A CRÍTICA SOCIAL DO DITO DE JEREMIAS CONTRA O REI JEOAQUIM: Uma análise exegética de Jeremias 22,13-19 (609-598 a.C)

O presente estudo exegético tem por objetivo demonstrar a crítica social de Jeremias contra o rei Jeoaquim, tendo como fonte principal a crítica social de Jr 22,13-19. Para tal, partiremos da análise do contexto literário, histórico e religioso da crítica social de Jeremias, para então fazer a análise exegética do texto proposto, através da qual enfocaremos, dentre os diversos conteúdos, a justiça social inserida na perícope. Compreendendo que um texto surge dentro de um ambiente social, evidenciaremos, com base na crítica social, as práticas violentas do rei Jeoaquim em seu reinado, contra os trabalhadores injustiçados, o pobre e o necessitado na sociedade de Judá. Por fim, demonstrando as questões históricas do profeta Jeremias em sua vivencia internacional em meio aos impérios existentes, e o sistema opressor do rei Jeoaquim, contra os menos favorecidos da sociedade de Judá.

O derramamento do Espírito : fortalecimento dos enfraquecidos

Esta tese se insere dentro da leitura bíblica latino-americana trazendo, nessa ótica, a riqueza e o desafio do que significa ler a Bíblia a partir de um contexto de opressão como é o nosso continente. Nos servimos do roteiro das ciências bíblicas e dos métodos exegéticos modernos. É uma pesquisa bibliográfica onde, eventualmente, consideramos o nível experiêncial, por exemplo quando trabalhamos o tema do derramamento do Espírito nos pentecostais chilenos. Esse capítulo, IV, segue o roteiro da hipótese central de nossa tese na medida que firmamos o princípio de que os pentecostais fazem parte do amplo e diverso grupo dos enfraquecidos como produto de um sistema excludente, baseado na exploração social. Numa situação de crise, o anúncio do derramamento do Espírito é um sinal de salvação, de perspectivas futuras, de conservação e prolongação da vida. Esta tese relê o tema do derramamento do Espírito, a partir de Jl 3,1-5. O tema é analisado num contexto social concreto, onde os enfraquecidos recebem o Espírito do Senhor. O eixo que nos permite fazer esta leitura encontra sua referencial nas pessoas setores sociais - mencionadas como beneficiadas diretas da ação do Espírito. São pessoas que representam setores diferentes; jovens, escravos e escravas, formam o grupo que sustenta e faz funcionar o sistema imperial persa grego - baseado na exploração e mão de obra barata. Eles, juntamente com os idosos que não produzem mais, são a base de sustentação da pirâmide social. Como demostraremos no decorrer da tese, nossa hipótese somente é possível se duas conjunturas se cruzam. Para isso, em num primeiro momento, localizamos e demostramos que o livro de Joel deve ser situado no contexto da literatura apocalíptica (nascimento). Em seguida, demonstramos que o livro de Joel, como produto literário final, deve ser localizado no contexto histórico do pós-exílio, isto é, no tempo dos impérios persa e grego. A confirmação destes dois aspectos desenvolvidos nos capítulos I e II, nos permitem, na análise literária, capítulo III, aprofundar, mediante a análise exegética, e confirmar a nossa hipótese central. Com estes três capítulos demostramos que o derramamento do Espírito do Senhor tem como destinatários preferenciais, senão exclusivos, os setores enfraquecidos pela política social, econômica e religiosa dos impérios persa e grego. Com estes três capítulos desenvolvidos, no quarto capítulo analisamos uma experiência concreta, de um setor majoritariamente pobre que tem se apropriado do texto de Jl 3,1-5, e encontrado nele uma alternativa social, política e religiosa para se manter fiel ao Senhor e por quase um século recria e revive a experiência do derramamento do Espírito. Os velhos, os jovens, os escravos e as escravas, formam o setor dos enfraquecidos. É o setor que nada espera, e que nada terá da parte dos impérios e que, como os pentecostais, pela sua situação de enfraquecimento, acredita que somente uma intervenção externa pode mudar o seu futuro, pode trazer de volta a esperança. Essa intervenção externa começa a ser possível pelo derramamento do Espírito e se concretiza na chegada do dia de Javé, que será grande e terrível, onde o sol e a lua se unem para indicar o monte de Sião e a cidade de Jerusalém como lugar de adoração, refúgio e salvação. Esta perspectiva da ação do Espírito é possível somente no período do pós-exílio. Nesse tempo o Espírito adquire uma dimensão ampla e inclusiva agindo sobre diversos setores sociais, independe de serem ou não judeus.(AU)

AS BRIGAS DIVINAS DE INANA: Reconstrução feminista de repressão e resistência em torno de uma deusa suméria

As análises desta tese, baseadas numa hermenêutica feminista libertadora, têm como centro a figura de Inana, a deusa mais importante e mais popular da Suméria, que predominou, sob o nome de I tar, também nos panteões mesopotâmicos posteriores. O Capítulo 1 oferece uma reconstrução da vida na Suméria, desde os tempos neolíticos até os inícios do Período Babilônico Antigo (aproximadamente de 5000 a 2000 aEC), com especial atenção para dados sobre mulheres e para aspectos de gênero. O Capítulo 2 apresenta documentos pré-sargônicos, iconográficos e filológicos, relacionados com a figura e o culto de Inana, oferecendo as primeiras reflexões sobre aspectos particulares e conflitos que mostram sua posição especial na religião na Suméria e na sua crescente patriarcalização. No Capítulo 3, esses aspectos e conflitos são discutidos enfocando tradições de Inana como Senhora da Eana, dos Me e de Kur, com especial atenção para os mitos Inana e a Eana , Inana e os Me e Inana e o Inframundo (ETCSL 1.3.5; 1.3.1; 1.4.1). É mostrado que o mito Inana e a Eana é o resultado de manipulações para legitimar o culto de An nesse templo de Inana, que Inana e os Me reflete atitudes de resistência contra tentativas de seu desapoderamento, e que Inana e o Inframundo é composto de mitos diferentes que evidenciam vários conflitos relacionados com funções e poderes de Inana. Desse modo mostra-se que os conflitos em torno de Inana refletem repressões e resistências humanas no âmbito de uma sociedade quiriarcal e da crescente patriarcalização de sua religião. Embora a atuação política e religiosa de mulheres em sociedades de hoje não necessite de legitimações a partir de exemplos provenientes de religiões antigas, a reconstrução e memória feministas de tais exemplos podem servir de estímulo para tal atuação quando busca construir uma outra imagem do divino e quando luta por um mundo de igualdade em direitos e dignidade para todas as pessoas.(AU)

Antigas memórias bélicas sobre Javé em Juízes 5,3-5.9-13.19-22.23 e em Habacuque 3,3-6

A imagem de Javé em Juízes 5 constitui-se nas primeiras impressões que o Israel antigo teve do seu Deus. Ela desenha a saída de Javé de sua antiga morada no Sinai para adentrar na terra da Palestina, a fim de lutar por seu povo contra a opressão cananéia. O período tribal foi o momento formativo desse antigo conceito de Javé no Antigo Testamento. Grupos israelitas reformularam o conceito de Javé promulgado pela tradição do Sinai, afirmando, assim, que Javé não é mais o Deus estático e teofânico, morador de uma montanha, mas é o Deus de Israel . E a migração da divindade de um monte para um campo de batalha não representa meramente a caminhada dessa divindade, mas representa o caminhar dos vários estágios em que Israel conceituou seu Deus. Decisivo nessas novas articulações teológicas foi o campo de batalha, que foi o moto da celebração à Javé ressalvada em Juízes 5. Javé é celebrado por seu agir histórico! A história é a mediadora entre Javé e seu povo. Ela é a via pela qual se pronuncia sobre Javé. Assim, as novas conjunturas históricas requerem novas formulações sobre Deus. A antiga memória bélica de Javé contida em Juízes 5 perpassa a história da religião de Israel, podendo ser observada também em Habacuque 3,3-6. Esse é um texto do século VII a.C. Assim, detectamos uma memória corrente na história da religião de Israel, que começou nos momentos antecedentes à da formação da monarquia (Juízes 5) e ainda pode ser notada em Habacuque, no século VII a.C. Nesse desenrolar da religião de Israel, a memória bélica sobre Javé esteve sujeita a várias mutações. Mas, essencialmente, manteve sua proposta: tornar os sujeitos da opressão promulgada pelos impérios em agentes de transformação social. O conceito bélico de Javé patrocinou as revoltas contra o despotismo social, sendo, portanto, uma forma de resistência dos grupos desprestigiados da sociedade, em Israel e Judá

Orthodox Christianity and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Southeastern Europe

Nation-building processes in the Orthodox commonwealth brought together political institutions and religious communities in their shared aims of achieving national sovereignty. Chronicling how the churches of Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia acquired independence from the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the wake of the Ottoman Empire’s decline, Orthodox Christianity and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Southeastern Europe examines the role of Orthodox churches in the construction of national identities. Drawing on archival material available after the fall of communism in southeastern Europe and Russia, as well as material published in Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Russian, Orthodox Christianity and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Southeastern Europe analyzes the challenges posed by nationalism to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the ways in which Orthodox churches engaged in the nationalist ideology.

The Romanian Orthodox Church

At first glance, the nationalist ideology of the French Revolution seems to have had little impact on the Orthodox Church in Romanian-speaking territories. Romanians were the predominant inhabitants of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia and the neighboring territories of Transylvania (including Crişana, Maramureş and Banat), Bukovina, Bessarabia, and Dobrudja. The majority of ethnic Romanians belonged to the Orthodox faith while their communities were at the intersection of geopo liti cal interests of the Rus sian, Ottoman, and Habsburg empires. In 1859 the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (known as the Old Kingdom between 1866 and 1918) united into a single state under the rule of a local prince. The term "Romania" began to be used by the new state in its of cial documents in 1862. Two years later, the state supported the declaration of a Romanian autocephalous (in de pen dent) church that was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1885. As an integrative part of the Orthodox commonwealth, the church was situated between the competing jurisdictions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Rus sian Orthodox Church, while its declaration of autocephaly followed a pattern in the spread of national churches in Southeastern Europe. From the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainardji of 1774 to the beginning of the Greek War for In de pen dence in 1821, the Romanian principalities were under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, which had full control of their po liti cal and economic affairs. The sultan appointed princes, and the Porte determined their po liti cal and judicial status. The princes were drawn from the "Phanariots," and were directly appointed by the Porte from preponderantly Greek elite rather than the Romanian local elite, the boyars (boieri).1 In each principality, the church was headed by a metropolitan who was under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. That religion mattered to local population as a means of social cohesion was suggestively depicted by Anatole de Demidoff, an En glish traveler in the region in 1837. Arriving in Bucharest, the capital of Wallachia, he claimed that: I know of no city in Europe in which it is possible to find more agreeable society, or in which there is a better tone, united with the most charming gaiety⋯. Religion, which is here of the schismatic Greek creed, does not, properly speaking, hold any great empire over the minds of the Wallachian people, but they observe its outward forms, and particularly the austerities of fasting, with scrupulous exactitude. The people are seen to attend divine ser vice with every sign of respect, and the great number of churches existing in Wallachia, bear witness to the ardent zeal with which outward worship is honored.2 The Romanian Orthodox Church was a national institution, closely linked to social, economic, and po liti cal structures. In most cases, Orthodox hierarchs were appointed from the families of boyars, thus ensuring a close relationship with the state authorities and its policies. As one of the largest landowners in the principalities, the church had a prime role in administrating healthcare and education. Although the majority of the clergy was uneducated, it dispensed both ecclesiastical and civil justice and in many cases worked closely with boyars in local administration.3 The lower clergy not only contributed directly to the economy but also benefited from tax privileges. Some small villages had an unusually high proportion of clergy in comparison to the overall population. For example, in 1810, Stənisləveşti, a village in the south of Wallachia, was composed of eleven houses and had two priests, five deacons, and three cantors; similarly, the Frəsinet village of nineteen houses had two priests and five deacons.4 Although these cases were exceptional, they indicate both the economic value of being a member of the clergy and the wider canonical dimension of church jurisdiction. The special status of the clergy was reflected not only at lower but also at higher levels. Bishops and metropolitans engaged with state policy and in many cases opposition to the authorities led to the loss of a spiritual seat. The metropolitan of each principality worked with the prince and was president of the divan, the gathering of all boyars. He held the right to be the first person to comment on state policy and to make recommendations when the prince was absent. The metropolitan replaced the prince when the principality had no political ruler, such as in the cases of Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi of Moldavia in 1806 and Metropolitan Dositei Filitti of Wallachia, while the bishops of Buzəu and Argeş were members of the provisional government during the Rus sian occupation of the principalities in 1808. The higher clergy had both religious and political prerogatives in relation to foreign powers as evident in their heading of the boyars' delegation to peace negotiation between the Rus sian and Ottoman empires at Focşani in 1772 and addressing memoranda to the Austrian and Rus sian governments in 1802.5 The primary role of the church in the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia was paralleled by the national mobilization of Orthodox communities in the neighboring territories that had Romanian inhabitants. Although throughout the region Orthodox communities were incorporated into church structures as part of the Habsburg, Austrian or Rus sian empires, the nineteenth century was characterized by the leadership's search for political autonomy and the building of a Romanian national identity. The Orthodox communities outside the Old Kingdom maintained relations with the faithful in principalities across the Carpathian Mountains and the Dniester River and sought support in their struggle for political and religious rights.

McKinney, Mark. Redrawing French Empire Comics. Columbus, The Ohio State University Press, 2013. 304 pages. 9780814212202

The history of France and its empires is one that has been well trodden, particularly the French occupation, and subsequent war, in Algeria. In this companion to his earlier work, 2011’s The Colonial Heritage of French Comics,McKinney attempts to examine the reconstruction of French national identity in the wake of decolonisation through the medium of Francophonecomics. He endeavours to study the colonial affrontier (3), the space in which France and its colonies are connected and divided, where they seek to confront each other, or to seek peace and the removal of the division. McKinney argues this affrontier can be found most strongly in the Francophone comics produced dealing with the French colonial experience in Algeria, as well as that of Indochina,and does so from both sides of each conflict. McKinney examines in detail the French colonisation of Algeria (1830sonwards), the French war in Indochina (1946–54) and the Algerian war (1954–62), and his work is the first to approach these well-covered areas of research through the medium of comics. The resulting work takes the form of an investigation into the five forms of genealogical inquiry utilised in comics regarding these conflicts. His approach investigates the familial, ethnic, national, artistic and critical forms of genealogy relating to colonialism and imperialism from a variety of viewpoints, including the previously overlooked perspective of the pieds noirs. He aims to highlight both those cartoonists that critique the colonial ideology, as well as those cartoonists who to some extent attempt to gloss over or even romanticise the French empire, strengthening the affrontier. He positions himself alongside Foucault in seeing genealogy as a useful means of establishing ‘historical knowledge of struggles’ (Foucault1980, 85), but McKinney looks at the colonial representation in a popular medium,including the recent increase in comics produced which consider the French colonial experience. He argues that this consideration of the present, as well as European imperialism, is absent in the work of Foucault. The text is accompanied by a number of black and white facsimiles of pages from the comics he analyses to illustrate the different and often conflicting positions of cartoonists on these issues. Overall, McKinney’s work is a welcome addition to the study of the French colonial experience, which separates its elf from the rest by using Francophonecomics as lenses through which to look at these already well-trodden areas of study. He succeeds in determining if and how cartoonists critique colonial ideology and representations on both sides of the conflicts, a task in which he is unarguably successful. McKinney’s work, however, is unfortunately let down by typo graphicerrors, which occur throughout the text.Nevertheless, McKinney’s work is another important work in the field of Bande Dessine ́e scholarship, and useful for anyone interested in the representations of colonialism and imperialism in French comics, accompanied by anencyclopaedic bibliography of comics produced on this topic.

Cosmopolitan Imperialism: Mann, Sarmiento, and the Origins of Universal Education in Nineteenth-Century Boston and Buenos Aires

To reveal the theories and practices that linked education to the development within the cities of Boston and Buenos Aires, and in turn to the development of US and Argentina nationalism, “Cosmopolitan Imperialism” centers on two education reformers, Horace Mann (1776-1859) and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811-1888). Mann and Sarmiento formed part of a supra-national community where liberal intellectual elites created a republic of letters, or perhaps better said, a republic of schools. As different versions of education branched out from a common Atlantic origin during the nineteenth century, Mann and Sarmiento searched for those ideas that better fit their national projects, a local project that started in the cities and moved to the interior parts of the country. In Boston and Buenos Aires, modern nationalism intertwined with imperial projects. This dissertation thus analyzes nationalism and reform in the nineteenth-century as an imperial project led by cosmopolitan intellectual elites. While we might expect to find Mann and Sarmiento’s ideas on education to be centered on their national experiences, looking to Europe for inspiration, this dissertation shows that it was quite the opposite. Educational ideas developed within an interconnected network and traveled within the North-South axis connecting Boston with Buenos Aires. This framework moves the focus from the interchange of ideas between America and Europe and places it within the American continent. At the same time, it allows us to consider Latin American and the US as both creators and recipients of educational ideas. There is a traditional way of talking about nationalism and reform in the nineteenth-century, especially in terms of education and educational policies. It is common to imagine that in the US, and even more certainly in Latin America, educated elites looked to the so-called West for inspiration. The argument is that they ended up adapting foreign models to their local and internal contexts. This dissertation challenges that idea and shows that different versions of education developed from a shared Atlantic milieu in which reformers in certain cities saw themselves as part of the same cosmopolitan empires.

What is this thing called Historical Archaeology?

Historical archaeology, in its narrow temporal sense -as an archaeology of the emergence and subsequent evolution of the Modern world- is steadily taking pace in Spanish academia. This paper aims at provoking a more robust debate through understanding how Spanish historical archaeology is placed in the international scene and some of its more relevant particularities. In so doing, the paper also stresses the strong links that have united historical and prehistorical archaeology since its inception, both in relation to the ontological, epistemological and methodological definition of the first as to the influence of socio-political issues in the latter. Such reflection is partly a situated reflection from prehistory as one of the paper’s authors has been a prehistorian for most of her professional life.

¿Fue la crisis política del Occidente musulmán del siglo XIII debida a un cambio climático? Una aproximación histórica al fin del Periodo Cálido Medieval

Durante el siglo XIII se produjo una sucesión de revueltas que supuso la desaparición del Imperio almohade y su sustitución por poderes regionales en al-Andalus, el Magreb y el Magreb al-Aqsà. La historiografía ha presentado el surgimiento y pugna entre estos poderes como un fenómeno social, político e, incluso, cultural y religioso, con el que se ha podido explicar su aniquilación o marginalización. Este trabajo pretende contextualizar los hechos desde una perspectiva medioambiental, de forma que la desintegración del califato almohade, el surgimiento de aquellos poderes y la progresión de los reinos cristianos en la península ibérica puedan entenderse desde una visión global de cambio climático y una posible crisis agrícola.

La exploración del litoral atlántico norteafricano según el periplo de Hannón de Cartago

El periplo de Hannón, frente a las propuestas que lo interpretan como una obra literaria, creemos que recoge un periplo auténtico, que sólo alcanzó cabo Juby y algunas de las Islas Canarias. Las refundaciones cartaginesas fueron todas en la Mauretania fértil, en los 7 primeros días de la expedición. Desde el islote de Kérne, en la expedición primó una primera exploración de evaluación, indicativo de que se trataba de apenas 2 o 3 barcos, con una tripulación limitada, que evitaban enfrentamientos con la población local. Los intérpretes Lixítai parecen conocer todos los puntos explorados, el río Chrétes, los etíopes del Alto Atlas costero, el gran golfo caluroso que finalizaba en el Hespérou Kéras, el volcán Theôn Óchema, o las gentes salvajes que denominaban Goríllai. Probablemente la mayor sorpresa fuese encontrar un volcán activo, emitiendo lava, que pudo ser la razón última para redactar este periplo. La falta de agua, alimentos y caza como razón para finalizar la expedición exploratoria sólo es comprensible en un trayecto corto que alcanzó hasta el inicio del desierto del Sahara. Otro tanto sucede con la ausencia de ríos importantes al Sur del río Chrétes, una clara prueba de que no se alcanzaron latitudes ecuatoriales y que los barcos se fueron alejando de la costa norteafricana.

Tifones y gigantes en el mundo macedonio: el rey como símbolo del orden cósmico

Este artículo analiza la existencia de un posible ritual en la antigua Macedonia que fuese similar al Akîtu babilonio. Pensamos que la victoria de Zeus sobre sus enemigos en la gigantomaquia y tifonomaquia fue celebrada por los reyes macedonios para fortalecer su posición en el poder. Aunque no hay evidencias directas de ello, tenemos una serie de diferentes fuentes en las cuales los macedonios están relacionados directa o indirectamente con Tifón y los gigantes. Además, la estratégica importancia del monte Olimpo para los macedonios nos hace pensar que la victoria de Zeus sobre las fuerzas del mal fue conmemorada de alguna forma por ellos.

Le “brigand lusitanien” reconsidéré. Analyse du problème de la terre chez Appien

L’étude du “brigandage lusitanien” a donné lieu à une importante activité de recherche depuis la fin du XIXe siècle. Pour autant, et malgré une inflexion progressive de l’historiographie moderne vers une approche plus nuancée de l’origine du phénomène, le problème de la terre reste encore aujourd’hui au centre des préoccupations de nombre d’historiens et archéologiques. À partir d’une discussion serrée des principaux passages de Tite-Live, Diodore et surtout Appien, relatifs à la relation que d’aucuns ont voulu établir entre manque et/ou pauvreté de la terre et développement du brigandage chez les Lusitaniens, il est proposé une critique de l’interprétation socio-économique.

Population and Government in Colonial Buenos Aires. An Approach to the Study of the Tensions Generated by Demographic Growth in the City (1740-1776)

The relationship between population and government in the City of Buenos Aires is analyzed, focusing on the tensions generated by the arrival of new individuals, a local elite with great interests in commerce and in charge of community affairs, and Spanish functionaries that progressively adopted the ideals of the Bourbon Dynasty, despite also being implicated in local logics. It interests us to observe the governors’ perspectives with respect to everyday developments in the city, their preoccupations and interests, and how they would vary the mechanisms to which they resorted in order to organize daily life, in the period defined between 1740 and 1776.

Land, Power and Technology : Essays on Political Economy and Historical Development

Land Ownership and Development: Evidence from Postwar Japan This paper analyzes the effect of land ownership on technology adoption and structural transformation. A large-scale land reform in postwar Japan enforced a large number of tenant farmers who were cultivating land to become owners of this land. I find that the municipalities which had many owner farmers after the land reform tended to experience a quick entry of new agricultural machines which became available after the reform. The adoption of the machines reduced the dependence on family labor, and led to a reallocation of labor from agriculture to industries and service sectors in urban centers when these sectors were growing. I also analyze the aggregate impact of labor reallocation on economic growth by using a simple growth model and micro data. I find that it increased GDP by about 12 percent of the GDP in 1974 during 1955-74. I also find a large and positive effect on agricultural productivity. Loyalty and Treason: Theory and Evidence from Japan's Land Reform A historically large-scale land reform in Japan after World War II enforced by the occupation forces redistributed a large area of farmlands to tenant farmers. The reform demolished hierarchical structures by weakening landlords' power in villages and towns. This paper investigates how the change in the social and economic structure of small communities affects electoral outcomes in the presence of clientelism. I find that there was a considerable decrease in the vote share of conservative parties in highly affected areas after the reform. I find the supporting evidence that the effect was driven by the fact that the tenant farmers who had obtained land exited from the long-term tenancy contract and became independent landowners. The effect was relatively persistent. Finally, I also find the surprising result that there was a decrease, rather than an increase, in turnout in these areas after the reform.  Geography and State Fragmentation We examine how geography affects the location of borders between sovereign states in Europe and surrounding areas from 1500 until today at the grid-cell level. This is motivated by an observation that the richest places in this region also have the highest historical border presence, suggesting a hitherto unexplored link between geography and modern development, working through state fragmentation. The raw correlations show that borders tend to be located on mountains, by rivers, closer to coasts, and in areas suitable for rainfed, but not irrigated, agriculture. Many of these patterns also hold with rigorous spatial controls. For example, cells with more rivers and more rugged terrain than their neighboring cells have higher border densities. However, the fragmenting effects of suitability for rainfed agriculture are reversed with such neighbor controls. Moreover, we find that borders are less likely to survive over time when they separate large states from small, but this size-difference effect is mitigated by, e.g., rugged terrain.