CANADA AND THE INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL UNION

RÉSUMÉ. Les débuts de la coopération internationale dans le domaine de la recherche géographique remontent aux premiers temps de la Confédération. Bien que la participation de canadiens aux premières réunions de Congrès International de Géographic ait été assez rare, un certain nombre d'entre eux y assistèrent a plus d'une occasion. Ce n'est que depuis 1934, année de l'acceptation officielle du Canada au sein de l'Union Géographique International, que notre pays assiste à toutes les assemblées générates de cette organisation et aux congrès géographiques internationaux. Depuis la nomination, en 1952, des premiers canadiens aux commissions de ce groupement, la participation du Canada a été intensifiée de beaucoup.     

CHRONOCENOSIS: HOW TO IMAGINE THE MULTIPLICITY OF TEMPORALITIES WITHOUT LOSING THE EMPHASIS ON POWER AND CONFLICTS

The twentieth century witnessed the historicization of the categories of time and space. Instead of functioning as a universal category, moving from the past to the present and from the present to the future, time has multiplied into temporalities, and historians have looked for adequate metaphors to describe this multiplicity, its many ways of moving forward and backward, its acceleration and decelerations, its entanglements, and its conflicts and struggles for hegemony. The editors of Power and Time: Temporalities in Conflict and the Making of History offer a thought-provoking concept by translating biocenosis, the coexistence of different species in the same environment, to time studies and thus using the term “chronocenosis” to refer to different temporalities sharing the same embattled space. The volume covers a large variety of case studies—ranging from early modern Chinese historical novels to attempts to bring together social and biological time in the discussion of the Anthropocene—and draws together disciplines that are not usually discussed in studies of temporalities, disciplines ranging from law to the history of science.     

L‘ŒUVRE DE PAUL VIDAL DE LA BLACHE: NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES

Note de rédacteurs: À l'occasion du vingt-cinquième Congrès International de Géographie à Paris en 1984, plus d'un demi-siecle depuis que l'ugi se soit rassemblée dans cette ville - le siège de Vidal de la Blache pendant quarante ans de sa vie professionelle - il a paru tout convenable aux rédacteurs du Géographe canadien de faire hommage, quoique modeste, à cet homme illustre, un des plus célèbres géographes de l'histoire de notrc discipline. Plutôt qu'une réflexion générate sur sa pensée ou même une étude critique sur quelques-unes de ses ouvrages - il y en a bien assez déjà - il nous a paru plus désirable de faire une contribution concrète aux études vidaliennes et aux outils de recherche sur l'histoire de la géographie franchise. Nous espérons que les notes et la bibliographie qui suivent aideront à relever l'intérêt et la qualité de la recherche dans ce domaine.     

KOSELLECK ON MODERNITY,HISTORIK, AND LAYERS OF TIME

In the scholarly reception of his work, Reinhart Koselleck's notion of modernity and his theory of multiple times have been cast as essentially at odds with each other. This article argues that although these positions are valid, Koselleck's writings can also accommodate an interpretation according to which the theory of multiple temporalities, or “layers of time,” provides theoretical ground for the modern understanding of time and history. Elaborating on this insight, the article shows the linkages sustaining the unity between Koselleck's formal theory of multiple times and his interpretation of modernity. To that end, I outline the main premises of the temporalization thesis that lies at the heart of Koselleck's theory of modernity, scrutinize his notion of Historik within which the framework “layers of time” belongs, and explore Niklas Olsen's and Helge Jordheim's interpretive accounts on how to conceive of the relationship between the two strands in Koselleck's thought. Ultimately, I argue that “layers of time” entails the formal conditions for historical acceleration, which is crucial for explaining the emergence of a specifically modern temporality wherein experience and expectation increasingly grow apart.     

3. RADICALIZING TEMPORAL DIFFERENCE: ANTHROPOLOGY,POSTCOLONIAL THEORY,AND LITERARY TIME

This article is an attempt to address on a theoretical level an antinomy in postcolonial approaches to the question of temporal difference. Current scholarship tends both to denounce the way in which the others of the Western self are placed notionally in another time than the West and not only analytically affirm but indeed valorize multiple temporalities. I elaborate on the two problematic temporal frameworks—linear developmentalism and cultural relativism—that belong to a colonial legacy and generate the antinomy in question, and then proceed to discuss possible alternatives provided by a Koselleck‐inspired approach to historical time as inherently plural. I thereby make two central claims: (1) postcolonial conceptions of multiple temporalities typically, if tacitly, associate time with culture, and hence risk reproducing the aporias of cultural relativism; (2) postcolonial metahistorical critique is commonly premised on a simplified and even monolithic understanding of Western modernity as an ideology of “linear progress.” Ultimately, I suggest that the solution lies in radicalizing, not discarding, the notion of multiple temporalities. Drawing on the Brazilian classic Os sertões as my key example, I also maintain that literary writing exhibits a unique “heterochronic” (in analogy with “heteroglossic”) potential, enabling a more refined understanding of temporal difference.     

GEOGRAPHY, SOCIAL SCIENCE, and PUBLIC POLICY: REGENERATION THROUGH INTERPRETATION

Social science, including human geography, is in uneasy ferment and in need of regeneration. Its researchers are subject to significant pressure to make their research policy-relevant, to link theory with practice, and to focus on solving societal problems or at least help manage messes. This paper comments on the discussion on policy relevance, the legacy of positivism in geography and policy practice, and the suggested roles and responsibilities of geographers. It also reviews ideas and experience regarding the use and relevance of social science research in public policy. Finally, it recommends one path toward regeneration, suggesting five themes requiring attention as necessary conditions. It promotes a movement toward the cases-and-interpretations mode of explanation and the method of reflection-in-action. Les sciences socials, y compress la géographie humaine, se sentient inconfortables dans l' état d'effervescence où elles se trouvent présentement, et ont un grand besoin de se regénérer. Leurs chercheurs subissent de fortes pressions pour luau plan des politiques leurs recher-ches acquièrent plus de pertinence, pour que la théorie soit davantage liée à la pratique, et pour qu'ils concent-rent leurs efforts sur la recherche de solutions aux prob-lèmes sociaux, ou tout au moins, sur la gestion du gâchis. Cet article se veut une contribution àpropos de cette question de la pertinence en recherche, sur l'hérit-age du positivisme dans les domaines de la géographie et de la politique, et sur les rôles et les responsabilités qui mombent aux géographes. lI examine aussi les idées et les expériences dans le domaine de la pertinence de la recherche en sciences sociales et de leur utilrsation dam l'intérêt du public. Enfin, il ouvre une voie vers la régénération en proposant, comme conditions essentielles, cinq thèmes qui devraient faire l'objet d'une réflexion. II encourage le recours à des études de cas comme moyen d'explication et à ta méthode de réflexion dans l'action.     

COMPUTER CARTOGRAPHY IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH

The potential value of maps in historical geographical research has increased as a result of clearer understanding of the nature of maps and new developments in computer cartography. The computer has made possible the rapid transformation of appropriately organized sets of data into maps of many different types. The manipulation of such data sets replaces many time-consuming drafting operations of conventional cartography and adds new flexibility to mapping operations. Maps of the early colonial settlement of the Cape Colony demonstrate the flexibility and value of computer cartography in historical geographical research.
La valeur potentielle des cartes pour la recherche en géographie historique a connu un essor considérable suite à une meilleure connaissance de la nature des cartes et les développements récents dans la cartographie automatisée. L'ordinateur a rendu possible la transformation rapide des ensembles de données organisés d'une facon appropriée en cartes de divers types. La manipulation de tels ensembles de données remplace un grand nombre d'opérations manuelles de la cartographie traditionnelle qui ont demandé beaucoup de temps, et elle a ajouté une nouvelle flexibilité aux opérations de cartographie. Des cartes du peuplement au début de l'époque coloniale du Cap démontrent la flexibilité et la valeur de la cartographie automatisée pour la recherche en géographie historique.     

Exploring subject positions and multiple temporalities through an Iranian migrant mother's family photograph albums

In this article, I draw on a research study of one Iranian migrant mother's generation of selves through her material configuration of her personal photograph albums and through our verbal reading of her photographs. The research engages in a visual-material feminist ethnographic approach, and is informed by the work of Gillian Rose and the understanding that family photographs are a means by which women negotiate subject positions. In this article, I discuss an unexpected finding of my research, the significance of multiple temporalities in a migrant mother's production of selves. The photo album practices of the participant mother of this study, ‘Parvin’, depart from the common social convention of mothers arranging their photograph albums to chart family growth following the model of milestones occurring over linear developmental time. Parvin does not limit herself to linear developmental time, but rather she mixes up photographs in her post-migration family albums to generate multiple temporalities woven together by an enveloping ‘mixed’ time. Drawing on both Julia Kristeva and Homi Bhaba's theories of temporality and the subject, I suggest that Parvin produces subject positions for self and family through a continual interweaving of a multitude of pasts into the present and through a subsuming of milestones within cyclical family time. Further, I suggest that through her generation of multiple temporalities, Parvin produces the subject position of ‘accommodating mother’. Finally, I highlight the potential afforded by considering the temporal and the spatial together in studies of migrant identity.     

HISTORIA MAGISTRA VITAE,INTERRUPTING: THUCYDIDES AND THE AGONISTIC TEMPORALITY OF ANTIQUITY AND MODERNITY

In this essay I discuss Koselleck's thesis on the dissolution of historia magistra vitae in modernity with a view to exploring how the modern historiographical engagement with Thucydides entails qualifications of this argument. Focusing on Barthold Georg Niebuhr's contextualization of Thucydides in a new temporality of “ancient and modern history,” I examine how modernity is caught between conflicting notions of its own prehistory, and that this conflict suggests that the forward‐leaping qualities of Neuzeit were co‐articulated with other temporal notions, and particularly an idea of historical exemplarity associated with historia magistra vitae. This plurality of times highlights an agonistic temporality linking antiquity and modernity: a model of conflicting times inscribed in a dialogue through which modern historiography interrupted the “useful” history of antiquity, while simultaneously being itself interrupted by it. By following this dialogue, I seek to test two interrelated hypotheses: a) that modernity produced a multitemporal scheme in which the ideas of differential time and the future were intertwined with a notion of historia magistra vitae as meaningful and sense‐bearing time; and b) that contradictions in this scheme arising from the modern confrontation with Thucydides's poetics challenges the opposition between historia magistra vitae and modern historical sense and configures a temporality that is self‐agonistic in the sense that it confronts historical actors before and beyond the terms through which they may be able to give it meaning. Formulated as a poetics of the possible, this notion is approached as a corrective alternative to the modern consideration of the future as distanced from the space of experience, but nonetheless as grounded in actuality and therefore largely mastered by human knowledge and action.     

Uncomfortable proximity. Literary technique,authorial provocations and dog whistles in Michel Houellebecq’s fiction

ABSTRACT

In 2002, following an interview with the magazine Lire where he described Islam as ‘la religion la plus con’, Michel Houellebecq was prosecuted, and eventually acquitted, for ‘injure raciale et incitation à la haine religieuse’. In discussions of Houellebecq’s case, supporters were quick to invoke the ‘special value’ of the literary space for the free discussion of ideas, however provocative or unpalatable. Houellebecq’s acquittal, and support from figures such as Salman Rushdie, have afforded the writer an unprecedented degree of literary freedom. Subsequent novels such as La Possibilité d’une île (2005) and Soumission (2015) show the author fully inhabiting this freedom in order to undertake a provocative critique of Islam. This article explores how both literary technique and authorial presence endorses the controversial ideas of his texts within Houellebecq’s writing and demonstrates how a movement from ambiguously undermining towards reinforcing those ideas can be observed. In particular, the framing of provocative ideas and assertions expounded in his fiction has become less robust throughout his career. This leads to, I suggest, a greater porosity between Houellebecq’s fiction and that of contemporary right-wing essayists such as Alain Finkielkraut and Renaud Camus.     

THE DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF CHILD CARE: THE CASE OF THE CITY OF WATERLOO, ONTARIO*

The intention of this paper is to stimulate research on the demand and supply of child care services, an issue that has been largely neglected by geographers, although many of the problems involved lend themselves to geographical analysis. In addition, as the female labour force participation rate, the divorce rate, and the incidence of lone-parent families increase, so do the need for and importance of child care. We review the types of child care available in North America and provide statistics to demonstrate that the supply of child care falls short of demand. Furthermore, for the city of Waterloo, Ontario, through the use of 1981 and 1986 Census data we demonstrate that not only is the supply of licensed day care spaces insufficient to meet the demand, but also it is spatially arranged in a suboptimal way. Through population projections and net migration analyses we demonstrate that the demand for child care spaces in the near future is more likely to intensify in the periphery of the city, where the current supply is nonexistent. We thus argue that locational criteria should play a prominent role in the practice of licensing new day care centres. Cet article vise à encourager la recherche sur I'offre et la demande de services de garderie. Ce sujet a été largement négligé par les géographes měme si beaucoup des pro-blèmes rencontrés sont liés à des facteurs géographiques. De plus, la participation des femmes au marché du travail augmentant ainsi que le taux de divorce et le nombre de families monoparentales, les garderies deviennent de plus en plus nécessaires et importantes. Nous passons en revue les différents types de garderies qu'il est possible de trouver en Amérique du Nord et nous présentons des statistiques démontrant que le nombre actuel de garderies ne satisfait pas la demande. D'autre part, à I'aide des données du recensement canadien de 1981 et 1986 pour la ville de Waterloo, Ontario, nous prouvons que non seulement le nombre de places dans les garderies licenciées est insuffisant mais aussi que leur location géographique n'est pas optimale. À I'aide des études sur la population future et la migration nette, nous démontrons que la demande de garderies augmentera vraisemblablement à la périphérie de la ville où les garderies sont actuellement inexistantes. Par conséquent, nous estimons que le critère de localisation doit jouer un rǒle prédominant dans I'octroi des permis d'établissement de nouvelles garderies.     

1. INTRODUCTION: MULTIPLE TIMES AND THE WORK OF SYNCHRONIZATION

In this essay, which introduces the History and Theory forum on Multiple Temporalities, I want to discuss how the existence of a plurality or a multiplicity of times has been conceptualized in the historiographical tradition, partly by entering into a dialogue with recent writers, historians, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, and literary scholars, partly by returning to the eighteenth century, to the origin of “the modern regime of historicity” (Hartog). In these theoretical and historical investigations I aim to do two things: on the one hand, to explore and discuss different ways of conceptualizing multiple times, in terms of nonsynchronicities, layers of time, or natural and historical times; on the other hand, to trace how these multiple times have been compared, unified, and adapted by means of elaborate conceptual and material practices that I here call “practices of synchronization.” From the eighteenth century onward, these synchronizing practices, inspired by, but by no means reducible to, chronology have given rise to homogeneous, linear, and teleological time, often identified as modern time per se, or simply referred to as “progress.” In focusing on the practices of synchronization, however, I want to show how this regime of temporality during its entire existence, but especially at the moment of its emergence in the eighteenth century and at the present moment of its possible collapse, has been challenged by other times, other temporalities, slower, faster, with other rhythms, other successions of events, other narratives, and so on.     

ENERGY EXCHANGE FOR A FOREST SITE and A CLEAR-CUT SITE AT CHALK RIVER, ONTARIO

This article reports energy balance measurements which were made over a forest and a clear-cut site in the summer of 1985, and over the forest in 1987 at the Petawawa National Forestry institute (PNFI), Chalk River, Ontario. Evapotranspiration was evaluated by the Bowen ratio/energy balance method using a model of the Reversing Temperature Difference Measurement System (RTDMS) at each site in each year. The evapotranspiration regimes of the forest and clear-cut sites are interpreted within the resistance framework of the Penman-Monteith combination model. The behaviour of the Priestley and Taylor (1972) α term and the McNaughton and Jarvis (1983) Ω factor are discussed for both sites. The summer of 1987 was exceptionally dry and thus provided an opportunity to examine the forest's evapotranspiration regime under severe water stress. The soil moisture conditions in 1987 are in marked contrast to those in 7985, a wetter year. Dans cette communication, on fait état des mesures du bilan énergétique prises, à l'été 1985, au-dessus d'une région forestière et d'une région de terrain déblayé de sa futaie et, en 7987, au-dessus de la même région foresitière à l'lnstitut Forestier National de Petawawa, à Chalk River, Ontario. Avec la méthode du rapport de Bowen/bilan énergétique, on a déterminé l'évapotranspiration en utilisant un dispositif de mesure de la différence de température à renversement dans chaque région pour chacune des années. On interprète les régimes de I'évapotranspiration de la région forestière et de la région de terrain déblayé de la futaie dans le cadre de la résistance du modele combine de Penman et Monteith. On discute la tenue du terme α de Priestley et Taylor (1972) et du factor Ω de McNaughton et iarvis (1983) pour toutes les régions. Le temps en été 1987 était exceptionnelle-ment sec, favorisant I'examen d'un régime d'évapotranspiration sous des conditions de pénurie deau. Les conditions de sécheresse du sol font contraste avec celles de I'an 1985 qui étaient plus humides.     

AGAINST PERIODIZATION: KOSELLECK'S THEORY OF MULTIPLE TEMPORALITIES

In this essay I intend to flesh out and discuss what I consider to be the groundbreaking contribution by the German historian and theorist of history Reinhart Koselleck to postwar historiography: his theory of historical times. I begin by discussing the view, so prominent in the Anglophone context, that Koselleck's idea of the plurality of historical times can be grasped only in terms of a plurality of historical periods in chronological succession, and hence, that Koselleck's theory of historical times is in reality a theory of periodization. Against this interpretation, to be found in works by Kathleen Davis, Peter Osborne, and Lynn Hunt, among others, I will argue that not only is Koselleck's theory of historical times, or, with a more phenomenlogical turn of phrase, his theory of multiple temporalities, not a theory of periodization, it is, furthermore, a theory developed to defy periodization. Hence, at the core of Koselleck's work is the attempt to replace the idea of linear, homogeneous time with a more complex, heterogeneous, and multilayered notion of temporality. In this essay I will demonstrate how this shift is achieved by means of three dichotomies: between natural and historical, extralinguistic and intralinguistic, and diachronic and synchronic time.     

Gabriel Germinet and the ' Livre d'or du théâtre radiophonique français ' (1923-1935)

The Ecole de Brive represents one of the most successful examples of marketing literary texts in recent years. The Ecole consists of eight authors all of whom publish with Editions Robert Laffont and write novels that deal with the rural France of bygone eras. Laffont has grouped these writers together, created a ‘school’ and then marketed their work as a healthy alternative to the overly introspective fiction produced by Parisian intellectuals. With the Ecole de Brive Laffont has cleverly exploited the traditional tensions between the city and the country, the widespread dissatisfaction with the political and cultural status of contemporary France, and the perceived inaccessibility of currently fashionable literature, in order to sell novels that claim to renew average French peoples’ contacts with their putative roots in the quasi‐mythic world of la France profonde.     

LIBERAL AND MARXIST THEORY WITH RESPECT TO WORK AND LEISURE: A GEOGRAPHER'S ANTITHESIS TO THEIR COMMON THESIS

The special number of the Canadian Geographer devoted to West Edmonton Mall raises important questions, notably that of the relative status, as values, of work (seen historically as fundamental to our culture), and of leisure, perceived, albeit controversially, as being embodied in wem. In preparing to present my principal thesis, I review recent reinterpretations of human behaviour advanced by workers in the fields of symbolic interaction and the sociology of knowledge. These schools ha ve given rise to the concept of, though not the term, functional religion. The meaning of this concept is close to that of ideology; a comparative analysis of the two terms justifies using the former. A survey of recent work by geographers who approach religion from a functional point of view closes the second part of the paper. In the course of this review the relative status of work and leisure emerges as a significant issue. The view of leisure as a norm presented in the third part of the paper is that advocated by Pieper, Huizinga, and de Grazia. They argue that the Classical view, according to which human life finds its meaning in activities that are carried on for their own sake (e.g., games), rather than in those pursued for the material rewards they offer, is correct. Following their lead, and in opposition to both Marxists and Liberals, I argue that the adoption of leisure as a fundamental value would provide a more satisfactory foundation for our culture than work has to this point. Le numéro spécial du Géographe canadien consacréà?étude du West Edmonton Mall soulève plusieurs questions importantes, notamment celle du statut relatif, comme valeur, du travail (valeur-clé historiquement dans notre culture) et du loisir, valeurs incarnées, bien que de façon controversées, dans le WEM. Pour établir les bases de la thèse principale, on examine les réinterprétations récentes du comportement hurnain avancées, dans les sciences humaines, par des chercheurs travaillant dans les domaines de ?interaction symbolique et la sociologie du savoir. Ces écoles ont engendré le concept, sinon le terme, de la religion fonctionelle. Le sens de ce terme est proche de celui de ?idéologie; une analyse comparative des deux termes justifie ?emploi du premier. Pour conclure la deuxièrne partie de ce mémoire, on passe en revue quelques écrits récents par des géographes qui abordent la religion ?un point de vue fonctionnel. De cet examen il ressort que le statut relative du travail et du loisir est ?une importance capitale. Dans la troisième partie, on présente une perspective sur le loisir qui est proche de celle qu'avancent Pieper, Huizinga, et de Grazia. Ceux-cisupportent la position des auteurs classiques, selon qui la vie humaine trouve sa signification dans les activités entreprises pour ellesměmes (par exemple, les jeux) plutǒt que pour le gain matériel. Appuyant leur argument, et m'opposant à celui des marxistes et des libéraux, je prétends que ?adoption du loisir comme vaieur fondamentale fournirait une meilleure assise à notre culture que celle offerte jusqu'ici par le travail.     

CONCENTRATION AND DISPERSION OF IMMIGRANTS IN SWEDEN, 1973–1992

Immigrants play a substantial role in the overall population redistribution in Sweden today. Due to the tendencies of immigrants to concentrate in the major metropolitan areas, a policy of dispersal has been implemented. The purpose of this article is to analyze the redistribution of immigrants within Sweden, using different-sized groups of people, who entered under different immigration policy regimes and with different reasons to immigrate. Our results indicate that the rate of deconcentration depends not only on the size of the groups and the time spent in the country, but also on the settlement policy practised at the time of arrival.
Les immigrants jouent à présent un rôle important dans la redistribution globale de la population en Suède. À cause de leurs tendances à se concentrer dans les principales régions urbaines, une politique visant à les disperser a été mise en oeuvre. Dans cet article on fait l'analyse de la redistribution des immigrants à l'intérieur de la Suède en examinant des groupes de taille variable, qui ont immigré dans différentes circonstances politiques et pour des raisons différentes. Nos résultats indiquent que la vitesse de déconcentration dépend de la taille du groupe et du temps passé dans le pays, ainsi que de la politique de localisation qui était en vigueur lorsque les immigrants sont arrivés.     

3. BEYOND REPRESENTATION: PICTORIAL TEMPORALITY AND THE RELATIONAL TIME OF THE EVENT

Pictures are often connected with the mediation of the event but, paradoxically, not with temporality as such. Although there are several existing approaches that focus on the interplay between the event and its literary representation, the relation between pictorial time and the temporal constitution of the event remains unexplored. The field of image theory has offered insights into the multiple dimensions of the picture's temporality. It has shown that the picture's temporality concerns not only the depicted event but also the picture's immanent modes of producing different temporalities within one pictorial plane. The picture thus not only makes visible but also generates multilayered times of the event. This article brings together insights from image theory and from theories of historical times to demonstrate the relationship between the times of the event and the inner logic of the picture. In order to identify the various qualities of the picture that structure the times of the event, this article uses the case study of Reinhart Koselleck's practical and theoretical work with pictures. This article reads Koselleck's approaches to pictures alongside new insights concerning the relationality of time to the event and the picture. By exploring the picture's agency with regards to the politics of time, this article lays bare the picture's potential to structure the times of the event.     

Vom Nutzen des Augenblicks für die Projekte der Wissenschaft

Using the Instant for the Projects of Science . Focusing on Bachelard's books L'Intuition de l'instant (1932) and La dialectique de la durée (1936), the paper deals with Bachelard's discontinuous and serial concept of time that is formulated against Henri Bergson's concept of duration. With a view to the philosophical concept of monadology, to the theory of relativity, and to the contemporary psychological and neurological research, the paper points to the significance of the instant for Bachelard's concept of temporality, for his desubjectified concept of the individual as well as his discontinuous concept of matter. Moreoever, the paper explores the discontinuous conception of temporality in Bachelard's epistemological writings. The paper argues that Bachelard's discontinuous concept of the specific temporality of science is based on a fundamental discontinuity of reality of both physical as well as psychological processes.     

The Brief Reach of History and the Limitation of Recall in Traditional Aboriginal Societies and Cultures

In native title cases a judge must determine the extent to which the current practices of applicants for native title relate to the practices of their forebears at sovereignty. It is proposed that evidence of the continuity and preservation of tradition from the time of sovereignty must be derived from records and/or expert opinion. This is so because brief historical recall is instituted in Aboriginal societies and cultures and, therefore, Aboriginal witnesses cannot testify to continuities that belong to what, for them, is time immemorial. Relevant observations are cited from the literature to establish the quiddities of brief recall and the editing of histories of deviation. Aboriginal hunter‐gathers are then compared with the peoples of feuding corporations, blood‐debt and the heritable grudge in order to answer the question: Why in Aboriginal Australia is there an instituted and rapid onset of temps perdu?