History

Discovering Plum, Watermelon and Grape Cultivars Founded in a Middle Age Site of Sassari (Sardinia, Italy) through a Computer Image Analysis Approach

The discovery of several waterlogged plant remains in a Middle Ages context (1330-1360 AD) in Sassari (NS, Sardinia, Italy) enabled the characterisation of archaeological plum fruit stones and watermelon and grape seeds through computer image analysis. Digital seed/endocarp images were acquired by a...
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The discovery of several waterlogged plant remains in a Middle Ages context (1330-1360 AD) in Sassari (NS, Sardinia, Italy) enabled the characterisation of archaeological plum fruit stones and watermelon and grape seeds through computer image analysis. Digital seed/endocarp images were acquired by a flatbed scanner and processed and analysed by applying computerised image analysis techniques. The morphometric data were statistically elaborated using stepwise linear discriminant analysis (LDA), allowing comparisons among archaeological remains, wild populations and autochthonous cultivars. Archaeological samples of plum were compared with 21 autochthonous cultivars of Prunus domestica from Sardinia, while archaeological watermelon seeds were compared with 36 seed lots of Citrullus from Europe, Africa and Asia. Moreover, archaeological grape seeds were compared with 51 autochthonous traditional cultivars of Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera from Sardinia, 16 cultivars from Tuscany, six cultivars from Liguria, and eight cultivars from Catalonia (Spain). Archaeological plum remains showed morphological affinity with five cultivars of Sardinia. Seed features of the archaeological watermelon remains demonstrated affiliation with a proper sweet dessert watermelon, Citrullus lanatus, and similarity with some Sardinian cultivars. Regarding the archaeological remains of grape, morphometric comparisons showed a high similarity with autochthonous cultivars from Catalonia and Liguria. This study provides new information about ancient fruit cultivated and consumed during the Middle Ages in Sardinia.
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Cultural Institutions as Formative Elements in the Work of Behrens, Utzon and Kahn

This paper is concerned with the role of human institutions as generators of architectural form, with reference to the writings and works of Peter Behrens, Jorn Utzon, and Louis Kahn. In contrast with the narrow functionalist approach promoted by some of their contemporaries, these architects regard...
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This paper is concerned with the role of human institutions as generators of architectural form, with reference to the writings and works of Peter Behrens, Jorn Utzon, and Louis Kahn. In contrast with the narrow functionalist approach promoted by some of their contemporaries, these architects regarded human institutions as living entities that ought to have a determinative influence on the design of the buildings constructed to house them. The paper considers these architects’ assumptions regarding the concept of ‘institution’ within a broad social and political context and offers some suggestions for a more systematic investigation in that respect.The paper begins with a brief outline of functionalist theory, then turns to the theatre as a primary cultural activity and the prominent place it held in Behrens’s thinking during the opening years of the 20th century. Affinities are explored between Behrens’s concept of the theatre and Utzon’s subsequent treatment of the theatre as a central civic institution in his design for the Sydney Opera House. A parallel is seen in Louis Kahn’s insistence that an architectural project should begin with a vision of the human institution which the project is to serve, a perception of their role that was present in utopian and radical schemes from the 19th century onwards. The concluding sections of the paper raise some questions about the doctrines of Behrens, Utzon, and (especially) Kahn, by considering how institutions are adapted to their socio-political settings and how they affect architectural outcomes in practice.
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PROFILE ECOCRITICISM AND ANCIENT ENVIRONMENTS

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Sedge Foodplants Growing in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, and Cyperus Esculentus Tubers (Patrysuintjies) as a C4 Superfood

Since it was established that the early hominins of the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa ate 13C-enriched foods that may have included sedges with C4 photosynthetic pathways, much work has focused on the reconstruction of hominin dietary ecologies in both southern and eastern Africa. Through the ...
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Since it was established that the early hominins of the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa ate 13C-enriched foods that may have included sedges with C4 photosynthetic pathways, much work has focused on the reconstruction of hominin dietary ecologies in both southern and eastern Africa. Through the years emphasis was placed on Cyperus papyrus as a possible source, even inspiring an ‘aquatic diet’ hypothesis for all hominins. Baboon feeding habits and sedge regimes observed in South Africa’s ‘Lowveld’ have provided a proxy for the dietary ecology of the southern ‘Highveld’ hominins, and from the Cradle of Humankind sedges, amongst other plants, have been collected for nutritional studies. To date, however, there has been no attempt to compile an inventory of the sedge species currently growing in the demarcated area of the Cradle of Humankind. Here I list 29 Cyperaceae taxa currently recorded as growing in the Cradle of Humankind. I show that, contrary to previous inference, most of them have C4 photosynthetic pathways and do not need aquatic ecologies or permanent wetland settings. I discuss and provide photographic records for the six species identified as current baboon and human foodplants, and highlight Cyperus esculentus as a possible nutritious and prolific C4-sedge-USO food source for southern African hominins based on its energy, protein and fat/lipid profile.
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Emigration State: Race, Citizenship and Settler Imperialism in Modern British History, c. 1850–1972

What role did migration play in the making of modern Britain? We now have a good sense of how ethnicity, class, religion and gender structured immigrants' experience and what impact they had on Britain's culture, society and economy. But as Nancy Green pointed out almost two decades ago, scholars of...
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What role did migration play in the making of modern Britain? We now have a good sense of how ethnicity, class, religion and gender structured immigrants' experience and what impact they had on Britain's culture, society and economy. But as Nancy Green pointed out almost two decades ago, scholars of migration must focus on exit as well as entry. Such a call to study ‘the politics of exit’ is especially apposite in the case of the UK. For in every decade between 1850 and 1980 (with the exception of the 1930s), the UK experienced net emigration year on year. This article analyses this outflow of migrants to reveal a new vision of the UK as an ‘emigration state’. The article employs this concept to make a new argument about the formation of migration policy in the UK and offers a revised account of the geographical boundaries of the modern British state.
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Moving ‘out’ to be ‘in’: the suburbanization of London Jewry, 1900–1939

Abstract Between 1900 and 1939, Jewish Londoners departed the East End for the suburbs. Relocation, however, was not always the result of individual agency. Many Jews became the object of institutional strategies to coerce and persuade them to disperse away from inner-city areas. Simultaneous to thi...
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Abstract Between 1900 and 1939, Jewish Londoners departed the East End for the suburbs. Relocation, however, was not always the result of individual agency. Many Jews became the object of institutional strategies to coerce and persuade them to disperse away from inner-city areas. Simultaneous to this was the emergence of a dominant pro-suburban rhetoric within and beyond Jewish cultural circles, which aimed to raise aspirations towards middle-class lifestyles. This striking suburban ‘urge’ amongst London Jewry, managed by the community's elite institutions and leaders, was far more than a phenomenon running parallel to wider British society. As this article argues, it was a decisive response to an insidious culture of intolerance and antisemitism.
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On history, business, and management: a review of the literature and research agenda

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to conduct a systematic review of the literature on business history and management history in specialized journals in the area. Design/methodology/approach – We conducted a systematic review of the literature in the journals: Business History, Business...
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Purpose – The purpose of this article is to conduct a systematic review of the literature on business history and management history in specialized journals in the area. Design/methodology/approach – We conducted a systematic review of the literature in the journals: Business History, Business History Review, Journal of Management History, and Management & Organizational History, between 2011 and 2020. In all, we analyzed 231 articles using the open, axial coding technique, and selective. Findings – We answered two central analytical questions about the researchers' theoretical-methodological choices and summarized the results in six research lines. Historiographic approaches are presented from the epistemologies, theories, methods, contributions, limitations, and research problems chosen by the researchers in their articles. Originality/value (mandatory) – The article is contributory when it assumes the central premise that the understanding of the researchers' theoretical-methodological decisions results in the historiographic approaches adopted in business and management research. Also, we offer a research agenda concerned with problems about (1) marginal empirical contexts, (2) the comparative approach to history; and (3) the perception of the past as a historical narrative.
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The shipping container

When the Ever Given became stuck in the Suez Canal, the megaship was carrying 18,300 rectangular, steel boxes on her back. In the weeks and months after the incident, the concealed contents of the shipping containers – stuck in legal limbo – captured global attention. Technologically developed i...
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When the Ever Given became stuck in the Suez Canal, the megaship was carrying 18,300 rectangular, steel boxes on her back. In the weeks and months after the incident, the concealed contents of the shipping containers – stuck in legal limbo – captured global attention. Technologically developed in the years after the Second World War, the standardized shipping container has featured as one of the protagonists of the transformations in international trade. But the container’s logic of concealment and transaction has made ‘the box’ a common figure also in popular culture and social theory. This essay interrogates the shipping container’s multiple repertoires by focussing on containers at work. By tracing how the shipping container moves through the port infrastructure this essay takes us from the Suez Canal towards another central maritime passageway: the Strait of Gibraltar. This essay reflects on the different scales at which the shipping container functions in the port: from heavy materiality to abstracted codes and units of measurement.
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Making kangaroos grievable; making grievability non-human

When Australian economist Ross Garnaut proposed to increase the commercial kangaroo industry in 2008, it started a national debate on the supposed edibility of kangaroos. Campaigns against the commercial kangaroo industry and hesitance amongst many consumers to eat kangaroo reflect concerns about vi...
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When Australian economist Ross Garnaut proposed to increase the commercial kangaroo industry in 2008, it started a national debate on the supposed edibility of kangaroos. Campaigns against the commercial kangaroo industry and hesitance amongst many consumers to eat kangaroo reflect concerns about viewing kangaroos as food. This article explores the reactions and challenges that originate from the kangaroo’s changing role in society by using Judith Butler’s concept of grievable lives. Using this framework shows that what animals we eat goes beyond nutritional value; it symbolizes deeper values regarding human–animal relations and illustrates why and how not all animals are seen and treated as the same.
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Introduction: The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 in the Context of Menstrual Politics and History

In January 2021, Scotland became the first country in the world to make universal access to free period products a legal right, an initiative which attracted extraordinary international attention. This introduction outlines what is indeed new and ground-breaking about this law from the perspective o...
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In January 2021, Scotland became the first country in the world to make universal access to free period products a legal right, an initiative which attracted extraordinary international attention. This introduction outlines what is indeed new and ground-breaking about this law from the perspective of the history of menstruation, and what merely continues traditional and widespread conceptions, policies and practices surrounding menstruation. On the basis of an analysis of the parliamentary debates of the Act, we show that it gained broad political support by satisfying a combination of ten different political agendas: promoting gender equality for women while acknowledging broader gender diversity, practically alleviating one high-profile aspect of poverty at a relatively low overall cost to the state, tackling menstrual stigma, improving access to education, working with grassroots campaigners, improving public health, and accommodating sustainability concerns, as well as the desire to pass world-leading legislation in itself. In each case, we show to what extent the particular political aim is typical of, or departs from, recent wider trajectories in the history and politics of menstruation, and, where pertinent, trajectories in Scottish political history. The ten agendas in their international context provide a kaleidoscopic insight into the current state of menstrual politics and history in Scotland and beyond. This introduction also situates this Special Collection as a whole in relation to the field of Critical Menstruation Studies and provides background information about the legislative process and key terminology in Scottish politics and in the history of menstruation.
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