The problem of the social dimension of technology and transformation seen in the perspective of the habitus has been repeatedly undertaken in various works. However, the complexity of these phenomena causes subsequent attempts to be presented and explained again in new contexts, bringing interesting observations.

The edited volume aims to contribute to our better understanding of a system of embodied dispositions hidden under the term 'habitus'. This will be achieved by presenting the latest ...

This work synthesizes art-historical and anthropological methods in the analysis of a large corpus of indigenous figure pendants, commonly called “amulets,” from the Greater Antilles and Bahamas. Figure pendants, ubiquitous in Caribbean collections, are small carvings of spirit beings perforated for suspension against the body. The data are drawn from new photographs, measurements, and observations of 535 specimens compiled by the author during 2011-2018 in research visits to 34 museums a...

This book examines the mutual influence of architecture and human action during a key period of history: the Hellenistic age. During this era, the profound transformations in the Mediterranean's archaeological and historical record are detectable, pointing to a conscious intertwining of the physical (landscape, architecture, bodies) and social (practice) components of built space.

Compiling the outcomes of a conference held in Kiel in 2018, the volume assembles contributions focusing on Hellen...

Barkcloth or tapa, a cloth made from the inner bark of trees, was widely used in place of woven cloth in the Pacific islands until the 19th century. A ubiquitous material, it was integral to the lives of islanders and used for clothing, furnishings and ritual artefacts. Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth takes a new approach to the study of the history of this region through its barkcloth heritage, focusing on the plants themselves and surviving objects in historic collections. This ...

In the second millennium BC, mining for copper ore on the Great Orme, Wales, created one of Europe’s largest surviving prehistoric copper mines. The ore from the mine was smelted into metal that was cast and worked into the rich variety of copper and bronze objects synonymous with the Bronze Age in Britain and Europe.

This book presents an original synthesis and reinterpretation of the complex prehistoric archaeology of the Great Orme mine. It uses previously unpublished data in a novel and...

Reframing Luchino Visconti: Film and Art gives new and unique insights into the roots of the visual vocabulary of one of Italy's most reputed film authors. It meticulously researches Visconti's appropriation of European art in his set and costume design, from pictorial citations and the archaeology of the set to the use of portraits and pictorial references in costume design. Yet it also investigates Visconti's cinematography in combination with his mise-en-scène in terms of staging, framing...

The study of belief, faith and religious practices can provide a deep insight into historical societies, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish or pagan. They form a constant of human behaviour. Through religion, cult and rituals, multi-layered and complex cultural norms are expressed, demonstrating group affiliation. However, popular devotion and belief in a rural environment can include practices that are out with those of the official religion.Some of these practices discussed in this book can ...

This book is a presentation of the basic concept of social, environmental and cultural connectivity in past societies, as embodied in a diversity of disciplines in the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS. Thus, rather pragmatically driven ideas of socio-environmental connectivities are described, which form the basis of the Cluster of Excellence in its research.

A discussion of the fluidness of the term ‘connectivity’ and the applicability of the concept opens the arena for diverse interpretatio...

Der Band versammelt Beiträge aus verschiedenen wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen, die sich mentalen Konzepten, d.h. Vorstellungen oder Imaginationen der westeuropäischen mittelalterlichen Stadt widmen, die epochenübergreifend in unterschiedlichsten narrativen, diskursiven und visuellen Repräsentationen in Erscheinung treten. Stadt wird in den Beiträgen nicht nur als Teil der historischen Realität der Vormoderne betrachtet, sondern auch als fester Bestandteil des kulturellen Wissens und der...