https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/38432 2026-04-16T01:40:59Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/17927 Title: Brucellosis and Maltese goats in the Mediterranean Authors: Wyatt, H. Vivian Abstract: British army doctors studied a fever which affected many servicemen in Malta: now known as the ‘Corps Disease’. Although the organism was found, it was some time before the transmission by goats’ milk was discovered. However, other means of transmission may have been important. About 10% of the milk was infective and measures by the armed forces effectively controlled the disease. For the Maltese, controls were ineffective and cases rose. In 1936 pasteurised milk went on sale. In World War II most goats were eaten, but with peace the disease returned. Eventually strict control measures eliminated the disease – after one small epidemic. Malta Fever, now known as brucellosis was endemic around the Mediterranean. Maltese goats, prized for their prolific milk yield were recognised as carriers of the disease and were sent packing. They had, however, passed on the bacteria to other breeds. Brucellosis is still a serious disease in the region. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/17915 Title: Come un’isola ricorda : riflessioni dal fieldwork Authors: Monteforte, Virginia Abstract: The relation between anthropology and history, as well as that between history and social memory, have always been controversial, because of what may be termed a reciprocal amnesia, or worse, the confusion of roles and spaces. Well before its “reflexive turn” anthropology, albeit aware of the importance of history, produced descriptions of isolated populations immersed in a timeless present or representing their past through cyclical and repetitive schemes. This was congenial to a simultaneity hyphen based analysis where myths, rites, kinship and so on could be routed in the same logic. Moreover the indistinct and narrative face of every oral and autobiographical testimony, its subjectivity, and the lack of a shared method in the witness recollection only made things worse. Nevertheless, the critical use of the different disciplines could permit a more complex and articulate understanding of past and present structures through which a collectivity represents and communicates itself and its values, reiterating the same configuration and discovering other ways to rethink it. As shown in interviews carried out with two Maltese informants, the local interpretative and reified structure of the Maltese milieu assumes the definite and accepted shape of a political “irresoluble” opposition, traces the paths and the steps of a life story, organizes in a divided vision a certain temporal course. But the possibility to delve deep in the complexity of each particular narrative can also make a breach for further, alternative and more complex representations of their context, both synchronic and diachronic. The study is based on a long term fieldwork in Malta. The main sources are the narratives of a good number of informants. My sample was based on a number of criteria including and depending on the position occupied in the political and cultural field, as well as the networks they are embedded in. They belonged both to the official, institutional field rather than the popular one and come from every part of the island. I met some of them only for one formal taped interview, while with others I managed to entertain a more engaged relation consisting of multiple meetings during which the level of reciprocal trust grew into ever stronger confidence. The fieldwork includes also participation in political meetings and public events as well as indepth analyses of written sources. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/17914 Title: La presenza della famiglia Spinola a Malta, nota su alcuni manoscritti inediti : stato dell’arte e ipotesi di ricerca Authors: Savio, Giulia Abstract: The history of the Spinola family is intertwined with the history of Genoa and Malta. In 1768 Genoa ceded its last possession, Corsica to France. In 1797, French military pressure resulted in the end of aristocratic rule and the formation of the Ligurian Republic. During this period the Spinola family, which had members in the Order Hospitaller of St.John, acquired various possessions in Malta. This is an example, the result of careful archival research, of the power of the family in eighteenth century Malta. A box containing archival documents, was recovered at the Archivio Storico del Comune in Genoa. These documents had been mislocated , so they were never investigated, and therefore they are a new source for historians. This box contains the financial statements of the landed possessions of the noble lineage of Spinolas in Malta, plus a few sheets of purely personal notes and accounts of the notary writer. The present short note contains the results of my research at the Archivio Storico del Comune in Genoa. It aims to analyze some, so far almost completely neglected, aspects about the Spinola presence in Malta. This short article traces the background to this development, and also presents a first snapshot of the benefits which this kind of study should provide to scholars of late eighteenth century Malta. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/17913 Title: Commercial partnerships in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Malta Authors: Refalo, Michael Abstract: In today’s commercial partnerships – the limited liability company in its various forms in particular – are considered vehicles for commercial activities but also as efficient ways through which financing could be obtained. Although by the late nineteenth century, commercial association had long been known and practised in Malta, it was generally for other purposes. This is confirmed by the unpopularity of limited liability on the one hand and the recourse to partnership between family members on the other. In both these and other cases, association was viewed within the wider perspective of wealth retention and transmission. In cases involving nonrelatives, such associations served as a means of acquiring both financial as well as other forms of capital. In all cases, a deep analysis of commercial partnerships during this period is bound to yield rich material for a better understanding of commerce in Malta. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z