Low-Fired Earthenwares in the African Diaspora: Problems and Prospects

Local earthenware associated with enslaved African populations in the Americas, variously called Colono-Ware, Afro-Caribbean Ware. Yabbas, and Criollo ware, has received considerable attention from researchers. What unifies this disparate group of ceramics is not method of manufacture, design and decoration, or even form and function but the association or potential association with African diaspora populations. The ceramics incorporate some skills and techniques possibly brought by African potters to the Americas, as well as skills reflecting European and Native American traditions, and local adaptations in form, function, and manufacture. Analogies linking African ceramic traditions to American industries have at times been employed uncritically and have relied on generalized characteristics to infer overly specific meanings. With particular reference to low-fired earthenwares from Jamaica, this paper examines the historical and cultural context of these ceramics and the methodological and theoretical problems faced in their interpretation.     

Über den ursprung der voneinander abweichenden Strukturen der Munda- und Khmer-Nikobar-Sprachen

Vorbemerkung Da die Bezeichnung Mon-Khmer zweideutig ist - sie umfasst nämlich einmal nur die Mon-Khmer-Sprachen im engeren Sinne, also Mon, Khmer, Bahnar, Mnong usw., zum anderen aber diese Sprachen und die verwandten Gruppen Khasi, Nikobar, Palaung-Wa, Semang, Sakai und Jakud - sei hier vorgeschlagen, den Terminus Mon-Khmer nur noch im engeren Sinne zu verwenden und ihn im weiteren Sinne gegen die Bezeichnung Khmer-Nikobar einzutauschen, da dadurch Irrtümer vermieden und ausserdem die zu bezeichnenden Sprachgruppen besser charakterisiert werden als durch die zu einer Gruppe gehörenden Sprachen Mon und Khmer. Die gesamte Ostobergruppe der austroasiatischen Sprachen wird durch die beiden charakteristischen und wichtigen Sprachen, die alte Literatursprache Khmer und die besonders altertümliche Nikobar-Gruppe, wohl am besten repräsentiert. Die Bezeichnung Mon-Annam-Sprachen ist wegen des Übergangscharakters des Vietnamesischen abzulehnen. Die Khmer-Nikobar-Sprachen stehen also den Mundasprachen in Vorderindien gegenüber.     

A History of Normative Theory in Americanist Archaeology

Efforts in the 1960s to demonstrate the value of the new archaeology involved showing that the competing culture-history paradigm was inferior. One allegedly weak plank in that paradigm had to do with how culture historians viewed culture—as a set of ideas transmitted in the form of ideal norms or mental templates. Lewis Binford referred to this view as normative theory. In archaeology that view was manifest in the equation of artifact types with prehistoric norms—an equation that, according to Binford, the culture historians had made so that they could track the flow of ideas through time and thus write culture history. Culture historians regularly subscribed to cultural transmission as the theoretical backdrop for their artifact-based chronometers such as seriation and the direct historical approach, but with few exceptions they perceived only a weak relationship between norms and artifact types. It was not until 1960, in a paper by James Gifford, that what Binford labeled as normative theory appeared in anything approaching a complete form. Ironically, the first applications of normative theory were products of the new archaeologists, not the culture historians.     

The prehistory of Cyprus: Problems and prospects

The archaeological record of prehistoric Cyprus is rich, diverse, well-published, and frequently enigmatic. Regarded by many as a bridge between western Asia and the Aegean, Cyprus and its past are frequently seen from scholarly perspectives prevalent in one of those two cultural areas. Its material culture, however, differs radically from that of either area. Apart from the early colonization episodes on the island (perhaps three during the pre-Neolithic and Neolithic), evidence of foreign contact remains limited until the Bronze Age (post-2500 B. C.). This study seeks to present the prehistory of Cyprus from an indigenous perspective, and to examine a series of archaeological problems that foreground Cyprus within its eastern Mediterranean context. The study begins with an overview of time, place, and the nature of fieldwork on the island, continues with a presentation and discussion of several significant issues in Cypriot prehistory (e.g., insularity, colonization, subsistence, regionalism, interaction, social complexity, economic diversity), and concludes with a brief discussion of prospects for the archaeology of Cyprus up to and beyond 2000.     

Resisting Traditions: Ceramics, Identity, and Consumer Choice in the Outer Hebrides from 1800 to the Present

On a number of levels, peripheral status has been imposed on the Outer Hebrides (Scotland) since the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745. Drawing on a series of interviews with Hebridean families, this paper explores the changing meanings of ceramics imported into the islands from the early nineteenth century and displayed on wooden dressers. It is argued that in renegotiating their identity in the face of a series of externally generated economic changes, rural communities in the Hebrides have acted as thoughtful consumers, appropriating mainland material culture to their own ends. Throughout this process, imports have behaved ambiguously. This ambiguity is crucial to our understanding of the relationship—here characterized not as resistance but as resistant adaptation—between the Hebrides and the mainland.     

On the Origins of Pottery

Renewed research interest in the origins of pottery has illuminated an array of possible precipitating causes and environmental contexts in which pottery began to be made and used. This article is an attempt at synthesizing some of these data in hopes of stimulating further research into this intriguing topic. Following a review of theories on the origins of pottery, discussion proceeds to a survey of geographic and cultural contexts of low-fired or unfired pottery, highlighting the role(s) of pottery among contemporary hunter-gatherers and summarizing data pertaining to varied uses of pottery containers. It is argued that objects of unfired and low-fired clay were created as part of early prestige technologies of material representations beginning in the Upper Paleolithic and are part of an early software horizon. Clay began to be more widely manipulated by nonsedentary, complex hunter-gatherers in the very Late Pleistocene and early Holocene in areas of resource abundance, especially in tropical/subtropical coastal/riverine zones, as part of more general processes of resource and social intensification (such as competitive feasting or communal ritual). Knowledge of making and using pottery containers spread widely as prestige technology and as practical technology, the kind and timing of its adoption or reinvention varying from location to location depending on specific needs and circumstances.     

Philosophy of archaeology: Current issues

Recent literature reflects continuing concern with problems such as explanation, skepticism, and objective knowledge. Some authors urge archaeologists to abandon positivism in favor of new philosophical approaches, such as feminism, Marxism, hermeneutics, and critical theory. Ethical issues have received increased attention as archaeologists have become involved in determining public policy with regard to disposition of artifacts and uncovering of human burials.     

Struggling with the Past

Many postprocessual archaeologists have argued that active individuals make history. The apotheosis of the individual has been achieved under the rubric identity, the most pervasive theoretical term of the last few years. This focus obscures the fundamental idea that individuals do not exist in isolation. The relational concept of struggle will help us past this theoretical impasse. This concept has many components including real struggles in the past, our struggles to know the past, and using the past to struggle in the present. Our goal is to struggle past identity politics and the individual by focusing on peoples' real struggles in real cases.     

GrenzWerte—55. Deutscher Geographentag in Trier

Unter dem Motto GrenzWerte wird der 55. Deutsche Geographentag vom 1. bis 8. Oktober 2005 in Trier stattfinden. Inmitten der Großregion SaarLorLux/Rheinland-Pfalz/Wallonien, die selbst von Grenzen unterschiedlichster Art durchzogen und umgeben ist, werden die Öffnung Europas nach Osten und weitere interessante Grenzaspekte Deutschlands thematisiert. Vielerorts wird diskutiert über Grenzen, die erreicht sind, beispielsweise im Verkehrswesen, beim Umweltschutz oder in Nachhaltigkeitsfragen. Das Motto GrenzWerte hat diesen Trend aufgegriffen und ließ neben der räumlichen auch eine inhaltliche Grenzdimension entstehen. Darüber, welche Anknüpfungspunkte sich daraus für die Angewandte Geographie ergeben, sprach der stellvertretende Vorsitzende des DVAG, DIPL.-GEOGR. KAI PARTALE , mit dem Vorsitzenden des Ortsausschusses für den Geographentag in Trier und Professor für Angewandte Geographie und Raumentwicklung an der Universität Trier, PROF. DR. HEINER MONHEIM.     

Stirrings at the Periphery: History, Archaeology, and the Study of Dian

Early Chinese texts speak of the Han state conquering the kingdom of Dian in southwest China in 109 B.C. The limited historical record is complemented by archaeolgical discoveries pointing to the presence in Yunnan province of a complex Bronze Age society whose association with the historical Dian has been generally accepted. Historiographic and nonprocessual in nature, archaeology in Yunnan has yet to generate the data needed for a deeper understanding of Dian social structure and change. Whatever its shortcomings, however, Dian archaeology plays a consistent and important role within a system of thought which gives preeminence to the historical record.     

The Woodland and Mississippian traditions in the prehistory of Midwestern North America

Cultural developments in Midwestern North America between 5000 and 400 B.P. are reviewed and related to two overlapping, but contrasting, cultural traditions: Woodland and Mississippian. Significant changes in prehistoric subsistence systems, settlement patterns, and sociopolitical organization are reviewed within a three-division framework, beginning with a Transitional period (5000–2000 B.P.) when Late Archaic and Early Woodland societies settled into different regions, constructed regional markers (cemeteries, mounds, earthworks), and established economic and social relations with both neighboring and more distant groups. This was followed by the Middle Woodland period (2000–1500 B.P.) that is associated with the Hopewell climax of long-distance exchange of exotic materials, mound building, and ceremonial activities, although all Middle Woodland groups did not participate in this Hopewell interaction sphere. In the Late Prehistoric period (1500–400 B.P.), the Woodland tradition persisted in some areas, while the Mississippian tradition developed from local Late Woodland societies elsewhere. Finally, the patterns of interaction between the two traditions are discussed.     

Common Recollections: Resisting Enclosure “by Agreement” in Seventeenth-Century England

Through the enclosure of upland common wastes, an upwardly mobile yeomanry and lesser gentry sought to shift the emphases of local economies toward agrarian capitalism and strove to establish tighter control over burgeoning rural industries. An examination of the township of Castleton in the Pennine uplands of Derbyshire, where the 1691 enclosure proceedings and survey still survive, demonstrates that the typical historical view of such (non-Parliamentary) enclosure agreements is highly problematic. Confronted with the loss of customary common rights, poorer Castleton tenants were compelled to enclose strips within the open arable fields in order to husband animals. By attempting to preserve routines of daily life, however, they also resisted enclosure—through the conservation of common rights and customary practices and through efforts to maintain continuity in agricultural and lead-extraction activities.     

Prehistory of Chihuahua and Sonora,Mexico

The North American Southwest includes much of Mexico as well as the southwestern United States. The area north of the international border has been studied intensively and its culture history is widely known; the portion south of the border has usually been ignored. This essay proposes a new term for the entire culture area, Northern Mexico, and provides a summary of local sequences for two states in the region, Chihuahua and Sonora. The general sequence in the U.S. Southwest (Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and Ceramic periods) also holds in northwest Mexico. Preceramic occupations are poorly known. The Ceramic period saw the rise of a number of local cultures, which varied greatly in adaptation and social complexity. The basic culture pattern of Northern Mexico is derived from that of central Mexico, but direct Mesoamerican intervention in the region was apparently limited. While the issue of Mesoamerican-Northern Mexican relationships has dominated scholarly debate for decades, the greater need is to define and explain cultural variability within and between local sequences.     

Archaeology, History, and Material Culture: Grounding Abstractions and Other Imponderables

United States national programs for historic preservation have a great influence on public memory and commemoration. Decisions about what may be listed in the National Register of Historic Places or designated a National Historic Landmark may commemorate or silence parts of the past. Historians invoke the concept of integrity as a gatekeeper to control access to these lists. Archaeologists have the opportunity to contest some of the imposed silences and make these lists more inclusive of underrepresented groups.     

‘Symbolic reservoirs’ and inter-group relations: West African examples

A number of archaeologists have recently considered the possible functioning of shared systems of symbols and beliefs — sometimes called symbolic reservoirs — within and between more or less closely related West African societies. Elements from these systems are expressed in behaviour and in material culture to support and articulate group social strategies; they are therefore capable of structuring artefact variation on a large scale. This concept has obvious implications for our understanding of regional variation in archaeological assemblages. In this paper, I offer a critique of the concept of the symbolic reservoir; I believe that the metaphorical implications of the term reservoir are not useful, and that present conceptions are of an entity too bounded and too stable usefully to reflect the dynamics of social interaction within and (especially) between African societies. I then offer an alternative view of the spread of symbolic and stylistic elements between groups.

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Résumé Un certain nombre d'archéologues ont récemment envisagé la possibilité de systèmes communs de symboles et de croyances — parfois désignés par le terme réservoirs symboliques — au sein de sociétés d'Afrique occidentale entretenant entre elles des rapports plus ou moins étroits. Des éléments de ces systèmes s'expriment en termes de comportement et de culture matérielle et permettent de soutenir et d'articuler des stratégies sociales de groupes; ils peuvent donc structurer sur une grande échelle variation des objets façonnés. Ce concept a des conséquences évidentes par rapport à notre compréhension des variations régionales entre collections archéologiques. Dans cet article, je présente une critique du concept de réservoir symbolique; j'estime peu pertinentes les implications métaphoriques du terme réservoir et je pense que les conceptions actuelles représentent une entité trop bornée et trop stable pour pouvoir bien refléter la dynamique de l'interaction sociale au sein des sociétés africaines et (surtout) entre elles. Je présente ensuite un point de vue différent sur la propagation d'éléments symboliques et stylistiques parmi des groupes.

     

The Archaeology of the Disenfranchised

The question of multivocality has been much explored and debated in recent archaeological publications. Clearly, the objective of such work is to assure the inclusion of the views of disadvantaged minorities and disenfranchised peoples in the presentation of their own pasts. This objective has not been achieved with much success, however, partly because mainstream archaeologists have had some difficulties in grappling with what appear to be a proliferation of alternative archaeological theories. Few discussions have approached alternative archaeologies as constituting a definable archaeological paradigm that might be termed The Archaeology of the Disenfranchised. Four different models within this paradigm are discussed and a strategy for a more widespread inclusion of alternative archaeological discussions and projects is suggested.     

Moche Politics,Religion, and Warfare

In this essay I briefly review the history of Moche studies, the essential features of this archaeological culture of the North Coast of Peru (ca. 1900–1100 B.P.), and its general economy. I then present current issues, discussions, and debates on Moche regional political organization, religion, warfare, and their interrelations. I suggest that the interpretation of Moche art has been and the interpretation of archaeology has lacked nuance. I question the proposal of warfare as ritual, that the temple mound complexes were centers of political power, that the elite buried in them were rulers, that the compounds and streets near them were cities, and whether proposals for a conquest Moche state are plausible. I suggest that these and other interpretations about the Moche are becoming accepted as facts without considering alternative interpretations of the data and that much information is lacking. Rather than having reached a stage when we can synthesize concepts about Moche culture we are only just beginning to understand it.     

Fitting into a New Place: Irish Immigrant Experiences in Shaping a Canadian Landscape

Escaping one heritage of British colonialism for another, Irish immigrants to Canada in the nineteenth and early twentieth century helped to shape the image of Canada and Canadian nationalism. In this paper, I compare the diversity of Irish immigrant experiences in Canadas urban and wilderness landscapes. The Irish immigrant experience in major urban centers is well documented. Community neighborhoods, Church activities and domestic and manual labor constitute just part of the stories of urban Irish Canadians in cities such as Toronto. The popular conception of the Irish as strictly city people is strengthened by the lack of discussion of the Irish immigrant role in taming (and ideologically shaping) the wilderness of Western Canada. It is argued that this has to do with the colonial image of the Irish from which British imperialist Canada sought to distinguish itself.     

Auf Der Spur Von Ai. véh

The root v `trace, followafter' has a remarkable 3rd person sg.injunctive véh in the Rigveda. It isargued that the form is coined on the 2nd sg.present injunctive véh which itselfhas been reinterpreted as an aoristinjunctive.