The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll in Hyde Park: Fear,Media and the Conduct of an Emancipatory Geography

This paper recounts the transformation of a student study on fear of violence and the use of urban space into a public instrument of oppression. Although the students' survey was conducted with emancipatory intent, media handling of the study's results is likely to have heightened levels of fear in the local population and to have caused some members of the public to imprison themselves in their own homes.     

A ROOTED SENSE OF PLACE IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Sense of place was investigated in an interpretive approach to examine how it develops; how it varies cross-culturally among modern and indigenous peoples; and how it develops among various contexts (home and environs, family, community, and culture). Individual and group interviews were conducted using questionnaires on Banks Peninsula, New Zealand (a rural, farm-based setting) with 270 residents from 1987 to 1989, with 80 out-migrants interviewed around New Zealand in 1989. The methodology was based on phenomenology, ethnography, and social surveys. Statistical analyses indicated the significance of residential status and social belonging toward the development of a sense of place. Contextual influences were found to be important from qualitative data, with traditional culture of primary importance to Maori. Both Maori and European-descent respondents with long-term residence expressed a rooted sense of place for Peninsula environs. These respondents were less residentially mobile and were often tied to the land through ancestry and/or family farms. Newcomers to the region were usually treated as outsiders (for decades). The Maori community was partially sustained by a social network that extended beyond the Peninsula. Maori sense of place was based more on their cosmology and culture, which rooted them to their tribal territory spiritually and emotionally. To counter an amoral, modernist hegemony and to move toward community sustainability, postmodernists need to consider the significance of developing a place-based ideology that links people to place through a rooted sense of place. À l'aide d'une méthode interprétative, le sentiment d'appartenance à un milieu a été étudié pour examiner la manière dont il se développe, ses variations interculturelles parmi les populations modernes et autochtones, de même que l'incidence de divers éléments, tels la résidence et son voisinage, la famille, la collectivité et la culture, sur son développement. Entre 1987 et 1989, des entretiens individuels et de groupes ont été menés, en utilisant des questionnaires, auprès de 270 résidants demeurant dans la péninsule de Banks, en Nouvelle-Zélande, et appartenant à un milieu rural essentiellement agricole. De plus, en 1989, 80 émigrants répartis sur le territoire de la Nouvelle-Zélande ont été également intervieés. Les études phénoménologiques, ethnographiques et sociales ont servi de méthode fondamentale. L'analyse statistique a révélé l'importance de la qualité de résidant et l'importance de l'appartenance sociale sur le développement du sentiment d'appartenance à un milieu. D'après les données qualitatives, l'influence environnementale est significative, et la culture traditionnelle est capitale chez les Maoris. Les répondants établis depuis longtemps, qu'ils soient de descendance européenne ou maorie, ont manifesté un sentiment profond d'appartenance à leur milieu, que représente la péninsule. Ces répondants étaient relativement stables du point de vue résidentiel et possédaient souvent une terre ancestrale ou une ferme familiale. Les nouveaux arrivants ont été habituellement traités comme des étrangers (pendant des décennies). La communauté maorie a été soutenue en partie par un réseau social qui s'est étendu au-delà de la péninsule. Chez ce peuple, le sentiment d'appartenance au milieu s'appuie davantage sur la cosmologie et la culture, ce qui crée des liens spirituels et affectifs entre ces gens et leur territoire tribal. Pour s'opposer à l'hégémonie amorale et moderniste, et pour s'orienter vers la viabilité des collectivités, les post-modernistes doivent se rendre compte de l'importance d'élaborer une idéologie axée sur le milieu qui lie les gens par un sentiment profond d'appartenance.     

THE JUDICIOUS SELECTION AND PRESERVATION OF TUFF AND TRAVERTINE BUILDING STONE IN ANCIENT ROME*

The Republican and early Imperial monuments of Rome are, for the most part, built of tuffs quarried from at least seven pyroclastic deposits erupted from nearby Monti Sabatini and Alban Hills volcanoes. Remarks by Vitruvius (2.7.1–5), field observations of the monuments, and petrographic and rock testing studies of samples from Roman quarries demonstrate that Roman builders developed a good knowledge of the diverse material properties of the tuffs over centuries of use and exposure. Measurements of compressive strength, specific gravity, water absorption and adsorption of water vapour confirm that the petrographic characteristics of each tuff lithology strongly influence its strength and durability. Early construction utilized weakly durable, soft or vitric tuffs such as Tufo del Palatino or Tufo Giallo della Via Tiberina that are susceptible to decay, as at Temple C (290 bc ) of the Largo Argentina Sacred Area. Late Republican structures, such as the Temple of Portunus (80–90 bc ), employed somewhat durable, vitric–lithic Tufo Lionato reinforced with travertine, a durable limestone quarried near Tivoli. Roman builders selected the material properties of the tuffs to advantage for specific structural elements within large public monuments of the first century bc and the first century ad , as at the tabernae of the Forum of Caesar (46 bc ), where an upper storey of lightweight Tufo Lionato is supported by robust, lithic–crystal Lapis Gabinus pillars and flat arches reinforced with travertine. The tuffs are not very durable building stones; Romans preserved them with protective stucco, and travertine and marble cladding. Their high water intake, coupled with direct exposure to rain, daily fluctuations in relative humidity and urban weathering at present makes them especially vulnerable to decay.     

SOURCES OF THE QUARTZITE OF SOME ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCULPTURES

This article reports the results of analysis of samples collected from some Egyptian quartzite artifacts. such as statuary, dating from the New Kingdom. Most of the artifacts are located in Upper Egypt, but the results of analysis suggest that, until the middle of the fourteenth century B.C., the quartzite came from a more distant quarry near Cairo rather than from the quartzite quarries located near Aswan in Upper Egypt.     

Review of Three Recently Published Studies on the Mandaeans

This review deals with three major studies of the Mandaeans all published in 2002. Although each of the works utilizes earlier material, and indeed Drower's work dates back to 1937, their collective appearance marks something of a resurgence for Mandaean studies in the anglophone world. The review links these works to recent rapid changes for the Mandaeans, and indeed the development of substantial diaspora communities in Australia and elsewhere. The author also makes brief comment on the difficult questions of Mandaean identity and origin, and their relationship with Manichaeism.     

A Comparison of Radiological and Palaeopathological Diagnostic Criteria for Hyperostosis Frontalis Interna

Hyperostosis frontalis interna (HFI) is a common clinical finding in post-menopausal women, less often in men. The characteristic billowing symmetrical new bone formation is found on the endocranial surface of the skull and rarely causes any significant symptoms. In clinical medicine HFI is diagnosed from its X-ray appearance, whereas in palaeopathology it is diagnosed by direct observation of the skull. There are no standard palaeopathological criteria to diagnose HFI. In past populations HFI appears to be much less common than today, with modern prevalences of up to 70 per cent of women over 40 affected, compared with archaeological prevalences of between 1 and 4 per cent. This discrepancy has been attributed to a younger mean age at death in ancient populations. This study aims to test the hypothesis that the difference in prevalence may be due in part to the differential nature of diagnosis between the two disciplines. A sample of 85 skulls was X-rayed, and the presence of HFI was recorded using radiological criteria. Using this method the results showed a marked increase in the number of cases of HFI to 31 per cent in females in the ancient population. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol., 7 : 157–164 (1997) No. of Figures: 4. No. of Tables: 3. No. of References: 13.     

MOUSTERIAN MUSICIANSHIP? THE CASE OF THE DIVJE BABE I BONE

Summary.   The reputed Neanderthal 'flute' from the Slovenian site of Divje babe I has stimulated much interest and detailed research since the original publication of its discovery in 1997. In spite of nearly ten years' worth of analysis and discussion its status as an artefact has remained ambiguous; nevertheless it is still frequently cited as a 'flute'. This paper examines the literature and research regarding this object, and finds that much of the ambiguity regarding the object's status derives from the literature itself. It concludes that there is no need to invoke hominin agency in explaining the features of the bone.     

‘That Tiny,Stratospheric Apex That Owns Most of the World’– Exploring Geographies of the Super‐Rich

This paper exhorts geographers to give critical attention to the super‐rich, defined as individuals with investable assets in excess of $1 million. The super‐rich currently number almost 11 million globally (2011) and have collective wealth in excess of $42 trillion. We argue that as a result of our discipline's typical, and not unjustifiable, focus on the poor and middle class, and our neglect of the super‐rich, geographers may both be overlooking potentially valuable insights to the institutions, practices, and cultural values of our society and gaining only a partial view of global capitalism. We point to prospectively useful work in areas that embrace relationships between the super‐rich, place, and mobility; links between wealth and (geo)politics; new philanthropy; and the social and environmental consequences of ‘luxury fever’. We also speculate as to some of the reasons for geographers’ apparent reluctance to engage with the super‐rich, responding to some of the critical methodological challenges associated with such work.