Nuclear Sisyphus: the myth of denuclearising North Korea

Is North Korea ready and willing to give up its nuclear weapons? Proponents of arms control and sustained engagement with North Korea maintain that Pyongyang's desire to acquire nuclear weapons stemmed from ingrained insecurity vis-à-vis the United States or more specifically, the threat that the US poses to fundamental regime security.

However, the primordial source of Kim Jong Il's existential insecurity stems largely from the abnormal, structural idiosyncracies of his regime and not, as many naively believe, the hardline policies of the Bush administration. Accordingly, the Kim Jong Il regime's fundamental dilemma boils down to the fact that the domestic political costs of giving up its nuclear capabilities are just as high as the costs of retaining them.

Debunking the myth that the US, rather than North Korea, poses the greater challenge to South Korean security is as important as ensuring that North Korea dismantles its nuclear arsenal.     

议会制度的起源和一个国家的诞生冰岛阿尔庭古议会及其影响

飞机在这个世界上距北极最近的首都城市雷克雅未克着陆,就好像降落到了月球。初访冰岛的游客无法不怀着一种探秘的心情。给我们开车的司机是一位身体健硕、肤色白里透红的老人,     

Custom and Belief in the Icelandic Sagas.

FOLKLORE AND MEDICINE. By DR. J. D. ROLLESTON. Reprinted from the West London Medical Journal, April 1939 Reviewed by L. F. Newman.

COMPARATIVE RELIGION : AN INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL STUDY. By E. O. JAMES, D. LITT., PH.D., F.S.A., Professor of the History and Philosophy of Religion in the University of Leeds. Pp, 374. Methuen. 1938. Reviewed by S. H. Hooke.

ROUND ABOUT THREE PALACE GREEN. By ESTELLA CANZIANI. Methuen. With 16 plates. Reviewed by E. F. Coote Lake.

THE THREE NORTHERN COUNTIES OP ENGLAND : BEING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PEOPLE, THEIR COUNTRY AND THEIR HISTORY. Edited by SIR CUTHBERT HEADLAM, Bart., D.S.O., with an Introduction by the Right Hon. Lord Eustace Percy. Northumberland Press Ltd. ; Gateshead-upon- Tyne. 6s. Reviewed by E. M. W..

FOLK-ART OF BENGAL. By AJITCOOMAR MOOKERJEE. The University of Calcutta. 1939. Reviewed by Estella Canziani.

ANTHOLOGIA ANTHROPOLOGICA : NATIVE RACES OF AUSTRALASIA. By SIR J. G. FRAZER, O.M., F. R. S., F.B.A. Edited by R. E. Downie. London. 1939. Pp. viii + 390. Price 35s. Reviewed by J. H. Hutton.

PORTUGAL, A Book of Folk-ways. By RODNEY GALLOP. Cambridge University Press. 1936. Pp. 291 with index. 15s. Reviewed by V. A..     

Vikings in Brazil: the Iceland Brazil Association shaping Icelandic heritage

Abstract

The Iceland Brazil Association (AISBRA) was established in 1996 by a group of Brazilians of Icelandic descent, more than 100 years after the first generation of immigrants settled in Brazil in the nineteenth century. The association was the first organisation in Brazil to collectively emphasise and celebrate Icelandic heritage. The association caters to a disparate group of people that had, in many cases, little knowledge about their historical links to Iceland. In spite of the fragmented activities of AISBRA since its establishment, the number of participants has increased, reflecting their growing interest in their Icelandic past. This paper examines how the members of Iceland Brazil Association produce their heritage independently, outside the state recognised heritage, within the Brazilian national context. We analyse how identities are re/shaped in new ways to engage with the past and how values from the past are extracted and turned into contemporary economic, social, and political values. This paper stresses heritage-making as a social imaginary used to define collective identity, which, while based on ancestry, also intersects with ideas of race and class. Representations of their Icelandic heritage allow the members of the Brazil Iceland Association to emphasise their ‘Europeanness’ and thus their associations with whiteness in contemporary post-colonial Brazil.     

Insect invaders,seasonality and transhumant pastoralism in the Icelandic shieling economy

Abstract

The seasonal movement of people and animals to summer farms, or shielings in outfield pastures was a key element of Iceland's farming practice for over a millennium. At these sites, cattle and sheep husbandry, dairying and the harvesting of outfield resources took place. Despite their central role in the Icelandic economy, evidence for shielings in the landscape is ambiguous and the identification of a site as a shieling, as opposed to a farm, has relied upon written and place name evidence. The Norse colonists introduced a range of insects in their fodder, stored food, dunnage and ballast. Many of these are unable to live under natural conditions in Iceland and are dependent on people for survival. In 1991 Buckland and Sadler suggested that these species might be expected to be absent at shielings, as the sweepstake of their introduction and the seasonal hiatus in occupation would preclude their successful colonisation. This paper presents new evidence from a sub-fossil insect assemblage, which indicates that some of these insects are present at an Icelandic shieling. The implications of this for discerning the materials imported to shielings and the usefulness of Coleoptera for the identification of seasonality in the North Atlantic is discussed.     

中国民间文学的西西弗斯——刘锡诚《20世纪中国民间文学学术史》读后

刘锡诚先生著《20世纪中国民间文学学术史》于2006年10月由河南大学出版社出版了。这是中国民间文学界的一件大事。尽管中国“有”民间文学这门学问已经百年,但至今还没有一部翔实的学术史著作对这段短暂而漫长的故事加以整理,加以综合,并将故事从头道来。闪此,先生的这部近百万字（准确地说是98万字）的、内容难以想象地充盈的厚重之书,及时地填补了一项学术上的空白。     

Reassembling the household for Icelandic archaeology: a contribution to comparative political economy

SUMMARY: Between the 11th and 19th centuries, household archaeology in Iceland comprises rural, dispersed farmsteads notable for their boundedness and stability, suggesting productive and reproductive autonomy. Insights from Actor-Network Theory and entanglement theory help ‘disassemble’ this assumption by shifting our focus first to the agencies, flows and dependences that comprise a political economy without assuming the household’s relations of production a priori. Architecture, settlement patterns, landscape and midden accumulations from the Langholt region in Skagafjörður, North Iceland, along with historical data illustrate that households in Iceland are actually marked by social dissolution, alienation and instability through dramatic political-economic dis- and re-assembling which in turn produces the stability in the material manifestation of the household. These data caution against a simple relationship between the household and archaeological farmstead, and suggest that measures of dependency and instability are critical to a comparative method for unravelling entanglements between capitalist and non-capitalist political economies.     

论醇亲王奕譞

醇亲王奕譞是晚清史上一重要政治人物,思想敏锐,品行廉洁,曾对中国早期近代化事业作出过很大的贡献,特别是在兴建铁路方面的业绩尤为突出。但以往人们多对其持消极评价,主要因为他曾帮助慈禧太后修建颐和园,这件事被认定与甲午战争的失败有关,笔者以为此种观点是不正确的。     

1991-2000年民俗学文献分析

为了使从事民俗学教学研究的人员熟知民俗学的核心期刊和主要作者,了解本学科的学术动态,本文采用文献计量学的方法,统计分析了1991-2000年民俗学文献,找出了本学科的核心期刊和主要作用,分析了20世纪90年代学科研究的学术动态,为便利读者参考提供了科学依据。     

Knowledge-based development dynamics in less favoured regions: insights from Australian and Icelandic university towns

Knowledge-based development (KBD) is a widely practiced policy and is signified as an effective development approach particularly for the metropolitan city-region context. Even though, increasing recognition of this policy resulted in some initiatives in less favoured regions – such as regional university towns – its appropriateness for this context has not been investigated adequately. This paper explores the concept thoroughly in regional university town settings from the lens of the triple-helix model – a critical element for success in KBD. The study aims to broaden our understanding on the challenges of implementing a successful triple-helix model in regional university towns by providing evidence from different country contexts – Australia and Iceland. The methodology of the comparative case investigation incorporates policy and stakeholder perception analyses. Results reveal the journey of the investigated cases, their limited accomplishments and failure factors. Findings shed light on the developmental challenges of regional university towns by highlighting critical issues relating to suitability, appropriate implementation and effectiveness of the KBD policy.     

Lamentations 3,1-6: An anti-psalm 23

This essay addresses two different Biblical bulks of text. On the one hand, the essay approaches Psalm 23. On the other hand, however, does the essay equally approach Genesis 4 that documents the chronicles of Cain, Abel, Lemech and the descendents of Adam and Eve after the slay of Abel by Cain. The rationale for addressing simultaneously these two bodies of Biblical text that seem to be divorced from each other, is the following. In the case of both texts, the first encounter with them appears to surrender the impression that two textual components had been glued to each other while lacking any common denominator whatsoever. Nevertheless, in both cases an analytical scrutiny does unveil a cluster of links between the two texts that are seemingly devoid of any reciprocal bond. In the case of Psalm 23, the common denominator between the Psalm's two seemingly detached parts does consist on a tight, detailed analogy between the metaphors utilized to portray the Lord and His pious believer. In the case of Genesis 4, however, the unearthed link between the text's ensemble of components is found to be among the characters that perform along two leading parameters, death and life. Hence in both cases what was initially considered a text that is devoid of a plausible connection between its parts, is found out as a text that its parts are united in the most cogent and equally tight fashion.     

馆藏唐卡观音菩萨类赏析

包头博物馆收藏的观音菩萨类唐卡数量较多,保存完好,为研究我国藏传佛教提供了珍贵的实物资料。     

试析1918-1920年英国对土耳其的政策——兼论《色佛尔条约》的艰难出台

本文通过探讨1918—1920年间英国对土耳其采取的激进政策,集中分析了英国政府试图主导战后中近东局势,以有利于自己的方式解决土耳其问题的意图;深入阐释和论述了英国在政策实施过程中遇到的诸多矛盾,如土耳其民族主义运动的奋起抵抗,战时盟友法国和意大利在关键时刻的釜底抽薪,英国内阁的意见分歧等;进而揭示和论证了英国调整对土耳其政策的原因,论证了《色佛尔条约》成为战后最难产和约的原因。     

试析孙中山的分权学说

孙中山的分权学说是其政治思想的重要组成部分。它以民生史观为哲学基础,包括权能区分和五权宪法两个部分。孙中山的分权学说在历史上起过积极的进步作用,但随着时代的发展,其缺陷也日益突现。     

Review - Matthew Johnson: Archaeological Theory: An Introduction

Hans Ame Jensen: Seeds and Other Diaspores in Soil Samples from Danish Town and Monastery Excavations, dated 700–1536 AD. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Biologiske Skrifter 26, Copenhagen 1986. 107 pp, 11 Tables, 10 Figs. 5 Pl.

R. Haaland &; P. Shinnie (eds.): African Ironworking: Ancient and Traditional. Norwegian University Press 1985. 212 pp.