Polities and Political Discourse: Was Mande Already A Segmentary Society in the Middle Ages?

1996 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 121-128
Author(s):  
Jan Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
West African ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Way

Stephan Bühnen has applied some of my ideas to a wider region than southwestern Mali, and shown that the principles of Mande status discourse make possible new interpretations on sources and political processes in the entire West African Sudan. Inspired by Bühnen's analysis, I am convinced that the principles of Mande status discourse may shed light on various processes, varying from political struggles between families to the construction of contemporary ethnic identities. I hope that this reply will not be the end of the discussion on West African genealogies, and that others will join us.Although Bühnen ideas are fruitful, there are also points to contest. Lack of space forces me to focus on three points of Bühnen's critique: the way I elaborate the term “segmentary;” his remarks that I overlook a “bulk of testimony recorded in medieval Arabic sources;” and his complaint of my “inadequate understanding of historical polities.”Since Bühnen accepts my analysis of the Mande genealogies and their relation to nineteenth-century society, I will take this as my point of departure. I will argue that we cannot deduce the “historical reality of polities” for the available material without being misled by our own prejudices and fallacies. The ‘old’ sources are not as one-dimensional as Bühnen thinks: a status claim does not necessarily represent an irreversible hierarchy in a relationship. Bühnen ignores the context, overlooks the dynamics of Mande status discourse, and presupposes his model of chiefdoms.I admit that I am vague about the way I operationalize the term “segmentary,” but a definition of “segmentary” is not necessary to my argument since I focus on a discourse which shows that any relation in Mande is hierarchical as well as based on a dichotomy—for instance, ‘older-younger’ or ‘founder-stranger.’

Knowledge artifacts: the implications of incommensurable dimensions for their design

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-147
Author(s):  
Carla Simone
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Crucial Aspect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Conceptual Foundations ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Empirical Investigations ◽  
The Way

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to overcome the confusion generated by a loose definition of the term knowledge artifact (KA) and its impacts on the design of technologies supporting their use. Design/methodology/approach The paper looks at the conceptual foundations underpinning the concept of KA that are related to the way in which knowledge is conceived, and revisits the outcomes of empirical investigations to shed light on different aspects of the use of KA in various settings. Findings The paper identifies a class of KAs and its role in relation to other classes of KAs, as it emerges from the empirical investigations. Research limitations/implications The focus is on documental artifacts that are, however, widely used in different domains and organizations. New empirical work is needed to consider other kinds of artifacts and their role in knowledge-intense activities. Practical implications The paper aims to drive the attention of the designer on phenomena that hinder the acceptance, appropriation and effectiveness of the technologies they design to support a crucial aspect of collaboration. Originality/value The paper is original in the following ways: first, documenting the interplay between a kind of KA that is poorly considered in the literature with other classes of KAs; second, highlighting a set of principles that should guide the construction of computational KAs of a different nature.

What Is Called Thinking?: When Deleuze Walks Along Heideggerian Paths

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoît Dillet
Keyword(s):  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
New Distribution ◽  
Shed Light

When on the last page of What Is Philosophy?, Deleuze and Guattari (1995: 218) claim that philosophy needs a non-philosophy, this statement is the result of a long engagement with the problem of thinking in society. It is this engagement that we intend to reconstruct in this article. By developing an original definition of thinking after Heidegger, Deleuze is able to claim that philosophy is not the only ‘thinking’ discipline. Our point of departure is Deleuze's constant reference to a phrase from Heidegger's lecture course What Is Called Thinking?: ‘We are not yet thinking’ ( Deleuze 1988 : 116, 1989: 167, 1994: 144, 2002: 108; Deleuze and Guattari 1995: 56). This phrase points to the demand for a new distribution of the relation between philosophy and its outside. The purpose of this article is to trace Heidegger's influence on Deleuze's definition of thinking and to raise two points. First, Deleuze borrows some elements of Heidegger's definition of thinking to further his own understanding of politics as an involuntary practice. For both, the question of thinking is political. Second, by departing from Heidegger, Deleuze can democratise the definition of thinking, beyond its confinement to philosophy, by turning to cinema. Deleuze calls cinema the art of the masses because it brings the masses in contact with external signs. Finally, in the last part of this article, we will discuss how Deleuze raises stupidity (and not error) as a transcendental problem that should be constantly fought. In this way, we hope to shed light on how Deleuze moves from Heidegger's question ‘what is called thinking?’ to the problem of stupidity and shame.

scholarly journals Migration, Youth, and Land in West Africa: Making the Connections Work for Inclusive Development

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayke Kaag ◽  
Gerard Baltissen ◽  
Griet Steel ◽  
Anouk Lodder
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Short Term ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Local Case ◽  
African Youth ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Shed Light

This paper presents the results of a short-term research project conducted in 2017/2018 on the various ways in which migration and land dynamics in West Africa are intertwined. Contrary to much conventional (policy) thinking in the European Union (EU) today, our point of departure is not that migration is the problem to be solved – nor that (access to) land is the straightforward means to discouraging migration. Drawing on local case studies in four West African countries, this research aims to shed light on the various relationships between migration and land, and to analyze to what extent they may contribute to or obstruct (local) inclusive and sustainable development in Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Benin. In doing so, we aim to offer food for thought concerning possible ways for making the connection between migration and land more fruitful and productive for as many people as possible, especially in relation to the opportunities and constraints facing different categories of West African youth.

The Novella in Arabic: a Study in Fictional Genres

1986 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Allen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Short Story ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Short Novel ◽  
Differences Of Opinion ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Way

Before broaching the main topic of this study, there seem to me to be two general issues involving terms in the title which need to be addressed: The one concerns nomenclature, the other the question of genres. A certain vagueness colors most attempts at definition of the term “novella,” something which seems the result of both the way in which the term has developed and the considerable differences of opinion among critics. Thus theOxford English Dictionaryseems to reflect the relatively recent interest in the genre in the English-speaking world by not including the word at all in the main part of the dictionary and by defining it in the Supplement as “a short novel (as in the stories of Boccaccio'sDecameron).” As Howard Nemerov points out, however, “the term ‘short novel’ is descriptive only in the way that the term ‘Middle Ages’ is descriptive—that is, not at all, except with regard to the territory on either side.” The index to the English translation of Todorov'sPoetics of Prose lists: Novella, see Tale. Such entries as these do at least convey to us the notion that the novella operates somewhere along a fictional spectrum, the two poles of which are the novel and the short story, but that is all.

scholarly journals Ting og typologier – en utforskning av landbruksutstillingen på Dalane Folkemuseum

1970 ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Eva Reme ◽  
Olaug Norun Økland
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Southwest Coast ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Way

The Folk Museum at Dalane is a regional museum for the four southernmost municipalities in Rogaland on the southwest coast of Norway. Established in 1910, it is a museum typical of the period in which the Norwegian folk museums were set up. The point of departure for this article is the museum’s typological agricultural exhibition, which still is untouched, exactly as it was mounted in 1952. By emphasizing a micro-perspective the authors illuminate how ideas and practices both followed and departed from well-established museum paradigms. The applied actor-perspective emphasizes the importance of the individuals who were actually responsible for the organization and development of the museum. The article accentuates the museum actors’ attitudes and approaches towards the material objects, as well as their way of mounting and organizing the exhibition. Furthermore, by taking into consideration the way they built and participated in various social networks, the intention is also to shed light on how the museum actors negotiated between their own ambitions and established norms for collecting and forming exhibitions. In this way it is possible to follow how local museums can simultaneously confirm and challenge existing museum paradigms. 

In varietate concordia

Moreana ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 43 (Number 165) (1) ◽  
pp. 23-33
Author(s):  
Kevin Eastell
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Community Identity ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Hanseatic League ◽  
Economic Collaboration ◽  
Unity In Diversity ◽  
Founding Principle ◽  
Definition Of

Beginning with the complexities involved in the definition of the modern European Community identity, the author proceeds to examine the historical dimensions of the development of Europe as a continent. The Roman and Greek antecedents are recognised and the emergence of Constantinople as a pivotal consideration is discussed. By the early 16th century, what Europe meant is explained in more comprehensive terms than those that prevail today. The unity of Christendom under the papacy is identified as germane to the political unity of Europe as a continent. The Reformation unleashed a process of disintegration and division into national and religious states that has taken centuries to begin to heal. Recognising the failure of modern European structures to secure cohesion among its member countries, the article recognises an attempt to develop unity in diversity: based on the notion of economic collaboration berween trading cities. This notion was very much a feature of the Hanseatic League of the middle-ages, and indeed a founding principle of the Greek city confederacy. History remains a potent and pertinent dimension in our understanding of Europe as a continental concept.

Géographie et cartographie fictionnelles dans l’Utopie (1516) de Thomas More

Moreana ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (Number 181- (3-4) ◽  
pp. 9-68
Author(s):  
Jean Du Verger
Keyword(s):  
Complex Network ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
The Third ◽  
Editio Princeps ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Way

The philosophical and political aspects of Utopia have often shadowed the geographical and cartographical dimension of More’s work. Thus, I will try to shed light on this aspect of the book in order to lay emphasis on the links fostered between knowledge and space during the Renaissance. I shall try to show how More’s opusculum aureum, which is fraught with cartographical references, reifies what Germain Marc’hadour terms a “fictional archipelago” (“The Catalan World Atlas” (c. 1375) by Abraham Cresques ; Zuane Pizzigano’s portolano chart (1423); Martin Benhaim’s globe (1492); Martin Waldseemüller’s Cosmographiae Introductio (1507); Claudius Ptolemy’s Geographia (1513) ; Benedetto Bordone’s Isolario (1528) ; Diogo Ribeiro’s world map (1529) ; the Grand Insulaire et Pilotage (c.1586) by André Thevet). I will, therefore, uncover the narrative strategies used by Thomas More in a text which lies on a complex network of geographical and cartographical references. Finally, I will examine the way in which the frontispiece of the editio princeps of 1516, as well as the frontispiece of the third edition published by Froben at Basle in 1518, clearly highlight the geographical and cartographical aspect of More’s narrative.

HERMENEUTIKA HANS-GEORG GADAMER DAN SIGNIFIKANSINYA TERHADAP PENAFSIRAN AL-QUR’AN

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muh. Hanif
Keyword(s):  
Text Interpretation ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Hans Georg Gadamer ◽  
The Way

The paper discusses the introduction of hermeneutics, Gadamer's biography, Gadamer's hermeneutics and Quranic exegesis, and examples of interpreters using the Gadamer hermeneutics model. hermeneutics tried to grasp the meaning of the Quranic text. Meaning comes from the German "Meinen" which means "to be in the mind or right." Meanings are produced on the basis   of a fusion of horizon or a mixture of the author's horizon of thought, reader, and text.  interpretation is a productive act involving the subjectivity of the interpreter and is  influenced by the historical reality and the presupposition of the interpreter. Gadamer hermeneutics is widely applied in the way of interpretation of the Qur'an bi al-ra'yi.

Light and Sensitivity: Love in the Time of the Daguerreotype

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Czeczot
Keyword(s):  
Male Gaze ◽  
History Of Photography ◽  
Sensitive Material ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Passive Object

The article deals with the love of Zygmunt Krasiński to Delfina Potocka. The point of departure is the poet's definition of love as looking and reads Krasiński's relationship with his beloved in the context of two phenomena that fascinated him at the time: daguerreotype and magnetism. The invention of the daguerreotype in which the history of photography and spiritism comes together becomes a pretext for the formulation of a new concept of love and the loving subject. In the era of painting the woman was treated as a passive object of the male gaze; photography reverses this scheme of power. Love ceases to be a static relationship of the subject in love and the passive object – the beloved. The philosophy of developing photographs (and invoking phantoms) allows Krasiński - the writing subject to become like a light-sensitive material that reveals the image of the beloved.

Ildar Garipzanov, Caroline Goodson, and Henry Maguire, ed., Graphic Signs of Identity, Faith, and Power in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Cursor Mundi, 27, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017, xviii, 392 p., 141 ill.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 377-379
Author(s):  
Kriszta Kotsis
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Third ◽  
Cursor Mundi ◽  
Definition Of

Late antique and early medieval graphic signs have traditionally been studied by narrowly focused specialists leading to the fragmentation and decontextualization of this important body of material. Therefore, the volume aims “to deepen interdisciplinary research on graphic signs” (7) of the third through tenth centuries, with contributions from archaeologists, historians, art historians, a philologist, and a paleographer. Ildar Garipzanov’s introduction defines the central terms (sign, symbol, graphicacy), calls for supplanting the text-image binary with “the concept of the visual-written continuum” (15), and argues that graphicacy was central to visual communication in this period. He emphasizes the agency of graphic signs and notes that their study can amplify our understanding of the definition of personal and group identity, the articulation of power, authority, and religious affiliation, and communication with the supernatural sphere.

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