Transjordan During the Nineteenth Century: Reconsidering the Relation Between Arab Tribes and Christian Religious Communities

The article aims to reconsider the history of Ottoman Transjordan during the second half of the nineteenth century. Istanbul's decision to impose its direct control over this province triggered a process of evolution and change within local political spaces. The traditional balance of power was altered and tribes were forced to accept the authority of the Ottoman Empire. States and tribes were not the only political actors. Christian religious institutions also participated in the dynamics of change. The article reconsiders the history of a Christian village of Transjordan, Madaba, to describe the complex relationship between tribes and Christian religious communities during this period of change and evolution. The section Karak highlights the main aspects that characterized the refoundation of Madaba. In the section The Exodus and the Rebirth of Madaba, the exodus of several Christian tribes from Karak to Madaba is analyzed to explain the overlap and intertwinement between the different cultural horizons and sociopolitical logics of the two actors. The section The Village of Madaba analyzes some episodes of daily life in Madaba to detail the consequences of the interaction between tribes and religious communities. Finally, the functioning of the local sociopolitical space on which the Hashemite emirate was later founded is explained. The religious community‐tribe dyad was, in fact, part of the transition from “the tribe to the state.”     

Enrico Sereni: research on the nervous system of cephalopods

This essay focuses on a paradigmatic moment in neurobiological studies of invertebrates: the research on the nervous system of cephalopods carried out by Enrico Sereni at the Naples Zoological Station between 1925 and 1931. Although he remained unknown on the historiographic scenario, probably due to his early death, he contributed to Italian science of the first half of the twentieth century. In my paper particular attention will be given to Sereni's study on the pigmentary-effector, neurohumoral, and peripheral nervous systems, since they also accounted for the historical foundation of the experimental vein that, through the years, would lead John Zachary Young, Sereni's follower, to the most well-known discovery of the giant nerve fibers.     

A Quantitative Approach to Book-Printing in Sweden and Finland, 1640–1828

Several cities in Sweden have been providing book-printing facilities since the 1640s. In our quantitative and explorative analysis of library catalogs from the National Library of Sweden and the National Library of Finland we identify the general trends in publishing, how book-printing has been affected by political events, and how printing developed at different paces in different parts of the realm. We have developed a new method for analyzing the totality of publishing through extensive data harmonization and comprehensive statistical analysis, and by treating library catalogs not as an endpoint of bibliographic research but as an inherently rich source of information. This facilitated the quantitative assessment of printing in the Swedish realm based on the metadata contained in library catalogs. Our data-driven approach to the transformation of public discourse demonstrates that whereas the amount of printed material grew steadily, political ruptures affected the development of printing. We also suggest that the culture of books and printing is best understood through the dynamics of competing intellectual hubs consisting of the university cities and the political center in Stockholm. This perspective further challenges the dominant, nationally delineated approach in book history.     

Bücher

Buecher

Bücher     

A Petrographic Study of the Anthropomorphic Stelae from the Megalithic Area of Saint‐Martin‐De‐Corléans (Aosta,Northern Italy)

The Megalithic Area of Saint‐Martin‐de‐Corléans (Aosta, northern Italy) consists of anthropomorphic stelae dated to the Copper Age and the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. They were carved in different lithologies of varying provenance according to two successive artistic styles, ‘ancient’ and ‘evolved’. A minero‐chemical and a petrographic investigation were carried out on 47 stelae and on reference samples collected from eight different outcrops, aiming to define the provenance of the stone materials. The variety of rocks used for the manufacture of the stelae reflects the geological complexity of the Aosta Valley. Most of the stelae examined were classified as foliated impure marbles, grey banded marbles (‘Bardiglio’), calcschists and metabasites belonging to the Combin Zone (Piedmont Nappe), which outcrops in close proximity to the Megalithic Area. Some stelae of the evolved group consisted of massive marbles with silicate‐bearing layers, attributed to the Sion–Courmayeur Zone. Similar stone materials were reported for the stelae of the same age found at the archaeological area of Petit Chasseur (Sion, Switzerland). This is archaeometric confirmation of the archaeological affinity between the stelae occurring at the two prehistoric sites, supporting the hypothesis of cultural exchanges over the Grand St Bernard Pass since the Early Copper Age.     

Of kimchi and coffee: globalisation,transnationalism and familiarity in culinary consumption

This paper discusses the culinary consumption choices of South Korean international students in Auckland, New Zealand as a route to re-considering the transnational production of familiarity. In particular, this study questions the extent to which culinary consumption by transnational migrants is always an intentional declaration of ‘group loyalties’ or about the re-production of local or national identities. Drawing on research with students this paper illustrates that while some aspects of the familiarity enacted in culinary consumption appear to be ‘local’, in the sense that they are encoded as ‘Korean’, other aspects appear to represent forms of ‘global’ familiarity. Hence, it is argued that culinary consumption in transnational worlds can also more subtly represent an effort to recreate familiarity through reference to characteristics of everyday life before migration that may include what appear to be both global and local products. Such familiarity is then not necessarily about group loyalties or identities but rather an example of the importance of practical know how and familiar sensations in feelings of belonging and attachment.     

The Power-Transition Crisis of the 240s BCE and the Creation of the Parthian State

This article combines historical analysis with international-relations theory to contend that geopolitical developments around the Eastern Mediterranean in the middle third century BCE were indirectly responsible for the emergence of the Parthian state and a new international system of states in the ancient East. Since the death of Alexander the Great, the Seleucid Empire had ruled over much of the East; however, disastrous military conflicts at home and abroad in the West caused a sudden decline of Seleucid power in the 240s–230s BCE. The troubles of the Seleucid state caused what political scientists call a power-transition crisis that damaged Seleucid hegemony over the East when the Seleucid satraps of Parthia and Bactria declared their independence. Moreover, the deleterious civil wars between Seleucid dynasts in the West and the rebellions of eastern satraps encouraged the nomadic Parni tribe from the Central Asian steppe (later known as the Parthians), who had been seeking a new homeland for decades, to invade northeastern Iran and establish a new kingdom. With the Parni's successful conquest of Parthia and its immediate consequences, a new interstate system of tripolarity between the Seleucid Empire, Bactrian Kingdom, and the newly formed Parthian state emerged in the ancient East.