Abstract Pangea is the youngest supercontinent in Earth's history and its main body formed by assembly of Gondwana and Laurasia about 300–250 Ma ago. As supported by voluminous evidence from reliable geological, paleomagnetic and paleontological data, configurations of major continental blocks in Pangea have been widely accepted. However, controversy has long surrounded the reconstructions of East Asian blocks in Pangea. To determine whether or not the East Asian blocks were assembled to join Pangea before its breakup, we carried out geological and paleomagnetic investigations on East Asian blocks and associated orogenic belts, supported by a NSFC Major Program entitle “Reconstructions of East Asian blocks in Pangea”. Our results indicate that the breakup of Rodinia around 750 Ma ago led to the opening of the Proto-Tethys and Paleo-Asian oceans in East Asia, with the former separating the South China, North China, Alex Qaidam and Tarim blocks from other East Asian blocks at the margins of Australia and India, whereas the Paleo-Asian Ocean existed between the East Asian blocks and Siberia-Eastern Europe. The Proto-Tethys Ocean closed in the early Paleozoic (500–420 Ma), leading to the collision of South China, North China, Alex, Qaidam and Tarim with other East Asian blocks at the northern margin of Gondwana. The subduction of the Paleo-Asian Ocean formed the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, the largest accretionary orogen in Earth's history, and its closure was diachronous, with its western, central and eastern segments closing at 310–280 Ma, 280–265 Ma and 260–245 Ma, respectively, leading the Tarim, Alex and North China blocks to join Eastern Europe-Siberia as part of Pangea. During the early Devonian (420–380 ma), the East Paleo-Tethys Ocean opened with two branches, of which the north branch is called the Mianlue Ocean that separated the Tarim-Qaidam-Central Qilian-Alex and North China blocks in the north from North Qiangtang-Indochina-South China in the south, and the south branch is the stricto sensu East Paleo-Tethys Ocean that separated North Qiangtang-Indochina-South China from the Sibumasu and South Qiangtang-Lhasa blocks at the northern margin of Gondwana. In the Triassic, the East Paleo-Tethys Ocean (stricto sensu) closed along the Longmu Co – Shuanghu – Changning – Menglian – Inthanon belt, leading to the collision of North Qiangtang-Indochina-South China with Sibumasu and South Qiangtang-Lhasa, forming a single southern continent, which then collided with the Tarim-Qaidam-Central Qilian-Alex and North China blocks to form a coherent East Asian continent that had become part of Pangea by 220 Ma, when the Mianlue Ocean closed, leading to the formation of the E-W-trending Central China Orogenic System.
Post-modernism offers a revolutionary approach to the study of society: in questioning the validity of modern science and the notion of objective knowledge, this movement discards history, rejects humanism, and resists any truth claims. In this comprehensive assessment of post-modernism, Pauline Rosenau traces its origins in the humanities and describes how its key concepts are today being applied to, and are restructuring, the social sciences. Serving as neither an opponent nor an apologist for the movement, she cuts through post-modernism's often incomprehensible jargon in order to offer all readers a lucid exposition of its propositions. Rosenau shows how the post-modern challenge to reason and rational organization radiates across academic fields. For example, in psychology it questions the conscious, logical, coherent subject; in public administration it encourages a retreat from central planning and from reliance on specialists; in political science it calls into question the authority of hierarchical, bureaucratic decision-making structures that function in carefully defined spheres; in anthropology it inspires the protection of local, primitive cultures from First World attempts to reorganize them. In all of the social sciences, she argues, post-modernism repudiates representative democracy and plays havoc with the very meaning of "left-wing" and "right-wing." Rosenau also highlights how post-modernism has inspired a new generation of social movements, ranging from New Age sensitivities to Third World fundamentalism. In weighing its strengths and weaknesses, the author examines two major tendencies within post-modernism, the largely European, skeptical form and the predominantly Anglo-North-American form, which suggests alternative political, social, and cultural projects. She draws examples from anthropology, economics, geography, history, international relations, law, planning, political science, psychology, sociology, urban studies, and women's studies, and provides a glossary of post-modern terms to assist the uninitiated reader with special meanings not found in standard dictionaries.
The EU has faced multiple crises in the 21st century which have undermined the belief in the Europeanisation process. As a result, parties with Europopulist slogans have started to gain increasing levels of social support in parliamentary elections and have created cabinets in a few countries. Slovenia for an extended period of time was perceived as the best pupil of the EU in Central Europe. But the financial crisis in 2008, the migration crisis in 2015 and the Covid-19 pandemic crisis has undermined trust in the values and rules of the EU and the Europeanisation process. Between 2020 and 2022 Janez Janša became the head of the cabinet and started using Europopulist ideas which have deteriorated liberal democracy and introduced an illiberal version. The main research question of this paper refers to the political and economic embedment of de-Europeanisation process in Slovenia between 2020–2022.
History of Central Europe, History of Balkan Peninsula
The concept of art geography is undergoing a process of revision in light of recent research on exhibition histories. The analysis of major perennial art exhibitions is conducted in relation to the spatial, global structures of social and economic life, or as an aspect of tourism geographies. The geography of art exhibitions entails mapping circulation, analysing the spatial and temporal conditions under which art is presented, and the identifying cultural boundaries in the reception of travelling artworks. This article examines the circulation of international exhibitions that were presented at the Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions (CBAE) in Warsaw as part of cultural diplomacy i the 1970s. During this decade, the CBAE gallery hosted exhibitions of contemporary art from twenty-one countries. What kind of foreign art was seen at the state-organised exhibitions in Warsaw depended on global geopolitics. The primary case study is the exhibition Contemporary Indian Art from the Collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, which was toured from New Delhi through the Middle East to Eastern Europe (including Warsaw and Prague) in 1978–79. The exhibition brought together 100 works by 80 artists, created between the 1920s and 1970s. It included paintings by pioneers of modern and contemporary Indian art, such as Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher-Gil, Rabindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, and K.C.S. Paniker. The diplomatic circumstances of organising the exhibition in Warsaw are set in the broader context of the Polish-Indian art exchange since the 1950s. This encompasses Poland’s participation in the New Delhi Triennial (established in 1968) and the completion of the modernist building of the Polish Embassy in New Delhi (1978). Furthermore, the article examines the impact of travelling national exhibitions on fostering intercultural understanding. The Contemporary Indian Art exhibition provided a valuable opportunity to transcend the conventional boundaries of Indian and Polish art histories. While in the 1960s and 1970s Polish academic discourse typically concluded the history of Indian art in the 1910s, the exhibition’s catalogue served as the primary source of information on twentieth-century Indian art. Consequently, the reception of Contemporary Indian Art in Warsaw is contextualised within the broader discourse of global art history and postcolonial studies.
This article analyzes the post-Yugoslav Serbian-Russian political, economic and security connection. The research examines bilateral cooperation and its effects on regional and global security using history, political science and international relations. Ideological affinities, political maneuverings, economic dependency and mutual security interests define the relationship, which has major ramifications for Balkan stability and European security. The essay continues by examining the policy implications of the Serbian-Russian alliance for regional and global players and suggesting future research options in light of the changing geopolitical landscape
History of Central Europe, History of Balkan Peninsula
Abstract Skin color is the primary physical criterion by which people have been classified into groups in the Western scientific tradition. From the earliest classifications of Linnaeus, skin color labels were not neutral descriptors, but connoted meanings that influenced the perceptions of described groups. In this article, the history of the use of skin color is reviewed to show how the imprint of history in connection with a single trait influenced subsequent thinking about human diversity. Skin color was the keystone trait to which other physical, behavioral, and culture characteristics were linked. To most naturalists and philosophers of the European Enlightenment, skin color was influenced by the external environment and expressed an inner state of being. It was both the effect and the cause. Early investigations of skin color and human diversity focused on understanding the central polarity between “white” Europeans and nonwhite others, with most attention devoted to explaining the origin and meaning of the blackness of Africans. Consistently negative associations with black and darkness influenced philosophers David Hume and Immanuel Kant to consider Africans as less than fully human and lacking in personal agency. Hume and Kant's views on skin color, the integrity of separate races, and the lower status of Africans provided support to diverse political, economic, and religious constituencies in Europe and the Americas interested in maintaining the transatlantic slave trade and upholding chattel slavery. The mental constructs and stereotypes of color‐based races remained, more strongly in some places than others, after the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery. The concept of color‐based hierarchies of people arranged from the superior light‐colored people to inferior dark‐colored ones hardened during the late seventeenth century and have been reinforced by diverse forces ever since. These ideas manifest themselves as racism, colorism, and in the development of implicit bias. Current knowledge of the evolution of skin color and of the historical development of color‐based race concepts should inform all levels of formal and informal education. Awareness of the influence of color memes and race ideation in general on human behavior and the conduct of science is important.
In 2020, the Czechoslovak and Czech excavations at Abusir celebrate their 60th anniversary. A presentation of Egyptological activities in temporary exhibitions and museum displays has become an essential follow-up of archaeological work. However, artefacts located in former Czechoslovakia and present Czech Republic have travelled from Egypt in several groups, being only in part directly connected to the excavation work. Nonetheless, all the artefacts have become a part of the public presentation of Egyptology and have a role in a more generalised interest in Egypt. The complex history of travelling artefacts is almost always intertwined with cultural, political, and social histories, and the Egyptian artefacts in Central Europe are no exception. Although the history of Egyptology is not limited and should not be reduced to its political aspect, artefacts have often played the role of being accessories to diplomacy, alongside their cultural message, aesthetic impact and prestige connected to their ownership. This paper outlines the complex corpus of Egyptian artefacts in the historical Czech lands, the history of exhibitions, and the role of excavations at Abusir in the long history of presenting Egypt to Czech audiences.
In this interview, Prof. Dr. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, Rector of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Berlin Institute for Advanced Study), discusses her research on Maria Theresa with Dr. Igor Tchoukarine of the University of Minnesota and Dr. Ambika Natarajan of Oregon State University. The interview took place on November 5, 2019 before Prof. Dr. Stollberg-Rilinger delivered the Annual Kann Lecture at the Center for Austrian Studies on "Maria Theresa and the Love of Her Subjects," which can be viewed here. You can read Prof. Dr. Stollberg-Rilinger's article about Maria Theresa, based on her Kann lecture, in the Austrian History Yearbook. You can also read the interview with Prof. Dr. Stollberg-Rilinger in the Austrian Studies Newsmagazine. The interview was edited by Tanner Deeds, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota.
History of Central Europe, History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
This article provides insights into the creation of a website analyzing the responses to the Prague Spring designed by the students of East European Studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the University of Regensburg. This collaborative project, entitled “Sprung ins Ungewisse: Der Prager Frühling im Spiegel der internationalen Presse” (A Leap into the Unknown: The Prague Spring as Reflected in the International Press), emphasizes the innovative nature of the Prague Spring and sheds light on international responses to it. This article provides an overview of the project and focuses in particular on three case studies from the website: Hungary, Italy, and the Czech exile press in the United States. It also charts the background and evolution of the project, the challenges and discoveries encountered by the students, and its international reception.
History of Central Europe, History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
Travnjaci Nacionalnog parka Sjeverni Velebit većinom nisu primarni tip vegetacije,
nego su nastali kao posljedica ljudskog djelovanja krčenjem i paljenjem šuma, ispašom i
košnjom. Taj je proces započeo prije više tisućljeća te je kontinuirano održavao ravnotežu
između šuma i travnjaka, a rezultirao je većom bioraznolikošću no što bi bila u nedirnutom
prirodnom stanju. U drugoj polovici 20. stoljeća tradicionalne sezonske transhumantne
vertikalne migracije ljudi i stoke iz Podgorja na velebitske ljetne pašnjake prekinute su
kao posljedica snažne depopulacije Podgorja, koje je danas najslabije naseljeno područje u
Hrvatskoj. Vegetacijska istraživanja travnjaka unutar Parka tijekom 2009. i 2010. ukazala
su na veliku raznolikost travnjaka koji se međusobno razlikuju ovisno o nadmorskoj visini,
reljefu terena, značajkama tla, utjecaju vjetra i nekadašnjem načinu upotrebe. Sukcesija,
odnosno zarastanje travnjačkih površina drvenastim i grmolikim vrstama zabilježena je na
gotovo svim tipovima travnjaka, no intenzitet zarastanja i vrste kojima zarastaju ovise o
tipu travnjaka. Sukcesija je značajno sporija na travnjacima vršne zone nego na travnjacima
primorske padine zbog kraćega vegetacijskog perioda, oštrije klime, izloženosti buri te
prostranijih travnjaka koji sporije zarastaju od manjih, fragmentiranih travnjaka kakve
nalazimo na nižim nadmorskim visinama. Očuvanje travnjaka morao bi biti prioritet
upravljanja Parkom jer, osim iznimne bioraznolikosti, travnjaci nam ujedno govore i
o prošlosti čitava područja, načinu života, privređivanja, kretanja te čine neizostavan i
nemjerljivo važan dio prirodne i kulturne baštine.
Language and Literature, History of Central Europe