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Ambivalent Europeans examines the implications of living on the fringes of Europe. In Malta, public debate is dominated by the question of Europe, both at a policy level - whether or not to join the EU - and at the level of national identity - whether or not the Maltese are 'European'. Jon Mitchell identifies a profound ambivalence towards Europe, and also more broadly to the key processes of 'modernisation'. He traces this tendency through a number of key areas of social life - gender, the family, community, politics, religion and ritual. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Your ultimate modern Malta book
I can't imagine that there's a very big market for a book on Maltese identity, but there should be.Mitchell successfully reaches beyond the narrowness of his topic to provide an interesting account of Maltese society, politics, and history.Since there isn't much competition, the book is clearly the best of its kind, but it would stack up pretty well against potential competition as well.The book is informed by anthropological and sociological theories of various kinds but Mitchell wears his learning lightly.

He centers his book on an annual festival honoring St. Paul that occurs in a particular neighborhood (L'Arcipierku) in the capital city of Valetta.Because St. Paul is the patron saint of Malta, this festival is of national, and nationalist, importance, opening up general questions of identity.While Mitchell squeezes a lot out of this festival and this neighborhood, I was left wanting more.What about the rival neighborhood of Due Balli and its festival?How do people in the national as a whole react?

Now that Malta has joined the European Union, I hope we will see more books addressing this fascinating country.
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86p, 31 illus (Soc. Antiquaries London 1966) ... Read more

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This admirable book illustrates what it is like to be a villager in Malta and presents an excellent picture of village social structure, the relations between the village and the town, and the typicality of the findings in Hal Kirkop. ... Read more

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Heritage Malta's official site catalogue for the Domus Romana. ... Read more

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In the early 1820s, Charles Fredrick de Brocktorff, a German artist, was commissioned to make a series of watercolours on the Maltese islands. Nineteen of these watercolours depict the archaeological remains of the Igantija temple and the nearby stone circle which had just been excavated by Col. Otto Bayer. The album containing these watercolours is zealously kept at the National Library of Malta and permission to view them is only given on special rare occassions. ... Read more

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The megalithic temple complex of Tarxien was constructed at the height of Malta's late neolithic period, on a site that was used over a span of several millennia. The site appears to have first been used as early as 4100BC. The megalithic character of the site emerged as early as 3600BC, reaching a highly complex layout by about 3000BC. The Tarxien temples are, therefore, an important source of information. Their value lies in the wealth of relics and traces of the past that have been transmitted down to our generation. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Ghar Dalam: The Cave, the Museum, and the Garden' is a guidebook about one of Malta's most important national monuments since it contributed a great deal to our knowledge on life on the Maltese islands in the remote and in the more recent past. Ghar Dalam is the only cave in Malta where one can study the Pleistocene or the Ice Age fauna in an uninterrupted sequence dating back to 180,000 years ago having the latter all in one place. ... Read more

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Of the many fascinating problems posed by the prehistory of Malta, three are outstanding, namely: the origins of the temples, their end, and the cart-ruts. Sensible guesses can be made regarding the first two; the third still baffles. Indeed, cart-ruts have aroused considerable interest and controversy since at least the seventeenth century, from such as Abela (1647), Houel (1787), Boisgelin (1805), and with increasing frequency through the course of the twentieth century. Definitive solutions seem as far off as ever.In this book, the author discusses the theories on how these sites came to be and also describes some of the major sites in Malta where cart-ruts are found. ... Read more

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Gods, deities, symbolism, deposition, cosmology and intentionality are all features of the study of early ritual and cult. Archaeology has great difficulties in providing satisfactory interpretation or recognition of these elusive but important parts of ancient society, and methodologies are often poorly equipped to explore the evidence. This collection of papers explores a wide range of prehistoric and early historic archaeological contexts from Britain, Europe and beyond, where monuments, architectural structures, megaliths, art, caves, ritual activity and symbolic remains offer exciting glimpses into ancient belief systems and cult behaviour. Different theoretical and practical approaches are demonstrated, offering both new directions and considered conclusions to the many problems of studying the archaeology of cult and ritual. Central to the volume is an exploration of early Malta and its intriguing Temple Culture, set in a broad perspective by the discussion and theoretical approaches presented in different geographical and chronological contexts. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Valletta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Alexiei Dingli has been the Mayor of Valletta since 2008. He was elected on the Nationalist Party Ticket (PN), an affiliate of the European People's Party, which holds the majority of the Council. The city is on the island of Malta so it shares its early history with the island. Immediately after the end of the Siege of Malta in 1565, the Order decided to found a new city on the Xiberras peninsula to fortify the Order's position in Malta and bind the Knights to the island. The foundation stone of Valletta was laid by the Grandmaster of the Order of Saint John, Jean Parisot de la Valette on 28 March 1566. La Valette placed the first stone in Our Lady of Victories Church. In his book DellIstoria della Sacra Religione et Illustrissima Militia di San Giovanni Gierosolimitano (English: ), written between 1594 and 1602, Giacomo Bosio writes that when the cornerstone of Valletta was placed, a group of Maltese elders said "Iegi zimen en fel wardia col sceber raba iesue uquie" (Which in modern Maltese reads, "Jii mien li fil-Wardija kull xiber raba jiswa uqija," and in English, "There will come a time when every piece of land on Sciberras Hill will be worth its weight in gold"). Grand Master La Valette died on 21 August 1568 at age 74 and never saw the completion of his city. Originally interred in the church of Our Lady of the Victories, his remains now rest in St. John's Co-Cathedral among the tombs of other Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta. Francesco Laparelli was the city's principal designer and his plan departed from medieval Maltese architecture, which exhibited irregular winding streets and alleys. He designed the new city on a rectangular grid, and without any collacchio (an area restricted for ... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=57664 ... Read more

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The opening in 2007 of Palazzo Falson as an historic house museum fulfils the wish of its most recent owner and resident Capt. Olof Frederick Gollcher OBE. After his death, the house fell upon the 'Captain O F Gollcher OBE Art and Archaelogical Foundation'. In 2001 Patrimonju reached a management agreement with this Foundation, whereby it was entrusted with the conservation of the palazzo and its valuable collections, and with the setting up of a state-of-the-art museum. After some 5 years of restoration works the museum finally opened. 'Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum' is the official guide of this museum. ... Read more