Greine Jordan

Carrying capacity, population pressure, and agricultural productivity are of central importance to understanding key innovations in human social and cultural evolution. In this paper we outline how crop yield models can be combined with the historical and archaeological information about past societies compiled by Seshat: Global History Database to infer how agricultural productivity and potential have changed over time in different parts of the world. To aid comparative research we focus on developing a method for calculating the carrying capacity of a particular region based on a number of simplifying assumptions. Here we present two case studies demonstrating the calculation of ancient crop yields and carrying capacity for the regions of Latium (Italy) and Oaxaca (Mexico); regions selected to illustrate a number of different features of past agricultural systems, as well as different staple crops. We outline the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and discuss ways in which ...

This dissertation seeks to establish whether the neuroscientific principle of neuroplasticity aids in the understanding of Tukano hallucinatory art. The underlying proposition is that hallucinatory art allows more direct access to the workings of the brain than other art and therefore a neuroscientific principle could potentially aid our understanding in this area where art and biology overlap. In examining the link between hallucinations, hallucinatory art and neuroplasticity, the reciprocal affects of cultural and neurology is a central concern. A multi-disciplinary approach is adopted incorporating aspects of art history, neuroscience and anthropology. The dissertation starts by providing a detailed case study of the explicitly hallucinatory art of the Amazonian Tukano, which draws on the work of Reichel-Dolmatoff, and explores the links between cultural context, ayahuasca-induced hallucinations and art. The theoretical framework is then established, and the recent application of neuroscience to art, specifically the principle of neuroplasticity and its possible affects on drug-induced hallucinations is examined. The dissertation culminates in the application of neuroplasticity to the Tukano designs, before reaching tentative conclusions on the relationship between this neuroscientific principle and the Tukano imagery derived from ayahuasca induced hallucinations, between art and the brain.

I have chosen to examine how power relationships are conveyed through art, specifically Classic Maya sculpture. While several different power relationships were conveyed through Maya sculpture, I shall examine the relationships of Maya kings both to their ancestors and the gods as these relationships were of central importance in Maya society.

The core theme of this essay is how far it is possible to actively construct identity through the appropriation of the ‘other’ when the ‘other’ is in dominant power relation vis-à-vis the appropriator. How far is this appropriation an act of self-subordination in which the subordinate group is internalizing the ideology of the dominant group, and how far could it be considered an act of self-determination, active identity building or even a subversive act? I am examining the appropriation of Christian iconography in Oceania by indigenous people. A topic too expansive even to summarize, I shall, therefore, use two case studies to tease out some of the most pertinent issues. This allows a more focused examination not afforded by the use of more numerous examples. The first case study examines a wooden statue of The Madonna and Child c. 1840 carved by a Maori Catholic convert and the second examines a photograph entitled ‘The Last Cannibal Supper’ 2010, by the Samoan, New Zealand born, artist Greg Semu.

Ghanaian hand-painted movie posters were a commercial art form that flourished between the mid-1980s and late 1990s designed to advertise films for mobile ‘video clubs’ that developed in the coastal region near Accra. These ‘video clubs’ showed films from around the world. Nominally, most of these hand-painted posters are based upon the existing advertising imagery associated with the films, however, in nearly all posters, there are elements of inaccuracy and embellishment, ranging from a lack resemblance to the actors and minor spelling mistakes to the addition of explosions, monsters and depictions of cannibalism, that were not only absent from the ‘official’ images but were also absent from the advertised films. I examine this interplay between the appropriated imagery of Hollywood films, displayed in ‘official’ images, the films themselves, and the elements introduced by the poster artists to appeal to a Ghanaian audience. I argue that the types of films chosen for screening, and the subsequent posters commissioned to advertise them were informed by and reflective of the socio-cultural preoccupations of a cross-section of the Ghanaian urban lower and middle class. Principal amongst these preoccupations is the struggle of maintaining a moral and ‘modern’ Christian life, while faced with the temptations and interference of immorality and demonic forces. I argue that the underlying unity of the subject matter of the films is the struggle between Good and Evil. As good will always be triumphant this creates a element of safety absent from the real world and allows a lingering, voyeuristic fascination with the forbidden world of horror, violence, cannibalism, blood and sex, which is epitomised by the choice of films and emphasised in the posters.

This dissertation explores the socio-cultural-historical and artistic influences leading to the incorporation of pre-Columbian imagery in contemporary Mexican Street Art and the function it serves in that context. I propose that Street Artists employ pre-Columbian imagery in order to reconnect with the past as part of a continuing strategy of Mexican identity formation, reaffirmation and expression.
This need for an identity, rooted in and legitimized by the pre-Columbian past and its imagery, directly relates to the formation of a mestizo national identity in Mexico. These processes remain relevant in Mexico due to the continuing threats to this identity, arising from the fallout of conquest and colonialism, the current hegemonic influence of the United States and multi-national corporations and internal political and social unrest.
This dissertation is the first to directly address the presence of pre-Columbian imagery in Mexican Street Art. Despite the increasing prevalence of Street Art, its public visibility and political nature, it has been neglected as an academic concern. Similarly the contemporary incorporation of pre-Columbian imagery has not been systematically addressed. Due to the public nature of Street Art, the prevalence of pre-Columbian imagery and the politically charged discourse of identity surrounding their convergence in Mexico, I believe that this topic is worthy of attention that it has not yet received.
An interdisciplinary approach is adopted incorporating historical, art historical, and anthropological analyses. Primary and secondary sources are used, interviews with Street Artists were conducted and the images themselves are examined.
The introduction, familiarizing one with the basic concepts, moves onto the first chapter which explores the influences on this imagery. The second chapter analyses the imagery itself, while the third examines identity formation and nationalism, concluding by presenting an argument for the continuing relevance of pre-Columbian imagery in Mexico.