Cannibals, Warriors, Conquerors, and Colonizers: Western Perceptions and Azande Historiography

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 89-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Core Area ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Small Core ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Anthropological Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Wide Scale ◽  
Population Cluster ◽  
Ethnic Origins

Mainly as a result of the work of E. E. Evans-Pritchard, the Azande are among the best-known African peoples. In anthropological theory they have become indissolubly associated with the study of religion and magic. Also remarkable is their expansion under the leadership of the dynasties of the Avungara and the originally Ngbandi-speaking Abandia. Starting from a small core area in the basin of the lower Mbomu, where the ancestors of the Avungara and Abandia had established themselves as rulers over parts of the resident, mainly Zande-speaking, population around the middle of the eighteenth century, the Abandia extended their rule into the region of the lower Mbomu and lower Uele, while the Avungara and their Azande followers swept eastward in a vast movement and in less than one hundred years conquered a huge area reaching as far as the upper Sue and upper Uele, integrating the population into their system of rule.One of the reasons for the speed of this expansion is that individual members of the Avungara dynasty (who all claimed descent from Ngura, the first historical ruler in the lower Mbomu area) repeatedly founded principalities of their own in new territories. This led to the existence of a varying number of polities under numerous, more or less, powerful rulers who descended from several dynastic branches, thereby preventing the formation of a single kingdom, stable in time and place. Through the integration of numerous groups of different linguistic and ethnic origins, the population cluster was formed for which the collective name Azande has become established. The history of Azande expansion thus provides a very interesting example of a society being created through political processes, which raises questions concerning the origin, acceptance, and characteristics of centralized political organizations, as well as assimilation and acculturation processes (besides the Mangbetu in the Uele-Bomokandi area, the Azande were the only group in the region to develop centralized political structures on a wide scale).

A history of botanical collections in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-291
Author(s):  
P.S.M. PHIRI ◽  
D.M. MOORE
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Vascular Plants ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Peak Activity ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Made In

Central Africa remained botanically unknown to the outside world up to the end of the eighteenth century. This paper provides a historical account of plant explorations in the Luangwa Valley. The first plant specimens were collected in 1897 and the last serious botanical explorations were made in 1993. During this period there have been 58 plant collectors in the Luangwa Valley with peak activity recorded in the 1960s. In 1989 1,348 species of vascular plants were described in the Luangwa Valley. More botanical collecting is needed with a view to finding new plant taxa, and also to provide a satisfactory basis for applied disciplines such as ecology, phytogeography, conservation and environmental impact assessment.

Reframing the Sciences of the Long Eighteenth Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 58-66
Author(s):  
Giuliano Pancaldi
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century ◽  
Past Half

Here I survey a sample of the essays and reviews on the sciences of the long eighteenth century published in this journal since it was founded in 1969. The connecting thread is some historiographic reflections on the role that disciplines—in both the sciences we study and the fields we practice—have played in the development of the history of science over the past half century. I argue that, as far as disciplines are concerned, we now find ourselves a bit closer to a situation described in our studies of the long eighteenth century than we were fifty years ago. This should both favor our understanding of that period and, hopefully, make the historical studies that explore it more relevant to present-day developments and science policy. This essay is part of a special issue entitled “Looking Backward, Looking Forward: HSNS at 50,” edited by Erika Lorraine Milam.

Political psychology

2013 ◽  
Vol 154 (16) ◽  
pp. 619-626
Author(s):  
Mária Resch ◽  
Tamás Bella
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Psychology ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Cognitive Mapping ◽  
Medical Sciences ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
History Of

In Hungary one can mostly find references to the psychological processes of politics in the writings of publicists, public opinion pollsters, philosophers, social psychologists, and political analysts. It would be still important if not only legal scientists focusing on political institutions or sociologist-politologists concentrating on social structures could analyse the psychological aspects of political processes; but one could also do so through the application of the methods of political psychology. The authors review the history of political psychology, its position vis-à-vis other fields of science and the essential interfaces through which this field of science, which is still to be discovered in Hungary, connects to other social sciences. As far as its methodology comprising psycho-biographical analyses, questionnaire-based queries, cognitive mapping of interviews and statements are concerned, it is identical with the psychiatric tools of medical sciences. In the next part of this paper, the focus is shifted to the essence and contents of political psychology. Group dynamics properties, voters’ attitudes, leaders’ personalities and the behavioural patterns demonstrated by them in different political situations, authoritativeness, games, and charisma are all essential components of political psychology, which mostly analyses psychological-psychiatric processes and also involves medical sciences by relying on cognitive and behavioural sciences. This paper describes political psychology, which is basically part of social sciences, still, being an interdisciplinary science, has several ties to medical sciences through psychological and psychiatric aspects. Orv. Hetil., 2013, 154, 619–626.

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