Diggers

Democracy has never been more popular. It is successfully practiced today in a myriad of different ways by people across virtually every cultural, religious or socio-economic context. The forty-five essays collected in this companion suggest that the global popularity of democracy derives in part from its breadth and depth in the common history of human civilization. The chapters include exceptional accounts of democracy in ancient Greece and Rome, modern Europe and America, among peoples’ movements and national revolutions, and its triumph since the end of the Cold War. However, this book also includes alternative accounts of democracy’s history: its origins in prehistoric societies and early city-states, under-acknowledged contributions from China, Africa and the Islamic world, its familiarity to various Indigenous Australians and Native Americans, the various challenges it faces today in South America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the latest democratic developments in light of globalization and new technologies, and potential future pathways to a more democratic world. Understanding where democracy comes from, where its greatest successes and most dismal failures lie, is central to democracy’s project of inventing ways to address the need of people everywhere to live in peace, freedom and with a say in the decisions that affect their lives.

This book situates the development of radical English political thought within the context of the specific nature of agrarian capitalism and the struggles that ensued around the nature of the state during the revolutionary decade of the 1640s. In the context of the emerging conceptions of the state and property—with attendant notions of accumulation, labor, and the common good—groups such as Levellers and Diggers developed distinctive forms of radical political thought not because they were progressive, forward thinkers, but because they were the most significant challengers of the newly-constituted forms of political and economic power.

Drawing on recent re-examinations of the nature of agrarian capitalism and modernity in the early modern period, Geoff Kennedy argues that any interpretation of the political theory of this period must relate to the changing nature of social property relations and state power. The radical nature of early modern English political thought is therefore cast in terms of its oppositional relationship to these novel forms of property and state power, rather than being conceived of as a formal break from discursive conventions.

'This impressive study takes on a major challenge. Geoff Kennedy not only offers a clear and persuasive account of political ideas in their historical context, but also engages in methodological debate with other historians of political thought and explores the controversies among scholars of this much contested period in English history. He manages to interweave these different strands with commendable clarity and in accessible prose, suitable to a wide audience from specialists to students and the intelligent general reader.'
Ellen Meiksins Wood - York University, Canada"

Ricostruzione dei fenomeni storici e analisi strutturalista e formalista, rigidamente laicista delle strutture economico-sociali e culturali che determinano le rivoluzioni inglesi e la rivoluzione americana nelle quali i confessionalismi fungono da vettori per obiettivi politico-economici razionali finalizzati a dinamiche separatistiche o a processi di riconfigurazione dello stato entro l'involucro repubblicano grazie all'apporto determinante della lotta di classe e della lotta anti-coloniale.

"Since their rediscovery in the nineteenth century — first by Liberal, Socialist, and Marxist historians and then by Protestant nonconformists — the English Diggers of 1649–50 have been successively appropriated; their image refashioned in the service of new political doctrines that have sought legitimacy partly through emphasizing supposed ideological antecedents. In a previous article I demonstrated that recent attempts to incorporate the Diggers within a constructed Green heritage are unconvincing and that at worst these emerging “Green narratives” are insensitive to historical context.

Similarly, here I want to show how, either through lack of understanding the finer points of Protestant theology or deliberate distortion, most explanations of the Diggers’ implementation of the doctrine of community of goods have been misleading."

Of all the enigmas about Gerrard Winstanley, perhaps the greatest is how did a man of unremarkable origins come to articulate one of the most penetrating and damning critiques of his own society in such powerful and crafted prose?  The answer to this question has as much to do with Winstanley’s spiritual progress and broadening intellectual horizons as with his increased engagement in local and national politics, which became more pronounced after the establishment of the Digger plantation.  Accordingly, this essay focuses on an aspect of Winstanley’s development, namely his interpretation, adaptation and articulation of teachings characteristically – albeit not always exclusively – maintained by certain prominent Baptists and their followers.
I have suggested elsewhere that the outlines, if not the precise moments, of Winstanley’s spiritual journey can be reconstructed with confidence.  Beginning in either childhood, adolescence or some point in adulthood, he was a puritan; then perhaps a separatist; then, it can be inferred, a General Baptist; then he dispensed with the outward observance of gospel ordinances (analogous to a “Seeker”) before falling into a trance.  Here I want to build on my own work together with John Gurney’s important recent studies by locating Winstanley within a milieu that makes his beliefs and subsequent practices explicable.  For it appears that despite his undoubted gift for original thought, Winstanley did not always give credit where it was due.

During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1640-1660), religious and political dissent flourished in a variety of ways, and many such disputes developed through print. Within this context, identity and collectivity played important roles in mobilising support for the many different perspectives being disseminated. Especially so within radical groups, as was the case of the Diggers. They were a radical group that, among other things, promoted occupations against enclosures, opposed monarchy and institutionalised religion, as well as social hierarchies, and published a series of pamphlets and broadsides between 1649 and 1652. Although much research has been conducted on the Digger since the mid-twentieth century, this paper focuses on one aspect that we consider has been neglected by the historiography: the way the Diggers self-fashioned and represented themselves in such pamphlets. We understand the process of identity construction within a broader scenario of dispute of representation, one which involved the London press of the time, other radical groups such as the Levellers and the Ranters, as well as the government authorities, for example. Thus, we aim to demonstrate how the ‘diggers’ of St. Georges Hill became ‘The Diggers’, a group that simultaneously addressed, and believed to be speaking on behalf of, the ‘poor oppressed people of England’. It is our belief that the process of identity dispute and formation is essential to complexify our understanding of radical experiences, promoting the view that disputes fought on the symbolic field played an important part within the political action of such groups.

"Partendo dall’analisi di alcuni frammenti di tavolette riscoperti nel British Museum, lo studio ricostruisce la breve e avventurosa esplorazione del sito di Tello/Lagash da parte di H. Rassam nel 1879, avvalendosi di documenti di archivio quali lettere e bolle di accompagnamento delle casse.

Taking forgotten fragments of cuneiform tablets and archives documents (letters, inventories, etc.) kept in the British Museum as sources, the article investigates the brief and exploration of the site of Tello/Lagash by H. Rassam in 1879.

[Keywords: assyriology, Mesopotamia, cuneiform, Rassam, de Sarzec, Girsu, Lagaš, neo-sumerian, Ur III, historiography]"

This volume is a critical study of recent archaeology in the Western Wall Plaza area, Jerusalem. Considered one of the holiest places on Earth for Jews and Muslims, it is also a place of controversy, where the State marks ‘our’ remains for preservation and adoration and ‘theirs’ for silencing.
Based on thousands of documents from the Israel Antiquities Authority and other sources, such as protocols of planning committees, readers can explore for the first time this archaeological ‘heart of darkness’ in East Jerusalem. The book follows a series of unique  iscoveries, reviewing the approval and execution of development plans and excavations, and the use of the sites once excavation has finished. Who decides what and how to excavate, what to preserve – or ‘remove’? Who pays for the archaeology, for what aims?
The professional, scientific archaeology of the past happens now: it modifies the present and is modified by it. This book ‘excavates’ the archaeology of East Jerusalem to reveal its social and political contexts, power structures and ethics.
Readers interested in the history, archaeology and politics of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict will find this book useful, as well as scholars and students of the history and ethics of archaeology, Jerusalem, conservation, nationalism
and heritage.

O artigo percorre a história da relação da cidade com o ativismo criativo, no século XX, descobrindo, na atuação e na ação performática de grupos como letristas, situacionistas, Diggers e Yippies, as matrizes da guerrilha publicitária. Para investigar em que medida os sentidos sociais dessas mobilizações sobre a cidade se aproximam e se afastam, e seus legados para as culturas ocidentais, recorre aos conceitos de liminar e liminóide, trabalhados sob a ótica da Antropologia da Performance, pelo antropólogo britânico Victor Turner. Palavras-chave: ativismo criativo, internacional situacionista, teatro de guerrilha, guerrilha publicitária, antropologia da performance.

Members of the genus Ctenomys (tuco-tuco; Rodentia: Caviomorpha: Octodontidae) are considered scratch diggers. We compared the forelimbs of adult C. azarae with those of 13 species within other genera of caviomorph rodents to identify morphofunctional variation in osseous elements related to fossorial habits. Eight measurements of the humerus and ulna were used to construct five functional indices that were subjected to principal components analysis and simple comparisons among means. Ctenomys has a general morphology similar to that of terrestrial caviomorph rodents but exhibits some features that reflect its specialized fossorial condition, such as its comparatively large epicondyles. These features indicate greater muscular development and capacity for force production in the pronators and supinators of the forelimb and manus and flexors of the manus. The deltoid complex is well developed, indicating a large moment arm for the deltoid and latissimus dorsi muscles, which increases the capacity for force production on humeral flexion. Humeral indices are the best for differentiating fossorial forms from diggers, occasional diggers, generalized, and cursorial forms. Limb bone segments are used differently by highly fossorial and scratch-digging forms. w w w . m a m m a l o g y . o r g Journal of Mammalogy, 92(3):683-689, 2011 683 * Highlights variables with loadings .0.7.

"In 1983, the artist Daniel Spoerri created "Lunch on the Grass", a work designed to be excavated decades later. between archeology and contemporary art ...

En 1983, le plasticien Daniel Spoerri crée "Le déjeuner sous l'herbe", une oeuvre conçue pour être fouillée quelques décennies plus tard entre archéologie et art contemporain..."

The context of the British Civil Wars experienced a spread of millenarian and apocalyptical expectations. A key point within millenarian beliefs is that there is an elected group of people who are going to be saved on judgment day, in order to enjoy the rightly established kingdom of Christ on Earth – these were the Saints. The Diggers were a radical group that not only shared such millenarian expectations for England (regarding themselves as the Saints), but also envisaged deep social, political, cultural and religious change – usually being remembered for their interpretations of the earth as a “common treasure”, rebelling against what they considered to be the tyranny of land ownership. But other aspects concerning the group’s practices and perspectives where given less historiographical attention. Such is the case concerning the disputes and formation of their identities, differentiating who were the Saints and who were the followers of the antichrist. Their process of “othering” certain groups as their enemies, in the godly battle they believed to be in, consisted, for instance, in resorting to the Norman Yoke, in claiming they were the “True Levellers”, in detaching themselves from the Ranters, etc. However, in the eyes of many, the Diggers themselves were the enemy: often accused of being drunks and beggars claiming absurd ideas and disrupting communities. Thus, our aim is to understand these representation disputes they were in, through the analysis of discourse in their own pamphlets, as well as newsbooks and pamphlets by other groups which referenced them.

In 1983, the artist Daniel Spoerri created "Lunch on the Grass", a work designed to be excavated decades later. between archeology and contemporary art ... En 1983, le plasticien Daniel Spoerri crée "Le déjeuner sous l'herbe", une oeuvre conçue pour être fouillée quelques décennies plus tard entre archéologie et art contemporain...

It gives us great pleasure to welcome you to Text and Textuality 2021. Over the next two days Text and Textuality will bring together researchers in different subject areas from across the globe. This event seeks to encourage awareness of different approaches to 'text' and to facilitate intellectual synthesis that will lead to new us to discover new questions and approaches. The 21 panels reflect the breadth of the subject and span over three millennia and 7 languages (and nonlinguistic texts). Papers on traditional philology, transmission, and papyrology are accompanied by papers on the digital edition, text's relationship with space, and performing texts. We hope that you will take this opportunity to discover something completely new and to edit how you had previously thought about 'text'.

Morningstar Ranch was an experimental commune in Sonoma County California where people went to learn about being on the land. Soon, the owner decides to try to give the land back go God. About dropping out, opening land to anyone and about being disciplined by history.

On Friday, 23 November 1649 Thomas Totney, a puritan and veteran of the Civil War, was working in his goldsmith’s shop at ‘The Three Golden Lions’ in the Strand. He was to claim that after fourteen weeks of self-abasement, fasting and prayer the Lord came upon him in power, overwhelming his wisdom and understanding, smiting him dumb, blind and dead in the presence of hundreds of people. Next his body began to tremble and he was tied down in his bed. During his indescribable sufferings he saw the Passion of Jesus. Then he was transported into God’s presence in the ‘High and holy Mount’ where he beheld a great light shine within him and upon him, saying ‘Theaurau John my servant, I have chosen thee my Shepherd, thou art adorned with the jewel of Exceliency’. He was convinced that the Lord had spoken unto him, changing his name from Thomas to TheaurauJohn. //
CONTENTS / Introduction / A census of extant copies / The complete works of TheaurauJohn Tany / Documents / Biographical appendix

This paper argues that John Locke engaged more deeply with the philosophical problem of conquest than has previously been appreciated. It has long been thought that Locke was peculiarly silent on arguments favouring conquest and their critique, a subject that vexed many of his contemporaries and had real implications for crises of his day. This paper shows that Locke not only offered answers to several contemporary arguments in favour of conquest, but gave arguments posed specifically against the theory of the Norman Yoke. In doing so, he invoked the doctrine of 'native rights', which were inheritable and inalienable rights against foreign conquerors. However, a central premise of Locke's argument was the existence of sedentary agriculture on the land of the conquered. The native rights doctrine was therefore consistent with and even reliant upon his agricultural theory of settler colonialism. Only members of a Lockean commonwealth qualified as native to their land. For his theory and its articulation in the English context, Locke drew upon a strand of Leveller ideology from John Lilburne, contesting the Norman Yoke as depriving Englishmen of their native rights. However, in doing so, Locke also rejected the radical Digger approach to the Norman Yoke and native rights discourse, which argued for a native right to cultivate common and enclosed lands. Despite the myriad contexts of Locke's conquest theory, this notion of native rights has received little scholarly attention.

In the article I analyse the Polish translations of the letters by the leader of Diggers, Gerrard Winstanley, and indicate the untranslability of key terms: commoners, the commons, commonwealth. These terms have as much vertical reference, regarding the position of commoners to the People, as horizontal - related to the plebeian experienced world, rooted in the commons. Noticing these two references helps see Winstanley as a theoretician of immanentistic plebeian politics, the purpose of which was to set free from grasp of hierarchial political body and set up a self-organised body without authorities.

I was invited to say some words for Loyola Marymount University's peace pole planting ceremony in their university learning garden. Vandana Shiva was the noted guest of honor (I was decidedly the undercard!). Here Shiva's work is brought into relationship with the Catholic tradition of education and gardening. I then turn to Occupy and think about its foundations in the Digger movement, not just of the 1960s but at the birth of industrial society -- and how this was a movement of gardening and peace.

Durante o período denominado Revolução Inglesa (1640-1660), houve o surgimento de uma série de grupos e seitas político-religiosas que influenciaram este contexto de diversas maneiras. Dentre tais grupos, os Diggers possuíram uma atuação fortemente marcada por questões relacionadas à ideia de propriedade de terra, demandando, por exemplo, o direito de cultivo das terras comunais pelas pessoas comuns e o fim da política de cercamentos. A partir de um posicionamento crítico frente à habitual centralização do movimento na figura de Gerrard Winstanley por grande parte da historiografia, procura-se compreender os Diggers como havendo tido uma atuação coletiva, entre os anos de 1649 e 1650, utilizando como fontes panfletos publicados entre 1648 e 1652. A partir da formulação de questionamentos a respeito da construção da sua identidade enquanto grupo e da forma como atuavam, procurar- se-á determinar de que maneira a atuação Digger é mais adequadamente compreendida historicamente dentro deste contexto, e de que forma eles podem ser caracterizados como radicais.

Durante o período denominado Revolução Inglesa (1640-1660), houve o surgimento de uma série de grupos e seitas político-religiosas que atuaram neste contexto das mais diversas maneiras. Dentre tais grupos, os Diggers possuíram uma atuação fortemente marcada por questões relacionadas, sobretudo, à contestação da ideia de propriedade de terra. Através da publicação de uma série de panfletos, apresentavam demandas que incluíam o direito de cultivo das terras comunais pelas pessoas comuns e o fim das políticas de cercamento e despovoamento; além de se posicionarem de forma contrária à Coroa e à Igreja institucionalizada. Defende-se a proposição de que os Diggers caracterizaram uma experiência de atuação coletiva que surge intimamente - ainda que não exclusivamente - entrelaçada a uma tradição de enfrentamento por parte de setores da sociedade frente às políticas de “melhoramento” do campo na Inglaterra Moderna. Demonstrar-se-á, ainda, de que maneira é possível compreendê-los como diretamente envolvidos em lutas de representação acerca dos significados e caracterizações das ações que tomavam, destilando assim algo que é passível de ser compreendido como uma identidade coletiva específica, abarcando sujeitos provenientes das mais diversas trajetórias, unidos por um apelo a imaginários específicos relativos a questões como natureza da propriedade, hierarquia social, cristianismo anticlerical e reflexões sobre o futuro. O que, consequentemente, os leva a entrar para a história como havendo sido um dos muitos grupos que não se aliavam diretamente nem aos parlamentaristas e nem aos regalistas, e que de alguma forma tomaram parte em ações que marcaram os percursos da Revolução Inglesa.

The political debate surrounding the English revolution shows how rich and complex is the scenery of the English liberties before “modern Liberty”. The ancient libertates of the Realm, the religious and commercial liberties, the liberty of the free states, and lastly the just freedom of Levellers and Diggers: all these perspectives intersect and conflict without finding any political or juridical synthesis. On the contrary, the gradual affirmation of the liberty of the moderns is accompanied by instances of political and social equality, with which it has to confront. Starting from the dispute on the “Norman Conquest” up to James Harrington’s Oceana , this contribution aims to highlight the extent to which the debate on liberties before “liberalism” was composite, conflictual and characterized by the persistence of instances of equality.

El objetivo principal de este libro se fundamenta en la examinación de las tesis políticas que presentaron diversos miembros de los grupos de levellers y diggers en la Inglaterra de las décadas de 1640 y 1650, con el fin de analizar una serie de conceptos claves para la teoría y filosofía política modernas. Se explorará particularmente si en la integración entre los primigenios paradigmas de la soberanía popular y las implicancias de conceptos teológicos, relacionados a las confesiones puritanas a las que pertenecían la mayoría de los autores a estudiar, se deriva un poder político omnipotente, carente de limitaciones político-institucionales. Esto se enmarcará dentro de discusiones sobre los conceptos de pueblo, nación, igualdad ante la ley, límites al poder, participación ciudadana y revolución entre otros, no sólo para incorporar nuevos planteos dentro de las variadas aristas de las tradiciones liberales, republicanas o de democracia radical, sino también para adentrarse en las posibles conexiones con aquello que la ciencia política asoció a gobiernos autoritarios y totalitarios. La hipótesis de trabajo consistirá entonces en demostrar que los esquemas de levellers y diggers, en su derivación de conceptualizaciones teológicas complementadas con el paradigma de la soberanía popular, terminan dando lugar a posturas que se enmarcan dentro de la consolidación del Estado Moderno, la soberanía absoluta, un poder político omnipotente y potenciales prefiguraciones de ideas totalitarias, haciendo imposible de esta forma la recreación de contrapoderes informales o institucionales.

Attending to an underdeveloped lacuna in Weber's sociology of law, this essay examines the relationship between protestant theology and the emergence of modern, rational legal systems. The essay argues that radical Protestantism inspired demands for the rationalization of English law, and while not successful in bringing about the concrete changes advocated, that central features of Weber's notion of rational legal thought were also central in the theology of the radical Protestants. Examining the legal thought of two groups that appeared during the English Revolution – the Levellers and the Diggers- the essay shows how theology provide these groups with a model for a more predictable law, offered them a source for the norms for their proposed legal system and motivated the desire for law reform.

A la lumière de l'actualité, archéologues, représentants de l'UNESCO et de la Confédération discutent de l'impact des conflits armés et du pillage sur la patrimoine archéologique.
Avec: Benno Widmer, chef du Service du transfert international des biens culturels de l'OFC I Metin Arditi, ambassadeur de bonne volonté à l'UNESCO I Prof. Michel Al-Maqdissi I Laurent Flutsch, directeur du Musée romain de Vidy et Patrick M. Michel, commissaire de l'exposition.