in literary publications on Vondel in the nineteen-twenties. It is quite conceivable that the debate was fuelled by the form in which certain texts were published in the seventeenth century, and by the incorrect information about the two feasts in Houbrakcn and Wagcnaar. The feasts of 1653 and 1654 evidently differed in character. Although both were St. Luke's banquets, the accents were different. The 1653 celebrations involved painters and poets, whereas in 1654 painters and sculptors were the chief protagonists. There arc also hints that the 1654 festivities were organized on an ambitious scale. Notably the recently discovered handsome first edition of 'Broederschap Der Schilderkunst INGEWYDT Door SCHILDERS, BEELDTHOUWERS En des Zelfs BEGUNSTIGERS; Op den 21 l'an Wynmaent 1654, op St. Joris Doelen. In AMSTERDAM' endorses these suggestions.

Law of Property and Obligations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim Decock
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The State ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
Ius Commune ◽  
School Of Salamanca

This chapter gives an overview of the state of the art in legal historical scholarship on the neoscholastic analysis of property, torts, and contracts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Neoscholastics, especially followers of the so-called ‘School of Salamanca’, have been credited with laying the foundations of a principled, systematic approach to the law of property and obligations. Concrete examples illustrating the wealth of the primary source material on these topics will be drawn mainly from Leonardus Lessius’s tractate De iustitia et iure, first published in Louvain in 1605. He is generally recognized to be one of the most important representatives of neoscholastic legal thought. Standing between the medieval ius commune and the Protestant natural law tradition, neoscholastics such as Lessius played a major role in shaping modern private law doctrines.

The Doctor Faustus Dossier

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Daub
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Music And Literature ◽  
Twentieth Century Music ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Doctor Faustus ◽  
Public Lives ◽  
Nazi Era ◽  
The Impact

Arnold Schoenberg and Thomas Mann, two towering figures of twentieth-century music and literature, both found refuge in the German-exile community in Los Angeles during the Nazi era. This complete edition of their correspondence provides a glimpse inside their private and public lives and culminates in the famous dispute over Mann's novel Doctor Faustus. In the thick of the controversy was Theodor Adorno, then a budding philosopher, whose contribution to the Faustus affair would make him an enemy of both families. Gathered here for the first time in English, the letters are complemented by diary entries, related articles, and other primary source materials, as well as an introduction that contextualizes the impact that these two great artists had on twentieth-century thought and culture.

Rewriting the Narrative

2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Nicolas G. Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Native American ◽  
American Indian ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Mixed Media ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Art Scene ◽  
The 1960S

A vibrant American Indian art scene developed in California from the 1960s to the 1980s, with links to a broader indigenous arts movement. Native American artists working in the state produced and exhibited paintings, prints, sculptures, mixed media, and other art forms that validated and documented their cultures, interpreted their history, asserted their survival, and explored their experiences in modern society. Building on recent scholarship that examines American Indian migration, urbanization, and activism in the twentieth century, this article charts these developments and argues that American Indian artists in California challenged and rewrote dominant historical narratives by foregrounding Native American perspectives in their work.

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