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Decolonising the Hypermasculine Hero: Nkoli, The Vogue Opera
Get PDFThis article is based on author interviews with the creators and production team of the 2023 South African production Nkoli:The Vogue Opera. Drawing primarily but not exclusively from conversations with composer Philip Miller and co-librettist Sibonakaliso Nene (rapper, S\u27Bo Gyre), the article sets Nkoli within the context of a brief, selective historical account of other South African opera initiatives challenging, in various ways, the imported conventions of grand opera. It discusses the choice of the \u27vogue opera\u27 form, and through its creators\u27 reflections, how they define its decolonising features: an activist intention; a collective process of creation; a non-conventional staging; the use of diverse musical sources; and, most importantly, the subversion of both gender and heroic character binaries
“We embody contradictions”: Panel Discussion with Composers Neo Muyanga, Bode Omojola and Charles Uzor on Production Conditions of Operas in the African Diaspora
Get PDFThe conference THE AFRICAN OPERATIC VOICE - Opera and Music Theatre in Africa and the African Diaspora took place at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Bern from 8 to 10 September 2023. Opera productions from eight African countries were discussed. On the second day, which focused on notions of genre and opera institutions in Africa and its diaspora, a panel discussion was held with South African composer Neo Muyanga and Nigerian composers Bode Omojola and Charles Uzor on the conditions of opera production outside Africa. Neo Muyanga regularly produces opera in Europe, Bode Omojola is the Hammond-Douglass Five College Professor at Mount Holyoke College and the Five Colleges in the United States, and Charles Uzor moved to Switzerland as a child, where he now has a career. All composers were asked to give statements on the topic before a discussion among them and the audiences started
Easy-Going: The Treatment of Written Records in the Ancient Syropalestine
Get PDFWho invented the Proto-Sinaitic writing? Sophisticated scribes, or unlettered workers? Orly Goldwasser, the chief advocate of the second possibility, borrowed from economic sciences the term ‘disruptive innovation’ that “describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves ‘up market,’ eventually displacing established competitors.”[1] During the years spent with translations of Levantine texts for a Czech kind of „Context of Scripture“, I had an impression – however daring – that it is possible to generalize this finding for the Syropalestinian literature as a whole. Be it cuneiform or linear, narrative or Listenwissenschaft,[2] it shares the same basic tendency for simplicity and unambiguousness.DefinitionsDisruptive innovation: process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitorsCenter and Periphery: The centre–periphery model is a spatial metaphor which describes and attempts to explain the structural relationship between the advanced or metropolitan ‘centre’ and a less developed ‘periphery’[1] www.claytonchristensen.com/disruptive_innovation.html[2] KTU 1.103 is a very special example from many points of view (and on the background of Y. Cohen, Akkadian Omens from Hattuša and Emar. The šumma immeru and šumma ālu Omens, in: Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, 97, 2007, str. 233‑251)
Garments and Shrouds of Egyptian and Nubian Pilgrims from Qasr el-Yahud, Ninth Century CE
Get PDFQasr el-Yahud, situated on the west bank of the Jordan River nearby Jericho, features the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, believed to be the traditional site of the Baptism of Jesus1 and has a centuries-long tradition of ‘washing of the lepers’. Byzantine and Medieval authors attributed the waters of the Jordan river a special power to heal lepers who bathed in them, especially at the spot where Jesus was baptized.After the site became sacred, traditions developed that were associated with the holy features of the water and its curative properties. When the emperor Constantius became ill, he asked to bath in the Jordan. In 1983 a rescue excavation at the site revealed thirty-four skeletons, probably representing a hospital population with cases of tuberculosis, leprosy and facial disfigurement. Such individuals travelled enormous distances, attracted to the site in the hope of washing away their illness. Anthropological evidence indicates that the individuals were probably Egyptian in origin, while structural analysis of the skulls proved that some were Nubian. They were buried in a Christian manner, lying on their backs, facing the rising sun. Some of the burial customs at this site, such as placing seeds from the Egyptian Balsam tree (Balanites Aegyptiaca) in the hands of the deceased, conform to Egyptian traditions.The arid climate of the Judean Desert helped to preserve 250 textiles, among them many examples comprising two different textiles or more sewn together or patched one on another. Radiocarbon dating of the textiles placed the date in the eighth to ninth centuries (787–877 CE). The textiles are made of linen and cotton, sometimes decorated with wool tapestry, brocade and selfbands. They include many cut-to-shape tunics except one which is woven-to-shape, head coverings, bandages and shrouds. This research combines historic sources, anthropological and botanic evidence, burial practices with the textiles. The material is of great importance because it gives us idea about the burial costumes used by Christians at the late Islamic period. In addition, those are the only textiles from this period found in Israel
Political Metaphors in Hittite Diplomatic and Historiographic Texts
Get PDFResearch topic: In the Hittite historiographic and diplomatic texts some concepts are formulated metaphorically. In particular, we can find metaphors based on expressions of motion; involving body parts; recalling the comparison between a person and an animal; describing the concepts of life and death; concerning the lexicon of the family and relatives. Theoretical approach: These metaphors are to be considered as expressions of a system of thinking, i.e. as conceptual metaphors (Lakoff – Johnson 1980). Research questions: Which metaphors are attested? How are they structured? How do they dependent on context, language, and/or genre? Which metaphors are of Hittite origin? Which functions do they have? Research goals: Identification, classification and description of the metaphors; analysis of their functions; description of the changes in their use in relation to the genre and through time. Method: the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) of the Praggelejaz Group
The Tell \u27Uqair temple (4th mill.BC) : colours and iconography
Get PDFDate: ca. 3400-3100 BC, late Uruk period, first urbanization of south Mesopotamia.Location: Tell ‘Uqair, Babylonia, Iraq.Abstract: This contribution presents the “painted temple” of Tell ‘Uqair, which has provided evidences for bright paintings on the interior. Based on the archaeological report, as well as on in-depth comparisons with other urukean building, we focus on a colorful reconstruction of one of the characters, offering new interpretation of its symbolic meaning
The never-ending Quest for the Elites:New Approaches to the Study of Cemeteries and Social Organization
Get PDFThe Early Bronze Age (EBA) in Anatolia (3100/3000-2000 BCE.)[1] is considered a period of great transition when urban societies developed and when extramural cemeteries started to emerge. Western Anatolian sites like Troy and Külloba have yielded monumental walls, or architecturally distinct quarters. However none of these sites have yielded extramural cemeteries. Extramural cemeteries of the EBA are only associated with small-scale sites such as Karataş (southwest Anatolia) and Demircihöyük (northwest Anatolia) which have been referred to as “chiefdoms”. Labeling these non-urban sites as chiefdoms inevitably led to the quest of finding the chief in these cemeteries. As a result, certain burial types, and burials with grave goods of higher quantity and better quality have been used as evidence for wealth and status, hence the presence of ruling elites. In this paper I suggest different ways of making use of the archaeological data from cemeteries to understand the social organization without falling into the same social evolutionary pitfalls.[1] In this presentation when I refer to Anatolia, I will be referring to the central and western parts of the peninsula, not to eastern Anatolia which in the Early Bronze Age is culturally and economically closer to Northern Mesopotamia
Some new Linear Elamite inscriptions
No full textThe Linear Elamite writing system was used in the late 3rd millennium in ancient Iran.The underlying language is supposed to be Elamite – an isolate language otherwise known from cuneiform sources. 40 to 60% of the Elamite words and morphemes are decoded.In early 2016, about ten new inscriptions and fragments were presented at the University of Hamedan, Iran. They are now in the Mahboubian Gallery. Some of these new texts are the longest ones ever found, depicting up to 200 signs.In the past months, the Deciphering Crew at the Institut für Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Bern, has made drawings of the so far unpublished inscriptions and compiled a sign catalogue.Preliminary results show that fragments from Gonur and Altyn Depe formerly tagged as “Linear Elamite” do not belong to the Linear Elamite text corpus.The Deciphering Project is hoping to collaborate with scholars of different fields. The web page http://elamicon.org is an open source project
Silk and Horses: Trade and Tribute between the Qing Dynasty and the Kazakh Khanate
Get PDFThis paper seeks to analyze the ways in which the exchange of silk for horses impacted trade regulations along the Silk Road, thus leading to a rupture in Chinese economic policy. Exchanges between the Qing Dynasty and the Kazakh Khanate were carried between 1759 and 1796, having begun after the Qianlong Emperor vanquished the Dzungar Khanate, which determined the khan of the Kazakhs to swear allegiance to the Emperor. As the Qing Dynasty had up until that point been both politically and economically isolationist, this marked a radical change in its foreign policy.The relation established between emperor and khan is known as chao gong mao yi（朝贡贸易）and is usually translated as vassalage, owing to the similarities with the European concepts, but it also involves the offering of tributes. Traditionally, when discussing the Qianlong Emperor’s decision to consolidate trade with its new vasal, scholars have tended to favor one of three narratives: the first sees this exchange in the same light as the economic relations between the imperial capital and any of China’s provinces, and therefore focuses on the inclusions character of the policy. The second considers the exchange of horses for silk as representing the immediate, dire needs of the two political leaders; while the Khan and his court required fine materials for their own prestige, the Emperor’s armies had an urgent need for horses in the fight against the rebellious Uighurs in Altishahr. The third postulates that engaging in trade would have allowed the isolated Qing to secure their borders.Rather than fully accepting or discarding any of these narratives, a more nuanced position can be gained. We can do this by understanding the implications of vassalage and tribute in close connection with the way in which the whole regional economic policy was modeled around it. I will look at the ways in which chao gong mao yi and its economical meaning were defined in Chinese archives. This will allow us to better understand their interconnected evolution. The Chinese archives that I will look at are formed of two types of documents: the first of these, the jun ji chu lu fu zou zhe (军机处录副奏折), are extensive reports on the affairs of the army, including their military actions and tactics, the power struggles between officers, and the rations needed to feed and supply the troops, to name only a few; the second, the Qianlong chao shi lu (乾隆朝实录), are concise reports that describe in minute detail the affairs of the imperial court. When taken together, these materials paint a vivid picture of the social, economic, and political life of late eighteenth-century China. From these sources we can see that the Qing opted for a sort of tribute trade which made a compromise on the tariff. This shows that while the Qing were clearly making some profit, the need of supplying the armies with horses in Alishahr wasmore important, and they were therefore forced to maintain their conservative economic policy.These materials offer new information which scholars that have tried to defend one of the three narratives in particular have so far neglected. Most important amongst these are two interconnected aspects: on one hand, by investigating how the Silk Road was rebuilt, we see that two different projects were used for the north and for the south. This led to the displacement of the economy towards the north, as it connected several important cities and trade hubs, such as Suzhou、Suzhou . By ignoring the regional impact, historians have tended to downgrade or neglect the changes that this disruption brought to the course of trade. On the other hand, this very separation is the thing that destabilized the region. It caused local unrest, uprisings and separatist tendencies. These episodes of local unrest forced a rethinking of the entire imperial economic policy.The Qianlong Emperor’s policy was never expansionist, neither in territorial nor in economic terms. While they were clearly aware of the importance of forging a strong relationship with their northern Kazakh neighbors, they never had any ambitions to expand towards inner Asia. We can observe this in the way in which the economic policy that they initiated with the Khanate later form the basis for the trade routes with Russia through Qiaketu. These routes would economically drain the Kazahks in the long term. That China was not expansionist at this point can easily be observed from the fact that it hesitated to break out of its traditional approach even when the Kazakhs were weakened, so it was the Russian who eventually absorbed them.To conclude, it can be said that a new understanding of China’s attitudes as a regional actor during the period of Qing Dynasty can be gained by looking at smaller units and understanding how different types of regional or local economic policies evolved together. Quite often, these impacted not only interconnected regions but the empire as a whole. As we have seen, the exchange of silk for horses along the Silk Road is just one such example. Given the rich material that is available in the Chinese archives, many other aspects could be studied
The Characterization of Animals in Sumerian Fables
Get PDFAlthough classical education is waning and general historical knowledge is at its nadir, many ancient fables are still widely known and commonly cited in spoken language. For example, Aesop’s fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf has resulted in the phrase “crying wolf,” which—even today—is a cultural shorthand for expressing the idea of raising a false alarm. The successful communication of this idea, however, rests on culture: the shared understanding of the wolf as dangerous. If we thought of wolves as we do pet dogs, the reference would be lost.Fables constitute a subgenre of ancient Near Eastern ‘wisdom literature;’ they are short narratives utilizing anthropomorphized animals to impart conventional wisdom. Like proverbs, fables “belong to the speech of everyday life” (Alster 1997). Perhaps for this reason, they were among the first compositions that young scribes learned to write in ancient Mesopotamia. Sumerian fables are attested as early as the mid-third millennium BCE. Much like written language itself, fables traffic in tradition and “habitual connection” (Peirce 1885) in order to convey their meaning. This meaning is so strong that it can be carried even via elliptical (truncated) renderings, as in the example of “crying wolf.” This shorthand is possible, in part, because animals are not just things themselves, they are loaded with symbolic meanings that are imparted in fables via their role, their actions, and the words they speak. In fables, animals are characters, and these characterizations can reveal the context and values of the culture that created them.As Falkowitz (1980) notes, consistently and extensively employed animal images can become culturally ingrained as rhetorical topoi: the fox is cunning, the bee is busy. The meaning in these images” is derived from their characteristics, which fables can uniquely elucidate for us. Through the understanding that fables provide, we can more successfully “read” both the elliptical references to animals in proverbs and in images. Moreover, understanding animals in this way can provide us a method to access the contexts and values of ancient Mesopotamians without privileging our contemporary, Western symbolic or ethical norms.I will provide an overview of the small corpus of available Sumerian fables and analysis of the roles of the animals characterized within them. These will be linked to Sumerian proverbs and compared to ancient Greek fables to form a starting point for conceptualizing fauna in the ancient world
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