Queering the Field? The complexities of sexuality within a lesbian-identified football team in England

Lesbian-identified sports teams provide a challenge to the heterosexing, and heterogendering, of sport and sport space. An ‘out’ lesbian football (soccer) team can be understood as offering resistance to compulsory heterosexuality. It is this disruption of normative sexuality that can be described as queer and contributes to the queering of sport space. Given evidence of obdurate heteronormativity in most sporting arenas, such a team could be described as a queer community. However, a critical engagement with lesbian subversion is necessary before claiming lesbian ‘subjects’ as queer ‘subjects’. In this vein, the discussions that follow reflect an engagement with marginalised sex–gender–sexuality identities within a specific lesbian sport community in London, England. Relatively little is known about the social relations that exist within lesbian sporting communities. Through an engagement with femme-inine players and transsexual players this article aims to highlight the diversity of sex–gender–sexuality experiences. Moreover, it demonstrates the tensions and complexities within a particular footballing sub-culture, which can be described as both queer and anti-queer. In this way it contributes to developments in the feminist–queer theorising of the spatiality of sexuality. The research is drawn from a larger ethnographic study of the team, which includes analysis of archival materials and club documents, semi-structured interviews and participant observation.     

The Noble Savage in the Voyage of La Perouse (1785–1788)

The gaucho is an almost mythical character in Argentine Literature, sometimes because of his barbarism and other times as a result of his heroism. In the nineteenth century the gaucho was characterized in very antagonistic ways; the spectrum extends from symbolizing the national backwardness to personifying the country's national identity. Sarmiento describes gauchos in Facundo (1845) as uncivilized and lazy individuals inclined to the savage ways of the caudillos. On the other hand, José Hernández in Martín Fierro (1872) portrays the gaucho as a brave wise man who is worthy of being considered the model citizen for the new nation. Both representations give a glimpse to the lack of objectivity, obscured by the passionate views of the authors in whose works the gaucho is either attacked or mystified. The characterization of the gaucho as a barbarian or national hero are the two more popular and known positions, but they are not the only views. Another nineteenth-century Argentine writer, Juana Manuela Gorriti in Panoramas de la vida (1876) offers a conciliating and intriguing position in her foundational narrative that was conveniently silenced for almost a century. Her approach reflects the complexity of the gaucho, indicating that this individual can be heroic—like the General Güemes and his troop of gauchos who defended the freedom of the incipient country—or uncivilized, like Facundo Quiroga and Juan Manuel de Rosas who did not respect the citizens’ rights. But most importantly, she offers an insight into the gaucho's way of life that subverts the well-known ‘civilization versus barbarism’ discourse, positioning the gaucho and his wife, the paisana, as a crucial link of the economic national wealth. In other words, Gorriti presented this marginalized group as legitimate citizens of the territory who distinctly deserved to maintain their property and freedom, since they contributed to building the motherland.     

The growth of the pottery industry in England, 1660–1815

This paper summarizes the author's attempts to quantify the growth of the pottery industry in England before 1815. It begins by considering the nature and limitations of the large body of miscellaneous data about trade, including the exports of glass and earthware and the imports of china-ware. It continues by presenting some new calculations of the growth of the industry based on a count, at five-yearly intervals, of the numbers of potteries at work and their sizes. The results of these estimates are presented in nine tables in the appendix. The third part of the article uses this new evidence to analyse the patterns of growth from 1660–1815 and concludes that this provides a framework for further, and more detailed, studies.     

Decline or Transformation? Archaeology and the Late Medieval ‘Urban Decline’ in Southern England

Archaeological evidence is used to examine how urban life changed in the later medieval towns of Sussex, Surrey, and Hampshire in southern England, in light of ongoing debates about the existence of a fifteenth-century urban ‘decline’. The article proposes that rather than seeking evidence of decline, we should consider how and why experiences of urban life vary. The role of towns in commercial and political networks is highlighted as a key cause of variability in late medieval urban experience.     

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.     

Thirty Years of Monitoring in England — What Have We Learnt?

Abstract

Over the last thirty years, over sixty separate episodes of monitoring waterlogged archaeological sites have been carried out in England. This paper lists these projects, summarizes basic information about them, and reviews what we have learnt over these last thirty years. Recommendations are given to help improve future monitoring projects. In particular, it is suggested that more work is needed on assessing the state of preservation of a site before monitoring is considered; that a proper project design needs to be developed at the outset of the work; and that more thought should go into deciding why monitoring is needed for a given site, including identifying mitigation options that can be initiated if monitoring data suggest optimum conditions for survival are no longer being maintained.