PubhD #27: Politics, Palaeontology and 'Pies vs Parson'

This month's first speaker is Suzy who is researching cultural heritage in the East Midlands. Her focus is on intangible heritage.

But what is intangible heritage? It's the living heritage. Whereas the government defines heritage as the built environment, Suzy is looking at things such as performing arts, language, ritual events, customs, crafts (but the knowledge rather than the finished article) and knowledge of nature and the universe. While there has been a World Heritage Convention since 1972, UNESCO only introduced a living heritage one in 2003. Only five European countries haven't signed up - Russia, Malta, Lichtenstein, San Marino and the UK (although Ireland have only recently signed). Further afield, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand also haven’t signed but this is due to issues with indigenous peoples. UNESCO rules mean that this convention shouldn't be used to attract tourism. So, even though France has declared French cuisine as a living heritage, they can’t advertise it. Does it matter that we don't have legislation?

Well, the lack of legislation doesn't have any impact on the Ashbourne football game played every year on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday in Derbyshire. Claiming to be the "oldest tradition in the country", it features the "Uppers" vs the "Downers (basically everyone from north of the river against everyone from south of the river) and involves spending all day in a rugby scrum not really moving. There aren't many rules - essentially they're not supposed to go through the bus station but that doesn't always stop them. People don't park in the town during the game because they fear their cars will be damaged. The games aren’t exactly high scoring affairs - on average there's one goal per day.

In the Leicestershire village of Hallaton, they host the annual hair pie scramble and bottle kicking event. It's similar to Ashbourne, again it's an all-day event but rather than using a ball they use three barrels. There are four St John's ambulances on-site and there are only three rules: no eye gouging, no strangling and no weapons. Those who take part due so more out of a sense of having fun and getting drunk with their friends rather than out of any sense of history. The Hallaton event was first mentioned back in 1787 but in 1807 the local reverend tried to cancel it. The village folk made their feelings clear, they left a message saying "no pie, no parson" in blood on his door.

The only times that these two games haven't taken place have been due to outbreaks of foot and mouth disease. These days both have to insurance and increasingly police and security as people travel from all across the country to watch. The increased popularity is something of a double-edged sword as these increased costs could lead to the events getting cancelled and if that happens it would be very difficult to get them going again.

Key learning: Implementation of the UNESCO convention on living heritage in Croatia had led to arguments between groups who think that their folk dancing where they dress up as bears is the official one

Next up is Adam who is a fossil expert who has been doing some research into how Plesiosaurs swam.

Plesiosaurs lived from around 200 million years ago to 65 million years ago and even though they lived at the same time as dinosaurs, they weren't a dinosaur. Even though they lived in water, and some even lived in freshwater, they breathed air. They could grow up to 16 metres long and were unique in being an underwater animal with a long neck. They were also unique in having four flippers that they used to swim - there is nothing alive today that is like them, which makes looking at their biology very difficult.

The key thing is that we don't know how they swam. Did they "fly" underwater like a penguin or did they "row" like a duck? How did those four limbs work together? To investigate, people have tried to create robots, made detailed studies of their remains and even tried dressing up as plesiosaurs. Now, Georgia Tech have developed technology to model creatures moving through fluids as efficiently as possible. This technology ensures that the creatures obey the laws of physics (unlike the hand drawn fish in Finding Nemo)

To look at the Plesiosaur, they picked a Meyerasaurus (which was actually named by Adam), which is of intermediate size, around 5 metres and we have a complete skeleton of one. In the model they built up the soft tissue such as the musculature and the tail fin and decided on just four points of articulation - where the limbs met the body. But how far can the limbs move forward/backward? Up/down? Do they twist? It's the cartilage that determines this range of movement and since it's not know the exact composition of the cartilage, three models were created. One with a small range of motion, one with a large range of motion (felt prior to the testing to be the most realistic choice) and one with a very large range of motion.

Simulations showed that the most efficient way for a Plesiosaur to move was to move its limbs up and down - they were underwater flyers. They also showed that there was very little motion in the rear limbs. In fact when they stopped the rear limbs from moving at all, the Plesiosaur still swam almost as efficiently. If they locked the forelimbs instead then they could barely move at all. So, were these rear limbs for stability, manoeuvrability or for a sudden burst of speed? More research is needed to find out.

Surviving for some 135 million years, the Plesiosaur was an incredibly successful creature. They are still a huge part of popular culture as the Loch Ness monster is considered to be one. Unfortunately for Nessie fans, the only sea reptiles that have survived since the Plesiosaur went extinct 65 million years ago are turtles. While we do know a lot of things about Plesiosaurs such as the fact they gave birth to live young, there is still a lot that we don't. For example, we know that they swallowed rocks but whether this was to help grind up food or to help with buoyancy is unknown.

Key learning: Dinosaurs have legs that go straight down from their body. Plesiosaurs have limbs that stick out, hence they aren’t dinosaurs

To round off the evening is Ibtisam whose research is into the British Raj in India and whether it could be considered a political utopia.

The fact he's looking at political utopias is important. In literary tradition, going all the way back to Thomas more, a utopia is perfect and unobtainable. From a political perspective, a utopia is where there are always people looking at new ways of tackling problems, even if those ways don’t actually work. While a political utopia will always be a slightly subjective construct, did the Raj continue to evolve? Could it be classed as a utopia?

British Empire was seen as a grand unifying project, creating a better life for everyone. While the word utopia was never used with respect to the Raj from its beginning in 1857 to its end in 1947, they did often talk about correcting wrong through British values. There wasn't just a "we're better than you, listen to us" attitude but a number of structured and more subtle ways to try and create a better life. Although of course it helped that the British were backed up by a bigger army.

One of the structured way that the Raj affected change was legislation. In India, homosexuality wasn't illegal regardless of whether a state was Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Buddhist, etc. In 1860 the British outlawed it throughout India. Under Victorian Christian values, it was seen as immoral. In fact even though gender isn’t seen as binary in India today, being gay or bisexual is still illegal.

One of the more subtle ways that India changed was dress. Before the British arrived, Indian clothing was quite androgynous, the only real differences were in the headgear. This changes after the British arrive - this is because the British represented a high status. Prior to the Raj, there was a lot of missionary influence in India and a lot of this was done by women. During the Raj, British officials realised that a lot of problems were due to women not sticking to the domestic sphere. So, female missionaries were phased out. Expectations of men and women were changing and this led in part to the changes in clothing between males and females.

In the early years of the Raj, there was a top down imposition of British life. In the 1920s and 1930s there was a backlash and Indian culture started to be reclaimed. There was more self-sufficiency and there was a lot less wearing of suit and ties. Many identities clashed with each other in both the formal political sphere and the more subtle personal one.

Key learning: In India it became illegal for off duty British officers to wear Indian clothing

PubhD will return to The Vat & Fiddle at 7:30pm on Tuesday 28 June where they will be hosting an Astronomy Special to coincide with the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Nottingham. 

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