The Last Day and Brexit: Delusions of Future Past

The paper aims to show how the traditions of science fiction and, above all, invasion literature provide the ideological background for reading Andrew Hunter Murray’s The Last Day as a novel about Brexit. As it draws on anxious visions of the future, in which the enemy lurks around every corner, and the only salvation is complete isolation from the world, Murray’s work is read here as a Brexit dream come true, in which Britain is once again great, independent and uncontaminated by foreign elements. By evoking the myths that focus only on glory and conveniently “forget” the dark sides of the empire, the novel demonstrates that the fantasies of the past are as distant as the fantasies of the future; the loss of the world that never was is reworked in The Last Day into the loss of ecologically viable planet.

Afrikaans: a language where ideology and linguistics meet

This paper summarizes the discussion about the origin and the status of Afrikaans. Two schools appear to be opposed to each other: the philological school and a creolistic view. The philological school tried to demonstrate with meticulous research of sources that Afrikaans is a full daughter of 17th century Dutch, which set foot ashore with van Riebeeck in 1652 at the Cape of Good Hope. Linguists who thought of a pattern of creolization in the formation of Afrikaans point to the influence of the languages of slaves brought to South Africa and to the influence of the original inhabitants, the Khoi and the San. This contribution mainly outlines the ideological background of these two schools of thought. For the philological school this is the system of Apartheid, while for the Creolist view the emphasis is more on decolonization.

THE CULT OF THE THEOTOKOS AND THE FOUNDING OF THE MEDIEVAL NEMANJIĆ STATE: READINGS BETWEEN IMAGE AND PERFORMANCE

This paper aims to analyze the performative aspects of the cult of the Theotokos in the early Nemanjić state. Through an integrative analysis of newly built churches dedicated to Theotokos, with an emphasis on Studenica, ritual texts, and liturgical typikon, I attempt to contextualize the political and ideological background of the newly formed spatial icons of the Theotokos, the reasons and intentions behind them, and function within the historical context surrounding the founding of the Nemanjić State.

The Ideological Background of Japanese Expansionism, C. 1900

This paper examines the ideologies informing the expansion of Japanese rule at c. 1900. The core feature discussed is the idea of tenka (天下; literally translated: all under heaven), constituting the group of ruled in terms of a universalist indigenat (kokumin 国民), which allowed its expansion beyond the Japanese archipelago at government discretion. The concept of the universalist indigenat, having been tied to the Confucian perception of the world as a well-ordered and change-absorbing entity, conflicted with the European concept of the nation as a particularistically conceived type of group, tied to the perception of the world as a dynamic and largely unruly entity. During the latter third of the nineteenth and the early years of the twentieth century, some Japanese intellectuals came to appreciate the dynamism enshrined in the European perception of the world and worked it into established universalism. The fusion produced a powerful ideology of colonial expansion targeted primarily at East and Southeast Asia as well as the South Pacific. By contrast, European military strategists and political theorists, unaware of the Japanese strategic conceptions, expected that solely Russia formed the target of Japanese military expansion.

Meten van verzuilde politiek in media

Sinds het einde van de vorige eeuw houden mediahistorici zich meer bezig met de manier waarop media-inhoud tot stand is gekomen en welke betekenis dat heeft gehad voor publieksgroepen en maatschappelijk-politieke realiteiten. In dit artikel wordt gepoogd deze benadering te combineren met digital history, aan de hand van het verzuilingsdebat en gebruik makend van de digitale krantencollectie van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek van Nederland. Enerzijds wordt onderzocht in hoeverre de veronderstelde ideologische gebondenheid van dagbladen in de jaren 1918-1967 zichtbaar wordt in de hoeveelheid kopij waarmee katholieke en sociaaldemocratische kranten over politiek hebben bericht en hoe verschillen daarin te verklaren zijn. Anderzijds wordt door het testen van kwantitatieve methoden uit de digital humanities geprobeerd een bijdrage te leveren aan digitale bronnenkritiek voor historisch onderzoek.Since the end of the last century media historians have taken an interest in researching the origins and development of media content and its significance for audiences and socio-political realities. This article seeks to combine this approach with digital history. It does so by focusing on the pillarisation debate and by utilising the digital newspaper collection of the National Library of the Netherlands. On the one hand, this article investigates to what extent the ideological background of the Catholic and Social Democratic press is actually reflected in the number of newspaper articles reporting on politics written between 1918-1967, and how any differences can be explained. On the other hand, by testing quantitative methods from the digital humanities, the article attempts to contribute to digital source criticism for historical research.

O Šokcima u mađarskim enciklopedijskim izdanjima

About the inclusions of the „Šokac” ethnic group in Hungarian encyclopaedic texts. This work does not intend to answer who the „Šokac” ethnic group are, but rather to introduce the ways in which Hungarian encyclopaedic texts represent the „Šokac” people and outline what is emphasised in certain entries or texts that refer to them. The work scrutinises some of the most significant encyclopaedic volumes issued in the period between the years of the late-nineteenth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century. Such volumes are most often intended for the widest possible audience of readers, and therefore mirror the ideological background of their authors, editors, publishers and possibly the reigning authority of their time. In other words, these volumes serve as the reflection of the era they were created in. At the same time, they compile various aspects of scientific and scholarly research and its results, pertaining to the specific historical era of when they were issued.

Of Pride and Prejudice—A Cross-National Exploration of Atheists’ National Pride

This paper explores how atheism relates to national pride. Previous research reports the strong positive relationship between religiosity and national pride. Inversely, it can be assumed that atheists feel less national pride. Whether this assumption holds true and whether the perceived relevance of religiosity for values perceived as fundamental for national pride is a national-specific or a global phenomenon will be investigated here by examining attitudes towards atheists and assessing cross-nationally how proud atheists truly are of their countries. The data reveals cross-country differences in both respects. In highly religious countries, prejudice against atheists is pronounced, while atheists’ feelings of national pride indeed tend to be weaker. But what exactly predicts atheists’ feelings of national pride? For a Multilevel Analysis of this question, this article uses the ONBound database offering cumulated and harmonized data from international survey programs as well as linked country-level data on national identities and religion. Results identify countries’ ideological background as one of the crucial country-level predictors for national pride among atheists. In highly religious countries, people who deny religion also seem to possess ambivalent feelings towards their country. In turn, if the state ideology opposes religion, atheists tend to support the combination of anti-religiousness and patriotism.

Sambaquis from the Southern Brazilian Coast: Landscape Building and Enduring Heterarchical Societies throughout the Holocene

This paper presents a heterarchical model for the regional occupation of the sambaqui (shellmound) societies settled in the southern coast of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Interdisciplinary approaches articulate the geographical scope and environmental dynamics of the Quaternary with human occupation patterns that took place therein between the middle and late Holocene (approximately 7.5 to 1.5 ky BP). The longue durée perspective on natural and social processes, as well as landscape construction, evince stable, integrated, and territorially organized communities around the lagoon setting. Funerary patterns, as well as mound distribution in the landscape, indicate a rather equalitarian society, sharing the economic use of coastal resources in cooperative ways. This interpretation is reinforced by a common ideological background involving the cult of the ancestors, which seems widespread all over the southern Brazilian shores along that period of time. Such a long-lived cultural tradition has endured until the arrival of fully agricultural Je and Tupi speaking societies in the southern shores.