Mozambican archaeology: past and present

After a brief survey of the development of archaeology in Mozambique, the results of the archaeological survey programme of 1976–1983 are summarized by region. Work currently in progress is evaluated in the light of archaeological and national priorities and the paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical approach best suited to Mozambican conditions.

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Résumé Suivant une brève étude de l'avancement de l'archéologie dans le Mozambique, les résultats du programme de reconnaissances archéologiques de 1976–1983 sont résumés par région. Les travaux actuellement en cours sont evalués à la lumière des priorités nationales et archéologiques et l'article se conclut avec une discussion sur la meilleure approche théorique convenant aux conditions actuelles.

     

Diasporic identifications: exile,nostalgia and the Famine past in Irish and Irish North-American popular fiction, 1871–1891

During the nineteenth century, “exile” became a key term to describe the Irish-diasporic community in North America. More recently, scholars in the fields of diaspora studies and Irish studies have described this community as a “victim diaspora” with connotations of forced expulsion, exile, and nostalgia for the homeland. Moreover, among scholars and within the Irish-American community, the notion exists that the Great Irish Famine (1845–1851) constitutes the Irish-American “charter myth”, that it was the starting point of an Irish-American identity. This article sheds a different light on these (self-)identifications by discussing the concepts of origin myth, exile and nostalgia and also considers the concept of diasporic belonging in the context of Irish and Irish North-American works of popular “Famine fiction” written between 1871 and 1891. Consequently, the impact of these late nineteenth-century literary considerations on present-day conceptualisations of the Irish-American community as a victim diaspora are discussed.