The meaning of material artifacts that remain unchanged in form can change through spatial references and through changes in context. In this volume, spatial, historical, topographical, and discursive contextual changes are analyzed in case studies, and their meanings and intersections are critically reflected upon.

The significant roles played by eunuchs (castrated slaves) in Rasūlid Yemen have thus far escaped scholarly scrutiny. A systematic study of the historiographic and biographical writings of ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan al-Khazrajī, chronicler of the Rasūlid court at the turn of the 9th/15th century, reveals that eunuchs figured prominently both in the highest ranks of the dynasty’s political, administrative, and military hierarchy, as well as in the most intimate realms of royal households. The author, however, remains silent on the origins of (...) these men and on the capture, castration, and deracination they suffered as young boys. In order to reconstruct the slave trading practices that supplied the Rasūlids with eunuchs, a late 7th/13th-century collection of administrative documents known as Nūr al-maʿārif shall be drawn upon. This source names an African export hub from which slaves were shipped across the Red Sea to Yemen, lists prices and taxes paid for eunuchs, and reveals that the Rasūlids actively interfered in the Yemeni slave trade in order to secure the most desirable eunuchs for themselves. Taken together, these narrative and administrative sources shed light on the eunuch institution in Rasūlid Yemen and on its role in sustaining the dynasty. (shrink)

Este estudio tuvo como objetivo caracterizar investigaciones sobre representaciones sociales de docentes y estudiantes acerca de la escritura en la educación superior. La revisión sistemática se efectuó siguiendo la metodología propuesta por la Declaración PRISMA. La búsqueda, que fue realizada en las bases de datos WOS, Scopus, Scielo y ERIC, permitió identificar 20 artículos entre los que predomina el enfoque cualitativo. Como elementos recurrentes se destacan la necesidad de que en la universidad se enseñe explícitamente a escribir y la persistencia (...) de representaciones, que vinculan la escritura con la evaluación. (shrink)