Involved Knowing: On the Poetic Epistemology of the Humanities

The humanities represent a type of knowledge distinct from, and yet encompassing, scientific knowledge. Drawing on philosophical hermeneutics in the tradition of the Geisteswissenschaften, as well as on the Latin rhetorical tradition and on Greek paideia, this essay presents humanities knowledge as “involved knowing.” Science, in principle, abstracts from the subjective, psychological conditions of knowing, including its emotional and willful determinants, as introducing personal biases, and it attempts also to neutralize historical and cultural contingencies. Humanities knowledge, in contrast, focuses attention on precisely these subjective and historical factors as intrinsic to any knowledge in its full human purport. In particular, poetry, which historically is the matrix of knowledge in all fields, including science, deliberately explores and amply expresses these specifically human registers of significance. The poetic underpinnings of knowledge actually remain crucial to human knowing and key to interpreting its significance in all domains, including the whole range of scientific fields, throughout the course of its development and not least in the modern age so dominated by science and technology.     

Food and famine: Looking for answers

White, Philip, and Nancy Selvey, eds. Current Topics in Nutrition and Disease, Volume 10: Malnutrition—Determinants and Consequences. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1984. xvi + 494 pp. including references, index. $96.00 cloth.

Robson, John R. K., ed. Famine: Its Causes, Effects, and Management. New York: Gordon and Breach, 1981. x + 170 pp. including photographs, references, index. $30.95 cloth.     

Evidence for “Celtic migrations”? Strontium isotope analysis at the early La Tène (LT B) cemeteries of Nebringen (Germany) and Monte Bibele (Italy)

Strontium isotope analysis on human remains from the Iron Age (4th/3rd century BC) cemeteries of Nebringen, Germany and Monte Bibele, Italy were carried out to investigate the role of residential changes during the period of the historic “Celtic migrations”. From an archaeological perspective, the location of the cemeteries in the Celtic core (Nebringen) and expansion area (Monte Bibele), and the distinctive development of their material culture, suggest that the buried populations had differing mobility rates. On the contrary, the strontium results indicate that only few individuals were mobile or non-local. There is, however, a difference in variation of strontium isotope ratios between the two studied cemeteries, presumably caused by differing geological conditions. In Nebringen changing use of cultivated land in a geologically heterogeneous environment most likely caused varying strontium isotope ratios even within the same jaw, while individual mobility over longer distances can also not be excluded. In Monte Bibele the range of strontium isotope ratios is narrow, and this may be explained by a community living in the same village and using the same agricultural resources. For various prehistoric time periods it has been suggested that some population groups were more mobile than others, for example because they had special social roles. In the two cemeteries studied here, males have slightly more often a non-local birthplace or moved during childhood. In contrast, females had isotope signatures which are more consistent with the local geological environment. Male mobility is, however, not correlated with burial as a warrior, and patrilocal residential patterns were not observed among females. Foreign and local items are found with isotopically local and non-local individuals and objects per se do not indicate descent. The motives for residential changes were, therefore, varied and not constrained to a specific area or population group. The presented dataset provides details on the way of life and land-use in the Celtic communities, for which information is otherwise absent.     

Roman lava quarries in the Eifel region (Germany): geochemical data for millstone provenance studies

Roman millstones of assumed Eifel origin were produced and exported in huge quantities to many parts of Roman Europe and can be used as tracers for trade patterns in Roman times. This study presents for the first time a raw-material centred geochemical definition of the 13 well-known Roman basaltic lava quarries in the Quaternary East and West Eifel volcanic fields. The aim is to find a way to characterize the individual exploitation sites precisely by means of their geochemical composition and to recommend a standard procedure for further millstone provenance analysis. Based on major and trace element composition analyses by XRF, a differentiation of each quarry is achieved by using a combination of geochemical discrimination and cluster and discriminant analysis. Therefore, for provenance analysis of a unknown millstone sample the following procedure is recommended: (1) geochemical discrimination to check if it actually belongs to the volcanic Eifel quarries; (2) cluster analysis to check to which quarry or cluster of quarries the millstone can be affiliated; and (3) discriminant analysis to assign the sample to its quarry of origin with a certain confidence.