Kurdish nationalists and non‐nationalist Kurdists: rethinking minority nationalism and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1909

ABSTRACT. Recent scholarship has begun to nuance the idea of Ottoman decline, but few works have attempted to see nationalism outside of the dominant decline paradigm. By addressing the emergence of Kurdish nationalism in the late Ottoman period, this paper questions the idea that imperial disintegration and nationalism were inherently intertwined; and challenges not only the mutually causal relationship that has been emphasised in literature to date, but also the shape that the ‘nationalist movement’ took. Using archival sources, the Kurdish‐Ottoman press, travel literature and secondary sources in various languages, the present paper will illustrate how the so‐called Kurdish nationalist movement' was actually several different movements, each with a differing vision of the political entity its participants hoped to create or protect through their activities. The idea of Kurdish nationalism, or Kurdism, may have been present in the minds of these activists, but the notion of what it meant was by no means uniform. Different groups imbued the concept with their own meanings and agendas. This study demonstrates that most ‘nationalists’ among the Kurds continued to envision themselves as members of the multi‐national Ottoman state, the temptingly powerful rise of nationalism in their day notwithstanding. The suggestion has important implications for students and scholars of nationalist movements among other non‐dominant groups, not only in the Ottoman Empire but in contemporaneous empires such as the Habsburg, and in later states like Iraq, Rwanda and Sudan. The present study further questions the received wisdom that multi‐ethnic entities are a recipe for disaster. It proposes that a joint effort to rethink what we know about minority nationalism may involve not only a reconceptualisation of the very terms we use, but perhaps an accompanying shift in approach too.     

LES RÉSEAUX TERRITORIALISÉS D'INFORMATION FACE À LA COMMUNICATION-MONDE: UNE EXPÉRIMENTATION QUÉBÉCOISE

L'information devient de plus en plus un enjeu crucial pour les institutions et acteurs engagés dans des processus territoriaux de développement. Comme la littérature sur les NTIC le démontre, l'accès a l'information concernant leur environnement global (sources de capitaux, tendances globales, débouchés, encadrement) ainsi qu'à celle concernant leurs atouts locaux et spécifiques (ressources humaines, physiques, financièrs et institutionnelles, identités, possibilités de mobilisation) fournit des indications indispensables pour faction des collectives locales engagées dans des projets de développement. Cependant, ce qui est souvent négligé c'est que le processus même par lequel cette information est produite et diffusée constitue en soi un facteur intervenant dans l'orientation que prend le développement. L'information marque les territoires concernés. Aussi est-il essentiel de construire des inforoutes permettant la participation des collectivités à la production de l'information qui les concerne. L'Atlas du Québec et de ses régions est une expérience qui vise cet objectif. Dans ce texte, nous présentons l'état d'avancement et les conclusions préliminaires de cette expérience. Information networking is a crucial issue for organizations and socio-economic actors. As the literature on development shows, information at the global level (financial perspectives, global tendencies, markets, and regulations), as well as at the local level (demographic and social characteristics; human, physical, economic, institutional, and organizational resources; specific assets; quality of life; etc.) is indispensable to local collectivities involved in development projects. Nevertheless, often overlooked is the fact that the very process by which this information is produced and disseminated has a significant effect on the direction of development. Information has an impact on the local community. There is a need for building territory information networks that allow local communities to produce the information that concerns them. This paper presents first a global survey of globalization and the effects of information highways on specific territories, and second, an experiment in progress about building a territory information network in the province of Québec, the Atlas of Québec and Its Regions.     

MEASURING SUMMER SEA ICE SEVERITY IN EASTERN HUDSON BAY 1751–1870

The log-books of the Hudson's Bay Company supply ships are the sources from which are derived annual indices of summer sea ice severity in eastern Hudson Bay in the period 1751–1870. The indices are based on two properties of the daily ice conditions described in the log-books: lateness of occurrence and severity of ice. The annual ice index is obtained by comparing the ice conditions in each year from 1751 to 1870 with those in 1969. This year experienced the most severe late summer ice in this region during the period of present-day ice observations .
Les livres de bord des bateaux d'approvisionnement de la Compagnie de la Bale d'Hudson constituent les sources desquelles sont derives les indices annuels de sévérité de la glace marine estivale, dans la partie est de la Baie d'Hudson, pour la période 1751–1870. Ces indices de la glace sont établis à partir de deux propriétés des conditions quotidiennes de la glace, telles qu'elles sont décrites dans les livres de bord. Ces propriétés sont la tardiveté d'apparition et la sévérité de la glace. On obtient l'indice annuel de la glace en comparant les conditions de la glace pour chaque année de la période 1751–1870 avec les conditions de la glace en 1969. Cette année se charactérise par la glace d'été tardive la plus sévére dans cette région au cour de la période contemporaine d'observations de la glace .     

Assessing Disciplinary Integration in New Anthropological Studies of Music

Four recent books offer an opportunity to review new and continuing approaches to the study of music, not as an artistic product, but as an essential practice in human society and as a capacity that defines humankind. Two books examine musical capacity and music making from the framework of biological anthropology, drawing on new research in neurophysiology to connect biological and archaeological anthropology. The other two locate the study largely within cultural anthropology, drawing on ethnomusicology. Taken as a set the volumes invite disciplinary integration in anthropological studies of music.     

Recent Developments in the Academic Study of the Cult of the Virgin Mary

Marian veneration is a vital dimension in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, growing in significance from its origins in the early Christian centuries. This development has been particularly important in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the era termed the "Age of Mary." The four books reviewed in this paper approach the subject of Marian veneration and pilgrimage to Marian shrines from a variety of perspectives. Significant themes covered include the evidence for Marian apparitions, traditional religious pilgrimage, and the changes the Internet has brought to pilgrimage and Marian devotion. Stafford Poole, CM's The Guadalupan Controversies in Mexico (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), Robert Maniura's Pilgrimage to Images in the Fifteenth Century: The Origins of the Cult of Our Lady of Czestochowa (Woodbridge: Boyell Press, 2004), and Paolo Apolito's The Internet and the Madonna: Religious Visionary Experience on the Web (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005) all treat specific sites of Marian pilgrimage and are reviewed at length. In contrast, Swanson's edited volume, The Church and Mary: Papers Read at the 2001 Summer Meeting and the 2002 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2004), contains a large number of papers on a range of issues relating to the cult of Mary including music, relics, visions, and the spread of Marian veneration. A selection of these papers is referred to throughout this essay, where relevant.     

SOLDERING ROMAN SILVER PLATE

Summary. Nineteen Roman silver objects, mainly from the British Museum's collection, with traces of solder, were examined by microscopy and analysed by x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. The results are discussed in relation to work on soldered objects from earlier periods and to the contemporary literary sources which are reviewed, and the solder recipes listed. Pliny's recipes for stagnum, a solder for silver, and the evidence of soldering techniques provided by later texts are discussed in detail.
Silver-tin solders and a silver-mercury solder have been identified for the first time, and predate their first appearance in the literature. Experiments were made with tin and silver-tin solders and the results are discussed.