From the stigmatized tattoo to the graffitied body: femininity in the tattoo renaissance

This article analyzes the spectacularly rising popularity of tattoos by showing that tattoos have become a spatial project in the largest sense: the way they participate in the creation of social space is different from that of tattoos before the Tattoo Renaissance. I explain this project as a shift from tattoos to body graffiti. In the past (predominantly male) tattoo-spheres could be located within the margins of society. Once an identity had been assumed through the adoption of a tattoo, the person could be assigned a particular geographical position within an urban sphere. Contemporary tattoos have this one-dimensional identifying function to a much lesser extent, which influences the way in which these tattoos create space. Within the new tattoo space, the skin does not wear the stigmatic mark, nor does it function as a screen of male desire, but it becomes a wall on which multiple desires are projected. In this sense, tattoos have become graffiti. I establish the particularity of the female tattoo as opposed to the masculine tattoo by focusing on an important element of the pro/contra discussion of female tattoos: the purity and ‘blankness’ of the female skin. Jean Baudrillard's concept of the blank female skin as a ‘void’ that men rush to fill with their own desires is central to this discussion. Finally, I show that the spatial function of narcissistically oriented female tattoos is at least partly established within the Suicide Girls interactive website.     

Examination of Tattoos on Mummified Tissue using Infra-red Reflectography

Tattoos can have cultural or medical significance. Occasionally, evidence of this type of body modification may be found in archaeological remains. This paper describes three tattoos found in a collection of human remains from the site of Semna South in Sudanese Nubia. The tattoos date to the Meroitic period, about 2000 years ago. Two tattoos were located on the dorsal surfaces of naturally mummified hands. These tattoos were examined using infra-red reflectography to enhance visibility. The tattoos are relatively complex designs and may relate to the social status or the group affiliation of the individuals bearing them.     

Loyalist Tattoos and Tattooed Generals in the Song Dynasty

According to Yue Fei’s biography, when the legendary general was slandered and interrogated for treason, he tore the shirt off his body, exposing four characters tattooed on his back: “Exhaust one’s loyalty in service of the state.” This study looks at two components of the Yue Fei story—patriotic tattoos, and tattooed generals—and examines their meaning in the broader stretch of Song dynasty history. Yue Fei was not the Song dynasty’s only tattooed general who came to a tragic end. The Northern Song’s Di Qing was a tattooed soldier whose military merit allowed him to rise to the highest levels of power in the empire. Di Qing’s story makes it clear that tattooed generals were objects of suspicion and ridicule at court due to their military tattoos, a trait that linked them to the criminals and lower class men that manned the Song armies. Though military tattoos sometimes had a loyalist ring to them, they were carried out on a mass scale, and were a characteristic of coercion rather than fervent loyalism. This study shows that underneath the nationalist historical narrative of the Song dynasty, of which Yue Fei is a famous example, there lies a different story of social conflict within the Song state. Rather than a story of Chinese fighting non-Chinese and of traitorous and cowardly officials struggling with loyal patriots, this study offers a narrative of a social conflict between high-born clear-skinned officials and low-born tattooed military men.     

The tattoos of the Tyrolean Iceman: a light microscopical, ultrastructural and element analytical study

The Tyrolean iceman, a 5300-year-old mummy, presents tattoos on different parts of his body. Skin samples of several line tattoos and a cross tattoo were investigated by optical microscopy and various electron microscopy techniques (TEM, EFETEM, EELS, EDXS, electron diffraction). The epidermis of the investigated skin areas was mostly lacking. The tattooing particles are distributed in the connective tissue and could be identified as soot. In some areas between the soot particles, different silicate crystals are present such as almandine and quartz, along with some not exactly definable crystals. The crystals possibly derived from stones of the fireplace from which the soot was taken for tattooing. Additionally, in the medial part of the right leg, putative ash particles were seen in the tattooed area. Furthermore, in non-tattooed skin areas, a vivianite crystal and small grains of CaPO₄ and nearby Fe, P and O could be detected, these having formed most probably after the death of the Tyrolean Iceman during his long period in the mountains. On the surface of two leg specimens, a small layer with brown granules was visible by means of optical microscopy, and these were identified as melanin granules in the stratum basale of the epidermis.     

Capture Life: The ‘Document-Monument’ in Recent Commemorations of Hugo Chávez

The recent passing of Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela from 1999 till 2013, produced a juncture in the nation's imaginary that immediately sparked numerous and diverse commemorative practices. This article explores this sudden demand for a coherent and enduring memory of the late president by analysing different official postures and commemorative strategies. These are initially placed in the context of key historiographical tropes of the Bolivarian Revolution, and then analysed in light of such tropes. Specifically, the discussion identifies a thirst for ‘documents’, used in the broad sense proposed by Jacques Le Goff, which converged on the presidential body, the social body and public space as potential stimuli for memory. In this context, the initial possibilities of embalming Chávez's body, free tattoos of his signature and its use to decorate government buildings, appeal to the archive as a source of authority and as the commencement of history, as Jacques Derrida has it, while extrapolating the president's signature as a mobile and reproducible image of power to seek the eternal presence of the ‘líder eterno’ (eternal leader) as an anchor for political unity.     

On Skin and Bone: Samoan Coconut Oil in Indigenous Practice

ABSTRACT

International promotional material on coconut oil commonly references its centuries of use as a beauty and health aid by Pacific Islanders. However, this gesture towards Indigenous Pacific use of coconut oil is rarely accompanied by substantive information. This paper explores the topical application of coconut oil in three Indigenous Samoan practices: fofō, or massage by taulāsea and other forms of customary healers or medical attendants; samaga, the anointing with coconut oil of the newly inked pe‘a or malu to mark the completion of these customary tattoos; and liutofaga, the ritual ‘washing’ of the bones of a deceased relative with coconut oil prior to reinterment. This paper argues that there are interrelated practical, medicinal, and spiritual dimensions to Samoan uses of coconut oil, and that these are usefully understood through reference to Samoan conceptions of sociospatial relationship, or vā.     

Voices from the Margins: Street Children's Subcultures in Indonesia

Indonesia has a proliferation of children living on the streets of its larger cities. To the state and dominant society, they are perceived as committing a social violation. In response to their marginalisation and subordination, street children in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia, have developed a 'repertoire of strategies' in order to survive. These include the appropriation of urban niches within the city, in which they create collective solutions for the dilemmas they confront in their everyday lives. This paper discusses a street boy community that exists within these marginal spaces: the Tikyan subculture of Yogyakarta. It presents the Tikyan subculture as a technique for street children to resist the negative stereotypes which are given to them by mainstream society. As they get older and become increasingly alienated by society, the Tikyan actively reject their 'deviant' label, and decorate street life so that it becomes agreeable in their eyes. This is achieved by deviating from dominant styles of dress and conventional behaviour, and through the development of a specific symbolic identity. These symbolic challenges to the dominant culture are communicated and dispersed within the social group and conveyed to the world via the subculture's 'specialised semiotic': their style of dress; their acts of bodily subversion or dissent (in the form of tattoos, body piercing and sexual practices); the music they play and listen to; and their use of drugs and alcohol. I describe these practices as the Tikyan 's obligatory performances, and the expected ways of behaving in order to remain accepted by the group.     

从《吏民田家莂》看汉代田税的征收方式

简牍表明,孙吴把国有土地按质量分为“熟田”、“旱田”两类租给农民,征收不同标准的田租,其“熟田”、“旱田”的数额是人为地“定”出来的而非依据土地质量的自然状况而统计出来的数量;东汉自章帝以后把土地“差为三品”而税之,吴简的问世,间接地证明了东汉土地分为三等之后是分别征以不同数额的田税;孙吴的“熟田”、“旱田”之分是东汉田分三等的发展,尽管租、税性质不同,但方式一致。     

宋代安徽书院述论

宋代安徽地区曾设立书院30所,其中官办的只有4所;创办于北宋时期5所、南宋时期25所。安徽地区书院呈现创办时段不一、分布不均、规模不齐、创办者身份多样、选址多在山林僻静处、教育效果显著等特点。     

Taphonomic study in Argentinian Patagonia: analysis of variability through time and space in the Central Plateau (Santa Cruz Province)

The basin of the Zanjón Rojo and Blanco is located in the northeast of the Central Plateau of Santa Cruz province (Argentina). Each sector of the basin has specific characteristics which represent different microenvironments. We have studied two different archeological contexts in the period from the Final Pleistocene to Late Holocene in each of these sectors. In this paper, we analyze the effects of different taphonomic processes and agents on the zooarcheological assemblages in order to evaluate the role played by those that can redeposit or move bones pre- and post-depositionally during site formation in this sector of Patagonia. The bone specimens that were analyzed come from two stratigraphic contexts with wide sequences of human occupation; one is AEP-1 at Piedra Museo and the other is Cueva Maripe at La Primavera, located in the lower and upper sectors of the basin, respectively. The comparison between both sites was based on different modification patterns identified on bone surfaces for the different phases of settlement in Patagonia. The results showed complex and different taphonomic histories in both sites, and while the main processes involved in bone movement were roots and rodents, both had little significance in comparison with others, such as manganese and carbonate.     

谈中国古代服饰中的佩挂制度

佩挂制度是我国古代服饰制度中的一个重要组成部分,各个时期对不同阶层人们的佩挂物都有严格的规定,不能僭越,是统治阶级“昭名兮、辨等威”的工具,是中国古代服饰制度中的一个特色。     

汉代限田制说

张家山汉简《二年律令.户律》之受田宅律文,其实施对象是汉初军队系统的复员人员,而非全国人民,是"法以有功劳行田宅"精神的具体体现。此土地授予前属于国有,授予后即归被授者私有。"授田"与"授田制"是不同的概念,汉代虽然存在授田的现象,但并不存在战国授田制那种形式的土地制度。军功授田、民户自有的土地以及买卖而来的土地是汉初名田的三个来源。汉初,国家一方面承认民户对土地的所有权,同时对土地的转让、买卖和继承予以一定的限制,其方法是不同等级规定不同的数量限额,目的是维护既存的等级制度和抑制土地兼并。因此,汉代名田制是土地私有制基础上的限田制。     

清季三司兩道改制

清末仿行憲政,由皇朝體制轉爲立憲官制,内外相維的設制須相應改爲上下貫注。作爲清代省一級行政主體的司道,是理順上下關係的重要關節。受制於財政困窘及内外官制改革不同步,司道改制最終放棄了全盤更新的方案,改爲舊制框架内進行調整,設置三司兩道。儘管司道改制類型不同、各地進展不一,卻均以歸并局所、裁撤舊官爲基礎,實行分科治事,逐漸推進政體變革,擴展了社會職能,成爲民初省級行政架構的雛形。     

试说甲骨中的异代使用问题

通过对几版藏于卡内基博物馆的甲骨的分析,发现它们反面的钻凿与正面刻辞的时代相异,提出殷墟甲骨中可能确实存在异代使用的现象。只是这些后刻的刻辞并非真正的卜辞,而是后来习刻者练习契刻的作品。这一问题的探讨对我们了解当时的甲骨保存制度、甲骨契刻技术的传承都是有益的。     

河南安阳灵芝窑出土瓷器的分析研究

本工作利用能量色散X-射线荧光光谱、体视及岩相显微镜、高温电子膨胀仪等实验方法,对灵芝窑有代表性的黑瓷、青瓷、白瓷等作了系统的分析测试。分析结果表明,灵芝窑不同种类的瓷器,在胎釉的化学组成、显微结构、烧制温度上等方面都存在一定的差异,由此推断,不同瓷器可能采用不同的原料及其加工工艺。     

Businessmen in the Parliament of 1852–7: Players or Spectators?*

This article examines the activities of the business MPs who were members of the parliament of 1852–7. Largely coming from a different social background from those who had traditionally led the United Kingdom, with different educational experiences, and inhabiting a different social milieu, they demonstrated their interest in the governance of the United Kingdom by a vigorous participation in the activities of the house of commons. Although they composed less than 21% of the membership of the Commons, they disproportionately attended the sessions of the House, spoke often on topics of interest, participated regularly on committees, were quite active in sponsorship of public bills and sponsored more than half of the local and private bills.     

济南郎茂山路元代家族墓发掘简报

2005年,济南市考古研究所在济南市市中区郎茂山路抢救性发掘了一处元代家族墓地,共发掘墓葬3座。墓葬均为石砌,其中M1门楣内侧刻有"寿春堂"3字,并有"至元庚辰年"纪年。出土随葬器物以瓷器为主,均为日常生活用器,分属不同窑系,产地也各不相同,反映了元代社会生活中使用瓷器的真实状态。     

戊戌政变后的社会舆论

戊戌政变后,虽有统治者严酷的言禁,但社会各界仍对相继发生的事件相当关注,以各种方式和途径表达自己的见解和态度。当时参与较多的报纸,如《中外日报》、《国闻报》、《申报》、《知新报》和《清议报》等都刊登了相关报道和文章,从不同立场对政变作出各种反应和思考。与此同时,包括各级官员、各类知识分子和各界民众在内的社会各阶层人士,或公开或私下表达自己的意见和态度。这些出自各方面的舆论,说明政变后的社会舆论比较复杂,反映了社会各阶层对时局的不同主张以及先进与落后势力的复杂斗争。     

Temporal Patterns in Ceramic Production in the Berbati Valley,Greece

Abstract

This research explores temporal patterns in the procurement of raw materials for ceramic production, based mainly on material recovered in regional survey. The underlying premise is that potters in different cultural phases will preferentially exploit the same geological landscape for the most suitable raw materials, but different materials may be preferred depending upon the potter's technological traditions. A program of petrographic and chemical analyses was carried out on ceramics from the Berbati-Limnes Archaeological Survey, Argolid, Greece. Ceramic fabrics from several cultural phases were studied and compared with patterns of settlement within the valley. The results show that ceramics from regional surveys can be used to identify broad patterns of change in exploitation of the same landscape. In some cases these patterns correlate with changes in settlement and may indicate that different choices in raw material procurement mark the arrival of potters from outside the valley.