The Series Formation and Interpretation of Old Testament Literature

A combined review of three volumes in the series Formation and Interpretation of Old Testament Literature. If these volumes intend to give an impression of the discussion among scholars of the Deuteronomistic History, and of the composition of the Pentateuch, the series is a failure, presenting mostly one side of the debate. On the other hand, the articles on the ancient reception history (nothing modern here) are excellent introductions into that discussion.     

Body Language: The Somatics of Nationalism in Tamil India

The modern nation resides, literally and symbolically, in the bodies of its citizenry. These bodies in turn constitute the national body politic. The female embodiment of the nation is frequently the ground on which the two bodies intersect. This essay explores this intersection through the analytic of the ‘somatics of nationalism’, with examples drawn from Tamil-speaking India in this century. Through an analysis of how images of the shared womb, blood, milk, and tears of the female embodiment of the nation were circulated by nationalist narratives, the author suggests that these were somatic building blocks with which the nation and its constituency were constructed in southern India. In turn, Tamil citizens were called upon to demonstrate their loyalty by putting their own bodies on line, shedding their own blood and that of their enemies, for the sake of the embodied nation. Nations and citizen-patriots may relate to each other politically, materially and emotionally, but they also do so somatically.     

Sound and identity explored through the Indian Tamil diaspora and Tamil Nadu

Sound is very much a part of identity. While identities are neither singular nor stable, they can be expressed through sound in daily life. Scholars have used soundscapes in geography to understand urban environments within cities, rural national park systems, and provide musical insights into cultural landscapes. However, furthering discussion on the role of sound in identity can move concepts of soundscape and cultural landscape forward. The goal of this paper is to investigate how identity and culture, though they are dynamic, can be performed and stabilized through sound in particular moments and yet also exist banally. Soundscapes through both spoken language and music can give geographers further insights on identity and place. Sound can also show how non-dominant identities distinguish themselves from larger national identities. With research in Tamil Nadu, India and Cleveland, OH, this paper examines sound’s role in identity, belonging, and community through lived experience and performance. Focusing on intersections and tensions between soundscapes, this paper investigates how the Tamil soundscape is used to assert and perform identity.     

泥人抟土塑型的“那些年”

正泥塑是中国一种古老常见的民间艺术,它以泥土为原料,以手工捏制成形,形象以人物、动物为主。泥塑取材广泛,神话、戏剧、小说以及民间生活都是其素材来源,通过塑造人物造型,刻画鲜明的人物性格,营造浓郁的生活气息。2016年北京农业嘉年华中,天津展区的泥塑作品形象逼真,个性鲜明,展现出旧时乡村风貌和人文情怀,把我们带回了单纯、朴实的"那些年"。     

The Old Cold War

James McAllister . No Exit: America and the German Problem , 1943 – 1954 . Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press , 2002 . vii+264 . Index and bibliography. $ .     

Clothes as Expression of Action in Former Concentration Camps

The prisoners of the former concentrations camps were supposed to be deprived of their socialization by brutal dehumanization. Among other things, the use of blue-and-white striped prison clothes was meant to reinforce a homogeneous and uniform prisoner society. However, studies from a sociological perspective have shown that prisoners’ societies were indeed diverse and structured, allowing individuals to develop strategies of survival within their – albeit limited – scope for action. In this article, prisoners’ possibilities to act are discussed using the example of clothing – an omnipresent and visible medium. Various changes and alterations preserved in prisoner clothing from former concentration camps reveal open or secretive acts of individuals and thus provide insights into the different levels of action inside the camps.     

Fabric for Seventeenth-Century Children and Adolescents' Clothes

Abstract

This article attempts to describe the information on clothing which can be taken from the relatively newly exploited source of the probate account (as opposed to the probate inventory). The accounts only itemize the costs of clothing children up to apprenticeship, or to marriage, not the fully adult. Fortunately for this author's interests, the bulk of the accounts cover the children of parents with moveable goods worth under £100, under yeoman status. This particular article focuses on the range of prices that can be gleaned from the accounts on the prices of fabrics, and demonstrates that the same fabrics in the seventeenth century came in a very large range of prices and qualities. It differs from Professor Shammas' conclusions. The costs of clothing minors rose in the seventeenth century. It examines the prices of boys' and girls' clothes that can be gathered from the accounts, and also the types of fabric that were used to make each type of garment for them, taking into account the economic status of each child. It concludes that although the finer, more expensive, fabrics more commonly made up clothes for better-off children, this did not always follow : nor did the poor always wear the cheapest fabrics. There was no clear social stratification, although there was a rough one.