Qajar Iran

Qajar Iran: Political, Social and Cultural Change 1800–1925. Edited by Edmond Bosworth and Carole Hillenbrand. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1983. xxv + 414 pp.     

Childhood in Qajar Iran

The history of children in general and that of Persian children in particular is that of the inarticulate. The social history of Iran is a neglected field although in recent decades a preponderance of material has appeared on the history of women. Aside from this no work has been undertaken on the private life of the period including childhood and family life. This article examines various aspects of the position and upbringing of children in Qajar Iran ranging from the rearing of children to their status in the family, discipline, amusements and education. This investigation attempts to cover the childhood of different sexes and social classes both in rural and urban areas. The discussion is limited to Shi'i children, the majority population of Iran.     

Women in Praise of Women: Female Poets and Female Patrons in Qajar Iran

This study examines the poetry of two women of nineteenth-century Iran—one royal, one non-royal—and the women patrons for whom they composed praise poetry. Through the reconstruction of female-centered patronage networks and associated female-only performance venues, and via an examination of the active roles played by female patrons both in affairs of state and in the management of the immense royal harem, this study highlights the various ways in which members of several generations of women in Qajar Iran were involved in the production, dissemination and appreciation of poetry. It is argued here that these patronage and poetry production networks should be read as evidence of a female-centered literary tradition, one that was in dialogue with (and often intersected) the dominant male tradition; one that empowered the women actors within it to create a sisterhood of poets through which their art could be passed on from mother to daughter, and from daughter to granddaughter (and occasionally from mother to son).     

Disaffection and Everyday Life in Interregnum England

Abstract

This article analyses factional and institutional tensions on late-nineteenth-century Tyneside, using disputes over maritime public health and the prevention of seaborne epidemics as its central case study. The Tyne had a complex institutional landscape in this era, much of it created in the middle decades of the century to meet the challenges of increasing trade, mobility and industrial growth. Institutions such as the Tyne Improvement Commission and the Tyne Port Sanitary Authority struggled to balance their specialist missions against the demands of the town councils and sectional economic interests that were represented on their boards. They also faced difficulties in managing the new professional officers who worked for them, most notably, for the purposes of this article, the physicians responsible for port health. Although highly successful in protecting its communities from epidemics, the Tyne PSA casts revealing light on the tensions of late Victorian public service, and the pronounced localism that permeated Tyneside throughout and beyond this era.     

The Social Dynamics of Everyday Life

The four books under review illustrate different ways of analyzing past societies through households, houses, and the conduct of everyday life. Grounded on the materiality, spatiality, and temporality of prehistoric data, spanning from the Palaeolithic through to the recent past, these books provide important archaeological contributions to the anthropological study of social organization, inviting challenge and interdisciplinary dialogue. Each book has a distinctive approach, yet all four reflect wider epistemological shifts toward a concern with context, scale, diversity, and interaction. In summarizing and critiquing them, most attention is paid to their social perspectives and definitions. This leads to consideration of related work in wider anthropology.     

Everyday Life in Byzantium: Some Problems of Aproach

Abstract

In 1554 a Franciscan friar of Angoulěme, André Thevet, published at Lyons his Cosmographie de Levant. The author had recently returned from a three year journey to Constantinople and the Holy Land, and the Cosmographie was the first of a number of geographical works.     

英国人的日常生活习俗与环境保护

西方有一个很流行的说法:“挣在美国,住在英国。”意思是说美国商业发达,是一个挣钱的好地方;英国环境优美,是一个享受生活的好地方。英国环境优美,空气清新,大多得益于英国良好的环境保护,而英国良好的环境保护又在很大程度上得益于英国人有利于生态保护的日常生活习俗。一个民族的风俗习惯的形成总是以它特有的自然环境为基础,又反过来影响着它的自然环境。英国是一个小岛国,