bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Umayyad Palace Iconography
Authors: Ali Nadia , Guidetti Mattia
Published: December 2017

The traditional focus on early Islamic art has often obscured the specific contexts of the production of particular artworks. The famous wall paintings at the bath and audience hall of Qusayr ʿAmra and the floor mosaics at Khirbat al-Mafjar provide an opportunity for reconsidering how early Islam responded to encounters with visual and intellectual cultures of Late Antiquity. This essay attempts to explain the making of Umayyad iconography from the craftsmen’s perspectives. By placing the emphasis on the craftsmen and their practices as a repository of techniques, traditions, and cultural memory, we will explore issues of transmission, continuity, and discontinuity in art, through the lens of this segment of society. Ultimately, the goal is to move beyond the interpretation of early Islamic image as a closed symbol, thereby shifting the focus from iconography and style to a practice-centered discourse developed according to the makers’ visual economy.
The Future of the Past
Authors: Borrut Antoine
Published: December 2017

Writing the history of the first centuries of Islam poses thorny methodological problems, because our knowledge rests upon narrative sources produced later in Abbasid Iraq. The creation of an “official” version of the early Islamic past (i.e., a vulgate), composed contemporarily with the consolidation of Abbasid authority in the Middle East, was not the first attempt by Muslims to write about their origins. This Abbasid-era version succeeded when previous efforts vanished, or were reshaped, in rewritings and enshrined as the “official” version of Islamic sacred history. Attempts to impose different historical orthodoxies affected the making of this version, as history was rewritten with available materials, partly determined by earlier generations of Islamic historians. This essay intends to discuss a robust culture of historical writing in eighth-century Syria and to suggest approaches to access these now-lost historiographical layers torn between memory and oblivion, through Muslim and non-Muslim sources.
Caliphs and Conquerors
Authors: Clarke Nicola
Published: December 2017

Most medieval Arabic accounts of the early eighth-century conquests in Iberia and Central Asia give speaking roles to two Marwānid caliphs, the brothers al-Walīd I (r. 705–715) and Sulaymān (r. 715–717). This essay examines prevailing literary presentations of these two caliphs, who feature variously as hindrance or help to the commanders of the conquest armies: al-Walīd tends to appear as a restorer of justice, who ensures that a Berber mawlā (client) gets his fair share of conquest loot, while Sulaymān is generally portrayed as a grasping bully who clashes with his late brother's frontier commanders. In particular, the essay looks at the role of tribal politics and patronage in the caliphs’ interaction with the protagonists of the conquest narratives, and the ways in which the Iberian narratives seek to reinforce Umayyad claims to the peninsula they ruled between 756 and 1031.
Sex in the Shadow of Rome
Authors: Belser Julia Watts
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines the theological significance of sexual violence in the aftermath of Roman conquest. Rabbinic accounts of sexual violence, enslavement, and forced prostitution intertwine theological lament with the brutal body costs of Roman domination. Talmudic narratives mimic pervasive Roman symbolism of imperial dominance as a form of “sexual conquest,” using that symbolism to express rabbinic lament to articulate rabbinic resistance to imperial violence. In contrast to the biblical motif of women’s whoredom as provoking divine punishment, the rabbinic narratives instead position God and woman alike as violated by Rome. Yet these stories make instrumental use of rape as a way to give voice to divine woundedness and rabbinic lament. Ultimately, the symbolic and theological significance afforded to rape largely reinscribes the vulnerability of women and enslaved people—and draws attention away from the embodied experience of those most likely to bear the brunt of sexual violence.
Romans Before the Rabbis’ God
Authors: Belser Julia Watts
Published: December 2017

This chapter grapples with rabbinic fantasies of revenge and recompense, focusing primarily on the lengthy rabbinic tale of Titus’s downfall after his destruction of the temple. It examines the Titus narrative through the framework of rabbinic eschatology, demonstrating how the tale critiques the arrogance and hubris of the conqueror, imagines the downfall of the wicked, and undercuts the triumphalist assertions of Roman imperial power. These rabbinic eschatological fantasies are expressed in striking corporeal terms: through images of bodily rupture and physical pain, as well as the humiliation and degradation of flesh that recount the unmaking of the imperial body. Through striking images of the body as a porous and permeable space, these narratives challenge the notion of Roman-Christian power as sealed and sovereign—imagining the imperial body as vulnerable to divine incursion, open to divine touch.
Opulence and Oblivion
Authors: Belser Julia Watts
Published: December 2017

This chapter analyzes Bavli Gittin’s self-critical assessment of the ethical failings of the rabbis and other Jewish elites. Through tales of feasting in the shadow of catastrophe, Bavli Gittin articulates striking concerns about the collateral costs of opulent wealth, calling attention to the way that extravagant luxury isolates and insulates those who dine at the fanciest tables from the gritty realities of violence and danger. Key moments in Bavli Gittin’s narrative center around food: the shame of Bar Qamtsa at a feast sparks his eventual betrayal of the Jews, the tale of Marta bat Boethus recounts the starvation of the wealthiest woman in Jerusalem, and Caesar destroys Tur Malka in retaliation for an opulent banquet. This chapter argues that stories of luxurious eating serve as a powerful source of rabbinic social critique, illuminating the way wealth, luxury, and social privilege distance elites from the awareness of suffering in their midst.
Ecology and Economy: Partners or Antagonists?
Authors: Fiorino Daniel J.
Published: December 2017

Ecological policy and politics in the United States and most other countries has turned on the almost inevitable conflicts between ecological and economic goals. US policy recognized this in defining policy as a process of minimizing negatives: of limiting ecological harm while also controlling for pollution and other effects of growth. Instead, policy choices should be built on a green growth strategy—of maximizing the opportunities for positive relationships. This goal is supported by evidence. Ecological policies in the United States have had limited adverse effects on economic growth and competitiveness; at the same time, strategies built on such concepts as clean energy and green infrastructure define options for positive-sum solutions. Evidence of both ecological and social costs of unguided economic growth, as well as the realities of American politics, makes a compelling case for a green growth framing.
Ecological Governance
Authors: Fiorino Daniel J.
Published: December 2017

A weakness in the writing about green growth is inattention to governance. This chapter explores the evidence on the role of governance factors on ecological performance among countries. Although some critics doubt the ability of democratic systems to respond to difficult and complex ecological problems like climate change or ecosystem degradation, there are practical and normative reasons to seek more rather than less democracy. Specific institutional factors (federalist versus unitary or parliamentary versus separation of powers) may affect national performance. More influential in supporting effective ecological governance—and by extension a capacity for green growth—is the ability in a political system to build consensus on issues, integrate across policy sectors, and find positive relationships among ecological and economic goals. These lessons are applied to an analysis of the United States in later chapters.
The Green Growth Policy Agenda
Authors: Fiorino Daniel J.
Published: December 2017

The concept of green growth offers both a means of reframing ecology–economy relationships and defining an agenda for change. This chapter sets out the framework for a green growth policy agenda. This agenda builds upon existing strategies and tools, such as use of mandatory technology or performance standards, but also is distinctive in expanding the scope of policymaking, emphasizing ecology–economy positive-sums, looking beyond ecological to other policy sectors, granting critical ecosystems principled priority in decisions, and incorporating social costs. As for tools, the green growth agenda relies heavily on market-like mechanisms such as pollution taxes or trading, on methods for valuing ecosystems services, and on reorienting investment strategies for green sectors and goals. In sum, there exists a rich and varied green growth policy agenda that may support a transition toward green growth.
Introduction
Authors: Bloomer Kristin C.
Published: December 2017

This chapter begins with the caste conflicts leading up to the possession and healing of a Dalit woman in rural Sivagangai District. It offers a general background for readers on the various forms of non-Brahmanical Hindu deity and spirit possession practices prevalent in Tamil Nadu, a brief history of Christianity in India; and the evolution of Mary through history and doctrine. It presents the problematic categories of “universal” versus “local” religious practices. It argues that Marian possession both challenges and colludes with three sorts of hegemony: Brahmanical Hinduism, orthodox Roman Catholicism, and patriarchy. However, such practices allow women to cultivate a form of agency that helps them not only to survive economic, caste, and gender oppression but also to lead themselves and others out of suffering and toward embodied wholeness—“this-worldly redemption.”
Possession, Processions, and Authority
Authors: Bloomer Kristin C.
Published: December 2017

Our Lady Jecintho Prayer House clashes with Roman Catholic authorities, including the Madras-Mylapore archbishop who attempts to ban Mass and ritual processions, as well as general attendance. The prayer house and the local Catholic church offer competing Mary ceremonies and processions for an annual May festival—and both are rich in syncretic rituals derived from local traditions. The Jecintho procession and Mass are described in detail, as are the fervent belief and involvement of the community of followers. Their deference to the orders of Jecintho over those of the local archbishop indicates the strength of their faith in her authority. The clash also reveals struggles over power and authority that vaguely echo those around the Hindu temple at Kandadevi.
Women’s Work
Authors: Bloomer Kristin C.
Published: December 2017

This chapter begins with the story of Sahaya Mary, a resident of Dhanam’s village who struggled with a difficult pregnancy and marriage and was healed by Mātā, who diagnosed her as being possessed by Pāndi Muni. Her story displays the restrictions placed on the female body through local customs, religion, and Catholic doctrine. As with Rosalind and Nancy, possession by Mātā gives Dhanam authority outside normal gender roles and power structures and, on occasion, allows her to confer that greater authority on others. Her experiences are notably different than those of Nancy and Rosalind. Mātā’s interventions through the body of Dhanam allow women to circumvent certain daily power struggles. Dhanam specifies differences between Mātā and Hindu deities. Changes are coming to the rural community as newcomers stretch land and water resources. One such newcomer threatens Dhanam, and her possession practices wane.
Evangelical Devotion and the Transition to Modernity
Authors: Hindmarsh D. Bruce
Published: December 2017

The “Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns” was critical to the emergence of modernity as an idea in the eighteenth century, and evangelicalism appeared in the midst of this cultural debate over the authority of things past and things new. This chapter explores the question of the extent to which evangelicalism was “modern,” with special reference to John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards. Both participants and critics understood there to be something new about the evangelical experience in its intensity and immediacy, and its public presence. The modernity of evangelical devotion was evident above all, however, in its dynamic social forms, uniting small group experience within wider, transnational networks. It had precedents in radical congregationalism, Pietist small groups, and the transdenominational fellowship of Moravians, but these were merged in a new evangelical “connexionalism” under the modern conditions that produced the democratic public sphere. In this respect it shared many of the characteristics of a modern social movement.
The Making of the Evangelical Conscience
Authors: Hindmarsh D. Bruce
Published: December 2017

When it came to human nature, evangelicals did not share the optimism of those who felt moral philosophy could follow the precedents of natural philosophy. The distinctive evangelical doctrine of the “spirituality and extent of the law” was the key to diagnosing the sinful human condition, establishing the urgency of conversion, and defining evangelical moral agency. In this emphasis on law, evangelicals drew upon analogues in their law-minded culture, for this was England’s “century of law.” George Whitefield preached, quite literally, with the scaffold in the background. The relationship between what John Locke called divine law, civil law, and the law of public opinion can be seen clearly in the case of the lawyer-turned-preacher Martin Madan, and the assize sermons of John Wesley and Henry Venn.
Conclusion
Authors: Hindmarsh D. Bruce
Published: December 2017

Reviewing the arguments of the preceding chapters, it is possible to see evangelical devotion in all its intensity as an episode in the longer history of Christian spirituality, one that appears uniquely now in a society that is modernizing and naturalizing. We cannot do justice to the experience of eighteenth-century people by offering reductionist explanations of their religion that depend upon the modern, naturalist assumptions they were contesting. This would be to beg the question of what is the meaning of religious experience in the modern world by simply erecting an agnostic firewall against the very possibility. Instead, we may see the evangelicals of the eighteenth century as bearing witness in their lives and writings to the continued experience of God’s presence in the modern world. The perdurance of evangelical religion across three centuries and five continents suggests the evangelical quest for “true religion” will not slow anytime soon.
Nice Girls Gone Blue
Authors: Schwadron Hannah
Published: December 2017

This chapter foregrounds a performance ethnography among New York’s Jewish neoburlesque and cabaret spoofs on the Hanukkah circuit from 2011 to 2016. By looking at what the body does to mock and modify stereotypes of the Jewish woman, it frames the ways that performers utilize physical humor to critique harmful images of the unsexy hag, Jewish mother, and Jewish American princess, while posing new identity gags. Yet in performing Otherness from positions of race privilege, Jewish neoburlesquers distance themselves from the very epochs they evoke, securing their status as white women who can presumably put on and take off Otherness at will.
Hello, Gorgeous, and the Historical Lens
Authors: Schwadron Hannah
Published: December 2017

This chapter celebrates a performance history in the United States of Jewish female physical comedy that spans nearly a century of gender and humor radicalism. It moves from early twentieth-century performances of the Red Hot Mamas Sophie Tucker, Fanny Brice, and Betty Boop to touring acts, movie dance scenes, and comedy sketches of the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including spotlights on Barbra Streisand, Gilda Radner, Bette Midler, and Madeline Kahn. Specific performances showcase how these giants of comedy staged critical responses to Jewish race and class assimilation in the context of women’s liberation movements, establishing foundational techniques of today’s Sexy Jewess spectacle.
Comic Glory (and Guilt)
Authors: Schwadron Hannah
Published: December 2017

This chapter covers the late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century shift toward a new brand of postassimilatory and postfeminist joke-work. It highlights select material by celebrity Jewish female comics from the 1990s though the present. An “appropriative license” of select comic material conjoins the reappropriative and misappropriative effects of women performing Jewishly in a zeitgeist of American comedy. Self-ironizing performances by Sandra Bernhard, Sarah Silverman, and Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer illustrate how comics slide among race, gender, and sex identities to play up their progressive politics and white guilt in an era of newfound access to mainstream comedy.
Black Swan, White Nose
Authors: Schwadron Hannah
Published: December 2017

This chapter recasts the Jewish woman as female monster through an analysis of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010). Against the damaging pressures of professional dance on the female psyche, the film recasts the White Swan and Black Swan roles as monstrous representations of the Jewish woman as ethnic Other and sexual deviant. In a significant counterpart to the funny girls discussed in the previous chapters, Black Swan uses ballet to appropriate social and political identities with tenuous relationships to the mainstream and reveals how these appropriations amount to an ultimate domestication of the very identities the film puts forward for thrilling appeal.
Young America and Democracy
Authors: Hart Daniel , Youniss James
Published: December 2017

As a consequence of their low levels of political activity, knowledge, and interest, young people today are viewed as a threat to the foundations of American democracy. This widely shared contemporary perspective concerning youth is situated in ideological and historical contexts. We argue that the disparagement of young people occludes the very real possibility that civic life can be reinvigorated by providing genuine civic opportunities to youths.
Parties, Voters, and Interest Groups
Authors: Hart Daniel , Youniss James
Published: December 2017

American politics, politicians, and voters are ideologically polarized. This chapter reviews the historical increase in polarization, its implication for federal functioning, and the likely causes for ideological division. National politics deaden youth interest and drain political efficacy; we argue that engaging young people in American civic life is best done at community and municipal levels.
The Place of Words
Authors: Fitzsimmons Michael P.
Published: December 2017

From its initial appearance in 1694 and through successive editions in 1718, 1740, and 1762, the Dictionnaire de l’Académie Française had risen to become the definitive arbiter of the French language. Preparation of the fifth edition was at an advanced state when the French Revolution began in 1789 but it remained unfinished when the National Convention suppressed academies in August 1793. Seeking to codify the language of the Revolution, the Convention commissioned two Parisian publishers to complete the fifth edition, hoping that it would be a vehicle for promoting the ideals of the Revolution in the manner that the earlier editions had for the values of absolute monarchy. When it appeared during the year VI (1798), however, it was completely anachronistic and barely took note of the Revolution except for a brief supplement of “words in use since the Revolution” that comprised only a small fraction of its content. Another Parisian publisher believed its deficiencies offered an opportunity to publish a competing edition, which he did, along with a partner, in 1802. The holders of the rights to the fifth edition took them to court for piracy, initiating protracted legislation in which they ultimately prevailed. Preparation of the sixth edition had been entrusted to the Institut National and the Napoleonic regime was eager to see it completed, but Bonaparte fell before that occurred. The restored Bourbon dynasty was also eager to see the new edition completed but it was overthrown in 1830. The sixth edition appeared only in 1835 and, similar to the fifth edition it supplanted, it glossed over the Revolution—as well as the Napoleonic period—but in a different manner. Although the dictionary included definitions from the revolutionary and Napoleonic era, it frequently elided the period through the phrase “at a certain epoch.”
The Founding of the Académie Française and Its Development through the Late Seventeenth Century
Authors: Fitzsimmons Michael P.
Published: December 2017

What would become the Académie Française had modest beginnings as an informal weekly gathering of young men in Paris to discuss literary matters. Although its members tried to keep their meetings secret, Richelieu learned of the group’s existence and appropriated it. In 1635 it became the nucleus for the founding of the new Académie. Although its charter stipulated four responsibilities, the Académie ultimately undertook only one—the creation of a dictionary of the French language. The task of creating a dictionary proved difficult and the first edition did not appear until nearly sixty years later, in 1694. It was widely criticized, particularly for its organizational structure.
Conclusion
Authors: Fitzsimmons Michael P.
Published: December 2017

Even before the Revolution, our language was that of Europe; all of our books were translated . . . France was led to its lofty heights by its great writers; our language will not degenerate in the hands of a free people.

—Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Le Nouveau Paris

Spanning several regimes from the beginning of its preparation after the publication of the fourth edition in 1762 until the appearance of the sixth edition in 1835, the fifth edition of the ...
Competing Schools
Authors: Gross Robert N.
Published: December 2017

Chapter 2 details how the rapid expansion of private, Catholic schooling in the 1870s and 1880s introduced unforeseen competition that transformed urban education. Newly constructed Catholic parochial schools in cities like Pittsburgh siphoned tens of thousands of Catholic students away from urban public schools. As a result, conflicts over growing parochial school attendance seemed ensured. Public officials initially responded by attempting to adapt to their new competitors. In hopes of attracting Catholic immigrants, for example, school boards in cities such as Cleveland and Chicago adopted foreign-language instruction, or attempted to work out various schemes to fund Catholic schools out of the public treasury. These measures met with varying degrees of success but failed to halt what was becoming a clear, national trend: sharp lines demarcating public and private schools, in often fierce competition with one another in American cities.
Creating the Educational Marketplace
Authors: Gross Robert N.
Published: December 2017

Chapter 5 shows how, by the 1920s, public policies had forged a regulated educational marketplace in American cities. Catholic students frequently transferred between public and private schools. Effectively managing these shifts in school attendance required public officials to establish the standards, rules, and procedures to facilitate parental choice between the two systems. Public regulations standardized the diffuse curriculum and teaching practices of public and private schools. Parents transferred their children from public to private schools with the understanding that the latter fit within the state’s minimal education standards, and that their choice would not result in their child suffering academic or professional harm. New regulations tied public and parochial school governance together in ways unthinkable during the nineteenth century. Catholic school administrators and parents largely embraced these new laws, viewing them as essential for raising the status of Catholic education.
Fighting the Educational Monopoly
Authors: Gross Robert N.
Published: December 2017

Chapter 6 describes how federal courts, by sanctioning public regulation, saved private education from outright abolition. In 1922 voters in Oregon approved an initiative, aimed at Catholics, that criminalized attendance in private schools. The National Catholic Welfare Conference challenged the law’s constitutionality and, in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), the Supreme Court struck it down. Throughout the legal proceedings, Catholic lawyers, led by William D. Guthrie, argued that abolishing private schools was unnecessary because states routinely exercised broad powers of regulation. The Court agreed, asserting that because Oregon possessed significant authority to supervise and manage private schools, states could not legally strip them of their property through abolition. While the case later became a pillar for the constitutional right to privacy, the ruling represented a strong assertion of public authority. Public regulation aided rather than hindered the development of private schooling in the United States.
Telling Lies, Making Truth
Authors: Feinberg Melissa
Published: December 2017

This chapter analyzes the political function of show trials in Eastern Europe. It argues that while show trials told lies, their primary purpose was to reveal new truths about the Cold War world to their East European audiences. Show trials described a world where the peace-loving socialist East was continually menaced by the imperialist West, which sent spies and saboteurs to wreck its economic development and plotted to destroy it in a nuclear war. These political plays told East Europeans how they should see the world and clarified the consequences of non-compliance. This chapter also examines how people around the region were required to voice their condemnation of the traitors on trial and dedicate themselves to the search for hidden enemies.
The Power of the Powerless
Authors: Feinberg Melissa
Published: December 2017

This chapter considers the fear of shortage or scarcity. The Stalinist period was a time of scarcity in Eastern Europe. Shortages of even basic goods were common; accordingly, the West defined Communist regimes as places of extreme deprivation. But when confronted with the spectacle of scarce goods, refugees were anything but powerless. Asked about the material situation at home, they emphasized their cleverness, guile, and ability to work the system in order to acquire whatever they needed. Many told stories of buying and selling on the black market or even denouncing others to improve their daily existence. But although many refugees emphasized how they defied the system, broke the law, and even bribed the police, these tales did not prompt Western analysts to revise their picture of Eastern Europe’s Communist regimes as totalitarian dystopias where the population was held powerless under the shadow of paralyzing fear.
Conclusion
Authors: Feinberg Melissa
Published: December 2017

Histories of the Cold War have often been preoccupied with issues of accountability and intent. Such histories have generally focused on leading political actors and concerned themselves with issues that implicitly or explicitly pitted one camp against another, asking questions such as: Who was responsible for starting the Cold War? Who made key decisions? Who won and who lost? This study has been motivated by a different set of concerns. Rather than setting one side against the other, it has examined the Cold War as a shared political environment and tried to illuminate some of the ways a political culture that relied on moral absolutes affected patterns of thought on both sides of the Iron Curtain. It has tried to expand the question of who knew what and when by shifting the focus to how knowledge about Eastern Europe was produced, showing how some experiences took on the weight of evidence, whereas others seemingly provoked little thought....
Introduction
Authors: Walden Joshua S.
Published: December 2017

The introduction offers an overview of the history of visual and musical portraiture and an exploration of the role of abstraction in visual portraiture in the twentieth century. It continues with a discussion of modes of representation in music, and the role played by metaphor in the generation and interpretation of musical representation and meaning. It then examines contemporary notions of identity to develop an understanding of how the musical portrait operates in the narrative construction of the individual self in the contemporary era. Finally, it closes with a description of the chapter structure of the book’s exploration of musical portraiture.
Musical and Literary Portraiture
Authors: Walden Joshua S.
Published: December 2017

The first chapter examines musical portraits of literary figures. It first explores Virgil Thomson’s multiple works in the genre including his portrait of Gertrude Stein, to interpret the influence of Stein’s modernist literary portraits on Thomson’s compositions. It then turns to Pierre Boulez’s orchestral portrait Pli selon pli: portrait de Mallarmé. Analyzing Boulez’s incorporation of elements of Stéphane Mallarmé’s poetry as well as the complex and idiosyncratic theories regarding the relationship between poetry and music that Mallarmé developed in his essays. Through the discussion of these portraits, the chapter addresses the crucial role of language in the musical representation of identity.
Listening in on Composers’ Self-Portraits
Authors: Walden Joshua S.
Published: December 2017

Chapter 3 explores the methods by which composers have depicted themselves and their compositional styles in musical self-portraits. It views musical self-portraits in relation to self-portraiture in visual art to identify techniques shared by the two art forms. The chapter focuses in particular on two self-portraits, György Ligeti’s “Selbstportrait mit Reich und Riley (und Chopin ist auch dabei),” from Drei Stücke, and Peter Ablinger’s “Quadraturen IV: ‘Selbstportrait mit Berlin.’ ” In their self-portraits, Ligeti and Ablinger reflect on their professional and artistic identities in the context provided by the music and sounds that they hear around them. The study of these musical self-portraits reveals some of the ways recent and contemporary composers view the role of their art and of the sense of hearing in the construction of their own identities.
History and Memory
Authors: Dudoignon Stéphane A.
Published: December 2017

A geographical survey of Iranian Baluchistan highlights the modern transformation of the desert/oasis dichotomy, and the socioeconomic impact of this evolution upon political and religious authority within the Baluch world. Examining the discourses of different categories of primary sources on the Baluch, the chapter highlights the changing perception by diverse observers of Baluch religiosity and religious identity since the early twentieth century. It also shows, notably, how Iranian anticolonial discourse in the 1960s-70s exposed the impact of Shia migration to the country’s Sunni-peopled periphery upon the consolidation of an ethno-social Sunni minority identity. Dealing with Baluch historiography, the chapter discusses how Baluch chroniclers have promoted, since the 1960s, a typology of heroes and values in which the ulama and Islamic discourse tend to replace tribal leaders and pastoral ethics of previous centuries. The chapter underlines the role played in this discursive change and the contest of the tribal chieftains’ power, by representatives of the oases world and of minor tribal groups of landowning status.
Modernisation vs. Secularisation
Authors: Dudoignon Stéphane A.
Published: December 2017

The chapter analyses the chrestomathies (tadhkiras) of Persian-language Sunni religious poets have published in Iranian Baluchistan since the late 1990s. It demonstrates how the ulama of the Sarbaz nexus, and their centralised transregional madrasa network, have managed to impose their discursive hegemony in Easternmost Iran, with the assistance of local Shia-background institutions and NGOs patronized by Guide Ali Khamenei. This triumph of the Islamic discourse of the Deoband School in Iranian territory, and the eclipse of tribal authority from Baluch memory, are explained here as effects of the anti-tribal modernisation policy implemented by the Pahlavi monarchy and its encouragement of Shia migration to the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries – which had been exposed, already, by Iranian anticolonial discourse of the 1960s-70s.
From Tribal to Global to … Tribal?
Authors: Dudoignon Stéphane A.
Published: December 2017

This chapter deals with the history of the emergence, development, triumph and present-day challenges of Deobandi madrasa teaching and of the politicisation of Sunni identity in Iran’s Baluch society, against the socioeconomic backgrounds reconstructed in the volume’s previous sections. It relates, notably, the origins of the Sarbaz nexus. It explores the centrality of the Sarbaz oasis in early modern Iranian Baluchistan; its connexions with the Baluch transnational labour emigration; British and Iranian support to Deobandi teaching during the Interwar period, as a bulwark against Soviet influence and communist ideology; the decisive role played after WWII by intermediary agents in Karachi and Pakistani Baluchistan for the propagation of Deobandi teaching in Iranian territory; and the special connexion of the Sarbazi nexus of ulama with the Isma‘ilzayi tribe and its allies in Baluch society.
Human Resources for Health
Authors: Mukherjee Joia S.
Published: December 2017

Impoverished countries face what has been termed a human resource crisis. Decades of under-resourced training programs, low public sector wages, and poor working conditions have led to shortages of health workers and the underperformance of staff where the burden of disease is the highest. In this chapter, the causes of the human resource crisis are explained and the gaps in training and retention of personnel are described. The chapter outlines new programs, such as the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI), Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI), and the Rwanda government’s national Human Resources for Health program. All of these programs are working with governments to increase the numbers of health professionals trained and improve their clinical capacity through long-term training and mentorship.
Evolution in Drug Access
Authors: Mukherjee Joia S.
Published: December 2017

Treatment and curative medical care often require medication. This chapter focuses on the provision of medications in impoverished settings and the challenges that inhibit access to life-saving drugs. It will review the failure of the for-profit market to increase drug access for the poor. The evolving concept of essential drugs will be explored by reviewing the history the WHO Essential Medicines List (EML) and the fight to expand the list to include new, and often patented medicines. The international treaties and policies that impact drug availability will be highlighted as will novel systems for drug development and distribution. Finally, the chapter will highlight the growing movement to decrease costs, increase supply, and advance development of drugs for neglected diseases affecting impoverished people.
Governance
Authors: Mukherjee Joia S.
Published: December 2017

This chapter focuses on governance, a key building block of a health system. A government is responsible for the health of its people. It sets the health strategy and oversees the implementation of health programs. External forces and actors influence the governance of the health sector. This chapter explores governance of health from the perspective of the nation-state coordinating its own health system (sometimes called governance for global health). The chapter examines the internal and external forces that influence national governance for global health. The chapter also looks beyond the level of the nation-state to explore the concept of global governance for health. In the interconnected and globalized world, global governance for health is needed to coordinate the geopolitical forces that impact health and its social determinants.
Beyond the Secular Myth
Authors: Wolf Anne
Published: December 2017

Chapter 1 introduces the historical roots of the Islamist movement in Tunisia, which go back long before independence. It argues that the notion of ‘secular Tunisia’ has always been a myth. A powerful religious trend has existed alongside more secular currents for almost two centuries. Moreover, contrary to the general belief that early Tunisian reformers are the forerunners of the country’s contemporary secular current, wide-ranging changes were launched from the nineteenth century by a variety of figures, including clerics; they were typically top-down and opposed by vast sections of the more traditional population.
Tunisia’s Muslim Brotherhood?
Authors: Wolf Anne
Published: December 2017

Chapter 2 shows that religious forces flourished as a reaction to Bourguiba’s modernising efforts. They initially organised themselves as a loose association, al-Jamaʿa al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Group), a movement focusing on public morality, which quickly became politicized and in 1979 established the Islamic Tendency Movement (Mouvement de la Tendence Islamique, MTI; Harakat al-Ittijah al-Islami). The author demonstrates the importance of three factors leading many devout Muslims to embrace political Islam: the increasing amount of Egyptian Brotherhood literature reaching Tunisia; the Iranian Revolution; and, particularly, an active religious student body.The MTI’s rapprochement with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood led a faction of the movement advocating a ‘Tunisian Islam’ to split from it.
The Struggle for Survival
Authors: Wolf Anne
Published: December 2017

Chapter 4 details the diverse trajectories of prisoners and their families, as well as the exile community—the backdrop for understanding Tunisia’s heterogeneous Islamist landscape nowadays. It sheds new light on the extent to which followers of Ennahda and their families were systematically tortured and repressed, mainly in an attempt to root out the movement’s opposition to the regime.The exile community sought to ensure the survival of the movement by moving its structures abroad. Ennahda even acquired international recognition through Ghannouchi’s public embracing of multi-party politics.Yet by the late 2000s, exiles were markedly divided as an increasing number of them were longing to return to Tunisia, even under the terms dictated by Ben Ali.
Tribes and Politics in Yemen
Authors: Brandt Marieke
Published: December 2017

Tribes and Politics in Yemen tells the story of the Houthi conflict in Sa’dah Province, Yemen, as seen through the eyes of the local tribes. The Houthi conflict, which erupted in 2004, is often defined through the lenses of either the Iranian-Saudi proxy war or the Sunni–Shia divide. Yet, as experienced by locals, the Houthi conflict is much more deeply rooted in the recent history of Sa’dah Province and northern Yemen. Its origins must be sought in the political, economic, social and sectarian transformations since the 1960s civil war and their repercussions on the local society, which is dominated by tribal norms. From the civil war to the Houthi conflict these transformations involve the same individuals, families and groups, and are driven by the same struggles over resources, prerogatives, and power.
This book is based on years of anthropological fieldwork both on the ground and through digital anthropological approaches. It offers an intimate view of the local complexities of the Houthi conflict and its historical background. By doing so, it underscores the absolute imperative of understanding the highly local, personal, and non-ideological nature of internal conflict in Yemen.
The Interior View of a War
Authors: Brandt Marieke
Published: December 2017

The introductory chapter outlines the research question, research methods, and structure of the book. The book aims at exploring the ‘grassroots’ dynamics of the Houthi conflict in its area of origin by giving full play to the welter of local driving forces. The research question is related to anthropology’s preference for small-scale networks, local communities, and other micro-entities. Based on a bottom-up approach and a triangulation of qualitative content analysis, qualitative social science methodology (ethnographic fieldwork) and digital anthropological fieldwork, the book offers an intimate insight in one of the world’s most neglected and misunderstood conflicts.
Into the Maze of Tribalism 2004–6
Authors: Brandt Marieke
Published: December 2017

Chapter 5 reconstructs the course and the dynamics of the first three rounds of the Houthi conflict, also called the ‘Ṣaʿdah War’, from its eruption in June 2004 until the February 2006 ceasefire, which successfully brought the third Ṣaʿdah War to a halt and ushered into several months of detente. It shows how, in the course of the war, the sectarian and social-revolutionary thrust of Houthism began to fuse with existing open and latent conflicts in Yemen’s North, a process that led to an enormous expansion of the war’s scope and magnitude. It analyses the course of the war’s first three rounds, the composition of the national military and Houthi armed forces, their respective supporters and opponents among the local tribes, and attempts at mediation between the two sides.
The Language of War 2006–11
Authors: Brandt Marieke
Published: December 2017

This chapter reconstructs the fourth, fifth and sixth round of the Ṣaʿdah War whose principal feature was their enormous territorial expansion. The chapter discusses the conflict’s internal and external dynamics which began to obstruct any efforts at mediation and peace-making. Tribal feuding, the emergence of a war economy, domestic political intrigues, foreign meddling, elite conflict and the increasing sectarian character of the war contributed to the emergence of a hybrid, explosive conflict situation that hardly resembled the initial situation in 2004. As the Houthis continuously grew bolder, Saudi Arabia’s entry into the war in November 2009 provided significant relief for the Yemeni army. In February 2010, the sixth and final ‘official’ Houthi war ended in stalemate.
Faustian Bargains 2011–14
Authors: Brandt Marieke
Published: December 2017

This chapter summarizes the period between the end of the sixth Ṣaʿdah War in February 2010 and the Houthis’ seizure of the capital, Sanaʿa, in September 2014. It discusses the Houthi seizure of power in the Ṣaʿdah governorate and the beginning of the ‘Arab Spring’ and ‘Change Revolution’ in Yemen in 2011, the GCC Initiative, the fall of President Salih and his rapprochement with the Houthis, and the National Dialogue Conference. The Houthis’ conquest of Sanaʿa in September 2014 is the landmark event that closes this chapter.
The Armenian Imperative
Authors: Giragosian Richard
Published: December 2017

As an informative case study, the oligarchy in Armenia pose a challenge to institutional capacity and political will, given their position as an entrenched obstacle to developing viable democratic institutions and building a sound market-based, rule-governed economy. Moreover, the emergence of so-called “oligarchs” in Armenia, through the formation of several commodity-based cartels, stands as a pressing problem threatening the next stage of economic reform, and may seriously undermine the sustainable development of the country. Armenia was hobbled by an especially unique post-Soviet experience, marked by the onset of independence during a state of war with neighboring Azerbaijan, and having to recover from a serious earthquake. Yet, there are several common traits and legacies among the former Soviet states in the South Caucasus that help to explain the emergence of oligarchs, or a business-political elite region-wide.
Conclusion
Authors: Kamrava Mehran
Published: December 2017

As middle powers with regional aspirations, Iran and Turkey see the South Caucasus region as an ideal arena for expanding their reach and influence. As post-sanctions Iran finds greater space for diplomacy and trade, the ensuing competition between the two neighboring countries is likely to intensify in the coming years. For both states, trade and soft power are the most viable tools for expanding their influence. In the long run, the competition in trade is only likely to benefit the three states of the South Caucasus. But it is also likely to keep the multiple conflicts that have ravaged the region over the last several decades — especially between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russia and Georgia, and even the historic animosity between Turkey and Armenia — frozen and without a solution in sight.
Introduction
Authors: Toje Asle
Published: December 2017

We do not want to place anyone into the shadow, we also claim our place in the sun.” In a foreign policy debate in the German parliament on December 6. 1897 the German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Bernhard von Bülow, articulated the foreign policy aspirations of the ascendant Wilhelmine Germany. This proved easier said than done. In 1907, Eyre Crowe of the British Foreign Office penned his famous memorandum where he accounted for “the present state of British relations with France and Germany.” He concluded that Britain should meet imperial Germany with “unvarying courtesy and consideration” while maintaining “the most unbending determination to uphold British rights and interests in every part of the globe.”...
A New Order of Things?
Authors: Ikenberry G. John
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines the types of challenges that rising states might bring to struggles over international order with a view to the distinctive character of the American-led liberal order and the ways in which this existing order creates constraints and incentives for a rising China. This is contextualized by the geopolitical setting in which China is situated. The chapter argues that even as China faces constraints on the pursuit of a revisionist agenda, it finds incentives to operate within a liberal-oriented international order. China and the United States seem destined to clash over the terms of order in East Asia. But it is a clash that will unfold in a different world-historical setting than past power transitions. The rise of China may bring to an end the era of American hegemony—but it will be harder for China to end the liberal world order that the American era wrought.
Not Quite the Same as It Ever Was
Authors: Wohlforth William C.
Published: December 2017

The chapter addresses the claim that rising powers will seek to undermine the legitimacy of the current order and establish new rules using the classical Gilpinian framework as well as more recent rise-and-decline scholarship. It argues against this view and points to a more nuanced position: a harder-to-manage world has arrived, but the essential structural imperatives that have operated for twenty years are likely to remain. The chapter grounds this argument in the near certainty that all-out systemic war is off the table as a mechanism for hegemonic transition; the fact that the rising challenger to the system’s dominant state is approaching peer status on only one dimension of state capability, gross economic output; and the historically unprecedented degree of institutionalization in world politics coupled with the central role institutions play in the dominant power’s grand strategy. Each change favors the status quo states and makes revisionism harder.