{"title":"Lawless Love and Legal Headaches: The Case for Court Records as a Source of Legal and Historical Realities in Colonial Histories","authors":"Elizabeth Bowyer","doi":"10.1111/hic3.70010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.70010","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The extensive legal, social, religious, and political discussions surrounding marriage that were present in colonial New Zealand have meant that researchers of Aotearoa New Zealand's past have assumed that colonial couples were invariably married. Furthermore, there has been a prevailing assumption that the courts of law upheld and enforced marriages when couples appeared in court. Recent archival findings are compelling us to reconsider the degree to which colonial inhabitants adhered to conventional marriage practices and how the courts of law applied marriage law doctrinally. This article posits that court records, as a source of social and legal drama, are vital to uncovering not only the existence and extent of non-conforming couples in colonial spaces but also how ‘lawless love’ interplayed with colonial economic and legal practices that expose the pragmatic and flexible nature of the law in colonial settings. This suggests that a doctrinal approach to legal histories, which involves taking the law as it was written and assuming that people lived by it, is not an accurate measure of legal and social realities.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"23 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hic3.70010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143902822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chupacabras to Capybaras: Animal History and Latin American Horizons","authors":"Stephen B. Neufeld","doi":"10.1111/hic3.70009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.70009","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Animal history has flourished as a field of study and worked its way into Latin American scholarship. This essay traces relatively recent developments in the historiography to update areas of focus scholarship warranting further efforts. A brief overview of the field uses a key 2013 work as its launching point toward understanding animal history. It considers the geography of studies which have slowly turned from exclusively rural to more urban in focus. Specific areas of niche scholarship addressing insects, ecologies, conservation, and companion animals fuel a discussion of current trends. Related to this, new appraisals about the epistemology of nature and the authority of Latin Americans as agents in this formulation continue to challenge old assumptions. This leads to the consideration of subjectivity and indigenous worldviews that add enormously to the nuance of the field. The final part of the essay ponders some new ideas emerging on the topic and those that remain underserved. It concludes that further scholarship should account for postcolonial and post-structural approaches, and work toward highlighting the subject formation of animals in our history.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"23 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143896977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"African Intersectionalities and Decolonisation of African Women's and Gender Studies","authors":"Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso","doi":"10.1111/hic3.70008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.70008","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the context of extant efforts in the decolonisation of African Studies, transnationalisation of feminist theorising, and the rise of intersectionality as an analytical tool in gender studies, I argue for the adoption of an ‘African intersectionalities’ framework towards achieving the decolonisation of African women's and gender studies. The article engages a critical review of feminist intersectionality theory and its trajectory, executes a decolonial reading to propose an African intersectionality specifically, and explores the emancipatory potentials for harnessing the interconnections of both literatures in the field of African women's and gender studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"23 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hic3.70008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143554310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Locating the Professional Cook: An Historical and Anthropological Perspective","authors":"Jed Hilton","doi":"10.1111/hic3.70007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.70007","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Historical scholarship on the topics of food, cooking, and eating has flourished in recent years. Within this growing body of literature, chefs have recently been introduced as a legitimate subject of historical investigation. However, to date, no clear theoretical or methodological model has been developed to study this underutilised and under-theorised historical subject. Drawing upon anthropological readings of history, this article aims to provide a theoretical framework for the historical analysis of professional cooks. It suggests that, when examined from a cultural perspective, professional cooks are unique subjects of historical investigation that act as a window onto broader cultural and social transformations of the specific contexts in which they are embedded. The intention of this article is to bring thematic and methodological clarity to the category of professional cooks and reflect on the analytical utility that they can bring for cultural historians.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"23 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hic3.70007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143111611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Disability in Early Modern Japan: A Survey of Concepts and Issues","authors":"Wei Yu Wayne Tan","doi":"10.1111/hic3.70006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.70006","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This article discusses current conceptual frameworks and new directions in disability studies, with a focus on certain disabilities and particular groups of people with disabilities in early modern Japan (or Tokugawa Japan, 1600–1868). Disability historians of non-Euro-American societies can benefit from asking the common questions that motivate disability history and, more generally, disability studies. Historical research on disability in early modern Japan contributes to the collective effort of explaining how disability is related to the understanding of medicine, disease, and illness, how people with disabilities embody their experiences, and how disability intersects with cultural knowledge, gender, and material conditions in society.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143117789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fragrant Attraction: Aromatics in Premodern Chinese History","authors":"Yan Liu","doi":"10.1111/hic3.70001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.70001","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This essay surveys the history of aromatics in China from antiquity to the 17th-century. Compared to the extensive study of the spice trade that has shaped world history, much less has been explored on the movement of these fragrant substances from their natural habitats in South, Southeast, and West Asia to China. By reviewing both early and recent scholarship on the topic, the essay demonstrates the wide circulation of these materials along the Silk Roads enabled by multiethnic traders, religious practitioners, and diplomats. Once imported into China, they acquired diverse uses in healing, food culture, and religious practices that generated new knowledge and transformed Chinese society. Their unique smells could also alter the ways of prescribing medicines and relishing food, and enhance the bodily experience of the devoted. An in-depth study of aromatics using a multidisciplinary approach will not only deepen our understanding of premodern Chinese society but also offer an alternative worldview of aromatics that counteracts the one habituated by the “rise of the West” in early modern times.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"22 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142860831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Landscape of Toleration: Central Europe in the Early Modern Era","authors":"Maciej Ptaszyński, Alexander Schunka","doi":"10.1111/hic3.70003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.70003","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The question of religious toleration was crucial in the early modern era. Challenging simplistic views of toleration as mere peaceful coexistence, this essay explores its complexities from a historical perspective. It argues that toleration was a deliberate choice demanding effort and served as a flexible political tool in various contexts. Drawing on examples from Brandenburg-Prussia and Poland-Lithuania, it shows how toleration shaped political assets and public opinion. This essay introduces the concept of a “toleration landscape” to depict its multifaceted influence on society. Ultimately, it asserts Central Europe's pivotal role in early modern toleration, bridging historical divides between Eastern and Western Europe.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"22 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hic3.70003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142749355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Railway Carpenter in the History of Technology?: New Opportunities From Modern South Asia","authors":"Amanda Lanzillo","doi":"10.1111/hic3.70004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.70004","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article examines interconnected questions that are central to new scholarship on the history of technology in modern South Asia. Which communities, groups and individuals have formed and sustained relationships with knowledge and practices that are seen as representative of technological modernity? Why were some individuals and communities understood—by both the state and various South Asian publics—to be cultivators of technological knowledge, while others were not? And to what degree were claims on technical knowledge and practice made and sustained through South Asian “vernacular” languages, practices, and conceits? The article integrates Punjabi verses written by an early 20th-century railway carpenter with an analysis of current historiographical trends. In doing so, it explores both the opportunities and limitations of the new social historical turn in the history of technology in South Asia. I argue that recent efforts to expand the “who” of the South Asian history of technology must lead us to new approaches to the social role of technology itself, and to new considerations of technology's relationship with science, labor, the environment, and material culture.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"22 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hic3.70004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142749356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Temples Devoted to Cold Coffee and Hot Sex’: Coffee Bars and Youth Culture in Postwar Britain","authors":"Catherine Ellis","doi":"10.1111/hic3.70002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.70002","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores contemporary and scholarly perspectives on coffee bars in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, with a particular focus on themes in the modern history of youth. In the immediate postwar decades, young people in Britain were described as simultaneously angry and apathetic, active troublemakers and passive consumers. Young people's use and abuse of leisure time often grounded these contradictory typologies, and coffee bars attracted particular concern. The consumption of coffee was not new in Britain, but this article focuses on heightened anxieties about the association of coffee bars with unsupervised teen sociability, foreign cultures, the ‘Americanization’ of British culture, and the erosion of ‘community’ after Second World War. A closer examination of coffee bars demonstrates both their significance in contemporary debates about young people and their many connections to recent historical analysis of youth in the postwar period.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"22 10-11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hic3.70002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142707710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Australasian Histories of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean World","authors":"Rohan Howitt","doi":"10.1111/hic3.70000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.70000","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Australia and New Zealand have deep historical connections—geological, environmental, cultural, political, and economic—with Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Yet while Australasia and the Southern Ocean are historically entangled, their historiographies are largely estranged. This article provides a survey of Australian and New Zealand histories of Antarctica, the subantarctic, and the Southern Ocean. I argue that historians in and of Australasia have contributed significantly to understandings of the region's southern hinterland, including the histories and legacies of Antarctic whaling, sealing, science, exploration, politics, and culture. These same connections and entanglements have rarely been used to shed light on Australian and New Zealand histories, but can offer new perspectives on Australasian histories of intercultural contact and exchange, mobilities, the frontier, imperialism, and internationalism. I argue that conceptualising Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica as littorals of a ‘terraqueous’ Southern Ocean World provides a way to both generate new insights into this region's history and draw new connections with global, world, and oceanic histories.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"22 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hic3.70000","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142137838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}