Notion Of History Research Articles

The myth of the Brooks method of embolization: a brief history of the endovascular treatment of carotid–cavernous sinus fistula

ObjectiveTo correct the historical notion that permeates throughout the neurointerventional surgical literature that Dr Barney Brooks was the founder of the specialty.Material and methodsBoth articles written by Dr B Brooks...

Glimpsing Native American Historiography: The Cellular Principle in Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Annals

This article argues that if we are to make progress in understanding pre-conquest notions of history among the Nahuas, we must study the earliest alphabetic annals at least as seriously as we have studied the pictorials, including not only those treating the pre-conquest period, but also those treating the authors' own times, the colonial sixteenth century. Placing the hitherto understudied Annals of Juan Bautista and Annals of Tecamachalco in the context of the well-studied Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, Annals of Cuauhtitlan, and Codex Aubin, the author concludes that there is direct evidence that Nahuatl historical annals originally were not, as has been supposed, purely linear texts recounting the history of a single altepetl, but rather, constructions based on an accumulation of cellular contributions from multiple subentities. Historical truth was understood to require multiple perspectives.

Childhood Living: James and Tarantino

Childhood LivingJames and Tarantino Patrick O'Donnell (bio) This essay is the third installment of a work in progress on the fiction of Henry James in relation to modern and contemporary film. Previous discussions explored object relations, voyeurism, and the totality of representation in James's "In the Cage" and Hitchcock's The Birds, and memory and the representation of the future in James's "The Beast in the Jungle" and Christopher Nolan's Memento. In the present instance, I will focus on issues of temporality, childhood, and the structuring and destruction of experience in James's sexual free-for-all for Edwardian adults, What Maisie Knew, and Quentin Tarrantino's postmodern chronicle of corporeal mayhem and a free-for-all of another kind in Kill Bill, Volumes One and Two. Doubtless, on the surface, it seems a stretch to compare James to Tarantino, or for that matter, James to Nolan or Hitchcock. My interest, however, is not comparison in the usual sense—not, fundamentally, shared aesthetics or worldviews or thematics. Rather, I am interested in ratios and differentials in the enscenement of states of being and nonbeing, time, and the representation of [End Page 1] experience in time, and I believe it is instructive to observe these as they occur across the fiction of a modernist writer whose fashioning of visuality as ethos is still being worked out on film. What is being worked out between What Maisie Knew and Kill Bill is a specific relation between time and experience. Both ask, What happens when the ratio between experience and temporality is skewed, when there is an overexposure to the end of experience in mortality? And both locate this conundrum in the figure of the child, whose ephemeral existence is only and always conceived as a passing away before time. Kill Bill is a film about wasting time, the wasting away of temporality, the time of wasting bodies, landscapes, cinematic repertoires. It is a film that envisages the serialization of the historical, as if history were simply a pure succession of events marked by the afterglow of their consummation. Pertinent here is Harry D. Harootunian's observation that, for Walter Benjamin, the construction of history is essentially performative, seeking to "produce a certain concrete effect, the coming together of the Then … and the Now … into a constellation like a flash of lightning" (1996, 77). The notion of history as composed of constellations that link the past and present in a series of simultaneities or instantaneous aporiae is clearly in opposition to all historicisms that posit eternal successions or reich-like continuums extending into the far reaches of time. This is a notion to be differentiated as well from what Giorgio Agamben, in "Critique of the Instant and the Continuum," refers to as the "dead time" of modernity; that is, the representation of time as homogenous, rectilinear and empty [that] derives from the experience of manufacturing work and is sanctioned by modern mechanics, which establishes the primacy of uniform rectilinear motion over circular motion. T e experience of dead time abstracted from experience, which characterizes life in modern cities and factories, seems to give credence to the idea that the precise fleeting instant is the only human time. Before and after, notions which were vague for Antiquity—and which, for Christianity, had meaning only in terms of the end of time—now become meaning in themselves and for themselves, and this meaning is presented as truly historical. (1993, 96) [End Page 2] Even though the formation of historical constellations may be instantaneous, Benjaminian temporality relies, precisely, on the linkage of then and now—a linkage that is not preordained, nor eschatologically integrated into some grand narrative of progress. As Agamben suggests, it is the forging of the relation between then and now, or before and after, that is critical to the construction and representation of an authentic historicity, one that, as he writes elsewhere, offers a resistance and alternative to the forms of experience legislated by modernist temporalities of the instance, given over to "the imposition of a form of experience as controlled and manipulated as a laboratory maze for rats" (1993, 16). "[W]hen the only possible experience...

InvAluable junk: The cellular impact and function of Alu and B2 RNAs

The short interspersed elements (SINEs) Alu and B2 are retrotransposons that litter the human and mouse genomes, respectively. Given their abundance, the manner in which these elements impact the host genome and what their biological functions might be is of significant interest. Finding that Alu and B2 SINEs are transcribed, both as distinct RNA polymerase III transcripts and as part of RNA polymerase II transcripts, and that these SINE encoded RNAs indeed have biological functions has refuted the historical notion that SINEs are merely "junk DNA." This article reviews currently known cellular functions of both RNA polymerase II and RNA polymerase III transcribed Alu and B2 RNAs. These RNAs, in different forms, control gene expression by participating in processes as diverse as mRNA transcriptional control, A-to-I editing, nuclear retention, and alternative splicing. Future studies will likely reveal additional contributions of Alu and B2 RNAs as regulators of gene expression.

Information Warfare in World War I

Traditional narratives of World War I generally overlook a misunderstood but important part of the conflict: information warfare. Both Great Britain and Germany understood the significance of information as a force multiplier and as a valuable financial and diplomatic tool in the larger geostrategic environment. Britain's systematic wartime destruction of Germany's prewar network occurred on a much larger level than historians have recognized. Germany's simultaneous but hidden campaign against Allied communications has escaped historical notice. Greater understanding of this missing element, both in World War I and beyond, will deepen our understanding of the larger economic, political, intelligence, and military dimensions of modern conflict.

Religionsfilosofi efter metafysik?

In his book Transformationen Gottes Vagn Andersen pursues a double strategy. First, he interprets Jürgen Habermas’ post-metaphysical theory of communicative action as a last, secularized transformation of the idea of the absolute. More specifically, he argues that Habermas’ theory combines two ways of reformulating this idea, a Hegelian and a Kierkegaardian one. This leaves us with a tension between a notion of history as a whole and a notion of human finitude. Second, Vagn Andersen addresses the question: given our modern condition as reflected in Habermas’ theory, how is philosophy of religion possible? His answer draws upon a Kierkegaardian notion of the paradox leaving us with an unresolved tension between autonomy and heteronomy. This article discusses the approach and key issues in Vagn Andersen’s book, such as the question of metaphysics, the concepts of transcendence and immanence, the relation between normativity, temporality, and dialogue, and the question of rationality and religion.

Divining Sisters: Reflections on an Experience of Divination by a Priestess of the Ausar Auset Society

This essay, taken from a larger PhD study, seeks to outline the eclectic and embodied spirituality of Black, African Caribbean women, which lies outside the framework of normative Christianity. This essay demonstrates the ongoing struggle of anti-hegemonic resistance against the dominant forces of Euro-American imperial and postcolonial imposition. This struggle against White colonial power and their concomitant religio-cultural norms finds expression in liberative modes of spirituality that have consistently provided a bulwark against the imposition of fixed notions of Black servitude. This essay offers a challenging, creative and innovative theory of Black, African Caribbean women's spirituality that seeks to de-stabilize the historic notions of Euro-American traditional Christian theism and provides fresh and combative thinking to aid the ongoing quest and thirst for full freedom for all Black women.

NEW EVIDENCE FOR EARLY SILK IN THE INDUS CIVILIZATION*

Silk is an important economic fibre, and is generally considered to have been the exclusive cultural heritage of China. Silk weaving is evident from the Shang period c. 1600–1045 bc, though the earliest evidence for silk textiles in ancient China may date to as much as a millennium earlier. Recent microscopic analysis of archaeological thread fragments found inside copper‐alloy ornaments from Harappa and steatite beads from Chanhu‐daro, two important Indus sites, have yielded silk fibres, dating to c. 2450–2000 bc. This study offers the earliest evidence in the world for any silk outside China, and is roughly contemporaneous with the earliest Chinese evidence for silk. This important new finding brings into question the traditional historical notion of sericulture as being an exclusively Chinese invention.

Settling Accounts with the Sociology of Knowledge: The Frankfurt School, Mannheim, and the Marxian Critique of Ideology qua Mental Labor

Karl Marx's theory of ideology, as outlined in The German Ideology, was primarily a critique of idealist philosophy. When Karl Mannheim picked up the term ideology in the 1930s, he broadened its meaning to the point where it lost its function in the struggle against idealist metaphysics. Claiming to think the problem through to its logical conclusion, the sociology of knowledge went so far as to reconcile the concept of ideology with precisely the speculative thought that historical materialism was originally conceived to displace. In effect, Mannheim's notion of history as the Träger of a unified meaning and his notion of social conflict as the expression of ideal differences composing a harmonious whole contributed to a severe reduction of the critique of idealism. This provoked a drawn-out battle between the Frankfurt School and the sociology of knowledge. The problem with the new worldview sociology, as Herbert Marcuse, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor Adorno saw it, was that it diluted the message of Marx's materialist approach and veered heavily back toward traditional idealist philosophy. The significance of the intervention of the Frankfurt School lies in the fact that the attack on Mannheim repeated Marx and Friedrich Engels's attack on the Young Hegelians. Like Marx and Engels, Horkheimer and his associates managed to “uncloak [the] sheep, who take themselves and are taken for wolves” and settle their accounts with metaphysics in favor of a thoroughly secular understanding of social contradictions. While it stopped short of framing its critique of metaphysics in Marx's theory of the division between mental and manual labor, which was the real advance of Marx over his antagonist Max Stirner, the Frankfurt School revived the original concept of ideology while demonstrating its rejection of any depoliticization of Marxian theory as well as its deep commitment to the dialectical mode of inquiry.

Historicity meets its limits: M G Ranade and a faith-based private/public sphere

Post-modernists have been more effective at deconstructing modernity's foundations, including its notions of historicity and the separation of history and faith, while exhibiting scepticism towards affirming alternative conceptualizations of past and present, including those that may be rooted in religious or spiritual world-views. In this article I argue that in the non-west, where modernity and its categories have not always enjoyed a hegemonic status, the boundaries between history and faith have often been fluid. Here the post-colonial intervention becomes necessary both in truly recognizing difference and in suggesting alternative ethical possibilities that point to the limits of historicism and modernity. I read one of India's prominent social reformers from the colonial period, M G Ranade, as someone who while greatly drawn to historicist ideas was also sceptical about the modern separation between history and faith which he believed was not innate to Indian society and was deeply problematic in its ethical implications. Ranade, through a critical engagement with Hindu ‘traditions’ and his own personal piety, both points to the limits of historicism and suggests alternative ethical possibilities to that of the modern secular one.

HEIDEGGER AND THE APPROPRIATION OF METAPHYSICS

Heidegger's deconstruction of the history of Western metaphysics has been a major influence behind poststructural critiques of modernity as well as more apologetic attempts to maintain a dialogue with historical sources, such as Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics. This bifurcation has intensified the ambiguity of Heidegger's project: was it an attempt to relinquish philosophical ties to the past or a call for a fundamental reinterpretation of them? In this article I argue the latter, focusing my analysis on Heidegger's notions of appropriation and historicity. On the one hand, appropriation is the hermeneutical event by which ontology is reinfused into a reading of historical sources. On the other hand, historicity is the self‐reflexive historical involvement by which we become aware of what contemporary, philosophical conditions necessitate this reengagement. In the end, Heidegger's critique of metaphysics arises from this self‐reflexivity. It deconstructs the prevailing misunderstandings of philosophical sources in order to allow for reinterpretation at a revivified ontological level constantly in view of the question of being.

Historicity of Rationality. The Notion of History in Marek Siemek’s Thought

Historicity of Rationality. The Notion of History in Marek Siemek’s Thought

Past Futures: From Re-enactment to the Simulation of History in Computer Games

Vergangene Zukunft. Vom 'Re-enactment' zur Simulation von Ge schichte in Computerspielen?. History is one of very few academic disciplines that do not investigate simulation. This is probably due to the fact that histori cal reality cannot be changed retrospectively nor extended into the future. In a strict sense, the simulation of history is a contradiction in terms. Nevertheless several fields of application have emerged over the past decades: there are simulations of history in the pre-modern sense of mimesis; there are re enactments (a performative way of 'simulating' history; there are digital simu lations of history, mainly in computer games that allow the player to influence the course of events, and there are didactic applications intending to make his tory experienceable. In this article, I will first discuss some examples from the different fields of application before I will analyze the impact of the simulation of history in different media on our notion of history.

A New Method to Obtain Termination in Backward Proof Search For Modal Logic S4

It is well known that problem of cycles starts up in tableau- or sequent-based decision procedures for S4 and a number of other modal logics. Traditional techniques used to ensure termination of algorithms for backward proof search in such modal logics are based on loop check. Since unrestricted loop check requires quite involved implementation techniques, effective loop check methods have been proposed. These methods are mainly based using the notion of history that involves a compact information about some previous parts of backward proof search. In the article a new method to obtain termination in backward proof search for modal logic S4 is proposed. This method is based on loop check-free sequent calculus and does not require any form history. Using this method translation of sequents into a certain normal form is not utilized. Instead of histories, we use marks and indices with the help of which applications of modal rules (namely, transitivity and reflexivity rules) are restricted. Instead of an unrestricted transitivity rule in the usual sequent calculus for S4 several transitivity rules (corresponding to specific positive occurrences of the necessity modality) are introduced. The peculiarities of the introduced transitivity rules along with proposed complete strategy of their application allow us to eliminate loop check and to restrict backtracking in derivations. By relying on the constructed loop check-free sequent calculus a Pspace procedure for determination of termination of backward proof search in modal logic S4 is presented.

Fictionalized History in the Philippines: Five Narratives of Collective Amnesia

The paper analyzes five historical fictions for children in the Batang Historyador (Young Historian) series which detail five periods in Philippine history. The books discuss the issues of child labor in precolonial Philippines, child labor and the right to education regardless of gender during the Spanish colonial period, child labor during the American Occupation, children as witnesses of history in the Japanese Occupation and Martial Law periods. The narratives reveal (consciously or unconsciously) how distortedly and inaccurately the past is told from the perspective of a colonized mind. The struggles of historians to review and revision history from a pro-Filipino consciousness were totally unheeded. The works attempt to throw light on issues of class, gender and children’s rights but Filipino issues regarding culture, identity, politics and history were obliterated because the framework was tied to a “universal” notion of history.

Neighbors Engaging in Dialogue: A University-Community Partnership

The purpose of this case study was to learn more about the emergence and development of the Rogers Community Learning Center over its initial 5 years of operation. The interview, observation, and documental data were viewed through a theoretical lens informed by the work of Paulo Freire, Myles Horton, and Cornel West in order to examine how notions of history, culture, and power affected the collaborative work of the Rogers Center. The findings indicated that the disconnect and distrust that previously described the relationship between St. Benedict University and its adjacent Northeast Neighborhood were mitigated to a degree by the work of the Rogers Center. Although Neighborhood residents expressed gratitude for the many educational and social opportunities present at the Rogers Center, their value for being engaged as equal partners by St. Benedict’s resonated most clearly as the foundational element to their emerging friendship. The article concludes with several suggestions that attempt to assist the continued development of the Rogers Center and also serve as helpful insights for other partnerships that seek similar relationships.

Re-Queering Queer Youth Development: A Post-Developmental Approach to Childhood and Pedagogy

ABSTRACT Contemporary reflection on queer-radical and queer-deconstructionist curricula has only marginally included a radical deconstruction of the principle of curricula itself. This article explores this “hidden discourse” by referencing the idea of curricular subjectivity and proposes a contextualizing perspective on the politicized interplay between psychogenetic (“developmental”) and socio-genetic (historical) notions of the “queer.” Taking the notion of the child as a proto-queer, it offers a queer ramification of maturity and its politicized calculus.

Helen Taylor

Helen Taylor made a unique contribution to the democratisation of history in Queensland. She gave us, in Abraham Lincoln's immortal words, History ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’. In so doing, she loosened the stultifying stranglehold of both schools and universities — history's traditional domain. Since history appeared on the school curriculum, generations of children have undergone the arid and depressing experience of being adjudged ‘not good at history’ because of an inability to memorise a string of meaningless dates. The successful ones who went on to study the subject at university encountered a program that was academic and elitist in both content and purpose. Thought by many to be a worthy successor to the Classics for the training of fine minds, it was for a long time concerned almost exclusively with the activities of governments, the machinery of power in the domestic context and its external manifestations overseas, foreign policy and imperialism. Helen Taylor's notion of history was something very different.

Democracy, Human Rights and History

This article offers an overview of the French political philosopher Claude Lefort's oeuvre, arguing that his work should be read as a normative or even universalist justification of democracy and human rights. The notion of history plays a crucial notion in this enterprise, as Lefort demonstrates that there is an ineluctable 'historical' or 'political' condition of human coexistence, a condition that can only be properly accommodated in a regime of democracy and human rights. This reading of Lefort is contrasted with two other interpretations of his work. The first of these, by Sofia Nasstrom, is shown to overlook the importance of history in Lefort's understanding of democracy. The second, by Bernard Flynn, is shown to overlook the universalist implications of Lefort's theory.

New Evidence for Early Silk in the Indus Civilization

AbstractSilk is an important economic fiber, and is generally considered to have been the exclusive cultural heritage of China. Silk weaving is evident from the Shang period, though the earliest evidence for silk textiles in ancient China dates to more than a millennium earlier. New study of fibers from Harappan bronze artifacts reveals surprising early evidence for knowledge of silkworking in South Asia, the earliest evidence in the world for any silk outside China, and roughly contemporaneous with the earliest Chinese evidence for silk. This important new finding brings into question the traditional historical notion of sericulture as being an exclusively Chinese invention.