The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: 1

Abstract

Desert landscapes are the least understood among terrain types of the Earth. The dearth of basic information on arid landforms has resulted in the misconception that the desert is man-made and that, therefore, we can 'fix it'. Scientific evidence indicates that deserts are part of the natural features of both Earth and Mars. They form as a result of the lack or scarcity of rain, which may be cyclical. The basic layout of today's arid terrain appears to have formed during humid periods in the geological past. Understanding of such features and those caused by wind erosion and deposition is essential to the development of deserts and semiarid lands for the benefit of mankind. Images obtained by spacecraft provide a new tool that is very useful in this regard, particularly in the location of groundwater resources to be used at times of cyclical droughts.     

Communism and cultural heritage: the quest for continuity

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical genealogy and main uses of heritage in actually existing communist countries. This is performed by carrying out a critical review of Èleazar Aleksandrovi? Baller’s Communism and Cultural Heritage, (1984, Progress, Moscow). The analysis of Baller’s work reveals that the logics of heritage in communist countries differed in various ways from capitalist countries, mainly because of the almost total state control over the heritage apparatus and the subordination of heritage policies to Marxist–Leninist ideology. Heritage was fundamental in dealing with the problem of change and continuity with the traditions, narratives and identities of previous society, and in the process of transforming citizens into ‘new men’ through the cultural revolution and the inculcation of ideology through museums and monuments.     

Civilisation and Colonisation: Enlightenment Theories in the Debate between Diderot and Raynal

The Enlightened theory of civilisation was expressed through the formula of ‘doux commerce’, a form of commerce which acknowledged the need for the European conquest of non-European lands and nations, and the opportunity to bring European civilisation to other peoples without violence. Montesquieu was the first to express this idea, condemning the Spanish conquest and empire. In the Histoire des deux Indes, this idea was dramatically discussed: Raynal wanted to defend it; Diderot dismantled this project showing that civilisation was but the mask of violent conquest. In this way the latter offered an extraordinary refutation of both Enlightened ideology and its strategy of civilisation.     

Voice of Civilisation: advertising and its critics in austerity Britain

The advertising industry was on the defensive during World War Two, with advertising regarded by many British people as deeply unpatriotic, potentially undermining the national interest and the fight against fascism. This article analyses the debate on the role of advertising in Britain in the immediate aftermath of war, when the advertising industry regrouped to meet the challenge of working within an economic environment shaped by the imperatives of a Labour government committed to wide scale state intervention. Critics of advertising within the labour movement were emboldened by this context, and the industry was threatened with punitive taxation in 1947. Focusing particularly on this flashpoint and its aftermath, the article sheds new light on the increasingly open struggle between private enterprise and state planning during this volatile period.     

Minding Civilisation and Humanity in 1867: A Case Study in British Imperial Culture and Victorian Anti-Slavery

As this analysis of press debate in 1867 finds, Victorian opposition to slavery defies any simple classification as universal humanitarianism or imperial reform. British anti-slavery sentiment, in very different contexts, might claim the mantle of Christendom, the empire or human civilisation. By considering such a porous area of international and colonial policy in public discussion, this article highlights some surprising commonalities between Bernard Porter's ‘absent-mindedness’ thesis and its critics. In doing so the piece suggests some possible directions for the new imperial history, as British historians reject an impenetrable national story and yet appreciate the sheer breadth of Victorian narrow-mindedness about the wider world.     

The quest for coordinates in space and time

Hall, Edward T. The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time. Garden City, New York: Anchor Press, 1984. 250 pp. including appendices, glossary, bibliography, and index. $15.95 cloth; $5.50 paper.

Pinxten, Rik, Ingrid van Dooren, and Frank Harvey. Anthropology of Space: Explorations into the Natural Philosophy and Semantics of the Navajo. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983. xi + 240 pp. including appendices, bibliography, and name and subject indices. $32.50 cloth.     

The quest for constitutional reform in Tonga

Tonga's constitution was originally a liberal, 19th century document that economically combined popular representation and aristocratic direction in a unicameral vehicle instead of the conventional bicameral legislature. Subsequent amendments strengthened the executive, and the greatest of all, in 1914, significantly reduced representation of both nobles and people. The configuration of power sharing has not changed despite numerous minor constitutional amendments since. There was no significant pressure for fundamental constitutional changes until the 1990s. Whereas earlier reforms were initiated by the executive, the modern reform movement comes from the people's representatives and a small group of supporters drawn from the foreign-educated sector. This pressure has been ignored by the executive, and commands insignificant support from the nobles. The dissatisfaction with the system of representation and the distribution of power arose from the exposure of lavish provisions for overtime payments for members of parliament. Earlier dissatisfaction with government over land tenure had no such result. The impotence of people's representatives was revealed and grievances became focused on the principle of accountability. Failure to make progress on this issue drew attention to the concentration of power by custom as well as law, in the hands of the executive. Reformists began to consider institutional ways of making government accountable. Unfocused talk of democracy coalesced into a series of formal conferences in 1992, 1998 and 1999, all of them dismissed by government. Undeterred, the reform movement became better organised and, in 2002, produced two discussion documents outlining alternative constitutions in an attempt to frame a solution that co-opts modernity without abandoning Tongan tradition. The conservatism of these proposals suggests that in modern politics, culture will continue to prevail over institutional rationality.     

The quest for cod: Some causes of fishing conflicts in the north Atlantic

This article presents an historical overview of the role played by the North Atlantic cod fisheries in shaping the relations between two ecological zones: a fish‐surplus zone in the north and a fish‐deficient zone in the south. As production changed from a predominantly subsistence‐based economy to one of market orientation, fierce competition developed between national fleets and trading companies when the quest for cod increased due to demographic and climatic changes. The introduction of highly efficient technologies since the latter half of the 19th century has caused severe over‐exploitation in certain parts of the North Atlantic region and encouraged the fish‐producing states to nationalise cod resources by extending their borders extensively, thus generating inter‐state conflicts known as ?cod wars?.     

Cultural geography and the inner dimensions of the quest for knowledge

In North American cultural geography, intellectual curiosity has motivated most scholarship directed to learning about the world. Two aspects of that curiosity, epistemic inquisitiveness and wonder, work together to drive the pursuit of knowledge that has the potential to reach an ecstatic consciousness. A great exemplar of intellectual curiosity as a powerful motivational force was Carl O. Sauer (1889–1975), who considered pure inquiry based on intrinsic interest as the foundation of geographical scholarship. That research can also have a euphoric dimension is described in three vignettes of past projects in Highland Peru, the Mascarene Archipelago, and equatorial Brazil, which make explicit how wanting to know and wondering about what might be known prompt ideas and drive them forward. With introspection, cultural geographers are in a position to inform the discipline about how scholarship that conjoins thought and feeling can lead to an understanding of motivation and an appreciation of the intellectual virtues and peak experiences that accrue from scholarly endeavor. To do that requires a willingness to get beyond the reticence that has kept the affective dimension out of research reports.     

Slag inclusions in iron objects and the quest for provenance: an experiment and a case study

Slag inclusions are found within most archaeological bloomery iron artefacts and are remainders of slag created during the smelting and smithing processes. Although they are widely believed to provide data with the potential for provenancing iron artefacts, previous slag inclusion studies have mostly proven inconclusive. The main aim of the work reported here is to analyse experimental smelting and smithing assemblages (including ore, furnace lining, fuel and slag), to compare these to slag inclusions in the resulting bloom and worked objects, and then explore the relationships between ore, slag and slag inclusions. This study has revealed that the composition of slag inclusions most closely relates to the smelting slag produced, whereas provenance to a specific ore would be difficult due to the chemical variability derived from furnace lining, fuel and any fluxes used. Some compounds in the slag inclusions are particularly affected during smithing of the artefact, i.e. those present in the sand flux and fuel used. However, trends are observed in the K₂O/MgO, MnO/SiO₂, Al₂O₃/SiO₂, Al₂O₃/MgO, Al₂O₃/K₂O and Al₂O₃/CaO ratios that allow comparison between slag inclusions and smelting slag in these experiments, and may therefore be used during other provenancing attempts. The knowledge gained from the experimental assemblages was subsequently applied to an archaeological case study, examining objects from the 900 Cal BC smithing site of Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel and the 930 Cal BC smelting site of Tell Hammeh, Jordan. The analyses suggest that none of the artefacts examined derived from the Hammeh smelting system.     

Centripetal settlement and segmentary social formation of the Banpo tradition

Creating a spatial environment to facilitate social operation is a common practice among human groups. Segmentary social formations have limited regulatory capacity due to the lack of formally sanctified authorities. The pressure is on the emergency of atternative mechanisms that regulate the practice of segmentary principles. The Neolithic site at Jiangzhai in North China is a classic archaeological example of using the centripetal plan and demarcated space to support the working of segmentary organization. The occupation was partitioned into three concentric divisions of the central plaza, residential and burial zones. The later two zones were further demarcated into spatially discrete areas for allocating the social segments comprising the community. The arrangement translated the abstract segmentary principles into tangible space where everyday practices played out. It created a spatiality that placed individual acts under the watch of the entire community, thus enabling the effective policing against deviated practices by public opinions. Analyses of the material remains distributed in the highly ordered built environment indicate that food sharing was practiced in the communal level, and craft production of the ceramics was likely organized in the household level. Patterns of monochrome paintings and etched signs on the ceramics suggest the sharing of symbolism in a pan-community network. The study also isolates the budding of non-conforming acts that would one day fracture the segmentary community.     

Imagined nations and imaginary Nigeria: Chinua Achebe's quest for a country

This article argues that Chinua Achebe's memoir, There was a country: a personal history of Biafra (2012) articulates a hankering after a home, a habitable country in the context of colonially derived contradictions embedded in the institutional formation of Nigeria, the failure of the nationalist and postcolonial leadership to resolve such contradictions as well as the legacy of ethnicity. It demonstrates how the memoir expresses the writer's despair at unfulfilled hopes, while also celebrating utopic moments, such as his colonial childhood, the independence of Nigeria and the founding of Biafra. It is the dramatic contrast between promise and actuality that engenders a deep sense of loss, just as it inspires the belief in the possibility of a transformed and habitable Nigeria. Using trauma theory, the article also argues that the memoir is committed to ‘working through’ the historical trauma, as demonstrated by its breaking the national silence over the Nigerian civil war (1966–70), its assertion that a genocide had been perpetrated against the Biafrans and the need for accountability and justice.