Pagri: The Mountain Town

PagriTown,intheHimalayanmountains,wasonceamountaingrazingland.whereherdsmenrovedaroundthewildgrasslandwiththeirlivestock.Astimewentby,Yadong,anearbytownatthesoutherntipofHimalayasdevelopedintoatradingportbetweenTibetandIndia.Yadong'sprosperitysoonspurredt…     

The Late Saxon Town of Thetford: An Interim Report on the 1964–6 Excavations

Abstract

Reigate stone was one of the most important building stones used in London and along the Thames littoral in the Middle Ages but, despite this, its use has been largely ignored by archaeologists. This introductory essay attempts to look at both the geology and documented history of the stone quarries, and at the Battersea and other Thames-side sites from which the stone was distributed.     

Shiquanhe:A Bustling Town

Ｓｈｉｑｕａｎｈｅ：ＡＢｕｓｔｌｉｎｇＴｏｗｎＣｈｅｎｇＷｅｉｄｏｎｇ，ａｐｈｏｔｏｇｒａｐｈｅｒｗｉｔｈｔｈｅＮａｔｉｏｎａｌｉｔｉｅｓＰｉｃｔｏｒｉａｌ，ｓｔａｙｅｄｉｎＮｇａｒｉｆｏｒｔｗｏｍｏｎｔｈｓｗｈｅｒｅｈｅｔｏｏｋｍａｎｙｇｏｏｄｐｉ...     

Gyangze:A Heroic Town

On April 5, 1904, the Britishinvaded Gyangze. TheTibetan army and civilianancient poeder guns and stones, andGyangze Zong Hill Castle became a for-tified point for defense. The British army cut off the watersupply, forcing the Tibetans to fetchdirty water and, in the end, drink theirown urine. The Tibetans persisted despite all diffi-culties. Unfortunately,the British blew uptheir ammuition depot. Having no wayout, the Tibetans fought with swords,spears, cudgels, and whatever they could     

The Making(s) of an Alternative Urban Policy: What Happens When Free Fares Come to Town?

While many urban policies and practices claim to offer an “alternative” to the “mainstream” of urban entrepreneurialism, they remain under-theorised and prone to alignment with entrepreneurial agendas. In this paper I examine fare-free public transport (FFPT) as a salient example of an alternative urban policy. Looking at Aubagne (France) and Tallinn (Estonia), I explore what happens when an alternative policy “comes to town”. I detect how FFPT enters local urban regimes, and study the (non-)participation of public transport passengers and workers in the decision-making process about whether and how to abolish public transport fares. My analysis reveals that albeit alternative policies such as FFPT seem to oppose entrepreneurialism, they may hinge on urban regimes that span across institutions, leave the local configurations of power unchallenged, and strenghten local elites. The adaptability of alternatives to diverse political and intellectual positions explains their resilience. Consequently, their radical character cannot be taken for granted and remains an object of political struggle.     

The unification of archaeological sites of Athens: The birth of an archaeological park?

Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing trend to present archaeological resources in the form of archaeological parks. These are an innovative way of presenting vast archaeological sites that contain a number of monuments, as a single entity, using components of the environment as interpretation features and creating an ‘invented’ integrity of the landscape. Even though the overall concept of an archaeological park emerged in Scandinavia at least three decades ago, only recently has it taken on a wider character and been applied to a variety of archaeological sites. But no clear criteria exist for them.

The current project of the Unification of the Archaeological Sites of Athens involves creating an archaeological park that includes most features considered essential for a park of this kind. However, the special characteristics of Athens (the over-built urban landscape, environmental pollution, and the mystical relationship between the ancient and modern cities), give the future park a rather individual character.     

The vanity of dogmatizing: The three ‘versions’

This essay reevaluates the Weimar writings of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss, specifically, their intellectual efforts to replace the political authority of Kantian liberalism with, respectively, a ‘political theology’ and ‘Biblical atheism’ derived from the thought of early-modern state theorists like Hobbes and Spinoza. Schmitt and Strauss each insisted that post-Kantian Enlightenment rationality was unraveling into a way of thinking that violently rejected ‘form’ of any kind, fixated myopically on material things and lacked any conception of the external constraints that invariably condition the possibilities of philosophy, morality and politics. They considered Kantian reason and liberal politics to pose serious threats to ‘genuine’ expressions of rationality and as dangerous obfuscations of the necessity of political order—of the brute fact that human beings stand in need of ‘being ruled,’ as such.     

Truth as historical recapitulation: the dead of Cape Town’s District One

In this essay, I reflect on the massive and dramatic re-emergence of the dead of Cape Town’s District One in 2003, and its aftermath. I discuss how the resurfacing of these ancestors helps us understand how heritage discourses operate in Cape Town, and how their agency forces us to consider what it means to live in the city during post-apartheid urban renewal. I argue that the agency of the District One dead hinges on their exposure of the internal workings of discourse and the associated disciplinary practices through which we experience Cape Town and its heritage. This story ends ambiguously. I discuss how, following the storage of the District One dead in the Prestwich Ossuary, the gaze on Cape Town was redirected away from the city’s past and towards its future; I explore how their reinterment foreclosed a series of discussions regarding the reconciliation of past events with the present realities of Cape Town. I argue, finally, that truth at District One can be understood as a form of historical recapitulation.     

LHAZE:Ancient Town Famous For Tibetan Knives

henitisplacedonthetable,itlookslikeripplingautumnwaterthatglistensinthesun;whenitisheldinthehand,one'canfeelcoolnessfromtheblade.SuchTibetanknivesareproducednowherebutinLhaze,anancienttown.AccompaniedbyNamgyi,headoftheCivilAffairsBureauofLhazeCounty,Ivisi…     

Bayi Town Today

BayiTownishometotheCPCCommitteeofNyingchiPrefectureandtheNyingchiPretecturalAdministrativeOffice.Wthemeraldmountainsandcrystalcleanwatef,BayiTownisbIessedwithpleasantweatherandpoeticlandscape.Itscharmhasearneditthenickname"PlateauPearl".DOORJARREDOPEN.Bef…     

The Idiom of the Other: Three Francophone Writers of “The Fringe”

This paper is based on the linguistic and cultural experiences of three francophone writers: Ahmadou Kourouma (Abidjan, Ivory Coast), Suzanne Dracius (Martinique), and Barry Jean Ancelet (Louisiana, United States). Their testimonies are discussed in the opening section. A reading of Jacques Derrida's Monolingualism of the Other; or, The Prosthesis of Origin, enables us to analyze the experiences of these three writers, “whose relation to the French language is as vexed and varied as Derrida's own Algerian inheritance” (in the words of an anonymous reviewer). It leads, in the next section, to a discussion of the impossibility of absolute monolingualism demanded by “linguistic imperialism,” the multiplicity inherent in any language, and the violence of a language which claims to be unique, while serving some ideology or power. In the last part, I address the double interdict to which Derrida believes education must respond, and the double entitlement for which it is responsible.     

The arts of memory revived: The re‐interpretation of old parliament house

Abstract

The authors discuss the interpretation of Old Parliament House in Canberra, which ceased being the site of the Australian Federal Parliament in 1988 and is now an historic building and open to the public. The challenge lies in a building, which is not only an historic piece of architecture, which contains the National Portrait Gallery, but also the site of all Australian federal political life for sixty years. How to tell such a plethora of stories to a variety of visitors remains a daunting proposition.     

The necessity of “corporatism”: The case of the Hawke labor government

“Consensual Corporatism” under the Hawke Labor Government is a process of policy decision‐making engendered both by a reaction to perceived past Labor policy‐making failures and the context of the collapse of the long post‐war economic boom.

This paper argues:

1. 1) that the perceptions of economic crisis in Australia in 1983 were accurate and that the Hawkeist consensus model was a correct (though not really corporatist) reaction to the policy requirements of the mid‐1980s;

2. 2) that, primarily because of the fragility of the institutional‐cum‐political base of the Hawke “consensual corporatist” policy process it will take an unusual combination of continuous good management and good luck for the model and its progenitor government to survive beyond the next election.

     

The Temporality of Eternal Prosperity: Prospero’s Labors of Love in The Tempest

In this essay, I examine the role of providence in Shakespeare’s The Tempest alongside the concept of history that Kierkegaard develops in Philosophical Fragments. I argue that the art of the play is contained in Prospero’s historical and loving engagement with the past. In short, I undertake to show that, in stark contrast to the Greek and Roman conception of time as fate, it is in viewing love as both the temporal origin and the eternal goal of existence that the time of our lives is rendered providential, that is, meaningful and historical.     

The Tip of the Iceberg: The Material of Skriðuklaustur Monastery and Hospital

Material objects from distant societies and cultures have long been an axis for archaeological research. In recent research, however, growing attention has been drawn to exploring simultaneously the conceptual meaning of material substances as the products of humans. The visual appearance of material is in this respect no more than the tip of an iceberg, where only a small part of something largely hidden is evident. In this article, Skriðuklaustur, an Augustinian monastery which operated in Eastern Iceland from ad 1493 to 1554 will thus be approached as embracing the remains of an internationally based society that flourished on the outskirts of the medieval monastic world. An excavation of its ruins has revealed residues of a society whose material is both domestic and international but still reflects the universally based meaning of monasticism. The Catholic Church is in this manner regarded as having fabricated phenomena through its pervasive institutions, upholding a distinct monastic identity. This view does not though involve a general denial of cultural or social changes as it rather underlines the hybrid character of everything that is and, at the same time, the significance of examining the materiality of past cultures as the creation of humans in their relational context.     

The Stones of Contention: The Role of Archaeological Heritage in Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

Archaeology plays a fundamental role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The practice of archaeology in Israel is embedded in the national identity construction discourse and has severe repercussions on domestic politics. From archaeological remains it is demanded to give proof of precedence and legitimate claims over land. The relation between nationalism and archaeology is a topic that became increasingly popular in scholarly works of the past 20 years. The full UNESCO membership of Palestine is projecting the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in a globalized dimension, but at the same time the heritage of humanity’s politics reinforces the nation-states concept and could pave the way to new political scenarios.     

Tang Dynasty Stone Tablet Found In Border Town of Gyilung

LobsangisthechiefofZongkaTownship,GyilungCounty.Oldasheis,heknowseachbladeofgrassinthelocalitylikepalmofhishand."Icantellexactlywhateverythingishere,becauseIhaveatelescope,"explainstheoldman,whosefaceiscoveredwithwrinkles.LobsangcapturedthetelescopefromBritishinvadersinthepreviouscenturyandnowcarriesitwhereverhegoes.Whenevertheneedarises,hewillbringitoutofhispockettocarryoutexaminationwhilstotherswatchwithgreatrespect.WhentheChinesearchaeologistsreachedhisvillage,theoldmandisplayedgreatent…