Performing dialogical Dutchness: negotiating a national imaginary in parenting guidance

In contemporary Europe, national identities are fiercely contested and governments have sought ways to strengthen national identification. Notwithstanding this European pattern, government policies are implemented differently and belonging to the nation comes to involve different images and enactments across contexts. In the Netherlands, especially, belonging to the nation is at stake in many high‐profile public and political struggles. In this context, a pervasive public imaginary we call ‘dialogical Dutchness’ represents the Dutch as distinctly anti‐nationalist and open to difference. This raises the question whether national boundaries actually become traversable in view of such a national imaginary. How does one become a Dutch subject if Dutchness entails not being nationalist? Through the analysis of a Dutch social policy practice – state‐provided parenting courses – we show how dialogical Dutchness is negotiated and transformed in actual enactments of national difference and belonging. Although dialogical Dutchness foregrounds openness to difference and valorises discussion, it comes to perpetuate and substantiate boundaries between those who belong to the nation and those whose belonging is still in question.     

Early and mid Holocene tool-use and processing of taro (Colocasia esculenta), yam (Dioscorea sp.) and other plants at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

Recent multidisciplinary investigations document an independent emergence of agriculture at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. In this paper we report preliminary usewear analysis and details of prehistoric use of stone tools for processing starchy food and other plants at Kuk Swamp. Morphological diagnostics for starch granules are reported for two potentially significant economic species, taro (Colocasia esculenta) and yam (Dioscorea sp.), following comparisons between prehistoric and botanical reference specimens. Usewear and residue analyses of starch granules indicate that both these species were processed on the wetland margin during the early and mid Holocene. We argue that processing of taro and yam commences by at least 10,200 calibrated years before present (cal BP), although the taro and yam starch granules do not permit us to distinguish between wild or cultivated forms. From at least 6950 to 6440 cal BP the processing of taro, yam and other plants indicates that they are likely to have been integrated into cultivation practices on the wetland edge.     

Women Students and the London Medical Schools, 1914–39: The Anatomy of a Masculine Culture

During the First World War in Britain, women were exhorted to rally to the nation's need and to train as doctors. A number of the London medical schools opened their doors to female students for the first time. After the war, several of these schools reverted to their former status as exclusively male institutions. This article looks at these events in some detail, focusing on the controversies over co-education in medicine and attempting to unravel some of the issues and politics involved. It is suggested that the gender politics which characterise these debates illuminate our understanding of the social history of work cultures and masculinity in the period.     

A Tale of Two Josephines: Class,Gender and Self‐sovereignty in Gilded Age

Using court records and newspaper accounts, this article analyses the ‘Blann‐Ammon’ controversy in the context of nineteenth‐century liberal feminism. Risking social ostracism and imprisonment, Josephine Ammon, a wealthy and well connected Cleveland matron, sought to defend the legal rights and autonomy of Josephine Blann, her neighbour of working‐class origins; but in her efforts to empower Blann, Ammon constructed perceptions of Blann, and of the case, to serve her own political and ideological purposes. This article suggests the class limitations on both constructions of womanhood and notions of feminist self‐sovereignty.     

'Cheese Makers Are Always Women': Gendered representations of farm life in the agricultural press

Drawing upon the 'Farmlife' pages of Farmers' Weekly, the most significant farming publication in the UK, this article assesses the ways in which gender identities in farming are represented in text and images. Lead articles from 1976 and 1996 issues of 'Farmlife' are taken as the research focus to determine how representations have altered in line with restructuring of the agricultural industry. Reference is made to Connell's notions of hegemonic masculinity and emphasised femininity to inform the analysis about the ways in which these gender identities are (re)produced through the British farming media. A simple typology is derived from the articles, which assists in revealing a remarkable degree of consistency in the portrayal of gender identities over time. Case studies reveal that hegemonic masculinity and emphasised femininity are perpetuated through the farming media, but in increasingly subtle and fragmented ways. The limitations of Connell's conceptualisation are revealed, particularly in its ability to accommodate multiple constructions of femininity. Suggestions are made for research that investigates the consumers of these media products.     

Meaning in the making: The potter’s wheel at Phylakopi,Melos (Greece)

It is now commonly accepted that technology is, to its very core, a social product through which we can explore cultural choices. This cultural dimension of technology will be examined with reference to the introduction and use of the potter’s wheel at Phylakopi on Melos (Greece) during the Late Bronze Age. At this site, the co-existence of two different manufacturing techniques was so deeply embedded that, despite the presence of hybrid vessels, many aspects of the pottery production had become linked to either a local (hand-built) or Minoanising (wheel-thrown) tradition. It will be argued that the traditional hand-building technique was associated with individual and rooted facets of the Melian identity (such as kinship, social class, or gender). Reasons for the initial stimulus for adoption of the potter’s wheel are considered to lie in its potential for competitive social practice through association with exotic, symbolically laden technologies, craft products and consumption rituals. The gradual application of the technology to ever more complex vessels, on the other hand, corresponds to the apprenticeship sequence outlined by Roux and Corbetta and may indicate an incomplete learning process or a certain lack of practice opportunities among local potters.     

Sediments exposed to high temperatures: reconstructing pyrotechnological processes in Late Bronze and Iron Age Strata at Tel Dor (Israel)

Many of the sediments analysed from Tel Dor (Israel) show structural alterations indicating that they were exposed to high temperatures. This observation is consistent with the abundant evidence for use of pyrotechnology from the earliest exposed Middle Bronze Age strata through the Roman period. Such structurally altered sediments may well represent one of the more widespread and durable records of pyrotechnology, and as such could be invaluable for reconstructing past human activities. The specific aims of this research are therefore to develop the means for identifying local sediments that were altered by different pyrotechnological activities and to elucidate the varying circumstances whereby sediments were exposed to high temperatures in a Late Bronze and Iron Age 1 section.