Life and Death in Neolithic Southeastern Italy: The Strontium Isotopic Evidence

There is a strong relation between people's structured identities and their chemical biographies: these can reflect the way individuals choose to reside and/or move. The strontium isotope ratio (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) of skeletal remains is considered a useful proxy to assess residential mobility and social practices in past populations; however, so far, it has only occasionally been applied to prehistoric contexts in the Mediterranean. In this paper, we present ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr data of human and animal samples from several Neolithic sites in the Apulian Tavoliere (southeastern Italy), namely, Grotta Scaloria, Passo di Corvo, Masseria Candelaro and La Torretta/Poggio Imperiale. Data obtained from dental enamel reflect the local origin of the individuals and allowed us to differentiate function and meaning of the sites examined. In particular, within a generally homogeneous background of Sr signatures, the range of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr at Scaloria Cave is greater than at the other sites, with variation likely to be related to funerary practices. We interpret this as the evidence of the ritual use of the cave, which implied the gathering of people of different origin. The relative variation of the Sr signature among individuals, either intersite or intrasite can be tentatively associated with mobility during life as well as with social practices, such as access to foods from geologically different environments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Policies of Extinction: The Life and Death of Canada's Endangered Species Legislation

This article examines the attempt by the Canadian Federal Government to pass endangered species legislation (1995). It focuses on the constraints which confront the creation of environmental policy in Canada and identifies jurisdictional overlap and stakeholder conflict as the prime source of difficulties which confronted the Federal Government as it moved through the policy process for creating endangered species legislation. The wide-ranging consultation process leading up to the creation of the legislation provided ample opportunity for powerful interests to undermine the protection of endangered species. The article concludes with a discussion of endangered species legislation as an example of the failure of the "crisis management" approach to conservation and sustainability.     

从《曹风·蜉蝣》说开来——浅论《诗经》中的生死观

《曹风·蜉蝣》是一首通篇感叹人生短暂的诗歌,《诗经》中其它作品如《唐风·蟋蟀》和《小雅·頍弁》也表达过类似情感。从《诗经》反映的社会生活来看,当时的人们承受着战争,饥馑,徭役,被剥削,遭遗弃,生离死别,亡国失家等苦难,但是《诗经》中触及生与死的主题,抒发人生短暂的悲叹的作品相对较少。这一现象缘于诗经时代人们重视"生",着眼于现实生活的快乐和满足的生死观,这种生死观表现出强烈的生命意识。     

Being Mesolithic in Life and Death

Fifty years ago, approaches to Mesolithic identity were limited to ideas of ‘Man the Hunter’ and ‘Woman the Gatherer’, while evidence of non-normative practice was ascribed to ‘shamans’ and to ‘ritual’, and that was that. As post-processual critiques have touched Mesolithic studies, however, this has changed. In the first decade of the 21st century a strong body of work on Mesolithic identity in life, as well as death, has enabled us to think beyond modern Western categories to interpret identity in the Mesolithic. These studies have addressed the nature of personhood and relational identities, the body, and the relationship between human and other-than-human persons. Our paper reviews these changing approaches, offering a series of case studies from a range of different sites that illustrate how identity is formed and transformed through engagements with landscapes, materials, and both living and dead persons. These are then developed to advocate an assemblage approach to identity in the Mesolithic.     

藏獒黑火的生与死

“此种藏狗大逾印度狗两倍,头大毛长,颇狞猛,其力可敌狮……” “力甚强,足制种种野兽,尤能制大而畏的野牦牛。”[编者按]     

The Life and Death of a Mycenaean Port Town: Kalamianos on the Saronic Gulf

In the late fourteenth century bc of the Aegean Late Bronze Age (LBA), a large walled settlement was established at Korphos: Kalamianos, on the Saronic Gulf coast of the Corinthia, Greece. Archaeological and geological work by the Saronic harbors Archaeological Research Project has succeeded in reconstructing the LBA coastline and likely harbor basins, as well as documenting the well-preserved plan of an entire Late Helladic town. Kalamianos was a short-lived maritime outpost, purposely founded as a component of state expansion in a climate of intense peer-polity competition in LBA (fifteenth–thirteenth centuries bc) Greece.     

论新王国时期埃及人的生死观

本文评述新王国时期的埃及人在死者的墓室入口摆设宴席、庆祝被称为“美好的山谷节日”的习俗。文章试图利用从古代埃及流传下来的文献、近些年来的考古发掘结果以及来自古代两河流域和古代以色列的相关材料来阐述新王国时期的埃及人极其复杂的生死观以及他们面对死神而采取的独特的处世态度。     

古代两河流域宗教中的生死信仰1

古代两河流域先民认为人类的生命是由神创造并为神服务的,人类没有永生,死亡是命中注定的;生命的意义在于追求名誉和为神服务;人死后亡灵都要进入地下世界,地下世界是黑暗凄凉、阴森恐怖而不值得向往的。这种生命信仰和死亡信仰反映在祭司神学集团编造出的一系列神话、史诗等宗教文学中,二者互为补充,共同发挥着宣扬宗教教义的文化功能。