Search Results

Receptive Ecumenism, Ecclesial Learning, and the ‘Tribe’

James Sweeney, CP

in Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism

This chapter addresses the following questions: How can the underlying processes of communal identity formation be accommodated? How will it be possible to get beyond the simple tribalism of ... More

This chapter addresses the following questions: How can the underlying processes of communal identity formation be accommodated? How will it be possible to get beyond the simple tribalism of establishing identity over, against, and, even hostile to, the foreign ‘other’? Can we envisage a shift in favour of an ‘ecumenical tribe’? These questions are explored in four movements: Catholic identity, between the universal and the particular; receptive ecumenical learning: the overcoming of tribal prejudice; irreducible difference: the limits of receptive ecumenical learning; and discerning the conditions for receptive ecumenical learning.Less

Locating Copts in Ottoman History

Febe Armanios

in Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt

The first chapter provides background on the Copts in Ottoman Egypt, focusing on how the conquest affected the community and how the lay and clerical leadership helped to sustain a communal identity ... More

The first chapter provides background on the Copts in Ottoman Egypt, focusing on how the conquest affected the community and how the lay and clerical leadership helped to sustain a communal identity during this period. The chapter discusses how Coptic archons benefited from their contacts with Egyptian military households, who had become the de facto political authorities by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As a result of their growing wealth, archons became the financiers of a vibrant religious life. The masses still relied on clergymen to minister to the community, conduct religious rites like marriage or baptism, and serve, at least symbolically, as communal figureheads. Yet as archons solidified their influence and prestige, tensions brewed over the right to lead. Moments of collaboration or conflict between the two sides shaped religious expression in Ottoman Egypt, which is the subject of later chapters.Less

Speaking Bowls and the Inscription of Identity and Memory

Marian H. Feldman

in Communities of Style: Portable Luxury Arts, Identity, and Collective Memory in the Iron Age Levant

The chapter examines a small subgroup of decorated metal bowls, typically referred to as “Phoenician,” that bear inscriptions on them, as an avenue into the corpus as a whole, and delves into the ... More

The chapter examines a small subgroup of decorated metal bowls, typically referred to as “Phoenician,” that bear inscriptions on them, as an avenue into the corpus as a whole, and delves into the material association of ornamentation and inscription on vessels designed for pouring and/or drinking liquids in a funerary context. The presence of an inscription that names a person activates memories in a self-conscious manner. The bowls elicit, even demand, an ongoing remembrance on behalf of the named individual. The representational decoration drew user-viewers into its figured world, enacting and reenacting social, familial, and power relations through time. That these vessels appear in burial contexts from Iran to Italy points to shared cultural practices of communal feasting. Yet, the inscribing of personal names and the declaration of ownership in numerous languages and scripts found on metal bowls around the Near East and Mediterranean from the transitional period at the end of the Late Bronze Age into the Iron Age suggest a new role for funerary practices, in which emerging communal identities were increasingly being expressed through ethno-linguistic affiliation and a metaphor of ancestral kinship.Less

Food, Archaeology, and African American Identity

Mark S. Warner

in Eating In the Side Room: Food, Archaeology, and African American Identity

This chapter introduces the themes of the book and shows that the households in question chose pork over beef at a time when most white households made the switch to beef. A comparison of the food ... More

This chapter introduces the themes of the book and shows that the households in question chose pork over beef at a time when most white households made the switch to beef. A comparison of the food remains from other archaeological sites within the Chesapeake regularly indicates a much higher level of pork consumption among black households. While some might argue that a preference for pork is attributable to economic factors, a detailed examination of the archaeological, oral, and documentary record indicates that this was patently not the case. African American’s consumption of pork within this region was a profound expression of an identity as separate from white society.Less

“American” Individualism, Variations on a Theme: or, Self-Reliance, Transformed!

AnaLouise Keating

in Transformation Now!: Toward a Post-Oppositional Politics of Change

This chapter investigates and revises conventional models of individualism and personal selfhood. Given the central roles Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau have played in constructing an ... More

This chapter investigates and revises conventional models of individualism and personal selfhood. Given the central roles Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau have played in constructing an “American” self and an “American” literary tradition, canonical transcendentalist texts like Emerson's “Self-Reliance” and Thoreau's Walden offer a useful point of departure for this investigation. This chapter redefines individualism—including canonical versions of individualism—in more relational terms. When we (re)read mainstream versions of “American” individualism and self-reliance through the work of contemporary U.S. women of colors, all parties are transformed: self-reliance becomes a highly democratic, relational endeavor that simultaneously extends canonical interpretations of personal freedom outward to include previously ignored groups and redefines “American individualism” by reconfiguring the relationship between personal and communal identities.Less

Foundational Legends, Shrines, and Ismāʿīlī Identity in Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan

Jo-Ann Gross

in Muslims and Others in Sacred Space

The history of rural shrines in Central Eurasia remains largely unstudied, despite the pivotal role they play as charters of Islamic identity and expressions of local Muslim piety. This paper seeks ... More

The history of rural shrines in Central Eurasia remains largely unstudied, despite the pivotal role they play as charters of Islamic identity and expressions of local Muslim piety. This paper seeks to draw attention to the oral and written traditions of rural shrines in the Pamir through an examination of Ismāʿīlī shrines in Gorno-Badakhshan,Tajikistan. Using a combination of oral narratives, genealogies, and historical literature, the chapter discusses how local foundational legends and networks of shrines intersect in ways that express Ismāʿīlī religious legitimacy and communal identity and map a sacred Islamic history that links local and distant cultural geographies and regional and universal traditions.Less

Famous Wombs and Women’s Memories: Gender, Nation, and Life Writing in Today’s Egypt

Marilyn Booth

in May Her Likes Be Multiplied: Biography and Gender Politics in Egypt

In the 1980s and 1990s, the production of biographical sketches of “Famous Women” proliferated, shifting mostly from the periodical press back into the form of “collected biography,” especially among ... More

In the 1980s and 1990s, the production of biographical sketches of “Famous Women” proliferated, shifting mostly from the periodical press back into the form of “collected biography,” especially among privately funded Islamist publishing houses. That so many of today's biographical collections are written by men echoes the medieval practice of writing biographical dictionaries, exclusively a male-authored tradition. This chapter compares fifteen collections of biographies of women published from 1978 to 1995 to parallel texts from early in the century. It focuses on these collections' definitions of exemplarity, biographers' subject choice along axes of ethnicity, nationhood, chronology, and communal identity, and on concepts of the female subject as represented in “Famous Women” biography from each era. The chapter asks how the female subject is positioned with regard to assumptions about domesticity and a “public–private” distinction.Less

“No Gulf between a Chan and a Smith amongst Us”: Charles Graham Anderson’s Manifesto for Eurasian Unity in Interwar Hong Kong

Emma Jinhua Teng

in Eurasian: "Mixed Identities in the United States, China, and Hong Kong, 1842-1943"

Chapter 8 takes up the question of whether mixed-race subjects really challenge or deconstruct race, as some assert, or simply reconfigure racial formations along different lines through the ... More

Chapter 8 takes up the question of whether mixed-race subjects really challenge or deconstruct race, as some assert, or simply reconfigure racial formations along different lines through the constitution of new “mixed” identities. Through a reading of Charles Graham Anderson's manifesto for Eurasian unity, this chapter uses the founding of a Eurasian Welfare League in interwar Hong Kong to demonstrate how an ethnic shift among the colony's mixed-race population enabled the emergence of a distinct Eurasian communal identity that was neither Chinese nor European.Less

Conclusion

Jonathan Ray

in After Expulsion: 1492 and the Making of Sephardic Jewry

This chapter concludes that the story of the formation of Sephardic Diaspora and the long and difficult resettlement of Iberian Jewry in the lands of the sixteenth-century Mediterranean offers ... More

This chapter concludes that the story of the formation of Sephardic Diaspora and the long and difficult resettlement of Iberian Jewry in the lands of the sixteenth-century Mediterranean offers valuable insights into the essential nature of Jewish communal organization and the self-fashioning of communal identities. Key to a better understanding of these issues is the recognition that they transcend the question of the Jews' political and religious relationships to their host societies. Indeed, although outside forces determined the general contours of Jewish society, the primary challenges to executing the rabbinic ideal of autonomous government came from within. In many ways, this communal instability was a central feature of Hispano-Jewish life that carried over into its diaspora.Less

Conclusion

Janine Larmon Peterson

in Suspect Saints and Holy Heretics: Disputed Sanctity and Communal Identity in Late Medieval Italy

This concluding chapter argues that a variety of factors contributed to the phenomenon of disputed saints in northern and central Italy. As the members of nascent signorial governments gradually ... More

This concluding chapter argues that a variety of factors contributed to the phenomenon of disputed saints in northern and central Italy. As the members of nascent signorial governments gradually defined themselves as communities, partly through conflict and their complicated relationship with the papacy, new local saints emerged as symbols of communal identity. Many of these saints became the focus of a cult precisely because they were believed to have assisted the city in an important battle, assuming the role of protectors in the midst of strife alongside saints connected to their foundation myths. A significant aspect of late medieval sanctity that emerges from this study is that both popes and communities used saints as political weapons. The disputed saint was not just a manifestation of a gap between local and papal interests, nor simply a disjunction between popular and official concepts of the holy. Emerging out of the hubs of political unrest in northern and central Italy, disputed saints became central to communities' efforts to achieve religious and political autonomy. Communities used the creation of cults and the canonization process, among other tools available, in a grassroots effort to get things done and cement an independent identity.Less

Getting to Know the ‘Other’: Inter-church Groups and Peace-building in Northern Ireland1

Maria Power

in The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland: Peace Lectures from the Institute of Irish Studies at Liverpool University

In Northern Ireland, church groups are working ecumenically to promote peace and reconciliation within communities deeply fractured by the conflict. This chapter focuses on the historical development ... More

In Northern Ireland, church groups are working ecumenically to promote peace and reconciliation within communities deeply fractured by the conflict. This chapter focuses on the historical development of such local inter–church peace initiatives, exploring in particular the means through which they challenge accepted notions of communal identity. It shows that these are often surprisingly low–key endeavours that take years rather than months to produce results. Such activities reveal that through the work of local churches, religion has consistently been used as a means of reconciliation, long before the ceasefires and subsequent European peace funding made cross–community work safe and acceptable.Less

Conclusion Bruce Kingship and the Legacy of Scotland's Wars, c.1286–c.1329

Michael Penman

in Robert the Bruce: King of the Scots

This chapter begins with a brief assessment of a rhetorical eulogy presumably composed shortly after Robert's death. It then discusses Robert I and his reign's attention to patronage, justice and ... More

This chapter begins with a brief assessment of a rhetorical eulogy presumably composed shortly after Robert's death. It then discusses Robert I and his reign's attention to patronage, justice and law, counsel, piety, and communal identity. These factors should be given equal scrutiny in explaining his hard-fought survival and eventual success as king of Scots, just as have been his undoubted personal grit, perseverance, charisma, and military skills.Less

A Temple with Two Gods: Managing Social Relations Between Soldier-Farmers and Local Civilians

Michael Szonyi

in The Art of Being Governed: Everyday Politics in Late Imperial China

This chapter shows how military households strategized within the Ming state's registration system and how their assignment to the region generated new kinds of social relations. It explains how Ming ... More

This chapter shows how military households strategized within the Ming state's registration system and how their assignment to the region generated new kinds of social relations. It explains how Ming military institutions have shaped local social life over the centuries and how their legacies shape social relations even up to the present day. The chapter also discusses the variety of approaches and methods members of military households used to integrate into the existing communities around them, sometimes infiltrating and taking over existing community organizations such as temples and thereby developing and maintaining a separate communal identity within the larger society, sometimes integrating as individuals and families with that society and blending into it. It explores the families' process in moving between different regulatory systems and tried to even take over existing social organizations. A small temple in the village of Hutou provides an illustration of how these new social relations could endure.Less

Welfare States in the Middle East and North Africa: Puzzles and Answers

Ferdinand Eibl

in Social Dictatorships: The Political Economy of the Welfare State in the Middle East and North Africa

Chapter 1 sets out the main empirical puzzles of the book, which are (i) the early divergence of welfare trajectories in the region and (ii) their long persistence over time. Drawing on literature ... More

Chapter 1 sets out the main empirical puzzles of the book, which are (i) the early divergence of welfare trajectories in the region and (ii) their long persistence over time. Drawing on literature from authoritarianism studies and political economy, it lays out the theoretical argument explaining this empirical pattern by developing a novel analytical framework focused on elite incentives at the moment of regime formation and geostrategic constraints limiting their abilities to provide welfare. It also outlines the author’s explanation for the persistence of social policies over time and broadly describes the three types of welfare regime in the region. It sbows the limitations of existing theories in explaining this divergence and bigbligbts the book’s contribution to the literature. The theoretical argument is stated in general terms and sbould thus be of relevance to political economy and authoritarianism scholars more broadly. The chapter ends with an outline of the chapters to come.Less

Divergent Paths: The Coalitional Origin of Authoritarian Welfare States

Ferdinand Eibl

in Social Dictatorships: The Political Economy of the Welfare State in the Middle East and North Africa

The chapter is macro-comparative in nature and examines to what extent the theoretical framework is in line with the historical patterns of authoritarian regime formation. Drawing on historical case ... More

The chapter is macro-comparative in nature and examines to what extent the theoretical framework is in line with the historical patterns of authoritarian regime formation. Drawing on historical case accounts, Arabic language secondary liter­ ature, and autobiographical material written by actors involved in the early elite struggles, the chapter spotlights how intra-elite conflict and communal cleavages shaped elites’ incentives for welfare provision. In addition, the chapter maps out the geostrategic environment in which regime formation took place, highlighting differences in the exposure to external threat and the endowment with resources as key constraining factors on welfare distribution. It does so in the form of comparative narratives of coalition formation and the geostrategic context, and demonstrates how the combination of elite competition, communal cleavages, and the geostrategic context widened or narrowed the authoritarian support coalitions.Less

‘Great Men’, Churchmen, and the Others: Forms of Authority in the Villages of the Umayyad Period

Arietta Papaconstantinou

in Village Institutions in Egypt in the Roman to Early Arab Periods

This article argues that in the early period after the Arab conquest, the primary communal self-ascription of the rural Christian population was to their village communities, and that authority was ... More

This article argues that in the early period after the Arab conquest, the primary communal self-ascription of the rural Christian population was to their village communities, and that authority was still firmly in the hands of secular elites. Based on evidence from papyri, this contradicts the later narrative sources which give the church a preponderant position in communal leadership – a reality they retroject from the ninth century and later, when they were composed.Less

Return: The Crimean Tatar Migrations from Central Asia to the Crimean Peninsula

Brian Glyn Williams

in The Crimean Tatars: From Soviet Genocide to Putin's Conquest

This chapter examines the mass return of a quarter of a million Tatar Muslim exiles from Central Asia to the Crimean Peninsula during the early 1990s. It looks into the impact of this return on the ... More

This chapter examines the mass return of a quarter of a million Tatar Muslim exiles from Central Asia to the Crimean Peninsula during the early 1990s. It looks into the impact of this return on the region's Slavic population, as the territory had become a safe haven for Russians. The Tatars who arrived in the region commenced several actions that worried the Slavic population who had occupied the land during their “absence.” The Russians attributed these actions to Islamic fundamentalism, and many Russians feared for the peninsula's stability with the return of “Muslim fanatics.” The chapter also argues that it was a secular nationalist movement based on a territorialized communal identity that had led to this mass return. This unique identity, based on the diasporic notion of a lost Fatherland, enabled the Tatars to maintain their sense of community and ultimately made their repatriation possible.Less

Vatan: The Construction of the Crimean Fatherland

Brian Glyn Williams

in The Crimean Tatars: From Soviet Genocide to Putin's Conquest

This chapter discusses the formation of the Vatan, a distinct Crimean Tatar communal identity, in the nineteenth century. It highlights the works of Ismail Gasprinsky, an educator who is considered ... More

This chapter discusses the formation of the Vatan, a distinct Crimean Tatar communal identity, in the nineteenth century. It highlights the works of Ismail Gasprinsky, an educator who is considered to have laid the social foundation for the forging of a narrow Crimean Tatar national movement. Gasprinsky believed that the reactionary and conservative attributes of Islam were slowly killing the Crimean Tatars culturally. Together with a Volga Tatar reformist movement led by Shihab al-Din Marjani, Gasprinsky embarked on an ambitious program of educational reform that was to completely reshape Muslim education in the Russian Empire. He opened a series of New Method (Usul-i Jadid) schools whose objectives were to revolutionize the outdated system. These schools opened the minds of the people to the greater world, attacked obscurantism, fought for the liberation of women in Muslim society, and called for greater cross-cultural sharing and contacts between Russians and Tatars.Less

Musical Cultures Meet1

in The Power of Song: Music and Dance in the Mission Communities of Northern New Spain, 1590–1810

This chapter explores the role of music in the evangelization of central New Spain. It analyzes the types and functions of music in the mission communities of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth ... More

This chapter explores the role of music in the evangelization of central New Spain. It analyzes the types and functions of music in the mission communities of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and discusses the use of music in teaching and in various ritual acts such as entradas and doctrinal instruction. This chapter suggests that the performance of music in both central New Spain and the northern frontier regions was a way for indigenous groups to re-create and assert communal identity in the face of colonial pressures. It also considers the function of music and dance in seventeenth-century revolts.Less

An Intellectual Topography of the Early Modern Inns of Court

Jessica Winston

in Lawyers at Play: Literature, Law, and Politics at the Early Modern Inns of Court, 1558-1581

Taking Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’ as a key term, this chapter introduces the early modern Inns of Court, examining tensions between the multifaceted and multigenerational aspects of the ... More

Taking Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’ as a key term, this chapter introduces the early modern Inns of Court, examining tensions between the multifaceted and multigenerational aspects of the Inns on the one hand, and their more coherent institutional culture on the other. Looking at legal education and other topics, such as religious nonconformism, the chapter argues that the Inns were dynamic institutions and changed over the period; nevertheless, the existence of a sense of shared culture is a constant. At moments of legal change, the nature and characteristics of this culture were reshaped. The literary culture of the Inns helped to promote and shape broader intellectual and communal life at the societies. In decades of significant political and legal transformation, literary production intensified, helping to define and reinforce communal and institutional identity, or to challenge and remake it.Less