The Darcy effect: Regional tourism and costume drama

Abstract

In the last two decades there has been largely critical discussion of the role which costume films play in the construction of the idea of national hertiage. Much of this writing has assumed that such films generally holster partial and conservative interests and represent a chronic nostalgia for a make‐believe past. Adaptations from historic classic novels are claimed to foist predominantly middle‐class tastes and standards upon the broader viewing public. The extraordinary success of the BBC's 1995 Pride and Prejudice gives one the opportunity to examine in some detail the inter‐connectedness of a number of cultural industries including heritage, museums, tourism, publishing and television, in audience perception and reception.     

Honorary Secretary’s Report for 1964

Abstract

The glazing scheme of the chapter-house at York Minster contains the best preserved ensemble of narrative glass of its period in England, and is the only one to survive in any of the great polygonal chapter-houses. Although it is frequently mentioned in general works on the Minster and its glass, there has been no sustained attempt to reconstruct the sequence of the panels or to consider the iconography of the scheme in relation to its setting. This study aims to highlight the significance of the scheme as a whole by focusing on just one of its seven windows: that in the north-west corner, which features a life of St Katherine of Alexandria. Using unpublished antiquarian sources alongside textual versions of Katherine's vita, it outlines a possible sequence for the window's disordered panels. It then goes on to analyse the window and its iconography within the context of the chapter-house, considering how it constructs its own particular version of this highly popular narrative. The results suggest that the scheme as a whole is a high-status product which employs complex narrative strategies. It is an important testament to the sophistication of glazed narratives in the period as well as to the ambitions of York's chapter.     

Locating the Cannibals: Conquest,North American Ethnohistory,and the Threat of Objectivity

This essay critiques the claims to political neutrality and academic authority in an approach to ethnohistory that is defined by historian James Axtell as “balanced” and “objective.” Seeking to shed light on the political genealogy of Axtell’s assertion of objectivity, particularly as it is articulated through an evocation of cannibalism, I trace the ways in which power is implicated in Axtell’s theorizing and argue that objective ethnohistory is linked to conquest as an ongoing ideological and material process. I conclude that objective ethnohistory works to both mask and affirm an imperial grounding, most egregiously through a deceptive rhetoric of democratization in the context of which a posited “we” becomes the supreme cannibalizing trope. Finally, I suggest possibilities for a decolonized, politically engaged ethnohistory.     

Rebel with a cause? From traitor prince to exemplary martyr: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's representation of San Hermenegildo

El mártir del sacramento, San Hermenegildo is an auto sacramental or Eucharistic play, written in the 1680s by the Mexican nun and literary superstar, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. The play centres on the story of a (purportedly Catholic) Visigothic prince who died in Seville in 586 by order of his Arian father, Leovigild. Contempary sources vary in their portrayal of Hermenegild, with most painting him as a traitor who rebelled against his father for political gain. Gregory the Great, however, championed Hermenegild as an exemplary martyr who died in defence of the Faith. One thousand years on, Spain saw a revival of its Visigothic ‘Golden Age’, and Hermenegild was among those to be venerated; he was canonised in 1585 and his memory was brought to life in various artistic forms; in poetry, paintings and even on the stage. This paper will examine the part that Sor Juana's auto played within this tradition, exploring the purpose of the play and the various historical and biblical sources used to create it.     

Heterogeneity,Group Size and Collective Action: The Role of Institutions in Forest Management

Collective action for sustainable management among resource‐dependent populations has important policy implications. Despite considerable progress in identifying factors that affect the prospects for collective action, no consensus exists about the role played by heterogeneity and size of group. The debate continues in part because of a lack of uniform conceptualization of these factors, the existence of non‐linear relationships, and the mediating role played by institutions. This article draws on research by scholars in the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research network which demonstrates that some forms of heterogeneity do not negatively affect some forms of collective action. More importantly, IFRI research draws out the interrelations among group size, heterogeneity, and institutions. Institutions can affect the level of heterogeneity or compensate for it. Group size appears to have a non‐linear relationship to at least some forms of collective action. Moreover, group size may be as much an indicator of institutional success as a precondition for such success.     

Re‐locating Moroccan Women’s identities in a transnational world: the ‘woman question’ in question

This article considers the situation of women in politics and the overall politicization of the ‘woman question’ in Morocco in its historical context in order to suggest why, despite enormous changes in women’s daily lives and roles in society, continued attempts to gain greater rights for Moroccan women and improve their status have been met with strong resistance by certain political groups. Working with interviews conducted with activists during fieldwork in Morocco, I focus on an analysis of two recent sets of events—debates around the Plan for Action to Integrate Women into Development and the Moroccan March 2000 for Women in Rabat and its counter‐march in Casablanca—to discuss how the various oppositional positions on the ‘woman question’ have developed and persisted in Morocco. I argue that unresolved and renewed national conflicts in Morocco, which in part are fueled by the success of transnational feminisms and fundamentalisms, perpetuate the manipulation of the ‘woman question’ for short‐term political gains in such a way that significant progress on this issue has been repeatedly thwarted. I address the tension in transnational feminism between ‘universalist’ and ‘cultural difference’ positions as they have been manifested in the Moroccan context and suggest that a way forward involves problematizing both poles of this dichotomy.     

Measuring prehistoric mobility strategies based on obsidian geochemical and technological signatures in the Owens Valley,California

We compare the organization of obsidian flaked stone technologies in two different time periods at CA-INY-30, a village site in southern Owens Valley, eastern California. Previous archaeological studies suggest a reorganization in settlement patterns between the Newberry (ca. 3500–1500 BP) and Marana (ca. 650-contact) periods, from a highly mobile to a more residentially sedentary one. New geochemical data, based on laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses of obsidian artifacts associated with discrete house floors, support this basic settlement model, but reveal new detail in how people moved across the landscape and accessed, extracted, reduced and used obsidian resources. In the earlier Newberry period, there is no relationship between flake size and distance-to-source, and the falloff curve relating frequency of obsidian against distance is more gradual, as expected, but contrary to our expectations, source diversity is not higher. These factors suggest extremely high mobility, but also selective extraction of particular sources. Newberry obsidian may have been acquired by groups of hunters who embedded quarrying within long-distance trips to distant hunting grounds, and subsequently transported bifacial cores to base camps. By contrast, Marana patterns show strong relationships between flake size and distance from source and steeper fall-off curves, suggesting groups acquired their obsidian primarily from closer sources, likely via exchange networks. At the same time, geochemical diversity, especially among smaller resharpening flakes, is higher in the Marana period, highlighting the wide-ranging conveyance systems through which obsidian moved.     

Linguistic boundaries as barriers to exchange

Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) data are used to explore the structure of obsidian acquisition for groups in the King Range National Conservation Area of northern California. The data indicate that, contrary to a distance-decay model, obsidian from more distant sources in the Medicine Lake Highlands, dominates the obsidian found at sites in the area. Furthermore, metric data indicate a positive relationship between size and distance to source with more distant sources represented by larger flakes. It is suggested that this pattern is the result of culturally mediated exchange relations under which Athabaskan speakers concentrated trade relations with one another to the exclusion of trade with linguistic groups to the south, with longer histories in the area, such as the Pomo and Yuki. Additionally, the use of redwood dugouts on rivers in northern California and the importance of northeastern Californian obsidian in ritual practices of California Athabaskan groups may have further encouraged the use of more distant, northeastern Californian, sources.     

Legislation has safeguarded the self-determination of Tibetan people——Interviewing Mr.Leque,the Chairman of the People s Congress of TAR

My last interview of Mr.Leque was when he was the Chairman of the Government of Tibet Autonomous Region(TAR).As time went by,Mr.Leque became the Chairman of the People's Congress of TAR.Following the custom,I paid my respects by presenting a delicate Karta whereupon,he gracefully gifted me another in return.Talking and laughing between us put me at ease and then led naturally into my questions.