The character of creativity: Two traditions

Throughout Western history there have been two sharply differentiated beliefs about the character of creativity. However, one of these beliefs—Judaeo-Christian and neo-Platonic—has occupied such a dominant position that the very existence of the other has been obscured and ignored. Yet the evidence for this second belief is no less extensive or vivid. It has never been formulated in the same way as the first and so has never constituted a tradition as such; yet it has existed over as long a period of time and can therefore be called a tradition. Moreover, this second belief seems to bear a closer relation to the character of creativity displayed by people regarded as ‘creative’, as well as to what we have learnt about creativity in this century from psychologists. Attitudes to creativity in the modern period have generally been based on the first tradition, but the activities of creative people have borne out the validity of the second tradition. The attitudes, in other words, have been based on false expectations. To recover the lost tradition, therefore, may enable us to see more accurately what we may or may not achieve by being creative.     

The Woodland and Mississippian traditions in the prehistory of Midwestern North America

Cultural developments in Midwestern North America between 5000 and 400 B.P. are reviewed and related to two overlapping, but contrasting, cultural traditions: Woodland and Mississippian. Significant changes in prehistoric subsistence systems, settlement patterns, and sociopolitical organization are reviewed within a three-division framework, beginning with a Transitional period (5000–2000 B.P.) when Late Archaic and Early Woodland societies settled into different regions, constructed regional markers (cemeteries, mounds, earthworks), and established economic and social relations with both neighboring and more distant groups. This was followed by the Middle Woodland period (2000–1500 B.P.) that is associated with the Hopewell climax of long-distance exchange of exotic materials, mound building, and ceremonial activities, although all Middle Woodland groups did not participate in this Hopewell interaction sphere. In the Late Prehistoric period (1500–400 B.P.), the Woodland tradition persisted in some areas, while the Mississippian tradition developed from local Late Woodland societies elsewhere. Finally, the patterns of interaction between the two traditions are discussed.     

The 18th-century traditions of representation in a new age of revolution

What happened to shared historical experiences in the discursive processes of constitutional reform in Sweden and Finland? This article examines the use of 18th-century history in early 20th-century politics. Building on a long-term survey of Swedish and Finnish estate and parliamentary debates, it analyses the political implications of differing national historiographies in the two successor states of the 18th-century Swedish realm, focusing on how the ancient past and collective (and often selective) memories of the Age of Absolutism, the Age of Liberty and the Gustavian Age were used by parliamentarians in constitutional debates. The analysis demonstrates how the Finnish polity continued to be profoundly influenced by these 18th-century constitutions even after the Russian Revolution, while Sweden took the post-French Revolution constitution of 1809 as its point of departure. In both countries, interpretations of the long 18th century were ideologically motivated in an age of the parliamentarization of government and the democratization of the representative system. This leads us to a discussion of the history-political significance of the common and differing understandings of representative government in the two interconnected countries.     

Conquests,family traditions and the First Crusade

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the family backgrounds of aristocratic participants in the First Crusade. Through an examination of these it explores the ways in which their decision to join the crusade was influenced by the examples of the previous generation of conquerors, the participants in the invasion of Sicily in 1061, the expeditions to England in 1066 and the conflicts on the Iberian peninsula. In this way it opens a discussion about the motives and expectation of the First Crusaders. It argues that dreams of conquest and the desire to match an older generation’s martial and political achievements may have been as important a factor in motivating crusaders as religious ideals.     

The practical limits of inventing traditions: the failed reinvention of the Sinjska Alka

The Alka is a traditional game in Croatia, held to commemorate the victory of the local warriors of the region of Cetina over the Ottoman army in 1715. The Croatian nationalist discourse of the 1990s tried to reinvent the Alka as symbol of a certain national identity, by nationalising this local event and emphasising its religious aspect. In a period of just over a decade, however, the project of reinventing the Alka has failed completely. This paper analyses the reinvention of the Alka and its failure in order to argue that concrete cases of invented tradition are context dependent and may encounter practical limits.     

Apocalypse tamed: Cusanus and the traditions of late medieval prophecy

In the late middle ages speculation on the end of the world attracted not only the eccentric and the obscure but some of the ablest and most renowned figures of the age, like the German Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa. On numerous occasions during a long career as theologian and reformer, Cusanus reflected on the course and meaning of history and of the last things. His short tract of 1446, the Coniectura de ultimis diebus, contains his most mature thought on the subject, although he evidenced a more than passing concern with eschatology, both prior to this work and subsequently. A prime purpose of this paper is to indicate how Cusanus' reflections on the end of time add a notable dimension to his thought, especially in relation to the dominant traditions of medieval prophetic speculation, the Augustinian and the Joachite. His millenarian position, while closer to that of Augustine, offered nonetheless a distinct alternative to the Augustinian contemplation of salvation only beyond time and the Joachite expectation of an imminent salvation within history. Also to be established is a certain continuity of concepts and themes between Cusanus' éschatological writings and some of his major works. Finally, there is the question of the relevance of his views of the end of time to his reform thought.     

Anglo-Irish and Gaelic marriage laws and traditions in late medieval Ireland

This paper is intended to draw attention to the very different rights and restrictions accorded to Anglo-Irish and Gaelic women in late medieval Ireland. These differing traditions concerning marriage and women's rights within it led to conflicting marital experiences for Anglo-Irish and Gaelic women during this period. Fundamentally the Anglo-Irish idea of marriage was opposed to the Gaelic one which led to clashes especially where intermarriage between the two cultures took place.     

The diffusion of dependency theory

Ronald H. Chilcote and Joel C. Edelstein. Latin America: The Struggle with Dependency and Beyond. New York: Halsted Press, Schenkman Series, 1974. xiv + 781 pp. Maps, tables, glossary. $9.50 paper.     

Social Werktreue and the musical work's independent afterlife

New musicology's rejection of formalist precepts eclipses how the subjectivization of aesthetics institutes the schema of music's opposition to reality. Social Werktreue—fidelity to the work and to the faithful reproduction of an original intent—replaces ideals of aesthetic transcendence with analyses of a work's socially constructed meaning. Hence, absolute music's social demystification positions music criticism within a system of oppositions ratified by bourgeois culture. The power individual works exercise in contesting reality deconstructs formalist dogma and social Werktreue. The temporality evinced when works address us in new situations attests to the work's independent afterlife. By confronting formalist criticism and social critique with the schema Kant initiated when he legitimated aesthetic judgment's transcendental function, this independent afterlife argues against transposing the principle of interpretive fidelity onto the social plane. Works reveal dimensions of experience in the midst of existing social and historical conditions, thereby opening new horizons for music criticism.     

The Litaniae maiores and minores in Rome, Francia and Anglo-Saxon England: terminology, texts and traditions

It has been noted that there are Frankish and Anglo-Saxon texts in which the three days before Ascension are designated as the Major Litanies, a practice generally regarded as an inexplicable deviation from the established norm of designating 25 April as the Major Litany and the three days before Ascension as the Minor Litany. This article shows, however, that this contrastive terminology was not in use in the Anglo-Saxon and Frankish churches and that the pre-Ascension litany days – more firmly established than the Roman tradition of 25 April – were commonly designated as the Litaniae maiores in authoritative contexts.     

Custom and habit(us): The meaning of traditions and legends in early medieval western Britain.

This paper discusses some well–known legends and hagiographic stories, and explores the context of their production and consumption. From an examination of Welsh foundation legends and Cornish hagiographical accounts, we focus on the methods by which versions of history were used in the Middle Ages to provide a context for fundamental changes in the way in which society was organised. It is found that, far from abandoning traditional versions of history, accounts of the past were promoted that sought to couch newer territorial notions of organisation within existing constructions of identity and mediations with the past. In an examination of the production and reception of these popular stories, we attempt to relate the legends to the generation of communal identity and memory. Consequently, drawing on Bourdieu's notion of habitus, we argue that pre–existing beliefs and customs were an important part in the development of newer institutional structures. Rather than initiating new practices that had no grounding in any particular past, institutional developments gained social currency by being inherently grounded in existing facets of cultural identity. In essence therefore, changing societal and institutional structures were unintentionally couched in the language and understandings of existing structures, so that in many ways a concept of continuity was at the very heart of actual change.