Rejoinder to Lepper Concerning Serpent Mound

In this article we address comments made by Bradley Lepper concerning our previously published article, “Radiocarbon Dates Reveal Serpent Mound is More than Two Thousand Years Old” (Romain, Herrmann, Monaghan, and Burks 2017). Further we offer commentary on the new radiocarbon dates provided by Lepper (this volume).     

Constructing subjective spiritual geographies in everyday mobilities: the practice of prayer and meditation in corporeal travel

This paper contributes to contemporary geographies of religion by exploring how everyday spaces of mobility and flows can be transformed through specific practices such as prayer and meditation that contribute to personal spirituality. The work challenges traditionally held assumptions that sacred space or codified religious spaces requires stillness and calmness by drawing on the New Mobilities Paradigm to explore how spiritual practices are conducted within the flows and movement that characterise contemporary everyday life. Using questionnaires and diary-interview methods, everyday journeys of participants captured how prayer, meditation and encounters with others and the environment facilitated by movement can transform and be transformed by mobility and the mode of travel. Participant’s accounts of their everyday mundane journeys reveal personalised associations of the everyday spaces that they travel through and the different routines they enact on a daily basis that incorporate religious objects, practices or ideas. These journeys and time-spaces form what I term a ‘subjective spiritual geography’, a network of the interrelated time-spaces threaded together by the individual’s schedule and routine that create, maintain and reinforce personal and informal religious meaning in everyday life.     

Being Ritual in Mesolithic Britain and Ireland: Identifying Ritual Behaviour Within an Ephemeral Material Record

Acceptance of ritual as a valid interpretation of Mesolithic behaviour has slowly emerged over the past decade; the ‘silly season’ heralded by Mellars (Antiquity 83:502–517, 2009) has not materialised, though in Ireland and Britain difficulties persist in defining what might constitute ‘ritual’ away from the graveside. New discoveries from both the development-led and academic sectors enable Mesolithic archaeologists to better establish which elements of the archaeological record can be interpreted as ritual. This paper seeks to identify further strands of ritual behaviour, incorporating evidence from sites without organic remains. We consider the evidence for ritual at the site and feature scales, and in the special treatment of objects—an often overlooked body of data in understanding ritual. Thus the material signature of ritual will be questioned, and ways in which Mesolithic ritual can be rehabilitated and expanded will be explored.     

REVIEW

Alternative Strategies for Papua New Guinea. Edited by Anthony Clunies Ross and John Langmore. Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1973. Pp. viii + 263. Price (papercovers) $5.70.     

REVIEWS

The Introduction of Provincial Government in Papua New Guinea: Lessons from Bougainville. By Diana Conyers. Discussion Paper No. 1. Boroko (Papua New Guinea), New Guinea Research Unit. April, 1975. Pp. 54 + iv. Price: 1 Kina, ($A1).