History

Focusing on the relationship between two important scientists in the development of ecological thought during the first half of the twentieth century, this paper argues that Yale limnologist G. E. Hutchinson's adoption of the biogeochemical approach in the late 1930s builds on the 1920s work of the Russian scientist V. I. Vernadsky. An analysis of Hutchinson’s scientific publications shows that he first referred to Vernadsky in 1940, on two different occasions. This article analyzes the dynamics of Hutchinson’s formulation of the (...) biogeochemical approach, providing historical context and linking its early application to the existing limnological tradition. (shrink)

When the sociobiology debate erupted in 1975, there were almost too many contributions to the heated exchanges between sociobiologists and their critics to count. In the fall of 1976, a Canadian educational film entitled _Sociobiology: Doing What Comes Naturally_ sparked further controversy due to its graphic visuals and outrageous narration. While critics claimed the film was a promotional tool to further the sociobiological agenda in educational settings, sociobiologists quickly distanced themselves from the film and, in turn, accused the critics of (...) consciously misrepresenting sociobiology by organizing showings of the film. Using audio, video, archival, and published sources, this paper explores the complicated history of _Sociobiology: Doing What Comes Naturally_ and demonstrates how the public debate about the film reflects the positions, polemics, and polarization of the sociobiology debate as a whole. (shrink)

The Vrolik ethnographical collection consisted of roughly 300 skulls, mummified heads, skeletons, pelvises, wet-preserved preparations, and plaster models, collected by Gerard Vrolik (1775–1859) and his son Willem (1801–1863). Most prominent in this collection were the skulls, of which 177 remain in the collection of present-day Museum Vrolik. These skulls—a troubling heritage of colonialism and scientific racism—are the central subjects of this paper, which considers the changing meanings and values of these skulls for racial science over approximately 160 years, between ± (...) 1800 and 1960. These shifting meanings are analysed using the skulls themselves as primary sources, including the labels, numbers and handwriting present on them or their stands. Central topics addressed will be matters of classification, hierarchy, scientific bias, and disciplinary development of racial anthropology from the study and collection of idealized national types to a quantitative craniometry of populations. This paper demonstrates that during 160 years of study of this same set of crania, the skulls of white European origin gradually lost racial relevance and were increasingly normalized, whereas the skulls of dark-skinned people of African descent continued to be categorized in a typological racial scheme and as such were increasingly othered. (shrink)

Theodosius Dobzhansky was one of the principal ‘founding fathers' of the modern ‘synthetic theory of evolution' and the ‘biological species' concept, first set forth in his classic book, Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937). Much of the discussion of Dobzhansky’s work by historians has focused on English-accessible sources, and has emphasized the roles of the Morgan School, and figures such as Sewall Wright, and Leslie C. Dunn. This article uses Dobzhansky’s Russian articles that are unknown to English-speaking readers, and (...) his late 1920s to early 1930s correspondence with colleagues and friends in the Soviet Union, to clarify some of the Russian influences on Dobzhansky’s evolving evolutionary views, particularly the development of his views on species and speciation. For Dobzhansky, as for Darwin, the problem of species and speciation was crucial for his theoretical explanation of evolution. (shrink)

Urban infrastructures serve as the backbone of modern economies, mediating global exchanges and responding to urban demands. Yet, our comprehension of these complex structures, particularly within diverse socio-political terrain, remains fragmented. In bridging this knowledge gap, this study delves into “boundary objects”—entities enabling diverse stakeholders to collaborate without a comprehensive consensus. Central to our investigation is the hypothesis that oceanic infrastructural developments are instrumental in molding the interface of urban, industrial, and energy sectors within marine contexts. Our lens is directed (...) at the Gulf of Mexico, which is distinguished by its industrial depth and expansive marine grid. We highlight the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway’s (GIWW) paramount role in regional movement and the ecological facets of practices such as dredging, which is vital for transport and coastal conservation. A striking revelation of our study is the transformation of offshore structures in the Gulf into vibrant marine habitats. Emphasizing the intertwined nature of marine infrastructures, we denote oceans as pivotal platforms for impending urban expansion, especially as land resources wane. Our research aspires to validate the role played by oceans as a nexus in the urban–industrial–energy fusion. (shrink)

In 1904, Ellen Richards introduced “euthenics.” By 1912, Lewellys Barker, director of medicine and physician-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, would tell the _New York Times_ that the “task of eugenics” and the “task of euthenics” was the “Task for the Nation.” Alongside the emergence of hereditarian eugenics, where fate was firmly rooted in heredity, this article places euthenics into the same Progressive Era demands for the scientific management over environmental issues like life and labor, health and hygiene, sewage and sanitation. (...) I argue that euthenics not only heralded women as leaders in the quest for what Richards and eugenicists termed “racial improvement,” but also aimed to make reforms through environmental and educational changes rather than hereditary interventions. Seeking to recuperate the figure of Ellen Richards in the history of science, I place Richards and her euthenics more into the debate over eugenics rather than over the emergence of home economics. Building on the work of Donald Opitz, Staffan Bergwik, and Brigette Van Tiggelen, this article shows, first, how Richards’ career threads the needle between the home and the laboratory as sites of science making, not as separate spheres but as overlapping realms, and helps recover how domestic concerns shaped the focus of the life sciences. Second, this article shows how euthenics shaped eugenics by looking at the writings of American eugenicists Charles Davenport, Paul Popenoe, and David Starr Jordan. Third, the article describes how euthenics took root in new academic departments of domestic science, home economics, and departments child welfare and family life in the 1920 and 1930s, most notably the department of euthenics at the Kansas State Agricultural College from 1926 and the Institute of Euthenics at Vassar College after 1923. (shrink)

Problematic perceptions about race damage our society. These attitudes can seem impossible to overcome, but philosophers Dr Jennifer Mensch, at Western Sydney University in Australia, and Dr Michael Olson, at Marquette University in the US, beg to differ. They are compiling a collection of 18th-century philosophical and scientific texts that helped shape the way people saw race across the Western world, and were used to justify colonisation. They believe that by exposing these historical roots of racism, opportunities to improve societal (...) attitudes to race will become easier to identify. -/- This article was produced by Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEM), and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE). (shrink)

This paper examines the influence of cultural and socioeconomic factors on the growth of enterpreneurship in Vietnam. Traditional cultural values continue to have a strong impact on the Vietnamese society, and to a large extent adversely affect the entrepreneurial spirit of the community. Typical constraints private entrepreneurs face may have roots in the cultural facet as legacy of the Confucian society like relationship-based bank credit. Low quality business education is both a victim and culprit of the long-standing tradition that looks (...) down on the role of private entrepreneurship in the country. (shrink)

Este capítulo reflexiona sobre las vinculaciones entre filosofía de la educación y transdisciplinariedad, así como su incidencia en la formación de los futuros profesionales de la educación; al respecto, el autor considera que la filosofía de la educación como disciplina filosófica, aporta una perspectiva global, totalizante e integradora sobre el hecho educativo, pero respondiendo siempre a un contexto concreto; es decir, a la realidad educativa del sujeto que aprende, con sus necesidades, problemáticas y situaciones específicas. El autor explica la filosofía (...) de la educación como un saber práctico; identifica los puntos de convergencia entre filosofía de la educación y transdisciplinariedad; y analiza sobre la incidencia del modelo transdisciplinar en la formación profesional docente, en el papel de la universidad como espacio donde se integra ciencia, educación y sociedad, y en la consolidación del ecosistema integrado. Además, el capítulo presenta algunos enfoques y desafíos de la filosofía de la educación transdisciplinar que orientan la labor educativa en función del desarrollo, el progreso, la sostenibilidad y el diálogo con los saberes no convencionales. (shrink)

This article seeks to analyse the images that accompany the hybrid musical genre of the 1960s and 1970s called Anatolian Pop in Turkey. Anatolian pop music developed in a globalising-localising context, a ‘liminal’ place and space of both domestic and international cross-cultural communication. It is equally located at the intersection of rural and urban environments and thinking, a space the autors call 'rurban'. The rurban character of Anatolian Pop is for one part present within the music, but also in its (...) materiality, e.g., in the images produced alongside this music: for record covers, magazines and films that show musicians, fashion garments, accessories, and instruments. These images can be read as documents of particular social, temporal and/or spatial relationships, and can thus be analysed in the context of the sociology of knowledge. Mainly based on a sample of a 1970s Turkish weekly pop-culture magazine, the article examines how the interplay of rurban fashion and music works, and how these discourses were framed in the photographic images. The authors also investigate the visual and discursive links between Turkish "kostüme avantür" (costumed adventure) films of the period and Anatolian pop music. Thus, the objective of this analysis is to uncover the incorporated habitus of the period, i.e., the sometimes unconscious and unreflected patterns of behaviour and valuation in a society, of which 1960s/70s Turkey is a very telling example. (shrink)

In this article I examine language used to define, express, and exploit “National Socialism”. These different uses vary in time and purpose, and need to be understood in context. The Nazis did not create much of the language most closely associated with National Socialism, but their use of certain language, symbols, and images has been so firmly established that we immediately recognize them even when partially spoken or indirectly referenced. This easy recognition, combined with the emotional charge of anger and (...) horror, lends itself to commercial and political exploitation. I discuss this with examples from scholarly publishing and current events, and also discuss possibilities for crowd manipulation made possible by political use of interactive social networks. (shrink)

The “greatness” of the Mahābhārata, its mahat/mahā quality, refers primarily to its intended dynamism as a powerful engine generating the spread of Brahminic teaching throughout the world, casting “heathen” (nāstika) teachings and their patrons into shadow for all time. The Brahmin authors worked to accomplish this end in two main ways. First, they devised a tremendously engaging tale that depicted the decisive victory of a king (Yudhiṣṭhira Pāṇḍava) who accepted Brahmin claims to deserve monopoly-control over teaching the norms of society. (...) Second, they made this tale an extensive magisterium of Brahmin ideology and philosophy, affording to all in society, women and śūdras as well as Aryan men, encouragement to seek the forgiveness of past wrongs at tīrthas and access to the teachings of mokṣa without Vedic initiation. (shrink)

Yang Jiong 楊炯 (650–ca. 694), though hailed both by his contemporaries and later generations as one of the “Four Elites of the Early Tang,” has yet to receive due scholarly attention. This article contributes to the study of Yang Jiong by examining his “Fu on the Bookcase for Reading While Lying Down” (“Wodu shu- jia fu” 臥讀書架賦). It demonstrates how the poet displays his literary genius by skillfully employing various allusions, using self-deprecating humor for assertive self-display, devising close echoes among (...) different parts, and building an extremely well-balanced structure, written in verse of an elaborately parallel style. More importantly, he cleverly crafts a double text so that both the physical bookcase and he himself, the “mental bookcase,” become the dual subjects of the fu. The interplay between the bookcase, the poet, and his self-representation also contributes to the wider discussions of material culture, social norms, and literary expression. (shrink)

Zhuānzì 專字 are often defined as graphs representing a “special meaning” of a word, manifest in the choice (i.e., addition or alteration) of a semantic component. This article approaches the zhuānzì phenomenon in the broader context of the logographic nature of the Chinese writing system. It first identifies and discusses several thematic categories of zhuānzì, including both historical examples from unearthed and transmitted corpora and instances from the Chinese script as used in the linguistic environment of modern Mandarin. The article (...) then seeks to compare and describe different kinds of information conveyed by different zhuānzì and suggests a terminological shift toward defining zhuānzì as “representing a subset of the word’s denotation,” a phrasing more suited to the complex reality of the phenomenon in question. (shrink)

The tablet ARET 13, 15 was published in 2003 by Pelio Fronzaroli among other Eblaite “testi di cancelleria,” providing a basis for studying the document. This edition was the first step toward understanding the text, establishing that it describes several episodes pertaining to Ebla’s relations with Mari, its principal rival in eastern Syria, at the time of Yibbi-zikir, the last vizier of Early Dynastic Ebla. However, a number of difficulties remained unresolved. In a new edition, Walther Sallaberger (2008) made significant (...) progress in the interpretation of the structure, genre, and historical setting of the text, as well as of several problematic passages. In particular, he showed that the document describes offenses suffered by Eblaites visiting the Mari kingdom, related to a war between Ebla and Mari. We believe, however, that there is still room for a better understanding of the text. Here we suggest several new interpretations for a number of passages, revealing previously unnoticed lexemes and historical facts. We also provide the first English translation of the document. (shrink)

Karaim is a severely endangered language belonging to the Turkic language family and its only surviving dialect is Northwest Karaim with speakers in Lithuania and Poland. In the past few years numerous Karaim translations of the Bible have been discovered. Some of these are among the oldest texts written in this language. The authors present some of the oldest Karaim texts known today as well as recently discovered Karaim translations of the entire Tanakh. It is shown how these recent research (...) results have broadened our knowledge regarding the Karaim written heritage. Furthermore, some preliminary conclusions are drawn on the relationships among the manuscripts and the biographies of the copyists and translators involved in their creation. Textual similarities between sources created separately in communities located far from one another in the regions of Crimea, Lithuania, Volhynia, and Galicia suggest that a common Karaim tradition of Bible translation must once have existed. Moreover, the textual complexity and the use of sophisticated translation techniques in the oldest known texts support the claim that they were based on older texts or on a well-established oral tradition of translation. (shrink)

Within the rich literary tradition of the West Syrian (i.e., Syriac Orthodox) Church, two ninth-century authors stand out thanks to a curious problem. The authors are the bishops John of Dara, who lived in the first half of the century, and Moses bar Kepha, who died in northern Iraq in 903. The problem is the literary relationship between several of the texts transmitted in their names. Applying a three-pronged approach to this synoptic problem, this article offers a path toward a (...) solution. On the basis of biographical, stylistic, and philological arguments, it is argued that at least one text that goes under John’s name, On Heretics, was not in fact written by him. The author of that text, likely operating in the tenth century, drew heavily from Moses bar Kepha’s treatise On Paradise, while reshaping the material from Moses, and also incorporating additional material from other sources. (shrink)

Angelika Neuwirth has argued that sura 112 of the Quran is intended as an intertextual corrective commentary on key Jewish and Christian creedal statements. This theory, consonant with recent scholarship considering the Muslim scripture to be a text of late antiquity, would match the enigmatic phrase Allāh al-ṣamad with the Nicene creed’s description of God as “almighty” (pantokrator) and sura 112’s statement that God has no equal (kufuʾ) with the Nicene creed’s homoousia, the term that throughout the seventh century CE (...) remained central to the bitter doctrinal conflict wracking Eastern Christianity. This article surveys the wide debate in the scholarly literature over these quranic verses, and specifically the hapax legomenon of al-ṣamad, and compares the early Muslim exegetical treatment of al-ṣamad with the approach of contemporaneous Christian polemical writing of the late eighth century. It suggests that the key to unlocking the meaning of the sura and al-ṣamad, which has long vexed both premodern and modern scholars, could lie in the concept of Aristotelian substance and its articulation in the trinitarian formula and ensuing christological disputes. (shrink)

The gold coin found in 1978 among the many treasures of the Tillya Tepe burials in northwestern Afghanistan by the Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi and his team has provoked much debate. Suggestions have been made that it depicts the first representation of the Buddha. This article shows that it does not show the Buddha, but Heracles, representing the Buddha’s guardian Vajrapani. The coin also throws into doubt the early first century CE date of the burials, placing them in the late (...) first century to early second century CE.. The coin also draws attention to the connection between many objects in the burials and Gandhāra, particularly the site of Sirkap at Taxila. (shrink)

This article discusses paleographic and linguistic aspects of the Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions on the Tillya-tepe and Pushkalavati coins and adduces some epigraphic and literary parallels. It proposes a syntactically separate reading of the two sides of the Tillya-tepe coin, and concludes that in spite of some differences of execution the coins may have been produced in the same workshop.

This paper describes the first known translation from the Confucian classics into Swedish, a collection of eighty quotations from the Lunyu published as an appendix to J. A. Bellman’s Wishetenes råd (1707). The work is a third-generation translation, made from the French La morale de Confucius (1688), which is itself an abridged translation of the Latin Confucius Sinarum philosophus (1687). This paper selects ten of the eighty quotations for detailed analysis and commentary. The main findings are that the translation removes (...) so much of the Chinese context and Confucian technical vocabulary that the text becomes almost indistinguishable from generic wisdom literature. Furthermore, the Swedish translator adds a layer of “Christian” vocabulary, which was not present in the Latin and French versions. However, at a time when Sweden had almost no contact with non-Christian cultures, the translation may have played a valuable role in making the Swedish public positively disposed toward Chinese culture. (shrink)

Antony Barbieri-Low presents an engaging and well researched analysis of the changing image of the First Emperor of Qin throughout centuries. Yet the study suffers from insufficient attention to nuances of Chinese political culture, from outright dismission of looted manuscripts (some of which are essential for understanding the Qin), and, primarily, from the author’s own biases. Do these biases suggest the author’s desire to use the First Emperor as a foil in U.S. political debates?

Bronze and Stone: The Cult of Antiquity in Song Dynasty China. By Yunchiahn C. Sena. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019. Pp. xiii + 220. $60.

A Couple of Soles: A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century China. By Li Yu, translated by Jing Shen and Robert E. Hegel. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. Pp. xxv + 330. $25.

In the Forest of the Blind: The Eurasian Journey of Faxian’s Record of Buddhist Kingdoms. By Matthew W. King. New York: Columbia University Press. Pp. xvi + 294. $160 (cloth); $40 (paper).

Literaturkontakte Ugarits: Wurzeln und Entfaltungen. Internationale Tagung, Münster, 13.–15. Oktober 2015. Edited by Ingo Kottsieper and Hans Neumann. Kasion, vol. 5. Münster: Zaphon, 2021. Pp. 251, illus. €69.

The Crown and the Courts: Separation of Powers in the Early Jewish Imagination. By David C. Flatto. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020. Pp. 367. $39.95.

Gold von Königen und Götter: Zur Bedeutung von Goldobjekten in den syrisch-nordlevantinischen Königtümern der Mittleren und Späten Bronzezeit ausgehend von den Funden aus den Grüften von Qaṭna. By Ivana Puljiz. Qaṭna Studien, vol. 10. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2021. Pp. xlvi + 609, illus. €178.

Afterlives of Ancient Rock-cut Monuments in the Near East: Carvings in and out of Time. Edited by Jonathan Ben-Dov and Felipe Rojas Culture & History of the Ancient Near East, vol. 123. Leiden: Brill, 2021. Pp. xxiii + 441. $190.

Ritualbeschreibungen und Gebete III. By Stefan Jakob. Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts, vol. 9 / Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, vol. 154. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2018. Pp. ix + 242, illus. €54.

Archaeology of Empire in Achaemenid Egypt. By Henry P. Colburn. Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020. Pp. xvii + 318, illus. $130. [Distributed by Oxford University Press].

The Lost Archive: Traces of a Caliphate in a Cairo Synagogue. By Marina Rustow. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020. Pp. xi + 597, illus. $45, £35.

The Dragoman Renaissance: Diplomatic Interpreters and the Routes of Orientalism. By E. Natalie Rothman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2021. Pp. xxiii + 419. $24.95. Open access.