Who cut the ribbon? A quantitative analysis of formal opening ceremonies of new plants of multinational corporations in Russia

This paper reports on a study of formal opening ceremonies of new plants of multinational corporations in Russia. We argue that such ceremonies have profound symbolic meanings, namely managing anxiety and signaling commitment, as well as practical importance, particularly when top executives of corporate parents meet with top officials from the host countries at such ceremonies. The database embraces the entire population of public opening ceremonies of new plants of western multinational corporations (MNCs) in Russia from 2012 to 2016. The analysis revealed that in 2016, the unwillingness of both corporate CEOs and local governors to participate in plant opening ceremonies began to increase. More than one-third of plant opening ceremonies in 2016 were low-profile ceremonies ignored by top officials from corporate parents and local authorities from the host country. The growing absence of local governors is attributed to the smaller size of newly opened plants and the impact of sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and European Union following the inclusion of Crimea into Russia in 2014. This paper also indicates a promising direction for further studies – a replication study that should embrace public opening ceremonies of new plants of foreign MNCs in China, India, and Brazil.     

Facing Faces: The Head Motif in Migration-Period Archaeology

TIME AND AGAIN WE SEE STRANGE FACES on archaeological objects from early migration-period contexts in northern and western Europe. They are depicted on fibulas, belt buckles, button brooches and some other types of objects. With their bulgy eyes, open mouths and chubby cheeks they appear as though they were ‘shadowing’ and pursuing human-kind. Who are they, whose image might be represented here, what meaning did these images convey and what were they meant to achieve? Through an analysis of new and old archaeological finds, the appearances, spatial distribution and duration of use of these faces are discussed, and an interpretation for their meaning is suggested. Contacts between the various Germanic-speaking groups of northern Europe and their blended culture, signalled by motifs derived from Celtic, Roman and later Christian societies, created a new world of idiosyncratic images and thoughts which are interrogated here.     

Churches and aristocracies in seventh‐century Spain: some thoughts on the debate on Visigothic churches

After a decade of intense debate on the chronology of the so‐called Visigothic churches in Spain the divergent opinions have made little progress owing to the lack of reliable chronologies and the limits of a very stylistic approach. This article aims to present an analysis of the social and economic conditions of the seventh century (particularly the second half) as a background to understanding and defending the existence of church building in late Visigothic Spain. Their physical type (monumental but not enormous), the quality of their construction techniques and decoration, their function (absence of baptisteries and, often, presence of privileged burials) suggest aristocratic patronage of these buildings, an identification widely supported by textual and epigraphical evidence.     

Rethinking Canaanite Palaces? The Palatial Economy of Tel Kabri during the Middle Bronze Age

Here we explore aspects of Canaanite palatial economy through an analysis of finds from the Middle Bronze Age palace at Tel Kabri, a 34 ha site located in the western Galilee of modern day Israel. The palace was founded in the middle part of the MBA I period, and continued without interruption until an advanced part of the MBA II period. Despite the fact that the Kabri palace was vast (perhaps up to 6000?sq?m), functioned as the center of a polity, and could commission wall and floor paintings in an Aegean style, there are no signs of literate administration, or even administrative use of sealings. Patterns of animal husbandry, textile production, pottery manufacture and consumption, and storage within the palace all provide evidence that the palace behaved economically much more like an estate than a redistributive center. Our hypothesis is that the palace had aspects of an Oikos economy, i.e., that it functioned as a large household—richer and more populous than other households of the period, but with minimal involvement in the economy of the private sector. This contrasts with the contemporary polities in Syria, such as Alalakh and Ebla, as well as possibly its neighbor to the east, Tel Hazor, which had literate administrations and redistributive economies during this same period.     

First chronometric dates (TL and OSL) for the Aurignacian open-air site of Româneşti-Dumbrăviţa I,Romania

Currently, absolute dates for the emergence of the Early Upper Paleolithic and the timing of the earliest dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) into Europe are sparse. This is especially true for regions adjoining the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Europe with its dense clusters of sites along the Austrian and German Danube Valley. This article makes a first step toward filling this gap and, for the first time, presents absolute ages for the open-air site of Române?ti-Dumbr?vi?a I (Banat, SW Romania) located close to the Oase Cave where some of the oldest AMH fossils were found. A set of heated artefacts recently excavated from the Aurignacian layer GH3 was dated by thermoluminescence (TL) and gives early chronometric dates for this technocomplex in Romania.     

Marginal or mainstream? Migrant centres as grassroots and official heritage

Abstract

Migrant heritage, as a grassroots practice seeking to commemorate pre- and post-war migrant communities and their contributions, emerged in Australia from the 1980s. Since that time, its appeal has continued to grow. It now receives, in some form, state sanction and is policed by the same state and national legislation as other cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. This article seeks to complicate understandings of migrant heritage as a marginal practice, specifically by interrogating the use-value of particular narratives in the Australian context – that is, how do individuals, communities and other groups (the grassroots) draw on sanctioned and publicly circulating narratives to mark their site as heritage-worthy? Ideas of what constitutes official and unofficial heritage can be mutually inclusive – a dialectical process. I analyse this in relation to the commemoration of former post-war migrant reception centres in Australia.