Millet and sauce: The uses and functions of querns among the Minyanka (Mali)

The central role of grinding activities in the dietary practices of traditional agricultural populations can be approached from an ethnoarchaeological point of view. The comparison of ethnographic references raises the question whether the function and the socioeconomic context in which grinding slabs are used allow to assess issues related to conclusions drawn from archaeological contexts. Our discussion is based on the analysis of the manufacturing of grinding slabs, their use cycles and their social status in several Minyanka villages (Mali), providing useful references when examining the way in which archaeologists explain and interpret technological, functional and spatial observations. The typological and technical evolution and variability of querns results from a combination of several factors determined by the available raw materials, the skill of shaping techniques, the organisation of manufacturing and the transference of the function of grinding tools. But these factors alone cannot explain the encountered range of variation. Our study thus emphasises the very role of cultural aspects within these temporal and regional developments, and the impossibility of dissociating the use of a quern from its socio-economic context.     

The astrolabe: Its uses and derivatives

Despite the technical means available for its diffusion, the information explosion is such that a diminishing proportion of geographical literature achieves the circulation that it deserves. The problem is illustrated by reference to a single country — Finland. In the case of such a country, even assuming familiarity with its languages, access to significant publication often proves impossible save on its home ground. Examples of three types of geographical literature are reviewed — 1) literature from the past which merits wider acquaintance because of its enduring value; 2) literature from the present which, on the score of methodology or theory independently of content, deserves attention, but which — not appearing in internationally familiar outlets — is unlikely to gain recognition; 3) similar literature directly relevant to the geography of Finland in the publications of cognate disciplines. The rate of change in the geographical scene and the volume of publication generated make it increasingly difficult for the would‐be specialist in even a relatively narrow field to keep up‐to‐date and to speed the circulation of information.     

The entanglement of the heritage paradigm: values,meanings and uses

This paper explores the ways in which heritage as a practice and concept has been used and diverse meanings and values ascribed to heritage by different claimants, using the medieval site of Ani in eastern Turkey as a case study. On one hand, the site marks a point of conflict between Turks and Armenians, with the heritage and the past of the site playing an important role for identity making and construction of national narratives, as well as developing what might be seen as the authorised heritage discourses for both sides. On other hand, the local community around the site has developed a different relationship to the site Ani because of their daily relationship with its landscape and built environment. This has revealed meaning and values embodied in the site that are beyond the national and political level. This paper considers to what extent the built environment in particular, can play a role in identity making and add to the political tension. It also examines how the value and meaning of a heritage site can be distinct for local communities from national political meanings and uses, and, as a consequence, can be used to resist authorised heritage discourses.     

The uses of biology

Boyd, Robert, and Peter J. Richerson. Culture and the Evolutionary Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. vii + 331 pp. including references and author and subject indices. $29.95 cloth.

Butterworth, George, Julie Rutkowska, and Michael Scaife, eds. Evolution and Developmental Psychology. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. xxiv + 205 pp. including chapter references and index. $27.50 cloth.     

The uses of kinship

Larissa Adler de Lomnitz. Cómo Sobreviven los Marginados. Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1975. 229 pp. Tables, figures, illustrations, references, and bibliography. $60 Mexican ($4.80 U.S.).     

The uses of rhetoric

This essay provides a general introduction to the special number on Jacob L. Talmon (1916–1980). The essay sketches the outlines of Talmon's intellectual biography, beginning with his study of the origins of totalitarian democracy, moving through his analysis of nationalism and political messianism, and ending with his study of the ideological clash of the 20th century. The essay raises the question of whether Talmon should be seen as a thinker wishing to defend existing traditions (i.e. a “priest”), or as a radical anti-authoritarian skeptic (i.e. a “jester”). Moreover, being both an anti-nationalist liberal, and a zionist at the same time, Talmon, the essay shows, was aware of the fact his own stance was problematic and at times even paradoxical. The last section of the essay presents the seven essays, which are included in the special issue.     

The uses of memory in African studies

Since the 1950's, African specialists have used memory both as a tool and as an object of research.

Anthropologists were finally becoming aware that all social interaction inherently contains ambiguity and conflict and were coming to terms with the impact of colonialism. They started taking a productive interest in what societies, in their present practice, had to say about and make of their past. Roger Bastide (Les religions africaines au Brésil) made collective memory and its functioning the heart of a rich sociological study, situated in a long historical context.

At the same time, historians were starting to write the history of Africa, an effort largely made possible by a tradition of oral transmission. The first consideration was the documentary usefulness of this oral tradition, more or less institutionalized. Historians evaluated these oral sources according to technical criteria, in order to write source critiques. But the nature of the work led to a changed focus. Historians reduced their emphasis on the gathering of factual data and started treating that data with greater skepticism. They also started to strongly repudiate the implicit model of written sources and archives. They became, instead, more concerned with the various forms of memory and fascinated with the analysis of the workings of memory itself in society, and with what new historical information lay hidden in people's memories. Life histories, and personal memories are also used today.     

The invention and uses of folk art in Germany: wooden toys from the Erzgebirge mountains

This article attempts to historicise the concept of “folk art” using the example of wooden toys from the Erzgebirge mountains to show that it was invented by cultural élites as a marketing concept at the beginning of the twentieth century in order to support a domestic industy caught in structural crisis.     

Alternatives to record-linkage in the study of urban migration: The uses of naturalization records

Abstract

In this article, the authors examine the growth of secondary school attainment in the United States between 1940 and 1980, exploring several different conceptual frames of reference. Using state-level data, the authors identify a diffusion model of educational expansion using a fixed-effects panel regression approach. This method is used to analyze change over time, with particular attention to evaluating nonlinear processes of growth. The authors consider the effect of a number of correlates on changing patterns of enrollment in the postwar era. Regional differences in attainment diminished during each decade, and a limited number of social and economic developments appear to have influenced rising enrollment, although most attainment growth appears to have been linked to a self-generating process of diffusion.     

Emma Willard and the graphic foundations of American history

Emma Hart Willard (1787–1870) authored one of the most widely printed textbooks of United States history, and created the first historical atlas of the United States. By drawing maps, graphs, and pictures of the country's past, Willard helped translate the fact of the country as a physical entity into the much more powerful fact of the country as a nation. Given the current academic preoccupation with the production, experience, and depiction of space, Willard's experimentation with the relationship of history and geography is highly worthy of close attention. Willard used the spatial dimension of the American past to engage students, develop their memories, integrate history and geography, and—most importantly—to consolidate national identity. In the process, learning itself became an act of nationalism.