Instruments of authority: Tycho Brahe’s technological illustrations

ABSTRACT

The astronomical instruments of Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, were crucial to his intended reform of astronomy in the sixteenth century. Tycho represented these devices in a series of images that were circulated in range of contexts, thereby disseminating information about his technology to a wider audience. Through an analysis of the iconographical content of these images and a consideration of the ways in which they were circulated, this article argues that images of technology were in fact crucial to Tycho’s attempts to establish his authority as an astronomer. Embodying his claims to accuracy and recruiting trust in his innovative instruments, the images reinforced the validity of his astronomy and thereby played a central role in sustaining his reputation as an astronomer.     

The visual dehumanisation of refugees

Dealing with refugees is one of the most contested political issues in Australia. We examine how media images of asylum seekers have framed ensuing debates during two crucial periods over the past decade. By conducting a content analysis of newspaper front pages we demonstrate that asylum seekers have primarily been represented as medium or large groups and through a focus on boats. We argue that this visual framing, and in particular the relative absence of images that depict individual asylum seekers with recognisable facial features, associates refugees not with a humanitarian challenge, but with threats to sovereignty and security. These dehumanising visual patterns reinforce a politics of fear that explains why refugees are publicly framed as people whose plight, dire as it is, nevertheless does not generate a compassionate political response.

如何对待难民是澳大利亚一个最具争议的政治话题。我们考察了在过去十年中的两个关键时期中媒体的避难者形象是如何影响接下来辩论的。根据笔者对报纸的头版所做的内容分析,避难者主要被再现为中、大型群体,多集中在船上。我们认为,这样的视觉形象、尤其是缺少描画个体避难者脸部特征的形象,不会将避难者同人道主义问题联系起来,而只会同威胁主权及安全相链接。这类非人性化的视觉模式强化了恐惧的政治,这也解释了为什么公众认为难民境遇凄惨,却不给他们政治上的同情。     

Molecular and osteometric sexing of cattle metacarpals: a case study from 15th century AD Beja,Portugal

In the course of a zooarchaeological survey of Holocene sites in southern Portugal, a substantial size increase of cattle bones was noted following the Christian reconquista of the 11th–13th centuries AD. A size increase in the course of time within a lineage of domestic livestock is usually considered to represent animal improvement. However several other factors including sex may influence the average size of a sample of mammal bones – cattle exhibit considerable sexual size dimorphism, with bulls being larger than cows. A histogram of the distal widths of a large (n = 44) sample of cattle metacarpals from 15th century Beja (Alentejo, Portugal), revealed a bimodal distribution. It was assumed that the large measurements belonged to males and the small to females. In order to rule out the possibility of a post-Moslem change in the sex ratio of cattle, a sub-sample of 21 cattle metacarpals from Beja was selected and we used genetic markers to identify the sex of the animals to which these metacarpals belonged. The ancient DNA sex of all specimens agreed with the previously assumed sex as determined osteometrically. We conclude that the two nearly separated peaks for the metacarpal distal width measurements do indeed indicate sex. A similar bimodal distribution was obtained from another large but earlier sample of cattle metacarpals from Moslem Alcáçova de Santarém (9th–12th century AD). Although these have not been molecularly sexed and since osteometric sexing has now been validated, we conclude that both small (female) and large (male) peaks are smaller than the 15th century ones and that there was an overall size increase or improvement of cattle in this region. Why the Christians improved cattle is unclear, but a selection for larger beeves for meat is one possibility as is the selection of more robust cattle for power. The spread of the quadrangular or chariot plough in Iberia is known to have occurred at this time. We then use the genetically sexed metacarpals to determine which measurements provide reasonable distinction between the sexes. Both the distal width (BFd; as already noted by Svensson et al., 2008; in Swedish medieval cattle) and the width of the lateral condyle (WCL) offer the best distinction. We also used them as a reference ‘collection’ to sex the medieval and post-medieval cattle metacarpals from Launceston Castle in England. This re-visit of the Launceston data corroborates other evidence indicating increased specialisation (milk and veal) in post-medieval cattle husbandry in England.     

Phytolith taphonomy: a comparison of dry ashing and acid extraction on the breakdown of conjoined phytoliths formed in Triticum durum

Durum wheat plants grown under optimum irrigation conditions in Jordan were processed in three different ways: 1) using a dry ashing method, 2) using acid extraction and 3) using both these methods, first dry ashing and then acid extraction. The aim was to determine if the laboratory processing method employed has an impact on the number of conjoined phytoliths recovered. This is important because it has been proposed that the number of conjoined phytoliths, or multi cells, can be an indication of water availability in arid and semi-arid regions (Rosen and Weiner 1994). The results showed that the processing method does have an impact on the resulting assemblage, with dry ashing producing a greater number of multi-cells than acid extraction. It is proposed that either the more violent oxidation of organic matter during acid extraction causes the breakup of conjoined phytoliths, or that the silica dehydrates during dry ashing resulting in a slight fusion between the individual phytoliths and hence more conjoined forms.     

India's Middle Classes and the Environment

The focus of most analyses of environmental struggles and discourses in colonial and postcolonial India is on rural and forest areas, and on subalterns versus elites. Recently, however, there has been increased interest in urban environmental issues, and, to some extent, in India's (variously defined)‘middle classes’. This article reviews a range of literatures — environmental, social‐cultural and political — in order to draw out themes and arguments concerning the relationships between India's middle classes and the complex meanings and materialities of the environment. Three issues are explored in detail: civic indifference and the public sphere; environmental activism; and Hinduism and ecological thinking. The article emphasizes the importance of recognizing diversity and dynamism within the middle classes in relation to the environment. It argues the need to develop situated understandings of what constitutes ‘the environment’ amongst different middle class groups; and underlines the ways in which environmental issues reflect and are often emblematic of wider social and political debates.     

Production of the Roman Cement in Italy: characterization of a raw material used in Tuscany between 19th and 20th century and its comparison with a commercialized French stone material

An experimental approach in order to investigate the possibility that some Italian limestones were used for the production of Roman Cement is proposed. Three types of Pietra Alberese, a marly limestone used since Roman times for the production of “lime” in Tuscany (Italy), were selected. By burning of these stones, specimens of binders were realized. The characteristics of these binders were compared with the binder obtained by burning a French marly limestone commercially used for the production of Roman Cement.

All samples of carbonate stones were preliminarily characterized from the chemical, mineralogical, and petrographic point of view. The colorimetric coordinates were measured on both rock samples and hardened binder samples. The analysis carried out shows that Pietra Alberese with an high content of clay minerals develops a similar microstructure with respect to that developed by the French marly limestone used for the production of Roman Cement.     

Innovative application of portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to identify Göktepe white marble artifacts

An efficient and non-destructive method to classify white marble artifacts by using a hand-held, portable XRF analyzer (pXRF) is here reported. The identification is based on the uniquely high strontium content of this marble and has been verified by testing 32 artifacts, most of which had already been provenanced, using conventional micro-destructive analyses. Besides strontium, other potential provenance indicators, such as manganese and iron, were analyzed and their concentration values obtained after empirical calibration of the instrument by using 17 quarry samples of known composition. The results show that Göktepe/non-Göktepe discrimination is almost always possible (30 artifacts) and that additional analyses are required only when the Sr value is at the lower edge of the Göktepe field (2 artifacts). The success of the method, however, resides in the particular composition relative to trace elements of Göktepe and is not easily extended to other marble varieties. Main reasons are related to insufficient accuracy at low concentration values, intrinsic trace variability of marble artifacts, surface effects that may produce not representative results. Interest in the method therefore is tightly linked to the exceptional importance of Göktepe as a sculptural marble, in which case, detailed data, obtained with a fast and totally non-destructive method, may provide relevant information concerning chronology, workshops, and places of production of the artifacts.     

International sustainable development policy: (re)producing sexual norms through eco-discipline

This article contends that the global thrust towards population management, legitimised by the concept of sustainable development, works to construct identities along the lines of gender and sexuality. This article focuses on the operation of what Foucault termed, biopower, as operational through and (re)productive of the United Nation's (UN) population/sustainable development discourses. I argue that the said disciplinary narratives and apparatuses such as the construction of environmental threat and the monitoring and regulating of populations, in the service of sustainable development, work to construct gendered identities and ‘naturalise’ heterosexual relationships. To demonstrate this, this article focuses on key UN documents directed at informing international environmental/population policy, namely Agenda 21 and the International Conference on Polulation and Development's Programme of Action.