Commentary: Vernacular Regions of America

The practice of cross-timber log construction was one of the several culture traits the European immigrants brought to America beginning in the 17th century. Contrary to the opinions held by some observers, the tradition of log construction was introduced and implemented by the immigrants at different locations and different times. A familiarity with the evolution and characteristics of the European antecedents of log architecture is essential to the study of log construction in the United States. This study explores log architecture in a Finnish setting. Except for having contributed toward the development of the North European log construction technique before the migration to Finland, log architecture as practiced in Finland at the time of emigration to America, was more North European in character than “Finnish.” Moreover, folk traditions were in the process of change as they were subject to exposure to the invading industrial culture in the 19th century. The changes are manifest in log architecture as practiced at the time in Finland and on the cultural landscape the immigrants established in the United States.     

Marie Redonnet's L'Accord de paix: The question of resistance and the turn-of-the-millennium novel

This article discusses how Marie Redonnet's 2000 novel L'Accord de paix addresses the question of resisting the ideology of turn-of-the-millennium consumer society. It takes its bearings from Redonnet's explicit points de repère (Genet's travesty of the symbolic order, Debord's integrated spectacle and Sartrean engagement) and from the intersection of her critical works with Cixous's criture féminine and Houellebecq's Les Particules élémentaires. The discussion identifies how L'Accord de paix converges with and diverges from these writers' differing conceptions of agency, and how Redonnet self-reflexively seeks to counter appropriation by the order she seeks to oppose. Situating the questions of misogyny and difference within the question of resisting turn-of-the-millennium symbolic violence, it reveals a literary commitment that simultaneously harnesses the legacy of the past and makes a travesty of the market-driven symbolic order of the present. The article argues that by transmitting the responsibility for resistance from writer to readers, Redonnet inscribes in storytelling a hope for discovering new bearings for the future.     

The new refugees and the “old ethnicity”

Haines, David W., ed. Refugees in the United States: A Reference Handbook. Westport, Connecticut: Westport Press, 1985. viii + 243 pp. including chapter references, annotated literature guide, and index. $39.95 cloth.     

Beyond cultural relativism

Ronald P. Rohner. They Love Me, They Love Me Not: A Worldwide Study of the Effects of Parental Acceptance and Rejection. New Haven, Conn.: H.R.A.F. Press, 1975. 300 pp. Figures, tables, appendices, bibliography, and index. $12.00 (cloth), $6.00 (paper).     

Rural sociology and social change

Charles P. Loomis and J. Allan Beegle., A Strategy for Rural Change. New York: Halsted Press, 1975. xv + 525 pp. Tables, figures, references, author and subject indices. $19.50.     

Stable carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions of wood ash: an experimental study with archaeological implications

Wood ash, composed mainly of the mineral calcite, is an important component in many archaeological sites. Identification of wood ash in the archaeological record is often difficult due to mixing of ash with other calcitic components of geogenic origin and/or due to diagenetic changes. A recent empirical study using the stable isotope compositions of carbon (δ¹³C) and oxygen (δ¹⁸O) in wood ash enabled the identification of mixtures of wood ash with geogenic calcite and to follow diagenetic changes due to partial dissolution and re-precipitation of ash in two prehistoric cave sites in Israel. Little however is known about the processes responsible for the isotopic compositions of wood ash in relation to formation at various temperatures and the influence on isotopic composition of ash from a variety of plant species. Here we present an experimental study of wood ash formed by burning three C3 tree species and one C4 desert bush at different temperatures. The results indicate that there are significant differences in the isotopic compositions of carbon and oxygen between wood ash that forms by combustion at a relatively low temperature (500 °C) and at a higher temperature (900 °C). In addition, we show that the isotopic composition of carbon and oxygen in high temperature wood ash approaches equilibrium over a period of several months and that the carbon isotopic composition of low temperature wood ash may reflect the photosynthetic pathway of the burnt woody species. Lastly, we show that the isotopic compositions obtained from wood ash prepared at different temperatures do not reflect a temperature dependent fractionation process, but a mixing line between calcite that formed by low temperature combustion and calcite formed by high temperature combustion which later underwent re-carbonation with atmospheric CO₂. In addition, we suggest that exchange processes may possibly occur during combustion between decomposing calcium-oxalate and atmospheric O₂, CO₂ and CO. The archaeological implications of this study are discussed in relation to identification of wood ash in the archaeological record, identification of fuel sources and burning temperatures, and diagenetic changes expected in karstic cave environments. The method presented here can be applied at any archaeological site.     

The Laurentian world map with special reference to its portrayal of Africa

When the Jesuit missionaries began to work in China, they attracted the attention of the Chinese by introducing European knowledge. This is the context in which Jesuits such as Matteo Ricci, Giulio Aleni, Francesco Sambiasi and Ferdinand Verbiest made their Chinese‐language world maps. Sambiasi was a man of many talents. He was a tactful diplomat and a learned scientist. His world map shows him to be a skilful adapter of earlier knowledge, which he passed on to future generations. The six known copies of his map are in two versions, printed from two sets of wood blocks (c. 1639). A text at the top of one version explains why the world must be seen as a sphere, which demonstrates how these maps were meant to convince the Chinese public of European scientific findings.