Removing science from magic,science and religion

Tambiah, Stanley J. Culture, Thought, and Social Action: An Anthropological Perspective. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985. ix + 411 pp. including references, notes, sources, and index. $30.00 cloth.     

光导纤维反射光谱法及其在文物保护中的应用

光导纤维反射光谱法是一种无损检测方法,其基本原理遵循库贝尔卡·芒克(Ｋｕｂｅｌｋａ－Ｍｕｎｋ)方程式,现已广泛应用于纸张、金属、陶瓷、织物等的直接分析,也适用于文物的无损分析研究,此方法在文物保护工作中的应用虽刚刚起步,但前景广阔。     

Releasing mother's burdens: child abandonment and retrieval in Madrid, 1890-1935

In nineteenth-century Europe, the foundling hospital grew beyond its traditional purpose of mitigating the shame of unwed mothers by also permitting widows, widowers, and poor married couples to abandon their children there temporarily. In the Foundling Hospital of Madrid (FHM), this new short-term abandonment could be completely anonymous due to the implementation of a wheel—a device on the outside wall of the institution that could be turned to place a child inside—which remained open until 1929. The use of survival-analysis techniques to disentangle the determinants of retrieval in a discrete framework reveals important differences in the situations of the women who abandoned their children at the FHM, partly depending on whether they accessed it through the Maternity Hospital after giving birth or they accessed it directly. The evidence suggests that those who abandoned their children through the Maternity Hospital retrieved them only when they had attained a certain degree of economic stability, whereas those who abandoned otherwise did so just as soon as the immediate condition prompting the abandonment had improved.     

Waterfalls,science and aesthetics

Waterfalls and rapids are a subject of study by scientists and scholars from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds. Unlike cave research, known as speleology, which also involves many different disciplines, the study of waterfalls is not generally regarded as a distinct branch of knowledge. Long neglected as subjects of research, waterfalls have received considerable attention since the 1980s. This paper traces the study of waterfalls from the late eighteenth century, a period when both a scientific and an aesthetic interest in landscape developed in Europe, to the present. The work of geographers, geologists and others who studied landforms and landscapes is examined, with particular attention to those who expressed a special interest in waterfalls, notably Alexander von Humboldt. The study argues that the scientific and aesthetic approaches to landscape research are not incompatible and supports the view that both are necessary for a full understanding and appreciation of the environment in which we live.     

Creativity and its contexts: the emergence,institutionalisation and professionalisation of science and culture in Luxembourg

While an abundant literature on the social history of culture and science in Europe has developed over the past few decades, there is to date hardly any academic work exploring the social history of science and culture in Luxembourg. The aim of this article is to put Luxembourg ‘on the map’ by focusing on its scientific research and museums in order to examine the emergence, institutionalisation and professionalisation of Luxembourg's science and culture. It will be argued that the most radical changes occurred in the 1980s and 1990s: a multiplication of infrastructures, an increase in budgets, a professionalisation of practices, the emergence of a market for artworks, and an appearance of dedicated policies. During this period, both the material architecture and the socioeconomic architecture of science and culture have been significantly (re)configured. Within the political debates accompanying these changes, the discourses stressing the positionality and relationality of science and culture are noteworthy: while both were increasingly positioned within a European context, research was predominantly portrayed as a resource to boost Luxembourg's economy whereas culture more as a complement to Luxembourg's image of a financial player and a means to ‘regenerate’ its symbolic capital.     

Environmental science, sustainability and politics

Research evidence and pleas that humans are undermining their own survival on a robust and unforgiving planet seem to be falling on deaf ears. The drive for economic and military security remains more powerful than the evidence that both of these objectives are being undermined by environmental damage, social disruption, unjust treatment and forced migration. Yet the signs are growing that environmentally and socially sound futures may be vital prerequisites for economic and military stability. So, at the heart of multi-nationalism, sustainable development is beginning to be recognized as a crucial element in reliable international agreements. The consequence of all this is that environmental science has become highly political, and geographers need to recognize and work within an expanding political process. Examples of new forms of governing via sustainability science for sustainable futures are offered in the latter part of the paper, especially at local government level. The antagonistic pressures of established power and economic hegemony are never far away. Indeed, the confirmation of these established patterns of power still pervades the politics of environmental science. But it is possible that these antagonistic political frameworks are beginning to be transcended by the more influential aspects of sustainability partnerships incorporating new arrangements between government, private capital and civil associations. These partnerships will not be easy to create, for they criss-cross boundaries of familiarity and rules of operation. But geographers can play a critical role in helping to shape them and assess the best circumstances for ensuring their success.     

Islamology,political science and history

ARABIC THOUGHT IN THE LIBERAL AGE 1798–1939. Albert Hourani. O.U.P., 1962.

THE INTELLECTUAL ORIGINS OF EGYPTIAN NATIONALISM, J. M. Ahmed. O.U.P., 1960.

AHMADIYYAH (A Study in Contemporary Islam on the West African Coast). Humphrey J. Fisher. O.U.P., 1963.