Light and darkness in an Edwardian insitution for the insane poor - illuminating the material practices of the Asylum Age

Natural light and its provision within asylum and other buildings is a neglected aspect of the historical archaeology of institutions. An Edwardian asylum in the north of Ireland is analysed for the management of natural light through the siting of buildings, window design and placement of interior glazing. A close reading of selected contemporary literature relating to natural light is employed to assess the significance of light provision within institutions of this period and contemporary discourses are in turn illuminated by the material practices recorded in the case study.

Liberty and individuality: the colony asylum in Scotland and England

This paper analyses the buildings, spaces and interiors of Bangour Village public asylum for the insane, near Edinburgh, and compares these with an English asylum, Whalley, near Preston, of similar early-twentieth-century date. The village asylum, which developed from a European tradition of rendering the poor productive through ‘colonisation’, was more enthusiastically and completely adopted in Scotland than in England, perhaps due to differences in asylum culture within the two jurisdictions. ‘Liberty’ and ‘individuality’, in particular, were highly valued within Scottish asylum discourses, arguably shaping material provision for the insane poor from the scale of the buildings to the quality of the furnishings. The English example shows, by contrast, a greater concern with security and hygiene. These two differing interpretations show a degree of flexibility within the internationalized asylum model which is seldom recognized in the literature.

'An aid to mental health': natural history, alienists and therapeutics in Victorian Scotland

In the nineteenth century natural history was widely regarded as a rational and ‘distracting’ pursuit that countered the ill-effects, physical and mental, of urban life. This familiar argument was not only made by members of naturalists’ societies but was also borrowed and adapted by alienists concerned with the moral treatment of the insane. This paper examines the work of five long-serving superintendents in Victorian Scotland and uncovers the connections made between an interest in natural history and the management of mental disease. In addition to recovering a significant influence on the conduct of several alienists the paper explores arguments made outside the asylum walls in favour of natural history as an aid to mental health. Investigating the promotion of natural history as a therapeutic recreation in Scotland and elsewhere reveals more fully the moral and cultural significance attached to natural history pursuits in the nineteenth century.

An Unkind Cut: Circumcision, Death and the Impact of Irish Health Policy on Asylum Seekers

Healthcare and the wider social determinants of health are the keystone of a number of complex progressive social justice issues that evoke complex emotions. As the demography of Ireland rapidly changes, the practices and expectations of some asylum seekers presents new opportunities for the providers of health service provision and reform. This paper looks at some of the emotions evoked in health care issues and draws on observations and interviews from empirical fieldwork carried out for the Health Research Board. The research was conducted both in the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, incorporating the National Children’s Hospital, Tallaght and in a number of refugee reception centres in Ireland. At one level honouring faith choices within a healthcare setting is a societal acknowledgement made to people at their most vulnerable, that the potent and cathartic transformative rituals they value are significant in mediating and managing their emotions - at another level, it is a practical and a symbolic communication of a statutory commitment to inter-culturalism and community cohesion..

Survival of laboratory-reared juvenile European lobster (Homarus gammarus) from three brood sources in southwestern Norway

Experiments were carried out from June 2000 to April 2001 to compare survival of European lobster (Homarus gammarus) offspring (larvae and juveniles) from three brood sources, Kvitsøy Wild (KW), Kvitsøy Cultured (KC), and Rogaland Wild (RW), Norway. In the first set of experiments, newly hatched larvae (stage I) were raised in separate family tanks. All larvae groups survived to stage III/IV, although large variation in relative survival was observed among families within each of the three different female groups. Highest overall survival was observed for the RW group (12.8%), whereas no differences in overall survival were found between the KW (9.0%) and KC groups (9.6%). From stage III/IV, larvae from single family tank experiments were mixed in five “common garden” juvenile experiments. These lasted for 9 months, and the surviving juveniles were identified to family/female group using microsatellite DNA profiling. Significantly higher survival of the KW families (7.0%) was found compared with the KC (3.7%) and the RW families (3.2%), and differences in family ranking of relative survival values were evident between the KW and KC groups. The relative survival rate of the different groups was independent of female lobster size. An estimate based on only stage IV larvae reduced the difference in survival between the KW (11.4%) and KC (8.3%) group. The experiments provided evidence that cultured females (KC) are producing viable offspring with lower, but comparable survival to that of offspring from wild females (KW).

A record of rapid Holocene climate change preserved in hyrax middens from southwestern Africa

The discovery of sensitive paleoenvironmental proxies contained within fossilized rock hyrax middens from the margin of the central Namib Desert, Africa, is providing unprecedented insight into the region's environmental history. High-resolution stable carbon and nitrogen isotope records spanning 0-11,700 cal (calibrated) yr B. P. indicate phases of relatively humid conditions from 8700-7500, 6900-6700, 5600-4900, and 4200-3500 cal yr B. P., with a period of marked aridity occurring from 3500 until ca. 300 cal yr B. P. Transitions between these phases appear to have occurred very rapidly, often within <200 years. Of particular importance are: (1) the observed relationship between regional aridification and the decline in Northern Hemisphere insolation across the Holocene, and (2) the significance of suborbital scale variations in climate that covary strongly with fluctuations in solar forcing. Together, these elements call for a fundamental reexamination of the role of orbital forcing on tropical African systems, and a reconsideration of what factors drive climate change in the region. The quality and resolution of these data far surpass any other evidence available from the region, and the continued development of this unique archive promises to revolutionize paleoenvironmental studies in southern Africa.

UK National Report on Asylum and the Status of Non-EU Aliens

(with G. Anthony)