Jérôme Camal
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226631639
- eISBN:
- 9780226631806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226631806.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
In the new millennium, in the wake of disenchantment with the nationalist project, gwoka's creolized aurality functions as a creative space from which new artistic and political formations can ...
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In the new millennium, in the wake of disenchantment with the nationalist project, gwoka's creolized aurality functions as a creative space from which new artistic and political formations can emerge. Musicians–such as the group Soft–dwell in a Creole postnationalist space from which they find new ways to “home” minor transnationalism and to reconcile their positions as both Caribbean and French. This new generation's postnationalist take on gwoka found its political expression in the campaign of activists and musicians who worked together within the Lyannaj pou gwoka (Alliance for Gwoka) to have the drumming tradition recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The campaign was controversial, yet successful. UNESCO now recognizes gwoka–once heralded as a symbol of anticolonial struggle–as part of France's cultural heritage and diversity. Beyond its apparent contradiction, the work of the Lyannaj represents another instantiation of the d賯ur. By forcing the recognition of Guadeloupe's cultural specificity within the French state on an international stage, the Lyannaj pou gwoka cements the emergence of a Creole postnational citizenship: cognizant of its limited economic autonomy, Guadeloupeans are nonetheless ready to capitalize on their limited cultural sovereignty to redefine–or rather, creolize–their relation with France.Less
In the new millennium, in the wake of disenchantment with the nationalist project, gwoka's creolized aurality functions as a creative space from which new artistic and political formations can emerge. Musicians–such as the group Soft–dwell in a Creole postnationalist space from which they find new ways to “home” minor transnationalism and to reconcile their positions as both Caribbean and French. This new generation's postnationalist take on gwoka found its political expression in the campaign of activists and musicians who worked together within the Lyannaj pou gwoka (Alliance for Gwoka) to have the drumming tradition recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The campaign was controversial, yet successful. UNESCO now recognizes gwoka–once heralded as a symbol of anticolonial struggle–as part of France's cultural heritage and diversity. Beyond its apparent contradiction, the work of the Lyannaj represents another instantiation of the d賯ur. By forcing the recognition of Guadeloupe's cultural specificity within the French state on an international stage, the Lyannaj pou gwoka cements the emergence of a Creole postnational citizenship: cognizant of its limited economic autonomy, Guadeloupeans are nonetheless ready to capitalize on their limited cultural sovereignty to redefine–or rather, creolize–their relation with France.
Noah Salomon
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691165158
- eISBN:
- 9781400884292
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691165158.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
For some, the idea of an Islamic state serves to fulfill aspirations for cultural sovereignty and new forms of ethical political practice. For others, it violates the proper domains of both religion ...
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For some, the idea of an Islamic state serves to fulfill aspirations for cultural sovereignty and new forms of ethical political practice. For others, it violates the proper domains of both religion and politics. Yet, while there has been much discussion of the idea and ideals of the Islamic state, its possibilities and impossibilities, surprisingly little has been written about how this political formation is lived. This book looks at the Republic of Sudan's twenty-five-year experiment with Islamic statehood. Focusing not on state institutions, but rather on the daily life that goes on in their shadows, the book examines the lasting effects of state Islamization on Sudanese society through a study of the individuals and organizations working in its midst. The book investigates Sudan at a crucial moment in its history—balanced between unity and partition, secular and religious politics, peace and war—when those who desired an Islamic state were rethinking the political form under which they had lived for nearly a generation. Countering the dominant discourse, the book depicts contemporary Islamic politics not as a response to secularism and Westernization but as a node in a much longer conversation within Islamic thought, augmented and reappropriated as state projects of Islamic reform became objects of debate and controversy. The book reveals both novel political ideals and new articulations of Islam as it is rethought through the lens of the nation.Less
For some, the idea of an Islamic state serves to fulfill aspirations for cultural sovereignty and new forms of ethical political practice. For others, it violates the proper domains of both religion and politics. Yet, while there has been much discussion of the idea and ideals of the Islamic state, its possibilities and impossibilities, surprisingly little has been written about how this political formation is lived. This book looks at the Republic of Sudan's twenty-five-year experiment with Islamic statehood. Focusing not on state institutions, but rather on the daily life that goes on in their shadows, the book examines the lasting effects of state Islamization on Sudanese society through a study of the individuals and organizations working in its midst. The book investigates Sudan at a crucial moment in its history—balanced between unity and partition, secular and religious politics, peace and war—when those who desired an Islamic state were rethinking the political form under which they had lived for nearly a generation. Countering the dominant discourse, the book depicts contemporary Islamic politics not as a response to secularism and Westernization but as a node in a much longer conversation within Islamic thought, augmented and reappropriated as state projects of Islamic reform became objects of debate and controversy. The book reveals both novel political ideals and new articulations of Islam as it is rethought through the lens of the nation.
Justin M. Jacobs
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226711966
- eISBN:
- 9780226712154
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226712154.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book provides a new interpretive framework for Western archaeological expeditions along the Silk Road in northwestern China during the first three decades of the twentieth century. By placing ...
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This book provides a new interpretive framework for Western archaeological expeditions along the Silk Road in northwestern China during the first three decades of the twentieth century. By placing the expeditions of Aurel Stein, Paul Pelliot, Sven Hedin, and other explorers back within the original political, economic, cultural, and intellectual contexts of the late Qing and early Republican eras, the author challenges the longstanding assumption that coercion, deceit, and corruption were responsible for allowing Western archaeologists to remove so many cultural relics from China. This study concludes that the majority of people who interacted with the Western archaeologist in Xinjiang, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia made the conscious and willing decision to aid and abet his expedition in exchange for various forms of capital that were perceived to be of greater value than the objects he removed. In the decades after the 1911 revolution and World War I, however, the value of these compensations began to decrease as the value of the artifacts targeted by the archaeologist increased. As a result, a new generation of Westernized Chinese scholars began to criminalize the prior activities of Western archaeologists, who could no longer offer a form of compensation that exceeded the now priceless valuation projected onto the artifact within the newly imagined Chinese nation. This process of criminalization also played an influential role in formulating new ideas about cultural sovereignty that are still debated today.Less
This book provides a new interpretive framework for Western archaeological expeditions along the Silk Road in northwestern China during the first three decades of the twentieth century. By placing the expeditions of Aurel Stein, Paul Pelliot, Sven Hedin, and other explorers back within the original political, economic, cultural, and intellectual contexts of the late Qing and early Republican eras, the author challenges the longstanding assumption that coercion, deceit, and corruption were responsible for allowing Western archaeologists to remove so many cultural relics from China. This study concludes that the majority of people who interacted with the Western archaeologist in Xinjiang, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia made the conscious and willing decision to aid and abet his expedition in exchange for various forms of capital that were perceived to be of greater value than the objects he removed. In the decades after the 1911 revolution and World War I, however, the value of these compensations began to decrease as the value of the artifacts targeted by the archaeologist increased. As a result, a new generation of Westernized Chinese scholars began to criminalize the prior activities of Western archaeologists, who could no longer offer a form of compensation that exceeded the now priceless valuation projected onto the artifact within the newly imagined Chinese nation. This process of criminalization also played an influential role in formulating new ideas about cultural sovereignty that are still debated today.
Anya Bernstein
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226072555
- eISBN:
- 9780226072692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226072692.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter explores the pre-revolutionary history of Buryats’ engagement with greater Eurasia, drawing on the legacies of the Russian Buddhological school and exploring the intellectual and ...
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This chapter explores the pre-revolutionary history of Buryats’ engagement with greater Eurasia, drawing on the legacies of the Russian Buddhological school and exploring the intellectual and political context of its emergence in the late nineteenth century. It considers the role of Russian Orientalists and political figures such as V. P. Vasil’ev and Prince E. E. Ukhtomskii, looking closely at the fieldwork in Tibet of the first Russian-trained indigenous Buryat Buddhologists G. Ts. Tsybikov and B. B. Baradiin. The chapter demonstrates that this ultimately Eurasianist school of Buddhology was born out of conflicting sentiments towards Russia’s cosmopolitanism, statehood, and imperial destiny in Asia, as well as representations of indigenous peoples of southern Siberia. The latter part of the chapter maps the emergent forms of ‘Asian Eurasianism,’ linking it to contemporary debates about cultural sovereignty in Buryatia.Less
This chapter explores the pre-revolutionary history of Buryats’ engagement with greater Eurasia, drawing on the legacies of the Russian Buddhological school and exploring the intellectual and political context of its emergence in the late nineteenth century. It considers the role of Russian Orientalists and political figures such as V. P. Vasil’ev and Prince E. E. Ukhtomskii, looking closely at the fieldwork in Tibet of the first Russian-trained indigenous Buryat Buddhologists G. Ts. Tsybikov and B. B. Baradiin. The chapter demonstrates that this ultimately Eurasianist school of Buddhology was born out of conflicting sentiments towards Russia’s cosmopolitanism, statehood, and imperial destiny in Asia, as well as representations of indigenous peoples of southern Siberia. The latter part of the chapter maps the emergent forms of ‘Asian Eurasianism,’ linking it to contemporary debates about cultural sovereignty in Buryatia.
Justin M. Jacobs
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226711966
- eISBN:
- 9780226712154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226712154.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The Conclusion provides an overview of the complex and contested legacy of Western archaeological expeditions undertaken in China by scholars such as Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot. It finds that ...
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The Conclusion provides an overview of the complex and contested legacy of Western archaeological expeditions undertaken in China by scholars such as Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot. It finds that misinformation has given rise to a variety of politicized agendas that recall selective aspects of these expeditions in order to support their position. Among these politicized agendas, the nationalist discourse of criminalization has dominated popular and scholarly discussions of the age of Western archaeological expeditions in the non-Western world. But this discourse is anachronistic and was not shared by any of the people who interacted with the Western archaeologist during his original expedition. Instead, they interacted with him on the basis of a pragmatic barter calculus here referred to as “the compensations of plunder.”Less
The Conclusion provides an overview of the complex and contested legacy of Western archaeological expeditions undertaken in China by scholars such as Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot. It finds that misinformation has given rise to a variety of politicized agendas that recall selective aspects of these expeditions in order to support their position. Among these politicized agendas, the nationalist discourse of criminalization has dominated popular and scholarly discussions of the age of Western archaeological expeditions in the non-Western world. But this discourse is anachronistic and was not shared by any of the people who interacted with the Western archaeologist during his original expedition. Instead, they interacted with him on the basis of a pragmatic barter calculus here referred to as “the compensations of plunder.”
