Suchergebnisse

In Germany, migration research is still a relatively young line of research. Several obstacles complicated a critical recovery of research concepts on the history of population and migration that had been shaped as early as in the 1920s. This was the result of the multilayered disavowal of academic demography - because of its role in Nazi Germany, because of the long-lasting primate of history of politics in post-WW ll Germany, and finally because of the late emergence of the history of society. This situation has profoundly changed during the last decades of the twentieth century. Reasons were the increasing historical distance to the 'fall of man' of demography in Nazi Germany, the reorientation of historiography in the context of critical social and cultural sciences; the inclusion of labor-market research into migration research, and the shaping of interdisciplinary and integral research concepts.

This volume brings together Spanish and German scholars specialised in the field of religious interaction. Most medieval societies ruled by Muslims and Christians were religiously plural not by choice and ideal but by nature. Religious affiliation and identity had to be repeatedly negotiated, defined, and chosen. The impact of legitimated religious violence towards subordinate religions or of religious wars underlies the more peaceful periods. Semi-permeable borders between the religions favoured inter-religious exchanges, while at the same time the efforts to impose segregation and discrimination aimed to restrict contact and influence. Agency by members of the subordinate religions was administratively and economically welcome and religiously and socially inevitable. 0The authors address topics such as the different strategies for power, order, exchange and identity chosen to organise religious plurality in medieval societies. Rights and regulations by both dominant and subordinate religions for demarcation, and in the opposite direction, pragmatism and forum shopping, were important strategies. A comparative approach stemming from the controversy on the concept of convivencia or coexistence in and beyond the Iberian Peninsula, as a possible model of inter-religious cohabitation, is combined with the inspiring results on religious plurality unearthed by intense research on mixed societies in the Mediterranean, Byzantium, the Crusading States and Central Asia. New theoretical and empirical models and concepts are proposed for comparative work in this research field.

This contribution sketches the essential aspects of terrestrial navigation in the late middle ages and early modern times. The emergence of terrestrial navigation is seen in the context of changes taking place in both trade policies and vessel types directly prior to this epoch. Whereas ships had previously remained in the vicinity of the coast for purposes of protection, now every effort was made to keep a safe distance from the coast. This principle was reflected in new navigational methods completely lacking any theoretical basis, particularly in a specific type of icourse-pointö navigation (Wegpunktnavigation). The new methods depended entirely upon the aid of the sounding Iead, the compass and sailing directions passed along in both oral and written form. For territory-related reasons, the log and sea chart did not play a role in navigation until a much later date.

Avicena's Metaphysics is probably the most mature expression of the Muslim rationalist thinking from the Middle Ages. From a Marxist point of view, this essay investigates how this way of thinking came to be, its historical roots and the economic, political and social network that made it possible. It also tries to uncover the theoretical problems it addresses and the intellectual needs tries to solve. Finally, this paper outlines a brief review of its historical significance as well as its future projections, today our past. ; De Avicena es seguramente la expresión más madura del pensamiento racionalista musulmán de la Edad Media Este artículo investiga, desde una perspectiva marxista, cómo se hizo posible ese modo de pensar, cuáles fueron sus raíces históricas y qué organización económica, política y social justificó su aparición. Intenta averiguar también a qué problemas teóricos responde y qué necesidades intelectuales busca resolver. Finalmente esboza una breve exposición de su significado histórico y sus proyecciones hacia el futuro, hoy pasado nuestro.

La Edad Media está muy pre-sente en la sociedad actual. Es cierto que apenas se estudia en la escuela; pero no es menos cierto que se percibe bien viva en el ambiente: su mención se convierte en un reiterado calificativo para determinadas noticias narradas en periódicos impresos o digitales y comentadas por periodistas y locutores; se identifica con ofertas de ocio familiar para fines de semana; se erige en una atractiva línea de videojuegos para el entretenimiento vía digital; a la vez, aparece insertada en todo tipo de discursos, ya sea a favor del progreso o invocando el reencuentro con identidades arraigadas pero a menudo maltratadas en la actualidad; incluso se convierte en una categorización con que proponer, desde la ciencia política, propuestas para acertar la estructuración adecuada para el mundo actual… De este modo, la Edad Media puede aparecer como una especie de tendencia capaz de calificar una gran gama de situaciones y ofertas (restaurantes, vestidos, objeto de decoración, propuestas lúdicas, etc.), bajo una diversidad de ideologías para, en definitiva, mostrarse como una realidad atemporal. La consolidación de lugares comunes y de referencias desinhibidas y ociosas no debería desorientar la mirada respecto de las significaciones ideológicas que, aunque sea de modo contradictorio, siempre fundamentan el lenguaje. En su diversidad de situaciones, mencionar la Edad Media no deja de ser una invocación histórica incrustada en el presente, pretendiendo, quizás, condicionar el futuro. En todos los casos, hablar de Edad Media abre un abanico muy diverso de sentidos y de significados, que a menudo desarrollan su propia orientación, alejándose, con una reiteración a menudo despreocupada, del período histórico evocado. Por ello, hay que preguntarse por el valor y la significación de la Edad Media ya no en las aulas universitarias o en el gabinete del historiador sino entre los hombres y mujeres que participan con naturalidad de la sociedad que está penetrando en el siglo XXI, sobre todo porque la comprensión situada en este ámbito no sólo es la realmente asumida por la población, sino que puede llegar a condicionar la com-prensión y difusión del relato histórico. ; The Middle Ages are very present in today's society. In spite of being hardly studied at school, it is certain that this period is perceived remarkably alive in the environment. Its mention becomes a reiterated qualifier for certain news narrated in printed or digital newspapers and commented by journalists and announcers. Besides, it is also identified with family leisure offers for weekends and it has gained ground as an attractive and popular genre within digital entertainment as video games. At the same time, it appears inserted in all kinds of discourses, either in favour of progress or invoking the encounter with ingrained but often mistreated identities. Moreover, it has even become a categorization with which to suggest, from political sciences, proposals to achieve the right structure for today's world. In this way, the Middle Ages can appear as a kind of tendency capable of describing a wide range of situations and offers (restaurants, dresses, objects of decoration, proposals for entertainment, etc.), under a variety of ideologies to become a timeless reality. The consolidation of common places and uninhibited and idle references should not disori-ent the view of the ideological meanings in which, even in a contradictory way, language is always grounded. In this diversity of situations, the mention of the Middle Ages still results in a historical invocation embedded in the present which intends, perhaps, to condition the future. In all cases, speaking of the Middle Ages opens a very diverse range of meanings which often develop their own orientation moving away, with an often unconcerned repetition, from the historical period evoked. For this reason, it is necessary to question the value and meaning of this period of time, no longer in university classrooms or in a historian's cabinet, but rather between the men and women who participate naturally in the society entering the 21st century, since the understanding situated in this area is not only the one actually accepted by the population but it could determine the understanding and dissemination of the historical discourse.