A Wider Europe: the View from Moscow and Kyiv

The expansion of NATO and the enlargement of the EU will produce outside states in which perceptions and policies will be influenced by feelings of exclusion and isolation. Russia and Ukraine are two important examples. In Russia the sense of exclusion results from NATO expansion and it was exacerbated by the air strikes against Serbia. Although Ukraine also responded negatively to NATO's attack on Serbia, Ukrainian perceptions of exclusion are caused primarily by disappointment that EU membership is proving so difficult to attain. Based on elite interviews, opinion surveys and the analysis of focus group discussions, this article compares and contrasts the attitudes towards NATO and the EU in the two countries.     

Field work: A view from the third world

André Béteille and T. N. Madan, eds. Encounter and Experience. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1975. viii + 225 pp. Bibliography. $8.00.     

The Haida: A view from 1966

Mary Lee Stearns, Haida Culture in Custody: The Masset Band. Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1981. xiii and 322 pp. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. $24.50 cloth.     

A bigger Settecento Italiano: wider vistas and open terrain

This paper introduces the six essays from the UCLA-Clark Library Conference on ‘The Culture of Enlightenment and Reform in Eighteenth-Century Italy’ (23?–?24 January 2004). Franco Venturi's persona, productivity, method, and themes are reviewed to help explain his influence on Italian Enlightenment Studies, while at the same time showing how recent research has developed in a number of directions?–?following up on his insights, exploring new topics, or leaving large questions yet unexamined.     

The prehistory of the Austronesian-speaking peoples: A view from language

Prior to the European colonial expansions of the past several centuries the Austronesian (AN) language family had the greatest geographical extent of any on earth, including in its territory areas that had never previously been settled. Although predominantly distributed in a tropical or subtropical environment, AN-speaking peoples exhibit a wide range of physical types, material cultures, and types of social and political organization. This paper addresses ways in which linguistic comparison can contribute toward answering such questions as the following: Where was the AN homeland? What was the nature of early AN material culture, social and political organization? What can we infer about early AN pathology? How did early AN speakers view the spirit world? It concludes with a discussion of culture loss, many examples of which can be inferred both from the Pacific and from insular Southeast Asia.     

A new Jungle-fowl from the Pleistocene of Europe

The domesticated Red Jungle-fowl G. gallus is believed to have been dispersed by man from India during the Holocene. The distal end of a radius from the Ipswichian Interglacial deposits at Crayford, Kent, was indistinguishable from that of the wild form of Red Jungle-folw. A coracoid from the early Middle Pleistocene of N Norfolk was also very similar to that species but showed differences comparable with those found between different species of Gallus. At least one species referable to Gallus is known from the Pliocene of South-eastern Europe. Extrapolating from zoogeographical speciation patterns it would be possible for a Gallus species to have evolved through Pleistocene speciation in the European region. The species might have become extinct during a glaciation or have been exterminated by early man. A new species Gallus europaeus is described with the coracoid as a holotype, and the radius from Kent is tentatively referred to it.     

Evolution of marine mammal hunting: A view from the California and Oregon coasts

Marine mammals constitute … an integral part of the marine ecosystem usually as top predators. Hunting of cetaceans and pinnipeds for skins, meat and blubber has of course gone on from the earliest recorded times. At various periods … the hunting of them intensified to the point at which it caused serious depletion. Although accurate records are not available, there is little doubt that many marine mammal populations were reduced to a small fraction (perhaps no more than a tenth or so) of their former levels. Some like the sea otter, disappeared from parts of their range …     

The interpretation of stratified sites: A view from underground

This paper reports on an experiment designed to study the role of trampling in the vertical dispersal of artifacts in the soil, and in the mixing of originally separate sets of materials. The experiment is part of a study of the archaeological stratigraphy and patterns of site use at a large stratified cave in southern France. The experiment was designed to replicate conditions prevailing at the cave. The results strongly suggest caution in the interpretation of living floors and stratified assemblages in sandy deposits.     

A statistical view for Chinese zooarchaeology: from the Neolithic to Pre-Han periods

More than 80 years have passed since zooarchaeology first began in China in the early 1930s. Currently, this discipline is one of the most active fields in Chinese archaeology, engaging with other sub-disciplines such as archaeogenetics, archaeobotany, and stable isotopic studies. But how did we end up like this? This paper explores this question by surveying existing zooarchaeological publications from the Neolithic to Pre-Han periods (c. 8000–202 bc). Results show that journals are the most popular publishing type, followed by archaeological reports. Postgraduate theses are also taken into account. With consideration of publication numbers, three chronological periods can be recognised. These phases are associated with political/social events of the twentieth century in China. While the majority of articles concern basic identification, there has been an increasing interest on human-animal interactions during recent years. In addition, while central China is the overwhelming focus of zooarchaeological research, some areas may have been overlooked.     

Europe and the Vietnam War: A Thirty-Year Perspective

Book reviewed:
Christopher Goscha and Maurice Vaïsse, eds. La guerre du Vietnam et l'Europe 1963–1973 . Brussels: Bruylant, 2003. xxviii + 491 pp. €40.00.     

Terrestrial implications for the maritime geoarchaeological resource: A view from the Lower Palaeolithic

Stone tools and faunal remains have been recovered from the English Channel and the North Sea through trawling, dredging for aggregates, channel clearance, and coring. These finds highlight the potential for a maritime Lower Palaeolithic archaeological resource. It is proposed here that any Lower Palaeolithic artefacts, faunal remains, and sediments deposited in the maritime zone during dry, low-stand phases were once (and may still be) contextually similar to their counterparts in the terrestrial Lower Palaeolithic records of north-western Europe. Given these similarities, can interpretive models and analytical frameworks developed for terrestrial archaeology be profitably applied to an assessment of the potential value of any maritime resource? The terrestrial geoarchaeological resource for the Lower Palaeolithic is dominated by artefacts and ecofacts that have been fluvially reworked. The spatio-temporal resolution of these data varies from entire river valleys and marine isotope stages to river channel gravel bar surfaces and decadal timescales, thus supporting a variety of questions and approaches. However, the structure of the terrestrial resource also highlights two fundamental limitations in current maritime knowledge that can restrict the application of terrestrial approaches to any potential maritime resource: (i) how have the repetitive transgressions and regressions of the Middle and Late Pleistocene modified the terrace landforms and sediments associated with the river systems of the English Channel and southern North Sea basins?; and (ii) do the surviving submerged terrace landforms and fluvial sedimentary deposits support robust geochronological models, as is the case with the classical terrestrial terrace sequences? This paper highlights potential approaches to these questions, and concludes that the fluvial palaeogeography, Pleistocene fossils, and potential Lower Palaeolithic artefacts of the maritime geoarchaeological resource can be profitably investigated in future as derived, low-resolution data sets, facilitating questions of colonisation, occupation, demography, and material culture.     

Columbanus in Europe: the evidence from the Epistulae

The continental career of Columbanus has long attracted the attention of scholars because of his achievement as a writer, monastic founder and reformer, and political actor. His Epistulae are one of the most important pieces of evidence in understanding his attitudes and purposes during his twenty‐year sojourn on the Continent, and they emphasize the importance of his ecclesiastical and secular relationships. However, the Epistulae have seldom been analysed independently and together, as their study has often been focused on single letters or specific aspects of the collection. This paper looks at the Epistulae in a more general way, to point out what they tell us about Columbanus's theological and ecclesiastical positions, and the connections he established on the Continent.     

Exhibiting atomic culture: the view from Oak Ridge

In the aftermath of World War II, residents of “nuclear cities” like Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos, New Mexico, where America's atomic weapons were produced struggled to interpret the nation's atomic history as well as their own stories, for themselves, for tourists and for other visitors. Once literally hidden cities, they remain steeped in Cold War culture and ideology, yet they face uncertain futures as weapons production needs change, hazardous waste dangers become more apparent and homeland security is threatened. “Atomic museums” established at these and other sites have become focal points of such dilemmas. Their evolving interpretations of America's atomic heritage play a significant role in shaping public understanding of the Bomb.     

How God Disappeared from Europe: Visions of a United Europe from Erasmus to Kant

This article traces the development of European ideas of peace and unity from the time of Desiderius Erasmus to Immanuel Kant. The argument will be made that these ideas, which were initially strongly determined by Christian religious thinking, gradually changed, and from the seventeenth century onwards were put forward in more political and legal terms. Erasmus's way of reasoning about peace and war was still strongly influenced by his firm orientation on the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Emeric Crucé, a French writer, was of the opinion that all human beings in the end had God in common, and so had to live peacefully together. Duc de Sully was one of the first not to argue as a religious man but as a politician: a system of balance of power could bring international stability. According to the English Quaker William Penn and the French Abbé de Saint-Pierre only the acceptance of international rules of justice could produce everlasting peace. Immanuel Kant finally directed attention to the form of government and to the founding of a federation of free republics. So God seems to have disappeared from Europe?…?but with what consequences for today?     

Humanitarian assistance and conflict management: the view from the non-governmental sector

As part of their efforts to intervene constructively in conflict-affected regions, non-governmental agencies and associated research centres publish different types of literature intended to improve performance. This article provides an overview of this material and assesses its significance for a wider constituency of scholars and policy analysts. The literature falls into three main categories: 1) reviews of issues that agencies must address when seeking constructive modes of intervention; 2) case-studies of particular conflicts; and 3) skills-development and training materials. The great value of the literature to the broader international relations community is the richness of the empirical material presented, and the consequent insights into conflict dynamics that come from the 'bottom-up/insider-out' community-level perspectives.