Jews as citizens in late medieval and Renaissance Italy: the case of Isacco da Pisa

Our essay begins with an acknowledgment of the seminal contributions of Vittore Colorni and Ariel Toaff but then criticizes their narrow focus on demonstrating that the citizenship status of Jewish inhabitants in central and northern Italy, apart from holding public office and admission to the liberal professions, was basically on par with that of nonJewish citizens. We argue, instead, that not all Jews became citizens of the localities in which they resided; and, moreover, that Jewish inhabitants (habitatores) enjoyed a robust bundle of rights, privileges, and protections under the ius commune, local statutes, and Capitoli, whether or not they acquired citizenship. Even when Jews like members of the da Pisa family acquired local citizenship, they continued to be identified as habitatores. As a matter of law, the status of cives and that of long-term noncitizen habitatores were treated as virtually identical. Citizenship, assuredly a valuable status, was nevertheless only one of the potential sources of the legal rights and obligations of Jews in late medieval and Renaissance Italy. By reconsidering the civic status of Jews within an expansive jurisprudential framework and drawing on untapped sources, our paper provides fresh perspectives that shifts the debate into more productive terrain.     

Jews, Christians, and the endtime in early modern Germany

This paper examines some of the ways in which early modern German literary culture portrayed Jewish visions of the endtime. Christians employed notions of Jewish deceit to undermine the meaning of Jewish messianism, reshaping the signs of the endtime to carry a far more sinister meaning. Christian writers transformed Jewish messianic claimants into predictable precursors of the Antichrist and mocked Jewish beliefs as the delusions of a nation of deceived deceivers. Notions of Jewish deceitfulness complicated Christian expectations concerning Jewish conversion at the end of time. The Christian perception of Jews as inherently deceitful encompassed all components of the early modern views of Jews and the Jewish religion. Early modern German literary works devoted to the theme of vain Jewish messianic expectations combined with the literature of the Antichrist, turning the demonic Antichrist who would appear at the endtime into the person the Jews expected as their messiah. Failed Jewish messianic movements played right into Christian literary and theological discourse on the Jewish endtime and provided historical confirmation for what would have otherwise seemed like an absurd polemical exaggeration. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Attitudes to the early Church and the Age of Conversion in late medieval Scotland

The conversion of Scotland, in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries, was carried out largely by Gaelic-speaking missionaries from Ireland. When Scotland was largely Gaelic-speaking it was freely acknowledged that the conversion had come mainly from Ireland. But in the later Middle Ages, as Gaelic retreated from the Lowlands and became increasingly seen there as barbaric and uncivilised, new historical models were developed in Scottish hagiography which portrayed missionaries as civilised Lowlanders penetrating and pacifying the barbaric Highlands. In the course of this process the ancient Picts disappeared from view. This rewriting of history could not overcome the known facts about St Columba, however, and on the eve of the Reformation Roderick MacLean, a Gaelic-speaking bishop (with Lutheran sympathies), wrote elaborate and sophisticated Latin poems proclaiming the achievements of Columba and Iona.     

Dressing Religious Bodies in Public Spaces: Gender, Clothing and Negotiations of Stigma Among Jews in Paris and Muslims in London

In recent years religious clothing has become prevalent across many European cities, making religious bodies more visible in public spaces. This paper brings together our separate research on Jews in Paris and Muslims in London. While recognising the clear differences between these two socio-political contexts and distinct religious groups, we suggest that a focus on clothing allows us to consider some points of similarity and difference in the presentation of gendered religious bodies, particularly in situations of heightened stigmatisation. We draw upon Goffman’s notion of impression management, in contexts of risks and threats, to explore how individuals experience and negotiate self presentation as members of stigmatised religious groups. We use rich qualitative data based on indepth interviews to consider how, when faced with collective stigmatisation, actors make deliberate and measured choices to present themselves and attempt to impression manage.     

早期现代哲学中的语言问题

The view of language is greatly changed from early modern philosophy to later modern philosophy and to postmodern philosophy. The linguistic question in early modern philosophy, which is characterized by rationalism and empiricism, is discussed in this paper. Linguistic phenomena are not at the center of philosophical reflections in early modern philosophy. The subject of consciousness is at the center of the philosophy, which makes language serve purely as an instrument for representing thoughts. Locke, Leibniz and Descartes consider language from a representationalist point of view. To them, language itself is idealized and represents thought as if it were thought representing itself. Like the structural linguist Saussure, the founders of phenomenology and analytical philosophy give much attention to the logical or static structure of language, and stick up for the representationalism of early modern philosophy. However, their successors refuse to accept this attitude, meaning the final collapse of representationalism. Translated by Cui Zengbao and Yang Dachun from Zhexue Yanjiu 哲学研究 (Philosophical Research), 2007, (8): 62–67     

Crisis and authority in early modern Ashkenaz

The social and intellectual foundations of medieval Judaism were shaken by a series of developments that included the invention of printing, advances in scientific knowledge, humanism, and the commercial revolution. In early modern Ashkenaz, the ensuing crisis centered on questions of ritual transmission and leadership. Minhagbücher composed in seventeenth-century Worms and Frankfurt urged the preservation and reinstatement of medieval customs relating to synagogue worship and rituals practiced in the home, while in some cases newer customs were also incorporated. However, the writings of Rabbi Ya’ir ?ayyim Bacharach were more far-reaching in response to the crisis of authority, as is evident in his forthright independence in matters of ritual and law. Customs could be considered authentic, in his view, provided they were textually based, were proven to be historically reliable, and enjoyed popular consent. His decision to consult kabbalistic sources—a departure from the resistance Kabbalah had encountered in early modern Ashkenaz—rested in part on the theological appeal of mysticism. Reflecting contemporary political philosophy and jurisprudence, Bacharach’s unequivocal endorsement of lay communal authority hinged on its elected status and on the legitimacy of law founded on principles of equity and justice.     

Optimal recall in early and late adulthood

Mäntylä & Nilsson (1983) recently presented a striking empirical phenomenon demonstrating a practically perfect recall of verbal materials encountered at one single trial and without specific instructions to learn the items. The purpose of the study to be presented in this article was to investigate whether older adults are capable of performing at the same high level of recall as younger adults did in the Mäntylä & Nilsson study. Type of instructions and number of retrieval cues were included in the experimental design, in addition to the age factor. Although the results indicated a superior memory performance of younger adults as compared to older adults, the latter group of subjects demonstrated an extremely high level of recall as well. Both age groups showed quite similar recall patterns in the sense that no interaction effects between the age factor and the other independent variables were obtained. The data were discussed relative to qualitatively and quantitatively based explanations of age differences in memory.     

Muslims and the media in the blogosphere

In the past two decades a virtual Ummah has evolved in cyberspace. While some of these websites are targeted specifically at Muslims, others attempt to provide outreach on Islam or counter Islamophobic bias. As noted by Jon Anderson, in his pioneering work on Islam in cyberspace, Muslims were among the first engineering students to create websites at the dawn of the Internet, before mainstream Islamic organizations posted official websites. There is a wealth of material by Muslims in English and Western languages, some of it archived for research. This article explores the methodological problems posed in studying the range of Islam-content blogs, from private individuals to religious scholars, as well as Muslim websites that feature comments from readers. The focus of the paper is an analysis of blogs about Islam or by Muslims that either act as watchdogs on the media or try to provide alternative views to the mainstream media of competing Muslim groups. Researching these blogs as a form of e-ethnography calls for a rethinking and refining of anthropological methodology as e-ethnography.