Artefact Categories, Artefact Assemblages and Ontological Alterity

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Simon Holdaway ◽  
Rebecca Phillipps
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Archaeological Interpretation ◽  
The North ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
Geological Source ◽  
Stone Artefact

Joan Gero argued that archaeological interpretation is not the accumulation of truth but rather an ideological construct. Post-colonial studies building on Gero's work critique notions of universal value, that aspects of human cultural heritage hold value for all peoples. However, these studies are not specific about what a post-colonial analysis of the archaeological record might look like, particularly involving material culture categories. What appear as fundamental artefact classes remain and so appeal to a form of universal value. Here we employ a novel application of the ontological turn, specifically Holbraad's method of ontography, to break away from conventional approaches to stone artefact categorization and interpretation. We use Lucas’ discussion of materialization to develop an alternative approach to artefact categories considering two assemblages of artefacts from the North Island of Aotearoa. Both feature large numbers of obsidian artefacts. The obsidian provides the means to investigate levels of historical use, since the material is identifiable to geological source, analysable technologically and retains traces of use. Using the results of obsidian analyses, we investigate the concepts on which archaeologists have based assessments of the relationships among material culture items, suggesting ways in which archaeologists might consider creating space for post-colonial ontologies.

Questions Raised in Excavating the Recent Dead

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sian Anthony
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Working Life ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Special Circumstances ◽  
Historic Cemetery ◽  
Large Sections

The decision to excavate a modern cemetery in the heart of Copenhagen prompted questions which revealed how the sensitive borderlines surrounding the recent dead are dealt with by archaeologists. When the plans for a new metro line were revealed in Copenhagen, the location of one station within a historic cemetery was controversial. Assistens cemetery is an early example of a landscape, or garden, cemetery (Rugg 1998; Tarlow 2000), designed and ordered according to fashionable contemporary garden principles and aesthetics. It has remained a much-loved place where famous personalities are buried as well as many ordinary citizens of Copenhagen. Although burial within the cemetery has become increasingly rare, it is still in occasional use for new interments and for gardens of remembrance for the burial and disposal of ashes. However, in the 1980s changing municipal plans for the cemetery re-designated large sections of it as a park, as described in Helweg and Linnée Nielsen (2010). This change of status enabled the Copenhagen metro company (Metroselskabet) to consider the placement of a station in one corner of the cemetery. Excavation of this site from 2009 to 2011 resulted in the archaeological recording of the material culture of the cemetery including around one thousand burials, their grave-pits, funerary material culture, and some aspects of the working life of the cemetery (Anthony et al. 2016). Assistens cemetery was originally created in 1760 and later expanded in 1805/6. The excavation focused on the north-west corner of the 1805/6 extension, an area surrounding a cemetery administration building (graverbolig). The area was filled by the mid-nineteenth century and continued to be used intensively for the next hundred years. In the latter part of the twentieth century, coffin burial became less frequent but continued until the 1980s. The occasional placement of cremation urns began in the early twentieth century and continued in large numbers into the 1990s (Helweg and Linnée Nielsen 2010). Burial is now uncommon in the entire cemetery and only takes place in special circumstances. In contrast to UK cemetery regulations, Danish law allows for graves to be removed after only twenty years, so there is the possibility of reusing grave plots after this short period by removing the previous coffins.

scholarly journals Beyond dependency: the promise of Confucianism in Post-Westphalia International relations

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricky Wai-kay Yue
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Core ◽  
The North ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Beijing Consensus ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Confucian Values

The landscape of post-colonial development is marked by deepening dependency of the developing states on the core states consisted mainly of western developed countries. The continuous widening of the north–south divide is not surprising given that the discourse on international relations has been dominated by western ideologies of realism, liberalism and constructivism, resulting in an insufficient attempt to examine international relations from a non-Westphalian perspective. Through the implementation of the Washington Consensus, developing countries are being forced to follow the development model of liberal democracy designed by the West, for the benefit of the West. This paper attempts to investigate an alternative approach from a Chinese historical structural perspective. By highlighting the key tenets of Confucianism, this paper aims to contribute towards a non-Western international relations discourse that is based on moral values. Attempts by China to provide assistance to the “poor south” are marred by accusations of neo-colonialism. In order to fulfil its great power responsibility, China needs to incorporate these Confucian values into its Beijing Consensus so that the global south can abandon their dependency on the West and truly set the stage for south-south cooperation.

Towards a post-colonial artefact analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Van Oyen
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
The Other ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Colonial Archaeology ◽  
Change Of Perspective ◽  
The One

AbstractThis paper argues that material culture should be brought even more to the forefront in post-colonial archaeology. At present, post-colonial analyses start from a baseline of pinned-down, delineated things as processed through artefact analysis, to proceed to interpretations of how these things were used in fluid, multidirectional, ambivalent social and cultural interactions. But what if thingsthemselvescan be fluid rather than bounded? Can we look into the various ways in which things were defined in the past, and the various relations they enabled? Such a change of perspective can also help redress the imbalance within post-colonial studies between, on the one hand, consumption as the field in which meaning is negotiated and, on the other hand, production as offering merely a template for the inscription of that meaning. A case study of so-called pre-sigillata production in southern Gaul articulates the benefit to be gained from considering these issues.

The Inherited Past of the Broch: On Antiquarian Discourse and Contemporary Archaeology

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW BAINES
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Contemporary Archaeology ◽  
The North

In reading archaeological texts, we expect to be engaged in a characteristically archaeological discourse, with a specific and recognisable structure and vocabulary. In evaluating the published work of 19th Century antiquarians, we will inevitably look for points of contact between their academic language and our own; success or failure in the identification of such points of contact may prompt us to recognise a nascent archaeology in some writings, while dismissing others as naïve or absurd. With this point in mind, this paper discusses the written and material legacies of three 19th Century antiquarians in the north of Scotland who worked on a particular monument type, the broch. The paper explores the degree to which each has been admitted as an influence on the development of the broch as a type. It then proceeds to compare this established typology with the author's experiences, in the field, of the sites it describes. In doing so, the paper addresses wider issues concerning the role of earlier forms of archaeological discourse in the development of present day archaeological classifications of, and of the problems of reconciling such classifications with our experiences of material culture.

The Story of Storyboards from East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-74
Author(s):  
Martin Soukup ◽  
Dušan Lužný
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Field Research ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Cultural Continuity ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Global Tourism ◽  
The Village

This study analyzes and interprets East Sepik storyboards, which the authors regard as a form of cultural continuity and instrument of cultural memory in the post-colonial period. The study draws on field research conducted by the authors in the village of Kambot in East Sepik. The authors divide the storyboards into two groups based on content. The first includes storyboards describing daily life in the community, while the other links the daily life to pre-Christian religious beliefs and views. The aim of the study is to analyze one of the forms of contemporary material culture in East Sepik in the context of cultural changes triggered by Christianization, colonial administration in the former Territory of New Guinea and global tourism.

Animal Models and Alternatives in the Quality Control of Vaccines: Are In Vitro Methods or In Vivo Methods the Scientific Equivalent of the Emperor's New Clothes?

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
Coenraad Hendriksen ◽  
Johan van der Gun
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Test Methods ◽  
In Vitro Test ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Inactivated Vaccines ◽  
Vitro Test

In the quality control of vaccine batches, the potency testing of inactivated vaccines is one of the areas requiring very large numbers of animals, which usually suffer significant distress as a result of the experimental procedures employed. This article deals with the potency testing of diphtheria and tetanus toxoids, two vaccines which are used extensively throughout the world. The relevance of the potency test prescribed by the European Pharmacopoeia monographs is questioned. The validity of the potency test as a model for the human response, the ability of the test to be standardised, and the relevance of the test in relation to the quality of the product are discussed. It is concluded that the potency test has only limited predictive value for the antitoxin responses to be expected in recipients of these toxoids. An alternative approach for estimating the potency of toxoid batches is discussed, in which a distinction is made between estimation of the immunogenic potency of the first few batches obtained from a seed lot and monitoring the consistency of the quality of subsequent batches. The use of animals is limited to the first few batches. Monitoring the consistency of the quality of subsequent batches is based on in vitro test methods. Factors which hamper the introduction and acceptance of the alternative approach are considered. Finally, proposals are made for replacement, reduction and/or refinement (the Three Rs) in the use of animals in the routine potency testing of toxoids.

Singa Transitional: Rock-art Saywas Marking Boundaries of Identity and Socializing Landscape in Huánuco, Peru

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-263
Author(s):  
Jonathan J. Dubois
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Regional Survey ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
The North ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Early Horizon ◽  
Landscape Feature

This paper introduces a new art style, Singa Transitional, found painted onto a mountainside near the modern town of Singa in the north of Huánuco, Peru. This style was discovered during a recent regional survey of rock art in the Huánuco region that resulted in the documentation of paintings at more than 20 sites, the identification of their chronological contexts and an analysis of the resulting data for trends in changing social practices over nine millennia. I explore how the style emerged from both regional artistic trends in the medium and broader patterns evident in Andean material culture from multiple media at the time of its creation. I argue that the presence of Singa Transitional demonstrates that local peoples were engaged in broader social trends unfolding during the transition between the Early Horizon (800–200 bc) and the Early Intermediate Period (ad 0–800) in Peru. I propose that rock art placed in prominent places was considered saywa, a type of landscape feature that marked boundaries in and movement through landscapes. Singa Transitional saywas served to advertise the connection between local Andean people and their land and was a medium through which social changes were contested in the Andes.

Tense and Tender Ties: The Politics of Comparison in (Post) Colonial Studies

Itinerario ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 263-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Laura Stoler
Keyword(s):  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Racial Categories ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Colonial Encounter ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Research Domain

This essay takes as its subject how intimate domains - sex, sentiment, domestic arrangement and child rearing - figure in the making of racial categories and in the management of imperial rule. For some two decades my work on Indonesia's Dutch colonial history has addressed patterns of governance that were particular to that time and place but resonant with practices in a wider global field. My perspective thus is that of an outsider to, but an acquisitive consumer of comparative historical studies, one long struck with the disparate and congruent imperial projects in Asia, Africa and the Americas. This essay invites reflection on those domains of overlap and difference. My interest is more specifically in what Albert Hurtado refers to as ‘the intimate frontiers’ of empire, a social and cultural space where racial classifications were defined and defied, where relations between coloniser and colonised could powerfully confound or confirm the strictures of governance and the categories of rule. Some two decades ago, Sylvia van Kirk urged a focus on such ‘tender ties’ as a way to explore the ‘human dimension’ of the colonial encounter.’ As she showed so well, what Michel Foucault has called these ‘dense transfer point[s]’ of power that generate such ties were sites of production of colonial inequities and, therefore, of tense ties as well. Among students of colonialisms in the last decade, the intimacies of empire have been a rich and well-articulated research domain. A more sustained focus on the relationship between what Foucault refers to as ‘the regimes of truth’ of imperial systems (the ways of knowing and establishing truth claims about race and difference on which macro polities rely) and those micro sites of governance may reveal how these colonial empires compare and converge.

scholarly journals Crossing the Bosphorus: Connected Histories of “Other” Muslims in the Post-Imperial Borderlands of Southeast Europe

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 908-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Henig
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Historical Anthropology ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Methodological Nationalism

AbstractSituated in the borderlands of Southeast Europe, this essay explores how enduring patterns of transregional circulation and cosmopolitan sensibility unfold in the lives of dervish brotherhoods in the post-Cold War present. Following recent debates on connected histories in post-colonial studies and historical anthropology, long-standing mobile and circulating societies, and reinvigorated interest in empire, this essay focuses ethnographically on how members of a dervish brotherhood in Bosnia-Herzegovina cultivate relations with places, collectivities, and practices that exist on different temporal, spatial and geopolitical scales. These connections are centered around three modes of articulation—sonic, graphic, and genealogical—through which the dervish disciples imagine and realize transregional relations. This essay begins and concludes with a meditation on the need for a dialogue between ethnography and transregional history in order to appreciate modes of identification and imagination that go beyond the essentializing forms of collective identity that, in the post-imperial epoch, have been dominated by political and methodological nationalism.

scholarly journals Controlling Shipping Along the North European Trade Axis

1971 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-556
Author(s):  
D. J. Lindsay
Keyword(s):  
Weather Conditions ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Baltic Basin ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The North ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Straight Line ◽  
European Trade ◽  
Trade Route ◽  
The Baltic

By the North European Trade Axis is meant the trade route from Ushant and Land's End, up the English Channel, through the Dover Strait fanning out to serve eastern England, the north coast of continental Europe and leading to the Baltic Basin. Recent events in this area have left a feeling that some form of tightening of control is not only desirable, but is rapidly becoming imperative. There is a basic conflict between the two forms of shipping using the area: the local users who use the area more or less constantly, and the long-distance traders, usually much larger, which arrive in the area for a brief stay after a prolonged period at sea, which has usually been in good weather conditions. Frequently these latter ships have a very poor notion of the hornet's nest into which they are steaming when they arrive. The net result is all too often the same: the local users, with familiarity breeding contempt, wander about as they see fit, with scant regard for routing or the regulations; all too often the big ships arrive from sea with navigating staffs who are too confused, sometimes too ignorant—and sometimes too terrified—to do much more than blunder forward in a straight line hoping for the best. Quite obviously this is not a total picture, and there are large numbers of ships which navigate perfectly competently, but the minority of those which do not seem to be rising rapidly, and show every sign of continuing to increase.

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