Heritage Management and Interpretation: Challenges to Heritage Site-Based Values,Reflections from the Heritage Site of Umm Qais,Jordan

The management of archaeological heritage is complex and problematic for site identity and local culture. Inattention to the array of values of heritage sites leads to the supremacy of a number of them and provides a controversy story of the archaeological site in question. Any heritage management and interpretation effort should correctly identify the different values of the site. Indeed, there is a need to manage and interpret the sites in a way to address the connection between the sites-based values and the associated and surrounding features. In current heritage management practice, values and values-based management are considered to be one of the most important approaches for the management of archaeological heritage. This study aims to understand how the values of the archaeological site of Umm Qais in northern Jordan can be adequately managed as both a natural and cultural landscape. At issue are conflicting views over the different values, their meaning and their uses by the different stakeholders. This research focuses on the ways in which these values are managed and interpreted to the public and whether it is done properly and in a fair manner. The fieldwork study led to a more complex understanding of how conflicting perceptions of values of Umm Qais as a national heritage site by the different stakeholders have affected implementation of management and interpretation projects. The results presented here indicate that the heritage management approach from the case study of Umm Qais focuses specifically on values associated with the physical archaeological aspect of the site, while those associated with the historic neighborhood of the site are neglected. The interpretation of the site has frequently focused on certain aspects of values at the expense of others. Information and insights gained from this study and specific suggestions for changing approaches are considered with regard to potential impacts on the management of the archaeological site and with regard to the public in general.     

Assessment of Visitor Management at the Archaeological Site of Umm Qais: Condition and Problems

Abstract

Umm Qais is one of the most significant archaeological tourist attractions in Jordan besides Petra and Jerash. It is also popular with locals due to its rich diversity of natural history features and landscapes. However, there has been no detailed study of approaches to visitor management at the site. This paper investigates the visitor management pressures on the site of Umm Qais, seeking to develop an understanding of the approaches that direct the process of visitor management in an archaeological site. The specific objective of this study is to identify and analyse the current visitor management measures and tools at the site. It explores issues of hard and soft visitor management through monitoring, visitor guidance, and interpretation. The study has been conducted as a qualitative case study, and its results are based on direct personal observation and discussions with the personnel that have been conducted on-site by the Jordanian authors.

Despite the visitor management applied approaches, results reveal important and continuing challenges for Umm Qais due to limited visitor monitoring, weak information, and poor restriction measures. Based on the findings of the study, some recommendations are made in order to permit the local heritage managers to develop the site and its visitor management appropriately. This is an essential process in aiding this potential World Heritage Site to update approaches and adapt to the changing circumstances related to the visitor needs for the site. This will contribute to heritage and tourism literature and practice by enhancing the knowledge of visitor management at a national level.     

Chronological Reconstruction of Natfieh Tombs,Northern Jordan

Abstract

This research radiocarbon dates human teeth and bones sampled from seven tombs from the archaeological site of Natfieh, Northern Jordan. The small number of artifact fragments uncovered, looting and disruption of the tombs in antiquity and/or recent times, and the continuity between the Greek and Roman burial traditions and similarity in tomb architecture impede determining accurate dates and chronology of the tombs. This research aims to ascertain the archaeological dates and the chronological sequence of the tombs and the artifacts uncovered. Results show that the probable earliest use of these tombs was between 90 BC and AD 20, and their probable latest use was from AD 126–236. Most probably, at Natfieh new tombs spread northward and carving the tombs started in the lower rock layers and later in the upper layers.     

The Determinants of Political Cleavages in Jordan,Tunisia, and Yemen: An Analysis of Political Attitudes Structure in the Arab World

This article investigates the determinants of political cleavages composing the structure of political attitudes in Jordan, Tunisia, and Yemen following the Arab Spring. Further, it tests whether political cleavages carry predictive weight on ordinary citizens’ electoral choices in general elections. Using the Sixth Wave of the World Values Survey, discriminant analysis was conducted to generate the dimensionality, type, and structure of political attitudes in the three nations. Findings suggest that the structure of political attitudes in Jordan, Tunisia, and Yemen is multidimensional: the Islamic‐Secular division, a conflict along economic policy visions and an emerging divisive dimension concerning political reform. Evidence indicates that political cleavages do not possess significant predictive power in determining voters’ choice at elections booths. This research also points to the significance of social transformation processes such as modernization and globalization in causing a shift in values among ordinary citizens in the Arab World. This research argues that in countries where the effects of modernization and globalization are higher, a weakening of the Islamic‐Secular division is witnessed. This research is important since it paves the way for further empirical analysis on political ideology in the Middle East. It shatters conjectures concluding that Arab polities are only divided by a single hierarchical dimension: Islamic‐Secular. It contributes to comparative research on the dimensionality of political ideology by showing that the Arab World is similar to the industrialized world in the dimensionality, nature, and structuration of political ideology.     

南北朝的客馆及其地理位置

客馆为传统中国外交上的重要机构,由地主国设立,以接待归附者、使节、人质、入朝藩王、沙门与留学生等各种不同身分的外国人,试图落实招抚荒远、万国宾服的理想。南北朝时,客馆在数量与规制上有明显的发展,它除了解决外国人的食宿需求,也是重要的外交折冲场所。南北朝的客馆乃是拥有许多馆舍,颇具规模的馆区。客馆的方位受到城市格局变化的影响,南北朝以后,多位于城南。其地理位置也从城郭外向宫城靠近,且通常位于南北中轴线的通衢上。     

The Water Framework Directive: A New Directive for a Changing Social,Political and Economic European Framework

This article examines the intricate process of developing the European Union's Water Framework Directive. It sees the Directive as a response to recent economic, political and social changes related to water management, including the shift from government to governance, the liberalization of water markets and the emergence of a new set of institutions, actors, etc. and their respective relations (i.e. social capital). The article focuses on the key points of disagreement between the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament that threatened to prevent the Directive from being materialized and interprets this controversy as the culmination of conflicting interests between different actors at the local, national and European levels. Finally, it asserts the increasingly important role of the nation state in the decision-making and implementation of the Directive and sets this against recent arguments about the death of the State.     

Electoral Pluralism,Social Division and the 2016 Parliamentary Elections in Jordan

Representing one of the most stable regimes in the Middle East, Jordan has been undergoing a process of political liberalization since 1989. Due to the so‐called East Bank‐West Bank cleavage that followed by the influx of Palestinian migrants to Jordan, the country has also come to epitomize a divided society. Within this context, this paper aims to analyze the ongoing prospects for democratization in Jordan through an examination of four persistent debates shaping its electoral pluralism: those over social/identity division, electoral law as a regime‐survival mechanism, the role of the Ikhwan and the IAF's electoral boycotts, and electoral apathy. Finally, the impact of the Arab upheavals/revolts on restructuring the process of political reform — as well as opposition in the kingdom in the post‐2011 era — will be explored with reference to the changing dynamics of Islamist opposition.     

The Crisis of the 1980s in Sub-Saharan Africa,Latin America and the Caribbean: Economic Impact,Social Change and Political Implications

The purpose of this paper, prepared as a background document for the UNRISD/University of the West Indies conference on Economic Crisis and Third World Countries, is to provide a framework for consideration of societal changes accompanying economic recession and restructuring in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean over the past decade. It is the central argument of the paper that adaptation to crisis should not be considered a temporary phenomenon, interrupting a single, lineal process of modernization which can be expected to resume its course once current difficulties are overcome. On the contrary, both crisis and adjustment have profoundly modified the structure of incentives within which individuals and households must attempt to ensure their livelihood, encouraging new patterns of behaviour with long-term implications for the nature of the economy, society and political practice. After a brief review of the macroeconomic background of crisis in each region, this central hypothesis is explored through a very preliminary analysis of the changing life chances of various kinds of upper, middle and lower income groups — emphasizing not only the costs but also the opportunities which have been associated with economic restructuring. Some individual and collective reactions to change are then considered, before raising a series of questions concerning the implications of crisis and adjustment for the state and civil society.     

北宋政治得失与政治文化

在社会化系统中,直接影响与作用于政治的是政治化。北宋政治化是中国传统政治化发展演变的一个历史阶段。在北宋繁荣的学术化与学艺术的促进下,北宋政治化的发展更加成熟,具有自己的独特内容。在北宋社会的长期稳定与发展中,可以明显看到北宋政治化对政治所发挥的影响与导向功能。在北宋的政治危机以及北宋败亡中,则可以清楚地看到政治化所具有的缺陷与弊端。北宋政治化不仅具有中国传统政治化所固有的缺陷,而且在其形成发展中又产生了新的问题。     

Economic Opportunity,Civil Society and Political Liberty

This essay explores the dilemmas associated with ‘squaring the circle’ of wealth creation, social cohesion and political freedom in the OECD countries. As the metaphor of square and circle implies, these three essential goals of development are not necessarily compatible and may even conflict with each other, particularly at a time when advancing globalization creates perverse choices. To become and remain competitive in international markets requires a flexible use of resources which threatens social cohesion and political freedom in a number of ways. After analysing these tensions, the essay concludes with six proposals for improving the likelihood that a workable balance between prosperity, democracy and social cohesion can be maintained in advanced industrial societies.     

The Political,Social and Scientific Contexts of Archaeological Investigations of Mass Graves in Spain

The recovery of historic memory of the Spanish Civil War is a multilayered initiative to escape both the romanticism of the Franco era, in which only the glory of the victors was celebrated while their past atrocities were ignored, and the cautiousness of the post-Franco democracy, for which forced amnesia of the Civil War was considered a sacrifice for the greater good. In the past five years the efforts to recover historic memory have gained empirical footing by employing archaeological methods to locate, enumerate and identify the victims of extrajudicial executions. The ultimate goals of such work include the production of a more accurate historical statement of past events, the repatriation of missing persons to their families, and the documentation of physical evidence that may allow families to seek civil restitutions. While the scientific methodology is fairly straightforward, the process is nonetheless inherently political in that various government bodies can and do impede recovery efforts. This paper contextualizes the current political and social climate of human rights investigations in Spain by illustrating some of the recent recovery efforts in Catalonia and Andalucia.     

媒人现象的社会作用及其演变

媒人是历史发展中的特殊民俗现象,也是一种特定的文化符号。媒人随一夫一妻制的聘娶婚的出现而出现,在防止男女乱性、保障婚姻安全、完善规范礼法等方面起着积极的历史作用。媒人不仅不会退出历史舞台,相反,在新的历史时期,媒人的社会作用将更加彰显。     

Social Dynamics and Pottery Distribution in the Faro Department, Northern Cameroon

Ethnoarchaeological studies have constantly emphasized the complexity of pottery distribution and its close ties with other aspects of social life. It is argued here that, among the Dowayo of northern Cameroon, pottery exchange is not regulated by preferential economic relationships between producers and consumers but rather by mechanisms such as fashion or the reputation of the artisans.De récentes études ethnoarchéologiques ont constamment mis en avant la complexité des processus de distribution de la poterie et les liens étroits que ceux-ci entretiennent avec les autres aspects de la vie sociale. Il est démontré dans cet article que, chez les Dowayo du Nord-Cameroun, les échanges de poterie sont structurés par une absence de lien privilégié entre producteurs et consommateurs et sont dès lors régulés par des mécanismes tels que la mode ou la réputation des artisans.     

Economic and Land-Use Implications of Prehistoric Fire-Cracked-Rock Piles,Northern Arizona

Abstract

Intensive archaeological survey of 14.5 sq km of the Upper Basin, an area located near the Grand Canyon's eastern South Rim in northern Arizona, has discovered 126 fire-cracked-rock piles that are surrounded by artifact scatters of varying size and assemblage composition. Because these phenomena are unprecedented in upland conifer ecosystems of the American Southwest, several hypotheses are explored regarding their formation histories. Analyses of artifact assemblages, botanical remains, pollen, and faunal remains recovered from four excavated sites indicate that they result from flaked-stone artifact production, ground-stone artifact reuse and recycling, ceramic-vessel-fragment recycling, and animal and plant processing. In addition, radiocarbon dates and temporally diagnostic projectile-points and ceramics imply that the sites differ in terms of frequency, intensity, and patterns of use, and with respect to the groups of people who formed them (Anasazi, Cohonina, Havasupai, or Hopi). Byproducts of a little-known, long-term land-use pattern in Southwestern prehistory (ca. A.D. 417–1650), these sites represent a key source of information for understanding how different sources of variability come to be expressed in archaeological landscapes.     

The seventh and eighth Belgian archaeological expeditions to ed-Dur (Umm al-Qaiwain, UAE)

The results of the 1993 and 1994 seasons by a Belgian team from Gent University at ed-Dur in the Emirate of Umm al-Qaiwain are presented. The excavations concentrated on area BS, where a total of 2650 m² were excavated. This large exposure provided a vast amount of material of the late 1st century BC and the 1st century AD. Only some rare objects (from different areas) are presented.