‘Miserable San Damian—But What Treasures!’: The Life of Aleš Hrdlička's Peruvian Collection

This article examines the lives of artefacts collected by physical anthropologist Ale? Hrdli?ka during his expeditions to Peru. In 1910 and 1913, Hrdli?ka travelled to the Andean nation to gather materials that could shed light on the peopling of the Americas, health and disease in pre-Columbian societies, and the purported racial ‘types' of the region. The study focuses on cultural artefacts the scientist acquired, beginning with these materials’ collection as specimens meant to reveal the racial prehistory of the Andes, and continuing with their classification, display, and exchange as museum objects at the Smithsonian Institution. My analysis of Hrdli?ka's Peruvian collection draws attention not only to how scientific representations of Peru and the Andes have shifted over time, but also to the way in which a focus on museum objects can elucidate changing notions about the cultural agency of prehistoric populations and their present-day descendants.     

A house of Treasures: The Account of Amaziah in 2 Chronicles 25—Observations and Implications

The account of the reign of Amaziah in 2 Chronicles 25 is a true house of treasures for those studying the book of Chronicles in its historical milieu or reconstructing the intellectual milieu of ancient Yehud. In particular, this study shows how 2 Chronicles 25 calls attention and sheds light on: (1) matters of time construction and periodization; (2) multiple temporal relations within one account in Chronicles and their significance for understanding both reading strategies of the intended and primary readerships and the organization of their memories of the past; (3) chaotic tendencies and their non-random distribution in the past that the readers are asked to remember and vicariously partake through reading and studying; (4) the significance of a memory of the past in which the size of armies diminishes through time; (5) concepts of “otherness” and the remembrance of some concrete constructions of “otherness” through the reading and rereading of the book; (6) otherness and the question of northern Israel; (7) attributes associated (or not) with being a Jerusalemite; and (8) on deontological vs. consequentionalist approaches to evaluate whether actions are to be judged right or wrong and the influence of a continuous remembrance of related events narrated in 2 Chronicles 25.     

The Russian Quality of Life, 1914–1917

Contrary to the views of some historians, prices during the First World War rose faster than wage increases, leading to declining living standards and fueling popular unrest, thus contributing to the 1917 revolutions.     

The Influence of Tibetan Buddhism on Contemporary Mongolian Eco-literature——Case Studies on Xue-boGuo's Novels

Tibetan Buddhism,one of the important sects of Buddhism,is believed by a lot of researchers to have disseminated into Tibet from India,Nepal and its adjacent Han nationality congregating areas in around 7th century.The subsequent spread of Buddhism in Tibet experienced two periods of fast diffusion,during which the original Buddhist doctrine merged with Tibetan traditional culture,and a new form of religion with typical Tibetan characteristics came into being.     

The Exchange of Matter “Nature—Society—Nature” and some Problems of Optimization

The metabolism of the man-nature relationship is analyzed in terms of resource cycles, defined as the sum of the conversions and movements of particular natural substances (or groups of substances) in the course of their extraction, processing and consumption, and their return to the environment. Six resource cycles are distinguished: an energy resource cycle, with a chemical subcycle; an ore-metal resource cycle, with a chemical subcycle; a nonmetallic mineral cycle; a forest resource cycle; a soil and climate resource cycle, and a fauna and flora resource cycle. The first three cycles, based on mineral resources, are treated in detail. Under each heading, the author discusses present and expected levels of extraction and processing in the USSR and in the United States and related problems of waste disposal and pollution of the environment. Further research on regional and local metabolisms is suggested.