On a “Structural” and “Climatic” Geomorphology and a Critique of Certain Concepts

The separation of geomorphology into structural and climatic disciplines is challenged. Climate, rock properties, physical processes, and geological structure are considered to be so intimately intertwined in their effect on the formation of landforms that little basis is seen for a division of the discipline into climatogenetic and structural approaches. Contrary to Lester King's view, this does not mean that climate is not a significant factor. It must unquestionably be taken into consideration and be reflected in any genetic classification of landforms. There is no doubt, for example, that pediments, though likely to occur under a variety of climatic conditions, do find their most widespread development in Africa because of a combination of favorable climatic and structural conditions (arid or semiarid climate, the compliability of rocks to weathering, and the long duration of the cycle under shield conditions undisturbed by any significant tectonic uplifting).     

“Knowledge of divine things”: a study of Hutchinsonianism

The Hutchinsonian movement exercised considerable influence on thought about various topics of importance in England's Enlightenment/Counter-Enlightenment debates. Its epistemological stance, derived from a group of Irish writers of the early eighteenth century, places the movement at the centre of these debates and does much to explain its attraction to contemporaries. The article emphasises the persistence of Hutchinsonian thought and the continuing importance of its epistemological underpinnings into the early nineteenth century, drawing attention particularly to the writings of Bishop William Van Mildert.     

An Analysis of the Concept of a “Natural Infection Focus”

A review of the terminology used by various Soviet authors to designate different ranks of natural-infection areas in which zoonoses, diseases communicable from animals to man under natural conditions, may arise. A system of taxonomic units is proposed both for natural-infection areas and the morphological parts of such areas. An attempt is made to relate the hierarchy of natural-infection areas to the hierarchy of natural territorial complexes, ranging from a natural zone, for example, the steppe, to a landscape facies, for example, a hollow in a floodplain.     

A geographical interpretation of “El Vergel,” a fundo of the central valley of Chile

EUROPE.

To Venice and Back in a Two‐Seater. By E. Halford Ross. London : Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1924. Price 6s.

Through Central France to the Pyrenees. By Maude Speed. London : Longmans, Green and Co., 1924. Price 10s. 6d. net.

Eynhallow: The Holy Island of the Orkneys. By John Mooney, F.S.A. Kirkwall: W. R. Mackintosh, 1923. Price 8s. 6d.

Impressions of Soviet Russia. By Charles Sarolea, Professor of French Literature in the University of Edinburgh. London: E. Nash and Grayson, 1924. Price 10s. 6d. net.

The Road to Rannoch and the Summer Isles. By T. Ratcliffe Barnett. Edinburgh: Robert Grant and Son. 1924. Price 7 s. 6d.

The Hill Paths, Drove Roads and "Gross Country” Routes in Scotland from the Cheviots to Sutherland. By Walter A. Smith, F.F.A., Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Macniven and Wallace, 1924. Price 2s. 6d.

Le Mont Olympe (Thessalie). Monographie par Marcel Kdrz, Ingénieur de la Mission suisse près le gouvernement Hellénique. Paris and Neuchâtel: Victor Attinger, 1923.

ASIA.

Sport and Service in Assam and Elsewhere. By Lt.‐Col. Alban Wilson, D.S.O. London: Hutchinson and Co., 1924 Price 18s. net.

Arab Asia. A Geography of Syria, Palestine, Irak, and Arabia. By Lanice Paton Dana.

My Nestorian Adventure in China. By His Excellency Fritz Holm, G.C.C., G.C.O.M., etc. London : Hutchinson and Co., 1924. Price 18s.

AFRICA.

Big Game and Pygmies : Experiences of a Naturalist in Central African Forests in Quest of the Okapi. By Cuthbert Christy, M.B., C.M. (Edin.). With an introductory chapter by Sir Harry H. Johnston, G.C.M.G. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1924. Price 21s. net.

AMERICA.

Jamaica: The Lodestar of the Caribbean. By E. M. Cook. Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith, 1924. Price 2s. 6d.

Desert Trails of Atacama. By Isaiah Bowman, Director of the American Geographical Society. The American Geographical Society, New York, 1924. Price $5.

Economic Geography of Indiana. By S. S. Visher, Ph.D. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1923.

AUSTRALASIA.

Cotton in Australia. The Possibilities and the Limitations of Australia as a Cotton‐growing Country. By Richard Harding. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1924. Price 12s. 6d. net.

GENERAL.

The Cosmic Bust. By Rajani Ranjan Sen, B.A., B.L. Chittagong : M. R. Sen, 1923. Price Rs. 6/8.

EDUCATIONAL.

Grundzüge der Länderkunde. Von Alfred Hettner. Band 1 : Europa. 2nd (revised) Ed. Preis 9 Goldmark Band 2: Aussereuropäische Erdteile. Preis 11.20 Goldmark. Leipzig and Berlin : B. G. Teubner, 1923.

Regional Geographies: I. The British Isles. By J. Hamilton Birrell, M.A., F.R.S.G.S. ii. The British Umpire. By T. S. Muir, M.A., F.R.S.G.S. Edinburgh : W. and E. Chambers, Ltd. Price 1s. 3d. each.

Economic Geography of the British Empire. By Ciias. B. Tiiurston, B.Sc., F.R.G.S. Fourth and Revised Edition. London : University of London Press, Ltd., 1924. Price 5s.

Junior Regional Geographies. Book III. The Regions of the World. By W. H. Barker, B.Sc. F.R.G.S., and Leonard Brooks, M.A., F.R.G.S. London: University of London Press, Ltd., 1924. Price 2s. 9d.

A Junior Economic Geography. By O. J. R. Howarth. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1923. Price 2s. 6d. net.     

Some Results of the new Discussion about a “Unified” Geography

The president of the Soviet Geographical Society reviews the controversy that surrounded publication of V. A. Anuchin's book on theoretical problems in geography in 1960. Kalesnik finds that the supporters of the idea of a “unified” geography have given ground on a number of points, but are adamant on others. The key issues continue to revolve around the inclusion of society in the concept of the geographic environment, the “mixing” of natural and social laws, and the integration of the geographic sciences into a single science.     

The “Battle of Seattle” revisited: Or,seven views of a protest-zoning state

Increasingly, the expression of dissent at major events is controlled with a territorial strategy – it is banned from some areas and confined to others. One of the more notable uses of this strategy was in Seattle in 1999 during the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization. After widespread unrest forced the cancellation of the conference's first day of events, the City of Seattle erected what it termed a “restricted access” zone, and what its critics termed a “no protest” zone. I use the Seattle events to consider what it means for the state to zone the expression of dissent in such a fashion. I extend and complicate Mitchell's notion of a “dialectic of public space” by outlining seven different perspectives from which one can view the protest-zoning state. This multiplicative nature of the state, I suggest, provides yet more reason to be skeptical of state efforts to confine dissent. Because the state is inherently a contested object, it must remain susceptible to robust discussion of its practices.     

Non-Lucian Sources for Demonax with a new collection of “fragments”1

Apart from Lucian's Demonax, our only other sources on Demonax the philosopher are the Greek gnomologia. These were exploited by K. Funk in his major study of 1907, but Funk was ill informed about the nature of the gnomological sources. The present article gives a concise overview of modern scholarship regarding Lucian's Demonax and the debate on Demonax's historical existence. It then presents the gnomological sources and provides a new and improved edition of the Greek gnomological material along with an English translation.     

The “Coptic” textiles of the “Museo Egizio” in Torino (Italy): a focus on dyes through a multi-technique approach

The Coptic textile collection of the Museo Egizio in Torino (Italy) has been the object of a broad project aimed at investigating the production techniques, at documenting the conservation state and at reconsidering the attributed age. The collection was also analysed by non-invasive and micro-invasive techniques with the aim of detecting the dyes that have been employed to obtain the colours, in order to complete the set of technological information available for each textile. The data collected in the present work have been compared with published results from other Coptic textile collections, with the aim of highlighting a possible link between the age of the textile and the dyes that were employed. Moreover, the combined use of spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques allowed us to compare the results for the non-invasive and the micro-invasive approaches and to go deeper into the dyeing technology by detecting unexpected combinations of dyes. In particular, the use of a double dyeing with madder and Indian lac dye was revealed in some Roman-Byzantine and Byzantine textiles from the collection.     

Modernity as a “Rain of Words”: Tracing the Flows of “Rain” between Dalit Women and Intellectuals in Tamil Nadu

In this paper I investigate the ways in which modernity in contemporary Tamil Nadu may be understood as something other than a purely exclusionary category. I enquire into the flow of language, imagery, music, resonant phrases and film dialogues that has allowed the values of the Self Respect movement in Tamil Nadu to move as a “Rain of Words” across social divisions of class, gender and caste. Egalitarian humanism and rationalism are here treated as part of a modern “tradition”, allowing us, in the process, to redefine what “tradition” might mean. The central place and reverence accorded to intellectuals in Tamil modernity is explored in respect to political party workers, NGOs, parish priests, and social workers in rural areas. I bring together two aspects of Tamil politics normally treated as separate, or in tension with one another: the egalitarian rationalism of the Self Respect movement, and the cultivation of language for its affective and non-rational elements in the politics of language nationalism. Arguing that it is the latter that has allowed the former to circulate as effectively as it does, I focus on the fresh meanings given to these values by young Dalit girls from agricultural labouring communities, as well as girls in coastal fishing communities in Tamil Nadu.     

Estimation of OSL trap parameters by optical “cleaning” — a critical study

The so-called thermal “cleaning” applied in thermoluminescence analysis allows distinguishing TL signal originating from different traps of comparable thermal depths. Here, the detailed study on the suitability of a similar approach — which can be called optical “cleaning” — for the analysis of OSL process has been carried out by means of computer modelling. The optical “cleaning” is realized by short optical stimulation applied directly after irradiation. It turns out that this approach does not help to separate signals related to various traps having similar optical cross-section (OCS) values. For some sets of trap parameters, sufficiently good reconstruction of the trap optical cross-sections can be achieved by the analysis of the conventional OSL curve obtained directly after sample irradiation, while the OSL curve analysis after “cleaning” does not provide any additional data. For other cases the analysis of both curves with and without “cleaning” leads to optical cross-section values different from those assumed in the model, but just in such situations the optical “cleaning” can be helpful. The differences between the OSL components of the conventional curve and the one obtained after “cleaning” can be used as indicators of an incompatibility of the trap parameters obtained from the OSL analysis with their actual values.     

Seamus Heaney and the “place of writing”: technique as evidence of redress as a construct

This article re-examines the significance of redress for Seamus Heaney’s poetry and prose by illustrating that redress is a deeply considered intellectual construct which incites, facilitates and renews creativity throughout Heaney’s career. Redress neither constitutes a project of self-fashioning nor indicates uncertainty in terms of equivocation. Rather, it suggests Heaney’s characteristic uncertainty of how to create a space for himself from and within which to write. In his early work in particular, his contemplation of redress is indicated by his ritual recourse to spatial metaphor. Having arrived at the “place of writing”, the process of unwriting is immediately initiated and the space deconstructed. It is this deconstruction of the created place and the unwriting of what has been written which, in Heaney’s words, “makes the renewal of artistic effort contemplatable”. And it is that contemplation which functions as an impetus for poetry. This article therefore explores Heaney’s diction, rhetorical strategies and ritual performance of redress.     

Heritage vs. History: Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy as a “Physician of Memory”

In a paper presented to the American Historical Association annual meeting in 1934, entitled “The Predicament of History,” Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888–1973) argued that professional (or “scientific”) historians had lost touch with collective memory and were engaged in a free-floating enterprise connected to the vital past only arbitrarily or randomly. Historians should be the physicians of memory, he said. His admonitions relate closely to the stress, often discussed today, between popular heritage, or tradition and memory, on the one side, and critical history, on the other, each vying for influence and authority. Beyond his 1934 paper, Rosenstock-Huessy’s grammatical method opens the way for complementarity and balance, rather than antagonism, between the popular voice and critical history.     

Owning Valence Issues: The Impact of a “Culture of Corruption” on the 2006 Midterm Elections

The 109th Congress commenced with a huge ethical cloud hanging over the Capitol. In January 2005, prominent Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff admitted conspiring to defraud Native American tribes and corrupt public officials. As a result, the Democratic Party chose to adopt corruption as a central theme of their 2006 congressional campaign. They argued that the scandal resulted from a “culture of corruption” fostered by Republicans, who controlled Congress. Although past research shows that voters do punish at the polls congressional incumbents under criminal investigation, little is known about whether the mere appearance of wrongdoing can be assigned to an entire party and cost its candidates votes. Utilizing data from a variety of sources, we find that systemic efforts by House Democratic leaders to frame Republicans as “owning” the scandal—whether individual members actually received Abramoff funds or not—were largely successful in the polls and at the ballot box. These findings suggest that scholarly views of the influence of corruption may have been overly restrictive and that voters are willing, at least in this case, to punish public officials who “appear” to be corrupt.     

Towards a Revaluation of the Legend of “Saint” William of Norwich and its Place in the Blood Libel Legend

The legend of William of Norwich is extremely well known and often quoted in discussions of defamatory folklore. However, since I started working on it three or four years ago I have found that there are surprisingly few folkloric analyses. Leaving aside those who have attempted to believe the story and to use it as anti-Jewish propaganda, most of the respectable work has been done by historians and has tended to concentrate either on debunking the legend or on attempting to reconstruct events in Norwich during Easter 1144. My aim in this paper is to redress this balance and tackle a couple of the more folkloric questions.     

Some Remarks on a Tenth-Century Paraphrase of the “Epitome de Caesaribus”1

This article analyses several passages from a tenth-century paraphrase of the Epitome de Caesaribus, an anonymous and epitomized collection of imperial lives originally produced around the year 400. The analysis shows that among the many textual changes of linguistic, stylistic and ideological nature, errors did also occur during the rewriting process. The author explores some possible approaches to these passages.