This thesis examines the practice and effects of the Chinese Communist Party’s religious and minority policies in Xinjiang on the eve of the wholesale repression of Islam and Uyghur culture after... Show moreThis thesis examines the practice and effects of the Chinese Communist Party’s religious and minority policies in Xinjiang on the eve of the wholesale repression of Islam and Uyghur culture after 2016. Based on government papers and speeches, publications and communications by the China Islamic Association, as well as fieldwork in Xinjiang itself and among the Uyghur diaspora in Europe between 2013 and 2018, this thesis specifically looks at the shift in the Chinese Communist Party approach to Islam in the context of the “Xinjiang problem”. State restrictions on Uyghur religious life and the state’s apprehensions of Islam as a vessel and cause of Uyghur unrest already existed since the 1990s. The policies of repression and control in Xinjiang have been addressed by several studies, showing that they fueled the use of Islam as an anti-Chinese symbol of resistance. But there was also a state-backed positive policy on Islam, which sought to bind religious communities more firmly to the Party-state, using Islamic scripture and Islamic authority figures to stimulate cultural and political loyalty among Muslims. This thesis looks at this “functionalization” of Islam by the Chinese state to understand what exactly changed in the CCP’s approach in the 2010s, why it changed, and whether the new policies in Xinjiang constituted a deeper shift in the Party’s dealing with religion. Show less
This dissertation focuses on the creation of loyalty networks in the Mongol Empire and its successor states during the 13th and 14th centuries. It uses the framework of ‘categories of loyalty’ to... Show moreThis dissertation focuses on the creation of loyalty networks in the Mongol Empire and its successor states during the 13th and 14th centuries. It uses the framework of ‘categories of loyalty’ to examine how political actors made loyalty decisions. These categories can be broadly divided into two types: ideal loyalties and loyalties of self-interest. This work shows how these loyalties interacted, and how people explained their decisions, as well as how contemporary historians framed these actions. Show less
This book discusses the dynamic intersection of three bodies of law; adat, Aceh Shari’a and national penal law, and the institutions applying them. It focuses on how these address public morality... Show moreThis book discusses the dynamic intersection of three bodies of law; adat, Aceh Shari’a and national penal law, and the institutions applying them. It focuses on how these address public morality and criminal offences of a sexual nature as they play out in the Gayonese community of Central Aceh dan Bener Meriah districts, Indonesia.The author argues that these three legal systems have complemented and become alternatives to one another. The state, non-state legal actors and adat officials observe certain limits of each legal system and shop the forums available or apply legal differentiation. Among the actors involved, the police is the most influential in directing the use of the three legal systems. They decide which legal system suited best for the victims’, offenders’ and their own interest and they are the bridge between legal systems in the pluralism of penal law in Aceh. These legal developments in Gayo suggest that state recognition of non-state law (adat law) as part of the state legal system may give a high degree of autonomy to adat institutions. This goes against the frequent claim that recognition of adat always leads to more control by the state. Show less
This thesis investigates the formation of the Japanese nation-state from the angle of children’s literature. On the one hand, it elucidates how premodern warrior legends were canonized and adapted... Show moreThis thesis investigates the formation of the Japanese nation-state from the angle of children’s literature. On the one hand, it elucidates how premodern warrior legends were canonized and adapted in children’s literature and textbooks of the Meiji (1686-1912) and Taishō (1912-1926) period to shape the dispositions of young citizens according to various modern ideals. On the other hand, it analyses the role of children’s literature in Japan’s transition to modernity and the identity-formation of the adults involved. This thesis challenges the idea that ‘books for children’ did not exist before the Meiji period by placing the material within the contemporary context. Focusing on the work of the author Iwaya Sazanami (1870-1933), it consequently re-assesses the development of modern children’s literature in Japan through the lens of Yuri Lotman’s theory on cultural memory. The re-appropriation of warrior legends in a modern literary genre for young citizens contributed to the coherence of culture during Japan’s transition to modernity. The new genre moreover signified Japan’s status as a modern society that separates the sphere of childhood from adulthood, thereby providing the latter with a sense of Selfhood and the right to guide both real and metaphorical children in their development. Show less
This dissertation analyzes the changing discourses of Turkish nationalism between 1950s-1980 through the reproduction of political myths in nationalist action/adventure films with historical... Show moreThis dissertation analyzes the changing discourses of Turkish nationalism between 1950s-1980 through the reproduction of political myths in nationalist action/adventure films with historical settings. How myths narrate the nation’s spatial, ancestral, temporal roots, present situation, future, and mission is examined in seventy-one films that recreate the past within the frameworks of different historical-political contexts. The central question is: How does the depiction of the past change through time with the increasing polarizations hence nationalist militancy in the country? With a close reading in combination with film analysis, the depictions of the ideal representative of the Turkish nation, the national leader, warrior, enemies, friends, women, children, the national space, religion, and national mission are revealed. Show less
The late 1990s saw the emergence on the Chinese poetry scene of a phenomenon called “Poetry of the Nineties” (九十年代诗歌). This happened before the decade in question had reached its end. Different... Show moreThe late 1990s saw the emergence on the Chinese poetry scene of a phenomenon called “Poetry of the Nineties” (九十年代诗歌). This happened before the decade in question had reached its end. Different from what one might expect, the expression does not denote a simple calendar chronology – as in poetry written in the 1990s – but instead points to a literary-critical category, and more specifically to a particular poetics and a network of associated authors and critics. This discrepancy of calendar chronology and literary criticism offers a point of entry into a pivotal moment in critical discourse on contemporary Chinese poetry. Pivotal as it may be, this moment has remained underresearched to date, especially as regards its history, which goes back to the 1980s, and as regards its consequences, which continue to affect scholarship today. The present study addresses this blind spot by asking: What does “Poetry of the Nineties” signify, to whom, and to what effect? It engages with this question by investigating how poetry written in the 1990s is represented in 21st-century Chinese scholarship, and how this representation can be explained. Show less
This dissertation studies the construction of Chinese nationalism by the Chinese government and media companies through mass communication of government-staged and abrupt events in the reform era... Show moreThis dissertation studies the construction of Chinese nationalism by the Chinese government and media companies through mass communication of government-staged and abrupt events in the reform era between 2008 and 2012. It examines how Chinese audiences express online nationalist sentiments, representing whether the communication of media events meets the social demands established by “dream discourses.” Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, it focuses on two case studies: the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands incident. The dissertation finds that these mass media events play a significant role in shaping Chinese state nationalism and popular nationalism. The related mass communication helps the Chinese government increase or, at least, maintain its legitimacy through various strategies. The findings of this dissertation also show that as Chinese audiences have increasingly voiced themselves in the information age, the government will keep treating the robust, uneasy entanglement of nationalism, globalization, and digital media more cautiously for its social development and stability. Show less
De primaire focus van dit proefschrift is het onderzoeken van de politieke ideeën van BG Tilak (1856-1920), de congres-extremistische leider van de Indiase nationalistische beweging en, in het... Show moreDe primaire focus van dit proefschrift is het onderzoeken van de politieke ideeën van BG Tilak (1856-1920), de congres-extremistische leider van de Indiase nationalistische beweging en, in het proces, de politieke en intellectuele geschiedenis van Maharashtra en India te reconstrueren tijdens de late 19e en begin 20e eeuw. Deze dissertatie daagt de oudere stijlfiguur uit die Tilak binnen de reikwijdte van de meerderheid van de hindoe-nationalistische politiek plaatst. Het plaatst zijn sociale conservatisme in de heersende sociale overtuigingen van en liturgische lezingen aangeboden door de laat 19e-eeuwse Marathi openbare intellectuelen. De belangrijkste agenda van Tilak was de creatie van een gecollectiviseerd en geradicaliseerd hindoe-zelf, geponeerd tegen het Britse kolonialisme. Zijn creatieve versmelting van moderne westerse historische exegese met Sanskriet kennissystemen in het pleiten voor hoge oudheid voor de Arische beschaving worden onderzocht. Zijn commentaar op de Bhagavad Gītā bood een infusie van ethische principes in massaal politiek activisme. Tilak slaagde erin om provinciale parochialisme ten opzichte van pan-nationale identiteiten te verminderen. Ten slotte stelt dit proefschrift dat het nationalistische ideaal van Tilak beperkt was tot Svarājya of Zelfbeschikking voor India binnen het Britse Gemenebest. Show less
Within the framework of a larger debate on literary history and censorship studies, this research delves deeper into the role of literature in narrating Indonesia’s bleakest pages of history,... Show moreWithin the framework of a larger debate on literary history and censorship studies, this research delves deeper into the role of literature in narrating Indonesia’s bleakest pages of history, namely the events of 1965-66 and the mass killings that followed. The historical legacy of the events was a matter of grave contention within Indonesia and to speak directly and write with honesty about them could become fraught with danger. Throughout most of the 1970s, creative literature in Indonesia was almost totally silent on the background and meaning of the killings of 1965-66, the very specific topic that did not collocate with the values of the authoritarian New Order regime. The aftermath in the lives of individuals who witnessed this tragedy was also skipped over in Indonesian literature. In addition, the traumatic nature of the experience seemed to have been expunged from the memories of witnesses and inhibited a wider group of people from talking. However, against all odds, a few literary authors spoke up and openly addressed this theme in their novels. They were even sympathetic in portraying the victims even though the regime was at the height of its power and exerting maximum social and political control through rampant censorship. In this regard, this dissertation addresses the broader question about what this case of literary production tells us about the nature of censorship under the New Order. Show less
Dr. Taufiq Canaan gathered many amulets from 1905 to 1947 in rural areas and towns of Palestine. Among the amulets he collected, the largest group is at Birzeit University and it is known as the... Show moreDr. Taufiq Canaan gathered many amulets from 1905 to 1947 in rural areas and towns of Palestine. Among the amulets he collected, the largest group is at Birzeit University and it is known as the Tawfik Canaan Collection of Palestinian Amulets. It contains a wide variety of objects, a unique group of uninscribed amulets, and extensive documentation of all the items. In my thesis I conclude that the amulets in this Collection do not only deserve our attention as museum objects, but as living objects that have a life and have gone through different phases. These phases become clear by analysing Canaan’s collecting process throughout the years in relation to his multifaceted life as a modern physician, anthropologist, folklorist, collector, social figure, and political activist. In every chapter I explore and contextualise each phase and highlight the amulets’ functions in the networks in which they circulated; from healing and protective remedies used by Canaan's patients in the first half of the 20th century, to becoming tokens of a Palestinian national identity when they were catalogued and exhibited in 1998. The importance of this research lies in the shift of focus from the Collection as a unit to the objects's functions and circulation disclosing the social, cultural and political conditions of the manufacture, use, trade, ethnographic study, and collection of amulets. Show less
In this dissertation I have explored contemporary modes of displacement and citizenship in India. Rather than large-scale spectacular dislocations which are a focus of ‘refugee’ studies or set... Show moreIn this dissertation I have explored contemporary modes of displacement and citizenship in India. Rather than large-scale spectacular dislocations which are a focus of ‘refugee’ studies or set patterns of ‘voluntary’ population movement which come under the rubric of ‘migration’ studies, I am interested in low-key everyday forms of displacements which fall through these categories of understanding, are invisible, and remain undiscussed. I have explored everyday forms of displacement through Oren Yiftachel’s (2020) concept of displaceability. I draw on two case studies of two different displaced groups in Calcutta and North 24 Parganas in West Bengal: i) East Bengali dalit refugees coming from East Bengal (present day Bangladesh) to West Bengal and ii) a group of peripatetic impoverished rural people coming from the villages of Bangladesh and West Bengal to the urban agglomeration around Calcutta. The time frame of the dissertation is from the beginning of the Second World War in 1939 till the present. I have utilised the concept of displaceability to show how these groups are kept in a condition of permanent temporariness through deliberate state policies and how this erodes their citizenship. Displaceability expands understanding of displacement from an act to a systemic condition of informal urban living. In displaceable conditions actual displacements or the potential threats of it are utilised as an administrative tool to extract services from the urban poor and coerce them into participating in unequal political exchanges. My study shows that while these refugees and migrants become displaceable through state mechanisms, they negotiate this condition through their own brands of politics from below. Show less
In this study, I aim to address a long-standing question in Southeast Asian historiography, namely: Why did two seemingly irrelevant edibles, pepper and sea cucumbers, feature so prominently in... Show moreIn this study, I aim to address a long-standing question in Southeast Asian historiography, namely: Why did two seemingly irrelevant edibles, pepper and sea cucumbers, feature so prominently in Southeast Asian exports to China in the early modern period? I approach this question through an intersection of Chinese cultural history and Asian maritime history. I argue that pepper and sea cucumbers represented two distinct Chinese food cultures, which became important in two different stages. Pepper became a popular hot spice in Chinese cuisine during the Mongol Yuan period, when the Mongol Conquest of China and Persia created a trans-Indian Ocean empire and facilitated the circulation of pepper from South India to China. Sea cucumbers became a coveted sea delicacy in Chinese high cuisine in a much later stage, roughly from the late sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, in association with the expansions of the Manchus, the Dutch, and the British in the areas around the China Seas. Between these two stages, there was a gustatory revolution energised by debates in Chinese medicine from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Through that revolution, a transformation from the world of pepper to the world of sea cucumbers took place. Show less
This dissertation is about the broadcasting of dakwah on Indonesian TV stations. It deals with the production and circulation of dakwah programmes on TV and elucidates the social and educational... Show moreThis dissertation is about the broadcasting of dakwah on Indonesian TV stations. It deals with the production and circulation of dakwah programmes on TV and elucidates the social and educational backgrounds of popular TV preachers in order to understand the rise of the programmes in post-Suharto Indonesia. Furthermore, this dissertation discusses the competition among various Muslim organisations to influence the production of dakwah programmes and the formation of religious authority through the broadcasting of dakwah programmes on TV channels. This dissertation is based on one-year ethnographic fieldwork in Jakarta, Medan, and Bali, which includes observations and interviews with the producers, preachers, and audiences of dakwah programmes, Muslim leaders, and members of Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI). This dissertation shows the important role of TV in the construction of religious authority, which becomes more fragmented in Muslim societies like in Indonesia partly because of televised dakwah. Most of the current researches on dakwah activities focus mainly on social media like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram but neglect the role of other media like TV. In fact, TV still plays an important role in daily activities of Indonesian society with its programmes. Muslims watch TV programmes such as dakwah, news, soap operas, talk and reality shows during their leisure and busy time. Muslim leaders make use of TV to disseminate their teachings and enhance their charisma among Muslim audiences. Presidential candidates and political leaders use TV stations to promote their political agendas to gain supports from the society. Show less
This micro-history of Jewish life in Roermond and Middle-Limburg is simultaneously European history. One reason for this is that in the course of time many European peoples or nations played a role... Show moreThis micro-history of Jewish life in Roermond and Middle-Limburg is simultaneously European history. One reason for this is that in the course of time many European peoples or nations played a role in Roermond and its surrounding area. Yet it is also important to note that for centuries similar processes of acceptation and distancing with respect to Jews have occurred in many places in Europe. The central question of this study is: how did the attitude of the environment, strongly determined by Christianity, affect the position and status of the Jews in Roermond and Middle Limburg, from the late Middle Ages to the early twenty-first century? Because the Middle-Limburg region has throughout the centuries been predominantly Roman-Catholic, one of the main questions in this dissertation concerns the attitude of the Catholic Church as an institution over the course of time – and not only during the years 1940-1945 –, and the concomitant attitude of the Catholic press. The developments involved necessitate to address fundamental issues such as the relation between religion and society, and its importance for the status and position of minorities. Show less
This thesis study 260 Arabic inscriptions from the Arabian Peninsula, corresponding to modern-day Saudi Arabia, dating to the first four centuries AH/ 7th to 10th centuries CE. In total, 260... Show moreThis thesis study 260 Arabic inscriptions from the Arabian Peninsula, corresponding to modern-day Saudi Arabia, dating to the first four centuries AH/ 7th to 10th centuries CE. In total, 260 inscriptions are studied, 145 of which are published here for the first time. The corpus pertains to four families whose ancestors are considered, from the literary sources, to be the Prophet Muḥammad's companions. Three of the families belonged to the tribe of the Prophet, the Quraysh, namely the descendants of al-Mughīra al-Makhzūmī, ʿUmar son of al-Khaṭṭāb, and al-Zubayr son of al-ʿAwwām. The fourth family is that of the descendants of Abū ʿAbs, from al-Anṣār. The corpus includes 106 personal names and was collected from different regions of Saudi Arabia, with most of the inscriptions found in the Medina region. Furthermore, the inscriptions extend our knowledge of these families beyond the genealogical sources since they provide us with knowledge of previously unknown individuals, which helps us reconstruct various family trees. The thesis also discusses why individuals whose names are found in the inscriptions are absent from the genealogical sources. There is also discussion of the epigraphic habit of the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula which was popular in the early Islamic period. It also shows that different members of one family left inscriptions at one site for around two centuries. The thesis concludes that inscriptions constitute an essential source for genealogical studies. Show less
This thesis gives a systematic interpretation of the maritime trade and transportation of Chinese ceramics in a historical perspective from the ninth-century Tang dynasty up to the middle of the... Show moreThis thesis gives a systematic interpretation of the maritime trade and transportation of Chinese ceramics in a historical perspective from the ninth-century Tang dynasty up to the middle of the 17th century. The focus is on the Dutch demand for porcelain, which types and shapes were ordered and what the Dutch East India Company (VOC) transported. The study is based on three distinct areas of research: maritime trade,Chinese export ceramics, and the history of the VOC. Items salvaged from shipwrecks are testimony of the shapes and quantities shipped by Western traders; these are also illustrated in the Appendices. What the Dutch ordered is based on the VOC commissions and cargo lists kept in the National Archives. A particular type, known in art-historical publications as Kraak-type porcelain, is given a sharper definition and a clearer chronology. Dutch demand for porcelain was decisive in activating the porcelain production in China; archaeological data shows that mass-production was undertaken to meet the demands for Western customers. The VOC was the main company ordering and storing Chinese porcelain, shipping it not only to Europe, but also within Asia and the Middle East during the first half of the 17th century. Show less
This dissertation investigates the relationship between waste recycling and social change. Instead of complying with a prevailing notion of recycling as an environmental solution, or as material... Show moreThis dissertation investigates the relationship between waste recycling and social change. Instead of complying with a prevailing notion of recycling as an environmental solution, or as material conversion and trade, this research maintains that recycling is about people, their relation to objects and environments, their networks of interaction and modes of thoughts. The empirical focus of this dissertation is Tzu-chi recycling: a volunteer-operated, community-based, Buddhism-associated national movement in Taiwan since the 1990s. This research analyzes Tzu-chi recycling at three levels: individual, communal and institutional. It studies Tzu-chi recycling against the backdrop of Taiwan’s drastic social change: the economic and demographic restructuring, a movement of political localization, and the dynamic powers of religious phenomenon. By doing so, the dissertation shows post-authoritarian Taiwan through the lens of waste recycling, and understands waste recycling through Taiwan. Overall, it contends that in different forms of action and ways of seeing, Tzu-chi-associated members redefine recycling as a past-oriented strategy and a redemptive tool to deal with different consequences of modernity. From the vantage point of waste, this research sheds light on the entanglement between a society’s development and its waste as an examination of its continuum and rupture between present and past. Through the chapters of this dissertation, it becomes clear that, above all, rubbish is at the core of meaningful and coordinated social activity; it makes us who we are. Show less
This dissertation contributes to the reinvention of Chinese political history with a comprehensive account of Wang Anshi’s 王安石 (1021-1086) political theory, touching also upon its practice, arguing... Show moreThis dissertation contributes to the reinvention of Chinese political history with a comprehensive account of Wang Anshi’s 王安石 (1021-1086) political theory, touching also upon its practice, arguing that it was centered on transforming human nature with statist values against the mid-eleventh century humanist mainstream. Intellectual historical studies of Wang Anshi over the past three decades have been focused on how he envisioned the relationship between government and society. Aiming to go beyond this, this study focuses on the “what” in Wang’s learning, i.e., his writings on daode 道德 and xingming 性命 (literally, the way and its power, nature and destiny), most concentratedly found in volumes 63-70 of Collected Writings of Mr. Linchuan 臨川先生文集. Regarding this body of work in Wang’s oeuvre, scholars like Yu Yingshi take them as being about moral self-cultivation in the Confucian tradition. Through close analysis of key concepts in context and differentiating rhetorical strategies from what was meant, I argue in chapter 2 that Wang’s discussions of human nature were integral to his political thought on governance and that what he advanced as the gist of his learning was an anti-humanist soulcraft centered on using statist values to transform self-regarding humans into subjects who would unreflectively think in the interest of the state. It was cultivationist rather than self-cultivationist, as Wang designed a full procedure to firmly establish these values – otherwise foreign to humans in his view – into people’s hearts through externally imposed behavioral regulations. Show less
This dissertation provides a description and analysis of the Mandarin copula shì and copular structures containing it. On the basis of a comprehensive description of the syntactic distribution of... Show moreThis dissertation provides a description and analysis of the Mandarin copula shì and copular structures containing it. On the basis of a comprehensive description of the syntactic distribution of shì and properties of different types of copular sentences (predicational, specificational, and equative), this study proposes a unified structural analysis for predicational and specificational copular sentences in Mandarin.It is proposed that shì is a functional element in the structure of the clause. Importantly, shì is not a verb, and copular structures in Mandarin contain no verb phrase at all, which is consistent with proposals about pronominal copular elements in other languages. Specificational copular sentences are analysed as inverted predicational copular sentences, derived via predicate inversion. This analysis captures both the underlying similarities and the differences between the two types of copular sentences. It is also pointed out that the third type of copular sentences, equatives, is clearly distinct from both predicational and specificational copular sentences and should thus be analysed in a different way.The dissertation also proposes that tense is not always syntactically expressed in Mandarin copular structures. While sentences with a stage-level predicate express tense syntactically, those with an individual-level predicate do not. Show less
This PhD thesis studies the emergence of a new type of female image in ukiyo-e in the early to mid-nineteenth century (late Edo period), with a focus on the bijin-ga, or “pictures of beauties,”... Show moreThis PhD thesis studies the emergence of a new type of female image in ukiyo-e in the early to mid-nineteenth century (late Edo period), with a focus on the bijin-ga, or “pictures of beauties,” designed by Keisai Eisen (1791–1848). Compared to many bijin-ga produced before his time, Eisen’s bijin-ga express a more sensuous, sexually-charged ethos and a sense of self-resilience in the portrayal of female subjects. My study contextualizes the new images of women within the socio-historical milieu of this era.In the context of gender studies, my investigation also explore the social function of Eisen’s bijin-ga. Commercial media such as ukiyo-e seemingly contribute to the general discourse on female gender roles in its bijin-ga depictions of women. In other words, Eisen’s bijin-ga images of women play in the creation of a new feminine ideal in the late Edo period. I also explore in what ways was this expressed in the bijin-ga of Eisen and his circle of artists, writers, and publishers of the demimonde that formed the vortex of commoner society and culture of the late Edo. Show less
