Decolonisation and mysticism in William Butler Yeats's The Celtic Twilight and The Secret Rose

Yeats's responsibilities as one of Ireland's most prominent artists commenced with his aspiration to make Ireland a nation. His writings incorporate the three phases of development that Frantz Fanon posited for all new nations. Although Fanon described his three phases of decolonisation well after The Celtic Twilight and The Secret Rose were compiled, Fanon's framework elucidates Yeats's writings. Yeats's use of mystical elements embodies Fanon's idea of the colonial binary, the negritude binary, and transnational consciousness. Yeats discovered the answers to decolonisation in mysticism. His insights about folklore when coupled with imagination brought about many mystical revelations that linked Ireland to mysticism of global dimensions. Yeats's insights moved Ireland beyond binaries and solely nationalistic thinking to encourage Ireland to develop a transnational consciousness, transcending postcolonial binaries to achieve nationhood.     

Osteometric variation in the Inuit second metacarpal: a test of Allen's Rule

Bergmann's and Allen's Rules predict a relationship between climate and morphology as a thermoregulatory adaptation. These ecogeographic principles predict/explain change in the ratio of body surface area to body mass in hot and cold climates. With regard to Allen's Rule we would expect short and relatively broad limb proportions. Such adaptation should be observable in skeletal architecture. This paper provides a test of Allen's Rule using osteometric data for the second metacarpal from the Sadlermiut of Southampton Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. Following adjustment for body size, ANOVA by sample and sex shows the Sadlermiut second metacarpal to be shorter, wider at the base and deeper at the distal metacarpophalangeal joint, in comparison to an historic sample of European settlers. This pattern of difference suggests an Inuit hand with a thermally adapted morphology, viz. a large mass relative to surface area. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Sandplay,Clay and Sticks’: Multi-Sensory Research Methods to Explore the Long-Term Mental Health Effects of Childhood Play Experience

In this contribution we discuss the advantages of using multi-sensory methodologies in our study into the long-term mental health effects of different kinds of childhood play space. Working with a small group of young people aged 16–21 years old; we used a multi-method approach including practical workshops where the young people took part in a day of woodland activities and artwork sessions. We argue that use of such practical methodologies is particularly appropriate in research with teenagers and young adults, helping to overcome their self-consciousness and supporting their need to explore and articulate memories, feelings and ideas.     

Gendered Taskscapes: Food,Farming, and Craft Production in Banda,Ghana in the Eighteenth to Twenty-first Centuries

This article blends insights from gender, technology, and development studies with Ingold’s concept of taskscape to examine the interrelated nature of farming, food, and craft manufacture practices in Banda, Ghana during the last three centuries. We begin by comparing two ethnoarchaeological studies that were conducted separately by the authors, one that focused on food, and the other on ceramic production, preparation, and consumption. We use these data to analyze gendered taskscapes and how they have changed in recent decades with the introduction of new technologies and major economic and environmental shifts. Building on such insights, we analyze how taskscapes shifted in earlier centuries in Banda through archaeological remains of food and craft practice at the eighteenth- to twentieth-century site of Makala Kataa. Craft production cannot be fully understood without reference to food production, preparation, and consumption; thus, viewing these practices as interrelated tasks in a gendered taskscape yields insight into the rhythms of everyday life and highlights women’s often undervalued skills.     

THE GROBIN DAVIS SITE: ARCHAEOGEOPHYSICS AND SETTLEMENT PATTERNS AT CADDO MOUND CENTERS IN SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA

The Grobin Davis site (34MC253) is the best-preserved known prehistoric Caddo mound site in southeastern Oklahoma. The site, located along the Little River, consists of seven mounds arranged in a horseshoe configuration. Archaeological excavations at the site have been limited to a series of posthole tests and three 1-x-1-m units. Between November 2011 and February 2012, the Oklahoma Archeological Survey conducted geophysical survey of the bulk of the site, covering approximately 32,000 m² with a fluxgate gradiometer. This study provides important information about Caddo mound construction, settlement, and ceremonialism in southeastern Oklahoma and add to a growing body of literature on prehistoric Caddo community patterns.     

Dithyrambs and Ploughshares: The Cycle of Creation and Criticism in Nietzsche's Aesthetics

Pairing Thus Spoke Zarathustra with On the Genealogy of Morality foregrounds tensions between artistic creation and critical interpretation in Nietzsche's work. From The Birth of Tragedy to his genesis of the concept, Will to Power, Nietzsche describes the real, or “what is,” in terms of a creative, form-giving force. We might therefore read Zarathustra—a linguistically experimental, richly allegorical, self-reflexive, modernist prose poem—as the pre-eminent, artistic mode of philosophical expression, at least for Nietzsche. But Zarathustra is followed by a sober Abhandlung (treatise), which professes a scientific goal of “getting to the bottom of things” by uncovering the contingency, origin, and fabricated nature of supposedly eternal, “given” values. These instantiations of Nietzsche-the-artist and Nietzsche-the-critic suggest art's “double” or contradictory nature—a nature that accents its kinship with philosophy. Zarathustra and the Genealogy, read together, hint that the destruction of idols—or de-constructive, critical interpretation more generally—is not just supplemental to, but a necessary moment within the aesthetic itself.     

Children as community planners: embodied activities,visual-spatial thinking,and a re-imagined community

ABSTRACT

This qualitative research endeavor explored the role of embodiment as a pathway to visual-spatial thinking. The researchers relied on an interdisciplinary approach using geography and theater rooted in kinesthetic and empathetic embodied activities to facilitate visual-spatial thinking within the context of a community redevelopment project. The participants consisted of 14 elementary and middle school aged girls attending a Girls Inc. program within a low-income housing community. The researchers situated the findings using McCormack’s ([1998. Visual/Spatial Thinking: An Essential Element of Elementary School Science. Washington, DC: Council for Elementary School Science]; [2011. “Don’t Verbalize, Visualize!” NSTA WebNews Digest. Accessed June 15, 2016. http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=58298]) visual-spatial thinking typology and theories of embodiment. The findings revealed that the girls exhibited three types of visual-spatial thinking, which ranged from foundational to highly advanced ways of thinking about space, to include visual-spatial perception, memory, and creative thinking. The results also illustrate that embodied activities that engage sensorimotor functions through an interdisciplinary approach, can facilitate visual-spatial thinking.