The Magical and Ceremonial Uses of Fire

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THE RAINBOW BRIDGE : A STUDY OF PAGANISM. By JOHN STRONG NEWBERRY. London: Macmillan. 1934. Pp. xv+ 346. 15s. net. Reviewed by H. J. Rose.

THREE ESSAYS ON SEX AND MARRIAGE. By EDWARD WESTERMARCK. Pp. ix.+353. London: Macmillan. 1934. Price 12s. 6d. Reviewed by H. J. Rose.

REVUE INTERNATIONALE DES ÉTUDES BASQUES Vol. xxv, fasc. 2. April–June 1934. Pp. 201–352. Reviewed by P. Barbier.

ROSA SOEDER : DIE APOKRYPHEN APOSTELGESCHICHTEN UND DIE ROMANHAFTE LITERATUR DER ANTIKE. Stuttgart, 1932. W. Kohlhammer. XII. Pp.216. 8⁰. 9″ x 6″. Reviewed by M. Gaster.

LAWRENCE ECKER : ARABISCHER, PROVENZALISCHER UND DEUTSCHER MINNESANG. Bern und Leipzig. Paul Haupt, 1934. 236 pp. 8⁰. 9½″x6½″. Reviewed by M. Gaster.

R. F. FORTUNE. OMAHA SECRET SOCIETIES. Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology, vol. xiv. New York, Columbia University Press, 1932. Reviewed by Barbara Aitken.     

Prehistoric Ceremonial Warfare: Beginning of Institutionalized Violence

Sadly, aggression is still one of the most common features of human behaviour; it is an instinct to promote and survive our own genes against the genes of others. Human intraspecific aggression has gradually become part of human culture over the last 40,000 years and has been institutionalized in various forms of social activities. Particularly in the post-glacial period, the level of social relations has developed dramatically in the context of population growth and the growth of human communities. In the time of Neolithic and Chalcolithic European agricultural populations, the motive of control over farming land became highly important. Also the control of main means of production and social power was increasingly maintaining the intragroup competition and aggression. Thus, violence was employed within the community in order to obtain and maintain individual or collective social status, but also against other communities in an effort to protect property and territory. Particularly the intracommunity aggression was soon transformed into variety of different formal ways of symbolic fighting, which usually did not lead to the unwanted death of a defeated member of the community. The symbolic struggle between members of the community as well as the defense against external aggression were gradually formalized in the form of introduction of specialized weapons designed for combat between people and creation of fortifications. During the Neolithic period a new phenomenon arose in human culture: warfare.     

The Material Characterization of a Santamarian Ceremonial Axe

The characterization of a ceremonial bronze axe is described. The axe is assigned to the Santamarian culture of north‐west Argentina, c. 1000–1470 ad, and was selected to increase presently limited knowledge of prehistoric metallurgy in the Andean region of Argentina. The characterization methods used were electron probe microanalysis, gamma radiography, X‐ray diffraction, optical metallography and microhardness testing. The axe was well cast in a bivalve mould, with the only defects in the area of an ancient fracture. The analysis showed that it is made from a tin bronze with a, probably, accidental addition of lead. Arsenic was found as a surface contamination, probably deriving from arsenic in the water of the stream in which the axe was found. The axe shows that Santamarian craftsmen had the skill to decorate the axe in an artistic style with a strong local accent while providing a functional, annealed and cold‐worked cutting edge.     

Mixing Religious Rituals and Mystical Experience with Modern Democracy: Indonesia's Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX

Abstract

Religion is the most divisive, even violent, issue dividing Indonesians both in the past and today. Nevertheless, this paper argues that the Western-educated Sultan's mystical experiences and religious rituals were used as tools for creating democratic traditions, preserving peace and religious tolerance in religiously diverse Yogyakarta province, the national educational center. As the Muslim King who ruled the Mataram kingdom from 1940–1988, Sultan Hamengku Buwono (HB) IX strived to combine elements of rationality with both his Muslim faith and Javanese mysticism. He primarily invoked traditional Javanese ethics and mysticism, rather than Islamic orthodoxy, to appeal to the cultural legacy of the indigenous citizenry, and invoked western democratic values to reassure the Indonesians from other provinces and foreigners engaged in Yogyakarta's colleges and universities. Research findings explain how the Sultan shared with many educated/uneducated persons this particular worldview in which there is no conflict between modern scientific education and a traditional religious worldview and practice     

Feasting at Poverty Point with Poverty Point Objects

ABSTRACT

Attempts to account for the impressive and unusual archaeological record of the World Heritage site of Poverty Point have often faltered. The vast and diverse set of artifacts, the spectacular and well-designed earthworks, and the millions of baked-clay objects known as Poverty Point Objects are all distinctive and anomalous features of the site. This paper argues that the archaeological record of Poverty Point can best be explained as the product of periodic, ritualized feasting events. Drawing on diverse archaeological and anthropological studies of feasting I demonstrate that it is a useful research framework for understanding the site’s content because many of the archaeological signatures of feasting are present at Poverty Point. I argue furthermore that Poverty Point Objects were an integral component of this culture of feasting and offer hypotheses on their role in the feasts.     

在奇特旺与动植物亲密接触

<正>奇特旺国家公园(Chitwan Nantional Park),曾经的尼泊尔王室木兰秋狝之地,伴着我们的探奇之旅,呈现出无可复制的神奇,演绎出一首原始森林变奏曲:沼泽鳄慵懒地浮在布力拉普提河的水面上,目光凌厉地随着水波荡漾;亚洲象踱着慢步,遁入密林深处,独角犀牛也许正在某个角落隐藏;灌木丛中牛粪堆上生出的晶莹剔透的蘑菇,反射着穿透高大的婆罗双树枝桠的太阳光芒;不远处的"极客"蜘蛛,拉丝结出无数个"W",仿佛把互联网资讯接入这片与世隔绝的原始森林……万物生灵在特赖平原上和谐相生,一切如常。     

在奇特旺与动植物亲密接触

正奇特旺国家公园(Chitwan Nantional Park),曾经的尼泊尔王室木兰秋狝之地,伴着我们的探奇之旅,呈现出无可复制的神奇,演绎出一首原始森林变奏曲:沼泽鳄慵懒地浮在布力拉普提河的水面上,目光凌厉地随着水波荡漾;亚洲象踱着慢步,遁入密林深处,独角犀牛也许正在某个角落隐藏;灌木丛中牛粪堆上生出的晶莹剔透的蘑菇,反射着穿透高大的婆罗双树枝桠的太阳光芒;不远处的"极客"蜘蛛,拉丝结出无数个"W",仿佛把互联网资讯接入这片与世隔绝的原始森林……万物生灵在特赖平原上和谐相生,一切如常。     

The Neolithic Ceremonial Complex at Niuheliang and Wider Hongshan Landscapes in Northeastern China

This paper reviews the current evidence for settlement patterns and ceremonial activity amongst Hongshan Neolithic groups in northeastern China, with particular attention to the well-known ceremonial site at Niuheliang. We consider the location of Hongshan ceremonial sites in their wider landscape settings, arguing that such sites are a chronologically late stage of Hongshan ceremonial investment and that, within these broad complexes, the most impressive architecture and portable goods come from an especially late phase of activity. These more impressive localities were also particularly privileged places in terms of their access to major routes, specific kinds of local geology and integrated patterns of visibility. In contrast to more loosely organized Hongshan residential sites of similar size, ceremonial centres such as Niuheliang (and, within these, certain important sub-localities) clearly functioned as key mechanisms for social, political and regional stratification around roughly the mid 6th millennium BP.     

A Shield Loaded with History: Encounters,Objects and Exhibitions

This article discusses an Aboriginal shield in the British Museum which is widely believed to have been used in the first encounter between Lieutenant James Cook's expedition and the Gweagal people at Botany Bay in late April 1770. It traces the ways in which the shield became ‘Cook-related’, and increasingly represented and exhibited in that way. In the wake of its exhibition at the National Museum of Australia in late 2015 and early 2016, the shield gained further public prominence and has become enmeshed within a wider politics of reconciliation. A recent request from the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council to the British Museum to review knowledge about the shield has contributed to a reappraisal of claims about its connection to Cook's 1770 expedition. Preliminary findings of this review are presented. In the process, the article addresses larger questions concerning the politics surrounding the interpretation of the shield as a historically ‘loaded’ object.     

殷墟仿铜陶礼器墓试析

殷墟四期偏晚阶段出现仿铜陶礼器墓,其器物组合较固定,所含器类较全,学者对其认识不一。作者认为其出现有深刻的社会原因,同时又和人们的意识形态、思想变化密不可分,是人们对资源利用观念的一种转变。