Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Historical Evidence (historical + evidence)
Selected AbstractsEconomic Shocks and Democratic Vulnerabilities in Latin America and the CaribbeanLATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY, Issue 2 2010Abby Córdova ABSTRACT Historical evidence suggests that bad economic times often mean bad times for democracy, but prior research has given us little guidance on how this process may work. What economic conditions are most threatening, and how might they weaken consolidating democracies? This article uses the AmericasBarometer conducted by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) to answer these questions by focusing on core attitudes for the consolidation of democracy. We use survey data at the level of the individual and economic data at the country level to help detect democratic vulnerabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. The study finds that conditions of low levels of economic development, low economic growth, and high levels of income inequality increase those vulnerabilities substantially, but the effects are not uniform across individuals. Some groups, especially the young and the poor, are particularly vulnerable to some antidemocratic appeals. [source] Quantum Theory and the Resurrection of JesusDIALOG, Issue 3 2004By Anders S. Tune Abstract:, Ever since the time of Hume it has been a truism that the worldview of empirical science, and Christian assertion of the resurrection of Jesus, are antithetical to each other. Yet post-Newtonian science, and especially quantum theory, suggests the need for a reappraisal of this truism. This reappraisal will first examine the implications of the indeterminism of the quantum world, to consider the physical possibility of Jesus' resurrection. Second, an appraisal of the historical evidence will suggest the likelihood of Jesus' resurrection. Finally, I will consider some implications of all this for contemporary Christian thought. [source] Impaired Motor Function in Patients with Psychogenic PseudoseizuresEPILEPSIA, Issue 12 2001Dalma Kalogjera Sackellares Summary: ,Purpose: To evaluate motor speed and grip strength in patients with well-documented psychogenic pseudoseizures. Methods: We analyzed manual motor speed and grip strength in a group of 40 patients with confirmed psychogenic pseudoseizures (without evidence of concomitant epilepsy) and a group of 40 normal controls matched for handedness and gender, and of comparable age. The two groups were compared with respect to manual motor performance with the dominant hand, nondominant hand, and asymmetry between the dominant and nondominant hands. For the patient sample, we reviewed the neurologic history. Results: Patients with pseudoseizures performed more poorly than controls with both dominant and nondominant hands. In addition, pseudoseizure patients failed to demonstrate the dominant-hand advantage observed in the normal control subjects on both tasks. The patient group had a high incidence of head trauma and other antecedent neurologic risk factors, and the proportion of left-handers was 3 times higher than expected. Conclusions: Bilaterally reduced motor speed and grip strength, reduced intermanual performance asymmetry, the high percentage of left-handers, and historical evidence of antecedent insults to the brain indicate that frontal lobe impairment may be common in patients with psychogenic pseudoseizures. [source] Trust in Financial MarketsEUROPEAN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2008Colin Mayer O16 Abstract This paper examines contemporaneous and historical evidence on the structure of ownership and control of corporate sectors in developed countries to draw lessons for development of financial markets. It records the critical role that equity markets played in the ownership and financing of corporations at the beginning of the 20th century. It notes that this occurred in the absence of formal systems of regulation and that equity markets functioned on the basis of informal relationships of trust. These were sustained through local stock markets in the UK, banks in Germany, and business coordinators and family firms in Japan. The paper explores the concept of trust that is required to promote the development of financial markets. [source] Using fishers' anecdotes, naturalists' observations and grey literature to reassess marine species at risk: the case of the Gulf grouper in the Gulf of California, MexicoFISH AND FISHERIES, Issue 2 2005Andrea Sáenz, Arroyo Abstract Designing fishing policies without knowledge of past levels of target species abundance is a dangerous omission for fisheries management. However, as fisheries monitoring started long after exploitation of many species began, this is a difficult issue to address. Here we show how the ,shifting baseline' syndrome can affect the stock assessment of a vulnerable species by masking real population trends and thereby put marine animals at serious risk. Current fishery data suggest that landings of the large Gulf grouper (Mycteroperca jordani, Serranidae) are increasing in the Gulf of California. However, reviews of historical evidence, naturalists' observations and a systematic documentation of fishers' perceptions of trends in the abundance of this species indicate that it has dramatically declined. The heyday for the Gulf grouper fishery occurred prior to the 1970s, after which abundance dropped rapidly, probably falling to a few percent of former numbers. This decline happened long before fishery statistics were formally developed. We use the case of the Gulf grouper to illustrate how other vulnerable tropical and semi-tropical fish and shellfish species around the world may be facing the same fate as the Gulf grouper. In accordance with other recent studies, we recommend using historical tools as part of a broad data-gathering approach to assess the conservation status of marine species that are vulnerable to over-exploitation. [source] HISTORY AND RELIGION IN THE MODERN AGEHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 4 2006CONSTANTIN FASOLT ABSTRACT This essay seeks to clarify the relationship between history and religion in the modern age. It proceeds in three steps. First, it draws attention to the radical asymmetry between first-person and third-person statements that Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations rescued from the metaphysical exile to which it had been condemned by Descartes's definition of the self as a thing. Second, it argues that religion is designed to alleviate the peculiarly human kind of suffering arising from this asymmetry. Third, it maintains that history relies on the same means as religion in order to achieve the same results. The turn to historical evidence performed by historians and their readers is more than just a path to knowledge. It is a religious ritual designed to make participants at home in their natural and social environments. Quite like the ritual representation of the death and resurrection of Christ in the Mass, the historical representation of the past underwrites the faith in human liberty and the hope in redemption from suffering. It helps human beings to find their bearings in the modern age without having to go to pre-industrial churches and pray in old agrarian ways. History does not conflict with the historical religions merely because it reveals them to have been founded on beliefs that cannot be supported by the evidence. History conflicts with the historical religions because it is a rival religion. [source] LEON GOLDSTEIN AND THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF HISTORICAL KNOWING,HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 2 2006LUKE O'SULLIVAN ABSTRACT Leon Goldstein's critical philosophy of history has suffered a relative lack of attention, but it is the outcome of an unusual story. He reached conclusions about the autonomy of the discipline of history similar to those of R. G. Collingwood and Michael Oakeshott, but he did so from within the Anglo-American analytic style of philosophy that had little tradition of discussing such matters. Initially, Goldstein attempted to apply a positivistic epistemology derived from Hempel's philosophy of natural science to historical knowledge, but gradually (and partly thanks to his interest in Collingwood) formulated an anti-realistic epistemology that firmly distinguished historical knowledge of the past not only from the scientific perspective but also from fictional and common-sense attitudes to the past. Among his achievements were theories of the distinctive nature of historical evidence and historical propositions, of the constructed character of historical events, and of the relationship between historical research and contemporary culture. Taken together, his ideas merit inclusion among the most important twentieth-century contributions to the problem of historical knowledge. [source] 100 years of change: examining agricultural trends, habitat change and stakeholder perceptions through the 20th centuryJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Martin Dallimer Summary 1The 20th century has witnessed substantial increases in the intensity of agricultural land management, much of which has been driven by policies to enhance food security and production. The knock-on effects in agriculturally dominated landscapes include habitat degradation and biodiversity loss. We examine long-term patterns of agricultural and habitat change at a regional scale, using the Peak District of northern England as a case study. As stakeholders are central to the implementation of successful land-use policy, we also assess their perceptions of historical changes. 2In the period 1900 to 2000, there was a fivefold rise in sheep density, along with higher cattle density. We found a reduction in the number of farms, evidence of a shift in land ownership patterns, and increased agricultural specialization, including the virtual disappearance of upland arable production. 3Despite previous studies showing a substantial loss in heather cover, we found that there had been no overall change in the proportion of land covered by dwarf shrub moor. Nonetheless, turnover rates were high, with only 55% of sampled sites maintaining dwarf shrub moor coverage between 1913 and 2000. 4Stakeholders identified many of the changes revealed by the historical data, such as increased sheep numbers, fewer farms and greater specialization. However, other land-use changes were not properly described. For instance, although there had been no overall change in the proportion of dwarf shrub moor and the size of the rural labour force had not fallen, stakeholders reported a decline in both. Spatial heterogeneity of the changes, shifting baselines and problems with historical data sources might account for some of these discrepancies. 5Synthesis and applications. A marked increase in sheep numbers, combined with general agricultural intensification, have been the dominant land-use processes in the Peak District during the 20th century. Stakeholders only correctly perceived some land-use changes. Policy and management objectives should therefore be based primarily on actual historical evidence. However, understanding stakeholder perceptions and how they differ from, or agree with, the available evidence will contribute to the successful uptake of land management policies and partly determine the costs of policy implementation. [source] There's more to life than money: Exploring the levels/growth paradox in income and health,JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2009Charles Kenny Abstract This paper discusses historical and recent cross-country evidence relating income to measures of health. After a review of the literature on income and the quality of life, the paper looks at long-term historical evidence on the link between income change and health indicators. Using data on life expectancy, infant mortality and income for a small subset of largely wealthy countries over the 1913,1999 period, the paper examines correlations between income and health at period start and end as well as using the growth of the variables. Using a larger set of data over the period 1975,2000, the paper repeats these tests, as well as looking for any evidence of a larger impact of income, when different data are used or the sample is split. Results suggest a strong cross-country link between income and health and considerable evidence of global improvements over time, but a comparatively weak relationship between improvements in income and improvements in health, even over the very long term. The paper discusses a model based on technology and institutions that might account for such results as well as some preliminary evidence in favour of such a model. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The black,white "achievement gap" as a perennial challenge of urban science education: A sociocultural and historical overview with implications for research and practice,JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 10 2001Obed Norman A perennial challenge for urban education in the United States is finding effective ways to address the academic achievement gap between African American and White students. There is widespread and justified concern about the persistence of this achievement gap. In fact, historical evidence suggests that this achievement gap has existed at various times for groups other than African Americans. What conditions prevailed when this achievement gap existed for these other groups? Conversely, under what conditions did the gap diminish and eventually disappear for these groups? This article explores how sociocultural factors involved in the manifestation and eventual disappearance of the gap for these groups may shed some light on how to address the achievement gap for African American students in urban science classrooms. Our conclusion is that the sociocultural position of groups is crucial to understanding and interpreting the scholastic performance of students from various backgrounds. We argue for a research framework and the exploration of research questions incorporating insights from Ogbu's cultural, ecological theory, as well as goal theory, and identity theory. We present these as theories that essentially focus on student responses to societal disparities. Our ultimate goal is to define the problem more clearly and contribute to the development of research-based classroom practices that will be effective in reducing and eventually eliminating the achievement gap. We identify the many gaps in society and the schools that need to be addressed in order to find effective solutions to the problem of the achievement gap. Finally, we propose that by understanding the genesis of the gap and developing strategies to harness the students' responses to societal disparities, learning can be maximized and the achievement gap can be significantly reduced, if not eliminated entirely, in urban science classrooms. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 1101,1114, 2001 [source] A review of the historical evidence of the habitat of the Pine Marten in CumbriaMAMMAL REVIEW, Issue 1 2001J. A. Webster ABSTRACT Place names and evidence from the literature show the Pine Marten (Martes martes) to have been well distributed in Cumbria until late in the nineteenth century, with a core area in the central fells. The habitat available to these martens is assessed and the species' status and the reasons for its decline reviewed. Despite the modern emphasis on the absolute importance of woodland to the Pine Marten, it is argued that historical Cumbrian populations survived successfully for many generations in highly fragmented habitats. [source] The appropriation of the Phoenicians in British imperial ideologyNATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 4 2001Timothy Champion The Phoenicians played ambivalent roles in Western historical imagination. One such role was as a valued predecessor and prototype for the industrial and maritime enterprise of nineteenth-century imperial Britain. Explicit parallels were drawn in historical representations and more popular culture. It was widely believed that the Phoenicians had been present in Britain, especially in Cornwall, despite a lack of convincing historical evidence, and much importance was placed on supposed archaeological evidence. Ideological tensions arose from the need to reconcile ancient and modern Britain, and from the Semitic origin of the Phoenicians. This example shows the power of archaeological objects to provide material support for national and imperial constructions of the past. [source] King Canute and the ,Problem' of Structure and Agency: On Times, Tides and HerestheticsPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2009Colin Hay The story of King Canute (Cnut) is well known. Indeed, in perhaps its most familiar form it exists as an oral historical tradition passed from generation to generation. In this almost legendary account, King Canute is depicted as an arrogant ruler, so confident as to his own omnipotence that he takes on the forces of nature, pitting his own powers against those of the rising tide , his wet robes paying testament to his powerlessness in the face of potent material forces and to the triumph of (natural) structures over (human) agency. Or so it might seem. In this article I suggest that even in this, the simplest depiction of the story of Canute, the relationship between structure and agency is more complex and involved than it appears. This complexity is only accentuated if we turn from the legend to the historical evidence. Moreover, by reflecting on Canute's practical negotiation of the ,problem' of structure and agency we can not only gain an interesting political analytical purchase on a seemingly familiar tale, but we can also generate a series of valuable and more general insights into our understanding of the structure,agency relationship. In particular, the (various) stories of King Canute and the waves alert us to the need: (1) to maintain a clear distinction between the empirical and the ontological; (2) to resist the temptation to attempt an empirical adjudication of ontological issues (or, indeed, an ontological adjudication of empirical issues); (3) to differentiate clearly between the capacities of agents with respect to material/physical structures on the one hand, and social/political structures on the other; (4) to acknowledge the significance of unintended consequences; (5) to attend to the ,performative' dimensions of agency; and (6) to recognise the dangers inherent in an overly instrumental view of actors' motivations and intentions. [source] Challenging Neo-Malthusian Deforestation Analyses in West Africa's Dynamic Forest LandscapesPOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 1 2000Melissa Leach Many influential analyses of West Africa take it for granted that ,original' forest cover has progressively been converted and savannized during the twentieth century by growing populations. By testing these assumptions against historical evidence, exemplified for Ghana and Ivory Coast, this article shows that these neo-Malthusian deforestation narratives badly misrepresent people,forest relationships. They obscure important nonlinear dynamics, as well as widespread anthropogenic forest expansion and landscape enrichment. These processes are better captured, in broad terms, by a neo-Boserupian perspective on population,forest dynamics. However, comprehending variations in locale-specific trajectories of change requires fuller appreciation of social differences in environmental and resource values, of how diverse institutions shape resource access and control, and of ecological variability and path dependency in how landscapes respond to use. The second half of the article présents and illustrates such a "landscape structuretion" perspective through case studies from the forest,savanna transition zones of Ghana and Guinea. [source] Reproduction, Compositional Demography, and Economic Growth: Family Planning in England Long Before the Fertility DeclinePOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 1 2000Simon Szreter This article offers a radical reinterpretation of the chronology of control over reproduction in England's history. It argues that, as a result of post,World War II policy preoccupations, there has been too narrow a focus in the literature on the significance of reductions in marital fertility. In England's case this is conventionally dated to have occurred from 1876, long after the industrial revolution. With a wider angle focus on "reproduction," the historical evidence for England indicates that family planning began much earlier in the process of economic growth. Using a "compositional demography" approach, a novel social pattern of highly prudential, late marriage can be seen emerging among the bourgeoisie in the course of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. There is also evidence for a more widespread resort to such prudential marriage throughout the population after 1816. When placed in this context, the reduction in national fertility indexes visible from 1876 can be seen as only a further phase, not a revolution, in the population's management of its reproduction. [source] Good, bad or ,necessary evil'?THE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006Reinterpreting the colonial burning experiments in the savanna landscapes of West Africa A simple ecological model underlies contemporary fire policy in many West African countries. The model holds that the timing (or seasonality) of annual savanna fires is a principal determinant of vegetation cover. The model's origin can be traced to the ideas held by influential colonial scientists who viewed anthropogenic fire as a prime force of regional environmental degradation. The main evidence in support of the model derives from the results of a series of long-term burning experiments carried out during last century. The experimental results have been repeatedly mapped onto fire policy often taking the form of a three-tiered model in which fire exclusion is considered the ultimate management objective, late dry-season fire is discouraged and early dry-season fire is allowed but only under specific, often state-controlled circumstances. This paper provides a critique of contemporary fire policy in the region and the fire ecology model on which it is based. Through an analysis of burn scars for the 2002,3 fire season generated from ETM+ imagery, the study documents the spatiotemporal pattern of burning for an area in southern Mali. It argues that current policy, which is informed by an a-spatial model, cannot adequately account for the critical pattern of burning that is characteristic of the region. A reinterpretation of the burning experiments is presented in light of four factors: empirical data; recent developments in patch-mosaic theory; historical evidence on the effects of fire suppression; and data on indigenous burning strategies, all of which suggest a need to reconsider current fire policy. [source] The decline of eastern Arabia in the Sasanian periodARABIAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND EPIGRAPHY, Issue 1 2007Derek Kennet This paper lists and reviews the archaeological evidence for the Sasanian period in eastern Arabia (third,seventh centuries AD). Much of the published evidence is shown to be either erroneous or highly doubtful, leaving very little evidence that is reliable. It is argued that the paucity of evidence in comparison to the Hellenistic/Parthian period indicates that this was a time of marked and continuing decline in the number and size of settlements, the number of tombs and the amount of coinage in circulation, all of which probably result from a population that was both declining in size and participating less in the types of production and consumption that leave discoverable traces in the archaeological record. This is in contrast to the historical evidence, which, although patchy, is stronger for the Sasanian period than it is for the Hellenistic/Parthian period. The argument for decline challenges some generally accepted historical views of eastern Arabia at this time, which see the region as undergoing a notable period of growth. In conclusion, some brief consideration is given to the possible causes of the decline. [source] LET THERE BE IRONY: CULTURAL HISTORY AND MEDIA ARCHAEOLOGY IN PARALLEL LINESART HISTORY, Issue 5 2005WOLFGANG ERNST Stephen Bann is well known as an art critic, art historian, cultural historian and museologist, but his writings have yet to be discovered from the point of view of media theory. This article applies Bann's proposal of an ,ironical museum' to a self-reflective media culture, while at the same time establishing the difference between a media-archaeological and an art-historical approach, particularly in accounts of new media in the first half of the nineteenth century and in the present. To what extent was the historical imagination developed in the romantic period an effect of new media and new media technologies? It is argued that although the discourse of history has always depended on the media of its representation (verbal and visual), its character changed dramatically with the arrival of mechanical means for recording historical evidence. The ,antiquarian' method of archival investigation of the past, with its almost haptic taste for the mouldy, decaying fragment, is considered and compared to narrative aesthetics. A key question is considered from different disciplinary perspectives: can we speak of a cultural transition or a radical break with the emergence of photography? The essay concludes that what we learn from Stephen Bann's analyses is the significance of an ever-alert awareness of the intricate relations between cultural and technological phenomena, a kind of media self-irony which, apparently, was present in the past to antiquaries and historiographers, to painters, engravers and to creators of historical museums. [source] ,For Our Devotion and Pleasure': The Sexual Objects of Jean, Duc de BerryART HISTORY, Issue 2 2001Michael Camille Jean, Duc de Berry (1340,1416), often seen as the first great ,collector' in Western art, is also described by some historians as a ,homosexual'. This article examines the relationship between these two terms and the problematic historical evidence for the latter claim, exploring the duke's desire for things, images and bodies in less categorical terms. The main argument is that we can best understand Jean's sexual tastes from the artworks he commissioned and in which we know from contemporary accounts he took great personal delight. Reinterpretations are provided of some well-known images, such as the January page of the unfinished Trés Riches Heures (1416), where the patron is pictured at the centre of a ,homosocial' feast for the eyes. This manuscript, along with the marginal decoration of his Grandes Heures, suggests his enjoyment of beautiful youthful bodies in general and of androgyny in particular. However, this has to be viewed within the very different gender system of the late fourteenth century in which women, youths and children were literally objects of male control. Only in this sense can we begin to understand how the duke's love of things intersected with his political position and power more generally. Rather than see his collecting in all its polymorphous perversity as a symptom of personal trauma, I want to view it as a socially creative and recuperative act that was part of the performance of a ruthless man of power. [source] Exploiting patient labour at Kew Cottages, Australia, 1887,1950BRITISH JOURNAL OF LEARNING DISABILITIES, Issue 2 2010Lee-Ann Monk Accessible summary ,,This article looks at the work carried out by people with learning disabilities who lived in the Kew Cottages in Australia. ,,It argues that these people were treated unfairly because they were not paid for the work they did, even though that work was valuable and important. ,,Even though they were being treated unfairly, some people at the Cottages may have chosen to work because it gave them a way to spend their time and because people who worked had more freedom and were better treated. Summary This article examines the exploitation of patient labour at Kew Cottages, Australia's first purpose-built state institution for people with learning disabilities. Analysing historical evidence for the period 1887,1950 shows that unpaid patient labour contributed significantly to the economy of the Cottages and so to the government department of which they were a part. It also argues that government failure to provide adequately for patient needs and to rectify unsafe working conditions further exploited working patients. The final section of the article examines why some patient-labourers may have chosen to work, arguing that the restrictive, materially impoverished and relatively isolated social world in which they found themselves were an important influence on their decisions to do so. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||