The Problem of Creating a Kazakhstan Metallurgical Base

The author favors early development of the high-phosphorus oolitic iron ores of the Lisakovka deposit in Kustanay Oblast, selecting the area of Irtyshshkoye at the intersection of the Irtysh River and the Middle Siberian Railroad as the best site for an iron and steel plant. A Lisakovka-based steel plant would yield basic slag for fertilizer in the surrounding virgin lands farm territory.     

Siberia at the Last Glacial Maximum: Environment and Archaeology

This article focuses on the presence of humans in Siberia and the Russian Far East at the coldest time of the Late Pleistocene, called the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and dated to c. 20,000–18,000 rcbp. Reconstruction of the LGM environment of Siberia, based on the latest models and compilations, provides a background for human existence in this region. Most of Siberia and the Russian Far East at c. 20,000–18,000 rcbp was covered by tundra and cool steppe, with some forest formations in the river valleys. Climate was much colder and drier than it is today. Eighteen Upper Paleolithic sites in Siberia are radiocarbon dated strictly to the LGM, and at least six of them, located in southern parts of western and eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, have solid evidence of occupation during that time span. It seems clear that southern Siberia was populated by humans even at the height of the LGM, and that there was no dramatic decline or complete disappearance of humans in Siberia at that time. The degree of human adaptation to periglacial landscapes in the mid-Upper Paleolithic of northern Eurasia was quite high; humans coped with the cold and dry environmental conditions using microblade technology, artificial shelters, tailored clothes, and megafaunal bones as fuel. An erratum to this article can be found at     

National Territory and the Reconstruction of History in Kazakhstan

This paper examines efforts to recreate the history of Kazakhstan for the purpose of bolstering that newly independent state's external and internal legitimacy. It first explores the interrelationship between nationalism and territory, and then proceeds to a discussion of the constructed historical linkages between the titular community and its current territory of residence. Included in the study is a brief review of counterhegemonic historiographies and also of relevant political conditions. Anchored in a theoretical framework, the paper incorporates population statistics as well as information obtained during interviews in Almaty in 2001. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, R23, Z13. 2 figures, 1 table, 92 references.     

Long-Term Occupation and Seasonal Settlement of Eastern Eurasian Pastoralists at Begash,Kazakhstan

Abstract

Recent excavations of the prehistoric pastoralist settlement of Begash, located in the Semirech'ye region of eastern Kazakhstan, provide evidence of one of the earliest pastoralist settlements in the eastern Eurasian steppe region. The archaeological complex at Begash includes a multi-period cemetery and rock art in addition to the settlement—a site complex that is well distributed throughout the koksu River Valley. Excavations at Begash have revealed three major phases of architectural development and six phases of material transition and site use, dated by a series of 34 calibrated radiocarbon AMS dates. These data demonstrate that mobile pastoral populations were active in the Dzhungar Mountains and koksu River Valley (Semirech'ye) as early as 2460 CAL B.C., more than 800 years earlier than previous theories suggested. Pastoralist activity at this domestic locale spans nearly 4000 years, with no archaeological evidence for long-term abandonment of the site in prehistory. Rather the occupational phases of the site are only interrupted by short-lived periods of disuse followed by centuries of re-engagement by local pastoralist communities. Thus, the broadly continuous record of material culture, domesticated faunal remains, and settlement at Begash index a local evolution of herding economies in Semirech'ye throughout the Bronze Age, beginning in the middle part of the 3rd millennium B.C. Ultimately, the data from Begash contribute a new perspective on the dynamic nature of Eurasian mobile pastoralists while also illustrating broad continuity in the settlement ecology of local populations that had a key role in the regional transmission of numerous innovations throughout the Bronze Age and later.     

Privatization and Foreign Investment in the Utilities Industries of Kazakhstan

An American economist specializing in the natural resource and related industries of Kazakhstan examines the experience in the privatization of that country's power generation, telecommunications, and postal services sectors. A focus is on the involvement of foreign companies in the process, the terms of the management contracts/joint-venture agreements, and the extremely short time frame within which privatization was implemented. Difficulties resulting from the rapid pace of privatization are described: unclear terms of sale, reversals of tender awards and cancellation of agreements, nonpayment by consumers, and uncertainties in the setting of rates. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F21, G34, L90. 1 figure, 1 table, 30 references.     

On the Question of Iron and Steel Plant Location in Kazakhstan

Among the iron-ore deposits of Kazakhstan, current attention is focused on the deposits of central Kazakhstan, as a raw-material source for the Karaganda steel plant, and on the Kustanay deposits, as an ore supply source for the steel plants of the southern Urals. The author discusses the potential utilization of a third iron-ore area situated on the north shore of the Aral Sea.     

Threading a needle: Kazakhstan between civic and ethno‐nationalist state‐building

This paper examines the state‐building project in Kazakhstan since independence in 1991. It argues that both civic and ethno‐nationalistic tendencies in state‐building can be identified but that it is not any particular trajectory of nationalism in Kazakhstan that is of significance so much as the tensions between two very different trajectories. We argue that, at least to date, the government has succeeded in managing these tensions quite effectively both at the policy level and in its relations with different ethnic groups and neighbouring states. Whether Kazakhstan can continue to manage these tensions in the post‐Nazarbayev era is one of the most significant questions facing the country.     

Household Incomes in Central Asia: The Case of Post-Soviet Kazakhstan

Two European geographers present the findings of a sizeable survey (n = 7,515) providing a detailed geographical analysis of household incomes and reliance on personal subsidiary garden plots across Kazakhstan. The authors focus on assessing the extent to which Kazakhstan's rising GDP during the post-Soviet period has coincided with an increase in the general population's personal income and ability to secure adequate food supplies for personal consumption. The fine geographical scale of analysis of the survey data (significantly less coarse than oblast-level data) enabled them to identify regions characterized by "trickle-down" income, largely centered on the country's two main urban centers and areas of resource exploitation. The patterns revealed in the paper have relevance to the debate concerning the uneven distribution of benefits from resource exploitation (notably oil and gas) to Kazakhstan's population. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D100, D310, I300, Q120, R290. 2 figures, 6 tables, 51 references.     

Situating Justice in the Environment: The Case of BHP at the Ok Tedi Copper Mine

The rubric of sustainable development has now gained wide theoretical and political acceptance in the global community. However, after the Rio Declaration, each nation must now confront the specific question of how to decide between those industries and activities that are sustainable and those that are not when conflicting social and ecological interests are at stake. Any fundamental change to resource allocation will have social distributional consequences, and the issue of justice therefore becomes a critical element of any sustainability formulation. This paper contributes to this debate by exploring the potential for a politically grounded theory of justice in and to the environment. More specifically, we argue for a situated analysis that nevertheless retains the postulate of a neo-Kantian universal ethic as the foundation for global institutions that could integrate and safeguard the principles of justice and ecological responsibility underpinning most notions of sustainability. We show this by locating the question of justice in a particular conflict of interest, that between the Australian mining giant Broken Hill Proprietary, Ltd., and the traditional landowners of an area on the Ok Tedi river in Papua New Guinea.     

Management of Historic Shipwrecks Through a Combination of Significance and Conservation Assessments

Abstract

Corrosion modelling of decay rates of the iron wrecks in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, has enabled an estimation of the speed at which the historic resource of iron shipwrecks is disappearing. Use of the significance ranking of the iron wrecks, based on the Australian National Standards for significance assessment, provides a useful guide to decision-making, but decisions based solely on these criteria can lead to less than optimal results. From the corrosion rates and the amount of residual metal thickness in structural elements it is possible to determine a conservation ranking that is based on the need for intervention and the chances of being successful in stabilizing the wrecks. The arithmetic product of the significance and conservation rankings defines the treatment score or ranking which forms the basis for rational decision making about deployment of resources.     

兰克在新中国史学界的境遇

马克思受德国左翼知识分子的影响,曾对兰克作了否定性的评价,后经苏联学者的进一步发挥,兰克被定格为反动派。马克思的兰克评语早在1945年即已通过苏联学者的论文译介到中国,但最初似无影响,至1960年代初借助各种译著的传布,始被中国史家所熟知,深刻影响了他们对兰克的认知。1958年开始中国史学界推行"兴无灭资"的史学革命,开展两条路线斗争。为了更好批判中外资产阶级史学,1960年代初大陆史学界密集译介兰克的资料,有些史家积极批判兰克,但所凭借的文献多为二手著作,很少有人直接阅读兰克作品。进入"文革"时代,兰克话题已然进入禁区。     

Archaeology at the micro-scale: micromorphology and phytoliths at a Swahili stonetown

Geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical techniques are increasingly applied to the study of urban and domestic space. However, they are seldom performed as part of an integrative approach, where the soil and botanical micro-records are used together. This paper presents the preliminary results of ongoing research at Songo Mnara in Tanzania that combines customised intra-site soil macro- and micromorphological analyses, chemical analysis and the study of phytoliths. The research is part of a multidisciplinary project on the use of urban space in Swahili stonetowns. By eliciting multiple datasets from Songo Mnara, this paper illustrates the potential of integrating geoarchaeology and archaeobotany to investigate the use of space in urban contexts. The approach is a novelty within the context of Swahili archaeology and an emerging one in Africa.     

Entitlement through numbers: nationality and language categories in the first post‐Soviet census of Kazakhstan*

Abstract. The post‐independence censuses in virtually all post‐Soviet states have become contested tools of nation‐building and ethnic entitlements. No state was politically more determined and psychologically more anxious to conduct its population census than Kazakhstan, in which the eponymous Kazakhs did not constitute a majority. The article points at political and identity pressures that made it inevitable that the first post‐Soviet census produce the ‘right’ numbers and officialise the anticipated majority status of Kazakhs in the multiethnic state. By analysing the census data on language, it shows how the state has constructed a politically desirable form of linguistic reality by altering the established category ‘native language’ in the census. This not only offers a compelling rationale for ethnic and linguistic entitlements, but also seeks to demonstrate the ‘success’ of the state's language policy.