An unravelling of the histories of two closely linked political goals - assimilation and empire - which were in many ways interdependent over the past 500 years. Examines the resilience of assimilative ideology across centuries, continents, and empires.
This rich, deeply researched study offers the first comprehensive exploration of cross-cultural plant knowledge in eighteenth-century Mauritius. Using the concept of creolisation – the process by which elements of different cultures are brought together to create entangled and evolving new entities – Brixius examines the production of knowledge on an island without long-established traditions of botany as understood by Europeans. Once foreign plants and knowledge arrived in Mauritius, they were adapted to new environmental circumstances and a new socio-cultural space. Brixius explores how French colonists, settlers, mediators, labourers and enslaved people experienced and shaped the island's botanical past, centring the contributions of subaltern actors. By foregrounding neglected non-European actors from both Africa and Asia, within a melting pot of cultivation traditions from around the world, she presents a truly global history of botanical knowledge.
In a twenty-first century which celebrates freedom and equality while also beginning to question the lax attitudes and methods which have triumphed since the late Sixties, reflecting on the concept of authority is as necessary as ever. What role does, and should, authority play in political, social, and academic organization? Should one plead for stricter or more flexible authority? Where does the frontier between authority and authoritarianism lie? In examining these, and other related questions, this volume, postulating the interconnectedness between authority and discourse, also discusses the rhetorical strategies whereby authority is constructed, manifested, and resisted. Pertaining to subjects as various as politics, culture, literature, history, and pedagogy, the twenty chapters which constitute this book offer an interdisciplinary, yet thematically coherent, coverage of the question under discussion, and encompass a wide historical and spatial scope, which ranges from the Islamic Middle Ages to twenty-first century America, passing through nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe, India, and North Africa on the way.
Exercices d’histoire des religions is a collection of the most important articles published by Philippe Borgeaud during his career as the professor of history of religions at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). These nineteen studies showcase the many reflections of the Swiss scholar of religion on the categories and tools used to describe and compare such evanescent concepts as “religions”, “myths” and “rituals”, and his methodology for a critical and comparative study of ancient and modern religions. Through them, readers will gain a clear understanding of the importance such an approach can wield in the contemporary discussions and dissents about religions. Exercices d’histoire des religions rassemble les articles les plus importants publiés par Philippe Borgeaud durant sa carrière en tant que professeur d’histoire des religions à l’Université de Genève. Ces dix-neuf enquêtes illustrent les réflexions du savant suisse sur les outils et catégories utilisés par l’historien des religions pour décrire et comparer des concepts aussi évanescents que les « religions », les « mythes » ou les « rituels », et sur le rôle joué par les émotions dans leur élaboration. À travers eux, le lecteur est amené à découvrir la méthode développée par Philippe Borgeaud pour étudier de manière critique et comparative les religions antiques et modernes, une approche sans doute fondamentale pour mieux saisir les discussions et controverses contemporaines sur ce sujet.
First published in 1990, Deconstructing America breaks new ground by locating the European discovery of America within the study of representations of Otherness. Peter Mason acknowledges that America was part of the European imagination before its discovery, but challenges the claim that the European vision of America is merely a distorted view of some extra-European reality. He relates the way in which Europe tended to see the inhabitants of South America as monstrous figures to a longstanding European tradition on the ‘Plinian’ human races, and goes on to point out that the existence of similar representations among contemporary Amerindian peoples calls into question the extent to which ethnocentrism is an exclusively European idea. Drawing on anthropological, literary and philosophical studies, he shows how European representations of America constitute a cultural monologue which tells more about the Old World than the New. This book will be a stimulating reading for all those working in the fields of symbolic and cultural anthropology, semiotics, cultural studies, Latin America, structuralism and deconstruction.
The relationship between geography and philosophy is still largely in need of being explored. Geographers and philosophers share the responsibility for that. On the one hand, geographers have considered as a dangerous deviation any attempt to elaborate an image of the Earth which was not a mere replica of a cartographic representation. On the other hand, philosophers have generally been uninterested in a discipline offering little chance for critical reflection. In light of these considerations, the purpose of this book is to identify some fundamental philosophical issues involved in the reflection of geography by adopting a perspective which looks at the discipline with a specific focus on its fundamental concepts and distinctions.
This book investigates a corpus of royal inscriptions and literary texts, with special emphasis on those that are mythological and biblical, stretching over several millennia from the early days of Sumer to the Biblical period, in order to determine the ways in which the concept of water was used, in particular the way it functions in the political and theological ideology of the time. Three literary motifs are the object of a careful study : the crossing of water, the flood and the water of abundance. Though their study shows diversity in evolution, transmission and reception, it appears that their function is common at the heart of the Mesopotamian political theology of royal mediation.
During the long eighteenth century, Europe's travelers, scholars, and intellectuals looked to Asia in a spirit of puzzlement, irony, and openness. In this panoramic and colorful book, Jürgen Osterhammel tells the story of the European Enlightenment's nuanced encounter with the great civilizations of the East, from the Ottoman Empire and India to China and Japan. Here is the acclaimed book that challenges the notion that Europe's formative engagement with the non-European world was invariably marred by an imperial gaze and presumptions of Western superiority. Osterhammel shows how major figures such as Leibniz, Voltaire, Gibbon, and Hegel took a keen interest in Asian culture and history, and introduces lesser-known scientific travelers, colonial administrators, Jesuit missionaries, and adventurers who returned home from Asia bearing manuscripts in many exotic languages, huge collections of ethnographic data, and stories that sometimes defied belief. Osterhammel brings the sights and sounds of this tumultuous age vividly to life, from the salons of Paris and the lecture halls of Edinburgh to the deserts of Arabia, the steppes of Siberia, and the sumptuous courts of Asian princes. He demonstrates how Europe discovered its own identity anew by measuring itself against its more senior continent, and how it was only toward the end of this period that cruder forms of Eurocentrism--and condescension toward Asia--prevailed.
Annotation. The two monumental volumes making up this collection of essays hold the names of the world s most renowned and respected scholars in the field of semiotics, and does more than full justice to the extraordinary career of Algirdas Julien Greimas. Before this mer á boire of some seventy five essays kicks off, the editors present a state-of-the art introduction, which is followed by a unique bio-bibliography of A.J. Greimas that trails the career of the master writer in unparalleled fashion through the years.