WHAT IS CULTURAL POLICY RESEARCH?

Cultural policy research exists in many contexts, asks many different kinds of questions and adopts a wide repertoire of research methodologies from a raft of academic discourses. This article investigates the research questions and approaches being undertaken by those working in this field. In order to achieve this, the article draws upon readings of contemporary publications in the field and on the authors’ experiences of building a research capacity in the area of cultural policy in a British – and, more particularly, a post‐devolution Scottish – university. The article traces the emergence of an academic discipline in the field, and seeks to advance this by reviewing a tripartite research agenda investigating: the history and historiography of cultural policy; the principles and strategies of cultural policy; and, the relationships between cultural policy and cultural theory/cultural studies.     

Horses and the Embodiment of Elite Masculinity in the Dolenjska Hallstatt Culture

In later prehistory horse ownership was a manifestation of wealth and physical prowess, and demonstrated access to distant lands. Because of the expense and restricted availability of horses, they are often reduced to indicators of status without more nuanced considerations of how lived human‐horse interactions enmeshed them in these status displays. To complicate the simple horse/status object equivalence, this article presents a specific case for the symbolic and social significance of horses in Early Iron Age south‐eastern Slovenia through the lens of equine iconography, and argues that horses and particularly equestrianism were essential to embodying elite masculine identity. Broadly, this article seeks to move beyond equating high‐status goods with high‐status people by discussing how particular events, bodily abilities and human‐animal relationships were all intertwined in the materialization of social distinction for a particular group.     

Killer Khilats,Part 2: Imperial Collecting of Poison Dress Legends in India

This article presents the English language collecting histories of seven legends of death by Poison Dress that were recorded in early modern India (set out in ''Killer Khilats, Part 1''). The tales express fears of contamination, either symbolic or real, aroused by the ancient Persian-influenced customs of presenting robes of honour ( khilats ). Rajputs, Mughals, British, and other groups in India participated in the development of tales of deadly clothing from 1600 to the early twentieth century. The tales and their variants share motifs and themes with Poison Dress legends in the Bible, Greek myth, Arthurian legends, and modern American versions, but all seven tales display distinctively Indian characteristics. The historical settings and the contexts of collection demonstrate the cultural assumptions of the various groups who performed poison khilat legends in India.     

Beneath and before: continuums of publicness in public art

Public monuments traditionally appear in high contrast to their landscapes, an effect that sets aesthetic, ideological and social distances. However, Manmale, counter-monuments, and counter-hegemonic monuments (eg the AIDS quilt, Rachael Whiteread's House, Melbourne's Another View Walking Trail, Tiananmen's Goddess of Democracy, or Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial), challenge the norms of monuments in visuality, fixedness, and permanence, and suggest intricacies which mediate the interactivity of art, site and passers-by. In this paper, I consider three counter-hegemonic monuments in Vancouver, British Columbia – all installed in 1997/98 and all dealing with the issue of violence – sited within one neighbourhood. Via archival research, interviews, and extensive participant observations investigating how the monuments actually function in social memory rituals, I discovered that the characteristics of publicness in the landscapes that lay ‘beneath and before’ the monuments deeply affected their origins, designs, and current uses.     

Interpreting Ritual as Performance and Theory Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania 2010 Distinguished Lecture

ABSTRACT The paper looks at specific rituals and their relationships with dance in Hawaii, Tonga, Bulgaria, and India. These four short case studies explore the relationship between dance and ritual, in particular how dance is presented as representing the ritual past. I bring ‘structured movement,’ as one of ritual's distinguishing marks, to center stage to explore how ritual movement and dance are related.     

Bibliography of Classical Folklore Scholarship: Myths,Legends, and Popular Beliefs of Ancient Greece and Rome

The Science of Fairy Tales : an Inquiry into Fairy Mythology. By E. Sidney Hartland, F.S.A. (W. Scott) By Joseph Jacobs.     

Proceedings of the Association

Abstract

Pier alternation in Gothic architecture is generally thought of in the context of French buildings where there are usually only two forms the orderly alternation of which is closely tied to the system of vaulting. In England, however, buildings of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries exhibit an unprecedented variety of pier arrangements that are entirely independent of the rest of the building's elevation. These arrangements may involve many more than two forms of pier; they may be simple or complex, symmetrical or asymmetrical. The contrast between pier forms may be subtle or blatant; in addition to the usual east-west alternation, there may also be contrast between north and south arcades. Neither archaeological arguments involving separate campaigns or changes in master, nor arguments related to liturgical divisons or shrine placement can explain this surprising freedom. These arcades are clearly the result of an extraordinary creativity in pier design and a desire to display this virtuosity as effectively as possible. Such an attitude is part of an original concept of Gothic style with implications ranging far beyond pier design.