Busman’s stomach and the embodiment of modernity

This paper examines the relationship between the gastric illness, ‘busman’s stomach’ and the Coronation bus strike of May 1937 in which 27,000 London busworkers walked out for better working conditions and a seven-and-half-hour day. It explores the way in which new patterns of somatisation, gastroenterological techniques, psychological theories and competing understandings of time worked together to create new political institutions and new forms of political action in inter-war Britain.     

Shropshire Folklore of Yesterday and Today

ENGLISH FOLK LORE. By CHRISTINA HOLE. Messrs. Batsford Ltd. 10s. 6d. Reviewed by L. F. Newman.

CROYANCES ET COUTUMES PERSANES, suivies de Contes et Chansons populaires, by HENRI MASSÉ, Paris, 1938. Librairie Oriental et Américaine. G. P. Maisonneuve, éditeur, 198 Boulevard Saint-Germain. 2 vols, of 593 pages together, 50 frs. each volume. Reviewed by H. T.

KERIS AND OTHER MALAY WEAPONS. By G. B. GARDNER. 4to, pp. 138. Singapore, 1936: Bernard Quaritch. 6s. 6d. J. H. Hutton.

DANISH BALLADS. Selected and with an Introduction by AXEL OLRIK. Translated by E. M. Smith-Dampier. Princeton University Press. London: Milford. 17s. 6d. Reviewed by Britta Mortensen.     

Book reviews

Bernard Arps (ed.). Performance in Java and Bali: studies of narrative, theatre, music, and dance,xi, 244 pp. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1993. £10.

C.D. Grijns. Jakarta Malay: a multidimensional approach to spatial variation. 2 vols.: xx, 292 pp.; vi, 161 pp., 35 maps. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1991. (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde, 149.) Guilders 100.     

Kitchen Drama: Performances,patriarchy and power dynamics in a Dorset farmhouse kitchen

The paper explores the power relations that identified a farming family through a particular farmhouse kitchen in Dorset, England. Studying this kitchen space was important, because on one hand it embodied a systemic sense of power, symbolising patrilineal inheritance with its ownership passed through male hands. Memories and voices haunted its space and pieces of inherited family furniture dominated its configuration, resisted change and defined performances. On the other hand, kitchen space exposed the complexity of power relations as household members were simultaneously disciplined by it and affected its substance. An episode of kitchen life illustrates this paper based on participant observation of a farming family in Dorset.

Drama de Cocina: interpretación, patriarca y dinámicos de poder en una cocina granja de Dorset

Este papel explora las relaciones de poder en una familia granja a través de su cocina en Dorset, Inglaterra. Estudiando este espacio cocina era importante porque por una parte personificó un sentido sistemático del poder, simbolizando la herencia patrilineal con la propiedad que traspasa por las manos masculinas. Las memorias y las voces andan por el espacio de la cocina los pedazos de muebles heredados de familia dominaron su configuración, resistieron variación y definieron interpretaciones. Por otra parte, el espacio de la cocina expone la complejidad de relaciones de poder mientras los miembros de la familia fueron disciplinado simultáneamente por él y afectaron su sustancia. Basado en observación participante, este papel utiliza como ilustración un episodio de la vida de la cocina de una familia granja en Dorset, Inglaterra.