Shading,lines, colors: mapping ethnographic taxonomies of European Russia

This article explores the role of maps in the construction and development of ethnographic taxonomies in the mid-century Russian Empire. A close reading of two ethnographic maps of “European Russia” produced by members of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, Petr Keppen (1851) and Aleksander Rittikh (1875), is used to shine a spotlight on the cartographical methods and techniques (lines, shading, color, hatching, legends, text, etc.) employed to depict, construct, and communicate these taxonomies. In doing so, this article draws our attention to how maps impacted visual and spatial thinking about the categories of ethnicity and nationality, and their application to specific contexts and political purposes within the Empire. Through an examination of Keppen’s and Rittikh’s maps, this article addresses the broader question of why cartography came to be regarded as such a powerful medium through which to communicate and consolidate particular visions of an ethnographic landscape.     

Models of Discourse and Hermeneutics in Octavio Paz's El Laberinto de la Soledad

This article explores how certain presuppositions govern our interpretations of this canonical text by Octavio Paz. I trace its biographical and textual origins, the book's peculiar reception, some of its multiple intellectual sources, and the problem of genre and how these hermeneutic discourses and epistemological tools interact. Structure (the relationship between psychology and history), rhetorical strategies and central symbols and metaphors that give the book its unity and complexity are also discussed. I conclude that we can read this hybrid work simultaneously as essay, narrative text, autobiography and modern epic myth: it is both an analytic or ironic deconstruction and an imaginative, symbolic construction of individual and collective identity.     

Young Turk Governance in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War

Abstract

The article analyses the system of government of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War by looking at three elements: the constitutional-parliamentarian monarchy, the Committee of Union and Progress and the army. The analysis takes place along two axes: one in which the functioning of, and the power relations between, the different institutional elements are analysed, and one based on a series of case studies of important decision-making moments of the years 1914–18.

The civil-military relations as they developed during the war years are studies in a comparative framework. The Ottoman situation is analysed against the backdrop of changes in the balance of power between military and civilian authorities in other belligerent countries in Europe.

The conclusion is that the Ottoman Empire was a constitutional and parliamentarian monarchy only in name, but that its governance did not turn into a form of military rule either. It was run by the Committee of Union and Progress, but within that, key decisions were taken by changing informal coalitions of power brokers in such a way as to make sure that the two dominant factions, the civilian one led by Talât and the military one led by Enver were in agreement.     

《大清民事诉讼律》修订考析

修订法律馆的改组,为《大清民事诉讼律》的修订提供了机构和人员保证,而通过《汪荣宝日记》的记载,我们大致可以厘清该法修订的经过。虽然《大清民事诉讼律》的"日本法"风格极其明显,但就此认定该法是《日本民事诉讼法》的简单照搬,却是不准确,也是不公平的。在中国法律史上,《大清民事诉讼律》的修订具有重要的历史意义,而这种历史意义,是以法典编纂在技术上的相对成熟为基础的。     

State ‘parenthood’ and vocational orphanages (islâhhanes): Transformation of urbanity and family life

Ottoman urban reform policies not only targeted the rehabilitation and rebuilding of provinces, cities, streets, and squares; they also aspired to refashion the inhabitants of urban spaces. Vocational orphanages (?slâhhanes) of the latter half of the nineteenth century were, in that respect, instrumental in removing minor vagrants, beggars, and street children from urban areas according to redefined borders of urban security and visibility and in reintegrating them into society through training and employment in arts and crafts. As much as this initiative was a significant step on the part of the state to intervene in family life and child-rearing practices, the research also points to the agency of poor parents in demanding and benefiting from state welfare policies.     

帝国是全球资本主义的新阶段吗？——评哈特和奈格里的《帝国-全球化的政治秩序》

《帝国-全球化的政治秩序》一书通过对各种全球化理论和实践的综合,指出帝国已成为一种新的主权形式,一种新的社会现象。帝国超越了帝国主义,无中心、无边界,由超国家的机体和一系列国家构成。传统左翼激进主义仍在固守斗争的地方性以抵抗全球资本主义,他们没有认识到,全球化已无可逃避。以流动的民众为基础的反帝国运动,在争取全球民主权利的同时,定能开辟出一个新的世界。《帝国-全球化的政治秩序》对国际共产主义运动将产生重大的影响。     

后现代精神与后现代思想家的风骨——从敢于向霸权说“不”的格里芬谈起

后现代是对现代性的反思和超越。而现代性的一个典型态度是唯我独尊,是“霸道”。因此,向霸道,霸权说“不”就成为后现代精神的精髓,成为一切后现代思想家的共同特征。本文通过世界著名建设性后现代思想家大卫•格里芬对美帝国的抵抗和批判,揭示了建设性后现代思想家的理论取向和道德风骨: 他们不仅勇敢地抵抗形形色色的霸权, 为弱小仗义执言,而且致力于人类的平等和人与自然的共同福祉, 关爱一切生命。主张“尊重他者,倾听他人”。它并非一味解构,而是致力于为我们这个时代寻找“可能的精神家园”。     

Boko Haram : un cas d’école de l’échec de l’islam politique au Nigeria

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article analyse quelques-unes des raisons pour lesquelles Boko Haram s’est avéré incapable de gouverner les territoires qu’il a pu contrôler avant son allégeance à l’État islamique et son retrait dans les marécages du lac Tchad en 2015. L’échec politique du groupe ne tient pas seulement à sa fragmentation, sa criminalisation, son manque de cadres qualifiés et la pauvreté d’une insurrection “low cost.” En effet, le caractère prédateur de la secte est tout à la fois une cause et un symptôme de sa désorganisation et de son incapacité à gouverner. Se réclamant de la légitimité du djihad d’Ousmane dan Fodio à Sokoto, le mouvement n’a jamais cherché à ressusciter l’Empire du Borno pour lever l’impôt et rendre une justice très rudimentaire. Ainsi, le cas de Boko Haram témoigne à sa manière de l’échec de l’islam politique et des tentatives d’extension du domaine d’application de la charia au Nigeria depuis la fin de la dictature militaire en 1999.     

Ottoman apprentices and their experiences

Abstract

In this article, I analyze craft and trade apprentices in the late Ottoman Empire in order to add a new dimension to the existing literature on guilds and artisans. Rather than presenting an ideal picture, I discuss the apprentices' actions and experiences, which I argue did not take place in isolation.

First, I briefly discuss Ottoman guilds and artisans, including a literature review, define and explain both the system of apprenticeship and who apprentices were.

After focusing on the dialectical relationship between the upper and lower ranks, which presented itself through the authority - obedience or autonomy - disobedience relationship, I explain how the lower rank attempted to gain autonomy. I also question whether guild harmony was real or not and explore how some apprentices changed the direction of their life path, away from mastership to something else entirely. The hidden and unhidden resistance of apprentices will be shown through acts of theft, assault with a knife, and absconding, and through survival strategies which included running away. In the final part of the article, I describe how new institutions filled the gap left by the traditional guild system, which had been on the decline since the nineteenth century.     

The role of the ortoq in the Mongol Empire in forming business partnerships

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the emergence and development of business partnerships established by the Mongols and their merchant partners, ortoqs, in the Middle Ages. Ortoqs are known to have conducted trade and money-lending with the capital invested by their partners. This study shows that the contractual arrangements of Mongol–ortoq partnerships closely resembled medieval partnership contracts, such as mudharaba, inan, societas and commenda. Sophisticated concepts of liability in relation to investments and loans were developed in Mongol–ortoq partnerships, promoting trade and investment to facilitate the commercial integration of the Mongol Empire.