Roses in January: a neglected dimension in Gregory of Tour's historiae

Gregory of Tours was a sixth-century bishop who wrote Ten books of histories, our only detailed source of information for that period in Gaul. A great deal of attention has been paid to his vivid portrayal of Merovingian society and politics. Apart from his often obscure Latin, the strictly chronological composition and the absence of clear co-ordinating statements give his work the appearance of a jumbled, if lively, mosaic. The following study is an attempt to follow one strand through the many-coloured texture of the Histories, that of extraordinary natural events and the context in which Gregory places them, since this seemed to reveal an up to now not so apparent dimension of his thinking about time and, history: his concept of contemporaneity.     

Italian Fascism and the Portuguese Estado Novo: international claims and national resistance

ABSTRACT

Taking into consideration the transnational dimension of Fascism that had its epicentre in Italy ? as Mussolini’s purpose of “marching throughout the streets of Europe and the World” plainly illustrates ? this article explores the connections between the Italian Fascist regime and the Portuguese Estado Novo during the interwar period. From the moment Fascism became attractive for Portuguese intellectuals, state officers, and politicians, until it became a colonial threat to the Portuguese empire, the cultural diplomacy apparatuses of the two countries will be analysed from a balanced, bi-lateral perspective, encompassing actors, transferences, and resistances.     

Pretos Novos: Evidence for African Oral Hygiene Practices in Brazil, 1769–1830

Fine, polished abrasion of teeth provides evidence for use of traditional oral hygiene practices in 32 fragmentary dentitions from a cemetery for newly arrived enslaved Africans who died before leaving Valongo, the slave port and market of Rio de Janeiro. We infer that chewing sticks were used before these people were enslaved. Cosmetic dental modification and abrasion of tooth roots occur in some individuals. High caries frequency, tooth loss and hypercementosis characteristic remains of enslaved Africans with longer residence in the New World were not found in this unique collection. We review evidence that the practice of using chewing sticks persists in some regions of the Americas. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Book reviews

THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD HISTORY. By John B. Rae and Thomas H. D. Mahoney. xv+831 pages. (McGraw Hill Book Co., Inc., New‐York, 1949).

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE AGE OF CONFLICT BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND DICTAORSHP. By R. Strausz‐Hupé and Stefan T. Possony. xiv+947 pages. (McGraw‐Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 1950.)

ISLAMIC SOCIETY AND THE WEST, by H. A. R. Gibb and Harold Bowen. Vol. I. Islamic Society in the Eighteenth Century, Part I. Oxford University Press. Published under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, pp. xi—313—53 (Appendices)—20 (Indices).

AMERICAN‐RUSSIAN RELATIONS IN THE FAR EAST. By Pauline Tompkins. (Macmillan, New York, 1949. pp. XIV, 426. Maps and bibliography. $5.00).

THE LEFT WING IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. By Virginia Thompson & Richard Adloff (I.P.R.) (William Sloane Associates, New York. $4.00. pp. 298, map, illustrations).

MANCHURIA SINCE 1931. By F. C. Jones. (Oxford University Press, 1949).     

Urban experimentation and institutional arrangements

ABSTRACT

Currently little is known about how institutional arrangements co-evolve with urban experimentation. This paper mobilizes neo-institutional literature and recent urban experimentation literature as a framework to explore how and why institutional arrangements differ across urban contexts. Empirically the paper focusses on smart city initiatives in Amsterdam, Hamburg and Ningbo. These three cities are frontrunners in adopting a comprehensive smart city agenda, but they do so in different ways. The paper examines regulative, normative and cognitive elements of institutional arrangements, explores how they shape experimentation, and reflects on their place-based specificities. The comparative analysis suggests that the focus of, and approach to, experimentation can be understood as resting in a (possibly unique) combination of strategic agency and dynamics at multiple spatial scales.     

Soil formation in archaeological pits and adjacent loess soils in Southern Germany

The soil formation in a number of pits on a neolithic excavation was compared with that in adjacent loess soils (Hapludalfs) under forest and arable and in Bavaria, Southern Germany. The differences between the soils under consideration were mainly characterized by micromorphological quantification of the illuviated fine clay. In the archaeological pits the amount of illuviated fine clay proved to be nearly twice as much as that in the undisturbed soils. The amount of illuviated coarser matrix components (fine and coarse clay and fine silt) in the neolithic pits did not differ significantly from that in the natural soils. The large amount of illuviated fine clay in the pits was ascribed to the presence of potash during the period of their formation. The formation of coarse grained illuviation cutans was related to deforestation, after which illuviation of the fine clay decreased in intensity and came to a stop.