An account of cultural heritage and nature conservation in Mustang,Nepal

Abstract

This article was presented as a paper to ‘World Cultural Heritage: a global challenge’, an International Symposium at Hildesheim, Germany in February 1997. The paper outlines the problems of attempting to develop a combined heritage and tourism strategy for the small, remote, Himalayan kingdom of Mustang. The development of tourism brings both opportunities and threats to local people and their identity.     

Editorial Not all sweetness and light: New cultural geographies of food

Despite a resurgence of work that has begun to examine critically the artefactual mediation of memory, very few accounts have focused upon the interconnections between recorded music and daily acts of remembering. Drawing upon in‐depth case study‐based research into recorded music and everyday life with seventeen lower middle‐class households, this paper describes the composition of three practices of remembering with and through recorded music. First, remembering how to choose and ‘fit’ specific purchased music to particular socio‐spatial activities: a creative practice of mimicry, discretion and intuition in which the past is both embodied in the actions of judgement and choice and also functions to compose a co‐present, but not‐yet ‘virtual’ realm. Second, the widespread, ephemeral and subject‐less practice of ‘involuntary remembering’ in which a trace of a virtual past affects ‘in itself’. Finally, ‘intentional remembering’ in which a past is conditioned to occur as a fixed, relatively durable ‘memory’. The paper describes how such practices of remembering are bound up with the emergence of domestic time‐space, and thus the mode of being of the past, via the circulation and organization of affect.     

A new miniSTR heptaplex system for genetic fingerprinting of ancient DNA from archaeological human bone

The analysis of short tandem repeats (STRs) is a useful tool in various contexts of ancient DNA research. Main applications are the reconstruction of kinship, identification, and authentication. Here we describe a short amplicon autosomal short tandem repeat (miniSTR) heptaplex system for the amplification of D13S317, D21S11, D18S51, TH01, D5S818, FGA and Amelogenin from highly degraded DNA as an inexpensive alternative to commercially available kits. All primers were newly designed and the amplicon length of all systems is less than 200 bp, with the exception of some rare alleles in the FGA and D21S11 systems. To validate the suitability of this system for typing STRs from human specimens with low DNA preservation we systematically tested it on 20 skeletal samples from four archaeological sites representing different burial environments and time spans since death. Finally, to test the sensitivity of the heptaplex system, we analyzed serial dilutions of control DNA and ancient DNA extracts. Using the system we were able to reproducibly obtain full STR profiles, down to a concentration of 0.06 ng DNA. Even with 0.004 ng DNA partial profiles could be amplified. The accumulated power of discrimination for the six selected STR loci is 0.99999984, plus the option of genetic sex determination through Amelogenin. The tests conducted prove that the system presented is efficient and especially suited for cases where STRs have to be typed and sex has to be assessed from human specimens with highly degraded DNA.     

The Crofter and the Iron Works: The Material Culture of Structural Crisis, Identity and Making a Living on the Edge

The iron and steel industry has been of the greatest importance to the Swedish economy since medieval times. During the seventeenth century a large number of new iron works were erected in the Värmland region of western Sweden. The iron works brought an urban and industrial culture into an otherwise rural area. They were also of great importance to the local economies, as a number of people could earn their living, or part of their living, by working at the iron works or in other forms of associated employment. In the late nineteenth century a serious structural crisis hit the Swedish iron industry, causing many iron works to close. However, the actual effects, in the form of unemployment and increased poverty, appear, for hitherto unknown reasons, to have been minimal. In this article the household of a crofter family with close links with an iron works at the time of the structural crisis is investigated. Aspects of the crofter’s material culture, identity and consumption pattern are studied, and it is found that although the household shared in an urban and industrial identity, its economic basis was in the rural tradition of a mixed economy, combining wage employment and land-based elements. The mixed economy stands out as one reason why the structural crisis did not have as dramatic an effect as might have been expected.     

Insights into Transforming Regional Gender Relations—A Call for Space-Sensitive Dialogue to Enhance Regional Learning

The European Union (EU) constitutes a space that offers a wealth of opportunities for regional learning. This article addresses how the learning process takes place in an interregional project and how contextual factors affect the learning process. The work presented here draws upon theories on regional learning and the dissemination of management ideas, as well as taking agency and structure components into account. The internal project arenas are investigated in order to shed light on the learning process and how spatial relations play a critical role. A conclusion is that the learning process within EU financed projects will gain from developing the practice of reflection and space-sensitive dialogues. One challenge to be dealt with is the relationship between the metamessage of the project, and local variations and various gender narratives.     

Living with everyday environmental risks: giving a voice to young people in the design of community-based risk communication programs in the city of San Luis Potosí, México

Risk communication programs (RCPs) can contribute to the improvement of community health in marginalized settlements by improving health-related information and practices. Yet, there is a need to include young people's concerns in the design and implementation of RCPs. This study analyses young peoples’ risk perceptions in the city of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, using visual methods such as drawings and photography. Research was conducted with 74 students from two deprived urban neighborhoods. Results indicate that the use of visual techniques enabled them to identify environmental health risks such as unhealthy sedentary habits and the exposure to hazardous items. We conclude that visual methods may help young people to critically reflect on everyday elements in their environment that affect their well-being. By giving them a voice in a reflexive way, visual methods may engage young people as key multipliers in the awareness raising process, and promote their sense of everyday agency.     

HOBY — AN EXCEPTIONAL EARLY ROMAN IRON AGE SITE IN THE WESTERN BALTIC REGION

Hoby on the island of Lolland in the western part of the Baltic Sea is strategically located in a coastal landscape offering abundant resources. In 1920, one of the most richly furnished so‐called “Lübsow type” graves dating to the first century AD was discovered at Hoby. The settlement associated with the grave was recognised in 1999. Excavations of the settlement between 2001 and 2016 have confirmed the central role of Hoby in the Iron Age society. The research has focused on the Iron Age population and the infrastructure on Lolland. The Iron Age open cultural landscape encompassed numerous settlements, richly furnished burials and fortifications, and has produced unique metal finds. The article presents a summary of investigation results.     

Cluster evolution and the change of knowledge bases: the development of a design cluster

Most studies portray cluster knowledge bases as a given resource, tied to specific industries and locations. However, this paper challenges that view and uncovers their dynamic nature by identifying endogenous and exogenous triggering events that influence and change the cluster knowledge base mix over time. This is done by building on the theoretical concepts of pre-existing conditions, triggering events and knowledge bases and by drawing on a case study of the design cluster located in the Triangle Area of Denmark. The paper concludes that the design cluster has changed its mix of knowledge bases several times during its evolution. Starting out as a firm-driven cluster with a dominant synthetic knowledge base, it then evolved into an artistic and creative cluster with a prevailing symbolic knowledge base. In the last few years, the cluster has increasingly adopted an analytical knowledge base at the expense of other knowledge bases. These developments have caused numerous changes in both knowledge building and the sources of knowledge in and around the cluster. These findings have implications for the framing of cluster knowledge bases, considering how they emerge, change and combine, as well as how that affects clusters’ composition of actors, activities and resources.