bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
African Countries’ Political Independence at Fifty: In Search of Democracy, Peace and Social Justice*
Authors: wa Muiu Mueni
Published: February 2014

Abstract

What lessons can we draw from the past fifty years of political independence in African countries? Which mistakes can we avoid in the future? Can there be peace without social justice? Four mistakes must be avoided if democracy, peace and social justice are to be achieved in African countries. Drawing on lessons from Central, East, North, West and Southern Africa, I use Fundi wa Africa – a multidisciplinary approach based on a long term historical perspective to argue that individual nationhood (the first mistake) has not resulted in democracy and peace. Only Pan-Africanism (based on the needs and interests of Africans as they define them) will lead to democracy and peace. The second mistake is that leading international financial institutions (IFI) and some Africans assume that democracy has to be introduced to Africa. This assumption is based on the belief that Africans and their culture have nothing to contribute to their own development. As a result liberal democracy is promoted by these agencies as the only option available for African countries. The third mistake is the belief that a colonial state which was developed to fulfill the market and labor needs of colonial powers can lead to democracy and peace for Africans. The fourth mistake is African leaders’ and their supporters’ conviction that neither African intellectuals nor women have any place in African development and may only be given symbolic positions. Without economic independence, the political gains of the past fifty years will be lost. The founding fathers and mothers of Africa’s freedom fought and achieved political independence, but it is up to the next generation to strive for economic empowerment. Only then will African countries cease to be homes for bankrupt ideas as they are freed from conflict and hunger.
English Language and Skill Mismatch: The Case of South Korea.*
Authors: Park Kihong
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Most prior research addressing the topic of job mismatch focuses on educational mismatch, while the economic analysis of skills-job mismatch in terms of skill utilization has received relatively little attention in the literature. Using the 2007 Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey (KLIPS), this paper examines the impact on wages of skills-job mismatch between acquired and required English language proficiency in the Korean workplace. The major findings confirm the validity of the assignment theory proposed by Sattinger (1993), which asserts that the returns to additional investment in human capital appear to depend in part on the quality of the assignment of heterogeneous workers to heterogeneous jobs, and thus returns to investment in skills are limited by how well jobs exploit workers’ skills. Specifically, the results are first, that skills-job mismatch based on English language job requirements has a strong statistically significant impact on wages, second, that the returns to over-skilling are negative (the wage penalty), while the returns to under-skilling are positive (the wage premium), and third, that the wage penalty associated with over-skilling is stronger than the wage premium associated with under-skilling.
Democratization in Malawi: Responding to International and Domestic Pressures
Authors: Emmanuel Nikolas G.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Donors hope that their foreign aid can be influential, far beyond the development projects that they fund. Frequently, aid providers attach political conditions to their monies in the hope that these demands can serve as catalysts to improve the governance in the recipient. This is called a political conditionality approach. Few countries have felt the weight of conditionality as much as Malawi did in the 1990s. Here, donors were able to use aid sanctions to successfully encourage democratization, while strengthening the demands of domestic opposition forces. This paper argues that three factors were critical in this process: 1) aid dependency, 2) donor coordination, and 3) a strong and persistent domestic opposition. With their combined weight, foreign donors and Malawian civil society were able to change the tide in this once highly authoritarian country.
The Practice of Pluralism: Jeffrey Stout and Abraham Kuyper on Religion and Civil Solidarity
Authors: Bennett Kyle David , Nikolajsen Jeppe Bach
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The concept of solidarity plays a significant role within the discursive framework of modern social philosophy. This article points to the notion that solidarity is central to North American philosopher Jeffrey Stout and Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper’s respective visions for civil society. The article proposes that framing civil society under the category of solidarity is something to be affirmed, as is the quest for a space in which religious pluralism can be encouraged and facilitated. Thus, the article proposes that Christian theologians would do well to lean on a contemporary voice such as Stout, an ally in assessing and critiquing secular liberalism’s prospects in our own day, and Kuyper, a provider of rich theological resources for advancing Stout’s general project, although with some qualification. Both can move the conversation regarding religion and civil society forward. Stoutians and Kuyperians can benefit from this exchange as well. Stoutians can glean several insights from Kuyperians as they consider possible religious resources for moving toward a civil solidarity that embraces religious voices. Kuyperians can find a contemporary North American interlocutor for developing their notion of principled pluralism in civil society.
Verb-Initial versus Subject-Initial Clauses in Greek: Eventuality Existentials versus Predication Clauses
Authors: Agouraki Yoryia
Published: February 2014

The paper aims to describe (a) the distribution, (b) the semantic interpretation and (c) the semantic and syntactic derivation of verb-initial versus subject-initial clauses in Greek. Concerning (a), it is argued that the verb-initial and the subject-initial word orders are in complementary distribution. A particular numeration can be assembled in only one way, i.e. as a verb-initial or as a subject-initial word order. The properties of the numeration that play a role in determining the word order for that numeration include the syntactic type of the predicate, the presence or not of non-arguments, the presence or not of sentential operators, and the mode of presenting information. Concerning (b), it is proposed that the semantic interpretation of verb-initial versus subject-initial clauses can be described as a clause-type distinction between eventuality existentials versus predication clauses. Concerning (c), it is proposed that this clause-type distinction has to do with how the subject and the predicate are put together semantically/syntactically. Namely, it is proposed that in eventuality existentials (the entity denoted by) the subject saturates/is selected by (the property denoted by) the predicate, while in predication clauses it is (the property denoted by) the predicate that saturates/is ‘selected’ by (the second-order property denoted by) the subject. For the proposed analysis to be right, (a) the clause-type distinction between eventuality existentials and predication clauses, (b) the complementary distribution of the two clause types and (c) the semantic/syntactic derivation for the two clause types must be part of UG. What cannot be part of UG is the syntactic manifestation of this semantic distinction across languages.
Urartian Bronze Helmets
Authors: Castelluccia Manuel , Dan Roberto
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Many of the sizeable inventory of Urartian bronze objects are unfortunately unprovenanced objects, which strongly limits our understanding of such Urartian metalwork. This article is devoted to one class of bronze artifacts – helmets – and takes into consideration only those of certain and recognized provenance. The authors also briefly describe some helmets from neighboring regions, such as Transcaucasia and northern Iran, which possess similar features, in order to highlight similarities and differences.
Sexualized Collaborations and the Politics of Ghostwriting in Franco-Arab Literature: From Paul Bowles to Tout le monde aime Mohamed
Authors: Mack Mehammed
Published: February 2014

Abstract

In the last few decades, the landscape of Franco-Arab fiction has seen a great many authorship scandals, in which French non-Arab authors have impersonated Arabs and found publishing success. In this essay, I revisit these scandals while focusing on a recent “autobiographical” novel that raised suspicions of ghostwriting: 2011’s Tout le monde aime Mohamed (Everyone Loves Mohamed ) by Malik Kuzman. An impressionistic collage of homo-erotic encounters, its fleeting structure recalls that of Barthes’ Incidents, a series of social vignettes culled from the author’s time in Morocco. I explore the simultaneity of Barthes’ Death of the Author argument and the emergence of these authorship scandals in post-colonial Franco-Arab fiction, and suggest that it is not accidental. In a similar vein, I analyze how the heritage of literary collaborations between Europeans and North Africans, often eroticized, has informed authorship scandals in post-immigration France.
Unnatural Narratives and Transgressing the Normative Discourses of Iraqi History: Translating Murtaḍā Gzār’s Al-Sayyid Aṣghar Akbar
Authors: Hanoosh Yasmeen
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article consists of two parts: an annotated translation of “The Theory”—an excerpt from the novel Al-Sayyid Aṣghar Akbar (2012) by Iraqi author Murtaḍā Gzār—preceded by a critical essay that articulates the socio-historical context of the novel and analyzes it in light of recent research in unnatural narratology. The essay highlights the ways in which the novel departs from the mimetic norms of realism that characterize the dominant narratological models in modern Iraqi and Arabic fiction. It argues that through metalepsis, or transgression of intradiegetic time, coupled with the conceptual restructuring of iconic Iraqi places and discourses, the novel defies our standard knowledge of the procession of historical events in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Iraq. The novel in turn negotiates an entry into liminal discourses that lie on the peripheries of the national narrative of the Baʿth as well as the religious counter-narrative of the Shīʿī opposition as it is traditionally conceived. The novel exposes the discrepancy between two authoritative, normative processes of historicizing, namely, the ‘Rewriting of Iraqi History Project’ and the Najafi ijtihād and taqlīd traditions. By so doing, the novel at once mirrors the immense complexity of Iraq’s modern historiography and accomplishes a skeptical deconstruction of its cultural formations, resulting in a new postcolonial reading of state hegemony, Shīʿism, Najaf, and Iraqi identity.
Religion and Politics: On the Motif of Blindness in ʿAbd al-Mālik Nūrī’s “Rīḥ al-janūb” and Ghāʾib Tuʿmah Farmān’s “ ʿAmmī ʿabburnī”
Authors: Peled-Shapira Hilla
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article aims at presenting a unique use of the motif of blindness in two Iraqi short stories from the 1950s: “Rīḥ al-janūb” (South Wind) by ʿAbd al-Mālik Nūrī and “ʿAmmī ʿabburnī” (Please Sir, Help Me Cross the Street) by Ghāʾib Tuʿmah Farmān. Nūrī and Farmān belonged to the literary milieu in Baghdad of the mid-twentieth century and this article argues that through the motif of blindness they criticized their environment, the Iraqi regime and the clerics of their times. The article presents an outline of the political and social background of that period and offers an explanation for the specific choice of the motif of blindness by these writers and the object of their criticism: while Nūrī was a government official, Farmān was a persecuted Communist intellectual. Thus, Farmān criticized the regime through depictions of the city and of the plight of the simple man, especially the needy blind who depend on other people’s help, while Nūrī, who did not want a confrontation with officialdom, focused his criticism on the clerics in particular, who exploit the poor by taking their money in order to supposedly cure them.
Take the Gift of My Child and Return Something to Me: On Children, Chagga Trust, and a New American Evangelical Orphanage on Mount Kilimanjaro
Authors: Stambach Amy , Kwayu Aikande C.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This essay examines local and international Christian efforts on Mount Kilimanjaro to educate children. A prevailing idea among people who live on the mountain is that children engender trust and trade. This idea is illuminated through the adage ‘Take the gift of my child and return something to me’ and is embedded in the concept of Chagga trust. The latter is both an ethical mode and a social entity. Local ideas of children and trust partly overlap with but also differ from American evangelical missionaries’ views of children as needing to be safeguarded. Analysis of differences reveals that while religious missions have long played a role in providing education, the dynamics of privatization have changed the manner in which local leaders and international missionaries interact. Previous interactions were regular and routine; today’s are fewer, more contractual, and more formalized. The analysis presented here broadens and qualifies existing research that simply states that evangelicalism and the privatization of education helps the poor.
Géographie Arabe et Géographie Latine au XIIe Siècle
Authors: Dalché Patrick Gautier
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The influence of Arab geography upon the Latin tradition in the Middle Ages is difficult to assess due to several factors including the former’s definition, content, and origin, as well as the tangled historiography on the question of its influence. The purpose of this paper is not to provide a comprehensive study of this complex issue but rather to define the terms of the problem and to examine some concrete cases of contact between both geographical cultures during the twelfth century. The author first considers the impact of the introduction of Greek conceptions, transmitted through the Arabic Ṣūrat al-arḍ (The Picture of the Earth), upon medieval Latin cosmography. Special attention is devoted here to the influence of Greco-Arabic knowledge on contemporary Western Latin ideas about the habitability of the remotest parts of the earth. The author then deals with the relationship between both cultures in the field of descriptive geography and cartography. Unexpectedly, these different traditions can be shown to be largely isolated from one another, and the alleged Arab origin of some documents is, in most cases, dubious. The cause of the obvious lack of interest among Western Christians in Arab descriptive geography could lie in the general conditions of the Latin schools of the time, and perhaps also in the fact that Arabic writings and maps emphasize the domination of Islam over lands formerly under Christian rule.
Textbooks, Assumptions, and Us: Commentary on Jimmy Emanuelsson’s “Islam and the Sui-generis Discourse: Representations of Islam in Textbooks Used in Introductory Courses of Religious Studies in Sweden”
Authors: Ramey Steven
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Commenting on Jimmy Emanuelsson’s analysis of three Islam textbooks used in Sweden, this essay expands his critique of these textbooks to address the systemic issues in the assumptions about “religion” and world religions discourse. As Emanuelsson’s analysis focuses on the textbooks themselves, this essay considers the efforts that professors can take to contest the textbooks within a course.
The Scientific Study of Religion: Two Case Studies, One Response
Authors: Martin Luther H. , Wiebe Donald
Published: February 2014

Abstract

A response to the previous four papers.
The Action of Legal Persons in the European System of Human Rights Protection – Collective or Individual Interest?
Authors: Beulay Marjorie
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Human Rights are accustomed to being linked to individual interests, i.e. to defend the rights of individuals. But the development of their international protection has led to emphasizing new realities. With the globalization of law, the globalization of the subjects of international law has also appeared. If States gradually act collectively thanks to international organizations, individuals seem to follow the same path in forming collective entities named legal persons, which are entitled to rights. The main problem of this situation is defending these rights in front of international courts and, in particular, in front of the European Court of Human Rights. Representing a community leads to defending a collective interest, however, it is not easy to distinguish between the rights of the legal person itself and the rights of the collectivity the legal person is representing. Despite the fiction of the legal person, these entities seem to be collective claimants and consequently to defend a collective interest. Can we conclude that the actions of legal persons before European bodies of Human Rights protection are actions with a collective aim? Indeed this situation implies needing to define which entity retains cited rights and which interest is being defended, that of the individual or that of a collectivity of individuals? This article looks for some answers in the case law of the European Court, which can be considered unequivocal in the light of the case law of other jurisdictions.
The Responsibility to Protect and the Responsibility While Protecting: Why Did Brazil Write a Letter to the UN?
Authors: Österdahl Inger
Published: February 2014

The responsibility to protect was invoked by the United Nations (UN) Security Council in support of its authorization of a military intervention in Libya in 2011. In the wake of the intervention, Brazil approached the UN with a new doctrine: the responsibility while protecting. The responsibility while protecting implies a greater degree of caution on the part of the international community in its exercise of the responsibility to protect. Intentionally or unintentionally, Brazil mixes aspects of the jus ad bellum with aspects of the jus in bello in the new doctrine. This is controversial and potentially detrimental to both areas of law. An additional layer of limitations on the use of armed force in multinational peace operations is introduced beyond the existing restrictions on warfare following from international humanitarian law. A lack of clarity pertaining to the use of force and to the respective roles of the Security Council and the General Assembly in this respect in the exercise of the responsibility to protect contribute to making the responsibility while protecting seem increasingly enigmatic. Interpreted constructively, however, the responsibility while protecting simply urges the international community to follow international law. This would be good.
Mens Rea in Co-perpetration and Indirect Perpetration According to Article 30 of the Rome Statute. Arguments against Punishment for Excesses Committed by the Agent or the Co-perpetrator
Authors: Gil Alicia Gil
Published: February 2014

This article analyses the recent interpretations of Articles 25 and 30 of the ICC Statute by the Pre-Trial Chambers of the International Criminal Court. The Court adopts a broad interpretation of the common plan or agreement element; in addition, it appears to distort the mental element which is provided for by Art. 30 of the Statute. Such interpretative trends permit a person to be charged as a co-perpetrator or indirect co-perpetrator in relation to crimes committed by others and which have not been agreed or ordered by the person charged. This implies a violation of the principles of responsibility for one’s own actions and of culpability. Therefore, the paper proposes a strict definition of Article 30 that highlights the requirement of the intent to engage in the conduct. This element, understood as the will to act, belongs to every kind of dolus. The paper analyses the interpretation of this requirement in cases of co-perpetration, where the joint will to act is expressed in the common plan or agreement.
The Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone. Rationale and Challenges
Authors: Mphepo Tiyanjana
Published: February 2014

This article provides an insight into the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone (RSCSL), which was established by an agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone, to carry out the essential residual functions of the Special Court for Sierra Leone when it closes. The RSCSL epitomizes the commitment of the UN, the Sierra Leone Government, and the international community to ensure the continued protection of witnesses, the proper enforcement of the sentences of persons convicted by the SCSL, the continued respect of the rights of such persons by providing them with a sound judicial mechanism for the review of convictions and sentences, and that there is no impunity for the sole remaining SCSL fugitive after the closure of the SCSL. If the RSCSL manages to overcome the challenges identified in this article, it will become an important pillar of the new architecture of international criminal justice.
New Interest for the Christian Context in Qur’anic Studies
Authors: Steenbrink Karel A.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Qurʾānic studies have moved between interest for Jewish background, emphasis the Arab social and economic situation and a theory which considers the Christian origin of the early Muslim movement. This review article discusses two authors, Angelika Neuwirth and Gabriel Said Reynolds, who give strong arguments for the latter perspective. The Christian context of the Qurʾān, however, does not involve an easy accommodation of early Islam to modern mainstream Christianity. Instead, it shows a distinct position for the Islamic movement as grown in debates with a plural and diverse Christianity.
The Bāleśvara Temple Complex of Śivagupta: Epigraphical Evidence for the Śaiva Siddhānta and Soma Siddhānta Traditions in Dakṣiṇa Kosala
Authors: Bosma Natasja
Published: February 2014

Epigraphical evidence, supported by archaeological remains, have shown that the ancient Dakṣiṇa Kosala was a rich centre of early Śaivism. At the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century ce, the region was under the control of king Śivagupta ‘Bālārjuna’ of the Pāṇḍavas of Śrīpura (modern Sirpur). From his records it becomes clear that this king was a great patron of religion, and of Śaivism in particular. Among the inscriptions pertaining to Śaivism, eleven report on and relate to the construction of a Śiva temple established by the king himself (svakārita) and the transformation of this temple into a great centre of early Śaivism (to be precise, the Śaiva Siddhānta and Soma Siddhānta traditions). This article presents Śivagupta and the Śaiva officiants of the ‘Bāleśvara-bhaṭṭāraka’ Temple Complex as an example of the successful establishment of early forms of Śaivism, due to the close links between the king and his ‘rājaguruḥ’.
Patronage of Śaivism and Other Religious Groups in Western India under the Dynasties of the Kaṭaccuris, Gurjaras and Sendrakas from the 5th to the 8th Centuries
Authors: Schmiedchen Annette
Published: February 2014

Southern Gujarat and north-western Maharashtra constituted a highly contested region in the early medieval period, between the 5th and 8th centuries. The majority of the royal grants were in favour of Vedic Brahmins without any specific Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava, or other sectarian leanings, the rest in favour of Hindu temples. Whereas the Traikūṭakas had been Vaiṣṇavas, Kaṭaccuri Kṛṣṇarāja is described as ‘devoted to Paśupati’. Not only among the Kaṭaccuris, but also among the Gurjaras, Sendrakas, and Lāṭa Calukyas, there was a strong tendency to use the religious epithet paramamāheśvara, ‘worshipper of Śiva’, homogeneously. Individual Gurjara and Sendraka charters record endowments for the worship of Āśramadeva and Alaṅghyeśvara, and one prince of the Lāṭa Calukyas is said to have worshipped a religious mendicant whose name ended in °śivabhaṭṭāraka. But it was not before the 11th century that the epigraphic evidence for the institutionalization of Śaivism in the region increased remarkably.
Aṣṭabhujasvāmin: A Reinterpretation of the Ābhīra Inscription from Nagarjunakonda
Authors: Salomon Richard
Published: February 2014

The Nagarjunakonda stone inscription dated in the reign of the Ābhīra king Vasuṣeṇa presents many problems of interpretation, solutions for some of which are proposed in this article. For example, it has been understood by previous editors as referring to the joint establishment of an image of Aṣṭabhujasvāmin by a group of kings, but in reality it refers to the establishment by a single person, apparently an official of Vasuṣeṇa. The mention of the other kings actually refers to the well-attested custom of seizing sacred images from rivals. The deity Aṣṭabhujasvāmin, whose affiliation was previously contested, is shown on comparative grounds to be a form of Viṣṇu.
The Arab Charter on Human Rights: Main Features
Authors: Allam Wael
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The issue of human rights has rarely influenced policies of the League of Arab States, which has failed to criticize its members for violating human rights. Therefore, the adoption of the Arab Charter on Human Rights in 2004 is considered a significant event in the field of human rights in the Arab region. The aim of this article is to explore the main features of the Arab Charter on Human Rights in order to understand the potential role which it can play at both an international and regional level in the field of human rights.
“God gave this land to us”: A Biblical Perspective on the Tension in South Sudan between Tribal Lands, Ethnic Identity and the Breadth of Christian Salvation
Authors: Godwin Colin Robert , Chol Saphano Riak
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Like many parts of Africa, South Sudan has experienced ethnic animosities which have led to violent clashes, destruction of property, and loss of life. Many of these conflicts are over land and resources and are rooted in a spiritual attachment to traditional tribal lands which are seen as gifts of God to both steward and protect.

In dialogue with an African theology of place, this paper seeks to propose biblical foundations for ethnic coexistence, as seen in Acts 17:22–31, and to examine how Paul’s Athenian sermon balances the ethnic particularities of land and tribe with the universal call to Christian salvation. Drawing on twenty interviews with South Sudanese nationals, this paper uses an integrated research method, accessing theological, biblical, and sociological perspectives to ask whether Acts 17 might suggest an approach to issues of land and tribalism in South Sudan.
Abaza Personal Names
Authors: Chirikba Viacheslav A.
Published: February 2014

The paper presents a thorough study of the Abaza personal names. Traditionally, Abazas, a small autochthonous people living in the Karačaj-Čerkes Republic of the Russian Federation, used a two-name system, consisting, as a rule, of the surname plus the postposed first name. The Abaza personal names are analysed with regard to their origin, structure, semantics, and social status. The onomastic system in general, as well as the tradition of naming among the Abazas are outlined as well.
The Treatment of Eczema in Traditional Chinese Medicine: An Attempt at Westernisation
Authors: Butler Anthony , Eltenton Georgina
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Although Western medicine makes extensive use of herbal extracts in its prescribing, from cancer treatments to antimalarial prophylaxis, there is a reluctance to approach one of the oldest and most established sources of medicinal herbs, namely traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This is due, in part, to the perceived link between the doctrines of TCM and the herbs, making the latter unacceptable in Western prescribing practice with its insistence on an evidence-based rationale. Reviewing recent studies of the doctrines of TCM and Western studies of the action of Chinese herbs, we conclude that the two are not intrinsically linked. Some Chinese herbs have an action that can be explained in clear biochemical terms. Also, the mixtures of herbs, so characteristic of Chinese herbal medicine, may parallel the modern practice of combination therapy. These ideas are considered in the light of a recent effort to transform a Chinese herbal remedy for eczema into a treatment within Western prescribing practice. Problems were encountered because of the EU regulations with regard to herbal remedies but the results were promising and further research into the efficacy of Chinese herbal remedies is fully justified.
The Wandering Scot Thomas Seget’s album amicorum
Authors: Gattei Stefano
Published: February 2014

This paper presents the first complete edition of Thomas Seget’s album amicorum, held at the Vatican Library (Cod. Vat. Lat. 9385). A friend of Galileo and Kepler, Seget was a background figure who played an important role within the learned world of the late Renaissance. Largely invisible in modern scholarship, figures like Seget played significant functions as cultural intermediaries and international political agents, thus occupying a new and critical position within the learned world of early modern Europe. Seget’s album amicorum offers a unique collection of autograph notes (including Galileo, Sarpi, Lips, Ortels, Pinelli, Welser, De Put, Querenghi, Fabri de Peiresc, Pignoria and Possevino, to mention but a few) which allows us to reconstruct the web of connections Seget managed to weave on his way from Leuven to Padua, as well as during the years he spent in Italy within Pinelli’s circle. Although the album stops at the end of 1600, Seget’s networking activity continued, with ups and downs, throughout his life, and is reconstructed here by way of published and unpublished documents. The paper comprises an Introduction, with a biography of Seget; a Note to the text, providing key elements to understand the role of the album amicorum in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as presenting the criteria of the present edition; a critical edition of Seget’s album; and three appendixes: a chronological table of the entries in the album; the transcription of entries by Seget in some of his friends’ albums; and the transcription of a few hitherto unpublished manuscript documents with information about Seget’s life and whereabouts.
Looking for Levites in the Book of Judges
Authors: Matthews Victor H.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The social location of the village culture as portrayed in the Judges period provides no legitimate place or cultic role for Levites. Their occasional appearances, (aside from the artificial injection of Phinehas into the civil war narrative in Judg 20:27-28), simply reinforce that fact that they do not and cannot perform the tasks that are traditionally assigned to Levites in the monarchy period. Instead, they, like most other characters in Judges, are portrayed as flawed individuals, who have little stake in teaching about or ministering before Yahweh. It is more in character that they are willing to serve idols and to sacrifice others rather than speak the truth. This narrative is intentionally presented as a world-turned-upside-down and it would upset the balance of chaos for Levites to suddenly appear to rectify the situation.
Italian Memory and Italian Memory Wars at Auschwitz
Authors: Gordon Robert S. C.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The Italian national memorial on the site of Auschwitz I was opened to the public in April 1980 and closed down in July 2011. The article examines the conception and genesis of the memorial in the 1970s, looking at the tensions and also the artistic richness of the project. It then examines in this light the public controversy that erupted around its proposed renovation, starting in 2008. It suggests a number of ways in which this unresolved debate throws light on key questions about Italy’s historical and contemporary memorialization of the Shoah.
Block 21 and the Pensabilità of the Representation of Auschwitz
Authors: Cavalleri Matteo
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Building on the assumption that the Memorial in Honor of Italians Fallen in Nazi Extermination Camps (situated in Auschwitz I, Block 21) expresses the meta-reflexive inclination that strengthened the twentieth century (the capacity of that century to think of itself as a subject), this article aims to highlight and illustrate the dual philosophical significance of the Memorial. From the perspective of the philosophy of history, this philosophical significance, which has a symbolic value, leads us to investigate an organic and historically embodied conception of deportation. From the perspective of the aesthetics of memory, this philosophical meaning offers a new framework for the question of the representability of Auschwitz, a framework that problematizes the very essence of the concept of representation and identifies the conditions that make possible this concept in its inescapable openness towards an ideal dimension. Central to this article is the category of pensabilità viewed as the symbolic grounds for both the act of testifying and its artistic expression.
The Ethics of Humanistic Scholarship: On Knowledge and Acknowledgement
Authors: Nevo Isaac (Yanni)
Published: February 2014

Abstract

My aim in this paper is to characterize the professional good served by the humanities as various academic disciplines, particularly in relation to the general academic good, namely, the pursuit of knowledge in theoretical and scholarly research, and to evaluate the public and ethical dimension of that professional good and the constraints it imposes upon practitioners. My argument will be that the humanities aim at both knowledge of objective facts and acknowledgement of the human status of their subject matter, and that there are facts (and truths) about human life and society that are inaccessible except through such humanistic acknowledgement. As such, the humanities require the adoption of evaluative, other-oriented points of view, and they serve the public by advancing a reflective view of the very conditions of the public’s own constitution. In short, the humanities incorporate the view that practical and evaluative wisdom is not only essential for the full pursuit of truth, but that it is also an essential public good in any well-ordered society, especially in contemporary democracies. The discussion proceeds by examining various examples of both the professional and the public good in question, and focuses particularly on cases of excessive acknowledgement in the form of uncritical apologetics and excessive objectification in various forms of reductionism.
History as the Science of the Individual
Authors: Ankersmit Frank
Published: February 2014

Abstract

It has often been argued – especially by historicists – that history deals with the individual where science focuses on the universal. But few philosophers would nowadays express their agreement with the historicist’s demarcation between history and the sciences. A standard criticism is that knowledge of the individual can only be expressed by an appeal to universals. This essay is an effort to rehabilitate the historicist argument by means of a closer and more accurate analysis of the notion of the individual than is given in the traditional historicist account of the nature of historical writing. Leibniz’s conception of the substance or the monad proves to be quite helpful here.
Christian Socialization during Youth and Christian Convictions from Early to Late Midlife*
Authors: Birkelbach Klaus , Meulemann Heiner
Published: February 2014

Christian convictions are investigated during the life course. As for causes during youth, a Christian socialization and good intergenerational relations in the family should have a positive impact – socialization and generational hypotheses. As for causes during the life course, personal attachments should have a positive, and success a negative impact – self-transcendence hypothesis; and experiences of illness and death should have a positive impact – crisis hypothesis. As for changes, a monotone increase of Christian convictions with age is expected – ageing hypothesis. The sample consists of 1301 former German high school students, first interviewed in 1969 at the age of 16, and again interviewed at the ages of 30, 43, and 56. The socialization hypothesis is confirmed according to most of its indicators, the remaining hypotheses are confirmed only in part.
Studying Politics and Religion: How to Distinguish Religious Politics, Civil Religion, Political Religion, and Political Theology
Authors: Laustsen Carsten Bagge
Published: February 2014

The study of politics and religion is today fragmented to a degree that you can hardly refer to it as one academic field anymore. This article lists four fundamentally different approaches to the study of politics and religion: political religion; religious politics; civil religion; and finally, political theology. The article compares the four approaches on a number of significant parameters: their understanding of what religion is; their critical ambition; to which degree a preliminary distinction between politics and religion is presupposed; and most importantly, how to approach the relationship between religion and politics in an analytical, strategic sense. The ambition with this survey is to support a discussion between the four approaches with a view to reach a more complete understanding of the relationship between politics and religion in all its complexity.
The R2P and Norm Diffusion: Towards A Framework of Norm Circulation
Authors: Acharya Amitav
Published: February 2014

The case of R2P calls for greater attention to agency and feedback in norm dynamics. New international norms are more likely to spread if the responsibility for their creation and diffusion is seen to have been more broadly shared than being credited to any particular group. Many new norms have multiple sources and contexts, yet there is a tendency to credit them to their final point of articulation. Moreover, once created, norms do not remain uncontested and static. The application of new norms in different locations and contexts can lead to their subsequent modifications, which in turn can reshape its initial features and support mechanisms. This feedback constitutes a form of agency, which might broaden the legitimacy and appeal of the norm and the possibility of its greater diffusion. The case of R2P shows that although it is generally attributed to the work of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, the norm had multiple prior sources, including the idea of ‘responsible sovereignty’. Furthermore, its development has had a strong African context. Lastly, subsequent controversies over the norm’s application, especially in Libya, attests to the possibility of critical feedback, such as calls for stricter enforcement of the norm’s criteria of last resort and proportionality, and greater accountability in operations conducted in defence of the norm.
Ordinum Pietas Revisited
Authors: Rabbie Edwin
Published: February 2014

This paper opened the Ordinum Pietas Conference. The author reviews his critical edition of Ordinum Pietas (1995), on which he worked during the period 1991-1995. He discusses its genesis and background, including the reasons for choosing this very work. In revisiting the edition he analyses the situation of an editor and commentator in ‘digital proto-history’ of the early nineties. In surveying his work on the edition, translation and commentary he brings up examples from the field of analytical bibliography, manuscript tradition, and problems of identifying quotations, with the discovery of the manuscript of Ordinum Pietas in the British Library as one of the most satisfactory results.
The Anglo-Dutch Context for the Writing and Reception of Hugo Grotius’s De Imperio Summarum Potestatum Circa Sacra, 1617-1659
Authors: Barducci Marco
Published: February 2014

As an illustration of the complexity of Anglo-Dutch intellectual connections in the seventeenth century, this essay focuses on the transnational context for the writing and reception of Grotius’s De imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra. DI was composed by Grotius during the dispute between Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants, but it was addressed not solely to a Dutch audience, but also to an English one. DI was intended by Grotius and by his patron Oldenbarnevelt to win the favour of James I to the cause of the Remonstrants in the context of their struggle against the orthodox Calvinists, the Contra-Remonstrants. Grotius praised the control of James I over the state church, and expressed his admiration for the hierarchical organisation of Anglican episcopacy. In doing so, he expressly took the English civil and ecclesiastical government of James I as a blueprint for the solution of the Dutch religious troubles. This article argues that despite of Grotius’s attempt to gain the approval of James I’s entourage before sending DI to press, DI was criticized both by his English interlocutors and, consistently throughout the century, by English Anglican-Royalist readers. The first part of this article will sketch the Anglo-Dutch cultural and political context which formed the background of DI. Secondly, it will examine the English sources of this work and how Grotius bent them to his and Oldenbarnevelt’s internal and foreign policy. Finally, it will offer some brief considerations concerning the controversial reception of DI in mid-seventeenth century England with a special focus on the Anglican tradition.
The Circulation of Medical Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Hungary
Authors: Krász Lilla
Published: February 2014

This paper reconstructs the circulation patterns of medical knowledge within the geographic space of the eighteenth-century Kingdom of Hungary. The social fabric of the kingdom was thoroughly intertwined with the religious, ethnic, linguistic, estate constitutional, and professional cultures of knowledge which, accordingly, showed a great abundance of diversity. These multi-level regional differences are disclosed while exploring the extent, rapidity, and quality of contemporary medical knowledge circulation, which were primarily influenced by the operation of Hungary’s educational centers under the auspices of the different churches. Undoubtedly, physicians tended to follow the Habsburg Monarchy’s and Europe’s circulation of theoretical, practical, methodological concepts, which varied though according to the means and orientations of different educational centers aided by the “peregrinatio academica.” In the first half of the eighteenth century, Halle served as a primary source of knowledge elements, whereas the import of Dutch and Swiss university cultures of knowledge had been on the rise from the second half of the century onward. Moreover, Gerard van Swieten’s reforms overriding denominational boundaries, transformed the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna into an institute of prominence in the second half of the eighteenth century. The reforms had consequences upon the making and evolution of Hungary’s independent medical discourse, self-reflection, and methodology. The foundation of the Medical Faculty of the University of Trnava (Nagyszombat, Tyrnau) in 1770, and its subsequent resettlement in Buda and Pest, brought about a transformation in the long run.
SPACING EUROPE: WHAT IS A HISTORICAL REGION?
Authors: Todorova Maria
Published: February 2014

The focus of this article is the introduction of the category of historical legacy as the most adequate heuristic device in approaching and describing historical regions. Its central argument is that the notion of historical legacy, insofar as it allows more c1early to articulate the dynamism and fluidity of historical change, has numerous advantages over other more structural categories of analysis utilized thus far in the literature, such as borders, space, territoriality, etc. It therefore appears to be the most appropriate category for analyzing long-term regional developments by avoiding the reification of latter-day regions. The case is made for historical legacy as an analytical tool both theoretically and concretely, by applying the category to Europe in general, and in particular to Eastem Europe and the Balkans. Finally, some practical issues of spacing are addressed, both analytically and politically.
YUGONOSTALGIA: RESTORATIVE AND REFLECTIVE NOSTALGIA IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Authors: Lindstrom Nicole
Published: February 2014

Drawing on Svetlana Boym's distinction between "restorative" and "reflective" nostalgia, the essay maps two broad, and often overlapping, ideal types of Yugonostalgia expressed in and through contemporary former Yugoslav film, popular music, and multi-media. The first expresses reeonstructive longing for an essential Yugoslav past; the second offers self-consciously ambivalent and critical frames in indulging fantasies of this past. What different forms of Yugonostalgia share in common is challenging symbolic geographies of disunity that have dominated political discourse in former Yugoslavia for the last two decades. The two types can be differenciated by their stance toward the presentpast and the future: while both of them are based on fantasies of the past, thc "restorative" Yugonostalgic looks backward towards a seemingly fixed time and space while "reflective" nostalgic restlessly grapples with the dislocation so palpable in the former Yugoslavia to imagine alternative futures.
“Obama no Obama” – Knowledge as Exhilaration: A Curator’s Exhibition Report
Authors: Yano Christine R.
Published: February 2014

This article describes my experience as a widely published academic scholar in organizing an exhibit for the public titled “Obama no Obama (Obama’s Obama): One President, Two Countries, A Myriad of Goods.” The exhibit, at a local museum, the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai`i, presented the souvenirs and paraphernalia from Obama, the Japanese beach town in Fukui province, which celebrated Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. Inside the doors of the exhibit hung display after display of goods from Japan and the United States focused on President Obama, particularly during his campaign days of 2008 and 2009 when Obama-mania was at its peak throughout many parts of the world. Obama town garnered headlines throughout Japan and beyond, adopting familiar slogans, “Yes we can!” as banners of support for the candidate and publicity for the town itself. I decided to turn my research interest in the topic into an event that could examine image-making, celebrity, and commodification that surrounds public figures in the United States and Japan – and do so in a very public manner.
The Ghost of Arthur H. Smith in the Mirror of Cultural Translation
Authors: Liu Lydia H.
Published: February 2014

Arthur H. Smith’s Chinese Characteristics (1890) remained the most widely read American book on China until Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth (1931). Smith’s collection of pungent and humorous essays, originally written for white expatriates in Asia, was accepted by Americans at home as a wise and authentic handbook. The book was soon translated into Japanese (1896), classical Chinese (1903), and at least three more times into Chinese since 1990. The characteristics Smith identified reflect his conception of the American Way of Life, racial hierarchy, the idea of progress, and the middle-class values with which he was brought up. He used race and “national character” to explain Chinese food, dress, body care, music, art, language, and architecture, as well as politics and religion. Lu Xun, the preeminent Chinese cultural critic of the early twentieth century, pondered why his country had been defeated and came to believe that the character of his countrymen was the key to their future survival. Smith’s criticisms were valuable for this task of introspection but Lu Xun took him to task for misunderstanding the concept of “face” because he did not grasp it in the social context of unequal power. The ghost of Arthur Smith thus haunts both Chinese and Americans.