Although vastly influential in German-speaking Europe, conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte) has until now received little attention in English. This genre of intellectual history differs from both the French history of mentalités and the Anglophone history of discourses by positing the concept - the key occupier of significant syntactical space - as the object of historical investigation. C…
This first book-length study shows how Germany tried to reconcile the horrendous experiences of the FirstWorld War through the films made in 1919-1933. Drawing on the analysis of twenty-five such films, and covering a wide range of documentaries as well as feature films on the reasons for the outbreak of the war, life at the front,war at sea and the home front, the author sketches out the histo…
Antisemitism is an exceptional historical phenomenon. Its history goes back at least 2000 years and has manifested itself in many countries and in a wide range of societies. However, it is not a universal phenomenon. Many countries have no tradition of anti-Semitism and even in those where anti-Semitism periodically raises its head, there have been long periods where it appears to have lain dor…
For centuries, new sailors from European and North American countries have embraced often brutal hazing in an elaborate ceremony at sea called 'crossing the line' (British-American) and 'Neptunusfeest' (Dutch). Typically enacted upon crossing the equator, the beatings, dunks, sexual play, mock baptisms, mythological dramas, crude shavings and haircuts, and drinking and swallowing displays have …
A highly informative report on Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands, We Need Two Worlds is a clear and well-structured dissertation which presents a considerable amount of new material to existing knowledge of Chinese associations and their role in the Netherlands. The situation in Amsterdam is comparable to Chinese societies in other major cities, e.g. New York and London. This comprehensive …
This volume, the result of ongoing collaborations between Australian and French anthropologists, historians and linguists, explores encounters between Pacific peoples and foreigners during the longue durée of European exploration, colonisation and settlement from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century. It deploys the concept of ‘encounter’ rather than the more common idea of ‘fir…
The present volume focuses on the political perceptions of the Hajj, its global religious appeal to Muslims, and the European struggle for influence and supremacy in the Muslim world in the age of pre-colonial and colonial empires. In the late fifteenth century and early sixteenth century, a pivotal change in seafaring occurred, through which western Europeans played important roles in politics…
In the last forty years anthropologists have made major contributions to understanding the heterogeneity of reproductive trends and processes underlying them. Fertility transition, rather than the story of the triumphant spread of Western birth control rationality, reveals a diversity of reproductive means and ends continuing before, during, and after transition. This collection brings together…
This study of the social circumstances of Japanese intellectuals in the last quarter of the eighteenth century is based on biographical data concerning 173 individuals. It deals with the image of intellectual life of that period in current scholarship, and with the self-image and ethos of scholars, authors, poets and artists. That self-image and ethos, however, often clash with the realities of…
Judaism, Christianity and Islam have coexisted in Europe for over 1300 years. The three monotheistic faiths differ in demography, in the moment of their arrival on the continent and in the unequal relations they maintain with power: Christianity was chosen by a large number of inhabitants and became — in spite of important differences according to place and time —a religion of state. The or…