Open research questions in Global Maritime and Colonial Histories
215 gap statements mined from Global Maritime and Colonial Histories papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,678 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.
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What the literature leaves open
It puts their experiences, knowledge, and responsibilities at the centre of Argyle’s history, as the mine closes and the future of the site remains uncertain.
Daam du ngayin jirrawuny (Me and Country are one) · 2026Future research could explore the implications of the study's findings for interfaith dialogue and understanding. Further study could examine the ways in which African ancestral beliefs continue to influence Christian and Islamic practices in West Africa.
Between Veneration and Condemnation: How Christianity and Islam Reconfigured African Ancestral Beliefs in West Africa. · 2026 · DOIThe paper highlights the need for a more nuanced approach to understanding these interactions.
Between Veneration and Condemnation: How Christianity and Islam Reconfigured African Ancestral Beliefs in West Africa. · 2026 · DOIFuture research should aim to develop a more nuanced understanding of African traditional religion. Further studies should focus on the importance of proper knowledge of the Africans from the inside to understand their religion and culture.
The gap is due to the lack of proper knowledge of the Africans from the inside.
Future research can build on the analysis of cultural hierarchies in African contexts. The role of sociocultural mediators in other settings can be explored.
It highlights the need to question traditional models of cultural assimilation.
Future research could explore the impact of digital platforms on the cultural practices of migrant workers. It could also examine the ways in which these platforms enable the creation of new forms of cultural production and challenge traditional understandings of performance.
It highlights the need to reconsider the creative economy and the role of digital platforms in enabling cultural production.
It highlights the need to consider the legal and communicational factors that shaped the formation of these publics. The article also notes the challenge of navigating the overlap between different legal jurisdictions in Zanzibar.
Between Print and Public in Indian Ocean Africa: The Diasporic Publics of the Zanzibar Protectorate · 2026 · DOIIt highlights the need for further investigation into the legal foundations of these publics and their social consequences.
Between Print and Public in Indian Ocean Africa: The Diasporic Publics of the Zanzibar Protectorate · 2026 · DOIIt relies on the extensive but understudied archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to provide new insights on local structures of enslavement as well as the patterns of slave trade across the Indian Ocean World.
‘As Many People with the Ships as can be Gotten’: Revisiting Enslavement and the Slave Trade on the Coromandel Coast · 2026 · DOIThe paper does not explicitly identify a research gap, but it highlights the significance of Professor Sener's contributions to the field of radiology. It implies that his work has had a lasting impact on the field.
The study highlights the need to balance the uneven geographical coverage of the volume, with some regions remaining under-represented.
Frank Muyard & Yi-Chang Liu (ed). 2025. Maritime exchange and localization across the South China Sea, 500 BC–AD 500. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient; 978-2-85539-274-5 paperback €40. · 2026 · DOITaiwan and the northern South China Sea receive considerable attention, whereas the Philippines, Cambodia and much of Island Southeast Asia remain under-represented. A concluding synthesis examining how exchange, mobility, localisation and early globalisation contributed to the emergence of complex societies and early states in Southeast Asia would have enhanced the volume's analytical coherence.
Frank Muyard & Yi-Chang Liu (ed). 2025. Maritime exchange and localization across the South China Sea, 500 BC–AD 500. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient; 978-2-85539-274-5 paperback €40. · 2026 · DOIIt highlights the need to consider the archives of decolonization. The paper identifies a gap in our understanding of the relationship between decolonization and the underground.
The practical significance of the article lies in the fact that the introduction into scientific circulation of the study of data on Khwarazm and Transoxiana in the work “Taqwim al-Buldan” will allow better understanding the medieval Islamic scholars of the Central Asian region, and, in this regard, the article can be used for further research of this problem.
“Taqwim al-Buldan” by Abu al-Fida as a Source on Medieval Geography of Khwarazm and Transoxiana · 2025 · DOIThe study highlights the need to examine the historical development of the kiswa as a political symbol. The research aims to fill this gap by analyzing the kiswa's significance in the relations between Muslim rulers.
The Cover of the Holy Building, the Symbol of Politics: The Historical Power Rivalry over the Kiswa of the Ka‘ba · 2025 · DOIFuture research can build on the paper's findings to explore the impact of the Maliki school of law and the Arabic language on the cultural and intellectual exchange, - Further studies can also examine the role of other factors in shaping the exchange between the two…
Manifestations of Cultural and Scientific Exchange between Western Sudan and the Cities of Southern Algeria in the Modern Era · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the intellectual and cultural exchange between Western Sudan and Southern Algeria, - The study seeks to fill this gap by providing a deeper understanding of the exchange between the two…
Manifestations of Cultural and Scientific Exchange between Western Sudan and the Cities of Southern Algeria in the Modern Era · 2026 · DOIThe lack of awareness among local communities regarding the return of ancestral human remains - The need for discussion on the repatriation of ancestral human…
Colonial Cultural Festivals and Restitution of Human Remains in Tanzania: The Case of Nduna Songea Mbano and Mangi Meli · 2026 · DOIFuture research should explore whether similar multi-stage systems exist in other societies…
Infanticide and the Curse They Carry: Global History and the Limits of Missionary Rescue in East Africa · 2026 · DOIThe study confronts a gap in knowledge and the consequences of an unaddressed gap in aspects of intercultural studies of West Africa and the Middle East. The absence of comparative archaeological studies between West Africa and the Middle East.
It contributes to the relatively scarce literature on historical African entrepreneurship by investigating different forms of formal sector entrepreneurial activities and reveals how colonial institutional constraints on some activities and the encouragement of others guided the economic activities of entrepreneurs.
Enterprising Africans: The expanding economy and institutional barriers in colonial Kenya · 2026 · DOIInvestigating the local meanings that the kiswa has acquired in different geographies in the historical process and the effects of these meanings on the socio-political structures of Muslim societies - Comparative and local analyses on the effects of religious symbols on issues of social cohesion, representation, and authority in the modern world - Examining the political meanings of religious symbols or rituals…
The Cover of the Holy Building, the Symbol of Politics: The Historical Power Rivalry over the Kiswa of the Ka‘ba · 2025 · DOI
Most-cited papers in Global Maritime and Colonial Histories
- African Traditional Thought and Western Science · Africa · 1967 · 345 citations
- Maasai on the Lawn: Tourist Realism in East Africa · Cultural Anthropology · 1994 · 218 citations
- Empire through Diasporic Eyes: A View from the Other Boat · Comparative Studies in Society and History · 2004 · 166 citations
- THE CATTLE COMPLEX IN EAST AFRICA* · American Anthropologist · 1926 · 161 citations
- Ancestors as Elders in Africa · Africa · 1971 · 160 citations
- The Poets Of Bu Njem: Language, Culture and the Centurionate · The Journal of Roman Studies · 1999 · 153 citations
- Technology and Style: Potters and Pottery Among Bafia of Cameroon · Man · 1992 · 148 citations
- Foragers, Genuine or Spurious?: Situating the Kalahari San in History [and Comments and Reply] · Current Anthropology · 1990 · 146 citations
- Middlemen, a critical social-ecological link in coastal communities of Kenya and Zanzibar · Marine Policy · 2010 · 144 citations
- The Berber house or the world reversed · Social Science Information · 1970 · 141 citations
Most recent work
- Bismaya: Recovering the Lost City of Adab · 2026
- Saite Demotic Land Leases · 2026
- Saite Demotic Land Leases · 2026
- Indian Transnationalisms in colonial and postcolonial Mozambique · University of Vienna · 2026
- Othello and the Narrative of Africa · RDSpace@UBT · 2026
- Brutalification of heritage: simulacra of the pearling path, Al Muharraq · Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change · 2026
- Surveillance in transit: a chronology of databases, power, complicity, and ‘the Aadhaar model’ in the Indian Ocean World · Journal of Contemporary African Studies · 2026
- From periphery to centre: the Arab Gulf in the global formations of race, citizenship and migration · Ethnic and Racial Studies · 2026
- Enterprising Africans: The expanding economy and institutional barriers in colonial Kenya · Business History · 2026
- Cross-Cultural Connections: Roman Material Reception and Adaptation in South and Southeast Asia · Cambridge Archaeological Journal · 2026
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