Technologies of a trading empire: Dutch introduction of water‐ and windmills in early‐modern Asia, 1650s–1800

This article deals with the introduction of European wind‐ and watermill technology by the Dutch in Asia, and it links this development to the gradual shift from a trading empire to a territorial state. The article evaluates how this technology fitted in with Asian technologies, why the Dutch trading company invested so much money and energy in keeping the new technology working, and how this technology had to be adapted to local circumstances, particularly to the new physical environment. It also looks at indigenous reactions and the role of indigenous labor.     

‘Confessionalisation’ —a useful theoretical concept for the study of religion,politics, and society in early modern East‐Central Europe?

The confessionalisation paradigm, introduced by two German historians in the early 1980s, initiated a fundamental change of perspective in the scholarship of early modern Germany. Taking into account long‐term developments and directing attention to the relatively neglected period between the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 and the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, the concept paved the way for historical writing that considers ‘religion’ and ‘church’ as an integral part of societal history (Gesellschaftsgeschichte). This essay discusses the background of the confessionalisation model in German historiography as well as its essential features. Second it offers an overview of the critique and recommendations towards a refinement of the confessionalisation thesis. What follows is a presentation of several ongoing case studies of scholars affiliated with the Humanities Center for the Study of East Central European History and Culture in Leipzig, Germany (Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas or ‘GWZO’). The relevance of the concept of confessionalisation for these research projects will be explored here, focusing on the Crown Lands of Bohemia, as well as, Poland and Hungary in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.     

Family and community in early modern England: A study of Selston,Nottinghamshire 1550–1699

Abstract

This article is based on the examination of wills made by residents of the parish of Selston over the period 1550–1699. The major features examined here include inheritance custom and practice, providing clues to relationships within the family; the type and pattern of bequests made to kin and non-kin, giving some indication of the respective importance of family and community; and through analysis of the individuals appointed as witnesses and supervisors, the roles played by the wider community, particularly the leading figures of clergy and gentry. Findings suggest a significant change in community relationships after the end of the sixteenth century with a greater emphasis on the nuclear family together with a more detached attitude towards church, clergy, and the wider communal responsibilities such as provision for the poor.     

Science and non‐science in modern medicine

Morton Glasser and Gretel H. Pelto. The Medical Merry‐Go‐Round. South Salem, New York: Redgrave Publishing Company, 1980. 167 pp. $6.90.     

Enlightenment,revolution and romanticism: the Genesis of modern German political thought, 1790–1800

A recent discovery of an exchange of letters between John Maynard Keynes and the Reverend Kenneth Rawlings from 1936 to 1944 shows the way in which Keynes assisted Rawlings in the establishment of permanent amateur theatre premises in the County Town of Lewes. The timing coincided with the onset of World War II, and additional letters from Rawlings to others including the town clerk, Lord Gage, Margeret Masterman and Major G. H. Powell-Edwards reveal the tensions between the ardent pacifist Rawlings and establishment figures as war approached. Steadied by Keynes and like-minded influential figures, Rawlings wins through triumphantly, the theatre effort viewed as an essential cultural asset during the dark war years. It is noted in the present article that Keynes could observe Rawlings enact what became an aim of the Council for the Encouragement of Music with the Arts, of which he became president soon after its conception in 1940—that of providing a theatre for every town in England.     

Big society or broken society?: Food banks in the UK

This article discusses the recent increase in food poverty in the UK, the reasons for this and some of the ways in which it is being addressed by the voluntary or third sector, with a particular focus on food banks. Through use of a number of anthropological concepts such as reciprocity and gifting, shame and stigma, some of the complexities and contradictions which arise in this situation are revealed. Through the prism of food poverty and food aid, the piece poses a series of questions about rights and entitlement, as well as the political economy of inequality and austerity and the policies implicated in them and seeks to demonstrate that anthropology has a contribution to make in this area.     

Lanhydrock’s autobiographical instillation: books,reputation, and habitat in early modern England

The library at Lanhydrock in Cornwall contains many books annotated by its seventeenth-century owners. The complex meanings these books carried depended on their physical location in the Cornish landscape, and the meaning of that landscape was in turn shaped by the presence of the marked books. Early moderns were adept at creating and interpreting such context-specific assemblages of books which projected autobiographical personae. These habits were a means by which book-users could simultaneously fit themselves to their environments (or “habitats”) and reshape those environments in a reciprocal process of fashioning. Public reputation was an important consideration guiding these practices. This model of the interaction of books, reputation, and habitat can be extended beyond physical locations like Lanhydrock to help understand how early moderns inhabited their economic culture. Customizing books shaped users as agents equipped with the kind of habitus demanded by the “credit economy” and reproduced its moral codes.