Fashion,the Politics of Style and National Identity in Pre–Fascist and Fascist Italy

The essay offers an analysis of fashion and its bearing on the construction of national identity and politics of style during fascism in Italy. No recent work on fascism has analysed the role of fashion in the complex and contradictory phases of the cultural politics of Mussolini’s regime. The essay aims to illustrate the two sides of fashion and their relevance to the period in question. It shows, on the one hand, how the regime used fashion to discipline the social body, especially women’s, and to create a national style recognisable as such; and, on the other, how fashion is also an individual act through which was expressed the creativity both of the people working in the fashion industry and of ordinary people who used fashion and style to demonstrate their non–conformity with the diktats of the regime. Pointing out that it was as a result of the debate on nationalism of the pre–fascist liberal period that premises for fascist policy were set, the essay argues that the history of fascist fashion policy is one of continuities rather than ruptures.     

Norwegian Neo‐Latin Material 1519–1898

The present article is a survey of registered Norwegian Neo‐Latin material from the period 1519–1898. It should be read as a Norwegian supplement to Zeeberg and Mortensen: “The Database of Nordic Neo‐Latin Literature on the World Wide Web”;, SO 72, 1997, 185–189. The material also comprises the approx. 170 documents from the period 1519–1650 (both years included) which are already registered in the common Nordic Database. The article falls into two halves: A. Registration of Norwegian Neo‐Latin Material, and B. Statistics.     

The Queen and her ‘Minister of Fashion’: Gender,Credit and Politics in Pre–Revolutionary France

This article examines the economic, cultural, and political role of credit in Old Regime France through the career of the fashion merchant Rose Bertin. It addresses three aspects of Bertin’s credit practices: her involvement in networks of trade credit, her use of reputation as a form of credit, and the way critics used her credit relations with Marie–Antoinette to discredit the political economy of the Old Regime. Using Bertin as a case study, the article reveals women’s involvement in multiple facets of credit and underlines the practical and conceptual links between credit and other gendered forms of circulation, such as fashion and sex.     

Dedicated Followers of Fashion? Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Socio‐Economic Status,Inequality, and Health in Urban Children from the Industrial Revolution (18th–19th C), England

The 18th and 19th centuries in England were characterised by a period of increasing industrialisation of its urban centres. It was also one of widening social and health inequalities between the rich and the poor. Childhood is well‐documented as being a stage in the life course during which the body is particularly sensitive to adverse socio‐economic environments. This study therefore aims to examine the relationship between health and wealth through a comprehensive skeletal analysis of a sample of 403 children (0–17 years), of varying socio‐economic status, from four cemetery sites in London (c.1712–1854). Measurements of long bone diaphyseal length, cortical thickness, vertebral neural canal size, and the prevalence of a range of pathological indicators of health stress were recorded from the Chelsea Old Church (high status), St Benet Sherehog (middle status), Bow Baptist (middle status), and Cross Bones (low status) skeletal collections. Children from the low status Cross Bones site demonstrated deficient growth values, as expected. However, those from the high status site of Chelsea Old Church also demonstrated poor growth values during infancy. Fashionable child‐care practices (e.g. the use of artificial infant feeds and keeping children indoors) may have contributed to poor infant health amongst high status groups. However, differing health risks in the lower status group revealed the existence of substantial health inequality in London at this time. © 2016 The Authors International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Migration to London and transatlantic emigration of indentured servants, 1683–1775

Large-scale migration to London was a central feature of pre-industrial England, enabling the city to grow to a considerable size and preventing over-population in marginal areas of the country, but little is known about the geographical pattern of migration because data are difficult to obtain. It is argued here that 75% of indentured servants bound in London for service in the colonies in America and the West Indies in the period 1683–1775 were two-stage emigrants and their records can be used to establish the pattern of migration to London in the century preceding the industrial revolution. It is shown that London's migration field in this period was very extensive, more than half the migrants coming from areas over 130 km from the city, and more than 21% coming from large towns. The migration pattern of women differed from that of men, in accordance with the principles identified by Ravenstein. It is also shown that the average distance travelled by migrants from England and Wales declined from 166 to 145 km between 1683 and 1775 although migration from Scotland and Ireland increased and the migration field expanded to include America and Asia. For many servants, emigration was simply a further stage in the migration process.     

Meat–Eating,Masculinity, and Renunciation in India: A Gandhian Grammar of Diet

This paper focuses on the writings and the autobiography of one of the century’s most prominent vegetarians, who was almost as noted (or notorious) for his alimentary and sexual experiments as for his political ones. A consideration of diet is, I argue, in many ways central rather than marginal to a Gandhian gendered ethics and a Gandhian politics. The accounts of the eating and abjuration of meat in the Gandhian oeuvre can serve as a useful point of entry into the investigation of two linked loci of Gandhi’s dietary practices: the question of meat and modernity, and the question of meat in the context of the patriarchal vegetarian household. These accounts are fascinating for their profoundly conflictual ethical logic, and they help establish the intimate and unexpected links among meat–eating, modern formations of masculine identity, and the gendered dynamics of the patriarchal Hindu household. Using the evidence of Gandhi’s autobiography, correspondence, journalism, and public addresses, in conjunction with the writings of his contemporaries, I map therefore a trajectory of his gastropolitics, from the carnophilic mandate of the early years (during which he associated meat–eating with nationalist duty and access to a kind of culinary virility), to the diasporic discovery of vegetarianism in London, and finally to the carefully elaborated alimentary rigours and public fasts of the later years. All of this helps to underline how profoundly somatic Gandhi’s ‘experiments in truth’ were, and how pronounced was his belief that the purification of the body was inseparable from the purification of the mind necessary for swaraj (self–rule).     

Stable Isotope Record of Human and Sheep Enamel Carbonate from the Ancient Middle Euphrates Valley (Syria)

Stable isotope analyses of human tooth enamel have allowed us to reconstruct the isotope composition of dietary carbon, changes in the oxygen isotope composition of drinking water and the possible migration of humans in ancient Terqa and Tell Masaikh (SE Syria). δ¹⁸O_carbonate values of human tooth enamel from the interval comprising the Neo‐Assyrian to the modern Islamic periods (from 900 BC to AD 1949) generally mirror the isotope composition of Euphrates water, which is believed to have been a major drinking water source. Lower δ¹⁸O_carbonate values of human Bronze Age apatite are linked to a different hydrologic system that was present in the Middle Euphrates valley at that time (2650–1700 BC). Higher δ¹⁸O_carbonate values of some individuals in the Neo‐Assyrian (900–700 BC) and Islamic periods (AD 600–1200) may indicate human migration from the interior of the Near East. Low δ¹³C_carbonate values (−11.3 to −12.4‰) of human tooth enamel from the interval comprising the Early Bronze to the Islamic periods (from 2650 BC to AD 1200) indicate C₃ plants as a predominant source of dietary carbon. Changes in human dietary customs in SE Syria (with inferred usage of C₄ plants) occurred in the modern Islamic period only (AD 1850–1949). Oxygen and carbon isotope data of sheep enamel show the usage of water bodies characterised by an enhanced evaporation rate during the Neo‐Assyrian time (900–700 BC) and grazing sheep herds on drier areas during the Islamic and the modern Islamic periods (after AD 600). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reflections on Gender and Status Distinctions: An Analysis of the Liturgical Textiles Recorded in Mid–Sixteenth–Century London

This paper considers the relative significance of social standing and gender in parish life within early modern London, and how this was expressed via their liturgical textiles up to 1552. The data are drawn from the 1552 parish inventories that recorded these textiles and the other appurtenances of worship. Vestments worn for communion, robes for boy choristers and the range of textiles associated with birth, christening, churching, marriage and death are evaluated to see how far they reveal distinctions between men and women, adults and children, rich and poor, laity and clergy. A range of differences can be seen, as can the way in which social and gender considerations interlink.     

The culture of investment‐led international development: the Chatham House circle (1939–45) and lessons for today

In 1939–45 an economic group for the discussion of postwar economic order was established at Chatham House, gathering a transnational community of economists and scholars at 10 St James Square in London. Papers were written and seminars were held before—and following—the conference held in Bretton Woods in 1944. Polish‐born economist Paul Rosenstein‐Rodan (1902–1985) coordinated the group, which invoked investment‐led growth and new international institutions for development. Chatham House played a role in making sense of, and disseminating, this new culture of international development. To be clear, this ‘new’ culture was not entirely new, and had its roots in the interwar years, including colonial development policy. Nor was Chatham House the only hub of this culture. This article aims at filling a gap in our understanding of the role of economic research done at Chatham House during the Second World War. In addition, by looking to the past, it may also help at broadening our views on how to globally reignite growth today. Policy‐makers seem to have learnt some of the monetary lessons of the 1930s, but not the development ones of the 1940s. This article is based on sources from the Chatham House archive and brings to special attention articles published in International Affairs.     

Two views of natural selection and evolution

Ho, Mae‐Wan, and Peter Saunders, eds. Beyond Neo‐Darwinism: An Introduction to the New Evolutionary Paradigm. London: Academic Press, 1984. xiv + 376 pp. including illustrations, author and subject indices, and chapter references. $40.00 cloth, $25.00 paper.

Sober, Elliott. The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984. x + 383 pp. including references and author and subject indices. $25.00 cloth, $12.50 paper.     

金代理学发展初探

金代理学接续北宋理学在北方的微弱血脉 ,在经过一段衰而不绝的时期后 ,以南宋理学的北上为契机 ,开始了一个复苏阶段。尽管在金朝遭到不少反对 ,但在一些大学者的积极倡导下 ,理学还是慢慢扩大了影响。一些理学世家的家学传统也得到继承和发扬。到金亡前后 ,学者们对理学的研习已成为思想史上不容忽视的现象。     

A Technological Study of the Elamite Polychrome Glazed Bricks at Susa,South‐Western Iran

This study investigated the technological features of the Neo‐Elamite glazed bricks discovered at the Acropolis of Susa, south‐western Iran, by conducting micro‐Raman spectroscopy, differential thermal analysis/thermogravimetry (DTA/TG), X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy–energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDS). The results showed that calcium antimonate white and lead antimonate yellow were used as opacifiers in the white, yellow and green glazes, and that green and turquoise glazes were achieved using copper. Coloured glazes were separated by a Si‐rich brown glaze to prevent them from running together during firing. The glazed bricks most probably were not fired at temperatures higher than 900°C.     

‘Anti–Mini Militants Meet Modern Misses’: Urban Style,Gender and the Politics of ‘National Culture’ in 1960s Dar es Salaam,Tanzania

This essay examines a 1968–9 campaign by Tanzania’s ruling party Youth League to outlaw mini–skirts and other ‘indecent’ fashions as ‘decadent’ affronts to Tanzanian ‘national culture’. It situates the intense, public debate on the campaign both in terms of the state’s contested national cultural project, and in relation to intersecting anxieties about shifts in women’s work and mobility in urban space, and the politics of sex in postcolonial Dar es Salaam. Arguing that ‘the city’ ndash; both as an imagined space and as the site of particular, gendered social struggles – is central to understanding the campaign, the essay charts attempts by the ban’s opponents to fashion viable personas and notes the limits of these attempts.     

IDENTIFICATION OF POST‐DEPOSITIONAL CHEMICAL ALTERATION OF CERAMICS FROM THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA (SANDUAN PROVINCE) BY TIME‐OF‐FLIGHT–LASER ABLATION–INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA–MASS SPECTROMETRY (TOF–LA–ICP–MS)*

The measured chemical composition of archaeological ceramics can result from a variety of geological, cultural and taphonomic factors. In the present study, we evaluate the likelihood that elevated barium concentrations in ceramics from the archaeological site of Wom/Aiser, located on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea, result from post‐depositional enrichment. Using time‐of‐flight–laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry, we mapped chemical compositional profiles across cut sections of ceramic sherds from four archaeological sites, all previously chemically characterized. We identify the formation of pronounced concentration gradients in samples from Wom/Aiser relative to sherds with low barium concentrations, consistent with post‐burial uptake.     

Agrarian Differentiation in Post–Socialist Societies: Evidence from Three Upland Villages in North–Western Vietnam

The literature on post–socialist transformations displays a fairly broad consensus that changes in macro structures of state and economy generate or increase rural inequality. This article examines the distributional effects of macro changes in Vietnamese villages. Findings from local–level research highlight the multiple ways in which people react to changes in macro structures. Core fields of negotiation by local people include exchange relations, the use of surplus, and land tenure. Local negotiation may lead to local–level trajectories of agrarian change that differ significantly from national–level changes. Changes in macro structures thus may not substantially alter the underlying process of differentiation. Rural people may be rich and poor for the same reasons as under collective agriculture, though income differences may have become more accentuated.     

South–South Cooperation and the Geographies of Latin America–Caribbean Integration and Development: A Socio‐Spatial Approach

Structured around the case of South–South cooperation in the construction of “complementary economic zones” among the member states of the ALBA‐TCP, Petrocaribe, CARICOM and MERCOSUR, this article argues for a socio‐spatial approach to the study of the Latin America–Caribbean integration and development. Two interrelated arguments are developed: first, in contrast to methodologically nationalist approaches, which typically view the regionalisms that are to form the complementary economic zones as ideologically separate, incompatible or conflicting projects, a socio‐spatial approach in conjunction with a South–South cooperation analytical lens explains their commonality and, subsequently, their interrelatedness and convergence. Second, while this South–South cooperation space is not per se non‐capitalist, a socio‐spatial analysis also facilitates “seeing” the production of a socialist “counter‐space” within this South–South cooperation structure.     

Nation–states and ethnic boundaries: modern Turkish identity and Turkish–Kurdish conflict

Ethnic and religious conflicts are two of the most pressing issues facing Turkey today. This article offers the argument that the development of the Turkish state and identity, and Turkey’s peripheral position in the interstate system, have collectively determined the parameters and dynamics of the conflicts. It is argued that modern Turkish identity has been forged by the state through the nation–state formation process that began in the 1920s. During the transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic it was deemed necessary to redefine the state and Turkish identity. At the historical juncture, Islam was replaced with other ideals and universals such as Turkism, modernity and étatism. The sudden and large–scale shift away from religion followed by vigorous ethnic assimilation efforts created a contradictory context between the state and ethnic/religious segments of the population. The change also marked the beginning of a new era in the Turkish–Kurdish discord. Another assertion of the article is that the state’s approach to ethnic/religious issues and demands is consistent with the assumptions and predictions of the ethnic democracy model.     

The Two Kingdoms: The Norwegian Seamen's Church in London 1865–1905

The Norwegian church in London began its life as a mission to Scandinavian seamen in 1868, after an evangelical society for this group had been founded in Bergen in 1864. Throughout the period covered, the former was involved in extensive cooperation with the other Nordic missions in the British capital. Yet it was always a congregation rather than just a mission and, as time went by, it became more self‐consciously Norwegian too. Evidence presented here suggests the mission was a place of worship for its domiciled compatriots before 1872, when the church building was completed. In common with many foreign Protestant churches in London, the Norwegian congregation experienced some conflict. There were restrictions on it owing to Norway having entered a forced union with Sweden in 1814. The Swedish church saw itself as catering for both nationalities and would not brook competition from what was officially a service for Scandinavian seamen. The clergy were not natural supporters of Norwegian nationalism. But as their country became more self‐assertive within the union from 1880, they began demanding enhanced rights for their church. It was only when Norway had unilaterally declared its independence in 1905 that the clergy became full‐blown adherents of this.     

Laboratory taphonomy—material loss and skeletal part profiles: the example of Saint–Germain–la–Rivière (Gironde,France)

Taphonomic studies can allow us to reconstruct the history of faunal assemblages. However, few studies concern themselves with measuring the effect of sampling problems and specific analytical procedures. Zooarchaeological study of the site of Saint–Germain–la–Rivière is instructive in this regard. Taphonomic studies suggest a loss of material during curation and storage. The study showed when unplotted specimens are not taken into account, the skeletal part profiles are modified in a significant way. In level 1, only square M21 can be used for analysis. By contrast, the quantity of specimens from level 3 in squares L21 and L22 rich in shaft fragments is so large compared to the other squares that this level can be studied in its totality.     

Understanding processes of ethnic control: segmentation,dependency and co–optation in post–communist Estonia

Amidst an arguably exhaustive range of studies regarding ethno–politics in post–communist Estonia, this article sets out a new framework derived from Ian Lustick’s model of ethnic control. We argue that one of the key reasons for ethnic peace and stability in Estonia over the past ten years has been a considerable degree of control instituted by the Estonian political community over its sizeable Russian–speaking minority. We analyse this control using Lustick’s three main indicators of segmentation, dependence and co–optation. In addition, we differentiate within each of these categories between structural, institutional and programmatic levels of control measures. Our aim is to place Estonia into a better comparative perspective by bringing to light its particular configuration of control mechanisms. The article concludes with an assessment of what this configuration might mean for future ethno–political developments.