bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Domestic Architecture and Settlement Planning in Early and Middle Bronze Age Sicily: Thoughts on Innovation and Social Process
Authors: Doonan Owen
Published: February 2008

Significant advances in settlement archaeology in Bronze Age Sicily in recent years have provided greater opportunities to explore social dynamics in local communities. The full publication of several important residential and sacred sites, including La Muculufa, Monte Grande, Capo Graziano and I Faraglioni, Ustica enable close study of material assemblages within their architectural contexts. The relationship between social behavior and domestic architecture in Bronze Age Sicily is analyzed, focusing on the structuring of social interaction at multiple levels of social distance. Recent work has also demonstrated increasing contacts between Sicilian and east Mediterranean communities during the second millennium BC. Innovations, including widespread use of formally defined exterior household spaces, careful planning of shared public places, and imposing defensive structures, emerged in response to frame new kinds of interactions with outsiders and between community members. These new architectural forms developed unevenly, reflecting a variety of processes specific to local conditions. At Thapsos, new architectural forms appeared in the context of intensive contact with the Aegean world; at other sites such as I Faraglioni, Punta Milazzese and Mursia (Pantelleria) innovative architectural forms formalized traditional uses of domestic space in response to dynamic local conditions.
Chasing the Classical Farmstead: Assessing the Formation and Signature of Rural Settlement in Greek Landscape Archaeology
Authors: Pettegrew David K.
Published: February 2008

Over the past 20 years, the classical farmstead has become an essential categorical term in the literature of Greek survey archaeology. This paper traces the development of the category 'farmstead' out of the conceptual paradigm of settlement archaeology. It is argued that the tendency to categorize classical-period artifact clusters as -farmsteads-, without understanding the role of cultural processes in forming the archaeological record, creates a false dichotomy between 'site' and 'off-site' scatter. This paper applies a model of cultural formation processes developed in household archaeology in the Americas to the formation of domestic artifact assemblages in classical Greece. It presents a variety of literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence from 5th- and 4th-century Athens to delineate the cultural formation processes operative in both town and country in that society. This paper argues that classical farmsteads and landscapes represent accumulated debris generated by repeated behaviors of habitation, discard, recycling, and abandonment. The typical -farmsteads- recognized in intensive survey represent only a narrow range of the signatures of habitation for the classical period; low density scatters of pottery and tiles, in particular, represent a signature of habitation that archaeologists have rarely interpreted as evidence for habitation.
Social and Political Organisation on Crete in the Proto-palatial Period
Authors: Schoep Ilse
Published: February 2008

The model of the Minoan palace as a centralised political, economic and ideological authority, and of Minoan society as a hierarchical power structure, has to a large extent guided discussion of social complexity in the Middle Bronze Age on Crete. This paper draws attention to alternative models of power in which more agent-centred perspectives, such as heterarchy and factionalism, are preferred. On the basis of a case-study of the proto-palatial town of Malia (Crete), it is argued that these alternative models of power may offer a better explanation for the first palace and its role in Middle Minoan II Malia.
Consuming Passions
Authors: Steel Louise
Published: February 2008

This paper re-examines the little known corpus of Mycenaean imports to Tell el-Ajjul. Specifically, it evaluates the evidence for the incorporation of this imported pottery within everyday life and death at the site, in order to assess the extent to which it impacted on local culture. While Mycenaean imports denote privileged access to the luxury commodities of Mediterranean trade in the later second millennium BC, the main axis of external contacts in the Gaza region is constructed within the context of the Egyptian New Kingdom state. Localised patterns of trade, especially with Cyprus and the Jordan valley, are more apparent in the context of the southern limits of the Levant. Egypt, however, was the major cultural referent in the construction of local identities. This is reflected in the range of Mycenaean pottery found at Ajjul which largely parallels that found in Egypt.
The Chronology of the First Settlement of the Balearic Islands
Authors: Ramis Damia , Alcover Josep Antoni , Coll Jaume , Trias Miquel
Published: February 2008

The goal of this paper is to establish a solid chronology which spans the earliest human presence in each of the three larger Balearic Islands. For this purpose, a review is undertaken of archaeological evidence and associated absolute dating related to the period before the 2nd millennium Cal BC. Additionally, palaeoecological, sedimentological and palaeocultural evidence for human absence on these islands during the middle Holocene is introduced. The most recent values for ranges of the earliest reliable radiocarbon dates relating to human occupation of the three islands indicate, with p > 95%, human presence on Mallorca before 2030 cal BC, on Menorca before ca. 1930 Cal BC, and on Eivissa before 1880 Cal BC. On the other hand, the evidence for human absence indicates that, on Mallorca and Menorca the human irruption must have occurred during the 3rd millennium cal BC, whereas on Eivissa it can only be said that this irruption was later than 6th millennium Cal BC.
Burnished Pottery and Gender Hierarchy in Iron Age Israelite Society
Authors: Faust Avraham
Published: February 2008

One of the typical characteristics of Iron Age II pottery in ancient Israel is slip and burnish, which was applied to many vessels, especially bowls, jugs and juglets. No functional explanation can account for the phenomenon, and the reason for the (re)appearance of this treatment at the turn of the first millennium BC should be sought in the social realm. Vessels that received this treatment were used for food consumption, while vessels used for food preparation and storage remained in their -natural- form. In ancient Israel, like many other societies, food preparation was regarded as women-s work and was conducted by them in the private part of the dwelling, while public food consumption was regarded as men-s business. It is suggested that the level of social complexity, which peaked around 1000 BC with the formation of the monarchy, also deepened gender inequalities, which were symbolized by an elaborated treatment of vessels used for masculine activities. It is also possible that, while vessels used for women's activities remained within the realm of nature (earthenwares), the slip and burnish transformed the vessels used for masculine activities and brought them into the realm of culture.
Ambiguous Identities
Authors: Feldman Marian H.
Published: February 2008

A fourteenth century BC alabaster vase found at Ugarit on the coast of Syria bears a representation of a man and a woman often interpreted as husband and wife. The man is identified as Syrian both in an inscription stating he is Niqmaddu, ruler of Ugarit, and in his physical rendering. The identity of the lady, dressed in Egyptian court fashion, remains uncertain. The image has been used both to support and refute a claim made in a contemporary international letter that Egypt never gave its princesses in marriage to foreign rulers. This article examines how the image deploys the indeterminate identity of the woman within an explicitly identified scene of royal representation. The rationale for such intentional ambiguity lies in Ugarit's role in the political relations of the Late Bronze Age, a world of diplomacy in which the Ugaritic king operated on both the foreign and domestic levels. The element of ambiguity serves as a critical component in status negotiations, and images present an ideal vehicle for coding flexible messages in diplomatic maneuvers.
Archaeologies of Recent Rural Sicily and Sardinia: A Comparative Approach
Authors: Mientjes Antoon , Pluciennik Mark , Giannitrapani Enrico
Published: February 2008

Although there have been increasing amounts of archaeological work carried out in the Mediterranean on Post-Medieval periods, particularly in Greece, historical archaeology in the Anglo-American sense is so far poorly developed in Italy. For many, work on this period is seen as synonymous with the archaeology of capitalism and the growth of world systems. Such concerns require many different scales of analysis and an inter-disciplinary approach. One crucial question for archaeologists is how processes at different scales and perhaps different tempos articulate. While fieldwork typically contributes to the local and regional, the archaeological search for broader syntheses often privileges ecological conditions as determining the nature of possible responses; historians and anthropologists, for their part, have tended to emphasize the economic. Here we present two case studies from broadly ecologically similar areas, the central highlands of Sicily and Sardinia, both with rich archaeological, historical and ethnographic archives from the last two centuries. Our analysis supports work elsewhere in the Mediterranean which suggests that even under the homogenizing influences of global trade and regional ecologies, the specific sociopolitical conditions within which communities and classes articulate with wider forces are crucial in determining historical and cultural trajectories.
The Emergence and Dispersion of the Eastern Mediterranean Fishing Village: Evidence from Submerged Neolithic Settlements off the Carmel Coast, Israel
Authors: Galili Ehud , Rosen Baruch , Gopher Avi , Kolska-Horwitz Liora
Published: February 2008

In this paper, we propose a model which predicts the timing, location and form of early eastern Mediterranean fishing villages. A submerged late 9th-7th millennium BP settlement off the Carmel coast of Israel is described and presented as a case study to consider the initial development of Mediterranean fishing villages which would have been based upon a combined agro-pastoral-marine economy. The unique development of water-well technology enabled late 9th millennium BP populations to occupy previously unsettled territories near the coastline and to exploit marine and terrestrial resources simultaneously. This complex economy enabled year-round occupation of settlements and a relatively secure subsistence, based on agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing, supplemented by hunting and foraging. During the subsequent Pottery Neolithic (PN) period, olive oil was added to the Mediterranean subsistence base, and on the verge of historical times the production of wine completed the formation of the traditional Mediterranean economy as it is known today.
Themes and Models in the Development of Italian Prehistory
Authors: Loney Helen L.
Published: February 2008

Italian prehistory, its theory and methodology, developed during the 19th-century unification of Italy. Initially embracing the natural sciences, it became wedded to a culture-historical paradigm, strengthened by the philosopher Croce. In addition, the strong central figure of Luigi Pigorini, the first prehistorian of the modern world, molded a conservative, homogenous view of the development of Italian prehistory, which rejected evolution. After Pigorini's death, and the fall of Fascism, other viewpoints such as Marxism revitalized the discipline. The strong left-wing Marxist perspective, however, along with a previous tradition of scientific methodology, meant that Italian mainstream prehistorians did not accept the processual paradigm. Currently, the post-processualist critique is enjoying greater success, mainly because of the influence of French Structuralists, and because of the strong culture-historical paradigm which most modern Italian prehistorians follow.
The Rural Landscape of neopalatial Kythera: A GIS debate
Authors: Bevan Andrew
Published: February 2008

Intensive archaeological survey on the island of Kythera (Greece) has revealed, in unprecedented detail, a landscape of dispersed rural settlements dating to the mid-2nd millennium BC. This paper deploys a series of GIS and spatial analysis techniques to illuminate the way this landscape was structured, in terms of social organization, agriculture and island demography. Discussion begins by quantifying site numbers, size and hierarchy. It then examines patterns of settlement dispersal, highlighting the subsistence strategies probably underpinning such a landscape. Emphasis is placed on reconstructing where possible the dynamics of colonization and the motivations behind site location. A final section proposes population figures for the island and considers a range of site-level interactions.
Classical Farms, Hidden Prehistoric Landscapes and Greek Rural Survey
Authors: Bintliff John , Farinetti Emeri , Howard Phil , Sarri Kalliope , Sbonias Kostas
Published: February 2008

Sorry, no abstract text available.
The Early Bronze Age of the Southern Levant
Authors: Philip Graham
Published: February 2008

This paper seeks to explore ways in which a landscape perspective might shed new light on the nature of the social and economic changes detectable in the archaeological record of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) of the southern Levant. The discussion focuses upon key anthropogenic landscape elements, in particular the construction of walled settlements and visible burial monuments, and the impact of important agricultural changes both upon the experiential landscape and on the organization and priorities of EBA communities.
Early Bronze Age Megiddo and Bet Shean
Authors: Greenberg Raphael
Published: February 2008

Megiddo was, by late Early Bronze (EB) I, an important cultic center for a large, pastorally oriented village population; Bet Shean was a key redistribution center. Both of these major sites of northern Palestine were essentially abandoned in EB II. Their fate may be related to the shift in the sociopolitical landscape of EB II, characterized by uniform regional entities with an integrated town/village system. Economically incompatible with the new order and located at the border between entities, Megiddo and Bet Shean either succumbed to the new order or fissioned, spawning new polities. When the EB II ethos was exhausted, Megiddo reasserted itself as a city-state in EB III. Bet Shean was apparently unfortified and occupied by people who produced the so-called Khirbet Kerak Ware. These individual histories show that there was no unitary model of Levantine urbanization. Rather, urbanization should be regarded as a concatenation of mutually reflective episodes, with a theme constantly reinterpreted from one region to the next.
Tales of the City? ‘Urhanism’ in the Early Bronze Age Levant from Mediterranean and Levantine Perspectives
Authors: Chesson Meredith S. , Philip Graham
Published: February 2008

Over the last century, scholars have proposed many models for understanding the rise of urbanism and the nature of urban society throughout the Mediterranean and the Levant. As part of this dialogue, the papers assembled here represent the result of a session held at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in New Orleans (April 2001) to explore recent paradigms for understanding the question of urbanism, specifi cally from a Levantine perspective. The aim of this session was to bring together scholars actively conducting research on the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in the Levant in order to review the form, nature and scale of social complexity and urbanism in Syria- Palestine during the later 4th and 3rd millennia BC.

The papers in this issue focus on the historical development, organizational frameworks, and societal fl avor of EBA walled communities in the Levant, encompassing modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt.While this region is not tremendously large, Levantine sub-regions experienced different developmental trajectories in terms of the nature and scale of their EBA societies. Table 1 provides a schematic of chronological sequences in current use in the Levant, correlating the major regions and chronologies.

The reader should be aware that there remain real problems with the periodization of Syrian material. As Campbell (2000: 53–54) observes, western Syria represents the junction of several confl icting terminologies, each designed to refl ect a different, non-Syrian, material culture sequence (in essence those of the southern Levant, Mesopotamia and Anatolia). As these issues are treated elsewhere in more detail (Marro 2000; Philip 2002: 209–10), they are not discussed at length here. Suffi ce it to say that recent studies (Philip and Baird 2000; Joffe and Dessel 2000) have raised doubts about the region-wide reliability of even the supposedly well-founded Palestinian ceramic sequence.
Settlement Heterogeneity and Multivariate Craft Production in the Early Bronze Age Southern Levant
Authors: Harrison Timothy P. , Savage Steven H.
Published: February 2008

Urbanization, as a formative process in the rise of social and economic complexity, has long dominated conceptualizations of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) southern Levant, with many synthetic reconstructions assuming a process structurally analogous to developments witnessed elsewhere in the ancient Near East. Viewed from this perspective, urbanism as experienced in the EBA southern Levant was little more than a secondary, derivative expression of the earlier and larger-scale manifestations that had occurred in southern Mesopotamia and Egypt. Settlement patterns and excavated remains from the Central Highlands of Jordan, however, reveal a striking pattern of low-level integration and autonomous development. Although a complex social order clearly emerged, the evidence suggests the formation of heterarchically organized regional communities, rather than the hierarchical, centralized urban landscape typically assumed for the region. This paper examines the evidence for heterarchy in the EBA, and its implications regarding prevailing views about the development of urbanism in the southern Levant.
Cash Crop Production and Storage in the Early Bronze Age Southern Levant
Authors: Genz Hermann
Published: February 2008

Often an Egyptian demand for olive oil and wine is seen as a stimulus not only for the increasing production of these commodities in the Early Bronze Age (EBA) southern Levant, but also for their growing socioeconomic importance. While the import of southern Levantine wine to Egypt is proven by archaeological finds, the scale of this trade as well as its significance for the socioeconomic development of the southern Levant is debatable. It is more likely that the production of cash crops in the southern Levant was primarily directed towards the needs of local markets, and that it was local elites who gained power by controlling the flow of agricultural goods between the highlands and the lowlands. Thus the production of cash crops may be regarded as one of the factors that led towards increasing social stratification, eventually resulting in an urban society in the EBA southern Levant.
Households, Houses, Neighborhoods and Corporate Villages
Authors: Chesson Meredith S.
Published: February 2008

In the ongoing investigation of southern Levantine Early Bronze Age (EBA) walled settlements, archaeologists are uncovering a diversity of expression of life in walled communities that challenges the normative boundaries of traditional models of urbanism, secondary state formation, chiefdoms and the nature and role of ritual and elite institutions. Building on Philip's (2001) discussion of EBA walled settlements as dynamic corporate villages, this paper employs the anthropological model of house societies as a framework for discussing the social, economic and political networks within corporate villages. Drawing on excavated data from residential, non-residential and mortuary contexts at several EBA sites, I explore the economic, social and political relationships between residential and non-residential realms in terms of social differentiation and civic governance within these communities. I argue that we enhance our understanding of EBA society by viewing the data through the lens of the house society model, originally developed by Lévi-Strauss (1982).
A Foreign School of Archaeology and the Politics of Archaeological Practice
Authors: Davis Jack L.
Published: February 2008

This paper considers the politics of archaeological practice of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), a major institutional force that has shaped the discipline of Classical archaeologythrough its educational programs and its sponsorship of archaeological excavations. The current attitudes of ASCSA towards archaeology reflect a long-standing commitment to the tenets of western Hellenism and to the nationalist discourse of the modern Greek state. Here the focus is on events surrounding an archaeological expedition dispatched in 1922 by ASCSA and Harvard University to investigate the ancient Greek city of Colophon in Anatolia. I argue that such critical histories of archaeological practice are useful in that they can clarify the past sociopolitical conditions in which current archaeological policies took shape and, in so doing, may challenge the assumption that these are the most appropriate avenues for an institution like ASCSA to follow in the future.
Ebla: Crafts and Power in an Emergent State of Third Millennium BC Syria
Authors: Mazzoni Stefania
Published: February 2008

This paper draws on data from the excavation of late fourth and third millennia settlements in the northern Levant to explore the dynamic relationship between craft production and urbanization. An examination of the contexts of production and patterns of artefact distribution, both within and between settlements, suggests that the impact on craft production of elite-dominated managerial institutions can be detected at both central and peripheral sites, and involved both valuable and more mundane classes of artefact.
Narrating Monumentality: The Piazza Navona Obelisk
Authors: Parker Grant
Published: February 2008

The Egyptian obelisks at Rome are monuments par excellence: as sites of memory they have been distinctive, but over time also prone to appropriation and recontextualization. Owing to their bulk, ancient (and modern) attempts to transport them have attracted much attention. This paper begins with a biography of the obelisk now at Piazza Navona and proceeds to a broader consideration of the qualities that constitute a monument. In particular, its physical transportation is examined in relation to transmuta-tions of context and audience in time and space. The social processes within which they have been implicated suggest reconsideration of the nature, and indeed direction, of biographic narrative. To what extent can narrative, in this biographic form, adequately represent monumentality?
Chemical Analysis and Interpretation of Mycenaean Pottery from Thessaly
Authors: Feuer Bryan , Schneider Gerwulf
Published: February 2008

In this paper we report the results of a study utilizing wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis and petrographic analysis of Mycenaean pottery from 11 sites in Thessaly. The primary purpose of this analysis is to answer a number of questions concerning the production and distribution of pottery there during the Late Bronze Age, including the relative quantity of local ceramic production, the number of workshops producing Mycenaean pottery and patterns of ceramic distribution. We identify and characterize four compositional groups, discuss evidence of imported pottery, suggest several probable and possible workshop locations, discuss patterns of distribution and offer some tentative conclusions concerning economic processes at the periphery of the Mycenaean world.
Overkill
Authors: Caputi Jane
Published: February 2008

In popular understandings, both excess and conflict are understood as compelling, even ‘sexy’. Drawing from the perspectives of feminist theory, history, and theology, I consider the ways that patriarchal cultures eroticize possession, domination, and taboo violation, leading to this popular apprehension. I critique some of the ways that patriarchal conceptions of sex and God, both founded in a gendered conception of power as domination, intersect to influence significantly and foment harms including environmental devastation.
Has Ecofeminism Cornered the Market? Gender Analysis in the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture
Authors: Page Tovis
Published: February 2008

An evaluation of how and to what extent gender has been used as a category of analysis in the study of religion and nature to date highlights important extant areas of work, as well as new approaches and subjects of inquiry that are as yet relatively untapped. The academic study of religion and nature has attended to ecofeminist concerns from the earliest stages of its development as a field, which testifies to its commitment to be a critical, interdisciplinary, and inclusive body of scholarship. But several unfortunate consequences result from the near-exclusive focus on ecofeminism within the field thus far, consequences that stem not from ecofeminism per se, but from the elision and underdevelopment of other productive forms of gender analysis that promise to further enrich the growing field of religion, nature, and culture studies.
Comments on the Appearance of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
Authors: Arnold Philip P.
Published: February 2008

In Native American religions there has been a shift from expert knowledge to collaborative knowledge—working with indigenous communities on issues of urgent mutual concern. Most urgent are environmental issues. This article explores collaborative relationships with the Onondaga Nation, near Syracuse New York, the Central Fire of the Haudenosaunee (‘People of the Longhouse’ Six Nations Iroquois) Confederacy. The Onondaga Nation is still organized and run according to the ancient ceremonial process—the Great Law of Peace. Because of their strong traditional orientation they have led international efforts for the recognition of indigenous people at the United Nations. Leaders like Oren Lyons and Audrey Shenandoah have brought their message of peace and environmental justice to the world. On 11 March 2005 they filed their ‘Land Rights Action’. Native and non-native have been inspired by this action and several collaborative events have resulted from this bold and principled stand on behalf of the environment.
The Promise of the Discourse of the Sacred for Conservation (and its Limits)
Authors: Tiedje Kristina
Published: February 2008

Popular concepts of ‘nature as sacred’—particularly when intentionally borrowed from or rhetorically/conceptually connected to indigenous world views—may be beneficial for conservation—but they also carry dangers. The rhetoric of the sacred raises questions of power when deployed in someone’s interest, especially, but not only, with regard to indigenous peoples. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico, this article analyzes the human dimensions of conservation with regard to the significance of the sacred in recent conservation theory. I focus on the ways in which indigenous views of the sacred, and idealized notions of sacredness and spirituality, are mobilized for nature conservation, and on the role power asymmetry plays in disputes over nature, and with regard to places considered sacred in both indigenous and non-indigenous areas.
Spiritual Ecology
Authors: Sponsel Leslie E.
Published: February 2008

Spiritual ecology is described as a preferable and thought-provoking designation for the study of religion and nature. Some of its main past contributions and limitations within cultural anthropology are outlined. Several key needs for future teaching, research, and publication are identified. Selected citations place the subject in broader perspective and provide a convenient entry for those wishing to pursue this exciting and promising new multidisciplinary arena of scientific and scholarly research, instruction, and practical action.
Humans and other Animals in Alexander Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica
Authors: Low Mary
Published: February 2008

Non-human animals feature strongly in Alexander Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica, with domestic animals receiving the most attention. In this anthology of traditional prayers and customs from the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, animals are used to meet human needs but are also seen as feeling creatures that have an affinity with men and women. There is no escaping the fear and dislike of Carmina people for animals which they believe threaten their livelihood, but a number of prayers and work songs express affection for wild creatures and generosity towards them in terms of food and care, and all of the animals in the Carmina seem to be included in a prayer for love of God and neighbour. Anthropocentrism is present, but there is more concern for other animals than in many expressions of Christian spirituality, and a strong sense is demonstrated throughout the text of humans as a part of a community of creatures.
Ideas of Nature and Their Cultural Impact
Authors: Von Stuckrad Kocku
Published: February 2008

Dieter Groh, Schöpfung im Widerspruch: Deutungen der Natur und des Menschen von der Genesis bis zur Reformation (Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 2003), 846 pp., EUR 20.00 (approx. $26 US), ISBN 3-518-29089-4.
Ruth Groh and Dieter Groh, Die Außenwelt der Innenwelt: Zur Kulturgeschichte der Natur 2 (Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1996), 150 pp., EUR 8.99 (approx $12 US), ISBN: 3-518-28818-0.
—Weltbild und Naturaneignung: Zur Kulturgeschichte der Natur (Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 2nd edn, 1996), 176 pp., EUR 10.00 (approx $13 US), ISBN: 3-518-28539-4.
Michael Ruse, The Evolution-Creation Struggle
Authors: Croce Paul J.
Published: February 2008

Michael Ruse, The Evolution-Creation Struggle (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 327pp., $25.95 cloth, ISBN 0-674-01687-4.
Andy Letcher, Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom
Authors: Harvey Graham
Published: February 2008

Andy Letcher, Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom (New York: Ecco, 2007), 384 pp. Pbk. $25.95, ISBN 0-06-082828-5.
Religious Remediations
Authors: Meyer Birgit
Published: February 2008

This article addresses the interface of video-films and Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in Ghana. This interface, it is argued, needs to be examined from a position that transcends the confines of film studies and religious studies and leaves behind a secularist perspective on the relationship between religion and film. On the basis of detailed ethnographic research, it is shown that, far from standing apart from the realm of religious beliefs, video-films call upon audio-visual technologies so as to remediate Pentecostal views of the invisible world around which Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity evolves. Video-films invoke a “techno-religious realism” that addresses spectators in such a way that they authorize video representations as authentic. Transcending facile oppositions of technology and belief, media and authenticity, and entertainment and religion, video-films are shown to achieve immediacy and authenticity not at the expense of, but thanks to, media technologies and practices of remediation.
Muslim Martyrs and Pagan Vampires
Authors: Krings Matthias
Published: February 2008

In December 2000 the government of Kano State in Muslim northern Nigeria reintroduced shari’a and established a new board for film and video censorship charged with the responsibility to “sanitize” the video industry and enforce the compliance of video films with moral standards of Islam. Stakeholders of the industry took up the challenge and responded by inserting religious issues into their narratives, and by adding a new feature genre focusing on conversion to Islam. This genre is characterized by violent Muslim/pagan encounters, usually set in a mythical past, culminating in the conversion of the pagans. This article will first outline northern Nigerian video culture and then go on to explore local debates about the religious legitimacy of film and video and their influence upon recent developments within the video industry. By taking a closer look at video films propagating Islam it will focus on three points: first, videomakers’ negotiation between the opposing notions of religious education and secular escapism; second, inter-textual relations with other (film)cultures; and third, political subtexts to the narratives, which relate such figures as Muslim martyrs and pagan vampires to the current project of cultural and religious revitalization.
Mythologicals and Modernity
Authors: Hughes Stephen
Published: February 2008

During the 1920s mythological films provided the first Indian cinematic formula for commercial success based on this presumed all-India appeal of Hindu religious stories. This article examines the early history of mythological films as a particularly useful site for addressing questions about the complex and changing relations between media, religion, and politics. In particular, this article concentrates upon a series of significant films and debates contesting the contemporary significance of mythological films in Tamil speaking south India during the 1920s. It argues that mythological cinema was implicated within and refigured a series of ongoing religious, political and cultural debates on modernity during the 1920s.
Devotional Transformation
Authors: Vasudevan Ravi
Published: February 2008

This article focuses on the specific Indian cinematic form of the Hindu devotional film genre to explore the relationship between cinema and religion. Using three important early films from the devotional oeuvre—Gopal Krishna, Sant Dnyaneshwar, and Sant Tukaram—as the primary referent, it tries to understand certain characteristic patterns in the narrative structures of these films, and the cultures of visuality and address, miraculous manifestation, and witnessing and self-transformation that they generate. These three films produced by Prabhat Studios between the years 1936 and 1940 and all directed by Vishnupant Damle and Syed Fattelal, drew upon the powerful anti-hierarchical traditions of Bhakti, devotional worship that circumvented Brahmanical forms. This article will argue that the devotional film crucially undertakes a work of transformation in the perspectives on property, and that in this engagement it particularly reviews the status of the household in its bid to generate a utopian model of unbounded community. The article will also consider the status of technologies of the miraculous that are among the central attractions of the genre, and afford a reflection on the relation between cinema technology, popular religious belief and desire, and film spectatorship.
Religious Cinematics
Authors: Plate S. Brent
Published: February 2008

Religious cinematics is concerned with the “moving picture,” and with its impact on the “moving body.” Particularly utilizing Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological descriptions of the “aesthesiological body,” this article briefly outlines a movement of the film viewer’s body that is pre-conscious, before rational awareness, in front of the film screen. Ultimately, it turns to Stan Brakhage’s unwatchable film, The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes, to make the case for moments of “cinematic mysticism,” when the categorizing functions of film and the senses break down. In this way, a renewing function of filmic ritual emerges, not from a transcendental otherworldliness but from a grounding in the human sensing body.
Insight, Secrecy, Beasts, and Beauty
Authors: De Witte Marleen
Published: February 2008

Since the liberalization of the Ghanaian media in 1992, audiovisual representation has become crucial in the struggle over religion and culture. This article examines the neo-traditionalist Afrikania Mission’s struggles with audiovisual media in the context of a strong Pentecostal dominance in Ghana’s religious and media landscape. It argues that the study of religion in an era of mass media cannot be limited to religious doctrine and content. One must also take into account matters of style and format associated with audiovisual representation. This article shows how new media opportunities and constraints have pushed Afrikania to adapt its strategies of accessing the media and its styles of representation. Adopting dominant media formats such as the documentary, the news item, and the spectacle involves a constant struggle over revelation and concealment. It also entails the neglect of much of the spiritual power that constitutes African religious traditions. The question of how to represent spiritual power through audiovisual media occupies many religious groups, but the question of its very representability seems to be especially pressing for Afrikania.
Priests and Stars
Authors: Van de Port Mattijs
Published: February 2008

This article discusses the inextricable entanglement of religious and media imaginar¬ies by pointing out how, in a thoroughly mediatized society such as Bahia (Brazil), the public articulation of religious authority comes to depend more and more on celebrity discourses. Candomblé, the Afro-Brazilian spirit possession cult on which this article focuses, is an intriguing example of this trend. The cult has become the main “symbol bank” of the Bahian state, and groups have increasingly sought access to its rich arse¬nal of images, sounds, myths, and aesthetics. Disconcerted by this development, Candomblé priests have sought to publicly assert themselves as the only authentic representatives of the cult. Whereas within the temples, their religious authority is rmly rooted in the performance of ritual practice and constantly reconrmed in the rigid and minute prescriptions as to how the different ranks in the temple hierarchy should interact, the public sphere requires the mobilization of other resources to back up claims of religious authority. The author argues that Candomblé priests are very successful in “colonizing” the tremendous appeal of celebrity discourses. Exploiting the society-wide interest in Candomblé, they create media events that allow them to dis¬play their contacts and afnities with the stars. They thus nd their religious leader¬¬ship authorized in terms that are well understood by the consumers of modern mass media.
Breathing in the Heart of the Matter
Authors: De Abreu Maria Jose Alves
Published: February 2008

This article addresses the distinctive spiritual qualities of aerial movement. Taking as a point of departure the feature lm Maria, Mãe do Filho de Deus (2003) played by famous Brazilian Padre Marcelo Rossi, it argues for an engagement with cinematic images in terms of aerial dynamic imagination. It will be shown that the “inspired breath” of Padre Marcelo organizes the universe and affects the constitution of subjects and space in the lm according to the Scriptures. The same aerial dynamic applies to his other contexts of performance such as Byzantine praying techniques and their relation to space. Subsequently, the article explores underlying analogies between electronic technology, acoustic environment, and pneumatic spirituality within common practices of embodied experience
Being a Christian in the Catholic Way
Authors: Peperkamp Esther
Published: February 2008

This article addresses the distinctive spiritual qualities of aerial movement. Taking as a point of departure the feature lm Maria, Mãe do Filho de Deus (2003) played by famous Brazilian Padre Marcelo Rossi, it argues for an engagement with cinematic images in terms of aerial dynamic imagination. It will be shown that the “inspired breath” of Padre Marcelo organizes the universe and affects the constitution of subjects and space in the lm according to the Scriptures. The same aerial dynamic applies to his other contexts of performance such as Byzantine praying techniques and their relation to space. Subsequently, the article explores underlying analogies between electronic technology, acoustic environment, and pneumatic spirituality within common practices of embodied experience.
Genetic and Coded Wire Tag Results Combine to Allow More-Precise Management of a Complex Chinook Salmon Aggregate
Authors: Parken Charles K. , Candy John R. , Irvine James R. , Beacham Terry D.
Published: February 2008

Conservation concerns for small, relatively unproductive populations of Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha limit the utility of fisheries in Canada's Fraser River. To identify population-specific migration time and to index abundance, we analyzed 4,822 fish sampled for genetic variation in 2000 and 2001 and 580 fish with coded wire tags (CWTs) caught from 1987 to 2004 in a test fishery near the river mouth. Population sizes estimated from microsatellite variation were within 3.4% of the known-origin population composition and were unbiased in comparison with known-origin population sizes. All but 1 of the 30 populations detected by both genetic methods and CWTs had overlapping migration times, but these times differed significantly for only 7 populations. Migration times were identified for another 23 untagged populations identified by using genetics, which resulted in the assignment of migration timing groups (peak passage) for 53 populations as spring (March–May), early summer (June), midsummer (July), late summer (August), and fall (September–October). Population abundance indices at the test fishery were significantly associated with run size at the river mouth. When populations were aggregated by geographic stock structure and migration time, the abundance indices for the test fishery explained 80% of the variation in run size. Incorporating genetic information can substantially improve the utility of test fishery data and thereby allow more-precise management of complex population aggregates such as those in the Fraser River.
Factors Influencing Radio Wave Transmission and Reception: Use of Radiotelemetry in Large River Systems
Authors: Peters Lindsay M. , Reinhardt Ulrich G. , Pegg Mark A.
Published: February 2008

Many technical and environmental variables affect radio wave transmission and reception in aquatic environments. We used a controlled experimental design in three large North American rivers (Illinois and Mississippi rivers, Illinois, and Skeena River, British Columbia) to examine the effects of water conductivity, transmitter depth, electromagnetic noise, antenna height, and transmitter type on detection distance. Detection distance was significantly affected by water conductivity, transmitter depth, and electromagnetic noise from a boat motor. Detection distance and maximum depth of signal reception increased with decreasing conductivity except at conductivities from 60 to 90 μS/cm (Skeena River). In contrast to terrestrial radiotelemetry, antenna height did not significantly affect detection distance. We also determined that a transmitter with a 3.5-V battery had an approximately 2.5 times greater detection distance than a transmitter with a 1.5-V battery. We provide quantitative results for several variables influencing radio wave transmission and reception, and we present two regression equations that can be used by researchers to obtain estimated detection distances in rivers of similar conductivity and depth. Furthermore, we compared our detection distances with those calculated from theoretical equations and found that our field results yielded higher detection distances. We strongly believe that there are gaps between results reported in technical papers and those obtained in field method studies; we argue for more collaborative research between aquatic telemetry users and engineers to reduce the current need for trial and error in telemetry study design.
Behavior and Passage Performance of Northern Pike, Walleyes, and White Suckers in an Experimental Raceway
Authors: Peake Stephan J.
Published: February 2008

The willingness and ability of wild adult northern pike Esox lucius, walleyes Sander vitreus, and white suckers Catostomus commersonii to ascend a 25- or 50-m experimental raceway against various water velocities (35–120 cm/s at 8 cm from the bottom) was measured. The probability that a fish of any given species would enter the raceway from its holding tank was significantly correlated with fork length, water temperature, and tank volume but was not correlated with water velocity. On average, 62.6% of northern pike, 45.0% of walleyes, and 44.2% of white suckers entered volitionally. For those fish that entered, the probability that at least one complete ascent would occur during the exposure period was not dependent on fish length, water temperature, raceway length, duration of the exposure period, time in captivity, or water velocity. On average, 74.4% of northern pike, 76.4% of walleyes, and 77.3% of white suckers that entered the raceway made at least one complete ascent. For northern pike and walleyes, the proportion of successful ascents at the highest water velocity tested (120 cm/s) was significantly lower than the proportions observed at the lower velocities. No significant differences were found among ascent proportions for white suckers. Fish in general may be more inclined to enter a culvert if the pool downstream of the entrance is relatively small. Culverts less than 50 m long should allow these species to pass as long as water velocities near the bottom do not exceed 100 cm/s. Fish passage models based on published data from forced performance trials predicted lower maximum allowable water speeds, which adds to a growing body of work that indicates the unsuitability of these tests for use in setting velocity criteria in culverts and fishways.
Changes in Consumption by Alewives and Lake Whitefish after Dreissenid Mussel Invasions in Lakes Michigan and Huron
Authors: Pothoven Steven A. , Madenjian Charles P.
Published: February 2008

Growth of alewives Alosa pseudoharengus and lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis has declined since the arrival and spread of dreissenid mussels in Lakes Michigan and Huron. Alewives are the main forage for the salmonids in Lake Michigan, and lake whitefish are the most important commercial species in both lakes. Bioenergetics modeling was used to determine consumption by the average individual fish before and after the dreissenid invasion and to provide insight into the invasion's effects on fish growth and food web dynamics. Alewives feed on both zooplankton and benthic macroinvertebrates, and lake whitefish are benthivores. Annual consumption of zooplankton by an average alewife in Lake Michigan was 37% lower and consumption of benthic macroinvertebrates (amphipods Diporeia spp., opossum shrimp Mysis relicta, and Chironomidae) was 19% lower during the postinvasion period (1995–2005) than during the preinvasion period (1983–1994). Reduced consumption by alewives corresponded with reduced alewife growth. In Lakes Michigan and Huron, consumption of nonmollusk macroinvertebrates (Diporeia spp., opossum shrimp, Chironomidae) by the average lake whitefish was 46–96% lower and consumption of mollusks (mainly dreissenids and gastropods) was 2–5 times greater during the postinvasion period than during the preinvasion period. Even though total food consumption by lake whitefish did not differ between the two periods in Lake Huron or the Southern Management Unit in Lake Michigan, postinvasion weight at age was at least 38% lower than preinvasion weight at age. Under the current postinvasion diet regime, consumption by lake whitefish would have to increase by up to 122% to achieve preinvasion growth rates.