The 13th century polynesian colonization of Hawai’i Island

We assess 926 radiocarbon dates from Hawai’i Island, the largest assemblage of dates compiled from a single island in Oceania. Based on a classificatory approach that arranges the dates based on their reliability, accuracy, and precision, our results indicate that the most reliable estimate for the initial Polynesian colonization of Hawai’i Island is AD 1220–1261, ∼250 to 450 years later than the current consensus. This conclusion is strikingly convergent with recent estimates for the colonization of remote East Polynesia. Our analysis highlights the need for wood charcoal identification to insure selection of short-lived plants/plant parts for radiocarbon dating, and that a reliance on dating unidentified wood charcoal is a waste of resources that only serves to retard progress in refining the settlement chronology of Hawai’i Island and other locations.     

Nation,Ethnicity, and Canada in Laura Goodman Salverson’s The Viking Heart

This article argues that expressions of national identity in twentieth-century Euro-Canadian literature often conceive of the nation as existing in both ethnic and ostensibly pluralist, immigration-based models, and that the former is frequently valorized over the latter, resulting in the implicit legitimation of settler colonialism. It does so by examining a few major theorizations of nationalism—constructivism, ethno-symbolism, and ethnonationalism—and suggesting that literary critics’ frequent adherence to the constructivism of Benedict Anderson can sometimes obscure the aforementioned dynamic. Finally, this article reads Laura Goodman Salverson’s The Viking Heart (1923) as a text that renders in all its contradiction the problem of ethnicity and nation in Canada, arguing that Salverson combines (but does not synthesize) the twin forces of ethnicity and liberal pluralism that make up the Euro-Canadian imagination’s split conception of the nation.     

Reflections on Faith and Film in Hail,Caesar!

While Hail, Caesar! written, directed, and produced by Ethan and Joel Coen initially appears to be merely a light satire of classic Hollywood of the 40s and 50s, it also comments upon several kinds of faith, religious and otherwise. Most obviously, the film humorously critiques the Bible-blockbuster films of the era, as being fairly insincere, manipulative, and too conveniently reconciling of secular, Christian, and Jewish perspectives. But careful examination reveals that four different kinds of faith are dealt with in the film: 1) Christian faith, 2) communist faith, 3) faith in Hollywood, and 4) Jewish faith. The second of these is mercilessly mocked, but the first and third are dealt with more sympathetically. The Bible-blockbuster film, as well as the efforts of the studio fixer Eddie Mannix to cover-over scandas in the lives of not a few of the actors and directors, are both efforts to support a the 1950s cultural consensus. That consensus involves a good deal of hypocrisy, but the Coens present the best case they can for understanding those like Mannix who seek to maintain it, even if they show why it ultimately cannot be. Most interestingly, while the film does little to examine Jewish faith itself, it uses the classic Jewish prohibition of graven images to criticize both Christianity and the basic activity of Hollywood. The film illustrates why the 50s cultural consensus could not hold, and raises troubling questions about the long-term impact of cinema itself.     

Automated mound detection using lidar and object-based image analysis in Beaufort County,South Carolina

The study of precontact anthropogenic mounded features—earthen mounds, shell heaps, and shell rings—in the American Southeast is stymied by the spotty distribution of systematic surveys across the region. Many extant, yet unidentified, archaeological mound features continue to evade detection due to the heavily forested canopies that occupy large areas of the region, making pedestrian surveys difficult and preventing aerial observation. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) is a tool for analyzing light and radar (lidar) data and offers an inexpensive opportunity to address this challenge. Using publicly available lidar data from Beaufort County, South Carolina, and an OBIA approach that incorporates morphometric classification and statistical template matching, we systematically identify over 160 previously undetected mound features. This result improves our overall knowledge of settlement patterns by providing systematic knowledge about past landscapes.     

The Triumphant Equestrian

The life of the Ming scholar and Catholic convert Xu Guangqi 徐光啟 (1562–1633) drew unprecedented attention throughout China in the 19th and 20th centuries. Writers and public figures across China’s rapidly changing society praised Xu as an ideal model for modern Chinese citizens. This sudden celebrity may seem surprising, as Xu’s name had fallen into obscurity in the centuries following his death, and his life and works were only remembered by descendants and local people in his hometown of Shanghai. Why was Xu’s legacy revived three hundred years later, and what relevance did it actually have for Chinese society in the twilight of the Qing dynasty and the Republican period? This article tackles these questions by tracing the reestablishment and development of the new Jesuit mission in Shanghai since 1842. It investigates how the memory of Xu was recovered and reinserted in the public imagination of modern China.     

Excavations at the Ximenez-Fatio House,St. Augustine,Florida

Historical Archaeology -