Reagan's Foreign Policy: An Assessment (I) Introduction

The Western drama High Noon introduces political considerations deeper than the maelstrom of American anticommunism of the 1950s against which it is most often viewed. It presents the central problems of modern political obligation as arising out of an encounter between Aristotelian and Lockean ideas about marriage, friendship, consent and coercion, and religious obligation. The marshal Kane, representing the altered vestige of Aristotelian ideals, desperately seeks help from the Lockean-like community of Hadleyville. The resulting tension lays bare the political ambiguity many find inherent in American political life.     

An unusual basal beetle from Myanmar (Coleoptera: Archostemata)

Jarzembowski, E.A. &; Wang, B., February 2016. An unusual basal beetle from Myanmar (Coleoptera: Archostemata). Alcheringa 40, XX–XX. ISSN 0311-5518

A new archostematan beetle, Stegocoleus caii gen. et sp. nov. (Insecta: Coleoptera) is described from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber from northern Myanmar. This is the first basal beetle to be formally described from this deposit. It shows a unique combination of family characters and is provisionally referred to Cupedidae in the broad sense and possibly subfamily Ommatinae. The dorsal ornamentation and expanded elytra with window punctures make it a very distinctive albeit rare insect in this rich amber biota. Some of the challenges in studying the inclusions in this amber deposit include their diminutive size, difficulty in preparation and deformation.

Edmund Jarzembowski* [jarzembowski2@live.co.uk] and Bo Wang^? [bowang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Rd, Nanjing 210008, PR China. *Also affiliated with: Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK. ?Also affiliated with: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100101, PR China.     

The Thesaurus Exemplorum Medii Aevi (ThEMA): An Introduction

Abstract

Johannes Borquardi was a priest-brother at Vadstena Abbey from 1428 until his death in 1447. He was a renowned preacher and has left three extant volumes of sermons. At the end of many of his sermons, he writes suggestions for yet another sermon on the same theme or for the same day. There are some 60 such short texts, some mentioning only one or two suitable sources, others listing many books; sometimes they even give a Vadstena shelf-mark. These texts are invaluable for our knowledge of the Abbey library in many aspects. In some cases, we can check how Johannes himself used his own suggestions, since we also have his next product for the same feast. In this paper, I have studied how Johannes used one of his 'endnotes' to compose a sermon for St Matthias by cribbing from Peregrinus de Oppeln and Guilelmus Peraldus. I hope to show just how skilfully he uses his sources and how elegantly he pastes in his quotations, so that the sermon becomes a new, consistent and homogeneous text.     

釦器考略

"釦器"是一类以装饰技法命名的器物。通常意义上"釦器"是指以金属箍施于器物的口沿、底部、腹部、转角或附加钮、环、鋬、足、铺首等金属构件的一类漆器。釦器滥觞于西周,初步发展于战国及秦,兴盛于汉,中兴于宋。釦器的发展与漆器胎骨的变化有着密不可分的关系。釦器法除主要运用于漆木器之外,在玉器、玻璃器、玳瑁、象牙器上也有少量运用。镶釦漆器与镶釦瓷器是最常见的两类镶釦器物。镶釦瓷器源于唐,盛于宋,宋以后剧减。     

Site Management: An Application to Wadilmeluk (the Valley of the Kings)

‘Value has always been the reason underlying heritage conservation. It is self‐evident that no society makes an effort to conserve what it does not value.’ ¹ 1. de la Torre and Mason, Assessing the Values of Cultural Heritage, 3–4. However, assessing the value of a cultural heritage asset as a representative sample of our tangible and intangible heritage for present and future generations is a difficult concept to deal with. It is, therefore, the aim of the researchers to help the conservation decision process by attempting to make an assessment of the values attributed to the cultural heritage assets of one of the most notable heritage sites in Egypt: the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.     

Towards Situated Analyses of Uneven Peri-Urbanisation: An (Urban) Political Ecology Perspective

In this article we develop a novel analytical framework for situated studies of uneven peri-urbanisation that resist further dividing Marxist and Situated (Urban) Political Ecology. We conceptualise uneven peri-urbanisation as a process in which access to the resources mobilised for peri-urban developments, such as water or land, is rendered uneven. In a three-step approach we suggest, first, describing how peri-urbanisation unfolds in the case being studied and distinguish it from other processes, such as suburbanisation. Second, we propose analysing the transformations of nature on which the peri-urbanisation process is based; and third, examining the uneven power relations infusing inequalities into these transformations and consequently into the peri-urbanisation process described. To allow for a situated analysis this approach regards the study of practices as crucial, but they have to be embedded in wider socio-economic, political, and historical processes, since both contribute to transformations of nature and thus shape uneven peri-urbanisation.     

An Etruscan ointment from Chiusi (Tuscany,Italy): its chemical characterization

This paper focuses on the chemical characterization of the original contents of an Egyptian origin alabaster unguentarium, found in an Etruscan burial in Chiusi (Tuscany, Italy) and dated 150/125–100 B.C. The unguentarium, found in an intact tomb belonging to a noble woman of Chiusine society, preserved a good part of its original contents owing to a protective layer of clay. The chemical characterization was carried out using a combination of two analytical procedures based, respectively, on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS).     

An exploratory osteological study of the muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) (Aves: Anatidae) with implications for neotropical archaeology

The muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) (Aves: Anatidae) is the most enigmatic of the native New World animal domesticates. Although large and conspicuous, this duck is nonetheless rarely recovered in archaeological context. When identified, its domesticated status remains uncertain for lack of distinguishing criteria used to separate male from female and domestic from wild specimens. This study offers provisional criteria for osteological discrimination based upon an analysis of 34 museum skeletons. It applies these data to archaeological specimens recovered from the western lowlands of Ecuador, where muscovy duck, along with other domesticated animals may appear in contexts associated with prehispanic trade.