Latin and Classical Chinese Epistolographic Communication in Comparative Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverly Bossler ◽  
Benoît Grévin
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Research ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Comparative History ◽  
The Social ◽  
Latin West ◽  
History Of ◽  
Writing Culture ◽  
Scholarly Attention

A comparative history of the social and stylistic characteristics of letter-writing in the Western Latin world and in China has yet to be written. Among other difficulties, the historical study of letter-writing in China has only recently attracted scholarly attention, and the social and intellectual contexts of epistolary culture in China and the Latin West were in many respects strikingly different. This chapter compares, in a longue durée perspective, the differing assumptions that conditioned the development of epistolary genres in China and Europe, with a particular focus on the Song period (the period of ars dictaminis in Western letter-writing culture). It concludes by proposing a variety of potential methodological frames that could be fruitful in future comparative research.

Contributions to the History of Psychology: II. Philippe Pinel: The Man and His Time

1966 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 703-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Mackler ◽  
Elinor Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
History Of Psychology ◽  
Treatment Programs ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Observational Methods ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Revolutionary Era ◽  
Moral Treatment ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

This historical study conveys the social, political, and intellectual background of Philippe Pinel, world renowned for his psychiatric reforms, his scientific analysis, and observational methods of patients and his humane, innovative, “moral” treatment programs. His psychiatric reforms are studied, not only from Pinel's perspective but also as to how the pre- and post-revolutionary era of France aided and stunted social reforms.

Perceptions of a New Era? Historical Writing in Early Ottoman Damascus

Arabica ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Meier
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Social Uses ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Scholarly Attention

AbstractThe year 922/1516-7 is usually treated as an important turning point in the history of Bilād al-Šām. The Ottoman conquest initiated change in various fields which has been the focus of much scholarly attention. However, it is still difficult to understand in what ways the new Ottoman subjects perceived these changes, especially in terms of allegiance to the ruling dynasties. To trace the attitudes of different persons and groups, scholars have often turned to the rich body of contemporary historical writing and used it as a source of information. In this article, which is centred on Ottoman Damascus, I argue that chronicles and biographical collections themselves are important witnesses of change and worth to be studied in their own right. As a step towards a more comprehensive understanding of the social uses of knowledge, I suggest that we need to enquire further into the significance of melancholy and solitude in Ottoman historical writing.

scholarly journals Qual comparação em História das Religiões segundo Lévis-Strauss?

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Nicola Maria Gasbarro
Keyword(s):  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
Comparative History ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Function ◽  
Meaning And Function

Esta contribuição analisa a perspectiva atual do comparativismo a partir de pressupostos metodológicos (Pettazzoni) e das conclusões (Sabbatucci) da História das Religiões Italiana. A consciência histórica e crítica da dissolução da noção universal de “religião” interroga-se sobre as possibilidades metodológicas dadas pela Antropologia Estrutural, para repensar o objeto intelectual da comparação histórico-religiosa. A noção de “ordem das ordens” pode nos ajudar a compreender as “religiões” dos outros por conta de seu sentido simbólico e de sua função como conduta prática e existencial. A História das Religiões pode levar a uma História Comparada das Civilizações; portanto, a necessidade civil é evidente. Palavras-chave: História das religiões, Antropologia, História Comparada Abstract This paper analyzes the current comparative perspective based upon methodological presuppositions (Pettazzoni) and points of arrival (Sabbatucci) in the History of Religions in Italy. Critical and historical consciousness of the dissolution of the universal notion of “religion” reflects on the methodological possibilities provided by Structural Anthropology in order to think the subject of intellectual historic-religious comparison over. The notion of “order of orders” may help our understanding of the “religions” of others through their symbolic meaning and function of practical and existential conduct. The History of Religions may thus lead to a Comparative History of Civilizations; therefore, the need for preparedness is evident. Keywords: History of Religions; Anthropology; Comparative History.

scholarly journals Disease, Medicine, and Health

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Armus ◽  
Adrián López Denis
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
History Of Medicine ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
History Of Public Health ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of Disease ◽  
Medicine History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Public Health Institutions ◽  
Health Institutions

This article focuses on three overlapping trends in the historical study of human responses to illness, labeled as “new history of medicine, history of public health, and sociocultural history of disease.” The topics range from colonial epidemiology and pharmacopoeia to twentieth-century public health institutions and urban hygiene. But a consistent focus on the social, cultural, and symbolic components of diseases and cures unifies this historiography and distinguishes it from the narrower scope of the long-established field of the history of medicine.

Towards a Comparative History of Political Communication , c.1000-1500

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilde De Weerdt ◽  
John Watts
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
European History ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Comparative History ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Authority ◽  
History Of

This chapter discusses the overlapping interest in political communication and mediation in recent Chinese and European historiographies. It explores a shared trend towards the social appropriation and reproduction of central (or ‘state’) authority by various kinds of intermediaries in the late Middle Ages, and underscores the use of a comparative historical inquiry in analyzing the different modalities and effects of the social appropriation of state authority in Chinese and European history.

"Correspondence is equal to half a meeting": The Composition and Comprehension of Letters in Eighteenth-century Islamic Eurasia

2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 172-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gagan Sood
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
The Social ◽  
Latin Script ◽  
Mécanismes Sociaux ◽  
Writing Culture

AbstractThis article details the social and cultural mechanisms by which correspondence in Arabic- and Latin-script languages was written, understood and preserved in mid-eighteenth-century Islamic Eurasia. Aside from two major differences in letter-writing culture, which were embodied in the choice of script, the resident communities of Islamic Eurasia approached correspondence in a similar fashion. Perhaps surprisingly, there is no correlation between these practices and the author's ethnicity or nationality. This is strong evidence for the autonomy and universality of custom in a region on the cusp of massive changes in its relationship to Europe. Cette contribution détaille les mécanismes sociaux et culturels par lesquels la correspondance en langues et caractères arabes et latins fut rédigée, comprise et préservée en Eurasie Islamique au milieu du dix-huitième siècle. À l'exception de deux différences clés dans les pratiques épistolaires – exprimées dans le choix de l'écriture utilisée – les communautés de l'Eurasie Islamique abordèrent la correspondance d'une manière semblable. Qu'il n'y ait aucune corrélation entre ces pratiques et l'ethnicité ou la nationalité de l'auteur surprend; mais c'est une preuve notable de l'autonomie et de l'universalité des coutumes dans une région qui parvenait à l'apogée de transformations majeures dans ses relations avec l'Europe.

scholarly journals Managing Police Constables and Firefighters: Uniformed Public Services in English Cities, c.1870–1930

2006 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Ewen
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
International Context ◽  
The Social ◽  
Municipal Management ◽  
History Of ◽  
Material Benefits

Using a variety of archival sources, notably personnel records and municipal minute books, this article builds a picture of the work-life histories of rank-and-file police constables and firefighters in the English cities of Birmingham and Leicester, and contrasts the techniques of behavioural control adopted by their employers. By drawing on an expanding literature on the social history of public institutions, the article compares the experience of managing such disciplined and uniformed public services. The article demonstrates that municipal management combined insidious devices for controlling workers' behaviour with consensual and negotiated tactics deployed by workers aware of the tangible material benefits offered by a career in public service. Moreover, by placing the English experience of municipal policing and fire-fighting in an international context by focusing on the visits and writings made by prominent technical and social reformers, the article offers a framework within which comparative research can be undertaken.

scholarly journals Hindu-Christian Conflict in India: Globalization, Conversion, and the Coterminal Castes and Tribes

2013 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 633-653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad M. Bauman
Keyword(s):  
Social Behaviors ◽  
Short Review ◽  
Social World ◽  
Communal Violence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lower Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Attention

While Hindu-Muslim violence in India has received a great deal of scholarly attention, Hindu-Christian violence has not. This article seeks to contribute to the analysis of Hindu-Christian violence, and to elucidate the curious alliance, in that violence, of largely upper-caste, anti-minority Hindu nationalists with lower-status groups, by analyzing both with reference to the varied processes of globalization. The article begins with a short review of the history of anti-Christian rhetoric in India, and then discusses and critiques a number of inadequately unicausal explanations of communal violence before arguing, with reference to the work of Mark Taylor, that only theories linking local and even individual social behaviors to larger, global processes like globalization can adequately honor the truly “webby” nature of the social world.

The Social Language of John Locke: a Study in the History of Ideas

1965 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. Colie
Keyword(s):  
John Locke ◽  
Political History ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Social Language ◽  
Logical Consistency ◽  
Complementary Relation ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Now that the great bulk of papers relating to John Locke in the Lovelace Collection has begun to yield up its treasure, the life and character of John Locke, as well as the life and character of his work, can be seen more fully than ever before. John Locke has firmly entered into political history, as Peter Laslett's researches have demonstrated; and Locke himself has become firmly embedded in the amorphous discipline called the history of ideas, since the history of his own ideas can now readily be examined. The wealth of material relevant to Locke's work has by no means provided his ideas with greater logical consistency, for the lack of which Locke has always had his critics. In some ways, the philosophical coherence of his work presents even greater problems than it used to, since the papers leave even more ravelled ends than the published books did. But the papers have provided something which may prove even more useful in understanding Locke's thought than a logical key to his thought: that is, the spectacle of a man thinking, and thinking hard, over four decades. Locke himself comes to appear a particular illustration of his own preoccupation with process and with the philosophical ideas arising from the concept of process: the long processes of his thinking, along so many major lines, may also be seen more clearly now in their complementary relation to one another.This paper, the heart excised from a longer study, deals with one line of Locke's thought, a line which has recently attracted serious scholarly attention, his views on language.

scholarly journals Focus Groups as a Questionnaire Pretest for Surveys in Cross-Cultural and Cross-National Comparative Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-488
Author(s):  
Dmitry Sergeevich Grigoryev
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Cross Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Construct Equivalence ◽  
Interpersonal Environment ◽  
Cross National

As a research method, focus groups have methodological advantages for understanding the views and behavior of group members or for understanding the social system as a whole, since it covers the interaction between people, groups, and the interpersonal environment quite well that widely recognized in the social sciences. These advantages are introduced in the context of mixed-methods, including conducting a survey together with focus groups as a pretest questionnaire in a comparative perspective in cross-national and cross-culture research. Focus groups provide to reach construct equivalence and elaborate an appropriate context-oriented language for questionnaire questions. Using the focus groups in this way can be an effective approach to overcoming the initial limited ability of surveys to valid measure more complex socially constructed concepts, the meaning of which can vary significantly from one group to another, especially from a comparative perspective in cross-national and cross-culture research. Using focus groups, data is collected in a more natural way, that is, more close to the real world, while the generalization is ensured by a detailed description of specific conditions, participants, and research environment. In addition, the discussion group is a miniature thinking society, and unlike dyadic interviews or surveys, focus group discussions give participants the opportunity to express their opinions, discuss their views and opinions with other participants, listen to other peoples opinions, disagree or to develop thoughts by reasoning out loud - this is similar to what happens in real life. This increased awareness about the described advantages of the approach for cross-cultural and cross-national comparative research likely contributes to its more active employ.

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