Veiling the Late Roman House

The period of late antiquity, c. ad 200–500, saw a dramatic increase in the social, political and religious significance of domestic textiles, as is revealed in references in literature and art, as well as in the finds of archaeological textiles in Roman Egypt. This paper explores the roles of textiles, particularly hangings and curtains, in such domestic settings in the late Roman period from a social perspective — how they served the increased concerns with privacy, visibility, mystery, boundaries and shifting gender relations that are amply attested in late Roman culture. I argue that, alongside more permanent forms of permeable boundaries, textiles were exploited for their unique inherent qualities in order to serve diverse needs in the late Roman house, and filled a central role in late Roman domestic life that was more far significant than their scant remains suggest today.     

Judicial Bookshelf

Too little attention is sometimes directed to those supports that undergird what is valued most. For example, one current of American intellectual life in the nineteenth century sought a society that would run by itself. Despite vast differences among them, architects of experimental utopian communities, laissez-faire economists, and Marxists had at least one thing in com-mon: all anticipated a day when "the state" would shrink into a minimal background role or wither away completely. In contrast, the twentieth century demonstrated not only the endurance but also the power of political institutions. Government was here to stay, often for the better, as illustrated in the United States as much by the Herculean efforts to end the Great Depression or to conquer space as by the routine maintenance of a climate conducive to "the pursuit of happiness." Yet government could also manifest itself with a vengeance, as illustrated by the oppression and carnage wrought by totalitarianism. Anyone who has thought about why some countries are long on freedom and others short knows that many factors and conditions incline societies toward one and away from the other. Yet two essential elements stand out: limited government and rule of law. The first proclaims that there are certain policies which government may not pursue; the second codifies those restraints independent of those who administer them. The first places some objectives out of reach, and the second sets the ruler apart from the rules. Louis XIV's reputed boast "L'ëtat, c'est moi" is as alien to as it is subversive of both.     

Y chromosomes of self-identified Syeds from the Indian subcontinent show evidence of elevated Arab ancestry but not of a recent common patrilineal origin

Several cultural or religious groups claim descent from a common ancestor. The extent to which this claimed ancestry is real or socially constructed can be assessed by means of genetic studies. Syed is a common honorific title given to male Muslims belonging to certain families claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad through his grandsons Hassan and Hussein, who lived 1,400 years ago and were the sons of the Prophet’s daughter Fatima. If all Syeds really are in direct descent from Hassan and Hussein, we would expect the Y chromosomes of Syeds to be less diverse than those of non-Syeds. Outside the Arab world, we would also expect to find that Syeds share Y chromosomes with Arab populations to a greater extent than they do with their non-Syed geographic neighbours. In this study, we found that the Y chromosomes of self-identified Syeds from India and Pakistan are no less diverse than those non-Syeds from the same regions, suggesting that there is no biological basis to the belief that self-identified Syeds in this part of the world share a recent common ancestry. In addition to Syeds, we also considered members of other hereditary Muslim lineages, which either claim descent from the tribe or family of Muhammad or from the residents of Medinah. Here, we found that these lineages showed greater affinity to geographically distant Arab populations, than to their neighbours from the Indian subcontinent, who do not belong to an Islamic honorific lineage.