Pebbles and Peregrinatio: The Taskscape of Medieval Devotion on Inishark Island,Ireland

SINCE 2008, the island of Inishark, Co Galway, Ireland, has been the subject of archaeological research by the Cultural Landscapes of the Irish Coast (CLIC) project, directed by Ian Kuijt of the University of Notre Dame. The CLIC project’s excavations have produced new evidence for the use of water-smoothed pebbles within monastic and pilgrimage practices on the island. Using a relational perspective centred on the concept of ‘taskscape’, this article traces the formation, acquisition, manipulation, and deposition of these pebbles by human and non-human agencies and suggests how the stones may have facilitated worshippers’ embodiment of penitential devotion — peregrinatio — by evoking the divine governance of hydrological forces. Relational theory, although inspired by non-Western indigenous perspectives, is shown to be effective in shedding light on the interplay of bodies, language, objects, and environmental phenomena in early medieval and medieval Irish Christian practice.     

The coastal landslides of Shetland

Little is known of hard-rock coastal landsliding in Scotland. We identify 128 individual coastal landslides or landslide complexes >50 m wide along the coasts of Shetland. Most are apparently translational slides characterized by headscarps, displaced blocks and/or debris runout, but 13 deep-seated failures with tension cracks up to 200 m inland from cliff crests were also identified. Thirty-one sites exhibit evidence of at least localized recent activity. Landslide distribution is primarily determined by the distribution of coastal cliffs >30 m high, and they are preferentially developed on metasedimentary rocks. Analysis of 16 landslides on Fetlar (NE Shetland) indicates that most are translational dip-slip failures; 3 represent deep-seated failures and several exhibit active frontal erosion attributable to basal sapping by storm waves. As these landslides terminate in shallow water, failure was probably initiated when rising sea level resulted in footslope erosion and upslope propagation of instability, causing downslope displacement of landslide blocks on upper slopes. ¹⁰Be exposure dating of two headscarps yielded ages of 4.8?±?0.2 ka and 4.4?±?0.2 ka, consistent with the onset of footslope erosion as sea level rose. Our results suggest that landslides have played a hitherto undocumented but important role in retreat of cliffed coastlines in Scotland.     

The meaning of politics and the mechanics of meaning

Anthony Milner, The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya: Contesting Nationalism and the Expansion of the Public Sphere (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) pp.328 $75.00 ISBN 0 52145665 6.     

Literacy,authorship, and belief in medieval and renaissance Europe

Heresy and Literacy, 1000–1530. Edited by Peter Biller and Anne Hudson, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 23 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), xxv + 293 pp., £37.50/$59.95 cloth.

Literature, Politics and National Identity: Reformation to Renaissance. By Andrew Hadfield (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), xvii + 261 pp., £35.00/$59.59 cloth.

Early Cambridge Theatres: College, University, and Town Stages, 1464–1720. By Alan H. Nelson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), xiv + 179 pp., £35.00/$59.95 cloth.     

Aboriginals: The Smell of Frustration

D. E. Hutchinson (ed.), Aboriginal Progress. A new era? Western Australia U.P. (distributed by M.U.P.), 1969, pp. ix + 189, $3.     

RESIDENCE PATHS AND COMMUNITY PERCEPTION: A CASE STUDY FROM THE TORONTO URBAN FIELD

A typology of residence paths to Toronto urban field locations is developed to explore the importance of urban emigrants to the resettlement of the city's countryside and path relationships with local community perceptions. Residence paths are described by childhood and prior community types, current urban field residence location, and length of residence. Paths are dominated by large city residential experiences, but rural residential backgrounds are evident. Community perceptions, emphasizing satisfaction, are positive. Multiple classification analysis, in three model forms, identifies path-based variations in community satisfaction, and the strength of paths as predictors of satisfaction. Interpretations include links to ideas on the urban field advanced by Russwurm. L'auteur essaie de développer une typologie des sentiers de résidence dans le champ urbain de Toronto pour evaluer l'importance des émigrants urbains dans la colonisation de la périphérie rurale des villes. De plus, i l analyse les attitudes de la communauté locale en rapport avec ces sentiers. Ceux-ci sont tracés d'après les souvenirs d'enfance, les indications de cornmunautés antérieures, I'emplacement actuel de residences urbaines et la durke de residence. Les sentiers sont caracterisés par les expériences résidentielles propres à la grande ville mais on dégage également des arrière-fonds résidences rurales. Les attitudes de la communauté, qui révèlent une certaine satisfaction, s'averent positives. Une analyse à classement multiple, sous forme de trois modèles presente les variations de la satisfaction de la communauté fondées sur les sentiers et le poids des sentiers comme prédicteurs de satisfaction éventuelle. Parmi les interprétations, on trouve des liens avec les idées de Russwurm sur les champs urbains.