Swollen Shoots

2021 ◽  
pp. 100-107
Author(s):  
Dale Walters
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
First Report ◽  
Cacao Swollen Shoot Virus

This chapter deals with cacao swollen shoot disease, which has wreaked havoc in cacao-growing areas of West Africa since its first report in the early part of the twentieth century. First thought to be caused by drought, it was subsequently found to be caused by a virus—the cacao swollen shoot virus—and to be transmitted between cacao trees by several species of mealybug, including Formicococcus njalensis. Today, we know that ten viruses are involved in causing the disease, which is restricted to West Africa. The chapter examines the transmission of the virus and the efforts made to restrict its spread and reduce its impact. Attempts to tackle the disease have resulted in the destruction of some 300 million trees so far, which gives an indication of the considerable efforts that have been made to contain this devastating disease.

The Coin of the African Realm

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Herbst
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Regional Economies ◽  
African Countries ◽  
New Strategies

This chapter examines the politics of the currency in West Africa from the beginning of the twentieth century. A public series of debates over the nature of the currency occurred in West Africa during both the colonial and independence periods. Since 1983, West African countries have been pioneers in Africa in developing new strategies to combat overvaluation of the currency and reduce the control of government over the currency supply. The chapter charts the evolution of West African currencies as boundaries and explores their relationship to state consolidation. It shows that leaders in African capitals managed to make the units they ruled increasingly distinct from the international and regional economies, but the greater salience of the currency did not end up promoting state consolidation. Rather, winning the ability to determine the value of the currency led to a series of disastrous decisions that severely weakened the states themselves.

Levantine Art in the “Orientalizing” Period

2019 ◽  
pp. 369-383
Author(s):  
Marian H. Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The West ◽  
False Dichotomy ◽  
First Millennium

The “Orientalizing period” represents a scholarly designation used to describe the eighth and seventh centuries bce when regions in Greece, Italy, and farther west witnessed a flourishing of arts and cultures attributed to contact with cultural areas to the east—in particular that of the Phoenicians. This chapter surveys Orientalizing as an intellectual and historiographic concept and reconsiders the role of purportedly Phoenician arts within the existing scholarly narratives. The Orientalizing period should be understood as a construct of nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship that was structured around a false dichotomy between the Orient (the East) and the West. The designation “Phoenician” has a similarly complex historiographic past rooted in ancient Greek stereotyping that has profoundly shaped modern scholarly interpretations. This chapter argues that the luxury arts most often credited as agents of Orientalization—most prominent among them being carved ivories, decorated metal bowls, and engraved tridacna shells—cannot be exclusively associated with a Phoenician cultural origin, thus calling into question the primacy of the Phoenicians in Orientalizing processes. Each of these types of objects appears to have a much broader production sphere than is indicated by the attribute as Phoenician. In addition, the notion of unidirectional influences flowing from east to west is challenged, and instead concepts of connectivity and networking are proposed as more useful frameworks for approaching the problem of cultural relations during the early part of the first millennium bce.

Incentives Then and Now

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth W. Grant
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Scientific Management ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
Behavioral Psychology ◽  
The Social

This chapter presents a historical account of the use of the term “incentives” and of the introduction of incentives in scientific management and behavioral psychology. “Incentives” came into the language in the early part of the twentieth century in America. During this period, the language of social control and of social engineering was quite prevalent, and incentives were understood to be one tool in the social engineers' toolbox—an instrument of power. Not coincidentally, incentives were also extremely controversial at this time and were criticized from several quarters as dehumanizing, manipulative, heartless, and exploitative. When incentives are viewed as instruments of power, the controversial ethical aspects of their use come readily to the fore.

People and the contemporary environment

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Eden
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
Ecological Science ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

Geographical approaches to human-environment relations have been diverse and dynamic over the last century. They have also been heavily influenced not only by academic disciplines outside geography but by popular and policy concerns outside academia. From an initial flurry of activity about how the environment influences society in the early part of the century, British geography then took a detour to other topics even as other disciplines discovered the environment as a topic of interest. This left geographers playing ‘catch-up’ in the late twentieth century, as the discipline sought to reoccupy the ground previously abandoned. This is not over yet: in the 1990s, research into ‘the environment’ and ‘nature’ was scattered across academia. This chapter examines the relationship between humans and the contemporary environment, focusing on environmental protection, environmental management and ecological science, environmental policy and management, environmentalism, and environment and history.

The Twilight of Utilitarianism

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-52
Author(s):  
Albert Weale
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Utility Theory ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Separateness Of Persons

Social contract theory arose as a response to the twilight of utilitarianism. For many years utilitarianism had been seen as a political philosophy of human emancipation. Like social contract theory, utilitarianism was a critical and rationalistic morality. However, it was judged incapable of recognizing the separateness of persons, the claim by each person to be treated with justice. Utilitarianism defined the good in terms of pleasure, conceived in a naturalistic way. It regarded pleasure as the guide to choice. It promised to provide an intellectual framework within which everyday intuitive morality could be rendered consistent. And it sought to ground action in practical reasoning about the promotion of the good. However, these distinctive elements came under challenge. With the rise of modern utility theory, pleasure was no longer thought of as the guide to choice. Pleasure was no longer conceived as the sole good. Doubts were raised about the extent to which the principle of utility could explicate the principle of justice. And even utilitarianism had to concede the dualism of practical reason. One response was the rise of intuitionism in the early part of the twentieth century. Another response was the rise of social contract theory, as discussed in this book.

Balanchine, George (1904–1983)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
York City ◽  
Violin Concerto ◽  
Classical Dance ◽  
George Balanchine ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Classical Ballet

George Balanchine (Georgii Melitonovich Balanchivadze), arguably the greatest ballet choreographer of the twentieth century, was at once both modernist and traditionalist. Unlike many radical innovators, in charting new ground he did not reject the past. Virtually all of his major works make reference, even if obliquely, to the classical ballet technique in which he was trained. Although born in Russia and active in Europe in the early part of his career, it was in America that he made his greatest impact, directing the New York City Ballet, which he co-founded with Lincoln Kirstein, from its inception in 1948 until his death in 1983. During this time, the company grew from modest beginnings to become one of the most important ballet troupes in the world. Balanchine is credited with creating a particularly American style of classical dance, one that is characterized by speed, precision, energy, daring, and a rough grace more associated with athletes than with sylphs. His more than 400 dance works include Apollo (1928), Serenade (1934), Concerto Barocco (1941), Le Palais de cristal (later renamed Symphony in C) (1948), Orpheus (1948), The Nutcracker (1954), Agon (1957), Symphony in Three Movements (1972), Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1972), Vienna Waltzes (1977), Ballo della Regina (1978), and Mozartiana (1981).

The Racial Face

Hybrid Hate ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 133-155
Author(s):  
Tudor Parfitt
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
West Africa

Racial immutability of Jews and blacks was proved through the unchanging features of the Jewish and negro face over thousands of years. From the time of Johann Kaspar Lavater, the Swiss Protestant poet and pastor from Zurich, it became almost axiomatic that there was something unique about the Jewish and negro face and head. Some argued that there was something goat-like about the Jewish face and something ape-like about the negro face. Jewish and negro eyes were considered special. Robert Knox discussed the racial face with respect to negroes and Jews, finding commonalities. For Frederic William Farrar, too, it was the overlapping categories of blacks and Jews that provided the best proof of the immutability of racial types. The indelibility of African blackness and the indelibility of Jewishness were common themes that linked Jews and negroes from medieval times to the twentieth century. Alfred Russell Wallace made the critical linkage between Jews and blacks that had underlined much racial speculation for the previous five hundred years and that would continue long after his death, particularly with respect to their unchanging, ancient pedigree and appearance. While many scholars opined that the Egyptian monuments offered the best proofs of the immutability of the Jewish and negro face, Alfred Cort Haddon considered that the Assyrian depictions of Jews were the most reliable as far as Jewish faces were concerned. Jewish faces were even to be found in west Africa.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document