Nineteenth-century ceramics and consumer behavior among the “mountain folk” of the Upper Cumberland Plateau,Tennessee

The Massengale site near Rugby, Tennessee was the nineteenth-century residence of one of the earliest white settler families to the Upper Cumberland Plateau of north central Tennessee, the Massengales. Archaeological excavations at their home site and historical document research into the family provided an opportunity to study their lifeways in this remote region. Initially, the Massengale ceramic assemblage appeared unusual, as a vast majority of their ceramics were undecorated. This study includes a comparison of the Massengale’s ceramic assemblage with those from four nearby, contemporary sites. Results indicate that the Massengale’s ceramic assemblage was not as unique as originally believed, and is representative of Appalachian farming families in this part of the Cumberland Plateau. Rather than attributing the lack of decorated ceramics simply to socioeconomic status, this paper examines a number of other factors that likely influenced their choice of ceramics.     

An Analysis of the Concept of a “Natural Infection Focus”

A review of the terminology used by various Soviet authors to designate different ranks of natural-infection areas in which zoonoses, diseases communicable from animals to man under natural conditions, may arise. A system of taxonomic units is proposed both for natural-infection areas and the morphological parts of such areas. An attempt is made to relate the hierarchy of natural-infection areas to the hierarchy of natural territorial complexes, ranging from a natural zone, for example, the steppe, to a landscape facies, for example, a hollow in a floodplain.     

Globalisation and the decline of national identity? An exploration across sixty‐three countries

The relationship between globalisation and national identity is puzzling. While some observers have found that globalisation reduces people's identification with their nation, others have reached the opposite conclusion. This article explores this conundrum by examining the relationship between globalisation and people's feelings towards national identity. Using data from the International Social Survey Program National Identity II ( 2003 ) and the World Values Survey ( 2005 ), it analyses these relations across sixty‐three countries. Employing a multilevel approach, it investigates how a country's level of globalisation is related to its public perceptions towards different dimensions of national identity. The results suggest that a country's level of globalisation is not related to national identification or nationalism but it is related negatively to patriotism, the willingness to fight for the country and ethnic conceptions of membership in the nation. An examination of alternative explanations indicates that globalisation has a distinct impact on national identity.     

An Analysis of “Economic Relief” in the Study of Industrial Nodes

The demographic potential and the demographic energy concepts developed by John Q. Stewart, the astronomer, are applied to an analysis of urban interaction in two industrial nodes in the oil-rich Tatar ASSR—the Bugul'ma-Al'met'yevsk node and the Nizhnekamsk node. The isolines of the demographic potential are mapped and compared with other isoline maps of the area showing the density of industrial enterprises (numbers per unit area), population density of urbanized areas, and the density of industrial fixed assets (value per unit area).     

An Analysis of the “Little China” Ideology of Chosŏn Korea

The Chosŏn dynasty founded by Yi Seong-gye was closely involved in the tributary system of the Ming dynasty. Chosŏn Korea called itself “Little China” due to the following two policies: mohwa (admiring China) and sadae (serving the greater). Chosŏn Korea traced its origin back to the dongyi (Eastern Barbarians) and claimed itself the only nation that had transformed itself from “Yi” (barbarian) to “Hwa” (Chinese) in the Chinese world system. References to the sage Kija (Jizi) in moral, historical, and political writings indicated the beginning of this transformation and thus the worship of Kija was consistently implemented. The ritual and cultural systems in Chosŏn Korea imitated those of China. The policy of admiring China, Confucian thought, and the worship of Confucius comprised a significant part of the “Little China” ideology. After the Ming-Qing transition, Chosŏn Korea did not acknowledge the legitimacy of the Qing dynasty and considered itself the only and true China.     

Is there Nationalism after Ernest Gellner? An exploration of methodological choices*

Abstract. This paper explores the advance of the study of nationalism with particular reference to hitherto neglected methodologies. After suggesting what might be the lesson to be learned from Ernest Gellner's critique of Wittgensteinian linguistic philosophy, I set out some of the considerations and questions which guide my own attempt at a definition of nationalism after Gellner. These are essentially concerned with the function of meaning for ‘real people’, that is, with the substantiation of the nation through the study of ideologies and feelings, links between interest and identity, conditions of responsiveness and the differential success of mass mobilisation. In the remainder of the paper, I explore the benefit that may be achieved from adopting the methodologies of the so‐called Cambridge school of the history of political thought and of social representations in social psychology.     

Teaching and learning in the tropics: an epistemic exploration of “the field” in a development studies field trip

Development studies employs theories, tools and methods often found in geography, including the international field trip to a “developing” country. In 2013 and 2014, I led a two-week trip to Ethiopia. To better comprehend the effects of “the field” on students’ learning, I introduced an assessed reflexive field diary to understand what the field trip experience teaches students about themselves and their relationship to the field. In this paper, I present critical reflections on “the field” that speak to a provocative concept – “the tropics”. These reflections illuminate prevailing challenges in the study and practice of development and suggest a way forward.     

“An alternative discourse”: Local interpreters of antiquities in the Ottoman Empire

Abstract

The premise of Ottoman indifference to “antiquities” was already widely assumed by early modern travelers and archaeologists and continues to inform contemporary discussion of cultural patrimony in post-Ottoman nations. However, it is contradicted by numerous accounts of local interpretations of ancient monuments and local resistance to the efforts of outsiders to remove antiquities. Local interpretations of monuments constituted an alternative discourse that cohered around a set of recurring concerns, while also developing over time. The potential of these local interpretations to expand the discourse of academic archaeology has been obscured by their classification as elements of a timeless folklore, which is understood to speak to the customs and manners of the interpreters, not to the objects of interpretation.     

An Analysis of the Literary Structure of the Zand ī Wahman Yasn

In this article it is maintained that the extant Zand ī Wahman Yasn is a work which was composed to be recited orally. In it mythological and historical material familiar to both storyteller and audience is woven into an integral text whose purpose is to interpret contemporary events. An analysis of each chapter shows how various rhetorical devices belonging to every level of language are used to underscore the contents and give cohesion to the text. These devices include alliteration and assonance, grammatical parallelism, and clusters of synonyms. Different types of dialogues and monologues are discussed and comparisons are made with other extant texts with apocalyptic themes.     

The Emergence of Ornaments and Art: An Archaeological Perspective on the Origins of “Behavioral Modernity”

The earliest known personal ornaments come from the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa, c. 75,000 years ago, and are associated with anatomically modern humans. In Europe, such items are not recorded until after 45,000 radiocarbon years ago, in Neandertal-associated contexts that significantly predate the earliest evidence, archaeological or paleontological, for the immigration of modern humans; thus, they represent either independent invention or acquisition of the concept by long-distance diffusion, implying in both cases comparable levels of cognitive capability and performance. The emergence of figurative art postdates c. 32,000 radiocarbon years ago, several millennia after the time of Neandertal/modern human contact. These temporal patterns suggest that the emergence of “behavioral modernity” was triggered by demographic and social processes and is not a species-specific phenomenon; a corollary of these conclusions is that the corresponding genetic and cognitive basis must have been present in the genus Homo before the evolutionary split between the Neandertal and modern human lineages.     

Saeters in the Norse eastern settlement of østerbygden in southwest Greenland

Sammendrag

Artiklen indledes med en kort gennemgang af Østerbygdens udforskning (Tabel I). Frem til 1986 er der påvist 408 lokaliteter med een eller flere norrøne ruiner, hoved‐sagelig beliggende i relativt let tilgængeligt terræn fra 0–200 m.o.h.

I 1974 påbegyndtes et nordisk arkæologisk projekt med henblik på en systematisk udforskning af Østerbygdens udvikling. Som projektområde valgtes Qodlortoqdalen i det indre af Tunugdliarfikfjorden. Undersøgelserne i årene 1974–79 resulterede i, at antallet af registrerede norrøne ruiner i projektområdet blev mere end en fordoblet; blandt andet blev der fundet en række nye lokaliteter i højlandet (op til 400 m.o.h.), der af forfatteren tolkes som sætre.

Med udgangspunkt i det norske materiale defineres tre typer sætre: Helsætre, mælkesætre og høsletsætre. De nyfundne lokaliteter forsøges sat i relation til disse sætertyper (Tabel II).

Ved en nyvurdering af tilgængeligt arkivmateriale udskilles yderligere 44 lokaliteter i Østerbygden som sandsynlige sætre, hvor helsætrene hovedsagelig findes i de tættest bebyggede områder omkring Tunugdliark‐fik‐ og Igalikqfforden, mælkesætre i knap så tæt bebyggede områder, medens høsletsætre ikke uventet navnlig findes i de marginale områder.

Et væsentligt problem i forbindelse med denne nytolkning er imidlertid, at der mangler arkæologiske og naturvidenskabelige undersøgelser af de behandlede lokaliteter. Tolkningen som sætre bygger således udelukkende på en vurdering af de enkelte lokaliteters beliggenhed i terrænet, udformning og ressourcemuligheder.

Fremtidige undersøgelser må afklare problemerne omkring datering og de enkelte ruiners funktion.     

Commodification of indigenous crafts and reconfiguration of gender identities among the Emberá of eastern Panama

This article examines the recent involvement of Emberá indigenous women from eastern Panama in the production and commercialization of handicrafts for national and international markets, using life stories collected in two Emberá communities. Emberá women's increased participation in market economies provides a critical medium through which dominant norms of gender roles are partly reworked and new subjectivities are forged, providing them temporary spaces of authority from within to negotiate relationships with men in domestic spaces. The study does not look for obvious shifts of power inside the household. Instead, it conceptualizes handicraft activities and the conflicts they spark as discursive sites, thus focusing on how women (through their work and purchases) understand themselves and their roles, and how power operates through competing discursive constructions of ‘women’, ‘men’, or ‘work’ in everyday practices. This approach produces a nuanced understanding of the complex reconfiguration of gender relations, and the particular shapes that changing social interactions and meanings of femininity/masculinity take, and it challenges dominant representations of indigenous societies as static and inexorably harmed by capitalist transformation. Findings demonstrate that indigenous women's experiences and realities are multifaceted and dynamic, and that the outcomes of market economies in indigenous communities are complex and ambiguous, rather than uniform and necessarily oppressive.     

Rock art survey in the ancient oasis of Salūt (northern Sultanate of Oman): a variegated iconographic record

The systematic survey of petroglyphs in the area of the ancient oasis of Salūt, in central Oman, highlighted a rich repertoire of representations that are here discussed against the background of Arabian rock art in general. The region displays an extremely rich number of engravings along the slopes of the Jabal Hammah, north of the main site of Salūt. The majority of the petroglyphs find abundant fitting comparisons in the region. The notable exception of the motif of the “man with halberd” is presented, as it appears to be significantly rare and underlines interpretative issues concerning the so-called T-shaped signs, ubiquitous in Arabian rock art. One of its occurrences was radiocarbon dated to before the mid-first millennium BCE. This and other, relative hints for reconstructing the chronological context of the petroglyphs are discussed, indicating that engravings can be broadly dated from the second millennium BCE onwards.     

Heritage views through urban exploration: the case of ‘Abandoned Berlin’

This article frames the practice of urban exploration and its interest towards abandoned places from a heritage perspective. It is argued that most urban explorers prioritise the excitement of trespassing and the creation of their own narratives over the historic importance of the sites they explore. These ‘performative’ explorers avoid deliberate attention that may lead to vandalism or touristification – an alternative way of ‘preserving by not preserving’ that celebrates decay and assumes the sites’ progressive loss. To achieve this, they prefer not to disclose exact locations, creating a divergence towards a minority of practitioners who prefer to collect data on history and current state of conservation to make it public. Attention is paid to these ‘communicative’ explorers, whose documentation renders abandoned places visible, opening further debates about a more inclusive preservation and memorialisation. By distinguishing both heritage views, the objective of this article is to contribute to the enlargement of Heritage Studies by incorporating urban exploration as a space for reflection between loss and bottom-up preservation and interpretation.     

An Exchange for All Things? An Inquiry into the Scholarship of Fire

Fire was once considered a founding element and an informing principle for analysis of the world. Today it is neither. Its study resides primarily in those countries that have both public lands, which hold fire, and scientific institutions, with which to study it. In particular, forestry has long claimed fire as a speciality and continues to harbour the most practical experience regarding it. In fact, fire may deserve better, and can give more. A case, not entirely whimsical, can be made for a programme of ‘fire studies’ that could span the many forms of scholarship that share an interest in humanity’s species monopoly over fire’s manipulation.