Whistling the Death March? Listening in to the Acoustics of Ludwig Leichhardt's Australian Exploration

Scholars considering the acoustics of exploration have focused on how explorers heard Australian space in terms of silence, to argue this silenced Indigenous presence, or that stillness, was incongruous with how a place to be colonised should sound. I focus on the acoustically attuned Ludwig Leichhardt, a science-poet indebted to the Enlightenment, but also engaged with the German Romantic legacy. The manifold acoustic dimensions of expeditioning – including music – were important to him in different ways. The acoustic world could be assayed and harnessed in ways that were often consistent with colonialism. But there was also something fugitive about acoustics. They could mark a site for emotional engagement with place, and sometimes embryonic cross-cultural dialogue. Yet the possibilities were not always heard and, in line with Romanticism, the acoustic could drag down expeditioners’ spirits just as it could buoy them up. It could baffle or be a site for Indigenous resistance.     

Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1989

Abstract

CHILDHOOD IS A TIME of rapid biological growth and development, and a stage of the life course during which bodies are particularly sensitive to social and environmental stressors. As a consequence, events which may impact upon a child’s care and treatment can become physically embodied within their bones and teeth. The skeletal remains of children have been neglected within archaeological discourse until recently, but they are, in fact, a particularly important demographic for understanding the impact of social processes on past population health. This research examines the prevalence of skeletal disease in children (≤16 years) in Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) between ad 1000 and 1700. Data for a total of 4,626 children from 95 sites were collated from published and unpublished skeletal reports and analysed for evidence of skeletal changes reflecting disease. A biocultural approach was adopted in which the evidence was interpreted in relation to ecological, social, economic and environmental conditions. It was observed that childhood levels of skeletal stress did increase significantly after 1540. It was noted that during the Reformation sociocultural and economic factors added to stressors in the ecology of the medieval child. The effects of the Reformation were found to be the greatest aggravator in the rise of morbidity prevalence over seven centuries. Differences in morbidity patterns between non-adult age categories indicated that a state of ‘childhood’ existed until at least eleven years of age, after which there appears to have been a gradual transition into adolescence and adulthood.     

A Fleet of Mediterranean Border Humanitarians

EUrope has created a space of human suffering within which military‐humanitarian measures seem urgently required if the mass drowning is to be halted. The framing of migration governance as humanitarian has become commonplace in spectacular border practices in the Mediterranean Sea. Nonetheless, maritime disasters continue to unfold. This article discusses three non‐governmental actors, part of an emerging “humanitarian fleet” that seeks to turn the sea into a less deadly space: the Migrant Offshore Aid Station, Médecins Sans Frontières, and Sea‐Watch. While the rescue of precarious lives and the alleviation of suffering are central concerns, they imagine their humanitarian practices, the subjects of their compassion, and EUrope's role in shaping borderzones in different ways, pointing to a wide humanitarian spectrum. Engaging with the different discursive frames created by the three “border humanitarians”, the article explores what possibilities exist for political dissent to emanate from within humanitarian reason.