The consilience of historical and isotopic approaches in reconstructing the medieval Mediterranean diet

During the Middle Ages, the economies of Europe, the religious directives involving dietary requirements, and the general human subsistence base were transformed. These complicated and intertwined issues are starkly revealed in an isotopic study of two inland Italian human populations that are separated by approximately 850 years in time. Stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotopic values observed in human dentin and bone collagen from the sites of early medieval Castro dei Volsci and late medieval Rome are consistent with diets that differed substantially. As the North Atlantic opened to fishing and food preservations methods improved, Mediterranean peoples increased their fish consumption dramatically, and in doing so, met the religious directives of the Catholic Church. By analyzing both teeth and bone collagen within individuals, long-term feeding behaviors are documented, and the utility of last erupted teeth collagen as sources of adult dietary information is established. This study offers the first physical evidence of this new economic reality linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean economies at the end of the Middle Ages.     

史学话语权与20世纪的中国民族史学——兼说10卷本《中国史学思想通史》

20世纪中国社会发生变动,受到西方学术思潮的影响,中国史学进入到近代化时期.西方学术话语处在强势地位,在这样的大背景下,近代史学理论、思想的争论,基本是按照西方的史学理论的热点而展开,也随着西方史学理论的热点的变动而变动.这对扩大研究视野、深化相关的史学认识有一定的意义,但另一面是,民族史学的重要思想失去应有的地位.传统民族史学思想、理论具有重要的价值,是西方史学理论不能完全替代的;民族史学话语权的失落,对于中国史学发展是不利的.进入到21世纪,史学理论发展不能忽视中国民族史学思想的研究".认真总结民族史学思想遗产,对于当代史学具有重大的意义,是振兴民族史学的重要工作,也是民族史学走向世界的基本要求.     

晚近史的史料边际与史学的整体性——兼论相关史料的编辑出版

With a dramatic expansion in quantity and variety, the amount of recent history source materials has surpassed the sum total of those available for all earlier dynasties. At the same time, compared with the case in ancient history study, the obscure boundary of source materials has made it difficult for historians to locate and obtain what they need for their research. Since it is impossible to exhaust or to ascertain the boundary of relevant sources, scholars either retreat into narrower fields or make arbitrary interpretations of materials, both contributing to the loss of orientation in historical study, and, for that matter, eroding the integrity of historiography. Historians must, first and foremost, acquire a comprehensive understanding of the discipline before they can undertake studies on any particular subject, which is the proper way to conduct historical study and to avoid short-sightedness or a tunnel vision of the scene. The author of this paper believes that it is urgent to resolve the dilemma in preserving and utilizing source materials by publishing as many materials as possible efficiently so that scholars on recent Chinese history can stand on an equal footing as far as materials are concerned. Only in this way will they be able to undertake deeper investigations, to uncover the complex correlation between source materials and historical study, and ultimately, to contribute to recent history study as a whole.     

Rock art as an archaeological and social indicator: The neolithisation of the Iberian Peninsula

Rock art has been regarded as a second class archaeological data source. In this paper we use Levantine rock art as a case study, to show how this situation can be reversed. This rock art, found along the Mediterranean region of the Iberian Peninsula, has been considered to be typically Mesolithic due to its distinctive hunting scenes. A review of certain archaeological indicators provides new arguments about its chronology, its socio-cultural attribution, and its significance. We first deal with the chronological issue, presenting the evidence that led to the recent consideration of the Levantine style as Early Neolithic, in synchrony with two other rock art styles (Schematic and Macroschematic). We will further propose that rock art itself is a central and independent source of information to explore the historical context of the Neolithisation of Mediterranean Iberia. Its wide geographical distribution allows us to study different and complementary territories as a single entity. This contrasts with the limitations posed by the study of settlements, whose differences, at a regional scale, are usually interpreted in terms of cultural variability. If we consider rock art as a key aspect in the constitution of social landscapes, it must not be treated just as an ideological by-product of the Neolithisation, but as a key factor in understanding this historical process.     

The power of space: The biopolitics of custody and care at the Lloyd Hotel,Amsterdam

This paper examines the relationship between space and violence through a biopolitical enquiry of custody and care at Amsterdam's Lloyd Hotel. The Lloyd Hotel began as a corporate established transhipment hotel serving transatlantic voyages. It was subsequently transformed into an emergency refugee camp and an improvised prison and juvenile detention centre. An iconic building which had functioned in both specific and broader networks of violence, the building is today a sophisticated heritage accommodation. We trace and analyse the ways in which the spatial arrangements of the historic hotel have facilitated, often concurrently, conditions of custody and care, and protection and control in its key historical moments. We address questions regarding the putative ‘agency’ of specific spatial designs and architectures in ‘retaining’ the socio-spatial elements of violence perpetrated in the past. Specifically, we suggest that the original and adapted spatialities of the hotel were often the source of unintended violence, abuse and transgression, signalling the ‘power of space’ in terms of agency over the subjected ‘guests’. In analysing a single micro-site and its broader spatialities, we seek to contribute to a relational conceptualization of violence sensitive and attuned to the complex histories and geographical scales that have bound and still bind this unique Amsterdam place of hospitality and custody.     

Sacred space and the art of its representation in the ethnic culture of Northern Asia: artifacts of Sakhalin

The article discusses the sacredness of art which refl ects the natural, vital needs of the indigenous people of Sakhalin Island. The article examines material artifacts including the Rukutama staff made of deer antler found in the Uilta air burial in the Rukutama River area (Poronai Region, Sakhalin Province), pottery dated to the 8th–13th centuries AD discovered in the Poronai and Korsakov Regions, as well as “verbal artifacts” preserved in language and myth. Ethnological data, collected by the author over 20 years of expeditions conducted in the Sakhalin Province is compared with artifacts from the museums of the Sakhalin Province, St. Petersburg, Osaka, and Hokkaido. The Tungus-Manchu dictionaries are widely used as an auxiliary source. A detailed analysis of the main themes of the Uilta sacred world including a ritual relationship to the fi re, dog, bear, and Kori bird is provided. The perception of space transmitted through the visual arts reveals the multifaceted nature of the perception and relationship to space among the ethnic culture of the Uilta people of Sakhalin Island and other Tungus-Manchu communities of the mainland: the Nanai, Ulchi, Negidals, and Orochi. Numerous similarities in the worldview of the Uilta people and the Evenki suggest their common origin.     

The Nation as a Problem: Historians and the "National Question"

How is it that the nation became an object of scholarly research? As this article intends to show, not until what we call the “genealogical view” (which assumes the “natural” and “objective” character of the nation) eroded away could the nation be subjected to critical scrutiny by historians. The starting point and the premise for studies in the field was the revelation of the blind spot in the genealogical view, that is, the discovery of the “modern” and “constructed” character of nations. Historians’ views would thus be intimately tied to the “antigenealogical” perspectives of them. However, this antigenealogical view would eventually reveal its own blind spots. This paper traces the different stages of reflection on the nation, and how the antigenealogical approach would finally be rendered problematic, exposing, in turn, its own internal fissures.     

National identity and the representation of Italy at war: The case of Combat film

This article examines the documentary series Combat film made by Leonardo Valente and Roberto Olla for Rai-Uno. Shown in April 1994, the series was based on film taken by the American army (1943-5) and provoked a national scandal when it was first shown. The article argues that in order to fully understand Combat film it is necessary to look at the overall design of the programme as well as its content. By concentrating on the 'special' shown on 5 April 1994 the author demonstrates how the revisionist message of 'national reconciliation' which underlies the programme is reinforced by a series of formal and technical strategies.     

The Approximate Bayesian Computation approach to reconstructing population dynamics and size from settlement data: demography of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition at Lepenski Vir

Demographic aspects of prehistoric populations have an important role in current archaeological theory and empirical research. In this study, we develop a method to estimate population dynamics and population size and apply it to data on house remains at one of key European Mesolithic-Neolithic transitional sites - Lepenski Vir (Serbia). Lepenski Vir is a site located in the Danube Gorges, well-known for its trapezoidal house floors and stone sculpture. It was most intensively occupied between ~6200 and ~6000 cal BC, the so called Transitional phase, which corresponds to the beginning of the Neolithic in Central Balkans. We combine archaeological evidence and ethnographic information with mathematical models of population dynamics and house accumulation within a Bayesian framework (Approximate Bayesian Computation) to derive posterior distributions of growth rate and population size estimates for the Lepenski Vir population in this period.     

The discourse of the past: phenomenology,structuralism and historical geography

Historical geography has to be predicated on a critical examination of past and present discourses, and this necessarily involves a rejection of positivist epistemology. This was, in more general terms, the basis of Husserl's critique, but two alternatives to this are the constitutive phenomenology of Alfred Schutz and the linguistic structuralism of Claude Lévi-Strauss. Both present major difficulties. Schutz fails to recognize the necessity of a hermeneutic understanding of past societies and cannot account for the genesis and temporality of meaning, while Lévi-Strauss provides for a formalism which is directed towards the structure of the human mind rather than the historically specific structures of particular discourses. The connections and contrasts between these two positions suggest several ways in which the examination of discourse might be constituted in order to contribute to a structural history.