Invisible radiation reveals who we are as people: environmental complexity,gendered risk,and biopolitics after the Fukushima nuclear disaster

The March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, and the subsequent tsunami and release of nuclear contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, is clearly one of the largest disasters of the past century and it has devastated large portions of eastern Japan. In this paper we explore the coping mechanisms of people navigating these landscapes of contamination, as well as examine state policies developed to deal with the disaster. We argue that there has been a significant discrepancy between state policies and the needs of people directly affected by the catastrophe. To more fully examine why this discrepancy exists – and how it is produced – we investigate the complex geographies of contamination and risk near the damaged Fukushima power plant through the conceptual lens of ‘wet ontologies’ coupled with an analysis of state strategies for the governance of the affected populations. In our research we found that Foucauldian theorizations on biopower, neoliberalism and environmental governance can help explain how nuclear power as a social institution can require states to sacrifice the well-being of hundreds of thousands of their citizens in ways that affect people in gendered and age-specific ways.     

Untangling creativity and art for policy purposes: ethnographic insights on Manchester International Festival and Manchester Day Parade

This paper draws on anthropological fieldwork of a civic parade in Manchester from 2010 to 2012 to argue for engaging with creativity as a process rather than an attribute of a particular sector or individual. It shows how the focus on funding and supporting ‘creative industries’ defined as ‘cinema, television, music, literature, performing arts, heritage and related areas’ actually excludes and diminishes the potential for others to engage with ideas and creative processes. Two major events in Manchester’s cultural calendar – Procession by artist Jeremy Deller, produced by Manchester International Festival and Manchester Day Parade, a council-led civic celebration – both combined community groups with artist input to put large-scale structures and people on the city’s streets. In this ethnographic analysis, I argue that the ‘creativity’ sought from these artists is their adaptive and productive approach to making ideas tangible. By focusing on creativity as a process rather than a character trait, there is even greater potential for stimulating a ‘creative’ city.     

Fossil Folklore from India: The Siwalik Hills and the Mahâbhârata

Many medievalists, especially scholars of Celtic literature, have observed that red-eared white animals are associated with fairies and other supernatural beings. What has not been satisfactorily answered is why this should be so. This article offers a possible explanation, suggesting that this widespread phenomenon is rooted not in fantasy but in zoology.     

Short Notices. Sociological Papers. Volume II. Macmillan, 1906. 8vo. pp. xiv, 308.

MAGIC AND RELIGION. By ANDREW LANG. Longmans, 10s. 6d.

THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE. By W. RIDGEWAY, Disney Professor of Archæology in the University of Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 21s.

MYTHS OF GREECE. By GEORGE ST. CLAIR. 2 vols. Williams and Norgate.

THE REALMS OF THE EGYPTIAN DEAD. By K. A. WIEDEMANN. London: David Nutt. 1901. Reviewed by A. H. Sayce.

THE ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. By DAVID PRESCOTT BARROWS. Chicago University Press. 1900. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

INDIAN STORY AND SONG FROM NORTH AMERICA. By ALICE C. FLETCHER. Boston : Small, Maynard, and Co. 1900. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

CONTES DES LANDES ET DES GRÈVES. By PAUL SÉBILLOT. Rennes: Hyacinthe Caillière. 1900. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

LES COQUILLAGES DE MER. By PAUL SÉBILLOT. Paris: Maisonneuve. 1900. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

LE FOLK-LORE DES PÊCHEURS. By PAUL SÉBILLOT. Paris: Maisonneuve. 1901. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

TRADIZIONI POPOLARI PISTOIESI. RACCONTI POPOLARI PISTOIESI IN VERNACOLO PISTOIESI. Raccolti e pubblicati da RUDOLFO NERUCCI, Pistoia. 1901. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

THE WIFE OF BATH'S TALE; ITS SOURCES AND ANALOGUES. By G. H. MAYNADIER, Instructor in English at Harvard University. (Grimm's Library. Vol. xiii.) Reviewed by Jessie L. Weston.

THE JUNIOR TEMPLE READER. By CLARA L. THOMPSON and E. E. SPEIGHT. Horace Marshall, 1s. 6d.

POPULAR STUDIES IN MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE. No. 10. THE ROMANCE CYCLE OF CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS PEERS. By JESSIE L. WESTON. D. Nutt. 6d.     

Enlightenment and Empire,Mughals and Marathas: the Religious History of India in the work of East India Company servant,Alexander Dow

This article situates the work of East India Company servant Alexander Dow (1735–1779), principally his writings on the history and future state of India, in contemporary debates about empire, religion and enlightened government. To do so it offers a sustained analysis of his 1772 essay ‘A Dissertation Concerning the Origin and Nature of Despotism in Hindostan’, as well as his proposals for the restoration of Bengal, both of which played an influential part in shaping the preoccupations with Mughal history that dominated the contemporary crisis in the Company’s legitimacy. By linking these texts to his earlier work on ‘Hindoo’ religion, it will argue that Dow’s analysis of the relationship between certain religious cultures and their civic qualities was rooted in a deist perspective. It doing so it restores the enlightenment components of Dow’s thought, and their impact on the ideology of empire, in a crucial period of British expansion in India.     

The Form and Function of Poverty: Examining National Identity through Public Housing Architecture

Abstract

Lawrence J. Vale tells us that “grand symbolic state buildings need to be understood in terms of the political and cultural contexts that helped to bring them into being,” ¹ 1. Lawrence J. Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity (London: Routledge, 1992), 3. and that these buildings can help us understand our national identity. But all buildings are part of a broader political and cultural context. Even unimpressive state-funded buildings express meaning about the politics, power, and priorities of a nation. Because these buildings are not purposefully symbolic, their symbolism has the potential to provide a less contrived—though perhaps less appealing—portrayal of the nation in which they are built. Public housing provides an example of this idea. Public housing in the United States is latent with negative meanings that are reinforced and perpetuated by its architecture, siting, and design. This article examines three historical and iconic public housing communities and analyzes the meanings of these spaces through Goodman's four frames of reference—denotation, exemplification, metaphorical expression, and mediated reference—to determine what these spaces, as architecture, say about the American national identity and our relationship with public housing.     

Intensifying collection and size increase of the tessellated nerite snail (Nerita tessellata) at the Coconut Walk site,Nevis, northern Lesser Antilles,AD 890–1440

Recent archaeological investigation at the Coconut Walk site on the Caribbean island of Nevis revealed dense 40 cm deep midden deposits that accumulated between cal AD 890–1440. Analysis of invertebrate faunal remains reveals an assemblage dominated by nerite snails. We measured the length and width of more than 2700 tessellated nerite (Nerita tessellata) shells to investigate evidence for changing mean size that might be indicative of intensifying human predation pressure or other cultural and natural processes. Contrary to similar archaeomalacological studies in which size decline is detected, we observed a statistically significant size increase for N. tessellata over time. This size increase is coupled with increasing levels of tessellated nerite exploitation at the Coconut Walk site. Results suggest that tessellated nerite use was sustainable over several centuries of site occupation. Our findings have important implications for investigations of anthropogenic impacts on prehistoric mollusc populations. In addition, the findings reported here provide important insight into human subsistence patterns during the Late Ceramic Age in the Caribbean and a framework for comparison with observations from other Pre-Columbian sites in the Caribbean.     

Mixed-use ‘regeneration’ of employment land in the post-industrial city: challenges and realities in London

This article explores the relationships between land-use planning, property and economic development, with a focus on the changing attitudes towards employment land in post-industrial cities. Drawing on case study data from two London local authorities, it finds that planning authorities are moving away from protecting employment land to actively promoting the mixed-use redevelopment of employment sites, even when there are thriving businesses on these sites and a shortage of supply of employment premises and land, relative to demand. We examine the drivers for changing policy including the national and regional policy contexts, housing targets, the influence of austerity measures, rise of Neighbourhood Planning and changing conceptions of regeneration and the role of housing therein. The article highlights the complex task faced by local planners and the tensions involved in simultaneously finding sites for housing, fostering economic development and promoting mixed-use redevelopment in planning policy and decisions. We find that changes in policy are fuelling speculation for housing development on sites occupied by viable businesses, supporting rather than responding to deindustrialization. This is leading to a gap between aspirations for delivering mixed-use environments on hitherto employment sites and realities on the ground.