Ideology, Chiefly Power, and Material Culture: An Example from the Greater Antilles

1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Antonio Curet
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Greater Antilles ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean

AbstractTemporal changes in material culture normally have been used by archaeologists to reconstruct the cultural history of an area or site. In the case of the Caribbean, shifts in artifactual style have been used to trace prehistoric migrations and interactions between different cultural groups. Unfortunately, there have been few attempts to explain these changes in terms of the social structures of these cultures. This paper reviews the archaeological evidence for cultural change in eastern Puerto Rico and proposes a model to explain it. Basically, the model suggests that changes in material culture in Puerto Rican prehistory are related to the development of social complexity. Shifts in decoration and types of artifacts are seen as an attempt by elite groups to have greater control over the symbolism represented in the artifacts in order to acquire and maintain their power. These changes are not abrupt, but gradual, as social organization evolves from simple to more complex chiefdoms.

The Age of Pearl Barley

2020 ◽  
pp. 100-131
Author(s):  
Anna Hájková
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
The Social ◽  
Food Shortages ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mass Starvation ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
Good Access

This chapter presents a hidden history of how food and hunger shaped the politics of everyday life in Terezín. It offers a social and cultural history of food, eating, and hunger, and of how food defined social structures and kinship. The German authorities consigned Jews to Terezín and restricted the supply of food. Shortages led to maldistribution, caused by the food categories introduced by the Jewish self-administration and corruption, which vastly increased rates of hunger and death. Maldistribution was a consequence of inmate society. The social hierarchy in Theresienstadt resulted in stark differences in access to food, with younger prisoners enjoying relatively good access while the underfed elderly population was deprived and had an extremely high mortality rate. Mass starvation in Theresienstadt was caused more by maldistribution than by lack of food.

scholarly journals On the Social and Cultural History of the Moriscos

1986 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-156
Author(s):  
Fadel Abdallah
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Hostile Environment ◽  
Passive Resistance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Muslim Minority ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Islamic Values ◽  
Insight Into

Following the reconquest of Granada in 1492, the Muslim minority in Spain,known demgatorily as Moriscos, were subjected to harsh measures in the formof edicts and restrictions. Forced to live in a hostile environment, which happenedto be their homeland, they developed their own attitude, accompaniedby passive resistance and sporadic revolt. This attitude was expressed in anextensive, clandestine and mostly anonymous literature known as the Aljamiadoliterature, which was for the most part written in the Romance in Arabic script.Although the Moriscos preserved a sentimental attachment to Arabic as theirown language, they were no longer able to use it. This literature was, for themost part, inspired by Arabic models that not only expressed defiance towardsthe oppressor, but also reiterated Islamic values. Written mostly during theXV and XVI centuries, the Aljamiado literature is significant for the studyof cultural change, offering valuable data for the historian, religious scholar,sociologist, anthropologist, philologist, belle - lettrist, and civil and humanrights advocate, who would gain insight into the fate of a deprived andpersecuted minority living in a hostile environment.The work under review is intended according to its author “to survey andanalyze the selfexpression of the Moriscos as contained in their own literature;it also assesses the status of a minority struggling for survival, with referenceto ideological conflict, the clash of religions and cultures, and differing mutualperceptions.” Although the work is intended to be a general “cultural and socialhistory,” as the sub-title indicates, it is in many ways a study of the mentulitaeof a group of people who were forced to live on the defensive in their bidfor survival ...

Greek History

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 312-318
Author(s):  
Kostas Vlassopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Social History ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Social ◽  
Greek History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Class Status ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Interactionist Approach

I commence this review with a major contribution to the social history of classical Athens. Athenian social history is traditionally focused on polarities of class, status, and gender; while these polarities were obviously important, it is equally significant to adopt an interactionist approach and explore the shape of encounters between people belonging to the same or different groups. Rafał Matuszewski has chosen to focus on the interactions and communication between male Athenian citizens: in particular, the various spaces in which those interactions took place, as well as the means of communication. As regards the spaces, he explores in detail the noisy streets, the Agora, the various shops, workshops, and places of commensality and entertainment, the baths, the gymnasia, and the palaestrae. This is an excellent synthesis of a large number of social spaces in classical Athens, which have never been explored in the same detail as, for example, sanctuaries and cemeteries. Equally fascinating is the second part of the work and its detailed exploration of the body as a means of communication, alongside elements of material culture like clothes, houses, and graves. The wealth of material that is collected and examined and the interactionist framework employed have the potential to revolutionize how we study Greek social and cultural history; it is to be hoped that Anglophone readers will make the effort to engage seriously with this important German book.

Same Address, Different Doors: Post-Heritage Deconstruction of the Heritage Household in Upstairs Downstairs in the 1970s and 2010s

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Abbiss
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
War Narrative ◽  
Critical History ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fourth Series ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multiple Episodes

This article offers a ‘post-heritage’ reading of both iterations of Upstairs Downstairs: the LondonWeekend Television (LWT) series (1971–5) and its shortlived BBC revival (2010–12). Identifying elements of subversion and subjectivity allows scholarship on the LWT series to be reassessed, recognising occasions where it challenges rather than supports the social structures of the depicted Edwardian past. The BBC series also incorporates the post-heritage element of self-consciousness, acknowledging the parallel between its narrative and the production’s attempts to recreate the success of its 1970s predecessor. The article’s first section assesses the critical history of the LWT series, identifying areas that are open to further study or revised readings. The second section analyses the serialised war narrative of the fourth series of LWT’s Upstairs, Downstairs (1974), revealing its exploration of female identity across multiple episodes and challenging the notion that the series became more male and upstairs dominated as it progressed. The third section considers the BBC series’ revised concept, identifying the shifts in its main characters’ positions in society that allow the series’ narrative to question the past it evokes. This will be briefly contrasted with the heritage stability of Downton Abbey (ITV, 2010–15). The final section considers the household of 165 Eaton Place’s function as a studio space, which the BBC series self-consciously adopts in order to evoke the aesthetics of prior period dramas. The article concludes by suggesting that the barriers to recreating the past established in the BBC series’ narrative also contributed to its failure to match the success of its earlier iteration.

Same Address, Different Doors: Post-Heritage Deconstruction of the Heritage Household in Upstairs Downstairs in the 1970s and 2010s

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Abbiss
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
War Narrative ◽  
Critical History ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fourth Series ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multiple Episodes

This article offers a ‘post-heritage’ reading of both iterations of Upstairs Downstairs: the LondonWeekend Television (LWT) series (1971–5) and its shortlived BBC revival (2010–12). Identifying elements of subversion and subjectivity allows scholarship on the LWT series to be reassessed, recognising occasions where it challenges rather than supports the social structures of the depicted Edwardian past. The BBC series also incorporates the post-heritage element of self-consciousness, acknowledging the parallel between its narrative and the production’s attempts to recreate the success of its 1970s predecessor. The article’s first section assesses the critical history of the LWT series, identifying areas that are open to further study or revised readings. The second section analyses the serialised war narrative of the fourth series of LWT’s Upstairs, Downstairs (1974), revealing its exploration of female identity across multiple episodes and challenging the notion that the series became more male and upstairs dominated as it progressed. The third section considers the BBC series’ revised concept, identifying the shifts in its main characters’ positions in society that allow the series’ narrative to question the past it evokes. This will be briefly contrasted with the heritage stability of Downton Abbey (ITV, 2010–15). The final section considers the household of 165 Eaton Place’s function as a studio space, which the BBC series self-consciously adopts in order to evoke the aesthetics of prior period dramas. The article concludes by suggesting that the barriers to recreating the past established in the BBC series’ narrative also contributed to its failure to match the success of its earlier iteration.

Presentation

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Redacción CEIICH
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
Feminist Theories ◽  
History Of

<p class="p1">The third number of <span class="s1"><strong>INTER</strong></span><span class="s2"><strong>disciplina </strong></span>underscores this generic reference of <em>Bodies </em>as an approach to a key issue in the understanding of social reality from a humanistic perspective, and to understand, from the social point of view, the contributions of the research in philosophy of the body, cultural history of the anatomy, as well as the approximations queer, feminist theories and the psychoanalytical, and literary studies.</p>

Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Machado
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Elite ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

This book analyses the physical, social, and cultural history of Rome in late antiquity. Between AD 270 and 535, the former capital of the Roman empire experienced a series of dramatic transformations in its size, appearance, political standing, and identity, as emperors moved to other cities and the Christian church slowly became its dominating institution. Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome provides a new picture of these developments, focusing on the extraordinary role played by members of the traditional elite, the senatorial aristocracy, in the redefinition of the city, its institutions, and spaces. During this period, Roman senators and their families became increasingly involved in the management of the city and its population, in building works, and in the performance of secular and religious ceremonies and rituals. As this study shows, for approximately three hundred years the houses of the Roman elite competed with imperial palaces and churches in shaping the political map and the social life of the city. Making use of modern theories of urban space, the book considers a vast array of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic documents to show how the former centre of the Mediterranean world was progressively redefined and controlled by its own elite.

scholarly journals The Annihilation of Space: A Bad (Historical) Concept

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Alexis D. Litvine
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Social History ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Cultural Mediation ◽  
Counter Example ◽  
Dead End ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Representations Of Space

Abstract This article is a reminder that the concept of ‘annihilation of space’ or ‘spatial compression’, often used as a shorthand for referring to the cultural or economic consequences of industrial mobility, has a long intellectual history. The concept thus comes loaded with a specific outlook on the experience of modernity, which is – I argue – unsuitable for any cultural or social history of space. This article outlines the etymology of the concept and shows: first, that the historical phenomena it pretends to describe are too complex for such a simplistic signpost; and, second, that the term is never a neutral descriptor but always an engagement with a form of historical and cultural mediation on the nature of modernity in relation to space. In both cases this term obfuscates more than it reveals. As a counter-example, I look at the effect of the railways on popular representations of space and conclude that postmodern geography is a relative dead end for historians interested in the social and cultural history of space.

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