275 research outputs found
Non-discursive knowledge and the construction of identity. Potters, potting and performance at the bronze age tell of Százhalombatta, Hungary
No full textThis article explores the relationship between the making of things and the making of people at the Bronze Age tell at Százhalombatta, Hungary. Focusing on potters and potting, we explore how the performance of non-discursive knowledge was critical to the construction of social categories. Potters literally came into being as potters through repeated bodily enactment of potting skills. Potters also gained their identity in the social sphere through the connection between their potting performance and their audience. We trace degrees of skill in the ceramic record to reveal the material articulation of non-discursive knowledge and consider the ramifications of the differential acquisition of non-discursive knowledge for the expression of different kinds of potter's identities. The creation of potters as a social category was essential to the ongoing creation of specific forms of material culture. We examine the implications of altered potters' performances and the role of non-discursive knowledge in the construction of social models of the Bronze Ag
Welcome to a non-Black-Scholes world
No full textJean-Phillipe Bouchaud and Marc Potters, citing option markets and risk awareness, challenge the view that the Black-Scholes model needs little improvement - in fact, it should be seen as a special case of a more general theory.
One-dimensional lattice of oscillators coupled through power-law interactions: Continuum limit and dynamics of spatial Fourier modes
No full textWe study synchronization in a system of phase-only oscillators residing on the sites of a one-dimensional periodic lattice. The oscillators interact with a strength that decays as a power law of the separation along the lattice length and is normalized by a size-dependent constant. The exponent ? of the power law is taken in the range 0??<1. The oscillator frequency distribution is symmetric about its mean (taken to be zero) and is nonincreasing on [0,?). In the continuum limit, the local density of oscillators evolves in time following the continuity equation that expresses the conservation of the number of oscillators of each frequency under the dynamics. This equation admits as a stationary solution the unsynchronized state uniform both in phase and over the space of the lattice. We perform a linear stability analysis of this state to show that when it is unstable, different spatial Fourier modes of fluctuations have different stability thresholds beyond which they grow exponentially in time with rates that depend on the Fourier modes. However, numerical simulations show that at long times all the nonzero Fourier modes decay in time, while only the zero Fourier mode (i.e., the “mean-field” mode) grows in time, thereby dominating the instability process and driving the system to a synchronized state. Our theoretical analysis is supported by extensive numerical simulations.Delft Center for Systems and ControlMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin
Maya potters' indigenous knowledge: cognition, engagement, and practice
No full textIncludes bibliographical references and index.Based on fieldwork and reflection over a period of fifty years, Arnold utilizes engagement theory to describe the indigenous knowledge of traditional Maya potters in Ticul, Yucatán, Mexico. Arnold examines craftspeople's knowledge and skills, their engagement with natural and social environments, the raw materials, and their process.--Provided by publisher.Introduction -- How was the data collected? -- The potters' engagement with the perceived landscape -- The potters' engagement with raw materials -- The potters' engagement with paste preparation -- The potters' engagement with vessel forming -- The potters' engagement with drying and firing -- Ticul Pottery as a "distilled landscape"/"taskscape" -- Conclusion
Optimal trading algorithms and selfsimilar processes: a p-variation approach
No full textAlmgren and Chriss ("Optimal execution of portfolio transactions", Journal of Risk, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2010, pp. 5-39) and Lehalle ("Rigorous strategic trading: balanced portfolio and mean reversion", Journal of Trading, Summer 2009, pp. 40-46.) developed optimal trading algorithms for assets and portfolios driven by a brownian motion. More recently, Gatheral and Schied ("Optimal trade execution under geometric brownian motion in the Almgren and Chriss framework", Working paper SSRN, August 2010) addressed the same problem for the geometric brownian motion. In this article we extend these ideas for assets and portfolios driven by a discrete version of a selfsimilar process of exponent H in (0,1), which can be either a fractional brownian motion of Hurst exponent H or a truncated Lévy distribution of index 1/H. The cost functional we use is not the classical expectation-variance one: instead of the variance, we use the p-variation, i.e. the Lp equivalent of the variance. We find explicitly the trading algorithm for any p>1 and compare the resulting trading curve (that we call p-curve) with the classical expectation-variance curve (the 2-curve). If p2 then the p-curve is above the 2-curve at the beginning of the execution and below at the end. Therefore, this pattern minimizes the market impact. We also show that the value of p in the p-variation is related to the exponent H of selfsimilarity via p=1/H. In consequence, one can find the right value of p to put into the trading algorithm by calibrating the exponent H via real time series. We believe this result is interesting applications for high-frecuency trading.
Migrant Potters in Vrginmost, Croatia
No full textThe author informs about potters from Pirot (eastern Serbia) who live and work in Vrginmost near Karlovac (Croatia) eight months in a year. They make special type of pottery, with names and designs characteristic of the Pirot area. For this reason, when sold on the Karlovac market, their pottery can be easily distinguished from local forms, made in the village of Rastoki near Karlovac. The author gives a brief account of the pottery—making technique of these migrant craftsmen and lists places where they sell their products
Potters at work in ancient Corinth : industry, religion, and the Penteskouphia pinakes /
No full text"An unparalleled assemblage of Archaic black-figure painted plaques was uncovered near Penteskouphia, a village west of ancient Corinth, over a century ago. The plaques-represented by over 1,200 fragments-and their depictions of gods, warriors, animals, and the potters themselves, provide a uniquely rich source of information about Greek art, technology, and society. In this volume, the findspot of the plaques is identified in a contribution by Ioulia Tzonou and James Herbst, and the assemblage as a whole is fully contextualized within the Archaic world. Then, by focusing specifically on the images of potters at work, the author illuminates the relationship between Corinthian and Athenian art, the technology used in ancient pottery production, and religious anxiety in the 6th century B.C. The first comprehensive register of all known Penteskouphia plaques complements the well-illustrated discussion"--Includes bibliographical references (pages 381-399) and indexes.Introduction -- Excavation site of the Penteskouphia pinakes / Ioulia Tzonou and James A. Herbst -- Manufacture, functions, iconography, epigraphy, and chronology -- Catalogue of scenes of potters at work -- Scenes of potters at work : iconographical and epigraphical analysis -- Technology, workforce, and organization of ceramic workshops -- Industrial religion and potters' anxiety -- Conclusions."An unparalleled assemblage of Archaic black-figure painted plaques was uncovered near Penteskouphia, a village west of ancient Corinth, over a century ago. The plaques-represented by over 1,200 fragments-and their depictions of gods, warriors, animals, and the potters themselves, provide a uniquely rich source of information about Greek art, technology, and society. In this volume, the findspot of the plaques is identified in a contribution by Ioulia Tzonou and James Herbst, and the assemblage as a whole is fully contextualized within the Archaic world. Then, by focusing specifically on the images of potters at work, the author illuminates the relationship between Corinthian and Athenian art, the technology used in ancient pottery production, and religious anxiety in the 6th century B.C. The first comprehensive register of all known Penteskouphia plaques complements the well-illustrated discussion"-
De-colonising the Aesthetic Sense:The story of craft revival in Aruvacode potters’ village
No full textExperiential knowledge is what indigenous knowledge is all about. Unfortunately again the Western intellectuals are reframing indigenous knowledge to suit their purposes. In the course of living with indigenous communities through a project to revive the craft in a potters' village, the author recognises that their knowledge is holistic and intuitive unlike the compartmentalized and fragmented and reason-dominated knowledge of modernity. A narrative of the experience.knolwedge systems, craft revival, indidgenous communities, potters' craft, Kerala, design development, craft culture, Humanities, Sociology, Anthropology
The Social Lives of Pots and Potters in the Kathmandu Valley
No full textThis paper investigates the changing status of ceramics in Thimi, Nepal. Pottery in the Kathmandu Valley is an ancient tradition, dating as far back as 400 AD. However, the rich craft is currently at a crossroads between extinction and innovation. The author’s project is to trace the lives of pots and the potters from the mid 20th century until present as they are imagined, remembered, and enacted by the human and clay inhabitants of Thimi. Rather than focusing on the aesthetic properties of pots, the author instead emphasizes the social relations that both surround and encounter them. This method aims to shed light on how and by whom clay is transformed into a functional and culturally meaningful object. In conclusion, the author addresses potential futures for the disappearing pots and potters of Thimi
On the Number of Metastable States in Spin Glasses
No full textIn this letter, we show that the formulae of Bray and Moore for the average logarithm of the number of metastable states in spin glasses can be obtained by calculating the partition function with m coupled replicas with the symmetry among these explicitly broken according to a generalization of the `two-group' ansatz. This equivalence allows us to find solutions of the bm equations where the lower `band-edge' free energy equals the standard static free energy. We present these results for the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model, but we expect them to apply to all mean-field spin glasses. cond-mat/9506049 [email protected] There has been recently a renewed interest in the study of metastable states in spin glasses. Current problems range form their potential relevance in spin glass dynamics to the formulation of renormalization group analysis in the presence of many minimas of the action. Nevertheless, it is interesting to use our present knowledge to shed some light old problems and..
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