L’ontologie des plantes dans l’Ovide moralisé. Métamorphoses et jeux d’interférence entre les règnes

In this article, I critically examine the anthropocentric attitudes that have historically shaped ethnography, focusing on their influence on key concepts such as researcher, researched agent, culture, and field. These perspectives, which took root during the Age of Exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries as the West grew increasingly fascinated with “the other,” persisted well into the 19th century. Ethnographers like Lewis Henry Morgan, Edward Burnett Tylor, and Johann Jakob Bachofen conceptualized culture as humanity’s dominion over nature. Similarly, the second generation of ethnologists—including Bronisław Malinowski, Edward E. Evans-Pritchard, and Claude Lévi-Strauss—continued to approach their fieldwork through an anthropocentric lens, often neglecting the agency of non-human actors. This article also engages with contemporary critiques informed by posthumanism, veganism and object-oriented ontology, which challenge the entrenched nature-culture dichotomy. Drawing on the works of scholars such as Philippe Descola, Anna Tsing, Eduardo Kohn, and Donna Haraway, I advocate for a redefinition of "the field" that includes non-human actors. Transcending anthropocentric boundaries necessitates an ethical and methodological reevaluation of foundational concepts like culture, the field, and the researcher/researched dynamic. It also calls for a broader transformation in interdisciplinary qualitative research practices. By emphasizing the indispensability of multispecies approaches, this article argues for a shift away from anthropocentric research paradigms. Such approaches are essential for achieving a more inclusive and comprehensive ethnographic analysis, one that better reflects the complex interrelations between human and non-human actors.

Heteronomy of architecture. Between hybridation and contamination of knowledge

Castalla Castle (Alicante, Spain), built between the 11th and 16th centuries, is one of the most outstanding fortifications in the province of Alicante, as part of al-Andalus, first, and the Kingdom of Valencia, after. The present work aims to deepen the knowledge of its landscape on a medium scale for a large part of the Middle Ages. In this way, analysing some material (archaeological) and cultural (written) sources, it has been possible to better draw the Castalla Castle landscape in the Foia de Castalla district, a geographic territory located in the north of the province of Alicante, between the 11th and 15th centuries and during two different chronocultural periods: Andalusian (11th century – 1244) and Christian (1244-1499).

Distinguishing ontologies

The starting point of this study concerns the origins of the polycentric nature of contemporary cities in the western area of the Netherlands, commonly known as ‘the Randstad’. Within the disciplines of planning and urban design the Randstad is considered a textbook example of a polycentric urban hierarchy. Yet, although quite a popular topic, very little is actually known about the driving forces that have given shape to existing urban hierarchies throughout the world. Moreover, the Randstad has also been dubbed ‘Holland’s paradox’ because of its assumed reversed evolution from a primate city hierarchy focused on Amsterdam in early modern times, to a polycentric hierarchy in the 19th century. Why do urban hierarchies change over time and which factors were decisive for the rise of the polycentric Randstad? This study consists of two parts and six chapters. Part I explores the determining factors of change within urban hierarchies. The first chapter gives an assessment of the usefulness of existing theory and ends in confusion: firstly, historiography turns out to be a medley of explanations that are heterogeneous and sometimes even contradictive. Secondly, comparisons of the long-term development of multiple towns are lacking, which makes it difficult to come up with a theoretical approach. In order to make such comparisons and ascertain the impact of certain factors on urban hierarchies over time, it’s necessary to look at the development of a group of towns over a long time-span. Therefore, in the second chapter, simple statistics are compared with existing theory and literature. To do so, demographic data for the nine towns of Amsterdam, Haarlem, Leiden, Delft, The Hague, Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Gouda and Utrecht were compared from their first appearance in the 13th century until the end of the 20th century by projecting their demographic hierarchy in a graph and on a map. In this manner explanations were measured on their applicability for the case of the Randstad. This explorative exercise results in both a description of long-term change in hierarchy in the Randstad and a theoretical approach. Long-term change in the urban hierarchy of the Randstad roughly proceeded in three phases. In the Middle Ages there was a polycentric hierarchy wherein the oldest cities, Utrecht and Dordrecht, were dominant. Although all towns in Holland grew rapidly in the 14th century, by the 1560s one of the youngest and smallest towns, Amsterdam, suddenly took the lead. In the second phase, between 1560 and 1795, a monocentric hierarchy developed with Amsterdam as a primate city. In this dynamic period, where many towns changed ranks, severe growth followed by shrinkage occurred simultaneously with sharpening inequality between towns. In the third phase, between 1795 and 2000, the hierarchy became polycentric once more, with a group of large towns taking the lead. This was mostly due to the extraordinary growth of Rotterdam and The Hague. In contrast with the second phase, the parallel appearance of sharp growth and inequality did not coincide with change in ranks. As a conclusion of part I, in chapter 3 the three determining factors for change in urban hierarchies over time are identified. Urban hierarchy is interpreted as a functional division of tasks between multiple centres, which is the result of differences in the towns’ competitive positions over time. The potency of a town’s competitive position is primarily determined by the interaction of (1) its properties on the one hand and (2) the conditions on the international market on the other. Additionally this interaction is structurally influenced by (3) contribution of a sovereign government. Governments can stimulate or disadvantage towns, but have done so in different ways. Part II further concretizes this approach by further investigation of the third factor. Here, governmental contribution to long-term change in urban hierarchies is given priority over the other two determining factors. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 focus successively on the constitutional periods of the Middle Ages (1200-1560), the Early Modern Age (1560-1795) and the Modern Age (1795-2000). These periods correspond to the three phases in long-term change in the demographic hierarchy from chapter 2. The aim of part II is twofold. Firstly, to identify and compare the manner in which sovereign government has been able to influence the towns’ competitive positions from the 13th until the end of the 20th century. Which trends are discernable in the toolbox of competitive advantages and their distribution by the sovereign government? How can governmental influence on change in urban hierarchies best be characterized? Secondly, if possible, to point out which governmental measures presumably contributed to change in urban hierarchy in general and, specifically, to the rise of the polycentric Randstad. Which measures show the most plausible correlation with change within the urban hierarchy? In order to identify competitive advantages for each constitutional period, a further look at the functional division of tasks, the economic context, and the governmental organization is taken in chapters 4, 5 and 6. Subsequently an impression of the distribution of so-called competitive advantages over the nine Randstad towns is sketched. At the end of each chapter the competitive advantages of a period are summed up, and their distribution is compared to the demographic hierarchy of chapter 2, to assess their impact. My research has resulted in the following conclusions to the aforementioned questions. During the Middle Ages a town’s competitive position could be stimulated with (1) international trade policy (safe conducts, trade agreements), (2) national economic policy (protectionist measures, staple- and minting policy), (3) exceptions of generally applied restrictions (town charters, toll exceptions), (4) distribution of governmental institutions, (5) donations of land property and kingly privileges, (6) granting of infrastructural concessions and awarding (7) urban autonomy. Heavy taxing and prolonged warfare were competitive disadvantages. In the early modern era (1) international trade policy, (2) distribution of governmental institutions and (3) infrastructural concessions were part of the toolkit. Heavy taxing was once more a disadvantage. During the modern era simulative measures were (1) funding of infrastructure, (2) industrial policy, (3) distribution of governmental institutions, (4) national spatial planning and (5) popular housing policy. Building restrictions were a negative for a town’s competitive position. The toolbox of sovereign government in general consists of three basic types of competitive advantages. Firstly, instruments that were aimed at the competitive position of one town exclusively, like staple rights, town charters, toll exemptions, donations of property and rights, urban autonomy and the distribution of governmental institutions. Secondly, instruments that were aimed at the region as a whole, like national and international economic policy. Third are side effects or collateral damage of other governmental policies, like prolonged warfare, heavy taxing and building restrictions stemming from spatial planning policy. The last category often turns out to be disadvantageous for towns’ competitive positions. Sovereign government didn’t apply the same variety of measures at every period. The overall package moved from a rather versatile toolbox in the 13th and 14th centuries to an increasingly limited one in the early modern period. In the 15th and 16th centuries, a discernable trend towards diminishing the variation in competitive advantages sets in, resulting in a rather limited toolbox in the 17th and 18th centuries. After a short expansion of instruments in the first half of the 19th century and a subsequent phase in the second half of the same century, where the number of instruments again strongly declined, the 20th century once again showed a governmental toolbox of various nature. On the long term, infrastructure and the distribution of governmental institutions were permanently part of the competitive advantages-toolbox; although before the 19th century sovereign government virtually never initiated the construction of infrastructure. Throughout most of the investigated period international economic policy and taxing played a role. Local exceptions like town charters and urban autonomy were exclusively medieval phenomena while spatial planning and popular housing policy are only found in the modern period. During the Middle Ages exclusive competitive advantages and common measures were both applied. Almost all nine towns seem to profit from this, although Dordrecht was generally more privileged than others. From the 15th century on exclusive privileges gradually disappear and more collective measures are taken, from which Amsterdam seems to profit. In the early modern era, the overall majority of measures taken were collective ones aimed at the common interest of towns or the region. Nonetheless, somehow Amsterdam seems to have profited above average without exception. In the modern era so many ‘collective’ stimulating measures were taken that this resulted in rather different competitive positions spatially. The distribution can best be characterized as a continuous strive for balance. Looking at the distribution of competitive advantages, governmental activity was variable throughout the entire period. Lots of competitive advantages were distributed in the 13th, 14th, early 17th and early 19th centuries. Subsequently governmental involvement gradually increased and in the 20th century government had its hands full continuously. In sharp contrast, distribution in the 16th and in particularly the second half of the 17th and 18th centuries was rather sparse. Strikingly, other measures than instruments that were explicitly aimed at the towns’ interests show the biggest correlation with change in the demographic hierarchy as shown in chapter 2. In the Middle Ages structural warfare coincided with the marked rise of Amsterdam and recession in the others; tax pressure in early modern times correlated with the decline of towns with industrial profiles; and 20th century demographic decline related to building restrictions in modern times. In general, the governmental role to change in urban hierarchy can best be understood as a facilitative one. The abovementioned centers of gravity in the distribution of competitive advantages coincided with periods of economic expansion and demographic growth in towns. This was the case in periods of urban expansion in the 13th-14th centuries and the 17th century. Only in the 19th century did governmental action precede urban growth. Although side effects in general seem to have been decisive, there’s one marked exception to the rule. The head start of the three biggest towns, and the catching up of Rotterdam and The Hague, does correlate with the construction of (inter)national infrastructure and the distribution of governmental institutions between the 1850s en 1950s. This means that the rise of the polycentric Randstad, exceptionally, was created by conscious use of aimed governmental instruments! This study concludes with a striking hypothesis. Via the description of the governmental organization in each period, by accident attention is drawn to the fact that by bargaining over tax funds, towns themselves gathered political influence in the 15th and even power in the 17th-18th centuries. The rise of urban power coincides with stagnation in the distribution of competitive advantages and the disappearance of exclusive instruments out of the governmental toolkit. This, firstly, gave rise to the suspicion that, once in power, urban representatives preferably avoid the stimulation of opponents’ competitive positions. When combined with the fact that, after disabling towns financially and politically, sovereign government in the second half of the 19th century pursued a policy wherein they kept aloof of dominant Amsterdam and stimulated other large towns, a second hypothesis can be formulated. Could it be that the rise of the polycentric Randstad wasn’t coincidence, and that Holland’s paradox was the result of a deliberate reckoning with an old political elite?

De wortels van de Randstad. Overheidsinvloed en stedelijke hiërarchie in het westen van Nederland tussen de 13de en 20ste eeuw

De wortels van de Randstad. Overheidsinvloed en stedelijke hiërarchie in het westen van Nederland tussen de 13de en 20ste eeuw

Universities were undoubtedly the most significant and lasting scientific institutions of the later Middle Ages. From the 13th century onward, they became the principal places throughout Christian Europe, although not the only ones, where the process of assimilating, developing, and transmitting scientific knowledge was carried out.1 These institutions were decisive in order to explain the development of later medieval medical science, from both a quantitative and a qualitative point of view, and were fundamental for an understanding of particular socio-medical phenomena, such as the definition of the medical profession and its control by society.2 To be more precise, medical faculties were gradually established in the course of the 13th century around an academic syllabus that was especially sensitive to the new material that came to their knowledge in the form of newly revealed works by Greek and Arab physicians. Such contributions conditioned university curricula, but at the same time also led to substantial changes in the scientific output of their members of staff.3 Generally speaking, it can be stated that the closing years of the 13th century and the opening decades of the 14th century marked the peak of the scholastic form of medicine; this approach was full of fresh ideas and vitality, and also demonstrated itself to be efficient at providing solutions to the medical problems posed by the ruling elites of the time, as well as able to bring about an authentic process of intellectual seduction among learned non-Christian minority circles, such as those of the Jewish community.4 In contrast, one of the characteristics of 13th-century Castilian medicine was the absence of the scholastic approach because of the weakness of the kingdom’s university institutions. It was no coincidence that neither of the 13th-century physicians from the Iberian Peninsula who are known to have written scientific works, namely Petrus Hispanus (c.1210/1220–1277) and Arnau de Vilanova (c.1240–1311), was from Castile or Leon, nor that both of them were typical university products of the first wave of medical scholasticism: in the case of the former of Paris-Siena, and, in that of the latter, of Montpellier. It is nonetheless surprising that the Galenism produced in Montpellier or northern Italy at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries should have taken so long to reach Salamanca with a minimal degree of continuity and documentary evidence. It was not until the 1411–1415 reform that documentation can be found in which it is recommended that the works of Arnau de Vilanova (which ones?) “. . . et aliorum novorum super medicina” should be acquired.5 Was this recommendation fulfilled?

Bundmærker på middelalderligt lertøj i Danmark

Tamdrup – Kongsgård og mindekirke i nyt lys

The article is based on the methodology of development of the cultural heritage of the past, which translates the value of educational stability. For this purpose, the concept of generatype is introduced in the form of an educational model that concentrates the best of what humanity has preserved for the formation of human. Generatypes are derived from the change of cultural matrices, vary from era to era and depend on the nature of evolutionary changes of these sources within the individual cultural stages of social evolution. The concept we introduce does not mean grandiose “chips” of archetypal ideas, but only correlates them with the new human and the new world. A generatype is a total (collective) image that creates a special edu­cational ideology and determines the nature of human actions. It is the totality of human actions that forms a special type of person developed in a particular era. The most important in this process is the idea of accumulation of meanings. Educatio­nal gene­ratypes act as structural principles of exteriorization of educational reality, in which we distinguish the following periods characterized by specific generatypes: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the 17th—18th centuries, the 19th and 20th centuries. Classical literature and the art of the past give us examples of spiritual dominants of each cultural era. The anthropological ideals we identify are the following: Antiquity — the hero, the Middle Ages — the saint, the Age of Enlightenment — the encyclopedist (universalist), the 19th century — the engineer/artist, the 20th century — the financier. Actualization of the ideas of the past is the extraction of the studied material from long-term and short-term memory for the purpose of its subsequent use in recognition or direct reproduction in the modern educational process. The combination of educational ideologies (ideas) of different relevance opens up new facets of modern educational theory and practice and reveals their cultural potential. Moreover, the mechanism of actualization should not be based on rough mo­dernization, but involves the use of receptive abilities of people, the development of their imagination and emotional memory. The cognitive-metaphorical scheme of synthesis of humanitarian content given in the article provides an example of the stated idea development both in the research direction and in the educational-applied space of new technologies of teaching eternal meanings.

From the earliest times, Egypt and its past has been known to other peoples in Europe and the Near East; it was well known in the Greek and Roman worlds, which frequently expressed a sense of amazement at the culture and wisdom of pharaonic Egypt. Their approach could vary from emphasising the strangeness or perversity of Egypt to seeing Egypt as the natural precursor of all later human developments and achievements. Ancient Egypt also played a major role in the Judaeo-Christian biblical tradition. Though to some a place of oppression, it was again mostly seen as a source of civilization. But before the growth of travel to Egypt and the rise of Egyptology in the 18th and 19th centuries, detailed knowledge of Egypt was very limited. The Wisdom of Egypt examines the sources of evidence about Ancient Egypt available to scholars, and the changing visions of Egypt and of Egypt's role in human history that they produced. Its scope extends from the Classical world, through Europe and the Arabic worlds in the Middle Ages, to writers of the Renaissance, and to the work of scholars and scientists of Early Modern Europe. It also assesses whether the awe inspired by Egypt (which clearly again and again changed in character over time) belonged to a sustained tradition, or represented a series of fresh and independent encounters with an impenetrable culture. Contents include: 1.Egypt as Wisdom: The Classical View; 2.Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings; 3.The Image of Egypt in the Middle Ages (until ca. 1400); 4.The Renaissance Afterlife of Ancient Egypt; 5.Ancient Egypt in 18th century English Science, Religion and 'Archaeology': An Overview; 6.Beyond Egyptology: Egypt in 19th and 20th Century Archaeology and Anthropology.

In terms of origin, grasslands in Central Europe can be classified into (i) natural grasslands, predetermined by environmental conditions and wild herbivores; (ii) seminatural grasslands, associated with long‐term human activity from the beginning of agriculture during the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition; and (iii) improved (intensive) grasslands, a product of modern agriculture based on sown and highly productive forage grasses and legumes. This review discusses the origin, history and development of grasslands in Central Europe from the Holocene (9500 BC) to recent times, using archaeobotanical (pollen and macroremains), archaeozoological (molluscs, dung beetles, animal bones) and archaeological evidence, together with written and iconographic resources and recent analogies. An indicator of grasslands is the ratio of non‐arboreal/arboreal pollen and the presence of pollen of species such as Plantago lanceolata and Urtica dioica in sediments. Pastures can be indicated by Juniperus communis pollen and charcoal present in sediments and the soil profile. Insect‐pollinated species can be studied using cesspit sediments and pollen (from honey) in vessels in graves. In Central Europe, natural steppe, alluvial grasslands and alpine grasslands occurred before the start of agriculture in the early Neolithic (5500 BC); their area was small, and grassland patches were fragmentary in the forested landscape. Substantial enlargement of grasslands cannot be expected to have occurred before the late Bronze Age. The first scythes come from the 7th–6th century BC; therefore, hay meadows probably did not develop before this time. There is evidence of hay meadows in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, documented by macroremains of Arrhenatherum elatius in sediments, written records and long scythes in archaeological assemblages. Based on macroremains analyses, we conclude that there was generally high diversity of seminatural grasslands in the cultural landscape in the Middle Ages, and individual grassland communities were generally species rich. From the beginning of the agriculture until the 18th century, pastures and pasture forests were dominant sources of forage. Large‐scale enlargement of hay meadows and decline of pastures in many regions occurred from the 18th century. Hay making is associated with enlargement of arable fields and the use of cattle as draught animals for ploughing and soil preparation. The spread of A. elatius in Central Europe was enabled by the decline of grazing management and an increased proportion of hay meadows in the 18th and 19th centuries. In some mountain areas, there are no records of large‐scale deforestation and enlargement of grasslands until the 14th century, and the peak of the agriculturally used area was recorded for the period from the 18th to the first half of the 20th century. Grasslands were converted into arable land during periods of war; conversely, grasslands replaced arable land after the collapse of agriculture in many regions of former communist countries following political regime change in the 1990s. The dynamics of the grassland area reflect the development of human society and the political situation, because grasslands are an integral part of the cultural landscape in Central Europe.

As the people of the Middle Ages thought in symbolic categories, this symbolism was imposed on the notion of human life. In Europe, it had a distinct Christian colouration and was associated with the symbolism of numbers. This was reflected as well in the idea of the stages of human life, the number of which ranged from three to seven. Childhood, which was the first in this scheme, lasted from birth to adolescence, that is until reaching puberty. For the medieval people who thought concretely, just tangible things were important. It is not surprising, therefore, that the notion of attaining adulthood was not so much based on the formal number of years as on the real external physiological features. However, over time, such a ‘visual’ determination of the age of the personrecedes into the background.Childhood has been linked to a guardianship that has received much attention in the city law codes of the early modern period. Anyone who could not manage their lives and property could count on it.In the Middle Ages, childhood had no place, and until the 12th century, children were hardly depicted. The appearance of the post-mortem images of children in the 16th century was evidence of a change in the emotional attitude to them. This change was reflected in the city law codes of the late 16th century. They protected the right of a child to life and property, even of the unborn or born but not survived child. The born and baptized child was already a complete person with soul and likeness of God.The German town law protected children from too severe punishment, first of all from execution. It was believed that before reaching a certain age the children were unconscious creatures, so they could not deliberately commit crimes. And punishment to death was unacceptable for unconscious wrongdoing. The city law codes in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of 16th and early 17th centuries reflected the evolution of ideas about childhood from the late Middle Ages to the early modern era. Although they refer to the legal norms of previous epochs, they contain many provisions which appeared under the influence of Humanism and the Reformation. As a result of deeper Christianization of morality at the turn of the Middle Ages and modern era, a new attitude to childhood appears, as to a special and important stage in human life. Therefore, as of the 16th century, there were special articles about children in legal codes. The city law begins to protect the interests of children by considering various aspects, in particular, the rights of the unborn but conceived child, of the children of ‘righteous bed’, orphans, etc., the children’s property interests, their lives and future.

Research on medieval shoemaking allowed for the identification of several structural and stylistic types of Pomeranian footwear. In the 12th–14th century in Pomerania there were no products actually directly derived from ancient traditions. One of the most important stages of this type of production in the Early Middle Ages was the transition from single-piece footwear to complex forms with the soles and upper parts sewn together. Along with the dynamic widespread use of multi-piece products, new sewing techniques allowing the maker to hide the stitches inside the footwear also quickly developed. It not only improved the footwear’s appearance, but also it made it more impermeable to water. The typical varied nature of activities carried out within a single household does not rule out the existence of a separate shoemaking craft supplying customers. From the late 11th to the mid-12th century changes occurred that significantly influenced the further development of this branch of production. A variety of additional footwear elements of both construction and aesthetic nature quickly became popular. In the late 12th and early 13th century it had already become the norm to stitch binding on the inside of a shoe lace hole to protect it from wear and to use a heel stiffener to strengthen the back of the quarter. In the second half of the 12th–early 13th century the dominant form was footwear with a low, ankle-high quarter, fastened by a single shoelace. Mid-high products of a quarter covering the ankle and extending over it became more common. In the mid-13th century, apart from the diversity of the product range, clear signs of quality and aesthetic changes are evident. They are evidence of a larger social diversity amongst consumers. About the mid-13th century the design innovations introduced in the 12th century were consolidated, while the look and shape of individual components of footwear was changeable. The features of shoemaking in the later stages of the Middle Ages were slender, pointed, strongly profiled soles. There are also soles composed of two or three parts as well as more multi-layered ones. In the youngest stages of the Middle Ages additional elements on the bottoms of shoes were noted: outsoles and heels. Their shape and manner of fastening is evidence that they were made deliberately during the production of new footwear and not during its repair. Essentially the same in terms of the design, the shoe uppers differed in quarter height, shape and design and complementary inserts, the manner of fastening, the width of the opening of the shoe, decoration and other minor features. Quite clearly, especially in the second half of the 13th–14th century, there was a division between everyday or working footwear and the enhanced aesthetic value that can be associated with festive attire. At this time the number of children’s shoes produced also significantly increased. At least some part of the changes taking place in Pomeranian shoemaking in the 12th century, especially in its second half, can be associated with the adoption of Western fashion patterns. The canons of costume formed in this century survived for nearly two and a half centuries, until about the mid-14th century. Medieval leather working was not limited to footwear. In materials from excavations it is difficult, however, to detect furriers’ products and costume elements made of thin grain leather (cloaks, hoods, leggings, headdress or robes). The presence of furrier products in the case of archaeological finds is confirmed only by z Products made from grain leather are mainly belts, various cases and bags, gloves, and sometimes identifiable parts of weaponry. The most evident differences between leather products from the early and the late Middle Ages are the sheaths. About the mid-13th century specimens with specific iron fittings with a long ferrule began to appear. They soon replaced traditional fittings of non-ferrous metals. The fashion for decorating the sheaths’ edges by cutting geometric patterns into their lower parts became popular. The smallest stylistic variability is evident in pouches. To the southern coast of the Baltic Sea res novae arrived relatively quickly, although a more noticeable boom took place in the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century. Changes perceptible in the style of Pomeranian leather products in the second half of the 13th–first half of the 14th century may result from the standards included in guild statutes, strictly regulating the scope of activities and quality of products.oological analyses.