Power of Religion in Rural Areas and Its Public Service （Ⅲ）——An Analysis of Cases in Five Villages

religious authority is satisfying the spiritual needs of villagers by conducting various kinds of public service activities. In essence, this is filled with idealism.But what could not be denied is the fact that they provide “cultural support” which is positive in nature. But, how does this work？     

Power of Religion in Rural Areas and Its Public Service （I）——An Analysis of Cases in Five Villages

In the study of socio-economic development in Tibet, one tends to stress the role of non-economic elements, especially the role of humans and social background.Of these, the role of religious culture is regarded as the most important. However, there are basically two approaches to the issue: First of all, although religion exerts a varied role on economic growth, legal construction, public welfare and ethics, one tends to each only a general judgment. Secondly, study of the role played by religion focused on the religious doctrines held by monks, and monks themselves. Although many point out the fact that religious power over people varies, it roots in the rural areas and among the folk at large is still neglected.Hence, there is the need to study individual cases.     

Power of Religion in Rural Areas and Its Public Service （Ⅱ） ——An Analysis of Cases in Five Villages

In rural areas in Tibet where religion believers occupy a very high proportion of the population, religious service can also be included into the scope of public services, because it is not only related to local social stability, but also bound up with the quality of life (such as a sense of happiness and the perceived meaning of life) in the view of local people. Investigation in five villages shows how in the rural areas in Tibet, various religious authorities provide such services.     

Persian Studies and the Military in Late Imperial Russia (1863–1917): State Power in the Service of Knowledge?

This article pursues the goal of going beyond Saidian notions of Orientalism and Said's assumption of the “complicity of knowledge with power” to reach back to Foucault's initial postulations on the role of institutions and the intellectual in the interplay of power/knowledge relations. The article concentrates on the role of Russian military Oriental studies institutions and Orientologists in the context of discourses (the promotion of Russkoe Delo, the juxtaposition of Russia with the West and the Orient, etc.) that existed in late Imperial Russia and influenced the accumulation and development of scholarly knowledge on the Orient. Therefore, the significant contribution of the military domain to Russian Oriental studies on both the institutional and individual levels are examined from the angle of intra-Russian discourses in the period from the establishment of the Asiatic Section of the General Staff in 1863 up to 1917.     

Water and Salt (III): An Analysis and New Translation of the Yājñavalkya-Maitreyī Dialogue

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

Laboratories of (In)equality? Redistributive Policy and Income Inequality in the American States

Prior literature has emphasized demographic, economic, and political explanations for increasing income inequality in the United States, with little attention paid to the role of state‐level policy. This is despite great variation across states in both the level of inequality and the rate at which it is rising. This paper asks whether differences in state policy choices can help explain this variation; specifically, we examined a range of state redistributive policies enacted between 1980 and 2005 and identified four common approaches likely to impact inequality: taxes on the wealthy, taxes on the poor, spending on the poor, and labor market policies. We used pooled cross‐sectional time‐series data and a fixed‐effects model to assess the relationship between states’ use of each policy approach and two measures of market income inequality: the Gini coefficient and the income share of the top 1 percent. We find policies played a significant role in shaping income inequality in the states. For three of these four policy approaches, we found less inequality following expansions of state redistributive policy. Yet, for another, we identified the opposite pattern. These findings highlight the importance of state policy choices in shaping market inequality, and have implications for designing state policies to reduce income inequality since the success of these efforts depends on the policy approach used to redistribute income and wealth.     

In Defence of the Secular? Islamisation,Christians and (New) Politics in Urbane Malaysia

Besides the clarion call for a “new politics” by opposition political parties, a significant catalyst that arguably swayed Christian electoral choices in the landmark Malaysian general elections of March 2008 was the counsel by religious leaders to safeguard “the secular state”. This action was prompted by recent high profile controversial legal cases that were perceived to be a serious erosion of the freedom of religion clause guaranteed in the secularist Federal Constitution. In this essay, I not only examine the recent antecedents of this course of action but also delve into the more distant past in order to draw out how the apparently impervious categories of “religion” and “the secular” have been implicated in the structuring of social and political imaginaries in Malaysia.     

Crusading in Africa: Religion,Race, and Post-9/11 Intervention in Antoine Fuqua’s Tears of the Sun (2003)

Abstract

African American director Antoine Fuqua’s Tears of the Sun, a 2003 war ?lm made with US Navy cooperation, imagines the intervention of Navy SEALs in an ethnic cleansing being conducted against Christians by Nigerian Muslims. It is at once an exercise in black diasporic consciousness and an expression of American exceptionalism. The director aimed to raise awareness of contemporary African crises, but the picture is also the closest Hollywood combat cinema came in the immediate post-9/11 years to addressing and endorsing the polarizing discourse and militarism of the Bush administration. The ?lm’s use of reductive religious imagery, its weak box of?ce return, and its generally hostile reception overseas expose its failure as a tool of diplomacy and reveal the waning ability of triumphalist Hollywood cinema to de?ne or explain the ‘War on Terror’.     

Adapting (Municipal) Form to (Provincial) Function: City–County Separation and the Introduction of the Consolidated Municipal Service Manager System in Ontario,Canada

In 1998, the province of Ontario introduced the Consolidated Municipal Service Manager (CMSM) system, which effectively downloaded the responsibility for delivery and partial funding for a range of social services to municipalities. Separated cities and counties—a unique system of municipal organization in Ontario that draws a sharp institutional distinction between urban and rural areas—were given a particularly wide range of discretion over the implementation of these services. A number of these jurisdictions experienced an array of problems reaching a local solution. Some even wound up in arbitration. This article examines the implementation of the CMSM, focusing specifically on the unique institutional arrangement found in counties with separated cities, finding that the provincial government overlooked the institutional design of city–county separation, hindering the policy downloading process. Overall, it is argued that the local institutional environment is key when shifting policy responsibility from central to local actors.     

In the Shadow of Globalization: The European Community and the United States in the GATT Negotiations of the Tokyo Round (1973–1979)

This article explores the trade negotiations between the United States and the European Community in the Tokyo Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations, held in Geneva from 1973 to 1979. The article shows how the economic turbulence and the different domestic stances and policies toward the globalizing economy split the Western members of GATT into two camps. Countries, like France and the United Kingdom, less well equipped to face increased worldwide competition and the economic crisis were not keen on trade liberalization. Countries, like the United States and Germany, better equipped to face worldwide competition and in favour of policies that strengthened it, saw trade liberalization as the right path. Eventually, under US President Jimmy Carter's leadership and with the key support of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, the results of the Round reflected a vote in favour of liberalizing international trade. Thus, the Round was shaped by the globalizing economy but, at the same time, its results gave further impetus to the globalization wave that would reach full swing in the 1980s–1990s. The GATT talks took place in the shadow of globalization: while attempting to govern the process, also built it up.     

Theoretical and Numerical Seismic Analysis of Masonry Building Aggregates: Case Studies in San Pio Delle Camere (L’Aquila,Italy)

Masonry building aggregates are large parts of the Italian building heritage often designed without respecting seismic criteria. The current seismic Italian code does not foresee a clear calculation method to predict their static nonlinear behavior. For this reason, in this article a simple methodology to forecast the masonry aggregate seismic response has been set up. The implemented procedure has been calibrated on the results of two FEM structural analysis programs used to investigate three masonry building compounds. As a result, a design chart used to correctly predict the base shear of aggregate masonry units starting from code provisions has been set up.     

Iran–US Public Health Cooperative Organization (PHCO): Education,Healthcare, and Health Services in the Southwest of Iran (Fars), 1950–60

Fars is among the largest provinces of Iran that received the most technical assistance from the American economic delegation in the 1950s. After settling in the province and during ten years of activity, the American delegation provided technical assistance in the fields of health engineering, health education, preventive medicine, nursing, medical services, and medical education. This paper explains how the technical assistance of US personnel contributed to the general health of the Fars province. The findings of this research show that after the formation of the Public Health Cooperative Organization (PHCO) in 1950, not only did most of the cities and villages of this province began to enjoy safe drinking water, but also public health improved. Additionally, the birth of children with disabilities and the spread of infectious diseases such as malaria and trachoma declined by means of preventive medicine centers and health education.     

An Early Illustrated Comparative Anatomy of the Brain: Samuel Collins’ A Systeme of Anatomy (1685) and the Emergence of Comparative Neurology in 17th Century England

The concept of comparing of the brains of various animals and of individual human brains was launched in the last half of the 17th century in England and was much influenced by the formation of the European scientific societies and their attempts to guide naturalist observations into a new systematics. An ambitious attempt to document this trend in an extensively illustrated work of encyclopedic pretensions was the singular publication of Samuel Collins (1618–1710), an energetic anatomist and president of the Royal College of Physicians. His little known two-volume folio presentation, written in the vernacular for broad acceptance, contains the seeds of a science of comparative neurology with the largest collection of brain illustrations (as well as of other organ systems) attempted in his era. Although lacking the conceptual insight that might derive from a true “comparative” anatomy and an understanding of the relations of different animals, the handsome engravings exemplified the new direction of the ‘enlightenment’ of the scientific revolution and are discussed in the context of relevant events of this period.     

Rethinking “Peasant Consciousness” in Colonial Egypt: An Exploration of the Performance of Folksongs by Upper Egyptian Agricultural Workers on the Archaeological Excavation Sites of Karnak and Dendera at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (1885–1914)

This paper aims to rethink “peasant consciousness” in colonial Egypt, through a study of the performance of folksongs by Upper Egyptian agricultural workers on the archaeological excavation sites of Karnak and Dendera at the turn of the twentieth century (1885–1914). Mainly based on a historical‐anthropological analysis of songs collected between 1900 and 1914 by the French archaeologists Maspéro and Legrain, this essay proposes a new understanding of subaltern consciousnesses as fragmented objects constructed through a dialectical relationship of power and resistance as performed by the various actors present on the scene. Drawing its inspiration from the work of contemporary ethnomusicologists (Finnegan 1977 Finnegan, R. 1977. Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance, and Social Context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  [Google Scholar], 1992 Finnegan, R. 1992. Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices, London; New York: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Slyomovics 1987 Slyomovics, S. 1987. The Merchant of Art: An Egyptian Hilali Oral Epic Poet in Performance, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.  [Google Scholar]) and relying on the framework shaped by their use of oral‐formulaic and speech‐act theories, this study conceives of the performance, reception and collection of the songs as a crucial locus of encounter, interaction and negotiation between the local landless peasants employed as daily workers on the excavation sites, and the colonial administrators of the Antiquities Service during the key period of transition from corvée to contract labour.