Religion and Revolution in Europe

The French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire altered the religious landscape of France, Europe, and the wider world. Revolutionaries reduced religion to a matter of opinion in the 10th Article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), legitimizing their seizure of Catholic lands and disavowal of the religious and political hierarchy of Old Regime France and its empire in the process. This in turn ignited a dechristianization campaign, local conflicts between Catholics, Protestants, and Jewish communities, and counter-revolutionary war in France. The violence reverberated well beyond France’s borders, both throughout Europe and in imperial and non-imperial spaces. From Prussia to Portugal to Port-au-Prince, revolutionaries inspired violence against and in defence of religion, drove les religieux across borders and into the borderlands, and sparked debates over secularization (laïcization, in France) and the rights of individuals and collective, religious bodies for generations.

Urbanization in the Middle Niger of Mali

When the tell site of Jenne-jeno was brought to light in the vast floodplain of the southern Middle Niger of Mali, archaeologists had to question certain expectations about just what constitutes an ancient city. The city was certainly too early (3rd century bce rather than the expected late first millennium ce) and Jenne-jeno did not conform to the standard city form (a mosaic of satellites rather than the expected agglomeration). But it was the persistent lack of evidence of a centralized ruler, social strata of elites, and of the hierarchical decision-making mechanisms of the state that set this urban landscape so at odds with then prevalent urban theory. The seventy apparently contemporaneous hamlets and specialists’ occupation mounds surrounding Jenne-jeno form the Jenne-jeno Urban Complex. It is a classic example of African originality in evolving urban landscapes. In place of the top-down, often despotic state control as the organizing principle of the city, here there is a classic city without citadel—and thus heterarchy (authority and power relations arrayed horizontally) instead of a social and political hierarchy at the heart of the city can be posited. The search for the pre-Jenne-jeno antecedents has taken a newer generation of archaeologists to look at “pre-urban” landscapes in other, now-dry parts of the Middle Niger deep in the northern. Sahel and Sahara. Back to the second millennium bce, the single site can be found to be the exception; clustering had roots deep in time.

A Comparative Study of Postcolonial Aspects in T. Salih’s Season of Migration to the North and C. Achebe’s No Longer at Ease

This study aims at investigating aspects of coloniality in both novels of the title. The two works expose a number of the evils of coloniality like masked colonisation, stereotyping and hybridity. The coloniser’s appointing of national agents to run the country in the coloniser’s stead, raising nonentities on the political hierarchy and sowing seeds of hatred among citizens of the same nation will be discussed under the first subtitle, masked colonisation. Under the second, stereotyping and misrepresenting Africans will be investigated. The paper will discuss ideas of language, culture and religion when dealing with hybridity, the third concept in such a trichotomy, to show how these have been affected by colonisation. The paper will respond to the following questions: how do Achebe’s No Longer at Ease and Salih’s Season of Migration to the North question the credibility of achieving independence? How (and why) did the (British) coloniser persistently stereotype African nations? How did the evil aftermaths of British colonialism reach and spoil the different aspects of the lives of the colonised nations, as shown in both?

Stosunek biskupa Ignacego Krasickiego do reform polityczno-prawnych w Polsce doby stanisławowskiej

Bishop Ignacy Krasicki’s attitude to the political-legal reforms in Poland of the King Stanisław era Bishop Ignacy Krasicki was one of the best known figures in Poland of the King Stanisław era. He was known primarily as a poet, writer, author of fables. As the Bishop of Warmia, he occupied a very high position in Poland’s political hierarchy at the time — he was a member of the country’s Senate. Yet, he failed to meet the expectations of the people associated with him, primarily King Stanisław August Poniatowski, whose closest associates included Krasicki in the first period of his political career. His involvement after 1772, the most important time in the analysed period with regard to political-legal reforms in Poland, was made difficult by the fact that the Bishopric of Warmia, which he was the head of, found itself outside Poland’s borders, an event not without an impact on Krasicki’s political attitude. Krasicki not being much involved in the turbulent political life in Poland at the time does not mean that Poland’s affairs were not close to his heart. He was first and foremost a poet, not a politician, and that is why he referred to these affairs metaphorically in his literary works. Die Stellung von Bischof Ignacy Krasicki zu den rechtlichen und politischen Reformen in Polen der Poniatowskizeit Der Bischof Ignacy Krasicki war eine der bekanntesten Personen in Polen der Poniatowskizeit, bekannt vor allem als Dichter, Literat und Märchenschreiber. Als Bischof von Ermland und Mitglied des Senats hatte er auch eine sehr hohe Position in der damaligen politischen Hierarchie in Polen. Entgegen den Erwartungen der ihm nahe stehenden Personen, vor allem des Königs Stanislaus II. August Poniatowski, zu dessen engsten Mitarbeitern er in der ersten Phase seiner eigenen politischen Kariere gehörte, erfüllte er die an ihn gesetzten Hoffnungen nicht. Sein Engagement nach 1772, also dem wichtigsten Jahr in der besprochenen Zeit hinsichtlich der rechtlichen und politischen Reformen in Polen, war erschwert. Das Bistum Ermland, das er verwaltete, kam nämlich außerhalb der Grenzen von Polen, was nicht ohne Einfluss auf seine politische Haltung blieb. Das gemäßigte Engagement Krasickis in das rege politische Leben in Polen soll nicht so gedeutet werden, dass dieses Thema ihn nicht berührte. Er war vor allem ein Dichter und kein Politiker, so äußerte er sich zu den polnischen Angelegenheiten per Metaphern in seinen literarischen Werken.

Sex in the Arena

Although popular culture has long perceived the gladiators as the manliest of Romans, posturing before howling crowds of plebeians as the rock stars of their day, the sex of gladiators as constructed by Romans is rather more complicated. This chapter considers the sexualized nuances of the arena, touching on the relative masculinity of gladiators within Roman social and political hierarchy, as well as the sliding scale of virility among the different styles of combat. The phenomenon of women in the arena is explored: were spectacles that were populated by women contestants designed to titillate and persuade in a way that was different from the more standard shows? Instances of spectacularized sex, shows that allegedly featured literal sexual engagement, point to demonstrations of moral and political authority by imperial sponsors; literary descriptions of risqué performances likewise functioned as moralizing critique of imperial powerbrokers. The genre of textual descriptions shaded the message of sexual power as well; Christian martyr acts reworked the suffering of Christian women condemned to the arena, claiming for them authority and agency that was both founded on and defiant of their gender.

The Economic Consequences of Political Hierarchy: Evidence from Regime Changes in China, 1000-2000 C.E.

We study how political hierarchy shapes regional development in China, using variations driven by regime changes during the 1000–2000 period. We find that changes in the status of the provincial capital led to the rise and decline of different prefectures as measured by population and urbanization. Two other novel findings stand out: (1) the economic advantages of the provincial capitals did not persist if they lost their political status, and (2) political hierarchy shaped economic development not only through public employment but also through the development of important infrastructure, such as transportation networks. Our findings highlight the importance of politics in determining the locations of economic activities.

“Todos los servidores de la casa lo calumnian con murmuraciones”: el rumor como leitmotiv en el Roman de Thèbes

The mise en roman of Greco-Latin classical texts —carried out as part of the political and cultural plan of the Plantagenets (12th-13th Centuries)— has been studied by critics in its different aspects of content and form, among which stands out the medievalization of the classical tradition. The particularities of this involve a series of narrative mechanisms and strategies that sought to bring the stories of Homer, Virgil and Statius to the audience of medieval courts. This is noticeable with the medievalization of the goddes Fame, who is materialized in the social phenomenon of rumor. So I observe it in the Roman de Thèbes, whose anonymous author uses rumor as a leitmotiv that, in addition to allowing logical changes in the plot, offers an imporant lesson to its audience, especially to those holding the power: the principle is not allow that the rumor may transgress the order destabilizing the political hierarchy. In order to demostrate the latter I offer three model examples of the text where I underline the narratological significance of the rumor like leitmotiv and its socio-political implications.

The Economic Consequences of Political Hierarchy: Evidence from Regime Changes in China, 1000-2000 C.E.

We study how political hierarchy shapes regional development in China, using variations driven by regime changes during the 1000–2000 period. We find that changes in the status of the provincial capital led to the rise and decline of different prefectures as measured by population and urbanization. Two other novel findings stand out: (1) the economic advantages of the provincial capitals did not persist if they lost their political status, and (2) political hierarchy shaped economic development not only through public employment but also through the development of important infrastructure, such as transportation networks. Our findings highlight the importance of politics in determining the locations of economic activities.