Tacit differences,ethnicity and neoliberalism: Polish migrant mothers in German cities

This article presents an inquiry into which tacit differences are relevant for how people make sense of encounters with others in urban settings, and how, if at all, they are translated into ethnic categories understood as ‘basic operators’ in everyday life. Drawing from our interviews with twenty Polish mothers living in Berlin and Munich, we argue that what our research participants distinguish as ‘typically Polish’ or ‘typically German’ is not necessarily connected to some ethnically specific ways of working or mothering, but, rather, significantly structured by locally specific forms of neoliberalism. By asking what kind of difference becomes understood as ethnic difference and how this process of demarcation occurs, this article adds to the strand of intersectional approaches that theorise the notion of difference, recognise heterogeneity of individual categories and render them suspect.     

The Origins of European Fascism: Memory of Violence in Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon

Michael Haneke’s film The White Ribbon (2009) narrates violent attacks that disrupt the cyclical life of a German village in 1913–14. The narrator frames the violence as a study of the origins of fascism: the alleged perpetrators are children, who rebel against the disciplinary powers of patriarchal authority. Coming to maturity during World War I, they will have become the generation of Nazism’s followers. In contrast to psycho-historical readings of The White Ribbon as a cinematic exploration of the causal relationship between the authoritarian formation of the juvenile subject and her susceptibility to fascism’s redemptive illusions, I propose an anti-psychological interpretation of the film. This reading seeks to understand The White Ribbon in terms of Haneke’s aesthetic and formal choices, which underpin his notion of “ethical spectatorship.” I argue that the film offers a dual metaphorical construction of the nexus between memory and the cinematic image, and of the mnemonic and affective aspects of the history of violence. Haneke forges a link between the European attitude to its history of fascism and its ongoing politics of exclusion, arising from its covert fascist desire for the unified self. The significance of The White Ribbon in the ongoing debate on history/memory thus lies in its critique of Europe’s current self-understanding as having outgrown its violent past.     

First results of metallographic analysis and absolute dating of iron finds from Nowe Brzesko,site 26, Proszowice District

This paper presents the results of analyses of metal artefacts discovered at a multiphase site in Nowe Brzesko, Małopolskie Voivodeship, Poland. Fieldwalking prospection led to the discovery of steely iron objects, ploughed out on the site among other numerous archeological finds. A prospecting sondage yielded more corroded metal artefacts, identified mainly as agricultural tools (e.g. sickles, scythes). These chronologically nondistinctive artefacts could be assigned to the third to fourth century AD using radiocarbon dating, complemented by metallurgical analysis. The results open up new research perspectives on the economy and society of the Przeworsk culture in the Late Roman period.     

Climbing heritage: The lines and aesthetics of rock climbing

Climbing is an experience born of the interplay of aesthetics and heritage. Nowadays, climbing attracts people in droves, all eager to join the contest between body and rock. In this article, the author addresses the refined social background of climbing. He asks how the intangible heritage left behind in rocks by generations of climbers manifests itself in the aesthetics of movement and the experiences embedded in the lines that form the climbing routes. How might anthropologists study the mind-body experiences and traces left by generations of rock users? How are we to understand the multisensory craft of climbing?     

Chalcolithic settlement of Bahra 1 and its possible functions

Excavations of the Kuwaiti–Polish Archaeological Mission at the site of Bahra 1 in Kuwait uncovered the remains of a large settlement from the sixth millennium BC, associated with the Mesopotamian Ubaid culture. This connection is made clear by the presence of Ubaid Ware from the Ubaid 2/3 phase that appears alongside Red Coarse Ware typical for the Arabian Neolithic. Architecture of the settlement resembled the Ubaid one with orthogonal, multi-chambered houses. In one part of the site they form a dense block with traits that indicate some degree of spatial planning. This type of spatial arrangement is absent in Arabian Neolithic settlements and is also unknown from Ubaid settlements in Mesopotamia. One of the buildings discovered at Bahra 1 has a ground plan reminiscent of a sanctuary from Eridu XVI and was probably associated with cultic activities, as was a circular stone enclosure (Unit 6), representing local building traditions. The character of Bahra 1 architecture and the presence of cultic buildings at the site suggest that the settlements served as a local ceremonial and/or cultic centre.     

The earliest settlement remains at the Ubaid-related site of Bahra 1 (Kuwait)

The settlement at Bahra 1 lies in the As-Sabbiya dessert, Kuwait. The site was preliminarily dated to the Ubaid 2/3 period, with four settlement phases distinguished so far. Phases A–C yielded remains of sturdy stone architecture, while the oldest Phase D was represented by a fire-pit horizon, as well as thin and low walls, perhaps serving as foundations for light and perishable superstructures. Even in the earliest phase, Mesopotamian influence is visible, evidenced by the structures’ orthogonal plan and the high percentage of Ubaid ware. Although the remains of the earliest phase were preserved very fragmentarily and over a limited area, they shed more light on the character of the earliest settlement activity in the region.     

The Nigerian Civil War and the ‘Italian’ Oil Workers

The Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970, had significant international dimensions. On 7 May 1969, eleven employees of the Italian-run AGIP oil company were killed at Kwale while eighteen others were held prisoner by Biafran soldiers. The death penalty given to the surviving oil workers by the Biafran government had a damaging effect on Biafra’s international image and temporarily weakened European sympathy for Biafra. Unofficial sources later accused Biafrans of collecting a ransom in exchange for the release of the oil workers. Using previously underutilised archival materials in Britain, Canada and the USA, this paper argues that Biafra rather attempted to use the foreign workers to secure de facto recognition, a move that ended in a fiasco.