Unequal State Research Articles

La structure de classes québécoise au 19e siècle et le problème de l'articulation des modes de production

The study of social classes in the nineteenth century requires the development of conceptual tools able to explain the impact of the Conquest on the pre-existant social structures in determining transformations of the class structure during the subsequent decades.This article examines the work done on this question by Marxist writers. The author criticizes certain conclusions which have been drawn and which suggest deficiencies at a theoretical level. The objections relate to the marked tendency of these conclusions to perceive the structural effects of the Conquest in terms of the formation of a double-class structure characterized by “ethnic origins.” Specifically, the author challenges the notion of the division itself, as well as the criterion on which the division is based.The author proposes that an analysis centred upon the concepts relating to a problem of the transition and linkage of different modes of production permits a more satisfying interpretation, if accompanied by a certain number of considerations of the “upside” and “downside” of the Conquest. To this end, the argument is based on a characterization of New France in terms of the domination of the relations of production of the feudal type and on an analysis of metropolitan centres with intent to evaluate their level of capitalist development at the moment of their respective colonial penetration in Canada. The results of this approach permit one to posit the existence of a single-class structure, characterized principally by the existence of elements connecting diverse modes and forms of production, whose origin reflects the unequal state of economic development in the two metropolitan centres.The empirical demonstration rests on the census data of 1851–1852 and on the complementary information drawn from the works of historians.

The Seals and Sealings from the Citadel House Area: A Study in Mycenaean Glyptic and Iconography

The excavations in the Citadel House area have produced an appreciable number of seals and sealings, of which the importance is increased by the late contexts (LH IIIB 1 or 2, LH IIIC), in which the majority of them were found.Of the eighteen objects discussed here, four are complete seals (nos. 1–3, 5), one is an unfinished seal (no. 4), five are broken beads probably used as seals (nos. 6–10), and eight are sealings (nos. 11–18), of very unequal state of preservation and importance. Four of the latter (nos. 11, 14, 15, 17), are of really fine workmanship and of considerable iconographical interest. Not only are their subjects clearly recognizable, but they are also worth a closer study and discussion, because of their unusual arrangement and the presence of some unexpected details.