Excavations and the afterlife of a professional football stadium, Peel Park, Accrington, Lancashire: towards an archaeology of football

Association football is now a multi-billion dollar global industry whose emergence spans the post-medieval to the modern world. With its professional roots in late 19th-century industrial Lancashire, stadiums built for the professionalization of football first appear in frequency in the North of England. While many historians of sport focus on consumerism and ‘topophilia’ (attachment to place) regarding these local football grounds, archaeological research that has been conducted on the spectator experience suggests status differentiation within them. Our excavations at Peel Park confirm this impression while also showing a significant afterlife to this stadium, particularly through children’s play

A Reimagining of the Chacoan World

A new paradigm of the Chacoan world is presented, wherein Chaco Canyon is considered to be a mostly unoccupied architectural complex that functioned primarily as a pilgrimage destination. Chaco was the political, religious, and social focal point of people living in outlying regions. The resident population of the Canyon consisted of a small number of caretakers, charged with maintaining great house structures, food supplies, and their ceremonial contents. Chacoan chiefdoms were mostly located in large, well-watered, agriculturally-based communities situated at the base of mountains that ring the San Juan Basin, e.g., the Chuskas. Chiefly elites lived year-round in those areas, but during pilgrimages they occupied Canyon great houses associated with their respective dynasties, whereas their subjects occupied small houses situated on the Canyon floor. Not having 2000 people in the Canyon renders large-scale irrigated agriculture and massive importation of food unnecessary and provides an adequate explanation for the small number of burials found in the Canyon. Se presenta un nuevo paradigma del mundo chacoano, en el que el Cañón del Chaco es considerado como un complejo arquitectónico mayoritariamente desocupado que funcionaba principalmente como destino de peregrinación. Chaco fue el centro político, religioso y social de las personas que viven en regiones al aire libre. La población residente del Cañón consistía en un pequeño número de cuidadores, encargados de mantener grandes estructuras de casas, suministros de alimentos y su contenido ceremonial. Las jefaturas chacoanas se encontraban principalmente en grandes comunidades agrícolas bien regadas situadas en la base de montañas que anillan la cuenca de San Juan, por ejemplo, los Chuskas. Principalmente las élites vivían durante todo el año en esas áreas, pero durante las peregrinaciones ocuparon grandes casas del Cañón asociadas con sus respectivas dinastías, mientras que sus súbditos ocupaban pequeñas casas situadas en el suelo del Cañón. No tener 2000 personas en el Cañón hace que la agricultura de regadío a gran escala y la importación masiva de alimentos sean innecesarias y proporciona una explicación adecuada para el pequeño número de entierros encontrados en el Cañón

Pan-Africanism: a contorted delirium or a pseudonationalist paradigm? Revivalist critique

This essaic-article goes against established conventions that there is anything ethno-cultural (and hence national) about the so-called African tribes. Drawing largely from the culture history of precolonial/prepolitical Africans—that is, the Bantu/Cushitic-Ethiopians (Azanians)—the author has demonstrated vividly that far from being distinct ethno-culture national communities, the so-called tribes of African states are better considered subculture groups, whose regional culture practices erstwhile paid tribute to their nation’s main culture center in Karnak. For example, using the culture symbols and practices of some local groups and linking them to the predynastic and dynastic Pharaonic periods, I argued that there is compelling evidence against qualifying Africa’s tribes as distinct ethno-culture national entities. In genuine culture context, I stressed that the Ritual of Resurrection and its twin culture process of the mummification of deceased indigenous Pharaohs tend to suggest that the object of the Bantu/Cushitic-Ethiopians national culture was life (in its eternal manifestation) and then resurrection later, and that there are recurring (culturally sanctioned) ethical examples among the culture custodians of these subculture groups that generally pay tribute to the overarching culture norm. Furthermore, the fact that the Ritual of Resurrection began in the Delta region and ended at the Sources of the Nile, where the spirit of the deceased indigenous Pharaohs was introduced into the spiritual world of their ancestors, contradicts conventional perceptions that ancient Egypt was a distinct national community isolated from precolonial/prepolitical Africa/Azania

Household Archaeology and Reconstructing Social Organization in Ancient Complex Societies: A Consideration of Models and Concepts Based on Study of the Prehispanic Maya

Studies of the settlement pattern in the Copan Valley, Honduras, indicate that a House society model provides the best way to understand the social organization of the Late Classic period Maya. The House society model, based on Levi-Strauss\u27s original work but since modified by anthropologists and archaeologists, does not replace household archaeology. Instead, the model allows archaeologists to discuss the continuation of social identity over time

Making homework count: Homework as a collective task for language minority families

In response to a writing prompt asking, “What can parents do to ensure academic success for their child?” a mother with three children under the age of six wrote: “In my opinion he needs motivation from his parents and interest in his homework. [He needs] to read a lot so he will have good confidence with his friends and about everything, about his teacher.” This response was typical of those given by participants in a family literacy program (FLP) sponsored by a small urban school district. This program was originally designed to help minority language and culture parents learn functional English in the broader sense, along with strategies to support their children’s academic development through parent education focused on school practices. Parents not raised in the United States know there is a mainstream expectation to have a role in motivating and supporting their children’s learning, but they often wonder what types of support are expected in an unfamiliar school system (Paratore, Melzi, & Krol-Sinclair, 1999; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988). Our research found that while parents in this family literacy program had an overwhelming commitment to maintaining family traditions, they also valued learning about mainstream schooling practices, or the mainstream academic discourse practices expected of students to succeed in schools for productivity in society (Gutierrez, 1995; Hicks, 1995). For the participating families, homework and other materials sent home with their children were important resources of school knowledge, as well as valuable sources of English print. Homework served as a mediator between English and Spanish language as the homework was discussed and interpreted in both languages. The daily ritual of unpacking the book bag was a collective practice that included the whole family—the school-age child, siblings, and parents. This ritual was shown to be an acknowledgement of the rich literacy resources a school offers. The contrast of what came to be seen as the collective benefits of homework and other literacy events surrounding school materials with the previously assumed more individualistic benefits of homework and school materials has implications for how teachers and schools view the practice

Encounters on the social web: Everyday life and emotions online

Encounters also happen online nowadays and, yes, they are still difficult to describe, even though it is sometimes easier to observe them-and obtain data about them- than in the past. The internet is crucially 'shaping the interactions people have with one another' (Johns 2010: 499). With the recent explosion and popularity of Web 2.0 services and the social web, such as Facebook (FB), Twitter, and various other types of social media, internet users now have at their disposal an unprecedented collection of tools to interact with others. These modes of online sociability allow users to pursue social encounters with variable levels of involvement, attention, and activity (Papacharissi and Mendelson 2010). For many of us it is now difficult to imagine our social relationships without access to the internet. The social web plays an important role in relationships among internet users (Boyd 2006), with the expression, management and experience of emotions being key to the maintenance of these relationships

The Faculty Notebook, September 1998

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost

Potency by Name? ‘Medicine Buddha Plant’ and Other Herbs in the Japanese \u3ci\u3eScroll of Equine Medicine\u3c/i\u3e (\u3ci\u3eBa’i sōshi emaki\u3c/i\u3e, 1267)

Buddhist ritual healing and medical therapies included care for domestic animals, such as the horse. In pre-modern Japan, equine medicine (ba’i 馬医) was not restricted to the treatment of military horses; it was also practiced in a religious context. The Scroll of Equine Medicine (Ba’i sōshi emaki 馬医草紙絵 巻, 1267) is an enigmatic picture scroll held by the Tokyo National Museum. It extends to more than six meters and contains images of ten divine figures related to the healing of horses, followed by seventeen pictures of plants, and a postscript emphasizing that the content of the scroll should be kept secret. Many of the plants listed in the scroll are either associated with the world of Buddhism, e.g. Yakushi-sō 薬 師草, ‘Medicine Buddha plant,’ or with horses, e.g. metsu-sō 馬頭草, ‘horsehead plant.’ Previous analyses of the scroll largely focused on the botanical identification of the sketches of the plants. This article reviews current interpretations of the scroll and explores the question of whether the plant names were thought to empower the plants to be used as potent materia medica for veterinary purposes. Based on earlier analyses, I suggest a new interpretation of the scroll from a study of religions perspective taking into consideration that some of the plant names in the scroll indicate both health-related and salvific potency. I also address the possible use of the scroll. The scarcity of textual information and the choice of textual detail and imagery in this ‘secret’ scroll suggests that it was used in the context of an oral transmission and empowerment ritual. The scroll itself seems to have been an object of ritual empowerment, rather than a compendium of materia medica for practical daily use when caring for horses