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This books examines the history of Belgian physical anthropology in the long nineteenth century and discusses how the notion of ‘race’ structured Belgian pasts and presents as well as relations between metropole and empire. In a context of competing European nationalisms, Belgian anthropologists mainly used physical characters, like skull form and the color of hair and eyes, to delimitate ‘races’, which were believed to be permanent and existent. Their belief in a supposed racial superiority was however above all telling about their own origins and physical characters. Although it is often assumed that these ideas were subsequently transferred to the colony, the case of Belgian colon...
This books examines the history of Belgian physical anthropology in the long nineteenth century and discusses how the notion of 'race' structured Belgian pasts and presents as well as relations between metropole and empire. In a context of competing European nationalisms, Belgian anthropologists mainly used physical characters, like skull form and the color of hair and eyes, to delimitate 'races', that were believed to be permanent and existent. Their belief in a supposed racial superiority was however above all telling about their own origins and physical characters. Although it is often assumed that these ideas were subsequently transferred to the colony, the case of Belgian colonization i...
A Dance of Assassins presents the competing histories of how Congolese Chief Lusinga and Belgian Lieutenant Storms engaged in a deadly clash while striving to establish hegemony along the southwestern shores of Lake Tanganyika in the 1880s. While Lusinga participated in the east African slave trade, Storms' secret mandate was to meet Henry Stanley's eastward march and trace "a white line across the Dark Continent" to legitimize King Leopold's audacious claim to the Congo. Confrontation was inevitable, and Lusinga lost his head. His skull became the subject of a sinister evolutionary treatise, while his ancestral figure is now considered a treasure of the Royal Museum for Central Africa. Allen F. Roberts reveals the theatricality of early colonial encounter and how it continues to influence Congolese and Belgian understandings of history today.
“This is the best Norton Critical Edition yet! All my students have become intensely interested in reading Conrad—largely because of this excellent work.” —Elise F. Knapp, Western Connecticut State University This Norton Critical Edition includes: - A newly edited text based on the first English book edition (1902), the last version to which Conrad is known to have actively contributed. “Textual History and Editing Principles” provides an overview of the textual controversies and ambiguities perpetually surrounding Heart of Darkness. - Background and source materials on colonialism and the Congo, nineteenth-century attitudes toward race, Conrad in the Congo, and Conrad on art and literature. - Fifteen illustrations. - Seven contemporary responses to the novella along with eighteen essays in criticism—ten of them new to the Fifth Edition, including an entirely new subsection on film adaptations of Heart of Darkness. - A Chronology and an updated Selected Bibliography.
This book examines Naples’s patron saint, Gennaro, the history of his blood relic, and the mystery of its periodical liquefaction. Three times a year, Neapolitans gather to witness the recurring phenomenon of the liquefaction of San Gennaro’s blood. From the seventeenth century to the present, crowds have prayed to the city’s patron for protection from fires, earthquakes, plagues, droughts, and the fury of Mt. Vesuvius. In the “miraculous” moment of transposition from solid to liquid, the faithful seek respite from the ills of the world in the saintly blood, a visual reminder of the blood of Christ spilled for their salvation. In Naples, the periodical liquefaction of San Gennaro...
This edited collection explores the genesis of scientific conceptions of race and their accompanying impact on the taxonomy of human collections internationally as evidenced in ethnographic museums, world fairs, zoological gardens, international colonial exhibitions and ethnic shows. A deep epistemological change took place in Europe in this domain toward the end of the eighteenth century, producing new scientific representations of race and thereby triggering a radical transformation in the visual economy relating to race and racial representation and its inscription in the body. These practices would play defining roles in shaping public consciousness and the representation of “otherness” in modern societies. The Invention of Race provides contextualization that is often lacking in contemporary discussions on diversity, multiculturalism and race.
The first reference work to provide an integrated and authoritative body of information about the political, cultural and economic contexts of postcolonial literatures that have their provenance in the major European Empires of Belgium, Denmark, France, G
Thought-provoking reflection on culture, colonialism, and the remainders of empire in Belgium after 1960 The degree to which the late colonial era affected Europe has been long underappreciated, and only recently have European countries started to acknowledge not having come to terms with decolonisation. In Belgium, the past two decades have witnessed a growing awareness of the controversial episodes in the country’s colonial past. This volume examines the long-term effects and legacies of the colonial era on Belgium after 1960, the year the Congo gained its independence, and calls into question memories of the colonial past by focusing on the meaning and place of colonial monuments in pub...
As utopias question social ills and express human wants and unfulfilled dreams, they offer insights into the problems, desires and ideals of a certain time. This book uses this lens to examine cultural representations of ageing and old age in utopian writings from the Renaissance till today. The individual chapters offer detailed analyses and interpretations of numerous utopias from Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) to contemporary science fiction. Through close readings, the book explores age-related fears and ideals and investigates how perceptions of ageing and the life course as well as attitudes towards older people have developed over the centuries. Covering a large time span and a broad range of different utopias, the book identifies long-term developments and also puts certain dreams such as that of ever-lasting youth into a wider perspective. It thus enriches both our understanding of the cultural history of ageing and the history of utopian thought. The book will appeal to scholars and students from the fields of cultural gerontology and utopian studies, as well as literary studies and cultural history more generally.
This detailed study of eighty European journeys examines the everyday spatial concerns of nineteenth-century travelers, with a focus on travelers from the Netherlands and North Sea region. From common soldiers in revolutionary Belgium to guests of the tsars in Russia, many of their travel accounts are here examined for the first time. Chapters analyze the different meanings of the home and homeliness; travelers’ desires for socializing but equally their intricate privacy norms; their intense attachment to cleanliness, order, space, and light; and the discomforts of cold, hot, wet, hard, and cramped spaces. Author Anna P.H. Geurts details what spatial characteristics travelers valued, what ...