bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Optimistic Universalism
Authors: Sharma Dinesh , Leach C. Elizabeth
Published: May 2019

Professor Ali Mazrui embodied an optimistic universalism and the capacity to find common ground for global dialogue amidst conflicts. When receiving a lifetime achievement award – Mazrui, in his acceptance speech, pointed to two specific poems of Rumi and Wordsworth as a source of inspiration for awakening the ‘love of beauty and the beauty of love.’ In the context of the shared humanity of these experiences, one realizes the ability of such experiences to create a common language across barriers, a language of social justice and human rights. Using integrative interdisciplinary approaches from the fields of comparative religion and comparative literature, this essay explores the similarities and differences of the messages of Mazrui, Rumi, and Wordsworth to achieve an awakening. Such an awakening involves the individual’s awareness of being a part of something greater, often achieved in nature, which may serve as a basis for the universal grammar of social justice and human rights. Hermeneutic and phenomenological approaches, including intersubjectivity, are employed in the exegesis of the poetic material and its context. Also explored are the historical similarities and differences, anthropological and psychobiographical factors in the life histories of Mazrui, Rumi and Wordsworth. Ultimately, the dialectic between the polarities of themes of the pain of separation and longing for union, often linked to losses and life changing experiences such as migration, can be understood as opportunities for personal growth – motivating individuals to reach toward connection, reparation and the ability to engage in cultural dialogue and move past difference toward social justice and human rights.
Africa-India Connections in Historical Perspectives
Authors: Assié-Lumumba N’Dri T.
Published: May 2019

It is a well-established historical fact that Africa and India have cultivated continuous connections for thousands of years. Exchanges of commodities produced on each side of the Indian Ocean in specific political, administrative, and geographic spaces have constituted the guiding thread of these relations. In the modern and contemporary periods, these relations have been shaped through European colonial establishments and their legacies in both sides. Past policies of forced migration and resettlement for economic exploitation of the British colonies in Africa, especially East and Southern Africa, became determinants of the Africa-India relations. The anti-colonial and decolonization struggles in Asia in general and specifically in India and Africa throughout the 20th century created opportunities for a new Africa-India cooperation. In these new relations, formal education, especially higher education, have been playing a prominent role. The thrust of this paper is to analyze the important role of higher education in a South-South cooperation framework between India and Africa as a continent or individual countries. The fluctuating or declining patterns of the number of African students pursuing their education in India in the past decade or so are analyzed.
Transcultural Connections
Authors: Adamu Abdalla Uba
Published: May 2019

The virtual addiction of Muslim Hausa youth to Indian films has a long history, which stretched to the first Indian films screen in northern Nigerian cinemas in the 1960s. The cultural convergence between what the Hausa see as representations of Indian cultural behavior – in terms of social mores, dressing, social interaction – all served to create what they perceive as a convergence between Indian ‘culure’ and Muslim Hausa culture. This paper traces the evolutionary attachment of the Hausa to Indian films and culture. In particular, it traces the various ways through Hausa youth use various devices to adopt, or adapt Indian popoular culture to suit their own re-worked creative pursuits. As a study of transnational fandom, it provides vital insight into how cultural spaces are collapsed, despite spatial and religious spaces.
Women’s Schooling in Asia and Africa
Authors: LeVine Robert A.
Published: May 2019

This article surveys the demographic research of the past 35 years concerning the impact of women’s school attainment on mortality, fertility and health practices. The empirical findings are remarkably consistent across Asia, Africa and Latin America, and in the 20th and 21st centuries, with evident associations between female primary and secondary school attainment and child mortality in the Gakidou et al. (2010) study of 175 countries. Associations with fertility and health practices are also consistent. What are the processes that account for these associations? I propose, based on a study assessing maternal literacy in four diverse countries (Mexico, Nepal, Venezuela and Zambia), that literacy skills and teacher-pupil interaction in the classroom are central to the processes by which school experience changes maternal behavior in developing countries. Basu and Stephenson (2005) arrived at similar conclusions independently from their analysis of the 1992/93 Indian National Family Health Survey, but final conclusions concerning the causal processes involved are not possible without longitudinal research.
Sermons as Practical and Linguistic Performances: Insights from Theory and History
Authors: Tayob Abdulkader
Published: May 2019

Sermons lend themselves to ambiguous identification in the study of religions. On the one hand, they are easily recognisable practices, delivered on particular days of the week, or when special occasions or needs arise. They are usually given in clearly defined places at clearly defined times. They are given by designated or recognized individuals that vary according to the respective religious traditions. On the other hand, sermons are speech performances that may and often do vary from one occasion to the next. While prone to a certain formalism, sermon speech acts are open to variation from time to time, and from preacher to preacher. To extend the possibilities offered by sermons for reflection and analysis, I explore some of the theoretical insights suggested for sermons in ritual studies and from the history of sermons within religious traditions. There is no consensus within ritual studies, but there are some useful ideas and suggestions that cover and extend the practices and speech acts that constitute sermons. More significantly, I found the longue durée of the sermon in the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to be more resourceful. The historical view of the sermon in comparable religious traditions brings forth enduring elements such as reading texts, employing rhetoric, producing effects (including affect), signifying and challenging authority, and marking time and space. More than the theoretical models for rituals from anthropology and religious studies, this historical perspective brings out the value of the practices and speech elements that constitute sermons.
Hebräischer Buchdruck zwischen Hofjuden-Mäzenatentum und christlicher Zensur Wie die Harzstadt Blankenburg nicht zum jüdischen Publikationsort wurde
Authors: Strobach Berndt
Published: May 2019

In a petty German principality around 1700, an influential Court Jew wants a traditional Hebrew commentary published. The printer he commissions moves shop and starts printing, not aware of severe clerical censorship. With part of the job done he has to move to another location hoping for a more liberal policy there. Within the absolutist system the episode highlights the opportunities and the limits of Court Jew's influence, as well as the prince's wavering between the prospect of profiting from a new trade and the fear of risking covert un-Christian propaganda.
Das deutsche Quäkertum in der Frühen Neuzeit Ein grundsätzlicher Beitrag zur Pietismusforschung
Authors: Bernet Claus
Published: May 2019

Quakerism is the first Anglo-American religion that has gained ground in Germany, especially in the north, in the second half of the 17th century. Contrary to older church historiography, this was not a marginal phenomenon. Rather, stable congregations developed, as did a Europe-wide network of missionary work and a differentiated culture of polemic writings. These points of encounter allowed the Quakers to establish contact with supporters of Böhme and radical pietists while at the same time enabling an Antiquakeriana campaign against them. At the center of this study lies the question for the religious-historical positioning of Quakerism. The author argues that due to impulses of extra-ecclesiastical pietism, positions arose that transgressed Christianity's frame of reference. Therefore the reference to the early modern understanding of esoterism has proven especially useful.
The Work of Code Switching
Authors: Krasas Jackie
Published: May 2019

Although the term “code switching” arose in linguistic contexts, its meaning has broadened to include shifting the use of language, interactions, appearance, and the body in all areas of social life. Uncritical applications of the concept render invisible the normative nature and power dynamics along familiar dimensions of social inequality such as gender and race. “Whiteness” and “maleness” often become cast as the neutral standards against which all else is judged and are rarely revealed as the social constructions that they are. The result is the call for non-dominant groups to assimilate. In employment, we see this call for assimilation often under the guise of “soft skills,” with particular reference made to the needs of a postindustrial service-oriented labor market. Cast in terms of skill, the heightened demand for code switching in employment promises to reproduce and even intensify existing labor market inequalities along the lines of gender and race.
Power Play
Authors: Simmons K. Merinda
Published: May 2019

This essay examines how the rhetoric of recovery and reclamation functions in scholarly projects that aim to switch traditional or historical narrative codes. After describing the discourse on “post-blackness” as an example of how prefixes serve as problematic stabilizers in academe, I will offer a few moments in recent popular commemorative culture – especially the events that recognized desegregation at the University of Alabama – as narrative sites where the limitations of recovery work become apparent.
Theo-political Discourse and Rock ’n’ Roll in the Reagan Era
Authors: Trost Theodore Louis
Published: May 2019

Part of an ongoing study of religious rhetoric in politics and art, this essay identifies some of the uses to which theological language has been put in academic discourses about human relationships as they are ethically and politically constructed. It reviews the “Reagan Era” (1980–1988) in the United States through the works of certain songwriters who use theological language to critique the dominant politics of the era.
The Idea of Christian Unity at the End of the Nineteenth Century (the Case of Vl.S. Solovyov)
Authors: Besschetnova Elena
Published: May 2019

In the face of political rhetoric about Russia being outside of Europe both in the West and in Russia itself, it is all the more necessary to remember that European and Russian culture grew out of the same source: Christianity. Therefore, inter-confessional dialogue between Russian Orthodoxy and the Roman Catholic Church is particularly relevant today. In this context, scholars have focused attention on the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, who has been described as a forerunner of the ecumenical movement. This article enriches accounts of his thought by shining a spotlight on the context of spiritual and moral thought in Russia in his day. The article also shows how Russian emperors of the nineteenth century (in particular Alexander III) promoted the idea of a rapprochement with the Holy See. The author argues that these mutual initiatives of the Holy See and the Russian government were the political foundation for Solovyov’s theocratic project. The mid-nineteenth century was remarkable both for the flowering of Russian culture and the strengthening of Russian statehood, which together promoted the formation and articulation of key ideas in Russian intellectual history. The author shows that Russia’s mission to restore Christian unity was central to nineteenth-century Russian thought.
The Representation of the Body in Some Old Yiddish Ethical Texts
Authors: Baumgarten Jean
Published: May 2019

In the last decades, the study of the body in different religions, including the Jewish tradition, gave rise to a great number of publications. Most of the articles are based on rabbinical sources in Hebrew or Aramaic. But we find fewer publications on the representation of the body in Jewish popular culture. The Old Yiddish literature provides many books which could help us to analyse the image of the body, as reflected in different types of texts, all of them show the growing importance of the body during the early modern period.
David Jesurun and Menasseh ben Israel
Authors: Offenberg Adri K.
Published: May 2019

In Zutot vol. 3 I discussed a manuscript that contained the oldest known copy of the unpublished Hebrew grammar by Menasseh ben Israel. An eighteenth-century Portuguese owner of this manuscript noted that it had been copied by one Jacob Jesurun around 1655–1660. The manuscript remained in the possession of the Jesurun family until 1811, when it was auctioned. Apart from the name of the scribe who copied the manuscript, there is another indication that the Portuguese-Jewish Jesurun family was on good terms with Menasseh. This clue has everything to do with Menasseh’s portrait.
Ancient Jewish Historiography in Arabic Garb: Sefer Josippon between Southern Italy and Coptic Cairo
Authors: Vollandt Ronny
Published: May 2019

In this brief contribution, I examine multiple histories of the Hebrew narrative Sefer Josippon, trace back its reception and impact in thirteenth-century Coptic Cairo, and call for a renewed scholarly investigation into its Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic versions.
God as Kingly Foil in 3 Maccabees
Authors: Bacchi Ashley
Published: May 2019

This essay re-evaluates the characterization and function of Ptolemy IV Philopator in 3 Maccabees. God’s role as kingly foil to Ptolemy allows for the propagation and maintenance of Egyptian Jewish identity and cultural practice while acknowledging the earthly social order. I argue the author makes a deliberate choice not to offer a consistent earthly advocate within the narrative while emphasizing God’s direct intervention. This choice can be contextualized as a response to works such as 1 and 2 Maccabees and Greek Esther, which advocate the formation of a nation through military campaigns.
History for Religious Purposes: The Writing, Publication, and Renewal of Tzemah David
Authors: Sclar David
Published: May 2019

This paper examines the pervasive religiosity of Tzemah David and of its subsequent reprinting. David Gans’s work of history was published at least ten times between the end of the sixteenth century and the middle of the nineteenth century, indicating its popularity and continued relevance among Eastern European Jews. The book took on varied and unexpected meaning, as printers amended the text to renew it for successive generations. Although some historians have argued that early modern Jews did not have an imminent interest in historical events, the sustained demand for Tzemah David suggests that Ashkenazic Jewry valued history as it related, in the least, to Jewish religious identity. That is, piety involved more than memory, and historiography, broadly speaking, has not only been utilized in the realm of the secular. As I will show, Tzemah David provided laymen entry into personal religiosity otherwise reserved for scholars of rabbinic texts.
‘Dos Lid funem Hemd’: A Yiddish Translation of a Classic Victorian Poem
Authors: Dwoskin Beth
Published: May 2019

Yiddish proletarian poet Morris Winchevsky translated ‘Song of the Shirt,’ a classic Victorian poem by Thomas Hood. This article examines Winchevsky’s Yiddish translation verse by verse, looking at Winchevsky’s choice of Yiddish words that convey, enhance, or alter Hood’s meaning. The article demonstrates Winchevsky’s facility in language and translation, and his ability to create a distinctly Yiddish version of a classic English poem.
New Textual Witnesses to Midrash Song of Songs Rabbah
Authors: Kadari Tamar
Published: May 2019

This article presents seven new textual witnesses to Midrash Song of Songs Rabbah that were previously unknown to scholars, on account of late or inaccurate records. It begins by reviewing earlier research on the textual evidence for this midrash. It goes on to present the new findings: three manuscripts and four Cairo Genizah fragments, of various lengths and in various states of preservation. The article concludes by offering an updated list of all the textual witnesses to Song of Songs Rabbah discovered to date. These findings constitute a significant contribution to the philological study of this midrash.
Orthodoxy and Talmudic Criticism? On Misleading Attributions in the Talmud
Authors: Gafni Chanan
Published: May 2019

Critical approaches to the Talmud flourished among liberal elements in nineteenth-century Jewry. Scholars whose aim was to introduce further alterations to Jewish law found backing for their agenda in their scientific treatment of the Talmud, emphasizing the dynamic transmission of this central Jewish tradition. However, describing the emergence of Talmud criticism without considering the contribution of traditional writers would be misleading. Orthodox scholars did occasionally arrive at and elaborate on critical insights, at times precisely in order to defend their conservative views. An instructive example of this phenomenon comes from the writings of a leading opponent of Wissenschaft des Judentums, Yitzhak Isaac Halevy (1847–1917). In one of his apologetic discussions, Halevy introduced a revolutionary principle, according to which the Talmud would often attribute an original phrase by an Amora to that same Amora in other halakhic contexts.
“I Would Sacrifice Myself for my Academy and its Glory!”
Authors: Maiorov Alexander V.
Published: May 2019

The paper studies the role that Professor Schlözer played in the discovery of the Hypatian Chronicle – a most important example of Old Russian chronicle writing – and in introducing it into historical studies. Based on the documents from St. Petersburg archives, the author relates the reasons why the first attempt to publish the Hypatian Chronicle in the late 1760s failed and why the researchers lost sight of the manuscript for the subsequent forty years.
“Scratch a Russian, Find a Turk”
Authors: Halperin Charles J.
Published: May 2019

In this first-rate monograph, Cornelia Soldat confirms earlier impressionistic assertions that the portrayal of Ivan iv as a tyrant and the Muscovites as barbarians in German-language pamphlets (Flugschriften) written as propaganda during the Livonian War (1558–1582), are simply projections onto the Muscovite discourse of the motifs of the anti-Ottoman discourse that originated in the fifteenth century after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Therefore the pamphlets have no value whatsoever for the study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Muscovite history. These conclusions have wider significance for the interpretation of the historical reliability of two other source genres beyond the scope of Soldat’s monograph, Livonian chronicles and defector German travel accounts written by Germans who served Ivan iv but then fled Muscovy to write scurrilous denunciations of him as a tyrant.
Professionalization in Sexual Politics and Activism in Croatia in the 2000s
Authors: Butterfield Nicole
Published: May 2019

This paper examines Croatian lgbtq activists’ engagement with discourses of human rights and European identity in their struggles for anti-discrimination legislation. Utilizing the external pressure imposed by European Union institutions on the Croatian government and the government’s aim to become an eu member state during the pre-accession process, some activists and the organizations with which they collaborated focused their efforts and resources toward lobbying for legislative protection again discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Aside from the specific circumstances of eu accession, part of the thrust behind the focus on legislative change and lobbying derives from processes of professionalization or the changing financial and legal support structures that the organization began to use during this period, the international and transnational networks in which they took part, and their internal organizational structures. Some activists construct a hierarchical differentiation between a professionalized sphere consisting of serious, professionalized types of activism vs. so-called amateur, cultural-based activism and embrace similar lobbying strategies used by transnational lgbtq organizations in Europe. These professionalized lobbying strategies have reproduced discourses of human rights and European identity that may foreclose recognition of difference within the larger, diverse lgbtq community and its needs.
The Business of State Capture and the Rise of Authoritarianism in Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia
Authors: Keil Soeren
Published: May 2019

This paper will discuss the rise of authoritarian tendencies in the political systems of Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. In all four countries, certain parties and political elites have become entrenched in the political system, and have been able to enhance their grip on power, often beyond, and in some cases through, constitutional frameworks. It will discuss how forms of state capture have enabled political elites to position themselves in a situation in which they not only control the political decision-making institutions, but also exercise excessive influence on the economic and social systems of these systems in transitional states. By extending their networks of patronage, limiting political access for opponents, and holding strong control over media and the judiciary, these elites have been able to develop semi-authoritarian systems, which utilise democratic elections to confirm their long-term dominance, veiling them in a veneer of legitimacy. This rise of electoral authoritarianism – and in turn illiberal democracy – is not only linked to the political actions of certain parties and elites, but also results from the political, social and economic changes that the countries under investigation have faced in recent years. What is more, the so-called transformative power of eu integration has failed to hinder or deter the rise of these new authoritarian regimes. The paper will progress in three main steps: In the first part, a theoretical framework will be introduced, by focusing on theories of democratization and authoritarian back-sliding. In the second part, the four countries under investigation will be discussed in more detail, to highlight why there has been an increase in authoritarian practices across these four countries. This section will also discuss how these authoritarian tendencies play out in practice and how they have been undermining the consolidation of liberal democracy. Finally, in the conclusion it will be discussed what the European Union (eu) and other actors could do in order to support those forces that focus on democratic governance in these countries, and make the accession process truly transformative.
Seizing the State under International Administration
Authors: Coelho Joseph
Published: May 2019

State capture is a form of institutionalized particularism whereby elite actors manipulate policy formation to their own material and political interests at the expense of the public good. In Kosovo, a competitive form of state capture emerged during the postwar period as the country’s main political parties fiercely compete for control over state spoils. What makes the case of state capture in Kosovo stand apart from most countries in the region is the extensive international dimension of Kosovo’s state-building process. This raises an important question: given the extraordinary levels of international involvement in post-conflict reconstruction and the strengthening of state institutions, how has corruption become increasingly pervasive in Kosovo under international administration and supervision? The central argument of this article is that the stability paradigm has driven certain international policies and practices that have created conditions favorable to state capture, which indirectly contributes to widespread corruption in Kosovo. The West’s choice of stability and security over democracy and rule of law will have long-term and adverse consequences for Kosovo’s state formation.
Modern Warfare in Former Yugoslavia and Ukraine
Authors: Craig Nation R.
Published: May 2019

The wars in former Yugoslavia from 1991–2001, and Ukraine from 2014 to the present, provide revealing examples of the ways in which contemporary armed conflict is evolving. Their origins lay in domestic rather than inter-state disputes, and they emerged as civil wars born of state failure. The belligerent factions were diverse, including established states, new national polities, and radicalized non-state actors. Operationally the wars were liquid conflicts where adversaries, lacking decisive combat power, often shunned conventional military objectives in favor of attacks on populations, terroristic posturing, and symbolic gestures. The conflicts were internationalized, with powerful external actors at odds over responsibility and preferred outcomes. They were European wars, with European and Euro-Atlantic institutions directly engaged in conflict management, peace enforcement, and post-conflict peace building. The conflicts have contributed to the break down of cooperative security in 21st century Europe and the re-opening of an East-West divide running through the heart of the continent. Managing and containing such clashes is and will remain a major strategic challenge.
Because they are Genghis Khan’s Descendants: The Involvement of the Giray Dynasty in Tax Farming and Allocations of Timars in Eighteenth-Century Serfice
Authors: Lamprakis Dimitrios K.
Published: May 2019

The Ottoman eighteenth century is a period of decentralisation dominated by the emergence of peripheral semi-autonomous lords. This period is also marked by the spread of tax farming (iltizam), especially lifelong malikane contracts. This article is a case study of these two phenomena, through examination of the activities of minor/secondary notables in a remote corner of Ottoman Macedonia, namely the town of Serfice (today Servia, in Greek Macedonia), their relationship with the Giray dynasty ruling over the Tatar khanate of Crimea, who were in their own right the traditional patrimonial beneficiaries of the hasses of Serfice, and the role of the Ottoman administration operating as an efficient power broker. It also examines the role of the Giray dynasty in bestowals of timar grants on beneficiaries, in an era in which the timar system is described in the available bibliography as either moribund or completely defunct.
Amazigh Negative Verb Morphology
Authors: Bensoukas Karim
Published: May 2019

This paper provides an Optimality-theoretic account of Amazigh negative verb morphology. With very few exceptions, previous accounts focused more on particles than on the morphology proper. The infixation vs. final ablaut allomorphy and the correspondence between negative and affirmative paradigms have remained so far without proper treatment. Also, by assigning verbs to four paradigms, general descriptions of Amazigh overlook the neutralization of negative verb morphology in some three-paradigm Tashlhit dialects, treated in this paper as an identity avoidance effect, as well as the concomitant variation other Tashlhit dialects exhibit, which shows that Partial Rankings are at play. Also overlooked are the five paradigms of Tarifiyt, Iznassen and Figuig and the use of discontinuous negation due to the Jespersen’s cycle. The latter dialects not only show an extended negative morphology by overtly marking both the preterite and the intensive aorist but they also reinforce negation syntactically. Comparison with non-Moroccan dialects reveals various patterns pertaining to these aspects of negation.
Does Mass Count Anymore?
Authors: Hacohen Aviya , Qtit Mostafa
Published: May 2019

The theoretical literature on the mass/count distinction in Palestinian-Arabic (PA) is extremely scarce, and the psycholinguistic perspective has never been explored. In this paper, we report results from an experiment exploring the mass/count distinction in 48 (aged 6;6–17;04) young and adult speakers of PA. Using an adaptation of Barner & Snedeker’s (2005) Quantity-Judgment task, we show that while PA-speaking adults are essentially identical to English-speaking adults, PA-speaking children behave dramatically different from both adult PA speakers and from English-acquiring children. We suggest that these results may reflect a process of language change currently taking place in PA. We further propose two possible sources for the process. The first involves the fact that the grammaticization of mass/count in PA is rather marginal, as indicated by the relative paucity of syntactic structures encoding the distinction. Alternatively, our data may reflect a change process involving a relaxation of obligatory number-marking in cardinality contexts. Finally, we outline a research-program aimed to test these hypotheses.
Tarifit Berber
Authors: El Hankari Abdelhak
Published: May 2019

This paper is concerned with the word order of Tarifit Berber. It is argued that this variety has now shifted from VSO to a topic-prominent system. The topic is realised by the subject when all arguments are lexical or by VP-Topicalisation (V + object clitic) when the object is a pronominal clitic. The syntax of wh-/operator and some embedded clauses, which typically require a Verb-first structure, is also investigated. A careful consideration of these clauses reveals that the surface position of the verb is the result of V-to-C movement, which is motivated by focus. Topic and focus are investigated within the current debate as to whether discourse features are syntactic or phonological. Several pieces of evidence are presented, which suggest that these features are likely to be phonological in Tarifit. The object clitic, which is specified for topic, cannot move alone to the initial position of the clause, presumably due to its prosodic deficiency. So, it must pied-pipe the verb with it yielding VP-Topicalisation. Similarly, focus in C can only be valued by an independent phonological item. If the complementiser does not meet this condition, the main verb must move to C, giving rise to a strict VS ordering.
Pronominal Non-Core Datives in Syrian Arabic
Authors: Al-Zahre Nisrine , Boneh Nora
Published: May 2019

In this paper we describe the pragmatic, lexical and syntactic properties of the Syrian Arabic Coreferential Dative Construction (CDC), featuring a dative element bearing agreement features which are identical to those of the subject in the clause, the Coreferential Dative (CD), and an obligatory expression of attenuative vague measure, described by us in Al-Zahre & Boneh (2010). We first show that the CD, which has no truth conditional meaning, contributes to the creation of a Conventional Implicature (Horn 2004, Potts 2005). Second, we propose a way to compositionally integrate the CD into the derivation of these constructions by arguing that the visible pronominal features are non-referential but rather the morphological reflex of checked uninterpretable phi-features on a defective applicative head. To couch the analysis in a wider context, we show how it can extend to other categories of non-core dative in Syrian Arabic.
The Universal Perfect in Syrian Arabic
Authors: Hallman Peter
Published: May 2019

This paper describes a construction in contemporary Syrian Arabic that matches the semantic features of the ‘universal perfect’ in English. The construction is based on a stative predicate and a duration adverbial and says that the state has held for the specified duration. The primary identifying morphological characteristic of the construction is the fact that the subject is doubled by a dative pronoun. The dative pronoun may surface as an enclitic of the optional auxiliary ṣār ‘become’. The paper identifies the construction’s morphosyntactic and semantic composition and addresses the question of whether ṣār is a pleonastic auxiliary or makes a semantic contribution of its own. I claim that the universal perfect meaning is derived by a hidden operator that assigns dative case to the subject, and whose position is detectable by its interaction with negation. The doubling of the subject in Arabic by a dative pronoun represents a subtle similarity to English, which employs the auxiliary have in the perfect, since both the dative in Arabic and have in English signify possession in other contexts. Similarities in the components and composition of the universal perfect in Arabic and English support the notion that the universal perfect is a uniform element in a cross linguistic taxonomy of aspectual categories.
The Wandering Subjects of the Levant
Authors: Ouwayda Sarah , Shlonsky Ur
Published: May 2019

Lebanese Arabic (LA) presents a puzzling word order in non-finite subordination contexts where the subject of the matrix clause comes sandwiched between the embedded verb and its complement (Hallman 2011). We present new facts concerning this puzzle, and argue in favor of phrasal movement of TP, which transports both verbs and intervening material above the subject, along the lines of Kayne (2005:42). Importantly, while the surface position of the subject may appear to involve rightward movement, we propose the subject itself only undergoes one simple movement leftwards (as a topic), and that the puzzling order follows from the movement of phrases containing it.
On the interrogative terms ʔaddēʃ and kam in Syrian Arabic
Authors: Hallman Peter
Published: May 2019

This paper compares two interrogative terms—ʔaddēʃ and kam—in Syrian Arabic. Both of these form questions about quantity. I argue, though, that ʔaddēʃ and kam are fundamentally different both syntactically and semantically. ʔaddēʃ can be separated from the term that contributes the scale it asks about, which is typical of degree operators in Syrian Arabic. Various scales are compatible with ʔaddēʃ. This makes ʔaddēʃ similar to English how as in how high, how fast, how much, etc. Kam, on the other hand, combines only with a singular count noun and asks how many instances of the count noun denotation have the property the remnant sentence denotes. This, and syntactic and morphological parallels between kam and numerals in Syrian Arabic, point to the conclusion that kam is an interrogative numeral.
Reading Images of Christ: Masculinity and Homosexuality as Sites of Struggle in Popular Religious Images of Jesus
Authors: Samson Judith
Published: May 2019

The attitude towards homosexuality has become one of the key markers of political identity. In Europe as well as in Northern America it has been used by different groups to promote their views. Especially between fundamentalist Christians and politically as well as religiously liberal people it has become a significant topic of contestation. This article argues that this struggle not only takes place on a textual, but also on a visual discursive level, in which the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is central. An analysis of the representation of Jesus’ masculinity in this image shows that different groups, Polish fundamentalists at a pilgrimage site and liberal American producers of a satiric website, use different versions of the same image to either counter or support public acceptance of homosexuality.
Mermaids and Spirit Spouses: Rituals as Technologies of Gender in Transnational African Pentecostal Spaces
Authors: Rey Jeanne
Published: May 2019

This article aims to approach the construction of gender in transnational spaces by focusing on the ritual practice of African Pentecostal migrants in Europe and in Africa. One dimension of African Pentecostalism is its insistence on the practice of exorcism called ‘deliverance’ where malevolent spirits are expelled from one’s body. Within the Pentecostal demonology, several categories of spirits carry implications for how gender is constructed. This article will analyse effects of the appearance of these spirits on the construction of gender among Ghanaian and Congolese Pentecostal churches in Geneva and in Accra. It will show that variations in the appearance of spirits within rituals can be interpreted as a negotiation of gender roles in a migratory context. Shifts in Pentecostal demonology can therefore be interpreted as a response to the reconfiguration of gender roles associated with the broader gender context and work opportunities in Europe.
Displacements: Religion, Gender, and the Catachrestic Demands of Postcoloniality
Authors: Hawthorne Sîan Melvill
Published: May 2019

In this paper I examine the uneasy intersection between ‘religion’, ‘gender’ and ‘postcoloniality’ as it is staged in the sub-field of religion and gender within religious studies and theology. Noting the lack of sustained attention in this field to those postcolonial challenges that might question the prioritization of gender as the site from which critique should be originated, and suggesting that this neglect might compromise the assumption that, because of its alignment with the politics of the marginal, it is comparatively less implicated in colonial knowledge formations, I argue that scholars of religion and gender risk perpetuating imperialist figurations found elsewhere in the academic study of religions. I propose the figure of the catachresis, as theorized by Gayatri Spivak, as a potential step towards displacing those European concept-metaphors and value-codings that both derive from imperialist ideologies and sustain the fiction operational within much, though not all, religion and gender scholarship of a generalizable or normative epistemic subjectivity. I suggest these ideologies ultimately prevent an encounter with the women and men who exist beyond this mode of production and whose priorities may be configured entirely differently to those that seem currently to inform and produce the intellectual itineraries of the field.
God’s World Is Not an Animal Farm – Or Is It? The Catachrestic Translation of Gender Equality in African Pentecostalism
Authors: van Klinken Adriaan S.
Published: May 2019

Building on scholarly debates on Pentecostalism, gender and modernity in Africa, this article engages a postcolonial perspective to explore and discuss the ambivalent, even paradoxical nature of African Pentecostal gender discourse. It analyses the conceptualization of gender equality, in particular the attempt to reconcile the notions of ‘male–female equality’ and ‘male headship’, in a sermon series delivered by a prominent Zambian Pentecostal pastor, and argues that the appropriation and interruption of Western notions of gender equality in these sermons can be interpreted, in the words of Homi Bhabha, as a catachrestic postcolonial translation of modernity. Hence, the article critically discusses the Western ethnocentrism in some scholarly debates on gender and Pentecostalism in Africa, and points to some of the fundamental questions that Pentecostalism and its ambivalent gender discourse pose to gender-critical scholarship in the study of religion.
New Radiocarbon Dates from Nasera Rockshelter (Tanzania): Implications for Studying Spatial Patterns in Late Pleistocene Technology
Authors: Ranhorn Kathryn , Tryon Christian A.
Published: May 2019

Late Pleistocene and Holocene evidence from multiple rockshelters in north-central Tanzania suggests a regional pattern of changing technological behaviors through time. We use independent chronological evidence to test if the proposed technological patterns across space were also temporally equivalent. We applied AMS radiocarbon dating methods to the carbonate fraction of five ostrich eggshell fragments from Mehlman’s 1975-1976 excavations at Nasera rockshelter and compared our results to recent re-dating efforts of Mumba rockshelter. We document radiocarbon results >46 ka at Nasera in Level 5, indicating that associated and underlying technologies (including what Mehlman termed the ‘Nasera Industry’) are older than previously documented. Backed pieces first appear >46 ka at Nasera, which is in accordance with recent evidence from nearby rockshelters like Enkapune ya Muto, Panga ya Saidi, and potentially Kisese II. We also provide an age of 11,260-11,710 calBP for the ‘Silale Industry’ of Level 3B. Overall, the shifts in lithic technology previously considered to be shared between Mumba and Nasera rockshelters are not temporally aligned, emphasizing the possibility that intra-site variability was the norm throughout the Late Pleistocene in eastern Africa.
Introduction: Hinge Epistemology
Authors: Coliva Annalisa , Moyal-Sharrock Danièle
Published: May 2019

This introduction gives a summary of the content of the special issue Hinge Epistemology, grouping the papers in three sections: (1) more exegetical accounts of Wittgenstein’s notion of hinge certainties and their bearing on a theory of justification and knowledge as well as on the topic of external world scepticism; (2) papers critical of the very notion of hinge certainty; and (3) papers that apply the notion to various areas of epistemology and compare Wittgenstein’s views to those of other philosophers.
Which Hinge Epistemology?
Authors: Coliva Annalisa
Published: May 2019

The paper explores the idea of a “hinge epistemology,” considered as a theory about justification (and knowledge) which gives center-stage to Wittgenstein’s notion of hinges. First, some basic methodological considerations regarding the relationship between merely exegetical work on Wittgenstein’s texts and more theoretically committed work are put forward. Then, the main problems raised in On Certainty and the most influential interpretative lines it has given rise to so far are presented and discussed. In light of the initial methodological considerations, some contemporary attempts at developing Wittgenstein’s ideas in an anti-skeptical direction, such as Crispin Wright’s and Michael Williams’s, are considered. Their intrinsic merits notwithstanding, it is argued that they fail to take proper measure of Wittgenstein’s own position. In closing, an alternative version of hinge epistemology is put forward and points of contact and disagreement with Wittgenstein’s own views are highlighted.
In Defense of a Critical Commonsensist Conception of Knowledge
Authors: Tiercelin Claudine
Published: May 2019

Questioning doubt is much more recent than questioning knowledge, and may be traced back to Charles Sanders Peirce and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Both have a close pragmatist strategy and reject the relevance of the radical Cartesian scenario. However, despite a common diagnosis of what goes wrong with the sceptic and of some illusions he entertains about thinking, knowledge, and the way they are related to practice and action, the replies are not the same. Whereas Wittgenstein wavers between a realistic reaction and a neo-Pyrrhonian attitude, Peirce’s offensive attack strongly relies on a metaphysical and scientific version of realism and on a critical Common Sensist method of inquiry. Both philosophers insist on relying on first principles or hinge propositions, but also illustrate rather different views about these. The aim of this paper is to try and show how and why, in the end, Peirce’s Critical Commonsensist and fallibilistic attitude seems a better strategy, both as an account of the logic of our epistemic practices and as a convincing parry to scepticism.
After the Spade Turns: Disagreement, First Principles and Epistemic Contractarianism
Authors: Lynch Michael P.
Published: May 2019

Reasons, Wittgenstein warned, come to an end; we hit bedrock; the spade is turned. Long philosophical tradition, not to mention common sense, agrees. You can’t justify everything. In this paper, I examine a case where it is not only especially compelling that reasons run out—it is especially troubling. The case is when there is disagreement over explicitly epistemic first principles. Epistemic first principles are principles that announce that basic methods for acquiring beliefs are reliable. Where we disagree over such principles, we face the alarming prospect of being unable to defend them without relying on the very methods whose reliability is in question. I then explore, however briefly, what options remain in such situations for still engaging in what we might call rational persuasion. I suggest our prospects depend on whether we can make sense of giving objective practical reasons for our epistemic first principles.
The Fall of the Iron Curtain and Its Significance for the Establishment of Minority Rights Regimes in Eastern Europe
Authors: Phillips Alan
Published: May 2019

This article examines the development of minority rights regimes in Europe following the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. It shows how the foundations for democracy were reinforced by the Helsinki Final Act in 1975 and the opportunities it created for dialogue. The major concerns of many states to prevent irredentism and violent inter-ethnic conflicts provided the opportunity to adopt international standards on the protection and promotion of minority rights. Civil society, including members of minorities, were in the vanguard, as they promoted democratic change in 1989 and played a leading role in influencing minority rights standards and their implementation. The Conclusions of the 1990 csce Copenhagen Human Dimension influenced the undm, formed the backbone of the fcnm, and became an invaluable set of standards used by the hcnm for conflict prevention. Twenty-five years later, it is evident the fall of the Iron Curtain was highly significant for minority rights regimes throughout Europe.
Regional Citizenship and the Evolution of Basque Immigration and Integration Policies
Authors: Ruiz-Vieytez Eduardo J.
Published: May 2019

Immigration policies are of great significance for minority nations, like the Basque Country. Basque nationalism is inclusive and civic; through regional institutions, it has created an informal citizenship with a strong social foundation. This regional citizenship, despite some limitations on regional powers, embraces immigrants by offering social rights to all in order to promote integration in a Basque nation in which identities are not clearly defined. From a technical and legal perspective, there is no specific or separate regional citizenship that could be created by regional institutions in the Basque Country. From a political perspective, however, the principle of inclusive citizenship incorporated by regional policies has played a significant role in the integration process. This trend is similar to the situation in Scotland although it differs slightly from the cases of Catalonia and Quebec, nations in which language is a strong marker of identity.
Regionalizing Dimensions of Citizenship: Accommodating Muslim Minorities in Quebec
Authors: Sarrouh Beesan T. , Banting Keith
Published: May 2019

Quebec offers an interesting perspective on the relationship between minority nationalism and the integration of immigrants. Immigration into the homeland of a national minority often reinforces its sense of cultural insecurity. Quebec has responded by exercising its substantial jurisdiction within the Canadian federation to develop a distinctive approach to immigrant integration, known as interculturalism. This article examines the controversies surrounding Quebec’s approach. We argue that the actual content of current debates, which increasingly focus on the accommodation of religious diversity, is driven primarily by the church–state settlement reached in the province in the middle of the 20th century. However,Quebecers’ minority status does matter. It increases the frequency and intensity of conflict about diversity policy. In addition, it shapes attitudes toward the process for managing disputes. Quebecers’ believe such issues should be resolved within Quebec, and they resist the idea that pan-Canadian institutions should have a central role.