Creating Colonial Christian Cultures in Canterbury: St. Augustine's Missionary College*

Throughout the nineteenth century, religion and Empire became increasingly fused in the Victorian imagination through a lens of providentialism that saw Empire as an instrument for worldwide Christianisation. This article uses the case of St. Augustine's Missionary College to explore the creation of a distinctly colonial Christian culture in Canterbury. This culture was both created and curated through networks and connections made between Canterbury and colonial dioceses, the imagined world of letters fostered by the College, and the presence in Canterbury of “foreign students” whose apparently exemplary lives brought the Empire home to the “garden of England.” Reinforcing the important point that Britain was part of a mutually-constituted Empire, this article demonstrates how colonial cultures in Britain could be sustained through various means–cultural, social, and here institutional. It moreover uses the case of St. Augustine's to showcase the increasingly self-conscious links between religion and Empire within Established Anglicanism as colonisation forged the city of Canterbury into the head of a colonial and global Anglican Communion.     

Pottery production and distribution in prehistoric Bronze Age Cyprus. An application of pXRF analysis

Portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) analysis of over 400 samples of Early and Middle Bronze Age Cypriot pottery from four widely separated sites identifies both local and non-local products at each. A series of analyses of sub-sets of the data highlights differences in the clays used at each site and for some distinctive types and wares. When assessed in the context of general typological, technological and stylistic factors these variations provide the basis for considering patterns of local production and inter-regional relationships across the island. Although the great majority of pots were locally made, particular wares and shapes were brought in from elsewhere. For some sites finer, more highly decorated vessels are mostly imports, but at others both simpler and more complex vessels were made of the same local clays. While small juglets or flasks may have been containers for transporting small quantities of rare substances, larger vessels are likely to have held less precious material. Open vessels, especially small bowls – some of which are plain, utilitarian items – represent another aspect of social behaviour and inter-regional relationships.     

Mediating messiness: expanding ideas of flexibility,reflexivity, and embodiment in fieldwork

This article aims to help researchers think about some big-picture challenges that occur in the early stages of fieldwork. In particular, we address the transition from a clear, concise research proposal to the often complicated, messy initiation of a project. Drawing on autobiographical accounts of our own PhD research projects, we focus on dilemmas that may arise for researchers guided by feminist epistemology and methodology. First, we discuss parameters regarding acceptable changes to original research plans and questions. Noting that the carefully planned proposal may dramatically change as fieldwork begins, we draw on feminist literatures to expand and concretize the notion of flexibility in the research process. Second, we puzzle out the relationship between theory, epistemology, and method as the researcher delves into her fieldwork. As logistical challenges may take priority, theoretical and epistemological concerns may temporarily wane. Third, we consider the many ways in which the researcher's personal and field life bleed into each other to shape the conduct of research. We emphasize the importance of considering – prior to research as well as during – what the concepts of reflexivity and embodiment mean in fieldwork, especially for the researcher in terms of personal needs and logistical realities. Finally, while we suggest that there are certain unique pressures that shape the early stages of the field research period for PhD students, we conclude the article by focusing on ways in which lessons learned during our own experiences might be broadly useful for any researchers in the beginning stages of fieldwork.     

Material evidence for the use of Attic white-ground lekythoi ceramics in cremation burials

White-ground lekythoi ceramics offer important evidence for funeral practices in Ancient Greece (5th century BC). The images painted-on these oil containers provide the best visual narrative for the events surrounding death, including indications that the vessels themselves were used as part of the funerary rites. However, until now, their specific function and treatment within the funeral ceremony was not well understood. We present here material evidence that the vessels were ritually burned, together with the body of the deceased, during cremation, as evidenced by a diffuse purplish-red discolouration found on many white-ground lekythoi. Through EPMA and μXAS studies, we show that: (1) this characteristic purplish-red discolouration is due to the presence of metallic copper nano-particles embedded in a glassy layer; (2) this metal-glass matrix formed as the result of a high temperature reaction between painted-on Cu-based pigments (e.g., Egyptian blue) and the white-ground ceramic slip; and (3) the reaction occurred under a reducing environment. Given the mortuary context for these vessels, we propose the reduction firing to which the vessels were exposed was that associated with the cremation of the body. The observation of discontinuous formation of the purplish-red discolouration along adjoining fragments supports the hypothesis that the vessels were broken prior to being burned. The majority of lekythoi in museum collections lack information on their original archaeological context, and our data suggest the presence of this purplish-red discolouration may serve as a visual marker for cremation. As such, it is expected our findings will provide a new basis for interpreting how this important class of ceramic, and associated iconographic imagery, relates to Athenian funerary practices and the ancient Greek notion of death.     

Between Tragedy and Farce: 9/11 Compensation and the Value of Life and Death

This paper examines how lives have been valued (or not) in the US federal compensation programs set up in the wake of 9/11. The Victim Compensation Fund (VCF), implemented within days of the attacks, provided unlimited funds to the victims. In contrast, many first responders who developed illnesses later have had access to limited support. Only in 2011 was the Zadroga Act signed into place, which extends compensation to these workers and others. This paper compares and contrasts the two programs to make two points. One, the debates around compensation lay bare the differential values that are ascribed to life, and how biopower not only fosters life but abandons some to the point of death. Two, despite the controversies around extending compensation, the Zadroga Act was eventually enacted. Our second point is thus that war is not just destructive, but can be used to reconstitute the social and political in unanticipated ways.