History and Holocaust Representation

Books reviewed in this article:
Michael Rothberg, Traumatic Realism: The Demands of Holocaust Representation     

Direct radiocarbon (AMS) dating of split-based points from the (Proto)Aurignacian of Trou de la Mère Clochette,Northeastern France. Implications for the characterization of the Aurignacian and the timing of technical innovations in Europe

Radiocarbon (AMS) dates on two split-based point wings and a hominin molar from the site of Trou de la Mère Clochette in the French Jura are presented in this paper. Dating split-based points has very rarely been undertaken. This is unfortunate given that these artefacts are critical to our definition and characterization of Early Upper Palaeolithic technocomplexes, as they are considered to be the type fossil of the Classic Aurignacian.     

Risk and Private Military Work

Abstract: To date geography has paid scant attention to private military contracting. Other disciplines have studied the topic, but their work is state‐centric. In this paper I examine private military contracting through a geoeconomic lens and make four arguments. First, the heightened security risks of the contemporary era cannot be explained solely as a result of states’ decision to cede their monopolies over the means of violence. We must also examine the private military firms that have created new monopolies and the strategies they use to manage and distribute risk. Second, the industry has increased risk in the world system by offloading security risks onto their employees. This “responsibility over rights” management model provides inadequate human rights training and battlefield adjudication procedures for contractors and civilians alike. Third, the geography of private military work does not always conform to the global division of labor between north and south. Instead, private military work creates a class of work that cuts across social and geographic divides. Finally, while activists should encourage states to regulate the industry, they should also push it to reform employment practices since private military firms are increasingly global in scope.     

ALL WRITTEN UP

This edited collection of conference papers moves historiographical debate beyond the cultural, linguistic, subjective, and archival “turns,” and beyond historiographical questions asked from the “postcolony,” to consider the historian's role as writer and in relationship to his or her (dead) subjects. Wider cultural appropriations of the Holocaust frame several contributions and underpin the ethics of historical reconstruction discussed. This review of Unsettling History considers “raising the dead” as a paradigmatic activity of Western social historians, first articulated in the European nineteenth century. Using the perspective of its editors and contributors, it argues for a yet more detailed attention to historians' acts and performances of writing.     

Feminist Queries for Ruth and Joshua: Complex Characterization,Gapping, and the Possibility of Dissent

Abstract

This essay positions reflections on Ruth and Joshua at the nexus of literary analysis and feminist inquiry. Building on the contributions of Robert Alter and Meir Sternberg, the arguments here explore the characterization of Ruth and the force of gapping in Josh 5,13-15. Nothing Foucault’s configuring of discourse as a space of multiple dissensions, this essay argues that the complexity of characterization of Ruth the Moabite and aporetic narrativity in the story of Joshua’s encounter with the commander of YHWH’s army constitute resource for feminist dissent. Readings of Ruth and Joshua may use these texts to destabilize ideologies of subjugation, move beyond essentialism in the identity formation of individuals and communities gathered around Scripture, and facilitate work for justice and shalom.     

Cultural dynamics and ceramic resource use at Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Troy,northwestern Turkey

Changes in resource use over time can provide insight into technological choice and the extent of long-term stability in cultural practices. In this paper we re-evaluate the evidence for a marked demographic shift at the inception of the Early Iron Age at Troy by applying a robust macroscale analysis of changing ceramic resource use over the Late Bronze and Iron Age. We use a combination of new and legacy analytical datasets (NAA and XRF), from excavated ceramics, to evaluate the potential compositional range of local resources (based on comparisons with sediments from within a 10 km site radius). Results show a clear distinction between sediment-defined local and non-local ceramic compositional groups. Two discrete local ceramic resources have been previously identified and we confirm a third local resource for a major class of EIA handmade wares and cooking pots. This third source appears to derive from a residual resource on the Troy peninsula (rather than adjacent alluvial valleys). The presence of a group of large and heavy pithoi among the non-local groups raises questions about their regional or maritime origin.