Seventeenth-Century Glass Trade Beads from La Salle's Fort St. Louis and the Grand Village of the Kaskaskia

Abstract

Glass trade beads are described here from two seventeenth-century sites located in the upper Illinois Valley, La Salle's 1682–1691 Fort St. Louis and the nearby Grand Village of the Kaskaskia, destroyed during an Iroquois raid in 1680. Simple monochrome drawn beads characterize both bead assemblages and each contains significant percentages of very small (<2 mm) and small (2–4 mm) size beads. Dominant colors are blue, white, and black. Turquoise-blue beads were a staple of the French trade at this time in the Illinois Country, particularly in transactions involving La Salle and his successors based at Fort St. Louis. Comparative treatment provided as part of this research indicates that there are significant similarities between the bead assemblage from Fort St. Louis and the beads recovered from the 1686 wreck of La Salle's ship Belle in Matagorda Bay off the Texas coast.     

Environmental Degradation of Russian Coastal Regions: Exploring the Gulf of Finland

An American geographer and Russian ecologist discuss current and prospective environmental hazards precipitated by large-scale infrastructure projects on Russia's southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The region, investigated by both authors during the course of regular field research from 1999 to 2009, is one of the best environmentally preserved coastlines of the Baltic Sea with abundant potential greenfield sites, largely due to its closed-border-zone status during the Soviet period. A favorable location for trade also places the region under intense development pressure. The authors devote particular attention to two major developments, a multifunctional port complex (which inter alia serves as a major pipeline terminus and oil export port) and expansion of an existing nuclear power plant. Based on extensive personal observations and government documents, they analyze the emerging environmental threat posed by these initiatives as well as the challenging political environment that discourages public participation and local involvement in spatial planning.     

Challenges to Western Participation in Shaping the Urban Landscape of Post-Socialist St. Petersburg: The Failure of International Competitions for Iconic Architectural Projects

The paper, based on a series of interviews in St. Petersburg conducted in 2009 and 2010 by an American geographer, discusses the failure of major iconic architectural projects awarded to Western firms through international architectural competitions. The projects, sought by Russian government and business leaders to enhance the city's re-emerging global status, are viewed as likely examples of diminished Western participation in the shaping of St. Petersburg's iconic urban landscape. The author attributes the failure to financial setbacks, and primarily also to a recalcitrant bureaucracy, red tape, overly strict building codes and regulations, corruption as well as negative reaction by local residents and media outlets.     

The Legacy of Nineteenth-century Replicas for Object Cultural Biographies: Lessons in Duplication from 1830s Fife

The St Andrews Sarcophagus and Norrie's Law hoard are two of the most important surviving Pictish relics from early medieval Scotland. The entanglement of their later biographies is also of international significance in its own right. Soon after discovery in nineteenth-century Fife, both sets of objects were subject, in 1839, to an exceptionally precocious, documented programme of replication through the enlightened auspices of an under-appreciated antiquarian, George Buist. This well-evidenced case study highlights how and why replicas, things that are widely prevalent in Europe and beyond, are a ‘thick’ and relatively unexplored seam of archaeological material culture that we ignore at our peril. These particular replications also offer new insights into the vision, intellectual and practical energies of early antiquarian societies, and their web of connections across Britain and Ireland.     

The cultural geographies of Abstract Expressionism: painters,critics, dealers and the production of an Atlantic art

In this article I propose that the artistic genre of Abstract Expressionism which emerge d from New York in the late 1940s provides an illustrative example of the way a productive, trans-national geographical framework can be provided by exploring the cultural geographies of the Atlantic world. By drawing on the ways Abstract Expressionism was constructed and promoted within the rigid national perspective of 1950s' US cultural policy and reacted against in Britain and Europe on similarly nationalistic terms, I show how the circulatory exchange of cultural flows reveals a more co-produced understanding of these histories. The notion of a network of painters, dealers and critics is used to emphasize the way Abstract Expressionism was produced through a spatial framework which plays a constitutive, rather than purely connective, role. In doing so I draw particular attention to the period from the early 1950s to the 1960s and the artistic activity and critical writing associated with New York City and the Cornish coastal town of St Ives.

Les géographies culturelles de l'Expressionnisme Abstrait: les peintres, les critiques, les marchands et la production d'un art de l'Atlantique

Je propose dans cet article que le style artistique de l'Expressionnisme Abstrait, né à New York à la fin des années 1940, fournit un exemple permettant d'illustrer la façon dont un cadre géographique productif et transnational peut être élaboré à partir d'une exploration des géographies culturelles de l'univers Atlantique. En prenant comme base les moyens par lesquels l'Expressionnisme Abstrait a été construit et s'est développé dans le cadre rigide et national de la politique culturelle américaine des années 1950 et s'est confronté à une Angleterre et une Europe tout autant nationalistes, je démontre comment l'échange circulaire des courants culturels permet de voir et de comprendre que ces histoires ont en partie été coproduites. La notion de réseau de peintres, de marchands et de critiques sert à souligner par quel moyen l'Expressionnisme Abstrait a été produit au travers d'un cadre spatial dont la fonction est constitutive plutôt que simplement de permettre de former des liens. Ce faisant, j'attire l'attention sur l'époque allant du début des années 1950 jusque dans les années 1960 et sur l'activité artistique et les écrits critiques qui sont liés de près à la Ville de New York et à Saint-Ives, village côtier de Cornouailles.

Las geografías culturales del Expresionismo Abstracto: pintores, críticos, marchantes y la producción de un arte atlántico

En este papel sugiero que el género artístico de Expresionismo Abstracto que surgió en Nueva York en los años 40 es un ejemplo ilustrativo de la manera en que se puede facilitar un productivo marco geográfico transnacional por una exploración de las geografías culturales del mundo atlántico. Las maneras en que se construía y promovía el Expresionismo Abstracto dentro de la perspectiva nacional rígida de la política cultural de los Estados Unidos de los años 50 y las maneras en que se reaccionaba contra ello en Gran Bretaña y Europa en términos igualmente nacionalistas sirven como ejemplo de cómo el intercambio circulatorio de flujos culturales revela una interpretación co-producida de estas historias. La idea de una red de pintores, marchantes y críticos sirve para destacar el modo en que el Expresionismo Abstracto fue producido por un marco espacial que juega un papel tanto constitutivo como conectivo. En particular destaco el período de los años 50 a los años 60 y también la actividad artística y la literatura crítica asociada con la ciudad de Nueva York y la ciudad córnica costera de St Ives.     

Interurban Development and Economic Disparities in a Russian Province

The paper explores the relationship among factors believed to influence the economic development potential of Russian cities in the post-Soviet period, based on a detailed case study of small and medium-sized urban places in Leningrad Oblast. Relying on rarely utilized statistical data (including local town censuses) collected during on-site research and interviews, the author constructs an economic development index that provides a reference for inter-urban comparisons and analysis. The significance of accessibility for post-Soviet urban development is statistically demonstrated and the role of inherited spatial economic structures (economic-geographical endowment) is discussed along with other factors influencing urban performance. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O11, O18, R11. 3 figures, 4 tables, 30 references.     

“Local religion” in Corfu: sixteenth to nineteenth centuries

The article discusses the changing meanings of a powerful Corfiot symbol, St Spyridon, the patron saint of Corfu. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the saint – whose cult had been bolstered by the civil rather than the ecclesiastical authorities – was venerated by both the Greek and Latin inhabitants of Corfu, thus symbolizing a unity at least on the level of the civic religion. Following the 1716 siege of the town by the Ottomans, one can clearly see that the Venetian state and its representatives did not hesitate to lavish many honours on St Spyridon in thanks for his alleged intervention during the siege, which saved not only Corfu but the whole of Western Christianity. At the end of the century though, when the island fell to the allied Russian and Ottoman forces, the old equilibrium between the two religious groups began to become unsettled. A text written by the Orthodox theologian Athanassios Parios just a few years after the Russo-Ottoman victory attempts to rewrite the behaviour of the saint towards the Catholics and present him as the defender of the Orthodox Church and the enemy of any rapprochement between Greeks and Latins.     

Rewriting the founder: Werden on the Ruhr and the uses of hagiography

The rich hagiographical corpus, charters and privileges of the monastery of Werden on the Ruhr allow unparalleled access to its ninth-century history. This article focuses upon three ninth-century vitae of its founding saint which delineate both the transformations which Werden underwent in the course of the century and the ways in which the monastery attempted to respond and adapt to these changes. In so doing, it illuminates the role that saintly relics and hagiography could play in the formation of Christian communities both within and beyond cloister walls.     

Governor Sir John Field in St Helena: Democratic Reform in a Small British Colony, 1962–68

In the age of decolonisation, Whitehall generally accepted the case for political advancement even in small British colonies like St Helena judged too lacking in resources to become independent states, provided this could be granted without risk to good government. The previous experience of Sir John Field in West Africa and his sensitivity to UN expectations lay behind the democratic reforms he introduced, which by 1968 had established an elected Legislative Council and an Executive Council made up mainly of LegCo members. But the steps he took owed little to sustained popular demand for self-government, as was common elsewhere, and much to his determination to make islanders politically more responsible. Public engagement was inhibited by practical constraints, local culture and a discouraging financial dependence on the UK government.