Parties and factions in the late middle ages: the case of the Hoeken and Kabeljauwen in The Hague (1483–1515)

The late medieval political history of Holland is dominated by two opposing parties of noblemen and citizens: the ‘Hoeken’ (Hooks) and ‘Kabeljauwen’ (Cod). From approximately 1350 until 1500 these two parties determined the political landscape in Holland on a provincial and local level. The situations of open conflict between the two parties, usually in times that the position of the count of Holland was weak, have been studied thoroughly in recent years. The networks of both parties during periods of relative peace, however, have been for the most part neglected. Here it is argued that it is vital to study the networks during periods of peace as well to be able to say what the nature was of both parties. An analysis of the networks of the ‘winners’, the Kabeljauwen in The Hague at the end of the fifteenth and start of the sixteenth century, serves as an example of how fruitful the analysis of party networks can be after, or in between, periods of open violence. The importance of the Kabeljauw networks for three decades after the end of open friction is demonstrated. Studies of parties and factions in late medieval Italy serve as a constant base of comparison throughout the paper.     

Ideas no longer written in antler

In the course of the Upper Paleolithic, antler debitage techniques seem to have followed a linear evolution. The earliest one, fracturing by cleaving, appeared during the Aurignacian and is considered by some specialists to be ineffective. According to them, it was not until the invention of the groove and splinter technique during the Gravettian that antler debitage became efficient. Nonetheless, during the Solutrean, fracturing once again became the most common technique, but by splitting. Based on a study of 102 Solutrean pressure tools and experimentations, we reach the conclusion that splitting is a very effective technique that can produce blanks with the same qualities as those made by the groove and splinter technique. The splitting technique was nonetheless excluded in previous studies. We explore the reasons for this and the particularities of the different antler debitage techniques evidenced in the Western Upper Paleolithic.     

Origins of the Creutzfeldt and Jakob Concept

A review of the publications of Hans Creutzfeldt and Alfons Jakob pertaining to the concept which bears their name (CJD) reveals that they described a neuropathological syndrome and were opposed to its classi- fication as a neurological disease. The evidence on which Creutzfeldt and Jakob based their view is reevaluated, and studies by other workers are cited in which a range of environmental and genetic factors generated the CJ syndrome, challenging the proposition that CJD is a disease with a single cause..     

MEASURING THE SHAPE OF GEOGRAPHICAL PHENOMENA: A HISTORY OF THE ISSUE

A history of the development of shape indices, going back to some of the earliest formulas proposed by German scholars in the 19th century, groups the various measures in terms of the initial set of data used in their derivation. The author does not approve of indices derived from the perimeter and area of a figure (such as Chorley's lemniscate), linear dimensions and area (Gibbs, Haggett), inscribing and circumscribing circles (Penck, Krumbein), tangential contours and from radial vectors (Boyce and Clark). The author sees greater promise in approaches using the distance from elements of the figure to the perimeter, Bunge's inscribed polygons, and the distance from elements of the figure to the center (Thünen, Blair and Biss). Further work on shape indices is urged with a view to deriving measures that would reflect not only compactness, but also the degree of dissection and contour indentation. The problem is assuming greater significance in light of advances made in picture recognition and processing by computer.     

THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE CARTOGRAPHIC RESEARCH METHOD

Some observations about the theory of cartography focus on conceptual and definitional aspects. The subfield concerned with theory is “map science” (Russian, kartovedeniye), and the appearance of competitive subfields like “metacartography” and “cartology” is found undesirable. Definitional problems occur both at the input end of cartography, in the relationship between cartography and the data-producing disciplines, and at the output end, between cartography and map-using disciplines. An effort is made to delimit the science of cartography both in the data-processing stage and in the map-using stage, which is discussed in the context of the cartographic method of research. Cartography is also conceptualized as the “cartographic method of cognition,” involving a continuity of data survey, map compilation (the science of cartography) and map use.     

Mutilated memory: Reconstruction of the past and the mechanisms of memory among 17th century Otomis

Based on a chronicle written and translated by the Otomi — an indian group living in Querétaro City to the east of the Mexican Bajio, this work intends to describe the way they conceived the Spanish Conquest in the mid‐XVIIth century. By recalling, interpreting and idealizing their past these indians elaborated a version that conveys a complex and hopeless search for autonomy and identity in a context of social decay and crisis. This text is also a rare manifestation of colonial indian literature. Its analysis discovers the way Indians could use writing, oral and written sources to create and express an original way of coping with the past, time and colonial society.