Art,history, and gender: women and clay in West Africa

Women dominate the production of pottery in Africa, yet few scholars have considered women the likely creators of the figurative ceramic sculpture recovered archaeologically across the savanna. Indeed, the question of who made these highly celebrated ceramics is rarely raised. A close look at the art historical and archaeological literature exposes the gender biases that privilege men's high art over women's low craft, making men the presumed creators of these works. Examples of women's predominance in the production of ritually-destined figurative ceramics in Nigeria alone counters such unsubstantiated assumptions. Through such production women play important roles in the construction of social and cultural meanings. It does make a difference in our reading and writing of history to understand and reconstruct what women make as well as what men make.

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Résumé Les femmes dominent la production d'objets en argile en Afrique, mais peu d'experts ont considéré les femmes comme créatrices probables des sculptures figuratives en céramique découvertes dans des fouilles archéologiques dans toute la savane. De fait, la question de savoir qui fabriquait ces céramiques hautement prisées est rarement soulevée. Une étude plus approfondie de la littérature ayant trait à l'histoire de l'art et à l'archéologie met en évidence les partis pris sexuels qui privilégient l'art élevé des hommes par rapport à l'artisanat vulgaire des femmes, faisant des hommes les créateurs présumés de ces oeuvres. Des exemples de la prédominance des femmes dans la production de figurines rituelles en céramique au Nigéria contredisent ces suppositions non prouvées. Par cette production, les femmes jouent un rôle important dans l'élaboration de notions sociales et culturelles. Comprendre et reconstruire ce que font les femmes, de même que ce que font les hommes, nous fait lire et écrire l'histoire différemment.

     

Art and science in the UK: a brief history and critical reflection

ABSTRACT

This paper begins by reviewing the historical construction of ‘SciArt’, and the way in which its supposed interdisciplinarity often shaded into science communication. Early discussions about the complementarity of art and science were conceived in terms of epistemology, notably the qualities of imagination and curiosity. The paper moves on to discuss how, during the current decade, Art and Science (A&S) discourse has altered due to changes in the cultural politics of both its constituent fields, emerging as a ‘transdiscipline’ characterized by ‘creativity’. Eighteen in-depth surveys with leading practitioners in A&S form a substantial part of the research material, yielding an evaluation of what the disciplinary, economic and cultural implications of this changed discourse may be. Though potentially angled towards the solution of ‘wicked’ problems, transdisciplinarity also sacrifices the specific critical expertise of art, fetishizes tech at the expense of science and selectively ignores institutional problems inherent in funding and power structures.     

The quest for constitutional reform in Tonga

Tonga's constitution was originally a liberal, 19th century document that economically combined popular representation and aristocratic direction in a unicameral vehicle instead of the conventional bicameral legislature. Subsequent amendments strengthened the executive, and the greatest of all, in 1914, significantly reduced representation of both nobles and people. The configuration of power sharing has not changed despite numerous minor constitutional amendments since. There was no significant pressure for fundamental constitutional changes until the 1990s. Whereas earlier reforms were initiated by the executive, the modern reform movement comes from the people's representatives and a small group of supporters drawn from the foreign-educated sector. This pressure has been ignored by the executive, and commands insignificant support from the nobles. The dissatisfaction with the system of representation and the distribution of power arose from the exposure of lavish provisions for overtime payments for members of parliament. Earlier dissatisfaction with government over land tenure had no such result. The impotence of people's representatives was revealed and grievances became focused on the principle of accountability. Failure to make progress on this issue drew attention to the concentration of power by custom as well as law, in the hands of the executive. Reformists began to consider institutional ways of making government accountable. Unfocused talk of democracy coalesced into a series of formal conferences in 1992, 1998 and 1999, all of them dismissed by government. Undeterred, the reform movement became better organised and, in 2002, produced two discussion documents outlining alternative constitutions in an attempt to frame a solution that co-opts modernity without abandoning Tongan tradition. The conservatism of these proposals suggests that in modern politics, culture will continue to prevail over institutional rationality.     

The quest for coordinates in space and time

Hall, Edward T. The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time. Garden City, New York: Anchor Press, 1984. 250 pp. including appendices, glossary, bibliography, and index. $15.95 cloth; $5.50 paper.

Pinxten, Rik, Ingrid van Dooren, and Frank Harvey. Anthropology of Space: Explorations into the Natural Philosophy and Semantics of the Navajo. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983. xi + 240 pp. including appendices, bibliography, and name and subject indices. $32.50 cloth.     

当代艺术语境中的敦煌艺术刍议

历史上的异质文化输入对艺术的发展都有促进作用,敦煌艺术正是异质文化和本土文化碰撞融合的结果。在当代艺术语境中,敦煌艺术具有文化融合的典范作用和对传统文化冈子继承的双重身份。敦煌学研究的日益深入和多学科交叉研究的日趋成熟,为敦煌艺术研究的转型搭建了一个有益的平台。存中同当代艺术发展的进程中,西方现代主义艺术思潮之后的本土文化回归是目前面临的主要问题。敦煌艺术作为中国中世纪的一部美术史,深入研究其不同文化的相互借鉴和兴衰发展中隐含的艺术规律,对于重构中国传统文化精神,突出中吲当代艺术的民族性、时代性,都具有十分重要的现实意义。     

翰海春拍力推市场蓝筹——写实画派与学院艺术演绎独有景观

自2003年下半年开始,中国书画和接续至今的当代艺术的相继飙升助推了整个市场大盘的增量和结构性提升,在天价和流拍带动的涨跌舞蹈中,很多的收藏者和投资者被牢牢的栓在了前卫艺术的热门板块上体验惊风骇浪,     

学习历史研究历史

获悉<安徽史学>杂志即将迎来复刊20周年,我非常高兴,衷心地祝愿<安徽史学>杂志今后越办越好,努力成为全国一流的史学刊物.我在省社会科学院工作过一段时间,对<安徽史学>杂志有所了解,知道他们在较为艰苦的条件下,以弘扬民族文化、传播人类文明为己任,兢兢业业地工作,经过长期努力,取得了较好的成绩,先后被评为全国中文核心期刊、中国人文社会科学核心期刊、华东地区优秀期刊,并创出了一些既有地方特色、又具有全国影响的栏目,如徽州学研究、淮系集团研究、北洋皖系集团研究、陈独秀胡适研究等,为我省精神文明建设做出了积极的贡献.     

Communism and cultural heritage: the quest for continuity

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical genealogy and main uses of heritage in actually existing communist countries. This is performed by carrying out a critical review of Èleazar Aleksandrovi? Baller’s Communism and Cultural Heritage, (1984, Progress, Moscow). The analysis of Baller’s work reveals that the logics of heritage in communist countries differed in various ways from capitalist countries, mainly because of the almost total state control over the heritage apparatus and the subordination of heritage policies to Marxist–Leninist ideology. Heritage was fundamental in dealing with the problem of change and continuity with the traditions, narratives and identities of previous society, and in the process of transforming citizens into ‘new men’ through the cultural revolution and the inculcation of ideology through museums and monuments.     

大山深处的民间美院--热贡艺术散记

一 走遍世界,再也无法寻找到这样一所硕大而独特的美术学院:九曲黄河第一湾的青海省同仁县隆务寺周围的五个村庄里,就连每一缕清醇的空气都透着艺术的灵光。这几个村庄是:吴屯、郭麻日、年都乎、尕赛日等。在这里,“家家都从艺,人人会作画”,除     

Cultural geography and the inner dimensions of the quest for knowledge

In North American cultural geography, intellectual curiosity has motivated most scholarship directed to learning about the world. Two aspects of that curiosity, epistemic inquisitiveness and wonder, work together to drive the pursuit of knowledge that has the potential to reach an ecstatic consciousness. A great exemplar of intellectual curiosity as a powerful motivational force was Carl O. Sauer (1889–1975), who considered pure inquiry based on intrinsic interest as the foundation of geographical scholarship. That research can also have a euphoric dimension is described in three vignettes of past projects in Highland Peru, the Mascarene Archipelago, and equatorial Brazil, which make explicit how wanting to know and wondering about what might be known prompt ideas and drive them forward. With introspection, cultural geographers are in a position to inform the discipline about how scholarship that conjoins thought and feeling can lead to an understanding of motivation and an appreciation of the intellectual virtues and peak experiences that accrue from scholarly endeavor. To do that requires a willingness to get beyond the reticence that has kept the affective dimension out of research reports.     

Textual context in the history of political thought and intellectual history

ABSTRACT

We can easily misread historical texts if we take ideas and passages out of their textual contexts. The resulting errors are widespread, possibly even more so than errors through reading ideas and passages out of their historical contexts. Yet the methodological literature stresses the latter and says little about the former. This paper thus theorises the idea of textual context, distinguishes three types of textual context, and asks how we uncover the right textual contexts. I distinguish four kinds of textual-context error, and offer practical tips for avoiding these errors. However, the beating heart of this paper is the history–philosophy debate: in contrast to the prevailing assumption that historical and philosophical analysis are fundamentally different, I show that a commitment to textual context, which should be entirely uncontroversial, also commits one to think philosophically.     

The quest for cod: Some causes of fishing conflicts in the north Atlantic

This article presents an historical overview of the role played by the North Atlantic cod fisheries in shaping the relations between two ecological zones: a fish‐surplus zone in the north and a fish‐deficient zone in the south. As production changed from a predominantly subsistence‐based economy to one of market orientation, fierce competition developed between national fleets and trading companies when the quest for cod increased due to demographic and climatic changes. The introduction of highly efficient technologies since the latter half of the 19th century has caused severe over‐exploitation in certain parts of the North Atlantic region and encouraged the fish‐producing states to nationalise cod resources by extending their borders extensively, thus generating inter‐state conflicts known as ?cod wars?.