Rethinking historiography and ethnography: Surrealism’s intellectual legacy

ABSTRACT

Taking up Maurice Blanchot’s perceptive claim that “Surrealism remains always of our time”, the essay traces the importance of Surrealism for rethinking the methods of historiography (for Walter Benjamin) and ethnography (for James Clifford) in ways that allow us to appreciate the significance of Surrealism’s intellectual legacy. In his early essays on Surrealism and the monumental, unfinished work, The Arcades Project, Benjamin developed a new historical methodology, what I term surrealist historiography, that sought to uncover the latent dimensions of culture, obscured by the dazzling sheen of progress embedded within conventional historical narrative. If Benjamin found in Surrealism a way to overcome the limitations of a Rankean historicism, the point of departure for Clifford’s essay, “On Ethnographic Surrealism” is the crisis of ethnographic authority precipitated by a postcolonial critique of the discipline of anthropology. Clifford’s aim in this essay is thus to provide a provocative reassessment of Surrealism’s self-reflexive ethnographic spirit and what it might contribute to a refashioning of ethnographic practice as a polyvocal assemblage that holds in tension disparate material realities and aesthetic principles. Surrealism’s intellectual legacy thus lies, as Michel Foucault has claimed, in its path-breaking interdisciplinarity, which is why it continues to be, for Blancot and others, “a brilliant obsession”.     

Seeing the World Through Ramist Eyes: The Richardsonian Ramism of Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone

Using as examples the writings of Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone, founding ministers of the First Church of Hartford, Connecticut, this article shows how influential thinkers in early seventeenth-century England and New England saw the world around them through the filters of the Ramist philosophy of Alexander Richardson. It argues that Richardsonian Ramism produced theology and preaching that was less “biblical” and more “Calvinist” than has been conventionally thought.     

Hayden White: Beyond Irony

A crisis of our age that is usually identified with the loss of the sacred was one of the causes of the fall into irony in the nineteenth century. In the case of historians, asHayden White has shown in Metahistory, this irony was caused by a“bitterness” stemming from the failure of reality to fulfill their expectations. Anironic apprehension of the world arose in an atmosphere of social breakdown or cultural decline.A current stage of irony manifests itself in a doubt as to the capacity of language to grasp reality. Thus we live in a “prison house of language.” An intellectual parlor-gameproduces “second-hand knowledge” that cannot satisfy the needs of post-postmodern men and women still looking for another metanarrative. Therefore, the main purpose of this essay is to answer the question: how can we go beyond irony? This text is a “post-postmodern post mortem topostmodernism.” I am grateful to postmodernism for many things, especially for giving me an alternative apprehension of the world in terms of difference and continuity rather than binary oppositions, but I am tired of ontological insecurity and epistemological chaos. I need order. I miss metanarrative. In trying to break with some modern/postmodern “principles” andretain within my discourse the premodernist perspective, I follow the current trend in thehumanities. We observe at present the breakdown of methodology and the rise of a more poeticapproach in the human sciences. Evidence of this phenomenon is the more autobiographical formof writing in anthropology (James Clifford, Clifford Geertz) and a more literary style inhistorical writing (Natalie Zemon Davis, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Simon Schama). This trendis associated with a revaluation of the subjective aspects of research. Perhaps, and I wouldwelcome it, it also could be identified with a reappearance of a Collingwoodian idea of history ashuman self-knowledge, knowledge about human nature, knowledge about “what it is to be a man . . . what it is to be the kind of man you are . . . and what it is to be the man you are and nobody else is.”     

An Assessment of the Space-Time Differential Model for Aggregate Trip Behavior to Planned Suburban Shopping Centers

Aggregate trip behavior to planned suburban shopping centers is studied in terms of changes in trip distance and shopping time within a framework of trip frequency, center scale, and consumer mobility. Such changes are expressed by a second-order differential equation. The assumed shopping strategy is that consumers accelerate the shopping trip cycle by minimizing trip distances. This can be solved to provide theoretical norms to assess against an exploratory data set compiled from 2,810 surveys undertaken in 1980/82 and 1988/89 over a range of centers. The analysis shows a significant relationship between the gravity coefficient and trip frequency. The samples are tested for periodicity using Fourier analysis. The results show that “small” centers are more likely to exhibit periodic behavior. “Large” centers do not follow this hypothesis. Both the gravity coefficient and trip frequency are shown to be quadratic functions of center size. The nonlinearity may be introduced by the agglomeration of shopping opportunities at larger centers. A critical value for “small-” and “large-”center behavior is determined from the minimum points of these distributions. A second equation from classical diffusion analysis is tested for “large” center behavior, where consumers accelerate spatial choice through a time minimization strategy. The results suggest that this strategy occurs at the midrange specialty center during the afternoon of the pre-Christmas rush rather than at large regional centers. The empirical characteristics of the three types of trip behavior are summarized.     

A new method for identifying sherd refits: A case study from the Neolithic of Northumbria,U.K.

Abstract

Here we present a flexible, quantitative methodology for refitting handmade ceramics. Rather than analyzing the physical joins between sherds, we assess the likelihood that non-adjoining sherds of similar appearance are from the same vessel. The customary disregard of non-adjoining sherds in refitting experiments prompts us to address this issue. Using the Neolithic ceramic assemblage from Thirlings (Northumberland, U.K.) as a case study, we test several scoring systems for assessing the probability of two sherds pertaining to the same vessel. The utility of this approach is supported by the comparison of a set of percentage scores statistically verified using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. We conclude with a discussion of the contribution of the new method to post-excavation ceramic analyses, and its applicability to other assemblages.     

Yorkshire’s influence on the understanding and treatment of mental diseases in Victorian Britain: The golden triad of York,Wakefield, and Leeds

In the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a more humane approach to the care of the insane in Britain was catalyzed in part by the illness of King George III. The Reform Movement envisaged “moral” treatment in asylums in pleasant rural environments, but these aspirations were overwhelmed by industrialization, urbanization, and the scale of the need, such that most asylums became gigantic institutions for chronic insanity. Three institutions in Yorkshire remained beacons of enlightenment in the general gloom of Victorian alienism: the Retreat in York founded and developed by the Quaker Tuke family; the West Riding Lunatic Asylum in Wakefield led by Sir James Crichton-Browne, which initiated research into brain and mental diseases; and the Leeds Medical School and Wakefield axis associated with Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt, which pioneered teaching of mental diseases and, later, the first Chair of Psychiatry. Three other Yorkshiremen who greatly influenced nineteenth-century “neuropsychiatry” in Britain and abroad were Thomas Laycock in York and Edinburgh, and Henry Maudsley and John Hughlings Jackson in London.     

Estimating the Size of Social Networks

It is notoriously difficult to define and estimate the size of individuals' social networks. Methods are suggested for estimating the size of such networks, using known rates of mobility together with survey data on the number of acquaintances of individuals who have recently moved. Special attention is given to the likely correlation between mobility rates and network size. Estimates are found to be consistent with previous estimates in the literature. The relation of this approach to multiplicity sampling and to “the small-world problem” is also discussed.     

Mental maps of global regions: identifying and characterizing “hard” and “soft” regions

ABSTRACT

This article presents the quantitative synthesis of mental maps that identify different types of world regions. It is the result of a large-scale survey conducted in 18 countries, based on a sketch map approach. The number, shape, and extension of these vernacular world regions vary according to countries, cultures, and the personal styles of respondents who drew the maps. However, when we collectively analyze the regions identified by respondents, we observe that the figures of global regions are more or less recurrent. While the most commonly used division of the world is into “continents”, we can identify “hard” and “soft” regions of the world. Whereas a “hard” region, such as Africa, can be recognized relatively unambiguously as a continent, “soft” regions may include numerous regional distinctions such as East Asia, Russia, South East Asia, and the Middle East. Our methodology involves defining a set of characteristics that discriminate between “hard” and “soft” regions (measuring spatial uncertainty and the relative vagueness of limits and fringes), then accounting for the correlation of these areas on the world map.     

Imaginary Success?—The Contentious Ascendance of Creativity

This paper posits that a set of “creative industries” centred around cultural practice have played a key role within a dominant “economic imaginary” in recent years. The success and stability of this role is considered, and a coherent position regarding the nature of creativity is outlined. Examination of the “evidence” gathering projects used to bulwark this position, however, reveals how the data which emerge from such projects may no longer appropriately serve to support the position the creative industries have come to occupy within the dominant imaginary. It is argued that this imaginary persists in providing a coherent framework for understanding and for action, however, regardless of the contradictions it contains. A tangible example of this “imaginary success” is briefly considered within the UK context, via an examination of developments around the staging of the European Capital of Culture programme in Liverpool, England in 2008. In this case, it is also argued that apparent contradictions are successfully concealed by dominant positions regarding culture and creativity. In conclusion, some explanations for this state of affairs are considered, and it is argued that the increased attention being paid to cultural creativity may render the continued concealment of these contradictions untenable.     

Ideology,Semiotics, and Clifford Geertz: Some Russian Reflections

This article, written by a Russian cultural historian, analyzes the concept of “ideology” in the work of Clifford Geertz and his role in understanding the figurative nature of ideology as a cultural system. The author compares Geertz's semiotic approach to culture with the semiotics of culture developed by Russian theorists, particularly Yuri Lotman, showing the convergence and divergence of the two different national traditions. This understanding of the nature and functions of ideology opens new possibilities for discussing the tortured relations of ideology and literature, showing the way fiction can affect the formation of ideological systems and influence practical politics. The analysis is illustrated by examples from Russian political life of the 1990s,when revolutionary changes demanded new sets of ideological metaphors that in their turn shaped the direction of events.     

State Responses and Migrant Experiences with Human Smuggling: A Reality Check

Using Bigo's (2002) notion of “the governmentality of unease” this article reveals a shift in popular discourse around human smuggling in Western Europe and Canada since the 1990s towards increasing criminalization. To analyze this process of criminalization we have identified three recurring elements: boat arrivals; high fees and “bogus” asylum seekers; and the involvement of organized crime. The finding that smugglers today are generally perceived as “evil criminals” who undermine states' ability to manage migration and who need to be punished is contrasted with data derived from interviews with smuggled migrants in the Netherlands and Canada that offer an alternative, more socially embedded understanding of human smuggling. We posit that this reality check and a more nuanced understanding of human smuggling are needed for the protection of international migrants.     

THE CONTINUING MODESTY OF HISTORY

The critique of conventional historical writing has been emergent for a century—it is not the work of a few—and it has immense practical implications for Western society, perhaps especially in English‐speaking countries. Involved are such issues as the decline of representation, the nature of causality, the definitions of identity or time or system, to name only a few. Conventional historians are quite right to consider this a challenge to everything they assume in order to do their work. The challenge is, why do that particular work at all? Understandably, historians have consolidated, especially in North America where empiricism and the English language prevail. But even there, and certainly elsewhere, and given the changes in knowledge and social order during the past century at least, the critique of conventional historical method is unavoidable. Too bad historians aren't doing more to help this effort, and by historians I don't mean the most of us who think constantly in terms of historical causality as we learned it from the nineteenth century and our teachers; by “historians” I mean the experts who continue to teach the young. A major roadblock to creative discussion is the fact that problems such as those just mentioned all exceed disciplinary boundaries, so investigation that does not follow suit cannot grasp the problem, much less respond to it creatively. Of course everyone is “for” interdisciplinary work, but most professional organizations, publications, and institutions do not encourage it, despite lip service to the contrary. Interdisciplinary work involves more than the splicing activity that is all too familiar in academic curricula. Crossing out of one's realm of “expertise” requires a kind of humility that does not always sort well with the kind of expertise fostered by professional organizations, publications, and institutions. And even the willing have trouble with the heady atmosphere outside the professional bubble. In such conditions key terms (“language,”“discourse,”“relativism,”“modernity,”“postmodernity,”“time,”“difference”) are pushed here and pushed there without gaining the focus that would lead to currency until finally the ostensible field of play resembles a gigantic traffic jam like the one that opens the film Fellini Roma. Discussion of these issues leads in the end to Borges and his story, ‘The Modesty of History,” from which the title of this essay is borrowed.     

THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE CARTOGRAPHIC RESEARCH METHOD

Some observations about the theory of cartography focus on conceptual and definitional aspects. The subfield concerned with theory is “map science” (Russian, kartovedeniye), and the appearance of competitive subfields like “metacartography” and “cartology” is found undesirable. Definitional problems occur both at the input end of cartography, in the relationship between cartography and the data-producing disciplines, and at the output end, between cartography and map-using disciplines. An effort is made to delimit the science of cartography both in the data-processing stage and in the map-using stage, which is discussed in the context of the cartographic method of research. Cartography is also conceptualized as the “cartographic method of cognition,” involving a continuity of data survey, map compilation (the science of cartography) and map use.     

Modified Moran's I for Small Samples

The most common indicator used to measure spatial dependence is Moran's I proposed by statistician Patrick A. P. Moran in 1950. The index is simple to use and applies the principle of the Pearson correlation coefficient, although it incorporates a proximity measure between elements. However, Moran's I tends to underestimate real spatial autocorrelation when the number of locations are few. This study aims to present a modified version of Moran's I that can measure real spatial autocorrelation even with small samples and check for spatial dependence.     

河南省人口分布与乡镇可达性空间耦合特征

人口作为区域发展的内在因素,交通可达性提高将有利于促进人口或劳动力要素的自由流动和优化配置。在考虑土地利用及地形因素的基础上,采用包含乡村道的交通网络数据集,应用改进的成本距离计算方法,分析河南省乡镇可达性及其分布特征;通过乡镇可达性与人口密度的空间叠加,揭示人口分布与可达性的空间耦合特征。结果表明：①各乡镇可达性总体呈现明显的圈层分布,可达性值由内向外逐渐降低;时段越短,内部差异越大,交通指向越明显。②乡镇可达性与人口密度在各时间圈呈现正相关关系,可达性与人口分布集聚产生作用的最大时间距离为1.5h。③人口与交通可达性的空间耦合呈现较明显的半环状分布,社会经济指向性明显。④交通可达性对人口变化的影响具有时间阶段性和区域差异性。     

The Necessity of Dialectical Naturalism: Marcuse,Bookchin, and Dialectics in the Midst of Ecological Crises

In the wake of ecological crises, there has been a resurgence of interest in the relation between dialectical thought and nature. The work of Herbert Marcuse and Murray Bookchin offers unique approaches to this question that remain highly relevant. In the first half of the article, we engage with Marcuse's application of the dialectical method in which he gestured to the “vital need” to push beyond the appearance of “the real” and yet lamented the loss of the ability for negative thinking to pierce the dominance of the “technical apparatus” that tied humanity to this “radical falsity”. Here, we suggest the need for a more holistic dialectical understanding of the social totality—one that is directly located within, and takes as foundational, the environmental conditions of human society. In the second half, we examine Murray Bookchin's conception of “dialectical naturalism” as a more thorough engagement with the human/nature relation that surpasses Marcuse's late engagements with ecologism. In particular, we offer critical reflections on the concept of “nature” in the contemporary ecology movement and illustrate how dialectical naturalism is capable of not only transcending dualistic conceptions of “man/nature” but in expanding our awareness of the potentialities of history along what Bookchin terms the “libertory pathways” to a restorative relation between human “second nature” and biological “first nature”. We posit that systemic, interconnected and accelerating ecological crises (climatic, biospheric and oceanic) form the objective and absolute contradiction of contemporary global social life that compels an awareness of the potentialities of an ecological society. Only through this awareness can we break through the reified “solutions” that have often plagued the ecology movement, bringing about the urgent social and ecological transformation that our species requires for its liberation and long‐term survival.     

Art History?

This article is presented in two parts. In part I, I call into question the viability of a currently received opinion about the foundations of the subject called “Art History,” primarily by challenging assumptions that are implicit in conventional uses of the terms “art” and “work of art.” It is widely supposed that works of art are items of a kind, that this kind is the bearer of the name “art,” and that it has a history. In part II, I propose to correct this error by using the word “art” in a presently unconventional—although not unprecedented—way. The proposal relies upon a concept of cultural evolution running intellectually parallel to a Darwinian account of genetic evolution. The thesis has strong metaphysically realist implications, relating cultural evolution to what can be said and done and can properly be seen to have a history only in a universe to which real regularities are attributed. The recommended use of the term “art” is secured upon an estimate of the role of memetic innovation as radically pervasive, embracing all thought and action. “Art,” understood in the suggested way, becomes the name of a category, which has no history as kinds have histories.     

Very long term history and people's history

Often William Blake and Isaac Newton are positioned as “opposites”: Newton the great systematizer, Blake the visionary artist. (Blake himself, in fact, seemed to have set up this direct opposition.) However, this opposition is perhaps too simple and overlooks the intricacies of each thinker's work. Further, this straightforward “opposition” fails to account for the pressure that scholarship itself, always occurring from a particular subjective position, applies to shape its objects of study; that is, it creates a useful “Newton” and a useful “Blake” with which to work. Here I employ spatial theorist Henri Lefebvre's technique of “critical thirding” (as Edward Soja has called it), or accounting for “an-Other” position in the dialectic of “Blake” and “Newton”. I consider where Blake and Newton were perhaps more similar than has been suggested in the scholarly literature, and, more crucially, how scholarship itself mobilizes (or indeed “creates”) its own, subjectively useful, “Blake” and “Newton” in order to make particular arguments.     

Tobler’s Law in a Multivariate World

Tobler’s first law of geography is widely recognized as reflecting broad empirical realities in geography. Its key concepts of “near” and “related” are intuitive in a univariate setting. However, when moving to the joint consideration of spatial patterns among multiple variables, the combination of attribute similarity and geographical similarity that underlies the concept of spatial autocorrelation is much harder to deal with. This article uses the notion of distance in multiattribute space to explore and visualize the connection between “near” and “related” in a multivariate context. We approach this from a global, local, and regional perspective. We outline a number of ways to combine different visualization techniques and introduce a new local neighbor match test for multivariate local clusters. We illustrate the methods by means of Guerry’s classic data set on moral statistics in 1833 France.