Early Modern Research Articles

Broadcasting the popular: All India Radio’s western music programming in the postcolonial era

ABSTRACT After the country became independent, All India Radio continued the colonial practice of broadcasting western popular music on a regular basis. This paper tries to analyse the reasons behind this decision, given the very small audience that such programming enjoyed. I begin by providing a brief history of broadcasting in the colonial era to demonstrate how that system served as a model for AIR’s subsequent policies. Next, the paper examines the controversies surrounding the ban on Hindi film music on Indian radio, to point out the curious fact that no such interdiction was passed on western popular music. I then look at the crucial role played by English as the primary linguistic medium for governing the postcolonial nation and conclude with the suggestion that the meaning of western pop on All India Radio needs to be understood as a means of governmentality that was instrumental in the making of postcolonial modernity.

Human Trafficking, Beautiful Women, the Land of the Cockaigne, and Burmese Bells: The Significance of the Sexual Reminiscences of the Florentine Merchant Francesco Carletti (1573–1636) in Ragionamenti del mio viaggio intorno al mondo [Chronicles of My Voyage Around the World

Abstract Ragionamenti del mio viaggio intorno al mondo [Chronicles of my voyage around the world] by Francesco Carletti (1573–1636), a Florentine slave merchant and the first private individual to circumnavigate the globe, is a rich source of information about human trafficking from Africa to Spanish America. Carletti writes in detail about his encounters beginning in 1594 in Africa, America, and Asia, including the Philippines, Japan, Macao, Malacca, and Goa, before returning to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope in 1602. But what makes Carletti's record extraordinary are his reports about the sexuality of the peoples he observes in these locations. Following the publications of earlier Italian travel writers Niccolò dei Conti (1395–1469) and Antonio Pigafetta (1491–1531) about the practice of Asian men purposely piercing their genitalia to insert studs and other objects to gratify their female sexual partners, Carletti investigates this phenomenon, concludes its verity, and attributes its existence to the dominance of women's agency in Asia. Carletti's recollections of his voyage are testimony to how exploration during the early modern era catalyzed a transformation in racial discourses and the appreciation of erotic desire in foreign cultures.

Introduction: Renaissance humanism and the Venetian empire

AbstractThe articles gathered in this special issue explore the connection between two major historical phenomena of the fifteenth century: the tremendous diffusion of the humanist movement and the triumphal expansion of the Venetian empire in the Eastern Mediterranean and northern Italy. By focusing on the interactions between the political, social and intellectual conjunctures and by adopting a large‐scale perspective at the culturally diverse territories under Venetian rule, the special issue approaches the Venetian state as an interconnected space of scholarly exchange defined by a common but polymorphous political culture. This introduction places the special issue in the context of new approaches in the historiography on Renaissance humanism and the early modern Venetian state. It advances an understanding of Venetian humanism as an imperial phenomenon and highlights the seminal role it played in the establishment of the Venetian political order in the fifteenth century and its influence well into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Marrying the Unbeliever: Gender, Law, and Disparitas Cultus in Early Modern Japan*

The marriage between a Christian and a non‐Christian has been a highly discussed topic in the history of the Catholic Church and canon law. This study aims to analyse the construction of knowledge concerning disparitas cultus by using a broad array of sources including moral theology, canon law, and missionaries' cases that circulated in different regions of the Iberian Empires. It examines theoretical discussions by theologians in Japan and other parts of the Iberian Empires, as well as case studies described by missionaries in Japan involving Japanese Christians married to non‐Christians. The focus lies on revealing the arguments used both for and against marriage with disparity of cults, and on demonstrating the existence of diverse arrangements of marital cohabitation beyond the theoretical debates held on by scholars in Europe and Asia. From the perspective of women's legal history, it explores the relativisation of paternal consent, religious beliefs and social practices of cohabitation, gender roles within such relationships, household compositions and human relations, all contributing to the numerous situations in which couples live in disparitas cultus. Lastly, this article showcases how missionaries' sources can offer fresh interpretations to women's history in sixteenth and seventeenth‐century Japan.

An Old Mongolian Inscription near the Second (Small) Sulfate Lake in Northern Khakassia as Evidence of Cultural Contacts in the Region in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age

We describe a rare Old Mongolian inscription carved on an outcrop of Devonian sandstone near the Second (Small) Sulfate Lake in northern Khakassia. Tentative translation, dating, and cultural attribution are provided. The condition of the inscription and adjacent representations of humans, animals, and tamgas are described. Three groups of signs of which the Old Mongolian inscription consists are identified. Variants of translation to modern Mongolian and Russian are proposed. One group of signs renders the text: “In the Year of the Snake, the second winter month, the 21st day…” Other graphemes, translated from Mongolian, mean: master, elapsed, horseman, give, herd, steppe (talo). Certain words are indistinct and illegible. The lower and upper chronological limits of the inscription are 1204 to early 1720s. Horsemen figures are carved in the same technique. Old Buryat parallels suggest a rather recent date. Pre-Mongolian tamgas are pecked rather than carved. The script belongs to the latest instances of Old Mongolian epigraphy in the region.

“Come to Java”: Colonial Tourism and the Fragile Illusion of an “Island Paradise”

Abstract The proliferation of mountain resorts and the establishment of tourist itineraries in late colonial Indonesia reflected and reaffirmed colonial hierarchies of race, class, and gender. In the mild mountain climate, Europeans visited hotels reminiscent of European architectural styles, consumed European meals and enjoyed flora and fauna that reminded them of home. The location of these resorts was inspired by nearby natural, cultural, and ethnographic “wonders” that further served to emphasise colonial superiority. As spaces where pseudo-scientific concerns over race, civilisation, and the environment coalesced to legitimise colonial ideology, these mountain resorts were crucial elements in the development of a regional and national tourist network. The infrastructure needed to access these resorts and the identification of tourist destinations in the colonial era laid the foundation for many of Indonesia's contemporary tourist draws. Furthermore, thanks to a targeted international advertising campaign, these sites drew visitors both from within the Netherlands Indies as well from throughout colonial Asia and Oceania. Finally, these tourist networks traversed colonial (national) boundaries and played an important role in the articulation and experience of a shared colonial mindset. This history illustrates the extent to which contemporary tourism is profoundly shaped by the colonial discourse of power and difference.

Anatomy of a Fall: Understanding France’s Reluctant Retreat from Central Sahel

ABSTRACT Building on the notion of geopolitical imaginaries, this paper delineates three distinct and successive periods in the French engagement with the Sahel: first, the (post)colonial era characterised by the Sahel’s unique and peripheral position within France’s ‘pré carré’; second, the War on Terror era, marked by the Sahel’s integration into a global ‘arc of crises’; and finally, the current shift towards prioritising competition among major powers. This article sheds light on the processes whereby geopolitical imaginaries informing foreign policy have been transformed and reshaped. The French retreat from the Sahel took place in a context where the limitations of French security architecture became evident and where Sahelian military juntas elaborated their own antagonistic, sovereigntist geopolitical imaginary. Amidst anxiety and uncertainties, France grappled with the tension between its stated ambition to build better relations and the self-perception of an exceptionalist role on the African continent.

British history at Tate Britain post-Brexit: Rich, white men and space invaders

In 2023, Tate Britain rehung its semi-permanent collections display as a revisionist history of Britain. This major curatorial project makes compelling storytelling. Its critically engaged approach opens British art and history to wider interpretations. At the same time, the display elevates rich, white men. Drawing on a range of theoretical literature from cultural studies, sociology and art history, this article considers how Tate Britain operationalises difference and hierarchy as a British inheritance post-Brexit. I argue that key areas early in the first section of the display, Historic and Early Modern British Art (1550 to 1930), augment a rich, white, male hegemony, against which ‘others’, people of colour, the working classes and (some) white women, are presented as what Nirmal Puwar calls ‘space invaders’. I explore how curatorial revisions and other display strategies – chronology, staging, portraiture and binaries – both disrupt and reinforce the hegemony. The article includes my drawings of key areas of the display, which guide my research.

Constant J.Mews and AnttiIjas (eds. and trans.): Salome and the Kin of Jesus. The Treatises of Maurice of Kirkham and Herbert of Bosham. British Writers of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period 8. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2024; pp. cxxx +226.

Constant J.Mews and AnttiIjas (eds. and trans.): Salome and the Kin of Jesus. The Treatises of Maurice of Kirkham and Herbert of Bosham. British Writers of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period 8. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2024; pp. cxxx +226.

North Pontic crossroads: Mobility in Ukraine from the Bronze Age to the early modern period.

The North Pontic region, which encompasses present-day Ukraine, was a crossroads of migration, connecting the vast Eurasian Steppe with Central Europe. We generated shotgun-sequenced genomic data for 91 individuals dating from around 7000 BCE to 1800 CE to study migration and mobility history in the region, with a particular focus on historically attested migrating groups during the Iron Age and the medieval period. We infer a high degree of temporal heterogeneity in ancestry, with fluctuating genetic affinities to different present-day Eurasian groups. We also infer high heterogeneity in ancestry within geographically, culturally, and socially defined groups. Despite this, we find that ancestry components which are widespread in Eastern and Central Europe have been present in the Ukraine region since the Bronze Age. In short, our study reveals a diverse range of ancestries in the Ukraine region through time as a result of frequent movements, assimilation, and contacts.

Coping With Hanged Ghosts: Rationalizing the Prevention of Suicide by Hanging in Early Modern China.

In Chinese culture, there has been a longstanding belief that if an individual commits suicide by hanging in a specific location, similar incidents will recur in that same place. This is because the process of reincarnation is contingent upon the resolution of any residual grievance, without which the spirit of the deceased person would keep inciting others to die by the same means. As hanged ghosts (Ch. diaosi gui) are seen as the essential cause of suicide, exorcism rituals are called for to address them and break the unfortunate loop. This article examines the evolution of the concept of hanged ghost in Chinese society, revealing that early modern philosophers, physicians, and forensic practitioners sought to demystify this phenomenon in order to alleviate social fears towards suicidal hanging. The article argues that initiatives aimed at medicalization and destigmatization of suicide were already in progress during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

The role of gestures in logic

Abstract Gestures are usually regarded as a casual element of communication processes between logicians. By contrast, we aim to show that gestures have played a significant role in logic. We argue that the development of communication techniques and their standardization have led to the rise of formal notation systems commonly used in logic today. In order to substantiate this claim, the historical development of the use of gestures in (early) modern logic is investigated. This investigation uncovers exemplary communication and proof techniques that illustrate the efficacy of gestures as representational media in formal logic. Revisiting the tradition of gestures in logic offers promising paths and insights for today’s logic as a communication practice in the digital age.

Impartial observations of a sensible mind

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the scholarly analysis of impartiality in the early modern period. While previous studies have focused on impartiality in law, history, philosophy and aesthetics, this article analyzes impartial and cold or even cold-blooded self-examinations and self-observations, primarily in the work of the eighteenth-century German philosophers and writers Georg Friedrich Meier and Karl Philipp Moritz. The article is particularly concerned with the relation between the therapeutic and epistemic meanings and functions of these concepts. Without suggesting a linear development, it details how, over time, therapeutic connotations tended to be challenged and partly replaced by epistemic ones. It further argues that this development was intimately connected to the culture of sensibility and, in particular, to the growing interest in the unique, individual and often sensual experience.

Lived Religion and Shared Experience in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

This special issue of JMEMS takes up the classical debate on the “shared” and the “individual” through the concepts of “lived religion” on the one hand and “experience” on the other. The collection presents the state-of-the-art within the emerging field of history of “lived religion,” exemplifying its differences from earlier notions of “popular religion.” The articles take a step forward in the field of lived religion by approaching it from the perspective of experience as an analytical category. The issue considers experience as it occurs in three fundamental stages: (1) ways in which individual people and communities encounter the world; (2) the simultaneous relational, intersubjective process making sense of those encounters; and (3) the social and physical structures born from the repetition of these processes so as to produce knowledge of the “real” world. Approaching the topic in terms of these stages of experience allows the articles to investigate negotiations between individual and communal or shared experience in the field of lived religion within various geographical contexts of medieval and early modern Europe. Such an approach helps to better identify the drivers of historical change across medieval and early modern periods.

Blinded by the Light: Experience, Narrative, and Identity in Late Medieval and Early Modern Jaén

Modern histories of the shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Capilla (Our Lady of the Chapel) in Jaén, Spain emphasize the continuity of devotions at the site and the importance of tradition in local religious culture. The shrine's origins lie in the testimony of four witnesses who, in 1430, recounted in detail their experiences of seeing a heavenly procession. These witnesses, however, made little attempt to decipher the meaning of what they saw. That interpretation came only much later, as seventeenth-century authors fit it into their narratives of Jaén's central role in the “reconquest” of Spain. This article examines how successive efforts to translate the lived experiences of these individuals — in their own testimony, as reframed by later writers, and as incorporated into civic traditions — have structured the experiences of generations of local residents.

Lahar floods in West Sumatra during the Dutch colonial era: Historical records and societal impact

This research explores documents and archives regarding lahar floods in West Sumatra during the Dutch colonial period. These records are crucial amid difficulties in obtaining historical statistical data to study similar past disasters. The research method used is historical, integrating information from Dutch colonial documents and archives such as newspapers, magazines, diaries (dagh register), government reports, and contemporary books, particularly those discussing societal conditions and Dutch government policies in handling various lahar flood events in West Sumatra during that period. This study is expected to provide new insights for the development of disaster studies and facilitate historical disaster studies in other Indonesian regions that are also prone to natural disasters.

Communion as Shared Experience in Early Modern Finland

This article investigates how Communion was shared as an experience of “lived religion” in early modern Finland. The article draws on church teaching and legal materials concerning Communion to investigate what scripts were available that shaped experience, and it draws on court record narratives on Communion-related superstition or crime to uncover variations of that script for specific local situations involving various individuals and groups of laypeople. The article suggests that while Communion was meant to create an experience of intimate knowledge between the divine and the Christian, as well as between all Christians, at times its shared nature was limited and produced experiences of exclusion and self-exclusion. Furthermore, the article considers experience in terms of a relational process, suggesting that “experience of religion” as a concept can help with investigating religious conflict and persecution when the concept of “lived religion” offers insufficient nuance.

Early Modern Women and Latin Literary Culture: Assessing the Evidence of Manuscript Verse

Early Modern Women and Latin Literary Culture: Assessing the Evidence of Manuscript Verse

:Disease and Disability in Medieval and Early Modern Art and Literature

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:Spaces for Friars and Nuns: Mendicant Choirs and Church Interiors in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

:<i>Spaces for Friars and Nuns: Mendicant Choirs and Church Interiors in Medieval and Early Modern Europe</i>