Reestablishment Of Order Research Articles

Coping with “the Riff-Raff and Mob”: Representations of Order and Disorder in the Patrona Halil Rebellion (1730)

In 1730, the so-called ‘Patrona Halil rebellion’ resulted in the abdication of Sultan Aḥmed III (r. 1703–1730) and in the execution of his long-serving Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Dāmād İbrāhīm Paşa (r. 1718–1730). This article addresses the question of how contemporary Ottoman chroniclers came to terms with this unusual situation of political and social tension and, in particular, how they coped with lower-strata individuals and groups involved in the rebellion. It is argued that the chroniclers had considerable problems in explaining that lower-strata people whom they perceived as “the riff-raff and mob” possessed an agency of their own, even if they might be a useful instrument in intra-elite quarrels. Despite nuances of judgement, the chroniclers represent the lower strata in a highly negative fashion by rendering their political activities as unruly violations of norms. The chroniclers employed discoursive strategies based on the elite concepts of morality, purity, honour and order, which they used both, for delegitimising the social and political behaviour of the urban lower strata, and for criticising İbrāhīm Paşa and his government. When the new regime of Maḥmūd I (r. 1730–1754) resorted to violence in order suppress the rebels, this was unanimously welcomed by the chroniclers as the re-establishment of order. Thus, their representations of the rebellion clearly reaffirm elite notions of social and political order.

Western and Post-Western Mythologies of Law

The present paper aims at offering a reflection upon the specific link between a genre, the Western, and its literary and visual tradition, a powerful mythopoeic means capable of fostering a normalization of social reality itself. The Western represents the foundation of the law's ability to make order out of chaos. Indeed, Westerns usually feature a solitary dominant hero, whose violent expressions are shown as positive, since violence is used for the elimination of the enemy, the re-establishment of order and the triumph of law. The most relevant legal issue of the Western is to be found in this monopoly of violence, allowed to a single hero by civil society in order to counter an illegal spiral of violence.

Crisis as deferred closure – clairvoyant counselling in contemporary Danish society

Clairvoyance, spiritualism and healing are popular ways of seeking guidance and personal development in contemporary Danish society. Although few Danes are self-declared spiritualists, many believe in the existence of ghosts and the ability of clairvoyants to communicate with the departed, and the market of alternative therapies offers a number of mediumistic activities. In anthropological writings, such activities are often associated with crisis and the re-establishment of order. The concept of crisis refers to a time of great difficulty or danger or when an important decision must be made. Looking at the people who seek guidance from the spiritual world, however, both the implication of a limited time span, the idea of great difficulty, and the indication of decision-making may be challenged. In some cases, spirit consultations initiate processes of new definitions and classifications of problems, but in others they just seem to confirm old problems in an ongoing effort to cope with the difficulties of everyday situations. The aim of this paper is to explore the diversity of outcomes from clairvoyance and spiritualist consultations. Focusing on the particularity of specific cases, the author wants to demonstrate the analytical implications of seeing these activities through the lens of crisis. Instead of pushing the framework of crisis, meaning and order, the author suggests a rethinking of spiritual healing as an integrated rather than extraordinary way of dealing with the challenges of everyday life, and of crisis as a context for the deferred closure of insecurity.

TIL KONSULTATION HOS ÅNDERNE: Om klarsyn, energier og magi i Danmark

There is a long-standing anthropological tradition of studies where the concept
 of magic is related to crisis and the re-establishment of order, whether on a
 social or an individual level. The risk of this approach, however, is that we may
 mistake the intention with magic for its result, and thus overestimate the role of
 crisis, the management of problems and the construction of meaning. This article
 demonstrates that instead of providing answers and solutions, the engagement with
 magic may just as well open up for new questions and new problems. The subject
 of the study is spiritualism and second sight as practised in contemporary Danish
 society primarily by women. In this context, magic is not necessarily something
 extraordinary that people turn to when facing severe trouble, but rather a way of
 dealing with social relations in everyday life. My approach is inspired by Evans-
 Pritchard’s classic work on witchcraft, oracles and magic among the Azande in
 the sense that the concept of magic forms only one leg in a triangle with energies
 and second sight as the other two. Second sight is provided by mediums passing
 on messages from deceased relatives or other spirits at platform demonstrations
 or in private consultations. The messages often deal with distance and proximity
 in social relations and how to protect yourself against feelings of being drained of
 energy or invaded by other human or spiritual beings. The term energy provides a
 sense of physical reality to these otherwise subtle feelings and makes it possible
 to deal with them in concrete situations through spells, invocations, and other
 kinds of magic manipulation.
 Keywords: Spiritism, social relations, the boundaries of self , women.

Les risques du nation building« sous influence » : les cas de l'Irak et du Liban

The Dangers of Nation-Building under “Influence”: The Cases of Iraq and Lebanon The literature on nation building has, to date, been UNcentric. However, increasingly, regional and global powers step in unilaterally or as part of coalitions to remove authoritarian leaders or end drawn out civil wars. These “interested” powers spearhead nation-building in the transitional period that ensues. While the UN has been criticised for its approach to nation-building, several differences emerge between its style and that of “interested” powers, namely as regards the importance given to the reestablishment of order and security as well as the willingness to use coercion rather than incentives. But is this more muscled style of intervention more likely to succeed? Does it fare better in empowering local societies and allowing them to take control of the nation-building process? The research offers preliminary answers to these questions by comparing Syria’s intervention in the post-civil war nation building in Lebanon and the United State’s current efforts in post-Saddam Iraq.

La secte contre le prophétisme : les Multipliants de Montpellier (1719-1723)

La formation de la secte des Multipliants est communément datée de 1719, bien que les premiers documents la concernant ne débutent qu'en février-mars 1720. Mais le contenu même de ceux-ci (inspiration reçue sous forme rythmée et rimée : « En registre sera mise / une sy grande entreprise / pour en faire souvenir / à ceux quy sont avenir / aujourd'huy j'ay mis en écrit / les enfans dans mon parvis / … » indique que la secte possède déjà quelque expérience, ne serait-ce que par la théorie qui s'y énonce de l'écriture et du rangement.

Asian medicinal plants in seventeenth century french literature

Many scholars have proposed the lure of silks and spices as an important stimulus for the ventures of Europeans into Asia. Yet the enormous drain of lives and money over centuries in order to secure commodities and market information about them from India, Southeast Asia and China was not sustained simply in pursuit of exotic luxuries. Western Europeans were relentlessly pursuing life and health in a struggle for survival. Some of the foods, spices, dyes and woods which began to reach Europe directly from the East in the sixteenth century were believed to have curative properties. A study published by the National Academy of Sciences supports this supposition and recommended further investigation after a search was made of the computerized literature files of the University of Illinois' Pharmacology Department for pharmacologic effects of Chinese medicinal plants. Of the 796 prescriptions that were examined, 44.7% were found to have "a rational basis," 5.3% though thought to be inefficacious are used for the same conditions in non-Chinese cultures, and 48.7% are too little studied for evaluation (American Herbal Pharmacology Delegation, 1975, p. 69). An unforeseen consequence of the influx of Asian biota and information about it was the destabilization of European biological concepts. Linnaeus' efforts in the early eighteenth century were aimed in part at the reestablishment of order. Europeans of the seventeenth century had ample reason to be anxious about survival. To the old terror plague and new epidemics of influenza and syphilis were added the horrors of wounds. War increased the frequency of wounds, new weapons increased the horror of wounds and the Bourbons contributed to the frequency of war. In the 1630s the developing Royal Medicinal Garden of Paris where Eastern plants were studied attested the practical intentions of its patron, Louis XIII. Later Louis XIV expanded the garden. We will examine 6 sources of information on Asian plants available to readers of French, Europe's emerging lingua franca, between 1602 and 1664. We will indicate the supposed medicinal values of some of what are often loosely termed spices whose essence Milton made more correctly memorable as "spicy drugs." Botanical source-areas of some of these commodities have been tabulated (Newcomb, 1963), Chinese medicinal uses have been studied (Hu, 1976), and Perry (1980) has surveyed medicinal properties and uses of East and Southeast Asian plants. Extensive evidence of the general significance of the drug and dyestuff trade has been presented by Tippo and Stern (1977). And the influence of Asia upon Europe in all its complexity is being studied by Lach in his multivolume Asia in the Making of Europe (1965).

Political Historiography in Restoration France

The publication in 1814 of De la monarchie franpaise, by M. le Comte de Montlosier, was to inaugurate a debate over the development of French history which made the period of the Bourbon Restoration, and especially the first six years of it, one of the most seminal in French historiography. The history of the writing and publication of the book are in themselves illustrations of the turbulent course of French affairs during the early nineteenth century. At the beginning of his consulship, Napoleon was eager to have a national history which would integrate the ancien regime, the Revolution, and the re-establishment of order by himself into a single narrative framework, so as to provide a perspective on history which could be shared by all the rival factions in the nation. Not expecting much assistance in this matter from the members of the Institut, he turned to the party of counter-revolutionaries, in the hope of finding there an historian capable of linking the old and new regimes in comprehensive unity. In this search, he hit upon the Comte de Montlosier, an ex-emigre, an ex-deputy of the Second Estate in the StatesGeneral, a violent defender of privilege, and a noted anti-revolutionary. That Napoleon could expect a conciliatory history from the pen of such a staunch reactionary is indeed surprising; nevertheless, in 1804 Montlosier was directed to compose a history describing, first, the ancient state of France and its institutions; second, the manner in which the revolution had arisen from this state of affairs; third, the tentative efforts made to combat it; and fourth, the success obtained by the first consul in this respect. The book was to be completed in a few months' time, in order to celebrate the final triumph of Napoleon the re-establishment of the hereditary monarchy. Montlosier applied himself to the task, but his labors took considerably more than the allotted time. In fact, Napoleon had to celebrate the next stage of his restoration without the publication of the national history which was designed to justify it. Eventually, in 1807, the work was finished and submitted to the examining commission. The work must have brought great disappointment to the Emperor, for there was no element of reconciliation in it. Montlosier expressed in no uncertain terms his unshakable convic-