Search

There are some obvious differences between an archaeological and a historiographical approach to things. Put crudely, archaeologists study material ‘things’ while historians study texts. If historians are confronted with things, it is usually through descriptions of them (texts)—thus through the medium of the written word. In the introduction to this issue, the authors propose that the concept ofBeiläufigkeitcan help us ‘to discuss the conditions and processes that are responsible for the variable status of things in a world of objects’. They also propose that a way of approaching the subject is by studying things ‘that were made to be incidental’. One way of applying this to historical scholarship is to look at the way things appear—and disappear—in the historiographical narrative. IfBeiläufigkeitis a fundamental phenomenon of socialization, as they suggest, then it is also a consequence of historical learning: we are taught when things are historically relevant and when they are not. It seems important to question this, especially if we think of historiography as part of a larger discourse that stabilizes and perpetuates hegemonic narratives—such as the narrative of the emergence of the modern West.

West Africa’s role in the early modern economy is usually reduced to that of a supplier of forced labour for American plantations while other types of trade — especially direct trade between Wester...

With the possible exception of the Kingdom of Kongo, the history of Christianity in Atlantic Africa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has not been examined in depth. We know even less about the development of European religious concepts and perceptions in this part of the world since it is usually assumed that such ideas remained static. While a variety of studies have discussed the specifics of European demonology in the Americas, no comparable investigations exist for West and West Central Africa. Using the concept of the ‘beating devil’ as a case study, this article examines how European Christians adapted their religious ideas in this non-European context, and relates the results to European religious discourse in the Americas. The article argues for a more-comprehensive investigation into the circulation of discursive elements in the Atlantic world that includes the African dimension as well as a comparative view of the multilingual source material.

The article proposes that the short-lived science fiction series Caprica (2009–2010) espoused a rather atypical ideology that was based on the prominence of women and femininity in the narrative. Through women, the series merged science and religion, body and mind, human and machine and established a moral code based on respect for those usually “othered” in the genre. The narrative accomplished this by consciously employing and then re-arranging western gender stereotypes, which led to the emergence of a specifically feminine approach to science that was, amongst other things, also religious. This combination had subversive potential because of the series’ premise that God actually exists and is actively involved in human/cyborg affairs. Women emerged as points of contact on behalf of this God who pitted them against rationalized and universalized male science.

In The Sun King’s Atlantic, Jutta Wimmler reveals the many surprising ways in which Africa and America channeled cultural developments in France, exploring their impact on material culture, theatre, science and religion.