Archaeology and urbanism: railway stations and zoological gardens in the 19th-century cityscape

Abstract

Though later-historical and contemporary archaeology have added an important material dimension to key historical processes such as industrialization and colonialism, the phenomenon of urbanization has hitherto not been addressed. This paper argues for ‘an archaeology of the city’. Building on Habermas' work on the public sphere, it contends that the cityscape, just like the domestic sphere, is a domain for carving out social identities. It also contends that material agency can best be understood as a form of meaningful emergence through bricolage. The arguments are explored through an extensive empirical case study on zoos and railway stations in 19thcentury Europe. Both institutions developed around the same time, through the same liberal industrialism and often in each other's vicinity. Drawing on research into zoo studies, transport history, cultural history and urbanism, it is argued that zoos and stations were instrumental in transforming the 19th-century cityscape into a bourgeois space that provided gateways to the outside world.     

Between archives and the site: the 19th-century iron and steel industry in the Monklands,Central Scotland

Abstract

A case is made that attention should shift from the archaeology of process, guided largely by the archival evidence, to the archaeology of practice by scrutinizing the material record. Holistic Context Analysis applied to the industrial soils and finds at Moffat Upper Steam Forge has led to a more coherent and realistic picture of construction and demolition at the site, as well as of its puddling industry, than could be learned from the historical narrative of the iron and steel industry in the Monklands, the most industrialized part of Scotland in the 19th century.     

18th- and 19th-century shipyards at the south-east entrance to the West India Docks, London

Archaeological fieldwork in 1997 on the Isle of Dogs, at the south-east entrance to the West India Docks, recovered evidence of 17th- to 19th-century shipyards, associated activities and foreign trade. Reused timbers may be the remains of the 17th-century Rolt's yard. Reclamation along the natural inlet was accompanied by the construction of a timber dry dock probably in the late 18th century. This soon fell out of use and was filled in with the construction of new dry docks to the south in 1806 by Thomas Pitcher. Much of the debris dating to the first half of the 19th century from ship repairing and building and from a range of ancillary crafts, together with ceramics from Iberia and the Far East, probably came from Pitcher's yard.     

Myths of descent: Views of the remote past,as reflected in school textbooks in contemporary Russia

Abstract

A view of the past has proved to be a valuable aspect of ethnic identity in the contemporary world. It also plays a crucial role in contemporary struggles for political, financial, territorial and cultural resources. This struggle is especially intense in unstable political environments, as various ethnic elites compete to upgrade their political status and to gain desirable benefits. In the post-Soviet world, where ethnicity is still highly politicised, myths of the remote past and glorious ancestors are often forged and disseminated as important aspects of ethno-nationalist ideologies. Instead of appreciating cultural diversity, this trend introduces new models of social division, dominance and discrimination legitimised by a ‘distinct culture’ and ‘cultural roots’. An image of the enemy is an integral element of the ideologies in question, which have explicit or implicit xenophobic connotations. The place of this type of myth and ideology in the contemporary Russian education system is analysed here.     

Performing national identities in everyday life: Popular motivations and national indifference in 19th-century Amsterdam

This article demonstrates how and when the nation—whether in the shape of concrete national symbols or as an abstract frame of reference—became relevant to ordinary people. It focuses on the experiences and activities of Amsterdam citizens in the second half of the 19th century. Central to the analysis is the apparent contradiction between ‘banal’ or ‘everyday nationalism’, in which nationalist symbols and rhetoric appeared to successfully reach their audience because of their omnipresence in daily life, and ‘national indifference’, as referring to the absence of national identification among the masses. It argues that in order to overcome the dichotomies between elites and masses and national and non-national performances, we should focus on the popular incentives for national identification, rather than on the ideological content and the (physical or symbolic) borders of the national community.     

"虚拟"先人与十九世纪新加坡华人社会--兼论海外华人的"亲属"概念

在东南亚殖民地时代,"虚拟血缘"的组织原则对于华人移民社会的重组重建及其运作,具有重要的意义.本文以19世纪的新加坡为个案,考察华人移民如何透过埋葬先人的坟山组织建构"社群共祖"以整合华人社会,讨论东南亚华人虚拟的"先人"或"祖先"概念,进而思考海外华人的亲属研究问题.本文也讨论与比较了"虚拟血缘"组织原则在明代华南宗族"联宗"形态、台湾汉人社会发展早期的"合约式"宗族和东南亚华人坟山组织的不同运用.     

Childhoods past and present: anxiety and idyll in reminiscences of childhood outdoor play and contemporary parenting practices

ABSTRACT

Outdoor play is considered an essential aspect of a ‘proper childhood’. However, unsupervised outside play is declining, a decline attributed to parental anxieties about children’s safety. However what drives these anxieties and how this impacts on contemporary outdoor play is less clear. Our paper seeks to explore this through an analysis of adult narratives generated through digital map-making and forum discussion about where they played as children and where they would allow a child to play unsupervised now. Our analysis explores the nature of these narratives and pivotal moments in which adults articulated the disconnect between their own recollections of idyllic spatial freedom and the spatial restrictions they place on contemporary children. This offers a rich understanding of how parents navigate conflicting cultural imperatives on risk-avoidance and children’s rights to a ‘good’ childhood.