Puritans in Babylon: The Ancient Near East and American Intellectual Life, 1880-1930
... Historically, women from the ANE were subordinated despite their critical social role (Kuklick 2018). In ancient Mesopotamia, there was a long-standing tradition of social injustice and Historically, women have remained subjects of subordination by their male counterparts despite their critical social role. ...
Historically, women have remained subjects of subordination by their male counterparts despite their critical social role. While they have continuously been entangled in the web of patriarchy, some of them, however, have been able to use their agency to re-assert themselves and influence how the world should positively think about women. This article interrogated the innovative ways in which the woman of Shunem and the Zvishavane women of faith of the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe (RCZ), have been at the forefront, proactively exercising their agency to confront the death-dealing and life-diminishing forces confronting them. Countering their portrayal as persons who simply did what was expected of them as women, this article recognised and celebrated their indispensable contributions towards the welfare of their communities. Grounded on narrative analysis, this article engaged the woman of Shunem’s narrative and re-read it from her vantage point. Using a hermeneutic of identification, the narrative was put side by side with that of the RCZ women of faith. The overarching framework underpinning the study was that of the feminist liberating-seeking framework. In the pursuit of this framework, cultural and religious powers that influence the exploitation of women are acknowledged and effort is made to transform the society from the oppressive system of patriarchy so as to liberate women in particular. A re-reading of the woman of Shunem’s narrative showed that she was a woman of great character. Despite the couple being childless, she never allowed community expectations to put pressure on her as she expressed contentment with her situation. Her greatness also is reflected through her hospitality, self-abnegation and determination. While what she did, is to some extent comparable to what RCZ women have done and still do today, she admittedly was a step ahead. As such, her tenacity can be used as a leverage to influence the majority of women still caught up in the web of patriarchy in this contemporary world. The long-standing perception of women as capable only of doing what is expected of them, needs to be challenged and biblical passages reinterpreted to ensure the liberation of everyone, especially women due to their vulnerability.Contribution: This research contributed to the scope of In die Skriflig in that it brought on board the experiences of women in the RCZ against the background of the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4:8–37. In a scientific way, the research argued for the recognition of these often-forgotten heroes.
... See also his biography in the Appendix (and further citations therein). 283 Kuklick 1996. 284 Bernhardsson 2006, 50-51, 130-31;Goode 2007, 8-10, 185-201. ...
Ancient Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, located in modern Iraq, was a multiethnic imperial capital city in Mesopotamia. Founded by Seleucus I Nicator in the late fourth century BCE, the city was conquered by the Parthians in 141 BCE and eventually superseded by nearby Ctesiphon. An excavation sponsored by the University of Michigan, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Art explored the site over six seasons from 1927 to 1937. Per antiquities laws instituted under British Mandate rule, finds from the excavation were dispersed between those U.S. institutions and the Iraq Museum. This dissertation examines this excavation—and the collection and archive it produced—as a legacy collection. It probes three frames for the Seleucia excavation: the colonial context of British control of Iraq between World Wars I and II; the excavation’s approach to artifacts (consequential for object recovery and documentation); and the history of and discourse around “nonexpert” labor on the excavation in Iraq and on the collection in Detroit. These frames are prerequisites to understanding the excavated corpus—its contours and its limitations—and thus the site, and to advancing a more equitable archaeological practice. Chapter 1 offers a backdrop discussion of legacy collections and archaeological archives, with particular attention to archival practice. A description of extant archival resources offers a window into archival process and a resource for future Seleucia researchers. The context of the British Mandate in Iraq is presented in Chapter 2, which outlines intertwined political and archaeological developments in interwar Iraq. The consequences of British rule on interwar archaeology in Iraq were not limited to antiquities laws: a case study of British Royal Air Force involvement at Seleucia illustrates British colonial facilitation of foreign archaeological practice. The results from the Michigan excavation at Seleucia remain under-published and under-incorporated into knowledge about Seleucid and Parthian Mesopotamia. Partially due to ruptures of 20th century global events, this is also a consequence of excavation practices. Chapter 3 identifies a view of finds as objects—not contextualized artifacts—dually rooted in the project’s initial Biblical goals and its practice of acquiring objects under division for sponsoring institutions. The second half of the dissertation considers “nonexpert” labor as a key aspect of knowledge production about Seleucia. A review of previous scholarship on archaeological labor in the Middle East and Africa (Chapter 4) offers frameworks drawn from history/sociology of science and critical histories of archaeology. These frameworks are applied to Seleucia in Chapters 5 to 7, which examine the (in)visibility of and discourse around Iraqi excavation workers in Seleucia’s publications, archival texts, and archival photographs. Details about excavation roles and individual excavation workers are also offered from archival evidence. This discussion recognizes the decisions of individual workers, made within the excavation’s overall object orientation and recovery strategy, as shaping the extant artifactual corpus. The lens of “nonexpert” labor shifts to the U.S. in Chapter 8, which is focused on a Works Progress Administration project in Detroit, contextualized by other New Deal archaeological projects. Political necessity made the WPA lab workers highly visible, in contrast to the Iraqi workers. These newly presented histories of Iraqi and American contributors to knowledge about Seleucia offer a more robust view into the biography of the Seleucia collections at Michigan, as well as a fuller set of stakeholders.
... While historians emphasize the first half of the 20th century as a key period in the development of what later became "area studies" in universities, and have examined the role that missionaries, philanthropic foundations and specific scholars played in the origins and evolution of university-based "China Studies," "Russian Studies," "Middle Eastern Studies" and "Latin American Studies" and so on (Grabill, 1971;Kuklick, 1996;Han, 1997;Engerman, 2003Engerman, , 2009Lockman, 2016;Hollinger, 2017;Linton, 2017), they have not yet paid sufficient attention to the material objects that contributed to the growth of area studies, and the academic infrastructure of American research universities more broadly. But modern disciplinary knowledge would have been impossible to establish in the absence of materials collected from all over the world. ...
Purpose
This essay focuses on the Chinese-Japanese Library of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and examines how the Library collected and transported Chinese rare books to the United States during the 1930 and 1940s. It considers Harvard's rationale for its collection of Chinese books and tensions between Chinese scholars and the Harvard-Yenching Institute leaders and librarians over the purchase and “export” of Chinese books.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is a historical study based on archival research at Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Harvard-Yenching Library, as well as careful readings of published primary and secondary sources.
Findings
By examining the debates that surrounded the ownership of Chinese books, and the historical circumstances that enabled or hindered the cross-national movement of books, this essay uncovers a complex and interwoven historical discourse of academic nationalism, internationalism and imperialism.
Originality/value
Drawing upon the unexamined primary sources and published second sources, this essay uncovers a complex and interwoven historical discourse of academic nationalism, internationalism and imperialism.
Tra le attività che fanno parte della ricerca archeologica, il disegno è tanto importante quanto la pratica dello scavo. Naturalmente è lo scavo la fonte principale dei dati impiegati nell’interpretazione en ella ricostruzione dell’architettura antica. In particolare, è nell’archeologia del Vicino Oriente antico che il disegno sembra aver assunto un ruolo fondamentale nella comprensione dei resti architettonici portati alla luce. Fin dalle più antiche esperienze di scavo nei centri dell’antica Mesopotamia, planimetrie e ricostruzioni prospettiche, infatti, occuparono una parte cospicua delle pubblicazioni poiché contribuivano non solo alla migliore comprensione dell’architettura, ma anche alla diffusione dei giudizi e delle interpretazioni sul suo contesto storico e culturale. Il presente contributo è un tentativo di rintracciare i presupposti e le finalità del disegno architettonico nelle pubblicazioni di alcuni antichi centri urbani del Vicino Oriente antico seguendo lo sviluppo dell’idea dell’architettura mesopotamica attraverso la costruzione della sua immagine.Parole chiave: Robert Koldewey – Walter Andrae – Victor Place – architettura monumentale – disegno architettonico – planimetria dettagliata – pianta schematica – ricostruzione prospettica ResumenEntre las actividades que forman parte de la investigación arqueológica, el dibujo es tan importante como la excavación en sí. Naturalmente, la excavación es la fuente principal de los datos empleados en la interpretación y la reconstrucción de la arquitectura antigua. En concreto, es en la arqueología del Oriente Próximo antiguo donde el dibujo parece haber asumido un papel fundamental en la comprensión de los restos arquitectónicos sacados a la luz. Desde las experiencias más antiguas de excavaciones en los centros de la antigua Mesopotamia, la planimetría y las posibles reconstrucciones ocuparon, de hecho, una parte destacada de las publicaciones, puesto que contribuían no sólo a la mejor comprensión de la arquitectura, sino también a la difusión de las opiniones y de las interpretaciones sobre su contexto histórico y cultural. La presente contribución es un intento de reencontrar los postulados y la finalidad del dibujo arquitectónico en las publicaciones de algunos viejos centros urbanos del Próximo Oriente antiguo siguiendo el desarrollo de la idea de la arquitectura mesopotámica a través de la construcción de su imagen.Palabras clave: Robert Koldewey – Walter Andrae – Victor Place – arquitectura monumental – diseño arquitectónico – planimetría detallada – plano esquemático – reconstrucción posible AbstractAmong the set of activities we call archaeology, drawing is as important as digging. The archaeological activities provide us with the data we use to imagine ancient architecture. In Near Eastern archaeology in particular, drawing started to become the fundamental instrument to understand the architectural remains brought to light. Two and three dimensional drawings became a fundamental part of each publication, contributing not only to the knowledge of architecture itself but also to the diffusion of ideas about real life and the history of an ancient city. This paper represents the attempt to focus on both the assumptions and aims of architectural drawing in some Near Eastern archaeological publications, trying to follow the paths of the development of the idea about Near Eastern architecture and settlement through the construction of its image.Keywords: Robert Koldewey – Walter Andrae – Victor Place – monumental architecture – architectural drawing –detailed plan – schematic plan – prospective reconstruction
This chapter reviews the history of Achaemenid studies by scholars working in North America (including émigrés), principally from the nineteenth century to the present. It covers all disciplines (languages and document/literary traditions; historical studies; archeological fieldwork; studies in the material/visual record across media from coins and seals to architecture) as well as all geographical regions/cultures of the empire. Simultaneously, it signals key trends in topic and approach.
Like any science, archaeology relies on trust between actors involved in the production of knowledge. In the early history of archaeology, this epistemic trust was complicated by histories of Orientalism in the Middle East and colonialism more broadly. The racial and power dynamics underpinning 19th- and early 20th-century archaeology precluded the possibility of interpersonal moral trust between foreign archaeologists and locally hired labourers. In light of this, archaeologists created systems of reward, punishment, and surveillance to ensure the honest behaviour of site workers. They thus invented a set of structural conditions that produced sufficient epistemic trust for archaeological research to proceed—a system that continues to shape archaeology to the present day.
In 1929, the year after architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue's new State Capitol at Lincoln NE opened to the public, the Nebraska-based journal the Prairie Schooner published a seven-page poem by a certain Rosemonde E. Richards, called simply 'The Nebraska State Capitol'. In striking ecstatic ekphrasis the poet indicated her appreciation for the building's cutting-edge modern design, a towering skyscraper rising from the prairies, and for its elaborately planned sculptural program celebrating the state, the family, agriculture and the sublime. Although Assyrian elements are only one among many of the Nebraska State Capitol's eclectic influences, Assyrianisms are worth narrowing in on because their presence in that building should be significant to both ancient historians and scholars of modern art and architecture. In this article I will discuss the history of the Nebraska State Capitol's design and the reaction to its 'new style'. I will then consider each of the building's most notable 'Assyrianisms' in works by sculptor Lee Lawrie and muralist Hildreth Meiere.3 Finally I will trace some ways in which the Capitol's engagement with Assyrian imagery would be echoed in other buildings and imagery of the 1930s, and investigate the relationships between sculptors and designers and academics and academic institutions.
Early America engaged with Islam through multiple channels. As American missionaries traveled abroad in search of converts, and lived among Muslims, they often viewed the religion and its adherents through the lens of Christianity. For some, Islam's prophet was a false hero, "an impostor," and the message of the religion was an unfortunate pastiche of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Simultaneously, American scholars of religion and the ancient Near East in the nineteenth century approached the Islamic world out of an academic desire to understand Middle Eastern antiquity. Through this process of intellectual inquiry, the American academy eventually developed an interest in the study of Islam itself. Thus, two dominant strands of thought emerged that led to divergent discourses about Islam in the United States. These two discourses-an academic one versus a popular one rooted in missionary experiences-have endured and shaped the contemporary understanding of Islam in America. Keywords American Islam-missionaries-Muslims in America-Islam in America-Oriental Studies in America-History of Islam-Islam and the West How did early America perceive Islam? Though an intricate and thorny question , given that neither America nor Islam can be viewed as monoliths, scholars must continue exploring these early interactions in search of intellectual discourses that not only expose biases and misunderstandings, but also eventually put Muslims and Americans in valued, if sometimes dissenting, dialogues. The emergence of a "Muslim-American" identity has roots in the historical debates of an earlier era that first brought Islam to American minds and America to Muslim (and especially Muslim Middle Eastern) societies. This
Chapter 4 focuses on archaeological tourism between the 1870s and the early decades of the twentieth century. It starts by pointing to the widening of the social base interested in archaeological tourism, a growth of interest that explains the increase in visitor numbers at archaeological sites. This led in some sites to new ways of controlling access to them. The development of photography in these years promoted new ways of seeing that were popularized by several means and, in particular, by the widespread use of postcards. It is in this period that the souvenir became common, competing in the market with the sale of actual antiquities and fakes. New tourist destinations appeared, including North Africa, India and Mexico. The national interest in the antiquities of the own nation, however, also grew in the richest countries of the world, those that provided the highest number of tourists. This is illustrated by two archaeological sites opened for visitors at that time and about which some evidence has survived: Stonehenge and Ampurias. Ancient Roman theaters and amphitheaters also see new, alternative uses, in the framework of archaeological tourism, for their use for performances began in this period.
Nineteenth-century archaeologists working in the Middle East managed local labor in ways that reflect capitalist labor management models. These archaeologists’ memoirs reveal both the similarities in how they managed their projects and the differences in how locally hired laborers responded. Focusing on such differences illustrates the agency that local workforces have historically exerted over the archaeological process, even under alienating working conditions. I argue that while there is some emerging recognition of contributions that local communities have made to archaeology, taking a Marxist and historical view reveals how much archaeological knowledge production has fundamentally relied upon site workers’ active choices.
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