Regional nationalism and consequent separatist tendencies have a significant impact on the territorial (dis)integration of many countries across the globe, and Europe is no exception. These processes contributed to changes in the traditional academic understanding of states as uniform, cohesive, and continuous political entities. Nevertheless, research on territorial and societal cohesion and continuity within regional nationalist movements has so far been neglected, even though this aspect seems to be key to the successful mobilization and goal achievement of separatist movements in heterogeneous democratic societies. This thesis aims to examine the limits of uniformity and continuity, that is, a time-space differentiation in political affiliations to secessionist regional nationalism in Catalonia, including the explanation of a time-space nonstationarity in the effects of factors behind the affiliations. Catalonia is an example of region with intense cultural and inclusive-assimilationist nationalism which proliferates within an ethno-culturally heterogeneous and segregated society. In the last decade, the region has shifted from a phase of everyday, "banal" nationalism to an explicit and dynamic nationalist mobilization, which has been brought about by (and further intensified) the deterioration...

Castration has a long temporal and geographical span. Its origins are unclear, but likely lie in the Ancient Near East around the time of the Secondary Products Revolution and the increase in social complexity of proto-urban societies. Due to the unique social and gender roles created by castrates’ ambiguous sexual state, human castrates were used heavily in strongly hierarchical social structures such as imperial and religious institutions, and were often close to the ruler of an imperial society. This privileged position, though often occupied by slaves, gave castrates enormous power to affect governmental decisions. This often aroused the jealousy and hatred of intact elite males, who were not afforded as open access to the ruler and virulently condemned castrates in historical documents. These attitudes were passed down to the scholars and doctors who began to study castration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, affecting the manner in which castration was studied. Osteometric and anthropometric examinations of castrates were carried out during this period, but the two World Wars and a shift in focus meant that castrate bodies were not studied for nearly eighty years. Recent interest in gender and sexuality in the past has revived interest in castration as a topic, but few studies of castrate remains have occurred. As large numbers of castrates are referenced in historical documents, the lack of castrate skeletons may be due to a lack of recognition of the physical effects of castration on the skeleton. The synthesis and generation of methods for more accurate identification of castrate skeletons was undertaken and the results are presented here to improve the ability to identify castrate skeletons within the archaeological record.