Alexandria, the capital of Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods is often hailed as the ancient cosmopolitan center of Mediterranean par excellence. Since the foundation of the city by... Show moreAlexandria, the capital of Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods is often hailed as the ancient cosmopolitan center of Mediterranean par excellence. Since the foundation of the city by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, several traditions- along with their representatives, mainly Greek and Egyptian- coexisted and interacted with each other, resulting in a multiculturalism in Alexandrian society. However, in the past scholarship, the Greek cultural aspect of the city has been extensively discussed, while the Egyptian part has never been fully overviewed and interpreted. Such interpretations caused in a large extent, from the one side, a deformed picture of the Alexandria’s Greek-ness, almost equal to this of a Greek “colony” separated from Egypt –Alexandria ad Aegyptum- and from the other side a blur picture about the role of the Egyptian tradition in the Greco-Egyptian interaction and the life of Alexandrian society. However, over the last decade an alternative framework of understanding has been developed in several case studies, while discoveries from the underwater missions indicate that the city had much more Egyptian characteristics than hitherto believed. Therefore, the thesis aims to provide an overview and interpretation of the Egyptian elements and influences in Alexandria, focusing on issues of ideology, culture, identity and public life. In this way, it has been attempted to offer a better understanding of the multicultural life of Alexandria in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Show less
As elsewhere in the Middle East, the Mosul area witnessed a flourishing of Christian art during the thirteenth century. Discussing both art-historical and written sources, this book examines the... Show moreAs elsewhere in the Middle East, the Mosul area witnessed a flourishing of Christian art during the thirteenth century. Discussing both art-historical and written sources, this book examines the role of art in expressing the identity of Mosul’s Syrian Orthodox community, and explores the relationship between Christian and Islamic art. Christian-Muslim relations in the Middle East during the medieval period have often been seen in terms of conflict and violent opposition, a presumed dichotomy which focuses almost exclusively on theological differences and fails to take account of the social complexities of daily life. The present study challenges these simplistic views of division along religious lines, seeing the boundaries between the Christian and Muslim communities as areas of intermingling rather than separation. A detailed comparative analysis between Christian and Islamic art provides a far more nuanced picture of extensive cultural interaction, in which the Christians were fully integrated into their environment while still retaining their own exclusive religious and communal identity. Show less
In the late middle ages, the inhabitants of the duchy of Guelders had to deal with a number of negative stereotypes. They were reputed to be lumpish, barbaric, belligerent, and rebellious. These... Show moreIn the late middle ages, the inhabitants of the duchy of Guelders had to deal with a number of negative stereotypes. They were reputed to be lumpish, barbaric, belligerent, and rebellious. These stereotypes had come into existence during the many wars with the Burgundian and Habsburg princes, who wanted to conquer the duchy. Some Guelders historians, however, used these negative stereotypes in order to create a positive image of their compatriots: they described the people of Guelders as natural, brave, and as lovers of freedom. According to them, these labels were the essence of the Guelders identity. In Gelre. Dynastie, land en identiteit Aart Noordzij describes the development of a political identity in Guelders between 1100 and 1600. He does this by analyzing the interaction between political processes, state-formation and the shaping of identities. Successively, the formation of the dynasty, the structure of the territory, and the imagination of the dynasty, the territory, and its inhabitants pass in review. By reconstructing the interaction between political processes, imagination, and the shaping of identities, we can understand how a political community like Guelders, notwithstanding its complexity and lack of unity, could exist, function, and get coherence. Show less
=========ABSTRACT=========It is tempting to think of precolonial India as a harmonious society, but was it? This study brings evidence from new and unexpected sources to take position in the... Show more=========ABSTRACT=========It is tempting to think of precolonial India as a harmonious society, but was it? This study brings evidence from new and unexpected sources to take position in the sensitive debate over that question. From the investigation of six conflicts in the Deccan region it draws conclusions about group behaviour that put modern clashes in context. Some of the conflicts under investigation appear odd today but were very real to the involved, as the antagonism between Left and Right Hand castes was for about a thousand years. Other conflicts continue to the present day: the seventeenth century saw lasting changes in the relationship between Hindus and Muslims as well as the rise of patriotism and early nationalism in both India and Europe. This book carefully brings to life the famous and obscure people who made the era, from the Dutch painter Heda to queen Khadija and from maharaja Shivaji to the English rebel Keigwin=========NOTES=========First Leiden University Press edition, 2009. Entirely revised from the author’s dissertation Xenophobia and Consciousness in Seventeenth-Century India: Six Cases from the Deccan, 12-Mar-2008. Show less
Prior to the abolishing of Apartheid rule in 1994 several major South African white writers wrote a novel set on a South African farm. Likewise, in the decades that preceded the institutionalising... Show morePrior to the abolishing of Apartheid rule in 1994 several major South African white writers wrote a novel set on a South African farm. Likewise, in the decades that preceded the institutionalising of Apartheid, several farm novels were published, but with an entirely different message. In Unheimlich moederland insights from several disciplines are used to show how major changes in social-economic relations, land rights and the construction of cultural identity in and between these two periods were reflected on farms and in farm novels. Das Unheimliche (The Uncanny) – those things within ones own realm that are strange and therefore frightening – , a concept coming from Freud, but also used by structuralists and cultural critics, proofs to be capable to explain certain effects of (post-)colonalism and interculturality. Uncanny for instance, were the rising dead or venging powers of nature that in late 20th century farm novels undermined white hegemony. Death is a plural metaphor: in a literary as well as in a social context, it refers to transgressing boundaries, change and chaos but also to land rights and patrimonie and from there to the establishing of spatial and identifying boundaries. In text as in real life, the structure of a rite de passage (separation, liminality, reintegration) is being used to link death to life, and thus to control it. Show less
Focussing on AAS le fleur I (1867-1941), the Griqua, and post-apartheid Khoe-San revivalism, the dissertation examines changes in the articulation of Khoe-San identities in South-Africa. It shows... Show moreFocussing on AAS le fleur I (1867-1941), the Griqua, and post-apartheid Khoe-San revivalism, the dissertation examines changes in the articulation of Khoe-San identities in South-Africa. It shows the significance of shifting political, cultural and ideological power relations on the articulation of Khoe-San identities, and by extension on the subjectivities of ethno-‘racial’ underclasses. Whilst colonial somatic and cultural discrimination engendered distancing from Khoe-Sanness and the assumption of alternative (christian, bastaard and coloured) identities, the emergence of Griqua polities and identities in the early 1800s allowed the maintenance of a fluctuating awareness of a Khoekhoe indigenous heritage. Discrimination against ‘nativeness’ encouraged Griqua to affirm that they had partial non-indigenous origin, to locate the Griqua category within the coloured catgory suggesting distance from ‘Nativeness’ and proximity to whiteness. However, the official consolidation of the Griqua and coloured categories allowed Griqua nationalists to ambivalently disassociate the Griqua category from colouredness during apartheid (1948-1994) and to promote Griqua ethno-national specificity. With the ending of apartheid, the coloured category lost much of the psychological, socio-economic, ideological and political value it previously conferred, further inclining Griqua and some coloureds to distance themselves from a coloured identity; to (re)affirm an indigenous heritage; and to promote Khoe-San identities Show less
This volume contains a range of original studies on the controversial role of youth in politics, conflicts and rebellious movements in Africa. A common aim of the studies is to try and explain why... Show moreThis volume contains a range of original studies on the controversial role of youth in politics, conflicts and rebellious movements in Africa. A common aim of the studies is to try and explain why patterns of generational conflict and violent response among younger age groups in Africa are showing such a remarkably uneven spread across the continent. An introduction by Jon Abbink (Being young in Africa: the politics of despair and renewal) is follwed by three parts: 1. Historical perspectives on youth as agents of change (Murray Last on youth in Muslim northern Nigeria, 1750-2000; G. Thomas Burgess on youth in revolutionary Zanzibar); 2. State, crisis and the mobilization of youth (Peter Mwangi Kagwanja on youth identity and the politics of transition in Kenya, 1997-2002; Karel Arnaut on youth and the politics of history in Côte d'Ivoire; Jok Madut Jok on the position of youth in South Sudan; Piet Konings on anglophone university students and anglophone nationalist struggles in Cameroon; and Sara Rich Dorman on youth and politics in Eritrea); 3. Interventions: dealing with youth in crisis (Yves Marguerat on street children in Lom‚, Togo; Angela McIntyre on the phenomenon of child soldiers in Africa; Simon Simonse on failed Statehood and the violence of young male pastoralists in the Horn of Africa; and Krijn Peters on the reintegration of young ex-combatants in Sierra Leone). [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
