bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
As If We Were Codgers: Flattery, Parrhēsia and Old Man Demos in Aristophanes’ Knights
Authors: Markovits Elizabeth
Published: February 2014

In Knights, Aristophanes represents the dangers of parrhēsia run amuck with the near-destruction of an elderly man’s (Demos) Athenian household by Paphlagon (a stand-in for the Athenian politician Cleon). In this setting, Paphlagon’s invocations of his own parrhēsia and goodwill become a destructive form of flattery, causing chaos in the household and threatening its viability. This article begins with a discussion of the problem of parrhēsia in democratic Athens and the ways in which Cleon exemplified those problems. Moving to an examination of Aristophanes’ Knights, the author tracks the playwright’s exploration and response. Aristophanes uses the figure of the elderly Demos as a metaphor for the decline of the city, allowing him to both critique the demos and to align himself with it (as he presents his own anxieties about old age). Moreover, even as he must win the audience over in order to achieve the theatrical success he craves, Aristophanes removes himself from the perverse logic of dēmophilia-turned-pandering by claiming to be motivated not by goodwill for the audience, but by his hatred of Cleon, an enemy shared by both the playwright and the city.
Features of Greek Satyr Play as a Guide to Interpretation for Plato’s Republic
Authors: Reynolds Noel B.
Published: February 2014

The paper borrows from recent work by classicists on satyr play and demonstrates significant parallels between Plato’s Republic and the structure, theme and stereotypical contents that characterize this newly studied genre of ancient Greek drama. Like satyr play, the Republic includes repeated passages where metatheatricality can reverse the meaning. The frequent occurrence of all the stereotypical elements of satyr play in Plato’s Republic also suggests to readers that they should be responding to Socrates’ narration as they would to a satyr play, again reversing meaning by communicating a set of literary expectations to Plato’s readers over the heads of Socrates’ interlocutors. As is frequently the case with satyr play, the political purpose of the drama is the critique of tyrannical government. The need for a systematically ironic interpretation of the dialogue is raised.
Post-Soviet Uncertainties: Micro-orders of Central Asian Migrants in Russia
Authors: Turaeva Rano
Published: February 2014

In this paper I show how people ‘muddle through’ the present post- Soviet uncertainties and chaos in Central Asia, creating orders amidst disorder. This muddling- through, locally known as tirikchilik, creates what I call micro- orders structured through trust networks. Present disorder is contrasted to what was known as poryadok i zakon [order and law] in Soviet times. I show these processes in the example of mobile entrepreneurs who make their earnings through their mobile lives between Russia and Central Asia. Power, various dependencies, obligations and duties, shared belief and morals, status and authority play important parts in living and muddling- through within the domain of tirikchilik and also in regulating micro-orders by mobile entrepreneurs.
Motti Tactics in Finnish Military Historiography since World War II
Authors: Tuunainen Pasi
Published: February 2014

This article explores Motti tactics, the key research topic in the Finnish art of war. The Finns have earned an international reputation for Mottis (encircled enemy units), which are often associated with winter warfare. However, Motti tactics were also used by the Finns in summer and autumn conditions, between 1941 and 1944 against the Red Army, and in late 1944 against the Wehrmacht. This article traces the origin of the Motti (encirclement) concept and examines how Motti tactics have been interpreted in Finnish military historical literature over more than 70 years. Contemporary interpretations of the topic, drawing upon officers’ own combat experiences, have dominated Finnish historiography until now. The phenomenon has been described as slicing off the road-bound enemy columns to allow their defeat in detail (dispersing the enemy’s forces and destroying it one unit at the time). The traditional view holds that the application of Motti tactics was largely based on the Finnish troops’ greater mobility, the element of surprise, the exploitation of harsh and difficult forested terrain and climatic conditions, as well as on the Finns’ ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Since the 1970s our knowledge of the topic has accumulated and become more nuanced due to the contributions of a younger generation of researchers, both military and civilian, working with archival documents. This generation, for example, has seen Motti tactics as a part of the evolution of manoeuvre warfare in Europe. Placing the topic in a larger context has led some authors to maintain that Motti tactics had foreign influences, in particular from Germany. They have also identified ways in which this method benefitted from military innovation and mission-type orders.
A Hybrid Strategy to Prosecute the Waging of War
Authors: Navarro Marta Sosa
Published: February 2014

The Kampala Conference held in 2010 to review the Rome Statute portrays a discouraging image regarding the fight against impunity for those responsible for the waging of war. Its outcome reflects the international community’s lack of willingness to take the necessary steps to hold accountable those responsible for the crime of aggression. Regardless of the existing agreement on its definition, the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction has been postponed again, fostering the need to resort to alternative formulas to prosecute this crime. This paper aims to study the possibility of prosecuting aggression as a crime against humanity in so far as the illegal use of force amounts to “other inhuman acts of similar character (. . .)”, articulated in article 7.1.k of the Statute. It also searches for alternative procedures to prosecute these crimes, focusing on the emerging role of domestic jurisdiction through the consolidation of the aut dedere aut judicare clause.
Italy’s Compliance With ICJ Decisions vs. Constitutional Guarantees: does the “Counter-limits” Doctrine matter?
Authors: Palombino Fulvio Maria
Published: February 2014

One of the most common obstacles to the domestic enforcement of international decisions is represented by the presence of a constitutional impediment. Indeed, most national constitutions, though open to international law, can prevent the implementation of an international decision, insofar as the latter conflicts with the basic principles of the constitutional order. This article argues that in such cases it is necessary to preserve a space where the State continues to retain full sovereignty and whose protection acts as an unbreakable “counter-limit” to the limitations deriving from the international legal order (“counter-limits” doctrine). Yet recent judicial and legislative practice in Italy concerning the implementation of the ICJ decision in Jurisdictional Immunities of the State seem to overlook the need to preserve this “space”. As a consequence, certain fundamental constitutional guarantees, such as the right of access to justice, the rule of res judicata and the principle of non-retroactivity of the law, have inescapably ended up being compromised.
The ‘Right’ Side of the Law. State of Siege and the Rise of Fascism in Interwar Romania
Authors: Cercel Cosmin Sebastian
Published: February 2014

The aim of this article is to problematize one of the most audacious tenets of the new consensus, namely the revolutionary character of fascism, by linking together the experience of the state of siege and the emergence of the fascist movement in interwar Romania. It tries to do so by drawing on the philosophical underpinnings of the paradigm of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben and Walter Benjamin’s critique of law and violence. In a first part my aim is to present the main arguments espoused in defending the view according to which fascist movements were professing an authentic revolutionary radical politics. Secondly, I will turn towards legal critique and to the work of Giorgio Agamben in order to build a topography of the relation between law and the force of state. In a third part I will focus on the uses and the historical meaning of the state of siege in post-First World War Romania. This article argues that the emergence of the fascist movement in Romania is an event strongly embedded in the political, legal and symbolic dynamics entailed by the state of exception rather than the expression of a revolutionary thrust.
Implementation of the EU Immigration Policy in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region: Towards a Framework for Policy Analysis
Authors: Yeasmin Nafisa
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Finland and Sweden along with other countries in the Barents region wish to increase migration, in-line with their labour demands and demographic changes. These states have reformed their economic and immigration policy so that migrants may contribute to their national economies. However, they receive far fewer numbers of immigrants than envisaged. There is a need for increased cooperation within Barents Region on immigration issues, including integration of migrants for utilizing its natural resources properly.

The European Union is an important actor in the Barents Region. The European Commission has been a member of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) since the beginning of regional cooperation. Two out of four states are EU members, with Norway being part of the European Economic Area,1 meaning that many EU regulations are relevant for all Nordic countries, including Norway. EU policies can be also seen as models and examples of best practice. Moreover, EU-Russia cooperation and Northern Dimension may play a major role in agenda-setting for regional cooperation and major changes in EU-Russia relations (like a visa-free agreement) would have major influence on the situation in the region. This paper aims to investigate whether there is coherence in immigration policy and its implementation between Barents Region and the European Union, how the EU places itself within the existing actors and governance frameworks of BEAR, and which role it wants to take up in relation to the migration policy in the region. Finally, this paper aims to highlight the main barriers to implement the existing policies in practice.
Raping Freedom: Pornography and Politics in the Satirical Journals of 1905-1906
Authors: McReynolds Louise
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Editors of a number of satirical journals deployed images of rape to illustrate their sense that the revolution was lost after the autocracy’s bloody reprisal against workers in Moscow in December, 1905, and subsequent proroguing of the first electoral Duma in June, 1906. Tapping into the Silver Age aesthetics of decadence and eroticism, they cast Freedom as a vulnerable virgin, but did not provide heroes to protect her. Instead, they drew monstrous villains from Russian folklore that in some cases made Freedom complicitous in her violent fate. The Russian male appeared willing to return to his historical impotence, the nineteenth-century’s “superfluous man,” because he did not know what to do with the abstraction of freedom that he had desired for so long.
Pliuvium’s Unholy Trinity: Russian Nationhood, Anti-Semitism, and the Public Sphere after 1905
Authors: Norris Stephen M.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article focuses on anti-Semitic cartoons published in the right-wing, satirical, illustrated newspaper Pliuvium, which appeared in Russia after the 1905 Revolution. The illustrated journal represented one of the new, far-right media outlets in the wake of the events of 1905 and its editors sought to redefine Russia as a traditional monarchy, home to ethnic Russians. To accomplish this aim, Pliuvium employed caricaturists who drew contrasts between Russians and Jews, turning the latter into the antithesis of the nation. Through close readings of several anti-Semitic images from the newspaper, the author seeks to reveal the broader historical forces contained within them. In the end, these cartoons help us understand the “unholy trinity” comprising the ugly side of Russian nationhood, racism in Russian imperial culture, and the emergence of far-right publics by 1905.
Music and Dance in the 1905-1906 Satirical Journals
Authors: Damaré Brad Michael
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This essay explores verbal and visual appropriation of contemporary music and dance (both Russian and Western) by the 1905-1906 satirical journals to frame satirical messages and allusions. Considered are visual invocations of music and musicians, representations of music performances as well as song titles, songs, melodies, dance and dance music as framing satirical devices and sources of comedy.
The Islam of “Our” Ancestors: An “Imagined” Morisco Past Evoked in Today’s Andalusian Conversion Narratives
Authors: Diaz Marta Dominguez
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Spain has the highest rates of conversion to Islam in the European Union. A significant proportion of converts live in Andalusia, which was once part of medieval Muslim Spain (al-Andalus). The “Muslim past” is looked to with a burgeoning sense of nostalgia, yet little is known about this romantic longing. Some converts perceive al-Andalus as a glorious epoch marked by religious co-existence (convivencia) and the flowering of Arabic culture, remembering those medieval Muslims who were exiled from Spain or who stayed and practised Islam secretly, and viewing themselves as heirs of these medieval Muslims. Conversion for them is not conversion but a rediscovery of the “truly Muslim nature” of Andalusia. Fundamental to this Andalusian convert discourse is the claim that Islam is not an “imported” religion but a local, indigenous one. An analysis of these Andalusian converts’ narratives will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the current ideological battles over national and religious identity.
Buddhahood for the Nonsentient Reconsidered: The Case of Kakitsubata (The Iris) and Other Nō Plays by Konparu Zenchiku
Authors: Klein Susan Blakeley
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Donald Shively first considered the topic of “Buddhahood for the nonsentient” (sōmoku jōbutsu) as a theme in Nō plays back in 1957. In subsequent years there have been several major studies published onsōmoku jōbutsuin Japanese and one major study in English. This new research enables a more complex understanding of how popular conceptions ofsōmoku jōbutsuplay themselves out in Nō involving nonsentient beings, and in particular how the concept of Buddhahood for the nonsentient intersects with the possibility of enlightenment for women. The article takes as a case study the Nō playKakitsubata, in which an iris, manifesting as a young woman attains enlightenment and release from her obsessive attachment to her deep purple color, which for her signals that she is the most important and beloved of thekatami(fetishized poetic mementos) associated with Ariwara no Narihira, a Heian poet deified in the medieval period as the Bodhisattva of Song and Dance. In this play, as in others by Konparu Zenchiku, the solution that the playwright presents performatively to this doubled problem of salvation is ambiguous, but may well be representative of the popular understanding of the ontological and soteriological status of both nonsentient beings and women in late medieval culture.
Biwa Masters and Musical Hierophanies in the Heike monogatari and Other Medieval Texts
Authors: Bialock David T.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The Heike monogatari has long been at the center of discussions about the function of medieval Japanese performing arts, linked variously to ritual placation, purification, and to Buddhist sermonizing and entertainment. The present essay complicates this view by connecting Heike and biwa playing to several musical phenomena that have received less attention. These include the accusation of bōkoku no oto (sounds of a nation going to ruin), which criticized certain kinds of music from a Confucian ethical perspective, as well as the practice of esoteric biwa initiation (biwa kanjō) along with the related phenomena of the musical hierophany (yōgō) and the elaborate descriptions of music in Heike texts that I call ‘musical ekphrasis.’ The essay is divided into two parts. The first half highlights aspects of vocal, musical, and textual performance in the Heike, including the kinesthetic dimension of dance. The second part examines parallels between medieval guides to esoteric biwa initiation, such as the Biwa kanjō shidai, and descriptions of musical instruments and hierophanies in the Genpei seisuiki and Engyōbon Heike monogatari, two lesser known Heike variants. Moving away from a purely instrumental use of description in the Heike narratives, i.e., what might a certain passage tell us about biwa playing, I argue instead that these elaborate musical ekphrases woven into the Heike texts are themselves synaethesias, or auditory-visual-tactile manifolds, that gesture toward the epiphanic moment of enlightenment through music that is also echoed in the adornment (shōgon) of the esoteric biwa initiation ceremony.
Ninnaji and Otherworlds in the Nō Tsunemasa
Authors: Oyler Elizabeth A.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This essay discusses the Nō Tsunemasa in connection with narratives about the life of the warrior Taira Tsunemasa, killed during the Genpei War, and his biwa lute, Seizan. A mugen Nō (“dream Nō,” in which the main character, the shite, is a ghost) in one act, the play exhibits an unusual structure: it is the enactment of a memorial musical service for the dead Tsunemasa, set at Ninnaji, the temple at which he served during his youth, rather than at the locale where he died, the more common setting for such plays. Focusing on Ninnaji as the setting for the play, I discuss how its structure as a performance of a service creates connections with several other scenes of virtuoso biwa performance found in Tsunemasa’s life story. I argue that the play’s use of the meaningful site of Ninnaji—arguably the center of Shingon practice and a temple at which royal princes served as Omuro, or “prince-abbot”—creates complex ways of addressing the character of Tsunemasa historically and within the performance traditions of Heike monogatari recitation and the Nō.
Mapping Judicial Independence
Authors: Rankin Micah B.
Published: February 2014

Judicial independence is increasingly viewed as a sine qua non of democratic constitutionalism. But in spite of a widespread consensus on the importance of having an independent judiciary, debates about the meaning of judicial independence persist in the literature. For scholars interested in comparative constitutional law, the uncertainty surrounding the definition of judicial independence is particularly vexing and raises several challenging questions: is there a universal set of conditions necessary for judicial independence? Or are there perhaps several models of a judicial independence? One issue that arises from these various questions is whether it is possible to develop a taxonomy of judicial independence. Although taxonomies inevitably produce an incomplete picture of the objects they classify, a taxonomy can assist comparative law scholars by providing an analytical framework for comparison. In Part 1 of this paper, the author explores the conceptual problems associated with finding a universal definition of judicial independence, arguing that there is no single, satisfactory definition of judicial independence. In Part 2 of the paper, the author addresses some of the methodological problems associated with developing a qualitative taxonomy. This is followed by a discussion of the organizing criteria that will be used to construct the four models of judicial independence found in the author’s proposed taxonomy.
The Nigerian Woman and Reproductive Autonomy
Authors: Aniaka Oluchi
Published: February 2014

The expectation that law should facilitate the enjoyment of the right of women to be free to decide what happens to their bodies in matters of reproductive health, and the factors mitigating against their ability to do so as free and autonomous persons, is the central focus of this paper. Despite being socially and culturally constituted, women have a unique identity, separate and distinct from those of the men and significant others in their lives, which deserves respect and recognition. Women have a right to exercise their reproductive right and do not have to seek permission to do so. However, the functionality and enjoyment of this right depends, to a large extent, on the economic and educational empowerment of women.
The Globalisation versus Regionalism Debate
Authors: Laryea Emmanuel T.
Published: February 2014

Globalisation has intensified competition between countries and businesses for resources, investments, markets and profits. Participants seek whatever competitive edge they can identify to their advantage. In recent decades, countries have sought to use international economic agreements (IEAs) as a method of accentuating their competitiveness. IEAs seek to confer on the contracting countries unique advantages to the exclusion of others. The practice has proliferated remarkably since the 1990s. Some scholars have decried the trend, arguing that it is inhibitive of aspirations for globalised (or multilateralised) regimes that apply uniformly across all countries. This article argues that while regionalism has the potential to impede globalisation of laws in some areas, it can facilitate globalisation in others. For instance, a global legal regime for international investment may be evolving from bilateral and regional treaties, and regional implementation of international legal instruments (ILIs) may hasten global international commercial laws.
Beyond Interpretation: the “Cultural Approach” to Understanding Extra-Formal Change in Religious and Constitutional Law
Authors: Rosen Mark D.
Published: February 2014

A challenge common to both religious and constitutional law is the need to respond to changes over time. Both systems typically have formal amendment mechanisms: prophets and Article V of the United States Constitution, for example. But significant changes occur outside these formal mechanisms. This article presents a single framework, which I call the “cultural approach,” that identifies the points at which extra-formal change can occur in both religious and constitutional law. The cultural approach has many promising benefits. It shows how cultures can change while maintaining continuity with the past, and enables identification of changes that otherwise can be difficult to spot. Because different cultures accommodate change in similar ways, the cultural approach suggests that there may be benefits to cross-cultural study. Furthermore, the cultural approach can help members of particular cultures identify culture-specific mechanisms by which changes may be pressed, thereby facilitating use of the full range of institutions in their culture that properly play a role in change. Finally, the cultural approach provokes explicit consideration of the benefits and costs of allowing for change at each of the three stages that the cultural approach identifies.
Public Reason, Private Virtue, and Political Philosophy: Religious Approaches to the Progressive Income Tax
Authors: Livingston Michael A.
Published: February 2014

The use of religious texts in public policy debates has been the cause of significant controversy. Believing Christians, Jews, and others naturally suggest that their faith should play a role in real-world policy discussions. But others suggest that such arguments may be dangerous and, in any event, lack persuasive power to those not part of the same religious tradition. The public reason theory, frequently associated with John Rawls, states that religious arguments are permissible only when supported by evidence that would be accessible to those who do not share the same underlying religious beliefs.

While religious arguments are most commonly associated with abortion, homosexuality, and other social issues, they have also been applied to tax policy. Conservatives have cited the Biblical tithe as evidence in support of a flat, low-rate tax. Liberals have cited Biblical injunctions to practice social justice and protect the poor in favor of progressive, redistributive tax systems. These arguments vary in different religious traditions, but they share a sense that traditional religious texts remain relevan to the contemporary debate.

The tax experience suggests the dangers of religious perspectives are frequently exaggerated. Religious arguments frequently contradict each other and only rarely do they make an appeal to direct, irrefutable divine guidance. A larger problem is that religious guidance is often inexact in nature, and religious people may have a tendency to become overly emotional in presenting them. A degree of modesty making such arguments, rather than a full or partial exclusion, appears the best solution.
Distinction between Treaty and Contract The Principle of Proportionality in State Contractual Actions in Investment Arbitration
Authors: Hariharan Srikanth
Published: February 2014

This paper argues the possibility of application of principle of proportionality, as a general principle of international law, for actions of the Host-State in pursuance of the contract with the investor, without abrogating the distinction between contract and treaty-based rights and obligations. The task would be to probe whether breach of contract with investor entails an international obligation of balancing the excess of exercise of contractual authority by the State with the investor’s contractual rights and delimit the ex ante discretionary powers of Host-State, which principle of proportionality seeks to promote.
Frozen Music: Music and Architecture in Vitruvius’ De Architectura
Authors: Walden Daniel K.S.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This paper explores the convergence of musical and architectural theory in Vitruvius’De Architectura.Section 1 describes Vitruvius’ architectural lexicon, borrowed from Aristoxenus (I.2), and explores his description of the laws of harmony, modeled onElementa Harmonica(V.4). Section 2 explores how Vitruvius proposes using music theory in practical architectural design, including construction of columns using architectural orders analogous to Aristoxeniangenera(I.2.6; IV.1); acoustical designs for theatres (V.5); and the development of machines, including siege engines ‘tuned’ like musical instruments (X.12) and water-organs [hydrauli] constructed to execute all the different varieties of tuning (X.8). Section 3 reflects on Vitruvius’ use of analogies with a musical instrument, thesambuca, to explain his understanding of cosmic harmony and architectural form, and his possible sources (VI.1). Finally, Section 4 discusses Vitruvius’ ideas about the importance of a liberal arts education that includes study of music theory. The best architects, Vitruvius explains, can discover in music the secrets to forms they both encounter in nature and create themselves.
The Devil Wears Dockers: Devil Pacts, Trade Zones, and Rural-Urban Ties in the Dominican Republic
Authors: Derby Lauren , Werner Marion
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This essay examines popular narratives that a spirit demon or bacá lurked in an export garment plant in the Santiago trade zone of the Dominican Republic in the early 2000s. By interpreting thebacástory, and the transformation of the bacá itself from a rural context to an urban factory, we unpack the changing nature and meaning of employment under neoliberal capitalism, and tease apart complex geographies of status, exploitation, technology and debt.
Colloquium 4: Meno’s Paradox And The Sisyphus
Authors: Fine Gail
Published: February 2014

The pseudo-Platonic dialogue Sisyphus considers the nature of deliberation, asking whether it does or does not involve knowledge. Difficulties for both options are canvassed, in ways that recall Meno’s Paradox and that also compare interestingly with Aristotle’s account of deliberation in his ethical writings.
Commentary On Van Den Berg
Authors: Gabor Gary
Published: February 2014

I agree with Robbert Van den Berg that Plotinus endorses Socratic intellectualism, but I challenge his view that Plotinus rejects the phenomenon of akrasia. According to Van den Berg, the only form of akrasia acknowledged by Plotinus is a conditional, or ‘weak,’ akrasia. I provide some reasons for thinking that Plotinus might have accepted complete or ‘strong’ akrasia—full stop. While such strong forms of akrasia are usually taken to conflict with Socratic intellectualism, I argue that Plotinus’s complex, dual-self psychology allows a way in which he, unique among ancient philosophers (and perhaps any thinker in the history of philosophy), could simultaneously endorse Socratic intellectualism and hard akrasia.
Timescale Invariance in the Pacemaker-Accumulator Family of Timing Models
Authors: Simen Patrick , Rivest Francois , Ludvig Elliot A. , Balci Fuat , Killeen Peter
Published: February 2014

Pacemaker-accumulator (PA) systems have been the most popular kind of timing model in the half-century since their introduction by Treisman (1963). Many alternative timing models have been designed predicated on different assumptions, though the dominant PA model during this period — Gibbon and Church’s Scalar Expectancy Theory (SET) — invokes most of them. As in Treisman, SET’s implementation assumes a fixed-rate clock-pulse generator and encodes durations by storing average pulse counts; unlike Treisman’s model, SET’s decision process invokes Weber’s law of magnitude-comparison to account for timescale-invariant temporal precision in animal behavior. This is one way to deal with the ‘Poisson timing’ issue, in which relative temporal precision increases for longer durations, contrafactually, in a simplified version of Treisman’s model. First, we review the fact that this problem does not afflict Treisman’s model itself due to a key assumption not shared by SET. Second, we develop a contrasting PA model, an extension of Killeen and Fetterman’s Behavioral Theory of Timing that accumulates Poisson pulses up to a fixed criterion level, with pulse rates adapting to time different intervals. Like Treisman’s model, this time-adaptive, opponent Poisson, drift–diffusion model accounts for timescale invariance without first assuming Weber’s law. It also makes new predictions about response times and learning speed and connects interval timing to the popular drift–diffusion model of perceptual decision making. With at least three different routes to timescale invariance, the PA model family can provide a more compelling account of timed behavior than may be generally appreciated.
Formation and Diversity of Jewish Languages and of Judeo-Arabic in North Africa I. Middle Judeo-Arabic and its Forms of Hybridization
Authors: Chetrit Joseph
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The article deals with the evolution of Middle Judeo-Arabic in North Africa. The study examines the linguistic processes and the hybridized uses of Judeo-Arabic in a theoretical framework oriented toward the main sociopragmatic features of Jewish languages. These include diglossic functioning, endolectal appropriation of a non-Jewish language, hybridization of grammatical and lexical structures, and discursive and textual diversity. Middle Judeo-Arabic is considered here in three different periods of its formation and use in North Africa. The first period, the classic period, lasted from the tenth to the thirteenth century. It generated religious, philosophical, literary, and epistolary texts that are documented by the archives of the Cairo Genizah and by the seminal works of famous scholars. The second period began after the settlement of the Megorashim in urban centers of North Africa at the end of the fifteenth century and lasted until the nineteenth century. During this period, Jewish poets turned their attention to some remnants of Middle Judeo-Arabic texts, mostly paraliturgical, to heighten the language of their Judeo-Arabic poems. The third period was characterized by a new kind of literary Judeo-Arabic used by journalists and writers in Tunis at the end of the nineteenth century.
中国农民合作社的功能与多样性变迁环境中发展现状探讨
Authors: Leeuwis Cees , Lie Rico
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The agricultural sector and the rural sector in China have experienced fundamental changes from the 1980s onward, and farmer cooperatives have emerged in response to these changes. Beginning in 1990, a series of different policies have been implemented by the Chinese government to promote farmer cooperatives (FCs). This article aims to explore the functioning of FCs on the basis of the type and scope of the services they provide and their connections with the rural communities. The findings show that activities carried out by FCs help to extend farmers’ engagement in value-chain participation and management. FCs, as organizational innovations, also provide opportunities to bring knowledge providers and farmers together. Some FCs are starting to coordinate activities for farmers, rural communities and local government to make better use of collective resources. Four types of FCs are identified in the research: commodity-based FCs, community-based FCs, specialized technology providers and credit service providers. The emergence of these four types of FCs is embedded in broader institutional developments. The government mainly promotes commodity-based FCs and specialized technology-providing FCs. Companies focus on commodity-based FCs, and research institutes and development organizations are involved in community-based FCs. These findings imply that an integrated and broader view of policies is needed to promote the development of FCs in the long run.

(This article is in English.)

摘要

20世纪80年代以来中国的农村和农业经历了深刻的变革。从20世纪90年代开始，政府出台了一系列的政策推动农民合作社的发展，合作社数量逐步增加。本文意在展示合作社提供服务的类型和范围，以及他们与农村社区之间的联系，并以此为基础探讨合作社的功能发挥。本文研究显示合作社开展的活动有利于农户参与到农产品价值链不同环节以及价值链管理中。合作社作为一项组织创新，也为建立农户与技术提供者之间的联系搭建了桥梁。一些合作社协调农户、农村社区和政府部门之间的关系，实现了集体资源的充分利用。本研究将合作社分为四类：产品型合作社、 社区型合作社、专业技术服务合作社和资金互助合作社。这四类合作社的产生根植于外部制度环境。政府主要倡导产品型合作社和专业技术服务合作社的发展。公司致力于产品型合作社的发展，而研究机构和发展组织更多参与到社区型合作社的发展中。这些研究发现意味着政府需要制定更具包容性的政策，加强政策间的一致性，以从长远角度促进合作社的发展。
Dragomans and “Turkish Literature”: The Making of a Field of Inquiry
Authors: Rothman E. Natalie
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Theories of cultural and linguistic mediation have tended to posit intermediaries as conduits through which one culture/language either enters another unproblematically, or gets “distorted” due to intermediaries’ incompetence or self-interest. Both these perspectives presuppose stable, well-bounded, and coherent cultures/languages as what intermediaries purportedly mediate. Instead, this paper proposes an understanding of cultural and linguistic mediation as a process that constitutes its objects, that is, as an essential dimension of all acts of cultural and linguistic boundary-making. It focuses on dragomans (diplomatic interpreters) who operated at the interface between the Ottoman government and foreign diplomats to the Porte throughout the early modern period. The paper suggests how dragomans’ practices of knowledge production were profoundly collaborative, involving a range of Ottoman and Venetian interlocutors. Such practices thus belie any facile distinction between “local” and “foreign,” but rather challenge us to consider the emergence of “Oriental” studies as a dialogical project that necessitated ongoing recalibrations of prior knowledge through a multiplicity of perspective, where diplomatic institutions and epistemologies played a key role.
Müste’min Dealing with the Ottoman Justice: Role and Strategy of the Ambassador
Authors: Dumas Juliette
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Because of their status as foreigners, non-subject of the Empire, müsteʾmin are subject to a system of laws different from the other subjects of the Empire. They also benefit from advantages secured by the granting of imperial orders: the ʿahidnâme also known as the capitulations: these are prescriptions issued by the sultan, directly influenced by political and economic aspects and which may vary from one nation to another. However, it is not a code of law different from others in force in the Empire: except in specific cases prescribed by the capitulations, the müsteʾmin are submitted as other Ottoman subjects to the Ottoman legal system.

Nevertheless, the Ottoman legal system is complex: the actors and the practices vary and depend on the individuals involved and cases. Therefore, the question is who are the interlocutors of the müsteʾmin? The documents examined here show that the type of conflicts impacted on the interlocutors that were involved. Each time the case involves, in one way or another, the privileges of the müsteʾmin from a given nation, the imperial divan had to solve the case—then, it usually refers to the local court. But if private, the case was directly submitted to the kadı. The call for submission of cases to the Imperial divan is interesting because it shows that confidence is put in the Imperial divan rather than in the kadı. Perhaps, it also reveals the limits of the legal knowledge of the privileges and the special rights granted to müsteʾmin. In fact, the population concerned by the Capitulations was minor and the affairs affecting them probably rare, as a result, one should not be surprised by the lack of knowledge of the local actors, of their privileges.

The role of the embassy and of the ambassador must also be emphasized here. In our documents, it appears that the embassy as a whole played a significant role in supporting its citizens through legal advice, assistance and support. The French embassy even seems to have distinguished itself on this item since the legal support offered was presented by the ambassador.
“Civilizing Mission” in the Late Ottoman Discourse: The Case of Gypsies
Authors: Çelik Faika
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Historians of the Ottoman Empire have up until now written extensively not only on the polyethnic and multireligious nature of the Ottoman Empire, but also on the specific ethnic and religious groups that made up this plurality. Yet, although the Gypsies were a part of this pluralistic society, they have not received sufficient critical attention from Ottomanists whether in Turkey or abroad. While a few important studies have recently been published on the Ottoman Gypsies, this scholarship, though indeed very useful as a guide to the rich materials available on the subject, are weakened by two competing arguments. The first of these arguments is that the Gypsies of the Ottoman Balkans provide a salient example of a group marginalized through stigmatization, segregation and exclusion, whereas the second maintains that Gypsies were benignly tolerated by the Ottoman state. These analyses however fail to take into account that the legal, social and economic status of the Roma people in the Ottoman Empire seems to have been, at different times and in different places, much more complicated than simple marginalization or toleration. The question in fact needs to be problematized through a consideration of regional, local and temporal differences. My previous readings of the kanunnames and the mühimme registers of the second half of the sixteenth century substantiate this view and demonstrate that the marginality of the Gypsies in the Ottoman Balkans in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was neither absolute and unchanging nor inflexible and complete. The interaction of the Gypsies both with the state and with Ottoman society at large was both hostile and symbiotic. Thus, the purpose of this study is to delve further into this topic and analyze how the Ottoman Imperial state dealt with what I call “community in motion” at various levels in the late nineteenth century. Through close reading of a layiha (memorandum) written by Muallim Sa’di Efendi, a college professor in the city of Siroz (Serres) in communication with other archival sources located in Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi in Istanbul, the paper attempts not only to understand the ways and techniques through which the late Ottoman state produced and governed the Empire’s subjects but also to show how Gypsies interacted with and were received by the local population in Serres, including Muslims and Orthodox Christians. My argument is that during the sixteenth century, the imperial state adopts residential and religious mobility of the Gypsies, albeit with certain restrictions. Yet, by the late nineteenth century, one of the most significant concerns of the late Ottoman state was to “reform” (ıslah) the Gypsies. Constants attempts were being made to deconstruct, normalize and eliminate differences of Gypsies, for instance, appointing imams to the Gypsy neighborhoods to “correct” their faith or opening new schools to “save” them from ignorance and poverty that lived in.
The Practice of Reading and the Formation of the Moral Imagination
Authors: Osmer Richard , Salazar-Newton Ariana
Published: February 2014

The practice of reading is increasingly endangered as young people intensify their interaction with the new media. Reading literature, however, is a potent source of moral formation, shaping the moral imagination. The article draws on contemporary neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and creativity studies to conceptualize the imagination and describe the special role of the moral imagination. It explores claims about the ways literature shapes the moral imagination, drawing on the findings of an empirical study of young adults who were avid readers of the Harry Potter series as children and youth.
In Dialogue with the Gospel
Authors: Ideström Jonas
Published: February 2014

The aim of this article is to reflect on an approach and method for practical and prophetic ecclesiology. The article describes the process of planning and using a method at a conference for Church of Sweden suburban parishes. By returning to the conference and the planning process, the account presents the various steps of the broader approach, spells out ecclesiological considerations and analyses results of the conference. Gordon Lathrop’s concept, dialogue of holy things, is used to argue for the relevance of using a method based on Gospel narratives in empirical ecclesiology. The results from the conference show that the method could contribute to constructive and critical reflections on theological challenges facing Church of Sweden. The approach is discussed in relation to Theological Action Research and theories developed by Geir Afdal concerning studies of social practices.
Review of cellular and subcellular changes in the cambium
Authors: Prislan Peter , Čufar Katarina , Koch Gerald , Schmitt Uwe , Gričar Jožica
Published: February 2014

The commonest approach to studying cambial productivity is conventional light microscopy, which is widely used in wood formation studies. The number of such studies has increased rapidly in the past decade, usually in order to elucidate the relationship between growth and environmental factors. However, some aspects of cambial seasonality are often overlooked or neglected. Observations with transmission electron microscopy provide a more detailed insight into changes occurring on the ultra-structural level in cambial cells. Criteria for defining cambial activity are not yet fully clarified, especially when observing it at different resolutions, i.e., on cellular, subcellular and ultrastructural levels. The goal of this review is to contribute to clarification of the terms mainly used, such as cambial dormancy, reactivation, activity, productivity and transition between different states, resting period and quiescence, which describe structural modifications of cambial cells during the various phases of their seasonal cycle. Based on our own cambium observations on adult beech trees growing at two different elevations, which were made with light and transmission electron microscopy, we discuss the influence of weather conditions on cambial activity and the advantage of the complementary use of different techniques and resolutions.
ROXAS – an efficient and accurate tool to detect vessels in diffuse-porous species
Authors: Wegner Lena , von Arx Georg , Sass-Klaassen Ute , Eilmann Britta
Published: February 2014

Wood-anatomical parameters form a valuable archive to study past limitations on tree growth and act as a link between dendrochronology and ecophysiology. Yet, analysing these parameters is a time-consuming procedure and only few long chronologies exist. To increase measurement efficiency of wood-anatomical parameters, novel tools like the automated image-analysis system ROXAS were developed. So far, ROXAS has only been applied to measure large earlywood vessels in ring-porous species.

In this study, we evaluate if ROXAS is also suitable for efficient and accurate detection and measurement of vessels in diffuse-porous European beech. To do so, we compared the outcome of ROXAS with that of the established measurement programme Image-Pro Plus in terms of efficiency and accuracy.

The two methods differed substantially in efficiency with automatic measurements using ROXAS being 19 times faster than with Image-Pro Plus. Although the procedures led to similar patterns in annual variation of mean vessel area and vessel density, the absolute values differed. Image-Pro Plus measured systematically lower mean vessel areas and higher vessel densities than ROXAS. This was attributed to the species-specific technical settings in ROXAS, leading to more realistic results than those obtained using the default settings in Image-Pro Plus. A shortcoming of ROXAS was, however, that small vessels (<100 μm²) could not be detected with sufficient accuracy. Yet, based on thin sections of European beech, it is generally difficult to distinguish such small vessels from parenchyma cells. Moreover, these small vessels do not contribute substantially to conductive efficiency. Therefore, we do not foresee any problems for most studies if the lower vessel area threshold to be measured is set to 100 μm². Overall, ROXAS proved to be useful for measuring vessel parameters in diffuse-porous tree species, allowing accurate and efficient analyses of large numbers of samples.
Quantifying plasticity in vessel grouping – added value from the image analysis tool ROXAS
Authors: Arx Georg von , Kueffer Christoph , Fonti Patrick
Published: February 2014

The functional role of the connectivity of the xylem network, especially the arrangement of solitary and grouped vessels in a cross section, has often been discussed in the literature. Vessel grouping may improve hydraulic integration and increase resilience to cavitation through redundancy of hydraulic pathways. Alternatively, a high degree of hydraulic integration may facilitate the spread of cavitations among neighboring vessels. Here we show how automated image analysis tools such as ROXAS (see www.wsl.ch/roxas) may greatly enhance the capacity for studying vessel grouping while avoiding some methodological limitations of previous approaches. We tested the new analysis techniques by comparing the xylem network of two populations of the herbaceous species Verbascum thapsus collected at a dry and moist site on Big Island (Hawaii, USA). ROXAS accurately, objectively and reproducibly detected grouped and solitary vessels in high-resolution images of entire root cross sections, and calculated different and partly novel vessel grouping parameters, e.g. the percentage of grouped (vs. solitary) vessels among different vessel size classes. Individuals at the dry site showed a higher degree of vessel grouping, less solitary vessels, greater maximum vessel sizes and an increase of the percentage of grouped vessels with increasing vessel size. The potential, but also some limitations of automated image analysis and the proposed novel parameters are discussed.