A transnational history of immigration restriction: Natal and New South Wales, 1896–97

This article investigates the creation of Natal's 1897 Immigration Restriction Act and traces the legislative connections between southern Africa and Australia. It describes Natal's anti-Indian agitation of 1896–97 and argues that the colony's government initially sought to solve the ‘Asiatic question’ by adopting a racial immigration bill passed in New South Wales in 1896. However, the threat of violent extra-legal action by white settlers convinced the Natal government to replace this bill with one that made no direct reference to race. Natal ministers realised that racial legislation would face constitutional obstacles and were anxious to enact a restrictive immigration law without delay. The new Act was partly modelled on American immigration legislation and, though not explicit on race, its educational test was primarily designed to restrict Indian immigration. The Natal law was in turn used as the basis for Australian immigration legislation. Given these transnational connections, Natal's response to the ‘Indian question’ should be placed in a global context.     

Our history is not false: perspectives from the revitalisation culture

Two dominant themes in architectural conservation doctrine are to (1) avoid the fabrication of ‘false’ histories through the clear differentiation of ‘new’ from ‘old’ building fabric; and (2) the deprecation of subjective ways in which the perception of building fabric engenders sense of place. This study explores the cultural values of a group of citizens engaged in revitalising their historic downtown through the ‘Main Street’ program in Anderson, South Carolina, United States. This ‘revitalisation culture’ values and promotes treatments to its historic environment that emphasise the conjectural fabrication of ‘historic’ elements to existing buildings and the use of historicised design for new, infill construction. Whilst these values go against the grain of conservation doctrine, the revitalisation culture is preserving a kind of authenticity that stems from socially and culturally constructed values in an effort to maintain the ability of the historic environment to engender ‘spontaneous fantasies’, which serve to emotionally attach the revitalisation culture with its historic downtown. Ultimately, the revitalisation culture is engaging in ‘unethical’ behaviour from the perspective of conservation professionals, which begs the question of whose values deserve attention and if the field of heritage conservation is able and willing to accept pluralistic concepts of how the authenticity of historic places can and should be conserved.     

Digital Technology in Research and Documentation of Hunter-Gatherer Rock Art in South Africa

The use of digital technology to enhance and manipulate photographs of rock paintings affords researchers insights into imagery that was formerly invisible or obscure. Image enhancement and manipulation software have greatly increased the data set available for study. There is a wide range of techniques available in the digital repertoire, depending on the aim of the research. Here, three South African case studies are discussed in which hunter-gatherer rock paintings are enhanced and manipulated to create digital “tracings” using the computer programmes Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop and DStretch. The results obtained with these simple techniques are presented here, because they might prove useful for rock art research elsewhere in the world. It must be noted, however, that these technological developments do not eliminate the subjective nature of recording and interpreting rock art or the necessity of a theoretical framework in which to understand the imagery.