Introduction: Reconsidering Futurism

The financial crisis hit Italy harder than many other Eurozone countries. In part this was due to the fact that the crisis came upon a system that was weakened by years of sub-par economic growth. One of the several endogenous factors that explain the stagnation of the Italian economy is the weak corporate governance in the industrial sector and parts of the financial one. A framework that was designed to maintain stability in the ownership of companies and of certain types of banking institution ultimately led to an inefficient allocation of capital and to a lack of investment, which contributed to the loss of competitiveness of Italian firms in a fast globalizing marketplace.     

Many Souths: Many stereotypes

Jane Schneider (ed.), Italy's ‘Southern Question’. Orientalism in one country, Berg, Oxford and New York, 1998, vii + 299 pp., ISBN 1 85973 997 0 pbk, £17.99     

Beyond the stereotypes: Mary Lavin's Irish women

This paper discusses Mary Lavin's place within the Irish literary tradition by means of an analysis of her representations of female characters. It argues, first, that Lavin's short stories depart from the short story tradition in general and the Irish short story tradition in particular by failing to subscribe to the cultivation of the romantic outsider and focusing instead on family relations and social responsibilities. Second, Mary Lavin's marginal position in a feminist or female literary tradition is explained through her unwillingness to portray women as victims and through the absence of a clear critique of patriarchy in her work. The paper then tries to characterise the relationship between individual and society in Lavin's short fiction in a more positive way, by focusing on the notions of individual fate and personal responsibility, which turn out to be crucial to Mary Lavin's philosophy. This philosophy is first discussed explicitly in a reading of the story ‘Happiness’ and ‘The Widow's Son’ and subsequently shown to lie behind the oppositions and dilemmas in several other stories. Finally, the article demonstrates how Lavin manages to realise her Nietzschean belief in an Amor Fati in some of her most positive female characters through a clever use of imagery and point of view, without thereby succumbing to sentimentality or cliché.     

Assembling an Anthropological Actor: Anthropological Assemblage and Colonial Government in Papua

This paper traces the networks through which particular practices of collecting cultures became imbricated in new relations governing colonial populations. It investigates the socio-technical arrangements associated with “practical anthropology” as they were enrolled in the Australian administered territory of Papua. The paper follows the assemblage of a new kind of anthropological actor: one which is framed in relation to new articulations of the administrative, academic and museum networks associated with a programme of “scientific administration” and the doctrine of “humanitarian colonialism”. In particular, it focuses on the office of the Government Anthropologist and the ways in which “native culture” emerged as an administrative surface.     

Theoretical Perspectives on Labor and Colonialism: Reconsidering the California Missions

Many recognize that labor was a central feature of colonialism, especially in the Americas, but few have considered the anthropological implications of labor for interpreting colonialism. A new theoretical perspective involves conceptualizing labor as practice and as a social, rather than simply an economic, phenomenon. Building on theories of practice, labor can be defined as a colonial imposition and attempt at social control and as a medium of agency and resistance for those laboring. Although historical documents provide solid information on the structure and implementation of labor from the top down, archaeological research is often required to access the native experience of labor from the bottom up. To develop the labor-as-practice approach, I present a case study of the 18th- and 19th-century California missions that integrates historical data on regional mission labor organization with archaeological data from the specific site of Mission San Antonio de Padua in southcentral California. The results provide new insights into the interpretation of Mission San Antonio's archaeological record, fresh perspectives on the complexity of material culture in colonial and pluralistic settings, and increased appreciation for the role of colonial labor in structuring the spatial and material aspects of culture contact, colonialism, and daily life in the past.     

花厅墓地的人类学考察

把花厅墓地随葬的陶器划分为大汶口式、良渚式、薛家岗式和大汶口-良渚式、大汶口-薛家岗式,把玉器划分为良渚式、花厅式和融合式。根据随葬品的文化属性推测该花厅居民有大汶口人、良渚人和薛家岗人,大汶口人接受了良渚人的玉文化,良渚人和薛家岗人接受了大汶口的重要丧葬习俗。随着良渚人进入花厅,花厅由原来的富人和平民两个阶层分裂为贵族、富人和平民三个阶层,并使花厅由简单社会向复杂社会变化。三个不同考古学文化的先民在花厅共生共存,创造了面貌较为复杂和多样的考古学文化。     

Reconsidering the Metamorphosis of Io: on Texts,Images and Dates

This article reconsiders the portrayal of Io's metamorphosis in texts and images from the fifth century BCE. It discusses points of synchronicity and diachronicity, innovation and variety in this myth. While the depiction of Io on vases may not help us date with more certainty the texts of the fifth century BCE, including the Prometheus Bound and Bacchylides’ Ode 19, I argue that the comparison between texts and images may draw attention, instead, to a synchronic variety in the depiction of Io in the decades preceding and following the mid-fifth century BCE. This shift in perspective leads me to advance the proposition that myth interpretation may be revitalized by a paradigm shift from “tree” to “network”.     

Anthropological genetics: A new frontier

M. H. Crawford and P. L. Workman, eds. Methods and Theories of Anthropological Genetics. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973. xv + 509 pp. Figures, tables, references, and index. $20.00.     

Reconsidering the Tribal-State Compact Process

This essay evaluates the tribal-state compact process, as one of several alternative, nonadversarial processes, warranting attention. It argues that, because of its binding character and relatively low cost (in contrast to litigation), and because it is based in the idea of tribes and states exhibiting mutual respect, the compact process is an advanced version of negotiation and bargaining that tribes and states should consider where appropriate.     

Brexit: initial reflections

Even though the opinion polling before the British referendum on membership of the European Union showed a narrow gap between the two sides, the actual result—a vote to leave—on the morning of 24 June 2016 came as a surprise to many. Yet in truth both the referendum and its outcome had deep roots in British politics. In this article we cast an eye over the history of Britain's relationship with the EU, which has long been marked by a mixture of awkwardness and successful influence. We trace the origins of the referendum in long‐run tensions between, and within, the political parties, and in the lukewarm public support for European integration. We also examine more contingent, short‐term factors relating to the referendum campaign itself. We conclude by commenting on the divisions exposed by the vote along lines of geography, education, class and wealth, and suggest that reconciling these with the continuing tensions in the party landscape make a clean and speedy exit from the EU unlikely.     

Reconsidering otherness: constructing Estonian identity*

ABSTRACT. The concept of the Other is increasingly popular in nationalism and ethnicity literature, which usually proposes the existence of one significant Other for any national Self, and that this Other is usually threatening and negative. This approach is one‐sided and in need of revision. I suggest that any nation may have many simultaneously existing Others, and more importantly, these Others need not be negative – they may also be positive. By exploring how (1) ‘the Other’ matters in identity construction; (2) there can be several Others at any one time; (3) the Other can be positive as well as negative; (4) the role of any given Other can change during various phases of national identity construction and maintenance; and (5) the particular ‘otherness’ of the Other has social and political consequences, this article will reconsider the role of otherness in the construction, transformation and maintenance of Estonian national identity.     

Anthropological perspectives on death and mourning

Loring M. Danforth with photography by Alexander Tsearas. The Death Rituals of Rural Greece. 1982. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 170 pages (text) with 31 photographs. $30.00 cloth, $12.50 paper.     

Historical and Anthropological Archaeology: Forging Alliances

Historical and anthropological archaeology have had a somewhat disjointed relationship. Differences in theoretical perspectives, methodological concerns, and material records have led to a lack of cross talk between these branches of Americanist archaeology. This paper presents recent issues in historical archaeology, points out areas of common concern, and argues that both archaeologies would benefit from informed discussions about the materiality and history of the pre- and post-Columbian world.     

Shifting Sands: Towards an Anthropological Praxis

This paper reflects on some of the dilemmas within my shifting roles over the last twenty years as helper/friend/member of the Katherine Indigenous community in the Northern Territory of Australia and then, as anthropologist. During this period, indigenous calls for land rights have been increasingly interpreted in the terms of ‘bourgeois law’ (Collier et al. 1995). Indigenous identities have become the focus of intense public scrutiny as they define eligibility for scarce resources. Fighting over the scraps of what was once a wholistic indigenous landscape, some of Australia's indigenous peoples have begun to turn upon each other, in the struggle for recognition. Anthropologists as the scribes of indigenous identities are placed in invidious positions, and are easily accused of participating in (neo)colonial endeavours. This paper takes some small steps towards locating an anthropological praxis in this land rights/native title arena of power.     

杨龙友死因再探

杨龙友是明末清初一位重要的历史人物。由于多种因素,他的死亡原因在学界颇有争议,一说是在福建浦城降清被戮,一说在福建建阳,王毅《再说杨龙友》(1993年《湖北大学学报》第5期)即持杨龙友在福建浦城降清被戮说。笔者经多年考证和对杨龙友当年练兵、战斗的地方走访,收集到很多鲜为人知的资料。资料证明:杨龙友不是降清被戮,而是抗清不屈,于1646年8月25日在福建建阳水东的三桂里就义。     

Gorgobad: reflections on a German-Australian family biography

This article continues the focus on German-Australian militarised modernities through the Second World War to the present day. It draws on the author’s own family history, beginning with the memories evoked by her grandparents’ house in northern Sydney, built between 1950 and 1953. Named ‘Gorgobad’, Persian for ‘place of the wolves’, it resonates with a family history that involves German colonial investments in post-First World War Iran, the global geopolitical upheavals of the Second World War, which drew her family into separate histories of refuge, British imprisonment and deportation and, finally, building a new home in Australia. The essay asks pertinent questions about the entanglement of hegemonic racialised orders in Europe with the very racialised orders of the grounds on which Gorgobad was built.