The use of scripture in the temple scroll and the status of the scroll as law

Abstract

The narrative sections of the Hexateuch seem to reflect an Israelite pre‐history which contained experience of both tribal and city‐state life, but the history is presented in a tribal form. It is suggested that this is explained by a particular ideology underlying the narratives and rituals; that real tribes existed in the national memory, and these carried religious and political values which it was felt important to preserve. Such values, however, could not have survived without the support of a state apparatus, especially the Jerusalem temple and the Davidic kingship.

The paper concludes that this tribal ideology was related both to law and to the role of the Yahweh prophets, whose influence helped to counteract development of too much power in the kingship. As the structural tribe weakened with the advance of bureaucracy, tribal ideology strengthened, taking on a political function and becoming articulated with the bureaucratic process. Tribal ideology interacted with state‐type traditions inherited from the Cana‐anite element, producing a religious and political pluralism in Israel which gave her a distinctive character.

A return is made to the classic scholarship of Mowinckel, von Rad and Weiser, for construction of a hypothetic framework for further examination of Hebrew tribal values. Through the insights of these authors, together with sociological considerations drawn from modern ethnographies, it is felt that understanding of the tribe/state paradox in Israel may be heightened. In this respect, the paper opposes the position of the “social evolutionary” school, which fails to explain the place of tribal values in the Hebrew literature. Parallels seen as relevant to Israelite history and culture come from special tribal forms, specified within the paper.     

Energy and the evolution of Leslie A. White

Leslie A. White. The Concept of Cultural Systems: A Key to Understanding Tribes and Nations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975. xiii + 192 pp. Bibliography. $10.00.     

Copulation,conception and deception in aboriginal Australia

Ashley Montagu. Coming Into Being among the Australian Aborigines: A Study of the Procreative Beliefs of the Native Tribes of Australia. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974. Revised and Expanded Second Edition, xi + 426 pp., figures, notes, bibliography, and index.     

The Challenges of Financial Responsibility in the Tribal Administration of Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1919–1966

Abstract

This account of tribal finances in Bechuanaland Protectorate under British colonial rule argues that while the treasury dispensation made the tribes responsible for their finances, it also brought about a new dynamic and challenge in tribal communities as a result of a new monetary and financial system. Little or inadequate remuneration led to low morale, theft, and the employment of incompetent personnel in some instances. The colonial authority needed the chiefs to run tribal affairs and for political stability. As a result, chiefs often escaped unpunished whenever they were involved in peculation of funds. On the other hand, when tribal revenue workers did the same they were harshly dealt with. Efficiency and corruption in the treasury system differed from one area to another and was dependent on the character of the chief in the area.     

Partial texts: Representation,colonialism and agency in pacific history ∗

Abstract

The great ruling and sacred families of Polynesia were the senior representatives of tribal groupings or clans claiming a common homeland, or cult, and sometimes canoe tradition. Using the traditional framework of Polynesian history the inter‐island links and marriage patterns are examined in the four traditional periods, the age of the gods, the legendary period of the national or tribal ancestors, the semi‐legendary first genealogical period and the fourth period which commences with an ancestor from whom living chiefs can trace their descent without contradiction. A fifth period dealing with the great families since European contact and the rise of independent monarchies is also introduced. Particular emphasis is given to the interdependent yet dichotomous nature of tribal culture, the principal example being the relationship between Tonga and Samoa which originally appeared to be culturally distinct but socially one unit made up of two moieties. While modern political boundaries are largely artificial the great families continue to be mutually interdependent forming exogamous alliances and sharing a sense of pan‐Polynesian identity. The great sacred families, in contrast, tend to favour endogamous unions, a pattern emerging in modern Tonga indicative of a process of sacralisation.     

Alternatives to record-linkage in the study of urban migration: The uses of naturalization records

Abstract

In this article, the authors examine the growth of secondary school attainment in the United States between 1940 and 1980, exploring several different conceptual frames of reference. Using state-level data, the authors identify a diffusion model of educational expansion using a fixed-effects panel regression approach. This method is used to analyze change over time, with particular attention to evaluating nonlinear processes of growth. The authors consider the effect of a number of correlates on changing patterns of enrollment in the postwar era. Regional differences in attainment diminished during each decade, and a limited number of social and economic developments appear to have influenced rising enrollment, although most attainment growth appears to have been linked to a self-generating process of diffusion.     

Sir Robert G. A. Jackson (1911–91): an Appreciation

Abstract

Although the celestial observations made by the Aborigines were precise, the significance attached to them was conceptual rather than perceptual. It could not be derived from observation but only from knowledge gained by initiation into tribal values. The legends which embodied the astronomical knowledge had a threefold pragmatic role in tribal culture: they functioned as a predictive calendar for terrestrial events; they were associated with stories which reinforced the moral values pertaining to tribal identity; and they contributed to the belief system which provided a philosophical rationale for a tribe’s understanding of the universe. Selected myths relating to the sun, moon, the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, Venus, and various constellations are outlined and illustrated by traditional bark painting designs to provide examples of these general statements. Parallels are drawn with the theories of some contemporary philosophers of science.     

‘Oro‐dedicated Maro ‘Ura in Tahiti: Their rise and decline in the early post‐European contact period

Abstract

This paper is an examination of the significance of man ‘ura, or feather girdles, in Tahiti in the years immediately following European contact. It examines their relationship to ‘Oro, the Tahitian god of war, and their significance for tribal politics in Tahiti. The most significant man ‘ura in this period were those which had their origin at the Opoa marae in Ra'iatea, as it is said that it was here that ‘Oro was bom. Attempts by highly‐ranked ari'i to possess such man ‘ura, as well as an image of ‘Oro which usually travelled together with the man, fuelled a number of inter‐tribal conflicts in the period under study. However, as the worship of ‘Oro intensified, and the Pomares gained ascendancy, references to man ‘ura are no longer present in the sources.     

Women in Mangaian Society: A Historical Portrait

This article investigates commonly held assumptions about the subordinate place of women in Mangaian society before the arrival of Christianity. In a review of the available evidence from Mangaia and elsewhere in Polynesia, this paper suggests that suitably selected and trained women in a society such as pre-contact Mangaia could fill certain important positions as priestly experts and tribal historians. Mangaian women were also fearless warriors and resolute in saving the lives of family members and other connections, suggesting that they held a respected place within the ancestral social order of Mangaia.     

Human Ecology in India Some Historical Perspectives

Abstract

Before the spread of extensive settled cultivation, the Indian subcontinent would have been inhabited by territorial hunter–gatherers and shifting cultivators with cultural traditions of prudent resource use. The disruption of closed material cycles by export of agricultural produce to centres of non-agricultural population would have weakened these traditions. Indeed, the fire-based sacrificial ritual and extensive agricultural settlements might have catalysed the destruction of forests and wildlife and the suppression of tribal peoples during the agricultural colonization of the Gangetic plains. Buddhism, Jainism and later the Hindu sects may have been responses to the need for a reassertion of ecological prudence once the more fertile lands were brought under cultivation. British rule radically changed the focus of the country's resource use pattern from production of a variety of biological resources for local consumption to the production of a few commodities largely for export. The resulting ecological squeeze was accompanied by disastrous famines and epidemics between the 1860s and the 1920s. The counterflows to tracts of intensive agriculture have reduced such disasters since independence. However, these are quite inadequate to balance the state-subsidized outflows of resources from rural hinterlands. These imbalances have triggered serious environmental degradation and tremendous overcrowding of the niche of agricultural labour and marginal cultivator all over the country.     

Konrad Bloch and Heinz Maier-Leibnitz

Abstract

Secrecy is the greatest enemy of democracy and science: the key to their advance lies in the wider spread of knowledge, the only natural resource which is constantly increasing. The arguments for and against secrecy, external or internal security, are analysed and illustrated with British and American examples. Commercial and individual secrecy are reviewed, and the techniques of how secrecy is upheld and how it is broken are given in some detail. Five reforms are urged to make private knowledge public, thus to safeguard democracy and the scientific tradition of freedom which depends on it.     

Malaysia,Singapore, and the Road to the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA), July 1970–November 1971

Abstract

The Five Power Defence Arrangements refl ected a process of often vigorous negotiation designed to maintain a viable Commonwealth defence structure and relationship in the aftermath of Britain's withdrawal of forces from Southeast Asia. This paper demonstrates the internal confl icts that arose in the negotiations, and sets these in the context of tensions between Malaysia and Singapore and the recent military history of the region.     

No Longer Invisible,But Still Enigmatic: Amazonian Peasant Identities and Cosmographies

J. McIver Weatherford. Tribes on the Hill. Rawson, Wade Publishers, Inc. 1981. xii + 300 pp. $12.95     

Obscenity,Moral Contagion and Masculinity: Hijras in Public Space in Colonial North India

Abstract:

In the 1850s, the British “discovered” a community of transgender eunuch performers, the hijras, and legislated for their surveillance and control under the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) in 1871. This article examines how the British dealt with transgender colonial subjects and the implications for our understanding of colonial masculinities. In particular, I analyse colonial attempts to erase hijras as a visible socio-cultural category and gender identity in public space through the prohibition of their performances and feminine dress. This case study demonstrates, first, how masculinity intersected with a broad range of colonial projects, agendas and anxieties. Focusing on the problematic presence of cross-dressing and performing hijras in public space, I examine how colonial attempts to order public space and reinforce political borders dovetailed with discourses of masculinity, obscenity and contagion. Second, I argue that attempts to discipline masculinity and obscenity were uneven in practice, meaning the CTA had varying localised impacts upon hijras. The lack of interest of some British officials in regulating hijras, inadequate policing resources, and pragmatic compromises opened up gaps in surveillance that hijras grasped and expanded, frustrating colonial attempts to transform their bodies and behaviours.     

Dealing with Tribes and States in Ancient Palestine

This paper offers a critique on state formation theories used in the explanation of the rise of the biblical United Monarchy. The last three decades of archaeological and biblical research have shown that there is no firm evidence for speaking of a kingdom or empire of David and Solomon in ancient Palestine. Thus what is proposed here is to evaluate the archaeological record through the data provided by the ethnological record of the Middle East, keeping the biblical stories apart from this interpretation. The analysis of the dynamics and structure of Middle Eastern “tribal states” and “chiefdom societies”, including here the practice of patronage bonds, gives us important keys for understanding Palestine's societies. The historical perspective that appears then is one different from the Bible's stories and from modern ideas such as “states” and “nations”, offering us instead a better methodology for reconstructing ancient Palestine's historical past.     

Abdul Ghaffar Khan: An Islamic Gandhi

Abstract

Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a mid-twentieth-century Pashtun of the Northwest Frontier Region known as the "Frontier Gandhi" or the "Islamic Gandhi." His career was marked by rejection of the badal blood feud, and the belligerent Pashtun tribal code. Accepting instead a non-violent interpretation of Islam, Khan was heavily influenced by Mohandas K. Gandhi, and came to interpret the heart of Islam, including the concepts of jihad, as essentially about peace, service, and non-violence. Khan traveled widely in the frontier region that later became Pakistan, and his most significant achievement was to raise a non-violent army of Khudai Khidmatgars or "Servants of God" from his own Pashtun people. His legacy is important to further understand a non-violent alternative of Islamic political resistance.     

Managing Oman's Archaeological Resource: Historical Perspectives

Abstract

This article examines the history of the development of archaeological resource management in the Sultanate of Oman. It provides an overview of past and present practices and investigates the relevance of current management to the present state of Omani society. Although archaeological resource management in Oman started only three decades ago, the government has made enormous progress in establishing archaeological organizations and in creating their administrative and legislative tools. Nevertheless, it is also evident that the national system of archaeological resource management is facing a number of challenges that need to be addressed. The significance of this study lies in the fact that it is the first attempt to review this resource management historically. It aims to fill an obvious lacuna left by the many researchers who, since starting their activities in the 1950s, have only focused on the archaeology of the resource without evaluating the system through which this resource has been managed.     

Tribal Sovereignty and the Problem of Difference in Environmental Regulation: Observations on “Measured Separatism” in Indian Country

Abstract: The legal and juridical sovereignty of American Indian nations is supposed to help Native peoples maintain their own distinct political and cultural communities. In the context of environmental issues, this means that tribal governments have both the inherent and statutory right to set their own environmental standards, which have the potential to protect tribal peoples and their natural resources in culturally relevant ways. In the past, the US Supreme Court has sought to curtail this kind of sovereignty when the due process of non‐Indians might be hindered. In this article, we look at why tribal environmental sovereignty can and should address the issues of due process in the context of environmental regulation in tribal borders, and make a call for this to be done in a way that supports American Indian tribal sovereignty. Moreover, we connect these issues to the current legal and juridical struggles of other environmental justice groups and the need for more meaningful participation in environmental regulation within the nation‐state for all cultural minorities.     

Terminal Late Woodland Mortuary Ceremonialism,Social Differentiation,and Long Distance Interaction in Northern Ohio: New Evidence from the Danbury Site

Abstract

The period from A.D. 800 to 1200 was a time of marked cultural transitions across the Midwest which featured the Mississippian emergence in the west and development of sedentary, tribal societies to the north and east. Recent salvage excavations at the Danbury site, a terminal Late Woodland habitation and cemetery in northwestern Ohio, document the intensified exploitation and storage of aquatic faunal resources and maize and the creation of a large corporate cemetery. Whelk shell ornaments accompanying certain burials point to long-distance interaction with southeastern societies as well as new forms of social differentiation. Preserved fibers of cotton (Gossypium spp.) in the dental calculus of several important individuals reveal previously unrecognized social or economic linkages with societies as distant as the Southwest or northern Mexico. The combined evidence for subsistence intensification, specialized mortuary treatments, and long-distance material exchange at Danbury represent unique local responses to pan-regional socio-cultural transformations.