Statements in Stone: Monuments and Society in Neolithic Brittany.

Statements in Stone: Monuments and Society in Neolithic Brittany. Certain monuments, even certain regions, have achieved iconic satus,more dependent upon cultural perceptions than on intrinsic value orimportance. On a universal scale the Parthenon and the Colosseum areintrinsic to Western tradition; Stonehenge too, but more for image thanfor reality. In France, Britany, and especially the Morbihan, is the'pays des megalithes', appropriately celebrated by therelevant Michelin vert whose other volumes hardly mention the likes ofBougon, the Seine alles-courvertes, Arles-Fontvielle, La Hoguette orwhatever. This is of course the celebration of France as a nation-state-- perhaps the last survivor of an 18th-century circumstance as such --and a unique combination of regional identity -- at least according toBraudel, a writer equally misunderstood and read in the Anglo-Saxonworld.Five seasons into an Anglo-French enterprise in Lower Normandy, I amslowly beginning to understand some of the verities of culturaldifferentiation, both subtle and blatant. Language certainly is themedium of culture and nowhere more apparent than in cross-Channelneighbours. The problems are not, however, insuperable if it isrecognized that they exist.This (rambling) preamble expresses some of my concerns about thevolume under review. By the accidents of preservation, by even thepossibility that Brittany really was the place for monumentalcelebration in that vital Atlantic Meso-Neo transition (Kinnes 1986)which is more interesting than anything else in Old World prehistory,whatever; the fact is that two centuries' worth of record andobservation must be taken on board and duly assessed against everywhereand everywhen else. The British in their colonial mode have adistinguished record in Brittany -- even if only attracted by thepossibility of loot: James Miln, as dilettante dil��et��tante?n. pl. dil��et��tantes also dil��et��tan��ti1. A dabbler in an art or a field of knowledge. See Synonyms at amateur.2. A lover of the fine arts; a connoisseur.adj. , essentially financed theformative work on the back of his profits from English sweated labour.W.C. Lukis, of that devoted Guernsey family, collaborated with Sir HenryDryden, an obsessive for surveying accuracy, to produce excellent plansof Morbihan megaliths in the 1860s (Atkinson 1976). Fortunately, thiswork largely stopped short of excavation, although there is one chillingLukis record '. . . got up early; took my shotgun, saw 3 snipe snipe,common name for a shore bird of the family Scolopacidae (sandpiper family), native to the Old and New Worlds. The common, or Wilson's snipe (Capella gallinago), also called jacksnipe, is a game bird of marshes and meadows. --shot 2; turned over with my stick some deposits at Kerlescant notpreviously disturbed -- 2 good arrowheads' (Lukis diary: in privatepossession). We are perhaps even more fortunate that the arch-depredatorCanon Greenwell decided against a thorough pillaging of the dolmens ofBrittany, 'where I had hoped to have some howking of dolmens etc .. . I was so ill with the horrible food that I was obliged to comeaway' (letter to Rolleston 10 September 1872; Kinnes &Longworth 1985). Even Lukis, indulging himself in Breton Catholicismeach summer away from solid Anglican practice at the rectory in Wath(Diary), was not immune to this innate sense of British preeminence. Itis hard now for the thousands of Brits who holiday in Brittany eachyear, with the transformation of the local economy (by a littleassistance from the EEC EEC:see European Economic Community. ), to visualize the fairly desperate marginalizedrural economy which existed in Brittany until relatively recent times,to some extent contrived by a Gallic Parisian government determined toimpose a nationalistic culture on the Celtic fringe, a circumstance notunfamiliar in Britain. Even Lukis, a distinct Francophile, found itnecessary to add firm warnings on the rapacity and hygienic shortcomingsof the local peasantry to his guidebook for the Victorian traveller(1875). The British intrigue for Brittany continued. The likes ofProfessors Clark and Piggott, creating an insular prehistory for moderntimes, found the peninsula to be both source and stimulus. Glyn Daniel,too, celebrated the best of France and the best of dolmens in alifetime's work. More recently, Aubrey Burl has produced anexcellent guidebook (1985; and in interestingly odd French translation:1987).This excursus ex��cur��sus?n. pl. ex��cur��sus��es1. A lengthy, appended exposition of a topic or point.2. A digression. , of course, has excluded the quintessential homecontribution: Le Rouzic notably, the doyen Giot, Lecornec, Le Roux,Briard Briard(brēärd`), breed of muscular, wiry working dog whose origins may be traced back to 12th-century France. It stands from 22 to 27 in. (55.9–68.6 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs between 70 and 80 lb (31.8–36.3 kg). de nos jours; the emergent Serge Cassen. But to the point, wemust assess the volume by Mark Patton.Patton is a Jerseyman, a born islander and Cambridge--UCL trained.Islands breed a particular frame of mind and, in the case of the ChannelIslands, one conditioned by a peculiar combination -- for thesegenerations, largely Occupation-derived -- of Brit (even if via Le Duchede Normandie) and French: as Victor Hugo in Guernsey exile remarked:'Les iles de la Manche sont des morceaux de France tombes dans lamer et ramasses par l'Angleterre.'Geographically the scope of the volume covers the Armorican massif mas��sif?n.1. A large mountain mass or compact group of connected mountains forming an independent portion of a range.2. from the Cotentin to Finistere and including the Channel Islands.Chronologically it moves from Meso-Neo transition to the Chalcolithic,charting changes in monumental traditions.Chapter 1 presents a generalized background and some consideration ofrecent theoretical approaches in the Anglo-Saxon world. There is noattempt to delineate or explain the culturally different French approachwhich guides everything from observation to excavation to interpretationthrough a specific vocabulary. This is a serious omission by Pattonsince, inevitably, most of the volume depends upon primary Frenchsources.The second chapter deals with stone axe distribution, interpreted asan exchange system focused upon bride-wealth and used as social controlby high-status individuals. The phallic phallic/phal��lic/ (-ik) pertaining to or resembling a phallus. phal��licadj.1. Of, relating to, or resembling a phallus.2. symbolism of axes is stressed.Both are rather more debatable than Patton suggests, but the propositionis at least clearly set out. This is followed by a chronologicaltreatment of the monuments from long mounds and giant menhirs viapassage graves, the tumulus tumulus(t`myələs), plural tumuli (–lī), in archaeology, a heap of earth or stones placed over a grave. geants and alignments to allees couvertes,ending with evidence for sealing and abandonment, None of this isparticularly exceptionable ex��cep��tion��a��ble?adj.Open or liable to objection or debate; objectionable or debatable.ex��cep and is a reasonable, if unexciting, precis ofrecent (published) French work. A final synthesis depends heavily upon afundamentally -- even if unacknowledged -- Neo-Marxist evolutionaryapproach with a shift from traditional elites to 'Big Men' tochiefdoms. Nothing new or indeed provable about this: essentially it isa mundane view by a mundane writer, encumbered by an irritating amountof repetition. One hopes that the volume will encourage an Anglophoneaudience to investigate the (actually very exciting) Armorican evidence.It is not likely to be read much in France.IAN IAN Interactive Affiliate NetworkIAN i am nothingIAN Instrumentation & Automation NewsIAN Ianuarius (Latin: January)IAN Instituto Agronomico Nacional (Paraguay)IAN Incident Area Network KINNES British MuseumReferencesATKINSON, R.J.C. 1976. Lukis, Dryden and the Carnac megaliths, inJ.V.S. Megaw (ed.), To illustrate the monuments. London: Thames &Hudson.BURL, A. 1985. Megalithic meg��a��lith?n.A very large stone used in various prehistoric architectures or monumental styles, notably in western Europe during the second millennium b.c. Brittany. London: Thames & Hudson.KINNESS, I.A. 1986. La Neolithisation des Iles Anglo-Normandes, RevueArcheologique de l'Ouest Supplement 1: 9-12.KINNES, I.A. & I.H. LONGWORTH. 1985. Catalogue of the excavatedprehistoric and Romano-British material in the Greenwell Collection.London: British Museum Press.LUKIS, W.C. 1875. A Guide to the Chambered Barrows, etc., of SouthBrittany. Ripon.