1,721,059 research outputs found
Caves in need of context: prehistoric Sardinia
Get PDFThis chapter attempts to synthesize the available data relating to the human use of over 100 natural caves in Sardinia during prehistory, and to contextualize these caves and their occupations in relation to wider landscapes, lifeways and beliefs, over space and time. In the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, a few caves were used by mobile groups as base-camps and shelters within wide socio-economic territories. In the Early Neolithic, large inland caves continued to serve as residential bases for communities practicing a mixed economy, while other caves sheltered living – and now also deceased – members of mobile task groups. Between the Middle Neolithic and the Early Iron Age, the ritual use of the interiors of selected caves was elaborated, whereas large caves were increasingly abandoned as long-term dwelling places as the Sardinian landscape became more extensively settled, although a few caves continued to be used as convenient shelters
Caves in context: an introduction
Get PDFThe premise for this volume is that the archaeology of caves in Europe needs to be more consciously and comprehensively studied ‘in context’, for the benefit of both speleology and archaeology. This ‘necessity of adopting a contextual approach to the study of the human use of caves’ was first emphasized in the 1990s (Tolan-Smith and Bonsall 1997, 218; c.f. Skeates 1994), but still needs reiterating today. One problem is that cave studies are so well established as a specialized field of research that it is now possible to investigate caves in relative isolation, including as a sub-discipline of archaeology (e.g. Inskeep 1979; CAPRA 1999–2007; Gunn 2004). Another problem is that cave archaeology is now dominated by scientific data collection and analysis, to the detriment of interpretative approaches to their social and cultural significance. As a consequence, archaeological cave studies can be accused of a loss of meaning and relevance to the social sciences in general and to archaeology in particular, especially in contrast to their dynamic development in the mid-nineteenth century, when they were entangled in some key scholarly debates. In this volume, then, we hope to demonstrate, through a diversity of European archaeological approaches and examples, that cave studies, whist necessarily focussed, can also be of significance to wider, contemporary, archaeological research agendas, particularly when a contextual approach is adopted
Making sense of the history of archaeological representation
Get PDF‘Representation’ is one of the key cultural practices through which meanings are produced and exchanged (e.g. Hall 1997; Giles and Middleton 2008). Culturally-defined systems of representation incorporate a wide variety of signifying practices and media. The broadly shared meanings encoded in these expressive forms are made sense of and connected by the social practice of discourse. Through this, dominant conventions, meanings, ideologies, and power relations can be accepted, negotiated, or opposed. Who represents whom, what, where, and how determines the representations available for us. But precisely how we interpret them (especially in terms of what they mean to our personal identities, emotions, and attachments) depends upon the realities being represented and upon our own histories, our social positions, and the ways in which we understand the world
Caves and ecofacts in Middle Bronze age central italy: new interpretive perspectives on economy and rituals of apennine communities
No full textThis paper aims to demonstrate the interpretive importance of ecofacts on ritual sites. Man has always had manifold relationships with animals: humans can be hunters and/or breeders. Animals can also act as guards, be kept as pets, or on the contrary, be natural enemies and competitors. Finally, animals in all the previous categories can be seen as symbolic representations of values, people, events, places, status. As symbols and as important agents in human everyday life, animals often played an essential role in rituals (Russell 2012). It is thus imperative to also consider this role when examining faunal assemblages from cult sites
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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