Social change and sexual mores: a comparison between pre‐20th‐century Norway and 20th‐century Botswana

This article compares pre‐20th‐century Norway and 20th‐century Botswana—two settings separated by time and space but sharing a sharp rise in non‐nuptial births. The comparison seeks to create a synergetic analytical effect by combining firsthand, experience‐near field data from Botswana with solid historical analyses of bastardy in Europe. This radical comparison provides a perspective that highlights the importance of treating “culture” not as a residual category, but as an integral part of everything social. This implies that there is a need not only for a proper sociocultural contextualization of localities, but also for an analysis of extra‐local power structures as fundamentally cultural, reflecting not only bureaucratic and political concerns but also values and existential perspectives.     

The Return of Mess O’Potamia: Time,Space, and Politics in Modern Uses of Ancient Mesopotamia†

Taking its cue from Jon Stewart's satire on the Da'esh insurgence, the essay explores how the term ‘Mesopotamia’ is used in contemporary discourse on Iraqi conflict, and particularly, how the term is used to construct a complex set of temporal and spatial differences and identities.

Building on the seminal work of Zainab Bahrani, Rune Rattenborg, and Sara Pursley, the essay explores different aspects of the term ‘Mesopotamia’ and their various political consequences. It is argued that the idea of a single ‘Mesopotamian’ culture both effaces the internal differences between the various cultures of ancient Iraq, and constructs an external difference from subsequent Iraqi history. It is further shown that ‘Mesopotamia’ only came to refer to the land ‘between the rivers’ in comparatively recent times, and only definitively so during World War I. Lastly, it is argued that the attempt to base the modern unity of Iraq on ancient Mesopotamia is misguided, and sidesteps the complex history of how Iraq came to have its current form.

These various temporal and spatial threads are brought together in a final analysis of the reactions to the destruction of the ancient Iraqi past by Da'esh in 2015 and during the US occupation in 2003.     

Mittlerin im Dienste der Umwelt—die Europ?ische Umweltagentur in Kopenhagen

Immer größer wird der Einfluß der EU auf alle Lebensbereiche. Kaum ein Gesetz kann verabschiedet werden, ohne zuvor mit den Richtlinien europäischer Politik abgestimmt zu werden. In großem Maße betrifft dies auch den Umweltbereich. Als Mittler zwischen den Mitgliedsländern und der Kommission setzt die EU verstärkt auf thematisch spezialisierte Agenturen. UTE C. BAUER sprach mit DIPL.-GEOGRAPH STEFAN JENSEN , der seit zwei Jahren als Projektmanager bei der Europäischen Umweltagentur in Kopenhagen tätig ist.     

SOVIET REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND THE 10th FIVE-YEAR PLAN

The Guidelines for the 10th Five-Year Plan (1976–80) are assessed in terms of their suggestions and probable implications for Soviet regional development policy. The new plan is examined both for evidence of regional concerns in specific economic and social programs as well as for more general indications of regional development philosophy and strategy. The current plan is then compared with previous plans for evidence of shifts in regional development policy. Finally the regional dimensions of Soviet development are considered in light of more general ideas of regional development and modernization.     

The Tranquebarian Society

The Danish-Norwegian colony of Tranquebar in south-east India is a little explored case of science and ‘patriotic enlightenment’ in the colonial world of the 18th and early 19th centuries. In the period 1768–1813, Tranquebar emerged as a local south Indian hub of science and improvement. The symbol of this development was the establishment of the Tranquebarian Society, the third learned society east of the Cape of Good Hope. The article examines the unique assemblage of scientific networks, people, instruments, institutions, and ideas of local and global origin that converged in Tranquebar, and it investigates the fusion of local problems and radical ideas of enlightenment, education, and improvement that united government, mission, and merchants in Tranquebar in the quest for ‘useful knowledge’.     

Military Nationalism and the State: the Case of Fin‐De‐Siècle Spain

Abstract. Military culture can play an important role in the rise of modern nationalism, as developments in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Spain demonstrate. Like many Europeans, Spanish army officers turned increasingly to nationalist ideology as they lost faith in the ability of liberal institutions to meet their needs. Because Spain, where army officers had much influence on politics and society, lacked other strong movements of modern, Castile‐centred nationalism, military culture had a significant and long‐lasting influence on the subsequent development of notions of Spanish national identity. The case of turn‐of‐the‐century Spanish military nationalism lends credence to a general understanding of nationalism as a political phenomenon in which the state plays a central role.