Of reaflac and rapina: accusations of violence in two Old English lawsuits and the Libellus Æthelwoldi

This article examines the meaning and function of the Old English noun reaflac in two tenth-century lawsuit documents, Sawyer 877 and Sawyer 1211. It suggests that reaflac was the vernacular counterpart to the Latin terms violentia and rapina. Such connected terminology suggests that a collection of now lost tenth-century Old English charters, like S 877 and S 1211 in form, was the original source for the twelfth-century Ely house chronicle, the Libellus Æthelwoldi. Charter draftsmen purposefully selected a language of violence in order to delegitimize a rival party’s claim to an estate, regardless of whether any acts of violence had taken place. Reaflac formed part of this narrative strategy in early English lawsuit documents because of its association with contemporary discourses on moralized wrongdoing.     

October 2017 in Catalonia: The anarchists and the procés

The circumstances surrounding the call for a referendum on national independence in Catalonia in October 2017 led to high levels of collaboration between two, at first sight, unlikely partners: anarchists and Catalan independentists. Unlikely as this alliance may seem, it was well grounded on a number of factors: first of all, in the State response to the independentist challenge—the massive repression and the blockading of institutional channels to process nationalist demands pushed both movements closer in opposition to the central government; and secondly, in the prolonged interactions (in specific regions and industries) and engagement in joint solidarity activities between anarchists and segments of the Catalan left who had been influenced by the bottom-up approach of the indignados movement. Finally, this collaboration was also rooted on a long history of mutual engagement between anarchism and sectors of Catalan nationalism that, while not unproblematic, provided deep roots to this dialogue.     

Introduction. Anarchism and the national question—historical,theoretical and contemporary perspectives

This article provides an introduction to the themed section ‘Anarchism and the national question—historical, theoretical and contemporary perspectives.’ We discuss first the long and often overlooked engagement of anarchists with the colonial and national liberation question, particularly—but not exclusively—in the heyday of the movement (from the second half of the 19th to the first decades of the 20th century). We discuss in particular the overlaps and tensions between anarchists and republicans (those who favoured republics as opposed to monarchies) and anti-colonial nationalists (anti-colonialists who defended the right of national self-determination). Then we proceed to discuss the potential for a dialogue between anarchist and nationalism studies based on three interventions. First, to problematise the narrative that conflates nations with state-building processes. Second, to better grasp the emergence of alternatives to the nation–state as a historical construct. Third, to complicate narratives that associate in an unproblematic fashion internationalism and classless society. Finally, the introduction highlights the four questions which lie at the core of the themed section and discuss briefly how the papers relate to these.     

Tenue de soirée de rigueur: Incursion chez les warocqué

The Warocqué family, “nouveaux bourgeois”, were characterised by their constant intention to change the world in which they lived. They were thus industrialists and businessmen and political representatives as was appropriate, but also inventors, paternalist, philanthropists and employers. The Warocqués thus present a multitude of facets and possibilities for study. It was necessary to give greater importance to one of them, particularly as everything could be encompassed as family business. It is precisely the evolution and progression of the family in its local, Belgian and even international contexts that is analysed here—family, tradition and dynasty even: inaugurated by Nicolas, it progresses, develops and reaches its apogee with Raoul, who benefited from the power of the name. This social rise was also interpreted on the level of traditions, of family, of prestige or of a way of life. The article aims to study this particular aspect while successively reviewing some ‘chapters’ in the life of this dynasty: the family (taken as it should be in the broad sense, joining the very current concept of ‘network’), its sociability and passions.     

Ceramic Technology of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Asurini do Xingu,Brazil</Emphasis>: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Artifact Variability

This article presents some of the results of ethnoarchaeological research on ceramic technology I have conducted among the Asurini do Xingu, an Amazonian indigenous population inhabiting a village in the margins of the Xingu River, Pará, Brazil. Based on collected data, presented throughout the article, I discuss the reasons behind the formal, quantitative, spatial and relational variability of the Asurini ceramic vessels. This work will demonstrate that these distinct dimensions of variability are related to the potters’ technological choices during the vessels’ production process, the ceramic teaching-learning structure, and the type, frequency, method and context of use of the same vessels. I try to make clear the different practical and symbolic aspects that may influence the production, use, reuse, storage and discard processes of the vessels. Furthermore, I compare the Asurini context with other ethnographic contexts and try to distinguish regularities that may serve as interpretative references to the study of archaeological ceramic assemblages.

The Political,Social and Scientific Contexts of Archaeological Investigations of Mass Graves in Spain

The recovery of historic memory of the Spanish Civil War is a multilayered initiative to escape both the romanticism of the Franco era, in which only the glory of the victors was celebrated while their past atrocities were ignored, and the cautiousness of the post-Franco democracy, for which forced amnesia of the Civil War was considered a sacrifice for the greater good. In the past five years the efforts to recover historic memory have gained empirical footing by employing archaeological methods to locate, enumerate and identify the victims of extrajudicial executions. The ultimate goals of such work include the production of a more accurate historical statement of past events, the repatriation of missing persons to their families, and the documentation of physical evidence that may allow families to seek civil restitutions. While the scientific methodology is fairly straightforward, the process is nonetheless inherently political in that various government bodies can and do impede recovery efforts. This paper contextualizes the current political and social climate of human rights investigations in Spain by illustrating some of the recent recovery efforts in Catalonia and Andalucia.     

The Rise of the “City-region” Concept and its Development Policy Implications

As well as enjoying a rich scientific history, the concept of the “city-region” has also attracted particular attention in recent years. Combinations of an urban core or cores, linked to semi-urban and rural hinterland by functional ties, are increasingly regarded as the “adequate” scale for the implementation of development policies. The popularization and widespread use of the city-region concept for policy-making has important implications for the design and implementation of development strategies. It first signals a change from sectoral to territorial approaches to development and requires the adjustment of development strategies to widely varying contexts, leading to much greater policy diversity and innovation. It also involves a more complex governance structure, characterized by the horizontal and vertical coordination of numerous institutional public and private actors, and enables experimentation with bottom-up and participatory policy-making. This paper evaluates these changes and critically addresses their normative implications, especially in light of the facts that there is still little agreement on how the city-region is defined, that the term has become appropriated by urban elites, and that the problems faced by city-regions may not be that different from those operating at other geographical scales.