Model Boats in the Context of Maritime History and Archaeology

Funereal, votive or shipbuilders' model boats and ships have been quite well documented in the past, but little research has been undertaken into other wooden models from north-west Europe. There have been over 160 found during archaeological excavations, dating from the 9th to the 19th centuries. A study of these 'toys' is not just a study of objects among the minor arts, but reflects a far more important aspect—a source for interpreting remains of full-size vessels, the hypothetical reconstruction of hull-forms and exploration of new ways of defining unknown vessel-types.
© 2007 The Author     

Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History

This paper reviews critical developments in the internationalhistory of oral history and outlines four paradigmatic revolutionsin theory and practice: the postwar renaissance of memory asa source for 'people's history'; the development, from the late1970s, of 'postpositivist' approaches to memory and subjectivity;a transformation in perceptions about the role of the oral historianas interviewer and analyst from the late 1980s; and the digitalrevolution of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Threaded throughdiscussion of these paradigm shifts are reflections upon fourfactors that have impacted oral history and, in turn, been significantlyinfluenced by oral historians: the growing significance of politicaland legal practices in which personal testimony is a centralresource; the increasing interdisciplinarity of approaches tointerviewing and the interpretation of memory; the proliferationfrom the 1980s of studies concerned with the relationship betweenhistory and memory; and the evolving internationalism of oralhistory.     

Rebel with a Cause: Ahok and Charismatic Leadership in Indonesia

The representation of minority ethnic communities is an acute issue in many countries in East and Southeast Asia. In Muslim-majority Indonesia, the rise of Jakarta’s governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, nicknamed “Ahok”, was a surprising phenomenon given his ethnic and religious minority status as a Christian of Chinese descent. Even more surprising was his initial success as a politician despite a controversial style of communication that appears to contrast with prevailing cultural norms. We argue that the reason for Ahok’s unlikely rise to prominence lay in his ability to reshape the political narrative by shifting the focus of “Indonesian-ness” away from ethnic or religious identity to moral values based on transparency and integrity. Ethnicity and identity remain powerful forces in Indonesian politics, but we argue that Ahok has established a charismatic relationship with followers by positioning himself in opposition to some of the more pressing concerns in contemporary Indonesia.     

Miyazaki Hayao and the Aesthetics of Imagination: Nostalgia and Memory in Spirited Away

Miyazaki Hayao has achieved international renown for a succession of feature-long animations that have been noted for their visual flair and highly imaginative world-constructs. Many of the narratives in these films have been situated in fantasy worlds with often only a tenuous representation of the world as experienced in some conventional contemporary (or historical) sense. Yet beyond the surface of these figures and fantastical plot devices there is a clearly discernible stream of engagement with the past. Focusing primarily on Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) of 2001, this paper critically engages with the leading commentaries on nostalgia and memory in Miyazaki’s work, contrasting the “culturalist” approach of Susan Napier with the “machinic” approach of Thomas Lamarre. In turn, the aesthetic theory of R.G. Collingwood, in particular his concept of “magic”, is employed to demonstrate how certain aesthetic devices within the film facilitate an imaginative engagement with the past, one that is subtle but nonetheless highly evocative of distinctive nostalgic emotions.     

«Ridges on the floors of Hell»: traces ou palimpsestes dans le désert de The Dead Heart

The Dead Heart is American author Douglas Kennedy's first novel. It was first translated into French in 1997 as Cul-de-sac. It was this translation that made Kennedy a household name in France and that gave The Dead Heart its identity as a roman noir. In the space of just 20 years the novel has been translated twice into French and adapted twice more, as a film and now as a graphic novel. Elsewhere, we have analyzed this trajectory from the perspective of retranslation and the ostensible differences between the two translation Skopoi, and the use of paratextual branding to target specific reading publics. Focusing on the graphic novel allows us here to go beyond the problematics of translation and to broaden the scope of our study of textual adaptation. It also allows us to reassess the originality of the source text.     

House time: Neolithic settlement development at Racot during the 5th millennium CAL B.C. in the Polish lowlands

The settlement of Racot 18 in the western Polish lowlands is used as a case study in the investigation of continued development and expansion following initial Neolithic beginnings, and in the formal chronological modeling, in a Bayesian framework, of settlement development. The site belongs to the Late Lengyel Culture of the later 5th millennium cal b.c., and represents the intake of new land following earlier initial colonization. The formally estimated chronology for the settlement suggests individual house biographies spanned from as little as a generation to over a century; distinctive substantial buildings from late in the sequence may have lasted longest. Racot 18 is compared to its formally modeled context of the later 5th millennium cal b.c.     

#WeAreBeneficiaries: Contesting Poverty Stigma Through Social Media

Showcasing stories of welfare beneficiaries in their own words, a recent Aotearoa (New Zealand)-based campaign called “We Are Beneficiaries” used social media to create a space of contestation to the widespread stigmatisation of poverty. While existing literature strongly emphasises the role played by traditional media in constructing and reinforcing stigma, and has more recently begun to explore resistance and contestation, relatively few accounts address efforts, like the We Are Beneficiaries campaign, that seek to destigmatise poverty stigma via social media. Accordingly, this paper argues that social media can serve as a counterpublic space for the destigmatisation of poverty. By discussing how the We Are Beneficiaries campaign refuted stigmatising narratives, critiqued institutions and sought to build solidarity among and with welfare beneficiaries, the paper draws attention to the potential of social media in the development of counterdiscourses as well as new political identities and claims-making.     

Dating European Palaeolithic Cave Art: Progress,Prospects, Problems

Over the last decade several dozen direct dates on cave art pigments or associated materials have supplemented more traditional style-based attempts to establish a chronological (and developmental) scheme for cave art. In the “post-stylistic” era an holistic integration of pigment “recipe” analysis, formal stylistic analysis and direct chronometric dating have been applied to a handful of dates. Here, we examine the state-of-the-art of Palaeolithic cave art dating, with particular emphasis on certain radiocarbon and Uranium-series projects. We examine the relative successes and weaknesses of this cutting edge science. We conclude that there are several weaknesses in current applications that are in serious need of addressing. Issues of sample contamination and of the heuristic relationship between materials dated and the production of the art are particularly problematic. It follows that one should at present be very cautious about straightforward interpretations of apparent “dates” of cave art.