Items Of Material Culture Research Articles

The birthing chair, obstetric bed and gynecological chair in obstetrics and gynecology in Russia of XVIII-XX centuries

The purpose of the study is to investigate material culture of obstetrics in New and Modern history of Russia. The most important objective of research is to involve into scientific circulation Russian empirical material in order to study transformation of culture of childbirth during transition from traditional to biomedical model of childbirth exemplified by material culture items (maternity beds, chairs, armchairs). The key approaches were those of historical anthropology, social history of medicine, theory of social control and medicalization. The methods of content analysis, narrative and interpretive analysis were applied to analyze empirical data. In the Russian folk tradition included no such special devices as maternity beds and birth chairs that was explained by dominance of vertical maternity pose. The first birth chairs were brought into Russia by foreign midwives. With development of clinical obstetrics horizontal position of woman in labor was approving that was conditioned by convenience of physicians. Since last quarter of the XIX century, Russian physicians began to experiment, inventing most convenient version of maternity beds and gynecological chairs. The Soviet system of obstetrics was mass and publicly accessible, but consolidated technocratic model of childbirth. In maternity wards, the "Rakhmanov obstetric bed" became widespread. The chairs were not used during childbirth, being used exclusively in gynecology. The material culture of Soviet maternity hospitals turned out to be extremely stable and conservative. In modern Russian obstetrics, with transition to holistic model of childbirth and actualization of free positioning of woman in labor, transformer beds and fitballs began to be applied to provide optimal course of birth process. The material culture of obstetrics is closely related to dominant type of maternity culture.

Предметный мир ребенка в русской и европейской книжной иллюстрации XIII—XVI вв.

The article presents the results of research on miniatures of manuscripts and engravings of printed books of the 13th —16th centuries — important pictorial sources on material culture, including costume and household items related to the life of a child, as well as their games, toys and dolls. The medieval miniatures have been massively studied by students of historic costumes, seldom toys, while this article addresses the miniatures and engravings as the most important pictorial source on the Middle Ages and early Modern times. References are provided to specific images from books and their digitized copies and some replicas. The identified sources show that the book illustration of the studied period is able to provide what is necessary for understanding how medieval children grew up and developed, how they were dressed, slept, what and how they played. Gospel stories about Jesus Christ’s infancy were most important in this matter. Among the secular subjects, quite informative are illustrations with the births of princely children and the lives of historical figures, known and anonymous characters of miniatures and engravings.

Datasets for Material Culture Studies: A Protocol for the Systematic Compilation of Items Held in Private Hands

Crowdsourcing has been widely used in cultural heritage research, but mainly from an institutional perspective. Research into items of material culture often requires the researcher to examine specimens held in private hands. The dispersed nature of such holdings, primarily as collectable and, thus, tradeable objects, requires different techniques for identification and access than that for items held in museum collections. Crowdsourcing data from online discussion groups and online marketplaces, coupled with snowballing, represents a very powerful tool. This paper discusses the relevant parameters and provides a protocol for the systematic compilation of items held in private hands.

ВЫСТАВКИ В БАРНАУЛЕ, ПОСВЯЩЕННЫЕ 100-ЛЕТИЮ СО ВРЕМЕНИ ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ СОЮЗА СОВЕТСКИХ СОЦИАЛИСТИЧЕСКИХ РЕСПУБЛИК

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics existed from December 30, 1922 to December 26, 1991. During this period of time, significant successes were achieved in industry, agriculture, science and culture, and a victory was won over the Fascist conquerors was won in 1945. To the 100th anniversary of the formation of the USSR in Barnaul, there were exhibitions: “Soviet Porcelain” and “The Country of the Soviets” (the State Art Museum of the Altai Territory); “The USSR in the Mirror of Art” (exhibition hall of “Museum “City”); “Art that has become History” (“Shchetinins Art Gallery”); “Greetings from the USSR” (Altai State Museum of Local Lore). The exhibitions displayed photos, works of fine and decorative art, and items of material culture created in the 1920s-1980s. The purpose of the exhibitions is to expand visitors’ knowledge of the history of Russia, form a positive image of the USSR in the minds of the younger generation and improve the patriotic mood of the citizens.

SEYİTÖMER HÖYÜK ERKEN TUNÇ ÇAĞI KİL FIRÇALARI

Abstract
 Seyitömer Höyük, located in Central Western Anatolia, emphasises the station settlement model, which is a transitional location in terms of geography and cultural-commercial relations via intensity of production both with its architectural structure template and material culture elements and in the 3rd millennium BC. Considering the lack of a detailed study on other samples of this archaeological find group in Anatolia, the evaluation of the clay brush handles belonging to the Early Bronze Age II and Early Bronze Age III levels that was found at Seyitömer Höyük can be considered as a unique study. The Seyitömer Höyük brush handles, which constitute the subject of this study, are the samples found in Levels V and VI. Various evaluations have been carried out on this group of finds in line with their typological classification, spatial context analysis and intended use. Seyitömer Höyük brush handles are typologically represented by three types. In the spatial context analysis, the necessity of evaluating the brush handles together with a finds package and therefore the association of finds within the sites has been taken into consideration. Thanks to the analyses carried out on this group of finds, the deficiency in the literature regarding to the intended use of the brush handles was tried to be overcome. Finally, analogical analyses of clay brush handles have been carried out in order to make comparisons with other examples in Anatolia, and thus to reveal the harmony or differences of the brushes among the material culture items of Seyitömer Höyük with other settlements. Initially, as a result of the comparative analysis, it can be observed that the brush handles from Seyitömer Höyük are similar in form and find context to the brush handles found in Western Anatolia. Secondly, the existence of common similarities with examples from regions other than Western Anatolia is also revealed. In this context, it is thought that the evaluation of the brush handles will contribute to the understanding of Seyitömer Höyük's cultural ties with the region and more distant regions.

Ethnographic Collections of Yuriy and Sophia Marr at Peter the Great Kunstkamera

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of Russian Academy of Sciences holds four collections of watercolours, photographs and material culture items, related to Persia of the 1920s and gathered there by Yuriy and Sophia Marr. Yuriy Marr (1893—1935), the son of Academician Nikolai Marr (1865—1934), who had an unprecedented impact on the development of the humanities in the early Soviet period, devoted his short life to Iranian studies and was among the best experts in the Persian language, literature and daily life of contemporary Persia. In recent decades, Yuriy Marr gained new recognition as a futurist poet due to a series of publications of his literary heritage, carefully preserved for many years by his wife Sophia Marr (1890—1980). In 1925—1926 Yuriy Marr was on mission in Persia to establish cultural ties and collect data on librarianship and publishing activities. The article briefly highlights the features of three collections representing some ethnographic realities of Persia on the eve of comprehensive modernization of the country. Emphasis is made on the collection that was received from Sophia Marr in 1978. The collection includes a woolen cloak (‘aba’) brought by Yuriy Marr from his student trip to Lebanon and Syria in 1914, and 15 watercolour portraits on plywood sheets, copied from the original photographs that were found in the Archives of Orientalists at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

ЕТНОКУЛЬТУРНА СПЕЦИФІКА ІСТОРИЧНОЇ ТЕРМІНОЛОГІЇ: ЗІСТАВНИЙ ТА ПЕРЕКЛАДОЗНАВЧИЙ АСПЕКТИ (на матеріалі історичних термінів античності та давньоруського періоду)

The article looks into the comparative and translational aspects of historical terms as a group of special professional words used by historians in both English and Ukrainian academic texts to describe one particular period in Ukrainian history, that of antiquity and Old Rus. Different groups of historical terminology were identified in original Ukrainian and English texts on this period, such as proper names, names to denote items of material culture, social and military status, rank at the royal court, social and religious processes and phenomena. Particular attention was given to those names that denote culture- and period-specific concepts of the described time-period in Ukrainian history. English translations of Ukrainian historical terminology were studied based on non-numerous existing translations from Ukrainian, which were then compared to the approaches used by native English-speaking academics. For those concepts where no equivalents could be found, the authors have offered their own translations. Conclusions were made about the prevailing methods of rendering different classes of historical terms into English, including culture-specific terms which were found in each terminological group. Such culture-specific Ukrainian terminology is rendered into English redominantly via combined renomination, which combines phonological and/or orthographic adaptation and description or via description only. Other methods have been discussed, such as translation by equivalent, loan translation and analogous translation, which were applied to both non-culture specific and culture-specific terminology. Identifying a lexical unit as belonging to one of those groups helps with determining its translation method. Conclusions have been drawn about the general nature of historical terminology, which from the translation point of view can be divided into two big groups: terms denoting universal historical notions and culture-specific historical terms.

Animals for Tools: The Origin and Development of Bone Technologies in China

The origin and development of bone technologies in China are reviewed in the light of recent discoveries and compared to trends emerging from the European and African archaeological records. Three categories of osseous tools are targeted: 1) unmodified bone fragments bearing traces of use in technological activities; 2) bone fragments modified to a variable extent with techniques generally used in stone technologies; 3) osseous fragments entirely shaped with techniques fit for the manufacture of formal bone tools. Early evidence of bone technologies in China are sporadically found in contexts dated between 1.8 and 1.0 Ma. By the late MIS6–early MIS5, bone tools are well-integrated in the technological systems of Pleistocene populations and the rules guiding their use appear increasingly standardized. In addition, the first evidence for the use of osseous material in symbolic activities emerges in the archaeological record during this period. Finally, between 40 and 35 ka, new manufacturing techniques and products are introduced in Late Palaeolithic technological systems. It is first apparent in the manufacture of personal ornaments, and followed by the production and diversification of formal bone tools. By that time, population dynamics seem to become materialized in these items of material culture. Despite regional specificities, the cultural trajectories identified for the evolution of bone technologies in China seem entirely comparable to those observed in other regions of the world.

Porcelain: A History from the Heart of Europe

Historians of central Europe have slowly come to address our hunger for innovative economic and social histories of items of material culture and consumption in the modern period. Following the works of Karin Wurst, Daniel L. Purdy, Ulrike Thoms, Corinna Treitel, and Paul Betts, to name but a few, Suzanne Marchand has now contributed to this growing field. In her newest homonymous work, the author of German Orientalism (2009) and Down from Olympus (1996) uses Porcelain as a ‘means to tell a story about people, about states and markets, and about the changing nature of work and consumption over at least three centuries’ (p. 2). Embedded within the transitions from a mercantilist economy to increasingly capitalist production-landscapes, this history not only details the transformation of ‘white gold’ from an aristocratic luxury good to a middling necessity, but also narrates central European social and economic history in its political context more...

What Stimulated Rapid, Cumulative Innovation After 100,000 Years Ago?

Imagination and innovation are likely stimulated through the intersection of brain power, motor skill and social need. Through time, escalating creativity may have influenced cognition and social interactions, creating a feedback situation that also implicated demography. Such reciprocal interactions between technology, cognition and society may have motivated the accumulation of innovations that are particularly visible in the archaeological record after 100,000 years ago (not as a revolution, but incrementally). Raw materials also played a role because they are not passive; intense interaction with objects reflexively stimulates human imagination and creativity. Archaeological evidence for material culture items that appear to embody imagination is present before the appearance of Homo sapiens. The implication is that imagination is not the sole preserve of people like us; nonetheless, H. sapiens took imaginative expressions to new heights after about 100,000 years ago. Perforated and ochre-covered marine shells were found in early modern human burials and living sites and thereafter more material culture items convey imagination. Shell beads were strung to form a variety of patterns, and engraved ostrich eggshells, engraved ochre, worked bone and hundreds of pieces of utilised ochre have been widely found. Innovation, imagination and complex cognition are also conveyed in the manufacture of everyday objects used for subsistence activities.

Archaeology, Epigraphy, Philology

Archaeology, Epigraphy, Philology William J. Urbrock, Christopher T. Begg, John R. Spencer, and Victor H. Matthews William J. Urbrock University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America John R. Spencer John Carroll University Victor H. Matthews Missouri State University 1903. [Arad Altars] Anonymous, "High Offerings," BARev 46 (5, 2020) 16. A recent residue analysis of two incense altars found at the site of the 8th-cent. b.c.e. temple at Arad has revealed traces of frankincense mixed with animal fat on the larger altar [End Page 709] and cannabis and animal dung on the smaller. This is the first discovery of frankincense in an archaeological context in ancient Israel or Judah and an unexpected find of cannabis, which is not mentioned in the Bible. Photo-illustrated. See also #1907.—W.J.U. Google Scholar 1904. [Oil Lamps, Pit Burial Caves; Hasmonean Period Judean Ethnic Identity] Omri Y. Abadi and Eyal Regev, "Folded wheel-made oil lamps, standing pit burial caves and Judean ethnic identity in the Hasmonean period," PEQ 152 (3, 2020) 248-72. Two distinct archaeological phenomena emerged between the middle of the 2nd cent. b.c.e. and the middle of the first cent. b.c.e.: the Hasmonean folded wheel-made lamp and the standing pit burial cave. Following an examination of the dating, distribution, and social significance of these phenomena, we suggest that these items of material culture were characteristic of Judean Jews during the above period and reflect the process of ethnic identity formation. The fact that the Hasmonean wheel-made lamp and the standing pit burial cave were typical of Jews in Judea in this time indicates that these phenomena constituted ethnic features of Jewish society. In their use of these items, Jews emphasized their dissimilarity from the rest of the population. The archaic appearance of the lamps and the burial caves, which replicate the cultural characteristics of the Kingdom of Judah during the monarchic/First Temple period, indicates that Jewish society in the Hasmonean period sought to legitimize its existence through the use of earlier culture and the memory of this. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 1905. [Kāmid el-Lōz] Jihad Al-Daire, "Kāmid el-Lōz: Typology of Iron Age Cooking Pots in the Perspective of R. Hachmann's Excavations 1963–1981," ZDPV 136 (1, 2020) 21-49. This study focuses on the cooking pots that have been found in the Iron Age levels at the site of its title. In particular, the study explores the typology of these cooking pots and seeks to shed light on the development of the cooking pot tradition in the eight Iron Age levels at the site. In addition, I review the dating of the Building Periods at the site suggested by the site's excavator, R. Hachmann. In so doing, I adduce archaeological parallels from various sites in the southern Levant which highlight the technological and morphological similarities of cooking pots throughout the southern Levant during the Iron Age. Finally, I argue that the cooking pots from the above site should be dated to the Iron Age I and II periods. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 1906. [Digital Methods for the Study of Flat Archaeological Sites] Mark Altaweel, "The importance of flat archaeological sites in the Age of Empires and new digital methods for their identification and analysis," The Reach of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires, 7-23 [see #2534]. In the Age of Empires of the first millennium b.c.e. when large, major urban centers dominated the plains of Mesopotamia and the coastal regions of the Mediterranean, the rural landscape began to transform as well, with settlements often located away from traditional, mounded sites. Finding these sites can be challenging, but it is not impossible. However, the mountainous regions in Iraq and its neighboring areas present special methodological challenges in this regard. Many of the sites occupied in the above period were flat and low, making them less visible in surveys and even in satellite-based remote sensing data. Machine-learning techniques and the use of point pattern...

Памятники ойратской буддийской архитектуры в Казахстане: проблемы изучения историко-культурного наследия калмыков в трудах проф. Ж.О. Артыкбаева

The article analyzes the views of the famous Kazakh historian Zh.O. Artykbaev on the problems of preserving and studying the historical and cultural heritage of the Kalmyks. In the works of the scientist, special attention is paid to archaeological monuments, Buddhist monasteries, memorial sites, cultural and natural landscapes associated with the ethnic history of the Kalmyks and Oirats, military events, and the life of prominent historical figures. The task is to develop systematically an integral concept for the preservation, actualization and scientific study of historical and cultural heritage as a new interdisciplinary field of knowledge at the intercountry, all-Russian, regional and local levels, taking into account the accumulated domestic and foreign experience, the optimal model of informatization of heritage, the use of environmental monitoring tools to modern the state of objects of historical and cultural heritage and unique territories. The national historical and cultural heritage of the Kalmyk people is the code of its self-identification. The essence of national self-identification is seen in the unity of inheritance and actualization of cultural knowledge and values accumulated by past generations. Today, more than ever, it is important to understand and realize the need to preserve knowledge about their cultural and historical past. The historical and cultural heritage of the nomadic civilizations of Central Asia, which includes a vast complex of old-written monuments, places of worship, archaeological artifacts and other various items of material culture, has a huge information potential and allows you to get to know the spiritual culture of nomads more deeply.

Minds, materials and metaphors

AbstractWhat is the relationship between mental states and items of material culture, like notebooks, maps or lists? The extended mind thesis (ExM) offers an influential and controversial answer to this question. According to ExM, items of material culture can form part of the material basis for our mental states. Although ExM offers a radical view of thelocationof mental states, it fits comfortably with a traditional, representationalist account of thenatureof those states. I argue that proponents of ExM would do better to adopt afictionalistapproach to mental states. In so doing, I suggest, they could retain the important insights underlying the extended mind thesis, while avoiding its more problematic consequences.

The rock art of Kisar Island, Indonesia: a small island with a wealth and diversity of artistic expression

We report 40 recently discovered rock art sites from Kisar Island in eastern Indonesia and investigate the commonalities between this art and painted art in other islands of Indonesia and in Timor-Leste. Predominantly painted, the art can be broadly divided into three categories: 1) small figurative motifs including humans, animals, boats and items of material culture, 2) a range of geometrics, both curvilinear and rectilinear, and 3) hand and arm stencils. On the basis of geological features and weathering we suggest that the Kisar paintings span a considerable period of time, from the Pleistocene through to the Indonesian historic period. We argue that the oldest paintings in the Kisar repertoire are some of the red pigment hand and arm stencils. The small figurative motifs such as the anthropomorphs and some of the geometrics are remarkably similar to those featured in the rock art assemblages of nearby Timor-Leste, and at a number of locations throughout eastern Indonesia. One site with an engraved motif carved into a stalagmite formation was also recorded.

Д. Лувсаншарав — бывший монах и партийный деятель

Introduction. In the 20th century, Mongolia witnessed the emergence of a number of party activists and statesmen whose formally differing life paths and careers largely resulted in essentially similar repressions experienced. Those included a group of party executives with monastic backgrounds and good command of foreign languages. And it is D. Luvsansharav who had spent twenty years in Mӧrӧn Monastery that attracts special attention. It is unknown what (and whether at all) he had studied at the monastic college ― a largest one in the country ― but his party comrades (and himself) considered him to be an expert in the Lamaist question. On graduation from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (1928–1929), he begins a political career, the pinnacle of which being his work at the Lamaist Commission that primarily aimed to eradicate reactionist Lamaist elements (i.e., the whole of Buddhist clergy as such), and his participation in the Plenipotentiary Commission (a so called ‘troika’) that put to death hundreds and even thousands of citizens, destroyed some precious items of material and traditional culture. Goals. The paper seeks to reveal the ex-monk’s impact in party arrangements, interpret certain personal motives to have underlain the transformation. Materials. The work analyzes materials stored at the Central Archive of the Federal Security Service and contained in Mongolia in Documents of the Comintern (vols. 1, 2), other scholarly sources. Results. The Mongolian Revolution of 1921 uncovered the lack of competent personnel which lead to a search of ‘individuals suitable for administrative, economic, and military work’ not only among commoners but also monks and nobility, resulting in that the recruited executives differed both in skills and worldviews. The context proved favorable enough to D. Luvsansharav who ― according to archival notes ― was quite an ambiguous and contradictive figure. His party comrades and official secretaries of the Eastern Executive Committee of the Communist International characterized him as a definitely ambitious but short-tempered, awkward, and irresolute person in a supporting role. However, the ex-cleric became a leading party activist, and such a dramatic change in his life and career may have stemmed from religious underachievement, dissatisfaction with the position he had held in the large Mongolian monastery, or some psychological aspects. Still, the harsh and severe period of national history could actually give rise to changes in his ideological views and mentality (when personal benefits and career opportunities were viewed by some as priorities).

Ethnological Collections in Selected South African Museums - Past Issues and Current Challenges

The paper examines the state of ethnological collections in two post-apartheid South African museums, with a specific focus on cataloguing, and is based, inter alia, on an appraisal of anthropological discourses that informed the collections. A discussion of the artefacts’ background is of importance in establishing their origins, motives for their presence in collections and the current state of these collections. Presently, such information is difficult to establish since persons who have knowledge regarding the makers, donors and collectors of artefacts are no longer part of the museums’ establishment. Evidently, curators face a huge challenge in cataloguing such materials with only patchy information available.In South Africa many ethnological collections of artefacts produced by Africans are 'owned' by heritage institutions, but the care expanded on the objects consists mainly in placing them in storeroom facilities where they are distant from custodians, devoid of identifying material, and insufficiently researched. I contend that the lacklustre manner of assessing items of indigenous material culture in museums of ethnography, and the accompanying decontextualization, are irreconcilable with their original socio-cultural and environmental significance, their meanings and technological trends. The question is what to do with museum collections of rare indigenous material culture, created in the colonial and apartheid era but which, unfortunately, are left without relevant information?

Artefact Categories, Artefact Assemblages and Ontological Alterity

Joan Gero argued that archaeological interpretation is not the accumulation of truth but rather an ideological construct. Post-colonial studies building on Gero's work critique notions of universal value, that aspects of human cultural heritage hold value for all peoples. However, these studies are not specific about what a post-colonial analysis of the archaeological record might look like, particularly involving material culture categories. What appear as fundamental artefact classes remain and so appeal to a form of universal value. Here we employ a novel application of the ontological turn, specifically Holbraad's method of ontography, to break away from conventional approaches to stone artefact categorization and interpretation. We use Lucas’ discussion of materialization to develop an alternative approach to artefact categories considering two assemblages of artefacts from the North Island of Aotearoa. Both feature large numbers of obsidian artefacts. The obsidian provides the means to investigate levels of historical use, since the material is identifiable to geological source, analysable technologically and retains traces of use. Using the results of obsidian analyses, we investigate the concepts on which archaeologists have based assessments of the relationships among material culture items, suggesting ways in which archaeologists might consider creating space for post-colonial ontologies.

Pyrotechnical Mastery and Humanization

In evolutionary biology, as in Amerindian origin myths, the mastery of fire makes us human. The Amazonian Enawene-nawe are adept pyrotechnicians. Fire is the agent of transformation in their world. They master fire not only to cook food but also to bring health and balance to bodies and to fabricate key items of material culture like ornaments and containers. Demonstrating the analytical productivity of expanding our definition of cookery to encompass craft and care, this ethnographic analysis of fabrication processes suggests that pyrotechnical mastery is a privileged means by which humanity is established in an ongoing evolutionary dialectic between mind and world. This argument is developed through an original reading of Levi-Strauss’s structuralism that highlights commonalities with the semiotic theories of C. S. Peirce. In a broader sense, the article illustrates the potential of semiotic analyses to contribute to the study of evolved human capacities that set humans apart from other species.

Made Visible: Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity curated by Kathryn Gunsch

Made Visible: Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity curated by Kathryn Gunsch

Household textiles 1660-1850: hidden items of material culture from the country house

The role of decorative textiles within the country house as elite signifers has attracted considerable attention, yet that of the household textiles that performed practical functions linked to sociability, comfort and hygiene has been underrepresented. Household textiles, the sheets, pillow cases, table linen and towels that were part of the everyday experience of everyone except the indigent, are by their very nature, transitory. Until the middle of the nineteenth century they were made of linen. This could be from flax or hemp; home produced or imported. Only linen could withstand the rigours of the washing methods in use until relatively recently and since a wide variety of qualities of it were available, it was the fabric of choice for all not least the gentry. This article identifies the range of such textiles available to the country house consumer and their ways of acquiring them together with the values and meanings placed upon them by contemporaries. Analysing data from sales catalogues and combined with probate and household inventories reveals a wealth of hitherto underused information pertaining to some 80 gentry households allowing the article to explore the mechanics of how household textiles were used, maintained and stored in order to consider how they were perceived and valued by their owners thus contributing towards bridging the divide between studies of consumption and investigations of country house life.