SONIC GEOGRAPHY, PLACE AND RACE IN THE FORMATION OF LOCAL IDENTITY: LIVERPOOL AND SCOUSERS

The concept of identity has attracted significant academic attention. This article unpacks what constitutes the Scouse identity, how it is constructed and its different dimensions, with particular reference to place, phonology and race . Its novelty lies in developing the underused concept of "sonic geography" to examine the extent to which sound, for example a distinctive accent and/or dialect, affects the construction of local identity. Empirically this is conducted through a detailed analysis of the Scouse, or Liverpudlian, identity. The article also deploys the concept of "sonic exclusion" to examine the role a distinguishing vernacular plays in shaping local identity and the extent to which it determines "who is in" and "who is out" as a Scouser. The conclusion is that an effective understanding of a Scouser is not only spatial – someone born in Liverpool – because the sonoric landscape of spoken Scouse, and thereby Scouse identity, extends beyond the contemporary political and geographic boundaries of the City of Liverpool.     

The New Approach to TIBETAN NAMES

<正>To differentiate it from the common name"Tseten Dekyi"(a Tibetan name,meaning longevity and happiness)the 30-year-old Drolkar gave her baby girl the name"Tseten Dekyi"(same pronunciation as the first but using different Chinese characters).Drolkar's intention was to avoid giving her baby the same name as all the other Tibetan babies."Although the pronunciation is exactly the same for these two names,and both mean‘longevity' in Tibetan,the written characters for each name in Chinese are totally different so that it is unnecessary to differentiate one name from the other,"Drolkar said.     

A Neolithic Voyage

Examination of stone artefacts from Maiden Castle, Dorset, led to the identification of a Neolithic saddle-quern which originated in central Normandy. While stone axes from Brittany and jadeitite axes from the Alps have long been known from central southern England, the quern is the largest and heaviest Neolithic import yet identified. It has a bearing on the debate about indigenous or immigrant origins for the Neolithic, but also re-opens the question of the type of boat that plied the Channel at this early period. It is argued that logboats, for which there is evidence, should not be overlooked in favour of skin-boats for which there is none.
© 2009 The Authors     

Perspectivism: 'Type' or 'bomb'?

In this editorial Bruno Latour reviews a debate on 'Perspectivism and animism' between Philippe Descola (College of France) and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro (National Museum of Rio de Janeiro), that took place at Maison Suger, Institute of Advanced Studies, Paris on 30 January 2009.     

Parallel Lives – An Interview with Ruth Tringham

Ruth Tringham is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. She is one of the founders and a director of the UC Berkeley Multimedia Authoring Center for Teaching in Anthropology (MACTiA). Her research has focused on the transformation of early agricultural (Neolithic) societies. Tringham has directed and published archaeological excavations in South‐east Europe and Turkey, at the site of Çatalhöyük. Current research focuses on the life‐histories of buildings and the construction of place. Much of her recent practice of archaeology incorporates digital, especially multimedia, technology in the presentation of the process of archaeological interpretation, Since 1998 Tringham has incorporated multimedia authoring and digital technology into teaching inquiry‐based hybrid courses. From 1998 to 2001 she held the UCB Presidential Chair in Undergraduate Education. Tringham is now recognized internationally as one of the leaders of digital education, media literacy, and digital publishing in archaeology. This interest in multimedia grows out of a lifelong passion for music, puppets and cultivating illusions of reality.

The interview was conducted in Cambridge on 23 October 2007, the day after Ruth Tringham's participation in a personal history retrospective at the Department of Archaeology together with Meg Conkey, Henrietta Moore and Alison Wylie, and organized by Pamela Smith. The retrospective aimed to reflect on the transformation of archaeological theory and method during the 1970s and early 1980s (an audio recording is at http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/podcast/rss.xml). The interview was transcribed by the interviewees together with Dr Katharina Rebay, University of Cambridge.     

Medieval Britain and Ireland in 2017

This section of the journal comprises two core sets of reports linked to work in 2017: finds and analyses relating to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and site-specific discoveries and reports in medieval Britain and Ireland (MB&I), with a selection of highlighted projects. For the PAS report, reviews on coin and non-coin finds and on specific research angles are presented. For MB&I, the Society is most grateful to all contributors (of field units, museums, universities, developers, specialist groups and individuals) who have provided reports on finds, excavations, field-surveys and building analyses for 2017. For MB&I, see below for the format and content of the Fieldwork Highlights section and for contact details of the compilers. Annual Specialist Groups Reports appear in the Society’s Newsletter.