Maxine Berg (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265321
- eISBN:
- 9780191760495
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265321.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This book brings together a number of the major historians now entering the field, and rethinking the way they write their histories. The book includes the reflections of China experts, historians of ...
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This book brings together a number of the major historians now entering the field, and rethinking the way they write their histories. The book includes the reflections of China experts, historians of India and Japan, of Latin America, Africa, and Europe on their past writing, and the new directions in which global history is taking them. The book shows the rapid advances in the field from early and inspiring questions of encounters between East and West, of the wealth and poverty of nations — why are we so rich and they so poor? — and the crisis of empires to new thinking on global material cultures, on composite zones and East Asian development paths. It presents historians at a crossroads: enjoying the great excitement of moving out of national borders and reconnecting parts of the world once studied separately, but also facing the huge challenge of new methodologies of comparison, collaboration and interdisciplinarity, and the problems of the rapidly disappearing tools of foreign languages.Less
This book brings together a number of the major historians now entering the field, and rethinking the way they write their histories. The book includes the reflections of China experts, historians of India and Japan, of Latin America, Africa, and Europe on their past writing, and the new directions in which global history is taking them. The book shows the rapid advances in the field from early and inspiring questions of encounters between East and West, of the wealth and poverty of nations — why are we so rich and they so poor? — and the crisis of empires to new thinking on global material cultures, on composite zones and East Asian development paths. It presents historians at a crossroads: enjoying the great excitement of moving out of national borders and reconnecting parts of the world once studied separately, but also facing the huge challenge of new methodologies of comparison, collaboration and interdisciplinarity, and the problems of the rapidly disappearing tools of foreign languages.
Robin Dunbar, Clive Gamble, and John Gowlett (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264522
- eISBN:
- 9780191734724
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264522.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology
To understand who we are and why we are, we need to understand both modern humans and the ancestral stages that brought us to this point. The core to that story has been the role of evolving ...
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To understand who we are and why we are, we need to understand both modern humans and the ancestral stages that brought us to this point. The core to that story has been the role of evolving cognition — the social brain — in mediating the changes in behaviour that we see in the archaeological record. This volume brings together two powerful approaches — the social brain hypothesis and the concept of the distributed mind. The volume compares perspectives on these two approaches from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, psychology, philosophy, sociology and the cognitive and evolutionary sciences. A particular focus is on the role that material culture plays as a scaffold for distributed cognition, and how almost three million years of artefact and tool use provides the data for tracing key changes in areas such as language, technology, kinship, music, social networks and the politics of local, everyday interaction in small-world societies. A second focus is on how, during the course of hominin evolution, increasingly large spatially distributed communities created stresses that threatened social cohesion. This volume offers the possibility of new insights into the evolution of human cognition and social lives that will further our understanding of the relationship between mind and world.Less
To understand who we are and why we are, we need to understand both modern humans and the ancestral stages that brought us to this point. The core to that story has been the role of evolving cognition — the social brain — in mediating the changes in behaviour that we see in the archaeological record. This volume brings together two powerful approaches — the social brain hypothesis and the concept of the distributed mind. The volume compares perspectives on these two approaches from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, psychology, philosophy, sociology and the cognitive and evolutionary sciences. A particular focus is on the role that material culture plays as a scaffold for distributed cognition, and how almost three million years of artefact and tool use provides the data for tracing key changes in areas such as language, technology, kinship, music, social networks and the politics of local, everyday interaction in small-world societies. A second focus is on how, during the course of hominin evolution, increasingly large spatially distributed communities created stresses that threatened social cohesion. This volume offers the possibility of new insights into the evolution of human cognition and social lives that will further our understanding of the relationship between mind and world.
Fiona Coward
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264522
- eISBN:
- 9780191734724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264522.003.0021
- Subject:
- Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology
The cognitive, psychological and sociological mechanisms underpinning complex social relationships among small groups are a part of our primate heritage. However, among human groups, relationships ...
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The cognitive, psychological and sociological mechanisms underpinning complex social relationships among small groups are a part of our primate heritage. However, among human groups, relationships persist over much greater temporal and spatial scales, often in the physical absence of one or other of the individuals themselves. This chapter examines how such individual face-to-face social interactions were ‘scaled up’ during human evolution to the regional and global networks characteristic of modern societies. One recent suggestion has been that a radical change in human sociality occurred with the shift to sedentary and agricultural societies in the early Neolithic. The discussion presents the results of a focused study of the long-term development of regional social networks in the Near East, using the distribution of different forms of material culture as a proxy for the social relationships that underpinned processes of trade, exchange and the dissemination of material culture practices.Less
The cognitive, psychological and sociological mechanisms underpinning complex social relationships among small groups are a part of our primate heritage. However, among human groups, relationships persist over much greater temporal and spatial scales, often in the physical absence of one or other of the individuals themselves. This chapter examines how such individual face-to-face social interactions were ‘scaled up’ during human evolution to the regional and global networks characteristic of modern societies. One recent suggestion has been that a radical change in human sociality occurred with the shift to sedentary and agricultural societies in the early Neolithic. The discussion presents the results of a focused study of the long-term development of regional social networks in the Near East, using the distribution of different forms of material culture as a proxy for the social relationships that underpinned processes of trade, exchange and the dissemination of material culture practices.
John Chapman and Bisserka Gaydarska
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264522
- eISBN:
- 9780191734724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264522.003.0020
- Subject:
- Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology
This chapter introduces the fragmentation premise — the idea that the deliberate breakage of a complete object and the re-use of the resultant fragments as new and separate objects ‘after the break’ ...
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This chapter introduces the fragmentation premise — the idea that the deliberate breakage of a complete object and the re-use of the resultant fragments as new and separate objects ‘after the break’ was a common practice in the past. It also summarizes the main implications of the fragmentation premise for the study of enchained social relations and of the creation and development of personhood in the past. Enchained relations connect the distributed elements of a person's social identity using material culture. These concepts of fragmentation, enchainment and fractality are used to think through some of the earliest remains of objects in the world. Following the philosopher David Bohm, the discussion supports the co-evolution of fragmentation in both consciousness and in objects, and compares Bohm's three-stage ideas to Mithen's model of cognitive evolution and Donald's model of external symbolic storage.Less
This chapter introduces the fragmentation premise — the idea that the deliberate breakage of a complete object and the re-use of the resultant fragments as new and separate objects ‘after the break’ was a common practice in the past. It also summarizes the main implications of the fragmentation premise for the study of enchained social relations and of the creation and development of personhood in the past. Enchained relations connect the distributed elements of a person's social identity using material culture. These concepts of fragmentation, enchainment and fractality are used to think through some of the earliest remains of objects in the world. Following the philosopher David Bohm, the discussion supports the co-evolution of fragmentation in both consciousness and in objects, and compares Bohm's three-stage ideas to Mithen's model of cognitive evolution and Donald's model of external symbolic storage.
Clive Gamble
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264522
- eISBN:
- 9780191734724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264522.003.0002
- Subject:
- Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology
Archaeological accounts of cognitive evolution have traditionally favoured an internal model of the mind and a search for symbolic proxies. This chapter argues for an external model of cognition and ...
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Archaeological accounts of cognitive evolution have traditionally favoured an internal model of the mind and a search for symbolic proxies. This chapter argues for an external model of cognition and uses this perspective to develop the understanding of Palaeolithic material culture as based on sensory experience. It explores ways of investigating the evolution of cognition by using the social brain model combined with a theory of distributed cognition. The emphasis is on social extension, which was a necessary step to a global distribution and which was achieved by mechanisms such as focused gaze that amplified the emotional content of bonds. The discussion examines the importance of these mechanisms through three aspects of social extension — ontological security, psychological continuity and extension of self.Less
Archaeological accounts of cognitive evolution have traditionally favoured an internal model of the mind and a search for symbolic proxies. This chapter argues for an external model of cognition and uses this perspective to develop the understanding of Palaeolithic material culture as based on sensory experience. It explores ways of investigating the evolution of cognition by using the social brain model combined with a theory of distributed cognition. The emphasis is on social extension, which was a necessary step to a global distribution and which was achieved by mechanisms such as focused gaze that amplified the emotional content of bonds. The discussion examines the importance of these mechanisms through three aspects of social extension — ontological security, psychological continuity and extension of self.
Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.003.0011
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
The preceding chapters examined three categories of objects—pottery, fibulae, and swords with their scabbards—and two ways of manipulating objects—arrangements in graves and performances involving ...
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The preceding chapters examined three categories of objects—pottery, fibulae, and swords with their scabbards—and two ways of manipulating objects—arrangements in graves and performances involving human bodily action with objects—over the two-thousand-year period from the Early Bronze Age to the end of the prehistoric Iron Age. The focus has been on visual aspects of objects and the changes in their visual character over time. This chapter synthesizes the material laid out in chapters 5 through 10. It draws attention to the consistency of the patterns in the visual character of material culture in each of the three main periods of time considered in this book, and to the character of the changes that took place in the fifth century BC and in the second century BC.Less
The preceding chapters examined three categories of objects—pottery, fibulae, and swords with their scabbards—and two ways of manipulating objects—arrangements in graves and performances involving human bodily action with objects—over the two-thousand-year period from the Early Bronze Age to the end of the prehistoric Iron Age. The focus has been on visual aspects of objects and the changes in their visual character over time. This chapter synthesizes the material laid out in chapters 5 through 10. It draws attention to the consistency of the patterns in the visual character of material culture in each of the three main periods of time considered in this book, and to the character of the changes that took place in the fifth century BC and in the second century BC.
Karen Harvey
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199533848
- eISBN:
- 9780191740978
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199533848.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter examines the domestic objects and spaces that were meaningful for men and explores how men's domestic engagement and domestic authority was legitimized by the material culture of the ...
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This chapter examines the domestic objects and spaces that were meaningful for men and explores how men's domestic engagement and domestic authority was legitimized by the material culture of the house. In ‘keeping house’, men managed goods and people over which they exercised proprietorship, even if legally they did not own them. In doing so, the chapter shows, men rooted themselves and their authority in the physical body of the house. Men engaged with objects as property, inheritance, symbols, makers of memory and relationships, as well as commodities. They consumed low‐value and mundane items alongside larger and intermittent purchases, and the possession and management of these domestic objects created and maintained authority. In their careful management of property and personal investment in meaningful domestic things, the chapter argues, men of the middling‐sorts grounded their identities in the material culture of their domestic lives.Less
This chapter examines the domestic objects and spaces that were meaningful for men and explores how men's domestic engagement and domestic authority was legitimized by the material culture of the house. In ‘keeping house’, men managed goods and people over which they exercised proprietorship, even if legally they did not own them. In doing so, the chapter shows, men rooted themselves and their authority in the physical body of the house. Men engaged with objects as property, inheritance, symbols, makers of memory and relationships, as well as commodities. They consumed low‐value and mundane items alongside larger and intermittent purchases, and the possession and management of these domestic objects created and maintained authority. In their careful management of property and personal investment in meaningful domestic things, the chapter argues, men of the middling‐sorts grounded their identities in the material culture of their domestic lives.
Paul Betts
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199208845
- eISBN:
- 9780191594755
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208845.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Social History, Economic History
Recent years have witnessed growing academic interest in material culture as a particularly rewarding approach to reinterpreting the German past. That Germany served as one of the twentieth century's ...
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Recent years have witnessed growing academic interest in material culture as a particularly rewarding approach to reinterpreting the German past. That Germany served as one of the twentieth century's busiest construction sites of political experimentation and utopian ventures of all stripes meant that the built environment was crucial for conveying new dreams of political power, place and possibility. Yet it is less well-known is that the 20th century placed great premium on the domestic interior. This chapter considers the issue of interior design and the construction of an East German Wohnkultur, or domestic ‘living culture,’ as both socialist ideal and lived reality. Attention will also be paid to the flourishing 1960s cottage industry of East German etiquette books as further efforts to stylize the socialist self and to remake home life as an outpost of socialist civilization.Less
Recent years have witnessed growing academic interest in material culture as a particularly rewarding approach to reinterpreting the German past. That Germany served as one of the twentieth century's busiest construction sites of political experimentation and utopian ventures of all stripes meant that the built environment was crucial for conveying new dreams of political power, place and possibility. Yet it is less well-known is that the 20th century placed great premium on the domestic interior. This chapter considers the issue of interior design and the construction of an East German Wohnkultur, or domestic ‘living culture,’ as both socialist ideal and lived reality. Attention will also be paid to the flourishing 1960s cottage industry of East German etiquette books as further efforts to stylize the socialist self and to remake home life as an outpost of socialist civilization.
Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.003.0009
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter deals with performances, which refer specifically to actions that people carried out in social contexts—“with an audience” and with their material culture. To be a performance, an action ...
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This chapter deals with performances, which refer specifically to actions that people carried out in social contexts—“with an audience” and with their material culture. To be a performance, an action must be aimed at communicating with others. A performance involves some kind of movement by a person or persons, and the focus here is with those movements that involved the manipulations of objects. These include throwing swords into the lake at La Tène; arranging bent and broken scabbards in the ditch at Gournay-sur-Aronde; and placing iron tools in the fire at Forggensee. At Snettisham, they buried gold neckrings. All these actions were performed by prehistoric people and were held in open spaces where they could be seen by others, in some cases by large numbers of them.Less
This chapter deals with performances, which refer specifically to actions that people carried out in social contexts—“with an audience” and with their material culture. To be a performance, an action must be aimed at communicating with others. A performance involves some kind of movement by a person or persons, and the focus here is with those movements that involved the manipulations of objects. These include throwing swords into the lake at La Tène; arranging bent and broken scabbards in the ditch at Gournay-sur-Aronde; and placing iron tools in the fire at Forggensee. At Snettisham, they buried gold neckrings. All these actions were performed by prehistoric people and were held in open spaces where they could be seen by others, in some cases by large numbers of them.
CATHERINE HEZSER
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264744
- eISBN:
- 9780191734663
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264744.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter evaluates the use of rabbinic literature in the study of Jewish daily life and material culture. It explains that one of the main problems associated with research on material culture ...
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This chapter evaluates the use of rabbinic literature in the study of Jewish daily life and material culture. It explains that one of the main problems associated with research on material culture and daily life is the establishment of a proper relationship between rabbinic literary references and archaeological data, between text and object. It suggests that these problems can be resolved by approaching the issues on the basis of a historical-critical study of rabbinic sources in a broad interdisciplinary framework, which takes account of archaeological research within the Graeco-Roman and early Byzantine context and which uses tools, methods and models developed by the social sciences.Less
This chapter evaluates the use of rabbinic literature in the study of Jewish daily life and material culture. It explains that one of the main problems associated with research on material culture and daily life is the establishment of a proper relationship between rabbinic literary references and archaeological data, between text and object. It suggests that these problems can be resolved by approaching the issues on the basis of a historical-critical study of rabbinic sources in a broad interdisciplinary framework, which takes account of archaeological research within the Graeco-Roman and early Byzantine context and which uses tools, methods and models developed by the social sciences.
Jane Whittle and Elizabeth Griffiths
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199233533
- eISBN:
- 9780191739330
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199233533.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
Studies of early modern consumption have concentrated on durable objects which furnished the home, the goods recorded in probate inventories and those preserved in museums. Probate inventories are ...
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Studies of early modern consumption have concentrated on durable objects which furnished the home, the goods recorded in probate inventories and those preserved in museums. Probate inventories are problematic because they record textiles very poorly, and museums tend only to preserve the most exquisite luxury objects, which were not typical of the period. Gentry household accounts provide the link between these two approaches to material culture, and a wealth of details about textiles and small everyday items such as pottery and glassware. The chapter looks in turn at clothing and textiles, bedroom and living room furnishings, dining ware and kitchen ware, and the meanings assigned to goods, particularly gendered meanings evident from wills.Less
Studies of early modern consumption have concentrated on durable objects which furnished the home, the goods recorded in probate inventories and those preserved in museums. Probate inventories are problematic because they record textiles very poorly, and museums tend only to preserve the most exquisite luxury objects, which were not typical of the period. Gentry household accounts provide the link between these two approaches to material culture, and a wealth of details about textiles and small everyday items such as pottery and glassware. The chapter looks in turn at clothing and textiles, bedroom and living room furnishings, dining ware and kitchen ware, and the meanings assigned to goods, particularly gendered meanings evident from wills.
John M. Giggie
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195304039
- eISBN:
- 9780199866885
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304039.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century, History of Religion
This chapter probes how Delta blacks developed a new material culture of religious experience. It illuminates how the purchase and display of certain types of consumer goods became crucial elements ...
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This chapter probes how Delta blacks developed a new material culture of religious experience. It illuminates how the purchase and display of certain types of consumer goods became crucial elements of new ideas about respectability, domesticity, and the ‘black Christian home.’ Congregants purchased staid clothes, lithographs of church leaders, and religious wall‐hangings to model self‐restraint and racial pride; preachers symbolized progress by purchasing drapes, pipe organs, and electric chandeliers for their churches. Central to these new consumer and spiritual practices was the shifting association between politics, black women, and religion. As disfranchisement expelled all blacks from the politics, denominational churches increasingly excluded women from traditional leadership posts, and fraternal orders evolved as new centers of community affairs run only by men, women, in an attempt to capture a new measure of social authority, defined themselves as the curators of home and church decoration. With the support of male clerics, they openly championed themselves as the market's arbiters of public taste and domestic consumption.Less
This chapter probes how Delta blacks developed a new material culture of religious experience. It illuminates how the purchase and display of certain types of consumer goods became crucial elements of new ideas about respectability, domesticity, and the ‘black Christian home.’ Congregants purchased staid clothes, lithographs of church leaders, and religious wall‐hangings to model self‐restraint and racial pride; preachers symbolized progress by purchasing drapes, pipe organs, and electric chandeliers for their churches. Central to these new consumer and spiritual practices was the shifting association between politics, black women, and religion. As disfranchisement expelled all blacks from the politics, denominational churches increasingly excluded women from traditional leadership posts, and fraternal orders evolved as new centers of community affairs run only by men, women, in an attempt to capture a new measure of social authority, defined themselves as the curators of home and church decoration. With the support of male clerics, they openly championed themselves as the market's arbiters of public taste and domestic consumption.
Jane Whittle and Elizabeth Griffiths
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199233533
- eISBN:
- 9780191739330
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199233533.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
Lady Alice Le Strange of Hunstanton in Norfolk kept a continuous series of household accounts from 1610 to 1654. This book uses the Le Stranges’ rich archive to imaginatively reconstruct the material ...
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Lady Alice Le Strange of Hunstanton in Norfolk kept a continuous series of household accounts from 1610 to 1654. This book uses the Le Stranges’ rich archive to imaginatively reconstruct the material aspects of family life. This involves looking not just at purchases but also at home production and gifts; and not just at the luxurious but also at the everyday consumption of food and medical care. Consumption is viewed not just as material culture, but as a process involving household management, acquisition and appropriation, a process which created and reinforced social links with craftsmen, servants, labourers and the local community. It is argued that the county gentry provide a missing link in histories of consumption: connecting the fashions of London and the royal court with those of middling strata of rural England. Consumption is often viewed as a female activity, and the book looks in detail at who managed the provisioning, purchases and work within the household, how spending on sons and daughters differed, and whether men and women attached different cultural values to household goods. This single household’s economy provides a window onto some of most significant cultural and economic issues of early modern England: innovations in trade, retail and production, the basis of gentry power, social relations in the countryside, and the gendering of family life.Less
Lady Alice Le Strange of Hunstanton in Norfolk kept a continuous series of household accounts from 1610 to 1654. This book uses the Le Stranges’ rich archive to imaginatively reconstruct the material aspects of family life. This involves looking not just at purchases but also at home production and gifts; and not just at the luxurious but also at the everyday consumption of food and medical care. Consumption is viewed not just as material culture, but as a process involving household management, acquisition and appropriation, a process which created and reinforced social links with craftsmen, servants, labourers and the local community. It is argued that the county gentry provide a missing link in histories of consumption: connecting the fashions of London and the royal court with those of middling strata of rural England. Consumption is often viewed as a female activity, and the book looks in detail at who managed the provisioning, purchases and work within the household, how spending on sons and daughters differed, and whether men and women attached different cultural values to household goods. This single household’s economy provides a window onto some of most significant cultural and economic issues of early modern England: innovations in trade, retail and production, the basis of gentry power, social relations in the countryside, and the gendering of family life.
Robin Dunbar, Clive Gamble, and John Gowlett
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264522
- eISBN:
- 9780191734724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264522.003.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology
Human nature is the product of a long history that has brought us, over the course of some 6–8 million years, from our common ancestor with the chimpanzee lineage to modern humans. The aim of this ...
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Human nature is the product of a long history that has brought us, over the course of some 6–8 million years, from our common ancestor with the chimpanzee lineage to modern humans. The aim of this particular volume has been to bring together two powerful approaches that deal, respectively, with explanations of the evolution of human brains and understandings of cognition as a distributed system, in order to illuminate the changes that took place during the later stages of human evolution. It aims to compare inter-disciplinary perspectives on these key issues across a range of disciplines. A particular focus is provided by consideration of the role that material culture plays as a scaffold for distributed cognition, and how almost 3 million years of artefact and tool use and manufacture provide the data for tracing key changes in areas such as language, technology, kinship, music, and social networks.Less
Human nature is the product of a long history that has brought us, over the course of some 6–8 million years, from our common ancestor with the chimpanzee lineage to modern humans. The aim of this particular volume has been to bring together two powerful approaches that deal, respectively, with explanations of the evolution of human brains and understandings of cognition as a distributed system, in order to illuminate the changes that took place during the later stages of human evolution. It aims to compare inter-disciplinary perspectives on these key issues across a range of disciplines. A particular focus is provided by consideration of the role that material culture plays as a scaffold for distributed cognition, and how almost 3 million years of artefact and tool use and manufacture provide the data for tracing key changes in areas such as language, technology, kinship, music, and social networks.
Jeff Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195371932
- eISBN:
- 9780199870967
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195371932.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, Buddhism
This chapter argues that ritual needs to be given greater attention in the historiography of American Buddhism. The popularity of mizuko kuyō points to a significant turn toward appreciation of ...
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This chapter argues that ritual needs to be given greater attention in the historiography of American Buddhism. The popularity of mizuko kuyō points to a significant turn toward appreciation of ritual in convert Zen since the 1980s, as women have taken a greater role in leadership and Zen’s own success has led to a diversification of views. Furthermore, ritual has always existed to a larger extent than previous studies acknowledged, but it was partially obscured by uncritical acceptance of Zen practitioners’ descriptions of normative practice. Future studies should try to focus on neglected areas that may bring this wider range of practices to light; possible foci include places, material culture, bodies, and emotions, all of which have been insufficiently accounted for in previous research.Less
This chapter argues that ritual needs to be given greater attention in the historiography of American Buddhism. The popularity of mizuko kuyō points to a significant turn toward appreciation of ritual in convert Zen since the 1980s, as women have taken a greater role in leadership and Zen’s own success has led to a diversification of views. Furthermore, ritual has always existed to a larger extent than previous studies acknowledged, but it was partially obscured by uncritical acceptance of Zen practitioners’ descriptions of normative practice. Future studies should try to focus on neglected areas that may bring this wider range of practices to light; possible foci include places, material culture, bodies, and emotions, all of which have been insufficiently accounted for in previous research.
Ruth Craggs and Claire Wintle (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719096525
- eISBN:
- 9781526104335
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719096525.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
What were the distinctive cultures of decolonisation that emerged in the years between 1945 and 1970, and what can they uncover about the complexities of the ‘end of empire’ as a process? Cultures of ...
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What were the distinctive cultures of decolonisation that emerged in the years between 1945 and 1970, and what can they uncover about the complexities of the ‘end of empire’ as a process? Cultures of Decolonisation brings together visual, literary and material cultures within one volume in order to explore this question. The volume reveals the diverse ways in which cultures were active in wider political, economic and social change, working as crucial gauges, microcosms, and agents of decolonisation. Individual chapters focus on architecture, theatre, museums, heritage sites, fine art, and interior design alongside institutions such as artists’ groups, language agencies and the Royal Mint in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Europe. Drawing on a range of disciplinary perspectives, these contributions offer revealing case studies for those researching decolonisation at all levels across the humanities and social sciences. The collection demonstrates the transnational character of cultures of decolonisation (and of decolonisation itself), and illustrates the value of comparison – between different sorts of cultural forms and different places – in understanding the nature of this dramatic and wide-reaching geopolitical change. Cultures of Decolonisation illustrates the value of engaging with the complexities of decolonisation as enacted and experienced by a broad range of actors beyond ‘flag independence’ and the realm of high politics. In the process it makes an important contribution to the theoretical, methodological and empirical diversification of the historiography of the end of empire.Less
What were the distinctive cultures of decolonisation that emerged in the years between 1945 and 1970, and what can they uncover about the complexities of the ‘end of empire’ as a process? Cultures of Decolonisation brings together visual, literary and material cultures within one volume in order to explore this question. The volume reveals the diverse ways in which cultures were active in wider political, economic and social change, working as crucial gauges, microcosms, and agents of decolonisation. Individual chapters focus on architecture, theatre, museums, heritage sites, fine art, and interior design alongside institutions such as artists’ groups, language agencies and the Royal Mint in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Europe. Drawing on a range of disciplinary perspectives, these contributions offer revealing case studies for those researching decolonisation at all levels across the humanities and social sciences. The collection demonstrates the transnational character of cultures of decolonisation (and of decolonisation itself), and illustrates the value of comparison – between different sorts of cultural forms and different places – in understanding the nature of this dramatic and wide-reaching geopolitical change. Cultures of Decolonisation illustrates the value of engaging with the complexities of decolonisation as enacted and experienced by a broad range of actors beyond ‘flag independence’ and the realm of high politics. In the process it makes an important contribution to the theoretical, methodological and empirical diversification of the historiography of the end of empire.
John Gowlett
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264522
- eISBN:
- 9780191734724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264522.003.0017
- Subject:
- Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology
The mastery of fire is a great human achievement which has helped shape our species. This chapter addresses the wider importance of fire, arguing that it is part of a fundamental motor of human ...
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The mastery of fire is a great human achievement which has helped shape our species. This chapter addresses the wider importance of fire, arguing that it is part of a fundamental motor of human evolution, deeply tied into our biology as well as economy and technology, and indeed a motor of the social brain. It seems likely that fire was involved in this nexus from a very early period, probably back to the time of increases in human brain size in the early Pleistocene, and indeed that it may have been a necessity for the subsequent physical evolutionary and social developments in Homo. Fire may be associated so strongly with imagery, imagination and symbolism in the modern world as a result of its primary role in effecting transformation of materials, and acting to link various strands of material culture.Less
The mastery of fire is a great human achievement which has helped shape our species. This chapter addresses the wider importance of fire, arguing that it is part of a fundamental motor of human evolution, deeply tied into our biology as well as economy and technology, and indeed a motor of the social brain. It seems likely that fire was involved in this nexus from a very early period, probably back to the time of increases in human brain size in the early Pleistocene, and indeed that it may have been a necessity for the subsequent physical evolutionary and social developments in Homo. Fire may be associated so strongly with imagery, imagination and symbolism in the modern world as a result of its primary role in effecting transformation of materials, and acting to link various strands of material culture.
JILL MIDDLEMAS
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199283866
- eISBN:
- 9780191603457
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199283869.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
In this chapter, three sources of information — the historical presentation of the Hebrew Bible supplemented by ancient Near Eastern documentation where applicable, the evidence of the material ...
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In this chapter, three sources of information — the historical presentation of the Hebrew Bible supplemented by ancient Near Eastern documentation where applicable, the evidence of the material culture available from excavations and surveys, and the impact of Babylonian rule on the region — are brought together to construct a holistic portrait of the situation in Templeless Judah. The chapter begins with a reconstruction of sixth-century Judah from the perspective of the biblical portrait, as it is important when examining this period to be aware of how the biblical writers understood the events of the sixth century and how they portrayed them. Other sources of information about the period such as those from the archaeological record and an understanding of the Babylonian empire are used to elucidate the historical details available from biblical and extra-biblical sources. Despite devastation and severe disruption, certain clues indicated the resumption of activity and the existence of a stable infrastructure within which cultic ritual continued.Less
In this chapter, three sources of information — the historical presentation of the Hebrew Bible supplemented by ancient Near Eastern documentation where applicable, the evidence of the material culture available from excavations and surveys, and the impact of Babylonian rule on the region — are brought together to construct a holistic portrait of the situation in Templeless Judah. The chapter begins with a reconstruction of sixth-century Judah from the perspective of the biblical portrait, as it is important when examining this period to be aware of how the biblical writers understood the events of the sixth century and how they portrayed them. Other sources of information about the period such as those from the archaeological record and an understanding of the Babylonian empire are used to elucidate the historical details available from biblical and extra-biblical sources. Despite devastation and severe disruption, certain clues indicated the resumption of activity and the existence of a stable infrastructure within which cultic ritual continued.
Ibrahima Thiaw
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
This chapter examines how slavery was imprinted on material culture and settlement at Gorée Island. It evaluates the changing patterns of settlement, access to materials, and emerging novel tastes to ...
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This chapter examines how slavery was imprinted on material culture and settlement at Gorée Island. It evaluates the changing patterns of settlement, access to materials, and emerging novel tastes to gain insights into everyday life and cultural interactions on the island. By the eighteenth century, Gorée grew rapidly as an urban settlement with a heterogeneous population including free and enslaved Africans as well as different European identities. Interaction between these different identities was punctuated with intense negotiations resulting in the emergence of a truly transnational community. While these significant changes were noted in the settlement pattern and material culture recovered, the issue of slavery — critical to most oral and documentary narratives about the island — remains relatively opaque in the archaeological record. Despite this, the chapter attempts to tease out from available documentary and archaeological evidence some illumination on interaction between the different communities on the island, including indigenous slaves.Less
This chapter examines how slavery was imprinted on material culture and settlement at Gorée Island. It evaluates the changing patterns of settlement, access to materials, and emerging novel tastes to gain insights into everyday life and cultural interactions on the island. By the eighteenth century, Gorée grew rapidly as an urban settlement with a heterogeneous population including free and enslaved Africans as well as different European identities. Interaction between these different identities was punctuated with intense negotiations resulting in the emergence of a truly transnational community. While these significant changes were noted in the settlement pattern and material culture recovered, the issue of slavery — critical to most oral and documentary narratives about the island — remains relatively opaque in the archaeological record. Despite this, the chapter attempts to tease out from available documentary and archaeological evidence some illumination on interaction between the different communities on the island, including indigenous slaves.
Peter Coss
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199560004
- eISBN:
- 9780191723094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560004.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter discusses the material culture of the gentry household by examining the accounts of the Multons. The manorial accounts of 1324-6 tell us a great deal about the rebuilding and repairs at ...
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This chapter discusses the material culture of the gentry household by examining the accounts of the Multons. The manorial accounts of 1324-6 tell us a great deal about the rebuilding and repairs at Frampton following the long wardship of Thomas de Multon IV. They tell us that some basic refurbishing had to be undertaken. household accounts for 1343-4 and for 1347-8. household. For the next generation, that of John de Multon I, household accounts for 1343-4 and for 1347-8 contains, in addition to the usual diet account, a further account on the dorse of the roll entitled ‘Necessary and Foreign Expenses’. Its vantage point is that of the lord, who was itinerant, and it records purchases made for him and moneys disbursed by him and his officials as he travelled around Lincolnshire.Less
This chapter discusses the material culture of the gentry household by examining the accounts of the Multons. The manorial accounts of 1324-6 tell us a great deal about the rebuilding and repairs at Frampton following the long wardship of Thomas de Multon IV. They tell us that some basic refurbishing had to be undertaken. household accounts for 1343-4 and for 1347-8. household. For the next generation, that of John de Multon I, household accounts for 1343-4 and for 1347-8 contains, in addition to the usual diet account, a further account on the dorse of the roll entitled ‘Necessary and Foreign Expenses’. Its vantage point is that of the lord, who was itinerant, and it records purchases made for him and moneys disbursed by him and his officials as he travelled around Lincolnshire.
