Remnants Of Culture Research Articles

Web-Based Implementation of Information Visualization of Megalithic Cultural Heritage

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the outcomes of developing a megalithic culture web application in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, as an information visualization platform for digital heritage documentation of megalithic culture. The application's reliability is evaluated by a pilot study, with an emphasis on the elements of efficiency, ease of learning, ease of use, and user satisfaction. Method: Pilot testing in this study uses a questionnaire-based approach to collect information involving 33 respondents from around the Malay Nature and Civilization Library, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The collected data was analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 28. Results and Discussion: The study's findings indicate that the produced web application has excellent and effective values with a high level of consistency. This means that it can be used as a digital documentation medium to show the community what cultural heritage survives in this state today in order to preserve it. It is hoped that the web application produced will assist in transmitting and sharing knowledge on megalithic culture in Negeri Sembilan to the general public, as part of efforts to dignify cultural heritage remains. Research Implications: This study adds to the creation of digital documents based on web applications that can be simply and rapidly accessed by all levels of global society. The consequences of these research findings can serve as the foundation for formulating policies to preserve the value of megalithic cultural remnants, promote archeotourism development activities, and assist local community development and economic empowerment. Originality/Value: This work presents original discoveries on information exploration and mapping existing megalithic sites to a digital platform in an effort to improve information exchange and digital preservation, which are currently below optimal levels. This study also adds to the growth of literature by focusing on one research information source connected to megalithic culture in Negeri Sembilan rather than searching for information through multiple spread information sources. Furthermore, this endeavor represents an innovation in information sharing through the use of GIS technology, which will undoubtedly ensure that records for megalithic site discovery are always kept and accessible to future users and scholars. Through the notion of digital preservation of cultural heritage, this is one endeavor to elevate the remnants of the megalithic cultural heritage as one of the unique heritages not only in Malaysia but also worldwide.

At the crossroads: photography, ecology and heritage in Istanbul

This article looks at three contemporary photo-based projects that reference Istanbul’s visual histories and document its endangered ecologies. These works take a critical approach to cultural heritage practices in contrast to official discourses that serve state power or justify capital accumulation. Osman Bozkurt’s Scenes, Ali Taptık’s Topographic Nostalgia, and Cemre Yeşil and Maria Sturm’s For Birds’ Sake focus on the relationships between the human and non-human elements of urban geographies. Their projects conceive of heritage as a practice that combines ecological concerns with preserving the cultural remnants of the urban past. Whether critiquing the aesthetic conventions of the picturesque, evoking an affective engagement with the viewer, or conjuring memories of displaced populations, these artists explore different visual approaches to embodying and remembering urban space and place. Taking a cue from their works, this article contemplates the possibility of envisioning heritage futures that can protect Istanbul’s biodiversity while being inclusive of cultural difference.

"Michelangelo's Seal" in Translation: Élisabeth-Sophie Chéron and the Polemics of Print

Abstract: In 1709, the French painter Élisabeth-Sophie Chéron (1648–1711) designed a print after an engraved carnelian held in Louis XIV's collection and known as "Michelangelo's Seal" for its supposed previous owner. Soon after its 1710 release in Paris, this print prompted a quarrel between Chéron and antiquarian scholars who condemned her unfaithful reproduction of the prized gem, a judgment later reiterated by the connoisseur Pierre-Jean Mariette in his Traité des pierres gravées (1750). While previous studies of "Michelangelo's Seal" have discussed the negative reception encountered by Chéron's print, this essay examines how she formulated the image in the first place. Following recent interest in the role of prints in shaping early modern forms of intermediality, the essay treats the 1709 print as a résumé of Chéron's prior achievements in painting and poetry. I adopt a Benjaminian hermeneutic of translation to analyze the artist's visual strategies and engagement with two of the meanings ascribed to engraved gems in her time: their monumentality as cultural remnants of antiquity and their use as seal-stones. I argue that Chéron tailored her translation of "Michelangelo's Seal" according to her skills and status as an active member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture since 1672. Moreover, in the process, she subverted not only the intended status of female members of that institution, but also broader, gendered norms of artistic creativity.

New insights into Magdalenian subsistence at Petersfels (Hegau Jura, southwestern Germany)

At Petersfels (Hegau Jura, southwestern Germany), one of the most prolific Magdalenian sites in Central Europe, nearly one hundred years of excavation and research has revealed an exceptional record of human occupation from 15,000 years ago. Unstudied faunal remains (n = 3256) from a 16 m2 area in front of the cave (P6 excavation area) provide an opportunity to assess the site from a modern perspective. Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) dominate the assemblage followed by hare (Lepus sp.), horse (Equus ferus), and ptarmigan (Lagopus sp.). The faunal remains are well-preserved and exhibit abundant cut marks, impacts, and green breaks, attesting to the highly anthropogenic nature of the assemblage. Carnivore damage is also present, although to a lesser extent, and suggests that fox- and wolf-sized carnivores gained secondary access by exploiting human garbage. Evidence for the transport of reindeer limbs, osseous artifacts, and other remnants of material culture indicates hunter-gatherers used P6 for habitation and the secondary processing of faunal remains, especially butchery, marrow extraction, and tool production. Overall, our results support prior interpretations of the site as a fall-winter aggregation camp and provide new information on human subsistence practices, the role of carnivores, and the use of space by Magdalenian people.

(Re)building remnants of volunteer cultures in a post-Olympic metropolis: Analyzing forces, structures, and opportunities in Greece’s civil society landscape

ABSTRACT Recently, Greece has undergone substantive civil society and volunteer transformation. Although changes have been precipitated by various forces, including the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, the country’s third-sector organizations have been (re)generated through the creation of a productive urban commons. Notwithstanding a vibrant landscape of activity and opportunities, the environment continues to challenge sector entities. Utilizing interviews with 19 sector professionals, our research question focuses on examining current perceptions on the sector’s development, contemporary status and challenges, and future potential. Accordingly, the paper aims to 1) account for some of the political, socio-economic, and ideological shifts in the evolution and priorities of Greece’s Third sector; 2) explore industry experiences in the pursuit of individual and collective civil society agendas; and 3) establish some directions of, and challenges to, organizational continuity and change. Our findings suggest that collaborative efforts illustrate the sector’s progressive capacities, yet these are measured against enduring sustainability concerns.

Socio-Political Structure in Central Anatolia in the Third Millennium BC

In Central Anatolia, the socio-economic and political organization of communities in the 3rd millennium BC includes a limited number of studies from different perspectives. These studies refer to a socio-political system in which administrative units divided into regions and provinces are administered by “local rulers”, “independent princes" or "kings". It is suggested that the cities of these principalities were surrounded by walls, they were administered by a ruling class, they participated in commercial activities and the existence of an organization they controlled these, and emphasis is placed on the class society structure consisting of administrators, soldiers and merchants. As mentioned here, the social structure of the socities of the 3rd millennium BC and their relations with each other in the subject region are generally considered in a hierarchical order, and complicate to understand the different social models. Since the social structure cannot be explained only in hierarchical order, some new approaches have been developed. Accordingly, although different individuals in the society gain priority in various activities such as religion, trade, and politics, they may not exhibit a central and hierarchical structure in power relations. In this paper, based on this approach, the socio-political structure and power phenomenon of the 3rd millennium BC communities in the region will be discussed within the socio-economic models, production and specialization, evidence of administrative practices, patterns of settlement, burial customs, phenomenon of belief and remnants of material culture pointing to social complexity, and the views that refer to hierarchical structuring in power relations will be approached.

Review: The Viking Age in Åland. Insights into Identity and Remnants of Culture

Review of The Viking Age in Åland. Edited by Joonas Ahola, Frog & Jenni Lucenius.Finnish Academy of Science and Letters Annales. Academiae ScientiarumFennicae. Humaniora 372. Sastamala 2014. Pp. 427; indices. 978-951-41-1098-6 paperback.

문화적 단절과 정치적 연대 -『독립신문』의 중국관 재검토 -

This paper affords a renewed understanding of Tongnip sinmun’s (1896-1899) view of China. Current scholarly works have agreed that an extremely negative view of China was predominant in Tongnip sinmun. In contrast, this paper approaches Tongnip sinmun’s perception of China from a different angle and demonstrates that a relatively positive view of China co-existed with the extremely negative view. That is, this paper divides Tongnip sinmun’s view of China into two dimensions―the cultural dimension and the political dimension―and argues that, whereas anti-Chinese sentiments were strong in the cultural dimension, a positive view was seen in the political dimension. In particular, Tongnip sinmun was very critical of Chinese cultural remnants deeply rooted in Chosŏn Korea, as the newspaper’s editors thought that complete severance from Chinese culture was crucial in building up Korean national identity. At the same time, however, Tongnip sinmun paid keen and positive attention to the political reform movement in the Qing court and government and firmly supported the movement in China, hoping that the success of the Chinese political reform would lead to a political alliance between Qing China, Meiji Japan, and Chosŏn Korea. Tongnip sinmun editors thought that the alliance would be important in protecting not only Chosŏn Korea but also all of East Asia from Western imperialism.

Crisis Narrative and Affective Intermediality: Figuring Disaster in Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf

Abstract Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf (Le temps du loup, 2003) depicts a grim vision of the world in the aftermath of an unnamed catastrophe. Haneke turns the genre of dystopia into an experimental terrain where he can test the limits of the cinematic medium in the sense of “negating cinema in order to let reality speak for itself” (Nagib 2016, 147). An existential parable, Time of the Wolf envisions a sombre post-millenium age. It is a sharp analysis of what remains of man and society when the frame of civilization collapses. It scrutinizes the functioning mechanisms of the individual, the family and the social community in times of civilization undone. A harsh experiment towards a negative dialectics of the image, the film’s exceptionally austere cinematic language confronts the spectator with the aesthetics of the “unwatchable” (Baer et al., 2019) and “cinematic unpleasure” (Aston 2010). The paper explores the ways in which Haneke’s “intermedial realism” (Rowe 2017) also manifests in this film through photo-filmic images and painterly compositions, perceptions of stillness and motion, and cultural remnants of the past, giving way to affective sensations of intermediality.

Craft Reconfiguration: Rediscovering Traditional Craft Despite Modernizing Forces

Using an inductive research design, the current study provides an exploration of how traditional craft can be reconfigured through entrepreneurial action, revealing unique processes by which craft persists as a source of meaningful jobs and income, despite modernizing forces. Whereas prior assessments primarily explore how modernization reconfigures traditional craft, the focus in this article is on entrepreneurship’s role in challenging cultural remnants attached to craft while maintaining traditional elements in contemporary craft. The findings indicate that craft can be recontextualized, revitalized, and repurposed through entrepreneurial action, such that it then can be rediscovered and adapted to contemporary market demands. First, craft is recontextualized, from a culturally anchored tradition mainly performed at home to a commercially embedded practice performed in organizational settings. Second, craft is revitalized through modern approaches to production, equipment, and design that turn craft into something more accepted in the broader economy and enable it to compete with industrialized products. Third, craft is repurposed, from a practice performed for family and friends to artistry that addresses market needs, shifting from marginalization to a far more commercial practice. These findings offer theoretical contributions to emerging efforts to rediscovering craft, in that they reveal the unique processes by which craft, even if pushed to the margins, can persist as a vital source of economic and social prosperity in the marginalized communities that rely on it.

Susceptibility Testing by Volatile Organic Compound Detection Direct from Positive Blood Cultures: A Proof-of-Principle Laboratory Study.

Background: Bacteria produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during growth, which can be detected by colorimetric sensor arrays (CSAs). The SpecifAST® system (Specific Diagnostics) employs this technique to enable antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) directly from blood cultures without prior subculture of isolates. The aim of this study was to compare the SpecifAST® AST results and analysis time to the VITEK®2 (bioMérieux) system. Methods: In a 12-month single site prospective study, remnants of clinical positive monomicrobial blood cultures were combined with a series of antibiotic concentrations. Volatile emission was monitored at 37 °C via CSAs. Minimal Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) of seven antimicrobial agents for Enterobacterales, Staphylococcus, and Enterococcus spp. were compared to VITEK®2 AST results. MICs were interpreted according to EUCAST clinical breakpoints. Performance was assessed by calculating agreement and discrepancy rates. Results: In total, 96 positive blood cultures containing Enterobacterales, Staphylococcus, and Enterococcus spp. were tested (269 bug–drug combinations). The categorical agreement of the SpecifAST® system compared to the VITEK®2 system was 100% and 91% for Gram-negatives and Gram-positives, respectively. Errors among Gram-positives were from coagulase-negative staphylococci. Overall results were available in 3.1 h (±0.9 h) after growth detection without the need for subculture steps. Conclusion: The AST results based on VOC detection are promising and warrant further evaluation in studies with a larger sample of bacterial species and antimicrobials.

Brutal Aesthetics: Dubuffet, Bataille, Jorn, Paolozzi, Oldenburg

Brutal Aesthetics: Dubuffet, Bataille, Jorn, Paolozzi, Oldenburg

Brave Shanty Boys: The Songs of Timber Workers and Community in Pocahontas County, West Virginia

Abstract Deep in the heart of West Virginia’s Pocahontas County, the timber industry moved across the nineteenth-century forest, taking valuable commercial lumber, but leaving behind rich cultural legacies. Transient and illiterate laborers, who worked from dawn to dusk, were not privileged to record their thoughts and emotions. Their identities, situated somewhere outside of community structures by virtue of their occupations and ethnicities, were not always recorded in traditional written sources, and yet the complex relationships between those communities and the timber workers are important to understanding the history of Appalachia. Histories of the extractive industries that swept through the region are rich with details of the devastation wrought in the area, but the personal stories of the workers’ lives must be uncovered using cultural remnants. Through the analysis of the songs of the timber camps and the way those songs became incorporated into a community social heritage and identity, the voices of the brave shanty boys can ring out once more.

Agnes Sampson, Skóciában boszorkányság vádjával elsőként kivégzett nő perének kultúrantropológiai elemzése

This paper is a cultural anthropology study of the court documents from the trial of Agnes Sampson from the Scotland, the first officially recorded witch conviction and execution in Scotland. Upon such examination of the court documents evident cultural remnants were found of the ancient druidistic pagan religion of the Bryton tribes who originated from the Celts. The analysis yields the statement that the demise of Agnes Sampson in 1591 was due to the practices of these druid traditions. The relevance of this research is in aiding current rehabilitation trials of women, convicted, executed, and/or accused of witchcraft. The cultural anthropology methods become helpful to understand which ancient belief remnants are apparent in a certain era, and in determining which ones cause such prosecution against its followers. Agnes Sampson was obviously continuing the druid traditions, nothing points this out better than the actual charges against her.

The Reading of the Piece: An Upcycler’s Embodied Experience of Working with Material Culture of the Deceased

An upcycling practice involves working with remnants of material culture. It is about engaging with and responding to signs of wear. Interacting with traces of use—a smell, finger prints, imprints of a body that are left behind—this study documents and questions the experiences of working with clothing from a specific 1920s–30s historic archive belonging to a deceased female, and the way it informs and shapes the redesign of those garments. It is about understanding narratives behind the experiences of use. How does this affect the designer and their process? This study aims to enrich available knowledge of upcycling and upcyclers and their relationship to objects and attachment. In this article I will be reflecting on the first stage of my practice’s methodology, the reading of the piece; the initial engagement and interaction with the historic archive, which includes photographic documentation and exerpts from a reflective diary that records my material interactions whilst critically analysing and contextualising this process within fashion theory. My aim is to enrich the field of sustainable fashion by shedding light on a complex process that deals with death, memory, value, attachment, and history. By reflecting on my personal experiences with material, I will add to the discussion of designing with strategies that encourage sustainable design relationships; highlight and expand on existing theoretical discourse on textiles and mnemonic energy; and provide a deeper understanding of the practice of upcycling and the intimate materiality of wear. Upcycling fashion practices contribute a materiality perspective to anthropological processes of reading and understanding material culture.

Hirschhorn’s Dilemma, or How Not to Ride Two Horses at Once

In a 2003 interview by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Thomas Hirschhorn clarified his typology of sculptural-architectural forms situated between high culture and mass culture, private sentiment and public expression. The Raymond Carver Altar, Piet Mondrian Altar, Ingeborg Bachmann Altar, and Otto Freundlich Altar take the form of spontaneous memorials that so often mark sites of tragic and violent death. In them, motley collections of laminated photographs, flickering candles, cellophane-wrapped bouquets, and personalised mementos declare collective grief and devotion. Like the Altars, the more expansive Monuments – dedicated to Baruch Spinoza, Gilles Deleuze, Georges Bataille, Antonio Gramsci – express what Hal Foster has called an archival impulse, a ‘move to (re)cathect cultural remnants’, namely the work and thought of radical philosophers and artists.1 It was in the face of the ‘failure’ of the Deleuze Monument, which the artist was forced to dismantle prematurely, that Hirschhorn first articulated the principle of ‘presence and production’ that subsequently governed the Bataille Monument, Gramsci Monument, and his numerous other works in public space. 2 Immersive and of limited duration, ‘presence and production’ works are often situated in working class neighbourhoods and realised with the aid of their inhabitants, who have been subjected to the legacies of colonialism and political and economic marginalisation. The Altars and Monuments bear the hallmarks of Hirschhorn’s approach to artwork in public space: adoption of exacerbated weakness in relation to urban surroundings, especially through mimicry of states of devaluation; development of a lexicon of provisional structures; appropriation of the language of non-art material culture; and activation of processes of identification and (as Claire Bishop has stressed) disidentification vis-à-vis the publics to which they are addressed.3

Elements of the Historical Cultural Landscape: Mapping Methods and Results in the District of Augsburg

Many traces of human cultures and activities over the centuries have marked the landscape, but they are often not recognisable at first glance. The recording and inventory of these historical cultural landscape elements, and their associated mapping, serve to raise awareness of—and ultimately also protect and maintain—the cultural landscape. Researchers at the Chair of Human Geography and Transition Research at the University of Augsburg have recorded all preserved and visible elements of the historical cultural landscape in the district of Augsburg that are not currently under monument or nature protection, and which consequently have not yet been mapped for the corresponding cadastre. In a first step, old maps, aerial and satellite images, local chronicles, regional books and other writings were examined. Subsequently, through public participation instruments, such as information events, individual interviews with local people and a hotline, further historical cultural landscape elements were recorded, based on the knowledge of local citizens. As a result, the three-year project was able to identify a total of 613 cultural remnants of various functions, and these were visualised and saved through numerous maps.

The fate of traditional schools in a context of educational modernization: the case of Si-shu in China

Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to examine how Si-shu, a traditional form of local, private education grounded in classical instruction, responded to the rapid modernization of education during the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China and to explain why these schools, once extraordinarily adaptable, finally disappeared.Design/methodology/approach:The authors have examined both primary and secondary sources, including government reports, education yearbooks, professional annals, public archives, and published research to analyze the social, political and institutional changes that reshaped Si-shu in the context of China's late-19th- and early-20th-century educational modernization.Findings:Si-shu went through four stages of institutional change during the last century. First, they faced increased competition from new-style (westernized) schools during the late Qing dynasty. Second, they engaged in a process of intense self-reform, particularly after the Xinhai Revolution of 1911. Third, they were marginalized by the new educational systems of the Republic of China, especially the Renxu School System of 1922 and the Wuchen School System of 1928. Finally, after the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, they were considered remnants of feudal culture and forcibly replaced by modern schools.Originality/value:This paper brings hitherto unexplored Chinese sources to an English-speaking audience in an effort to shed new light on the history of traditional Chinese education. The fate of Si-shu was part of the larger modernization of Chinese education – a development that had both advantages and disadvantages.

Przemoc w przedhiszpańskim Peru

Violence in pre-H ispanic Peru Violence as a bio-cultural phenomenon is closely linked to the history of humanity. This phenomenon in the past is reconstructed by archaeologists as well as bioarchaeologists, who study the material remnants of old cultures and their creators. These remnants include burials, characteristic archaeological sites of defensive nature or works of art. An analysis of archaeological finds from the Peruvian Andes — especially the finds associated with the rituals of human sacrifice or warfare — leads to the conclusion that an important characteristic element of many pre-Columbian cultures was a specific kind of violence: ritualised violence. A cross-analysis of bioarchaeological, archaeological and iconographic data makes it possible to provide a more complete interpretation of violent behaviours of societies in the past, societies for which there are no extant historical sources.

MAINTAINING THE HARMONY OF NATURE BEHIND THE EXISTENCE OF BATU BELAH MYTH IN KAMPONG TUA NONGSA

This study aimed to explore the harmonious relationship between human and nature that is still maintained by the Malay people of Kampong Tua Nongsa in Batam. Everyone who visited Batam will have perception that Batam is an industrial city with various metropolis conditions. It cannot be denied that it is true. The industrialization magnet in Batam has attracted the attention of many immigrants from various regions to try their luck to be better. The effects of rapid immigration and the many industrialization of Batam have had quite an impact on environmental conditions, especially this island which is bordering with Malaysia and Singapore. The amount of industrial pollution, deforestation, settlements, and reclamation has a bad impact on the natural situation. But behind all of that, Batam has uniqueness. The government still maintains there are 37 points of Kampong Tua Malay scattered throughout Batam. Behind the glamor of Batam's industrialization, there are still remnants of Malay culture that have a close relationship with the environment. In the research conducted, researchers analyzed three of cultural objects that are still preserved, namely the Sacred of Bunbun, the Sacred of Puak, and the Sacred of Batu Belah. In this article, researchers focused on the Myths behind the Sacred of Batu Belah, which still reflected the harmonious relationship between humans and nature. By using an ecocritic approach, the researcher answers the variable related with the relationship between man and nature behind the myth. The method used is a qualitative method with in-depth interviews and observation as data collection techniques. Using critical analysis techniques, the results of this study indicated that the ecocritic representation behind the Batu Belah myth is reflected from the existence prohibitions behind it. These prohibitions show how the Malay community is still able to maintain a harmonious relationship between humans and nature.