scholarly journals An archaeological reconstruction of Saqqaq bows, darts, harpoons, and lances

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjarne Grønnow
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
New World ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Complex Material ◽  
West Greenland ◽  
Wood Shavings ◽  
Archaeological Reconstruction ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Small Tool

Abstract Permafrost-preserved materials from two Saqqaq sites (ca. 3900-2600 BP) in Disko Bay, West Greenland, have provided unique insight into woodworking in the early Arctic Small Tool tradition. Use of driftwood played a decisive role in the complex material culture of Saqqaq society, and analyses of more than 15,000 artifacts, fragments, and wood shavings enable us to reconstruct the woodworking processes and all categories of toolkits. This article presents an archaeological reconstruction of the remarkably diverse and technologically advanced Saqqaq hunting toolkit, which includes darts, harpoons, lances, and bows and arrows—among the earliest preserved specimens in the New World.

Ibero-American Architecture and Urbanism

2019 ◽  
pp. 285-311
Author(s):  
Paul Niell
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
New World ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
American Architecture ◽  
Political Norms ◽  
The City

The Baroque in Ibero-American Architecture and Urbanism, in parts of the Americas formerly comprising the Spanish and Portuguese empires, has been traditionally studied as a question of adherence to or deviation from a Counter-Reformation style promoted primarily by ecclesiastical institutions. This article expands upon what is meant by “Baroque” in the architecture and urbanism of the Iberian empires in the Americas. Through the analysis of urban plans, images of the city, architectural interiors and exteriors, physical urban spaces, and other forms of material culture, this article argues that Ibero-American architecture and urbanism in the age of the Baroque belonged to a phenomenon of ordering and thereby creating the “New World” as ideologically constituted colonial spaces that reified social and political norms. Furthermore, human subjects actively negotiated the spaces created by architecture and the city, making the American Baroque also part of a process of negotiating order and thereby producing American spaces.

The Material World of the Revolutionary War Soldier at Valley Forge Revisited

2019 ◽  
pp. 57-75
Author(s):  
Jesse West-Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Revolutionary War ◽  
Material World ◽  
Valley Forge ◽  
The Military ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter by Jesse West-Rosenthal examines the Revolutionary War soldiers’ material culture at Valley Forge. Much has been written of the suffering that these soldiers endured during that harsh winter, but this chapter provides insight into routines that both kept soldiers busy and helped them perform important and necessary tasks for the military effort. Archaeological explorations at the Washington Memorial Chapel, including a camp kitchen, provided evidence that soldiers kept busy by casting musket balls, by maintaining weaponry and clothing, and, interestingly, by re-purposing musket balls into gaming pieces.

Toys

2020 ◽  
pp. 394-402
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Heath
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
French Empire ◽  
Cognitive Framework ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
The Way

This article examines colonially-themed toys as historical sources that provide insight into the way that metropolitan boys and girls learned embrace the French empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It argues that colonially-themed toys such as drums, dolls, and games encouraged forms of play that instilled a colonial mindset and attitude among metropolitan French children. These actions provided the foundation for a cognitive framework and worldview that naturalized colonialism and racial and civilization hierarchies. The residues of these earlier practices and imaginations remain, marking toys as a particularly rich genre of material culture with which to understand the inculcation of colonialism and lingering colonial nostalgia.

Amulets and the Ritual Efficacy of Christian Symbols

2019 ◽  
pp. 349-366
Author(s):  
Rangar H. Cline
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
Insight Into

Although “magical” amulets are often overlooked in studies of early Christian material culture, they provide unique insight into the lives of early Christians. The high number of amulets that survive from antiquity, their presence in domestic and mortuary archaeological contexts, and frequent discussions of amulets in Late Antique literary sources indicate that they constituted an integral part of the fabric of religious life for early Christians. The appearance of Christian symbols on amulets, beginning in the second century and occurring with increasing frequency in the fourth century and afterward, reveals the increasing perception of Christian symbols as ritually potent among Christians and others in the Roman Empire. The forms, texts, and images on amulets reveal the fears and hopes that occupied the daily lives of early Christians, when amulets designed for ritual efficacy if not orthodoxy were believed to provide a defense against forces that would harm body and soul.

scholarly journals Exquisitely Preserved Fossil Snakes of Messel: Insight into the Evolution, Biogeography, Habitat Preferences and Sensory Ecology of Early Boas

Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustín Scanferla ◽  
Krister T. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
New World ◽  
Middle Eocene ◽  
Habitat Preferences ◽  
Sensory Ecology ◽  
Morphological Diversity ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Upper Jaw ◽  
Spectrum Evaluation ◽  
Insight Into

Our knowledge of early evolution of snakes is improving, but all that we can infer about the evolution of modern clades of snakes such as boas (Booidea) is still based on isolated bones. Here, we resolve the phylogenetic relationships of Eoconstrictor fischeri comb. nov. and other booids from the early-middle Eocene of Messel (Germany), the best-known fossil snake assemblage yet discovered. Our combined analyses demonstrate an affinity of Eoconstrictor with Neotropical boas, thus entailing a South America-to-Europe dispersal event. Other booid species from Messel are related to different New World clades, reinforcing the cosmopolitan nature of the Messel booid fauna. Our analyses indicate that Eoconstrictor was a terrestrial, medium- to large-bodied snake that bore labial pit organs in the upper jaw, the earliest evidence that the visual system in snakes incorporated the infrared spectrum. Evaluation of the known palaeobiology of Eoconstrictor provides no evidence that pit organs played a role in the predator–prey relations of this stem boid. At the same time, the morphological diversity of Messel booids reflects the occupation of several terrestrial macrohabitats, and even in the earliest booid community the relation between pit organs and body size is similar to that seen in booids today.

The Ceramics and Chronology of Cholula, Mexico

1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey G. McCafferty
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
New World ◽  
Gradual Transition ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Culture History ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Middle Formative

AbstractChronology is a fundamental prerequisite for problem-oriented, anthropologically relevant archaeology. It is also the shaky foundation that has hampered attempts to reconstruct the culture history of Cholula, Mexico. Cholula is among the oldest continuously occupied urban centers of the New World, yet it remains one of the most enigmatic. This paper evaluates previous cultural sequences for the site, and summarizes recent evidence to construct a chronology using absolute dates and ceramic assemblages from primary depositional contexts. This revised sequence features a clearer understanding of Middle Formative settlement and the definition of ritual and domestic contexts from the Classic period. In addition, there is now evidence for a gradual transition between Late Classic and Early Postclassic material culture; and for the evolution of the Postclassic polychrome tradition within a sequence of short, clearly defined phases.

Early Modern Biblical Commentary and Jonathan Edwards

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriaan C. Neele
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
New World ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Biblical Commentary ◽  
High Esteem ◽  
Modern Context ◽  
Insight Into

Adriaan C. Neele introduces the early modern context of biblical interpretation by discussing Matthew Poole’s Synopsis Criticorum aliorumque Sacrae Scripturae (1669–1674), a frequently referenced volume for many biblical interpreters, whether in England, on the European continent, or in the New World. Neele shows how this work represents early modern exegesis well and how it became an important channel for bringing medieval commentaries into the hands of post-Reformation exegetes. He also establishes the high esteem that this multivolume work gained in New England and its important role in Jonthan Edwards’ exegesis. The Synopsis gives us insight into early modern interpretation yet also serves as a contrast to New England exegesis, helping us set Edwards in his time.

Fernando Ortiz on Afro-Cuban Music

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Moore
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Latin American ◽  
New World ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Fernando Ortiz ◽  
Cuban Studies ◽  
First Time ◽  
American Authors ◽  
Insight Into

Fernando Ortiz is recognized today as one of the most influential Latin American authors of the 20th century. Amazingly prolific, his publications written between the 1890s and the mid-1950s engage with a vast array of subjects and disciplines. Perhaps Ortiz’s most significant accomplishments were the creation of the field of Afro-Cuban studies and major early contributions to the emergent field of Afro-diasporic studies. Almost everyone else associated with similar research began their investigations decades after Ortiz and in dialogue with his work. Ortiz was one of the first to seriously examine slave and post-abolition black cultures in Cuba. His studies became central to new and more positive discourses surrounding African-derived expression in the mid-20th century that embraced it as national expression for the first time in Latin America. This essay considers Ortiz’s academic career and legacy as regards Afro-Cuban musical study beginning in the early 20th century (when his views were quite dated, even racist) and gradual, progressive changes in his attitudes. Ortiz’s work on music and dance have been underrepresented in existing academic literature, despite the fact that most of his late publications focus on such topics and are considered among his most valuable works. His writings on black heritage provide insight into the struggles within New World societies to overcome the racial/evolutionist ideologies that justified colonial subjugation. His scholarship resonates with broader debates throughout the Americas over the meanings of racial pluralism and the legacy of slavery. And his changing views over the years outline the trajectory of modern Western thought as regards Africa and race, specifically the contributions of Afro-diasporic peoples, histories, and cultures to New World societies.

Cultural Borrowings of Russians from the Natives of Alaska in the 18th and 19th Centuries

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-401
Author(s):  
Andrei V Grinëv ◽  
Richard L Bland
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
New World ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Aleutian Islands ◽  
Spiritual Culture ◽  
The Usa

This article is dedicated to an analysis of Russian cultural borrowings from the Natives of Alaska and Aleutian Islands during the second half of the 18th century until 1867, when these territories were sold to the USA. As this research shows, the Russians, in the process of their colonization of the New World, borrowed objects of a predominantly utilitarian character in the sphere of material culture. Most of these borrowings took place in the 18th century, when the Russians had weak connections with the metropolis and there was a scarcity of European goods. The spiritual culture of the Natives, with the exception of some linguistic borrowings, chiefly of a toponymic character, remained outside the cultural circle of the immigrants from Russia.

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