Olei Hagardom: Between official and popular memory

This article examines the interaction between official memory and popular memory through the case study of Olei Hagardom – Jewish underground fighters executed by the British in Mandatory Palestine. Studies of collective memory usually maintain that the ruling elite, with its control of state resources, dominates collective memory formation. However, the case of Olei Hargardom demonstrates the potentially limited power of institutional commemoration and exclusion in a democratic society. David Ben-Gurion and his government's attempt to exclude these right-wing heroes from the national pantheon had limited impact. Menachem Begin's persistent, partisan political efforts to include them were only partially successful. Ultimately, Olei Hargardom became entrenched in Israeli collective memory as a result of apolitical literary works, popular culture, and the establishment of a site of memory by spontaneous, grassroots efforts.     

Experimental and archaeological investigations of backed microlith function among Mid-to-Late Holocene herders in southwestern Kenya

This study takes an experimental and comparative approach in order to evaluate the circumstances driving the deployment of microlithic tool technologies by food-producing mobile herders during the Mid-to-Late Holocene in southern Kenya. The predominately obsidian microliths used by contemporaneous, but culturally distinct, herding communities were replicated and used as arrow tips in archery experiments and within composite knives used in animal processing. This allowed for patterns of damage associated with production, different forms of projectile use, and butchery to be identified on microlithic specimens and evaluated against each other to assess the criteria for diagnostic macrofracture and wear patterns reflective of each activity. Experimentally generated criteria were used to identify the most likely functions for microlithic tools in three archaeological assemblages belonging to early Kenyan pastoralists. The analyses showed that while the same microlithic form is shared by culturally distinct groups across a wide time range, these tools were being used to vary different functions that do not clearly correlate with subsistence economy, culturally affiliation, or time period. Environmental variability and instability throughout the Late Holocene likely contributed to the persistence of highly adaptable microlithic toolkits. These data contribute to ongoing dialogues on the emergence and evolution of microlithic toolkits.     

Hegel and the Paradox of Democratic Education

This article explores Hegel’s Philosophy of Right as a work on education that responds to two democratic ideals: the ideal of individual integrity, which demands that individuals come to know the principles that animate them of their own accord, and the ideal of collectivism, which demands that individuals be at home in a shared world. While the great political works of Plato and Rousseau fasten on one of these ideals at the expense of the other, I show that Hegel’s political philosophy accepts both. The result is what I call the paradox of democratic education. Hegel solves this paradox through a three-fold pedagogical strategy which speaks to the transformational possibilities of institutions as well as more directly to the needs of the “ironic consciousness.” This strategy reveals a Hegel who calls on us to strengthen our commitment to a democratic polity through a deeper conception of the requirements of democratic education.     

Some Thoughts about Standardized Teaching Evaluations

Abstract

Mark Blitz begins his book Plato’s Political Philosophy by making a strong case for Plato’s continuing relevance to us. The book’s three parts are centered on three dialogues of special importance to Blitz’s topic: the Laws, the Republic, and the Statesman. Blitz also pulls into his discussion other dialogues that illuminate the teachings of these three central ones. Blitz’s analyses of the dialogues are illuminating. He lays out the dialogues’ intellectual pathways and gives us an important sense of their meaning. In addition to his examination of particular dialogues, Blitz also gives us rich discussions of four key concepts that underlie and are found throughout Plato’s works: nature, wonder, perplexity, and laughter. The book lacks a deeper discussion of the view that we should be guided by nature in determining our ends. Also missing is a better appreciation of both the challenge posed to philosophy by piety, and the attraction of institutions of modern republics. And we could have a better understanding of the limits of a rational politics in the Statesman. Plato has difficulty finding a place for the philosopher in the city, and this could come through more clearly in Blitz’s account. But these shortcomings are minor when set against the book’s strengths. Its synoptic analyses can help guide those new to Plato. But there is also much here for mature scholars in Blitz’s detailed and careful exploration of Plato’s more important concepts and arguments.     

Reviews

Selected Onomastic Writings, Rüdiger Schmitt, edited by Winfried Breidbach and Philip Huyse, New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2000, ISBN: 0–933273–42–8, 303pp., $48.00 (Mostly in German).

Hamid al‐Din al‐Kirmani: Isma'ili Thought in the Age of al‐Hakim, Paul E. Walker, London: I.B Tauris and the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 1999, ISBN 1 85043 321 3, xiv + 168pp., £25.00.

Intellectual Traditions in Islam, ed. Farhad Daftary, London and New York: I. B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2000, ISBN 1–86064–435‐X, xvii + 252 pp.

The Persian Presence in the Islamic World, ed. Richard G. Hovannisian and George Sabagh, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN: 0–521–59185–6 (hb), 267 pp.

La Science dans le monde Iranien à I'époque islamique, Études réunies et présentées par ? Vesel, H. Beikbaghban et B. Thierry de Crussol des Epesse, Teheran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, Bibliothèque Iranienne 50, 1998, xxiv + 430pp, including general index, list of illustrations, and Persian table of contents.

Geschichte der Stadt Qom im Mittelalter (650–1350): politische und wirtschaftliche Aspekte, Andreas Drechsler, Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1999, Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, Bd. 224, ISSN: 0939–1940, ISBN 3–87997–276–1, 377 pp.

Al‐Khayyam Mathématicien, R. Rashed et B. Vahabzadeh, Paris: Librairie Scientifique et Technique, Albert Blanchard, 1999, ISBN 2–85367–210–7, x + 429 pp., incl. Arabic text, French translation, commentaries, appendices, indices, and glossary.

Omar Khayyam the Mathematician, R. Rashed & B. Vahabzadeh, New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2000, Persian Heritage Series, No. 40, ISBN 0–933273–46–0, x + 268, including English translation, appendices, indices.

Historical Writing During the Reign of Shah ^cAbbas: Ideology, Imitation and Legitimacy in Safavid Chronicles, Sholeh A. Quinn, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2000, ISBN 0–87480–643–7, (hardcover) 197 pp., 4 tables, 2 appendices, index, $32.50.

The Chronicle of Abraham of Crete, Abraham of Crete, annotated and trans. by George Bournoutian, Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, 1998, vi + 202 pp., including maps, glossary, bibliography, and index, cloth $26.95.

History of the Wars (1721–1738), Abraham of Erevan, annotated and trans, by George Bournoutian, Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, 1999, viii+112 pp., including maps, bibliography, and index, paperback $19.95.

Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural Reform in Qajar Iran, Monica M. Ringer, Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, Inc., 2001, ISBN: 1–56859–131–4 (pb), 310 pp.

Die globale kapitalistische Expansion und Iran. Eine Studie der Iranischen Politischen Ökonomie (1500–1980), Mehdi Parvizi Amineh, Münster, Hamburg, and London: Lit Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3–8258–4440–0 (hb), DM 89.80, ISBN 3–8258–4439–0, (pb), DM 48.80, 684 pp., appendices, bibliography, index.

The CIA Documents & the Overthrow of Dr. Musaddiq of Iran, ed. Gholam‐reza Vatandoust, Tehran: RASA Publications, 2000.

Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah, Baqer Moin, London: Tauris Publishers, 1999, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000, ISBN: 0–312–26490–9, 352 pp., $27.95

Women, Work, & Islamism: Ideology & Resistance in Iran, Maryam Poya, London & New York: Zed Books, 1999, ISBN: 1–85649‐ 681–3.

Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran, Ziba Mir‐Hosseini, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999, Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics, ISBN 0–691–01004–8, xxiv + 305 pp., cloth, $55.00, paper, $18.95.

Religious Minorities in Iran, Eliz Sanasarian, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, xviii + 229 pp., tables, photographs, $59.95 (cloth).

Fathers and Sons: Stories from the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, [Abolqasem] Firdawsi, translated from the Persian by Dick Davis, Washington, DC: Mage Publishers, 2000, 310 pp.

Literarische Verwendung persischer Termini und Redewendungen im Werke Sadeq Hedayats: ein Kompendium, Fakhrezzaman Schirazi‐Mahmoudian, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, Iranica, Bd. 4,1999, 981 pp., DM 176.

Histoire du cinema Iranien. 1900–1999, Mamad Haghighat and Frédéric Sabouraud, Paris: Cinéma du Réel, Bibliotheque Publique d'Information et Centre Georges Pompidou, 1999, ISBN: 2–84246–041–3, 247 pp

A Study of European, Persian and Arabic Loans in Standard Sorani, Jafar Hasanpoor, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 1999, Reports on Asian and African Studies (RAAS), 1, ISBN 91–506–1353–7, ISSN 1404–0743, 176 pp.

Amoo Norooz and Other Persian Stories, ed. Ahmad K. Jabbari, Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2000, ISBN: 1–56859–065–2, (hardcover), 108 pp., illustrations.