Technology and geographical imaginations: representing aviation in 1930s Italy

This paper examines the geographical imaginations associated with aviation in fascist Italy, focusing on the representation of flight on the one hand, and on the other hand the role of propaganda flights organized by the regime in the 1930s. The representation and use of aviation in interwar Italy is explored in light of the concept of technological legitimation, based on an understanding of technological practice as a political and ideological instrument. Aviation, as one of the new subjects of artistic representations of the modern era, was grasped by avant-garde and modern movements in the early twentieth century. In turn, representations of aviation were used by Mussolini's regime, which considered it a key to national development and modernization, materially as well as in the representational sphere. Propaganda flights in 1930s Italy were organized by the Ministry of Aeronautics and local aero clubs, and were an expression of the politicized use of aviation, both in terms of representations of technology and the aviator, and the exploitation of flight's public potential for the construction of fascist spectacle.     

“They have the right to throw us out”: Élisée Reclus'New Universal Geography

Abstract: The anarchist and geographer Élisée Reclus (1830–1905) argued for the idea of universal brotherhood for all the peoples of the world in his encyclopaedic work the Nouvelle Géographie Universelle (NGU) (1876–1894). The nature of Reclus' argument and its representations of Europe, otherness and colonialism, however, are contested today, and it is unclear what insights it might offer to contemporary students of colonialism and post‐colonialism. In this paper I engage with two emblematic cases—British rule over India and French occupation of Algeria—as they are presented in the NGU, considering Reclus' analysis of imperialism and his novel critique of colonial power. In doing so I wish to demonstrate that far from being conventional, the NGU is a radical and interesting resource for those struggling to construct a critical discourse on Europe, otherness and colonialism.     

The cultural landscape near the ancient city of Tharros (central West Sardinia): vegetation changes and human impact

The evolution of the cultural landscape in coastal western Sardinia is investigated by means of pollen analysis in the Mistras Lagoon sediments, near the ancient city of Tharros, with particular attention to changes in evergreen vegetation and the impact of human activity. The pollen diagram, spanning the time interval from 5300 to 1600 cal BP, documents the influence of man, climate, and geomorphic dynamics on the evolution of a semi-open evergreen vegetation landscape and variations in extent of a salt-marsh environment. Anthropogenic indicators and microcharcoals concur in depicting increased land use coinciding with the Nuragic, Phoenician, Punic and Roman dominations. Pollen data, along with archaeobotanical evidence, suggest a prevailing arable farming economy, vocated to Vitis and cereals exploitation, during the Nuragic phase until 2400 cal BP, replaced since then by a prevailing stock rearing economy. Between 2050 and 1600 cal BP, a less intensive human impact on the landscape is profiled, consistently with the archaeologically documented abandonment of the rural villages in favour of a slow urbanization, experienced by the Sinis territory in Imperial times. The pollen record provides new insights into the history of important economic plants in the Mediterranean, such as Vitis, Olea and Quercus suber. The results of the pollen analysis reveal how the records of these taxa are primarily influenced by the cultural development of the Sinis region and secondarily by dynamics involving the natural companion vegetation.     

Vincenzo Neri and His Legacy in Paris and Bologna

Italian neurologist Vincenzo Neri was able to discover cinematography at the beginning of his career, when in 1908 he went to Paris to learn and improve his clinical background by following neurological cases at La Pitié with Joseph Babinski, who became his teacher and friend. While in Paris, Neri photographed and filmed several patients of famous neurologists, such as Babinski and Pierre Marie. His stills were published in several important French neurological journals and medical texts. He also collaborated with Georges Mendel, who helped Doyen film the first known surgical operation in the history of cinema. In 1910, when he came back to Bologna, he continued in his clinical activities and, for 50 years, slowly developed a huge archive of films, images, and prints of neurological, psychiatric, and orthopedic cases. This archive was extremely helpful to Neri, who especially needed to analyze neurological disorders and to differentiate them from functional conditions in order to understand clinical signs, rules, and mechanisms.     

Early Maya Ritual Practices and Craft Production: Late Middle Preclassic Ritual Deposits Containing Obsidian Artifacts at Ceibal,Guatemala

This article examines Preclassic Maya ritual practices and craft production by means of a study of ritual deposits containing obsidian artifacts dated mostly to the late Middle Preclassic period (700–350 b.c.) at Ceibal, Guatemala. New ritual practices developed at Ceibal during this period, possibly through political interactions and negotiation involving emerging elites and other diverse community members. Common objects in ritual deposits in the public plaza shifted from greenstone celt caches to other artifacts, including those made of obsidian. The inhabitants of Ceibal engaged in various kinds of craft production, including the manufacture of obsidian prismatic blades. They also conducted public rituals in the Central Plaza, depositing exhausted polyhedral obsidian cores and other artifacts with symbolic significance in caches and as offerings in incipient elite burials and interments of sacrificed individuals. These cores clearly demonstrate the use of a sophisticated blade technology. Like greenstone objects, exhausted polyhedral obsidian cores deposited in cruciform arrangements along the east–west axis of the central E-Group plaza were used as symbols and markers of the center and four cardinal directions within the Maya cosmos. Public rituals were important for creating collective identities and for processes of political negotiation within the community. Emerging elites likely came to play an increasingly important role in public rituals as principal performers and organizers, setting the stage for later public events centered on rulers.     

Archaeometric study of natural hydraulic mortars: the case of the Late Roman Villa dell’Oratorio (Florence,Italy)

This paper shows the results of a multidisciplinary study carried out on the mortars from the Late Roman Villa dell’Oratorio (fourth-sixth ad), an aristocratic mansion built in the lower Valdarno (Florence, Italy). Thirty-one bedding mortar and plaster samples were analysed through optical microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy for determining the chemical, mineralogical and petrographic characteristics, while their main physical properties were measured by geotechnical procedures. The collected data indicates that the analysed mortars are made up of very fine to coarse river sand aggregate mixed with white to yellowish-white natural hydraulic lime binder mainly consisting of mixtures of prevailing calcite and hydraulic compounds. With regard to the origin of the raw materials, the aggregates were recognized to be selected Arno river sands, and the binders are the burning product of a local marly limestone (ex Alberese). Therefore, the mortars of the Late Roman Villa dell’Oratorio are one of the first uses of natural hydraulic lime in the lower Valdarno.     

Des carêmes après le Carâme stratégies de conversion et fonctions politiques des missions intérieures en Espagne et au Portugal (1540–1650)

The paucity of works on internal Jesuit missions in Spain and Portugal does not correspond to the abundance of accounts that attest to a strong activity from the second half ofxvith century. The fundamentally quadragesimal character of the initial activity in this field would determine the penitential sense of the Iberian missions, and, as a consequence, the missionary strategies themselves. The «self-presentation» of Jesuits and the type of preaching that they made to the faithful are examples of such strategies, devoted to the ultimate objective of the penitential missions to lead the people to «conversion». In any case, this idea of conversion takes on a political sense, which is demonstrated most evidently in their peace-making activity. In this regard, the action undertaken by Jesuits in theAlmadrabas of Conil and Zahara demonstrates the role played by internal missions with regard to the means of articulation of society, according to the patterns of behaviour and the models of political organization of this period.