Transformations of the Indo-Iranian Snake-man: Myth,Language, Ethnoarcheology,and Iranian Identity

This article sets forth a history (with literary-textual focus) of the Iranian mythological Snake-man, from the earliest Vedic and Avestan evidence, down to Ferdowsi. The continuous development of the myth in Iran is accompanied by changes in the monster's name, which show linguistic reassociations, while a constant in all of this is the figure's representation as an inimical outsider. The Vedic name of the brute's fortification, the background of which in etymology and realia will be shown to be the pre-Aryan Bactria-Margiana Archeological Complex, finds a clear but hitherto unobserved correlation in Pahlavi. This illuminates the Indo-Iranian antiquity of the myth in terms of prehistoric inter-ethnic rivalries.     

美国黑人的取名与黑人文化身份

美国黑人奴隶同他们的非洲祖先一样赋予名字以重要的文化内涵,因此,虽然奴隶主试图剥夺黑人奴隶的姓名权和他们为子女命名的权利,使他们与自己的过去割裂开来,但是黑人并非消极地屈从于主人的意志,而是努力为自己争取这项做人的基本权利.在北美奴隶制的特殊社会环境和语言环境中,黑人对传统的非洲命名习俗进行了改造,力图以有自身特色的取名方式强调自己的文化身份.黑人的名字既体现出他们对美国黑人作为一个族裔群体的历史延续性,也体现出其文化发展的历史差异性.     

Fear and Foreign Bodies: The Bible and "Post-Racial" American Identity

Abstract

The Bible has played a prominent role in US political discourse, shaping ideas of race, ethnicity and identity. Its influence on the political landscape today is most evident within conservative politics—among evangelical Christians and the Tea Party Movement. At least in perception, its influence has been divisive. What role do biblical scholars and academic theologians have to play in contemporary social and political discourse, particularly with respect to race? This article approaches the question first by way of the concept of the political as espoused by Carl Schmitt and the category "race," both as applied to antiquity and to the modern period; second, through a reading of Genesis 20; and third, through attention to contemporary discussions of race among contextual and liberation theologians, focusing on the problem of essentialism in the constitution of identity. The article concludes by drawing together these elements to offer thoughts on a future course of American identity in the context of post-race desires and fears.     

Re–evaluating Subsistence Skills of Levantine Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Hunters: A Comparison of the Faunal Assemblages

It has long been argued that there were qualitative differences in the procurement strategies of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, with the hominids of the earlier period being less capable and efficient hunters than those of the subsequent period. This hypothesis is tested here through an examination of faunal assemblages from the two periods in the Levant by comparing measures of species diversity. It is concluded that no significant differences in hunting can be documented and that the hominids of both periods can be characterized as efficient foragers.     

Re–turning Home: Transnational Movements and the Transformation of Landscape and Culture in the Marginal Communities of Tunis

Global capitalism reworks local experience and landscapes in its own image, but forms and practices of global capitalism are also rooted in and transformed by local social and spatial structures. This paper discusses the simultaneity of both aspects through an examination of changing cultural practices of Tunisian workers residing in marginal urban neighborhoods, and shows how these changes are shaped by the workers' transnational experiences both as migrants abroad and in transnational enterprises at home. One response to such local experiences and incorporations of the non-local is political Islam, a movement that combines accommodation and resistance to new cultural forms, and whose appeal and implications stretch beyond national boundaries.