Molecular and isotopic traces of cooking and consumption of fish at an Early Medieval manor site in eastern middle Sweden

This paper is a presentation of a comparison between prehistoric food culture signals obtained through analyses of lipid food residues in pottery, i.e. pottery-use, from settlement remains on one hand and bone chemical analyses of human skeletal remains from an adjacent and contemporary cemetery on the other. The materials derive from the Early Medieval site Tuna in Alsike par., Uppland, Sweden. The results show a discrepancy between the two food signals and it is argued that pottery-use do not by necessity reflect everyday diet. But it is also argued that the integration of several food signals together with contextual archaeological data is a fruitful way to begin to understand the complexity of prehistoric cultures of food.     

Who Is the Enemy? The Nationalist Dilemma of Inclusion and Exclusion in Britain During the First World War

The First World War polarised British society. The British 'nation' needed a definition of the external enemy to generate internal cohesion as much as the production of modern hostility presupposed the existence of nationalism. Apparently, hostility which is nationalistically motivated is of functional importance for the cohesion of a society in war. But the construction of the nation along the lines of the dialectic structure of exclusion and inclusion implies that even its founding act encourages national splits. The manner in which nationalism generates social cohesion by excluding non-members at the same time always turns it into the expression of and the reason for internal conflicts. First and foremost, however, it was the co-existence of a whole host of concepts of the nation competing with each other for supremacy which turned nationalism into a disintegrative power in society. The co-existing national concepts by and large reflected the political factions and camps in the belligerent society. This article tries to outline the various ways in which the borderlines between the internal and the external enemy, between the hostile part of one's own society and a hostile foreign society converged under the circumstances of the exceptional burden of the First World War. At the end the hostility which was motivated and legitimised nationalistically both split and integrated British society.     

Ergosterol (5, 7, 22-ergostatrien-3β-ol) as a potential biomarker for alcohol fermentation in lipid residues from prehistoric pottery

In this paper we explore the potential use of ergosterol (5, 7, 22-ergostatrien-3β-ol) as a possible biomarker for yeast and alcohol fermentation, applying the analytical technique previously used routinely in Swedish archaeology for the analysis of lipid residue in prehistoric pottery. Taking note on the connection between brewing, baking and agriculture the frequency of vessels showing gas chromatography mass spectrometry traces of this compound in lipid residues from a clearly agricultural Bronze Age/Early Iron Age population was compared with the same signal in a clearly non-agricultural Neolithic foragers pottery population. The result shows a small but statistically significant difference between the two populations, indicating a connection between the presence of ergosterol in lipid residues from pottery and agriculture. The results are also discussed in terms of varying cleanliness, degradation, deposition conditions and contamination. Suggestions for future research include the use of a more sensitive analytical protocol in order to improve detection limits and to include materials from clear agricultural Neolithic vessel populations.     

Analysing musical culture in nineteenth-century Europe: towards a musical turn?

The aim of this article is to establish the extent to which the history of music can offer new perspectives on the modern period. We need a change of perspective, moving away from the aesthetic debates on music to an investigation of actual experiences and practices of participants. Audience behaviour provides a link between musical production and society. In order to make opera houses and concert halls visible as social spheres, this article draws on examples from the musical life of Berlin and London in the 1800s. Music should no longer be regarded as a peripheral phenomenon, but instead as a potential historical question. The analysis of musical performances prompts at least one: music matters.     

Lipid residue analyses of Early Neolithic funnel-beaker pottery from Skogsmossen,eastern Central Sweden,and the earliest evidence of dairying in Sweden

This study address the question of the use and function of Early Neolithic (4000–3000 cal. BC) funnel-beaker pots from Mälardalen in eastern Central Sweden. The material studied is pottery from a wetland offering at the site Skogsmossen in the province of Västmanland. While deposited under ritual circumstances in a fen, the pots were likely used in a domestic domain on the settlement adjacent to the offering fen, prior to final deposition. The lipid analysis indicate a varied vessel use, there are traces of aquatic resources, plants, terrestrial animals and milk. The identification of milk residue is the oldest so far from Sweden.     

The Pillars of “Mahathir's Islam”: Mahathir Mohamad on Being-Muslim in the Modern World

Unlike his bourgeois economic nationalism or diplomatic posturing on behalf of the developing world, Mahathir Mohamad's encounter with Islam remains a largely understudied aspect of his 22-year rule of Malaysia (1981–2003). There is a marked reluctance to take seriously his pronouncements on Islam and engage with his representations of what being-Muslim should entail in the modern world. This essay takes the view that Islam, in fact, represents a significant component of the former Malaysian prime minister's political repertoire, and that an analysis of what may be described as “Mahathir's Islam” can provide a compelling alternative account of his momentous premiership. It argues that while Mahathir's engagement with Islam was fraught with contradictions and has produced a number of negative consequences that affect Malaysian society as a whole, his discourse also contained the ingredients of what Bellah and Hammond (1980) have famously described as civil religion. Mahathir's public representations of Islam – in particular, his championing of the individually responsible believer and interpretation of the message to the Prophet Muhammad as a this-worldly and pro-active “theology of progress” – can thus provide religious validation to the cosmopolitanism of the street that has helped underwrite the social peace of multi-religious Malaysia.