Os Druidas. Os Deuses Celtas com Formas de Animais | D’arbois de Jubainville
Escritos entre os anos de 1904 e 1905 quando uma doença prendia-o ao leito e mais tarde se constituiu do material por ele usado em suas aulas, Jubainville oferece ao leitor/estudioso brasileiro uma rica fonte de estudos acerca da religião celta.
Jubainville com um texto simples e preciso faz um percurso histórico acerca da classe sacerdotal dos Druidas, apontando a suas funções dentro da sociedade celta, sua importância para o aprendizado tanto da alta magia como também da arte da composição e da narrativa e da história do povo celta e o próprio aprendizado druídico. Esse conhecimento era transmitido oralmente o que obrigava tantos os “alunos” como os “professores” a exercitarem constantemente sua memória. Ao descrever o ensinamento tanto dos druidas como dos bardos, que freqüentavam por mais de vinte anos as escolas mantidas pelos Druidas, Jubainville nos mostra como estas funcionavam e a importância da manutenção da oralidade:
Os Judeus e os Cristãos têm um livro, a Bíblia; os Maometanos têm um livro, o Alcorão; os Druidas também tinham um livro, mas ele não estava escrito. Era uma compilação de versos e essa compilação era tão desenvolvida que, para conseguir sabe-la bem, ou mesmo para compreende-la mais ou menos, foram necessários vinte anos de estudos a um certo número de alunos. (JUBAINVILLE, 2003: 57).
Mas, infelizmente toda essa “estrutura” das “colégios” mantidos pelos druidas e todo o conhecimento oriundo da oralidade com a conquista romana foi quase que totalmente extinto. Alguns pequenos focos de resistência foram mantidos e poucos druidas tanto na Gália como nas Ilhas Britânicas mantiveram seus alunos e desta forma, conseguiram preservar um pouco do seu conhecimento e história mantidos pela oralidade.
As conquistas romanas empreendidas nas povoações celtas da Gália e das Ilhas Britanicas não foram capazes de destruir completamente todo o poder que dos druidas. Durante a romanização dos celtas os druidas perderam muito de seus alunos que, por imposição, recebiam uma educação romana, aprendendo o latim e os costumes do conquistador, numa tentativa desses de exercer maior influência sobre os conquistados mas, havia aqueles que se recusaram a isso e deixavam seus filhos sob a guarda dos antigos sábios:
A grande epopéia que conta a criação das vacas de Cooley mostra-nos o Druida Cathu rodeado de alunos aos quais dá suas lições. Na redação mais antiga, os alunos são em número de cem. O escriba cristão ao qual devemos esse texto teve trabalho para constatar esse número: são, escreveu, “cem estouvados que estudam perto de Cathu a ciência druídica” (JUBAINVILLE, 2003: 80-81).
Todos os registros que sobreviveram – e os utilizados por Jubainville – são relatos dos conquistadores entre eles, De Bello Gallico, escrito por Julio César e Anais, de Tácito. Essas fontes apresentam uma visão do conquistador já impingindo certos juízos de valores às práticas sociais do povo conquistado. Jubainville, ao utilizar as fontes romanas para as suas pesquisas vai nos apresentando outros aspectos da sociedade celta que ficaram encobertos sob o véu da conquista.
A segunda parte do livro traz um estudo sobre os deuses celtas e as suas formas de animais. Analisando o mais famoso épico irlandês A razia das vacas de Cooley (Tain Bô Cualngé) e o percurso do herói Cûchulainn a serviço da rainha Medb, o autor vai nos apresentando o panteão celta e as formas de animais que os deuses tomavam fosse para proteger e guiar o herói ou para punir alguém que infringia alguma lei ou tabu.
A deusa da guerra Morrigan aparece para Cûchulainn em vários momentos da narrativa para provocá-lo. Ela aparece ora, como uma loba cinzenta, ora como uma vaca branca de orelhas vermelhas ou um corvo. Este último é o arauto das batalhas mais sangrentas e da morte. Analisando as formas de animais assumidas pelos deuses Jubainville nos mostra as metamorfoses sofridas pelos deuses para poderem exercer seu poder e, medirem forças com os mortais que, como Cûchulainn, ao longo da epopéia assemelha-se aos deuses. Ao analisar as formas de animais o autor mostra a profunda ligação dos celtas com a natureza e a sua obediência aos ciclos sazonais aos quais estava ligada a sua sobrevivência:
“Os pagãos, a princípio, adoraram a natureza tal qual ela se apresentava a eles: em primeiro lugar, o céu de onde vêm o dia, o calor e a tempestade; em segundo lugar, O mar, tão propício e freqüentemente tão perigoso para os navegantes; e em terceiro lugar a terra que habitamos”. (JUBAINVIILE, 2003: 107).
Esta análise realizada por Jubainvelle dos druidas e das formas animais dos deuses oriundas do seu material didático foi e ainda é de grande importância para o entendimento do funcionamento da sociedade celta e da sua religião. Esta obra vem preencher uma lacuna nas traduções dos estudos acadêmicos a respeito dos celtas no Brasil. Uma pesquisa de grande importância juntamente com as suas outras obras que, ainda carecem de tradução e, apesar de já contarem com mais de um século de existência ainda são fundamentais.
Luciana de Campos – Doutoranda em Letras/Unesp Docente da FAFI-UV. E-mail: fadacelta@yahoo.com.br
JUBAINVILLE, H. D’arbois de. Os Druidas. Os Deuses Celtas com Formas de Animais. São Paulo: Madras, 2003. Resenha de: CAMPOS, Luciana de. Sacerdotes e divindades Celtas. Brathair – Revista de Estudos Celtas e Germânicos. São Luís, v.4, n.1, p. 96-97, 2004. Acessar publicação original [DR]
Cartas – BURCKHARDT (RIHGB)
BURCKHARDT, Jacob. Cartas. Rio de Janeiro: Liberty Friend. Top Books, 2003. 431p. Resenha de: RODRIGUES, Lêda Boechat. Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, v.165, n.422, p.261-263, jan./mar., 2004.
Lêda Boechat Rodrigues – Sócia emérita do IHGB.
Acesso apenas pelo link original
[IF]
The history of lessons: power and rule in imperial formations – SAADA (RIHGB)
SAADA, Emanuelle. “The history of lessons: power and rule in imperial formations”. Items & Issues. New York. Social Science Council. V.4, n.4, Fall/Winter, 2003/2004. Resenha de: BOCHAT, Lêda Rodrigues. Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, v.165, n.422, p.265-266, jan./mar., 2004.
Lêda Boechat Rodrigues – Sócia emérita do IHGB.
[IF]Nine worlds of Seid-Magic: ecstasy and neo-shamanism in North European paganism | Jenny Blain
Em 1854 um dos primeiros estudos acadêmicos sobre religião nórdica foi publicado. Realizado pelo historiador norueguês Rudolph Keyser, o livro The religion of northmen concedia muito pouco espaço para a prática mágica do Seiðr, estrategicamente discutida num capítulo intitulado “feitiçaria”. Segundo este pesquisador, o Seiðr teria um caráter secreto e muito misterioso (KEYSER, 1854). Mesmo a tradução exata da palavra sempre foi muito debatida. Em 1935 D. Strömbäck publicou um estudo clássico sobre o tema, Sejd: Textstudier I nordisk religionhistoria, o primeiro a propor a conexão entre práticas xamanistas lapônico-finlandesas e os cultos Vikings (1), retomada parcialmente por Eliade em 1951 (Le chamanisme) e plenamente por Thomas DuBois em 1999 (Nordic religions in the Viking Age).
Dentro do contexto desse debate, a antropóloga norte-americana Jenny Blain apresenta sua mais recente contribuição: o livro Nine worlds of Seid-Magic. A principal proposta da autora não é realizar um estudo historiográfico ou literário, mas sim entender o desenvolvimento do Seiðr dentro da sociedade moderna, seus valores e sua relação com a prática original da Idade Média. Para entender essa conexão, ela utiliza a metodologia dos estudos de gênero, principalmente as teorias de J. Butler; análise de fontes literárias do século 12 à 14 e observação participante de vários meses com praticantes de neo-xamanismo europeu e indígenas da América do Norte.
Afinal, o que é Seiðr? Para Boyer (1981, p. 144) a palavra significaria tanto “canto” como “união”, ao contrário da maioria das traduções, que entendem a mesma como “feitiçaria” (WARD, 2001). Por sua vez, Jenny Blain prefere utilizar vários conceitos ao longo do livro, testando todos conforme o contexto analítico. O que todos concordam é que o Seiðr teria sido uma prática mágica realizada essencialmente por mulheres (seiðkonas) durante a Era Viking, algumas vezes utilizando cantos, outras vezes utilizando técnicas de adivinhação.
Os primeiros quatro capítulos do livro são dedicados a contextualizar as práticas do Seiðr moderno, questões conceituais e introdutórias, além de descrições de narrativas xamanísticas. É a partir do capítulo 4 (Approaching the spirits), que a obra se torna mais interessante aos estudos historiográficos. Blain retoma o conceito de Mircea Eliade para explicar o fenômeno do xamanismo, isso é, seria toda técnica de êxtase para alcançar experiências em outro mundo. Logo de início a autora tem uma constatação muito interessante: não há nas sagas elementos primordiais ao xamanismo – a supremacia de homens nos cultos, a ocorrência de tambores ritualísticos e a existência do xamanismo como um prática central na comunidade (toda ela aceitando o ritual). Sabemos que no Seiðr Viking as mulheres eram preponderantes, mas era a religião sob a forma de sacerdotes masculinos que prevalecia socialmente (com variações de culto). As seiðkonas eram marginalizadas ou mesmo estrangeiras atuando momentaneamente nas comunidades. E tambores nunca foram encontrados pela arqueologia e são mencionados raramente nas fontes.
A questão social do Seiðr é fundamental para Blain: quando as relações com as praticantes são negativas na comunidade, elas eram denominadas de fordæða (ou mesmo seiðkonas), mas ao contrário, quando estas relações eram positivas, elas eram chamadas de spákona. Outra técnica mágica conhecida na Era Viking, o Spá (profetizar), várias vezes confunde-se nas fontes com o Seiðr. Muitas das situações positivas das mulheres que realizavam magia registradas pelas sagas, refere-se ao papel profético ou de cantos mágicos realizados para benefício de alguns membros ou de toda a comunidade envolvida. Sempre associados com algum caráter de fertilidade e prosperidade. Como na situação em que uma mulher é chamada para resolver o problema da fome de um vilarejo (por meio de cantos obteve peixes…), ou na Groelândia, quando uma spákona foi solicitada para predizer o progresso da comunidade, algo que ela fez por meio da invocação de espíritos (varðlokur).
A situação mais complexa para análise são os momentos em que a magia feminina foi considerada maléfica, não importando a classe social da praticante. O caso mais famoso é a rainha Gunnhildr da Noruega, uma seiðkona, acusada de feitiçaria e atos malévolos. Para Blain, essa rainha encarnaria o protótipo do mal e da mulher vingadora no mundo nórdico, manifestado pela misoginia das fontes. Gunnhildr foi inimiga do célebre Viking Egil Sakalla-Grímsson.
O capítulo 7 (Ergi seiðmen, queer transformations?) analisa a polêmica relação entre homens e a magia Seiðr. A maior parte das fontes tratou os praticantes masculinos como Ergi, passivos sexuais ou efeminados. O problema é que nos dias atuais existem muitos homens que se envolvem com esse tipo de ritual nórdico e contestam esta visão (2). As fontes que tratam dessa circunstância são de dois tipos: as que se referem aos deuses e as que citam situações históricas. No primeiro tipo, temos as famosas passagens do Lokasenna 23, 24 e Ynglingasaga 7, onde o deus Óðinn foi acusado de ser Ergi, justamente por ter se envolvido com o Seiðr. Lembramos que esse tipo de magia era associada aos deuses Vanires, especialmente à deusa Freyja e existem registros de cultos ligados a sacerdotes efeminados (3).
No contexto histórico, existem dois episódios muito populares. Rögnvald, filho do rei norueguês Haraldr Finehair, com mais 80 homens acusados de praticar Seiðr, foram queimados – um ato totalmente aprovado pela comunidade (Haralds saga hárfagra 36). Outro rei, Óláfr Tryggvason, também mandou executar 80 seiðmaðrs (BLAIN, 2002: 112). Para analisar esses e outros episódios violentos, Blain recorre à teoria do chamado “terceiro gênero”, homens que encarnariam papéis tanto masculinos quanto femininos na sociedade nórdica. A principal sustentação para esse ponto de vista pela autora, é uma passagem do poema Hyndluljóð 32, que cita os três principais tipos de praticantes de magia nórdica: völvas (videntes, outro termo para spákonas e seiðkonas), vitkis (homens que praticavam a magia rúnica, Galldr, também chamados de galdramaður) e Seiðberender. Neste último, teríamos um exemplo de terceiro gênero – homens efeminados com papéis as vezes tolerados, as vezes reprimidos pela sociedade escandinava. Baseada na teórica inglesa J. Butler, a autora realiza uma interessante discussão sobre gênero, que não reside apenas no sexo biológico e nem confinado na oposição binária dos papéis coletivos, mas sim numa noção de performance: a atividade dos homens efeminados na comunidade e os limites de sua transgressão nas fronteiras fixas dos códigos e leis sociais sobre comportamento sexual.
Ainda nesse mesmo capítulo, influenciada pelas novas perspectivas da antropologia (como a obra de A. Salmond), Blain trabalha o conceito de religião como algo sempre mutável nas sociedades, recebendo influências externas, ao mesmo tempo que se modifica internamente no decorrer da História. O momento mais interessante é a discussão dos termos Ergi e Nið, dentro do contexto das fontes. Deixando sempre claro o uso dessas palavras como insultos, e seguindo reflexões do historiador sueco Meulengracht Sørensen, a autora envereda para o conceito de Nið com conotações políticas e sociais. Ela consegue vislumbrar (p. 131), que a acusação de Óðinn por Loki e os conflitos históricos mencionados, não se baseavam apenas nas categorias de gênero, mas faziam parte de uma oposição interna entre “os guerreiros de Óðinn” e os “praticantes de Seiðr”. E é justamente nesse instante que percebemos a maior deficiência do livro: poderia ter analisado muito mais a fundo essa perspectiva. Talvez se tivesse consultado o clássico Du mythe au roman, 1970, de Georges Dumézil, a autora teria elementos analíticos muito mais eficientes. Em um trecho rápido, mas extremamente denso, o famoso mitólogo explora o insulto a Óðinn e a queima histórica dos seiðmaðrs como reflexo de uma rivalidade religiosa interna ao mundo Viking, uma “magia nobre” – identificada ao deus caolho, e outra “menos nobre ou baixa”, vinculada à deusa Freyja e aos vanires (DUMÉZIL, 1992: 79-96).
Em nosso ponto de vista, o que estava em jogo na antiga sociedade escandinava não eram apenas relações de gênero e padrões de comportamento sexual, mas tensões entre diferentes formas de culto (4). A elite (Jarls), maiores cultuadores de Óðinn – onde presenciamos os casos de execução pública de homens praticantes de Seiðr; e ao contrário, as menções às mulheres do Seiðr nas fontes, nem sempre bem vistas, mas quase sempre necessárias nas comunidades de fazendeiros (bóndis) – justamente, a classe dos Karls, a exemplo do caso mencionado dos fazendeiros da Groelândia. Existiria um conflito direto entre formas religiosas públicas da elite (dominadas pelo referencial masculino/odinista) e a magia privada dominada por mulheres (cultuadoras de vanires)? Enquanto que nas comunidades de fazendeiros essas tensões seriam suplantadas pelas necessidades cotidianas, atendidas pelo Seiðr? E a misoginia das fontes é apenas influência do período cristão ou reflexo direto do pensamento Viking?
Essa é a perspectiva que acreditamos que sejam necessárias novas investigações, um caminho multi-disciplinar: o estudo entre as variações das formas de cultos + classes sociais + gênero + sexualidade, que geraram tanto as tensões sociais quanto os referenciais sobre homem e mulher na Era Viking. E também novos estudos linguísticos e historiográficos para entender com mais profundidade as noções de Seiðr, Nið e Ergi nas sociedades escandinavas cristãs dos séculos 12 a 14 (a época em que foram redigidas as fontes).
Sem ter a densidade analítica de autores acadêmicos como Boyer (1981), Davidson (1993) e DuBois (1999), o livro de Jenny Blain ainda assim será uma referência muito importante para todos aqueles que querem entender melhor o papel da magia e da religião no mundo nórdico medieval.
Agradecimentos: à historiadora Luciana de Campos, pelas informações sobre teoria de gênero e história das mulheres.
Notas
1. Infelizmente esse livro de D. Strömbäck permanece inédito em inglês, francês e espanhol.
2. Um exemplo é o artigo esotérico de Ed Richardson, Seiðr Magic, publicado na internet. Segundo esse autor, os rituais dos guerreiros Berserkers e Ulfhednar utilizariam a magia Seiðr. Mas isso não é corroborado por nenhuma fonte literáriohistórica nem referencial bibliográfico acadêmico. Na realidade, Richardson utilizou outros autores esotéricos (como Jan Fries e Nigel Pennick) para referenciar essa informação. Como os Berserkers são identificados com elementos extremamente viris dentro da cultura Viking, não seria uma forma de alguns neo-paganistas tentarem legitimar a prática do Seiðr para homens em nossos dias? Esse artigo também possui outros erros: o uso do Seiðr para guerras e batalhas; a descrição dos deuses Vanires como sendo um antigo povo escandinavo (algo nunca confirmado pela arqueologia ou historiografia). Os melhores e mais documentados textos na Web sobre Seiðr são os de Paxson (1997), Blain & Wallis (2000), Berlet (2000) e Ward (2001). Segundo o excelente estudo de Berlet (2000), homens viris na Era Viking seriam adeptos da prática do Galldr (magia rúnica, a exemplo do herói Sigurðr da Völsunga Saga e do poetaguerreiro Egil Sakalla-Grímsson, este último filho de um Berserker).
3. Saxo Grammaticus (Gesta Danorum VI, v, 10), cita que o herói varonil Starkatherus ficou horrorizado quando presenciou cultos para o deus Freyr realizados na Suécia Viking: os homens realizariam danças efeminadas (effeminatos corporum motus) e teriam “trejeitos mimosos” (DUMÉZIL, 1992: 140). Os Lapões realizavam cultos onde os homens se travestiam de mulheres (idem, p. 141). Tácito citou a tribo germânica dos Naharvalos, onde existia um sacerdote que presidia os cultos vestidos de mulher (Germânia 44). Segundo Heródoto (História), entre os Citas ocorria uma casta de sacerdotes efeminados chamados de Enarees (homem-mulher). O antropólogo Timothy Taylor cita vários casos de sacerdotes xamanistas que mutilavam ritualísticamente a região genital, na Europa, Ásia e Índia. O mesmo pesquisador apresenta uma análise de certas figuras do caldeirão de Gundestrup (originário da Dinamarca do século II a.C.), apresentando androginia ritualística, onde as figuras andróginas portam espadas, com pelos nos ombros e seios (TAYLOR, 1997: 203-211). Mircea Eliade menciona sacerdotes xamanistas que se vestem de mulheres entre os tchuktche asiáticos, esquimós, índios da América do Sul e Norte (berdaches: homens-mulheres). A explicação do mitólogo para esse fenômeno universal é clássica: “A transformação simbólica e ritual explica-se provavelmente por uma ideologia derivada do matriarcado arcaico”. (ELIADE, 1998: 286). A respeito do homossexualismo na cultura Viking, o trabalho mais documentado é o da historiadora Christie Ward (2002).
4. Em seu excelente artigo Galldr and Seiðr, Robert Berlet apresenta uma perspectiva muito próxima de nossas problemáticas. Para ele, existiria a prática do Seiðr – dominada por mulheres e com técnicas muitas vezes agressivas/malévolas, quebrando as convenções sociais; e a magia rúnica (Galldr) – totalmente dominado por homens viris, especialmente voltada para proteção e com caráter nobre. Odinistas míticos (Sigurðr) e históricos (Egil Skallagrimssom) foram treinados nessa última arte mágica. Assim, para Berlet, Seiðr e Galldr seriam essencialmente diferentes em seus resultados (Berlet 2000).
Referências
BLAIN, Jenny & WALLIS, Robert. Seiðr, Gender and Transformation, 2000. http://www.thetroth.org/resources/jenny/nfldpaper.html
BERLET, Robert. Galldr and Seiðr: Two Sides of the Same Coin. Gender & Identity in Viking Magic, 2000. http://www.publiceye.org/racism/Nordic/viking-magic.htm
BOYER, Régis. Yggdrasill: la religion des anciens scandinaves. Paris: Payot, 1981.
DAVIDSON, Hild Roderick Ellis. The lost beliefs of Northern Europe. New York: Paperback, 1993.
DUBOIS, Thomas A. The intercultural dimensions of the Seiðr ritual. In: _____ Nordic religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
DUMÉZIL, Georges. A magia má dos Vanes. In: _____ Do mito ao romance. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1992.
ELIADE, Mircea. Técnicas de êxtase entre os antigos germânicos. In: _____ O xamanismo e as técnicas arcaicas do êxtase. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1998.
KEYSER, Rudolph. Sorcery. In: _____ The religion of the northmen. New York, 1854. http://www.northvegr.org/lore/northmen/016.php
MONTEIRO, Paula. Magia e pensamento mágico. São Paulo: Ática, 1986.
PAXSON, Diana L. Sex, Status and Seidh: homosexuality and Germanic Religion. Idunna n. 31, 1997. http://www.hrafnar.org/seidh/Sex-status-seidh.html
RICHARDSON, Ed. Seiðr Magic, 1998. http://www.phhine.ndirect.co.uk/archives/ess_seidr.hytm
TAYLOR, Timothy. Xamãs travestidos/Sexo tântrico na Dinamarca da Idade do Ferro. In: _____ A pré-história do sexo. Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 1997.
WARD, Christie L. Women and magic in the Sagas, 2001. http://www.vikinganswerlady.com
_____ Homosexuality in the Viking Age, 2002. http://www.vikinganswerlady.com
Johnni Langer – Departamento de História/ UNC. E-mail: Johnnilanger@yahoo.com.br
BLAIN, Jenny. Nine worlds of Seid-Magic: ecstasy and neo-shamanism in North European paganism. London/New York: Routledge, 2002. Resenha de: LANGER, Johnni. Poder feminino, poder mágico. Brathair – Revista de Estudos Celtas e Germânicos. São Luís, v.4, n.1, p. 98-102, 2004. Acessar publicação original [DR]
Territoires Celtiques – Espaces ethniques des agglomérations protohistoriques d’Europe occidentale | D. Garcia e F. Verdin
Desde a década de 70, a partir das transformações na geografia, do diálogo com a história e a antropologia, bem como do surgimento de novas formas e técnicas de análise com o uso de SGI (Sistema Geográfico de Informação), o estudo do espaço e da paisagem despontou como área de interesse para a arqueologia. Encontrando fértil terreno, sobretudo nos países de língua anglo-saxã, veio ele a se consolidar nos anos 90 como área de debate e especialização sob a forma de ‘arqueologia da paisagem’. Tendo por base a relação homem-ambiente, o estudo das formas de apropriação da paisagem tem contribuído largamente para o desenvolvimento da análise das sociedades ditas “pré-históricas”, apontando novas perspectivas para a compreensão da dinâmica dos assentamentos e das práticas sociais e religiosas de tais populações.
O livro ‘Territoires celtiques. Espaces ethniques et territoires des agglomérations protohistoriques d’Europe occidentale’, organizado por Dominique Garcia e Florence Verdin, vem no bojo dessa transformação reunir pela primeira vez especialistas que não de língua inglesa para discutir a questão da interação humana com o ambiente e o espaço sob a forma de ordenação do território e, portanto, da paisagem nas sociedades pré-históricas da Europa ocidental. Consiste esta obra, em verdade, no resultado do ‘XXIV e colloque international de l’AFEAF. Martigues, 1-4 juin 2000’, onde ‘territórios dos assentamentos e dos povos proto-históricos da Europa ocidental’ constituiu o tema geral de debate com apresentação de vinte e dois artigos em contraposição a oito trabalhos em torno do tema regional ‘territórios étnicos e territórios cívicos no sudeste da Gália: permanência e mutação (sécs. II a.C. – II d.C.)’. Reúne ele, pois, especialistas franceses, espanhóis, suíços, alemães e belgas a tratar do estado atual da pesquisa arqueológica acerca da construção do território em diversas regiões da Europa ocidental a partir de diferentes metodologias de análise e teorias interpretativas.
Abrindo o volume, Philippe Leveau apresenta um balanço das linhas de estudo e abordagem do território, traçando a trajetória do termo e, tendo por base o contraponto com as sociedades greco-romanas, suas implicações políticas, étnicas ou cívicas. Porém, ao contrário do que se poderia supor, não está ele a propor a definição de fronteiras políticas estáveis de Estados tradicionais na Antigüidade, mas sim compreender a dinâmica dos territórios, apontando diferentes formas de uso do espaço e da paisagem. Conforme aponta o autor, mais do que um debate, apresenta-se aos pesquisadores o desenvolvimento do conhecimento arqueológico não só dos assentamentos, mas, sobretudo, da zona rural, que só recentemente, ainda que de forma restrita, começou a ser explorada.
Em verdade, esta obra procura pontuar os avanços do conhecimento e da prática arqueológica para a compreensão dos sítios e artefatos em relação aos locais onde foram encontrados. Assim é que a maior parte dos artigos concentra-se em estudos de caso ou estudos regionais, analisando a construção e a dinâmica territorial em regiões da Península Ibérica, França, Suíça, Alemanha e Bélgica, abrangendo desde o período do Bronze final até o período romano. Fazendo uso de diferentes métodos de análise – desde os polígonos de Thiessen até SGI, procuram os autores contribuir com estudos que combinam as mais diversas formas de documentos (assentamentos, enterramentos, cerâmica, numismática, epigrafia, depósitos votivos, santuários, textos clássicos e toponímia), dando uma noção de conjunto e complementaridade dos sítios e achados.
No entanto, não se pode dizer que haja um caráter uníssono nas contribuições (neste sentido, muito se lamenta a ausência das discussões na publicação). Por exemplo, os trabalhos de R. Plana Mallart e A. M. Ortega, de J. Sanmartí, e de C. Belarte e J. Noguera abordam a questão do território de sítios ibéricos segundo uma abordagem de cunho mais tradicional, que supõe a estruturação deste a partir da criação de lugares centrais (segundo a teoria de Christaller) que dominam vastas regiões (modelo/método dos polígonos de Thiessen), controlando vias de comunicação, a produção e toda uma hierarquia de assentamentos.
Dentre os numerosos artigos acerca das sociedades gaulesas, há igualmente uma predominância desta sorte de interpretação. Patrice Brun, em sua análise do território dos Suessiones, também emprega o método dos polígonos de Thiessen e o modelo de lugares centrais a fim de identificar a dinâmica do território dos Suessiones durante os séculos II e I a.C. Entende ele que os oppida constituiriam o centro de estruturação do território, constituindo um “… nó de redes econômicas, políticas, ideológicas que asseguram a coesão territorial” (p.313).
De forma um tanto diferente, Dominique Garcia faz um balanço das transformações do território no sul da Gália desde o Bronze final até fins da Idade do Ferro, traçando uma evolução do território, inicialmente ‘… pouco hierarquizado (…), descontínuo e temporário’ (p.91), sendo depois, durante a primeira Idade do Ferro, transformado em vastos territórios étnicos que sofreram profundas mudanças com a fundação de Massalía. Para a autora, o interesse massaliota no controle tanto da costa quanto da rota rodaniana altera a ordenação do território das populações indígenas da Gália meridional, ocasionando a criação de assentamentos ao longo dos rios e instigando, no seu entender, uma “urbanização” (pp.95-96). Em verdade, defende ela que tal fenômeno se deveria “… a uma evolução da organização social das populações indígenas (…), bem como da participação dos gauleses do sul na rede comercial mediterrânea” (p.100).
Já autores como Büchsenschütz, através do caso dos Bituriges, e Gruat e IzacImbert, com a análise do território dos Rutênios, procuram fazer uso de novos recursos e vertentes, aproximando-se da produção de linha anglo-saxã. Todavia, mesmo esses trabalhos não se desvencilham totalmente do modelo de lugares centrais a dominar e estruturar o território. Isso se deve em parte a uma limitação da documentação arqueológica, e parte ao uso de uma hierarquização tipológica das formas de assentamento.
Uma interessante contribuição para questionar os modelos generalizantes, em particular o monolitismo dos ‘lugares centrais’, é apresentada no artigo de P. Jud e G. Kaenel. Trabalhando com o caso das populações do Platô Suíço e sul do Reno na segunda Idade do Ferro ao início do império romano, eles demonstram a existência de três formas de ordenação do território, duas delas em regiões atribuídas aos Helvetes – na parte ocidental do Platô Suíço uma ocupação mais complexa, fortemente estruturada por meio da criação de pontes e rotas, santuários e numerosos oppida, enquanto no leste do Platô Suíço, ao contrário, não se verifica tão forte organização do território. Por outro lado, na região sul do Reno, atribuída aos Rauraci, revela-se uma ordenação do território com habitats fortificados localizados na periferia do território, assegurando suas fronteiras e o controle de vias de passagem essenciais para o eixo renaniano (p.304).
Vale, aqui, igualmente contrapor dois trabalhos que enfocam a relação entre território e enterramentos. Thierry Janin empreende uma análise das necrópoles e do espaço geográfico no Languedoc ocidental na primeira Idade do Ferro segundo uma ‘economia de bens de prestígio’, onde o processo de hierarquização promove a criação de centros ‘proto-urbanos’, que, por sua vez, vêm a estruturar o território dessas populações. Por outro lado, Laurent Olivier, Bruno Wirtz e Bertrand Triboulot, ao analisar os ‘Conjuntos funerários e territórios do domínio hallstattiano ocidental’, questionam as formas de análise espacial tradicionalmente empregadas na arqueologia, propondo, em seu lugar, o uso do conceito de informação espacial, obtido a partir do cálculo da combinação de atributos dos contextos funerários em estudo. Este método, que vai além dos métodos estatísticos geralmente empregados, permite traçar a posição e extensão dos grupos culturais e a agregação de suas necrópoles. Donde por meio de uma análise espacial aprofundada, propõem eles um estudo da distribuição e projeção territorial das populações da Idade do Ferro na Europa centro-ocidental.
Fechando a obra, Alain Daubigney articula um balanço das interpretações teóricas acerca da organização territorial e política aplicadas ao estudo do Bronze final e início da Idade do Ferro (até Hallstatt C) na França e na Europa ocidental, demonstrando a existência de elites locais emergentes controlando os territórios tribais.
Em verdade, evidencia-se, nesta obra, o conflito de paradigmas que hoje marca o estudo das sociedades “pré-históricas” européias. De um lado, as tradicionais abordagens estruturalistas, os modelos e métodos homogeneizantes amplamente empregados pela arqueologia processual, que mascaram as singularidades locais. De outro, temos as abordagens pós-processuais, chamando nossa atenção para estudos não generalizantes e uso de métodos que nos permitam analisar essas sociedades de forma mais aprofundada, enveredando pela dinâmica local.
Aqui, esse embate aparece de forma um tanto restrita, pois que a grande maioria dos autores se encontra parte ainda fortemente presa aos grandes modelos explicativos, e parte seduzida pelas possibilidades abertas por novas tecnologias e meios de análise da documentação. Trata-se, portanto, de um debate em aberto, e nem por isso menos fascinante.
Adriene Baron Tacla – Doutoranda em arqueologia Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. E-mail: adriene_tacla@yahoo.co.uk
GARCIA, D.; VERDIN, F. (eds.) Territoires Celtiques – Espaces ethniques des agglomérations protohistoriques d’Europe occidentale. Paris: Editions Errance, 2002. Resenha de: TACLA, Adriene Baron. Territórios celtas. Um debate acerca da relação entre paisagem, poder e religião. Brathair – Revista de Estudos Celtas e Germânicos. São Luís, v.4, n.1, p. 103-105, 2004. Acessar publicação original [DR]
Talking About Identity: Encounters in Race, Ethnicity, and Language – JAMES; SHADD (CSS)
JAMES, Carl E.; SHADD, Adrienne. Editors. Talking About Identity: Encounters in Race, Ethnicity, and Language. 2nd Edition. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2001. 323p. Resenha de: HORTON, Todd. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.2, p., 2005.
As editors of a narrative anthology, James and Shadd have compiled a compelling series of stories exploring the complex perspectives of Canada’s racial, ethnic and linguistic minorities. Quotations are used to indicate that the term minorities can be considered by some to be marginalizing to the extent that it positions entire groups of people outside the mainstream majority, perpetuating their Otherness. However, as James states in the introduction, the term also indicate[s] the power relationships in our society: ‘majority’ represents not simply numbers, but the cultural group with political and economic power, as compared to the ‘minority,’ which does not have access to that power (p. 7). Using the work of Stuart Hall, James notes that in talking about ‘identity’ they view this core concept as a ‘production,’ which is never complete, always in process and always constituted within, not outside representation (p. 2). In this vein, James and Shadd have successfully created a book that makes explicit the complex ways personal exchanges and interactions influence and inform understandings of race, ethnic and language identities. It does this by focusing on the vicissitudes of people’s daily encounters and, with each powerfully written story, the reader comes to appreciate the contingent, contextual and relational nature of identities.
The stories are clustered into five themed parts: Who’s Canadian Anyway?; Growing Up Different; Roots to Identity, Routes to Knowing; Race, Privilege, and Challenges; and, Confronting Stereotypes and Racism. Each part provides a space for the contributing authors to voice their individual experiences and interpretations of living in a world that defines people by their race, ethnicity and language.
In a selection from Part I entitled Where Are You Really From?: Notes of an ‘Immigrant’ from North Buxton, Ontario co-editor turned author Adrienne Shadd deftly weaves a story of invisibility and marginalization based on the title question. Shadd illustrates how the four hundred year history of Blacks in Canada has been made invisible in both this country and throughout the world leading to the widespread belief that there is no such thing as a Black Canadian save for recently arrived immigrants. She also draws on her experiences growing up in North Buxton, Ontario a rural Black community near Chatham once famous as a settlement of ex-slaves who escaped from the United States on the Underground Railroad to explore her views on the overlap of caste and class in the public consciousness and the affirmation that can come from education in segregated schools. However, the crux of the story is found in the complexity of daily encounters when varying forms of the question where are you really from are asked. Shadd explains how displays of frustration and annoyance to her answer of Canada and the pursuit of an answer that more satisfies the inquisitor’s conception of a Canadian marginalizes her in her own country. As Shadd explains, you are unintentionally denying me what is rightfully mine my birthright, my heritage and my long-standing place in the Canadian mosaic (p. 15). Still, Shadd is not content to tie up the point in a neat little package. Instead, she ends with an encounter that blows open the discussion again as a Guatemalan Canadian tells her that except for the Native people, the rest of us are just immigrants anyway (p. 16).
While the stories in Part I focus on issues of Canadian-ness, the stories in Part II explore the experiences of growing up, that precarious time when being seen as different or viewing oneself as different can be most traumatic. Stan Isoki, a teacher living in Ontario, relates his encounters with race in a story entitled Present Company Excluded, Of CourseRevisited. Here, Isoki takes the unusual step of updating his first edition manuscript by interjecting more recent commentary and reflection. The effect for the reader is the feeling of a dialogue between who and what the author was and who and what they have become. Isoki, a Canadian of Japanese heritage, shares his feelings of being made to feel both visible and invisible, saving his most potent criticism for several teachers who taught him as a boy and those with whom he worked as a colleague. The criticism is not vitriolic or vituperative, though he has every right to heap mountains of scorn on these individuals given their charge of educating young minds. Instead, Isoki’s critique is a cry for awareness and sensitivity on the part of teachers (and governments) as well as a call to action to re-create a vision of Canada that is truly multicultural.
One of the most insightful stories appears in Part III. Written by Howard Ramos and entitled It Was Always There: Looking for Identity in All the (Not) So Obvious Places, a road side encounter in northeastern New Brunswick is the catalyst for an exploration of the author’s feelings about his father’s identification with Canada and lack of connection to his native Ecuador. This also leads to a period of self-reflection about the ways the author has positioned his father as not quite Canadian and himself as having little or no relationship to his Ecuadorian heritage. Drawing on the work of Ernest Renan and Benedict Anderson, Ramos comes to understand that identity, like nation-building, is a process of forgetting, misinterpreting and re-creating symbols and markers (p. 108). His father, in an effort to become Canadian, forgot his past while subtly sharing that past, that part of who he is, with his son. Ramos, in turn had to acknowledge his misinterpretation of what it means to be Canadian and the boundaries he has created that prevent his father from being who he wishes to be. He also had to recognize his connection to his Ecuadorian heritage as something that was always there, waiting to be embraced in the fullest sense of Canada’s yet to be achieved society based on multiculturalism and acceptance of diversity.
One of the most compelling contributions to the book occurs in Part V. Entitled I Didn’t Know You Were Jewishand Other Things Not To Say When You Find Out, Ivan Kalmar’s piece initially caused me a great deal of discomfort which, I believe, was his intent. Written in a quasi-advice column style, Kalmar refers to the reader as you fostering the feeling of being spoken and occasionally lectured to directly. My feelings of consternation stemmed from indignation at his assumption that I, an educated person, would ever be culturally insensitive. This is mixed with feelings of guilt as I secretly admit to myself that I may indeed have said things or acted in just the ways he describes. Once passed what at times felt like an assault on my enlightened self, I read and re-read his reasoning for offering such advice. In each case, Kalmar thoughtfully demonstrates the challenge of being culturally sensitive, noting that what is often intended as a compliment or search for common conversational ground can also be interpreted as intolerant and insulting. This duality can be frustrating, but just as you feel like you will never be able to get it right or that no matter what you do someone will take offense, Kalmar acknowledges that most people have purity of intent and exhorts that he simply wishes to encourage consideration of his points and reconsideration of our words and actions. The coda to the piece emphasizes a generosity of spirit toward people as they struggle to live in a world characterized by multiple perspectives on identity, saying that even if we occasionally slip up, not to worry as we mean well. As he says, I’m not only a Jew. I am a human being, like you (p. 240).
James and Shadd’s book was written as an effort to make explicit how identities related to race, ethnicity and language influence and inform individuals’ life experiences and relationships (p. 2) and in this regard it succeeds brilliantly. Highly readable, the book is applicable to any university course wishing to delve into the complex world of identities. While not written for secondary school, portions of this book could be used by teachers to introduce a concept, encourage discussion or address a relevant issue. Indeed, there are few more effective entry points into discussions of race, ethnicity and language than the daily encounter.
Todd Horton – Faculty of Education. Nipissing University. North Bay, Ontario.
[IF]The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions – REDDY (CSS)
REDDY, William M. The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 380p. Resenha de: LEE-SINDEN, Jane. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.2, p., 2005.
The Navigation of Feeling is a valuable contribution to emotion literature. There are few books that provide a significant examination of relevant and recent research on emotion. The first two chapters are devoted to a critical review of the research including a conceptual analysis from the lenses of cognitive psychology and anthropology. A comparison of emotion theories is presented to gauge both the extent of convergence that is going on in these two fields, as well as the extent of conceptual blockage that has developed as new research findings have come up (p. xiii). Further, there is an extensive list of sources at the end of the book that will prove useful to students studying emotion research.
The book is divided into Parts I and II with a total of eight chapters. In chapter one, the author addresses ongoing debates regarding emotions, such as whether or not emotional experiences are solely biologically based and thus universal. For instance, Reddy explains that efforts to uncover the hidden order among emotion words in various languages have yielded very different results because it is difficult to know how to distinguish one emotion term from another in a given language; there is no yardstick for emotion terms (p. 5). Moreover, Western specialists who study emotion cannot agree on what the term emotion means. Reddy pulls from the work of Isen and Diamond to explain their views on how emotions operate like overlearned cognitive habits that may be learned, altered, or unlearned by conscious decision. It is suggested that emotions are involuntary in the short run in the same sense that such cognitive habits are, but may similarly be learned and unlearned over a longer time frame.
In chapter two the debate continues with a view from anthropology. Among anthropologists, there is a prevalent tendency to regard emotions as culturally constructed. This idea has led to recent persuasive ethnographic accounts of worldwide emotional variation, providing grounds for a political critique of the Western thought that identifies emotions as biological and feminine. Further, Reddy pulls from psychological research that supports the constructionist approach to emotions as deeply influenced by social interaction (p. 34), which supports that idea that emotions may be learned and no different from other cognitive contents.
In chapter three the author attempts to bridge the gap between anthropology and psychology by examining emotional expression as a type of speech act. Reddy considers emotional expressions as utterances aimed at briefly characterizing the current state of activated thought material that exceeds the current capacity of attention. Such expression, by analogy with speech acts, can be said to have descriptive appearance (p. 100), rational intent (p. 100), and self exploring and self-altering effects (p. 101). He also describes forms of expressions, such as: first person past tense emotions, first person long term emotion claims, emotional expressive gestures, facial expressions, word choices, and intonations, other claims about states of the speaker, and second and third person emotion claims, all of which he characterizes as emotives (p. 103).
In chapter four Reddy explains how the theory presented in chapter three offers a new way of understanding what he calls emotional regimes and their relation to emotional experience and liberty (p. 113). Chapters five through eight are devoted to historical examination, concluding with an attempt at pulling together historical significance for our understanding of present emotion research.
I found significant value in the chapters discussing present views of thought on emotions. Reddy’s comparison of emotional expression to a speech act and the idea of emotives are insightful additions to the understanding of emotion. I found the later chapters less useful. As a doctoral student new to the field of emotion, chapters five through eight are mundane and heavy historically. In addition, although I finished the book with a better understanding regarding the present and past theories of emotion, the conclusion left me in a similar place where I started, namely that western specialists who study emotion cannot even agree on what the term emotion means (p. 3). Nevertheless, the book provides a thorough and well-packaged examination of emotion.
The Navigation of Feeling would be useful to those who have previous understanding or background for the purpose of studying emotion or who wish to ponder on new ideas. In relation to students, this book is a good compliment to Jenkins and Oakley’s (1996) Understanding Emotion and Boler’s (1999) Feeling Power. Jenkins and Oakley’s conceptual analysis of emotion touches on many of the ideas that Reddy addresses, however Understanding Emotion, which looks at emotion from a sociological perspective, is presented with consideration to students who have no previous experience with emotion literature.
References
Boler, M. (1999). Feeling power: Emotions and education. New York: Routledge.
Oatley, K. Jenkin, J.M. (1996). Understanding emotion. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Science.
Jane Lee-Sinden – Faculty of Education. University of Western Ontario. London, Ontario.
[IF]
Making Connections: Canada’s Geography – CLARK; WALLACE (CSS)
CLARK, Bruce W.; WALLACE, John K. Making Connections: Canada’s Geography. Prentice Hall: Toronto, Ontario, 1999. 506p. Resenha de: ROBERTSON, Virginia. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.2, p., 2005.
The sheer size and diversity found within this country make writing a national geography a formidable task. However, Clark and Wallace have done an admirable job of producing such a volume. Making Connections: Canada’s Geography is successful in its aim of leading students to discover our country’s geography. It provides a comprehensive study of Canada’s complex and interrelated geographic elements. The main theme is making connections and this is what students who use this book will do. The reader is encouraged to take responsibility for her/his learning and to make connections between elements of the physical environment, between the human environment and the physical environment, and between elements of the human environment. The book is rich in content and skills and offers students a wide range of knowledge and techniques to effectively understand the geography of Canada and the role it plays in the global community.
Designed primarily for grade nine students and to fulfill the requirements of the Ontario curriculum for Canadian Geography, the authors compiled a very practical and user-friendly textbook. Although there is an emphasis on the geography of Ontario, this textbook is an appropriate and effective tool to learn the country’s geography and to develop geographical skills, regardless of what province or country one inhabits. From beginning to end, this book invites and challenges students to think. Not only is the book visually appealing but it treats the inquiring students as young adults who possess intelligence and sophistication in their learning. At the beginning of the book there is an introduction which provides a clear statement of the knowledge and skills that will be acquired, followed by a section which explains how to effectively use the textbook to achieve this goal. The central core is structured into seven major units, each representing a significant theme. There are a total of thirty-six chapters, unevenly distributed among the units; the number varies according to the extent and complexity of the concepts being presented. The final section of the volume contains a valuable glossary that provides excellent definitions for all the bold face terms presented in the text.
The main body of the book is organized around seven units; one unit is devoted exclusively to geographical skill development while the other six provide content and learning activities pertaining to geographical topics that are both familiar and engaging to the adolescent mind. Although there are a varying number of chapters per unit, each chapter is structured somewhat the same. Each begins by presenting the concepts and learning expectations and lists the key terms that are integrated into that particular chapter. To clarify and establish the connections between the different geographical realms, some chapters provide case studies which serve to illuminate these interrelationships.
Throughout the text there is a wide range of learning opportunities presented by the variety of exercises and activities aimed at the whole spectrum of learning styles and intellectual abilities. These assignments help the students better understand and review the facts, concepts and connections while developing critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills. There is ample opportunity to develop such geography-specific skills as cartography, statistical analysis and graphing techniques. Suggestions of ways and means of developing technological skills are another important aspect of each chapter. GIS activities and Internet addresses are provided and the use of computers to research relevant topics and to produce graphic and written responses to challenging and complex questions is encouraged.
This book moves logically and smoothly from one unit to another while demonstrating the interconnectedness between them. The students are drawn into the learning process from the first unit which introduces them to significant and unique facts regarding our country. Students are encouraged to discover Canada’s position physically, economically, politically and demographically in the world. Using graphics, statistics and surveys Canada is compared to various other countries, thus providing an opportunity to examine Canada from many different angles and perspectives. The second unit is aimed specifically at exploring and developing essential skills that are required for geographical analysis. This unit is an excellent reference tool for the students as they progress through the book. The third unit focuses on Canada’s physical geography. Geological regions, landform regions, climate regions, vegetation zones and soil zones are portrayed independently with all the interconnecting factors responsible for their formation and they are portrayed collectively by demonstrating the interaction between them. These interrelationships are effectively and clearly explained through the appropriate and clever use of a vast array of graphics. Unit four is primarily concerned with concepts and principles pertaining to Canada’s demographic situation. The changing demographic scene highlights Canada’s multicultural heritage. Dynamism in Canada’s population is further demonstrated via the study of population growth and movement, changing settlement patterns and land uses, and urbanization. The fifth unit emphasizes the diversity and complexity of economic activities in Canada. The students easily discover that Canada’s economy is closely tied to its physical and demographic situations. Categories of industries, industrial location, resource management, transportation and communication are explored in all of their complexity and diversity. The main focus is on the exploration of the connections between the physical environment, demographic patterns and economic development. Unit six examines Canada’s role on the world stage. It shows Canada’s cultural, political, economical and environmental links with the global community and presents the major international organizations with which Canada is involved. Much of the unit focuses on Canada’s relationship with our most important trade partner, the United States. The final unit called Future Connections is largely concerned with the possible challenges that Canada will face in the future and takes a problem solving approach to these concerns. Environmental issues such as global warming, water resources and alternate energy sources are explored. The concept of ecological footprint is demonstrated and the environmental impact that Canadians have on the world is examined.
Making Connections: Canada’s Geography provides the curious adolescent with a high level of geographical study and analysis within the framework of a familiar environment. Although the reluctant and challenged learner may have difficulty with the vocabulary and concepts presented, the average and advanced learner will be stimulated into becoming a more responsible and independent learner. The colorful graphics enhance the learning and appeal to the whole spectrum of intelligences found in the typical grade nine classroom. The book has tremendous potential as a valuable resource or reference book in any senior high school library. Although it is a valuable teaching tool, it does have several weaknesses that prevent it from universal acceptance as a national geography textbook. First, one of its strengths as a resource book becomes a weakness as a textbook. There is such a vast amount of information and a large number of skills and suggested activities presented, that some teachers, and many students, might feel overwhelmed by the size and extent of the textbook. Secondly, the emphasis on Ontario’s geography, and limited reference to other provinces, could pose a problem for geography students outside Ontario. They may not have a familiar point of reference on which to hang new learning. Thirdly, the high reading level and advanced vocabulary would also be a challenge for students who experience language acquisition difficulties or who speak English as a second language. However, an alert and experienced teacher could easily compensate for these inadequacies and adapt the book to any level of learner in today’s multifaceted classroom.
In general, this book offers high school students an intelligent and insightful look at Canada’s geography. Opportunities to apply and develop geographical skills and life skills are found in abundance throughout the text. Although broad in scope, the authors clearly communicate the importance of the interconnectedness between human activity and the natural environment in Canada’s ecozones and highlight Canada’s relationship and unique position in the global community. They encourage students to think, explore and develop their own understandings; this supports the modern socio-constructivist approach to learning. In short, the book prepares students with the skills, knowledge and understandings that are necessary to meet the new realities of the 21st century.
Virginia Robertson – Lower Canada College. Montreal, Quebec.
[IF]Walk Towards the Gallows: The Tragedy of Hilda Blake, Hanged 1899 – KRAMER; MITCHELL (CSS)
KRAMER, Reinhold; MITCHELL, Tom. Walk Towards the Gallows: The Tragedy of Hilda Blake, Hanged 1899. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2002. 318p. Resenha de: SENGER, Elizabeth. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.2, p., 2005.
Walk Towards the Gallows is a tragic story of murder, but much more significantly, it is a commentary on social practices and society of the late 19th century. While the legal facts of this case of murder are presented, even more pertinent personal and social facts are presented about this young woman, Hilda Blake, and how she found herself in a situation where she ended up committing murder.
A question that this book repeatedly raises is Can history every truly be known? While the authors attempt to set a clear context of historical time and place, this work is rife with questions and suppositions. Rather than confusing us as readers, however, these tactics lead us in to the lamentable story of Hilda Blake, and encourage us to, in turn, question what we know of our own reality. Walk Towards the Gallows is a captivating, thought provoking work which offers an illuminating insight into Canadian society, and broader perspectives on what makes people behave the way they do.
According to Kramer and Mitchell, it was common in the late 1800s for England to send destitute orphans to Canada so that the British government would not be responsible for their maintenance, and so that members of Canadian society could benefit from cheap, if not free, labor. The officials at the time appealed to the recipients with claims of Christian charity [and] inexpensive labor (p. 17). These claims deluded people into believing that they were helping the poor orphans, and made them willing to accept the orphans so they could realize some financial gain. This policy, given the euphemism of assisted emigration (p. 12) was at best exploitation, and at worst it was outright slavery.
Hilda’s story was fairly typical of children in her predicament. She came to Canada at the age of ten and worked in a variety of homes as a domestic servant. Since she was seen as an inferior, not very intelligent young girl, she naturally encountered conflict in her young life. Removed unwillingly from England, the only home she had ever known, she was shuffled from one unfortunate situation to the next. She ran away twice in her first eighteen months at the first farm in Manitoba where she was placed. She fled to a kindly neighbor, but soon became disillusioned there, changed her mind, and asked to go back to the original family. By the age of 16 Hilda entertained thoughts of suicide (p. 62).
Several themes run through Walk Towards the Gallows. On one level, this is a brief history of the newly emergent country of Canada in the late 1800s. Kramer and Mitchell provide detailed descriptions of the land, agricultural business, the state of immigration, and even the Riel Rebellion of 1885. On another level they provide insight into the Victorian values prevalent at the time. They go so far as to state that the British ideal of family society strongly influenced attitudes in all levels of society in Canada at this time. According to evangelical thinking at the time the family was the cornerstone of the social order (p. 53). They go on to quote the Christian Guardian as stating that All society, civil, political and moral originates in and receives its character from this (p. 53). Their point appears to be that Christian, British morals were a large part of what convinced Canadian society to convict Hilda Blake of murder and send her to the gallows. In these traditions, she was a wanton tramp who could have no redeeming moral qualities.
At the same time as they are demonstrating the influence of the Christian ethic on our society, Kramer and Mitchell point out many anomalies in such morals. They comment, for example, on the business ethics at the time as being a ruthless pursuit of wealth, and the necessity of subjugating nature to Man’s will in pursuit of that wealth. One result of such thinking was that women were placed in positions of subordination, and did not play a fair or equal role in society. An example of this was that Hilda ended up condemned by a law she had no voice in forming (p. 72) and, because of her lowly origins, she had even less chance of truly understanding her circumstances.
Another theme which permeates this work is a running commentary on class privilege and class structure. The authors demonstrate repeatedly that Hilda was a young woman taken advantage of from the age of ten, used as virtual slave labor, misled by her employer, and ultimately abandoned by the very system which purported to have acted in her best interests. The authors make note of the fact that Ms Blake’s trial took only 5 minutes, and she was convicted mainly on the evidence of her confession. On pages 214 and 215 they detail the unfairness of laws regarding women, particularly when it came to sexual mores. Parliament was attempting to make changes to a law intended to protect men of means from blackmail by being seduced by women of loose character. While Parliament was willing to change the law slightly to indicate that women of a certain age would be victims, and not perpetrators of such crimes, it still was not prepared to challenge the gender orthodoxy that demanded chaste character of young women and winked at the philandering of middle class men as long as they restricted themselves to ‘ruined’ women (p. 214). These double standards of moral and legal behavior have been with us down through the centuries, and late 19th century Canada was no different.
The authors also make reference to the influence of the literature of the time period on Hilda’s life and her actions. They make her out to be a woman misled by romantic notions of love and marriage, and imply she was misguided into believing she could have a life of wedded bliss (by killing the wife of her employer) which in reality was never open to her. They seem to be painting parallel portraits of Christian versus romantic ideals, perhaps to contrast them and again encourage the reader to deeply consider their own values and beliefs.
Walk Towards the Gallows is an insightful perspective into many aspects of 1880s Canadian society. The authors encourage us to examine gender roles then and now, assess the appeal to the media and the public of sexual scandals, and understand more fully the complicated process by which society has developed in our country. In many ways, the class and gender distinctions, which were present in the late 19th century, haunt us still.
Elizabeth Senger – Henry Wise Wood High School. Calgary, AB.
[IF]
From Hope to Harris: The Reshaping of Ontario’s Schools – GIDNEY (CSS)
GIDNEY, R. D. From Hope to Harris: The Reshaping of Ontario’s Schools. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. 362p. Resenha de: BREI, Margaret E. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
Why is it expedient to re-visit a book written in 1999? Because the information it contains remains valuable for clarifying common issues surrounding change within an education system. Moreover, controversy over educational change is not limited to one province or any single time, in this case Ontario in the second half of the twentieth century. Educational change is fast becoming a decisive issue over which political wars are fought provincially, nationally and internationally. My various roles as an educator have, until recently, been played out on the Alberta stage. As I witnessed the latest educational policy changes under the Klein Conservative government, in both structure and curriculum, it was impossible not to make a comparison of that journey with the one on which From Hope to Harris takes the reader. Finding myself on yet another stage, this time in the United States, where once again the complexities of major educational policy and curriculum restructuring are being played out, I can only ask: Is there nothing new? Therefore, it was with deliberate resolve that I revisited Gidney’s work, this time using the context of comparative decision-making in matters of educational policy. Larry Cuban remarked that the loci of impetus for any educational change are often to be found in the current malaise of society. His one liner When society has an itch, the schools scratch (1992, p. 216) underscores the acute vulnerability of educational change to social change. Gidney’s work is a case study of Cuban’s critical theory. The historical examination of the process of decision-making involved in developing the present system in Ontario provides valuable insights and serves as a Rosetta Stone for those wishing to contribute to an understanding of educational change in their own jurisdictions.
The volume provides possible answers to a series of relevant questions using Ontario as an example. It identifies the thematic strands of the theoretical framework of policy formation. These strands are imbedded in the 15 chapters and can be identified as: the steps of the decision making process; the classification of the agents of the decision making process; the aims of policy; the methods of legitimization of policy decisions; the competing views of the process; the models or styles of policy formation, and the decision making process as a factor of innovation. When applied to the upheaval within Ontario’s education from the Hope commission, 1945-1950, to the changes implemented by the Harris government, the volume provides a skillful, fifty year historical sweep in an attempt to answer: who made what decisions, how were they making them and why were they making them? From Hope to Harris, however, involves more than a chronological story of the events or even a blueprint for other studies of this nature. It aims to understand the processes of policy making and to offer it as a guide to present practices and thereby provide implications for the present decision makers. Employing the research strategy of the descriptive case study and using the documentary content analysis technique of the historiographer, Gidney is well qualified. As an educational historian and Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, he has spent his career examining primary source documents, and gained a reputation as a scholar of educational history in Ontario with volumes such as Elementary Education in Upper Canada: A Reassessment and Inventing Secondary Education: The Rise of the High School in Nineteenth-Century Ontario. He demonstrates a delightfully subtle sense of humor with statements such as: In 1943 Ontario’s voters put the Conservatives in power, and, in a fit of absent-mindedness left them there for just over forty years (p.43). The reader is challenged to reflect on the information by choosing the context in which to use the information and thereby make it meaningful and useful on a personal level.
The volume has become required reading on campuses for courses in such diverse areas as: Sociology of Education, Educational Policy and Program Evaluation, Topics in Comparative Politics, Ontario Government and Politics, and The Economic Development of Ontario. It is my hope that it would also appear on the required reading list for all members of the various levels of government. The volume is profusely documented with bibliographic notes, an extensive index, and an appendix filled with statistical charts all testimony to the quality of research that is the foundation of this volume.
In each chapter, the focus is on a different era in policy, pedagogy, curriculum, and political change. The topics record changes in fiscal policy, educational professionalism, growing teacher militancy, union action, the structure of education, the government’s role, administration/supervision of schools and school districts, movements for equality in education, and the progress toward university trained elementary and secondary teachers. Although extensively using edu-speak, Gidney heroically attempts to make the story of Ontario’s education restructuring into a suspenseful who-done-it, as he unfolds the plot and chronicles the move toward a centralized policy but a decentralized curriculum. He clearly describes the actions of the Ontario government that moved from sharing administrative power with local educational authorities to stripping school boards of their power. In doing so, the Conservative government’s decisions, made by powerful individuals, weakened public education and badly eroded teacher morale. Gidney examines Ontario’s experiment with universal education, including secondary education for all, and seems to indicate that the experiment was not as radical as it could have been.
The final impression I take away is that educational decision-making, and the resulting changes, is a political process closely tied to the social and political milieu. The government reacted to internal and external pressures and intervened in structuring. For the average teacher this resulted in a loss of autonomy. Gidney demonstrates that any form of change is enlivened by the political interaction that took place between individuals and groups as they sought to influence the decision making process. Re-reading the work in this context, calls to attention the process of contending with competing interests, agendas and preferences in attempting to create educational policy and administer its implementation. Society changes over time, legislative power changes over time, educational philosophy and pedagogy change over time and the development of a jurisdiction’s educational policy is a lengthy process.
In re-visiting this volume, I can only suggest that a new edition is in order with added chapters bringing the reader up to date on the issues in Ontario’s education system. Issues such as corporate donors and their involvement in the curriculum, the two tiered system, the restructuring of the high school, the present level of local control of education, the existing teacher morale and the overall current state of the teaching profession should be addressed.
References
Cuban, L. (1992). Curriculum stability and change. In P.W. Jackson (Ed.). Handbook of Research on Curriculum.
Margaret E. Brci – City University of New York. New York, New York.
[IF]
Global Connections: Geography for the 21st Century – CORBIN et al (CSS)
CORBIN, Barry; TRITES, John; TAYLOR, Jim. Global Connections: Geography for the 21st Century. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2000. 442p. Resenha de: BOYD, Kenneth. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
This textbook approaches the main threat and issues that the planet will face from a global geographic study perspective. Six concepts of geography are used to help the students learn to approach and analyze global issues. The book starts with justifying a geographic approach. It outlines the reasons why we should be studying geography. The area of geography plays an important role in deciding if our very survival is at risk. Geography also offers us the opportunity to study a wide range of topics. From this study we have a unique framework to examine global conditions and global issues. Leia Mais
Democratic Social Education: Social Studies for Social Change – HURSH; ROSS (CSS)
HURSH, David W.; ROSS, E. Wayne. Eds. Democratic Social Education: Social Studies for Social Change. New York: Falmer Press, 2000. 263p. Resenha de: BRADLEY, Jon G. Bradley Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
Democracy is a way of life controlled by a working faith in the possibilities of human nature. Belief in the Common Man is a familiar article in the democratic creed. That belief is without basis and significance save as it means faith in the potentialities of human nature as that nature is exhibited in every human being irrespective of race, color, sex, birth, and family, of material or cultural wealth. This faith may be enacted in statutes, but it is only on paper unless it is put in force in the attitudes which human beings display to one another in all the incidents and relations of daily life (Dewey, 1940, p. 226).
Democratic Social Education: Social Studies for Social Change is the third volume to be released within the Garland Reference Library of Social Science series. This is a timely publication, not only in that it nicely balances the first two books that dealt with the dramatic arts and art education, but more importantly in that the whole issue of democratic/citizenship education is coming to the fore in many differing and varied societies. Taking their cue from George S. Counts’ (1932) professional admonishment to educators to develop a new democratic society within a new social order, Hursh and Ross have compiled an extremely interesting array of articles that attempt to rise to this long-ago issued challenge.
The authors clearly note that they feel that Counts’ seventy-year old challenge still needs to be met, albeit within a revised world framework that takes into account the modern realities that currently confront the educational landscape. Additionally, they state the essays in this collection respond to Counts’ question with theoretical analyses of education and society, historical analyses of efforts since Counts’ challenge, and practical analyses of classroom pedagogy and school organization (p. 1).
Without wishing to wander too far from the centrality of this book review, it is necessary to take a small side step in order to quickly review Counts’ 1932 tome. Readers are asked to bear in mind that the Great Depression was in full swing and that both Europe and Asia were experiencing the rise of various forms of autocratic regimes. It is within this somewhat unsettling world situation that Counts issued his famous educational challenge.
For those of us who have an interest in the history of philosophical ideas, George Sylvester Counts can be ranked along with John Dewey, Charles Beard and Harold Rugg (to name but a few) as notable and vocal American philosophers who were actively engaged in confronting the realities that [North] America was experiencing during this time frame. To some, the collective and empowering ideals of socialism were an attractive carrot that appeared to mute the harshness of the loss of individuality promulgated by other more strident forms of governmental control.
In many ways, Dare the School Build a New Social Order? is a timeless document. Counts opens his epistle by noting that we are convinced that education is the one unfailing remedy for every ill to which man is subject (page 3). While his views must be tempered by his times and his own heritage, Counts nonetheless raises some of the age-old issues that surround the place and purpose of public education within a democratic society. He criticizes, to be sure, but also holds out the hope that it is this general education adventure which will eventually triumph and permit democracies to overcome, not only current ills, but to potentially make the future a better place for all citizens. In particular, Counts notes that it is the classroom teacher (see particularly pages 27 – 31) that might well wield the most significant power and influence such that meaningful societal transformations might occur.
Hursh and Ross recognize that Counts’ long-forgotten call to teachers to become meaningful agents of social change still resonates today. While the historical times of the mid-thirties are clearly not applicable to the beginning of the twenty-first century, some of the same general ailments still persist. The call for teachers to become democratic leaders within their own small communities drives this volume and provides, at the same time, a framework upon which to construct an active (or, to use Counts’ phrase ‘progressive’) model of education.
The fourteen chapters that make up Democratic Social Education offer the reader a wide-ranging overview of contemporary views. While the Hursh and Ross opening chapter is a tad staid and preachy in its introductory comments, and although this is too often the case with overview chapters, this reviewer was nonetheless captivated by the remaining entries. The following thirteen offerings are wonderfully varied and stimulating intellectual forays into the domain. One grounding feature that resonates time and time again, regardless of individual chapter author or topic, is the centrality of the classroom practitioner to affect and effect change. Honouring Counts, the individual authors have each in their own diverse way placed teachers and teaching at the core of the landscape. They have anchored this social democratic process solidly within the contemporary realities of the classroom.
The editors are to be congratulated for allowing all of the contributors to authenticate the voice of elementary and secondary teachers. After all, it is in the privacy of individual classrooms that great things are wrought and it was to individual practitioners that Counts issued his seminal challenge. Hursh and Ross have compiled a scintillating collection of material that must be read by anyone who has even the most passing interest in citizenship education within a democratic framework.
References
Counts, G. S. (1932). Dare the School Build a New Social Order? New York: The John Day Company.
Dewey, J. (1940/1991). Creative Democracy – The Task Before Us. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), John Dewey: The Later Works, 1925-1953, Volume 14 (pp. 224-30). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
John G. Bradley – Faculty of Education. McGill University. Montreal, Quebec.
[IF]História e ensino de história | Thaís Nívia de Lima Fonseca
Resenhista
Karina Ribeiro Caldas – Mestranda em História na Universidade Federal de Goiás.
Referências desta Resenha
FONSECA, Thaís Nivía de Lima e. História e ensino de história. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica, 2003. Resenha de: CALDAS, Karina Ribeiro. História Revista. Goiânia, v.9, n.1, p.145-149, jan./jun.2004. Acesso apenas pelo link original [DR]
Discovering the Human World – HANNELL; DUNLOP (CSS)
HANNELL, Christine; DUNLOP, Stewart. Discovering the Human World. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2000. 274p. Resenha de: ROBERTSON, Virginia. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
Designed generally for grade eight students, Hannell and Dunlop have compiled a very practical and user-friendly textbook to introduce young inquiring minds to the complexities of human geography. The approach is consistent with the demands of the constructivist social studies curriculum that prevails throughout modern education systems. As the title suggests, the key word is discovering. The volume aims to lead students to discover dynamic facts and concepts of human population, settlement patterns, economic systems and human migration. Students are presented with a myriad of opportunities to discover and demonstrate an understanding of geographical concepts, while developing and honing their geographical skills. Leia Mais
The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000 – FERGUSON (CSS0
FERGUSON, Niall. The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000. New York: Basic Books, 2001. 552p. Resenha de: SENGER, Elizabeth. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
The Cash Nexus is an indepth study of the complex relationship between economics and politics from 1700 to 2000. Niall Ferguson, a professor at Oxford and New York Universities, analyzes this connection in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and to a lesser extent, Asia and Africa. This makes it a valuable resource for scholars all around the world. Further, Ferguson’s detailed notes for each chapter, and the extensive bibliography at the end of the book provide more than sufficient means to verify the validity of his evidence, and an avenue for further research on the part of the reader.
The book presumes an extremely broad base of knowledge on the part of the reader, literally from classical Greece Rome to 20th century pop culture. The Cash Nexus would be most appropriately utilized at a university level, perhaps even more suitably in postgraduate work. It would be an excellent resource for economics professors, and to a lesser degree for history professors. It is clearly a highly academic work, best suited as an instructor resource.
There are numerous charts, diagrams, graphs, tables, and a few cartoons. Most of the visuals are easily understandable, but there are a couple of problems. First, some of the graphs are so crowded with information as to be almost unusable. For example, Ferguson offers a comparison between the real national product indices of European democracies and dictatorships between 1919 and 1939 (pp. 366-7). A conglomeration of countries is presented in each graph, and because each is represented by a slightly different shade of grey the graphs are difficult to follow. Use of color and/or making these graphs bigger would enhance their readability and usefulness. Second, there are a number of historical political cartoons presented throughout the book. The quality of reproduction on a number of these is, regrettably, quite poor, hence their impact is diminished. Better reproductions, as well as some explanation of what we are seeing would add greatly to their value.
Ferguson’s major themes include government spending, taxation, debt, interest policies and the role of social classes. He also discusses political corruption, financial globalization, the boom and bust cycles of economies, the relationship of democracy and development, and global fragmentation. All in all, the book makes for fascinating and informative reading. His sense of humor lightens an admittedly heavy topic, and his insightful analysis of a very complex topic offers some innovative views. The Cash Nexus encourages and challenges the reader to consider economics in a variety of ways, and to seek solutions to the problems presented by twenty-first century world development.
Elizabeth Senger – Henry Wise Wood High School. Calgary, Alberta.
[IF]El Mundo Andino. Población, Medio Ambiente y Economía – MURRA (C-RAC)
MURRA, John V. El Mundo Andino. Población, Medio Ambiente y Economía. Lima: Fondo Editorial Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú e Instituto de Estudios Peruanos IEP, 2002, 511p. Resenha de: PETERS, Ann; SANTORO, Calogero. Chungara – Revista de Antropología Chilena, Arica, v.36 n.1, p. 241-245, ene., 2004.
Comentado por Ann Peters*
Esta nueva edición de los ensayos principales de John Murra, publicada por el Instituto de Estudios Peruanos en conjunto con la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, es un tesoro. No solamente porque reúne su obra en una forma hermosa, duradera y legible, sino porque nunca antes se ha podido apreciar bien la dialéctica de su desarrollo a través de cincuenta años de investigación.
Murra nunca ha tenido paciencia por quienes toman su planteamiento, por ejemplo, acerca del manejo Inka de poblaciones mitimaes o acerca de la estrategia productiva del “archipiélago vertical”, para criticarlo, al demostrar que el modelo publicado no encuadra precisamente con los detalles de un nuevo caso. Cada planteamiento, modelo o corrección del modelo en la obra de Murra, surge del encuentro con un conjunto específico de textos y evidencias. Habrá que esperar siempre, al encontrar un nuevo texto o al estudiar la historia de otro lugar, un planteamiento modificado acerca de la organización social andina. Este principio de la especificidad de cada análisis es básico al estudio “sustantivo” de formaciones económicas particulares a cada tiempo, lugar y sociedad. Por lo mismo, los trabajos de Murra se consideran entre los más contundentes de la escuela de Karl Polanyi. Al repasar los trabajos reunidos en El Mundo Andino, es notorio el constante proceso de considerar nuevas evidencias en que Murra prueba y modifica sus conceptos acerca de la sociedad Inka y las sociedades andinas.
Cuando quise seguir antropología al nivel de posgrado, vivía en Lima. Estaba estudiando español, arqueología y métodos de investigación textil. Para mis amigos, en su mayoría estudiantes de San Marcos, solamente había un antropólogo en Norteamérica que valía la pena. Sus trabajos sobre la historia Inka tuvieron relevancia tanto para los etnógrafos como para los arqueólogos, tanto para quienes profundizaron en aspectos ideológicos como para los que buscaban entender las relaciones económicas andinas. Y era de los pocos investigadores extranjeros que publicaban sus análisis en la letra chica y papel gris entonces accesibles a los estudiosos en el Perú.
Así fue que postulé a ser estudiante de John Murra. Al escuchar su conferencia pública en Lima en 1980 y las discusiones apasionadas que siguieron después, me sentí contenta con ese compromiso. Al llegar a Cornell, supe recién de su origen rumano, emigrante joven a Chicago, y voluntario en la guerra civil española. Supe que vivió lo duro y contradictorio de las Brigadas Internacionales, así como la persecución anticomunista en EE.UU. Aunque aquellas experiencias lo marcaron en personalidad y en perspectiva, el factor más importante en su práctica como investigador y como profesor era su compromiso apasionado con “lo andino”.
En sus clases, nos introdujo al gremio de andinistas, por referir a todos los últimos estudios como si nosotros, por supuesto, hubiésemos ya leído todo. “Como recordarán, por lo que nos dice Olivia…”, declaró Murra, y nosotros fuimos buscando entre revistas y libros (aún no existía internet) para saber de Olivia Harris y de sus trabajos entre los Laymi de Bolivia, publicados en Bolivia o en Francia. Coleccionamos grises fotocopias, entre ellos los ensayos que el mismo Murra había publicado en fuentes diversas, casi todos en los países andinos y casi todos en español.
Para mi trabajo final de su clase de etnohistoria andina, Murra me hizo un tremendo favor. Me pasó las fotocopias de sus fichas originales de todas las fuentes históricas en las cuales basó el capítulo de su tesis doctoral acerca del tejido en el estado Inka, con la sugerencia que yo las usara para escribir sobre otro aspecto o argumento distinto de lo que él había desarrollado. Entusiasmada, empecé la tarea. Descubrí que no pude encontrar ningún aspecto de las fuentes que había quedado fuera de su discusión, ni argumento bien fundado por una conclusión distinta. El análisis de la tesis de Murra corresponde nítidamente a las fuentes existentes en el momento que él la escribió. Sentí su favor como una trampa y me avergoncé del ensayo poco novedoso que pude escribir para la clase. Me costó un tiempo darme cuenta que él, en ese momento, me dio la oportunidad de aprender la base de su método y el principio de su trabajo meticuloso de incorporar cada dato, y visión realmente nueva al esfuerzo constantemente renovado y renovador de comprender el mundo andino.
Comentado por Calogero M. Santoro*
El Mundo Andino, Población, Medio Ambiente y Economía, de John V. Murra, es una obra largamente esperada por el propio autor, quien por varios años trabajó junto a Franklin Pease, para conseguir una edición corregida y aumentada del libro Formaciones Económicas y Políticas del Mundo Andino, que se publicó, igualmente, en el IEP (Matos 1975; Murra 1975; Pease 1975). Esta edición, sin embargo, se debe al esfuerzo final de Mariana Mould de Pease, Carlos Contreras, director de publicaciones del mencionado Instituto y Heather Lechtman (presidenta del Instituto de Investigaciones Andinas de New York; Mould de Pease 2003:17).
El libro Formaciones fue comentado por Jorge Hidalgo (1975) en el volumen 5 de Chungara, lo que hace propicio reseñar esta nueva versión ampliada y actualizada del libro, publicado por el Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú y el Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. John Murra ha acompañado a esta revista desde sus comienzos y ha sido un visitante permanente de este rincón de la costa centro sur de los Andes, donde hasta hace poco tiempo tuvo la ilusión de establecer un refugio temporal, en un esquema de “verticalidad transcontinental”. En cualquier caso, su presencia en Arica y, en particular, en el Departamento de Arqueología y Museología en San Miguel de Azapa, fue siempre un encuentro estimulante. A través de este comentario, quiero agradecer al autor por el envío de un ejemplar del libro desde su departamento del tercer piso de un edificio en la calle Bufallo en Ithaca, New York, hace menos de un año.
Esta obra representa uno de los pilares más importantes para los estudios de la organización económica, social y política andina y por esta razón: “Murra es reconocido como uno de los etnohistoriadores más importantes, quien iniciara una `una nueva era’ en el estudio de los incas” (Pärssinen 2003:29). Murra prefiere hablar de historia andina lo que define como “una disciplina que trata de juntar en una misma actividad tanto el logro precolombino, a través de la arqueología, la lingüística y la etnografía, en estrecha colaboración con el estudio de los textos escritos durante los siglos coloniales” (Murra 2002:438).
La preocupación por las instituciones sociales andinas se perfila en el autor, desde los años cuarenta cuando trabajaba en su tesis doctoral. Durante este período reconoce la influencia de la etnología de grupos africanos como los barotse (estudiados por Gluckman) cuyo manejo social de excedentes de producción se corresponden con el concepto de “redistribución” de Polanyi. En este marco Murra define una de las instituciones que caracterizan el sistema político-económico andino, la m’ita (Murra 1978:11-12) y el fenómeno de la redistribución a nivel del estado Inka, que explica el bienestar social destacado por los cronistas y que atribuyeron a señores generosos preocupados de todos los miembros de la comunidad. La propuesta de Polanyi (1957) de una antropología económica se cruza con el empeño de Murra de desarrollar la “táctica” de la etnohistoria para tratar de entender la organización económica del estado Inka, plasmado primero en su tesis doctoral, defendida en el año 1955, publicada en inglés el año 1980 y en castellano el año 1978.
En el libro Formaciones se compilaron doce ensayos publicados entre 1958 y 1973, en diferentes revistas, o leídas en distantes reuniones antropológicas, tanto en inglés como en español, pero tienen como hilo conductor la preocupación “por comprender la organización económica y política del Tawantinsuyu” (Murra 1975:19). Esta nueva compilación es mucho más contundente, puesto que encierra un total de 26 obras escritas y publicadas entre 1958 y 1998, donde más de una tercera parte se escribió con posterioridad al año 1975. Además tres de los artículos de la edición del año 1975 fueron revisados por el autor. Por lo tanto se trata de una obra renovada que revitaliza su vigor intelectual original.
El “Mundo Andino”, consecuentemente, mantiene una tremenda coherencia interna, puesto que profundiza en la línea argumental desarrollada por el autor, definida en el título del primer libro, vale decir, las formas de organización económica y política propias de los Andes. Instituciones sociales que permitieron el funcionamiento del macrosistema del Tawantinsuyu que integraba importantes soportes tecnológicos para el manejo de la agricultura, los metales, la textilería y todo un sistema de organización social que articuló el trabajo productivo, con el fin de obtener las rentas necesarias para mantener la operación del estado. En esta oportunidad Murra no agregó un nuevo prólogo y deja que los lectores descubran los avances de los años posteriores a 1975.
Los 26 artículos se separan en ocho capítulos, referido el primero a poner de relieve las primeras impresiones de los conquistadores europeos, sorprendidos y admirados por los logros andinos, que grafica con la expresión “nos hazen mucha ventaja”, atribuida a Pedro Cieza de León (Murra 2002:32). Con estos términos titula el artículo de apertura de la obra. Murra ha insistido en esta y otras circunstancias que la búsqueda y estudio de los primeros documentos generados por la administración europea es clave para mejorar la comprensión acerca de la historia andina (ver Pärssinen 2003:29, quien reconoce la influencia de Murra en esta materia). El segundo capítulo encierra tres artículos dedicados al sistema de organización política del estado Inka, sus estrategias de expansión y funcionamiento. Destaca los principios fundamentales de la mit’a, un sistema que, aunque tiene parangones en otros estados preindus-triales, como se menciona anteriormente, Murra la define como una institución típicamente andina y un factor clave en la operación del estado, lo que ha sido reconocido por varios autores (D’Altroy 1992:10; Morris y Thompson 1985:93-95; Moseley 1992:67-69). El sistema no impuso impuestos en especie a los comuneros como ocurre en otros estados preindustriales. Éstos debieron entregar, en cambio, una cuota de fuerza de trabajo que el Estado utilizaba para obtener “las rentas públicas que permitieran la existencia del ejército, la burocracia, una corte y demás funciones estatales” (Murra 2002:153).
El tercer capítulo encierra tres artículos relacionados con el modelo de verticalidad desde su versión clásica publicada en 1972 (Murra 1972) y sus propias reconsideraciones para darle un contexto geográfico más limitado al modelo original. El modelo evidentemente ha influido fuertemente en las interpretaciones arqueológicas de los Andes del sur (ver, por ejemplo, Covey 2000; Santoro et al. 2003ms; Schiappacasse et al. 1989; Stanish 1992), como así también estudios etnohistóricos provinciales (Durston e Hidalgo 1997; Hidalgo y Durston 1998). En particular, estudios arqueológicos realizados en el valle de Lluta permiten sostener un posible caso de verticalidad manejado por poblaciones de los valles costeros asimilable al “tercer caso: etnias pequeñas, con núcleos en la costa central” (Murra 2002:101; Santoro et al. 2003ms).
El cuarto capítulo encierra tres artículos destinados a describir la función política, económica e ideológica de la producción, distribución e intercambio de sistemas de producción agrícola relacionada con tubérculos y maíz, la producción de tejidos y tráfico del mullu. El sistema de producción de tubérculos, realizado en el ámbito de las propias comunidades y orientado básicamente a la subsistencia, se contrapone al sistema de producción del maíz que cumplió funciones principalmente ceremoniales. Estos dos sistemas no habrían alcanzado a integrarse en un sistema único estatal al ser interrumpido el proceso por la invasión europea (Murra 2002:151-152). Después de la producción agrícola, la segunda mayor preocupación del estado fue la producción textil a través, igualmente, de la mit’a. Los tejidos fueron un elemento clave en la reproducción de la vida cotidiana como así también en ceremonias funerarias y en ropajes vinculados a personajes del aparato religioso y gobernante Inka. El Estado necesitaba de gran cantidad de tejidos para funciones políticas e ideológicas, por lo que mantenía reservas de lana, derivadas de hatos de camélidos controlados por el Estado, que proveían a las tejedoras de cada comunidad. Los kurakas locales habrían jugado un rol fundamental en la producción textil, lo que les habría permitido adquirir ciertos privilegios en el proceso de la redistribución y reciprocidad involucrados en este circuito productivo estatal. El último artículo de este capítulo esta dedicado al tráfico del mullu desde la costa sur del Ecuador. El mullu tiene una gran demanda ritual al considerarse alimento de los dioses. Además, fue un elemento clave en ceremonias para la lluvia, en comunidades que dependían fuertemente de la agricultura, en los Andes centrales. Este capítulo deja abiertas una serie de preguntas con desafíos importantes hacia la arqueología, para encontrar no sólo las huellas de los que procesaban las conchas en la costa de Ecuador, sino también obtener ciertos indicios respecto de los clientes que demandaban estas conchas (Murra 2002:173).
El capítulo quinto integra tres artículos sobre autoridades étnicas tradicionales, referidos a las estructuras políticas anteriores al Inka. Se trata de grupos étnicos como los lupaca que representan uno de los ejemplos clásicos del sistema de manejo espacial andino, en su relación con el Estado. Se trata de casos donde los documentos muestran procesos dinámicos de cambio antes, durante y después de los Inka. Como en los capítulos anteriores, Murra tiene una serie de preguntas para la arqueología, como la relación entre los reinos lacustres y el Tawantinsuyu, cuestión que ha sido revisada por varios autores (Covey 2000; Pärssinen y Siiriäinen 1997; Stanish 1992, 1997).
El sexto capítulo encierra la mayor cantidad de artículos vinculados con la organización económica andina. Seis de los nueve artículos fueron publicados el año 1975. Destaca en la nueva versión la profundización en el tema de la mit’a (Murra 1983), una de las instituciones que distinguen el sistema político-económico andino y traspasa gran parte del análisis de los distintos aspectos de la organización del Estado. La discusión se centra en la ausencia de tributo y mercado en los Andes, rasgo consustancial a otras formaciones estatales de América y otros continentes. La búsqueda de Murra por descubrir las particularidades del sistema se cruza con los conceptos de redistribución y reciprocidad propuestos por Polanyi (1968 [1944] citado por van Buren 1998:340; Polanyi 1957).
Tanto en sus escritos y presentaciones orales, Murra ha insistido en que no se puede entender el sistema andino con los principios de la economía capitalista. La búsqueda por identificar diferencias fundamentales del sistema andino (“lo andino”; van Buren 1998:340) ha sido el foco central de sus críticos, que insisten que la preocupación por la especificidad inhibe la identificación de principios generales comunes a otros sistemas estatales. Murra insistirá en que no se pueden explicar los sistemas de organización económica a base de los principios de la economía capitalista y junto con Polanyi (1957) insistirá en la necesidad de estudiar los sistemas preca-pitalistas para entender sus principios fundamentales. El análisis de Murra, como se puede ver en casi todos los capítulos, está lejos de quedarse exclusivamente en la particularización ciega del sistema andino.
El capítulo siete contiene dos artículos dedicados a autores de época colonial, como Guamán Poma de Ayala, a quien Murra destaca como el autor que representa una visión indígena más interna del sistema. Luego está un personaje de origen español, el doctor Barros, y otros oidores o juristas, como Polo de Ondegardo y Matienzo. Murra estima que las “opiniones y gestiones pro-indígenas” del doctor Barros permiten “ampliar nuestra visión del debate que acompaña la temprana instalación colonial” (Murra 2002:426). Principalmente, porque su posición insistía en que era necesario “comprender la organización autóctona”, cuestión que desaparece con la reforma de Toledo (Murra 2002:428). El doctor Barros, dice Murra, merece la atención de los estudiosos de la historia andina, que debiera integrar a arqueólogos, lingüistas y etnógrafos.
Los dos artículos del capítulo ocho y final del libro reflejan el espíritu multidisciplinario que debieran tener los estudios andinos. En este contexto aparece la figura del ingeniero Kosok dedicado a documentar los sistemas de riego en los Andes, una de las tecnologías que sostuvieron una base económica sólida para el funcionamiento de las sociedades prehispánicas. “El estudio de la etnología contemporánea y de la lingüística debería complementarse con los resultados de las excava-ciones y con el examen crítico de las fuentes escritas.
Para ello es necesario crear equipos interdisciplinarios que integren las tres tácticas; de lo contrario, los esfuerzos aislados seguirán siendo marginales e inadecuados al gran tema del desarrollo de las civilizaciones americanas” (Murra 2002:172). La discusión final se centra en la necesidad de realizar estudios comparativos con otras sociedades de complejidad similar en otras partes del mundo, como lo sugiriera Cunow (1981, 1896 citado por Murra 2002:460). Para llegar a estas comparaciones generales, es necesario tener una comprensión equivalente de las distintas instituciones y sistema de organización política, económica e ideológica desarrollados en los Andes con una perspectiva diacrónica que integre las tácticas disciplinarias señaladas antes.
El libro está lleno de referencias complementarias referidas a la arqueología que puede entregar nexos importantes para tratar temas de continuidad y transformación social. En este contexto, cabe destacar la manera como Murra construye sus argumentos en los que integra una amplia diversidad de fuentes. Éstas no son sólo documentales, sino también literatura del ámbito arqueológico, buscando evidencias y expresiones materiales del funcionamiento de las instituciones andinas de organización social, política y económica. Sorprende su búsqueda, por ejemplo, en reportes arqueológicos del siglo XIX, para la zona de Arica (Safford 1887, citado por Murra 2002:97), la utilización de manuscritos que nunca se publicaron formalmente, reconociendo las ideas y datos de cada uno de los consultados, agregando incluso comunicaciones personales, ponencias o debates en congresos y seminarios. Este estilo tiende a desaparecer en la práctica profesional más reciente, donde la proposición de nuevos argumentos se construye a partir de señalar los vacíos o falencias de estudios previos. Esto forma parte de la lógica del método científico normativo, que no prescribe, sin embargo, que se desconozca el aporte de datos, ideas y proposiciones fundacionales de los mismos autores a los que se cita, principalmente, por sus falencias. La construcción del conocimiento se sustenta no sólo en los aciertos, sino también en los desaciertos. La literatura sobre la historia andina presenta omisiones de este tipo y afectan a Murra y otros autores que han sido fundamentales en la consolidación de la disciplina.
Agradecimientos: Proyecto Fondecyt 1030312 y a los estudiantes del seminario Complejización Social en Zonas Marginales del programa de Magíster en Antropología de la Universidad Católica del Norte y Universidad de Tarapacá, realizado entre noviembre 2003 y marzo 2004, con quienes discutimos algunos de los temas tratados en este comentario.
Referencias
Covey, R. A. 2000 Inka administration of the far south coast of Peru. Latin American Antiquity 11:119-138. [ Links ]
D’Altroy, T. N. 1992 Provincial Power in the Inka Empire. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London. [ Links ]
Durston, A. y J. Hidalgo 1997 La Presencia Andina en los Valles de Arica, Siglos XVI-XVIII: Casos de regeneración Colonial de Estructuras Archipielágicas. Chungara 29:249-273. [ Links ]
Hidalgo, J. 1975 Formaciones Económicas y Políticas del Mundo Andino, John V. Murra. Chungara 5:144-151. [ Links ]
Hidalgo, J. y A. Durston 1998 Reconstitución Étnica Colonial en la Sierra de Arica: El Cacicazgo de Codpa, 1650 1780. En Actas del IV Congreso Internacional de Etnohistoria Tomo II:32-75. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima. [ Links ]
Matos, J. 1975 Presentación. En Formaciones Económicas y Políticas del Mundo Andino, pp. 7-8. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Lima. [ Links ]
Morris, C. y D. E. Thompson 1985 Huánuco Pampa an Inca City and its Hinterland. Thames and Hudson, London. [ Links ]
Moseley, M. 1992 The Incas and their Ancestors. Thames and Hudson, Londres. [ Links ]
Mould de Pease, M. 2003 Prólogo a esta edición. En El Mundo Andino Población, Medio Ambiente y Economía, pp. 13-21. IEP Ediciones, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial, Lima. [ Links ]
Murra, J. 1975 Introducción. En Formaciones Económicas y Políticas del Mundo Andino, pp. 19-22. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Lima. [ Links ]
Murra, J. 1978 La Organización Económica del Mundo Andino. Siglo Veintiuno, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, México. [ Links ]
Murra, J. 2002 El Mundo Andino Población, Medio Ambiente y Economía. IEP Ediciones, Fondo Editorial Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima. [ Links ]
Murra, J. 1983 La mit’a al Tawantinsuyu: prestaciones de los grupos étnicos. Chungara 10:77-94. [ Links ]
Pärssinen, M. 2003 Tawantinsuyu el Estado Inca y sus Organización Política. IFEA Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos, Fondo Editorial Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima. [ Links ]
Pärssinen, M. y A. Siiriäinen 1997 Inka-style ceramics and their chronological relationship to the Inka expansion in the southern lake Titicaca area (Bolivia). Latin American Antiquity 8:255_271. [ Links ]
Pease, F. 1975 Prólogo. En Formaciones Económicas y Políticas del Mundo Andino, pp. 9-18. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Lima. [ Links ]
Polanyi, K. 1957 The economy as instituted process. En Trade and Market in the Ancient Empires, editado por K. Polanyi, C. M. Arensberg y H. W. Pearson, pp. 243-270. The Free Press and the Falcon’s Wing Press, Glencoe, Illinois. [ Links ]
Santoro, C. M., Á. Romero G. y V. G. Standen 2003ms Interacción social en los períodos Intermedio Tardío y Tardío, Valle de Lluta, Norte de Chile. Taller Andino del Instituto de Investigaciones Andinas, editado por John Topic. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos IEP, Lima (en prensa). [ Links ]
Schiappacasse, V., V. Castro y H. Niemeyer 1989 Los Desarrollos Regionales en el Norte Grande (1.000-1.400 d.C.). En Culturas de Chile. Prehistoria. Desde sus Orígenes hasta los Albores de la Conquista, editado por J. Hidalgo, V. Schiappacasse, H. Niemeyer, C. Aldunate e I. Solimano, pp. 181-220. Editorial Andrés Bello, Santiago. [ Links ]
Stanish, Ch. 1992 Ancient Andean Political Economy. University of Texas Press, Austin. [ Links ]
Stanish, Ch. 1997 Nonmarket imperialism in the prehispanic Americas: The Inka occupation of the Titicaca Basin. Latin American Antiquity 8:195-216. [ Links ]
van Buren, M. 1998 Rethinking the vertical archipelago ethnicity, exchange, and history in the South Central Andes. American Anthropologist 98:338-351.
Ann Peters – Latin American Studies Program. Cornell University. Etno-Arqueología andina 119 First St. Ithaca, Ny 14850. mundocomun@lightlink.com
Calogero M. Santoro – Centro de Investigaciones del Hombre en el Desierto, Departamento de Arqueología y Museología, Universidad de Tarapacá, Casilla 6-D, Arica, Chile. csantoro@uta.cl
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Religión, Ritual y Vida Cotidiana en los Andes: Los Diez Géneros de Amarete; Segundo Ciclo ANKARI: Rituales Colectivos en la Región Kallawaya, Bolivia; Mundo ANKARI – RÖSING (C-RAC)
RÖSING, Ina. Religión, Ritual y Vida Cotidiana en los Andes: Los Diez Géneros de Amarete; Segundo Ciclo ANKARI: Rituales Colectivos en la Región Kallawaya, Bolivia; Mundo ANKARI, Vol. 6. Madrid: Iberoamericana – Vervuert, 2003. Resenha de: Van KESSEL, Juan. Chungara – Revista de Antropología Chilena, Arica, v.36, n.1, p.246-247, ene. 2004.
Comentado por Juan van Kessel*
Se trata de la edición en castellano del sexto volumen de la obra MUNDO ANKARI, sobre rituales de los Kallawayas de Bolivia. Recordemos: los 4 volúmenes del primer ciclo de la serie aparecidos entre 1987 y 1991 tratan de manera clásica y absolutamente definitiva sobre los rituales curativos de los Kallawayas en el círculo de la familia (1). El segundo ciclo investiga sus rituales colectivos y pretende “superar los déficit en el tratamiento de estos rituales”. El volumen 5 trata de los rituales para llamar la lluvia, y el actual volumen, con el extraño título “Los diez géneros de Amarete”, trata de los rituales colectivos en Amarete, una comunidad particular de la región Kallawaya, que merece atención especial por la curiosa organización social en que se basan sus ceremonias: “los diez géneros”. Son géneros simbólicos de las personas con amplias repercusiones prácticas en la vida cotidiana, la religión y el ritual. Su fundamento es el género de la chacra que cada comunero, tanto hombre como mujer, posee y transmite a sus hijos (pp. 106-107). Así se encuentran: hombres masculinos, hombres masculinos-masculinos, hombres masculinos-femeninos, hombres femeninos-masculinos, hombres femeninos-femeninos, mujeres masculinas-masculinas, etc. Curioso es también que los amareteños pueden cambiar su género simbólico, de manera que entonces deben sentarse, caminar, bailar, actuar y ofrecer sacrificios de una manera diferente a la de antes. Es el caso de algunos cargos de representación comunal con género propio. Al asumir un cargo con género, se deja a un lado el propio género de chacra por el tiempo que dura el cargo. En última instancia, el género simbólico es determinado por el sol (salida/ocaso) y el cuerpo humano (derecha/izquierda) y sus dos indicadores resultan ser hanan/hurin (arriba/abajo) y kuraq/sullk’a (mayor/menor).
La pregunta impaciente del lector es: El sistema de los múltiples géneros simbólicos, ¿es algo más que una simple curiosidad? ¿Tiene un real sentido transcendental para el mundo amareteño? Sin duda es este el caso. El género (biológico y simbólico) es el principio de la organización social y del orden cosmológico (cf. p. 636). La máxima es que “todo debe estar pareado, casado” -cada cosa con su contraparte: ofrendas, chacras, aguas, rituales, dirigentes, etc.- para que sea completa, estable y equilibrada, operativa, eficiente y fértil. Sin su contraparte, las cosas no tienen sentido y no SON realmente. Me atrevo a interpretar el argumento así: en la cosmo-visión del amareteño, y del andino en general (y prefiero decir: “en su pacha-vivencia”) todo tiene vida, es ser viviente y debe ser alimentado, criado, regenerado a la manera de los seres vivientes. Todos los seres vivientes participan de la vida universal del pacha, el megaorga-nismo. En los grandes rituales colectivos -como verdadera tecnología simbólica- se regenera, alimenta, cría y fortalece la vida del pacha, del triple mundo de los humanos, la naturaleza y las divinidades. En síntesis, el ritual colectivo de Amarete basado en sus 10 géneros pretende juntar las cosas con su contraparte y casarlas para su regeneración, fuerza y duración. Así se asegura la vida del pacha: divinidades, naturaleza y runa (la comunidad humana). El ritual colectivo de Amarete basado en los 10 géneros simbólicos es para reafirmar el orden existencial. El género que se recibe de la chacra expresa, a la vez, una sorprendente relación co-existencial hombre-tierra, concretamente del comunero con su chacra.
La autora confiesa (p. 640) que el descubrimiento y la explicación de los diez géneros simbólicos y de los principios en adjudicar el género simbólico le tomó seis años con largas estadías en terreno. El principio de los géneros simbólicos echa una luz particular sobre el ritual colectivo de Amarete, una luz indispensable para ver y entender el sentido émico? de los rituales. La autora los describe e interpreta bajo esta luz. Ina Rösing (en adelante: IR) cumple con este propósito y logra una verdadera obra maestra: inédita y de mayor relevancia en la producción antropológica contemporánea. Veamos la estructura de la obra.
El libro con sus 878 páginas está articulado en tres secciones. Encontramos dos capítulos introductorios, que describen la geografía y el contexto social de la región, definen el objeto de la investigación y señalan sus premisas metodológicas, las que por su carácter innovador en la investigación sociocultural merecen que las destaquemos más abajo. Se señala también la impresionante base de datos de este volumen registrada en decenas de libros con apuntes de campo, en centenas de cintas grabadas y transcritos en varios miles de páginas, y en muchas centenas de excelentes fotografías. Luego la autora presenta sin más preámbulos el tema mismo de los diez géneros y su notable importancia en la vida de la comunidad. IR agrega amplia información sobre la historia de su investigación y su insólita odisea como investigadora. Con esta información previa, la autora describe (cap. 3) la vida en Amarete, a partir de su geografía sagrada, articulada, y de su concepto del tiempo con un calendario festivo extraordinariamente rico en que a cada paso se encuentran las reglas relativas a los géneros. Con un ejemplo -la labor familiar cotidiana del cultivo de la papa- IR muestra que es imposible cotidianizar el trabajo aparentemente profano y que el tiempo y el espacio siempre son especiales y de carácter sagrado. ¡Elocuente ejemplo! que le vale como un previo teórico muy significativo, porque enseña que las ocupaciones de cada día, el carácter sagrado del espacio y la articulación festiva del tiempo “sólo son tres polos de un mismo centro: la religión andina”.
En la segunda sección (cap. 4-8), la parte principal del libro, la autora trata del ritualismo colectivo en que el tema de los diez géneros es el hilo conductor que atraviesa los cuatro rituales agrícolas cíclicos que ella describe: La papa en el ritual Irwi (cap. 4), el ritual Q’owa con el baile y la labranza de los varones másculinos y femeninos (cap. 5), la labranza ritual en el Jach’ana (cap. 6) y la huilancha en la cumbre de una montaña sagrada (cap. 7). Como complemento, describe un ritual amare-teño de emergencia para llamar la lluvia (cap. 8).
En la tercera sección (cap. 9-10) la autora intenta descifrar la lógica de las temáticas de género y espacio, una lógica flexible, variable y llena de improvisación, que permite la innovación y la evolución del ritual conforme las circunstancias y contextos cambiantes (cap. 9). En el último capítulo ella compara el ritual amareteño basado en los diez géneros, con el de las otras comunidades kallawayas, demostrando así su absoluta peculiaridad. Luego revisa toda la literatura andina para reforzar esta conclusión y termina con un listado de las cuestiones que siguen abiertas y que muestran la urgencia de una investigación etnohistórica para entender el proceso enigmático de la formación y transformación del ritual kallawaya (cap. 10).
Ina Rösing (IR) tiene un estilo de escribir agradable y entretenido; sabe presentar la investigación como un desafío y la descripción de los hechos culturales como una aventura. Por otra parte, pareciera que la traducción desde el alemán ha sido tan cuidadosa y detallada, tan cercana al texto original, que a ratos afecta a la fluidez y la fácil comprensibilidad del texto español. La autora rechaza enérgicamente y con buenas razones la “antropología muda” de Wachtel, Rivière, Platt, y otros (p. 80). (“El yachac masculla una oración y procede a…” ¿Qué oración? No se sabe). Grato efecto de la “antropología hablada” de IR es la inclusión de gran número de oraciones andinas (transcritas en quechwa y castellano), extensas, hermosas, fuertes, que acompañan e interpretan los rituales irradiando andinidad y haciendo brillar la pacha-vivencia de los ritualistas andinos (ver: pp. 250-257, 402-406, 442-449, 555-559, etc.). El libro contiene también 75 excelentes fotografías etnográficas que son más ilustrativas que largas descripciones verbales. Además de ello, IR logra facilitar considerablemente la comprensión del tema y el discurso, de por sí complejos, por el recurso de “cajas de sinopsis”, 54 en total. Finalmente encontramos amplios y valiosos anexos de vocabulario, bibliografía e índice de autores citados, y un apéndice de 43 “reglas relativas a los 10 géneros de Amarete”. Aparecen pocos errores de imprenta. El libro lleva también 15 croquis fotocopiados del cuaderno de apuntes de la investigadora, que le confieren la grata fragancia del campo y situaciones complejas y confusas, pero es lamentable que, en tan prestigiosa edición, estos croquis son difíciles de leer y, al menos en parte, casi imposibles de descifrar. Otra observación sería que en la base de datos, tan completa en su registro de los rituales, se echaría de menos -como rica vena no aprovechada- que no quedaron registrados y analizados la música y la textilería en el contexto del ritual colectivo. Para el antropólogo, éstas dos son también elocuentes portadoras de información cultural. Lo mismo vale decir también sobre la dieta y la gastronomía en el contexto ritual, que interpretaría el significado de la presencia y la actividad ritual de la mujer, y con mayor razón por cuanto IR lamenta el papel ritual demasiado pobre de la mujer amareteña. Se supone que la música de conjunto producida en Amarete (mal llamada “folklórica”) nunca es simple diversión, sino expresión ritual propia y orgánica; los tejidos, como las vestimentas llevadas en los rituales, las prendas y manteles usados para la mesa ritual, son también expresión de identidad y rol social, de cosmovisión y estructura religiosa.
Vale ir a una discusión crítica sobre la metodología investigativa que IR maneja en todas sus pesquisas kallawayas, pero que en este volumen ella aplica con mayor rigor y llegando hasta sus consecuencias. Como investigadora, IR se ubica entre los revolucionarios de la epistemología del saber científico que no aceptan el objetivismo clásico y con mayor razón rechazan el positivismo en ciencias socioculturales. En cambio, apuestan no al subjetivismo ni al personalismo, sino a la dialéctica y la intersubjetividad como base de la confiabilidad y la veracidad del conocimiento científico generado en la aventura de la investigación antropológica (2). De ahí también el interés de IR por una “antropología hablada”, es decir, por los investigados tales como son: no objetos de estudio, sino seres humanos e interlocutores. La dialéctica y la intersubjetividad es la postura casi inevitable de todo investigador que adopta en forma consecuente las técnicas de la observación y la investigación `participante’. La exigencia de neutralidad valórica y la pretensión de la objetividad más absoluta eran las características de la postura del positivismo clásico y la conditio sine qua non para `generar conocimiento científico’. En cambio, en el ambiente de una epistemología de la dialéctica y en un proceso interactivo entre investigador e investigado que ha de generar el conocimiento científico, la postura intersubjetiva es la que garantiza la veracidad y la confiabilidad del saber científico en ciencias socioculturales. De ahí también que IR como investigadora participante incluye su presencia activa en el registro de los rituales colectivos. Ella nunca pretende un registro simplemente objetivo y anónimo; nunca disimula su presencia, tal como lo exigía en tiempos pasados el código de objetividad y cientificidad positiva. La vemos continuamente presente en el proscenio de la investigación. Ella participa en la acción registrada (p.ej. p. 336) y sus colaboradores participan en la investigación en calidad de verdaderos coinvestigadores de su propia realidad, y ya no como simples informantes locales (pp. 68 ss). Es la observación (e investigación) participativa llevada a sus consecuencias. Cuando IR presenta sus tres coinvestigadores indígenas como muy apreciados amigos de confianza y compadres (p. ej. las pp. 648 y ss.), es ésta la actitud consecuente de la observación (e investigación) participativa. IR, la investigadora académica, es al mismo tiempo la portavoz de confianza de los investigados, donde ellos como coinvestigadores no saben expresarse en el lenguaje académico: ella los interpreta. Atención: la posición de los “coinvestigadores” no es la misma que la del(a) investigador(a) académico(a). Además, aparece otra piedra en el camino: en el informe final, la investigadora asume el papel de traductora del lenguaje popular al académico. En la investigación participativa (la que en sus consecuencias llega a ser “investigación interactiva“; nada lo prohíbe), la perspectiva de la investigación depende, en parte, de la posición que ocupa la investigadora en el proscenio y de la postura valórica que ella lleva.
Vislumbramos en el libro de IR el supuesto que a los kallawayas -los coinvestigadores, sujetos de la investigación- corresponde también garantizar la confiabilidad y la veracidad del saber científico generado en la investigación intersubjetiva interactiva. De ser así, la autodefinición de los investigados, la autointer-pretación de su propia realidad cultural, tiene cierta prioridad sobre la visión del académico que es una visión externa y desde fuera. La primera no reemplaza ni degrada la segunda, sino que ambas se complementan en el proceso de la investigación intersubjetiva, interactiva. Pero los mismos kallawayas pasan a ser la primera autoridad moral para sustentar la veracidad y por eso la cientificidad del saber generado en la odisea de la investigación. Al final, y como exigencia propia del método, encontramos que el ritualista de Amarete y los comuneros en general -los sujetos de la investigación, y ya no simplemente su objetivo- han de reconocerse en la interpretación de su ritual y autorizarla de algún modo, como sello y garantía de veracidad. Es lógico que IR no se conforma con interpretaciones de tipo ético (pp. 759ss), que sólo representan la visión académica del investigador. Ella presenta una interpretación compartida. Efectivamente, la interpretación debe ser de alguna manera reconocida, adoptada y autorizada por los investigados.
Puntualizamos que -aparte de una epistemología dialéctica- este método participativo-interactivo llevado por IR está basado en dos componentes especiales: 1. la presencia y actuación de la investigadora en el proscenio de la investigación, y 2. la participación de los kallawayas en calidad de coinvestigadores.
Sin embargo, esta metodología y la epistemología subyacente llegan necesariamente a su punto crítico. En la discusión al respecto, la consecuencia de su rigor es un punto criticable y criticado, pero también un punto justificable y sostenible.
- La actitud y postura del investigador respecto a su objeto de estudio puede llegar a un punto crítico. IR no escapa a esta `crisis’. Consecuente con su principio metodológico, ella se identifica `émicamente’, en visión y criterio, con sus coinvestigadores kallawayas. ¡CASI siempre! Ella asume desde la primera página una actitud de admiración por la organización social y ritual kallawaya, pero alguna vez abandona esta posición, p. ej. cuando se refiere a la interpretación de los ritualistas con respecto a catástrofes y desgracias naturales, explicándolas como castigo por errores en el ritual y por la deuda sacrificial. Entonces IR se expresa necesariamente en forma neutral, objetiva, distante, reservada; “En la opinión de los amare-teños…”; “Según ellos…” (pp. 514-519).
- Otro efecto inevitable del método participativo-intersubjetivo (digamos ya: interactivo) es que la investigadora influye en el proceso formativo del ritual que ella investiga. IR lo reconoce (p. 678). Esta es una real consecuencia del método. El rechazo de la interpretación científica objetiva y valóricamente neutra en ciencias socioculturales, y la adopción del principio de la intersubjetividad como base del conocimiento generado, abren la posibilidad de la intervención del investigador en su objeto de estudio. Es más: la justifican dentro de exigencias estrictamente éticas. Esto es un elemento totalmente nuevo en el discurso sobre el conocimiento científico y en la metodología de la investigación socio-cultural, postmoderna.
- Otro efecto del método es que ya no se niega ni se disimula la relación emocional y afectiva entre el investigador y la comunidad investigada. IR lo reconoce y ella asume este compromiso. Tocando el tema del futuro incierto y la fe en la fuerza de la tradición amareteña, ella suspira: “…solo cabe compartir con los amareteños esta esperanza” (p. 681). Por lo mismo se explican y se justifican las expresiones dramáticas y nostálgicas de la autora (pp. 781ss.), haciéndose eco de la denuncia del “etnocidio del desarrollo (de la modernización, del inevitable cambio)”, llamado también “holocausto al progreso”. Impresiona también la frase final del libro donde IR pone de hecho su firma autográfica bajo la obra (3): “Irrefutablemente Amarete va a cambiar. Pero lo que Amarete hasta ahora ha realizado y creado, lo que ha configurado y desplegado constituye en todo caso una hazaña cultural fascinante a la que, con este mi libro, le quisiera levantar un monumento” (p. 785). Es la `antropología de compromiso’. Efectivamente, en la metodología de IR no hay rastro de la pretención de la `neutralidad valórica de la investigación’, pero ella demuestra que en ciencias socio-culturales se trata de una cienti-ficidad diferente.
Lo anterior no significa de ninguna manera dar paso a cierta permisividad en los códigos de la metodología, ni una falta de rigor científico. La prueba está en el capítulo 10 del libro donde alguien podría reprocharle un excesivo rigor del método, un perfeccionismo irritante, una odisea casi absurda y masoquista. En los párrafos 3 y 4 (pp. 694-780) se trata de demostrar que la estructura social y ritual de Amarete basada en los 10 géneros es un caso único en la región de los kallawayas, en todo el mundo andino y en el mundo tout court. Sabemos que el desafío más difícil siempre es demostrar empíricamente que no existe un segundo caso; parece una misión imposible. Sin embargo, IR la asume, provocando en el lector más pragmático no solo admiración, sino también irritación, cuando se siente llevado por 85 largas páginas de sofisticados senderos para demostrar que “Amarete es único”. El pragmático diría que este párrafo es sólo para el metodólogo y para el fiscalizador crítico. Para él, esta parte del libro vale como pieza digna del archivo. Nótese que, mientras el pragmático se irrita, el Prinzipienreiter entre los metodólogos quedaría insatisfecho, porque la prueba empírica de IR referente a la unicidad de Amarete no es (y nunca podrá serlo) totalmente impermeable y hermética.
Sin embargo, aun sin meterse en esta discusión queda la pregunta: ¿Se trata en estos párrafos “sofisticados” de un juego personal de IR, fascinada por el misterio de Amarete? ¡No! Los conceptos de los géneros simbólicos, sus principios y sus indicadores resultan ser definiciones y comparaciones salidas de la concepción de los amareteños, de su modo de concebir la realidad (ritual y social) local, no de la imaginación creadora de IR. Los conceptos relacionados de los 10 géneros de Amarete son, irrefutablemente, conceptos “émicos” (pp. 759ss.).
La conclusión de que “Amarete es único” -aunque parezca banal- levanta un problema mayor: ¿Cómo se explica que Amarete sea único? Los capítulos 9 y 10, que contienen las conclusiones del libro, son los de mayor interés para la formación de la teoría antropológica. Muestran una de las vías de un proceso de cambios rituales y de estructuras sociales. Las pp. 646-647 señalan ya el origen etno-histórico local de Amarete, y de su proceso de creciente complejidad del sistema de ordenación basado en el género. La comunidad de Amarete parece haberse aferrado tenazmente a este sistema de ordenación; lo elaboró y lo amplió constantemente conforme las nuevas situaciones. En cambio, las otras comunidades kallawayas parecen haber soltado poco a poco este principio de ordenación social y cúltico, al compás de los cambios socio-económicos y políticos. Resulta que la etno-historia puede ser muy local, conforme a: (a) los contextos locales cambiantes, y (b) las respuestas diferentes de los lugareños y sus dirigentes y ritualistas. IR habla de un proceso etno-histórico de traducción: se trata de la capacidad creativa local de traducir el ritual tradicional en un contexto nuevo, un proceso de traducción (p. 717). No parece aceptable que la aparición de un gran maestro ritualista carismático en la historia local, como Pasqual Tapia (compadre e informante principal de IR), sea un único y fantástico cometa en la historia kallawaya; debe haber una tradición ritual mayor. En una investigación etno-histórica podrían descubrirse los maestros de Don Pascual y la razón por la que precisamente en Amarete se haya desarrollado tan complicado y sofisticado, tan único e impresionante ritual colectivo basado en los 10 géneros simbólicos de los comuneros y la pacha, con sus cerros, chacras y agua.
Para explicar el extraño hecho que en todo el universo kallawaya sólo los amareteños se han organizado en base a los 10 géneros simbólicos y para conseguir más claridad en el bosque de las posibilidades e hipótesis, resulta definitivamente necesario desentrañar la dimensión etno-histórica de la investigación; una exhaustiva investigación etno-histórica para entender la formación y transformación del ritual local de Amarete. La autora es la primera en reconocerlo y sugerirlo (pp. 676, 680, 691).
Sobre la investigadora: IR, la maestra investigadora, es admirable por su asombrosa capacidad de trabajo, su inagotable energía, su absoluto rigor científico. Admirable es también por su actitud de autocrítica y su exigencia hasta el extremo con respecto a su propia investigación. Como investigadora es perfeccionista, incansable. Ciertamente no peca de falsa modestia; muestra sin reservas su propia excelencia. En las partes de su investigación bibliográfica, critica implacablemente los vacíos y las deficiencias metodológicas de insignes colegas investigadores, pero siempre reconociendo cabalmente sus valores y valorando generosamente sus logros (p.ej. el cap. 10, en que valora y critica a P. Flores, N. Wachtel, T. Platt y G. Rivière). Como colega investigadora IR es tan respetable como temible. Como maestra investigadora ella sabrá, sin duda, potenciar el todo de sus discípulos.
Sobre la investigación: En mi opinión, la obra completa del MUNDO INKARI de IR es y será siempre un clásico en creatividad científica e información antropológica; y un abre-caminos para la metodología postmoderna en ciencias socio-culturales. La obra es una digna continuación de los tomos anteriores. Una investigación de largo alcance, de gran rigor, de mayor relevancia y que descubre una realidad cultural muy profunda, jamás sospechada e imposible de descubrir con una metodología positivista: demostrando que las grandes obras nacen no del robot académico, sino de un gran amor.
Notas
(1) El primer ciclo del Mundo Ankari (los Vols. 1-4) comprende:
IR: Die Verbannung der Trauer (Llaki Wij’chuna). Nächtliche Heilungsrituale in den Hochanden Boliviens; Mundo Ankari, Band 1; Nördlingen: Greno, 1987.
IR: Dreifaltigkeit und Orte der Kraft: die Weisze Heilung. Nächtliche Heilungsrituale in den Hochanden Boliviens; Mundo Ankari, Band 2; Nördlingen: Greno, 1988.
IR: Abwehr und Verderben: die Schwarze Heilung. Nächtliche Heilungsrituale in den Hochanden Boliviens; Mundo Ankari, Band 3; Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins, 1990.
IR: Die Schlieszung des Kreises: Von der Schwarzen Heilung über Grau zum Weisz. Nächtliche Heilungsrituale in den Hochanden Boliviens; Mundo Ankari, Band 4; Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins, 1991.
El segundo ciclo del Mundo Ankari comienza con el volumen 5 de la obra, titulado:
IR: Rituale zur Rufung des Regens. Zweiter ANKARI-Zyklus: Kollektivrituale der Kallawaya-Region in den Anden Boliviens; Mundo Ankari, Band 5; Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins, 1993.
(2) Con Peter Kloos podemos considerar el conocimiento intersubjetivo como el fundamento de la epistemología dialéctica y del saber científico en las ciencias socio-culturales de la época actual, postpositivista: P. Kloos, Filosofie van de antropologie, Ed. Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden, pp. 25 ss.
(3) Este modo personal de hacerse presente el antropólogo en su informe, es lo que Peter Kloos, o.c. (defensor de la postura intersubjetiva como fundamento epistemológico del nuevo método científico en ciencias socio-culturales, y como garantía de credibilidad y veracidad) señala como “la autografía del investigador” justificándola y exigiéndola por la misma razón que el artista tiene para firmar su obra, ya que se trata de su interpretación fidedigna de la realidad observada.
Juan van Kessel – Instituto para el Estudio de la Cultura y Tecnología Andina (IECTA), Av. Diego Portales 2046, Iquique. E-mail: iecta@chilesat.net.
[IF]
El Salvador: The Land. Philippines: The Land. Vietnam: The Land – NICKLES (CSS)
NICKLES, Greg. El Salvador: The Land. Crabtree Publishing: New York, St. Catherines, ON, Oxford, 2002. 32p. NICKLES, Greg. Philippines: The Land. Crabtree Publishing: New York, St. Catherines, ON, Oxford, 2002. 32p. KALMAN, Bobbi. Vietnam: The Land (Revised Ed.). Crabtree Publishing: New York, St. Catherines, ON, Oxford, 2002. Pp. 32p. LIOR, Noa; STEELE, Tara. Spain: New York: The Land. Crabtree Publishing; St. Catherines, ON, Oxford, 2002. 32p. Resenha de: DARLING, Linda Farr. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
What do elementary students and their teachers want to discover in a geography book? We could start with engaging and authoritative descriptions of places, stunning photography of landscapes and human activity, and a sensitive portrayal of what makes the cultures of a country unique and dynamic. In the four books I examined in this new geography series for young students-The Land, Peoples, and Cultures Series which includes twenty-two titles to date-vibrant pictures, straightforward text, and a well-organized layout introduce the natural features and resources, the industries and architectures, and the past events and pastimes that shape the diverse countries of El Salvador, Vietnam, Spain, and the Philippines. All four books have been produced with a keen eye for colour, design and sensible layout in an 8 by 11 inch format. The contents of each volume cover a lot of ground in about thirty pages, so understandably we see a few slices of life, and not a great amount of detail. I was pleased to see that modern urban areas are represented alongside more traditional rural communities, and that an appealing mix of photographs includes children at play as well as loaded ships at port (a staple it seems in geographical archives). Each book begins with a ‘facts at a glance’ box and ends with a brief index (very helpful) and glossary with brief definitions (not as helpful). Leia Mais
Rum and Axes: The Rise of a Connecticut Merchant Family, 1795-1850 – SISKIND (CSS)
SISKIND, Janet. Rum and Axes: The Rise of a Connecticut Merchant Family, 1795-1850. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002. 191p. Resenha de: GILLIS, Michael J.. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
Siskind’s Rum and Axes is an examination of the rise of industrial capitalism in Connecticut after the American Revolution. The author uses the Watkinson-Collins family as her vehicle to reveal the social tensions and economic motivations that permeated the rise of capitalism during this era. Relying on three generations of primary materials Siskind recreates and explains the changing world of the Watkinsons. As members of a religious ‘dissenting society’ while living in East Anglia England, the Watkinsons subscribed to the practice of maintaining social distinctions based on class. However, as middle class dissenters the family found itself being squeezed between an aristocratic land owning class above them and a tradesman and shop-owning class below them. As religious and economic conflicts continued to grow in England, they sought safe harbor for themselves and their capital in America.
In America the families discovered that labour was too expensive to go into farming or wool production so they entered the West Indies import business, focusing mostly on rum and dry goods. As importers and merchants they were able to become a member of New England’s elite without severing their personal relationships with their workers. Eventually, however, the Watkinsons and Collins moved beyond the simple importation of goods when they established their own axe factory and by doing so they firmly established themselves as part of New England’s emerging industrial capitalist class.
Siskind does a good job of examining the inner workings of the Collins Axe Company and its labour force. Initially the company sought to employ skilled workers by providing long-term contracts, company housing and schools. With the introduction of new machinery, however, there was a gradual transition in the factory from skilled to unskilled labour. As skilled Yankee artisans were replaced by Irish labourers so too did the Watkinsons and Collins move from being paternalistic employers to distant supervisors with little interest in their employee’s welfare. Remarkably, when it became apparent that many of their axe company employees were dying from lung diseases brought on by the airborne particles created in the axe grinding process, the owners simply wrote it off as the price of doing business. Here we can see how removed from their employees the company owners had become. The transition from Christian ‘dissenters’ on the run to crass company owners who see the deaths of their employees as the price of progress makes for interesting reading. Siskind explores this transition by examining the family’s letters, their religious ideology, and emerging capitalist society in New England.
This book ably examines the early rise of capitalism in New England as well as exploring numerous familial and business relationships associated with it. The author’s close reading and interpretation of Samuel Watkinson Collins’ memoir is also valuable. Here she traces how quickly the relationship between worker and company owner had changed and how the ideology of the capitalist class was changing as well.
Rum and Axes is suitable for use in high schools with the understanding that this is more than just a simple straightforward colonial history. Siskind, an anthropologist, places strong emphasis on the means of production and how its attendant labour systems create culture. For younger students, this approach will perhaps be difficult to understand and for teachers difficult to demonstrate. However, there is plenty here to create lively classroom discussions. In addition, the author’s extensive use of primary materials offers the readers an intimate look at a remarkable yet troubled family in post-revolution America.
Michael J. Gillis – Department of History. California State University, Chico
USA. Acessar publicação original
Canada Revisited 8: Confederation, The Development of Western Canada, A Changing Society – ARNOLD et al (CSS)
ARNOLD, Phyllis A.; CLARK, Penney; WESTERLUND, Ken. Canada Revisited 8: Confederation, The Development of Western Canada, A Changing Society. Arnold Publishing: Edmonton, 2000. 392p. DEIR, Elspeth; FIELDING, John; ADAMS, George; BRUNE, Nick; GRANT, Brune; GRANT, Peter; ABRAM, Stephanie Smith; WHITE, Carol. Canada: The Story of a Developing Nation. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2000. 376p. Resenha de: GLASSFORD, Larry A.. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
What is the purpose of a history textbook in 2003? Is it yesterday’s learning tool, the pedagogical equivalent of spats and buggy whips – hopelessly out of fashion, and no longer very useful? Has the computer, with its CDs, DVDs and program software, plus the Internet with its virtually limitless websites and e-mail possibilities, rendered book learning obsolete? Only if teachers and students lack flexibility and imagination. Having access to an attractive, informative and challenging print resource does not exclude any of the electronic learning possibilities. The two are compatible, even complementary. If the roles were reversed, computers were the traditional technology, and books had just been invented, imagine the excitement. For that matter, imagine the advertising: So durable, so compact, so interactive, so cost-effective, so easy to use. Put one of these new lightweight ‘books’ in your child’s hands, and watch the learning curve rise. Beg, borrow or buy one NOW. Use books every day! Little more than a decade ago, history textbooks aimed at the senior elementary/junior high school market were still largely dependent upon traditional print communication – black-ink words on a white page – to convey a mass of factual information to students. Accompanying illustrations, be they photographs, diagrams, charts or cartoons, were usually black and white, too. Authors considered themselves lucky to be allotted one accent colour – blue, say, or red – to add a bit of variety, and serve as a means to emphasize key points. Such books were essentially narrative texts, with periodic breaks for the usual questions of recall or comprehension, perhaps supplemented by a few suggested learning activities of a higher order.
Nowadays, history textbooks for this age bracket have a dramatically different look. Bigger, bolder, and brighter, they are awash in colour. Marginal notations, boxed vignettes, captioned illustrations and full-colour charts augment, perhaps even interrupt, the flow of the central narrative, which is purposely kept short with frequent headings and sub-headings. It is as though the original designers of USA Today have been at work, creating a new kind of textbook for students who do not particularly like to read. The end result is a visually appealing book, though, and one that invites pupil browsing.
The two textbooks covered in this review are similar in many ways. While Arnold Publishing was a pioneer in Canada of the more visually oriented textbook, the Ontario publishers such as McGraw-Hill Ryerson soon caught on, and there is now little to distinguish the two on this score. Both of these books are clearly aimed at the Ontario Grade 8 history course, which covers Canadian history from the 1860s to the 1910s. To be absolutely clear to potential buyers, the Arnold book deliberately lists the three prescribed topics from the Ontario guidelines in its sub-title, namely Confederation, The Development of Western Canada, and A Changing Society. The McGraw-Hill Ryerson book, by contrast, is content to make those three topics the basis of the three main units prominently listed in its Table of Contents. Both books have received approval from the Ontario Ministry for this grade and course.
Following the lead of the Ontario curriculum document, the two books focus on comprehension of material over rote recall, and provide frequent suggestions for learning activities by which the students will demonstrate their mastery of the content. For the topic of Confederation, the McGraw-Hill Ryerson text suggests that students design a poster either supporting or opposing Confederation (p. 97). Under the same topic, the Arnold text invites students to create a series of diary entries that might have been written by John A. Macdonald (p. 115). In each case, the learning task would require students to take information provided by the textbook and communicate it in a new way.
Similarly, the two textbooks overtly provide opportunities for students to practise and acquire key skills in the areas of inquiry research, critical thinking and communication. For example, as part of a chapter on the National Policy, 1878-1896, the Arnold book presents a series of questions by which students can critically analyse a political cartoon (pp. 244-5). In the McGraw-Hill Ryerson book, a pioneer’s account of settling in Manitoba in the 1870s is presented, with suggestions for ways to test its authenticity by examining other available evidence (p. 187). Each publisher offers further support materials and activity ideas for teachers in an auxiliary resource package (sold separately).
The Ontario history curriculum shies away from overt expectations in the values domain. However, it is clear that both author teams have understood the need for equity in terms of both gender balance and attention to visible minorities. While males outnumber females in the Indexes of both books by a sizeable margin, a clear effort has nevertheless been made to depict women as well as men in the numerous illustrations. The extension of full legal and political rights to women is highlighted in both books as part of the changing society at the turn of the twentieth century. Attention to various aspects of social and cultural history also provides valid opportunities to focus on the contributions of female Canadians. Aboriginal Canadians warrant significant coverage in both texts, as well, particularly in the chapters devoted to the development of Western Canada. Other visible minorities – Asian Canadians and African Canadians – are periodically mentioned, along with supporting photographs. Furthermore each of the books invites students to imagine situations from more than one perspective, thus encouraging both empathy and tolerance.
It is easier to describe how the two books are similar than to point out how they differ, although there are some minor contrasts in how a chapter is laid out. In each case, the authors provide a highly visual opener, previewing what the student will encounter in the pages to follow, along with a listing of key phrases. A combination of short narrative bursts, punctuated by colour headings and frequent illustrations – photos, cartoons, maps, charts, historic posters – constitute the body of each chapter. Boxed items provide supplementary information, such as a thumbnail biography of a related historical personality, invariably accompanied by a photograph or other visual material. In the Arnold book, the periodic questions of comprehension spaced throughout the chapter are grouped under the heading, For Your Notebook, whereas in the McGraw-Hill Ryerson text, the corresponding heading is The Story So Far. The kinds of questions provided appear to be similar, however, as do the more substantive tasks offered at the end of each chapter. The McGraw-Hill Ryerson book does provide a one-paragraph summary at chapter’s end; the Arnold text moves right into its series of learning activities.
Here are a few general differences to guide a curriculum committee’s choice between these two fine print resources. The Arnold book leans a little more to bright colours in its presentation, though the ratio of print to visual is close to 60:40 in both cases. The McGraw-Hill Ryerson book seems to follow the suggested content of the Ontario curriculum a little closer, although an alert teacher would have no trouble matching chapters to expectations using either resource. The references to related Internet websites are more frequent in the McGraw-Hill Ryerson text, and more likely to be used by students. An appendix on learning skills in the Arnold book is more comprehensive than the scattered items entitled Research Is Happening Here in the McGraw-Hill Ryerson book. The ongoing visual timelines in the latter book are very helpful; the frequent appearance of colour maps in the former serve a similar purpose in illustrating changes over time. At the risk of gross simplification, it seems that the Arnold book might work better with students who have not yet developed any real liking for history. The McGraw-Hill Ryerson book, by contrast, might be a better fit for students already turned on to the subject, and ready for a little more challenge.
Has the trend to a more student-friendly textbook, replete with colourful visual content, and broken up into the print equivalent of short sound bites, been a positive one? One well-known critic of progressive educators does not believe so. J.L. Granatstein, in Who Killed Canadian History?, has bemoaned the fact that a certain textbook familiar to him had been noticeably glitzed up in appearance but watered down in language and detail between its first and third editions (p. 39). Granatstein is determinedly old school, in that he continues to insist that factual content is important, and chronology is vital. Not for him a present-minded issues approach that begins and ends with the present. Nevertheless, the two books featured in this review have managed to retain a fair amount of factual information, have not abandoned their chronological integrity, and yet have managed to integrate a skills-based approach that trains students in how to do history, all the while presenting the course material in a lively and challenging fashion. This is no small achievement, and both author teams deserve credit for blending the traditional and progressive approaches to history so skilfully.
Assuming the curriculum guidelines stay the same, what should the authors and publishers be doing for the next edition of these books? For starters, they should continue to look for ways to dovetail the print-oriented textbook with burgeoning Internet resources. Specific website references that are integrated into the flow of the textbook will promote meaningful investigation, and discourage aimless fishing trips on the web. Secondly, the skills components can be more overtly and systematically woven through the content of the textbooks, possibly arranged in such a way that simple skills from previous years can be practised again, then developed into more complex ones as the students move through the book. Thirdly, more thought can be given to the values potential of history, in particular the opportunities for values clarification and values analysis exercises. Admittedly, the Ontario curriculum guidelines for this grade are largely silent on values, so the authors have had to tread carefully here. Finally, new discoveries and interpretations from academic historians must continually be woven into the fabric of the text, so that the students, and their teachers, are exposed to the best and most recent syntheses of our country’s history. Otherwise, a text can easily become outdated.
That there will be a need for new editions of these textbooks, I have no doubt. Just as print newspapers have survived the arrival of the radio, then television, and now the Internet, so print textbooks will continue to play a useful, albeit modified, role in the schools of the future. These two books under review represent the current state of the art in textbook technology, and properly updated, should continue to inform, stimulate and challenge Canadian students, well into the future.
References
Granatstein, J.L. (1998). Who Killed Canadian History? Toronto: HarperCollins.
Larry A. Glassford – Faculty of Education. University of Windsor. Windsor, Ontario.
[IF]
Here: A Biography of the New American Continent – DePALMA (CSS)
DePALMA, Anthony. Here: A Biography of the New American Continent. New York: PublicAffairs, 2001. 375p. Resenha de: HOFFMAN, George. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
In this much-acclaimed book, Anthony DePalma argues that the traditional continental divisions in North America are fading. Canada and Mexico, though still distinctive, are becoming more American and the United States is beginning to pay more attention to its northern and southern neighbours. By the end of the 20th century North America was more than a geographic expression; it was becoming an economic, cultural and even political entity.
DePalma reported from both ends of the continent in the 1990s. He was the New York Times foreign correspondent in Mexico City from 1993 to 1996 and in Ottawa from 1996 to 1999. This gave him an unusually good vantage point during an interesting decade. In 1994, from Mexico, he reported on the peso crisis and the assassination of Luis Donaldo Cololosio, who many expected to become the next Mexican president. He travelled deep into the forests of Chiapas and heard Subcomandante Marcos address his Zapatista followers. In Canada he reported on the Nisga’a Treaty, visited the Inuit of Igloolik in the Arctic, and commented on the aftermath of the sovereignty referendum in Quebec. Here: A Biography of the New American Continent is based on such experiences. It is impressively reported and eloquently written. DePalma has an acute reporter’s eye.
The book is the story of the personal re-education (DePalma uses this term in the preface, p. xiii) of a journalist who understood little about Mexico and Canada before he lived there. He reports to Americans on their neighbours and informs them that the three countries can no longer exist as islands. In the new global age they have no choice in this matter; they are stuck with each other. DePalma believes that the United States, because of its wealth, power and past errors, has a special obligation as these new realities take shape. The book is an appeal for Americans to look southward and northward. Canada and Mexico are vital to the future of the continent. They have great potential and are interesting, culturally diverse societies. And surely, DePalma argues, diversity is a virtue in the interdependent world of the 21st century. Here is a book more for Americans than for Canadians and Mexicans. The author hopes that by reading it the American public will experience some of the re-education which he did.
The title of the book is interesting. DePalma attempts to write the biography of a place, the new America, which he believes emerged in the 1990s. But, of course, biography cannot be written without looking back at where the subject came from. Thus the author reflects extensively on the histories of Mexico and Canada in light of the critical changes on the continent which he witnessed. However, the book should not be read primarily to understand Canadian history. There are over generalizations, misleading impressions and errors. Are the thousands of loyalists (p. 78) who settled in Canada at the time of the American Revolution the major explanation for Canadian anti-Americanism over the next two centuries? Did Eastern Europeans who settled in the Canadian west bring socialist ideals with them (p. 78), which contributed to the development of cooperatives on the prairies and a national publicly funded medical system? This would be news to the vast majority of Ukrainians, Poles, Hungarians and Mennonites who came from Russia and Austria in search of land. Has Pierre Trudeau’s Charter of Rights made Canada more American? Is use of the charter to enhance Native treaty claims and gay rights evidence of creeping Americanism (p. 203)? Certainly many Canadians, and likely most Americans, would question that assumption. Can the massive Progressive Conservative defeat in 1993 and Brian Mulroney’s personal unpopularity be explained by a backlash against the Free Trade agreement (p. 50)? This ignores Meech Lake and the rise of the Reform party in the west, a party that supported free trade. And surely DePalma’s sympathetic treatment of Andy McMechan’s hatred for the Canadian Wheat Board (pp. 204-208) sheds little light on the differences between Canadians and Americans and even less on the history of prairie agriculture.
January 1, 1994, the date NAFTA went into effect, is central to the thesis of the book. It marked the birth of the new America. DePalma acknowledges that there was considerable opposition in all three countries. Some people in the short run were hurt. Others were more marginalized than ever. Change never occurs without a social cost. But, in the end, the author argues, the proponents of NAFTA were right, and the agreement created a new and better continent. He concludes that in the mid-90s the United States, Mexico and Canada, though still different and despite continuing tensions, began to focus on what they had in common and not to accentuate their differences. In the process Mexico became more democratic, less corrupt and more economically stable; Canada was less nationalistic, less obsessed with its identity; and the United States was less insular, more outward looking, more international. DePalma sees the outcomes of the three almost concurrent national elections in 2000 as a manifestation of that continental conversion (p. 343) that had begun earlier in the decade. The winners, George W. Bush, Vincente Fox and Jean Chrtien strongly supported NAFTA and greater continental cooperation.
DePalma’s views are optimistic, even idealistic. He approvingly refers to Vclev Havel’s speech to the Canadian parliament in 1999. The poet-president of the Czech Republic claimed that the nation state was passing away and that he foresaw a world in which traditional states would cede power to international agencies. To Anthony DePalma the new America is a part of that future. Blurring national differences will usher in a new and better world.
Possibly this is a prophetic book, but surely it is too soon to tell. In fact, the events of the past three years lead one to question its conclusions more than support them. Large numbers of Mexicans continue to live in desperate poverty. Opposition to globalization is growing. The Balkans and Middle East appear to disprove Vclav Havel’s vision of declining nationalism. The Iraq War was a disastrous setback to international cooperation. And certainly the United States, Mexico and Canada were not a triumvirate against Saddam Hussein! George W. Bush, the first president during the new North American age, is far less popular among Canadians than Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy who were in office when Canada, according to DePalma, spent much of its energy opposing continental integration and distinguishing itself from the United States.
Obviously this book is thought provoking and controversial. The issues it raises should be discussed in all Canadian classrooms.
George Hoffman – History Department. University of Regina. Regina, Saskatchewan.
[IF]
Citizenship Through Secondary Geography – LAMBERT; MACHON (CSS)
LAMBERT, David; MACHON, Paul. Eds. Citizenship Through Secondary Geography. London & New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001. 209p. Resenha de: MEYER, John. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
Two previous books on citizenship through (history, English) have been published in the Citizenship Education in Secondary Schools Series edited by John Moss. In this third book, one must read both the Preface and the concluding chapter (13th) written exclusively by British educators in order to understand the intent (pp. xvii-xix), the difficulties in writing the chapters (pp. 199-202), and the general contents (pp. 203-208). Chapters 2-5 contextualize citizenship in geography education historically, internationally and through processes of values education that have long been advocated for use in geography classrooms (p. 203). Chapters 6-10 explored the capacity of geography as a school subject to help pupils’ encounters with environmental debates, with questions of identity and community, with ‘otherness’ and exclusion (p. 203). Chapters 11 -12 take the discussion right back into school, reviewing appropriate classroom pedagogies for citizenship education and discussing issues arising from the tensions that inevitably arise when change is advocated or imposed (p. 203). The U.K. government mandated that values education will be taught both as a fundamental subject starting in 2002 as well as a topic integrated with various subject areas in all schools at certain age levels through the revised geography National Curriculum and the 1999 Order for Citizenship statutory policy. Hence, this book and this series attempt to provide a predominantly theoretical underpinning with some specific suggestions for classroom teaching and learning. The authors have wrestled with the complexities of values education from definitional problems through curricular implementation issues. Leia Mais
Citizenship: Issues and Action – EVANS; SLODOVNICK (CSS)
EVANS, Mark; SLODOVNICK, Michael; ZORIC, Terezia; EVANS, Rosemary. Citizenship: Issues and Action. Toronto: Prentice Hall, 2000. 230p. Resenha de: MEYER, John. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
This is one of four recent textbooks on the Ontario Trillium list of approved resources for grade ten civics courses. Hence, it conforms to the prescribed civics framework and the strands of the Ontario curriculum, i.e., informed citizenship, purposeful citizenship, and active citizenship. There is a teachers’ resource aid and a companion web site, www.pearsoned.ca/civics, available but not for this review. There are ten commendable features of this book, namely, focus questions, definitions of key terms, info sources, profiles of people and organizations in action, case studies, supplementary visuals, activity blocks, skill builders, chapter reviews, and icons for media and technology analysis.
The six chapters begin with the individual as citizen and extend outward to global citizenship. While providing opportunities to investigate what it means to be a responsible citizen in a democratic setting it also assists in understanding three essential elements: a sense of membership, a set of rights and freedoms, and a corresponding set of obligations (p. vii). In chapter one, Me, A Citizen?, the reader is introduced to some fundamental skills, for example, identifying a main idea and supporting evidence as described in the citizen’s toolkit (p. 11) or developing a personal decision-making strategy (p. 15). The feature, Activities: The Inquiring Citizen, includes extended activities that may be used in the classroom or for homework. The activities promote being informed, purposeful, and active. Perhaps a few more leads or examples could have been included for a more in-depth analysis but these might be contained in the teacher resource material. In the section on the meaning of democracy, the concept of equality and social justice is introduced without any analysis of what those concepts mean (p. 17). Occasionally, I find quotes that do not provide specific references which means that either the teacher has to supply such or the authors of these statements may go unrecognized. Also, mention of the Education Act (p. 29) should have been modified by the word provincial.
I believe that part of the problem for the inactivity of many citizens is that there has been undue emphasis on human rights and insufficient attention to responsibilities within those societies that have achieved an acceptable level of the implementation of human rights. Hence, I would have preferred that any discussion about a citizen’s responsibilities in a democratic society be considered before the discussion about human rights and that it be emphasized that human rights are limited. We need more codes of responsibilities rather than codes of rights and the natures of both should be reinforced. Note that only three pages are given to the section on responsibilities (pp. 26-28). The concluding section (pp. 32-34) on young Canadians’ potential for making a difference lacks the opportunity to provide the current thrust on service or volunteerism in the community. There are abundant examples and guidelines in most jurisdictions for such young citizenship in action. Certainly, citizens tend to be generous in times of crisis but there is a need for early development of altruism prior to crisis.
Chapters two, three, and four are heavy with information about federal, provincial, and local governments. Some aspects of these topics were probably introduced in previous grades or subject such as history, Canadian studies, and social studies. If that is the case, then these information sections should be confined to a review or avoided in favour of more attention to the purposeful and action sections which are excellent. Other minor flaws include: no mention in the profile of the date appointment (p. 117); no reference to the web site, www.electionscan.com (p. 122); no specific reference to the political party web sites (p. 129); insufficient elaboration of skills for detecting bias (p. 134); and no reference as an activity to the many and excellent web sites on various governments (p. 145). Also, the teacher and readers should try to update any data (info source 2-11, p. 62) from current and reliable resources such as Stats Canada.
Of course, since this book was published the array of internet resources has grown exponentially and students will discover them if challenged or mandated to do so. It is an increasing challenge to teachers to fill the gaps and reinforce skill building so that students will access and use the resources in the most meaningful ways. I am very much impressed with the format of this book and the many features which enhance the attraction to learning for the readers. The topic of citizenship or civics deserves more than the time permitted by the Ontario curriculum. Let us hope that other jurisdictions and Ontario itself will allocate at least a full semester or year’s course carefully integrated with competing and compatible subjects.
Perhaps, a more important measure of the effects of this text resource would be an assessment of those who have been using it in their Ontario classrooms on the half semester basis for the past two years. To my knowledge, there are no results or even comparative results from an assessment study. If there is a significant use of these resources as textbooks in the classroom, then a comparative analysis and assessment of this resource and the other three approved texts and their supplementary teacher’s resource publications should be done. This might inform us about the effects of consistent use of a resource or text upon student learning in conjunction with teacher skills.
John R. Meyer (Retired) – Faculty of Education. University of Windsor. Windsor, ON.
[IF]
A África e os africanos na formação do mundo atlântico / John Thornton
Uma das principais lições da exposição sobre a arte africana realizada no ano passado, que apresentou ao público brasileiro uma parte do acervo do Museu Etnológico de Berlim, foi a de mostrar que a África subsaariana, região de profundas ligações com o Brasil e de onde vieram muitos de nossos ancestrais, era formada por sociedades com um alto nível tecnológico e artístico. Isso foi revelado quando se deparava, com certa dose de emoção, com as esculturas em bronze, latão e mesmo terracota, produzidas nos reinos dos lundas, em Ifé, no Benin e nos Camarões, entre os séculos X I I I e XIX, ou quando se observava os registros históricos feitos na perspectiva dos africanos sobre os primeiros tempos de contato, deixados nas placas que revestiam o palácio do Benin e nas quais estavam reproduzidas as imagens dos portugueses recém-chegados.
O mérito da obra de John K. Thornton, A África e os africanos na formação do mundo atlântico (1400-1800) —cuja tradução há muito aguardada f o i , sem dúvida, bem vinda— é o de tratar de maneira eqüitativa os mundos que se encontram a partir da expansão marítima ibérica, nos inícios da modernidade. Referência obrigatória para os estudos sobre as relações entre a América, a Europa e a África pré-colonial, as teses de Thornton contribuem para que seja ampliado o entendimento do papel das sociedades africanas na formação do complexo intercontinental atlântico.
E tema que nos interessa de maneira particular. Não só a América Portuguesa foi constituída como parte do mesmo processo, como a escravidão africana f o i o eixo em torno do qual a sociedade brasileira se desenvolveu durante pelo menos três séculos de história. Por este motivo, as conexões entre a África e o Brasil tem sido a tônica de importantes estudos sobre a sociedade do Brasil colonial e imperial —de Pierre Verger a José Honório Rodrigues e Maurício Goulart e, mais recentemente, João José Reis, Luis Felipe de Alencastro, Manolo Florentino, Alberto da Costa e Silva, Selma Pantoja e Roquinaldo Ferreira, só para mencionar alguns. Alargando os horizontes da pesquisa sobre um período crucial das histórias dos dois lados do oceano, a preocupação que Thornton compartilha com estes autores é a de tratar as sociedades africanas como parte integrante e ativa da constituição do Atlântico Sul; o ponto de partida é o rompimento com os vieses eurocêntricos, de fundo colonialista e racial, que deixaram marcas profundas nos estudos históricos e que precisam ser constantemente revistos.
A obra f o i publicada em 1992, por este historiador responsável por um conjunto expressivo de trabalhos sobre diversos aspectos da história da África subsaariana. Especialista nas sociedades centro-ocidentais, analisou desde estruturas políticas e conflitos do mundo pré-colonial às figuras femininas de projeção histórica como a rainha Njinga (ou Nzinga), do reino de Ndongo-Matamba, em luta pelo reconhecimento de seu poder político, e a profeta D . Beatriz Kimpa Vita, líder dos antonianos que sonhava, nos finais do século X V I I , com a restauração do reino do Kongo. Perseguiu, além disso, em artigos publicados nas principais revistas internacionais, imbricações entre dinâmicas africanas e movimentos ocorridos na América, perscrutando a presença de ideologias políticas e estratégias militares africanas em movimentos de escravos, como na Revolução de São Domingos de 1791, e na Revolta de Stono, nos Estados Unidos, em 1739. Temas audaciosos que abrem novas perspectivas não só para o entendimento dos nexos entre os dois continentes como para o significado amplo da diáspora africana.
O trabalho em questão encontra-se dividido em duas partes. A primeira examina aspectos das sociedades africanas substanciais para se entender a relação com os europeus e o envolvimento progressivo destas no comércio de escravos. Após pontuar características da navegação e da expansão atlânticas do século X V , acompanha a natureza dos laços estabelecidos entre parceiros comerciais (africanos e europeus), analisando o rol de mercadorias trazidas à costa, em grande parte artigos supérfluos ao gosto dos dignitários africanos e de suas cortes. N um movimento analítico similar, mas com implicações contrapostas à idéia da vitimização do continente, considera que a inserção das sociedades da África no tráfico atendeu a dinâmicas internas, mobilizou uma rede de intermediários locais e fortaleceu o poder de elites e de senhores da guerra. Estabelecendo as correlações entre armamentos-guerras- escravos, Thornton deixa no ar, no entanto, uma questão substancial: considerando o século X V I I I , indaga-se até que ponto as sociedades africanas, antes soberanas, tornam-se prisioneiras de um circuito do qual dificilmente conseguem sair. A não ser quando, a partir dos inícios do X I X , os europeus mudam de perspectiva e passam a questionar a própria continuidade do tráfico. Mas, política que preconizava, de fato, um outro e mais formidável ataque.
A segunda parte trata dos africanos em diáspora e aprofunda temas relativos às mudanças que introduziram nos territórios coloniais para os quais foram levados. A começar pela fisionomia de muitas das cidades americanas que mais se assemelhavam a Guinés transplantadas do que a mundos de colonização branca. Embora não ofereça, nesta parte, a mesma densidade de informações que na anterior, a interpretação de Thornton é sugestiva, pois se orienta a importantes direções. Uma delas pontua os movimentos da escravidão na perspectiva do conjunto das colônias na América, nas ilhas atlânticas e no Caribe. Sem perder de vista as singularidades de cada uma das sociedades, acompanha as condições de vida e de trabalho dos escravos nos engenhos de açúcar do nordeste brasileiro, nas plantations antilhanas e no sul dos Estados Unidos, bem como nas haáendas da América Espanhola e oferece ao leitor um quadro das diferenças e recorrências existentes entre os mundos da escravidão americana.
Numa outra direção analítica, o autor destaca a diversidade africana que se transfere para a América não só por meio de culturas transformadas pela diáspora, como por meio de agrupamentos étnicos criados pela escravidão.
Assinala que escravos e forros de uma mesma nação —tal como estes agrupamentos foram chamados nas fontes portuguesas, bem como de terre nos documentos franceses e de country, nos de língua inglesa — trabalhavam juntos ou próximos, encontravam-se com freqüência em cerimônias das irmandades religiosas e nas reuniões de sociedades secretas, e consolidavam uniões matrimoniais, relações de compadrio e parentelas amplas. Entre estas nações, Thornton sublinha grupos como os minas, os nagôs, os lucumis, os congo-angolas e os bambaras que, de fato, não existiam como tais no continente africano, mas que se tornaram referência para a organização dos africanos e dos afrodescendentes no Novo Mundo. Nesse aspecto particular, suas interpretações decorrem da premissa — inovadora para a época em que o livro f o i escrito — de que o tráfico não f o i exclusivamente um elemento de dispersão e ruptura. A o contrário, na ótica de conceitos interpretativos amplos como o de grupos de procedência e de zonas culturais, concentrou determinados grupos em regiões e épocas históricas específicas.
Na área de conhecimento histórico num campo relativamente recente, Thornton não se exime de estabelecer polêmicas ao longo das argumentações. Discute com Walter Rodney os efeitos das ações européias sobre o desenvolvimento africano pré-colonial e o sentido de ruptura social atribuído ao tráfico; com Paul Lovejoy, a natureza da instituição da escravidão na África; com Sidney Mintz e Richard Price, a fisionomia das culturas escravas.
Além disso, suas colocações oferecem aos leitores a oportunidade de refletir sobre a produção historiográfica brasileira que amplia o debate sobre relações étnicas, identidades afro-brasileiras e nações diaspóricas —entre outros, os trabalhos de João José Reis, Mary Karash, Robert Slenes, Mariza Soares, Maria Inês Cortês de Oliveira, Luis Nicolau Pares, Lorand Matory etc. Produção que sublinha, acima de tudo, a propriedade de serem historicizadas as trajetórias de africanos e afrodescendentes na diáspora.
Sem minimizar a importância da publicação, é necessário considerar dois percalços. O primeiro diz respeito à extensão cronológica dada ao estudo em sua segunda edição (de 1998 e base para a tradução brasileira), que levou até 1800 os marcos da edição de 1992, limitados ao período de 1400 a 1680. Dada a complexidade do tema, acredito que a ampliação para o longo século XVIII mereceria explanações mais profundas não plenamente contempladas no capítulo adicional — o 11, “Os africanos no mundo atlântico do século XVIII”. O segundo refere-se a imprecisões da tradução que poderia ter sido feita com mais cuidado. Só para exemplificar, chamo a atenção para a tradução literal de New-Christians por “novos-cristãos” (pp. 435,242); a denominação da Escola dos Annales como “Escola dos Anais” (p. 44); ou a expressão the English-speaking world (p. 321 da 2a . ed. norte-americana) como “no mundo do inglês falado” (p. 415).
Num mercado editorial carente, a disponibilidade para o público brasileiro da tradução de África e os africanos naformação do mundo atlântico deve ser dimensionada, por f i m , à luz de uma proposta programática ampla, acompanhando o estudo de parte dos temas exigidos pela Lei 10.639/03. O livro de John Thornton oferece, sem dúvida, um ótimo começo para se problematizar os novos conteúdos.
Maria Cristina Cortez Wissenbach – Professora do Departamento de História da Universidade de São Paulo.
THORNTON, John K. A África e os africanos na formação do mundo atlântico (1400-1800). Tradução Marisa Rocha Morta; Coordenação editorial Mary dei Priore; Revisão técnica, Márcio Scalercio. Rio de Janeiro, Editora Campus / Elsevier, 2004, 436 páginas. XVIII. Resenha de: WISSENBACH, Maria Cristina Cortez. Textos de História, Brasília, v.12, n.1/2, p.223-227, 2004. Acessar publicação original. [IF]
Women in African Colonial Histories / Jean Allman, Susan Geiger e Naknyike Musisi
Esta colectanea tem como objectivo ampliar o nosso conhecimento sobre um tema que nas últimas décadas tem atraído cada vez mais a atenção de africanistas dedicados aos período colonial, nomeadamente nas áreas de história social e a antropologia. Focando a actuação de mulheres cujas vidas foram profundamente afectadas pelo colonialismo, o livro preenche uma grande lacuna. Era urgente lançar um olhar sobre aspectos que raramente são tratados na literatura, não obstante a existência de arquivos ainda pouco explorados dos ex-colonisadores e nos países africanos agora independentes.
Além disso, está por aproveitar um sem número de testemunhos oculares que viveram o tempo colonial, e cujas estórias ainda ficam por gravar. As coordenadoras desta colectanea, todas specialisadas na história de mulheres em África, e baseados nos E U A e em Uganda, têm conseguido reunir um notável conjunto de textos. Dividido em três partes, dedicadas respectivamente a ‘encontros e alianças’, ‘percepções e representações’, e ‘reconfigurações e contestações de poder’, abrangem uma banda larga de assuntos relacionados com o tema. Nas suas contribuições os treze autores passam em revista o passado colonial em várias zonas do continente, na altura sob a tutela de Portugal, Bélgica, França e Reino Unido, à partir dos meados de oitocentos até os anos setenta de novecentos. As mulheres africanas aparecem em vários papeis: como rainhas mãe e princesas de dinastias; como mães, esposas, parceiras e divorciadas, como parideiras e trabalhadores, como comerciantes, migrantes e viajantes, e como emancipadoras e rebeldes.
Apesar de oferecer um tão vasto panorama, o leitor nunca se perde. Enquanto a introdução permite enquadrar os textos nas correntes actuais do estudo das relações de gênero, cada secção traz também uma curta apresentação. Os artigos, bem cuidados, contêm abundantes notas e referências, cujo formato obedece a tradição acadêmica anglo-americana. Têm em comum uma ênfase em metodologia e historiografia, num estilo que tanto tem marcado as obras de autores associados ao estudo, vincadamente interdisciplinar, das relações de gênero. Procura-se sempre atravessar fronteiras, no que diz respeito a espaços geográficos e sociais, e ao questionamento de pré-conceitos e a abertura de novos caminhos através das vozes de mulheres, muitas vezes ouvidas, registadas ou divulgadas pela primeira vez. Personalizar a história sem perder de vista a sociedade no seu todo não é, como se sabe, uma tarefa fácil, já que exige um conhecimento que vai muito além de uma mera consulta arquivística ou de algumas entrevistas a que historiadores ou antropólogos costumam-se limitar. Alias, o tema obriga a este esforço maior, precisamente porque as mulheres e as suas vidas não estão ‘à mão’, à superfície, fácil de apanhar numa investigação rápida e incisiva. Como os encontros que descrevem com o colonialismo e os seus representantes tem essencialmente a ver com hierarquias e poderes instalados, o tratamento adequado das fontes é essencial.
Daí a importância de incluir excertos de documentos ou testemunhos orais que nos permitem situar as mulheres como pessoas e partilhar uma fase marcante das suas vidas. Tanto o investigador como o leitor se confrontam com um imaginário que implica também questionar o dito e o não dito, ler entrelinhas e cruzar dados para reconstruir situações e contextos. O caso de uma mulher moçambicana, que fala da sua relação com um colono, a conversa entre uma mulher e uma missionária em Botswana, o relato de uma parteira sobre o seu encontro com um médico francês, o testemunho de uma mulher em Gana acusada de adultério perante o juiz, o protesto de uma mulher congolesa contra a atitude do seu marido, as estórias de mulheres sulafricanas que migraram para Rodésia, a resistência passiva de mulheres contra inspecções médicas obrigatórias, a ignorância de autoridades perante a hierarquia bicéfala de mulheres e homens em Buganda, as estratégias de mu lheres no contexto das relações conjugais a seguir a introdução da cultura de cacau na Costa de Ouro, as metáforas usadas pelas mulheres Ibo que lutaram contra a perda de direitos em Nigéria, a radicalização de mulheres nos movimentos nacionalistas na Guiné francesa e os desafios por que mulheres guerrilheiras passaram em Zimbabwe, todos estes fragmentos formam peças de um puzzle colorido e fascinante.
O resultado é francamente positivo, mostrando como o estudo sobre mulheres africanas avançou a passos largos em poucas décadas. Faz falta sim, nesta grande diversidade, um fio condutor além do ‘‘disempoverment’ e reacções de mulheres, que nos ajude a contextualizar a grande diversidade das estórias. Folhando as páginas, é notável o abrir de um espaço, outrora marginalizado, cada vez maior onde mulheres se exprimem e actuam como actores autônomos com uma dinâmica muito própria, explorando estratégias, vontades e sentimentos. Ao mesmo tempo, há aspectos das relações de gênero que ficam por esclarecer por causa da ênfase casuística, sobretudo no plano teórico relacionada com a agência feminina. Embora, o contingente feminino já não apareça como vítima, como na segunda onda do feminismo nos anos setenta, mas como pessoas e personalidades com corpos e vozes, perguntamo-nos: onde estão os relatos de mulheres vindas de espaços lusófonos? Será que estas correntes inovadoras passaram despercebidas em Portugal e nos PALOP? Não é por acaso que a única excepção é Moçambique, rodeado por países anglófonos, cuja história tem sido alvo de atenções crescentes durante as ultimas duas décadas, também do ponto de vista de gênero.
Estas lacunas deviam fazer nos pensar, e ver como acrescentar peças que dizem respeito a estas zonas na historiografia e antropológica africana. É urgente, por causa da passagem do tempo e do envelhecimento de potenciais informantes, iluminar as vidas de mulheres – e homens – em Angola, Cabo Verde, Guiné, Moçambique, e São Tome num passado ainda muito recente. Oportunidades não faltam para acabar com estes grandes hiatos: os respectivos arquivos destes países, e em Portugal, contêm um sem f im de documentos que envelhecem em prateleiras poeirentas. Muito ainda tem que ser feito para acabar com este déficit, que é uma responsabilidade de todos nós, e valorizar a memória colectiva e pessoal daqueles que até agora não tiveram o privilégio de serem ouvidos.
Philip J. Havik – Professor da Universidade de Leiden, Holanda.
ALLMAN, Jean; GEIGER, Susan & MUSISI, Naknyike (coords.). Women in African Colonial Histories. Bloorrúngton, Indiana Universiiy Press, 2002. 338p. Resenha de: HAVIK, Philip J. Textos de História, Brasília, v.12, n.1/2, p.229-231, 2004. Acessar publicação original. [IF]
Pioneiros Africanos. Caravanas de carregadores na África Centro-Ocidental / Beatrix Heintze
Heintze é autora de obras bem conhecidas sobre a história angolana, mais dedicada às grandes expedições dos alemães ao interior da África Central Ocidental, além de uma série de artigos sobre a região, em alemão, inglês e português. Na década de 1980, publicou a coletânea documental do governador português em Luanda, no século XVII, Fernão de Sousa2. Este foi um trabalho primoroso com uma cuidadosa transcrição, genealogia e notas dos documentos do governador e os manuscritos se encontram na biblioteca da Ajuda, em Lisboa. Essa historiadora alemã vem publicando sobre os povos dessa região desde 19703. Com mais de cinqüenta escritos, entre artigos, ensaios e livros, pode-se dizer que tem dado contributo do mais relevante para a construção da história angolana.
Neste livro, a autora, diferentemente dos estudos anteriores, pretende evidenciar não os exploradores e comerciantes europeus, mas, como diz, os “invisíveis” participantes africanos e luso-africanos nas caravanas. “Os Pioneiros” é um livro solidamente ilustrado com belíssimas fotografias, bons mapas com as rotas das caravanas, um glossário com termos africanos, um apêndice com a bagagem de uma expedição alemã de 1879, uma lista dos títulos dos soberanos da Lunda, região para onde se direcionavam a maior parte das expedições, além de enumerar as estações da expedição de Henrique de Carvalho.
A obra está estruturada em três partes, a primeira, ‘Tara a História de uma Aproximação Européia”; a segunda ‘Esboços Bibliográficos” t a terceira, “Comerão, Investigação e Comunicação na África Central Ocidental”.
O primeiro item, da primeira parte do livro, trata do tema da África “virgem”, quando o continente era visto como sem história, constituído de uma narrativa imutável ao longo do tempo. Estas terras africanas “virgens” estavam por “descobrir”, seriam eles, os europeus, os “descobridores”. Essas construções imaginárias exerceram tamanha atração no século XIX, que levaram para a África Central Ocidental quase trinta expedições num curto tempo de treze anos. Contudo, a autora explica que apesar de ter em mente essas idéias, de terras por descobrir, os exploradores rapidamente viam seus ideários esvaecer ao pisar as terras africanas. Ficavam a saber, ou acabavam por reconhecer, que eram territórios coalhados de rotas, formando redes interligadas complexas, comerciais. Os africanos e os luso-africanos possuíam um amplo conhecimento das rotas e por elas transitavam há muito tempo.
Apesar de tudo, a África real ficava encoberta pela imaginada. Se assim não fosse, como esses exploradores tornariam-se os famosos “descobridores”, com ares científicos e aventureiros na Europa? No item seguinte, a autora nos apresenta os carregadores, intérpretes e guias, do ponto de vista dos exploradores e comerciantes nas suas caravanas, chamados de ralés, ladras, descaradas, desavergonhadas, indolentes, covardes e, quase de forma unânime, adjetivados de traiçoeiros. Um retrato profundamente negativo do africano. Mas por vezes alguns “nativos” foram agraciados com adjetivos como generosos, inteligentes e de confiança. Na terceira e última seção da primeira parte do livro, em “As interpretações Históricas Depois de Cem Anos”, a autora faz um perfil do seu tema, as caravanas de carregadores e o seu lugar nos relatos históricos, insere essas atividades no contexto, desde o fim do tráfico atlântico de escravos, passando pelo comércio do marfim até o fluxo econômico da borracha. Mapeia, de forma exaustiva as rotas, as direções que tomavam essas caravanas e por fim faz uma caracterização dos ambaquistas. Esses africanos, que se apropriaram da escrita, língua e vestes portuguesa, são classificados pela autora como luso-africanos, mestiços.
A segunda parte do livro é, sem dúvida nenhuma, a narrativa mais original do texto da Heintze. Ao tentar refazer os percursos dos agentes africanos nas caravanas, no primeiro item, descreve a família Bezerra, uma das mais conhecidas da região e que teve suas gerações dedicadas a estas atividades. Logo em seguida, destaca a saga de Germano de José Maria, que foi, na sua trajetória um escravo, depois um “criado” livre e chegou a guia e intérprete das caravanas dos alemães.
Na terceira parte do livro, no primeiro item, com o título, ‘Brancos’, negros: os ambaquistas, numa clara indicação das idéias do artigo, já clássico de Jill Dias, a autora enfatiza o caráter ambíguo desse grupo chamado ambaquistas.
No segundo item, descreve como se organizavam as caravanas, como funcionava o recrutamento e quem era recrutado, de onde partiam, fazendo uma prospecção geográfica do tema. Do contexto comercial da região, são dimensionadas as caravanas, para que o leitor possa ter idéia do número de pessoas que participavam e as diferenças, que a autora faz, entre caravanas de comerciantes e de exploradores. Aos detalhes, a autora, fornece-nos os tamanhos dos tecidos e os tipos de medição usados no interior da África Central, e quanto de peso levavam os carregadores, os fardos do homem negro, e nos descreve a melhor época para se fazer a viagem. Abre o terceiro item apresentando-nos mercadorias e rotas das expedições.Como tinha prometido, chega-se ao cotidiano nas caravanas e o item final, a caravana como meio de divulgação e comunicação das noticias.
Aparentemente a historiadora alemã cercou de todos os lados seu objeto, deu conta de todos ângulos da narrativa, abordando todas as partes sem deixar frestas. Vejamos.
Heintze, logo na apresentação, explicita sua intenção de abordar os “Pioneiros africanos” dos ângulos dos exploradores, das biografias dos chefes, dos intérpretes e carregadores. Assinala, contudo, que por serem as fontes relatos de viagens dos europeus, fica impossível uma mudança de perspectiva.
Mas avisa em seguida, “os relatos dos exploradores do século XIX serão aqui contrastados com estudos científicos dos séculos XIX/XXI”. As fontes utilizadas pela autora foram, como ela mesma diz, a monumental obra de Henrique de Carvalho, mas ela cita, além da obra do viajante português, os trechos de obras dos exploradores alemães (Buchner 1879, Wissmann 1891, Pogge 1883). Na terceira parte do livro, “As interpretações Históricas Depois de Cem Anos”, suas analises são baseadas nos trabalhos de Vellut (1972); Dias (1998) e Heywood (1984), obras já bem conhecidas sobre a região e população da África Central Ocidental.
No início do livro a autora afirma que os saberes sobre os caminhos, rotas preferências, épocas possíveis para viagens, foram informações retiradas dos guias, intérpretes e carregadores africanos e que, sem tais conhecimentos, teria sido impossível as caravanas européias existirem. Ao longo do livro, porém, ela caracteriza os agentes africanos segundo os adjetivos nomeados pelos exploradores/comerciantes europeus, sem nenhuma preocupação em analisar, ou sugerir o que seriam esses “africanos traiçoeiros” que as fontes tanto nomeavam. Ao descrever alguns poucos africanos chamados, pelos exploradores/comerciantes, de “inteligentes”, o texto sugere ser esse termo sinônimo de colaborador. Os dados essenciais eram fornecidos pelos guias e intérpretes africanos, desde estratégias de como tratar e ser relacionar com os sobas (chefias locais), até conseguir permissão de atravessar suas terras. Era uma verdadeira arte, cumprir os rituais de troca de presentes, de visitas e as longas esperas para se obter a licença e chegar a ganhar sua confiança.
Alguns exploradores/comerciantes chegaram a se transformar em amigos dos sobas, tudo isso graças a intermediação dos guias, intérpretes e carregadores africanos. Então, quem são esses “traiçoeiros” e uns poucos “inteligentes” dos quais todas expedições dependiam ? Uma pena que Heintze não tenha usado “estudos científicos dos séculos X IX / XXI ” para trabalhar conceitos já tão conhecidos como, das identidades, fronteiras, estratégias sociais, mestiçagem e cultura atlântica no tratamento desses segmentos sociais que hoje nos parece muito mais flexíveis do que simples rótulos, portugueses mestiços. Embora, as fontes sejam européias, não estamos condenados a uma mono visão.
Por se achar impossibilitada de ver, pelas fontes européias, a autora passa batido nos casos de verdadeiros enredo de dramas amorosos nas caravanas.
Ficam de soslaio, necessitando um olhar mais alongado, os músicos africanos e seus instrumentos, que sempre acompanhavam as caravanas. E os ambaquistas, com tantos dados fornecidos pelas fontes, afinal como eram? Surpresos, ficamos nós, da autora achar conflitante os ambaquistas apresentarem comportamentos tão lusitanos e ao mesmo tempo tão africanos. São ângulos que podem ser vistos por outras fontes, européias, que não só os textos dos exploradores/comerciantes. Aí sim, tem-se a possibilidade de uma mudança de perspectiva!
Notas
1 Simultaneamente saiu outra edição em Lisboa, HEINTZE, Beatrix. Pioneiros Africanos: caravanas de carregadores na África Centro-Ocidental (entre 1850 e 1890). Lisboa: Caminho (Coleção Estudos Africanos), 2004.
2 Fontes para a História de Angola do século XVII. Memória, relações e outros manuscritos da coletânea documental de Fernão de Sousa (1622-1635). Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GMGH, Stuttgart, 1985, V. 1; em 1988, lança o volume 2, com as cartas e documentos oficias da coletânea (1624-1635).
3 Beitrage zur Geschichte und Kultur der Kisama (Angola). Paideuma 16,1970, pl59- 186. (segundo lista fornecida pela própria autora com todas as suas obras publicadas).
Selma Pantoja – Professora do Departamento de História da Universidade de Brasília.
HEINTZE, Beatrix. Pioneiros Africanos. Caravanas de carregadores na África Centro-Ocidental (entre 1850 e 1890). Luanda, Nzila, 2004. . Resenha de: Textos de História, Brasília, v.12, n.1/2, p.233-237, 2004. Acessar publicação original. [IF]
A Sense of Their Duty: Middle-Class Formation in Victorian Ontario Towns.
HOLMAN, Andrew C. A Sense of Their Duty: Middle-Class Formation in Victorian Ontario Towns. McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal & Kingston, 2000. 265p. Resenha de: WILLIE, Richard A. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.2, p., 2004.
This is an important book about an elusive and neglected subject in Canadian social history. The Victorian middle class, everyone acknowledges, emerged at a time of rapid economic change in Canada and did so alongside various calls for significant political and moral reform. There is much more, however, to this story than the lingering characterization of the middle class as an amorphous, even shadowy, collection of overbearing respectables (p. ix), writes Holman. In his examination of the Ontario towns of Galt and Goderich between the 1850’s and 1890’s, he sets out to uncover this elusive group and finds them located in well-integrated and identifiable occupational roles, each exhibiting a sense of collective identity and a set of developing ideals. By focusing on businessmen, professionals and other white-collar workers who did not work with their hands, Holman reveals the processes by which each occupational group became aware of themselves as a distinct stratum in society and how the more public roles they played in defining an approach to volunteerism and in reinforcing the dictates of moral order, a role which they played along with their wives in Victorian Ontario, further assisted in securing their special place in society.
Holman rejects static structural analysis and conflict group approaches and instead adopts Anthony Giddens’ concept of ‘structuralism’ which is more directional than formulaic. This affords him, he argues, the necessary latitude to allow this social category the middle class to define itself against the distinctive characteristics of Canada’s unfolding demographic make-up and against the values of its unique political economy. By examining the workplace as an arena of stratification and as an incubator of attitudes towards types of work, he is able to suggest that while up to the 1850s and 1860s all kinds of work were equally laudatory and moral (p. 22), already subtle changes were underway. By the 1870’s a new perspective had arrived which drew perceptible lines between manual and non-manual labour (p. 26).
The most representative of this new perspective were the businessmen, local merchants, manufacturers and artisans, of small-town Ontario. In the case of Galt, success as a regional service and market centre combined with the positive character of the town’s businessmen in a Creightonesque sort of way, and provided them with the ability to claim an elevated authority for the commercial members of their occupational group. In Goderich, on the other hand, situational problems, chronic economic challenges and low credit ratings saw an insular and protective attitude develop among this business group. Relations with labour were also quite different in the two centres. In Galt, Holman found that constant labour strife and strong labour organizations actually contributed to strengthening the agendas and identity of middle class businessmen and their Board of Trade. Labour relations were less of a factor in Goderich. Galt businessmen, in particular, had come to believe that their special place in society arose from their being champions of community economic success.
A second and important element in Holman’s study were the brain workers whose main claim to special status and authority derived from their learnedness and occupational independence. Lawyers, doctors and clergymen each developed their own patterns of professionalism in Ontario which included educational institutions, professional associations, codes of ethics, and informal networks of fraternal value sharing. In this professionalization project, Holman again found that experiences differed in Galt and Goderich, but that lawyers in both towns enjoyed the greatest social prestige of all the professions. While their association with a legal culture that included the sanctity of courts and the rule of law made lawyers respected intellectual and moral arbiters in society, the emergence of industrial capitalism gave legal work and law offices greater utility. Interestingly, the locations of the county court houses powerfully influenced the local collective identity of lawyers. Lawyers in Goderich, which had a courthouse, were more prominent in community life than those in Galt, which had no courthouse. In the case of medicine, this period witnessed a medical practitioners’ monopoly organizing to exclude alternate methods (homoeopathy) while at the same time gaining greater control of education, innovation, and hospitals. Medical practitioners competed for control in both towns. In Galt the battle was much more prolonged and pronounced simply because of the pressure, created from the start, of having a wider variety of practitioners and methods available. In Goderich, Holman found that the greatest challenge to medical practitioners came from itinerant physicians. Differences between Galt and Goderich similarly resulted in the clergy in each centre having to meet various professional challenges with non-uniform patterns of response.
Holman is perhaps at his best when he identifies this nascent middle class project among white-collar workers. As commercial, government, and professional clerks these employees aspired to become middle class on the basis of their non-manual work. They received salaries rather than wages and their proximity at work to their employers, who were established middle class claimants in the community, allowed them to indulge their often-youthful anticipation of temporarily occupying a stepping stone on the way to greater prominence. Holman notes regrettably, that the entry of women into this segment of the workplace resulted in white-collar work losing its value for many young men. A generalized anxiety or fear of never rising also hampered the project for many of these in-between men and motivated many, according to Holman, to seek opportunities of advancement elsewhere.
Having obtained a measure of authority in their respective communities by virtue of the work they performed, members of this emerging middle class began to broadcast their values regarding personal deportment and social responsibility primarily through the agency of voluntary organizations devoted to charity, fraternalism and self- improvement. That these associations were visible, gendered, exclusive, and adhered to rules of order in their meetings, allowed members to reflect and to model the ideals of social order that the towns’ growing middle class valued. In both towns, work of benevolence, Holman argues, was mainly overseen by women while fraternal orders restricted membership to men, thus ensuring that proper spheres were maintained. Self-improvement societies had fewer gender boundaries and general social aims. The YMCA, for instance, sought especially to direct young men away from immoral temptations towards purposeful pastimes and to provide training grounds for cultivating the appropriate behaviours the middle class expected.
According to Holman, by the 1870s middle class interest in the cause of temperance reform in Ontario had shifted as this emerging class latched on to the cause as a means to powerfully effect societal change. Earlier in the century, those concerned over alcohol abuse had defined the problem as one of individual character deficiency. Increasingly, however, reformers from this class saw the problem as society’s moral failing and they therefore championed change as a collective response to both the danger it imposed and the negative impact it had on persons and families; they especially supported legislative remedies required to curb it. Holman is quite correct about the shift in thinking he describes, however, his view that this change was largely due to the influence of the middle class is not as developed or persuasive as it might have been since his conclusion is more asserted than systematically proved. His study also begs, but does not answer, the question of whether genuine advocacy of reform in this area was perhaps more gendered than he might suggest.
Class identity was also formed and reproduced inside the home. The ideal middle-class male was expected to be a public beacon of proper deportment in his personal conduct as well as a family man; his wife was thought of as the jewel of the home. In private as in public, the middle class cultivated an ideal image of belonging to a class set apart by its prescribed behaviours from the vulgar rich above them and barren poor below. Manners, grooming, dress, speech, carriage, and respectable recreations were all included as aspects of the self-control that the progeny of middle class parents were expected to mirror and exhibit.
In A Sense of Their Duty, Holman accurately describes an important time of class formation in Victorian Ontario and explains some of the structural and ideological mechanisms involved in the change. His book will be a necessary addition to all post-secondary libraries containing sections on Canadian studies or history.
Richard A. Willie – Concordia University College of Alberta. Edmonton, Alberta.
[IF]América para a humanidade: o americanismo universalista de José Martí | Eugênio R. Carvalho
CARVALHO, Eugênio Rezende de. América para a humanidade: o americanismo universalista de José Martí. UFG, 2003. Resenha de: SANTANA, Marcio Antonio. Revista Brasileira do Caribe, São Luís, v.4, n.8, jan./jun. 2004. Arquivo indisponível na publicação original. [IF].
Processos metalogenéticos e os depósitos minerais brasileiros – BIODI (RBG)
BIODI, João Carlos. Processos metalogenéticos e os depósitos minerais brasileiros. [Sn.]: Oficina de Textos, 2003. 528p. Resenha de: JOST, Hardy. Revista Brasileira de Geociencias, v 34, n.1, p.157, 2004.
Hardy Jost – Co-Editor da RBG.
[IF]Fundamentos da Prospecção Mineral – PEREIRA (RBG)
PEREIRA, Ronaldo Mello. Fundamentos da Prospecção Mineral. [Sn.]? Editora Interciência, 2003. 168p. Resenha de: JOST, Hardy. Revista Brasileira de Geociencias, v 34, n.1, p.157, 2004.
Hardy Jost – Co-Editor da RBG.
[IF]O Renascimento italiano – cultura e sociedade na Itália | Peter Burke
Este livro observa as artes: pintura, escultura, arquitetura, música, literatura e conhecimento acadêmico da Itália, além de salientar aspectos gerais da cultura, dando denso embasamento teórico sobre o fenômeno para sua melhor compreensão. Dos aspectos culturais da época, ele se detém na economia; política; visões de mundo, do homem e da organização religiosa. Depois o autor faz uma breve comparação entre a Itália e os Países Baixos e Japão.
AS ARTES
O autor mostra que o Renascimento italiano tem como características básicas o realismo, o secularismo e o individualismo, além de um entusiasmo pela Antiguidade clássica. Os gêneros mais propagados na pintura eram os retratos, seguidos das paisagens e da natureza morta. Leia Mais
Reforma: O cristianismo e o mundo 1500-2000 | Felipe Fernandez-Armesto e Derek Wilson
Em todo âmbito acadêmico, os estudiosos da história sabem das dificuldades de se ser fiel aos acontecimentos sem perder, ou deixar de mencionar, os detalhes mais relevantes do recorte histórico que se pretende apresentar. Assim como nas demais áreas do saber humano, o estudo da história é repleto de nuanças que dificultam o trabalho, tornando a busca das fontes uma verdadeira aventura para o pesquisador que deseja apresentar um trabalho de sério. No que diz respeito à religião cristã, desde suas origens na tradição judaica até os dias atuais, geralmente nos são apresentados trabalhos que acentuam a importância da observação histórica e de todo o seu processo evolutivo.
Dentre todos os acontecimentos importantes na trajetória do cristianismo, a Reforma Protestante, do século XVI, merece atenção especial. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto e Derek Wilson – o primeiro de origem confessional católica, o segundo protestante – apresentam, numa demonstração de maturidade acadêmica, deixando de lado as diferenças que os separavam, a Reforma de maneira completa, detalhada e equilibrada, pondo de lado certas interpretações mais comuns, como a assepsia histórica, o catolicismo conservador e o protestantismo apaixonado. Leia Mais
João do Rio. A cidade e o poeta | Antonio Edmilson Martins Rodrigues
RODRIGUES, Antonio Edmilson Martins. João do Rio. A cidade e o poeta. O olhar de flanêur na Belle Époque Tropical. Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV, 2000. Resenha de: LESSA, Mônica Leite. Revista Maracanan. Rio de Janeiro, v.2, n.2, p. 193-195, 2004.
O Império do Brasil | Lucia Bastos P. das Neves
NEVES, Lucia Maria Bastos Pereira; MACHADO, Humberto. O Império do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1999. Resenha de: VAINFAS, Ronaldo. Revista Maracanan. Rio de Janeiro, v.2, n.2, p.186-189, 2004.
Relações Internacionais | Williams da Silva
GONÇALVES, Williams da Silva. Relações Internacionais. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 2002. Resenha de: SUPPO, Hugo. Revista Maracanan. Rio de Janeiro, v.2, n.2, p. 190-192, 2004.
La marche des idées – histoire des intellectuels, histoire intellectuelle – DOSSE (RBH)
DOSSE, François. La marche des idées – histoire des intellectuels, histoire intellectuelle. Paris: La Découverte, 2003. 339p. Resenha de: RODRIGUES, Helenice. Revista Brasileira de História, São Paulo, v.24, n.48, 2004.
Em momentos de crise e de impasse, nos quais a nebulosidade do pensamento e das ações impossibilita uma inteligibilidade política, a “intelligentsia” francesa tende a se auto-atribuir uma missão. Do “caso Dreyfus” à guerra da Bósnia, passando por Maio de 68 e pela guerra da Argélia, a “intelligence” esteve presente em todas as frentes de combate do século XX, em nome do dever de uma “consciência crítica”. No entanto, as mutações históricas e intelectuais dessas últimas décadas modificaram radicalmente a tradicional imagem do intelectual: a representação do indignado, militante e crítico, cedeu lugar à figura e à cultura do especialista e do chamado “intelectual midiático”.
Ao lado de uma história intelectual e dos intelectuais, François Dosse, nesse recente livro, retraça, em filigrana, uma história da história dos intelectuais, mostrando, através de uma vasta literatura, as imbricações que subtendem sua relação com o espaço público, a história e os esquemas de pensamento. Revisitando as diversas publicações francesas e estrangeiras sobre esses dois domínios, o autor apresenta um importante trabalho de síntese. Embora estruturadas separadamente, a história dos intelectuais e a história intelectual, em razão mesmo de suas indeterminações e indistinções epistemológicas, se justapõem ao longo desse livro, revelando assim o caráter interativo e transversal desses dois objetos.
Paralelamente a uma história dos intelectuais, desenvolvida na França a partir da década de 1980, emerge uma história intelectual tendo por ambição elucidar as obras intelectuais na sua historicidade. Esse “obscuro objeto” que constitui a história intelectual surge, segundo o autor, do intercruzamento de uma história das idéias, de uma história das mentalidades e de uma história cultural. Com efeito, a sua gênese encontra-se na própria tradição epistemológica francesa: a história do pensamento cientifico (Koyré, Bachelard, Foucault), assim como no projeto arqueológico desse último: o pólo crítico e hermenêutico.
Menos preocupado com definições e com problemáticas, François Dosse opta por mostrar as diversas tendências dessa história intelectual: contextualismo (Skinner), semântica histórica (Kosseleck), hermenêutica (Ricoeur), assinalando a necessidade, para a sua prática, de ultrapassar as análises internalistas e externalistas. Para tal, a hermenêutica, como método, parece constituir uma das suas condições de possibilidade: “Cabe à história intelectual como à história dos intelectuais a interrogação da vida das idéias através de um vai-e-vem constante entre o passado e as questões que formulamos, ao passado, a partir do presente”.
Ora, tributária do contexto histórico nacional, a história dos intelectuais, na versão francesa, apresenta-se, na maioria das vezes, sob a forma de uma abordagem política, tendo por principais referenciais os engajamentos, as gerações e os lugares institucionais. Do ponto de vista ético, o intelectual é, antes de mais nada, portador de valor, de engajamento e de missão.
A pluralidade de acepções semânticas sobre o objeto “o intelectual” conduzem François Dosse a explorar os trabalhos de autores clássicos que, de maneira diversa, pensaram a relação do intelectual com o poder. De Benda a Said, passando por Sartre e Gramsci, esse autor apresenta um vasto panorama de análises onde se combinam, igualmente, comentários críticos sobre as obras e sobre os autores. Esse “obscuro objeto”, no contexto intelectual francês, remete, fatalmente, ao modelo do “caso Dreyfus” e às representações, positivas ou negativas, de um engajamento político. Complementando essa abordagem histórica dos intelectuais, os estudos sociológicos inspirados nos trabalhos de Pierre Bourdieu contribuem, sobretudo, para a elucidação das redes de poder e dos mecanismos de produção de idéias, fortemente dependentes dos lugares de enunciação (estudos comparativos entre “campos” intelectuais diversos). Mas, se essa perspectiva sociológica, como pretende François Dosse, revela seus limites, a história dos intelectuais, fundada na versão da história política, por sua vez, não permite a apreensão da própria produção intelectual.
Ora, a atividade intelectual encontra-se presente, segundo o autor, nas modalidades diversas de leitura e de apropriações de textos. A propósito, como ele bem salienta, a teoria de recepção de Hans Jauss é, por exemplo, fundamental em um trabalho de apreensão da produção intelectual. Nesse sentido, a nova história cultural francesa (em forma da história do livro, da edição, da recepção, dos símbolos e da prática cultural, por exemplo), pela própria complexidade da sua abordagem, possibilita explorar as diversas maneiras de pensar e representar o mundo. Desse modo, “a atividade intelectual na história cultural” (um dos capitulos, a nosso ver, mais pertinentes) permite uma melhor compreensão das múltiplas interações entre essas duas fronteiras: cultura e intelecto. Através de diferentes obras, intermediárias entre a história cultural e a intelectual, François Dosse apresenta exemplos de sua prática: os lugares de elaboração e de produção cultural (Carl Schorske em Viena, fim de século), os momentos de apropriação e de recepção de autores estrangeiros (Elias, Weber, Freud, Hegel), e a complexidade mesmo do ato de leitura (Menocchio de Carlo Ginzburg).
Outra variante da história intelectual, a história dos conceitos, em suas diferentes versões (a escola de Cambridge, a semântica histórica com Reinhart Kosseleck e a história conceitual da política, com Pierre Rosanvallon), situando-se nas margens de uma história da epistemologia, da filosofia política e da disciplina história, é tributária de contextos intelectuais diversos. François Dosse percorre esses diferentes campos de investigação, mostrando como a partir de um corpus de textos já tidos por esgotados (os textos de Maquiavel, por exemplo), “a posição enunciativa e a natureza dos destinatários dos mesmos sugere profundos deslocamentos de sentido”. Significativa da guinada hermenêutica, essa abordagem questiona o pensar e o agir nas sociedades passadas e presentes.
Se, como mostra o autor, a escola de Cambridge é passível de críticas em razão de um certo historicismo, o desenvolvimento mesmo da história conceitual no mundo anglo-saxão, graças às contribuições da “linguistic turn”, contribuiu, substancialmente, para uma abordagem mais filosófica da história política. A história intelectual, por exemplo, ilustrada através dos trabalhos de Rosanvallon sobre a democracia, apresenta-se sob a forma de uma “história conceitual do político”. François Dosse destaca a importância particular da “begriffsgeschichte”, pelo viés dos trabalhos de Reinhart Kosseleck e da sua difusão nos países ocidentais. Aliás, a influência dessa corrente intelectual se manifesta, atualmente, através da formação de uma rede internacional de pesquisadores.
Domínio incerto e hesitante, a história intelectual, como conclui o autor, pressionada entre uma lógica diacrônica da história das idéias e sincrônica das cartografias e dos cortes socioculturais, reveste uma “indeterminação epistemológica”. Para os leitores que conhecem os trabalhos anteriores desse autor em história intelectual, essa conclusão, no entanto, parece insuficiente, uma vez que ela exclui toda tentativa de questionamento metodológico e epistemológico. Apesar de se tratar de um livro de referência em história intelectual, a “marche des idées”, talvez pela sua própria proposta, não responde às expectativas daqueles que a praticam e que buscam, através dela, novas respostas.
Helenice Rodrigues da Silva – Résidence Les Récollets, 150-154, rue du Faubourg Saint Martin, 75010 Paris, Tel: 00 – 33 153262149.
[IF]La transmission de l’histoire – MESSMER (CC)
MESSMER, Kur. La transmission de l’histoire. Irène Hermann ; Jonas Römer (Hg.), vol. 32, 2/2004, pp. 130-138. Resenha de: BUGNARD, Pierre-Philippe. Le cartable de Clio – Revue romande et tessinoise sur les didactiques de l’histoire, Lausanne, n.4, p.300-303, 2004.
Dans la dernière livraison de Traverse consacrée à la transmission de l’histoire (voir la table des matières ci-dessous), Kurt Messmer, didacticien de l’histoire au « Pädagogisches Zentrum » de Lucerne, propose une très intéressante réflexion sur ce qu’il appelle un Röstigraben de la didactique de l’histoire… qui n’aurait en fait aucune raison d’exister.
Je résume d’abord l’article de façon très libre. La Suisse alémanique compte essentiellement sur son grand frère du nord, non seulement pour ses manuels d’histoire du secondaire II mais aussi pour ses quatre revues de didactique de l’histoire. Le problème c’est que dans les revues allemandes, en ce qui concerne l’histoire helvétique, il n’est fait allusion qu’à des questions secondaires. Dès lors, la seule révolution libérale qui n’est pas traitée dans les cahiers spéciaux de l’année anniversaire 1998 par exemple, c’est celle de l’Etat fédéral de 1848 ! La faute en incombe aux historiens et didacticiens suisses, tant de la partie alémanique que de la partie latine. Car il existe bien un Röstigraben de la didactique de l’histoire. L’exemple le plus flagrant est celui du canton de Fribourg qui cultive deux concepts, un pour chacune de ses parties linguistiques, la partie alémanique travaillant de concert avec les six cantons du Sonderbund emmenés par Lucerne, césure qui justement remonte, encore une fois, à 1848 (1845). Pourtant, de chaque côté de la Sarine, par-dessus ce fossé, on reste uni. La Suisse des enseignants d’histoire est bien coupée en deux, sans compter une sorte de Chiantigraben avec la Suisse italophone ! Or depuis bientôt trente ans se tiennent autour d’un Bodenseekreis des Journées de didactique de l’histoire avec une orientation internationale mais suivies presque exclusivement par des participants en provenance des régions d’expression allemande de l’Europe. Et si l’on sonde la production courante de didactique de l’histoire en Allemagne, on s’apercevra que les travaux issus de la sphère d’expression française y sont ignorés. Kurt Messmer ne cherche en aucune manière à jeter la pierre aux autres et se remet aussi en question. Il voit cependant un nouvel exemple de l’érection de la frontière des langues en barrière dans la création du Cartable de Clio, traduit en un joli « Der Schulsack der Frau Clio », revue au sein de laquelle pratiquement tout est axé sur des contributions en français ou traduites de l’italien.
Au sein du relativement mauvais classement de la Suisse dans le domaine de l’éducation à la citoyenneté en comparaison internationale, les régions française et italienne fournissent de meilleurs scores que la partie allemande, et la vente des premiers tomes du DHS marche mieux en Suisse romande qu’en Suisse allemande. Qui s’étonnera dès lors qu’une revue comme Le Cartable de Clio démarre en Romandie? La revue est animée par un bureau de quatre historiens didacticiens et elle bénéficie d’un réseau international de correspondants mais dont aucun ne provient des mondes germanique ou anglo-saxon.
Et ce qui frappe particulièrement Kurt Messmer, c’est l’appel de la revue aux historiens universitaires pour qu’ils se préoccupent des usages publics de l’histoire et de la transmission de la discipline, notamment dans l’enseignement, sachant que s’il y a une nouvelle éducation et une nouvelle histoire, une nouvelle didactique de l’histoire peine à émerger. Justement, bien des historiens se sentent plus que jamais sollicités pour descendre de la tour d’ivoire des recherches savantes et apporter leur contribution à la compréhension du passé jusque dans la société, rappelle Messmer. Les sciences historiques ne se dénigreraient nullement en poursuivant une telle finalité. Ce serait plutôt une occasion de démontrer leur efficacité, en toute indépendance.
Suit la présentation des sept rubriques de la revue, ainsi que de l’approche compréhensive et structurelle en neuf propositions affichées dans le numéro 1, une approche jugée en phase avec celle préconisée également dans l’espace allemand, approche que revendiquait d’ailleurs déjà le didacticien allemand Ebeling… en 1965 (pour le primaire?) ! Dans le monde germanique, on parle maintenant de deux compétences clés. Celle de la reconstruction: à partir des matériaux bruts et en usant de méthodes de travail spécifiques à l’histoire, les élèves peuvent se mettre à donner sens à une histoire qu’ils construisent en autonomie. Inversement, par une déconstruction à partir d’une histoire rationnelle, les élèves peuvent développer leur capacité à l’analyse, une capacité à la déconstruction d’autant plus précieuse que, une fois leur cursus scolaire achevé, ils n’auront plus d’autre alternative que d’être confrontés à une histoire « finie ». La rédaction du Cartable de Clio a donc opté, poursuit Messmer, pour une approche recouvrant les deux conceptions. Ainsi, permettre aux élèves d’entrer dans les grandes questions à différents niveaux, selon la formulation du Cartable de Clio, recoupe tout à fait les préoccupations du projet international de recherche FUER Geschichtsbewusstsein (Förderung und Entwicklung von reflektiertem und -selbst-reflexivem Geschichtsbewusstsein).
Et Kurt Messmer de se réjouir que les principes affichés par Le cartable soient ensuite réellement transposés. En particulier dans la livraison de 2002 avec cinq contributions jugées « stimulantes », dont un exemple particulièrement « convaincant » pour l’approche de déconstruction, en ce sens qu’il fournit aux élèves les versions contrastées en provenance des sept collections suisses de manuels d’histoire (donc y compris alémaniques) sur la question des relations de la Suisse avec le IIIe Reich durant le Second conflit mondial. Mais la formule d’une nouvelle histoire enseignée n’est-elle pas dépassée? Certains historiens sont devenus prudents avec l’acception « nouvelle » qu’ils associent au mouvement de 68 (en fait, la nouvelle histoire, pour l’école française, remonte au moins aux années 1940). Messmer présente alors les caractéristiques d’une histoire enseignée plus concrète et plus globale, à l’occasion d’un tournant sans doute moins marquant que celui des années 1970 mais qui se laisse maîtriser. « Chapeau » au Cartable de Clio, conclut Kurt Messmer, qui constate que les questions de didactique se posent finalement de la même manière de chaque côté du Röstigraben et qu’en fait les Suisses latine et alémanique poursuivent des buts analogues. Et de lancer en français un appel à la coopération du Léman au Bodensee et de Bâle à Lugano! L’article mérite un prolongement.
L’analyse de Kurt Messmer réjouira les enseignants romands et tessinois. L’hommage qu’il rend au Cartable en montrant que l’initiative d’une revue de didactique de l’histoire en Suisse revient aux Latins sera apprécié à sa juste valeur. Nous nous rendons compte à notre tour combien nous fonctionnons, à notre façon, de la même manière… sans le savoir. La Romandie aussi est tournée vers son grand frère (de l’ouest) qui lui fournit pour le secondaire II les manuels qu’elle ne produit pas et qui lui propose les revues de didactique de l’histoire qu’elle ne… rédigeait pas, tout comme l’Allemagne pour la Suisse alémanique. A cela près que la France ne produit qu’une seule revue de didactique de l’histoire (celle, prolixe, de la puissante association des professeurs d’Histoire-Géographie, mais qui est plutôt une revue d’histoire tout court), si l’on fait exception des nombreuses publications spécifiques des centres de recherche en didactique rattachés aux IUFM ou à l’INRP. Et il en va de même pour la Suisse italienne.
En ce qui concerne le Bodenseekreis également, les didacticiens de la Suisse française participent aux Journées d’histoire de Blois (où Le cartable de Clio tient un stand et un forum), ainsi qu’aux Journées françaises des didactiques de l’Histoire-Géograhie. Des terreaux précieux pour la réflexion disciplinaire ou didactique, journées auxquelles les participants affluent quasi exclusivement de la francophonie.
En fait, si le Cartable a lancé l’idée d’une nouvelle didactique de l’histoire, c’est bien parce qu’à l’origine, la revue dépendant d’un groupe d’étude des didactiques de l’histoire affilié au WBZ/CPS de Lucerne, donc centré sur le secondaire II, il apparaissait assez clairement que dans les établissements préparant à la maturité, la didactique avait relativement moins renouvelé les pratiques qu’aux autres niveaux d’enseignement.
Finalement, les premiers contacts noués avec le groupe alémanique de didactique de l’histoire du WBZ, en particulier avec sa présidente actuelle, Christiane Derrer de Zurich, les articles consacrés par le Cartable aux manuels alémaniques, comme l’a souligné Kurt Messmer, au lancement du concours suisse d’histoire « Historia» ou à l’enseignement comparé entre gymnase hessois et lycée français, montrent un Röstigraben dépassé en ce qui concerne les points de vue entre régions culturelles. Pour autant, cela signifie-t-il que les cultures d’enseignement de l’histoire fonctionnent à l’identique? Pour en savoir plus, il faudrait répondre à l’appel de coopération lancé par Kurt Messmer, ouvrir Le cartable de Clio, et aussi peut-être « ein alemannischen Schulsack der Frau Clio », aux contributions des pays anglo-saxons. Avec le risque de produire une revue dont l’ancrage régional ne constituerait plus un caractère, voire une richesse.
Pierre-Philippe Bugnard – Universités de Fribourg et Neuchâtel.
Traverse, table du volume 32
Schwerpunkt
Roger Sablonier: Schweizergeschichte: ein Sonderfall?
Charles Heimberg: Comment communiquer l’histoire, la transmettre et la faire construire à l’école?
Interview mit Heinz Horat (von Jonas Römer): Vermittlung durch Inszenierung. Das historische Museum als «Depot » und Schauspieler als «Lagerführer »
Jeanne Pont, Irène Herrmann, Jonas Römer: Quand l’histoire s’expose. Transmission et mise en scène du passé dans les musées d’arts et d’histoire genevois
Evgenija Kolomenskaja: Russie: Un présent aux passés pluriels
Irène Herrmann: L’histoire entre Eltsine et Poutine. La vision du passé dans le discours politique russe
Boriana Panayotova: Les limites des transformations possibles au récit scolaire d’histoire nationale en Bulgarie
Frédéric Demers: Fiction sérielle et conscience historique dans le Québec d’aujourd’hui
Gerald Munier: Geschichte im Comic. Können ernsthafte historische Themen auch in Form von Bildergeschichten behandelt werden?
Debatte:
Peter Kamber: Hitler als «Charismatiker »? – «Zweiter Dreissigjähriger Krieg? » Zur Kritik an Hans Ulrich Wehlers «Deutscher Gesellschaftsgeschichte »
Kurt Messmer: Der geschichtsdidaktische Röstigraben. Anmerkungen aus der Deutschschweiz zur Westschweizer Revue «Le cartable de Clio »
[IF]De la recherche à l’enseignement: penser le social (CC)
De la recherche à l’enseignement: penser le social, n° hors série d’Histoire & Sociétés. Revue européenne d’histoire sociale, Paris, Alternatives Economiques, 2004, 80p. Resenha de: OPÉRIOL, Valérie. Le cartable de Clio – Revue romande et tessinoise sur les didactiques de l’histoire, Lausanne, n.4, p.299-300, 2004.
C’est à la présence de l’histoire sociale dans l’enseignement secondaire qu’est consacré ce numéro spécial de la revue Histoire & Sociétés. Il réunit diverses contributions d’historiens et de didacticiens issues d’une journée d’études sur L’histoire sociale dans l’enseignement secondaire en Europe, tenue lors des Rendez-vous de l’Histoire de Blois en octobre 2003: Michel Pigenet, L’histoire sociale en question ; perspectives et enjeux Patrick Garcia, Historiographie et enseignement de l’histoire Christiane Kohser-Spohn, Histoire sociale et enseignement scolaire de l’histoire en Allemagne Paolo Giovannini, Sociologie et histoire: quelles convergences aujourd’hui? Laurent Albaret, La place de l’histoire sociale dans l’enseignement de l’histoire médiévale Marc Deleplace, Nouveau programme, nouvelle lecture de l’« ère des révolutions»? Rafael Valls, L’histoire sociale dans les manuels d’enseignement secondaire en Espagne Charles Heimberg, L’apprentissage du lien social et des solidarités.
Les articles s’adressent aux enseignants et abordent des sujets à l’échelle européenne. Analysant les instructions officielles, les programmes et les manuels scolaires – ce qui, soit dit en passant, ne reflète peut-être pas ce qui se passe réellement dans les classes et devrait être complété par des enquêtes sur le terrain –, ils montrent que l’histoire sociale est en perte de vitesse dans l’enseignement, au profit des domaines politique et culturel. Convaincus que l’approche sociale de l’histoire, la connaissance de l’organisation des sociétés, des rapports de pouvoir et des combats des individus et des groupes contribue au développement de l’esprit critique et à la formation citoyenne des élèves, ils tentent de comprendre pourquoi les cours d’histoire la réduisent à la portion congrue. Ils interrogent notamment les liens et la distance entre la recherche scientifique et l’école, puisque l’histoire a toujours eu vocation à être enseignée, comme l’explique l’un des articles.
En France, dans l’enseignement de l’histoire médiévale une large place est encore et toujours accordée au récit politique, aux grands hommes et aux événements, en complet décalage avec l’historiographie, qui a vu se développer dès les années 1970 une approche sociale variée, avec des objets d’étude comme la vie quotidienne, la parenté, la sexualité, la marginalité, les femmes,… Pour l’époque moderne en revanche, c’est plus en répercussion avec la recherche, orientée vers un renouvellement de l’approche politique, que la part de l’histoire sociale est minorée dans l’enseignement, comme le montre l’exemple de la Révolution française, que l’on expliquait il y a 20 ans par la montée de la bourgeoisie, alors qu’on invoque aujourd’hui l’affirmation du modèle politique de la démocratie libérale.
En Espagne et en Allemagne, la situation est différente. Depuis une trentaine d’années, même si le politique reste prédominant, l’histoire sociale s’est accrue dans les manuels – surtout pour l’Antiquité et le Moyen Age et moins pour l’époque contemporaine – et les contenus de l’enseignement se sont diversifiés. Mais cette évolution réjouissante a connu en Espagne un brusque revirement à la fin des années 1990: sous la pression du parti conservateur ont été édictés de nouveaux programmes, revenant à des contenus plus rigides, basés sur la chronologie, les faits et les grands personnages historiques, avec une diminution de l’histoire contemporaine. Le risque de ce genre de retour en arrière s’explique notamment par le grand écart inconfortable que doivent accomplir les maîtres entre d’une part leur formation académique, plutôt traditionnelle et privilégiant le politique, domaine où ils se sentent les plus sûrs et qui leur confère davantage de prestigie puisque les élèves y sont les moins compétents, et d’autre part les innovations pédagogiques. La discipline doit donc s’émanciper des conceptions traditionnelles si elle veut trouver tout son sens, qui est de contribuer « à relativiser la nature des valeurs et des institutions sociales du présent en démontrant leur caractère de constructions humaines… » (p. 68).
C’est particulièrement par le biais de l’histoire sociale, qui met en évidence la pluralité des points de vue et des intérêts et permet de comprendre la construction du lien social et des solidarités, que peut s’exercer la fonction citoyenne de l’enseignement de l’histoire, à laquelle on doit toutefois prendre garde de ne pas réduire cette discipline en faisant fi de la contextualisation historique. Les auteurs remettent en question l’a priori qui veut que l’histoire sociale soit plus difficile à enseigner et proposent une démarche investigatrice, où l’élève doit être amené à réfléchir au changement, aux temporalités ; tout en prenant en compte les usages publics de l’histoire, on le sensibilisera à la périodisation, de même qu’à la comparaison entre les époques, comme le préconisait déjà Seignobos en 1906: « On devra donc [lui] demander de comparer les hommes ou les choses de chaque époque avec les hommes et les choses analogues d’un autre temps ou d’un autre pays. » (p. 17); en effet, la richesse d’une approche comparée n’est plus à démontrer, surtout depuis que les divisions entre sociologie et histoire se sont effacées au profit d’un rapprochement qui ouvre aujourd’hui des perspectives stimulantes, permettant l’étude des liens entre le passé et le présent, entre les événements historiques et les processus sociaux, entre l’action individuelle et les institutions et processus de transformation sociale. C’est ainsi que les jeunes pourront se concevoir et se situer comme acteurs dans le collectif et construire les valeurs du lien social, de la solidarité et de la justice.
Valérie Opériol – Cycle d’orientation et Collège de CAdolle, Genèe.
[IF]
L’histoire brisée. La Rome antique et l’Occident moderne – SCHIAVONE (CC)
SCHIAVONE, Aldo. L’histoire brisée. La Rome antique et l’Occident moderne. Paris: Belin, 2003 (édition originale: 1996), 287p. BASCHET, Jérôme. La civilisation féodale. De l’an mil à la colonisation de l’Amérique. Paris: Aubier, 2004. 565p. pages. Resenha de: HEIMBERG, Charles. Le cartable de Clio – Revue romande et tessinoise sur les didactiques de l’histoire, Lausanne, n.4, p.303-305, 2004.
L’enseignement de l’histoire se doit de tenir compte de l’évolution de la recherche et des nouveaux travaux des historiens. Il est même souhaitable que, d’une manière générale, il sache se fonder sur les œuvres de ces historiens, même les plus récentes, et en présenter la substance.
Depuis que l’histoire est enseignée, sa présentation repose invariablement sur les quatre ou cinq « grandes vieilles » de la périodisation, la Préhistoire, selon les cas, puis la succession de l’Antiquité, du Moyen Age, des Temps modernes et de l’Epoque contemporaine. Cette construction est souvent donnée à voir comme une évidence linéaire et l’histoire enseignée n’a guère l’habitude de la discuter ou d’en montrer l’origine. Deux ouvrages récents nous permettent pourtant, aujourd’hui, d’engager d’utiles réflexions sur cette thématique.
Dans L’histoire brisée, Aldo Schiavone repose la question du déclin de la civilisation antique et de son lien réel avec la modernité. Pourquoi cette civilisation a-t-elle dû s’éteindre et tomber ainsi en ruines? Pourquoi la civilisation moderne a-t-elle dû s’affirmer en se référant à l’Antiquité? Et surtout, cette référence “continuiste” était elle vraiment pertinente? En réalité, l’analyse précise de cette civilisation antique, romaine en particulier, mène l’auteur à mettre en évidence le fait qu’elle était fort différente des représentations que l’on s’en est faites beaucoup plus tard. Il souligne en particulier que les classes dominantes de ce tempslà, celles qui nous ont produit l’essentiel des traces qui ont rendu possible le travail historique, vivaient dans un sentiment de bien-être qui était dépourvu de toute aspiration à améliorer leur sort, ce qui découlait de la perception des limites indépassables du monde. Cela étant, nous dit Schiavone, « si la civilisation gréco-romaine, a pu se laisser si durablement enfermer par les modernes dans un modèle de perfection coupé des réalités de la vie, si nous en avons conservé si longtemps cette vision selon laquelle la politique, les savoirs, les passions, les caractères, les arts, les institutions semblaient se cristalliser dans le vide d’un pur jeu de formes, si cette culture continue à donner d’elle la représentation enchantée d’une perfection stylistique suspendue en dehors de l’histoire », c’est là un « isolement trompeur». En effet, il y avait alors « une sorte d’espace mort de la civilisation humaine », il y avait « un trou noir de la vie collective » constitué par la vie matérielle et productive.
De fait, ces élites des temps anciens n’avaient pas de pensée économique et Cicéron ne manquait pas de mépriser « les gains de tous les salariés dont c’est la peine et non pas l’habileté qu’on paie». Mais ce continent caché, pas même doté d’une terminologie dans les langues grecque et latine, ne pouvait l’être qu’au prix de la servitude du plus grand nombre. Le prestige de la civilisation dépendait de l’esclavagisme, c’està-dire de la multitude de ceux qui devaient travailler, le plus souvent dans des conditions épouvantables. De leur côté, les savants de l’Antiquité n’ont jamais cherché à remédier à cette situation, ils n’ont pas inventé de machines, ils n’étaient surtout en quête d’aucune utilité matérielle et immédiate au bout de leurs réflexions. Dans un récit de Plutarque, on voit par exemple Archimède céder exceptionnellement à son refus de la concrétisation de ses plans parce que sa ville de Syracuse était assiégée et que ses machines pouvaient lancer des projectiles et repousser les navires ennemis.
L’idée moderne d’un retour à l’époque classique était donc une affaire de représentations. C’était la quête d’une supériorité supposée, mais qui reposait sur d’autres bases, ou sur un malentendu. « La révolution de la modernité européenne a été avant tout la suppression de la limite: non seulement des obstacles qui avaient bloqué la civilisation antique, mais de la nature même de la limite comme barrière infranchissable, de la cyclicité comme destin ». La référence à l’Antiquité n’était donc que partielle, elle se jouait des limites au niveau de l’espace comme à celui du temps et de l’horizon d’attente, elle s’accompagnait de l’émergence d’une véritable pensée économique. La croissance et la mondialisation n’ont pas été inspirées par le passé antique.
« Nous savons aujourd’hui ce qui allait advenir, quelle catastrophe s’apprêtait à dévorer ce monde », note Schiavone au début de son étude. Or, sa réflexion sur la réalité des liens entre les anciens et les modernes reste discrète sur l’époque médiévale. Alors qu’un ouvrage du médiéviste Jérôme Baschet renverse justement la perspective et nous propose une thèse audacieuse: c’est dans la civilisation féodale et son prolongement au cours de l’époque moderne que se trouve la source de cette dynamique occidentale qui a fait conquérir, dominer et souffrir le Nouveau Monde en y transportant une bonne part de son univers mental. C’est la féodalité qui a fait naître le capitalisme. C’est donc aussi de cette civilisation féodale, et pas seulement de l’Antiquité qu’elle se représentait, que la modernité s’est inspirée, peut-être sans le savoir, ou sans vouloir le savoir.
Le livre de Baschet prolonge un cours universitaire donné à un public mexicain. Dans une première partie, il propose une synthèse chronologique des grandes périodes de cette civilisation féodale européenne, non sans déconstruire au passage quelques stéréotypes inventés par l’historiographie nationale du XIXe siècle comme par exemple une vision dépréciative de la fragmentation féodale ou l’insistance sur une stagnation de cette société que les faits ne confirment pas. Il décrit les obligations réciproques et les rapports de domination qui ont régi le féodalisme. Il montre aussi le rôle de l’Eglise, l’institution dominante de cette société féodale, celle qui lui a donné une perspective d’unité et une dimension impériale. Une seconde partie plus thématique, et très stimulante, met l’accent sur des aspects fondamentaux comme les cadres temporels, la structuration spatiale, les rapports de parenté ou le rôle des images. L’ouvrage est d’ailleurs parsemé d’illustrations, au sens plein du terme, c’est-àdire de documents iconographiques qui concrétisent les affirmations d’un auteur qui est un fin analyste de l’imagerie médiévale.
« Nous sommes des nains posés sur les épaules de géantes, mais nous voyons plus loin qu’eux”. Cette formule de Bernard de Chartres, au XIIe siècle, évoquait très subtilement les penseurs du passé et l’immense héritage qu’ils avaient laissé tout en suggérant, ce qui était particulièrement rare au Moyen Age, que ceux du présent pourraient les dépasser. Les historiens comme Jacques Le Goff ou Jérôme Baschet qui plaident pour l’idée d’un long Moyen Age qui aurait duré jusqu’au XVIIIe, voire au XIXe siècle, s’intéressent notamment à la manière dont les hommes d’alors ont perçu le temps, le passé et son champ d’expérience, l’avenir et son horizon d’attente. Ils font même valoir que de réformes en renaissances, les mouvements d’idées de l’époque dite «moderne» ont prolongé ceux de l’époque médiévale en se prévalant d’un retour au passé, c’est-à-dire d’un retour « à la pureté perdue de la règle originelle ». Ce n’est ainsi qu’au XIXe siècle que l’on évoquera, notamment avec Karl Marx, des révolutions dont la poésie se situerait dans l’avenir, dans un avenir de progrès encore jamais imaginé.
Au cours du Moyen Age, le futur terrestre de l’humanité devait être en principe une répétition de l’expérience passée, « mais l’attente d’un horizon neuf [était] projeté dans l’eschatologie », c’est-à-dire dans la fin du monde, au Jugement dernier. L’existence de cet horizon d’attente, fût-elle si religieusement connotée, constituait dès lors un fait nouveau eu égard à son absence chez les hommes de l’Antiquité. Parmi beau coup d’autres commentaires, informations et analyses, l’ouvrage de Jérôme Baschet nous aide aussi à mieux percevoir la spécificité de ce que nous projetons aujourd’hui dans l’avenir, des espoirs de progrès, bien sûr, mais également, davantage encore en ce nouveau siècle, l’appréhension d’une régression sociale et intellectuelle déjà observée au cours de l’histoire et malheureusement toujours possible.
Charles Heimberg – Institut de Formation des Maîtres (IFMES), Genève.
[IF]Réseaux philanthropinistes et pédagogie au 18e siècle – CHALMEL (CC)
CHALMEL, Loïc. Réseaux philanthropinistes et pédagogie au 18e siècle. Berne: Peter Lang, « Exploration. Education: Histoire et pensée », 2004. 270 p. Resenha de: BUGNARD, Pierre-Philippe. Le cartable de Clio – Revue romande et tessinoise sur les didactiques de l’histoire, Lausanne, n.4, p.305-307, 2004.
On ne s’est plus guère avisé, depuis Ferdinand Buisson et son célèbre dictionnaire de 1911, de l’importance des réseaux, quasi européens, qui des établissements d’éducation philanthropinistes aux Loges maçonniques, en passant par un associationnisme intellectuel et privé actif, diffusent et appliquent les plans d’études modernes en gestation entre Comenius et Rousseau.
Alliant analyses comparatives et traitement de sources, l’ouvrage démarre sur un récit: le déroulement d’un examen public en 1776 organisé au Philanthropinum de Dessau (Anhalt). Il s’agit de démontrer l’efficacité de la méthode philantropiniste issue de la théorie éducative de Basedow dont la genèse et la diffusion constituent un des objets centraux de cette passionnante étude. L’examen débouche d’ailleurs sur un concert de louanges. Les visiteurs ébahis s’aperçoivent qu’en classe hétérogène des enfants de 7 ou 8 ans instruits depuis une année et demie peuvent parler couramment français et latin! Tel est le résultat d’une vision pédagogique qui conditionne la progression des apprentissages par une formation des maîtres de qualité. Les maîtres reçoivent d’ailleurs du prince de Anhalt le titre de professeur… mais pas les moyens financiers qu’ils escomptaient de leur démonstration. Performante, la pédagogie ne peut guère espérer plus qu’un éloge et c’est sans doute ce qui fait qu’elle peine à le rester sans discontinuer.
Alors, d’où vient une méthode aux résultats apparemment si probants? Loïc Chalmel, professeur des Universités et fondateur du Conseil scientifique du musée Oberlin de Waldersbach en Alsace, fait justement l’histoire pionnière d’une modernité pédagogique qu’il circonscrit au « couloir rhénan » tout au long duquel se croisent au XVIIIe siècle reliquats d’humanisme, lumières et Aufklärung, piétismes, rationalisme critique ou mysticisme irrationnel, Sturm und Drang et romantisme… au nom d’une « Réforme » susceptible de conduire à la Révolution. Quatre jeunes maîtres, regroupés autour de Basedow à Dessau, dans ce qui deviendra le Philanthropinum, décident de consacrer leur vie à mettre en valeur le capital hérité de Rousseau. Ils feront bien plus que cela. En alliant théologie et pédagogie, ils raniment la flamme de la didactique en rejetant la religion révélée au profit d’une religion naturelle (ce qui entraîne d’aborder l’environnement de façon empirique) et en proposant un apprentissage des langues en immersion et en interdisciplinarité (ce qui conduit à faire d’élèves compris partout les prosélytes d’un homme nouveau: religieux et philanthrope. D’ailleurs est-ce dissociable?).
L’expérience conduite par le grison Planta, présentée au cœur de l’ouvrage, est à ce titre symptomatique: examiner méthodiquement les vérités divines afin d’éradiquer la superstition, enseigner les langues anciennes et modernes en formant des classes cosmopolites, éduquer à la citoyenneté (pour reprendre l’étiquette d’un concept actuel) en instituant l’école en République dont les discours et la justice sont rédigés et rendue en quatre langues par les élèves, réaliser des collections qui permettent d’utiliser les langues, cultiver le chant populaire éducatif ou pratiquer les exercices physiques… tout concourt dans le séminaire de Haldenstein à expérimenter les préceptes de l’Emile et à constituer un espace pionnier des principes philanthropinistes.
Sinon, impossible de faire état de toutes les influences qui ont concouru au modelage de la méthode recherchant l’harmonie entre les formations de l’esprit, du corps et du cœur, modernité qui sera d’ailleurs aussi celle de Pestalozzi. Chalmel souligne à juste titre que la méthode illustre des « nouveautés » souvent attribuées à l’éducation nouvelle: éducation à la citoyenneté et à l’environnement, éveil de l’intérêt de l’enfant au monde et à la nature, apprentissage précoce des langues vivantes, utilisation des médias (l’image en tant que substitut à toute réalité hors de portée visuelle de la classe), correspondance scolaire, développement des habiletés manuelles et artistiques… Mais n’est-ce pas déjà un programme que n’aurait pas même renié un Mathurin Cordier, le maître de Calvin? Finalement, la méthode philanthropiniste, centrée sur des élèves enseignés par des maîtres ouverts à l’articulation théorie-pratique, ne réalise-t-elle pas l’utopie intemporelle de cosmopolitisme moral, intellectuel et pratique? L’échec politique du mouvement (l’Ecole Normale de l’An III préférera abreuver les futurs instituteurs de la Nation de pensées savantes plutôt que de les former au modèle philanthropiniste du compagnonnage) ne doit pas occulter les réussites pédagogiques que le mouvement enregistre au-delà même du couloir rhénan et la flamme des pédagogies naturelles qu’il transmet ainsi jusqu’à l’éducation nouvelle.
Pierre-Philippe Bugnard – Universités de Fribourg et Neuchâtel.
[IF]O poder amargo do açúcar: produtores escravizados, consumidores proletarizados | Sidney W. Mintz
MINTZ, Sidney W. O poder amargo do açúcar: produtores escravizados, consumidores proletarizados. Recife: Editora Universitária da UFPE, 2003. Resenha de: MACIEL, Caio Augusto Amorim. CLIO – Revista de pesquisa histórica. Recife, v.22, n.1, p.363-366, jan./dez. 2004.
Power, Knowledge and Anti-Racism Education: A Critical Reader – SEFA DEI; CALLISTE (CSS)
SEFA DEI, George J. ; CALLISTE, Agnes (Eds.), with the assistance of Margarida Aguiar. Power, Knowledge and Anti-Racism Education: A Critical Reader. Fernwood Publishing, 2000. 188p. Resenha de: BECKETT, Gulbahar H. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
Power, Knowledge and Anti-Racism Education: A Critical Reader is a volume edited by George J. Sefa Dei and Agnes Calliste. As the title suggests, this book is indeed a critical, informative, and thought provoking reader on power, race, gender, and education. The book includes eight chapters plus an introduction and conclusion that address questions of racism and schooling practices in a variety of educational settings in Canada, a country that practices multiculturalism and is considered to value and promote diversity. Most Canadians believe that the country’s multicultural policy was established with good intentions and has served the country and its people well. As such, we rarely ask ourselves questions such as: Who is benefiting from the policy and who is not? Why and why not? What are the strengths and limitations of the multicultural policy in empowering people of all origins? What more can be done to ensure equality in education and the larger society? This very well written book asks and answers these and many other very important questions.
Specifically, Power, Knowledge and Anti-Racism Education addresses critical issues such as multiculturalism, racism, equality, exclusion, and gender issues from theoretical as well as practical perspectives. It calls for a critical examination of and going beyond multiculturalism by challenging the status quo with critical anti-racist education. In Chapter 1, Dei contextualizes the book through his discussion of a critical anti-racist discursive theoretical framework that deals foremost with equity: the qualitative value of justice (p. 17). He is critical of multiculturalism arguing that it creates a public discourse of a colour-blind society and he calls for an acknowledgement of and confrontation with differences. According to Dei, confronting the dynamics and relational aspects of race, class, ethnic, and gender differences is essential to power sharing in colour-coded Euro-Canadian contexts.
In Chapter 2, Bedard continues the discussion of multiculturalism and anti-racist education through a deconstruction of Whiteness in relation to historical colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. He reminds readers of the complexity of the race issue as we still live with the legacy of colonialism. He asserts that through their ideological and intellectual ruling of Canada, as well as many other parts of the world (e.g., Africa and Asia), white people enjoy more privileges that are not afforded to people from other racial backgrounds. In Chapter 3, Ibrahim revisits tensions surrounding curriculum relevance and demonstrates how popular culture, especially Black popular culture (e.g., Hip Hop and Rap), can be utilized to carry out anti-racism education as it relates to students identity formation, cultural and linguistics practices, and sense of alienation from or relation to everyday classroom practice. In Chapter 4, James and Mannette address issues related to visible minority students’ access to publicly funded post-secondary education. Through rich personal accounts from students, they illustrate how these students mediate systemic barriers, gain entry, and experience post-secondary education in Canada.
In Chapter 5, Henry presents a brief reflection of black teachers’ positionality in Canadian universities and schools through three vignettes: her personal experience, two teacher candidates’ experiences, and a veteran teacher’s experience. Through these vignettes, Henry makes a case that black women in Canadian universities and schools were isolated and bore the responsibility of raising the awareness and consciousness of the White people in their work environment (p. 97). She calls on all of us to reflect on every day acts of power and subordination and to use them to develop theories and workable strategies to end inequality (p. 97). In Chapter 6, Tastsoglou discusses various types of borders and the challenges and rewards of cultural, political, and pedagogical border crossing. As a transnational person who crosses various borders daily, I found the discussion to be particularly interesting. Among others, I like the points Tastsoglou makes about otherness (i.e., how all of us can be othered sometime or another) and the detailed illustration of border pedagogy (Giroux, 1991) that can enable us to engage in socially and historically constructed multiple cultural experiences.
In Chapter 7, Wright addresses issues of exclusion and engages in an anti-racist critique of progressive academic discourse in general rather than Canadian multiculturalism per se, using post-modernist, post-structuralist, post-colonialist, feminist, and Afrocentricist discourses. What I found particularly informative in this chapter is Wright’s discussion of what Afrocentricism and feminism are and how they can contribute to our understanding of inclusion and exclusion. In Chapter 8, Calliste presents and discusses some research studies on racism in Canadian universities. This chapter shows racism does exist in Canadian universities overtly as well as through hidden curriculum. As such, it supports Dei’s argument that Canada is a colour-coded society where racism and inequality exist and need to be addressed.
In summary, Power, Knowledge and Anti-Racism Education: A Critical Reader is a book that challenges us to be critical of the multiculturalism that has become part of Canadian social and public discourse. It reminds us that multiculturalism works with the notion of a basic humanness. As such, it downplays inequalities and differences by accentuating shared commonalities among peoples of various backgrounds. It advocates empathy for minorities on the basis of a common humanity, envisions a future assured by goodwill, tolerance, and understanding among all, but it also breeds complacency, creating the illusion that we live in a raceless, classless, and genderless society. For example, Dei points out that, while a raceless, classless, and genderless society is an ideal that we all aspire to and work towards, we must remember that, at present, such a society is a luxury that is only possible for people from a certain racial background, namely white people. He, therefore, urges us to acknowledge that while multiculturalism is an important first step in building an ideal nation, it is anti-racist education that seeks to challenge the status quo and aspires to excellence. According to Dei and Calliste, anti-racism education practice must lead to an understanding that excellence is equity and equity is excellence (p.164). I would recommend this book as a required text for undergraduate and graduate level sociology and educational foundations related courses.
References
Giroux, H. (1991). Post-modernism as border pedagogy: Redefining the boundaries of
race and ethnicity. In H. Giroux (Ed.). Postmodernism, feminism, and cultural
politics: Redrawing educational boundaries (pp. 217-56). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Gulbahar H. Beckett – College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
[IF]
Discovering Canada’s Trading Partners – URSEL (CSS)
URSEL, Elaine. Discovering Canada’s Trading Partners. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2001. 80p. Resenha de: BRADFORD, K. J.. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
A quick glance at the title of this Oxford Discovery Series text reveals that it was written specifically for the new (1998) Ontario elementary grade six social studies curriculum strand Canada and Its Trading Partners. Even with this understanding, some of the content in Ursel’s Discovering Canada’s Trading Partners appears at best confusing and at worst irrelevant. However, the topical incongruencies and slapdash manner of the Ontario curriculum are not solely to blame. As with all textbooks, authors make decisions about what to include and exclude and how to present the topics and information that are included. Limitations are placed on authors by editors and publishers and, considering that this textbook addresses one half of the grade six year yet is only 80 pages long, Ursel clearly had to make choices.
Ursel begins by explaining the idea of trade first through a short fictional story and then through a brief history of trade. The lemonade stand story is a fairly typical device in economics-focused books aimed at young people. The problem with continued reliance upon this idealization is that students are expected to make the considerable conceptual leap from understanding this summer pastime as trade to understanding that the complex and interrelated processes of national and international government rules and regulations, the commodification of non-renewable and renewable natural resources by government, industry and business, and the exchange of manufactured goods along with both practical and intellectual human services are also trade. It is simply too great a leap.
A history of trade is offered that is not only far too brief but is overwhelmingly eurocentric in perspective. Ursel includes a full-page world map and timeline to discuss and illustrate the history of trade. While all the continents of the world are included in the map, the written information is only about Europeans, early civilizations that have been claimed as part of Western Civilization, and the pursuit of worldwide European trade. The timeline begins with the Sumerians in 3000 BCE, moves through the Babylonians and Phoenecians to the Crusades and Marco Polo, and ends with Great Explorers in 1400-1600 CE. Due to this eurocentric geographical and ideological privileging, Ursel can make the following statements about the Crusades: Trade declined for 100 years after the fall of the Roman Empire. Many luxuries of Asia were once again traded and brought to Europe (p. 13, emphasis in original). Notwithstanding the typographic error 1000 years would be more accurate and the poor wording which makes these sentences oppositional and therefore confusing, Ursel states that all trade everywhere in the world was impeded at this time. This is hardly the case. Another example of the author’s eurocentric perspective comes in the few sentences explaining the trading time period called Great Explorers: As sailors set out to trade, they explored unknown lands. Their search for trade routes brought them to North America (p. 12). While these lands may have been unknown to the sailors in question, the representation of European explorers discovering already inhabited lands has long since been challenged and debunked. It was also disappointing to realize that North America is included in the trade timeline and map not to acknowledge the sophisticated trading that flourished between indigenous societies but as an addition to the established eurocentric storyline. To her credit, on the following page Ursel does acknowledge that aboriginal peoples engaged in trade with each other however, this is again set within the framework of how these alliances contributed to the European-focused fur trade. It is unfortunate that Ursel chooses to emphasize the history of trade from a eurocentric perspective; by doing so she effectively implies that the best purpose for trade, if not the only purpose, is to make profits and develop surpluses. She fails to acknowledge that trade can be a reciprocal, equitable and mutually beneficial relationship that meets needs as well as wants and that nomadic peoples as well as agricultural-based societies engage(d) in trade.
Ursel spends considerable time explaining the concepts of import and export before moving on to the largest component of the text: Canada’s trading partners. This section includes continental maps and pictures which both reinforce stereotypes of particular geographic regions, such as a rice field in China, and pictures that likely challenge stereotypical images of places, such as the photograph depicting Nairobi as a modern city. Due to curriculum requirements, there is a heavy emphasis on the various geographic and economic regions of the United States. Ursel also includes sections on Mexico and Japan; again, the curriculum requires that students study a trading partner from a geographic region such as the Pacific Rim. What is missing from this textbook and it is a glaring omission in my opinion is comparable information about Canada’s geographic and economic regions.
There are also several inaccuracies and confusing and overly simplistic explanations in the text that cause me concern. For instance, two of three pie charts are actually circular, horizontal bar graphs (pages 21 and 26). In her discussion of the American southeast, Ursel claims that New Orleans in Louisiana is the oldest city in the South, founded by the French in 1718 (p. 47). This is not true. The city of St. Augustine in Florida was founded by the Spanish in 1565 and has been continuously inhabited since then (http://www.ci.staugustine.fl.us/visitors/specialplace.html).
While Ursel makes some effort to explain why Canada belongs to trade groups such as La Francophonie and the Commonwealth, she makes no effort to explain the basis of membership in the G-8. Rather, she names the member countries while also explaining that the G-8, or the Group of Eight, meets regularly to discuss economic issues before they become sources of conflict (p. 74, emphasis in original). This example illustrates my biggest concern with this textbook. I appreciate that complex ideas such as international trade need to be simplified for young learners, however, I find this book leaning more towards simplicity rather than simplification. The conceptualizations and explanations of the processes of trade should be more thorough. For instance, Ursel could have more adequately explained that while it is governments who set the rules and regulations for trade it is usually companies situated within those nations that actually engage in capitalist trade.
Ursel glosses over the effects of trade agreements such as NAFTA in which trade disputes are ongoing and the roles played by organizations such as the G-8 in establishing and regulating inequitable global trade agreements. While the idea of cheap labour appears repeatedly throughout the text, for example, I think Ursel is less than honest with young learners about the real life repercussions of cheap labour on the lives of people like themselves and their parents. While she refers to cheap labour as a key component of economic success for companies, Ursel fails to explain that for those skilled and unskilled working class workers of the first world who have lost jobs or are continually threatened with job loss, loss of wages, working hours and benefits as well as for those workers in developing or poorer countries who may get those jobs but who have little or no job security, extremely poor pay, no benefits and terrible working conditions, cheap labour is not such a success story.
I also have concerns about the student activities called Something To Do included throughout the textbook. For example, in the International Trade Groups section grade six students are blithely encouraged to Role-play setting up a trade agreement between Canada and the United States to sell Canadian fresh water (p. 75). They are to practice their skills in setting trading rules and negotiating conflicts. What this exercise does not ask students to do is to think about and discuss who owns this resource; whether or not this renewable resource should be traded away or not; and how to ensure our own needs as Canadians do not become subservient to those of a larger market. It ignores the increasing dilemma of water shortages throughout the world and the glutinous North American overuse of this most precious and necessary yet vulnerable resource. As Ursel does mention environmental problems such as overhunting beavers during the fur trade (p. 16) and the devastating impact of overfishing on fish stocks (p. 23) connected to trade practices, I do not think it unreasonable to deliberately help students begin making real connections between the harvesting of natural resources in exchange for monetary profits and the ultimate consequences of these behaviours.
There is no doubt that the rushed manner in which the Ontario social studies curriculum was conceptualized has resulted in a fragmentary and knowledge-as-product perspective toward complex social processes. The emphasis on expediency rather than conceptual thoroughness in the curriculum reform process has directly resulted in substandard learning resources. Oxford University Press was not the only publisher to take advantage of the economic opportunity available in quickly supplying the school children of Ontario with textbooks. While the format of this book (photographs, maps, easily identifiable sections of information and sidebars) is appealing, the content falls short perhaps not of curriculum expectations, but certainly in terms of aiding substantive learning and understanding.
K. J. Bradford – University of Western Ontario. London, Ontario.
[IF]Canada and the Nobel Prize: Biographies, Portraits and Fascinating Facts – BLACK (CSS)
BLACK, Harry. Canada and the Nobel Prize: Biographies, Portraits and Fascinating Facts. Markham, ON: Pembroke Publishers, 2002. 120p. Resenha de: BRADLEY, Jon G. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
Canadians do not like heroes, and so they do not have any
(George Woodcock, 1970, Canada and the Canadians).
Designed to be an introduction to that rarefied arena of the Nobel Prize, this little book sets out to highlight those notables who have had some kind of connection with Canada. Structurally, the book is divided into three parts: (1) an introductory section briefly describing the life and times of Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel along with the creation of the prizes that bear his name (13 pages); (2) a much longer section, the heart of the book if you will, that describes the selected twenty-two individuals and one organization who have a Canadian connection and who have been honoured with a Nobel (88 pages); and (3) a small index and reference list (11 pages) that rounds out the publication.
In many ways, Canada and the Nobel Prize: Biographies, Portraits and Fascinating Facts is an uneven publication. In the first place, the overall orientation and selection criteria are problematic. The age-old question of nationality is raised and the author himself acknowledges some unease with this orientation. Designed to highlight those Nobel Laureates who have had a significant link to Canada (p. 9), the author seems to be really hunting at times to find these so-called significant Canadian links. I am somewhat surprised that those Nobel winners who may have visited the CN Tower, the Columbia ice fields, and/or traveled the Cabot Trail are not included in the text. Clearly, some liberties have been taken with the word significant such that just about any old connection will do. My guess is that a much slimmer volume would have resulted if a more stringent allocation had been made.
Some of the notables do indeed have a major and/or personal connection with Canada: John Polanyi (Chemistry, 1986) spent formative years at Canadian universities; Robert Mundell (Economics, 1999) was born in Ontario and schooled in British Columbia; and, Charles Higgins (Medicine, 1966) was born and raised in Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, too many less secure connections abound. Other than being born in Vancouver, William Vickrey’s (Economics, 1996) Canadian credentials are weak but may well be stronger than those of William Giauque (Chemistry, 1949) who is included in this stellar list simply by the oft-putting and totally unanticipated event of being born in Canada of American citizens who were on a short pleasure trip. Notwithstanding Ernest Hemingway’s (Literature, 1954) brief sojourn at the Toronto Star, his inclusion in this so-called Canadian list seems questionable. Similarly, Saul Bellow’s (Literature, 1976) few early years in Montreal seem tenuous, at best, as solid grounds for a meaningful Canadian connection.
The twenty-two biographies and one institutional history take up the bulk of the pages of Canada and the Nobel Prize. Arranged alphabetically, each biography opens with a clear and attractive pen and ink sketch by the author. This personal touch is nice and softens those all too formal and staged photographs that usually accompany such histories. Even here, unfortunately, the overarching unevenness of the book continues in that some winners, such as, Andrew Schally (Medicine, 1977), Ernest Rutherford (Chemistry, 1908) and David Hubel (Medicine, 1981), are allocated a page or so while truer Canadians, the likes of Frederick Banting (Medicine, 1923), Lester B. Pearson (Peace, 1957) and Michael Smith (Chemistry, 1993), get the royal treatment of four or more pages.
Even the individual biographies themselves contribute to this reviewer’s sense of unease by a tone and word choice that can best be described as put-down ness. In other words, instead of using this opportunity to instruct, explain, and really make known the achievements of these notables, the author too often couches difficult topics in a jocular vernacular that does little other than confuse and confound. This reviewer finds statements such as Taube’s discoveries may seem vague and somewhat esoteric if you are not a chemist or biochemist (p. 100) along with the description of William S. Vickrey as a saint (p. 109) somewhat lacking in focus. The use of such ill-defined and grandiose verbiage may titillate a word connoisseur but does little to educate the general public. Furthermore, what are middle and/or secondary school students to make of such observations? True, the discoveries of some of these folks can often be described as cutting edge and many of the science awards are indeed advanced, theoretical and a trifle difficult for the average lay person to comprehend. However, this challenging and instructional role should have been a major thrust of this book and, in this reviewer’s eyes, a wonderful opportunity was missed by not attempting to communicate in every day language the achievements, accomplishments and impact of these many and varied discoveries.
In spite of my many reservations and concerns, I think that Canada and the Nobel Prize has a special place in every middle/high school library. This volume must be used by teachers and librarians for the simple reason that it highlights academic accomplishment and long-term intellectual investigations. It is a counterweight to all of those other volumes that depict physical prowess or artistic ability as the only worthy virtues in contemporary society. Our libraries are filled with biographies, autobiographies and novels (many of which are nothing more than self-serving renditions) depicting the accomplishments of those with little education, who do not even value formal education, and who are athletes, or sports super and even less than super stars, or others who have been temporarily elevated to an icon status through some questionable artistic ability based on hype rather than talent. Additionally, the contemporary fascination with such television shows as Canadian Idol strengthens the all too prevalent concept among too many young people that academic achievement and intellectual excellence are not worthy endeavors within our society.
This perceived imbalance has been partially rectified by Black’s small polemic. He certainly describes and highlights the pinnacles reached by these giants of the academic world. It is a pleasure to read about people who made academic pursuits, in all forms, a life long goal. Canada and the Nobel Prize is needed! I wish that it had been stronger in certain areas and that it had taken on more of an educational orientation. Nonetheless, it fills a void and I hope that Harry Black will seek out other Canadians who have made meaningful long-term contributions to humankind and tell their stories.
References
Woodcock, George. (1970). Canada and the Canadians. London: Faber.
Jon G. Bradley – Faculty of Education. McGill University. Montreal, Quebec.
[IF]Constructing a Powerful Approach to Teaching and Learning in Elementary Social Studies – GRANT; VanSLEDRIGHT (CSS)
GRANT, S. G.; VanSLEDRIGHT, Bruce. Constructing a Powerful Approach to Teaching and Learning in Elementary Social Studies. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 304p. Resenha de: Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
It is always problematic when an American social studies text, specifically one designed to be used by pre-service teachers, is reviewed through Canadian eyes. For the most part, my own professional past experience has demonstrated that the typical historical examples cited (Mayflower landing, American Revolution, Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, etc.) along with picturesque geographic features such as the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, and the Mississippi River Delta have little relevance for a would-be elementary teacher anywhere in Canada. Additionally, detailed chapters dealing with the American Constitution, government and legal systems as well as issues related to state rights, are foreign to the practical educational realities of anyone north of the forty-ninth parallel. If nothing else, the narrow and specific foci of many of the diverse provincial and territorial elementary social studies programs in Canada are themselves out of synch and offer no commonality, level playing field, or any sort of pan-Canadian national program upon which major pedagogical and curriculum notions can be examined. Therefore, it was with some reluctance that I agreed to tackle a review of Constructing a Powerful Approach to Teaching and Learning in Elementary Social Studies [abbreviated hereafter as CPA]. This hesitation is further heightened by the fact that I am, deep down, a closet Canadian nationalist; use Kirman (2002) as a required text in my own social studies methodology course with second year education students; and periodically refer to Wright (2001) for additional collaboration.
Unfortunately, as if I did not already have enough reticence, CPA is accompanied by a sixty-seven page Instructor’s Resource Manual (ISBN: 0-395-88788-7 supplement). This raises a whole new concern as I am always a tad insulted by those who feel that I am incapable of knowing, deciding, and discovering how to teach my own classes. The notion that I need an instructor’s manual is, in my mind’s eye, offensive. My memory harkens back to my beginning elementary teaching days when teacher’s manuals were all the rage; especially in the mathematics and science domains where the obvious assumption was made that I (as an elementary school teacher) was incapable of solving grade 4 to 6 problems and needed an answer key disguised as a teacher’s edition.
The following review, then, will treat the core text separately from the accompanying manual and will be divided into three sections: text, instructor’s resource manual and summary.
Text: CPA is specifically targeted at budding pre-service elementary teachers-in-training as well as newly minted elementary classroom practitioners. The authors clearly note in the opening sentence that they wrote this book because we were dissatisfied with the elementary social studies textbooks we reviewed for our courses (p. xi). They go on to state that the other books that they did review (unfortunately not listed) failed to capture the vibrancy and power we see in school classrooms where the subject of social studies is well taught (p. xi).
With tongue in cheek and based on my thirty-five years of dealing with elementary schools, I also would certainly like to see social studies well taught. My own professional experience suggests that social studies/sciences is not a discipline that most elementary teachers (and pupils) rank as important. Let us not forget that in the majority of provincial and territory educational jurisdictions in Canada, the social studies domain is not even a part of the prescribed elementary curriculum! Additionally, based on field reports from my third and fourth year teacher candidates, most of their classrooms eschew the teaching of social studies. Even though it can be argued that Quebec is the only province that includes social studies in some meaningful and integrated manner at every grade level from one through to six, curriculum space is always decided in favour of ‘the big three’, namely, English language arts, mathematics and French as a second language.
CPA is a tightly written volume! The book is focused, visually sparse (thank God!), and stays away from unnecessary tangents. In some ways, the text is a solid classroom pedagogical voyage as many of the more practical and concrete planning and organizational notions can easily be applied to other academic areas within the elementary curriculum. Centering Joseph Schwab’s common place concept, grounded in reliable research, and realistically placed within a total elementary curriculum environment, CPA provides a classroom blueprint for the neophyte teacher at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
The strength of the volume is its philosophical grounding. This is not a low-level ‘idiot-proof’ kind of how-to workbook. There is no collection of ready to use on a Monday morning generic social studies lesson plans. There are no easily duplicated worksheets for a dreary Friday afternoon. Rather, this book forces the teacher to think of the place of his/her own educational philosophy and to ground social studies instruction within a much wider philosophical landscape. There is no question that this book was written for the professional educator, and is specifically designed to augment many separate orientations.
Instructor’s Resource Manual: Oh God, a t-shirt handout for a class slogan! While I would strongly recommend the text, I must express many misgivings related to this so-called instructor’s manual. Flimsily produced, its very structure screams ‘cheap’ and ‘of no importance’. I am unsure why publishers feel that course instructors are to be treated in such a manner, but if the manual is so important, make the product of paper that does not rip at a glance, use a cover that will endure more than a couple of openings, and try not to make the manual appear to be something that was produced in the 1970’s by a basement Gestetner and run-off as an after school program.
Instead of taking some of the exciting notions that are introduced in the text, the authors of the manual appear to have fallen back on the same old tired and misguided concepts that drove previous manual designers. The assumption is that the reader of the manual is slightly slow (in intelligence) and old (with dwindling eyesight); hence, large black print, lots of margin space, simple sentences, nothing controversial, and trite statements as guiding principles. For everything that is positive about the text, the reverse is true for the manual. While great care and energy was clearly put into the design and organization of the main volume this is evident in dealing with concepts such as the Treads Approach and Creating a Genuine Classroom Community the manual shows none of this enthusiasm and offers no additional insights. This reader can only assume that it was thrown together somewhat belatedly by an in-house staff that did not understand the concepts and originality of the textbook.
On the whole, Constructing a Powerful Approach to Teaching and Learning in Elementary Social Studies is a valuable volume. It is worth reading as its underlying philosophy is so appealing. Clearly, Grant and VanSledright have some understanding of the realities of the elementary practitioner and have grounded their particular social studies interests in a framework that would fit with many emerging trends. Further, the authors are to be congratulated for providing an overall structure that meets the student centered and individual accountable orientations that are being exhibited in many emerging curriculums. This book will appeal to classroom practitioners as well as those who instruct soon to be elementary teachers. The volume is grounded in time-tested research and not based on the limited experiences of a special group of teachers in a specific school with an abundance of resources. This is a professional book whose ideas and teaching strategies can be implemented by creative classroom practitioners.
References
Kirman, J. M. (2002). Elementary social studies: Creative classroom ideas, 3rd Ed.. Toronto, ON: Prentice Hall.
Wright, I. (2001). Elementary social studies: A practical approach to teaching and learning, 5th Ed. Toronto, ON: Prentice Hall.
Jon G. Bradley – Faculty of Education. McGill University. Montreal, Quebec.
[IF]
Republic of Debtors: Bankruptcy in the Age of American Independence – MANN (CSS)
MANN, Bruce H. Republic of Debtors: Bankruptcy in the Age of American Independence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. 344p. Resenha de: BRILEY, Ron. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
In Republic of Debtors, Bruce H. Mann, professor of law and history at the University of Pennsylvania, offers an informative account of the role played by economic insolvency in the creation of the American republic. Nonetheless, most students at the secondary level will struggle with Mann’s prose grounded in economic analysis. Teachers of American history, however, would do well to consult this volume and incorporate Mann’s research into the historical narrative which all too often tends to uncritically celebrate the unfolding of American economic growth and prosperity.
In the midst of a major recession in which the economic gap between rich and poor continues to grow in the United States, it is worth recalling that these issues of economic and social inequality were present at the inception of the American republic. Americans who struggle under the burden of consumer credit card debt, while bemoaning the legal advantages awarded to corporate debt, will discover from reading Mann’s volume that such conditions are hardly new to American capitalism. Indeed, Mann’s attention to issues of class is crucial, for this is a topic which draws scant coverage in textbooks.
Mann argues that debt in the English colonies of North America was considered a moral issue and the failure to honor a debt constituted a character flaw. This situation, however, began to change in the mid-seventeenth century with the expansion of commercial capital activity. Yet, the devastation of the Seven Years War and the tightening of British mercantile regulations over the colonies resulted in an economic downturn, rendering many colonial businessmen and speculators unable to honor their financial obligations. Debtors called for relief, and insolvency was increasingly perceived as an economic failure, often due to market forces over which the individual exercised little control, rather than a moral lapse.
Essential to Mann’s argument is that this evolving attitudinal shift regarding insolvency extended to commercial rather than consumer debt. Thus, Mann asserts that some colonial legislatures began to experiment with limited bankruptcy laws. Also, many began to question whether imprisonment for debt was a proper remedy for merchants who had fallen upon hard times. Reformers complained that in the two major debtors’ prisons, the New Gaol in New York City and Philadelphia’s Prime Street Jail, respectable middle class businessmen and their families were often incarcerated with common criminals.
Appeals for commercial debt relief increased following the American Revolution and the post war depression which disrupted traditional colonial trading relationships. The uncertain financial times led to the imprisonment of such prominent speculators as William Morris, William Duer, and John Pintard. The ensuing social unrest culminated in Shays’s Rebellion and the belief that a stronger central government was necessary to protect property and maintain order. Accordingly, the Constitutional Convention of 1789 provided the national government with the power to create bankruptcy legislation.
During the 1790s popular perceptions regarding debt continued to evolve, and Mann devotes considerable space to newspapers, pamphlets, and reform journals in which debt was perceived as a threat to the independence of the new republic. Thus, Virginia planters complained that their British creditors were attempting to reduce them to the status of dependent slavery. The irony of such rhetoric, however, was apparently not recognized by the slave-owning planters. Some commercial debtors attempted to escape the reach of creditors by moving to the west, where they were able to reestablish themselves as entrepreneurs. Others were not as fortunate, ending up in the New Gaol where Morris, and others of his social background, attempted to maintain their status by orchestrating an elaborate self-governing procedure for the so-called Middle Hall of the New Gaol.
The debate over commercial debt in the new republic culminated in the Bankruptcy Act of 1800. Commercial debtors rejoiced in the passage of a law which, according to Mann, extended only to merchants, bankers, brokers, factors, underwriters, and marine insurers, who owed a minimum of $1,000 and who had committed one or more acts of bankruptcy (p. 222). Despite the class nature of this legislation and the fact that the bankruptcy process could not be implemented without the approval of creditors, the Bankruptcy Act of 1800 was unpopular with creditors. Accordingly, in 1803 the law was repealed, and a permanent piece of bankruptcy legislation was not enacted until 1898. While creditors continued to express some discomfort with debt relief for all social classes, Mann’s main point is that the Bankruptcy Act of 1800 represented a national statement of the ‘principle’ that release from debts was a boon reserved for capitalistic entrepreneurs, while simpler debtors should, by implication, remember the sanctity of their obligations (p. 256).
Mann concludes that the American legal and economic system continues to grapple with these issues of dependence and independence. Students and teachers of American history should pay greater attention to the class origins of this debate which is well outlined in Mann’s volume. The promise of equal economic opportunity in the United States remains an elusive goal.
Ron Briley – Sandia Preparatory School. Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
[IF]
Culture: The Anthropologists’ Account – KUPER (CSS)
KUPER, Adam. Culture: The Anthropologists’ Account. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. 299p. Resenha de: GOULET Jean-Guy. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
American academics are waging culture wars. (Not many dead.) Politicians urge cultural revolution (p. 1). Thus begins the introduction to a fascinating exploration of a recent chapter in the intellectual history that gave rise and prominence to ‘culture’ as a professional specialty and as a taken-for-granted concept in terms of which the citizenship at large discusses politics, economy, management, industry, media, and so on. One of the impulses from which this book has been written is the abuse of culture theory as a source of legitimization for apartheid in South Africa, where Kuper was an undergraduate in anthropology in the late 1950’s. Culture then superseded race as the objective fact on the basis of which to argue that those who shared a culture ought to live and breed together. To this day Kuper is suspicious of arguments that deny individuals the possibility to associate with whom they choose and so develop in ways that are not determined by their ethnicity and ancestry.
To expose the historical roots of cultural theory the book is divided into two parts. The first consists of two chapters. The initial chapter presents particular traditions of thinking about culture as seen in the work of Lucien Fevre (1878-1956), Norbert Elias (1897-1990) and Raymond Williams (1921-1988). Whereas German intellectuals advocated Kultur above the artificial civilization of the cosmopolitan, materialistic French, British intellectuals tied their notion of culture to the processes of industrialization and its ensuing socio-economic transformations. The second chapter focuses on the American tradition. Kroeber and Kluckhone are credited for constructing a distinctively American genealogy of the concept of culture. Parson built on this foundation to divide the intellectual labour between sociologist, psychologist and anthropologist giving to the latter, as a specialty, the concept of culture as a system of symbols.
Part II of the book focuses on the central project in postwar American cultural anthropology as developed by Geertz (chapter 3), Schneider (chapter 4), Sahlins (chapter 5), and by Sherry Ortner, Renato Rosaldo, George Marcus and James Clifford (chapter 6). These scholars who were granted tenure in the 1980’s promote a postmodernist anthropology born out of the recognition that the imperial project operated within the United States itself (p. 204). In a final chapter Kuper argues against the value of the concepts of culture and multiculturalism in discussions of identity. When difference becomes the basis for a claim to collective rights of those who share gender, race, ethnicity or disability (p. 224), Kuper sees a political agenda that constrains individuals to belong to the group to which they are assigned a priori..
In his criticism of the American project, Kuper operates from a number of vantage points. He chastises Geertz, who hails culture as the essential element in the definition of human nature and produces thick descriptions of local knowledge in Indonesia and Bali, for failing to understand local events in the light of what politicians, soldiers, and CIA operatives did when they not only shaped history but too often tortured and eliminated their enemies (p. 120). Kuper looks at Schneider through the psychoanalytical lens and identifies Schneider’s choice of kinship as a subject for deconstruction that becomes a way to perpetrate not only parricide but a wholesale slaughter of the ancestors(p. 132). Kuper presents Sahlins as Leslie White reincarnated as Lvi-Strauss (p. 198), a view that effectively captures Sahlin’s career path from Michigan to Paris and back to Chicago. In the end Kuper’s objection to the American project as a whole is a moral one, for It tends to draw attention away from what we have in common instead of encouraging us to communicate across national, ethnic, and religious boundaries, and to venture beyond them (p. 247).
First published in 1999, Kuper’s book was in its third printing in the year 2000, a clear indication of its importance. Against American anthropologists, Kuper argues that we ought to avoid the hyper-referential word culture altogether. Better, he claims, to talk more precisely of knowledge, or belief, or art, or technology, or traditions, or even of ideology (though similar problems are raised by the multivalent concept) (p. 10). This suggestion will not do. In the end, Kuper has not found a way out of the anthropological intellectual conundrum that he so elegantly explores. His book will remain, nonetheless, a masterpiece against which to measure the quality of other contributions in the enduring intellectual debate about the core business of anthropology.
Jean-Guy Goulet – Faculty of Human Sciences. Saint Paul University. Ottawa, Ontario.
[IF]
Tropics of Teaching: Productivity, Warfare and Priesthood – TOCHON (CSS)
TOCHON, Françoi. Tropics of Teaching: Productivity, Warfare and Priesthood. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 163p. Resenha de: GRIFFITH, Bryant. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
The Tropics of Teaching is not an easy book to read. In fact, it is a difficult text, full of intricate philosophical language and argument. It is not a book that I would recommend for recreational reading neither for teachers nor for students. However, is it important to the social studies education community? The answer is absolutely yes, and this is why. Tochon argues that educators have constructed a culture of niceness around the act of teaching that negates the ethical nature of what happens in good classrooms with experienced and caring teachers. This culture of niceness prevents teachers and students from understanding the problems associated with teaching and learning as they try to make meaning of the world of education.
In order to understand why Tochon believes this I’m going to take you on a brief, and I hope clear, description of what I understand to be his philosophical position. Tochon employs a semiotic analysis to teaching. Semiotics is, I think, another one of the inexact ‘sciences’. It is inexact because there are many interpretations of what semiotics is; yet it is a science because it does have a definite set of precepts, or sets of precepts. The shortest definition of semiotics is that it is the study of signs and its most notable practitioner is Umberto Eco, who is probably most widely remembered for writing The Name of the Rose. Eco describes semiotics as being concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign (Eco, 1976, p. 7). I take this to mean that semiotics not only studies signs of everyday life, like language, but also anything which stands for something else, namely words, images, sounds, gestures and objects.
Another major figure in the field of semiotics is the anthropologist Claude Lvi-Strauss. I think it may be easier to understand how semiotics relates to teaching and learning if one thinks about how an anthropologist tries to make meaning of the world he or she happens upon. In each case understanding is constructed by making sense of signs presented to them in various textual forms.
Let me illustrate, Lvi- Strauss creates a dialogue with his materials and how best to use them. He asks how the process of discovery leads to making meaning, and then he tracks that process. What he does not do is lay down the path of what that meaning will be beforehand. So semiotics calls for teachers, anthropologists and students to construct personal meaning from actions. This is a reversal of the traditional curriculum process, and of traditional teaching and learning practices. In semiotics learning becomes a creative act shaped by the intentions of the learner and also by language and social and psychological factors. In Tropics of Teaching, Tochon describes semiotics as the ethical element of teaching. It is what good, experienced teachers do when they care for their students. They become flexible in their pedagogical practice. This ethical quality is highly prized by our society but for the most part it has not been addressed in faculties of education or in school classrooms. The reason for the split between theory and practice, Tochon says, is that we have forgotten that teaching is the mirror to the soul and not based upon the rational reflection of how to make things fit (p. 132).
Tochon says that we have further confused the meaning of such key concepts as word and actions, ideology and change, economics and education, and that we have lost touch with what is most important: contact. Contact occurs during a conversation between teacher and student when it is based upon a bottom-up discovery of the learning process. It is not a prescribed path to defined ends. Tochon is telling us is that teaching is the art of translating signs from art to poetry and beyond. This world is not just found in books, computers or audio-video material.
In the same way meaning is not simply transmitted to us. We actively create it according to a complex interplay of codes, of which we are unaware. I think this point is vital. University education, in particular, is often accused of not preparing students for the real world. Given my description above I think we could say that too often teaching does not touch base in order for us to understand signs. In many cases if signs are learned they are not made explicit and therefore no real meaning is made. Too often students pick up meanings implicitly and the pedagogical moment has been lost.
Tochon calls the process I have outlined Humanist reflection. So that we can understand how this differs from much of what we traditionally do in our schools, he has organized the book around three metaphors: ‘productivity’ or output and standardization, ‘warfare’ or strategy and expertise, and finally ‘priesthood’ or the enlightened subject. He argues that we can by-pass these three concepts by employing a semiotic methodology he calls his counter- methodology. This counter-methodology would be learning activities based upon lived experiences as opposed to top-down, plan oriented activities.
Tochon gives us an example of such an activity in action poetry. Tochon believed that the city of Geneva had lost touch with its soul and this was exhibited by the lack of public interest in poetry. He took advantage of a local grant and had students write original poems about matters of personal interest to them. Each of the twenty-seven original poems was then inscribed by hand in acrylic by a professional painter and then mounted on billboards all over the city. The reaction was just what Tochon had hoped for: a public conversation in all the media about the poems. This initiated new and giant poems on billboards; many are still visible in Geneva. Thus action poetry became a process whereby the people of Geneva made meaning from the poetry in acrylic on the public billboards. It began a shared public discussion of the value of poetry, art, civic pride and much more. This is how Franois Tochon conceives of the school curriculum and of the nature of teaching and learning.
Let me leave the last words to him: In action poetry, performance produces a metaphoric message, which may take a narrative dimension. Action, which before all else is abstract, erects a set of values into a set of metaphoric symbols. These values cannot be separated from the context and the field of action, and yet they present the poetic sign as a means of reaching beyond the symbolic connections usually promoted by the city. Through poetry, the city appears to be
refigured and rejuvenated (p. 113).
It would be nice to think that educators could present such an argument about the nature of teaching and learning when asked for it by those who pay our way. Take some time and read this book. It is well worth the effort.
References Eco, E. (1976). A Theory of Semiotics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Lvi-Strauss, C. (1972). Structural anthropology. Hammondsworth: Penguin.
Dr. Bryant Griffith – Texas A University. Corpus Christi, Texas, USA.
[IF]
Far Eastern Tour: The Canadian Infantry in Korea 1950-1953 – WATSON (CSS)
WATSON, Brent Bryon. Far Eastern Tour: The Canadian Infantry in Korea 1950-1953. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002. 256p. Resenha de: LeVOS, Ernest. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
There are certain elements in this book that one finds hard to fault where the author is concerned. It is well researched and well documented with thirty-seven pages of notes; a few notes have additional explanations. Secondary and primary sources are well integrated and the author effectively analyses and explains the diverse experiences of the 25th Canadian Regiment (the Royal Canadian Regiment, the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry and the Royal 22e Regiment) in the Korean War that was a sideshow for Canada (p. 96). A significant question that arises from this work is whether the Canadian government and military have learned any lessons from the Korean War. The contributions of the 25th Regiment have been overlooked and their participation in Korea was more than police action or a peacekeeping mission: it was a war.
What did members of this distinguished regiment face? The soldiers were inadequately trained for patrol operations, and were badly in need of Canadian kit and clothing(p. 38). The problems the soldiers faced with the 9mm Sten gun conjure up bad memories of Col. Sam Hughes and the Ross Rifle fiasco during World War I. The soldiers had an inadequate knowledge of all things Korean, from foods, smells, the lack of respect for life, and even language. Consequently, it was natural, like Jacques Cartier of old, to describe the newfound country as God-forsaken. Furthermore, as journalist Pierre Berton has pointed out, soldiers and military administrators were culturally insensitive.
The author also focuses on the nature of group dynamics (p. 68). The 25th Regiment worked alongside the Korean Service Corp (KSC), an esteemed battlefield ally, and the Korean Augmentation Troops, Commonwealth (KATCOM) who were viewed as interlopers at best, and dangerous battlefield liabilities at worst(p. 68). But there were other dangers, such as having to fight a highly capable Chinese enemy that fought and outgunned the Canadian patrols (p. 80). For the most part, Canadian soldiers were unable to conduct successful patrols. They faced a dismal battlefield performance, but despite casualties in the battle of Hill 355, battle exhaustion and self inflicted wounds, Canadian casualties in Korea were extremely light [when] compared with the carnage in the two world wars (p. 108). However, Watson does emphasize the fact that clearly, the fighting in Korea was far more lethal than the euphemism ‘police action’ suggests (p. 111). The injured, unfortunately, received appalling medical treatment. For many, the injuries sustained were very traumatic and deadly.
There were other dangerous challenges the soldiers faced. Diseases such as dysentery and malaria were a serious threat to the soldiers and the 25th Brigade found itself confronting a VD epidemic unparalleled in Canadian military history (p. 133). The author makes a humble admission at this point when he writes that it is difficult for the historian writing nearly five decades after the fact to express in print the fear induced in front line troops by the ever-present threat of contracting hemorrhagic fever (p. 131).
While the first eight chapters will spark rage and sympathy among readers, chapter 9, Forgotten People, was the chapter that caught my attention: the soldiers in the firing line lived like tramps without even the most basic comforts (p. 142). The rations were unappetizing and drinking water was unsafe. There were rats and snakes to contend with, and climatic conditions in the winter and the summer posed a formidable challenge to weapons maintenance (p. 150). Writing paper was a scarce commodity and there was inadequate and unsatisfactory entertainment.
While the Canadian soldiers faced numerous hardships, deprivations and an unhappy experience in Korea, it was the little things such as a turkey dinner for Christmas that made all the difference to lowly combat soldiers (p. 156). What eventually sustained the morale of the soldiers, and in many instances, turned out to be disastrous and fatal, was the love of rum and coke as the last chapter is entitled. Alcohol, a feature of military life, took its toll.
It is unfortunate that a regiment that made significant contributions under adverse conditions would not be greeted with a parade upon their return home, nor receive the concern of their government. It was a government that was more Eurocentric in its policies, with an army that was seriously overextended during the Korean War era (p. 179). Were any lessons learned from the Korean War experience? Perhaps not, if the larger picture is considered and if an individual reads chapter three (From the Great War to the Afghan War: Canada as Soldier) of Andrew Cohen’s book While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World.
Far Eastern Tour is more than a catalogue of pathetic situations encountered by the 25th Canadian Regiment in Korea. It solicits a greater respect and recognition for the Canadian soldiers who fought in the Korean War. While it is possible to criticize the government’s policy makers and military administrators for their insensitivities, I came away from this well-written book with a greater respect for the contributions made by the Canadian Armed Forces.
This book will cater to a small audience such as high school students and university students interested in military history and in those distinguished soldiers who fought for Canada and are still living. There was a typo error on p. 39 (the word should have been mud). That aside, it would be beneficial to readers to view some photographs even wartime illustrations and posters and a map or two could have been included identifying such locations as Hill 355, Kap’yong, and the Jamestown line. For two good maps and sixteen pages of photographs, a reader should consult Ted Barris’ book Deadlock In Korea: Canadians At War, 1950-1953.
References
Barris, T. (1999). Deadlock in Korea: Canadians at war, 1950-1953. Toronto: Macmillan Canada.
Cohen, A. (2003). While Canada slept: How we lost our place in the world. Toronto: McClelland Stewart.
Ernest LeVos – Grant MacEwan College. Edmonton, Alberta.
[IF]
Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910-1945 – KANG (CSS)
KANG, Hildi. Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910-1945. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2001.166p. Resenha de: LeVOS, Ernest. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
This is a book of many voices and it will appeal to a wide audience for many reasons. It is appropriately titled, well organized and published by a reputable press. The personal stories of suffering and the will to survive describe the existentialist existence of a nation under colonial oppression. These stories defined a people and eventually two countries: North Korea and South Korea. From another perspective, it is a set of stories that defined Japanese colonialism for thirty-five years. In this book the author skilfully weaves together a common experience of subjugation as told by fifty-one Koreans.
Six of the fourteen chapters are oral accounts by six individuals: a teacher cum businessperson, a bank manager, two homemakers and two students. Eight chapters contain oral accounts of varying lengths from groups such as farmers, fishers, peddlers and professional people. The story each person relates paints a picture of assimilation, accommodation, oppression, subjugation, and cultural and religious compromise under Japanese rule. Chaos, confusion and cruelty also figure prominently. While stories of victimization predominate, the book does include some accounts of compassion and mercy. There were a few Japanese colonial and military administrators who were kind to the Koreans but these Japanese were a handful that saw a bigger picture and shunned a narrow island mentality of which they were accused (p. 132).
While Kang does not admit using a specific definition of history, it is evident that she views history as the process of change over a period of time. Part I covers Change by Choice and Part II is Change by Coercion. In the coverage of both parts of the book, significant topics such as the Korean Independence Movement, the infatuation with Communism and the role of village schools called Sodangs, are acknowledged.
The Korean Independence Movement is addressed in Under the Black Umbrella. Koreans fought hard to preserve their individual and national identity since they were fighting a war against the dangers of becoming Japanese. Various weapons such as religion and the study of the Bible were used in this war against assimilation. For Christians, it was impossible to preach Christianity openly. In fact, a wide range of weapons were used in the program of passive resistance including hiding crops, feigning ignorance, conveniently disappearing singing songs with hidden meanings, taking part in labour strikes, spreading anti Japanese rumours, and, especially Christians, refusing to bow to Shinto shrines (p. 99). Koreans experienced the consequences of such passive resistance – for example, finding it disastrous to use a piece of the Independence newspaper to wrap a package! Resistance continued during the Second World War. At a time when the Japanese wanted all the help they could get, Koreans kept up their passive resistance by hiding, ignoring the summons, or finding essential home-front jobs (p. 130). One person sought advice from a fortune-teller who was told to escape the draft since his lot, as a soldier would be a bad one. For those interested in the study of passive resistance, some of the latter accounts will remind them of similar movements in the history of Asia among the peasants who battled colonial rule.
There is no doubt that the author, perhaps inadvertently, prepares her readers to focus on mansei, independence. Mansei was the rallying cry, the song and statement of faith for freedom some day in the Korean future. The Japanese were devoted to controlling Korea, and the Koreans were determined to resist Japanese colonialism. In the pursuit of their own variety of manifest destiny, the Japanese military administrators introduced laws that required Koreans to recite the imperial pledge of allegiance, to speak only Japanese, to worship at Shinto shrines and to adopt Japanese names (p. 111). In short, Koreans were forced to assimilate. August 15, 1945 was a defining moment for Koreans for on this date the Japanese surrendered and Korea was no longer an imperial colony of Japan. They stopped becoming Japanese and it was a time for Korean communists and anti-Japanese nationalists to let out all their frustrations (pp. 143-144). Korea would never be the same again.
Oral histories are challenging exercises and the author does not ignore the element of accuracy where memory is concerned. Even though some of these individual stories are repetitious experiences, they will appeal to a wide range of readers – the general public, university and high school students. The latter will find the few experiences of Korean junior and senior high school students, some who worked in the fish cannery during the war, interesting. Part of their school day was given to forced labour. The author raises some pertinent issues that students could use for papers and discussions such as the influence of assimilation on Koreans and whether colonialism was a blessing or a bane for Korea.
There are other significant features of the book. The only map in Under the Black Umbrella is useful in locating some of the towns and regions in Korea. In addition, there are some appropriate photographs and a reprint of a post-card to celebrate liberation from Japanese rule. Also of interest to the reader is Appendix B, where the author briefly brought some of the individual stories up to date. Eventually, several of those she interviewed would make their home in the United States.
It is a truism that history is written by the victors. But it is understandable that many Japanese will not revisit the past, nor want to read or write about the ugly periods of their history. One is reminded of the article that Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall wrote for the Atlantic Monthly a few months after the Korean War was over: Our Mistakes in Korea. Nations may write on the ugly past, warts and all, but unfortunately, we may get very little of the Japanese perspective.
References
Marshall, S.L.A. (1953). Our mistakes in Korea. Atlantic Monthly, 192(3), pp. 46-49. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/53sep/marshall.htm.
Ernest LeVos – Grant MacEwan College. Edmonton, Alberta.
[IF]
Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth – CHAUVEAU (CSS)
CHAUVEAU, Michel (translated from the French by David Lorton). Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2002. 104p. Resenha de: Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
In Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth, Michel Chauveau attempts, as far as possible, to set the record straight regarding the myriad myths and facts which have followed this ancient queen through the centuries. Perhaps one of its greatest traits is that it is a relatively short book, making a somewhat complex and intimidating subject accessible. He does an admirable job of such an arduous task, and I found this a compelling, engaging and titillating book that left me wanting to learn more.
Chauveau is a former member of a noted French archaeological institute in Cairo and, at press time, was director of studies at L’Ecole Pratique in Paris. While this lends a great deal of credibility to his work, the extensive list of citations, in French, German, Italian and English, further demonstrates a wide and varied research base for his subject. This book may be useful as a secondary text by college professors, or as a supplementary resource at lower levels. Maps are provided on a front overleaf and following the Translator’s note which helps to orient the reader as to the time and place covered by this work. A small note of caution should be considered as this is a translation, and some of the nuances of the subject may have been lost or altered in that translation. The book is made up of straight text with a Chronology of the Ptolemies and a few selections from Ancient Texts, as well as excellent notes, bibliography and index.
Chauveau explains early on that the ancient accounts of Cleopatra’s life are limited. He notes that Egypt at that time was a satellite of Rome, and that it is likely, in part, due to her stormy affairs with both Julius Caesar and Antony that we know as much as we do. He also states from the beginning that he is trying to sift truth from fiction and provide a somewhat more accurate understanding of this complex woman.
Woven throughout Cleopatra are a great many details about the functioning of Roman society which was so entwined with Cleopatra’s rise, rule and eventual demise. It is largely through Roman documents that many of the facts about her have been verifiable. Some knowledge of this period of history is definitely beneficial, and makes the understanding of events much easier.
Cleopatra’s family history is detailed and her birthright to the Egyptian throne is established through a long line of powerful women of the Lagide family. Chauveau does, however, raise the question of her legitimacy when he describes her as daughter of the royal couple, fruit of a morganatic union, or even illegitimate (p. 9). From the very beginning, her life is shrouded in mystery and unanswered questions. What is not in doubt, however, is her intelligence and the fact that she must have had a considerable and extensive education. She spoke at least seven languages Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Ethiopian, Median, Parthian, and Latin at a time when even royal women were not usually extensively educated.
The future queen’s formative years were filled with conflict and intrigue as her family tried to come to terms with Roman aggression and she learned many ruthless lessons regarding power and alliance during this period. It is also suggested that once her father had died, she may have displaced her brother on the throne, overthrowing the dying king’s wishes. Then, through a series of intrigues, Cleopatra ultimately became victorious and took her place as sole ruler of Egypt. Part of why this was possible is that she came to power during the Roman Civil War. Caesar went to Egypt to plunder its riches in order to support Roman military exploits, and it was at this time that one of the famous myths of Cleopatra occurred. Chauveau maintains that she slipped through enemy lines, persuaded a friend to wrap her in a carpet and deliver her to Caesar’s private quarters, where she used seduction, intelligence and compassion to win him over. This verifies one of her well-known adventures, and clearly demonstrates a great deal of audacity and creativity on her part. Her relationship with Caesar is also authenticated by this as he describes their close relationship, her travelling to Rome and staying in his house, and eventually Caesar’s acknowledgement of Cleopatra’s son as his own.
That this famed Egyptian queen was ruthless and manipulative is beyond question. Chauveau insinuates that she had her 15-year-old brother killed so that she could usurp total control. In another instance Caesar called for her help and while she publicly refused aid, one of her generals sent a fleet to assist him. By these means she could await the outcome of the battle and denounce or support Caesar’s actions whichever served her purposes best. While these traits are not unique to Cleopatra, they are more often attributed to male rulers, but since she was a ruler and acted as such, was she really any more remarkable than her male contemporaries? Once Caesar was killed, Antony became a strong force in the Roman Empire, and he too turned to Egypt to see what support he could garner from it. To that end he summoned Cleopatra and her arrival at Tarsos and lavish display flattered him immensely. Clearly she knew how to manipulate powerful men. When he visited her at Alexandria and stayed for months it was clear that he too had fallen for her romantically. Chauveau clearly states that they were lovers (p. 46), and Antony also later acknowledged two of her children as his own.
Perhaps one of the most noted legends about Cleopatra is about how she met her end. Her army had been defeated and her rule was clearly at an end, so friends helped her to seal herself up in her mausoleum with her treasures. Chauveau presents it as fact that Antony was told she was dead and so committed suicide. He was, however, hauled up by ropes to where she was concealed and died in her arms. Octavian, a long time enemy, captured her and her treasure and confronted her with her past errors. Whether Octavian gave consent, or whether Cleopatra’s friends managed to help her without his knowledge, she did commit suicide. Literature and Hollywood perpetuate the myth of her inducing snakes to bite her, but it is more likely that she used poison. So ended the life of one of the most fabled, and perhaps misunderstood, women of history.
The legacy which Cleopatra left, regardless of the truth of the myths, is quite significant. According to Chauveau, she had reconstituted in large part the Lagide Empire of her forbears, which had dominated the Mediterranean world in the third century (p. 52). Using her considerable intelligence, beauty and ruthlessness, she accomplished what many men before her had done. Perhaps because she was a woman in a time of male dominance such exploits became the stuff of speculation, and were embellished through the ages.
While Chauveau’s work clears up many discrepancies, it also raises more questions. For example, did Cleopatra really commit suicide or was she murdered by Octavian’s minions? What would her role have been in a new Egypt had she survived? Was she merely a lusty, adulterous manipulator, or where her actions truly designed to assure the greatness of Egypt? Perhaps these questions are precisely that part of Cleopatra’s mystique that will live on forever.
E. Senger – Henry Wise Wood High School. Calgary, Alberta.
[IF]
The Role of the Principal in Canada – FENNELL (CSS)
FENNELL, Hope-Arlene. The Role of the Principal in Canada. Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd., 2002. 141p. Resenha de: THOMPSON, Caroline J. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
In recent years much has been written about the responsibilities of school administrators and how they understand their role. Escalating educational costs and shrinking resources have precipitated demands for more accountability by principals and greater corporate involvement in our schools. The impact on principals has been challenging and may be contributing to the growing shortage of school administrators. It was with great interest that I read Fennell’s book, The Role of the Principal in Canada, in which she presents the research of scholars from Alberta, Nova Scotia and Ontario who looked into the concerns of principals and make recommendations for how they can be better prepared for what lies ahead.
In To Be or Not To Be: Factors Impacting on the Decision of Teachers to Move Into the Principalship, Bnard and Vail surveyed administrators in Ontario to compare their current role perceptions with their motivations for becoming principals in the first place. Although the return rate of surveys was only 41%, a substantial number reported that stress, increased workload and increased accountability (p. 18) made their work less appealing than they had expected it to be. I would have preferred to see elaboration in some of the sample responses under the headings Additional Comments or Feedback Shared, and Obstacles to Accessing Principals’ Qualification Courses because such items as changing role of the principalship (p. 18) and course content (p. 19) are unclear as to whether they are positive or negative factors. However, Bnard and Vail’s interpretation of the findings as they pertain to the leadership crisis in Ontario are useful, and their alternative to the standard principal certification program commendable.
Castle, Mitchell and Gupta’s work highlights the negative effects of restructuring by the Ontario government in 1996 without consulting principals and allowing them time for reflection. In their chapter, Roles of Elementary School Principals in Ontario: Tasks and Tensions, these authors imply that the mandated changes did not take into consideration how individual principals would cope with resulting role ambiguity and the fragmentation of responsibilities. The 1990s vision of principals as transformational leaders is so blurred by managerial tasks that one wonders whether government now believes that schools need principals at all.
Macmillan and Meyer used a survey in Nova Scotia to investigate the impact of external agendas on the instructional leadership role administrators used to perform. In The Principalship: What Comes with Experience, they recommend grant writing training in principal certification programs to reflect the new realities. They list administrative duties under three headings: Instruction, Monitoring and Communication, and Management (p. 42), but one wonders if these categories may be too broad. Also, it is not clear whether principals regard these duties as positive or negative, and the meaning of all the statistics reported on pages 44-48 is unclear. Such broad groupings and numbers may obscure what might have been captured using a qualitative methodology.
The chapter I felt most comfortable with was Fennell’s own, titled Living Leadership: Experiences of Six Women Principals. In her research, Fennell used a narrative inquiry methodology to share the visions of professional commitment, care and respect of her six study participants. While many of her findings are not new in reporting the role perceptions and styles of women principals, her research makes a strong case for studying leadership from a phenomenological perspective. Through conversations with and observations of her respondents, she found their discomfort with authoritarian, hierarchical management styles had led them to their current view of leadership. All six women reported that prior to being principals they had experienced too much management and too little leadership to promote student learning. Furthermore, their desire to create a nurturing school climate of shared decision-making, evolved out of their former feelings of inadequacy when they were involved in power struggles with males. These principals were committed to improving the lives of others within an ethos of dignity and appreciation. Fennell states that each participant in her study felt it was important to build trust and support students and staff to deal with problems in their own way. Consequently, the need for time to reflect cannot be overstated.
Sarbit’s examination of what happens when a principal in Alberta changes schools contributes greatly to our knowledge of educational administration at a time when there is tremendous principal turnover. In Principal Succession: The ‘Reel’ Story, her research shows that while the administrator brings along the qualities and skills possessed at the former school, there are many adjustments required in the new context. Using a narrative inquiry methodology Sarbit cast herself as a movie director and was able to capture multiple layers of meaning through her camera lens. She recommends that succession be a topic in principal certification programs.
The chapter by Goddard, Placing Community Before Efficiency? A Social and Cultural Analysis Concerning the Amalgamation of Rural Schools, on the effects of rural school closures in the name of political expediency shows how an economic efficiency model based in a corporate mentality hurts both students and staff. He applies priorities of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (U.S.A.) for students and teachers to our Canadian educational landscape. Goddard maintains that the forced assimilation of rural students into larger, geographically distant institutions does not yield improvement in student achievement; on the contrary, the closures of small neighbourhood schools reduces student participation in governance and many school activities. While this chapter raises many issues of concern to students, parents and teachers, I wish it had been more explicit in how the pressures of school consolidation affect the principal’s role.
In the final chapter, Inclusive Leadership for Diverse Schools: Initiating and Sustaining Dialogue, Ryan discusses the challenges administrators face in responding to increased diversity in student populations. He uses terms like intelligence assessment, disability and minority culture to advocate for more inclusion and recommends that principals use a reciprocal, participatory stance to encourage dialogue. The author does not acknowledge that schools have historically had diverse populations and that cultural and gender discrimination are not new phenomena in Canadian schools. The relation of dialogue to improving inclusion is hardly a new idea. Inviting principals to come out of the office and walk the halls (Ryan, p. 129) reflects a historically male-centred approach to leadership while concurrently failing to address the current economic and political pressures that are driving them back there. By stating that the principal establishes school climate from a position of power and needs to handle (Ryan,
p. 126) multiculturalism by engaging in dialogue, one wonders what changes really need to be made.
I found this book interesting and informative. The title is a bit misleading, since it suggests to the reader that there will be a cross-section of perspectives from each province and territory. I was unable to apply some of it to my experience as a principal in an Aboriginal community, but related to the challenges of change and bureaucracy. I found it compelling to know that the authors were reporting on the realities of current principals and making recommendations that might help. The comparative aspect of accounts from contributors in such diverse areas leads one to appreciate the commonalities of administrators’ collective experience and their dedication to a cause larger than themselves.
Caroline J. Thompson – Faculty of Education. The University of Western. Ontario. London, Ontario.
[IF]
In Search of America’s Past: Learning to Read History in Elementary School – VanSLEDRIGHT (CSS)
VanSLEDRIGHT, Bruce. In Search of America’s Past: Learning to Read History in Elementary School. New York: Teachers College Press, 2002. 189p. Resenha de: BRADLEY, Jon G. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
The first thing that caught my eye regarding VanSledright’s volume was the title. Not the bold title but, rather, the secondary or subtitle. Specifically, the notion of learning to read history appealed to my own orientations and resonated with my professional sensibilities. Too often, in my own experiences, charged and channeling words such as ‘learn’, ‘know’, and ‘teach’ (and their various conjugations) have dominated the professional social studies landscape, particularly at the elementary levels. Here was a volume, at least by its cover, that offered a glimpse of another avenue and dared to go beyond the apparent acceptable norm by venturing into a more complex and multi-layered landscape.
In the last couple of years, a growing number of respectable investigations have been reported that generally challenge the oft-repeated myth that children and/or young adolescents do not like, do not understand, and really have no interest in history. The practical professional experiences of elementary and middle school classroom practitioners clearly indicate that children have an unbending interest in and a connection with history (their own, their families, their cultural group, for example). It is perhaps one of those unexplained educational paradoxes that those who tend to design curricula and those who actually produce the supposed learning materials do not seem to be in communication with the front line professionals regarding what is and is not of interest to children. In a nutshell, history matters to children! Similar to recent investigations by Seixas (1993), Levstik and Barton (1997), as well as Barton (2001), to cite only a few, VanSledright continues this evolving investigative avenue of really studying in detail via actual classroom participations how elementary students deal with, confront, and narrate history. This is important work especially as the totality of the data being disseminated demonstrates how curriculum decisions might and ought to be made. Furthermore, these studies most pointedly illuminate how elementary teachers might reconfigure their own classrooms (physically and educationally) in order to take academic advantage of what the study of history has to offer.
In Search of America’s Past may be divided into three major segments. In chapters one and two, VanSledright chronicles a variety of contemporary pedagogical and historical threads that have a bearing on his specific study. Chapter two, in some colourful detail, describes the pupils and the classroom in which the author practiced his history teaching. As a former elementary school teacher, I found chapters three through five most illustrative in that they represent a sort of personal/professional narrative of VanSledright’s historical experiences with his fifth grade charges.
The final couple of chapters of the book contain both general and specific conclusions. The author is careful to note what can be absolutely taken from the experience and what might be more generally inferred. An interesting set of appendices complete this wonderful little volume as the various primary sources, documents and materials used throughout the whole of the in-class experiences are reproduced or clearly and carefully referenced.
As might be expected, VanSledright arrives at a number of conflicting or, at least, messy conclusions. Recognizing that the elementary classroom is a place best avoided by the faint hearted as well as those who demand neatly executed plans of action, the author’s narrative is a wonderfully honest sketch of the chaos, missed opportunities, constant interruptions, and lack of resources that is the real world of the North American elementary classroom. The author paints a scattered landscape which highlights the honesty of the pupils as well as the hard-nosed reality of that special place inhabited by pupil and teacher. In analyzing his own classroom observations within the historical and pedagogical framework that exists, VanSledright perhaps best sums up his own growth in noting:.
For my part, I was (and still am) convinced that children as young as fourth and
fifth grade – perhaps even younger – can learn how to investigate the past
themselves and benefit from the higher-status substantive and procedural
knowledge such a practice can confer upon children (p. 25).
In Search of America’s Past: Learning to Read History in Elementary School is an important book that should be read by anyone who is in the least interested in elementary education. The author carefully documents a case for the reading of history as opposed to the memorizing of history. VanSledright is cognizant of the historical narratives that the children have already acquired through association with the outside world (home, family, friends, televisions, for example) and he captures their intense interest in learning more about the history that impacts upon them and their environment. More generally, this volume is important because of the questions that are raised concerning teacher preparation and curriculum development. VanSledright offers the reader a realistic glimpse into that special world of the eleven/twelve year old pupil and how these budding individuals deal with the learning and internalizing of that unique subject called history.
References
Barton, K. (2001). I just kinda know: Elementary Students’ Ideas About Historical
Evidence. Theory and Research in Social Education, 29(4), 407 – 430.
Levstik, L. Barton, K. (1997). Doing History: Investigating with Children in
Elementary and Middle Schools. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Seixas, P. (1993). Historical Understanding Among Adolescents in a Multicultural
Setting. Curriculum Inquiry, 23(3), 301 – 327.
Jon G. Bradley – Faculty of Education. McGill University. Montreal, Quebec.
[IF]
Is That Right? Critical Thinking and the Social World of the Young Learner – WRIGHT (CSS)
WRIGHT, Ian. Is That Right? Critical Thinking and the Social World of the Young Learner. Toronto: Pippin Publishing, 2002. 144p. Resenha de: BRILEY, Ron. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
Is That Right? is a useful volume for any teacher who would like to introduce critical thinking into the elementary and middle school curriculum. Although Ian Wright is currently a professor of social studies education at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, his years as a classroom teacher are most evident in this book. The practical lesson plans included in the volume provide concrete examples for teachers. The book is addressed to the everyday concerns of teachers and does not become overly bogged down with theoretical concerns. For example, Wright defines critical thinking as making judgments about what to believe and what to do in situations that are problematic that is situations where we do not know initially what to believe or do (p. 56).
Wright acknowledges that he has not always practiced critical thinking in the classroom, but he has become an enthusiastic convert. Nevertheless, the environment in both the United States and Canada is increasingly hostile to critical thinking. High stakes standardized testing, which determine grade placement and faculty retention, have placed considerable pressure upon teachers to focus upon more rote memory of factual material. In the United States this educational approach is embodied in the No Child Left Behind Act and standards movement.
It is a fallacy, however, to assume that critical thinking is not about standards and excellence. As Wright points out, not all opinions are equally valid. Critical thinking is all about developing measurements and assessment tools, for both students and teachers, to ascertain which arguments or opinions are most valid and best supported. The ultimate goal for an educated community is not memorizing or regurgitating information, but learning to become intelligent citizens who are capable of making informed choices.
Critical thinking provides the foundation for such a citizenry by developing practical tools for evaluating evidence. Teachers seeking more concrete means of evaluation in the classroom might consult the critical thinking rubrics developed by Wright. But the bottom line for those who obsess upon objectivity should be recognition that in our daily lives we must deal with ambiguity, and the classroom under the guidance of a caring teacher is an appropriate laboratory to begin this process. Our best students and citizens are those who develop a healthy respect for the roles played by ambiguity and paradox in historical causation and human motivation.
While Wright asserts that critical thinking skills may be employed in most academic subjects, his experience and examples focus primarily upon the field of social studies. And here we encounter another level of controversy. Some in the discipline of history assert that the social studies are too present minded and expect too little from children. Indeed, many of the sample lessons provided by Wright deal with such issues as what makes a good friend or what to do about garbage. Groups in the United Sates such as the National Council for History Education maintain that young learners are capable of historical understanding and that the social studies approach is ahistorical and lacking substance or context. But in many ways this debate between history and the social studies is a tempest in a teapot; for the critical thinking approach fits well into the history classroom.
In evaluating a primary document or actions taken in the past, the skills of analyzing which argument is best supported still applies. And this works just as well for a classroom mock trial as a more traditional research paper. Was John Brown a terrorist who murdered innocent people or was he a freedom fighter against the tyranny of slavery? Or is reality too complex for such bipolar thinking? The key point is that critical thinking provides an approach to historical inquiry which accounts for the complexity of the past and demonstrates how the past may shed light upon the present.
Those who may really challenge the critical thinking approach are individuals and groups who assert that history should simply be about patriotism and indoctrination rather than the questioning of ideas and even values. Some argue that in the age of terrorism our children might learn to unquestionably embrace Western Civilization against threats from alien ideologies. Yet, as fewer and fewer media conglomerates control mainstream access to information, real security flows from an electorate trained to critically evaluate ideas and resist political or corporate manipulation.
Thus, as usual, teachers are on the front lines of dealing with a complex world. Critical thinking should make this heavy responsibility a little less onerous; for teachers who embrace critical thinking techniques are not authority figures who must always provide the right answer. Instead, the teacher is an intelligent guide working alongside the students to develop and foster the tools necessary to make critical distinctions.
Wright’s book is both inspirational and practical. His ideas may be applied to the university as well as the elementary school classroom. The inclusion of sample lesson plans and a bibliography, complete with appropriate web sites, make Is That Right? a volume which should find a place on most teachers’ bookshelves. More than just a teaching tool, critical thinking is essential to the preservation of a democratic ethos.
Ron Briley – Sandia Preparatory School. Albuquerque, New Mexico.
[IF]
Education Denied: Costs and Remedies – TOMASEVSKI (CSS)
TOMASEVSKI, Katarina. Education Denied: Costs and Remedies. London and New York: Zed Books, 2003. 205p. Resenha de: DARLING, Linda Farr. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
It is difficult to imagine a person in a better position to write a book on the immense, complex, and heart wrenching matter of the denial of children’s rights to education. Katarina Tomasevski is presently the UN Special Rapporteur on rights to education and she is charged with the exhausting task of cataloguing and assessing the impact of abuses and violations across the globe. Her latest book (adding to her full length treatments of several other human rights issues) is a penetrating analysis of a persistent and perplexing problem that affects millions of children, their families, their communities, their societies, and ultimately, she would argue, the future direction of human civilization. Tomasevski has documented a powerful narrative about what could be called a worldwide social and political epidemic.
The book is divided into three sections, each intended to frame, and then answer a different set of questions. Part 1, Why the Right to Education? presents philosophical and historical contexts and important background material, including the initial intergovernmental blueprint for the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Importantly, this section also addresses the question, What is education for? from several perspectives, including the author’s own. She carefully notes the difference that can exist between education and schooling, and between brainwashing and teaching, as she puts it, for freedom. She believes that by protecting the right to education, other human rights can be guaranteed to children, including the right not to be exploited as laborers or soldiers. Part 2, called Rupturing the Global Consensus, is a discussion of the enormous obstacles (including corruption) that prevent change on an international scale, even when governments have repeatedly promised action on human rights. Here, Tomasevski is at her fighting best, arguing passionately that we pay an unacceptable social price by allowing the impoverishment of education to continue at the expense of the world’s children. The title of the third section is Putting Human Rights Back In. For Tomasevski, this is a threefold demand: the topic of children’s rights needs to move from the margins of public consciousness back into the center of public dialogue about discrimination and assaults to freedom, back into decisions about school curriculum and school policies, and finally, back onto the main stage of national and transnational agendas. In this final section, she sketches what she calls mobilization for change. It is based, in part, on examples of remedies from around the world that have effectively ensured children’s rights to education, even against enormous odds, such as culturally entrenched attitudes about girls and women.
This is a gripping account. It is one thing to be aware that all human rights are violated daily and in vast numbers; it is another thing to be boldly confronted with multiple cases, figures and tables that tell this story with such intensity, authority and detail. Especially because children are the victims, it is, at times, overwhelmingly shocking and sad. There are occasional triumphs for the right to education, including those of the human spirit, and less often triumphs of public policy and government enforcement. But as Tomasevski writes in her introduction, progress in protecting the right to education moves at glacial speed, it is a matter of chipping away (p. 1). Tomasevski never gives up on the possibility that the world could be a better place, but one wonders how she can retain any sense of hope given the struggles and defeats she daily witnesses. In fact, part of the book’s value is that it chronicles a chapter in the lifework of a truly remarkable, perhaps indefatigable champion of human rights. Her contribution has been important, and our students should know about her. In her key roles as advocate, witness to violations and abuses, and policy analyst, Tomasevski has watched the world history of children’s rights unfold. With this book, she extends her commitment to education and human rights by explaining their relationship to each other, to all of us, and to the eventual realization of global social justice. By so doing Tomasevski further demonstrates her belief that education transforms lives. If we learn what she knows, we cannot help but act.
Teachers can act on this knowledge in significant ways. Human rights education continues to be a core component in social studies curriculum aimed at developing a global perspective, and Education Denied presents important lessons for classrooms. While the book is probably best used as an authoritative background resource, secondary and some upper elementary students could capably work with a number of concepts central to Tomasevski’s argument about rights-based education, as well as work with the data she presents in the form of graphs and charts. Students could also engage in independent research about positive education initiatives in Canada and around the world using examples from the last chapters as starting points. Although Tomasevski places her discussion within the context of human rights history, she does not set her arguments within the even larger political frame of democratization movements since WW II. Teachers will recognize that this larger context may provide students with richer understandings of the right to education and its relationship to the realization of social justice, everywhere in the world.
Linda Farr Darling – Curriculum Studies, Faculty of Education. University of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC.
[IF]
Alien Invasion: How the Harris Tories Mismanaged Ontario – COHEN (CSS)
COHEN, Ruth. Ed. Alien Invasion: How the Harris Tories Mismanaged Ontario. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2001. 240p. Resenha de: GLASSFORD, Larry A. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
When the Ontario PCs captured the provincial election of 1995, their platform was encapsulated in the suggestive slogan The Common Sense Revolution. A combination of anti-bureaucratic populism and economic neo-conservatism, it had been cobbled together in the early Nineties by a klatch of aggressive young backroom boys (and one girl) connected to the Tory leader, Mike Harris. To the surprise of some, and chagrin of many, the newly elected Conservative government proceeded to implement its revolution of program cutbacks, tax reductions and intra-governmental restructuring. Both the breakneck speed of implementation and a ham-handed insensitivity toward democratic process accounted for some of the widespread public opposition to the Harris government’s reforms. More to the point, however, was the accumulating impact of the legislated changes themselves.
Taken together the new policies were beginning to alter the fundamental nature of the Ontario political economy. Ruth Cohen’s edited collection of articles and speeches is entitled Alien Invasion because in her opinion, and that of many other Ontarians, the stridently neo-conservative tone of the Common Sense Revolution put it outside the boundaries of the province’s traditional political culture. Regardless of their political stripe and Ontario had experienced governments of NDP, Liberal and PC affiliation in the 15 years leading up to 1995 all Ontario administrations had subscribed to the view that the state could and would play a positive role in the lives of its citizens. As part of this vision, a mixed economy combining both private and public enterprise was widely seen as the Ontario norm. Political change, when it came, would be evolutionary and incremental, and preceded by meaningful consultation with all major interest groups. Not for nothing was the party which had ruled Ontario for most of the 20th century, and continuously from 1942-1985, named Progressive Conservative. The dialectic dialogue implicit in that apparent oxymoron of a title told the observer all one needed to know about Ontario’s political traditions.
Opponents of the Harris government drew comfort from the fact that Bob Rae’s New Democrats, and David Petersons’s Liberals, had both been turfed out by the voters after five years in office. To their shock and dismay, the Ontario PCs rose from the ashes of controversy, and won a new majority in 1999. Masters of media spin, and rolling in donated dough, the Harris team waged a clever campaign that exploited the divisions in the opposition ranks to turn 40 percent of the popular vote into 60 percent of the seats. Now they had four more years to entrench themselves and their ideas. Thoroughly alarmed, the forces opposed to the Common Sense Revolution feared for the very survival of their kinder, gentler vision of Ontario. This book is one result of that renewed resolve to drive the alien invaders out of the province, once and for all.
The editor of this collection is a retired teacher and activist in the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. The OSSTF was among the most prominent of a wide range of organized interest groups arrayed against the Harris PCs. For two weeks in the fall of 1997, they and the other teacher unions shut down the province’s elementary and secondary schools in an historic walkout protesting against Bill 160, a law that drastically revamped public education in Ontario. Characteristically, the PC government stood firm and talked tough till it got its way, but the victory may have been pyrrhic. Subsequent polling revealed that the tide of public opinion began to turn against the Harris regime partway through the strike and, notwithstanding the miraculous but temporary PC comeback during the 1999 election campaign, they were never as strong with the public again.
Some of the items in this edited collection are real gems. The detailed transcript of the rookie Education Minister, John Snobelen, spouting his convoluted and sophomoric ideas of transformational change, is alone worth the price of this book. He seriously counselled the creation of an invented crisis in the field of education, all the better to guarantee the success of his radical restructuring plans. Another prize is the transcript of a speech by Ian Angell, a British academic, delivered sometime in the Nineties to the Association of Manufacturers and Exporters of Canada. Angell painted a vivid picture of the Brave New World of global capitalism with more than the usual candor. Those lucky enough to be in work will have to work harder, for more hours each week, for less pay, in less secure jobs, he declared. And they had damn well better be grateful. In contrast to lowly labour, the Alphas would be in global seventh heaven. We are free to exploit workers, he continued. Management can finally get its revenge and kill off those damn trade unions (p. 174).
Not all of the thirty-plus items achieve this level of interest. There are newspaper articles, pundit columns, investigative features, even internet items, all loosely united by their connection either to the aims and record of the Harris government, or to the broader theory of global capitalism. Unfortunately, the editing is sloppy in places, both in terms of undetected typos, and by the fact that many articles are both undated and unsourced. These are quibbles, however, for anyone eager to find the materials from which to build a coherent critique of the neo-con mantras of free enterprise, free markets, and no free lunch. Susan George’s A Short History of Neo-Liberalism (pp.184-193), and David C. Korten’s The Global Economy: Can It Be Fixed? (206-216) are particularly insightful. For those eager to translate words into actions, Jane Kelsey’s Tips On How to Oppose Corporate Rule (pp.217-221) provides a plethora of practical pointers for potential opponents of the New Right.
Although the title of this volume fingers the Harris PC government in Ontario as the villain, the articles in the second half of the book make it clear that the real adversary is a connected set of neo-liberal ideas articulated by a global network of influential and affluent disciples. It will not be stopped by a mere election defeat.
Larry A. Glassford – University of Windsor. Windsor, Ontario.
[IF]
Citizenship in Transformation in Canada – HÉRBERT (CSS)
HÉRBERT, Yvonne M. ed. Citizenship in Transformation in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 289p. Resenha de: GLASFORD, Larry A. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
Ideologically, the editor and contributing authors of this collection of thirteen essays on citizenship and citizenship education have written from the perspective of democratic pluralism. In this vision of utopia, equality trumps liberty and group rights take precedence over individual prerogatives. Equality itself is re-engineered as equity, a measured equality which seeks to factor in the negative effects of historic and systemic inequality, and then to alter the balance from the top down to ensure fairness. The intended result is harmony and social justice for all, and especially for new Canadians.
Implicitly understood as the antithesis of the authors’ democratic pluralism is classic liberalism, variously described in our time as neo-liberalism (in Europe), or neo-conservatism (in America). Individual freedom is sacrosanct, and the ideal role for the community, as embodied in the coercive state, is simply to ensure that personal liberty is maximized. Equality is understood to mean equality of rights, and equality before the law. As much as possible of human endeavour is kept beyond the realm of state intervention. Individual citizens are free to sink or swim, to prosper or suffer, as their own merits dictate.
Somewhere in the middle of these two poles is a third position: democratic liberalism. Proponents of this perspective seek to harmonize liberty with equality, and likewise to balance the competing claims of individuals and groups. Rather than an either-or proposition, they see democratic citizenship as a both-and challenge. Freedom and equality are important; people are unique individuals and they belong to, as well as self-identify with, a series of groups The book begins well. Inside the front cover, an abstract identifies two key questions as being the focus of the author team. First, what constitutes a ‘good’ citizen in today’s liberal democracy? And second, what social and educational policies are needed to sustain the lives of these citizens, while not impinging on liberal democratic principles? (p. i). Had the book concentrated on these two questions, had the editor imposed a disciplined structure on her own and her colleagues’ contributions, this volume would indeed be a valued addition to the shelf.
Although the essays seem to have been written over several years, the book in its final form still appears to be a rushed job. On page 4 we read Much of the citizenship debate is concern [sic] with four dimensions of citizenship. A few pages later we are told only within this century [sic] have women gained the federal vote (1918) (p. 7) despite the fact the book was published in 2002, well into the ‘next’ century. The appendix, a well-intended chart purporting to display a breakdown of key models of democratic citizenship, is flawed, almost worse than useless. In the first place, it analyzes fourteen historic governmental arrangements, far too many to be meaningful, without providing any rationale for their inclusion. Why was Machiavellian Florence analyzed, for example? More seriously, factual and conceptual errors abound. The prerogatives of the Emperor are discussed under the heading of Roman republican model (p. 250). Yet the institution of Emperors signalled the death of the quasi-democratic republic. Et tu Brut? Edmond Burke, famous for his liberal-conservative response to the French Revolution of 1789, is mysteriously identified with 17th-Century England (p. 252).
In too many places, the book’s language is excessively turgid and jargon-ridden, serving to exclude from understanding all but the ‘inside’ experts – ironic, given the sincerely inclusionary aims of the authoring team. Here are two examples. From the opening essay, we read that policy and institutional goals are marked by a range of conceptual possibilities and affect lived Canadian realities (p. 14). The authors appear to be saying that, with the best of intentions, government policy can sure mess up the lives of ordinary Canadians. Half-way through the book, we are informed that teachers mediated the curriculum and could challenge official views and even generate a political space in the classroom by using a critical alternative perspective (p. 122). Presumably, the author is saying that conscientious teachers closed the classroom doors and taught their students what they needed to learn.
Still, the verdict on this book is only partly negative. Yvonne Hbert and a co-author, Michel Pag, nicely capture the overlap of history and citizenship, in their concluding chapter. across Canada, the teaching of history is controversial as soon as it touches upon the face of national identity, which is still under construction (p. 245). So true, despite the mixed metaphor. A very useful feature of the book is the collective (appropriate for democratic pluralists) bibliography at the back, which draws upon the combined sources of each author, as cited in their individual chapter Notes.
Predictably, the quality of the specific chapters is uneven. For example, Veronica Strong-Bag’s contribution on the struggles of women, aboriginals and blue-collar workers is passionate, but vastly under-estimates the significance of multiple over-lapping identities. Romulo Magsino provides a very useful overview of three approaches to citizenship, which he classifies as liberalism, communitarianism, and republicanism, but how does critical pedagogy fit in? The article by Marie Battiste and Helen Semaganis is a fascinating, if one-sided, presentation of the hard-line First Nation perspective on treaties, culture and citizenship. The piece by Roberta J. Russel drones on in careful bureaucratese, piously informing us that The focus of citizenship education in a pluralistic society should be inclusive and should empower everyone to participate (p. 146). What else could an employee of the Department of Justice say? Nevertheless, her paper rewards a second reading, with good material on civics and citizenship, and insightful hints as to the federal government’s role in promoting citizenship.
Harold Troper’s article provides a sound historical overview of Canadian attitudes toward, and public policy about, the ideal of population diversity. For something completely different, try to follow the thread of Celia Haig-Brown’s meandering post-modern musings on appropriate democratic educational research, written as an unedited stream-of-consciousness flow. Or not. Cecille de Pass and Shazia Qureshi capture our attention by interspersing dramatic first-person narratives of blatant racial discrimination into their essay, then throw it all away with a dated, almost obscenely careless, stereotyping of the 21st -century Canadian upper middle class as the sectors of the population who share an attachment to historic Anglo symbols like the Union Jack and who became [sic] misty eyed when they hear the anthems and songs associated with the British Empire (p. 180). Hello! Did you miss the great flag debate of 1964? Only in the concluding chapter do we learn the underlying rationale for this book. These essays represent the work of a group of interested researchers, decision makers and practitioners who met in 1998 and developed a consensus around a pan-Canadian research agenda in citizenship education (p. 229). Known as the Citizenship Education Research Network (CERN), its primary task is the coordination of the research efforts of the founding members as well as of all others who wish to participate in the process (p. 232). In 1999, an elite national team of researchers was formed with responsibility for securing funding (p. 243). The mention of money brings us back to the conundrum of the democratic state. Is it (a) the likeliest threat to our freedom (classic liberal view), (b) the benevolent source of both our influence and our funds (democratic pluralist position), or (c) a two-edged sword to be watched, but wielded with cautious purpose in the interests of liberty and equality (democratic liberal perspective)? As every university student knows, the odds in a multiple-choice question ride with response (c).
Larry A. Glassford – University of Windsor. Windsor, Ontario.
[IF]What It Means to be 98% Chimpanzee: Apes, People, and Their Genes – MARKS (CSS)
MARKS, Jonathan. What It Means to be 98% Chimpanzee: Apes, People, and Their Genes. Berkeley & Los Angeles, CA & London, England: University of California Press, Ltd. 2002, 312p. Resenha de: GOULET, Jean-Guy. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
Imagine a Planet of the Apes on which a single specie, over seven million years, evolves into three related but distinct species: Homo, Pan (chimpanzee and bonobo), and Gorilla. Unique among them are human beings who ask What does it mean to be 98% chimpanzee? The answer is found in Jonathan Marks’s witty, insightful and critical essay.
In this book Marks accomplishes two important tasks. First, he convincingly argues that the reduction of important things in life to genetics is a recent cultural, non-scientific, phenomenon that calls for serious critical analysis. In a stance that some may find polemical he states unambiguously that technical sophistication and intellectual navet have been the twin hallmarks of human genetics since its origins as a science in the early part of the twentieth century (p. 2). Second, he challenges a wide range of taken-for granted views on race, inequality, sexual orientation, funding for research projects, and many other salient topics of public interest. In the process Marks offers refreshing insights into the fallacy of arguments put forward by authors, some of them scientists, who inappropriately use science to promote their social agenda.
While reading this book one comes to appreciate the kinds of questions and statements Marks come up with to get the reader to think. Consider the following: When a human skull encases 1400 cubic centimetres of brain, a chimp is luck to have a third of that. Is that 67% different? (p. 23); If we are similar but distinguishable from a gorilla ecologically, demographically, anatomically, mentally indeed every way except genetically does it follow that all the other standards of comparison are irrelevant, and the genetic comparison is transcendent? (p. 43); We are apes, but only in precisely the same way we are fish (p. 45); The overwhelming bulk of detectable genetic variation in the human species is between individuals in the same population. About 85% of it, in fact (p. 82); Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants are indistinguishable genetically, but they know who they are and who they are not, by virtue of their cultural difference (p. 87).
Observations such as these cut to the heart of the matter. In the same vein Marks reminds his readers that Races aren’t there as natural facts, they are there as cultural facts, which overwhelm and redefine the relatively minor biological component they have (p. 136). He writes: I’m always astonished to find it asserted in the sociobiological literature that humans have a deep hereditary propensity for ‘xenophobia,’ fear or hatred of others, or more grandiosely, a genetic basis for genocide (p. 141). Marks, who notes that the simplest answer to such assertions is to point out that genocide policies are carried out between people biologically very similar but culturally very different, such as the Hutu and Tutsi, Bosnians and Serbs, Israelis and Palestinians, Huron and Iroquois, Germans and Jews, English and Irish (p. 142). It is cultural values and social agendas that shape human lives as historically situated humans strive to promote this or that social and political agendas to create a world more to their liking.
Of the twelve chapters in the book, four are based on previously published papers and three, chapters 6, 7 and 8, are based on published reviews of books. These are: Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk About It by J. Entine (2000); Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence by R. Wrangham and D. Peterson (1996); and, The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity by P. Cavalieri and P. Singer (1993).
From one chapter to the next, Marks continuously keeps his sight on the ambiguous relationship between science and society. To illuminate the pitfalls of the uncritical and unwarranted misuse of poorly understood scientific knowledge he engages in lively discussions of the sociobiological view of males as naturally inclined to violence (chapter 7), of the Great Ape Project which promotes extending human rights to the great apes (chapter 8), of the Human Genome Project (chapter 8) and the Human Genome Diversity Project (chapter 9), of the controversy around the cloning of human beings (chapter 10), of the Creationist agenda (chapter 11), or of the eugenic movement (chapter 12).
In brief, this is a great book for all interested in contemporary debates in which claims are made about the social and cultural significance of genetic markers in humans and non-humans. The range of topics covered is wide. The writing is lively and thought provoking. The quest for sorting out science from pseudo science is relentless. In this way Marks accomplishes his purpose which is to challenge not science but scientism, an uncritical faith in science and scientists (p. 279).
Jean-Guy Goulet – Faculty of Human Sciences. Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Ontario.
[IF]Challenge of the West: A Canadian Retrospective from 1815-1914 – CRUXTON; WILSON (CSS)
CRUXTON, J. Bradley; WILSON, W. Douglas. Challenge of the West: A Canadian Retrospective from 1815-1914. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1997. 182p. Resenha de: HORTON, Todd. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
Ostensibly a social studies textbook for high school (back cover), Challenge of the West is written and presented in a style that makes it suitable for a number of grades from junior high up to and including high school. As well, the content corresponds with several social studies and history curricula across Canada including the strand entitled The Development of Western Canada found in the grade seven history curriculum of Ontario.
The front cover of the textbook is a reproduction of Adam Sherriff Scott’s The SS Beaver off Fort Victoria, 1846. The painting depicts two aboriginal persons in the foreground with their backs to the viewer. They are looking across the water to a British fort on the opposite shoreline. In the water between is a British ship and a smaller boat filled with, presumably, residents of the fort. As the two aboriginal persons are in the foreground, the viewer is encouraged to interpret the painting from their perspective. The dominant impression is one of watching from the sidelines. The aboriginal people are not participants but observers, surveying activities that will change their worlds.
Change is very much what this textbook is about. In the introduction, the authors encourage students to think about change, how it comes about in their worlds and how it has come about throughout Canadian history. As Cruxton and Wilson state in the Introduction, sometimes change just happens. Other times, we make a change happen. When we set out to make change, it can involve conflict or struggle (no page). These words are a foreshadowing of the conflict and struggle that has been a part of Canada’s historical development.
The textbook is divided into six chapters: 1) Rebellion and Change in Upper and Lower Canada; 2) The Road to Confederation; 3) Exploring and Opening the West; 4) Manitoba and British Columbia Enter Confederation; 5) Preparing the West for Settlement; 6) Settling the West. Though the content is never extensively detailed, the chapters do cover what are often considered the main events in Western Canadian history from 1815 to 1914. The building of the CPR is captured in chapter four, the Red River Rebellion, Northwest Rebellion and the trial of Louis Riel are highlighted in chapter five while the Gold Rush is explored in chapter six.
However, as the chapter titles suggest and as is the pattern of history textbooks designed to meet the requirements of history curricula, the content focuses on the changing West from the perspective of Europeans whether British soldiers, French politicians or Mennonite settlers. Even the notion of the West is a reference to territory west of earlier European settlements in Newfoundland, the Maritime colonies and the Canadas. Rarely is the history told from the perspective of aboriginal peoples. Their voices are silent and their histories, separate from those that are entwined with European colonists, are absent. This is not to suggest that aboriginal peoples are missing. They are very much present in the historical narratives and biographical inserts provided. Almost the entirety of chapter three is devoted to the First Canadians, who they are and where they live. Nevertheless, their histories remain distant and aloof from the perspective suggested-forever illustrated as the other, standing on the outside watching as their worlds are changed by the main event which is the development of a nation called Canada. The painting on the cover is indeed metaphoric.
Liberally peppered throughout the chapters are charts, maps, timelines, paintings, photographs, poems, songs, cartoons and reproductions of original documents. There are also a number of inserts that are separate from the main body of text. These inserts offer interesting biographies of people such as Qubec political reformer Louis-Joseph Papineau and author Susanna Moodie. All of these features combine to give the textbook a sense of variety and offer students different ways of learning the content. One problem to note is the serious dearth of passages which permit the historical actors to speak for themselves. Though there are a few, offering students more opportunities to read what William Lyon Mackenzie, Sir John A. Macdonald, Catherine Schubert or Crowfoot actually said would bring an increased impression of humanity to the historical narratives and elevate the textbook’s overall sense of credibility as a source of historical information.
Each chapter includes at least one developing skills section. The foci of the developing skills sections include creating a mind map, decision making, cause-and-effect relationships, interpreting political cartoons, interviewing, using maps as visual organizers, preparing a research report, debating, making oral presentations, and analyzing bias. These sections are divided into numbered steps that include easy-to-follow instructions and examples. The result should be the development of skills that are transferable to other courses of study.
Also included at the conclusion of each chapter are a series of activities. The activities sections are divided into three parts: Check Your Understanding; Confirm Your Learning; and Challenge Your Mind. The first part focuses on comprehension questions that refer to the chapter completed. The second part encourages the use of information in the answering of broader questions. The third part challenges students to analyze situations and consider questions and statements from a number of perspectives as well as synthesize information in the formulation of their own views. These parts are well written, progressive in complexity and offer teachers a range of choice to use in meeting the learning needs of students that have a range of abilities. One criticism of the developing skills and activities sections is that there needs to be better integration between them. Only occasionally are students expected to use the skills developed in one section to complete the activities in the other. Students need opportunities to refine the skills they learn. By explicitly and purposefully providing students with activities that encourage the use of newly developed skills there is greater possibility that the skills will be internalized and endure.
While the book may not be deemed adequate by some teachers as the sole text to use in their junior high or high school social studies or history courses, the authors must be given credit for hitting the high spots of the mainstream history narrative of the Canadian west, developing important skill sets and providing students with a number of interesting activities. Until the time when history curricula value aboriginal perspectives as much as they do Europeans, textbooks like this are meeting their mandate.
Todd Horton – Faculty of Education. Nipissing University. North Bay, Ontario.
[IF]
Life in an Anishnabe Camp – WALKER (CSS)
WALKER, Niki. Life in an Anishnabe Camp. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 2003. 32p. SMITHYMAN, Kathryn; KALMAN, Bobbie Kalman. Native Nations of the Western Great Lakes. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 2003. 32p. Resenha de: HARVARD, D. Memee. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
As I set out to write this review I am troubled. In the traditions of my people, the Anishnabek, one must never openly criticize another, to do so would cause a loss of face and is therefore strictly avoided. However, as an Anishnabe woman in the academy I must tread a fine line between the expectations of my ancestors and the demands of modern society. Although this path tends to be all uphill and full of stones, it is not without its rewards. This request to examine literature that may potentially educate innumerable generations of children about the ways of our First Nations people provides a rare, yet necessary, opportunity to add an Aboriginal perspective, which has so often been missing in the past. At this point it is important to clarify that this is indeed ‘an’ Aboriginal perspective, not ‘the’ Aboriginal perspective, for it would be sheer folly to suggest that all Aboriginal peoples would be like-minded. With this in mind I offer the following words.
Native Nations of the Western Great Lakes provides an excellent overview of the many Aboriginal nations living around the Great Lakes area. After much discussion with an Anishnabe elder who was herself a teacher almost 80 years ago, we concluded that this book would be an excellent resource for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal classrooms. The written text is clear and simple enough to be understood by early readers with some assistance, yet interesting and complex enough in content to still be of interest to more accomplished students. The numerous illustrations provide both stimulation and increased content comprehension for those who learn more visually, as is often the case for First Nations learners. I initially thought the book would have benefited from more Aboriginal artwork and illustrations, and less reliance on the portrayals of (undoubtedly biased) early European artists. However, Smithyman and Kalman’s discussion of the abuse of Aboriginal peoples perpetrated by land hungry foreign invaders has softened my critique. Smithyman and Kalman address issues that are often overlooked, especially in juvenile literature, specifically the less than honourable history of a nation built on the dispossession of Indigenous peoples.
The depictions of the Aboriginal nations are very informative and cover a broad range of distinct tribal groups. Smithyman and Kalman provide a good introduction to the diversity that existed among the various First Nations of this continent. This work will hopefully help to dispel the commonly held belief that all ‘Indians’ are the same, i.e., riding around on horses and hunting buffalo. Indeed, my people were traditionally more comfortable traveling by canoe and eating fish, a fact which often comes as a disappointment to many.
It is important however that such introductory lessons be followed up with literature that goes into the specific details of each distinct nation. Unfortunately, as is often the case with this genre of literature, the need for brevity can result in errors of omission. These are not inaccuracies as such, but rather simply a lack of the necessary depth of information. For example, in reference to the illustration on page 11, Smithyman and Kalman claim the Ho-Chunk decorated their clothing and baskets with the quills of the porcupine. While this is in all likelihood strictly accurate, the fact that it is mentioned with regard to only the Ho-Chunk leads one to assume it is unique to this particular nation. Porcupine quillwork is traditional to the Anishnabe people as well-they are well known for their beautiful quillwork-a fact that is clearly ignored by the text. Indeed, the work of both my grandmother and great grandmother has been on display in the Smithsonian.
As a compliment to Smithyman and Kalman’s introductory text, Walker’s book, Life in an Anishnabe Camp, provides an in-depth depiction and invaluable information about the way of life of the Anishnabe people specifically. In fact, I was originally skeptical of several claims made in the book especially with regard to recreation, yet upon further research, I was pleasantly surprised to learn something new about my own ancestors. Although lacrosse as we now know it is a direct descendant of the Iroquoian version of the game with the crooked stick with webbed triangular baskets, early missionary records describe the round closed pocket of the Great Lakes Indian lacrosse sticks as they engaged in competitions outside the missions. Apparently we all have much to learn when it comes to the history of our First Nations and the more we can promote quality literature such as these texts the better.
Unfortunately, the authors make fundamental mistakes very early on in both books which later lead to several contradictions. Specifically, both books claim Anishnabe refers only to the Ojibway people in all their various forms including Ojibwa and Chippewa (Smithyman Kalman, p. 6; Walker, p. 4) and that the Odawa and Pottawattomi are distinct from and most decidedly not Anishnabe. Indeed, Smithyman and Kalman go so far as to claim that the Odawa language is different from the Anishnabe language (p. 5). To the best of my knowledge, which I have confirmed with Rita Corbiere, an elder of the Wikwemikong First Nation of both Odawa and Ojibway descent and a fluent speaker of Anishnabemowin, the term Anishnabe refers to the Odawa, Pottawattomi, and the Ojibway peoples collectively. Furthermore, as was confirmed initially by Rita Corbiere and subsequently by Elaine Brant, a language teacher with the Toronto school board, although there may be slight variations of pronunciations or dialect among the three tribes mentioned above, all still speak Anishnabemowin. Indeed there is no distinct Odawa language that is different from the Anishnabe language.
Interestingly, on page 6 of the Smithyman and Kalman book we find that apparently Anishnabe means the people in Ojibway, while Weshnabek means the people in Odawa. What we see here is in fact different spellings of the same word (which is common as there is no standardized spelling for our mother tongue). Clearly the meaning is the same, even by the authors’ account, and as any fluent Anishnabe knows the ‘k’ at the end of the word is simply the plural form: one Anishnabe, two Anishnabek. Although I generally hesitate to rely upon government publications for verification of my traditional knowledge, as I flipped through the pages of a business resource document in the office of the Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat I found their definition of the Anishnabe people includes not only the Ojibway, Pottawatomi, Chippewa, and Odawa peoples but also the Algonquin and the Mississaugas as well. While I may seem to be overstating my point here, this inaccurate definition becomes an important source of contradiction later on in both works.
The illustration of the Anishnabe summer village that is found on pages 18-19 of the Smithyman and Kalman work, as well as on page 9 of the Walker book, is fraught with inaccuracy if we adhere to Smithyman, Kalman and Walker’s own, albeit mistaken, definition of Anishnabe as an Ojibway specific term. Indeed, this idyllic scene of happily working brown-skinned people depicts longhouse style dwellings and primitive agricultural activities, which are decidedly inconsistent with the northern Ojibway, but are in fact found among the southern Odawa as asserted by Smithyman and Kalman elsewhere (see page 17 for housing descriptions and page 7 for the depiction of Odawa crop planting). Thus we must conclude that either Anishnabe is indeed inclusive of the Odawa peoples, or that this illustration is mislabeled and therefore misleading. As I already have done, I personally argue for the former. Indeed, the Odawa are Anishnabe people and as a result of their alliances with the Huron in the mid-17th century they learned to cultivate maize.
Another illustration I find troubling in Walker’s book is found on page 13. Inside the wigwam we see a young man laying next to the fire wearing a ceremonial breastplate. Such a thing would never have happened, such regalia was only worn during ceremony or battle. It is the garment of a warrior. Although I recognize this is only an illustration, and as such is not reality, the book presents itself as a resource book. It is not a work of fiction. Such misrepresentations can become the very source of future misconceptions.
Unfortunately for these authors it can be very difficult to keep abreast of the ever-changing terminology preferred by the descendants of North America’s original inhabitants, i.e., those referred to in the literature as Native peoples. Political movements and increasing Aboriginal self-determination have lead to great uncertainty over acceptable terminology. Although many established Aboriginal organizations (such as the Ontario Native Women’s Association) have chosen to continue using the term ‘Native’ for financial and legal reasons (if they were incorporated under such names), in contemporary circles when not using our specific tribal affiliations such as Anishnabek, we generally prefer to refer to ourselves collectively as Aboriginal or First Nations peoples. Such terms clearly establish our place as the original peoples, not to be confused with someone who was merely born here and is therefore considered native to the area. However, that being said, I do recognize the terminological consistency with Native Studies curriculum documents. Perhaps what is necessary for future works in the field is a brief comment on the rationale behind the choice of the particular terminology being used over the others available.
While these books are not without their faults, overall they are of exceptional quality. They were done in a positive and sensitive manner, and they are respectful of the Aboriginal traditions, something which was often not present in much of the previous literature. I can still remember the horribly demeaning depictions of savages that so often graced the pages of my school books (whenever some particular historian chose to remember that history in Canada did not begin with the arrival of the explorers). Overall they are an excellent elementary resource that will likely be the source of much discussion in my teacher education class next year.
Memee Harvard – Faculty of Education. University of Western Ontario. London, Ontario. President, Ontario Native Women’s Association.
[IF]Teaching Controversy – VISANO; JAKUBOWSKI (CSS)
VISANO, Livy Visano; JAKUBOWSKI, Lisa. Teaching Controversy. Halifax, NS: Fernwood Publishing, 2002. 175p. Resenha de: KEE, Kevin. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
What is the goal of post-secondary education? While politicians and business leaders echo the familiar cant of marketable skills appropriate to the globalized economy, Livy Visano and Lisa Jakubowski offer a different response. In Teaching Controversy, a book that could have carried the subtitle: University Instructors of the World Unite!, Visano and Jakubowski call on educators to teach controversial issues that will motivate students to work towards social justice. The title’s double entendre is deliberate. This is not a standard defence of university education, and it is bound to create controversy. The authors would welcome a lively debate on the subject. Visano, an Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies at York University, and Jakubowski, an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Brescia University College, affiliated with the University of Western Ontario, are troubled by what they view to be the increasing commercialization of post-secondary education. Continuing in this direction, the authors insist, will change the role of the university from a public to a more private ‘for hire’ enterprise with a more limited and highly compromised quest for knowledge (p. 139). Using the ideas of Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci as their compass, and of Henry Giroux and Paolo Freire as their guide, Visano and Jakubowski map out a different course for Canada’s universities.
Many of Marx’s theories are as relevant to twenty-first-century higher education as they were to nineteenth-century industry, the authors imply. Leaving aside Marx’s rough outline of violent confrontation between capitalists and workers, Visano and Jakubowski gravitate towards Gramsci’s more nuanced portrait of class struggle. Gramsci developed the notion of hegemony to describe the manner by which the dominant class in a capitalist society perpetuates its power through persuasion, and the subordinate class perpetuates its subjugation by offering its consent. According to Visano and Jakubowski, hegemony dominates all aspects of twenty-first-century Canadian society, including higher education.
Applying Marxist models to classroom life, they draw on educational theorist Paolo Freire’s notion of banking an act of depositing in which students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor to describe what is wrong with contemporary university teaching (p. 31). By indoctrinating students, rather than communicating with them, the dominant class has used schools to elicit the subordinate class’s consent. In this way, as Henry Giroux has pointed out, the principles of marketplace capitalism have been passed on from one generation to the next.
Visano and Jakubowski insist the cycle can be broken; what is required are educators willing to take risks in what they teach and how they teach it. Educators must reach in (acknowledge their own biases) and reach out (recognize their similarities and differences with their students). Rather than standing above and apart from students, an educator should create collaborative partnerships, becoming, in the words of Visano, a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage (p. 115). An educator can also challenge the dominant hegemony by teaching controversy and here the reader arrives at the authors’ primary thesis sensitizing students to inequities, and providing them with opportunities to act on their new-found knowledge by working towards social justice.
What does this kind of teaching look like? Visano and Jakubowski devote their longest chapter to one example: teaching students about the subjugation of Canada’s First Nations peoples. In the spirit of a Native sharing circle, in which each speaker tells her story while others listen, John Elijah of the Oneida Nation, Ursula Elijah of the Cree Nation, and Julie George, an Ojibway Indian from the Kettle and Stoney Point First Nation, testify to the oppression of aboriginal peoples in the past and present. Visano and Jakubowski add their own voices, providing examples of classroom projects that move students beyond listening and towards action that will bring about justice for First Nations peoples.
In this, and many other ways, the authors weave together theory and practice in their defence of teaching controversy. They demonstrate how dialogue can lead to insight by including conversations with each other on difficult issues. References to classroom projects and field trips dot each chapter, even when these events do not turn out as the authors had expected. These examples from the authors’ own experience form one of the strengths of the book, and at the same time one of the weaknesses. Visano and Jakubowski have drawn on their research and teaching about the plight of some of our society’s most oppressed people to develop a thought-provoking thesis about the goals of post-secondary education. However, teachers of other disciplines may not be able to link content with action in as straightforward a manner.
The issue comes down not to whether their model is valid and admirable but to whether everyone should be expected to follow their example. Certainly there are powerful pragmatic disincentives for those who, unlike the authors, do not have tenure. Allowing course content to evolve according to the expressed needs of students conflicts with almost universal institutional expectations that a defined curriculum be given to students near the start of a course. Furthermore, the guide on the side needs to submit grades for each student at the end of the term. And in many cases students arrive to courses hoping to be captivated by a sage on the stage. In short, following the authors’ lead may be a recipe for professional martyrdom: undoubtedly admirable, but understandably unpopular.
The authors, to their credit, recognize this difficulty, yet they insist on the need to resist. Their students, I am sure, would not want it any other way. Visano and Jakubowski appear to thoroughly enjoy creating a debate, and welcome responses of all varieties. One hopes that this is the beginning of a sustained dialogue about the goal of post-secondary education, and that they will provide readers with further insights into how their colleagues can bring controversy into the classroom.
Kevin Kee – Faculty of Education. McGill University.
[IF]
Contesting Canadian Citizenship: Historical Readings – ADAMOSKI et al (CSS)
ADAMOSKI, Robert; CHUNN, Dorothy E.; MENZIES, Robert (eds). Contesting Canadian Citizenship: Historical Readings. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2002. 429p. Resenha de: MITCHELL, Tom. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
Citizenship lies at the heart of the liberal state and forms of political modernity. Defined variously as a relational practice, a set of personal rights and obligations, or as a cultural idiom unique to particular societies, citizenship is to a greater or lesser degree always fluid, plastic, and internally contested (Brubaker, 1992, p. 13; on citizenship see also T. H. Marshall T. Bottomore, (1992). Its analysis offers an opening to modern approaches to power and social control, to forms of modern nations and nationalities; conceptually, idioms of citizenship are deeply implicated in most debates of public policy in the liberal state. And, as Contesting Canadian Citizenship discloses, such has been the case since the beginning of modern Canadian history.
The various and diverse chapters contained in Contesting Canadian Citizenship tell us about how modernist discourses of class, gender, race and discursive idioms of human pathology have shaped how Canadians have imagined each other. Such discourse furnished the theory upon which forms of unequal citizenship have been cast, institutional life has been ordered, and relations of power and vulnerability have been forged. For some citizenship promised power and opportunity, full citizenship within the liberal state; for others liberal discourse on citizenship led to non-citizenship, shame, subordination, incarceration, even sterilization.
The readings open with a nicely tailored introduction to the contemporary debate and varied usages of citizenship as a practical – and almost always contested – political and social idiom. Here the Canadian debate is effectively placed within the context of a broader international literature. Janine Brodie’s contribution to the introduction Three Stories of Canadian Citizenship focuses on three approaches to the development of citizenship in Canada: the legal, rights based and governance approaches. Under these headings Brodie moves from an account of the juridical nature of Canadian citizenship, to a discussion of the evolution of Canadian citizenship within a critical appraised account of T.H. Marshall’s seminal theorization of citizenship, to a historical survey of citizenship under the general rubric of governance.
Beyond the introduction, Contesting Canadian Citizenship has five sections. Constituting the Canadian Citizen contains essays by Veronica Strong-Boag on the debate around citizenship central to the Canadian Franchise Act of 1885. Gender, race, and class are illuminated as central features of the construction of citizenship within the Canadian liberal state. Ronald Rubin tackles citizenship in the evolving cultural politics of Quebec sovereignty, while Claude Denis provides a thoughtful and provocative account of the Hobson’s choice at the heart of the history of indigenous citizenship in Canada.
Under the heading Domesticity, Industry and Nationhood Sean Purdy relates a fascinating story of the implication of idioms of citizenship within debates over housing policy, while Jennifer Stephen considers industrial citizenship within the context of an account of employment, industrial relations and the creation of an efficient labour force during the era of crisis and reconstruction from 1916-1921. Deyse Baillargeon employs data from interviews with Francophone women in Montreal to provide a contextually specific glimpse into how women in Quebec, who possessed only a partial juridical citizenship, nevertheless made an important contribution to the maintenance of social stability during the Great Depression. Finally, Shirley Tillotson takes up the question of citizenship and leisure rights in mid-twentieth century Canada. In a nicely theorized account of the development of leisure rights sensitive to the implications of class, gender, race and rurality, Tillotson makes the argument that the imperatives of a moral economy of democratic citizenship in which the right to the prerequisites of health and culture led the liberal state to provide all Canadians not just the elite with access to leisure in the form of statutory and paid holidays and recreational programs.
Education has always been central to the Canadian debate on citizenship. This theme is treated at length under the heading Pedagogies of Belonging and Exclusion. Lorna R. McLean links the literature of class and masculinity with emerging forms of Canadian citizenship through an account of the adult education program of Frontier College. Katherine Arnup provides an illuminating account of the links between modernist discourses implicating motherhood with the manufacture of citizens. Here experts in child development typically, members of the medical profession cast a shaft of enlightenment on the benighted mothers especially those of non-Anglo-Canadian stock of future citizens of the country. Mary Louise Adams relates how the construction of citizenship was and remains implicated in the definition and policing of sexual identity and an orthodox sexuality. Bernice Moreau provides an account of the junction of race and citizenship in Nova Scotia. Here the shameful story of how Black Nova Scotians struggled to gain educational rights and civic equality against a state and civil society that denied them full citizenship is related.
Finally, four chapters address the theme of Boundaries of Citizenship. Here, Robert Adamoski relates the passage of children as wards of the state to productive citizenship. Adamoski argues that the philanthropic and child rescue movements that emerged in the late nineteenth century dealt with their charges within the class, gender and racial expectations of the time. Working class girls and boys would become solid working class citizens; only through assimilation could Aboriginal children enter the ranks of citizenship. Joan Sangster discusses the rescue of delinquents for the liberal state. In a chapter that considers developments from 1920-1965, Sangster provides illustrations and analysis of the changing and unchanging strategies used by the state and social experts to re-create model citizens. Dorothy E. Chunn deals with race, sex and citizenship through an examination how the criminal law in British Columbia was employed normatively to disseminate and sustain dominant conceptions of appropriate and inappropriate sexual and social relations. Her account illustrates how law worked to reinforce hierarchical social relations within the new settler society of British Columbia. Robert Menzies relates the story of mental hygiene and citizenship in British Columbia during the formative 1920s, an era in which the long shadow of eugenics discourse threatened dire consequences for those who for any number of reasons were deemed unworthy of citizenship. He develops a useful historical context for his account: relating how developments elsewhere from Ontario to Britain, Alberta to California shaped the course of the debate in British Columbia, and contributed to the shaping of social policy for some of Canada’s most vulnerable citizens.
This is a very useful publication. It brings together a diverse body of literature that speaks to the complex and evolving ideological core of the Canadian liberal state: citizenship and prose rendered with a minimum of jargon. Of course, each reader of this book will find some chapters more literate, interesting and useful than others. Such is to be expected in a volume containing seventeen chapters and almost as many authors.
References
Brubaker, R. (1992). Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany, London: Harvard University Press.
Marshall, T.H. Bottomore, T. (1992). Citizenship and Social Class. London: Pluto Press.
Tom Mitchell – Brandon University. Brandon, Manitoba.
[IF]History Fair Workbook: A Manual for Teachers, Students and Parents – KOSTY (CSS)
KOSTY, Carlita. History Fair Workbook: A Manual for Teachers, Students and Parents. Lanham, Maryland and Oxford: Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2002.171p. Resenha de: SENGER, E. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.1, p., 2004.
This is a book about studying and delivering information about history. It guides parents, teachers and students through the fascinating and engaging process of developing a meaningful topic, proceeding through logical steps of research, and compiling the historical information into a format that will excite and interest students, and others who become involved in the project. While the book is based upon a program called National History Day that was developed by the University of Maryland at College Park, many features of it can be adapted to a regular Social Studies or History classroom at virtually any level.
For those American teachers who choose to follow the History Fair process from their local level to possibly regional and national levels, this text provides a clear and useful framework. The History Fair Project has been running for years, and Kosty provides seven years worth of past and upcoming themes: 2002 Revolution, Reaction and Reform in History
2003 Rights and Responsibilities in History
2004 Exploration, Encounter and Exchange in History
2005 Communication in History: The Key to Understanding
2006 Taking a Stand in History: People, Places, Ideas
2007 Triumph and Tragedy in History
2008 The Individual in History (p. 17).
Used in conjunction with the History Fair Project these themes furnish a solid basis from which to build the students’ projects and focus their research. For teachers who do not wish to participate in the competitions, these themes could supply a focus for a unit or a whole program.
Through the use of samples, blackline masters and suggested resources in this book, any Social Studies teacher could enhance the delivery of her or his curriculum and engage students more fully in their learning. For example, online contact information is given for the official National History Day organization at www.nationalhistoryday.org. The Annual Curriculum Book and National History Day Rule Book are both available at this website and give easy access for teachers, parents and students.
The subtitle of the book is A Manual for Teachers, Students and Parents and specific sections are directed at each of these groups. A large focus seems to be empowering students to take more control of their own learning; as Kosty puts it The goal is to encourage, not discourage (p. 15). This is clearly sound pedagogical theory and practice, and the ideas, samples and classroom ready materials found in this book will make learning about history more enjoyable and meaningful for everyone involved. By clearly laying out how parents and teachers can help their kids, and how the students can help themselves, Kosty reinforces the goal of encouraging everyone to learn.
Many of the basics of planning, researching and teaching will already be familiar to experienced teachers. The greatest values are in the guidelines for working through a meaningful research process; worksheets, mini tests and samples to guide students; and the provision of lists of resources that will all enhance learning. There is, for example, a History Project Skills Profile on page 8 which lists sources and presentation, interpersonal and social skills which will enable students to be more successful with this project. There is a Library Research Vocabulary quiz on page 40 and a Research Skills Test is found on pages 49-51. These could be used by the teacher to evaluate student progress, or given to students to use for self-evaluation.
History Fair Workbook is a valuable tool for teachers. In addition to the materials already mentioned, it includes samples of the following documents to facilitate planning a history project and/or the delivery of regular Social Studies material: Letter to Parents (p. 21); Group Project Contract (p. 23); Timeline Rules Summary (p. 25); and Teacher’s Checklist (p. 28). There is also an assortment of blackline masters for every step in the process: choosing topics, the research process, evaluation scoring sheets, referencing, writing thesis statements, and even certificates to recognize participation and achievement.
While the projects and themes in Kosty’s book are based upon American state and district standards, they can be adapted to any school district. She has included specific chapters on using the internet (Section V), administering a Campus Fair (Section VI) and also one on Advanced Competition (Section VII) for students who will go on to regional and/or national levels. Since Kosty is an experienced Social Studies teacher as well as a coach and judge for History Fair events, she is well qualified to advise parents, students and teachers in this capacity.
The Appendices provide some sample papers, lists of possible topics, and a list of primary source collections which will be very useful for school libraries and also help teachers to direct their students’ research. A comprehensive Glossary, Bibliography and index simplify referencing the book. On a final note, as with any good teaching material, items will need to be adapted to grade level, the experience students already have with research, each teacher’s comfort level, and school and board policies. For anyone interested in expanding their understanding of and engagement with historical issues, this is truly a valuable resource.
E. Senger – Henry Wise Wood High School. Calgary, AB.
[IF]
Close-Up Canada – CRUXTON et al (CSS)
CRUXTON, J. Bradley; WILSON, W. Douglas; WALKER, Robert J. Close-Up Canada. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2001. 322p. Resenha de: ALLISON, Sam. Canadian Social Studies, v.38, n.3, p., 2004.
The Canadian market for school history textbooks is fragmented because we have no standard national curriculum or examinations. The grade level to study history varies widely as does course length. Arguably, Quebec’s French language Canadian history texts are the best in Canada because such texts are based upon standardized factors that create a market. In addition, schools divert money from books to computers, and school textbook writers are difficult to find. Provincial subsidy rules often favour poor textbooks printed inside a province, thus restricting the market even for the very best of books printed elsewhere.
Close-Up Canada displays some of the virtues and many of the vices found in French language school textbooks. There are thoughtful, stimulating illustrations and activities throughout the book. Care has been taken with reading levels, about grades 8 and 9, while there are sufficient vocabulary and computer activities to satisfy both traditional and progressive teaching methods. Materials on Black Canadians and Jewish Emancipation fill gaps all too present in Canadian schoolbooks. Every Canadian history teacher would benefit from reading the vast range of teaching and learning activities in this work.
This book has many eye-catching, colourful side-bars, appealing to the video generation, however, sections non-continuous to the main narrative are difficult to edit using modern, electronic printing. Sadly, editorial difficulties mar the book. An ambitious book such as this requires editorial and writing teams larger than the market can support. Be that as it may, basic pedagogy also requires accurate dates, numbers, and place names in a textbook. Close-Up Canada has some obvious typos and inaccuracies such as 1740s Louisbourg flourishing in the 1840s (p. 105) and the claim that James Wolfe arrived with 39 000 soldiers and 25 warships (p.114). One can imagine Freddy raising his hand to ask how big the ships were. In reality, Wolfe had approximately 9 000 soldiers and 225 ships. Another example has Ezekiel Hart contesting Trois Rivieres (p. 277) rather than Three Rivers, the official name of the riding and the town at that time. This illustrates a major difficulty in writing Canadian history textbooks. Various federally funded agencies and projects such as Heritage Canada, Canada Post, and the Dictionary of Canadian Biography have taken to replacing official, historical English names such as Three Rivers in order to use more politically correct French ones. Does one write for historical accuracy or for political correctness in a Canadian textbook? Close-Up Canada encompasses a three hundred year period from 1539-1849 and is consequently not a good buy for provinces teaching all of Canadian history in one year. New France blends into Upper Canada in this version of history so it is probably designed for the Ontario market. There is a skewed distribution of space. Approximately 20% of the 322 page book is devoted to the 12 years from 1837-1849. Topics are also skewed. Western and Lower Canada are conspicuous by their absence and the fur trade stops at 1763. For example, William Lyon MacKenzie, the 1837 Rebel, has 7 pages whereas Alexander MacKenzie, the First across the Continent, and arguably one of the greatest explorers in North American history, is absent from this book. We Canadians complain that Americans glorify Lewis and Clarke yet ignore MacKenzie. So do we.
Skewed intellectual balance is the largest problem with the overall content of this book. As in French language books, by measurement of space distributed to him (7 pages), Papineau is now the most important figure in Canadian history. Canadians are no longer sturdy fur traders, we are sturdy rebels in this version of history. Our rebellions of 1837 are to be compared and contrasted to the American Revolution (p. 293). The Conflict and Change section (p. 247-300) has too much conflict and not enough change. While negative factors about Canada must be aired, positive factors such as the radical franchise rules for Lower Canada would throw a more balanced light upon Canadian democracy than is presented in this book.
This brings us to the necessity for balanced treatment. Children understand that issues have several sides. They actually like debating both sides of an issue and understand that history is not simple. Unfortunately, the often shallow, unbalanced, and anti-British tone so common in French language textbooks, is all too prevalent in Close-Up Canada. On page 283 we read, Papineau was not always a Reformer. In his early life he was an admirer of Britain. Tighter editing would have replaced Reformer with Rebel, a more intellectually accurate and defensible description. Rather than present a balanced account of the 1837 Rebellion (for instance, there are no biographies of Chateau Clique members such as Richardson: founder of Canadian banking; supporter of Jewish Emancipation; opponent of slavery); the book presents what can only be called a Quebec nationalist perspective. For instance, the book asserts that the British cut out Chenier’s heart and displayed it in a tavern for several days(p.293). There is little contemporary evidence that this took place. Rather than explain that this incident was probably Patriote propaganda, or, alternatively, balance the incident with the fact that the Patriotes murdered British prisoners such as Jack Weir, a one-sided viewpoint is stated as truth.
It is difficult to review a book such as this. Textbooks are important because they promote knowledge and literacy. While textbooks should be free to discuss any point of view they should not promote one, debatable point of view. We are losing, perhaps even have lost, the pool of talent needed to produce school history texts. The United States has a vast market, and teachers often choose from a range of books and adapt their curriculum to the book. The British have their National Curriculum and a range of history examinations for 16 and 18 year olds. British teachers can choose the exam and a textbook for that exam. Canada has neither the market size nor the standardization to create a history textbook industry. We produce the textbooks we deserve.
Sam Allison – Centennial Regional High School. Greenfield Park, Quebec.
[IF]Cartas a Manuel Montt: Un registro para la Historia Social de Chile (1836-1869) | Marco Antonio León
Interesante, desde muchos puntos de vista, es la publicación realizada por León y Aránguiz, aunque no hay ninguna novedad espectacular. Diversos aspectos de la vida pública entre los años indicados muestran la existencia real entretejida por los personajes, como siempre ocurre en las manifestaciones epistolares.
Un primer conjunto de cartas es de Joaquín Prieto en su calidad de Comandante General de Armas de Valparaíso, después de haber ejercido la primera magistratura. El contenido es de menudencias administrativas, asuntos relativos a la Iglesia, más concretamente sobre eclesiásticos, orden público, intervención electoral, etc. Entre los personajes desfilan Francisco de Paula Taforó “virtuoso y hábil”, el cónsul británico en Perú, Hugo Wilson, pájaro de cuenta que había actuado en la sombra como agente del protector Andrés de Santa Cruz y que seguía urdiendo planes para su restitución al gobierno boliviano, todo ello en 1845; “el joven Bilbao” ocultándose antes de partir al extranjero. Leia Mais
Relatos de José Peralta | Gustavo Marín
La memoria está de actualidad. Desde hace años proliferan las investigaciones de Historia, Psicología, Antropología y otras disciplinas de las Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades centradas en la memoria colectiva de los pueblos. Probablemente en aquellas sociedades cuyo pasado relativamente reciente es más traumático, la explosión de los estudios sobre la memoria ha sido más espectacular o, a lo menos, es allí donde su repercusión social ha sido mayor. Debido a sus innegables connotaciones políticas, los trabajos sobre el Holocausto, los horrores del estalinismo o las dictaduras latinoamericanas de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, han tenido ecos que a menudo han trascendido las fronteras de las disciplinas desde las cuales fueron elaborados.
Pero estos estudios no habrían sido posibles sin una gigantesca acumulación de testimonios (orales, escritos y audiovisuales) aportados por los protagonistas y testigos de aquellos pasajes de la historia. Militantes, cientistas sociales y, a menudo los propios actores, han realizado una tesonera labor de recopilación, ordenamiento, preservación y difusión de relatos y recuerdos. Esto ha preparado el terreno para que los historiadores y otros especialistas efectúen su trabajo de transformación de las “memorias sueltas” o espontáneas en memorias historiográficas o sistemáticas 1. Leia Mais
Um médico brasileiro no front: diário de Massaki Udihara na Segunda Guerra Mundial | Massaki Udihara
É inverno. Um jovem de óculos, sentado em frente a uma lareira, escreve. Fora, cai neve nas montanhas da Itália. Esta imagem pareceria romântica, não fossem as condições em que o jovem de óculos escreve. Ele é Massaki Udihara, primeiro-tenente das Forças Expedicionárias Brasileiras, a FEB, durante a campanha brasileira na Segunda Guerra Mundial. Durante toda a sua participação na guerra, o jovem escreveu um diário, que começa no dia 29 de junho de 1944 e vai até o dia de seu retorno a São Paulo, 16 de junho de 1945.
O que é um diário senão as anotações mais íntimas daquele que escreve? É na realidade um monólogo consigo mesmo, uma forma de expressão daquilo que está ao seu redor, são observações, impressões, julgamentos que têm o centro no autor, sem a preocupação de ser avaliados por leitores ou críticos. O diário é uma forma de extravasar aquilo que se tem dentro de si através de palavras. Leia Mais
Palácio para guardar doidos: uma história das lutas pela construção do hospital de alienados e da psiquiatria no Rio Grande do Sul | Yonissa Marmitt Wadi || Arquivos da loucura: Juliano Moreira e a descontinuidade histórica da psiquiatria | Vera Portocarrero
O tema da constituição da psiquiatria no Brasil, que há algumas décadas vem sendo estudado em diferentes áreas — da psiquiatria às ciências sociais —, ganha agora mais duas contribuições importantes: Palácio para guardar doidos, de Yonissa Marmitt Wadi, e Juliano Moreira e a descontinuidade histórica da psiquiatria, de Vera Portocarrero. Os dois trabalhos são, respectivamente, frutos de dissertações de mestrado na área da história e da filosofia, abordando os desenvolvimentos da psiquiatria em cidades e períodos históricos distintos. O livro de Wadi trata do processo de construção do primeiro hospício da província de São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul — que culminou em 1884 com a criação do Hospício São Pedro. Analisa o lugar que a medicina ocupou nesse processo e em seus desenvolvimentos até os anos 1940. Já a dissertação de Portocarrero — defendida em 1980, e agora felizmente publicada através da iniciativa da Coleção Loucura & Civilização — toma como objeto a transformação da ciência e da assistência psiquiátrica no Brasil, no início do século XX, representada no pensamento do psiquiatra baiano Juliano Moreira. Leia Mais
Uma ciência da diferença: sexo e gênero na medicina da mulher | Fabíola Rohden
A construção social da sexualidade vem sendo inventariada pelos mais diversos campos de conhecimento, mas, sem dúvida, é no discurso médico que vai encontrar um dos seus filões mais ricos de análise. Na virada do século XIX para o XX, a onda transformadora advinda da aceleração do processo urbano industrial, entre as suas inúmeras conseqüências, propiciou o ingresso da mulher no mercado de trabalho e a elaboração do ideário feminista, descortinando-se, assim, novas possibilidades de relacionamento entre os gêneros.
Nesse cenário, tão profundamente marcado pelos ventos da mudança, impunha-se a necessidade de repensar e demarcar os papéis sociais. Leia Mais
Homo brasilis: aspectos genéticos, lingüísticos, históricos e socioantropológicos da formação do povo brasileiro | Sérgio J. Pena
És samba e jongo, xiba e fado, cujosAcordes são desejos e orfandadesDe selvagens, cativos e marujos;E em nostalgias e paixões consistesLasciva dor, beijo de três saudades,Flor amorosa de três raças tristes. Olavo Bilac, Música brasileira
A descoberta, em 1953, da estrutura físico-química do DNA e, conseqüentemente, do gene, abriu possibilidades antes inimagináveis para vários campos do conhecimento sobre a vida. Da zoologia à botânica, da fisiologia à embriologia, da paleontologia à microbiologia, da anatomia à medicina, da biogeografia à evolução, da etologia à psicologia etc. — todas essas ciências receberam substanciais impulsos uma vez que a comparação entre a linguagem dos genes das mais diferentes espécies e variedades tornou-se acessível. O estudo sobre a formação das populações humanas (da espécie Homo sapiens) também sofreu essa influência. Como as populações humanas fazem parte de uma espécie biológica, os DNAs contidos nas células humanas podem ser analisados a partir de técnicas e conceitos moleculares com vistas a descrever e compreender melhor a constituição e formação genética de cada um dos diferentes tipos de população humana que povoaram e povoam este planeta. Leia Mais
Culpa e coragem, historia das políticas sobre VIH/Sida em Peru, Lima | Marcos Cueto
A análise histórica das políticas sobre HIV/Aids no Peru, desenvolvida no livro de Marcos Cueto, representa mais um importante esforço para a compreensão das repercussões sociais de uma epidemia contemporânea que se caracterizou por apresentar um agente etiológico desconhecido, desafiar os sofisticados tratamentos médicos científicos do século XX e não ter cura.
Uma primeira contribuição importante do livro do historiador refere-se à possibilidade de conhecermos aspectos de uma das sociedades que integra a América Latina, aspectos estes nem sempre explorados nas reflexões desenvolvidas no Brasil no campo das ciências sociais e da saúde. Tendo em vista que os primeiros casos identificados de Aids datam do início da década de 1980, uma outra qualidade relevante do livro em questão está na utilização de uma perspectiva histórica acerca de uma epidemia contemporânea. Leia Mais
Fundação Ataulpho de Paiva — Liga Brasileira contra a Tuberculose: um século de luta | Dilene Raimundo Nascimento
O livro de Dilene Nascimento acompanha a trajetória da Fundação Ataulpho de Paiva ao longo de um século de existência, desde o surgimento da Liga Brasileira contra a Tuberculose, em 4 de agosto de 1900, até o tempo presente, apontando suas perspectivas. Contudo, muito mais que “conhecer” a história da luta contra a tuberculose no início do século XX, seu trabalho nos permite refletir sobre a relação entre a filantropia, a assistência médica e o Estado ao longo deste período.
A Liga Brasileira contra a Tuberculose, criada no Rio de Janeiro, reunia médicos, higienistas, intelectuais, membros da alta sociedade carioca que buscavam a cura desta doença, bem como sua profilaxia. O debate em torno desta doença era grande desde o final do século XIX, tanto na Academia de Medicina quanto na imprensa quotidiana. Nesta época, foi criada uma comissão chefiada por Domingos Freire para ir à Alemanha estudar a eficácia terapêutica da tuberculina de Koch, recém-descoberta (1890) e, logo depois, o Jornal do Commercio patrocinou experiências com a tuberculina de Koch nas enfermarias da Santa Casa da Misericórdia do Rio de Janeiro. Toda esta ambiência criou um espaço propício para a reunião de um grupo de médicos e intelectuais em torno da idéia, lançada em 1899 por Cypriano de Freitas na Academia de Medicina, de se fundar um órgão específico para o combate da tuberculose. Deste “marco zero” à atuação contemporânea da Fundação Ataulpho de Paiva, é uma longa jornada. Leia Mais
Aventuras da Távola Redonda: estórias medievais do Rei Artur e seus cavaleiros | Antonio L. Furtado
Com o convidativo título de Aventuras da Távola Redonda: estórias medievais do Rei Artur e seus cavaleiros, mais uma vez, Antonio Furtado apresenta ao público brasileiro outra tradução [1] das narrativas da “Matéria da Bretanha”. As estórias do Rei Artur e dos Cavaleiros da Távola Redonda que, nos séculos XII e XIII encantaram tanto a nobreza, pois naquelas narrativas estavam presentes os ideais mais elevados e os modos e maneiras que esta mesma nobreza vivenciava e, também enchia os ouvidos e o imaginário dos menos abastados que, talvez, almejassem serem súditos de um rei justo como Artur e protegidos por cavaleiros como Lancelot e Gawaine.
Essas “aventuras” empreendidas tanto próprio Artur como pelos seus cavaleiros estão impregnadas pelo maravilhoso que, não são estranhos às personagens, pois fazem parte do cotidiano, como nos explica Todorov no livro As Estruturas Narrativas, os elementos sobrenaturais não provocam qualquer reação particular nem nas personagens nem no leitor implícito” (TODOROV, 1979: 160). Muitas personagens das narrativas são conduzidas para situações onde se deparam com seres sobrenaturais, como gigantes, tema da primeira “aventura”, onde o próprio rei Artur enfrenta um gigante monstruosos na narrativa “O gigante do Monte Saint Michel”:
– Irei à frente, disse Artur, para combater o gigante. Vireis atrás de mim, e atentai para que nenhum de vós interfira enquanto eu mesmo puder valer, já que de outra ajuda não necessito. Pareceria covardia vir outro, além de mim, a combatê-lo. Socorrei-me, porém se perceberdes minha necessidade. (FURTADO, 2003: 70).
Artur parte sozinho para enfrentar o gigante e deixa claro os seus companheiros, que devem socorrê-lo só em caso de necessidade. Vemos aqui a representação do rei que está sempre à frente dos seus nas batalhas e faz questão de que a lei seja também aplicada a ele, como nos mostra John Boorman no seu filme Excalibur, de 1980, na cena em que a rainha Guinevere é acusada de adultério por um cavaleiro e implora ao seu marido e rei para que não seja julgada, mas Artur, responde que a lei deve ser aplicada também ao rei, caso isso não ocorra, não há justiça. Artur deve marchar à frente de seus cavaleiros na caça das aventuras.
Em “O juramento ambíguo de Isolda”, Artur e mais alguns cavaleiros, como seu sobrinho Gawaine (que nos apresentado como Galvão), “o mais cortês de todos os homens”, são chamados para julgarem Isolda esposa do rei Marcos, Duque da Cornualha e tio de Tristão, que foi acusada de adultério por três barões da Corte da Cornualha.
O rei Artur é convocado por Isolda por ser conhecido como o mais justo e nobre dos reis e por repudiar todo e qualquer ato de vilania. E, como Artur e seus cavaleiros representam os ideais da cortesia e da honra, vemos nas palavras de Galvão todo o asco que o ato dos barões contra Isolda lhe causa:
– Tio, se tenho permissão, a justificação que está combinada terminará mal para os três felões. O mais dissimulado é Ganelon: conheço-o bem e ele a mim. Já o derrubei em um lamaçal, durante uma justa forte e encarniçada. Se pego de novo, por São Richier, Tristão não precisará mais vir. Se puder agarrá-lo com as mãos, farei nele bastante estrago e o enforcarei no alto de um morro. (FURTADO, 2003: 160).
Os cavaleiros não hesitam em atender o apelo de uma donzela ou mesmo de uma rainha que esteja em perigo, pois são estas as oportunidades que esses homens de armas e de cortesia têm para fazerem valer seu juramento de defenderem as mulheres e os mais fracos, partirem em busca de aventuras e, talvez, conseguirem o amor da mulher que necessita de socorro.
As narrativas que têm como personagem principal Artur ou outro cavaleiro, fluem de maneira a cativar o leitor, com se este estivesse envolvido pela voz dos trovadores que, habilmente “encantavam” os homens e mulheres dos séculos XII e XIII quando apresentavam as aventuras e, mais ainda, os ideais que essas aventuras e as personagens representavam.
A leitura de Aventuras proporciona o resgate da ambientação, das falas das personagens e, principalmente, das suas atitudes, sejam elas de indignação perante a injustiça – como a de Galvão – ou de bravura e até de desolamento. As personagens arturianas estão vivas e, nas páginas do livro de Furtado é possível “viajar” ao lado de Galvão, Lancelot e Percival; seja na busca do Santo Graal ou no salvamento de uma donzela.
A tradução primorosa do francês antigo onde o estilo, a linguagem e o conteúdo mantiveram-se fiéis aos originais como o próprio autor afirma na Introdução da obra é um convite a mais – tanto aos estudiosos e pesquisadores da Idade Média, como aos leitores em geral – para que se descubra o mundo arturiano e da Matéria da Bretanha.
Aventurar-se pelas páginas dessa obra é como um mergulho no universo mágico do mito arturiano e um eterno encantar-se com as estórias do “rei que não morreu, apenas dorme e, em breve, retornará…”
Nota
1. Em 2001 foi publicada pela Editora Vozes a tradução dos Lais de Maria de França. Tradução de Antonio Furtado e prefácio de Marina Colassanti.
Luciana de Campos – Doutoranda em Letras UNESP/São José do Rio Preto. E-mail: fadacelta@yahoo.com.br
FURTADO, Antonio L. (Organização e tradução). Aventuras da Távola Redonda: estórias medievais do Rei Artur e seus cavaleiros. Prefácio de Gilberto Mendonça Teles. Petrópolis- Rio de Janeiro: Vozes, 2003. Resenha de: CAMPOS, Luciana de. Cavaleiros da Aventura. Brathair – Revista de Estudos Celtas e Germânicos. São Luís, v.3, n.2, p. 62-63, 2003. Acessar publicação original [DR]
Matéria de Bretanha em Portugal | Leonor Curado Neves
Uma iniciativa como esta das organizadoras é sempre bem-vinda: informa-se na Introdução que estas Atas representam a recolha de um Colóquio e, por sua vez, de vários seminários realizados por e em favor de alunos do mestrado em Literatura Portuguesa Medieval, não só do Departamento de Literaturas Românicas da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, como de outras universidades portuguesas, os quais, ao longo de 1999-2001, tiveram por tema de estudos a “matéria de Bretanha”. É, de fato, louvável oferecer tal oportunidade a futuros pesquisadores que, sob a orientação de nomes conhecidos como Irene Freire Nunes, Ivo Castro, José Carlos Ribeiro Miranda, Ana Sofia Laranjinha e outros, além de um convidado “estrangeiro”, Michelle Szkilnik, têm a chance de prosseguir na carreira tomando por base modelos de investigação rigorosos e cientificamente respeitados. Cumprimentos às organizadoras pela abertura, nem sempre usual nos meios acadêmicos.
Contudo, por isto mesmo, por seu caráter de sumário heterogêneo, a obra é qualitativamente desigual – risco, ao que parece, conscientemente abraçado, pois também referido na Introdução. Nem se poderia esperar o contrário: dificilmente um mestrando teria a experiência crítica de Irene Freire Nunes, a quem se deve a edição de A Demanda do Santo Graal (cópia portuguesa), de 1995, trabalho que, embora não substitua o de Magne, a ele se acrescenta como consulta obrigatória; ou de Ivo Castro, que há anos vem preparando a edição do José de Arimatéia, igualmente destinada a somar-se à de H. H. Carter, a mais conhecida; ou, ainda, de José Carlos Ribeiro Miranda, cujas teses, aliciantes e revolucionárias, acerca da organização cíclica da Vulgata e da Pós-Vulgata, em diálogo cerrado com as propostas até então indiscutíveis de Fanni Bogdanow, têm suscitado tanta polêmica. Por enquanto, pelo que se deduz da maioria das comunicações recolhidas, seus autores estão antes para aprender com eles que para ombreá-los em perspectivas analíticas. O que não desmerece, reitere-se, a participação do grupo, disposto a enfrentar as teias extremamente complexas da matière – para cujas profundezas míticas Ana Paiva Morais chamou a atenção (p.125).
Compreensíveis as discrepâncias, mas nem por isso livres de reparos, a começar pelos lugares-comuns, espécie de estigma do assunto desde que dele se apossou a mídia, o cinema americano e uma certa imaginação popular aficcionada por fadas, duendes e dragões. Aqui, nas Atas, não se extrapola, é evidente, para a banalização; porém, elas não se isentaram de retornar à repisada idéia de que o Amadis de Gaula propõe uma cavalaria humanizada, cortesã, em consonância com a “revolução” provençal do século XII e como contraponto à elevada espiritualização da Demanda e ao paradigma ascético representado por Galaaz (p. 105); ou também à desgastada constatação de que a carnalidade de Lancelote, plena de erotismo e de sensualidade, espelho às avessas do grandioso filho bastardo, está atrelada a sentimentos cristãos de culpa, castigo, remorsos, reincidências, contrição – empecilhos em muito responsáveis, no plano simbólico, pela decadência de Artur e pela destruição do reino de Logres (p. 267); ou, ainda, à intrigante concepção da figura feminina, ora vítima de um discurso misógino, tendo Eva como respaldo emblemático, ora heroína de um discurso enaltecedor, abrindo espaço para a Virgem Maria e para uma série de reformas por que passava a Igreja na Idade Média Central (p. 69). Conclusões como estas não podem mais ser pontos de chegada, mas de partida, são pertença daquela já extensa bibliografia de fundo que deve assessorar qualquer projeto de trabalhos na área. Conhecê-la bem evita não só a repetição indesejável, como as comparações esdrúxulas do tipo de “um artigo de jornal, Tristão e Isolda, duas novelas camilianas e sociologia de Luhmann” (p. 277) – único texto da obra que realmente não precisaria estar ali.
O longo artigo de Irene Freire Nunes (20 páginas), “Merlin, o elo ausente” (p. 29), não traz grandes novidades enquanto “tese” – sabe-se, hoje, que o mito de Merlin veio se constituindo por etapas, das tradições orais às recriações literárias, e que a figura é “elo” indispensável na lógica estrutural de todo o ciclo – mas é utilíssimo, porque repassa várias vertentes que concorreram para a edificação do poderoso mago no imaginário coletivo, bem como resenha os principais estudos que foram, a pouco e pouco, montando o quebra-cabeças. O mesmo se pode dizer do ensaio de Ivo Castro, “Sobre a edição do Livro de José de Arimatéia” (p. 59) – uma defesa contundente, e justa, do minucioso labor filológico que exige a preparação de qualquer desses textos, a exigir não só o domínio de um vasto instrumental técnico, de teor comparativo, mas também boa dose de ousadia, de sensibilidade perceptiva e de criatividade. Embora bem provido das duas condições, como demonstra sua dissertação de doutorado apresentada à Universidade de Lisboa em 1984, o autor confessa dúvidas que, ao final do artigo, desnudam o quanto ainda se tem por avançar, por responder, por “demandar”: que lugar ocupa no estema da Estoire o manuscrito francês [do José de Arimatéia] que serviu de exemplar à tradição peninsular? Quem trouxe para Portugal os manuscritos da Estoire, da Queste e da Mort Artu, e possivelmente do Merlin, terá trazido outros (Lancelot, Tristan)? A “coesão” da “matéria de Bretanha”, cada vez mais documentada, será “retrato” da realidade ou “miragem”? (p. 68). Neste sentido – o das indagações que estimulam – José Carlos Roberto Miranda tem uma bela proposta sobre o papel de Elaim, o Branco, filho de Boorz, muito menos “estrela” que seu casto pai, na continuação da linhagem de Lancelote, depois que seu “duplo” Galaaz (nas palavras de Miranda) assume de vez a condição angélica. A pujante formulação, se suscitar interesses mais amplos, pode ser encontrada em Galaaz e a ideologia da linhagem (Lisboa: Granito, 1998), onde José Carlos relaciona a organicidade do universo arturiano e a questão sociológica linhagística própria de uma estrutura feudal como a da Baixa Idade Média. E para encerrar o rol de colaborações que movem à verticalização dos diálogos, continuam fundamentais as análises genológicas (p. 125, em que pese à opção por hermetismos de linguagem), as devassas do plano simbólico (p. 81, p. 145, p. 241) ou, como fez Michelle Szkilnik, de modo original, as localizações das chamadas “personagens secundárias”, cujo papel vai muito além de simples “mediadoras” na narrativa.
Como se percebe, comutados “prós” e “contras”, as Atas sobre A matéria de Bretanha em Portugal prestam à causa serviço de mérito. Quando menos por recolocar, no centro da arena, tema tão mais polissêmico quanto mais cindido entre a visão ligeira, incompatível com a realidade histórica de curta e longa duração em que todo o ciclo se insere, e a visão acadêmica, que muitas vezes peca por excesso oposto, em seu anseio de “precisão”, ao subestimar as diversas e quase sempre obscuras camadas culturais compactadas na matière. As coordenadoras estiveram atentas ao equilíbrio de linhas, o que já de si recomenda a obra.
Lênia Márcia Mongelli – Universidade de São Paulo / ABREM. E-mail: mongelli@dialdata.com.br
NEVES, Leonor Curado; MADUREIRA Margarida e AMADO, Teresa. (Coordenadoras). Matéria de Bretanha em Portugal. Lisboa: Colibri, 2001. Resenha de: MONGELLI, Lênia Márcia. Brathair – Revista de Estudos Celtas e Germânicos. São Luís, v.3, n.2, p. 64-65, 2003. Acessar publicação original [DR]
Tobias Barreto e a filosofia alemã – SUCUPIRA (RIHGB)
SUCUPIRA, Newton Buarque. Tobias Barreto e a filosofia alemã. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Gama Filho, 2001. Resenha de: WEHLING, Arno. Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, v.164, n.420, p.265-268, jul./set., 2003.
Arno Wehling – Sócio titular do IHGB.
[IF]Missão na selva. A aventura brasileira de Emil Odebrecht – CASTRO (RIHGB)
CASTRO, Moacir Werneck de. Missão na selva. A aventura brasileira de Emil Odebrecht. 2ed. Rio de Janeiro: Versal Editores, 2003. 176p. Resenha de: RODRIGUES, Lêda Boechat. Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, v.164, n.420, p.269-270, jul./set., 2003.
Lêda Boechat Rodrigues – Sócia emérita do IHGB.
[IF]
MELLA: una historia em la política mexico-cubana | Olga Cabrera
CABRERA, Olga. MELLA: una historia em la política mexico-cubana. México: Universidade de Guadalajara, 2002. Resenha de: RIBEIRO, Fernando Rosa. Revista Brasileira do Caribe, São Luís, v.4, n.7, jul./dez., 2003. Arquivo indisponível na publicação original. [IF].
Corumbá de todas as graças | Augusto César Proença
Augusto César Gomes da Silva, mais conhecido pelo nome literário Augusto César Proença, é um escritor corumbaense que publicou diversas obras desde a década de 1970, entre elas os contos Snack Bar (1979), A Sesta (1993), A Condução (1993), Para Qualquer Lugar (1995), a novela Raízes do Pantanal, (1989), o livro Pantanal: Gente Tradição e História (1993) e o conto Nessa Poeira Não Vem Mais Seu Pai (1996), adaptado para o teatro pelo grupo Anteato de Artes Cênicas e roteirizado em 1999 para o filme de curta-metragem pelo cineasta Tito Teijido. Nota-se que o autor possui uma variedade de obras que não lhe confere a designação de um simples memorialista. Contudo, no seu mais recente livro Corumbá de todas as graças está intrínseca a exaltação de um passado, um dos traços comuns da memória enquanto representação.
Em Corumbá de todas as graças Proença traçou parte da trajetória histórica daquela cidade, destacando não só o comércio fluvial internacional como também suas festas e seus costumes. Trata-se de uma narrativa sem o compromisso de análise e sem muito rigor cronológico. Nela o autor descreveu tanto o período colonial quanto os primeiros anos do século atual e intercalou na história de Corumbá a presença dos salesianos. Leia Mais
Educação e Sociedade na Primeira República | Jorge Nagle
No ano de 2001, à guisa de comemoração do terceiro milênio, a DP&A Editora brindou estudiosos, professores de história da educação brasileira e aos demais interessados com a publicação da obra do Prof. Jorge Nagle, Educação e Sociedade na Primeira República. Sua primeira edição (1974), bem como, a reimpressão (1976), resultado de uma parceria entre a Fundação Nacional de Material Escolar/MEC (Rio de Janeiro) e a Editora Pedagógica Universitária (São Paulo), estavam esgotadas há muito tempo. Tal situação forçava as pessoas, por necessidade de ofício, a violar os direitos autorais, xerocopiando a obra no todo ou em partes.
Trata-se de uma obra ímpar na interpretação da educação brasileira, no período da Primeira República. O Autor cunhou as categorias “entusiasmo pela educação” e “otimismo pedagógico”, para explicar a efervescência dos debates e disputas teóricas sobre a trajetória da educação, num momento em que a sociedade brasileira passava pela transição de uma sociedade agrário-comercial por outra, urbano-industrial. Leia Mais
Corumbá de todas as graças | Augusto César Proença
Augusto César Gomes da Silva, mais conhecido pelo nome literário Augusto César Proença, é um escritor corumbaense que publicou diversas obras desde a década de 1970, entre elas os contos Snack Bar (1979), A Sesta (1993), A Condução (1993), Para Qualquer Lugar (1995), a novela Raízes do Pantanal, (1989), o livro Pantanal: Gente Tradição e História (1993) e o conto Nessa Poeira Não Vem Mais Seu Pai (1996), adaptado para o teatro pelo grupo Anteato de Artes Cênicas e roteirizado em 1999 para o filme de curta-metragem pelo cineasta Tito Teijido. Nota-se que o autor possui uma variedade de obras que não lhe confere a designação de um simples memorialista. Contudo, no seu mais recente livro Corumbá de todas as graças está intrínseca a exaltação de um passado, um dos traços comuns da memória enquanto representação.
Em Corumbá de todas as graças Proença traçou parte da trajetória histórica daquela cidade, destacando não só o comércio fluvial internacional como também suas festas e seus costumes. Trata-se de uma narrativa sem o compromisso de análise e sem muito rigor cronológico. Nela o autor descreveu tanto o período colonial quanto os primeiros anos do século atual e intercalou na história de Corumbá a presença dos salesianos. Leia Mais
Migração Portuguesa no Brasil – LOBO (RBH)
LOBO, Eulália Maria Lahmeyer. Migração Portuguesa no Brasil. São Paulo: Editora Hucitec, 2001, 367 pp. Resenha de: SZMRECSÁNYI, Tamás. Revista Brasileira de História, São Paulo, v.23, n.45, july 2003.
As migrações internacionais permanentes constituem processos históricos cuja duração via de regra ultrapassa o prazo de uma geração para se completar. Este axioma foi devidamente assimilado por Eulália Lobo em seu belo livro sobre a imigração de portugueses no Brasil durante o período republicano. Apesar da singeleza do seu título, esta obra traz uma valiosa contribuição não apenas ao estudo desse tema específico, mas também à compreensão das numerosas relações econômicas, culturais e políticas existentes entre os dois países.
Trata-se da versão revista e ampliada de um estudo de História Social, originalmente publicado na Espanha em 1994, e cujo conteúdo faz jus ao merecido renome da autora. Seus três capítulos, de tamanhos desiguais, seguem esquemas parecidos e se referem a três fases distintas do mesmo processo. Todos se iniciam por um retrospecto histórico, econômico e demográfico, seguido por análises de interação política e cultural dos dois países, abrangendo a literatura, as artes e as ciências tanto do Brasil como de Portugal. Seus textos são complementados por numerosas tabelas estatísticas e por uma sugestiva iconografia.
O maior, e talvez o melhor de todos os capítulos é o primeiro, relativo à fase de ascensão das migrações portuguesas para o Brasil no período republicano, a qual se estende do final dos anos 1880 ao início da quarta década do século XX. Nele figura um pormenorizado exame dos fatores de expulsão e de atração que condicionaram os referidos movimentos migratórios: de um lado, a crise social ocasionada por más colheitas e pela concentração fundiária em Portugal, acrescida pelo desejo de fugir do serviço militar daquele país; e de outro, o deslanche do desenvolvimento essencialmente capitalista da economia brasileira depois da Abolição.
Até a época da Primeira Guerra Mundial, esse desenvolvimento manteve-se centrado na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, destino final da maioria dos imigrantes portugueses então aportados no País. Os principais atrativos do Brasil situavam-se na identidade de língua e de religião, enquanto os do Rio de Janeiro diziam respeito a uma ampla oferta de empregos, freqüentemente junto a empresas pertencentes a compatriotas ou seus descendentes, assim como aos salários que aí eram pagos, na época superiores aos de Portugal e de outras regiões brasileiras.
Seguem-se a estas considerações algumas interessantes análises da participação lusa no capital comercial, industrial, financeiro e imobiliário das principais cidades do País, entre o final de século XIX e o início da década de 1930, bem como do peso da mão-de-obra de origem portuguesa na força de trabalho dos setores secundário e terciário da economia brasileira durante o mesmo período. Em ambos os casos, as melhores informações referem-se ao Rio de Janeiro, e são como um todo bastante representativas. Por meio delas, fica-se sabendo da ampla inserção de empresários portugueses não apenas no comércio, mas também na indústria —notadamente de tecidos, nos serviços de transporte urbano, na construção civil e nos bancos, bem como das grandes exportações de gêneros alimentícios de Portugal para o Brasil antes de 1914. Por outro lado, imigrantes portugueses e seus descendentes constituem uma parte ponderável da mão-de-obra dos mesmos setores e ramos, e ainda da estiva portuária do Rio de Janeiro e de Santos. Por isso mesmo tiveram uma ampla participação nas lutas sociais da época.
Mas a maior parte deste capítulo, como dos seguintes, é dedicada ao exame da interação cultural luso-brasileira em áreas como a literatura, o teatro, a cultura popular e operária, a música (erudita e popular), a arquitetura, as artes plásticas e a historiografia, sem esquecer os vários movimentos associativos dedicados à congregação e integração dos migrantes de determinadas regiões portuguesas, bem como à assistência social e educacional dos mais carentes. Em todas essas análises, por vezes muito longas e talvez demasiadamente circunstanciadas, a autora dá provas de um amplo domínio das fontes que utiliza, e também de uma diversificada erudição e de uma sensibilidade estética bastante desenvolvida. Nelas aparecem com destaque as convergências e divergências das literaturas dos dois países, a influência portuguesa nos diversos gêneros e autores do teatro brasileiro, as cantigas e danças populares de origem ibérica, a atuação dos arquitetos Luis de Morais Júnior, no Rio de Janeiro, e Ricardo Severo de Fonseca, em São Paulo, assim como as contribuições do caricaturista Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro e do historiador João Lúcio de Azevedo.
No segundo capítulo, mais curto que os outros dois, a autora examina a fase de declínio da imigração portuguesa para o Brasil, que ocorreu entre 1930 e 1950. Um declínio devido em boa parte à crise econômica internacional dos anos trinta e ao transcurso da Segunda Guerra Mundial, e que foi acompanhado de acentuada diminuição do comércio entre os dois países. Mas que não impediu que as relações culturais entre eles acabassem sendo reforçadas, tanto por força de certas iniciativas governamentais de parte a parte, como devido à presença no Brasil de importantes intelectuais portugueses fugitivos do salazarismo.
Entre as iniciativas governamentais, destacou-se a inauguração em 1935 do Instituto Luso-Brasileiro de Alta Cultura em Lisboa, seguida pela realização no Itamaraty em 1937 de um ciclo de conferências sobre as relações entre os dois países. E no final desse último ano foi inaugurada a Sala Brasil, que mais tarde se transformaria no Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros da Universidade de Coimbra. Também tiveram destaque as negociações intergovernamentais que acabaram levando à Convenção Ortográfica Luso-Brasileira de 1945. Já no âmbito puramente intelectual, não podem deixar de ser mencionadas as atividades e obras da famosa pintora Maria Helena Vieira da Silva e do historiador Jaime Cortesão. No campo da literatura marcaram época os romances sobre emigrantes portugueses no Brasil do escritor Ferreira de Castro, e nas ciências sociais deu-se o surgimento do luso- tropicalismo de Gilberto Freyre.
Finalmente, no terceiro capítulo, também bastante longo devido às suas numerosas tabelas e à presença de três anexos, Eulalia Lobo analisa a fase mais recente das migrações de portugueses ao Brasil, bem como a evolução das relações econômicas e culturais ente os dois países a partir do término da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Tanto estas relações como a retomada da emigração portuguesa para o nosso país foram intensamente condicionadas pela evolução dos regimes políticos respectivos, que só voltariam a ser convergentes na segunda metade da década de 1980. Até então, predominaram em Portugal as lutas contra a ditadura salazarista e as guerras de independência das colônias africanas, enquanto no Brasil os dezoito anos de democracia liberal do pós-guerra foram seguidos por duas décadas de regime militar.
Dentro desse contexto, as relações econômicas mantiveram-se em nível baixo, ao contrário das relações culturais, que continuaram intensas, e da emigração portuguesa (e depois também afro-portuguesa) para o Brasil, a qual voltou a ser crescente nos anos sessenta e setenta. Mais tarde, com o ingresso de Portugal na Comunidade Européia, e com a prolongada crise econômica brasileira, iniciou-se um fluxo até então inédito, e cada vez mais intenso, em sentido contrário.
No plano cultural, merece ser destacada a presença e participação literárias de expoentes como Jorge de Sena e Adolfo Casis Monteiro, assim como o surgimento da obra e as importantes visitas de José Saramago. Enquanto o intercâmbio no campo teatral e nos meios de comunicação social sofria os efeitos da censura e das pressões políticas dos regimes autoritários de ambos os países, foram se consolidando e intensificando os contatos científicos e tecnológicos, particularmente com o LENNEC, o famoso Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil de Lisboa.
Nas suas conclusões, muito sucintas e lamentavelmente ocultas entre os anexos do terceiro capítulo e a bibliografia geral, a autora expõe modestamente os principais resultados alcançados pelo seu trabalho. Esses resultados são bastante significativos, não apenas por terem ampliado nossos conhecimentos a respeito da imigração portuguesa no Brasil durante o período republicano, sobre a inserção destes migrantes na sociedade brasileira, bem como as contribuições econômicas e culturais por eles trazidas e/ou disseminadas, mas também por terem aberto o caminho para novas linhas de investigação e para o uso de fontes até agora pouco utilizadas.
De um modo geral, o trabalho editorial do livro poderia ter sido melhor cuidado. A cronologia e as abreviaturas deveriam figurar no início e não no final da obra. As tabelas menores poderiam ter sido inseridas no texto como ilustrações da argumentação desenvolvida. A fonte do primeiro anexo não está datada; no segundo não consta qualquer fonte; o terceiro, muito pequeno, poderia também ter sido inserido no texto respectivo; e o quarto parece estar completamente deslocado, dizendo respeito ao primeiro capítulo, e não ao terceiro. Trata-se de deficiências que não chegam a diminuir o valor do livro, apenas contribuindo para dificultar sua leitura. Vamos torcer para que possam ser sanadas numa terceira e definitiva edição da obra.
Tamás Szmrecsányi – Instituto de Geociências da UNICAMP.
[IF]Os protagonistas anônimos da História: micro-história – VAINFAS (RBH)
VAINFAS, Ronaldo. Os protagonistas anônimos da História: micro-história. Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 2002. 115pp. Resenha de: GUIMARÃES, Lucia Maria Paschoal. Revista Brasileira de História, São Paulo, v.23, n.45, july 2003.
No Brasil, o ensino universitário de história ainda carece de boa bibliografia teórica produzida por autores nacionais, em que pese o número crescente de traduções de especialistas estrangeiros. A boa repercussão alcançada pelo livro Domínios da História (org. Ciro Flamarion Cardoso e Ronaldo Vainfas, Campus, 1997), certamente deve ter estimulado o professor Ronaldo Vainfas a fazer uma nova incursão na área de teoria e metodologia da história. Melhor dizendo, a aprofundar algumas reflexões que deixara encaminhadas ao concluir aquela obra, que nos últimos anos tornou-se referência no ensino da disciplina. Refiro-me ao recém-lançado Os protagonistas anônimos da História: micro-história, onde Vainfas examina esse gênero historiográfico surgido na Itália, a propósito da coleção dirigida por Carlo Ginzburg e Giovanni Levi, denominada Microstorie, publicada pela editora Einaudi, entre 1981 e 1988. Vale lembrar que a micro-história opera com escala de observação reduzida, exploração exaustiva de fontes, descrição etnográfica e preocupação com a narrativa literária. Neste sentido, contempla, sobretudo, temáticas ligadas ao cotidiano de comunidades específicas — referidas geográfica ou sociologicamente —, às situações-limite e às biografias ligadas à reconstituição de microcontextos ou dedicadas a personagens extremos, geralmente vultos anônimos, figuras que por certo passariam despercebidas na multidão. O certo é que essa corrente historiográfica foi muito mal compreendida, ora tomada como história cultural, ora confundida com a história das mentalidades e com a história do cotidiano. Ou, então, percebida como expressão típica de uma história descritiva, de viés marcadamente antropológico, que renunciou ao estatuto científico da disciplina, invadiu o território da literatura, rompendo de vez as fronteiras da narrativa histórica com o ficcional. Não seria exagero afirmar que ainda hoje a micro-história carrega o estigma de história menor, atacada principalmente pelos defensores dos modelos macrossociais de análise. Mas, como afirma Hans Medick, rebatendo tais críticas, se small is beautiful isto não significa banalizar a história, nem desconectá-la de contextos mais amplos.
Ronaldo Vainfas dispõe-se a desfazer essa intrincada teia de equívocos. E, de fato, alcança seu intento. Assim, no primeiro capítulo, apresenta um panorama da trajetória dos estudos históricos no século XX, detendo-se especialmente na historiografia francesa tributária do movimento de Annales. Dialoga com este quadro conceitual para demonstrar o que a micro-história não é, evidenciando as razões pelas quais a prática microanalítica não pode ser definida apenas em função dos temas de pesquisa, mas sim em relação a seus objetos e às metodologias por ela utilizadas. Desfeito didaticamente o imbroglio, o autor parte para identificar O berço da micro-história (capítulo 2), mostrando as linhagens dessa vertente historiográfica praticada por historiadores italianos, franceses, ingleses e norte-americanos, com ênfase no papel desempenhado pelos italianos e na importância da revista Quaderni Storici e da mencionada coleção Microstorie. Resgatadas as origens teóricas, o autor parte para exemplos concretos. No capítulo terceiro — A micro-história em cena, resume alguns enredos de livros emblemáticos do gênero, a começar pelo clássico O queijo e os vermes, de Carlo Ginzburg, seguindo-se de O retorno de Martin Guerre, de Natalie Zenon Davis; Atos impuros, de Judith Brown, e A herança imaterial, de Geovannni Levi. Essas breves sínteses servem de mote para o exame do modo como se opera a narrativa microanalítica e a discussão das fronteiras que a separam da narrativa ficcional. Em seguida, no capítulo quarto, sugestivamente denominado A micro-história nos bastidores, privilegia o estudo do aparato conceitual empregado pela micro-história, a escolha de temas, a problemática da redução de escala na descrição densa, bem como a delimitação dos objetos de estudo em termos de espaço e de temporalidade. Finalmente, à guisa de conclusão, o professor Vainfas aponta os contrastes entre as abordagens macrossociais e as microanalíticas, discute as possibilidades e os limites de compatibilização entre ambas, oferecendo ainda uma extensa bibliografia comentada, com tudo já que se publicou no País a respeito da microanálise, inclusive trabalhos de historiadores brasileiros que fizeram incursões no gênero.
Longe de fazer proselitismo em defesa do gênero, Vainfas aproxima-se dos encaminhamentos propostos pela historiadora norte-americana Natalie Zenon Davis, um dos ícones da micro-história. Segundo Davis, é inquestionável a natureza complementar dos dois tipos de análise. A tarefa que se impõe aos estudiosos consiste, pois, em investigar métodos de interpretação e de narrativa que possam dar conta no texto escrito do entrecruzamento e das tensões entre o pequeno e o grande, entre o social e o cultural. Ou, que venham a explorar as conexões possíveis entre esses dois níveis de experiência historiográfica, conforme sugere Georg Iggers na sua mais recente contribuição, Historiography in the twentieth century: from scientific objectivity to the postmodern challenge. Seja como for, estudantes e pesquisadores, sem dúvida, irão se beneficiar da leitura dessa obra assentada em sólida argumentação teórica, mas de exposição agradável, repleta de exemplos e de comentários bem-humorados.
Lucia Maria Paschoal Guimarães – Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.
[IF]Brasil e o Mundo: novas visões | Clóvis Brigadão e Domício Proença Junior
“Esta coletânea reúne trabalhos inéditos sobre questões relativas à inserção internacional do Brasil. Trata-se de questão de importância crescente, mas, ainda assim, de esforço exploratório”(p. 09). É dessa forma que Domício Proença Jr. e Clóvis Brigagão apresentam mais um importante empreendimento acadêmico brasileiro, no campo da paz e da segurança. Em Brasil e o Mundo destaca-se o empenho de dois grandes pesquisadores brasileiros na sistematização do conhecimento nacional na área.
Parte de um ambicioso projeto, o livro Brasil e o Mundo representa mais do que a concretização de um plano de trabalho. O motor dessa iniciativa encontra significado maior na perspectiva de fazer “ruir o imobilismo” de um país que, ainda hoje, mostra-se indiferente ao tema. Leia Mais
Decifrando o genoma: a corrida para desvendar o DNA humano | Kevin Davies
A divulgação oficial, em junho de 2000, do primeiro ‘rascunho’ completo da cadeia de DNA humana constitui o mote central da argumentação de Kevin Davies em seu Decifrando o genoma. Em torno desse evento tão explorado pela mídia, controverso no meio científico e polêmico entre a opinião pública, cabem as apreciações do autor sobre a história dos estudos em genética. Ao mesmo tempo, ele expõe o campo de atuação da engenharia genética moderna e especula acerca de suas futuras conquistas.
O leitor à procura de reflexões mais aprofundadas sobre questões como bioética ou ansioso por entrar em contato com uma postura relativista possivelmente findará a leitura insatisfeito. Contudo, o autor alcança seu objetivo de mapear o que tem sido feito em genética desde seus ‘mitos de origem’, com as descobertas de Mendel, até as recentes revoluções biotecnológicas na ‘era da genômica’.
Na introdução, Kevin Davies explica que não pretende explorar o viés político e tampouco analisar antropologicamente o projeto Genoma Humano, mas sim “captar a emoção, a intriga, o mistério e a majestade da busca do Santo Graal da biologia” (p. 23).
À margem da proposta do autor, sobressai uma tendência de situar as conquistas científicas inseridas em sua cronologia histórica através de relações imediatas de causa e efeito. Essa perspectiva associativa que avalia o desenvolvimento da ciência segundo uma concepção unilinear torna-se explícita quando o autor acompanha a evolução do projeto Genoma Humano tomando por referência única a relação antagônica entre o Consórcio Público Internacional do Genoma e a iniciativa privada, leia-se, Celera Genomics.
Ainda sobre a oposição entre instâncias pública e privada, o autor tende a configurá-las metonimicamente. A personificação do debate é um recurso recorrente no texto. O Consórcio Público Internacional é primeiramente associado à figura de James Watson para depois dar espaço a seu sucessor na chefia do empreendimento, Francis Collins. Na iniciativa privada, destaca-se o nome de Craig Venter. Guardadas as devidas proporções, tais associações parecem justas e pertinentes, não fossem as apropriações que delas faz a narrativa ao exacerbar a questão da disputa no campo científico e polarizar a discussão sobre o seqüenciamento gênico.
Parece estar-se criando um tipo ideal de pesquisador, fundamentado em suas experiências, trajetória de vida e aspirações pessoais. A proposição de configurar a “corrida para desvendar o DNA humano” como uma competição particular entre dois homens é contestável. Na comparação entre Francis Collins e Craig Venter, o autor destaca pontos congruentes nas duas personalidades: homens que em suas vidas têm, ao lado de um acentuado espírito de competitividade, um comportamento altruísta atestado por seus ideais humanistas. Collins e Venter, segundo Davies, possuem personalidades cativantes, o que lhes fornece o substrato para serem figuras públicas, além do fato de serem cientistas de ponta. Assim é forjado o perfil daqueles que fariam a história decodificando o genoma humano.
Uma preocupação de Kevin Davies é ilustrar o contexto histórico em que se desenvolveram as primeiras idéias de elaborar um projeto que viabilizasse os estudos sobre o genoma humano. Os dois primeiros capítulos do livro tratam dos pioneiros, como James Watson, e principais defensores da implementação de um programa que necessitaria da disponibilidade de bilhões de dólares anuais.
Entre os que advogavam a favor do projeto Genoma Humano, havia os que o consideravam um grande passo para outros programas, como o do estudo do genoma do câncer. Outros, como Walter Gilbert e Eric Lander, avaliavam a iniciativa como a oportunidade de conceder à biologia o status de ciência que opera a partir de padrões universais. A perspectiva totalizante de se entender a biologia humana, assim como a possibilidade de listar em um livro todos os códigos que regem as funções do corpo humano, era de fato atraente, por abrir caminho para grandes projetos em biologia.
A princípio fomentado por órgãos públicos como o National Institute of Health e o U. S. Department of Energy, o projeto Genoma Humano, que teve início oficialmente em outubro de 1990, logo surge como uma promessa rentável para grandes empresas privadas, sobretudo da área de farmacologia e biomedicina. Estas últimas, por conseguinte, injetam capital nas pesquisas de diversos institutos, de olho nos lucros obtidos a partir do desenvolvimento de novas drogas e medicamentos criados com base nas descobertas sobre o genoma humano. A introdução do capital privado nas pesquisas redobrou a apreensão acerca das chamadas “implicações éticas, legais e sociais” do projeto. Questões como a discriminação genética e a patente dos genes tornaram-se polêmicas amplamente divulgadas na imprensa não-especializada e acentuaram o debate entre aqueles que se posicionavam contra ou a favor do projeto Genoma Humano.
Com um privilegiado lugar conquistado por sua experiência como editor-chefe da Nature Genetics, Davies oferece-nos uma abordagem esclarecedora sobre esse momento marcado pela intensificação dos confrontos entre o Consórcio Público Internacional e as pesquisas privadas. O clima tenso é bem trabalhado em Decifrando o genoma, que, utilizando a imagem de uma ‘corrida’, apresenta as vantagens e as limitações das duas partes: a pública e a privada.
O Consórcio Público Internacional do Genoma já entrava em seu segundo plano qüinqüenal de metas e ainda não havia conseguido atingir uma percentagem expressiva no seqüenciamento do genoma humano. Segundo Davies, isso explicava-se pelo método de clonagem gênica utilizado: com alto grau de confiabilidade, porém consideravelmente lento em relação ao modelo shotgun de Craig Venter. Por outro lado, a empresa privada de seqüenciamento genético, apesar de adiantada na tarefa de decodificar todo o genoma humano, enfrentava problemas relativos à impossibilidade legal de utilizar as patentes dos genes decodificados.
Um processo de conciliação de interesses foi então administrado pelo governo norte-americano, culminando, em 26 de junho de 2000, com o anúncio feito pelo então presidente dos Estados Unidos, Bill Clinton, e pelo primeiro-ministro britânico, Tony Blair, sobre o término do que foi considerado o ‘rascunho’ da seqüência gênica humana. Acompanhado por Francis Collins e Craig Venter, na Casa Branca, Bill Clinton comparava o feito dos cientistas ao aprendizado da “linguagem de Deus”.
A metáfora parece consagrar um processo marcado pela utilização de tantas outras, como ‘Santo Graal’, ‘Código dos códigos’, ‘Livro da vida’ etc. Esse não deixa de ser um dado importante — embora ignorado pela ênfase dada à linguagem jornalística utilizada pelo autor — que, analisado epistemologicamente, fornece subsídios para se pensar sobre as promessas oferecidas pelo projeto Genoma Humano à luz de uma sociologia das ciências.
As conseqüências do projeto são ainda motivo de especulação. Para Kevin Davies, como declarou Craig Venter: “A seqüência é apenas o início…” Subprogramas, tais como o projeto Genoma Funcional, pretendem localizar genes ou conjuntos de genes determinantes em potencial — simples ou complexos — de características biológicas, comportamentais e patológicas. Tantas vezes comparado à ficção de Huxley em Admirável mundo novo, os ‘profetas’ do projeto Genoma Humano parecem reproduzir algumas tendências reducionistas caras a outras correntes da história das ciências. Admirável, sim. Resta agora averiguar o quão inovador ideologicamente ele vem a ser.
Resenhista
Guilherme José da Silva e Sá – Doutorando em antropologia social, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. E-mail: guilherme_jose_sa@yahoo.com.br
Referências desta Resenha
DAVIES, Kevin. Decifrando o genoma: a corrida para desvendar o DNA humano. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2001. Resenha de: SÁ, Guilherme José da Silva e. Corrida ou duelo? História, Ciência, Saúde-Manguinhos. Rio de Janeiro, v.10, n.2, maio/ago. 2003. Acessar publicação original [DR]
O Rio em movimento — quadros médicos e (m) história: 1890-1920 | Myriam Bahia Lopes
Para um leitor, como a autora desta resenha, que não é nenhum especialista em história, o livro de Myriam Bahia Lopes, O Rio em movimento — quadros médicos e(m) história: 1890-1920, reserva surpresas instigantes. Embora trate de um período relativamente curto, de um episódio singular, a Revolta da Vacina, e restrito ao Rio de Janeiro, a obra levanta questões que dizem respeito tanto à representação do passado quanto à representação da especificidade brasileira sobre esse passado. O questionamento historiográfico salutar leva o leitor, atento à voz crítica que ali se articula certamente com discrição, mas com firmeza, a se perguntar se alguns lugares-comuns sobre a interpretação do Brasil de hoje não poderiam igualmente ser chacoalhados com proveito.
Desde o início, Myriam Bahia define seu livro como um ensaio, isto é, uma tentativa ou, como ela também diz, uma luta. O livro apresenta um momento histórico preciso, um acontecimento singular, mas, ao mesmo tempo e de forma inseparável, também procede a uma constante auto-reflexão sobre as categorias empregadas nessa apresentação, categorias como “modernidade” (versus “atraso”), civilização, “regeneração” (versus “decadência”). Essa “luta implícita contra a rigidez das palavras”, segundo Myriam, faz desse texto um pequeno laboratório de indagações preciosas sobre algumas idéias prontas, mesmo que bem-intencionadas e progressistas, que circulam a respeito de nossa “triste realidade nacional”, como se diz, e que impedem que se tenha uma percepção mais atenta de sua complexidade, de seus paradoxos, talvez até de suas contradições e também de suas possibilidades insuspeitas. Leia Mais
A ciência: Deus ou diabo? | Guitta Pessis-Pasternack
O novo livro de Pessis-Pasternak, jornalista que tem por interesse a divulgação científica, segue os moldes de sua obra anterior, Do caos à inteligência artificial (São Paulo, Unesp, 1993): uma reunião de entrevistas realizadas com renomados cientistas, principalmente de origem francesa, tratando de temas que vão desde as origens do Universo até a inteligência artificial, dos recentes avanços na biologia até os também hodiernos modelos analíticos na física e na química, passando pelas mais novas descobertas das neurociências.
Quem leu o outro livro, irá notar que Pessis-Pasternak organiza este novo livro agora lançado de modo diferente. Em lugar de dividir as entrevistas em dois blocos, como fez no outro volume, de modo a agrupar os tópicos tratados, a entrevistadora preferiu simplesmente encadear uma entrevista após a outra, sem adotar, pelo menos aparentemente, qualquer critério organizativo. Isso dificulta um pouco a leitura e a fruição do livro, uma vez que o leitor é obrigado a ‘saltar’ da biologia para a inteligência artificial, ou da astrofísica para a epistemologia, sem aviso prévio, a não ser por uma breve introdução fornecida pela autora. Mesmo assim, convenhamos, não é fácil ‘ligar’ e ‘desligar’ a todo instante um assunto ou outro e, de repente, voltar ao anterior. O que torna esse aspecto menos problemático é que aqui — ao contrário de Do caos à inteligência artificial — Pessis-Pasternak se preocupou em adicionar rodapés que inter-relacionam os diversos depoimentos quando um mesmo assunto é abordado por dois ou mais dos entrevistados. Leia Mais
Ciência/ civilização e império nos trópicos | Alda Heizer
O desenvolvimento das práticas científicas e sua consolidação em museus e instituições de pesquisa, e ainda a criação de redes de cientistas e mecanismos de intercâmbio e divulgação, constituem uma parte fascinante da história do século XIX brasileiro, à espera de ser contada. O fascínio, seja para o historiador ou para o leigo, está na complexa teia de relações que as ciências ali estabelecem com a história social e econômica, com o desenvolvimento das artes e das letras, e também com os meandros políticos e culturais da nação em formação. Não eram apenas as ciências que se estruturavam nos trópicos, mas o próprio país, o que torna o campo de estudo mais intrincado e, por isso mesmo, mais instigante. Dois são os motivos básicos para que essa história não esteja de todo contada: a história social e material do nosso século XIX — ponto de partida para os historiadores das ciências — ainda possui grandes lacunas; e a formação de uma cultura histórica das ciências é fato recente entre nós. Assim, os historiadores das ciências que se debruçam sobre o Império brasileiro acabam desenvolvendo simultaneamente duas frentes de trabalho. Talvez pela necessidade mesma desse múltiplo embate, esses historiadores especializados estão entre os que mais têm contribuído para uma reavaliação global do tempo do Império.
Nada mais oportuno, portanto, do que a publicação do volume Ciência, civilização e império nos trópicos, organizado por Alda Heizer, pesquisadora do Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins (MAST/MCT), e Antônio Augusto Passos Videira, professor de epistemologia e história da ciência na Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), a partir das conferências apresentadas no colóquio Ciência, Civilização e Império nos Trópicos, que teve lugar no Rio Janeiro, em 7 e 8 de novembro de 2000, sob a direção do MAST/MCT e da UERJ, com patrocínio da FAPERJ. Leia Mais
O desvendar do grande livro da natureza: um estudo da obra do mineralogista José Vieira Couto, 1798-1805 | Clarete Paranhos da Silva
O livro de Clarete Paranhos dá uma importante contribuição à história das ciências no Brasil. Ele é resultado das investigações realizadas durante o curso de mestrado da autora no Programa de Geociências Aplicadas ao Ensino, no âmbito do Instituto de Geociências da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). O trabalho apresenta-se estruturado da seguinte forma: uma introdução; três capítulos, cada um deles subdividido, o que torna a leitura mais fácil e agradável; e a parte conclusiva. Logo na introdução, a autora apresenta a sua tese essencial, em consonância com a postura renovada da historiografia das ciências na América Latina, que vê a ciência como uma prática inserida em um tempo e espaço concretos, segundo a qual o mineralogista José Vieira Couto em suas Memórias, resultado das pesquisas na capitania de Minas Gerais, contribuiu para o processo de institucionalização das práticas geocientíficas no contexto colonial, em contraposição à historiografia corrente que afirmava que o Brasil nesse período era um imenso vazio científico. Leia Mais
Histoire naturelle et voyages scientifiques (1780-1830) | Lorelai B. Kury
Conduzir os leitores no “sentido inverso” ao das viagens francesas aos países exotiques na época da transição do século XVIII para o século XIX é a proposta de Histoire naturelle et voyages scientifiques (1780-1830), publicado na França em 2001 e que apresenta a tese de doutoramento apresentada na École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales de Paris pela historiadora Lorelai Kury, pesquisadora da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) e professora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).
Um dos primeiros méritos a se destacar nessa obra, embora as viagens sejam um dos aspectos mais recorrentes na literatura internacional relacionada à história natural, é exatamente a originalidade com que o tema é abordado. Não se trata de questionar ‘olhares europeus sobre países exóticos’. Pelo contrário, interessa compreender as razões que levaram os franceses a viajar, as instituições que organizaram e lucraram com esses empreendimentos, o destino dado às coletas que chegavam em profusão à França na virada do século XVIII para o XIX, para servir à agricultura e à indústria e favorecer as pesquisas dos naturalistas em seus gabinetes. Leia Mais
Independência: revolução e contra-revolução. As Forças Armadas – RODRIGUES (RIHGB)
RODRIGUES, José Honório. Independência: revolução e contra-revolução. As Forças Armadas. Rio de Janeiro: Biblioteca do Exército Editora, 2002. 336p. Resenha d: RODRIGUES, Lêda Boechat. Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, v.164, n.419, p.285-289, abr./jun., 2003.
Lêda Boechat Rodrigues – Sócia emérita do IHGB.
[IF]
As Excelências do Governador. O panegírico fúnebre a D. Afonso Furtado, de Juan Lopes Sierra (Bahia/1676) | Alcir Pécora e Stuart B. Schwartz
O livro As excelências do Governador, panegírico fúnebre a Dom Afonso Furtado de Castro do Rio de Mendonça, composto em 1676 por Juan Lopes Sierra e organizado em edição modernizada por Stuart B. Schwartz e Alcir Pécora, foi publicado em 2002 pela Editora Companhia das Letras.
Ao estudioso norte-americano, Schwartz, couberam os apontamentos elucidativos quanto ao manuscrito de Sierra, no tocante aos diversos acontecimentos históricos que permeiam a composição do panegírico. O professor Alcir Pécora, por sua vez, analisa, no manuscrito, os seus aspectos estéticos, a partir de referenciais retóricos e poéticos tais como eles eram compreendidos e realizados no século XVII, no mundo ibérico. Leia Mais
Cognitive and instructional processes in History an the Social Sciences – CARRETERO; VOSS (ECS)
CARRETERO, Mario; VOSS, James (eds.). Cognitive and instructional processes in History an the Social Sciences. New Jersey: LEA, 1994. 455p. VOSS, James F.; CARRETERO, Mario (eds.). Learning and reasoning in History. International Review of History Education. Londres-Portland (Or.), Woburn Press, 1998. 415 pp. (Trad. al español en preparación). Resenha de: GONZÁLEZ, María Fernanda. Enseñanza de las Ciencias Sociales, v.2, p.113, 2003.
Hemos decidido realizar la reseña de estos dos libros de manera conjunta, debido a que en ambos se presentan trabajos que proceden de dos conferencias internacionales realizadas en Madrid.
Los artículos aquí reunidos tratan, con sus particularidades, de los procesos educativos y cognitivos involucrados en el aprendizaje y la comprensión del conocimiento histórico y social. Se puede afirmar, en ese sentido, que constituyen una muestra más que representativa de los estudios en esta temática. Nos ofrecen un panorama internacional vasto, ya que los autores provienen de Alemania, Francia, Suecia, Estados Unidos, Italia, Inglaterra y España. En el caso español hay que destacar la cantidad y variedad de las aportaciones que comentaremos en detalle más adelante. La heterogeneidad de procedencias no es sólo un dato del interés que esta temática despierta en diferentes ámbitos académicos sino que es una condición para comprender el lugar que las ciencias sociales y la historia tienen en diferentes sistemas educativos y tradiciones culturales.
Un esfuerzo que se hace visible en ambos libros es el de vincular la investigación cognitiva, las discusiones sobre la historia como disciplina, y sus implicaciones en el aprendizaje y la enseñanza. Un ejemplo son los artículos sobre la causalidad histórica o las narrativas en historia.
Hay artículos, como el de Topolski, que trabajan las estructuras de las narrativas históricas desde un punto de vista de la filosofía de la historia; otros, en cambio, se centran en la comprensión y producción de narrativas por parte de los sujetos (Jacott, López Manjón y Carretero, 1998; Leinhart, Stainton, Virji y Odoroff, 1998) y sus posibilidades en la enseñanza (Halldén, 1994; Rodrigo, 1994; Fernández Corte y García Madruga, 1998).
Otro aspecto que da cuenta de la vitalidad del campo de estudio es que la mayoría de los capítulos son informes de investigaciones realizadas por los autores, en los que también se advierte un muy buen nivel de discusión teórica.
En ese sentido, el libro de 1994 tiene una virtud especial. Cada sección se cierra con una discusión a cargo de autores españoles, que no sólo retoman y comentan lo más relevante de los capítulos precedentes sino que también enlazan la discusión con sus propias investigaciones y perspectivas. A la luz de otros datos como la cantidad de revistas y publicaciones en lengua española que existen en estos temas, podemos afirmar que es un campo con un importante desarrollo y actualidad en el ámbito hispanohablante.
Un aspecto que sí se echa de menos en las investigaciones que implican algún tipo de intervención educativa es una reflexión acerca de los contenidos históricos que se enseñan (y que los alumnos estarían aprendiendo) y su “transposición didáctica” (Chevallard, 1998).
Otro aspecto especialmente relevante para los profesores de historia son las investigaciones sobre los usos de textos, documentos e imágenes en la enseñanza de esta disciplina y los modos en que son comprendidos y abordados por los alumnos.
En líneas generales, y aun a riesgo de simplificar, podríamos trazar tres líneas sobre las que organizar los trabajos de ambas obras: 1) el desarrollo cognitivo, en especial la construcción del conocimiento social e histórico en niños y adolescentes; 2) la comprensión del conocimiento histórico: perspectivas cognitivas vinculadas a razonamiento y solución de problemas con contenido político e histórico, construcción de narrativas, representación del conocimiento histórico; 3) procesos de aprendizaje y enseñanza: construcción de conocimiento histórico en la escuela, uso de diferentes estrategias en la enseñanza (conflictos, dilemas, analogías), objetivos en la enseñanza de la historia, la formación de profesores, etc. Una mención especial merece la sección (de cada uno de los libros) sobre el uso de textos, documentos y pruebas documentales en la enseñanza de esta disciplina.
El libro de 1994, Cognitive and instructional processes in History and Social Sciences, se dedica tanto a las ciencias sociales como a la historia, a diferencia del libro de 1998 que se detiene especialmente en la segunda.
Este libro tiene cuatro secciones: la primera dedicada a los procesos de desarrollo cognitivo, en especial el conocimiento social; la segunda, la enseñanza en historia, vinculada con la tercera, que se dedica a los procesos de aprendizaje a partir de textos de historia y ciencias sociales; y, por último, la cuarta, con artículos sobre procesos complejos vinculados con la historia y las ciencias sociales, tales como la representación histórica, los juicios morales en las interpretaciones del presente y el pasado.
El libro de 1998, Learning and Reasoning in History, también tiene cuatro secciones, con capítulos dedicados en el primer caso a las perspectivas narrativas y socioculturales en la enseñanza y aprendizaje de la historia. La segunda sección tiene cuatro interesantes trabajos dedicados a indagar el uso de textos, imágenes y documentos en la enseñanza de la historia.
La tercera sección se centra en las explicaciones históricas, con especial atención a la causalidad, las implicaciones de factores intencionales en el recuerdo de textos históricos, dos trabajos sobre el razonamiento y la evaluación de evidencias, entre otros. Por último, la cuarta sección, sobre la enseñanza de la historia, contiene diversos artículos que van desde los objetivos en la enseñanza de la historia, la generación de explicaciones históricas, la construcción de conocimiento histórico en la escuela secundaria, las diferentes estrategias de enseñanza utilizadas para enseñar explicaciones causales, etc.
Como podemos observar, la temática de la enseñanza de la historia y las ciencias sociales ocupa un lugar privilegiado en estas obras. En general, se trata de dos libros muy recomendables para quienes, desde diversas disciplinas, como la psicología, la didáctica, la historia, la enseñanza, estén interesados en conocer las investigaciones cognitivas en el estudio del conocimiento histórico y su enseñanza.
María Fernanda González – Universidad Autónoma de Madrid y Universidad de La Plata (Argentina).
[IF]
La formación geográfica de los ciudadanos en el cambio de milenio – MARRÓN GAITE (ECS)
MARRÓN GAITE, M. J. (ed.). La formación geográfica de los ciudadanos en el cambio de milenio. Madrid: Grupo de Didáctica de la Geografía de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles, Asociaçao de Professores de Geografía de Portugal y Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Departamento de Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales), 2001, 701p. Resenha de: LÁZARO y TORRES, María Luisa. Enseñanza de las Ciencias Sociales, v.2, p.114-115, 2003.
Esta obra recoge el trabajo desarrollado en el I Congreso Ibérico de Didáctica de la Geografía celebrado en Madrid, en la Facultad de Educación – Centro de Formación del Profesorado de la Universidad Complutense, los días 23 y 24 de noviembre de 2001. Este encuentro es el primero de los que se llevarán a cabo alternativamente en diversas universidades españolas y portuguesas. Ha sido María Jesús Marrón Gaite, presidenta del Grupo de Didáctica de la Geografía (AGE), la que ha coordinado el Congreso y la que se ha ocupado de llevar a buen término la edición de esta magnífica obra. En ella se refleja el vigor que la didáctica de la geografía tiene en los diversos niveles educativos y el interés del profesorado por la innovación educativa.
Todo esto plasma el objetivo esencial de este encuentro: reflexionar sobre el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la ciencia geográfica en los niveles de enseñanza primaria, secundaria y universitaria, con aportaciones de científicos y expertos en la enseñanza de la geografía de las universidades españolas y portuguesas; sin olvidar el propósito de aportar ideas para optimizar el trabajo académico de profesores y estudiantes en el tratamiento de esta disciplina, que adquiere en el momento actual especial interés y relevancia en la formación del individuo como miembro de una sociedad compleja, que interactúa con un entorno multifuncional tremendamente cambiante.
La obra comienza con una introducción de la profesora Marrón Gaite, en la que explica los contenidos de la misma. Ésta se estructura en cinco apartados, que recogen el trabajo colectivo de varios autores.
En el primer apartado, Educar en valores desde la geografía ante las exigencias del nuevo milenio, se analiza cómo ha de ser esta educación ante las exigencias del nuevo milenio que acabamos de iniciar, enfatizando el gran papel que esta disciplina juega en la formación integral del individuo. El tratamiento de la geografía en el aula y su proyección en el entorno social de los alumnos favorece una auténtica educación en valores para unos ciudadanos que, como hombres y mujeres de su tiempo, han de estar sensibilizados hacia la amplia problemática del mundo actual y sentir interés por temas tales como la discriminación en sus múltiples órdenes, los excesos del actual consumo, los problemas sobre la paz en el mundo, el deterioro del medio ambiente, los problemas que el nuevo orden económico mundial está generando, etc. Todo eso se hace para, a partir de su conocimiento, desarrollar actitudes de compromiso y colaboración que les lleven a trabajar en pro de un mundo más justo y armónico. Esta educación en actitudes responsables supone recorrer un itinerario formativo organizado en tres operaciones sucesivas: asimilación de información, toma de postura y aplicación en la vida cotidiana. La geografía, a través de los contenidos específicos que el actual sistema educativo integra en los currículos de la educación obligatoria, ofrece un marco idóneo para la programación de aprendizajes tendentes a ayudar a los alumnos a recorrer este itinerario; ello siempre en el marco de proyectos curriculares concretos, en los que se implique activamente todo el profesorado de cada centro educativo y desde la perspectiva de la multidisciplinariedad, que necesariamente se ha de practicar para alcanzar resultados positivos en la comprensión de los hechos y fenómenos espaciales y sociales que conforman la realidad.
La segunda parte aborda el tema de la Problemática actual y perspectivas de futuro para la revalorización social de la educación geográfica en el ámbito ibérico.
Centra la reflexión en la necesidad que existe en el momento presente de incrementar la valoración social de las enseñanzas geográficas. Se sugieren diversas actuaciones desde ámbitos institucionales diversos y se apuntan vías de actuación para sensibilizar a la sociedad acerca del interés que reviste la formación geográfica del individuo como persona que desarrolla su vida en un entorno espacial y sociocultural concreto, el cual, aunque percibido subjetivamente en función de los múltiples factores que condicionan en el sujeto la visión de la realidad –factores culturales, sociales, rasgos de personalidad, etc.–, ha de ser interpretado lo más objetivamente posible.
La tercera parte versa sobre las Nuevas tendencias en didáctica de la geografía.
Aportaciones a la renovación de la enseñanza de la geografía en los diversos niveles educativos. En ella se aborda, desde planteamientos eminentemente prácticos, el tema de la innovación en la enseñanza de la geografía. Su título es suficientemente expresivo de los contenidos que en ella se tratan. La fundamentación teórica de los principios que sustentan la didáctica de la geografía está complementada por un elevado número de propuestas de carácter práctico, que proporcionan un interesante repertorio de ideas al profesorado para enriquecer su labor docente y hacer más atractivo y útil el aprendizaje de los contenidos geográficos que sus alumnos tienen que abordar en la enseñanza formal.
La geografía en los planes de estudio de España y Portugal. Planteamientos curriculares y didácticos constituye el cuarto apartado de la obra. En él se plantea, desde una perspectiva analíticocrítica, la presencia de la geografía en el panorama actual de los planes de estudio de España y Portugal. Se resalta la importancia que reviste la presencia de los contenidos geográficos en los currículos de la educación primaria y secundaria obligatoria, debido a que es en estas etapas de la formación del individuo cuando se pueden adquirir los conocimientos propios de esta disciplina. Se apuntan posibles vías para la innovación didáctica en el tratamiento de los temas que integran los currículos de estas enseñanzas y se sugieren interesantes vías para enriquecer la formación geográfica de los ciudadanos ante las nuevas exigencias del mundo actual.
Finalmente, en el último capítulo de la obra, se aborda otro tema de máximo interés académico y profesional La formación inicial y permanente del profesorado de geografía, que se plantea como una necesidad urgente y como un reto en el momento actual: a) Se plantea como una necesidad, porque, aunque es de todos conocido que gran parte de los licenciados en geografía orientan su actividad profesional hacia la docencia –en la ESO y bachillerato especialmente–, también es sabido que la formación didáctica que se contempla en la licenciatura de geografía es mínima, en los mejores casos, y nula en la casi totalidad de los planes de estudio de las universidades españolas. Por todo ello, se hace necesario arbitrar medidas conducentes a la solución de este problema, que se ha hecho especialmente agudo desde que la geografía se ha separado de la historia en las titulaciones universitarias y la formación que los estudiantes de geografía reciben en la universidad se ha ido haciendo progresivamente más especializada, pero sin prestar ningún tipo de atención a la profesionalización docente del geógrafo; b) Se plantea como un reto, porque cambiar las estructuras y formas arraigadas cuesta tiempo y esfuerzo. Si bien, en los últimos tiempos se están dando pasos muy relevantes para mejorar la situación y propiciar el cambio. De todo ello trata González Gallego, con quien Marrón Gaite comparte plenamente la idea de que el profesor que quiera enseñar bien geografía debe poseer uma formación científico-didáctica completa; es decir, que, además de conocer en profundidad los contenidos propios de esta disciplina, deberá poseer un cierto conocimiento de las distintas ciencias sociales con las que la geografía participa en el estudio e interpretación de la realidad, y especialmente de la historia, con la que comparte competencias y disciplina en la educación obligatoria; pero además deberá tener conocimientos sólidos de didáctica general y específica. Sólo así podrá trabajar con sus alumnos los contenidos geográficos de forma eficaz y alcanzar niveles de éxito en su labor docente.
Esta obra constituye una magnífica aportación al panorama actual de la didáctica de la geografía. Su reflexión conceptual y sus sugerencias didácticas, a través de trabajos prácticos experimentados en el aula en diversos contextos y situaciones de aprendizaje muy variados, la convierten en un excelente tratado práctico para la acción didáctica.
María Luisa de Lázaro y Torres – IES. Isidra de Guzmán (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid)
[IF]O novo rosto da missão. Os movimentos ecumênico e evangelical no protestantismo latino-americano | Luiz Longuini Neto
O protestantismo enquanto fenômeno religioso há tempos vem sendo objeto de muitas análises, a partir de diferentes perspectivas. Nesse universo, destaca-se o protestantismo latino-americano, um dos mais pujantes e crescentes numericamente do planeta. Estudiosos de escol como David Martin, David Stoll, Jean-Pierre Bastian, Harvey Cox, entre outros, têm se debruçado sobre a tarefa de estudar a manifestação religiosa do protestantismo da América Latina, algo complexo, entre outros motivos, pelo seu caráter dinâmico. De fato, não é fácil enquadrar qualquer realidade religiosa em clichês acadêmicos. Leia Mais
Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada – HAGAN (CSS)
HAGAN, John. Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. 269p. Resenha de: NEIDHARDT, W. S. Canadian Social Studies, v.37, n.2, 2003.
The Vietnam War was a most traumatic experience for the American people for it was a war unlike any other war that Americans had ever fought. Never before had the homefront seen images of war so quickly and so graphically. The powerful presence of a television set in almost every American home and the nightly war reports from the seemingly war-obsessed news media combined to make this far-away conflict American’s first living room war.
As American casualties increased steadily, a growing concern began to spread throughout much of the United States that this was one war which America might just possibly not win. Indeed, as the war dragged on, a growing number of Americans began to question the legitimacy of their country’s political and military involvement in this far-away conflict in south-east Asia. In fact, by the late 1960’s, America had become a house divided over the Vietnam War and the consequences of that painful experience reached far beyond the borders of the United States.
In Northern Passage, John Hagan has provided a well-written and solidly researched book about the American draft and military resister experience in Canada. During his research, Hagan seems to have consulted a considerable range of archival material and most of the more important secondary literature on the subject. He also managed to interview various Canadian and American government officials as well as one hundred Vietnam war resisters who came to Canada particularly Toronto during those turbulent years.
John Hagan was not a draft resister. He tells us that his first contact with Canada came during a brief visit to Toronto in 1968. Soon thereafter he attended graduate school at the University of Alberta from where he observed the anti-Vietnam drama while occasionally becoming involved in local anti-war demonstrations in Edmonton. In 1974 he arrived back in Toronto to join the faculty of the University of Toronto.
Each of the six chapters in this book has a clear and major focus. Chapter 1 explores the reasons why so many war resisters, including thousands of young women, decided to come to Canada during what Hagan calls the largest politically-motivated exodus from the United States since the country’s beginning (p. xi). Chapter 2 explains why and how the Canadian government – which initially had been rather reluctant to take in any resisters – suddenly liberalized its immigration laws in the late spring of 1969 and thereby allowed thousands of war resisters to find refuge on Canadian soil. Chapter 3 concentrates almost entirely on Toronto’s so-called American Ghetto and how the presence of at least 20, 000 war resisters affected Toronto’s social, economic and political life. Hagan also provides detailed accounts of the Toronto Anti Draft Program (TADP) and Amex the magazine that began as a major source of news for American resisters and eventually became a major anti-Vietnam War lobbying force.
Chapter 4 focuses on the personal and professional lives of many of the war resisters and tries to explain why for so many of them, their resistance activities became a turning point in the development of long-term commitments to social and political action (p. 99). Chapter 5 examines how the Canadian and American governments dealt with the explosive amnesty issue. The Canadian Parliament granted a complete amnesty to all war resisters who had entered Canada illegally and offered each one the opportunity to apply for landed immigrant status. The American government, however, only offered a limited amnesty and then only to so-called draft-dodgers. Chapter 6 tries to explain why-after the Vietnam War was over-so many of these war resisters chose to stay in Canada. It obviously was a difficult decision for many of them, as these words from one deeply-troubled young American so clearly reveal: I feel a very strong allegiance to this country that took me in and made me welcome, but I also feel an identity coming out of my youth, my childhood, of the country where I grew up (p. 204).
Northern Passage serves as a powerful testament to all those young war resisters who risked so much for the sake of their own values and convictions. Choosing to come to Canada certainly must have been a soul-searching event for most of these young men and women whose patriotism and judgement was continuously questioned – and not only on the American side of the 49th Parallel. One wonders what they thought and felt when they learned that Robert McNamara-the once hawkish American Secretary of Defense during the height of the Vietnam War-made this remarkable admission in his memoirs in 1995: I believe we could and should have withdrawn from South Vietnam either in late 1963or late 1964 or early 1965 (p. 25).
W.S. Neidhardt – Toronto, Ontario.
[IF]Pictorial narrative in ancient greek art – STANSBURY-O’DONNELL (AN)
STANSBURY-O’DONNELL, Mark D. Pictorial narrative in ancient greek art. Londres: Universidade de Cambridge, 1999. Resenha de: NÓLIBOS, Paulina Terra. Anos 90, Porto Alegre, v.10, n.17, p.3-7-310, 2003.
[IF]Palavra de Presidente – WASSERMAN (AN)
WASSERMAN, Cláudia. Palavra de Presidente. Porto Alegre: Editora da Universidade, 2002. Resenha de: FERREIRA, Carla. Anos 90, Porto Alegre, n.10, n.18, p.161-162, 2003.
Carla Ferreira – Jornalista e Mestranda em História da UFRGS.
Acesso apenas pelo link original
[IF]
Fronteiras culturais. Brasil-Uruguai-Argentina – MARTINS (
MARTINS, Maria Helena (org.). Fronteiras culturais. Brasil-Uruguai-Argentina. São Paulo: Ateliê Editorial; Prefeitura de Porto Alegre; Centro de Estudos de Lieteratura e Psicanálise Cyro Martins, 2002. Resenha de OLIVEIRA, Maria da Glória de. Anos 90, Porto Alegre, v.10, n.18, p.163-165, 2003.
Maria da Glória de Oliveira – Graduanda do Bacharelado em História UFRGS.
Acesso apenas pelo link original
[IF]
Enseigner l’histoire dans le secondaire. Manuels et enseignement depuis 1902 – LUCAS (HE)
LUCAS, Nicole. Enseigner l’histoire dans le secondaire. Manuels et enseignement depuis 1902. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2001. 319 p. Resenha de: BRUTER, Annie. Histoire de l’Education. v.97, p.150-151, 2003.
Ce livre issu d’une thèse se fonde sur une enquête menée par questionnaires et interviews auprès d’élèves et d’enseignants d’histoire de l’académie de Rennes, ainsi que sur l’examen d’un échantillon de manuels pour cette matière dont la date de parution s’échelonne, comme annoncé dans le titre, de 1902 à nos jours. Le plan fait successivement parcourir une présentation du corpus, à vrai dire assez imprécise ; une sorte d’historique de l’enseignement de l’histoire et de ses manuels au XXe siècle ; une enquête sur la vision contemporaine du manuel, notamment de la part des élèves et enseignants de l’académie susdite ; une longue analyse des couvertures et du paratexte (le terme lui-même n’est pas employé) de divers manuels au cours du siècle ; et un chapitre final sur la façon dont ces ouvrages traitent de divers personnages historiques. L’idée de replacer l’étude des manuels d’histoire récents ou contemporains dans une plus longue durée était louable. Il est regrettable, néanmoins, qu’un ouvrage à visée historique se permette de ne pas indiquer précisément ses sources (il renvoie pour cela à la consultation de la thèse), d’autant que le corpus étudié est à géométrie variable selon les chapitres, la bibliographie proposée très sommaire et les références de bas de page souvent approximatives. Autre regret, l’indifférence totale aux manuels des autres disciplines, sur lesquels les travaux ne manquent pourtant pas : les manuels d’histoire ne sont quand même pas les seuls à s’être transformés au cours du siècle ! On aurait souhaité aussi plus de clarté dans l’exposé, et des conclusions plus neuves, allant au-delà de la description célébratrice.
Annie Bruter
[IF]Geschlechterperspektiven in der Fachdidaktik – HOPPE et al (JESSE)
HOPPE, Heidrun; KAMPSHOFF, Marita; NYSSEN, Elke, Hg. Geschlechterperspektiven in der Fachdidaktik. Weinheim, Basel: Beltz Wissenschaft Deutscher Studienbuch Verlag (Einführung in die pädagogische Frauenforschung; Bd. 5), 2001. 240 S. Resenha de: LIEBSCH, Katharina. Journal of Social Science Education, v.2, 2003.
Die Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung bemüht sich seit Jahren um die Verbreitung der Einsicht, dass “Geschlecht” sowohl eine grundlegende sozialstrukturelle Kategorie als auch eine zentrale Dimension im Prozess der sozialen Konstruktion von Gemeinschaften und Gesellschaft ist. Folgt man dieser Einschätzung, dann ist es geradezu zwangsläufig, dass auch die Reflexion von Lehren und Lernen sowie deren Planung und Steuerung ein Verständnis von “Geschlecht” braucht. Dazu gehört auch, so lautet die Ausgangsannahme des von Heidrun Hoppe, Elke Nyssen und Marita Kampshoff (alle Universität Essen) herausgegebenen Aufsatz-Bandes, eine Erweiterung der kritischen Betrachtung von Koedukation um Fragen der Allgemeinen Didaktik sowie der Fach-Didaktiken der sozialwissenschaftlichen und sprachlichen Unterrichtsfächer.
Unter dem Titel “Geschlechterperspektiven in der Fachdidaktik” veranschaulichen vierzehn Autorinnen, dass Gegenstände, Methoden und Gestaltungsformen schulischen Unterrichts in Abhängigkeit von gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen, der Veränderung von Lebenswelten und dem sich wandelnden Verständnis von Bildung in der Gesellschaft eingesetzt und bewertet werden. Eine theoretisch-systematische Reflexion von Fragen der Technikentwicklung, der Globalisierungsfolgen genauso wie der Veränderungen des gesellschaftlichen Geschlechterverhältnisses gehört deshalb zu den Ausgangspunkten jeder didaktischen Überlegung. Darüber hinaus, so das Credo der Herausgeberinnen, sollte es – sowohl auf der Ebene der curricularen Inhalte als auch hinsichtlich der jeweils spezifischen Lernbedingungen von Schülerinnen und Schülern – ein zentrales Anliegen von Didaktik sein, “die Beziehung zwischen Inhalten und Subjekten wissenschaftlich differenziert zu untersuchen und in praxiswirksame Modelle zu integrieren” (S. 236). Diese doppelte Perspektive von Inhalten einerseits und Bedingungen und Möglichkeit der Inhaltsvermittlung andererseits suchen die Herausgeberinnen aus einer geschlechts- und subjektorientierten Perspektive systematisch zu stärken. Erst, so lautet ihre These, wenn Fachdidaktiken sich konsequent an den Subjekten von Schule und Unterricht, nämlich an den Schülerinnen und Schülern und die Lehrerinnen und Lehrern, orientiert, kann die didaktische Frage beantwortet werden, wie Fachunterricht arrangiert sein muss, damit seine Inhalte mit den Vorerfahrungen und Kompetenzen der Beteiligten zusammen gebracht werden kann. Dazu braucht es einerseits ein Curriculum, das das kulturelle und soziale System der Zweigeschlechtlichkeit reflektiert und die Reflexion und Überwindung ungleicher Machtkonstellationen zum (Lern-)Ziel macht. Andererseits müssen geschlechtsdifferente Interessen, Erfahrungen und Sozialisation in fachdidaktische Überlegungen miteinbezogen werden.
Dementsprechend reflektieren die zehn in dem Band versammelten Beiträge ihre jeweilige Fachdidaktik unter drei Fragestellungen: Zum einen wird unter Bezugnahme auf die spezifische Fachwissenschaft die Kritik der fachspezifischen Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung dargestellt.
Forschungsergebnisse beispielsweise der feministischen Theologie und Literaturwissenschaft werden herangezogen, um zu veranschaulichen, dass die jeweilige Fachwissenschaft selbst einem Geschlechter-bias dergestalt unterliegt, dass das Männliche in der Regel als die Norm und das Weibliche als die Abweichung von der Norm begriffen wird. Zum zweiten werden Befunde präsentiert, die auf der Ebene der Unterrichtsinhalte eine Geschlechterdifferenz wahrnehmen und sie zum Gegenstand des Nachdenkens machen. Dabei besteht sowohl die Möglichkeit, Geschlechterstereotypen neu zu produzieren und festzuschreiben als auch die Chance, sie aufzulösen und ihnen entgegen zu wirken. Drittens schließlich thematisieren alle Beiträge die Bedeutung von Sozialisation und fragen nach möglicherweise vorhandenen geschlechtsdifferenten Interessen, Erfahrungen und Lebenswelten und deren Auswirkungen auf den Schul-Unterricht und dessen Erfolge.
Konzentriert auf sozialwissenschaftlich und sprachlich ausgerichtete Disziplinen wird hier erstmalig ein Überblick präsentiert, der einen aktuellen Einblick in den Stand des Geschlechterthemas in ausgewählten Fachdidaktiken gewährt. Dies ist zum einen verdienstvoll, weil in dem vorliegenden Band eine in der Debatte lange Zeit dominierende Tendenz überwunden wird, fachdidaktische Überlegungen zum Thema “Geschlecht” am Beispiel naturwissenschaftlicher und technischer Unterrichtsfächer anzustellen und so erneut, ein geringeres Interesse von Mädchen an diesen Fächern zu einer Abweichung und Besonderung zu machen. Vielmehr kann durch eine Fokussierung auf Fächer, die Sprache und Soziales zum Gegenstand haben, die Frage neu gestellt werden, ob und inwieweit sich im Unterricht geschlechtliche Codierungen, Zuschreibungen oder auch Erfahrungen ausmachen lassen. Es kann deshalb als ein überraschendes Ergebnis dieses Sammelbands gelten, dass alle in dem Band versammelten Beiträge sichtbar machen, dass eine in der Fachwissenschaft etablierte Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung kein Garant dafür ist, dass auch die entsprechende Fachdidaktik sich mit Fragen der Geschlechterdifferenz auseinander setzt.
So theoretisch anspruchsvoll, innovativ und bedeutsam die feministischen Ansätze in z.B. der Germanistik, Anglistik, Geschichtswissenschaft, Soziologie und Politikwissenschaft auch gewesen sein mögen, die schulische Ausgestaltung dieser Disziplinen als Unterrichtsfächer haben sie nur am Rand beeinflussen können.
Dies ist ein weiteres Argument für ein Verständnis von Didaktik, welches die Orientierung an der Fachwissenschaft zwar als grundlegend aber keinesfalls als hinreichend begreift. Da die Geschlechterperspektive quer zu allen Fragen des schulischen Lehren und Lernens liegt und sich in Inhalten, Sozial-Beziehungen wie auch in Normierungen und Bewertungen aufzeigen lässt, kann sie nur dann Berücksichtigung in der Fachdidaktik erfahren, wenn die Fähigkeit zur Analyse der Bedingungen und der Situationsspezifik von Unterrichts wie auch der biografischen Besonderheiten der Beteiligten als eine zentrale pädagogische Qualifikation begriffen werden. Dazu ist Wissen über die Mechanismen einer allumfassenden “sozialen Konstruktion von Zweigeschlechtlichkeit” (Hagemann-White) genauso nötig wie der politische Wille, Mädchen und Jungen als gleichberechtigt zu begreifen wie auch die Fähigkeit, über die eigene persönliche Verstrickung mit der Thematik zu reflektieren. “Geschlechterperspektiven in der Fachdidaktik” umfassen demzufolge die Thematisierung der gesamten Palette der Wechselwirkungen zwischen Person und Rolle, Lehren und Lernen, Inhalt und Beziehung, Situation und Norm.
In dieser Hinsicht und mit diesem Anspruch beschreiben Rita Burrichter (Religion), Susanne Thurn (Geschichte), Gudrun Spitta (Deutsch), Heidrun Hoppe/Astrid Kaiser (Sachunterricht/Sozial- bzw.
Gemeinschaftskunde), Renate Haas (Englisch), Cornelia Niederdrenk-Felgner (Mathematik), Gertrud Pfister (Sport), Doris Lemmermöhle (Arbeitslehre/Berufsorientierung), Renate Luca (Medienpädagogik) und Petra Millhofer/Renate-Berenike Schmidt (Sexualpädagogik) den Stand der Reflexionen in der jeweiligen Fachdidaktik.
Dabei wird sichtbar, dass diejenigen Themen, die quer zu der herkömmlichen Einteilung in Schulfächern liegen, wie z.B. Medien, Sexualität, Berufsorientierung, sich für die Thematisierung der Geschlechterfrage leichter öffnen lassen. Da der Alltags- und Erfahrungsbezug bei diesen Themen unmittelbar gegeben ist, braucht es für die Plausibilisierung der Geschlechterfrage im berufsorientierenden, sexualpädagogischen oder medienpädagogischen Unterricht weniger argumentativen Aufwand als beispielsweise in den Fachdidaktiken für Englisch oder Politik.
Während sich, wie die Beiträge zeigen, in den Fächern die Macht der Tradition hartnäckig hält – beispielsweise als geschlechtsspezifische Stereotypen hinsichtlich Unterrichtsinteresse und hinsichtlich Arbeitsformen auftaucht und sich daran ablesen lässt, dass sogenannte Frauenthemen häufig als Ergänzung und als partikulares Wissen behandelt werden – haben Themen mit einem deutlichen lebensweltlichen Bezug den Vorteil, dass hier Bedeutung, Funktion und Wandelbarkeit der Kategorie Geschlecht unmittelbar als Thema aufgegriffen und werden kann. Beispielsweise kann im berufskundlichen Unterricht nicht unproblematisiert bleiben, dass die meisten weiblichen Auszubildenden unter den Friseurinnen und die meisten männlichen Auszubildenden unter den Kfz-Mechaniker zu finden sind, während dieser Sachverhalt im Gemeinschafts-. Politik- oder Sozialkundeunterricht im Rahmen einer Arbeitseinheit zum Thema “Arbeit und Beruf heute” durchaus unberücksichtigt bleiben könnte.
Die Fachdidaktiken stehen daher – und das macht dieser Band schlagend deutlich – vor einem doppelten Dilemma: Die fachspezifische Gegenstandsorientierung soll zum einen Bezüge zu den Lebenswelten und Erfahrungen der Lernenden herstellen. Zum zweiten soll sie sich an der Fachwissenschaft orientieren, die es im Singular, als einheitlichen Orientierungsrahmen schon längst nicht mehr gibt. Dieser Schwierigkeit begegnen die Fachdidaktiken, indem sie Prinzipien postulieren, z.B. das Prinzip der Wissenschaftsorientierung oder das der Handlungsorientierung.
Der vorliegende Band plädiert für Geschlechtergerechtigkeit als ein weiteres didaktisches Prinzip.
Darüber hinaus aber drängt sich nach der Lektüre dieses anregenden und gehaltvollen Buches die Frage auf, ob sich diese Prinzipien nicht viel besser jenseits der Fächer realisieren ließen, ob die Fachdidaktiken nicht einer curricularen Festlegung fächerübergreifender Themengebiete wie auch einer systematischen Reflexion situativer Lehr-/Lernbezüge weichen sollten.
“Geschlechterperspektiven” könnten darin als ein didaktisches Element enthalten sein. Dies würde den mühseligen fachinternem Kampf um Anerkennung des Geschlechterthemas zwar nicht überflüssig machen, könnte aber eine didaktische Sensibilität hinsichtlich sozialer Unterschiede und sozialen Unterscheidungen schaffen. Denn diese sind, das zeigen alle Aufsätze des Sammelbandes, stets geschlechtlich codiert.
Katharina Liebsch
[IF]