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Contesting religious identities : transformations, disseminations, and mediations /
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Religion is a hot topic on the public stages of 'secular' societies, not in its individualized liberal or orthodox form, but rather as a public statement, challenging the divide between the secular neutral space and the religious. In this new challenging modus, religion raises questions about identity, power, rationality, subjectivity, law and safety, but above all: religion questions, contests and even blurs the borders between the public and the private. These phenomena urge to rethink what are often considered to be clear differences between religions, between the public and the private and between the religious and the secular. In this volume scholars from a range of different disciplines map the different aspects of the dynamics of changing, contesting and contested religious identities.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004337459 :
0169-8834 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Social Construction of Indian Forests /
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The meanings of Indian forests have been contested for many years. Even before the British colonial period, forests were seen as the haunts of outlaws, the source of beautiful images, the abode of holy men, as reserves for hunting as well as potential resources for exploitation. The Social Construction of Indian Forests explores these meanings, and draws out their relevance in diverse settings, from political party imagery in Tamil Nadu, through the Bengali novel, the management of wildlife reserves, the significance of the devarakadus (sacred groves) of Karnataka and the social meaning of forests in Uttarakhand, to case studies of Jharkhand and Karnataka in the new attempts to promote participation with Non-Governmental Organisations in the management of India's state forests.
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1 online resource (196 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753815
International Law as Constructive Resistance towards Peace and Justice /
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Professor Toshiki Mogami , the featured figure of this memorial edition, has developed his academic career in international law and politics. Professor Mogami's original normative and analytical framework is characterized by himself as Jus Contra Anarchism et Oligarchism: international law against interstate and institutionalised violence . The editors extract the very essence of his teachings from Professor Mogami's masterpieces, specifically, International Law as Constructive Resistance towards Peace and Justice .
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1 online resource (260 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004681477
New approaches to the study of biblical interpretation in Judaism of the Second Temple period and in early Christianity : proceedings of the Eleventh International Symposium of the...
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2007 marked the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the first Dead Sea Scrolls. The 11th International Orion Symposium (January, 2007), "New Approaches to the Study of Biblical Interpretation in the Second Temple Period and in Early Christianity," provided a measure of the ways in which the discovery of the scrolls has altered the paradigms for textual and historical studies in the intervening six decades. The papers in this volume address such issues as the connections and distinctions between Jewish interpretation within the Land of Israel and outside of it; between Jewish and Christian exegesis in earlier and later periods; between biblical interpretation in literature and in art; between interpretation and the formation of the biblical canon.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (xiv, 302 pages) :
9789004245006 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Intellectual Climate of Cassius Dio : Greek and Roman Pasts /
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Cassius Dio (c. 160-c. 230) is a familiar name to Roman historians, but still an enigmatic one. His text has shaped our understanding of his own period and earlier eras, but basic questions remain about his Greek and Roman cultural identities and his literary and intellectual influences. Contributors to this volume read Dio against different backgrounds including the politics of the Severan court, the cultural milieu of the Second Sophistic and Roman traditions of historiography and political theory. Dio emerges as not just a recounter of events, but a representative of his times in all their complexity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004510517
9789004510487
Memory Studies in India : Texts and Contexts /
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This pioneering volume marks a significant contribution to memory studies in India, offering an in-depth exploration of how collective and individual memories shape and reshape identities, narratives, and historical knowledge. By addressing a diverse array of topics-from forgotten events, massacres, and monuments to public spaces and food rituals-across various epochs, the essays in this collection bring new insights into India's complex cultural history. With contributions from scholars across different stages of their academic careers, this volume not only enriches the field of memory studies but also paves the way for future research in India and beyond.
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1 online resource (381 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004722514
Golden Excess : Art and the Aesthetics of the Incredible in Neronian Rome /
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Golden Excess: Art and the Aesthetics of the Incredible in Neronian Rome is the first monograph to offer a full art historical synthesis of the rich archaeological and monumental evidence for Nero's remarkable principate. An outsized and innovative artistic program emerges, informed by aesthetics of excess, the grotesque and learned luxury, that rivals the cultural achievements of Rome's first emperor, Augustus and stands in stark contrast to the universally negative and disparaging accounts of Nero in ancient authors. Indeed, Neronian Rome witnessed an astonishing efflorescence in the arts whose lasting effects still resonate.
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1 online resource (680 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004702974
Performing Islam : gender and ritual in Iran /
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Performing Islam takes as its main focus the rich array of ceremonial activities that shape and inform the lives of circles of women in south Tehran. Based on anthropological fieldwork, the book describes and analyses rituals that mark religious anniversaries and life course events in Iran today. Arguing that the ritual performances are powerful forums where ideas develop, and where rules, symbols and discourses are contested, this book discusses the values and beliefs underpinning gender constructions in a rapidly changing and complex society. The ambiguous metaphorical language of the rituals is examined, revealing how gender ideologies are projected and renewed, but also challenged, destabilized and ridiculed. Thus the rituals provide possibilities for self-expression, innovation and incremental change. This study goes beyond questions of meaning and culture to interrogate the dynamics of gender performance as products of power and politics.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-280) and indexes. :
9789047410546 :
1570-7628 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Wisdom of the Aramaic Book of Ahiqar : Unravelling a Discourse of Uncertainty and Distress /
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This book offers fresh readings of the Aramaic book of Ahiqar, an oft underappreciated ancient wisdom text. In undertaking a comprehensive literary analysis, incorporating both the drama and the sayings together, Bledsoe shows that Ahiqar's didactic impulse is founded on a sense of uncertainty about life, offering advice for those in times of distress, much like the titular character himself. While Ahiqar shares many features with instructional literature like Proverbs, the ambiguous cosmic and social order imagined in the text resonate more strongly with the likes of Qoheleth or Job. Bledsoe also takes seriously the Elephantine context, suggesting that the social and political ethic evinced by the work would have resonated strongly with the Judean community in Achaemenid Egypt.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004473126
9789004473119
The 'Problem' of Girls' Education in Postcolonial Pakistan : A Study of Postcolonial Islamic Governmentalities in Rural Balochistan /
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The book charts a comprehensive account of girls' education in postcolonial Pakistan, and argues that the problem of girls' education in rural areas needs to be situated in the construction of knowledge, the practice of power relations, and the contested processes of truth production. Drawing on theories of Foucault's governmentality, postcolonialism and feminism, the author explores the context of Pakistan as a postcolonial Islamic nation-state, examines the British colonial legacies of governing institutions, discourses of gender and education, and development of girls' education policy and practices. The book contributes to the development of the analytical framework of postcolonial Islamic governmentality and uses the framework to analyse the research data, and education policy texts and discourses. See Less
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Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004711921
The Exegetical and the Ethical : The Bible and the Academy in the Public Square. Essays for the Occasion of Professor John Barton's 70th Birthday /
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Exegesis has ethical dimensions. This is the case for the Bible, which has a foundational status in traditional perspectives that is simultaneously contested in the modern world. This innovative essay collection, largely about Hebrew Bible/Old Testament texts, is written by an international team - all Doktorkinder of a pioneer in this area, Professor John Barton, whose 70th birthday this volume celebrates. With interdisciplinary angles, the essays highlight the roles and responsibilities of the biblical scholar, often located professionally between religious and secular domains. This reflects a broader reality: all readers of texts are engaged ethically in the public square of ideas.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004505490
9789004505483
The Spatial Factor in African History : The Relationship of the Social, Material, and Perceptual /
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The authors of this inter-disciplinary collection examine the role of space in six areas of West, Central and East Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They demonstrate the active quality of space and analyze the ways in which people have contested and shaped space, including responses to crises. In addition, a lengthy essay re-interprets tropical African history, 1800-1930, using spatial theory. Contributors look at how people have constructed mental maps, used discourse to organize territories, and perceived social landscapes. The studies employ a tri-level approach, one that moves from specific places to regions to macro-regional or transnational systems and back again. Authors draw upon written and oral sources to reconstruct the past and employ innovative mapping techniques to illustrate spatial dynamics.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047405627
9789004139138
Alternative Evangelicals : Challenging Nationalism in Interwar Romania's Multi-ethnic Borderlands /
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Evangelicals in interwar Romania were a vibrant mix of ethnicities, languages, and social statuses. Jews, Roma, Germans, Hungarians, Serbs, Ukrainians, and Russians sang, prayed, and preached in their native languages. Romanian statesmen perceived them as a danger for the construction of a strong post-WWI national identity. The lived religion of interwar Romanian evangelicals and their struggle through music for legitimacy demonstrates the close ties between national self-understanding and religion. The diverse groups of Romanian evangelicals reveal how minorities in 20th century Europe challenged established religious concepts and constructed their new identities. "Finally a book on Romanian history that unpacks the day to day experiences of ordinary people and how they built churches and communities. Ploscariu tells her stories through the voices and experiences of individuals from ethnic and religious minorities, showing us how they saw their world, not just what the authorities thought about them. This book complicates Romanian religious history in wonderful and surprising ways. It will be the definitive work on the subject for many years to come." Roland Clark, University of Liverpool Author of Sectarianism and Renewal in 1920s Romania "Drawing on a diverse range of often untapped sources, Iemima Ploscariu's exploration of the history of evangelicals in interwar Romania brings vividly to life the experiences of a multiethnic community defined by their faith. She explores how, through their everyday practices - most notably their active musical life - these groups both contested the homogenizing nationalization policies of the Romanian state and carved out a place for themselves in Romanian society. This book contributes significantly to our understanding of the social and religious history of interwar Romania and to the transnational evangelical expansion of the era." Heather Coleman, University of Alberta Author of Russian Baptists and Spiritual Revolution, 1905-1929 "Here is a masterful reconstruction of the everyday life of evangelical communities in interwar Romania and their members' intricate personal relationships. This excellent study is a must-read for any scholar of nationalism who wants to understand how diverse religious and ethnic minorities struggled and thrived in a nationalising European state." Maria Falina, Utrecht University Author of Religion and Politics in Interwar Yugoslavia See Less
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1 online resource (224 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9783657796687
Bridging the Gulf : Maritime Cultural Heritage of the Western Indian Ocean /
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The volume presents papers by archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and heritage specialists and highlights the multi-layered meaning of maritime cultural landscapes. The authors shift the emphasis from understanding heritage in its local context to discussing it across the waters of the Arabian Sea. The relationship between the sea and the land underlines the centrality of the coast; the communities who inhabited the space between the ocean and the hinterland; their histories and attempts at constructing their cultural environment. An important component of this cultural landscape is monumental architecture and archaeological sites, as also their inter-linkage with travelling groups who moved both across the sea, as well as on routes into the interior. A common concern that all papers share is with definitions of maritime heritage; different articulations of social and political power; and regional and local nautical traditions. One of the objectives of this volume is to underscore the important role of World Heritage, especially sites and monuments located along the coasts that have already been identified as national treasures by individual Nation States. The objective is to bring these coastal monuments and structures into dialogue with those located across the Ocean for a holistic understanding of maritime cultural heritage of the western Indian Ocean. It is suggested that this dialogue across the seas, would help in the protection and preservation of a maritime heritage known for its 'outstanding universal value'.
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1 online resource (228 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753235
Theater state and the formation of early modern public sphere in Iran : studies on Safavid Muharram rituals, 1590-1641 CE /
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During the Safavid period, the Shi'i Muharram commemorative rites which had been publically practiced since the 7th century, became a manifestation of state power. Already during the reign of Shah 'Abbas I (1587-1629) the Muharram rituals had transformed into an extraordinary rich repertoire of ceremonies and ceremonial spaces that can be defined as 'theater state'. Under Shah Safi I (1629-1642) these ceremonies ultimately led to carnivalesque celebrations of misrule and transgression. This first systematic study of a wide range of Persian and European archival and primary sources, analyzes how the Muharram rites changed from being an originally devotional practice to an ambiguous ritualization that in combination with other public arenas, such as the bazaar, coffeehouses or travel lodges, created distinct spaces of communication whereby the widening gap between state and society gave way to the formation of the early Iranian public sphere. Ultimately, the Muharram public spaces allowed for a shift in individual and collective identities, opening the way to multifaceted living fields of interaction, as well as being sites of contestation where innovative expressions of politics were made. In particular, the construction of the new Isfahan in 1590 is linked with the widespread proliferation of the Muharram mortuary rites by discussing rituals performed in major urban spaces.
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1 online resource (404 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004207561 :
1569-7401 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
History, Archaeology and Ideology : Essays on Intellectual and Social History of Early India /
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In a country as vast and varied as India and that too with an extraordinary long and continuous history spanning over several millennia, historical processes of its development just cannot be unilinear. Since such diversi-fied processes are being presented in this monograph in a broad material background, it becomes imperative that the simultaneous presence of varied production processes in different parts of the subcontinent is recognised and underlined. In fact, modes of production and productive forces as factors behind historical transformations through the centuries have been stressed in most of the contributions here. Be it the issue of social formations and their dynamism, or of the analysis of the so-called 'feminist' writings; comprehending the ground realities of the lowest orders of the social fabric, or of providing fresh insights for delineating the developmental stages of Indian arts; construction of the apparatus of knowledge systems in early India, or of establishing the true identity of common Indian human being; the central focus has always been on the ordinary toiling people of the country. Even archaeologists have been exhorted to make them the real subjects of enquiry and data retrieval in their diggings and excavation reports. Long tradition of questioning going back to the Ṛgveda, social bases of knowledge systems, construction of 'heritage' and its sustenance in the face of challenges of 'development', ideological confrontations with neo-colonialist strains and incessant concern about communalisation of writings on Indian history and archaeology are other themes that have been highlighted here. Sixteen essays of this anthology cover almost the whole gamut of five millennia of Indian history.
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1 online resource (564 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753037