Theology,Idolatry and Science: John Williams’ Missionary Ethnography and Natural History of the South Pacific

This article contributes to the recent scholarly efforts toward a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between Protestant missionaries and the practice of natural history and ethnography in the early nineteenth century. Exploring John Williams’ work in the South Pacific, I argue that not only was Williams practicing science in the form of ethnography and natural history, but that his theology was, in fact, central to his scientific work. Through a careful exploration of Williams’ account of his missionary activities in the South Pacific, I contend that Williams’ conception of idolatry served as an explanatory tool that shaped the practice of his ethnography. In the minds of missionaries like Williams, whereas Christianity’s truth was universal, idolatry was the worship of a false god: false because it was just a deification of a particular desire rather than worship of the universal God. This conception of idolatry shaped Williams’ contention, central to his ethnography, that the islanders’ religion was a product of their particular cultural needs. In this way, I argue, Williams used a theological concept to perform explanatory scientific work, contributing to the idea that religion is a product of culture, a notion that became central to nineteenth century studies of religion.     

从中河通判万承紫罢官案看道光朝江南河工——兼考万承紫的淮安清江浦生涯

周恩来外曾祖父万承紫,道光初任南河中河通判,因收藏两江总督琦善看中的元代《龙舟图》被琦善弹劾免职。从该案中可见道光时两江总督对江南河工事务的介入、江南河工的奢侈之风,以及南河官场的文化氛围。万承紫尚风雅,收藏甚富,与寓居、往来南河的文人墨士多有交游,罢官后所居"还读书室"为文人雅集之所。原籍南昌的万家因河工而移居于南河治理中心淮安清江浦,万承紫子孙辈也精于河工。万家三代的治水经历也对周恩来产生影响,任总理期间特别重视水利事业。     

T. A. Coghlan,London Opinion and the Politics of Anglo- Australian Finance, 1905–09

This article examines the interactions between the opinions of London financiers and politics in New South Wales and the Commonwealth of Australia at the onset of the twentieth century. It focuses in particular on the appointment and early activities of Timothy Augustine Coghlan, who, with several breaks, held the post of agent-general for New South Wales between 1905 and 1926, although he is better known as a pioneering statistician and economic historian. In particular the article examines the context surrounding his appointment, his attempts to improve his state's image and his reflections on the way debt curtailed Australian independence. Through this the article contributes to the ongoing debate surrounding Cain and Hopkins' writings on structural and relational power and the ‘rules of the game’, arguing that these are useful starting points for the analysis of a pervasive politics of finance within the British World.     

Legacy Underplayed or Ignored? Tsietsi Mashinini: The Forgotten Warrior of South Africa's Liberation Struggle

Tsietsi Mashinini symbolises youth resistance to racism and imperialism after he heroically led the June 16 1976 Soweto student uprisings that defied South Africa's apartheid government. Subsequently, the United Nations condemned apartheid as a crime against humanity, but Tsietsi became a political exile at the tender age of 19. In exile, he formed the South African Youth Revolutionary Council (SAYRCO) together with his comrades from the Soweto Students Representative Council (SSRC) that was banned by Pretoria in 1977 along with numerous other organisations. Ironically, Tsietsi's individual and collective legacy is underplayed or ignored in contemporary South Africa. His illustrious role has only grudgingly been recognised long after South Africa achieved liberal democracy in 1994. Yet Tsietsi's heroism and legacy inspired the students that he led when confronting the apartheid system. Like Tsietsi, thousands left the country to join the anti-apartheid liberation struggle. Thus, his activities remain etched deeply in their minds whenever they reflect on his legacy annually during the 1976 uprising's anniversary, now called Youth Day. Others put increasing pressure on apartheid at home until it relinquished power through negotiations. This article examines Tsietsi Mashinini's legacy and his contribution to South Africa's freedom struggle based on a review of the literature, historical records and media reports, theoretical reflection guided by Rational Choice Theory and Game Theory, and an analysis of the awards given to freedom struggle stalwarts and other South African luminaries. It concludes with observations on Tsietsi Mashinini's legacy, with the author's contention that his legacy—underplayed or ignored—will forever haunt post-1994 South Africa's democracy.     

Land and society in early Canada and South Africa

The rural societies of early Canada and South Africa overwhelmingly comprised independent families on their own land and, in comparison with their European antecedents, were strikingly egalitarian and homogeneous. The transformation and simplification of European society in early Canada and South Africa was not the result of fragmentation—the isolation of particular elements of the European whole in remote new settings. Rather, these two colonial societies were common products of the introduction of European assumptions about family and land into settings where land was cheap and markets for farm produce were poor. Taken together these factors are sufficient to explain the general character of rural society in early Canada and most of early South Africa.     

Masculinity, ‘race’, and family in the colonies: protecting Aborigines in the early nineteenth century

Much of British imperial society in the early nineteenth century was characterised by a reformulated sensibility of manliness and family. Integral to this sensibility was the notion of men's responsibility for dependants. However, the story of Charles Wightman Sievwright, appointed as Assistant Protector of Aborigines in colonial New South Wales, serves to demonstrate that a man's duty of care for very different, racialised kinds of dependants could be emphasised in conflicting ways by British settlers on the one side and by humanitarians on the other, under conditions of colonial expansion. Sievwright's story also encourages more explicit attention to both the tensions and the mutual intrusions between men's public and private roles within colonial society. Sievwright's own efforts as an active, humanitarian man in the political life of the New South Wales frontier were scandalously undermined by his failure to perform the role expected of him in his domestic, familial relations.     

Is Thabo Mbeki Africa's Saviour?

Foreign relations are the main preoccupation of South African president, Thabo Mbeki. His role perception is dominated by a mission to improve the plight of Africa, and second to that, to act as the Third World's überdiplomat . Under his administration, South Africa's foreign policy has become almost an adjunct of his more holistic diplomatic pursuits. The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is the magnum opus of Mbeki's foreign policy, and the success or failure of this grand design for an African renaissance will determine his legacy and make or break his leadership in South Africa and in the rest of Africa. The success of his NEPAD diplomacy is a daunting task, requiring the support of his African peers, his South African constituency, and the leadership of the developed nations of the world. Dealing with these diverse elements, Mbeki's policy-making oscillates between realism and idealism, and between ideology and interests, giving the impression of a style of a prudent bureaucrat rather than that of a single-minded reformer. In the end, his diplomacy seems to founder because it fails to satisfy the contradictory demands of any of these three constituencies. However, even if NEPAD should fail as a project, its role could be that of a harbinger of a new political and economic era in Africa and the movement away from post-colonial orthodoxy.     

North Korea and Zimbabwe, 1978–1982: from the strategic alliance to the symbolic comradeship between Kim Il Sung and Robert Mugabe

This article provides an explanation for North Korea-Zimbabwe bilateral relations from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, in the context of Cold War in the Third World. Supporting the military resistance of African nations, North Korea sought to gain its dominance over South Korea in the diplomatic war between the two Koreas. North Korea contributed to the liberation of Zimbabwe and helped Robert Mugabe establish his political foundations in the country. However, North Korea’s political gain from Zimbabwe was less than it expected and hence did not make any significant changes in its competition with South Korea.     

1. INDIA IN A WORLD: DILEMMAS OF SOVEREIGNTY

Azfar Moin's The Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship and Sainthood in Islam prompts a consideration not only of the histories of Islam and early modern connected histories of Central and South Asia, but also of current debates about local and global history‐writing. Moin's work intersects with a strand of comparative world history—following Victor Lieberman's Strange Parallels—but also engages strands of historical anthropology, bringing to light a range of compelling stakes for global historians, historians of South Asia, and scholars of nationalism alike. Though Moin's work pushes the boundaries of connected histories centered on South Asia, his focus on a trans‐regional millennial science avoids questions of the local within new global histories.     

Review articles/Besprekingsartikels

Abstract

Swiss missionary Henri Alexandre Junod has been widely recognised for his extensive entomological, botanical, linguistic and anthropological contributions regarding southern Africa. However, shortly after publishing his most acclaimed work, The Life of a South African Tribe, Junod wrote a little-studied novel, Zidji: étude de m?urs sud-africaines, in which he endeavoured to give a detailed portrayal of South African Society. Interestingly, he chose fiction as the best vehicle for conveying what he saw as the 'truth' of the situation. As the only novel written by Junod this is a unique piece of writing in relation to his other work and its study shows that it is essential to an understanding of Junod. In Zidji he attempts to give a complete picture of South African society at the beginning of the twentieth century by recounting a black convert's experiences of what Junod considered to be the three main influences acting upon black society of the time, that is, tribal life (paganism), the mission station (Christianity) and white society (civilisation). By considering his depiction of South Africa, in particular his presentation of 'civilisation', further light is shed on his sentiments and perspective of the missionary encounter, social change and race relations in South Africa.     

试论朱元璋开发贵州的措施

洪武初年,朱元璋进兵贵州,在民族关系、文化教育、道路驿传建设、屯垦等方面措施得当有力,为平定云南和贵州建省夯实基础。     

Epidemiologists explain pellagra: gender,race, and political economy in the work of Edgar Sydenstricker

Between 1900 and 1940, at least 100,000 individuals in the southern United States died of pellagra, a dietary deficiency disease. Although half of these pellagra victims were African-American and more than two-thirds were women, contemporary observers paid little attention to these gender and racial differences in their analyses of disease. This article reviews the classic epidemiological studies of Joseph Goldberger and Edgar Sydenstricker, who argued that pellagra was deeply rooted in the political economy of cotton monoculture in the South. The methods that Sydenstricker brought to epidemiology from early work on political economy obscured the role of gender inequalities in pellagra, and his focus on economic underdevelopment led him to ignore the prominent role of African-Americans as pellagra's principal victims. Research methods and traditions, no less than more overt ideologies, played a role in maintaining the subordinate social position of women and African-Americans in the southern United States.     

Leo Fouché and history at Wits University, 1934–1942

Leo Fouché, the first Professor of History at Pretoria University, was the surprise choice to replace W.M. Macmillan, the first Professor of History at Wits University, following his resignation in 1933. Fouché served at Wits from 1934 to 1942, departing to take up the post of chairman of the South African Broadcasting Corporation. His tenure at both Pretoria and Wits was assessed negatively in the official histories of the two universities. In Ad Destinatum: Gedenkboek van die Universiteit van Pretoria 1910–1960, A.N. Pelzer ignored Fouché’s major contribution in building up history at Pretoria and focussed instead on his failure to serve the Afrikaans movement. In Wits: The Early Years, B.K. Murray represented the conservative Fouché as a major disappointment, both as a researcher and as a teacher, following his productive and progressive-minded predecessor. In this article, an attempt is made to present a more detailed and rounded assessment of his tenure at Wits. While he published little, and his syllabus changes, with their narrow focus on white South African history, did not outlast him, his tenure was generally a positive one for the Department of History. Student numbers grew substantially, an additional staff post was secured, and postgraduate research was actively promoted. Three of his postgraduate students went on to distinguished academic careers in history.     

‘Red on White’: Kim Il Sung,Park Chung Hee,and the Failure of Korea’s Reunification, 1971–1973

The articles argues that in 1971–1973 North Korea’s leader Kim Il Sung used the Sino-American rapprochement and the Soviet-American détente to pursue Korean reunification on his terms; his aim was to ‘democratize’ and then ‘revolutionize’ South Korea and so achieve through dialogue what he failed to achieve through militancy. Kim’s game was based on a misreading of the political dynamics in South Korea and on misplaced confidence in North Korea’s attractiveness. He also misjudged his ability to obtain China’s and the USSR’s backing for his schemes.     

The remedies of the machi: visualizing Chilean medicinal botanicals in Alonso de Ovalle’s Tabula geographica (1646).

This art historical study analyzes images of colonial-era medicinal botanicals in South America within a little known seventeenth-century map, the Tabula geographica regni Chile, and proposes that these renderings were central to a visual program by which their author Alonso de Ovalle attempted to construct a positive image of his homeland before the Spanish Crown. These renderings of specific Chilean plants and their expressed medicinal applications are examined in relation to the rise of materia medica for commerce in southern Europe and the Spanish interest to locate botanical medicines for profit. This approach allows us to consider pre-Linnaean botanical renderings as persuasive documents, as purveyors of indigenous knowledge, and as instruments of negotiation (prospecting for new commercial goods) for the advancement of criollo agendas. Finally, looking at Ovalle's images of Chilean medicinal botanicals in comparison with later documents demonstrates that while early pictured conveyances across the Atlantic formulated conceptions of American nature, the transference of actual specimens to Europe involved their adaptation for new functions and uses.     

汪精卫与辛亥革命

辛亥革命期间,汪精卫为了利用和影响袁世凯,做了一些工作,虽然取得一些结果,但反为袁世凯所利用。汪精卫力图对京津地区的革命活动进行控制,并坚持以政治手段来推翻清朝。汪精卫以双重角色参与南北议和,起了极为重要的作用,为袁世凯夺权创造了极为有利的条件,并使革命党人过快地失去革命领导权。     

Planting an Asylum for Religion: Berkeley's Bermuda Scheme and the Transmission of Virtue in the Eighteenth‐Century Atlantic World

Following the aftermath of the South Sea bubble, George Berkeley grew disenchanted with British morality and turned his attention to a new project: a missionary college in Bermuda. Not only did he personally lobby friends and government officials, but he also worked tirelessly to persuade the public of his scheme's value. To this end, he published his plan under the title A Proposal for the Better Supplying of Churches in Our Foreign Plantations (1724) and at the height of this enthusiasm wrote his only (existent) poem “America, or the Muse's Refuge” (1725/26). These verses were premised upon a classical commonplace, the notion of a translatio imperii and translatio religionis: the belief in the constant westward migration of empire and religion that provided the foundation of his plan. Through a contextual reading of these two pieces, this paper examines Berkeley's contributions to early eighteent‐century missionary activity in the Atlantic world.     

‘God'll Send the Bill to You’: The Costs of War and the God Who Counts in W. T. Stead's Pro-Boer Peace Campaign

W. T. Stead's 1899–1900 weekly newspaper, War against War in South Africa, sets out to persuade its readers of the financial, spiritual, and moral costs of war and in doing so urges them to participate in an oppositional ‘peace war’. It conflates the economic and the spiritual in presenting to its readers accounts of the South African war that emphasize the price to be paid for unjust bloodshed. This article examines the ways in which Stead uses the idea of counting in both its senses – of mattering and enumerating – alongside the idea of moral accountability, to make his case against war and for peace as part of a larger narrative of brotherhood and bloodguilt. I argue that his campaign failed to achieve its ends at least in part because, despite the sensationalist power of each item in his account, the final bill, addressed ambiguously to the individual, the government, and the nation, is unimaginably vast and morally unpayable. His newspaper and other anti-war publications offer a graphic account of the wrongs of war, yet their gothically inflected religious imagery of judgement and guilt work in unresolvable tension with their message of rational individual action against the national project of the war.     

Negara Ubud: The Theatre‐state in Twenty‐first‐century Bali

In his book Negara: The Theatre‐state in Nineteenth‐century Bali (1980), Clifford Geertz argued that ceremonial display, rather than material power, was the real basis and indeed the purpose of pre‐colonial states in Bali, and by extension South East Asia. This article argues, on the basis of historical and ethnographic evidence from one of these kingdoms, that he was largely wrong about pre‐colonial Bali, but that, ironically and presciently, his model makes increasing sense in early twenty‐first century Bali. The article also discusses the reasons for this and finally suggests a more dynamic model based on Bourdieu’s metaphor of material and symbolic capital, which seeks to bring Geertz’s essentially static model to historical life.     

The Mongol invasions of Europe

ABSTRACT

This article argues that Zionist Christianity emerged in South Africa out of the peasant revolt that occurred in the Boer Republics during and after the South African War. Using the experiences of early Zionist leaders Daniel Nkonyane and Engenas Lekganyane, the article demonstrates the continuity of their theology with the ideology of the ‘Rebellion From Below’ first described by Jeremy Krikler. The early Zionists, like their predecessors, were primarily interested in recreating a world based on communal politics and land ownership – a world without rents, landlords, or white supervision.