Imagined Races: From Environmental Determinism to Geographical Authenticity in Twentieth‐Century Argentina

This article explores how Argentine intellectuals incorporated the natural environment into their accounts of the racial, cultural and political features of the nation. In the late nineteenth century environmental determinism, based on the assumption of a cause–effect relationship between geographical and racial factors, entered Argentina through three main routes: Lamarckism, Darwinism and Spencerianism. By the mid twentieth century, however, anti‐positivist philosophies had been fully incorporated into a body of work that analysed Argentina's socio‐historical foundations. This article examines the shift that occurred during the first half of the twentieth century in how those seeking to define race incorporated the environment into their arguments. The raza was commonly taken to be synonymous with nation. Selected works by sociologist and legal scholar Carlos Octavio Bunge (1875‐1918) and by writer and ensayista Bernardo Canal Feijóo (1897‐1982) will be analysed as influential yet overlooked examples of how ‘the problem of Argentine culture’ could not be separated from the question of nature understood in terms of both physical and human geography. The goal will be to reveal, firstly, the extent to which the notion of the interior as geographical and anthropological desert deeply informed the political vision of the early national period in relation to race and nation and, secondly, how later interpretations of the nation recast American nature as a foundational element of cultural authenticity based on a sentiment of geographical belonging.     

Indian Citizenship and the Discourse of Hygiene/Disease in Nineteenth‐Century Peru

Citizenship had become conflated with 'race' in late nineteenth century Latin America partly on account of the new language of biological science. This article focuses on the contest between rights of belonging and rights of citizenship as played out in a provincial town in Andean Peru during the late nineteenth century. In particular, it explores how by drawing on a discourse of hygiene/disease a provincial elite was able to restrict access to public space in the town and thus deny 'Indians' the possibility of participating as citizens in urban political life.     

Abraham Kuyper: Calvinist Anti‐Revolutionary Politician and Political Thinker

The figure of Abraham Kuyper looms large over the political and social landscape of nineteenth and twentieth century Holland. He held significant posts in government, education, and the church. His social theory impacted Dutch society for much of the twentieth century. His influence on both continental and American Christian political thought is substantial. And yet, Kuyper's legacy is largely understated, and his political thought unknown in many corners of the scholarly world, including Australia. This article seeks to address this by surveying some of the major aspects of Kuyper's political thought while placing him in his historical setting. By doing so, I will show that Abraham Kuyper is a transitory figure in political history, occupying an important place in the development of the relationship between religion and the modern state.     

Imperialism from Below: Informal Empire and the Private Sector in Nineteenth‐Century Germany

Far from being the product of atavistic feudal remnants within German society, nineteenth‐century German imperialism stemmed from precisely the liberal milieu that had come to prominence during 1848‐49. Through an analysis of imperialist texts dealing with Central and South America, and the social logic of these imperialist works, an understanding of the nature of private sector and civil society imperialistic projects emerges that sees liberal imperialists seeking out alternatives to statist solutions in the light of political blockages to their efforts.     

Imagining Aboriginal Nations: Early Nineteenth Century Evangelicals on the Australian Frontier and the “Nation” Concept

This article evaluates the extent that Aboriginal societies in early nineteenth century Australia were known by Europeans coming into early contact with them as Aboriginal nations rather than as tribes. The study demonstrates that early nineteenth century Evangelicals saw the Aboriginal societies that they encountered on the Australian frontier as nations because the Evangelicals’ view of the world was based on that found in their Bible, in which it is described how God had divided the world up into different nations. The article draws the conclusion that seeing Aboriginal people as nations was common among the Evangelicals. However, the practice of mapping and delineating individual Aboriginal nations was limited to a few Evangelicals, such as George Augustus Robinson and Edward Parker, who had acquired an intimate knowledge of Aboriginal culture.     

The Commonwealth in the 21st Century

The Commonwealth in the Twenty-First Century finds itself in a difficult predicament. Neither in the 'Global North' nor the post-colonial 'South' do its stakeholders invest in the organisation as a key instrument for international governance. The space which it once occupied as a mediator between rich and poor nations has either closed or been taken over by other entities. But might the Commonwealth find a new role for itself by returning to its roots as a vehicle for the exploration of the commonweal, in particular as a focus of contemporary attempts to democratize the international system? The story of the Commonwealth itself, from its origins as project for a racial imperial oligarchy in the nineteenth century to struggles for its renegotiation as a space of equality, first of 'white dominions' with Britain, and second in the era of Decolonization, is a parable of how rights and participation can be widened. Might the Commonwealth in the Twenty-First century not drive new global conversations about inequality, social and economic rights, and different cosmopolitan futures?     

Managing “Self‐Preservation”: Charles Pearson's National Life and Character and the Early Australian Commonwealth

In National Life and Character (1893), Charles Pearson argued that the breakdown in “character” threatening social cohesion in Britain was a phenomenon that was replicated on a global scale in the late nineteenth century. The economic and technological progress that characterised the industrial revolution in Britain had stimulated urbanisation, and unleashed, Pearson claimed, a “bestial element in man”, degrading the quality of civic and economic life, and leading to a rising population of “stunted specimens of humanity”. Most analyses of National Life and Character focus on its fear of non‐white races and influence on policies of racial restriction; we argue that National Life and Character is a more ambitious work of political economy preoccupied, as Pearson observed, with the “self‐preservation” of the white European race, grappling with the tension of managing a potentially degraded population as new forms of state intervention, decline of traditional religious faith, and global expansion transformed white society, leaving it declining into a “stationary state” and vulnerable in the face of the rising non‐European peoples. These concerns were shared by many of the architects of Australian Federation, influencing the policy initiatives of the post‐Federation period.     

US Travel Writer E. G. Squier and the Construction of Racialised Geographies in Nineteenth Century Honduras

This article examines the ideological foundations of American diplomat Ephraim George Squier's Notes on Central America (1855), and its effect on the formation of Honduran identity. I detail the type of racial constructions and judgments Squier made of the distinct ethnic populations, and contextualise them within the nineteenth‐century transnational debate on the origins of mankind and the surge of imperialism. I also argue that Squier's writings played a role in the employment of a series of state‐initiated civilising projects and legislative actions that clearly demonstrate how Honduras was defined both racially and spatially.     

Inching Toward Accountability: The Evolution of Brazil's Anticorruption Institutions, 1985–2010

This article analyzes the evolution of the network of Brazilian federal accountability institutions over the course of the past generation, between the transition to democracy and the end of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's second term. Substantively, the article charts the significant gains that have been made in accountability institutions. Theoretically, it evaluates the evolution of these institutions as a consequence of the distribution of rules, routines, roles, and resources across a larger institutional network, demonstrating that changes in the various bureaucratic agencies have mutually reinforced each other and generated autocatalytic processes of reform.     

Ecologies of relation: post-slavery,post-apartheid,and rethinking race across the Atlantic in Zakes Mda’s Cion

This article will argue that Zakes Mda’s 2007 novel Cion stages a dialog, one where two “Souths” – South Africa and the American South – speak to one another and give a critical voice to an under-acknowledged history of transatlantic discursive exchange on race and racial governance. Mda’s fictional South African critique, of an America still struggling with the cultural and political legacies of slavery, gestures towards a history of exchange between the two countries that in many ways is representative of a more global dialog on racial segregation during the first half of the twentieth century – of which both southern (US) segregation and apartheid are seminal examples. Moreover, this article explores various conceptualizations of race as well as the governance of racial relations as they have been articulated through ecological imaginaries, and especially between South Africa and the Southern United States over the course of the twentieth century. In this article, I argue that not only can apartheid (as well as pre-apartheid segregation) be rethought of as part of a global conversation on race and thus less as a South African anomaly, but also that the United States through its examples of various racialist technologies was highly influential across the colonial and apartheid worlds.     

Culturing identities,the state,and national consciousness in late nineteenth‐century western Guatemala1⋆

This paper examines the procedural culture that shaped ethnic and national identities in late nineteenth‐century western Guatemala. Rooted in face‐to‐face encounters between departmental jefes políticos (departmental governors) and local Maya communities, this procedural culture emerged from routines of governance such as annual municipal inspections, ethnic struggles for municipal control, and local efforts to title community lands that led Maya and state officials to develop contrasting understandings of each other and their relations. Far from precipitating a national identity of mutual belonging, state formation here intensified the racism and political violence that would rend Guatemala during the century to come.     

Cuban Anti‐slavery Narrative through Postcolonial Eyes: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab (1841) has come to be regarded as an iconic work in the canon of nineteenth‐century Cuban fiction, celebrated as much for its literary pedigree as for its radical combination of anti‐slavery and feminist ideas. Yet it has been the subject of very divergent critical appraisals. This essay sets out to breathe new life into Avellaneda’s novel by interpreting it through a postcolonial optic. Drawing on ideas from the scholarship of Edward Said and Frantz Fanon, as well as the ideas of literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, these pages explore the implications of its nationalist, racial, sexual and feminist politics for Sab’s anti‐slavery meaning. This postcolonial reading provides a possible solution for the conflicts between its various interpretations.     

Cultural histories of kumiss: tuberculosis,heritage and national health in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

In the nineteenth century, European doctors began to credit kumiss (fermented mare’s milk) for the apparent absence of tuberculosis among the nomads of the Eurasian steppe. As European and American medical journals published articles on the ‘kumiss cure’ and Russian doctors opened kumiss sanatoria, praise for the drink’s curative powers was wound together with romanticized images of the nomadic pastoralists whose creation it was. In Soviet and now in post-Soviet Kazakhstan, kumiss came to hold the double status of medicine and of national heritage. Yet if in the nineteenth century, the steppe was notable for the absence of tuberculosis, in the late twentieth century, it is notable for its presence: Kazakhstan, like many post-Soviet countries, is currently the site of an epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Discussions of the epidemic now tangle together concerns over the physical health of the population with concern over the cultural health of the body politic.     

Sino-Indian Security Predicaments for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This article considers various security predicaments affecting relations between India and China. These Sino-Indian security predicaments include their territorial dispute, their nuclear arms race, their encirclement and alignment scenarios, their trade and energy issues, and their future prospects. International relations (IR) theory is deployed around these varied security predicaments, with power and perception particularly evident in IR realism, geopolitics, constructivism, and security dilemma dynamics. Balance-of-power theory is complemented by balance-of-threat considerations. India's hedging strategy towards China and China's own strategy of transition point to each country looking to their own respective rise for the mid century.     

Assisted Emigration from Northern Germany to South Australia in the Nineteenth Century

Between 1848 and 1854, the Kingdom of Hanover financed emigration from the Harz mountains to South Australia. The scheme employed was exceptional; emigrants received interest-free loans and only those with a "good character" were eligible, not the destitute, criminal or "undesirable". Emigration was voluntary. The decision of the Hanoverian government to assist emigration was influenced by socio-economic developments in the Harz. Most emigrants were young, employed in mining, and of limited means. In Australia the Harz emigrants constituted about fifteen per cent of all German immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century. They settled throughout South Australia and Victoria but few joined German communities. The settlement and naturalisation patterns, occupations and marriage patterns of the Harz immigrants in Australia indicate that, as a group, they differed from other nineteenth century German immigrants.     

Brazilian History as Global History

The article discusses the relationship between global history and Brazilian history and suggests an agenda for future research. It argues that global history scholars could profit from Brazil's great scholarly tradition, which conceptualises key topics of global history such as global encounters and cultural identities, power asymmetries and spatial orders. Scholars interested in Brazilian history, on the other hand, will find a set of approaches and questions from a global history perspective helpful for research on central fields of Brazil historiography such as the coffee economy, scientific racism, the Cold War and the Amazon.     

19世纪末西方在华传教士的朝鲜观——以《教务杂志》为中心的考察

19世纪中叶以前的朝鲜，从未进入西方世俗世界的视野中。这种状况在19世纪60年代以后逐步改变。实际上，在整个19世纪后半叶，西方列强和崛起的日本都将侵略的矛头对准了朝鲜。伴随着列强侵略的进程，“隐士之国”朝鲜被揭开了神秘面纱。在向世人揭开朝鲜面纱时，西方传教士在中国创办的《教务杂志》（TheChineseRecorder）发挥了重要作用。由于西方传教士长久生活于朝鲜社会中，更少有功利性，因而反映的朝鲜面目更具有真实性和全面性。     

Ignorance and ‘Habitus’: Blinkered and Enlightened Approaches Towards the History of Science in Latin America

In broad terms, European students of the history of Latin America have concentrated their researches upon colonial policies, interactions between Europeans (and their American‐born descendants) and indigenous peoples, economic and commercial structures, and political life (whether of elites or, more recently, of subaltern groups). The last two decades have witnessed a significant expansion in Britain and elsewhere of research into gender studies and cultural studies. Although the latter discipline embraces an awareness of the importance of the history of science, this has tended to be rather narrowly focussed upon travel writing, and the extent to which there were links between the promotion of scientific travel and both imperial and national projects, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, like the great British scientific travellers of the nineteenth century in Latin America, the works of cultural studies specialists tend to reveal more about European attitudes and misconceptions than Latin American reality.     

“English Institutions and the Irish Race”: Race and Politics in Late Nineteenth‐Century Australia

During the 1880s there was fierce debate in colonial Australia and throughout the English‐speaking world about the functioning of increasingly democratic societies and especially who, in terms of race, class and gender, was qualified to participate in the political process. In this formative period of what later became known as the “White Australia policy”, minorities were under intense scrutiny and, within the settler population, the Catholic Irish were the most numerous minority. This paper discusses two controversial and widely‐reported 1881 articles by Melbourne writer, A.M. Topp. He argued strongly that the Celtic Irish were actually an “alien” race, fundamentally antithetical to English governance and morality. Mass Irish migration, in Topp's view, constituted a threat to the political stability and racial superiority of the whole English‐speaking world. Topp drew upon contemporary racial science and the works of leading intellectuals, but he was also influenced by political crises then occurring in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. Topp's articles, and the responses they elicited, highlight the complexities of race in colonial Australia by demonstrating that major racial differences were perceived by some to exist within what has often been portrayed as a largely homogenous “white” settler society.     

On the front and at home: women in the modern Ottoman epic

Changes in gender roles are related to larger developments in the spheres of social modernization and discipline. As Ottoman society evolved into a nation through the nineteenth century, women's roles in contemporary epic literature were reassigned to domestic life, showing them protecting the hinterland and nurturing younger generations in order to satisfy the state's growing need for manpower. Gradually, Ottoman women lost whatever autonomy they may have had over their bodies, and their status vis-à-vis the state was redefined. This article examines the female characters in modern Ottoman epic literature so as to explore the reflections in this literature of the social and political transformations that occurred during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It aims to reveal the ways in which heroic female figures created before or at the beginning of the autocratic reign of Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1909) changed into domestic characters as the social skeleton of the regime became apparent.