Pre-modern Societies Research Articles

Revisiting Homosociality and Homosocial Spaces in Pre-Modern Ottoman Society

This paper examines diverse conceptions of homosociality in pre-modern and modern societies, and discusses how these conceptions are politically, socially, culturally and spatially constructed and transformed throughout history, particularly during the modernization processes of the mid-19thcentury. Concentrating on two significant homosocial spaces, men’s coffeehouse and women’s section of the Ottoman-Turkish baths, it aims to demonstrate how homosociality is spatialized through the dissolution of the public/private dichotomy, as well as constructions of functionality in pre-modern Ottoman society. The paper follows a historical interpretative research methodology. Based on data derived from the second-hand sources available in the literature, the privatized public, complex, homoerotic and multi-functional characteristics of these homosocial spaces and their extensions towards and reflections on the Ottoman urban neighborhoods are critically analyzed and interpreted. The dissolution of the public/private dichotomy in these spaces also exemplifies the Foucaultian concept of heterotopia. The paper concludes that these traditional spaces and their modern versions demonstrate the constructedness of both gender categories and patriarchal structures.

The Fasting of Others

As cultural historians have shown, various discourses about food and eating are correlated with processes of religious identity construction within European pre-modern societies. This article focuses on such a relationship between bodily and structural contexts during the transformative phase of the late sixteenth century in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. A selection of exemplary polemical sources of Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians illuminates the significance of fasting for the semantical constructions of religious collectives in times of societal upheaval. Regarding the increasingly uncertain circumstances due to the union of the Church, this paper argues that religious elites revolved around norms of fasting, which represented a semantic means of defining and defending their respective collective selves, their political claims, and legitimation in relation to a collective Other. Considering bodily practices such as fasting to be a methodological lens, the paper attempts to develop a novel perspective on the study and understanding of religious ordering in early modern European contexts.

Eunuchs in the Sunnī Legal Discourse: Reflections on the Gender of Castrated Men

Abstract In this paper I focus on how Muslim jurists gendered and discussed castrated men – eunuchs. Eunuchs were a common characteristic of many pre-modern societies, well beyond Islamic contexts. Far from being only “harem guardians”, they had a very important role in court politics and in dynastical decisions but also in the military and the administrative sphere. Numerous sources confirm that their presence in several Islamic courts must have been impressive. This seems in contrast to the fact that castration is seen as strongly prohibited in Islamic law. The fact that eunuchs were usually enslaved and then castrated outside the Islamic world, where Islamic law did not apply, or on its borders, where the caliphal control was less strong, contributes to explaining this apparent contradiction. Given their presence in the dār al-Islām, Muslim jurists took them for granted and, even though not so extensively as in the case of the ḫunṯā, or intersex person, they also were confronted with the issue of their gender. In this article I focus on the question of how Muslim jurists gendered them. In the first part of the article I will focus on how castration was practiced, as this allows us to see how the surgery had an impact on the body of the eunuchs, but also how the different forms of castration had an impact on how castrated men were categorized by Muslim jurists. In the second part of the article I investigate how Sunnī Muslim jurists gendered eunuchs, focusing in particular on scholars from the 9th to the 14th century.

기우제 관련 색인어를 통해 본 조선초기 용신신앙과 기우제의 변화

Index words reflect the nature of historical records. The securement and utilization of high-quality index words could be the key elements that decide the successful construction of DB. It is possible to observe changes in the type and frequency of index words in each period of time. The close observation of the frequency of index words can examine the characteristics and change process of each time. The praying for rain to cope with drought repeated every year was not only directly related to farmers’ survival, but also related to the maintenance of state and society, so every possible means and method such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and folk belief were mobilized. And the characteristics of the times were also reflected into this. In the pre-modern society, the researches on praying for rain have been actively conducted by surrounding studies such as science of religion and folklore rather than historical studies. The changes in index words showed that the praying for rain went through huge changes in the process of changes from ancient society to medieval society, and there were such changes in the Goryeo Dynasty and the early Joseon Dynasty. Through the changes in index words related to praying for rain during the Goryeo Dynasty and the early Joseon Dynasty, the changes in praying for rain could be shown as follows. Just as China, Goryeo already held praying for rain using the earth dragon and drawing an image of a dragon. However, the praying for rain to the earth dragon exposed the dragon and shaman to the hot sunlight, and also performed rites like keeping away from the main hall(避正殿) and moving marketplace(徙市). The Buddhist monk and shaman participated in praying for rain of the Goryeo Dynasty, which shows the shamanistic nature. After founding the Joseon Dynasty, the praying for rain from the Song Dynasty was actively accepted. After the King Taejong, the praying for rain involving lizards(蜥蜴祈雨) from the Song Dynasty was accepted for the first time. The praying for rain to the earth dragon(土龍祈雨) and praying for rain by drawing an image of a dragon(畫龍祈雨) were modified by accepting the Song’s ritual process. However, the praying for rain to the earth dragon and praying for rain by drawing an image of a dragon were held differently from the Song’s ancestral rites, and the shamanistic ritual such as keeping away from the mail hall or sinking tiger head in the river(沈虎頭) was fully carried out. Even though this aims to realize the royal politics through Neo- Confucianism, it could be understood as reflecting the cultural specificity of the Joseon Dynasty.

Presentism and the Study of Late Antiquity

Presentism and the Study of Late Antiquity

Мировоззрение в проекции политической мифологии: генезисные основания идеологического строительства

The purpose of the study is to identify the relationship of the worldview of the society with the strategic guidelines of state policy. The relevance of the presented article is determined by the worldview crisis of the postmodern time and the growing demand for the formation of the foundations of the worldview of Russian society. The comparison method determines the basic components of the worldview - the perception of space and time (space-time continuum), the establishment of the fundamental principles of being (metaphysics and ontology) and the disclosure of the essence of man (anthropology). The article traces the connection of each of the worldview parameters with the genesis of classical ideologies. A position is put forward on the preservation and re-actualization of the mythological worldview in the worldview systems of the New and Modern times. The connection between the mythological archetypes of pre-modern society and modern political mythology is traced. The influence of the traditions of sacred geography and the attitudes of we-centricity on the modern geopolitical positioning of the states of the world is shown. A modification of the traditions of the eschatological perception of historical time in classical political theories is revealed. Disclosure of the fundamental principles of worldview systems is considered in connection with the definition of paradigms of classical ideologies. The variability of social and cultural approaches is revealed in connection with the difference in political strategies. The practical conclusion of the article lies in the definition of mythologems of worldview matrices as a semantic foundation of state sovereignty, the expediency of representing national mythology and the contraindication of demythologization.

T.L. Thurston & Manuel Fernández-Götz (ed.). 2022. Power from below in premodern societies: the dynamics of political complexity in the archaeological record. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 978-1-31651-539-6 hardback £75.00.

T.L. Thurston & Manuel Fernández-Götz (ed.). 2022. Power from below in premodern societies: the dynamics of political complexity in the archaeological record. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 978-1-31651-539-6 hardback £75.00. - Volume 96 Issue 390

At the crossroads between Communism and Jewish nationalism: Ber Mark as historian of premodern Jewish society

ABSTRACT Ber Mark, the longstanding director of ŻIH (1949–1966), is generally considered a regime historian who adhered to the Communist Party line in his histories of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, most of which were significantly distorted by Communist bias. In 1957, however, he published a book dealing with premodern Jewish history. Di geshikhte fun yidn in poyln (bizn sof fun XV y[or]h[undert]) (The History of Jews in Poland [until the End of the Fifteenth Century]) represents an attempt by Mark to reconcile an orthodox Marxist interpretation of Jewish history with a Zionist Marxist construction, with its nod to Jewish nationalism. In this book, then, Mark had ultimately reached a crossroads in his writing of Jewish history. With its incorporation of a nationalist understanding of Jewish history in coexistence with a Communist one, Di geshikhte fun yidn in poyln marks the end of pure Marxist historiography in Yiddish.

Transsociality as uncertainty or incertitude of the human condition

Uncertainty, dynamism of transformations, liquid and incertitude are the leading features of the present age, through which time, society, and human situation are increasingly defined. This work examines the interrelationships between human position and social change in traditional, modern, and postmodern societies. The “social – personal” system is considered in the context of changes in the understanding of the humanistic attitude. Thus, the humanism of pre-modern society is particular, i.e. limited to belonging to a certain group, whose virtues are nurtured and formed through education. The sociality of traditional society is natural, rooted in the idea of the divine, and it aspires to the transcendent. In return, modern sociality is constructed around an exclusive humanism that excludes the transcendent, for which only the human matters are important. The sociality of postmodern society is correlated with the spread of antihumanism and transhumanism, both of which overcome the boundaries of the abstract idea of the universal human subject in different ways. One of them is focusing on the phenomena beyond the human nature, and the other one is oriented toward its improvement. The goal of the second approach is to use new technologies to overcome death, aging, and suffering which also applies to all living things beyond humanity.In crisis periods of changes in the type of sociality, uncertainty and insecurity increase, which is analyzed in two paradigms. A resource-oriented view of the history of mankind shows the modern improvement of the human condition, focusing on the further development of the state’s human capital (plasticity, adaptability, stress resilience, creativity, cognitive and emotional abilities of individuals). The defined position of consideration differs from the consideration of a person in pre-modern and modern societies, when a person was a physical resource and social capital. A problem-oriented approach analyzes signs of crises and dangers, foresees possible options for the development of events, and warns of possible disasters in order to be protected from them. Thus, the analysis of the crisis of sociality indicates the emergence of its new multiple forms, which are formed both by dispersal and by going beyond the boundaries of human communities, which allows describing new forms of sociality through the concept of transsociality.

An Assessment of Petronas Eid Ads in the Context of Modernization and Tradition in Malay Society

Modernity has penetrated practically every facet of life, making it impossible for society members to escape. Moreover, in the former western colonized region, the enlightenment era's western worldview is inevitable. Accordingly, Pre-modern Malay societies are crushed and forced to adapt. Within this understanding, this study used Anthony Giddens' concept of time, place, risk, and trust to examine the Malay society's modernity within existing Petronas Eid ads. The findings showed that Malay culture is strongly influenced by modernity, however, it demonstrated the resistance to modernization at some extend by preserving its heritage and Islamic beliefs in all aspects. Keywords: Advertisement, Modernity, Malay Society, Tradition Values, eISSN 2514-7528 ©2022. The Authors. Published for AMER & cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour StudiesCollege of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/jabs.v7i22.410

Civilization Theory and Structural-genetic Theory Programme : Two Fundamental Theories in Comparison.

The Civilization theory of N. Elias combines the scrutiny of psychogenetic and sociogenetic developments shaping history from ancient to modern times. Both forms of developments are seen by him as deeply interconnected to each other, being to each other cause and consequence alike. Medieval respectively premodern societies harbor people staying more close to childlike levels, while modern societies force humans to attain more elaborated psychological stages. Otherwise modern societies couldn´t function. It is shown that Elias has problems to evidence his psychogenetic assumptions. Civilization theory can be improved by the application of learned developmental psychology, by using theories and data coming from Piagetian cross-cultural psychology. It is not only possible to improve the insights into psychogenetic data hereby but also to illuminate much better central phenomena of modern society. Piagetian data enable to refer crucial phenomena of modern society - sciences, industrial economy, democracy, constitutional state, humanitarian revolution, traits of the fine arts - to psychogenetic advancements much better than Elias had done.

The book of women's rituals: the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ

AbstractThis article explores the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ which has survived as a single copy within a manuscript codex located at the Beruni Institute of Oriental Studies in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Not only does the Central Asian adaptation of the ʿAqāʾid al-nisāʾ lift ‘the iron curtain’ from the little-known world of rituals and customs practised by women in early modern Central Asian societies, it also serves as an important source to balance the androcentric view of gendered history of the early modern Persianate world, while challenging the preconceived notions of women's agency and authority in pre-modern Muslim societies.

Understanding Dakaiti (Banditry) in the Chambal Valley and Bundelkhand

Is dakaiti in Central and North India a unique form of banditry? Can social banditry exist in a caste-oriented society? How have normative, discursive and moral structures interacted with dakaiti in India? What was the relationship between dakait bands, the state and society—symbiotic, incompatible, or something else? These are a few of the questions this study explores. Dakaiti in India not only begets a new definition of social banditry that challenges Hobsbawm’s assertion that the phenomenon may only transpire in a premodern and pre-industrial society, but also Blok’s argument, contra Hobsbawm, that bandits—as ‘champions of the poor’—are chimerical. Placing excessive emphasis on caste, however, has two main consequences. First, it makes it difficult to recognise social banditry in India and, second, as a result, the causes of the noteworthy decline of dakaiti in India in the 2000s are obscured.

Sociological approaches and the urban history of medieval England: research trends and new perspectives (2017–2022)

In 2011, when Jelle Haemers looked back on a decade's worth of Ph.D. theses on urban centres in the medieval Low Countries, he identified three main trends in scholarship: the emphasis on individuals, rather than institutions; the increasing use of new methodologies, such as social network analysis (SNA) and prosopography; and the deployment of inter-disciplinary perspectives. Haemers’ intuition proved prescient; recent doctoral contributions to the historiography of medieval English towns and cities tend, generally, to fall along similar lines. In many ways, this is natural, and a testament to the enduring legacy and successes of earlier works. But, as the following discussion will elaborate, important and divergent steps have also been made, pushing our perceptions of pre-modern urban societies in new directions. Medieval urban history remains a vibrant area for study, with Ph.D. students forming an important section of its vanguard.

Bridging the Invisible Cultural Gap

Bridging the Invisible Cultural Gap

Imaginary Historical Pattern of Family and a Model for Construction of Political and Social Organizations—Extended Family (Zadruga) in Bulgaria

The notion of “zadruga” (named by Vuk Karadjić in 1818) was introduced in the scientific research literature, as well as in the social and political discourse, of the then young Balkan countries in the 19th century to mark the multitude of historical forms under which the “complex family organization” was known among the South-Slavic people in the region. The young Bulgarian science adopted this term in ethnographic studies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bulgarian scientists, lawyers, and researchers of customary law norms attempted to implement some of the features of this family model in modern Bulgarian legislation. In the period between the two world wars, the nascent cooperative movement in the agrarian sector also used the model of the “partnership” to justify its organization. This paper analyzes similar attempts to use scientific descriptions of the zadruga in the construction of various social and economic associations in Bulgaria during the interwar period. It also analyses the attempts of the new communist leaders to use the traditions of the pre-modern society in terms of communal living in zadruga through the imposition of a cooperative system, and the nationalization of the arable land in the first years under the totalitarian system following the Second World War. Part of the Bulgarian scientific community and Bulgarian ethnography has been involved in these attempts since the early 1950s.

How Indigenous wisdom can sustain humanity

Ancient self-governing practices of Indigenous Australians reveal how modern society can achieve sustainable wellbeing for the environment and humanity. No other existing culture has a longer record. In her Nobel Prize speech, Elinor Ostrom described how pre-modern societies evolved polycentric self-governance to avoid over-exploitation of common life-sustaining resources between competing interests to deny them for everyone. Ostrom identified design principles for self-governing ‘Common Pool Resources’ without the intervention of markets or state. This article outlines how these principles could be enhanced to also: (1) recognise Indigenous wisdom, relationships and practices; (2) apply the design principles to incorporated organisations to create a new model of corporate governance to benefit all stakeholders; (3) introduce system science insights that allow creatures to become self-regulating, self-managing and self-governing; (4) identify a politically compelling tax incentive for shareholders to adopt stakeholder self-governance with the cost of the incentive recovered from stakeholders paying taxes and reducing costs for welfare and regulation. A basis is created on which to introduce a universal wellbeing income from corporate dividends. The principles outlined here allow for corporations to become agents for reducing environmental and existential risks for humanity.

“A ship loaded with honey:” assessing the honey trade in the Crown of Aragon, fifteenth to sixteenth centuries

ABSTRACT Honey, a staple product in premodern societies, has been too often overlooked by historical research. The present article focuses on a moment when the honey trade was in decline in the Crown of Aragon (c. 1440-1570). After the heyday of exports to the Levant of the late fourteenth century, supply was now mostly reserved to domestic consumption. Through the analysis of different fiscal sources from Valencia and Barcelona, this study addresses the principal supplying regions in the Crown of Aragon, the actors involved, and the means of transport in the honey market.

Entropy, directionality theory and the evolution of income inequality

A macro-evolutionary theory of income inequality is proposed that is based on a society’s dynamic income generating process. Two types of processes are distinguished, namely dispersing and concentrating ones. A basic result shows that dispersing processes provide a selective advantage for more balanced and mutualistic interaction; whereas concentrating ones favor weaker, less balanced and less mutualistic interaction. We also show that societies with more balanced and mutualistic interaction induce more income equality and a non-stratified society, while less balanced and less mutualistic ones induce more inequality and a possibly stratified society. Also, more equal societies are more resilient in the sense of being quicker to recover from shocks and return to steady state than less equal ones. Stylized examples of pre-modern and modern societies are briefly discussed.

Time, modernity and space: Montesquieu’s and Constant’s ancient/modern binaries

ABSTRACT This article explores how our thinking about time shapes epistemological and ontological understandings of the world. It considers the idea of modernity as constituted by the ancient/modern binary through an examination of Montesquieu’s and Benjamin Constant’s development of this binary in relation to their understandings of commerce, the law of nations and conquest, political rule and freedom in the context of European colonial empire. Modernity demarcates a break in (historical) time between a past and a present that extends into a future. This rupture plays a role in distinctions between modern European and pre-modern non-European societies. The ancient/modern binary underpins conceptions of collective and individual liberty. It associates modernity with individual liberty, progress, reason and science. I analyse how this binary operated across space to categorise various societies as not modern, pre-modern or less developed according to levels of scientific, technological, political and economic progress in Montesquieu’s thought and through Constant’s silences. This article develops an innovative reading of the ancient/modern binary in French political thought.