Original Town Research Articles

Culinary heritage in Asia: National and regional identities – Reflections from the field

This review provides an overview of research trends on culinary heritage in Asia. The first objective is to trace a shift from the appreciation of a Western tangible cultural heritage to the recognition of non-Western intangible cultural heritage, which has underlined the prominence of food as a marker for culinary nationalism or gastronationalism (DeSoucey, 2010). Asian nations promote their culinary heritage in competitive ways. The second objective is to examine the construction of a culinary heritage on regional levels through four different case studies on China and Japan. The third objective is to showcase a rich body of research in English that has emerged in response to new forms of culinary nationalism and has emphasized the analysis of food as a powerful tool for understanding politics and international relations. This review finds that the objective of heritagization on the global level often constitutes nation branding. In contrast, culinary heritage construction on regional levels may occur for various reasons, such as branding a regional specialty, providing economic opportunities for small-scale entrepreneurs, or maintaining historical bonds between a diasporic community and their town of origin.

Sustainable Arthurdale: A Reevaluation of a 1930s Planned Community

Abstract The Great Depression affected Appalachian towns with severe economic distress and dislocation. This research focuses on a New Deal experiment in sustainable housing initiated by Eleanor Roosevelt. Early in her husband's administration, she championed the design and construction of the planned community of Arthurdale, West Virginia. Composed of single-family homes built during three phases with a central complex of shared services, the planned town of Arthurdale has retained connections to several original residents and maintains a strong sense of community and belonging. This research explores the community design components of Arthurdale, coupled with the sustainable features inherent in the houses and its approach to sustenance farming, and considers the impact on the long-term success of the residents. For this work, a mixed-methods approach was used with an initial quantitative survey and a subsequent focus group. Survey results indicated that themes of sustainability, community, and education were values that were uniquely shared by original town residents and subsequent generations. These values can affect contemporary models of sustainable community development.

Agronomía y variación diatópica en el Libro de agricultura de Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

One of the intrinsic and fundamental features of agricultural jargon, throughout its history, is the coexistence of synonymous forms that have emerged in the various territories where a given language is spoken. Gabriel Alonso de Herrera was completely aware of this situation, which is why it is not uncommon for his Libro de agricultura to make reference to words from Talavera de la Reina, his town of origin, or from other Spanish regions. In the present study the reflections and linguistic considerations made by the author are analyzed, the formulas used for the identification of the different lexical variants are presented and the history of some of them is studied, with the purpose of corroborating the veracity of the judgments expressed in this regard.

Steady Habits in the Constitution State: Connecticut's Inequitable System of Representation, 1639–1965

Steady Habits in the Constitution State: Connecticut's Inequitable System of Representation, 1639–1965

Terremoti, calamità naturali, strategie di ricostruzione

Tema del saggio è la strategia di ricostruzione dopo il sisma in Italia Centrale dell’estate-autunno 2016. Dopo una ricognizione dei principali terremoti in Italia nel secolo scorso, da Messina, 1908, all’Emilia Romagna, 2012, il testo esamina il caso-studio del nucleo storico di Amatrice, borgo murato con insediamento di crinale di origine federiciano-angioina. A fronte della tabula rasa lasciata dal sisma, la ricostruzione ex-novo dell’intero borgo storico si scontra col problema, teorico e operativo, del conflitto tra “dov’era, com’era” e rischio di “falso storico”, che il saggio affronta sia in termini teorici che attraverso la verifica operativa del progetto di architettura.

Archetypes of the pandemic.

This paper attempts to read the psychological and emotional impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic through the archetypal images contained in patients’ dreams. In these dreams, symbols related to the power of nature and to extreme danger are paired with feelings of detachment that seem to point to a traumatic dissociation, due to the archetypal experience that erupts in familiar surroundings. Through the humanization of the ineffable experience, dissociation, which in the beginning of the pandemic showed in high levels of anxiety, panic attacks and depersonalization, can be transformed into the overview needed for the search for meaning. The container for this process of transformation is the analyst, the real, virtual or imagined one, and his or her ability to relate and feel.

By og grav

By og grav

Lessons from Tradition in the Building of Contemporary Settlements: The Case of Tafilalt in the M'zab Valley, Algeria

Since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, the M’zab Valley in the northern Sahara has witnessed a rapid growth in population. Both legal and illegal housing has been built outside the walls of the M’zab’s ancient towns, damaging the environmental and cultural heritage of the area. In response, its long-standing residents have identified protocols for building a number of carefully planned settlements inspired by the original towns. One of these new settlements is Tafilalt, begun in 1997. Based in part on in-depth interviews with residents and the developers of the project, this article studies the construction of Tafilalt by its occupants and their perceptions of their new home. It asks how the M’zab’s traditional methods of planning, building and managing settlements have been adapted to the community’s current needs, who makes up the community, and to what extent Tafilalt might be seen as a model to be used elsewhere.

Activación de un patrimonio-territorial mexicano, el amaranto en Santiago Tulyehualco, México

Santiago Tulyehualco es un pueblo originario de la alcaldía Xochimilco, que pertenece a la Ciudad de México y forma parte de uno de los pocos espacios rurales remanentes. El objetivo de este trabajo es identificar el potencial reivindicador del huauhtli ”“un cultivo ancestral, también llamado amaranto”“ como patrimonio-territorial de Santiago Tulyehualco, en resistencia ante el avance de la urbanización. La metodología utilizada, de carácter cualitativo, se basó en la perspectiva de personas originarias y residentes de la localidad, entre quienes se aplicaron cinco entrevistas a profundidad, con el fin de dar visibilidad a su cotidianidad, sus luchas y su resistencia. Los resultados obtenidos permiten inferir que el huauhtli es un elemento que estructura (directa e indirectamente) las vidas de los habitantes de Santiago Tulyehualco, por lo que podría ser considerado un patrimonio-territorial activado por la comunidad, que busca que se respete su derecho a seguir siendo campesinos dentro de una de las mayores ciudades del mundo.

Urbanism as Myth and Ceremony

Between 1929 and 1935, the Bata Shoe Company planned the construction of a series of modern industrial satellite towns in Europe, Asia, and America. By 1935, however, their development was far from advanced, and their original town plans, following a modernist grid, had been replaced with new ones, based on garden city ideas. A transnational explanation of the conditions that complicated their construction and motivated changes in their design remains as a gap in the existing literature on the Bata Shoe Company. The conceptual framework of sociological institutionalism is used to study how questions of meaning and social legitimacy influenced the design and construction of Bata’s industrial towns in the 1930s. The methodology employed involved the triangulation of the study of secondary sources and research into Bata’s archives, with the analysis of how the urban form of the towns changed through time. The research reveals the institutionalization of ideas on urban planning and architecture within Bata’s structure, and the role of external legitimation in justifying their utilization or withdrawal. Finally, this article will posit that interdisciplinary readings on contemporary urban history can bring new insights into the transformation of the built environment by multinational organizations.

Demographics, distribution, ownership and naming patterns of pets presented to a mobile clinic for sterilisation in Namibia.

This study analysed the demographics, spatial distribution, ownership and naming patterns of dogs and cats presented to the University of Namibia’s veterinary mobile clinic for sterilisation from small underserved towns around Namibia. The proportional distribution of pets was determined based on species, sex, age, owner gender, town of origin and naming categories. Overall, 84.4% (n = 2909) of the animals presented for sterilisation were dogs and the remainder were cats (15.6%, n = 539). Of the dogs presented for sterilisation, 51.9% (n = 1509) were male and 48.1% (n = 1400) were female. In cats, 51.4% (n = 277) were male, whilst 48.6% (n = 262) were female. Overall, the majority of pets (68.2%) were presented for sterilisation from urban areas than rural areas (31.8%). About 49.8% of men and 24.2% of women that presented pets for sterilisation came from urban areas, whilst 20.1% of the women and 11.7% of the men that presented pets for sterilisation were from rural areas. Of all the pets presented for sterilisation, the majority were male-owned (64%, n = 2206). Pets were mainly presented for sterilisation at < 2 years (41.1%), 2 to < 4 years (32.4%) and 4 to < 6 years (15.4%). The naming of pets was mainly after people (42.4%), circumstances (20.6%) and appearance (15.5%). This community engagement exercise yielded valuable demographic data indicating that pet origin, sex and species and owner gender were important factors in determining the voluntary presentation of pets for sterilisation in the study area.

La interculturalidad como contenido transversal en la educación universitaria peruana. Notas reflexivas

Interculturality as an educational approach is included in the guidelines of the Peruvian educational system (General Education Law 28044 and National Curriculum of Basic Education); however, in the curricular structures of national and private universities, it is ignored, generating a gap between regular basic education and higher education. This reality leads us to reflect on the need to incorporate interculturality as a transversal content in higher education, reflections that emerge from the context of the Puno region, where according to the information of the censuses of 2017, most of its population is self-identified with an original town and where at least half of the students in higher education come from homes of quechua or aimara origin. The challenge that arises is to build a university with the quality standards that the international academy demands, without distancing us from our academy demands, without distancing us from the surrounding multicultural reality.

The complexity of home and estrangement. Young Roma generations between Bosnia and Roman peripheries

ABSTRACT Building on the literature on transnationalism, return and home, this paper explores the relationship that young generations of Roma in Rome (Italy) develop with their parents’ and grandparents’ land of origin: Bosnia. This relationship is shaped by older generations’ memories of the ‘good old days’ in Bosnia; it also builds on first-hand experiences of contemporary Bosnia; moreover, it is embedded in the everyday experience of the Roman peripheries and of ‘nomad camps’ where the Roma live. Distinctions within the Roma community, based on the town of origin, migration trajectory, family belonging and generation translate into complex, multifaceted and sometimes ambivalent relations with Bosnia. I argue that young Roma's emotional attachment to their alleged homeland intersects with both a feeling of estrangement from contemporary Bosnia and their attachment to the Italian context and especially the Roman peripheries, where despite xenophobia and anti-Gypsyism, the Roma, and particularly the younger generations, feel at home.

Reasentamiento de poblaciones en el Perú por proyectos mineros y de infraestructura: diálogo entre prácticas y teoría social

Resettlement due to mining and infrastructure projects has become a relevant problem in Peru due to the growing number of projects juxtaposed with rural and urban habitats. Social Sciences have accumulated a body of studies that allow resettlements from multiple theoretical perspectives. Research shows residence, land use and mobility patterns of the population are not completely understood by companies and authorities in charge of resettlements, which therefore create more damage to those already affected. Companies and government use narratives about «development» and «risk» to legitimize the need of resettlement, but they are not necessarily capable of delivering the promises of a better future for those affected. Design of resettlement spaces follows a rationale of industrial and political control, far away from the traditional organization of the original towns. It is proposed that the government should norm resettlement procedures (limiting them as much as possible) including cultural, identity and participatory aspects in the design of new homes and towns.

La soberanía alimentaria y el riesgo ambiental en la construcción social del territorio rural en San Juan Ixtenco, Tlaxcala

Los territorios rurales, como todo territorio de México y el mundo, están en continua reconfiguración de su espacio social. En San Juan Ixtenco, estos cambios son resultado de procesos socioculturales y políticos relacionados con directrices que provienen de los organismos internacionales, de las políticas federales, así como de la acción de los actores sociales locales. Por otro lado, la cultura y la organización social de los actores sociales configuran procesos comunales que llevan a preservar la cohesión social y su cultura. La soberanía alimentaria es uno de estos procesos que descansa en las costumbres y las tradiciones de la cultura campesina y que se innova al construir nuevas formas de participación comunitaria. En esta perspectiva, la percepción del riesgo ambiental por parte de las comunidades también incide en la reconfiguración del territorio rural de Ixtenco. En este poblado de origen otomí, los actores sociales establecen sus vínculos con la sociedad nacional y global a través de la soberanía alimentaria y su percepción del riesgo ambiental. El cultivo del maíz y la elaboración de tortillas artesanales constituyen procesos que posibilitan la construcción social de la soberanía alimentaria y una defensa ecológica de su territorio.

From Sasstown to Zaria: Tom Coffee and the Kru Origins of the Soudan Interior Mission, 1893–1895

This article 1 underscores the key role that Tom Coffee, an ethnic Kru migrant from Sasstown, Liberia, played in founding the Soudan Interior Mission (SIM). Coffee journeyed with Walter Gowans and Thomas Kent up into what is now northern Nigeria in 1894 to help establish SIM. Gowans and Kent died before they reached their destination, the walled city of Kano. SIM's other co-founder, Rowland Bingham, did not travel with his friends, and thus lived to tell his version of their story. By using materials written in the 1890s and secondary sources published more recently, this work provides new insights into SIM's first trip to Africa. The article begins by giving background information about the Kru and Sasstown and the impact that the Methodist Episcopal Church had on some of the people who lived in Sasstown after it established a mission there in 1889. Coffee's likely connection with the Methodist Church would have helped him understand the goal and strategy of his missionary employers. The article then discusses the journey Coffee and the two SIM missionaries took up into the hinterland. The fortitude that Coffee showed as he travelled into the interior reflects the ethos of his heritage and town of origin. Coffee represents just one of millions of indigenous peoples – the vast number whose stories are now not known – who worked alongside expatriate missionaries to establish Christianity around the world. It is fitting, during SIM's quasquicentennial, to tell this story about this African who helped the three North American missionaries establish SIM.

Rural migrants' homeownership in Chinese urban destinations: Do institutional arrangements still matter after Hukou reform?

In China, the hukou system has long been cited as the underlying cause of the disadvantages in housing access that rural migrants encounter in urban destinations. However, following the latest round of hukou reform, does the hukou system still have a significant impact on rural migrants' housing outcomes? This paper addresses the question by examining hukou-related arrangements faced by rural migrants, in both their urban destination and their rural town of origin. Based on data from a nationwide survey conducted in 2011, we find that city entry criteria together with insecure and inalienable land rights negatively predict rural migrants' homeownership attainment. Moreover, the impact differs across urban locations. Consequently, although hukou reform has eased discrimination against rural individuals, disparities persist between urban natives and rural migrants. This paper demonstrates that these disparities result from unequal access to social welfare and housing.

Reconstructing the genetic history of Italians: new insights from a male (Y-chromosome) perspective

Background: Due to its central and strategic position in Europe and in the Mediterranean Basin, the Italian Peninsula played a pivotal role in the first peopling of the European continent and has been a crossroad of peoples and cultures since then.Aim: This study aims to gain more information on the genetic structure of modern Italian populations and to shed light on the migration/expansion events that led to their formation.Subjects and methods: High resolution Y-chromosome variation analysis in 817 unrelated males from 10 informative areas of Italy was performed. Haplogroup frequencies and microsatellite haplotypes were used, together with available data from the literature, to evaluate Mediterranean and European inputs and date their arrivals.Results: Fifty-three distinct Y-chromosome lineages were identified. Their distribution is in general agreement with geography, southern populations being more differentiated than northern ones.Conclusions: A complex genetic structure reflecting the multifaceted peopling pattern of the Peninsula emerged: southern populations show high similarity with those from the Middle East and Southern Balkans, while those from Northern Italy are close to populations of North-Western Europe and the Northern Balkans. Interestingly, the population of Volterra, an ancient town of Etruscan origin in Tuscany, displays a unique Y-chromosomal genetic structure.

Efficient Donors, Meritorious Receivers: Professionalizing transnational philanthropy in coastal Andhra

Abstract‘High skilled’ Kamma migrants from Coastal Andhra domiciled in the USA maintain strong ties with their villages and towns of origin. Since the 1990s, one key way in which they have sustained relations with their roots is through transnational philanthropy. Over the last two decades, migrant donors have diversified the modalities of their philanthropic engagements, increasingly institutionalizing them through US-based transnational associations. While the institutionalization of philanthropy may appear to be an import from the USA, closer examination reveals its historical antecedent in the caste-based Varaalu system practised by the Kammas during the late colonial period. The transnationalization of older forms of giving are marked by key modifications in the way giving is conceptualized—from being localized, need based, and individualized to being based on merit, efficiency, and professionalization. The term ‘donation’ is used to describe their philanthropy, rather than daan or charity, and the politics of semantics points to the modernizing impulse within the community to transcend caste owing to their diasporic location. Yet, by aiming to reach deserving beneficiaries while upholding meritocracy, donors often circulate philanthropic resources horizontally on a caste inflected and highly politicized transnational plane. The discourse and practices of transnational giving in post-reform India bring out the contradiction that simultaneously obscures the workings of a caste while transnationalizing its boundaries.

Revitalisation as a Method of Planning Sustainable Development of Old Town Complexes in Historic Towns

Old towns in spatial structures of historic towns are the areas which – same as centuries before – serve as the town centres. This is almost invariably true about small towns especially, as the inner town district is more frequently the site where a town was originally located and is often the manifestation of its historic identity. However, functional and spatial problems of many small historic towns arise from the above trend, mostly because of the frequently high density of buildings in the oldest part of a town. The intricate nature of elements creating the structure of a town’s historic centre often calls for certain steps to be taken, which will ensure better exposure of an old town complex against the backdrop of the town’s other areas. Numerous problems need to be solved, not only spatial but also economic and social ones. A town is a living organism, inhabited by people. The key to tackling these issues successfully lies in the creation of such revitalisation programmes that will improve the quality of space and help achieve the sustainable development of inner-town areas in historic towns. The historic centres in the medieval towns of Warmia, a region rich in history and situated in north-eastern Poland, can serve as an example and has been investigated in the following study. All the towns in Warmia located in the Middle Ages, except the capital of the region Olsztyn, can be classified as small urban developments. This group of eleven towns is dominated by the ones whose territorial coverage has not changed considerably since the location and the population ranges from a few thousand to less than twenty thousand. To this day, the historic quarters of these towns have remained the central ones in each town, and their urban structures to a various extent reveal the features characteristic for the period when they were created. The differences are due to the war damage the towns suffered at the end of World War Two and because of the different ways in which they were reconstructed afterwards. In consequence, some elements of the original town master plans have been lost. Revitalisation is an approach whose aim is to improve the quality of space and the ability of inner town areas to function. Revitalisation goes beyond the purely spatial factors, and involves broadly understood economic and social considerations. The conclusions drawn from this research pertain to benefits of using the revitalisation method in planning a sustainable development of urban structures. The development and implementation of revitalisation programmes is a very complex process that takes many years and requires an integrated and interdisciplinary team effort. This method allows us to preserve the identity of historic town areas while enabling them to play functions in the contemporary life of a town.