Substance,sign, and trace: performative analogies and technologies of enfleshment in the transnational adoption archives in Guatemala

In Kinship, Law and the Unexpected, Marilyn Strathern (2005, Kinship, Law and the Unexpected: Relatives are Always a Surprise, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) shows how, through analogies, Euro-American knowledge practices turn offspring into property, information into knowledge, and relations into relations. This article takes this Strathernian insight as a point of departure for a consideration of the analytical possibilities – and the instances of incommensurability – of a juxtaposition of transnational adoption and migration. Drawing on ethnographic research in Guatemala, the article argues that kinning in this context relates not only to the construction of new forms of relatedness, but also, crucially, to the suspension and severing of relations, and to politically charged claims for the reactivation of connections and enfleshment. Against figurations of kinning as commodified and inequitable relations of ownership and exchange, struggles for ‘searches’ and ‘reunions’ in contemporary Guatemala bring into view a range of subjectivities and relations ‘under erasure,’ within the horizon of the Guatemalan conflict (1960–1996). Analogizing transnational adoption and migration is a cultural and analytical practice that performatively reveals and occludes. The article proposes a historically and idiomatically grounded reorientation of the analogic flow sideways, in the directions of the archive, as substance, sign, and trace.     

Protocol for lapis lazuli provenance determination: evidence for an Afghan origin of the stones used for ancient carved artefacts kept at the Egyptian Museum of Florence (Italy)

Despite that the Badakhshan Province (Afghanistan) remains the most plausible hypothesis for the lapis lazuli used in antiquity, alternatives proposed in literature are worth to study to confirm or disprove their historical reliability. In this work, a protocol for determining the provenance of lapis lazuli rocks used for carved artefacts is described. Markers for the univocal attribution of the raw material to a source were identified analysing 45 rocks of known provenance (among which 15 georeferenced) from 4 quarry districts. To the best of our knowledge, this reference database is the widest in provenance studies on lapis lazuli. All the markers are recognisable by means of Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) techniques, in particular micro-proton-induced x-ray emission (PIXE) and micro-ionoluminescence (IL). These techniques are non-invasive and applicable in air, allowing to analyse artworks and rocks of practically any shape and dimension without sample preparation.The protocol was applied to determine the provenance of raw material used for carved lapis lazuli artefacts kept at the Egyptian Museum of Florence, the second most important Egyptian museum in Italy, second only to the museum of Turin. The collection in Florence has a great historical value and includes several lapis lazuli pendants, scarabs, small statuettes and amulets ascribable mainly to the first millennium BC. Following the protocol, 11 of these artefacts were analysed by means of IBA techniques. Results ascribe the raw material to the Afghan quarry district.     

Unterwegs zu einer gelungenen Popularisierung sinologischen Wissens: Die Dame mit der Phönixkrone: Tang-zeitliche Grabfunde der Adeligen Li Chui (711–736)

In a popular scientific way this collection of essays is intended to present to a wider audience the findings of the excavation and preservation of the hitherto untouched tomb of Li Chui 李倕 (711–736), a 3rd degree cousin of Tang Emperor Li Longji 李隆基 as they had been documented in an interdisciplinary scientific publication before. Most remarkable among the objects excavated were her rich jewellery headgear and appliqués on her dress for their good condition and completeness. Whereas the majority of the essays go into the details of an archaeological and historical analysis supplemented by comparative aspects, there are some irrelevant and tiring essays that run off the topic of the book, besides other shortcomings. In conclusion the reviewer discusses the criteria that should be applied to any kind of popular scientific publication.     

The Challenge of Modernity. Essays on Grazia Deledda

Sam Rohdie (1995) The Passion of Pier Paolo Pasolini (Bloomington and Indianapolis: British Film Institute and Indiana University Press), pp. i‐x, 1‐230, $15.95, ISBN 0‐85170‐518‐9 paperback; Patrick Rumble ( 1996) Allegories of Contamination: Pier Paolo Pasolini's ‘Trilogy of Life’ (Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press), pp. i‐ix, l‐207,$50,hardback, $ 17.95, paperback; Maurizio Viano (1993) A Certain Realism. Making Use of Pasolini's Film Theory and Practice (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press), pp. i‐xix, 1‐368, $40, hardback, $ 19.95, paperback.

Daniela Luigia Caglioti (1996) Associazionismo e sociabilità d'élite a Napoli nel XIX secolo (Naples: Liguori Editore), pp. 1‐169, 24,000 lire, ISBN 88‐207‐2637‐8 paperback.

Simone Neri Serneri (1995) Classe, partito, nazione. Alle origini della democrazia italiana, 1919‐1948 (Manduria: Piero Lacaita Editore), pp. 1‐298,25,000 lire, paperback.

Roberto Romani (1994) L'economia politica del Risorgimento italiano (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri), pp. 1‐248, ISBN 88‐339‐0856‐9 paperback.

Alberto M. Banti (1996) Storia della borghesia italiano: l'età liberait (Rome: Donzelli), pp. i‐xvii, 1‐395, 50,000 lire, ISBN 88‐7989‐170‐7 hardback.

Alexander J. De Grand ( 1995) Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The ‘Fascist’ Style of Rule (London and New York; Routledge), pp. 1‐102, $ 10.95, ISBN 0‐415‐10598‐6 paperback; Richard Bessel (ed.) (1996) Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Comparisons and Contrasts (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press), pp. 1‐242, $54.95, ISBN 0‐521‐47129‐X hardback, $ 18.95, ISBN 0‐521‐47711‐5 paperback.

Enzo Collotti and Lutz Klinkhammer (1996) Il fascismo e l'Italia in guerra: Una conversazione fra storia e storiografia (Rome: Edizioni Ediesse), pp. 1‐202,20,000 lire, ISBN 88‐230‐0217‐6.

Michele Sarfatti ( 1994) Mussolini contro gli ebrei: Cronaca dell'elaborazione delle leggi del 1938 (Turin: Silvio Zamorani editore), pp. 1‐199,30,000 lire, ISBN 88‐7158‐033‐8 paperback.

Carl Ipsen (1996) Dictating Demography, the Problem of Population in Fascist Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. i‐xvii, 1‐281, $54.95 ISBN 0‐521‐554527 hardback.

Stephen Gundle ( 1995) I comunisti italiani tra Hollywood e Mosco. La sfida della cultura di massa (1943‐1991) (Florence: Giunti), pp. i‐xii, 1‐572, ISBN 88‐09‐20642‐8 paperback.

Carl Levy (ed.) (1996) Italian Regionalism: History, Identity and Politics (Oxford and Dulles, Va.: Berg), pp. i‐xvi, 1‐197, $39, ISBN 1‐85973‐131‐7 hardback, $ 16.50, ISBN 1‐85973‐156‐2 paperback.

David I. Kertzer (1996) Politics and Symbols. The Italian Communist Party and the Fall of Communism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press), pp. 1‐224, $25, ISBN 0‐300‐06612‐0 hardback.

Pier Paolo Giglioli, Sandra Cavicchioli and Giolo Fele ( 1997) Rituali di degradazione: Anatomia del processo Cusani (Bologna: II Mulino), pp. 1‐243,28,000 lire, ISBN 88‐15‐05713‐7.

Mario Baldassarri and Franco Modigliani (eds) (1995) The Italian Economy. What Next? (New York: St Martin's Press), pp. 1‐200, $69.95, ISBN 0‐312‐12475‐9 hardback.

Piergiorgio Corbetta and Arturo M. L. Parisi (eds) (1997) Cavalieri e fanti: Proposte e proponenti nelle elezioni del 1994 e del 1996 (Bologna: Il Mulino), pp. 1‐421; Piergiorgio Corbetta and Arturo M. L Parisi (eds) (1997) A domanda risponde: Il cambiamento nel voto degli italiani nelle elezioni del 1994 e del 1996 (Bologna: Il Mulino), pp. 1‐410.     

Multi-technique investigation of historical Chinese dyestuffs used in Ningxia carpets

In this article, an extensive work is presented concerning the characterization with both chromatographic (high-performance liquid chromatography) and spectroscopic (surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and visible reflectance spectroscopy) techniques of historical Chinese dyestuffs in several carpets, mostly coming from the Ningxia region in Northern China and dating to the seventeenth–nineteenth centuries. Notably, the color of the background of these fine artifacts has been an object of debate since, while being depicted as bright red in the ancient iconography, nowadays it appears as orange/yellow. Therefore, in addition to the identification of all the colorants used in the carpets, the present study investigated the reasons of this apparent inconsistency, pointing out an explanation based on the joined use of the yellow dye obtained from the pagoda tree and a “fugitive” dye obtained from brazilwood.     

Quantitative micromorphological analyses of cut marks produced by ancient and modern handaxes

In this study, we analyse the three-dimensional micromorphology of cut marks on fossil mammal remains from a ∼0.5 million year old Acheulean butchery site at Boxgrove (West Sussex, southern England), and make comparisons with cut marks inflicted during the experimental butchery of a roe deer (Capreolus caproelus) using a replica handaxe. Morphological attributes of the cut marks were measured using an Alicona imaging microscope, a novel optical technique that generates three-dimensional virtual reconstructions of surface features. The study shows that high-resolution measurements of cut marks can shed light on aspects of butchery techniques, tool use and the behavioural repertoire of Lower Palaeolithic hominins. Differences between the experimental cut marks and those on the Boxgrove large mammal bones suggest variation in the angle of the cuts and greater forces used in the butchery of the larger (rhinoceros-sized) carcasses at Boxgrove. Tool-edge characteristics may account for some of these differences, but the greater robusticity of the Boxgrove hominins (attributed to Homo heidelbergensis) may be a factor in the greater forces indicated by some of the cut marks on the Boxgrove specimens.     

Luminescence Dating of Monumental Stone Architecture at Chavín De Huántar,Perú

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) is applied to quartz extracted from mud mortar collected from Chavín de Huántar, an early Andean monumental center. The samples appear to have been only partially exposed to sunlight during construction, so a minimum age model is applied to equivalent dose distributions. Complications, including complex radioactivity, low sensitivity of the quartz, and limited sample, prevent high precision, but the 14 dates obtained cluster around 1000 BC largely in agreement with radiocarbon assays on charcoal also collected from the mortar. Results suggest a relatively rapid construction for the monument. This work develops OSL as a method for directly dating architectural mortar.     

Stand der Internationalisierung von kleineren Unternehmen aus den Ziel-2-Gebieten Nordrhein- Westfalens Ergebnisse einer Befragung im Rahmen des Projektes "Europa-Fit"

Das Projekt "Europa-Fit" unterstützt kleinere Unternehmen aus den Ziel-2-Gebieten in Nordrhein-Westfalen bei der Erschließung neuer Absatz-, Beschaffungs- und Kooperationsmöglichkeiten innerhalb der Europäischen Union. Durch Beratung, Qualifizierung und Coaching werden ausgewählte Kleinbetriebe auf ihrem Weg in den EU-Binnenmarkt individuell begleitet. Zur Bedarfsermittlung und Auswahl geeigneter Betriebe wurde im Vorfeld von den Partnerorganisationen—dem Rationalisierungs- und Innovationszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V. (RKW NRW), der Landesgewerbeförderungsstelle des nordrhein-westfälischen Handwerks e.V. (LGH) und dem Zentrum für Innovation und Technik in Nordrhein- Westfalen GmbH (ZENIT)—im November 2001 eine schriftliche Unternehmensbefragung von kleineren Unternehmen bis ca. 70 Mitarbeitern durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Befragung sollen in dem folgenden Artikel zusammenfassend dargestellt werden. Den Abschluß bildet ein kurzer Abriss der ersten Erfahrungen, die im Projekt Europa-Fit gemacht wurden.