Journal of Global and Area Studies Vol. 2 No. 1
Articles
Author, Released table
Acolman, Mexico: Fantastic Seahorses in a Catholic Church of the 16th Century |
p.2018. Vol. 2(1) 1-17 |
| Author |
Eva Leticia Brito Benítez |
| Released |
May 1, 2018 |
PDFFull Text PDF |
- Abstract
- The church, cloister and atrium of Acolman, Mexico, form an architectural group that was
built by the friars of the order of Saint Augustine in the early 16th century, a few years after
the official consummation of the Spanish Conquest in 1521. It is a monastic-military
construction decorated with reliefs and mural paintings that clearly reflect the objective of
Christianizing the native population. The facade of the church has a plateresque style with
a complex composition: columns with great decoration, sculptures of Church Fathers,
cherubs, flora and fauna elements carved on stone. A row of representations of hybrid
animals with marine and terrestrial characteristics, interpreted as seahorses or hippocampi
was engraved under the frieze stands. The rarity of these elements led to the historic
search for its iconographic meaning, finding its oldest sense in Phoenician culture, taken
up by the Greek pagan bestiary, later resumed in Rome and from there it was taken up
by Christianity that finally moved them to American lands through the Spaniards. The
purpose of this document is to describe these fictitious marine beasts, to understand their
ancient meaning and their role in the context of the first years of Catholic evangelization
in Mexico that led to a process of religious syncretism that prevails until today. The method
consisted of fieldwork in the locality of Acolman to study these elements; the theoretical
research was based on bibliographic sources on history, art, architecture, and iconography.
The results are published for the first time in this paper, clarifying that there is no
specialized study on the topic of Acolman´s hippocampi in the literature. The research is
part of the project Cultural-Historical Evaluation of the Collection of Paintings of the Ex
Convent Museum of Acolman, State of Mexico, attached to the National Institute of
Anthropology and History, which started in 2015 and has continued up to date.
Author, Released table
Labour Migration to Taiwan:A View from Gender Perspective |
p.2018. Vol. 2(1) 19-33 |
| Author |
Nguyen Thi Hong Xoan |
| Released |
May 1, 2018 |
PDFFull Text PDF |
- Abstract
- The last four decades have seen a massive increase in the scale and complexity of
international migration in Asia. Among the most striking features is the fact that in many
important flows, women outnumber men. Research into international migration has
focussed strongly on the fact associated with marriage migration, one of the most
significant flows in international migration in Asia. Usually this results in women moving
from a less developed country to a more developed country within the Asian region. While
labour migration in this region is the less important flow, the issue has received somewhat
less attention from researchers. The increase in labour migration in Asia has raised a
number of important issues. In particular, some evidence of exploitation of the women
involved has been concern of. In addition, it has considerable consequences for both origin
and destination areas. Similarly, the migration has been developing networks between
origin and destination along which flow remittances, information and other forms of
migration. The present paper focuses on one of the important streams of labour migration
in Asia – that of people moving to work in from Vietnam to Taiwan. The perspective adopted
is largely from the origin and draws on secondary data of this in Vietnam. The paper begins
by outlining the main levels of, and trends, in labour migration to Taiwan and explores
some of the structural factors shaping this phenomenon. It then draws upon secondary data
to examine the process of migration and some of the impacts of the movement on the
Vietnamese female migrants at the destination. It concludes by examining some of the
policy implications of the findings.
Author, Released table
Reflections on Migration and Economic Globalization:The 1992 L.A. Riots and the Korean American Community |
p.2018. Vol. 2(1) 35-47 |
| Author |
Carol Park , Edward T. Chang |
| Released |
May 1, 2018 |
PDFFull Text PDF |
- Abstract
- The second largest Korean diasporic community resides in the U.S. The Korean American population increased in the 1960s/70s. These new urban immigrants found themselves in a new America where minority civil rights had just been gained and economic globalization changed the face of the American corporate business model. However, Koreans who migrated to the U.S. in the 1960s/70s were ignorant of the tumultuous racial and fiscal issues of their new homeland. Inner cities like South Central LA and Detroit, suffered the brunt of the downfall of the US economy as manufacturers left those once bustling towns.
Faced with discrimination in corporate America, Korean Americans were forced into
opening small businesses in those inner cities. While economic globalization had opened trade, and increased the interdependency of international economies, domestic racial and discrimination issues persisted in the US. Cultural differences, the disparity between the haves and the have-nots, government neglect, and police brutality, would fuel the anger and resentment of the inner-city minority population of African Americans toward the middle man “model minority” Korean American community. Not realizing that Korean Americans shared similar racial and discriminatory experiences, African Americans believed Korean Americans were taking advantage of the black community. By the 1980s, the black-Korean
conflict made headlines. Then the Rodney King verdicts would spark the 1992 LA Riots and the targeting of Korean American businesses. The question is, how did migration and economic globalization contribute to the 1992 LA Riots and the Korean American experience? How did the Korean American identity change since then, especially as cultural globalization and things like the Hallyu Wave have deconstructed our traditional ideas of identity? My paper will seek to answer the aforementioned questions.
Author, Released table
The Strategic Duality and Convergence of China’s Transitionin the Global Climate Regime |
p.2018. Vol. 2(1) 49-63 |
| Author |
Bourdais J. Park |
| Released |
May 1, 2018 |
PDFFull Text PDF |
- Abstract
- Since the mid-2010s, China has gradually but explicitly altered its position in the process
of global climate negotiations, from a vetoing to a leading nation. Experts in the
International Relations field have commented that the main reason is China’s aspiration to
become a global power, using the “environment” as one of the effective means to
consolidate the nation’s soft power and reinforce multilateral diplomacy. However, a
political interpretation (seizing the opportunity to secure hegemonic power in the process
of regime strengthening) does not adequately explain the complexity behind China’s
changing role in this transitory period. In this regard, a question arises: “Why and how has
China undergone such an evolution, particularly in the arena of climate regime?” I suggest
broadly five factors along with detailed discussions. The main factors include both external
(e.g. regime interplay between climate and development aid, Sino-U.S. relations, global
green technology market) and internal (China’s ecological modernization). The paper argues
that all those factors interacted with one another in a relatively effective way during the
current transitory period of China moving toward an environmentally sustainable society.
While each of the above-mentioned factors is driven by different and multi-layered forces
behind them, the commonly applicable driver cutting across all factors is “the state’s
strategic use of transitory duality.” The paper concludes with a brief discussion on the
implications of China’s increasing role in global ecological development.
Author, Released table
Beyond the China Factor:Policy Representation onEconomic Issues in the LegislativeCouncil of Hong Kong (1998-2012) |
p.2018. Vol. 2(1) 65-78 |
| Author |
Jinhyeok Jang |
| Released |
May 1, 2018 |
PDFFull Text PDF |
- Abstract
- This paper explores the potential of multi-dimensional politics in the Legislative Council
(LegCo) of Hong Kong. The conventional understanding of Hong Kong’s elite politics is that
the issues of democratization and its relationship to Mainland China have absorbed other
potential issues. In contrast, this paper argues that other potential issues sometimes
appear to be important in Hong Kong politics. To demonstrate this argument, I focus on
the parliamentary questions of the LegCo members to the executive branch on the
economic issue. The empirical analysis presents that the LegCo members’ ideology along
the major cleavage has not related to parliamentary questioning on economic issue.
Rather, the statistical result of the negative binomial regression presents that legislators
who are less aligned with the China factor participate more actively in economic
policy-making in the legislature. The structure of parliamentary politics is complex, and if
we take an earlier legislative process seriously, a limited but considerable amount of
diverse policy representation in Hong Kong could be observed.
Author, Released table
The Border Area with the Coast of Santiago de Cuba between 1820 and 1829: Towards the Consolidation of the Maritime City and the Port Area |
p.Vol. 2(1) 79-94 |
| Author |
Varinia González Estévez |
| Released |
May 1, 2018 |
PDFFull Text PDF |
- Abstract
- Research on cities is an essential contribution to understanding the identity processes,
especially when they are perceived in a close relation with people relation with the man
who creates and inhabits cultural spaces. Those that have addressed the urban growth of
Santiago de Cuba in different historical moments are within this range of research. The
period between 1820 and 1829 is characterized by the economic and commercial takeoff,
when the area adjacent to the bay of Santiago became a closely related area to the port
and, therefore, commercial function of the city; the city had formed in a random way in
the early years of the nineteenth century. This research aims at analyzing the image of the
city through the study of the plan of 1823, and reflection the urban transformation that took
place in the northwest and southwest, adjacent to the coast. The analysis also relies on
primary sources of time: testimonies, epistles and reports, which describe how these
processes of construction and consumption of space occur to hive in this peripheral area
of the city, nerve center of commercial life in relation to the port of Santiago de Cuba.
Author, Released table
International Exhibitions as a Cultural Link: Conservation of Cultural Heritage |
p.Vol. 2(1) 95-115 |
| Author |
Rosana Calderón Martin del Campo |
| Released |
May 1, 2018 |
PDFFull Text PDF |
- Abstract
- The cultural heritage of a nation is everything that affirms the values, ways of life,
representations of the world, ideas, knowledge, customs, traditions and dreams of the
social group that composes it. Cultural heritage, therefore, encompasses both materials
and immaterial entity which includes all the possible visions to illustrate how human beings
are linked to different customs, social status, educational levels, ethnic origins within a
society. The preservation of cultural heritage is not only based on national and international
legal provisions, but also on direct activities to prevent, stop, and, reverse the physical
deterioration of archaeological, historical and artistic monuments. Moreover, its
preservation only makes sense if it fulfills the function as a binding element of rootedness
to the present and future generation. Mexico is a country of great cultural and ethnic
diversity, so its cultural heritage is extremely broad and diverse. The conservation-restoration
of cultural heritage in Mexico is an activity of great importance, which has required
specialization in diverse efforts from the relevant fields. In this context, the Universal
Exhibition can be a good example to discuss the current issues addressed here in this
article. The purpose of the exhibition which is held every five years is to promote economic,
touristic, and cultural significance of each participating country. Additionally, the exhibition
includes multiple forums to discuss such as iconic objects of the pre-Hispanic cultures, vice
regal period, and modern and contemporary art. This type of exhibition requires preventive
conservation strategies to control environmental conditions around collections and to
minimize any possible alteration during their exhibition period. It provides a great
opportunity to share and compare experiences with professionals in this field regarding
scientific and technical advances. Thus, the Universal Exhibition in Shanghai 2010 was
mainly discussed in this article with regard to implementing preventive conservation
strategies in detail.
