“Britain in Palestine 1917-1948 investigates the contradictory promises and actions which defined British Mandatory rule in Palestine and laid the groundwork for the Nakba (the catastrophe) and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. The roots of the contemporary social, political, economic, and environmental landscape of Palestine and Israel can be traced back to this period, making it essential viewing for understanding Britain’s legacy in the region and the situation on the ground today.”
#Video length: eighteen minutes and thrity seconds.
“The fakes created during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century tell us another story, one of the rediscovery of the ancient Near East within the Orientalism movement. This fascination about the Orient and the past led certain individuals to create some fantastic stories and theories, such as those published by the writer Zecharia Stichin (1920–2010) who took the mythological battles of gods related in the authentic Babylonian Epic of Creation to be real astronomic phenomena.”
Michel, C. 2020. Cuneiform Fakes: A Long History from Antiquity to the Present Day. In: Michel, C. and Friedrich, M. ed. Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 25-60. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110714333-002
“The fakes created during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century tell us another story, one of the rediscovery of the ancient Near East within the Orientalism movement. This fascination about the Orient and the past led certain individuals to create some fantastic stories and theories, such as those published by the writer Zecharia Stichin (1920–2010) who took the mythological battles of gods related in the authentic Babylonian Epic of Creation to be real astronomic phenomena.”
Michel, C. 2020. Cuneiform Fakes: A Long History from Antiquity to the Present Day. In: Michel, C. and Friedrich, M. ed. Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 25-60. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110714333-002
A blistering heat wave has been toasting Asia for several weeks, resulting in hundreds of deaths and canceling schools across the region. A scientist for the World Weather Attribution, a meteorological research group, says only human-caused climate change could be responsible for the increased probability of extreme heat in places like the Philippines. “The heat wave exacerbated already precarious conditions faced by internally displaced people, migrants and those in refugee camps and conflict zones across West Asia,” the organization said in a new study. Read more from CBS News.
Finally, @helmer and @NinaLamal argue that it is important to analyse #Dutch#emdiplomacy not only in its European context, but in its global dimension. The East India Company (#VOC) and its growing importance in #Asia played an important role in the rise of the Dutch republic. Unfortunately, both dimesions – the European and the global one – are far too often dealt seperately with by modern research. A problem that is generally true for research on #earlymodern diplomacy.
This leads to an overarching problem of how to competently connect national, European and global perspectives on diplomacy without blurring the focus. A question to be discussed elsewhere. (5/5)
According to @Joysauce, fewer women in East Asia and Southeast Asia are choosing to have children — Taiwan has the world's lowest birth rate and South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and Japan aren't far behind (or ahead, depending on your point of view). Jiaying Grygiel takes a look at the societal and economic reasons for these steeply falling birth rates. “People are making a perfectly rational decision about childbearing under the circumstances,” says Stuart Gietel-Basten, a professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Zuletzt beendet: "Last of the Talons" von @sophiekimwrites - #BeautyandtheBeast meets Joe Black in #Fantasy#Asia. Hat etwas gedauert bis ich es nicht mehr zugunsten anderer Formate (eBook, Print) beiseite gelegt sondern fertig hören wollte. Nach etwa der Hälfte, um genau zu sein. 3/5 Sternen 🌟🌟🌟 - okay, kann man lesen, die zweite Hälfte ist 4/5. #Bookstodon#Fantasyromane#Rezension@bookstodon@buchstodon
Jenny Erpenbeck opens #Spring 2024 with Sloughing Off One Skin, a haunting #ShortStory that explores truth and identity, translated by Michael Hofmann.
We're on the lookout for perspectives that are currently under-represented on bookshelves in the UK and in the US, and material first written in languages other than English.
"From this graphic, we can see that Asia and Latin America emerge as the primary sources of immigration, collectively accounting for 81% of America’s 46.2 million immigrants."
"This paper studies the constitutive role of cartography apropos law, territory, and social order, in a specific historical context, by examining the crucial political role played by the British East India Company's cartographic practices and maps in aspiring and imagining the transplantation and establishment of English sovereignty in the Indian subcontinent."
"...our data suggested that the Japanese population could be best modeled by admixtures of three ancestral components (hereafter K1 to K3). K1 to K3 were the highest in Okinawa, Northeast, and West, respectively (Fig. 1D and table S4). K1 (Okinawa) component maintains a relatively stable fraction of around 12% in Hondo subgroups, except for South (which is a region adjacent to Okinawa), with a higher proportion of 22%. K2 (Northeast) and K3 (West) components showed a cline from West to East."
Xiaoxi Liu et al., Decoding triancestral origins, archaic introgression, and natural selection in the Japanese population by whole-genome sequencing. Sci. Adv. 10, eadi8419 (2024). DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adi8419
Discussing Teb Tengri and the Religious Views of Chinggis Khan
"Included is discussions of historical sources (Juvaini, Rashid al-Din, the Secret History of the Mongols) letters written by Hulegu Khan and Chinggis Khan's views (or lack there of?) towards Buddhism."
🇨🇳 Was the global decline of extreme poverty only due to China?
"The large economic growth that lifted 800 million Chinese people out of extreme poverty since 1990 was a major contributor to the global decline in poverty. But the non-Chinese world also achieved a very large reduction."
Deadly heatwaves have been sweeping through South and Southeast Asia, setting records and closing schools before the official summer season even starts. At least three dozen deaths have been attributed to the heat so far this month, and June is expected to be even hotter. Scientists are warning the densely populated region to prepare for the impacts of human-caused climate change. CBS News has more.
"In case you haven't had a chance to follow this, an enormous swath of #Asia -- about 2 billion people -- have for days suffered record heat well above 100F [38C] and insane winds above 100 mph [160 kmh]
No, this is not normal. Some of SE Asia is topping 120F degrees [49C] -- in Spring."
"Incense spheres discovered in Tang hoards, which are the earliest artefacts found to date, reveal multicultural origins upon close examination. Persian and Sogdian silversmith elements, Buddhist ideas and Syriac Christian liturgical practices, may all have left their traces on the making of the object."
Fang, F. X. (2024). Scent, Art and Astronomy: New Light on Tang Incense Spheres and Their Global Connections. The Medieval History Journal, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09719458231226000
"Human survivability at its absolute limit in #Asia currently: #Thailand, #Myanmar, #Cambodia, #Vietnam, and the #Philippines. All hit temperatures above 40°C, with some places experiencing an incredible life-threatening heat index of up to 52°C."#climate
"How did Asia come to be represented on European World maps? When and how did Asian Countries adopt a continental system for understanding the world? How did countries with disparate mapping traditions come to share a basic understanding and vision of the globe? "
Hostetler, L. (eds) (31 Jan. 2024). Reimagining the Globe and Cultural Exchange: The East Asian Legacies of Matteo Ricci's World Map, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. Available From: Brill https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004684782 [Accessed 30 April 2024]
"How did Asia come to be represented on European World maps? When and how did Asian Countries adopt a continental system for understanding the world? How did countries with disparate mapping traditions come to share a basic understanding and vision of the globe? "
Hostetler, L. (eds) (31 Jan. 2024). Reimagining the Globe and Cultural Exchange: The East Asian Legacies of Matteo Ricci's World Map, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. Available From: Brill https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004684782 [Accessed 30 April 2024]