Boulby, Marion
Cooperation and Conflict: Christian and Muslim Group Identity and Accommodation between the Second and Third Crusades, 1145-1192
This study examines interaction and accommodation between Western Christians and Muslims in the Levant between the Second and Third Crusades, 1145 to 1192, examining three groups: short term crusaders, members of military orders, and permanent settlers. While members of these groups possessed several personal and group identities, most shared a prescriptive religious identity that encouraged a common goal: holy war for the protection of the Holy Land from Muslims, whom they identified as a distinct, enemy `other.' Despite these prescriptive beliefs, when Christians came into contact with Muslims, particularly following longer and more varied contact, most engaged in some convergent accommodation, such as diplomatic accommodation, development of shared languages and gestures, or admiration for chivalric qualities. Those settled in the Levant accepted the existing economic and social structures, assuming the roles of previous elites, adopting certain local customs, sharing sacred spaces, medical knowledge, or even developing personal ties with Muslims.
Author Keywords: Accommodation, Christianity, Crusades, Identity, Islam
The Question of Culture in the Socio-Economic Violence & Abuse Against Women in Zambia: 1980s-1990s
This thesis presents an assessment of the role of culture in the political marginalization and the socio-economic violence and abuse against women in Zambia. It also explores other contributing factors such as the country's economic crisis of the 1970s, and its colonial legacy, especially in as far as these factors related to the status of women and contributed to the issue of violence and abuse against them. The study utilized primary sources in the form of newspaper articles from the year 1980 to the mid-1990s, to make conclusions for its findings. While previous scholarship emphasized that the violent abuse of women in the country was prevalent because of the highly patriarchal attitudes of the society, this thesis seeks to suggest that the context of violence, abuse and the political marginalization of Zambian women was shaped by an intersection of various elements some of which were not necessarily patriarchal by nature. Furthermore, the thesis explores women's agency in this issue to show that patriarchal systems are not as fixed and uncontested as has been assumed to be the case.
Author Keywords: Abuse, Culture, Political Marginalization, Tradition, Violence, Zambia