THINKING HISTORICALLY ABOUT THINKING HISTORICALLY: IS HISTORICAL THEORY A HISTORICAL OR A METAHISTORICAL PRACTICE?

This intimidating and massive collection of twenty‐nine extended, diverse essays by distinguished scholars, organized around the general theme of the current state and future direction of historical theory, raises some fundamental questions about historical theory as practiced over the past half century as well as about the distinctive nature of historical theory within the broader context of the production of historical knowledge. The editors of the volume suggest that the postmodern linguistic turn in historical theory, especially as articulated by Hayden White and Michel Foucault, marked a decisive, epochal turning‐point in human historical self‐consciousness, the attainment of a mature stage of autonomous metahistorical reflection on the essential nature of what it means to be historical, on historicity per se. What came before is imagined as a series of preliminary stages, what came after as a working out of implications and consequences. I suggest that a close reading of the implicit and explicit arguments of the individual essays reveals a rather different kind of historical moment, one in which postmodern historical theory has increasingly been demystified of its alleged metahistorical status, and has emerged as a situated object of historical reflection and thus has itself become increasingly defined as historical, recognized in its particularity as a temporally and culturally framed form of historical knowledge.     

CAN THERE BE A BOURDIEUSIAN THEORY OF CRISIS? ON HISTORICAL CHANGE AND SOCIAL THEORY

Philip Gorski's edited book engages the question of how Bourdieu's concepts can aid historical analysis, and in particular, account for change as well as reproduction. From a fascinating set of papers, this review essay takes special notice of two that theorize crisis. One, by Ivan Ermakoff, engages the question of whether disruption creates the opportunity for more conscious calculation on the part of actors; a second, by Gisele Sapiro, considers how a crisis reverberates through a specific field. This leads to further reflection on Bourdieu's work on power and the state, as well as a call for crisis hermeneutics in social theory.     

WHAT IS A SCHOLARLY PERSONA? TEN THESES ON VIRTUES,SKILLS, AND DESIRES

What is the problem that “epistemic virtues” seek to solve? This article argues that virtues, epistemic and otherwise, are the key characteristics of “scholarly personae,” that is, of ideal‐typical models of what it takes to be a scholar. Different scholarly personae are characterized by different constellations of virtues and skills or, more precisely, by different constellations of commitments to goods (epistemic, moral, political, and so forth), the pursuit of which requires the exercise of certain virtues and skills. Expanding Hayden White's notion of “historiographical styles” so as to encompass not only historians' writings, but also their nontextual “doings,” the article argues that different styles of “being a historian”—a meticulous archival researcher, an inspired feminist scholar, or an outstanding undergraduate teacher—can be analyzed productively in terms of virtues and skills. Finally, the article claims that virtues and skills, in turn, are rooted in desires, which are shaped by the examples of others as well as by promises of reward. This makes the scholarly persona not merely a useful concept for distinguishing among different types of historians, but also a critical tool for analyzing why certain models of “being a historian” gain in popularity, whereas others become “old‐fashioned.”     

WITH OR AGAINST HAYDEN WHITE? REFLECTIONS ON THEORY OF HISTORY AND SUBJECT FORMATION

This article reflects on Hayden White's understanding of the subject and explores how best to move forward discussions in theory of history after his arguments about narrativity. To do so, I reconsider his arguments in light of more recent feminist and queer theorizations. Through a reconstruction of the current international new wave of feminism and LGBTQ+ activism as a rich and complex social movement that involves a narration of its own (practical) past, I will recontextualize and revaluate White's insight from the perspective of Judith Butler's theory of subject formation. The argument will unfold in four parts. First, I will recall White's ironic and existential stance on language and narrativity in the representation of reality and in relation to social beliefs. Second, I will again raise the question of the value of narrativity, as framed by White, in the context of the publication of a recent feminist manifesto. It is here that another issue will emerge as crucial: the relationship between the limits of linguistic self-consciousness and the question of the subject. In the third part, my argument will take a partial turn “against White” and toward Butler's subject formation theory. My claim will be that there is a residue of the belief in the sovereign individual in White's insistence on self-consciousness. However, I will also show that his suspicion regarding the psychological impulse toward narrative closure can be re-elaborated as the challenge Butler is facing with their theory of subject formation: that of critically resisting the belief in our being coherent and self-sufficient individuals. In the fourth part, I will present Butler's refiguration of the thesis of the subject's opacity in terms of the primary relationality that binds human beings to one another, and I will offer a new understanding of the individual, norms, agency, infancy, and ethics. Finally, I will conclude that we are bodies in history and that theory of history can find a promising line of research through this conception of the subject, a conception that reframes how we understand the intimate links between political consciousness, historicity, and embodiment. I also claim that this line of research constitutes an ethics for our historical undoing.     

WHAT’S FOR DINNER? INVESTIGATING FOOD-PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES AT DUST CAVE,ALABAMA

Abstract

Many models of hunter-gatherer subsistence have traditionally focused almost exclusively on what people ate. More recently, researchers have begun to ask how these ancient foods were processed and prepared prior to consumption, questions that are best answered by looking at the context in which food remains are uncovered. At the archaeological site of Dust Cave (1Lu496), excellent preservation conditions have resulted in a plethora of cooking features. Ranging from small charcoal pits to fired clay surfaces and hearths, the features at Dust Cave are in-situ representations of the occupants’ cooking and processing activities. We use a combination of paleoethnobotanical, zooarchaeological, geoarchaeological, and experimental methods to investigate these activities. Experimental studies were conducted in order to develop archaeological correlates for food processing. Experimental results are then compared to botanical and faunal remains from the site as well as chemical analyses of feature fill. Results suggest that the occupants of Dust Cave likely processed fish and plants–primarily nuts–on a large scale. Specifically, fish appear to have been roasted in coals, plants and nuts toasted or parched on flat clay “griddle-like” surfaces, and hickory nuts boiled in pit hearths to extract nut oil.     

6. SPACE: A USELESS CATEGORY FOR HISTORICAL ANALYSIS?

Much fuss has been made of the “spatial turn” in recent years, across a range of disciplines. It is hard to know if the attention has been warranted. A confusion of terms has been used—such as space, place, spatiality, location—and each has signified a cluster of often contradictory and confusing meanings. This phenomenon is common to a range of disciplines in the humanities. This means, first, that it is not always easy to recognize what (if anything) is being discussed under the rubric of space, and second, that over‐extended uses of the cultural turn have stymied meaningful engagement with (or even a language of) materiality in discussions of space. This article shows how materiality has been marginalized both by a casual vocabulary and a vigorous a priori epistemological holism on the part of scholars, and how the spatial turn has been too closely linked to the cultural turn to allow it to develop its fullest explanatory potential. It demonstrates how historians might profitably theorize the significance of place and space in their work (borrowing techniques from geographers and anthropologists, and referring to the phenomenological tradition), and sets out some challenges for using space more effectively in explanatory systems. Inspired by environmental history, sociology, and science and technology studies, I propose a way of establishing space as different from conventional historical handling of materiality, and end by identifying some methodological problems that need to be solved if we are to proceed on a surer footing.     

IS THERE A NEAR-FIELD FOR SMALL-TO-MODERATE MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKES?

The major hazard posed by earthquakes is often thought to be due to moderate to large magnitude events. However, there have been many cases where earthquakes of moderate and even small magnitude have caused very significant destruction when they have coincided with population centres. Even though the area of intense ground shaking caused by such events is generally small, the epicentral motions can be severe enough to cause damage even in well-engineered structures. Two issues are addressed here, the first being the identification of the minimum earthquake magnitude likely to cause damage to engineered structures and the limits of the near-field for small-to-moderate magnitude earthquakes. The second issue addressed is whether features of near-field ground motions such as directivity, which can significantly enhance the destructive potential, occur in small-to-moderate magnitude events. The accelerograms from the 1986 San Salvador (El Salvador) earthquake indicate that it may be unconservative to assume that near-field directivity effects only need to be considered for earthquakes of moment magnitude M 6.5 and greater.     

IS SPATIAL BOOTSTRAPPING A PANACEA FOR VALID INFERENCE?

Bootstrapping methods have so far been rarely used to evaluate spatial datasets. Based on an extensive Monte Carlo study we find that also for spatial, cross‐sectional data, the wild bootstrap test proposed by Davidson and Flachaire ( 2008 ) based on restricted residuals clearly outperforms asymptotic as well as competing bootstrap tests, like the pairs bootstrap.     

WHAT IS THE BEST COIL ORIENTATION IN THE SLINGRAM ELECTROMAGNETIC PROSPECTING METHOD?

In the Slingram electromagnetic method the appropriate coil orientation must be chosen. Until now, the choice of this parameter has not been discussed but as it influences the shape of the anomalies and their magnitude, it is important to try to define the best possible arrangement. Theoretical studies of the 1D layered model, the response of a dipole and the response of a 3D body are used to define the best arrangement. The perpendicular configuration with a vertical moment transmitter gives better results in most cases and the building of an apparatus with this coil arrangement should give very interesting results.     

IS SOCIAL CAPITAL USEFUL FOR EXPLAINING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN POLISH REGIONS?

The concept of social capital is widely perceived as a promising tool for explaining differences in economic development between countries and regions. According to this theory, weak links (bridging social capital) and social trust in an area favour its better access to other forms of capital, that is, economic and human capital. However, strong links (bonding social capital) may stifle creativity and entrepreneurship. Since the vast majority of research on the impact of social capital on economic development focuses on highly developed Western European countries, it seems particularly interesting to evaluate the usefulness of this approach when applied to post‐communist countries with their different experiences. The objective of this article is to identify the spatial variation of different forms of social capital in regions of Poland and then to test a hypothesis on the impact of this capital on regional economic development. The results demonstrate that despite the existing differences between regions there are no significant relationships between levels of social capital and economic development. This may be explained either by low social capital levels or by the overall degree of Polish economic development.     

WHY IS THE MINARET SO SHORT? EVIDENCE FOR EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE ON MT ZION

Abstract

On top of King David's Sepulchre at Mt Zion there is an Ottoman minaret known as al-Nabi Da'ud. Compared with other minarets in Jerusalem, al-Nabi Da'ud seems to be somewhat shorter, and has a squat-like appearance. To track why it is shorter than other minarets, we inspected written historical sources, a sequence of old drawings dated between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries and analysed the minaret's metric proportions. In drawings dated to and before 1833, the minaret is portrayed much higher than in drawings and photographs dated to and after 1838. Furthermore, comparative height-diameter ratio of various parts of the minaret does not fit those of its counterpart, the al-Qal'a minaret. Thus, we suggest that the minaret was originally built higher but damaged during the 1834 earthquake, and reconstructed to a lower height sometimes afterwards.     

4. IS THERE A CHINESE MODE OF HISTORICAL THINKING? A CROSS‐CULTURAL ANALYSIS

Taking Chun‐chieh Huang's ruminations on the defining character of Chinese historical thinking as a starting point, this essay discusses the ways in which historical cultures and traditions are compared and contrasted and explores some new ways of thinking. It argues that cultural comparisons often constitute two‐way traffic (one begins to examine itself after encountering the other) and that attempts to characterize one historical culture, such as that of China, are often made relationally and temporally. When the Chinese tradition of historiography is perceived and presented in the West, it has been regarded more or less as a counterexample against which the “unique” traits of Western historical thinking are thrown into relief. Given the hegemonic influence of Western scholarship in modern times, latter‐day Chinese historians also valorize the East—West dichotomy. A closer look at this dichotomy, or the characterization of both cultures, reveals that it is not only relative but also relational and temporal. When the modern Chinese appeared impressed by the rigor of Rankean critical historiography, for example, they were essentially attempting to rediscover their own cultural past, for example, the eighteenth‐century tradition of evidential learning, in adapting to the changing world. Our task today, the essay contends, is to historicize the specific context within which cultural comparisons are made and to go beyond readily accepted characterizations in order to reassess certain elements in a given culture, to apply historical wisdom, and to cope with the challenges we now face.     

IS SCANNING ELECTRON MICROPROBE SUITABLE FOR COMPLETE ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS OF SOLDERS ON GOLD ARTIFACTS?

Summary. We comment on the inability of most scanning electron micro-probes equipped with energy dispersive solid state X-ray detectors to identify low amounts of cadmium in regions of solders on ancient artifacts. Traces of cadmium, even in the presence of high silver concentration determined with a nuclear microprobe, do not then contradict the results given by electron probes.     

IS TRUST A DRIVER FOR TERRITORIALLY EMBEDDED INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS? A CASE STUDY OF THE HOME‐BUILDING INDUSTRY IN NORWAY

Trust is said to be necessary for creating and maintaining territorially embedded industrial systems. On the basis of data for the Norwegian home‐building sector, this article analyses trust and price competition; how trust is built and dismantled; and trust and place. The main findings are that: trust and price competition interact, but trust is more important in the design and planning phases than in the construction phase; economic factors are important for building trust, together with competence and team work; and trust is related to space, partly through places embodied in trust and partly through trust embedded in places. However, this embeddedness is not like that which has long been claimed to exist in territorially embedded industrial systems, but embeddedness where trust acts as a reinforcement, contingent upon other factors, as a capacity restraint and a socially constructed need for face‐to‐face meetings.     

IS CRIME BAD FOR BUSINESS? CRIME AND COMMERCIAL PROPERTY VALUES IN NEW YORK CITY

To test how crime affects economic activity, we use point‐specific data on crime, commercial property sales and assessed values from New York City, relying on an instrumental variables strategy. We find that crime reduces commercial property values, and the magnitude of the effect depends on the type and geography of crime. Elasticities range from ?0.1 to ?0.5. We find stronger evidence for negative violent crime effects in neighborhoods with lower incomes and higher shares of minority residents. Thus, disadvantaged neighborhoods are doubly harmed by crime—they have higher crime rates and those crimes have stronger effects on economic activity.