Suchergebnisse

Abstract
This article discusses bonded labor relations and their changes through the example of Slavic migrant workers in late medieval Ragusa (Dubrovnik). Over roughly 150 years, Ragusa changed from a site of localized, endemic labor exploitation to a commodified labor market with transregional implications. Based on a close examination of notary deeds and legislative acts, the article presents an empirically grounded approach to category formation and a careful reconstruction of the Ragusan grammar of coericon. While labels and classification systems for unskilled Slavic migrants changed over time, they remained the "maids-of-all-work"—a nonspecialist labor force that could be taken into service for a variety of tasks wherever they were needed.

Abstract
It is usually held that by the turn of the millennium Latin Christians stopped enslaving their fellow-believers from within Europe. Scholars have therefore tended to define the late medieval type of domestic slaves in Italian and Iberian households, most of whom had been traded from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea region to Europe, by their cultural and religious difference. Yet, the numerous Christians from the Balkans who came across the Adriatic Sea to the West (and especially to Venice) clearly complicate the picture. They were mostly under twelve years of age and could be purchased at a very low price. The paper examines the commercial policy of the Venetian Senate in respect of the Adriatic human trafficking and sounds the strategies Venetian merchants used in order to pursue their interests, within and outside the legal framework set by the state authorities East and West of the Adriatic Sea.

'Dieser Beitrag tritt dafür ein, den Kontingenzfaktor von Geschichte stärker ins Bewusstsein der Historiker zu rücken. Kontrafaktisches Fragen, so die These, kann helfen, Kontingenz und Kausalität ins Verhältnis zu setzen und kausale und nichtkausale Zusammenhänge besser zu beleuchten, sofern die kontrafaktische Geschichtsschreibung aus ihren Zustand der (Selbst-)Isolation befreit und an andere Ansätze der modernen Geschichtsforschung angeschlossen wird. Die Autorin schlägt vor, kontrafaktisches Fragen in das kulturwissenschaftliche Konzept der 'Verflechtungsgeschichten' von Shalini Randeria zu integrieren und es damit zu einem wertvollen Instrument der Gegenprobe zu machen. Am Beispiel der komplexen Wechselwirkungen zwischen dem Reich der Mongolen und dem Lateinischen Westen, bzw. genauer: zwischen den Mongolenkhanen und den Dominikanern, untersucht sie in drei kontrafaktischen Szenarien den Grad und die Qualität der jeweiligen Verflechtungen.' (Autorenreferat) ; 'This paper claims that historians need to address the contingency factor in history, and that counterfactual thinking can be a useful method of cross-checks allowing for a deeper understanding of causal and non-causal connections. However, counterfactual thinking needs to become incorporated into existing methodological approaches of modern historiography in order to be of any use. The paper therefore suggests integrating counterfactual thinking into the concept of 'entangled histories' by Shalini Randeria, which is illustrated in a case study on the late Middle Ages. The complex interactions and interdependencies between the Mongolian Empire and the Latin West, and more specifically between the Mongolian leaders and the Dominican monks in the thirteenth century are described as a history of entanglement. But to what extent and in which ways are the historical phenomena, we are looking at, entangled? Here, three counterfactual scenarios may help to cross-check the potential and the limits of the entanglement.' (author's abstract)

Dieser Beitrag tritt dafür ein, den Kontingenzfaktor von Geschichte stärker ins Bewusstsein der Historiker zu rücken. Kontrafaktisches Fragen, so die These, kann helfen, Kontingenz und Kausalität ins Verhältnis zu setzen und kausale und nichtkausale Zusammenhänge besser zu beleuchten, sofern die kontrafaktische Geschichtsschreibung aus ihren Zustand der (Selbst-)Isolation befreit und an andere Ansätze der modernen Geschichtsforschung angeschlossen wird. Die Autorin schlägt vor, kontrafaktisches Fragen in das kulturwissenschaftliche Konzept der 'Verflechtungsgeschichten' von Shalini Randeria zu integrieren und es damit zu einem wertvollen Instrument der Gegenprobe zu machen. Am Beispiel der komplexen Wechselwirkungen zwischen dem Reich der Mongolen und dem Lateinischen Westen, bzw. genauer: zwischen den Mongolenkhanen und den Dominikanern, untersucht sie in drei kontrafaktischen Szenarien den Grad und die Qualität der jeweiligen Verflechtungen. ; This paper claims that historians need to address the contingency factor in history, and that counterfactual thinking can be a useful method of cross-checks allowing for a deeper understanding of causal and non-causal connections. However, counterfactual thinking needs to become incorporated into existing methodological approaches of modern historiography in order to be of any use. The paper therefore suggests integrating counterfactual thinking into the concept of 'entangled histories' by Shalini Randeria, which is illustrated in a case study on the late Middle Ages. The complex interactions and interdependencies between the Mongolian Empire and the Latin West, and more specifically between the Mongolian leaders and the Dominican monks in the thirteenth century are described as a history of entanglement. But to what extent and in which ways are the historical phenomena, we are looking at, entangled? Here, three counterfactual scenarios may help to cross-check the potential and the limits of the entanglement.

'Dieser Beitrag tritt dafür ein, den Kontingenzfaktor von Geschichte stärker ins Bewusstsein der Historiker zu rücken. Kontrafaktisches Fragen, so die These, kann helfen, Kontingenz und Kausalität ins Verhältnis zu setzen und kausale und nichtkausale Zusammenhänge besser zu beleuchten, sofern die kontrafaktische Geschichtsschreibung aus ihren Zustand der (Selbst-)Isolation befreit und an andere Ansätze der modernen Geschichtsforschung angeschlossen wird. Die Autorin schlägt vor, kontrafaktisches Fragen in das kulturwissenschaftliche Konzept der 'Verflechtungsgeschichten' von Shalini Randeria zu integrieren und es damit zu einem wertvollen Instrument der Gegenprobe zu machen. Am Beispiel der komplexen Wechselwirkungen zwischen dem Reich der Mongolen und dem Lateinischen Westen, bzw. genauer: zwischen den Mongolenkhanen und den Dominikanern, untersucht sie in drei kontrafaktischen Szenarien den Grad und die Qualität der jeweiligen Verflechtungen.' (Autorenreferat)

This open access handbook takes a comparative and global approach to analyse the practice of slavery throughout history. To understand slavery - why it developed, and how it functioned in various societies – is to understand an important and widespread practice in world civilisations. With research traditionally being dominated by the Atlantic world, this collection aims to illuminate slavery that existed in not only the Americas but also ancient, medieval, North and sub-Saharan African, Near Eastern, and Asian societies. Connecting civilisations through migration, warfare, trade routes and economic expansion, the practice of slavery integrated countries and regions through power-based relationships, whilst simultaneously dividing societies by class, race, ethnicity and cultural group. Uncovering slavery as a globalising phenomenon, the authors highlight the slave-trading routes that crisscrossed Africa, helped integrate the Mediterranean world, connected Indian Ocean societies and fused the Atlantic world. Split into five parts, the handbook portrays the evolution of slavery from antiquity to the contemporary era and encourages readers to realise similarities and differences between various manifestations of slavery throughout history. Providing a truly global coverage of slavery, and including thematic injections within each chronological part, this handbook is a comprehensive and transnational resource for all researchers interested in slavery, the history of labour, and anthropology.

Abstract
This introduction highlights the contribution of the special issue to a radical contextualisation of the history of the enslaved. In particular, it suggests that the conditions and circumstances that foster or hamper practices of enslavement need to be studied as part of a broader set of labor relations. And it proposes that shifts in the practices of enslavement are closely related to broader transitions in power relations. This double expansion allows connecting the history of enslavement and the enslaved with broader themes in labor and social history.

Abstract
This article pursues two goals. First, it reviews recent literature calling for a revised and extended history of work. Based on that review, it then explores the possibility of a new, empirically based analytical and methodological framework for the study of labor relations and the reinterpretation of contemporary issues, including precariousness, "modern slavery," social inequality, and dependence. We contend that viewing labor relations as standardly diverse, coexisting, entangled, and overlapping across history provides an alternative organizing principle for the research field and is central to the understanding of larger social processes. To this end, we propose a contextualized, interrelational and transepochal approach to labor relations and labor experiences and discuss the potential of three research strategies: the analysis of the historical semantics of labor relations, the detailed study of coercion, and the historical investigation of the relation between precariousness and flexibility.