Het handelsnetwerk van de Basay strekte zich uit over het noorden van Taiwan. Deze bevolkingsgroep had zich toegelegd op de nijverheid en verhandelde hun producten met zowel Taiwanese dorpen als...Show moreHet handelsnetwerk van de Basay strekte zich uit over het noorden van Taiwan. Deze bevolkingsgroep had zich toegelegd op de nijverheid en verhandelde hun producten met zowel Taiwanese dorpen als Chinese handelaren. De komst van de Spanjaarden en hun kolonie in 1626 verstoorde de activiteiten van de Basay enigszins, maar na enkele jaren ontstonden relatief stabiele banden met de nieuwkomers. Veel Basay bekeerden zich tot het Christendom en leerden Spaans. In 1642 veroverde de VOC de Spaanse kolonie, maar was al snel toegewezen op de Basay voor haar voorziening van voedsel. Daarnaast vervulden de Basay een tal van diensten voor de VOC, zoals het innen van belasting, begeleiden van expedities en het vervoeren van compagniepersoneel in de regio. Binnen deze rol als tussenpersoon hadden de Basay een hoge mate van autonomie. Basay, vertegenwoordigd door hun dorpshoofden, hadden een sterke onderhandelingspositie en konden hun eigen doelen bepalen en navolgen, in sommige gevallen zelfs ten koste van de VOC. Aan de andere kant waren de Basay geen homogene groep: dorpshoofden en tolken konden hun dorpsgenoten links laten liggen en zelfverrijking voorop stellen. Van hun kant zagen de dienaren van de VOC de Basay als diverse groep. Het waren mondige Spaanse christenen die slim hun kennis en connecties benuttigden.Show less
“Netwerken” winnen in de historische wetenschap steeds meer terrein als gangbaar onderzoeksobject om informatie uit te onttrekken over onderzochte tijdsperiodes. Iedere individu behoort tot een...Show more“Netwerken” winnen in de historische wetenschap steeds meer terrein als gangbaar onderzoeksobject om informatie uit te onttrekken over onderzochte tijdsperiodes. Iedere individu behoort tot een uiteenlopend aantal netwerken: zijn/haar familie; een religieuze groep; een politieke partij of click; enz., het aantal netwerken waartoe een persoon kan behoren is talrijk. Er zijn historici die de uitdaging van het globale netwerk aankunnen, en op basis van juist(informele) netwerken een inzicht over een bepaalde tijdsperiode kunnen verschaffen. Geïnspireerd op dergelijk onderzoek, is in dit onderzoek besloten te gaan kijken naar onderlinge verbindingen op een kleiner stukje grond: het eerste stukje Herengracht. In dit onderzoek zal blijken in hoeverre er tussen de bewoners alhier, naast hun verbondenheid in het geografische netwerk van grachten, ook sprake was van sociaaleconomische netwerkvorming.Show less
Racism is one of the main social issues in the United States which manifests itself in widespread unrest such as the LA riots after the acquittal of the officers responsible for savagely beating...Show moreRacism is one of the main social issues in the United States which manifests itself in widespread unrest such as the LA riots after the acquittal of the officers responsible for savagely beating Rodney King in the late 1990s and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the mid 2010s in the United States. Over the course of the last few decades Hollywood has increased its frequency of producing movies which are set in times of slavery. The degree of (relative) agency of the black protagonists in a selection of these movies (Amistad, 12 Years a Slave and The Birth of a Nation (2016)) becomes a method to criticise the persistence of racial injustice in the United States .Show less
In the field of International Relations, as well as the news or other social media outlets, the discussion of the U.N. often revolves around the five permanent members of the Security Council. This...Show moreIn the field of International Relations, as well as the news or other social media outlets, the discussion of the U.N. often revolves around the five permanent members of the Security Council. This thesis occupies itself by inspecting the agency, and means of influence, of the non-permanent smaller states. Predominantly focusing itself on the Nordic states, observing how these states have interacted with the framework of the U.N.Show less
This thesis offers a close reading of three neo-slave narratives, Octavia Butler's "Kindred," Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and Charles Johnson's "Middle Passage" focusing on the themes of slave and...Show moreThis thesis offers a close reading of three neo-slave narratives, Octavia Butler's "Kindred," Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and Charles Johnson's "Middle Passage" focusing on the themes of slave and post-slavery community, family and gender in relation to the historical trauma of slavery. This thesis first addresses the historiographical debates about the agency and resistance of enslaved people within a system of systematic oppression and dispossession and then demonstrates how the three novels negotiate this issue. Both "Kindred" and "Beloved" probe into the limitations and possibilities of the community as a site of black male and female empowerment. Instead of romanticizing life in the free and enslaved black communities, both Butler and Morrison challenge these sites and call attention to the costs of resistance to the slavery regime. On the other hand, in his effort to liberate his fiction from black identity politics that foreground the works of Butler and Morrison, Johnson explores the cultural hybridity of his protagonist, but he ultimately only reproduces patriarchal values he overtlty parodies.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
Despite the fact that there have been recent attempts to broaden ekphrasis into its antique and medieval sense, these attempts have not taken the concept of living presence into account. My thesis...Show moreDespite the fact that there have been recent attempts to broaden ekphrasis into its antique and medieval sense, these attempts have not taken the concept of living presence into account. My thesis takes this more generous sense of ekphrasis as a point of departure. I draw on the attitudes of Christianity towards the representation of the divinity in verbal and visual terms (including the Eucharist) to argue that there are fundamental differences between the two media. The concept of living presence response is introduced as a tool to analyse the agency of the visual representations upon the worshippers. Drawing on works from Geoffrey Chaucer and on the anonymous Piers the Plowman's Crede, I suggest that the broad sense of ekphrasis should be further enlarged to include any textual attempts to reproduce, or any textual awareness of, living presence response. This inclusion, in turn, must encompass the role of the receiver in allowing the effects to occur in the first place. I challenge two claims: that ekphrasis is a narcissistic mode of literary discourse; that Chaucer is paying homage to the inseparability of different media. Recommendations for further research include the investigation of whether there is a correlation between ekphrasis viewed as lifelikeness and iconoclastic periods, on the one hand, and between living presence response and medieval theories of sight, such as Roger Bacon's, on the other.Show less
The United States played an important role in Central America throughout the first half of the 20th century. However, despite far-reaching similarities between the different Central American...Show moreThe United States played an important role in Central America throughout the first half of the 20th century. However, despite far-reaching similarities between the different Central American countries and the fact that the US did not differentiate between them in its foreign policy approach, significant differences in the political developments of the Central American republics occurred during this period. Using a comparative method to investigate two such cases, namely the nondemocratic administrations of Anastasio Somoza García in Nicaragua and Tiburcio Carías Andino in Honduras, this thesis demonstrates that the manner in which the individual Central American leaders used their agency to shape the relationship between their respective administration and the United States was the crucial factor determining the different outcomes in regime survival. This was for an important part due to the fact that both nondemocratic regimes studied relied on their military to stay in power, and the extent to which these militaries in turn relied on US support differed as a result of different leadership decisions. Based on such findings, this thesis argues for a revised explanation of US-Central American relations during the 20th century, away from the widespread but incorrect “Banana Republic” narrative which overlooks Central American agency.Show less
This BA thesis explores the nature of individual human agency in the second season of the television series The Wire. Drawing on Althusserian or Gramscian thought, involving the question of...Show moreThis BA thesis explores the nature of individual human agency in the second season of the television series The Wire. Drawing on Althusserian or Gramscian thought, involving the question of ideology and its limiting effects on human agency, I have argued that the nature of human agency in The Wire is problematic. The characters, especially in the second season, are bound by an ideological discourse. Chapter two has shown that the characters are involved in an ideological discourse of their own and that determines the extent of their individual agency. In addition, and in dialogue with the ideologies that bind the characters, there is the (creators of the) series’ own ideological response to this, both in terms of the plotting and on a more formal level (discussed in chapters three and four respectively).Show less
The arrival of a Canadian mining company in the Nicaraguan village of Rancho Grande has been met with organised resistance by the local population. This thesis uses Gidden's Stucturation theory to...Show moreThe arrival of a Canadian mining company in the Nicaraguan village of Rancho Grande has been met with organised resistance by the local population. This thesis uses Gidden's Stucturation theory to examine how the mining company and the protest movement have interacted with existing village structures - changing them in the process. Furthermore, it examines how individuals have used their agency to use these changes to their advantage. In doing so it provides an illustration of the social effects that multinational mining companies can have on Latin American communities as well as analysing the relationship between structure and agency.Show less
The famous archaeological site of Bamiyan in present day Afghanistan, besides portraying grand achievements of culture and religion, was also the foci for trans migration around the Hindu Kush...Show moreThe famous archaeological site of Bamiyan in present day Afghanistan, besides portraying grand achievements of culture and religion, was also the foci for trans migration around the Hindu Kush region. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, Bamiyan and other adjacent archaeological sites in Central Asia, were connected by a highly developed network of trade. The visual culture of Bamiyan, aside from the two Great Buddhas, suggests there was a necessity to represent ideology and power of the social elite in symbolic ways. At Bamiyan, frescos depict many figures with different type headdresses or crowns. The depiction of these crowns is also found in other archaeological sites and on coins distributed throughout present day Central Asia and China. The details of a headdress or crown suggest characteristics of the social or political identities of the individual or group depicted. The similar type crowns found on figures in other geographical contexts may indicate a degree of interaction between Bamiyan and other religious and trade centers.Show less
In this thesis I claim that libertarianism is a view that should once again be considered as a plausible possibility within the free will debate. Earlier versions of libertarianism needed...Show moreIn this thesis I claim that libertarianism is a view that should once again be considered as a plausible possibility within the free will debate. Earlier versions of libertarianism needed unscientific notions such as noumenal selves or non-occurrent causes and were therefore discarded due to our current knowledge of science. However, philosopher Robert Kane has developed an account of libertarianism that appears to make a libertarian notion of free will compatible with science. My first objective is to clarify this account of libertarianism. Many objections have been raised against Kane, but only a few philosophers have tried to constructively reject his account of libertarianism. In this thesis I explain two strong objections that have been raised against libertarianism by famous philosopher and compatibilist Daniel Dennett. However, I claim that these objections are not sufficient to reject libertarianism as a whole and I conclude that therefore more work has to be done to abandon libertarianism altogether.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (BSc)
closed access
Kayapo en Greenpeace zijn twee sociale bewegingen die met behulp van mediastrategieën proberen door te dringen tot de structures van nieuwsmedia. Deze twee casussen laten zien dat agency toe kan...Show moreKayapo en Greenpeace zijn twee sociale bewegingen die met behulp van mediastrategieën proberen door te dringen tot de structures van nieuwsmedia. Deze twee casussen laten zien dat agency toe kan nemen naarmate sociale bewegingen zich aanpassen aan bestaande structures van nieuwsmedia.Show less
