Analysis of the Transformation of Herat Old City,Afghanistan

ABSTRACT

This study examines the ongoing transformation of Herat Old City (also referred to as the Old City), the former capital of the Timurid Empire on the Silk Roads, regarding the transformation of residential quarters. The data for this study is provided by a literature review, field surveys, and interviews with city officials and citizens. The study analyses the changes to residential quarters occurring in the Old City with a particular focus on their relation to a) the post-war reconstruction process, b) lack of management by the municipal government, and c) inadequate involvement of citizens/residents. The study shows how changes in private housing have occurred across the Old City. They began around 2004 and accelerated with the reconstruction process, which included projects funded by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). Redevelopment of traditional houses has been continuing in the Old City even after AKTC completed their mission in 2010.     

The disparate histories of binocular vision and binaural hearing

Vision and hearing are dependent on disparities of spatial patterns received by two eyes and on time and intensity differences to two ears. However, the experiences of a single world have masked attention to these disparities. While eyes and ears are paired, there has not been parity in the attention directed to their functioning. Phenomena involving binocular vision were commented upon since antiquity whereas those about binaural hearing are much more recent. This history is compared with respect to the experimental manipulations of dichoptic and dichotic stimuli and the instruments used to stimulate the paired organs. Binocular color mixing led to studies of binaural hearing and direction and distance in visual localization were analyzed before those for auditory localization. Experimental investigations began in the nineteenth century with the invention of instruments like the stereoscope and pseudoscope, soon to be followed by their binaural equivalents, the stethophone and pseudophone.     

The legacy of communism: difficult histories,emotions and contested narratives

Abstract

This paper considers contested and traumatic narratives, using a case study of the planned National Museum of Romanian Communism and the site of Jilava Penitentiary, a former communist prison, near Bucharest in Romania. It discusses what happened when representatives from different groups of former victims and perpetrators met together with facilitators and worked towards a shared understanding of the past to reach some consensus about how to deal with different and apparently conflicting narratives within a new museum of communism. It draws on notions of emotional communities in order to understand the role heritage plays in contested situations. It also considers the nature of transitional justice (‘Transitional justice is an approach to systematic or massive violations of human rights that both provides redress to victims and creates or enhances opportunities for the transformation of the political systems, conflicts, and other conditions that may have been at the root of the abuses’.) in this context.     

The utility of livestock dung for reconstructing recent ethnological and environmental histories

Animal dung is evaluated here as a tool to reconstruct recent societal and environmental changes. Studies completed on the macro- and micro-contents from dung deposited in a mountain cave in Catalonia during the 1970–1980s, preceding the socio-economic changes in the area, was supplemented by the testimony of the last shepherd alive in the area. This information was also compared with evidence from aerial photographs of the area surrounding the cave taken in 1956 and 2009. Although taphonomic distortion of the dung shape precluded its assignment to its producers based on morphology, information from the organic remains reflects the agro-pastoral activities in the mountainous area of the Catalan coast. A lack of calcium phosphate and abundant phytolith and epidermal remains from wild species indicates that the dung was excreted by ovicaprines, who sheltered in the cave during spells of adverse weather. These indicators also signify that the animals fed only on natural vegetation. Insect remains in the dung include fragments of chafers, dung and ground beetles, bees and ants, and whilst the latter may have foraged in the cave, the others may have been accidentally ingested by herbivores. The nannofossils and diatoms found in the dung derive from tertiary crops 4 km away from the cave but within the range of the ovicaprine herd. The lack of cereal and vegetable remains in the dung is consistent with the ethnographic record that shepherds and farmers could not afford to supplement the herds’ diet with fodder crops or grain, a consequence of the low productivity of the local subsistence agriculture. This study further discusses the socio-economic impacts of the introduction of intensive farming, industrialisation and tourism in Catalonia during the latter part of the last century and how they are represented in the dung.     

Kokoda: and two national histories

Abstract

Papua New Guinea has had great difficulty distilling the complex experiences of World War II into national history, but at the same time Australians have elevated and celebrated the significance of Kokoda. The 1942 battles on the Kokoda Track have been the subject of major Australian books and a feature film, and the numbers of trekkers on the Track have increased sharply. But in Papua New Guinea, Kokoda has been narrowing to an association with the Koiari and the Kokoda Orokaiva landowners. In Papua New Guinea, where the nation needs a sense of values and experiences in common, Kokoda is neither well known nor ‘national’.     

Security implications of climate development in conflict-affected states: Implications of local-level effects of rural hydropower development on farmers in Herat

Development initiatives aimed at mitigating or adapting to climate change impacts may result in unanticipated effects especially in conflict-affected contexts. To improved understanding of the implications of future climate development projects in conflict-affected states, this article qualitatively examines the experiences of local communities in the Zinda Jan district, located downstream from the Salma Dam in Herat Province, Afghanistan. Conducted in 2018, the research questions what local-level side effects (LLSEs) were experienced by communities downstream of the Salma Dam after its 2016 inauguration, and how these LLSEs might affect the potential for sustainable peace. The article builds from 25 in-depth interviews with local stakeholders in the Zinda Jan district, and highlights how communities generally experienced increased water scarcity after the completion of the dam in 2016, due to poor water management and lack of necessary infrastructure related to the dam. This water scarcity was a factor in grievances related to water access among local communities, and increased the likelihood of related communal violence. However, local perspectives also indicate desire for joint management of water resources between the state and civilians, from the source to their farms. The article provides important insight for research and policy actors to better understand the implications of future climate development projects in conflict-affected states, and their inherent contribution and/or risk to broader peace processes.     

The use of electron spin resonance spectroscopy to determine the thermal histories of cereal grains

The thermal histories of archaeological cereal grains have been explored with electron spin resonance spectroscopy by a quantitative study of pyrolysis-induced radical carbon. Comparison with modern samples of heated cereal grain has shown that the g value of the radical carbon signal is characteristic of exposure to a previous maximum temperature, and studies of other signal parameters suggest that further information, such as the duration of previous heating, may be deduced from such studies. The proposed method offers the possibility of quantitatively rigorous measurement in archaeological studies of cultural and technological processes that previously relied upon subjective assessment.