An Ethnographic and Space Syntax Analysis of Benin Kingdom Nobility Architecture

The Benin kingdom is noted for its sophisticated brass art, large earthwork system, and complex political hierarchy. The kingdom style of nobility architecture has endured for hundreds of years, and a few structures may still date to ca. ad 900–1200. The complex floor plans of these large compounds appear to be based upon traditional kingdom social organization that is fast changing, however. Since most structures are still residences, some renovated, a study utilizing both ethnographic fieldwork and the technique of space syntax analysis proved useful to examine historical room meanings and functions and room access. This paper discusses a particular World Heritage site, Ogiamien’s Palace, and other Benin kingdom chieftaincy sites. It describes the symbolic and ritual meanings of residential room use and room plans that on observation show seemingly wide layout variation. The results of the cultural analysis are then compared against the permeability plans and the quantitative formulas of space syntax analysis, to confirm the traditional social nature of spatial use in chieftaincy palaces of the former kingdom and suggest an adherence to an underlying ideological paradigm. This paper takes the additional step of employing the software GraphPad Prism to determine real correlations among calculated values; the results indicate a strong cognitive consistency of design and use for the structures over time in spite of visible layout variability.     

Desegregating Diplomacy

Book reviewed in this article:
Michael L. Krenn, Black Diplomacy: African Americans and the State Department, 1945–1969     

Foodstuff placement in ibis mummies and the role of viscera in embalming

Recent excavation of a mummified ibis, in whose bill were found numerous snails, and the 2010 radiological study of ibis mummies from Yale's Peabody Museum drew attention to the presence of bird foodstuffs intentionally placed inside mummified ibises following evisceration. The foodstuff packing in the Peabody's ibises was likely contained within the birds' own viscera. Radiographs of a hatchling ibis mummy at McGill's Redpath Museum demonstrated similar placement of foodstuffs within the eviscerated body cavity. This pattern of ibis evisceration, with the previously unreported practice of foodstuff packing, suggests the provision of an afterlife food source to the bird. These findings lend support to the idea that the viscera of ibises, and humans alike, were meant to continue their living function in the afterlife. Given that organs of digestion and respiration were specifically preserved and retained within, or in conjunction with, human mummies, the implication is that animals were also treated with similar respect and care, and the crucial role of the viscera was recognised.     

Feminism,Praxis, and Human Geography

In this paper, we discuss the methodological implications of combining feminist and geographic research. In feminist research efforts, theory, method, and purpose of research are inextricable. We examine the meaning of this blending for the language, conceptualizations, methods, and scale used in feminist geographic research. Through feminist geographic research, we can build a continuity of women and men as feminist writers inside the academy and in the community. The goal of this more inclusive research and knowledge is the transformation of gendered power relations.