An Intertextual Reading of the Theophany of Psalm 97

This article applies an intertextual method of reading the Psalms in order to discern the full meaning of the theophany of Ps 97. It is argued that Ps 97 actualizes the claims in Pss 93-100 that Yahweh reigns by giving the reader a (textual) theophany which would have been particularly meaningful in an exilic or post-exilic context.     

Viking age horse graves from Kaunas region (Middle Lithuania)

Balts' territories have one peculiarity—large amounts of horse bones are found in burial grounds. This phenomenon is typical to the Prussians (5th–11th centuries) and Lithuanians (Kaunas region 8th–11th centuries) Horse burials of the 8th–11th centuries reflect the archaeological culture of Middle Lithuania most significantly. Several horse burial types have been defined on the basis of individuals; osteological signs and the archaeological data of the horse remains. A typical horse grave is when the whole horse was buried. Sometimes only a head or a head with forelegs, or scattered horse remains are found in a burial. The large number of burial grounds with an abundance of horse graves testifies to a very expressive ritual of horse offering in the Balts' region. On the basis of the data obtained, we determined that mostly 4–10 year old horses were buried in the grounds of Middle Lithuania. From the bone measurements, it has been determined that the length of metacarpals ranges between 180 and 216 mm (the average length 193.1±0.99 mm); the length of metatarsals between 218 and 253 mm (average length 233.9±0.73 mm).These data demonstrate that horses of different types were buried in Marvelė and Veršvai burial grounds (wither height 120–136 cm). A certain number of the larger horses (wither height 136–144 and 153 cm; length of metacarpals 210–222 mm) might not have belonged to local breeds. We have come to the conclusion that the most similar horse skeletons (according to the osteometric data) were found in Latvia. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Man of faith and political commitment: Alcide De Gasperi in the history of Europe

Since the early 1980s historians and others have been radically revising established understandings of the Italian south. New research has undermined the notion of a dichotomy between north and south and has begun to challenge the parameters of the Southern Question itself. The books reviewed here reflect, comment upon and drive forward this process of revision. One suggestion is that representations of the south as 'backward', 'picturesque' or fundamentally 'different' are the product of ideological and political elaboration rather than the reflection of any fundamental reality, and should be seen as part of a neo-Orientalist discourse which justified southern subordination. While acknowledging the strengths of this new history of the Mezzogiorno, this article argues that the neo-Orientalist explanation risks simply restating southern difference and subordination in another form. What is needed instead is a new, and less dichotomized, approach to southern Italian cultures and a recognition of the complexities - and hence the importance - of southern identities.     

L'écologisme français entre présent évanescent et avenir incertain

This article reviews the factors determining whether the ecology movement in France has been a success or a failure. Broadly speaking the French ecology move ment - l'écologisme français - came into existence to fulfil a dual ambition. First, through its incursion into the political arena - an incursion initially thought of as temporary - its purpose was to force other political parties and public bodies to pay greater attention to environmental issues. Second, in the swirl of ideas following May 1968, its ambition was to become a 'politics of the future': among other things, it would strive to displace the other parties and undermine or redefine the traditional divide between the Left and Right. These and other concerns are analysed in order to assess what role 'ecologism' plays in France today. This article is based on the author's latest book, L'introuvable écologisme français (PUF, 2000).     

Surviving the Mid-Fifteenth-Century Recession: Durham Cathedral Priory, 1400–1520

Abstract

'Surviving the Mid-Fifteenth-Century Recession: Durham Cathedral Priory, 1400–1520'. The exact chronology of the fifteenth-century recession and its impact on medieval landowners is still far from clear, whilst the stimulus and timing of recovery are even more uncertain. Recent research has shown that the economy of the North-East of England stagnated after the recession with few signs of recovery. Despite this, successive bursars of Durham Priory were able to reduce arrears, waste and decay from a combined total of £540 in 1453/4 to a meagre £18 by 1519/20, whilst simultaneously raising overall rents by £130. This was made possible by the responsiveness of the bursars of Durham Priory who consciously adapted their style of management, rent collection process, and even repairs, all in the pursuit of increased efficiency. Landlords did not become passive with the leasing of their lands, and this concerted effort by a northern landowner to improve efficiency is in evidence across England. This was not a period of continuous decline or stagnation, even in the North-East, and the improvement in rent collection found here may reflect upon recovery in the region that other economic indicators, such as cash tithe receipts, are not sensitive enough to register.     

Legg–Calvé–Perthes Disease and unifocal eosinophilic granuloma in a visigoth from the Duratón necropolis (Segovia,Spain)

Individual number 12, exhumed at the Duratón Visigoth necropolis (Segovia, Spain), was found in a supine position inside a simple fossa without adornments. He was a very robust adult (∼50/60 years) male presenting two pathologies, independently originated and both occurring in a particular anatomical area: the right hip. The first one has been diagnosed as Legg–Calvé–Perthes Disease, and it affects the right femur and the coxal. The femoral head has a diameter that is much greater than usual, with a porous articular surface, no fovea capitis and a marked arthritic secondary growth which is inserted in the femoral neck; the coxal shows a pathological acetabulum larger than the left one, and having osseous borders. The second disease, considered a unifocal eosinophilic granuloma, is in the inner face of the right ilium, and practically occupies the whole iliac fossa. The development of the two pathologies and their probable repercussions on the individual's mobility, on the basis of the study of both the pathological and normal pieces recovered, are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

1956 and the PSI: The end of 'ten winters'

The focus of this article is the revisionist course which the Italian Socialist Party embarked upon after 1956 and which led up to the first Centre-Left government. The article challenges two quite well established views. One view is that the transformation experienced by the PSI during the 1956-64 period was simply tactically expedient and devoid of any substance and consistency. This article argues, by contrast, that these years represented, in Alessandro Pizzorno's words, a veritable 'Copernican revolution'. This period of revisionism was as important as the better-known revisionisms elaborated during the same period by other European Socialist parties such as the German SPD or British Labour. The second main argument is that 'structural reformism', the new strategy adopted by the PSI after 1956, was not, as it has often been described, an expression of 'duplicity' owing to the party's incapacity to behave like a genuinely reformist party - a phenomenon that has allegedly long characterized parties of the Left. Instead, the strategy was reflected in the changes to European socialism during the early 1960s. In particular, this period marked a contrast to the previous years which were characterized by the dominance of ideas of 'redistributive' socialism, a ¤ la Anthony Crosland. This period marked also a shift among Socialist parties towards the acceptance of greater state controls over the economy by way of public planning and ownership.     

Formgeschichtliche und sprachliche beobachtungen zu psalm 57

Usually, Ps 57 is seen as formcritically mixed, but the exact interrelation between personal lament und thanksgiving song has not yet been established. Philological observations (especially, verbal forms and sentence structures) and formcritical deliberations make it clear, that 2-6 is a lament and 7(!)-12 a thanksgiving song. Therefore, 7 is interpreted as a retrospect of the trouble (7ab) and as a report of the deliverance (7cd). The tricola 8abc and 9abc have the same structure: a citation of a song (ab) followed by a speech-action (c). The structure of the psalm with its two stanzas and the closing refrains support this interpretation. By means of different poetic elements (refrain, the word "heaven" etc.) the two genres are interrelated, resulting in an organic whole.     

'With a strong hand and an outstretched arm' the meaning of the expression byd hzqh wbzrw' ntwyh

The expression ''with a strong hand and an outstretched arm'' is usually understood as being an expression of the power of God. There are various suggestions as to which aspect of his power is indicated: The power of inflicting plague and sickness or his power as a warrior - or whether the expression is used as a counterpart to Egyptian royal terminology. It is suggested here that the expression does refer to the power of inflicting plague and sickness, for the following reasons: ''With a strong hand and an outstretched arm'' is a parallelism between two collocations of words, ''strong hand'' and ''outstretched hand'' (''arm'' + the verb ''stretch out''). When the two collocations, both containing the word ''hand'', were made to form a parallelism, the element ''arm'' was the added to one of them to achieve variation between the units of the parallelism. The element ''arm'', which often has a military connotation, is then an extraneous component to the expression. The outcome of ''stretching out the hand'' in the Pentateuch and the historical books is miraculous events, some of these being a number of the plagues. The expression does not seem to have any military connotation in the account of the Exodus. A comparison with the literatures of other Semitic languages shows that in the ancient Near East not only ''the hand'' of a deity inflicting plague and sickness can be found, but actually ''a strong hand''. In most of the occurrences of the expression in the Pentateuch apparently the entire experience of Israel in Egypt is signified. Only in Exod 3,19; 6,1; (where we cannot be sure whether the arm belongs to YHWH or to Pharaoh) and 6,6 the expression is connected to specific traditions in the account of the Exodus, and these are exactly the plague traditions.     

Reviews

Excavations at Carthage: The British Mission, Volume II, 1: The Circular Harbour, North Side: The Site and Finds Other Than Pottery H. R. HURST 335 pp., many illustrations Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1994, £75, ISBN 0-17-727003-4 Excavations at Carthage, The British Mission Volume II, 2: The Circular Harbour, North Side: The Pottery (BA Monographs in Archaeology No. 5) M. G. FULFORD and D. P. S. PEACOCK with contributions from Henry Hurst, Kathryn Knowles and Jane Timby 124 pp., 39 line-drawings, 1 half-tone illustration British Academy and Oxford University Press, 1995, £30, ISBN 0-19-727004-2 Saint-Blaise/Bains des Dames 1: palynologie d'un site néolithique et histoire de la végetation des derniers 16,000 ans (Archéologie Neuchâteloise 18) PHILIPPE HADORN 121 pp.+ 50 pp., illustrated (colour plates) Musée Cantonal d'Archéologie, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 1994, Sw.Fr. 70 The History of English Sea Ordnance 1523–1715, Volume I: 1523–1715, The Age of Evolution ADRIAN B. CARUANA 237 pp., illustrated Jean Boudriot Publications, Rotherfield, Sussex TN6 3QX, UK, 1994, £50 The Sea-Gunner (1691) JOHN SELLER 258 pp + xiv, 3 plates Facsimile reprint with an Introduction by Adrian B. Caruana Jean Boudriot Publications, Rotherfield, 1994, £37 (cloth bound), £60 (leather bound), ISBN 0-948864-25-7 or ISBN 0-948864-26-5 (respectively) Die Reise nach Batavia, Deutsche Abenteurer in Ostasien, 1609 bis 1695 PETER KIRSCH 440 PP. Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg, 1994, D.mk.49.80 ISBN 3-8225-0297 La Grotte Cosquer—Peintures et Gravures de la Caverne engloutie JEAN CLOTTES and JEAN COURTIN 189 pp., illustrated Editions du Seuil. Paris. 1994, F.fr 390, ISBN 2-020-198207 La Grotte Cosquer: Plongée dans la Prehistoire HENRI COSQUER 119 pp., 119 photographs + 2 plans in colour (all) Solar, Spain, 1992, F.fr. 150, ISBN 2-263-01943-X A History of Working Watercraft of the Western World (2nd edition) THOMAS C. GILLMER 276 pp., illustrated International Marine, P.O. Box 220, Camden, Maine, 04843, USA, 1994. £17.95 or $25.95, ISBN 0-07-023616-X The New Maritime History of Devon vol. II—from the Late Eighteenth Century to the Present Day M. DUFFY, S. FISHER, B. GREENHILL, D. STARKEY and JOYCE YOUINGS 272 pp., illustrated University of Exeter & Conway Maritime Press, London, 1994, £35, ISBN 0-85177-6337     

Jaume Cabré's Viatge d’hivern and the Short Story Cycle

Critics have been uncertain as to the genre of Catalan writer Jaume Cabré's 2000 book, Viatge d’hivern. The confusion, I argue, is due to the fact that the volume is a short story cycle, a literary form situated midway between the novel and the short story collection. Forrest Ingram differentiates among composed, arranged, and completed cycles, and Cabré's comments in his Epilogue to Viatge d’hivern indicate that the book is an example of the third category. While he composed its fourteen narratives over a period of years, when he revised them for inclusion in a single volume he discovered that various threads, some secret and others more obvious, connected the stories. In this essay I examine ways in which theme, structure, and motifs, as well as recurrent imagery and wording, form a web of associations among the individual units of Viatge d’hivern.     

Minding Your Peers and Queers: Female sex workers in the AIDS discourse in Australia and South-east Asia {1}

Sex workers have been incorporated into the Western AIDS discourse initially as a category of 'risk group'. The model of 'peer education' developed successfully by gay men in the West has been used with sex workers in Australia and is being exported to South-east Asia. This paper shows that the role of the 'peer educator' is paradoxical, and embedded in locally specific laws, cultural factors and power relations involving the sex industry. Ignoring the politico-cultural context can mean that peer workers are involved in their own surveillance and in reinforcing the stigma of sex work. The 'Asian prostitute' has been characterised both as an exotic commodity and as the focus of 'AIDS panic'; however, alternative voices express both complexity of the sex industry and more immediate concerns which need to be confronted before HIV/AIDS can be given meaning.     

La cohabitation de longue durée: Studying the 1997-2002 experience

This article examines the politics of what the French call 'cohabitation' in the period 1997-2002. It identifies two different ways in which cohabitation is studied. The first assumes that each of the three periods of cohabitation has occurred under a unique set of political circumstances. The second argues that there have been institutional similarities between each of the three periods of cohabitation and that fundamentally the political situation during each has been the same. The article provides evidence that supports both approaches, and concludes by suggesting that the second approach is the more useful.     

Ideology and the history of ancient Israel

An answer to the recent criticism of Ian Provan and James Barr of the position of the so-called ''revisionists'' among Old Testament scholars. Provan - as well as Barr - accuses the revisionists for being ''ideologists'', i.e., that ideology has governed their research. This is a false accusation. The revisionists originally shared the ideology of the scholarship of the modern age. Only at a later date they adopted, forced by their analyses, an ideological approach to the reading of text that seems more on-line with ideas that are said to be postmodern.     

Analyzing the process of domestication: Hagoshrim as a case study

Recent excavations at the Neolithic site of Hagoshrim, northern Israel, have yielded a large assemblage of skeletal fragments, representing mostly caprines, cattle and pigs. The three layers of the site's occupation span approximately 2000 years of a crucial period in the domestication of these taxa in the southern Levant, including Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (Layer 6, 7562 ± 85 BP and 7735 ± 55 BP) and the Pottery Neolithic cultures, Jericho IX (Layer 5, 6725 ± 120 BP) and Wadi Raba (Layer 4, 6505 ± 120 BP). Therefore, this site provides an outstanding opportunity to study the process of domestication in a comparative manner, both across taxa and through time. We used kill-off patterns, size reduction and changes in body proportions, and introduced statistical methods to discern the different stages of the domestication process for each taxon. Pig remains reflect simultaneous changes at the end of the 7th millennium BP: kill-off patterns, size and proportions of cranial and post-cranial elements all change between Layer 5 and 4 with no significant changes between Layer 6 and 5. Gradual changes—both between Layer 6 and 5 and between Layer 5 and 4—were found only for cattle, while caprine remains exhibit no changes throughout the site's occupation. These results can be explained in light of the differences between the taxa in terms of their life history strategies, among other things, that can be viewed as pre-adaptations to domestication.     

DOGS, 'WATER' AND WALL

1 Sam 25 describes David and Nabal on a collision course diffused by Nabal's wife Abigail. Had she not been successful, David would not have left ''a single one who urinates against a wall'' (25,22.34). The phrase also appears a number of times in 1-2 Kgs. Much has been written about this phrase either in reference to dogs or male humans, but very little scholarship has discussed it in terms of canine realia. We intend to re-examine all of the verses and will attempt to show that some of the later Rabbinic commentary was sensitive to canine realia and maybe of help in determining the meaning of the phrase.     

Merchandising and sanctity: the invasive cult of Padre Pio

In the final decades of the twentieth century, the Blessed Padre Pio da Pietrelcina (1887-1968) became a 'saint' of global stature. It is most exceptional for the cult of a saint to acquire such dimensions in so short a time. Further, this is the story not of someone with a modern profile of sanctity,but someone who on the contrary answers to the traditional model of sanctity, and whose cult is moreover characterized by an instrumental devotional repertoire. Despite this 'classic' model, his person and cult are extremely ambiguous. This article describes and analyses the processes which have brought and continue to bring this about, and the recent development of the cult in Italy. By these processes a controversial cult, often associated with anti-ecclesiastical devotional activities and of limited scope, has become one of the most important and irreproachable in Italy. In part through the personal support of Pope John Paul II, in about a decade Padre Pio has grown from a friar in a controversial fundamentalist context to an almost invulnerable national saint, who is beginning to become a part of the Italian identity. The power of his cult is so strong - a devotional avalanche - that it has sidelined other cults, and to an increasingly large degree defines the Italian sacred landscape. The Pio cult encroaches on other devotions, and moreover is becoming its own competitor: to an increasing degree Pio's central pilgrimage site at San Giovanni Rotondo is losing pilgrims to the secondary pilgrimage site at Pietrelcina and to the hundreds of chapels and local shrines that have sprung up the length of Italy.