Defining paganism in the Carolingian world

Generations of scholars have looked for evidence of ‘paganism’ in continental sources from the eighth and ninth centuries. This paper surveys some of the key problems in defining and conceptualizing the available literary evidence for such a project. Part one argues for a return to the sources to help escape the intellectual baggage created by discussions of ‘pan‐Germanic paganism’, interpretatio Romana and, more recently, folk practices. From the perspective of the sources’ producers, paganism needs to be understood as a category of difference employed to provide a better definition of Christianity itself. In part two this line of thought is pursued through a brief study of the ways in which classical learning framed not only Carolingian attitudes to paganism, but also related strategies of moralizing.     

Folcwin of Rankweil: the world of a Carolingian local official

This article examines charters from the St Gall archive which are valuable for the light they throw on the secular society of the settlement of Rankweil in Rhaetia and the surrounding area. The centrepiece is the rare collection of early ninth-century grants and sales made to the centenarius Folcwin and the article uses these and other related documents to examine the workings of Carolingian local society, the activities of local officials, and the patterns of landholding and transfer amongst secular individuals of relatively modest standing.     

Hostages in the Carolingian world (714–840)

The medieval hostage ( obses ) was a form of personal surety, a person deprived of liberty by a second person in order to guarantee an undertaking by a third person. Although they were used in private transactions, they normally appear in the early medieval sources in the context of relations between political entities. Close to seventy distinct hostage episodes are recorded in greater Francia and the Italian Peninsula in the period 714–840. Drawing on this evidence, as well as on the few surviving normative sources that refer to hostages, the present article develops a definition of hostages in the Carolingian period, examines the situations in which they were used, and argues that they must be seen as more than a simple means for securing agreements. In particular, grants of hostages might involve individuals beyond the trio of creditor–debtor–hostage, and they could transcend their immediate guaranteeing function to serve symbolic and political ends. The proper context for the study of hostages emerges as not legal but social and political relations.     

Metamorphoses of the early medieval signum of a ruler in the Carolingian world

This article uses the approach of diplomatic semiotics to explore early medieval signs of authority in charters and on coins, especially the monogram and the sign of the cross used as an individual ‘signature’. Coins and charters used these signs communicating royal or imperial authority differently, addressing diverse regional and social audiences. From the fifth through the ninth centuries, the early medieval signum of a ruler gradually transformed from the individualizing sign of a particular monarch, designed to differentiate him symbolically from other rulers, to the generalizing sign of the king by the grace of God, which as a visual attribute of authority could be shared by several rulers. This transformation signified the inauguration of a new ‘medieval’ tradition in the communication of authority in late Carolingian times.     

The significance of the Carolingian advocate

This article argues that ninth-century advocates in the Frankish world deserve more attention than they have received. Exploring some of the wealth of relevant evidence, it reviews and critiques both current historiographical approaches to the issue. Instead of considering Carolingian advocates as largely a by-product of the ecclesiastical immunity, or viewing advocacy as a Trojan horse for a subsequent establishment of lordship over monasteries, the article proposes a reading of ninth-century advocacy as intimately linked with wider Carolingian reform, particularly an interest in promoting formal judicial procedure.     

Writing the world: disciplinary history and beyond

In order to grasp some of the key intellectual developments and trends that shaped the global politics of twentieth century and continue to shape our own world—neo-classical economics, modernization theory, deterrence theory, the democratic peace, among others—it is necessary to explore the history of the human sciences. It is important, in other words, to examine the role of the modern research university in producing and diffusing ideas about the self, society, the economy and world order. International Relations (IR), and political science more generally, played a significant role in this story. In recent years we have seen a growth of interest in the history of IR, though it is still an underdeveloped area of research. Among other things, scholars have shown that many of the foundational myths of the discipline—the views that inform textbook understandings of the past and present—are deeply flawed. This article first surveys this recent work, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses, and then proceeds to offer some thoughts on future directions for research. It identifies a range of questions and topics that have yet to be adequately addressed, and draws on the latest methodological work in intellectual history, highlighting some new interpretative approaches that can enrich scholarship in this area.     

从环境的历史到环境史——关于环境史研究的一种认识

By and large, there are three kinds of research on environment: the history of environment as a field of natural history studies, the history of environment as within the scope of history of society studies, and environmental history as the study of the relationship between human and nature. The methodological perspective of the relationship between humanity and environmental distinguishes the third from the previous two. From this perspective, when we probe the mutual effects between human and nature, we will stress on their interactions. The new era and the realities of contemporary society foster the rise of environmental history, which has not only theoretical values but also practical significance. Translated from Xueshu Yanjiu 学术研究 (Academic Research), 2006, (9):12–22     

The world archaeological congress from a critical and personal perspective

Este trabajo trata sobre el contexto epistemológico y político que regula la organización del congreso arqueológico mundial y su historia. WAC introdujó una serie de puntos políticos renovadores, como por ejemplo el código de ética, la participación de los representantes indígenas y regionales, llevando a la arqueología a un nuevo contexto mundial. Como un ex secretario WAC, el autor argumenta por una democracia más profunda en la organización.

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Résumé Cet article aborde le contexte épistémologique et politique qui a mené à l'organisation du Congrès mondiale de l'archéologie et l'histoire de la discipline subséquente. Le CMA a introduit une série de positions politiques, comme un code d'étiques, une représentation régionale et autochtone, ainsi que l'aboutissement de l'archéologie dans une nouvelle étape mondiale. Comme ancien secrétaire du CMA, l'auteur plaide en faveur de l'approfondissement des aspects démocratiques de l'organisation.

     

Lessons in the rubble: The world trade center and the history of disaster investigations in the United States

The World Trade Center collapse stands as a singular event in American history. As such, it might also stand to reason that the technical investigation into the circumstances of the collapse also stands alone. Clashes over authority among powerful institutions both public and private, competition among rival experts for influence, inquiry into a disaster elevated to the status of a memorial for the dead: these are the base elements of the World Trade Center investigation. These elements, however, are not unique. This article illustrates--drawing on case studies including the burning of the United States Capitol Building (1814), the Hague Street boiler explosion and building collapse in New York (1850), and the Iroquois Theater Fire in Chicago (1903)--that conflicts over authority, expertise, memory, and ultimately the attribution of responsibility suffuse the history of disaster in the United States. The "disaster investigation," far from proving itself the dispassionate, scientific verdict on causality and blame, actually emerges as a hard-fought contest to define the moment in politics and society, in technology and culture.     

Legislation and politics in late Carolingian Italy: the Ravenna constitutions

This article considers some overlooked evidence for royal legislation in the dying days of the Carolingian empire, a series of charters known as the Ravenna constitutions. These documents, which deal with the status of Italian freemen, are often analysed as sources for social history but rarely as texts in their own right. Reconstructing the context in which the charters were issued enables us to cast light on political events and royal self‐representation in early 880s Italy; and by drawing attention to the peculiarities of their form, we can use them to reflect more broadly on the nature of Carolingian capitulary legislation and the meaning of its disappearance at the end of the ninth century.     

Law and the peasant: rural society and justice in Carolingian Italy

Comparative analysis of the most important Carolingian‐period Italian placiti dealing with the defence of freedom allows us to reconstruct the approach taken by various large monasteries as they attempted to transform their landholding into coercive power over people, by converting dependent freemen into slaves. Similarly, it reveals the strenuous defence mounted by the freemen who were thus threatened, who were clearly perfectly aware that a downgrading of their legal status would be far more serious for them than an economic downgrading. It also permits an analysis of placiti as sites for the representation of public power, in which the ideological model of the king as ‘protector of the weak’ was often scuppered by the ability of many potentes to use for their own advantage either the presence of royal officials, or those very legal processes which were supposed to guarantee protection of the pauperes.     

Louis Muskens: a leading figure in the history of Dutch and world epileptology

In the history of Dutch neurology Muskens has a place in his own right. Elderly neurologists still attest to the special fame of Muskens. He held a strong opinion on developing the specialty of neurology independent of psychiatry. At the same time he maintained that surgery of the nervous system also should be included in the realm of neurology. These views met with considerable opposition from colleagues and led to Muskens' isolation. To the field of epileptology he contributed both clinical and experimental neurological studies. With Donath he was the co-founder of the International League Against Epilepsy in 1909. In addition he held a lifelong interest in the pathophysiology of forced movements, which he studied both in human pathology and in experimental studies throughout the vertebrate series. This resulted in his magnum opus on the supravestibular system in 1935. His scientific work was well received in scientific societies all over Europe.     

J.W. Burrow: A personal history

The late John Burrow, one of the most stimulating promoters of the distinctively interdisciplinary enterprise that is Intellectual History, was a vital member of what has become known as the ‘Sussex School’. In exploring the resonances of his singular and richly idiosyncratic contribution, this article places his unique historical sensibility within a series of interpretative contexts, demonstrating the vitality of writings that will continue to inspire and inform scholarship in the field for decades to come.