Memory,history and the classical tradition

‘Memory’ is often confused and mistaken for myth; this is in turn connected with the widespread use of mistaking collective mythology and common myth for the idea of a ‘collective memory’. This essay discusses memory and history terminology in the context of the generic concept ‘classical tradition’. The case study explored here – the nineteenth-century Walhalla ‘temple’ near Regensburg in Southern Germany – is an attempt to discuss the classical tradition, focusing on archaeology and architecture rather than philology), within the parameters of the memory and history debate in contemporary historiography. The essay aims to develop the position of the iconic and symbolic importance of antiquity and the classical tradition in the memory and history debate as well as in historical writing. The concluding remarks emphasise the necessity of historicising tradition and its genealogies, conceptualised here as a tradition of legacies.     

Present at the creation

Political and Diplomatic Documents December 1947‐May 1948, Israel State Archives and Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem 1979, main volume 888 pp., index, 2 maps; companion volume 227 pp., index. General Editor: Gedalia Yogev     

From Blood to Oil: Mining,Cosmology, and Human Sacrifice in Central New Guinea

This article explores the intersection between cosmological history and mining geography among the Oksapmin of West Sepik Province. I show that the recent intrusion of mining activity into the local area has catalysed a revival of indigenous religious traditions to explain the occurrence and ownership of the precious materials believed to exist within the ground. Through an analysis of these parts of local cosmological history used to explain contemporary mining, I also seek to ethnographically and historically position the Oksapmin as a hybrid culture mutually influenced by the intersection of two overlapping regional cultural spheres: the Min cultural region, based on the ancestress Afek to the west, and a western highlands model based on sacrificial ritual to restore the vitality of the biocosmos, to the east. This builds upon earlier research done by anthropologists in the area that, on the one hand, portrays the Oksapmin as an anomalous ethnic group in the Min culture area and, on the other hand, that has stressed links between groups lying on either side of the upper Strickland Gorge. I also argue that the Oksapmin, Duna, and Bimin groups all shared a unique trans‐Strickland cosmological identity characterised by the pursuit of world renewal by means of human sacrifice.     

Doorway Orientation, Settlement Planning and Cosmology in Ancient Israel During Iron Age II

An examination of Iron Age buildings and settlements in ancient Israel indicates that a large number of them were oriented toward the east, while the west was extremely under-represented. An examination of various climatic and functional considerations does not seem to explain the phenomenon. Many ethnographic studies, however, have demonstrated the strong influence that cosmological principles can have on the planning of buildings and settlements, and that in many cases the east is preferred. In the present study, however, we have additional information. The common Biblical Hebrew word for east is qedma (forward), while the west is ahora (backward). Additional words for these directions indicate that the east had a good connotation while the west had a bad one. Thus, the archaeological pattern, along with language and texts (which are used as a substitute for human informants), seem to give an important insight into some of the cosmological principles of the ancient Israelites.     

ONABASULU MALE HOMOSEXUALITY: Cosmology,Affect and Prescribed Male Homosexual Activity among the Onabasulu of the Great Papuan Plateau

This paper examines what has been called ‘ritualized homosexuality’ in a single ethnic group in the Strickland-Bosavi region of Papua New Guinea. Prescribed male homosexual practices are examined in the context of cosmology and the context of affect in the ‘everyday’ rather than ritual life of the Onabasulu. The perspective is derived from a more general interest in the social construction of the ‘world’ in everyday social life.     

More on the Kula: Ethnography,history, and theory

Leach, Jerry W., and Edmund Leach, eds. The Kula, New Perspectives on Massim Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. xii + 577 pp. including plates, bibliography, index. $79.50 cloth.

Macintyre, Martha. The Kula, A Bibliography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. vi + 90 pp. including author index, appendix. $19.95 cloth.     

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.