Fabric for Seventeenth-Century Children and Adolescents' Clothes

Abstract

This article attempts to describe the information on clothing which can be taken from the relatively newly exploited source of the probate account (as opposed to the probate inventory). The accounts only itemize the costs of clothing children up to apprenticeship, or to marriage, not the fully adult. Fortunately for this author's interests, the bulk of the accounts cover the children of parents with moveable goods worth under £100, under yeoman status. This particular article focuses on the range of prices that can be gleaned from the accounts on the prices of fabrics, and demonstrates that the same fabrics in the seventeenth century came in a very large range of prices and qualities. It differs from Professor Shammas' conclusions. The costs of clothing minors rose in the seventeenth century. It examines the prices of boys' and girls' clothes that can be gathered from the accounts, and also the types of fabric that were used to make each type of garment for them, taking into account the economic status of each child. It concludes that although the finer, more expensive, fabrics more commonly made up clothes for better-off children, this did not always follow : nor did the poor always wear the cheapest fabrics. There was no clear social stratification, although there was a rough one.     

A sense of proportion: An aspect of the theology of the chronicler 1

Abstract

The Chronicler's emphasis on certain theological teachings rather than others is better explained in terms of the rhetorical situation of the writer and the historical audience, and of their theological/ideological questions, rather than by assuming a dogmatic writer who was inconsistent or incoherent at times, or alternatively, one who grudgingly admitted here and there that reality did not follow the prescribed path.

In fact, the Chronicler consistently set the lessons that the historical audience may have learned from some, or even many, of the individual accounts in the book in theological/ideological perspective by qualifying them with the message conveyed by other accounts. The Chronicler, thus, shaped within the text, and communicated to the audience, a sense of proportion that is integral to the thought and teachings conveyed by the Book of Chronicles as a whole. This sense of proportion conveyed an image of God's ways in a manner consistent with a less than predictable world; moreover, it allowed for a variety of potential interpretations of (socially accepted) historical events, and of the actual experiences of the audience for which this book was written.     

Julius Drachsler's Intermarriage in New York City

Abstract

Julius Drachsler's 1921 book, Intermarriage in New York City, examined 171,356 individual marriage license applications from New York City in the years 1908–12. The author found little intermarriage across social lines among immigrants but a considerable amount among their U.S.-born children. This study replicates Drachsler's by taking a 1% sample (N = 1,714 cases) of the same set of marriage license applications for the same years. The replication results show that Drachsler correctly found an increasing trend to intermarriage between the first and second generations, and with close to the same proportions as Drachsler's work. The replication study of New York City marriage licenses is also consistent with the results from a 1910 sample of married couples living in New York City, taken from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample. The replication study differs from Drachsler's reported findings on the extent of intermarriages across social lines of nationality and race, mainly due to the idiosyncratic way that Drachsler defined those two constructs. The New York City marriage license files offer the researcher further opportunities to pose and answer questions about intermarriage.     

The Durham Gentry and the Scottish March, 1370–1400: County Service in Late Medieval England

Abstract

The study of landed society has moved beyond the polarizing paradigms of 'community' and 'affinity', and now ensures a healthy respect for regional variation based upon numerous variables. In the North-East, it has long been understood that great landlords, secular as well as ecclesiastics, were critical to the defence of the Scottish March and were thus vested with a great deal of authority by Crown and country. It would therefore be very much to be expected that local landed society and politics would be dominated by the region's great affinities, such as those of the Nevilles and the Percies, along with that of the bishop of Durham. But close study of the landed community reveals a more complex picture, one in which members of the region's gentry often achieved real measures of independence, many attending their affairs far outside these great baronial retinues and households, and building wealth and careers over time independent of the region's great magnates, who exercised such a profound influence over national affairs. Their holdings, careers, and political activities are the main subjects of this essay.     

American Historical Demography: A Review Essay

Abstract

American historians of modern art routinely assume that after World War II New York replaced Paris as the center of the western art world. An analysis of the illustrations in French textbooks shows that French art scholars disagree: they rate Jean Dubuffet as the most important painter of the era, ahead of Jackson Pollock, and they consider Yves Klein's anthropometries of 1960 as the greatest contribution of a single year, in front of Andy Warhol's innovations in Pop Art. Yet the French texts also show that the French artists' practices and conceptions of art paralleled those of the Americans. Thus, whereas French and American scholars disagree over the relative importance of their nations' artists, there is no disagreement that the most important art of the 1950s was produced by experimental seekers, and that of the 1960s by conceptual finders.     

On the Sexagenary Cycle of the Tibetans

This study examines Zuozhuan narrative accounts that conclude with evaluations ascribed to the “Gentleman” (junzi 君子). The Zuozhuan is one of the earliest extant Chinese works of narrative history, and in the past many scholars assumed that narrative accounts formed its core, dismissing subjective evaluations of those accounts, such as the Gentleman's comments, as secondary, later additions. This study demonstrates that narrative account plus Gentleman judgment function together as a unit, contending that these units were likely introduced into the Zuozhuan as such. It further proposes that the perception that the Gentleman's concluding comments were later, independent additions was likely influenced by the practice of capping narrative accounts with quotations borrowed from other sources, and furthermore, suggests that this perception may have led compilers on occasion to insert material between the narrative accounts and the Gentleman's evaluations of them.     

Changing views of women in society, 1975

Ernestine Friedl. Women and Men: An Anthropologist's View. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1975. xi + 148 pp. Illustrations, map, references, and relevant case studies. $3.50 (paper).

M. Kay Martin and Barbara Voorhies. The Female of the Species. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1975. x + 432 pp. Tables, figures, illustrations, references, and index. $15.00 (cloth), $6.50 (paper).

Evelyn Reed. Woman's Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1975. xviii + 491 pp. Glossary, Bibliography, and index. $15. (cloth), $4.95 (paper).     

Honorary Secretary’s Report for 1964

Abstract

The glazing scheme of the chapter-house at York Minster contains the best preserved ensemble of narrative glass of its period in England, and is the only one to survive in any of the great polygonal chapter-houses. Although it is frequently mentioned in general works on the Minster and its glass, there has been no sustained attempt to reconstruct the sequence of the panels or to consider the iconography of the scheme in relation to its setting. This study aims to highlight the significance of the scheme as a whole by focusing on just one of its seven windows: that in the north-west corner, which features a life of St Katherine of Alexandria. Using unpublished antiquarian sources alongside textual versions of Katherine's vita, it outlines a possible sequence for the window's disordered panels. It then goes on to analyse the window and its iconography within the context of the chapter-house, considering how it constructs its own particular version of this highly popular narrative. The results suggest that the scheme as a whole is a high-status product which employs complex narrative strategies. It is an important testament to the sophistication of glazed narratives in the period as well as to the ambitions of York's chapter.     

Receiving Royals in Later Medieval York: Civic Ceremony and the Municipal Elite, 1478–1503

Abstract

This article examines the later medieval royal entry ceremony in York from the perspective of the social groups that designed and produced the spectacle. Deliberations of York's civic council comprise the main body of evidence for this study. It is argued that a mercantile oligarchy controlled the production of ceremony at every level. York's merchants dominated the design of civic receptions by excluding other secular and ecclesiastical groups native to the city from the decision-making process, and by resisting external interference by groups such as the nobility. The civic council made use of the topography of the city to reinforce the mercantile dimensions of the ceremony and to create a ceremonial space where they could communicate with the royal visitor. The merchant élite also adapted the form and content of the city's nuanced Corpus Christi celebrations to the royal entry. By these means they displayed and consolidated their position at the pinnacle of urban society at a time when their dominance over the city's economic, social and political structures was weakening.     

The American Palestine Exploration Society and the Survey of Eastern Palestine

Abstract

The Survey of Western Palestine, carried out from 1871 to 1878 by the Palestine Exploration Fund, has become one of the central pieces of scientific research for this region. From its outset, it was conceived as one half of a two-fold project, the other being a survey conducted in the same manner in Transjordan. The Society that was to undertake this, in collaboration with the PEF and their work in Western Palestine, was the American Palestine Exploration Society (APES), founded in 1870. However, by the autumn of 1877, the APES had ceased to exist, and their survey was never widely published. As the first American Society to focus on the Levant as an area of study, the APES is significant, despite its failure to produce a map of lasting value. Many of the founding members went on to be significant players in later, more successful American ventures, notably the American School of Oriental Research. The PEF's archives hold a record of the relationship between the APES in New York, and the PEF in London, and chart the fortunes of the two societies, and their endeavours to map the region east of the Jordan.     

Employment on the Priory of Durham Estates, 1494–1519: The Priory as an Employer

Abstract

This article argues that during the years in which he was Archbishop of York, 1514 to 1530, Thomas Wolsey monopolised the patronage of the city of York's governing institution. Unlike previous patrons, Wolsey's status as both the prelate of the archdiocese and the most prominent Crown minister and favourite of Henry VIII, gave him an unprecedented position in the city's quest for securing royal favour. The mayor and commonalty of York were not only aware of Wolsey's pre-eminent standing, but sought to exploit their perceived special connection with him for the city's economic benefit. It was York's governors who initiated and strived to maintain a continual patron-client relationship with Wolsey. In doing so, they deviated from the typical pattern of clientage among sixteenth-century urban governments by forsaking multiple ties with other local and regional notables. Brokers formed the channel through which patronage and clientage were transmitted. These were both men associated with Wolsey through archidiocesan administration and resident locally, and men situated in Wolsey's London household at York Place. By examining patronage and clientage in the context of the city's most pressing issues, this article sheds light on urban-Crown relations in the early Henrician period under Wolsey's supremacy.     

Fowler's Type G Penannular Brooches Reconsidered

Abstract

Analysis of coin finds in an area of NE. England employs and modifies methods developed for Iron-age and Romano-British assemblages alongside quantitative analysis developed specifically for Anglo-Saxon coinages. The results illustrate that observed patterns of coin loss do represent the overall coin loss for the study area, and sites can be confidently compared to each other and the region as a whole. The role and function of coinage apparently changes dramatically over the period from a medium of long-distance trade in the early period to a cash currency by the Viking takeover of York. A review of 'productive sites' suggests that these sites can only be adequately interpreted through analysis of their assemblages against the background of the regional circulation of coinage and artefacts.     

Remembering and Forgetting Sites of Terrorism in New York, 1900–2001

Abstract

This article assesses the manner in which terrorist attacks have been remembered and forgotten within New York during the twentieth century. As a 'global city', New York has frequently been the focus of individuals and groups seeking to promote their cause by attacking targets in the city, its businesses, its infrastructure, its organizations, and its citizens. By examining how these events were reported and subsequently incorporated or dismissed within both the urban fabric and the city's 'collective memory', this article addresses how violent terrorism is engaged with by society. Building upon the advances made within the study of modern conflict archaeology, this article examines the possibility of an archaeology of terrorism.     

THE CITY OF GOD AND AFTER: RELIGIOUS CHANGE AND ORGANISATIONAL DECLINE IN GREAT ENGLISH TOWNS SINCE C. 1850

Abstract

The demands and effects of warfare have not been one of the traditional concerns of historians of early modern English towns. This essay looks at the way in which the townsmen of York, Hull and Beverley responded to the demands of war. It explores the level of urban involvement in the king's wars, mainly but not exclusively against the Scots, and the way in which the pressure of war acted to transform relations within towns and relations between towns and their neighbours. In a period when towns were experiencing rapid economic, social and religious change, war provided one means of renegotiating power relations and allowed urban elites to expand their authority, through partnership with the Crown, vis-à-vis their fellow citizens and non-urban elites. The balance between profiting from war and being ruined by its demands was a fine one, however, exemplified by the experience of Hull in the 1540s.     

Property and morality: women in the communal courts of late Ottoman Greece

Abstract

Women in Ottoman Greece were present in a number of different courts of law, one being the so-called communal courts. These courts became increasingly important towards the end of the Ottoman period, especially in areas where there was little if any Muslim population, and they dealt with a great variety of cases ranging from property disputes to rape and crimes of morality. Women were very active in such courts, both as accusers and as accused, showing remarkable knowledge of the manner in which such courts functioned. They frequently chose to pursue cases in them, in part because communal courts were supportive of individuals in difficult circumstances such as widows, who form the bulk of the female petitioners. This was an outcome of the nature of these courts which were composed of the same individuals who exercised executive powers over their communities and who thus wanted to ensure tranquillity and the prosperity of their people. For that reason notables appear almost unconcerned with the stipulations of customary law in several of their judgments, seeking instead to achieve compromises, or what we could term the greater social good. Being local, easily accessible, and familiar to the members of each community, communal courts were attractive to women and men in the years leading to the emergence of the modern Greek state, forming one tier of the complex Ottoman 'system' of conflict resolution.     

The Selby Project Britain's Greatest Coal Mine

Abstract

In the 260 square kilometres between York and Selby, under the rich agricultural land of the Plain of York, the British National Coal Board is creating one of tbe world's greatest single deep mining undertakings. Designed to produce 10 million tonnes of coal a year at very high efficiency, the scheme is well advanced to reach full production in 1987. In addition to utilizing all the latest mining technology, the design, which handles all the output at one disposal point, has involved the development of much greater capacity coal-handling techniques and equipment than that previously used in the deep coal mining industry.     

Two Cambridge Orientalists on Athos

Abstract

This essay considers the accounts of Athos by Joseph Dacre Carlyle, who visited Athos in 1801, and by John Palmer who was there four years later. The men were successive holders of the chair of Arabic at Cambridge. The study examines some of their impressions of Athos and compares their experiences with the well-known account of Philip Hunt who was Carlyle's travelling companion. Appendices give tables of the numbers of monks in the Athonite houses; Palmer's expenses; and a brief discussion of some related documents.     

Bar sexism

James P. Spradley and Brenda J. Mann. The Cocktail Waitress: Woman's Work in a Man's World. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1975. 154 pp. Tables, figures, references, index. $4.50 paper.