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AbstractBetween 1970 and 1985, much was written in the field of Acadian studies. Several aspects of this “renaissance” are notable: the expansion in university-level work (especially in the production of mémoires and theses), the preparation of numerous finding aids to documentary collections, and the publication of several pathfinding studies — notably the collected studies Les Acadiens des Maritimes. This achievement hid several major deficiencies. In spite of advances in social history, the historiography of Acadia actually is circumscribed by the problem of nationality and a dependence on traditional historical methods. It is marked by a degree of isolation, making no reference to the experience of other regions; this is especially true regarding the awareness of the historiography of both Quebec and the Maritimes. This situation is based on the lack of breadth of approach among professional historians, but equally to the ideological stakes implicit in the writing of Acadian history.

This article examines, from a global and long-term perspective, the evolution of teaching about nature in primary school textbooks in the Spanish-American world between ca. 1770 and 1920. The specific question is how the spread of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's intuitive teaching, i.e., teaching based on sensory experience as a replacement for traditional memorisation, was reflected in the changes that were made to school textbooks throughout the nineteenth century. To this end, we analyse a selection of texts from three periods: the Spanish Enlightenment at the end of the eighteenth century, the 1840s, and the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Paying attention to the contents and textual conventions of the specific genre of textbooks about nature, we argue that these types of books evolved in content and method under the influence of intuitive teaching, but with important continuities in the assumptions about how children should learn. We show how the format of the texts was influenced not only by certain pedagogical ideas, but also by the pressures of the publishing market and the requirements of teaching practice. 

Keywords: textbooks, libros de texto, les manuels, nature, naturaleza, la nature, lecciones de cosas, les leçons de choses, object lessons, les catéchismes, catechisms, catecismos, les Lumières espagnoles, Spanish enlightenment, Ilustración española

When the Society of Jesus returned to Turtle Island in the 1840s after the suppression of their order in 1773, searching for and consolidating the records they had been forced to leave behind was of utmost importance. The first Jesuit archivists set out to copy legal documents from Jesuits in Europe, records of their travels, and of correspondence between Jesuits in France, to build a coherent narrative of their order that foregrounded a sense of continuity with their forebears. The consolidation of these records led to the creation of the Collection des archives du Collège Sainte-Marie (CACSM). This article puts forward a case study that explores the description of records in the CACSM catalogue and the persistence and normalization of the catalogue descriptions into its later forms such as the index and internal database. It builds on recent scholarly examination of cataloguing systems and archival descriptions that have defined these as systems of knowledge, infrastructures of power, and tools of colonialism. We begin by arguing that the descriptive indicators of both original records and copies emphasized land as a means to assert Jesuit presence and influence, revealing the profound connection between the archive and settler colonialism. Then, we show that these descriptions were crucial actors that mobilized knowledge production by naming, framing or erasing information to meet the settler-colonial worldview. Finally, we demonstrate that the persistence of these catalogue descriptions, through the creation of other indexes and finding aids in the 1950s and beyond, signify their structural impact and functions.

Keywords: description archivistique, archival description, catalogues, catalogues, colonialisme de peuplement, land-based classification, Jésuites, information and knowledge systems, classification fondée sur le territoire, Jesuits, systèmes d'information et de connaissance, settler colonialism

This paper tries to demonstrate that it is possible to set a standardized unified measurement of almost all types of linguistic complexity, in all languages, providing the use of a system of description and interpretation–i.e. the Defining Matrix Analysis (DMA) – which is founded on the remarkable metalinguistic function of natural languages which allow them to self- describe with their most common words through the building of equivalency classes in which the grammatical facts – the main source of complexity – are « uncomplexified » and measured in terms of regular reduction operations.

Keywords: Analyse matricielle, complexité linguistique, grammaire, linguistique générale, lexique-grammaire, syntaxe, métalangue, autonymie, grammaticalisation, Matrix Analysis, linguistic complexity, grammar, general linguistics, lexicon, grammar, syntax, metalanguage, self description, grammaticalisation

This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of three anthropological approaches (interpretive, experiential and explanatory) to requests for intercession in religions and healing rituals. First, an exploration of how Native North Americans have assimilated Roman Catholicism shows how in that process they have constituted Kateri Tekakwitha as the one who heals her devotees. Second, a discussion of the work of those who advocate an experiential approach to the study of rituals illustrates how they come to understand healing powers as they are initiated in religious healing traditions. Finally, the article examines the argument that in response to the cosmic indifference to their existential condition, humans create religious traditions and healing rituals to better confront uncertainty, suffering and death. Throughout the article these three approaches are discussed in the light of the concepts of ‘dispositif' (Foucault and Deleusze) and cognitive dissonance (Fetsinger).

This article examines Anna Lesznai’s radical imagining of sex and its use for transcendental purposes that heavily rely on Jewish mystical ideas intertwined with Otto Weininger's theory of gender binarism. In her gender theory—part of feminist discourse at the turn of the twentieth century—Lesznai describes female love, using religious language and ideas from Jewish mysticism, especially those resembling Hassidic concepts, and ultimately compares sexual union to yihud- unio mystica with God. Working within the patriarchal understanding of the biological definition of gender and of the concept of "female difference," Lesznai’s feminism rooted in the belief that certain personality traits and skills are inherently gendered, but she reverses the hierarchy by placing women in the position of power, thus turning Jewish mysticism and Weininger’s gender philosophy on its head.

Keywords: Jewish Mysticism, Otto Weininger, Martin Buber, Hungarian Jews, gender theory, love, dialogue, Hassidism