Yadong:Yesterday and Today

LocatedonthesouthernslopeoftheHimalayas,Yadong,withanelevationof3,500meters,isabordercounty.Givenitsuniqueterrainandancientculture,Yadongisrichintourismresources.Inthelastdecade,12hotspringshavebeendeveloped.Thecountygovernmentspentmorethan1.5millionyuant…     

LALHU WETLAND:Establishment and Protection

While the world pays increasing attention toecology, the people of Lhasa undertake otherkinds of projects geared to protect the ecoenvironment. Protecting the Lalha Wetland isone of such projects.The watland, the largest of its kind in Lhasa, formerlybelonged to the noble family of Lalhu. It now covers an areaof 6.2 square km, and helps increase the oxygen content inthe air and beautify the city environment. Scientists refer toit as the lung of the city of Lhasa and think the wetland comman…     

Lhoba People: Yesterday and Today

DeepinthedenseforestsonthesouthernbankoftheYarlungZangboRiverlivetheLhobapeople.Theareatheyhavetradition-alinhabitedhasbecometheNamyiLhobaEthnicTownshipofMainlingCounty.Duringthesummer,theplantsbattleeachothertopresentthemostgreenfacetovisitors.Itwasatthi…     

Henduan Mountains:Locations and Resources

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MAN-LIKE CREATURES:STORIES and LEGENDS

Ftom June to July in 2006,I joined the documentary group organized by CCTV and Beijing Mt.Ling Ecological Research Institute to visit several native forest areas in Yadong,Kyirong,Menling,Nyingchi,and Pome in order to conduct a field survey regarding the activities of man-like creatures.     

European Transfigurations—Eurafrica and Eurasia: Coudenhove and Trubetzkoy Revisited

The Eurasianist movement launched a theory according to which Russia does not belong to Europe but forms, together with its Asian colonies, a separate continent named “Eurasia” whose Eastern border is the Pacific Ocean. Similarily, in the early 1920s, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, the founder of the Pan-European movement, developed, the idea of “Eurafrica.” I compare the writings of Coudenhove and those of Nicolas S. Trubetzkoy and show how the idea of Europe was used as an anti-essentialist model of a cultural community. Though both “Eurasia” and “Eurafrica” may be understood to express cultural and economic imperialism, the sophistication with which both concepts are brought forward makes their interpretation as simple derivatives of chauvinism impossible. Both Trubetzkoy and Coudenhove refuse national “egocentricity” which “destroys every form of cultural communication between human beings.” Above that, Trubetzkoy and Coudenhove agree that cultural apogees have often come about through fusion. I discuss the idea of “convergence” in the context of Bergson's and Deleuze's biophilosophies.     

Intersectionality: old and new endeavours?

This short comment on intersectionality raises three points for further thought and discussion: The first has to do with the rich tradition of feminist interventions in academe and in political struggles which adopted intersectional approaches before a field of ‘intersectionality studies’ was developed. The second is a note about the difficult and complex passage from individual subject formation to the constitution of collective identities, following the logic of intersectional analysis and theorizing, Finally, the third point puts forward some thoughts on positionality as ‘perspective’ from which to interpret the complexities of intersectional analyses and seek to forge solidarities and alliances beyond individual identification.     

KAMBA COUNTY:Sheep and Spring Water

Tibetisatreasurehouseintermsofnativeproduce.ThemostfamousisthesheepfromKamba.KAMBASHEEP.LocatedinsouthernXigazePrefectureatanelevationof4,300meters,KambaCountyhasalowmeantemperatureunsuitableforcropcultivation.Hcnce,thenorthernHimalayanareafavorslivestock…     

Charcot and Les névroses traumatiques: scientific and historical reflections

Between 1878 and 1893, Jean-Martin Charcot published over twenty detailed case histories dealing with what he termed 'traumatic hysteria' and what today would be labelled the psychoneurology of trauma. Charcot's cases record a highly diverse clinique tableau of symptoms. Etiologically, Charcot posited a dual model of a hereditary diathèse, or constitutional predilection to nervous degeneration, and an environmental agent provocateur. Increasingly during the 1880s, he emphasized the role of 'psychical shock'. These writings of Charcot also exhibit many of the same, superb clinical qualities that distinguish his work on other medical topics. Charcot isolated several hystero-traumatic formations and provided outstanding clinical depictions of subgenres of the disorder, most notably brachial monoplegias. His clinical demonstrations of the differential diagnosis of organic and functional post-traumatic pathologies represent Charcot the virtuoso neurologist at his finest. Taken together, these writings offer a penetrating exploration of the complex and elaborate functional sequelae of minor bodily injury and the phenomenon of traumatic psychogenic somatic symptom-formation. The revival today of medical interest in psycho-traumatic pathology, including the traumatic origins of certain dissociative states, provides an important context for the renewed appreciation of Charcot's work in this area.     

Tell el-‘Ajjul palaces I and II: Context and function

ABSTRACT

Traditional views on Middle Bronze Age (MBA) palatial function have been challenged by recent work at Tel Kabri, where the excavators have argued against the common identification of southern Levantine palaces as redistributive centres staffed with literate administrators. These innovative ideas surrounding palace function were first developed by Flinders Petrie during excavations at Tell el-‘Ajjul in 1931–32. Here he uncovered a series of elaborately constructed elite residences that he identified as ‘palaces’. However, when reconsidering Petrie's finds, the results from Ajjul are largely supportive of the Kabri observations. A lack of evidence for key functional attributes of palaces—large-scale storage, administrative paraphernalia and redistributive function - is comparable to that reported at Kabri. A short consideration of similar MBA ‘palaces’ elsewhere in the southern Levant is supportive of the aforementioned trend, and therefore calls into question the traditionally held views on the function of these elaborate architectural complexes. Either the function generally attributed to these structures is incorrect, or administration and rulership in MBA Canaan leaves no unambiguous residues in the archaeological record.     

Something Borrowed and Something New?: Welfare Reform and Social Science

William M. Epstein, Welfare in America : How Social Science Fails the Poor.
Herbert J. Gans, The War Against the Poor : The Underclass and Antipoverty Policy
Joel F. Handler, The Poverty of Welfare Reform