A possible early age for a diprotodon (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) fossil from the Papua New Guinea highlands

MENZIES, J., DAVIES, H.L., DUNLAP, W.J. & GOLDING, S.D., June, 2008. A possible early age for a diprotodon (Marsupialia: Diprotodontidae) fossil from the Papua New Guinea highlands. Alcheringa 32, 129–147. ISSN 0311-5518.

A fossil diprotodon jawbone coated and impregnated with a well-cemented fine breccia or tuff was recovered from weakly consolidated Pleistocene lacustrine sediments near Yonki in the Papua New Guinea highlands. The fine breccia includes angular rock and mineral fragments derived from country rock, accretionary lapilli and clay minerals. It does not include any identifiable primary volcanic material. The presence of accretionary lapilli and lack of volcanic clasts suggests an origin by phreatic eruption—an explosive eruption driven by the violent escape of gas. Minerals in the fine breccia have an age of 13.2 ± 0.2 Ma, middle Miocene, as indicated by ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar analysis. This is the age of the country rock that was blasted by the phreatic eruption. Igneous activity in the Yonki area is thought to have ceased at 7.4 Ma (younger age limit of Elandora Porphyry; late Miocene), and so it is likely, but not certain, that the phreatic eruption occurred not later than 7.4 Ma. The jawbone, as far as can be told from its poor condition, is dentally similar to the late Pliocene and possibly Pleistocene ‘Kolopsis’ watutense recovered from other sites in New Guinea. Probably, the jawbone, or the living marsupial, was buried in the fine breccia at the time of the phreatic eruption, and its remains were subsequently reworked by river erosion and redeposited in the lacustrine sediments. Recrystallization and loss of primary texture in some of the bone may be a result of heating at the time of, or preceding, the eruption.     

Learning from the past: the relevance of international history

This article is based on an inaugural lecture for the Stevenson Chair in International History, given at the London School of Economics (LSE) in October 2012. It re‐examines the origins in Britain in the 1920s of the academic discipline of international history, focusing on the partnership between the LSE and Chatham House. It highlights the differences among the discipline's founders between broader and more tightly defined conceptions of its subject matter and scope, identified respectively with Arnold J. Toynbee on the one hand and with Harold Temperley and Charles Webster on the other. It also underlines the founders' agreement about international history's practical applicability, particularly for analysing and even for helping to prevent the outbreak of major wars. It explores the theme of ‘learning from the past’ by investigating the interconnection between the diplomatic crises of July–August 1914 and October 1962, reappraising John F. Kennedy's use of history to inform statesmanship. The article points to a recurrent pattern in the international conjunctures of 1914, 1939 and 1962 that may be replicating itself again today. It concludes that a knowledge and understanding of international history can indeed yield insights of practical value, though must be drawn on flexibly and with imagination.     

Taxing the indigenous: a history of barriers to fiscal inclusion in the Bolivian highlands

Following the electoral success of left wing and pro-indigenous President Evo Morales, the indigenous poor in Bolivia find themselves at the centre of a new vision of the state, echoed by a fervent citizenship project to include them as contributing participants in this new Bolivia. The state is working to initiate these hitherto informally employed subjects into an individualized fiscal regime: to make them into “taxpayers”. While the highland indigenous population have supported Morales’ political project, they resist inclusion into the broader state-sponsored project. This is not simply about avoiding financial obligations; their resistance is instead firmly rooted in the historical experience of fiscal exploitation, general suspicion of any state-run scheme as well as a clash of exchange models. I argue that in order to overcome these barriers, the Tax Office has to succeed in separating fiscal expansion from its association with an abstract state concept, and instead link it to palpable everyday life and politics, such as the union structure and Morales’ project of indigenous inclusion.     

Sound recordings and cultural heritage: the Fonck Museum,the Felbermayer collection,and its relevance to contemporary Easter Island culture

Sound recording plays a prominent role in cultural heritage work in the Pacific region, supported by sound archives and institutional collections that serve to preserve this intangible cultural heritage. While it has long been a standard practice for field recordings to be lodged in institutions of learning, recent developments in Pacific research have emphasised the ethical and social benefits that can result from the repatriation of sound recordings to their communities of origin, and from the development of field recording practices in which cultural stakeholders are more directly involved. Meanwhile, the digitisation of historical sound recordings and the use of digital domains for dissemination have become matters of theoretical and methodological inquiry in their own right. This article seeks to contribute to the discourse surrounding the repatriation of historical field recordings through the presentation of findings from a recent Chilean government-funded digitisation and repatriation project involving previously undocumented recordings of Easter Island (Rapanui) music from the Fonck Museum, Viña del Mar. It will explain the circumstances under which the project developed, the strategies pursued in bringing it to fruition, and the reception of the project by the Rapanui community.     

Language,history and the nation: an historical approach to evaluating language and cultural claims

ABSTRACT. In contrast to the abstract commitment to individual rights found in liberal critics of Bill 101 and the equally ahistorical approach of multicultural theorists like Bhikhu Parekh, this paper proposes that the particular historical circumstances surrounding the current minority status of different groups is crucial in evaluating the legitimacy of one cultural group to promote its cultural needs over another group within existing states. When the culture of a group residing within a particular state is secure in a neighbouring jurisdiction, the issue at stake is not necessarily the survival of a unique culture but the cultural needs of particular individuals. It does not follow that they have no legitimate claims against the state. However, in examining the language policies in Quebec and the newly independent Baltic states, it is argued that they are different in kind to the rights due to long‐standing communities struggling for linguistic survival.     

Streaming from stage to screen: its place in the cultural marketplace and the implication for UK arts policy

Live streaming of stage performances by opera and theatre companies into cinemas, and increasingly into the home, continues to grow rapidly. What the cinema audience hears and sees differs qualitatively both from what is seen in the theatre and also from what is normally available in cinemas. The ‘real-time liveness’ offered by leading companies appears to be an important attraction, though may diminish as the novelty of streamed performances wears off. The cinema audience is both socio-demographically and in cultural experience more similar to the theatre audiences than to typical cinema audiences, giving rise to suggestions that streaming might cannibalise the live audiences of the transmitting theatres, but there is no evidence of this, nor, at least in the UK, to support speculation that streaming reduces audiences for regional arts companies. Streaming should therefore be welcomed as broadening the number of consumers who can benefit from arts subsidies.     

中国茶简史及其对外传播

茶位列世界三大无酒精饮料之首,发源于中国并由中国直接或间接传播至世界各地,是丝绸之路上的重要商品,饮茶以及由此发展出的茶文化更是丰富和提升了人类的生活品质,是中国对人类文明的重大贡献之一。对中国茶史及其对外贸易、传播的研究是一带一路历史研究的重要组成部分,透过这些研究可以证实中国茶及茶文化对世界茶文化兴起和发展的影响和推动作用。本工作结合相关文献及考古研究成果,介绍了我国在茶的历史发展、对外贸易、世界传播路径等方面研究的进展情况。这些总结将为其它相关研究工作的参与者提供参考。     

从环境的历史到环境史——关于环境史研究的一种认识

By and large, there are three kinds of research on environment: the history of environment as a field of natural history studies, the history of environment as within the scope of history of society studies, and environmental history as the study of the relationship between human and nature. The methodological perspective of the relationship between humanity and environmental distinguishes the third from the previous two. From this perspective, when we probe the mutual effects between human and nature, we will stress on their interactions. The new era and the realities of contemporary society foster the rise of environmental history, which has not only theoretical values but also practical significance. Translated from Xueshu Yanjiu 学术研究 (Academic Research), 2006, (9):12–22     

The technology Of the yamnaya (pit grave) ceramic production And its relevance to the population history Of the volga-ural region in the early bronze age

Based on ceramic assemblages from the Yamnaya (Pit Grave) culture burials, the technology of pottery manufacture practiced by the Early Bronze Age people of the Middle Volga–Southern Ural region is described. The analysis follows the methodology developed by A.A. Bobrinsky. The results are used for reconstructing the origin and evolution of the Pit Grave culture. The role of ceramics in Early Bronze Age funerary ritualism is discussed.