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Charismatic authority

In the field of sociology, charismatic authority is a concept of organizational leadership wherein the authority of the leader derives from the personal charisma of the leader. In the tripartite classification of authority, the sociologist Max Weber contrasts charismatic authority (character, heroism, leadership, religious) against two other types of authority: (i) rational-legal authority (modern law, the sovereign state, bureaucracy) and (ii) traditional authority (patriarchy, patrimonialism, feudalism). The Ancient Greek word became known through the Pauline epistles to Christian communities in the first century of the common era, wherein the word charisma denoted and described a gift of divine origin that demonstrated the divine authority possessed by the early leaders of the Church. Weber developed the theological term and the concept of charisma into a secular term for the sociological study of organizations. Terms derived from charisma include charismatic domination and charismatic leadership. Characteristics Charisma Weber applies the term charisma to In the modern era, psychologists have defined charisma in terms of practical outcomes (i.e. charismatic leaders are effective). The matter of conceptualization is an important consideration and how it relates to outcomes is circular in reasoning. The conclusions derived from the theory cannot be refuted given that the proponents claim something akin to if effective, therefore charismatic. Charisma, however, can be studied scientifically if seen as a costly signal, using values, symbols, and emotions. Its economic value in consequential settings has also been scientifically examined. Thus Weber's insights were valuable in identifying the construct of charisma. Modern social science therefore still supports the original thinking regarding the utility of the construct. Authority Weber interchanges authority and dominance[H]as been considered in sociological terms as indicating the legitimate or socially approved use of power. It is the legitimate power which one person or a group holds and exercises over another. The element of legitimacy is vital to the notion of authority and is the main means by which authority is distinguished from the more general concept of power. Power can be exerted by the use of force or violence. Authority, by contrast, depends on the acceptance by subordinates of the right of those above them to give them orders or directives. Charismatic authority is often the most lasting of regimes because the leader is seen as infallible and any action against him will be seen as a crime against the state. Charismatic leaders eventually develop a cult of personality often not by their own doing. Leadership is the power to diffuse a positive energy and a sense of greatness. As such, it rests almost entirely on the leader. The absence of that leader for any reason can lead to the authority's power dissolving. However, due to its idiosyncratic nature and lack of formal organization, charismatic authority depends much more strongly on the perceived legitimacy of the authority than Weber's other forms of authority. For instance, a charismatic leader in a religious context might require an unchallenged belief that the leader has been touched by God, in the sense of a prophet. Should the strength of this belief fade, the power of the charismatic leader can fade quickly, which is one of the ways in which this form of authority shows itself to be unstable. In contrast to the current popular use of the term charismatic leader, Weber saw charismatic authority not so much as character traits of the charismatic leader but as a relationship between the leader and his followers. The validity of charisma is founded on its "recognition" by the leader's followers (or "adepts" – ). His charisma risks disappearing if he is "abandoned by God" or if "his government doesn't provide any prosperity to those whom he dominates". Routinizing charisma Charismatic authority almost always endangers the boundaries set by traditional (coercive) or rational (legal) authority. It tends to challenge this authority, and is thus often seen as revolutionary. Usually this charismatic authority is incorporated into society. Hereby the challenge that it presents to society will subside. The way in which this happens is called routinization. By routinization, the charismatic authority changes: A religion which evolves its own priesthood and establishes a set of laws and rules is likely to lose its charismatic character and move towards another type of authority. For example, Muhammad, who had charismatic authority as "The Prophet" among his followers, was succeeded by the traditional authority and structure of Islam, a clear example of routinization. In politics, charismatic rule is often found in various authoritarian states, autocracies, dictatorships and theocracies. To help to maintain their charismatic authority, such regimes will often establish a vast personality cult. When the leader of such a state dies or leaves office, and a new charismatic leader does not appear, such a regime is likely to fall shortly thereafter, unless it has become fully routinized. Charismatic succession Because the authority is concentrated in one leader, the death of the charismatic leader would constitute the destruction of the government unless prior arrangements were made. A society that faces the end of their charismatic leader can choose to move to another format of leadership or to have a transference of charismatic authority to another leader by means of succession. According to Max Weber, the methods of succession are: search, revelation, designation by original leader, designation by qualified staff, hereditary charisma, and office charisma. These are the various ways in which an individual and a society can contrive to maintain the unique energy and nature of charisma in their leadership. Search "The search for a new charismatic leader (takes place) on the basis of the qualities which will fit him for the position of authority." An example of this search method is the search for a new Dalai Lama. "It consists in a search for a child with characteristics which are interpreted to mean that he is a reincarnation of the Buddha." This search is an example of the way in which an original charismatic leader can be forced to "live on" through a replacement. Revelation "In this case the legitimacy of the new leader is dependent on the legitimacy of the technique of selection." The technique of selection is the modus operandi of the selection process. In ancient times, oracles were believed to have special access to "divine judgment" and thus their technique in selection was perceived to be legitimate. Their choice was imbued with the charismatic authority that came with the oracle's endorsement. Designation by original leader In this form, the original holder of charismatic authority is perceived to have passed their authority to another. An example is Joseph Stalin's claim that Vladimir Lenin had designated him to be his successor as leader of the USSR. Insofar as people believed in this claim, Stalin gained Lenin's charismatic authority. Designated by qualified staff "A successor (may be designated) by the charismatically qualified administrative staff... (T)his process should not be interpreted as 'election' or 'nomination'... It is not determined by merely a majority vote...Unanimity (is) often required." A case example of this form of succession is the papal conclave of cardinals to choose a new pope. The cardinals taking part in the papal conclave are viewed to be charismatically qualified by their Roman Catholic congregations and thus their choice is imbued with charismatic authority. Hereditary charisma Charisma can be perceived as "a quality transmitted by heredity". This method of succession is present in Kim Il Sung's charisma being passed on to his son, Kim Jong Il. This type of succession is a difficult undertaking and often results in a movement toward traditionalization and legalization in authority. Office charisma "The concept of charisma may be transmitted by ritual means from one bearer to another...It involves a dissociation of charisma from a particular individual, making it an objective, transferable entity." Priestly consecration is believed to be a modus through which priestly charisma to teach and perform other priestly duties is transferred to a person. In this way, priests inherit priestly charisma and are subsequently perceived by their congregations as having the charismatic authority that comes with the priesthood. Application of Weber's theories Weber's model of charismatic leadership giving way to institutionalization is endorsed by several academic sociologists. New religious movements Eileen Barker discusses the tendency for new religious movements to have founders or leaders who wield considerable charismatic authority and are believed to have special powers or knowledge. Charismatic leaders are unpredictable, Barker says, for they are not bound by tradition or rules and they may be accorded by their followers the right to pronounce on all aspects of their lives. Barker warns that in these cases the leader may lack any accountability, require unquestioning obedience, and encourage a dependency upon the movement for material, spiritual and social resources. George D. Chryssides asserts that not all new religious movements have charismatic leaders, and that there are differences in the hegemonic styles among those movements that do. Narcissism Len Oakes, an Australian psychologist who wrote a dissertation about charisma, had eleven charismatic leaders fill in a psychometric test, which he called the adjective checklist, and found them as a group quite ordinary. Following the psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut, Oakes argues that charismatic leaders exhibit traits of narcissism and also argues that they display an extraordinary amount of energy, accompanied by an inner clarity unhindered by the anxieties and guilt that afflict more ordinary people. He did, however, not fully follow Weber's framework of charismatic authority. Comparison table See also Authentic leadership Caudillo Demagogue Führerprinzip Great man theory Monarch Power (social and political) Tripartite classification of authority The Three Types of Legitimate Rule References Informational notes Citations Bibliography Waters, Tony and Dagmar Waters (2015) editors and translators. Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society: New Translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification. New York: Palsgrave Macmillan. External links Let's face it: Charisma matters from TEDx Charisma by Thomas Robbin in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society edited by William H. Swatos (February 1998) Charismatic Authority: Emotional Bonds Between Leaders and Followers Weber links Article: "Moses, Charisma, and Covenant" Max Weber Authority

Semantic change

Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations, which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology, onomasiology, semasiology, and semantics. Examples in English Awful – Literally "full of awe", originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)", hence "impressive". In contemporary usage, the word means "extremely bad". Awesome – Literally "awe-inducing", originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)", hence "impressive". In contemporary usage, the word means "extremely good". Terrible – Originally meant "inspiring terror", shifted to indicate anything spectacular, then to something spectacularly bad. Terrific – Originally meant "inspiring terror", shifted to indicate anything spectacular, then to something spectacularly good. Nice – Originally meant "foolish, ignorant, frivolous, senseless". from Old French (12c.) meaning "careless, clumsy; weak; poor, needy; simple, stupid, silly, foolish", from Latin ("ignorant or unaware"). Literally "not-knowing", from ne- "not" (from PIE root *ne- "not") + stem of scire "to know" (compare with science). "The sense development has been extraordinary, even for an adj". [Weekley] -- from "timid, faint-hearted" (pre-1300); to "fussy, fastidious" (late 14c.); to "dainty, delicate" (c. 1400); to "precise, careful" (1500s, preserved in such terms as a nice distinction and nice and early); to "agreeable, delightful" (1769); to "kind, thoughtful" (1830). Naïf or Naïve – Initially meant "natural, primitive, or native" . From French , literally "native", the masculine form of the French word, but used in English without reference to gender. As a noun, "natural, artless, naive person", first attested 1893, from French, where Old French also meant "native inhabitant; simpleton, natural fool". Demagogue – Originally meant "a popular leader". It is from the Greek "leader of the people", from "people" + "leading, guiding". Now the word has strong connotations of a politician who panders to emotions and prejudice. Egregious – Originally described something that was remarkably good (as in Theorema Egregium). The word is from the Latin "illustrious, select", literally, "standing out from the flock", which is from ex—"out of" + greg—(grex) "flock". Now it means something that is remarkably bad or flagrant. Gay – Originally meant (13th century) "lighthearted", "joyous" or (14th century) "bright and showy", it also came to mean "happy"; it acquired connotations of immorality as early as 1637, either sexual e.g., gay woman "prostitute", gay man "womaniser", gay house "brothel", or otherwise, e.g., gay dog "over-indulgent man" and gay deceiver "deceitful and lecherous". In the United States by 1897 the expression gay cat referred to a hobo, especially a younger hobo in the company of an older one; by 1935, it was used in prison slang for a homosexual boy; and by 1951, and clipped to gay, referred to homosexuals. George Chauncey, in his book Gay New York, would put this shift as early as the late 19th century among a certain "in crowd", knowledgeable of gay night-life. In the modern day, it is most often used to refer to homosexuals, at first among themselves and then in society at large, with a neutral connotation; or as a derogatory synonym for "silly", "dumb", or "boring". Guy – Guy Fawkes was the alleged leader of a plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament on 5 November 1605. The day was made a holiday, Guy Fawkes Day, commemorated by parading and burning a ragged manikin of Fawkes, known as a Guy. This led to the use of the word guy as a term for any "person of grotesque appearance" and then by the late 1800s—especially in the United States—for "any man", as in, e.g., "Some guy called for you". Over the 20th century, guy has replaced fellow in the U.S., and, under the influence of American popular culture, has been gradually replacing fellow, bloke, chap and other such words throughout the rest of the English-speaking world. In the plural, it can refer to a mixture of genders (e.g., "Come on, you guys!" could be directed to a group of mixed gender instead of only men). Evolution of types A number of classification schemes have been suggested for semantic change. Recent overviews have been presented by Blank and . Semantic change has attracted academic discussions since ancient times, although the first major works emerged in the 19th century with , , and . Studies beyond the analysis of single words have been started with the word-field analyses of , who claimed that every semantic change of a word would also affect all other words in a lexical field. His approach was later refined by . introduced Generative semantics. More recent works including pragmatic and cognitive theories are those in , Dirk Geeraerts, and . A chronological list of typologies is presented below. Today, the most currently used typologies are those by and . Typology by Reisig (1839) Reisig's ideas for a classification were published posthumously. He resorts to classical rhetorics and distinguishes between Synecdoche: shifts between part and whole Metonymy: shifts between cause and effect Metaphor Typology by Paul (1880) Generalization: enlargement of single senses of a word's meaning Specialization on a specific part of the contents: reduction of single senses of a word's meaning Transfer on a notion linked to the based notion in a spatial, temporal, or causal way Typology by Darmesteter (1887) Metaphor Metonymy Narrowing of meaning Widening of meaning The last two are defined as change between whole and part, which would today be rendered as synecdoche. Typology by Bréal (1899) Restriction of sense: change from a general to a special meaning Enlargement of sense: change from a special to a general meaning Metaphor "Thickening" of sense: change from an abstract to a concrete meaning Typology by Stern (1931) Substitution: Change related to the change of an object, of the knowledge referring to the object, of the attitude toward the object, e.g., artillery "engines of war used to throw missiles" → "mounted guns", atom "inseparable smallest physical-chemical element" → "physical-chemical element consisting of electrons", scholasticism "philosophical system of the Middle Ages" → "servile adherence to the methods and teaching of schools" Analogy: Change triggered by the change of an associated word, e.g., fast adj. "fixed and rapid" ← fast adv. "fixedly, rapidly" Shortening: e.g., periodical ← periodical paper Nomination: "the intentional naming of a referent, new or old, with a name that has not previously been used for it" (Stern 1931: 282), e.g., lion "brave man" ← "lion" Regular transfer: a subconscious Nomination Permutation: non-intentional shift of one referent to another due to a reinterpretation of a situation, e.g., bead "prayer" → "pearl in a rosary") Adequation: Change in the attitude of a concept; distinction from substitution is unclear. This classification does not neatly distinguish between processes and forces/causes of semantic change. Typology by Bloomfield (1933) The most widely accepted scheme in the English-speaking academic world is from : Narrowing: Change from superordinate level to subordinate level. For example, skyline formerly referred to any horizon, but now in the US it has narrowed to a horizon decorated by skyscrapers. Widening: There are many examples of specific brand names being used for the general product, such as with Kleenex. Such uses are known as generonyms: see genericization. Metaphor: Change based on similarity of thing. For example, broadcast originally meant "to cast seeds out"; with the advent of radio and television, the word was extended to indicate the transmission of audio and video signals. Outside of agricultural circles, very few use broadcast in the earlier sense. Metonymy: Change based on nearness in space or time, e.g., jaw "cheek" → "mandible". Synecdoche: Change based on whole-part relation. The convention of using capital cities to represent countries or their governments is an example of this. Hyperbole: Change from weaker to stronger meaning, e.g., kill "torment" → "slaughter" Meiosis: Change from stronger to weaker meaning, e.g., astound "strike with thunder" → "surprise strongly". Degeneration: e.g., knave "boy" → "servant" → "deceitful or despicable man"; awful "awe-inspiring" → "very bad". Elevation: e.g., knight "boy" → "nobleman"; terrific "terrifying" → "astonishing" → "very good". Typology by Ullmann (1957, 1962) Ullmann distinguishes between nature and consequences of semantic change: Nature of semantic change Metaphor: change based on a similarity of senses Metonymy: change based on a contiguity of senses Folk-etymology: change based on a similarity of names Ellipsis: change based on a contiguity of names Consequences of semantic change Widening of meaning: rise of quantity Narrowing of meaning: loss of quantity Amelioration of meaning: rise of quality Pejoration of meaning: loss of quality Typology by Blank (1999) However, the categorization of has gained increasing acceptance: Metaphor: Change based on similarity between concepts, e.g., mouse "rodent" → "computer device". Metonymy: Change based on contiguity between concepts, e.g., horn "animal horn" → "musical instrument". Synecdoche: A type of metonymy involving a part to whole relationship, e.g. "hands" from "all hands on deck" → "bodies" Specialization of meaning: Downward shift in a taxonomy, e.g., corn "grain" → "wheat" (UK), → "maize" (US). Generalization of meaning: Upward shift in a taxonomy, e.g., hoover "Hoover vacuum cleaner" → "any type of vacuum cleaner". Cohyponymic transfer: Horizontal shift in a taxonomy, e.g., the confusion of mouse and rat in some dialects. Antiphrasis: Change based on a contrastive aspect of the concepts, e.g., perfect lady in the sense of "prostitute". Auto-antonymy: Change of a word's sense and concept to the complementary opposite, e.g., bad in the slang sense of "good". Auto-converse: Lexical expression of a relationship by the two extremes of the respective relationship, e.g., take in the dialectal use as "give". Ellipsis: Semantic change based on the contiguity of names, e.g., car "cart" → "automobile", due to the invention of the (motor) car. Folk-etymology: Semantic change based on the similarity of names, e.g., French contredanse, orig. English country dance. Blank considered it problematic to include amelioration and pejoration of meaning (as in Ullman) as well as strengthening and weakening of meaning (as in Bloomfield). According to Blank, these are not objectively classifiable phenomena; moreover, Blank has argued that all of the examples listed under these headings can be grouped under other phenomena, rendering the categories redundant. Forces triggering change Blank has tried to create a complete list of motivations for semantic change. They can be summarized as: Linguistic forces Psychological forces Sociocultural forces Cultural/encyclopedic forces This list has been revised and slightly enlarged by : Fuzziness (i.e., difficulties in classifying the referent or attributing the right word to the referent, thus mixing up designations) Dominance of the prototype (i.e., fuzzy difference between superordinate and subordinate term due to the monopoly of the prototypical member of a category in the real world) Social reasons (i.e., contact situation with "undemarcation" effects) Institutional and non-institutional linguistic pre- and proscriptivism (i.e., legal and peer-group linguistic pre- and proscriptivism, aiming at "demarcation") Flattery Insult Disguising language (i.e., "misnomers") Taboo (i.e., taboo concepts) Aesthetic-formal reasons (i.e., avoidance of words that are phonetically similar or identical to negatively associated words) Communicative-formal reasons (i.e., abolition of the ambiguity of forms in context, keyword: "homonymic conflict and polysemic conflict") Wordplay/punning Excessive length of words Morphological misinterpretation (keyword: "folk-etymology", creation of transparency by changes within a word) Logical-formal reasons (keyword: "lexical regularization", creation of consociation) Desire for plasticity (creation of a salient motivation of a name) Anthropological salience of a concept (i.e., anthropologically given emotionality of a concept, "natural salience") Culture-induced salience of a concept ("cultural importance") Changes in the referents (i.e., changes in the world) Worldview change (i.e., changes in the categorization of the world) Prestige/fashion (based on the prestige of another language or variety, of certain word-formation patterns, or of certain semasiological centers of expansion) The case of reappropriation A specific case of semantic change is reappropriation, a cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group, for example like with the word queer. Other related processes include pejoration and amelioration. Practical studies Apart from many individual studies, etymological dictionaries are prominent reference books for finding out about semantic changes. A recent survey lists practical tools and online systems for investigating semantic change of words over time. WordEvolutionStudy is an academic platform that takes arbitrary words as input to generate summary views of their evolution based on Google Books ngram dataset and the Corpus of Historical American English. See also Calque Dead metaphor Euphemism treadmill False friend Genericized trademark Language change Lexicology and lexical semantics List of calques Newspeak Phono-semantic matching Q-based narrowing Retronym Semantic field Skunked term Notes References Vanhove, Martine (2008), From Polysemy to Semantic change: Towards a Typology of Lexical Semantic Associations, Studies in Language Companion Series 106, Amsterdam, New York: Benjamins. Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003), Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew . Palgrave Macmillan, . Further reading AlBader, Yousuf B. (2015) "Semantic Innovation and Change in Kuwaiti Arabic: A Study of the Polysemy of Verbs" AlBader, Yousuf B. (2016) "From dašš l-ġōṣ to dašš twitar: Semantic Change in Kuwaiti Arabic" AlBader, Yousuf B. (2017) "Polysemy and Semantic Change in the Arabic Language and Dialects" Grzega, Joachim (2000), "Historical Semantics in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics: Aspects of a new reference book reviewed", Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik 25: 233–244. Koch, Peter (2002), "Lexical typology from a cognitive and linguistic point of view", in: Cruse, D. Alan et al. (eds.), Lexicology: An international handbook on the nature and structure of words and vocabularies/lexikologie: Ein internationales Handbuch zur Natur und Struktur von Wörtern und Wortschätzen, [Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 21], Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, vol. 1, 1142–1178. Wundt, Wilhelm (1912), Völkerpsychologie: Eine Untersuchung der Entwicklungsgesetze von Sprache, Mythus und Sitte, vol. 2,2: Die Sprache, Leipzig: Engelmann. External links Onomasiology Online (internet platform by Joachim Grzega, Alfred Bammesberger and Marion Schöner, including a list of etymological dictionaries) Etymonline, Online Etymology Dictionary of the English language. Exploring Word Evolution An online analysis tool for studying evolution of any input words based on Google Books n-gram dataset and the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). Historical linguistics Lexicology change Semantic relations

Orientalizing period

The Orientalizing period or Orientalizing revolution is an art historical period that began during the later part of the 8th century BC, when art of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Ancient Near East heavily influenced nearby Mediterranean cultures, most notably Archaic Greece. The main sources were Syria, Assyria, Phoenicia, and Egypt. With the spread of Phoenician civilization by Carthage and Greek colonisation into the Western Mediterranean, these artistic trends also influenced the Etruscans and early Ancient Romans in the Italian peninsula. Style and influences During this period there arose in ancient Greek art ornamental motifs and an interest in animals and monsters that continued to be depicted for centuries, and that also spread to Roman and Etruscan art. Monumental and figurative sculpture in this style may be called Daedalic, after Daedalus, who was according to legend the founder of Greek sculpture. The period is characterized by a shift from the prevailing Geometric style to a style with Eastern-inspired motifs. This new style reflected a period of increased cultural interchange in the Aegean world, the intensity of which is sometimes compared to that of the Late Bronze Age. The emergence of Orientalizing motifs in Greek pottery is clearly evident at the end of the Late Geometric Period, although two schools of thought exist regarding the question of whether or not Geometric art itself was indebted to eastern models. In Attic pottery, the distinctive Orientalizing style known as "proto-Attic" was marked by floral and animal motifs; it was the first time discernibly Greek religious and mythological themes were represented in vase painting. The bodies of men and animals were depicted in silhouette, though their heads were drawn in outline; women were drawn completely in outline. At the other important center of this period, Corinth, the orientalizing influence started earlier, though the tendency there was to produce smaller, highly detailed vases in the "proto-Corinthian" style that prefigured the black-figure technique. From the mid-sixth century, the growth of Achaemenid power in the eastern end of the Aegean and in Asia Minor reduced the quantity of eastern goods found in Greek sites, as the Persians began to conquer Greek cities in Ionia, along the coast of Asia Minor. Background During this period, the Assyrians advanced along the Mediterranean coast, accompanied by Greek and Carian mercenaries, who were also active in the armies of Psamtik I in Egypt. The new groups started to compete with established Mediterranean merchants. In other parts of the Aegean world similar population moves occurred. Phoenicians settled in Cyprus and in western regions of Greece, while Greeks established trading colonies at Al Mina, Syria, and in Ischia (Pithecusae) off the Tyrrhenian coast of Campania in southern Italy. These interchanges led to a period of intensive borrowing in which the Greeks (especially) adapted cultural features from the East into their art. The period from roughly 750 to 580 BC also saw a comparable Orientalizing phase of Etruscan art, as a rising economy encouraged Etruscan families to acquire foreign luxury products incorporating Eastern-derived motifs. Similarly, areas of Italy—such as Magna Grecia, Sicily, the Picenum, Latium vetus, Ager Faliscus, the Venetic region, and the Nuragic civilization in Sardinia—also experienced an Orientalizing phase at this time. There is also an Orientalizing period in the Iberian peninsula, in particular in the city-state of Tartessos. Orientalizing Massive imports of raw materials, including metals, and a new mobility among foreign craftsmen caused new craft skills to be introduced in Greece. Walter Burkert described the new movement in Greek art as a revolution: "With bronze reliefs, textiles, seals, and other products, a whole world of eastern images was opened up which the Greeks were only too eager to adopt and adapt in the course of an 'orientalizing revolution'". Among surviving artefacts, the main effects are seen in painted pottery and metalwork, as well as engraved gems. Monumental and figurative sculpture was less affected, and there the new style is often called Daedalic. A new type of face is seen, especially on Crete, with "heavy, overlarge features in a U- or V-shaped face with horizontal brow"; these derive from the Near East. The greatest number of examples are from pottery found at sites. There were three types of new motifs: animal, vegetable, and abstract. Much of the vegetable repertoire tended to be highly stylised. Vegetable motifs such as the palmette, lotus and tendril volute were characteristic of Greek decoration, and through the Greek culture these were transmitted to most of Eurasia. Exotic animals and monsters, in particular the lion (no longer native to Greece by this period) and sphinxes were added to the griffin, as found at Knossos. In bronze and terracotta figurines, the introduction from the east of the mould led to a great increase in production of figures mainly made as votive offerings. Cultural predominance of the East, identified archaeologically by pottery, ivory and metalwork of eastern origin found in Hellenic sites, soon gave way to thorough Hellenization of imported features in the Archaic Period that followed. Effect on myth and literature Many Greek myths originated in attempts to interpret and integrate foreign icons in terms of Greek cult and practice. Some Greek myths reflect Mesopotamian literary classics. Walter Burkert has argued that it was migrating seers and healers who transmitted their skills in divination and purification ritual along with elements of their mythological wisdom. M. L. West also has documented massive overlaps in early Greek mythological themes and Near Eastern literature, and the influences extend to considerable lexical flows from Semitic languages into early Greek. This overlap also covers a notable range of topical and thematic parallels between Greek epic and the Tanakh. The intense encounter during the orientalizing period also accompanied the invention of the Greek alphabet and the Carian alphabet, based on the earlier phonetic but unpronounceable Levantine writing, which caused a spectacular leap in literacy and literary production, as the oral traditions of the epic began to be transcribed onto imported Egyptian papyrus (and occasionally leather). See also Daidala Kore (sculpture) Kouros References Citations Sources Bettancourt, Philip, "The Age of Homer: An Exhibition of Geometric and Orientalizing Greek Art", pdf review, Penn Museum, 1969 Boardman, John ed. (1993), The Oxford History of Classical Art, 1993, OUP, Boardman, J. (1998), Early Greek Vase Painting: 11th-6th centuries BC, 1998 Burkert, W. The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, 1992. Cook, R.M., Greek Art, Penguin, 1986 (reprint of 1972), Payne, H., Protocorinthian Vase-Painting, 1933 Further reading Sideris A., "Orientalizing Rhodian Jewellery", Cultural Portal of the Aegean Archipelago, Athens 2007. 8th century BC in Greece 8th-century BC works Ancient Greek vase-painting styles Iron Age Greek art

Metanarrative

In social theory, a metanarrative (also master narrative, or meta-narrative and grand narrative; or ) is an overarching narrative about smaller historical narratives, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a (as yet unrealized) master idea. The term was popularized by the writing of French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard in 1979. Metanarrative is considered a foundational concept of postmodernism. Master narrative and synonymous terms like metanarrative are also used in narratology to mean "stories within stories," as coined by literary theorist Gérard Genette. Examples of master narratives can be found in U.S. high school textbooks according to scholar Derrick Alridge: "history courses and curricula are dominated by such heroic and celebratory master narratives as those portraying George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as the heroic 'Founding Fathers,' Abraham Lincoln as the 'Great Emancipator,' and Martin Luther King, Jr., as the messianic savior of African Americans." Etymology "Meta" is Greek for "beyond"; "narrative" is a story that is characterized by its telling (it is communicated somehow). Although first used earlier in the 20th century, the term was brought into prominence by Jean-François Lyotard in 1979, with his claim that the postmodern was characterized precisely by mistrust of the "grand narratives" (such as ideas about Progress, Enlightenment, Emancipation, and Marxism) that had formed an essential part of modernity. Metanarrative may be related and is often used interchangeably with metafiction but there is a distinction. The latter foregrounds or discloses the fictionality of a narrative while metanarrative does not undercut fiction. Lyotard's thesis In The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979), Lyotard highlights the increasing skepticism of the postmodern condition toward the supposed universality ("totalizing nature") of metanarratives and their reliance on some form of "transcendent and universal truth": Lyotard and other poststructuralist thinkers (like Michel Foucault) view this as a broadly positive development. They assert that attempts to construct grand theories unduly dismiss the natural chaos and disorder of the universe, and the power of an individual event. Sociology.org.uk states that it is unclear whether Lyotard's work is describing a global condition of skepticism towards metanarratives in postmodernity, or prescribing such skepticism. Lyotard's critics emphasize that metanarratives continue to play a major role in the postmodern world. Lyotard's proposal Lyotard proposed that metanarratives should give way to , or more modest and "localized" narratives, which can "throw off" a grand narrative by bringing into focus a singular event. Borrowing from the works of Wittgenstein and his theory of the "models of discourse", Lyotard constructs his vision of a progressive politics, grounded in the cohabitation of a whole range of diverse and always locally legitimated language-games; multiple narratives coexisting. Lyotard drew from Wittgenstein's notion of the language-game to reveal the multiplicity of meanings found within different contexts, including the meanings impact on our understanding of truth. The key concepts of Lyotard's thesis include: Skepticism of Universal Truths based on the postmodernist view criticism of the single narrative that can encompass all aspects of human life and experience; Fragmentation of Knowledge or "little narratives" that are more modest, fragmented, and specified to particular contexts. Postmodernists attempt to replace metanarratives by focusing on specific local contexts as well as on the diversity of human experience. They argue for the existence of a "multiplicity of theoretical standpoints" rather than for grand, all-encompassing theories. Criticism of Lyotard's thesis Johannes Willem Bertens and Douwe Fokkema argued that, in so far as one of Lyotard's targets was science, he was mistaken in thinking that science relies upon a grand narrative for social and epistemic validation, rather than on the accumulation of many lesser narrative successes. Lyotard himself also criticized his own thesis as "simply the worst of all my books." In narratology and communication Metanarrative has a specific definition in narratology and communications theory. According to John Stephens and Robyn McCallum, a metanarrative "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience" – a story about a story, encompassing and explaining other "little stories" within conceptual models that assemble the "little stories" into a whole. Postmodern narratives will often deliberately disturb the formulaic expectations such cultural codes provide, pointing thereby to a possible revision of the social code. In communication and strategic communication, a master narrative (or metanarrative) is a "transhistorical narrative that is deeply embedded in a particular culture". A master narrative is therefore a particular type of narrative, which is defined as a "coherent system of interrelated and sequentially organized stories that share a common rhetorical desire to resolve a conflict by establishing audience expectations according to the known trajectories of its literary and rhetorical form". The Consortium for Strategic Communication also maintains a website on master narratives. Others have related metanarratives to masterplots, "recurrent skeletal stories, belonging to cultures and individuals that play a powerful role in questions of identity, values, and the understanding of life." See also References Sources Jean-François Lyotard. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984 [1979], reprint 1997. Translated by Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Further reading David Carr, Time, Narrative, and History (Indiana UP, 1986) Geoffrey Bennington, Lyotard: Writing the Event (1988) External links A Postmodern Strategy: Language Games Literary criticism Modernism

Comparative research

Comparative research is a research methodology in the social sciences exemplified in cross-cultural or comparative studies that aims to make comparisons across different countries or cultures. A major problem in comparative research is that the data sets in different countries may define categories differently (for example by using different definitions of poverty) or may not use the same categories. Definition Comparative research, simply put, is the act of comparing two or more things with a view to discovering something about one or all of the things being compared. This technique often utilizes multiple disciplines in one study. When it comes to method, the majority agreement is that there is no methodology peculiar to comparative research. The multidisciplinary approach is good for the flexibility it offers, yet comparative programs do have a case to answer against the call that their research lacks a "seamless whole." There are certainly methods that are far more common than others in comparative studies, however. Quantitative analysis is much more frequently pursued than qualitative, and this is seen by the majority of comparative studies which use quantitative data. The general method of comparing things is the same for comparative research as it is in our everyday practice of comparison. Like cases are treated alike, and different cases are treated differently; the extent of difference determines how differently cases are to be treated. If one is able to sufficiently distinguish two carry the research conclusions will not be very helpful. Secondary analysis of quantitative data is relatively widespread in comparative research, undoubtedly in part because of the cost of obtaining primary data for such large things as a country's policy environment. This study is generally aggregate data analysis. Comparing large quantities of data (especially government sourced) is prevalent. A typical method of comparing welfare states is to take balance of their levels of spending on social welfare. In line with how a lot of theorizing has gone in the last century, comparative research does not tend to investigate "grand theories," such as Marxism. It instead occupies itself with middle-range theories that do not purport to describe our social system in its entirety, but a subset of it. A good example of this is the common research program that looks for differences between two or more social systems, then looks at these differences in relation to some other variable coexisting in those societies to see if it is related. The classic case of this is Esping-Andersen's research on social welfare systems. He noticed there was a difference in types of social welfare systems, and compared them based on their level of decommodification of social welfare goods. He found that he was able to class welfare states into three types, based on their level of decommodification. He further theorized from this that decommodification was based on a combination of class coalitions and mobilization, and regime legacy. Here, Esping-Andersen is using comparative research: he takes many western countries and compares their level of decommodification, then develops a theory of the divergence based on his findings. Comparative research can take many forms. Two key factors are space and time. Spatially, cross-national comparisons are by far the most common, although comparisons within countries, contrasting different areas, cultures or governments also subsist and are very constructive, especially in a country like New Zealand, where policy often changes depending on which race it pertains to. Recurrent interregional studies include comparing similar or different countries or sets of countries, comparing one's own country to others or to the whole world. The historical comparative research involves comparing different time-frames. The two main choices within this model are comparing two stages in time (either snapshots or time-series), or just comparing the same thing over time, to see if a policy's effects differ over a stretch of time. When it comes to subject matter of comparative inquiries, many contend there is none unique to it. This may indeed be true, but a brief perusal of comparative endeavours reveals there are some topics more recurrent than others. Determining whether socioeconomic or political factors are more important in explaining government action is a familiar theme. In general, however, the only thing that is certain in comparative research issues is the existence of differences to be analysed. Development As Stavros Moutsios argues, cross-cultural and comparative research should be seen as part of the scientific spirit that arose in Greece in the 6th century and the overall appreciation of knowledge and learning that was characteristic of the 5th century. In other words, it is part of the emergence of episteme and philo-sophia, as a love for knowledge that is independent from material benefits. Episteme, as a form and activity in the field of logos, marked the break of cognitive closure and advanced empirical inquiry, logical argumentation and the search for truth. And the high esteem for intellectual activity gave rise to a genuine curiosity about other cultures – which has lain thereafter at the heart of comparative inquiry. Moreover, behind the Greek comparative gaze also was the philosophical and political questioning which characterised the life of the democratic polis. Philosophical inquiry, from the Milesians down to the Sophists, questioned the representations and the cognitive traditions of their own people; the inquiry of the traditions of other peoples was, as Herodotus’ Histories demonstrate, an activity associated with the ethos of philosophical critique that characterised democratic life in Greece. Similarly, questioning of the Greek laws and institutions and its related values and practices (e.g. isegoria and parrhesia), as part of Greek politics, is associated with the effort of the first historians to reflect on home institutions through researching those of others. According also to Karl Deutsch, we have been using this form of investigation for over 2,000 years. Comparing things is essential to basic scientific and philosophic inquiry, which has been done for a long time. Most authors are more conservative in their estimate of how long comparative research has been with us. It is largely an empty debate over the definition of the tradition with those questioning whether comparing things counts as comparative research. Textbooks on this form of study were beginning to appear by the 1880s, but its rise to extreme popularity began after World War II. There are numerous reasons that comparative research has come to take a place of honour in the toolbox of the social scientist. Globalization has been a major factor, increasing the desire and possibility for educational exchanges and intellectual curiosity about other cultures. Information technology has enabled greater production of quantitative data for comparison, and international communications technology has facilitated this information to be easily spread. See also Analytic frame Comparative cultural studies Comparative history Comparative method Comparative mythology Comparative sociology List of comparative surveys Social research Sociological imagination Notes References Social science methodology Comparisons

Marxist humanism

Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in a humanist interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to human thriving" from a critical perspective rooted in Marxist philosophy. Marxist humanists argue that Marx himself was concerned with investigating similar questions. Marxist humanism was born in 1932 with the publication of Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, and reached a degree of prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. Marxist humanists contend that there is continuity between the early philosophical writings of Marx, in which he develops his theory of alienation, and the structural description of capitalist society found in his later works such as Capital. They hold that it is necessary to grasp Marx's philosophical foundations to understand his later works properly. Contrary to the official dialectical materialism of the Soviet Union and to interpretations of Marx based in the structural Marxism of Louis Althusser, Marxist humanists argue that Marx's work was an extension or transcendence of enlightenment humanism. Where other Marxist philosophies see Marxism as a natural science, Marxist humanism reaffirms the doctrine of "man is the measure of all things" – that humans are essentially different to the rest of the natural order and should be treated so by Marxist theory. Origins The beginnings of Marxist humanism lie with the publication of György Lukács's History and Class Consciousness and Karl Korsch's Marxism and Philosophy in 1923. In these books, Lukács and Korsch proffer a Marxism that emphasizes the Hegelian element of Karl Marx's thought. Marxism is not simply a theory of political economy that improves on its predecessors. Nor is it a scientific sociology, akin to the natural sciences. Marxism is primarily a critique – a self-conscious transformation of society. Korsch's book underscores Marx's doctrine of the unity of theory and practice, viewing socialist revolution as the "realization of philosophy". Marxism does not make philosophy obsolete, as "vulgar" Marxism believes; instead Marxism preserves the truths of philosophy until their revolutionary transformation into reality. The salient essay in Lukács's collection introduces the concept of "reification". In capitalist societies, human properties, relations and actions are transformed into properties, relations and actions of Man-produced things, which become independent of Man and govern his life. These Man-created things are then imagined to be originally independent of Man. Conversely, human beings are transformed into thing-like beings that do not behave in a human way but according to the laws of the thing-world. Lukács argues that elements of this concept are implicit in the analysis of commodity fetishism found in Marx's magnum opus Capital. Bourgeois society loses sight of the role of human action in the creation of social meaning. It thinks value is immanent in things and regards persons as commodities. The writings of Antonio Gramsci are also extremely influential on the development of a humanist understanding of Marxism. Gramsci insists on Marx's debt to Hegel, seeing Marxism as a "philosophy of praxis" and an "absolute historicism" that transcends traditional materialism and traditional idealism. The first publication of Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts in 1932 greatly changed the reception of his work. This early work of Marx was written in 1844, when Marx was twenty-five or twenty-six years old. The Manuscripts situated Marx's reading of political economy, his relationship to the philosophies of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Ludwig Feuerbach, and his views on communism, within a new theoretical framework. In the Manuscripts, Marx borrows philosophical terminology from Hegel and Feuerbach to posit a critique of capitalist society based in "alienation". Through his own activity, Man becomes alien from himself: to the products of his own activity, to the nature in which he lives, to other human beings and to his human possibilities. The concept is not merely descriptive, it is a call for de-alienation through radical change of the world. On publication, the significance of the 1844 Manuscripts was recognized by Marxists such as Raya Dunayevskaya, Herbert Marcuse and Henri Lefebvre. In the period after the Second World War, the texts were translated into Italian and discussed by Galvano Della Volpe. The philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jean-Paul Sartre were also drawn to Marxism by the Manuscripts at this time. In 1961, a volume containing an introduction by Erich Fromm was published in the United States. As they provided a missing link between the Hegelian philosophical humanism of Marx's early writings and the economics of the later Marx, Marx's Grundrisse were also an important source for Marxist humanism. This 1,000-page collection of Marx's working notes for Capital was first published in Moscow in 1939 and became available in an accessible edition in 1953. Several analysts (most notably Roman Rosdolsky) have commented that the Grundrisse shows the role played by the early Marx's concerns with alienation and the Hegelian concept of dialectic in the formation of his magnum opus. Currents In the aftermath of the occupation of France and the Second World War, the independent leftist journal Les Temps modernes was founded in 1946. Among its original editorial board were the existentialist philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Sartre and Merleau-Ponty both lent support to the politics and tactics of the French Communist Party and the Soviet Union during this period. Concurrently, they attempted to formulate a phenomenological and existential Marxism that opposed the Stalinist version. In their view, the failure of the Western Communist Parties to lead successful revolutions and the development of an authoritarian state structure in the Soviet Union were both connected to the "naturalism" and "scientism" of the official orthodox Marxist theory. Orthodox Marxism is not a theory of revolutionary self-emancipation. It is instead a self-proclaimed science that imposes a direction upon history from above in the name of irrefutable "iron laws". Against this understanding of Marxism, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty argued for a subject-centered view of history that emphasized the lived experience of historical actors as the source of cognition. In 1939, Henri Lefebvre, then a member of the French Communist Party, published Dialectical Materialism. This book, written in 1934–35, advanced a reconstruction of Marx's oeuvre in the light of the 1844 Manuscripts. Lefebvre argued here that Marx's dialectic was not a "Dialectics of Nature" (as set forth by Friedrich Engels) but was instead based on concepts of alienation and praxis. In the wake of the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, Lefebvre – together with Kostas Axelos, Jean Duvignaud, Pierre Fougeyrollas and Edgar Morin – founded the journal Arguments. This publication became the center of a Marxist humanist critique of Stalinism. In his theory of alienation, Lefebvre drew not only from the Manuscripts, but also from Sartre, to present a critique that encompassed the styles of consumption, culture, systems of meaning and language under capitalism. Starting in the late 1950s, Roger Garaudy, for many years the chief philosophical spokesman of the French Communist Party, offered a humanistic interpretation of Marx stemming from Marx's early writings which called for dialogue between Communists and existentialists, phenomenologists and Christians. The period following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 saw a number of movements for liberalization in Eastern Europe. Following Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech, where he denounced Stalinism, Marx's 1844 Manuscripts were used as the basis for a new "socialist humanism" in countries such as Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The Petofi Circle, which included some of György Lukács's disciples, was a center of what was termed "revisionism" in Hungary. In 1959, the Polish writer Leszek Kołakowski published an article "Karl Marx and the Classical Definition of Truth" that drew a sharp distinction between the theory of knowledge found in the works of the young Marx and the theory found in Engels and Lenin. This challenge was taken up by Adam Schaff, a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, and expanded into an investigation into the persistence of alienation in socialist societies. The Czechoslovak Karel Kosik also began the critique of communist dogmatism that would develop into his Dialectics of the Concrete, and would eventually land him in jail. This period also saw the formation of a humanist Marxism by Yugoslav philosophers Mihailo Marković and Gajo Petrović that would come to act as the basis of the Praxis School. From 1964 to 1975, this group published a philosophical journal, Praxis, and organized annual philosophical debates on the island of Korčula. They concentrated on themes such as alienation, reification and bureaucracy. In Britain, the New Left Review was founded from an amalgamation of two earlier journals, The New Reasoner and the Universities and Left Review, in 1959. Its original editorial team – E. P. Thompson, John Saville and Stuart Hall – were committed to a socialist humanist perspective until their replacement by Perry Anderson in 1962. Philosophy Marxist humanism opposes the philosophy of "dialectical materialism" that was orthodox among the Soviet-aligned Communist Parties. Following Friedrich Engels's Anti-Dühring, where Engels marries Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's dialectics to philosophical materialism, the Soviets saw Marxism as a theory not just of society but of reality as a whole. Engels's book is a work of what he calls "natural philosophy", and not one of science. Nonetheless, he claims that discoveries within the sciences tend to confirm the scientific nature of his theory. This world-view is instantiated within both the natural and social sciences. Marxist humanists attack an understanding of society based on natural science, as well as science and technology themselves, as bourgeois and manipulative modes of enquiry. Human social practice has a purposive, transformative character, and thus requires a mode of understanding different from the detached, empirical observation of the natural sciences. Marxist humanism asserts the centrality and distinctiveness of people and society. Social science differs from natural science because people and society are not instantiations of universal natural processes, as in the view of dialectical materialism. People are not objects but subjects – centers of consciousness and values – and science is an embedded part of the totalizing perspective of humanist philosophy. Whereas dialectical materialism sees Marxist theory as primarily scientific, Marxist humanism views Marxist theory as primarily philosophical. Marxist humanism echoes the inheritance of Marx's thought from German Idealism, as it believes that reality does not exist independently of human knowledge, but is partly constituted by it. A theoretical understanding of society should thus be based in empathy with or participation in the social activities it investigates. Alienation In line with this, Marxist humanism treats alienation as Marxism's central concept. In his early writings, the young Marx advances a critique of modern society on the grounds that it impedes human flourishing. Marx's theory of alienation suggests a dysfunctional or hostile relation between entities that naturally belong in harmony with one another – an artificial separation of one entity from another with which it had been previously and properly conjoined. The concept has "subjective" and "objective" variants. Alienation is "subjective" when human individuals feel "estranged" or do not feel at home in the modern social world. Individuals are objectively alienated when they do not develop their essential human capacities. For Marx, objective alienation is the cause of subjective alienation: individuals experience their lives as lacking meaning or fulfilment because society does not promote the deployment of their human capacities. Marxist humanism views alienation as the guiding idea of both Marx's early writings and his later works. According to this school of thought, the central concepts of Capital cannot be fully and properly understood without reference to this seminal theme. Communism is not merely a new socioeconomic formation that will supersede the present one, but the re-appropriation of Man's life and the abolition of alienation. In the state The earliest appearance of this concept in Marx's corpus is the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right from 1843. Drawing a contrast between the forms of community in the ancient and medieval worlds and the individualism of modern civil society, Marx here characterizes the modern social world as "atomistic". Modern civil society does not sustain the individual as a member of a community. Where in medieval society people are motivated by the interest of their estate, an unimpeded individualism is the principle that marks modern social life. Alienation is not a condition solely of civil society: Marx also describes the modern political state as distinguished by its "abstract" character. While the state acknowledges the communal dimension of human flourishing, its existence has a "transcendental remoteness" separate from the "real life" of civil society. The state resolves the alienation of the modern world, but in an inadequate manner. In Bauer The most well-known metaphor in Marx's Critique – that of religion as the opium of the people – is derived from the writings of the theologian Bruno Bauer. Bauer's primary concern is religious alienation. Bauer views religion as a division in Man's consciousness. Man suffers from the illusion that religion exists apart from and independent of his own consciousness, and that he himself is dependent on his own creation. Religious beliefs become opposed to consciousness as a separate power. Self-consciousness makes itself into an object, a thing, loses control of itself, and feels itself to be nothing before an opposing power. A religious consciousness cannot exist without this breaking up or tearing apart of consciousness: religion deprives Man of his own attributes and places them in a heavenly world. Since religious belief is the work of a divided mind, it stands in contradiction to itself: the Gospels contradict each other and the world; they contain dogmas so far removed from common sense that they can be understood only as mysteries. The God that men worship is a subhuman God – their own imaginary, inflated and distorted reflection. The Gospel narrative contains no historical truth – it is an expression of a transient stage in the historical development of self-consciousness. Christianity was of service to self-consciousness in awakening a consciousness of values that belong to every human individual, but it also created a new servitude. The task of the present phase of human history is to liberate Man's spirit from the bonds of Christian mythology, free the state from religion, and thereby restore to Man his alienated essence. In the Critique, Marx adopts Bauer's criticism of religion and applies this method to other fields. Marx sees Man's various alienations as peels around a genuine center. Religion is the most extreme form of alienation: it is at once both the symptom of a deep social malaise and a protest against this malaise. The criticism of religion leads to the criticism of other alienations, which must be dealt with in the same way. The influence of Bauer follows Marx through all his later criticism: this is visible in the many places where Marx establishes an economic point by reference to a religious analogy. In Hegel The Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right credits Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel with significant insight into both the basic structure of the modern social world and its disfigurement by alienation. Hegel believes alienation will no longer exist when the social world objectively facilitates the self-realization of human individuals, and human individuals subjectively understand that this is so. For Hegel, objective alienation is already non-existent, as the modern social world does facilitate individuals' self-realization. In spite of this, individuals still find themselves in a state of subjective alienation. Hegel wishes not to reform or change the institutions of the modern social world, but to change the way in which society is understood by its members. Marx shares Hegel's belief that subjective alienation is widespread, but denies that the rational or modern state enables individuals to actualize themselves. Marx instead takes widespread subjective alienation to indicate that objective alienation has not been overcome. Marx further develops his critique of Hegel in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Marx here praises Hegel's dialectic for its view of labor as an alienating process: alienation is an historical stage that must be passed through for the development and deployment of essential human powers. It is an essential characteristic of finite mind (Man) to produce things, to express itself in objects, to objectify itself in physical things, social institutions and cultural products. Every objectification is of necessity an instance of alienation: the produced objects become alien to the producer. Humanity creates itself by externalizing its own essence, developing through a process of alienation alternating with transcendence of that alienation. Man externalizes his essential powers in an objectified state, and then assimilates them back into him from outside. For Hegel, alienation is the state of consciousness as it acquaints itself with the external, objective, phenomenal world. Hegel believes that reality is Spirit realizing itself. Spirit's existence is constituted only in and through its own productive activity. In the process of realizing itself, Spirit produces a world that it initially believes to be external, but gradually comes to understand is its own production. All that exists is the Absolute Spirit (Absolute Mind, Absolute Idea or God). The Absolute is not a static or timeless entity but a dynamic Self, engaged in a cycle of alienation and de-alienation. Spirit becomes alienated from itself in nature and returns from its self-alienation through the finite Mind, Man. Human history is a process of de-alienation, consisting in the constant growth of Man's knowledge of the Absolute. Conversely, human history is also the development of the Absolute's knowledge of itself: the Absolute becomes self-aware through Man. Man is a natural being and is thus a self-alienated Spirit. But Man is also an historical being, who can achieve adequate knowledge of the Absolute, and is thus capable of becoming a de-alienated being. Marx criticizes Hegel for understanding labor as "abstract mental labour". Hegel equates Man with self-consciousness and sees alienation as constituted by objectivity. Consciousness emancipates itself from alienation by overcoming objectivity, recognizing that what appears as an external object is a projection of consciousness itself. Hegel understands that the objects which appear to order men's lives – their religion, their wealth – in fact belong to Man and are the product of essential human capacities. Hegel sees freedom as the aim of human history. He believes freedom to consist in men's becoming fully self-conscious, understanding that their environment and culture are emanations from Spirit. Marx rejects the notion of Spirit, believing that Man's ideas, though important, are by themselves insufficient to explain social and cultural change. In Hegel, Man's integration with nature takes places on a spiritual level and is thus, in Marx's view, an abstraction and an illusion. In Feuerbach The main influence on Marx's thinking in this regard is Ludwig Feuerbach, who in his Essence of Christianity aims to overcome an inappropriate separation of individuals from their essential human nature. Feuerbach believes modern individuals are alienated by their holding false beliefs about God. People misidentify as an objective being what in actuality is a man-made projection of their own essential predicates. For Feuerbach, Man is not a self-alienated God; God is self-alienated Man. God is Man's essence abstracted, absolutized and estranged from Man. Man creates the idea of God by gathering the best features of his human nature – his goodness, knowledge and power – glorifying them, and projecting them into a beyond. Man is alienated from himself not because he refuses to recognize nature as a self-alienated form of God, but because he creates, and puts above himself, an imagined alien higher being and bows before him as a slave. Christian belief entails the sacrifice, the practical denial or repression, of essential human characteristics. Liberation will come when people recognize what God really is and, through a community that subjects human essence to no alien limitation, reclaim the goodness, knowledge and power they have projected heavenward. This critique extends beyond religion, as Feuerbach argues in his Theses on the Reform of Philosophy that Hegelian philosophy is itself alienated. Hegel regards alienation as affecting thought or consciousness and not humanity in its material being. For Hegel, concrete, finite existence is merely a reflection of a system of thought or consciousness. Hegel starts and ends with the infinite. The finite, Man, is present as only a phase in the evolution of a human spirit, the Absolute. In opposition to this, Feuerbach argues that Man is alienated because he mediates a direct relationship of sensuous intuition to concrete reality through religion and philosophy. By recognizing that his relationship to nature is instead one of immediate unity, Man can attain a "positive humanism" that is more than just a denial of religion. In work Following Feuerbach, Marx places the earthly reality of Man in the center of the picture. Where Hegel sees labor as spiritual activity, Marx sees labor as physical interchange with nature: in nature, Man creates himself and creates nature. Where Hegel identifies human essence with self-consciousness, Marx articulates a concept of species-being (Gattungswesen), according to which Man's essential nature is that of a free producer, freely reproducing his own conditions of life. Man's nature is to be his own creator, to form and develop himself by working on and transforming the world outside him in cooperation with his fellow men. Man should be in control of this process but in modern conditions Man has lost control of his own evolution. Where land-ownership is subject to the laws of a market economy, human individuals do not fulfill themselves through productive activity. A worker's labor, his personal qualities of muscle and brain, his abilities and aspirations, his sensuous life-activity, appear to him as things, commodities to be bought and sold like any other. Much as Bauer and Feuerbach see religion as an alienating invention of the human mind, so does Marx believe the modern productive process to reduce the human being to the status of a commodity. In religion, God holds the initiative and Man is in a state of dependence. In economics, money moves humans around as though they were objects instead of the reverse. Marx claims that human individuals are alienated in four ways: From their products From their productive activity From other individuals From their own nature. Firstly, the product of a worker's labor confronts him "as an alien object that has power over him". A worker has bestowed life on an object that now confronts him as hostile and alien. The worker creates an object, which appears to be his property. However, he now becomes its property. When he externalizes his life in an object, a worker's life belongs to the object and not to himself; his nature becomes the attribute of another person or thing. Where in earlier historical epochs, one person ruled over another, now the thing rules over the person, the product over the producer. Secondly, the worker relates to the process by which this product is created as something alien that does not belong to him. His work typically does not fulfill his natural talents and spiritual goals and is experienced instead as "emasculation". Thirdly, the worker experiences mutual estrangement – alienation from other individuals. Each individual regards others as a means to his own end. Concern for others exists mainly in the form of a calculation about the effect those others have on his own narrow self-interest. Fourthly, the worker experiences self-estrangement: alienation from his human nature. Because work is a means to survival only, the worker does not fulfill his human need for self-realization in productive activity. The worker is only at ease in his animal functions of eating, drinking and procreating. In his distinctly human functions, he is made to feel like an animal. Modern labor turns the worker's essence as a producer into something "alien". Marx mentions other features of alienated labor: overwork, or the amount of time that the modern worker has to spend engaged in productive activity; "more and more one-sided" development of the worker, or the lack of variety in his activity; the machine-like character of labor, and the intellectual stunting that results from the neglect of mental skills in productive activity. The capitalist does not escape the process of alienation. Where the worker is reduced to an animal condition, the capitalist is reduced to an abstract money-power. His human qualities are transformed into a personification of the power of money. In contrast to this negative account of alienated labor, Marx's Notes on James Mill offer a positive description of unalienated labor. Marx here claims that in self-realizing work, a worker's personality is made objective in his product and he enjoys contemplating that feature in the object he produces. As he has expressed his talents and abilities in the productive process, the activity is authentic to his character. It ceases to be an activity he loathes. Marx further claims that the producer gains immediate satisfaction from the use and enjoyment of his product – the satisfaction arising from the knowledge of having produced an object that corresponds to the needs of another human being. In an unalienated society, a worker can be said to have created an object that corresponds to the needs of another's essential nature. His productive activity is a mediator between the needs of another person and the entire species. Marx suggests that this confirms the "communal" character of human nature, because individuals play this essential role in the affirmation of each other's nature. To overcome alienation and allow humankind to realize its species-being, it is not enough, as Hegel and Feuerbach believe, to simply understand alienation. It is necessary to transform the world that engenders alienation: the wage-labor system must be transcended, and the separation of the laborer from the means of labor abolished. This is not the task of a solitary philosophical critic, but of class struggle. The historic victory of capitalism in the middle of the 19th century has made alienation universal, since everything enters in to the cycle of exchange, and all value is reduced to commodity value. In a developed capitalist society, all forms of alienation are comprised in the worker's relation to production. All possibilities of the worker's very being are linked to the class struggle against capital. The proletariat, which owns nothing but its labor power, occupies a position radically different to all other classes. The liberation of the working class will therefore be the liberation of mankind. This emancipation is not simply the abolition of private property. Marx differentiates his communism from the crude communism that seeks to abolish everything that cannot be the property of all. For Marx, this would be the generalization of alienation and the abolition of talent and individuality – tantamount to abolishing civilization. Marx instead sees communism as a positive abolition of private property, where Man recovers his own species-being, and Man's activity is no longer opposed to him as something alien. This is a direct affirmation of humanity: just as atheism ceases to be significant when the affirmation of Man is no longer dependent on the negation of God, communism is a direct affirmation of Man independent of the negation of private property. In division of labor In the German Ideology, Marx and his co-author Friedrich Engels provide an account of alienation as deriving from division of labor. Alienation is said to arise from improvements in tools, which in turn lead to commerce. Man transforms objects produced by Man into commodities – vehicles for abstract exchange-value. Division of labor and exchange relations subsume individuals in classes, subordinating them to forces to which they have no choice but to comply. Alienated processes appear to individuals as if they were natural processes. Physical and mental work are also separated from each other, giving rise to self-deluded ideologists who believe their thoughts have an inherent validity and are not dictated by social needs. Marx and Engels here attack Feuerbach for advancing an "essentialist" account of human nature that reduces real historical men to a philosophical category. They argue that it is not a philosophical concept ("Man") that makes history, but real individuals in definite historical conditions. In economics In the Grundrisse, Marx continues his discussion of the problem of alienation in the context of political economy. Here, the central themes of the 1844 Manuscripts are dealt with in a much more sophisticated manner. Marx builds on his earlier conception of Man as a productive, object-creating being. The concepts found in Marx's earlier work – alienation, objectification, appropriation, Man's dialectical relationship to nature and his generic or social nature – all recur in the Grundrisse. Marx views political economy as a reflection of the alienated consciousness of bourgeois society. Political economy mystifies human reality by transforming the production of commodities into "objective" laws which independently regulate human activity. The human subject is made into the object of his own products. A key difference between the Grundrisse and the Manuscripts is Marx's starting with an analysis of production, rather than the mechanisms of exchange. The production of objects must be emancipated from the alienated form given to it by bourgeois society. Moreover, Marx no longer says that what a worker sells is his labor, but rather his labor-power. The discussion of alienation in the Grundrisse is also more firmly rooted in history. Marx argues that alienation did not exist in earlier periods – primitive communism – where wealth was still conceived as residing in natural objects and not man-made commodities. However, such societies lacked the creation of objects by purposive human activity. They cannot be a model for a fully-developed communism that realizes human potentiality. Capital is an alienating force, but it has fulfilled a very positive function. It has developed the productive forces enormously, has replaced natural needs by ones historically created and has given birth to a world market. Nonetheless, Marx sees capitalism as transitory: free competition will inevitably hinder the development of capitalism. The key to understanding the ambivalent nature of capitalism is the notion of time. On the one hand, the profits of capitalism are built on the creation of surplus work-time, but on the other the wealth of capitalism has emancipated Man from manual labor and provided him increasing access to free time. Marx criticizes political economy for its division of Man's time between work and leisure. This argument misunderstands the nature of human activity. Labor is not naturally coercive. Rather, the historical conditions in which labor is performed frustrate human spontaneity. Work should not be a mere means for Man's existence, it should become the very contents of his life. In property The Grundrisse also continues the discussion of private property that Marx began in the German Ideology. Marx's views on property stand in contrast to those of Hegel, who believes that property realizes human personality through objectification in the external, phenomenal world. For Marx, property is not the realization of personality but its negation. Those who have property and those who do not are both alienated in Marx's view. The possession of property by one person necessarily entails its non-possession by another. Property is thus not to be assured to all, but to be abolished. The first form of property, according to Marx, is tribal property. Tribal property originates in the capacity of a human group to gain possession of land. Tribal property precedes the existence of permanent settlement and agriculture. The act of possession is made possible by the prior existence of group cohesion, i.e. a social, tribal organization. Thus, property does not pre-date society but results from it. An individual's relation to tribal property is mediated through membership of the group. It is a form of unalienated property that realizes Man's positive relationship to his fellow tribesmen. However, this relationship limits the individual's power to establish a self-interest distinct from the general interest of society. This primitive type of common ownership disappears with the development of agriculture. The unity of the individual and society is preserved by more complex societies in two distinct forms: oriental despotism and the classical polis. In oriental despotism, the despot personifies society – all property belongs to him. In the polis, the basic form of property is public. Economic activity depends on community-oriented considerations. Political rights depend on participation in common ownership of land. Agriculture is considered morally and publicly superior to commerce. Public agricultural policy is judged on its ability to produce more patriotic citizens, rather than economic considerations. Alienation between the public and private sphere does not exist in the polis. Marx does not idealize the polis or call for its restoration. Its foundation on naturalistic matter is specific and limited. Marx opposes to this the universality of capital. Capital is objectified human labor: on the one hand it indicates hidden human potentialities but on the other its appearance is accompanied by alienation. Capitalism develops a kind of property free from social limitations and considerations. Concurrently, capitalism ends individual private property as traditionally conceived, in that it divorces the producer from the ownership of the means of production. Such property is at the exclusive disposition of its owner. Yet, the development of capitalist society also entails more complex production, requiring combined efforts that cannot be satisfied by individual property. In commodity fetishism To make a fetish of something, or fetishize it, is to invest it with a power it does not in itself have. In Capital. Volume 1, Marx argues that the failure of human beings to understand their own social existence arises from the way production is organized in capitalist society. He calls this illusion "commodity fetishism". The production of a product as a value is a phenomenon specific to market economies. In non-market societies, a product has only a use-value – its usefulness to some agent. In market societies, products have in addition to their use-value an exchange-value – a power to command certain quantities of other commodities in exchange. The use-value of a product is natural and sub-social. The exchange-value of a product, however, is a purely social, non-natural property of the product. Labor that produces use-value is concrete, or qualitatively differentiated: tailoring, weaving, mining, etc. Labor productive of exchange-value is abstract, just a featureless proportion of the total labor of society. The essential feature of capitalist production is not the exchange of commodities, nor is it the existence of money, but rather the free sale of labor-power and a production system aimed at increasing exchange-value. In market economies, the labor of persons takes the form of the exchange-value of things. The time taken to produce a commodity takes the form of the exchange-value of the commodity. The measure that originally relates to the life process itself, labor-time, is introduced into the products of labor. The mutual relations of humans as exchangers of goods thus take on the form of relations between objects. These objects appear to have mysterious qualities which of themselves make them valuable, as though value were a natural, physical property of things. While commodities do indeed have exchange-value, they do not have this value autonomously, but as a result of the way labor is organized. In this process, social relations masquerade as things or relations between things. By exchanging goods for money, humans involuntarily accept that their own qualities, abilities and efforts do not belong to themselves but are inherent in the objects they create. Marx does not use the term alienation here, but the description is the same as in his earlier works, as is the analogy with religion that he owes to Feuerbach. In religious fetishism an activity of thought, a cultural process, vests an object with apparent power. The object does not really acquire the power mentally referred to it. However, if a culture makes a fetish of an object, its members come to perceive the object as endowed with this power. The fetishized object has this power not in the real world, but in the religious world, which is a world of illusion. Commodity fetishism is partly analogous with religious fetishism, as it is the inability of human beings to see their products for what they are. However, whereas religious fetishism arises from a thought-process, commodity fetishism arises from the way production is organized in commodity society. All other forms of alienation arise in turn from this fetish. Where Man should wield his human power, he instead becomes enslaved by his own works unwittingly. Political institutions appear to have autonomy, turning them into instruments of oppression. Scientific development and the organization of labor, improved administration and multiplication of useful products are transformed into quasi-natural forces and turned against Man. The value of commodities is constituted by the labor bestowed upon them. However, commodities appear to have value in and of themselves. This appearance, commodity fetishism, arises from the particular social form within which commodity production takes place – the market society. Here, the social character of production is expressed not in production itself but only in exchange. Producers' products do not have a social form prior to their manifestations as commodities, and it is the commodity form alone that connects producers. In other societies – primitive communism, the patriarchal tribe, feudalism, the future communist society – producers are directly integrated with one another by custom, directive, or plan. In commodity society, producers connect mediately, not as producers but as marketeers. The relations between commodities are immediately social, but the relations between producers are only indirectly so. Persons lack direct social relations, thus it appears to them that they labor because their products have value. However, their products in fact have value because labor has been bestowed on them. Men relate to each other through the value they create. This value regulates their lives as producers, yet they do not recognize their own authorship of this value. Workers should be united directly, but are instead united in a duplicate world of illusion. Money, which is exchange-value divorced from use-value, perfects the alienated mediation of workers. The exchange-value of a commodity assumes an independent existence in money. The money value of a commodity represents the quantity of labor bestowed upon it. Money possesses this social property only because individuals have alienated their own social relationships and embodied them in a thing. Capitalism has abolished the feudal constraints that enable the immediate subjection of one man to another in virtue of who he is. However, the new bourgeois freedom brings with it a new rule of things. In reification A particular expression of alienation is the reification of labor power, in which human persons appear in the context of labor as commodities bought and sold on the market according to the laws of value. The distinctive feature of capitalism is wage-labor, wherein a class of wage-earners sells its labor power to an owner of the means of production. Capitalist profit finds its origin in there being a commodity that creates exchange-value when its use-value is consumed. This commodity is labor power. Like any other commodity, the value of labor power is determined by the amount of labor time necessary to reproduce it. Labor power is reproduced through maintaining the worker in a condition in which he is able to work and to rear a fresh generation of workers. The value of labor power is thus the value of the products necessary to keep the laborer and his children alive and able-bodied. This is determined not by the mere physiological minimum but also by needs that vary historically. The use-value of labor power consists in the fact that it creates an exchange-value greater than its own. A capitalist pays for the right to use a worker's labor power over the course of a day, yet the working day is much longer than necessary to keep a worker in an active state. If the wages earned over the first half of the worker's day correspond to the value necessary to reproduce his labor power, those earned over the second half amount to unrequited labor. This generates an excess of value much larger than the cost of the worker's maintenance. Marx calls this "surplus value". The commodity character of labor power is the social nexus on which capitalist production is built. In this situation, a man functions as a thing. He is reduced to a state where it is his exchange-value, and not his personality, that counts for anything. Praxis Marx's theory of alienation is intimately linked to a theory of praxis. Praxis is Man's conscious, autonomous, creative, self-reflective shaping of changing historical conditions. Marx understands praxis as both a tool for changing the course of history and a criterion for the evaluation of history. Marxist humanism views Man as in essence a being of praxis – a self-conscious creature who can appropriate for his own use the whole realm of inorganic nature – and Marx's philosophy as in essence a "philosophy of praxis" – a theory that demands the act of changing the world while also participating in this act. As human nature The concept of human nature is the belief that all human individuals share some common features. In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx describes his position on human nature as a unity of naturalism and humanism. Naturalism is the view that Man is part of the system of nature. Marx sees Man as an objective, natural being – the product of a long biological evolution. Nature is that which is opposed to Man, yet Man is himself a part of nature. Man, like animals and plants, is conditioned by nature and his natural needs. It is through nature that Man satisfies the needs and drives that constitute his essence. Man is an "object" that has other "objects": he needs objects that are independent of him to express his objective nature. Humanism is the view that Man is a being of praxis who both changes nature and creates himself. It is not the simple attribute of consciousness that makes Man peculiarly human, but rather the unity of consciousness and practice – the conscious objectification of human powers and needs in sensuous reality. Marx distinguishes the free, conscious productive activity of human beings from the unconscious, compulsive production of animals. Praxis is an activity unique to Man: while other animals produce, they produce only what is immediately necessary. Man, on the other hand, produces universally and freely. Man is able to produce according to the standard of any species and at all times knows how to apply an intrinsic standard to the object he produces. Man thus creates according to the laws of beauty. The starting point for Man's self-development is the wealth of his own capacities and needs that he himself creates. Man's evolution enters the stage of human history when, through praxis, he acquires more and more control of blind natural forces and produces a humanized natural environment. As human knowledge Since Man's basic characteristic is his labor – his commerce with nature in which he is both active and passive – the traditional problems of epistemology must be looked at from a new standpoint. The role of work or labor in the cognitive process is a dominant epistemological theme in Marx's thought. Marx understands human knowledge to be mediated through praxis or intentional human agency. The relations between Man and his environment are relations between the species and the objects of its need. Practical usefulness is a factor in the definition of truth: a judgement or opinion's usefulness is not merely a tool for establishing its truth, but is what creates its truth. In his Theses on Feuerbach, Marx admonishes the materialism of Ludwig Feuerbach for its contemplative theory of knowledge. Marx holds that Feuerbach's mistake lies with his failure to envisage objects as sensuous, practical, human activity. For Marx, perception is itself a component of Man's practical relationship to the world. The object of Man's perception is not "given" by indifferent nature, but is a humanized object, conditioned by human needs and efforts. Criticisms and defences Criticisms As the terminology of alienation does not appear in a prominent manner in Marx's later works, Marxist humanism has been controversial within Marxist circles. The tendency was attacked by the Italian Western Marxist Galvano Della Volpe and by Louis Althusser, the French Structuralist Marxist. Althusser criticizes Marxist humanists for not recognizing what he considers to be the fundamental dichotomy between the theory of the "Young Marx" and that of the "Mature Marx". Althusser holds that Marx's thought is marked by a radical epistemological break, to have occurred in 1845 – The German Ideology being the earliest work to betray the discontinuity. For Althusser, the humanism of Marx's early writings – an ethical theory – is fundamentally incongruous with the "scientific" theory he argues is to be found in Marx's later works. In his view, the Mature Marx presents the social relations of capitalism as relations within and between structures; individuals or classes have no role as the subjects of history. Althusser believes socialist humanism to be an ethical and thus ideological phenomenon. Humanism is a bourgeois individualist philosophy that ascribes a universal essence of Man that is the attribute of each individual, and through which there is potential for authenticity and common human purpose. This essence does not exist: it is a formal structure of thought whose content is determined by the dominant interests of each historical epoch. The argument of socialist humanism rests on a similar moral and ethical basis. Hence, it reflects the reality of discrimination and exploitation that gives rise to it but never truly grasps this reality in thought. Marxist theory must go beyond this to a scientific analysis that directs to underlying forces such as economic relations and social institutions. For this reason, Althusser sympathized with the criticisms of socialist humanism made by the Chinese Communist Party, which condemned the tendency as "revisionism" and "phony communism". Althusser sees Marxist theory as primarily science and not philosophy but he does not adhere to Friedrich Engels's "natural philosophy". He claims that the philosophy implicit in Marxism is an epistemology (theory of knowledge) that sees science as "theoretical practice" and philosophy as the "theory of theoretical practice". However, he later qualifies this by claiming that Marxist philosophy, unlike Marxist science, has normative and ideological elements: Marxist philosophy is "politics in the field of theory" and "class struggle in theory". Defences Althusser is critical of what he perceives to be a reliance among Marxist humanists on Marx's 1844 Manuscripts, which Marx did not write for publication. Marxist humanists strongly dispute this: they hold that the concept of alienation is recognizable in Marx's mature work even when the terminology has been abandoned. Teodor Shanin and Raya Dunayevskaya assert that not only is alienation present in the late Marx, but that there is no meaningful distinction to be made between the "young Marx" and "mature Marx". The Marxist humanist activist Lilia D. Monzó states that "Marxist-Humanism, as developed by Raya Dunayevskaya, considers the totality of Marx's works, recognizing that his early work in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, was profoundly humanist and led to and embeds his later works, including Capital." Contra Althusser, Leszek Kołakowski argues that although it is true that in Capital Marx treats human individuals as mere embodiments of functions within a system of relations apparently possessed of its own dynamic and created independently, he does so not as a general methodical rule, but as a critique of the dehumanizing nature of exchange-value. When Marx and Engels present individuals as non-subjects subordinated to structures that they unwittingly support, their intention is to illuminate the absence of control that persons have in bourgeois society. Marx and Engels do not see the domination of alien forces over humans as an eternal truth, but rather as the very state of affairs to be ended by the overthrow of capitalism. Marxist humanists Notable thinkers and schools of thought associated with Marxist humanism include: Kevin B. Anderson (born 1948), American social theorist and activist. John Berger (1926–2017), English art critic, novelist, painter, and author. Marshall Berman (1940–2013), American Marxist writer and philosopher, author of the philosophical novel All That Is Solid Melts into Air. Ernst Bloch (1885–1977), German-Jewish Marxist philosopher. Budapest School, a school of Marxist humanism, post-Marxism, and dissident liberalism that emerged in communist Hungary in the early 1960s. Raya Dunayevskaya (1910–1987), founder of the philosophy of Marxist humanism in the United States. News and Letters Committees (1950s onwards), a small, revolutionary-socialist organization in the United States founded by Dunayevskaya. Frantz Fanon (1925–1961), psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and author from Martinique. Mark Fisher (1968–2017), English writer, music critic, political and cultural theorist, philosopher, and teacher. Frankfurt School (1930s onwards), a school of neo-Marxist critical theory, social research, and philosophy. Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), German-Jewish Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. Erich Fromm (1900–1980), German-Jewish Marxist psychoanalyst, social psychologist, and humanist philosopher. Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979), German-American Marxist philosopher and sociologist. Paulo Freire (1921–1997), Brazilian educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy. Roger Garaudy (1913-2012) Nigel Gibson, British philosopher and Marxist theorist. Lucien Goldmann (1913–1970), French philosopher and sociologist of Jewish-Romanian origins. André Gorz (1923–2007), Austrian-French social philosopher. Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937), Italian Marxist writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. Christopher Hill (1912–2003), English Marxist historian. C. L. R. James (1901–1989), Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist, and writer. Andrew Kliman (born 1955), American Marxist economist and philosopher, specializing in Marxian economics. Leszek Kołakowski (1927–2009), Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. Kołakowski broke with Marxism after the Polish 1968 political crisis forced him out of communist Poland. Karel Kosík (1926–2003), Czech philosopher who wrote on topics such as phenomenology and dialectics from a Marxist humanist perspective. Henri Lefebvre (1901–1991), French sociologist, intellectual, and philosopher, generally considered to be a neo-Marxist. John Lewis (1889–1976), British Unitarian minister and Marxist philosopher. György Lukács (1885–1971), Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic. Open Marxism, an anti-structuralist and heterodox school of Marxist philosophy. José Carlos Mariátegui (1894–1930), Peruvian intellectual, journalist, and political philosopher. Peter McLaren (born 1948), Canadian-American educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy. David McReynolds (1929–2018), American democratic socialist and pacifist activist. Rodolfo Mondolfo (1877–1976), Italian Marxist philosopher and historian of Ancient Greek philosophy. Praxis School, a Marxist humanist philosophical movement that emerged in Zagreb and Belgrade in the SFR Yugoslavia between the 1960s and 1970s. Walter Rodney (1942–1980), Guyanese Marxist historian and political activist. Franklin Rosemont (1943–2009), American writer, artist, historian, and activist. Maximilien Rubel (1905–1996), Austrian Marxist historian and council communist. Wang Ruoshui (1926–2002), Chinese journalist, political theorist, and Marxist philosopher. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. Cyril Smith (1929–2008), British lecturer of statistics at the London School of Economics, socialist, and revolutionary humanist. Ivan Sviták (1925–1994), Czech social critic and aesthetic theorist. E. P. Thompson (1924–1993), English historian, socialist, and peace campaigner. Raymond Williams (1921–1988), Welsh literary theorist, co-founder of cultural studies. See also Autonomist Marxism Budapest School Dialectic Frankfurt School Historical materialism Karl Marx Luxemburgism Marxism New Left Orthodox Marxism Praxis School Secular humanism Structure and agency Subjectivity References Footnotes Bibliography Further reading External links C L R James Archive The Hobgoblin, a Journal of Marxist-Humanism Libertarian Communist Library Marxist Humanism holdings Marxist Humanism, subject index at marxists.org Marxist-Humanist Dialectics Marxist-Humanist Initiative News & Letters, the Newspaper Raya Dunayevskaya Archive International Marxist-Humanist Organization official website 21st-century Marx Branches of humanism Marxist schools of thought Marxist theory

Comparing Media Systems

Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics (2004), by Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini, is a seminal study in the field of international comparative media system research. The study compares media systems of 18 Western democracies including nine Northern European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland), five Southern European countries (France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) and four Atlantic countries (Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and the United States). The conceptual framework developed in this study turned out to be an important contribution to the field of the comparative media systems research because it provides a systematic and applicable approach to analyze differences and similarities of the relationships between media and politics. Since the publication of Hallin and Mancini's book in 2004, there has been a vivid academic discussion (see ), particularly with regards to the adequacy of their suggested framework for understanding variations between different systems around the world, located within different cultural, social, and/or political contexts. As a consequence, a flourishing progression within the field of comparative media system research can be stated. Contextualization Comparative media system research The field of comparative media system research has a long tradition reaching back to the study Four Theories of the Press by Siebert, Peterson and Schramm from 1956. This book was the origin of the academic debate on comparing and classifying media systems, whereas it was normatively biased and strongly influenced by the ideologies of the Cold War era. Though this approach has often been criticized (e.g. because of its ethnocentricity, inconsistent structure, questionable typologies, or its scant empirical basis of the analysis), it was a starting point for following normative media theories and the development of the field. Comparative media system research has been subject to several changes since its establishment. The number of categories to describe media systems grew and approaches got more complex. Another trend is that researchers factor in political systems more intensively to explain and compare media systems. A more fundamental development is the shift from normative to empirically based approaches. There are still problems of comparative media studies in various countries which must be faced. The validity of the country sampling procedure is one problem, beside the adequate definition of the scope of the comparison to meet the specific national features of the cases, and the definition of adequate indicators as the basis for the comparison. Additionally, the developed models are still relatively static not being able to describe changes adequately, and online media have been largely neglected though their importance has been increasing since the late 1990s. However, comparative media system studies are an important instrument for contemporary communication phenomena under study. The comparative design is a bridge between traditional and nation-centered studies of media systems and new media as well as globalization perspectives. Jakubowicz points out that contemporarily comparative media system analyses are seen as the key approach to understand globalization processes of the media. Systematic classification of the approach Comparative media system research is one possible approach to study transnational and border-crossing communication processes worldwide. A very useful and heuristic systematization of the vast field of transnational and border-crossing communication comes from Wessler and Brüggemann (2012) (see also Dimensions of analysis). According to this heuristic, the approach from Hallin and Mancini can be identified and localized as one specific combination of the components along these three dimensions of analysis. Their perspective of analysis is focused on a systematic comparison of media systems within Western democracies. Consequently, their level of analysis concentrates on media systems within the context of nation states. Their main objectives are media-politics relations primarily on the level of structures, but in addition to it, they consider all objects of analysis to gain an encompassing understanding of these relations. Objectives Developing a unifying conceptual framework for comparing media systems was essential for Hallin and Mancini. They focused on theory building rather than testing theories, as the then prevailing Four Theories of the Press and its subsequent normative modifications showed deficiencies in adequately analyzing present media systems. Consequently, Hallin and Mancini focused on an empirical “by treating these systems not as abstract ideals but as concrete social formations that developed under particular historical conditions.” Hallin and Mancini initially chose a “most similar systems”-design – that is, comparing systems which are quite similar according to their structures and functioning to understand in which aspects they differ from each other to discover specific characteristics of each single system. Following this design, they conceptualized dimensions containing particular variables to analyze similarities and differences between the 18 countries under study. Their objective was to find more or less coherent patterns within their sample which could possibly be condensed into ideal types in terms of Max Weber’s conception of ideal types. Since the dimensions and the resulting models cover specifically the media-politics relations of the Western world, Hallin and Mancini do not claim universal validity of their framework. Hence, it must be reconceptualized to meet the specific conditions of media-politics relations beyond the Western world. Hallin and Mancini’s framework Hallin and Mancini's conceptual framework consists of the four dimensions structure of media markets, political parallelism, professionalization of journalism, and the role of the state with regards to media systems; and of the five dimensions the role of the state, type of democracy (consensus vs. majoritarian), type of pluralism (individual vs. organized), degree of rational-legal authority, and degree of pluralism (moderate vs. polarized) with reference to the political contexts of media systems. According to specific constellations of the variables within these dimensions, Hallin and Mancini conceptualized the three models of media and politics. Dimensions: media systems Structure of media markets The structure of media markets is concerned with the development of a mass press. The authors highlight several variables which can be used to describe the characteristics of press systems: newspaper circulation rates newspaper-readership relationship (elite- vs. mass-orientation) gender differences in newspaper reach relative importance of newspapers and television as sources of news ratio of local, regional, and national newspapers degree of a clear separation between sensationalist mass press and quality press regional or linguistic segmentation of media markets influence of bordering countries on the national media system Political parallelism Political parallelism refers to the “fact that media in some countries have distinct political orientations, while media in other countries do not.” The authors established 5 factors or indicators to assess the extent of political parallelism: the extent of political orientation within media content organizational connections between the media and political organizations the tendency of media personnel to take part in political life partisanship of media audiences journalists’ role orientation and practices (e.g. journalists as advocates vs. neutral arbiters, opinion-oriented vs. information-oriented reporting style, separating vs. blending commentary and information) internal pluralism (i.e. covering different opinions and perspectives within one medium) or external pluralism (i.e. covering different opinions and perspectives within one media branch (e.g. the press system)) the regulation of public service broadcasting (e.g. controlled by the government, insulated from direct political control, proportional representation of political parties or socially relevant groups) Professionalization of journalism The professionalization refers to the continuum of independent to instrumentalized journalism: degree of autonomy development of distinct professional norms and rules (e.g. practical routines or ethical principles) public service orientation of the journalists (i.e. orientation towards an ethic of public service rather than towards interests of individual persons) Role of the state This dimension stresses the power the political system has in shaping the structure and functioning of a media system. “But there are considerable differences in the extent of state intervention as well as in the forms it takes.” Hallin and Mancini use the following variables to cover this fourth dimension: censorship or other types of political pressure endowment of the media with economic subsidies ownership of media- or telecommunication-organizations provision of regulations for the media (laws, licensing, etc.) the state as an information source and “primary definer” of news Ultimately, the interrelations of these four dimensions are complex. They have to be assessed empirically for every new case under study. Consequently, they may “influence one another in important ways, but also vary independently.” Dimensions: political context In a next step, Hallin and Mancini identified five core dimensions to assess the political contexts of media systems. They took relevant concepts from the literatures on comparative politics and political sociology to gain a better understanding of the political influences on the development of media systems. The resulting dimensions are presented as dichotomies, but they are just poles on a continuum. The first dimension is the role of the state. It is conceptualized by the distinction between liberal democracies and welfare state democracies. The main difference between these two categories is the interventional activity of the state (e.g. funding vs. free market). This difference takes shape in the relative importance of private business or social institutions within the political system in question. A further important dichotomic dimension is labeled consensus vs. majoritarian democracy. Majoritarian democratic systems contain two dominating parties and, due to the plurality voting system, the winning party actually concentrates the political power so that there is a clear distinction between the government and the opposition. Furthermore, the Cabinet predominantly influences political decision processes. By contrast, the consensus politics model encompasses a multi-party system which is based on the power sharing principle according to the proportional representation so that compromise and cooperation between the opposing forces are central. Additionally, there is a separation of power between legislative and executive. The third dimension is the distinction between individual and organized pluralism resp. liberalism and corporatism. Individual pluralism is defined as the organization of the political representation “in terms of the relation between governing institutions and individual citizens, along with a multiplicity of competing ‘special interests’”. On the other hand, the focus on organized social groups is more important within organized pluralism systems. Thus, corporatism includes the “formal integration of social groups into the political process”. Hallin and Mancini identify the distinction between rational-legal authority and clientelism as another crucial dimension. Following Max Weber, Hallin and Mancini use the term rational-legal authority in its meaning as a form of governance whose main influence is maintained through formal and universalistic rules of procedure, i.e. an independent and autonomous administrative apparatus not affected by political and economic interests or lobbyism. This apparatus is the main institution of an efficient rational-legal system. In contrast, the orientation on common interests is much weaker within clientelism systems because individual interests and private relationships are the main forces maintaining the social organization. Consequently, “access to social resources is controlled by patrons and delivered to clients in exchange for deference and various forms of support”. The final dimension is conceptualized by the distinction between moderate and polarized pluralism. Low consensus, challenged legitimacy of the political organizations or system, and deep cleavages within the political landscape are the main characteristics of polarized pluralism. An important indicator is the existence of anti-system parties and factions. Compared to this, moderate pluralism is mainly characterized by stronger tendencies toward the center, lower ideological differences between the political parties, greater acceptance of the political system, and better chances to gain consensus during political controversies. The three models of media and politics By using the aforementioned dimensions, Hallin and Mancini deduced and conceptualized three ideal models of media-politics relations (‘ideal’ according to Max Weber). Hallin and Mancini could identify specific patterns by geographical regions which were crucial for labeling the individual models: The Three Models: Media System Characteristics The Three Models: Political System Characteristics Restrictions Hallin and Mancini point to restrictions of their three models which have to be considered in order not to overvalue the validity and significance of them. First of all, they focus on nation states and this level of analysis allows a specific perspective on media-politics relations but misses other phenomena of importance (e.g. transnational developments of media markets in Europe). Another concern is that the cases summarized within the single models vary enormously (especially within the Liberal model). Consequently, the models show a wide range of cases which might blur their distinction. Furthermore, the media systems within the analyzed countries might not be homogeneous (e.g. the structural differences between the print system and the broadcasting system in Germany). Because of the differences within the countries and the interferences between them, it is difficult to treat the 18 countries analyzed, as single cases because they depend on each other and influence each other. A final point is the dynamic of media systems because they cannot be assumed as static entities. Hence, media systems will always progress and there will always be changes resulting from those developing processes, so that reconsidering the characteristics of the mentioned models becomes necessary over time. Consequently, Hallin and Mancini point out in subsequent discussions that their models are not intended to be universal typologies which can be applied to other cases mechanically. Instead, they suggest rather focusing on the dimensions and their applicability and adaption to analyze other media systems adequately – e.g. regarding Eastern European media systems, they propose to attach more weight to the role of the state and especially to the role of civil society to understand these systems appropriately. The convergence-thesis At the end of their book, Hallin and Mancini discuss the convergence- or homogenization-thesis. The basis for their argument is their observation of several transformation processes that take place especially in Europe. The most important processes are the European integration, politically as well as with regards to the media (e.g. European media laws), the decline of traditional political mass parties, the American influence on the professionalization of journalism, and finally the commercialization of the media markets in Europe. These are the main reasons why Hallin and Mancini conclude, that the European countries might be pushed toward the Liberal model. They even go one step further and hypothesize that the core forces of that homogenization- or convergence-process might be valid for other parts of the world. However, they point out that there might be limitations to this process as well because the elements of the process are anchored in the structural differences between the political systems around the world. Recent developments In this section, some recent issues and topics are mentioned because they arose from an ongoing scholar discussion about the applicability of Hallin and Mancini's framework to other, especially non-Western countries: Some researchers reflect upon the nature of the Polarized Pluralist model and its alleged applicability for many media systems beyond the Western world, for it seems to be a catch-all residual model. A related issue is the question whether the Polarized Pluralist model involves negative normative implications (compared to the other two models) what would turn it into an inferior or less-well developed model. Many researchers challenge the convergence-thesis because they identify serious differences between the cases they study and those Hallin and Mancini focused on, so that they conclude that globalization will rather result in hybridization- than in convergence-processes. Concerning Western media systems, Hardy for example notes to include matters of ownership concentration and cultural processes to clarify and meet the complexity of convergence-processes. A related point is the total exclusion of influential new online technologies and media which are of central importance for understanding transformations of media systems as well as the communication patterns within, between and beyond them. Additionally, Hardy criticizes the neglect of all forms of entertainment media. One of the main debates is about the extent to which the variables Hallin and Mancini use to measure the dimensions must be adapted to non-Western cases to meet their particular conditions. Others criticize Hallin and Mancini's concentration on media-politics relations because this perspective neglects interrelated variables, e.g. economic or cultural contexts. Concerning transnational and global developments, relations and influences around the world, some researches ask the question whether the nation state as a level of analysis is still appropriate. For example, Jakubowicz argues that this methodological nationalism (cf. Mihelj et al., 2008) is inappropriate, for “media systems are no longer exclusively related to single political systems”, whereas Hardy notes that “[t]he political, legislative, cultural and social dimensions of the state are not simply diminished by globalisation” and that “communication systems remain, to a significant degree, national in organization and orientation.” A related debate is about the adequacy of focusing on structures and systems, as Hallin and Mancini did it, rather than considering more dynamic agencies and processes which cannot be covered entirely by a system-approach. Hallin and Mancini decided to use a model- or ideal types-approach to explain certain patterns of their cases. Other researchers remark on the risk of generalizing and abstracting too early within the research process. This vivid discussion reflects the status of Hallin and Mancini's approach, as it is currently “the most well-developed analytical framework so far for understanding the relationship between media and political systems.” Consequently, there are many studies that apply and adapt the framework for their cases under study. For example, Dobek-Ostrowska and colleagues published the edited volume Comparative Media Systems. European and Global Perspective (2010) which contains comparative studies referring to or applying Hallin and Mancini's framework for Central and Eastern Europe media systems. Hallin and Mancini published the edited volume Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World (2012) which gives a comprehensive overview with a more global perspective. Case studies from the media systems of Israel, Poland, Baltic states, Brazil, South Africa, Russia, China, and the Arab world are discussed by the contributors and a methodological reflection of Hallin and Mancini's framework with regards to non-Western media systems is added. Further research was conducted by Jonathan Hardy, who analyzed the implications of transformation processes shaping contemporary media systems. As Hallin and Mancini did, Hardy focuses on media systems within Western democracies (actually 18 countries) and he adjoins their convergence thesis while he concentrates on print and broadcasting (especially TV). He chooses four paradigms (namely the liberal democratic theory, neoliberalism, libertarianism, and the critical political economy) as an analytical framework to examine relationships between media and politics, media and policy, media ownership and transnationalisation processes. Furthermore, Roger Blum's approach (2005) is an attempt to broaden and complete Hallin and Mancini's models by adding and modifying dimensions (he developed nine instead of four dimensions), classifying them as liberal, regulated, or as in between these two poles. Blum identifies six models of media systems, but he does “not explain how he created the models and why no other combination of specification is necessary”, so Blum's framework is still in need for empirical support. Other studies focus on a single aspect of Hallin and Mancini's framework and analyze it in detail. For example, Curran and his colleagues (2009) study the implications of the movement towards rather market-driven media and compare news contents and public knowledge of public affairs within different media systems by testing the hypothesis, “that market-based systems (…) impede the exercise of informed citizenship.” There were also several conferences “triggered” by Hallin and Mancini's framework; for example the International Media and Communication Conference “Comparing Media Systems: West Meets East” organized by the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Wroclaw (April 23–25, 2007), where more than 100 researchers attained or conferences initiated by Hallin and Mancini themselves in Perugia in 2007, and in San Diego in 2009. Comparative media system research is an encouraging and important subfield of mediated cross-border communication. And Hallin and Mancini's framework has been contributing to its consolidation and progression. See also Political parallelism Comparative politics Political sociology Transformation processes (media systems) Mediated cross-border communication Footnotes References Altschull, J. H. (1984). Agents of Power: The Role of the News Media in Human Affairs. New York: Longman. Blum, R. (2005). Bausteine zu einer Theorie der Mediensysteme. Medienwissenschaft Schweiz, 2, 5–11. Brüggemann, M., & Wessler, H. (2011). Transnationale Kommunikation: Eine Einführung. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. Curran, J., Iyengar, S., Lund, A. B., & Salovaara-Moring, I. (2009). Media System, Public Knowledge and Democracy: A Comparative Study. European Journal of Communication, 24(5), 5-26. Dobek-Ostrowska, B., Glowacki, M., Jakubowicz, K., & Sükösd, M. (2010). Editors’ Introduction. In B. Dobek-Ostrowska, M. Glowacki, K. Jakubowicz, & M. Sükösd (Eds.), Comparative Media Systems. European and Global Perspective (pp. vii-ix). Budapest: CEU Press. Graber, D. A. (2006). [Review of the book Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics, by D. C. Hallin & P. Mancini]. Political Psychology, 27, 935–936. Hallin, D. C., & Mancini, P. (2004). Comparing media systems: Three models of media and politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hallin, D. C., & Mancini, P. (2010). Preface. In B. Dobek-Ostrowska, M. Glowacki, K. Jakubowicz, & M. Sükösd (Eds.), Comparative Media Systems. European and Global Perspective (pp. xi-xiv). Budapest: CEU Press. Hallin, D. C., & Mancini, P. (2012a). Introduction. In D. C. Hallin & P. Mancini (Eds.), Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World (pp. 1–7). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hallin, D. C., & Mancini, P. (2012b). Conclusion. In D. C. Hallin & P. Mancini (Eds.), Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World (pp. 278–304). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hardy, J. (2008). Western Media Systems. London: Routledge. Jakubowicz, K. (2010). Introduction. Media Systems Research: An Overview. In B. Dobek-Ostrowska, M. Glowacki, K. Jakubowicz, & M. Sükösd (Eds.), Comparative Media Systems. European and Global Perspective (pp. 1–21). Budapest: CEU Press. Jones, T. M. (2008). [Review of the book Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics, by D. C. Hallin & P. Mancini]. Comparative Political Studies, 41(1), 128–131. Kelly, Mary (1983). Influences on broadcasting policies for election coverage. In J. G. Blumler (Ed.), Communicating to voters. Television in the first European parliamentary elections (pp. 65–82). London: Sage. McQuail, D. (1987). Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction. London: Sage. Mihelj, S., Koenig, T., Downey, J., & Stetka, V. (2008). Mapping European Ideoscapes. European Societies, 10(2), 275–301. Musso, P., & Pineau, G. (1985). El audiovisual entre el estado y el mercado: Los ejemplos Italiano y francés. Telos, 27, 47–56. Patterson, T. E. (2007). [Review of the book Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics, by D. C. Hallin & P. Mancini]. Political Communication, 24, 329–331. Picard, Robert G. (1985). The Press and the Decline of Democracy: The Democratic Socialist Response in Public Policy. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. Seymour-Ure, C. (1974). The Political impact of mass media. London, UK: Constable. Siebert, F. S., Peterson, T., Schram, W. (1956). Four Theories of the Press. The Authoritarian, Libertarian, Social Responsibility, and Soviet Communist Concepts of What the Press Should Be and Do. Illinois: University of Illinois Press. Sparks, C. (2006). Comparing Transitions Poland, Russia, China. In H. Zankova (Ed.), Democracy, Technology, and Freedom of Expression. Articles and documents of the Council of Europe (pp. 21–35). Sofia: State Agency for Information Technologies and Communication. Traquina, N. (1995). Portuguese television: The politics of savage deregulation. Media, Culture & Society, 17, 223–238. Wessler, H., & Brüggemann, M. (2012, in press). Transnationale Kommunikation. Eine Einführung. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Williams, R. (1968). Communications. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. External links MediaAcT is a comparative research project on media accountability systems in EU member states. The Media Research Hub is a resource for researchers, advocates, and practitioners working for a more democratic and participatory public sphere. Paolo Mancini’s profile on the University of Perugia website (in Italian). Daniel C. Hallin’s profile on the UCSD Department of Communication website. 2004 non-fiction books Books about the media Media studies Political science books Cambridge University Press books

Generalization

A generalization is a form of abstraction whereby common properties of specific instances are formulated as general concepts or claims. Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements (thus creating a conceptual model). As such, they are the essential basis of all valid deductive inferences (particularly in logic, mathematics and science), where the process of verification is necessary to determine whether a generalization holds true for any given situation. Generalization can also be used to refer to the process of identifying the parts of a whole, as belonging to the whole. The parts, which might be unrelated when left on their own, may be brought together as a group, hence belonging to the whole by establishing a common relation between them. However, the parts cannot be generalized into a whole—until a common relation is established among all parts. This does not mean that the parts are unrelated, only that no common relation has been established yet for the generalization. The concept of generalization has broad application in many connected disciplines, and might sometimes have a more specific meaning in a specialized context (e.g. generalization in psychology, generalization in learning). In general, given two related concepts A and B, A is a "generalization" of B (equiv., B is a special case of A) if and only if both of the following hold: Every instance of concept B is also an instance of concept A. There are instances of concept A which are not instances of concept B. For example, the concept animal is a generalization of the concept bird, since every bird is an animal, but not all animals are birds (dogs, for instance). For more, see Specialisation (biology). Hypernym and hyponym The connection of generalization to specialization (or particularization) is reflected in the contrasting words hypernym and hyponym. A hypernym as a generic stands for a class or group of equally ranked items, such as the term tree which stands for equally ranked items such as peach and oak, and the term ship which stands for equally ranked items such as cruiser and steamer. In contrast, a hyponym is one of the items included in the generic, such as peach and oak which are included in tree, and cruiser and steamer which are included in ship. A hypernym is superordinate to a hyponym, and a hyponym is subordinate to a hypernym. Examples Biological generalization An animal is a generalization of a mammal, a bird, a fish, an amphibian and a reptile. Cartographic generalization of geo-spatial data Generalization has a long history in cartography as an art of creating maps for different scale and purpose. Cartographic generalization is the process of selecting and representing information of a map in a way that adapts to the scale of the display medium of the map. In this way, every map has, to some extent, been generalized to match the criteria of display. This includes small cartographic scale maps, which cannot convey every detail of the real world. As a result, cartographers must decide and then adjust the content within their maps, to create a suitable and useful map that conveys the geospatial information within their representation of the world. Generalization is meant to be context-specific. That is to say, correctly generalized maps are those that emphasize the most important map elements, while still representing the world in the most faithful and recognizable way. The level of detail and importance in what is remaining on the map must outweigh the insignificance of items that were generalized—so as to preserve the distinguishing characteristics of what makes the map useful and important. Mathematical generalizations In mathematics, one commonly says that a concept or a result is a generalization of if is defined or proved before (historically or conceptually) and is a special case of . The complex numbers are a generalization of the real numbers, which are a generalization of the rational numbers, which are a generalization of the integers, which are a generalization of the natural numbers. A polygon is a generalization of a 3-sided triangle, a 4-sided quadrilateral, and so on to n sides. A hypercube is a generalization of a 2-dimensional square, a 3-dimensional cube, and so on to n dimensions. A quadric, such as a hypersphere, ellipsoid, paraboloid, or hyperboloid, is a generalization of a conic section to higher dimensions. A Taylor series is a generalization of a MacLaurin series. The binomial formula is a generalization of the formula for . A ring is a generalization of a field. See also Categorical imperative (ethical generalization) Ceteris paribus External validity (scientific studies) Faulty generalization Generic (disambiguation) Critical thinking Generic antecedent Hasty generalization Inheritance (object-oriented programming) Mutatis mutandis -onym Ramer–Douglas–Peucker algorithm Semantic compression Inventor's paradox References Generalizations Critical thinking skills Inductive_reasoning

American modernism

American modernism, much like the modernism movement in general, is a trend of philosophical thought arising from the widespread changes in culture and society in the age of modernity. American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States beginning at the turn of the 20th century, with a core period between World War I and World War II. Like its European counterpart, American modernism stemmed from a rejection of Enlightenment thinking, seeking to better represent reality in a new, more industrialized world. History Characteristically, modernist art has a tendency to abstraction, is innovative, aesthetic, futuristic and self-referential. It includes visual art, literature, music, film, design, architecture as well as life style. It reacts against historicism, artistic conventions and institutionalization of art. Art was not only to be dealt with in academies, theaters or concert halls, but to be included in everyday life and accessible for everybody. Furthermore, cultural institutions concentrated on fine art and scholars paid little attention to the revolutionary styles of modernism. Economic and technological progress in the U.S. during the Roaring Twenties gave rise to widespread utopianism, which influenced some modernist artists, while others were skeptical of the embrace of technology. The victory in World War I confirmed the status of the U.S. as an international player and gave the people self-confidence and a feeling of security. In this context, American modernism marked the beginning of American art as distinct and autonomous from European taste, by breaking artistic conventions that had been shaped after European traditions until then. American modernism benefited from the diversity of immigrant cultures. Artists were inspired by African, Caribbean, Asian and European folk cultures and embedded these exotic styles in their works. The Modernist American movement was a reflection of American life in the 20th century. In the quickly industrializing world and hastened pace of life, it was easy for the individual to be swallowed up by the vastness of things, left wandering, devoid of purpose. Social boundaries in race, class, sex, wealth and religion were being challenged. As the social structure was challenged by new incoming views, the bounds of traditional standards and social structure dissolved, and a loss of identity was what remained, translating eventually into isolation, alienation and an overall feeling of separateness from any kind of "whole". The unity of a war-rallied country was dying, along with it the illusion of the pleasantries it sold to its soldiers and people. The world was left violent, vulgar and spiritually empty. The middle class worker fell into a distinctly unnoticeable position, a cog much too small to hope to find recognition in a much greater machine. Citizens were overcome with their own futility. Youths' dreams shattered with failure and a disillusioning disappointment in recognition of limit and loss. The lives of the disillusioned and outcasts became more focal. Ability to define self through hard work and resourcefulness, to create your own vision of yourself without the help of traditional means, became prized. Some authors endorsed this, while others, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, challenged how alluring but destructively false the values of privilege can be. Modernist America had to find common ground in a world no longer unified in belief. The unity found lay in the common ground of the shared consciousness within all human experience. The importance of the individual was emphasized; the truly limited nature of the human experience formed a bond across all bridges of race, class, sex, wealth or religion. Society, in this way, found shared meaning, even in disarray. Some see modernism in the tradition of 19th century aestheticism and the "art for art's sake" movement. Clement Greenberg argues that modernist art excludes "anything outside itself". Others see modernist art, for example in blues and jazz music, as a medium for emotions and moods, and many works dealt with contemporary issues, like feminism and city life. Some artists and theoreticians even added a political dimension to American modernism. American modernist design and architecture enabled people to lead a modern life. Work and family life changed radically and rapidly due to the economic upswing during the 1920s. In the U.S., the car became popular and affordable for many, leisure time and entertainment gained importance and the job market opened up for women. In order to make life more efficient, designers and architects aimed at the simplification of housework. The Great Depression at the end of the '20s and during the '30s disillusioned people about the economic stability of the country and eroded utopianist thinking. The outbreak and the terrors of World War II caused further changes in mentality. The Post-war period that followed was termed Late Modernism. The Postmodernist era was generally considered characteristic of the art of the late 20th century beginning in the 1980s. Visual arts American modernist painting There is no single date for the beginning of the modern era in America, as dozens of painters were active at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the time when the first cubist landscapes (Precisionism), still-life and portraits appeared; bright colors entered the palettes of painters, and the first non-objective paintings were displayed in the galleries. The modernist movement during the formative years was also becoming popular in New York City by 1913 at the popular Manhattan studio gallery of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong (1878–1962) and through the work of the Whitney Studio Club in 1918. According to Davidson, the beginning of American modernist painting can be dated to the 1910s. The early part of the period lasted 25 years and ended around 1935, when modern art was referred to as, what Greenberg called the avant-garde. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City displayed the contemporary work of European artists, as well as Americans. The Impressionist, Fauvist and Cubist paintings startled many American viewers who were accustomed to more conventional art. However, inspired by what they saw, many American artists were influenced by the radical and new ideas. The early 20th century was marked by the exploration of different techniques and ways of artistic expressiveness. Many American artists like Wilhelmina Weber, Man Ray, Patrick Henry Bruce, Gerald Murphy and others went to Europe, notably Paris, to make art. The formation of various artistic assemblies led to the multiplicity of meaning in the visual arts. The Ashcan School gathered around realism (Robert Henri or George Luks); the Stieglitz circle glorified abstract visions of New York City (Max Weber, Abraham Walkowitz); color painters evolved in direction of the colorful, abstract "synchromies" (Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell), whereas precisionism visualized the industrialized landscape of America in the form of sharp and dynamic geometrization (Joseph Stella, Charles Sheeler, Morton Livingston Schamberg, Charles Rosen, and Charles Demuth). Eventually artists like Charles Burchfield, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffe who was thought of as the mother of American Modernism, John Marin, Arthur Beecher Carles, Alfred Henry Maurer, Andrew Dasburg, James Daugherty, John Covert, Henrietta Shore, William Zorach, Marguerite Thompson (Zorach), Manierre Dawson, Arnold Friedman and Oscar Bluemner ushered in the era of Modernism to the New York School. The shift of focus and multiplicity of subjects in the visual arts is also a hallmark of American modernist art. Thus, for example, the group The Eight brought the focus on the modern city, and placed emphasis on the diversity of different classes of citizens. Two of the most significant representatives of The Eight, Robert Henri and John Sloan made paintings about social diversity, often taking as a main subject the slum dwellers of industrialized cities. The late 1920s and the 1930s belonged (among many others) to two movements in American painting, Regionalism and Social Realism. The regionalists focused on the colorfulness of the American landscape and the complexities of country life, whereas the social realists went into the subjects of the Great Depression, poverty, and social injustice. The social realists protested against the government and the establishment that appeared hypocritical, biased, and indifferent to the matters of human inequalities. Abstraction, landscape and music were popular modernist themes during the first half of the 20th century. Artists like Charles Demuth who created his masterpiece I Saw The Figure Five in Gold in 1928, Morton Schamberg (1881–1918) and Charles Sheeler were closely related to the Precisionist movement as well. Sheeler typically painted cityscapes and industrial architecture as exemplified by his painting Amoskeag Canal 1948. Jazz and music were improvisationally represented by Stuart Davis, as exemplified by Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors – 7th Avenue Style, from 1940. Modernism bridged the gap between the art and a socially diverse audience in the United States. A growing number of museums and galleries aimed at bringing modernity to the general public. Despite initial resistance to the celebration of progress, technology, and urban life, the visual arts contributed enormously to the self-consciousness and awareness of the American people. New modernist painting shined a light on the emotional and psychic states of the audience, which was fundamental to the formation of an American identity. Numerous directions of American "modernism" did not result in one coherent style. Main schools and movements of American modernism the Stieglitz group the Arensberg circle color painters Precisionism the Independents the Philadelphia school New York independents Chicago and westward Modernist painting Georgia O'Keeffe, known as the "Mother of American modernism", has been a major figure in American Modernism since the 1920s. She has received widespread recognition, for challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style. She is chiefly known for paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones and landscapes in which she synthesized abstraction and representation. Ram's Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills, from 1935 is a well known painting by O'Keeffe. Arthur Dove used a wide range of media, sometimes in unconventional combinations to produce his abstractions and his abstract landscapes. Me and the Moon from 1937 is a good example of an Arthur Dove abstract landscape and has been referred to as one of the culminating works of his career. Dove did a series of experimental collage works in the 1920s. He also experimented with techniques, combining paints like hand mixed oil or tempera over a wax emulsion. African-American painter Aaron Douglas (1899–1979) is one of the best-known and most influential African-American modernist painters. His works contributed strongly to the development of an aesthetic movement that is closely related to distinct features of African-American heritage and culture. Douglas influenced African-American visual arts especially during the Harlem Renaissance. One of Douglas' most popular paintings is The Crucifixion. It was published in James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones in 1927. The crucifixion scene that is depicted in the painting shows several elements that constitute Douglas' art: clear-cut delineation, change of shadows and light, stylized human bodies and geometric figures as concentric circles in contrast to linear forms. The painting's theme resembles not only the biblical scene but can also be seen as an allusion to African-American religious tradition: the oversized, dark Jesus is bearing his cross, his eyes directed to heaven from which light is cast down onto his followers. Stylized Roman soldiers are flanking the scene with their pointed spears. As a result, the observer is reminded for instance of the African-American gospel tradition but also of a history of suppression. Beauford Delaney, Charles Alston, Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden were also important African-American Modernist painters that inspired generations of artists that followed them. Modernist photography At the beginning of American modernism, photography still struggled to be recognized as a form of art. The photographer Alfred Stieglitz described it as: "Artists who saw my earlier photographs began to tell me that they envied me; that they felt my photographs were superior to their paintings, but that, unfortunately, photography was not an art. I could not understand why the artists should envy me for my work, yet, in the same breath, decry it because it was machine-made." (Stieglitz:8). In 1902, Stieglitz founded the Photo-Secession group with members such as Edward Steichen, Gertrude Käsebier and Clarence Hudson White, which had the objective of raising the standard and increasing the awareness of art photography. At that point, their main style was pictorialist, which was known for modifying photos through soft focus, special filters or exotic printing processes, to imitate the style of paintings and etchings of that time. For means of publication, Stieglitz, as the driving force of the movement, started the magazine Camera Work, in which he published artists he felt represented the movement. He also ran three galleries one after another, namely "291" (1905–1917), "The Intimate Gallery" (1925–1929) and "An American Place" (1929–1947). Especially 291 served as a meeting point for artists and writers and was the first to exhibit the early modernist art works of European artists, such as Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, Henri Rousseau, Paul Cézanne, and Pablo Picasso, in the United States. A further link to the European avant-garde was established by Man Ray. Born in America and inspired by the work he saw in Stieglitz' galleries, Ray emigrated to Paris in 1921 and together with artists of the European Dada and Surrealist movements created new photographic techniques such as rayographs (placing objects directly on photosensitive paper). In the early 1920s, photographers moved towards what they called straight photography. In contrast to the pictorialist style, they now rejected any kind of manipulation in the photographic process (e.g., soft lens, special developing or printing methods) and tried to use the advantages of the camera as a unique medium for capturing reality. Their motifs were supposed to look as objective as possible. Turning the focus away from classic portraiture and the pictorialist style, the photographers started using their pictures as means for representing the harsh realities of everyday life, but at the same time tried to search for the beauty in the detail or the overall aesthetical structure. Machines and factory work, sky scrapers and technical innovations became prominent motifs. In 1932 some younger photographers (e.g. Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, Edward Weston) started Group f/64 based on the ideals of straight photography, which became the most progressive association of its time. American modernist literature American modernist literature was a dominant trend in American literature between World War I and World War II. The modernist era highlighted innovation in the form and language of poetry and prose, as well as addressing numerous contemporary topics, such as race relations, gender and the human condition. Many American modernists became expatriated in Europe during this time, often becoming stalwarts in the European movement, as was the case for T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. These writers were often known as the Lost Generation. As a reaction to this trend, many American authors and poets began a trend of 'nativism', seeking to represent the modern American experience in America. Notable contributors to this trend include William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens and Marianne Moore. These poets were often critical of the works of expatriate writers such as Eliot and Pound, as evidenced by poems like Spring and All. Influenced by the first World War, many American modernist writers explored the psychological wounds and spiritual scars of the war experience. The economic crisis in America at the beginning of the 1930s also left a mark on literature, such as John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. A related issue is the loss of self and need for self-definition, as workers faded into the background of city life, unnoticed cogs within a machine yearning for self-definition. American modernists echoed the mid-19th-century focus on the attempt to "build a self"—a theme illustrated by Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Madness and its manifestations seems to be another favorite modernist theme, as seen in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, Hemingway's The Battler and Faulkner's That Evening Sun. Nevertheless, all these negative aspects led to new hopes and aspirations, and to the search for a new beginning, not only for the contemporary individuals, but also for the fictional characters in American modernist literature. Modernist literature also allowed for the development of regional trends within American literature, including the Harlem Renaissance and southern modernism. The Harlem Renaissance marked a rebirth for African American arts, centralized in the Harlem area of New York. Writers and thinkers such as Alain Locke, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston were among the key figures of the movement. The movement was connected to a vogue for African American culture, as seen too in the popularity of Jazz music, with many writers financed by white patrons. Many writers of this movement used modernist techniques to represent African American life, for instance incorporating the rhythms of Jazz music and dialects of African American culture into poetry and prose. Southern modernism similarly represented the life and unique experiences of the South using modernist aesthetics, with celebrated figures including William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams. The new criticism in America From the 1930s to the 1960s, New Criticism became a critical force in the United States. It was the most powerful perspective in American literary criticism. The representatives were John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Cleanth Brooks, Robert Penn Warren. "The influential critical methods these poet-professors developed emphasized the sharpening of close reading skills. New Criticism privileged the evaluation of poetry as the justification of literary scholarship". Brooks and Warren's Understanding Poetry (1938) became one of the most influential college poetry textbooks of the 1930s and was revised and reprinted well into the 1970s. (Morrisson: 29). New criticism showed itself in such works as Eliot's and Yeats' poems. "Poetry that best fit the aesthetic criteria of the New Critics was emphasized in important classroom teaching anthologies" (Morrisson: 29). T. S. Eliot redefined tradition in his essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent". He formulated such critical concepts as "objective correlative", and rethought the literary canon in his elevation of Jacobean drama and metaphysical poetry. His work had a fundamental influence on New Criticism in America. Architecture and space The United States played a great role in the modernism movement concerning new advanced building and construction technologies. Among construction innovations there are such materials as iron, steel and reinforced concrete. Brooklyn Bridge by John and Washington Roebling (1869–1883) (for more details see John Roebling/Washington Roebling) Louis Henry Sullivan headed the so-called Chicago school of architecture, which was distinct by its development of functional design along with modern materials. Sullivan's follower Frank Lloyd Wright absorbed from his 'lieber Master' (dear master) the German romantic tradition of organic architecture. He developed a new and original approach to residential design before World War I, which became known as the "prairie style." It combined open planning principles with horizontal emphasis, asymmetrical facade elevations, and broad, sheltering roofs. Robie House in Chicago (1909) and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City (1946–59) are two of his seminal works. In his works Wright moved closer and closer to an earth-bound sense of natural form, using rough-hewn stone and timber and aiming always in his houses to achieve an effect of intimate and protective shelter. Foreign-born architects as Richard Neutra, Rudolf Schindler, and William Lescaze during the 1920s played a great role in development of American architecture performing later a style, which got the name of international style and was reflected in the design of corporate office buildings after World War II. Such buildings as Skidmore, Owings and Merrill's Lever House (1952) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building (1956–58) in New York City are the examples of this new style. When such famous Europeans as Walter Gropius and Mies immigrated to the United States, many American architectural schools went under the influence of the traditions of the Bauhaus in Germany. See also American Modern American realism Beat Generation Mid-Century modern Visual arts of the United States Modernist film References External links American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a fully digitized 3 volume exhibition catalog American modernist painters discussed in Conversations from Penn State interview Modernism American art movements American music history Cultural history of the United States Modern art . 20th century in art 20th century in the United States . 1910s in the United States 1920s in the United States 1930s in the United States 1940s in the United States 1910s in art 1920s in art 1930s in art 1940s in art

Mechanical and organic solidarity

In sociology, mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity are the two types of social solidarity that were formulated by Émile Durkheim, introduced in his Division of Labour in Society (1893) as part of his theory on the development of societies. According to Durkheim, the type of solidarity will correlate with the type of society, either mechanical or organic society. The two types of solidarity can be distinguished by morphological and demographic features, type of norms in existence, and the intensity and content of the conscience collective. In a society that exhibits mechanical solidarity, its cohesion and integration comes from the homogeneity of individuals—people feel connected through similar work; educational and religious training; age; gender; and lifestyle. Mechanical solidarity normally operates in traditional and small-scale societies (e.g., tribes). In these simpler societies, solidarity is usually based on kinship ties of familial networks. Organic solidarity is a social cohesion based upon the interdependence that arises between people from the specialization of work and complementarianism as result of more advanced (i.e., modern and industrial) societies. Although individuals perform different tasks and often have different values and interests, the order and very solidarity of society depends on their reliance on each other to perform their specified tasks. Thus, social solidarity is maintained in more complex societies through the interdependence of its component parts. Farmers, for example, produce the food that feeds the factory workers who produce the tractors that allow the farmers to produce the food. Features References Sociological terminology Émile Durkheim

Six Ages of the World

The Six Ages of the World (Latin: sex aetates mundi), also rarely Seven Ages of the World (Latin: septem aetates mundi), is a Christian historical periodization first written about by Augustine of Hippo . It is based upon Christian religious events, from the creation of Adam to the events of Revelation. The six ages of history, with each age (Latin: aetas) lasting approximately 1,000 years, were widely believed and in use throughout the Middle Ages, and until the Enlightenment, the writing of history was mostly the filling out of all or some part of this outline. The outline accounts for Seven Ages, just as there are seven days of the week, with the Seventh Age being eternal rest after the Final Judgement and End Times, just as the seventh day of the week is reserved for rest. It was normally called the Six Ages of the World because in Augustine's schema they were the ages of the world, of history, while the Seventh Age was not of this world but, as Bede later elaborated, ran parallel to the six ages of the world. Augustine's presentation deliberately counters chiliastic and millennial ideas that the Seventh Age, World to Come, would come after the sixth. Six Ages The Six Ages, as formulated by Augustine of Hippo, are defined in De catechizandis rudibus (On the catechizing of the uninstructed), Chapter 22: The First Age "is from the beginning of the human race, that is, from Adam, who was the first man that was made, down to Noah, who constructed the ark at the time of the flood", i.e. the Antediluvian period. The Second Age "extends from that period on to Abraham, who was called the father indeed of all nations". The Third Age "extends from Abraham on to David the king". The Fourth Age is "from David on to that captivity whereby the people of God passed over into Babylonia". The Fifth Age is "from that transmigration down to the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ" The Sixth Age: "With His [Jesus Christ's] coming the sixth age has entered on its process." The Ages reflect the seven days of creation, of which the last day is the rest of Sabbath, illustrating the human journey to find eternal rest with God, a common Christian belief. Kabbalistic tradition There is a kabbalistic tradition that maintains that the seven days of creation in Genesis 1 correspond to seven millennia of the existence of natural creation. The tradition teaches that the seventh day of the week, Shabbat or the day of rest, corresponds to the seventh millennium (Hebrew years 6000–7000), the age of universal "rest" – the Messianic Era. The Talmud comments: The Midrash comments: The Zohar explains: Elaborating on this theme are numerous early and late Jewish scholars, including the Ramban, Isaac Abrabanel, Abraham Ibn Ezra, Rabbeinu Bachya, the Vilna Gaon, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Ramchal, Aryeh Kaplan, and Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis. Theory The idea that each age lasts 1000 years is based on II Peter 3:8: "But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." The interpretation was taken to mean that mankind would live through six 1,000 year periods (or "days"), with the seventh being eternity in heaven or according to the Nicene Creed, a World to Come. Medieval Christian scholars believed it was possible to determine the overall time of human history, starting with Adam, by counting forward how long each generation had lived up to the time of Jesus, based on the ages recorded in the Bible. While the exact age of the earth was a matter of biblical interpretive debate, it was generally agreed man was somewhere in the last and final thousand years, the Sixth Age, and the final Seventh Age could happen at any time. The world was seen as an old place, with more time in its past than its future. While Augustine was the first to write of the Six Ages, early Christians prior to Augustine found no end of evidence in the Jewish traditions of the Old Testament, and initially set the date for the End of the World at the year 500. Hippolytus said that the measurements of the Ark of the Covenant added up to five and one-half cubits, meaning five and a half thousand years. Since Jesus had been born in the "sixth hour", or halfway through a day (or, five hundred years into an Age), and since five kingdoms (five thousand years) had already fallen according to Revelation, plus the half day of Jesus (the body of Jesus replacing the Ark of the Jews), it meant that five-thousand five-hundred years had already passed when Jesus was born and another 500 years would mark the end of the world. An alternative scheme had set the date to the year 202, but when this date passed without event, people expected the end in the year 500. By the 3rd century, Christians no longer widely believed the "End of the Ages" would occur in their lifetime, as was common among the earliest Christians. See also Bartholomew Holzhauser Dispensationalism Fifth Monarchists Four monarchies Generations of Noah Jewish mythology Nuremberg Chronicle Ussher chronology Irish Sex Aetates Mundi Three Eras References Further reading Augustine, (Rev. C. L. Cornish), On the Catechising of the Uninstructed, chapter 28: "Of the Six Ages of the World" External links Winchester Bible image of the Ages of the World, illustrated within the opening letter "I" of the book of Genesis. Image: Six Ages of the World from the British Library. Dated last quarter of the 14th century. Christian terminology Christian eschatology Periodization

Foresight (futures studies)

In futurology, especially in Europe, the term foresight has become widely used to describe activities such as: critical thinking concerning long-term developments, debate and for some futurists who are normative and focus on action driven by their values who may be concerned with effort to create wider participatory democracy. Foresight is a set of competencies and not a value system, however. shaping the future, especially by influencing public policy. In the last decade, scenario methods, for example, have become widely used in some European countries in policy-making. The FORSOCIETY network brings together national Foresight teams from most European countries, and the European Foresight Monitoring Project is collating material on Foresight activities around the world. In addition, foresight methods are being used more and more in regional planning and decision –making (“regional foresight”). Several non-European think-tanks like Strategic Foresight Group are also engaged in foresight studies. The foresight of futurology is also known as strategic foresight. This foresight used by and describing professional futurists trained in Master's programs is the research-driven practice of exploring expected and alternative futures and guiding futures to inform strategy. Foresight includes understanding the relevant recent past; scanning to collect insight about present, futuring to describe the understood future including trend research; environment research to explore possible trend breaks from developments on the fringe and other divergencies that may lead to alternative futures; visioning to define preferred future states; designing strategies to craft this future; and adapting the present forces to implement this plan. There is notable but not complete overlap between foresight and strategic planning, change management, forecasting, and design thinking. At the same time, the use of foresight for companies (“corporate foresight”) is becoming more professional and widespread Corporate foresight is used to support strategic management, identify new business fields and increase the innovation capacity of a firm. Foresight is not the same as futures research or strategic planning. It encompasses a range of approaches that combine the three components mentioned above, which may be recast as: futures (forecasting, forward thinking, prospectives), planning (strategic analysis, priority setting), and networking (participatory, dialogic) tools and orientations. Much futurology research has been rather ivory tower work, but Foresight programmes were designed to influence policy - often R&D policy. Much technology policy had been very elitist; Foresight attempts to go beyond the "usual suspects" and gather widely distributed intelligence. These three lines of work were already common in Francophone futures studies going by the name la prospective. But in the 1990s we began to see what became an explosion of systematic organisation of these methods in large scale TECHNOLOGY FORESIGHT programmes in Europe and more widely. Foresight thus draws on traditions of work in long-range planning and strategic planning, horizontal policymaking and democratic planning, and participatory futurology - but was also highly influenced by systemic approaches to innovation studies, science and technology policy, and analysis of "critical technologies". Many of the methods that are commonly associated with Foresight - Delphi surveys, scenario workshops, etc. - derive from futurology. The flowchart to the right provides an overview of some of the techniques as they relate to the scenario as defined in the intuitive logics tradition. So does the fact that Foresight is concerned with: The longer-term - futures that are usually at least 10 years away (though there are some exceptions to this, especially in its use in private business). Since Foresight is action-oriented (the planning link) it will rarely be oriented to perspectives beyond a few decades out (though where decisions like aircraft design, power station construction or other major infrastructural decisions are concerned, then the planning horizon may well be half a century). Alternative futures: it is helpful to examine alternative paths of development, not just what is currently believed to be most likely or business as usual. Often Foresight will construct multiple scenarios. These may be an interim step on the way to creating what may be known as positive visions, success scenarios, aspirational futures. Sometimes alternative scenarios will be a major part of the output of Foresight work, with the decision about what future to build being left to other mechanisms. See also Accelerating change Emerging technologies Foresight Institute Forecasting Horizon scanning Optimism bias Reference class forecasting Scenario planning Strategic foresight Strategic Foresight Group Technology forecasting Technology Scouting References Further reading There are numerous journals that deal with research on foresight: Technological Forecasting and Social Change Futures Futures & Foresight Science European Journal of Futures Research Foresight Research focusing more on the combination of foresight and national R&D policy can be found in International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy External links The FORLEARN Online Guide developed by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the European Commission The Foresight Programme of UNIDO, the Investment and Technology Promotion Branch of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Handbook of Knowledge Society Foresight published by the European Foundation, Dublin Foresight (futures studies) Transhumanism

Historiography of the British Empire

The historiography of the British Empire refers to the studies, sources, critical methods and interpretations used by scholars to develop a history of the British Empire. Historians and their ideas are the main focus here; specific lands and historical dates and episodes are covered in the article on the British Empire. Scholars have long studied the Empire, looking at the causes for its formation, its relations to the French and other empires, and the kinds of people who became imperialists or anti-imperialists, together with their mindsets. The history of the breakdown of the Empire has attracted scholars of the histories of the United States (which broke away in 1776), the British Raj (dissolved in 1947), and the African colonies (independent in the 1960s). John Darwin (2013) identifies four imperial goals: colonising, civilising, converting, and commerce. Historians have approached imperial history from numerous angles over the last century. In recent decades scholars have expanded the range of topics into new areas in social and cultural history, paying special attention to the impact on the natives and their agency in response. The cultural turn in historiography has recently emphasised issues of language, religion, gender, and identity. Recent debates have considered the relationship between the "metropole" (Great Britain itself, especially London), and the colonial peripheries. The "British world" historians stress the material, emotional, and financial links among the colonizers across the imperial diaspora. The "new imperial historians", by contrast, are more concerned with the Empire's impact on the metropole, including everyday experiences and images. Phillip Buckner says that by the 1990s few historians continued to portray the Empire as benevolent. Historical framework Historians agree that the Empire was not planned by anyone. The concept of the British Empire is a construct and was never a legal entity, unlike the Roman or other European empires. There was no imperial constitution, no office of emperor, no uniformity of laws. So when it began, when it ended, and what stages it went through is a matter of opinion, not official orders or laws. The dividing line was Britain's shift in the 1763–93 period from emphasis on western to eastern territories following U.S. independence. The London bureaucracy governing the colonies also changed, policies to white settler colonies changed and slavery was phased out. The beginning of the formation of a colonial Empire has been much studied. Tudor conquest of Ireland began in the 1530s and Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in the 1650s completed the British colonisation of Ireland. The first major history was The Expansion of England (1883), by Sir John Seeley. It was a bestseller for decades, and was widely admired by the imperialistic faction in British politics, and opposed by the anti-imperialists of the Liberal Party. The book points out how and why Britain gained the colonies, the character of the Empire, and the light in which it should be regarded. It was well written and persuasive. Seeley argued that British rule is in India's best interest. He also warned that India had to be protected and vastly increased the responsibilities and dangers to Britain. The book contains the much-quoted statement that "we seem, as it were, to have conquered half the world in a fit of absence of mind". Expansion of England appeared at an opportune time, and did much to make the British regard the colonies as an expansion of the British state as well as of British nationality, and to confirm to them the value of Britain's empire in the East. In his history of the British Empire, written in 1940, A. P. Newton lamented that Seeley "dealt in the main with the great wars of the eighteenth century and this gave the false impression that the British Empire has been founded largely by war and conquest, an idea that was unfortunately planted firmly in the public mind, not only in Great Britain, but also in foreign countries". Historians often point out that in the First British Empire (before the 1780s) there was no single imperial vision, but rather a multiplicity of private operations led by different groups of English businessmen or religious groups. Although protected by the Royal Navy, they were not funded or planned by the government. After the American war, says Bruce Collins, British leaders "focused not on any military lessons to be learned, but upon the regulation and expansion of imperial trade and the readjustment of Britain's constitutional relationship with its colonies." In the Second British Empire, by 1815 historians identify four distinct elements in the colonies. The most politically developed colonies were the self-governing colonies in the Caribbean and those that later formed Canada and Australia. India was in a category by itself, and its immense size and distance required control of the routes to it, and in turn permitted British naval dominance from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea. The third group was a mixed bag of smaller territories, including isolated ports used as way stations to India, and emerging trade entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore, along with a few isolated ports in Africa. The fourth kind of empire was the "informal empire," that is financial dominance exercised through investments, as in Latin America, and including the complex situation in Egypt (it was owned theoretically by the Ottoman Empire, but ruled by Britain). Darwin argues the British Empire was distinguished by the adaptability of its builders: "The hallmark of British imperialism was its extraordinary versatility in method, outlook and object." The British tried to avoid military action in favour of reliance on networks of local elites and businessmen who voluntarily collaborated and in turn gained authority (and military protection) from British recognition. Historians argue that Britain built an informal economic empire through control of trade and finance in Latin America after the independence of Spanish and Portuguese colonies about 1820. By the 1840s, Britain had adopted a highly successful policy of free trade that gave it dominance in the trade of much of the world. After losing its first Empire to the Americans, Britain then turned its attention towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Following the defeat of Napoleonic France in 1815, Britain enjoyed a century of almost unchallenged dominance and expanded its imperial holdings around the globe. Increasing degrees of internal autonomy were granted to its white settler colonies in the 20th century. A resurgence came in the late 19th century, with the Scramble for Africa and major additions in Asia and the Middle East. Leadership in British imperialism was expressed by Joseph Chamberlain and Lord Rosebery, and implemented in Africa by Cecil Rhodes. Other influential spokesmen included Lord Cromer, Lord Curzon, General Kitchner, Lord Milner, and the writer Rudyard Kipling. They all were influenced by Seeley's Expansion of England. The British Empire was the largest Empire that the world has ever seen both in terms of landmass and population. Its power, both military and economic, remained unmatched in 1900. In 1876 Disraeli overcame vehement Liberal opposition and obtained for Queen Victoria the title of "Empress of India" (she was not "Empress of the British Empire.") British historians focused on the diplomatic, military and administrative aspects of the Empire before the 1960s. They saw a benevolent enterprise. Younger generations branched off into a variety of social, economic and cultural themes, and took a much more critical stance. Representative of the old tradition was the Cambridge History of India, a large-scale project published in five volumes between 1922 and 1937 by Cambridge University Press. Some volumes were also part of the simultaneous multivolume The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Production of both works was delayed by the First World War and the ill health of contributors; the India volume II had to be abandoned. Reviewers complained the research methods were too old-fashioned; one critic said it was "history as it was understood by our grandfathers". Idea of Empire David Armitage provided an influential study of the emergence of a British imperial ideology from the time of Henry VIII to that of Robert Walpole in the 1720s and 1730s. Using a close reading of English, Scottish and Irish authors from Sir Thomas Smith (1513–77) to David Hume (1711–1776), Armitage argues that the imperial ideology was both a critical agent in the formation of a British state from three kingdoms and an essential bond between the state and the transatlantic colonies. Armitage thus links the concerns of the "New British History" with that of the Atlantic history. Before 1700, Armitage finds that contested English and Scottish versions of state and empire delayed the emergence of a unitary imperial ideology. However political economists Nicholas Barbon and Charles Davenant in the late 17th century emphasized the significance of commerce, especially mercantilism or commerce that was closed to outsiders, to the success of the state. They argued that "trade depended on liberty, and that liberty could therefore be the foundation of empire". To overcome competing versions of "empires of the seas" within Britain, Parliament undertook the regulation of the Irish economy, the Acts of Union 1707 and the formation of a unitary and organic "British" empire of the sea. Walpole's opponents in the 1730s in the "country party" and in the American colonies developed an alternative vision of empire that would be "Protestant, commercial, maritime and free". Walpole did not ensure the promised "liberty" to the colonies because he was intent on subordinating all colonial economic activity to the mercantilist advantages of the metropolis. Anti-imperial critiques emerged from Francis Hutcheson and David Hume, presaging the republicanism that swept the American colonies in the 1770s and led to the creation of a rival power. Economic policy: Mercantilism Historians led by Eli Heckscher have identified Mercantilism as the central economic policy for the empire before the shift to free trade in the 1840s. Mercantilism is an economic theory practice, commonly used in Britain, France and other major European nations from the 16th to the 18th century that promoted governmental regulation of a nation's economy for the purpose of augmenting state power at the expense of rival national powers. It was the economic counterpart of political absolutism. It involves a national economic policy aimed at accumulating monetary reserves through a positive balance of trade, especially of finished goods. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from the 16th to late-18th centuries. Mercantilism was a cause of frequent European wars and also motivated colonial expansion. High tariffs, especially on manufactured goods, are an almost universal feature of mercantilist policy. Other policies have included: Building overseas colonies; Forbidding colonies to trade with other nations; Monopolizing markets with staple ports; Banning the export of gold and silver, even for payments; Forbidding trade to be carried in foreign ships; Export subsidies; Promoting manufacturing with research or direct subsidies; Limiting wages; Maximizing the use of domestic resources; Restricting domestic consumption with non-tariff barriers to trade. The term "mercantile system" was used by its foremost critic Adam Smith. Mercantilism in its simplest form was bullionism which focused on accumulating gold and silver through clever trades (leaver the trading partner with less of his gold and silver). Mercantilist writers emphasized the circulation of money and rejected hoarding. Their emphasis on monetary metals accords with current ideas regarding the money supply, such as the stimulative effect of a growing money supply. In England, mercantilism reached its peak during the Long Parliament government (1640–1660). Mercantilist policies were also embraced throughout much of the Tudor and Stuart periods, with Robert Walpole being another major proponent. In Britain, government control over the domestic economy was far less extensive than on the Continent, limited by common law and the steadily increasing power of Parliament. Government-controlled monopolies were common, especially before the English Civil War, but were often controversial. With respect to its colonies, British mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants – and kept others out – by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximize exports from and minimize imports to the realm. The government used the Royal Navy to protect the colonies and to fight smuggling – which became a favourite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch. The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country (not the colonists). British mercantilist writers were themselves divided on whether domestic controls were necessary. British mercantilism thus mainly took the form of efforts to control trade. Much of the enforcement against smuggling was handled by the Royal Navy, argued Neil Stout. A wide array of regulations was put in place to encourage exports and discourage imports. Tariffs were placed on imports and bounties given for exports, and the export of some raw materials was banned completely. The Navigation Acts expelled foreign merchants from England's domestic trade. The nation aggressively sought colonies and once under British control, regulations were imposed that allowed the colony to only produce raw materials and to only trade with Britain. This led to smuggling by major merchants and political friction with the businessmen of these colonies. Mercantilist policies (such as forbidding trade with other empires and controls over smuggling) were a major irritant leading to the American Revolution. Mercantilism taught that trade was a zero-sum game with one country's gain equivalent to a loss sustained by the trading partner. Whatever the theoretical weaknesses exposed by economists after Adam Smith, it was under mercantilist policies before the 1840s that Britain became the world's dominant trader, and the global hegemon. Mercantilism in Britain ended when Parliament repealed the Navigation Acts and Corn Laws by 1846. Scholars agree that Britain gradually dropped mercantilism after 1815. Free trade, with no tariffs and few restrictions, was the prevailing doctrine from the 1840s to the 1930s. Defending empire and "pseudo-empire" John Darwin has explored the way historians have explained the large role of the Royal Navy and the much smaller role of the British Army in the history of the empire. For the 20th century, he explores what he calls a "pseudo-empire," oil producers in the Middle East. The strategic goal of protecting the Suez Canal was a high priority from the 1880s to 1956 and, by then, had expanded to the oil regions. Darwin argues that defence strategy posed issues of how to reconcile the needs of domestic politics with the preservation of a global Empire. Darwin argues that a main function of the British defence system, especially the Royal Navy, was defence of the overseas empire (in addition of course to defence of the homeland). The army, usually in co-operation with local forces, suppressed internal revolts, losing only the American War of Independence (1775–83). Armitage considers the following to be the British creed: Protestantism, oceanic commerce and mastery of the seas provided bastions to protect the freedom of inhabitants of the British Empire. That freedom found its institutional expression in Parliament, the law, property, and rights, all of which were exported throughout the British Atlantic world. Such freedom also allowed the British, uniquely, to combine the classically incompatible ideals of liberty and empire. Lizzie Collingham (2017) stresses the role of expanding the food supply in the building, financing and defending the trade aspect of empire-building. Thirteen American Colonies and Revolution The first British Empire centered on the 13 American Colonies, which attracted large numbers of settlers from across Britain. In the 1900s - 1930s period the "Imperial School," including Herbert L. Osgood, George Louis Beer, Charles M. Andrews and Lawrence Gipson took a favourable view of the benefits of empire, emphasizing its successful economic integration. Regarding Columbia University historian Herbert L. Osgood (1855–1918), biographer Gwenda Morgan concludes: Osgood brought a new sophistication to the study of colonial relations posing the question from an institutional perspective, of how the Atlantic was bridged. He was the first American historian to recognize the complexity of imperial structures, the experimental character of the empire, and the contradictions between theory and practice that gave rise, on both sides of the Atlantic, to inconsistencies and misunderstandings ... It was American factors rather than imperial influences that in his view shaped the development of the colonies. Osgood's work still has value for professional historians interested in the nature of the colonies' place in the early British Empire, and their internal political development. Much of the historiography concerns the reasons the Americans revolted in the 1770s and successfully broke away. The "Patriots", an insulting term used by the British that was proudly adopted by the Americans, stressed the constitutional rights of Englishmen, especially "No taxation without representation." Historians since the 1960s have emphasized that the Patriot constitutional argument was made possible by the emergence of a sense of American nationalism that united all 13 colonies. In turn, that nationalism was Rooted in a Republican value system that demanded consent of the governed and opposed aristocratic control. In Britain itself, republicanism was a fringe view since it challenged the aristocratic control of the British political system. There were (almost) no aristocrats or nobles in the 13 colonies, and instead, the colonial political system was based on the winners of free elections, which were open to the majority of white men. In the analysis of the coming of the Revolution, historians in recent decades have mostly used one of three approaches. The Atlantic history view places the American story in a broader context, including revolutions in France and Haiti. It tends to reintegrate the historiographies of the American Revolution and the British Empire. The "new social history" approach looks at community social structure to find cleavages that were magnified into colonial cleavages. The ideological approach that centres on republicanism in the United States. Republicanism dictated there would be no royalty, aristocracy or national church but allowed for continuation of the British common law, which American lawyers and jurists understood and approved and used in their everyday practice. Historians have examined how the rising American legal profession adapted British common law to incorporate republicanism by selective revision of legal customs and by introducing more choice for courts. First British Empire and Second British Empire The concept of a first and second British Empire was developed by historians in the early 20th century, Timothy H. Parsons argued in 2014, "there were several British empires that ended at different times and for different reasons". He focused on the Second. Ashley Jackson argued in 2013 that historians have even extended to a third and fourth empire: The first Empire was founded in the 17th century, and based on the migration of large numbers of settlers to the American colonies, as well as the development of the sugar plantation colonies in the West Indies. It ended with the British loss of the American War for Independence. The second Empire had already started to emerge. It was originally designed as a chain of trading ports and naval bases. However, it expanded inland into the control of large numbers of natives when the East India Company proved highly successful in taking control of most of India. India became the keystone of the Second Empire, along with colonies later developed across Africa. A few new settler colonies were also built up in Australia and New Zealand, and to a lesser extent in South Africa. Marshall in 1999 shows the consensus of scholars is clear, for since 1900 the concepts of the First British Empire have "held their ground in historians' usage without serious challenge." In 1988 Peter Marshall says that late-18th-century transformations: Historians, however, debate whether 1783 was a sharp line of demarcation between First and Second, or whether there was an overlap (as argued by Vincent T. Harlow) or whether there was a "black hole between 1783 and the later birth of the Second Empire. Historian Denis Judd says the "black hole" is a fallacy and that there was continuity. Judd writes: It is commonplace to suppose that the successful revolt of the American colonies marked the end of the 'First British Empire'. But this is only a half-truth. In 1783 there was still a substantial Empire left." Marshall notes that the exact dating of the two empires varies, with 1783 a typical demarcation point. Thus the story of the American revolt provides a key: The Fall of the First British Empire: Origins of the Wars of American Independence (1982) by American professors Robert W. Tucker and David Hendrickson, stresses the victorious initiative of the Americans. By contrast Cambridge professor Brendan Simms explores Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714–1783 (2007) and explains Britain's defeat in terms of alienating the major powers on the Continent. Theories of imperialism Theories about imperialism typically focus on the Second British Empire, with side glances elsewhere. The term "Imperialism" was originally introduced into English in its present sense in the 1870s by Liberal leader William Gladstone to ridicule the imperial policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, which he denounced as aggressive and ostentatious and inspired by domestic motives. The term was shortly appropriated by supporters of "imperialism" such as Joseph Chamberlain. For some, imperialism designated a policy of idealism and philanthropy; others alleged that it was characterized by political self-interest, and a growing number associated it with capitalist greed. John A. Hobson, a leading English Liberal, developed a highly influential economic exploitation model in Imperialism: A Study (1902) that expanded on his belief that free enterprise capitalism had a negative impact on the majority of the population. In Imperialism he argued that the financing of overseas empires drained money that was needed at home. It was invested abroad because lower wages paid the workers overseas made for higher profits and higher rates of return, compared to domestic wages. So although domestic wages remained higher, they did not grow nearly as fast as they might have otherwise. Exporting capital, he concluded, put a lid on the growth of domestic wages in the domestic standard of living. . By the 1970s, historians such as David K. Fieldhouse and Oren Hale could argue that the, "Hobsonian foundation has been almost completely demolished." The British experience failed to support it. However, European Socialists picked up Hobson's ideas and made it into their own theory of imperialism, most notably in Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916). Lenin portrayed Imperialism as the closure of the world market and the end of capitalist free-competition that arose from the need for capitalist economies to constantly expand investment, material resources and manpower in such a way that necessitated colonial expansion. Later Marxist theoreticians echo this conception of imperialism as a structural feature of capitalism, which explained the World War as the battle between imperialists for control of external markets. Lenin's treatise became a standard textbook that flourished until the collapse of communism in 1989–91. As the application of the term "imperialism" has expanded, its meaning has shifted along five axes: the moral, the economic, the systemic, the cultural, and the temporal. Those changes reflect a growing unease, even squeamishness, with the fact of power, specifically, Western power. The relationships among capitalism, imperialism, exploitation, social reform and economic development has long been debated among historians and political theorists. Much of the debate was pioneered by such theorists as John A. Hobson (1858–1940), Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950), Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929), and Norman Angell (1872–1967). While these non-Marxist writers were at their most prolific before World War I, they remained active in the interwar years. Their combined work informed the study of imperialism's impact on Europe, as well as contributed to reflections on the rise of the military-political complex in the United States from the 1950s. Hobson argued that domestic social reforms could cure the international disease of imperialism by removing its economic foundation. Hobson theorized that state intervention through taxation could boost broader consumption, create wealth, and encourage a peaceful multilateral world order. Conversely, should the state not intervene, rentiers (people who earn income from property or securities) would generate socially negative wealth that fostered imperialism and protectionism. Hobson for years was widely influential in liberal circles, especially the British Liberal Party. Lenin's writings became orthodoxy for all Marxist historians. They had many critics. D. K. Fieldhouse, for example, argues that they used superficial arguments. Fieldhouse says that the "obvious driving force of British expansion since 1870" came from explorers, missionaries, engineers, and empire-minded politicians. They had little interest in financial investments. Hobson's answer was to say that faceless financiers manipulated everyone else, so that "The final determination rests with the financial power." Lenin believed that capitalism was in its last stages and had been taken over by monopolists. They were no longer dynamic and sought to maintain profits by even more intensive exploitation of protected markets. Fieldhouse rejects these arguments as unfounded speculation. Imperialism of Free Trade Historians agree that in the 1840s, Britain adopted a free-trade policy, meaning open markets and no tariffs throughout the empire. The debate among historians involves what the implications of free trade actually were. "The Imperialism of Free Trade" is a highly influential 1952 article by John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson. They argued that the New Imperialism of the 1880s", especially the Scramble for Africa, was a continuation of a long-term policy in which informal empire, based on the principles of free trade, was favoured over formal imperial control. The article helped launch the Cambridge School of historiography. Gallagher and Robinson used the British experience to construct a framework for understanding European imperialism that swept away the all-or-nothing thinking of previous historians. They found that European leaders rejected the notion that "imperialism" had to be based upon formal, legal control by one government over a colonial region. Much more important was informal influence in independent areas. According to Wm. Roger Louis, "In their view, historians have been mesmerized by formal empire and maps of the world with regions colored red. The bulk of British emigration, trade, and capital went to areas outside the formal British Empire. Key to their thinking is the idea of empire 'informally if possible and formally if necessary.'" Oron Hale says that Gallagher and Robinson looked at the British involvement in Africa where they, "found few capitalists, less capital, and not much pressure from the alleged traditional promoters of colonial expansion. Cabinet decisions to annex or not to annex were made, usually on the basis of political or geopolitical considerations." Reviewing the debate from the end of the 20th century, historian Martin Lynn argues that Gallagher and Robinson exaggerated the impact. He says that Britain achieved its goal of increasing its economic interests in many areas, "but the broader goal of 'regenerating' societies and thereby creating regions tied as 'tributaries' to British economic interests was not attained." The reasons were: The idea that free-trade imperial states use informal controls to secure their expanding economic influence has attracted Marxists trying to avoid the problems of earlier Marxist interpretations of capitalism. The approach is most often applied to American policies. Free trade versus tariffs Historians have begun to explore some of the ramifications of British free-trade policy, especially the effect of American and German high tariff policies. Canada adopted a "national policy" of high tariffs in the late 19th century, in sharp distinction to the mother country. The goal was to protect its infant manufacturing industries from low-cost imports from the United States and Britain. The demand increasingly rose in Great Britain to end the free trade policy and impose tariffs to protect its manufacturing from American and German competition. The leading spokesman was Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914) and he made "tariff reform" (that is, imposing higher tariffs) a central issue in British domestic politics. By the 1930s the British began shifting their policies away from free trade and toward low tariffs inside the British Commonwealth, and higher tariffs for outside products. Economic historians have debated at length the impact of these tariff changes on economic growth. One controversial formulation by Bairoch argues that in the 1870–1914 era: "protectionism = economic growth and expansion of trade; liberalism = stagnation in both". Many studies have supported Bairoch but other economists have challenged his results regarding Canada. Gentlemanly capitalism Gentlemanly capitalism is a theory of New Imperialism first put forward by P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins in the 1980s before being fully developed in their 1993 work, British Imperialism. The theory posits that British imperialism was driven by the business interests of the City of London and landed interests. It encourages a shift of emphasis away from seeing provincial manufacturers and geopolitical strategy as important influences, and towards seeing the expansion of empire as emanating from London and the financial sector. Benevolence, human rights and slavery Kevin Grant shows that numerous historians in the 21st century have explored relationships between the Empire, international government and human rights. They have focused on British conceptions of imperial world order from the late 19th century to the Cold War. The British intellectuals and political leaders felt that they had a duty to protect and promote the human rights of the natives and to help pull them from the slough of traditionalism and cruelties (such as suttee in India and foot binding in China). The notion of "benevolence" was developed in the 1780–1840 era by idealists whose moralistic prescriptions annoyed efficiency-oriented colonial administrators and profit-oriented merchants. Partly it was a matter of fighting corruption in the Empire, as typified by Edmund Burke's long, but failed, attempt to impeach Warren Hastings for his cruelties in India. The most successful development came in the abolition of slavery led by William Wilberforce and the Evangelicals, and the expansion of Christian missionary work. Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1796–1852) spearheaded efforts to create model colonies (such as South Australia, Canada and New Zealand). The 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, initially designed to protect Maori rights, has become the bedrock of Aotearoa–New Zealand biculturalism. In Wakefield's vision, the object of benevolence was to introduce and promote values of industriousness and a productive economy, not to use colonies as a dumping ground for transported criminals. Promotion and abolition of slavery English historian Jeremy Black argues that: Slavery and the slave trade are the most difficult and contentious aspect of the imperial legacy, one that captures the full viciousness of power, economic, political, and military, and that leaves a clear and understandable hostility to empire in the Atlantic world, Moreover, within Britain, slavery and the slave trade became and become, ready ways to stigmatize empire, and increasingly so, notably as Britain becomes a multiracial society. One of the most controversial aspects of the Empire is its role in first promoting and then ending slavery. In the 18th century, British merchant ships were the largest element in the "Middle Passage", which transported millions of slaves to the Western Hemisphere. Most of those who survived the journey wound up in the Caribbean, where the Empire had highly profitable sugar colonies, and the living conditions were bad (the plantation owners lived in Britain). Parliament ended the international transportation of slaves in 1807 and used the Royal Navy to enforce that ban. In 1833, it bought out the plantation owners and banned slavery. Historians before the 1940s argued that moralistic reformers such as William Wilberforce were primarily responsible. Historical revisionism arrived when West Indian historian Eric Williams, a Marxist, in Capitalism and Slavery (1944), rejected this moral explanation and argued that abolition was now more profitable, as a century of sugar cane raising had exhausted the soil of the islands, and the plantations had become unprofitable. It was more profitable to sell the slaves to the government than to keep up operations. The 1807 prohibition of the international trade, Williams argued, prevented French expansion on other islands. Meanwhile, British investors turned to Asia, where labor was so plentiful that slavery was unnecessary. Williams went on to argue that slavery played a major role in making Britain prosperous. The high profits from the slave trade, he said, helped finance the Industrial Revolution. Britain enjoyed prosperity because of the capital gained from the unpaid work of slaves. Since the 1970s, numerous historians have challenged Williams from various angles, and Gad Heuman has concluded, "More recent research has rejected this conclusion; it is now clear that the colonies of the British Caribbean profited considerably during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars." In his major attack on the Williams's thesis, Seymour Drescher argues that Britain's abolition of the slave trade in 1807 resulted not from the diminishing value of slavery for Britain but instead from the moral outrage of the British voting public. Critics have also argued that slavery remained profitable in the 1830s because of innovations in agriculture so the profit motive was not central to abolition. Richardson (1998) finds that Williams's claims regarding the Industrial Revolution are exaggerated, as profits from the slave trade amounted to less than 1% of domestic investment in Britain. Richardson further challenges claims (by African scholars) that the slave trade caused widespread depopulation and economic distress in Africa but that it caused the "underdevelopment" of Africa. Admitting the horrible suffering of slaves, he notes that many Africans benefited directly because the first stage of the trade was always firmly in the hands of Africans. European slave ships waited at ports to purchase cargoes of people who were captured in the hinterland by African dealers and tribal leaders. Richardson finds that the "terms of trade" (how much the ship owners paid for the slave cargo) moved heavily in favour of the Africans after about 1750. That is, indigenous elites inside West and Central Africa made large and growing profits from slavery, thus increasing their wealth and power. Economic historian Stanley Engerman finds that even without subtracting the associated costs of the slave trade (shipping costs, slave mortality, mortality of British people in Africa, defence costs) or reinvestment of profits back into the slave trade, the total profits from the slave trade and of West Indian plantations amounted to less than 5% of the British economy during any year of the Industrial Revolution. Engerman's 5% figure gives as much as possible in terms of benefit of the doubt to the Williams argument, not solely because it does not take into account the associated costs of the slave trade to Britain, but also because it carries the full-employment assumption from economics and holds the gross value of slave trade profits as a direct contribution to Britain's national income. Historian Richard Pares, in an article written before Williams's book, dismisses the influence of wealth generated from the West Indian plantations upon the financing of the Industrial Revolution, stating that whatever substantial flow of investment from West Indian profits into industry there was occurred after emancipation, not before it. Whiggish history and the civilising mission Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) was the foremost historian of his day, arguing for the "Whig interpretation of history" that saw the history of Britain as an upward progression always leading to more liberty and more progress. Macaulay simultaneously was a leading reformer involved in transforming the educational system of India. He would base it on the English language so that India could join the mother country in a steady upward progress. Macaulay took Burke's emphasis on moral rule and implemented it in actual school reforms, giving the British Empire a profound moral mission to civilize the natives. Yale professor Karuna Mantena has argued that the civilizing mission did not last long, for she says that benevolent reformers were the losers in key debates, such as those following the 1857 rebellion in India, and the scandal of Governor Edward Eyre's brutal repression of the Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica in 1865. The rhetoric continued but it became an alibi for British misrule and racism. No longer was it believed that the natives could truly make progress, instead they had to be ruled by heavy hand, with democratic opportunities postponed indefinitely. As a result: English historian Peter Cain, has challenged Mantena, arguing that the imperialists truly believed that British rule would bring to the subjects the benefits of ‘ordered liberty’. thereby Britain could fulfill its moral duty and achieve its own greatness. Much of the debate took place in Britain itself, and the imperialists worked hard to convince the general population that the civilising mission was well underway. This campaign served to strengthen imperial support at home, and thus, says Cain, to bolster the moral authority of the gentlemanly elites who ran the Empire. Public health Mark Harrison argues that the history of public health administration in India dates from the assumption of Crown rule in 1859. Medical experts found that epidemic disease had seriously depleted the fighting capacity of British troops in repressing the rebellion in 1857 and insisted that preventive measures were much more effective than waiting for the next epidemic to break out. Across the Empire it became a high priority for Imperial officials to establish a public health system in each colony. They applied the best practices as developed in Britain, using an elaborate administrative structure in each colony. The system depended on trained local elites and officials to carry out the sanitation improvements, quarantines, inoculations, hospitals, and local treatment centers that were needed. For example, local midwives were trained to provide maternal and infant health care. Propaganda campaigns using posters, rallies, and later films were used to educate the general public. A serious challenge came from the intensified use of multiple transportation routes and the emergence of central hubs such as Hong Kong all of which facilitated this spread of epidemics such as the plague in the 1890s, thus sharply increasing the priority of public health programs. Michael Worboys argues that the 20th-century development and control of tropical diseases had three phases: protection of Europeans in the colonies, improvement in health care of employable natives, and finally the systematic attack on the main diseases of the natives. BELRA, a large-scale program against leprosy, had policies of isolation in newly established leper colonies, separation of healthy children from infected parents, and the development in Britain of chaulmoogra oil therapy and its systematic dissemination. Danald McDonald has argued the most advanced program in public health (apart from the dominions) was established in India, with the Indian Medical Service (IMS). The Raj set up the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine between 1910 and its opening in 1921 as a postgraduate center for tropical medicine on the periphery of the Empire. Religion: The missionaries In the 18th century, and even more so in the 19th century, missionaries based in Britain saw the Empire as a fertile field for proselytizing Christianity. Congregations across Britain received regular reports and contributed money. All the main denominations were involved, including the Church of England, the Presbyterians of Scotland, and the Nonconformists. Much of the enthusiasm emerged from the Evangelical revival. The two largest and most influential operations were the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) founded in 1701, and the more evangelical Church Mission Society, founded in 1799, also by the Church of England. Before the American Revolution, Anglican and Methodist missionaries were active in the 13 Colonies. The Methodists, led by George Whitefield, were the most successful according to Mark Noll. After the revolution an entirely distinct American Methodist denomination emerged that became the largest Protestant denomination in the new United States. As historians such as Carl Bridenbaugh have argued, a major problem for colonial officials was the demand of the Church of England to set up an American bishop; this was strongly opposed by most of the Americans. Increasingly colonial officials took a neutral position on religious matters, even in those colonies such as Virginia where the Church of England was officially established, but in practice controlled by laymen in the local vestries. After the Americans broke free, British officials decided to enhance the power and wealth of the Church of England in all the settler colonies, especially British North America (Canada). Missionary societies funded their own operations that were not supervised or directed by the Colonial Office. Tensions emerged between the missionaries and the colonial officials. The latter feared that missionaries might stir up trouble or encourage the natives to challenge colonial authority. In general, colonial officials were much more comfortable with working with the established local leadership, including the native religions, rather than introducing the divisive force of Christianity. This proved especially troublesome in India, where very few local elites were attracted to Christianity. In Africa, especially, the missionaries made many converts. By the 21st century, there were more Anglicans in Nigeria than in England. Christianity had a powerful effect far beyond the small circle of converts—it provided a model of modernity. The introduction of European medicine was especially important, as well as the introduction of European political practices and ideals such as religious liberty, mass education, mass printing, newspapers, voluntary organizations, colonial reforms, and especially liberal democracy. Increasingly the missionaries realized their wider scope and systematically added secular roles to their spiritual mission. They tried to upgrade education, medical care, and sponsored the long-term modernization of the native personality to inculcate European middle-class values. Alongside their churches they established schools and medical clinics, and sometimes demonstrated improved farming techniques. Christian missionaries played a public role, especially in promoting sanitation and public health. Many were trained as physicians, or took special courses in public health and tropical medicine at Livingstone College, London. Furthermore, Christian missionary activities were studied and copied by local activists and had an influence upon religious politics, on prophetic movements such as those in Xhosa societies, on emerging nationalism in South African and India, the emergence of African independent churches, and sometimes upgrading the status of native women. Historians have begun to analyze the agency of women in overseas missions. At first, missionary societies officially enrolled only men, but women increasingly insisted on playing a variety of roles. Single women typically worked as educators. Wives assisted their missionary husbands in most of his roles. Advocates stopped short of calling for the end of specified gender roles, but they stressed the interconnectedness of the public and private spheres and spoke out against perceptions of women as weak and house-bound. Education In the colonies that became dominions, education was left primarily in the hands of local officials. The Imperial government took a strong hand in India, and most of the later colonies. The goal was to speed up modernization and social development through a widespread system of elementary education for all natives, plus high school and eventually university education for selected elites. The students were encouraged to attend university in Britain. Direct control and bureaucracy Much of the older historiography, as represented by The Cambridge History of the British Empire, covers the detailed month-to-month operations of the Imperial bureaucracy. More recent scholarship has examined who the bureaucrats and governors were, as well as the role of the colonial experience on their own lives and families. The cultural approach asks how bureaucrats represented themselves and enticed the natives to accept their rule. Wives of senior bureaucrats played an increasingly important role in dealing with the local people, and in sponsoring and promoting charities and civic good will. When they returned to Britain they had an influential voice in shaping upper-class opinion toward colonization. Historian Robert Pearce points out that many colonial wives had a negative reputation, but he depicts Violet Bourdillon (1886–1979) as "the perfect Governor's wife." She charmed both British businessmen and the locals in Nigeria, giving the colonial peoples graciousness and respect; she made the British appear to be not so much rulers, as guides and partners in social, economic and political development. Indirect control Some British colonies were ruled directly by the Colonial Office in London, while others were ruled indirectly through local rulers who are supervised behind the scenes by British advisors, with different economic results as shown by Lakshmi Iyer (2010). In much of the Empire, large local populations were ruled in close cooperation with the local hierarchy. Historians have developed categories of control, such as "subsidiary alliances", "paramountcy", "protectorates", "indirect rule", "clientelism", or "collaboration". Local elites were co-opted into leadership positions, and often had the role of minimizing opposition from local independence movements. Fisher has explored the origins and development of the system of indirect rule. The British East India Company starting in the mid-18th century stationed its staff as agents in Indian states which it did not control, especially the Princely States. By the 1840s The system became an efficient way to govern indirectly, by providing local rulers with highly detailed advice that had been approved by central authorities. After 1870, military more and more often took the role; they were recruited and promoted officers on the basis of experience and expertise. The indirect rule system was extended to Many of the colonial holdings in Asia and Africa. Economic historians have explored the economic consequences of indirect rule, as in India and West Africa. In 1890, Zanzibar became a protectorate (not a colony) of Britain. Prime minister Salisbury explained his position: Colonel Sir Robert Groves Sandeman (1835–1892) introduced an innovative system of tribal pacification in Balochistan that was in effect from 1877 to 1947. He gave financial allowances to tribal chiefs who enforced control, and used British military force only when necessary. However the Government of India generally opposed his methods and refused to allow it to operate in India's North West Frontier. Historians have long debated its scope and effectiveness in the peaceful spread of Imperial influence. Environment Although environmental history was growing rapidly after 1970, it only reached empire studies in the 1990s. Gregory Barton argues that the concept of environmentalism emerged from forestry studies, and emphasizes the British imperial role in that research. He argues that imperial forestry movement in India around 1900 included government reservations, new methods of fire protection, and attention to revenue-producing forest management. The result eased the fight between romantic preservationists and laissez-faire businessmen, thus giving the compromise from which modern environmentalism emerged. In recent years numerous scholars cited by James Beattie have examined the environmental impact of the Empire. Beinart and Hughes argue that the discovery and commercial or scientific use of new plants was an important concern in the 18th and 19th centuries. The efficient use of rivers through dams and irrigation projects was an expensive but important method of raising agricultural productivity. Searching for more efficient ways of using natural resources, the British moved flora, fauna and commodities around the world, sometimes resulting in ecological disruption and radical environmental change. Imperialism also stimulated more modern attitudes toward nature and subsidized botany and agricultural research. Scholars have used the British Empire to examine the utility of the new concept of eco-cultural networks as a lens for examining interconnected, wide-ranging social and environmental processes. Regions Between 1696 and 1782, the Board of Trade, in partnership with the various secretaries of state over that time, held responsibility for colonial affairs, particularly in British America. From 1783 through 1801, the British Empire, including British North America, was administered by the Home Office and by the Home Secretary, then from 1801 to 1854 by the War Office (which became the War and Colonial Office) and Secretary of State for War and Colonies (as the Secretary of State for War was renamed). From 1824, the British Empire was divided by the War and Colonial Office into four administrative departments, including NORTH AMERICA, the WEST INDIES, MEDITERRANEAN AND AFRICA, and EASTERN COLONIES, of which North America included: NORTH AMERICA Upper Canada, Lower Canada New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island Bermuda, Newfoundland The Colonial Office and War Office, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Secretary of State for War, were separated in 1854. The War Office, from then until the 1867 confederation of the Dominion of Canada, split the military administration of the British colonial and foreign stations into nine districts: North America And North Atlantic; West Indies; Mediterranean; West Coast Of Africa And South Atlantic; South Africa; Egypt And The Sudan; INDIAN OCEAN; Australia; and China. North America And North Atlantic included the following stations (or garrisons): NORTH AMERICA AND NORTH ATLANTIC New Westminster (British Columbia) Newfoundland Quebec Halifax Kingston, Canada West Bermuda India was administered separately by the East India Company until transferred by the Government of India Act 1858 to the India Office, which was closed in 1947 on Indian independence. As British protectorates were not British territory, they were also administered separately by the Foreign Office. Surveys of the whole empire In 1914, the six volume The Oxford Survey Of The British Empire gave comprehensive coverage to geography and society of the entire Empire, including the British Isles. Since the 1950s, historians have tended to concentrate on specific countries or regions. By the 1930s, an Empire so vast was a challenge for historians to grasp in its entirety. The American Lawrence H. Gipson (1880–1971) won the Pulitzer Prize for his monumental coverage in 15 volumes of "The British Empire Before the American Revolution", published 1936–70. At about the same time in London, Sir Keith Hancock wrote a Survey of Commonwealth Affairs (2 vol 1937–42) that dramatically widened the scope of coverage beyond politics to the newer fields of economic and social history. In recent decades numerous scholars have tried their hand at one volume surveys including T. O. Lloyd, The British Empire, 1558–1995 (1996); Denis Judd, Empire: The British Imperial Experience From 1765 To The Present (1998); Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1998); Niall Ferguson, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (2002); Brendan Simms, Three victories and a defeat: the rise and fall of the first British Empire (2008); Piers Brendon, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781–1997 (2008), and Phillip J. Smith, The Rise And Fall Of The British Empire: Mercantilism, Diplomacy and the Colonies (2015). There were also large-scale popular histories, such as those by Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (4 vol. 1956–58) and Arthur Bryant, The History of Britain and the British Peoples (3 vols. 1984–90). Obviously from their titles a number of writers have been inspired by the famous The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (6 vols 1776–1781) by Edward Gibbon. Brendon notes that Gibbon's work, "became the essential guide for Britons anxious to plot their own imperial trajectory. They found the key to understanding the British Empire in the ruins of Rome." W. David McIntyre, The commonwealth of nations: Origins and impact, 1869–1971 (University of Minnesota Press, 1977) provides comprehensive coverage giving London's perspective on political and constitutional relations with each possession. Ireland Ireland, in some ways the first acquisition the British Empire, has generated a very large popular and scholarly literature. Marshall says historians continue to debate whether Ireland should be considered part of the British Empire. Recent work by historians pays special attention to continuing Imperial aspects of Irish history, postcolonial approaches, Atlantic history, and the role of migration in forming the Irish diaspora across the Empire and North America. Australia Until the late 20th century, historians of Australia used an Imperial framework, arguing that Australia emerged from a transfer of people, institutions, and culture from Britain. It portrayed the first governors as "Lilliputian sovereigns". The historians have traced the arrival of limited self-government, with regional parliaments and responsible ministers, followed by Federation in 1901 and eventually full national autonomy. This was a Whiggish story of successful growth into a modern nation. That interpretation has been largely abandoned by recent scholars. In his survey of the historiography of Australia, Stuart Macintyre shows how historians have emphasized the negative and tragic features between the boasts. Macintyre points out that in current historical writing: The first major history was William Charles Wentworth, Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales, and Its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land: With a Particular Enumeration of the Advantages Which These Colonies Offer for Emigration, and Their Superiority in Many Respects Over Those Possessed by the United States of America (1819). Wentworth shows the disastrous effects of the penal regime. Many other historians followed his path, with the six volume History of Australia by Manning Clark (published 1962–87) telling the story of "epic tragedy": in which the explorers, Governors, improvers, and perturbators vainly endeavored to impose their received schemes of redemption on an alien, intractable setting. History wars Since the 1980s some even describe a "history war" taking place in Australia involving scholars and politicians. Debate often concerns recorded history verses oral testimony - unproven in Courts of Law - regarding the treatment of Aboriginal populations. They debate how "British" or "multicultural" Australia has been historically, and how it should be today. The rhetoric has escalated into national politics, often tied to the question of whether the royalty should be discarded and Australia become a republic. Some schools and universities have reduced the amount of Australian history in their curriculum. Debates on the founding Historians have used the founding of Australia to mark the beginning of the Second British Empire. It was planned by the government in London and designed as a replacement for the lost American colonies. The American Loyalist James Matra in 1783 wrote "A Proposal for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales" proposing the establishment of a colony composed of American Loyalists, Chinese and South Sea Islanders (but not convicts). Matra reasoned that the land country was suitable for plantations of sugar, cotton and tobacco; New Zealand timber and hemp or flax could prove valuable commodities; it could form a base for Pacific trade; and it could be a suitable compensation for displaced American Loyalists. At the suggestion of Secretary of State Lord Sydney, Matra amended his proposal to include convicts as settlers, considering that this would benefit both "Economy to the Publick, & Humanity to the Individual". The government adopted the basics of Matra's plan in 1784, and funded the settlement of convicts. Michael Roe argues that the founding of Australia supports the theory of Vincent T. Harlow in The Founding of the Second British Empire, 17G3-1793, Vol. 2. New Continents and Changing Values (1964) that a goal of the second British empire was to open up new commerce in the Far East and Pacific. However, London emphasized Australia's purpose as a penal colony, and the East India Company was hostile to potential commercial rivals. Nevertheless, says Roe, the founders of Australia showed a keen interest in whaling, sealing, sheep raising, mining and other opportunities for trade. In the long run, he says, commerce was the main stimulus for colonization. Canada Canadian historian Carl Berger argues that an influential section of English Canadians embraced an ideology of imperialism as a way to enhance Canada's own power position in the international system, as well as for more traditional reasons of Anglophillia. Berger identified Canadian imperialism as a distinct ideology, rival to anti-imperial Canadian nationalism or pro-American continentalism, the other nationalisms in Canada. For the French Canadians, the chief debate among historians involves the conquest and the incorporation into the British Empire in 1763. One school says it was a disaster that retarded for a century and more the normal development of a middle class society, leaving Quebec locked into a traditionalism controlled by priests and landlords. The other more optimistic school says it was generally advantageous in political and economic terms. For example, it enabled Quebec to avoid the French Revolution that tore France apart in the 1790s. Another example is that it integrated the economy into the larger and faster growing British economy, as opposed to the sluggish French economy. The optimistic school attributes the backwardness of the Quebec economy to deeply ingrained conservatism and aversion to entrepreneurship. India In recent decades there have been four main schools of historiography in how historians study India: Cambridge, Nationalist, Marxist, and subaltern. The once common "Orientalist" approach, with its image of a sensuous, inscrutable, and wholly spiritual India, has died out in serious scholarship. The "Cambridge School", led by Anil Seal, Gordon Johnson, Richard Gordon, and David A. Washbrook, downplays ideology. However, this school of historiography is criticised for western bias or Eurocentrism. The Nationalist school has focused on Congress, Gandhi, Nehru and high level politics. It highlighted the Mutiny of 1857 as a war of liberation, and Gandhi's 'Quit India' begun in 1942, as defining historical events. This school of historiography has received criticism for Elitism. The Marxists have focused on studies of economic development, landownership, and class conflict in precolonial India and of deindustrialisation during the colonial period. The Marxists portrayed Gandhi's movement as a device of the bourgeois elite to harness popular, potentially revolutionary forces for its own ends. Again, the Marxists are accused of being "too much" ideologically influenced. The "subaltern school", was begun in the 1980s by Ranajit Guha and Gyan Prakash. It focuses attention away from the elites and politicians to "history from below", looking at the peasants using folklore, poetry, riddles, proverbs, songs, oral history and methods inspired by anthropology. It focuses on the colonial era before 1947 and typically emphasises caste and downplays class, to the annoyance of the Marxist school. More recently, Hindu nationalists have created a version of history to support their demands for "Hindutva" ("Hinduness") in Indian society. This school of thought is still in the process of development. In March 2012, Diana L. Eck in her India: A Sacred Geography (2013) argues that the idea of India dates to a much earlier time than the British or the Mughals and it was not just a cluster of regional identities and it wasn't ethnic or racial. Debate continues about the economic impact of British imperialism on India. The issue was actually raised by conservative British politician Edmund Burke who in the 1780s vehemently attacked the East India Company, claiming that Warren Hastings and other top officials had ruined the Indian economy and society. Indian historian Rajat Kanta Ray (1998) continues this line of attack, saying the new economy brought by the British in the 18th century was a form of "plunder" and a catastrophe for the traditional economy of Mughal India. Ray accuses the British of depleting the food and money stocks and imposing high taxes that helped cause the terrible famine of 1770, which killed a third of the people of Bengal. Rejecting the Indian nationalist account of the British as alien aggressors, seizing power by brute force and impoverishing all of India, British historian P. J. Marshall argues that the British were not in full control but instead were players in what was primarily an Indian play and in which their rise to power depended upon excellent cooperation with Indian elites. Marshall admits that much of his interpretation is still rejected by many historians. Marshall argues that recent scholarship has reinterpreted the view that the prosperity of the formerly benign Mughal rule gave way to poverty and anarchy. Marshall argues the British takeover did not make any sharp break with the past. The British largely delegated control to regional Mughal rulers and sustained a generally prosperous economy for the rest of the 18th century. Marshall notes the British went into partnership with Indian bankers and raised revenue through local tax administrators and kept the old Mughal rates of taxation. Professor Ray agrees that the East India Company inherited an onerous taxation system that took one-third of the produce of Indian cultivators. In the 20th century historians generally agreed that imperial authority in the Raj had been secure in the 1800-1940 era. Various challenges have emerged. Mark Condos and Jon Wilson argue that the Raj was chronically insecure. They argue that the irrational anxiety of officials led to a chaotic administration with minimal social purchase or ideological coherence. The Raj was not a confident state capable of acting as it chose, but rather a psychologically embattled one incapable of acting except in the abstract, the small scale, or short term. Tropical Africa The first historical studies appeared in the 1890s, and followed one of four approaches. The territorial narrative was typically written by a veteran soldier or civil servant who gave heavy emphasis to what he had seen. The "apologia" were essays designed to justify British policies. Thirdly, popularizers tried to reach a large audience, and finally compendia appeared designed to combine academic and official credentials. Professional scholarship appeared around 1900, and began with the study of business operations, typically using government documents and unpublished archives. The economic approach was widely practiced in the 1930s, primarily to provide descriptions of the changes underway in the previous half-century. Reginald Coupland, an Oxford professor, studied the Exploitation of East Africa, 1856–1890: The Slave Trade and the Scramble (1939). The American historian William L. Langer wrote The Diplomacy of Imperialism: 1890–1902 (1935), a book is still widely cited. The Second World War diverted most scholars to wartime projects and accounted for a pause in scholarship during the 1940s. By the 1950s, many African students were studying in British universities, and they produced a demand for new scholarship, and started themselves to supply it as well. Oxford University became the main center for African studies, with activity as well at Cambridge, and the London School of Economics. The perspective from British government policy-makers or from international business operations, slowly gave way to a new interest in the activities of the natives, especially in a nationalistic movements and the growing demand for independence. The major breakthrough came from Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher, especially with their studies of the impact of free trade on Africa. South Africa The historiography of South Africa has been one of the most contentious areas of the British Empire, involving a three-way division of sharply differing interpretations among the British, the Boers, and the black African historians. The first British historians emphasized the benefits of British civilization. Afrikaner historiography began in the 1870s with early laudatory accounts of the trekkers and undisguised anger at the British. After many years of conflict and warfare, the British took control of South Africa and historians began conciliatory effort to bring the two sides together in a shared history. An influential large-scale effort was made by George McCall Theal (1837-1919), who wrote many books as school teacher and as the official historian, such as History and Ethnography of Africa South of the Zambesi (11 vol, 1897–1919). In the 1920s, historians using missionary sources started presenting the Coloured and African viewpoints, as in W. M. Macmillan, Bantu, Boer and Briton: The Making of the South African Native Problem (London, 1929). Modern research standards were introduced by Eric A. Walker (1886–1976), who moved from a professorship at the University of Cape Town to become the Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge, where he trained a generation of graduate students. Afrikaner historiography increasingly defended apartheid. Liberation historiography The dominant approach in recent decades is to emphasize the roots of the liberation movement. Baines argues that the "Soweto uprising" of 1976 inspired a new generation of social historians to start looking for evidence that would allow the writing of history "from below"; often they adopted a Marxist perspective. By the 1990s, historians were exploring comparative race relations in South Africa and the United States from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. James Campbell argues that black American Methodist missionaries to South Africa adopted the same standards of promoting civilization as did the British. Nationalism and opposition to the Empire Opposition to imperialism and demands for self-rule emerged across the empire; in all but one case the British authorities suppressed revolts. However, in the 1770s, under the leadership of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, it came to an armed revolt in the 13 American colonies, the American Revolutionary War. With military and financial help from France and others, the 13 became the first British colonies to secure their independence in the name of American nationalism. There is a large literature on the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which saw a very large scale revolt in India, involving the mutiny of many native troops. It was suppressed by the British Army after much bloodshed. The Indians organised under Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru and finally achieved independence in 1947. They wanted one India but the Muslims were organized by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and created their own nation, Pakistan, in a process that still is heatedly debated by scholars. Independence came in the midst of religious communal violence, chiefly between Hindus and Muslims in border areas. Millions died and millions more were displaced as the conflicting memories and grievances still shape subcontinent tensions, as Jisha Menon argues. Historians of the empire have recently paid close attention to 20th-century native voices in many colonies who demanded independence. The African colonies became independent mostly in a peaceful fashion. Kenya saw severe violence on both sides. Typically the leaders of independence had studied in England in the 1920s and 1930s. For example, the radical nationalist Kwame Nkrumah in 1957 led Ghana to become Britain's second African colony to gain independence (Sudan being the first being granted its independence a year earlier in 1956) and others quickly followed. Ideas of anti-imperialism At an intellectual level, anti-imperialism appealed strongly to Marxists and liberals across the world. Both groups were strongly influenced by British writer John A. Hobson in his Imperialism: A Study (1902). Historians Peter Duignan and Lewis H. Gann argue that Hobson had an enormous influence in the early 20th century that caused widespread distrust of imperialism: Hobson's ideas were not entirely original; however his hatred of moneyed men and monopolies, his loathing of secret compacts and public bluster, fused all existing indictments of imperialism into one coherent system....His ideas influenced German nationalist opponents of the British Empire as well as French Anglophobes and Marxists; they colored the thoughts of American liberals and isolationist critics of colonialism. In days to come they were to contribute to American distrust of Western Europe and of the British Empire. Hobson helped make the British averse to the exercise of colonial rule; he provided indigenous nationalists in Asia and Africa with the ammunition to resist rule from Europe. World War II British historians of the Second World War have not emphasized the critical role played by the Empire in terms of money, manpower and imports of food and raw materials. The powerful combination meant that Britain did not stand alone against Germany, it stood at the head of a great but fading empire. As Ashley Jackson has argued," The story of the British Empire's war, therefore, is one of Imperial success in contributing toward Allied victory on the one hand, and egregious Imperial failure on the other, as Britain struggled to protect people and defeat them, and failed to win the loyalty of colonial subjects." The contribution in terms of soldiers numbered 2.5 million men from India, over 1 million from Canada, just under 1 million from Australia, 410,000 from South Africa, and 215,000 from New Zealand. In addition, the colonies mobilized over 500,000 uniformed personnel who serve primarily inside Africa. In terms of financing, the British war budget included £2.7 billion borrowed from the Empire's Sterling Area, And eventually paid back. Canada made C$3 billion in gifts and loans on easy terms. In terms of actual engagement with the enemy, there was a great deal in South Asia and Southeast Asia, as recalled by Ashley Jackson: Terror, mass migration, shortages, inflation, blackouts, air raids, massacres, famine, forced labour, urbanization, environmental damage, occupation [by the enemy], resistance, Collaboration – all of these dramatic and often horrific phenomena shaped the war experience of Britain's imperial subjects. Decline and decolonization Historians continue to debate when the Empire reached its peak. At one end, the insecurities of the 1880s and 1890s are mentioned, especially the industrial rise of the United States and Germany. The Second Boer War in South Africa, 1899-1902 angered an influential element of Liberal thought in England, and deprived imperialism of much moral support. Most historians agree that by 1918, at the end of the First World War, permanent long-term decline was inevitable. The dominions largely had freed themselves and began their own foreign and military policies. Worldwide investments had been cashed in to pay for the war, and the British economy was in the doldrums after 1918. A new spirit of nationalism appeared in many of the colonies, most dramatically in India. Most historians agree that following the Second World War, Britain lost its superpower status, and it was financially near bankruptcy. With the Suez fiasco of 1956, the profound weaknesses were apparent to all and rapid decolonization was inevitable. The chronology and main features of decolonization of the British Empire have been studied at length. By far the greatest attention has been given to the situation in India in 1947, with far less attention to other colonies in Asia and Africa. Of course most of the scholarly attention focuses on newly independent nations no longer ruled by Britain. From the Imperial perspective, historians are divided on two issues: with respect to India, could London have handled decolonization better in 1947, or was what happened largely fixed in the previous century? Historians also disagree regarding a degree of involvement in the domestic British society and economy. Did Britons much care about decolonization, and did it make much difference to them? Bailkin points out that one view is that the domestic dimension was of minor importance, and most Britons paid little attention. She says that political historians often reach this conclusion. John Darwin has studied the political debates. On the other hand, most social historians argue the contrary. They say the values and beliefs inside Britain about the overseas empire helped shape policy; the decolonization process proved psychologically wrenching to many people living in Britain, particularly migrants, and those with family experience with overseas civil service, business, or missionary activity. Bailkin says that decolonization was often taken personally, and had a major policy impact in terms of the policies of the British welfare state. She shows how some West Indian migrants were repatriated; idealists volunteered to help the new nations; a wave of overseas students came to British universities; and polygamous relationships were invalidated. Meanwhile, she says, the new welfare state was in part shaped by British colonial practices, especially regarding mental health and child care. Social historian Bill Schwarz says that as decolonization moved forward in the 1950s there was an upsurge in racial whiteness and racial segregation – the colour bar – became more pronounced. Thomas Colley finds that informed Britons in the 21st century are in agreement that Britain has very often been at war over the centuries. They also agree that the nation has steadily lost its military prowess due to declines in its economy and disappearance of its empire. The new imperial history The focus of attention of historians has shifted over time. Phillip Buckner reports that on a bygone era of graduate education in Britain when the Empire was Ronald Hyam argues that the historiography of the British Empire reached a state of severe crisis: Hyam goes on to state that by the 21st century new themes had emerged including "post—colonial theory, globalisation, sex and gender issues, the cultural imperative, and the linguistic turn." The native leadership The studies of policy-making in London and the settlement colonies like Canada and Australia are now rare. Newer concerns deal with the natives, and give much more attention to native leaders such as Gandhi. They address topics such as migration, gender, race, sexuality, environmentalism, visualization, and sports. Thus there are entire chapters on economics, religion, colonial knowledge, agency, culture, and identity in the historiographical overview edited by Sarah E. Stockwell, The British Empire: Themes and Perspectives (2008). The new approaches to imperial history are often grouped together under the heading of the "new imperial history". These approaches have been distinguished by two features. Firstly, they have suggested that the British empire was a cultural project as well as a set of political and economic relationships. As a result, these historians have stressed the ways in which empire building shaped the cultures of both colonized peoples and Britons themselves. Race and gender In particular they have shown the ways in which British imperialism rested upon ideas about cultural difference and in turn how British colonialism reshaped understandings of race and gender in both the colonies and at home in Britain. Mrinalini Sinha's Colonial Masculinity (1995) showed how supposed British manliness and ideas about the effeminacy of some Indians influenced colonial policy and Indian nationalist thought. Antoinette Burton has been a key figure and her Burdens of History (1995) showed how white British feminists in the Victorian period appropriated imperialist rhetoric to claim a role for themselves in 'saving' native women and thereby strengthened their own claims to equality in Britain. Historians like Sinha, Burton, and Catherine Hall have used this approach to argue that British culture at 'home' was profoundly shaped by the empire during the 19th century. Linkages binding the Empire together The second feature that defines the new imperial history is its examination of the links and flows that connected different parts of the empire together. At first scholars looked at the empire's impact on domestic Britain, particularly in terms of everyday experiences. More recently, attention has been paid to the material, emotional, and financial links among the different regions. Both Burton and Sinha stress the ways in which the politics of gender and race linked Britain and India. Sinha suggested that these linkages were part of an "imperial social formation", an uneven but integrative set of arguments, ideas and institutions that connected Britain to its colonies. More recent work by scholars such as Alan Lester and Tony Ballantyne have stressed the importance of the networks that made up the empire. Lester's Imperial Networks (2001) reconstructed some of the debates and policies that linked Britain and South Africa during the 19th century. Ballantyne's Orientalism and Race developed an influential new model for writing about colonialism in highlighting the "webs of empire" that he suggested made up the empire. These webs were made up of the flows of ideas, books, arguments, money, and people that not only moved between London and Britain's colonies, but also moved directly from colony to colony, from places like India to New Zealand. Many historians now focus on these "networks" and "webs" and Alison Games has used this as a model for studying the pattern of early English imperialism as well. The Oxford History of the British Empire The major multi-volume multi-author coverage of the history of the British Empire is the Oxford History of the British Empire (1998–2001), five-volume set, plus a companion series. Douglas Peers says the series demonstrates that, "As a field of historical inquiry, imperial history is clearly experiencing a renaissance." Max Beloff, reviewing the first two volumes in History Today, praised them for their readability and was pleased that his worry that they would be too anti-imperialist had not been realised. Saul Dubow in H-Net noted the uneven quality of the chapters in volume III and also the difficulty of such an endeavour give the state of historiography of the British Empire and the impossibility of maintaining a triumphalist tone in the modern era. Dubow also felt that some of the authors had tended "to 'play safe', awed perhaps by the monumental nature of the enterprise". Madhavi Kale of Bryn Mawr College, writing in Social History, also felt that the history took a traditional approach to the historiography of the empire and placed the English, and to a lesser extent the Scottish, Irish and Welsh at the centre of the account, rather than the subject peoples of the empire. Kale summed up her review of volumes III-V of the history by saying it represented "a disturbingly revisionist project that seeks to neutralize ... the massive political and military brutality and repression" of the empire. Postmodern and postcolonial approaches A major unexpected development came after 1980 with a flood of fresh and innovative books and articles from scholars trained in non-British perspectives. Many had studied Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean, and the dominions. The new perspective strengthened the field rather than destroying it. Further imaginative approaches, which occasioned sharp debates, came from literary scholars especially Edward Said and Homi K. Bhabha, as well as anthropologists, feminists, and other newcomers. Longtime experts suddenly confronted the strange new scholarship with theoretical perspectives such as post-structuralism and post-modernism. The colonial empire was becoming "postcolonial." Instead of painting the globe red any more, the Empire's history became part of a new global history. New maps were drawn emphasizing the oceans more than the land masses, yielding new perspectives such as Atlantic history. The old consensus among historians held that in India British imperial authority was quite secure from 1858 to World War II. Recently, however, this interpretation has been challenged. For example Mark Condos and Jon Wilson argue that imperial authority in the Raj was chronically insecure. Indeed the anxiety of generations of officials produced a chaotic administration with minimal coherence. Instead of a confident state capable of acting as it chose, these historians find a psychologically embattled one incapable of acting except in the abstract, small scale, or short term. Meanwhile Durba Ghosh offers an alternative approach. Impact on Britain and British memory Turning away from most political, economic, and diplomatic themes historians recently have looked at the intellectual and cultural impact of the Empire on Britain itself. Ideologically, Britons promoted the Empire with appeals to the ideals of political and legal liberty. Historians have always commented on the paradox of the dichotomy of freedom and coercion inside the Empire, of modernity and tradition. Sir John Seeley, for example, pondered in 1883: How can the same nation pursue two lines of policy so radically different without bewilderment, be despotic in Asia and democratic in Australia, be in the East at once the greatest Mussulman Power in the World ... and at the same time in the West be the foremost champion of free thought and spiritual religion. Historian Douglas Peers emphasizes that an idealized knowledge of the Empire permeated popular and elite thought in Britain during the 19th century: No history of nineteenth-century Britain can be complete without acknowledging the impact that the empire had in fashioning political culture, informing strategic and diplomatic priorities, shaping social institutions and cultural practices, and determining, at least in part, the rate and direction of economic development. Moreover, British identity was bound up with the empire. Politicians at the time and historians ever since have explored whether the Empire was too expensive for the British budget. Joseph Chamberlain thought so but he had little success at the Imperial Conference of 1902 asking overseas partners to increase their contribution. Canada and Australia spoke of funding a warship—the Canadian Senate voted it down in 1913. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy adjusted its war plans to focus on Germany, economizing on defending against lesser threats in peripheral areas such as the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Public opinion supported military spending out of pride, but the left in Britain leaned toward pacifism and deplored the waste of money. In the Porter–MacKenzie debate the historiographical issue was the impact of the Imperial experience on British society and thinking. Porter argued in 2004 that most Britons were largely indifferent to empire. Imperialism was handled by elites. In the highly heterogeneous British society, "imperialism did not have to have impact greatly on British society and culture." John M. MacKenzie countered that there is a great deal of scattered evidence to show an important impact. His position was supported by Catherine Hall, Antoinette Burton and Jeffrey Richards. In a survey of the British population by YouGov in 2014, respondents "think the British Empire is more something to be proud of (59%) rather than ashamed of (19%).... A third of British people (34%) also say they would like it if Britain still had an empire. Under half (45%) say they would not like the Empire to exist today." See also British Empire Economic Conference (1932) Cambridge School of historiography led by John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Historiography of the United Kingdom Historiography of the causes of World War I Imperial Conference, Covers the meetings of prime ministers in 1887, 1894, 1897, 1902, 1907, 1911, 1921, 1923, 1926, 1930, 1932, in 1937 1887 Colonial Conference Imperial War Cabinet International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919) New Imperialism, re 1880–1910 Pageant of Empire Porter–MacKenzie debate what role did colonialism play in shaping British culture The Cambridge History of the British Empire The Oxford History of the British Empire Timeline of imperialism Western imperialism in Asia Notes References External links "Making History", Coverage of leading British historians and institutions from the Institute of Historical Research Further reading Basic bibliography Bayly, C. A. ed. Atlas of the British Empire (1989). survey by scholars; heavily illustrated Brendon, Piers. "A Moral Audit of the British Empire", History Today (October 2007), Vol. 57, Issue 10, pp. 44–47, online at EBSCO Brendon, Piers. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997 (2008), wide-ranging survey Bryant, Arthur. The History of Britain and the British Peoples, 3 vols (1984–90), popular. Dalziel, Nigel. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire (2006), 144 pp. Darwin, John. The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World-System, 1830–1970 (2009) excerpt and text search Darwin, John. Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain (2013) Ferguson, Niall. Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (2002); Also published as Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World (2002). Howe, Stephen ed., The New Imperial Histories Reader (2009) online review Jackson, Ashley. The British Empire: A Very Short Introduction (2013) excerpt. James, Lawrence. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1998). A one-volume history of the Empire, from the American colonies to the Handover of Hong Kong; also online Knaplund, Paul. The British empire, 1815–1939 (1941), very wide-ranging; online Marshall, P. J. (ed.), The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire (1996). online Olson, James S., and Robert S. Shadle; Historical Dictionary of the British Empire (1996) Panton, Kenneth J., ed. Historical Dictionary of the British Empire (2015) 766 pp. Simms, Brendan. Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire (2008), 800 pp. excerpt and text search Overviews Belich, James. Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Angloworld, 1780-1930 (Oxford University Press, 2009), 448 pp.; focus on British settlement colonies of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, emphasizing the heavy British investments involved Black, Jeremy. The British Seaborne Empire (2004) Cain, P. J., and A. G. Hopkins. British Imperialism, 1688-2000 (2nd edn 2001) 739 pp.; detailed economic history that presents the new "gentlemanly capitalists" thesis; Colley, Linda. Captives: Britain, Empire, and the World, 1600–1850 (2004), 464 pp. Hyam, Ronald. Britain's Imperial Century, 1815-1914: A Study of Empire and Expansion (1993). Judd, Denis. Empire: The British Imperial Experience, From 1765 to the Present (1996). Levine, Philippa. The British Empire: sunrise to sunset (3rd ed. Routledge, 2020) excerpt Lloyd, T. O. The British Empire, 1558-1995 Oxford University Press, 1996 Muir, Ramsay. A short history of the British commonwealth (2 vol 1920-22; 8th ed. 1954). online Parsons, Timothy H. The British imperial century, 1815–1914: A world history perspective (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Royal Institute of International Affairs. The Colonial Problem (1937); broad-based review of current status of European colonies, especially British Empire. online. Robinson, Howard . The Development of the British Empire (1922), 465 pp. edition. Rose, J. Holland, A. P. Newton and E. A. Benians (general editor), The Cambridge History of the British Empire, 9 vols (1929–61); vol 1: "The Old Empire from the Beginnings to 1783" 934pp online edition Volume I Volume II: The Growth of the New Empire 1783-1870 (1968) online Smith, Simon C. British Imperialism 1750-1970 (1998). brief Stockwell, Sarah, ed. The British Empire: Themes and Perspectives (2008), 355 pp. Oxford History Louis, William. Roger (general editor), The Oxford History of the British Empire, 5 vols (1998–99). Vol. 1 "The Origins of Empire" ed. Nicholas Canny online Vol. 2 "The Eighteenth Century" ed. P. J. Marshall online Vol. 3 The Nineteenth Century ed. Andrew Porter (1998). 780 pp. online edition Vol. 4 The Twentieth Century ed. Judith M. Brown (1998). 773 pp. online edition Vol. 5 "Historiography", ed. Robin W. Winks (1999) online Oxford History Companion series Beinart, William, and Lotte Hughes, eds. Environment and Empire (2007) Bickers, Robert, ed. Settlers and Expatriates: Britons over the Seas (2014) Buckner, Phillip, ed. Canada and the British Empire (2010) Etherington, Norman. Missions and Empire (2008) on Protestant missions Harper, Marjory, and Stephen Constantine, eds. Migration and Empire (2010) Kenny, Kevin, ed. Ireland and the British Empire(2006) excerpt and text search Peers, Douglas M. and Nandini Gooptu, eds. India and the British Empire (2012) Schreuder, Deryck and Stuart Ward, eds. Australia's Empire (2010) Thompson, Andrew, ed. Britain's Experience of Empire in the Twentieth Century (2012) Atlases, geography, environment Bartholomew, John. Atlas of the British empire throughout the world (1868 edition) online 1868 edition; (1877 edition) online 1877 edition, the maps are poorly reproduced Dalziel, Nigel. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire (2006), 144 pp Faunthorpe, John Pincher. Geography of the British colonies and foreign possessions (1874) online edition Lucas, Charles Prestwood. A Historical Geography of the British Colonies: part 2: West Indies (1890) online edition Lucas, Charles Prestwood. A Historical Geography of the British Colonies: part 4: South and East Africa (1900) online edition MacKenzie, John M. The British Empire through buildings: Structure, function and meaning (Manchester UP, 2020) excerpt. Porter, A. N. Atlas of British Overseas Expansion (1994) The Year-book of the Imperial Institute of the United Kingdom, the colonies and India: a statistical record of the resources and trade of the colonial and Indian possessions of the British Empire (2nd. ed. 1893) 880pp; online edition Political, economic and intellectual studies Andrews, Kenneth R. Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480–1630 (1984). Armitage, David. The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (2000). Armitage, David, ed. Theories of Empire, 1450–1800 (1998). Armitage, David, and M. J. Braddick, eds. The British Atlantic World, 1500–1800, (2002) Barker, Sir Ernest, The Ideas and Ideals of the British Empire (1941). Baumgart, W. Imperialism: The Idea and Reality of British and French Colonial Expansion, 1880-1914 (1982) Bayly, C. A. Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World, 1780-1831 (1989). Stern, Philip J. "Early Eighteenth-Century British India: Antimeridian or antemeridiem?." Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 21.2 (2020) pp 1–26, focus on Bayly. Bell, Duncan The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900 (2007) Bell, Duncan (ed.) Victorian Visions of Global Order: Empire and International Relations in Nineteenth Century Political Thought (2007) Bennett, George (ed.), The Concept of Empire: Burke to Attlee, 1774–1947 (1953). Blaut, J. M. The Colonizers' Model of the World 1993 Bowen, H. V. Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756-1833 (2006), 304pp Collingham, Lizzie. The Taste of Empire: How Britain's Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World (2017). Crooks, Peter, and Timothy H. Parsons, eds. Empires and bureaucracy in world history: from late antiquity to the twentieth century (Cambridge UP, 2016) chapters 1, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17. Darby, Philip. The Three Faces of Imperialism: British and American Approaches to Asia and Africa, 1870-1970 (1987) Doyle, Michael W. Empires (1986). Dumett, Raymond E. Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism: The New Debate on Empire. (1999). 234 pp. Gallagher, John, and Ronald Robinson. "The Imperialism of Free Trade" The Economic History Review, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1953), pp. 1–15 in JSTOR, online free at Mt. Holyoke highly influential interpretation in its day Gilbert, Helen, and Chris Tiffin, eds. Burden or Benefit?: Imperial Benevolence and Its Legacies (2008) Harlow, V. T. The Founding of the Second British Empire, 1763–1793, 2 vols. (1952–64). Heinlein, Frank. British Government Policy and Decolonisation, 1945-1963: Scrutinising the Official Mind (2002). Herbertson, A. J. The Oxford Survey of the British Empire, (1914) Ingram, Edward. The British Empire as a World Power: Ten Studies (2001) Jackson, Ashley. British Empire and the Second World War (2006) Johnson, Robert. British Imperialism (2003). historiography , First World War Kennedy, Paul, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery (1976). Koehn, Nancy F. The Power of Commerce: Economy and Governance in the First British Empire (1994) Knorr, Klaus E., British Colonial Theories 1570–1850 (1944). Louis, William Roger. Imperialism at Bay: The United States and the Decolonization of the British Empire, 1941-1945 (1978) McIntyre, W. David. The commonwealth of nations: Origins and impact, 1869–1971 (U of Minnesota Press, 1977); Comprehensive coverage giving London's perspective on political and constitutional relations with each possession.link Mehta, Uday Singh, Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought (1999). Pares, Richard. “The Economic Factors in the History of the Empire.” Economic History Review 7#2 (1937), pp. 119–144. online Porter, Bernard. The Lion's Share: A History of British Imperialism 1850-2011 (4th ed. 2012), Wide-ranging general history; strong on anti-imperialism. online Thornton, A.P. The Imperial Idea and its Enemies (2nd ed. 1985) Tinker, Hugh. A New System of Slavery: The Export of Indian Labour Overseas, 1830-1920 (1974). Webster, Anthony. Gentlemen Capitalists: British Imperialism in South East Asia, 1770-1890 (1998) Diplomacy and military policy Bannister, Jerry, and Liam Riordan, eds. The Loyal Atlantic: Remaking the British Atlantic in the Revolutionary Era (U of Toronto Press, 2012). Bartlett, C. J. British Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century (1989) , a standard history Black, Jeremy. America or Europe? British Foreign Policy, 1739-63 (1998) Black, Jeremy, ed. Knights Errant and True Englishmen: British Foreign Policy, 1660-1800 (2003) essays by scholars Black, Jeremy. George III: America's last king (Yale UP, 2006). Chandler, David, and Ian Beckett, eds. The Oxford History of the British Army (2003). excerpt Colley, Thomas. Always at War: British Public Narratives of War (U of Michigan Press, 2019) online review Cotterell, Arthur. Western Power in Asia: Its Slow Rise and Swift Fall, 1415 - 1999 (2009) popular history; excerpt Dilks, David. Retreat from Power: 1906-39 v. 1: Studies in Britain's Foreign Policy of the Twentieth Century (1981); Retreat from Power: After 1939 v. 2 (1981) Haswell, Jock, and John Lewis-Stempel. A Brief History of the British Army (2017). Jackson, Ashley. The British Empire and the Second World War (2007) 624pp; Comprehensive coverage. Jackson, Ashley. "New Research on the British Empire and the Second World War: Part II." Global War Studies 7.2 (2010): 157-184; historiography Jones, J. R. Britain and the World, 1649-1815 (1980) Langer, William L. The Diplomacy of Imperialism, 1890-1902 (2nd ed. 1950) Mulligan, William, and Brendan Simms, eds. The Primacy of Foreign Policy in British History, 1660-2000 (Palgrave Macmillan; 2011) 345 pages Nester, William R. Titan: The Art of British Power in the Age of Revolution and Napoleon (2016) excerpt O'Shaughnessy, Andrew Jackson. The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire (2014). Strang, Lord William. Britain in World Affairs: A survey of the Fluctuations in British Power and Influence from Henry VIII to Elizabeth II (1961). Online Popular history by a diplomat. Vickers, Rhiannon. The Evolution of Labour's Foreign Policy, 1900-51 (2003) focus on decolonization Webster, Charles. The Foreign Policy of Palmerston (1951) Wiener, Joel H. ed. Great Britain: Foreign Policy and the Span of Empire, 1689-1971: A Documentary History (1972) 876pp [ primary sources Slavery and race Auerbach, Sascha. Race, Law, and "The Chinese Puzzle" in Imperial Britain (2009). Ballantyne, Tony. Orientalism and Race: Aryanism in the British Empire (2002) Drescher, Seymour. Abolition: A History of Slavery and Antislavery (2009) excerpt and text search Dumas, Paula E. Proslavery Britain: Fighting for slavery in an era of abolition (Springer, 2016). Eltis, David, and Stanley L. Engerman. "The importance of slavery and the slave trade to industrializing Britain." Journal of Economic History 60.1 (2000): 123-144. online Green, William A. British slave emancipation, the sugar colonies and the great experiment, 1830-1865 (Oxford, 1981) Grant, Kevin. A Civilised Savagery: Britain and the New Slaveries in Africa, 1884-1926 (2005). Killingray, David, and Martin Plaut. "Race and Imperialism in the British Empire: A Lateral View." South African Historical Journal (2020): 1-28. Lake, Marilyn and Reynolds, David. Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men's Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality (2008). Look Lai, Walton. Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838-1918 1993. Morgan, Philip D. and Sean Hawkins, eds. Black Experience and the Empire(2006), Oxford History Companion series Quinault, Roland. "Gladstone and slavery." The Historical Journal 52.2 (2009): 363-383. Robinson, Ronald, John Gallagher, Alice Denny. Africa and the Victorians: The Climax of Imperialism in the Dark Continent (1961) Taylor, Michael. "The British West India interest and its allies, 1823–1833." English Historical Review 133.565 (2018): 1478-1511. , focus on slavery Walker, Eric A., ed. The Cambridge history of the British Empire Volume VIII: South Africa, Rhodesia and the High Commission Territories (1963) online Social and cultural studies; gender August, Thomas G. The Selling of the Empire: British and French Imperialist Propaganda, 1890-1940 (1985) Bailyn, Bernard, and Philip D. Morgan (eds.), Strangers within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire (1991) Brantlinger, Patrick. Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914 (1988). Broich, John. "Engineering the Empire: British Water Supply Systems and Colonial Societies, 1850-1900." Journal of British Studies 2007 46(2): 346-365. Fulltext: at Ebsco Burton, Antoinette, Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865-1915 (U of North Carolina Press, 1994). Chaudhuri, Nupur. "Imperialism and Gender." in Encyclopedia of European Social History, edited by Peter N. Stearns, (vol. 1, 2001), pp. 515-521. online Clayton, Martin. and Bennett Zon. Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s-1940s (2007) excerpt and text search Hall, Catherine, and Sonya O. Rose. At Home with the Empire: Metropolitan Culture and the Imperial World (2007) Hall, Catherine. Civilising Subjects: Colony and Metropole in the English Imagination, 1830–1867 (2002) Hardwick, Joseph. Prayer, Providence and Empire: Special Worship in the British World, 1783–1919 (Manchester UP, 2021) Hodgkins, Christopher. Reforming Empire: Protestant Colonialism and Conscience in British Literature (U of Missouri Press, 2002) Hyam, Ronald. Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (1990). Karatani, Rieko. Defining British Citizenship: Empire, Commonwealth, and Modern Britain (2003) Kuczynski, Robert R. Demographic survey of the British Colonial Empire (1 vol 1948) vol 1 West Africa online; also vol 2 East Africa online Lassner, Phyllis. Colonial Strangers: Women Writing the End of the British Empire (2004) Lazarus, Neil, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies (2004) Levine, Philippa, ed. Gender and Empire. Oxford History of the British Empire (2004). McDevitt, Patrick F. May the Best Man Win: Sport, Masculinity, and Nationalism in Great Britain and the Empire, 1880-1935 (2004). Midgley, Clare. Feminism and Empire: women activists in imperial Britain, 1790–1865 (Routledge, 2007) Morgan, Philip D. and Hawkins, Sean, ed. Black Experience and the Empire (2004). Morris, Jan. The Spectacle of Empire: Style, Effect and Pax Britannica (1982). Naithani, Sadhana. The Story-Time of the British Empire: Colonial and Postcolonial Folkloristics (2010) Newton, Arthur Percival. The Universities And Educational Systems Of The British Empire (1924) online Porter, Andrew. Religion Versus Empire?: British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914 (2004) Potter, Simon J. News and the British World: The Emergence of an Imperial Press System. Clarendon, 2003 Price, Richard. "One Big Thing: Britain, its Empire, and Their Imperial Culture." Journal of British Studies 2006 45(3): 602-627. Fulltext: Ebsco Price, Richard. Making Empire: Colonial Encounters and the Creation of Imperial Rule in Nineteenth-Century Africa 2008. Richards, Eric. Britannia's children: emigration from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1600 (A&C Black, 2004) online. Rubinstein, W. D. Capitalism, Culture, and Decline in Britain, 1750-1990 (1993), Rüger, Jan. "Nation, Empire and Navy: Identity Politics in the United Kingdom 1887-1914" Past & Present 2004 (185): 159-187. online Sauerberg, Lars Ole. Intercultural Voices in Contemporary British Literature: The Implosion of Empire (2001) Sinha, Mrinalini, "Colonial Masculinity: The 'Manly Englishman' and the 'Effeminate Bengali' in the Late Nineteenth Century" (1995) Smith, Michelle J., Clare Bradford, et al. From Colonial to Modern: Transnational Girlhood in Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Literature, 1840-1940 (2018) excerpt Spurr, David. The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing and Imperial Administration (1993). Trollope, Joanna. Britannia's Daughters: Women of the British Empire (1983). Whitehead, Clive. "The historiography of British imperial education policy, Part I: India." History of Education 34#3 (2005): 315-329. Whitehead, Clive. "The historiography of British Imperial education policy, Part II: Africa and the rest of the colonial empire." History of Education 34#4 (2005): 441-454. Wilson, Kathleen. The Island Race: Englishness, Empire, and Gender in the Eighteenth Century (2003). Wilson, Kathleen, ed. A New Imperial History: Culture Identity, and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660–1840 (2004) Xypolia, Ilia. British Imperialism and Turkish Nationalism in Cyprus, 1923-1939:Divide, Define and Rule. Routledge, 2017 Regional studies Bailyn, Bernard. Strangers Within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire (1991) excerpt and text search Bruckner, Phillip. Canada and the British Empire (The Oxford History of the British Empire) (2010) excerpt and text search online Elliott, J.H., Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 (2006), a major interpretation excerpt and text search Gerits, Frank. The Ideological Scramble for Africa: How the Pursuit of Anticolonial Modernity Shaped a Postcolonial Order (1945–1966) (Cornell University Press, 2023). ISBN13: 9781501767913. Major scholarly coverage of British, French and Portuguese colonies. see online reviews and reply by author Kenny, Kevin, ed. Ireland and the British Empire (2004). Landsman, Ned. Crossroads of Empire: The Middle Colonies in British North America (2010) excerpt and text search Lees, Lynn Hollen. Planting Empire, Cultivating Subjects: British Malaya, 1786-1941 (2017). Lester, Alan. Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain (2001). Louis, William Roger. The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism (1984) Marshall, Peter, and Glyn Williams, eds. The British Atlantic Empire before the American Revolution (1980) Taylor, Alan. The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, and Indian Allies (2010), on War of 1812 Veevers, David. The Origins of the British Empire in Asia, 1600–1750 (2020) excerpt. Historiography and memory Barone, Charles A. Marxist Thought on Imperialism: Survey and Critique (1985) Black, Jeremy. Imperial Legacies: The British Empire Around the World (Encounter Books, 2019) excerpt. Buckner, Phillip. "Presidential Address: Whatever happened to the British Empire?" Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (1993) 4#1 pp. 3–32. online Burton, Antoinette and Isabel Hofmeyr, eds. Ten Books That Shaped the British Empire: Creating an Imperial Commons (2014) excerpt Cannadine, David, "'Big Tent' Historiography: Transatlantic Obstacles and Opportunities in Writing the History of Empire", Common Knowledge (2005) 11#3 pp. 375–392 at Project MUSE Cannadine, David. Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire (2002) Cannadine, David. "The Empire Strikes Back", Past & Present No. 147 (May, 1995), pp. 180–194 Cannadine, David. Victorious Century: The United Kingdom, 1800-1906 (2018) Colley, Linda. "What Is Imperial History Now?" in David Cannadine, ed. What Is History Now? (2002), 132–147. Drayton, Richard. "Where does the world historian write from? Objectivity, moral conscience and the past and present of imperialism". Journal of Contemporary History 2011; 46#3 pp. 671–685. online Dumett, Raymond E. ed. Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism: The New Debate on Empire (1999) online Elton, G. R. Modern Historians on British History 1485–1945: A Critical Bibliography 1945–1969 (1969), annotated guide to 1000 history books on every major topic, plus book reviews and major scholarly articles. online Fieldhouse, David K. "'Imperialism': An Historiographical Revision". Economic History Review 14#2 (1961): 187–209. Ghosh, Durba. "Another set of imperial turns?". American Historical Review 2012; 117#3 pp: 772–793. online Griffin, Patrick. "In Retrospect: Lawrence Henry Gipson's The British Empire before the American Revolution" Reviews in American History, 31#2 (2003), pp. 171–183 in JSTOR Hyam, Ronald. Understanding the British Empire (2010), 576pp; essays by Hyam. Johnson David, and Prem Poddar, eds. A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Thought in English (Columbia UP, 2005). Kennedy, Dane. The Imperial History Wars: Debating the British Empire (2018) excerpt Lester, Alan, Kate Boehme, and Peter Mitchell, eds. Ruling the World: Freedom, Civilisation and Liberalism in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire (Cambridge UP, 2021). Lieven, Dominic. Empire: The Russian empire and its rivals (Yale UP, 2002), comparisons with Russian, Habsburg & Ottoman empires. excerpt Morris, Richard B. "The Spacious Empire of Lawrence Henry Gipson," William and Mary Quarterly, (1967) 24#2 pp. 170–189 at JSTOR; covers the "Imperial School" of Americanscholars, 1900–1940s Nelson, Paul David. "British Conduct of the American Revolutionary War: A Review of Interpretations." Journal of American History 65.3 (1978): 623-653. online Philips, Cyril H. ed. Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon (1961), reviews the older scholarship Rasor, Eugene L. Winston S. Churchill, 1874-1965: A Comprehensive Historiography and Annotated Bibliography (2000) 712pp; online Webster, Anthony. The Debate on the Rise of British Imperialism (Issues in Historiography) (2006) Wilson, Kathleen, ed. A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660–1840 (2004). excerpt and text search Winks, Robin, ed. Historiography (1999) vol. 5 in William Roger Louis, eds. The Oxford History of the British Empire Winks, Robin W. The Historiography of the British Empire-Commonwealth: Trends, Interpretations and Resources (1966); this book is by a different set of authors from the previous 1999 entry Winks, Robin W. "Problem Child of British History: The British Empire-Commonwealth", in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984), pp. 451–492 Winks, Robin W., ed. British Imperialism: Gold, God, Glory (1963) excerpts from 15 historians from early 20th century, plus commentary and bibliography. Bibliography Gabriel Glickman, "Britain and Empire, 1685-1730" Oxford Bibliographies, annotated books Primary sources Board of Education. Educational Systems of the Chief Crown Colonies and Possessions of the British Empire (1905). 340pp online edition Boehmer, Elleke ed. Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature, 1870–1918 (1998) Brooks, Chris. and Peter Faulkner (eds.), The White Man's Burdens: An Anthology of British Poetry of the Empire (Exeter UP, 1996). Hall, Catherine. ed. Cultures of Empire: A Reader: Colonizers in Britain and the Empire in the 19th and 20th Centuries (2000) Herbertson, A. J. and O. J. R. Howarth. eds. The Oxford Survey Of The British Empire (6 vol 1914) online vol 2 on Asia and India 555pp; on Africa; vole 1 America; vp; 6 General topics Madden, Frederick, ed. The End of Empire: Dependencies since 1948: Select Documents on the Constitutional History of the British Empire and Commonwealth: The West Indies, British Honduras, Hong Kong, Fiji, Cyprus, Gibraltar, and the Falklands (2000) 596pp Madden, Frederick, and John Darwin, ed. The Dependent Empire: 1900–1948: Colonies, Protectorates, and Mandates (1963) 908pp Mansergh, Nicholas, ed. Documents and Speeches on Commonwealth Affairs, 1952–1962 (1963) 804pp Wiener, Joel H. ed. Great Britain: Foreign Policy and the Span of Empire, 1689-1971: A Documentary History (4 vol 1972) 3400pp; Mostly statements by British leaders External links British Empire Gateway Primary sources and older secondary sources "The British Empire at War Research Group", Comprehensive coverage of the Empire during Second World War. "The British Empire" British Empire Historiography of the United Kingdom History of the British Empire

Normalization (sociology)

Normalization refers to social processes through which ideas and actions come to be seen as 'normal' and become taken-for-granted or 'natural' in everyday life. There are different behavioral attitudes that humans accept as normal, such as grief for a loved one's suffering or death, avoiding danger, and not participating in cannibalism. Foucault The concept of normalization can be found in the work of Michel Foucault, especially Discipline and Punish, in the context of his account of disciplinary power. As Foucault used the term, normalization involved the construction of an idealized norm of conduct – for example, the way a proper soldier ideally should stand, march, present arms, and so on, as defined in minute detail – and then rewarding or punishing individuals for conforming to or deviating from this ideal. In Foucault's account, normalization was one of an ensemble of tactics for exerting the maximum social control with the minimum expenditure of force, which Foucault calls "disciplinary power". Disciplinary power emerged over the course of the 19th century, came to be used extensively in military barracks, hospitals, asylums, schools, factories, offices, and so on, and hence became a crucial aspect of social structure in modern societies. In Security, Territory, Population, a lecture given at the Collège de France in 1978, Foucault defined normalization thus:Normalization consists first of all in positing a model, an optimal model that is constructed in terms of a certain result, and the operation of disciplinary normalization consists in trying to get people, movements, and actions to conform to this model, the normal being precisely that which can conform to this norm, and the abnormal that which is incapable of conforming to the norm. In other words, it is not the normal and the abnormal that is fundamental and primary in disciplinary normalization, it is the norm. That is, there is an originally prescriptive character of the norm and the determination and the identification of the normal and the abnormal becomes possible in relation to this posited norm. Normalization process theory Normalization process theory is a middle-range theory used mainly in medical sociology and science and technology studies to provide a framework for understanding the social processes by which new ways of thinking, working and organizing become routinely incorporated in everyday work. Normalization process theory has its roots in empirical studies of technological innovation in healthcare, and especially in the evaluation of complex interventions. Normalization process theory covers four primary domains: (i) sense-making that creates coherence, (ii) organizing mental activity to manifest cognitive participation related to the behavior, (iii) operationalizing the behaviour through collective action, and (iv) appraising and adapting behaviours through reflexive monitoring. Implementation of a normalization process can be studied through the "NPT toolkit". See also References Social constructionism Sociological terminology

Catastrophism

In geology, catastrophism is the theory that the Earth has largely been shaped by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope. This contrasts with uniformitarianism (sometimes called gradualism), according to which slow incremental changes, such as erosion, brought about all the Earth's geological features. The proponents of uniformitarianism held that the present was "the key to the past", and that all geological processes (such as erosion) throughout the past resembled those that can be observed today. Since the 19th-century disputes between catastrophists and uniformitarians, a more inclusive and integrated view of geologic events has developed, in which the scientific consensus accepts that some catastrophic events occurred in the geologic past, but regards these as explicable as extreme examples of natural processes which can occur. Proponents of catastrophism proposed that each geological epoch ended with violent and sudden natural catastrophes such as major floods and the rapid formation of major mountain chains. Plants and animals living in the parts of the world where such events occurred became extinct, to be replaced abruptly by the new forms whose fossils defined the geological strata. Some catastrophists attempted to relate at least one such change to the Biblical account of Noah's flood. The French scientist Georges Cuvier (17691832) popularised the concept of catastrophism in the early 19th century; he proposed that new life-forms had moved in from other areas after local floods, and avoided religious or metaphysical speculation in his scientific writings. History Geology and biblical beliefs In the early development of geology, efforts were made in a predominantly Christian western society to reconcile biblical narratives of Creation and the universal flood with new concepts about the processes which had formed the Earth. The discovery of other ancient flood myths was taken as explaining why the flood story was "stated in scientific methods with surprising frequency among the Greeks", an example being Plutarch's account of the Ogygian flood. Cuvier and the natural theologians The leading scientific proponent of catastrophism in the early nineteenth century was the French anatomist and paleontologist Georges Cuvier. His motivation was to explain the patterns of extinction and faunal succession that he and others were observing in the fossil record. While he did speculate that the catastrophe responsible for the most recent extinctions in Eurasia might have been the result of the inundation of low-lying areas by the sea, he did not make any reference to Noah's flood. Nor did he ever make any reference to divine creation as the mechanism by which repopulation occurred following the extinction event. In fact Cuvier, influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the intellectual climate of the French Revolution, avoided religious or metaphysical speculation in his scientific writings. Cuvier also believed that the stratigraphic record indicated that there had been several of these revolutions, which he viewed as recurring natural events, amid long intervals of stability during the history of life on Earth. This led him to believe the Earth was several million years old. By contrast in Britain, where natural theology was influential during the early nineteenth century, a group of geologists including William Buckland and Robert Jameson interpreted Cuvier's work differently. Cuvier had written an introduction to a collection of his papers on fossil quadrupeds, discussing his ideas on catastrophic extinction. Jameson translated Cuvier's introduction into English, publishing it under the title Theory of the Earth. He added extensive editorial notes to the translation, explicitly linking the latest of Cuvier's revolutions with the biblical flood. The resulting essay was extremely influential in the English-speaking world. Buckland spent much of his early career trying to demonstrate the reality of the biblical flood using geological evidence. He frequently cited Cuvier's work, even though Cuvier had proposed an inundation of limited geographic extent and extended duration, whereas Buckland, to be consistent with the biblical account, was advocating a universal flood of short duration. Eventually, Buckland abandoned flood geology in favor of the glaciation theory advocated by Louis Agassiz, following a visit to the Alps where Agassiz demonstrated the effects of glaciation at first hand. As a result of the influence of Jameson, Buckland, and other advocates of natural theology, the nineteenth century debate over catastrophism took on much stronger religious overtones in Britain than elsewhere in Europe. The rise of uniformitarianism in geology Uniformitarian explanations for the formation of sedimentary rock and an understanding of the immense stretch of geological time, or as the concept came to be known deep time, were found in the writing of James Hutton, sometimes known as the father of geology, in the late 18th century. The geologist Charles Lyell built upon Hutton's ideas during the first half of 19th century and amassed observations in support of the uniformitarian idea that the Earth's features had been shaped by same geological processes that could be observed in the present acting gradually over an immense period of time. Lyell presented his ideas in the influential three volume work, Principles of Geology, published in the 1830s, which challenged theories about geological cataclysms proposed by proponents of catastrophism like Cuvier and Buckland. One of the key differences between catastrophism and uniformitarianism is that uniformitarianism observes the existence of vast timelines, whereas catastrophism does not. Today most geologists combine catastrophist and uniformitarianist standpoints, taking the view that Earth's history is a slow, gradual story punctuated by occasional natural catastrophic events that have affected Earth and its inhabitants. From around 1850 to 1980, most geologists endorsed uniformitarianism ("The present is the key to the past") and gradualism (geologic change occurs slowly over long periods of time) and rejected the idea that cataclysmic events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or floods of vastly greater power than those observed at the present time, played any significant role in the formation of the Earth's surface. Instead they believed that the earth had been shaped by the long term action of forces such as volcanism, earthquakes, erosion, and sedimentation, that could still be observed in action today. In part, the geologists' rejection was fostered by their impression that the catastrophists of the early nineteenth century believed that God was directly involved in determining the history of Earth. Some of the theories about Catastrophism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were connected with religion and catastrophic origins were sometimes considered miraculous rather than natural events. The rise in uniformitarianism made the introduction of a new catastrophe theory very difficult. In 1923 J Harlen Bretz published a paper on the channeled scablands formed by glacial Lake Missoula in Washington State, USA. Bretz encountered resistance to his theories from the geology establishment of the day, kicking off an acrimonious 40 year debate. Finally in 1979 Bretz received the Penrose Medal; the Geological Society of America's highest award. Immanuel Velikovsky's views In the 1950s, Immanuel Velikovsky propounded catastrophism in several popular books. He speculated that the planet Venus is a former "comet" which was ejected from Jupiter and subsequently 3,500 years ago made two catastrophic close passes by Earth, 52 years apart, and later interacted with Mars, which then had a series of near collisions with Earth which ended in 687 BCE, before settling into its current orbit. Velikovsky used this to explain the biblical plagues of Egypt, the biblical reference to the "Sun standing still" for a day (Joshua 10:12 & 13, explained by changes in Earth's rotation), and the sinking of Atlantis. Scientists vigorously rejected Velikovsky's conjectures. Current application Neocatastrophism is the explanation of sudden extinctions in the palaeontological record by high magnitude, low frequency events (such as asteroid impacts, super-volcanic eruptions, supernova gamma ray bursts, etc.), as opposed to the more prevalent geomorphological thought which emphasises low magnitude, high frequency events. Luis Alvarez impact event hypothesis In 1980, Walter and Luis Alvarez published a paper suggesting that a asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period. The impact wiped out about 70% of all species, including the non-avian dinosaurs, leaving behind the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–T boundary). In 1990, a candidate crater marking the impact was identified at Chicxulub in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. These events sparked a wide acceptance of a scientifically based catastrophism with regard to certain events in the distant past. Since then, the debate about the extinction of the dinosaurs and other mass extinction events has centered on whether the extinction mechanism was the asteroid impact, widespread volcanism (which occurred about the same time), or some other mechanism or combination. Most of the mechanisms suggested are catastrophic in nature. The observation of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 cometary collision with Jupiter illustrated that catastrophic events occur as natural events. Moon-formation Modern theories also suggest that Earth's anomalously large moon was formed catastrophically. In a paper published in Icarus in 1975, William K. Hartmann and Donald R. Davis proposed that a catastrophic near-miss by a large planetesimal early in Earth's formation approximately 4.5 billion years ago blew out rocky debris, remelted Earth and formed the Moon, thus explaining the Moon's lesser density and lack of an iron core. The impact theory does have some faults; some computer simulations show the formation of a ring or multiple moons post impact, and elements are not quite the same between the Earth and Moon. See also Alternatives to evolution by natural selection Clarence King Flood basalt Glacial lake outburst flood History of geology History of paleontology Megatsunami Pensée (Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered) Punctuated equilibrium Supervolcano Uniformitarianism Volcanic winter Zanclean flood References Sources Further reading Lewin, R.; Complexity, Dent, London, 1993, p. 75 Palmer, T.; Catastrophism, Neocatastrophism and Evolution. Society for Interdisciplinary Studies in association with Nottingham Trent University, 1994, (SIS) (Nottingham Trent University) External links Impact Tectonics Catastrophism and Mass Extinctions The Fall and Rise of Catastrophism Catastrophism! Man, Myth and Mayhem in Ancient History and the Sciences Answers In Creation - Catastrophism Article Dictionary of the History of Ideas: "Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism" History of Earth science Creationism Disasters Geology theories

Anti-statism

Anti-statism is an approach to social, economic or political philosophy that opposes the influence of the state over society. It emerged in reaction to the formation of modern sovereign states, which anti-statists considered to work against the interests of the people. During the 19th century, anarchists formulated a critique of the state that upheld the inherently cooperative and decentralised aspects of human society. Anti-statism was later taken up by neoliberalism, which sought to cut state investment in the public sector and expand investment in the private sector. This caused a reaction from anti-statist social movements, which, now disconnected from state benefits, sought to overthrow or limit state systems, respectively through guerrilla warfare or by establishing decentralised and autonomous local institutions. Background The modern conception of the sovereign state emerged in the wake of the Peace of Westphalia, which defined the rights, obligations and boundaries of states, replacing the old system of feudalism. The consolidation of these new European states was supported by the concurrent rise of colonialism and mercantile capitalism, which built an economic base for sovereign states to establish a monopoly on violence and organise a bureaucracy. Anti-statist tendencies were constituted to critique and oppose the modern bureaucratic state, which anti-statism considers to be inherently tyrannical and to act against individual liberty. Development A formalised opposition to the modern sovereign state began to emerge during the 19th century, as various political tendencies started arguing that states worked in counter to people's "natural tendency" towards decentralisation. These anti-statists argued that centralisation promoted state interests and subordinated popular interests, and considered the main motivation of states to be territorial expansion, which they believed would inevitably result in inter-state war. Among the first anti-statists were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who in their work The Communist Manifesto, written during the Revolutions of 1848, argued that the capitalist state operated against the interests of the working class and called for a revolution to overthrow existing states and establish a free association of producers in their place. One branch of anti-statism soon developed into the political philosophy of anarchism, which through the works of Peter Kropotkin and Elisée Reclus, constituted a naturalist argument against the state. Kropotkin theorised that human evolution had been driven by a process of mutual aid and that humanity's natural tendency towards cooperation had thus influenced its sociocultural evolution. Kropotkin believed that capitalism and statism acted against human society's natural tendency towards cooperation and decentralisation, and viewed the territorial expansionism of modern states, including that of the Russian Soviet Republic, as antithetical to human geography. Reclus likewise criticised state borders as inherently "artificial" as they did not tend to corresponded with natural regions, and saw violent conflict as an inevitable consequence of a state's territorial expansionism, which he criticised as pitting humanity against nature. In the 20th century, anti-statism evolved in two directions, one that sought to "hollow out the state" and another that sought to create a movement to overthrow the state. The former tendency coagulated into neoliberalism, which aimed to undo Keynesian reforms by cutting state investment in public infrastructure and welfare and instituting deregulation, rather than abolishing the state entirely. Neoliberals tend to advocate for laissez-faire economics, preferring to invest in the private sector rather than the public sector, as they think the former will provide a greater benefit to society than the latter. In contrast, anti-statist social movements can seek to either limit or eliminate the influence of the state, either through violent or non-violent means. Some carry out guerrilla warfare against the state, while others attempt to establish a form of autonomy from the state or decentralise power to local institutions. In many cases, these social movements emerged in reaction against the policies of neoliberalism, as fewer people felt invested in a state that was increasingly divesting from the public sector. See also Anti-politics Anti-system politics References Bibliography Further reading Anarchist theory Libertarianism Libertarian theory Statism

Racial hierarchy

A racial hierarchy is a system of stratification that is based on the belief that some racial groups are superior to other racial groups. At various points of history, racial hierarchies have featured in societies, often being formally instituted in law, such as in the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany. Generally, those who support racial hierarchies believe themselves to be part of the 'superior' race and base their supposed superiority on pseudo-biological, cultural or religious arguments. However, systems of racial hierarchy have also been widely rejected and challenged, and many, such as Apartheid have been abolished. The abolition of such systems has not stopped debate around racial hierarchy and racism more broadly. Asia Latin America Liberia Liberia confers nationality solely on the basis of race. Under the current Liberian constitution, only persons of Black African origins (Negroes) may obtain citizenship, although Liberian law allows members of other races to hold permanent residency status. Features of the first constitution that have been upheld include: Article V, Section 13 of the 1847 Constitution which states: "The great object of forming these Colonies, being to provide a home for the dispersed and oppressed children of Africa, and to regenerate and enlighten this benighted continent, none but persons of colour shall be eligible to citizenship in this Republic." The phrasing "persons of colour" was changed to "Negroes or persons of Negro descent" in a 1955 revision. United States Slavery From the founding of the United States until after the Civil War, racial hierarchy was visible through the racially-based Slavery in the United States which had taken root before American independence. Though many abolitionists had campaigned for slavery to be ended, there was much resistance from those who benefitted economically, as well as those who believed it was 'natural' for racially based reasons-these two groups were not mutually exclusive. In order to maintain and defend slavery, pro-slavery writers organized a "planter liberalism" by combining paternalist and liberal views into an ideology that could be understood by both slave-holding and non-slave-holding citizens. Their ideology was based on familiar domestic relationships. These views later paved the way for white Southern planters to keep racial conditions as close to slavery as legally possible after the Civil War during the Reconstruction era. The Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished legal slavery in 1865, did not remove institutionalised racial hierarchy. In the southern states which had retained slavery until the end of the Civil War, states quickly moved to subjugate the freed slaves by introducing Black Codes, which were used to compel blacks to work for low wages and to control other aspects of their lives. Intellectual and civil rights activist W.E.B Du Bois wrote in 1935: Slavery was not abolished even after the Thirteenth Amendment. There were four million freedmen and most of them on the same plantation, doing the same work they did before emancipation, except as their work had been interrupted and changed by the upheaval of war....They had been freed practically with no land nor money, and, save in exceptional cases, without legal status, and without protection' As policies in the United States changed after the Reconstruction period, elements within the white population tried to continue their domination of the races they deemed inferior. Laws enacted after the 1880s prevented certain groups like Southern planters from continuing to affirm their mastery as black and white people became more legally equal. Southern Darwinian liberals wanted to provide little civil and political rights to blacks as a part of their mission to maintain white supremacy. Segregation Racial segregation, mandated by the Jim Crow laws, was a visible aspect of racial hierarchy in the United States until 1965. The system was justified by the concept of separate but equal from 1896, but was found to be unconstitutional by a series of Supreme Court rulings under Chief Justice Warren, beginning with Brown vs Board of Education in 1954, which found that 'separate is not equal' in the realm of educational facilities. Racial inequality In a study conducted by the Urban Institute, "black homebuyers encountered discrimination in 22 percent of their searches for rental units and 17 percent in their efforts to purchase homes. For Hispanics, the figures were 26 and 20 percent." African Americans and Hispanic people receive "inferior health care" compared to Caucasians when dealing with major health problems. A study conducted in 1995, showed that the infant mortality rate was higher for black babies than it was for white babies. The black rate was 14.3 for every 1000 babies as opposed to the 6.3 for every 1000 white babies. Some research has shown that it is easier for white people to find employment than black people despite the white person having a felony conviction. References The War Relocation Authority and The Incarceration of Japanese-American During World War II: 1942, Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. Gordon, Linda, and Gary Okihiro. Persons of Japanese Ancestry. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. The Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed 2009-05-29. Herbert J. Gans. "The Possibility of a New Racial Hierarchy in the Twenty-first-century United States," in the Cultural Territories of Race: Black and White Boundaries, edited by Michele Lamont, pp. 371–79, 386–90. Copyright 1999 by the University of Chicago Press. Johnson, Allan G.. The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology: A User's Guide to Sociological Language. Malden: Blackwell Pub, 2000. Jacques, Martin. "The Global Hierarchy of Race." Common Dreams | News & Views. 13 Nov. 2008 <https://web.archive.org/web/20081011053448/http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0920-06.htm>. Further reading (2009) Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity, 4/e. Charles A. Gallagher (2004) From Jim Crow to racial hegemony: Evolving explanations of racial hierarchy, by Steven J. Gold. Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 27 No. 6 November 2004 pp. 951–968. Discusses the nature of the racial hierarchy in the USA, contrasts the (black/white) bipolar model vs more complex ranking systems. (2003) The global hierarchy of race, by Martin Jacques. Racism Social inequality Hierarchy

Transatlantic relations

Transatlantic relations refer to the historic, cultural, political, economic and social relations between countries on both side of the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes it specifically means relationships between the Anglophone North American countries (the United States and Canada), and particular European countries or organizations, although other meanings are possible. There are a number of issues over which the United States and Europe generally disagree. Some of these are cultural, such as the U.S. use of the death penalty, some are international issues such as the Middle East peace process where the United States is often seen as pro-Israel and where Europe is often seen as pro-Arab (or at least neutral), and many others are trade related. The current U.S. policies are often described as being unilateral in nature, whereas the European Union and Canada are often said to take a more multilateral approach, relying more on the United Nations and other international institutions to help solve issues. There are many other issues upon which they agree. Definition Transatlantic relations can refer to relations between individual states or to relations between groups of states or international organizations with other groups or with states, or within one group. For example: Within a group: Intra-NATO relations e.g. Canada–NATO relations Between groups: EU - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) relations European Free Trade Area (EFTA) - NAFTA relations Transatlantic Free Trade Area (theoretical) CARIFORUM - European Commission (Economic Partnership Agreements) Between a group and a state: Canada–European Union relations United States–European Union relations Canada - EFTA Free Trade Agreement Between states: Germany–United States relations Canada–France relations, etc. By language and culture Commonwealth of Nations Community of Portuguese Language Countries Dutch Union La Francophonie Latin Union The boundaries of which states are part of Transatlantic relations depends on the context. The term may be used as a euphemism to a specific bilateral relationship, for example, Anglo-American relations. The boundary could be drawn so as only to refer member states of the EU plus the US, when discussing Euro-American relations. In other circumstances it may include Canada, or non-EU countries in Europe. The term may also be used in the context of the wider Atlantic world including Africa and Latin America. History The early relationship between Europe and America was based on colonialism and mercantilism. The majority of modern states in the Americas can be traced back to colonial states that were founded by European nations, states that were very different from the pre-Columbian civilizations and cultures that had existed before. Even after the United States (and later Canada) became independent, the main relationship between the two continents was one-way migration. Politically the United States tried to keep a distance from European affairs, and Canada was subordinate to British foreign policy. During the First World War however both North American states found themselves fighting in Europe and engrossed in European politics. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points helped to redraw the map of Europe. Although the Roosevelt administration wanted to enter the war against Germany, the vast majority of Americans were too isolationist and disillusioned at their experience in World War I to seek involvement in the World War II, at least until the U.S. was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941. Once involved, the US became pivotal to the war effort and therefore European politics. After the second war the United States and Canada both desired a permanent role in the defence of Europe, and European states wanted protection from the Soviet Union. The result was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which became the lynchpin of Transatlantic relations during the Cold War. Atlanticism is a philosophy which advocates for close cooperation between North America and Europe. See also Atlanticism Atlantic Community Atlantic Council Atlantic history United States–European Union relations European Union–NATO relations German Marshall Fund South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone Transatlantic Economic Council Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) Canada–European Union relations Canada–NATO relations Western World References Bibliography Jussi M. Hanhimaki, Benedikt Schoenborn and Barbara Zanchetta, "Transatlantic Relations since 1945. An Introduction", Routledge, London, 2012. External links A stronger EU-US Partnership and a more open market for the 21st century European Union Institute for Security Studies: The Obama Moment - European and American Perspectives Atlantic Council of the U.S.: Transatlantic Cooperation Against Terrorism Atlantic Council publications on transatlantic economics, security, and politics "The Invisible Pillar of Transatlantic Cooperation: Activating Untapped Science & Technology Assets," Science & Diplomacy R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, called on the U.S. and Europe to embrace common purpose around an ambitious global agenda that would redefine its mission for the 21st Century. Center for Transatlantic Relations United States–European relations Third-country relations of the European Union Canada–Europe relations Relations

Time geography

Time geography or time-space geography is an evolving transdisciplinary perspective on spatial and temporal processes and events such as social interaction, ecological interaction, social and environmental change, and biographies of individuals. Time geography "is not a subject area per se", but rather an integrative ontological framework and visual language in which space and time are basic dimensions of analysis of dynamic processes. Time geography was originally developed by human geographers, but today it is applied in multiple fields related to transportation, regional planning, geography, anthropology, time-use research, ecology, environmental science, and public health. According to Swedish geographer Bo Lenntorp: "It is a basic approach, and every researcher can connect it to theoretical considerations in her or his own way." Origins The Swedish geographer Torsten Hägerstrand created time geography in the mid-1960s based on ideas he had developed during his earlier empirical research on human migration patterns in Sweden. He sought "some way of finding out the workings of large socio-environmental mechanisms" using "a physical approach involving the study of how events occur in a time-space framework". Hägerstrand was inspired in part by conceptual advances in spacetime physics and by the philosophy of physicalism. Hägerstrand's earliest formulation of time geography informally described its key ontological features: "In time-space the individual describes a path" within a situational context; "life paths become captured within a net of constraints, some of which are imposed by physiological and physical necessities and some imposed by private and common decisions". "It would be impossible to offer a comprehensive taxonomy of constraints seen as time-space phenomena", Hägerstrand said, but he "tentatively described" three important classes of constraints: capability constraints — limitations on the activity of individuals because of their biological structure and/or the tools they can command, coupling constraints — limitations that "define where, when, and for how long, the individual has to join other individuals, tools, and materials in order to produce, consume, and transact" (closely related to critical path analysis), and authority constraints — limitations on the domain or "time-space entity within which things and events are under the control of a given individual or a given group". Hägerstrand illustrated these concepts with novel forms of graphical notation (inspired in part by musical notation), such as: the space-time aquarium (or space-time cube), which displays individual paths in axonometric graphical projection of space and time coordinates; the space-time prism, which shows individuals' possible behavior in time-space given their capability constraints and coupling constraints; bundles of paths, which are the conjunction of individual paths due in part to their capability constraints and coupling constraints, and which help to create "pockets of local order"; concentric tubes or rings of accessibility, which indicate certain capability constraints of a given individual, such as limited spatial size and limited manual, oral-auditive and visual range; and nested hierarchies of domains, which show the authority constraints for a given individual or a given group. While this innovative visual language is an essential feature of time geography, Hägerstrand's colleague Bo Lenntorp emphasized that it is the product of an underlying ontology, and "not the other way around. The notation system is a very useful tool, but it is a rather poor reflection of a rich world-view. In many cases, the notational apparatus has been the hallmark of time geography. However, the underlying ontology is the most important feature." Time geography is not only about time-geographic diagrams, just as music is not only about musical notation. Hägerstrand later explained: "What is briefly alluded to here is a 4-dimensional world of forms. This cannot be completely graphically depicted. On the other hand one ought to be able to imagine it with sufficient clarity for it to be of guidance in empirical and theoretical research." By 1981, geographers Nigel Thrift and Allan Pred were already defending time geography against those who would see it "merely as a rigid descriptive model of spatial and temporal organization which lends itself to accessibility constraint analysis (and related exercises in social engineering)." They argued that time geography is not just a model of constraints; it is a flexible and evolving way of thinking about reality that can complement a wide variety of theories and research methods. In the decades since then, Hägerstrand and others have made efforts to expand his original set of concepts. By the end of his life, Hägerstrand had ceased using the phrase "time geography" to refer to this way of thinking and instead used words like topoecology. Later developments Since the 1980s, time geography has been used by researchers in the social sciences, the biological sciences, and in interdisciplinary fields. In 1993, British geographer Gillian Rose noted that "time-geography shares the feminist interest in the quotidian paths traced by people, and again like feminism, links such paths, by thinking about constraints, to the larger structures of society." However, she noted that time geography had not been applied to issues important to feminists, and she called it a form of "social science masculinity". Over the following decades, feminist geographers have revisited time geography and have begun to use it as a tool to address feminist issues. GIS software has been developed to compute and analyze time-geographic problems at a variety of spatial scales. Such analyses have used different types of network datasets (such as walking networks, highway networks, and public transit schedules) as well as a variety of visualization strategies. Specialized software such as GeoTime has been developed to facilitate time-geographic visualization and visual analytics. Time geography has also been used as a form of therapeutic assessment in mental health. Benjamin Bach and colleagues have generalized the space-time cube into a framework for temporal data visualization that applies to all data that can be represented in two dimensions plus time. In the COVID-19 pandemic, time geography approaches were applied to identify close contacts. The pandemic imposed restrictions on the physical mobility of humans, which invited new applications of time geography in the increasingly virtualized post-Covid era. See also Activity space Agent based modeling GIS and public health Historical ecology Historical geographic information system Material flow analysis MuSIASEM Sankey diagram Spatiotemporal database Time–distance diagram Tobler's first law of geography Tobler's second law of geography Value of time Footnotes References Further reading Historical geography Visualization (graphics) Space and time Technical geography

Pasteur's quadrant

Pasteur's quadrant is a classification of scientific research projects that seek fundamental understanding of scientific problems, while also having immediate use for society. Louis Pasteur's research is thought to exemplify this type of method, which bridges the gap between "basic" and "applied" research. The term was introduced by Donald E. Stokes in his book, Pasteur's Quadrant. Other quadrants As shown in the following table, scientific research can be classified by whether it advances human knowledge by seeking a fundamental understanding of nature, or whether it is primarily motivated by the need to solve immediate problems. The result is three distinct classes of research: Pure basic research, exemplified by the work of Niels Bohr, early 20th century atomic physicist. Pure applied research, exemplified by the work of Thomas Edison, inventor. Use-inspired basic research, described here as "Pasteur's Quadrant". Usage Pasteur's quadrant is useful in distinguishing various perspectives within science, engineering and technology. For example, Daniel A. Vallero and Trevor M. Letcher in their book Unraveling Environmental Disasters applied the device to disaster preparedness and response. University science programs are concerned with knowledge-building, whereas engineering programs at the same university will apply existing and emerging knowledge to address specific technical problems. Governmental agencies employ the knowledge from both to solve societal problems. Thus, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects its engineers to apply general scientific principles to design and upgrade flood control systems. This entails selecting the best levee designs for the hydrologic conditions. However, the engineer would also be interested in more basic science to enhance designs in terms of water retention and soil strength. The university scientist is much like Bohr, with the major motivation being new knowledge. The governmental engineer is behaving like Edison, with the greatest interest in utility, and considerably less interest in knowledge for knowledge's sake. The university engineering researcher's interests on the other hand, may fall between Bohr and Edison, looking to enhance both knowledge and utility. It is not likely that many single individuals fall within the Pasteur cell, since both basic and applied science are highly specialized. Thus, modern science and technology employ what might be considered a systems engineering approach, where the Pasteur cell consists of numerous researchers, professionals and practitioners to optimize solutions. Note that modifications to the quadrant model to more precisely reflect how research and development interact continue to be suggested. References Scientific method Louis Pasteur

Military Revolution

The Military Revolution is the theory that a series of radical changes in military strategy and tactics during the 16th and 17th centuries resulted in major lasting changes in governments and society. The theory was introduced by Michael Roberts in the 1950s as he focused on Sweden (1560–1660) searching for major changes in the European way of war caused by the introduction of portable firearms. Roberts linked military technology with larger historical consequences, arguing that innovations in tactics, drill and doctrine by the Dutch and Swedes (1560–1660), which maximized the utility of firearms, led to a need for more trained troops and thus for permanent forces (standing armies). Armies grew much larger and more expensive. These changes in turn had major political consequences in the level of administrative support and the supply of money, men and provisions, producing new financial demands and the creation of new governmental institutions. "Thus, argued Roberts, the modern art of war made possible—and necessary—the creation of the modern state". In the 1990s the concept was modified and extended by Geoffrey Parker, who argued that developments in fortification and siege warfare caused the revolution. Parker also argues that the military revolution in Europe gave European powers a distinct advantage, making it possible for the relatively small European powers to conquer the Americas, as well as large parts of Africa and Asia. Parker's argument has been criticized by Cambridge University political scientist Jason Sharman. The concept of a military revolution during this time has received a mixed reception among historians. Noted military historians Michael Duffy and Jeremy Black strongly criticized the theory and have described it as misleading, exaggerated, and simplistic. Origin of the concept Roberts first proposed the concept of a military revolution in 1955. On 21 January of that year he delivered a lecture before the Queen's University of Belfast; later published as an article, "The Military Revolution, 1560–1660," that has fueled debate in historical circles for five decades, in which the concept has been continually redefined and challenged. Though historians often challenge Roberts' theory, they usually agree with his basic proposal that European methods of warfare changed profoundly somewhere around or during the Early Modern Period. Chronology Roberts placed his military revolution around 1560–1660 as the period in which linear tactics were developed to take advantage of the increasingly effective gunpowder weapons; however, that chronology has been challenged by many scholars. Ayton and Price have remarked on the importance of the "Infantry Revolution" taking place in the early 14th century, and David Eltis has pointed out that the real change to gunpowder weapons and the elaboration of a military doctrine according to that change took place in the early 16th century, not, as Roberts defended, in the late 16th century. Others have defended a later period for the military change. Jeremy Black thinks that the key time period was that of 1660–1710, which saw an exponential growth in the size of European armies, while Clifford J. Rogers has developed the idea of successive military revolutions at different periods, first an "infantry revolution" in the 14th century, secondly an "artillery revolution" in the 15th century, thirdly a "fortifications revolution" in the 16th, fourth a "fire weapons" revolution between 1580 and 1630, and finally a fifth revolution, the increase in size of European armies, between 1650 and 1715. Similarly, Geoffrey Parker has extended the period of the military revolution from 1450 to 1800, the period in which Europeans achieved supremacy over the rest of the world. Some scholars have questioned the revolutionary character of an evolution through four centuries. Clifford Rogers has suggested that the military revolution can best be compared with the concept of "punctuated equilibrium evolution" (a theory originating in biology), meaning short bursts of rapid military innovation followed by longer periods of relative stagnation. The military revolution failed in the Ottoman Empire. According to a 2013 study, there are two factors that explain this failure: "civil-military relations and historical timing. In the Ottoman Empire, the emergence of an institutionally strong and internally cohesive army during the early stages of state formation—in the late fourteenth century—equipped the military with substantial bargaining powers. In contrast, the great powers of Europe drew heavily on private providers of military power during the military revolution and developed similar armies only by the second half of the seventeenth century, limiting the bargaining leverage of European militaries over their rulers. In essence, the Ottoman standing army was able to block reform efforts that it believed challenged its parochial interests." Tactics Linear tactics Shallow formations are ideally suited for defensive deployments, but they are clumsy in offensive missions: the longer the frontage, the more difficult to maintain order and cohesion, or to perform any maneuver, especially wheeling. Gustavus Adolphus understood well that far from being slow and ponderous, the assault columns like those used by Tilly were in fact faster and more flexible, and the Swedish King made use of them when required, like in the battle of Alte Veste (see picture 3). Armies did start to use thinner formations, but in a slow evolution, and subjected to tactical considerations. Firearms were not so effective as to determine solely the deployment of troops, other considerations were also observed, like units' experience, assigned mission, terrain, or the need to meet a required frontage with an understrength unit. The debate of line vs column was carried through the 18th Century up to Napoleonic times, with a temporary reverse to deep columns in the later campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars. Ironically, depth reduction in cavalry formations was a more permanent change introduced by Gustavus Adolphus. In conjunction with less reliance on pistol fire it had the net effect of favouring shock action over firepower, contrary to the tendency defended by Roberts. Trace italienne Roberts' linear tactics concept had an early critic in the younger historian Geoffrey Parker, who asked why the supposedly outdated Spanish tercios defeated the Swedish linear formations at the battle of Nördlingen in 1634. Parker instead suggested that the key development was the appearance of the trace italienne fortifications in early modern Europe. In this view, the difficulty of taking such fortifications resulted in a profound change in military strategy. "Wars became a series of protracted sieges", Parker suggests, and open-pitch battles became "irrelevant" in regions where the trace italienne existed. Ultimately, Parker argues, "military geography", in other words the existence or absence of the trace italienne in a given area, shaped military strategy in the early modern period, and lead to the creation of larger armies necessary to besiege the new fortresses and to garrison them. In this way, Parker placed the birth of the Military Revolution in the early 16th century. He also gives it a new significance; not only was it a factor in the growth of the State, it was also the main factor (together with the "Naval Revolution") in the rise of the West over other Civilizations. This model has been criticised on several grounds. Jeremy Black pointed that it was the development of the State that allowed the growth in size of the armies, not the other way around, and found Parker guilty of "Technological Determinism". More tellingly, the figures presented by Parker to sustain his idea about the growth of armies have been severely criticised by David Eltis as lacking consistency and David Parrott has proved that the period of the trace italienne did not show any significant growth in the size of French armies and that the late period of the Thirty Years War showed an increase in the proportion of cavalry in the armies, contrary to Parker's thesis that the prevalence of siege warfare marked a decrease of its importance. The infantry revolution and the decline of cavalry Some Medieval specialists elaborated on the idea of an infantry revolution happening early in the 14th century, when in some relevant battles, like Courtrai (1302), Bannockburn (1314) or Halmyros (1311), heavy cavalry was routed by infantry; however, it can be pointed out that in all those battles infantry was entrenched or positioned in rough terrain unsuited for cavalry, like in other battles of the 14th and 15th century in which cavalry was defeated. In fact infantry had been victorious in earlier times in similar situations, for instance at the battle of Legnano in 1176, but in open ground infantry still had the worst, as shown for instance at the battle of Patay (1429) and the battle of Formigny (1450) in which the vaunted English longbowmen were easily run down; however, the experience of battles like Courtrai and Bannockburn meant that the myth of the invincible knight disappeared, which was in itself important for transforming medieval warfare. More substance has the case for the "return of Heavy Infantry" as Carey has named it. Pikemen, unlike other infantry, could stand in the open against heavy cavalry. While requiring drill and discipline, individual training requirements were much lower than those for knights, and the switch from heavily armoured knight to footsoldier made possible the expansion in the size of armies from the late 15th century onwards as infantry could be trained more quickly and could be hired in great numbers. But that change was slow. The full development, in the 15th century, of plate armour for both man and horse, combined with the use of the arret (lance rest) which could support a heavier lance, ensured that the heavy cavalryman remained a formidable warrior. Without cavalry, a 15th-century army was unlikely to achieve a decisive victory on the field of battle; battle might be decided by archers or pikemen, but a retreat could only be cut off effectively or followed-up by cavalry. In the 16th century, a lighter, less expensive cavalry gained ground, so that the proportion of cavalry in the armies actually grew continually, so that in the last battles of the Thirty Years War cavalry actually outnumbered infantry as never before since the high feudal period. Another change that took place in the late 15th century was the improvement in siege artillery as to render old style fortifications very vulnerable. But the supremacy of tactical offence in siege warfare was not to last for very long. As Philippe Contamine has noted, by a dialectical process which may be found in all periods, progress in the art of siege was answered by progress in the art of fortification, and vice versa. Charles VIII's invasion of Italy in 1494 demonstrated the potency of siege artillery; but in this region by the early years of the 16th century there were beginning to emerge fortifications which had been designed specifically to resist artillery bombardment. The full impact the 15th-century "artillery revolution" was blunted fairly quickly by the development of the bastion and the trace italienne. But the military supremacy which the possession of a powerful siege train conferred contributed in no small degree to that strengthening of royal authority which we find in some European states in the later 15th century. Size of armies The increase in army size and its influence on the development of Modern States is an important point in the military revolution theory. For example, Spain's army increased from mere tens of thousands in the late 15th century to 300,000 regulars and 500,000 militia (paper strength) by 1625 spread all throughout Europe, according to Philip IV.<ref>Martin Hume. The Court of Philip IV: Spain in Decadence." London 1907, p. 157. Quoting Philip IV's address to the Council of Castile in 1626. "Last year, 1625, we had nearly 300,000 infantry and cavalry in our pay, and over 500,000 men of the militia under arms, whilst the fortresses of Spain are being put into a thorough state of defence. The fleet rose at one time in 1625 to 108 ships of war at sea, without counting the vessels at Flanders, and the crews are the most skillfull mariners this realm ever possessed. This very year of 1626 we have had two royal armies in Flanders and one in the Palatinate, and yet all the power of France, England, Sweden, Venice, Savoy, Denmark, Holland, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Weimar could not save them from our victorious arms."</ref> However, exact estimates are hard to calculate for various reasons. There are several sources for the study of the size of armies in different periods. Administrative sources By their own nature they are the more objective sources available. Since Napoleonic Wars European Commanders had at their disposal periodical strength reports of their units. Those strength reports are the main source for research in conflicts in 19th and 20th centuries, however they are not without problems, different armies count effective strength in different ways, and in some instances reports are inflated by commanding officers to look good to their superiors. Another source was muster calls, non-periodical strength reports of the personnel ready for duty. Muster calls are the main source for the strength of armies before the 19th century, but by their own nature they lack continuity and are ill-suited for long time period analysis. They are, however, the most reliable source for the period and do provide a general picture of army strengths and their variability. Thirdly, pay rolls provide another set of information. They are especially useful to study army costs, but they are not so reliable as muster calls as they only show payments, not real soldiers ready for duty, and before the 19th century "ghost soldiers", men falsely enlisted by officers in order to get the fees for themselves, were a very common occurrence. Finally, Orders of Battle, lists of units without specifying strength, are very important for the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Before that period armies lacked the organization to deploy permanent units, so that orders of battle usually consist in an enumeration of leaders with commands. The exception for Ancient Times would be the Roman army, that from an early period developed a considerable military organization. An Order of Battle is not a reliable source for army strength, since units in campaign, or even in peace time periods, are rarely if ever at full authorized strength. Narrative sources Modern historians make use of the large amount of administrative sources available now, however things were very different in the past. Pre-modern writers too many times give numbers without naming sources, and there are few cases in which we can be sure they are actually using any administrative source. That is especially true when they speak about enemy armies, in which the access to administrative sources was in any case problematic. Besides that, there are a number of additional problems concerning pre-modern historians; they could be very biased in their reports, as inflating the number of enemies has been one of the favourite propagandistic resources of all times. Even when presenting a balanced account, many historians did not possess military experience, thus they lacked the technical judgement to properly assess and critique their sources. On the other hand, they had access to first hand accounts that could be very interesting, although in the subject of numbers were rarely accurate. Historians consider pre-modern narrative sources to be highly unreliable on the subject of numbers, so that it is not possible to make use of them in a pair to administrative sources. Comparatives between modern and pre-modern periods are thus very difficult. Size of overall armies A clear differentiation should be established between Overall armies, i.e., the overall armed forces of a given political entity, and Field Armies, tactical units capable of moving as a single force along a campaign. The growth in size of overall armies has been considered by several scholars as a key issue of the Military Revolution. There are two main theses: it has been either considered a consequence of the economic and demographic growth of the 17th–18th century or the main cause for the growth of the administration and centralization of the Modern State in the same period. However, some opponents of the general thesis have challenged those views, for instance I.A.A. Thompson has noted how the growth in size of the Spanish army in the 16th–17th centuries contributed rather to the economic collapse of Spain and to the weakness of the central government against regional rebellions while Simon Adams has put in question if there was any growth at all in the first half of the 17th century. The growth is however clear in the second half of the 17th century, when the States embrace the task of recruiting and arming themselves their armies, abandoning the system of commission, prevalent until the end of the Thirty Years' War. The organization of a system of Local and Provincial Militias around this period in several countries (and the growing importance of Local Aristocracy, the so-called "refeudalization of the armies" especially in Eastern Europe) contributed to the extension of manpower base of the national armies, although foreign mercenaries still remained a considerable percentage in all European armies. Size of field armies This has been dictated through history by logistical constraints, mainly the supply of food. Before the mid-17th century, armies basically lived off the land. They didn't have supply lines; they moved to the supply, and many times their movements were dictated by supply considerations. While some regions with good communications could supply large armies for longer periods, still they had to disperse when they moved from these well supplied areas. The maximum size of field armies remained under 50,000 for most of this period, and strength reports over this figure are always from unreliable narrative sources and must be regarded with scepticism. In the second half of the 17th things changed greatly. Armies began to be supplied through a net of depots linked by supply lines, that greatly increased the size of Field Armies. In the 18th century and early 19th century, before the advent of the railway, the size of Field Armies reached figures over 100,000. Conclusion The theory of a military revolution based upon technology has given way to models based more on a slow evolution in which technology plays a minor role to organization, command and control, logistics and in general non-material improvements. The revolutionary nature of these changes was only visible after a long evolution that handed Europe a predominant place in warfare, a place that the industrial revolution would confirm. Some historians have begun to challenge the existence of a military revolution in the early modern period and have proposed alternative explanations. The most radical revisionist views of the theory consider it unable to explain the military developments of the Early Modern Period and the hegemonic rise of the West. The new wave of revisionist historians reject completely the idea of a military revolution and base their position on close analysis of the gradual and uneven transformation of tactical, operational, and technological aspects of European warfare over the course of the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period, as well as in their assessment of similar military experiences among non-Western countries, namely, Japan, Korea, the Mughal Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Notes References Bibliography , in EBSCO Jacob, F. & Visoni-Alonzo, G., The Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe, a Revision, Palgrave Pivot, 2016. Roberts, Michael. "The Military Revolution, 1560–1660" (1956) reprinted in ; online copy Further reading Adams, Simon, "Tactics or Politics? 'The Military Revolution' and the Habsburg Hegemony, 1525–1648," in Clifford J. Rogers, ed., The Military Revolution. Readings on the military transformation of Early Modern Europe (Oxford 1995) pp 253–72 Agoston G (2014) :Firearms and military adaptation: The Ottomans and the European military revolution, 1450–1800." Journal of World History 25#1: 85–124. Andrade T. The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation and the Rise of the West in World History (Princeton UP, 2016). Black, Jeremy. "A Revolution in Military Cartography?: Europe 1650–1815." Journal of Military History. Volume 73, January 2009, Pages 49–68. Black, Jeremy, A Military Revolution?: Military Change and European Society, 1550–1800 (London, 1991) Black, Jeremy, "Military Organisations and Military Change in Historical Perspective", The Journal of Military History, 62#4 (1998), pp. 871–892. Black, Jeremy, "War and the World, 1450–2000", The Journal of Military History, Vol. 63, No. 3 (1999), pp. 669–681. Brzezinski, Richard, The Army of Gustavus Adolphus 2. Cavalry (Oxford 1993) Downing, Brian M., The Military Revolution and Political Change: Origins of Democracy and Autocracy in Early Modern Europe (1992) Duffy, Christopher, Siege Warfare: The Fortress in the Early Modern World 1494–1660 (1979) Duffy, Michael. The Military Revolution and the State 1500–1800 (1980) Hale, J. R., "The Military Reformation", in War and Society in Renaissance Europe (London,1985) Hoffman, Philip. 2011. "Prices, the military revolution, and western Europe's comparative advantage in violence." The Economic History Review. Hoffman, Philip. 2012. "Why Was It Europeans Who Conquered the World?" The Journal of Economic History.Hoffman, Philip. 2015. Why Did Europe Conquer the World? Princeton University Press. Howard, Michael, War in European History (1976), chs 1–4 Kennedy, Paul M., The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Changes and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 (1988) Kleinschmidt, Harald, "Using the Gun: Manual Drill and the Proliferation of Portable Firearms," The Journal of Military History, 63#3 (1999), pp. 601–629. Knox, MacGregor and Murray, Williamson, The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300–2050 (Cambridge, 2001) Kubik, Timothy R. W., "Is Machiavelli’s Canon Spiked? Practical Reading in Military History", Journal of Military History, Vol. 61, No. 1 (1997), pp. 7–30. Lorge, Peter A. The Asian Military Revolution: From Gunpowder to the Bomb (2008) McNeill, William H. The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force and Society since AD 1000 (Chicago, 1982) Paoletti, Ciro, "Military revolution, military evolution, or simply evolution?" (Rome: CISM, 2020) http://www.commissionestoriamilitare.it/articoli-libri/ Parker, Geoffrey. "Military Revolutions, Past and Present" in Recent Themes in Military History. Ed. Donald A Yerxa. (U of South Carolina Press, 2008) Parrott, David A. "The Military revolution in Early Modern Europe", History Today, 42 (1992) Paul, Michael C. "The Military Revolution in Russia, 1550–1682," Journal of Military History 2004 68(1): 9–45, Raudzens, George. "War-Winning Weapons: The Measurement of Technological Determinism in Military History", The Journal of Military History, 54#4 (1990), pp. 403–434. Rogers, Clifford J. “‘Military Revolutions’ and ‘Revolutions in Military Affairs’: A Historian’s Perspective” in Thierry Gongora and Harald von Riekhoff (eds.), Toward a Revolution in Military Affairs? Defense and Security at the Dawn of the 21st Century. (Greenwood Press, 2000): 21–36. Rothenberg, G. E. "Maurice of Nassau, Gustavus Adolphus, Raimondo Montecuccoli and the 'Military Revolution' of the 17th century" in P. Paret, G.A. Gordon and F. Gilbert (eds.), Makers of Modern Strategy (1986), pp. 32–63. Sharman, J. C. "Myths of military revolution: European expansion and Eurocentrism." European Journal of International Relations (2017): abstract Tilly, Charles. Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1992 (1990) Historiography and teaching Chet, Guy. "Teaching in the Shadow of the Military Revolution" Journal of Military History (2014) 78# 3, pp 1069–1075. Hall, Bert and DeVries, Kelly, "Essay Review – the 'Military Revolution' Revisited", Technology and Culture 31 (1990), pp. 500–507. Jacob, Frank; Visoni-Alonzo, Gilmar, The Theory of a Military Revolution: Global, Numerous, Endless? (2014). Parker, Geoffrey. "The Military Revolution, 1560–1660 – A Myth?" Journal of Modern History, 48 (1976); reprinted in his Spain and the Netherlands 1559–1659: Ten Studies (1979) Rogers, Clifford J. ed. The Military Revolution Debate: Readings On The Military Transformation Of Early Modern Europe (1995) Sharman, Jason C. "Myths of military revolution: European expansion and Eurocentrism." European Journal of International Relations 24.3 (2018): 491-513 online. Stradling, R. A. "A 'military revolution': the fall-out from the fall-in," European History Quarterly'', 24 (1994), pp. 271–8 Revolution Revolutions by type

Global studies

Global studies (GS) or global affaires (GA) is the interdisciplinary study of global macro-processes. Predominant subjects are political science in the form of global politics, as well as economics, law, the sociology of law, ecology, environmental studies, geography, sociology, culture, anthropology and ethnography. It distinguishes itself from the related discipline of international relations by its comparatively lesser focus on the nation state as a fundamental analytical unit, instead focusing on the broader issues relating to cultural and economic globalisation, global power structures, as well of the effect of humans on the global environment. Characteristics of global studies Six defining characteristics of global studies were identified by scholars at the first annual meeting of the Global Studies Consortium in Tokyo in 2008: Transnationality; which highlights the focus on global processes; rather than the connections between individual states studied in international relations; Interdisciplinary: global studies scholarship can involve politics, economics, history, geography, anthropology, sociology, religion, technology, philosophy, health as well as the study of the environment, gender, and race; Contemporary and historical examples range from the transnational activity of the Greek and Roman Empires to modern European colonialism; Postcolonial and Critical-theoretical in its approach: global studies often emphasizes a postcolonial perspective, and attempts to analyze global phenomena through a critical-theoretical, multicultural lens. This includes criticising perspectives of eurocentrism and orientalism in traditional conceptual frameworks. History and context The development of global studies in secondary and tertiary education is arguably a product of globalization, and its consequent results on the international community. In the late 20th century, an unprecedented rise in communications technologies and computerization occurred around the world, again enhancing the processes of globalization: “it is a shift in our very life circumstances ... the speed of change is closely allied to the growth of communication, and development in information and communication technologies have been exponential ... globalization is a fact of life from which we cannot retreat.”. As a result of this constantly changing global community, education providers began to see a need for the introduction of global studies into secondary school curricula (i.e. introduction of global issues through already existing subjects), and to create global studies degrees for tertiary students (i.e. sole degrees with a global focus). According to Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Mellichamp Professor of Global Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara:The first Global Studies conference took place at the University of Illinois Chicago in 2008; the 2009 conference was held in Dubai on the theme Views from Dubai: The Gulf and Globalization. The 2010 conference was in Busan, South Korea under the heading Global Rebalancing: East Asia and Globalization; the 2011 conference took place in Rio de Janeiro on Emerging societies and Emancipation; the 2012 conference was at Moscow University on the theme of Eurasia and Globalization: Complexity and Global studies; and the 2013 conference took place in New Delhi on the theme of Social Development in South Asia.The Global Studies Journal was founded in 2008 and is "devoted to mapping and interpreting new trends and patterns in globalization". Subjects of interest The field of global studies revolves around the impacts of globalization and the growing interdependence of states, economies, societies, cultures, and people. Some of the most pressing issues in global studies are national security and diplomacy, effective citizenship in a participatory democracy, global competitiveness in a world market and the desire to enter the aid and development sector. National security The first major funding for international education was the 1966 International Education Act in the US. It provided funding to institutions of higher education to create and strengthen international studies programs. Created at the time of the Cold War, this act stressed the need for all citizens (with a focus on USA citizens) to understand global issues in order to build skills for diplomacy.”The importance of diplomacy as a driving force for political development is well known and understood. It is of great importance as a long term instrument for conflict prevention.” The development of issues and crisis on a global scale such as international terrorism, climate change and environmental degradation, pandemics (such as ebola), and the Great Recession have convinced policymakers of the importance of global studies and international education to national security and diplomacy. Global economy A second motivation for global studies is facilitating a better understanding of the global marketplace. Many international companies have identified the need for a workforce that has the skills to work cross-culturally and identify and serve the needs of a global market. Some international companies, such as Microsoft, have taken the lead in convening policymakers and key stakeholders to demand additional investment in education. The US state and federal governments have also placed global studies as a key priority for preparing a competitive workforce. Furthermore, in 2002 the Australian federal government (through its development body AusAID) used some of its funding to introduce a ‘Global Education Program.’ This program aims to increase understanding of development and international issues among Australian students. It provides teachers with professional development opportunities with NGOs and thorough curriculum support. The program “informs and encourages teachers to introduce students to global issues in a classroom setting.” Higher education institutions have closely followed with integrating international studies across disciplines. It is rare to find a leading business school without an international focus. Global citizenship and rights A third motivation for global studies is the creation of an effective citizenry. In the US, the National Council of Social Studies states that the purpose of social studies is to “teach students the content knowledge, intellectual skills, and civic values necessary for fulfilling the duties of citizenship in a participatory democracy.” A key goal of the NCSS is “global education”. As globalization causes the lines between national and international to become blurred, it becomes increasingly important for citizens to understand global relationships. The creation of effective Global citizenship results in people who are willing to, and have the capacity to become involved in local and global issues. In the UK, local government research conducted in the surrounding areas of London has found that citizens must have the opportunity to become involved and then possess the skill, knowledge and confidence to take part. The outcomes are often very positive, leading to an improvement in services, better quality of democratic participation and community education. To achieve effective citizenship, students must be educated in ways that engage and place emphasis on the importance of global issues. By studying a subject such as global studies, students can gain the knowledge required to become effective citizens. Some critical scholars note that beyond content, students must be taught "global cognition" in order to truly understand global perspectives. These scholars believe that in order to fully understand world issues, students must recognize that their perspective is not necessarily shared by others and understand the social forces that influence their views. International Institutions By 2006, the international development sector had expanded exponentially, with the “NGO sector now being the 8th largest economy in the world ... employing nearly 19 million paid workers." Financing health projects used to be the biggest issue in global aid, but private and public organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have helped overcome such problems. The issue now is making sure that the money is used in a proper manner to help those in need of the primary essentials of life. Studying global studies may lead to involvement in the aid and development sector in multiple ways. These can include working in post-conflict or natural disaster zones, improving public services in developing communities (health, education, infrastructure, agriculture) or aiding private sector growth through business and market models. See also Engaged theory Globalism Global justice Globalization International relations Futurology Global Studies Consortium References Global studies Higher education Interdisciplinary subfields of sociology

Postcolonial literature

Postcolonial literature is the literature by people from formerly colonized countries, originating from all continents except Antarctica. Postcolonial literature often addresses the problems and consequences of the decolonization of a country, especially questions relating to the political and cultural independence of formerly subjugated people, and themes such as racialism and colonialism. A range of literary theory has evolved around the subject. It addresses the role of literature in perpetuating and challenging what postcolonial critic Edward Said refers to as cultural imperialism. Migrant literature and postcolonial literature show some considerable overlap. However, not all migration takes place in a colonial setting, and not all postcolonial literature deals with migration. A question of current debate is the extent to which postcolonial theory also speaks to migration literature in non-colonial settings. Terminology The significance of the prefix "post-" in "postcolonial" is a matter of contention among scholars and historians. In postcolonial studies, there has not been a unified consensus on when colonialism began and when it has ended (with numerous scholars contending that it has not). The contention has been influenced by the history of colonialism, which is commonly divided into several major phases; the European colonization of the Americas began in the 15th century and lasted until the 19th, while the colonisation of Africa and Asia reached their peak in the 19th century. By the dawn of the 20th century, the vast majority of non-European regions were under European colonial rule; this would last until after the Second World War when anti-colonial independence movements led to the decolonization of Africa, Asia and the Americas. Historians have also expressed differing opinions in regards to the postcolonial status of nations established through settler colonialism, such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Ongoing neocolonialism in the Global South and the effects of colonialism (many of which have persisted after the end of direct colonial rule) have made it difficult to determine whether or not a nation being no longer under colonial rule guarantees its postcolonial status. Pramod Nayar defines postcolonial literature as "that which negotiates with, contests, and subverts Euro-American ideologies and representations" Evolution of the term Before the term "postcolonial literature" gained currency among scholars, "commonwealth literature" was used to refer to writing in English from colonies or nations which belonged to the British Commonwealth. Even though the term included literature from Britain, it was most commonly used for writing in English written in British colonies. Scholars of commonwealth literature used the term to designate writing in English that dealt with the topic of colonialism. They advocated for its inclusion in literary curricula, hitherto dominated by the British canon. However, the succeeding generation of postcolonial critics, many of whom belonged to the post-structuralist philosophical tradition, took issue with the "commonwealth" label for separating non-British writing from "English" language literature written in Britain. They also suggested that texts in this category frequently presented a short-sighted view on the legacy of colonialism. Other terms used for English-language literature from former British colonies include terms that designate a national corpus of writing such as Australian or Canadian literature; numerous terms such as "English Literature Other than British and American", "New Literatures in English", "International Literature in English"; and "World Literatures" were coined. These, however, have been dismissed either as too vague or too inaccurate to represent the vast body of dynamic writing emerging from British colonies during and after the period of direct colonial rule. The term "colonial" and "postcolonial" continue to be used for writing emerging during and after the period of colonial rule respectively. "Post-colonial" or "postcolonial"? The consensus in the field is that "post-colonial" (with a hyphen) signifies a period that comes chronologically "after" colonialism. "Postcolonial," on the other hand, signals the persisting impact of colonization across time periods and geographical regions. While the hyphen implies that history unfolds in neatly distinguishable stages from pre- to post-colonial, omitting the hyphen creates a comparative framework by which to understand the varieties of local resistance to colonial impact. Arguments in favor of the hyphen suggest that the term "postcolonial" dilutes differences between colonial histories in different parts of the world and that it homogenizes colonial societies. The body of critical writing that participates in these debates is called Postcolonial theory. Critical approaches Postcolonial fiction writers deal with the traditional colonial discourse, either by modifying or by subverting it, or both. Postcolonial literary theory re-examines colonial and postcolonial literature, especially concentrating upon the social discourse between the colonizer and the colonized that shaped and produced the literature. In Orientalism (1978), Edward Said analyzed the fiction of Honoré de Balzac, Charles Baudelaire, and Lautréamont (Isidore-Lucien Ducasse), exploring how they shaped and were influenced by the societal fantasy of European racial superiority. He pioneered the branch of postcolonial criticism called colonial discourse analysis. Another important theorist of colonial discourse is Harvard University professor Homi K. Bhabha, (born 1949). He has developed a number of the field's neologisms and key concepts, such as hybridity, third-space, mimicry, difference, and ambivalence. Western canonical works like Shakespeare's The Tempest, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, Rudyard Kipling's Kim, and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness have been targets of colonial discourse analysis. The succeeding generation of postcolonial critics focus on texts that "write back" to the colonial center. In general, postcolonial theory analyzes how anti-colonial ideas, such as anti-conquest, national unity, négritude, pan-Africanism and postcolonial feminism were forged in and promulgated through literature. Prominent theorists include Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Frantz Fanon, Bill Ashcroft, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Chinua Achebe, Leela Gandhi, Gareth Griffiths, Abiola Irele, John McLeod, Hamid Dabashi, Helen Tiffin, Khal Torabully, and Robert J. C. Young. Nationalism The sense of identification with a nation, or nationalism, fueled anti-colonial movements that sought to gain independence from colonial rule. Language and literature were factors in consolidating this sense of national identity to resist the impact of colonialism. With the advent of the printing press, newspapers and magazines helped people across geographical barriers identify with a shared national community. This idea of the nation as a homogeneous imagined community connected across geographical barriers through the medium of language became the model for the modern nation. Postcolonial literature not only helped consolidate national identity in anti-colonial struggles but also critiqued the European colonial pedigree of nationalism. As depicted in Salman Rushdie's novels for example, the homogeneous nation was built on European models by the exclusion of marginalized voices. They were made up of religious or ethnic elites who spoke on behalf of the entire nation, silencing minority groups. Negritude, pan-Africanism and pan-nationalism Négritude is a literary and ideological philosophy, developed by francophone African intellectuals, writers, and politicians in France during the 1930s. Its initiators included Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor (a future President of Senegal), and Léon Damas of French Guiana. Négritude intellectuals disapproved of French colonialism and claimed that the best strategy to oppose it was to encourage a common racial identity for native Africans worldwide. Pan-Africanism was a movement among English-speaking black intellectuals who echoed the principles négritude. Frantz Fanon (1925–1961), a Martinique-born Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and writer, was one of the proponents of the movement. His works are influential in the fields of postcolonial studies, critical theory, and Marxism. As an intellectual, Fanon was a political radical and Marxist humanist concerned with the psychopathology of colonization, and the human, social, and cultural consequences of decolonization. Back to Africa movement Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. (1887–1940), another proponent of Pan-Africanism, was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). He also founded the Black Star Line, a shipping and passenger line which promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands. Prior to the 20th century, leaders such as Prince Hall, Martin Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and Henry Highland Garnet advocated the involvement of the African diaspora in African affairs. However, Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global mass movement and economic empowerment focusing on Africa. The philosophy came to be known as Garveyism. Promoted by the UNIA as a movement of African Redemption, Garveyism would eventually inspire others, ranging from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafari movement (some sects of which proclaim Garvey as a prophet). Against advocates of literature that promoted African racial solidarity in accordance with negritude principles, Frantz Fanon argued for a national literature aimed at achieving national liberation. Paul Gilroy argued against reading literature both as an expression of a common black racial identity and as a representation of nationalist sentiments. Rather, he argued that black cultural forms—including literature—were diasporic and transnational formations born out of the common historical and geographical effects of transatlantic slavery. Anti-conquest The "anti-conquest narrative" recasts the indigenous inhabitants of colonized countries as victims rather than foes of the colonisers. This depicts the colonised people in a more human light but risks absolving colonisers of responsibility by assuming that native inhabitants were "doomed" to their fate. In her book Imperial Eyes, Mary Louise Pratt analyzes the strategies by which European travel writing portrays Europe as a secure home space against a contrasting representation of colonized outsiders. She proposes a completely different theorization of "anti-conquest" than the ideas discussed here, one that can be traced to Edward Said. Instead of referring to how natives resist colonization or are victims of it, Pratt analyzes texts in which a European narrates his adventures and struggles to survive in the land of the non-European Other. This secures the innocence of the imperialist even as he exercises his dominance, a strategy Pratt terms "anti-conquest." The anti-conquest is a function of how the narrator writes him or her self out of being responsible for or an agent, direct or indirect, of colonization and colonialism. This different notion of anti-conquest is used to analyze the ways in which colonialism and colonization are legitimized through stories of survival and adventure that purport to inform or entertain. Pratt created this unique notion in association with concepts of contact zone and transculturation, which have been very well received in Latin America social and human science circles. The terms refer to the conditions and effects of encounter between the colonizer and the colonized. Postcolonial feminist literature Postcolonial feminism emerged as a response to the Eurocentric focus of feminism. It accounts for the way that racism and the long-lasting political, economic, and cultural effects of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women in the postcolonial world. Postcolonial feminism is not simply a subset of postcolonial studies or another variety of feminism. Rather, it seeks to act as an intervention that changes the assumptions of both postcolonial and feminist studies.Audre Lorde's foundational essay, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House", uses the metaphor of the master's tools and master's house to explain that western feminism fails to make positive change for third world women because it uses the same tools as the patriarchy. Postcolonial feminist fiction seeks to decolonize the imagination and society. With global debt, labor, and environmental crises one the rise, the precarious position of women (especially in the global south) has become a prevalent concern of postcolonial feminist novels. Common themes include women's roles in globalized societies and the impact of mass migration to metropolitan urban centers. Pivotal texts, including Nawal El Saadawi's The Fall of the Iman about the lynching of women, Chimamanda Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun about two sisters in pre and post war Nigeria, and Giannina Braschi's United States of Banana which declares the independence of Puerto Rico. Other major voices include Maryse Condé, Fatou Diome, and Marie NDiaye. Postcolonial feminist cultural theorists include Rey Chow, Maria Lugones, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Trinh T. Minh-ha. Pacific Islands The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. Depending on the context, it may refer to countries and islands with common Austronesian origins, islands once or currently colonized, or Oceania. There is a burgeoning group of young pacific writers who respond and speak to the contemporary Pasifika experience, including writers Lani Wendt Young, Courtney Sina Meredith and Selina Tusitala Marsh. Reclamation of culture, loss of culture, diaspora, all themes common to postcolonial literature, are present within the collective Pacific writers. Pioneers of the literature include two of the most influential living authors from this region: Witi Ihimaera, New Zealand's first published Māori novelist, and Samoan poet Albert Wendt (born 1939). Wendt lives in New Zealand. Among his works is Leaves of the Banyan Tree (1979). He is of German heritage through his paternal great-grandfather, which is reflected in some of his poems. He describes his family heritage as "totally Samoan", even though he has a German surname. However, he does not explicitly deny his German heritage. Another notable figure from the region is Sia Figiel (born 1967), a contemporary Samoan novelist, poet, and painter, whose debut novel Where We Once Belonged won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book of 1997, South East Asia and South Pacific Region. Sia Figiel grew up amidst traditional Samoan singing and poetry, which heavily influenced her writing. Figiel's greatest influence and inspiration in her career is the Samoan novelist and poet, Albert Wendt. Australia At the point of the first colonization of Australia from 1788, Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) had not developed a system of writing, so the first literary accounts of Aboriginal peoples come from the journals of early European explorers, which contain descriptions of first contact, both violent and friendly. Early accounts by Dutch explorers and the English buccaneer William Dampier wrote of the "natives of New Holland" as being "barbarous savages", but by the time of Captain James Cook and First Fleet marine Watkin Tench (the era of Jean-Jacques Rousseau), accounts of Aboriginal peoples were more sympathetic and romantic: "these people may truly be said to be in the pure state of nature, and may appear to some to be the most wretched upon the earth; but in reality they are far happier than ... we Europeans", wrote Cook in his journal on 23 August 1770. While his father, James Unaipon (c. 1835–1907), contributed to accounts of Aboriginal mythology written by the South Australian missionary George Taplin, David Unaipon (1872–1967) provided the first accounts of Aboriginal mythology written by an Aboriginal person in his Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines. For this he is known as the first Aboriginal author. Oodgeroo Noonuccal (born Kath Walker, 1920–1995) was an Australian poet, political activist, artist and educator. She was also a campaigner for Aboriginal rights. Oodgeroo was best known for her poetry, and was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse, We Are Going (1964). Sally Morgan's novel My Place (1987) was considered a breakthrough memoir in terms of bringing Indigenous stories to wider notice. Leading Aboriginal activists Marcia Langton (First Australians, 2008) and Noel Pearson (Up From the Mission, 2009) are active contemporary contributors to Australian literature. The voices of Indigenous Australians continue to be increasingly noticed, and include the playwright Jack Davis and Kevin Gilbert. Writers coming to prominence in the 21st century include Kim Scott, Alexis Wright, Kate Howarth, Tara June Winch, in poetry Yvette Holt and in popular fiction Anita Heiss. Indigenous authors who have won Australia's high prestige Miles Franklin Award include Kim Scott who was joint winner (with Thea Astley) in 2000 for Benang and again in 2011 for That Deadman Dance. Alexis Wright won the award in 2007 for her novel Carpentaria. Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? (2014), which, based on research already done by others but rarely included in standard historical narratives, reexamines colonial accounts of Aboriginal people in Australia and cites evidence of pre-colonial agriculture, engineering and building construction by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The book won much acclaim, winning the Book of the Year in the NSW Premier's Literary Award and others, as well as selling very well: by 2019 it was in its 28the printing and had sold over 100,000 copies. Many notable works have been written by non-Indigenous Australians on Aboriginal themes. Eleanor Dark's (1901–1985) The Timeless Land (1941) is the first of The Timeless Land trilogy of novels about European settlement and exploration of Australia. The narrative is told from European and Aboriginal points of view. Other examples include the poems of Judith Wright, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally, Ilbarana by Donald Stuart, and the short story by David Malouf: "The Only Speaker of his Tongue". Africa Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1901–1991), a Malian writer and ethnologist, and Ayi Kwei Armah (born 1939) from Ghana, author of Two Thousand Seasons have tried to establish an African perspective to their own history. Another significant African novel is Season of Migration to the North by Tayib Salih from the Sudan. Doris Lessing (1919–2013) from Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, published her first novel The Grass is Singing in 1950, after immigrating to England. She initially wrote about her African experiences. Lessing soon became a dominant presence in the English literary scene, frequently publishing right through the century, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007. Yvonne Vera (1964–2005) was an author from Zimbabwe. Her novels are known for their poetic prose, difficult subject-matter, and their strong women characters, and are firmly rooted in Zimbabwe's difficult past. Tsitsi Dangarembga (born 1959) is a notable Zimbabwean author and filmmaker. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (born 1938) is a Kenyan writer, formerly working in English and now working in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. Stephen Atalebe (born 1983) is a Ghanaian Fiction writer who wrote the Hour of Death in Harare, detailing the post-colonial struggles in Zimbabwe as they navigate through sanctions imposed by the British Government under George Blair. Bate Besong (1954–2007) was a Cameroonian playwright, poet and critic, who was described by Pierre Fandio as "one of the most representative and regular writers of what might be referred to as the second generation of the emergent Cameroonian literature in English". Other Cameroonian playwrights are Anne Tanyi-Tang, and Bole Butake. Dina Salústio (born 1941) is a Cabo Verdean novelist and poet, whose works are considered an important contribution to Lusophone postcolonial literature, with a particular emphasis on their promotion of women's narratives. Nigeria Nigerian author Chinua Achebe (1930–2013) gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s. Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" featured a famous criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a thoroughgoing racist". A titled Igbo chieftain himself, Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African values during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. He also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections. Wole Soyinka (born 1934) is a playwright and poet, who was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African to be honored in that category. Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. After studying in Nigeria and Great Britain, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years. Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) is a novelist, nonfiction writer and short story writer. A MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, Adichie has been called "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors [that] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature". Buchi Emecheta OBE (1944–2017) was a Nigerian novelist based in Britain who published more than 20 books, including Second-Class Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977) and The Joys of Motherhood (1979). Her themes of child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom through education won her considerable critical acclaim and honours. South Africa Elleke Boehmer writes, "Nationalism, like patriarchy, favours singleness—one identity, one growth pattern, one birth and blood for all ... [and] will promote specifically unitary or 'one-eyed' forms of consciousness." The first problem any student of South African literature is confronted with, is the diversity of the literary systems. Gerrit Olivier notes, "While it is not unusual to hear academics and politicians talk about a 'South African literature', the situation at ground level is characterised by diversity and even fragmentation". Robert Mossman adds that "One of the enduring and saddest legacies of the apartheid system may be that no one – White, Black, Coloured (meaning of mixed-race in South Africa), or Asian – can ever speak as a 'South African. The problem, however, pre-dates Apartheid significantly, as South Africa is a country made up of communities that have always been linguistically and culturally diverse. These cultures have all retained autonomy to some extent, making a compilation such as the controversial Southern African Literatures by Michael Chapman, difficult. Chapman raises the question: [W]hose language, culture, or story can be said to have authority in South Africa when the end of apartheid has raised challenging questions as to what it is to be a South African, what it is to live in a new South Africa, whether South Africa is a nation, and, if so, what its mythos is, what requires to be forgotten and what remembered as we scour the past in order to understand the present and seek a path forward into an unknown future. South Africa has 11 national languages: Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana, Venda, SiSwati, Tsonga, and Ndebele. Any definitive literary history of South Africa should, it could be argued, discuss literature produced in all eleven languages. But the only literature ever to adopt characteristics that can be said to be "national" is Afrikaans. Olivier argues: "Of all the literatures in South Africa, Afrikaans literature has been the only one to have become a national literature in the sense that it developed a clear image of itself as a separate entity, and that by way of institutional entrenchment through teaching, distribution, a review culture, journals, etc. it could ensure the continuation of that concept." Part of the problem is that English literature has been seen within the greater context of English writing in the world, and has, because of English's global position as lingua franca, not been seen as autonomous or indigenous to South Africa – in Olivier's words: "English literature in South Africa continues to be a sort of extension of British or international English literature." The African languages, on the other hand, are spoken across the borders of Southern Africa - for example, Tswana is spoken in Botswana, and Tsonga in Zimbabwe, and Sotho in Lesotho. South Africa's borders were established during the colonial era and, as with all other colonies, these borders were drawn without regard for the people living within them. Therefore: in a history of South African literature, do we include all Tswana writers, or only the ones with South African citizenship? Chapman bypasses this problem by including "Southern" African literatures. The second problem with the African languages is accessibility, because since the African languages are regional languages, none of them can claim the readership on a national scale comparable to Afrikaans and English. Sotho, for instance, while transgressing the national borders of the RSA, is on the other hand mainly spoken in the Free State, and bears a great amount of relation to the language of Natal for example, Zulu. So the language cannot claim a national readership, while on the other hand being "international" in the sense that it transgresses the national borders. Olivier argues that "There is no obvious reason why it should be unhealthy or abnormal for different literatures to co-exist in one country, each possessing its own infrastructure and allowing theoreticians to develop impressive theories about polysystems". Yet political idealism proposing a unified "South Africa" (a remnant of the plans drawn up by Sir Henry Bartle Frere) has seeped into literary discourse and demands a unified national literature, which does not exist and has to be fabricated. It is unrealistic to ever think of South Africa and South African literature as homogenous, now or in the near or distant future, since the only reason it is a country at all is the interference of European colonial powers. This is not a racial issue, but rather has to do with culture, heritage and tradition (and indeed the constitution celebrates diversity). Rather, it seems more sensible to discuss South African literature as literature produced within the national borders by the different cultures and language groups inhabiting these borders. Otherwise the danger is emphasising one literary system at the expense of another, and more often than not, the beneficiary is English, with the African languages being ignored. The distinction "black" and "white" literature is further a remnant of colonialism that should be replaced by drawing distinctions between literary systems based on language affiliation rather than race. The first texts produced by black authors were often inspired by missionaries and frequently deal with African history, in particular the history of kings such as Chaka. Modern South African writing in the African languages tends to play at writing realistically, at providing a mirror to society, and depicts the conflicts between rural and urban settings, between traditional and modern norms, racial conflicts and most recently, the problem of AIDS. In the first half of the 20th century, epics largely dominated black writing: historical novels, such as Sol T. Plaatje's Mhudi: An Epic of South African Native Life a Hundred Years Ago (1930), Thomas Mofolo's Chaka (trans. 1925), and epic plays including those of H. I. E. Dhlomo, or heroic epic poetry such as the work of Mazizi Kunene. These texts "evince black African patriarchy in its traditional form, with men in authority, often as warriors or kings, and women as background figures of dependency, and/or mothers of the nation". Female literature in the African languages is severely limited because of the strong influence of patriarchy, but over the last decade or two society has changed much and it can be expected that more female voices will emerge. The following are notable white South African writers in English: Athol Fugard, Nadine Gordimer, J. M. Coetzee, and Wilbur Smith. André Brink has written in both Afrikaans and English while Breyten Breytenbach writes primarily in Afrikaans, though many of their works have been translated into English. Dalene Matthee's (1938–2005) is another Afrikaner, best known for her four Forest Novels, written in and around the Knysna Forest, including Fiela se Kind (1985) (Fiela's Child). Her books have been translated into fourteen languages, including English, French, and German. and over a million copies have been sold worldwide. The Americas Caribbean Islands Maryse Condé (born 1937) is a French (Guadeloupean) author of historical fiction, best known for her novel Segu (1984–1985). West Indies The term "West Indies" first began to achieve wide currency in the 1950s, when writers such as Samuel Selvon, John Hearne, Edgar Mittelholzer, V.S. Naipaul, and George Lamming began to be published in the United Kingdom. A sense of a single literature developing across the islands was also encouraged in the 1940s by the BBC radio programme Caribbean Voices, which featured stories and poems written by West Indian authors, recorded in London under the direction of producer Henry Swanzy, and broadcast back to the islands. Magazines such as Kyk-Over-Al in Guyana, Bim in Barbados, and Focus in Jamaica, which published work by writers from across the region, also encouraged links and helped build an audience. Some West Indian writers have found it necessary to leave their home territories and base themselves in the United Kingdom, the United States, or Canada in order to make a living from their work—in some cases spending the greater parts of their careers away from the territories of their birth. Critics in their adopted territories might argue that, for instance, V. S. Naipaul ought to be considered a British writer instead of a Trinidadian writer, or Jamaica Kincaid and Paule Marshall American writers, but most West Indian readers and critics still consider these writers "West Indian". West Indian literature ranges over subjects and themes as wide as those of any other "national" literature, but in general many West Indian writers share a special concern with questions of identity, ethnicity, and language that rise out of the Caribbean historical experience. One unique and pervasive characteristic of Caribbean literature is the use of "dialect" forms of the national language, often termed creole. The various local variations in the European languages which became established in the West Indies during the period of European colonial rule. These languages have been modified over the years within each country and each has developed a blend that is unique to their country. Many Caribbean authors in their writing switch liberally between the local variation – now commonly termed nation language – and the standard form of the language. Two West Indian writers have won the Nobel Prize in Literature: Derek Walcott (1992), born in St. Lucia, resident mostly in Trinidad during the 1960s and '70s, and partly in the United States since then; and V. S. Naipaul, born in Trinidad and resident in the United Kingdom since the 1950. (Saint-John Perse, who won the Nobel Prize in 1960, was born in the French territory of Guadeloupe.) Other notable names in (anglophone) Caribbean literature have included Earl Lovelace, Austin Clarke, Claude McKay, Orlando Patterson, Andrew Salkey, Edward Kamau Brathwaite (who was born in Barbados and has lived in Ghana and Jamaica), Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Michelle Cliff. In more recent times, a number of literary voices have emerged from the Caribbean as well as the Caribbean diaspora, including Kittitian Caryl Phillips (who has lived in the UK since one month of age), Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian immigrant to the United States; Anthony Kellman from Barbados, who divides his time between Barbados and the United States; Andrea Levy of the United Kingdom, Jamaicans Colin Channer and Marlon James, the author of the Man Booker Prize-winning novel A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014) (as well as John Crow's Devil, The Book of Night Women, the unpublished screenplay "Dead Men", and the short story "Under Cover of Darkness"), Antiguan Marie-Elena John, and Lasana M. Sekou from St. Maarten/St. Martin. The most famous writer from the island of Dominica is British-Dominican author Jean Rhys, best known for her 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea, which was written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The novel deals with themes of women living in a patriarchal society, race, and assimilation. On 5 November 2019, BBC News listed Wide Sargasso Sea on its list of the 100 most influential novels. The novel has been adapted for stage, film and radio numerous times, most recently as a radio play by BBC Radio 4. Earl Lovelace (born 1935) is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer. He is particularly recognized for his descriptive, dramatic fiction on Trinidadian culture: "Using Trinidadian dialect patterns and standard English, he probes the paradoxes often inherent in social change as well as the clash between rural and urban cultures." As Bernardine Evaristo notes, "Lovelace is unusual among celebrated Caribbean writers in that he has always lived in Trinidad. Most writers leave to find support for their literary endeavours elsewhere and this, arguably, shapes the literature, especially after long periods of exile. But Lovelace's fiction is deeply embedded in Trinidadian society and is written from the perspective of one whose ties to his homeland have never been broken." United States American David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly addresses the Western perspective on China and the French as well as the American perspectives on Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly. Maxine Hong Kingston (born 1940) is a Chinese American author who has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United States. Bharati Mukherjee although of East Indian ancestry has gone on record that she considers herself an American writer, and not an Indian expatriate writer. In a 1989 interview with Amanda Meer, Mukherjee said: "I totally consider myself an American writer, and that has been my big battle: to get to realize that my roots as a writer are no longer, if they ever were, among Indian writers, but that I am writing about the territory about the feelings, of a new kind of pioneer here in America. I'm the first among Asian immigrants to be making this distinction between immigrant writing and expatriate writing. Most Indian writers prior to this, have still thought of themselves as Indians, and their literary inspiration, has come from India. India has been the source, and home. Whereas I'm saying, those are wonderful roots, but now my roots are here and my emotions are here in North America." Jhumpa Lahiri (born 1967) is an Indian-American author. Lahiri's debut short story collection Interpreter of Maladies (1999) won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. African-American literature Throughout American history, African Americans have been discriminated against and subject to racist attitudes. This experience inspired some Black writers, at least during the early years of African-American literature, to prove they were the equals of European-American authors. As Henry Louis Gates, Jr, has said, "it is fair to describe the subtext of the history of black letters as this urge to refute the claim that because blacks had no written traditions they were bearers of an inferior culture." By refuting the claims of the dominant culture, African-American writers were also attempting to subvert the literary and power traditions of the United States. Some scholars assert that writing has traditionally been seen as "something defined by the dominant culture as a white male activity." This means that, in American society, literary acceptance has traditionally been intimately tied in with the very power dynamics which perpetrated such evils as racial discrimination. By borrowing from and incorporating the non-written oral traditions and folk life of the African diaspora, African-American literature broke "the mystique of connection between literary authority and patriarchal power." In producing their own literature, African Americans were able to establish their own literary traditions devoid of the white intellectual filter. In 1922, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote that "the great mission of the Negro to America and to the modern world" was to develop "Art and the appreciation of the Beautiful". Puerto Rico Giannina Braschi (born 1953) is a Puerto Rican writer, who is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing! (1998), the post-modern poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams (1994), and the philosophical fiction United States of Banana (2011), which chronicles the Latin American immigrants' experiences in the United States and the Puerto Rican battle with Spanish and American colonialism. Canada Canadian writer Margaret Laurence's work was informed by colonial relations and African culture when she lived in British Somaliland then the Gold Coast British colony in the 1950s near the end of their times as colonies. Margaret Atwood is a post-colonial writer who dealt with themes of identity-seeking through her Southern Ontario Gothic style of writing. Canadian Michael Ondaatje, is an internationally acclaimed author with Sri Lankan roots, which he has explored in works like Running in the Family (1983) and The Cat's Table (2011). Cyril Dabydeen (born 1945) is a Guyana-born, Canadian writer of Indian descent. He grew up in a sugar plantation with the sense of Indian indenture rooted in his family background. African-Canadian George Elliott Clarke has promoted Black authors with Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature (2012) as well as his own poetry, novels and plays. In the decade 2008-2018 Canadian Indigenous writers published so many works that some critics called it a renaissance. This phenomenon was studied in Introduction to Indigenous Literary Criticism in Canada (2015). Eds Heather MacFarlane & Armand Garnet Ruffo. Canadian scholar, Joseph Pivato has promoted the study of ethnic minority authors with Comparative Literature for the New Century (2018). Eds. Giulia De Gasperi & Joseph Pivato. East Asia Korea Chunghee Sara Soh's book The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan has shed new light on the practice of having forced sexual slavery, called "comfort women" during the Imperial Japanese army before and during World War II. Taiwan West Asia: The Middle East Major figures in the postcolonial literature of the Middle East included Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz and Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said. Said published his most famous work, Orientalism, discussing the depiction of Asia by the Western world. Mahfouz was inspired to write in a large part by his experiences during the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 (when he was seven years old), including witnessing British soldiers firing on crowds of demonstrators in an effort to disperse them; according to Mahfouz, "You could say ... that the one thing which most shook the security of my childhood was the 1919 revolution", as he recounted in an interview. South and Southeast Asia Philippines Philippine literature includes the legends of prehistory, and the colonial legacy of the Philippines. Pre-Hispanic Philippine literature were actually epics passed on from generation to generation originally through oral tradition. However, wealthy families, especially in Mindanao were able to keep transcribed copies of these epics as family heirloom. One such epic was the Darangen, epic of the Maranaos of Lake Lanao. Most of the epics were known during the Spanish era. Most of the notable literature of the Philippines was written during the Spanish period and the first half of the 20th century in the Spanish language. Philippine literature is written in Spanish, English, or any indigenous Philippine languages. Notable authors include F. Sionil José, Jose Dalisay, Jr., N. V. M. Gonzalez and Nick Joaquin. Indonesia Dutch East Indies Dutch Indies literature includes Dutch language postcolonial literature reflecting on the era of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Much of the postcolonial literature of this genre is written by Dutch Eurasians known as Indos. Important authors that have been translated to English include, Tjalie Robinson, Maria Dermout, and Marion Bloem. Singapore Bonny Hicks (1968–1997) was a Singapore Eurasian model and writer. After garnering fame as a model, she gained recognition for her contributions to Singaporean post-colonial literature and for the anthropic philosophy conveyed in her works. Her first book, Excuse Me, Are You A Model?, is recognised as a significant milestone in the literary and cultural history of Singapore. India One of the key issues is the superiority/inferiority of Indian Writing in English (IWE) as opposed to the literary production in the various languages of India. Key polar concepts bandied in this context are superficial/authentic, imitative/creative, shallow/deep, critical/uncritical, elitist/parochial and so on. The views of Salman Rushdie and Amit Chaudhuri expressed through their books The Vintage Book of Indian Writing and The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature respectively essentialise this battle. Rushdie's statement in his book – "the ironic proposition that India's best writing since independence may have been done in the language of the departed imperialists is simply too much for some folks to bear" – created a lot of resentment among many writers, including writers in English. In his book, Amit Chaudhuri questions – "Can it be true that Indian writing, that endlessly rich, complex and problematic entity, is to be represented by a handful of writers who write in English, who live in England or America and whom one might have met at a party?" Chaudhuri feels that after Rushdie, Indian writing in English started employing magical realism, bagginess, non-linear narrative and hybrid language to sustain themes seen as microcosms of India and supposedly reflecting Indian conditions. He contrasts this with the works of earlier writers such as R. K. Narayan where the use of English is pure, but the deciphering of meaning needs cultural familiarity. He also feels that Indian is a theme constructed only in IWE and does not articulate itself in the vernacular literature. He further adds "the post-colonial novel, becomes a trope for an ideal hybrid by which the West celebrates not so much Indian, whatever that infinitely complex thing is, but its own historical quest, its reinterpretation of itself". Some of these arguments form an integral part of what is called postcolonial theory. The very categorisation of IWE – as IWE or under post-colonial literature – is seen by some as limiting. Amitav Ghosh made his views on this very clear by refusing to accept the Eurasian Commonwealth Writers Prize for his book The Glass Palace in 2001 and withdrawing it from the subsequent stage. Indian authors like Amitav Ghosh, Anita Desai, Hanif Kureishi, Rohinton Mistry, Meena Alexander, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai have written about their postcolonial experiences. The Hungry Generation was a literary movement in the Bengali language launched by what is known today as the "Hungryalist quartet", i.e. Shakti Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roychoudhury and Debi Roy (alias Haradhon Dhara), during the 1960s in Kolkata, India. Due to their involvement in this avant garde cultural movement, the leaders lost their jobs and were jailed by the incumbent government. They challenged contemporary ideas about literature and contributed significantly to the evolution of the language and idiom used by contemporaneous artists to express their feelings in literature and painting. Khushwant Singh (1915-2014) has written numerous fiction and non-fiction novels about the India-Pakistan Partition. Nissim Ezekiel (1924–2004) was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian writing in English. Mahashweta Devi (1926–2016) is an Indian social activist and writer. Urvashi Butalia's The Other Side of Silence is a collection of oral histories and testimonies about the India-Pakistan Partition. Sri Lanka Sri Lankan writers like Nihal De Silva and Carl Muller write about the post-colonial situation and the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Notably authors such as the D.C.R.A Goonetilleke in Sri Lankan English Literature and the Sri Lankan People 1917-2003 targets the evolution of Sri Lankan English Literature specifically in regards to the acceptance of the English language and other major controversies of the time in Sri Lankan literature, after its Independence from the British Empire in 1948. Bangladesh Selim Al Deen from Bangladesh has also written postcolonial drama. Europe Britain The novels of J. G. Farrell are important texts dealing with the decline of the British Empire. Farrell's novel Troubles, set during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921), is the first instalment in Farrell's "Empire Trilogy", preceding The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip, all written during the 1970s. Although there are similar themes within the three novels (most notably that of the British Empire), they do not form a sequence of storytelling. The Siege of Krishnapur was inspired by events such as the sieges of Cawnpore and Lucknow, and details the siege of a fictional Indian town, Krishnapur, during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 from the perspective of the city's British residents. The Singapore Grip is satirical book about events following Japan's entry into the Second World War and occupation of Singapore. The story centres on a British family who own one of the colony's leading trading companies. Novelist E. M. Forster's A Passage to India (1924) takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj. Forster connects personal relationships with the politics of colonialism through the story of the Englishwoman Adela Quested, the Indian Dr. Aziz, and the question of what did or did not happen between them in the Marabar Caves. The Raj Quartet a four-volume novel sequence, written by Paul Scott, also deals with the subject of British colonial rule in India, in this case the concluding years of the British Raj. The series was written during the period 1965–1975. The Times called it "one of the most important landmarks of post-war fiction." The story of The Raj Quartet begins in 1942. World War II is at its zenith, and in South East Asia, the Allied forces have suffered great losses. Burma has been captured by Japan, and the Japanese invasion of the Indian subcontinent from the east appears imminent. The year 1942 is also marked by Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi's call for the Quit India movement to the British colonial government. The Raj Quartet is set in this tumultuous background for the British soldiers and civilians stationed in India who have a duty to manage this part of the British Empire. One recurrent theme is the moral certainty of the older generation as contrasted with the anomie of the younger. Another theme is the treatment of Indians by Britons living in India. As a reflection of these themes. the British characters let themselves be "trapped by codes and principles, which were in part to keep their own fears and doubts at bay." An Outpost of Progress and Heart of Darkness by Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad are based on his experiences in the Congo Free State. There is also The Congo Diary and Other Uncollected Pieces. Wales Wales was gradually annexed by the Kingdom of England during the Middle Ages, and was fully incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. Distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century, and Welsh nationalism grew during the 20th century. The Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Welsh poet, novelist and dramatist Saunders Lewis, who was a prominent support of nationalism in Wales, rejected the possibility of Anglo-Welsh literature due to the language's status as the official tongue of the British state, affirming that "the literature which people called Anglo-Welsh was indistinguishable from English literature". Saunders Lewis was himself born in Wallasey in England to a Welsh-speaking family. The attitude of the post-war generation of Welsh writers in English towards Wales differs from the previous generation, in that they were more sympathetic to Welsh nationalism and to the Welsh language. The change can be linked to the nationalist fervour generated by Saunders Lewis and the burning of the Bombing School on the Lleyn Peninsula in 1936, along with a sense of crisis generated by the Second World War. In poetry R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) was the most important figure throughout the second half of the 20th century, beginning with The Stones of the Field in 1946 and concluding with No Truce with the Furies (1995). While he "did not learn the Welsh language until he was 30 and wrote all his poems in English", he wanted the Welsh language to be made the official language of Wales, and the policy of Anglo-Welsh bilingualism abolished. He wrote his autobiography in Welsh, but said he lacked the necessary grasp of the language to employ it in his poems. Although an Anglican priest, he was a fervent nationalist and advocated boycotts against English owners of holiday homes in Wales. As an admirer of Saunders Lewis, Thomas defended his need to use English: "Since there is in Wales a mother tongue that continues to flourish, a proper Welshman can only look on English as a means of rekindling interest in the Welsh language, and of leading people back to the mother tongue." With the creation the National Assembly for Wales, under the Government of Wales Act 1998, Wales now has more local autonomy from the central government in London. The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the English and Welsh languages be treated on a basis of equality. English is spoken by almost all people in Wales and is the de facto main language. Northern and western Wales retain many areas where Welsh is spoken as a first language by the majority of the population, and English learnt as a second language. The 2011 Census showed 562,016 people, 19.0% of the Welsh population, were able to speak Welsh. Ireland The English language was introduced to Ireland in the 13th century, following the Norman Conquest of Ireland. However, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to plantation of Ireland. In the 1690s, the Protestant Anglo-Irish started to become dominant over the Catholic majority, which was extended during the 18th century. The Irish language, however, remained the dominant language of Irish literature down to the 19th century, despite a slow decline which began in the 17th century with the expansion of English control in Ireland. The 17th century saw the tightening of English control over Ireland and the suppression of the Irish aristocracy. This meant that the literary class lost its patrons, since the new nobility were English speakers with little interest for the older culture. The elaborate classical metres lost their dominance and were largely replaced by more popular forms. This was an age of social and political tension, as expressed by the poet Dáibhí Ó Bruadair and the anonymous authors of Pairliment Chloinne Tomáis, a prose satire on the aspirations of the lower classes. Prose of another sort was represented by the historical works of Geoffrey Keating (Seathrún Céitinn) and the compilation known as the Annals of the Four Masters. The consequences of these changes were seen in the 18th century. Poetry was still the dominant literary medium and its practitioners were poor scholars, often educated in the classics at local schools and schoolmasters by trade. Such writers produced polished work in popular metres for a local audience. This was particularly the case in Munster, in the south-west of Ireland, and notable names included Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin and Aogán Ó Rathaille of Sliabh Luachra. A certain number of local patrons were still to be found, even in the early 19th century, and especially among the few surviving families of the Gaelic aristocracy. In the first half of the 18th century Dublin was the home of an Irish-language literary circle connected to the Ó Neachtain (Naughton) family, a group with wide-ranging Continental connections. With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. The latter part of the 19th century saw a rapid replacement of Irish by English in the greater part of the country, though Irish was still an urban language, and continued to be so well into the 19th century. At the end of the 19th century, however, cultural nationalism displayed a new energy, marked by the Gaelic Revival (which encouraged a modern literature in Irish) and more generally by the Irish Literary Revival. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, creating the Irish Free State in 1922, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades, and Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom. Poland Clare Cavanagh believes that literature of Poland is postcolonial. Dariusz Skórczewski supports her and reveals how the experiences of foreign domination and the history of empire have shaped contemporary Polish culture and society. They both criticize Marxist basis of postcolonialism. Romania Further reading Book: Postcolonial Literature - Kaminikanta Mohanty; CC-XIII (English Honors). See also :Category: Postcolonial literature Postcolonial Studies Journal of Postcolonial Writing Breton literature Catalan literature Colonial cinema Caribbean literature Caribbean poetry Native American literature Francophone literature Māori poetry TSAR Publications – a book publisher focusing on Canadian multicultural literature Vernacular literature References Bibliography Bhabha, Homi (1994). The Location of Culture, Routledge, Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly (eds.), Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, 1994, 2005. Elleke Boehmer, Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors Clarke, George Elliott. Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature. University of Toronto Press, 2012. De Gasperi, Giulia & Joseph Pivato. Eds. Comparative Literature for the New Century. McGill-Queen's U. P., 2018. Tobias Döring, Postcolonial Literatures in English: An Introduction, 2008. Alamgir Hashmi, Commonwealth Literature: An Essay Towards the Re-definition of a Popular/Counter Culture, 1983. Alamgir Hashmi, The Commonwealth, Comparative Literature and the World, 1988. Chelsea 46: World Literature in English (1987) Poetry International 7/8 (2003–2004) John McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism, second edition (MUP, 2010). Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier, eds. Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry Britta Olinde, A Sense of Place: Essays in Post-Colonial Literatures Prem Poddar and David Johnson, A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literature in English, 2005. John Thieme, The Arnold Anthology of Post-Colonial Literatures in English Peter Thompson, Littérature moderne du monde francophone. Chicago: NTC (McGraw-Hill), 1997 Jaydeep Sarangi, Indian Novels in English: Texts, Contexts and Language, Authorspress, New Delhi, 2018 Postcolonial Theory and the Arab–Israeli Conflict edited by Philip Carl Salzman and Donna Robinson Divine, Routledge (2008) Friedman, Amy L. Postcolonial Satire: Indian Fiction and the Reimagining of Menippean Satire. Lexington, 2019. External links

Race and society

Social interpretations of race regard the common categorizations of people into different races. Race is often culturally understood to be rigid categories (Black, White, Pasifika, Asian, etc) in which people can be classified based on biological markers or physical traits such as skin colour or facial features. This rigid definition of race is no longer accepted by scientific communities. Instead, the concept of 'race' is viewed as a social construct. This means, in simple terms, that it is a human invention and not a biological fact. The concept of 'race' has developed over time in order to accommodate different societies' needs of organising themselves as separate from the 'other' (globalization and colonization have caused conceptions of race to be generally consolidated). The 'other' was usually viewed as inferior and, as such, was assigned worse qualities. Our current idea of race was developed primarily during the Enlightenment, in which scientists attempted to define racial boundaries, but their cultural biases ultimately impacted their findings and reproduced the prejudices that still exist in our society today. Social interpretation of physical variation Incongruities of racial classifications The biological anthropologist Jonathan Marks (1995) argued that even as the idea of "race" was becoming a powerful organizing principle in many societies, the shortcomings of the concept were apparent. In the Old World, the gradual transition in appearances from one racial group to adjacent racial groups emphasized that "one variety of mankind does so sensibly pass into the other, that you cannot mark out the limits between them," as Blumenbach observed in his writings on human variation. In parts of the Americas, the situation was somewhat different. The immigrants to the New World came largely from widely separated regions of the Old World—western and northern Europe, western Africa, and, later, eastern Asia and southern and eastern Europe. In the Americas, the immigrant populations began to mix among themselves and with the indigenous inhabitants of the continent. In the United States, for example, most people who self-identify as African American have some European ancestors—in one analysis of genetic markers that have differing frequencies between continents, European ancestry ranged from an estimated 7% for a sample of Jamaicans to ~23% for a sample of African Americans from New Orleans. In a survey of college students who self-identified as white in a northeastern U.S. university, the west African and Native American genetic contribution were 0.7% and 3.2%. In the United States, social and legal conventions developed over time that forced individuals of mixed ancestry into simplified racial categories. An example is the "one-drop rule" implemented in some state laws that treated anyone with a single known African American ancestor as black. The decennial censuses conducted since 1790 in the United States also created an incentive to establish racial categories and fit people into those categories. In other countries in the Americas, where mixing among groups was more extensive, social non racial categories have tended to be more numerous and fluid, with people moving into or out of categories on the basis of a combination of socioeconomic status, social class, ancestry. Efforts to sort the increasingly mixed population of the United States into discrete racial categories generated many difficulties. Additionally, efforts to track mixing between census racial groups led to a proliferation of categories (such as mulatto and octoroon) and "blood quantum" distinctions that became increasingly untethered from self-reported ancestry. A person's racial identity can change over time. One study found differences between self-ascribed race and Veterans Affairs administrative data. Race as a social construct and populationism The notion of a biological basis for race originally emerged through speculations surrounding the "blood purity" of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, eventually translating to a general association of one's biology with their social and personal characteristics. In the 19th century, this recurring ideology was intensified in the development of the racial sciences, eugenics and ethnology, which meant to further categorize groups of humans in terms of biological superiority or inferiority. While the field of racial sciences, also known as scientific racism, has expired in history, these antiquated conceptions of race have persisted throughout the 21st century. (See also: Historical origins of racial classification) Contrary to popular belief that the division of the human species based on physical variations is natural, there exists no clear, reliable distinctions that bind people to such groupings. According to the American Anthropological Association, "Evidence from the analysis of genetics (e.g., DNA) indicates that most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called racial groups. Conventional geographic "racial" groupings differ from one another only in about 6% of their genes." While there is a biological basis for differences in human phenotypes, most notably in skin color, the genetic variability of humans is found not amongst, but rather within racial groups – meaning the perceived level of dissimilarity amongst the species has virtually no biological basis. Genetic diversity has characterized human survival, rendering the idea of a "pure" ancestry as obsolete. Under this interpretation, race is conceptualized through a lens of artificiality, rather than through the skeleton of a scientific discovery. As a result, scholars have begun to broaden discourses of race by defining it as a social construct and exploring the historical contexts that led to its inception and persistence in contemporary society. A significant number of historians, anthropologists, and sociologists, such as David Roediger, Jennifer K. Wagner, Tanya Golash-Boza and Ann Morning, describe human races as a social construct. They argue that it would be more accurate to use the terms 'population' or 'ancestry', which can be given a clear operational definition. However, it is common for people who reject the formal concept of race, to continue their use of the word 'race''' in day-to-day language. This continuation could be credited to semantics, or to the underlying cultural significance of race within societies where racism is commonplace. Whilst the concept of race is challenged, it would be useful in medical contexts to have practical categorisation between 'individual' and 'species' because in the absence of affordable and widespread genetic tests, various race-linked gene mutations (see Cystic fibrosis, Lactose intolerance, Tay–Sachs disease and Sickle cell anemia) are difficult to address. As genetic tests for such conditions become cheaper, and as detailed haplotype maps and SNP databases become available, identifiers of race should diminish. Also, increasing interracial marriage is reducing the predictive power of race. For example, babies born with Tay–Sachs disease in North America are not only or primarily Ashkenazi Jews, despite stereotypes to contrary; French Canadians, Louisiana Cajuns, and Irish-Americans also see high rates of the disease. Michael Brooks, the author of “The Race Delusion” suggests that race is not determined biographically or genetically, but that it is socially constructed. He explains that nearly all scientists in the field of race, nationality, and ethnicity will confirm that race is a social construct. It has more to do with how people identify rather than genetics. He then goes on to explain how “black” and “white” have different meanings in other cultures. People in the United States tend to label themselves black if they have ancestors that are from Africa, but when you are in Brazil, you are not black if you have European ancestry. DNA shows that the human population is a result of populations that have moved across the world, splitting up and interbreeding. Even with this science to back up this concept, society has yet to believe and accept it. No one is born with the knowledge of race, the split between races and the decision to treat others differently based on skin color is completely learned and accepted by society. Experts in the fields of genetics, law, and sociology have offered their opinions on the subject. Audrey Smedley and Brian D. Smedley of Virginia Commonwealth University Institute of Medicine discuss the anthropological and historical perspectives on ethnicity, culture, and race. They define culture as the habits acquired by a society. Smedley states "Ethnicity and culture are related phenomena and bear no intrinsic connection to human biological variations or race" (Smedley 17). The authors state using physical characteristics to define an ethnic identity is inaccurate. The variation of humans has actually decreased over time since, as the author states, "Immigration, intermating, intermarriage, and reproduction have led to increasing physical heterogeneity of peoples in many areas of the world" (Smedley 18). They referred to other experts and their research, pointing out that humans are 99% alike. That one percent is caused by natural genetic variation, and has nothing to do with the ethnic group of the subject. Racial classification in the United States started in the 1700s with three ethnically distinct groups. These groups were the white Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans. The concept of race was skewed around these times because of the social implications of belonging to one group or another. The view that one race is biologically different from another rose out of society's grasp for power and authority over other ethnic groups. This did not only happen in the United States but around the world as well. Society created race to create hierarchies in which the majority would prosper most. Another group of experts in sociology has written on this topic. Guang Guo, Yilan Fu, Yi Li, Kathleen Mullan Harris of the University of North Carolina department of sociology as well as Hedwig Lee (University of Washington Seattle), Tianji Cai (University of Macau) comment on remarks made by one expert. The debate is over DNA differences, or lack thereof, between different races. The research in the original article they are referring to uses different methods of DNA testing between distinct ethnic groups and compares them to other groups. Small differences were found, but those were not based on race. They were from biological differences caused from the region in which the people live. They describe that the small differences cannot be fully explained because the understanding of migration, intermarriage, and ancestry is unreliable at the individual level. Race cannot be related to ancestry based on the research on which they are commenting. They conclude that the idea of "races as biologically distinct peoples with differential abilities and behaviors has long been discredited by the scientific community" (2338). One more expert in the field has given her opinion. Ann Morning of the New York University Department of Sociology, and member of the American Sociological Association, discusses the role of biology in the social construction of race. She examines the relationship between genes and race and the social construction of social race clusters. Morning states that everyone is assigned to a racial group because of their physical characteristics. She identifies through her research the existence of DNA population clusters. She states that society would want to characterize these clusters as races. Society characterizes race as a set of physical characteristics. The clusters though have an overlap in physical characteristics and thus cannot be counted as a race by society or by science. Morning concludes that "Not only can constructivist theory accommodate or explain the occasional alignment of social classifications and genetic estimates that Shiao et al.'s model hypothesizes, but empirical research on human genetics is far from claiming—let alone demonstrating—that statistically inferred clusters are the equivalent of races" (Morning 203). Only using ethnic groups to map a genome is entirely inaccurate, instead every individual must be viewed as having their own wholly unique genome (unique in the 1%, not the 99% all humans share). Ian Haney López, the John H. Boalt Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley explains ways race is a social construct. He uses examples from history of how race was socially constructed and interpreted. One such example was of the Hudgins v. Wright case. A slave woman sued for her freedom and the freedom of her two children on the basis that her grandmother was Native American. The race of the Wright had to be socially proven, and neither side could present enough evidence. Since the slave owner Hudgins bore the burden of proof, Wright and her children gained their freedom. López uses this example to show the power of race in society. Human fate, he argues, still depends upon ancestry and appearance. Race is a powerful force in everyday life. These races are not determined by biology though, they are created by society to keep power with the majority. He describes that there are not any genetic characteristics that all blacks have that non-whites do not possess and vice versa. He uses the example of Mexican. It truly is a nationality, yet it has become a catch-all for all Hispanic nationalities. This simplification is wrong, López argues, for it is not only inaccurate but it tends to treat all "Mexicans" as below fervent Americans. He describes that "More recently, genetic testing has made it clear the close connections all humans share, as well as the futility of explaining those differences that do exist in terms of racially relevant gene codes" (Lopez 199–200). Those differences clearly have no basis in ethnicity, so race is completely socially constructed. Some argue it is preferable when considering biological relations to think in terms of populations, and when considering cultural relations to think in terms of ethnicity, rather than of race. These developments had important consequences. For example, some scientists developed the notion of "population" to take the place of race. It is argued that this substitution is not simply a matter of exchanging one word for another. This view does not deny that there are physical differences among peoples; it simply claims that the historical conceptions of "race" are not particularly useful in accounting for these differences scientifically. In particular, it is claimed that: knowing someone's "race" does not provide comprehensive predictive information about biological characteristics, and only absolutely predicts those traits that have been selected to define the racial categories, e.g. knowing a person's skin color, which is generally acknowledged to be one of the markers of race (or taken as a defining characteristic of race), does not allow good predictions of a person's blood type to be made. in general, the worldwide distribution of human phenotypes exhibits gradual trends of difference across geographic zones, not the categorical differences of race; in particular, there are many peoples (like the San of S. W. Africa, or the people of northern India) who have phenotypes that do not neatly fit into the standard race categories. focusing on race has historically led not only to seemingly insoluble disputes about classification (e.g. are the Japanese a distinct race, a mixture of races, or part of the East Asian race? and what about the Ainu?) but has also exposed disagreement about the criteria for making decisions—the selection of phenotypic traits seemed arbitrary. Neven Sesardic has argued that such arguments are unsupported by empirical evidence and politically motivated. Arguing that races are not completely discrete biologically is a straw man argument. He argues "racial recognition is not actually based on a single trait (like skin color) but rather on a number of characteristics that are to a certain extent concordant and that jointly make the classification not only possible but fairly reliable as well". Forensic anthropologists can classify a person's race with an accuracy close to 100% using only skeletal remains if they take into consideration several characteristics at the same time. A.W.F. Edwards has argued similarly regarding genetic differences in "Human genetic diversity: Lewontin's fallacy". Race in biomedicine There is an active debate among biomedical researchers about the meaning and importance of race in their research. The primary impetus for considering race in biomedical research is the possibility of improving the prevention and treatment of diseases by predicting hard-to-ascertain factors on the basis of more easily ascertained characteristics. The most well-known examples of genetically determined disorders that vary in incidence between ethnic groups would be sickle cell disease and thalassemia among black and Mediterranean populations respectively and Tay–Sachs disease among people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Some fear that the use of racial labels in biomedical research runs the risk of unintentionally exacerbating health disparities, so they suggest alternatives to the use of racial taxonomies. Case studies in the social construction of race Race in the United States In the United States since its early history, Native Americans, African-Americans and European-Americans were classified as belonging to different races. For nearly three centuries, the criteria for membership in these groups were similar, comprising a person's appearance, his fraction of known non-White ancestry, and his social circle. But the criteria for membership in these races diverged in the late 19th century. During Reconstruction, increasing numbers of Americans began to consider anyone with "one drop" of "Black blood" to be Black. By the early 20th century, this notion of invisible blackness was made statutory in many states and widely adopted nationwide. In contrast, Amerindians continue to be defined by a certain percentage of "Indian blood" (called blood quantum) due in large part to American slavery ethics. Race definitions in the United States The concept of race as used by the Census Bureau reflects self-identification by people according to the race or races with which they most closely identify. These categories are sociopolitical constructs and should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature. They change from one census to another, and the racial categories include both racial and national-origin groups. Race in Brazil Compared to 19th-century United States, 20th-century Brazil was characterized by a relative absence of sharply defined racial groups. This pattern reflects a different history and different social relations. Basically, race in Brazil was recognized as the difference between ancestry (which determines genotype) and phenotypic differences. Racial identity was not governed by a rigid descent rule. A Brazilian child was never automatically identified with the racial type of one or both parents, nor were there only two categories to choose from. Over a dozen racial categories are recognized in conformity with the combinations of hair color, hair texture, eye color, and skin color. These types grade into each other like the colors of the spectrum, and no one category stands significantly isolated from the rest. That is, race referred to appearance, not heredity. Through this system of racial identification, parents and children and even brothers and sisters were frequently accepted as representatives of opposite racial types. In a fishing village in the state of Bahia, an investigator showed 100 people pictures of three sisters and they were asked to identify the races of each. In only six responses were the sisters identified by the same racial term. Fourteen responses used a different term for each sister. In another experiment nine portraits were shown to a hundred people. Forty different racial types were elicited. It was found, in addition, that a given Brazilian might be called by as many as thirteen different terms by other members of the community. These terms are spread out across practically the entire spectrum of theoretical racial types. A further consequence of the absence of a descent rule was that Brazilians apparently not only disagreed about the racial identity of specific individuals, but they also seemed to be in disagreement about the abstract meaning of the racial terms as defined by words and phrases. For example, 40% of a sample ranked moreno claro as a lighter type than mulato claro, while 60% reversed this order. A further note of confusion is that one person might employ different racial terms to describe the same person over a short time span. The choice of which racial description to use may vary according to both the personal relationships and moods of the individuals involved. The Brazilian census lists one's race according to the preference of the person being interviewed. As a consequence, hundreds of races appeared in the census results, ranging from blue (which is blacker than the usual black) to pink (which is whiter than the usual white). However, Brazilians are not so naïve to ignore one's racial origins just because of his (or her) better social status. An interesting example of this phenomenon has occurred recently, when the famous football (soccer) player Ronaldo declared publicly that he considered himself as White, thus linking racism to a form or another of class conflict. This caused a series of ironic notes on newspapers, which pointed out that he should have been proud of his African origin (which is obviously noticeable), a fact that must have made life for him (and for his ancestors) more difficult, so, being a successful personality was, in spite of that, a victory for him. What occurs in Brazil that differentiates it largely from the US or South Africa, for example, is that black or mixed-race people are, in fact, more accepted in social circles if they have more education, or have a successful life (a euphemism for "having a better salary"). As a consequence, inter-racial marriages are more common, and more accepted, among highly educated Afro-Brazilians than lower-educated ones. So, although the identification of a person by race is far more fluid and flexible in Brazil than in the U.S., there still are racial stereotypes and prejudices. African features have been considered less desirable; Blacks have been considered socially inferior, and Whites superior. These white supremacist values were a legacy of European colonization and the slave-based plantation system. The complexity of racial classifications in Brazil is reflective of the extent of miscegenation in Brazilian society, which remains highly, but not strictly, stratified along color lines. Henceforth, Brazil's desired image as a perfect "post-racist" country, composed of the "cosmic race" celebrated in 1925 by José Vasconcelos, must be met with caution, as sociologist Gilberto Freyre demonstrated in 1933 in Casa Grande e Senzala. Race in politics and ethics Michel Foucault argued the popular historical and political use of a non-essentialist notion of "race" used in the "race struggle" discourse during the 1688 Glorious Revolution and under Louis XIV's end of reign. In Foucault's view, this discourse developed in two different directions: Marxism, which seized the notion and transformed it into "class struggle" discourse, and racists, biologists and eugenicists, who paved the way for 20th century "state racism". During the Enlightenment, racial classifications were used to justify enslavement of those deemed to be of "inferior", non-White races, and thus supposedly best fitted for lives of toil under White supervision. These classifications made the distance between races seem nearly as broad as that between species, easing unsettling questions about the appropriateness of such treatment of humans. The practice was at the time generally accepted by both scientific and lay communities. Arthur Gobineau's An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853–1855) was one of the milestones in the new racist discourse, along with Vacher de Lapouge's "anthroposociology" and Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), who applied race to nationalist theory to develop militant ethnic nationalism. They posited the historical existence of national races such as German and French, branching from basal races supposed to have existed for millennia, such as the Aryan race, and believed political boundaries should mirror these supposed racial ones. Later, one of Hitler's favorite sayings was, "Politics is applied biology". Hitler's ideas of racial purity led to unprecedented atrocities in Europe. Since then, ethnic cleansing has occurred in Cambodia, the Balkans, Sudan, and Rwanda. In one sense, ethnic cleansing is another name for the tribal warfare and mass murder that has afflicted human society for ages. Racial inequality has been a concern of United States politicians and legislators since the country's founding. In the 19th century most White Americans (including abolitionists) explained racial inequality as an inevitable consequence of biological differences. Since the mid-20th century, political and civic leaders as well as scientists have debated to what extent racial inequality is cultural in origin. Some argue that current inequalities between Blacks and Whites are primarily cultural and historical, the result of past and present racism, slavery and segregation, and could be redressed through such programs as affirmative action and Head Start. Others work to reduce tax funding of remedial programs for minorities. They have based their advocacy on aptitude test data that, according to them, shows that racial ability differences are biological in origin and cannot be leveled even by intensive educational efforts. In electoral politics, many more ethnic minorities have won important offices in Western nations than in earlier times, although the highest offices tend to remain in the hands of Whites. In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail'', Martin Luther King Jr. observed: History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals. King's hope, expressed in his I Have a Dream speech, was that the civil rights struggle would one day produce a society where people were not "judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character". Because of the identification of the concept of race with political oppression, many natural and social scientists today are wary of using the word "race" to refer to human variation, but instead use less emotive words such as "population" and "ethnicity". Some, however, argue that the concept of race, whatever the term used, is nevertheless of continuing utility and validity in scientific research. Race in law enforcement In an attempt to provide general descriptions that may facilitate the job of law enforcement officers seeking to apprehend suspects, the United States FBI employs the term "race" to summarize the general appearance (skin color, hair texture, eye shape, and other such easily noticed characteristics) of individuals whom they are attempting to apprehend. From the perspective of law enforcement officers, a description needs to capture the features that stand out most clearly in the perception within the given society. Thus, in the UK, Scotland Yard use a classification based on the ethnic composition of British society: W1 (White British), W2 (White Irish), W9 (Other White); M1 (White and black Caribbean), M2 (White and black African), M3 (White and Asian), M9 (Any other mixed background); A1 (Asian-Indian), A2 (Asian-Pakistani), A3 (Asian-Bangladeshi), A9 (Any other Asian background); B1 (Black Caribbean), B2 (Black African), B3 (Any other black background); O1 (Chinese), O9 (Any other). In the United States, the practice of racial profiling has been ruled to be both unconstitutional and also to constitute a violation of civil rights. There also an ongoing debate on the relationship between race and crime regarding the disproportional representation of certain minorities in all stages of the criminal justice system. There are many studies that have proved the reality of racial profiling. A huge study published in May 2020 of 95 million traffic stops between 2011 and 2018 shows that it was more common for black people to be pulled over and searched after a stop than whites even though white people were more likely to be found with illicit drugs. Another study found that in Travis County, Texas, despite black people comprising only around 9 percent of the population, they made up about 30 percent of police arrests for possessing less than a gram of illicit drugs, even though surveys consistently show that black and white people use illicit drugs at the same rate. Despite statistics and data that show that black people do not actually possess drugs more than white people, they are still targeted more by the police than white people which is largely due to the social construction of race. Studies in racial taxonomy based on DNA cluster analysis has led law enforcement to pursue suspects based on their racial classification as derived from their DNA evidence left at the crime scene. DNA analysis has been successful in helping police determine the race of both victims and perpetrators. This classification is called "biogeographical ancestry". See also Acculturation Colonial mentality Colonialism Colorism Creolization Cultural assimilation Cultural cringe Cultural identity Enculturation Ethnocide Globalization Intercultural competence Language shift Paper Bag Party Passing (racial identity) Race of the future Racialism Racialization Self-fulfilling prophecy Syncretism Westernization Footnotes Other references Bernstein, David E. (2022) Classified: The untold story of racial classification in America. Bombardier Books, NY. Cornell S, Hartmann D (1998) Ethnicity and race: making identities in a changing world. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, CA Dikötter F (1992) The discourse of race in modern China. Stanford University Press, Stanford Goldenberg DM (2003) The curse of ham: race and slavery in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Princeton University Press, Princeton Huxley J, Haddon AC (1936) We Europeans: a survey of racial problems. Harper, New York Isaac B (2004) The invention of racism in classical antiquity. Princeton University Press, Princeton Brooks, Michael. (June 2019). “The Race Delusion” NewStatesman. “We Are Repeating The Discrimination Experiment Every Day, Says Educator Jane Elliott”. 8 July 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020. Pierson, E., Simoiu, C., Overgoor, J. et al. “A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States.” Nat Hum Behav 4, 736–745 (2020). “Ending the War on Drugs in Travis County”. February 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020. Kinship and descent Social constructionism Social inequality

Social dominance orientation

Social dominance orientation (SDO) is a personality trait measuring an individual's support for social hierarchy and the extent to which they desire their in-group be superior to out-groups. SDO is conceptualized under social dominance theory as a measure of individual differences in levels of group-based discrimination; that is, it is a measure of an individual's preference for hierarchy within any social system and the domination over lower-status groups. It is a predisposition toward anti-egalitarianism within and between groups. Individuals who score high in SDO desire to maintain and, in many cases, increase the differences between social statuses of different groups, as well as individual group members. Typically, they are dominant, driven, tough, and seekers of power. People high in SDO also prefer hierarchical group orientations. Often, people who score high in SDO adhere strongly to belief in a "dog-eat-dog" world. It has also been found that men are generally higher than women in SDO measures. A study of undergraduates found that SDO does not have a strong positive relationship with authoritarianism. Social dominance theory SDO was first proposed by Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto as part of their social dominance theory (SDT). SDO is the key measurable component of SDT that is specific to it. SDT begins with the empirical observation that surplus-producing social systems have a threefold group-based hierarchy structure: age-based, gender-based and "arbitrary set-based", which can include race, class, sexual orientation, caste, ethnicity, religious affiliation, etc. Age-based hierarchies invariably give more power to adults and middle-age people than children and younger adults, and gender-based hierarchies invariably grant more power to one gender over others, but arbitrary-set hierarchies—though quite resilient—are truly arbitrary. SDT is based on three primary assumptions: While age- and gender-based hierarchies will tend to exist within all social systems, arbitrary-set systems of social hierarchy will invariably emerge within social systems producing sustainable economic surpluses. Most forms of group conflict and oppression (e.g., racism, homophobia, ethnocentrism, sexism, classism, regionalism) can be regarded as different manifestations of the same basic human predisposition to form group-based hierarchies. Human social systems are subject to the counterbalancing influences of hierarchy-enhancing (HE) forces, producing and maintaining ever higher levels of group-based social inequality, and hierarchy-attenuating (HA) forces, producing greater levels of group-based social equality. SDO is the individual attitudinal aspect of SDT. It is influenced by group status, socialization, and temperament. In turn, it influences support for HE and HA "legitimating myths", defined as "values, attitudes, beliefs, causal attributions and ideologies" that in turn justify social institutions and practices that either enhance or attenuate group hierarchy. Legitimising myths are used by SDT to refer to widely accepted ideologies that are accepted as explaining how the world works—SDT does not have a position on the veracity, morality or rationality of these beliefs, as the theory is intended to be a descriptive account of group-based inequality rather than a normative theory. Early development While the correlation of gender with SDO scores has been empirically measured and confirmed, the impact of temperament and socialization is less clear. Duckitt has suggested a model of attitude development for SDO, suggesting that unaffectionate socialisation in childhood causes a tough-minded attitude. According to Duckitt's model, people high in tough-minded personality are predisposed to view the world as a competitive place in which resource competition is zero-sum. A desire to compete, which fits with social dominance orientation, influences in-group and outside-group attitudes. People high in SDO also believe that hierarchies are present in all aspects of society and are more likely to agree with statements such as "It's probably a good thing that certain groups are at the top and other groups are at the bottom". Scale SDO has been measured by a series of scales that have been refined over time, all of which contain a balance of pro- and contra-trait statements or phrases. A 7-point Likert scale is used for each item; participants rate their agreement or disagreement with the statements from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Most of the research was conducted with the SDO-5 (a 14-point scale) and SDO-6. The SDO-7 scale is the most recent scale measuring social dominance orientation, which embeds two sub-dimensions: dominance (SDO-D) and anti-egalitarianism (SDO-E). SDO-7 items Dominance Sub-Scale Some groups of people must be kept in their place. It's probably a good thing that certain groups are at the top and other groups are at the bottom. An ideal society requires some groups to be on top and others to be on the bottom. Some groups of people are simply inferior to other groups. Groups at the bottom are just as deserving as groups at the top. (reverse-scored) No one group should dominate in society. (reverse-scored) Groups at the bottom should not have to stay in their place. (reverse-scored) Group dominance is a poor principle. (reverse-scored) Anti-Egalitarianism Sub-Scale We should not push for group equality. We shouldn't try to guarantee that every group has the same quality of life. It is unjust to try to make groups equal. Group equality should not be our primary goal. We should work to give all groups an equal chance to succeed. (reverse-scored) We should do what we can to equalize conditions for different groups. (reverse-scored) No matter how much effort it takes, we ought to strive to ensure that all groups have the same chance in life. (reverse-scored) Group equality should be our ideal. (reverse-scored) SDO-16 items Some groups of people are just more worthy than others. In getting what you want, it is sometimes necessary to use force against other groups. It's OK if some groups have more of a chance in life than others. To get ahead in life, it is sometimes necessary to step on other groups. If certain groups stayed in their place, we would have fewer problems. It's probably a good thing that certain groups are at the top and other groups are at the bottom. Inferior groups should stay in their place. Sometimes other groups must be kept in their place. It would be good if groups could be equal. (reverse-scored) Group equality should be our ideal. (reverse-scored) All groups should be given an equal chance in life. (reverse-scored) We should do what we can to equalize conditions for different groups. (reverse-scored) Increased social equality is beneficial to society. (reverse-scored) We would have fewer problems if we treated people more equally. (reverse-scored) We should strive to make incomes as equal as possible. (reverse-scored) No group should dominate in society. (reverse-scored) Keying is reversed on questions 9 through 16, to control for acquiescence bias. Criticisms of the construct Rubin and Hewstone (2004) argue that social dominance research has changed its focus dramatically over the years, and these changes have been reflected in different versions of the social dominance orientation construct. Social dominance orientation was originally defined as "the degree to which individuals desire social dominance and superiority for themselves and their primordial groups over other groups" (p. 209). It then quickly changed to not only "(a) a...desire for and value given to in-group dominance over out-groups" but also "(b) the desire for nonegalitarian, hierarchical relationships between groups within the social system" (p. 1007). The most recent measure of social dominance orientation (see SDO-6 above) focuses on the "general desire for unequal relations among social groups, regardless of whether this means ingroup domination or ingroup subordination" (p. 312). Given these changes, Rubin and Hewstone believe that evidence for social dominance theory should be considered "as supporting three separate SDO hypotheses, rather than one single theory" (p. 22). Group-based and individual dominance Robert Altemeyer said that people with a high SDO want more power (agreeing with items such as "Winning is more important than how you play the game"). These observations are at odds with conceptualisations of SDO as a group-based phenomenon, suggesting that the SDO reflects interpersonal dominance, not only group-based dominance. This is supported by Sidanius and Pratto's own evidence that high-SDO individuals tend to gravitate toward hierarchy-enhancing jobs and institutions, such as law enforcement, that are themselves hierarchically structured vis-a-vis individuals within them. Relations with other personality traits Connection with right-wing authoritarianism SDO correlates weakly with right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) (r ≈ .18). Both predict attitudes, such as sexist, racist, and heterosexist attitudes. The two contribute to different forms of prejudice: SDO correlates to higher prejudice against subordinate and disadvantaged groups, RWA correlates to higher prejudice against groups deemed threatening to traditional norms, while both are associated with increases in prejudice for "dissident" groups. SDO and RWA contribute to prejudice in an additive rather than interactive way (the interaction of SDO and RWA accounted, in one study, for an average of less than .001% variance in addition to their linear combination), that is the association between SDO and prejudice is similar regardless of a person's level of RWA, and vice versa. Crawford et al. (2013) found that RWA and SDO differentially predicted interpretations of media reports about socially threatening (for example, gays and lesbians) and disadvantaged groups (for example, African Americans), respectively. Subjects with high SDO, but not RWA, scores reacted positively to articles and authors that opposed affirmative action, and negatively to pro-affirmative-action article content. Moreover, RWA, but not SDO, predicted subjects' evaluations of same-sex relationships, such that high-RWA individuals favored anti-same-sex relationships article content and low-RWA individuals favorably rated pro-same-sex relationships content. Correlation with Big Five personality traits Studies on the relationship of SDO with the higher order Big Five personality traits have associated high SDO with lower openness to experience and lower agreeableness. Meta-analytic aggregation of these studies indicates that the association with low Agreeableness is more robust than the link to Openness to experience. Individuals low in Agreeableness are more inclined to report being motivated by self-interest and self-indulgence. They also tend to be more self-centred and are more 'tough-minded' compared to those who are high on Agreeableness, leading them to perceive the world to be a highly competitive place, where the way to success is through power and dominance – all of which predict SDO. Low Openness, by contrast, aligns more strongly with RWA; thinking in clear and straightforward moral codes that dictate how society as a system should function. Being low in Openness prompts the individual to value security, stability and control: fundamental elements of RWA. Facet-level associations In case of SDO all five facets of Agreeableness significantly correlate (negatively), even after controlling for RWA. 'Tough-mindedness' (opposite of tender-mindedness' facet) is the strongest predictor of SDO. After the effect of SDO is controlled for, only one facet of agreeableness is predictive of RWA. Facets also distinguish SDO from RWA, with 'Dominators' (individuals high on SDO), but not 'Authoritarians' (individuals who score high on RWA), having been found to be lower in dutifulness, morality, sympathy and co-operation. RWA is also associated with religiosity, conservativism, righteousness, and, to some extent, a conscientious moral code, which distinguishes RWA from SDO. Empathy SDO is inversely related to empathy. Facets of Agreeableness that are linked to altruism, sympathy and compassion are the strongest predictors of SDO. SDO has been suggested to have a link with callous affect (which is to be found on the psychopathy sub-scale), the 'polar opposite' of empathy. The relationship between SDO and (lack of) empathy has been found to be reciprocal – with equivocal findings. Some studies show that empathy significantly impacts SDO, whereas other research suggest the opposite effect is more robust; that SDO predicts empathy. The latter showcases how powerful of a predictor SDO may be, not only affecting individual's certain behaviours, but potentially influencing upstream the proneness to those behaviours. It also suggests that those scoring high on SDO proactively avoid scenarios that could prompt them to be more empathetic or tender-minded. This avoidance decreases concern for other's welfare. Empathy indirectly affects generalized prejudice through its negative relationship with SDO. It also has a direct effect on generalized prejudice, as lack of empathy makes one unable to put oneself in the other person's shoes, which predicts prejudice and antidemocratic views. Some recent research has suggested the relationship between SDO and empathy may be more complex, arguing that people with high levels of SDO are less likely to show empathy towards low status people but more likely to show it towards high status people. Conversely, people with low SDO levels demonstrate the reverse behaviour. Other findings and criticisms Research suggests that people high in SDO tend to support using violence in intergroup relations while those low in SDO oppose it; however, it has also been argued that people low in SDO can also support (and those high in it oppose) violence in some circumstances, if the violence is seen as a form of counterdominance. For example, Lebanese people low in SDO approved more strongly of terrorism against the West than Lebanese people high in SDO, seemingly because it entailed a low-status group (Lebanese) attacking a high-status one (Westerners). Amongst Palestinians, lower SDO levels were correlated with more emotional hostility towards Israelis and more parochial empathy for Palestinians. Low levels of SDO have been found to result in individuals possessing positive biases towards outgroup members, for example regarding outgroup members as less irrational than ingroup members, the reverse of what is usually found. Low levels of SDO have also been found to be linked to being better at detecting inequalities applied to low-status groups but not the same inequalities applied to high-status groups. A person's SDO levels can also affect the degree to which they perceive hierarchies, either over or underestimating them, although the effect sizes may be quite small. A person's SDO levels can also shift depending on their identification with their ingroup and low levels of SDO thus may reflect a more complex relationship to ideas of inequality and social hierarchy than just egalitarianism. While research has indicated that SDO is a strong predictor of various forms of prejudice, it has also been suggested that SDO may not be related to prejudice per se but rather be dependent upon the target, as SDO has been found to correlate positively with prejudice towards hierarchy-attenuating groups but negatively with prejudice towards hierarchy-enhancing groups. In the contemporary US, research indicates that most people tend to score fairly low on the SDO scale, with an average score of 2.98 on a 7-point scale (with 7 being the highest in SDO and 1 the lowest), with a standard deviation of 1.19. This has also been found to apply cross-culturally, with the average SDO score being around 2.6, although there was some variation (Switzerland scoring somewhat lower and Japan scoring substantially higher). A study in New Zealand found that 91% of the population had low to moderate SDO levels (levels of 1–4 on the scale), indicating that the majority of variance in SDO occurs within this band. A 2013 multi-national study found average scores ranged from 2.5 to 4. Because SDO scales tend to skew towards egalitarianism, some researchers have argued that this has caused a misinterpretation of correlations between SDO scores and other variables, arguing that low-SDO scorers, rather than high-SDO scorers, are possibly driving most of the correlations. Thus SDO research may actually be discovering the psychology of egalitarianism rather than the reverse. Samantha Stanley argues that "high" SDO scorers are generally in the middle of the SDO scale and thus she suggests their score do not actually represent an endorsement of inequality but rather a greater tolerance or ambivalence towards it than low SDO scorers. Stanley suggests that true high-SDO scorers are possibly quite rare and that researchers need to make clearer what exactly they are defining high-SDO scores as, as prior studies did not always report the actual level of SDO endorsement from high-scorers. Some researchers have raised concerns that the trait is studied under an ideological framework of viewing group-based interactions as one of victims and victimisers (hence its label as social dominance orientation), and that research into SDO should instead look into social organisation rather than social dominance. SDO has been found to be related to color-blindness as a racial ideology. For low-SDO individuals, color-blindness predicts more negative attitudes towards ethnic minorities but for high-SDO individuals, it predicts more positive attitudes. SDO levels can also interact with other variables. When assessing blame for the 2011 England riots, high-SDO individuals uniformly blamed ethnic diversity regardless of whether they agreed with official government discourse, whereas low-SDO individuals did not blame ethnic diversity if they disagreed with official government discourse but did blame ethnic diversity if they did agree, almost to the same degree as high-SDO individuals. Another study found that in a mock hiring experiment, participants high in SDO were more likely to favour a white applicant while those low in SDO were more likely to favour a black applicant, while in mock-juror research, high-SDO white jurors showed anti-black bias and low-SDO white jurors pro-black bias. Low-SDO individuals may also support hierarchy-enhancing beliefs (such as gender essentialism and meritocracy) if they believe this will support diversity. SDO has also been found to relate to attitudes towards social class. Self-perceived attractiveness can also interact with a person's SDO levels (due to perceived effects on social class); changing a person's self-perceived level of attractiveness affected their self-perceived social class and thus their SDO levels. A study report published by Nature in 2017 indicates there may be a correlation between FMRI scanned brain response to social ranks and the SDO scale. Subjects who tended to prefer hierarchical social structures and to promote socially dominant behaviors as measured by SDO exhibited stronger responses in the right anterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (right aDLPFC) when facing superior players. The French National Agency for Research funded study involved 28 male subjects and used FMRI measurements to demonstrate that response in the right aDLPFC to social ranks was strongly correlated with participant SDO scores measuring response to social ranks. Correlation with conservative political views Felicia Pratto and her colleagues have found evidence that a high social dominance orientation is strongly correlated with conservative political views, and opposition to programs and policies that aim to promote equality (such as affirmative action, laws advocating equal rights for homosexuals, women in combat, etc.). There has been some debate within the psychology community on what the relation is between SDO and racism/sexism. One explanation suggests that opposition to programs that promote equality need not be based on racism or sexism but on a "principled conservatism", that is, a "concern for equality of opportunity, color-blindness, and genuine conservative values". Some principled-conservatism theorists have suggested that racism and conservatism are independent, and only very weakly correlated among the highly educated, who truly understand the concepts of conservative values and attitudes. In an effort to examine the relationship between education, SDO, and racism, Sidanius and his colleagues asked approximately 4,600 Euro-Americans to complete a survey in which they were asked about their political and social attitudes, and their social dominance orientation was assessed. "These findings contradict much of the case for the principled conservatism hypothesis, which maintains that political values that are largely devoid of racism, especially among highly educated people." Contrary to what these theorists would predict, correlations among SDO, political conservatism, and racism were strongest among the most educated, and weakest among the least educated. Sidanius and his colleagues hypothesized this was because the most educated conservatives tend to be more invested in the hierarchical structure of society and in maintaining the inequality of the status quo in society in order to safeguard their status. SDO levels can also shift in response to threats to political party identity, with conservatives responding to party identity threat by increasing SDO levels and liberals responding by lowering them. Culture SDO is typically measured as an individual personality construct. However, cultural forms of SDO have been discovered on the macro level of society. Discrimination, prejudice and stereotyping can occur at various levels of institutions in society, such as transnational corporations, government agencies, schools and criminal justice systems. The basis of this theory of societal level SDO is rooted in evolutionary psychology, which states that humans have an evolved predisposition to express social dominance that is heightened under certain social conditions (such as group status) and is also mediated by factors such as individual personality and temperament. Democratic societies are lower in SDO measures The more that a society encourages citizens to cooperate with others and feel concern for the welfare of others, the lower the SDO in that culture. High levels of national income and empowerment of women are also associated with low national SDO, whereas more traditional societies with lower income, male domination and more closed institutional systems are associated with a higher SDO. Individuals who are socialized within these traditional societies are more likely to internalize gender hierarchies and are less likely to challenge them. Biology and sexual differences The biology of SDO is unknown. Plenty of evidence suggests that men tend to score higher on SDO than women, and this is true across different countries, cultures, age-groups, classes, religions and educational levels, with the difference generally being an average of half a point on the scale. Researchers argue for an 'invariance' in the difference between men and women's SDO; suggesting that even if all other factors were to be controlled for, the difference between men and women's SDO would still remain – this however in some cases has been challenged, although exceptions may be due to complex and highly dependent factors. From an evolutionary and biological perspective SDO facilitates men to be successful in their reproductive strategy through achieving social power and control over other males and becoming desired mating partners for the opposite sex. Males are observed to be more socially hierarchical, as indicated by speaking time, and yielding to interruptions. Males higher average SDO levels has been suggested as an explanation for gender differences in support for policies; males are more likely to support military force, defence spending and the death penalty and less likely to support social welfare or minimum wage legislation, while females are more likely to believe in the reverse. This is because males, due to being more likely to have higher SDO scores, are more likely to view inequalities as the natural result of competition and thus are more likely to have a negative view of policies designed to mitigate or dilute the effects of competition. Noting that males tend to have higher SDO scores than females, Sidanius and Pratto speculate that SDO may be influenced by hormones that differ between the sexes, namely androgens, primarily testosterone. Male levels of testosterone are much higher than those of females. Taking a socio-cultural perspective, it is argued that the gap between women and men in SDO is dependent upon societal norms prescribing different expectations for gender roles of men and women.Men are expected to be dominant and assertive, whereas women are supposed to be submissive and tender. Differences between male and female attributional cognitive complexity are suggested to contribute to the gender gap in SDO. Women have been found to be more attributionally complex compared to men; they use more contextual information and evaluate social information more precisely. It is proposed that lower social status prompts higher cognitive complexity in order to compensate for the lack of control in that social situation by processing it more attentively and evaluating it more in depth. The difference in cognitive complexity between high and low status individuals could contribute to the differences between male and female SDO. Some evidence suggests that both the dominance and anti-egalitarianism dimensions of SDO are determined by genetic, rather than environmental, factors. See also References Bibliography Personality traits Personality tests Social inequality Abuse Anti-social behaviour Barriers to critical thinking Harassment and bullying Injustice Social psychology concepts Moral psychology Political psychology

Technics and Civilization

Technics and Civilization is a 1934 book by American philosopher and historian of technology Lewis Mumford. The book presents the history of technology and its role in shaping and being shaped by civilizations. According to Mumford, modern technology has its roots in the Middle Ages rather than in the Industrial Revolution. It is the moral, economic, and political choices we make, not the machines we use, Mumford argues, that have produced a capitalist industrialized machine-oriented economy, whose imperfect fruits serve the majority so imperfectly. Background Apart from its significance as a monumental work of scholarship in several disciplines, Mumford explicitly positioned the book as a call-to-action for the human race to consider its options in the face of the threats to its survival posed by possible ecological catastrophe or industrialised warfare. Technics and Civilization is the first book in Mumford's four-volume Renewal of Life series, followed by The Culture of Cities (1938), The Condition of Man (1944), and The Conduct of Life (1951). Synopsis Mumford divides the development of technology into three overlapping phases: eotechnic (Greek, eos meaning "dawn"), paleotechnic and neotechnic. The first phase of technically civilized life (AD 1000 to 1800) begins with the clock, to Mumford the most important basis for the development of capitalism because time thereby becomes fungible (thus transferable). The clock is the most important prototype for all other machines. He contrasts the development and use of glass, wood, wind and water with the inhumanly horrific work that goes into mining and smelting metal. The use of all of these materials, and the development of science during the eotechnic phase, is based on the abstraction from life of the elements that could be measured. He approves those people, cities and cultures who strove for a harmonious balance between the senses and the freedom from labor provided by science. The second phase, the paleotechnic (roughly 1700 to 1900), is "an upthrust into barbarism, aided by the very forces and interests which originally had been directed toward the conquest of the environment and the perfection of human nature." Inventions of the paleotechnic are made by men trying to solve specific problems rather than hunting for general scientific principles; in fact, scientific learning is devalued by men of business. The invention of coal-fired steam powered factories and the installation of capital-intensive machinery leads to a necessarily gigantic round-the-clock scale of production supported by unskilled machine tenders. Labour becomes a commodity, rather than an inalienable set of skills, while the labourer who tended machines, lived in slums, and was paid starvation wages became physically stunted and socially and spiritually stultified. Mumford notes that the death rate of urban slums compares unfavorably to the agricultural worker of the same time period, and furthermore that life in the nineteenth century compares unfavorably to cleanliness and standards of living available to workers in thirteenth century cities. He also identifies iron as the primary building material of the paleotechnic, and skyscrapers, bridges, and steamships as première accomplishments of the age. War and mass sport he saw as social releases from mechanized life, and the hysteric duties of wartime production (or even the hysteria of a baseball team's victory) is a natural outgrowth of the tensions and structures of such paleotechnic life. In describing the neotechnic age (from about 1900 to Mumford's present, 1930), he focuses on the invention of electricity, freeing the factory production line from the restrictions of coal through the addition of small electric motors to individual machines, and freeing the laborer to create small but competitive factories. Mumford presciently notes that a small producer can deliver what is needed when it is needed more efficiently than paleotechnic assembly lines. The neotechnic phase he saw was dominated by men of science, rather than mechanically apt machinists. Rather than pursuing accomplishments on the scale of the trains, it is concerned with the invisible, the rare, the atomic level of change and innovation. Compact and lightweight aluminum is the metal of the neotechnic, and communication and information—even inflated amounts—he claimed was the coin. References 1934 non-fiction books Books by Lewis Mumford Books in philosophy of technology History books about civilization History books about technology Works about the theory of history

Wetlands and islands in Germanic paganism

A prominent position was held by wetlands and islands in Germanic paganism, as in other pagan European cultures, featuring as sites of religious practice and belief from the Nordic Bronze Age until the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples. Depositions of items such as food, weapons and riding equipment have been discovered at locations such as rivers, fens and islands varied over time and location. The interpretations of these finds vary with proposed explanations including efforts to thank, placate or ask for help from supernatural beings that were believed to either live in, or be able to be reached through, the wetland. In addition to helpful beings, Old English literary sources record some wetlands were also believed to be inhabited by harmful creatures such as the nicoras and þyrsas fought by the hero Beowulf. Scholars have argued that during the 5th century CE, the religious importance of watery places was diminished through the actions of the newly forming aristocratic warrior class that promoted a more centralised hall culture. Their cultic role was further reduced upon the introduction of institutionalized Christianity to Germanic-speaking areas when a number of laws were issued that sought to suppress persisting worship at these sites. Despite this, some aspects of heathen religious practice and conceptions seem to have continued after the establishment of Christianity through adaptation and assimilation into the incoming faith such as the persistence of depositions at holy sites. History Background and origins As with elsewhere in Europe, wetland depositions in the areas later inhabited by Germanic peoples, such as England and Scandinavia, were performed in the New Stone Age and continue throughout the Bronze Age (when weapon deposits in Scandinavia begin), Iron Age and into the Viking Age. Throughout this long period there was significant regional and temporal variation with different sites favouring deposition of different types of items at different points in time. Wetlands have further importance to archaeologists as the waterlogged and acidic conditions preserve organic material that would otherwise have degraded such as clothes and wood. Pre-Roman and Roman Iron Age Wetland depositions have been found in continental Germanic areas such as Oberdorla in Thuringia, which was used as a ritual site from the Hallstatt period into at least the Merovingian Period, following trends seen elsewhere of continuity in deposition practice despite migrations or language changes in the area. Large weapon depositions have been found at sites such as Hjortspring, Ådal, Esbøl and Skedemosse, with that at Hjortspring being the oldest of its type, occurring approximately 400 years before depositions began to occur widely throughout Northern Europe. Animal sacrifices in Skedemosse and Hjortspring are approximately contemporary, however, dating to around 300 BCE. It has been theorised that the intensification of deposition in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age at sites like Skedemosse resulted from cultural contact with Celtic peoples who began to spread out over Europe at that time and had similar deposition practices. Bog bodies typically linked to cultural practices of early Germanic peoples cluster around 600 BCE to 300 CE, and include individuals such as the Tollund man and Osterby Man. Throughout the 1st millennium CE, whole or parts of infants were deposited throughout the Germanic area both in naturally occurring wetlands, such as bogs, and in manmade "wells" at settlements such as Trelleborg, which could have been perceived of as "cultivated bogs" that acted like wetlands built at settlements to be tended to by the population. The cause of death of found infants remains unclear. Human depositions have been further linked to an account in Tacitus' Germania of the ritual washing of the god Nerthus, after which those who cleaned her were drowned. He also states that the Germanic peoples drowned individuals that transgressed certain societal rules. Given that bog bodies typically do not show signs of having died by drowning, it has been suggested that these precise details may not be accurate. Despite the number of famous finds, human remains are notably rare in comparison to other types of deposition. Germanic Iron Age Fibulae and bracteates were also placed either in, or at the edges of, wetlands during the 5th to the first half of the 6th century. Large depositions of weapons cease to occur after the end of the Migration Period, with only small depositions continuing into the Viking Age, and at different sites than before. The gradual reduction of wetland depositions around the 5th century CE has been linked by Terry Gunnell with the centralising of religious traditions and the rise in prominence of halls and the male warrior elite. He further proposes that during this period, female figures associated with bodies of water reduced in prominence and their conception as rulers of realms of the dead was replaced by developing ideas of Valhöll. Similarly, it has been proposed that the stabilisation of the elite class during the 6th century CE led to fewer conflicts, resulting in fewer war spoils being deposited in wetlands. Wetland deposition of artefacts was practised in Britain prior to the Anglo-Saxon settlement and continued into the Anglo-Saxon period. Finds consist principally of weapons but also include other items such as horse equipment, jewellery and tools. During the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England in the 7th century CE, and the subsequent establishment of institutionalised Christianity in the 10th century CE, some wetland practices were made illegal in attempts to suppress them, resulting in wetland depositions continued at a reducing frequency. This attempt to suppress practices perceived as heathen is paralleled during this period in continental Europe in cases such as the Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum, that includes well worship in its list of condemned practices deemed pagan or superstitions from around Saxony. Other examples include Langobardic law compiled in 727 CE, that made it a fineable offence to worship at trees and wells, and the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae composed in 769 CE, which further forbids worship at wells. In other cases, the meaning of wetland practices was altered to fit the context of the incoming religion. Specific springs and wells were connected to specific saints and baptisms were sometimes performed in rivers. Furthermore, rivers continued to act as boundaries to liminal places, with monasteries often being built so as to be accessed by crossing rivers. It has been further argued that the conception of wetlands as home to supernatural beings remained widespread, such as in accounts of the Anglo-Saxon saint Guthlac of Crowland such as the Latin and the poems 'Guthlac A & B', in which the saint chooses to live in a fen that is home to evil spirits. Viking Age and later The reduction in depositions seen in Scandinavia during the Germanic Iron Age was not permanent, with depositions of items such as weapons, jewellery, coins and tools resurfacing again during the late 8th century until the beginning of the 11th century CE, when depositions again reduce, coinciding with the increased establishment of Christianity. Weapon depositions in the Viking Age continue the practice seen previously in the Germanic Iron Age with only small numbers of items found and often at different sites than before. These sites include wetlands in regions inhabited by the Viking diaspora, in regions such as Ireland and modern France and the Netherlands. Consistent with this, the Byzantine De Administrando Imperio describes the Rūs Vikings performing sacrifices on St. Gregory's Island in the Dnipro river, which has been linked to finds of Scandinavian swords in the region. Other written accounts include that of the 10th century Andalusian traveller Ibrahim ibn Yaqub that describes those living in Hedeby would throw excess children into the sea. The deposition of weapons in wetlands may be reflected in names of rivers in Nordic mythology such as ("The one bobbing with spears"), ("The stinging") and ("The dangerously sharp"). Of these three rivers, and run around the sanctuaries or homes of the gods while flows through the lands of humans before falling into Hel, and is explicitly described as flowing with swords and seaxes. In the case of England, the settlement of North-Germanic peoples coincides with an increase in wetland depositions in the region. Objects pertaining to both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian art styles have been found, principally in the Thames, Lea and Witham. Notable finds include the Seax of Beagnoth, the Nene River Ring. In both England and Scandinavia, deposits often cluster around crossing points of rivers such as bridges and fords. Among the sites with the most discovered weapons is the Danish lake Tissø, by which a settlement has been further found that could only be reached in the Viking Age using a 50 m long wooden bridge. At this site are also two deviant burials dated to the 11th-century CE. Depositions have yet to be found, however, at the English lake of analogous name Tyesmere. Due to the close resemblance between depositions at specific landscape features in England and elsewhere, it has been argued that the relatively low number of finds in England result from an under-representation in the archaeological record, be it through lack of discovery or reporting, rather than a lower prevalence of depositional practices. As with those imposed previously, laws issued in England by Cnut the Great between 1020 and 1023 CE forbade the worship of rivers and wells or springs, consistent with the archaeological record of depositions at those wetland sites. It has been suggested that this may be referring to practices in England either by Scandinavians alone, or that the migrations of heathen Scandinavians led to a resurgence of Anglo-Saxon pagan practices. Religious intention While wetland depositions have been interpreted by some scholars as accidental, such as being left behind after battles, the sizes of deposits and the condition of items within them suggest this idea does not explain most finds. Instead, they have typically been interpreted as votive offerings, in contrast to dryland deposits which were viewed as hoards to be uncovered at a later date. Deposition of weapons has further been suggested to be an attempt to prevent the beings in the wetlands from harming those who are trying to cross it, ensuring safe passage. Many archaeologists have traditionally distinguished between "war-booty sacrifices", consisting of weapons and horse-riding gear, and "fertility sacrifices" consisting of anything else such as agricultural produce, pottery, animal remains and humans. It is typically proposed that weapon deposits are to thank the gods for victory in battle. "Fertility sacrifices" on the other hand are usually seen as part of a reciprocal process of giving. Weapon sacrifices are often believed by scholars to be performed by the victors, thanking the gods by giving them the defeated side's war gear. An alternative suggestion is that it was intended to quell the power of the weapons, which would have been tainted by their association with killing. This division into two distinct classes has been challenged, however, with it being suggested that this strict dichotomy may not correspond well to the conceptions of those making the depositions. Some adults deposited in bogs have been interpreted as having been executed as a punishment or offered as a sacrifice. Others may have been buried there in a normal fashion. It has been proposed that infant deposition was justified by desperation and only resorted to in extreme cases. Consistent with this, the majority of infant depositions date to the Migration Period - a time of widespread strife and population movements. On the contrary, it has also been argued that infanticide was socially acceptable due to factors such as the high infant mortality rate, not seeing children as full humans until they reached certain milestones like first breastfeeding and it being safer to the mother than abortions. Similarities have been noted between the contemporary practices of infant deposition in wetlands and those in spaces in settlements, such as in postholes and beneath hearths, which were more common. It has been suggested that in the animist mindset of Germanic pagans in the 1st millennium CE, in which the boundaries between some objects and living beings was blurred, that in certain contexts human bodies and infants may have been conceived of as animate objects that could be used as ritual tools, either intact or in pieces. It has also been suggested that placing bodies in bogs was a way of preventing them from returning as beings such as draugs. Notable outliers to these reasonings include the Skuldelev ships, which were intentionally scuttled for defensive purposes, blocking the entrance to Roskilde fjord, rather than serving a religious function. Inhabitation by supernatural beings Accounts such as Grímnismál describe lakes and bogs as the dwellings of female gods. Frigg lives in ("Fen halls") and Sága lives in ("Sunken benches") where she drinks with Odin beneath the waves. Supernatural beings are also described as residing at watery sites described as (translated variously as "lakes", "wells" and "ponds"). These include Urðarbrunnr (where three norns live and the gods meet to give judgement) and Mímisbrunnr (associated with the wise being Mímir). Gods and other supernatural beings are also described as living across bodies of water on islands. The beginning of Grímnismál describes two brothers get lost while fishing and are stranded, whereupon they are taken care of by Odin and Frigg in disguise. Gods could also be seen as being situated in specific geographical locations such as Ægir on læsø and Nerthus in a holy grove on an island in sea. In Gautreks saga, Starkaðr meets Odin among other gods on an island near Hordaland, while in Jómsvíkinga saga, Earl Hákon goes to an island to blót to Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr and Irpa. Overtly harmful beings are also described as living in wetlands in Old English accounts. In Beowulf, the eponymous hero kills nine beasts in the sea during his swimming competition with Brecca the Bronding. He later journeys into a lake in the marshes in which Grendel's mother lives in order to fight her, where he finds her living in a hall beneath the water. Consistent with this, fens are described in Maxims II as the characteristic dwelling place of a , a type of being that includes Grendel. Nicors also feature in the poem, where they live beneath the surface of pools and are presented as terrifying and dangerous creatures. Similarly, the name of Fenrir, the wolf prophesied in Völuspá to eat Odin at Ragnarök, likely translates as "Fen-dweller". Toponomy Germanic placenames associated with water that have been proposed to derive from their historical role in pagan religious practice: Crossing points England Weeford (Wēoh ford), village in Staffordshire Wyfordby (Wēoh ford settlement), village in Leicestershire Islands Norway Goðeyjar (Islands of the gods), islands in Salten Helgøya (The holy island), island in Lake Mjøsa Sweden Helgö (Holy island), Island in Mälaren Frösön (The island dedicated to the god Freyr), island in Jämtland. Wetlands Denmark Gudenå (Gods' stream), river in Jutland Tissø (Týr's or god's lake), lake in Zealand England Tyesmere (Tīw's mere), lake in Worcestershire Sweden Odensjö (Odin's lake), lake in Scania Significance of watery places Water as marking liminal spaces Wetlands, intertidal regions and seasonal and tidal islands have been interpreted as being conceptionally distinct in the cognitive landscapes of many past cultures. Similarly, watercourses, islands and bridges have often served as markers of territories, natural barriers, crossing points and facilitators of travel. It has been proposed that these qualities led early Germanic people to see them as liminal spaces in which supernatural encounters were more likely. Water also often is described as separating the lands of the living from both those of the dead and of the gods, such as Gjǫll which is mentioned in Gylfaginning as marking the border to Hel. The conception of lands of the dead being separated from those of the living frequently recurs across the world and is attested throughout Northwestern Europe from the 6th century CE onwards. The Byzantine historian Procopius describes that the people of the Low Countries ferry the souls of the dead to an island off the coast. Similarly in Beowulf and the Prose Edda, the bodies of Scyld Scefing and Baldr are laid on ships and sent out to sea. In the latter case, the ship is burnt and the god is later found in Hel. Similarly, in the prose section of Frá dauða Sinfjǫtla, a boatman identified by some scholars as Odin ferries the body of Sinfjǫtli across a fjord. These textual sources have been connected with wider evidence such as archaeological finds of ship burials that occur in Northern Europe from the Iron Age, likely reflecting the idea that those who had died could reach the land of the dead by boat. Similarly, many Iron Age graves have been found on uninhabited islands, and many Iron Age and Viking Age grave fields are separated from settlements by streams. Furthermore, some mounds, such as those at Borre in Vestfold, have ditches around them that would have filled up with water at certain times of year, making them transient islands that could be reached by bridges that were built over the ditches. It has been suggested that bodies of water such as Odensjo were conceived of as passages to the otherworld where gods and other beings resided, similar to beliefs associated with saajve in south Saami tradition. Comparable beliefs have been noted in later Northern European folklore such as people reaching the land of the elves by jumping into ponds, rivers or the sea in Icelandic folklore. Reflection of mythical locations in religious sites Mímisbrunnr has been connected to the waters of Mimling in Germany, and Mimesøa and Mimesjöen in Sweden. It has been argued that these names suggest that, like Mímisbrunnr, there was a belief in a wise prophetic being living beneath these waters. Adam of Bremen describes in Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum that at the temple at Uppsala, heathen sacrifices were made at the site of a tree and a spring or well. Similarities have been noted between this site and Yggdrasil and the wells ("") that stand beneath its roots. It has been noted that the combination of trees and wells is common at pagan religious sites in accounts from the 6th century CE to the time of Charlemagne. Relationship with other practices It has been argued that the use of watery places should be seen in the context of the wider holy landscapes in the minds of the Germanic peoples that also included other important features involved in religious practice such as burial mounds, temples, hills, fields and groves. See also Water and religion Notes Citations References Secondary Germanic paganism Wetlands in folklore Sacred islands Wetlands

Democratization of knowledge

The democratization of knowledge is the acquisition and spread of knowledge amongst a wider part of the population, not just privileged elites such as clergy and academics. Libraries, in particular public libraries, and modern information technology such as the Internet play a key role, as they provide the masses with open access to information. History Wide dissemination of knowledge is inseparable from the spread of literacy. The Information Age is a historical period that began in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industries, as established during the Industrial Revolution, to an economy centered on information technology. Digitization efforts by Google Books have been pointed to as an example of the democratization of knowledge, but Malte Herwig in Der Spiegel raised concerns that the virtual monopoly Google has in the search market, combined with Google's hiding of the details of its search algorithms, could undermine this move towards democratization. Google Scholar (and similar scholarly search services) and Sci-Hub (and similar scholarly shadow libraries) have also been pointed to as examples of democratization of knowledge. Open Library's and HathiTrust's digitization efforts and their use of the controlled digital lending model are also examples of democratization of knowledge. After the most powerful search engine, Google, and the most viewed online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, the most viewed information-based website is the Encyclopædia Britannica. Role of libraries An article written in 2005 by the editors of Reference & User Services Quarterly calls the library the greatest force for the democratization of knowledge or information. It continues to say that public libraries in particular are inextricably linked with the history and evolution of the United States, but school library media centers, college and university libraries, and special libraries have all also been influential in their support for democracy. Libraries play an essential role in the democratization of knowledge and information by providing communities with the resources and tools to find information free of charge. Democratic access to knowledge has also been co-opted to mean providing information in a variety of formats, which essentially means electronic and digital formats for use by library patrons. Public libraries help further the democratization of information by guaranteeing freedom of access to information, by providing an unbiased variety of information sources and access to government services, as well as the promotion of democracy and active citizenship. Dan Cohen, the founding executive director of the Digital Public Library of America, writes that democratic access to knowledge is a profound idea that requires constant tending and revitalization. In 2004, a World Social Forum and International workshop was held entitled "Democratization of Information: Focus on Libraries". The focus of the forum was to bring awareness to the social, technological, and financial challenges facing libraries dealing with the democratization of information. Social challenges included globalization and the digital divide, technological challenges included information sources, and financial challenges constituted shrinking budgets and manpower. Longtime Free Library of Philadelphia director Elliot Shelkrot said that "Democracy depends on an informed population. And where can people get all the information they need? —At the Library." See also Autodidacticism Citizen science Democratization Encyclopédie Ideagoras Intellectual property Trade secret Wikipedia and the Democratization of Knowledge 2021 German documentary References Cultural globalization Information revolution Knowledge economy

History of anarchism

According to different scholars, the history of anarchism either goes back to ancient and prehistoric ideologies and social structures, or begins in the 19th century as a formal movement. As scholars and anarchist philosophers have held a range of views on what anarchism means, it is difficult to outline its history unambiguously. Some feel anarchism is a distinct, well-defined movement stemming from 19th-century class conflict, while others identify anarchist traits long before the earliest civilisations existed. Prehistoric society existed without formal hierarchies, which some anthropologists have described as similar to anarchism. The first traces of formal anarchist thought can be found in ancient Greece and China, where numerous philosophers questioned the necessity of the state and declared the moral right of the individual to live free from coercion. During the Middle Ages, some religious sects espoused libertarian thought, and the Age of Enlightenment, and the attendant rise of rationalism and science, signalled the birth of the modern anarchist movement. Alongside Marxism, modern anarchism was a significant part of the workers' movement at the end of the 19th century. Modernism, industrialisation, reaction to capitalism and mass migration helped anarchism to flourish and to spread around the globe. Major anarchist schools of thought sprouted up as anarchism grew as a social movement, particularly anarcho-collectivism, anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, and individualist anarchism. As the workers' movement grew, the divide between anarchists and Marxists grew as well. The two currents formally split at the fifth congress of the First International in 1872. Anarchists participated enthusiastically in the Russian Revolution, but as soon as the Bolsheviks established their authority, anarchist movements, most notably the Makhnovshchina and the Kronstadt rebellion, were harshly suppressed. Anarchism played a historically prominent role during the Spanish Civil War, when an anarchist territory was established in Catalonia. Revolutionary Catalonia was organised along anarcho-syndicalist lines, with powerful labor unions in the cities and collectivised agriculture in the country, but ended in the defeat of the anarchists. In the 1960s, anarchism re-emerged as a global political and cultural force. In association with the New Left and Post-left tendencies, anarchism has influenced social movements that espouse personal autonomy and direct democracy. It has also played major roles in the anti-globalization movement, Zapatista revolution, and Rojava revolution. Background Τhere has been some controversy over the definition of anarchism and hence its history. One group of scholars considers anarchism strictly associated with class struggle. Others feel this perspective is far too narrow. While the former group examines anarchism as a phenomenon that occurred during the 19th century, the latter group looks to ancient history to trace anarchism's roots. Anarchist philosopher Murray Bookchin describes the continuation of the "legacy of freedom" of humankind (i.e. the revolutionary moments) that existed throughout history, in contrast with the "legacy of domination" which consists of states, capitalism and other organisational forms. The three most common forms of defining anarchism are the "etymological" (an-archei, without a ruler, but anarchism is not merely a negation); the "anti-statism" (while this seems to be pivotal, it certainly does not describe the essence of anarchism); and the "anti-authoritarian" definition (denial of every kind of authority, which over-simplifies anarchism). Along with the definition debates, the question of whether it is a philosophy, a theory or a series of actions complicates the issue. Philosophy professor Alejandro de Agosta proposes that anarchism is "a decentralized federation of philosophies as well as practices and ways of life, forged in different communities and affirming diverse geohistories". Precursors Prehistoric and ancient era Many scholars of anarchism, including anthropologists Harold Barclay and David Graeber, claim that some form of anarchy dates back to prehistory. The longest period of human existence, that before the recorded history of human society, was without a separate class of established authority or formal political institutions. Long before anarchism emerged as a distinct perspective, humans lived for thousands of years in self-governing societies without a special ruling or political class. It was only after the rise of hierarchical societies that anarchist ideas were formulated as a critical response to, and a rejection of, coercive political institutions and hierarchical social relationships. Taoism, which developed in ancient China, has been linked to anarchist thought by some scholars. Taoist sages Lao Tzu and Zhuang Zhou, whose principles were grounded in an "anti-polity" stance and a rejection of any kind of involvement in political movements or organisations, developed a philosophy of "non-rule" in the Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi. Taoists were trying to live in harmony with nature according to the precepts of their religion by doing this. There is an ongoing debate whether exhorting rulers not to rule is somehow an anarchist objective. A new generation of Taoist thinkers with anarchic leanings appeared during the chaotic Wei-Jin period. Taoism and neo-Taoism had principles more akin to a philosophical anarchisman attempt to delegitimise the state and question its moralityand were pacifist schools of thought, in contrast with their Western counterparts some centuries later. Former professor emeritus of history at California State University Milton W. Meyer has stated that in his opinion, early Taoists were "early anarchists" who believed in concepts often found in states such as anti-intellectualism and "laissez-faire". Taoist anarchists did not believe in religious traditions such as rituals and the concepts of morality and good and evil. Some convictions and ideas deeply held by modern anarchists were first expressed in ancient Greece. The first known political usage of the word anarchy appeared in plays by Aeschylus and Sophocles in the fifth century BC. Ancient Greece also saw the first Western instance of anarchy as a philosophical ideal mainly, but not only, by the Cynics and Stoics. The Cynics Diogenes of Sinope and Crates of Thebes are both supposed to have advocated for anarchistic forms of society, although little remains of their writings. Their most significant contribution was the radical approach of nomos (law) and physis (nature). Contrary to the rest of Greek philosophy, aiming to blend nomos and physis in harmony, Cynics dismissed nomos (and in consequence: the authorities, hierarchies, establishments and moral code of polis) while promoting a way of life, based solely on physis. Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, who was much influenced by the Cynics, described his vision of an egalitarian utopian society around 300 BC. Zeno's Republic advocates a form of anarchic society where there is no need for state structures. He argued that although the necessary instinct of self-preservation leads humans to egotism, nature has supplied a corrective to it by providing man with another instinct, namely sociability. Like many modern anarchists, he believed that if people follow their instincts, they will have no need of law courts or police, no temples and no public worship, and use no money—free gifts taking the place of monetary exchanges. Socrates expressed some views appropriate to anarchism. He constantly questioned authority and at the centre of his philosophy stood every man's right to freedom of consciousness. Aristippus, a pupil of Socrates and founder of the Hedonistic school, claimed that he did not wish either to rule or be ruled. He saw the State as a danger to personal autonomy. Not all ancient Greeks had anarchic tendencies. Other philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle used the term anarchy negatively in association with democracy which they mistrusted as inherently vulnerable and prone to deteriorate into tyranny. Among the ancient precursors of anarchism are often ignored movements within ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. As more contemporary literature shows, anti-state and anti-hierarchy positions can be found in the Tanakh as well as in New Testament texts. Middle Ages In Persia during the Middle Ages a Zoroastrian prophet named Mazdak, now considered a proto-socialist, called for the abolition of private property, free love and overthrowing the king. He and his thousands of followers were massacred in 582 CE, but his teaching influenced Islamic sects in the following centuries. A theological predecessor to anarchism developed in Basra and Baghdad among Mu'tazilite ascetics and Najdiyya Khirijites. This form of revolutionary Islam was not communist or egalitarian. It did not resemble current concepts of anarchism, but preached the State was harmful, illegitimate, immoral and unnecessary. In Europe, Christianity was overshadowing all aspects of life. The Brethren of the Free Spirit was the most notable example of heretic belief that had some vague anarchistic tendencies. They held anticleric sentiments and believed in total freedom. Even though most of their ideas were individualistic, the movement had a social impact, instigating riots and rebellions in Europe for many years. Other anarchistic religious movements in Europe during the Middle Ages included the Hussites and Adamites. 20th-century historian James Joll described anarchism as two opposing sides. In the Middle Ages, zealotic and ascetic religious movements emerged, which rejected institutions, laws and the established order. In the 18th century another anarchist stream emerged based on rationalism and logic. These two currents of anarchism later blended to form a contradictory movement that resonated with a very broad audience. Renaissance and early modern era With the spread of the Renaissance across Europe, anti-authoritarian and secular ideas re-emerged. The most prominent thinkers advocating for liberty, mainly French, were employing utopia in their works to bypass strict state censorship. In Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1552), François Rabelais wrote of the Abby of Thelema (from ; meaning "will" or "wish"), an imaginary utopia whose motto was "Do as Thou Will". Around the same time, French law student Etienne de la Boetie wrote his Discourse on Voluntary Servitude where he argued that tyranny resulted from voluntary submission and could be abolished by the people refusing to obey the authorities above them. Later still in France, Gabriel de Foigny perceived a utopia with freedom-loving people without government and no need of religion, as he wrote in The Southern Land, Known. For this, Geneva authorities jailed de Foigny. François Fénelon also used utopia to project his political views in the book Les Aventures de Télémaque that infuriated Louis XIV. Some Reformation currents (like the radical reformist movement of Anabaptists) are sometimes credited as the religious forerunners of modern anarchism. Even though the Reformation was a religious movement and strengthened the state, it also opened the way for the humanistic values of the French Revolution. During the English Civil War, Christian anarchism found one of its most articulate exponents in Gerrard Winstanley, who was part of the Diggers movement. He published a pamphlet, The New Law of Righteousness, calling for communal ownership and social and economic organisation in small agrarian communities. Drawing on the Bible, he argued that "the blessings of the earth" should "be common to all" and "none Lord over others". William Blake has also been said to have espoused an anarchistic political position. In the New World, the first to use the term "anarchy" to mean something other than chaos was Louis-Armand, Baron de Lahontan in his Nouveaux voyages dans l'Amérique septentrionale, 1703 (New Voyages in Northern America). He described indigenous American society as having no state, laws, prisons, priests or private property as being in anarchy. The Quaker sect, mostly because of their ahierarchical governance and social relations, based on their beliefs of the divine spirit universally within all people and humanity's absolute equality, had some anarchistic tendencies; such values must have influenced Benjamin Tucker the editor and publisher of the individualist anarchist periodical Liberty. Early anarchism Developments of the 18th century Modern anarchism grew from the secular and humanistic thought of the Enlightenment. The scientific discoveries that preceded the Enlightenment gave thinkers of the time confidence that humans can reason for themselves. When nature was tamed through science, society could be set free. The development of anarchism was strongly influenced by the works of Jean Meslier, Baron d'Holbach, whose materialistic worldview later resonated with anarchists, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, especially in his Discourse on Inequality and arguments for the moral centrality of freedom. Rousseau affirmed the goodness in the nature of men and viewed the state as fundamentally oppressive. Denis Diderot's Supplément au voyage de Bougainville (The Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville) was also influential. The French Revolution stands as a landmark in the history of anarchism. The use of revolutionary violence by masses would captivate anarchists of later centuries, with such events as the Women's March on Versailles, the Storming of the Bastille and the Réveillon riots seen as the revolutionary archetype. Anarchists came to identify with the Enragés who expressed the demands of the sans-culottes (; commoners) who opposed revolutionary government as a contradiction in terms. Denouncing the Jacobin dictatorship, Jean Varlet wrote in 1794 that "government and revolution are incompatible, unless the people wish to set its constituted authorities in permanent insurrection against itself". In his Manifeste des Égaux (Manifesto of the Equals) of 1801, Sylvain Maréchal looked forward to the disappearance, once and for all, of "the revolting distinction between rich and poor, of great and small, of masters and valets, of governors and governed". The French Revolution came to depict in the minds of anarchists that as soon as rebels seize power they become the new tyrants, as evidenced by the state-orchestrated violence of the Reign of Terror. The proto-anarchist groups of Enragés and sans-culottes were ultimately executed by guillotine. The debate over the effects of the French Revolution on the anarchist cause continues to this day. To anarchist historian Max Nettlau, the French revolution was a turning point in anarchistic thought, as it promoted the ideals of "Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality". Yet he felt that the outcome did nothing more than re-shape and modernise the militaristic state. Russian revolutionary and anarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin, however, traced the origins of the anarchist movement further back, linking it to struggles against authority in feudal societies and earlier revolutionary traditions. In a more moderate approach, independent scholar Sean Sheehan points out that the French Revolution proved that even the strongest political establishments can be overthrown. William Godwin in England was the first to develop an expression of modern anarchist thought. He is generally regarded as the founder of the school of thought known as philosophical anarchism. He argued in Political Justice (1793) that government has an inherently malevolent influence on society, and that it perpetuates dependency and ignorance. He thought the spread of the use of reason to the masses would eventually cause the government to wither away as an unnecessary force. Although he did not accord the state with moral legitimacy, he was against the use of revolutionary tactics for removing a government from power. Rather, he advocated for its replacement through a process of peaceful evolution. His aversion to the imposition of a rules-based society led him to denounce, as a manifestation of the people's "mental enslavement", the foundations of law, property rights and even the institution of marriage. He considered the basic foundations of society as constraining the natural development of individuals to use their powers of reasoning to arrive at a mutually beneficial method of social organisation. In each case, government and its institutions are shown to constrain the development of one's capacity to live wholly in accordance with the full and free exercise of private judgement. Proudhon and Stirner Frenchman Pierre-Joseph Proudhon is regarded as the founder of modern anarchism, a label he adopted in his groundbreaking work What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government published in 1840. In it he asks "What is property?", a question that he answers with the famous accusation "Property is theft". Proudhon's theory of mutualism rejects the state, capitalism, and communism. It calls for a co-operative society in which the free associations of individuals are linked in a decentralised federation based on a "Bank of the People" that supplies workers with free credit. He contrasted this with what he called "possession", or limited ownership of resources and goods only while in more or less continuous use. Later, Proudhon also added that "Property is liberty" and argued that it was a bulwark against state power. Mutualists would later play an important role in the First International, especially at the first two Congresses held in Geneva and Lausanne, but diminished in European influence with the rise of anarcho-communism. Instead, Mutualism would find fertile ground among American individualists in the late 19th century. In Spain, Ramón de la Sagra established the anarchist journal El Porvenir in La Coruña in 1845 which was inspired by Proudhon's ideas. Catalan politician Francesc Pi i Margall became the principal translator of Proudhon's works into Spanish. He would later briefly become president of Spain in 1873 while leader of the Democratic Republican Federal Party, where he tried to implement some of Proudhon's ideas. An influential form of individualist anarchism called egoism or egoist anarchism, was expounded by one of the earliest and best-known proponents of individualist anarchism, German philosopher Max Stirner. Stirner's The Ego and Its Own (; also translated as The Individual and his Property or The Unique and His Property), published in 1844, is a founding text of the philosophy. Stirner was critical of capitalism as it creates class warfare where the rich will exploit the poor, using the state as its tool. He also rejected religions, communism and liberalism, as all of them subordinate individuals to God, a collective, or the state. According to Stirner the only limitation on the rights of the individual is their power to obtain what they desire, without regard for God, state, or morality. He held that society does not exist, but "the individuals are its reality". Stirner advocated self-assertion and foresaw unions of egoists, non-systematic associations continually renewed by all parties' support through an act of will, which proposed as a form of organisation in place of the state. Egoist anarchists claimed that egoism will foster genuine and spontaneous union between individuals. Stirner was proposing an individual rebellion, which would not seek to establish new institutions nor anything resembling a state. Revolutions of 1848 Europe was shocked by another revolutionary wave in 1848 which started once again in Paris. The new government, consisting mostly of Jacobins, was backed by the working class but failed to implement meaningful reforms. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin were involved in the events of 1848. The failure of the revolution shaped Proudhon's views. He became convinced that a revolution should aim to destroy authority, not grasp power. He saw capitalism as the root of social problems and government, using political tools only, as incapable of confronting the real issues. The course of events of 1848, radicalised Bakunin who, due to the failure of the revolutions, lost his confidence in any kind of reform. Other anarchists active in the 1848 Revolution in France include Anselme Bellegarrigue, Ernest Coeurderoy and the early anarcho-communist Joseph Déjacque, who was the first person to call himself a libertarian. Unlike Proudhon, Déjacque argued that "it is not the product of his or her labour that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature". Déjacque was also a critic of Proudhon's mutualist theory and anti-feminist views. Returning to New York, he was able to serialise his book in his periodical Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement social. The French anarchist movement, though self-described as "mutualists", started gaining pace during 1860s as workers' associations began to form. Classical anarchism The decades of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries constitute the belle époque of anarchist history. In this "classical" era, roughly defined as the period between the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939 (or the 1840s/1860s through 1939), anarchism played a prominent role in working-class struggles (alongside Marxism) in Europe as well as in the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Modernism, mass migration, railroads and access to printing all helped anarchists to advance their causes. First International and Paris Commune In 1864, the creation of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA, also called the "First International") united diverse revolutionary currents - including socialist Marxists, trade unionists, communists and anarchists. Karl Marx, a leading figure of the International, became a member of its General Council. Four years later, in 1868, Mikhail Bakunin joined the First International with his collectivist anarchist associates. They advocated the collectivisation of property and the revolutionary overthrow of the state. Bakunin corresponded with other members of the International, seeking to establish a loose brotherhood of revolutionaries who would ensure that the coming revolution would not take an authoritarian course, in sharp contrast with other currents that were seeking to get a firm grasp on state power. Bakunin's energy and writings about a great variety of subjects, such as education and gender equality, helped to increase his influence within the IWA. His main line was that the International should try to promote a revolution without aiming to create a mere government of "experts". Workers should seek to emancipate their class with direct actions, using cooperatives, mutual credit, and strikes, but avoid participation in bourgeois politics. At first, the collectivists worked with the Marxists to push the First International in a more revolutionary socialist direction. Subsequently, the International became polarised into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads. Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as centralist. Because of this, he predicted that if a Marxist party came to power, its leaders would simply take the place of the ruling class they had fought against. Followers of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the mutualists, also opposed Marx's state socialism, advocating political abstentionism and small property holdings. Meanwhile, an uprising after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871 led to the formation of the Paris Commune in March 1871. Anarchists had a prominent role in the Commune, next to Blanquists and - to a lesser extent - Marxists. The uprising was greatly influenced by anarchists and had a great impact on anarchist history. Radical socialist views, like Proudhonian federalism, were implemented to a small extent. Most importantly, the workers proved they could run their own services and factories. After the defeat of the Commune, anarchists like Eugène Varlin, Louise Michel, and Élisée Reclus were shot or imprisoned. The French Third Republic persecuted socialist supporters for a decade. Leading members of the International who survived the bloody suppression of the Commune fled to Switzerland, where the Anarchist St. Imier International would form in 1872. In 1872, the conflict between Marxists and anarchists climaxed. Marx had, since 1871, proposed the creation of a political party, which anarchists found to be an appalling and unacceptable prospect. Various groups (including Italian sections, the Belgian Federation and the Jura Federation) rejected Marx's proposition at the 1872 Hague Congress. They saw it as an attempt to create state socialism that would ultimately fail to emancipate humanity. In contrast, they proposed political struggle through social revolution. Finally, anarchists were expelled from the First International. In response, the federalist sections formed their own International at the St. Imier Congress, adopting a revolutionary anarchist programme. Emergence of anarcho-communism Anarcho-communism developed out of radical socialist currents after the 1789 French Revolution but was first formulated as such in the Italian section of the First International. It was the convincing critique of Carlo Cafiero and Errico Malatesta that paved the way for anarcho-communism to surpass collectivism; they argued that collectivism would inevitably end in competition and inequality. Essayist Alain Pengam comments that between 1880 and 1890 the perspective of a revolution was thought to be closed. Anarcho-communists had anti-organisational tendencies, opposed political and trade-union struggles (such as the eight-hour day) as being overly reformist, and in some cases favoured acts of terrorism. Finding themselves increasingly isolated, they opted to join the workers' movements after 1890. With the aid of Peter Kropotkin's optimism and persuasive writing, anarcho-communism became the major anarchist current in Europe and abroad—except in Spain where anarcho-syndicalism prevailed. The theoretical work of Kropotkin and Errico Malatesta grew in importance later as it expanded and developed pro-organisationalist and insurrectionary anti-organisationalist sections. Kropotkin elaborated on the theory behind the revolution of anarcho-communism saying, "it is the risen people who are the real agent and not the working class organised in the enterprise (the cells of the capitalist mode of production) and seeking to assert itself as labour power, as a more 'rational' industrial body or social brain (manager) than the employers". Organised labour and syndicalism Due to a high influx of European immigrants, Chicago was the centre of the American anarchist movement during the 19th century. On 1 May 1886, a general strike was called in several United States cities with the demand of an eight-hour work day, and anarchists allied themselves with the workers' movement despite seeing the objective as reformist. On May 3, a fight broke out in Chicago when strikebreakers attempted to cross the picket line. Two workers died when police opened fire on the crowd. The next day anarchists staged a rally at Chicago's Haymarket Square. A bomb was thrown from a side alley. In the ensuing panic, police opened fire on the crowd and each other. Seven police officers and at least four workers were killed. Eight anarchists, directly and indirectly related to the organisers of the rally, were arrested and charged with the murder of the deceased officers. They became international political celebrities in the labour movement. Four of the men were executed and a fifth committed suicide before his execution. The incident became known as the Haymarket affair and was a setback for the movement and the struggle for the eight-hour day. In 1890 a second attempt, this time international in scope, to organise for the eight-hour day was made. It had the secondary purpose of memorialising those workers killed as a result of the Haymarket affair. Although it had initially been conceived as a one-off event, by the following year the commemoration of International Workers' Day on May Day had become firmly established as an international workers' holiday. Syndicalism saw its heights from 1894 to 1914, with roots reaching back to 19th century labour movements and the trade unionists of the First International. Subsequently, anarcho-syndicalism's main tenet that economic struggles come before political ones can be traced back to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and was the same issue that led to the schism of the First International. Anarcho-syndicalists advocated that labour syndicates should focus not only on the conditions and wages of workers but also on revolutionary objectives. The French Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour) was one of Europe's most prominent syndicalist organisations and, while rejecting illegalism, was heavily influenced by anarchism. As a grassroots organisation and lab for revolutionary ideas, its structure was exported to other like-minded European organisations. The organisation would later take a reformist path after 1914. In 1907, the International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam gathered delegates from most European countries, the United States, Japan and Latin America. A central debate concerned the relation between anarchism and trade unionism. Errico Malatesta and Pierre Monatte strongly disagreed on this issue. Monatte thought that syndicalism was revolutionary and would create the conditions for a social revolution, while Malatesta did not consider syndicalism by itself sufficient. He thought the trade-union movement was reformist and even conservative, citing the phenomenon of professional union officials as essentially bourgeois and anti-worker. Malatesta warned that the syndicalist aims were of perpetuating syndicalism itself, whereas anarchists must always have anarchy as their end goal and consequently must refrain from committing to any particular method of achieving it. In Spain, syndicalism had grown significantly during the 1880s but the first anarchist related organisations didn't flourish. In 1910 however, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour or CNT) was founded and gradually became entwined with anarchism. The CNT was affiliated with the International Workers' Association, a federation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions founded in 1922. The success of the CNT stimulated the spread of anarcho-syndicalism in Latin America. The Federación Obrera Regional Argentina (Argentine Regional Workers' Federation) reached a quarter of a million members, surpassing social democratic unions. By the early 20th century, revolutionary syndicalism had spread across the world, from Latin America to Eastern Europe and Asia, with most of its activity then taking place outside of Western Europe. Propaganda of the deed The use of revolutionary political violence, known as propaganda of the deed, was employed by a small but influential part of the anarchist movement over a roughly four decade period, beginning in the 1880s. It was conceived as a form of insurrectionary action used to provoke and inspire the masses to revolution. This was at a time when anarchists were persecuted and revolutionaries were becoming more isolated. The dismemberment of the French socialist movement and, following the suppression of the 1871 Paris Commune, the execution or the exile of many communards to penal colonies favoured individualist political expression and acts. But the prime factor in the rise of propaganda of the deed, as historian Constance Bantman outlines, was the writings of Russian revolutionaries between 1869 and 1891, namely of Mikhail Bakunin and Sergei Nechaev who developed significant insurrectionary strategies. Paul Brousse, a medical doctor and active militant of violent insurrection, popularised the actions of propaganda of the deed. In the United States, Johann Most advocated publicising violent acts of retaliation against counter-revolutionaries because "we preach not only action in and for itself, but also action as propaganda". Russian anarchist-communists employed terrorism and illegal acts in their struggle. Numerous heads of state were assassinated or attacked by members of the anarchist movement. In 1901, the Polish-American anarchist Leon Czolgosz assassinated the president of the United States, William McKinley. Emma Goldman, who was erroneously suspected of being involved, expressed some sympathy for Czolgosz and incurred a great deal of negative publicity. Goldman also supported Alexander Berkman in his failed assassination attempt of steel industrialist Henry Frick in the wake of the Homestead Strike, and she wrote about how these small acts of violence were incomparable to the deluge of violence regularly committed by the state and capital. In Europe, a wave of illegalism (the embracement of a criminal way of life) spread throughout the anarchist movement, with Marius Jacob, Ravachol, intellectual Émile Henry and the Bonnot Gang being notable examples. The Bonnot Gang in particular justified illegal and violent behavior by claiming that they were "taking back" property that did not rightfully belong to capitalists. In Russia, Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will" which was not an anarchist organisation but nevertheless drew inspiration from Bakunin's work), assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1881 and gained some popular support. However, for the most part, the anarchist movement in Russia remained marginal in the following years. In the Ottoman Empire, the Boatmen of Thessaloniki were a Bulgarian anarchist revolutionary organisation active 1898-1903. As early as 1887, important figures in the anarchist movement distanced themselves from both illegalism and propaganda of the deed. Peter Kropotkin, for example, wrote in Le Révolté that "a structure based on centuries of history cannot be destroyed with a few kilos of dynamite". State repression of the anarchist and labour movements, including the infamous 1894 French lois scélérates ("villainous laws"), following a number of successful bombings and assassinations may have contributed to the abandonment of these kinds of tactics, although state repression may have played an equal role in their adoption. Early proponents of propaganda of the deed, like Alexander Berkman, started to question the legitimacy of violence as a tactic. A variety of anarchists advocated the abandonment of these sorts of tactics in favour of collective revolutionary action through the trade union movement. By the end of the 19th century, it became clear that propaganda of the deed was not going to spark a revolution. Though it was employed by only a minority of anarchists, it gave anarchism a violent reputation and it isolated anarchists from broader social movements. It was abandoned by the majority of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century. Revolutionary wave Anarchists were involved in the Strandzha Commune and Krusevo Republic established in Macedonia in Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903, and in the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The revolutionary wave of 1917–23 saw varying degrees of active participation by anarchists. Following the failed 1905 Russian Revolution, anarchists participated again in both the February and October revolutions of 1917 and were initially enthusiastic about the Bolshevik cause. Prior to the revolution, Lenin had won over anarchists and syndicalists with high praises in his 1917 work The State and Revolution. However, anarchist objections quickly arose. They opposed, for example, the slogan, "All power to the Soviet". The dictatorship of the proletariat was incompatible with the libertarian views of the anarchists, and co-operation shortly ended as the Bolsheviks soon turned against anarchists and other left-wing opposition. After their grasp on power was stabilized, the Bolsheviks crushed the anarchists. Anarchists in central Russia were either imprisoned, driven underground, or joined the victorious Bolsheviks. Anarchists from Petrograd and Moscow fled to Ukraine. There, the Makhnovshchina established an autonomous region of four hundred square miles with a population of approximately seven million. Anarchists who had fought in the Russian Civil War at first against the anti-Bolshevik White Army now also fought the Red Army, Ukrainian People's Army, and the German and Austrian forces who fought under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This conflict culminated in the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion, a garrison in Kronstadt where Baltic Fleet sailors and citizens made demands for reforms. The new government suppressed the rebellion. The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, led by Nestor Makhno, continued to fight until August 1921 when it was crushed by the state only months after the Kronstadt rebellion. Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, who had been deported from the U.S. in 1917, were amongst those agitating in response to Bolshevik policy and the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising. Both wrote accounts of their experiences in Russia, criticising the amount of state control the Bolsheviks exercised. For them, Mikhail Bakunin's predictions on the consequences of Marxist rule, that the leaders of the new socialist state would become the new ruling class, had proven true. In 1920, Peter Kropotkin published a Message to the Workers of the West explaining the false path of state socialism was doomed to fail. Disappointed with the course of events, Goldman and Berkman fled the USSR in 1921, the same year Kropotkin died. By 1925, anarchism was banned under the Bolshevik regime. The victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution and the resulting Russian Civil War did serious damage to anarchist movements internationally. Many workers and activists saw the Bolsheviks' success as setting an example, and communist parties grew at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements. In France and the United States, for example, members of the major syndicalist movements of the Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour) and Industrial Workers of the World left these organisations to join the Communist International. From the collapse of anarchism in the newly formed Soviet Union, two anarchist trends arose. The first, platformism, was propagated in the anarchist journal Dielo Truda by a group of Russian exiles, including Nestor Makhno. Their main objective, as proponent Piotr Arsinov wrote, was to create a non-hierarchical party that would offer "common organisation of our forces on a basis of collective responsibility and collective methods of action". They considered that a lack of organisation was a basic reason of why anarchism had failed. Platformism had the purpose of providing a strategy for class struggle, as Bakunin and Kropotkin had suggested before. The other trend emerged as an organisational alternative to platformism, since it had similarities to party structure. Anarchist intellectual Volin was one of the most notable opponents of platformism, and he pointed toward to what is today known as synthesis anarchism. During the German Revolution of 1918–1919, anarchists Gustav Landauer and Erich Mühsam took important leadership positions within the revolutionary councilist structures of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. In Italy, the syndicalist trade union Unione Sindacale Italiana (Italian Syndicalist Union), had half a million members. It played a prominent role in events known as the Biennio Rosso ("Two Red Years") and Settimana Rossa ("Red Week"). In the latter, the monarchy was almost overthrown. In Mexico, the Mexican Liberal Party was established and during the early 1910s it conducted a series of military offensives, leading to the conquest and occupation of certain towns and districts in Baja California. Under the leadership of anarcho-communist Ricardo Flores Magón, its slogan was ('Land and Liberty'). Magón's journal ('Regeneration') had a significant circulation, and he helped urban workers turn to anarcho-syndicalism. He also influenced the Zapata movement. Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two insurrectionary anarchists and Italian migrants to the United States, were convicted of involvement in an armed robbery and the murders of two people in 1920. After a controversial trial and a series of appeals they were sentenced to death and executed on 23 August 1927. Following their deaths, critical opinion overwhelmingly held that the two men were convicted largely because of their anarchist political beliefs and were unjustly executed. After the Sacco and Vanzetti case, and despite worldwide protests and mainstream media headlines, the anarchist movement faded in the United States. Rise of fascism Italy saw the first struggles between anarchists and fascists. Italian anarchists played a key role in the anti-fascist organisation Arditi del Popolo (The People's Daring Ones or AdP), which was strongest in areas with anarchist traditions. They achieved some success in their activism, such as repelling Blackshirts in the anarchist stronghold of Parma in August 1922. AdP saw growth after the Socialist Party signed the pacification pact with the fascists. AdP consisted of militant proletarians, anarchists, communists and even socialists. It numbered twenty-thousand members in 144 sections. The veteran Italian anarchist, Luigi Fabbri, was one of the first critical theorists of fascism, describing it as "the preventive counter-revolution". Italian anarchists Gino Lucetti and Anteo Zamboni narrowly failed an assassination attempt against Benito Mussolini. Italian anarchists formed various partisan groups during World War II. In France, where the far-right leagues came close to insurrection in the February 1934 riots, anarchists divided over a united front policy. One tendency was for the creation of a pack with political parties while others objected. In Spain, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour or CNT) initially refused to join a popular front electoral alliance. Abstention by their supporters led to a right-wing election victory. In 1936, the CNT changed its policy and anarchist votes helped bring the popular front back to power. Months later, the former ruling class responded with an attempted coup causing the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). In response to the army rebellion, an anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and workers, supported by armed militias, took control of Barcelona and large areas of rural Spain where they collectivised the land. However, even before the fascist victory in 1939, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the Stalinists, who controlled the distribution of military aid to the Republican cause from the Soviet Union. Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both dissident Marxists and anarchists. In Germany, the Nazis crushed anarchism upon seizing power. Apart from Spain, nowhere else could the anarchist movement provide a solid resistance to various fascist regimes throughout Europe. Spanish Revolution The Spanish Revolution of 1936 was the first and only time that libertarian socialism became an imminent reality. It stood on the ground of a strong anarchist movement in Spain that dated back to the 19th century. Anarchist groups enjoyed broad social support particularly in Barcelona, Aragon, Andalusia, Levante. Anarchism in Spain leaned towards syndicalism and this yielded to the formation of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in 1910. The CNT declared that its aim was a libertarian communist society and was organising strikes all over Spain. The Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) was founded later to keep CNT on a pure anarchist path amidst dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera's crackdown on labour movements. The Second Spanish Republic was pronounced in 1931 and brought to power a Republican–Socialist alliance. But instead of the high hopes of the CNT (mostly among gradualists) and others, the repression of the labour movement continued. FAI gained more control of CNT. In 1936, the Popular Front (an electoral alliance dominated by left-wingers) won the elections and months later the former ruling class responded with an attempted coup causing the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). In response to the army rebellion, an anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and workers, supported by armed militias, took control of urban and large areas of rural Spain where they collectivised the land. Barcelona was the site of the most dramatic change, as workers broke bourgeois habits and even gender hierarchies. Newly formed anarcho-feminist group Mujeres Libres (Free Women) had an active role in the social transformation in Barcelona. This rebellious culture impressed visitors such as George Orwell. Enterprises and farms were collectivised, and working conditions improved drastically. In rural Aragon money was abolished and the economy was collectivised. Villages were run by popular assemblies in a direct democratic fashion, without coercing individuals to join. Anarchist militia columns, fighting without martial discipline or military rank, despite shortages in military materials, made significant gains at the war front. Anarchists of CNT-FAI faced a major dilemma after the coup had failed in July 1936: either continue their fight against the state or join the anti-fascist left-wing parties and form a government. They opted for the latter and by November 1936, four members of CNT-FAI became ministers in the government of the former trade unionist Francisco Largo Caballero. This was justified by CNT-FAI as a historical necessity since war was being waged, but other prominent anarchists disagreed, both on principle and as a tactical move. In November 1936 the prominent anarcho-feminist Federica Montseny was installed as minister of Health—the first woman in Spanish history to become a cabinet minister. During the course of the events of the Spanish Revolution, anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the Stalinists of the Spanish Communist Party, who controlled the distribution of military aid to the Republicans received from the Soviet Union. Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both dissident Marxists and anarchists. The fight among anarchists and communists escalated during the May Days, as the Soviet Union sought to control the Republicans. The 1939 defeat of Republican Spain marked the end of anarchism's classical period. In light of continual anarchist defeats, one can argue about the naivety of 19th-century anarchist thinking—the establishment of state and capitalism was too strong to be destroyed. According to political philosophy professor Ruth Kinna and lecturer Alex Prichard, it is uncertain whether these defeats were the result of a functional error within the anarchist theories, as New Left intellectuals suggested some decades later, or the social context that prevented the anarchists from fulfilling their ambitions. What is certain, though, is that their critique of state and capitalism ultimately proved right, as the world was marching towards totalitarianism and fascism. Anarchism in the colonial world As empires and capitalism were expanding at the turn of the century, so was anarchism which soon flourished in Latin America, East Asia, South Africa and Australia. Anarchism found fertile ground in Asia and was the most vibrant ideology among other socialist currents during the first decades of 20th century. The works of European philosophers, especially Kropotkin's, were popular among revolutionary youth. Intellectuals tried to link anarchism to earlier philosophical currents in Asia, like Taoism, Buddhism and neo-Confucianism. But the factor that contributed most to the rise of anarchism was industrialisation and the new capitalistic era that eastern Asia was entering. Young Chinese anarchists in the early days of the 20th century voiced the cause of revolutionary anarcho-communism along with humanism, belief in science and universalism in the journal Hsin Shih-chi. Anarchism was growing in influence until the mid-1920s when Bolshevik successes seemed to indicate the way to communism. Likewise in Japan, anarcho-communists such as Kōtoku Shūsui, Osugi Sakae and Hatta Shuzo were inspired by the works of westerners philosophers and opposed capitalism and the state. Shuzo created the school of "pure anarchism". Because of the industrial growth, anarcho-syndicalism also arose for a brief period, before communists prevailed among workers. Tokyo had been a hotspot for anarchist and revolutionary ideas which were circulating among Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese students who travelled to Japan to study. Socialists by then were enthusiastically supporting the idea of "social revolution" and anarchists were in full support of it. In Korea, anarchism took a different course. Korea was under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945 and in the early phases of that period, anarchists took part in national resistance, forming an anarchist zone in Shinmin Manchuria from 1928 to 1931. Kim Chwa-chin was a prominent figure of the movement. In India, anarchism did not thrive, partly because of its reputation for being violent. The fragile anarchist movement developed in India was more non-statist, rather than anti-statist. Anarchism travelled to the Eastern Mediterranean along with other radical secular ideas in the cosmopolitan Ottoman Empire. Under the spell of Errico Malatesta, a group of Egyptian anarchists imported anarchism to Alexandria. It was in a transitional stage during that era, as industrialisation and urbanisation were transforming Egypt. Anarchist activity was spread along with other radical secular ideas within the Islamic Empire. In Africa, anarchism appeared from within the continent. A large part of African society, mainly rural, was founded on African communalism which was mostly egalitarian. It had some anarchist elements, without class divisions, formal hierarchies and access to the means of production by all members of the localities. African Communalism was far from being an ideal anarchist society. Gender privileges were apparent, feudalism and slavery did exist in a few areas but not on a mass scale. Anarchism travelled to Latin America through European immigrants. The most impressive presence was in Buenos Aires, but Havana, Lima, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Sao Paulo as well saw the growth of anarchist pockets. Anarchists had a much larger impact on trade unions than their authoritarian left counterparts. In Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, a strong anarcho-syndicalist current was formed—partly because of the rapid industrialisation of these countries. In 1905, anarchists took control of the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA) in Argentina, overshadowing social democrats. Likewise, in Uruguay, FORU was created by anarchists in 1905. These syndicates organised a series of general strikes in the following years. After this the success of the Bolsheviks, anarchism gradually declined in these three countries which had been the strongholds of anarchism in Latin America. It is worth noting that the notion of imported anarchism in Latin America has been challenged, as slave rebellions appeared in Latin America before the arrival of European anarchists. Anarchists became involved in the anti-colonial national-independence struggles of the early 20th century. Anarchism inspired anti-authoritarian and egalitarian ideals among national independence movements, challenging the nationalistic tendencies of many national liberation movements. Individualist anarchism In the United States American anarchism has its roots in religious groups that fled Europe to escape religious persecution during the 17th century. It sprouted towards individual anarchism as distrust of government was widespread in North America during the next centuries. In sharp contrast with their European counterparts, according to the scholar Marshall, American anarchism was leaning towards individualism and was mainly pro-capitalist, hence described as right-wing libertarianism; however Marshall later stated that capitalism and anarchism are incompatible and American anarchists like Tucker and Spooner were left libertarians. The scholar Martin stated the American anarchists were mutualist anarchists in support of the labor theory of value. American anarchist justified private property as the safeguard of personal autonomy. Henry David Thoreau was an important early influence on individualist anarchist thought in the United States in the mid 19th century. He was skeptical towards government—in his work Civil Disobedience he declared that "That government is best which governs least". He has frequently been cited as an anarcho-individualist, even though he was never rebellious. Josiah Warren was, at the late 19th century, a prominent advocate of a variant of mutualism called equitable commerce, a fair trade system where the price of a product is based on labor effort instead of the cost of manufacturing. Benjamin Tucker, also influenced by Proudhon, was the editor of the prominent anarchist journal Liberty and a proponent of individualism. In the shade of individualism, there was also anarcho-Christianism as well as some socialist pockets, especially in Chicago. It was after Chicago's bloody protests in 1886 when the anarchist movement became known nationwide. But anarchism quickly declined when it was associated with terrorist violence. An important concern for American individualist anarchism was free love. Free love particularly stressed women's rights since most sexual laws discriminated against women, for example, marriage laws and anti-birth control measures. Openly bisexual radical Edna St. Vincent Millay and lesbian anarchist Margaret Anderson were prominent among them. Discussion groups organised by the Villagers were frequented by Emma Goldman, among others. A heated debate among American individualist anarchists of that era was the natural rights versus egoistic approaches. Proponents of naturals rights claimed that without them brutality would prevail, while egoists were proposing that there is no such right, it only restricted the individual. Benjamin Tucker, who tried to determine a scientific base for moral right or wrong, ultimately sided with the latter. The Modern Schools, also called Ferrer Schools, were schools established in the United States in the early 20th century. They were modelled after the Escuela Moderna of Francisco Ferrer, the Catalan educator and anarchist. They were an important part of the anarchist, free schooling, socialist, and labour movements in the United States intending to educate the working classes from a secular, class-conscious perspective. The Modern Schools imparted daytime academic classes for children and nighttime continuing-education lectures for adults. The first and most notable of the Modern Schools was opened in New York City in 1911. Commonly called the Ferrer Center, it was founded by notable anarchists—including Leonard Abbott, Alexander Berkman, Voltairine de Cleyre and Emma Goldman. The school used Montessori methods and equipment, and emphasised academic freedom rather than fixed subjects, such as spelling and arithmetic. In Europe and the arts European individualist anarchism proceeded from the roots laid by William Godwin and Max Stirner. Many artists, poets and writers interested in freedom were exploring different aspects of anarchism. Anarcho-individualists were more interested in personal development, challenging the social norms and demanding sexual freedom rather than engaging in social struggles. In France, an artistic and individualist trend in anarchism was shaping a new cultural movement at the turn of the century, with less of a social component and more of a personal rebellion against norms. Impressionists and neo-Impressionist painters were attracted by anarchism, most notably French Camille Pissarro. Modernist writers having anarchist tendencies, such as Henrik Ibsen and James Joyce, led to the impression that "modernism itself can be understood as the aesthetic realisation of anarchist politics". Dadaism arose from individualists aiming to use art to achieve total freedom. It influenced other currents such as surrealism, and proponents played a significant role in the Berlin rising of 1918. One of the main individualist anarchist journals in France, L'Anarchie, was established in 1905. A notable individualist was Stirnerist Émile Armand who was a defender of polyamory and homosexuality. Post-war Following the end of the Spanish Civil War and World War II, the anarchist movement was a "ghost" of its former self, as proclaimed by anarchist historian George Woodcock. In his work Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements published 1962, he wrote that after 1936 it was "a ghost that inspires neither fear among governments nor hope among peoples nor even interest among newspapermen". Capitalism continued to grow throughout the post-war period despite predictions from Marxist scholars that it would soon collapse under its own contradictions, yet anarchism gained a surprising surge in popular interest during the 1960s. Reasons for this were believed to be the gradual demystification of the Soviet Union and tensions at the climax of the Cold War. The New Left, which arose in the 1950s, was a libertarian socialist movement that was closer to anarchism. Prominent thinkers such as Herbert Marcuse and Wright Mills were critical of United States and Soviet Marxism. In France, a wave of protests and demonstrations confronted the right-wing government of Charles de Gaulle in May 1968. Even though the anarchists had a minimal role, the events of May had a significant impact on anarchism. There were huge demonstrations with crowds in some places reaching one million participants. Strikes were called in many major cities and towns involving seven million workers—all grassroots, bottom-up and spontaneously organised. Various committees were formed at universities, lyceums, and in neighbourhoods, mostly having anti-authoritarian tendencies. Slogans that resonated with libertarian ideas were prominent such as: "I take my desires for reality, because I believe in the reality of my desires." Even though the spirit of the events leaned mostly towards libertarian communism, some authors draw a connection to anarchism. The wave of protests eased when a 10% pay raise was granted and national elections were proclaimed. The paving stones of Paris were only covering some reformist victories. Nevertheless, the 1968 events inspired a new confidence in anarchism as workers' management, self-determination, grassroots democracy, antiauthoritarianism, and spontaneity became relevant once more. After decades of pessimism 1968 marked the revival of anarchism, either as a distinct ideology or as a part of other social movements. Originally founded in 1957, The Situationist International rose to prominence during events of 1968 with the principal argument that life had turned into a "spectacle" because of the corrosive effect of capitalism. They later dissolved in 1972. The late 1960s saw the flourish of anarcha-feminism. It attacked the state, capitalism and patriarchy and was organized in a decentralised manner. As the ecological crisis was becoming a greater threat to the planet, Murray Bookchin developed the next generation of anarchist thought. In his social ecology theory, he claims that certain social practises, and priorities threaten life on Earth. He goes further to identify the cause of such practises as social oppressions. Libertarian municipalism was his major advancement of anarchist thought—a proposal for the involvement of people in political struggles in decentralized federated villages or towns. Contemporary anarchism The anthropology of anarchism has changed in the contemporary era as the traditional lines or ideas of the 19th century have been abandoned. Most anarchists are now younger activists informed with feminist and ecological concerns. They are involved in counterculture, Black Power, creating temporary autonomous zones, and events such as Carnival Against Capital. These movements are not anarchist, but rather anarchistic. Mexico saw another uprising at the turn of the 21st century. Zapatistas took control of a large area in Chiapas. They were organised in an autonomous, self-governing model that has many parallels to anarchism, inspiring many young anarchists in the West. Another stateless region that has been associated with anarchism is the Kurdish area of Rojava in northern Syria. The conflict there emerged during the Syrian Civil War and Rojava's decentralized model is founded upon Bookchin's ideas of libertarian municipalism and social ecology within a secular framework and ethnic diversity. Chiapas and Rojava share the same goal, to create a libertarian community despite being surrounded by state apparatus. Anarchism grew in popularity and influence as part of the anti-war, anti-capitalist, and anti-globalisation movements. Maia Ramnath described those social movements that employ the anarchist framework (leaderless, direct democracy) but do not call themselves anarchists as anarchists with a lowercase a while describing more traditional forms of anarchism with a capital A. Anarchists became known for their involvement in protests against meetings such as the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999, Group of Eight in 2001 and the World Economic Forum, as part of anti-globalisation movement. Some anarchist factions at these protests engaged in rioting, property destruction, and violent confrontations with police. These actions were precipitated by ad hoc, leaderless, anonymous cadres known as black blocs. Other organisational tactics pioneered during this period include security culture, affinity groups and the use of decentralised technologies such as the Internet. Occupy Wall Street movement had roots in anarchist philosophy. According to anarchist scholar Simon Critchley, "contemporary anarchism can be seen as a powerful critique of the pseudo-libertarianism of contemporary neo-liberalism [...] One might say that contemporary anarchism is about responsibility, whether sexual, ecological, or socio-economic; it flows from an experience of conscience about the manifold ways in which the West ravages the rest; it is an ethical outrage at the yawning inequality, impoverishment, and disenfranchisement that is so palpable locally and globally". References Sources Secondary sources (books and journals) Tertiary sources (encyclopedias and dictionaries) The current version of Anarchism in Britanicca External links History of Anarchism. Kate Sharpley Library.

Collation

Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office filing systems, library catalogs, and reference books. Collation differs from classification in that the classes themselves are not necessarily ordered. However, even if the order of the classes is irrelevant, the identifiers of the classes may be members of an ordered set, allowing a sorting algorithm to arrange the items by class. Formally speaking, a collation method typically defines a total order on a set of possible identifiers, called sort keys, which consequently produces a total preorder on the set of items of information (items with the same identifier are not placed in any defined order). A collation algorithm such as the Unicode collation algorithm defines an order through the process of comparing two given character strings and deciding which should come before the other. When an order has been defined in this way, a sorting algorithm can be used to put a list of any number of items into that order. The main advantage of collation is that it makes it fast and easy for a user to find an element in the list, or to confirm that it is absent from the list. In automatic systems this can be done using a binary search algorithm or interpolation search; manual searching may be performed using a roughly similar procedure, though this will often be done unconsciously. Other advantages are that one can easily find the first or last elements on the list (most likely to be useful in the case of numerically sorted data), or elements in a given range (useful again in the case of numerical data, and also with alphabetically ordered data when one may be sure of only the first few letters of the sought item or items). Ordering Numerical and chronological Strings representing numbers may be sorted based on the values of the numbers that they represent. For example, "−4", "2.5", "10", "89", "30,000". Pure application of this method may provide only a partial ordering on the strings, since different strings can represent the same number (as with "2" and "2.0" or, when scientific notation is used, "2e3" and "2000"). A similar approach may be taken with strings representing dates or other items that can be ordered chronologically or in some other natural fashion. Alphabetical Alphabetical order is the basis for many systems of collation where items of information are identified by strings consisting principally of letters from an alphabet. The ordering of the strings relies on the existence of a standard ordering for the letters of the alphabet in question. (The system is not limited to alphabets in the strict technical sense; languages that use a syllabary or abugida, for example Cherokee, can use the same ordering principle provided there is a set ordering for the symbols used.) To decide which of two strings comes first in alphabetical order, initially their first letters are compared. The string whose first letter appears earlier in the alphabet comes first in alphabetical order. If the first letters are the same, then the second letters are compared, and so on, until the order is decided. (If one string runs out of letters to compare, then it is deemed to come first; for example, "cart" comes before "carthorse".) The result of arranging a set of strings in alphabetical order is that words with the same first letter are grouped together, and within such a group words with the same first two letters are grouped together, and so on. Capital letters are typically treated as equivalent to their corresponding lowercase letters. (For alternative treatments in computerized systems, see Automated collation, below.) Certain limitations, complications, and special conventions may apply when alphabetical order is used: When strings contain spaces or other word dividers, the decision must be taken whether to ignore these dividers or to treat them as symbols preceding all other letters of the alphabet. For example, if the first approach is taken then "car park" will come after "carbon" and "carp" (as it would if it were written "carpark"), whereas in the second approach "car park" will come before those two words. The first rule is used in many (but not all) dictionaries, the second in telephone directories (so that Wilson, Jim K appears with other people named Wilson, Jim and not after Wilson, Jimbo). Abbreviations may be treated as if they were spelt out in full. For example, names containing "St." (short for the English word Saint) are often ordered as if they were written out as "Saint". There is also a traditional convention in English that surnames beginning Mc and M are listed as if those prefixes were written Mac. Strings that represent personal names will often be listed by alphabetical order of surname, even if the given name comes first. For example, Juan Hernandes and Brian O'Leary should be sorted as "Hernandes, Juan" and "O'Leary, Brian" even if they are not written this way. Very common initial words, such as The in English, are often ignored for sorting purposes. So The Shining would be sorted as just "Shining" or "Shining, The". When some of the strings contain numerals (or other non-letter characters), various approaches are possible. Sometimes such characters are treated as if they came before or after all the letters of the alphabet. Another method is for numbers to be sorted alphabetically as they would be spelled: for example 1776 would be sorted as if spelled out "seventeen seventy-six", and as if spelled "vingt-quatre..." (French for "twenty-four"). When numerals or other symbols are used as special graphical forms of letters, as in 1337 for leet or Se7en for the movie title Seven, they may be sorted as if they were those letters. Languages have different conventions for treating modified letters and certain letter combinations. For example, in Spanish the letter ñ is treated as a basic letter following n, and the digraphs ch and ll were formerly (until 1994) treated as basic letters following c and l, although they are now alphabetized as two-letter combinations. A list of such conventions for various languages can be found at . In several languages the rules have changed over time, and so older dictionaries may use a different order than modern ones. Furthermore, collation may depend on use. For example, German dictionaries and telephone directories use different approaches. Root sorting Some Arabic dictionaries, such as Hans Wehr's bilingual A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, group and sort Arabic words by semitic root. For example, the words kitāba ( 'writing'), kitāb ( 'book'), kātib ( 'writer'), maktaba ( 'library'), maktab ( 'office'), maktūb ( 'fate,' or 'written'), are agglomerated under the triliteral root k-t-b, which denotes 'writing'. Radical-and-stroke sorting See also Chinese characters and Chinese character orders Another form of collation is radical-and-stroke sorting, used for non-alphabetic writing systems such as the hanzi of Chinese and the kanji of Japanese, whose thousands of symbols defy ordering by convention. In this system, common components of characters are identified; these are called radicals in Chinese and logographic systems derived from Chinese. Characters are then grouped by their primary radical, then ordered by number of pen strokes within radicals. When there is no obvious radical or more than one radical, convention governs which is used for collation. For example, the Chinese character 妈 (meaning "mother") is sorted as a six-stroke character under the three-stroke primary radical 女. The radical-and-stroke system is cumbersome compared to an alphabetical system in which there are a few characters, all unambiguous. The choice of which components of a logograph comprise separate radicals and which radical is primary is not clear-cut. As a result, logographic languages often supplement radical-and-stroke ordering with alphabetic sorting of a phonetic conversion of the logographs. For example, the kanji word Tōkyō (東京) can be sorted as if it were spelled out in the Japanese characters of the hiragana syllabary as "to-u-ki-yo-u" (とうきょう), using the conventional sorting order for these characters. In addition, Chinese characters can also be sorted by stroke-based sorting. In Greater China, surname stroke ordering is a convention in some official documents where people's names are listed without hierarchy. Automation When information is stored in digital systems, collation may become an automated process. It is then necessary to implement an appropriate collation algorithm that allows the information to be sorted in a satisfactory manner for the application in question. Often the aim will be to achieve an alphabetical or numerical ordering that follows the standard criteria as described in the preceding sections. However, not all of these criteria are easy to automate. The simplest kind of automated collation is based on the numerical codes of the symbols in a character set, such as ASCII coding (or any of its supersets such as Unicode), with the symbols being ordered in increasing numerical order of their codes, and this ordering being extended to strings in accordance with the basic principles of alphabetical ordering (mathematically speaking, lexicographical ordering). So a computer program might treat the characters a, b, C, d, and $ as being ordered $, C, a, b, d (the corresponding ASCII codes are $ = 36, a = 97, b = 98, C = 67, and d = 100). Therefore, strings beginning with C, M, or Z would be sorted before strings with lower-case a, b, etc. This is sometimes called ASCIIbetical order. This deviates from the standard alphabetical order, particularly due to the ordering of capital letters before all lower-case ones (and possibly the treatment of spaces and other non-letter characters). It is therefore often applied with certain alterations, the most obvious being case conversion (often to uppercase, for historical reasons) before comparison of ASCII values. In many collation algorithms, the comparison is based not on the numerical codes of the characters, but with reference to the collating sequence''' – a sequence in which the characters are assumed to come for the purpose of collation – as well as other ordering rules appropriate to the given application. This can serve to apply the correct conventions used for alphabetical ordering in the language in question, dealing properly with differently cased letters, modified letters, digraphs, particular abbreviations, and so on, as mentioned above under Alphabetical order, and in detail in the Alphabetical order article. Such algorithms are potentially quite complex, possibly requiring several passes through the text. Problems are nonetheless still common when the algorithm has to encompass more than one language. For example, in German dictionaries the word ökonomisch comes between offenbar and olfaktorisch, while Turkish dictionaries treat o and ö as different letters, placing oyun before öbür. A standard algorithm for collating any collection of strings composed of any standard Unicode symbols is the Unicode Collation Algorithm. This can be adapted to use the appropriate collation sequence for a given language by tailoring its default collation table. Several such tailorings are collected in Common Locale Data Repository. Sort keys In some applications, the strings by which items are collated may differ from the identifiers that are displayed. For example, The Shining might be sorted as Shining, The (see Alphabetical order above), but it may still be desired to display it as The Shining. In this case two sets of strings can be stored, one for display purposes, and another for collation purposes. Strings used for collation in this way are called sort keys''. Issues with numbers Sometimes, it is desired to order text with embedded numbers using proper numerical order. For example, "Figure 7b" goes before "Figure 11a", even though '7' comes after '1' in Unicode. This can be extended to Roman numerals. This behavior is not particularly difficult to produce as long as only integers are to be sorted, although it can slow down sorting significantly. For example, Microsoft Windows does this when sorting file names. Sorting decimals properly is a bit more difficult, because different locales use different symbols for a decimal point, and sometimes the same character used as a decimal point is also used as a separator, for example "Section 3.2.5". There is no universal answer for how to sort such strings; any rules are application dependent. Labeling of ordered items In some contexts, numbers and letters are used not so much as a basis for establishing an ordering, but as a means of labeling items that are already ordered. For example, pages, sections, chapters, and the like, as well as the items of lists, are frequently "numbered" in this way. Labeling series that may be used include ordinary Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, ...), Roman numerals (I, II, III, ... or i, ii, iii, ...), or letters (A, B, C, ... or a, b, c, ...). (An alternative method for indicating list items, without numbering them, is to use a bulleted list.) When letters of an alphabet are used for this purpose of enumeration, there are certain language-specific conventions as to which letters are used. For example, the Russian letters Ъ and Ь (which in writing are only used for modifying the preceding consonant), and usually also Ы, Й, and Ё, are omitted. Also in many languages that use extended Latin script, the modified letters are often not used in enumeration. See also Alphabetical order Asciibetical order Chinese character orders Sorting Taxonomic sequence Mac and Mc together Unicode equivalence Natural sort order Notes References External links Unicode Collation Algorithm: Unicode Technical Standard #10 Collation in Spanish Collation of the names of the member states of the United Nations Typographical collation for many languages, as proposed in the List module of Cascading Style Sheets. Collation Charts: Charts demonstrating language-specific sorting orders in various operating systems and DBMS ICU Locale Explorer : An online demonstration of sorting in different languages that uses the Unicode Collation Algorithm with International Components for Unicode

Haplogroup T-M184

Haplogroup T-M184, also known as Haplogroup T, is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. The unique-event polymorphism that defines this clade is the single-nucleotide polymorphism known as M184. T-M184 is unusual in that it is both geographically widespread and relatively rare. T1 (T-L206) – the numerically dominant primary branch of T-M184 – appears to have originated in Western Asia, and spread from there into East Africa, South Asia, Europe, Egypt and adjoining regions. T1* may have expanded with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B culture (PPNB) which originated in West Asia. Subclades of T-M70 appear to have been present in Europe since the Neolithic with Neolithic Farmers from Western Asia. The moderately high frequency (~18%) of T1b* chromosomes in the Lemba of southern Africa supports the hypothesis of a West Asian origin for their paternal line. Structure Subclade structure of Haplogroup T (M184). T1 (L206) T1a (M70/Page46/PF5662) T1a1 (L162/Page21, L454) T1a1a (L208/Page2) T1a1a1 (CTS11451) T1a1a2 (Y16897) T1a1a2a (Z19963) T1a2 (L131) T1a2a (PH141/Y13244) T1a2b (L446) T1a3 (FGC1350/Y11151 ) T1a3a (Y11675/Z9798) T1a3b (FGC1340/Y8614) T2 (PH110) Distribution Overview As a primary branch of haplogroup LT (a.k.a. K1), the basal, undivergent haplogroup T* currently has the alternate phylogenetic name of K1b and is a sibling of haplogroup L* (a.k.a. K1a). (Before 2008, haplogroup T and its subclades were known as haplogroup K2. The name K2 has since been reassigned to a primary subclade of haplogroup K.) It has two primary branches: T1 (T-L206) and T2 (T-PH110). Most males who now belong to haplogroup T1* carry the subclade T-M70 (T1a), a primary branch of T-M206. Haplogroup T is found at exceptionally high levels amongst the Dir and Isaaq Somali clans in Somaliland, Djibouti, and Ethiopia. it is also found at relatively high levels in specific populations in other parts of the world. These include Kurru, Bauris and Lodha in South Asia; among Toubou in Chad; and in a significant minority of Rajus and Mahli in South Asia; general Somalis, southern Egyptians and Fula (Fulbe) in north Cameroon; people from the Chian, Aquilani, Saccensi, Ibizan (Eivissenc) and Mirandese regions in Europe; Zoroastrians, Bakhtiaris, Assyrians and Iraqi Jews in the Middle East, and Nenets and Kazakhs (especially Momyns and Argyns) in Siberia/Central Asia. The maximal worldwide frequency for haplogroup T-M184 is 100%, amongst Dir clan Somaliland males (Iacovacci et al. 2016). It accounts for approximately 82.4% of Somali male lineages overall in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia (Plaster et al. 2011). Geographically, it is found at the highest levels in the Dire Dawa area of Ethiopia, and Djibouti. Luis et al. (2004) suggest that the presence of T on the African continent may, like R1* representatives, point to an older introduction from West Asia. The Levant rather than the Arabian Peninsula appears to have been the main route of entry, as the Egyptian and Anatolian haplotypes are considerably older in age (13,700 BP and 9,000 BP, respectively) than those found in Oman (only 1,600 BP). According to the authors, haplogroup T-M184 within Africa represents the traces of a more widespread early local presence of the West Asian clade. Later expansions of populations from West Asia carrying the E-M215, E-V38, G and J NRY lineages may have overwhelmed the T-M184 clade-bearers in certain localities. In the Caucasus and Anatolia it makes up to 4% of the population in southeast and northwest Caucasus as well as in southeast and western Anatolia, peaking up to 20% in Armenians from Sasun. In Middle East it makes up to 4% of the population around the Zagros Mountains and the Persian Gulf as well as around the Taurus Mountains and the Levant basin, peaking up to 10% in Zoroastrians from Kerman, Bakhtiaris, Assyrians (up to 40%), Abudhabians, Armenians from Historical Southwestern Armenia and Druzes from Galilee. In Eastern Africa, it makes up to 4% of the population on Upper Egypt peaking up to 10% in Luxor. Haplogroup T is uncommon in Europe, except in Southern Europe and adjoining areas. According to Mendez et al. (2011), "the occurrence in Europe of lineages belonging to both T1a1 (old T1a) and T1a2 (old T1b) subclades probably reflects multiple episodes of gene flow. T1a1* haplogroups in Europe likely reflect older gene flow". It makes up to 4% of the population in Central Italy, Western Sicily, Northwest Corsica, Northwestern Iberian Peninsula, Western Andalucia, Western Alps, Eastern Crete, and Macedonia, frequencies up to 10% in Ibiza, Miranda de I Douro, Eastern Oviedo, Cádiz, Badajoz, Balagna, Norma and Ragusa, and peaking at 20% in Sciacca, L'Aquila and some German southern regions. T-M184 was found in 1.7% (10/591) of a pool of six samples of males from southwestern Russia, but it was completely absent from a pool of eight samples totalling 637 individuals from the northern half of European Russia. The Russians from the southwest were from the following cities: Roslavl, Livny, Pristen, Repyevka, and Belgorod; and Kuban Cossacks from the Republic of Adygea. T1 (T*) T1 is the most common descent of T-M184 haplogroup, being the lineage of more than 95% of all Eurasian T-M184 members. One of their descent lineages is found in high frequencies among northern Somali clans. However, it appears to have originated somewhere around the Eastern Mediterranean Basin, perhaps somewhere between Palestine to the Jordan Valley. The basal T1* subclade appears to have spread to northeastern Anatolia, from the Levant and Mesopotamia at least, with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B culture (PPNB). Although it is rare in modern populations, T1* has been found in a Berber individual from Tunisia, a male in Syria, and one sequence among ethnic Macedonians in Macedonia. T1a (M70) Mendez et al. (2011) points to an ancient presence for T1a-M70 in Europe may reflect early exiles between the ancient lands of Israel and Babylonia and Assyria. The subclade probably arrived with the very first farmers. T1a1* The Pityusans of the Pityusic Islands (Ibiza and Formentera) – have been found by three different studies to possess T1a1 at relatively high levels of 6.7–16.7%. Tomàs et al. (2006) found three cases amongst a sample of 45 (6.7%). Zalloua et al. (2008) found nine examples that were L454+ (an SNP equivalent to L162/Page21) from a sample of 54 (i.e. a rate of 16.7%). Rodriguez et al. (2009) found seven cases of L454+ in a sample of 96 (7.3%). The Pontic Greeks of Anatolia are also reported to possess T1a1. In 2009, a male with the surname Metaxopoulos and a Pontic Greek background was reported to be T-L162(xL208) – according to the Y-Chromosome Genome Comparison Project administered by Adriano Squecco. Greeks from the Fatsa (originally "Φάτσα") reportedly migrated in antiquity from Sinope, which was itself colonised by Ionians (from Miletus). Another ancient Ionian colony in north-west Anatolia, Lámpsakos (Lampsacus), had onomastic links to the Pityusic Islands (see above) – Lámpsakos was originally an Ionian colony known as Pityussa. T1a1a (L208) This lineage, formed 14,200-11,000 BP, is the largest branch downstream T1a1-L162. T1a1a1a1b1a1* (T-Y3782*) One Sardinian male from a sample of 187 (a nominal rate of 0.53%) – a resident of the Province of Cagliari (Sardinian: Casteddu) – has been found to have T-Y3782(xY3836), also known T1a1a1a1b1a1(xT1a1a1a1b1a1a). T1a1a1a1b1a1a (T-Y3836) This lineage is mostly found among individuals from the Iberian Peninsula, where the subclade also has its highest diversity. Two subclades can be clearly discriminated. The first, found mainly in post-colonial Puerto Rico, with DYS391=10 and the second, found mainly in Panamá where their Iberian descendants could have the entrance point to America, with DYS439=12. Some members of Y3836 are found among different communities of the Sephardic diaspora but they are found to be extremely rare in the total percentage of some of these communities as seen in Nogueiro et al. This probably could mean that these members could be integrated by these communities through the contact with other native Iberian populations as seen in Monteiro et al. where this lineage was found among native Astur-Leonese speakers. T2 (PH110)  This lineage could have arrived in the Levant through the PPNB expansion from northeastern Anatolia. A 2014 study found T-PH110 in one ethnic Bhutanese male, out of a sample of 21, possibly implying a rate of 4.8% in Bhutan. Also have been found in a German individual and another two from Caucasus. The Bhutanese and the German haplotypes seems to cluster together. Possible cases from older research Modern geographical distribution Northern Asia Europe With K-M9+, unconfirmed but probable T-M70+: 14% (3/23) of Russians in Yaroslavl, 12.5% (3/24) of Italians in Matera, 10.3% (3/29) of Italians in Avezzano, 10% (3/30) of Tyroleans in Nonstal, 10% (2/20) of Italians in Pescara, 8.7% (4/46) of Italians in Benevento, 7.8% (4/51) of Italians in South Latium, 7.4% (2/27) of Italians in Paola, 7.3% (11/150) of Italians in Central-South Italy, 7.1% (8/113) of Serbs in Serbia, 4.7% (2/42) of Aromanians in Romania, 3.7% (3/82) of Italians in Biella, 3.7% (1/27) of Andalusians in Córdoba, 3.3% (2/60) of Leoneses in León, 3.2% (1/31) of Italians in Postua, 3.2% (1/31) of Italians in Cavaglià, 3.1% (3/97) of Calabrians in Reggio Calabria, 2.8% (1/36) of Russians in Ryazan Oblast, 2.8% (2/72) of Italians in South Apulia, 2.7% (1/37) of Calabrians in Cosenza, 2.6% (3/114) of Serbs in Belgrade, 2.5% (1/40) of Russians in Pskov, 2.4% (1/42) of Russians in Kaluga, 2.2% (2/89) of Transylvanians in Miercurea Ciuc, 2.2% (2/92) of Italians in Trino Vercellese, 1.9% (2/104) of Italians in Brescia, 1.9% (2/104) of Romanians in Romania, 1.7% (4/237) of Serbs and Montenegrins in Serbia and Montenegro, 1.7% (1/59) of Italians in Marche, 1.7% (1/59) of Calabrians in Catanzaro, 1.6% (3/183) of Greeks in Northern Greece, 1.3% (2/150) of Swiss Germans in Zürich Area, 1.3% (1/79) of Italians in South Tuscany and North Latium, 1.1% (1/92) of Dutch in Leiden, 0.5% (1/185) of Serbs in Novi Sad (Vojvodina), 0.5% (1/186) of Polish in Podlasie Other parts that have been found to contain a significant proportion of haplogroup T-M184 individuals include Trentino (2/67 or 3%), Mariña Lucense (1/34 or 2.9%), Heraklion (3/104 or 2.9%), Roslavl (3/107 or 2.8%), Ourense (1/37 or 2.7%), Livny (3/110 or 2.7%), Biella (3/114 or 2.6%), Entre Douro (6/228 or 2.6%), Porto (3/118 or 2.5%), Urbino (1/40 or 2.5%), Iberian Peninsula (16/629 or 2.5%), Blekinge/Kristianstad (1/41 or 2.4%), Belarus (1/41 or 2.4%), Modena (3/130 or 2.3%), Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (1/45 or 2.2%), Pristen (1/45 or 2.2%), Cáceres (2/91 or 2.2%), Brac (1/47 or 2.1%), Satakunta (1/48 or 2.1%), Western Croatia (2/101 or 2%), Ukrainia (1/50 or 2%), Greifswald (2/104 or 1.9%), Moldavians in Sofia (1/54 or 1.9%), Uppsala (1/55 or 1.8%), Lublin (2/112 or 1.8%), Pias in Beja (1/54 or 1.8%), Macedonian Greeks (1/57 or 1.8%), Nea Nikomedeia (1/57 or 1.8%), Sesklo/Dimini (1/57 or 1.8%), Lerna/Franchthi (1/57 or 1.8%), Açores (2/121 or 1.7%), Viana do Castelo (1/59 or 1.7%), Toulouse (1/67 or 1.5%), Belgorod (2/143 or 1.4%), Sardinia (1/77 or 1.3%). According to data from commercial testing, 3.9% of Italian males belonging to this haplogroup. Approximately 3% of Sephardi Jews and 2% of Ashkenazi Jews belong to haplogroup T. Middle East and Caucasus Haplogroup T has some significant frequencies in southeast and eastern Anatolia, the Zagros Mountains and both sides of the Persian Gulf. There are also unconfirmed reports of T-M70+ amongst 28% (7/25) of Lezginians in Dagestan, 21.7% (5/23) of Ossetians in Zamankul, 14% (7/50) of Iranians in Isfahan, 13% (3/23) of Ossetians in Zil'ga, 12.6% (11/87) of Kurmanji Kurds in Eastern Turkey, 11.8% (2/17) of Palestinian Arabs in Palestine, 8.3% (1/12) of Iranians in Shiraz, 8.3% (2/24) of Ossetians in Alagir, 8% (2/25) of Kurmanji Kurds in Georgia, 7.5% (6/80) of Iranians in Tehran, 7.4% (10/135) of Palestinian Arabs in Israeli Village, 7% (10/143) of Palestinian Arabs in Israel and Palestine, 5% (1/19) of Chechens in Chechenia, 4.2% (3/72) of Azerbaijanians in Azerbaijan, 4.1% (2/48) of Iranians in Isfahan, 4% (4/100) of Armenians in Armenia, 4% (1/24) of Bedouins in Israel and 2.6% (1/39) of Turks in Ankara. Africa Fossils excavated at the Late Neolithic site of Kelif el Boroud in Morocco, which have been radiocarbon-dated to around 3,000 BCE, have been found to belong to haplogroup T-M184. South Asia T1a-M70 in India has been considered to be of West Eurasian origin. With K-M9+, unconfirmed but probable T-M70+: 56.6% (30/53) of Kunabhis in Uttar Kannada, 32.5% (13/40) of Kammas in Andhra Pradesh, 26.8% (11/41) of Brahmins in Visakhapatnam, 25% (1/4) of Kattunaiken in South India, 22.4% (11/49) of Telugus in Andhra Pradesh, 20% (1/5) of Ansari in South Asia, (2/20) of Poroja in Andhra Pradesh, 9.8% (5/51) of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir, 8.2% (4/49) of Gujars in Kashmir, 7.7% (1/13) of Siddis (migrants from Ethiopia) in Andhra Pradesh, 5.5% (3/55) of Adi in Northeast India, 5.5% (7/128) of Pardhans in Adilabad, 5.3% (2/38) of Brahmins in Bihar, 4.3% (1/23) of Bagata in Andhra Pradesh, 4.2% (1/24) of Valmiki in Andhra Pradesh, (1/32) of Brahmins in Maharashtra, 3.1% (2/64) of Brahmins in Gujarat, 2.9% (1/35) of Rajput in Uttar Pradesh, 2.3% (1/44) of Brahmins in Peruru, and 1.7% (1/59) of Manghi in Maharashtra. Also in Desasth-Brahmins in Maharashtra (1/19 or 5.3%) and Chitpavan-Brahmins in Konkan (1/21 or 4.8%), Chitpavan-Brahmins in Konkan (2/66 or 3%). Central Asia & East Asia Unconfirmed but probable T-M70+: 2% (4/204) of Hui in Liaoning (China), and 0.9% (1/113) of Bidayuh in Sarawak. Americas (post-colonisation) Ancient DNA Peki'in Cave, Israel A 2018 study conducted by scholars from Tel-Aviv University, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Harvard University had discovered that 22 out of the 600 people who were buried in Peki'in cave from the Chalcolithic Period were of both local Levantine and Persian and Zagros area ancestries, or as phrased in the paper itself: "Ancient DNA from Chalcolithic Israel reveals the role of population mixture in cultural transformation," the scientists concluded that the homogeneous community found in the cave could source ~57% of its ancestry from groups related to those of the local Levant Neolithic, ~26% from groups related to those of the Anatolian Neolithic, and ~17% from groups related to those of the Iran Chalcolithic.". The scholars noted that the Zagros genetic material held "Certain characteristics, such as genetic mutations contributing to blue eye color, were not seen in the DNA test results of earlier Levantine human remains MTDNA blue-eyed, fair-skinned community didn't continue, but at least now researchers have an idea why. "These findings suggest that the rise and fall of the Chalcolithic culture are probably due to demographic changes in the region". We find that the individuals buried in Peqi'in Cave represent a relatively genetically homogenous population. This homogeneity is evident not only in the genome-wide analyses but also in the fact that most of the male individuals (nine out of ten) belong to the Y-chromosome Haplogroup T (Y-DNA), a lineage thought to have diversified in the Near East. This finding contrasts with both earlier (Neolithic and Epipaleolithic) Levantine populations, which were dominated by Haplogroup E (Y-DNA), and later Bronze Age individuals, all of whom belonged to Haplogroup J (Y-DNA). Ancient city of Ebla In the ancient city of Ebla in Syria in the Bronze Age, one individual was found belonging to haplogroup T-L162 (T1a1). Alalakh Amorite city-state One individual from Alalakh who lived circa 2014-1781 BC, belonged to haplogroup T-CTS11451 (T1a1a). Notable haplogroup members Elite endurance runners Possible patterns between Y-chromosome and elite endurance runners were studied in an attempt to find a genetic explanation to the Ethiopian endurance running success. Given the superiority of East African athletes in international distance running over the past four decades, it has been speculated that they are genetically advantaged. Elite marathon runners from Ethiopia were analysed for K*(xP) which according to the previously published Ethiopian studies is attributable to the haplogroup T According to further studies, T1a1a* (L208) was found to be proportionately more frequent in the elite marathon runners sample than in the control samples than any other haplogroup, therefore this y-chromosome could play a significant role in determining Ethiopian endurance running success. Haplogroup T1a1a* was found in 14% of the elite marathon runners sample of whom 43% of this sample are from Arsi province. In addition, haplogroup T1a1a* was found in only 4% of the Ethiopian control sample and only 1% of the Arsi province control sample. T1a1a* is positively associated with aspects of endurance running, whereas E1b1b1 (old E3b1) is negatively associated. House of Khalifa The ruling family of the Kingdom of Bahrain is the House of Khalifa (Arabic: آل خليفة, romanized: Āl Khalīfah)is confirmed West Asian Y-DNA Haplogroup T-L206 subclade of P77*. The house belongs to the Utab tribe, which is part of the larger Anizah tribal confederation, that migrated from Central Arabia to Kuwait and then ruled all of Qatar. In 1999, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa became the Emir of Bahrain and proclaimed himself the King of Bahrain in 2002. The T-FT364053 haplogroup of the house was determined by DNA testing of descendants in the T-Arab Y DNA Haplogroup Project on Family Tree DNA and other Arab world projects. Thomas Jefferson A notable member of the T-M184 haplogroup is American President Thomas Jefferson (most distant known ancestor "MDKA" is Samuel Jefferson, Born 11 October 1607 in Pettistree, Suffolk, England). The Y-chromosomal complement of the Jefferson male line was studied in 1998 in an attempt to resolve the controversy over whether he had fathered the mixed-race children of his slave Sally Hemings. A 1998 DNA study of the Y chromosome in the Jefferson male line found that it matched that of a descendant of Eston Hemings, Sally Hemings' youngest son. This confirmed the body of historical evidence, and most historians believe that Jefferson had a long-term intimate liaison with Hemings for 38 years, and fathered her six children of record, four of whom lived to adulthood. In addition, the testing conclusively disproved any connection between the Hemings descendant and the Carr male line. Jefferson grandchildren had asserted in the 19th century that a Carr nephew had been the father of Hemings' children, and this had been the basis of historians' denial for 180 years. Jefferson's paternal family traced back Wales, where T is incredibly rare, as it is less than <1% throughout Britain. A couple of British males with the Jefferson surname have been found with the third president's type of T, reinforcing the likelihood that his immediate paternal ancestry was British. Family Tree DNA, found that the Jefferson T patrilineage belongs to T-BY78550 a subclade of T-PF7444 which is likely of MENA Middle Eastern North African Origins. Spencer Wells who led The Genographic Project places his origin to Canaan Phylogenetic tree Nomenclatural history Prior to 2002, there were in academic literature at least seven naming systems for the Y-Chromosome Phylogenetic tree. This led to considerable confusion. In 2002, the major research groups came together and formed the Y-Chromosome Consortium (YCC). They published a joint paper that created a single new tree that all agreed to use. Later, a group of citizen scientists with an interest in population genetics and genetic genealogy formed a working group to create an amateur tree aiming at being above all timely. The table below brings together all of these works at the point of the landmark 2002 YCC Tree. This allows a researcher reviewing older published literature to quickly move between nomenclatures. Original research publications The following research teams per their publications were represented in the creation of the YCC Tree. α and β γ δ ε ζ η Y-DNA backbone tree Notes References Original research Other works cited Sources for conversion tables External links The Y-DNA Haplogroup T Project YFull T YTree The Digital Archaeological Atlas of the 'Ain Ghazal settlement C14 radiocarbon CONTEXT database Map of the 7550ybp T1a1a-CTS4916 settlement of Malak Preslavets T-M184

Archaeological excavation

In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be conducted over a few weeks to several years. Excavation involves the recovery of several types of data from a site. This data includes artifacts (portable objects made or modified by humans), features (non-portable modifications to the site itself such as post molds, burials, and hearths), ecofacts (evidence of human activity through organic remains such as animal bones, pollen, or charcoal), and archaeological context (relationships among the other types of data). Before excavating, the presence or absence of archaeological remains can often be suggested by, non-intrusive remote sensing, such as ground-penetrating radar. Basic information about the development of the site may be drawn from this work, but to understand finer details of a site, excavation via augering can be used. During excavation, archaeologists often use stratigraphic excavation to remove phases of the site one layer at a time. This keeps the timeline of the material remains consistent with one another. This is done usually though mechanical means where artifacts can be spot dated and the soil processed through methods such as mechanical sieving or water flotation. Afterwards, digital methods are then used record the excavation process and its results. Ideally, data from the excavation should suffice to reconstruct the site completely in three-dimensional space. History The first instance of archaeological excavation took place in the sixth century BC when Nabonidus, the king of Babylon, excavated a temple floor that was thousands of years old. During early Roman periods, Julius Caesar's men looted bronze artifacts, and by the medieval period, Europeans had begun digging up pots that had partially emerged from erosion, and weapons that had turned up on farmlands. Antiquarians excavated burial mounds in North America and North-West Europe, which sometimes involved destroying artifacts and their context, losing information about subjects from the past. Meticulous and methodical archaeological excavation took over from antiquarian barrow-digging around the early to mid-nineteenth century and is still being perfected today. The most dramatic change that occurred over time is the amount of recording and care taken to ensure preservation of artifacts and features. In the past, archaeological excavation involved random digging to unearth artifacts. Exact locations of artifacts were not recorded, and measurements were not taken. Modern archaeological excavation has evolved to include removal of thin layers of sediment sequentially and recording of measurements about artifacts' locations in a site. Motivation There are two basic types of modern archaeological excavation: Research excavation – when time and resources are available to excavate the site fully and at a leisurely pace. These are now almost exclusively the preserve of academics or private societies who can muster enough volunteer labour and funds. The size of the excavation can also be decided by the director as it goes on. Development-led excavation – undertaken by professional archaeologists when the site is threatened by building development. This is normally funded by the developer, meaning that time pressure is present, as well as its being focused only on areas to be affected by building. The workforce involved is generally more skilled, however, and pre-development excavations also provide a comprehensive record of the areas investigated. Rescue archaeology is sometimes thought of as a separate type of excavation but in practice tends to be a similar form of development-led practice. Various new forms of excavation terminology have appeared in recent years such as Strip map and sample some of which have been criticized within the profession as jargon created to cover up for falling standards of practice. Development-led archaeology There are two main types of trial excavation in professional archaeology both commonly associated with development-led excavation: the test pit or trench and the watching brief. The purpose of trial excavations is to determine the extent and characteristics of archaeological potential in a given area before extensive excavation work is undertaken. This is usually conducted in development-led excavations as part of Project management planning. The main difference between Trial trenching and watching briefs is that trial trenches are actively dug for the purpose of revealing archaeological potential whereas watching briefs are cursory examination of trenches where the primary function of the trench is something other than archaeology, for example a trench cut for a gas pipe in a road. In the US, a method of evaluation called a Shovel test pit is used which is a specified half meter square line of trial trenches dug by hand. Concepts Site formation Archaeological material tends to accumulate in events. A gardener swept a pile of soil into a corner, laid a gravel path or planted a bush in a hole. A builder built a wall and back-filled the trench. Years later, someone built a pigsty onto it and drained the pigsty into the nettle patch. Later still, the original wall blew over and so on. Each event, which may have taken a short or long time to accomplish, leaves a context. This layer cake of events is often referred to as the archaeological sequence or record. It is by analysis of this sequence or record that excavation is intended to permit interpretation, which should lead to discussion and understanding. The prominent processual archaeologist Lewis Binford highlighted the fact that the archaeological evidence left at a site may not be entirely indicative of the historical events that actually took place there. Using an ethnoarchaeological comparison, he looked at how hunters amongst the Nunamiut Iñupiat of north central Alaska spent a great deal of time in a certain area simply waiting for prey to arrive there, and that during this period, they undertook other tasks to pass the time, such as the carving of various objects, including a wooden mould for a mask, a horn spoon and an ivory needle, as well as repairing a skin pouch and a pair of caribou skin socks. Binford notes that all of these activities would have left evidence in the archaeological record, but that none of them would provide evidence for the primary reason that the hunters were in the area; to wait for prey. As he remarked, waiting for animals to hunt "represented 24% of the total man-hours of activity recorded; yet there is no recognisable archaeological consequences of this behaviour. No tools left on the site were used, and there were no immediate material "byproducts" of the "primary" activity. All of the other activities conducted at the site were essentially boredom reducers." Stratification In archaeology, especially in excavating, stratigraphy involves the study of how deposits occurs layer by layer. It is largely based on the Law of Superposition. The Law of Superposition indicates that layers of sediment further down will contain older artifacts than layers above. When archaeological finds are below the surface of the ground (as is most commonly the case), the identification of the context of each find is vital to enable the archaeologist to draw conclusions about the site and the nature and date of its occupation. It is the archaeologist's role to attempt to discover what contexts exist and how they came to be created. Archaeological stratification or sequence is the dynamic superimposition of single units of stratigraphy or contexts. The context (physical location) of a discovery can be of major significance. Archaeological context refers to where an artifact or feature was found as well as what the artifact or feature was located near. Context is important for determining how long ago the artifact or feature was in use as well as what its function may have been. The cutting of a pit or ditch in the past is a context, whilst the material filling it will be another. Multiple fills seen in section would mean multiple contexts. Structural features, natural deposits and inhumations are also contexts. By separating a site into these basic, discrete units, archaeologists are able to create a chronology for activity on a site and describe and interpret it. Stratigraphic relationships are the relationships created between contexts in time representing the chronological order they were created. An example would be a ditch and the back-fill of said ditch. The relationship of "the fill" context to the ditch "cut" context is "the fill" occurred later in the sequence, i.e., you have to dig a ditch first before you can back-fill it. A relationship that is later in the sequence is sometimes referred to as "higher" in the sequence and a relationship that is earlier "lower" though the term higher or lower does not itself imply a context needs to be physically higher or lower. It is more useful to think of this higher or lower term as it relates to the contexts position in a Harris matrix, which is a two-dimensional representation of a site's formation in space and time. Understanding a site in modern archaeology is a process of grouping single contexts together in ever larger groups by virtue of their relationships. The terminology of these larger clusters varies depending on practitioner, but the terms interface, sub-group, group and land use are common. An example of a sub-group could be the three contexts that make up a burial: the grave cut, the body and the back-filled earth on top of the body. In turn sub-groups can be clustered together with other sub-groups by virtue of their stratigraphic relationship to form groups which in turn form "phases". A sub-group burial could cluster with other sub-group burials to form a cemetery or burial group which in turn could be clustered with a building such as church to produce a "phase." A less rigorously defined combination of one or more contexts is sometimes called a feature. Phasing Phase is the most easily understood grouping for the layman as it implies a near contemporaneous Archaeological horizon representing "what you would see if you went back to a specific point in time". Often but not always a phase implies the identification of an occupation surface "old ground level" that existed at some earlier time. The production of phase interpretations is one of the first goals of stratigraphic interpretation and excavation. Digging "in phase" is not quite the same as phasing a site. Phasing a site represents reducing the site either in excavation or post-excavation to contemporaneous horizons whereas "digging in phase" is the process of stratigraphic removal of archaeological remains so as not to remove contexts that are earlier in time "lower in the sequence" before other contexts that have a latter physical stratigraphic relationship to them as defined by the law of superposition. The process of interpretation in practice will have a bearing on excavation strategies on site so "phasing" a site is actively pursued during excavation where at all possible and is considered good practice. An "intrusion" or "intrusive object" is something that arrived later to the phase in the strata, for example modern pipework or the 16th-century bottles left by treasure-hunters at Sutton Hoo. Methods Excavation initially involves the removal of any topsoil. A strategy for sampling the contexts and features is formulated which may involve total excavation of each feature or only portions. Stratigraphic excavation In stratigraphic excavation, the goal is to remove some or, preferably, all archaeological deposits and features in the reverse order they were created and construct a Harris matrix as a chronological record or "sequence" of the site. This Harris matrix is used for interpretation and combining contexts into ever larger units of understanding. This stratigraphic removal of the site is crucial for understanding the chronology of events on site. Stratigraphic excavation involves a process of cleaning or "troweling back" the surface of the site and isolating contexts and edges which are definable as either: Discrete, discernible "edges" that are formed by being completely separated from the surrounding surface and therefore stratigraphically later than its surroundings Discrete, discernible "edges" (as in 1.) and have boundaries dictated by the limit of excavation Following this preliminary process of defining the context, it is then recorded and removed. Often, owing to practical considerations or error, the process of defining the edges of contexts is not followed and contexts are removed out of sequence and un-stratigraphically. This is called "digging out of phase". It is not good practice. After removing a context or if practical a set of contexts such as the case would be for features, the "isolate and dig" procedure is repeated until no man made remains are left on site and the site is reduced to natural. Tools and techniques Mechanical excavation This describes the use in excavations of various types and sizes of machines from small backhoes to heavy duty earth-moving machinery. Machines are often used in what is called salvage or rescue archaeology in developer-led excavation when there are financial or time pressures. Using a mechanical excavator is the quickest method to remove soil and debris and to prepare the surface for excavation by hand, taking care to avoid damaging archaeological deposits by accident or to make it difficult to identify later precisely where finds were located. The use of such machinery is often routine (as it is for instance with the British archaeological television series Time Team) but can also be controversial as it can result in less discrimination in how the archaeological sequence on a site is recorded. One of the earliest uses of earth-moving machinery was at Durrington Walls in 1967. An old road through the henge was to be straightened and improved and was going to cause considerable damage to the archaeology. Rosemary Hill describes how Geoffrey Wainwright "oversaw large, high-speed excavations, taking bulldozers to the site in a manner that shocked some of his colleagues but yielded valuable if tantalising information about what Durrington had looked like and how it might have been used." Machines are used primarily to remove modern overburden and for the control of spoil. In British archaeology mechanical diggers are sometimes nicknamed "big yellow trowels". Recording Archaeological excavation is an unrepeatable process, since the same area of the ground cannot be excavated twice. Thus, archaeology is often known as a destructive science, where you must destroy the original evidence in order to make observations. To mitigate this, highly accurate and precise digital methods can be used to record the excavation process and its results. Single context recording system Single context recording was developed in the 1970s by the museum of London (as well as earlier in Winchester and York) and has become the de facto recording system in many parts of the world and is especially suited to the complexities of deep urban archaeology and the process of Stratification. Each excavated context is given a unique "context number" and is recorded by type on a context sheet and perhaps being drawn on a plan and/or a section. Depending on time constraints and importance contexts may also be photographed, but in this case a grouping of contexts and their associations are the purpose of the photography. Finds from each context are bagged and labeled with their context number and site code for later cross-reference work carried out post-excavation. The height above sea level of pertinent points on a context, such as the top and bottom of a wall are taken and added to plans sections and context sheets. Heights are recorded with a dumpy level or total station by relation to the site temporary benchmark (abbr. T.B.M). Samples of deposits from contexts are sometimes also taken, for later environmental analysis or for scientific dating. Digital recording Digital tools used by field archaeologists during excavation include GPS, tablet computers, relational databases, digital cameras, 3d laser scanners, and unmanned aerial vehicles. After high quality digital data have been recorded, these data can then be shared over the internet for open access and use by the public and archaeological researchers. Digital imaging or digital image acquisition is digital photography, such as of a physical scene or of the interior structure of an object. The term is often used to include the processing, compression, storage, printing, and display of the images. Finds processing Finds and artifacts that survive in the archaeological record are retrieved in the main by hand and observation as the context they survive in is excavated. Several other techniques are available depending on suitability and time constraints. Sieving (screening) and flotation are used to maximize the recovery of small items such as small shards of pottery or flint flakes, or bones and seeds. Flotation Flotation is a process of retrieval that works by passing spoil onto the surface of water and separating finds that float from the spoil which sinks. This is especially suited to the recovery of environmental data stored in organic material such as seeds and small bones. Not all finds retrieval is done during excavation and some, especially flotation, may take place post-excavation from samples taken during excavation. Sieving The use of sieving (screening) is more common on research-based excavations where more time is available. Some success has been achieved with the use of cement mixers and bulk sieving. This method allows the quick removal of context by shovel and mattock yet allows for a high retrieval rate. Spoil is shoveled into cement mixers and water added to form a slurry which is then poured through a large screen mesh. The speed of this technique is offset by the damage it does to more fragile artifacts. Spot Dating One important role of finds retrieval during excavation is the role of specialists to provide spot dating information on the contexts being removed from the archaeological record. This can provide advance warning of potential discoveries to come by virtue of residual finds redeposited in contexts higher in the sequence (which should be coming offsite earlier than contexts from early eras and phases). Spot dating also forms part of a confirmation process, of assessing the validity of the working hypothesis on the phasing of site during excavation. For example, the presence of an anomalous medieval pottery sherd in what was thought to be an Iron Age ditch feature could radically alter onsite thinking on the correct strategy for digging a site and save a lot of information being lost due to incorrect assumptions about the nature of the deposits which will be destroyed by the excavation process and in turn, limit the site's potential for revealing information for post-excavation specialists. Or anomalous information could show up errors in excavation such as "undercutting". Dating methodology in part relies on accurate excavation and in this sense the two activities become interdependent. See also Archaeological field survey Archaeological plan Archaeological section Cut (archaeology) Feature (archaeology) Forensic archaeology Relationship (archaeology) Spit (archaeology) References Barker, Philip (1993) Techniques of archaeological excavation, 3rd ed., London : Batsford, Westman, Andrew (Ed.) (1994) Archaeological site manual, 3rd. ed., London : Museum of London, Further reading Corrado Pedeli and Stefano Pulga (2013). Conservation Practices on Archaeological Excavations: Principles and Methods, Los Angeles: Getty Publications, Sharon Sullivan and Richard Mackay (2013). Archaeological Sites: Conservation and Management, Los Angeles: Getty Publications, External links Adrian Chadwick – Archaeology at the Edge of Chaos: Further Towards Reflexive Excavation Methodologies Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy and Practices of Archaeological Stratigraphy as authorised free PDF Reuben Thorpe – Which way is up? Context formation and transformation: The life and deaths of a hot bath in Beirut Record Checking Guidance for Anglo-Lebanese Excavations in Beirut Site Phasing and Higher order grouping guidelines for Anglo-Lebanese Excavations in Beirut Hammer, F. – Post Excavation Manual NIOSH Safety and Health Topic: Trenching and Excavation. Excavations at the Roman city of Sanisera, Menorca, Spain Methods in archaeology Articles containing video clips

Chalcolithic Europe

The European Chalcolithic, the Chalcolithic (also Eneolithic, Copper Age) period of Prehistoric Europe, lasted roughly from 5000 to 2000 BC, developing from the preceding Neolithic period and followed by the Bronze Age. It was a period of Megalithic culture, the appearance of the first significant economic stratification, and probably the earliest presence of Indo-European speakers. The economy of the Chalcolithic, even in the regions where copper was not yet used, was no longer that of peasant communities and tribes: some materials began to be produced in specific locations and distributed to wide regions. Mining of metal and stone was particularly developed in some areas, along with the processing of those materials into valuable goods. Ancient Chalcolithic From c. 5000 BC to 3000 BC, copper started being used first in Southeast Europe, then in Eastern Europe, and Central Europe. From onwards, there was an influx of people into Eastern Europe from the Pontic-Caspian steppe (Yamnaya culture), creating a plural complex known as Sredny Stog culture. This culture replaced the Dnieper-Donets culture, and migrated northwest to the Baltic and Denmark, where they mixed with natives (TRBK A and C). This may be correlated with the spread of Indo-European languages, known as the Kurgan hypothesis. Near the end of the period, another branch left many traces in the lower Danube area (culture of Cernavodă culture I), in what seems to have been another invasion. Meanwhile, the Danubian Lengyel culture absorbed its northern neighbours of the Czech Republic and Poland over a number of centuries, only to recede in the second half of the period. In Bulgaria and Wallachia (Southern Romania), the Boian-Marica culture evolved into a monarchy with a clearly royal cemetery near the coast of the Black Sea. This model seems to have been copied later in the Tiszan region with the culture of Bodrogkeresztur. Labour specialization, economic stratification and possibly the risk of invasion may have been the reasons behind this development. The influx of early Troy (Troy I) is clear in both the expansion of metallurgy and social organization. In the western Danubian region (the Rhine and Seine basins) the culture of Michelsberg displaced its predecessor, Rössen. Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean basin, several cultures (most notably Chassey in SE France and La Lagozza in northern Italy) converged into a functional union, of which the most significant characteristic was the distribution network of honey-coloured flint. Despite this unity, the signs of conflicts are clear, as many skeletons show violent injuries. This was the time and area where Ötzi, a man whose well-preserved body was found in the Alps, lived. Another significant development of this period was the Megalithic phenomenon spreading to most places of the Atlantic region, bringing with it agriculture to some underdeveloped regions existing there. Middle Chalcolithic This period extends along the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. Most significant is the reorganization of the Danubians into the powerful Baden culture, which extended more or less to what would be the Austro-Hungarian Empire in recent times. The rest of the Balkans was profoundly restructured after the invasions of the previous period but, with the exception of the Coțofeni culture in a mountainous region, none of them show any eastern (or presumably Indo-European) traits. The new Ezero culture, in Bulgaria, had the first traits of pseudo-bronze (an alloy of copper with arsenic); as did the first significant Aegean group: the Cycladic culture after . In the North, the supposedly Indo-European groups seemed to recede temporarily, suffering a strong cultural danubianization. In the East, the peoples of beyond the Volga (Yamnaya culture), surely eastern Indo-Europeans, ancestors of Iranians, took over southern Russia and Ukraine. In the West the only sign of unity comes from the Megalithic super-culture, which extended from southern Sweden to southern Spain, including large parts of southern Germany. But the Mediterranean and Danubian groupings of the previous period appear to have been fragmented into many smaller pieces, some of them apparently backward in technological matters. After several phenomena prefigured the changes of the upcoming period. Large towns with stone walls appeared in two different areas of the Iberian Peninsula: one in the Portuguese region of Estremadura (culture of Vila Nova de São Pedro), strongly embedded in the Atlantic Megalithic culture; the other near Almería (SE Spain), centred on the large town of Los Millares, of Mediterranean character, probably affected by eastern cultural influxes (tholoi). Despite the many differences the two civilizations seemed to be in friendly contact and to have productive exchanges. In the area of Dordogne (Aquitaine, France), a new unexpected culture of bowmen appeared, the culture of Artenac, which would soon take control of western and even northern France and Belgium. In Poland and nearby regions, the putative Indo-Europeans reorganized and consolidated again with the culture of the Globular Amphoras. Nevertheless, the influence of many centuries in direct contact with the still-powerful Danubian peoples had greatly modified their culture. In the southwestern Iberian peninsula, owl-like plaques made of sandstone were discovered and dated to be crafted from 5500 to 4750 BP (Before Present). These are some of the most unique objects discovered in the Chalcolithic (copper age) cultural period. They have generally a head, two rounded eyes, and a body. Theses species were modeled after two owl species, the little owl (Athene Noctua) and the long-eared owl (Asio otux). Late Chalcolithic This period extended from to or 1700 BC (depending on the region). The dates are general for the whole of Europe, and the Aegean area was already fully in the Bronze Age. the new Catacomb culture, which originated from the Yamnaya peoples in the regions north and east of the Black Sea. Some of these infiltrated Poland and may have played a significant but unclear role in the transformation of the culture of the Globular Amphorae into the new Corded Ware culture. In Britain, copper was used between the 25th and 22nd centuries BC, but some archaeologists do not recognise a British Chalcolithic because production and use was on a small scale. Around 2400 BC. this people of the Corded Ware replaced their predecessors and expanded to Danubian and Nordic areas of western Germany. One related branch invaded Denmark and southern Sweden (Single Grave culture), while the mid-Danubian basin, though showing more continuity, also displayed clear traits of new Indo-European elites (Vučedol culture). Simultaneously, in the west, the Artenac peoples reached Belgium. With the partial exception of Vučedol, the Danubian cultures, so buoyant just a few centuries ago, were wiped off the map of Europe. The rest of the period was the story of a mysterious phenomenon: the Beaker people. This group seems to have been of mercantile character and preferred being buried according to a very specific, almost invariable, ritual. Nevertheless, out of their original area of western Central Europe, they appeared only inside local cultures, so they never invaded and assimilated but rather went to live among those peoples, keeping their way of life. The rest of the continent remained mostly unchanged and in apparent peace. From the first Beaker Pottery appeared in Bohemia and expanded in many directions, but particularly westward, along the Rhone and the sea shores, reaching the culture of Vila Nova (Portugal) and Catalonia (Spain) as its limit. Simultaneously but unrelatedly, in the Aegean region, the Cycladic culture decayed, being substituted by the new palatine phase of the Minoan culture of Crete. The second phase of Beaker Pottery, from onwards, was marked by the displacement of the centre of this phenomenon to Portugal, inside the culture of Vila Nova. This new centre's influence reached to all southern and western France but was absent in southern and western Iberia, with the notable exception of Los Millares. After , the centre of the Beaker Pottery returned to Bohemia, while in Iberia there was a decentralization of the phenomenon, with centres in Portugal but also in Los Millares and Ciempozuelos. See also Bronze Age Europe Metallurgy during the Copper Age in Europe Burned house horizon References Sources External links Archeo News: Ancient civilization uncovered in Bulgaria Hindustan Times: World's oldest Copper Age settlement found Prehistoric Europe

Proto-Germanic folklore

Proto-Germanic paganism was the beliefs of the speakers of Proto-Germanic and includes topics such as the Germanic mythology, legendry, and folk beliefs of early Germanic culture. By way of the comparative method, Germanic philologists, a variety of historical linguist, have proposed reconstructions of entities, locations, and concepts with various levels of security in early Germanic folklore (reconstructions are indicated by the presence of an asterisk). The present article includes both reconstructed forms and proposed motifs from the early Germanic period. Linguistic reconstructions can be obtained via comparison between the various Germanic languages, comparison with related words in other Indo-European languages, especially Celtic and Baltic, comparison with borrowings into neighbouring language families such as Uralic, or via a combination of those methods. This allows linguists to project some terms back to the Proto-Germanic period despite their attestation in only one Germanic language; for instance, *saidaz ('magic') is only attested in Old Norse seiðr, but has parallels in Proto-Celtic *soytos and Lithuanian saitas. Deities Entities Locations Other See also Anthropomorphic wooden cult figurines of Central and Northern Europe Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology Proto-Celtic paganism Proto-Indo-Iranian paganism Notes References Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989). Íslensk orðsifjabók. Orðabók Háskólans. European folklore

Oriental Despotism

Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power is a book of political theory and comparative history by Karl August Wittfogel (1896–1988) published by Yale University Press in 1957. The book offers an explanation for the despotic governments in "Oriental" societies, where control of water was necessary for irrigation and flood-control. Managing these projects required large-scale bureaucracies, which dominated the economy, society, and religious life. This despotism differed from the Western experience, where power was distributed among contending groups. The book argues that this form of "hydraulic despotism" characterized ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Hellenistic Greece and imperial Rome, the Abbasid Caliphate, imperial China, the Moghul empire, and Incan Peru. Wittfogel further argues that 20th century Marxist-Leninist regimes, such as the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China, though they were not themselves hydraulic societies, did not break away from their historical condition and remained systems of "total power" and "total terror". The book was both welcomed as an historically grounded analysis of despotism that warned the West against the expansion of Communist totalitarianism and criticized as a Cold War polemic. The materialist and ecological theories in Oriental Despotism influenced ecological anthropologists and global economic historians even though some of them found fault with its methodology and empirical basis or questioned Wittfogel's political motives. Background Wittfogel, who was educated in German centers of sinology and joined the German Communist Party in 1920, was dissatisfied with the debate on the Asiatic mode of production (AMP) that traced back to Montesquieu and Hegel. During the 1920s and early 1930s he debated with orthodox Marxist-Leninists who followed Joseph Stalin's dictum that all societies evolved through the same stages of historical growth, which Asia must therefore follow. When he was freed from a Nazi prison in Germany, he came to the United States with his wife in 1933 and made several trips to China for research. Wittfogel's interests in China and immersion in Marxist analysis led him to conclusions on the theory of oriental despotism that differed from Marxist tradition. Marx held that historical development outside Europe did not follow the pattern he saw in Europe. Europe, he wrote, developed through a process of class conflict from an ancient slave society to feudalism, then bourgeois capitalism, and from there to socialism and eventually communism. Modern Europe, in Marx's classic formulation, was created by the conflict between the emerging bourgeois and industrial capitalist classes, on the one hand, and the Ancient Regime of feudal economy on the other. Wittfogel suggested Asia was immobile because rulers controlled society but there were no slaves, as in Marx's slave society, nor serfs, as in feudal society: there were no classes, no class conflict, and thus no change. This proposition did not explain how rulers gained their absolute power and why no forces in society opposed them. Wittfogel asked whether there was an explanation found only in these societies. Marxists in both the Soviet Union and in Western countries explored these questions as important in themselves, but with special heat because both liberals and conservatives in the West wanted to decide whether Stalin's Russia was an authentic communist system in Marx's sense or whether it was itself an example of oriental despotism. One historian of the concept remarks that for Wittfogel, "the analysis of Asia was actually intended as a discussion of political relationships within the 'West'". In the late 1920 and early 1930s, orthodox theorists in Moscow spurned Wittfogel's views because they differed from Stalin's and Chinese Marxists rejected them also because they implied that China did not have the capability to develop. On a trip to Moscow, however, Wittfogel met the young Chinese scholar Ji Chaoding, an underground communist who became his intellectual disciple. Ji came to the United States for graduate work at Columbia University. Ji's doctoral dissertation, published in 1936 as The Role of Irrigation In Chinese History, argued that a dynasty's success depended on control of irrigation, which increased agricultural production, and especially water transportation, which gave the government both military and financial control. Wittfogel also had a productive intellectual relation in the 1930s with Owen Lattimore, whom he met in China. Lattimore, who shared Wittfogel's interest in ecological structures and material conditions, argued that the history of Inner Asia was dominated by the interaction between settled agricultural societies that flourished in the relatively well-watered rim and the pastoral societies that survived in arid Central Asia. Publication Beginning in the 1930s, Wittfogel pursued research projects that formed a background and preparation for Oriental Despotism and published articles presenting aspects of its argument. He finished a manuscript in 1954, but for several years publishers turned it down. Perhaps the topic did not seem attractive or perhaps the political atmosphere seemed hostile to a book with a Marxist argument even if that argument was strongly critical of the Soviet Union and the communist government in China. Wittfogel may have had to supply a publication subsidy to Yale University Press. The structure and argument of the book The book has ten chapters: Chapter 1. "The Natural Setting Of Hydraulic Society," explains the geographical settings of hydraulic empires, including ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Hellenistic Greece and imperial Rome, imperial China, the Abbasid Caliphate, the Moghul empire, Incan Peru, and 20th century Marxist-Leninist regimes. He prefers the term "hydraulic" rather than "Oriental," but uses the terms interchangeably. Chapter 2. "Hydraulic Economy,- A Managerial And Genuinely Political Economy" Chapter 3. "A State Stronger Than Society" Chapter 4. "Despotic Power, - Total And Not Benevolent": The absence of effective constitutional and societal checks and "beggars' democracy. Chapter 5. "Total Terror, Total Submission, Total Loneliness" argue that "hydraulic government" is despotic by its very nature. This was a form of "total power" because there were no social, legal, or cultural constraints. Wittfogel also denies that in the case of imperial China there were "rights of rebellion", such as other Chinese and foreign scholars have seen, but he does hold that a "law of diminishing administrative returns" kept rulers from controlling all aspects of their subjects' lives, so that "genuine elements of freedom remained." This freedom, however, amounted only to a "beggar's democracy." The "rationality coefficient of hydraulic society" means the society's ability to get things done, operating at three levels at which the government must be effective: managing the agrarian economy, ("managerial"); using corvee and taxes, ("consumptive"); and maintaining peace and order, ("judicial) Chapter 6. "The Core, The Margin, And The Submargin Of Hydraulic Societies," Chapter 7. Patterns Of Proprietary Complexity In Hydraulic Society Chapter 8. Classes In Hydraulic Society Chapter 9. The Rise And Fall Of The Theory Of The Asiatic Mode Of Production Chapter 10. Oriental Society In Transition Reception The initial reaction to Oriental Despotism in the American press was wide and warm. Reviewers noted that Wittfogel had been working on these questions in some form since the 1930s but that the book was important for understanding the post-war world. The reviewer in The Geographical Review advised that "every geographer concerned with Asia, and every political geographer whatever the regional concern, should read it". He hoped that "historians, political scientists, deans, and college presidents will see it as evidence that ... 'most of the world' is just as important as traditional focus on North America and Western Europe." He added that "the book makes impressively clear that there is a great mass of despotic practice in the most populous parts of the world that cannot be transformed magically by democratic catalysis." Yet "environmental determinism" is "explicitly denied," as Wittfogel speaks of "the opportunity, not the necessity" for agromanagerial despotism. Area specialist scholars, however, questioned the concept for their particular regions. Jerome A. Offner, for instance, disagreed with the scholars who used the concept of oriental despotism for understanding of Aztec political organization and society. The concept is "demonstrably false," wrote Offner, at least for the state of Texcoco: irrigation had no significant role, there was extensive private property in land, and the government did not dominate the economy, since the market was extensive. Ervand Abrahamian assessed the applicability of the theory to Qajar Iran. The British anthropologist Edmund Leach objected that most of the hydraulic civilisations of the past were in semi-arid regions where irrigation "did not require a despotic monarch to build vast aqueducts and reservoirs; it simply called for elementary and quite localised drainage construction and perhaps the diversion of river flood water into the flat lands on either side of the main stream." Leach further objected that Wittfogel did not deal with India, the state which Marx saw as the ideal type of "Asiatic society", and ignored the other states of South and Southeast Asia, which were all "hydraulic societies." The sociologist Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt questioned Oriental Despotism in regard to Islamic societies. He saw the earlier oriental despotism theorists and Wittfogel as "precursors, or manifestations of what would later be called the 'Orientalist' approach," which Edward Said accused of imposing this type of analysis on Islamic societies. The reception among scholars of China was especially skeptical. The Princeton University sinologist Frederick Mote wrote that Wittfogel "presents effective arguments, and the neatness of his total view of Chinese despotism is compelling, yet when it is applied to any one period of history there appear certain difficulties in accepting his arguments." Wittfogel "does not write of Chinese government and society as a historian; the reader does not sense any awareness of the steadily cumulative development through the centuries which gave each age its own character." The Song dynasty emperors, for instance, had great power but did not use it despotically; Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty, took advantage of accidents and timing to become absolute ruler. Mote was especially concerned to explain the limits of power and the limits of terror, which he believed Wittfogel did not appreciate. Thus "total power," Mote wrote, "while not a meaningless phrase, must be understood in the context of a complex historical situation." It existed in Ming China, but even then it did not mean that totalitarian power was "omnipresent and omnicompetent." If this power concentrated on any single objective, it probably could accomplish that objective, but by the nature of the cultural environment, it could not accomplish many of them. Gregory Blue of the University of Toronto commented that "despite its analytical sweep and evident learning, Wittfogel's model made it difficult to understand why government involvement in Chinese social life seemed to have been distinctly limited during the imperial era (221 B.C.E. - 1911 CE.) or how Chinese society could have ever flourished at all". Wittfogel's reading of China as a hydraulic despotism, Blue speculated, also aimed to undermine John Fairbank's "Grand Alliance distinction between 'fascist-conservative and communist-progressive forms of totalitarianism'..." Another historian of the Ming dynasty, Timothy Brook, wrote that historians were burdened with the task of responding to Wittfogel's charge that the dynasty was "despotic," one that he did not think was justified. Perry Anderson objected that the concept of the Asiatic Mode of Production was too broad to be meaningful: A ubiquitous ‘Asiatism’ [sic] represents no improvement on a universal ‘feudalism’: in fact, it is even less rigorous as a term. What serious historical unity exists between Ming China and Megalithic Ireland, Pharaonic Egypt and Hawaii? It is perfectly clear that such social formations are unimaginably distant from one another. Anderson continued that “this vulgar charivari, devoid of any historical sense, jumbles together pell-mell Imperial Rome, Tsarist Russia, Hopi Arizona, Sung China, Chaggan East Africa, Mamluk Egypt, Inca Peru, Ottoman Turkey, and Sumerian Mesopotamia – not to speak of Byzantium or Babylonia, Persia, or Hawaii.” Wittfogel's biographer Gary Ulmen replied to these criticisms that to focus on "hydraulic despotism" was to misunderstand Wittfogel's general thesis. In fact, Ulmen continued, Wittfogel had considered a number of alternative ways to frame his proposition and there were many more demonstrations of the theory than "hydraulic" despotism. Wittfogel wrote in 1960 that the People's Republic of China was not a "hydraulic society," but that it represented a "stronger form of oriental despotism." Influence Oriental Despotism was influential for its methodology and its findings. Joseph Needham appreciated Wittfogel's early work for its combination of Weberian understanding of bureaucracy and Marxist political analysis. In developing his study, Science and Civilisation in China, Needham remarked that Wittfogel's Marxism in the period before he came to the United States was "chiefly an emphasis on social and economic factors in Chinese history which had been overlooked by others.” After World War II, John K. Fairbank invited Wittfogel to Harvard University to deliver a series of talks to his graduate seminar in Area Studies. Wittfogel was one of the influences on Fairbank's The United States and China (1948), a survey that synthesized the standard work of historians and social scientists. Wittfogel left Columbia University in 1949 to join the University of Washington study group on Modern China. One member, the historian Hsiao Kung-ch'uan, for instance, used Wittfogel's concept of "beggar's democracy" in his massive study, Rural China . Frederic Wakeman saw Wittfogel as the defining influence in the group, but the historian Alice Miller disagreed. The water-control thesis encouraged the development of the field of ecological anthropology and ecological political science, that is, theoretical approaches that combined geographical and environmental factors. Wittfogel participated in a 1953 session at the American Anthropological Association and in a following conference organized by Julian Steward at University of Illinois in 1955. The appearance of Oriental Despotism in print further influenced anthropologists such as Robert McCormick Adams, Stanley Diamond, Morton Fried, Marvin Harris, Angel Palerm, and Eric Wolf. Wittfogel's work encouraged the development of cultural materialism, for instance in the work of Julian Steward. These scholars tested and challenged Wittfogel's conclusions. Robert McCormick Adams, for instance, found that the archeological evidence in Mesopotamia indicated that irrigation might help consolidate political control but did not by itself cause despotic rule. The political geographer James Morris Blaut credited Wittfogel with updating Marx and Weber but sharply criticized what he regarded as the misuse of Wittfogel in what he called “the myth of the European miracle,” that is, "the rather archaic doctrine" that environmental factors made Europe modern and the Orient stagnant and despotic. Blaut sees the influence of Wittfogel in the writings of "miracle theorists," such as Eric L. Jones, and his book, The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia , which cites Oriental Despotism extensively but not uncritically. These thinkers, Blaut charges, share “the most fundamental error,” that is, “to believe, or assume, that one type of environment produces a particular type of society and the latter then persists down through history. Culture changes...." In the 1930s, Wittfogel's work was translated and used by scholars in Japan, but after the war not so much attention was paid. Political implications David Price, a scholar of Cold War social science, declared that Wittfogel's writings "become so mired in his personal anti-communist crusade that it can be difficult to disentangle his anti-totalitarian vehemence from his theoretical contributions." Price argued that Wittfogel took advantage of the fact that he was one of the few Asia scholars to cooperate with Cold War investigations and that this cooperation protected his Marxist analysis from criticism; Wittfogel's ecological materialism escaped criticism even in the Cold War heightened fear of Communism because he was accepted as anti-communist. The scholar of political ecology, Paul Robbins, notes that Wittfogel, having been accused of being a communist sympathizer, protested loudly and accused Owen Lattimore and other colleagues of being communists; he wrote Oriental Despotism in the midst of this political struggle. Gregory Blue called final words of the book — "not with the spear only, but with the battleax" —the "Spartan view on how Greeks should fight Persian imperialism" that "represented a highbrow version of 'better red than dead.'" David Landes, a Harvard historian of comparative East/West economic and social development, struck back: the "hydraulic thesis has been roundly criticized by a generation of Western sinologists zealous in their political correctness (Maoism and its later avatars are good) and quick to defend China’s supposed commitment to democracy. Wittfogel is the preferred target." Landes explained these criticisms by saying that "almost all these critics of the water connection are courting the favor of an umbrageous regime, dispenser of invitations and access.” Notes Sources Wittfogel's writings on Oriental Despotism Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Chinas, Versuch der wissenschaftlichen Analyse einer großen asiatischen Agrargesellschaft, (Hirschfeld: Leipzig, Schriften des Instituts für Sozialforschung der Universität Frankfurt am Main, No. 3; 1931) Major reviews Further reading , Ch 2, "Thr Economic and the State: The Asiatic Mode of Production." External links David Cosandey, "Karl Wittfogel (1896-1988)," The Rise of the West "Oriental Despotism" by Rolando Minuti Published: 2012-05-03 Marxist Geopolitics: Oriental Despotism A Comparative Study of Total Power 1957 non-fiction books American political books Books about communism Books about cultural geography Books about politics of China History books about China Eastern culture

Indigenous Aryanism

Indigenous Aryanism, also known as the Indigenous Aryans theory (IAT) and the Out of India theory (OIT), is the conviction that the Aryans are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, and that the Indo-European languages radiated out from a homeland in India into their present locations. It is a "religio-nationalistic" view on Indian history, and propagated as an alternative to the established migration model, which considers the Pontic–Caspian steppe to be the area of origin of the Indo-European languages. Reflecting traditional Indian views based on the Puranic chronology, indigenists propose an older date than is generally accepted for the Vedic period, and argue that the Indus Valley civilisation was a Vedic civilization. In this view, "the Indian civilization must be viewed as an unbroken tradition that goes back to the earliest period of the Sindhu-Sarasvati (or Indus) tradition (7000 or 8000 BCE)." Support for the IAT mostly exists among a subset of Indian scholars of Hindu religion and the history and archaeology of India, and plays a significant role in Hindutva politics. It has no relevance, let alone support, in mainstream scholarship. Historical background The standard view on the origins of the Indo-Aryans is the Indo-Aryan migration theory, which states that they entered north-western India at about 1500 BCE. The Puranic chronology, the timeline of events in ancient Indian history as narrated in the Mahabaratha, the Ramayana, and the Puranas, envisions a much older chronology for the Vedic culture. In this view, the Vedas were received thousands of years ago, and the start of the reign of Manu Vaivasvate, the Manu of the current kalpa (aeon) and the progenitor of humanity, may be dated as far back 7350 BCE. The Kurukshetra War, the background-scene of the Bhagavad Gita, which may relate historical events taking place ca. 1000 BCE at the heartland of Aryavarta, is dated in this chronology at ca. 3100 BCE. Indigenists, reflecting traditional Indian views on history and religion, argue that the Aryans are indigenous to India, which challenges the standard view. In the 1980s and 1990s, the indigenous position has come to the foreground of the public debate. Indian homeland and Aryan Invasion theory In 19th century Indo-European studies, the language of the Rigveda was the most archaic Indo-European language known to scholars, indeed the only records of Indo-European that could reasonably claim to date to the Bronze Age. This primacy of Sanskrit inspired scholars such as Friedrich Schlegel, to assume that the locus of the proto-Indo-European homeland had been in India, with the other dialects spread to the west by historical migration. With the 20th-century discovery of Bronze-Age attestations of Indo-European (Anatolian, Mycenaean Greek), Vedic Sanskrit lost its special status as the most archaic Indo-European language known. In the 1850s, Max Müller introduced the notion of two Aryan races, a western and an eastern one, which migrated from the Caucasus into Europe and India respectively. Müller dichotomized the two groups, ascribing greater prominence and value to the western branch. Nevertheless, this "eastern branch of the Aryan race was more powerful than the indigenous eastern natives, who were easy to conquer." By the 1880s, his ideas had been adapted by racist ethnologists. For example, as an exponent of race science, colonial administrator Herbert Hope Risley (1851–1911) used the ratio of nose width to height to divide Indian people into Aryan and Dravidian races, as well as seven castes. The idea of an Aryan "invasion" was fueled by the discovery of the Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilisation, which declined around the period of the Indo-Aryan migration, suggesting a destructive invasion. This argument was developed by the mid-20th century archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler, who interpreted the presence of many unburied corpses found in the top levels of Mohenjo-daro as the victims of conquests. He famously stated that the Vedic god "Indra stands accused" of the destruction of the Indus Civilisation. Scholarly critics have since argued that Wheeler misinterpreted his evidence and that the skeletons were better explained as hasty interments, not unburied victims of a massacre. Indo-Aryan migration theory Migrations The idea of an "invasion" has been discarded in mainstream scholarship since the 1980s, and replaced by more sophisticated models, referred to as the Indo-Aryan migration theory. It posits the introduction of Indo-Aryan languages into South Asia through migrations of Indo-European-speaking people from their Urheimat (original homeland) in the Pontic Steppes via the Central European Corded ware culture, and Eastern European/Central Asian Sintashta culture, through Central Asia into the Levant (Mitanni), south Asia, and Inner Asia (Wusun and Yuezhi). It is part of the Kurgan-hypothesis/Revised Steppe Theory, which further describes the spread of Indo-European languages into western Europe via migrations of Indo-European speaking people. Historical linguistics provides the main basis for the theory, analysing the development and changes of languages, and establishing relations between the various Indo-European languages, including the time frame of their development. It also provides information about shared words, and the corresponding area of the origin of Indo-European, and the specific vocabulary which is to be ascribed to specific regions. The linguistic analyses and data are supplemented with archaeological and genetical data and anthropological arguments, which together provide a coherent model that is widely accepted. In the model, the first archaeological remains of the Indo-Europeans is the Yamnaya culture, from which emerged the Central European Corded Ware culture, which spread eastward creating the Proto-Indo-Iranian Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BCE), from which developed the Andronovo culture (1800–1400 BCE). Around 1800 BCE, Indo-Aryan people split-off from the Iranian branches, and migrated to the BMAC (2300–1700 BCE), and further to the Levant, northern India, and possibly Inner Asia. Cultural continuity and adaptation The migration into northern India was not necessarily of a large population, but may have consisted of small groups, who introduced their language and social system into the new territory when looking for pasture for their herds. These were then emulated by larger groups, who adopted the new language and culture. Witzel also notes that "small-scale semi-annual transhumance movements between the Indus plains and the Afghan and Baluchi highlands continue to this day." Indigenous Aryanism According to Bryant, Indigenists The "Indigenist position" started to take shape after the discovery of the Harappan civilisation, which predates the Vedas. According to this alternative view, the Aryans are indigenous to India, the Indus Civilisation is the Vedic Civilisation, the Vedas are older than the second millennium BCE, there is no discontinuity between the (northern) Indo-European part of India and the (southern) Dravidian part, and the Indo-European languages radiated out from a homeland in India into their present locations. According to Bresnan, it is a natural response to the 19th century narrative of a superior Aryan race subjecting the native Indians, implicitly confirming the ethnocentric superiority of the European invaders of colonial times, instead supporting "a theory of indigenous development that led to the creation of the Vedas." Main arguments of the Indigenists The idea of "Indigenous Aryans" is supported with specific interpretations of archaeological, genetic, and linguistic data, and on literal interpretations of the Rigveda. Standard arguments, both in support of the "Indigenous Aryans" theory and in opposition the mainstream Indo-Aryan Migration theory, are: Questioning the Indo-Aryan Migration theory: Presenting the Indo-Aryan Migration theory as an "Indo-Aryan Invasion theory", which was invented by 19th century colonialists to suppress the Indian people. Questioning the methodology of linguistics; Arguing for an indigenous cultural continuity, arguing there is a lack of archaeological remains of the Indo-Aryans in north-west India; Questioning the genetic evidence Contesting the possibility that small groups can change culture and languages in a major way; Re-dating India's history by postulating a Vedic-Puranic chronology: Arguing for ancient, indigenous origins of Sanskrit, dating the Rigveda and the Vedic people to the 3rd millennium BCE or earlier; This includes: Identifying the Sarasvati River, described in the Rig Veda as a mighty river, with the Ghaggar-Hakra River, which had dried up c. 2000 BCE, arguing therefore for an earlier dating of the Rig Veda; Arguing for the presence of horses and horse-drawn chariots before 2000 BCE; Identifying the Vedic people with the Harappan civilisation; Redating Indian history based on the Vedic-Puranic chronology. Questioning the Aryan Migration model Rhetorics of "Aryan invasion" The outdated notion of an "Aryan invasion" has been used as a straw man to attack the Indo-Aryan Migration theory. According to Witzel, the invasion model was criticised by Indigenous Aryanists for being a justification for colonial rule: While according to Koenraad Elst, a supporter of Indigenous Aryans: Linguistic methodology Indigenists question the methodology and results of linguistics. According to Bryant, OIT proponents tend to be linguistic dilettantes who either ignore the linguistic evidence completely, dismiss it as highly speculative and inconclusive, or attempt to tackle it with hopelessly inadequate qualifications; this attitude and neglect significantly minimises the value of most OIT publications. Archaeological finds and cultural continuity In the 1960s, archaeological explanations for cultural change shifted from migration-models to internal causes of change. Given the lack of archaeological remains of the Indo-Aryans, Jim G. Shaffer, writing in the 1980s and 1990s, has argued for an indigenous cultural continuity between Harappan and post-Harappan times. According to Shaffer, there is no archaeological indication of an Aryan migration into northwestern India during or after the decline of the Harappan city culture. Instead, Shaffer has argued for "a series of cultural changes reflecting indigenous cultural developments." According to Shaffer, linguistic change has mistakenly been attributed to migrations of people. Likewise, Erdosy also notes the absence of evidence for migrations, and states that "Indo-European languages may well have spread to South Asia through migration," but that the Rigvedic aryas, as a specific ethno-linguistic tribe holding a specific set of ideas, may well have been indigenous people whose "set of ideas" soon spread over India. Since the 1990s, attention has shifted back to migrations as an explanatory model. Pastoral societies are difficult to identify in the archaeological record, since they move around in small groups and leave little traces. In 1990, David Anthony published a defense of migratory models, and in his The Horse, the Wheel, and Language (2007), has provided an extensive overview of the archaeological trail of the Indo-European people across the Eurasian steppes and central Asia. The development and "revolutionary" improvement of genetic research since the early 2010s has reinforced this shift in focus, as it has unearthed previously unaccessible data, showing large-scale migrations in prehistoric times. Genetic evidence OIT-proponents have questioned the findings of genetic research, and some older DNA-research had questioned the Indo-Aryan migrations. Since 2015 however, genetic research has "revolutionarily" improved, and further confirmed the migration of Steppe pastoralists into Western Europe and South Asia, and "many scientists who were either sceptical or neutral about significant Bronze Age migrations into India have changed their opinions." Cultural change Indigenists contest the possibility that small groups can change culture and languages in a major way. Mainstream scholarship explains this by elite dominance and language shift. Small groups can change a larger cultural area, when an elite male group integrates in small indigenous groups which takes over the elite language, in this case leading to a language shift in northern India. Indo-Aryan languages were further disseminated with the spread of the Vedic-Brahmanical culture in the process of Sanskritisation. In this process, local traditions ("little traditions") became integrated into the "great tradition" of Brahmanical religion, disseminating Sanskrit texts and Brahmanical ideas throughout India, and abroad. This facilitated the development of the Hindu synthesis, in which the Brahmanical tradition absorbed "local popular traditions of ritual and ideology." Redating Indian history Redating the Rig Veda and the Rig Vedic people Sanskrit According to the mainstream view, Sanskrit arose in South Asia after Indo-Aryan languages had been introduced by the Indo-Aryans in the first half of the second millennium BCE. The most archaic form of Sanskrit is Vedic Sanskrit found in the Rig Veda, composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE. Taking recourse to "Hindu astronomical lore" Indigenists argue for ancient, indigenous origins of Sanskrit, dating the Rigveda and the Vedic people to the 3rd millennium BCE or earlier. According to Subhash Kak, situating the arrival of the Aryans in the seventh millennium BCE, the hymns of the Rig Veda are organised in accordance with an astronomical code, supposedly showing "a tradition of sophisticated observational astronomy going back to events of 3000 or 4000 BCE." His ideas have been rejected by mainstream scholars. Horses and chariots Several archaeological finds are interpreted as evidencing the presence of typical Indo-Aryan artefacts before 2000 BCE. Examples include the interpretation of animal bones from before 2000 BCE as horse-bones, and interpreting the Sinauli cart burials as chariots. While horse remains and related artifacts have been found in Late Harappan (1900-1300 BCE) sites, indicating that horses may have been present at Late Harappan times, horses did not play an essential role in the Harappan civilisation, in contrast to the Vedic period (1500-500 BCE). The earliest undisputed finds of horse remains in South Asia are from the Gandhara grave culture, also known as the Swat culture (c. 1400-800 BCE), related to the Indo-Aryans Horse remains from the Harappan site Surkotada (dated to 2400-1700 BC) have been identified by A.K. Sharma as Equus ferus caballus. However, archaeologists like Meadow (1997) disagree, on the grounds that the remains of the Equus ferus caballus horse are difficult to distinguish from other equid species such as Equus asinus (donkeys) or Equus hemionus (onagers). Bronze Age solid-disk wheel carts were found at Sinauli in 2018. They were related to the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture, and dated at ca. 2000-1800 BCE. They were interpreted by some as horse-pulled "chariots", predating the arrival of the horse-centered Indo-Aryans. According to Parpola, the carts were ox-pulled charts, and related to a first wave of Ino-Iraninan migrations into the Indian subcontinent, noting that the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (2000-1500 BCE) shows similarities with both the Late Harappan culture and steppe-cultures. Sarasvati river In the Rig Veda, the goddess Sarasvati is described as a mighty river. Indigenists take these descriptions as references to a real river, the Sarasvati river, identified with the Ghaggar-Hakra, an eastern tributary to the Indus. Given the fact that the Ghaggar-Hakkra had dried-up at 2000 BCE, Indigenists argue that the Vedic people must therefore have been present much earlier. Rig Vedic references to a physical river indicate that the Sarswati "had already lost its main source of water supply and must have ended in a terminal lake (samudra)," "depicting the present-day situation, with the Sarasvatī having lost most of its water." "Sarasvati" may also be identified with the Helmand or Haraxvati river in southern Afghanistan, the name of which may have been reused in its Sanskrit form as the name of the Ghaggar-Hakra river, after the Vedic tribes moved to the Punjab. Sarasvati of the Rig Veda may also refer to two distinct rivers, with the family books referring to the Helmand River, and the more recent 10th mandala referring to the Ghaggar-Hakra. Identifying the Vedic people with the Harappan civilisation Indigenists claim a continuous cultural evolution of India, denying a discontinuity between the Harappan and Vedic periods, identifying the IVC with the Vedic people. According to Kak, "the Indian civilization must be viewed as an unbroken tradition that goes back to the earliest period of the Sindhu-Sarasvati (or Indus) tradition (7000 or 8000 BCE). This identification is incompatible with the archaeological, linguistic and genetic data, and rejected by mainstream scholarship. Postulating a Puranic chronology The idea of "Indigenous Aryanism" fits into traditional Hindu ideas of religious history, namely that Hinduism has timeless origins, with the Vedic Aryans inhabiting India since ancient times. The ideas Indigenist ideas are rooted in the chronology of the Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which contain lists of kings and genealogies used to construct the traditional chronology of ancient India. "Indigenists" follow a "Puranic agenda", emphasizing that these lists go back to the fourth millennium BCE. Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the Maurya court at Patna at  300 BCE, reported to have heard of a traditional list of 153 kings that covered 6042 years, beyond the traditional beginning of the Kali Yuga in 3102 BCE. The royal lists are based on Sūta bardic traditions, and are derived from lists which were orally transmitted and constantly reshaped. These lists are supplemented with astronomical interpretations, which are also used to reach an earlier dating for the Rigveda. Along with this comes a redating of historical personages and events, in which the Buddha is dated to 1100 BCE or even 1700 BCE, and Chandragupta Maurya (c. 300 BCE) is replaced by Chandragupta, the Gupta king. The Bharata War is dated at 3139–38 BCE, the start of the kali Yuga. Indigenous Aryans scenarios Michael Witzel identifies three major types of "Indigenous Aryans" scenarios: 1. A "mild" version that insists on the indigeneity of the Rigvedic Aryans to the North-Western region of the Indian subcontinent in the tradition of Aurobindo and Dayananda; 2. The "out of India" school that posits India as the Proto-Indo-European homeland, originally proposed in the 18th century, revived by the Hindutva sympathiser Koenraad Elst (1999), and further popularised within Hindu nationalism by Shrikant Talageri (2000); 3. The position that all the world's languages and civilisations derive from India, represented e.g. by David Frawley. Kazanas adds a fourth scenario: 4.The Aryans entered the Indus Valley before 4500 BCE and got integrated with the Harappans, or might have been the Harappans. Aurobindo's Aryan world-view For Aurobindo, an "Aryan" was not a member of a particular race, but a person who "accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration." Aurobindo wanted to revive India's strength by reviving Aryan traditions of strength and character. He denied the historicity of a racial division in India between "Aryan invaders" and a native dark-skinned population. Nevertheless, he did accept two kinds of culture in ancient India, namely the Aryan culture of northern and central India and Afghanistan, and the un-Aryan culture of the east, south and west. Thus, he accepted the cultural aspects of the division suggested by European historians. Out of India model The "Out of India theory" (OIT), also known as the "Indian Urheimat theory," is the proposition that the Indo-European language family originated in Northern India and spread to the remainder of the Indo-European region through a series of migrations. It implies that the people of the Harappan civilisation were linguistically Indo-Aryans. Theoretical overview Koenraad Elst, in his Update in the Aryan Invasion Debate, investigates "the developing arguments concerning the Aryan Invasion Theory". Elst notes: Edwin Bryant also notes that Elst's model is a "theoretical exercise:" And in Indo-Aryan Controversy Bryant notes: "The emerging alternative" Koenraad Elst summarises "the emerging alternative to the Aryan Invasion Theory" as follows. During the 6th millennium BCE, Proto-Indo-Europeans lived in the Punjab region of northern India. As the result of demographic expansion, they spread into Bactria as the Kambojas. The Paradas moved further and inhabited the Caspian coast and much of central Asia while the Cinas moved northwards and inhabited the Tarim Basin in northwestern China, forming the Tocharian group of I-E speakers. These groups were Proto-Anatolian and inhabited that region by 2000 BCE. These people took the oldest form of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language with them and, while interacting with people of the Anatolian and Balkan region, transformed it into a separate dialect. While inhabiting central Asia they discovered the uses of the horse, which they later sent back to the Urheimat. Later on during their history, they went on to occupy western Europe and thus spread the Indo-European languages to that region. During the 4th millennium BCE, civilisation in India started evolving into what became the urban Indus Valley civilization. During this time, the PIE languages evolved to Proto-Indo-Iranian. Some time during this period, the Indo-Iranians began to separate as the result of internal rivalry and conflict, with the Iranians expanding westwards towards Mesopotamia and Persia, these possibly were the Pahlavas. They also expanded into parts of central Asia. By the end of this migration, India was left with the Proto-Indo-Aryans. At the end of the Mature Harappan period, the Sarasvati river began drying up and the remainder of the Indo-Aryans split into separate groups. Some travelled westwards and established themselves as rulers of the Hurrian Mitanni kingdom by around 1500 BCE (see Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni). Others travelled eastwards and inhabited the Gangetic basin while others travelled southwards and interacted with the Dravidian people. David Frawley In books such as The Myth of the Aryan Invasion of India and In Search of the Cradle of Civilization (1995), Frawley criticises the 19th century racial interpretations of Indian prehistory, such as the theory of conflict between invading Caucasoid Aryans and Dravidians. In the latter book, Frawley, Georg Feuerstein, and Subhash Kak reject the Aryan Invasion theory and support Out of India. Bryant commented that Frawley's historical work is more successful as a popular work, where its impact "is by no means insignificant", rather than as an academic study, and that Frawley "is committed to channelling a symbolic spiritual paradigm through a critical empirico rational one". Pseudo-historian Graham Hancock (2002) quotes Frawley's historical work extensively for the proposal of highly evolved ancient civilisations prior to the end of the last glacial period. including in India. Kreisburg refers to Frawley's "The Vedic Literature and Its Many Secrets". Significance for colonial rule and Hindu politics The Aryan Invasion theory plays an important role in Hindu nationalism, which favors Indigenous Aryanism. It has to be understood against the background of colonialism and the subsequent task of nation-building in India. Colonial India Curiosity and the colonial requirements of knowledge about their subject people led the officials of the East India Company to explore the history and culture of India in the late 18th century. When similarities between Sanskrit, Greek and Latin were discovered by William Jones, a suggestion of "monogenesis" (single origin) was formulated for these languages as well as their speakers. In the latter part of the 19th century, it was thought that language, culture and race were inter-related, and the notion of biological race came to the forefront The presumed "Aryan race" which originated the Indo-European languages was prominent among such races, and was deduced to be further subdivided into "European Aryans" and "Asian Aryans," each with their own homelands. Max Mueller, who translated the Rigveda during 1849–1874, postulated an original homeland for all Aryans in central Asia, from which a northern branch migrated to Europe and a southern branch to India and Iran. The Aryans were presumed to be fair-complexioned Indo-European speakers who conquered the dark-skinned dasas of India. The upper castes, particularly the Brahmins, were thought to be of Aryan descent whereas the lower castes and Dalits ("untouchables") were thought to be the descendants of dasas. The Aryan theory served politically to suggest a common ancestry and dignity between the Indians and the British. Keshab Chunder Sen spoke of British rule in India as a "reunion of parted cousins." Indian nationalist Bal Gangadhar Tilak endorsed the antiquity of Rigveda, dating it to 4500 BCE. He placed the homeland of the Aryans somewhere close to the North Pole. From there, Aryans were believed to have migrated south in the post-glacial age, branching into a European branch that relapsed into barbarism and an Indian branch that retained the original, superior civilisation. However, Christian missionaries such as John Muir and John Wilson drew attention to the plight of lower castes, who they said were oppressed by the upper castes since the Aryan invasions. Jyotiba Phule argued that the dasas and sudras were indigenous people and the rightful inheritors of the land, whereas Brahmins were Aryan and alien. Hindu revivalism and nationalism In contrast to the mainstream views, the Hindu revivalist movements denied an external origin to Aryans. Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj (Society of Aryans), held that Vedas were the source of all knowledge and were revealed to the Aryans. The first man (an Aryan) was created in Tibet and, after living there for some time, the Aryans came down and inhabited India, which was previously empty. The Theosophical Society held that the Aryans were indigenous to India, but that they were also the progenitors of the European civilisation. The Society saw a dichotomy between the spiritualism of India and the materialism of Europe. According to Romila Thapar, the Hindu nationalists, eager to construct a Hindu identity for the nation, held that the original Hindus were the Aryans and that they were indigenous to India. There was no Aryan invasion and no conflict among the people of India. The Aryans spoke Sanskrit and spread the Aryan civilization from India to the west. However, Hindutva creator V. D. Savarkar believed that Aryans migrated to South Asia. Witzel traces the "indigenous Aryan" idea to the writings of M. S. Golwalkar. Golwalkar (1939) denied any immigration of "Aryans" to the subcontinent, stressing that all Hindus have always been "children of the soil", a notion which according to Witzel is reminiscent of the blood and soil of contemporary fascism. Witzel adds that Savarkar offered a religious and cultural definition of Hindu-ness which he called "Hindutva". It has different components: territorial, political, nationalisitic, ancestral, cultural and religious. Since these ideas emerged on the brink of the internationalist and socially oriented Nehru-Gandhi government, they lay dormant for several decades after the independence, and only rose to prominence in the 1980s. Bergunder likewise identifies Golwalkar as the originator of the "Indigenous Aryans" notion, and Goel's Voice of India as the instrument of its rise to notability: Present-day political significance Lars Martin Fosse notes the political significance of "Indigenous Aryanism". He notes that "Indigenous Aryanism" has been adopted by Hindu nationalists as a part of their ideology, which makes it a political matter in addition to a scholarly problem. The proponents of Indigenous Aryanism necessarily engage in "moral disqualification" of Western Indology, which is a recurrent theme in much of the indigenist literature. The same rhetoric is being used in indigenist literature and the Hindu nationalist publications like the Organiser. According to Abhijith Ravinutala, the indigenist position is essential for Hindutva exclusive claims on India: Repercussions of the disagreements about Aryan origins have reached Californian courts with the Californian Hindu textbook case, where according to the Times of India historian and president of the Indian History Congress, Dwijendra Narayan Jha in a "crucial affidavit" to the Superior Court of California: According to Thapar, Modi's government and the BJP have "peddled myths and stereotypes," such as the insistence on "a single uniform culture of the Aryans, ancestral to the Hindu, as having prevailed in the subcontinent, subsuming all others," despite the scholarly evidence for migrations into India, which is "anathema to the Hindutva construction of early history." Rejection by mainstream scholarship The Indigenous Aryans theory has no relevance, let alone support, in mainstream scholarship. According to Michael Witzel, the "indigenous Aryans" position is not scholarship in the usual sense, but an "apologetic, ultimately religious undertaking": In her review of Bryant's The Indo-Aryan Controversy, which includes chapters by Elst and other "indigenists", Stephanie Jamison comments: Sudeshna Guha, in her review of The Indo-Aryan Controversy, notes that the book has serious methodological shortcomings, by not asking the question what exactly constitutes historical evidence. This makes the "fair and adequate representation of the differences of opinion" problematic, since it neglects "the extent to which unscholarly opportunism has motivated the rebirth of this genre of 'scholarship. Guha: According to Bryant, OIT proponents tend to be linguistic dilettantes who either ignore the linguistic evidence completely, dismiss it as highly speculative and inconclusive, or attempt to tackle it with hopelessly inadequate qualifications; this attitude and neglect significantly minimises the value of most OIT publications. Fosse notes crucial theoretical and methodological shortcomings in the indigenist literature. Analysing the works of Sethna, Bhagwan Singh, Navaratna and Talageri, he notes that they mostly quote English literature, which is not fully explored, and omitting German and French Indology. It makes their works in various degrees underinformed, resulting in a critique that is "largely neglected by Western scholars because it is regarded as incompetent". According to Erdosy, the indigenist position is part of a "lunatic fringe" against the mainstream migrationist model. See also Dravidian culture Indo-Aryans Indo-Iranians Indo-Aryan migrations Politics Historiography and nationalism Saffronisation NCERT controversy Indigenists Voice of India N. S. Rajaram David Frawley Subhash Kak Books The Arctic Home in the Vedas (1903) In Search of the Cradle of Civilization Aryan Invasion of India: The Myth and the Truth (1993) Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate (1999) The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis (2000) Other Yamnaya culture Notes References Sources Printed sources . . . . Web-sources Further reading Overview Edwin Bryant, a cultural historian, has given an overview of the various "Indigenist" positions in his PhD-thesis and two subsequent publications: The Indigenous Aryan Debate and The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture are reports of his fieldwork, primarily interviews with Indian researchers, on the reception of the Indo-Aryan migration theory in India. The Indo-Aryan Controversy is a bundle of papers by various "indigenists", including Koenraad Elst, but also a paper by Michael Witzel. Another overview has been given by Thomas Trautmann: Literature by "indigenous Aryans" proponents Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak, David Frawley, In Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India Quest Books (IL) (October, 1995) Lal, B. B. (2002), The Sarasvati flows on: The continuity of Indian culture, Aryan Books International, . Lal, B. B. (2015), The Rigvedic People: Invaders? Immigrants? or Indigenous?. See also Koenraad Elst, "Book Review: The Rig Vedic People Were Indigenous to India, Not Invaders" N. S. Rajaram, The Politics of History: Aryan Invasion Theory and the Subversion of Scholarship (New Delhi: Voice of India, 1995) . Talageri, S. G., The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis, New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2000 Bharat Criticism Shereen Ratnagar (2008), The Aryan homeland debate in India, in Philip L. Kohl, Mara Kozelsky, Nachman Ben-Yehuda "Selective remembrances: archaeology in the construction, commemoration, and consecration of national pasts", pp 349–378 Suraj Bhan (2002), "Aryanization of the Indus Civilization" in Panikkar, KN, Byres, TJ and Patnaik, U (Eds), The Making of History, pp 41–55. Other External links Thapar, Romila: The Aryan question revisited (1999) Witzel, Michael: The Home of the Aryans Witzel, Horseplay at Harappa, Harvard University A tale of two horses – Frontline, 11–24 November 2000. Linda Hess, The Indigenous Aryan Discussion on RISA-L: The Complete Text (to 10/28/96) Thomas Trautmann (2005), The Aryan Debate: Introduction Politics of India Indology Vedic period Historiography of India Sanskrit Evolution of language Aryans Indigenous Aryanism Indo-Aryan peoples

Marxist international relations theory

Marxist and neo-Marxist international relations theories are paradigms which reject the realist/liberal view of state conflict or cooperation, instead focusing on the economic and material aspects. It purports to reveal how the economy trumps other concerns, which allows for the elevation of class as the focus of the study. Marxism In the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote that the main source of instability in the international system would be capitalist globalization, more specifically the conflict between two classes: the national bourgeoisie and the cosmopolitan proletariat. Historical materialism was going to be Marxism's guideline in understanding the processes both in domestic and international affairs. Thus, for Marx human history has been a struggle to satisfy material needs and to resist class domination and exploitation. Despite ideological criticism, Marxism has strong empirical advantages on its side. Firstly, by emphasizing injustice and inequality it is very relevant to every period of time as these two failures of the human society have never been absent. Marxism is a structural theory just like neorealism, but it focuses on the economic sector instead of the military-political one. Its analysis reflects the relation between the base (the modes of production) and the superstructure (political institutions). The source of structural effects is not anarchy, but the capitalist mode of production which defines unjust political institutions and state relations. This economic reductionism is considered also to be a central flaw. As a solution, the neo-Gramscian school proposed a further development. By combining global capitalism, state structure and political-economic institutions, they managed to create a theory of global hegemony (ideological domination). According to this theory, hegemony is maintained through close cooperation between powerful elites inside and outside the core regions of the world system. Global governance is constituted by political and economic institutions that put pressure on the less developed and unstable peripheral countries. From an epistemological point of view, Marxism created the foundations for critical theory and it is superior in this sense to the dominant approaches of Anglo-American international relations that are problem-solving theories. As any other critical theory, Marxism has a normative interest in identifying possibilities for social transformation and how theory is instrumental to power. This is why Marx wrote about capitalism with an interest in the social forces that would bring about its downfall hoping that humanity would be free from domination and exploitation. Realists in particular see this to be politically motivated and not objective and neutral. The normative disadvantage of Marxism is that it can be seen as Eurocentric by promoting the Enlightenment ideal of cosmopolitanism. Dependency theory Linked in with Marxist theories is dependency theory which argues that developed countries in their pursuit of power penetrate developing states through political advisors, missionaries, experts and multi-national corporations (MNCs) to integrate them into the capitalist system in order to appropriate natural resources and foster dependence by developing countries on developed countries. World-systems theory Criticisms Realists and liberals criticize Marxist conflict theories for ideological and consequentialist reasons. Postpositivists disagree with Marxists' elevation of class conflict as the most significant aspect of human life and the key to understanding all human history and behavior. Marxist international relations theories are marginal in United States academia. A 2018 study by Sclofsky and Funk concluded that, of the introductory international relations classes given in the top 10 graduate political science programs in the US, only one made Marx a mandatory reading, and another made it optional., See also Critical international relations theory International relations theory Theories of imperialism Marxist explanations of warfare References International relations theory Marxism

Present

The present is the period of time that is occurring now. The present is contrasted with the past, the period of time that has already occurred, and the future, the period of time that has yet to occur. It is sometimes represented as a hyperplane in space-time, typically called "now", although modern physics demonstrates that such a hyperplane cannot be defined uniquely for observers in relative motion. The present may also be viewed as a duration. Historiography Contemporary history describes the historical timeframe immediately relevant to the present time and is a certain perspective of modern history. Philosophy and religion Philosophy of time "The present" raises the question: "How is it that all sentient beings experience now at the same time?" There is no logical reason why this should be the case and no easy answer to the question. In Buddhism Buddhism and many of its associated paradigms emphasize the importance of living in the present moment—being fully aware of what is happening, and not dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. This does not mean that they encourage hedonism, but merely that constant focus on one's current position in space and time (rather than future considerations, or past reminiscence) will aid one in relieving suffering. They teach that those who live in the present moment are the happiest. A number of meditative techniques aim to help the practiser live in the present moment. Christianity and eternity Christianity views God as being outside of time and, from the divine perspective past, present and future are actualized in the now of eternity. This trans-temporal conception of God has been proposed as a solution to the problem of divine foreknowledge (i.e. how can God know what we will do in the future without us being determined to do it) since at least Boethius. Thomas Aquinas offers the metaphor of a watchman, representing God, standing on a height looking down on a valley to a road where past, present and future, represented by the individuals and their actions strung out along its length, are all visible simultaneously to God. Therefore, God's knowledge is not tied to any particular date. Physical science Special relativity The original intent of the diagram on the right was to portray a 3-dimensional object having access to the past, present, and future in the present moment (4th dimension). It follows from Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity that there is no such thing as absolute simultaneity. When care is taken to operationalise "the present", it follows that the events that can be labeled as "simultaneous" with a given event, can not be in direct cause-effect relationship. Such collections of events are perceived differently by different observers. Instead, when focusing on "now" as the events perceived directly, not as a recollection or a speculation, for a given observer "now" takes the form of the observer's past light cone. The light cone of a given event is objectively defined as the collection of events in causal relationship to that event, but each event has a different associated light cone. One has to conclude that in relativistic models of physics there is no place for "the present" as an absolute element of reality, and only refers to things that are close to us. Einstein phrased this as: "People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion". Cosmology In physical cosmology, the present time in the chronology of the universe is estimated at 13.8 billion years after the singularity determining the arrow of time. In terms of the cosmic expansion history, it is in the dark-energy-dominated era, after the universe's matter content has become diluted enough for dark energy to dominate the total energy density. It is also in the universe's Stelliferous Era, after enough time for superclusters to have formed (at about 5 billion years), but before the accelerating expansion of the universe has removed the local supercluster beyond the cosmological horizon (at about 150 billion years). Archaeology, geology, etc. In radiocarbon dating, the "present" is defined as AD 1950. Grammar In English grammar, actions are classified according to one of the following twelve verb tenses: past (past, past continuous, past perfect, or past perfect continuous), present (present, present continuous, present perfect, or present perfect continuous), or future (future, future continuous, future perfect, or future perfect continuous). The present tense refers to things that are currently happening or are always the case. For example, in the sentence, "she walks home everyday," the verb "walks" is in the present tense because it refers to an action that is regularly occurring in the present circumstances. Verbs in the present continuous tense indicate actions that are currently happening and will continue for a period of time. In the sentence, "she is walking home," the verb phrase "is walking" is in the present continuous tense because it refers to a current action that will continue until a certain endpoint (when "she" reaches home). Verbs in the present perfect tense indicate actions that started in the past and is completed at the time of speaking. For example, in the sentence, "She has walked home," the verb phrase "has walked" is in the present perfect tense because it describes an action that began in the past and is finished as of the current reference to the action. Finally, verbs in the present perfect continuous tense refer to actions that have been continuing up until the current time, thus combining the characteristics of both the continuous and perfect tenses. An example of a present perfect continuous verb phrase can be found in the sentence, "she has been walking this route for a week now," where "has been walking" indicates an action that was happening continuously in the past and continues to happen continuously in the present. See also Arrow of time Contemporary history Deixis Near real-time computing Observation Philosophical presentism Self Specious present Time perception References Bibliography Greene, Brian, (2004). The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality Knopf. Stepath, Katrin, (2006). Gegenwartskonzepte, Würzburg. External links The Experience and Perception of Time Philosophy of time Time

Age of Anger

Age of Anger: A History of the Present is a 2017 nonfiction book by Indian author Pankaj Mishra. Mishra accounts for the resurgence of reactionary and right-wing political movements in the late 2010s. He argues that nationalist, isolationist, and chauvinist movements, ranging from terror groups such as ISIS to political movements such as Brexit, have emerged in response to the globalization and normalization of Western ideals such as individualism, capitalism, and secularism. Thesis Mishra notes that disorder and violence naturally accompanied the coming of industrial capitalism in the Western world, citing events such as the French Revolution, the Revolutions of 1848, and two World Wars. He argues that the rest of the world is now undergoing that same series of shocks and that new tensions resulting from the Enlightenment are not yet resolved even in Europe. He criticizes the view that early-twentieth-century strife was an aberration interrupting a long history of steady progress and increasing prosperity, instead arguing that disorder is endemic to modernity. In the first half of the book Mishra dwells on the dispute between philosophers Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who lived during the eighteenth century when Enlightenment ideals and economic, political, and social liberalism began gaining momentum in Europe. According to Mishra, Rousseau was among those who best anticipated the problems modernity would bring: rootlessness, competition, and materialism. Mishra presents this theory in opposition to historical theories that tacitly ascribe mostly positive attributes to modern liberalism such as Fukuyama's The End of History, which argues that liberal democracy has irrevocably become a global ideal, and Huntington's Clash of Civilizations theory, which Mishra argues encourages Islamophobia while obscuring the true causes of religious terrorism. Reception Critics praised the book's erudition, noting Mishra's ambitious and timely argument relying on thinkers both well-known and obscure. Slate's Laura Miller stated, "The middle of the book could be heavy sledding for anyone lacking a passing familiarity with figures such as Fichte, Bakunin, and Kropotkin, but the chapters on how these European writers affected subsequent generations of leaders in India, Turkey, and China make it worth the effort." London's Literary Review called the book "absorbing," "richly learned," and "subversive." Critiques of the book focused on Mishra's evidence, relying more on "novelists and poets than historians and sociologists," and on his attempt to use a single, wide-ranging cause to explain "differing phenomena that in the end require differing explanations." Franklin Foer of The New York Times Book Review stated, "It's bracing and illuminating for him to focus on feelings, what he calls 'the wars in the inner world.' But he doesn't have much to say about the material reality of economics and politics other than angry bromides about the 'Western model' and broad, unsupported statements about stagnation." References 2017 non-fiction books 21st-century history books Books about capitalism Books about globalization Books about liberalism Books about terrorism Allen Lane (imprint) books Farrar, Straus and Giroux books Juggernaut Books books

Atlantic history

Atlantic history is a specialty field in history that studies the Atlantic World in the early modern period. The Atlantic World was created by the contact between Europeans and the Americas, and Atlantic History is the study of that world. It is premised on the idea that, following the rise of sustained European contact with the New World in the 16th century, the continents that bordered the Atlantic Ocean—the Americas, Europe, and Africa—constituted a regional system or common sphere of economic and cultural exchange that can be studied as a totality. Its theme is the complex interaction between Europe (especially Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal) and their colonies in the Americas. It encompasses a wide range of demographic, social, economic, political, legal, military, intellectual and religious topics treated in comparative fashion by looking at both sides of the Atlantic. Religious revivals in Britain and Germany are studies, as well as the First Great Awakening in the Thirteen Colonies. Emigration, race and slavery are also important topics. Researchers of Atlantic history typically focus on the interconnections and exchanges between these regions and the civilizations they harbored. In particular, they argue that the boundaries between nation states which traditionally determined the limits of older historiography should not be applied to such transnational phenomena as slavery, colonialism, missionary activity and economic expansion. Environmental history and the study of historical demography also play an important role, as many key questions in the field revolve around the ecological and epidemiological impact of the Columbian exchange. Robert R. Palmer, an American historian of the French Revolution, pioneered the concept in the 1950s with a wide-ranging comparative history of how numerous nations experienced what he called The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760–1800 (1959 and 1964). In this monumental work, he did not compare the French and the American Revolutions as successful models against other types of revolutions. Indeed, he developed a wider understanding of the changes that were led by revolutionary processes across the Western civilization. Such work followed in the footsteps of C. L. R. James who, in the 1930s, connected the French and Haitian Revolutions. Since the 1980s Atlantic history has emerged as an increasingly popular alternative to the older discipline of imperial history, although it could be argued that the field is simply a refinement and reorientation of traditional historiography dealing with the interaction between early modern Europeans and native peoples in the Atlantic sphere. The organization of Atlantic History as a recognized area of historiography began in the 1980s under the impetus of American historians Bernard Bailyn of Harvard University and Jack P. Greene of Johns Hopkins University, among others. The post-World War II integration of the European Union and the continuing importance of NATO played an indirect role in stimulating interest throughout the 1990s. Development of the field Bernard Bailyn's Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World promoted social and demographic studies, and especially regarding demographic flows of population into colonial America. As a leading advocate of the history of the Atlantic world, Bailyn has since 1995 organized an annual international seminar at Harvard designed to promote scholarship in this field. Professor Bailyn was the promoter of "The International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, 1500-1825" at Harvard University. This was one of the first, and most important, academic initiatives to launch the Atlantic perspective. From 1995-2010 the Atlantic History Seminar sponsored an annual meeting of young historians engaged in creative research on aspects of Atlantic History. In all, 366 young historians came through the Seminar program, 202 from universities in the US and 164 from universities abroad. Its purpose was to advance the scholarship of young historians of many nations interested in the common, comparative, and interactive aspects of the lives of the peoples in the lands that are part of the Atlantic basin, mainly in the early modern period in order to contribute to the study of this transnational historical subject. Bailyn's Atlantic History: Concepts and Contours (2005) explores the borders and contents of the emerging field, which emphasizes cosmopolitan and multicultural elements that have tended to be neglected or considered in isolation by traditional historiography dealing with the Americas. Bailyn's reflections stem in part from his seminar at Harvard since the mid-1980s. Other important scholars are Jack Greene, who directed a program at Johns Hopkins in Atlantic History from 1972 to 1992 that has now expanded to global concerns. Karen Ordahl Kupperman established the Atlantic Workshop at New York University in 1997. Other scholars in the field include Ida Altman, Kenneth J. Andrien, David Armitage, Trevor Burnard, Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, Nicholas Canny, Philip D. Curtin, Laurent Dubois, J.H. Elliott, David Eltis, Alison Games, Eliga H. Gould, Anthony Grafton, Joseph C. Miller, Philip D. Morgan, Anthony Pagden, Jennifer L. Anderson, John Thornton, James D. Tracy, Carla G. Pestana, Isaac Land, Richard S. Dunn, and Ned C. Landsman. Perspectives Alison Games (2006) explores the convergence of the multiple strands of scholarly interest that have generated the new field of Atlantic history, which takes as its geographic unit of analysis the Atlantic Ocean and the four continents that surround it. She argues Atlantic history is best approached as a slice of world history. The Atlantic, moreover, is a region that has logic as a unit of historical analysis only within a limited chronology. An Atlantic perspective can help historians understand changes within the region that a more limited geographic framework might obscure. Attempts to write a Braudelian Atlantic history, one that includes and connects the entire region, remain elusive, driven in part by methodological impediments, by the real disjunction that characterized the Atlantic's historical and geographic components, by the disciplinary divisions that discourage historians from speaking to and writing for each other, and by the challenge of finding a vantage point that is not rooted in any single place. Colonial studies One impetus for Atlantic studies began in the 1960s with the historians of slavery who started tracking the routes of the transatlantic slave trade. A second source came from historians who studied the colonial history of the United States. Many were trained in early modern European history and were familiar with the historiography of the British Empire, which had been introduced a century before by George Louis Beer and Charles McLean Andrews. Historians studying colonialism have long been open to interdisciplinary perspectives, such as comparative approaches. In addition there was a frustration involved in writing about very few people in a small remote colony. Atlantic history opens the horizon to large forces at work over great distances. Criticism Some critics have complained that Atlantic history is little more than imperial history under another name. It has been argued that it is too expansive in claiming to subsume both of the American continents, Africa, and Europe, without seriously engaging with them. According to Caroline Dodds Pennock, indigenous people are often seen as static recipients of transatlantic encounter, despite the fact that thousands of Native Americans crossed the ocean during the sixteenth century, some by choice. Canadian scholar Ian K. Steele argued that Atlantic history will tend to draw students interested in exploring their country's historian beyond national myths, while offering historical support for such 21st century policies as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Organization of American States (OAS), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the New Europe, Christendom, and even the United Nations (UN). He concludes, "The early modern Atlantic can even be read as a natural antechamber for American-led globalization of capitalism and serve as an historical challenge to the coalescing New Europe. No wonder that the academic reception of the new Atlantic history has been enthusiastic in the United States, and less so in Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal, where histories of national Atlantic empires continue to thrive." See also Columbian exchange Atlantic World Atlantic Ocean Piracy in the Atlantic World Atlantic hurricanes Atlantic Creole Transatlantic migrations Atlantic revolutions Atlanticism European colonization of the Americas Notes Bibliography Altman, Ida. Emigrants and Society: Extremadura and Spanish America in the Sixteenth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Altman, Ida. Transatlantic Ties in the Spanish Empire: Brihuega, Spain, and Puebla, Mexico, 1560–1620. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000. Altman, Ida and James J. Horn, eds. "To Make America": European Emigration in the Early Modern Period. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Armitage, David, and Michael J. Braddick, eds., The British Atlantic World, 1500–1800 (2002); see especially the lead article by Armitage, "Three Concepts of Atlantic History." Anderson, Jennifer L. Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012). Bailyn, Bernard. Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the Revolution Knopf 1986, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History Bailyn, Bernard. Atlantic History: Concept and Contours (2005). . Bodle, Wayne. "Atlantic History Is the New 'New Social History.'" William and Mary Quarterly 2007 64(1): 203–220. Canny, Nicholas, and Philip Morgan, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the Atlantic World: 1450–1850 (2011) Curtin, Philip D. The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex: Essays in Atlantic History (1998) Egerton, Douglas R. et al. The Atlantic World: A History, 1400–1888 (2007), college textbook; 530 pp. Elliott, John H. Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492–1830 (2007), 608 pp., . Eltis, David. The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas (2000). Fernlund, Kevin Jon. "American Exceptionalism or Atlantic Unity? Frederick Jackson Turner and the Enduring Problem of American Historiography." New Mexico Historical Review 2014 89 (3): 359–399. Klooster, Wim. The Dutch Moment: War, Trade, and Settlement in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World (2016) Klooster, Wim, and Gert Oostindie. Realm between Empires: The Second Dutch Atlantic, 1680-1815 (Cornell UP, 2018) 348 pp. pnline review Landsman, Ned C. Scotland and Its First American Colony, 1683–1765 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985) Landsman, Ned C. Crossroads of Empire: The Middle Colonies in British North America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010). Games, Alison. "Atlantic History: Definitions, Challenges, and Opportunities." American Historical Review 2006 111(3): 741–757. Games, Alison and Adam Rothman, eds. Major Problems in Atlantic History: Documents and Essays (2007), 544 pp.; primary and secondary sources Gerbner, Katharine. "Theorizing Conversion: Christianity, Colonization, and Consciousness in the Early Modern Atlantic World." History Compass (2015) 13#3, pp. 134–147. Godechot, Jacques.Histoire de l'Atlantique. Paris, Bordas, 1947. Gould, Eliga H. and Peter S. Onuf, eds. Empire and Nation: The American Revolution in the Atlantic World. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. 391 pages. excerpt and text search Gould, Eliga H. "Entangled Atlantic Histories: A Response from the Anglo-American Periphery," The American Historical Review, 112:1415–1422, December 2007 Greene, Jack P. and Philip D. Morgan, eds. Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal (2009) 371 pp., major historiographical review Hancock, David. Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735–1785 (1995) Land, Isaac. "Tidal Waves: the New Coastal History:" Journal of Social History 2007 40(3): 731–743. Mancke, Elizabeth, and Carole Shammas, eds. The Creation of the British Atlantic World. (2005). 408 pages. . Miller, Joseph C., ed. The Princeton Companion to Atlantic History (2014) Nagl, Dominik. No Part of the Mother Country, but Distinct Dominions – Law, State Formation and Governance in England, Massachusetts und South Carolina, 1630–1769 (2013). Olwell, Robert, and Alan Tully, eds. Cultures and Identities in Colonial British America. (2006). 394 pages. O'Reilly, William. "Genealogies of Atlantic History," Atlantic Studies 1 (2004): 66–84. Plank, Geoffrey. Atlantic Wars: From the Fifteenth Century to the Age of Revolution. (Oxford University Press, 2020}. Polasky, Janet L. Revolutions without Borders (Yale UP, 2015). 392 pp. online review Rediker, Marcus. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo- American Maritime World, 1700–1750. (1987). Skeehan, Danielle C. The Fabric of Empire: Material and Literary Cultures of the Global Atlantic, 1650–1850 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). Smith, Joshua M. “Toward a Taxonomy of Maritime Historians,” International Journal of Maritime History XXV: 2 (December, 2013), 1–16. Steele, Ian K. "Bernard Bailyn's American Atlantic." History and Theory 2007 46(1): 48–58. Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800 (2nd ed., 1998) Wilson, Kathleen, ed. A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity and Modernity in Britain and the Empire (2004). 385 pp. Wilson, Kathleen, The Island Race: Englishness, Empire, and Gender in the. Eighteenth Century. London and New York: Routledge, 2003. External links H-Atlantic, daily email discussions on related scholarly topics; includes book reviews and announcements Oxford Bibliography Online: Atlantic History, annotated bibliography prepared by scholars International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, 1500–1825 2003 announcement of Atlantic Studies: Atlantic Studies: Literary, Cultural and Historical Perspectives, from Essex University in UK Atlantic slave trade History Historiography of the British Empire Historiography of the United States

English society

English society comprises the group behaviour of the English people, and of collective social interactions, organisation and political attitudes in England. The social history of England evidences many social and societal changes over the history of England, from Anglo-Saxon England to the contemporary forces upon the Western world. These major social changes have occurred both internally and in its relationship with other nations. The themes of social history include demographic history, labour history and the working class, women's history, family, the history of education in England, rural and agricultural history, urban history and industrialisation. Prehistoric society The distant past does not offer much information on the structures of society. However, major changes in human behaviour make it likely that society must have changed dramatically. In common with much of Europe, the switch from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to farming around 4000 BC must have heralded an enormous shift in all aspects of human life. Nobody knows what changes may have occurred, and recent evidence of permanent buildings and habitation from 3,000 years ago means that these may still have been gradual shifts. One of the most obvious symbols of change in prehistoric society is Stonehenge. The building of such stone circles, burial mounds and monuments throughout the British Isles seems to have required a division of labour. Builders would have needed to dedicate themselves to the task of monument construction to acquire the necessary skills. Not having time to hunt and farm would make them rely on others to such an extent that specialised farmers would emerge who provided not only for themselves but also for the monument builders. There are many changes in culture seen in prehistoric and later times such as the Beaker people, the Celts, the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. Romans The Roman invasion of Britain in 54 BC probably did not alter society greatly at first, as it was simply a replacement of the ruling class, but numerous, at first minor, ideas would later gain footholds. Certainly, it would not have affected Ireland in the slightest. It is from the Romans, and particularly Tacitus, that we get the earliest detailed written records of Britain and its tribal society. We get fascinating glimpses of society in Britain before the Romans, although only briefly and disparagingly mentioned, particularly the importance of powerful women such as Cartimandua and Boudica. City dwelling was not new to pre-Roman Britain, but it was a lifestyle that the Romans preferred even though available to only a select few Romanised Britons. Romanisation was an important part of the Roman conquest strategy, and British rulers who willingly adopted Roman ways were rewarded as client kings; a good example of this is Togidubnus and his ultramodern Fishbourne Roman Palace. To subdue and control the country, the Romans built a major road network which not only was an important civil engineering project but formed the basis of the country's communication links. The Romans brought many other innovations and ideas such as writing and plumbing, but how many of these things were the preserve of the rich or were even lost and re-appropriated at a later date is uncertain. Early medieval society The collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century is thought to have brought general strife and anarchy to society, but the actual events are not well understood. Archaeology certainly shows a reduction in the expensive goods found before, and the Roman cities began to be abandoned, but much of British society had never had such things. Certainly, numerous peoples took advantage of the absence of Roman power, but how they affected British society is far from clear. The hegemony of Roman rule gave way to a selection of splintered, often competing, societies, including later the heptarchy. Rather than think of themselves as a small part of a larger Roman empire, they reverted to smaller tribal allegiances. The Anglo-Saxons' arrival is the most hotly disputed of events, and the extent to which they killed, displaced, or integrated with the existing society is still questioned. What is clear is that a separate Anglo-Saxon society, which would eventually become England with a more Germanic feel, was set up in the south east of the island. These new arrivals had not been conquered by the Romans, but their society was perhaps similar to that of Britain. The main difference was their pagan religion, which the surviving northern areas of non-Saxon rule sought to convert to Christianity. During the 7th century these northern areas, particularly Northumbria, became important sites of learning, with monasteries acting like early schools and intellectuals such as Bede being influential. In the 9th century Alfred the Great worked to promote a literate, educated people and did much to promote the English language, even writing books himself. Alfred and his successors unified and brought stability to most of the south of Britain that would eventually become England. Late medieval society After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, society seemed fixed and unchanging for several centuries, but gradual and significant changes were still taking place, the exact nature of which would not be appreciated until much later. The Norman lords spoke Norman French, and in order to work for them or gain advantage, the English had to use the Anglo-Norman language that developed in England. This became a necessary administrative and literary language (see Anglo-Norman literature), but despite this the English language was not supplanted, and after gaining much in grammar and vocabulary began in turn to replace the language of the rulers. At the same time the population of England more than doubled between Domesday and the end of the 13th century, and this growth was not checked by the almost continual foreign warfare, crusades and occasional civil anarchy. Feudalism, although historians debate the term, is often used to describe medieval society. Basically stated, a lord owns land or a fief which he allows vassals to work in return for their military service. The vast majority of the people were peasants who would work on the vassal's fiefs. This or a similar system was the basis of later medieval society. It probably existed in some form in England before the Norman conquest, but the Normans did much to institute it, either replacing existing lords or by becoming 'overlords' above now-demoted lords. A wealth of information on these social structures can be drawn from the best early surveys of its type, the Domesday Book. Church The Crusades are one measure of the ever-increasing power of the church in medieval life, with some estimates suggesting that as many as 40,000 clergy were ordained during the 13th century. This is also shown by the spate of cathedral building, common throughout Europe, at the time. These great buildings would often take several generations to complete, spawning whole communities of artisans and craftsmen and offering them jobs for life. A quarter of the land was owned by the Church. Its monasteries owned large tracts of land farmed by peasants. Prosperity and population growth The two centuries from 1200 to 1400 (when the plague hit) were prosperous. The population grew rapidly, from about 2 million to about 5 million. England remained a mainly rural society, and many agricultural changes, such as crop rotation, kept the countryside profitable. Most people lived by farming, although there were wide variations in patterns of land ownership and the status of peasants. To meet the needs of the growing population more land had to be cultivated. Waste land was exploited and major incursions were made into forests, fen and marsh lands. "High farming" was increasingly practised, whereby the landowner took personal control of his land using hired hands rather than leasing it out. Treatises appeared on the best practices, but the growth of per-acre productivity was small. On good land one acre might produce 17 bushels of wheat (compared to 73 bushels an acre in the 1960s), or 26 of barley or 22 of oats. After 1300 prosperity was more tenuous owing to a combination of over-population, land shortages and depleted soils. The loss of life in the Great Famine of 1315–1317 shook the English economy severely, and population growth ceased. The first outbreak of the Black Death in 1348 then killed around half the English population, but left plenty of land for the survivors. The agricultural sector shrank, with higher wages, lower prices and shrinking profits leading to the final demise of the old demesne system and the advent of the modern farming system of cash rents for lands. Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt of 1381 shook the older feudal order and limited the levels of royal taxation considerably for a century to come. Towns The increase in population led not only to denser rural areas but also to more and larger towns. Many new towns appeared but most were small. Major cities such as Lincoln, Norwich and Thetford had 4,000–5,000 population, while London grew from 10,000 to nearly 40,000 population and York approached 10,000. The 13th century experienced a mini-industrial revolution, with the increased use of wind power and changes in the wool industry. Wool, always important to the British economy, was traditionally exported to be processed, but it was now frequently processed in England, creating a variety of extra jobs. The export of cloth continued to increase from the 14th century onwards, and after the closing of the port of Calais (which consumed much of the raw wool) by the Spanish in the late 16th century, cloth became the primary type of wool exported. Many people were finding different roles and responsibilities within English society too, with the growth of common law giving people greater access to the law and the "commons" starting to have a place in the Parliament during Edward I of England's time. Black Death and population decline After many years of growth and gradual change, there was one seismic event which changed British society dramatically. The Black Death in the middle of the 14th century almost halved the population. Whole villages were wiped out by the plague, but rather than destroying society it managed to reinvigorate it. Before the plague there was a large, probably excessive, workforce with not enough productive work available. Overpopulation meant that before the Black Death too many people were competing for scarce resources. Afterwards, the drop in population meant that labourers were in short supply and were paid better. Peasants who had once been confined to a landowner's estate now had an incentive to travel to areas without workers. This social mobility was combined with the fact that peasants could charge much more for their services, and this began a switch from indentured labourer to wage earner, which signalled the decline of the feudal system. The peasants' new-found freedoms were very worrying to the authorities, who passed laws specifying the maximum that a peasant should be paid, but this had little effect on wages. The first of several sumptuary laws were also made, dictating exactly how people at every level of society should dress and what they could own, in an effort to enforce social distinctions. These new laws, plus a newly levied poll tax which had been calculated on pre-plague population figures, led directly to the Peasants' Revolt. Although quickly put down, the revolt was an early popular reform movement—a precursor to later, more successful uprisings. Chaucer's vision Geofrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales give an illuminating picture of many of the different people who made up medieval society, although these portraits are limited mainly to the middle classes. The Wife of Bath is one particularly vibrant character within the Tales, and a few years later a real-world equivalent, Margery Kempe, showed in her autobiography that women had an important part in medieval society. Tudor society In general terms, the Tudor dynasty period was seen as relatively stable compared to the previous years of almost constant warfare. However, the Reformation caused internal and external social conflict, with a considerable impact on social structure and personality. Before they were broken up and sold by Henry VIII, monasteries had been one of the important parts of social welfare, giving alms and looking after the destitute, and their disappearance meant that the state would have to adopt this role, which culminated in the Poor Law of 1601. The monasteries were decrepit and no longer were the major educational or economic establishments in the country. After they had gone, many new grammar schools were founded and these, along with the earlier introduction of the printing press, helped to improve literacy. Food and agriculture The agricultural reforms which had begun in the 13th century accelerated in the 16th century, with enclosure altering the open-field system and denying many of the poor access to land. Large areas of land which had once been common, and whose usage had been shared between many people, were now being enclosed by the wealthy mainly for extremely profitable sheep farming. England's food supply was plentiful throughout most of the era; there were no famines. Bad harvests caused distress, but they were usually localised. The most widespread came in 1555–57 and 1596–98. In the towns the price of staples was fixed by law; in hard times the size of the loaf of bread sold by the baker was smaller. The poor consumed a diet largely of bread, cheese, milk, and beer, with small portions of meat, fish and vegetables, and occasionally some fruit. Potatoes were just arriving at the end of the period, and became increasingly important. The typical poor farmer sold his best products on the market, keeping the cheap food for the family. Stale bread could be used to make bread puddings, and bread crumbs served to thicken soups, stews, and sauces. At a somewhat higher social level, families ate an enormous variety of meats, especially beef, mutton, veal, lamb, and pork, as well as chickens and ducks. The holiday goose was a special treat. Many rural folk and some townspeople tended a small garden which produced vegetables such as asparagus, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, beans, cabbage, carrots, leeks, and peas, as well as medicinal and flavoring herbs. Some raised their own apricots, grapes, berries, apples, pears, plums, currants, and cherries. Families without a garden could trade with their neighbours to obtain vegetables and fruits at low cost. The people discovered new foods (such as the potato and tomato imported from the Americas), and developed new tastes during the era. The more prosperous enjoyed a wide variety of food and drink, including exotic new drinks such as coffee and chocolate. French and Italian chefs appeared in the country houses and palaces, bringing new standards of food preparation and taste. For example, the English developed a taste for acidic foods—such as oranges for the upper class—and started to use vinegar heavily. The gentry paid increasing attention to their gardens, with new fruits, vegetables and herbs; pasta, pastries, and dried mustard balls first appeared on the table. The apricot was a special treat at fancy banquets. Roast beef remained a staple for those who could afford it. The rest ate a great deal of bread and fish. Every class had a taste for beer and rum. At the rich end of the scale the manor houses and palaces were awash with large, elaborately prepared meals, usually for many people and often accompanied by entertainment. Often they celebrated religious festivals, weddings, alliances and the whims of her majesty. 17th century England was wracked by civil war over religious issues. Prosperity generally continued in both rural areas and the growing towns, as well as the great metropolis of London. The English Civil War was far from just a conflict between two religious faiths, and indeed it had much more to do with divisions within the one Protestant religion. The austere, fundamentalist Puritanism on the one side was opposed to what it saw as the crypto-Catholic decadence of the Anglican church on the other. Divisions also formed along the lines of the common people and the gentry, and between the country and city dwellers. It was a conflict that was bound to disturb all parts of society, and a frequent slogan of the time was "the world turned upside down". In 1660 the Restoration was a quick transition back to the high-church Stuarts. Public opinion reacted against the puritanism of the Puritans, such as the banning of traditional pastimes of gambling, cockfights, the theatre and even Christmas celebrations. The arrival of Charles II—The Merry Monarch—brought a relief from the warlike and then strict society that people had lived in for several years. The theatre returned, along with expensive fashions such as the periwig and even more expensive commodities from overseas. The British Empire grew rapidly after 1600, and along with wealth returning to the country, expensive luxury items were also appearing. Sugar and coffee from the East Indies, tea from India and slaves (brought from Africa to the sugar colonies, along with some enslaved servants in England itself) formed the backbone of imperial trade. One in nine Englishmen lived in London near the end of the Stuart period. However, plagues were even more deadly in a crowded city—the only remedy was to move to isolated rural areas, as Isaac Newton of Cambridge University did in 1664–66 as the Great Plague of London killed as many as 100,000 Londoners. The fast-growing metropolis was the centre of politics, high society and business. As a major port and hub of trade, goods from all over were for sale. Coffee houses were becoming the centres of business and social life, and it has also been suggested that tea might have played its own part in making Britain powerful, as the antiseptic qualities of tea allowed people to live closer together, protecting them from germs, and making the Industrial Revolution possible. These products can be considered as beginning the consumer society which promoted trade and brought development and riches to society. Newspapers were new and soon became important tools of social discourse, and the diarists of the time such as Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn are some of the best sources we have of everyday life in Restoration England. Coffee houses grew numerous and were places for middle-class men to meet, read the papers, look over new books and gossip and share opinions. Thomas Garway operated a coffee house in London from 1657 to 1722. He sold tea, tobacco, snuff, and sandwiches. Businessmen met there informally; the first furs from the Hudson's Bay Company were auctioned there. The diet of the poor in the 1660–1750 era was largely bread, cheese, milk, and beer, with small quantities of meat and vegetables. The more prosperous enjoyed a wide variety of food and drink, including tea, coffee, and chocolate. Crime and punishment Historians examining the period 1300–1800 have detected a high level of continuity in their studies of crime and punishment. They have used local records, as well as literary sources, to explore how crime was defined and detected, the changes in the court system, the central importance of elite attitudes toward the poor and dangerous classes, professional criminals, and the amateur and community element in law enforcement before the establishment of police forces in the 19th century. The Black Act of 1723, sponsored by Robert Walpole, strengthened the criminal code. It specified over 200 capital crimes, many with intensified punishment. Arson, for example, was expanded to include burning or the threat of burning haystacks. The legal rights of defendants were strictly limited. For example, suspects who refused to surrender within 40 days could be summarily judged guilty and sentenced to execution if apprehended. Local villages were punished if they failed to find, prosecute and convict alleged criminals. From the left, historians such as E. P. Thompson have emphasized that crime and disorder were characteristic responses of the working and lower classes to the oppressions imposed upon them. Thompson argues that crime was defined and punished primarily as an activity that threatened the status, property and interests of the elites. England's lower classes were kept under control by large-scale execution, transportation to the colonies, and imprisonment in horrible hulks of old warships. There was no interest in reformation, the goal being to deter through extremely harsh punishment. Georgian society: 1714–1837 Agriculture Major advances in farming made agriculture more productive and freed up people to work in industry. The British Agricultural Revolution included innovations in technology such as Jethro Tull's seed drill which allowed greater yields, while the process of enclosure, which had been altering rural society since the Middle Ages, became unstoppable. The new mechanisation needed much larger fields – the layout of the British countryside with the patchwork of fields divided by hedgerows that we see today. Industrial Revolution Historians typically date the coming of the Industrial Revolution to Britain in the mid-18th century. Not only did existing cities grow but small market towns such as Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds became cities simply by weight of population. Middle class and stability The middle class grew rapidly in the 18th century, especially in the cities. At the top of the scale, the legal profession succeeded first, establishing specialist training and associations, and was soon followed by the medical profession. The merchant class prospered with imperial trade. Wahrman (1992) argues that the new urban elites included two types: the gentlemanly capitalist, who participated in the national society, and the independent bourgeois, who was oriented toward the local community. By the 1790s a self-proclaimed middle class, with a particular sociocultural self-perception, had emerged. Thanks to increasing national wealth, upward mobility into the middle class, urbanisation, and civic stability, Britain was relatively calm and stable, certainly compared with the revolutions and wars which were convulsing the American colonies, France and other nations at the time. The politics of the French Revolution did not translate directly into British society to spark an equally seismic revolution, nor did the loss of the American Colonies dramatically weaken or disrupt Great Britain. Religion Historians have emphasized the importance of religion, including the domination of the Anglican establishment. The Act of Toleration 1689 granted rights of free religious worship to the non-conformist Protestant sects which had emerged during the Civil War. Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Quakers were all allowed to pray freely. These groups took the opportunity of the expanding empire and set up in the Thirteen Colonies, where they expanded rapidly after the First Great Awakening. In response to the religious and moral apathy of the common people, Methodist preachers set up societies divided into classes—intimate meetings where individuals were encouraged to confess their sins to one another and to build each other up. They also took part in love feasts which allowed for the sharing of testimony and mutual surveillance of moral behavior. The success of Methodist revivals in reaching the poor and working classes concentrated their attention on spiritual goals rather than political grievances. Cultural history Scholars have recently been moving toward cultural history rather than social history. The language and self images of people are the chief targets of cultural studies. Of special importance is the concept of an emerging consumer society. Studies of middle- and upper-class manners, tastes, and fashions have proliferated, along with studies of gender, national, and racial identities. Victorian era: 1837–1901 The social changes during the Victorian era were wide-ranging and fundamental, leaving their mark not only upon the United Kingdom but upon much of the world which was under Britain's influence during the 19th century. It can even be argued that these changes eclipsed the massive shifts in society during the 20th century; certainly many of the developments of the 20th century have their roots in the 19th. The technology of the Industrial Revolution had a great impact on society. Inventions not only introduced new industries for employment, but the products and services produced also altered society. Culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and the arts. The era is popularly associated with the "Victorian" values of social and sexual restraint. Population growth and improved health The population of England almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901. Scotland's population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901. Ireland's population decreased rapidly, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901, mostly due to the Great Famine. At the same time, around 15 million emigrants left the United Kingdom in the Victorian era and settled mostly in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Not only did the rapidly expanding British Empire attract immigrants, it also attracted temporary administrators, soldiers, missionaries and businessmen who on their return talked up the Empire as a part of greater Britain. Environmental and health standards rose throughout the Victorian era; improvements in nutrition may also have played a role, although the importance of this is debated. Sewage works were improved as was the quality of drinking water. With a healthier environment, diseases were caught less easily and did not spread as much. Technology was also improving because the population had more money to spend on medical technology (for example, techniques to prevent death in childbirth so more women and children survived), which also led to a greater number of cures for diseases. However, a cholera epidemic took place in London in 1848–49 killing 14,137, and subsequently in 1853 killing 10,738. This anomaly was attributed to the closure and replacement of cesspits by the modern sewerage systems. Class identity and conflicts The status of the poor is one area in which huge changes occurred. A good illustration of the differences between life in the Georgian and Victorian eras are the writings of two of England's greatest authors, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Both writers held a fascination for people, society and the details of everyday life but in Austen the poor are almost absent, mainly because they were still the rural poor, remote and almost absent from the minds of the middle classes. For Dickens, only a few years later, the poor were his main subject, as he had partly suffered their fate. The poor now were an unavoidable part of urban society and their existence and plight could not be ignored. Industrialisation made large profits for the entrepreneurs of the times, and their success was in contrast not only to the farm workers who were in competition with imported produce but also to the aristocracy whose landowning wealth was now becoming less significant than business wealth. The British class system created an intricate hierarchy of people which contrasted the new and old rich, the skilled and unskilled, the rural and urban and many more. Some of the first attacks on industrialisation were the Luddites' destruction of machines, but this had less to do with factory conditions and more to do with machines mass-producing linen much quicker and cheaper than the handmade products of skilled labourers. The army was called to the areas of Luddite activity such as Lancashire and Yorkshire and for a time there were more British soldiers controlling the Luddites than fighting Napoleon in Spain. The squalid, dangerous and oppressive conditions of many of the new Victorian factories and the surrounding communities which rose to service them became important issues of discontent, and the workers began to form trade unions to get their working conditions addressed. The first trade unions were feared and distrusted by management, and ways were devised to ban them. The most widely known case was that of the Tolpuddle Martyrs of 1834, an early attempt at a union whose members were tried on a spurious charge, found guilty and transported to Australia. The sentence was challenged and they were released shortly afterwards, but unions were still threatened. It was not until the formation of the TUC in 1868 and the passing of the Trade Union Act 1871 that union membership became reasonably legitimate. Many pieces of legislation were passed to improve working conditions, including the Ten Hours Act 1847 to reduce working hours, and these culminated in the Factory Act 1901. Rural hardship Many of these acts resulted from the blight of Britain's agricultural depression. Beginning in 1873 and lasting until 1896, many farmers and rural workers were hard-pressed for a stable income. With the decline in wheat prices and land productivity many countrymen were left looking for any hope of prosperity. Although the British parliament gave substantial aid to farmers and labourers, many still complained that rents were too high, wages too low, and the hours labourers were required to work were too long for their income. As a result, many workers turned to unions to have their concerns heard and, with the acts listed above as proof, were able to achieve some success. Communications and travel Communication improved rapidly. Stage coaches, canal boats, steam ships and most notably the railways all speeded up the movement of people, goods and ideas. New communication methods were very fast if not instantaneous, including the telegraph, the telephone and the trans-oceanic cable. Trains opened up leisure destinations, especially seaside resorts. The Bank Holidays Act 1871 created a number of fixed holidays which the middle class could enjoy. Large numbers travelling to quiet fishing villages such as Worthing, Brighton, Morecambe and Scarborough began turning them into major tourist centres, and people like Thomas Cook saw arranging for domestic and foreign tourism as a viable business model. Steam ships such as the SS Great Britain and SS Great Western made international travel more common but also advanced trade, so that in Britain it was not just the luxury goods of earlier times that were imported into the country but essentials such as grain and meat from North America and Australia. One more important innovation in communications was the Penny Black, the first postage stamp, which standardised postage to a flat price regardless of distance sent. Science and sanitation The Victorians were impressed by science and progress, and felt that they could improve society in the same way as they were improving technology. The model town of Saltaire was founded in the 1850s, was one of several created as a planned environment with good sanitation, civic, educational and recreational facilities. It deliberately lacked a pub. Similar sanitation reforms were prompted by the Public Health Acts 1848 and 1869. Progress was made in the crowded, dirty streets of the existing cities. Soap was the main product shown in the relatively new phenomenon of advertising. Victorians strove to improve society through many charities and relief organisations such as the Salvation Army, the RSPCA and the NSPCC. At the same time there were many people who used Florence Nightingale as a model in working to reform sanitary areas of public life. Women and the family Reformers organised many movements to obtain greater rights for women; voting rights did not come until the next century. The Married Women's Property Act 1882 meant that women did not lose their right to their own property when they got married and could divorce without fear of poverty, although divorce was frowned upon and very rare during the 19th century. It is too much to claim that the Victorians "invented childhood," but they deemed it the most significant phase of life. The trend was towards smaller families, probably because of the rise of modern inner-directed families, coupled with lower infant mortality rates and longer life spans. Legislation reduced the working hours of children while raising the minimum working age, and the passing of the Elementary Education Act 1870 set the basis for universal primary education. In local government elections, unmarried women ratepayers received the right to vote in the Municipal Franchise Act 1869. This right was confirmed in the Local Government Act 1894 and extended to include some married women. By 1900, more than 1 million women were registered to vote in local government elections in England. Divorce In Britain before 1857 wives were under the economic and legal control of their husbands, and divorce was almost impossible. It required a very expensive private act of Parliament costing perhaps £200, of the sort only the richest could possibly afford. It was very difficult to secure divorce on the grounds of adultery, desertion, or cruelty. The first key legislative victory came with the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, which passed over the strenuous opposition of the highly traditional Church of England. The new law made divorce a civil affair of the courts, rather than a Church matter, with a new civil court in London handling all cases. The process was still quite expensive, at about £40, but now became feasible for the middle class. A woman who obtained a judicial separation took the status of a feme sole, with full control of her own civil rights. Additional amendments came in 1878, which allowed for separations handled by local justices of the peace. The Church of England blocked further reforms until the final breakthrough came with the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. Religion Church of England expanded roles During the 19th century, the established Church of England expanded greatly at home and abroad. It enrolled about half the population, especially in rural areas where the local gentry dominated religious affairs. However it was much weaker in the fast-growing industrial cities. It lost its established status in Ireland. Its funding came largely from voluntary contributions. In England and Wales it doubled the number of active clergyman, and built or enlarged several thousand churches. Around mid-century it was consecrating seven new or rebuilt churches every month. It proudly took primary responsibility for a rapid expansion of elementary education, with parish-based schools, and diocesan-based colleges to train the necessary teachers. In the 1870s, the national government assume part of the funding; in 1880 the Church was educating 73% of all students. In addition there was a vigorous home mission, with many clergy, scripture readers, visitors, deaconesses and Anglican sisters in the rapidly growing cities. Overseas the Church kept up with the expanding Empire. It sponsored extensive missionary work, supporting 90 new bishoprics and thousands of missionaries across the globe. In addition to local endowments and pew rentals, Church financing came from a few government grants, and especially from voluntary contributions. The result was that some old rural parishes were well funded, and most of the rapidly growing urban parishes were underfunded. Evangelican and Nonconformist Protestantism The start of the 19th century saw an increase in missionary work and many of the major missionary societies were founded around this time (see Timeline of Christian missions). Both the Evangelical and high church movements sponsored missionaries. In addition to stressing the traditional Wesleyan combination of "Bible, cross, conversion, and activism", the revivalist movement sought a universal appeal, designed to reach rich and poor, urban and rural, and men and women. They added work to keep the children their parents brought and to generate literature to spread God's message. The first evangelical megachurch, the Metropolitan Tabernacle with its 6000-seat auditorium, was launched in 1861 in London by Charles Spurgeon, a Baptist. "Christian conscience" was the target chosen by the British Evangelical movement to promote social activism. Evangelicals believed activism in government and the social sphere was an essential method in reaching the goal of eliminating sin in a world drenched in wickedness. The Evangelicals in the Clapham Sect included figures such as William Wilberforce who successfully campaigned for the abolition of slavery. John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) of the Plymouth Brethren was an Irish Anglican minister who devised modern dispensationalism, an innovative Protestant theological interpretation of the Bible that was incorporated in the development of modern Evangelicalism. According to scholar Mark S. Sweetnam, dispensationalism can be defined in terms of its Evangelicalism, its insistence on the literal interpretation of Scripture, its recognition of stages in God's dealings with humanity, its expectation of the imminent return of Christ to rapture His saints, and its focus on both apocalypticism and premillennialism. Anti-Catholicism Anti-Catholic attitudes persisted throughout the 19th century, particularly following the sudden massive Irish Catholic migration to England during the Great Famine. The forces of anti-Catholicism were defeated by the unexpected mass mobilization of Catholic activists in Ireland, led by Daniel O'Connell. The Catholics had long been passive but now there was a clear threat of insurrection that troubled Prime Minister Wellington and his aide Robert Peel. The passage of Catholic emancipation in 1829, which allowed Catholics to sit in Parliament, opened the way for a large Irish Catholic contingent. Lord Shaftesbury (1801–1885), a prominent philanthropist, was a pre-millennial evangelical Anglican who believed in the imminent second coming of Christ, and became a leader in anti-Catholicism. He strongly opposed the Oxford movement in the Church of England, fearful of its high church Catholics features. In 1845, he denounced the Maynooth Grant which funded the Catholic seminary in Ireland that would train many priests. The re-establishment of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy in England in 1850 by Pope Pius IX, was followed by a frenzy of anti-Catholic feeling, often stoked by newspapers. Examples include an effigy of Cardinal Wiseman, the new head of the restored hierarchy, being paraded through the streets and burned on Bethnal Green, and graffiti proclaiming 'No popery!' being chalked on walls. Charles Kingsley wrote a vigorously anti-Catholic book Hypatia (1853). The novel was mainly aimed at the embattled Catholic minority in England, who had recently emerged from a half-illegal status. New Catholic episcopates, which ran parallel to the established Anglican episcopates, and a Catholic conversion drive awakened fears of 'papal aggression' and relations between the Catholic Church and the establishment remained frosty. At the end of the nineteenth century one contemporary wrote that "the prevailing opinion of the religious people I knew and loved was that Roman Catholic worship is idolatry, and that it was better to be an Atheist than a Papist". The Liberal party leader William Ewart Gladstone had a complex ambivalence about Catholicism. He was attracted by its international success in majestic traditions. More important, he was strongly opposed to the authoritarianism of its pope and bishops, its profound public opposition to liberalism, and its refusal to distinguish between secular allegiance on the one hand and spiritual obedience on the other. The danger came when the pope or bishops attempted to exert temporal power, as in the Vatican decrees of 1870 as the climax of the papal attempt to control churches in different nations, despite their independent nationalism. His polemical pamphlet against the infallibility declaration of the Catholic Church sold 150,000 copies in 1874. He urged Catholics to obey the crown and disobey the pope when there was disagreement. on the other hand, when religion ritualistic practices in the Church of England came under attack as too ritualistic and too much akin to Catholicism, Gladstone strongly opposed passage of the Public Worship Regulation Bill in 1874. Edwardian Era, 1901–1914 The Edwardian Era of economic and social prosperity, and political reform, spanned the short reign of Edward VII from 1901 to 1910 as well as early reign of King George V until the start of World War I. The new king had long been the leader of the fashionable elite that set a style influenced by the art and fashions of continental Europe. Samuel Hynes described the Edwardian era as a "leisurely time when women wore picture hats and did not vote, when the rich were not ashamed to live conspicuously, and the sun never set on the British flag." The Liberals returned to power in the 1906 landslide and made significant reforms. The era was marked by significant shifts in politics among sections of society that had largely been excluded from power, such as labourers, servants, and the industrial working class. Women started to play more of a role in politics. Social change and improved health Mortality declined steadily in urban England and Wales 1870–1917. Robert Millward and Frances N. Bell looked statistically at those factors in the physical environment (especially population density and overcrowding) that raised death rates directly, as well as indirect factors such as price and income movements that affected expenditures on sewers, water supplies, food, and medical staff. The statistical data show that increases in the incomes of households and increases in town tax revenues helped cause the decline of mortality. Higher incomes on average permitted higher spending on food, and also on a wide range of health-enhancing goods and services such as medical care. The major improvement in the physical environment was the quality of the housing stock, which rose faster than the population; its quality was increasingly regulated by central and local government. Infant mortality fell faster in England and Wales than in Scotland. Clive Lee argues that one factor was the continued overcrowding in Scotland's housing. Status of middle-class women For middle class housewives, sewing machines enabled the production of ready-made clothing and made it easier for women to sew their own clothes. More generally, argues Barbara Burman, "home dressmaking was sustained as an important aid for women negotiating wider social shifts and tensions in their lives." Increased literacy gave women wider access to information and ideas. Numerous new magazines appealed to her tastes and helped define femininity. By 1900 Gender roles shifted as better educated young women made use of the new technology to upgrade their lifestyle and their career opportunities. The inventions of the typewriter, telephone, and new filing systems dramatically increased white collar employment opportunities. So too did the rapid expansion of the school system, and the rapid growth of the new profession of nursing. Education and status led to demands for female roles in the rapidly expanding world of sports. Women were very active in church affairs, including attendance at services, Sunday school teaching, fund raising, pastoral care, social work and support for international missionary activities. They were almost completely excluded from leadership roles. Women's suffrage As middle-class women rose in status, they increasingly supported demands for a political voice. There were numerous organisations which did their work quietly. After 1897, they were increasingly linked together by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) led by Millicent Fawcett. However, front page publicity was seized by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Founded in 1903, it was tightly controlled by the three Pankhursts, Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928), and her daughters Christabel Pankhurst (1880–1958) and Sylvia Pankhurst (1882–1960). It specialised in highly visible publicity campaigns such as large parades. This had the effect of energising all dimensions of the suffrage movement. While there was a majority of support for suffrage in Parliament, the ruling Liberal Party refused to allow a vote on the issue; the result of which was an escalation in the suffragette campaign. The WSPU, in dramatic contrast to its allies, embarked on a campaign of violence to publicise the issue, even to the detriment of its own aims. Status of working-class women Birth control and abortion Although abortion was illegal, it was nevertheless a widespread form of birth control. Used predominantly by working-class women, the procedure was used not only as a means of terminating pregnancy, but also to prevent poverty and unemployment. Abortion did not need any prior planning and was less expensive. Newspaper advertisements were used to promote and sell abortifacients indirectly. Not all of society was accepting of contraceptives or abortion, and the opposition viewed both as part of one and the same sin. Single mothers Single mothers were the poorest sector in society, disadvantaged for at least four reasons. First, women lived longer, often leaving them widowed with children. Second, women had fewer opportunities to work, and when they did find it, their wages were lower than male workers' wages. Thirdly, women were often less likely to marry or remarry after being widowed, leaving them as the main providers for the remaining family members. Finally, poor women had deficient diets, because their husbands and children received disproportionately large shares of food. Many women were malnourished and had limited access to health care. Female servants Edwardian Britain had large numbers of male and female domestic servants, in both urban and rural areas. Middle- and upper-class women relied on servants to run their homes smoothly. Servants were provided with food, clothing, housing, and a small wage, and lived in a self-enclosed social system within their employer's house. However, the number of domestic servants fell in the Edwardian era due to fewer young people willing to be employed in this capacity. Fashion The upper classes embraced leisure sports, which resulted in rapid developments in fashion, as more mobile and flexible clothing styles were needed. During the Edwardian era, women wore a very tight corset, or bodice, and dressed in long skirts. The Edwardian era was the last time women wore corsets in everyday life. According to Arthur Marwick, the most striking change of all the developments that occurred during the Great War was the modification in women's dress, "for, however far politicians were to put the clocks back in other steeples in the years after the war, no one ever put the lost inches back on the hems of women's skirts". Fabrics were usually sweet pea shades in chiffon, mousse line de sore, tulle with feather boas and lace. 'High and boned collars for the day; plunging off shoulder décolleté for the evening'. The tea gown's cut was relatively loose compared to the more formal evening gown, and was worn without a corset. The silhouette was flowing, and was usually decorated with lace or with the cheaper Irish crochet. Long kid gloves, trimmed hats, and parasols were often used as accessories. Parasols are different from umbrellas; they are used for protection from the sun, rather from the rain, though they were often used as ornamentation rather than for function. By the end of the Edwardian era, the hat grew bigger in size, a trend that would continue in the 1910s. The Edwardians developed new styles in clothing design. The Edwardian Era saw a decrease in the trend for voluminous, heavy skirts: The two-piece dress came into vogue. At the start of the decade, skirts were trumpet-shaped. Skirts in 1901 often had decorated hems with ruffles of fabric and lace. Some dresses and skirts featured trains. Tailored jackets, first introduced in 1880, increased in popularity and by 1900, tailored suits known as tailormades became popular. In 1905, skirts fell in soft folds that curved in, then flared out near the hemlines. From 1905 – 1907, waistlines rose. In 1911, the hobble skirt was introduced; a tight fitting skirt that restricted a woman's stride. Lingerie dresses, or tea gowns made of soft fabrics, festooned with ruffles and lace were worn indoors. Around 1913 women's dresses acquired a lower and sometimes V-shaped neckline in contrast to the high collars a generation before. This was considered scandalous by some, and caused outrage among clergy throughout Europe. Newspapers The turn of the century saw the rise of popular journalism aimed at the lower middle class and tending to deemphasise highly detailed political and international news, which remain the focus of a handful of low-circulation prestige newspapers which reached a small elite. The new press, on the other hand, reached vastly larger audiences by emphasis on sports, crime, sensationalism, and gossip about famous personalities. Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe used his Daily Mail and Daily Mirror to transform the media along the American model of "Yellow Journalism". P. P. Catterall and Colin Seymour-Ure conclude that: Two world wars First World War What really changed all ranks of English society was the Great War. The army was traditionally a small employer; the regular army stood at only 247,000 at the start of the war. By 1918 there were five million men in the army and the fledgling Royal Air Force, newly formed from the RNAS and the RFC, was about the same size of the pre-war army. The almost three million casualties were known as the "lost generation", and such numbers inevitably left society scarred; but even so, some people felt their sacrifice was little regarded in Britain, with poems like Siegfried Sassoon's Blighters criticising the ill-informed jingoism of the home front. Conscription brought people of many different classes, and also people from all over the empire, together and this mixing was seen as a great leveller which would only accelerate social change after the war. During the World War, infant mortality fell sharply across the country. J. M. Winter attributes this to the full employment and higher wages paid to war workers. 1920s The social reforms of the previous century continued into the twentieth with the Labour Party being formed in 1900, but this did not achieve major success until the 1922 general election. Lloyd George said after the World War that "the nation was now in a molten state", and his Housing Act 1919 would lead to affordable council housing which allowed people to move out of Victorian inner-city slums. The slums, though, remained for several more years, with trams being electrified long before many houses. The Representation of the People Act 1918 gave women householders the vote, and in 1928 full equal suffrage was achieved. After the War, many new food products became available to the typical household, with branded foods advertised for their convenience. The shortage of servants was felt in the kitchen, but now instead of an experience cook spending hours on difficult custards and puddings the ordinary housewife working alone could purchase instant foods in jars, or powders that could be quickly mixed. Breakfast porridge from branded, more finely milled, oats could now be cooked in two minutes, not 20. American-style dry cereals began to challenge the porridge and bacon and eggs of the middle classes, and the bread and margarine of the poor. Street vendors were fewer. Shops were upgraded; the flies were gone as were the open barrels of biscuits and pickles. Groceries and butcher shops carried more bottled and canned goods as well as fresher meat, fish and vegetables. Whereas wartime shipping shortages had sharply narrowed choices, the 1920s saw many new kinds of foods—especially fruits—imported from around the world, along with better quality, packaging, and hygiene. Middle classes households now had ice boxes or electric refrigerators, which made for better storage and the convenience of buying in larger quantities. Great Depression The relatively prosperous 1920s gave way by 1930 to a depression that was part of a worldwide crisis. Particularly hardest hit were the north of England and Wales, where unemployment reached 70% in some areas. The General Strike was called during 1926 in support of the miners and their falling wages, but it failed. The strike marked the start of the slow decline of the British coal industry. In 1936 two hundred unemployed men walked from Jarrow to London in a bid to show the plight of the industrial poor, but the Jarrow March, had little impact and it was not until 1940 that industrial prospects improved. George Orwell's book The Road to Wigan Pier gives a bleak overview of the hardships of the time. People's War: 1939–45 The war was a "people's war" that enlisted every party, class and every region and every interest, with strikingly little dissent. It was started with a "phony war" with little fighting. Fear of bombing led to women and children were moved from London and other cities liable to air raids and evacuated to the country. Most returned some months later and remained in the cities until the end of the war. There were half the number of military casualties in this war than the last, but the improvements in aerial warfare meant that there were many more civilian casualties and a foreign war seemed much closer to home. The early years of the war in which Britain "stood alone" and the Blitz spirit which developed as Britain suffered under aerial bombardment helped pull the nation together after the divisions of the previous decade, and campaigns such as "Dig for Victory" helped give the nation a common purpose. The focus on agriculture to feed the nation gave some people their first introduction to the countryside, and women played an important part in the war effort as the Land Girls. A half a million women served in the armed forces, led by Princess Elizabeth, the future queen, who donned the ATS soldier's uniform as a lorry driver. Since 1945 Austerity: 1945–51 The Labour Party victory in 1945 represented pent-up frustrations. The strong sense that all Britons had joined in a "People's War" and all deserved a reward animated voters. But the Treasury was near bankruptcy and Labour's nationalization programs were expensive. Prewar levels of prosperity did not return until the 1950s. It was called the Age of Austerity. The most important reform was the founding of the National Health Service on 5 July 1948. It promised to give cradle to grave care for everyone in the country, regardless of income. Wartime rationing continued, and was extended to bread. In the war the government banned ice cream and rationed sweets, such as chocolates and confections; sweets were rationed until 1954. Most people grumbled, but for the poorest, rationing was beneficial, because their rationed diet was of greater nutritional value than their pre-war diet. Housewives organized to oppose the austerity. The Conservatives saw their opening and rebuilt their fortunes by attacking socialism, austerity, rationing, and economic controls, and were back in power by 1951. Prosperous 1950s As prosperity returned after 1950, Britons became more family centred. Leisure activities became more accessible to more people after the war. Holiday camps, which had first opened in the 1930s, became popular holiday destinations in the 1950s – and people increasingly had money to pursue their personal hobbies. The BBC's early television service was given a major boost in 1953 with the coronation of Elizabeth II, attracting an estimated audience of twenty million, proving an impetus for middle-class people to buy televisions. In 1950 1% owned television sets; by 1965 75% did. As austerity receded after 1950 and consumer demand kept growing, the Labour Party hurt itself by shunning consumerism as the antithesis of the socialism it demanded. Small neighbourhood stores were increasingly replaced by chain stores and shopping centres, with their wide variety of goods, smart-advertising, and frequent sales. Cars were becoming a significant part of British life, with city-centre congestion and ribbon developments springing up along many of the major roads. These problems led to the idea of the green belt to protect the countryside, which was at risk from development of new housing units. 1960s The 1960s saw dramatic shifts in attitudes and values led by youth. It was a worldwide phenomenon, in which British rock musicians, especially The Beatles, played an international role. The generations divided sharply regarding the new sexual freedom demanded by youth who listened to bands like The Rolling Stones. Sexual morals shifted towards greater acceptance of sexual behaviors and identities that had been considered taboo or immoral. One notable event was the publication of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover by Penguin Books in 1960. Although first printed in 1928, the release in 1960 of an inexpensive mass-market paperback version prompted a court case. The prosecuting council's question, "Would you want your wife or servants to read this book?" highlighted how far society had changed, and how little some people had noticed. The book was seen as one of the first events in a general relaxation of sexual attitudes. Other elements of the sexual revolution included the development of The Pill, Mary Quant's miniskirt and the 1967 legalisation of homosexuality. There was a rise in the incidence of divorce and abortion, and a resurgence of the women's liberation movement, whose campaigning helped secure the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act in 1975. The 1960s were a time of greater disregard for the establishment, with a satire boom led by people who were willing to attack their elders. Pop music became a dominant form of expression for the young, and bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were seen as leaders of youth culture. Youth-based subcultures such as the mods, rockers, hippies and skinheads became more visible. Reforms in education led to the effective elimination of the grammar school. The rise of the comprehensive school was aimed at producing a more egalitarian educational system, and there were ever-increasing numbers of people going into higher education. In the 1950s and 1960s, immigration of people to the United Kingdom, mainly from former British colonies in the Caribbean, India and Pakistan, began to escalate, leading to racism. Dire predictions were made about the effect of these new arrivals on British society (most famously Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech), and tension led to a few race riots. In the longer term, many people with differing cultures have successfully integrated into the country, and some have risen to high positions. 1980s One important change during the 1980s was the opportunity given to many to buy their council houses, which resulted in many more people becoming property owners in a stakeholder society. At the same time, Conservative Margaret Thatcher weakened her bitter enemy, the trade unions. The environmentalism movements of the 1980s reduced the emphasis on intensive farming, and promoted organic farming and conservation of the countryside. Religious observance declined notably in Britain during the second half of the 20th century, even with the growth of non-Christian religions due to immigration and travel (see Islam in the UK). Church of England attendance has particularly dropped, although charismatic churches like Elim and AOG are growing. The movement to Keep Sunday Special seemed to have lost at the beginning of the 21st century. 1990s and the new millennium Following on from the resurgence of economic liberalism in the 1980s, the last decade of the 20th century was noted for a greater embrace of social liberalism within British society, largely attributed to the greater influence of the generation born in the socially transformative 1960s. In 1990, 69% of Britons surveyed believed homosexuality was morally wrong; by the end of the decade this had fallen to below half, and the legal age of consent for homosexual sexual activity had been lowered to 16, in line with heterosexual sex. The death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 was also observed to have demonstrated the way in which social attitudes towards mourning had changed, with the unprecedented mass public outpourings of grief that characterised the days after her death being remarked upon as reflecting a change in the national psyche. Growing disparity in the relative affluence of those who have benefitted and those 'left behind' from the deindustrialisation and globalisation of the economy was attributed as one of the primary factors behind the surprise victory of the 'leave' campaign in the 2016 European Union membership referendum, and began wider discourse on the emergence of 'two countries' within England that represented greatly differing social attitudes and outlooks. Historiography The social history of the medieval period was primarily developed by Eileen Power, H. S. Bennett, Ambrose Raftis, Rodney Hilton, and Sylvia Thrupp before the rise of the New Social History in the 1960s. Burchardt (2007) evaluates the state of English rural history and focuses on an "orthodox" school dealing chiefly with the economic history of agriculture. The orthodox historians made "impressive progress" in quantifying and explaining the growth of output and productivity since the agricultural revolution. A challenge came from a dissident tradition that looked chiefly at the negative social costs of agricultural progress, especially enclosure. In the late 20th century there arose a new school, associated with the journal Rural History. Led by Alun Howkins, it links rural Britain to a wider social history. Burchardt calls for a new countryside history, paying more attention to the cultural and representational aspects that shaped 20th-century rural life. See also Economic history of the United Kingdom, after 1700 History of women in the United Kingdom Political history of the United Kingdom (1945–present) Social history of the United Kingdom (1945–present) References Further reading Adams, James Eli et al. eds. Encyclopedia of the Victorian era (4 vol, Groiler 2003) online vol 1-2-3-4; comprehensive coverage in 500 articles by 200 experts Bédarida, François. A social history of England, 1851–1990, Routledge, 1991, , Bolton, J. L. Mediaeval English Economy, 1150–1500 (2nd ed. 1985) 416 pp Britnell, R. H. Britain and Ireland 1050–1530: Economy and Society (2004) Chadwick, Owen. The Victorian Church. Part One (1966) online Chadwick, Owen. The Victorian Church. Part Two: 1860-1901 (1972) online Clark, G. Kitson. The making of Victorian England (1962) Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa, eds. The encyclopedia of the Victorian world: a reader's companion to the people, places, events, and everyday life of the Victorian era (Henry Holt, 1996) online Daunton, M. J. Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain 1700–1850 (1995) Devine, T. M. and Rosalind Mitchison. People and Society in Scotland: A Social History of Modern Scotland: 1760–1830 (1988) Gilley, Sheridan, and W.J. Sheils, eds. A history of religion in Britain. Practice and belief from pre-Roman times to the present (Blackwell, 1994) Glynn, Sean, and Alan Booth. Modern Britain: An Economic and Social History (Routledge, 1996) Gregg, Pauline. A Social and Economic History of Britain: 1760–1950 (1950) online Harrison, Brian. Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom 1951–1970 (2009, paperback with revisions 2011); online Harrison, Brian. Finding a Role? The United Kingdom 1970–1990 (2010, paperback with revisions 2011). online; major scholarly survey Hobsbawm, Eric, and George Rudé. Captain Swing (1969) Horn, Pamela. Life below Stairs: The Real Life of Servants, the Edwardian Era to 1939 (2012) online Horrox, Rosemary, and W. Mark Ormrod, A Social History of England, 1200–1500 (Cambridge UP, 2006), McKibbin, Ross. Classes and Cultures: England 1918-1951 (1998) 576 pp Marr, Andrew. A History of Modern Britain (2009); covers 1945–2005. Marr, Andrew. Elizabethans: How Modern Britain Was Forged (2021), covers 1945 to 2020. Mathias, Peter. The transformation of England: essays in the economic and social history of England in the eighteenth century (Taylor & Francis, 1979), Mitchell, Sally.. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia (Garland, 1990) Mitchell, Sally.. Daily Life in Victorian England (2nd ed. ABC-CLIO, 2008) Mowat, Charles Loch. Britain Between the Wars, 1918–1940 (1955), 690pp; Neale, Matt. "Research in urban history: recent theses on crime in the city, 1750–1900." Urban History. (2013) 40#3 pp 567–577. online Newman, Gerald, ed. Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714-1837: An Encyclopedia (1997) Nowell-Smith, Simon, ed. Edwardian England, 1901–14 (1964), 620pp; 15 wide-ranging essays by scholars. online Platt; Colin. Medieval England: A Social History and Archaeology from the Conquest to 1600 A.D (1994) Pope, Rex. Social Welfare in Britain 1885-1985 (2017) Pope, Rex. Atlas of British Social and Economic History Since c.1700 (1989) Porter, Roy. English Society in the Eighteenth Century (2nd ed. 1991) excerpt Royle, Edward. Modern Britain: A Social History 1750–1997 (2nd ed. 1997), with detailed bibliography pp 406–444 Ryder, Judith, and Harold Silver. Modern English society: history and structure 1850-1970 (1970) online. Sharpe, J. A. Early Modern England: A Social History 1550–1760 (2009) Stearns, Peter, ed. Encyclopedia of Social History (1994) 856 pp. Stearns, Peter, ed. Encyclopedia of European Social History from 1350 to 2000 (5 vol 2000), 209 essays by leading scholars in 3000 pp. Thompson, E.P. The Making of the English Working Class (1963) Thompson, F. M. L., ed. The Cambridge Social History of Britain, 1750–1950. Vol. 1: Regions and Communities. Vol. 2: People and Their Environment; Vol. 3: Social Agencies and Institutions (1990). 492 pp. online Woodward, Lewellyn. The age of reform 1815-1870 Oxford UP, 1962) online Youings, Joyce A. The Social History of Britain in the 16th Century (1991) online book review Medicine and health Berridge, Virginia. "Health and Medicine" in F M.L. Thompson, ed., The Cambridge Social History of Britain, 1750–1950, vol. 3, Social Agencies and Institutions, (1990). pp 171–242. Cherry, Stephen. Medical Services and the Hospital in Britain, 1860–1939 (1996) excerpt and text search Howe G. M. People, Environment, Death and Disease: A Medical Geography of Britain Through the Ages (U of Wales Press, 1997). Nagy D. Popular Medicine in Seventeenth-Century England (Bowling Green State UP, 1988). Porter, Roy. Bodies politic: disease, death, and doctors in Britain, 1650-1900 (Cornell UP, 2001). online review Porter, Roy, and Dorothy Porter. In Sickness and in Health: The British Experience, 1650–1850 (1988). Porter, Roy. Mind forg'd manacles: madness and psychiatry in England from restoration to regency (1987). Riley, James C. Sick not dead: the health of British workingmen during the mortality decline (Johns Hopkins UP, 1997). Wohl, Anthony S. Endangered Lives: Public Health in Victorian Britain (1983). Historiography Burchardt, Jeremy. "Agricultural History, Rural History, or Countryside History?" Historical Journal 2007 50(2): 465–481. Hawke, Gary. "Reinterpretations of the Industrial Revolution" in Patrick O'Brien and Roland Quinault, eds. The Industrial Revolution and British Society (1993) pp 54–78. Kanner, Barbara. Women in English Social History, 1800–1914: A Guide to Research (2 vol 1988–1990). 871 pp. Navickas, Katrina. "What happened to class? New histories of labour and collective action in Britain," Social History, May 2011, Vol. 36 Issue 2, pp 192–204 Thompson, E. P. The Essential E. P. Thompson (2001). 512 pp. highly influential essays on 19th century working class Wilson, Adrian, ed. Rethinking Social History: English Society, 1570–1920 and Its Interpretation (1993). 342 pp.

Social degeneration

Social degeneration was a widely influential concept at the interface of the social and biological sciences in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century, scientific thinkers including Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, and Immanuel Kant argued that humans shared a common origin but had degenerated over time due to differences in climate. This theory provided an explanation of where humans came from and why some people appeared differently from others. In contrast, degenerationists in the 19th century feared that civilization might be in decline and that the causes of decline lay in biological change. These ideas derived from pre-scientific concepts of heredity ("hereditary taint") with Lamarckian emphasis on biological development through purpose and habit. Degeneration concepts were often associated with authoritarian political attitudes, including militarism and scientific racism, and a preoccupation with eugenics. The theory originated in racial concepts of ethnicity, recorded in the writings of such medical scientists as Johann Blumenbach and Robert Knox. From the 1850s, it became influential in psychiatry through the writings of Bénédict Morel, and in criminology with Cesare Lombroso. By the 1890s, in the work of Max Nordau and others, degeneration became a more general concept in social criticism. It also fed into the ideology of ethnic nationalism, attracting, among others, Maurice Barrès, Charles Maurras and the . Alexis Carrel, a French Nobel Laureate in Medicine, cited national degeneration as a rationale for a eugenics programme in collaborationist Vichy France. The meaning of degeneration was poorly defined, but can be described as an organism's change from a more complex to a simpler, less differentiated form, and is associated with 19th-century conceptions of biological devolution. In scientific usage, the term was reserved for changes occurring at a histological level – i.e. in body tissues. Although rejected by Charles Darwin, the theory's application to the social sciences was supported by some evolutionary biologists, most notably Ernst Haeckel and Ray Lankester. As the 19th century wore on, the increasing emphasis on degeneration reflected an anxious pessimism about the resilience of European civilization and its possible decline and collapse. Theories of degeneration in the 18th century In the second half of the eighteenth century, degeneration theory gained prominence as an explanation of the nature and origin of human difference. Among the most notable proponents of this theory was Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. A gifted mathematician and eager naturalist, Buffon served as the curator of the Parisian Cabinet du Roi. The collections of the Cabinet du Roi served as the inspiration for Buffon's encyclopedic , of which he published thirty-six volumes between 1749 and his death in 1788. In the , Buffon asserted that differences in climate created variety within species. He believed that these changes occurred gradually and initially affected only a few individuals before becoming widespread. Buffon relied on an argument from analogy to contend that this process of degeneration occurred among humans. He claimed to have observed the transformation of certain animals by their climate and concluded that such changes must have also shaped humankind. Buffon maintained that degeneration had particularly adverse consequences in the New World. He believed America to be both colder and wetter than Europe. This climate limited the number of species in the New World and prompted a decline in size and vigor among the animals which did survive. Buffon also applied these principles to the people of the New World. He wrote in the Histoire Naturelle that the indigenous people lacked the ability to feel strong emotions for others. For Buffon, these individuals were incapable of love as well as desire. Buffon's theory of degeneration attracted the ire of many early American elites who feared that Buffon's depiction of the New World would negatively influence European perceptions of their nation. In particular, Thomas Jefferson mounted a vigorous defense of the American natural world. He attacked the premises of Buffon's argument in his 1785 Notes on the State of Virginia, writing that the animals of the New World felt the same sun and walked upon the same soil as their European counterparts. Jefferson believed that he could permanently alter Buffon's views of the New World by showing him firsthand the majesty of American wildlife. While serving as minister to France, Jefferson wrote repeatedly to his compatriots in the United States, pleading with them to send a stuffed moose to Paris. After months of effort, General John Sullivan responded to Jefferson's request and shipped a moose to France. Buffon died only three months after the moose's arrival, and his theory of New World degeneration remained forever preserved in the pages of the . In the years following Buffon's death, the theory of degeneration gained a number of new followers, many of whom were concentrated in German-speaking lands. The anatomist and naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach praised Buffon in his lectures at the University of Göttingen. He adopted Buffon's theory of degeneration in his dissertation De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa. The central premise of this work was that all of mankind belonged to the same species. Blumenbach believed that a multitude of factors, including climate, air, and the strength of the sun, promoted degeneration and resulted in external differences between human beings. However, he also asserted that these changes could easily be undone and, thus, did not constitute the basis for speciation. In the essay "Über Menschen-Rassen und Schweine-Rassen", Blumenbach clarified his understanding of the relationship between different human races by calling upon the example of the pig. He contended that, if the domestic pig and the wild boar were seen as belonging to the same species, then different humans, regardless of skin color or height, must too belong to the same species. For Blumenbach, all people of the world existed as different gradations on a spectrum. Nevertheless, the third edition of De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa, published in 1795, is famed among scholars for its introduction of a system of racial classification which divided humans into members of the Caucasian, Ethiopian, Mongolian, Malayan, or American races. Blumenbach's views on degeneration emerged in dialogue with the works of other thinkers concerned with race and origin in the late eighteenth century. In particular, Blumenbach participated in fruitful intellectual exchange with another prominent German scholar of his age, Immanuel Kant. Kant, a philosopher and professor at the University of Königsberg, taught a course on physical geography for some forty years, fostering an interest in biology and taxonomy. Like Blumenbach, Kant engaged closely with the writings of Buffon while developing his position on these subjects. In his 1777 essay Von der verschiedenen Racen der Menschen, Kant expressed the belief that all humans shared a common origin. He called upon the ability of humans to interbreed as evidence for this assertion. Additionally, Kant introduced the term "degeneration", which he defined as hereditary differences between groups with a shared root. Kant also arrived at a meaning of "race" from this definition of degeneration. He claimed that races developed when degenerations were preserved over a long period of time. A group could only constitute a race if breeding with a different degeneration resulted in "intermediate offspring." Although Kant advocated for a theory of shared human origin, he also contended that there was an innate hierarchy between existing races. In 1788, Kant wrote "Über den Gebrauch teleologischer Prinzipien". He maintained in this work that a human's place in nature was determined by the amount of sweat the individual produced, which revealed an innate ability to survive. Sweat emerged from the skin. Therefore, skin color indicated important distinctions between humans. History The concept of degeneration arose during the European enlightenment and the industrial revolution – a period of profound social change and a rapidly shifting sense of personal identity. Several influences were involved. The first related to the extreme demographic upheavals, including urbanization, in the early years of the 19th century. The disturbing experience of social change and urban crowds, largely unknown in the agrarian 18th century, was recorded in the journalism of William Cobbett, the novels of Charles Dickens and in the paintings of J. M. W. Turner. These changes were also explored by early writers on social psychology, including Gustav Le Bon and Georg Simmel. The psychological impact of industrialisation is comprehensively described in Humphrey Jennings' masterly anthology Pandaemonium 1660 – 1886. Victorian social reformers including Edwin Chadwick, Henry Mayhew and Charles Booth voiced concerns about the "decline" of public health in the urban life of the British working class, arguing for improved housing and sanitation, access to parks and recreational facilities, an improved diet and a reduction in alcohol intake. These contributions from the public health perspective were discussed by the Scottish physician Sir James Cantlie in his influential 1885 lecture Degeneration Amongst Londoners. The novel experience of everyday contact with the urban working classes gave rise to a kind of horrified fascination with their perceived reproductive energies which appeared to threaten middle-class culture. Secondly, the proto-evolutionary biology and transformatist speculations of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and other natural historians—taken together with the Baron von Cuvier's theory of extinctions—played an important part in establishing a sense of the unsettled aspects of the natural world. The polygenic theories of multiple human origins, supported by Robert Knox in his book The Races of Men, were firmly rejected by Charles Darwin who, following James Cowles Prichard, generally agreed on a single African origin for the entire human species. Thirdly, the development of world trade and colonialism, the early European experience of globalization, resulted in an awareness of the varieties of cultural expression and the vulnerabilities of Western civilization. Finally, the growth of historical scholarship in the 18th century, exemplified by Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire (1776–1789), excited a renewed interest in the narratives of historical decline. This resonated uncomfortably with the difficulties of French political life in the post-revolutionary nineteenth century. Degeneration theory achieved a detailed articulation in Bénédict Morel's Treatise on Degeneration of the Human Species (1857), a complicated work of clinical commentary from an asylum in Normandy (Saint Yon in Rouen) which, in the popular imagination at least, coalesced with de Gobineau's Essay on The Inequality of the Human Races (1855). Morel's concept of mental degeneration – in which he believed that intoxication and addiction in one generation of a family would lead to hysteria, epilepsy, sexual perversions, insanity, learning disability and sterility in subsequent generations – is an example of Lamarckian biological thinking, and Morel's medical discussions are reminiscent of the clinical literature surrounding syphilitic infection (syphilography). Morel's psychiatric theories were taken up and advocated by his friend Philippe Buchez, and through his political influence became an official doctrine in French legal and administrative medicine. Arthur de Gobineau came from an impoverished family (with a domineering and adulterous mother) which claimed an aristocratic ancestry; he was a failed author of historical romances, and his wife was widely rumored to be a Créole from Martinique. De Gobineau nevertheless argued that the course of history and civilization was largely determined by ethnic factors, and that interracial marriage ("miscegenation") resulted in social chaos. De Gobineau built a successful career in the French diplomatic service, living for extended periods in Iran and Brazil, and spent his later years travelling through Europe, lamenting his mistreatment at the hands of his wife and daughters. He died of a heart attack in 1882 while boarding a train in Turin. His work was well received in German translation—not least by the composer Richard Wagner—and the leading German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin later wrote extensively on the dangers posed by degeneration to the German people. De Gobineau's writings exerted an enormous influence on the thinkers antecedent to the Third Reich – although they are curiously free of anti-Semitic prejudice. Quite different historical factors inspired the Italian Cesare Lombroso in his work on criminal anthropology with the notion of atavistic retrogression, probably shaped by his experiences as a young army doctor in Calabria during the risorgimento. In Britain, degeneration received a scientific formulation from Ray Lankester whose detailed discussions of the biology of parasitism were hugely influential; the poor physical condition of many British Army recruits for the Second Boer War (1899–1902) led to alarm in government circles. Psychiatrist Henry Maudsley initially argued that degenerate family lines would die out with little social consequence, but later became more pessimistic about the effects of degeneration on the general population; Maudsley also warned against the use of the term "degeneration" in a vague and indiscriminate way. Anxieties in Britain about the perils of degeneration found legislative expression in the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 which gained strong support from Winston Churchill, then a senior member of the Liberal government. In the fin-de-siècle period, Max Nordau scored an unexpected success with his bestselling Degeneration (1892). Sigmund Freud met Nordau in 1885 while he was studying in Paris and was notably unimpressed by him and hostile to the degeneration concept. Degeneration fell from popular and fashionable favor around the time of the First World War, although some of its preoccupations persisted in the writings of the eugenicists and social Darwinists (for example, R. Austin Freeman; Anthony Ludovici; Rolf Gardiner; and see also Dennis Wheatley's Letter to posterity). Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West (1919) captured something of the degenerationist spirit in the aftermath of the war. Psychology and Emil Kraepelin Degeneration theory is, at its heart, a way of thinking, and something that is taught, not innate. A major influence on the theory was Emil Kraepelin, lining up degeneration theory with his psychiatry practice. The central idea of this concept was that in "degenerative" illness, there is a steady decline in mental functioning and social adaptation from one generation to the other. For example, there might be an intergenerational development from nervous character to major depressive disorder, to overt psychotic illness and, finally, to severe and chronic cognitive impairment, something akin to dementia. This theory was advanced decades before the rediscovery of Mendelian genetics and their application to medicine in general and to psychiatry in particular. Kraepelin and his colleagues mostly derived from degeneration theory broadly. He rarely made a specific references to the theory of degeneration, and his attitude towards degeneration theory was not straightforward. Positive, but more ambivalent. The concept of disease, especially chronic mental disease fit very well into this framework insofar these phenomena were regarded as signs of an evolution in the wrong direction, as a degenerative process which diverts from the usual path of nature. However, he remained skeptical of over-simplistic versions of this concept: While commenting approvingly on the basic ideas of Cesare Lombroso's "criminal anthropology", he did not accept the popular idea of overt "stigmata of degeneration", by which individual persons could be identified as being "degenerated" simply by their physical appearance. While Kraepelin and his colleagues may not have focused on this, it did not stop others from advancing the converse idea. An early application of this theory was the Mental Deficiency Act supported by Winston Churchill in 1913. This entailed placing those deemed "idiots" into separate colonies, and included those who showed sign of a "degeneration". While this did apply to those with mental disorders of a psychiatric nature, the execution was not always in the same vein, as some of the language was used to the those "morally weak", or deemed "idiots". The belief in the existence of degeneration helped foster a sense that a sense of negative energy was inexplicable and was there to find sources of "rot" in society. This forwarded the notion the idea that society was structured in a way that produced regression, an outcome of the "darker side of progress". Those who had developed the label of "degenerate" as a means of qualifying difference in a negative manner could use the idea that this "darker side of progress" was inevitable by having the idea society could "rot". Considerations to the pervasiveness an allegedly superior condition were, during the nineteenth century, frighteningly reinforced the language and habits of destructive thinking. As "dark side" of progress The idea of progress was at once a social, political and scientific theory. The theory of evolution, as described in Darwin's The Origin of Species, provided for many social theorists the necessary scientific foundation for the idea of social and political progress. The terms evolution and progress were in fact often used interchangeably in the 19th century. The rapid industrial, political and economic progress in 19th-century Europe and North America was, however, paralleled by a sustained discussion about increasing rates of crime, insanity, vagrancy, prostitution, and so forth. Confronted with this apparent paradox, evolutionary scientists, criminal anthropologists and psychiatrists postulated that civilization and scientific progress could be a cause of physical and social pathology as much as a defense against it. According to the theory of degeneration, a host of individual and social pathologies in a finite network of diseases, disorders and moral habits could be explained by a biologically based affliction. The primary symptoms of the affliction were thought to be a weakening of the vital forces and willpower of its victim. In this way, a wide range of social and medical deviations, including crime, violence, alcoholism, prostitution, gambling, and pornography, could be explained by reference to a biological defect within the individual. The theory of degeneration was therefore predicated on evolutionary theory. The forces of degeneration opposed those of evolution, and those afflicted with degeneration were thought to represent a return to an earlier evolutionary stage. One of the earliest and most systematric approaches along such lines is that of Bénédict Morel, who wrote:"When under any kind of noxious influence an organism becomes debilitated, its successors will not resemble the healthy, normal type of the species, with capacities for development, but will form a new sub-species, which, like all others, possesses the capacity of transmitting to its offspring, in a continuously increasing degree, its peculiarities, these being morbid deviations from the normal form – gaps in development, malformations and infirmities" Accordingly, degeneration theory owed more to Lamarckism than Darwinism, for only the former knew a "use it or lose it" lemma so characteristically intuitive as to enter the public such as artistic imagination at the unprecedented scale that it did. Development of the concept The earliest uses of the term degeneration can be found in the writings of Blumenbach and Buffon at the end of the 18th century, when these early writers on natural history considered scientific approaches to the human species. With the taxonomic mind-set of natural historians, they drew attention to the different ethnic groupings of mankind, and raised general enquiries about their relationships, with the idea that racial groupings could be explained by environmental effects on a common ancestral stock. This pre-Darwinian belief in the heritability of acquired characteristics does not accord with modern genetics. An alternative view of the multiple origins of different racial groups, called "polygenic theories", was also rejected by Charles Darwin, who favored explanations in terms of differential geographic migrations from a single, probably African, population. The theory of degeneration found its first detailed presentation in the writings of Bénédict Morel (1809–1873), especially in his (Treatise on Degeneration of the Human Species) (1857). This book was published two years before Darwin's Origin of Species. Morel was a highly regarded psychiatrist, the very successful superintendent of the Rouen asylum for almost twenty years and a fastidious recorder of the family histories of his variously disabled patients. Through the details of these family histories, Morel discerned an hereditary line of defective parents infected by pollutants and stimulants; a second generation liable to epilepsy, neurasthenia, sexual deviations and hysteria; a third generation prone to insanity; and a final generation doomed to congenital idiocy and sterility. In 1857, Morel proposed a theory of hereditary degeneracy, bringing together environmental and hereditary elements in an uncompromisingly pre-Darwinian mix. Morel's contribution was further developed by Valentin Magnan (1835–1916), who stressed the role of alcohol—particularly absinthe—in the generation of psychiatric disorders. Morel's ideas were greatly extended by the Italian medical scientist Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909) whose work was defended and translated into English by Havelock Ellis. In his L'uomo delinquente (1876), Lombroso outlined a comprehensive natural history of the socially deviant person and detailed the stigmata of the person who was born to be criminally insane. These included a low, sloping forehead, hard and shifty eyes, large, handle-shaped ears, a flattened or upturned nose, a forward projection of the jaw, irregular teeth, prehensile toes and feet, long simian arms and a scanty beard and baldness. Lombroso also listed the features of the degenerate mentality, supposedly released by the disinhibition of the primitive neurological centres. These included apathy, the loss of moral sense, a tendency to impulsiveness or self-doubt, an unevenness of mental qualities such as unusual memory or aesthetic abilities, a tendency to mutism or to verbosity, excessive originality, preoccupation with the self, mystical interpretations placed on simple facts or perceptions, the abuse of symbolic meanings and the magical use of words, or mantras. Lombroso, with his concept of atavistic retrogression, suggested an evolutionary reversion, complementing hereditary degeneracy, and his work in the medical examination of criminals in Turin resulted in his theory of criminal anthropology—a constitutional notion of abnormal personality that was not actually supported by his own scientific investigations. In his later life, Lombroso developed an obsession with spiritualism, engaging with the spirit of his long dead mother. In 1892, Max Nordau, an expatriate Hungarian living in Paris, published his extraordinary bestseller Degeneration, which greatly extended the concepts of Bénédict Morel and Cesare Lombroso (to whom he dedicated the book) to the entire civilization of western Europe, and transformed the medical connotations of degeneration into a generalized cultural criticism. Adopting some of Charcot's neurological vocabulary, Nordau identified a number of weaknesses in contemporary Western culture which he characterized in terms of ego-mania, i.e., narcissism and hysteria. He also emphasized the importance of fatigue, enervation and ennui. Nordau, horrified by the anti-Semitism surrounding the Dreyfus affair, devoted his later years to Zionist politics. Degeneration theory fell from favour around the time of the First World War because of an improved understanding of the mechanisms of genetics as well as the increasing vogue for psychoanalytic thinking. However, some of its preoccupations lived on in the world of eugenics and social Darwinism. It is notable that the Nazi attack on western liberal society was largely couched in terms of degenerate art with its associations of racial miscegenation and fantasies of racial purity—and included as its target almost all modernist cultural experiment. The role of women in furthering development of the concept of degeneration was reviewed by Anne McClintock, a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, who found that women who were ambiguously placed on the so-called "imperial divide" (nurses, nannies, governesses, prostitutes and servants) happened to serve as boundary markers and mediators. These women were tasked with the purification and maintenance of boundaries and what was seen as "inferior" places in society they held at the time. Degenerationist devices Towards the close of the 19th century, in the fin-de-siècle period, something of an obsession with decline, descent and degeneration invaded the European creative imagination, partly fuelled by widespread misconceptions of Darwinian evolutionary theory. Among the main examples are the symbolist literary work of Charles Baudelaire, the Rougon-Macquart novels of Émile Zola, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde—published in the same year (1886) as Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis—and, subsequently, Oscar Wilde's only novel (containing his aesthetic manifesto) The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). In Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), Thomas Hardy explores the destructive consequences of a family myth of noble ancestry. Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen showed a sensitivity to degenerationist thinking in his theatrical presentations of Scandinavian domestic crises. Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan (1890/1894), with its emphasis on the horrors of psychosurgery, is frequently cited as an essay on degeneration. A scientific twist was added by H. G. Wells in The Time Machine (1895) in which Wells prophesied the splitting of the human race into variously degenerate forms, and again in his The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) wherein forcibly mutated animal-human hybrids keep reverting to their earlier forms. Joseph Conrad alludes to degeneration theory in his treatment of political radicalism in the 1907 novel The Secret Agent. In her influential study The Gothic Body, Kelly Hurley draws attention to the literary device of the abhuman as a representation of damaged personal identity, and to lesser-known authors in the field, including Richard Marsh (1857–1915), author of The Beetle (1897), and William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918), author of The Boats of the Glen Carrig, The House on the Borderland and The Night Land. In 1897, Bram Stoker published Dracula, an enormously influential Gothic novel featuring the parasitic vampire Count Dracula in an extended exercise of reversed imperialism. Unusually, Stoker makes explicit reference to the writings of Lombroso and Nordau in the course of the novel. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories include a host of degenerationist tropes, perhaps best illustrated (drawing on the ideas of Serge Voronoff) in The Adventure of the Creeping Man. See also Behavioral sink Decadence Declinism Degenerate art Devolution Dysgenics Human extinction Idiocracy Last man "The Marching Morons" Societal collapse Notes References Further reading Bioethics History of psychiatry History of psychology History of mental health Lamarckism History of eugenics Pseudo-scholarship

Praetorianism

Praetorianism means excessive or abusive political influence of the armed forces in a country. The word comes from the Roman Praetorian Guard, who became increasingly influential in the appointment of Roman emperors. Daniel R. Headrick, professor of History and Social Sciences at Roosevelt University, describes praetorianism as a type of militarism oriented to the interior life of a nation, often related to minor countries, that does not aspire to fight or win international wars, but instead to maintain its influence in the domestic political system, controlling decisions that could affect the interests of the military as a corporation, or supporting some particular political faction or party. In his book Political Order in Changing Societies, the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington uses the term praetorian to designate social orders in which political participation is high relative to their political institutionalization. A low ratio of institutionalization to participation, he argued, would then lead to political decay. References Political theories Militarism

Geochronology

Geochronology is the science of determining the age of rocks, fossils, and sediments using signatures inherent in the rocks themselves. Absolute geochronology can be accomplished through radioactive isotopes, whereas relative geochronology is provided by tools such as paleomagnetism and stable isotope ratios. By combining multiple geochronological (and biostratigraphic) indicators the precision of the recovered age can be improved. Geochronology is different in application from biostratigraphy, which is the science of assigning sedimentary rocks to a known geological period via describing, cataloging and comparing fossil floral and faunal assemblages. Biostratigraphy does not directly provide an absolute age determination of a rock, but merely places it within an interval of time at which that fossil assemblage is known to have coexisted. Both disciplines work together hand in hand, however, to the point where they share the same system of naming strata (rock layers) and the time spans utilized to classify sublayers within a stratum. The science of geochronology is the prime tool used in the discipline of chronostratigraphy, which attempts to derive absolute age dates for all fossil assemblages and determine the geologic history of the Earth and extraterrestrial bodies. Dating methods Radiometric dating By measuring the amount of radioactive decay of a radioactive isotope with a known half-life, geologists can establish the absolute age of the parent material. A number of radioactive isotopes are used for this purpose, and depending on the rate of decay, are used for dating different geological periods. More slowly decaying isotopes are useful for longer periods of time, but less accurate in absolute years. With the exception of the radiocarbon method, most of these techniques are actually based on measuring an increase in the abundance of a radiogenic isotope, which is the decay-product of the radioactive parent isotope. Two or more radiometric methods can be used in concert to achieve more robust results. Most radiometric methods are suitable for geological time only, but some such as the radiocarbon method and the 40Ar/39Ar dating method can be extended into the time of early human life and into recorded history. Some of the commonly used techniques are: Radiocarbon dating. This technique measures the decay of carbon-14 in organic material and can be best applied to samples younger than about 60,000 years. Uranium–lead dating. This technique measures the ratio of two lead isotopes (lead-206 and lead-207) to the amount of uranium in a mineral or rock. Often applied to the trace mineral zircon in igneous rocks, this method is one of the two most commonly used (along with argon–argon dating) for geologic dating. Monazite geochronology is another example of U–Pb dating, employed for dating metamorphism in particular. Uranium–lead dating is applied to samples older than about 1 million years. Uranium–thorium dating. This technique is used to date speleothems, corals, carbonates, and fossil bones. Its range is from a few years to about 700,000 years. Potassium–argon dating and argon–argon dating. These techniques date metamorphic, igneous and volcanic rocks. They are also used to date volcanic ash layers within or overlying paleoanthropologic sites. The younger limit of the argon–argon method is a few thousand years. Electron spin resonance (ESR) dating Fission-track dating Cosmogenic nuclide geochronology A series of related techniques for determining the age at which a geomorphic surface was created (exposure dating), or at which formerly surficial materials were buried (burial dating). Exposure dating uses the concentration of exotic nuclides (e.g. 10Be, 26Al, 36Cl) produced by cosmic rays interacting with Earth materials as a proxy for the age at which a surface, such as an alluvial fan, was created. Burial dating uses the differential radioactive decay of 2 cosmogenic elements as a proxy for the age at which a sediment was screened by burial from further cosmic rays exposure. Luminescence dating Luminescence dating techniques observe 'light' emitted from materials such as quartz, diamond, feldspar, and calcite. Many types of luminescence techniques are utilized in geology, including optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), cathodoluminescence (CL), and thermoluminescence (TL). Thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence are used in archaeology to date 'fired' objects such as pottery or cooking stones and can be used to observe sand migration. Incremental dating Incremental dating techniques allow the construction of year-by-year annual chronologies, which can be fixed (i.e. linked to the present day and thus calendar or sidereal time) or floating. Dendrochronology Ice cores Lichenometry Varves Paleomagnetic dating A sequence of paleomagnetic poles (usually called virtual geomagnetic poles), which are already well defined in age, constitutes an apparent polar wander path (APWP). Such a path is constructed for a large continental block. APWPs for different continents can be used as a reference for newly obtained poles for the rocks with unknown age. For paleomagnetic dating, it is suggested to use the APWP in order to date a pole obtained from rocks or sediments of unknown age by linking the paleopole to the nearest point on the APWP. Two methods of paleomagnetic dating have been suggested: (1) the angular method and (2) the rotation method. The first method is used for paleomagnetic dating of rocks inside of the same continental block. The second method is used for the folded areas where tectonic rotations are possible. Magnetostratigraphy Magnetostratigraphy determines age from the pattern of magnetic polarity zones in a series of bedded sedimentary and/or volcanic rocks by comparison to the magnetic polarity timescale. The polarity timescale has been previously determined by dating of seafloor magnetic anomalies, radiometrically dating volcanic rocks within magnetostratigraphic sections, and astronomically dating magnetostratigraphic sections. Chemostratigraphy Global trends in isotope compositions, particularly carbon-13 and strontium isotopes, can be used to correlate strata. Correlation of marker horizons Marker horizons are stratigraphic units of the same age and of such distinctive composition and appearance that, despite their presence in different geographic sites, there is certainty about their age-equivalence. Fossil faunal and floral assemblages, both marine and terrestrial, make for distinctive marker horizons. Tephrochronology is a method for geochemical correlation of unknown volcanic ash (tephra) to geochemically fingerprinted, dated tephra. Tephra is also often used as a dating tool in archaeology, since the dates of some eruptions are well-established. Geological hierarchy of chronological periodization Geochronology, from largest to smallest: Supereon Eon Era Period Epoch Age Chron Differences from chronostratigraphy It is important not to confuse geochronologic and chronostratigraphic units. Geochronological units are periods of time, thus it is correct to say that Tyrannosaurus rex lived during the Late Cretaceous Epoch. Chronostratigraphic units are geological material, so it is also correct to say that fossils of the genus Tyrannosaurus have been found in the Upper Cretaceous Series. In the same way, it is entirely possible to go and visit an Upper Cretaceous Series deposit – such as the Hell Creek deposit where the Tyrannosaurus fossils were found – but it is naturally impossible to visit the Late Cretaceous Epoch as that is a period of time. See also Astronomical chronology Age of Earth Age of the universe Chronological dating, archaeological chronology Absolute dating Relative dating Phase (archaeology) Archaeological association Geochronology Closure temperature Geologic time scale Geological history of Earth Thermochronology List of geochronologic names General Consilience, evidence from independent, unrelated sources can "converge" on strong conclusions References Further reading Smart, P.L., and Frances, P.D. (1991), Quaternary dating methods - a user's guide. Quaternary Research Association Technical Guide No.4 Lowe, J.J., and Walker, M.J.C. (1997), Reconstructing Quaternary Environments (2nd edition). Longman publishing Mattinson, J. M. (2013), Revolution and evolution: 100 years of U-Pb geochronology. Elements 9, 53–57. Geochronology bibliography Talk:Origins Archive External links Geochronology and Isotopes Data Portal International Commission on Stratigraphy BGS Open Data Geochronological Ontologies Radiometric dating

Historical dynamics

Historical dynamics broadly includes the scientific modeling of history. This might also be termed computer modeling of history, historical simulation, or simulation of history - allowing for an extensive range of techniques in simulation and estimation. Historical dynamics does not exist as a separate science, but there are individual efforts such as long range planning, population modeling, economic forecasting, demographics, global modeling, country modeling, regional planning, urban planning and many others in the general categories of computer modeling, planning, forecasting, and simulations. Some examples of "large" history where historical dynamics simulations would be helpful include; global history, large structures, histories of empires, long duration history, philosophy of history, Eurasian history, comparative history, long-range environmental history, world systems theory, non-Western political and economic development, and historical demography. Information sources for simulations With the rise of technologies like wikis, and internet-wide search engines, some historical and social data can be mined to constrain models of history and society. Data from social media sites, and busy sites, can be mined for human patterns of action. These can provide more and more realistic behavioral models for individuals and groups of any size. Agent-based models and microsimulations of human behavior can be embedded in larger historical simulations. Related subfields are behavioral economics and human behavioral ecology. Data mining, web mining, predictive analytics Social media, web analytics, social networks Automated translation, natural language processing, Turing test Crowd computing has been applied to history, and offers another tool for historical verification and validation. Sectoral databases In every sector of human activity, there are extensive databases for transportation data, urban development, health statistics, education data, social data, economic data—along with many projections. See :Category:economic databases, :Category:statistical data sets, :Category:social statistics data, :Category:social statistics and :Category:statistics. Some examples of database activity include Asian Development Bank statistics, World Bank data, and the International Monetary Fund data. Time series analysis and econometrics are well established fields for the analysis of trends and forecasting; but, survey data and microdatasets can also be used in forecasts and simulations. Global, country, and sectoral models in international development The United Nations and other organizations routinely project the population of individual countries and regions of the world decades into the future. These demographic models are used by other organizations for projecting demand for services in all sectors of each economy. International Monetary Fund - Finance, Government Accounts Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development World Health Organization - Health Food and Agriculture Organization - Food and Agriculture International Labour Organization - Labour World Trade Organization - Trade World Bank - extensive modeling and data activities, Each country often has their corresponding modeling groups for each of these major sectors. These can be grouped in separate articles according to sector. Groups include government departments, international aid agencies, as well as nonprofit and non-governmental organizations. A broad class of models used for economic and social modeling of countries and sectors are the Computable general equilibrium (CGE) model - also called applied general equilibrium models. In the context of time based simulations and policy analysis, see dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models. Linked economic, social, and climate models Partly because of the controversy over global climate change, there is an extensive network of global climate models, and related social and economic models. These seek to estimate, not only the change in climate and its physical effects, but also the impact on human society and the natural environment. See global economic models, social model, microsimulation, climate model, global climate models, and general circulation model. The relationship between the environment and society is examined through environmental social science. human ecology, political ecology, and ecology, in general, can be areas where computer and mathematical modeling over time can be relevant to historical simulation. Historical simulations Web-based historical simulations, simulations of history, interactive historical simulations, are increasingly popular for entertainment and educational purposes. The field is expanding rapidly and no central index seems to be available. Another example is Several computer games allow players to interact with the game to model societies over time. The Civilization (series) is one example. Others include Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Spore, Colonization, Alpha Centauri, Call to Power, and CivCity: Rome. A longer list of games in historical context, which might include degrees of simulation, are found at :Category:Video games with historical settings. Military simulation is a well-developed field and increasingly accessible on the internet. Simulating society Computer models for simulating society fall under artificial society, social simulation, computational sociology, computational social science, and mathematical sociology. There is an interdisciplinary Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation for computer simulation of social processes. The European Social Simulation Association promotes social simulation research in Europe; it is the publisher of JASSS. There is a corresponding Computational Social Science Society of the Americas., and a Pan-Asian Association for Agent-based Approach in Social Systems Sciences. PAAA lists some related Japanese associations. The SimSoc (Simulated Society tool) is in its fifth edition. Cities There has been extensive research in urban planning, environmental planning and related fields: regional planning, land-use planning, transportation planning, urban studies, and regional science. Journals for these fields are listed at List of planning journals. SimCity is a game for simulations of artificial cities. It has spawned a range of "sim" games. The planning groups try to simulate changes in real cities. The game groups allow experiments with artificial cities. And the two are merging in such efforts as Vizicities Industry The profiling of industries is well developed, and most industries make forecasts and plans. See industrial history, history of steel, history of mining, history of construction, history of the petroleum industry, and many other histories of specific industries. See cyclical industrial dynamics for modeling of industries in the sense of "historical dynamics of industries". Some related terms are industrial planning, history of industry, industrial evolution, technology change, and technology forecasting. An example of "history friendly" industrial models. from the journal, Industrial and Corporate Change. Economy-wide models must take into account the interactions between industry and the rest of the economy. See Input–output model, economic planning, and social accounting matrix for some relevant techniques. Futures Many of the techniques from futures studies are applicable to historical dynamics. Whether projecting forward from a point in the past to the present for validation studies, or projecting backwards from the present into the past - many of the techniques are useful. Likewise, simulations of the past, or alternative pasts, provide a groundwork of techniques for futures studies. Bibliography History & Mathematics: Historical Dynamics and Development of Complex Societies, Russian intro, English language See also Cliodynamics References Dynamical systems Economic history studies Historiometry Mathematical modeling Simulation Social history

Cambridge Pre-U

The Cambridge Pre-U was a school leaving qualification from Cambridge Assessment International Education that was an alternative to the current A-Level qualification. It was offered between 2008 and 2023 and was principally aimed at students aged 16–19, and has recognition for university entrance. The Cambridge Pre-U was launched in 2008 by Cambridge International Examinations in order to create a qualification which would offer additional depth in subjects beyond the standard A-Level syllabus. A number of independent, grammar and comprehensive schools and sixth-form colleges replaced A-Levels with Cambridge Pre-Us in some subjects. Over 120 schools offered Cambridge Pre-U in at least one subject and with some schools switching completely to offering solely the Pre-U. The Cambridge Pre-U was linear, like the UK A level (the international A-level variant delivered by Cambridge International Examinations is also linear), and does not have any compulsory principal subjects as the International Baccalaureate does: students had a free choice of three such "Principal Subjects" out of 27. Additional subjects may be taken, though not incorporated into the Diploma. There were also 'short courses', consisting of one year's study, available in Modern Foreign Languages, Maths and Further Maths. Students who completed an "Independent Research Project" and a "Global Perspectives" portfolio in addition to the three "Principal Subjects" were eligible for the award of the Cambridge Pre-U Diploma. All the 'Ivy League' universities in the USA accepted the Cambridge Pre-U for the purposes of university entrance. Cambridge Assessment International Education has withdrawn the Cambridge Pre-U qualification for new entries. The last examination was held in June 2023, though a resit is available in June 2024. Principal Subjects The Guide for Schools listed: English: Literature in English Humanities: Classical Heritage, Geography, Global Perspectives, History, Philosophy and Theology Languages: Classical Greek, French, German, Italian, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Spanish Mathematics: Mathematics, Further Mathematics Science: Biology, Chemistry, Physics Social Sciences: Business and Management, Comparative Government and Politics, Economics, Psychology The Arts: Art and Design, Art History, Drama and Theatre, Music Grading In the Pre-U, each Principal Subject was graded on a three-band, nine-grade scale: The full Pre-U Diploma was graded on the aggregate of the three Principal Subjects, the Independent Research Project, and the Global Perspectives portfolio. The two together (GPR) could also be taken as a separate subject. The Independent Research Project and the Global Perspectives portfolio were each worth exactly half of a Principal Subject; thus, their aggregate formed the equivalent of another Principal Subject. The Pre-U Diploma was graded out of 96 overall; each Principal Subject was graded out of 24, and both Global Perspectives and the Independent Research Report were graded out of 12 each. Some schools offered a mix of A-levels and Pre-U Principal Subjects. With such a mix it is still possible to earn a Pre-U Diploma. UCAS tariff The Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) has awarded a tariff score for Cambridge Pre-U which reflects the HE view of the qualification as very good preparation for university study. Using UCAS tariff scores as a benchmark, universities will be able to compare Cambridge Pre-U and A-Level grades. The Cambridge Pre-U grading scale is divided into three bands: Distinction, Merit and Pass, each sub-divided into three grades (Distinction 1, Distinction 2, Distinction 3 and so on). The top grades, Distinction 1 and Distinction 2, were awarded 56 UCAS points, the same as an A* at A-level. Distinction 3 is aligned to a grade A at A-level. The lowest pass grade, Pass 3, is aligned to the border between E and U at A-Level. UCAS awards Principal Subjects 52 points for Distinction 3 and that a Pass 3 is worth 20 points. The tariff for exceptional candidates who achieve a Distinction 1 pass were to have been announced after the first Cambridge Pre-U examination entries were assessed; both D1 and D2 are currently awarded 56 tariff points. UCAS has given the Global Perspectives and Research component the same tariff as a single Principal Subject. The 'short course' subjects have a separate tariff score too, for example: 22 for a Distinction 1; 20 for a Distinction 2 or 3; 6 for a Pass 3. References External links Cambridge Pre-U official site First Pre-U textbook (in chemistry) Pre-U Past Papers Cambridge International Examinations Educational qualifications in the United Kingdom School qualifications School examinations

Social reproduction

Social reproduction describes the reproduction of social structures and systems, mainly on the basis of particular preconditions in demographics, education and inheritance of material property or legal titles (as earlier with aristocracy). Reproduction is understood as the maintenance and continuation of existing social relations. Originally formulated by Karl Marx in Das Kapital, this concept is a variety of Marx's notion of economic reproduction. According to sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, there are four types of capital that contribute to social reproduction in society: economic capital, cultural capital, social capital and symbolic capital. Social reproduction in this sense is distinct from the term as it is used in Marxist feminism to discuss reproductive labor. In that application, it is used to explain the role of women in wider social and class structures, and their (often unrecognized) contribution to the capitalist economy via their (traditional) role within the household as both child-bearers and family caretakers, and by extension women's role as providers of free labor that is necessary to produce and maintain current and future workers. Four types of capital All four of Pierre Bourdieu's forms of capital play a role in social reproduction, as capital is passed from generation to generation and keeps people in the same social class as their parents before them. This keeps reproducing inequality through the system of social stratification. The four types of capital are: Economic capital: the income and wealth of a person, which may well come along with one's inheritance of cultural capital. Cultural capital: the shared outlook, beliefs, knowledge, and skills that are passed between generations, which may in turn influence human capital. Human capital: the education and job training a person receives, and which contributes to the likelihood that one will acquire social capital. Social capital: the social network to which one belongs, which can largely influence one's ability to find opportunities, especially employment. In education Social reproduction, when co-opted with cultural reproduction, allows for sociology of education to assume its role. Education is an attempt at leveling the playing field by allowing those in poorer classes a chance to move up. However, it fails in many critical ways; for example, education is costly: better schools mean better equipment, better books, and better teachers, all of which remain beyond the pay grade of the poverty line. Thus, higher education becomes exclusive to higher classes, leaving people of lower classes with much less to work with, as well as fewer opportunities. The education system in many high-income countries polarizes individuals from a young age. It creates elites who care little for those in the classes beneath them and believe that they should earn extraordinarily more than everyone else, all the while defining people by their jobs, concluding that those with low-paid jobs for that reason live in relative poverty. The system strives to maintain the status quo so children can be greatly denigrated. As the rich take in an increasing amount of the country's wealth, there is less and less for the general populace, resulting in poorer education. Education in the United States Statistics show that the majority of dropouts are below the poverty line. Due to a lack of capital, they do not complete their education, seeing it as less convenient to complete schooling rather than find work, and support themselves or their families. Usually, these dropouts consist of the minority groups, such as Hispanics and African Americans. Many drop out due to lack of funds to continue their education, some are single parents, or have had a deceased parent, which makes it difficult to study and work at the same time. These issues are rarely seen in higher classes, making it less likely for them to drop out and reject opportunities. In health and illness The sociology of health and illness studies how social life affects morbidity and mortality rate, and vice versa. Social reproduction is involved in this field when it comes to how inequalities affect the health of people in particular classes. The greater the economic inequality, the more of a toll it takes on the health of the populace, from life expectancy to infant mortality, and in cases like the U.S., increasing rates of obesity. Studies conducted on the population of high income countries make this apparent. It is not just simply poverty, though they do go hand in hand, but it also leads to a gap in social cohesion, which leads the general populace to be more stressed, fearful, and insecure. In the majority of high-income countries, the top 1% live, on average, 10 years longer than the average 99%, statistically making those born into the poorer classes naturally have a shorter life span. This can be attributed to the top 1% having access to better healthcare. The bottom 99% may be disinclined to visit doctors and take cough medicine for more serious illnesses, and are disadvantaged especially in cases of incurable illnesses like AIDS where constant medicating with expensive, non-subsidized drugs is the only way to sustain a normal life. Those born into a lower class are at a higher risk of suffering from illness. In the past, the poor suffered from hunger and starvation. However, in high-income countries like the U.S., the opposite is true. Food-insecure families are the most prone to high rates of obesity, especially in children. This can be attributed to the generally higher cost of healthful foods, a lack of education regarding healthy eating habits, and faster preparation times, causing fast foods, or other unhealthy alternatives to be consumed often for their ease of acquisition and generally low price. This leads to long-term epidemiological problems in which children who become obese maintain their obesity into their adult lives, suffering from associated ailments such as heart disease, high blood pressure, increased risk for several types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, stroke, infertility, arthritis, breathing difficulties and/or depression. Social class system in the United States Social reproduction is the passing on of social inequality across generations. The upper class has many advantages; having money provides the ability to have even more resources to get ahead. The opposite is true for lower classes, where with less money, there are fewer resources. As Marx states, "[c]lass-struggle between capital and labor is forced into the background." "Capitalism isn't working. Another world is possible" is an argument that is made by many protesters around the world, who gather in rallies more and more often every year. These protests are more prevalent in higher-income countries where most of the 1% live like the U.S. and the U.K. with a growing social cohesion among protesters because the vast majority of people in rich countries are suffering due to increasing inequalities. Many of the poor have begun to depend on the state rather than their own wages. All the while, their descendants will be raised in a fixed system that favors the elites, so they are bound to the same class they were born in. Social reproduction revolves around the understanding that rich breed rich, and the poor breed poor: those born into a particular class are more often than not bound to live their lives in that class. The following statistics are of the U.S. population. Lower class The lower class is a class afflicted by a cycle of poverty, homelessness, and unemployment. This is seen as they suffer from the inability to pay bills some of which then find themselves living on the street, experiencing food insecurity as many families will find themselves going hungry least once a year, or lack of medical care where many cannot pay for medication or treatment for potentially fatal illnesses. All the while, this class is usually labelled by the media as being lazy, system abusers, or criminals. Those born into this class have lower class mobility due to restrictions on resources, such as money and access to better education. This class is a point of reference in social reproduction, comprising 15% to 20% of the U.S. population. The majority of those in the lower classes are minorities. Working class The working class has a minimal education. They are usually physical laborers with little to no qualifications. They can also be seen working service industries, but are underpaid and no chance for promotions in their standings. Potential skilled workers who may at times work better-paying but dangerous jobs. Those born into this system usually have a torch of labor passed on to them, and they follow the same profession their family did. They comprise 30% to 40% of the U.S. population, and the majority are minorities. Middle class The middle class consists of two divided classes. The lower half bears resemblance to those of lower classes, i.e., usually less educated with lower incomes, but they can be found in managerial positions, in education, as well as small business owners. The upper half consists of professionals and educated business owners. Those born into this class have the most diversity, either deciding to take up the torch or surpass their parents. The majority goes on to complete their educations, and maintain a career. They comprise 40% to 50% of the U.S. population. The majority is a blend. Upper class The upper class is known to hold 25% of the wealth in the U.S.. This class shares something in common with the middle class. A division into two. The lower half who consist of new money, investments, and successful business owners. The majority who were originally Middle Class or rarely lower. The upper half consists of families who have been rich for generations. A point of reference in social reproduction brought along the ages. Those born into this class receive inheritances from those who die and so forth. Their descendants are sent off to the finest of schools leaving them with the most opportunities of all. They comprise 1% to 3% of the U.S. population. The lower half can be a blend, whereas the upper half consists of mostly white families. References Sociological terminology

East–West dichotomy

In sociology, the East–West dichotomy is the perceived difference between the Eastern and the Western worlds. Cultural and religious rather than geographical in division, the boundaries of East and West are not fixed, but vary according to the criteria adopted by individuals using the term. Used in discussing such studies as management, economics, international relations, and linguistics, the concept is criticized for overlooking regional hybridity. Divisions Conceptually, the boundaries are cultural, rather than geographical, as a result of which Australia and New Zealand are typically grouped in the West (despite being geographically in the east), while Islamic nations are, regardless of location, grouped in the East. However, there are a few Muslim-majority regions in Europe which do not fit this dichotomy. The culture line can be particularly difficult to place in regions of cultural diversity such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose citizens may themselves identify as East or West depending on ethnic or religious background. Further, residents of different parts of the world perceive the boundaries differently; for example, some European scholars define Russia as East, but most agree that it is the West's second complementary part, and Islamic nations regard it and other predominantly Christian nations as the West. Another unanswered question is whether Siberia (North Asia) is "Eastern" or "Western." Historical concepts The concept has been used in both "Eastern" and "Western" nations. Japanese sinologist Tachibana Shiraki, in the 1920s, wrote of the need to unify Asia—East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia but excluding Central Asia and West Asia—and form a "New East" that might combine culturally in balancing against the West. Japan continued to make much of the concept, known as Pan-Asianism, throughout World War II, in propaganda. In China, it was encapsulated during the Cold War in a 1957 speech by Mao Zedong, who launched a slogan when he said, "This is a war between two worlds. The West Wind cannot prevail over the East Wind; the East Wind is bound to prevail over the West Wind." To Western writers, in the 1940s, it became bound up with an idea of aggressive, "frustrated nationalism", which was seen as "intrinsically anti- or non-Western"; sociologist Frank Furedi wrote, "The already existing intellectual assessment of European nationalism adapted to the growth of the Third World variety by developing the couplet of mature Western versus immature Eastern nationalism.... This East-West dichotomy became an accepted part of Western political theory." The 1978 book Orientalism, by Edward Said, was highly influential in further establishing concepts of the East–West dichotomy in the Western world, bringing into college lectures a notion of the East as "characterized by religious sensibilities, familial social orders, and ageless traditions" in contrast to Western "rationality, material and technical dynamism, and individualism." More recently, the divide has also been posited as an Islamic "East" and an American and European "West." Critics note that an Islamic/non-Islamic East–West dichotomy is complicated by the global dissemination of Islamic fundamentalism and by cultural diversity within Islamic nations, moving the argument "beyond that of an East-West dichotomy and into a tripartite situation." Applications The East–West dichotomy has been used in studying a range of topics, including management, economics and linguistics. Knowledge Creation and Management (2007) examines it as the difference in organizational learning between Western cultures and the Eastern world. It has been widely used in exploring the period of rapid economic growth that has been termed the "East-Asian miracle" in segments of East Asia, particularly the Asian Tigers, following World War II. Some sociologists, in line with the West as a model of modernity posited by Arnold J. Toynbee, have perceived the economic expansion as a sign of the "Westernization" of the region, but others look for explanation in cultural/racial characteristics of the East, embracing concepts of fixed Eastern cultural identity in a phenomenon described as "New Orientalism". Both approaches to the East–West dichotomy have been criticized for failing to take into account the historical hybridity of the regions. The concept has also been brought to bear on examinations of intercultural communication. Asians are widely described as embracing an "inductive speech pattern" in which a primary point is approached indirectly, but Western societies are said to use "deductive speech" in which speakers immediately establish their point. That is attributed to a higher priority among Asians in harmonious interrelations, but Westerners are said to prioritize direct communication. 2001's Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach described the East–West dichotomy linguistically as a "false dichotomy", noting that both Asian and Western speakers use both forms of communication. Criticism In addition to difficulties in defining regions and overlooking hybridity, the East–West dichotomy has been criticized for creating an artificial construct of regional unification that allows one voice to claim authority to speak for multitudes. In "The Triumph of the East?", Mark T. Berger speaks to the issue as relates to examination of the "East-Asian miracle": The historical power of the East-West dichotomy, and the fixed conceptions of culture/race to which it is linked, have increasingly allowed the national elites of the region to speak not only for their 'nations,' but even for Asia and Asians.... There are numerous instances of Western scholars, intent on challenging North American and/or Western hegemony in both material and discursive terms, ending up uncritically privileging the elite narratives of power-holders in Asia as authentic representatives of a particular non-Western nation or social formation (and also contributing to the See also Clash of Civilizations East-west cultural debate in early 20th century China Global North and Global South Inglehart–Welzel cultural map of the world Oriental Despotism Orientalism References Further reading Balancing the East, Upgrading the West; U.S. Grand Strategy in an Age of Upheaval by Zbigniew Brzezinski January/February 2012 Foreign Affairs Cultural regions Dichotomies International relations theory Political theories

The Creation of Patriarchy

The Creation of Patriarchy is a non-fiction book written by Gerda Lerner in 1986 as an explanation for the origins of misogyny in ancient Mesopotamia and the following Western societies. She traces the "images, metaphors, [and] myths" that lead to patriarchal concepts' existence in Western society (Lerner 10). She believes that the creation of patriarchy in the ancient Near East was a 2500-year period from nearly 3100 BC to 600 BC rather than a single event (Lerner 8). In the text, Lerner argues that women have historically played a large role in the systemic subjugation of women, whether for self-preservation, to receive the benefits of class and more modernly "race", or for other reasons. She claims that it is likely that women accepted sex-segregated tasks in their societies long before it led to sex-based oppression. Lerner also argues that the widespread existence of misogyny in societies is not due to biological or psychological differences between males and females, but rather that it has historical explanations. She states that since patriarchy "has a beginning in history", it "can be ended by historical process" (Lerner 6). Contents The book contains eleven chapters, the majority named after a metaphor for gender (Lerner 10). Each chapter traces a different aspect of "the development of the leading ideas, symbols, and metaphors by which patriarchal gender relations were incorporated into Western civilization (Lerner 10). "Introduction" "Origins" argues that the formation of private property and class society occurred after the appropriation of women's sexual and reproductive capacities. "A Working Hypothesis" claims that archaic states had a great interest in maintaining a patriarchal family structure because they were organized from it. "The Stand-in Wife and the Pawn" states that men learned to subjugate other groups from practicing dominance over women, and that this was expressed through slavery, beginning with the enslavement of women from conquered groups. "The Woman Slave" asserts that according to many different ancient legal codes, states enforced women's sexual subordination through force, economic dependency, class privileges, and the artificial division between "respectable" and "non-respectable" women. "The Wife and the Concubine" argues that class differences exist for men based on their relation to the means of production while for women they are based on their sexual ties to men who grant them material resources. This chapter also claims that laws defined "respectable" women as attached to one man and "non respectable" women as those unattached to a single or any men, and that these laws were institutionalized through the veiling of women. "Veiling the Woman" explains that long after women had become subordinated to men in most aspects of their lives, metaphysical female power, especially birthing, was still worshiped by women and men in the form of powerful goddesses and that women played respected roles as mediators between humans and gods. This chapter also describes the historical procession from first, the invention of Near East kingship; to second, the replacement of goddesses with a dominant male god figure; to third, the understanding of fertility control as being conceptualized as a goddess' undertaking to the "symbolic of actual mating of the male god or God-King with the Goddess or her priestess" (Lerner 9); to fourth, the split between eroticism/sexuality and pro-creativity as expressed by the creation of desperate goddesses for both functions; to finally, the transformation of the Mother-Goddess into "the wife/consort of the chief male God" (Lerner 9). "The Goddess" claims that early Hebrew monotheism was expressed as an attack on different cults of various fertility goddesses. It asserts that the Book of Genesis and its writing ascribes creativity and pro-creativity to an all-powerful God with titles of "Lord" and "King", establishing him as male. It also discusses the foundations of the association of female sexuality dissociated from procreation with sin and evil. "The Patriarchs" explains the establishment of a covenant community that both symbolizes and actually contracts an assumed, inherent subordination of women in the relationship between the monotheistic god and humanity. It argues that through this, women are excluded from the metaphysical covenant and the earthly covenant community, leading them to solely access God and the holy community as mothers. "The Covenant" argues that this symbolic devaluation of women in relation to the divine becomes one of the metaphors that founds Western society, along with the assumption that women are incomplete and damaged human beings of a different and lower order than men, as described by Aristotle. "Symbols" "The Creation of Patriarchy" Reception The book has been read and taught for many gender and women's studies courses along with other fields. The arguments presented in this book have been called "provocative" and "suggestive" by anthropologist Deborah Gewertz. One reviewer described it as "a fascinating and well-informed book". A different critic, journalist Nancy Barnes, stated: "The book is a tremendous achievement, which will serve us all in useful and provocative ways." Still another critic, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, critiqued the book as insufficient in explaining the development of Western patriarchy. Catharine R. Stimpson of Rutgers University described the book as having "the boldness, authority, and richness of The Second Sex." The book won the 1986 Joan Kelly Prize of the American Historical Association. References Citations Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. 1986 non-fiction books American non-fiction books Anthropology books Books about civilizations Books about social constructionism Books about spirituality Books about the ancient Near East Books about the philosophy of sexuality Books about wealth distribution English-language books Feminist books Gender history Gender studies books History books about politics Marxist books Non-fiction books about sexuality Non-fiction books about slavery Theology books

History of cross-dressing

This article details the history of cross-dressing, the act of wearing the clothes of the sex or gender one does not identify with. Background Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold the primary power over women and their families in regards to the tradition, law, division of labor, and education women can take part in. Women used cross-dressing to pass as men in order to live adventurous lives outside of the home, which were unlikely to occur while living as women. Women who engaged in cross-dressing in earlier centuries were lower-class women who would gain access to economic independence as well as freedom to travel, without much risk of losing what they had. The practice of women dressing as men was generally viewed more positively as compared to men dressing as women. Altenburger states that female-to-male cross-dressing entailed a movement forward in terms of social status, power, and freedom whereas men who cross-dressed were ridiculed or otherwise viewed negatively. Some people also alleged that men would cross-dress to gain access around women for their own sexual desire. The LGBTQ community would use cross dressing as a means of "being able to find acceptance within the dominant culture." This idea was raised during the late 1900s, but throughout history, including early Christianity, there are accounts of saints cross-dressing as a means of protection, expression and necessity to stand in line in the social order. They take on a name that would accurately represent who they identified as and how they wanted to stand in the social order. In Christian history and religion Kristi Upson-Saia discusses how the early church reacted and dealt with the accusations and proof of saints cross-dressing. According to Upson-Saia, the church's response to these incidents varied depending on the social and political backdrop of the period. In other cases, the church used the saints' cross-dressing to promote traditional gender standards and its own authority over problems of gender and sexuality. In other situations, the church may have accepted the saints' cross-dressing as proof of their spiritual purity and dedication. Upson-Saia also observes that the church's stance to cross-dressing was not always uniform across time and region. Some cross-dressing saints, for example, were honored in some parts of the world but reviled in others. Furthermore, the church's reaction to cross-dressing may have been impacted by other factors such as the saint's social rank, their role in the church, and the political context of the time. Tertullian, a Christian theologian, shames women who would refuse to wear their veil in public, which is an example of cross-dressing and bending the gender norms during early Christianity. Tertullian contends that women who dress like males commit a sin because they violate God's natural order. He claims that God designed men and women to be unique and diverse, and that cross-dressing blurs these boundaries and distorts gender roles. He also claims that when women dress like males, they are "degrading themselves" and "diminishing their own femininity." He writes that when a woman dresses like a man, they are "laying aside the ornaments of their own sex, to assume those of the other." He says, when women do this, they decide on "changing their condition and deserting what is peculiar to themselves." According to Tertullian, this leads to "depravity of morals." It was once considered taboo in Western society for women to wear clothing traditionally associated with men, except when done in certain circumstances such as cases of necessity (as per St. Thomas Aquinas's guidelines in Summa Theologiae II), which states: "Nevertheless, this may be done sometimes without sin on account of some necessity, either in order to hide oneself from enemies, or through lack of other clothes, or for some similar motive." Cross-dressing is cited as an abomination in the Bible in the book of Deuteronomy (22:5), which states: "A woman must not wear men's clothing, nor a man wear women's clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this", but as Aquinas noted above this principle was interpreted to be based on context. Other people in the Middle Ages occasionally disputed its applicability; for instance, the 15th-century French poet Martin le Franc. Historical figures Historical figures have cross-dressed for various reasons across the centuries. For example, women have dressed as men in order to go to war, and men have dressed as women in order to avoid going to war. Many people have engaged in cross-dressing during wartime under various circumstances and for various motives. This has been especially true of women, whether while serving as a soldier in otherwise all-male armies, while protecting themselves or disguising their identity in dangerous circumstances, or for other purposes. Conversely, men would dress as women to avoid being drafted, the mythological precedent for this being Achilles hiding at the court of Lycomedes dressed as a girl to avoid participation in the Trojan War. Several tales of the Desert Fathers speak of monks who were disguised women, and being discovered only when their bodies were prepared for burial. One such woman, Marina the Monk, died 508, accompanied her father to a monastery and adopted a monk's habit as a disguise. When falsely accused of getting a woman pregnant, she patiently bore the accusation rather than revealing her identity to clear her name, an action praised in medieval books of saints' lives as an example of humble forbearance. In monarchies where the throne was inherited by male offspring, male descendants of deposed rulers were sometimes dressed as female so that they would be allowed to live. One example was the son of Korean Princess Gyeonghye, herself the daughter of a former king, who was dressed in female clothes in his early years to fool his great uncle into thinking he was not a male descendant of Munjong. The legend of Pope Joan alleges that she was a promiscuous female pope who dressed like a man and reigned from 855 to 858. Modern historians regard her as a mythical figure who originated from 13th-century anti-papal satire. In mythology Greek In punishment for his murder of Iphitus, Heracles/Hercules was given to Omphale as a slave. Many variants of this story say that she not only compelled him to do women's work, but compelled him to dress as a woman while her slave. In Achilles on Skyros, Achilles was dressed in women's clothing by his mother Thetis at the court of Lycomedes, to hide him from Odysseus who wanted him to join the Trojan War. Athena often goes to the aid of people in the guise of men in The Odyssey. Tiresias was turned into a woman after angering the goddess Hera by killing a female snake that was coupling. In the cult of Aphroditus, worshipers cross-dressed, men wore women's clothing and women dressed in men's clothing with false beards. Norse Thor dressed as Freyja to get Mjölnir back in Þrymskviða. Odin dressed as a female healer as part of his efforts to seduce Rindr. Hagbard in the legend of Hagbard and Signy (the Romeo and Juliet of the Vikings). Frotho I dressed as a shieldmaiden in one of his eastern campaigns. Hervor from the Hervarar saga. When Hervor learnt that her father had been the infamous Swedish berserker Angantyr, she dressed as a man, called herself Hjörvard and lived for a long time as a Viking. Hindu The Mahabharata: In the Agnyatbaas ("exile") period of one year imposed upon the Pandavas, in which they had to keep their identities secret to avoid detection, Arjuna cross-dressed as Brihannala and became a dance teacher. The goddess Bahuchara Mata: In one legend, Bapiya was cursed by her and he became impotent. The curse was lifted only when he worshiped her by dressing and acting like a woman. Devotees of the god Krishna: Some male devotees of the god Krishna, specifically a sect called the sakhi bekhi, dress in female attire as an act of devotion. Krishna and his consort Radha had cross-dressed in each other's clothing. Krishna is also said to have dressed as a gopi and a kinnari goddess. In folklore Ballads have many cross-dressing heroines. While some (The Famous Flower of Serving-Men) merely need to move about freely, many do it specifically in pursuit of a lover (Rose Red and the White Lily or Child Waters) and consequently pregnancy often complicates the disguise. In the Chinese poem the Ballad of Mulan, Hua Mulan disguised herself as a man to take her elderly father's place in the army. Occasionally, men in ballads also disguise themselves as women, but not only is it rarer, the men dress so for less time, because they are merely trying to elude an enemy by the disguise, as in Brown Robin, The Duke of Athole's Nurse, or Robin Hood and the Bishop. According to Gude Wallace, William Wallace disguised himself as a woman to escape capture, which may have been based on historical information. Fairy tales seldom feature cross-dressing, but an occasional heroine needs to move freely as a man, as in the German The Twelve Huntsmen, the Scottish The Tale of the Hoodie, or the Russian The Lute Player. Madame d'Aulnoy included such a woman in her literary fairy tale, Belle-Belle ou Le Chevalier Fortuné. In festivals In the cities Techiman and Wenchi (both Ghana) men dress as women – and vice versa – during the annual Apoo festival (April/May). In literature Cross-dressing as a literary motif is well attested in older literature but is becoming increasingly popular in modern literature as well. It is often associated with character nonconformity and sexuality rather than gender identity. On stage and on the screen Many societies prohibited women from performing on stage, so boys and men took the female roles. In the ancient Greek theatre men played females, as they did in English Renaissance theatre and continue to do in Japanese kabuki theatre (see onnagata). Chinese opera was traditionally all-male, which led to the ride of female-led yue or Shaoxing opera. Cross-dressing in motion pictures began in the early days of the silent films. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel brought the tradition of female impersonation in the English music halls when they came to America with Fred Karno's comedy troupe in 1910. Both Chaplin and Laurel occasionally dressed as women in their films. Even the beefy American actor Wallace Beery appeared in a series of silent films as a Swedish woman. The Three Stooges, especially Curly (Jerry Howard), sometimes appeared in drag in their short films. The tradition has continued for many years, usually played for laughs. Only in recent decades have there been dramatic films in which cross-dressing was included, possibly because of strict censorship of American films until the mid-1960s. Cross-gender acting, on the other hand, refers to actors or actresses portraying a character of the opposite gender. In music By country Spain and Latin America Catalina de Erauso (1592–1650), known as la monja alférez "the Nun Lieutenant", was a Spanish woman who, after being sent to a convent at the age of 4, escaped from it disguised as a man, fled to America and enrolled herself in the Spanish army under the false name of Alonso Díaz Ramírez de Guzmán. She served under several captains, including her own brother, and was never discovered. She was said to behave as an extremely cruel soldier, although she had a successful career, reaching the rank of alférez (lieutenant) and becoming quite well known in the Americas. After a fight in which she killed a man, she was severely injured, and fearing her end, she confessed her true sex to a bishop. She nonetheless survived, and there was a huge scandal afterwards, especially since as a man she had become quite famous in the Americas, and because nobody had ever suspected anything about her true sex. Nevertheless, thanks to the scandal and her fame as a brave soldier, she became a celebrity. She went back to Spain, and was even granted a special dispensation by the pope to wear men's clothes. She started using the male name of Antonio de Erauso, and went back to the America, where she established a business as a muleteer between Mexico City and Veracruz. There was a complex and visible culture of homosexuals and cross-dressers that extended in all the social classes of Buenos Aires during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the first historical records of gay life in Buenos Aires were the criminal careers of several crossdressing swindlers, who were profiled by hygienists. A 1912 article published by Fray Mocho reported that this gang of crossdressing criminals made up of about three thousand men, which represented about 0.5 percent of the male population of Buenos Aires at that time. According to several testimonies, clandestine cross dressing balls were very popular among middle and upper class gay men in Buenos in the early-to-mid 20th century. In several Latin American countries, the local term for "cross-dresser" (travesti) was established over the years as a term to designate people who were assigned male at birth, but develop a gender identity according to different expressions of femininity; as the Western notions of "transgender" and "transsexual" had not yet been introduced to the region. Although of pejorative origin, many people continue to claim the travesti term as a gender identity that escapes the male-female binary. Scandinavia Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar was a Swedish woman who served as a soldier during the Great Northern War and married a woman. United States The history of cross-dressing in the United States is quite complicated as  the title of 'cross-dresser' has been historically been utilized as an umbrella term for varying identities such as cisgender people who dressed in the other gender's clothing, transgender people, and intersex people who dress in both genders' clothing. The term pops up in many arrest records for these identities as they are perceived to be a form of 'disguise' rather than a gender identity. For example, Harry Allen (1888–1922), born female under the name Nell Pickerell in the Pacific Northwest, was categorized as a 'male impersonator' who cross-dressed; he self-identified and lived full time as a man, fitting more closely with the term transgender which originated after Allen's lifetime. Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, colonial governor of New York and New Jersey in the early 18th century is reported to have enjoyed going out wearing his wife's clothing, but this is disputed. Hyde was an unpopular figure, and rumors of his cross-dressing may have begun as an urban legend. Because female enlistment was barred, many women fought for both the Union and the Confederacy during the American Civil War while dressed as men. Other contemporary cross-dressing artists include J.S.G. Boggs. The Gold Rush of 1849 led to a mass global migration of mainly male laborers to Northern California and the development of government backed economic interests in the Pacific Northwest region of the modern United States. The sudden explosive population increase resulted in a huge demand to import commodities including food, tools, sex, and entertainment, to these new male-oriented, homogeneous societies. As these societies evolved over the following decades, the growing demand for entertainment created a unique opportunity for male cross-dressers to perform. Cross-dressing was encouraged for entertainment purposes due to lack of women, yet the tolerance for the acts were limited to on-stage roles and did not extend to gender identities or same-sex desires. Julian Eltinge (1881–1941), a 'female impersonator' who performed in saloons in Montana as a kid and eventually made it to the Broadway stage, exemplifies this limited social acceptance for cross-dressing. His cross-dressing performances were celebrated by laborers who were starved for entertainment, yet his career was put at risk when he was exposed for exhibiting homosexual desires and behaviors. Cross-dressing was not just reserved for men on stage. It also played a crucial role in the development of female involvement in the United States' industrial labor force. Many female-born workers dressed in men's clothing to secure a laborer's wage to provide for their families. Testimonial accounts from cross-dressing women who had been arrested reflect that many chose to identify as male due to financial incentives, even though basic cross-dressing had been deemed immoral and could lead to legal consequences. Women also chose to cross-dress because they feared they might become victims of physical harm while traveling alone across long distances. San Francisco, California, was one of over 150 cities to have criminalized cross-dressing by framing the act as a form of immoral sexual perversion. The law was enforced by arrest; Gold Rush pioneer Marie Suize was arrested for wearing pants in San Francisco in 1871. In another case, doctor Hjelmar von Danneville was arrested in 1925, though she later negotiated with the city to obtain a permit to dress in masculine clothing. The ban against transvestism in the United States military dates back to 1961. US laws against crossdressing The birth of anti-cross-dressing laws (also known as masquerade laws and the three-article rule) stemmed from the increase in non-traditional gender expression during the spread of America's frontier, and the will to reinforce the two-gender system which was threatened by those who deviated from it. Some of the earlier cases of US arrests made due to cross-dressing are seen in 19th century Ohio. In 1848, Ohio passed a law which prohibited its citizens from publicly presenting themselves "in a dress not belonging to his or her sex," and during the 1850s, over 40 cities in the US went on to pass anti-cross-dressing laws. By the time the US entered WWI, over 150 cities had passed anti-cross-dressing ordinances. These cities were noticeably focused in the West, however across America many cities and states passed laws outlawing things such as public indecency or appearing in public under a disguise - effectively encompassing cross-dressing without mentioning sex or gender. The laws which did this often did not lend to an easy prosecution on the grounds of cross-dressing, because they were designed to prohibit presenting in disguise in order to commit a criminal offense. Because of this, the laws mainly served the purpose of allowing police to harass cross-dressers. There is significant documentation of the origins of these laws in San Francisco. The city passed its anti-cross-dressing law in 1863, and the specific criminalization of one publicly presenting "in a dress not belonging to his or her sex" was included in a wider law which criminalized general public indecency such as nudity. This conflation of cross-dressing with acts such as prostitution was not unintentional, as many prostitutes at the time used cross-dressing to signify their availability. This association between the two furthered the perception of cross-dressing as a perversion, and the law was effectively "one of the city's very first "good morals and decency" laws". Throughout time, anti-cross-dressing laws became difficult to apply, as the definitions of feminine and masculine presentation grew more obscure. After the Stonewall riots of 1969, cross-dressing arrests decreased and became much less common. In 1986, the case D.C. & M.S. v. City of St. Louis centered on an anti-cross-dressing city ordinance, with the presiding judge ruling that laws with criminal penalties must be strictly construed. France As the Hundred Years' War developed in the late Middle Ages, cross dressing was a way for French women to join the cause against England. Joan of Arc was a 15th-century French peasant girl who joined French armies against English forces fighting in France during the latter part of the Hundred Years' War. She is a French national heroine and a Catholic saint. After being captured by the English, she was burned at the stake upon being convicted by a pro-English religious court, with the act of dressing in male (soldiers') clothing being cited as one of the principal reasons for her execution. A number of eyewitnesses, however, later explained that she had said she wore soldiers' clothing in prison (consisting of hosen and long hip-boots attached to the doublet with twenty fasteners) because this made it more difficult for her guards to pull her clothing off during rape attempts. She was, however, burned alive in a long white gown. In the seventeenth century, France underwent a financially driven social conflict, the Fronde. At this period, women disguised themselves as men and enlisted in the army, sometimes with their male family members. Cross dressing also became a more common strategy for women to conceal their gender as they traveled, granting a safer and more efficient route. The practice of cross dressing was present more in literary works than in real life situations, despite its effective concealing properties. Charlotte d'Éon de Beaumont (1728–1810), usually known as the Chevalière d'Éon, was a French diplomat and soldier who lived the first half of her life as a man and the second half as a woman. In 1771 she stated that physically she was not a man, but a woman, having only been brought up as a man. From then on she lived as a woman. Though of ambiguous sex, she served the French military and French King as both a male-presenting soldier and a female-presenting spy. George Sand is the pseudonym of Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, an early 19th-century novelist who preferred to wear men's clothing exclusively. In her autobiography, she explains in length the various aspects of how she experienced cross-dressing. Rrose Sélavy, the feminine alter-ego of artist Marcel Duchamp, remains one of the most complex and pervasive pieces in the enigmatic puzzle of the artist's oeuvre. She first emerged in portraits made by the photographer Man Ray in New York in the early 1920s, when Duchamp and Man Ray were collaborating on a number of conceptual photographic works. Rrose Sélavy lived on as the person to whom Duchamp attributed specific works of art, Readymades, puns, and writings throughout his career. England, Scotland, and Ireland In medieval England, cross dressing was normal practice in the theatre, used by men and young boys dressing and playing both roles of male and female. During early modern London, religious authorities were against cross-dressing in theater due to it disregarding social conduct and causing gender confusion. Later, during the eighteenth century in London, crossdressing became a part of the club culture. Crossdressing took a part in men's only clubs where men would meet at these clubs dressed as women and drink. One of the most well known clubs for men to do this was known as the Molly Club or Molly House. Anne Bonny and Mary Read were 18th-century pirates who wore sailor pants, jackets, and tied handkerchiefs around their heads during pirate actions. Charles Edward Stuart dressed as Flora MacDonald's maid servant, Betty Burke, to escape the Battle of Culloden for the island of Skye in 1746. Mary Hamilton dressed as a man to learn medicine and later married a woman in 1746. It was also alleged that she had married and abandoned many others, for either financial gain or for sexual gratification. She was convicted of fraud for misrepresenting herself as a man to her bride. Ann Mills fought as a dragoon in 1740. Hannah Snell served as a man in the Royal Marines 1747–1750, being wounded 11 times, and was granted a military pension. Dorothy Lawrence was a war reporter who disguised herself as a man so she could become a soldier in World War I. Conspiracy theorist Vernon Coleman cross-dresses and has written several articles about men who cross-dress. Artist and Turner Prize winner, Grayson Perry often appears as his alter-ego, Clare. Writer, presenter and actor Richard O'Brien sometimes cross-dresses and ran a "Transfandango" ball aimed at transgender people of all kinds in aid of charity for several years in the early 2000s (decade). Eddie Izzard, stand-up comedian and actor, states that she has cross-dressed her entire life. She often performs her act in feminine clothing, and has discussed her cross dressing as part of her act. She calls herself an "executive transvestite". Japan Japan has a centuries-old tradition of male kabuki theatre actors cross-dressing onstage. Transgender men (and more rarely, women) were also "conspicuous" in Tokyo's gei (gay) bar and club subculture in the pre- and post-World War II period. By the 1950s, publications concerning MTF cross-dressing were in circulation, advertising themselves as aimed at the "study" of the phenomenon. Fully-fledged "commercial" magazines aimed at cross-dressing 'hobbyists' began publishing after the launch of the first such magazine, Queen, in 1980. It was affiliated with the Elizabeth Club, which opened branch clubs in several Tokyo suburbs and other cities. Yasumasa Morimura is a contemporary artist who cross-dresses. Thailand Through the pre-modern age, cross-dressing and transgender appearance in Thailand was apparent in many contexts including same-sex theater performance. The term Kathoey came to describe anyone from cross-dressers to transgender men (and women) as the practice became more prevalent in everyday life. Lack of colonization by Western civilizations in Thailand have led to different ways of thinking about gender and self-identity. In turn, Thailand has fostered one of the most open and tolerant traditions towards Kathoeys and cross-dressers in the world. In contrast to many Western civilizations, where homosexuality and cross-dressing have been historically criminal offenses, Thai legal codes have not explicitly criminalized these behaviors. It was not until the 20th century that a public majority, whether on stage or in public, came to assume cross-dressing a sign of transgenderism and homosexuality. China Since the Yuan dynasty, cross-dressing has had a unique significance in Chinese opera. Period scholars cite this time in Chinese theatre as the "golden age." The rise of dan, though characterized as female characters, was a prominent feature of the Peking Opera and many males took the roles of females. There were schools dedicated to the specific dan training as well. Female crossdressers in the Chinese opera were also valued immensely and prospered far better than male crossdressers did. Chinese women became known as kunsheng, which translates to "female male." The Yuan dynasty is known for recognizing and accepting the involvement of many Chinese women in theatrical plays. In a time of male dominance politics, the Yuan dynasty allowed women to participe in these plays and often played main roles. Chinese opera was influenced by early-century historical events, poems, and mythology. By using a mixture of different art forms like music, dancing and singing, many women were able to fit into these roles. Lead-roles were the only people that had singing parts, the rest of the supporting roles only talked. That same person often played different characters and different genders because they were the only ones allowed to sing on stage. If it was a male-role, women would be given the part and disguised themselves through clothing, physical movements, gestures, and skills to portray each character. Hua Mulan, the central figure of the Ballad of Mulan (and of the Disney film Mulan), may be a historical or fictional figure. She is said to have lived in China during the Northern Wei, and to have posed as a man to fulfill the household draft quota, thus saving her ill and aged father from serving. Shi Pei Pu was a male Peking Opera singer. Spying on behalf of the Chinese Government during the Cultural Revolution, he cross-dressed to gain information from Bernard Boursicot, a French diplomat. Their relationship lasted 20 years, during which they married. David Henry Hwang's 1988 play M. Butterfly is loosely based on their story. See also Cross dressing ball History of drag Transgender history References Cross-dressing LGBTQ history

Soil retrogression and degradation

Soil retrogression and degradation are two regressive evolution processes associated with the loss of equilibrium of a stable soil. Retrogression is primarily due to soil erosion and corresponds to a phenomenon where succession reverts the land to its natural physical state. Degradation is an evolution, different from natural evolution, related to the local climate and vegetation. It is due to the replacement of primary plant communities (known as climax vegetation) by the secondary communities. This replacement modifies the humus composition and amount, and affects the formation of the soil. It is directly related to human activity. Soil degradation may also be viewed as any change or ecological disturbance to the soil perceived to be deleterious or undesirable. According to the Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn and the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, the quality of 33% of pastureland, 25% of arable land and 23% of forests has deteriorated globally over the last 30 years. 3.2 billion people are dependent on this land. General At the beginning of soil formation, the bare rock outcrops are gradually colonized by pioneer species (lichens and mosses). They are succeeded by herbaceous vegetation, shrubs, and finally forest. In parallel, the first humus-bearing horizon is formed (the A horizon), followed by some mineral horizons (B horizons). Each successive stage is characterized by a certain association of soil/vegetation and environment, which defines an ecosystem. After a certain time of parallel evolution between the ground and the vegetation, a state of steady balance is reached. This stage of development is called climax by some ecologists and "natural potential" by others. Succession is the evolution towards climax. Regardless of its name, the equilibrium stage of primary succession is the highest natural form of development that the environmental factors are capable of producing. The cycles of evolution of soils have very variable durations, between tens, hundreds, or thousands of years for quickly evolving soils (A horizon only) to more than a million years for slowly developing soils. The same soil may achieve several successive steady state conditions during its existence, as exhibited by the Pygmy forest sequence in Mendocino County, California. Soils naturally reach a state of high productivity, from which they naturally degrade as mineral nutrients are removed from the soil system. Thus older soils are more vulnerable to the effects of induced retrogression and degradation. Ecological factors influencing soil formation There are two types of ecological factors influencing the evolution of a soil (through alteration and humification). These two factors are extremely significant to explain the evolution of soils of short development. A first type of factor is the average climate of an area and the vegetation which is associated (biome). A second type of factor is more local, and is related to the original rock and local drainage. This type of factor explains appearance of specialized associations (ex peat bogs). Biorhexistasy theory The destruction of the vegetation implies the destruction of evoluted soils, or a regressive evolution. Cycles of succession-regression of soils follow one another within short intervals of time (human actions) or long intervals of time (climate variations). The climate role in the deterioration of the rocks and the formation of soils lead to the formulation of the theory of the biorhexistasy. In wet climate, the conditions are favorable to the deterioration of the rocks (mostly chemically), the development of the vegetation and the formation of soils; this period favorable to life is called biostasy. In dry climate, the rocks exposed are mostly subjected to mechanical disintegration which produces coarse detrital materials: this is referred to as rhexistasy. Perturbations of the balance of a soil When the state of balance, characterized by the ecosystem climax is reached, it tends to be maintained stable in the course of time. The vegetation installed on the ground provides the humus and ensures the ascending circulation of the matters. It protects the ground from erosion by playing the role of barrier (for example, protection from water and wind). Plants can also reduce erosion by binding the particles of the ground to their roots. A disturbance of climax will cause retrogression, but often, secondary succession will start to guide the evolution of the system after that disturbance. Secondary succession is much faster than primary because the soil is already formed, although deteriorated and needing restoration as well. However, when a significant destruction of the vegetation takes place (of natural origin such as an avalanche or human origin), the disturbance undergone by the ecosystem is too important. In this latter case, erosion is responsible for the destruction of the upper horizons of the ground, and is at the origin of a phenomenon of reversion to pioneer conditions. The phenomenon is called retrogression and can be partial or total (in this case, nothing remains beside bare rock). For example, the clearing of an inclined ground, subjected to violent rains, can lead to the complete destruction of the soil. Man can deeply modify the evolution of the soils by direct and brutal action, such as clearing, abusive cuts, forest pasture, litters raking. The climax vegetation is gradually replaced and the soil modified (example: replacement of leafy tree forests by moors or pines plantations). Retrogression is often related to very old human practices. Influence of human activity Soil erosion is the main factor for soil degradation and is due to several mechanisms: water erosion, wind erosion, chemical degradation and physical degradation. Erosion can be influenced by human activity. For example, roads which increase impermeable surfaces lead to streaming and ground loss. Improper agriculture practices can also accelerate soil erosion, including by way of: Overgrazing of animals Monoculture planting Row cropping Tilling or plowing Crop removal Land-use conversion Consequences of soil regression and degradation Here are a few of the consequences of soil regression and degradation: Yields impact: Recent increases in the human population have placed a great strain on the world's soil systems. More than 6 billion people are now using about 38% of the land area of the Earth to raise crops and livestock. Many soils suffer from various types of degradation, that can ultimately reduce their ability to produce food resources. This reduces the food security, which many countries facing soil degradation already do not have. Slight degradation refers to land where yield potential has been reduced by 10%, moderate degradation refers to a yield decrease of 10–50%. Severely degraded soils have lost more than 50% of their potential. Most severely degraded soils are located in developing countries. In Africa, yield reduction is 2–40%, with an average loss of 8.2% of the continent. Natural disasters: natural disasters such as mud flows, floods are responsible for the death of many living beings each year. This causes a cycle as floods can degrade soil, and soil degradation can cause floods. Deterioration of the water quality: the increase in the turbidity of water and the contribution of nitrogen and of phosphorus can result in eutrophication. Soils particles in surface waters are also accompanied by agricultural inputs and by some pollutants of industrial, urban and road origin (such as heavy metals). The run-off with pesticides and fertilizers make water quality dangerous. The ecological impact of agricultural inputs (such as weed killer) is known but difficult to evaluate because of the multiplicity of the products and their broad spectrum of action. Biological diversity: soil degradation may involve perturbation of microbial communities, disappearance of the climax vegetation and decrease in animal habitat, thus leading to a biodiversity loss and animal extinction. Economic loss: the estimated costs for land degradation are US$44 billion per year. Globally, the annual loss of 76 billion tons of soil costs the world about US$400 billion per year. In Canada, on-farm effects of land degradation were estimated to range from US$700 to US$915 million in 1984. The economic impact of land degradation is extremely severe in densely populated South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Soil enhancement, rebuilding, and regeneration Problems of soil erosion can be fought, and certain practices can lead to soil enhancement and rebuilding. Even though simple, methods for reducing erosion are often not chosen because these practices outweigh the short-term benefits. Rebuilding is especially possible through the improvement of soil structure, addition of organic matter and limitation of runoff. However, these techniques will never totally succeed to restore a soil (and the fauna and flora associated to it) that took more than a 1000 years to build up. Soil regeneration is the reformation of degraded soil through biological, chemical, and or physical processes. When productivity declined in the low-clay soils of northern Thailand, farmers initially responded by adding organic matter from termite mounds, but this was unsustainable in the long-term. Scientists experimented with adding bentonite, one of the smectite family of clays, to the soil. In field trials, conducted by scientists from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in cooperation with Khon Kaen University and local farmers, this had the effect of helping retain water and nutrients. Supplementing the farmer's usual practice with a single application of 200 kg bentonite per rai (6.26 rai = 1 hectare) resulted in an average yield increase of 73%. More work showed that applying bentonite to degraded sandy soils reduced the risk of crop failure during drought years. In 2008, three years after the initial trials, IWMI scientists conducted a survey among 250 farmers in northeast Thailand, half who had applying bentonite to their fields and half who had not. The average output for those using the clay addition was 18% higher than for non-clay users. Using the clay had enabled some farmers to switch to growing vegetables, which need more fertile soil. This helped to increase their income. The researchers estimated that 200 farmers in northeast Thailand and 400 in Cambodia had adopted the use of clays, and that a further 20,000 farmers were introduced to the new technique. See also References Environmental issues with soil de:Bodendegradation

Connectivism

Connectivism is a theoretical framework for understanding learning in a digital age. It emphasizes how internet technologies such as web browsers, search engines, wikis, online discussion forums, and social networks contributed to new avenues of learning. Technologies have enabled people to learn and share information across the World Wide Web and among themselves in ways that were not possible before the digital age. Learning does not simply happen within an individual, but within and across the networks. What sets connectivism apart from theories such as constructivism is the view that "learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing". Connectivism sees knowledge as a network and learning as a process of pattern recognition. Connectivism has similarities with Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) and Engeström's activity theory. The phrase "a learning theory for the digital age" indicates the emphasis that connectivism gives to technology's effect on how people live, communicate, and learn. Connectivism is an integration of principles related to chaos, network, complexity, and self-organization theories. History Connectivism was first introduced in 2004 on a blog post which was later published as an article in 2005 by George Siemens. It was later expanded in 2005 by two publications, Siemens' Connectivism: Learning as Network Creation and Stephen Downes' An Introduction to Connective Knowledge. Both works received significant attention in the blogosphere and an extended discourse has followed on the appropriateness of connectivism as a learning theory for the digital age. In 2007, Bill Kerr entered into the debate with a series of lectures and talks on the matter, as did Forster, both at the Online Connectivism Conference at the University of Manitoba. In 2008, in the context of digital and e-learning, connectivism was reconsidered and its technological implications were discussed by Siemens' and Ally. Nodes and links The central aspect of connectivism is the metaphor of a network with nodes and connections. In this metaphor, a node is anything that can be connected to another node such as an organization, information, data, feelings, and images. Connectivism recognizes three node types: neural, conceptual (internal) and external. Connectivism sees learning as the process of creating connections and expanding or increasing network complexity. Connections may have different directions and strength. In this sense, a connection joining nodes A and B which goes from A to B is not the same as one that goes from B to A. There are some special kinds of connections such as "self-join" and pattern. A self-join connection joins a node to itself and a pattern can be defined as "a set of connections appearing together as a single whole". The idea of organisation as cognitive systems where knowledge is distributed across nodes originated from the Perceptron (Artificial neuron) in an Artificial Neural Network, and is directly borrowed from Connectionism, "a software structure developed based on concepts inspired by biological functions of brain; it aims at creating machines able to learn like human". The network metaphor allows a notion of "know-where" (the understanding of where to find the knowledge when it is needed) to supplement to the ones of "know-how" and "know-what" that make the cornerstones of many theories of learning. As Downes states: "at its heart, connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks". Principles Principles of connectivism include: Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions. Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources. Learning may reside in non-human appliances. Learning is more critical than knowing. Maintaining and nurturing connections is needed to facilitate continuous learning. When the interaction time between the actors of a learning environment is not enough, the learning networks cannot be consolidated. Perceiving connections between fields, ideas and concepts is a core skill. Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of learning activities. Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision. Teaching methods Summarizing connectivist teaching and learning, Downes states: "to teach is to model and demonstrate, to learn is to practice and reflect." In 2008, Siemens and Downes delivered an online course called "Connectivism and Connective Knowledge". It covered connectivism as content while attempting to implement some of their ideas. The course was free to anyone who wished to participate, and over 2000 people worldwide enrolled. The phrase "Massive Open Online Course" (MOOC) describes this model. All course content was available through RSS feeds, and learners could participate with their choice of tools: threaded discussions in Moodle, blog posts, Second Life and synchronous online meetings. The course was repeated in 2009 and in 2011. At its core, connectivism is a form of experiential learning which prioritizes the set of formed by actions and experience over the idea that knowledge is propositional. Criticisms The idea that connectivism is a new theory of learning is not widely accepted. Verhagen argued that connectivism is rather a "pedagogical view." The lack of comparative literature reviews in Connectivism papers complicate evaluating how Connectivism relates to prior theories, such as socially distributed cognition (Hutchins, 1995), which explored how connectionist ideas could be applied to social systems. Classical theories of cognition such as activity theory (Vygotsky, Leont'ev, Luria, and others starting in the 1920s) proposed that people are embedded actors, with learning considered via three features – a subject (the learner), an object (the task or activity) and tool or mediating artifacts. Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1962) claimed that people learn by watching others. Social learning theory (Miller and Dollard) elaborated this notion. Situated cognition (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Greeno & Moore, 1993) alleged that knowledge is situated in activity bound to social, cultural and physical contexts; knowledge and learning that requires thinking on the fly rather than the storage and retrieval of conceptual knowledge. Community of practice (Lave & Wenger 1991) asserted that the process of sharing information and experiences with the group enables members to learn from each other. Collective intelligence (Lévy, 1994) described a shared or group intelligence that emerges from collaboration and competition. Kerr claims that although technology affects learning environments, existing learning theories are sufficient. Kop and Hill conclude that while it does not seem that connectivism is a separate learning theory, it "continues to play an important role in the development and emergence of new pedagogies, where control is shifting from the tutor to an increasingly more autonomous learner." AlDahdouh examined the relation between connectivism and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and the results, unexpectedly, revealed that ANN researchers use constructivism principles to teach ANN with labeled training data. However, he argued that connectivism principles are used to teach ANN only when the knowledge is unknown. Ally recognizes that the world has changed and become more networked, so learning theories developed prior to these global changes are less relevant. However, he argues that, "What is needed is not a new stand-alone theory for the digital age, but a model that integrates the different theories to guide the design of online learning materials.". Chatti notes that Connectivism misses some concepts, which are crucial for learning, such as reflection, learning from failures, error detection and correction, and inquiry. He introduces the Learning as a Network (LaaN) theory which builds upon connectivism, complexity theory, and double-loop learning. LaaN starts from the learner and views learning as the continuous creation of a personal knowledge network (PKN). Schwebel of Torrens University notes that Connectivism provides limited account for how learning occurs online. Conceding that learning occurs across networks, he introduces a paradox of change. If Connectivism accounts for this changing in networks, and these networks change so drastically, as technology has in the past, then theses like this must account for that change too, making it no longer the same theory. Furthermore, citing Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Schwebel notes that the nodes can impede on the types of learning that can occur, leading to issues with democratised education, as content presented within the network will both be limited to how the network can handle information, and what content is likely to be presented within the network through behaviourist style principles of reinforcement, as providers are likely to recirculate, reproduce and reiterate information that is rewarded through things such as likes. See also References External links Web Presentation (Oral/Slide show) on Connectivism Connectivism: Learning Theory or Pastime for the Self-Amused? Learning theory (education) Philosophy of education Technology integration models

Eonothem

In stratigraphy and geology, an eonothem is the totality of rock strata laid down in the stratigraphic record deposited during a certain eon of the continuous geologic timescale. The eonothem is not to be confused with the eon itself, which is a corresponding division of geologic time spanning a specific number of (hundreds of millions of) years, during which rocks were formed that are classified within the eonothem. Eonothems have the same names as their corresponding eons, which means during the history of the Earth only four eonothems were formed. Oldest to newest these are the Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic, and Phanerozoic. A rock stratum, fossil or feature present in the "upper Phanerozoic" eonothem would therefore have originated within the "later Phanerozoic" eon. In practice, the rock column is discontinuous: Eonothems, despite discontinuities (locally missing strata or unconformities), can be compared to others where the rock record is more complete and, by correlation of points of correspondence, be fixed appropriately within the eon. They are therefore useful as broad chronostratigraphic units, specifying approximate age within the timelines within the rock column. Eonothems are subdivided into erathems and their smaller subdivisions within geology and paleobiology and their sub-fields, and a whole system of cross-disciplinary classification by strata is in place with oversight by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Eonothems are not often used in practice as expert dating estimates can be and usually are specified into the more refined timelines of smaller chronostratigraphic units, which can be subdivided in turn down to the many defined stages, the smallest formally recognised units used in dating. (see the hierarchy of comparative units, five each for time division types and five for the rock record types.) Dating standards Global Standard Stratigraphic Ages (GSSAs) are defined by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and are used primarily for time-dating rock layers older than 630 million years ago (mya), before a good fossil record exists. For more recent periods, a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP), largely based on research progress in geobiology and improved methods of fossil dating is used to define such boundaries. In contrast to GSSAs, GSSPs are based on important events and transitions within a particular stratigraphic section. In older sections, there is insufficient fossil record or well preserved sections to identify the key events necessary for a GSSP so GSSAs are defined based on fixed dates. Etymology Eonothem derives from eon, “age”, a Latin transliteration from the koine Greek word (ho aion) from the archaic (aiwon), and thema, "that which is placed or laid down", "subject of a discourse". See also Multidiscipline comparison Chronostratigraphy Lithostratigraphy Geologic record Related other topics Body form Fauna (animals) Type locality Notes References Hedberg, H.D., (editor), International stratigraphic guide: A guide to stratigraphic classification, terminology, and procedure, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1976 International Stratigraphic Chart from the International Commission on Stratigraphy USA National Park Service Washington State University Web Geological Time Machine Eon or Aeon, Math Words - An alphabetical index External links The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP): overview Chart of The Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points (GSSP): chart Geotime chart displaying geologic time periods compared to the fossil record. Chronostratigraphy . Geochronology Geologic time scales Geology terminology Geological units es:Eratema

Sociocultural perspective

The sociocultural perspective is a theory used in fields such as psychology and education and is used to describe awareness of circumstances surrounding individuals and how their behaviors are affected specifically by their surrounding, social and cultural factors. According to Catherine A. Sanderson (2010) “Sociocultural perspective: A perspective describing people’s behavior and mental processes as shaped in part by their social and/or cultural contact, including race, gender, and nationality.” Sociocultural perspective theory is a broad yet significant aspect in our being. It applies to every sector of our daily lives. How we communicate, understand, relate and cope with one another is partially based on this theory. Our spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, physiological being are all influenced by factors studied by sociocultural perspective theory. Ideology Various studies examine topics using the sociocultural perspective in order to account for variability from person to person and acknowledge that social and cultural differences affect these individuals. One example comes from the journal European Psychologist: Investigating Motivation in Context: Developing Sociocultural Perspectives by Richard A. Walker, Kimberley Pressick-kilborn, Bert M. Lancaster, and Erica J. Sainsbury (2004). Recently, however, a renewed interest in the contextual nature of motivation has come about for several reasons. First, the relatively recent influence of the ideas of Vygotsky and his followers (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996; Greeno & The Middle School Through Applications Project, 1998) in educational psychology has led writers in the field (Goodenow, 1992; Pintrich, 1994; Anderman & Anderman, 2000) to acknowledge the importance of context and to call for its greater recognition in educational psychology, and more particularly in motivational research. As both Goodenow (1992) and Hickey (1997) note, in sociocultural theories deriving from Vygotsky, human activities, events, and actions cannot be separated from the context in which they occur so that context becomes an important issue in sociocultural research. Second, researchers concerned with learning and cognition (e.g., Greeno et al., 1998) have come to see these processes also as being situated in particular contexts. While this view, with its emphasis on the distributed nature of learning and cognition, has origins in sociocultural theories". This theory or perspective is examined in The Modern Language Journal “A Sociocultural Perspective on Language Learning Strategies: The Role of Mediation” by Richard Donato and Dawn McCormick. According to Donato and McCormick (1994) “Sociocultural theory maintains that social interaction and cultural institutions, such as schools, classrooms, etc., have important roles to play in an individual’s cognitive growth and development.” “We believe that this perspective goes beyond current cognitive and social psychological conceptions of strategic language learning, both of which assume that language tasks and contexts are generalizable. The sociocultural perspective, on the other hand, views language learning tasks and contexts as situated activities that are continually under development (22) and that are influential upon individuals’ strategic orientations to classroom learning.” Health factors The sociocultural perspective is also used here in order to assess use of mental health services for immigrants: “From a sociocultural perspective, this article reviews causes of mental health service under use among Chinese immigrants and discusses practice implications. Factors explaining service under use among Chinese immigrants are multifaceted, extending across individual, family, cultural and system domains. The first of these is cultural explanation of mental illness. Cultural beliefs, regarding the cause of mental disorders greatly affect service use. The perceived causes of mental illness include moral, religious, or cosmological, physiological, psychological, social and genetic factors”. From Canadian Social Work, “A Sociocultural Perspective of Mental Health Services Use by Chinese Immigrants” by Lin Fang, (2010). Coping According to Asian American Journal of Psychology, "Coping with perceived racial and gender discrimination experiences among 11 Asian/Asian American female faculty at various Christian universities" have been examined in this theory. After the study was conducted the results revealed that "ten of the 11 women described experiences where they perceived being treated differently due to race and/or gender. Qualitative analyses of interview data revealed four themes related to coping: Proactive Coping, External Support, Personal Resources, and Spiritual Coping. The resulting themes are discussed in light of existing research, with an emphasis on the importance of understanding cultural and religious values to the study of coping". Language Another instance of the sociocultural perspective can be found in language learning literature: “By adopting a sociocultural perspective that highlights the critical role of the social context in cognitive and social development (Vygotsky, 1978), we propose that learners’ actions to facilitate or sometimes constrain their language learning cannot be fully understood without considering the situated contexts in which strategies emerge and develop, as well as the kinds of hierarchies within which studies from diverse backgrounds find themselves in U.S. classrooms (Bourdieu, 1991). From Theory Into Practice, “A Sociocultural Perspective on Second Language Learner Strategies: Focus on the Impact of Social Context.” by Eun-Young Jang and Robert T. Jimenez, 2011. References -Kim, C. L., Hall, M., Anderson, T. L., & Willingham, M. M. (2011). Coping with discrimination in academia: Asian-American and Christian perspectives. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 2(4), 291-305. -Jarrett, C. (2008). Foundations of sand?. The Psychologist, 21(9), 756-759. -European Psychologist, Vol 9(4), Dec, 2004. Special Section: Motivation in Real-Life, Dynamic, and Interactive Learning Environments. pp. 245–256 -Modern Language Journal, Vol 78(4), Win, 1994. Special issue: Sociocultural theory and second language learning. pp. 453–464. -Canadian Social Work: “A Sociocultural Perspective of Mental Health Services Use by Chinese Immigrants” by Lin Fang, Autumn 2010, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p152-160, 9p -Theory Into Practice. A Sociocultural Perspective on Second Language Learner Strategies: Focus on the Impact of Social Context. Eun-Young Jang and Robert T. Jimenez 2011, Vol. 50 Issue 2, p141-148. 8p. Footnotes General references Kim, C. L., Hall, M., Anderson, T. L., & Willingham, M. M. (2011). Coping with discrimination in academia: Asian-American and Christian perspectives. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 2(4), 291-305. Jarrett, C. (2008). Foundations of sand?. The Psychologist, 21(9), 756-759. European Psychologist, Vol 9(4), Dec, 2004. Special Section: Motivation in Real-Life, Dynamic, and Interactive Learning Environments. pp. 245–256 Modern Language Journal, Vol 78(4), Win, 1994. Special issue: Sociocultural theory and second language learning. pp. 453–464. Canadian Social Work: “A Sociocultural Perspective of Mental Health Services Use by Chinese Immigrants” by Lin Fang, Autumn 2010, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p152-160, 9p Theory Into Practice. A Sociocultural Perspective on Second Language Learner Strategies: Focus on the Impact of Social Context. Eun-Young Jang and Robert T. Jimenez 2011, Vol. 50 Issue 2, p141-148. 8p. Psychological theories

Feminist movements and ideologies

A variety of movements of feminist ideology have developed over the years. They vary in goals, strategies, and affiliations. They often overlap, and some feminists identify themselves with several branches of feminist thought. Groupings Traditionally feminism is often divided into three main traditions, sometimes known as the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought: liberal/mainstream feminism, radical feminism and socialist or Marxist feminism. Since the late 20th century, a variety of newer forms of feminisms have also emerged, many of which are viewed as branches of the three main traditions. Many of these forms of feminism have developed due to intersectionality. Women regardless of race have faced challenges, but more often than not women of color have faced greater challenges because of their intersectionality. The article "Intersectional power struggles in feminist movements: An analysis of resistance and counter-resistance to intersectionality" by Mariana Munoz-Puig describes intersectionality as important because in order to create a movement based on solidarity, it is necessary to include other women's issues and experiences to create true solidarity amongst all groups. Despite the aim for inclusivity the group who often leads the feminist movement are white, middle-class, cisgender, heterosexual, and able-bodied women which leaves out other women who may not fall into any of these categories and their goals for the movements (Munoz-Puig, 2023.) Although simply discussing the different identities of women is not enough as women view their intersectionality separately, so it is important for feminist to engage in thoughtful discussions to engage intersectionality into their movement. Judith Lorber separates three main categories of feminist discourses: gender revolution, gender resistance, and gender reform feminisms. According to her typology, liberalism—a political philosophy that strongly emphasizes individual rights—is the foundation of gender reform feminisms. Gender-resistant feminisms concentrate on particular actions and group dynamics that maintain women's subordination even within subcultures that profess to be pro-equality. Gender revolution feminisms aim to upend the social order by dissecting its categories and concepts and examining how inequality is reproduced in culture. Movements and ideologies Mainstream feminism "Mainstream feminism" as a general term identifies feminist ideologies and movements which do not fall into either the socialist or radical feminist camps. The mainstream feminist movement traditionally focused on political and legal reform, and has its roots in first-wave liberal feminism of the 19th and early-20th centuries. Liberal feminism in this broad traditional sense is also called "mainstream feminism", "reformist feminism", "egalitarian feminism" or historically "bourgeois feminism", and is one of the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought alongside socialist and radical feminism. In the context of third-wave and fourth-wave feminism, the term is today often used by essayists and cultural analysts in reference to a movement made palatable to a general audience. Mainstream feminism is often derisively referred to as "white feminism", a term implying that mainstream feminists do not fight for intersectionality with race, class, and sexuality. Some parts of third-wave and fourth-wave mainstream feminism has also been accused of being commercialized, and of focusing exclusively on issues that are less contentious in the western world , such as women's political participation or female education access. Radical feminists sometimes criticize mainstream feminists for not articulating the depth to which the state is part of "a system of patriarchy". Nevertheless, some argue that major milestones of the feminist struggle—such as the right to vote and the right to education—came about mainly as a result of the work of the mainstream feminist movement, which emphasized building far-reaching support for feminist causes among both men and women. Liberal Liberal feminism asserts the equality of men and women through political and legal reform. Traditionally, during the 19th and early 20th century, liberal feminism had the same meaning as "bourgeois feminism" or "mainstream feminism", and its broadest sense, the term liberal feminism overlaps strongly with mainstream feminism. Liberal feminists sought to abolish political, legal and other forms of discrimination against women to allow them the same opportunities as men since their autonomy has deficits. Discriminations of gender, either in the workplace or in the home, and the patriarchal mentality in inherited traditions constitutes some cause for the liberals women's movement. Liberal feminists sought to alter the structure of society to ensure the equal treatment of women. The first and the second feminist waves were led by liberal feminists and they managed to formally and legally obtain many of equal right for women, including the right to vote, right to be educated, as well as the elimination of many other patriarchal paternalistic and moralistic laws. One of the earliest well-known liberal feminist, who had a huge influence with her writings was Mary Wollstonecraft. In her book 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman", she encouraged women to use their voices in making their own decisions and ignore the choices which previously others had made for them. Liberal feminism includes many, often diverging branches. Individualist feminism or libertarian feminism emphasises women's ability to show and maintain their equality through their own actions and choices and uses the personal interactions between men and women as the place from which to transform society. This use of the term differs from liberal feminism in the historical sense, which emphasized political and legal reforms and held that women's own actions and choices alone were not sufficient to bring about gender equality. For example, "libertarian feminism does not require social measures to reduce material inequality; in fact, it opposes such measures ... in contrast, liberal feminism may support such requirements and egalitarian versions of feminism insist on them." Issues important to modern liberal feminists include reproductive and abortion rights, sexual harassment, voting, education, "equal pay for equal work", affordable childcare, affordable health care, elimination of prejudices and stereotypes and bringing to light the frequency of sexual and domestic violence against women. Libertarian According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Classical liberal or libertarian feminism conceives of freedom as freedom from coercive interference. It holds that women, as well as men, have a right to such freedom due to their status as self-owners." There are several categories under the theory of libertarian feminism, or kinds of feminism that are linked to libertarian ideologies. Anarcha-feminism combines feminist and anarchist beliefs, embodying classical libertarianism rather than contemporary minarchist libertarianism. Wendy McElroy has defined a position, which she labels "ifeminism" or "individualist feminism", that combines feminism with anarcho-capitalism or contemporary minarchist libertarianism, and she argued that a pro-capitalist and anti-state position is compatible with an emphasis on equal rights and empowerment for women. Individualist anarchist-feminism has grown from the United States-based individualist anarchism movement. Individualist feminism is typically defined as a feminism in opposition to what writers such as Wendy McElroy and Christina Hoff Sommers term political or gender feminism. However, there are some differences within the discussion of individualist feminism. While some individualist feminists like McElroy oppose government interference into the choices women make with their bodies because such interference creates a coercive hierarchy (such as patriarchy), other feminists such as Christina Hoff Sommers hold that the political role of feminism is simply to ensure that everyone's, including women's right against coercive interference is respected. Sommers is described as a "socially conservative equity feminist" by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Some critics have called her an anti-feminist. Multiracial Multiracial feminism (also known as "women of color" feminism) offers a standpoint theory and analysis of the lives and experiences of women of color. The theory emerged in the 1990s and was developed by Dr. Maxine Baca Zinn, a Chicana feminist, and Dr. Bonnie Thornton Dill, a sociology expert on African American women and family. Though often ignored in the history of the second wave of feminism, multiracial feminists were organizing at the same time as white feminists. Not only did they work alongside other women of color and white feminists, but multiracial feminists also organized themselves outside of women only spaces. In the 1970s women of color worked mainly on three fronts, "working with white dominated feminist groups; forming women's caucuses in existing mixed-gender organizations; and forming autonomous Black, Latina, Native American, and Asian feminist organizations" The perspective of Multiracial Feminism attempts to go beyond a mere recognition of diversity and difference among women, to examine structures of domination, specifically the importance of race in understanding the social construction of gender. Post-structural Post-structural feminism, also referred to as French feminism, uses the insights of various epistemological movements, including psychoanalysis, linguistics, political theory (Marxist and post-Marxist theory), race theory, literary theory, and other intellectual currents for feminist concerns. Many post-structural feminists maintain that difference is one of the most powerful tools that women possess in their struggle with patriarchal domination, and that to equate the feminist movement only with equality is to deny women a plethora of options because equality is still defined from the masculine or patriarchal perspective. Postcolonial Postcolonial feminism, sometimes also known as Third World feminism, partly draws on postcolonialism, which discusses experiences endured during colonialism, including "migration, slavery, suppression, resistance, representation, difference, race, gender, place and responses to the influential discourses of imperial Europe." Postcolonial feminism centers on racism, ethnic issues, and the long-lasting economic, political, and cultural effects of colonialism, inextricably bound up with the unique gendered realities of non-White non-Western women. It sees the parallels between recently decolonized nations and the state of women within patriarchy—both postcolonialism and postcolonial feminism take the "perspective of a socially marginalized subgroup in their relationship to the dominant culture". Western feminists universalize women's issues, thereby excluding social classes and ethnic identities, reinforcing homophobia, and ignoring the activity and voices of non-White non-Western women, as under one application of Orientalism. Some postcolonial feminists criticize radical and liberal feminism and some, such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty, are critical of Western feminism for being ethnocentric. Black feminists, such as Angela Davis and Alice Walker, share this view. Another critic of Western perspectives is Sarojini Sahoo. Postcolonial feminists can be described as feminists who have reacted against both universalizing tendencies in Western feminist thought and a lack of attention to gender issues in mainstream postcolonial thought. Through this enterprise, postcolonial feminists spotlight how globalized ideologies that promise women's "emancipation" through universal standards may themselves produce false dichotomies between women's self-realization and local cultural practices. Colonialism has a gendered history. Colonial powers often imposed Western norms on colonized regions, as seen by the prevalence of imperial feminist attitudes and ideology among colonial powers. Postcolonial feminists argue that cultures impacted by colonialism are often vastly different and should be treated as such. In the 1940s and '50s, after the formation of the United Nations, former colonies were monitored by the West for what was considered "social progress". Since then, the status of women in the developing world has been monitored by organizations such as the United Nations. Traditional practices and roles taken up by women—sometimes seen as distasteful by Western standards—could be considered a form of rebellion against colonial oppression. That oppression may result in the glorification of pre-colonial culture, which, in cultures with traditions of power stratification along gender lines, could mean the acceptance of, or refusal to deal with, issues of gender inequality. Postcolonial feminists today struggle to fight gender oppression within their own cultural models of society rather than through those imposed by the Western colonizers. Postcolonial feminism is closely related to transnational feminism and to the phenomenon of imperial feminism. The former has strong overlaps and ties with Black feminism because both respond to racism and seek recognition by men in their own cultures and by Western feminists. Postmodern Postmodern feminism is an approach to feminist theory that incorporates postmodern and post-structuralist theory. Judith Butler argues that sex, not just gender, is constructed through language. In their 1990 book, Gender Trouble, they draw on and critique the work of Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Lacan. Butler criticizes the distinction drawn by previous feminisms between biological sex and socially constructed gender. They say that the sex/gender distinction does not allow for a sufficient criticism of essentialism. For Butler, "woman" is a debatable category, complicated by class, ethnicity, sexuality, and other facets of identity. They state that gender is performative. This argument leads to the conclusion that there is no single cause for women's subordination and no single approach towards dealing with the issue. In A Cyborg Manifesto, Donna Haraway criticizes traditional notions of feminism, particularly its emphasis on identity, rather than affinity. She uses the metaphor of a cyborg in order to construct a postmodern feminism that moves beyond dualisms and the limitations of traditional gender, feminism, and politics. Haraway's cyborg is an attempt to break away from Oedipal narratives and Christian origin myths like Genesis. She writes, "The cyborg does not dream of community on the model of the organic family, this time without the oedipal project. The cyborg would not recognize the Garden of Eden; it is not made of mud and cannot dream of returning to dust." A major branch in postmodern feminist thought has emerged from contemporary psychoanalytic French feminism. Other postmodern feminist works highlight stereotypical gender roles, only to portray them as parodies of the original beliefs. The history of feminism is not important in these writings—only what is going to be done about it. The history is dismissed and used to depict how ridiculous past beliefs were. Modern feminist theory has been extensively criticized as being predominantly, though not exclusively, associated with Western middle class academia. Mary Joe Frug, a postmodernist feminist, criticized mainstream feminism as being too narrowly focused and inattentive to related issues of race and class. Radical Radical feminists tend to be more militant in their approach when compared to other feminist movements and ideologies. It considers the male-controlled capitalist hierarchy, which it describes as sexist, as the defining feature of women's oppression. Radical feminists believe that women can free themselves only when they have done away with what they consider an inherently oppressive and dominating patriarchal system. They feel that this male-based authority and power structure and that it is responsible for oppression and inequality, and that, as long as the system and its values are in place, society will not be able to be reformed in any significant way. Radical feminists see no alternatives other than the total uprooting and reconstruction of society in order to achieve their goals. Over time a number of sub-types of radical feminism have emerged, such as cultural feminism. Other forms rooted in, but not exclusively, radical in nature include separatist feminism and anti-pornography feminism (and opposed by sex-positive feminism). Separatist Separatist feminism is a form of radical feminism that does not support heterosexual relationships. Separatist feminism's proponents argue that the sexual disparities between men and women are unresolvable. Separatist feminists generally do not feel that men can make positive contributions to the feminist movement and that even well-intentioned men replicate patriarchal dynamics. Author Marilyn Frye describes separatist feminism as "separation of various sorts or modes from men and from institutions, relationships, roles and activities that are male-defined, male-dominated, and operating for the benefit of males and the maintenance of male privilege—this separation being initiated or maintained, at will, by women". Socialist and Marxist Socialist feminism connects the oppression of women to Marxist ideas about exploitation, oppression and labor. Socialist feminists think unequal standing in both the workplace and the domestic sphere holds women down. Socialist feminists see prostitution, domestic work, childcare, and marriage as ways in which women are exploited by a patriarchal system that devalues women and the substantial work they do. Socialist feminists focus their energies on far-reaching change that affects society as a whole, rather than on an individual basis. They see the need to work alongside not just men but all other groups, as they see the oppression of women as a part of a larger pattern that affects everyone involved in the capitalist system. Although Marx may have prioritised class oppression as the subject of his study and did not talk about female emancipation often, he did treat it as an issue in its own right. One place that this is shown is in his third Parisian manuscript of 1844, where he states that "marriage is a form of exclusive private property", and condones treating women "as the prey and servant of social lust". Despite some claims, he has never been found to argue that the creation of a classless society would lead to gender oppression vanishing; instead evidence exists which suggest that he viewed female struggles as something independent. However due to his writing on women being scarce, the tradition and works of Marxist Feminism is one constructed through the works of the many feminist Marxist's that came after; either through reinterpreting his original writings or providing their own theories to the foundation he provided. Some socialist feminists, many of the Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party, point to the classic Marxist writings of Frederick Engels and August Bebel as a powerful explanation of the link between gender oppression and class exploitation. To some other socialist feminists, this view of gender oppression is naive and much of the work of socialist feminists has gone towards separating gender phenomena from class phenomena. Some contributors to socialist feminism have criticized these traditional Marxist ideas for being largely silent on gender oppression except to subsume it underneath broader class oppression. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, both Clara Zetkin and Eleanor Marx were against the demonization of men and supported a proletarian revolution that would overcome as many male–female inequalities as possible. most Marxist leaders, including Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai counterposed Marxism against feminism, rather than trying to combine them. Anarchist Anarcha-feminism (also called anarchist feminism and anarcho-feminism) combines anarchism with feminism. It generally views patriarchy as a manifestation of involuntary hierarchy. Anarcha-feminists believe that the struggle against patriarchy is an essential part of class struggle and of the anarchist struggle against the state. In essence, the philosophy sees anarchist struggle as a necessary component of feminist struggle and vice versa. As L. Susan Brown puts it, "as anarchism is a political philosophy that opposes all relationships of power, it is inherently feminist". Important historic anarcha-feminists include Emma Goldman, Federica Montseny, Voltairine de Cleyre, Maria Lacerda de Moura, and Lucy Parsons. In the Spanish Civil War, an anarcha-feminist group, Mujeres Libres ("Free Women"), linked to the Federación Anarquista Ibérica, organized to defend both anarchist and feminist ideas. Contemporary anarcha-feminist writers/theorists include Lucy Friedland, L. Susan Brown, and the eco-feminist Starhawk. Contemporary anarcha-feminist groups include Bolivia's Mujeres Creando, Radical Cheerleaders, the Spanish anarcha-feminist squat La Eskalera Karakola, and the annual La Rivolta! conference in Boston. Black and womanist Black feminism argues that sexism, class oppression, and racism are inextricably bound together. Forms of feminism that strive to overcome sexism and class oppression but ignore race can discriminate against many people, including women, through racial bias. The National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) was founded in 1973 by Florynce Kennedy, Margaret Sloan, and Doris Wright, and according to Wright it, "more than any other organization in the century launched a frontal assault on sexism and racism". The NBFO also helped inspire the founding of the Boston-based organization the Combahee River Collective in 1974 which not only led the way for crucial antiracist activism in Boston through the decade, but also provided a blueprint for Black feminism that still stands a quarter of a century later. Combahee member Barbara Smith's definition of feminism that still remains a model today states that, "feminism is the political theory and practice to free all women: women of color, working-class women, poor women, physically challenged women, lesbians, old women, as well as white economically privileged heterosexual women. Anything less than this is not feminism, but merely female self-aggrandizement." The Combahee River Collective argued in 1974 that the liberation of black women entails freedom for all people, since it would require the end of racism, sexism, and class oppression. One of the theories that evolved out of this movement was Alice Walker's womanism. It emerged after the early feminist movements that were led specifically by white women, were largely white middle-class movements, and had generally ignored oppression based on racism and classism. Alice Walker and other womanists pointed out that black women experienced a different and more intense kind of oppression from that of white women. Angela Davis was one of the first people who articulated an argument centered around the intersection of race, gender, and class in her book, Women, Race and Class (1981). Kimberlé Crenshaw, a prominent feminist law theorist, gave the idea the name intersectionality in the late 1980s as part of her work in anti-discrimination law, as part of describing the effects of compound discrimination against black women. A related form of feminism is African feminism. Along with this idea of intersectionality, Black Feminist Thought as discussed by Patricia Hill Collins provides additional conceptualization of how Black Feminism can be identified. Collins (1991) offers the perspective that women of color are likely to be faced with the matrix of domination. While all members of a given society are likely to face their own unique set of standpoint and experiences, Black women in particular, will be faced with a unique construct of these identities often in the form of oppression. Cultural Cultural feminism is the ideology of a "female nature" or "female essence" that attempts to revalidate what they consider undervalued female attributes. It emphasizes the difference between women and men but considers that difference to be psychological, and to be culturally constructed rather than biologically innate. Its critics assert that, because it is based on an essentialist view of the differences between women and men and advocates independence and institution building, it has led feminists to retreat from politics to "life-style". One such critic, Alice Echols (a feminist historian and cultural theorist), credits Redstockings member Brooke Williams with introducing the term cultural feminism in 1975 to describe the depoliticisation of radical feminism. Difference Difference feminism was developed by feminists in the 1980s, in part as a reaction to "equality feminism". Although difference feminism still aimed for equality, it emphasized the differences between men and women and argued that identicality or sameness are not necessary in order for men and women, and masculine and feminine values, to be treated equally. Some strains of difference feminism, for example Mary Daly's, argue not just that women and men were different, and had different values or different ways of knowing, but that women and their values were superior to men's. Ecofeminism Ecofeminism links ecology with feminism. Ecofeminists see the domination of women as stemming from the same ideologies that bring about the domination of the environment. Western patriarchal systems, where men own and control the land, are seen as responsible for the oppression of women and destruction of the natural environment. Ecofeminists argue that the men in power control the land, and therefore are able to exploit it for their own profit and success. In this situation, ecofeminists consider women to be exploited by men in power for their own profit, success, and pleasure. Thus ecofeminists argue that women and the environment are both exploited as passive pawns in the race to domination. Ecofeminists argue that those people in power are able to take advantage of them distinctly because they are seen as passive and rather helpless. Ecofeminism connects the exploitation and domination of women with that of the environment. As a way of repairing social and ecological injustices, ecofeminists feel that women must work towards creating a healthy environment and ending the destruction of the lands that most women rely on to provide for their families. Ecofeminism argues that there is a connection between women and nature that comes from their shared history of oppression by a patriarchal Western society. Vandana Shiva claims that women have a special connection to the environment through their daily interactions with it that has been ignored. She says that "women in subsistence economies, producing and reproducing wealth in partnership with nature, have been experts in their own right of holistic and ecological knowledge of nature's processes. But these alternative modes of knowing, which are oriented to the social benefits and sustenance needs are not recognized by the capitalist reductionist paradigm, because it fails to perceive the interconnectedness of nature, or the connection of women's lives, work and knowledge with the creation of wealth." However, feminist and social ecologist Janet Biehl has criticized ecofeminism for focusing too much on a mystical connection between women and nature and not enough on the actual conditions of women. French French feminism is a branch of feminist thought from a group of feminists in France from the 1970s to the 1990s. It is distinguished from Anglophone feminism by an approach which is more philosophical and literary. Its writings tend to be effusive and metaphorical, being less concerned with political doctrine and generally focused on theories of "the body". The term includes writers who are not French, but who have worked substantially in France and the French tradition, such as Julia Kristeva and Bracha Ettinger. In the 1970s, French feminists approached feminism with the concept of Écriture féminine, which translates as 'feminine writing'. Hélène Cixous argues that writing and philosophy are phallocentric and along with other French feminists such as Luce Irigaray emphasizes "writing from the body" as a subversive exercise. The work of the feminist psychoanalyst and philosopher, Julia Kristeva, has influenced feminist theory in general and feminist literary criticism in particular. From the 1980s onwards, the work of artist and psychoanalyst Bracha Ettinger has influenced literary criticism, art history, and film theory. Bracha Ettinger conceived of a feminine-maternal dimension she has named the matrixial, and she works toward changing the definition of the human subject to include it, as well as on the "matrixial" space, object and gaze (in art) and on the importance of the matrixial feminine dimension for the fields of psychoanalysis and ethics. However, as the scholar Elizabeth Wright pointed out, "none of these French feminists align themselves with the feminist movement as it appeared in the Anglophone world." Mexican Possibilities for gender equality have increased due to political and cultural movements of the 20th century, which can be referred to as the "women's century" because of the successes from women's political activism in this time period. The dramatic shift in Mexican women's roles was seen in multiple sectors which included education, labor, political, and cultural, all caused by the feminist movement. Feminism in Mexico first began with the formation of the first liberal feminist association at the Normal de Profesoras in 1904, although women began fighting earlier the school featured the first generation of feminist women, writers, and teachers (Jimenez, 2012.) Feminism later on made waves in the late 20th century around 1988 in Mexico City. Courses at universities such as Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) began incorporating the topic of feminism and other gendered discourse, although it was not a full course it began the discussion about feminism amongst Mexican college students. It was not until the year 2009 a course was create specifically for the Geography of Gender with the help of two geographers who were widely recognized feminist Veronica Ibarra Garcia and Irma Escamilla Herrera ( Villagran, 2019) Despite the waves of feminism in the late 1900s feminism the work began in the early 1900s where other women who are recognized to be a part of the first wave of feminism are Laureana Wright, Rita Cetina Gutierrez, Dolores Jimenez y Muro, Dolores Correa Zapata, and Mateana Murguia de Aveleyra began laying down the ground work for feminism in Mexico. These women were pioneers of the moment they were writers during a time when it was not common for women to write ( Jimenez, 2012.) These women were very atypical in many aspects as in a mostly catholic country they freemasons, protestants, revolutionist, and spiritualist (Jimenez, 2012.) These women were determined to make change and given women equal opportunities, an achievement for the movement was in 1883 the ability to gain women the access to attend schools which allowed them to get advanced careers such as lawyers and medical professions (Jimenez, 2012.) Standpoint Since the 1980s, standpoint feminists have argued that feminism should examine how women's experience of inequality relates to that of racism, homophobia, classism and colonization. In the late 1980s and the 1990s, postmodern feminists argued that gender roles are socially constructed, and that it is impossible to generalize women's experiences across cultures and histories. Third-world Third-world feminism has been described as a group of feminist theories developed by feminists who acquired their views and took part in feminist politics in so-called third-world countries. Although women from the third world have been engaged in the feminist movement, Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Sarojini Sahoo criticize Western feminism on the grounds that it is ethnocentric and does not take into account the unique experiences of women from third-world countries or the existence of feminist movements indigenous to third-world countries. According to Mohanty, women in the third world feel that Western feminism bases its understanding of women on "internal racism, classism and homophobia", a phenomenon which has been referred to by others as imperial feminism. This discourse is strongly related to African feminism and postcolonial feminism. Its development is also associated with black feminism, womanism, "Africana womanism", "motherism", "Stiwanism", "negofeminism", chicana feminism, and "femalism". Transfeminism Transfeminism (or trans feminism) is, a movement by and for trans women, was defined by Robert Hill, "a category of feminism, most often known for the application of transgender discourses to feminist discourses, and of feminist beliefs to transgender discourse". Hill says that transfeminism also concerns its integration within mainstream feminism. He defines transfeminism in this context as a type of feminism "having specific content that applies to transgender people, but the thinking and theory of which is also applicable to all women". Transfeminism includes many of the major themes of other third-wave feminism, including diversity, body image, oppression, misogyny, and women's agency. It is not merely about merging trans concerns with feminism, but often applies feminist analysis and critiques to social issues facing trans women and trans people more broadly. Transfeminism also includes critical analysis of second-wave feminism from the perspective of the third wave. Early voices in the movement include Kate Bornstein and Sandy Stone, whose essay The Empire Strikes Back was a direct response to Janice Raymond. In the 21st century, Susan Stryker and Julia Serano have contributed work in the field of transgender women. Religion Women and feminism in the United States Asian American feminism The first wave of Asian women's organizing formed out of the Asian American movement of the 1960s, which in turn was inspired by the civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement. During the Second Wave of feminism, Asian American women provided services for battered women, worked as advocates for refugees and recent immigrants, produced events spotlighting Asian women's cultural and political diversity, and organized with other women of color. Asian Sisters, which emerged in 1971 out of the Asian American Political Alliance, is an early Asian American women's group based out of Los Angeles that focused on drug abuse intervention for young women. Networking between Asian American and other women during this period also included participation by a contingent of 150 Third World and white women from North America at the historic Vancouver Indochinese Women's Conference (1971) to work with the Indochinese women against U.S. imperialism. History After World War II when immigration laws began to change, an increasing number of Asian women began to migrate to the United States and joined the workforce. Asian women who worked in the textile and garment industry faced gender discrimination as well as racism. Following the African American and Chicana feminist movements of the 1960s, Asian American women activists began to organize and participated in protests with Asian American men to fight racism and classism. The first organized movement formed by Asian American women followed the Asian American movement in the 1960s, which was influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and anti-Vietnam War sentiment. However, as Asian American women's participation became increasingly active, they faced sexism and realized that many of the organizations did not recognize their needs and struggles as women. While Asian American women believed that they face the same social and equality issues as Asian American men, many Asian American men did not share the same sentiment. Important figures and movements In the mid-1960s when more and more Asian women began immigrating to the United States, they faced gender discrimination and racism in the workforce. Au Quon McElrath, who was a Chinese labor activist and social workers, began organizing and advocating for increased wages, improved working environments, additional health benefits, and maternity leaves for women workers. When Asian American women activists started to recognize a need for a separate movement from the sexism that they faced, they began to develop a feminist consciousness and initialized organizations to fight for women's rights and to fight against sexism. Some groups developed caucuses within organizations like the Organization of Chinese American Women, which was an already existing Asian American organization. Within the Asian American cultural arts movement, many artists such as poet Janice Mirikitani rose to fame within the Asian American community. Modern Asian American feminism Though recent decades, Asian American feminism and feminist identity continues to struggle with the perception of Asian Americans as part of the Model minority, which has affected and shaped the political identity of Asian American women as women of color in the United States. Additionally, globalized trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade have changed the dynamics of the labor force and work environments in the United States. In the free-trade capitalist global economy, protection of workers' rights and working environment has weakened dramatically, disproportionately disadvantaging women workers, especially women of color. Native American feminism Women of All Red Nations (WARN) was initiated in 1974, and is one of the best known Native American women's organizations whose activism included fighting sterilization in public health service hospitals, suing the U.S. government for attempts to sell Pine Ridge water in South Dakota to corporations, and networking with indigenous people in Guatemala and Nicaragua. WARN reflected a whole generation of Native American women activists who had been leaders in the takeover of Wounded Knee in South Dakota in 1973, on the Pine Ridge reservation (1973–76), and elsewhere. WARN as well as other Native American women's organizations, grew out of—and often worked with—mixed-gender nationalist organizations. The American Indian Movement was founded in 1968 by Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, and Mary Jane Wilson, an Anishinabe activist. History Native American feminist ideology is founded upon addressing two often overlooked issues: one, that the United States as well as other Western nations are settler colonial nation states, and second, colonialism is gendered. United States colonialism and patriarchy disproportionately impact the experiences of Native American women who face this "double burden" of both racism and sexism and the resulting discrimination. Thus, the history of Native American feminism has always been entwined with the processes of colonialism and imperialism. Important figures and movements Because of strong anti-colonial sentiments and the unique experience of Native Americans as a society that was colonized by American settlers, Native American feminist ideology is characterized by the rejection of feminist politics and their background as indigenous women. In the early 1990s, Annete Jaime, in "American Indian Women: At the Center of Indigenous Resistance in North America," argues that only Native women who have assimilated consider themselves as feminists. Jaime states that supporting the equality and political freedom of Native American women activists means the rejection of feminist politics as feminist politics is tied to the colonial history of the United States. The indigenous movement of Native American women also involves the preservation of Native spirituality by organizations such as Women of All Red Nations and the Indigenous Women's Network. Native spirituality includes the cultural contextualization of kinship roles through cultural beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies, strengthening and preserving the fluid bond between the individual and the "indigenous homeland". The expectation of indigenous spirituality manifested in the "feminine organic archetypes" such as images like the Corn Mother and Daughter, Spider Woman, and Changing Woman of Southwest Pueblo lore found in Native creation myths. Modern Native American feminism In the United States, more Native American women die from domestic violence than any other women. The issue of domestic violence has caused many Native American feminists to reject the assumption and notion that women in Native American communities must continue to defend the ideal of tribal nationalism when certain aspects of tribal nationalism ignore very pertinent problems of sexism and women's liberation from colonization. Andrea Smith, an activist for women of color and especially Native American women, organized the first "Color of Violence: Violence against Women of Color Conference." During this conference, notable African American scholar and activist Angela Davis spoke on the continual colonial domination and oppression of indigenous nations, highlighting and emphasizing the experience of violence towards Native women. Davis also pointed out the gendered nature of the legislative and judicial process in nation-states as well as the inextricable link between the federal government and male dominance, racism, classism, and homophobia. In modern Native American feminism, there has been an emergence of politically significant art forms and media. The art combines past and current history, addresses racism and sexism, and breaks down the social and media representation and stigmas of persons of color. Chicana feminism Chicana feminism focuses on Mexican American, Chicana, and Hispanic women in the United States. Hijas de Cuauhtemoc was one of the earliest Chicana feminist organizations in the Second-wave of feminism founded in 1971, and named after a Mexican women's underground newspaper that was published during the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional was founded in October 1970. The Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional is an organization of women who enhance and promote the image of Chicana/Latina women in all levels of society. History The movement highlighting the struggles and issues experienced by Chicanas, as women of color in the United States, emerged primarily as a result of the politics and dynamics of the national Chicano movement. During the 1960s, the Chicano movement, characterized by a nature of protest, fought for equality, social justice, and political and economic freedoms, and during this period in time, many other struggles and organizations were sparked by the movement. The Chicano movements and protests also saw the participation of Chicanas, who through the movement, became aware of the potential rewards as well as their own roles within the movement and society. As a result, Chicana feminism developed towards the end of the 1960s and early 1970s. Through the subsequent movement, Chicanas publicized their struggle for equality with Chicano men and questioned and challenged their traditional cultural, societal, and familial roles. Important figures and movements The primary movement which saw the emergence of Chicana feminism in the United States began in the 1960s and 1970s following the Chicano movement. Chicana feminism, built upon and transformed the ideologies of the Chicano movement, was one of the United States' "second wave" of feminist protests. Like many prominent movements during the 1960s-1970s error, "second wave" Chicana feminism arose through protests across many college campuses in addition to other regional organizations. Youth participation in the movements was more aggressive due to influence from active civil rights and black liberation protests occurring nationally. Modern Chicana feminism Since the "second wave" Chicana feminist movement, many organizations have developed in order to properly address the unique struggles and challenges that Chicanas face. In addition, Chicana feminism continues to recognize the life conditions and experiences that are very different from those that white feminists face. As women of color, Chicanas continue to fight for educational, economic, and political equality. Women and feminism in South America Colombian feminism Feminism in Colombia In the twentieth century, the firsts feminism organizations appeared in Colombia. Women who fight for the basic rights of other women. The history of feminism in Colombia is divided into two moments; the first one that went from the thirties to the sixties- where the main purpose of those moments was to criticize the inequality of civil rights that women and minorities were victims. The second one from the sixties to the present; that denounce the inequality in aspects like sexuality and reproductive rights. History At the beginning of the last century the creation and the organization of social and feminist movements start in Colombia. Until the 1930s, under the mandate of the Liberal political parties the women's movements managed to consolidate and create a feminism movement, that fought and defend civil and political rights for women. In 1944, the "Union Femenina de Colombia" (the Colombian Women's Union), " Alianza Femenina" (Women's Alliance) and "Agitacion Femenina" (Women's Agitation) emerged. those organizations focused their efforts on achieving the right to vote for all women, which would arrive almost 10 years later. In 1948 during XI Conference of the OAS (Organization of American States) it was approved the Convention about the political and civil rights for women. Thus, under the government of the president Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, three thousand women, led by Esmeralda Arboleda, Magdalena Feti, and Isable Lleras. Demand to the government the compliance of the convention. under the pressure of women movements allows them to be include in the constitutional reform of 1954, and with that win the right to vote. Important figures and movements: Juana Julia Guzmán in 1917, she created "El Centro de Emancipacion Femenina" (Women Emancipation center), also in 1919, she was one of the main founders of the "Sociedad de Obreros y Artesanos de Córdoba" (Workers and artisans society of Córdoba). her fights for women and minorities rights was ended because she was victim of political persecution. María Cano was the leader of the "Movimiento Obrero" (Workers movement). she worked on the diffusion of the socialist ideas in Colombia and she consolidate movement that demand civil rights for the working and peasant population. Modern Colombian feminism movements: With the process of peace in effect in the whole country, new feminists movements have emerged and this is the case of "Viejas Verdes," "Siete Polas," and "Estamos Listas" movements that use the technology and the social media to have a more significant social impact. Their primary purpose is to obtain political, social, sexual, educational, economic, and labor equality among people. Although women can vote for the first time around 62 years ago, their participation in the national politic is still minimum and unequal compare to men. An example of that is that in congress, women are just the 19.7% of members. Causes of diversity Some argue that every feminist has an altered standpoint on the movement due to the varying hurdles women of different backgrounds come across. Depending on class some women will have different experiences of the patriarchy and experienced oppression to different degrees. Others may argue that Western feminism has been responsible for creating an atmosphere of 'me, not you', upholding the oppressive Western state in order to prioritize the security of white women and consequently leaving women who belong to trans or minority ethnic communities behind. Another division has been caused by the increased call for trans rights in the West; issues surrounding the blurred line that exists between the feminist movement and the trans-rights movement and whether trans women should be included in mainstream feminist discourse or be seen as a movement in its own right. Issues have also arisen over how 'masculine' and 'feminine' have been defined and whether previously gendered values are nature or nurture. Shared perspectives Movements share some perspectives while disagreeing on others. Men as oppressed with women Some movements differ on whether discrimination against women adversely affects men. Movements represented by writers Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem consider men oppressed by gender roles. Friedan argued that feminism would benefit both genders and was part of the human rights movement. Steinem suggested that liberation was for both genders, as men's burdens would be shared. Susan Faludi wrote, in Stiffed, that men, while not currently rebelling, can rebel on a scale with women and liberate both genders toward a more humane world. Ellen Willis, weighing economics and feminism, considered an alliance with men necessary to women's liberation. Florynce Kennedy wrote, "Men are outraged, turned off, and wigged out, by threats that women might withdraw consent to oppression, because they—men—subconsciously (and often consciously) know that they—men—are oppressed." Mary Wollstonecraft wrote, "From the respect paid to property flow ... most of the evils and vices which render this world such a dreary scene to the contemplative mind.... One class presses on another; for all are aiming to procure respect on account of their property .... [M]en wonder that the world is almost, literally speaking, a den of sharpers or oppressors." She argued for the usefulness of men "feel[ing] for" men; while she objected to men wanting of women only that they be "pleasing" to men. She said, "To say the truth, I not only tremble for the souls of women, but for the good natured man, whom everyone loves." According to Kristin Kaisem, a common interest in the upward mobilization of women as a whole has prompted a desire for a more inclusive and universal feminist movement. Men as oppressors of women Other movements consider men primarily the causative agents of sexism. Mary Daly wrote, "The courage to be logical—the courage to name—would require that we admit to ourselves that males and males only are the originators, planners, controllers, and legitimators of patriarchy. Patriarchy is the homeland of males; it is Father Land; and men are its agents." The Redstockings declared that men, especially a few leading men, oppress women and that, "All men receive economic, sexual, and psychological benefits from male supremacy. All men have oppressed women." In a somewhat less clear-cut position, Kate Millett wrote in Sexual Politics that our society, like others in the past, is a patriarchy, with older men generally being in charge of younger men and all females. Criticism Some have argued that the wide diversity in feminist ideologies has hindered the collaboration of some feminist subdivisions. On the other hand, Linda M.G. Zerilli and Donna Haraway assert that different discourses within feminism can be artificially separated through taxonomies, and it is this separation rather than ideological incompatibility that has impeded constructive conversation on subjectivity. Critics have argued that "same" means "equal" and that women can never be the same as men. Feminism would respond by claiming that women might not be physically the same as men but they still have the right to be equal. References External links

Source criticism

Source criticism (or information evaluation) is the process of evaluating an information source, i.e.: a document, a person, a speech, a fingerprint, a photo, an observation, or anything used in order to obtain knowledge. In relation to a given purpose, a given information source may be more or less valid, reliable or relevant. Broadly, "source criticism" is the interdisciplinary study of how information sources are evaluated for given tasks. Meaning Problems in translation: The Danish word kildekritik, like the Norwegian word kildekritikk and the Swedish word källkritik, derived from the German Quellenkritik and is closely associated with the German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886). Historian wrote: His [Ranke's] first work Geschichte der romanischen und germanischen Völker von 1494–1514 (History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations from 1494 to 1514) (1824) was a great success. It already showed some of the basic characteristics of his conception of Europe, and was of historiographical importance particularly because Ranke made an exemplary critical analysis of his sources in a separate volume, Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtsschreiber (On the Critical Methods of Recent Historians). In this work he raised the method of textual criticism used in the late eighteenth century, particularly in classical philology to the standard method of scientific historical writing. (Hardtwig, 2001, p. 12739) Historical theorist Chris Lorenz wrote: The larger part of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries would be dominated by the research-oriented conception of historical method of the so-called Historical School in Germany, led by historians as Leopold Ranke and Berthold Niebuhr. Their conception of history, long been regarded as the beginning of modern, 'scientific' history, harked back to the 'narrow' conception of historical method, limiting the methodical character of history to source criticism. (Lorenz, 2001) In the early 21st century, source criticism is a growing field in, among other fields, library and information science. In this context source criticism is studied from a broader perspective than just, for example, history, classical philology, or biblical studies (but there, too, it has more recently received new attention). Principles The following principles are from two Scandinavian textbooks on source criticism, written by the historians Olden-Jørgensen (1998) and Thurén (1997): Human sources may be relics (e.g. a fingerprint) or narratives (e.g. a statement or a letter). Relics are more credible sources than narratives. A given source may be forged or corrupted; strong indications of the originality of the source increases its reliability. The closer a source is to the event which it purports to describe, the more one can trust it to give an accurate description of what really happened A primary source is more reliable than a secondary source, which in turn is more reliable than a tertiary source and so on. If a number of independent sources contain the same message, the credibility of the message is strongly increased. The tendency of a source is its motivation for providing some kind of bias. Tendencies should be minimized or supplemented with opposite motivations. If it can be demonstrated that the witness (or source) has no direct interest in creating bias, the credibility of the message is increased. Two other principles are: Knowledge of source criticism cannot substitute for subject knowledge: "Because each source teaches you more and more about your subject, you will be able to judge with ever-increasing precision the usefulness and value of any prospective source. In other words, the more you know about the subject, the more precisely you can identify what you must still find out". (Bazerman, 1995, p. 304). The reliability of a given source is relative to the questions put to it. "The empirical case study showed that most people find it difficult to assess questions of cognitive authority and media credibility in a general sense, for example, by comparing the overall credibility of newspapers and the Internet. Thus these assessments tend to be situationally sensitive. Newspapers, television and the Internet were frequently used as sources of orienting information, but their credibility varied depending on the actual topic at hand" (Savolainen, 2007). The following questions are often good ones to ask about any source according to the American Library Association (1994) and Engeldinger (1988): How was the source located? What type of source is it? Who is the author and what are the qualifications of the author in regard to the topic that is discussed? When was the information published? In which country was it published? What is the reputation of the publisher? Does the source show a particular cultural or political bias? For literary sources complementing criteria are: Does the source contain a bibliography? Has the material been reviewed by a group of peers, or has it been edited? How does the article/book compare with similar articles/books? Levels of generality Some principles of source criticism are universal, other principles are specific for certain kinds of information sources. There is today no consensus about the similarities and differences between source criticism in the natural science and humanities. Logical positivism claimed that all fields of knowledge were based on the same principles. Much of the criticism of logical positivism claimed that positivism is the basis of the sciences, whereas hermeneutics is the basis of the humanities. This was, for example, the position of Jürgen Habermas. A newer position, in accordance with, among others, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Thomas Kuhn, understands both science and humanities as determined by researchers' preunderstanding and paradigms. Hermeneutics is thus a universal theory. The difference is, however, that the sources of the humanities are themselves products of human interests and preunderstanding, whereas the sources of the natural sciences are not. Humanities are thus "doubly hermeneutic". Natural scientists, however, are also using human products (such as scientific papers) which are products of preunderstanding (and can lead to, for example, academic fraud). Contributing fields Epistemology Epistemological theories are the basic theories about how knowledge is obtained and are thus the most general theories about how to evaluate information sources. Empiricism evaluates sources by considering the observations (or sensations) on which they are based. Sources without basis in experience are not seen as valid. Rationalism provides low priority to sources based on observations. In order to be meaningful, observations must be explained by clear ideas or concepts. It is the logical structure and the well definedness that is in focus in evaluating information sources from the rationalist point of view. Historicism evaluates information sources on the basis of their reflection of their sociocultural context and their theoretical development. Pragmatism evaluate sources on the basis of how their values and usefulness to accomplish certain outcomes. Pragmatism is skeptical about claimed neutral information sources. The evaluation of knowledge or information sources cannot be more certain than is the construction of knowledge. If one accepts the principle of fallibilism then one also has to accept that source criticism can never 100% verify knowledge claims. As discussed in the next section, source criticism is intimately linked to scientific methods. The presence of fallacies of argument in sources is another kind of philosophical criterion for evaluating sources. Fallacies are presented by Walton (1998). Among the fallacies are the ad hominem fallacy (the use of personal attack to try to undermine or refute a person's argument) and the straw man fallacy (when one arguer misrepresents another's position to make it appear less plausible than it really is, in order more easily to criticize or refute it.) Research methodology Research methods are methods used to produce scholarly knowledge. The methods that are relevant for producing knowledge are also relevant for evaluating knowledge. An example of a book that turns methodology upside-down and uses it to evaluate produced knowledge is Katzer; Cook & Crouch (1998). Science studies Studies of quality evaluation processes such as peer review, book reviews and of the normative criteria used in evaluation of scientific and scholarly research. Another field is the study of scientific misconduct. Harris (1979) provides a case study of how a famous experiment in psychology, Little Albert, has been distorted throughout the history of psychology, starting with the author (Watson) himself, general textbook authors, behavior therapists, and a prominent learning theorist. Harris proposes possible causes for these distortions and analyzes the Albert study as an example of myth making in the history of psychology. Studies of this kind may be regarded a special kind of reception history (how Watson's paper was received). It may also be regarded as a kind of critical history (opposed to ceremonial history of psychology, cf. Harris, 1980). Such studies are important for source criticism in revealing the bias introduced by referring to classical studies. Textual criticism Textual criticism (or broader: text philology) is a part of philology, which is not just devoted to the study of texts, but also to edit and produce "scientific editions", "scholarly editions", "standard editions", "historical editions", "reliable editions", "reliable texts", "text editions" or "critical editions", which are editions in which careful scholarship has been employed to ensure that the information contained within is as close to the author's/composer's original intentions as possible (and which allows the user to compare and judge changes in editions published under influence by the author/composer). The relation between these kinds of works and the concept "source criticism" is evident in Danish, where they may be termed "kildekritisk udgave" (directly translated "source critical edition"). In other words, it is assumed that most editions of a given works is filled with noise and errors provided by publishers, why it is important to produce "scholarly editions". The work provided by text philology is an important part of source criticism in the humanities. Psychology The study of eyewitness testimony is an important field of study used, among other purposes, to evaluate testimony in courts. The basics of eyewitness fallibility includes factors such as poor viewing conditions, brief exposure, and stress. More subtle factors, such as expectations, biases, and personal stereotypes can intervene to create erroneous reports. Loftus (1996) discuss all such factors and also shows that eyewitness memory is chronically inaccurate in surprising ways. An ingenious series of experiments reveals that memory can be radically altered by the way an eyewitness is questioned after the fact. New memories can be implanted and old ones unconsciously altered under interrogation. Anderson (1978) and Anderson & Pichert (1977) reported an elegant experiment demonstrating how change in perspective affected people's ability to recall information that was unrecallable from another perspective. In psychoanalysis the concept of defence mechanism is important and may be considered a contribution to the theory of source criticism because it explains psychological mechanisms, which distort the reliability of human information sources. Library and information science (LIS) In schools of library and information science (LIS), source criticism is taught as part of the growing field of information literacy. Issues such as relevance, quality indicators for documents, kinds of documents and their qualities (e.g. scholarly editions) are studied in LIS and are relevant for source criticism. Bibliometrics is often used to find the most influential journal, authors, countries and institutions. Librarians study book reviews and their function in evaluating books. In library and information science the checklist approach has often been used. A criticism of this approach is given by Meola (2004): "Chucking the checklist". Libraries sometimes provide advice on how their users may evaluate sources. The Library of Congress has a "Teaching with Primary Sources" (TPS) program. Ethics Source criticism is also about ethical behavior and culture. It is about a free press and an open society, including the protecting information sources from being persecuted (cf., Whistleblower). In specific domains Photos Photos are often manipulated during wars and for political purposes. One well known example is Joseph Stalin's manipulation of a photograph from May 5, 1920, on which Stalin's predecessor Lenin held a speech for Soviet troops that Leon Trotsky attended. Stalin had later Trotsky retouched out of this photograph. (cf. King, 1997). A recent example is reported by Healy (2008) about North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Internet sources Much interest in evaluating Internet sources (such as Wikipedia) is reflected in the scholarly literature of library and information science and in other fields. Mintz (2002) is an edited volume about this issue. Examples of literature examining Internet sources include Chesney (2006), Fritch & Cromwell (2001), Leth & Thurén (2000) and Wilkinson, Bennett, & Oliver (1997). Archaeology and history "In history, the term historical method was first introduced in a systematic way in the sixteenth century by Jean Bodin in his treatise of source criticism, Methodus ad facilem historiarium cognitionem (1566). Characteristically, Bodin's treatise intended to establish the ways by which reliable knowledge of the past could be established by checking sources against one another and by so assessing the reliability of the information conveyed by them, relating them to the interests involved." (Lorenz, 2001, p. 6870). As written above, modern source criticism in history is closely associated with the German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886), who influenced historical methods on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, although in rather different ways. American history developed in a more empirist and antiphilosophical way (cf., Novick, 1988). Two of the best-known rule books from the 19th century are Bernheim (1889) and Langlois & Seignobos (1898). These books provided a seven-step procedure (here quoted from Howell & Prevenier, 2001, p. 70–71): If the sources all agree about an event, historians can consider the event proved. However, majority does not rule; even if most sources relate events in one way, that version will not prevail unless it passes the test of critical textual analysis. The source whose account can be confirmed by reference to outside authorities in some of its parts can be trusted in its entirety if it is impossible similarly to confirm the entire text. When two sources disagree on a particular point, the historian will prefer the source with most "authority"—i.e. the source created by the expert or by the eyewitness. Eyewitnesses are, in general, to be preferred, especially in circumstances where the ordinary observer could have accurately reported what transpired and, more specifically, when they deal with facts known by most contemporaries. If two independently created sources agree on a matter, the reliability of each is measureably enhanced. When two sources disagree (and there is no other means of evaluation), then historians take the source which seems to accord best with common sense. Gudmundsson (2007, p. 38) wrote: "Source criticism should not totally dominate later courses. Other important perspectives, for example, philosophy of history/view of history, should not suffer by being neglected" (Translated by BH). This quote makes a distinction between source criticism on the one hand and historical philosophy on the other hand. However, different views of history and different specific theories about the field being studied may have important consequences for how sources are selected, interpreted and used. Feminist scholars may, for example, select sources made by women and may interpret sources from a feminist perspective. Epistemology should thus be considered a part of source criticism. It is in particular related to "tendency analysis". In archaeology, radiocarbon dating is an important technique to establish the age of information sources. Methods of this kind were the ideal when history established itself as both a scientific discipline and as a profession based on "scientific" principles in the last part of the 1880s (although radiocarbon dating is a more recent example of such methods). The empiricist movement in history brought along both "source criticism" as a research method and also in many countries large scale publishing efforts to make valid editions of "source materials" such as important letters and official documents (e.g. as facsimiles or transcriptions). Historiography and historical method include the study of the reliability of the sources used, in terms of, for example, authorship, credibility of the author, and the authenticity or corruption of the text. Biblical studies Source criticism, as the term is used in biblical criticism, refers to the attempt to establish the sources used by the author and/or redactor of the final text. The term "literary criticism" is occasionally used as a synonym. Biblical source criticism originated in the 18th century with the work of Jean Astruc, who adapted the methods already developed for investigating the texts of classical antiquity (Homer's Iliad in particular) to his own investigation into the sources of the Book of Genesis. It was subsequently considerably developed by German scholars in what was known as "the higher criticism", a term no longer in widespread use. The ultimate aim of these scholars was to reconstruct the history of the biblical text, as well as the religious history of ancient Israel. Related to source criticism is redaction criticism which seeks to determine how and why the redactor (editor) put the sources together the way he did. Also related is form criticism and tradition history which try to reconstruct the oral prehistory behind the identified written sources. Journalism Journalists often work with strong time pressure and have access to only a limited number of information sources such as news bureaus, persons which may be interviewed, newspapers, journals and so on (see journalism sourcing). Journalists' possibility for conducting serious source criticism is thus limited compared to, for example, historians' possibilities. Legal studies The most important legal sources are created by parliaments, governments, courts, and legal researchers. They may be written or informal and based on established practices. Views concerning the quality of sources differ among legal philosophies: Legal positivism is the view that the text of the law should be considered in isolation, while legal realism, interpretivism (legal), critical legal studies and feminist legal criticism interprets the law on a broader cultural basis. See also Argumentation theory Bias Critical thinking Deception Fabrication (science) Exegesis False document Fraud Plagiarism Psychological warfare Q source Scholarly method Notes References American Library Association (1994) Evaluating Information: A Basic Checklist. Brochure. American Library Association Anderson, Richard C. (1978). Schema-directed processes in language comprehension. IN: NATO International Conference on Cognitive Psychology and Instruction, 1977, Amsterdam: Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Ed. by A. M. Lesgold, J. W. Pellegrino, S. D. Fokkema & R. Glaser. New York: Plenum Press (pp. 67–82). Anderson, Richard C. & Pichert, J. W. (1977). Recall of previously unrecallable information following a shift of perspective. Urbana, Il: University of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading, April. 1977. (Technical Report 41). Available in full-text from: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/31/83/58.pdf Bazerman, Charles (1995). The Informed Writer: Using Sources in the Disciplines. 5th ed. Houghton Mifflin. Bee, Ronald E. (1983). Statistics and Source Criticism. Vetus Testamentum, Volume 33, Number 4, 483–488. Beecher-Monas, Erica (2007). Evaluating scientific evidence : an interdisciplinary framework for intellectual due process. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. Bernheim, Ernst (1889). Lehrbuch der Historischen Methode und der Geschichtsphilosophie [Guidebook for Historical Method and the Philosophy of History]. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. Brundage, Anthony (2007). Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research and Writing, 4th Ed. Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc. (3rd edition, 1989 cited in text above). Chesney, T. (2006). An empirical examination of Wikipedia's credibility. First Monday, 11(11), URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_11/chesney/index.html Encyclopædia Britannica (2006). Fatally Flawed. Refuting the recent study on encyclopedic accuracy by the journal Nature. http://corporate.britannica.com/britannica_nature_response.pdf Nature's response March 23, 2006: http://www.nature.com/press_releases/Britannica_response.pdf Engeldinger, Eugene A. (1988) Bibliographic Instruction and Critical Thinking: The Contribution of the Annotated Bibliography. Research Quarterly, Vol. 28, Winter, p. 195–202 Engeldinger, Eugene A. (1998) Technology Infrastructure and Information Literacy. Library Philosophy and Practice Vol. 1, No. 1 Fritch, J. W., & Cromwell, R. L. (2001). Evaluating Internet resources: Identity, affiliation, and cognitive authority in a networked world. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 52, 499–507. Gerhart, Susan L. (2004). Do Web search engines suppress controversy?. First Monday 9(1). Gudmundsson, David (2007). När kritiska elever är målet. Att undervisa i källkritik på gymnasiet. [When the Goal is Critical Students. Teaching Source Criticism in Upper Secondary School]. Malmö, Sweden: Malmö högskola. Full text Hardtwig, W. (2001). Ranke, Leopold von (1795–1886). IN: Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam: Elsevier. (12738–12741). Harris, Ben (1979). Whatever Happened to Little Albert? American Psychologist, 34, 2, pp. 151–160. link to full text Harris, Ben (1980). Ceremonial versus critical history of psychology. American Psychologist, 35(2), 218–219. (Note). Healy, Jack (2008). Was the Dear Leader Photoshopped In? November 7, 2008, 2:57 pm [President Kim Jong Il, North Korea]. http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/was-the-dear-leader-photoshopped-in/?scp=7&sq=Kim%20Jong-il&st=cse Hjørland, Birger (2008). Source criticism. In: Epistemological Lifeboat. Ed. by Birger Hjørland & Jeppe Nicolaisen. Howell, Martha & Prevenier, Walter (2001). From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. . Katzer, Jeffrey; Cook, Kenneth H. & Crouch, Wayne W. (1998). Evaluating Information: A Guide for Users of Social Science Research. 4th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. King, David (1997) The Commissar Vanishes: the falsification of photographs and art in Stalin's Russia. Metropolitan Books, New York. Langlois, Charles-Victor & Seignobos, Charles (1898). Introduction aux études historiques [Introduction to the Study of History]. Paris: Librairie Hachette. Full text . Introduction to the Study of History Full text Leth, Göran & Thurén, Torsten (2000). Källkritik för internet . Stockholm: Styrelsen för Psykologiskt Försvar. (Retrieved 2007-11-30). Loftus, Elizabeth F. (1996). Eyewitness Testimony. Revised edition Cambridge, MA: Harward University Press. (Original edition:1979). Lorenz, C. (2001). History: Theories and Methods. IN: Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam: Elsevier. (Pp. 6869–6876). Mathewson, Daniel B. (2002). A critical binarism: Source criticism and deconstructive criticism. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament no98, pp. 3–28. Abstract: When classifying the array of interpretive methods currently available, biblical critics regularly distinguish between historical-critical methods, on the one hand, and literary critical methods, on the other. Frequently, methods on one side of the divide are said to be antagonistic to certain methods on the other. This article examines two such presumed antagonistic methods, source criticism and deconstructive criticism, and argues that they are not, in fact, antagonistic, but similar: both are postmodern movements, and both share an interpretive methodology (insofar as it is correct to speak of a deconstructive methodology). This argument is illustrated with a source-critical and a deconstructive reading of Exodus 14. Mattus, Maria (2007). Finding Credible Information: A Challenge to Students Writing Academic Essays. Human IT 9(2), 1–28. Retrieved 2007-09-04 from: Mintz, Anne P. (ed.). (2002). Web of deception. Misinformation on the Internet. Medford, NJ: Information Today. Müller, Philipp (2009). Understanding history: Hermeneutics and source-criticism in historical scholarship. IN: Dobson, Miriam & Ziemann, Benjamin (eds): Reading primary sources. The interpretation of texts from nineteenth and twentieth-century history. London: Routledge (pp. 21–36). Olden-Jørgensen, Sebastian (2001). Til Kilderne: Introduktion til Historisk Kildekritik (in Danish). [To the sources: Introduction to historical source criticism]. København: Gads Forlag. . Reinfandt, Christohp (2009). Reading texts after the linguistic turn: approaches from literary studies and their implementation. IN: Dobson, Miriam & Ziemann, Benjamin (eds): Reading primary sources. The interpretation of texts from nineteenth and twentieth-century history. London: Routledge (pp. 37–54). Rieh, S. Y. (2002). Judgment of information quality and cognitive authority in the Web. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53(2), 145–161. https://web.archive.org/web/20090731152623/http://www.si.umich.edu/rieh/papers/rieh_jasist2002.pdf Rieh, S. Y. (2005). Cognitive authority. I: K. E. Fisher, S. Erdelez, & E. F. McKechnie (Eds.), Theories of information behavior: A researchers' guide . Medford, NJ: Information Today (pp. 83–87). https://web.archive.org/web/20080512170752/http://newweb2.si.umich.edu/rieh/papers/rieh_IBTheory.pdf Rieh, Soo Young & Danielson, David R. (2007). Credibility: A multidisciplinary framework. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 41, 307–364. Riegelman, Richard K. (2004). Studying a Study and Testing a Test: How to Read the Medical Evidence. 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Savolainen, R. (2007). Media credibility and cognitive authority. The case of seeking orienting information. Information Research, 12(3) paper 319. Available at https://web.archive.org/web/20180416064908/http://www.informationr.net/ir///12-3/paper319.html Slife, Brent D. & Williams, R. N. (1995). What's behind the research? Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ("A Consumers Guide to the Behavioral Sciences"). Taylor, John (1991). War photography; realism in the British press. London : Routledge. Thurén, Torsten. (1997). Källkritik. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. Walton, Douglas (1998). Fallacies. IN: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Version 1.0, London: Routledge Webb, E J; Campbell, D T; Schwartz, R D & Sechrest, L (2000). Unobtrusive measures; revised edition. Sage Publications Inc. Wilkinson, G.L., Bennett, L.T., & Oliver, K.M. (1997). Evaluation criteria and indicators of quality for Internet resources. Educational Technology, 37(3), 52–59. Wilson, Patrick (1983). Second-Hand Knowledge. An Inquiry into Cognitive Authority. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood. External links The Source Compass: Source Criticism The History Sourcebook: The Need for Source Criticism Error Library science Literary criticism Scientific method Scientific misconduct Skepticism Sources Information science

Four Great Ancient Civilizations

In Japanese and Chinese historiography, the Four Great Ancient Civilizations were Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China, which are identified as the cradles of civilization. The concept is popularly used in Japan and China—for example in history textbooks—but not generally known in the western world. Origin The origins of the phrase are unclear. According to one theory, it originated with Japanese archaeologist ; his colleague recalled that Egami used to say that he coined the phrase. The first known occurrence of the phrase "four great civilizations" can be traced to a textbook titled Revised World History, published by in 1952 by the Yamakawa Publishing Company, where Egami worked. Another theory is that the term originates with Liang Qichao, a Chinese intellectual that lived during the late Qing dynasty. Specifically, in his 1900 poem , he wrote "there are four motherlands of ancient civilizations on earth: China, India, Egypt, and Asia Minor". This view of civilization was also influenced by Japanese thinkers such as Fukuzawa Yukichi, Ukita Zautami and Kayahara Kazan, who in turn were influenced by the western concept of a cradle of civilization. Liang Qichao divided the history of the world into three ages: the river age, the sea age, and the ocean age. The Four Great Ancient Civilizations originated in the river age and all of them developed along rivers. Scholars believe that they were all built near rivers because there were fixed water sources that made it easier for agriculture and commerce to develop. Human beings are clearly inseparable from water, but some historians believe that at the beginning of Chinese civilization, it first occurred in the mountains and then expanded to river areas. This four civilizations model is not universally used and has come under criticism from some Chinese historians in that the dates of the beginning of China's civilization does not place it in the first four. Overview Between 7000 and 5000 years ago in the Northern Hemisphere, the Mesopotamia, Nile, Indus, Ganges basins, as well as the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins have successively produced the world's Four Great Ancient Civilizations. These four civilizations have successively entered the Bronze Age from the Neolithic Age, and then entered the Metal Age. Much of the philosophy, science, literature, art and other aspects of knowledge that humans possess today can generally be traced back to the contributions of these ancient civilizations. Among the social systems of the Four Great Ancient Civilizations, Egypt and Babylon adopted slavery, India implemented the caste system, and China adopted the feudal system and the well-field system before the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. Each civilization had its own myths and legends. The state entities were born later. In ancient times, religious myths were used to strengthen monarchy. The ruler of Babylon Hammurabi claimed to be "descendants of Moon God", and the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh claimed to be "the son of Sun God", and the Chinese monarch claimed to be the "Son of Heaven". The Four Great Ancient Civilizations all have their own calendars, each year is divided into 12 months and has leap months. Each civilization created its own writing. Civilizations in the Indus, Yellow and Mesopotamia river basins all used pottery wheels to make pottery. Egypt and Mesopotamia both calculated pi earlier, and China discovered the Pythagorean theorem earlier (or its practical application), while India invented Indian numerals (Arabic numerals). See also Civilization state Five thousand years of Chinese civilization References Historiography of China Historiography of Egypt Historiography of India Ancient Near East Cradle of civilization

Continuum (measurement)

Continuum (: continua or continuums) theories or models explain variation as involving gradual quantitative transitions without abrupt changes or discontinuities. In contrast, categorical theories or models explain variation using qualitatively different states. In physics In physics, for example, the space-time continuum model describes space and time as part of the same continuum rather than as separate entities. A spectrum in physics, such as the electromagnetic spectrum, is often termed as either continuous (with energy at all wavelengths) or discrete (energy at only certain wavelengths). In contrast, quantum mechanics uses quanta, certain defined amounts (i.e. categorical amounts) which are distinguished from continuous amounts. In mathematics and philosophy A good introduction to the philosophical issues involved is John Lane Bell's essa in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. A significant divide is provided by the law of excluded middle. It determines the divide between intuitionistic continua such as Brouwer's and Lawvere's, and classical ones such as Stevin's and Robinson's. Bell isolates two distinct historical conceptions of infinitesimal, one by Leibniz and one by Nieuwentijdt, and argues that Leibniz's conception was implemented in Robinson's hyperreal continuum, whereas Nieuwentijdt's, in Lawvere's smooth infinitesimal analysis, characterized by the presence of nilsquare infinitesimals: "It may be said that Leibniz recognized the need for the first, but not the second type of infinitesimal and Nieuwentijdt, vice versa. It is of interest to note that Leibnizian infinitesimals (differentials) are realized in nonstandard analysis, and nilsquare infinitesimals in smooth infinitesimal analysis". In social sciences, psychology and psychiatry In social sciences in general, psychology and psychiatry included, data about differences between individuals, like any data, can be collected and measured using different levels of measurement. Those levels include dichotomous (a person either has a personality trait or not) and non-dichotomous approaches. While the non-dichotomous approach allows for understanding that everyone lies somewhere on a particular personality dimension, the dichotomous (nominal categorical and ordinal) approaches only seek to confirm that a particular person either has or does not have a particular mental disorder. Expert witnesses particularly are trained to help courts in translating the data into the legal (e.g. 'guilty' vs. 'not guilty') dichotomy, which apply to law, sociology and ethics. In linguistics In linguistics, the range of dialects spoken over a geographical area that differ slightly between neighboring areas is known as a dialect continuum. A language continuum is a similar description for the merging of neighboring languages without a clear defined boundary. Examples of dialect or language continuums include the varieties of Italian or German; and the Romance languages, Arabic languages, or Bantu languages. References External links Continuity and infinitesimals, John Bell, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Concepts in metaphysics Concepts in physics Concepts in the philosophy of science Mathematical concepts

Nature–culture divide

The nature–culture divide is the notion of a dichotomy between humans and the environment. It is a theoretical foundation of contemporary anthropology that considers whether nature and culture function separately from one another, or if they are in a continuous biotic relationship with each other. In East Asian society, nature and culture are conceptualized as dichotomous (separate and distinct domains of reference). Some researchers consider culture to be "man's secret adaptive weapon" in the sense that it is the core means of survival. It has been observed that the terms "nature" and "culture" can not necessarily be translated into non-western languages, for example, the Native American scholar John Mohawk described "nature" as "anything that supports life". There is an idea that small-scale societies can have a more symbiotic relationship with nature. Less symbiotic relations with nature are limiting small-scale communities' access to water and food resources. It was also argued that the contemporary man-nature divide manifests itself in different aspects of alienation and conflicts. Greenwood and Stini argue that agriculture is only monetarily cost-efficient because it takes much more to produce than one can get out of eating their own crops, e.g. "high culture cannot come at low energy costs". During the 1960s and 1970s, Sherry Ortner showed the parallel between the divide and gender roles with women as nature and men as culture. Feminist scholars question whether the dichotomies between nature and culture, or man and woman, are essential. For example, Donna Haraway's works on cyborg theory, as well as companion species gesture toward a notion of "naturecultures": a new way of understanding non-discrete assemblages relating humans to technology and animals. History Within European culture, land was an inherited right for each family's firstborn son and every other child would need to find another way to own land. European expansion would be motivated by this desire to claim land and extract resources through technological developments or the invention of public trading companies. Other factors include religious (e.g. Crusades) and discovery (e.g. voyages) purposes. In addition to the desire for expansion, Europeans had the resources for external growth. They had ships, maps, and knowledge—a complex of politics, economy and military tactics that they believed were superior for ruling. These factors helped them to possess and rule the people of the lands they came in contact with. One large element of this was Western European's strong cultural belief in private property. Colonialists from Europe saw the American landscape as desolate, savage, dark and waste and thus needed to be tamed in order for it to be safe and habitable. Once cleared and settled, these areas were depicted as “Eden itself." Land was a commodity and as such, anyone who did not use it to turn a profit could have it taken from them. John Locke was one responsible for these ideals. Yet the commodities didn't end with the acquisition of land. Profit became the main driver for all resources that would follow (including slavery). The cultural divide that existed between Europeans and the native groups they colonised allowed the Europeans to capitalise on both local and global trade. So whether the ruling of these other lands and peoples was direct or indirect, the diffusion of European ideals and practices spread to nearly every country on the globe. Imperialism and globalisation were also at play in creating a ruling dominion for the European nation, but it did not come without challenges. The native groups they encountered saw their relationship with the land in a more holistic view. They saw the land as a shared entity of which they were a part, but the Europeans saw it as a commodity that could and should be divided and owned by individuals to then buy and sell as they pleased. And that “wilderness” is that the connection between humans and nature is broken. For native communities, human intervention was a part of their ecological practices. Theories The Role of Society Pre-existing movements include a spectrum of environmental thoughts. Authors, Büscher and Fletcher, present these various movements on a condensed map. Though it is simplified in thought and definition, it offers an excellent way for readers to see the major conservation movements plotted together in which elements of their philosophy are highlighted. The following movements are as follows: mainstream conservation, new conservation, neoprotectionism, and their newly proposed convivial conservation. Each movement is plotted against two major factors: capitalism and the human-nature divide. Mainstream conservation supports the human-nature divide and capitalism, new conservation supports the human-nature divide but rejects capitalism, neoprotectionism rejects capitalism but supports the human-nature divide, and convivial conservation rejects both the human-nature divide and capitalism. This newest movement, though reminiscent of previous ones, sets itself apart by addressing the political climate more directly. They argue this is important because without it, their movement will only gain as much traction as those before it, i.e. very little. Lasting change will come, not only from an overhaul in human-nature relations and capitalist thought but from a political system that will enact and support these changes. The Role of Science The nature–culture divide is intertwined with the social versus biological debate since both are implications of each other. As viewed in earlier forms of anthropology, it is believed that genetic determinism de-emphasises the importance of culture, making it obsolete. However, more modern views show that culture is valued more than nature because everyday aspects of culture have a wider impact on how humans see the world, rather than just our genetic makeup. Older anthropological theories have separated the two, such as Franz Boas, who claimed that social organisation and behaviour are purely the transmission of social norms and not necessarily the passing of heritable traits. Instead of using such a contrasting approach, more modern anthropologists see Neo-Darwinism as an outline for culture, therefore nature is essentially guiding how culture develops. When looking at adaptations, anthropologists such as Daniel Nettle state that animals choose their mates based on their environment, which is shaped directly by culture. More importantly, the adaptations seen in nature are a result of evoked nature, which is defined as cultural characteristics which shape the environment and that then queue changes in phenotypes for future generations. Put simply, cultures that promote more effective resource allocation and a chance for survival are more likely to be successful and produce more developed societies and cultures that feed off of each other. Transmitted culture can also be used to bridge the gap between the two even more, because it uses a trial and error based approach that shows how humans are constantly learning, and that they use social learning to influence individual choices. This is seen best in how the more superficial aspects of culture still are intertwined with nature and genetic variation. For example, there are beauty standards intertwined into the culture because they are associated with better survival rates, yet they also serve personal interests which allows for individual breeding pairs to understand how they fit into society. By learning from each other, nature becomes more intertwined with culture since they reinforce each other. Sandra Harding critiqued dominant science as "posit[ing] as necessary, and/or as facts, a set of dualisms—culture vs. nature; rational mind vs. prerational body and irrational emotions and values; objectivity vs. subjectivity; public vs. private—and then links men and masculinity to the former and women and femininity to the latter in each dichotomy". Instead, they argue for a more holistic approach to knowledge-seeking which recognizes that every attempt at objectivity is bound up in the social, historical, and political subjectivity of the knowledge producer. Real-World Examples National Parks There is a historical belief that wilderness must not only be tamed to be protected but that humans also need to be outside of it. In fact, there have been instances where the removal of people from an area has actually increased illegal activities and negative environmental effects. National parks may not be particularly known as places of increased violence, but they do perpetuate the idea of humans being removed from nature to protect it. They also create a symbol of power for humans over nature, as these sites have become tourist attractions. Ecotourism, even with environmentally friendly practices in effect, still represents a commodification of nature. Another example can be seen in “the great frontier.” The American frontier became the nation's most sacred myth of origin. Yet the lands protected as monuments to the American past were constructed as pristine and uninhabited by removing the people that lived and survived on those lands. Some authors have come to describe this type of conservation as conservation-far, where humans and nature are kept separate. The other end of the conservation spectrum then, would be conservation-near, which would mimic native ecological practices of humans integrated into the care of nature. See also Nature versus nurture References Cultural anthropology Ecological theories Culture and the environment

TESCREAL

TESCREAL is an acronym neologism proposed by computer scientist Timnit Gebru and philosopher Émile P. Torres that stands for "transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and longtermism". Gebru and Torres argue that these ideologies should be treated as an "interconnected and overlapping" group with shared origins. They say this is a movement that allows its proponents to use the threat of human extinction to justify expensive or detrimental projects. They consider it pervasive in social and academic circles in Silicon Valley centered around artificial intelligence. As such, the acronym is sometimes used to criticize a perceived belief system associated with Big Tech. Origin Gebru and Torres coined "TESCREAL" in 2023, first using it in a draft of a paper titled "The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence". First Monday published the paper in April 2024, though Torres and Gebru popularized the term elsewhere before the paper's publication. According to Gebru and Torres, transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, (modern) cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and longtermism are a "bundle" of "interconnected and overlapping ideologies" that emerged from 20th-century eugenics, with shared progenitors. They use the term "TESCREAList" to refer to people who subscribe to, or appear to endorse, most or all of the ideologies captured in the acronym. Analysis According to critics of these philosophies, TESCREAL describes overlapping movements endorsed by prominent people in the tech industry to provide intellectual backing to pursue and prioritize projects including artificial general intelligence (AGI), life extension, and space colonization. Science fiction author Charles Stross, using the example of space colonization, argued that the ideologies allow billionaires to pursue massive personal projects driven by a right-wing interpretation of science fiction by arguing that not to pursue such projects poses an existential risk to society. Gebru and Torres write that, using the threat of extinction, TESCREALists can justify "attempts to build unscoped systems which are inherently unsafe". Media scholar Ethan Zuckerman argues that by only considering goals that are valuable to the TESCREAL movement, futuristic projects with more immediate drawbacks, such as racial inequity, algorithmic bias, and environmental degradation, can be justified. Speaking at Radio New Zealand, politics writer Danyl McLauchlan said that many of these philosophies may have started off with good intentions but might have been pushed "to a point of ridiculousness." Philosopher Yogi Hale Hendlin has argued that by both ignoring the human causes of societal problems and over-engineering solutions, TESCREALists ignore the context in which many problems arise. Camille Sojit Pejcha wrote in Document Journal that TESCREAL is a tool for tech elites to concentrate power. In The Washington Spectator, Dave Troy called TESCREAL an "ends justifies the means" movement that is antithetical to "democratic, inclusive, fair, patient, and just governance". Gil Duran wrote that "TESCREAL", "authoritarian technocracy", and "techno-optimism" were phrases used in early 2024 to describe a new ideology emerging in the tech industry. Gebru, Torres, and others have likened TESCREAL to a secular religion due to its parallels to Christian theology and eschatology. Writers in Current Affairs compared these philosophies and the ensuing techno-optimism to "any other monomaniacal faith... in which doubters are seen as enemies and beliefs are accepted without evidence". They argue pursuing TESCREAL would prevent an actual equitable shared future. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Much of the discourse about existential risk from AGI occurs among supporters of the TESCREAL ideologies. TESCREALists are either considered "AI accelerationists", who consider AI the only way to pursue a utopian future where problems are solved, or "AI doomers", who consider AI likely to be unaligned to human survival and likely to cause human extinction. Despite the risk, many doomers consider the development of AGI inevitable and argue that only by developing and aligning AGI first can existential risk be averted. Gebru has likened the conflict between accelerationists and doomers to a "secular religion selling AGI enabled utopia and apocalypse". Torres and Gebru argue that both groups use hypothetical AI-driven apocalypses and utopian futures to justify unlimited research, development, and deregulation of technology. By considering only far-reaching future consequences, creating hype for unproven technology, and fear-mongering, Torres and Gebru allege TESCREALists distract from the impacts of technology that may adversely affect society, disproportionately harm minorities through algorithmic bias, and have a detrimental impact on the environment. Pharmaceuticals Neşe Devenot has used the TESCREAL acronym to refer to "global financial and tech elites" who promote new uses of psychedelic drugs as mental health treatments, not because they want to help people, but so that they can make money on the sale of these pharmaceuticals as part of a plan to increase inequality. Claimed bias against minorities Gebru and Torres claim that TESCREAL ideologies directly originate from 20th-century eugenics and that the bundle of ideologies advocates a second wave of new eugenics. Others have similarly argued that the TESCREAL ideologies developed from earlier philosophies that were used to justify mass murder and genocide. Some prominent figures who have contributed to TESCREAL ideologies have been alleged to be racist and sexist. McLauchlan has said that, while "some people in these groups want to genetically engineer superintelligent humans, or replace the entire species with a superior form of intelligence" others "like the effective altruists, for example, most of them are just in it to help very poor people ... they are kind of shocked ... that they've been lumped into this malevolent ... eugenics conspiracy". Criticism and debate Writing in Asterisk, a magazine related to effective altruism, Ozy Brennan criticized Gebru's and Torres's grouping of different philosophies as if they were a "monolithic" movement. Brennan argues Torres has misunderstood these different philosophies, and has taken philosophical thought experiments out of context. James Pethokoukis, of the American Enterprise Institute, disagrees with criticizing proponents of TESCREAL. He argues that the tech billionaires criticized in a Scientific American article for allegedly espousing TESCREAL have significantly advanced society. McLauchlan has noted that critics of the TESCREAL bundle have objected to what they see as disparate and sometimes conflicting ideologies being grouped together, but opines that TESCREAL is a good way to describe and consolidate many of the "grand bizarre ideologies in Silicon Valley". Eli Sennesh and James Hughes, publishing in the blog for the transhumanist Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, have argued that TESCREAL is a left-wing conspiracy theory that unnecessarily groups disparate philosophies together without understanding the mutually exclusive tenets in each. According to Torres, "If advanced technologies continue to be developed at the current rate, a global-scale catastrophe is almost certainly a matter of when rather than if." Torres believes that "perhaps the only way to actually attain a state of 'existential security' is to slow down or completely halt further technological innovation", and criticized the longtermist view that technology, although dangerous, is essential for human civilization to achieve its full potential. Brennan contends that Torres's proposal to slow or halt technological development represents a more extreme position than TESCREAL ideologies, preventing many improvements in quality of life, healthcare, and poverty reduction that technological progress enables. Alleged TESCREALists Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has self-identified as a TESCREAList. He published the "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" in October 2023, which Jag Bhalla and Nathan J. Robinson have called a "perfect example" of the TESCREAL ideologies. In the document, he argues that more advanced artificial intelligence could save countless future potential lives, and that those working to slow or prevent its development should be condemned as murderers. Elon Musk has been described as sympathetic to some TESCREAL ideologies. In August 2022, Musk tweeted that William MacAskill's longtermist book What We Owe the Future was a "close match for my philosophy". Some writers believe Musk's Neuralink pursues TESCREAList goals. Some AI experts have complained about the focus of Musk's XAI company on existential risk, arguing that it and other AI companies have ties to TESCREAL movements. Dave Troy believes Musk's natalist views originate from TESCREAL ideals. It has also been suggested that Peter Thiel is sympathetic to TESCREAL ideas. Benjamin Svetkey wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that Thiel and other Silicon Valley CEOs who support the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign are pushing for policies that would shut down "regulators whose outdated restrictions on things like human experimentation are slowing down progress toward a technotopian paradise". Sam Altman and much of the OpenAI board has been described as supporting TESCREAL movements, especially in the context of his attempted firing in 2023. Gebru and Torres have urged Altman not to pursue TESCREAL ideals. Lorraine Redaud writing in Charlie Hebdo described Sam Altman and multiple other Silicon Valley executives as supporting TESCREAL ideals. Self-identified transhumanists Nick Bostrom and Eliezer Yudkowsky, both influential in discussions of existential risk from AI, have also been described as leaders of the TESCREAL movement. Redaud said Bostrom supported some ideals "in line with the TESCREALists movement". Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was a prominent and self-identified member of the effective altruist community. According to The Guardian, since FTX's collapse, administrators of the bankruptcy estate have been trying to recoup about $5 million that they allege was transferred to a nonprofit to help secure the purchase of a historic hotel that has been repurposed for conferences and workshops associated with longtermism, rationalism, and effective altruism. The property hosted liberal eugenicists and other speakers the Guardian said had racist and misogynistic histories. Longtermist and effective altruist William MacAskill, who frequently collaborated with Bankman-Fried to coordinate philanthropic initiatives, has been described as a TESCREAList. See also Effective accelerationism Utilitarianism The Californian Ideology References 2023 neologisms Acronyms Effective altruism Ethical theories Ethics of science and technology Eugenics Existential risk from artificial general intelligence Extropianism Futures studies Ideologies Philosophy of artificial intelligence Philosophy of technology Rationalism Singularitarianism Subcultures Transhumanism Political neologisms Natalism

Ecotype

In evolutionary ecology, an ecotype, sometimes called ecospecies, describes a genetically distinct geographic variety, population, or race within a species, which is genotypically adapted to specific environmental conditions. Typically, though ecotypes exhibit phenotypic differences (such as in morphology or physiology) stemming from environmental heterogeneity, they are capable of interbreeding with other geographically adjacent ecotypes without loss of fertility or vigor. Definition An ecotype is a variant in which the phenotypic differences are too few or too subtle to warrant being classified as a subspecies. These different variants can occur in the same geographic region where distinct habitats such as meadow, forest, swamp, and sand dunes provide ecological niches. Where similar ecological conditions occur in widely separated places, it is possible for a similar ecotype to occur in the separated locations. An ecotype is different from a subspecies, which may exist across a number of different habitats. In animals, ecotypes owe their differing characteristics to the effects of a very local environment. Therefore, ecotypes have no taxonomic rank. Terminology Ecotypes are closely related to morphs. In the context of evolutionary biology, genetic polymorphism is the occurrence in the equilibrium of two or more distinctly different phenotypes within a population of a species, in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph. The frequency of these discontinuous forms (even that of the rarest) is too high to be explained by mutation. In order to be classified as such, morphs must occupy the same habitat at the same time and belong to a panmictic population (whose members can all potentially interbreed). Polymorphism is actively and steadily maintained in populations of species by natural selection (most famously sexual dimorphism in humans) in contrast to transient polymorphisms where conditions in a habitat change in such a way that a "form" is being replaced completely by another. In fact, Begon, Townsend, and Harper assert that The notions "form" and "ecotype" may appear to correspond to a static phenomenon, however; this is not always the case. Evolution occurs continuously both in time and space, so that two ecotypes or forms may qualify as distinct species in only a few generations. Begon, Townsend, and Harper use an illuminating analogy on this: Thus ecotypes and morphs can be thought of as precursory steps of potential speciation. Range and distribution Experiments indicate that sometimes ecotypes manifest only when separated by great spatial distances (of the order of 1,000 km). This is due to hybridization whereby different but adjacent varieties of the same species (or generally of the same taxonomic rank) interbreed, thus overcoming local selection. However other studies reveal that the opposite may happen, i.e., ecotypes revealing at very small scales (of the order of 10 m), within populations, and despite hybridization. In ecotypes, it is common for continuous, gradual geographic variation to impose analogous phenotypic and genetic variation. This situation is called cline. A well-known example of a cline is the skin color gradation in indigenous human populations worldwide, which is related to latitude and amounts of sunlight. But often the distribution of ecotypes is bimodal or multimodal. This means that ecotypes may display two or more distinct and discontinuous phenotypes even within the same population. Such phenomenon may lead to speciation and can occur if conditions in a local environment change dramatically through space or time. Examples Tundra reindeer and woodland reindeer are two ecotypes of reindeer. The first migrate (travelling 5,000 km) annually between the two environments in large numbers whereas the other (who are much fewer) remain in the forest for the summer. In North America, the species Rangifer tarandus (locally known as caribou), was subdivided into five subspecies by Banfield in 1961. Caribou are classified by ecotype depending on several behavioural factors – predominant habitat use (northern, tundra, mountain, forest, boreal forest, forest-dwelling), spacing (dispersed or aggregated) and migration (sedentary or migratory). For example, the subspecies Rangifer tarandus caribou is further distinguished by a number of ecotypes, including boreal woodland caribou, mountain woodland caribou, and migratory woodland caribou (such as the migratory George River Caribou Herd in the Ungava region of Quebec). Arabis fecunda, a herb endemic to some calcareous soils of Montana, United States, can be divided into two ecotypes. The one "low elevation" group lives near the ground in an arid, warm environment and has thus developed a significantly greater tolerance against drought than the "high elevation" group. The two ecotypes are separated by a horizontal distance of about . It is commonly accepted that the Tucuxi dolphin has two ecotypes – the riverine ecotype found in some South American rivers and the pelagic ecotype found in the South Atlantic Ocean. In 2022, the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), which had been considered to have two ecotypes in the western North Atlantic, was separated into two species by Costa et al. based on morphometric and genetic data, with the near-shore ecotype becoming Tursiops erebennus Cope, 1865, described in the nineteenth century from a specimen collected in the Delaware River. The warbler finch and the Cocos Island finch are viewed as separate ecotypes. The aromatic plant Artemisia campestris also known as the field sagewort grows in a wide range of habitats from North America to the Atlantic coast and also in Eurasia. It has different forms arccoding to the environment where it grows. One variety which grows on shifting dunes at Falstrebo on the coast of Sweden has broad leaves, and white hairs while exhibiting upright growth. Another variety that grows in Oland in calcareous rocks displays horizontally expanded branches with no upright growth. These two extreme types are considered different varieties. Other examples include Artemisia campestris var. borealis which occupies the west of the Cascades crest in the Olympic Mountains in Washington while Artemisia campestris var. wormskioldii grows on the east side. The Northern wormwood, var. borealis has spike like-inflorescences with leaves concentrated on the plant base and divided into long narrow lobes. Wormskiold's northern wormwood, Artemisia campestris var. wormskioldii is generally shorter and hairy with large leaves surrounding the flowers. The Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) has 20 different ecotypes in an area from Scotland to Siberia, all capable of interbreeding. Ecotype distinctions can be subtle and do not always require large distances; it has been observed that two populations of the same Helix snail species separated by only a few hundred kilometers prefer not to cross-mate, i.e., they reject one another as mates. This event probably occurs during the process of courtship, which may last for hours. See also Adaptation Biological classification Cline (biology) Ecotope Epigenetics Evolution Polymorphism (biology) Ring species Speciation Species problem Terroir Explanatory notes References Landscape ecology Botany Zoology Ecology

Dual inheritance theory

Dual inheritance theory (DIT), also known as gene–culture coevolution or biocultural evolution, was developed in the 1960s through early 1980s to explain how human behavior is a product of two different and interacting evolutionary processes: genetic evolution and cultural evolution. Genes and culture continually interact in a feedback loop: changes in genes can lead to changes in culture which can then influence genetic selection, and vice versa. One of the theory's central claims is that culture evolves partly through a Darwinian selection process, which dual inheritance theorists often describe by analogy to genetic evolution. 'Culture', in this context, is defined as 'socially learned behavior', and 'social learning' is defined as copying behaviors observed in others or acquiring behaviors through being taught by others. Most of the modelling done in the field relies on the first dynamic (copying), though it can be extended to teaching. Social learning, at its simplest, involves blind copying of behaviors from a model (someone observed behaving), though it is also understood to have many potential biases, including success bias (copying from those who are perceived to be better off), status bias (copying from those with higher status), homophily (copying from those most like ourselves), conformist bias (disproportionately picking up behaviors that more people are performing), etc. Understanding social learning is a system of pattern replication, and understanding that there are different rates of survival for different socially learned cultural variants, this sets up, by definition, an evolutionary structure: cultural evolution. Because genetic evolution is relatively well understood, most of DIT examines cultural evolution and the interactions between cultural evolution and genetic evolution. Theoretical basis DIT holds that genetic and cultural evolution interacted in the evolution of Homo sapiens. DIT recognizes that the natural selection of genotypes is an important component of the evolution of human behavior and that cultural traits can be constrained by genetic imperatives. However, DIT also recognizes that genetic evolution has endowed the human species with a parallel evolutionary process of cultural evolution. DIT makes three main claims: Culture capacities are adaptations The human capacity to store and transmit culture arose from genetically evolved psychological mechanisms. This implies that at some point during the evolution of the human species a type of social learning leading to cumulative cultural evolution was evolutionarily advantageous. Culture evolves Social learning processes give rise to cultural evolution. Cultural traits are transmitted differently from genetic traits and, therefore, result in different population-level effects on behavioral variation. Genes and culture co-evolve Cultural traits alter the social and physical environments under which genetic selection operates. For example, the cultural adoptions of agriculture and dairying have, in humans, caused genetic selection for the traits to digest starch and lactose, respectively. As another example, it is likely that once culture became adaptive, genetic selection caused a refinement of the cognitive architecture that stores and transmits cultural information. This refinement may have further influenced the way culture is stored and the biases that govern its transmission. DIT also predicts that, under certain situations, cultural evolution may select for traits that are genetically maladaptive. An example of this is the demographic transition, which describes the fall of birth rates within industrialized societies. Dual inheritance theorists hypothesize that the demographic transition may be a result of a prestige bias, where individuals that forgo reproduction to gain more influence in industrial societies are more likely to be chosen as cultural models. View of culture People have defined the word "culture" to describe a large set of different phenomena. A definition that sums up what is meant by "culture" in DIT is: This view of culture emphasizes population thinking by focusing on the process by which culture is generated and maintained. It also views culture as a dynamic property of individuals, as opposed to a view of culture as a superorganic entity to which individuals must conform. This view's main advantage is that it connects individual-level processes to population-level outcomes. Genetic influence on cultural evolution Genes affect cultural evolution via psychological predispositions on cultural learning. Genes encode much of the information needed to form the human brain. Genes constrain the brain's structure and, hence, the ability of the brain to acquire and store culture. Genes may also endow individuals with certain types of transmission bias (described below). Cultural influences on genetic evolution Culture can profoundly influence gene frequencies in a population. Lactase persistence One of the best known examples is the prevalence of the genotype for adult lactose absorption in human populations, such as Northern Europeans and some African societies, with a long history of raising cattle for milk. Until around 7,500 years ago, lactase production stopped shortly after weaning, and in societies which did not develop dairying, such as East Asians and Amerindians, this is still true today. In areas with lactase persistence, it is believed that by domesticating animals, a source of milk became available while an adult and thus strong selection for lactase persistence could occur; in a Scandinavian population, the estimated selection coefficient was 0.09-0.19. This implies that the cultural practice of raising cattle first for meat and later for milk led to selection for genetic traits for lactose digestion. Recently, analysis of natural selection on the human genome suggests that civilization has accelerated genetic change in humans over the past 10,000 years. Food processing Culture has driven changes to the human digestive systems making many digestive organs, such as teeth or stomach, smaller than expected for primates of a similar size, and has been attributed to one of the reasons why humans have such large brains compared to other great apes. This is due to food processing. Early examples of food processing include pounding, marinating and most notably cooking. Pounding meat breaks down the muscle fibres, hence taking away some of the job from the mouth, teeth and jaw. Marinating emulates the action of the stomach with high acid levels. Cooking partially breaks down food making it more easily digestible. Food enters the body effectively partly digested, and as such food processing reduces the work that the digestive system has to do. This means that there is selection for smaller digestive organs as the tissue is energetically expensive, those with smaller digestive organs can process their food but at a lower energetic cost than those with larger organs. Cooking is notable because the energy available from food increases when cooked and this also means less time is spent looking for food. Humans living on cooked diets spend only a fraction of their day chewing compared to other extant primates living on raw diets. American girls and boys spent on average 7 to 8 percent of their day chewing respectively (1.68 to 1.92 hours per day), compared to chimpanzees, who spend more than 6 hours a day chewing. This frees up time which can be used for hunting. A raw diet means hunting is constrained since time spent hunting is time not spent eating and chewing plant material, but cooking reduces the time required to get the day's energy requirements, allowing for more subsistence activities. Digestibility of cooked carbohydrates is approximately on average 30% higher than digestibility of non-cooked carbohydrates. This increased energy intake, more free time and savings made on tissue used in the digestive system allowed for the selection of genes for larger brain size. Despite its benefits, brain tissue requires a large amount of calories, hence a main constraint in selection for larger brains is calorie intake. A greater calorie intake can support greater quantities of brain tissue. This is argued to explain why human brains can be much larger than other apes, since humans are the only ape to engage in food processing. The cooking of food has influenced genes to the extent that, research suggests, humans cannot live without cooking. A study on 513 individuals consuming long-term raw diets found that as the percentage of their diet which was made up of raw food and/or the length they had been on a diet of raw food increased, their BMI decreased. This is despite access to many non-thermal processing, like grinding, pounding or heating to 48 °C. (118 °F). With approximately 86 billion neurons in the human brain and 60–70 kg body mass, an exclusively raw diet close to that of what extant primates have would be not viable as, when modelled, it is argued that it would require an infeasible level of more than nine hours of feeding every day. However, this is contested, with alternative modelling showing enough calories could be obtained within 5–6 hours per day. Some scientists and anthropologists point to evidence that brain size in the Homo lineage started to increase well before the advent of cooking due to increased consumption of meat and that basic food processing (slicing) accounts for the size reduction in organs related to chewing. Cornélio et al. argues that improving cooperative abilities and a varying of diet to more meat and seeds improved foraging and hunting efficiency. It is this that allowed for the brain expansion, independent of cooking which they argue came much later, a consequence from the complex cognition that developed. Yet this is still an example of a cultural shift in diet and the resulting genetic evolution. Further criticism comes from the controversy of the archaeological evidence available. Some claim there is a lack of evidence of fire control when brain sizes first started expanding. Wrangham argues that anatomical evidence around the time of the origin of Homo erectus (1.8 million years ago), indicates that the control of fire and hence cooking occurred. At this time, the largest reductions in tooth size in the entirety of human evolution occurred, indicating that softer foods became prevalent in the diet. Also at this time was a narrowing of the pelvis indicating a smaller gut and also there is evidence that there was a loss of the ability to climb which Wrangham argues indicates the control of fire, since sleeping on the ground needs fire to ward off predators. The proposed increases in brain size from food processing will have led to a greater mental capacity for further cultural innovation in food processing which will have increased digestive efficiency further providing more energy for further gains in brain size. This positive feedback loop is argued to have led to the rapid brain size increases seen in the Homo lineage. Mechanisms of cultural evolution In DIT, the evolution and maintenance of cultures is described by five major mechanisms: natural selection of cultural variants, random variation, cultural drift, guided variation and transmission bias. Natural selection Differences between cultural phenomena result in differential rates of their spread; similarly, cultural differences among individuals can lead to differential survival and reproduction rates of individuals. The patterns of this selective process depend on transmission biases and can result in behavior that is more adaptive to a given environment. Random variation Random variation arises from errors in the learning, display or recall of cultural information, and is roughly analogous to the process of mutation in genetic evolution. Cultural drift Cultural drift is a process roughly analogous to genetic drift in evolutionary biology. In cultural drift, the frequency of cultural traits in a population may be subject to random fluctuations due to chance variations in which traits are observed and transmitted (sometimes called "sampling error"). These fluctuations might cause cultural variants to disappear from a population. This effect should be especially strong in small populations. A model by Hahn and Bentley shows that cultural drift gives a reasonably good approximation to changes in the popularity of American baby names. Drift processes have also been suggested to explain changes in archaeological pottery and technology patent applications. Changes in the songs of song birds are also thought to arise from drift processes, where distinct dialects in different groups occur due to errors in songbird singing and acquisition by successive generations. Cultural drift is also observed in an early computer model of cultural evolution. Guided variation Cultural traits may be gained in a population through the process of individual learning. Once an individual learns a novel trait, it can be transmitted to other members of the population. The process of guided variation depends on an adaptive standard that determines what cultural variants are learned. Biased transmission Understanding the different ways that culture traits can be transmitted between individuals has been an important part of DIT research since the 1970s. Transmission biases occur when some cultural variants are favored over others during the process of cultural transmission. Boyd and Richerson (1985) defined and analytically modeled a number of possible transmission biases. The list of biases has been refined over the years, especially by Henrich and McElreath. Content bias Content biases result from situations where some aspect of a cultural variant's content makes them more likely to be adopted. Content biases can result from genetic preferences, preferences determined by existing cultural traits, or a combination of the two. For example, food preferences can result from genetic preferences for sugary or fatty foods and socially-learned eating practices and taboos. Content biases are sometimes called "direct biases." Context bias Context biases result from individuals using clues about the social structure of their population to determine what cultural variants to adopt. This determination is made without reference to the content of the variant. There are two major categories of context biases: model-based biases, and frequency-dependent biases. Model-based biases Model-based biases result when an individual is biased to choose a particular "cultural model" to imitate. There are four major categories of model-based biases: prestige bias, skill bias, success bias, and similarity bias. A "prestige bias" results when individuals are more likely to imitate cultural models that are seen as having more prestige. A measure of prestige could be the amount of deference shown to a potential cultural model by other individuals. A "skill bias" results when individuals can directly observe different cultural models performing a learned skill and are more likely to imitate cultural models that perform better at the specific skill. A "success bias" results from individuals preferentially imitating cultural models that they determine are most generally successful (as opposed to successful at a specific skill as in the skill bias.) A "similarity bias" results when individuals are more likely to imitate cultural models that are perceived as being similar to the individual based on specific traits. Frequency-dependent biases Frequency-dependent biases result when an individual is biased to choose particular cultural variants based on their perceived frequency in the population. The most explored frequency-dependent bias is the "conformity bias." Conformity biases result when individuals attempt to copy the mean or the mode cultural variant in the population. Another possible frequency dependent bias is the "rarity bias." The rarity bias results when individuals preferentially choose cultural variants that are less common in the population. The rarity bias is also sometimes called a "nonconformist" or "anti-conformist" bias. Social learning and cumulative cultural evolution In DIT, the evolution of culture is dependent on the evolution of social learning. Analytic models show that social learning becomes evolutionarily beneficial when the environment changes with enough frequency that genetic inheritance can not track the changes, but not fast enough that individual learning is more efficient. For environments that have very little variability, social learning is not needed since genes can adapt fast enough to the changes that occur, and innate behaviour is able to deal with the constant environment. In fast changing environments cultural learning would not be useful because what the previous generation knew is now outdated and will provide no benefit in the changed environment, and hence individual learning is more beneficial. It is only in the moderately changing environment where cultural learning becomes useful since each generation shares a mostly similar environment but genes have insufficient time to change to changes in the environment. While other species have social learning, and thus some level of culture, only humans, some birds and chimpanzees are known to have cumulative culture. Boyd and Richerson argue that the evolution of cumulative culture depends on observational learning and is uncommon in other species because it is ineffective when it is rare in a population. They propose that the environmental changes occurring in the Pleistocene may have provided the right environmental conditions. Michael Tomasello argues that cumulative cultural evolution results from a ratchet effect that began when humans developed the cognitive architecture to understand others as mental agents. Furthermore, Tomasello proposed in the 80s that there are some disparities between the observational learning mechanisms found in humans and great apes - which go some way to explain the observable difference between great ape traditions and human types of culture (see Emulation (observational learning)). Cultural group selection Although group selection is commonly thought to be nonexistent or unimportant in genetic evolution, DIT predicts that, due to the nature of cultural inheritance, it may be an important force in cultural evolution. Group selection occurs in cultural evolution because conformist biases make it difficult for novel cultural traits to spread through a population (see above section on transmission biases). Conformist bias also helps maintain variation between groups. These two properties, rare in genetic transmission, are necessary for group selection to operate. Based on an earlier model by Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman, Boyd and Richerson show that conformist biases are almost inevitable when traits spread through social learning, implying that group selection is common in cultural evolution. Analysis of small groups in New Guinea imply that cultural group selection might be a good explanation for slowly changing aspects of social structure, but not for rapidly changing fads. The ability of cultural evolution to maintain intergroup diversity is what allows for the study of cultural phylogenetics. Historical development In 1876, Friedrich Engels wrote a manuscript titled The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man, accredited as a founding document of DIT; “The approach to gene-culture coevolution first developed by Engels and developed later on by anthropologists…” is described by Stephen Jay Gould as “…the best nineteenth-century case for gene-culture coevolution.” The idea that human cultures undergo a similar evolutionary process as genetic evolution also goes back to Darwin. In the 1960s, Donald T. Campbell published some of the first theoretical work that adapted principles of evolutionary theory to the evolution of cultures. In 1976, two developments in cultural evolutionary theory set the stage for DIT. In that year Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene introduced ideas of cultural evolution to a popular audience. Although one of the best-selling science books of all time, because of its lack of mathematical rigor, it had little effect on the development of DIT. Also in 1976, geneticists Marcus Feldman and Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza published the first dynamic models of gene–culture coevolution. These models were to form the basis for subsequent work on DIT, heralded by the publication of three seminal books in the 1980s. The first was Charles Lumsden and E.O. Wilson's Genes, Mind and Culture. This book outlined a series of mathematical models of how genetic evolution might favor the selection of cultural traits and how cultural traits might, in turn, affect the speed of genetic evolution. While it was the first book published describing how genes and culture might coevolve, it had relatively little effect on the further development of DIT. Some critics felt that their models depended too heavily on genetic mechanisms at the expense of cultural mechanisms. Controversy surrounding Wilson's sociobiological theories may also have decreased the lasting effect of this book. The second 1981 book was Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman's Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach. Borrowing heavily from population genetics and epidemiology, this book built a mathematical theory concerning the spread of cultural traits. It describes the evolutionary implications of vertical transmission, passing cultural traits from parents to offspring; oblique transmission, passing cultural traits from any member of an older generation to a younger generation; and horizontal transmission, passing traits between members of the same population. The next significant DIT publication was Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson's 1985 Culture and the Evolutionary Process. This book presents the now-standard mathematical models of the evolution of social learning under different environmental conditions, the population effects of social learning, various forces of selection on cultural learning rules, different forms of biased transmission and their population-level effects, and conflicts between cultural and genetic evolution. The book's conclusion also outlined areas for future research that are still relevant today. Current and future research In their 1985 book, Boyd and Richerson outlined an agenda for future DIT research. This agenda, outlined below, called for the development of both theoretical models and empirical research. DIT has since built a rich tradition of theoretical models over the past two decades. However, there has not been a comparable level of empirical work. In a 2006 interview Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson expressed disappointment at the little attention afforded to DIT: Kevin Laland and Gillian Ruth Brown attribute this lack of attention to DIT's heavy reliance on formal modeling. Economist Herbert Gintis disagrees with this critique, citing empirical work as well as more recent work using techniques from behavioral economics. These behavioral economic techniques have been adapted to test predictions of cultural evolutionary models in laboratory settings as well as studying differences in cooperation in fifteen small-scale societies in the field. Since one of the goals of DIT is to explain the distribution of human cultural traits, ethnographic and ethnologic techniques may also be useful for testing hypothesis stemming from DIT. Although findings from traditional ethnologic studies have been used to buttress DIT arguments, thus far there have been little ethnographic fieldwork designed to explicitly test these hypotheses. Herb Gintis has named DIT one of the two major conceptual theories with potential for unifying the behavioral sciences, including economics, biology, anthropology, sociology, psychology and political science. Because it addresses both the genetic and cultural components of human inheritance, Gintis sees DIT models as providing the best explanations for the ultimate cause of human behavior and the best paradigm for integrating those disciplines with evolutionary theory. In a review of competing evolutionary perspectives on human behavior, Laland and Brown see DIT as the best candidate for uniting the other evolutionary perspectives under one theoretical umbrella. Relation to other fields Sociology and cultural anthropology Two major topics of study in both sociology and cultural anthropology are human cultures and cultural variation. However, Dual Inheritance theorists charge that both disciplines too often treat culture as a static superorganic entity that dictates human behavior. Cultures are defined by a suite of common traits shared by a large group of people. DIT theorists argue that this doesn't sufficiently explain variation in cultural traits at the individual level. By contrast, DIT models human culture at the individual level and views culture as the result of a dynamic evolutionary process at the population level. Human sociobiology and evolutionary psychology Evolutionary psychologists study the evolved architecture of the human mind. They see it as composed of many different programs that process information, each with assumptions and procedures that were specialized by natural selection to solve a different adaptive problem faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors (e.g., choosing mates, hunting, avoiding predators, cooperating, using aggression). These evolved programs contain content-rich assumptions about how the world and other people work. When ideas are passed from mind to mind, they are changed by these evolved inference systems (much like messages get changed in a game of telephone). But the changes are not usually random. Evolved programs add and subtract information, reshaping the ideas in ways that make them more "intuitive", more memorable, and more attention-grabbing. In other words, "memes" (ideas) are not precisely like genes. Genes are normally copied faithfully as they are replicated, but ideas normally are not. It's not just that ideas mutate every once in a while, like genes do. Ideas are transformed every time they are passed from mind to mind, because the sender's message is being interpreted by evolved inference systems in the receiver. It is useful for some applications to note, however, that there are ways to pass ideas which are more resilient and involve substantially less mutation, such as by mass distribution of printed media. There is no necessary contradiction between evolutionary psychology and DIT, but evolutionary psychologists argue that the psychology implicit in many DIT models is too simple; evolved programs have a rich inferential structure not captured by the idea of a "content bias". They also argue that some of the phenomena DIT models attribute to cultural evolution are cases of "evoked culture"—situations in which different evolved programs are activated in different places, in response to cues in the environment. Sociobiologists try to understand how maximizing genetic fitness, in either the modern era or past environments, can explain human behavior. When faced with a trait that seems maladaptive, some sociobiologists try to determine how the trait actually increases genetic fitness (maybe through kin selection or by speculating about early evolutionary environments). Dual inheritance theorists, in contrast, will consider a variety of genetic and cultural processes in addition to natural selection on genes. Human behavioral ecology Human behavioral ecology (HBE) and DIT have a similar relationship to what ecology and evolutionary biology have in the biological sciences. HBE is more concerned about ecological process and DIT more focused on historical process. One difference is that human behavioral ecologists often assume that culture is a system that produces the most adaptive outcome in a given environment. This implies that similar behavioral traditions should be found in similar environments. However, this is not always the case. A study of African cultures showed that cultural history was a better predictor of cultural traits than local ecological conditions. Memetics Memetics, which comes from the meme idea described in Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, is similar to DIT in that it treats culture as an evolutionary process that is distinct from genetic transmission. However, there are some philosophical differences between memetics and DIT. One difference is that memetics' focus is on the selection potential of discrete replicators (memes), where DIT allows for transmission of both non-replicators and non-discrete cultural variants. DIT does not assume that replicators are necessary for cumulative adaptive evolution. DIT also more strongly emphasizes the role of genetic inheritance in shaping the capacity for cultural evolution. But perhaps the biggest difference is a difference in academic lineage. Memetics as a label is more influential in popular culture than in academia. Critics of memetics argue that it is lacking in empirical support or is conceptually ill-founded, and question whether there is hope for the memetic research program succeeding. Proponents point out that many cultural traits are discrete, and that many existing models of cultural inheritance assume discrete cultural units, and hence involve memes. Criticisms Psychologist Liane Gabora has criticised DIT. She argues that traits that are not transmitted by way of a self-assembly code (as in genetic evolution) is misleading, because this second use does not capture the algorithmic structure that makes an inheritance system require a particular kind of mathematical framework. Other criticisms of the effort to frame culture in tandem with evolution have been leveled by Richard Lewontin, Niles Eldredge, and Stuart Kauffman. See also References Further reading Books Lumsden, C. J. and E. O. Wilson. 1981. Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. and M. Feldman. 1981. Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Durham, W. H. 1991. Coevolution: Genes, Culture and Human Diversity. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Shennan, S. J. 2002. Genes, Memes and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution. London: Thames and Hudson. Boyd, R. and P. J. Richerson. 2005. The Origin and Evolution of Cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Laland, K.H. 2017. Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Reviews Smith, E. A. 1999. Three styles in the evolutionary analysis of human behavior. In L. Cronk, N. Chagnon, and W. Irons, (Eds.) Adaptation and Human Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Bentley, R.A., C. Lipo, H.D.G. Maschner and B. Marler 2007. Darwinian Archaeologies. In R.A. Bentley, H.D.G. Maschner & C. Chippendale (Eds.) Handbook of Archaeological Theories. Lanham (MD): AltaMira Press. Journal articles External links Current DIT researchers Rob Boyd, Department of Anthropology, UCLA Marcus Feldman , Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford Joe Henrich, Departments of Psychology and Economics, University of British Columbia Richard McElreath, Anthropology Department, UC Davis Peter J. Richerson, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, UC Davis Related researchers Liane Gabora , Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia Russell Gray Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany Herb Gintis , Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts & Santa Fe Institute Kevin Laland , School of Biology, University of St. Andrews Ruth Mace, Department of Anthropology, University College London Alex Mesoudi Human Biological and Cultural Evolution Group, University of Exeter, UK Michael Tomasello, Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Peter Turchin Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut Mark Collard, Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, and Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen Anthropology Behavioural genetics Cultural anthropology Human evolution Population genetics Sociobiology

Age progression

Age progression is the method involved with changing a photo of an individual to show the impact of maturing on their appearance. Computerized image processing is the most widely recognized procedure, in spite of the fact that craftsmen's drawings are frequently used. Age progression is most frequently utilized as a forensic tool by law enforcement officers to show the likely current appearance of a missing individual anticipated from a photo that might be years old. Age progression and law enforcement There are two significant kinds of age progression in the criminal field. Juvenile age progression is utilized to assist with locating abducted and missing children. A face changes significantly between childhood and adulthood. Age progression images have shown to be exceptionally helpful in the recovery of these children. Adult age progression is utilized while attempting to find adult criminals who have evaded law enforcement for an extensive period of time. Both the terms “adult age progression” and “fugitive update” are used, depending on the status of the target individual. Although a lot of work goes into creating an age progression, the level of accuracy can depend on a lot of factors. The age the person was when a photo was last taken of them, and a good timeline of photographs of the person throughout their lives to show how their facial features were changing are several main factors. To try to get an accurate progression, the artist will require photographs of other relatives to perceive how their faces have changed as the years progressed, alongside knowing family characteristics such as when other relatives began losing their hair, on the off chance that the missing individual had any identifying features that would stand out. The way people age is often inherited. Therefore, a close look at pictures of a brother or sister, a mom or a dad, or even a person’s grandparents will give the artist valuable clues about whether to add a double chin or take away half of the person’s hair. It requires years of practice and studying to be a certified specialist creating these photographs, and every illustration can take numerous hours or even days, relying upon the circumstances and the amount of data the artist receives to work with. Age progression in media Age progression is an occasional theme in anime/manga, motion pictures, cartoons and comics, literature, and stage performances. One of the earliest mentions is the Athena origin legend, who leaped from Zeus' skull fully grown. The protagonist of the Vietnamese Giong legend grew up rapidly. Literature A classic work where age progression is thwarted rather than accelerated, is Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray; at the end of the story, the protagonist undergoes AP after killing his likeness in a painting, which had previously preserved Gray's youthful appearance. In the book Happy Birthday, Dear Amy by Marilyn Kaye, a 13-year-old girl grows into a 25-year-old overnight. Japanese media Age progressions are a well-known theme in Japanese anime and manga. Numerous anime series highlight young ladies changing into frequently attractive women. They go through intricate changes, in which their garments are replaced with mystic outfits, and their bodies are covered by energy streamers. The transformation might be reused in every episode, emphasizing the characters' quality features growing in a comical manner. They may show the women become flushed after the viewing. The earliest known showing of this is the anime/manga series Marvelous Melmo by Osamu Tezuka. In every episode, the little girl Melmo needs to help individuals by mimicking grown-up adults, similar to a stewardess or a policewoman. The plot was imitated in later series like Minky Momo and Fancy Lala. Age progression is a popular subject in hentai manga. There are likewise numerous accounts in which a character gets younger (age regression). Motion pictures Films in which boys physically become men: Big (1988) Vice Versa (1948) Vice Versa (1988) 14 Going on 30 (1988 Disney movie) A Goofy Movie (1995), Max has a nightmare turning into his father, Goofy. Conan the Barbarian (2011) Wait 'til You're Older (2005) The Thief Lord (2006), body swap film in which young girls' souls end up in the bodies of older women. Ben 10: Race Against Time (2007), Ben Tennyson turns into a younger clone of Eon. Films with girls are less likely to have physical transformations: Freaky Friday (four versions, plus a comedy-horror adaptation) 13 Going on 30 (2004) Wish Upon a Star (1996) Sixteen Wishes (2010) One example of female age progression is Life in a Day or originally Antidote, a Canadian film about a baby rapidly aging because of a failed cell-accelerating experiment. In the opening scene of Alien: Resurrection (1997), the Ripley 8 clone morphs from a girl to an adult. Television The BBC television series Honey, We're Killing the Kids focused on showing parents the consequences of poor parenting using the Age progression technique to estimate how their children may look like as adults if they continue with their present lifestyle, dietary and exercise habits. In the Angry Birds Toons episode "Age Rage", the pigs attempt to steal the eggs by using balloons with the aging potion that Red, Chuck, Bomb become elderly, but this backfires when the Minion Pigs and Corporal Pig get hit by them and turn elderly. In Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "Take This Ed and Shove It", Eddy hallucinates when he sees himself and the Cul-de-sac as if it was 90 years in the future. See also Forensic science Missing person References Forensic techniques Photographic techniques

Feminist political theory

Feminist political theory is an area of philosophy that focuses on understanding and critiquing the way political philosophy is usually construed and on articulating how political theory might be reconstructed in a way that advances feminist concerns. Feminist political theory combines aspects of both feminist theory and political theory in order to take a feminist approach to traditional questions within political philosophy. The three main goals of the feminist political theory: To understand and critique the role of gender in how political theory is conventionally construed. To re-frame and re-articulate conventional political theory in light of feminist issues (especially gender equality). To support political science presuming and pursuing gender equality. Background Information Feminist political philosophy is an area of philosophy that focuses on understanding and critiquing the way political philosophy is usually construed and on articulating how political theory might be reconstructed in a way that advances feminist concerns. Feminist political theory combines aspects of both feminist theory and political theory in order to take a feminist approach to traditional questions within political philosophy. Feminist political theory is not just about women or gender. There are no strict necessary and sufficient conditions for being ‘feminist’, due both to the nature of categories and to the myriad developments, orientations and approaches within feminism. Although understanding and analyzing the political effects of gendered contexts is an important field of feminist political theory, feminist theory, and hence feminist political theory, is about more than gender. Feminist political theorists are found throughout the academy, in departments of political science, history, women's studies, sociology, geography, anthropology, religion, and philosophy. Feminist political theory encompasses a broad scope of approaches. It overlaps with related areas including feminist jurisprudence/feminist legal theory; feminist political philosophy; ecological feminism; female-centered empirical research in political science; and feminist research methods (feminist method) for use in political science the social sciences. What frequently distinguishes feminist political theory from feminism broadly is the specific examination of the state and its role in the reproduction or redressing of gender inequality. In addition to being broad and multidisciplinary, the field is relatively new, inherently innovative, and still expanding; the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy explains that "feminist political philosophy serves as a field for developing new ideals, practices, and justifications for how political institutions and practices should be organized and reconstructed." History Pre-History The earliest origins of feminist political theory can be traced back into texts written by women about women's abilities and their protesting about women's exclusion and subordination. Some key primary texts include: Christiane de Pizan's 1450 "The Book of the City of Ladies", which was written in praise of women and as a defense of their capabilities and virtues in order to combat against misogynist male writing. Mary Astell's 1694 "A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest," argues that women who do not intend to marry should use their dowries to finance residential women's colleges to provide the recommended education for upper- and middle-class women. Olympe de Gouges's 1791 "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen", which stated that women, like their male counterparts, have natural, inalienable, and sacred rights. Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman", which argues that the educational system deliberately trained women to be frivolous and incapable and that if girls were allowed the same advantages as boys, women would be not only exceptional wives and mothers but also capable workers. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1898 "Women and Economics", which argues that the economic independence and specialization of women is essential to the improvement of marriage. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, argues that every woman needs a room of her own, a luxury that men are able to enjoy without question, in order have the time and the space to engage in uninterrupted writing time. Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex", which exposed the power dynamics surrounding womanhood and laid the foundation for subsequent feminist theories exposing women's social subjugation. Women's Rights Movement (1800s - early 1900s) Women's involvement in the women's right movement began mostly as a part of the international movement to abolish slavery. During this, the women participating sought equal political rights with men, namely the right to vote. They also countered the societal norms of women as being weak, irrational and unable to participate in politics by arguing against the cult of domesticity that women were entitled to the same civil and political rights. Furthermore, the members of the suffrage movement worked for women's rights to divorce, rights to inheritance, rights to matriculate into colleges and universities, and more. Women's Liberation Movement (1960s -1970s) Feminist political theory as a term only consolidated in the West during Women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s. The women's liberation movement was a collective struggle for equality during the late 1960s and 1970s. This movement, which consisted of women's liberation groups, advocacy, protests, consciousness-raising, and feminist theory, sought to free women from oppression and male supremacy. Several distinct stages of feminism that arose from this movement are explained below. Radical feminism Radical feminism argues that at the heart of women's oppression is pervasive male domination, which is built into the conceptual and social architecture of modern patriarchal societies. Men dominate women not just through violence and exclusion but also through language. Thus came to be Catharine A. MacKinnon's famous line, “Man fucks woman; subject verb object.” Radical feminists argue that, because of patriarchy, women have come to be viewed as the "other" to the male norm, and as such have been systematically oppressed and marginalized. Early radical feminism was grounded in the rejection of the nuclear family and femininity as constructed within heterosexuality. The strongest forms of radical feminism argue that there can be no reform, but only recreation of the notions of family, partnership, and childrearing, and that to do so in a way that preserves women's dignity requires the creation of women-only spaces. Liberal feminism Liberal feminism argues that the central aims of liberal theory: freedom, equality, universal human rights and justice are also the proper aims of feminist theory. Its primary focus is to achieve gender equality through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy. Liberal feminists use figures and concepts from the liberal tradition to develop feminist institutions and political analyses. They suggest that emancipating women requires that women be treated and recognized as equal, rights bearing human agents. A common theme of liberal feminism is an emphasis on equal opportunity via fair opportunity and equal political rights. Marxist and socialist feminism Marxist feminism is a philosophical variant of feminism that incorporates and extends Marxist theory. It recognizes that women are oppressed and attributes the oppression to capitalism and the individual ownership of private property. Thus they insist that the only way to end the oppression of women and achieve the women's liberation is to overthrow the capitalist system in which they contend much of women's labor is uncompensated. Socialist feminism is the result of Marxism meeting radical feminism. Socialist feminists consider how sexism and the gendered division of labor of each historical era is determined by the economic system of the time, largely expressed through capitalist and patriarchal relations. They believe that women's liberation must be sought in conjunction with the social and economic justice of all people and see the fight to end male supremacy as key to social justice. Ecological feminism Ecological feminism is the branch of feminism that examines the connections between women and nature. Connections between environment and gender can be made by looking at the gender division of labor and environmental roles rather than an inherent connection with nature. The gender division of labor requires a more nurturing and caring role for women, therefore that caring nature places women closer with the environment. In the 1970s, the impacts of post-World War II technological development led many women to organize against issues from the toxic pollution of neighborhoods to nuclear weapons testing on indigenous lands. This grassroots activism emerging across every continent was both intersectional and cross-cultural in its struggle to protect the conditions for reproduction of Life on Earth. Postmodernist/Poststructuralist feminism Postmodernist feminism rejects the dualisms of the previous 20 years of feminist theory: man/woman, reason/emotion, difference/equality. It challenges the very notion of stable categories of sex, gender, race or sexuality. Postmodernist feminists agree with others that gender is the most important identity, however what makes Postmodern feminists different is that they are interested in how people 'pick and mix' their identities. They are also interested in the topic of masculinity, and instead reject the stereotypical aspects of feminism, embracing it as a positive aspect of identity. One of their key goals is to disable the patriarchal norms that have led to gender inequality. Topics of inquiry Feminist epistemology A key aspect of feminist political theory/philosophy is feminist epistemology. Feminist epistemologists question the objectivity of social and philosophical sciences by contending that standards of authority and credibility are socially constructed and thus reflect and re-entrench the sociopolitical status quo. It studies the ways in which gender influences our conceptions of knowledge and practices of inquiry and justification and identifies how dominant conceptions and practices of knowledge attribution, acquisition, and justification disadvantage women, and thus strives to reform them. Feminist epistemologists argue that the current dominant knowledge practices disadvantage women by excluding them from inquiry denying them epistemic authority denigrating “feminine” cognitive styles producing theories of women that represent them as inferior, or significant only in the ways they serve male interests producing theories of social phenomena that render women's activities and interests, or gendered power relations, invisible producing knowledge that is not useful for people in subordinate positions, or that reinforces gender and other social hierarchies. Gendered political institutions Political theory on the gendering of institutions explores questions such what does it mean for an institution to be “gendered," how can one evaluate whether an institution is gendered, and what are the consequences of gendered institutions for the people who work within them. An example of such related scholarship is Eileen McDonagh's book The Motherless State which explores how socially feminized "motherly" attributes have been stripped from modern governance models. An exploration of the history of patriarchy is central to understanding how political institutions have become gendered and the impact this has on feminist political theory. The importance of understanding patriarchy historically is explored in Judith M. Bennet's book 'History Matter: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism'. A definition of patriarchy is provided by Sylvia Walby in her book 'Theorising patriarchy'. This shows how patriarchal systems have historically caused the oppression of women and the male domination of politics. Group identity/identity politics Theorists studying this aspect of feminist political theory question the construction of women as an identity group. On a basic level, they consider whether it is even possible to come to some sort of conclusion about a "women" group's relation to politics. One facet of the debate involves intersectionality and whether women from different racial and cultural backgrounds have enough in common to form a political group. Intersectionality arguments claim that the multifaceted connection between race, gender, and other systems that work together to oppress while allowing privilege are vital and must be considered in the political sphere. Another facet questions whether transgender women should be included in the group "women" insofar as they lack many of the experiences of girlhood and womanhood which bind "women" together as a distinct group. This topic also includes redefining "groupness;" for example, Iris Marion Young has suggested women are more of a "seriality" rather than a group insofar as they undergo similar experiences but in isolation of each other, lacking a sense of group identity. Political leadership and gender This field addresses how women lead differently than their male counterparts in political careers, such as legislators, executives, and judges. Some scholars in this field study how political leadership is itself masculinized to exclude the kinds of political leadership women most frequently provide, often outside of formal offices. For example, Hardy-Fanta looks at grassroots political work in Latino communities in the U.S. to identify feminized political leadership roles, ultimately concluding that Latina women provide the most critical leadership and work in those communities—despite the fact that most studies overlook their leadership because it does not occur within formal officeholding roles. See also Related journals Politics & Gender Signs Feminist Theory International Feminist Journal of Politics References External links Feminist Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Political science Politics Administrative theory

Education sciences

Education sciences, also known as education studies, education theory, and traditionally called pedagogy, seek to describe, understand, and prescribe education including education policy. Subfields include comparative education, educational research, instructional theory, curriculum theory and psychology, philosophy, sociology, economics, and history of education. Related are learning theory or cognitive science. History The earliest known attempts to understand education in Europe were by classical Greek philosophers and sophists, but there is also evidence of contemporary (or even preceding) discussions among Arabic, Indian, and Chinese scholars. Philosophy of education Educational thought is not necessarily concerned with the construction of theories as much as the "reflective examination of educational issues and problems from the perspective of diverse disciplines." For example, a cultural theory of education considers how education occurs through the totality of culture, including prisons, households, and religious institutions as well as schools. Other examples are the behaviorist theory of education that comes from educational psychology and the functionalist theory of education that comes from sociology of education. Normative theories of education Normative theories of education provide the norms, goals, and standards of education. In contrast, descriptive theories of education provide descriptions, explanations or predictions of the processes of education. "Normative philosophies or theories of education may make use of the results of [philosophical thought] and of factual inquiries about human beings and the psychology of learning, but in any case they propound views about what education should be, what dispositions it should cultivate, why it ought to cultivate them, how and in whom it should do so, and what forms it should take. In a full-fledged philosophical normative theory of education, besides analysis of the sorts described, there will normally be propositions of the following kinds: 1. Basic normative premises about what is good or right; 2. Basic factual premises about humanity and the world; 3. Conclusions, based on these two kinds of premises, about the dispositions education should foster; 4. Further factual premises about such things as the psychology of learning and methods of teaching; and 5. Further conclusions about such things as the methods that education should use." Examples of the purpose of schools include: to develop reasoning about perennial questions, to master the methods of scientific inquiry, to cultivate the intellect, to create change agents, to develop spirituality, and to model a democratic society. Common educational philosophies include: educational perennialism, educational progressivism, educational essentialism, critical pedagogy, Montessori education, Waldorf education, and democratic education. Normative Curriculum theory Normative theories of curriculum aim to "describe, or set norms, for conditions surrounding many of the concepts and constructs" that define curriculum. These normative propositions differ from those above in that normative curriculum theory is not necessarily untestable. A central question asked by normative curriculum theory is: given a particular educational philosophy, what is worth knowing and why? Some examples are: a deep understanding of the Great Books, direct experiences driven by student interest, a superficial understanding of a wide range knowledge (e.g. Core knowledge), social and community problems and issues, knowledge and understanding specific to cultures and their achievements (e.g. African-Centered Education). Normative Feminist educational theory Scholars such as Robyn Wiegman argue that, "academic feminism is perhaps the most successful institutionalizing project of its generation, with more full-time faculty positions and new doctoral degree programs emerging each year in the field it inaugurated, Women's Studies". Feminist educational theory stems from four key tenets, supported by empirical data based on surveys of feminist educators. The first tenet of feminist educational theory is, "Creation of participatory classroom communities". Participatory classroom communities often are smaller classes built around discussion and student involvement. The second tenet is, "Validation of personal experience". Classrooms in which validation of personal experience occur often are focused around students providing their own insights and experiences in group discussion, rather than relying exclusively on the insight of the educator. The third tenet is, "Encouragement of social understanding and activism". This tenet is generally actualized by classrooms discussing and reading about social and societal aspects that students may not be aware of, along with breeding student self-efficacy. The fourth and final tenet of feminist education is, "Development of critical thinking skills/open-mindedness". Classrooms actively engaging in this tenet encourage students to think for themselves and prompt them to move beyond their comfort zones, working outside the bounds of the traditional lecture-based classroom. Though these tenets at times overlap, they combine to provide the basis for modern feminist educational theory, and are supported by a majority of feminist educators. Feminist educational theory derives from the feminist movement, particularly that of the early 1970s, which prominent feminist bell hooks describes as, "a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression". Academic feminist Robyn Weigman recalls that, "In the early seventies, feminism in the U.S. academy was less an organized entity than a set of practices: an ensemble of courses listed on bulletin boards often taught for free by faculty and community leaders". While feminism traditionally existed outside of the institutionalization of schools (particularly universities), feminist education has gradually taken hold in the last few decades and has gained a foothold in institutionalized educational bodies. "Once fledgling programs have become departments, and faculty have been hired and tenured with full-time commitments". There are supporters of feminist education as well, many of whom are educators or students. Professor Becky Ropers-Huilman recounts one of her positive experiences with feminist education from the student perspective, explaining that she "...felt very 'in charge' of [her] own learning experiences," and "...was not being graded–or degraded... [while completing] the majority of the assigned work for the class (and additional work that [she] thought would add to class discussion)," all while "...[regarding] the teacher's feedback on [her] participation as one perspective, rather than the perspective". Ropers-Huilman experienced a working feminist classroom that successfully motivated students to go above and beyond, succeeding in generating self-efficacy and caring in the classroom. When Ropers-Huilman became a teacher herself, she embraced feminist educational theory, noting that, "[Teachers] have an obligation as the ones who are vested with an assumed power, even if that power is easily and regularly disrupted, to assess and address the effects that it is having in our classrooms". Ropers-Huilman firmly believes that educators have a duty to address feminist concepts such as the use and flow of power within the classroom, and strongly believes in the potential of feminist educational theory to create positive learning experiences for students and teachers as she has personally experienced. Ropers-Huilman also celebrates the feminist classroom's inclusivity, noting that in a feminist classroom, "in which power is used to care about, for, and with others… educational participants can shape practices aimed at creating an inclusive society that discovers and utilizes the potential of its actors". Ropers-Huilman believes that a feminist classroom carries the ability to greatly influence the society as a whole, promoting understanding, caring, and inclusivity. Ropers-Huilman actively engages in feminist education in her classes, focusing on concepts such as active learning and critical thinking while attempting to demonstrate and engage in caring behavior and atypical classroom settings, similar to many other feminist educators. Leading feminist scholar bell hooks argues for the incorporation of feminism into all aspects of society, including education, in her book Feminism is for Everybody. hooks notes that, "Everything [people] know about feminism has come into their lives thirdhand". hooks believes that education offers a counter to the, "...wrongminded notion of feminist movement which implied it was anti-male". hooks cites feminism's negative connotations as major inhibitors to the spread and adoption of feminist ideologies. However, feminist education has seen tremendous growth in adoption in the past few decades, despite the negative connotations of its parent movement. Criticism of Feminist educational theory Opposition to feminist educational theory comes from both those who oppose feminism in general and feminists who oppose feminist educational theory in particular. Critics of feminist educational theory argue against the four basic tenets of the theory, "...[contesting] both their legitimacy and their implementation". Lewis Lehrman particularly describes feminist educational ideology as, "...'therapeutic pedagogy' that substitutes an 'overriding' (and detrimental) value on participatory interaction for the expertise of the faculty" (Hoffman). Lehrman argues that the feminist educational tenets of participatory experience and validation of person experience hinder education by limiting and inhibiting the educator's ability to share his or her knowledge, learned through years of education and experience. Others challenge the legitimacy of feminist educational theory, arguing that it is not unique and is instead a sect of liberatory education. Even feminist educational scholars such as Frances Hoffmann and Jayne Stake are forced to concede that, "feminist pedagogy shared intellectual and political roots with the movements comprising the liberatory education agenda of the past 30 years". These liberatory attempts at the democratization of classrooms demonstrate a growth in liberatory education philosophy that some argue feminist educational theory simply piggybacks off of. The harshest critiques of feminist educational theory often come from feminists themselves. Feminist scholar Robyn Wiegman argues against feminist education in her article "Academic Feminism against Itself", arguing that feminist educational ideology has abandoned the intersectionality of feminism in many cases, and has also focused exclusively on present content with a singular perspective. Wiegman refers to feminist scholar James Newman's arguments, centered around the idea that, "When we fail... to challenge both students and ourselves to theorize alterity as an issue of change over time as well as of geographic distance, ethnic difference, and sexual choice, we repress... not only the 'thickness' of historical difference itself, but also... our (self) implication in a narrative of progress whose hero(in)es inhabit only the present". Newman (and Wiegman) believe that this presentist ideology imbued within modern academic feminism creates an environment breeding antifeminist ideologies, most importantly an abandonment of the study of difference, integral to feminist ideology. Wiegman believes that feminist educational theory does a great disservice to the feminist movement, while failing to instill the critical thinking and social awareness that feminist educational theory is intended to. Educational anthropology Philosophical anthropology is the philosophical study of human nature. In terms of learning, examples of descriptive theories of the learner are: a mind, soul, and spirit capable of emulating the Absolute Mind (Idealism); an orderly, sensing, and rational being capable of understanding the world of things (Realism), a rational being with a soul modeled after God and who comes to know God through reason and revelation (Neo-Thomism), an evolving and active being capable of interacting with the environment (Pragmatism), a fundamentally free and individual being who is capable of being authentic through the making of and taking responsibility for choices (Existentialism). Philosophical concepts for the process of education include Bildung and paideia. Educational anthropology is a sub-field of anthropology and is widely associated with the pioneering work of George Spindler. As the name would suggest, the focus of educational anthropology is obviously on education, although an anthropological approach to education tends to focus on the cultural aspects of education, including informal as well as formal education. As education involves understandings of who we are, it is not surprising that the single most recognized dictum of educational anthropology is that the field is centrally concerned with cultural transmission. Cultural transmission involves the transfer of a sense of identity between generations, sometimes known as enculturation and also transfer of identity between cultures, sometimes known as acculturation. Accordingly, thus it is also not surprising that educational anthropology has become increasingly focused on ethnic identity and ethnic change. Descriptive Curriculum theory Descriptive theories of curriculum explain how curricula "benefit or harm all publics it touches". The term hidden curriculum describes that which is learned simply by being in a learning environment. For example, a student in a teacher-led classroom is learning submission. The hidden curriculum is not necessarily intentional. Instructional theory Instructional theories focus on the methods of instruction for teaching curricula. Theories include the methods of: autonomous learning, coyote teaching, inquiry-based instruction, lecture, maturationism, socratic method, outcome-based education, taking children seriously, transformative learning Educational psychology Educational psychology is an empirical science that provides descriptive theories of how people learn. Examples of theories of education in psychology are: constructivism, behaviorism, cognitivism, and motivational theory Cognitive science Educational neuroscience Educational neuroscience is an emerging field that brings together researchers in diverse disciplines to explore the interactions between biological processes and education. Sociology of education The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. It is most concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of higher, further, adult, and continuing education. Examples of theories of education from sociology include: functionalism, conflict theory, social efficiency, and social mobility. Teaching method Learning theories Educational research Educational assessment Educational evaluation Educational aims and objectives Politics in education Education economics Comparative education Educational theorists List of educational psychologists See also Anti-schooling activism Classical education movement Cognitivism (learning theory) Andragogy Geragogy Humanistic education International education Peace education Movement in learning Co-construction, collaborative learning Scholarship of teaching and learning Notes References Thomas, G. (2007) Education and Theory: Strangers in Paradigms. Open University Press External links Educational Theory (journal)

Middle Stone Age

The Middle Stone Age (or MSA) was a period of African prehistory between the Early Stone Age and the Late Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50–25,000 years ago. The beginnings of particular MSA stone tools have their origins as far back as 550–500,000 years ago and as such some researchers consider this to be the beginnings of the MSA. The MSA is often mistakenly understood to be synonymous with the Middle Paleolithic of Europe, especially due to their roughly contemporaneous time span; however, the Middle Paleolithic of Europe represents an entirely different hominin population, Homo neanderthalensis, than the MSA of Africa, which did not have Neanderthal populations. Additionally, current archaeological research in Africa has yielded much evidence to suggest that modern human behavior and cognition was beginning to develop much earlier in Africa during the MSA than it was in Europe during the Middle Paleolithic. The MSA is associated with both anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) as well as archaic Homo sapiens, sometimes referred to as Homo helmei. Early physical evidence comes from the Gademotta Formation in Ethiopia, the Kapthurin Formation in Kenya and Kathu Pan in South Africa. Regional development There are MSA archaeological sites from across the African continent, conventionally divided into five regions: northern Africa, comprising parts of the modern countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya; eastern Africa, stretching roughly from the highlands of Ethiopia to the southern part of Kenya; central Africa, stretching from the borders of Tanzania and Kenya to include Angola; southern Africa, which includes the numerous cave sites of South Africa; and western Africa. In northern and western Africa, the wet-dry cycles of the modern Sahara desert has led to fruitful archaeological sites followed by completely barren soil and vice versa. Preservation in these two regions can vary, yet the sites that have been uncovered document the adaptive nature of early humans to climatically unstable environments. Eastern Africa represents some of the most reliable dates, due to the use of radiocarbon dating on volcanic ash deposits, as well as some of the earliest MSA sites. Faunal preservation, however, is not spectacular, and standardization in site excavation and lithic classification was, until recently, lacking. Unlike northern Africa, shifts between lithic technologies were not nearly as pronounced, likely due to more favorable climatic conditions that would have allowed for more continuous occupation of sites. Central Africa reflects similar patterning to eastern Africa, yet more archaeological research of the region is certainly required. Southern Africa consists of many cave sites, most of which show very punctuated starts and stops in stone tool technology. Research in southern Africa has been continuous and quite standardized, allowing for reliable comparisons between sites in the region. Much of the archaeological evidence for the origins of modern human behavior is traced back to sites in this region, including Blombos Cave, Howiesons Poort, Still Bay, and Pinnacle Point. Transition from Acheulean The term "Middle Stone Age" (MSA) was proposed to the African Archaeological Congress by Goodwin and Van Riet Lowe in 1929. The use of these terms was officially abandoned in 1965, although the term remains in use in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, beginning with a transitional late Acheulean period known as the Fauresmith industry. The Fauresmith industry is poorly dated, according to Herries (2011) beginning around 511–435 kya. This time, rather than the actual end of the Achaeulean around 130 kya is taken as the beginning of the MSA. The MSA so defined is associated with the gradual replacement of archaic humans by anatomically modern humans. In a different convention, MSA refers to sites characterized by the use of Levallois methods for flake production, to the exclusion of Acheulean sites with large cleavers or handaxes. Following McBrearty and Tryon (2006), the term "early MSA" (EMSA) refers to sites predating the 126 kya interglacial, and "later MSA" (LMSA) refers to site younger than 126 kya. In this convention, Fauresmith sites of 500 to 300 kya are within the ESA, and the MSA begins after about 280 kya and is largely associated with H. sapiens, the earliest reliably dated MSA site in East Africa being Gademotta in Ethiopia, at 276 kya. The Middle Awash valley of Ethiopia and the Central Rift Valley of Kenya constituted a major center for behavioural innovation. It is likely that the large terrestrial mammal biomass of these regions supported substantial human populations with subsistence and manufacturing patterns similar to those of ethnographically known foragers. Archaeological evidence from eastern Africa extending from the Rift Valley from Ethiopia to northern Tanzania represents the largest archaeological evidence of the shift from the Late Acheulian to the Middle Stone Age tool technologies. This transition is characterized by stratigraphic layering of Acheulian stone tools, a bifacial handaxe technology, underneath and even contemporaneous with MSA technologies, such as Levallois tools, flakes, flaked tools, pointed flakes, smaller bifaces that are projectile in form, and, on rare occasions, hafted tools. Evidence of the gradual displacement of Acheulian by MSA technologies is further supported by this layering and contemporaneous placement, as well as by the earliest appearance of MSA technologies at Gademotta and the latest Acheulian technologies at the Bouri Formation of Ethiopia, dated to 154 to 160 kya. This suggests a possible overlap of 100–150 thousand years. Late Acheulean artefacts associated with Homo sapiens have been found in South African cave sites. The Cave of Hearths and Montague Cave in South Africa contain evidence of Acheulian technologies, as well as later MSA technologies, however there is no evidence of crossover in this region. ESA Acheulean sites are well documented across West Africa (except from the most tropical regions) but mostly remain undated. A few late Acheulean sites ("MSA" in the sense of late Acheulean, not Levallois) have been dated. Middle Pleistocene (pre 126 kya) sites are known from the northern Sahelian zones, while Late Pleistocene (post 126 kya) sites are known both from northern and southern West Africa. Unlike elsewhere in Africa, MSA sites appear to persist until very late, down to the Holocene boundary (12 kya), pointing to the possibility of late survival of archaic humans, and late hybridization with H. sapiens in West Africa. Furthermore, such results highlight significant spatiotemporal cultural variability and suggest that long inter-group cultural differences played a major role in later stages of human evolution in Africa. Lithic technology Early blades have been documented as far back as 550–500,000 years in the Kapthurin Formation in Kenya and Kathu Pan in South Africa. Backed pieces from the Twin Rivers and Kalambo Falls sites in Zambia, dated at sometime between 300 and 140,000 years, likewise indicate a suite of new behaviors. A high level of technical competence is also indicated for the c. 280 ka blades recovered from the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya. The stone tool technology in use during the Middle Stone Age shows a mosaic of techniques. Beginning approximately 300 kya, the large cutting tools of the Achuelian are gradually displaced by Levallois prepared core technologies, also widely used by Neanderthals during the European Middle Palaeolithic. As the MSA progresses, highly varied technocomplexes become common throughout Africa and include pointed artifacts, blades, retouched flakes, end and side scrapers, grinding stones, and even bone tools. However, the use of blades (associated mainly with the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe) is seen at many sites as well. In Africa, blades may have been used during the transition from the Early Stone Age to the Middle Stone Age onwards. Finally, during the later part of the Middle Stone Age, microlithic technologies aimed at producing replaceable components of composite hafted tools are seen from at least 70 ka at sites such as Pinnacle Point and Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa. Artifact technology during the Middle Stone Age shows a pattern of innovation followed by disappearance. This occurs with technology such as the manufacture of shell beads, arrows and hide working tools including needles, and gluing technology. These pieces of evidence provide a counterpoint to the classic "Out of Africa" scenario in which increasing complexity accumulated during the Middle Stone Age. Instead, it has been argued that such technological innovations "appear, disappear and re-appear in a way that best fits a scenario in which historical contingencies and environmental rather than cognitive changes are seen as main drivers". Hominin evolution and migration There have been two migration events out of Africa. The first was the expansion of H. erectus into Eurasia approximately 1.9 to 1.7 million years ago, and the second, by H. sapiens began during the MSA by 80 – 50 ka MSA out of Africa to Asia, Australia and Europe. Perhaps only in small numbers initially, but by 30 ka they had replaced Neanderthals and H. erectus. Each of these migrations represent the increased flexibility of the genus Homo to survive in widely varied climates. Based on the measurement of a large number of human skulls a recent study supports a central/southern African origin for Homo sapiens as this region shows the highest intra-population diversity in phenotypic measurements. Genetic data supports this conclusion. However, there is genetic evidence to suggest that dispersal out of Africa began in eastern Africa. Sites such as the Omo Kibish Formation, the Herto Member of the Bouri Formation, and Mumba Cave contain fossil evidence to support this conclusion as well. Evidence for modern human behavior There have been a number of theories proposed regarding the development of modern human behavior, but in recent years the mosaic approach has been the most favored perspective in regards to the MSA, especially when taken in consideration with the archaeological evidence. Some scholars including Klein have argued for discontinuity, while others including McBrearty and Brooks have argued that cognitive advances can be detected in the MSA and that the origin of our species is linked with the appearance of Middle Stone Age technology at 250–300 ka. The earliest remains of Homo sapiens date back to approximately 300 thousand years ago in Africa. The continent was mainly populated by groups of hunter-gatherers. In the archaeological record of both eastern Africa and southern Africa, there is immense variability associated with Homo sapiens sites, and it is during this time that we see evidence of the origins of modern human behavior. According to McBrearty and Brooks, there are four features that are characteristic of modern human behavior: abstract thinking, the ability to plan and strategize, "behavioral, economic and technological innovativeness," and symbolic behavior. Many of these aspects of modern human behavior can be broken down into more specific categories, including art, personal adornment, technological advancement, yet these four overarching categories allow for a thorough, albeit significantly overlapping, discussion of behavioral modernity. Possible cultural complexes As early Homo sapiens began to diversify the ecological zones that they inhabited during the MSA, the archaeological record associated with these zones begins to show evidence for regional continuities. These continuities are significant for a number of reasons. The expansion of Homo sapiens into various ecological zones demonstrates an ability to adapt to a variety of environmental contexts including marine environments, savanna grasslands, relatively arid deserts, and forests. This adaptability is reflected in MSA artifacts found in these zones. These artifacts display stylistic variability depending on zone. During the Acheulian, which spanned from 1.5 million years ago to 300 thousand years ago, lithic technology displayed incredible homogeneity throughout all ecological niches. MSA technologies, with their evidence for regional variability and continuity, represent a remarkable advance. These data have been used to support theories of social and stylistic development throughout the MSA. In southern Africa, we see the technocomplexes of Howiesons Poort and Stillbay, named after the sites at which they were first discovered. Several others have not been dated or have been dated unreliably; these include the Lupemban technocomplex of central Africa, the Bambatan in southeast Africa, 70–80ka, and the Aterian technocomplex of northern Africa, 160–90ka. Abstract thinking Evidence of abstract thinking can be seen in the archaeological record as early as the Acheulean–Middle Stone Age transition, approximately 300,000–250,000 years ago. This transition involves a shift in stone tool technology from Mode 2, Acheulean tools, to Mode 3 and 4, which include blades and microliths. The manufacture of these tools requires planning and the understanding of how striking a stone will produce different flaking patterns. This requires abstract thought, one of the hallmarks of modern human behavior. The shift from large cutting tools in the Acheulian to smaller and more diversified toolkits in the MSA represents a better cognitive and conceptual understanding of flintknapping, as well as the potential functional effects of distinct tool types. Planning depth The ability to plan and strategize, much like abstract thinking, can be seen in the more diversified toolkit of the Middle Stone Age, as well as in the subsistence patterns of the period. As MSA hominins began to migrate into a range of different ecological zones, it became necessary to base hunting strategies around seasonally available resources. Awareness of seasonality is evident in the faunal remains found at temporary sites. In less forgiving ecological zones, this awareness would have been essential for survival and the ability to plan subsistence strategies based on this awareness demonstrates an ability to think beyond the present tense and act upon this knowledge. This planning depth is also seen in the presence of exotic raw materials at a variety of sites throughout the MSA. Procurement of local raw materials would have been a simple task to accomplish, yet MSA sites regularly contain raw materials that were obtained from sources over 100 km away, and sometimes farther than 300 km. Obtaining raw materials from this distance would require an awareness of the resources, a perceived value in the resources, whether it be functional or symbolic, and, possibly, the ability to organize an exchange network in order to obtain the materials. Innovation The ability to expand into new environments throughout Africa and, ultimately, the world, displays a level of adaptability and, consequently, innovativeness that is often seen as characteristic of behavioral modernity. Middle Stone Age sites are found in a wide range of environments, including coastal and inland areas of southern and eastern Africa, and in at least one case MSA foragers were exploiting high-altitude glaciated environments, at Fincha Habera in Ethiopia. This, however, is not the only evidence of innovativeness that can be seen in early Homo sapiens. The development of new, regionally relevant tools, such as those used for the collection of marine resources seen at Abdur, Ethiopia, Pinnacle Point Cave, South Africa, and Blombos Cave, South Africa. The use of fire demonstrates another innovative aspect of human behavior when it is used in order to create stronger tools, such as the heated silcrete at Blombos, Howiesons Poort and Still Bay, and the heat treated bone tools from Still Bay. Hafted tools are further representative of human innovation. The large cutting tools of the Acheulian technocomplex become smaller, as more complex tools are better suited towards the needs of highly diversified environments. Composite tools represent a new level of innovation in their increased efficacy and more complex manufacturing process. The ability to conceptualize beyond the mere reduction of stone cores demonstrates cognitive flexibility, and the use of glue, which was often processed with ochre, to attach flakes to hafts demonstrates an understanding of chemical changes that can be utilized beyond the simple use of color. Adhesives were used to construct hafted tools by 70ka at Sibudu Cave in South Africa. Many of these adhesives were made from local conifers of the genus Podocarpus, using a process based on distillation. Other technological innovations of the period include specialized projectile weapons found at various sites in Middle Stone Age Africa such as: bone and stone arrowheads at South African sites such as Sibudu Cave (along with an early bone needle also found at Sibudu) dating approximately 60,000–70,000 years ago, and bone harpoons at the Central African site of Katanda dating to about 90,000 years ago. The arrows and needle, along with hide working tools, from Sibudu Cave are seen as evidence of making weapons with compound heat treated gluing technology. Evidence also exists for the systematic heat treating of silcrete stone to increase its flake-ability for the purpose of toolmaking, beginning approximately 164,000 years ago at the South African site of Pinnacle Point and becoming common there for the creation of microlithic tools at about 72,000 years ago. Characteristically modern human behaviors, such as the making of shell beads, bone tools and arrows, and the use of ochre pigment, are evident at Panga ya Saidi in Kenya by 78,000–67,000 years ago. Evidence of early stone-tipped projectile weapons (a characteristic tool of Homo sapiens), the stone tips of javelins or throwing spears, were discovered in 2013 at the Ethiopian site of Gademotta, and date to around 279,000 years ago. Evidence was found in 2018, dating to about 320,000 years ago, at the Kenyan site of Olorgesailie, of the early emergence of innovations and behaviors including: long-distance trade networks (involving goods such as obsidian), the use of pigments, and the possible making of projectile points. It is observed by the authors of three 2018 studies on the site, that the evidence of these behaviors is approximately contemporary to the earliest known Homo sapiens fossil remains from Africa (such as at Jebel Irhoud and Florisbad), and they suggest that complex and modern behaviors had already begun in Africa around the time of the emergence of Homo sapiens. Symbolic behavior Symbolic behavior is, perhaps, one of the most difficult aspects of modern human behavior to distinguish archaeologically. When searching for evidence of symbolic behavior in the MSA, there are three lines of evidence that can be considered: direct evidence reflecting concrete examples of symbols; indirect evidence reflecting behaviors that would have been used to convey symbolic thought; and technological evidence reflecting the tools and skills that would have been used to produce art. Direct evidence is difficult to find beyond 40ka, and indirect evidence is essentially intangible, thus technological evidence is the most fruitful of the three. Today there is widespread agreement among archaeologists that the world's first art and symbolic culture dates to the African Middle Stone Age. Some of the most striking artifacts, including engraved pieces of red ochre, were manufactured at Blombos Cave in South Africa 75,000 years ago. Pierced and ochred Nassarius shell beads were also recovered from Blombos, with even earlier examples (Middle Stone Age, Aterian) from the Taforalt Caves. In addition, ostrich egg shell containers engraved with geometric designs dating to 60,000 years ago were found at Diepkloof, South Africa, beads and other personal ornamentation have been found from Morocco which might be as much as 130,000 years old, and the Cave of Hearths in South Africa has yielded a number of beads dating from significantly prior to 50,000 years ago. At Panga ya Saidi in Kenya, marine shell beads appear perhaps as early as 67,000 years ago and certainly by 33,000 years ago, and engraved ochre by 48,500 years ago. Evidence for the making of paints by a complex process also exists dating to 100,000 years ago in South Africa, and for the use of pigments in Kenya dating to about 320,000 years ago. Complex cognition A series of innovations have been documented by 170–160,000 years ago at the site of Pinnacle Point 13B on the southern Cape coast of South Africa. This includes the oldest confirmed evidence for the utilization of ochre and marine resources in the form of shellfish exploitation for food. Based on his analysis of the MSA bovid assemblage at Klasies, Milo reports MSA people were formidable hunters and that their social behavior patterns approached those of modern humans. Deacon maintains that the management of plant food resources through deliberate burning of the veld to encourage the growth of plants with corms or tubers in the southern Cape during the Howiesons Poort (c. 70–55 ka) is indicative of modern human behavior. A family basis to foraging groups, color symbolism and the reciprocal exchange of artifacts and the formal organization of living space are, he suggests, further evidence for modernity in the MSA. Lyn Wadley et al. have argued that the complexity of the skill needed to process the heat-treated compound glue (gum and red ochre) used to haft spears would seem to argue for continuity between modern human cognition and that of humans 70,000 BP at Sibudu Cave. In 2008, an ochre processing workshop likely for the production of paints was uncovered dating to ca. 100,000 years ago at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Analysis shows that a liquefied pigment-rich mixture was produced and stored in the two abalone shells, and that ochre, bone, charcoal, grindstones and hammer-stones also formed a composite part of the toolkits. Evidence for the complexity of the task includes procuring and combining raw materials from various sources (implying they had a mental template of the process they would follow), possibly using pyrotechnology to facilitate fat extraction from bone, using a probable recipe to produce the compound, and the use of shell containers for mixing and storage for later use. Evidence for language Ochre is reported from some early MSA sites, for example at Kapthurin and Twin Rivers, and is common after c. 100 ka. Barham argues that even if some of this ochre was used in a symbolic, color-related role then this abstraction could not have worked without language. Ochre, he suggests, could be one proxy for trying to find the emergence of language. Formal bone tools are frequently associated with modern behaviour by archaeologists. Sophisticated bone harpoons manufactured at Katanda, West Africa at c. 90 ka and bone tools from Blombos Cave dated at c. 77 ka may then also serve as examples of material culture associated with modern language. Language has been suggested to be necessary to maintain exchange networks. Evidence of some form of exchange networks during the Middle Stone Age is presented in Marwick (2003) in which the distance between the source of raw material and location in which a stone artifact was found was compared throughout sites containing early stone artifacts. Five Middle Stone Age sites contained distances between 140–340 km and have been interpreted, when compared with ethnographic data, that these distances were made possible through exchange networks. Barham also views syntactic language as one aspect of behavior that in fact allowed MSA people to settle in the tropical forest environments of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many authors have speculated that at the core of this symbolic explosion, and in tandem, was the development of syntactic language that evolved through a highly specialized social learning system providing the means for semantically unbounded discourse. Syntax would have played a key role in this process and its full adoption could have been a crucial element of the symbolic behavioral package in the MSA. Brain change Although the advent of anatomical physical modernity cannot confidently be linked with palaeoneurological change, it does seem probable that hominid brains evolved through the same selection processes as other body parts. Genes that promoted a capacity for symbolism may have been selected for, suggesting that the foundations for symbolic culture may well be grounded in biology. However, behavior that was mediated by symbolism may have only come later, even though this physical capacity was already in place much earlier. Skoyles and Sagan, for example, argue that human brain expansion by increasing the prefrontal cortex would have created a brain capable of symbolizing its previously non-symbolic cognition, and that this process, slow to begin with, increasingly accelerated during the last 100,000 years. Symbolically mediated behavior may then feed back upon this process by creating a greater ability to manufacture symbolic artifacts and social networks. According to the research team in Jebel Irhoud, the discovery means that Homo sapiens—not members of a rival or ancestor species (Homo heidelbergensis, Homo naledi)—were the ones who left behind Middle Stone Age hand tools that have since been unearthed all over Africa. Sites Numerous sites in southern Africa reflect the four characteristics of behavioral modernity. Blombos Cave, South Africa contains personal ornaments and what are presumed to be the tools used for the production of artistic imagery, as well as bone tools. Still Bay and Howieson's Poort contain variable tool technologies. These different types of assemblages allow researchers to extrapolate behaviors that would likely be associated with such technologies, such as shifts in foraging behaviors, which are further supported by faunal data at these sites. Blombos Cave, South Africa Klasies River Caves, South Africa Sibudu Cave, South Africa Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa Pinnacle Point, South Africa Border Cave, South Africa Bambata Cave, South Africa Mossel Bay, South Africa Mumba Cave, Tanzania Mumbwa Caves, Zambia Laminia and Saxomununya, Senegal See also Out of Africa hypothesis Symbolic culture The Human Revolution (human origins) Later Stone Age Notes Mesolithic cultures of Africa

Pax Europaea

Pax Europaea ( – after the historical Pax Romana) is the period of relative peace experienced by Europe following World War II, in which there were notably few international conflicts or wars between European states. This peace had often been associated with the creation of NATO, the European Union (EU), and the predecessor institutions of the EU including the European Economic Community. This era of relative peace has been broadly maintained following the end of the Cold War and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, with the major exceptions of the Yugoslav Wars, The Troubles in Northern Ireland, and various tensions and wars involving or within Russia (including the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine). History Transatlantic cooperation and European integration was designed to maintain the fragile peace that was created in Europe after World War II. With the continent repeatedly falling into war over the past centuries the creation of the European Communities in the 1950s set to integrate its members to such an extent that war between them would be impossible. Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation formed as defensive military alliance among western European countries with the U.S. and Canada, to deter aggression both within and from without. The European Communities evolved into the European Union, and both it and NATO expanded to cover most of Western Europe, Northern Europe and Southern Europe. Although Central and Eastern Europe remained under Soviet influence as members of the Warsaw Pact, they too experienced little conflict, with the major exception of internal repression, until the 1990s when a series of wars in Yugoslavia broke out as the country disintegrated. The EU was criticised for its inability to prevent the conflict, though the zone is now within its sphere of enlargement. By 2020, the EU comprised 27 countries, with the majority of European non-member states seeking membership; twelve countries joined the EU in 2000s. In addition, most European countries which remain outside the EU are tied to it by economic agreements and treaties such as the European Economic Area. Although a number of former Soviet republics have joined the EU, or have taken steps to align themselves with various European organisations, Russia has maintained a level of independence from European institutions. Within the EEA, there have been no military conflict since 1945, making it the longest period of peace on the western European mainland since the Pax Romana. The European Union was awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its efforts to maintain and actively foster peace within its borders as well as internationally through diplomatic means. Even though a number of armed conflicts occurred on the European peninsula after World War II, none of them have been between members of the European Union. Most of these conflicts have taken place in the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union. List of wars in Europe during the post-WW2 period (Note: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia can be considered part of Europe or Western Asia; they are listed here for completeness) Anti-Soviet resistance by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, 1942-1960 Greek Civil War (Greece, 1946–1949) Northern Ireland Conflict, (1960s–1998) Basque conflict (1959–2011) Cyprus Emergency, (Greek Cypriots (EOKA) vs. United Kingdom, 1955–1959) Soviet invasion of Hungary (Soviet Union vs. Hungary, 1956) Invasion of Czechoslovakia (Soviet Union vs. Czechoslovakia, 1968) Turkish invasion of Cyprus (Cyprus vs. Turkey, 1974) Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (Armenia vs. Azerbaijan, 1988–present) Yugoslav Wars, 1991–2001 Ten-Day War (Slovenia vs. Yugoslavia, 1991) Croatian War of Independence (Croatia vs. Yugoslavia, 1991–1995) Bosnian War (Bosnia vs. Yugoslavia, 1992–1995) Kosovo War (Kosovo vs. Yugoslavia, 1998–1999) Insurgency in the Preševo Valley (UÇPMB vs. Yugoslavia, 1999–2001) 2001 insurgency in the Republic of North Macedonia (National Liberation Army vs. North Macedonia, 2001) Georgian Civil War (Georgia, 1991–1993) East Prigorodny Conflict (Ingush militia vs. Russia, 1992) War of Transnistria (Transnistria vs. Moldova, 1992) Chechen–Russian conflict First Chechen War (1994–1996) War of Dagestan (1999) Second Chechen War (1999–2000) Albanian Rebellion of 1997 (Albania, 1997) Russo-Georgian War (Georgia vs. Russia, 2008) Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present) 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation (2014) War in Donbass (2014–present) 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Kumanovo clashes (National Liberation Army vs. North Macedonia, 2015) Wars involving European countries during the post-WW2 period Indonesian War of Independence (Netherlands) Suez Crisis (UK and France) First Indochina War (France) Algerian War (France) Ifni War (France and Spain) Bizerte crisis (France) Angolan War of Independence (Portugal) Dhofar Rebellion (UK) Guinea-Bissau War of Independence (Portugal) Mozambican War of Independence (Portugal) Shaba I and II (France and Belgium) Falklands War, 1982 (UK) Afghanistan War, 2001–2014 (NATO) Iraq War, 2003–2011 (UK and Poland) Military intervention in Libya, 2011 (NATO) Northern Mali conflict, 2012–2015 (France) Central African Republic conflict (France) See also European integration Enlargement of the European Union Future enlargement of the European Union Member state of the European Union Pax Americana Pax Britannica Pax Hispanica References Foreign relations of the European Union Europa

Divergent evolution

Divergent evolution or divergent selection is the accumulation of differences between closely related populations within a species, sometimes leading to speciation. Divergent evolution is typically exhibited when two populations become separated by a geographic barrier (such as in allopatric or peripatric speciation) and experience different selective pressures that cause adaptations. After many generations and continual evolution, the populations become less able to interbreed with one another. The American naturalist J. T. Gulick (1832–1923) was the first to use the term "divergent evolution", with its use becoming widespread in modern evolutionary literature. Examples of divergence in nature are the adaptive radiation of the finches of the Galápagos, changes in mobbing behavior of the kittiwake, and the evolution of the modern-day dog from the wolf. The term can also be applied in molecular evolution, such as to proteins that derive from homologous genes. Both orthologous genes (resulting from a speciation event) and paralogous genes (resulting from gene duplication) can illustrate divergent evolution. Through gene duplication, it is possible for divergent evolution to occur between two genes within a species. Similarities between species that have diverged are due to their common origin, so such similarities are homologies. Causes Animals undergo divergent evolution for a number of reasons linked to changes in environmental or social pressures. This could include changes in the environment, such access to food and shelter. It could also result from changes in predators, such as new adaptations, an increase or decrease in number of active predators, or the introduction of new predators. Divergent evolution can also be a result of mating pressures such as increased competition for mates or selective breeding by humans. Distinctions Divergent evolution is a type of evolution and is distinct from convergent evolution and parallel evolution, although it does share similarities with the other types of evolution. Divergent versus convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the development of analogous structures that occurs in different species as a result of those two species facing similar environmental pressures and adapting in similar ways. It differs from divergent evolution as the species involved do not descend from a closely related common ancestor and the traits accumulated are similar. An example of convergent evolution is the development of flight in birds, bats, and insects, all of which are not closely related but share analogous structures allowing for flight. Divergent versus parallel evolution Parallel evolution is the development of a similar trait in species descending from a common ancestor. It is comparable to divergent evolution in that the species are descend from a common ancestor, but the traits accumulated are similar due to similar environmental pressures while in divergent evolution the traits accumulated are different. An example of parallel evolution is that certain arboreal frog species, 'flying' frogs, in both Old World families and New World families, have developed the ability of gliding flight. They have "enlarged hands and feet, full webbing between all fingers and toes, lateral skin flaps on the arms and legs, and reduced weight per snout-vent length". Darwin's finches One of the first recorded examples of divergent evolution is the case of Darwin's Finches. During Darwin's travels to the Galápagos Islands, he discovered several different species of finch, living on the different islands. Darwin observed that the finches had different beaks specialized for that species of finches' diet. Some finches had short beaks for eating nuts and seeds, other finches had long thin beaks for eating insects, and others had beaks specialized for eating cacti and other plants. He concluded that the finches evolved from a shared common ancestor that lived on the islands, and due to geographic isolation, evolved to fill the particular niche on each of the islands. This is supported by modern day genomic sequencing. Divergent evolution in dogs Another example of divergent evolution is the origin of the domestic dog and the modern wolf, who both shared a common ancestor. Comparing the anatomy of dogs and wolves supports this claim as they have similar body shape, skull size, and limb formation. This is even more obvious in some species of dogs, such as malamutes and huskies, who appear even more physically and behaviorally similar. There is a divergent genomic sequence of the mitochondrial DNA of wolves and dogs dated to over 100,000 years ago, which further supports the theory that dogs and wolves have diverged from shared ancestry. Divergent evolution in kittiwakes Another example of divergent evolution is the behavioral changes in the kittiwake as opposed to other species of gulls. Ancestorial and other modern-day species of gulls exhibit a mobbing behavior in order to protect their young due the nesting at ground-level where they are susceptible to predators. As a result of migration and environmental changes, the kittiwake nest solely on cliff faces. As a result, their young are protected from predatory reptiles, mammals, and birds who struggle with the climb and cliff-face weather conditions, and they do not exhibit this mobbing behavior. Divergent evolution in cacti Another example of divergent evolution is the split forming the Cactaceae family approximately dated in the late Miocene. Due to increase in arid climates, following the Eocene–Oligocene event, these ancestral plants evolved to survive in the new climates. Cacti evolved to have areoles, succulent stems, and some have light leaves, with the ability to store water for up to months. The plants they diverged from either went extinct leaving little in the fossil record or migrated surviving in less arid climates. See also Cladistics Contingency (evolutionary biology) Devolution Chronospecies References Further reading Evolutionary biology Evolution of animals

Ancient Celtic women

The position of ancient Celtic women in their society cannot be determined with certainty due to the quality of the sources. On the one hand, great female Celts are known from mythology and history; on the other hand, their real status in the male-dominated Celtic tribal society was socially and legally constrained. Yet Celtic women were somewhat better placed in inheritance and marriage law than their Greek and Roman contemporaries. Knowledge of the situation of Celtic women on the European mainland is almost entirely obtained from contemporary Greek and Roman authors, who saw the Celts as barbarians and wrote about them accordingly. Information about Celtic women of the British Isles comes from ancient travel and war narratives, and possibly the orally transmitted myths later reflected in Celtic literature of the Christian era. Written accounts and collections of these myths are only known from the early Middle Ages. Archaeology has revealed something of the Celtic woman through artefacts (particularly grave goods), which can provide clues about their position in society and material culture. Reliefs and sculptures of Celtic women are mainly known from the Gallo-Roman culture. A consistent matriarchy, which was attributed to Celtic women by Romantic authors of the 18th and 19th centuries and by 20th century feminist authors, is not attested in reliable sources. Duration and extent of Celtic culture The Celts (Ancient Greek ; Latin ) were tribes and tribal confederations of ancient Europe, who resided in west central Europe in the Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age (the Hallstatt culture). In the La Tène period they expanded, through migration and cultural transmission, to the British Isles, northern Iberia, the Balkan peninsula and Asia Minor. The Greeks and Romans commonly referred to areas under Celtic rule as or . They had a relatively uniform material culture (especially in the La Tène period) and non-material culture (customs and norms), which differed from neighbouring peoples like the Italians, Etruscans, Illyrians, Greeks, Iberians, Germans, Thracians and Scythians. The Celtic mainland was characterised by this culture from 800 BC at the earliest until about the fifth century AD (end of the Roman rule in the Celtic sphere and Christianisation of Ireland). Claims made by some Celtic scholars, that traces of Celtic culture are already visible in the second millennium BC, are controversial. In Post-Roman Britain, Celtic culture and rule continued, until pushed to the margins of the island after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. In Ireland, Celtic culture remained dominant for even longer. Linguistically, the Celts were united as speakers of Celtic languages, which were and are Indo-European languages related most closely to German and Latin, with clear common features. Women in Celtic society References to Celtic women are rare and, with the exception of medieval source material from Brittany and the British Isles, derived from the writings of the Celts' Greek and Roman neighbours. In addition, the overwhelming majority of these sources come from the first century BC and the first century AD. The main problem, however, is the fact that the term Celtic spans such an enormous area, from Ireland to Anatolia; there is no reason to expect that the position of women was the same over this whole area. Source material must, therefore, be clarified by archaeological evidence, which, however, can only answer certain kinds of questions. Evidence Archaeology Archaeological finds are almost entirely burials; in the Hallstatt culture area, which is the dispersion area of this cultural material, especially at Dürrnberg near Hallein, this material can already be identified as Celtic in the Late Hallstatt phase (sixth century BC). The grave goods of female inhumations indicate cultural exchange with southern Europe, especially the North Italian Este and Villanovan cultures. Female burials are associated with specific grave goods, such as combs, mirrors, toiletries (nail cutters, tweezers, ear spoons), spinning whorls (flywheel of a pindle, a tool for making yarn,) pottery vessels, necklaces, earrings, hairpins, cloak pins, finger rings, bracelets and other jewellery. A large majority of graves have no gender-specific grave goods, but where such goods are found, they almost always belong to female graves. The Vix Grave from modern France is the most famous rich female burial, but there are several other significant ones. In the Vix Grave a huge bronze krater or mixing bowl was found which indicates the high status of the woman buried there. It derives from a Greek workshop and is 1.6 m high, weighs over 200 kg and has a volume of 1100 litres, making it the largest metal vessel to survive from the ancient world. In eight cremation graves from Frankfurt Rhine-Main from the middle and late La Tène period, which contained young girls, statues of dogs were found, measuring 2.1 to 6.7 cm in length. They were made of jet, clay, glass and bronze; their purpose, whether amulet, votive gift or toy, cannot be determined. There is evidence that in the earlier Celtic periods rich torcs of precious metal were mainly worn by females. Later, torcs are found almost exclusively in hoard contexts and gender cannot be determined; however, items like the Gundestrup Cauldron dating between 150 BC and 1 BC show torcs being worn by both genders. Another example of a richly furnished female grave is a grave chamber of the necropolis of Göblingen-Nospelt (Luxembourg), containing an amphora of fish sauce (garum fish sauce from Gades was a widely popular food seasoning), a bronze saucepan with strainer lid, a bronze cauldron, two bronze basins with a bronze bucket, a Terra sigillata plate, several clay cups and jugs, a mirror and eight fibulae. Archaeological finds in the 19th century were often interpreted in light of contemporary ideas about gender without consideration of differences between modern and ancient cultures. Gender roles were assumed to be unalterable and, accordingly, grave goods were identified as "male" or "female" without ambiguity. Only when it became possible to determine the sex of human remains through osteological analysis was this approach revealed as overly simplistic. Literary sources Written evidence is first transmitted by the Greeks: the historian and geographer Hecataeus of Miletus (Periegesis), the seafarer and explorer Pytheas of Massilia (On the Ocean) (both of these works survive only in fragments), the geographer and ethnologist Herodotus (Histories) and the polymath Poseidonius (On the Ocean and its Problems). Nothing of Poseidonius' work survives directly; it is only transmitted as citations in other authors, such as Julius Caesar's (Commentarii de Bello Gallico). Other Greek writers include Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheke), who used older sources, Plutarch (Moralia), who took a position on the role of women, and Strabo (Geography), who expanded on the work of Polybius (Histories) through personal travels and research. Among the works of Roman historians are the universal history of Pompeius Trogus (Philippic History) which only survives in the epitome of Marcus Iunianus Iustinus. As a Gaul himself (he belonged to the Vocontii tribe), Trogus would have transmitted much of his information at first hand. Tacitus (Annals) described Britannia and its conquest by the Romans; Ammianus Marcellinus (Res Gestae) had served as a soldier in Gaul; Livy (Ab Urbe Condita) reported on Celtic culture; Suetonius (Lives of the Caesars) was also a Roman official and describes Caesar's Gallic Wars; and the senator and consul Cassius Dio (Roman History) recounted the campaign against the Celtic queen Boudicca. Julius Caesar had portrayed an image of the Celts in his Bellum Gallicum, tailored above all to his own domestic political purposes. Among later historians, there is also Gerald of Wales who was born to a Cambro-Norman family in the 12th century and composed an important account of the history and geography of the British Isles. Social position Women as secular and religious leaders The social position of women differed by region and time period. The mainland Celtic "Princess" tombs of Bad Dürkheim, Reinheim, Waldalgesheim and Vix show that women could hold high social positions; but whether their position was a result of their marital status is unclear. Thus modern authors refer to them as both "ladies" and "princesses". The chariot found in the grave of an elite female person in Mitterkirchen im Machland is accompanied by valuable goods like those listed above. Plutarch names the women of Cisalpine Gaul as important judges of disputes with Hannibal. Caesar stresses the "power of life and death" held by husbands over their wife and children. Strabo mentions a Celtic tribe, in which the "Men and women dance together, holding each other's hands", which was unusual among Mediterranean peoples. He states that the position of the sexes relative to each other is "opposite... to how it is with us." Ammianus Marcellinus, in his description of the manners and customs of the Gauls, describes the (heroic fury) of the Gallic women, as "large as men, with flashing eyes and teeth bared." Recent research has cast doubt on the significance of these ancient authors' statements. The position of Celtic women may have changed, especially under the influence of Roman culture and law, which saw the man as head of his household. British female rulers, like Boudicca and Cartimandua, were seen as exceptional phenomena; the position of king (Proto-Celtic *rig-s) - in Gaul mostly replaced by two elected tribal leaders even before Caesar's time - was usually a male office. Female rulers did not always receive general approval. Thus, according to Tacitus, the Brigantes "goaded on by the shame of being yoked under a woman" revolted against Cartimandua; her marital disagreement with her husband Venutius and the support she received from the Romans likely played an important role in her maintenance of power. On the other hand, he says of Boudicca, before her decisive defeat, "[The Britons] make no distinction of gender in their leaders." Whether a Celtic princess Onomaris, mentioned in the anonymous Tractatus de Mulieribus Claris in bello ("Account of women distinguished in war"), was real, is uncertain. She is meant to have taken leadership when no men could be found due to a famine and to have led her tribe from the old homeland over the Danube and into southeastern Europe. In later times, female cultic functionaries are known, like Celtic/Germanic seeress Veleda who has been interpreted by some Celtologists as a druidess.). Celtic es, who prophesied to the Roman emperors Alexander Severus, Aurelian and Diocletian, enjoyed a high repute among the Romans. On the lead Curse tablet from Larzac (c. 100 AD), which with over 1000 letters is the longest known text in the Gaulish language, communities of female magic users are named, containing 'mothers' and 'daughters', perhaps teachers and initiates respectively. Female slaves Slave women were mostly war booty, female property given up by insolvent debtors, or foreign captives and could be employed within the household or sold for profit. As slaves, women had an important economic role on account of their craft work, such that in Ireland, the word ('slave woman', Old Welsh: and ) was also the term for a common measure of wealth (a , worth ten ['cows']). According to Caesar, favorite slaves were thrown on their masters' funeral pyres and burnt along with their corpses. Childrearing That caring for children was the role of the women is stated by ancient authors. In addition, in families of higher social standing, there was an institution of foster parentage (Old Irish: [foster father] and [foster mother], similar to the Gothic [dear father], German and English mummy), in which children of household were given away. The cost which the birth parents had to pay to the foster parents was higher for girls than for boys, because their care was considered more expensive. But there was also a form of foster parentage in which no fee was charged, designed to tighten the links between two families. Matriarchy Ancient evidence The mythic rulers of British Celtic legends and the historical queens Boudicca, Cartimandua and (perhaps) Onomarix can be seen only as individual examples in unusual situations, not as evidence of a matriarchy among the Celts. The transmitted texts of pre-Christian sagas and ancient authors speak strongly against its existence. Modern speculation The idea of a Celtic matriarchy first developed in the 18th and 19th centuries in connection with the romantic idea of the "Noble Savage". According to 19th century Unilineal evolutionism, societies developed from a general promiscuity (sexual interactions with changing partners or with multiple simultaneous partners) to matriarchy and then to patriarchy. Heinrich Zimmer's (The Matriarchy of the Picts and Scots) of 1894 argued for the existence of a matriarchy in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The evidence was British Celtic sagas about great queens and warrior maidens. The contents of these sagas were falsely presented related to the reality of the relationship between the sexes. In 1938 in his work (The Position of the Woman among the Celts and the problem of the Celtic Matriarchy), Josef Weisweiler pointed out the misinterpretation: The feminist author Heide Göttner-Abendroth assumes a Celtic matriarchy in (1980), but its existence remains unsubstantiated. Marion Zimmer Bradley depicted a matriarchal reinterpretation of the stories of King Arthur, Lancelot and the Holy Grail in The Mists of Avalon (1987), which were dominated by the female characters. She employed the contrast between the Celtic matriarchal culture and the Christian patriarchy as a theme of her work. Ingeborg Clarus attempted in her book (1991) to reduce the Celtic sagas of Britain to a battle between the sexes, as part of her theory about the replacement of a matriarchy by a patriarchy. She thus continues the evolutionary theories of the 19th century. She calls matriarchy the "Pre-Celtic heritage of Ireland", and she claims that the transition to patriarchy took place in the 1st century AD in the time of King Conchobar mac Nessa of Ulster. Matrilineality Matrilineality (the transmission of property through the female line) is not attested for the Celts either. In a matrilineal society, children are related only to the family of the mother not to the family of the father. A situation like that among the Picts, where, according to some accounts, kingship was inherited through the maternal line, but not inherited by the women themselves, The Irish clan (, compare with the Old High German word , 'friend') was patrilineal and the relatives of the mother had only a few rights and duties relating to the children. Thus they received only a seventh of the weregild if a child was killed and the male relatives had a duty to seek vengeance for the deed. Describing the Celtic expansion into southern and southeastern Europe around 600 BC, Livy claims that the two war leaders Bellovesus and Segovesus elected by the army were the sons of the sister of Ambicatus, king of the Bituriges. Here perhaps matrilineality could be a reason for the selection of these leaders, rather than the king's own sons, but other reasons cannot be ruled out, even if the story is not fictional. Among the Iberian, Gallaeci, women had an important role in the family and the clan, despite the importance of men as warriors, indicated by frequent matrilineal succession among them. Legal position Nearly all of the following legal matters seem to have been similar, with some regional variation, both on the mainland and in the British Isles. General legal position General legal equality – not just equality between men and women – was unusual among the Celts; it was only a possibility within social classes, which were themselves gender-defined. Celtic women were originally not allowed to serve as legal witnesses and could not conclude contracts with the assistance of a man. In the law and proverb collections Críth Gablach ('The split cow') and Bretha Crólige ('Decisions concerning blood guilt'), the wergeld was specified exactly for men and women of different social classes and the compensation for women (or their heirs in the event of their death) was significantly smaller, often half the cost for a man of the same class. Marriage law In British Celtic law, women had in many respects (for instance marriage law) a better position than Greek and Roman women. According to Irish and Welsh law, attested from the Early Middle Ages, a woman was always under the authority of a man, first her father, then her husband, and, if she was widowed, her son. She could not normally give away or pass on her property without their agreement. Her marriage was arranged by her male relatives, divorce and polygyny (the marriage of one man to several women) were controlled by specific rules. Polyandry (the marriage of one woman to several men) was unusual, although some Celtologists conclude that it sometimes occurred from the Irish saga Longas mac nUislenn (The Exile of the Sons of Uislius). Caesar provides an example of the subordinate position of women: according to him, men had the power of life and death over their wives, as they did over their children, in a similar manner to the Roman pater familias. If the head of a high ranking family died, his relatives would gather and interrogate the wives as well as the slaves, when the death seemed suspicious. Should they consider their suspicions to be correct, they would burn the wives, after torturing them in every possible way. However, he also describes the financial role of the wives as remarkably self-sufficient. Caesar also says that among the Britons, up to a dozen men (father, sons and brothers) could jointly possess their women. The resulting children would be assigned to whichever man was willing to marry the woman. Today this is seen as a common cliche of ancient barbarian ethnography and political propaganda intended by Caesar to provide a moral justification for his campaigns. In general, monogamy was common. Having several legal wives was limited to the higher social classes. Since marriage was seen as a normal agreement between two people (, 'agreement of two'), it could be dissolved by both partners. A "temporary marriage" was also common. The position of the wife (Irish: , 'first of the household', or , 'chief woman') was determined by the size of the dowry she brought with her. There were three kinds of marriage: that in which the woman brought more than the man, that in which both brought about equal amounts and finally that in which the woman brought less. If the husband wished to carry out a clearly unwise transaction, the wife possessed a sort of veto power. In a divorce, the wife usually had full control over her dowry. The concubine (Irish: , cf. Latin , 'adultress') had much less power and was subordinate to the main wife. She had a legal duty (Lóg n-enech) to assist the first wife in case of illness and could be harassed and injured by her with impunity for the first three days after her marriage, with only very restricted rights of self-defence (pulling hair, scratching and punching back). After these three days, the ordinary punishments would apply to both in the event of injury or murder. Adultery by the wife, unlike adultery by the husband, could not be atoned for with a fine. A divorce in the case of adultery could only occur with the agreement of both parties and the wife was not permitted to seek one so long as her husband maintained intimate relations with her. If she was pregnant with her husband's child, she could not have intercourse with other men before the birth of the child, even if thrown out by him. These rules were binding for Celtic noblewomen, but they may have been less strictly binding on the lower classes. In Wales, the wife was allowed to leave her husband if he committed adultery three times, if he was impotent, and if he had bad halitosis taking with her the property which she had brought into the marriage or acquired during it. A rape had to be atoned for by the culprit by handing over the sort of gifts customarily given at a wedding and paying a fine since it was considered a form of "temporary" marital tie. Inheritance law The inheritance law of the British Celts disadvantaged women, especially daughters, in similar ways to marriage law. Only if the inheritance came from the mother or if the daughters originated from the last marriage of a man and the sons from an earlier marriage, were the two genders treated the same. After that, the inheritance returned to her paternal relatives (Fine). This institution of the 'inheriting-daughter' has a parallel in ancient Indian law, in which a father without sons could designate his daughter as a (son-like daughter). In Gallic law, widows (old Irish: , Welsh: , Cornish , Breton: ) inherited the entire property left behind by their husband. They could dispose of this property freely, unlike in Old Irish law, in which the widow was under the control of her sons. Only a right to make gifts and a restricted power of sale were granted to her, which was called the ('female householder'). The right to make gifts was restricted to transfers within the family. Welsh women only received the right to inherit under king Henry II of England (1133–1189). Cáin Adomnáin The abbot and saint Adomnan of Iona produced the legal work Cáin Adomnáin (The Canon of Adomnan) or Lex Innocentium (The law of the innocents) on the property of women (especially mothers) and children. He describes the condition of women up till that point, with self-aware exaggeration, as (enslavement), in order to highlight the importance of his own work. Adomnan reports that a woman who: According to legend, an experience of Adomnan and his mother had been the impetus for this legal text. The view of a slain Celtic woman and her child—"mother's blood and milk streaming over"—on the battlefield, shocked his mother so much that she forced her son, by fasting, to compose this law book and to present it to the princes. Sexuality In the Trencheng Breth Féne (The Triad of Irish Verdicts, a collection of writings dating from the 14th to the 18th centuries) the three female virtues were listed as virginity before marriage, willingness to suffer, and industriousness in caring for her husband and children. The ancient authors regularly describe Celtic women as large, crafty, brave and beautiful. Diodorus and Suetonius, in particular, describe the sexual permissiveness of Celtic women. According to Suetonius, Caesar spent a lot of money on sexual experiences in Gaul. His legionnaires sang in the triumph that he had seduced a horde of Gallic women, calling him a "bald whoremonger". Celtic women were described as fertile, prolific and good breastfeeders. These are all clichés of the Greeks and Romans about barbarian peoples. Gerald of Wales describes how the Irish are "the most jealous people in the world", while the Welsh lacked this jealousy and among them guest-friendship-prostitution was common. In the Irish saga of Conchobar mac Nessa, the king is said to have the right to the first night with any marriageable woman and the right to sleep with the wife of anyone who hosted him. This is called the Geis of the king. Whether this right actually existed and was exercised by the Celts is not attested outside the sagas. In the saga Immram Curaig Maíle Dúin (The Sea Voyage of Maíle Dúin), the conception of the main character occurs when a random traveller sleeps with a nun of a cloister. She says before this "our act is not beneficial if this is finally the time when I conceive!" The suggestion that Irish women used this knowledge for birth control, sometimes drawn from this is questionable. Large numbers of children are mentioned among the Celts by the ancient authors. The statement of Gerald of Wales that incest had a pervasive presence in the British Isles is false according to modern scholars, since he complains only that a man can marry his cousins in the fifth, fourth and third degrees. Incest played a key role in British Celtic myth, such as in Tochmarc Étaíne ('The Courting of Étaín') as in other ancient cultures (like Ancient Egypt or the pair of Zeus and Hera in classical Greece). In actual social life, however, a notable meaning cannot be found. Health Palaeopathological research based on bone samples and, in the best-case scenario, on mummified corpses indicates illnesses found among the ancient Celts. Diseases like sinusitis, meningitis and dental caries leave typical traces. Growth disorders and vitamin deficiencies can be detected from the long bones. Coproliths (fossilised fecal matter) indicate severe worm infections. In total, the data indicates a society which, as a result of poor hygiene and diet, suffered from weak immune systems and a high rate of illness. This is even more marked in women than in men and was quite normal for people of this time and area. Among Celtic women degenerative damage to the joints and spinal column were particularly notable on account of the amount of heavy lifting they did. Trauma from violence was more common among men. Differences as a result of social position are not visible. The "Lady of Vix" was a young Celtic woman of exceptionally high standing, who suffered from pituitary adenoma and otitis media. Skeletal finds in graves provide the following age statistics for the ancient Celts: the average age at death was 35 years old; 38 for men and 31 for women. Appearance of Celtic women Clothing On account of the poor survival rate of materials (cloth, leather) used for clothing, there is only a little archaeological evidence; contemporary images are rare. The descriptions of ancient authors are rather generalistic; only Diodorus transmits something more detailed. According to his report, normal clothing of Celtic men and women was made from very colourful cloth, often with a gold-embroidered outer layer and held together with golden fibulae. The women's tunic was longer than the men's; a leather or metal belt (sometimes a chain) was tied around the waist. The regional variation in fashion (as well as differences based on age and class) were more complex than the simple tunic. The boldly patterned dresses seen on vases from Sopron in Pannonia were cut like a kind of knee-length maternity dress from stiff material with bells and fringes attached. Tight-waisted skirts with bells in the shape of a crinoline are also depicted. An overdress with a V-shaped cut which was fixed at the shoulders with fibulae was found in Noricum. The chain around the waist had hooks for length adjustments, the leftover chain was hung on a chain-link in a loop. The links of this chain-belt could be round, figure-8 shaped, with cross-shaped or flat intermediate links, doubled, tripled, or more with enamel inlays (see Blood enamel). The so-called Norican-Pannonian belt of Roman times was decorated with open-worked fittings. A pouch was often hung from the belt on the right side. In the British Isles during the Iron Age, ring-headed pins were often used in place of fibulae on dresses and for fixing hairdos in place. This is demonstrated by the different positions the needles are found in burials. On a first century AD Celtic gravestone from , a girl is depicted in Norican clothing. It consists of a straight under-dress (Peplos) which reaches to the ankles, a baggy overdress reaching to the knees, which is fastened at the shoulders with large fibulae. A belt with two ribbons hanging down at the front holds the dress in place. In her right hand she holds a basket, in her left hand she holds a mirror up before her face. On her feet there are pointed shoes. Her hair is mostly straight, but coiffed at the back. In everyday life, Celtic women wore wooden or leather sandals with small straps (Latin: , 'Gallic shoe'). Bound shoes made from a single piece of tanned leather tied together around the ankle are often only detectable in graves from the metal eyelets and fasteners which survive around the feet. Three mannequins with reconstructed Helvetic/Celtic women's outfits were displayed in the exhibition (Gold of the Helvetii: Celtic Treasures from Switzerland) at the Landesmuseum Zürich in 1991. Jewelry Gold jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, rings) were worn as symbols of social class and were often of high craftsmanship and artistic quality. Girls of the Hallstatt and early La Tène culture wore amber chains and amulets as individual chains or multiple string colliers; the colliers had up to nine strings and over a hundred amber beads. Amulets were both decoration and apotropaic charms. They were probably added to the tombs of women who were killed violently, to protect the living. Torcs (neck rings) are found in graves of important men and women up to about 350 BC, after that they are usually restricted to male graves. The "Lady" from the tomb at Vix had a torc, placed on her lap, as a grave good; the woman in the tomb at Reinheim wore one around her neck. Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni in Britain around 60 BC is described as wearing a torc, which might reflect her exceptional circumstances as a war leader or be an embellishment of the Roman chronicler. The Hallstatt-period limestone statue of a Celtic woman found at the entrance to the tomb of the "Lady of Vix" wears a torc and sits on a throne. Head coverings and hairstyles Since almost no depictions of women survive from the La Tène period, archaeologists must make do with Roman provincial images. In these, women are seldom depicted bare-headed, so that more is known about headcoverings than about hairstyles. Celtic women of this time wore winged caps, felt caps in the shape of upturned cones with veils, cylinder-shaped fur caps, bronze tiaras or circlets. The modius cap was a stiff cap shaped like an inverted cone which was especially common in the first century AD around Virunum. It was worn with a veil and rich decoration and indicated women of the upper class. The veil worn over the cap was often so long that it could cover the entire body. In north Pannonia at the same time, women wore a fur cap, with a spiked brim, a veil cap similar to the Norican one and in later times a turban-like head covering with a veil. Among the Celtiberian women a structure, which consisted of a choker with rods extending up over the head and a veil stretched over the top for shade, was fashionable. The hair was often shaved above the oiled forehead. In the Hallstatt period, hairnets have been found; in some accounts, individual emphasised braids (up to three) are mentioned, but most women tied their hair back in a braid. The hair was often coloured red or blonde. The seer Fedelm in Irish sagas is described with three braids, two tied around her head and one hanging from the back of her head down to her calves. Unlike married women, unmarried women usually wore the hair untied and without a headcovering. Hair needles for fixing caps and hairdos in place are common grave finds from the late Hallstatt period. They have ring-shaped heads which could be richly decorated in some regions. From the La Tène period, such needles are only rarely found. Women in Celtic mythology In the mainland Celtic area, a great number of goddesses are known; on account of the lack of political unity of the Celts, they seem to have been regional deities. Unlike the Greeks and Romans, the Celts never had a single pantheon, although the Romans attempted to connect them up on the basis of their functions, through the Interpretatio Romana. The mother goddesses which had great importance in Celtic religion were also united in this way under the names Matres and Matronae. In the mythology of the British Celts almost no goddesses are present. The female figures named in the local Irish sagas mostly derive from female figures of the historically unattested migrations period, which are recounted in the Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of the Taking of Ireland). They were originally described as mythic people, transformed into deities and later into demons after their respective expulsions by the following wave of invaders - mostly these resided in the Celtic Otherworld. An enumeration of the most important female figures of history (not exclusively Irish) is found in the account of the poet Gilla Mo-Dutu Ó Caiside which is known as the Banshenchas (contains 1147 entries). A similar development occurred in Britain, especially in Wales. Very often these mythic female figures embody sovereignty over the land or the land itself (see hieros gamos). Examples from Ireland include Macha and Medb, from Wales, Rhiannon. The dispute between Medb and her husband Ailill mac Máta over the wealth brought into the marriage by each of them is the indirect trigger for the Táin Bó Cuailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley). All kinds of legal issues in marriage are described in the Celtic myths: The marriage of a sister by her brother (Branwen ferch Llŷr, 'Branwen, daughter of Llŷr'), the marriage of a widowed mother by her son (Manawydan fab Llŷr, 'Manawydan, the son of Llŷr'), rape and divorce (Math fab Mathonwy, 'Math, the son of Mathonwy'), marriage of a daughter against the will of her father (Culhwch and Olwen). If the girl objected to the marriage, the only way out is self-help: the imposition of almost impossible tasks on the prospective groom (Tochmarc Emire, 'The Wooing of Emer'); escape with a husband of her own choosing (The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne), or suicide (Longas mac nUislenn, 'The Exile of the son of Uislius'). The already mentioned Queen of Connacht, Medb, broke with all conventions and selected her own husbands, whom she later repudiated when she tired of them. To each warrior from whom she desired support, she promised the 'Favour of her leg' (Lebor Gabála Érenn) and even marriage to her daughter Findabair - when Findabair discovers this, she takes her own life out of shame. Other female figures from Celtic mythology include the weather witch Cailleach (Irish for 'nun,' 'witch,' 'the veiled' or 'old woman') of Scotland and Ireland, the Corrigan of Brittany who are beautiful seductresses, the Irish Banshee (woman of the Otherworld) who appears before important deaths, the Scottish warrior women Scáthach, Uathach and Aoife. The Sheela-na-Gig was a common grotesque sculpture which presented an exaggerated vulva. Her significance - ultimately as a fertility symbol - is debated and her dating is uncertain. Possibly the display of the vulva was meant to have an apotropaic power, as in the Irish legend in which the women of Ulster led by Mugain the wife of King Conchobar mac Nessa unveil their breasts and vulvae in order to prevent the destruction of Emain Macha by the raging Cú Chulainn. References Bibliography Josef Weisweiler: "Die Stellung der Frau bei den Kelten und das Problem des "keltischen Mutterrechts"." Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, Vol. 21, 1938. General works on the Celts Helmut Birkhan: Kelten. Versuch einer Gesamtdarstellung ihrer Kultur. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 1997, . Helmut Birkhan: Kelten. Bilder ihrer Kultur. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 1999, . Alexander Demandt: Die Kelten. C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, München 1998, . Arnulf Krause: Die Welt der Kelten, 2nd Edition 2007, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt/New York, . Bernhard Maier: Geschichte und Kultur der Kelten. C. H. Beck, München 2012, . Wolfgang Meid: Die Kelten. Reclam, Stuttgart 2007, . Particular aspects of Celtic culture Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. Praesens Verlag, Wien 2009, . David Rankin: Celts and the Classic World. Croom Helm Ltd. 1987, Paperback 1996 by Routledge, London/New York, . Ingeborg Clarus: Keltische Mythen. Der Mensch und seine Anderswelt. Walter Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991 (Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2000, 2nd edition) . Reference works on the Celts Sylvia und Paul F. Botheroyd: Lexikon der keltischen Mythologie. Tosa Verlag, Wien 2004. Bernhard Maier: Lexikon der keltischen Religion und Kultur. Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, . Susanne Sievers/Otto Helmut Urban/Peter C. Ramsl: Lexikon zur Keltischen Archäologie. A–K und L–Z. Mitteilungen der prähistorischen Kommission im Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2012, . Matriarchal religion Heide Göttner-Abendroth: Die Göttin und ihr Heros. Die matriarchalen Religionen in Mythen, Märchen, Dichtung, München 1980, last edition Verlag Frauenoffensive, 1993, . External links Lisa Bitel: Land of Women: Tales of Sex and Gender from Early Ireland. Cornell University Press, Ithaca N.Y. 1998, . Women by period

Polyethnicity

Polyethnicity, also known as pluri-ethnicity or multi-ethnicity, refers to specific cultural phenomena that are characterized by social proximity and mutual interaction of people from different ethnic backgrounds, within a country or other specific geographic region. Same terms may also relate to the ability and willingness of individuals to identify themselves with multiple ethnicities. It occurs when multiple ethnicities inhabit a given area, specifically through means of immigration, intermarriage, trade, conquest and post-war land-divisions. This has had many political and social implications on countries and regions. Many, if not all, countries have some degree of polyethnicity, with countries like Nigeria and Canada having high levels and countries like Japan and Poland having very low levels (and more specifically, a sense of homogeneity). The amount of polyethnicity prevalent in some Western countries has spurred some arguments against it, which include a belief that it leads to the weakening of each society's strengths, and also a belief that political-ethnic issues in countries with polyethnic populations are better handled with different laws for certain ethnicities. Conceptual history In 1985, Canadian historian William H. McNeill gave a series of three lectures on polyethnicity in ancient and modern cultures at the University of Toronto. The main thesis throughout his lectures was the argument that it has been the cultural norm for societies to be composed of different ethnic groups. McNeill argued that the ideal of homogeneous societies may have grown between 1750 and 1920 in Western Europe because of the growth in the belief in a single nationalistic base for the political organization of society. McNeill believed that during World War I, the desire for homogeneous nations began to weaken. Impact on politics Polyethnicity divides nations, complicating the politics as local and national governments attempt to satisfy all ethnic groups. Many politicians in countries attempt to find the balance between ethnic identities within their country and the identity of the nation as a whole. Nationalism also plays a large part in these political debates, as cultural pluralism and consociationalism are the democratic alternatives to nationalism for the polyethnic state. The idea of nationalism being social instead of ethnic entails a variety of culture, a shared sense of identity and a community not based on descent. Culturally-plural states vary constitutionally between a decentralized and unitary state (such as the United Kingdom) and a federal state (such as Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada). Ethnic parties in these polyethnic regions are not anti-state but instead seek maximum power within this state. Many polyethnic countries face that dilemma with their policy decisions. The following nations and regions are just a few specific examples of this dilemma and its effects: United States The United States is a nation founded by different ethnicities frequently described as coming together in a "melting pot," a term used to emphasize the degree to which constituent groups influence and are influenced by each other, or a "salad bowl," a term more recently coined in contrast to the "melting pot" metaphor and emphasizing those groups' retention of fundamentally distinct identities despite their proximity to each other and their influence on the overall culture that all of those groups inhabit. A controversial political issue in recent years has been the question of bilingualism. Many immigrants have come from Hispanic America, who are native Spanish speakers, in the past centuries and have become a significant minority and even a majority in many areas of the Southwest. In New Mexico the Spanish speaking population exceeds 40%. Disputes have emerged over language policy, since a sizeable part of the population, and in many areas the majority of the population, speak Spanish as a native language. The biggest debates are over bilingual education for language minority students, the availability of non-English ballots and election materials and whether or not English is the official language. It has evolved into an ethnic conflict between the pluralists who support bilingualism and linguistic access and the assimilationists who strongly oppose this and lead the official English movement. The United States does not have an official language, but English is the de facto national language and is spoken by the overwhelming majority of the country's population. Canada Canada has had many political debates between the French speakers and English speakers, particularly in the province of Quebec. Canada holds both French and English as official languages. The politics in Quebec are largely defined by nationalism as French Québécois wish to gain independence from Canada as a whole, based on ethnic and linguistic boundaries. The main separatist party, Parti Québécois, attempted to gain sovereignty twice (once in 1980 and again in 1995) and failed by a narrow margin of 1.2% in 1995. Since then, in order to remain united, Canada granted Quebec statut particulier, recognizing Quebec as a nation within the united nation of Canada. Belgium The divide between the Dutch-speaking north (Flanders) and the French-speaking South (Wallonia) has caused the parliamentary democracy to become ethnically polarized. Though an equal number of seats in the Chamber of Representatives are prescribed to the Flemish and Walloons, Belgian political parties have all divided into two ideologically identical but linguistically and ethnically different parties. The political crisis has grown so bad in recent years that the partition of Belgium has been feared. Ethiopia Ethiopia is a polyethnic nation consisting of 80 different ethnic groups and 84 indigenous languages. The diverse population and the rural areas throughout the nation made it nearly impossible to create a strong centralized state, but it was eventually accomplished through political evolution. Prior to 1974, nationalism was discussed only within radical student groups, but by the late 20th century, the issue had come to the forefront of political debate. Ethiopia was forced to modernize their political system to properly handle nationalism debates. The Derg military government took control with a Marxist–Leninist ideology, urging self-determination and rejecting compromise over any nationality issues. In the 1980s, Ethiopia suffered a series of famines and, after the Soviet Union broke apart, lost its aid from the Soviets; the Derg government later collapsed. Eventually, Ethiopia restabilized and adopted a modern political system that models a federal parliamentary republic. It was still impossible to create a central government holding all power and so the central government was torn. It now presides over ethnically-based regional states, and each ethnic state is granted the right to establish its own government with democracy. Spain In Spain from 1808 to 1814, the Spanish War of Independence took place in a multicultural Spain. Spain, at the time, was then under the control of King Joseph Bonaparte, who was Napoleon Bonaparte's brother. Because they were under the control of French rule, the Spanish formed coalitions of ethnic groups to reclaim their own political representation to replace the French political system, which had lost power. Southeast Asia In Southeast Asia the continental area (Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) generally practices Theravada or Mahayana Buddhism. Most of insular Southeast Asia (namely Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia) practices mostly Sunni Islam. The rest of the insular region (Philippines and East Timor) practices mostly Roman Catholic Christianity and Singapore practises mostly Mahayana Buddhism. Significant long-distance labor migration that occurred during the late 19th century and the early 20th century provided many different types of ethnic diversity. Relations between the indigenous population of the region arose from regional variations of cultural and linguistic groups. Immigrant minorities, especially the Chinese, then developed as well. Although there were extreme political differences for each minority and religion, they were still legitimate members of political communities, and there has been a significant amount of unity throughout history. This differs from both nearby East and South Asia. Impact on society Polyethnicity, over time, can change the way societies practice cultural norms. Marriage An increase in intermarriage in the United States has led to the blurring of ethnic lines. Anti-miscegenation laws (laws banning interracial marriages) were abolished in the United States in 1967 and now it is estimated that one-fifth of the population in the United States by 2050 will be part of the polyethnic population. In 2000, self-identified Multiracial Americans numbered 6.8 million or 2.4% of the population. While the number of interethnic marriages is on the rise, there are certain ethnic groups that have been found more likely to become polyethnic and recognize themselves with more than one ethnic background. Bhavani Arabandi states in his article on polyethnicity that:Asians and Latinos have much higher rates of interethnic marriages than do blacks, and they are more likely to report polyethnicity than blacks who more often claim a single ethnicity and racial identity. This is the case, the authors [Lee, J & Bean, F.D] argue, because blacks have a "legacy of slavery," a history of discrimination, and have been victimized by the "one-drop rule" (where having any black blood automatically labeled one as black) in the US. Military Presently, most armed forces are composed of people from different ethnic backgrounds. They are considered to be polyethnic due to the differences in race, ethnicity, language or background. While there are many examples of polyethnic forces, the most prominent are among the largest armed forces in the world, including those of the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China. Polyethnic armed forces are not a new phenomenon since multi-ethnic forces existed during the Roman Empire, the Middle Eastern Empires, and even the Mongol Khans. The US military was one of the first modern militaries to begin ethnic integration, by order of President Harry Truman in 1945. Criticisms There are also arguments against polyethnicity, as well as the assimilation of ethnicities in polyethnic regions. Wilmot Robertson in The Ethnostate and Dennis L. Thomson in The Political Demands of Isolated Indian Bands in British Columbia, argue for some level of separatism. In The Ethnostate, Robertson declares polyethnicity as an ideal that only lessens each culture. He believes that, within a polyethnic culture, the nation or region as a whole is less capable of cultural culmination than each of the individual ethnicities that make it up. Essentially, polyethnicity promotes the dilution of ethnicity and thus hinders each ethnicity in all aspects of culture. In The Political Demands of Isolated Indian Bands in British Columbia, Thomson points out the benefits in some level (albeit small) of separatist policies. He argues the benefits of allowing ethnic groups, like the Amish and the Hutterites in the United States and Canada or the Sami in Norway, to live on the edges of governance. These are ethnic groups that would prefer to retain their ethnic identity and thus prefer separatist policies for themselves, as they do not require them to conform to policies for all ethnicities of the nation. See also Notes References Ethnicity Multiculturalism

Paleoethnobotany

Paleoethnobotany (also spelled palaeoethnobotany), or archaeobotany, is the study of past human-plant interactions through the recovery and analysis of ancient plant remains. Both terms are synonymous, though paleoethnobotany (from the Greek words palaios [παλαιός] meaning ancient, ethnos [έθνος] meaning race or ethnicity, and votano [βότανο] meaning plants) is generally used in North America and acknowledges the contribution that ethnographic studies have made towards our current understanding of ancient plant exploitation practices, while the term archaeobotany (from the Greek words archaios [αρχαίος] meaning ancient and votano) is preferred in Europe and emphasizes the discipline's role within archaeology. As a field of study, paleoethnobotany is a subfield of environmental archaeology. It involves the investigation of both ancient environments and human activities related to those environments, as well as an understanding of how the two co-evolved. Plant remains recovered from ancient sediments within the landscape or at archaeological sites serve as the primary evidence for various research avenues within paleoethnobotany, such as the origins of plant domestication, the development of agriculture, paleoenvironmental reconstructions, subsistence strategies, paleodiets, economic structures, and more. Paleoethnobotanical studies are divided into two categories: those concerning the Old World (Eurasia and Africa) and those that pertain to the New World (the Americas). While this division has an inherent geographical distinction to it, it also reflects the differences in the flora of the two separate areas. For example, maize only occurs in the New World, while olives only occur in the Old World. Within this broad division, paleoethnobotanists tend to further focus their studies on specific regions, such as the Near East or the Mediterranean, since regional differences in the types of recovered plant remains also exist. Macrobotanical vs. microbotanical remains Plant remains recovered from ancient sediments or archaeological sites are generally referred to as either ‘macrobotanicals’ or ‘microbotanicals.’ Macrobotanical remains are vegetative parts of plants, such as seeds, leaves, stems and chaff, as well as wood and charcoal that can either be observed with the naked eye or the with the use of a low-powered microscope. Microbotanical remains consist of microscopic parts or components of plants, such as pollen grains, phytoliths and starch granules, that require the use of a high-powered microscope in order to see them. The study of seeds, wood/charcoal, pollen, phytoliths and starches all require separate training, as slightly different techniques are employed for their processing and analysis. Paleoethnobotanists generally specialize in the study of a single type of macrobotanical or microbotanical remain, though they are familiar with the study of other types and can sometimes even specialize in more than one. History The state of Paleoethnobotany as a discipline today stems from a long history of development that spans more than two hundred years. Its current form is the product of steady progression by all aspects of the field, including methodology, analysis and research. Initial work The study of ancient plant remains began in the 19th century as a result of chance encounters with desiccated and waterlogged material at archaeological sites. In Europe, the first analyses of plant macrofossils were conducted by the botanist C. Kunth (1826) on desiccated remains from Egyptian tombs and O. Heer (1866) on waterlogged specimens from lakeside villages in Switzerland, after which point archaeological plant remains became of interest and continued to be periodically studied from different European countries until the mid-20th century. In North America, the first analysis of plant remains occurred slightly later and did not generate the same interest in this type of archaeological evidence until the 1930s when Gilmore (1931) and Jones (1936) analysed desiccated material from rock shelters in the American Southwest. All these early studies, in both Europe and North America, largely focused on the simple identification of the plant remains in order to produce a list of the recovered taxa. Establishment of the field During the 1950s and 1960s, Paleoethnobotany gained significant recognition as a field of archaeological research with two significant events: the publication of the Star Carr excavations in the UK and the recovery of plant material from archaeological sites in the Near East. Both convinced the archaeological community of the importance of studying plant remains by demonstrating their potential contribution to the discipline; the former produced a detailed paleoenvironmental reconstruction that was integral to the archaeological interpretation of the site and the latter yielded the first evidence for plant domestication, which allowed for a fuller understanding of the archaeological record. Thereafter, the recovery and analysis of plant remains received greater attention as a part of archaeological investigations. In 1968, the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP) was founded. Expansion and growth With the rise of Processual archaeology, the field of Paleoethnobotany began to grow significantly. The implementation in the 1970s of a new recovery method, called flotation, allowed archaeologists to begin systematically searching for plant macrofossils at every type of archaeological site. As a result, there was a sudden influx of material for archaeobotanical study, as carbonized and mineralized plant remains were becoming readily recovered from archaeological contexts. Increased emphasis on scientific analyses also renewed interest in the study of plant microbotanicals, such as phytoliths (1970s) and starches (1980s), while later advances in computational technology during the 1990s facilitated the application of software programs as tools for quantitative analysis. The 1980s and 1990s also saw the publication of several seminal volumes about Paleoethnobotany that demonstrated the sound theoretical framework in which the discipline operates. And finally, the popularization of Post-Processual archaeology in the 1990s, helped broaden the range of research topics addressed by paleoethnobotanists, for example 'food-related gender roles'. Current state of the field Paleoethnobotany is a discipline that is ever evolving, even up to the present day. Since the 1990s, the field has continued to gain a better understanding of the processes responsible for creating plant assemblages in the archaeological record and to refine its analytical and methodological approaches accordingly. For example, current studies have become much more interdisciplinary, utilizing various lines of investigation in order to gain a fuller picture of the past plant economies. Research avenues also continue to explore new topics pertaining to ancient human-plant interactions, such as the potential use of plant remains in relation to their mnemonic or sensory properties. Interest in plant remains surged in the 2000s alongside the improvement of stable isotope analysis and its application to archaeology, including the potential to illuminate the intensity of agricultural labor, resilience, and long-term social and economic changes. Archaeobotany had not been used extensively in Australia until recently. In 2018 a study of the Karnatukul site in the Little Sandy Desert of Western Australia showed evidence of continuous human habitation for around 50,000 years, by analysing wattle and other plant items. Modes of preservation As organic matter, plant remains generally decay over time due to microbial activity. In order to be recovered in the archaeological record, therefore, plant material must be subject to specific environmental conditions or cultural contexts that prevent their natural degradation. Plant macrofossils recovered as paleoenvironmental, or archaeological specimens result from four main modes of preservation: Carbonized (Charred): Plant remains can survive in the archaeological record when they have been converted into charcoal through exposure to fire under low-oxygen conditions. Charred organic material is more resistant to deterioration, since it is only susceptible to chemical breakdown, which takes a long time (Weiner 2010). Due to the essential use of fire for many anthropogenic activities, carbonized remains constitute the most common type of plant macrofossil recovered from archaeological sites. This mode of preservation, however, tends to be biased towards plant remains that come into direct contact with fire for cooking or fuel purposes, as well as those that are more robust, such as cereal grains and nut shells. Waterlogged: Preservation of plant material can also occur when it is deposited in permanently wet, anoxic conditions, because the absence of oxygen prohibits microbial activity. This mode of preservation can occur in deep archaeological features, such as wells, and in lakebed or riverbed sediments adjacent to settlements. A wide range of plant remains are usually preserved as waterlogged material, including seeds, fruit stones, nutshells, leaves, straw and other vegetative matter. Desiccated: Another mode by which plant material can be preserved is desiccation, which only occurs in very arid environments, such as deserts, where the absence of water limits decomposition of organic matter. Desiccated plant remains are a rarer recovery, but an incredibly important source of archaeological information, since all types of plant remains can survive, even very delicate vegetative attributes, such as onion skins and crocus stigmas (saffron), as well as woven textiles, bunches of flowers and entire fruits. Mineralized: Plant material can also preserve in the archaeological record when its soft organic tissues are completely replaced by inorganic minerals. There are two types of mineralization processes. The first, 'biomineralization,' occurs when certain plant remains, such as the fruits of Celtis sp. (hackberry) or nutlets of the Boraginaceae family, naturally produce increased amounts of calcium carbonate or silica throughout their growth, resulting in calcified or silicified specimens. The second, 'replacement mineralization,' occurs when plant remains absorb precipitating minerals present in the sediment or organic matter in which they are buried. This mode of preservation by mineralization only occurs under specific depositional conditions, usually involving a high presence of phosphate. Mineralized plant remains, therefore, are most commonly recovered from middens and latrine pits – contexts which often yield plant remains that have passed through the digestive track, such as spices, grape pips and fig seeds. The mineralization of plant material can also occur when remains are deposited alongside metal artefacts, especially those made of bronze or iron. In this circumstance, the soft organic tissues are replaced by the leaching of corrosion products that form over time on the metal objects. In addition to the above-mentioned modes of preservation, plant remains can also be occasionally preserved in a frozen state or as impressions. The former occurs quite rarely, but a famous example comes from Ötzi, the 5,500 year old mummy found frozen in the French Alps, whose stomach contents revealed the plant and meat components of his last meal. The latter occurs more regularly, though plant impressions do not actually preserve the macrobotanical remains themselves, but rather their negative imprints in pliable materials like clay, mudbrick or plaster. Impressions often result from the deliberate employment of plant material for decorative or technological purposes (such as the use of leaves to create patterning on ceramics or the use of chaff as temper in the construction of mudbricks), however, they can also derive from accidental inclusions. Identification of plant impressions is achieved by creating a silicone cast of the imprints and studying them under the microscope. Recovery methods In order to study ancient plant macrobotanical material, Paleoethnobotanists employ a variety of recovery strategies that involve different sampling and processing techniques depending on the kind of research questions they are addressing, the type of plant macrofossils they are expecting to recover and the location from which they are taking samples. Sampling In general, there are four different types of sampling methods that can be used for the recovery of plant macrofossils from an archaeological site: Full Coverage sampling: involves taking at least one sample from all contexts and features Judgement sampling: entails the sampling of only areas and features most likely to yield ancient plant remains, such as a hearth Random sampling: consists of taking random samples either arbitrarily or via a grid system Systematic sampling: involves taking samples at set intervals during excavation Each sampling method has its own pros and cons and for this reason, paleoethnobotanists sometimes implement more than one sampling method at a single site. In general, Systematic or Full Coverage sampling is always recommended whenever possible. The practicalities of excavation, however, and/or the type of archaeological site under investigation sometimes limit their use and Judgment sampling tends to occur more often than not. Aside from sampling methods, there are also different types of samples that can be collected, for which the standard, recommended sample size is ~20L for dry sites and 1-5L for waterlogged sites. Point/Spot samples: consist of sediment collected only from a particular location Pinch samples: consist of small amounts of sediment that are collected from across the whole context and combined in one bag Column samples: consist of sediment collected from the different stratigraphic layers of a column of sediment that was deliberately left unexcavated These different types of samples again serve different research aims. For example, Point/Spot samples can reveal the spatial differentiation of food-related activities, Pinch samples are representative of all activities associated with a specific context, and Column samples can show change or variation or time. The sampling methods and types of samples used for the recovery of microbotanical remains (namely, pollen, phytoliths, and starches) follows virtually the same practices as outline above, with only some minor differences. First, the required sample size is much smaller: ~50g (a couple of tablespoons) of sediment for each type of microfossil analysis. Secondly, artefacts, such as stone tools and ceramics, can also be sampled for microbotanicals. And third, control samples from unexcavated areas in and around the site should always be collected for analytical purposes. Processing There are several different techniques for the processing of sediment samples. The technique a paleoethnobotanist chooses depends entirely upon the type of plant macrobotanical remains they expect to recover. Dry Screening involves pouring sediment samples through a nest of sieves, usually ranging from 5–0.5 mm. This processing technique is often employed as a means of recovering desiccated plant remains, since the use of water can weaken or damage this type of macrofossil and even accelerate its decomposition. Wet Screening is most often used for waterlogged contexts. It follows the same basic principle as dry screening, expect water is gently sprayed onto the sediment once it has been pour into the nest of sieves in order to help it break up and pass down through the various mesh sizes. The Wash-Over technique was developed in the UK as an effective way of processing waterlogged samples. The sediment is poured into a bucket with water and gently agitated by hand. When the sediment has effectively broken up and the organic matter is suspended, all the contents from the bucket, expect for the heavy inorganic matter at the bottom, is carefully poured out onto a 300μ mesh. The bucket is then emptied and the organic matter carefully rinsed from the mesh back into the bucket. More water is added before the contents are again poured out through a nest of sieves. Flotation is the most common processing technique employed for the recovery of carbonized plant remains. It uses water as a mechanism for separating charred and organic material from the sediment matrix, by capitalizing on their buoyancy properties.  When a sediment sample is slowly added to agitated water, the stones, sand, shells and other heavy material within the sediment sink to the bottom (heavy fraction or heavy residue), while the charred and organic material, which is less dense, float to the surface (light fraction or flot). This floating material can either be scooped off or spilled over into a fine-mesh sieve (usually ~300 μm). Both the heavy and light fractions are then left to dry before being examined for archaeological remains. Plant macrofossils are mostly contained within the light fraction, though some denser specimens, such as pulses or mineralized grape endosperms, are also sometimes found in the heavy fraction. Thus, each fraction must be sorted to extract all plant material. A microscope is used in order to aid the sorting of the light fractions, while heavy fractions are sorted with the naked eye. Flotation can be undertaken manually with buckets or by machine-assistance, which circulates the water through a series of tanks by means of a pump. Small-scale, manual flotation can also be used in the laboratory on waterlogged samples. Microbotanical remains (namely, pollen, phytoliths and starches) require completely different processing procedures in order to extract specimens from the sediment matrix. These procedures can be quite expensive, as they involve various chemical solutions, and are always carried out in the laboratory. Analysis Analysis is the key step in paleoethnobotanical studies that makes the interpretation of ancient plant remains possible. The quality of identifications and the use of different quantification methods are essential factors that influence the depth and breadth of interpretative results. Identification Plant macrofossils are analyzed under a low-powered stereomicroscope. The morphological features of different specimens, such as size, shape and surface decoration, are compared with images of modern plant material in identification literature, such as seed atlases, as well as real examples of modern plant material from reference collections, in order to make identifications. Based on the type of macrofossils and their level of preservation, identifications are made to various taxonomic levels, mostly family, genus and species. These taxonomic levels reflect varying degrees of identification specificity: families comprise big groups of similar type plants; genera make up smaller groups of more closely related plants within each family, and species consist of the different individual plants within each genus. Poor preservation, however, may require the creation of broader identification categories, such as ‘nutshell’ or ‘cereal grain’, while extremely good preservation and/or the application of analytical technology, such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) or Morphometric Analysis, may allow even more precise identification down to subspecies or variety level Desiccated and waterlogged macrofossils often have a very similar appearance with modern plant material, since their modes of preservation do not directly affect the remains. As a result, fragile seed features, such as anthers or wings, and occasionally even color, can be preserved, allowing for very precise identifications of this material. The high temperatures involved in the carbonization of plant remains, however, can sometimes cause the damage to or loss of plant macrofossil features. The analysis of charred plant material, therefore, often includes several family- or genus-level identifications, as well as some specimen categories. Mineralized plant macrofossils can range in preservation from detailed copies to rough casts depending on depositional conditions and the kind of replacing mineral. This type of macrofossil can easily be mistaken for stones by the untrained eye. Microbotanical remains follow the same identification principles, but require a high-powered (greater magnification) microscope with transmitted or polarized lighting. Starch and phytolith identifications are also subject to limitations, in terms of taxonomical specificity, based on the state of current reference material for comparison and considerable overlap in specimen morphologies. Quantification After identification, paleoethnobotanists provide absolute counts for all plant macrofossils recovered in each individual sample. These counts constitute the raw analytical data and serve as the basis for any further quantitative methods that may be applied. Initially, paleoethnobotanical studies mostly involved a qualitative assessment of the plant remains at an archaeological site (presence and absence), but the application of simple statistical methods (non-multivariate) followed shortly thereafter. The use of more complex statistics (multivariate), however, is a more recent development. In general, simple statistics allow for observations concerning specimen values across space and over time, while more complex statistics facilitate the recognition of patterning within an assemblage, as well as the presentation of large datasets. The application of different statistical techniques depends on the quantity of material available. Complex statistics require the recovery of a large number of specimens (usually around 150 from each sample involved in this type of quantitative analysis), whereas simple statistics can be applied regardless of the amount of recovered specimens – though obviously, the more specimens, the more effective the results. The quantification of microbotanical remains differs slightly from that of macrobotanical remains, mostly due to the high numbers of microbotanical specimens that are usually present in samples. As a result, relative/percentage occurrence sums are usually employed in the quantification of microbotanical remains instead of absolute taxa counts. Research results The work done in Paleoethnobotany is constantly furthering over understanding of ancient plant exploitation practices. The results are disseminated in digital archives, archaeological excavation reports and at academic conferences, as well as in books and journals related to archaeology, anthropology, plant history, paleoecology, and social sciences. In addition to the use of plants as food, such as paleodiet, subsistence strategies and agriculture, Paleoethnobotany has illuminated many other ancient uses for plants (some examples provided below, though there are many more): Production of bread/pastry in the widest sense Production of beverages Extraction of oils and dyes Agricultural regimes (irrigation, manuring, and sowing) Economic practices (production, storage, and trade) Building materials Fuel Symbolic use in ritual activities See also References Bibliography Twiss, K.C. 2019. The Archaeology of Food. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108670159 Kristen J.G. 1997. People, Plants, and Landscapes: Studies in Paleoethnobotany. Alabama: University of Alabama Press. . Miksicek, C.H.1987. "Formation Processes of the Archaeobotanical Record." In M.B.Schiffer (ed.). Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 10. New York: Academic Press, 211–247. . External links International Associations Association of Environmental Archaeology (AEA) International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP) Journals Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, exclusively publishing archaeobotanical/palaeoethnobotanical research, official publishing organ of the IWGP Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences Environmental Archaeology Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica (IANSA) Various knowledge resources ArchBotLit, Kiel University Digital Plant Atlas, Groningen University Integrated Archaeobotanical Research Project (IAR), originally hosted at the University of Sheffield Terry B. Ball, "Phytolith Literature Review" Steve Archer, "About Phytoliths" Alwynne B. Beaudoin, "The Dung File" Anthropology Archaeological sub-disciplines Branches of botany Ethnobotany

Open society

Open society is a term coined by French philosopher Henri Bergson in 1932, and describes a dynamic system inclined to moral universalism. Bergson contrasted an open society with what he called a closed society, a closed system of law, morality or religion. Bergson suggests that if all traces of civilization were to disappear, the instincts of the closed society for including or excluding others would remain. The idea of an open society was further developed during World War II by the Austrian-born British philosopher Karl Popper. Popper saw it as part of a historical continuum reaching from the organic, tribal, or closed society, through the open society (marked by a critical attitude to tradition) to the abstract or depersonalized society lacking all face-to-face interaction transactions. History Popper saw the classical Greeks as initiating the slow transition from tribalism towards the open society, and as facing for the first time the strain imposed by the less personal group relations entailed thereby. Whereas tribalistic and collectivist societies do not distinguish between natural laws and social customs, so that individuals are unlikely to challenge traditions they believe to have a sacred or magical basis, the beginnings of an open society are marked by a distinction between natural and man-made law, and an increase in personal responsibility and accountability for moral choices (not incompatible with religious belief). Popper argued that the ideas of individuality, criticism, and humanitarianism cannot be suppressed once people have become aware of them, and therefore that it is impossible to return to the closed society, but at the same time recognized the continuing emotional pull of what he called "the lost group spirit of tribalism", as manifested for example in the totalitarianisms of the 20th century. While the period since Popper's study has undoubtedly been marked by the spread of the open society, this may be attributed less to Popper's advocacy and more to the role of the economic advances of late modernity. Growth-based industrial societies require literacy, anonymity and social mobility from their members — elements incompatible with much tradition-based behavior but demanding the ever-wider spread of the abstract social relations Georg Simmel saw as characterizing the metropolitan mental stance. Definition Karl Popper defined the open society as one "in which an individual is confronted with personal decisions" as opposed to a "magical or tribal or collectivist society." He considered that only democracy provides an institutional mechanism for reform and leadership change without the need for bloodshed, revolution or coup d'état. Critical knowledge Popper's concept of the open society is epistemological rather than political. When Popper wrote The Open Society and Its Enemies, he believed that the social sciences had failed to grasp the significance and the nature of fascism and communism because these sciences were based on what he saw to be faulty epistemology. Totalitarianism forced knowledge to become political which made critical thinking impossible and led to the destruction of knowledge in totalitarian countries. Popper's theory that knowledge is provisional and fallible implies that society must be open to alternative points of view. An open society is associated with cultural and religious pluralism; it is always open to improvement because knowledge is never completed but always ongoing: "if we wish to remain human, then there is only one way, the way into the open society ... into the unknown, the uncertain and insecure". In the closed society, claims to certain knowledge and ultimate truth lead to the attempted imposition of one version of reality. Such a society is closed to freedom of thought. In contrast, in an open society each citizen needs to engage in critical thinking, which requires freedom of thought and expression and the cultural and legal institutions that can facilitate this. Further characteristics Humanitarianism, equality and political freedom are ideally fundamental characteristics of an open society. This was recognized by Pericles, a statesman of the Athenian democracy, in his laudatory funeral oration: "advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life." Arguably however it was the tension between a traditional society and the new, more open space of the emerging polis which most fully marked classical Athens, and Popper was very aware of the continuing emotional appeal of what he called "holism...longing for the lost unity of tribal life" into the modern world. Caveats Investor and philanthropist George Soros, a self-described follower of Karl Popper, argued that sophisticated use of powerful techniques of subtle deception borrowed from modern advertising and cognitive science by conservative political operatives such as Frank Luntz and Karl Rove casts doubt on Popper's view of open society. Because the electorate's perception of reality can easily be manipulated, democratic political discourse does not necessarily lead to a better understanding of reality. Soros argues that in addition to the need for separation of powers, free speech, and free elections, an explicit commitment to the pursuit of truth is imperative. "Politicians will respect, rather than manipulate, reality only if the public cares about the truth and punishes politicians when it catches them in deliberate deception." Popper however, did not identify the open society either with democracy or with capitalism or a laissez-faire economy, but rather with a critical frame of mind on the part of the individual, in the face of communal group think of whatever kind. An important aspect in Popper's thinking is the notion that the truth can be lost. Critical attitude does not mean that the truth is found. See also Civil inattention Freedom of information Liberal democracy Open–closed political spectrum Open business Open government Open Society Institute Open source governance Social equilibrium The Transparent Society The Wealth of Networks References Further reading R. B. Levinson, In Defence of Plato (1953) Liberalism as threat to the open society: Charles Arthur Willard. Liberalism and the Problem of Knowledge: A New Rhetoric for Modern Democracy, University of Chicago Press, 1996. Maurice Cornforth: The Open Philosophy and the Open Society: A Reply to Dr Karl Popper's Refutations of Marxism. New York: International Publishers (1968). External links 1932 introductions Concepts in political philosophy Henri Bergson Liberalism Social concepts

States and Social Revolutions

States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China is a 1979 book by Theda Skocpol, published by Cambridge University Press, that examines the causes of social revolutions. In the book, Skocpol performs a comparative historical analysis of the French Revolution of 1789 through the early 19th century, the Russian Revolution of 1917 through the 1930s and the Chinese Revolution of 1911 through the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Skocpol argues that social revolutions occurred in these states because of the simultaneous occurrence of state breakdown and peasant revolution. Skocpol asserts that social revolutions are rapid and basic transformations of a society's state and class structures. She distinguishes this from mere rebellions, which involve a revolt of subordinate classes but may not create structural change, and from political revolutions that may change state structures but not social structures. What is unique about social revolutions, she argues, is that basic changes in social structure and political structure occur in a mutually reinforcing fashion and these changes occur through intense socio-political conflict. A convergence of peasant rebellion on one hand and international pressures causing state breakdown on the other hand cause revolutionary social movements. The book was highly influential in the study of revolutions, and has been credited with ushering in a new paradigm. History The book was written in 1978 and is derived from Skocpol's PhD dissertation which was supervised by George Homans, Daniel Bell, and Seymour Martin Lipset. She had been influenced by works by Barrington Moore, Jr, Reinhard Bendix and Samuel P. Huntington. Her project started as a graduate seminar paper comparing revolutions, read by Daniel Bell who suggested she should do her thesis on this topic. Synopsis The book uses both John Stuart Mill's methods of agreement and difference in the case selection. The book is not intended to be generalizable: it only applies to the specific cases that are studied in the book. The book employs process-tracing. While the primary focus is on France, Russia and China, she also examines "moments of revolutionary crisis" in 17th century England, 19th century Prussia and 19th century Japan. Those additional cases prevent Skocpol from "selecting on the dependent variable" – looking only at cases where revolutions occurred as a way to understand the causes of revolution – which would have been a methodological flaw. The additional cases serve as "controls". Before social revolutions can occur, she says, the administrative and military power of a state has to break down. Thus pre-revolutionary France, Russia and China had well-established states that stood astride large agrarian economies in which the imperial state and the landed upper classes partnered in the control and exploitation of the peasantry. However, the monarchy in each country faced an extraordinary dilemma in dealing with foreign power intrusion on the one hand and resistance to raising resources by politically powerful dominant domestic classes on the other. A revolution such as the French revolution also presented itself with a significant factor of power conducted with social, political, and economical conflicts. She describes the processes by which the centralized administrative and military machinery disintegrated in these countries, which made class relations vulnerable to assaults from below. Reception Criticism of Skocpol's book centers around her deemphasis of agency (role of individuals and ideology) and her mixed use of comparative methodological strategies. Ira Katznelson disputes that Skocpol's use of J.S. Mill's method of difference allows her to overcome the problems associated with many potential variables. According to Peter Manicas, Skocpol denies claims by historians that social revolutions should be analyzed as separate and distinct movements. She also denies claims that try to over generalize what makes a revolution. Peter Manicas says that Skocpol's work is successful at creating a theory that uses generalizations but is sensitive to differences between states and situations. According to Steve Pfaff, Skocpol's book created "a distinctive genre of neo-Weberian state-society analysis and, more broadly, served as signature work in the new historical and comparative subfields in sociology and comparative politics." He says that Skocpol presents revolutionary urban middle class in each of the states she studies as "political entrepreneurs" because they take on the reins of the revolution after the peasant class has successfully weakened the ruling government. Skocpol's book, according to Pfaff, is a clearly identifiable as a product of the politics of the 1970s. She "helped launch a new generation of comparative research on the largest and most consequential of historical questions." Pfaff goes on to say, even if Skocpol didn't explain the causes that might have triggered state crisis and the mobilization of the people, "and if, in its enthusiasm for revolution, it overestimated the gains of revolutionary transformation, the book nevertheless deserves its place among the canonical works of comparative and historical research." Jeff Goodwin argues, in his own analysis, that Skocpol's fame comes in large part, not from a substantial number of people reading her book, but from a small number of "designated readers" critiquing her book and spreading what they believe to be her main ideas. Goodwin says, "A good part of Skocpol's fame is due to the wide diffusion of several misformulations of some key ideas." Goodwin explains three major "misformulations" scholars have made about "States and Social Revolutions". The first misinterpretation of Skocpol's book says she makes the point that a revolution or a rebellions success depends solely on state institutions. According to Goodwin, however, Skocpol's argument is more complex: it states that the French, Russian and Chinese revolutions are a result of state institutions becoming more susceptible to collapse due to outside influence as well as peasant rebellion. A second misperception of this book claims that Skocpol downplays the relevance of ideology in a revolution, an argument made by Pfaff, as mentioned earlier. What Skocpol means to argue, Goodwin says, is that no singular group consciously brought on the revolution. A third and final argument people have claimed Skocpol to make in "States and Social Revolutions" is that a general theory on revolutions can be made simply through the comparison of a select group of revolutions. Goodwin, like Richards, says Skocpol's book does not try to create an overarching theory of revolution by using the three examples of revolutions. To the contrary, "she explicitly warns that her conjunctural explanation for social revolutions in this particular context cannot be mechanically extended to others." Although published over thirty years ago, Theda Skocpol's book continues to influence historians and sociologists alike today. Skocpol presented a new way to look at social revolutions and analyze then through a structural and state centered perspective. Although her analysis may not be complete in the eyes of many, it offers a new perspective and fills in the holes in many theories before hers as well as the theories of her educators, including Barrington Moore Jr. In Barbara Geddes's Paradigms and Sand Castles: Theory Building and Research Design in Comparative Politics, she writes that Skocpol's use of contrasting cases (cases where revolutions did happen and did not happen) makes her claims regarding the importance of class structures and alliances in determining revolution outcomes persuasive. But she writes that Skocpol's claim that all revolutionary outbreaks occur as a result of international crises is not well-supported. For example, Geddes notes that a revolution occurred in France but France was not at the time more threatened by external events than many of its neighbors. Geddes also argues that Skocpol's choice of cases (and exclusion of other cases) is not particularly well-supported. When Geddes expanded the number of cases to include nine Latin-American countries (which Geddes argued were within the scope conditions of the theory), Skocpol's theory of social revolution failed replication. Geddes argues that Skocpol includes a number of cases for reasons that are ill-justified. James Mahoney and Gary Goertz found no evidence that Skocpol exclusively picked negative cases to intentionally lend support for her theory. They also argue that the new cases added by Geddes are not within the scope conditions of Skocpol's theory. In their own analysis, Mahoney and Goertz added new cases that were within the scope conditions of Skocpol's theory, ultimately finding that her theory was consistent with an expanded set of cases. Lewis A. Coser, president of the American Sociological Association, wrote in The New York Times Book Review, "I am convinced that States and Social Revolutions will be considered a landmark in the study of the sources of revolution." Cambridge University Press includes States and Social Revolutions in its "Canto Classics" series and the book remains in print as of 2016. References External links An excellent Review Theda Skocpol discusses criticism of this book 1979 non-fiction books Books about revolutions Cambridge University Press books

Women in war

Throughout history, women have assumed diverse roles during periods of war, contributing to war efforts in various capacities. In more ancient times, women often accompanied armies on campaigns, primarily taking on roles such as cooking, laundry, and other support tasks as relations or camp followers. They contributed by tending to the wounded, preparing basic medical supplies, and assisting with various logistical needs of the soldiers. Over time, as warfare evolved, women's roles expanded, including work in areas like munitions production by the mid-19th century. During World War I and World War II, the primary role of women shifted towards employment in munitions factories, agriculture and food rationing, and other areas to fill the gaps left by men who had been drafted into the military. One of the most notable changes during World War II was the inclusion of many of women in regular military units. In several countries, including the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the United Kingdom in the European Theater, as well as China and Imperial Japan in the Pacific Theater, women served in combat roles, such as anti-aircraft warfare, guerrilla warfare, and direct engagement in frontline battles. Additionally, women were also active in underground and resistance movements. After 1945, the roles available to women in major armies were significantly reduced. However, beginning in the 1970s, women gradually assumed increasing roles in the military of major nations, eventually including combat positions such as pilots by 2005 in the United States. These new combat roles sparked controversy, with debates centered around differences in physical capabilities between the sexes and issues related to gender identity for both women and men. History History of women in the military Uprisings led by women Women in warfare and the military in the ancient era Women in warfare and the military in the medieval era Women in the Crusades Roles of women, children, and class Women in warfare and the military in the early modern era Timeline of women in early modern warfare Women in warfare and the military (1750–1799) Women in the American Revolution Women in the French Revolution Women in the Haitian Revolution Women in warfare and the military in the 19th century List of female American Civil War soldiers Timeline of women in 19th century warfare Women in warfare and the military (1900–1939) Women in warfare and the military (1900–1945) Women in warfare and the military (1945–1999) World War I Women's roles in the World Wars Women in the World War I Home front during World War I Australian women during World War I Belgium in World War I British home front during the First World War Canadian women during the World Wars History of Germany during World War I Women in the Russian Revolution United States home front during World War I Interwar period Women in the Spanish Civil War World War II Women's roles in the World Wars Code Girls Home front during World War II United States home front during World War II Canadian women during the World Wars Soviet women in World War II Sexual violence during the Holocaust Cold War Women in the North Korean Revolution Women in the Cuban Revolution Women in the Algerian War Women in the Vietnam War Role of women in the Nicaraguan Revolution Women in the Soviet–Afghan War Women in the Iran–Iraq War 21st century conflicts Women in the war in Donbas (2014–2022) Women in the Russian invasion of Ukraine Women in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war Contemporary Women in the military by country Women in the military in the Americas Women in the military in Europe Women in warfare and the military (2000–present) Women in combat Women in the military See also Gender in security studies Wartime cross-dressing List of wartime cross-dressers Timeline of women in warfare in the United States from 1900 to 1949 Timeline of women in war in the United States, Pre-1945 Timeline of women in warfare in the United States from 1950 to 1999 Timeline of women in warfare and the military in the United States, 2000–2010 Timeline of women in warfare and the military in the United States from 2011–present Women in the decolonisation of Africa Notes Further reading Carter, Susanne. “Reshaping the War Experience: Women’s War Fiction.” Feminist Teacher, vol. 7, no. 1, 1992, pp. 14–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40545631. Accessed 20 Sept. 2024. Clarke, R.D., 2022. Women and/in War. In: Kurtz, L.R. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, vol. 2. Elsevier, Academic Press, pp. 332–343. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-820195-4.00114-X. Cook, Bernard, ed. Women and War: Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present (2006). Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Women and War (1995) Elshtain Jean, and Sheila Tobias, eds. Women, Militarism, and War (1990) Goodall, Heather, et al. “Women and War.” Teacher for Justice: Lucy Woodcock’s Transnational Life, ANU Press, 2019, pp. 145–66. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvp7d59b.13. Accessed 20 Sept. 2024. Hacker, Barton C. and Margaret Vining, eds. A Companion to Women's Military History (Brill, 2012), 625pp; 16 long essays by leading scholars stretching from the Ancient to the contemporary world Jones, David. Women Warriors: A History (Brassey's, 1997) Pennington, Reina. Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women (2003). Salmonson, Jessica Amanda. The Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Modern Era (1991). Summerfield, Penny. “Gender and War in the Twentieth Century.” The International History Review, vol. 19, no. 1, 1997, pp. 2–15. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40108080. Accessed 20 Sept. 2024.

Analytical Marxism

Analytical Marxism is an academic school of Marxist theory which emerged in the late 1970s, largely prompted by G. A. Cohen's Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (1978). In this book, Cohen drew on the Anglo–American tradition of analytic philosophy in an attempt to raise the standards of clarity and rigor within Marxist theory, which led to his distancing of Marxism from continental European philosophy. Analytical Marxism rejects much of the Hegelian and dialectical tradition associated with Marx's thought. The school is associated with the "September Group", which included Jon Elster, John Roemer, Adam Przeworski and Erik Olin Wright. Its theorists emphasize methodology and utilize analytical philosophy, and some of them favor rational choice theory, and methodological individualism (the doctrine that all social phenomena can only be explained in terms of the actions and beliefs of individual subjects). Origin Cohen's book, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (1978), in which he attempts to apply the tools of logical and linguistic analysis to the elucidation and defence of Marx's materialist conception of history, is generally regarded as having started the analytical Marxist approach. Theory Historical materialism For Cohen, Marx's historical materialism is a technologically deterministic theory, in which the economic relations of production are functionally explained by the material forces of production, and in which the political and legal institutions (the "superstructure") are functionally explained by the relations of production (the "base"). The transition from one mode of production to another is driven by the tendency of the productive forces to develop. Cohen's accounts for this tendency by reference to the rational character of the human species: where there is the opportunity to adopt a more productive technology and thus reduce the burden of labour, human beings will tend to take it. Exploitation At the same time as Cohen was working on Karl Marx's Theory of History, the American economist John Roemer was employing neoclassical economics to defend the Marxist concepts of exploitation and class. In his A General Theory of Exploitation and Class (1982), Roemer employed rational choice and game theory to demonstrate how exploitation and class relations may arise in the development of a market for labour. Roemer would go on to reject the necessity of the labour theory of value to explain exploitation and class. Value was in principle capable of being explained in terms of any class of commodity inputs, such as oil, wheat, etc., rather than being exclusively explained by embodied labour power. Roemer was led to the conclusion that exploitation and class were thus generated not in the sphere of production but of market exchange. Significantly, as a purely technical category, exploitation did not always imply a moral wrong (see below). Rational choice Marxism By the mid-1980s, "analytical Marxism" was being recognized as a "paradigm". The September Group had been meeting for several years, and a succession of texts by its members were published. Several of these appeared under the imprint of Cambridge University Press's series Studies in Marxism and Social Theory, including Jon Elster's Making Sense of Marx (1985) and Adam Przeworski's Capitalism and Social Democracy (1985). Among the most methodologically controversial were these two authors, and Roemer, due to their use of rational-actor models. Not all analytical Marxists are rational-choice Marxists, however. Elster's account was an exhaustive examination of Marx's texts in order to ascertain what could be salvaged out of Marxism employing the tools of rational choice theory and methodological individualism (which Elster defended as the only form of explanation appropriate to the social sciences). His conclusion was that – contra Cohen – no general theory of history as the development of the productive forces could be saved. Like Roemer, he also rejected the labour theory of value and, going further, virtually all of Marxian economics. The "dialectical" method is rejected as a form of Hegelian obscurantism. The theory of ideology and revolution continued to be useful to a certain degree, but only once they had been purged of their tendencies to holism and functionalism and established on the basis of an individualist methodology and a causal or intentional explanation. Justice The analytical (and rational choice) Marxists held a variety of leftist political sympathies, ranging from communism to reformist social democracy. Through the 1980s, most of them began to believe that Marxism as a theory capable of explaining revolution in terms of the economic dynamics of capitalism and the class interests of the proletariat had been seriously compromised. They were largely in agreement that the transformation of capitalism was an ethical project. During the 1980s, a debate had developed within Anglophone academia about whether Marxism could accommodate a theory of justice. This debate was clearly linked to the revival of normative political philosophy after the publication of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971). Some commentators remained hostile to the idea of a Marxist theory of justice, arguing that Marx saw "justice" as little more than a bourgeois ideological construct designed to justify exploitation by reference to reciprocity in the wage contract. The analytical Marxists, however, largely rejected this point of view. Led by G. A. Cohen (a moral philosopher by training), they argued that a Marxist theory of justice had to focus on egalitarianism. For Cohen, this meant an engagement with moral and political philosophy in order to demonstrate the injustice of market exchange, and the construction of an appropriate egalitarian metric. This argument is pursued in Cohen's books, Self-Ownership, Freedom and Equality (1995) and If You're an Egalitarian How Come You're So Rich? (2000b). Cohen departs from previous Marxists by arguing that capitalism is a system characterized by unjust exploitation not because the labour of workers is "stolen" by employers, but because it is a system wherein "autonomy" is infringed, and which results in a distribution of benefits and burdens that is unfair. In the traditional Marxist account, exploitation and injustice occur because non-workers appropriate the value produced by the labour of workers. This would be overcome in a socialist society where no class would own the means of production and be in a position to appropriate the value produced by labourers. Cohen argues that underpinning this account is the assumption that workers have "rights of self-ownership" over themselves and thus, should "own" what is produced by their labour. Because the worker is paid a wage less than the value they create through work, the capitalist is said to extract a surplus-value from the worker's labour, and thus to steal part of what the worker produces, the time of the worker and the worker's powers. Cohen argues that the concept of self-ownership is favourable to Rawls's difference principle as it ensures "each person's rights over his being and powers" – i.e., that one is treated as an end always and never as a means – but also highlights that its centrality provides for an area of common ground between the Marxist account of justice and the libertarianism of Robert Nozick. However, much as Cohen criticizes Rawls for treating people's personal powers as just another external resource for which no individual can claim desert, so does he charge Nozick with moving beyond the concept of self-ownership to his own right-wing thesis of self-ownership. In Cohen's view, Nozick's mistake is to endow people's claims to legitimately acquire external resources with the same moral quality that belongs to people's ownership of themselves. In other words, propertarianism allows inequalities to arise from differences in talent and differences in external resources, but it does so because it assumes that the world is "up for grabs", that it can be justly appropriated as private property, with virtually no restriction(s). Criticism Analytical Marxism received criticism from different quarters, Marxist and non-Marxist. Method Some critics argued that analytical Marxism proceeded from the wrong methodological and epistemological premises. While the analytical Marxists dismissed "dialectically oriented" Marxism as "bullshit", others maintain that the distinctive character of Marxist philosophy is lost if it is understood "non-dialectically". The crucial feature of Marxist philosophy is that it is not a reflection in thought of the world, a crude materialism, but rather an intervention in the world concerned with human praxis. According to this view, analytical Marxism wrongly characterizes intellectual activity as occurring in isolation from the struggles constitutive of its social and political conjuncture, and at the same time does little to intervene in that conjuncture. For dialectical Marxists, analytical Marxism eviscerated Marxism, turning it from a systematic doctrine of revolutionary transformation into a set of discrete theses that stand or fall on the basis of their logical consistency and empirical validity. Critics also raised methodological objections. Against Elster and the rational choice Marxists, Terrell Carver argued that methodological individualism was not the only form of valid explanation in the social sciences, that functionalism in the absence of micro-foundations could remain a convincing and fruitful mode of inquiry, and that rational choice and game theory were far from being universally accepted as sound or useful ways of modelling social institutions and processes. History Cohen's defence of a technological determinist interpretation of historical materialism was, in turn, quite widely criticized, even by analytical Marxists. Together with Andrew Levine, Wright argued that in attributing primacy to the productive forces (the development thesis), Cohen overlooked the role played by class actors in the transition between modes of production. For the authors, it was forms of class relations (the relations of production) that had primacy in terms of how the productive forces were employed and the extent to which they developed. It was not evident, they claimed, that the relations of production become "fetters" once the productive forces are capable of sustaining a different set of production relations. Likewise, the political philosopher Richard W. Miller, while sympathetic with Cohen's analytical approach to Marxism, rejected Cohen's technological interpretation of historical materialism, to which he counterpoised with what he called a "mode of production" interpretation which placed greater emphasis on the role of class struggle in the transition from one mode of production to another. The Greek philosopher Nicholas Vrousalis generalized Miller's critique, pointing out that Cohen's distinction between the material and social properties of society cannot be drawn as sharply as Cohen's materialism requires. Non-Marxist critics argued that Cohen, in line with the Marxist tradition, underestimated the role played by the legal and political superstructure in shaping the character of the economic base. Finally, Cohen's anthropology was judged dubious: whether human beings adopt new and more productive technology is not a function of an ahistorical rationality, but depends on the extent to which these forms of technology are compatible with pre-existing beliefs and social practices. Cohen recognized and accepted some, though not all, of these criticisms in his History, Labour, and Freedom (1988). Roemer's version of the cause of change in the mode of production as due to being inequitable rather than inefficient is also the source of criticism. One such criticism is that his argument relies on the legal ownership of production which is only present in later forms of class society rather than the social relations of production. Justice and power Some Marxists argue, against analytical Marxist theories of justice, that it is mistaken to suppose that Marxism offers a theory of justice; others question analytical Marxists' identification of justice with rights. The question of justice cannot be seen in isolation from questions of power, or from the balance of class forces in any specific conjuncture. Non-Marxists may employ a similar criticism in their critique of liberal theories of justice in the Rawlsian tradition. They argue that the theories fail to address problems about the configuration of power relations in the contemporary world, and by so doing appear as little more than exercises in logic. "Justice", on this view, is whatever is produced by the assumptions of the theory. It has little to do with the actual distribution of power and resources in the world. See also Criticisms of Marxism Neo-Marxism Critique of political economy References Marxist schools of thought Analytic philosophy

Costume

Costume is the distinctive style of dress and/or makeup of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, occupation, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch—in short, culture. The term also was traditionally used to describe typical appropriate clothing for certain activities, such as riding costume, swimming costume, dance costume, and evening costume. Appropriate and acceptable costume is subject to changes in fashion and local cultural norms. This general usage has gradually been replaced by the terms "dress", "attire", "robes" or "wear" and usage of "costume" has become more limited to unusual or out-of-date clothing and to attire intended to evoke a change in identity, such as theatrical, Halloween, and mascot costumes. Before the advent of ready-to-wear apparel, clothing was made by hand. When made for commercial sale it was made, as late as the beginning of the 20th century, by "costumiers", often women who ran businesses that met the demand for complicated or intimate female costume, including millinery and corsetry. Etymology Derived from the Italian language and passed down through French, the term "costume" shares its origins with the word signifying fashion or custom. Variedly, the term "costume," indicating clothing exclusively from the eighteenth century onward, can be traced back to the Latin consuetudo, meaning "custom" or "usage." National costume National costume or regional costume expresses local (or exiled) identity and emphasizes a culture's unique attributes. They are often a source of national pride. Examples include the Scottish kilt, Turkish Zeybek, or Japanese kimono. In Bhutan there is a traditional national dress prescribed for men and women, including the monarchy. These have been in vogue for thousands of years and have developed into a distinctive dress style. The dress worn by men is known as Gho which is a robe worn up to knee-length and is fastened at the waist by a band called the Kera. The front part of the dress which is formed like a pouch, in olden days was used to hold baskets of food and short dagger, but now it is used to keep cell phone, purse and the betel nut called Doma. The dress worn by women consist of three pieces known as Kira, Tego and Wonju. The long dress which extends up to the ankle is Kira. The jacket worn above this is Tego which is provided with Wonju, the inner jacket. However, while visiting the Dzong or monastery a long scarf or stoll, called Kabney is worn by men across the shoulder, in colours appropriate to their ranks. Women also wear scarfs or stolls called Rachus, made of raw silk with embroidery, over their shoulder but not indicative of their rank. Theatrical costume Costume often refers to a particular style of clothing worn to portray the wearer as a character or type of character at a social event in a theatrical performance on the stage or in film or television. In combination with other aspects of stagecraft, theatrical costumes can help actors portray characters' and their contexts as well as communicate information about the historical period/era, geographic location and time of day, season or weather of the theatrical performance. Some stylized theatrical costumes, such as Harlequin and Pantaloon in the Commedia dell'arte, exaggerate an aspect of a character. Costume construction A costume technician is a term used for a person that constructs and/or alters the costumes. The costume technician is responsible for taking the two dimensional sketch and translating it to create a garment that resembles the designer's rendering. It is important for a technician to keep the ideas of the designer in mind when building the garment. Draping and cutting Draping is the art of manipulating the fabric using pins and hand stitching to create structure on a body. This is usually done on a dress form to get the adequate shape for the performer. Cutting is the act of laying out fabric on a flat surface, using scissors to cut and follow along a pattern. These pieces are put together to create a final costume. Pros and cons of draping It is easier to visualize the finished product It is hard to keep the fabric symmetric You are able to drape in your fashion fabric rather than making a muslin mockup Draping makes it difficult to replicate for multiple people There are no needs for patterns It can be hard to keep the grain of the fabric straight There is less waste when using the specific fabric from the start Pros and cons of cutting You are able to create your own pattern to fit a certain size You may need instructions to piece the fabric together It is easier to control the grain of the fabric as well as symmetry There is more ability to create many of the same garment The measurements can be very accurate It takes time to see the final product Jobs Costume designer Designs and creates a concept for the costumes for the play or performance. Costume technician Constructs and patterns the costumes for the play or performance. Wardrobe supervisor Oversees the wardrobe crew and run of the show from backstage. They are responsible for maintaining the good condition of the costumes. Milliner Also known as a hatmaker, responsible for the manufacturing of hats and headwear. Religious festivals Wearing costumes is an important part of holidays developed from religious festivals such as Mardi Gras (in the lead up to Easter), and Halloween (related to All Hallow's Eve). Mardi Gras costumes usually take the form of jesters and other fantasy characters; Halloween costumes traditionally take the form of supernatural creatures such as ghosts, vampires, pop-culture icons and angels. Halloween costumes developed from pre-Christian religious traditions: to avoid being terrorized by evil spirits walking the Earth during the harvest festival Samhain, the Celts donned disguises. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory VIII designated November 1 as All Saints Day, and the preceding days as All Hallows Eve; Samhain's costuming tradition was incorporated into these Christian holidays. Given the Catholic and pagan roots of the holiday, it has been repudiated by some Protestants. However, in the modern era, Halloween "is widely celebrated in almost every corner of American life," and the wearing of costumes forms part of a secular tradition. In 2022, United States households spent an average of $100 preparing for Halloween, with $34 going to costume-related spending. Christmas costumes typically portray characters such as Santa Claus (developed from Saint Nicholas). In Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States the American version of a Santa suit and beard is popular; in the Netherlands, the costume of Zwarte Piet is customary. Easter costumes are associated with the Easter Bunny or other animal costumes. In Judaism, a common practice is to dress up on Purim. During this holiday, Jews celebrate the change of their destiny. They were delivered from being the victims of an evil decree against them and were instead allowed by the King to destroy their enemies. A quote from the Book of Esther, which says: "On the contrary" is the reason that wearing a costume has become customary for this holiday. Buddhist religious festivals in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia and Lhasa and Sikkim in India perform the Cham dance, which is a popular dance form utilising masks and costumes. Parades and processions Parades and processions provide opportunities for people to dress up in historical or imaginative costumes. For example, in 1879 the artist Hans Makart designed costumes and scenery to celebrate the wedding anniversary of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor and Empress and led the people of Vienna in a costume parade that became a regular event until the mid-twentieth century. Uncle Sam costumes are worn on Independence Day in the United States. The Lion Dance, which is part of Chinese New Year celebrations, is performed in costume. Some costumes, such as the ones used in the Dragon Dance, need teams of people to create the required effect. Sporting events and parties Public sporting events such as fun runs also provide opportunities for wearing costumes, as do private masquerade balls and fancy dress parties. Mascots Costumes are popularly employed at sporting events, during which fans dress as their team's representative mascot to show their support. Businesses use mascot costumes to bring in people to their business either by placing their mascot in the street by their business or sending their mascot out to sporting events, festivals, national celebrations, fairs, and parades. Mascots appear at organizations wanting to raise awareness of their work. Children's Book authors create mascots from the main character to present at their book signings. Animal costumes that are visually very similar to mascot costumes are also popular among the members of the furry fandom, where the costumes are referred to as fursuits and match one's animal persona, or "fursona". Children Costumes also serve as an avenue for children to explore and role-play. For example, children may dress up as characters from history or fiction, such as pirates, princesses, cowboys, or superheroes. They may also dress in uniforms used in common jobs, such as nurses, police officers, or firefighters, or as zoo or farm animals. Young boys tend to prefer costumes that reinforce stereotypical ideas of being male, and young girls tend to prefer costumes that reinforce stereotypical ideas of being female. Cosplay Cosplay, a word of Japanese origin that in English is short for "costume display" or "costume play", is a performance art in which participants wear costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea that is usually always identified with a unique name (as opposed to a generic word). These costume wearers often interact to create a subculture centered on role play, so they can be seen most often in play groups, or at a gathering or convention. A significant number of these costumes are homemade and unique, and depend on the character, idea, or object the costume wearer is attempting to imitate or represent. The costumes themselves are often artistically judged to how well they represent the subject or object that the costume wearer is attempting to contrive. Design Costume design is the envisioning of clothing and the overall appearance of a character or performer. Costume may refer to the style of dress particular to a nation, a class, or a period. In many cases, it may contribute to the fullness of the artistic, visual world that is unique to a particular theatrical or cinematic production. The most basic designs are produced to denote status, provide protection or modesty, or provide visual interest to a character. Costumes may be for, but not limited to, theater, cinema, or musical performances. Costume design should not be confused with costume coordination, which merely involves altering existing clothing, although both processes are used to create stage clothes. Organizations The Costume Designers Guild's international membership includes motion picture, television, and commercial costume designers, assistant costume designers and costume illustrators, and totals over 750 members. The National Costumers Association is an 80 year old association of professional costumers and costume shops. Publications The Costume Designer is a quarterly magazine devoted to the costume design industry. Notable designers and awards Notable costume designers include recipients of the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Tony Award for Best Costume Design, and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design. Edith Head and Orry-Kelly, both of whom were born late in 1897, were two of Hollywood's most notable costume designers. Industry Professional-grade costumes are typically designed and produced by costume companies who can design and create unique costumes. These companies have often been in business for over 100 years, and continue to work with individual clients to create professional quality costumes. Professional costume houses rent and sell costumes for the trade. This includes companies that create mascots, costumes for film, TV costumes and theatrical costumes. Larger costume companies have warehouses full of costumes for rental to customers. There is an industry where costumers work with clients and design costumes from scratch. They then will create original costumes specifically to the clients specifications. See also References External links http://costumesocietyamerica.com/ The Costume Society, UK National Costumers Association Costume design

Borealism

Borealism is a form of exoticism in which stereotypes are imposed on the Earth's northern regions and cultures (particularly the Nordic and Arctic regions). The term was inspired by the similar concept of Orientalism, first coined by Edward Said. An early form of Borealism can be identified in antiquity, especially Roman writings; but, like Orientalism, Borealism came to flourish in eighteenth-century European Romanticism and Romantics' fantasies about distant regions. Borealism can include the paradoxical ideas that the North is uniquely savage, inhospitable, or barbaric, and that it is uniquely sublime, pure, or enlightened. A further form of borealism is the explicit invocation of the boreal by white-supremacist far-right politicians. Etymology The term borealism derives from the adjective boreal, which originates from the name of the deity of the north wind Boreas (Βορέας) in Greek mythology. The term denotes what is or comes from in the northern hemisphere. It opposes austral, denoting what lies in or comes from the southern hemisphere, and is also connected to the terms oriental (denoting what lies in the east) and occidental (denoting what lies in the west). Boreal is not synonymous with northern, the latter qualifying what is north; the first indicates an absolute position, while the second indicates a relative position. Borealism in art and culture Examples of borealism include Icelandic financiers being imagined as 'raiding Vikings' during the banking boom that culminated in the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis; the traditional music of Scandinavia being seen as distinctively sublime; the stereotyping of Sámi people as strange and magical savages; differences between Canadians and Americans being accounted for by Canadians' proximity to arctic wilderness; and commentators imagining that the music of the Icelandic band Sigur Rós is the product of Iceland's distinctive geology of glaciers and volcanoes. Borealism was a prominent phenomenon in the reception of Nordic literature in Central and Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century. The so-called modern breakthrough movement, Scandinavian symbolism, impressionism, naturalism, decadence and new-romanticism reached most of the European countries (just as it was the case with Slavic literatures), which had a huge impact on the region's theatre, prose fiction and lyric. It was also the period, when the first professional translators (Hugo Kosterka, Henrik Hajdu, Margit G. Beke) from Swedish, Norwegian and Danish appeared on the literary scene. The translations, reviews and articles were marked by a mythical reading of the cultures of Northern Europe. Literary borealism can be best understood as an unwritten set of rhetoric and poetic rules. Through this filter the peoples, territories and literatures of the Nordic countries are anthropologically, geographically and culturally distinctive from other nations. But most often it was the natural phenomena (ice, snow, mountains, seas, lakes, fjords, flora and fauna, volcanos etc.) that had a major effect on the individuals, according to the early 20th century borealists. Borealism in far-right politics Although the concept of "hyperboreal" in relation to the origins of European civilization was already used by esoteric and metaphysical writers such as Helena Blavatsky and René Guénon, the term "boreal" was adopted into far-right political language by the Italian reactionary and traditionalist Julius Evola, who is influential in extreme right-wing circles. In his book Rivolta contro il mondo moderno (Revolt against the Modern World; 1934) Evola writes that in the "Golden Age" the center of the "Olympic civilization" that spread across the Eurasian continent was in a "Boreal" or Nordic "region". The Thule-Gesellschaft, a secret society of which the Nazi Heinrich Himmler was a member, believed that the Aryan race came from the mythical northern province of Hyperborea. In twenty-first-century politics, the term boreal is used by politicians like Jean-Marie Le Pen in France and Thierry Baudet in The Netherlands to refer to Northern Europe and its ethnic groups, culture and languages. The term is used as a euphemism for white people, and is framed as being opposite migrating minorities, in an attempt to avoid openly racist connotations. Le Pen's statements about a "boreal Europe" and "white world" contributed to him being expelled by Marine Le Pen in 2015 as a member of the Front National. The term has also been used by Russian-nationalist movements since the 1990s after the fall of the Berlin wall as an indication of ethnic Russians. In the Netherlands, Forum for Democracy (FvD) leader Thierry Baudet introduced the word in a political context. At the first party congress of the FvD in 2017, he spoke about "our boreal Europe"; in the victory speech he gave to his followers after the 2019 Dutch provincial elections, about "our boreal world". Following criticism of his speech, he stated in an interview that he was referring to "a beautiful, poetic designation" of Europe, the western world or western civilization. According to Baudet, the boreal is also the part of the world that is illuminated by the aurora borealis or the northern lights. These are mainly Western countries in Europe and North America. See also Aryan Caucasoid Dog-whistle politics Ethnic groups in Europe Genetic history of Europe Orientalism Nordicism Sociology of race and ethnic relations White supremacy References Etymologies Pseudohistory Western culture Culture of Europe Esoteric anthropogenesis Race (human categorization) White culture Political campaign techniques Propaganda techniques Political communication