Working with Tradition: Towards a Partnership Model of Fieldwork

This paper explores the interaction between fieldworker and “tradition bearer” over an extended period of time, in the context of an ethnographic study of singing traditions in the southern Pennines of England. Using examples, it examines the negative as well as the positive aspects of the exchange, with particular emphasis on mutuality and reciprocity. It charts the development of key relationships and the ways in which they have come to maturity and achieved equilibrium. Careful thought is given to the role of the fieldworker in respect of active/passive, interventionist/non-interventionist stances. Aspects of performance, commercialisation, networking, promotion, and media relations are discussed. Following a consideration of ethical and moral issues, including exploitation and advocacy, the paper suggests a working model of partnership as a way forward for future productive field-based research into traditional expressive arts.     

Notes and Comments

A PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY OF RELIGION. Its Origin, Function, and Future. By JAMES H. LEUBA. New York : Macmillan Co., 1912. Sm. 8vo, pp. xiv + 371. 2S n. Reviewed by W. Crooke.

GEBURT, HOCHZEIT UND TOD. Beitrage zur vergleichenden Volkskunde von ERNST SAMTER. Leipzig: Teubner, 1911. 8vo, pp. vi + 222. 7 Ab. im Text + 3 Tafeln. 6 m. Reviewed by W. R. Halliday.

RELIGIONS M?URS ET LÉGENDES: ESSAIS D'ETHNOGRAPHIE ET DE LINGUISTIQUE. By ARNOLD VAN GENNEP. Deuxième Série, 1909; Quatrième Série, [1912]. Paris: Mercure de France. 3 f. 50. per vol. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

CHURCH AND MANOR. A Study in English Economic History. By S. O. ADDY. George Allen &; Co., 1913. Demy 8vo, pp. xxx+ 473. Ill. 10s. 6d. n. Reviewed by S. A. H. Burne.

CHANTS POPULAIRES DE LA GRANDE-LANDE ET DES REGIONS VOISINES. Recueillis par FÉLIX ARNAUDIN. Musique, texte patois et traduction française. Tome I. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1912. Pp. lxxxvi + 512. 8 fr. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

ALBRECHT DIETERICH. KLEINE SCHRIFTEN. Herausgegeben von RICHARD WUNSCH. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1911. 8vo, pp. xlii + 546. Mit einem Bildnis und 2 Tafeln. Ill. 12 m. Reviewed by W. R. Halliday.

NATURSAGEN. Eine Sammlung Naturdeutender Sagen Märchen Fabeln und Legenden. Herausgegeben von Oskar Dähnhardt. Band IV. TIERSAGEN, Zweiter Teil. Bearbeitet von O. DÄHNHARDT und A. VON LÖWIS OF MENAR. Leipzig : B. G. Teubner, 1912. Large 8vo, pp. ix + 322. 8 m. Reviewed by W. R. Halliday.

THE LIFE OF A SOUTH AFRICAN TRIBE. By HENRI A. JUNOD. Vol. ii. THE PSYCHIC LIFE. Neuchatel: Attinger Frères, 1913. [Macmillan.] 8vo, pp. 574. Ill. 15s. n. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

THE COCHIN TRIBES AND CASTES. Vol. ii. By L. K. ANANTHA KRISHNA IYER. Madras: Higginbotham &; Co., 1912. 8vo, pp. xxiii + 504. Ill. Reviewed by W. Crooke.

THE LUSHEI KUKI CLANS. By Lt.-Col. J. SHAKESPEAR. Macmillan and Co., 1912. 8vo, pp. 235. Map + 4 col. pl. + 19 ill. 10s. n. Reviewed by T. C. Hodson.

THE BOOK OK PROTECTION : being a Collection of Charms now edited for the first time from Syriac MSS. With Translation, Introduction, and Notes by HERMANN GOLLANCZ, M.A., D.Litt. Oxford Univ. Press, 1912, 8vo, pp. lxxxvii + vii + 103, 27 ill. 10s. 6d. n. Reviewed by M. Gaster.     

The girl with the chariot medallion: a well-furnished,Late Iron Age Durotrigian burial from Langton Herring,Dorset

A well-furnished, Late Iron Age Durotrigian burial was found in 2010 by a metal-detectorist at Langton Herring in Dorset. This report examines all aspects of the discovery, paying particular attention to the skeletal remains, a female aged 19–24, providing the most complete, osteobiographical study of an individual buried with a mirror assemblage from the European Iron Age. A combination of artefacts and radiocarbon dating gives a range for the burial of c.AD 25 – cal AD 53. The grave goods themselves are of exceptional interest, representing an accumulation of artefacts acquired from diverse sources, deposited at a time of major cultural and societal change in southern Britain. The results of a geophysical survey are also presented, together with a discussion of additional well-furnished burials in the Durotrigian tribal tradition, which place the burial deposit within a wider social and landscape framework.     

Proceedings Of The Fourth Annual Meeting Of The European Association For The History Of Psychiatry (Eahp), The European Club For The History Of Neurology (Echn), And The International Society For The History Of The History Of The Neurosciences (Ishn)

Abstract

Osphresiology, though beginning with Aristotle, and the title of a classical monograph from 1819 by Cloquet, has, like the human sense of smell itself, played a relatively modest role, compared to other sensory functions. The anatomical and physiological connections of the nose to the brain proved to be more complex than those of sight, hearing and even touch, and were therefore poorly understood before the second half of the 19th century. Moreover, the close association between smell and taste gave rise to much controversy regarding the respective roles of the first and the fifth cranial nerves. Next, came the unfolding of the evolutionary influence of cerebral structure and function ‐ viz Broca's “limbic”; concept, and the “olfactory desert”; in the brains of “anosmatic”; animals. Jackson's “uncinate”; seizures featuring olfactory hallucinations brought the hippocampal formation into focus. Finally, there were the clinical manifestations of hyposmia and hyperosmia, from “coryza”;, the common cold, to injury or neoplasms causing hyposmia, as well as some endocrine alterations causing hyperosmia. (And let us not forget Charles Huysman's “Against the Grain”; and Marcel Proust's evocative fragrant madeleine.)     

Francis Weston,F.S.A.

Abstract

The subject of tile-tombs is one not often discussed in archaeological journals. From time to time amongst the quantities of tiles which are excavated, enigmatic fragments are found which can be interpreted as grave markers, in the manner of a memorial brass. Sometimes referred to as ‘tile-tombs’, the available evidence indicates that such memorials were a part of the floor, not raised above it. This factor, and also the inherent fragility of the tile-tombs themselves, has meant that only a very few such monuments have survived in any reasonable state of preservation. Owing to their scarcity they have often been denied a place within a general monumental history of the medieval period, let alone that of later times. A major exception to this is a study published in this Journal of the collection of tile-tombs once at the abbey of jumièges (Seine-Maritime), France, which have been convincingly attributed by Christopher Norton to the abbacy of Guillaume III de Rauçon (1213–39). Dr Norton places this cohesive series of tombs within the context of technical and stylistic developments of the floor-tile industry of Normandy, drawing parallels in Britain. The concentration of such tile-tombs is overwhelmingly medieval. In this paper the chronology of tile-tombs is enlarged by studying two recently noted early modern examples, also in the département of Seine-Maritime. In addition, the paper supports Dr Norton's study, in that he assesses the jumièges tile-tombs to ‘stand at the start of a tradition which was to continue in Normandy for a period of some five centuries.’