Africa: a forgotten continent that evades all attempts at control and transcends reason. Or does it? This book describes Europe's image of Africa and relates how the conception of the Dark Continent has been fabricated in European culture – with the Congo as an analytical focal point. It also demonstrates that the myth was more than a creation of colonial propaganda; the Congo reform movement – the first international human rights movement – spread horror stories that still have repercussions today. The book cross-examines a number of witness testimonies, reports and novels, from Stanley's travelogues and Conrad's Heart of Darkness to Hergé's Tintin and Burroughs' Tarzan, as well as recent Danish and international Congo literature. The Dark Continent? proposes that the West's attitudes to Africa regarding free trade, emergency aid and intervention are founded on the literary historical assumptions of stories and narrative forms that have evolved since 1870.

N F S Grundtvig (1783-1872) was a prominent preacher, poet, scholar and politician, who played a crucial role in the life of nineteenth-century Denmark. His sermons and hymns, and his educational and historical writings, gave birth to a national and spiritual awakening, which still strongly affects Danish life and thought today. This book is an introduction to Grundtvig to the English speaking world. It begins with an overview of Grundtvig's long and varied life, concentrating on a number of critical moments in his intellectual and spiritual development. He was a man of irrepressible energy and a volcanic temperament, and his life was not without moments of high drama. The second part of the book looks at vital aspects of his presentation of the Christian faith, beginning from his vision of the Church as a living sacramental and historical reality. It centres on the deeply Trinitarian nature of his thinking: for him faith in God as Trinity has its outworking in the whole of daily life, social and political, as well as personal. The third section of the book follows Grundtvig's exposition of the faith through the festivals of the Christian year. Grundtvig was a man firmly rooted in his own time and place. But his thoughts often have a prophetic ring to them. They have still much to say about the underlying unity of the Christian tradition, about questions of national identity and national interdependence, and about the way in which we may come to a new understanding of the creation itself as made in God's image and likeness.

The fascination of beauty has given rise to a long-standing European philosophical tradition on the idea of beauty the beginnings of which link back to ancient Greek mythology. However, at the dawn of Modernity the discourse on beauty slowly disappeared from theory and philosophy. While classical tradition dealt with the many and varied aspects of beauty in relation to cosmos, man's way of life, education and the arts, modern theory trivialized the idea of beauty and finally abandoned the topic. This book is an attempt to put beauty on the agenda again by reviewing the very origin of this ancient idea. The reflections on beauty and the ugly are present already in Homer's mythology, and these ideas are further developed and refined in Plato's philosophy. Also Cicero is guided by the Greek legacy in his approach to life, rhetoric, and beauty. The examination of the ancient sources shows the profound knowledge, the elegance, the charm and wit present in ancient thinking. Instead of being just history, these sources hold sound counselling highlighting the importance of beauty. In this way the ancient legacy constitutes a challenge to the arrogance of modern thinking.

This is the first monograph devoted solely to the ceramics of Cyprus in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. The island was by then no longer divided into kingdoms but unified politically, first under Ptolemaic Egypt and later as a province in the Roman Empire. Submission to foreign rule was previously thought to have diluted - if not obliterated - the time-honoured distinctive Cypriot character. The ceramic evidence suggests otherwise. The distribution of local and imported pottery in Cyprus points to the existence of several regional exchange networks, a division that also seems reflected by other evidence. The similarities in material culture, exchange patterns and preferential practices are suggestive of a certain level of regional collective self-awareness. From the 1st century BC onwards, Cyprus became increasingly engulfed by mass produced and standardized ceramic fine wares, which seem ultimately to have put many of the indigenous makers of similar products out of business - or forced them to modify their output. Also, the ceramic record gradually became less diverse during the Roman Period than before - developments which we today might be inclined to view as symptoms of an early form of globalisation.

Secrecy and the act of concealing and revealing knowledge effectually segregate the initiated and the uninitiated. The act of sharing or hiding knowledge plays a central role in all human relations private or public, political or religious. This volume explores the concept of secrecy and its implications in Antiquity, Late Antiquity and the Renaissance in eleven cross-disciplinary contributions using both textual and archaeological sources. By exploring the revealing and concealing of knowledge across different social contexts, time frames and geographical locations, the book provides insight into the concept of secrecy and its potential for illuminating the agendas behind identity construction, political propaganda, literary works, religious practices and shared history.

Recent excavations on the border between Jordan and Syria have uncovered ancient building ruins that provide interesting materials revealing the domestic and working lives of the people who settled within the valley of Tall al Fukhãr in Wadi ash-Shallale. The volume provides a detailed and thorough examination of the excavations conducted between 1990 and 2002. The Scandinavian expedition, located on a 375m natural spur, revealed a rare quantity of pottery, antiques and ancient building structures that provided archaeologists with an insight into the social, economic and material developments that emerged from the Early Bronze Age 3600 BC. Tall al-Fukhãr commemorates centuries of historical artefacts that document the alternations mankind made to improve living standards, constructing modern day life as we know it.

The Making of The Other Half introduces a new theoretical approach to the study of Jacob A. Riis, the Danish-born photographer and reporter, who revolutionized the American tenement reform movement on the eve of the 19th century. Dag Petersson proposes a tailored mode of analysis, Discourse Mutation Theory, capable of probing into the shifting perceptions of immigration and tenement poverty that thanks to Riis's work gained a foothold across America. This sweeping change was an epistemic event sparked by the publication of How the Other Half Lives in 1890. In this seminal book, and in countless reform publications and illustrated lectures, Riis presented the Other Half as a destitute population to be otherwise perceived, understood and helped toward prosperity. Riis's primary contributions to the reform movement was the establishment of a new charity object: the truth about the Other Half. Petersson raises original questions about its unveiling and proposes an alternative mode of inquiry as well a reorientation of empirical research. The Making of The Other Half pays particular attention to the surge of reform movements in Copenhagen during Riis's residence in the city prior to his emigration to America. The discursive migration that took place along with Riss's journey from Copenhagen to New York is crucial for understanding the subsequent mutation event. By recognizing this parallel migration, a new history of Riis's work is revealed, and a new dimension of the Other Half opens up.

TEXT IN DANISH. This publication celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Collection of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities in the National Museum of Denmark. The Collection traces its roots back to the Royal Kunstkammer founded by King Frederik III around 1650 and to the private archaeological collection of King Christian VIII. On his death the two collections were joined and in 1853 a new one emerged, now named Cabinet of Antiquities, and open to the public -- a collection which over the ensuing 150 years has been constantly enlarged and enriched. In eight articles, various aspects of the history of the collection are tackled -- the authors taking their cues from highlights and humble objects alike: two marble heads from Athens, a mummy from Egypt, and a seemingly insignificant Syrian amulet which, nonetheless, can tell an intriguing tale from the past. We meet a largely forgotten 19th century Danish consul in Tunisia with an eye for antiquities, and accompany Danish archaeologists on expeditions to Hama in Syria and Luristan in Iran. New research in Corinthian pottery is presented and the reader is introduced to the principles employed in establishing the Greek and Roman galleries that were opened in 1994 together with plans for a new Cypriot gallery opened in 2002. The Collection of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities encompasses not only the story of ancient cultures but is, in its own right, part of the history of Denmark as it unfolds the story of the many relations between Denmark and the Mediterranean countries over the centuries.

Rights are at stake every time a citizen encounters the welfare state through a welfare institution or through contact with welfare professionals. This anthology scrutinises how rights are actualised in such meetings, with a special focus on children in the Nordic welfare states. The anthology encompasses conceptual and empirical analysis of rights in welfare states. Rights are discussed both with reference to conventions and as general concepts. Thus the anthology may be worth reading for those interested in the concept of rights as well as for those interested in welfare practices directed at children.

This third issue of "Romantik: Journal for the Study of Romanticisms" contains a theme section: "Renegotiations of romanticism". This special theme brings together various examinations of the ways in which romanticism continues to play an important role in a post-romantic age. The reason for inviting contributions examining the afterlife of romanticism in national and international settings is to explore how we may understand it as not just a past event or artistic movement, but as an ongoing process of cultural development. The contributions provide new insights into post-romantic art -- both from the perspective of the artists and in terms of how their works were received. In addition to the articles featured in the theme section, this issue also contains contributions that shed new light on both canonical and lesser-known works from the romantic period -- including analyses of poetry, novels, and travelogues. As in previous issues, Romantik is richly illustrated. With contributions by Mitchell B Frank, Karin Sanders, Silje Svare, Sigrun Åsebø, Anne Gry Haugland, Klaus Müller-Wille, Elisa Müller-Adams, Jennifer Wawrzinek and Per-Arne Bodin.

All my Living Wellsprings are in you', says God to His people in Psalm 87:7. The title seems apt for the poetic works of the Danish poet-pastor N.F. S. Grundtvig (1783-1872) who wrote over a third of the hymns in the present Danish Hymnbook as poet, adaptor, or translator. Living Wellsprings contains a wide selection of Grundtvig's best-known hymns and songs along with a number of his shorter poems - 162 items in all - in new translations. This is the first comprehensive collection of the poetry of one of the pre-eminent builders of the Danish nation, who regarded Danish history, language, and song as absolutely indispensable to the life of what he termed 'the state, the church, and the school'. As part of its agenda to digitalise and translate Grundtvig's vast output, the Grundtvig Study Centre at Aarhus University is pleased to publish this second volume in the series, 'N.

A volume in the East Jutland Museum Publications Series. This volume takes a new look at causewayed enclosures in South Scandinavia based on a research area restricted to the Djursland Peninsula in eastern Jutland. The Djursland Peninsula in eastern Jutland was selected as region of concentration because of the richness of the region in terms of megalithic graves and burial mounds and because it has the largest number by far of known Neolithic enclosures within the northern TRB Group distribution area. Given that the awareness of as many enclosures as possible is necessary in any attempt to evaluate their significance for Neolithic societies within a given area, a major part of this work is devoted to the development of predictive modelling for the detection of enclosures in the landscape. It is only in relation to this step that it is possible to engage with such questions as the reasons for which certain locations were chosen as enclosure sites and how these relate to the history of Neolithic settlement within the wider region. The latter is at the heart of practically all settlement archaeological studies of the period under consideration in South Scandinavia. However, it has never been critically reviewed nor tested by comparisons with the results from other regions. A separate section is devoted to examining the European dimension of the Scandinavian enclosures in closer detail.

Research on children and childhood in ancient Greece is a field in its infancy. This book proposes a new interdisciplinary approach called Developmental Childhood Archaeology. In essence it is an archaeological study based on a collection of material relating to childhood in ancient Attica, dating back to 480-300 B. C. That is, various types of toys, iconographic evidence of children on vases and graves steles, primary written sources on children's lives, and the view on children in the Greek Classical period.

Danish Medieval Castles is the first comprehensive overview in English of the castles and fortifications that are known from medieval Denmark. The book tells the story of who built the castles, when they did so, and why this happened. Over the past decades several castle buildings and earthworks have been examined, a few new archaeological sites have been found, and old excavations have been reopened. All of this has resulted in new knowledge. The book also describes everyday life in Dansish castles in the Middle Ages, and examines the historic importance of the castles in times of peace and turbulence.

The Middle Ages integrated the human senses and unified their media into a culture of saturated sensation. The saturated sensoriùm nurtured principles of perception and mediation permeated with paradox, intersensorial entanglement, and multimodal interchange. This book addresses medieval modes of multi- and intermediality in material as well as immaterial culture and cultural history. It exemplifies the sensory and multisensory experiences sustained by medieval religion, art, archaeology, architecture, literature, liturgy, music, monasticism, miracles, cult, piety, love, eating, drinking, cognition, recollection, and burial. It ponders over perceptual practices performed as ritual, devotion, consumption (sacred or secular), memory, sanctity (in persons or percepts), church environment, sacramental imagery, romantic representation, and word-image-song-dance remediation. It illuminates the intertwined and compound character of the five Aristotelian categories of visus (sight), auditus (hearing), tactus (touch), olfactus (smell), and gustus (taste), showing that there was indeed far more to the senses and to sense experience than this classical categorisation might suggest. It aims to saturate our sense of medieval mediation beyond established modern and classical categories of communication.

During the Enlightenment, other peoples, and also their cultures, were much discussed, with debates often focusing on their value as human beings and the level of tolerance that they were to be granted. Books on 'outer worlds', classified in libraries as historia, were an integral part of these deliberations as they conveyed distinct perceptions of peoples and places to their readers. This book explores how the broader world was presented to a Norwegian audience by means of both statistical analysis of books on 'the other' in Enlightenment libraries and consideration of how peoples were portrayed in bestselling works. Intriguingly, book distribution was very uneven, and the views that the bestsellers promoted were as multifaceted as the Enlightenment itself, with the texts expressing both prejudice and admiration, depending on the identity of the author and thee very context in which they were written.