Cultural Intercourse Research Articles

Transnational Nazism: Ideology and Culture in German-Japanese Relations, 1919–1936 by Ricky W. Law

Reviewed by: Transnational Nazism: Ideology and Culture in German-Japanese Relations, 1919–1936 by Ricky W. Law Ken Ishida (bio) Transnational Nazism: Ideology and Culture in German-Japanese Relations, 1919–1936. By Ricky W. Law. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2019. xvi, 343 pages. $120.00, cloth; $28.99, paper; $24.00, E-book. Ricky Law's new book has two unique characteristics. First, the author assumes there existed civil societies in both Japan and Germany during the 1920s and 1930s. Second, he uses a symmetrical approach as a basis for comparison and contrast. Many scholars engaged in the history of cultural intercourse often analyze processes of negotiation or points of contact between two countries. However, this author focuses on the sociopolitical and intellectual milieu of each society. The book has two parts. Part 1 contains chapters 1 to 4 which are concerned with the narratives of Germany in Japanese newspapers, lectures and pamphlets, nonfiction, and language textbooks. In part 2, chapters 5 to 8 cover the public utterances of views on Japan in German newspapers, films, nonfiction, and voluntary associations. The two parts consist of 136 pages and 128 pages, respectively. The parallel analysis of the cultural tendencies in both countries highlights their differences. As the author considers transnational Nazism to be an ideological outlook, his stated objective is to write "an ideologically and culturally contextualized history" (p. 10) instead of describing short-term power politics or relying on generalized structural history. Hence, the book deals with the rhetoric and imagery which influenced the popular views in Taisho Japan and Weimar Germany. In connection with learning from Germany in the 1920s, "admiration for Nazi Germany without necessarily advocating the Nazification of Japan" (p. 128) took place in the 1930s. In addition, the author's cultural-historical perspective emphasizes the ideological background of the German-Japanese entente, which led to the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936. In order to situate specific events such as the Sino-Japanese conflict and the Nazi seizure of power within an intellectual milieu, Law tries to pay balanced attention to the reciprocal interest or indifference of both nations. Ironically, the book suggests that the influence was quite one-sided from Germany to Japan; however, its comparative analysis putting the two countries on equal footing brings into relief the asymmetrical trend of their foreign relations more clearly (pp. 17, 301). Since the book underlines public discourse in Japan and Germany rather than diplomatic negotiations or plain propaganda, its readers can find valuable peculiarities in each country, which have been ignored in previous [End Page 220] historiography. For example, the existence of personality cults in Japanese journalism is revealed in articles reporting even trivia related to the ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II, as well as Paul von Hindenburg and Adolf Hitler (p. 35). Moreover, the Japanese papers strongly opposed prosecution of the German emperor and still considered Hitler's putsch in 1923 as a monarchist plot (p. 40). Furthermore, almost every Japanese language textbook contains the phrase "Long Live the Kaiser" in German (p. 154). In contrast to the Japanese personality-driven style, the German press amplified common stereotypes of traditional Japan. The chapters suggest that despite the progress of technology, democracy, and internationalism during the Taisho and Weimar periods, narratives in the two countries did not change their basic positions but shifted in the 1920s from political and economic topics to social and cultural ones. During the Nazi period, the image of Japan as a powerful modern state distinct from the "Asiatics" supplanted the anthropological accounts of missionaries and travelers (p. 203). From the viewpoint of social history, Transnational Nazism is also informative and interesting. The development of communication tools such as the return to the regular operation of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1927, the arrival of the airship Graf Zeppelin in Japan in 1929, and a two-way radio broadcast in 1933 accelerated the cultural exchanges between Japan and Germany. Every chapter gives us helpful facts, such as how much such infrastructure cost, how deep the influence of the media was in both countries, and what kind of prejudices were revealed in their reciprocal public images (pp. 42–47, 57, 110, 199, 212–17). The book...

Indian Ocean Perspectives: From Sea Power to Ocean Prosperity

Long before the Atlantic and the Pacific became theatres for commerce and conflict, the Indian Ocean was home to considerable commercial and cultural intercourse. Most recent literature has, howeve...

THE MMONWU MASQUERADE OF THE ISOKO AND UKWUANI PEOPLE: A RELIGIO-RITUAL FACTOR OF CONTACT IN THE WESTERN NIGER DELTA OF NIGERIA

A major factor of contact amongst the people of the Western Niger Delta of Nigeria, which for want of a more appropriate term, maybe described as cultural, between the Isoko and her Ukwuani neighbours is the religio-ritual factor. One of the ancient and wide-ranging religio-ritual factors, which helped to promote intergroup contact between the Isoko and her Ukwuani neighbours, was associated with the Mmonwu masquerade, a socio-cultural institution. The work therefore examines the impact of the Mmonwu masquerade on the relations between the Isoko and Ukwuani people of the western Niger Delta of Nigeria. The work was carried out with the use of primary and secondary sources, using the historical and analytical method. The result/findings shows that, the Isoko-Ukwuani Mmonwu Masquerade is not an original Isoko-Ukwuani culture, but came as a cultural intercourse with their Igbo Neighbours. The work further shows that the Mmonwu Masquerade has a viable socio-cultural, religio-ritual, and economic impact on intergroup relations of the Isoko-Ukwuani Peoples.

Cultural intercourse of the Lao Vieng ethnic groups that reflects on the architectural style and the use of space in the Korat house

Lao Vieng ethnic groups were taken as prisoners of war to Nakhon Ratchasima in 1778, resulting in a continuous cultural intercourse with the Thai Korat people, especially in the construction of Korat house styles. Recent research has investigated residential housing and the use of space by the two groups of Lao Vieng—Laos Vieng Taku and Laos Vieng Japoh—who settled either close to or away from the center of administration. This article focuses on the comparison of the cultural intercourse of these two groups against the main cultural group which is reflected in the development of housing and the use of interior space. A study of architectural history is applied along with anthropology and sociology. The methodology includes housing surveys, case studies, and interviews with residents. Comparative analysis between the two groups aimed at studying the phenomena of cultural intercourse, including its contributing factors. The study findings show that in a historical context, both groups have maintained to some extent, aspects according to traditional Lao culture. However, the housing patterns of the Lao Vieng Japoh reflect more the adoption of the Korat house than the other, as the location of their community is closer to the administrative center and trade routes, and is surrounded by different cultural groups, especially the Thai Korat group, resulting in social interactions, cultural intercourse, and blending in with the mainstream culture at a greater level.

Research Statement: Portuguese–Dutch Conflicts and the Macao–Nagasaki Trade in the Early Seventeenth Century

The Macao–Nagasaki connection in the early seventeenth century involved a complex set of interrelationships with regard to trade, mission, cultural intercourse, and other important topics between China, Japan, Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands. The rise to importance of Macao and Nagasaki was the result of the interruption of Sino–Japanese trade relations and the policy adjustments by the governments of China and Japan to bring the Portuguese under their control and administration. One of the main differences between Macao and Nagasaki was that the former remained a Portuguese settlement for centuries, while the latter was an enclave first of the Portuguese and later of the Dutch. This short article, mainly based on secondary sources by C. R. Boxer, Leonard Blussé, and others, is a tentative study of the international relations in East Asia and their changes after the appearance of the Portuguese and the Dutch in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.Two important facts make the sixteen-century international relations in East Asia different from the situation before: the appearance of the Portuguese in this area and the deterioration of Sino–Japanese relations.For the first thirty years after the Portuguese arrived on the coast of Guangdong in 1514, encounters between them and the Chinese were rife with misunderstandings and conflicts, because Portugal was not a tributary country of China; the Portuguese were totally new to the Chinese. As the Portuguese could not establish formal commercial relations with China, in order to acquire Chinese goods they sought close relations with Chinese and later Japanese smugglers and pirates. They even engaged in the slave trade, which gave them a very bad name in China.

Cultural Intercourse between the Orient and Ancient Greece: Focusing on the Underworld Women in Myths

Cultural Intercourse between the Orient and Ancient Greece: Focusing on the Underworld Women in Myths

Text, music and gender in the Middle Ages

For the fourth consecutive year, the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society combined its Annual General Meeting with a study day (26 April, 2008, University of Bristol), continuing a trend that points to the high levels of lively scholarly activity supported by the Society. This year's study day, ‘Ave/Eva: text, music and gender in the Middle Ages’, broke with (albeit short) tradition in several ways, however: it was the first to be held outside Oxford, and—unlike the previous years’ focus on parish churches, cathedrals and medieval song—was devised around a cultural theme, rather than a type of institution or a generic category. Co-ordinated by Lisa Colton (Huddersfield) and Emma Hornby (Bristol), the programme touched on a wide variety of medieval music under its topical umbrella of gender, and brought together studies of performance, music theory and music's historical contexts. Perhaps surprisingly, issues of masculinity were much more prominent than those of femininity throughout the day. Several papers explored the ways in which male–male cultural intercourse in the Middle Ages left its mark on musical repertory and on writings about music. Two papers (by Elizabeth Eva Leach and Yolanda Plumley respectively) focused on the poetic competitions engaged in by Guillaume de Machaut and his contemporaries, showing how such exchanges, mediated through clerical, legal and courtly circles, were akin to a ‘flexing of poetic and musical muscle’ in the face of their female dedicatees (whether worldly or celestial). Paula Higgins traced the early reception of Josquin's motet Planxit autem David in the light of contemporary homoeroticism, situating the discussion of Josquin's music alongside similar debates surrounding art—most prominently Michelangelo's David—in 16th-century Europe.

India: A Laboratory of Inter-religious Experiment

AbstractThis piece provides an account of the fertile exchanges that took place among Arab-Muslim and Hindu populations, as well as Jews, Parsis, and Christians, since the early decades of the first millennium CE and during the medieval period of Muslim rule in India. Tracing the remarkable story of inter-religious experiments in this vital area of the globe, and the intense socio-political, intellectual, and cultural intercourse between Hindus and Muslims that pervaded all sectors of existence, the author makes a strong case against zealous historical interpretations that portray Islam and Hinduism as warring factions and ideologies. Of particular interest in this rich cross-fertilization process is the creative leadership of figures like Mughal Emperor Akbar, Sultan Nasir Shah, Shikism's Guru Nanak, and poets such as Kabir Das.

Hibridação e aventura humana

This article returns to and develops a former paper on cultural hybridization. It begins by interrelating globalisation and culture in order to show the risk of an essentialisation of identities, as opposed to the deepening of multicultural hybrids. It then argues for the “flatness” of the world, a condition to overcome hegemonic cultures and generate new architectures of a networked society made up of public spaces of communication. Likewise, it advocates a double hybridisation for Portugal: one of catching-up, another of anticipation. It also refers to the great challenges of exploring the 3+1 capitals emerging from an intelligent management of migrant flows. Finally, the article concludes with considerations on the role of human adventure towards sustainable meaning-making through cultural intercourse and multi-colouring.

Parochialism and Cultural Intercourse: The Question of Language in Multilingual States

Parochialism and Cultural Intercourse: The Question of Language in Multilingual States

Metal Supply and Metal Trade in Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean

Identifying the sources of metal supply and reconstructing the routes of metal trade in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze Age, in the 3rd and 2nd millennium B.C., depend from the complementary evidence provided by sources belonging to various fields of scientific research. Prominent among them are the study of the ore deposits and their periods of exploitation, the analysis of artefacts (provenance studies), the interpretation of ancient texts and the excavation of wrecked ships carrying metal ingots, with inventory and dating of their cargo. The paper proposes to review those aspects, in relation to copper, tin, silver and gold. Its aim is not to provide a systematic and comprehensive catalogue of all the available data. This has been done in the recent years, lastly by H.-G. Buchholz in a detailed article Der Metallhandel des Zweiten Jahrtausends im Mittelmeerraum 1 . The purpose will be rather to have a general overview of the most significant evidence, especially as far as the prehistoric Aegean is concerned: the results of field research in the area of the Lavrion mines in Attica, lead isotope analyses of bronze objects excavated in the Aegean, the archives from Mari and Ugarit, giving reference to international transactions about metals, and the Ulu Burun and Cape Gelidonya shipwrecks. The general picture that emerges from the review allows a better understanding of the relations between the different areas of the Eastern Mediterranean that appear to be closely connected with pressing material necessities and conditions and not only with cultural intercourse and exchange.

The 'Libyan Landscape' from Thera

The narrative context of the exotic scenery depicted in the Theran 'Libyan Landscape' becomes more comprehensible now due to recent restoration of the 'Miniature Fresco' from the West House at Akrotiri. The historical authenticity of this fresco gains further credence from new archaeological evidence for Aegean enterprises overseas in the LMIA period. This paper re-evaluates the implications of new evidence on the absolute date of the Thera eruption, the extent and nature of maritime activity in the eastern Mediterranean in general, and the political, commercial and cultural intercourse between the rulers of Knossos and Avaris during the late Hyksos period in particular.

Western Time, African Lives: Time in The Novels of Buchi Emecheta

Describing dilemma of African philosopher, Abiola Irele writes: the professional philosopher in Africa today operates in a of cultural and social tension. For although his mind has been moulded by principles of Western philosophy, he too is confronted by vast body of world views and thought systems which contrive to inhabit consciousness of majority of Africans and to determine a fundamental attachment on their part to a traditional way of life, a that commands his attention and makes demands of his philosophical loyalties. Faced with a dualism both of modes of thought and of modes of existence, philosopher in Africa is compelled to undertake an examination of implications of this dualism for his discipline and for his practice of that discipline with specific reference to African situation (10). Such is dilemma of novelist Buchi Emecheta, Igbo Nigerian, Londoner, and woman. Torn between loyalties of race, culture, and sex, Emecheta writes about a world lost and a world becoming, a world destroyed and a world indestructible. The Africa of Emecheta's novels is a continent reeling in two times: Western diachronicity and traditional African synchronicity. And in these novels, Emecheta chronicles personal dilemma of African confronted and lured by Western time and Western culture. The author herself and her female characters struggle to find their place in this world in these times. In this essay I am specifically concerned with four of Emecheta's novels, The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977), The Joys of Motherhood (1979), and The Rape of Shavi (1983). Three of these novels, The Bride Price, The Slave Girl, and The Joys of Motherhood, are set in Lagos and Igbo village of Ibuza. Additionally, each of these three focuses on life of an Igbo woman, documenting problems unique to women at this time of cultural intercourse and confrontation and exploring complexities of female lives in a culture guarded by champions without sufficient powers to save it and challenged by powers bent on its destruction. For everyone, male and female alike, these were unique and difficult times, times that witnessed changes and times that incited controversy. These were times that defied tradition. It is no wonder, there-

Greek Art in the European Context

Greek Art in the European Context Alexander Xy dis To understand the specific features of the genesis and development of contemporary Greek art, in the context of the development of European art, one must remember that: a) after hellenistic times, Greece and Athens, its center, survived on the cultural and artistic periphery, becoming ever more provincial as the empires of Rome and Constantinople grew and declined; b) there was no Renaissance in Greece. Its "dark ages" started with the Turkish conquest in the fifteenth century and lasted down to the nineteenth. The fourteenth to fifteenth century blossoming, chiefly of painting (frescoes, ikons) at Mystras, in Epirus and in Macedonia, was but the last reflection of the Paleologan revival in Constantinople. This could perhaps have turned into some sort of "renaissance" had the Polis not fallen to the Turks. After 1453, all channels of cultural communication with the East were severed for Greece. To the West, the only channels open were Crete, where there was an important renascence (both literary and artistic) before it fell to the Turks (1669), and the Ionian Islands, which were never occupied by the Turks. To the north, the Balkan mainland continued to be a battlefield between Europeans and Turks down to the end of the eighteenth century. It follows that, at independence in 1830, there was in Greece no eponymous painting or sculpture to speak of in the conventional western sense, except in the Ionian Islands, which were part of Hellenism but not yet, culturally and politically, part of the Kingdom of the Hellenes, and which, therefore, had closer cultural intercourse with Italy than with the Greek mainland. There existed numerous artisans (who did not always qualify for the title of artists) working in sináfia (guilds) or in bouloúkia (teams)— in their more mobile form—of painters, wood- or stone-carvers, masons , etc., who carried on their trade collectively and usually anonymously , travelling to the outer extremities of Hellenism, from Lebanon to Rumania, from Egypt and Palestine to Venice and Hungary. Of these men very few have come down to us by name. One of the more outstanding was the fresco painter Pagonis, from the painters' 141 142 Alexander Xydis village of Hioniades in Epirus, who worked mainly in the Pelion area in the first years of the nineteenth century. He left there a number of ensembles of religious frescoes, most of them signed and dated from 1801 to 1804. Another eponymous artist of those times was Panayotis Zografos, the freedom-fighter and painter from Vordonia in the Péloponnèse, who illustrated the memoirs of Makriyannis, faithfully putting down (1836-1839) in tempera the general's accounts of his many battles in the War of Independence.1 Pagonis and Zografos, about whom very little outside their works is known, appear to have been the last notable upholders of the long tradition of an art still close to the ordinary people and descended from the Byzantine tradition which was being gradually transmuted during the eighteenth century from religious into "cosmic " (worldly, lay or secular) art. At the beginning of the century, Pagonis still painted wholly religious work, with lay motifs included in some of the scenes. Thirty years later, Zografos' known work is wholly secular except for a few ikons. Their works show them more at ease and at the best of their talent when they are seeking to free themselves from the narrow, sterile discipline of Byzantine painting. With independence, the renewal (perhaps heralded by such works) which would certainly have been a slow and long process, was cut short. An indigenous tradition, it was pushed so deeply underground that it was for all purposes lost. This disappearance can be ascribed to a) a weakening of an art basically religious that could no longer renew itself, and b) the fading away of any demand for such an art. Everything that reminded the Gallicized Fanariots, the prosper- 'The conflict of mentalities involved in the process of cultural "westernization " is illustrated in the story of these paintings. Makriyannis first engaged a "Frankish painter ... he made two or three illustrations [ikonografies], They were not good ... I paid him and he left. After I had sent...

Reflections on Colonialism and Modernisation

The Third World today is the historic product of the overseas expansion of European and North American capitalism. Prior to the rise of modern capitalism, the world had been pluralistic. Different centres of civilisation had developed independently. Between them there had been cultural and commercial intercourse. Two historic missions were completed by European capitalism: firstly, the conquest of the world, and in its wake, colonial plunderings; secondly, the integration of the isolated and the peripheric regions into a unified world system.

オリエント古典文化の問題

The Orient, here mentioned, means the Middle East. The history of the Orient from the 6th century B. C. to the 6th century A. D., has hitherto been studied and systematized from the standpoint too greco-roman or hellenistic. How much cultural intercourse may had been taken place with the greco-roman world, we can still recognize the existence of the independent classical culture of the Orient which stands apart from the greco-roman classical culture. This independent culture should be appreciated conformably as that of the Oriental cultural area, and only by this means the Oriental history from the ancient times to the modern times through middle ages will be understood adequately, and its fresh systematization will also be possible.

CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL INTERCOURSE IN THE EMPIRE

The Political QuarterlyVolume 9, Issue 4 p. 491-502 CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL INTERCOURSE IN THE EMPIRE John Coatman, John CoatmanSearch for more papers by this author John Coatman, John CoatmanSearch for more papers by this author First published: October 1938 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-923X.1938.tb01826.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume9, Issue4October 1938Pages 491-502 RelatedInformation

The Isolationist Policy of Colonial Massachusetts

policies and institutions among peoples the most diverse and at widely separated intervals of time. Sometimes, as in the case of the Holy Roman Empire, there is a deliberate attempt to reproduce something of the past, but more often, as in the case of European and Japanese feudalism, there is no conscious imitation. The explanation of the similarity is that the human mind, confronted by similar situations, devises similar expedients to meet them, establishes similar institutions, or pursues like policies. This is doubtless because the ultimate ends of statesmanship are few and simple, and the means by which they may be achieved, if one reduces them to their lowest terms, are correspondingly limited. Among these recurring policies one of peculiar interest to Americans is the policy of isolation. Historically this policy has taken different forms. In a few instances, notably in the case of China and Japan, the attempt has been made to make isolation complete, that is, to prohibit all intercourse, whether political, commercial, or cultural, with all, or certain nations. But as used to describe the policy pursued at certain times by England and the United States, it signifies no more than that a country attempts to avoid entanglement in the political affairs of other nations, but makes no effort to restrict commercial or cultural intercourse.