Matter Out of Time: The Paradox of the “Contemporary Past”

Contemporary archaeology, with its focus on the present and the very recent past, challenges the conventional definitions of archaeology that emphasize the temporal distance between the archaeologist and the subject matter being investigated. Contemporary archaeology requires different methods, forges novel interdisciplinary collaborations, and inspires new questions. In particular, contemporary archaeology reminds us that all social actors, both in the present and in the past, were uncertain of the future and could not know the outcomes of their actions.     

In and Out of the Ethnographer's Shadow: “Native” Identity in the Anthropology of China

In the past two decades, many Chinese students have trained as anthropologists in the West. The study of China has been enriched by the contributions of “native” anthropologists, but the “native” is not necessarily native to the site studied; the term may not be entirely helpful in the end. At the same time, complete outsiders can still contribute effective and vivid understandings of China. Ultimately, I argue that the anthropologist's identity may not be an overwhelmingly relevant criterion of a work's value, since there are many aspects to identity in every case.     

Unity and Diversity in the European Iron Age: Out of the Mists, Some Clarity?

While some researchers continue to focus fruitfully on traditional issues, in recent years new perspectives, some strongly revisionist, have developed within European Iron Age archaeology, moving it from a long-static state into a rapidly changing milieu. Studies of colonialism, imperialism, and interaction have undergone sequential shifts into new territory, while topics related to sacred activity, political apparatuses, and the ruler-subject relationship have undergone substantial reworking. Perspectives absent from earlier literature have emerged: gender, age, ethnicity, and identity, and interpretations employing theories of practice, agency, landscape, and embodiment have emerged, mirroring broader disciplinary shifts. An overarching trend sees Iron Age Europe as a series of interactive societies with both broad similarities and sharp regional, even local, differences, moving through time and ever-changing relationships, influences, and trajectories. The collision of traditional and revisionist scholarship has produced debate, some heated, but has improved and invigorated the field.     

Out of this World: Issues of Managing Tourism and Humanity’s Heritage on the Moon

Space tourism has become a reality and is bound to become ever more affordable. It is now time to spend serious thought on how humanity is going to manage the human material culture and heritage sites on the surface of the Moon. After all, the Apollo XI mission is of global human significance inasmuch as it was the first time a human being set foot on another celestial body. Environmental conditions on the Moon are such that what is considered low‐impact visitation on Earth would have devastating consequences for the heritage on the lunar surface. This paper highlights a range of issues, not the least of these being management in an environment without territorial control, neither physically nor legally. The multinational management of Antarctica is proposed as a model for the lunar surface.     

Out from the (Green) shadow? Neoliberal hegemony through the market logic of shared urban environmental governance

Recent work in critical geography describes the neoliberalization of urban social service provision through a transition from state provision to civil sector delivery. The concept of a ‘shadow state’ is deployed by some social theorists to describe this process by which nonprofits with government contracts increasingly adopt a state-oriented agenda for the execution of social entitlement programs. Possible linkages between the neoliberalization of urban environmental service provision and a shadow state are lacking by comparison. I, therefore, use qualitative data concerning three organizations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to demonstrate that civil sector groups are stepping up as local government diminishes its markets for municipal environmental labor. However, the diverse compositions of these shared governances potentially complicate the efficacy of a shadow state thesis for describing environmental provision in inner-city Milwaukee. Instead, I argue that a Gramscian interpretation of shared governance better accounts for the neoliberalization of environmental service provision as government agencies and civil sector groups relate to one another through hegemonic market logic. I argue that this provides a more nuanced picture of how governance concerning the urban environment is constructed by the government, market, and civil sectors to further shape human social reproduction.     

Out of the Peat: Preliminary Geophysical Prospection and Evaluation of the Mid-Holocene Stationary Wooden Fishing Structures in Haapajärvi,Finland

The huge scientific and interpretive value of wetland archaeological sites has been well demonstrated in several studies. The management of the archaeological resource of wetland landscapes is problematic, however, and there is an urgent need for noninvasive techniques to detect waterlogged organic archaeological remains. Stationary wooden fishing structures associated with fishing sites constitute an important wetland archaeological resource in northern Europe. In Finland, similar wooden constructions have been used for fishing from prehistory to the early modern era. The discovery of sites has been accidental, because the waterlogged organic remains have been considered invisible to conventional geoprospection techniques. Because of this, a small project was launched at Lamminoja, northwest Finland, in order to investigate whether it would be possible to improve our chances to detect fishery sites in demanding wetland habitats. New information was obtained through geophysical prospection, trial excavations, and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating. Geophysical testing was hampered by several factors, including complex sediments affected by modern drainage. New information was obtained, however, on the composition, age, and spatial distribution of the wooden fishing structures preserved in peat over 5000 years.     

A Trip to The Lhasa River Area （Ⅱ）——-Moving Out of the Monastery in the Deep Mountains

Dainzin Leshie is 20 years old now. Three years ago, he became a monk. But then, three months ago, when he headed out of the Nyainqentanglha Mountains and became a businessman of the Daglung Monastery Store, he took off his red kasaya （monk＇s robe）.     

Outlets不Out

一进七月,购物狂们的躁动因子又开始蠢蠢欲动,最爱的打折季终于轰轰烈烈拉开了帷幕。随着人民币持续坚挺,去欧洲血拼是这个夏天必须要享受的狂欢。想要败得尽兴,Outlets绝对不能错过。节省时间,跟随双子座购物狂Foniz,找准目标,开战!     

Looking Out,Looking In: The ‘Other' in the Journal of Geography in Higher Education

The Journal of Geography in Higher Education has a vision of being inclusive. This paper examines what the journal, throughout its history, has published on teaching and learning in relation to people and places referred to in contemporary scholarship as the 'Other'. It addresses themes of gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, and the 'Third World', noting especially the surprising paucity of material on the latter. In particular, the article explores ways in which teaching addresses aspects of students' values and attitudes, and the importance of linking knowledge, emotion, experiential learning and action.     

Moving Out of an Aristocrat Family──The Story of Tangmei Gungior Baimo

nanautumnafternoonlastyear,lasthedrizzlingraincreatednumerousripplesonthesurfaceoftheLhasaRiverinLhasa,wevisitedahousecloseby.OFFSPRINGOFTHE7THDALAILAMA.WepaidavisittoTangmeiGungjorBaimo,whowasbornin1920intoanaristocratfamilyinLitang,SichuanProvince.The7thDalaiLamawasamemberofherclan,knownasSangzhubPhodranq.WhentheSanqzhubPhodrangmovedtoLhasa,theclanbecameveryinfluentialinthecitylargelybecauseoftheinfluenceofthe7thDalaiLama."lstartedtolearntoreadandwritewhenIwassix,"saidT8ngm…     

Making a Mountain Out of a Molehill? A Low-Cost and Time-Efficient Molehill Survey of the Lost Medieval Harbor Site of Monnikerede,Belgium

Grasslands pose a particular problem for archaeological survey involving artifact assessment, as no material is plowed up to the surface. Although finds in molehills are often the only source of information available on sites with such low visibility, an archaeology of molehills has thus far been largely disregarded. Yet, by applying a low-cost and time-efficient methodology, both the potential and the pitfalls of molehill archaeology come to the forefront. At the medieval harbor site of Monnikerede, it was possible to assess material culture and to locate certain structural elements. However, when artifact densities were compared with the underlying geophysical anomalies, a more complex relationship appeared at the level of individual features.     

Getting “Out of Africa”: Sea Crossings,Land Crossings and Culture in the Hominin Migrations

Palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists have advanced a wide range of explanatory narratives for the various movements of Homo erectus/Homo ergaster, and the first modern Homo sapiens, “Out of Africa”—or even back again. The application of Occam's razor—a parsimonious approach to causes—gives a more cautious approach. There is nothing in the available evidence that would require the ability for a human water crossing from Africa before the later Pleistocene, whether across the Strait of Gibraltar, the Sicilian Channel or the southern Red Sea (Bab el-Mandab). A parsimonious narrative is consistent with movements across the Sinai peninsula. The continuous arid zone from northern Africa to western Asia allowed both occupation and transit during wet phases of the Pleistocene; there is no requirement for a “sponge” model of absorption followed by expulsion of human groups. The Nile Valley as a possible transit route from East Africa has a geological chronology that could fit well much current evidence for the timing of human migration. The limited spatial and temporal opportunities for movements “Out of Africa,” or back again, also puts particular difficulties in the way of the gene flow required for the multiregional hypothesis of the development of modern Homo sapiens.     

The Elephant In and Out of the Room: Remigio dei Girolami’s Responses to Charles de Valois

In November 1301, Charles de Valois, brother of French King Philip IV, entered Florence at the request of Pope Boniface VIII and his Florentine allies. While Charles’ mission was ostensibly peacemaking between Florence’s Black and White factions, in reality his visit led to violence and exile of leading Whites, including Dante. Much of what we know about these events was written in retrospect, from the chronicles of Compagni and Villani to Dante’s Commedia. The Florentine Dominican Remigio dei Girolami, however, preached two sermons that week that provide a more immediate impression. One was given at the official communal welcome ceremony for Charles. The other, one of his sermons De pace, was probably given at a semi-secret peace procession mentioned by Compagni. Rhetorical analysis of these two sermons shows that Remigio tailored his message to his audience. When Charles was present, Remigio diplomatically avoided the subject of factional division, instead advising Charles on his upcoming mission to Sicily (perhaps subtly encouraging him to get on with it and leave Florentine politics alone). In Charles’ absence, however, Remigio obliquely criticized Charles and stressed to his fellow-citizens that, as the sermon’s thema stated, peace was in their power.     

Dropping Out or Signing Up? The Professionalisation of Youth Travel

Leaving school and dropping out of employment or further education was once an act of rebellion by cohorts of young people expressing anti‐establishment sentiments. Now it has become a neoliberal market place in the UK. Over the last five years the "gap year" has changed from a radical activity, dominated by charities and inspired by the travel of the hippie generation, to an institutionally accepted commercial gap year industry which helps form new citizens for a global age. This transformation has seen the dramatic growth in commercial gap year companies and in the numbers of young people in the UK taking gap years. Such growth, taking place under an increasingly engaged public gaze, has led to the professionalisation of the sector and to profound changes in its underlying values. Drawing on a range of empirical sources, I examine how the transformation of the gap year through the neoliberal market place has involved the application of corporate values and rhetoric to youth travel. Becoming "professional" has entailed a shift from collective idealism to the infinitely more saleable values of individual career development. While professional values give legitimacy to the gap year industry, its professional gaze is also proving to be relatively myopic—it has yet to be turned on the volunteer development projects through which many companies in the industry make their names, and money.     

History Will Speak Out

IreturnedtoTibetlastsummer.Thechangestakingplaceintheregion,whereIhadworkedfordecades.werebeyondmyexpectation.UponreturntoBeijinginthegoldenautumndays,IsoughtbooksonTibettogainmoreknowledge.TheLdeoftheTibetanFarmers(Lifeforshort),contributedbyXuPingandZhengDuiwiththeChinaNationalTbetanStudiesCenter,turnedouttobeoneofthebestIhaveeverread.IenteredTibetasamemberofthePLA18thArmy,workinginGyangze.WhatisdescribedinLifeiswhatIsawandexperiencedthen.PriortotheDemocraticReforminTibetinl959,…     

‘What the Men are Crying Out for is Leadership’: The Khartoum Police Strike of 1951 and the Battle for Administrative Control

The British administrative elite in Sudan represented the Khartoum Police Strike of 1951 as a ‘mutiny’, the result of a combination of both outside provocation and of the character failings of both Sudanese policemen and their British officers. This article will demonstrate that these convenient interpretations concealed a series of wider tensions within the colonial state itself, between modernising legal professionals and colonial administrators who cherished their personal control over the police. These tensions dictated debates about the status of the police in the build up to the strike, and the manner in which the heavily politicised enquiry into it was conducted. The Sudan Political Service employed an ‘otherisation’ of Sudanese culture to argue that the country was unsuited for a modern system of policing. Meanwhile, Sudanese policemen and other nationalists attempted to seize from the British the values of ‘civil’ policing that the colonisers preached but rarely practised. Nevertheless, in spite of the identification of the police strikers with other branches of the nationalist and labour movement, their own association with the government ensured that support for the strike was only limited.