Bolts of Cloth and Sherds of Pottery: Impressions of Caste in the Material Culture of the Seventeenth Century Audiencia of Quito

2004 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross W. Jamieson
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Complex Mixture ◽  
Spanish Colonial ◽  
Domestic Material Culture ◽  
Spanish Colonies ◽  
Bodies Of Evidence ◽  
Excellent Source

People use domestic material culture to create an image of themselves that they project to others who live in, or visit, their homes. This was as true in the Spanish colonial city as it is in any city today. If, therefore, we wish to investigate status and ethnicity in the Spanish colonies, domestic material culture is an excellent source of information on how people imagined their own place, and that of others, in society. The first step toward this is the reconstruction of the material culture of urban colonial houses. There are two main bodies of evidence available to accomplish this. The first is descriptions of household goods in the notarial archives of the colonies, and the second is the physical remains of household refuse found in archaeological contexts in cities. Each body of evidence can make unique contributions to our understanding of social relations in the colonial city, but each also has unique limitations. I use the interplay between colonial notarial documents and archaeological remains to help define the role of material culture in the study of caste relations in Cuenca, Ecuador. The Spanish colonial régimen de castas was a system that categorized people by caste, using a complex mixture of legal status, ethnicity, racial (or physical) categorization, and economic roles.

‘Memory objects’: Material objects and memories of home in the context of intra-African mobility

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-269
Author(s):  
Sabine Marschall
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Home Culture ◽  
Mobility Studies ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
Involuntary Memories ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article contributes to the intersection of material culture and mobility studies by exploring the role of objects in fostering nostalgia and emotionally linking migrants with their home world. ‘Memory objects’ are conceptualized as special personal belongings that elicit deliberate or involuntary memories of homeland, home culture, social relations and episodes in one’s pre-migration past. Focusing on intra-African migration, the study is based on in-depth interviews with a sample of 40 migrants from 13 African countries, temporarily or permanently based in South Africa. Contrary to the extant literature, initial findings indicate most participants did not value keepsakes or sentimental mementoes of home. However, it emerged that some had developed a special relationship with specific utilitarian objects, mostly received as gifts, which essentially turned into memory objects over time, precipitating memories and emotional attachment through routine usage and performative action. It is argued that more attention must be paid to socio-cultural values and other locally specific factors.

Making Order Out of Trouble: Jurisdictional Politics in the Spanish Colonial Borderlands

2001 ◽  
Vol 26 (02) ◽  
pp. 373-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Benton
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Spanish America ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Spanish Colonial ◽  
Orderly Disorder

Jurisdictional fluidity was a central feature of early modem Iberian law, and jurisdictional tensions were exacerbated by overseas conquest and colonization. Contests over the legal status of conquered peoples featured both jurisdictional jockeying among colonial factions and widespread preoccupation with the symbols and rituals marking cultural and legal difference. This article examines the dynamics of jurisdictional politics in seventeenth-century New Mexico, where church and state officials carried on a bitter feud over legal authority during most of the century. Rather than viewing this contest as either transparently political or a mask for deeper processes defining hegemony, the article argues that seemingly dry legal distinctions were the focus of passionate and persistent struggle precisely because they merged institutional and cultural concerns of missionaries, settler elites, and Indians. The analysis leads to broader, more speculative claims about the role of jurisdictional fluidity in creating an “orderly disorder” that spanned diverse regions within Spanish America and, more broadly, across colonial regimes in the early modern world.

Training Children for Work in the Nineteenth Century

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicky Crewe
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Western World ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Decorative Motifs ◽  
Domestic Material Culture ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Different Parts

Material culture in Victorian working-class homes acted as a medium through which messages about the importance of industry, diligence, and obedience could be emphasized to children. This chapter will review the ways in which material culture scholars have approached the subject of child labour in different areas of the Victorian world, as well as elucidating the differences and similarities in children’s experiences of work in different parts of the western world during the nineteenth century. It will consider decorative motifs on mass-produced domestic material culture, the role of toys as objects for training children, and work-related artefacts with which children may have interacted, but which do not bear obvious characteristics suggesting that they were specifically made for children. Labour will be addressed in its broadest sense, including gendered differences in the material culture of labour and the broader historical driving forces behind the existence of work-related material ‘propaganda’.

Material Culture

Sociology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence E. McDonnell ◽  
Kelcie Vercel
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Institutional Characteristics ◽  
Sociology Of Culture ◽  
The Social

Beginning with many of its earliest writings, sociology has a long tradition of theorizing the role of objects and material culture in social life. In the middle of the 20th century, these themes were taken up again by major sociological and anthropological thinkers who inspired a resurgence of interest in the study of objects. The sociology of culture and art began to address the production and reception of objects, while scholars from anthropology, cultural studies, and media studies began to develop a robust body of work around material culture. These two fields have somewhat different takes on the study of objects. Sociological accounts tend to be people focused, examining how institutional characteristics of art worlds shape the objects produced, and focusing explanations of meaning-making on the social position of the audience more so than the symbolic qualities of the object. Alternatively, material culture approaches tend to be object focused, engaging objects as symbols that help explain how people organize subcultures, create solidarity through exchange, or express social status. A turn toward materiality, originating from anthropology but taken up more recently in sociology, privileges the material qualities of objects and how they shape the use and symbolic meaning of objects. This work on objects raises the question of how sociologists should incorporate objects into accounts of action. This question has sparked an ongoing cross-disciplinary debate about whether objects have agency. Research in science and technology studies, alongside studies of craft and sport, have brought attention to how objects act back, shaping how knowledge is produced. Objects have also been understood as mechanisms of power, by shaping categories and morality, ritualizing icons, stabilizing social relations as instruments of the states and institutions, and structuring action through the built environment. These robust and vibrant areas of research make a strong case for the incorporation of objects into theories of power and knowledge.

The Archaeology of Dogs at the Precontact Site of Nunalleq, Western Alaska

Dogs ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 72-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edouard Masson-MacLean ◽  
Ellen McManus-Fry ◽  
Kate Britton
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Faunal Assemblage ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Symbolic Space ◽  
Discontinuous Permafrost ◽  
Excellent Preservation ◽  
Bodies Of Evidence ◽  
Historic Record

Historically and ethnographically dogs have played a prominent role in the lifeways and lifeworlds of many Arctic and sub-Arctic peoples, and are considered to be a vital aspect of adaptation to living in these regions. Excavations at the precontact site of Nunalleq in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta in coastal Western Alaska have uncovered a significant proportion of dog bones among the faunal assemblage. The presence of discontinuous permafrost at the site has resulted in the excellent preservation, not only of bone, but also of dog fur and even dog lice in deposits at the site, along with vast organic and inorganic material culture assemblages. Here we present a multi-stranded, cross-disciplinary study of the bioarchaeology and zooarchaeology of dogs at Nunalleq, combining their remains, with the study of material culture, soils and other bodies of evidence, and the ethno-historic record. We go “beyond domestication” and examine the utilitarian role of dogs at Nunalleq, the role in foodways, and in social and symbolic space at the site, providing new insights into this vital aspect of Precontact animal-human relationships in the Y-K Delta.

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.

Receptions of the Past: Commemoration, Racism, Desire

Somatechnics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-303
Author(s):  
Michael Connors Jackman
Keyword(s):  
Critical Point ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
White Privilege ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
The Body ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Lesbian And Gay ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

This article investigates the ways in which the work of The Body Politic (TBP), the first major lesbian and gay newspaper in Canada, comes to be commemorated in queer publics and how it figures in the memories of those who were involved in producing the paper. In revisiting a critical point in the history of TBP from 1985 when controversy erupted over race and racism within the editorial collective, this discussion considers the role of memory in the reproduction of whiteness and in the rupture of standard narratives about the past. As the controversy continues to haunt contemporary queer activism in Canada, the productive work of memory must be considered an essential aspect of how, when and for what reasons the work of TBP comes to be commemorated. By revisiting the events of 1985 and by sifting through interviews with individuals who contributed to the work of TBP, this article complicates the narrative of TBP as a bluntly racist endeavour whilst questioning the white privilege and racially-charged demands that undergird its commemoration. The work of producing and preserving queer history is a vital means of challenging the intentional and strategic erasure of queer existence, but those who engage in such efforts must remain attentive to the unequal terrain of social relations within which remembering forms its objects.

THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-131
Author(s):  
Mbuzeni Mathenjwa
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Local Government ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
African Union ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The Status ◽  
Administrative Units

The place and role of local government within the structure of government in Africa has attracted much public interest. Prior to and after independence, African countries used local government as the administrative units of central governments without their having any legal status, to the extent that local authorities were under the strict control of central governments. The autonomy of local government is pivotal in the democratisation of a country. The United Nations, European Union and African Union have adopted treaties to promote the recognition and protection of local government in the state parties’ constitutions. Accordingly, this article explains the status of local government in Africa and its impact on strengthening democracy in African states.

Grape Seeds Extract as Brain Food: A Review

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Souad El Gengaihi ◽  
Doha H. Abou Baker
Keyword(s):  
Antioxidant Activities ◽  
Complex Mixture ◽  
Grape Seed Extract ◽  
Grape Seed ◽  
Seed Extract ◽  
Amyloid Peptide ◽  
Grape Seeds ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Reduced Risk

Interest in the biological role of bioactive compounds present in medicinal herbs has increased over the last years. Of particular interest are plants that have an anti-Alzheimer activities. Several plants can be useful for Alzheimer (AD) management. Such as these which have anti-inflammatory activity, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory action, antiapoptotic, slow the aggregation of amyloid peptide and antioxidant activities. Grape seed extract (GSE) is a complex mixture of several compounds, mostly represented by polyphenols and flavonoids. Their consumption is safe and is recognized to exert several health benefits. GS flavonoids have been associated with the reduced risk of chronic diseases, we present some findings on the potential benefits of GSE for the treatment of AD.

The Impact of COVID-19 Quarantine on Children‘s Behaviors and Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 796-806
Author(s):  
Sana M Kamal ◽  
Ali Al-Samydai ◽  
Rudaina Othman Yousif ◽  
Talal Aburjai
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Child Psychology ◽  
Simple Random Sample ◽  
Community Pharmacies ◽  
The World ◽  
Female Children ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Pharmaceutical Interventions

COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the world, which considered a relative of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), with possibility of transmission from animals to human and effect each of health and economic. Several preventative strategies and non-pharmaceutical interventions have been used to slow down the spread of COVID-19. The questionnaire contained 36 questions regarding the impact of COVID-19 quarantine on children`s behaviors and language have been distributed online (Google form). Data collected after asking parents about their children behavior during quarantine, among the survey completers (n=469), 42.3% were female children, and 57.7 were male children. Results showed that quarantine has an impact on children`s behaviors and language, where stress and isolationism has a higher effect, while social relations had no impact. The majority of the respondents (75.0%) had confidence that community pharmacies can play an important role in helping families in protection their children`s behaviors and language as they made the highest contact with pharmacists during quarantine. One of the main recommendations that could be applied to help parents protection and improvement their children`s behaviors and language in quarantine condition base on simple random sample opinion is increasing the role of community pharmacies inpatient counseling and especially towards children after giving courses to pharmacists in child psychology and behavior. This could be helpful to family to protect their children, from any changing in them behaviors and language in such conditions in the future if the world reface such the same problem.

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