Smell: A Challenge to Interdisciplinary Science

Abstract

The sense of smell remains an intractable problem and a challenge to interdisciplinary sciences. Not only are there no primary odors or periodic table of scents but there are no satisfactory numerical identifications by visual, auditory or somesthetic methods of measurement. A particle-wave relation may exist to reconcile the correlation of many odors with infrared spectra, but the vibrational theory of smell is currently out of fashion. Structure-activity relationships have been studied in human olfactory processes and have yielded perfume compounds of great value to commerce. Research on pheromones is intense to control insects, and the further study of human pheromones may even reveal an unsuspected communications system. At present, interdisciplinary sciences can well be guided by the artist-perfumer for what seems a millennium of research in molecular biology.     

Working/Touring the Past: Latin American Identity and the Political Frustration of Heritage

This article explores the pervasive impact of the pre-Hispanic past on contemporary Latin American identity, using the Ecuadorian Indian movement and the Yucatacan town of Izamal as two symbolic sites where many of these factors vie for official recognition. Therefore, the central topic of this article is also an essential element of the debate contained within the global development discourse: How is it possible for Latin American to face the constant onslaught of powerful North America and European iconic images and not in some way embody its own inherent internalized forms of colonial oppression?     

The unbearable weight of music: The intermezzo

The affordances of musical experience, its capacity to become our mode of being-in-the-world, especially in ritual situations, can be turned against us into an aversive sonic attack that bends the social arc into a liminality without end, a time in between that goes nowhere. And when this happens, we have entered the realm of music torture, a relatively recent innovation in that dark art that was ushered into the world in full force at the beginning of the 21st century. Music became part of a regime of no-touch torture inflicted upon detainees in the ‘global war on terror’, itself a war without end. In this article, the author argues for an ontomusicology that understands music as ritual and ritual as music – in this case, ritual that inverts Victor Turner’s notion of communitas, with all of its attendant modes of being-with, into a solitary mode of existence with no hope of escape, a musical ritual torture, a perpetual intermezzo.     

The Sarmatians: The Creation of Archaeological Evidence

According to the general modern view the steppes of the northern Black Sea region, from the Danube to the Ural valleys, in the period from the third century BC to the mid‐third century AD, were inhabited by Sarmatian tribes using a burial mound rite. Several consecutive waves of Sarmatian peoples came to this territory from the East, conquering the local population. This view is based on the paradigmatic explanatory model, which has its roots in the history of the Russian Empire. However, the archaeological culture of the Volga–Don and Ural steppes, known as the ‘Sarmatian Motherland’, is apparently not related to the Sarmatians of the written sources. In addition, the culture of the northern Black Sea region features various kinds of archaeological monuments (settlements, votive depositions, kurgans, flat necropolises), which are characteristic of different cultural‐economic types. This demonstrates the complexity and diversity of the culture in the region, which could be influenced by many factors: the presence of Greek settlers on the northern shore of the Black Sea, the expansion of the Roman Empire, the pressure of nomadic tribes from the East, the advance of the Celtic–Thracian peoples from the West, changing environmental conditions, etc.     

考古学之想象:图像的情景化

科林·伦福儒说,考古学部分是寻宝、部分是缜密的探究,部分是从事创造性的想象。布鲁斯·特里格也指出,考古学要成为一门多产的学科,既要有丰富的创新想象,又要有对想象结果进行严格的检验。缺少想象力,考古学的创造潜力就会下降。他认为,对考古学家来说,不是控制过度的想象,而是想象力不足的问题。这是因为考古学阐释是一项极具挑战性的工作,有再多的比较知识也嫌不够。文化学者卢晓辉写过一篇《史前考古学与诗性智慧》,认为考古材料太"硬",难以企及物质文化中古人的精神层面,因此难以透物见人。他呼吁考古学家要多点诗性智慧,以吉德炜所谓的"理解"加"感受",对物质文化采取"对话"而非"研究"的态度,像欣赏音乐或绘画来感受和理解物质文化,特别是远古文化的艺术创作。欧美后过程考古学将人类思想看作是文化变迁的重要动力机制,给予了宗教与其他信仰的研究以空前的关注。本文介绍了对南美著名纳斯卡地画研究的思考,由于缺乏民族志类比,这类地画的解读目前仍然乏善可陈。文章指出了考古学想象的局限性,第一,图像作为一种文本是多义的,古代制作者的观念和当代阐释者的观念及解读是不同的。第二,古代图像制成以后会被反复利用,注入新的含义。第三,古代图像是在特定景观和...