Dative Case Marking in Vafsi within the OT Framework

The dative case in Vafsi appears in three structures: (a) the case of the experiencer in sensory verbs, (b) the case of the indirect object (IO), and (c) the case of the object of the preposition /da/ (to), or the preposition /az/ (to), or the enclitic /-o/ (to), or the object of the postposition /rā/ (for). In Vafsi, as in many other Indo-European languages, sensory verbs necessitate the emergence of quirky subjects which have the experiencer function and are dative case marked. In order to analyze the dative case marking in Vafsi using optimality theory, this article uses the faithfulness constraint of faith-lex and the markedness constraint hierarchy of *ERG>>*DAT>>*ACC>>*NOM. Vafsi always allocates the dative case to the IO of the ditransitive verbs. This phenomenon is illustrated by use of an optimality theory (OT) tableau. Some Vafsi ditransitive verbs dative case mark the IOs using adpositions. If so, Vafsi differential adpositional case marking (DACM) will rule, as the IOs are objects of adposition (OAs) simultaneously.     

Dative for Accusative Case Interchange in Epistolary Formulas in Greek Papyrus Letters

Greek papyrus letters preserve not only instances of the replacement of the dative case; they also show the use of the dative instead of the accusative case as direct object and disjoint infinitival subject. This interchange is mostly found in epistolary phrases, namely the salutation formula (?σπ?ζομα? σε) and the initial (ε?χομα? σε ?για?νειν) and final (?ρρ?σθα? σε ε?χομαι) health wishes. The phonetic similarity of the pronouns might have created the circumstances for case confusion. Contamination of the constructions reflects the difficulties of the scribes to construct conservative epistolary phrases and, thereby, diachronic phraseological variation might reflect language change. In salutation formulas, the use of a dative Addressee could be explained by analogical overextension from the category of communication verbs taking a dative complement. The decline of the accusative and infinitive construction might be one of the reasons why the accusative disjoint infinitival subject is replaced by the dative case in health wishes.     

Early West African Metallurgies: New Data and Old Orthodoxy

The debate on West African metallurgies cannot be properly understood without reference to the colonial template that featured Africa as the receiving partner in all crucial social, economic, and technological development. The interesting debate that took place in West Africa during the Colonial Period was more meta-theoretical than factual. These conflicting glosses, despite their lack of empirical foundations, have constrained the nature of archaeological research and oversimplified the dynamics of the many facets of technological innovation. The relative boom in archaeological research that took place from the 1960s onwards resulted in an exponential growth of factual information. Challenging evidence has emerged from Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Togo, and Senegal. The picture that emerges from this survey calls for more sophisticated explanations for the origins of West African metallurgies away from the single non-African source hypothesis.     

Body Language: The Somatics of Nationalism in Tamil India

The modern nation resides, literally and symbolically, in the bodies of its citizenry. These bodies in turn constitute the national body politic. The female embodiment of the nation is frequently the ground on which the two bodies intersect. This essay explores this intersection through the analytic of the ‘somatics of nationalism’, with examples drawn from Tamil-speaking India in this century. Through an analysis of how images of the shared womb, blood, milk, and tears of the female embodiment of the nation were circulated by nationalist narratives, the author suggests that these were somatic building blocks with which the nation and its constituency were constructed in southern India. In turn, Tamil citizens were called upon to demonstrate their loyalty by putting their own bodies on line, shedding their own blood and that of their enemies, for the sake of the embodied nation. Nations and citizen-patriots may relate to each other politically, materially and emotionally, but they also do so somatically.     

Time and space in the Sri Lanka‐Tamil diaspora

Based upon fieldwork in Sri Lanka and among Tamil migrants in Norway, this article discusses the relationship between space, time and national identity. The author argues that in the Sri Lanka‐Tamil diaspora one finds two different conceptions of Tamil culture, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘revolutionary’. The first expresses a space‐time relationship that is nomadic and grounded in heritage; the second one is sedentary and historicist. The latter serves as a basis for Tamil separatism, the first does not. By propagating the ‘revolutionary’ model of culture, with its particular understanding of space and time, the Tamil separatist movement Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has adopted viewpoints that throughout this century have fuelled the nationalism of the Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka. The author argues that instead of explaining social change historically, which is one trend within anthropological theory today, anthropologists should concentrate on exploring under which conditions historical explanations are seen as more valid than their alternatives.     

Takahashi,Takanobu, Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

Fairies,Fractious Women,and the Old Faith: Fairy Lore in Early Modern British Drama and Culture

TABOU ET TOTÉMISME À MADAGASCAR: ÉTUDE DESCRIPTIVE ET THÉORIQUE. Par ARNOLD VAN GENNEP. Paris: E. Leroux, 1904. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

THE MASAI, THEIR LANGUAGE AND FOLK-LORE. By A. C. HOLLIS, with Introduction by Sir Charles Eliot Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1905, 8vo Pp. xxxii + 364. Price 14s. net. Reviewed by N. W. Thomas.

ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS. Edited from the Collection of Francis James Child by HELEN CHILD SARGENT and GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE. London: D. Nutt 1905. Reviewed by A. Lang.