Peter Mark – författare

This study of the cattle-horned initiation masks of southern Senegal and the Gambia weaves together art history, history, and cultural anthropology to give a detailed view of Casamance cultures, as they have interacted and changed over the past two centuries. Based on seven field trips to West Africa and fifteen years of research in colonial archives and museum collections from Dakar to Leipzig, Professor Mark's work presents a subtle interpretation of Casamance horned masquerades, their complex ritual symbolism, and the metaphysical concepts to which they allude. In tracing the cultural interaction and changing identity of the peoples of the Casamance, the author convincingly argues for a dynamic approach to art and ethnic identity. Culture should be seen not as a fixed entity but as a continuing process. This dynamic model reflects the history of interaction between Manding and Diola and between Muslim and non-Muslim, that has produced hybrid masks.

This book traces the history of early seventeenth-century Portuguese Sephardic traders who settled in two communities on Senegal's Petite Côte. There, they lived as public Jews, under the spiritual guidance of a rabbi sent by the newly established Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam and were protected from agents of the Inquisition by local Muslim rulers. The Petite Côte communities included several Jews of mixed Portuguese-African heritage as well as African wives, offspring, and servants. The blade weapons trade was an important part of their commercial activities. These merchants participated marginally in the slave trade but fully in the arms trade, illegally supplying West African markets with swords. This arms trade depended on artisans and merchants based in Morocco, Lisbon, and northern Europe and affected warfare in the Sahel and along the Upper Guinea Coast. The study discovers previously unknown Jewish communities and by doing so offers a reinterpretation of the dynamics and processes of identity construction throughout the Atlantic world.

This study of the cattle-horned initiation masks of southern Senegal and the Gambia weaves together art history, history, and cultural anthropology to give a detailed view of Casamance cultures, as they have interacted and changed over the past two centuries. Based on seven field trips to West Africa and fifteen years of research in colonial archives and museum collections from Dakar to Leipzig, Professor Mark's work presents a subtle interpretation of Casamance horned masquerades, their complex ritual symbolism, and the metaphysical concepts to which they allude. In tracing the cultural interaction and changing identity of the peoples of the Casamance, the author convincingly argues for a dynamic approach to art and ethnic identity. Culture should be seen not as a fixed entity but as a continuing process. This dynamic model reflects the history of interaction between Manding and Diola and between Muslim and non-Muslim, that has produced hybrid masks.

The Mountains in Art History is the first English-language work to focus on the mountains as subject matter and source of aesthetic and spiritual inspiration for painters. This collection of original essays is written entirely by Wesleyan University students of art history. The essays examine how artistic representation of mountains has varied through the lens of specific depictions in English and American literature, and consider how images of mountains functioned in conjunction with religion, the sublime, and Romanticism. These essays by student authors adeptly ruminate on works by individuals such as William Wordsworth, John Frederick Kensett, Alexander van Humboldt, Emil Nolde, and Arnold Fanck. Includes an introduction by professor Peter Mark and a helpful appendix of the course syllabus and narrative description.

This book traces the history of early seventeenth-century Portuguese Sephardic traders who settled in two communities on Senegal's Petite Côte. There, they lived as public Jews, under the spiritual guidance of a rabbi sent by the newly established Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam and were protected from agents of the Inquisition by local Muslim rulers. The Petite Côte communities included several Jews of mixed Portuguese-African heritage as well as African wives, offspring, and servants. The blade weapons trade was an important part of their commercial activities. These merchants participated marginally in the slave trade but fully in the arms trade, illegally supplying West African markets with swords. This arms trade depended on artisans and merchants based in Morocco, Lisbon, and northern Europe and affected warfare in the Sahel and along the Upper Guinea Coast. The study discovers previously unknown Jewish communities and by doing so offers a reinterpretation of the dynamics and processes of identity construction throughout the Atlantic world.

Optimization Aided Design: Reinforced ConcreteConcrete is the most used building material. Its main component, cement, however, accounts production- related for up to 10 % of global CO2 emissions and is therefore a major contributor to human-induced climate change. Due to its low tensile strength, concrete must be further enhanced in tension with adequate reinforcement, such as steel. Producing the latter therefore additionally impacts the environment. Consequently, reducing the material amount for design and construction of structures, thus lowering material- and transport-induced emissions, represents a key element to climate protection. In this context, meeting the essential requirements - sustainability, serviceability, durability - is yet indispensable.The book presents innovative optimization aided design methods for concrete structures. Mathematical optimization is applied to practical problems of structural concrete at each level: from external, through internal structure identification to cross-section design. It is shown how to design resource-efficient structures following the flux of forces, how to optimally adapt reinforcement layouts to the internal force flow, and how to efficiently cope with demanding cross-sectional design tasks such as biaxial bending.The optimization aided design methods are discussed in detail and described vividly. They are independent of standards, concrete material (normal to ultra-high performance) and reinforcement type (steel fibers to carbon bars), thus universally applicable. The book illustrates the different approaches with numerous figures and calculation examples. Existing applications in structural engineering are presented to demonstrate the potential of optimization aided design concepts, including ultra-lightweight hybrid beams, thin concrete solar collectors, and improved reinforcement layouts for tunnel lining segments.