Comparative History and Ethnography in William Ellis’s Polynesian Researches

ABSTRACT

This article develops recent scholarly efforts to take seriously the scientific work of evangelical missionaries in the South Pacific. Ellis’s Polynesian Researches gives us an insight into the broader issue of the way in which theological concepts could inform the framework of missionaries’ observations of the traditions, manners and functioning of human societies. Central to Ellis’s observations was the idea of idolatry. I argue that Ellis brought together a theological definition of idolatry – in which idolatry represented the sinful worship of created things rather than the creator God – with an Enlightenment idea that polytheistic idolatry was a universal stage in the historical development of civilization. Ellis’s Polynesian Researches gives us a point of entry into understanding some of the ways that European theological ideas were put to new uses in the South Pacific, against the backdrop of the increasingly global exchange of people, goods and ideas.     

Government performance and dissatisfaction with democracy in Australia

ABSTRACT

Satisfaction with democracy has declined rapidly in Australia, reaching the lowest level recorded since the 1970s in 2019. Whereas Australian citizens used to be among the most satisfied democrats in the world, there is now evidence of widespread dissatisfaction. What explains this rapid decline in political support? Comparative studies emphasise the role of government performance, both political and economic, in shaping citizens’ attitudes towards the political system. This paper examines the role of government performance in shaping satisfaction with democracy in Australia, using Australian Election Study data from 1996 to 2019. The results demonstrate that frequent changes of prime minister, which a majority of voters disapproved of, and rising economic pessimism contributed to the decline of democratic satisfaction in Australia.     

‘There is no better way to study science than to collect and analyse data in your own yard’: outdoor classrooms and primary school children in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

The design and use of outdoor spaces for primary school teaching and learning has been given little consideration in the present context. The existing evidence base is mostly from western perspectives. In this study, an outdoor classroom was designed and built in a primary school in Bangladesh and used to teach children (n?=?30) their science curriculum. Multiple methods were used to investigate the impact of the outdoor classroom on students’ learning and engagement, including achievement tests, a questionnaire and focus groups with children and teachers. Children’s science scores were significantly higher after they had been taught outdoors, compared to indoors. Physical qualities of their outdoor classroom (lighting, acoustics, seating), in addition to greater enjoyment and active participation in learning likely explained improved attainment. Qualitative insights from children and teachers supported the quantitative findings. These results provide empirical support for building outdoor classrooms as an effective environment for teaching and learning.     

The ‘youth-fullness’ of youth geographies: ‘coming of age’?

ABSTRACT

The 21st anniversary of Cool Places (Skelton, T., and G. Valentine, eds. 1998. Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures. London: Routledge) provides an opportunity to reflect on the direction of travel in youth geographies and map out future journeys. Here, we argue that scholarship on youth geographies is increasingly dispersed across sub-disciplinary niches of Human Geography. A more conspicuous point of coalescence would be beneficial for the advancement of conceptual and theoretical understandings of youth geographies. It is suggested that the journal Children’s Geographies, offers a meaningful place for the publication of further, dynamic and increased work on youth geographies. To illustrate the exigent research agendas of youth geographies, some exemplars of the ways in which the contemporary lives of young people are being transformed are highlighted. We conclude by asserting that it is an exciting time for researching youth geographies, to grapple with the complex and diverse contested meanings and lived experiences of youth across the Global North and South.     

When the Giant Falls: Endurance and Adaptation at Çadır Höyük in the Context of the Hittite Empire and Its Collapse

At the end of the Late Bronze Age, around 1200 b.c., the Hittite Empire of Anatolia collapsed. While that collapse has been well studied, the effects on Hittite-held lands are less so, with many archaeologists positing an abandonment in Hittite territories for a period of time early in the Iron Age. Recent excavations at Çad?r Höyük, 70 kilometers from the Hittite capital, have revealed both typical Hittite material culture belonging to the Late Bronze Age, including mass-produced ceramics and massive fortifications, as well as evidence suggesting that the site’s residents faced challenges, and adapted accordingly, in the wake of Hittite withdrawal and collapse, during the Early Iron Age. The architecture, ceramics, and zooarchaeological evidence from this rural settlement suggest ways in which residential continuity, cultural resilience, and technological and economic adjustments allowed inhabitants to survive and rebound in the face of political instability.     

Capturing the geography of children’s active and sedentary behaviours at home: the HomeSPACE measurement tool

ABSTRACT

Children spend much of their time at home, indoors and sedentary. This study reports on the development, exploratory factor analysis, validity and reliability of the HomeSPACE Instrument. The instrument assesses features of the home physical environment that influence children’s sedentary behaviour and physical activity, and the family influences that create this environment. The space and equipment audit achieved good to excellent criterion validity and test-retest reliability for equipment, outdoor features and home design measures (Study 1, n?=?36 parents). Family influence scales showed acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability (Study 2, n?=?96 parents). Factor analysis highlighted fifteen scales to assess the importance, preferences and supportiveness of the home environment for activity. The HomeSPACE Instrument extends previous tools to provide a valid and reliable assessment of home influences on children’s sedentary behaviour and physical activity, that is adaptable for varying home physical environments.     

MAPPING CHILDREN'S POLITICS: SPATIAL STORIES,DIALOGIC RELATIONS AND POLITICAL FORMATION

This article confronts a persistent challenge in research on children's geographies and politics: the difficulty of recognizing forms of political agency and practice that by definition fall outside of existing political theory. Children are effectively “always already” positioned outside most of the structures and ideals of modernist democratic theory, such as the public sphere and abstracted notions of communicative action or “rational” speech. Recent emphases on embodied tactics of everyday life have offered important ways to recognize children's political agency and practice. However, we argue here that a focus on spatial practices and critical knowledge alone cannot capture the full range of children's politics, and show how representational and dialogic practices remain a critical element of their politics in everyday life. Drawing on de Certeau's notion of spatial stories, and Bakhtin's concept of dialogic relations, we argue that children's representations and dialogues comprise a significant space of their political agency and formation, in which they can make and negotiate social meanings, subjectivities, and relationships. We develop these arguments with evidence from an after‐school activity programme we conducted with 10–13 year olds in Seattle, Washington, in which participants explored, mapped, wrote and spoke about the spaces and experiences of their everyday lives. Within these practices, children negotiate autonomy and self‐determination, and forward ideas, representations, and expressions of agreement or disagreement that are critical to their formation as political actors.     

Beyond perception: Spatial analysis of detached ADU potential on residential lots in Windsor,Ontario

This paper analyzes the spatial potential of detached additional dwelling units (ADUs) in Windsor, Ontario. A new GIS model, which integrates various geoprocessing commands in ArcGIS 10.8.1, is developed to calculate whether the minimum allowable size of a detached ADU can fit within the total buildable area of a residential property, based on the setbacks, the lot coverage requirements, and other factors (such as parking and flood plain areas). The model uses publicly sourced data that were obtained from the City of Windsor's Open Data Portal. More specifically, individual residential parcels and associated building footprints along with street centerlines are used as inputs to the model. The outputs are then categorized into three types (suitable, potentially suitable, and not suitable) to demonstrate where detached ADUs can be built in compliance with the local zoning bylaws, on both an individual lot basis and at an aggregate level. The conducted analysis reveals the potential of existing residential neighbourhoods in a mid-size city, and has many implications for homeowners, policymakers, and researchers with respect to increasing housing supply within current Canadian municipalities.     

Hunter-gatherer land use in Late Glacial south-east Italy

This paper is concerned with the Late Palaeolithic settlement of south-eastern Italy at the close of the Pleistocene. The Late Palaeolithic assemblages of the region have been studied previously from a rigid typological stance, with various schemes put forward suggesting evolution of the assemblages through different stages of an Epigravettian tradition, while the potential role of social and economic factors in shaping the various industries has been ignored. This paper shows how the Late Palaeolithic occupation of the region should be considered in relation to the former existence of an extensive coastal plain and to the sea-level rise which submerged it. Factors such as the availability of lithic raw material and the alternative strategies by which it was procured, the particular activities in which the tools were used and the role of the sites within a larger land use system were clearly crucial to assemblage composition.     

Betwixt and Between: Trauma,Survival and the Aboriginal Troopers of the Queensland Native Mounted Police

ABSTRACT

Much has been written about the history of the Queensland Native Mounted Police, mostly focussing on its development, its white officers, how much the Colonial Government genuinely knew about the actions of the Force, and how many people were killed during the frontier wars. Far less attention has been given to the Aboriginal men of the force, the nature of their recruitment, and the long-term traumatic impacts on Aboriginal peoples’ and communities’ psyches rather than broadscale changes to Aboriginal culture per se. This article examines the historical and ongoing psychological impacts of dispossession and frontier violence on Aboriginal people. Specifically, we argue that massacres, frontier violence, displacement, and the ultimate dispossession of land and destruction of traditional cultural practices resulted in both individual and collective inter-generational trauma for Aboriginal peoples. We posit that, despite the Australian frontier wars taking place over a century ago, their impacts continue to reverberate today in a range of different ways, many of which are as yet only partially understood.