Johannes Fabian
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520221222
- eISBN:
- 9780520923935
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520221222.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
From the beginning, European exploration of Africa had a rationality that was anything but linear and logical. The ideas and practices evoked by each pair of terms were also sources of ...
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From the beginning, European exploration of Africa had a rationality that was anything but linear and logical. The ideas and practices evoked by each pair of terms were also sources of tension—gathering the whole project into a net of contradictions and casting the myth of a heroic quest in the service of science against the harsh conditions of exploration. Unlike theoretical paradigms, racial and cultural stereotypes, and colonial ideologies, habits grow from experience. Habits determining what European and African actors experienced, and how, when, and where, accumulated in the drama, or the tragicomedy, of exploration. This chapter examines the timing of the exploration; coping with the topics in terms of hygiene, medicine, opiates and alcohol, and food and meals; conviviality and friendship; the odds of survival in Africa; and monuments and graves.Less
From the beginning, European exploration of Africa had a rationality that was anything but linear and logical. The ideas and practices evoked by each pair of terms were also sources of tension—gathering the whole project into a net of contradictions and casting the myth of a heroic quest in the service of science against the harsh conditions of exploration. Unlike theoretical paradigms, racial and cultural stereotypes, and colonial ideologies, habits grow from experience. Habits determining what European and African actors experienced, and how, when, and where, accumulated in the drama, or the tragicomedy, of exploration. This chapter examines the timing of the exploration; coping with the topics in terms of hygiene, medicine, opiates and alcohol, and food and meals; conviviality and friendship; the odds of survival in Africa; and monuments and graves.
Johannes Fabian
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520221222
- eISBN:
- 9780520923935
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520221222.003.0008
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
What happened in the land of friendship took the discussion to the center of Africa, and to the core of this endeavor to map the field of tensions and contradictions in which we seek the beginnings ...
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What happened in the land of friendship took the discussion to the center of Africa, and to the core of this endeavor to map the field of tensions and contradictions in which we seek the beginnings of African ethnography. This chapter turns to a more systematic inquiry into the production of knowledge about Africa, with an awareness that the search for a system in the history of European exploration will be in vain. It considers the rationality of the enterprise by concentrating on what sources tell us about methods of investigation and about the meaning explorers gave to their findings. The chapter examines whether travelers report about how they made knowledge out of experiences, and what kind of knowledge they were after, and considers experience, observation, measuring, and collecting.Less
What happened in the land of friendship took the discussion to the center of Africa, and to the core of this endeavor to map the field of tensions and contradictions in which we seek the beginnings of African ethnography. This chapter turns to a more systematic inquiry into the production of knowledge about Africa, with an awareness that the search for a system in the history of European exploration will be in vain. It considers the rationality of the enterprise by concentrating on what sources tell us about methods of investigation and about the meaning explorers gave to their findings. The chapter examines whether travelers report about how they made knowledge out of experiences, and what kind of knowledge they were after, and considers experience, observation, measuring, and collecting.
Raylene Ramsay (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832223
- eISBN:
- 9780824871284
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832223.003.0023
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to bring the stories and histories of an unfamiliar group of French-speaking islands into the living rooms and libraries of the ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to bring the stories and histories of an unfamiliar group of French-speaking islands into the living rooms and libraries of the English-speaking world through a selection of founding texts presented for the first time in English. The book opens its cultural history of New Caledonia with transcriptions and translations of the most widely circulating texts of Kanak oral tradition. Subsequent accounts of early eighteenth-century European exploration, the era of annexation, the penal colony, and then nineteenth-century settlement are followed by representative extracts from the modern period, or the “new literature.” These are the texts emerging from the dramatic political events in the contemporary period and the 1988 Matignon and 1998 Nouméa Agreements with France that have opened up the option of independence in 2014 by majority vote. An overview of the four parts of the book is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to bring the stories and histories of an unfamiliar group of French-speaking islands into the living rooms and libraries of the English-speaking world through a selection of founding texts presented for the first time in English. The book opens its cultural history of New Caledonia with transcriptions and translations of the most widely circulating texts of Kanak oral tradition. Subsequent accounts of early eighteenth-century European exploration, the era of annexation, the penal colony, and then nineteenth-century settlement are followed by representative extracts from the modern period, or the “new literature.” These are the texts emerging from the dramatic political events in the contemporary period and the 1988 Matignon and 1998 Nouméa Agreements with France that have opened up the option of independence in 2014 by majority vote. An overview of the four parts of the book is also presented.
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780813049885
- eISBN:
- 9780813050355
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049885.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
Florida's lower gulf coast was a key region in the early European exploration of North America, with an extraordinary number of first-time interactions between Spaniards and Florida's indigenous ...
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Florida's lower gulf coast was a key region in the early European exploration of North America, with an extraordinary number of first-time interactions between Spaniards and Florida's indigenous cultures. This book compiles a number of major writings of Spanish explorers in the area between 1513 and 1566. Including transcriptions of the original Spanish documents as well as English translations, this book presents—in their own words—the experiences and reactions of Spaniards who came to Florida with Juan Ponce de León, Pánfilo de Narváez, Hernando de Soto, and Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. These accounts, which have never before appeared together in print, provide an astonishing glimpse into a world of indigenous cultures that did not survive colonization. With introductions to the primary sources, extensive notes, and a historical overview of Spanish exploration in the region, this book offers a first-hand view of La Florida in the earliest stages of European conquest.Less
Florida's lower gulf coast was a key region in the early European exploration of North America, with an extraordinary number of first-time interactions between Spaniards and Florida's indigenous cultures. This book compiles a number of major writings of Spanish explorers in the area between 1513 and 1566. Including transcriptions of the original Spanish documents as well as English translations, this book presents—in their own words—the experiences and reactions of Spaniards who came to Florida with Juan Ponce de León, Pánfilo de Narváez, Hernando de Soto, and Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. These accounts, which have never before appeared together in print, provide an astonishing glimpse into a world of indigenous cultures that did not survive colonization. With introductions to the primary sources, extensive notes, and a historical overview of Spanish exploration in the region, this book offers a first-hand view of La Florida in the earliest stages of European conquest.
Susan E. Klepp
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807833223
- eISBN:
- 9781469600796
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9780807833223.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter traces the religious, political, and economic realities that had long supported large families and high fertility. It looks, too, at the religious and economic changes in the eighteenth ...
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This chapter traces the religious, political, and economic realities that had long supported large families and high fertility. It looks, too, at the religious and economic changes in the eighteenth century that began to undermine the old ways of thinking and behaving. From the very beginning of European exploration, proprietors and entrepreneurs enticed settlers to the Middle Atlantic region by touting the fertility of the land; it was, for example, “very good and fruitfull and withall very healthfull.” Plentiful, flourishing land was made redolent of an expansive abundance in all facets of life. Promotional tracts generally targeted men, but several enticed women to cross the ocean.Less
This chapter traces the religious, political, and economic realities that had long supported large families and high fertility. It looks, too, at the religious and economic changes in the eighteenth century that began to undermine the old ways of thinking and behaving. From the very beginning of European exploration, proprietors and entrepreneurs enticed settlers to the Middle Atlantic region by touting the fertility of the land; it was, for example, “very good and fruitfull and withall very healthfull.” Plentiful, flourishing land was made redolent of an expansive abundance in all facets of life. Promotional tracts generally targeted men, but several enticed women to cross the ocean.
