Holocaust Archaeology: Archaeological Approaches to Landscapes of Nazi Genocide and Persecution

Abstract

Debate concerning the events of the Holocaust is well embedded in the historical discourse and, thus, clearly defined narratives of this period exist. However, in most European countries the Holocaust has only recently begun to be considered in terms of its surviving archaeological remains and landscapes, and the majority of known sites are still ill-defined and only partially understood from both spatial structural points of view. Additionally, thousands of sites across Europe remain unmarked, whilst the locations of others have been forgotten altogether. Such a situation has arisen as a result of a number of political, social, ethical, and religious factors which, coupled with the scale of the crimes, has often inhibited systematic search. This paper details the subsequent development and application of a non-invasive archaeological methodology aimed at rectifying this situation and presents a case for the establishment of Holocaust archaeology as a sub-discipline of conflict studies. In particular, the importance of moving away from the notion that the presence of historical sources precludes the need for the collection of physical evidence is stressed, and the humanitarian, scientific, academic, and commemorative value of exploring this period is considered.     

William Ogilvie,the Klondike Borderlands and the Making of the Canadian West

This article focuses on William Ogilvie, the Canadian Dominions Surveyor and Commissioner of the Yukon during one of the most formative periods in Canadian history—the opening of the Yukon Territories during the Klondike Gold Rush. By the mid-1890s, Canadian and American miners flooded the Yukon–Alaska border in search of gold. The mass migration of American miners created anxieties among Canadian officials who believed Americans would forcibly annex the Yukon Territories. In light of this, Ogilvie was tasked with clarifying the contested boundary line and establishing economic links across the Atlantic to Great Britain in order to secure the Canadian boundary and maintain Canadian authority on the frontier. In 1898, Ogilvie left for Great Britain to tie Canada more closely to the British Empire and, effectively, sell the Yukon to potential British investors. This article thus speaks to issues in the North American borderlands and Atlantic history.     

“Shop-lease Contract with Sar-qofli” in the Post-Iranian Revolution Era: Deletion of “Haqq-e kasb o pisheh o tejārat” from the Law of Lessor–Lessee Relationships

In contemporary Iran, many shops are under the “shop-lease contract with sar-qofli.” In this contract, sar-qofli, a strong usufructuary right supported by intangible assets such as the shop's reputation, is given to the tenant. The “shop-lease contract with sar-qofli” originated from a traditional merchants' custom in Iran's business quarters. After the 1979 Revolution, the Law of Lessor–Lessee Relationships, which provides a legal framework for the practice of “shop-lease contract with sar-qofli,” was completely revised, since Islamic jurists regarded haqq-e kasb o pisheh o tejārat as problematic. Haqq-e kasb o pisheh o tejārat, the legal designation of sar-qofli, was based on a heterogeneous value concept introduced into the Iranian legal system from abroad during World War II. As a result of this revision, another alternative for asset management was granted to shop owners. Nevertheless, “shop-lease contract with sar-qofli” remains the most widely employed form of lease in Iran's property lease market.     

George Weekes: Rogue Missionary to New England Indians, 1731–1755

During the mid‐1700s, an uneducated layman named George Weekes began preaching to Native Americans in the town of Harwich, Massachusetts. Weekes’ missionary activity triggered a passionate response from Nathaniel Stone, the local minister, and inaugurated a debate regarding ministerial qualifications within the community. Scholars who study English missionary activity in colonial New England tend to focus upon the careers of trained clergy, such as John Eliot or Josiah Cotton. Other individuals, who possessed questionable moral character and little education, also preached to New England Indians, however. In this instance, the career of George Weekes, a rogue missionary, reveals that contact with Native Americans could shape ecclesiastical life in colonial Massachusetts. It also suggests that Native Americans encountered popular, as well as elite, English religious culture when they interacted with English missionaries in early New England.     

I never shall be a white man again: race and junior officers in the Mexican War

Throughout the Mexican War, the impact of professionalization was felt on the battlefields of Mexico. This professionalism did not, and could not insulate these officers from social issues such as race. When American junior officers viewed the filthy conditions in Mexico, they argued that these conditions could only be explained by the racial inferiority of the Mexican people as a race. Volunteers and regulars reacted to these issues in exactly the same manner. This fact challenged the traditional fears that a professional standing army would become disconnected with the society they protected, and would thus become despotic. Similarly, the excesses of the volunteers demonstrated that they were not the paragon of virtue which many in the US hoped.     

‘We Can Always Go Back Home’: critical lessons in helping to safeguard and promote the Singing and Praying Bands living tradition

Abstract

The article examines the process of promoting, with a view to safeguarding, the centuries-old Singing and Praying Bands living tradition, an African American musical and spiritual expression that is distinctive to the Chesapeake Bay region of the US. Discussed within the context of US public folklore, the process is understood as a co-intervention, representing an active partnership between the Bands’ community and public folklorists (including the authors) in attempting to reach new members as a means of keeping it alive. The article underscores the need for ‘bottom-up’ approaches in safeguarding living cultural traditions, bringing to light the potential strengths of public folklore work and the benefits its theories and methodologies can bring to the intangible cultural heritage discourse. Moreover, it analyses how community agency has been exercised, and community needs accommodated, through the dialogue-driven, collaborative intervention process. It also investigates how a nuanced view of ‘authenticity’ has been shaped, with regard to changes the living tradition has undergone, and is currently understood by those who embody it.     

Reinventing the firm: from post-war relief to international humanitarian agency

Abstract

This article focuses on the humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) CARE, Inc., and its transformation from a temporary non-profit agency working in post-war relief to Europe, to a permanent humanitarian enterprise delivering food aid and technical assistance to the so-called ‘developing world’. It analyses CARE’s shift from its early days as an American voluntary agency delivering food and consumer products (donated by private individuals in America) to individuals in Europe to a large NGO that co-operated closely with the US government in food-aid distribution to the Global South. Its expansion and professionalization was embedded in the development of new forms of public-private co-operation in humanitarian affairs, as well as in the overall setting of an emerging competitive ‘humanitarian charity market’ in the non-profit sector. In order to expand its organization and mission CARE implemented new and innovative business strategies and fostered the increasing ‘managerialization’ of its humanitarian activities. The article stresses the economic dimension of NGO activity as one perspective (among others) that helps us to better understand the complex dynamics of the ‘rise’ of humanitarian non-state players during the twentieth century.     

War stories: British and American writers in/on the Italian front (1915–18)

In 1919 the British historian G. M. Trevelyan complained about the ‘not very large stock of English literature on Italy’s part in the war’ that had just ended, a phenomenon he attributed to ‘the mutual ignorance of the English-speaking and Italian peoples’. Nearly a hundred years later the situation seems to be no better. Secondary sources as there are devote only passing mention (if any) to the war stories that were put together by British and American writers who visited, served or worked as volunteers in the Italian front between 1915 and 1918. This article intends to give some details about the Italian front writing of these committed individuals, whose praiseworthy contribution to the war effort was, indeed, fighting the above-mentioned ignorance.     

博物馆教育性格的养成——从《美国博物馆:创新者和先驱》一书谈起

与欧洲博物馆强调皇家收藏与民众教化的传统不同,美国的博物馆性格立足于社会教育与公众服务。自初创之日起,"教育至上"的性格一直贯穿美国博物馆发展的始终,由此养成的有关博物馆教育议题的思考成为国际博物学界的典范。爱德华·亚历山大在《美国博物馆:创新者和先驱》一书中系统考察了13位美国博物馆领军人物的超前理念和伟大事迹,他们无一例外地都在强调博物馆教育和公众娱乐的重要性,并在"教育至上"的博物馆性格上达成共识。这些先驱们在博物馆平台上发挥才智、创造典范的经验材料对于理解美国博物馆教育性格生成与演变的具体过程与整体图式具有举足轻重的作用。     

From the Panama Canal to Post‐Fordism: Producing Temporary Labor Migrants Within and Beyond Agriculture in the United States (1904–2013)

In the historical study of modern American capitalism, labor unfreedom in agriculture has been conceptualized as an exception to liberal labor relations in the post‐slavery polity, from debt peonage to the threat of deportation from workplaces populated by non‐citizen migrants. At the same time, state‐enforced labor compulsions and restrictions are increasingly part and parcel of what scholars call neoliberal exceptionalism. This article argues that agricultural and neoliberal exceptionalisms are related, by tracing the historical genealogy and juridical production of a restrictive work status, the deportable temporary labor migrant, across political economies in the modern United States, from imperial construction in the Panama Canal Zone, to agriculture, to the knowledge economy. Contrary to existing notions of temporary work visas as a new form of unfreedom in neoliberalized advanced capitalist states, I show how the threat of deportation is older and rooted in the rise of the liberal regulatory state in a post‐slavery, yet persistently racial capitalist political economy. The import of understanding this history of government intervention increases as the liberal regulatory state's coercive logics and practices intensify and circulate in agriculture and under a post‐Fordist regime of accumulation, reproducing racial capitalism in the labor process.