Arab Paris: Arab lives and Arab identities in France 1801-1831

© 2006 Dr. Ian Bruce Coller'Deux nations s'etaient confondues ... ' In 1821 Joseph Agoub wrote these words to a patron in an attempt to explain the “confusions” of a Franco-Arab life which he had lived for two decades in Marseille. Joseph, along with many hundreds of other Egyptians and Syrians, came to France in 1801 accompanying the French evacuation of Egypt. Two decades later, this heterogeneous population had formed a relatively cohesive community in Marseille, and many had moved on to Paris, the heart of France and French life. This thesis investigates the reasons for this unexplored emigration, analysing its roots in the impact of the French occupation of Egypt from 1798 to 1801. It follows the struggles for a common identity within a community divided by religious, regional and economic differences, as well as the complex negotiations with the wider society and the state. The thesis argues that the experience of Franco-Arab community in Marseille became, over three decades in Paris, a struggle to articulate an Arab identity within a cosmopolitan network of social, cultural and intellectual exchange. In the 1820s, this struggle reconnected with the Arab world in surprising ways, most notably through the establishment of the Ecole Egyptienne in Paris. This school brought Franco-Arab intellectuals such as Joseph Agoub and Joanny Pharaon into close connection with Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, a central figure in the nineteenth-century modernization of Egyptian institutions and Arabic thought. Their encounter made possible new ways of imagining an Arab identity beyond the limits of religious, national or social categories, long in advance of the Arabist movements later in the century. But this encounter also took place in a rapidly shrinking space of cosmopolitanism as new limits of national identity were articulated in France, which excluded “foreigners” from the national consensus. The hardening of identities was particularly severe in relation to those from outside the limits of Europe, whose identities were increasingly represented according to a more exclusivist racial segregation of “Man”. After 1830, these racial identities became the basis for legitimating the continued military occupation of Algiers, and extending French aggression in North Africa and elsewhere in the Arab world. This radical division between “French” and “Arab” made impossible the kind of Franco-Arab identity for which two generations had struggled, and left French Arabs with a stark choice: to join the “indigenes” and lose their status as French citizens, or to use their knowledge and experience in the service of French imperialism. The “Arab Paris” which Agoub had imagined was no longer possible, and passed unrecorded by history. This thesis seeks to re-imagine that lost dimension of French history in the early nineteenth century: a much earlier “Arab Paris” than the one we know today

Ce que les cultures matérielles peuvent apporter à l’historiographie de la Révolution française

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Race et Révolution française

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Pyritic mineralization halo above the Tara Deep Zn-Pb deposit, Navan, Ireland: Evidence for sub-seafloor exhalative hydrothermal processes?

The Tara Deep Zn-Pb deposit, at Navan, Ireland, includes sub-economic pyrite-rich mineralization extending laterally for about 2 × 2 km within the overlying Lower Viséan calc-turbidites, known as the ‘New-Thin Bedded Unit’. Here, we investigate the genesis of this pyritic mineralization and its links to the limestone-hosted Zn-Pb deposit lying 100 m below it. Four mineral assemblages have been identified: 1) in black shales, laminated pyrite comprises thin framboid-rich layers with minor interstitial sphalerite, both showing variable but low δ34S values ranging from −37.4 to 3.3‰; 2) in calcarenite and calcsiltite layers, pyritized fossils are widely distributed and occur chiefly as biodebris replaced by low δ34S pyrite (mean values of −13.2‰); 3) a replacive assemblage occurs as late remobilizations exhibiting both crosscutting and bedding-parallel styles, overprinting the early laminated pyrite. It comprises mostly of marcasite, with minor pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, galena, stibnite and Co-pentlandite, with high δ34S values up to 24.5‰; and 4) in black shales, bedded sulfide-rich cherts comprising microcrystalline quartz lenses exhibit δ18O mean values of 25.3‰. Cherts are rimmed by dolomite, associated with marcasite, pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, galena, siegenite and stibnite also with high δ34S values up to 44.2‰. In general terms, pyrite shows a relatively high Co/Ni ratio > 1 and sphalerite Zn/Cd ratios vary from 268 to 364. Textural analysis indicates overlapping of early-diagenetic and multi-phase hydrothermal sulfide mineralization. Development of laminated pyrite and pyritized calcarenites suggests that this mineralization was generated during early diagenesis, close to the seawater-sediment interface in oxygen-poor conditions under the influence of low-temperature hydrothermal fluid circulation. Later hydrothermal cherts and replacive sulfides suggest discharge of relatively warm hydrothermal fluids during early to mid-diagenesis, presumed to be linked to movements of nearby normal faults. Similarities in mineralogy and S isotope compositions suggest genetic links between the sub-economic pyritic mineralization and the underlying Tara Deep deposit, and consequently, that the former represents a geochemical halo with direct applicability in exploration for Zn-Pb deposits

Deciphering the human platelet sheddome

Activated platelets shed surface proteins, potentially modifying platelet function as well as providing a source of bioactive fragments. Previous studies have identified several constituents of the platelet sheddome, but the full extent of shedding is unknown. Here we have taken a global approach, analyzing protein fragments in the supernate of activated platelets using mass spectroscopy and looking for proteins originating from platelet membranes. After removing plasma proteins and microparticles, 1048 proteins were identified, including 69 membrane proteins. Nearly all of the membrane proteins had been detected previously, but only 10 had been shown to be shed in platelets. The remaining 59 are candidates subject to confirmation. Based on spectral counts, protein representation in the sheddome varies considerably. As proof of principle, we validated one of the less frequently detected proteins, semaphorin 7A, which had not previously been identified in platelets. Surface expression, cleavage, and shedding of semaphorin 7A were demonstrated, as was its association with α-granules. Finally, cleavage of semaphorin 7A and 12 other proteins was substantially reduced by an inhibitor of ADAM17, a known sheddase. These results define a subset of membrane proteins as sheddome candidates, forming the basis for further studies examining the impact of ectodomain shedding on platelet function

Mechanisms of Field Cancerization in the Human Stomach: The Expansion and Spread of Mutated Gastric Stem Cells

Background & Aims: How mutations are established and spread through the human stomach is unclear because the clonal structure of gastric mucosal units is unknown. Here we investigate, using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations as a marker of clonal expansion, the clonality of the gastric unit and show how mutations expand in normal mucosa and gastric mucosa showing intestinal metaplasia. This has important implications in gastric carcinogenesis. Methods: Mutated units were identified by a histochemical method to detect activity of cytochrome c oxidase. Negative units were laser-capture microdissected, and mutations were identified by polymerase chain reaction sequencing. Differentiated epithelial cells were identified by immunohistochemistry for lineage markers. Results: We show that mtDNA mutations establish themselves in stem cells within normal human gastric body units, and are passed on to all their differentiated progeny, thereby providing evidence for clonal conversion to a new stem cell–derived unit—monoclonal conversion, encompassing all gastric epithelial lineages. The presence of partially mutated units indicates that more than one stem cell is present in each unit. Mutated units can divide by fission to form patches, with each unit sharing an indentical, mutant mtDNA genotype. Furthermore, we show that intestinal metaplastic crypts are clonal, possess multiple stem cells, and that fission is a mechanism by which intestinal metaplasia spreads. Conclusions: These data show that human gastric body units are clonal, contain multiple multipotential stem cells, and provide definitive evidence for how mutations spread within the human stomach, and show how field cancerization develops