Recent developments in the cultural history of written culture have omitted the specificity of practices relative to writing that were anchored in colonial contexts. The circulation of manuscripts and books between different continents played a key role in the process of the first globalization from the 16th century onwards. While the European colonial organization mobilised several forms of writing and tried to control the circulation and reception of this material, the very function and meaning of written culture was recreated by the introduction and appropriation of written culture into societies without alphabetical forms of writing. This book explores the extent to which the control over the materiality of writing has shaped the numerous and complex processes of cultural exchange during the early modern period.

Historically, scientists and experts have played a prominent role in shaping the relationship between Europe and Africa. Starting with travel writers and missionary intellectuals in the 17th century, European savants have engaged in the study of nature and society in Africa. Knowledge about realms of the world like Africa provided a foil against which Europeans came to view themselves as members of enlightened and modern civilisations. Science and technology also offered crucial tools with which to administer, represent and legitimate power relations in a new global world but the knowledge drawn from contacts with people in far-off places provided Europeans with information and ideas that contributed in everyday ways to the scientific revolution and that provided explorers with the intellectual and social capital needed to develop science into modern disciplines at home in the metropole. This book poses questions about the changing role of European science and expert knowledge from early colonial times to post-colonial times. How did science shape understanding of Africa in Europe and how was scientific knowledge shaped, adapted and redefined in African contexts?

Table of Contents

Contents;List of Figures ; List of Contributors; Preface: Tribute to Patrick Harries (1950–2016); 1. Creating Truth, Connecting Worlds: Science between Europe and Africa (introduction) Martin Lengwiler, Nigel Penn;I – Mapping and exploring;2. Peter Kolb and the Circulation of Knowledge about the Cape of Good Hope Nigel Penn, Adrien Delmas; 3. A Naturalist's Career: Hinrich Lichtenstein (1780-1857) Sandra Näf-Gloor; 4. "Nothing but love for Natural History and my desire to help your Museum"? Ludwig Krebs´ transcontinental collecting partnership with Hinrich Lichtenstein Patrick Grogan;5. The African Travels of Hans Schinz, Biological Transfer and the Academisation and Popularisation of (African) Botany in Zurich Dag Henrichsen;II – Knowledge practices between colonial and local actors;6. Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: One work’s significance for European knowledge production about the Asante Empire Sonia Abun-Nasr;7. Tropical Soldiers? New definitions of military strength in the colonial context (1884-1914) Heinrich Hartmann;8. Disease and the Confluence of Knowledge: Kifafa and Epilepsy in Ulanga (Tanzania) Marcel Dreier;9. Standards and Standardizations: The history of a Malaria Vaccine Candidate (SPf66) in Tanzania Lukas Meier;III – International discourses, transnational circulations of knowledge;10. The Politics and Production of History on the Birth of Archaeology at the Cape (1827–2015) Tanja Hammel;11. Davos of Ghana? Local, national and international perspectives on tuberculosis treatment and control (ca. 1920 to 1965) Pascal Schmid;12. When Economics Went Overseas: Epistemic problems in the macroeconomic analysis of late colonial Africa Daniel Speich;Bibliography ;Index

Historically, scientists and experts have played a prominent role in shaping the relationship between Europe and Africa. Starting with travel writers and missionary intellectuals in the 17th century, European savants have engaged in the study of nature and society in Africa. Knowledge about realms of the world like Africa provided a foil against which Europeans came to view themselves as members of enlightened and modern civilisations. Science and technology also offered crucial tools with which to administer, represent and legitimate power relations in a new global world but the knowledge drawn from contacts with people in far-off places provided Europeans with information and ideas that contributed in everyday ways to the scientific revolution and that provided explorers with the intellectual and social capital needed to develop science into modern disciplines at home in the metropole. This book poses questions about the changing role of European science and expert knowledge from early colonial times to post-colonial times. How did science shape understanding of Africa in Europe and how was scientific knowledge shaped, adapted and redefined in African contexts?

This book explores one of the most intractable problems of human existence - our propensity to inflict violence. It provides readers with case studies of political, social, economic, religious, structural and interpersonal violence from across the entire globe since 1800. It also examines the changing representations of violence in diverse media and the cultural significance of its commemoration. Together, the chapters provide in-depth understanding of the ways that humans have perpetrated violence, justified its use, attempted to contain its spread and narrated the stories of its impacts. Readers also gain insight into the mechanisms by which the parameters about the acceptable limits to and locations of violence have dramatically altered over the course of a few decades. Leading experts from around the world have pooled their knowledge to provide concise, authoritative examinations of the complex phenomenon of human violence. Annotated bibliographies provide overviews of the shape of the research field.