The state of the art on state origins?

Claessen, Henri J.M., and Peter Skalnik, eds. The Early State. New Babylon Studies in the Social Sciences No. 32. The Hague: Mouton, 1978. xii + 689 pp. including maps, figures, tables, separate bibliographies, and index. $68.00 cloth.

Claessen, Henri J.M., and Peter Skalnik, eds. The Study of the State. New Babylon Studies in the Social Sciences No. 35. The Hague: Mouton, 1981. xvi + 535 pp. including figures, tables, separate bibliographies, and index. $52.00 cloth.     

The ability of modern secretary

Modern secretaries need to master a lot of oldand new skills including some required skills and some modernabilities.And secretaries in modern offices also have to mastersome special skills to be supportive to their bosses.     

The “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”: China's modern trauma

This paper examines and analyses the causes and consequences of the Cultural Revolution in China. This great twentieth century Chinese trauma cannot be detached from Mao as a person. He was its initiator and – as a charismatic leader – stood above the people and the party, and in the consciousness of the majority of the people was perceived as a great, compelling leader. This paper traces the historical setting, the causes, the process and the consequences of this tremendous political and social movement. In addition, the role of Mao and the concepts of his followers are scrutinized. Finally, the issue of whether or not the Cultural Revolution should be classified as a “revolution” is discussed.     

Marxism in archaeology: Real or spurious?

Spriggs, Matthew, ed. Marxist Perspectives in Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. viii + 158 pp. including photographs, individual bibliographies, index. $39.50 cloth.

Miller, Daniel, and Christopher Tilley, eds. Ideology, Power and Prehistory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. viii + 157 pp. including photographs, individual bibiographies, index. $39.50 cloth.     

Potemkin Portals or the Real Revolution? The State of E‐Government in Egypt

Effective and optimized e‐government in Egypt faces daunting challenges that are less technical in nature and more over the issues of institutional resistance and of political will. A review of the state of e‐government in Egypt is presented with analysis focusing on the state of service implementation in 2012. The points of discussion on e‐government covered here include:

• E‐subjugation in the guise of e‐government via information control and cyber‐snooping;
• Institutional resistance to the transformation of routine functions into automated systems;
• Institutional resistance to transparency of government operations;
• Analysis of the state of Egyptian ministry websites on six dimensions of e‐government development;
• Discussion on implementation of Egypt's e‐government master plan;
• Commentary on the revolutionary potential of e‐government augmented by vision, competence, and leadership; and
• Caveats that are important to note in moving the vision of e‐governance from concept to practice.

     

Early modern or late imperial philology? The crisis of classical learning in eighteenth century China

The discourses of classical scholars during the eighteenth century reinforced a shift from Song-Ming rationalism to a more skeptical and secular classical empiricism. By making precise scholarship the source of acceptable knowledge, Qing classicists contended that the legitimate reach of ancient ideals should be reevaluated through comparative delineation of the textual sources from which all such knowledge derived. This turn to empirically based classical inquiry meant that abstract ideas and rational argumentation gave way as the primary objects of elite discussion to concrete facts, verifiable institutions, ancient natural studies, and historical events. In general, Qing classicists regarded Song and Ming “Learning of the Way” as an obstacle to verifiable truth because it discouraged further inquiry along empirical lines. The empirical approach to knowledge they advocated placed proof and verification at the heart of analysis of the classical tradition. During this time, scholars and critics also applied historical analysis to the official Classics. Classical commentary yielded to textual criticism and a “search for evidence” to refortify the ancient canon. Representing a late imperial movement in Confucian letters, Qing classicists still sought to restore the classical vision. The early modern power of their philology, however, yielded the forces of decanonization and delegitimation as modernist trends, which went beyond the intellectual limits they had imposed on their own writings.     

Whose world and whose archaeology? The colonial present and the return of the political

El autor identifica un proyecto colonial crecientemente agresivo funcionando en Irak y Afganistán y considera que el fallo catastrófico de la comunidad arqueológica occidental de responder apropiadamente a las condiciones en ambas naciones. La manera de énfasis sobre arqueología está contribuyendo activamente no solamente a la legitimidad de una guerra ilegal y sin ética, sino también a la reproducción del régimen de poder y verdad que la guerra busca establecer. Se llama al WAC a “descentralizar” al mundo como es visto por los centros metropolitanos Occidentales, dejando a la “periferia” tomar la iniciativa, poner la agenda, y promover las medidas arqueológicas alternativas.

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Résumé L'auteur identifie un projet colonialiste de plus en plus agressif en Irak et en Afghanistan, et considère léchec catastrophique de la communauté des archéologues occidentaux à répondre de fa?on approprée aux conditions dans chacune de ces deux nations. Insister sur l'archéologie contribue activement, non seulement à légitimer une guerre illégale et immorale, mais aussi à reproduire le régime de force et de vérité que la guerre cherche à établir. Il en appelle au WAC pour'dé-centrer'la vision du monde des centres métropolitains occidentaux, afin de permettre à la ‘périphérie’ de prendre l'initiative, de mettre en place un agenda, et de préconiser des épistémologies archéologiques alternatives.

     

The social origins of cognition: A basis for reintegrating anthropology and psychology?

Wertsch, James V., ed. Culture, Communication and Cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985. x + 379 pp. including notes, bibliography, and indices. $42.50 cloth, $14.00 paper.

Rogoff, Barbara, and Jean Lave, eds. Everyday Cognition: Its Development in Social Context. Cambridge: Harvard Unversity Press, 1984. vi + 352 pp. including notes, bibliography, and index. $27.50 cloth.     

Global scarcity and modern technology: Crisis or opportunity?

William Ophuls. Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1977. xi + 303 pp. Figures, tables, references, and index. $6.95 paper.

L. S. Stavrianos. The Promise of the Coming Dark Age. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1976. x +211 pp. Footnotes and index. $4.95 pape     

The origins of New Zealand’s first government house

SUMMARY: In 1842 the former first government house located at Okiato, New Zealand, burnt to the ground and the site was abandoned. A well on the site was excavated in 1994–95, revealing a base layer of burnt timbers, a Maori digging stick and ceramic sherds with an estimated manufacture date range of 1823–41. We argue that this deposit is derived from the 1842 destruction of the Okiato government house building. An analysis of the wood identified kauri (Agathis australis) and kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides), confirming that the building was not a prefabricated imported structure, but rather was constructed on site from locally available timber.     

Pragmatism or what? The future of US foreign policy

This article discusses the intellectual sources of the presidential candidates' foreign policies. In the case of Barack Obama, the article examines the formation of his worldview, his intellectual inspirations, his most significant foreign policy appointments and the diplomatic course he has pursued as president. Mitt Romney's foreign policy views are harder to identify with certainty, but his business and political career—as well as the identity and dispositions of his advisory team—all provide important clues as to the policies he will pursue if elected in November 2012. The article finds much common ground between the two candidates; both are results‐driven pragmatists, attuned to nuance and complexity, who nonetheless believe—in agreement with Robert Kagan—that US geostrategic primacy will continue through the span of the twenty‐first century. The gulf between the candidates on domestic policy is vast, but on foreign policy—Romney's bellicose statements through the Republican primaries served a purpose that has passed—there is little between them.     

The future of the Arctic: cauldron of conflict or zone of peace?

The forces of climate change and globalization are transforming the Arctic, tightening the links between this seemingly remote region and the world at large with regard to matters of environmental protection, sustainable development, and the pursuit of peace. This has triggered an explosion of both popular and scholarly interest in the far north. Much of the resultant literature is marked by persistent expectations that the Arctic will become the scene of escalating jurisdictional conflicts, resource wars, a new great game and even armed clashes during the coming years. Yet as the books considered in this review article make clear, these expectations are greatly exaggerated; there is much to be said for the proposition that armed conflict is less likely to occur in the Arctic than in most other parts of the world anytime soon. What is needed is an alternative paradigm to provide a basis for understanding the significance of the profound changes now eroding the old order in the Arctic and establishing a basis for framing innovative governance arrangements capable of ensuring the future of the Arctic as a zone of peace.     

The future of human geography? Reflections on reading three recent texts

It is vital that we teach our students to understand and evaluate the rich diversity of geography's conceptual and philosophical approaches. If we do not, they will be in a poor position in their future careers to justify the application of particular geographical skills, or to understand the linkages between geography and other disciplines. Society's respect for the value and relevance of geography will be diminished and the subject's future placed in jeopardy. This article gives some pointers to the conceptual and philosophical bases of different approaches, and expresses concern that, despite the considerable strengths of two of the three text books reviewed they all fail to discuss the differences of approach evident in their source material and the implications of these differences.     

Tortuosity or aneurysm? The palaeopathology of some abnormalities of the vertebral artery

The anatomy of the vertebral artery (VA) and two pathological conditions which affect it—tortuosity and aneurysm—are described. The changes which these lesions produce in the cervical vertebrae are also described and we present two cases in which these changes have been found. One case is of a female aged at least 45 years at the time of death from a 15th century medieval cemetery site in Britain with what we consider to be tortuosity of the VA. The second case is of a male aged between 25 and 35 years at the time of death from a Coffin period site in Japan, dating to ca 1600 years BP. The changes in this skeleton are considered to be more in keeping with a diagnosis of aneurysm of the VA. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.