June brought us pioneering feminists, a timely reassessment of how we look at debt, and a fascinating look into heritage and sustainable development.
An excerpt from 'Introduction', by Andrea Lauser, Antonie Fuhse, Peter J. Bräunlein and Friedemann Yi-Neumann, Material Culture and (Forced) Migration.
Andrea Lauser is Professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Georg August University, Göttingen, Germany. Antonie Fuhse holds a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Göttingen. Peter J. Bräunlein holds an extracurricular professorship in the study of religion from the University of Bremen. Friedemann Yi-Neumann is a research fellow of the migration exhibition project ‘MOVING THINGS’, University of Göttingen.
Today sees the publication of a brand new open access book of Millicent Garrett Fawcett's writings edited by Prof Melissa Terras and Elizabeth Crawford. The first scholarly appraisal of Fawcett in over 30 years, this is essential reading for those wishing to understand the varied political, social and cultural contributions of Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett.
In an excerpt from the foreword, Fiona Mactaggart, a former chair of the Fawcett Society, explains exactly why Millicent Garret Fawcett matters...
As the former chair of the Fawcett Society, I am pleased to welcome this volume, which brings together many of the writings and speeches of our eponymous predecessor Millicent Fawcett. We aim to continue in the tradition she built of campaigning for equality between women and men, focusing particularly on political power, education and work. Like her, we depend on robust research, clear argument and building alliances with women and men to advance our cause. It is a joy to present this collection, which will increase understanding of the role Millicent Fawcett played, not only in the struggle for the women’s franchise but in the series of other causes which she promoted.
The quality I have always most admired in Millicent Fawcett is persistence. She gathered signatures on the petition for women’s suffrage at the age of 18 in 1866, and she persisted with the cause, becoming its leader for many years, until the women of Britain had achieved her aim of the right to vote on the same terms as men, 62 years later in 1928. The Fawcett Society is the successor to the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), which Millicent Fawcett led for many years. We inherited the brooch that appears in pictures reproduced in this volume, which was given to her by members of the society to recognise her leadership. It is engraved on the reverse with the words ‘Steadfastness and Courage’ and is now in the Museum of London.
This scholarly work, peppered with pictures of Millicent, shows her persistence in making the argument for the vote to audiences, many of whom were deeply hostile, and her determination to advance the cause of women through education. When women did gain a limited franchise, she was careful to record how this change had led to many new laws which benefitted women, from protection from forced marriage to the right to join the police. Fawcett’s words on her statue, a comment made relating to the death of Emily Wilding Davison, who was fatally injured by the King’s horse while carrying a banner that demanded votes for women (see Section 46), were a declaration of fact rather than a rallying call. While Fawcett recognised that the militant suffragettes had put the issue on the public agenda (‘They’ve rose the country’, in the words of an audience member at one of her speeches – see Section 25), she was critical of their tactics. And in some ways, the record of her doggedly persistent campaign to advance the cause of women without resorting to the violent tactics of the suffragettes is a lesson for feminists in the twenty-first century.
When I find myself disagreeing with other people who are concerned about issues facing women today, I take inspiration from Millicent. She was often generous in her appreciation of what the militant suffragists had done, while always rejecting their tactics. For universities and public platforms to exclude people because they take one side of a debate is unacceptable in a democratic society. I hope that the middle way which the Fawcett Society adopts can win wider acceptance, so that we can all stop being angry and upset with each other and carry on the dogged work which is still needed to build a society where women and men are truly equal.
The approach to the campaign for votes for women which Millicent Fawcett led has lessons for us today: be clear in your arguments, do not abuse those who disagree with you, build alliances and, above all, be persistent in working towards the changes we need.
1.
My Jowo Buddha sat
cross-legged in the seething
and ardent chaos of fire.
No time to write a poem, cry,
or even allow me to search for the countless treasures
behind those hurriedly hung curtains,
even though the ultimate truth
is actually impermanence
as personally manifested by Jowo Rinpoche.
2.
Those heavy curtains are a metaphor.
On the second day after the fire
they took a piece of yellow silk
covered with red flowers,
almost without a wrinkle,
cut without a trace,
and draped it behind what was reportedly
the ‘completely intact’ body
of Jowo Śākyamuni.
It seemed like a dense and seamless wall.
Who knew what was behind it?
Or what could still be there?
Those who persevere, you actually know
that invisible fire has been burning unabated,
and those heavy curtains
concealed the world
long ago.
3.
Deep sleep within darkness.
One cannot but sleep deeply within darkness.
One cannot but rely on a dream
in deep sleep within the darkness . . .
But isn’t darkness also diverse?
It’s like these words (was it me who said them?):
‘You may think there is darkness in this world,
but in fact, darkness does not exist.’
And so, you can try and describe different forms of brightness— glimmering light, dim light, brilliant light . . .
soft light, warm light, intense light . . .
as well as the flash of light,
that time the light extinguished
more quickly than lightning,
did you see it?
burned longer than fireworks
did you see it?
Suppose there is no eternal light, then what?
Suppose there is not a single ray of light, then what?
Slowly entering sleep? Gradually dying?
And how, in this endless bardo,
can one be spared
the invisible temptations of every wrong turn?
A single drop of water falls on the eyelid
of the one who is fast asleep.
A single teardrop in the darkness laments
the death of the soul that lost its mind.
But some people say, as if in the whisper
of a country a lifetime ago:
‘If you want to know how much
darkness there is around you,
you must sharpen your eyes,
peering at the faint lights in the distance . . .’
(Tsering Woeser, Beijing 2018, translated by Ian Boyden)
A poem by Tsering Woeser from chapter 2 of Impermanence: Exploring continuous change across cultures, edited by Haidy Geismar, Ton Otto, and Cameron David Warner.
Tsering Woeser (tshe ring ‘od zer) is a Tibetan writer and activist who lives in Beijing.
Haidy Geismar is Professor of Anthropology in the UCL Department of Anthropology where she is also curator of the UCL Ethnography Collections.
Ton Otto is Professor of Anthropology at Aarhus University, Denmark, and James Cook University, Australia.
Cameron David Warner is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Aarhus University, Denmark.
