Pre Modern History

Urbanization under the Republic and Empire took different forms and directions, implemented sometimes in the typical “Roman” way as in Augustodonum, Aosta and maritime colonies, while at other times it gradually mixed with existing urban centers as in Nimes, Sagalassus and eastern cities. Cities in the Roman world – because of their political, social and economic significance – played a key role in the political and cultural life of the empire, also affecting its citizens’ identity. As viewed by ancient writers and demonstrated by archeology, urbanization meant civilization and power in contrast with the “barbaric” and “uncivilized” western tribes, some eastern regions and countryside. The construction of politico-religious and public buildings, public works, fortifications, and celebration of festivals and ceremonies in a city greatly shaped its status and its inhabitants’ identity. The change in the elite’s ideology of a city under the late Republic and Principate displayed the progress of “Romanization” (acculturation) and the “Roman” identity’s dynamism, as observed in the diverse development and forms of urbanization across the empire. The city was a product of its society and ultimately the “centre of power,…privilege,…culture and…of knowledge”.

“Most cultural theorists saw network analysis as located squarely in the positivist camp, reducing cultural richness to 1s and 0s and lacking attention to processes of interpretation and meaning-construction.”; thus Ann Mische in 2011 summed up attitudes towards network analysis which are still strong also in many circles of historical studies.  Of course, these verdicts were not entirely unfounded, as Mustafa Emirbayer and Jeff Goodwin pointed out in 1994 in their influential paper on „Network Analysis, Culture, and the Problem of Agency“: “despite its powerful conceptualization of social structure, network analysis as it has been developed to date has inadequately theorized the causal role of ideals, beliefs, and values, and of the actors that strive to realize them; as a result, it has neglected the cultural and symbolic moment in the very determination of social action.”  Although meanwhile various theoretical concepts and models of “relational sociology” have been developed , the cultural dimension is still underrepresented in many works of quantitatively oriented social and also historical network analysis. In this paper, I will present the explanatory value of some of these relational approaches to social reality for historical research and their combination with quantitative network analysis. For various case studies, the actual interplay between the structural and the cultural dimension of social, religious, economic, political or intellectual linkages between individuals, groups, communities, but also cultural concepts will be demonstrated.

Modern philosophical spectators have often found fault with the ways in which miracles were received by the pre-modern peoples of Europe and the Mediterranean. Historians such as Gibbon and philosophers as various as Hume and Lessing criticized the pre-modern world, implicitly or explicitly, for the epistemic significance that it ascribed to miracles. In various ways, these and so many other modern thinkers have suggested that miracles cannot play the role that the pre-modern world gave to them. In this paper I reflect on this notable disparity in the reception of miracles in modern and pre-modern times. The possible terms of its explanation is suggested in the view of Elizabeth Anscombe, who argues that the evidentiary significance that pre-modern people gave to miracles necessarily involves certain theological presuppositions. Supernaturally aberrant phenomena--supposing, contra Hume, that such phenomena really occurs--only constitutes a "sign," Anscombe argues, when one already espouses some theistic framework in light of which such a phenomenal event can be interpreted to be a supernatural sign of attestation or authorization.
Anscombe's view is that of a Catholic philosopher in dialogue--and as I suggest, in some degree of tension--with the magisterial teaching of Vatican I, which describes miracles as "external signs" that independently (and non-circularly) attest the truth of the Gospel and authorize the Church.
The thesis of this paper is that, while there are certain presuppositions involved when miracles (or "supernatural phenomena") are regarded as signs, they are not such as to threaten the externality that Vat. I  ascribes to them. Thus, with an eye to giving an explanation for the disparate modern and premodern receptions of miracles, I draw on the work of the 19th-century German theologian, Matthias Joseph Scheeben, to identify the presuppositions that are sufficient and necessary in order to regard miracles as signs. The crucial presupposition, I propose, that explains the modern/premodern reception disparity is the reality of extrinsic authority. The significance of supernatural events, I suggest, is likely to be ambiguous in the modern, democratic West, because in this cultural circumstance the correlation of power and authority is no longer taken for granted as in other times and places, and the notion of extrinsic authority--an authority not derived from the "consent of the governed"--is generally and presumptively rejected.

A kutatás a Nagykunság öt településének, Karcag, Kisújszállás, Kunmadaras, Kunhegyes, illetve Túrkeve Debrecenbe beiratkozott diákságát vizsgálja az 1588-tól 1850-ig terjedő időszakban. A földrajzi közelség, illetve a debreceni befolyás különösen indokolttá teszi a téma kutatását, mivel a Kollégium meghatározta a vizsgált városok oktatását, illetve a fentebb említett települések vezetőit is sok esetben a debreceni anyaiskola nevelte ki. A téma és a nagykunsági diákok lajstroma eddig feldolgozatlan, így érdemesek és szükségesek a további kutatások. A jelen cikk célja egy átfogó kép alkotása a vizsgált időszakról a Nagykunság részvételéről a partikuláris iskolarendszerben, illetve a Debrecenbe beiratkozott vizsgált diákok gyakoriságának, későbbi életének, tevékenységének szemléltetése. A kutatás legnagyobb részét levéltári és szakirodalmi kutatás teszi ki, mely alatt főként a Series Studiorum in schola Debrecina Helveticae Confessionis Addictorum-ban 1588-tól 1850-ig szereplő, a debreceni Kollégiumba beiratkozott nagykunsági származású diákok bejegyzései értendőek Bakóczi János adattárával kiegészítve. Kutatásaimat az öt város református egyházközségeinek anyakönyveivel egészítettem ki, illetve pontosítottam. 369 diákot vizsgálva azoknak adatait egy 17 szempont szerint rendezett táblázat segítségével elemeztem és ábrázoltam diagramon. A kutatás jelenlegi állása szerint a Nagykunság nagy arányban kivette a részét a partikuláris iskolarendszer feladataiból és nagy hatással volt rá a Debreceni Kollégium. Az itt tanuló diákokat sokszínűség jellemzi, mely főként az általuk vállalt hivatalokban, illetve későbbi foglalkozásukban mutatkozik meg a legjobban.

Inequality is often a presumed cause of heightened vulnerability towards natural hazards, leading to social disasters. Poverty, different levels of entitlements, the geographic location of households, different levels of political agency, all have been labelled as factors affecting communities in their struggles with natural hazards and eventual disasters. Nevertheless, the impact of inequality on vulnerability is difficult to assess. This is largely the result of the delimitation of the concept inequality. Inequality is a black box, referring to a wide range of different social, economic and political characteristics of a given society, that all have a very different impact on societies' ability to cope with natural hazards. In this session we try to solve this problem. First of all by moving beyond the more general concept of inequality. In this session the impact of very particular forms of inequality will we investigated and compared. The role of unequal entitlements, unbalanced power relations, social, economic and racial inequalities will be analysed and compared. A society characterised by highly unequal property distribution, but more equal socio-political structures, often reacts quite differently on similar threats, than economically equal societies, with highly polarised power distributions. As a result, we can give more clear answers on the particular effect of these different forms of inequality and whether all types of inequality actually do heighten the level of vulnerability towards hazards. Secondly, we will test this hypothesis by looking at long term historical developments in the pre-industrial world. Long term datasets provide the opportunity to analyse prevention measures, and recovery in the short and long term, which is difficult to do for modern disasters. Overall we will use the 'laboratory' of the pre-industrial period, to help explore and explain more clearly how inequality has affected historical societies in coping with natural hazards such as epidemics, subsistence crises, floods and more insidious hazards, such as sand drifts. Finally, in order to get a better grasp of the impact and spread of disasters, an interdisciplinary approach is used. Climate reconstructions, geological reports on sand drifts and geographical information system technologies will be used, to move beyond a qualitative assessment of vulnerabilities and naturally induced disasters, and analyse the impact of hazards in detail.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course covers a great deal of material. In it, we will examine human history from the earliest times until the end of the fifteenth century. This is a very broad sweep of human life, covering an immense range of subjects and a variety of times and places. In some ways, the course is intended as a sample of the vast range of possibilities found in history. We will also examine ways of perceiving the human past. Where possible, we will attempt to perceive the past from the perspective of participants by using primary sources. The course is designed to develop large-scale perspectives as well as critical thinking regarding past human societies. As it would be impossible to adequately cover the whole period, the course will focus on five themes and explore them throughout the semester. These are: