Patterns of Relationship between Metropolis and Apoikia in Dorian Sicily

Indigenous plant-derived material culture dominates many of the tools and utensils manufactured and used by communities that depended on the natural resources for their livelihoods. Endemic plants provide humans with essential materials for construction purposes and for the design of household utensils. The goal of this study was to describe the current value of indigenous plant material culture. Semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 127 respondents provide 13 native plants as sources of fibre, timber, culms, oil and dye used to make household utensils, huts, brooms, mats and baskets. The cultural significance of these materials includes the production, preparation, serving and storage of food; house construction; protection of courtyards; and cleaning. These materials are still valued in the culture of the studied community, and represent the tangible heritage of the community.

This thesis aims to investigate cultural contacts in Sicily through the understudied archaeological categories of textile tools. Sicily and the Aeolian islands have been crossroads of cultures for millennia. The possible movement of peoples from the Italian Peninsula during the Final Bronze Age and the establishment of Greek and Phoenician incomers from the 8th century BC made Sicily a paradigmatic example of culturally hybrid frameworks. The results of these cultural interactions are often perceived to have stimulated changes in indigenous material culture and technologies. Past studies dealing with cultural encounters have mainly focused on architecture, metallurgy, pottery and social practices. Specifically, this thesis will test the hypothesis that textile tools serve as cultural markers in the hybrid framework of Sicily between the 13th and 5th centuries BC. By presenting seven case studies, I will explore how and to what extent the impact of intense cultural interactions affected indigenous textile traditions. Moreover, since dress and clothing are key indicators of individual and social identities across a wide range of societies, I will demonstrate how cultural interaction made a material impact on communicating identities through textiles. Finally, because women seem regularly to be involved in textile manufacture, I will investigate how and to what extent women played a crucial role in transfer of knowledge as well as in construction and representation of social identity through textile technology. The analysis carried out in this work will help to define the features of textile tradition at sites and approach textile culture within the investigation of cultural interactions.

This is a material culture-based case study of two bandolier bags dated to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century in the Agnes Etherington Art Center collection in Kingston, Canada. The floral motifs that decorate these two bags are not made from porcupine quills, nor are all of them bilaterally symmetrical as in “traditional” Indigenous art. Instead, they are made from glass beads, and most of the floral designs are asymmetrical. The bags’ surface patterns and materials were made possible through international trade, which facilitated the merging of European and other global designs, materials, and forms with Indigenous visual and material culture. Contemporary Western anthropological discourse framed these Indigenous objects as “hybrids” and alleged that they distorted the original meaning of such styles in a European context while simultaneously “corrupting” traditional Indigenous art and culture. Such art forms were denied a place in modernity due to their supposed inauthenticity. Ironically, “authentic” Indigenous art and material culture was likewise barred from being considered “modern” due to its hand-made, “preindustrial” nature. Connecting North American historical developments with discourse on Indigenous modernisms, I argue that on the contrary, these bags evince their makers’ conscientious engagement with modernity and can be considered modern Indigenous art.

ABSTRACTThere is a distinct lack of information regarding interactions between thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and Aboriginal Australians. Their depiction in Australian rock art is not unusual, yet only one example of an artefact made from thylacine remains has been recovered from the archaeological record. This absence of thylacine‐based Indigenous material culture is conspicuous, especially since the raw materials such a large mammal provides would be useful and thus their depiction in art but absence from “things” appears significant. To investigate whether substantial opportunity existed for the exploitation of thylacines for the purpose of material culture production, and thus that sampling or cultural factors must instead be at play for their absence from the record, the location of known palaeontological, archaeological and rock art sites related to thylacines were mapped in time and space. Dated contexts are compared to create an overall picture of the overlap between thylacine habitat and human territories. We found that there was a significant period where interaction between this enigmatic animal and First Australians occurred, and, therefore, a lack of contact is not the reason for the near total absence of thylacine bones, teeth and other materials being missing from Indigenous material culture

This article explores the polysemic character of objects through an analysis of multiple interpretations of indigenous material culture in contemporary Taiwan. My study focuses on a specific type of object—the canoe of the Tao indigenous group of Taiwan—and its interpretations inside and outside of museums. Theoretically, my analysis draws on the concepts of polysemy, boundary objects, and cultural translation to examine the different meanings and contextualizations of Tao canoes. The unique cultural density of Tao canoes provides opportunities to critically engage with the propensity of museums to act as sites for the production, transformation, and dissemination of knowledge about indigenous cultures and to address the complex political discourses in which indigenous material culture is entangled in contemporary Taiwan. [museums, indigenous, material culture, Taiwan, translation, boundary objects, canoes]

Grounded within the field and practice of philanthropy, the authors discuss the relationship between Indigenous material culture and philanthropy. This tangled relationship between philanthropy, colonial institutions, and Indigenous material culture continues to cause harm for Indigenous Peoples. We illustrate the problematizing nature of museums viewing material culture detached from current Indigenous Peoples with the case of the Nez Perce Wetxuuwíitin Collection. The Nez Perce Wetxuuwíitin Collection case shows how elite philanthropy and museum practices can negatively harm Native nations. Native collections are living Indigenous data and connected to Indigenous Peoples today. Material culture is not relegated to the past; it is Indigenous data and should be governed by Native nations. Without a change in practice, Indigenous Peoples will continue to be negatively impacted. To educate elite philanthropic partners and improve museum practices, we introduce principles from Indigenous Data Sovereignty that can help guide the partnerships and collaborations with Native nations. Indigenous Data Sovereignty can not only reduce harm and maximize benefits for Indigenous Peoples but also bring Indigenous data back home.

This article introduces a case study undertaken in the indigenous Penan community of Long Lamai, Upper Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia. In this community, there is concern about the negative image other cultural groups hold of the Penan. This case study explores co-design as a means to invite community members, together with a designer, to explore the identity that they would like to present to people outside the community. In preparing for an exhibition to challenge perceptions, it turned out to be important to embrace the culture of the community to facilitate self-expression, introducing new concepts such as technological interventions and design probes to stimulate reflection and creativity. However, it was indigenous material culture, when actively and encouragingly supported by the designer, that had a key role in developing the co-design and, with it, empathic understanding between designer and community.

This thesis addresses the tendency of the representation of the history of cultures that fall outside of the traditional European/American narrative to follow either universalizing or particularizing approaches. The opposing concepts of universalism and particularism not only create tensions between differing ways to view humanity, but also prevent the construction of a truly inclusive and global art historical narrative. While universalism asserts that there are shared elements of humanity uniting us all, it fails to accommodate differences in culture and lived experience. As a result, what is presented as a universal is often exclusive and, therefore, not a true universal. Conversely, while particularism validates these differences, it can be divisive and incomplete through its emphasis on marginalized experiences. When applied to the writing and teaching of art history, both universalist and particularist approaches result in incomplete narratives. Universalist art history, the narrative most often taught at the introductory or undergraduate level, perpetuates the traditional Eurocentric art historical canon and thereby omits marginalized groups or presents them as solely peripheral to the standard canon. Particularist art history focuses solely on these marginalized groups, creating a fragmented narrative that interacts with the traditional canon but is never fully integrated. Thus, in order to create a more inclusive (and truly universal) art historical narrative, it is necessary to find a way to reconcile the two seemingly incompatible approaches of universalism and particularism. Through a series of case studies examining the works of Augustus Le Plongeon, Timothy O'Sullivan, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Morna Livingston, and Gerardo Suter, photographs of indigenous material culture created in colonized and formerly colonized areas are considered through the lens of the writings of G.W. F. Hegel, Slavoj Žižek, and Judith Butler. While the photographs by Le Plongeon, O'Sullivan, Man Ray, and Weston can be clearly categorized as either universalizing or particularizing, the more contemporary photographs by Livingston and Suter suggest attempts to visually realize the synthesis of the universal and the particular, albeit through differing approaches. While Livingston's work follows Butler's concept of cultural translation between competing universals, Suter's work displays attempts at revising the past as a movement towards synthesis, recalling Hegel's concept of the concrete universal. Ultimately, this study finds that both Livingston and Suter fall short of fully reconciling the universal and the particular. However, a combination of the approaches of Suter and Livingston, and thus of Butler and Hegel, appears to be an ideal solution to the task of fully synthesizing the particular into the universal.

Rather than reduce colonial encounters to a universal creolization process, creolization is examined as conflict between various colonial powers and indigenous groups with distinct social and resource organizations. The concept of ethnogenesis focuses analysis of creolization by probing colonial power relations and approaching material culture as the active negotiation of colonization and colonial inequality. The subject of analysis is indigenous objects that depict European colonizers; such material culture should provide a sensitive insight into indigenous perceptions of colonization and illuminate the relations between various colonizers and indigenous peoples throughout the world. This examination of material culture from the Haida of the Pacific Northwest demonstrates how one indigenous group developed distinctive strategies to negotiate colonial power relations.

Novae and supernovae are rare astronomical events that would have had an influence on the sky-watching peoples who witnessed them. Although several bright novae/supernovae have been visible during recorded human history, there are many proposed but no confirmed accounts of supernovae in indigenous oral traditions or material culture. Criteria are established for confirming novae/supernovae in oral traditions and material culture, and claims from around the world are discussed to determine if they meet these criteria. Aboriginal Australian traditions are explored for possible descriptions of novae/supernovae. Although representations of supernovae may exist in Aboriginal traditions, there are currently no confirmed accounts of supernovae in Indigenous Australian oral or material traditions.

A review of climate change impacts on the ecosystem services in the Saami Homeland in Finland.

Intrasite variation in the production and consumption of obsidian prismatic blades is investigated at the Protoclassic to early Late Classic period site of Palo Errado in Veracruz, Mexico. There, the recovery of macrodebitage, as well as eraillure flakes, platform overhang flakes, and debitage with 90 degree angles between dorsal scars indicates that local blade production occurred at the site from imported marcocores and large polyhedral cores. In addition, detailed ceramic and obsidian data from excavated contexts demonstrate that the elite were involved in blade production and consumption, while the inhabitants of Mound 9, a non-elite, residential workshop locus, were specializing in prismatic blade production for exchange. At some point in the Early Classic period, the elite of the site undergo a significant change that intensifies their use of status markers, such as serving ware and personal adornment that corresponds to a decrease in elite blade production and an increase in blade consumption. However, no change in how blades are used by the elite is evident in this transition. While the vast majority of the obsidian artifacts recovered were made from Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian, significant intrasite variation in minor sources, as well as the types of blades recovered and degree of edge wear suggests that the elite and nonelite participated independently in a variety of obsidian provisioning networks. In the case of the Mound 9 residents, the ceramic and obsidian assemblage suggests that their economic independence corresponded to a physical and ideological separation from the rest of the site. In general the production and consumption of obsidian does not suggest its use in a local political economy. Rather, the inhabitants of Palo Errado may have been exchanging and obtaining obsidian commodities within local and regional marketplaces.

Since the time of their discovery, archaeologists and art historians accepted the Samaria ivories to be of Phoenician origin. Considered alien and idiosyncratic artifacts in Samaria, the ivories were deemed unrepresentative of local material culture. As a result, other Iron Age ivories subsequently discovered in the Levant were also regarded as Phoenician. This article aims to shed light on the thinking behind the ethnic labeling of these ivories, and its lingering, detrimental implications that prevent finds from being viewed as indigenous material culture. A brief review of relevant archaeological finds from both old and recent excavations at the sites of Jerusalem, Rǝḥov, and Hazor will show that there is in fact substantial evidence to anchor Iron Age ivories within the southern Levant. In the process, new suggestions regarding continuity from the Bronze to the Iron Age will be made by addressing the use of different raw materials and the repertoire of images depicted on inlays.

Based on published lexicostatistical dates, two intervals in the prehistory of southern Mesoamerica stand out as fertile periods in terms of the generation of new languages: the Terminal Preclassic/early Early Classic Periods, and the Early Postclassic Period. After comparing archaeological evidence with language distributions within the subregions of southern Mesoamerica during the first of these periods, we conclude that the cultural processes during both periods had the same potential for producing rapid rates of linguistic divergences. Just as rapid proliferation of linguistic divisions was symptomatic of the well-known collapse of Late Classic Maya civilization, so it can be taken as a sign of a collapse of Terminal Preclassic civilization. Both collapses were characterized by severe population reductions, site abandonments, an increasing balkanization in material culture, and disruption of interregional communication networks, conditions that were contributory to the kind of linguistic isolation that allows language divergences. Unlike in the Terminal Classic collapse episode, small refuge zones persisted in the Early Classic Period that served as sources of an evolving classicism; these refuge zones were exceptions, however, not the rule. Although the collapse of each site had its own proximate cause, we suggest that the enormous geographical range covered by these Early Classic Period site failures points to a single ultimate cause affecting the area as a whole, such as the onset of a prolonged and devastating climatic change.

This chapter recounts Todd Downing’s travel in a postrevolutionary Mexico that was in the process of incorporating indigeneity into a unified national identity. In eight of the ten novels that Downing published between 1933 and 1945, he appropriates and refigures indigenismo—the official celebration of Mexico’s indigenous history and culture—to reveal evidence of the modern indigenous people that are obscured by indigenismo discourse. His narratives both condemn the criminal abuse of indigenous people, material culture, and bodily remains, and depict individual efforts at indigenous self-determination.