Childhood and childrearing in ad status sermons by later thirteenth century friars

It is difficult to obtain a balanced and accurate picture of medieval views of such topics as childhood, treatment of children, and the nature of family ties, whether of affection or obligation. A significant source of information on these topics, abundant but so far underused, lies in the sermons, pastoral handbooks and biblical commentaries of the period. These are abundant for the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, allowing the historian to examine the development of ideas over time.One group of late thirteenth century ad status collections, written by friars, is particularly interesting. They were extremely popular throughout the fourteenth century, and therefore represent an important starting point for any study of developing views about the young. Comparison of their views with those of their predecessors, identifies a clear trend towards increased awareness of children as a group with specific characteristics and specific needs. Overall, the writers of these late thirteenth century ad status collections - John of Wales, Guibert de Tournai, Humbert de Romans - show decided reservations about the value of corporal punishment, and a conviction that children are intrinsically good, despite the sins characteristic of their various stages of development. This must call into question some of the conclusions reached by scholars such as Philippe Ariès and Lloyd de Mause.     

Moral Spaces and Sexual Transgression: Understanding Rape in War and Post Conflict

When it comes to rape in war, evocative language describing rape as a ‘weapon of war’ has become commonplace. Although politically important, overemphasis on strategic aspects of wartime sexual violence can be misleading. Alternative explanations tend to understand rape either as exceptional — a departure from ‘normal’ sexual relationships — or as part of a continuum of gendered violence. This article shows how, even in war, norms are not suspended; nor do they simply continue. War changes the moral landscape. Drawing on ethnographic research over 10 years in northern Uganda, this article argues for a re‐sexualization of understandings of rape. It posits that sexual mores are central to explaining sexual violence, and that sexual norms — and hence transgressions — vary depending on the moral spaces in which they occur. In Acholi, moral spaces have temporal dimensions (‘olden times’, the ‘time of fighting’ and ‘these days’) and associated spatial dimensions (home, camp, bush, village, town). The dynamics of each help to explain the occurrence of some forms of sexual violence and the rarity of others. By reflecting on sexual norms and transgressions in these moral spaces, the article sheds light on the relationship between ‘event’ and ‘ordinary’, rape and war.     

Performative Research for a Climate Politics of Hope: Rethinking Geographic Scale, “Impact” Scale,and Markets

Research is increasingly recognised as a generative and performative practice that contributes to shaping the world we come to live in. Thus part of the research “process” involves being explicit about the worlds we want our research to contribute to and reflecting on how the concepts we use might help or inhibit this agenda. This paper is based on our commitment to strengthening the contributions that grassroots renewable energy initiatives might make to a climate changing world. However, to detect the potential of these initiatives, familiar concepts of scale and markets have to be recast. This paper uses insights from the academic literature and research into grassroots renewable energy initiatives to show how scale and markets can be rethought, thereby making it possible to detect some of the ways that grassroots renewable energy initiatives are helping transform ways of living and working, and building hope in a climate changing world.     

New Meanings in the Archive: Privacy,Technological Change and the Status of Sources**

This essay reflects on how technological changes in biomedicine can affect what archival sources are available for historical research. Historians and anthropologists have examined the ways in which old biomedical samples can be made to serve novel scientific purposes, such as when decades-old frozen tissue specimens are analyzed using new genomic techniques. Those uses are also affected by shifting ethical regimes, which affect who can do what with old samples, or whether anything can be done with them at all. Archival collections are subject to similar dynamics, as institutional change and shifts in ethical guidelines and privacy laws affect which sources can be accessed and which are closed. I witnessed just such a change during my research into human genetics using archives in the Wellcome Collection. A few years into my project, those archives had their privacy conditions reassessed, and I saw how some sources previously seen as neutral were now understood to contain personal sensitive information. This paper describes the conditions of this shift—including the effects of technological change, new ethical considerations, and changing laws around privacy. I reflect on how these affected my understanding of the history of human genetics, and how I and others might narrate it.     

Reanimating Anarchist Geographies: A New Burst of Colour

Abstract: The late nineteenth century saw a burgeoning of geographical writings from influential anarchist thinkers like Peter Kropotkin and Élisée Reclus. Yet despite the vigorous intellectual debate sparked by the works of these two individuals, following their deaths anarchist ideas within geography faded. It was not until the 1970s that anarchism was once again given serious consideration by academic geographers who, in laying the groundwork for what is today known as “radical geography”, attempted to reintroduce anarchism as a legitimate political philosophy. Unfortunately, quiet followed once more, and although numerous contemporary radical geographers employ a sense of theory and practice that shares many affinities with anarchism, direct engagement with anarchist ideas among academic geographers have been limited. As contemporary global challenges push anarchist theory and practice back into widespread currency, geographers need to rise to this occasion and begin (re)mapping the possibilities of what anarchist perspectives might yet contribute to the discipline.     

Swept under the rug: the problem of unacknowledged ambiguity in lithic residue identification

Microscopic analysis of organic residues on stone tools is used to interpret prehistoric stone tool functions. The morphology of some residues can be difficult to interpret, yet this ambiguity is rarely acknowledged in the literature. Our research seeks to understand the nature of this ambiguity by objectively identifying ambiguous residues in our reference collection. We trained four archaeologists in residue analysis using one part of our reference collection, then tested their ability to identify sixty-eight residues in another part of the same collection. Forty-eight of the residues in the test (70%) were correctly identified by three or all four subjects. We considered the remaining twenty residues, which were correctly identified by two or fewer of the subjects, to be ambiguous. These are most often in the hide-scraping, bone-scraping, and hardwood-scraping (macerated) categories, and tend to have an atypical morphology which falls in the range of variability of another residue category. Some of these residues also have optical properties which make them more difficult to image than others. We explore the potential for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to improve residue identification in a second test. This test shows a modest improvement in identification success rates of ambiguous residues when SEM images are included. We conclude that while images from different types of microscopes can improve reliability of identification, some residues will always be ambiguous. Rather than being ignored, these ambiguities should be brought to light, closely examined, and published as such.     

The Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project: a first look at the Peter B. Cornwall Collection at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology

This article presents an overview of the Peter B. Cornwall collection in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Cornwall conducted an archaeological survey and excavation project in eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 1940 and 1941. At least twenty‐four burial features were excavated in Bahrain from five different tumuli fields, and surface survey and artefact collection took place on at least sixteen sites in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The skeletal evidence, objects and faunal remains were subsequently accessioned by the Hearst Museum. The authors recently formed the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project to investigate this collection. This article provides background information on Cornwall’s expedition and an overview of the collection. Additionally, skeletal evidence and associated objects from two tumuli in Bahrain, D1 and G20, are presented to illustrate the collection’s potential contribution. Although the tumuli’s precise locations cannot be determined, associated objects help assign relative dates to these interments at the beginning of the second millennium BCE, the Early Dilmun Period.     

State parliaments' departure from the practice of standing orders: The evolution of Australian parliamentary practice

This article analyses the extent to which contemporary Australian state parliaments observe the procedures and practices of the British House of Commons and the potential reasons for departures from those procedures. It considers a recent example of significant divergence from House of Commons practice. In Western Australia's state parliament, the speaker exercised the casting vote on a motion of closure (a ‘gag’ motion). The article examines this procedural divergence for possible insights into the nature of, and reasons for, Australian departures from House of Commons practice.

本文分析了澳大利亚州议会在多大程度上遵循了英国下院的程序和惯例,以及偏离这些程序的可能原因。作者研究了最近一起偏离英下院惯例的事例。在西澳大利亚,议长会一锤定音,终结众声。本文研究了这一程序上的区别,探讨了澳大利亚议会异于英国下院这件事的本质和原因。