Irregular adoptions and infrastructures of memory in Spain: remnant practices from the Franco Regime

The irregular adoption of displaced children during the Spanish Civil War, the Franco dictatorship and the early years of Spanish democracy remains silent and unrecognised. The difficulty in recognising these irregular practices is linked to remnant infrastructures of memory (Rubin (2018) How Francisco Franco governs from beyond the grave: An infrastructural approach to memory politics in contemporary Spain. American Ethnologist 45(2): 214–227). We propose that the time to speak openly about irregular adoptions of forcibly disappeared children in Spain is arriving, and doing so could be a way of exposing a series of ‘unknown knowns’ (Simmel, (1906) The sociology of secrecy and of secret societies. American Journal of Sociology 11(4): 441–498; Bellman R and Levy A (1981) Erosion mechanism in ductile metals. Wear 70: 1–27; Taussig M (1999) Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative. Stanford: Stanford University Press).

Armed groups, IHL and the invisible world: How spiritual beliefs shape warfare

“Secret societies”, “traditional hunters”, “charms” and “mystical weapons” are recurrent terms when analyzing some of the present armed conflicts in the Sub-Saharan region. However, though spiritual beliefs shape armed groups’ behaviour, and such beliefs are integrated into the modus operandi of some armed groups, the role of these beliefs in warfare is largely overlooked. Far from being something anecdotal or incidental, the invisible world plays a role in shaping armed groups’ behaviour and framing warfare dynamics. Spiritual beliefs might influence the respect afforded to international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Such beliefs may also serve various strategic functions, including for legitimation of the group, mobilization of support, control, cohesion, discipline, motivation and protection. Digging further into the matter and understanding how such beliefs impact the internal dynamics of armed groups and their external relations, including with the State, other armed groups and communities, is an essential part of understanding armed conflicts and their aftermath.

The Role of Shiite Clergy in the Constitutional Movement at the Initial Stage of the First Iranian Revolu-tion of 1905–1911

The article highlights the history of the development of the Constitutional Movement in Iran in 1905-1906, i.e. in the first period of the Iranian Revolution of 1905–1911, and the participa-tion of the Shiite clergy in it. Shiite clergy, dissatisfied with the attempt of the Shah and his entou-rage to weaken their rights in the area of legal proceedings, as well as with the government's policy aimed at “Europeanizing” Iran, took an active part in the protest movement. The article reflects the period of the emergence of secret revolutionary societies in the country, created by representatives of advanced bourgeois intelligentsia of Iran. The leaders of Shiite clergy joined them, and later began to create and lead such societies themselves. The author focuses on the role and influence of Shiite clergy in the revolutionary activities of various secret societies, such as “Enjomene Mahfi”, which included the main leaders of Shiite clergy of Tehran: Ayatollah Sayyid Abdollah Behbehani and Said Mohammed Tabatabai, politician M. Kermani and others. These organizations carried out a great deal of work among the believers: they published political leaflets, appeals to the Iranian people, called on the people to speak out against the Shah's tyranny and European penetration. The revolu-tion showed the potential of Shiite clergy as an active factor in the socio-political history of Iran.

Franz Boas’ Postulate of the Warfare Origin of Secret Societies and Myths about the “Culture Heroˮ and the “Tricksterˮ in North America

In this paper, the authors argue that Franz Boas had a coherent theory of the secret society, which he did not systematically develop anywhere, but which can be reconstructed from several of his works. The authors are not dealing with the whole theory, but only with the postulate of the warfare origin of secret societies (which later became the foundation of the Männerbund theory). Namely, Boas believed that the secret societies of the North American Indians were originally warlike, but that by the beginning of the 20th century they either retained only the functions of initiation and education, or were transformed into therapeutic and dance societies. Although he claimed that the mythology of the Indians did not provide additional insights into the origins of secret societies, his dealings with the myth of the “culture heroˮ and the “tricksterˮ proved the contrary. The authors try to go a step further and find new contributions for the study of the origins of secret societies in North America in the myth of Wolf as the brother (father) of the “culture hero.ˮ

Distribution of the Banned Lithuanian Press in Suwalki Province

Suwalki province is a region where the distribution of the banned Lithuanian press began quite early, almost immediately after the 1863 uprising. Book smugglers quickly found a route suitable for transporting such publications from Lithuania Minor: they crossed the border in the districts of Vilkaviškis and Naumiestis, transported the press by boats across Vištytis Lake, carried it on their shoulders across the Liepuona stream, took it across the bridge over this river, often from Prussia at Eitkūnai (now Chernyshevsky) or through the Kybartai customs, and then by train from Kybartai railway station. Thousands of books and newspapers were carried across the bridge over the Širvinta. The bundles of the Lithuanian press were even floated along the river or pulled by ropes along its bottom. The state border would also be crossed near Sudargas on the Prussian side, and books would be transported by steamboats along the Nemunas River. Then, through Marijampolė district, they would be transported all over Lithuania. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Marijampolė Gymnasium and Veiveriai Teachers’ Seminary became very important secret centres for the awakening of Lithuanian national self-consciousness in Suwalki province. It did not take long for the first signs of Lithuanian national activity to mature at Marijampolė Gymnasium, where the tsarist administration allowed optional Lithuanian language classes. Such patriotic personalities as teachers Petras Arminas and Petras Kriaučiūnas in Marijampolė, who instilled love and respect for the Lithuanian language in their students, introduced them to examples of Lithuanian literature, and ignited a sense of national self-esteem, played an immensely important role. Teachers Tomas Ferdinandas Žilinskas and Juozas Kairiūkštis awakened Lithuanian self-awareness in their students at Veiveriai Teachers’ Seminary, where extremely strict censorship conditions were observed. The influence of these educators led to the spread of the banned Lithuanian press among students, to the formation of first groups of its creation, distribution and reading, the growing interest in the cultural traditions and the past of the Lithuanian nation, and the introduction of secret Lithuanian education in primary schools (J. Andziulaitis). “Sietynas” and “Artojai”, the secret societies of press distribution established in Sūduva, which rallied supporters from Sūduva region and many local residents, added a powerful impetus to the whole process of book smuggling in Lithuania. Thanks to these organizations, the banned Lithuanian press reached even the remotest villages in the region and was distributed in towns and cities. Members of these societies built extensive book smuggling networks that aimed at distributing the press not only in Sūduva, but throughout the whole territory of Lithuania. Thus, the Lithuanian written word from Sūduva reached many Lithuanians and raised their national self-esteem.