The British Journal for the History of Science, 2021
, aims to deepen understandings of the mutual shaping of the Anthropocene and environmental human... more , aims to deepen understandings of the mutual shaping of the Anthropocene and environmental humanities. The latter, the author claims, has devoted less attention than economics, politics and historical studies to the apprehended environmental issues and climate change. The intended readership for this work needs to be stated straight up. Although written for 'an educated public' of reading clubs, 'undergraduate courses and graduate seminars' (p. xi), The Anthropocene & the Humanities read, to me, like a high-school-and early undergraduate-level take on human-made climate change, industrial capitalist economies and their depictions in art and literature. The work's geographical bias, by no means an inherent fault, should have been flagged up; the perspective it is written from, and the putative readership it is intended for, are North American. This is because the aforementioned undergraduates are the sorts of students who, in the US, study in liberal-arts colleges or take comparative-literature courses whilst intending to pursue science majors. Such constituencies have shaped the choices Merchant has made. The intention of this book is to demonstrate how 'the concept of the Anthropocene goes beyond earlier concepts and periodizations such as preindustrial, colonial, industrial, modern and postmodern by presenting a clear and forceful characterization of the future crisis humankind faces' (p. xi) and to illustrate its impact upon literature, art and philosophy, and to a lesser extent the law. The six short chapters are scaled for the designated readership. The narrative is paced to allow for non-expert readers to absorb this important argument. The temporal scope of the book ranges from circa the sixth century BC to the present. Its spatial scope is predominantly northern-hemisphere and anglophone. Chapter 1 surveys the definition of the Anthropocene formulated by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer and the key figures and researchers who have advanced various conceptual terms inspired by the former. The book includes black-and-white images of the theorists whose ideas are discussed, from
Revue d'archéométrie 38 | 2014 Varia « Qu'importe le flacon pourvu qu'il y ait l'ivraie » : les c... more Revue d'archéométrie 38 | 2014 Varia « Qu'importe le flacon pourvu qu'il y ait l'ivraie » : les constituants d'origine organique de la céramique de Koumbi Saleh (Mauritanie, VIe-XVIIe siècles AD), témoins de l'exploitation de sous-produits agricoles « Never mind the bottle » : Organic-derived structures in ceramic pastes from Koumbi Saleh (Mauritania, 6e-17e century AD) signaling agricultural byproduct exploitation
Organic-derived materials used during clay preparation prior to pottery shaping are frequently co... more Organic-derived materials used during clay preparation prior to pottery shaping are frequently collected by potters in areas related to their day-today activities, such as farming lands, herding areas or places devoted to food processing. Features of organic origin in ceramic pastes may thus provide significant social, cultural and economic information regarding organic resource exploitation in past production systems. We herein present the results of a microanalysis specifically designed to characterise both porosity and bioclasts in ceramic pastes. Our study focuses on the ceramic assemblage of Koumbi Saleh (Mauritania, 5th-17th centuries AD). Organic-derived features observed in this ceramic material have been characterised through optical microscopy performed on thin sections, coupled with bioclast extraction and characterisation. On the basis of comparisons with experimental reference data, various organic components have been identified. These results shed light on a large variety of tempering materials and outline possible links between pottery manufacture and other production systems.
Résumé: Les matières organiques manipulées au cours de la fabrication des mélanges argileux desti... more Résumé: Les matières organiques manipulées au cours de la fabrication des mélanges argileux destinés à la fabrication de la poterie sont fréquemment prélevées dans des milieux associés aux activités quotidiennes des artisans, relatives aux pratiques agricoles ou alimentaires. A ce titre, les structures d’origine organique, végétales ou animales, observables dans les produits céramiques cuits constituent une source d’informations paléoéconomiques de premier ordre, en particulier lorsque les données archéobotaniques ou archéozoologiques font défaut, comme c’est le cas pour le site de Koumbi Saleh. Koumbi Saleh (Mauritanie 5e-17e siècles AD) est l’un des plus anciens et plus importants complexes urbains historiques mis au jour en Afrique de l’Ouest. Les fouilles réalisées sur ce site ont livré un matériel céramique caractérisé par une abondante porosité d’origine organique. Afin de préciser l’origine de ces structures, une approche microanalytique couplant microscopie stéréoscopique et...
Throughout his career the geographer, and first reader in the 'new' geography at the University o... more Throughout his career the geographer, and first reader in the 'new' geography at the University of Oxford, Halford Mackinder (1861-1947) described his discipline as a branch of physics. This essay explores this feature of Mackinder's thought and presents the connections between him and the Royal Institution professor of natural philosophy John Tyndall (1820-1893). My reframing of Mackinder's geography demonstrates that the academic profes-sionalization of geography owed as much to the methods and instruments of popular natural philosophy and physics as it did to theories of Darwinian natural selection. In tracing the parallels between Tyndall and Mackinder, and their shared emphasis upon the technology of the magic lantern and the imagination as tools of scientific investigation and education, the article elucidates their common pedagogical practices. Mackinder's disciplinary vision was expressed in practices of visualization, and in metaphors inspired by physics, to audiences of geographers and geography teachers in the early twentieth century. Together, these features of Mackinder's geography demonstrate his role as a popularizer of science and extend the temporal and spatial resonance of Tyndall's natural philosophy.
The British Journal for the History of Science, 2021
, aims to deepen understandings of the mutual shaping of the Anthropocene and environmental human... more , aims to deepen understandings of the mutual shaping of the Anthropocene and environmental humanities. The latter, the author claims, has devoted less attention than economics, politics and historical studies to the apprehended environmental issues and climate change. The intended readership for this work needs to be stated straight up. Although written for 'an educated public' of reading clubs, 'undergraduate courses and graduate seminars' (p. xi), The Anthropocene & the Humanities read, to me, like a high-school-and early undergraduate-level take on human-made climate change, industrial capitalist economies and their depictions in art and literature. The work's geographical bias, by no means an inherent fault, should have been flagged up; the perspective it is written from, and the putative readership it is intended for, are North American. This is because the aforementioned undergraduates are the sorts of students who, in the US, study in liberal-arts colleges or take comparative-literature courses whilst intending to pursue science majors. Such constituencies have shaped the choices Merchant has made. The intention of this book is to demonstrate how 'the concept of the Anthropocene goes beyond earlier concepts and periodizations such as preindustrial, colonial, industrial, modern and postmodern by presenting a clear and forceful characterization of the future crisis humankind faces' (p. xi) and to illustrate its impact upon literature, art and philosophy, and to a lesser extent the law. The six short chapters are scaled for the designated readership. The narrative is paced to allow for non-expert readers to absorb this important argument. The temporal scope of the book ranges from circa the sixth century BC to the present. Its spatial scope is predominantly northern-hemisphere and anglophone. Chapter 1 surveys the definition of the Anthropocene formulated by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer and the key figures and researchers who have advanced various conceptual terms inspired by the former. The book includes black-and-white images of the theorists whose ideas are discussed, from
Revue d'archéométrie 38 | 2014 Varia « Qu'importe le flacon pourvu qu'il y ait l'ivraie » : les c... more Revue d'archéométrie 38 | 2014 Varia « Qu'importe le flacon pourvu qu'il y ait l'ivraie » : les constituants d'origine organique de la céramique de Koumbi Saleh (Mauritanie, VIe-XVIIe siècles AD), témoins de l'exploitation de sous-produits agricoles « Never mind the bottle » : Organic-derived structures in ceramic pastes from Koumbi Saleh (Mauritania, 6e-17e century AD) signaling agricultural byproduct exploitation
Organic-derived materials used during clay preparation prior to pottery shaping are frequently co... more Organic-derived materials used during clay preparation prior to pottery shaping are frequently collected by potters in areas related to their day-today activities, such as farming lands, herding areas or places devoted to food processing. Features of organic origin in ceramic pastes may thus provide significant social, cultural and economic information regarding organic resource exploitation in past production systems. We herein present the results of a microanalysis specifically designed to characterise both porosity and bioclasts in ceramic pastes. Our study focuses on the ceramic assemblage of Koumbi Saleh (Mauritania, 5th-17th centuries AD). Organic-derived features observed in this ceramic material have been characterised through optical microscopy performed on thin sections, coupled with bioclast extraction and characterisation. On the basis of comparisons with experimental reference data, various organic components have been identified. These results shed light on a large variety of tempering materials and outline possible links between pottery manufacture and other production systems.
Résumé: Les matières organiques manipulées au cours de la fabrication des mélanges argileux desti... more Résumé: Les matières organiques manipulées au cours de la fabrication des mélanges argileux destinés à la fabrication de la poterie sont fréquemment prélevées dans des milieux associés aux activités quotidiennes des artisans, relatives aux pratiques agricoles ou alimentaires. A ce titre, les structures d’origine organique, végétales ou animales, observables dans les produits céramiques cuits constituent une source d’informations paléoéconomiques de premier ordre, en particulier lorsque les données archéobotaniques ou archéozoologiques font défaut, comme c’est le cas pour le site de Koumbi Saleh. Koumbi Saleh (Mauritanie 5e-17e siècles AD) est l’un des plus anciens et plus importants complexes urbains historiques mis au jour en Afrique de l’Ouest. Les fouilles réalisées sur ce site ont livré un matériel céramique caractérisé par une abondante porosité d’origine organique. Afin de préciser l’origine de ces structures, une approche microanalytique couplant microscopie stéréoscopique et...
Throughout his career the geographer, and first reader in the 'new' geography at the University o... more Throughout his career the geographer, and first reader in the 'new' geography at the University of Oxford, Halford Mackinder (1861-1947) described his discipline as a branch of physics. This essay explores this feature of Mackinder's thought and presents the connections between him and the Royal Institution professor of natural philosophy John Tyndall (1820-1893). My reframing of Mackinder's geography demonstrates that the academic profes-sionalization of geography owed as much to the methods and instruments of popular natural philosophy and physics as it did to theories of Darwinian natural selection. In tracing the parallels between Tyndall and Mackinder, and their shared emphasis upon the technology of the magic lantern and the imagination as tools of scientific investigation and education, the article elucidates their common pedagogical practices. Mackinder's disciplinary vision was expressed in practices of visualization, and in metaphors inspired by physics, to audiences of geographers and geography teachers in the early twentieth century. Together, these features of Mackinder's geography demonstrate his role as a popularizer of science and extend the temporal and spatial resonance of Tyndall's natural philosophy.
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