‘Princely graves’ of the central Balkans – A critical history of research

2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-88
Author(s):  
Staša Babić

This article critically explores the century-long history of research into a particular set of archaeological finds. The ‘princely graves’ – funerary assemblages dated to the early Iron Age (seventh to fifth centuries BC) containing, among other things, luxurious objects produced in Archaic Greek workshops – are known from various parts of temperate Europe, and were first recorded in the central Balkans region by the end of the nineteenth century. By their very nature, these finds pose several important theoretical and methodological problems, one of them being the need to bridge the divide between the procedures of prehistoric and classical archaeologies. The first attempts to account for these exceptional finds, in Europe as well as in the Balkans, were guided by the culture-historical procedure, typical of the archaeological investigation of the time. During the 1960s New Archaeology brought about the notion of chiefdom as a tool to account for the Iron Age societies. The concept was introduced into research on the central Balkan finds, proving successful in overcoming the shortcomings of the previous explanations, but at the same time creating new ones, encapsulated in the critique of the evolutionary approach. This review of research into the ‘princely graves’ concludes in proposing several new lines of inquiry, already introduced in the European archaeological theory: issues of group identity and individual actors, and phenomenological approaches to time and space.

Author(s):  
Alexandra Shiller

This article is dedicated to examination of the role of guilt and shame, namely to prevalence one of these emotions in a particular culture as the leading mechanism of social control. The prevalence of guilt or shame as a cultural “dimension” has become one of the first criteria for the division of cultures into Western and Eastern, and was used by the researchers as a basic postulate for cross-cultural r. Over time, the perception of emotions as the criterion for the division of cultures has been revised. The article traces the history of research on emotions in general, namely the emotions of guilt and shame as social emotions, as well as describes guilt and shame as collective and individual experiences. Analysis is conducted on the role of guilt and shame in methodology of research on social emotions, cross-cultural studies. The author outlines certain methodological problems and contradictions, and assesses the current state of scientific research dedicated to social emotions. The conclusion is made that the research on collective sense of guilt and shame is more advanced from the perspective of cross-cultural psychology and philosophy, as well as the overall methodology of science; it allows shifting from the study of the role of individual emotions in interpersonal (conditioned by collective ties), intergroup and intragroup communication towards the integrated study of emotions associated with interaction of the individual and society, i.e. social experiences.


Author(s):  
PHILIP R. DAVIES

Most archaeologists of ancient Israel still operate with a pro-biblical ideology, while the role that archaeology has played in Zionist nation building is extensively documented. Terms such as ‘ninth century’ and ‘Iron Age’ represent an improvement on ‘United Monarchy’ and ‘Divided Monarchy’, but these latter terms remain implanted mentally as part of a larger portrait that may be called ‘biblical Israel’. This chapter argues that the question of ‘biblical Israel’ must be regarded as distinct from the kingdoms of Israel and Judah as a major historical problem rather than a given datum. ‘Biblical Israel’ can never be the subject of a modern critical history, but is rather a crucial part of that history, a ‘memory’, no doubt historically conditioned, that became crucial in creating Judaism. This realization will enable us not only to write a decent critical history of Iron Age central Palestine but also to bring that history and the biblical narrative into the kind of critical engagement that will lead to a better understanding of the Bible itself.


ARTMargins ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-29
Author(s):  
Jessica Gerschultz

This article raises two concerns underpinning the need for a critical history of fiber art in the 20th century. The first is a critique of aesthetic formalism predominant in the Lausanne Biennale during the 1960s and 70s, which overlooks artistic, ideological, and political milieus that drew together textile artists from localities formerly treated as peripheral in art history. The second holds to account Euro-American institutions and related historiographies for their curatorial exclusion of Arab and African fiber artists. Such inclusion, I argue, would have conjured tapestry's deeper incongruities, which emanated from unresolved questions at the core of modernism: the assigning and appropriating of artistic identities, the evaded issue of state patronage, and the persistent ideological and aesthetic problem of craft and its framing within economies. By comparing three artists: Magdalena Abakanowicz, Jagoda Buic, and Safia Farhat, I reassess New Tapestry networks, myths, and systems of state and institutional support. The circulation of Abakanowicz, Buic, and Farhat around a conflux of dimensions signals a new pathway for recovering and writing a history of fiber art, and perhaps a reflection on modernism at large.


LingVaria ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (27) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Bogusław Dunaj

The Past and the Present of Research into Cracow PolishThe paper presents the history of research into the urban spoken Polish of Cracow. Its most intensive period fell between 1976 and 1991. The research project was initiated by Professor M. Karaś. After his untimely death in 1977, the work was directed by Professor B. Dunaj. It was twin-track; both collective and individual studies were carried out. Under the supervision of B. Dunaj, five doctoral theses have been written; in total, nine books have been published: four collective and five individual ones. Some collective works have not been published, i.a. Słownik frekwencyjny nieoficjalnej odmiany polszczyzny mówionej (‘A frequency dictionary of an unofficial variety of spoken Polish’). Also other projects grew out of the research into the language spoken in Cracow, e.g. Słownik współczesnego języka polskiego (1996; ‘A dictionary of contemporary Polish’). In the first decade of the 21st century, B. Dunaj and M. Mycawka conducted research into regional vocabulary, focusing primarily on theoretical problems. Under the supervision of B. Dunaj, 28 unpublished monographies have been prepared on the subject of regional words in the speech of inhabitants of selected towns (mainly in Lesser Poland). In 2018, the dictionary Powiedziane po krakowsku. Słownik regionalizmów krakowskich (‘Said like in Cracow. A dictionary of Cracow regional words’, ed. by D. Ochmann and R. Przybylska) has been published, growing out of and referring to previous research. The present paper presents the controversial methodological problems related to research into regional vocabulary.


Author(s):  
Rebecca Lawton ◽  
Dianne Parker

This paper reviews research since 1970 on the relationship between accident liability and individual differences, focusing specifically on accidents at work. The history of research into accident liability and the methodological problems associated with the research are considered. The review goes on to examine work on the impact of personality factors, cognitive factors, and social factors on the likelihood of accident involvement at work. We suggest that research into individual differences in accident liability should consider two possible routes to accident involvement via errors and/or violations. Although errors are predominantly associated with cognitive factors, violations have their origins in social psychological factors. We also consider the role of stress in mediating the personality-accident association. It is contended that individuals differ in their reactions to stress, so that although some respond by an increase in risk-taking behavior, the effect on others is to increase the likelihood of suboptimal performance in terms of information processing. Actual or potential applications of this research include the development of a more sophisticated model of individual differences in accident liability, which should be useful to organizations attempting to promote safety.


Antiquity ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 72 (277) ◽  
pp. 694-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce G. Trigger

The dual tasks of this paper are to examine David Clarke’s ideas about the development of archaeology as they relate both to the era when ‘the loss of innocence’ was written and to what has happened since. In his treatment of the history of archaeology offered in that essay, Clarke subscribed to at least two of the key tenets of the behaviourist and utilitarian approaches that dominated the social sciences in the 1960s: neoevolutionism and ecological determinism.Clarke viewed the development of archaeology as following a unilinear sequence of stages from consciousness through self-consciousness to critical self-consciousness. The first stage began with archaeology defining its subject matter and what archaeologists do. As its database and the procedures required for studying it became more elaborate, self-conscious archaeology emerged as a ‘series of divergent and selfreferencing regional schools … with regionally esteemed bodies of archaeological theory and locally preferred forms of description, interpretation and explanation’ (Clarke 1973: 7). At the stage of critical self-consciousness, regionalism was replaced by a conviction that ‘archaeologists hold most of their problems in common and share large areas of general theory within a single discipline’ (1973: 7). Archaeology was now defined by ‘the characteristic forms of its reasoning, the intrinsic nature of its knowledge and information, and its competing theories of concepts and their relationships’ (1973: 7). Clarke looked forward to a fourth (and ultimate?) phase of self-critical self-consciousncss, when the new archaeology would monitor and control its own development.


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