Fieldwork as cultural process

Butler, Barbara, and Diane Michalski Turner, eds. Children and Anthropological Research. New York and London: Plenum Press, 1987. xi + 161 pp. including chapter references and author and subject indices. $39.50 cloth.

Friedrich, Paul. The Princes of Naranja: An Essay in Anthrohistorical Method. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986. xx + 305 pp. including appendices and notes. $29.95 cloth, $12.95 paper.

Alverson, Marianne. Under African Sun. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. xiii + 233 pp. including photographs and glossary. $19.95 cloth.     

Diversity and cultural policy: cultural citizenship as a tool for inclusion

At the crossroads of citizenship, cultural and diversity studies, I enter in the emerging debate on cultural citizenship. Culture is seen as a channel for diversity inclusion, and cultural policy carries the function of enhancing citizenship. My reasoning will follow two steps. First, in overviewing the recent literature, I identify two main drivers making cultural citizenship: the democratic/equality and the identity/national drivers. However, I will note that the debate is concentrated in the plurality of meanings of ‘culture’, and not, as I will argue as a second step, in the plurality of citizenship traditions: a liberal, a communitarian and a republican one. This view is at the basis of different approaches of cultural policies when we focus on them as enhancing cultural citizenship in diversity contexts. At the end, I will also contend that this can ground an interpretative framework capable of distinguishing current social practices and policies.     

Battlefields as cultural resources

Abstract

The category of 'historic battlefield' is a relatively new one in archaeology. As a place of activity in the past, a battlefield is most often considered to be a 'historic place', rather than an 'archaeological site', although the attention of archaeologists over the past few decades has done much to indicate the archaeological potential and significance of such places. As a site of attention by heritage agencies in the present, battlefields are subject to a range of different treatments not only in different territories, but often also different manners of treatment under the same management regime. Neither of these sets of approaches has resulted in any kind of debate about the nature of the historic battlefield as an object — the discourse remains locked in a set of unexamined assumptions that are worthy of review. Accordingly, this paper reviews, from the perspective of archaeology, the current state of the category of 'historic battlefield' internationally. In particular, it considers the historical development of battlefield studies in archaeology and examines the ontology of the historic battlefield from three key perspectives: the definition of 'battle'; battlefields as places; and the manner in which they are given value as part of management regimes.     

薄荷醇作为临时固型材料在文物保护中的应用

文物承载着丰富的历史文化信息。在考古发掘时,对于丝绸、纸张、壁画、岩画等脆弱文物遗迹的提取是考古工作的重点。为完整提取脆弱遗迹保证重要考古资料不遗失,需要在考古挖掘现场对脆弱遗迹进行临时加固。薄荷醇作为新型考古发掘现场临时固型提取材料,已在考古工地上成功应用,也引起了国外考古学界同行的高度关注。本工作总结了薄荷醇的基本性能和使用方法,并介绍了其作为临时固型材料在保护修复中的应用情况。结果表明,以薄荷醇衍生物为主体,设计合成具有梯度熔点、梯度加固强度和梯度挥发时间的临时固型材料,可为考古现场提供多样化、多功能集成化、高效便捷的固型材料。     

Protecting contemporary cultural soundscapes as intangible cultural heritage: sounds of Istanbul

This paper aims to evaluate culture and traditions of everyday life from a sonic perspective and to suggest ways for protecting characteristic sounds and soundscapes. This multidisciplinary research, having roots in such fields as soundscape studies, intangible cultural heritage (ICH), museum studies and sensory studies, explores the larger contemporary cultural soundscape of Istanbul. This paper also draws on the project The Soundscape of Istanbul (https://soundscapeofistanbul.ku.edu.tr/), which is archiving the contemporary elements of the cultural soundscape of Istanbul that were determined by public contribution, and outlines examples from this collection. Sounds constitute an inevitable part of daily life and are therefore very important as ICH. Thus, they deserve to be protected to strengthen cultural memory. However, sonic culture is twice endangered due to the physical characteristics of sound itself and the dynamic structure of intangible culture. Therefore, urgent protection of contemporary cultural soundscapes in the context of ICH is crucial for transferring the present sonic environments to following generations in order to maintain cultural identity.     

Philosophy as a cultural resource and medium of reflection for Hermann Weyl

In a talk given at Zurich in the late 1940s, Hermann Weyl discussed Ferdinand Gonseth's dialectical epistemology and considered it as being restricted too strictly to aspects of historical change. His experiences with post-Kantian dialectical philosophy, in particular Johann Gottlieb Fichte's derivation of the concept of space and matter, had been a stronger dialectical background for his own 1918 studies in purely infinitesimal geometry and the early geometrically unified field theory of matter (extending the Mie-Hilbert program). Although now Weyl distantiated himself from the speculative features of his youthful philosophizing and in particular from his earlier enthusiasm for Fichte, he again had deep doubts as to the cultural foundations of modern mathematical sciences and its role in material culture of high modernity. For Weyl, philosophical «reflection» was a cultural necessity he now turned towards Karl Jaspers' and Martin Heidegger's existentialism to find deeper grounds, similar to his turn towards Fichte's philosophy after World War I. The discussion in the late 1940s can be read as a kind of post-World-War-II «Nachtrag» to Weyl's more widely known philosophical comments on mathematics and the natural sciences published in the middle of the 1920s.     

Decadence as historical myth and cultural theory

This article traces the early history of the concept of European decadence with special emphasis on its manifestations in French literary production in the period between 1860 and 1900. It argues that decadence was not a historical reality, but a cultural myth, that gave expression to a new, specifically urban experience of modernity first thematized in Baudelaire's poetry and prose work. It further claims that this concept continues to have important contemporary relevance in the form of debates about the “second modernity” and the new “cosmopolitanism.”     

Degraded towns in Poland as cultural heritage

This paper discusses how the concept of cultural heritage is currently used in relation to the so-called degraded towns (i.e. deprived of their urban status) in Poland. It shows the role of heritagisation in the process of restitution of urban status, and addresses the effects of the ongoing revitalisation of degraded towns in order to restore their lost urban glory. I argue that the Polish understanding of urbanity is ambiguous, muddling formality with cultural connotations. I address how such convolution both rewrites history and affects modernity by the imposition of values and foreclosures. I also discuss how alterations to the built environment made in the name of cultural heritage (revitalisation) are often conducted with disregard to identity, authenticity and historical hybridity, and how the introduction of ‘history’ into a modern arena affects the local society. I conclude that considering degraded towns as a special form of cultural heritage is a new construction, where coupling of the disconnected dimensions of the Polish understanding of urbanity becomes even more apparent. I stress that this field is neither sufficiently differentiated nor problematised, and that cultural heritage relating to degraded towns is often taken for granted.     

Chinese popular music as a musical heritage and cultural marker of the Malaysian Chinese

Chinese popular music, inspired by pre-war Shanghai music known as ‘shidai qu’ (时代曲) (songs of the era) and evolving to include Canto pop and Taiwanese Mandarin songs, has always been popular among the Chinese in Malaysia. This music is featured on radio, television, karaoke, and performed by orchestras such as the Dama Chinese Orchestra (大马) to enthusiastic reception. The songs have a broad appeal that transcends time, generation, and place. Of significance is the observation that the music has become a cultural marker and musical heritage for Chinese in Malaysia and in the region. The paper looks at factors behind this development.     

Application of veratraldehyde as a temporary consolidant for relics at underwater cultural heritage sites

Because it is often difficult to preserve fragile relics in situ at underwater cultural heritage sites, it is sometimes necessary for relics to be extracted and moved to a controlled environment on land for protection and study. This paper discusses the feasibility of using the volatile organic compound veratraldehyde as a temporary consolidant for underwater fragile relics extraction. The results show that different materials (iron, tile, sand, wood) under water can be bonded together and extracted when using veratraldehyde. The fact that veratraldehyde is difficult to spread on the surface of underwater objects is a problem that can be solved by adding a layer of strong hydrophobic polypropylene (PP) fibres onto the object, serving as a ‘package' for the relics. Under laboratory conditions, we used veratraldehyde and PP fibres to extract broken tiles from underwater sand onto an exhibition stand. The broken tiles, in both condition and distribution, were safely and completely retained as the veratraldehyde was slowly removed by the soaking process. This work fills a gap in knowledge about temporary consolidant materials in underwater archaeology, and provides a new method for extracting underwater fragile cultural relics without damaging them.     

EU media policy and/as cultural policy: economic and cultural tensions in MEDIA 2007

This article is an examination of the cultural and economic tensions that arise in the formulation and implementation of media policy in the European Union. Through an analysis of the MEDIA 2007 MEDIA Desk Germany. 2007. Interview with Aviva Silver, head of the MEDIA Programme, European Commission carried out by MEDIA Desk Germany in preparation of the Programme launch at Berlinale 2007 [online] Available from: http://www.mediadesk.co.uk/usr/images/news_images/interview_with_aviva_on_media_2007.doc [Accessed 17 May 2010] [Google Scholar] program, the authors investigate how the priorities of cultural policy and media policy interact and conflict. EU policy goals from the mid‐2000s onwards have emphasized attention to the economic potential of the creative and cultural industries, which complicates the cultural potential of audiovisual media. MEDIA 2007 MEDIA Desk Germany. 2007. Interview with Aviva Silver, head of the MEDIA Programme, European Commission carried out by MEDIA Desk Germany in preparation of the Programme launch at Berlinale 2007 [online] Available from: http://www.mediadesk.co.uk/usr/images/news_images/interview_with_aviva_on_media_2007.doc [Accessed 17 May 2010] [Google Scholar] in particular demonstrates these tensions, as the design of this policy mechanism emphasized audiovisual media’s potential for European economic growth as a precondition for achieving cultural objectives.     

The pit: landscape scars as potential cultural tools

A huge and continuously growing pit is about to divide the Swedish mining town of Malmberget into two halves. What once was the town centre is now a 200 metres deep hole, and private homes and key buildings like the old school and the church have had to be demolished or moved. The pit is a human imposed ‘landscape scar’ epitomising the town’s lost golden age of mining, its present situation of decline and uncertain future prospects – despite a recent recovery in the mining industry. Although the pit is decisively present in the local community, it is not articulated as significant, especially not from a heritage perspective. Why is this so? In this article, we examine the pit as a potential cultural tool for heritage processes, and find that it is indeed used by individuals in this respect, but not in collective memorialisation. We conclude that landscape scars definitely can constitute critical cultural tools, although they may not always need to be labelled as belonging to an ‘authorized heritage discourse’. Instead, the potential of the landscape scar is to enhance the amount and recognition of shared memories in the local community.     

基于分布式光纤传感的文物保护全过程应变监测方法

文物保护中的安全监测是一项复杂而重要的工作,为了确保具有千年历史的独木舟从出土到馆藏过程中的结构安全,提出了采用分布式光纤传感的全过程应变监测方法。首先结合工程实际情况,确定整体分布式光纤监测方案,优化了光纤的布设方法。通过分布式应变监测数据评估了加固保护和翻转过程对舟体的影响。监测结果表明,分布式光纤传感能有效地捕捉各过程的结构应变变化,分析表明该文物保护过程中舟体处于安全状态。实际工程应用也验证了分布式光纤传感技术在文物结构安全保护过程中的有效性,该方法具有极大的推广价值,能有效提高现有文物挖掘保护水平。     

Footprint or fingerprint: international cultural policy as identity policy

This article focuses on government policy aimed at the presentation of the nation abroad through cultural activities and its relation to national identity, external cultural policy. The methodological framework is offered by the discourse analysis of Wodak and the notion of identity of Laclau and Mouffe, treating policy as a discourse. A closer look is taken at the concept of cultural diplomacy and the closely related term nation branding. This article will show how the shift in paradigm also changes the role of ‘the other’ in the construction of national identity and how this influences the role of the arts in international cultural policy.     

NMR as a new tool for cultural heritage application: The provenance of ancient white marbles

Identifying the origin of marble used in antiquity brings back to light details of the economic, social and political organization of classical societies, and characterizing in depth the chemistry of marble is key to discovering its provenance. Beyond X‐ray diffraction, which could reveal the presence of discriminant secondary crystalline phases and the quantification of accessory minerals combined with a multivariate analysis approach, solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) enables one to recognize the local structure arrangement of both crystalline and amorphous materials by looking at one or more selected atoms. In present paper targets the ¹³C nuclide, and thus the major component of marble, calcium carbonate. Whatever their geological origin, marbles ¹³C‐NMR spectra present only one resonance corresponding to the carboxyl function whose intensity and line width vary from one marble to another. If the variation of the NMR signal intensity observed is the result of great T1 variations (from 220 to 5300 s) and is linked to iron content, the line width reflects defects in the calcite crystal in which calcium has been replaced by another element such as magnesium, aluminium or strontium. The specific profile of the NMR signal has been used successfully to help determine the origin of some archaeological items.