The Dancers Who Became Transformed into Wood: the mai masks of the Iatmul,Papua New Guinea

Borrowing, exchanging, and violent appropriation of ritual artefacts have been actions that have contributed to the development of cultural diversity within a particular frame of variations in the Middle Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. The mai masks of the Iatmul, already mentioned by Bateson, are the well‐documented result of a violent appropriation, as indigenous evidence shows. However, the ‘model’ which served for the mai were ritual dancers captured in the Alexander Mountains. These dancers displayed heavily painted faces (but no masks) and rich body decoration. In the process of making the powerful ‘model’ into one of their own, the Iatmul artists transformed the painted faces into carvings according to their preferred material of artistic expressions, wood, and their predilection for the interplay of elevated and deepened surfaces. As this article shows, the creation of mai as (enlivened) persons needs the establishment of socio‐cosmological relationships in which ancestral spirits and ‘natural’ substances are crucially involved. Thus, apart from sculpting as making, actions of growing are essential for turning the masks into beings endowed with ancestral power.     

Evaluating the Potential of Semi-Automated Image Analysis for Delimiting Soil and Sediment Layers

ABSTRACT

Established methods for delineating anthropogenic and natural strata during fieldwork are based on the visual and tactile perception of excavators. Modern image analysis techniques can help to ensure objectivity and reproducibility when documenting sections and plana. Within this study we examine the unsupervised classification of digital images as a technique for delimiting layers and identifying stratigraphic features. Assessing the potential of this approach, we exemplarily captured soil profiles with high-contrast stratigraphy, located in the area of a historical vineyard (Brandenburg, Germany). Reproducible analyses were carried out using open-source software, allowing for the future advancement of the methodology utilized and providing a basis for the analysis of more complex stratigraphic sequences. We compare clustering results of high-resolution RGB and hyperspectral images (470–830?nm, 37 bands). Multiple pre-processing and processing steps are carried out to evaluate their influence. Our results render the semi-automatic analysis of RGB images helpful for stratigraphic interpretation.     

Age determination of Petra's engineered landscape – optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon ages of runoff terrace systems in the Eastern Highlands of Jordan

The unfavourable mountainous environment of the Petra region in southern Jordan was modified by ancient engineers to supply the Nabataean/Roman city of Petra with food and water. The area was reclaimed by installing extended runoff terrace systems and hydraulic structures. The agricultural terrace systems have so far been dated based on surface pottery, and the chronology of the systems is under debate. In this study, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating techniques were successfully applied to date these terrace systems. Samples were taken from the fills of agricultural terraces and underneath their walls to determine the chronology of the construction, use and abandonment of the agricultural terraces. The results suggest that runoff farming in the Petra region started around the beginning of the Common Era, and construction, use and maintenance lasted at least until 800 AD.     

Austronesian aboriginality or the ritual organization of the state? A controversy on the political dimension of temple networks in early bali

Since early colonial times, Dutch government officials as well as anthropologists have made a distinction between what have been called “Bali Aga”, the allegedly aboriginal inhabitants of Bali (Indonesia), and those inhabitants associated with title‐bearing groups oriented towards royal courts and brahmana ritual specialists. While the former have been described as constituting a society characterized by equality and democracy, the latter have been portrayed as being almost the opposite. This article questions the basic assumptions about the “Bali Aga”, especially the role of their ritual networks focusing on regional temples. These have been interpreted as a demonstration of equality and of a bounded “Bali Aga” ethnicity. This article suggests a different interpretation, one in which the ritual networks are understood as basic segments, not restricted to the Bali Aga, in the ritual organization of the pre‐colonial Balinese state.     

The Thrill of the Line,the String,and the Frond,or why the Abelam are a non-cloth culture

With few exceptions, weaving was traditionally unknown in Oceania. Yet soft, pliable bark cloth — often richly decorated — was produced, and used like textiles, especially in Polynesia. This cloth was artistically draped around objects and people and in turn ritually removed. These cloth cultures are based on a system of aesthetic values radically different from those of inland groups especially in New Guinea. This article demonstrates that within Oceania there are two different cultural traditions with opposing aesthetic fundamental values. Taking as an example the Abelam (East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea) whose aesthetics is based on the principle of ‘visual open-work’, the fundamental aesthetic values of a non-cloth culture and the gender specific attributes associated with them are analyzed.