Ideology and historiography

Recent years have seen the flourishing of research on Lithuanian Kabbalists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the point that some scholars speak of a defined and delineated stream of Kabbalah, a school unto itself dubbed "Lithuanian Kabbalah." Such scholars include within this stream all those who saw the Vilna Gaon as their teacher in Kabbalah (parallel to the position of the Baal Shem Tov in Hasidism) and they ascribe to it such fixed categories as its "Articles of Faith." In their conception, this stream was part and parcel of the broader and well-known nationalist-messianic current that had its source, supposedly, in the Vilna Gaon himself; this current reached its full fruition in the twentieth century, and so too has the smaller stream within it, now a clearly defined "school," developed in various ways until the present. As if this were not enough, scholars have joined the later ideological trend which seeks to revise the history of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in a decidedly messianic way, presenting it in a continuous line from the Vilna Gaon to the emergence of Zionism and then to the founding of the State of Israel. Again, the Vilna Gaon is not merely presented as a "herald" of Zionism but as one who encoded within his Torah the secret of redemption, the beginning of which, apparently, we are witnessing today. The article conducts a critical analysis of the concept of "Lithuanian Kabbalah," and uses as its case study the life and teachings of Rabbi Shimon Tsvi Horowitz.


בשנים האחרונות צומח ועולה מחקר סביב למקובלים בני ליטא במאות התשע עשרה והעשרים, עד שיש כאלו המדברים על זרם מוגדר ומובחן, אסכולה בפני עצמה, המכונה 'קבלה ליטאית'. בתוך זרם זה כוללים את כל אלו שראו בגר"א את מורם בקבלה, כמעין בעש"ט לחסידות, ומונים קטגוריות מקובעות של 'עיקרי אמונה' של אותו זרם הרוכב על מהלך משיחי ולאומי ידוע שמקורו כביכול בגר"א עצמו והגיע לגמר בישולו במאה העשרים. עד שנוצר בעיני כמה חוקרים מעין 'חוג' ברור ומוגדר שמתגלגל באופנים שונים עד לימינו. אם לא די בכך, הרי שהמדברים על אותו זרם קבלי רוכבים למעשה על קו אידיאולוגי מאוחר שבא לפרש מחדש את ההיסטוריה של היישוב היהודי בארץ ישראל במאה התשע עשרה ברוח משיחית וליצור מעין המשכיות מימי הגר"א עד להופעתה של הציונות ולמאורעות שהתרחשו עם הקמת מדינת ישראל. שוב אין הגר"א מצטייר רק כ'מבשר' הציונות אלא כמי שצפן בתורתו את סוד הגאולה שאנו עומדים לכאורה בפתחה. המאמר עוסק בניתוח ביקורתי של המשוג "קבלת ליטאית" וכמקרה מבחן יש כאן דיון בדרכו של ר' שמעון צבי הורביץ

Miho Barada And The Myth Of The Narentines
This essay engages with the results of Miho Barada’s early papers analysing the early Middle Ages in Central East Adriatic. It discusses the way in which Barada argued in favour of the existence of a separate ethnic/political/territorial unit named ‘the Narentines’ and points out weak and untenable points of Barada’s arguments. It furthermore describes Barada’s main methods as a historian in the specific contemporary social context. Then I reflect on the continuation of Barada’s thesis on ‘the Narentines’ in part of Croatian historiography. The story of the Narentines who had a separate ‘state’ that was ‘neither Serb nor Croat’ fitted well into the political myth of foundation produced in Yugoslavia after 1945.
In the second part of this essay I analyse relevant medieval sources that mention ‘the Narentines’ and warn that these amount to no more than two narrative sources from the mid-tenth and early eleventh centuries. The appearance of the ethnonym ‘the Narentines’ in these texts I associate with the literary canons of this period and deeply ingrained Antique knowledge of the conditions on the East Adriatic coast. I conclude that the said ethnonym was ascribed to this population and it does not tell us anything about how this population called itself. Furthermore and in relation to that, I suggest that data on the official who in early medieval sources is mentioned with titles iudex Marianorum, iudex Croatorum and finally as dux Marianorum cannot be linked to the community that the mentioned two sources call ‘the Narentines’. I draw the same conclusion in relation to the title of the other contemporary official, named morsticus, and the geographic-administrative term Maronia that occasionally appears in sources until the thirteenth century.

RE: Facades, illusions & ideological concepts created & promoted by ancient royalty out of necessity; effective creation of an alternate version of reality. It is only by knowing this information that the true nature of ancient texts may be understood correctly. Not knowing, means making incorrect assumptions & conclusions. Important!

My doctoral dissertation examines the experiences of the Italian volunteers in the Waffen-SS troops using in-depth interviews with former volunteers as the main primary source. This phenomenon, even if significant in size (depending on the source, some 15 000-20 000 Italian men volunteered in the Waffen-SS), has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The available literature on the Italian volunteers, mainly written by military history enthusiast journalists and methodologically weak, concentrates mainly on the combat operations and military organization, and offers a rather stereotypical profile of the volunteers.

My dissertation does not aim to reconstruct the military history of the different divisions of the Waffen-SS in which Italian volunteers operated but instead to examine the subjective, private and intimate experience of the volunteers in order to understand the motivations, attitudes, beliefs and cultural and family background, as well as their political ideas. The main objective of my doctoral dissertation is to discover the ideological precepts of the volunteers’ political credo. As the last phase of fascism and its ideology, often defined as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascism, is still the object of wide academic debate, a better understanding of the volunteers’ ideology also contributes to deepening overall knowledge of the nature of this last phase.

The theoretical frame of my dissertation lies in oral history, in particular in the postmodernist approach to oral history, through which I reconstruct the volunteers’ ideology. In-depth interviews with former volunteers are the main primary source, but multiple data collection methods have been adopted. Phone interviews and correspondence with the volunteers have also been considered as primary sources. In addition to interviews and correspondence, family archives consisting of diaries, correspondence with the volunteers’ relatives and photographic material have also been collected and examined. An ethnographic observation of the volunteers’ domestic spaces has been conducted during the in-depth interviews, and photo self-elicitation techniques have been used in cases where the volunteers were willing to share their photographs.

An exhaustive portrait of the ideological structure of the volunteers has been obtained, as well as of the cultural and social origins of the values that contributed to the rise and adoption of this ideology. Further, the volunteers’ motivations to enlist have been clearly reconstructed, together with their cultural, political, social and military backgrounds. The results of the research are particularly relevant both for comprehension of the Italian phenomenon of volunteering in the Waffen-SS and for the reconstruction of the ideological dynamics of the last phase of fascism. The volunteers’ political and ideological system, which can be defined as the Italian SS-fascist ideology, disagrees strongly with the vaguely described ideological profile offered by previous studies that describe volunteers as generically “super-fascist”. The research also offers the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the final fascist ideological trajectory, currently defined, not without a certain level of approximation, as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascist ideology.

ÖZET: Bu çalışma, klasik tarihyazımının son büyük temsilcisi Prokopios’un yapıtlarında Perslerin temsil edilişinin problemlerini tartışarak, geç antik tarihyazımının tarihi alanına bir katkı yapmayı hedeflemektedir. Bu çalışmanın temel sorunsallarından biri ise, Persleri temsil ediş şekliyle ve yarattığı (veya yeniden - ürettiği) “öteki” ile Prokopios’un antik tarihçilerden farkını sorgulamaktır. İlk önce, Prokopios’un çalışmalarındaki Perslerin bir halk ve bir toplum olarak ne şekilde temsil edildiği tartışılmıştır. Prokopios’un saikinin bir etnograf olmaktan ziyade, politik antropolojiye yakın olduğunu varsayılmıştır, çünkü sonuçta müverrih Pers emperyal yapısını siyasi, askeri ve dinsel ritüeller ile gelenekler üzerinden anlamaya çalışılmıştır. Perslerin temsilleri, Prokopios’un metinlerindeki başka halkların temsilleriyle de mukayese edilmiştir. Savaşların Tarihi yapıtında, Pers imparatorları merkezi bir role sahiptirler. I. Firuz  ( hük. 438–457), I. Kubâd (r. 488–531) ama özellikle kendi çağdaşı olduğu için I. Hüsrev (hük. 531-579) gibi Pers imparatorlarının, temsilleri, daha geç dönem Bizans tarihçiliği (özellikle de Agathias), Süryani ve Arap tarihçileri ile birlikte, mukayeseler yapılarak tartışılmıştır. Bu tartışmalarda şu soruya cevap vermeye çalışılmıştır: "Prokopios ne oranda klasik tarihçiliğin Persleri temsil ederken kullandığı modelleri yeniden- üretmiştir?" Prokopios’un klasik yazarlardan despotizm konusunda ayrılmaktadır. Zira Perslerdeki hukuka bağlılığa ve özellikle Sâsânî imparatorlarının saygısına güçlü bir vurgu yapar. Bu sebepten dolayı, Prokopios’un Persleri tasvirinde bir karakteristik unsur olarak "despotizm" yer almamakla birlikte, Persler saldırgan ve yayılmacı bir karatkteristikle tasvir edilmiştir. Bir müverrih, bir halkı ele alırken ötekileştirici bir söylem kullanabileceği gibi; buna alternatif olarak yabancı halkın adetlerini kendi halkının adetleriyle karşılaştırabileceği ve modelleştirilen halkın adetlerini üstün bulacağı bir model de yaratabilir. Prokopios ise anlatısında kendi toplumu açısından ayna işlevi görecek modeller de yaratmıştır.(Theoderik’in adil karakteri, Pers hükümdarlarının yasaya sıkı bağlılığı gibi.) Bu hususlar mukayeseli bir yöntemle, antik literatürü ve daha geç Bizans ve Doğu literatürünü de içerecek şekilde tartışılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler : Prokopios, Geç Antikite, Bizans İmparatorluğu, Persler, Sasaniler, Tarihyazımının Tarihi, Geç Roma Kültür Tarihi.

ABSTRACT: This study aims to make a contribution to the field of the history of late antique historiography by discussing the problems of the representation of the Persians in the works of Procopius, the last great representative of classical historiography. One of the main problematics of this study is to question the difference of Procopius from the ancient historians in the way he represents the Persians and the "other" he creates (or reproduces). Firstly, the representation of the Persians as a people and a society in Procopius' work is discussed. It is hypothesised that Procopius' motives were closer to political anthropology than to ethnography, since the author ultimately sought to understand the Persian imperial structure through political, military and religious rituals and customs. Representations of Persia have also been compared with those of other peoples in Procopius' texts. In the History of the Wars, the Sassanid emperors play a central role. The representations of Sassanid emperors such as Peros I  ( r. 438–457), Kavad I (r. 488–531) but especially his contemporary Khosrow I (r. 531-579) are discussed in comparison with later Byzantine historiography (especially Agathias), Syriac and Arab historians. In these discussions, the following question was tried to be answered: "To what extent did Procopius reproduce the models used by classical historiography to represent Persia?" Procopius differs from the classical authors on the issue of despotism. For he strongly emphasises the adherence to law in Persia and especially the respect of the Sassanid emperors. For this reason, Prokopios' description of the Persians does not include "despotism" as a characteristic element, but the Persians are depicted with an aggressive and expansionist characteristic. An historian can use a marginalising discourse when dealing with a people; alternatively, he can create a model in which he can compare the customs of a foreign people with the customs of his own people and find the customs of the people being modelled superior. Procopius, on the other hand, created models in his narrative that would serve as a mirror for his own society (Theoderic's just character, the strict adherence of Persian rulers to the law, etc.). These issues are discussed in a comparative manner, including ancient literature and later Byzantine and Eastern literature.

Keywords : Procopius, Late Antiquity, Byzantine Empire, Persians, Sassanids, History of Historiography, Late Roman Cultural History.

ABSZTRAKT: A tanulmány célja, hogy hozzájáruljon a késő antik történetírás megértéséhez azáltal, hogy megvizsgálja Prokopiosz perzsákról alkotott ábrázolását, valamint a klasszikus történetírókhoz képest eltérő megközelítését. A politikai antropológiát a néprajz helyett a politikai antropológiára helyezve a hangsúlyt, az elemzés megvizsgálja Prokopiosz perzsa társadalom ábrázolását, és azt állítja, hogy indítékai a perzsa birodalmi struktúra politikai, katonai és vallási rituálékon keresztül történő megértésében gyökereznek. A tanulmány megvizsgálja Prokopiosz ábrázolását a szasszanida császárokról, köztük I. Perosról, I. Kavadról és I. Khosrowról, és összehasonlítja a későbbi bizánci történetírással, szíriai és arab beszámolókkal. A vizsgált központi kérdés az, hogy Prokopiosz milyen mértékben replikálta a klasszikus történetírás modelljeit Perzsia ábrázolásában. A klasszikus szerzőktől való figyelemre méltó eltérés abban mutatkozik meg, hogy Prokopiosz a perzsák jogkövető magatartását hangsúlyozza, ahelyett, hogy despotikusnak jellemezné őket. A tanulmány elmélyül Prokopiosz elbeszélői választásaiban, kiemelve, hogy olyan modelleket alkotott, amelyek saját társadalmának tükörképeként szolgálnak. Például Theoderik igazságos jellemét szembeállítja a perzsa uralkodók törvényekhez való szigorú ragaszkodásával. Ez az összehasonlító elemzés kiterjed az ókori irodalomra és a későbbi bizánci és keleti irodalmi hagyományokra is, megvizsgálva, hogy Prokopiosz hogyan konstruál kulturális összehasonlításokat és hogyan értékeli a szokásokat. E vizsgálat révén a tanulmány rávilágít Prokopiosz egyedülálló perspektívájára és hozzájárulására a Perzsia történetírásban való ábrázolásáról szóló diskurzushoz.

Kulcsszavak : Procopius, késő ókor, Bizánci Birodalom, perzsák, szasszanidák, történetírás-történetírás, késő római kultúrtörténet.

АБСТРАКТ: Цель данного исследования - внести вклад в понимание позднеантичной историографии, изучив представление Прокопия о персах и отличительные особенности его подхода по сравнению с классическими историками. Подчеркивая политическую антропологию над этнографией, анализ тщательно изучает изображение Прокопием персидского общества, предполагая, что его мотивы были основаны на постижении персидской имперской структуры через политические, военные и религиозные ритуалы. В исследовании рассматривается изображение Прокопием сасанидских императоров, включая Пероса I, Кавада I и Хосрова I, и сравнивается с более поздней византийской историографией, сирийскими и арабскими рассказами. Главный вопрос, который рассматривается, - это степень, в которой Прокопий повторяет классические модели историографии в представлении Персии. Заметное отклонение от классических авторов выявлено в том, что Прокопий подчеркивает приверженность персов закону, а не характеризует их как деспотичных. Исследование посвящено выбору повествования Прокопием, подчеркивая создание им моделей, которые служат зеркалом для его собственного общества. Например, он противопоставляет справедливый характер Теодерика и строгое следование персидских правителей закону.  Этот сравнительный анализ распространяется на античную литературу и более поздние византийские и восточные литературные традиции, исследуя, как Прокопий строит культурные сравнения и оценивает обычаи. Благодаря этому исследование проливает свет на уникальную перспективу и вклад Прокопия в дискурс о представлении Персии в историографии.

Ключевые слова : Прокопий, поздняя античность, Византийская империя, персы, Сасаниды, история историографии, позднеримская история культуры.

Through the study of Beirut as a palimpsest, the paper aims to shed light on the interactions between unseen factors and driving forces that, at the urban and archaeological levels, produced the palimpsestic nature of this city. It tackles the palimpsest metaphor at the second level, thus shifting focus from the metaphor itself to the essential paradigms lying behind the observation and interpretation of past materiality, paying close attention to their ontological and epistemological dimensions.
In addition, it attempts to understand the interplay of all these different factors within the social realm to produce subjective meanings through the various narratives proposed by different actors. For this purpose, three case studies from Beirut’s post-war reconstruction experience are examined and discussed. Through these case studies, an attempt to bring together both theoretical and more tangible aspects of the palimpsest metaphor is made by bridging the social facts to the social actions in a real-world scenario.
The paper debates the uses and abuses of the archaeological record in the creation of biased heritage and historical narratives. It also tackles the various aspects of religious conflicts as well as religious identity and pluralism. It critically confronts conflict archaeology, ideology, and historiography within the framework of the politics of the present pasts within historic cities as well as the problems of ethnicity and identity politics.

La présence de l'image du gaulois très présente dans la vie de tous les jours tend à faire penser que celui-ci à, de tous temps, était considéré comme l'ancêtre de la nation. Il n'en n'est rien
Ce dossier cherche a montrer comment le gaulois a acquis ce rang dans le panthéon de la nation française.

Osmanlı Devletinin yıkılışını engellemek üzere ileri sürülen görüşlerin geçerliliklerini yitirdikleri bir dönemde yeni bir kimlik edinimi sağlamanın yanında yeni bir siyaset kurgusu oluşturma gayesi de taşıyarak ortaya çıkan Anadoluculuk, toprak milliyetçiliği üzerine inşa edilmiştir. 20. yüzyılın ilk çeyreğinde görülmeye başlayan Anadoluculuk, Türk Ocaklarındaki Turancılık ve Türkiyecilik tartışmaları sırasında belirginleşmiştir. Ocağın faaliyet alanı konusundaki bu tartışma, bir tercih yapma zorunluluğu sonucunda doğmuştur. Uzun ve yıpratıcı savaşların getirdiği kayıplar artık öze, Anadolu'ya dönmeyi gerekli kılıyordu. Esasen bu daralma, realist bir yaklaşımın ürünüydü.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Anadoluculuk, Anadolucu Tarihyazımı, Türk Tarih Tezi.

Anatolianist Movement, which came into being with the objective of building the provide for acquisition of a new identity and create a new politics of fiction, and at a time when the validity of the ideas regarding the prevention of Ottoman Empire from falling started to disappear, was built on territorial nationalism. Anatolianism firstly appeared in the first quarter of the 20th century, during the discussions about Turanism and Turkiyecilik in Türk Ocakları. The Ocak on the field of activity this discussion is born out of the necessity of making a choice. A long exhausting war casualties it was necessary to return to Anatolia to the essence now. In fact, this restriction was a product of the realistic approach.
Keywords: Anatolianism, Anatolianist Historiography, The Turkish History Thesis.

Historiography During the Soviet Nation and State Building Process
The concepts of nation and state embody in themselves both normality and artificiality. It is firmly established by historical experience that the human, as the subject of the former as well as the object of the latter, frequently interferes with the content of these concepts. If this intervention stems from ideological reasons, the implication is that the mechanism for providing legitimacy is involved with its focus on historiography. At this stage, the engine of historiography becomes an office for the approval of political power.
Within that context, the fictionalization of history transforms the knowledge of the past to a reproducible product. This understanding means a neglect of the motive to attain the reality of the past; instead, the aim is to become the social engineering required for the continuity of the ideology. In this concise text, alongside the ongoing philosophical debates as to what history is and how it should be laid out, the instrumentality of history in practical terms will be examined with a special focus on the Soviet Union paradigm.
Keywords: Soviet historiography, Soviet nation-state, Territorial historiography, Soviet nationalism.

This is an article on how the Tea Party misunderstands the nature of the Boston Tea Party of 1773, revealing their failure to see how their populism, like that of the colonists themselves, enables them to be manipulated against their own interests by the elites.  There follows a lamentation on the threat to American democracy of not studying history.

This paper analyses the image of some Iberian characters mentioned by the classical texts in the context of the Second Punic War, from the meaning of their Graeco-Roman characterization and specially focusing on their cultural contemporary perception, the contradictions and elements of their idealization and their inclusion into different identity discourses. We study the cases of Istolacio and Indortes as paradigm of the martyrial symbolism of these type of heroes, of Indibil and Mandonio as versatile icon of Catalonian, Spanish and local discourse, and of Laro as an example of the historicist rediscovery related to the construction of Cantabrian regional identity.

Se analiza la figura de algunos de los personajes hispanos mencionados por los textos clásicos en el contexto de la Segunda Guerra Púnica, desde el sentido de su caracterización grecolatina y, especialmente, en lo que se refiere a su percepción cultural contemporánea, las contradicciones y elementos de su idealización y su inclusión en diferentes discursos identitarios. Se estudia el caso de Istolacio e Indortes como paradigma del simbolismo martirial de este tipo de héroes, el de Indíbil y Mandonio como icono polivalente del discurso catalanista, españolista y localista y el de Laro como ejemplo del reciente redescubrimiento historicista ligado a la construcción de la identidad regional cántabra.

Автор исходит из того, что изучение советской историографии требует, помимо прочего, анализа ее организационной специфики, содержательно-го наполнения, динамики развития и степени эффективности научных контактов советских историков с учеными других стран, с представителями мирового профессионального сообщества. В настоящей статье рассматривается один из сегментов этого предметного поля – многолетнее сотрудничество советских ученых-англоведов и британских историков в особом формате научных форумов – двусторонних научных коллоквиумов, проводимых поочередно в Великобритании и СССР под эгидой Национальных комитетов историков обеих стран. О конкретных деталях этого про-должительного научного диалога – об участниках, обсуждаемых проблемах, о характере и ходе дискуссий, и даже о предварительных усилиях обеих сторон по подготовке ряда научных встреч – позволяют узнать документы, хранящиеся в Национальном комитете российских историков. / The author proceeds from the belief that a research of the Soviet historiography demands a proper analysis of its organizational specificity, its concrete content, dynamics of its development and the effectiveness of scholarly con-tacts between Soviet historians and foreign researchers, representatives of world professional community. The paper considers one of the segments of this field of research – the long-term collaboration of Soviet specialists in Brit-ish Studies and British historians in particular form of scientific forums – bilateral scholarly colliquia conducted in turns in the United Kingdom and in the Soviet Union under the aegis of the National Committees of Historians of the both countries. The documents preserved in the archive of the Russian National Committee of Historians allow to know concrete details of this long scholar-ly dialogue, its participants, problems under discussion, character and course of debates and even the preliminary efforts of the both sides to prepare a number of meetings.

En este libro se estudia cómo se conformaron y se disolvieron las matrices de pensamiento político- ideológico en las culturas de izquierda y de derecha en la Argentina  desde la muerte de Perón hasta el final del gobierno de Alfonsín. Aquí se analiza cómo la impronta del populismo impidió el desarrollo de apuestas ideológicas claramente elaboradas en el centro del campo cultural argentino. El texto traza la genealogía de esas posturas en sus orígenes en diversas revistas de décadas anteriores (como Sur, Contorno y otras),  explicando el impacto del peronismo, y de los enfrentamientos que conformaron los objetos privilegiados de la literatura en el discurso histórico. Cada capítulo documenta disitintos aspectos de la emergencia de nuevas formas narrativas y de nuevas respuestas a la herencia dejada no sólo por la dictadura, sino por la derrota de los proyectos utópicos de períodos anteriores.

20. yüzyılın başlarında ulusçu düşüncenin eyleme dönüşmesiyle yeni bir dünya düzeni kurulmuştur. Bu yeni düzende, tarihe şekil veren büyük imparatorluklar yerlerini kendi içlerinden çıkan ulus-devletlere bırakmak zorunda kalmıştır. Yüzyıl başındaki bu değişim Rusya halkları için sadece yönetim biçimiyle sınırlı kalan bir başkalaşımdan ibaret olmuştur. Nitekim imparatorluk ortadan kaldırılmış, fakat beklenen ulus-devletler ortaya çıkmamış, daha doğrusu Bolşevikler böyle bir duruma müsaade etmemiştir. Bu halklar ancak yüzyılın sonunda Sovyetler Birliği'nin dağılmasıyla bağımsızlıklarını elde edebilmişlerdir. Sovyet halkları arasında yer alan Türkdilli halklar geç elde ettikleri bu bağımsızlıklarının meşruiyetini pekiştirmek amacıyla ulusun ve devletin biricikliğine atıfta bulunan toprak, bayrak, dil, tarih ve benzeri objeleri ulusçuluk temelinde yeniden dizayn etmişlerdir. Bu çerçevede siyasal tercihini ulus-devlet anlayışından yana yapan Azerbaycan, ulusçu bir anlayışla tarihine ve kimliğine yeni bir şekil vermeye başlamıştır. Fakat bu süreç bağımsızlık sonrasının siyasi çalkantılarına paralel olarak geliştiğinden Azerbaycan ulusal tarih yazımı kalıcı bir biçim alamamıştır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Azerbaycan, ulus-devlet, tarih yazımı, ulusal tarih, ulusal kimlik.

At the beginning of the 20 th century, as the nationalist thinking turned into action a new world order emerged. In this new world order, great empires had to leave their autonomy to the nation-states, which arose within those empires. This conversion taking place at the beginning of the century was only a rebellion for Russian nations, which is limited to a change of regime. As a matter of fact the empires were destroyed, but the expected nation states did not emerge, or more precisely the Bolsheviks did not allow them to do so. These nations could only gain their independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the century. In order to consolidate the legitimacy of their delayed independence, the Turkish speaking nations among the Soviet communities redesigned the concepts of land, flag, language, history and similar elements that refer to the uniqueness of the nation and the state, on the basis of nationalism. In this respect, Azerbaijan, which made its political choice in favor of being a nation-state, started to redesign its history and identity with a national perspective. However, since this process developed in line with political upheaval, the national historiography of Azerbaijan could not adopt a permanent shape.

В настоящей главе с опорой на дипломатические и военные документы рассматриваются обстоятельства, стоявшие за формированием «образа другого» в отношениях Советского государства с ведущими державами Запада, его проявления в практике международного общения и в процессе принятия решений. Основное внимание будет сосредоточено на периоде от завершения Гражданской войны в европейской части Советского государства до «полосы признаний» в 1924 г.

El tema del bandidaje como forma de guerra característica de los pueblos prerromanos de la Península Ibérica es una cuestión ya clásica de la historiografía española. Se hace un análisis diacrónico del tema como tópico historiográfico, desde las fuentes clásicas hasta las revisiones más recientes, atendiendo especialmente a las implicaciones simbólicas e ideológicas de su evolución. De esta manera, se diferencia su visión peyorativa desde el punto de vista imperialista, antiguo y moderno, su idealización como resistencia guerrillera en el contexto nacionalista y su relectura socialista y materialista en términos de lucha de clases, para presentar, finalmente, las últimas interpretaciones propuestas y valorar la medida en que los antiguos paradigmas perviven.

May the question of dialogue between Sciences be focused without any consideration of ideologies, interests and ethic beliefs affecting scientists and scholars as human beings? As this starting point demonstrates, the matter has a more general scope, of which the sphere of Humanities is only a particular specification. After a quick precise statement about the different degrees of perception of ideological conditionings in Sciences, it is from the point of view of comparative theory and history of criticism that we will stand, in the sense that we will explore the case of the important though neglected knot between authority, authorship and ideology in some examples of International criticism concerning the surrealist movement, since the lifetime of André Breton and even after his death. In order to do that, we will face the matter at two connected levels: firstly, we will analyse the ideological-historiographical problem, by showing how the specialists spoke of Surrealism, so constructing their authority, but also explaining why they spoke that way, through relationships and collaborations between ex-surrealists and university scholars in group research, thus defining both origins and roles of authorship; secondly, we will end on the dialectical-“dialogical” issue, by asking whether and in which terms a dialogue is welcomed and possible in those described conditions.

In the 1930s, when Nicolae Iorga chose to propose the interpretative scheme of ‘Byzantium after Byzantium' -a  scheme very dear to Modern Greek historiography- he was in fact "correcting" a number of problematic points in the Rumanian nation's past, particularly regarding the Slavs. But determining the continuity between the Byzantine and the Ottoman empires -for this is what ‘Byzantium after Byzantium' entails- has been the basis of diverging narratives in many Balkan historiographies during the 19th century ("diverging" with respect to the scheme of continuity that was put forward with great effort by the leading representatives of each national historiographic canon). Thus, the rival Balkan nationalisms that arose from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire engaged inter alia in a ‘war of interpretation' as to the nature of Byzantium, assuming different, though ever-ambiguous, positions of adoption/rejection of its imperial model.

In Το Βυζάντιο μετά το Έθνος (Byzantium after the Nation), Dimitris Stamatopoulos undertakes the first systematic comparison of the dominant ethnic historiographic models and "divergences" elaborated by Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Albanian, Rumanian, Turkish and Russian intellectuals with reference to the ambiguous inheritance of Byzantium. More specifically, he discusses what Byzantium  represented for 19th and 20th-century scholars, and how their perceptions related to their treatment of the imperial model; whether a different perception of the medieval Byzantine period prevailed in the Greek national centre as against Constantinople; how 19th-century Balkan nationalists and Russian scholars used Byzantium to invent their own medieval period (and, by extension, their own antiquity); finally, the central question of whether there exist continuities or discontinuities in these modes of
apprehending and making ideological use of the past.

In five villages of Northern Greece, the communities of the Anastenaria have a long tradition of fire-walking rituals. The Anastenaria are Orthodox Christians, and their rituals are performed in honour of saints Constantine and Helen. However, the majority of Greek scholars have argued that these rituals originate from the ancient orgiastic cults of Dionysus. This theory was intentionally designed to serve specific political agendas, namely to prove the continuity of Greek civilization from ancient to modern Greece. Despite lacking any evidentiary support whatsoever, it became the dominant view of the Anastenaria for more than a century and has heavily influenced not only the ethnographic representation of this tradition but also the tradition itself. This article explores ethnographic practice in the context of the Anastenaria, its effects on this tradition, and the implications for further anthropological research on the subject.

Me gustaría recibir sus comentarios, sugerencias y críticas respecto a mis trabajos. Creo que éste es el modo de mejorar la producción: intercambiar ideas. ¡Gracias!

I would like to receive your comments, suggestions and critics about my work. I think this is the way to improve the production: exchanging ideas. Thank you!

J'aimerais recevoir vos commentaires, suggestions et critiques à propos de mon travail. Je pense que c'est la façon d'améliorer la production: échanger des idées. Je vous remercie!

Poco a poco va ganando fuerza la necesidad de entender y estudiar los procesos coloniales en la Antigüedad desde una perspectiva que vaya más allá de las teorías aculturacionistas, lo que conlleva la necesidad de emplear enfoques teóricos como el postcolonialismo, en lo referente a las interacciones que se produjeron durante los contactos que pueblos, como griegos o romanos, mantuvieron con muchas de las sociedades con las que tuvieron contacto, a través de los diversos asentamientos que en aquellas regiones se establecieron desde época temprana.

Los procesos de construcción identitaria pueden, así, ponerse en relación con los conflictos inherentes a los desarrollos de sociedades coloniales, expresados muchas veces a través de cultos, ritos y mitos. Cualquier tipo de encuentro cultural representa un proceso complejo, a todos los niveles, entre grupos sociales, que debe abordarse lejos de las teorías basadas en la influencia unidireccional que, por este motivo, tienden a realizar un nivel de análisis superficial donde muchas facetas de interrelación se dejan de lado o se niegan, pero de las cuales tenemos noticias gracias a las fuentes clásicas y arqueológicas. Es necesario intentar ahondar en el punto de vista de los colonizados, en la medida en que ello nos sea posible (Loomba, 1998), dado que es lógico pensar en la existencia de una transferencia multilateral de ideas, costumbres, etc., entre los sujetos que mantuvieron un tipo de contacto prolongado o, al menos, regular, sin que tengamos que entender a los colonizados como meros receptores pasivos.

La teoría postcolonial ha surgido con fuerza para afrontar esa nueva concepción de los procesos de interacción cultural; sin embargo, ¿se ha logrado abandonar por completo las reminiscencias relacionadas con el marco conceptual de la sociedad que intenta definir al “Otro”? ¿Podemos emplear términos como aculturación a la hora de definir un proceso colonial sin que ellos mismos conlleven cierta carga ideológica? No es mi intención dar respuesta aquí a preguntas tan importantes y que, aún hoy, generan un intenso debate, sino sólo exponer el proceso de surgimiento de la teoría postcolonial como un nuevo enfoque teórico surgido de una realidad contemporánea y aplicado a procesos de interacción cultural colonial en diversas épocas.

"The novel "Fuente Santa. Novela Arqueológica" was written in 1935 by the local historian Juan Muñoz García. It is set in the Carthaginian and Roman conquest of an idealized Vettonian world and relates the mythical origin of the sanctuary of Fuente Santa —Medinilla, Ávila— and the epic resistance of the Hispanic peoples against the invaders. We analyze its ideological background, the essencialist exaltation of pre-Roman legacy in the national-catholic context, and its influence into the local historic identities.

La novela "Fuente Santa. Novela Arqueológica" fue escrita en 1935 por el erudito local Juan Muñoz García. Ambientada en la conquista cartaginesa y romana de un idealizado mundo vettón, narra el origen mítico del santuario de Fuente Santa —Medinilla, Ávila— y la epopeya de la resistencia hispana frente a los invasores. Se analiza su trasfondo ideológico, la exaltación esencialista del legado prerromano en un contexto nacional-católico, y su incidencia en las identidades históricas locales."

ABSTRACT: This paper analyzes the construction of the socialist historiographical paradigm in the study of the pre-Roman peoples of Western Iberia. It focuses on the three key issues of this tendency: gens system, agrarian collectivism and social banditry. It delves specially on the work of Joaquín Costa as pioneer reference in later 19th century. His reinterpretation of these peoples from a socio-economic and class struggle perspective is analyzed in its ideological and methodological context. Secondly, the paper reviews the evolution of this perspective and its transcendence in some of the most
important historiographical debates of the 20th century, through its revisions and depolitization during the francoist period and its marxist revitalization in the 60-70’s to its refutation from the 1980 decade.
KEYWORDS: Marxism, pre-Roman Iberia, historiography, Joaquín Costa.

RESUMEN: Se analiza la construcción del paradigma historiográfico socialista en el estudio de los pueblos prerromanos del Occidente de Iberia. El estudio se centra en los tres temas clave de esta tendencia: sistema gentilicio, colectivismo agrario y bandolerismo social. Profundiza especialmente en la obra de Joaquín Costa como referente pionero a finales del siglo XIX. Se analiza su reinterpretación de estas sociedades en términos socioeconómicos y de lucha de clases en su contexto ideológico y metodológico. En segundo lugar se rastrea la evolución de esta perspectiva y su trascendencia en los más fundamentales debates historiográficos del siglo XX, pasando por sus relecturas y despolitización en el período franquista y su revitalización marxista en los años 60-70 hasta su refutación desde la década de los 80.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Marxismo, Iberia prerromana, historiografía, Joaquín Costa.

Spaţiu „de niciunde” (aşa cum lasă de înţeles etimologia cuvântului creat de Thomas Morus în 1516) şi totuşi prin excelenţă „politic”, în sens platonician (P. Hubner), utopia îngăduie concilierea realului cu idealul şi organizarea optimă a cetăţii. Atlantida lui Platon, „locul de nicăieri” al lui Thomas Morus, „Cetatea Soarelui” imaginată de Tomaso Campanella, doctrinele utopice care, la sfârşitul secolului al XIX-lea şi în cel următor, încearcă o reconfigurare a spaţiului social sunt astfel de scenarii alternative. Ele par să decurgă dintr-o predispoziţie umană fundamentală, de proiecţie  compensatorie a unui topos ideal sau măcar convenabil. După cel de Al Doilea Război Mondial, se vorbeşte totuşi despre „sfârşitul utopiei”, al „ideologiei”, al „radicalismului”, despre „sfârşitul istoriei”. Utopia se întemeiază pe „credinţa” oamenilor că „îşi pot transforma mediul social” (J. N. Shklar). Rămâne însă deschisă întrebarea dacă şi în ce fel se poate revigora o astfel de convingere. Astăzi „ne imaginăm cu greu o lume radical mai bună decât a noastră”, dar suntem dispuşi să ne închipuim lumi distopice, „considerabil mai rele decât cele pe care le cunoaştem” (Fukuyama). Decredibilizarea scenariului utopic în anii imediat postbelici a fost pusă în relaţie cu declinul unei „mistici a Stângii”(S. Hughes), pe fondul derapajelor regimului stalinist, legatar al Marii Revoluţii din 1917. Pe de altă parte, un anume mod de a înţelege şi practica pluralismul pare să fie, după unele opinii, „corelat cu declinul utopiei” (J. Russel).

Abstract: The topic of the heroic resistance of Iberians against Rome has played a key role in ancient and modern imagination, emerged from the cynic-stoic notion of the noble savage and perpetuated through humanistic and positivistic reading of sources. This essentialist and idealized vision has been transformed and reinvented by the historical and ideological context of each moment; we analyze some of the elements involved in this cultural construct, in their ancient and modern dimension, and their transmission mechanisms, and explore one of its most interesting versions, its derivation into a socialist utopia.

Resumen: El tópico de la heroica resistencia hispana frente a Roma ha tenido un papel fundamental en el imaginario antiguo y moderno, procedente de la noción cínico-estoica del buen salvaje y perpetuado a través de la lectura humanista y positivista de las fuentes. Esta visión idealizada y esencialista se ha transformado y reinventado según el contexto histórico e ideológico de cada momento; se analizan algunos de los elementos que inciden en ese constructo cultural, en su dimensión antigua y moderna, y sus mecanismos de transmisión, y se profundiza en una de sus versiones más interesantes, su derivación en utopía socialista.

Le narrativisme professe le recentrement des sciences sociales autour de la littérarité de disciplines qui, à l’instar de l’histoire, ne peuvent que reconnaître l’importance de la mise en récit dans leur écriture. Néanmoins, raconter une histoire ne suffit pas ; et le travail des auteurs sur les sources, l’utilisation de règles et d’outils propres à la discipline, la reconnaissance de la « réalité fonctionnelle » des objets étudiés, la volonté d’expliquer et le souci de comprendre, sont autant de raisons de croire à la possibilité et même à la nécessité d’un savoir fondé sur la critique. L’histoire est un métarécit dont la singularité tient justement à la nature scientifique et créative, narrative et critique, de sa démarche.

Ο ελληνικός εμφύλιος πόλεμος ήταν  αναμφίβολα ένα κομβικό και συγκρουσιακό γεγονός μεγάλης κλίμακας της ελληνικής ιστορίας, αποτέλεσε την πρώτη πράξη του Ψυχρού Πολέμου, εγκαινιάζοντας μια διελκυστίνδα διαιρεμένων και διαιρετικών μνημών στη δημόσια, στην ακαδημαϊκή και στη σχολική ιστοριογραφία.
(Άρθρο στο ένθετο "Νέες Εποχές: Εμφύλιος πόλεμος 1946-1949", της εφημερίδας "Το Βήμα", 11/12/2016)