Stories About the Destruction of a Shrine in the Context of a Cycle: Observing a Particular Pattern

2020 ◽  
pp. 103-114
Author(s):  
Антонина Петровна Липатова
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
The Core ◽  
Official History ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sacred Object ◽  
Text Formation ◽  
Official Recognition ◽  
Written Sources

В статье осуществлена попытка рассмотреть цикл рассказов, группирующихся вокруг святыни, как живую, «самонастраивающуюся» систему. Структуру цикла образуют нарративы, описывающие этиологическое и историческое прошлое святыни и ее чудесное настоящее. В случае рутинизации устной традиции структура цикла нередко подвергается изменениям. Предмет нашего рассмотрения - корпус текстов о сакральном объекте в условиях широкого официального признания, сопровождающегося рутинизаций устной традиции. Происходит своего рода «перераспределение» ролей в рамках цикла. Сюжет этиологической легенды, зафиксированный во множестве письменных источников, становится «официальной историей» края. Рассказчики теряют интерес к ней, в традиции осуществляется пересказ, а не рассказывание по законам фольклорного текстообразования. Примета легендарного - актуальность информации. Трансформантный тип вариативности, характерный для этиологической легенды, становится приметой рассказов о поругании святыни. Традиционно рассказы о разрушении сакрального объекта рассматриваются как «дочерние» образования. Однако при широком официальном признании статуса объекта рассказы о его разрушении начинают восприниматься как «ядро представления», именно с их помощью объясняется сакральность. Таким образом, говорить о деградации устной традиции даже при широком официальном признании не приходится. This article attempts to consider a cycle of stories grouped around the image of a shrine as a living, “self-adjusting” system. The cycle is formed of narratives that describe the shrine’s etiology, its history, and miraculous present, but the cycle often changes as the oral tradition becomes routinized. The article analyzes a corpus of texts about shrines that have wide official acceptance and are subject to the routinization of the oral tradition. In this case a kind of redistribution of roles takes place within the cycle. Many written sources record an etiological legend that serves as the official “history” of the region. Thereupon, narrators lose interest in it, which results in a paraphrase rather than a storytelling according to the usual laws of folklore text formation. A mark of legends is the topicality of their content. The variations characteristic of etiological legends (of the transformative type) become a marker of tales concerning desecration of the shrine. Traditionally, stories about the destruction of a sacred object are considered “daughter” (subsidiary) formations. But with widespread official recognition of the status of a shrine, stories about its destruction often begin to be perceived as the “core of representation,” since it is with their help that the shrine’s sacred character is explained. Thus, one cannot speak of the degradation of the oral tradition even given its widespread official recognition.

Place Names as an Historical Source: An Introduction with Examples from Southern Senegambia and Germany

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 45-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Bühnen
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Egg Shells ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Written Sources

Written sources for the history of sub-Saharan Africa (with the exception of East Africa) only begin to appear with the inception of Arabic records from the ninth century onwards, and these are restricted to the Sahel and the northern part of the savanna belt. European sources begin in the mid-fifteenth century, first for Senegambia. They, in turn, confine themselves to the coast and its immediate hinterland, as well as the navigable courses of rivers, with few, and often vague, references to the interior. For the time before the early written sources and for those extensive areas which only much later entered the horizon of writing witnesses, other sources illuminating the past have to be traced and tapped. Among such non-written sources are the findings of anthropology and archeology, of research in oral tradition and place names. Because of their interdependence, working with different source types contributes to the reliability of results.So far little systematic use has been made of place names as a source for African history. Houis' 1958 dictum, “la toponymie ouest-africaine n'est pas encore sortie de l'oeuf,” has not yet been proven obsolete. In this paper I hope to stimulate the process of shedding the egg shells. It is intended as a short introduction to the potential historical treasures place names may yield, into their characteristics, and into some principles guiding their interpretation. With the aim at illustrating my arguments, I add examples of place names. These I have chosen from two areas which, at first sight, seem to have been selected rather randomly; southern Senegambia and Germany. In fact both areas share few features, both geographically and historically. Two reasons have led me to select them. First, they simply are the regions I know best. Secondly, the recourse to German place names is instructive, as research on place names has been undertaken there for more than a century, leading to a wide range of data and to the accumulation of rich research experience.

A history of The Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital 1874–1982

1998 ◽  
Vol 112 (22) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenice Gould
Keyword(s):  
History Of Medicine ◽  
Open University ◽  
The Core ◽  
Official History ◽  
History Of

PrefaceThis history of the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital at Gray's Inn Road formed the core of a thesis submitted to the Open University for a Doctorate of Philosophy and is not an official history. I was encouraged to give it wider circulation particularly by Sir Donald Harrison and Mr Edward Donald. The Special Trustees of the Hospital have most generously sponsored this supplement which I hope will serve to provide some interest to those who have worked at Gray's Inn Road. I must begin with an apology as it does not attempt to record the achievements of all the staff at the RNTNE and many eminent contributors to the success of the Hospital have been omitted either through my own ignorance or through lack of space to cover all areas of the Hospital's development. I have been fortunate in obtaining both written and oral historical memoirs from retired doctors, nurses, administrators and technicians who worked for many years at Gray' Inn Road. I would like particularly to thank Peter Zwarts, librarian of the Institute of Laryngology and Otology, and the librarians at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and the Guildhall. I would like to thank Andrew Gardner of the ILO for a number of the illustrations. In particular I would like to thank my OU supervisor, Dr Noel Coley, for his patience and encouragement.

scholarly journals Islam in New Zealand – A Mixed Reception: Historical Overview and Contemporary Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-170
Author(s):  
Abdullah Drury ◽  
Douglas Pratt
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
The Core ◽  
Muslim Minority ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Direct Attachment ◽  
Looking Back

Purpose: This research aims to discuss the history of Islam in New Zealand, together with some of the pressing issues and challenges Muslims have encountered along the way. Looking back at the history of early Muslim settlers and the emergence of Muslim organizations and allied enterprises, it is clear that the Muslim community in New Zealand has had a rather mixed reception in a land that, on the whole, is perceived to be benignly tolerant and accepting. Methodology: The research is based on a critical analysis of the available literature, both contemporary and historical. This paper explores complicated community developments, conversions to Islam, the violence experienced with defacement and destruction of mosques in reaction to overseas events over recent decades, ongoing Islamophobia, and the infamous 2019 terrorist attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch. Findings: The research highlights the status of the New Zealand Muslim community and the extent and nature of their influence in the country. It constitutes a social hierarchy with a complex past and multiple internal issues. Accordingly, this paper concludes with a brief discussion of the migrant experience of Muslims. It also elucidates the necessity of further research in the future and emphasizes the need to study the culture, faith and history of New Zealand from various angles. Originality: This is illustrated in the direct attachment of the research to the core topic of religion. This is the first academic study to deal directly with both the history of the Muslim minority and contemporary issues such as Islamophobia following the 2019 massacre.

scholarly journals Concept freiheit in German language chronicles of the XV–XVI centuries (on the material of town chronicles of Bern and Worms)

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 152-159
Author(s):  
A. E. Dunaev
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Written Language ◽  
German Language ◽  
Legal Entity ◽  
The Core ◽  
Research Material ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Town

In the history of the German written language, the XVXVI centuries became a turning point: in the sphere of both administrative writing and informative literature, new genres and types of texts are developing, and relations within the genre system are being rebuilt. Chronicle texts, including town chronicles, become one of the most popular textotypes. According to researchers, their primary function is legitimization of the respective town as a political and legal entity. This legitimation was based primarily on the rights and privileges granted to the town by its former or current lord. Accordingly, the semiotic space of chronicle texts is organized around the concept of freiheit meaning privilege, right, freedom. The purpose of the article is to analyze the nominative field of the concept freiheit and to conclude on the semantics and functioning of lexical units in the text that verbalize this concept. Over hundred text examples extracted from the chronicles of Bern (the first third of the XV century) and Worms (the second half of the XVI century) were used as the research material. The core of the concept freiheit, its nominate is built by the homonymic lexeme, whereby the lexeme recht also belongs to the nuclear part of the field. Based on the analysis of text examples, five components of meaning of freiheit were identified, which form the slots of the corresponding concept. The largest number of concept nominations is concentrated in the slot right, privilege: these are the lexemes gerechtigkeit the right to adjudicate, herrlichkeit with a similar meaning, obrigkeit the right of possession, indult temporary privilege, erlaubung permission. On the periphery of the concept freiheit lie the lexemes herkommen and gewohnheit in the meaning of legal customs. The analysis of material allows us to conclude that in the view of chroniclers, urban legal customs were as important for the legitimization of town as its privileges. It is worth saying that the lexeme freiheit is often used as a collective one, without specifying the content of a specific right or privilege. Obviously, for the chroniclers, the very existence of rights in their totality was of paramount importance, since this determined the status and power of their town.

scholarly journals THE DEATH OF BATRADZ AND THE DEMISEOF BASTARD

Kavkaz-forum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Э.Т. ГУТИЕВА
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
The People ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time

В контексте признаваемой историчности осетинского нартовского эпоса на основании рассказа англо-нормандского церковного историка XIIв. Ордерика Виталия о смерти и погребении Вильгельма Завоевателя и нартовских кадагов, посвящeнных гибели и захоронению нарта Батрадза, впервые ставится вопрос о сравнении нартовского героя Батрадза с историческим деятелем. Основное внимание уделено следующим сюжетообразующим мотивам: конфликт с народом/высшими силами; жар как причина смерти; смертельное ранение, полученное на поле брани, но не от рук врага; зловонность усопшего; упоминание названия усыпальницы; проблемы при захоронении слишком крупного человека в неподходящую ему по размерам усыпальницу; выплата выкупа за возможность захоронить героя. Решение данного вопроса во многом определяется статусом текста церковной хроники. Признание его валидности может служить основанием для рассмотрения данных нарративов как описаний одного исторического события разными средствами. Такой подход даeт возможность рассматривать алгоритмы мифологизации и институционализации прошлого в народной памяти. Таким прошлым для осетин является история их предков, сармато-аланских племeн. В родословной Вильгельма есть определенные пересечения с аланами, что подтверждается наличием множественных бретонских и нормандских родственников с именем Алан в ближайшем окружении короля. В качестве альтернативной интерпретации допускается возможность возведения текстов к одному первоисточнику, и если рассказ Ордерика является фабрикацией, подражательством существовавшей устной традиции, то отмеченные параллели можно квалифицировать как выход на поверхность архаических пластов, общих для двух традиций. Не исключается вероятность прямого заимствования, вектор, траектории распространения и время которого нуждаются в уточнении. Возможно, данные сюжетные мотивы являются произвольными совпадениями. In the context of the acknowledged historicity of the Ossetian Nart epic, based on the systemic coincidences of the story of the 12th century Anglo-Norman church historian Orderikus Vitalius about the death and burial of William the Conqueror and the Narts’ Kadags dedicated to the death and burial of the Nart Batradz with the historical hero Batradz, the question of comparing the Nart hero Batradz is raised for the first time. The main attention is paid to the following plot-forming motives: conflict with the people / higher powers; extreme heat/fire as the cause of death; mortal wound received on the battlefield, but not at the hands of the enemy; the stench of the deceased; stating the name of the burial-place; problems with burying an oversized corpse in a too narrow tomb; payment of the ransom for the opportunity to bury the hero. The solution to this issue is largely determined by the status of the text of the church chronicle. The recognition of its validity can serve as a basis for considering both types of narratives as descriptions of one historical event by different means. This approach makes it possible to consider the algorythms for the mythologization and institutionalization of the past in the people's memory. Such past for the Ossetians is the history of their ancestors, the Sarmatian-Alan tribes. In the genealogy of William there are certain intersections with the Alans, which is confirmed by the presence of multiple Breton and Norman relatives named Alan in the immediate circle of the king’s kins. As an alternative interpretation, these narrative can be traced to one primary source, and if Orderic's story is a fabrication, an imitation of the existing oral tradition, then the noted parallels can be qualified as an emergence of archaic layers common to the two traditions. The possibility of direct borrowing is not excluded, the vector, propagation trajectories and time of which need to be clarified. Less likely these plot motives are arbitrary coincidences.

European and African Tradition on the Rio Real

1963 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-402
Author(s):  
G. I. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Natural Tendency ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
Written Sources ◽  
Historical Detail

Those engaged in studying the history of West African coastal communities find themselves confronted with two different classes of material —historical sources, which are mainly written records produced by Europeans who visited or resided for short periods in the area; and anthropological sources, which are mainly local African oral tradition. There is a natural tendency for historians and for anthropologists each to confine themselves mainly to the class of material they understand best and to use the other, if they use it at all, uncritically and without regard to the interdependence of these two sources. The written sources were produced by people who knew little or nothing about the societies they were describing, and they can only become meaningful if seen against the ethnographic background. The African traditions on the other hand, if used alone, are no substitute for historical records. They are not concerned with an absolute time scale and can only be placed in the right historical perspective if they can be correlated with dated historical records. Neither class is capable of standing by itself; they have to be taken together and used to correct, check, and amplify each other. In addition, the written records have other faults of their own, notably the mesmerizing effect which can be achieved by an arresting statement once it has been recorded in print. The more frequently the statement is recorded the more authoritative it becomes. Captain Adams, for example, in his Sketches taken during ten voyages to Africa made a guess at the number of slaves exported annually from the Rio Real, and this figure of 20,000 was accepted uncritically and repeated by almost every subsequent writer on the slave trade in the Bight of Biafra. When it is possible to take them together, however, a great many of the apparent differences between these two classes of material disappear. The African traditions at times provide more accurate historical detail than the written sources, while some of the latter are shown to be more legendary in character than the African and subject to just the same processes of compression and the same dependence on ‘structural time’.

scholarly journals Waar is Abraham dan?

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-340
Author(s):  
J.H. Ie Roux
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
History Of ◽  
Written Sources

This article deals with some aspects of the historical Abraham. Reference is made to an Afrikaans author, Karel Schoeman, and his novel, uVerliesfontein". In this work Schoeman attempts to enter the history of a town and its people. This, however, is not possible and he therefore says that history is another country. A country which is totally inaccessable. It is, however, also true of Abraham. Since the nineteenth century it has been emphasized that we can never determine the historical Abraham. There are no reliable written sources about him (Wellhausen). Even if one tries to get behind the sources and determine the oral tradition (like Gunkel), Abraham still evades one. Through markers in the text and ancient near eastern parallels some scholars even sought to date and describe the era of Abraham. These attempts also failed. It is argued that we should rather refrain from dating Abraham. This, however, is not the end of the story. We can still try to determine how Abraham was interpreted in faith through the ages. In this regard Von Rad's usage of Usage" can be of great assistance. In a next article this topic is discussed futher.

scholarly journals Is a Journal of Method Still Necessary?

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 421-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Vansina
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Rules Of Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Written Sources

Thirty-four years ago David Henige launched History in Africa (hereafter HA) at a time when scholars often cut corners in their rush to construct a history of Africa, and disregarded rules of evidence, thereby running the risk that many of their reconstructions would prove to be unsound. The question was not that these scholars were wholly indifferent to methodology, but that the precolonial history of the continent was the cynosure of the field at the time, and hence that all eyes were turned towards the use of oral sources to overcome the perceived scarcity of written sources for that period and to provide voices from the continent. In their haste to fill huge voids in the story of Africa's past, scholars debated the rules of evidence in relation to such unconventional sources. They often disregarded almost every methodological canon when it came to written data. Crucial differences between primary and secondary sources were ignored, archival research was scanty, new editions of older publications were mere reprints accompanied or not by new introductions that were so uninformed as to be useless, while issues about authenticity, authorship, chronology, or translation were all brushed aside as quibbles. Thus, in the days before 1974, methodological concerns focused exclusively on oral tradition and oral history to the detriment of everything else. As its initial editorial made clear, HA was launched as a forum where scholars interested in method could publish articles about all the facets of the historical method—from epistemology to heuristics, rules of evidence, and historiography. The journal was founded and the contributors came.

EPITAFIES OF THE RELATIVES OF HADJI IBRAHIM AL-URADI AS A SOURCE ON THE BIOGRAPHY OF THE SCIENTIST AND ON THE HISTORY OF GIDATL

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-21
Author(s):  
Sh M Khapizov ◽  
M G Shekhmagomedov
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Medieval History ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The Past ◽  
Arabic Script ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Culture ◽  
The Look ◽  
Cultural Monuments ◽  
Written Sources

The article is devoted to the study of inscriptions on the gravestones of Haji Ibrahim al-Uradi, his father, brothers and other relatives. The information revealed during the translation of these inscriptions allows one to date important events from the history of Highland Dagestan. Also we can reconsider the look at some important events from the past of Hidatl. Epitaphs are interesting in and of themselves, as historical and cultural monuments that needed to be studied and attributed. Research of epigraphy data monuments clarifies periodization medieval epitaphs mountain Dagestan using record templates and features of the Arabic script. We see the study of medieval epigraphy as one of the important tasks of contemporary Caucasian studies facing Dagestani researchers. Given the relatively weak illumination of the picture of events of that period in historical sources, comprehensive work in this direction can fill gaps in our knowledge of the medieval history of Dagestan. In addition, these epigraphs are of great importance for researchers of onomastics, linguistics, the history of culture and religion of Dagestan. The authors managed to clarify the date of death of Ibrahim-Haji al-Uradi, as well as his two sons. These data, the attraction of written sources and legends allowed the reconstruction of the events of the second half of the 18th century. For example, because of the epidemic of plague and the death of most of the population of Hidatl, this society noticeably weakened and could no longer maintain its influence on Akhvakh. The attraction of memorable records allowed us to specify the dates of the Ibrahim-Haji pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, as well as the route through which he traveled to these cities.

The status of Gideon Mantell's “first” Iguanodon tooth in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN C. YALDWYN ◽  
GARRY J. TEE ◽  
ALAN P. MASON
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Charles Lyell ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gideon Mantell

A worn Iguanodon tooth from Cuckfield, Sussex, illustrated by Mantell in 1827, 1839, 1848 and 1851, was labelled by Mantell as the first tooth sent to Baron Cuvier in 1823 and acknowledged as such by Sir Charles Lyell. The labelled tooth was taken to New Zealand by Gideon's son Walter in 1859. It was deposited in a forerunner of the Museum of New Zealand, Wellington in 1865 and is still in the Museum, mounted on a card bearing annotations by both Gideon Mantell and Lyell. The history of the Gideon and Walter Mantell collection in the Museum of New Zealand is outlined, and the Iguanodon tooth and its labels are described and illustrated. This is the very tooth which Baron Cuvier first identified as a rhinoceros incisor on the evening of 28 June 1823.

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