The material culture of burial and its microgeography: A Luxembourg cemetery as a methodological example of an object-centred approach to quantitative material culture studies

in Journal of Material Culture (2019), 24(2), 1-26

This article uses a novel quantitative methodology to examine sepulchral material culture. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of social spatialization and art as agency, the authors contend that ... [more ▼]

This article uses a novel quantitative methodology to examine sepulchral material culture. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of social spatialization and art as agency, the authors contend that variations in grave designs and materiality cannot simply be explained in terms of changes in fashion and mentality. Other factors also need to be taken into account. Using a digital data collection tool, the Cemetery Surveyor Application (CSA) developed at the University of Luxembourg, they compile a set of data encompassing all the material aspects of each grave in a cemetery in Luxembourg (Western Europe), the setting of their case study. The graves are dated from the 1850s to 2015. |The authors compare the chronological evolution of the most recurrent material features with a GIS-based spatial analysis of the same features. The results of the spatial analysis not only largely confirm the chronological study, but also allow them to be more precise (dating is often problematic) and include undated graves (a third of the sample). The digital data collection tool also allows them to compare cemeteries and to highlight variations in these that cannot merely be imputed to chronology, but also to spatial proximity and material agency. [less ▲]

Eine andere Migrationsgeschichte - tote Soldaten der Grande Guerre im Luxemburger Erzbecken

in Mutations. Mémoires et Perspectives du Bassin Minier (2018), 10

Dieser Kurzartikel behandelt die ephemeren Grabstätten deutscher und französischer Kriegsgefallener während des Ersten Weltkrieges und deren Umbettung in den 1920er-Jahren

Zwischen Mensch und Ding

in Hahn, Hans Peter; Neumann, Friedemann (Eds.) Dinge als Herausforderung: Kontexte, Umgangsweisen und Umwertungen von Objekten (2018)

Military Migrants. Luxembourgers in the Colonial Army of the Dutch East Indies

in Itinerario (2017), 41(3), 555-580

Among the roughly 150,000 soldiers sent to the Dutch East Indies between 1815 and 1914, the Luxembourg contingent made up a tiny minority of just 1,075 men. Based upon extensive research into their ... [more ▼]

Among the roughly 150,000 soldiers sent to the Dutch East Indies between 1815 and 1914, the Luxembourg contingent made up a tiny minority of just 1,075 men. Based upon extensive research into their careers, data on these soldiers provide further clues to understanding what drove Europe’s young men to become colonial soldiers. The results of this national case study will be compared with earlier investigations by Bossenbroek and Bosma on recruits for the Dutch colonial army. Similar to the Dutch soldiers, their Luxembourg counterparts had a predominantly urban provenance. However, in contrast to the Dutch, they did not have a strong military background, and it appears that fewer Luxembourgers stayed behind in the Dutch East Indies after their tour of duty. They were more attracted by the payments that the recruiters doled out in advance, particularly at a time of economic crisis, than in a career in the tropics. [less ▲]

Von 'Flamma' zum 'Flamarium'. Zur Geschichte der Feuerbestattung im Großherzogtum Luxemburg, 1900-2015

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2017), 69(Heft 2), 205-232

Luxembourg is a 'delayed nation', as far as cremation is concerned. It was in 1995 that the Grand Duchy opened its own cremation center, only ahead of Malta and Cyprus in the EU zone (Orthodoxe Greece is ... [more ▼]

Luxembourg is a 'delayed nation', as far as cremation is concerned. It was in 1995 that the Grand Duchy opened its own cremation center, only ahead of Malta and Cyprus in the EU zone (Orthodoxe Greece is a special case). While the discussion about the pros and cons of cremation is mirroring the general debate of the last hundred years since the introduction of this alternative form of burial and funeral technique in neighboring countries, especially in Geermany and France, the case study of Luxembourg also offers insights into the development of a small state shaped by its Catholic heritage. This mentaliy-argument is, however, only one side to be considered when investigating the history of cremation. Another decisive factor is the embedddedness of Luxembourg in a transnational context. [less ▲]

Ausweisungspraxis und Moraldiskurs in Luxemburg. Das Beispiel der Prostitution als Gefährdung öffentlicher Ordnung und Sicherheit in den Akten der großherzoglichen Behörden (1880-1940)

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2017), 69(1), 29-49

Disciplinary and regulatory governmental proceedings intersect, for instance when disciplinary rules and judiciary norms operate on the basis of suspicion and there-fore just happen to disenfranchise ... [more ▼]

Disciplinary and regulatory governmental proceedings intersect, for instance when disciplinary rules and judiciary norms operate on the basis of suspicion and there-fore just happen to disenfranchise certain groups of people. The case study of Luxembourg’s practice of expulsion before the Second World War offers insights into the administration of ‘undesirable foreigners’ which was based on identifying women who supposedly infringed bourgeois moral gender order. Women from abroad of dubious reputation could become a double threat to bourgeois norms and values. Based on extensive research on archival funds, this article seeks to shed light on the intersecting quality of gendering foreigners and ethnicizing prostitutes in a self-reinforcing bureaucratic procedure leading to deportation. [less ▲]

Biedermänner - und keine Brandstifter

Article for general public (2016)

Les frontières de l'indépendance. Le Luxembourg entre 1815 et 1839 - Die Grenzen der Unabhängigkeit. Luxemburg zwischen 1815 und 1839 (Sonderausstellung)

'Voices' from the UNTAC files: policy and politics of accommodation in Phnom Penh after the Khmer Rouge

in Journal of South East Asia Research (2015), 23(3), 377-404

During the 1980s, refugee camps along the Thai–Cambodian border constituted the power base for the civil war parties opposing the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK, 1979–91). Politics of accommodation ... [more ▼]

During the 1980s, refugee camps along the Thai–Cambodian border constituted the power base for the civil war parties opposing the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK, 1979–91). Politics of accommodation and basic services also played a key role in the ‘original accumulation’ of political power by the new regime in Phnom Penh. The resettlement process of Cambodia’s deserted cities developed into a major playground for clientelism, the founda-tion of Cambodia’s state-building process after the Khmer Rouge. Focusing on the archival heritage of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cam-bodia (UNTAC) 1992–93, a spatial analysis of Phnom Penh’s political geography from the late 1970s to the late 1990s will be provided. This paper argues that the UNTAC time marked a watershed, whose impact has been underrated for Cambodia’s political future: the transition in the accommodation policy of a besieged regime. UNTAC did not end the civil war, but changed the political economy of the country. As the need to ‘camp-in’ and share billeted living space gradually diminished, the socialist ‘moral economy’ mutated into quick money politics and political family business to ensure the hegemonic status of Cambodia’s ruling party further. [less ▲]

August Kohl - Ein Luxemburger Söldner im Indonesien des 19. Jahrhunderts

Book published by CNL (2015)

August Kohl ist einer von über tausend Luxemburgern, die im Zeitraum von der Französischen Revolution bis zum Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges in der Kolonialarmee Niederländisch-Indiens gedient haben....

Genie und Festung. Luxemburger Festungspläne in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2015), 67(1), 107-109