When the Subject is the Object: Islamic Advice Literature Modes and the Treatment of Slavery in The Qābūs Nāmih and The Nasirean Ethics

This paper investigates the difference of perspective which informs The Qābūs Nāmih's and The Nasirean Ethics’ respective treatments of the topic of slavery. While in various parts of their discussions both works show an engagement with each side of the hybrid status of a slave's existence as both subject and object, The Qābūs Nāmih deals with the issue almost entirely in terms of the slave's status as an object, while The Nasirean Ethics engages this issue with clear acknowledgments to his/her status as a subject. It is possible that the divergent approaches of these two works are a reflection of the two distinct modes of the genre of Islamic advice literature in which they were respectively written.     

Of ghosts and other spectres: the Cold War's ending and the question of the next ‘hegemonic’ conflict

Our intent in this article is to try to determine if the manner of the Cold War's ending can suggest anything useful to those of us who ponder whether the twenty-first century will be able to break from the dismal cyclical pattern of all previous centuries, and become the first span of decades to exorcise the evil spirit of great power war. Our task is to employ cyclical constructs in such a manner as to cast doubt upon the ‘cyclical determinism’ of the power transition pessimists.     

Re‐locating Moroccan Women’s identities in a transnational world: the ‘woman question’ in question

This article considers the situation of women in politics and the overall politicization of the ‘woman question’ in Morocco in its historical context in order to suggest why, despite enormous changes in women’s daily lives and roles in society, continued attempts to gain greater rights for Moroccan women and improve their status have been met with strong resistance by certain political groups. Working with interviews conducted with activists during fieldwork in Morocco, I focus on an analysis of two recent sets of events—debates around the Plan for Action to Integrate Women into Development and the Moroccan March 2000 for Women in Rabat and its counter‐march in Casablanca—to discuss how the various oppositional positions on the ‘woman question’ have developed and persisted in Morocco. I argue that unresolved and renewed national conflicts in Morocco, which in part are fueled by the success of transnational feminisms and fundamentalisms, perpetuate the manipulation of the ‘woman question’ for short‐term political gains in such a way that significant progress on this issue has been repeatedly thwarted. I address the tension in transnational feminism between ‘universalist’ and ‘cultural difference’ positions as they have been manifested in the Moroccan context and suggest that a way forward involves problematizing both poles of this dichotomy.     

Research on the post‐communist world: An overview and an Agenda

The collapse of communism has left many specialists on the former communist world depressed and pessimistic about their own future role. This article starts by identifying five major reasons for depression—the problem of the ‘fellow‐traveller'; ‘redundant’ research; unfamiliar instability; the marginalised ‘go‐between'; non‐prediction. Counterarguments to—alternative perceptions on—each of these is then provided. In the concluding section, I propose a nine‐point agenda for research, and argue that, in some ways, the outlook has never been more challenging or exciting.     

New departures: Re‐reading the Occupation in the 1990s

Morris, A., Collaboration and Resistance Reviewed: Writers and the Mode Rétro in Post‐Gaullist France (Berg French Studies Series, 1992), 200pp., £35.00, ISBN 2 08496 634 X

Muller, A., La Petite Fille du Vel d'Hiv (Denoël, 1991), 116pp., 75F., ISBN 2 207 23826 1

Ramond, M., L'Occupation (Editions des Femmes, 1991), 205pp., 92F., ISBN 2 7210 0400 X     

Of Mumps and Men: Masculinity and the Severity of a Vaccine Preventable Disease in Western Medicine, 1760s–1960s

This article, based on an analysis of English language medical literature on mumps’ manifestation in men, women and children from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, examines the role of gender in shaping conceptualisations of mumps’ severity and medical significance. Over time, gendered social roles undermined the medical notion of mumps as a severe disease of women while elevating mumps’ reputation as a severe and significant disease of men, eventually casting the disease as a threat to masculinity. When the modern mumps vaccine was commercialised in the 1960s, its development built on a long history of gendered conceptualisations of mumps and its use cast children as safeguards of a legacy of masculine citizenship defined by military activity and fatherhood.     

Venezuelan peasants,capitalism, and the modern world‐system

Roseberry, William. Coffee and Capitalism in the Venezuelan Andes. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983. xv + 256 pp. including bibliography and index. $22.50 cloth.     

Ghostly Remains and Converging Memories: Yūshūkan and the Australian War Memorial Exhibit the Pacific War

Focusing on the Yūshūkan museum in Tokyo, and the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra, this article engages how pain and sacrifice in the Pacific War are represented through the characters of kamikaze and prisoners of war respectively. Despite the inimical historical, political and moral orientations, these institutions’ presentations of memory of war display some interesting overlaps. After establishing that historical, cultural and political contexts are significant in assessing how and why pain and sacrifice in the war are engaged by each institution, I examine the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney in 1942, which effectively bridges both institutions. By assessing the emotive nature of the exhibitions it becomes apparent that while the framing of this single act of violence is culturally esoteric, themes of bravery, heroism, loyalty and sacrifice cross cultures.     

Experiencing nature and children’s conceptualizations of the natural world

This paper examines young children’s concepts of nature, paying attention to the role played by types of daily experiences with nature on 832 children’s constructions of the natural world. We observed the roles of three types of experiences, as determined by the children’s place of residence (urban, rural mountain range, and rural agricultural) in Spain. Participants wrote what they thought about when hearing the word ‘nature’. Content analysis revealed a conceptual structure formed with four underlying and interconnected themes: (1) natural and non-natural elements, (2) the human–nature relationship, (3) emotional experience of nature, and (4) actions in natural settings. The type of daily experiences with nature (i.e. urban, rural mountain range, and rural agricultural) accounted for variability in children’s concept of nature. These results reinforce the importance of considering the role played by personal and situational characteristics in shaping children’s constructions of the natural world.     

A preliminary statement on the dialogue established between the reform magazine al‐Manar and the Malayo‐Indonesian world

During the period of its publication (1898 to 1936), al‐Manar, under the editorship of Muhammad ‘Abduh and Rashid Rida, received correspondence sent from the Malayo‐Indonesian world for publication in its volumes. This correspondence consists of some 134 requests for legal opinions and 26 articles in the form of: announcements; letters commenting on various matters related to the homeland; letters commenting on previous articles published in al‐Manar; and letters requesting and furnishing advice and information on specific questions.

This correspondence throws light on the dialogue established between the Egyptian reform movement, whose mouthpiece was the magazine al‐Manar, and the reform movement of the Malayo‐Indonesian world in the early decades of this century.