John Bolton's Cinder Oven: An eighteenth century industrial re-use of a mediaeval tower

Abstract

In one of the two mediaeval towers built to defend the River Wensum in Norwich there is a beehive coke oven. Documentary evidence suggests that this 'cinder oven', as it is known locally, was built in c. 1792 by John Bolton to produce coke for his nearby maltings. Although unused for over a century, it is still intact and in relatively good condition. This short paper describes its history and structure.     

A possible eighteenth to nineteenth century example of a popliteal aneurysm from Leicester

Examples of the impressions made on bones by arterial aneurysms are rare in the archaeological record. One such specimen was found in a collection of 5000 pieces of disarticulated human bone from a disturbed eighteenth to nineteenth century graveyard in Leicester. The distal end of an adult femur shows a lesion on the posterior surface that has been identified as that made by an aneurysm of the popliteal artery, by comparison with an authenticated museum specimen of that condition, also of eighteenth century data. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Marriage and the family in a Maltese parish: St. Mary's (Qrendi) in the eighteenth century

This article addresses the Maltese traditional family, taking St. Mary's (Qrendi) as a test case. It results that couples married in their early twenties, while a high proportion of men and women never married at all. Marriage was not popular so that one-fifth of all marriages were remarriages. Very few widows remarried and it was only for some economic reason that they sought another man. There is no evidence though that a high rate of celibacy resulted in flagrant promiscuity even if there is evidence that the Qrendin were not so particular about their sex life. No birth control was practiced within marriage and children followed one another regularly. This brings into relief the parents' unconcern for their offspring's future as well as the inferior status of women because husbands made their wives several offspring. Relations between the spouses were poor so that dissatisfied couples went their own ways.     

Post-Byzantine hermeneiai zographikes in the eighteenth century and their dissemination in the Balkans during the nineteenth century

Abstract

This article focuses on the significance of the Orthodox painters' manuals, called hermeneiai zographikes, in the development of post-Byzantine iconography and painting technology and techniques in the Balkans during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using a number of unpublished painters' manuals (Greek and Slavonic) as primary sources for the study of Christian and Ottoman culture in the Balkan peninsula, it is possible to examine perceptions of Europe in the Balkans, in particular the principal routes for the transmission of ideas of the European Enlightenment, as well as the role of artists as mediators in the processes of 'Europeanization'.     

New technologies applied to family history: a particular case of southern Europe in the eighteenth century

In this article, the author explains how the support of new technologies has helped historians to develop their research over the last few decades. The author, therefore, summarizes the application of both database and genealogical programs for the southern Europe family studies as a methodological tool. First, the author will establish the importance of the creation of databases using the File Maker program, after which they will explain the value of using genealogical programs such as Genopro and Heredis. The main aim of this article is to give detail about the use of these new technologies as applied to a particular study of southern Europe, specifically the Crown of Castile, during the late modern period. The use of these computer programs has helped to develop the field of social sciences and family history, in particular, social history, during the last decade.     

The impact of western science and technology on 'ukiyo-e' prints and book illustrations in late eighteenth and nineteenth century Japan

In the Edo period (c. 1600-1868), exposure to Western art, science and technology encouraged Japanese 'ukiyo-e' (pictures of the floating world) artists to experiment with Western perspective in woodblock prints and book illustrations. We can see its early influence in the work of Utagawa Hiroshige (1787-1858), as well as Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). Unlike Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi lived to see the opening of the port of Yokohama to trade with the West in 1859. A whole genre of Yokohama prints emerged and one of the key artists was Utagawa Sadahide (1807-1873). In his illustrated books entitled 'Yokohama kaikō kenbunshi' (A Record of Things Seen and Heard in the Open Port of Yokohama) (1862), Sadahide plays with perspective in an effort to represent the dynamic changes that Japan was undergoing in its encounter with the West at the time. In the work of later artists such as Hiroshige III (1843-1894), Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915) and Inoue Yasuji (1864-1889), we can see growing efforts to depict light, shadow and depth, and a continuing fascination with the steam locomotive and the changes occurring in the Tokyo-Yokohama region as Japan entered the Meiji period (1868-1912).     

Animal electricity at the end of the eighteenth century: the many facets of a great scientific controversy

In the 1790s, Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta were the main protagonists of a lively debate on the role of electricity in animal organisms. Significant developments originated from this debate, leading to the foundation of two new disciplines, electrodynamics and electrophysiology, that were to play a crucial role in the scientific and technological progress of the last two centuries. The Galvani-Volta controversy has been repeatedly reconstructed, sometimes in an attempt to identify the merits and the errors of one or the other of the two protagonists, sometimes with the aim of demonstrating that the theories elaborated by the two Italian scholars were irreconcilable, reflecting completely different ways of looking at phenomena and conceiving of scientific research. In this article a different interpretation is offered, based on a discussion of the scientific issues that were central to Galvani's and Volta's research, and with reference to the context of science and society of the eighteenth century.     

Going 'tribal': Notes on pacification in the 21st century

Few anthropologists today would consider using the term 'tribe' as an analytical category, yet it has become a focal point for military commanders and other leaders prosecuting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Specifically, US-led occupation forces in both countries have begun pursuing 'tribal' strategies in which they have attempted to forge alliances with 'sheiks' and local power brokers. This article examines the reasons for the rapid rise of 'tribal' discourses, the role of social scientists in their propagation and the possible consequences for Iraqis and Afghans. It concludes by comparing these processes to ethnographically-informed pacification efforts initiated in the late 1800s and early 1900s by the European powers, and by suggesting that anthropologists can potentially play a critical role by challenging persistent, damaging assumptions.