Frontiers’ violence: The interplay of state of exception,frontier habitus,and organized violence

As global capitalism is expanding to the most remote areas of the world, the notion of “frontier”, where competing social orders are contesting each other, is gaining traction in academic analyses. Contemporary frontiers are associated with resource exploitation in marginalized spaces and processes of socioecological transformation, which are characterized as particularly violent. This article offers a conceptual contribution to the frontier debate by putting violence in the center of a frontier concept. Building on a sociology of violence, this approach assumes that every social order comes with some form of organized violence. We argue that the frontier is characterized by a tidal passage: Existing orders and their institutions, which socially embed and constrain a particular use of violence, are challenged by an expansive order which comes along with new formations of violence, leading to a reorganization of violence. Thus the frontier describes a momentum in which the interplay of social order and organized violence becomes highly disputed. Representatives of the expansive order refuse to recognize existing orders and favour a state of exception, in which law is set aside to impose the new order.     

Steel of Victory,Scrap of Defeat: Mobilizing the French Home Front, 1939–40

This article traces the implementation, execution, and results of the French Ministry of Armaments’ scrap iron collection drive from September 1939 to June 1940. This collection drive was a belated effort to mobilize patriotic sentiment and raw materials for France’s war effort. By the late 1930s, the French government realized that it did not have — and, more importantly, would not be able to acquire — enough metal to meet ambitious armament plans. In September 1939, Raoul Dautry, the Minister of Armaments, began moving toward a controlled economy by setting up central distribution organizations, preventing the movement of stocks, and organizing the national scrap drive, modelled, in part, on Germany. Despite a rural distrust of the state and cases of individuals hoarding metal, most people responde­d to the call. Yet logistical difficulties in finances, manpower, and transportation hampered efforts. By May 1940, half of the 85,000 tons collected remained piled on the platforms of railway stations. With the invasion, the Germans immediately confiscated this metal. With the defeat of France, this failed drive came to symbolize France’s defeat and humiliation, as well as the impotence of the Third Republic.     

Technologies of compliance: Surveillance of self‐administration of tuberculosis treatment, 1956–1966

The development of antibiotics for tuberculosis in the 1950s liberated patients from prolonged hospitalization and enabled physicians to bring treatment to underserved populations. However, outpatient treatment programs could only be as effective as the reliability with which patients self‐administered medications. This anxiety with non‐compliance quickly became ubiquitous in medicine. Several physicians, treating tuberculosis among the Navajo, attempted to use technologies of surveillance to overcome this limitation. They used fluorescent tracers, urine testing, and radioactive pill dispensers to expose non‐compliance. Although successful, these techniques threatened patient‐doctor relationships with secrecy and distrust. Physicians turned instead to personal surveillance through directly observed therapy.     

Gernika,Guernica, Guernica?: Contested meanings of a Basque place

The town of Gernika/Guernica is the center for meaning and territorial continuity of Basque nationalist identity. The town and its symbolism represent the history of national conflict with the Spanish state. It is also the focal point of local disagreements; within Basque nationalism itself and between regional urban centers. The town's significance in the Spanish Civil War, representation in Picasso's painting Guernica, and commemoration in the Americas by Basque emigrants has made it a globally significant place. The contest of meanings related to Gernika/Guernica underscores the significance of naming, monuments, ritual, resistance, oppression, and conflict in the creation and maintenance of national identities. In its examination of the politics of a Basque place, the joining of the forces of geography and history proves to be useful in the analysis of meaning in place- and time-specific political processes. From this perspective, the recent development from conflict toward harmony in Basque politics is reviewed.     

Towards a Language of ‘Europe’: History,Rhetoric, Community

From Herder to Benedict Anderson, language and nation have been at the centre of ideas about (imagined) community. This hypothesis, however, poses a problem for analysing ideas about Europe. How can we understand “Europe” as a concept or form of identity when language and nationality are considered the foundation of imagined communities and loyalties? This article addresses this difficulty. It uses J. G. A. Pocock’s definition of “sub-languages” to suggest that one can investigate the rhetorical strategies, images and vocabularies with which texts articulate ideas about Europe. These sub-languages evoke imagined communities, most obviously when texts name and identify particular groups of people as “Europeans.” But by using images and rhetorics about Europe, these texts also appeal to a readership that comprehends—even if it does not fully accept—certain assumptions about the continent. In this way, texts evoke an imagined community of readers who purportedly share a similar way of understanding Europe, or who can perhaps be persuaded to think about it in similar terms. These processes are historically particular, and so the article concludes with concrete examples. It focuses on how early-nineteenth-century philhellenes evoked a European imagined community to solicit support for the Greek Revolution (1821–32).     

Kamba:A Show of Garments,Hats and Boots

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Manuscript XXXIII: Threlkeld's Account of the Maro ‘Ura of Opoa,Raiatea

King Tamatoa III, paramount chief of Raiatea, in what became known as the Society Islands, wore a sacred red feather girdle or maro ‘ura on special occasions. Reproduced here is an account of the girdle by the missionary Lancelot Threlkeld, recalling the year 1821 when Tamatoa showed him the girdle and stated his intention of presenting it to the London Missionary Society. Threlkeld highlighted the human sacrifices made in the course of the maro's manufacture and the paranormal powers attributed to the maro. Because maro ‘ura belonged to competing chiefly lineages, the discussion below leads to the question of whether there were two maro ‘ura held by the competing lineages on Tahiti, only one of which was the so-called Wallis maro ‘ura.     

The role of the internet in removing the ‘shackles of the saleroom’: Anytime,anyplace, anything,anywhere

Abstract

The alliance of the internet with the antiquities industry has seen the market grow at an unprecedented rate. E-commerce has facilitated an increase in flexibility and access to the market, which has encouraged an influx of new people to the trade. Anyone can now buy and sell antiquities.

The expansion and extension of the market has created new threats to our cultural heritage. Indeed, my research suggests that this has had a significant impact on the organisation, extent and intensity of site destruction. Furthermore, the increased demand for artefacts has led to the proliferation of fakes, increasingly obvious with the widely circulated images on the world wide web. Consequently we are faced with a progressively more confused and fragmentary archaeological record, challenging efforts to piece together the past.

All assessments of the future must accept that the e-market is vast, that it remains largely unsupervised, and that it is impossible to police. Evidence suggests that the illicit trade is filtering into the cyber-sphere, which provides an ideal means of placing material onto the market quickly and quietly. The extent of this unwelcome development is unknown and remains difficult to assess. What is certain is that action needs to be taken if the ‘Age of Technology’ is not to consume the present as well as the past.