The search for the common ground: Estyn Evans's Ireland
TL;DR: In this paper, the present and future definition of Irish identity in an era of social change, European integration and continuing political violence are examined within its own social and intellectual circumstances and examined as a resource for social understanding in contemporary Ireland.
Abstract: within its own social and intellectual circumstances and examined as a resource for social understanding in contemporary Ireland, the contested bases of which are concerned with the present and future definition of Irish identity in an era of social change, European integration and continuing political violence. The various motifs of Evans's work are identified and discussed within the context of their epistemological shortcomings. Evans's ideas on identity and the meaning of place are contrasted with those of the Ulster poet, John Hewitt. A reading is made which concludes that Evans's oeuvre offers one consistent if flawed attempt to represent a heterogenous Ireland which might encompass all the island's inhabitants.
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Dissertation•
16 Nov 2016
TL;DR: In this article, the role and contributions of women to mortuary ritual in Erris in the post-Famine era is examined, where women derived their authority and agency from their close association with the realms of the supernatural and the spirit world, central to which was the Female Divine.
Abstract: This thesis examines the role and contributions of women to mortuary ritual in Erris in the postFamine era. The written evidence for the project is based on the oral testaments of both women and men mainly but not exclusively in Irish and recorded by various collectors on behalf of the Irish Folklore Commission (1935-1970) (now the National Folklore Collection). A secondary aim of the project is to bring into the public domain this rich vein of material, much of it hitherto unpublished and written in the Irish language, the first language of many of the narrators. One of the central arguments of the thesis is that women derived their authority and agency from their close association with the realms of the supernatural and the spirit world, central to which was the Cailleach or Female Divine. Through illustrative narratives from the archives of the Irish Folklore Commission pertaining to Erris, the thesis examines the basis of this female power and the ways in which women could access it for benign and malign intent. Having established this premise, it continues to exand on aspects of women’s role and contribution to death and burial customs in Erris, where they were perceived as ritual specialists in washing, waking and lamenting the dead. Through an examination of narratives, it examines the sense of caritas and sacredness embodied in the rituals of washing and cleansing of the body in readiness for its journey into the spirit world. The project examines the protocols and etiquette surrounding wake attendance and hospitality, through which the community expressed its respect for the deceased while offering comfort and support to the bereaved. It also explores the variety of uses to which the caoineadh lament could be mobilised to provide not just a cathartic expression of loss, but to code gendered rhetorics of loss and anger, resistence and subversiveness within the mourning formalities. A further theme explores how the close associations between women and otherworld forces fulfilled tacit or unexpressed social and psychological roles within the community, providing individuals with valuable support and comfort in times of distress and misfortune. It also examines ways in which women strove to exercise autonomy in death even where they could not do so in life. Finally, it examines contestations between mná chaointepaid criers and members of an increasingly powerful clergy in a bid for control over the rites of passage from this world unto the next. The thesis concludes with an exploration of the various areas of contestation between the vernacular and the official for control over the communal and traditional customs of waking and burying the dead. These included the clergy’s requirements for monetary remuneration for spiritual services, an area that brought them into conflict with paid criers and with other members of the community. The project concludes that the increasing power of the Catholic Church, coupled with social and religious events throughout this period, marked the inevitable demise of the caoineadh, and with it women’s autonomy and agency within mortuary ritual in vernacular traditional culture in Erris.
91 citations
Dissertation•
05 May 2015
TL;DR: Time and the Neolithic in Ireland: key concepts are discussed in this article, with a focus on time in theory, temporality in practice, and the relationship between time and archaeology.
Abstract: ............................................................................................................... xv Notes for the reader .......................................................................................... xvi Chapter 1 Time and the Neolithic in Ireland ............................................... 1 1.1. Purpose, themes, aims and objectives ..................................................... 2 1.1.1 In what remains of Chapter 1... ........................................................ 6 1.2. Scope and constraints ................................................................................ 6 1.3. Approach and methodology .................................................................... 8 1.3.1 Literature review ............................................................................... 10 1.3.2 Critical analysis ................................................................................. 10 1.3.3 Synthesis and discussion ................................................................. 12 1.4 Temporality and the Neolithic in Ireland: key concepts .................... 14 1.5 What follows ............................................................................................. 24 Notes. .................................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 2 Time in theory, temporality in practice .................................... 27 2.1 Time and archaeology ............................................................................. 28 2.2 What is time? ............................................................................................. 30 2.2.1 Real time ............................................................................................. 31 2.2.2 Conceptions of time .......................................................................... 32 2.2.3 Archaeological time .......................................................................... 35
44 citations
Cites background from "The search for the common ground: E..."
...However, rather than the idealised cultural landscape depicted by Henry, Evans’ interpretation has been described as a patronising portrayal of a culture suspended in ‘an unflattering stasis’ (Whelan 1992, 411; see discussion in Graham 1994, 187)....
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...1981, viii; ch. 1; ch. 4; see discussion in Chapter 1), assuming social continuity where external influences were seen to have been minimal (cf. e.g. Graham 1994, 187; Whelan 1997; 2000)....
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...16 Evans was appointed to a lectureship in geography at Queen’s University, Belfast, in 1928, where he went on to become professor of geography, then first director of its Institute of Irish Studies; he was appointed President of the Institute of British Geographers in 1969 (Graham 1994, 185)....
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TL;DR: The contention that an unagreed representation of place is a signal characteristic of Ulster Protestants is examined in this article, where it is argued that this dilemma undermined the legitimacy of unionism as an expression of Protestant interests and the effective reproduction of a Northern Ireland state.
37 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this article, the cultural study of print in historical and geographical context is discussed. But the focus is not on the distribution of the print items, but on the authorship of the authors.
Abstract: iii might usefully engage with the cultural study of print in historical and geographical context.
30 citations
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Book•
01 Nov 1989TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a list of maps and tables for nomenclature in the context of the history of coal mining in the United Kingdom: 1. Rebellion: 1912-1922 2. Consolidation: 1922-1932 3. Experiment: 1932-1945 4. Malaise: 1945-1958 5. Expansion: 1958-1969 6. North: 1945 -1985 7. Drift: 1969-? 8.
Abstract: List of maps List of tables Preface Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Note on nomenclature 1. Rebellion: 1912-1922 2. Consolidation: 1922-1932 3. Experiment: 1932-1945 4. Malaise: 1945-1958 5. Expansion: 1958-1969 6. North: 1945-1985 7. Drift: 1969-? 8. Perspectives Select bibliography Index.
407 citations
379 citations
TL;DR: The superorganic mode of explanation in cultural geography as mentioned in this paper reifies the nation of culture assigning it ontological status and causative power, and culture is viewed as an entity above man, not reducible to the actions of individuals.
Abstract: The superorganic mode of explanation in cultural geography reifies the nation of culture assigning it ontological status and causative power. This theory of culture was outlined by anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and Robert Lowie during the first quarter of the twentieth century, later elaborated by Leslie White, and passed on to Carl Sauer and a number of his students at Berkeley. In this theory culture is viewed as an entity above man, not reducible to the actions of individuals, mysteriously responding to laws of its own. Explanation, it is claimed must be phrased in terms of the cultural level not in terms of individuals. After demonstrating that a number of influential cultural geographers support this theory the central assumptions of the theory are subjected to a critical analysis. These assumptions include the separation of the individual from culture, the reification of culture, the assumption of internal homogeneity within a culture, the characterization of culture as a configuration of ...
229 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that a range of discrete but related projects concerning the relationship between race and place were made to carry the weight of their advocates' moral evaluations of ethnic difference, including the study of ethnoclimatology, anthropometric cartography, and the role of migration in early human evolution and racial differentiation.
89 citations