scholarly journals Burial Layout, Society and Sacred Geography - A Viking Age Example from Jämtland

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-98
Author(s):  
Mikael Jakobsson

ln the Viking Age cotnmunity in the Lake Storsjön district in central Jämtland the landscape, the society and the religion formed a conceptual totality. The political power had religious overtones and was legitimized through the topography of the district, which was comprehended by the inhabitants as god-given. This result has been achieved through structural analysis of two different source materials. One is an analysis of the sacred place-names in the district. The other analysis has used the richly furnished Viking Age cemetery of Röstahammaren, in particular its most well-equipped grave, male grave IV. There are structural parallels between these materials,


Antiquity ◽  
1931 ◽  
Vol 5 (19) ◽  
pp. 277-290
Author(s):  
Flinders Petrie

When we look at the great diversity of man’s activities and interests, it is evident how much space they afford for reviewing his history in many different ways. To most of our historians the view of the political power and course of legislation has seemed all that need be noticed; others have dealt with history in religion, or the growth of mind in changes of moral standards, as in Lecky’s fine work. In recent years the history of knowledge in medicine, in the applied sciences, and in abstract mathematics, has been profitably studied, as affording the basis of civilization. The purely mental view is shown in the social life and customs of each age, and expressed in the growth of Art. This last expression of man’s spirit has great advantages in its presentation; the material from different ages is of a comparable nature, and it is easily placed together to contrast its differences. Moreover it covers a wider range of time than we can et observe in man’s scope, but it is as essential to his nature as any of the other aspects that we have named.



1962 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherry Gertzel

When the British Oil Rivers Protectorate was established in 1885, the political independence of the Delta States came to an end. The European invasion of African sovereignty, which in effect began in 1849 with the appointment of a British Consul, was complete. Since trade and politics were so intimately linked within these states, which had for so long guarded the middleman trade in the interior, the fortunes of the middleman chiefs were bound to be affected by such a major political change. The material which has emerged from my study of John Holt in relation to his Delta trade in the period 1880–1910, suggests, however, that the economic power of the chiefs (as opposed to the rulers) was by no means so quickly affected as has usually been suggested. The deposition of King Ja Ja of Opobo in 1887 symbolizes the end of the political power of the Delta rulers. His middleman chiefs were able, however, to maintain their control of the middleman organization of trade for a few years longer. Similarly, in each of the other rivers (with the exception of Brass), while the ruler lost his power, his hierarchy of middlemen retained control of internal commerce until almost the turn of the century.



1973 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan deVries

The political and economic institutions of the Dutch Republic puzzle the historian. Closely juxtaposed are elements suggesting a tantalizing precociousness and elements which hearken to the medieval past. The Republic was the creation of a revolution; it can be identified as the first European state to throw off a monarchical regime and bring a bourgeois social class to full political power. On the other hand, the foremost motive behind this rebellion was the resistance of medieval, municipal particularism to governmental centralization—to modernization, if you will.



Author(s):  
Giuseppe Caridi

This chapter considers the reconstruction operations that were carried out in Calabria following the earthquake of the late-eighteenth century. The author connects the physical and ideological role played by the orthogonal grid within the scope of this urban process to Foucault's concept of the device. Such a working hypothesis makes it possible to highlight the dual-domain in which lies political power, on one hand, and technical knowledge, on the other. This is a duplicity that is not resolved in the supremacy of either one domain or the other but, rather, in their huddle in a dialectical node: the political power that avails itself of the technical knowledge to reinforce itself and the technical knowledge that takes advantage of the political power to legitimise itself.



Author(s):  
Johann Chapoutot

This introductory chapter examines the scope of the relationship between National Socialism and antiquity, a topic that historians appear to neglect despite the fact that there have been precedents as to the political use of history—appealing to the past to justify political power in the present—which is a frequent phenomenon, all the more so in totalitarian regimes that seek to anchor their revolutionary political intentions in the depths of historical precedent. The possibilities afforded by the past appear, moreover, to have held great significance for National Socialism. Nazi Germany had coveted and revered the past as a sacred place of origin.



1965 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 358-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cho-Yun Hsu

The consolidation of China did not come immediately with China's unification. It was not fully accomplished until the middle of the Former (Western) Han. The monolithic2 nature of the political powers and a group of local elite3 were then forming. And the bureaucracy, becoming much elaborated during this era, served to link the two. The elite group functioned, on the one hand as the reservoir of candidates to officialdom, and on the other hand, as the leading element with education, prestige, and often wealth, in the community. Based on these concepts, this paper ventures to present the formation of the local elite group through the changing social base of political power during Western Han.



2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-336
Author(s):  
Tomoaki Iwai

The political scene behind Japan's legislation in 2000 was uneasy and flurried. The ascent to political power by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori following the sudden death of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, the shift in political framework caused by the separation of the Liberal Party from the coalition government, and the general election came one after the other in a series of restless succession.



1969 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 66-99
Author(s):  
Odd Nordland

The religion of the Viking age, the pre-Christian faith,  presents itself as a syncretism, It is quite peculiarly evident from the tradition surrounding the origin of the gods in Åsgard. The gods behind the palisade of this mythological dwelling place were of two kinds, the result of an exchange of hostages after war between the æsir and the vanir. From the flock of vanir came the two fertility-gods: Njgrbr and Freyr to dwell in Åsgard and be accepted there on equal terms with the other gods around the "allfather", Othin. This quite remarkable information, concerning the syncretism of the eddic religion, is generally interpreted as a historic reminiscence of a contrast between a fertility religion, and a more aristocratic and warlike religion attached to the cult of Othin. The fertility religion then is often conceived of as old traits belonging to the indigenous population of Scandinavia, while the Othin-cult as something which was introduced by the same innovations that brought the Indo-European boat-axe people to our part of the world. We know the result of the process that created the heathen religion which reigned in our countries at the time Christianity was introduced here, but we are highly bewildered when faced with the task of describing the syncretistic process itself, and the religions that were a part of it. This is true despite our abundant material of mythological poetry, legends and 13th century information. This too, despite our extremely favorable situation of being in possession of the exiting amount of theoforic place-names.



2022 ◽  
pp. 1470594X2110650
Author(s):  
Michael Hannon

It is widely believed that democracies require knowledgeable citizens to function well. But the most politically knowledgeable individuals tend to be the most partisan and the strength of partisan identity tends to corrupt political thinking. This creates a conundrum. On the one hand, an informed citizenry is allegedly necessary for a democracy to flourish. On the other hand, the most knowledgeable and passionate voters are also the most likely to think in corrupted, biased ways. What to do? This paper examines this tension and draws out several lessons. First, it is not obvious that more knowledgeable voters will make better political decisions. Second, attempts to remedy voter ignorance are problematic because partisans tend to become more polarized when they acquire more information. Third, solutions to citizen incompetence must focus on the intellectual virtue of objectivity. Fourth, some forms of epistocracy are troubling, in part, because they would increase the political power of the most dogmatic and biased individuals. Fifth, a highly restrictive form of epistocracy may escape the problem of political dogmatism, but epistocrats may face a steeper tradeoff between inclusivity and epistemic virtue than they would like.



2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 442-456
Author(s):  
Margarita Bayutova ◽  
◽  

In the article the author considers the problem of using art as the political power instrument. The subject of the study is the analysis of applied arts possibilities as a means of political propaganda and agitation, the necessary qualities and political views formation in a person. The material for the analysis is the Soviet propaganda porcelain of the 1920s. The choice of this material is caused, firstly, by its great visibility in the framework of the discussed problem, and, secondly, by the negative result of its use in real politics (at first sight, paradoxical). At present, Soviet propaganda porcelain is considered to be a “unique phenomenon” of Russian and world art. However, the main reason for its appearance at the beginning of the 20th century was not the search for new art forms. After coming to power in 1917, the Bolshevists faced the need to form political views of the citizens that were compatible with the party course — in general, to form a “new man” capable of living in a new society. On the one hand, porcelain was a random choice at that period of time (1920-s) but, on the other hand, people assigned specific characteristics to it as a type of applied art. And, therefore, they ascribed to it the possibilities of an instrument of political power. But at the same time using it in that capacity is greatly limited due to other specific properties, as well as due to other historical circumstances. The main reason for the failure of Soviet propaganda porcelain as the political propaganda and agitation means is the contradiction between the course of political power and the essence of porcelain as a phenomenon, i.e. inconsistency between the goal and the means to achieve it. In general, the author draws a conclusion that there is a difference between the goals of art and power and, as a consequence, the groundlessness of the power attempts to consider art exclusively as its own tool.



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