Situated at the crossroads of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Spanish Philippines offer historians an intriguing middle ground of connected histories that raises fundamental new questions about... Show moreSituated at the crossroads of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Spanish Philippines offer historians an intriguing middle ground of connected histories that raises fundamental new questions about conventional ethnic, regional and religious identities. This volume adds a new global perspective to the history of the Philippines by juxtaposing Iberian, Chinese and Islamic perspectives. By navigating various underexplored archival resources, senior and junior scholars from Asia, Europe and the Americas explore the diverse cultural, religious, and economic flows that shaped the early modern Philippine milieu. By zooming in from the global to the local, this book offers eleven fascinating Philippine case studies of early modern globalization. Show less
Larik, J.E.; Daniëls, L.; Oosterom, J.; Ruiter, L. de; Smit, L.; Vermeij, A.; Vliet, V. van 2017
The existing architecture to ensure sustainable development in the high seas in the Indian Ocean exhibits numerous shortcomings. This policy brief addresses the most pressing gaps and proposes a... Show moreThe existing architecture to ensure sustainable development in the high seas in the Indian Ocean exhibits numerous shortcomings. This policy brief addresses the most pressing gaps and proposes a set of policy recommendations, including specific first steps that ought to be taken in the near future. These include Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as part of spatial management of fisheries, the possibilities of creating new or expanding existing governance instruments, and enhancing enforcement measures that are required to make a multilateral, comprehensive governance instrument for the Indian Ocean effective. The policy brief argues that more advanced forms of governance of regional seas need to be established that will support better cooperation and communication between governments and wider stakeholder communities. Furthermore, sustainable development in the Indian Ocean requires a well-functioning framework that is geographically inclusive and covers a wide range of species. Developing countries should be given assistance in this process and the private sector, the scientific community as well as local communities should be fully involved. Monitoring, control, and surveillance of any areas covered in existing and future treaties (including MPAs) will also depend on countries and the private sector working together. Uniform standards for fisheries are dependent on effective data collection and reporting, requiring a commitment from all parties involved to gather and share this information. Together, these recommendations aim to create an inclusive and cooperative governance structure for the Indian Ocean in the service of blue growth. Show less
I explore the circulation of Islamic legal texts and ideas between the Indian Ocean and Eastern Mediterranean worlds, which shared a “cosmopolis of law”. In the study, I primarily focus on the... Show moreI explore the circulation of Islamic legal texts and ideas between the Indian Ocean and Eastern Mediterranean worlds, which shared a “cosmopolis of law”. In the study, I primarily focus on the internal and external dynamics of legal textual circulation, its respective impacts on the intellectual trajectories of the Muslim communities over time and place, and the evident textual traditions developed in the Islamic world. I focus mainly on such Shāfiʿīte manuals like Minhāj of al-Nawawī (1233–1277), Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj of Ibn Hajar (d. 1566) and Fatḥ al-Muʿīn of al-Malaybārī (d. 1583?). I ask how these interconnected texts help us a) understand the dis-continuity within the Shāfiʿī school, b) answer why certain textual genealogies became more significant in the traditional legalist synthesis of texts and practices of both everyday religious lives of laypersons and legal engagements of fuqahā, and c) analyze the school’s spread across the Indian Ocean and eastern Mediterranean worlds. I also ask how a particular school emerged into a standard form of legal practices in South and Southeast Asian and East African coasts. In the context of scholarly-mercantile connections at such nodal points as Damascus, Cairo, Mecca, Ḥaḍramawt, Zanzibar, Malabar and Java, I read this textual corpus. Show less
This thesis deals with the associations between parasitic snails and their mushroom coral hosts. Gittenberger has spent 800 hours under water and searched about 60,000 coral discs for these... Show moreThis thesis deals with the associations between parasitic snails and their mushroom coral hosts. Gittenberger has spent 800 hours under water and searched about 60,000 coral discs for these parasites. He dived in Egypt, the Maldives, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Palau, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia. Places that are less popular with divers, like very deep or shallow sites, areas with strong currents, murky water, or sandy bottoms, received special attention. The greatest biodiversity was found off Sulawesi, a region that needs protection. Except for shell morphology, molecular, anatomical and ecological characters of the snails were studied. As a result it turned out that many more species exist than hitherto thought. Some dozens of unnamed cryptic ones were discovered. These can be distinguished most clearly by their DNA and their host specificity. The species of parasitic snails evolved most probably by bypassing the defence mechanism of one or a few coral species. Most of the data support a sympatric speciation model for these taxa. The molecular phylogenies of the parasites and their hosts were compared to investigate the amount of co-evolution. Show less
