EXCEPTIONAL HISTORY? THE ORIGINS OF HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES1

This essay examines how and why historiography—defined to mean the study of the history of historical writing—first emerged as a legitimate subject of historical inquiry in the United States during the period from 1890 to the 1930s by focusing on the practice of historiography by three of the most influential American historiographers whose work spans this period: J. Franklin Jameson, John Spencer Bassett, and Harry Elmer Barnes. Whereas the development of historiography as a field of study signified a recognition that historians and historical writing are themselves products of the historical process, American historiographers in this period at the same time used historiography to further a scientific ideal of objectivity that was premised on the belief in the ability of historians to separate themselves from that process. Modern scholars (notably, Peter Novick) have attributed to scientific historians like Jameson and Bassett a simplistic and naive positivism; but the ability of these historiographers to recognize the subjective character of historical writing and yet affirm a belief in objectivity reveals that their understanding of historical truth was more complex than modern scholars have acknowledged. In turn, by questioning the belief that the historical profession was originally founded on a naïve faith in the ideal of objective truth, I demonstrate that New Historians like Barnes were more similar to their predecessors, the scientific historians, than they (or later scholars) acknowledged. Thus, rather than portraying the shift from scientific history to the New History as a linear trajectory of development from objectivity to a more relativist viewpoint, I argue that New Historians like Barnes at once expressed a greater recognition than his scientific predecessors of how historical writing was the product of its context, while still insisting on his commitment to an ideal of objectivity that divorced the historian from that context.     

MULTICULTURALISM,OR THE UNITED COLORS OF CAPITALISM?

In this paper I examine the political manipulation of the meanings of “race” and nation in the context of increasing Pacific Rim ties and multinational capitalist development in Vancouver. As many wealthy Hong Kong Chinese move to Vancouver in advance of 1997, racist incidents and urban social movements aimed at preserving neighborhood “character” have increased, thus discouraging international business activity and blocking capital flow into and through the city. As racism and localism hinder the social networks necessary for the integration of global capitalisms, businesspeople and politicians interested in increasing Vancouver's integration have sought to counter these processes through ideological production. The liberal doctrine of multiculturalism has become linked with the attempt to smooth racial friction and reduce resistance to the recent changes in the urban environment and experiences of everyday life in Vancouver. In this sense, the attempt to shape multiculturalism can be seen as an attempt to gain hegemonic control over concepts of race and nation in order to further expedite Vancouver's integration into the international networks of global capitalism.     

THE HENSBACKA: A SUBSISTENCE STRATEGY OF CONTINENTAL HUNTER-GATHERERS,OR AN ADAPTATION AT THE PLEISTOCENE-HOLOCENE BOUNDARY?

Summary. In this paper, three aspects of the Hensbacka/Fosna assemblage are discussed. Although significant features of the inventory have been touched upon, emphasis is placed on two issues: firstly, the environmental premise of the assemblage and, secondly, the origin(s) of the group(s) behind the assemblage. In this regard, it is suggested that the Hensbacka/Fosna assemblage is an 'expression' that reflects subsistence strategies of Continental hunter/gatherers at the close of the Late Glacial. In support of this proposition, a discussion has been initiated that addresses the diagnostic features of tanged points and the rationality of human behaviour.     

EUROPEAN PALAEOLITHIC ART - TYPICAL OR EXCEPTIONAL?

Summary: The recent discovery of the first Palaeolithic art object from China is discussed in the context of relevant Chinese and other Asian evidence, and considered within the framework of current models of very early art evolution as they pertain to Eurasia. It appears that these are biased in favour of selective evidence from western Europe, by ignoring that in most regions where Pleistocene art exists it is largely, if not entirely, non-figurative. It is also argued that any present distributional, statistical and compositional characteristics of the surviving evidence must not be considered to have cultural significance, unless there is clear evidence to that effect.     

THE CRISIS OF HUMANITY: OR,WHAT IF WE HAVE NEVER BEEN HUMAN?

This collection of nine essays brings together a variety of responses to the question of the “nonhuman turn” within the humanities and the social sciences, understood broadly as a developing concern with overcoming anthropocentrism in its diverse manifestations. Emerging from The Nonhuman Turn conference held at the University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee in 2012, which was hosted by the Center for 21st Century Studies, it represents the first attempt to account for and consolidate the many intellectual approaches and developments that may now be regarded as constituting the nonhuman turn. The nonhuman turn is contextualized as both “yet another” turn but also a necessary one, and as something critically distinct from “the posthuman turn”—whereas the posthuman turn is concerned with what comes after the human (ways of being, ways of thinking), the nonhuman turn insists (according to editor Richard Grusin) that “we have never been human.” My reading of this volume suggests that this claim is not borne out across the chapters it contains, and that the notion that we have never been human, though a noble gesture to Bruno Latour's widely lauded claim that “we have never been modern,” does not enable a new philosophy, nor does it advance the two primary streams of philosophical thought featured here: object‐oriented ontology (OOO) and new materialism.     

DOWNTOWN OR THE SUBURBS? A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO VANCOUVER HEAD OFFICES

Office location policy in Canadian cities has often emphasized the social costs of job-residence separation. From a survey of two Vancouver corporations, one centrally located and the other relocated to Burnaby, it was found that employees in both head offices are equally satisfied with their job location, if for different reasons. As policy suggests, decentralization is associated with a shorter journey to work, especially for clerical staff; however, unforeseen by policy, management is more ambivalent about suburban relocation, primarily for business reasons. In addition, employees express significant differences in evaluating new and old head office buildings as a work environment. La politique concernant la situation des bureaux dans les villes canadiennes a souvent insisté sur les coǔts sociaux entraǐnés par la distance séparant le lieu de travail du lieu de résidence. Une enquěte par sondage concernant la relation géographique entre les lieux de résidence et de travail évalue le degré de satisfaction des employés d'agences centrales de deux sociétés commerciales de Vancouver. Etant donné le besoin d'un nouvel emplacement, une des sociétés commerciales s'est décentralisée, alors que l'autre s'est maintenue en ville dans ses édifices traditionnels. L'ensemble des employés des deux sociétés sont également satisfaits de la location de leurs bureaux (quelquefois pour des raisons différentes). Comme le suggère la politique, la décentralisation est associée à un trajet plus court pour se rendre au travail, particulièrernent pour les employés de bureaux; cependant (et ceci nétait pas prévu par la politique), la direction est plus ambivalente en ce qui concerne la relocalisation en banlieues, principalement pour des raisons d'affaires. De plus, les employés expriment des différences significatives dans l'évaluation des nouveaux et des anciens édifices d'agence centrale en tant qu'en-vironnement de travail.     

THE HOUSE OF THE JAGUAR: Can it survive?

This narrative discusses the past, present and precarious future of Na Bolom museum in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico – a house museum dedicated to the study, conservation and support of Chiapas' indigenous cultures, communities and their natural environment.     

THE GREAT TANGKA OF TIBETAN ART AND CULTURE OF CHINA SHOWN IN BEJING

WhentheGreatTangkaofTibetanArtandCultureofChinaisshowninBeijingbetweenApril18andJune4,itcreatesahitinthecapitalcityThetangkapaintingscrollmeasures618meterslongand2.5meterswide.The1,500squarematerscroll,thelongestofitskindintheworIdtodayweighssome1,000kg-ThetangAnpaintingscrollcoversthehiStoryCulture,folkIoreandartoftheTibetanrace.IttelIsofthecreationoftheworId,thesourceoftheTib6tanrace,livesofvariousTUbokings,lifeofSakyamuni(founderofBuddhism),sto-riesofTibetanBuddhiStseCts,peoplefa…     

THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS? GENOMIC HISTORY AND THE RETURN OF RACE IN THE STUDY OF THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

This article discusses the impact of genomic history, a subdiscipline that emerged in the study of the ancient Mediterranean in the 2010s. In 2014, scientists first published a method for extracting genetic material, which they christened aDNA (ancient DNA), from ancient human remains in hot climates. After a decade of research, genomic history is now poised to transform our understanding of Mediterranean premodernity, centering migration and conflict as the key mechanisms for cultural change. Despite years of critique, aDNA researchers have failed to seriously examine the bioessentialist assumptions implicit in their work—a failure that has led many to deploy language that is strikingly evocative of pre-World War II racialism. Even worse, some genomic historians continue to make troubling overtures toward the ethnonationalist Right, which has been ascendant across Europe and North America since the 2010s. This article traces the intellectual genealogy of genomic history from World War II to the present, examines recent attempts to answer criticism from the humanities and social sciences, and suggests paths for responsible use of aDNA in historical and prehistorical scholarship.     

SWEDEN AND THE LONG ‘1968’: BREAK OR CONTINUITY?

The first part gives a chronological overview of the Swedish ‘1968’, in this article defined as a phenomenon with its roots in the late 1950s and it's end around 1980. Three phases are identified: a ‘liberal’ until 1965, a ‘red’ in the late 1960s and the ‘diversified’ 1970s. Underlying this time schedule are two characteristics of the Swedish ‘1968’ in its extended form: the role of the social movements and the interaction between old and new movements; and the unique role of the intellectuals. The second part discusses the (late and limited) research so far on this topic in Sweden. The academic works are still few and the critical debate little developed. One of the topics discussed is to what extent ‘1968’ was something fundamentally new and to what extent it was influenced by older social movements.     

THE GRAND MENHIR BRISÉ: MEGALITHIC SUCCESS OR FAILURE?

Summary. The Grand Menhir Brisé is one member of a complex of sites near the Breton village of Locmariaquer. When intact, it would have been the largest menhir moved by neolithic man. The cause of the menhir's fall has been the subject of debate for over 250 years.
This paper considers the quarrying, transport and raising of the Grand Menhir from an engineering and archaeological viewpoint and the possible causes of the breakage are discussed in detail. It is concluded that, with the data available, a fall caused by a natural catastrophe is improbable. The former presence of a large, natural flaw within the menhir is revealed and it is demonstrated that this is likely to have caused the breakage of the Grand Menhir during its erection. The most reasonable explanation of the present positions of the fragments is that the basal section was re-erected, to be toppled subsequently. The position and form of the original stone-hole is predicted from this conclusion.     

IS THE ART MARKET MORE BOURGEOIS THAN BOHEMIAN?

Most research on the art market focuses on the high end, composed of auction houses and a few well‐known dealers. In this paper, we use a new database to examine the industry structure and location patterns of the New York art market, which consists largely of small, independent, relatively unknown galleries. We find that Manhattan galleries are highly spatially concentrated, and that clustering reflects both agglomeration economies and preferences over location‐specific amenities. New galleries are more likely to open in neighborhoods with existing gallery clusters, and proximity to other galleries increases establishment lifespan. New galleries also locate in neighborhoods with high population density and more affluent households, consistent with location models of luxury retail. The results are not consistent with the hypothesis that galleries locate in cheap, “bohemian” neighborhoods.     

A HISTORY OF THE SPECIES?1

By rejecting the old divide between prehistory and history, the group of scholars behind Deep History opens a new window on the problem of the unity and diversity of human experience over the very long run. Their use of kinship metaphors suggests not only a link between modern society and the deep past, but also perhaps a way to imagine the common legacy of the human species. But what emerges from Deep History is hardly a sunny story about the distant origins of social justice and ecological harmony. The other central metaphor of the book—the fractal—uncovers the slow prelude to the Anthropocene. Rather than seeing a sharp break in the Industrial Revolution from an “organic” to a fossil fuel‐burning economy, these scholars stress the history of environmental destruction that has accompanied human expansion. My critical reading presents an alternative understanding of deep history as an arena for a new politics of species. Here a cornucopian understanding of human adaptation clashes with a new pessimism about the climatic fragility of Neolithic civilization.