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326 Alphabet Soup
5. mission and agenda
At the heart of this investigation lies the question: how do the
editors responsible explain their mission, or reveal their
agenda? Just why was the Mediterranean found good to think
with? Perhaps not surprisingly, little uniformity emerges in
answer, but some simple trends can be discerned.
First, there are some periodicals which seem to have felt little
or no compulsion (or compunction) to justify their selected title
and compass. They merely assert it. One example is Mediterranean
Studies: The Journal of the Mediterranean Studies Association,
whose most informative introductory rubric states:
‘Mediterranean Studies is an interdisciplinary annual devoted
to the study of the Mediterranean region from the beginnings to
the present . . . Topics concerning any aspect of the history,
literature, politics, arts, geography, or any subject focused on
the Mediterranean region in any period of history are appropriate.’
11 Similarly, the Journal of Mediterranean Anthropology and
Archaeology simply announced, on its inside front cover, what it
would publish: ‘papers on a wide range of topics relating to the
Anthropology and Archaeology of the Mediterranean area, including
the latest results of research in biogenetics, classical
archaeology, palaeodemography, palaeoecology, the palaeoenvironment,
palaeopathology, palaeopopulation genetics, prehistoric
archaeology as well as interdisciplinary studies . . . ’. Nor
does Scripta Mediterranea adumbrate its mission beyond stating,
for example on its website, ‘the journal publishes articles
studying all aspects of Mediterranean culture and civilization,
past and present, with a special interest in interdisciplinary and
cross-cultural investigation’. Finally, the first issue of Mediterraneo
Antico leapt directly into substantive articles, though its
website offers a more general background (to be further discussed
below) for the journal’s ambitions.
Other journals, by contrast, are more forthrightly selfconscious
and argumentative about what they are trying to
achieve. Four cases will be highlighted here, one of strongly
historical character (Mediterranean Historical Review), two with
a principally archaeological focus (Mediterranean Archaeology:
11 http://www.asu.edu/clas/acmrs/medstud.html.