Virile Turks and Maiden Ireland: Gender and National Identity in Early Modern English Travel Literature

This article examines the role of gender in depictions of national identity in early modern English travel literature. I show that human sexual relationships were believed to be echoed in relations between territories, which were often represented as masculine or feminine. Travellers used metaphors representing marriage, seduction and rape to describe geopolitical relationships, including colonialism, tribute payments and rebellion. Representations of Ireland and the Irish, and the Ottoman Empire and the Turks are among the most revealing. I argue that such metaphors were especially favoured by travel writers because gender was believed to be inherently mutable, thus providing a variety of easily understood and mutually accepted narratives to describe international political relationships.     

Italian Industrial Districts on the Move: Where Are They Going?

Since the second half of the 1990s the Italian economy has experienced a significant slowdown in the rate of economic growth. The “dwarfism” of its manufacturing firms, their specialization in traditional sectors and their organization in industrial districts have been identified by many scholars as major structural weaknesses in the Italian industrial system. Nevertheless, there is a vast and flourishing empirical literature showing that many industrial districts are actually changing in terms of sector specialization, international and innovation strategies and emergence of new forms of enterprise organization. In this paper, we provide a critical survey of the new and different patterns of industrial organization emerging in industrial districts.     

位于尼姆鲁德遗址的亚述那西尔帕二世的卡拉克西北宫殿中的新亚述浅浮雕彩绘．慕尼黑的研究成果

路德维格一世在1825—1848年间任巴伐利亚的国王,1863年他从尼姆鲁德遗址获得了7个浅浮雕艺术品。最近进行的对这些浮雕作品的修复使得其上残留的原始彩绘重新被人们发现,本文讨论了对这些原始彩绘面貌进行重现的可能性及存在的相关问题。     

Western Arrernte Pmere Kwetethe Spirits

This article explores the difference between the meaning and use of TGH Strehlow's term pmara kutata (his spelling) and of pmere kwetethe (modern spelling) in contemporary Western Arrernte society. The expression pmara kutata features prominently in TGH Strehlow's oeuvre. He defined pmara kutata, as the ‘centre of a local totemic clan’, ‘sacred site’ and the ‘everlasting home’ where an important local totemic ancestor originated and /or passed to his last rest. Interestingly enough the term pmara kutata or pmere kwetethe seems to have undergone a semantic shift. In contemporary Western Arrernte society pmere kwetethe is used to denote a range of spirit beings with different characters that dwell on and in the landscape. In English the expression pmere kwetethe is sometimes glossed as ‘the spirits of the land’ or ‘the invisible people‘.     

A NARRATIVE TURN: HUMAN AGENCY IN ROCK CARVINGS AT NÄMFORSEN,NORTHERN SWEDEN

The idea to create pictorial narratives seems to have occurred long after humans learned to produce iconic images, that is, depictions based on visual similarity to external objects. In Scandinavia, e.g. in Gärde, Sweden or Stykket and Bøla, Norway, early Mesolithic images (e.g. rock carvings from before c.5000 BCE) often feature animals that are solitary or without suggestion of causal or narrative relations to other figures, although they sometimes are grouped by proximity or are superimposed on each other. Notable is also the almost complete absence of human figures. However, in subsequent Neolithic configurations (after c.5000 BCE), there are renderings of human agents involved in various forms of interaction with each other or with animals, often within distinguishable ‘scenes’ or compositions. In this paper we outline the emergence of pictorial narratives in Scandinavian rock carvings. In particular, we focus on some of the first depictions of human agency as displayed in Nämforsen, Sweden (c.5000–1800 BCE). Further, we present an analysis of occurring human-animal relationships, interpretable as early attempts to create narrativizing images.     

YOUNG ACTIVISTS IN MUDDY BOOTS

The Swedish youth organization Fältbiologerna was founded in 1947 with the mission to inspire learning about nature through outdoor activities. Since then, the members have stayed true to their slogan ‘keep your boots muddy’ through engaging in bird watching and forest excursions; however, in the late 1960s and early 1970s – a period that environmental historians refer to as the ‘ecological turn’ – the organization’s activities were extended to also include political activism. Fältbiologerna increasingly evolved into a fertile terrain for young environmentalists. In this article, we explore how this Swedish branch of modern environmental youth activism came about. Based on a close reading of the members’ journal, Fältbiologen, between 1959 and 1974, we identify four key characteristics that were communicated in the journal during the years of study: adventurous, knowledgeable, influential, and radical. We demonstrate that Fältbiologerna took an increasingly radical position and began to engage in environmental debates and actions, while still holding on to ideals of learning through spending time in nature. Participation in these different activities shaped the young members into environmentalists.     

Compound-specific amino acid isotopic proxies for distinguishing between terrestrial and aquatic resource consumption

Compound-specific amino acid carbon-isotope compositions have shown particular promise for elucidating dietary behaviors in complex environmental contexts, and may also be able to mitigate the effect of many of the limitations inherent to palaeodietary reconstructions. Here, we investigate the efficacy of compound-specific amino acid isotopic proxies in characterizing the consumption of different dietary protein sources using amino acid carbon-isotope compositions for humans and fauna from Rössberga (Early to Middle Neolithic), Köpingsvik (Mesolithic and Middle Neolithic), and Visby (Medieval Period), Sweden. We also assess the explanatory capabilities of an isotopic mixing model when used with essential amino acid carbon-isotope compositions of humans and local fauna. All three isotopic proxies distinguished among humans from the three sites consistently and informatively, and were able to enhance the broad interpretations made using bulk isotopic compositions. The mixing model palaeodietary reconstruction revealed considerable diversity in relative protein source contributions among individuals at both Köpingsvik and Visby. Comparing the mixing model for bulk carbon- and nitrogen-isotope compositions to the model for essential amino acid isotopic compositions further demonstrated the likelihood of underestimation and overestimation of marine protein consumption for both aquatic-dominant and mixed marine-terrestrial diets when using bulk isotopic compositions.