Ground cereal food preparations from Greece: the prehistory and modern survival of traditional Mediterranean ‘fast foods’

Archaeobotanical remains of ground cereals from prehistoric northern Greece are discussed in this paper within the context of ethnographic and textual evidence for similar food preparations encountered in countries of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The archaeobotanical remains consist of ground einkorn and barley grain, stored in this form, from the sites of Mesimeriani Toumba and Archondiko respectively, located in the region of central Macedonia, northern Greece. The results of published pilot studies involving macroscopic, experimental, and scanning electron microscopic examination of these archaeological finds seem to suggest that these products correspond to preprocessed cereals, stored in this form. It is also likely that some at least of these finds were produced from boiled and subsequently ground cereal grains. This practice identified in the prehistoric material is similar to various forms of processing cereals still widely encountered in rural areas of modern Greece and other circum-Mediterranean countries. These products are known in Greece under the names of pligouri (bulgur) and trachanas. Through a combined examination of archaeobotanical, ethnographic, and textual evidence it is argued that the idea of pre-processing cereals for piecemeal consumption throughout the year is of considerable antiquity in this part of the world. Drawing information from food science research on similar, modern traditional preparations of the same geographical region, the paper highlights the advantages of pre-processing cereals for later consumption, which offers insights into likely prehistoric subsistence practices. Parboiling cereal grains or mixing grains with milk products in the summer would have made excellent use of seasonally available ingredients by converting them into nutritious and storable foodstuffs, which could then be consumed as part of daily meals with very little additional cooking effort and fuel. This ease of conversion into a filling meal may justify us considering them as ‘traditional fast foods’.     

Critical Issues in Earthquake Scenario Loss Modeling

The assessment of human or economic losses due to single events (scenario) may effectively support decision makers in the development of important risk mitigation actions. The study presented herein sheds light on several problems and limitations in the current practice of scenario loss modeling, such as: the number of simulations required to achieve convergence; epistemic and aleatory uncertainty in the ground motion prediction and vulnerability models; and consideration of the earthquake rupture geometry. These issues are investigated using the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (Portugal), and it has been observed that distinct assumptions in the loss modeling can lead to considerably different results. The findings of this study are also pertinent for probabilistic seismic risk analyses in which a large number of stochastically generated events are employed to assess probabilistic losses.     

(de)Constructing Place-Myth: Pitcairn Island and the “Bounty” Story

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the relationship between literature and the construction of place-myth relating to the story Mutiny on the Bounty. In 1790, nine British mutineers together with their Tahitian companions settled on Pitcairn Island where they remained hidden for nearly 20 years. The story of the mutiny is not myth but has served to mythologize Pitcairn through the various tropes of literature written about the Bounty saga. As literary place Pitcairn represented the image of a ‘utopian paradise’. This discussion, through qualitative literary analysis and the process of textualization, evokes the idea of mapping, naming, and imagining islands. It identifies how the utopia/paradise place-myth of Pitcairn has persisted through time and become ultimately inseparable from its textual topography. But conversely, discussion exposes the paradoxical problem between myth and reality of islands and their representations. It highlights complex internal and external boundaries of identification that arise in the host visitor experience. Literary place-myth is rendered as powerful, persistent, mutable, and historically-rooted.     

Recent developments in social and cultural geography in Spain

Controversy has erupted in Selma, Alabama, over recent efforts to commemorate the career of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate cavalry officer and founding member of the original Ku Klux Klan. More generally, the controversy in Selma is emblematic of an enduring regional pattern in which contests over the future are couched in terms of the past. Relative to other media, monuments appear to be trustworthy and lasting. Despite this appearance of historical consensus and stability, the city's public spaces are the product of and conduit for ongoing politics. The current conflict pits memorial activists associated with the Civil Rights Movement against neo‐Confederates. Interpreted in the context of Selma's increasing promotion of Civil Rights heritage and the recent election of the city's first African American mayor, the Forrest affair highlights the utility of the concept of symbolic accretion for understanding the complexities of commemorating antagonistic histories in the same place. Symbolic accretion describes the appending of commemorative elements onto already existing memorials. The situation in Selma suggests two different types of symbolic accretion, allied and antithetical. More generally, the act of commemoration itself may be understood as a process of accretion in that heretofore anonymous spaces are formally recognized via the grafting of memorial elements.     

National functions of the imperial institute

Fragments of Earth Lore. By Professor Geikie, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., etc. Edinburgh: John Bartholomew and Co., 1893. Pp. 428.

Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical, and Historical. New Edition. Edited by Francis H. Groome. London: William Mackenzie, N.D. Vols. 1. and 11. Aan to Eynort. Pp. 288 and 272.

Geografia y Geológia del Ecuador. Publicada por Órden del Supremo Gobierno de la Kepública por Teodoro Wolf, Dr. Phil., Antiguo Profesor de la Escuela Politecnica de Quito y Geó1ogo del Estado. Con 12 Laminas autotípicas, 47 Ilustraciones en el texto, y 2 Cartas. Leipzig: Tipografía de F. A. Brockhaus, 1892. Pp. xii + 671.

Venice: An Historical Sketch of the Bepublic. By Horatio F. Brown. With Maps and Plan. London: Percival and Co., 1893. Pp. xxiii + 434. Price 16s.

Lettres sur l'Inde. Par Monseigneur Laouenan, de la Société des Missions‐étrangères, Archevêque de Pondichéry. Publiées par Adrien Launay, de la même Société. Paris: Librairie Victor Lecoffre, 1893. Pp. 296.

Russia. Note e Ricordi di Viaggio. Di Giuseppe Modrich. Torino‐Roma: L. Roux e C., 1892. Pp. 550. Price 5 L.

Historic Towns: York. By James Raine, M.A., D.C.L. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1893. Pp. xi + 223. Price 3s. 6d.

Scotland Before 1700: From Contemporary Documents. Edited by P. Hume Brown. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1893. Pp. xx + 368.

Sunny Manitoba: Its Peoples and its Industries. By Alfred 0. Legge. With Map and Iilustrations. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1893. Pp. 297.

Carnet d'un Voyageur. Au Pays des Veddas, Ceylan. Par Emile Deschamps, Officier d'Académie, etc. etc. Avec 116 figures d'après les croquis et photographies de l'auteur, et une carte. Paris: Société d'Editions Scientifiques, 1892. Pp. iv + 492.

A Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and other Papers of Importance relating to British Affairs in Malabar. Edited with notes by W. Logan, Madras Civil Service. Second Edition. Madras: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Press, 1891. Pp. xxvi + 402 + xlv.

Four Months in Persia, and a Visit to Transcaspia. By C. E. Biddulph, M.A., etc. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., 1892. Pp. 137. Price 3s. 6d.

Letters from Queensland. By The Times Special Correspondent. London: Macmillan and Co., 1893. Pp. 110. Price 2s. 6d.

Amerika. Eine allgemeine Landeskunde. In Gemeinschaft mit Dr. E. Deckert und Professor Dr. W. Kükenthal herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Sievers. Leipzig und Wien, 1893.

Longmans’ School History of India. By the Rev. G. U. Pope, D.D., sometime Fellow of the Madras University. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892. Pp. 303. Price 2s. 6d.

Philips's Geographical Manuals. The Geography of the British Colonies and Dependencies, Physical, Political, Commercial. By William Hughes, F.R.G.S., and J. Francos Williams, F.R.G.S. London: George Philip and Son, 1892. Pp. viii + 232. Price 2s. 6d.

Practical Guide to the Geography of the British Isles and General Geography. By R. Burnett. Aberdeen: John Adam, 1893. Pp. 132. Price 1s. 6d.

The Geography of Asia: A Brief Handbook for Students. London: Blackie and Son, Limited, 1893. Pp. 38. Price 6d.

The Elements of Physiography. By John I. Prince. Part II.: Advanced Stage. Seventh Edition. London: John Heywood, 1889. Pp. 176. Price 1s. 6d.

To the Other Side. By Thomas Rhodes. With Maps and Illustrations. London: George Philip and Son, 1893. [Edinburgh: Sold by J. and H. Lindsay.] Pp. 106. Price 1s.

Carlsbad: A Medico‐Practical Guide. By E. Kleen, M.D. Pp. 101. G. P. Putnam's Sons: New York and London, 1893.

Where to Go Abroad: A Guide to the Watering‐Places and Health‐Resorts of Europe, the Mediterranean, etc. Edited by A. E. Hope Moncrieff. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1893. Pp. 466. Price 3s. 6d.

Liberton in Ancient and Modern Times. By George Good. With Introduction by Kev. W. H. Gray, D.D. Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot, 1893. Pp. xx + 185.

A Ride from Land's End to John o’ Groats. By Evelyn Burnaby, M.A., S.C.L. London: Sampson Low, Marston, and Company (Limited), 1893. Pp. xxiv + 146.

Kamerun und Sudan. Von H. Jäger. Berlin: F. K. Beuge, 1893. Pp. 162.

Un Voyage au Yunnan. Par le Dr. Louis Pichon (of Shanghai). Paris: Plon, Nourrit et C^ie., 1893.

Louis Agassiz: His Life and Work. By Charles Frederick Holder, LL.D., Author of The Life of Charles Darwin, Living Lights, etc. (Leaders in Science Series.) 12mo, pp. xviii + 327. 28 Illustrations. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1892. Price $1.50.

Argentine, Patagonian, and Chilian Sketches, with a Few Notes about Uruguay. By C. E. Akers. London: Harrison and Sons. N. D. Pp. vi + 190.

The Australians: A Social Sketch. By Francis Adams. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1893. Pp. 314.

Letters from South Africa. By The Times Special Correspondent. London: Macmillan and Co., 1893. Pp. 116.

Tropical America. By Isaac N. Ford. London: Edward Stanford, 1893. Pp. 409. Price 10s. 6d.

Shearer's Illustrated Guide to Stirling, Stirling Castle, Bannockburn, Wallace's Monument, and Neighbourhood. Stirling: K. S. Shearer and Son, 1893. Pp. 108.

Northumberland: its History, its Features, and its People, by the Rev. James Christie, B.A. London. Carlisle: Charles Thurnam and Sons; Newcastle: Mawson, Swan, and Morgan; London: Presbyterian Publication Committee, 1893. Pp. 152.     

Behind the scenes of public funding for performing arts in Italy: hidden phenomena beyond the rhetoric of legislation

This paper focuses on how Italian performing arts organizations were funded between 2003 and 2005. How does policy regulate the financing system for performing arts? What are the underlying logics that govern financing choices? In this paper the authors move beyond the simple examination of formal policies by analysing the funding data and organizational routines of the ministerial offices responsible for the allocation of grants. The authors implemented a multi‐method research methodology consisting of document analysis, in‐depth interviews, and quantitative analysis of funding data. The main findings can be summarized as follows. First, funds are continuously allocated to the same group of organizations. Second, although rigid, the system is imbued by a ‘rhetoric of the project’. Third, the system does not reward innovation. In conclusion, only by studying how the law is actually implemented can one capture the choices that underlie financing actions, and thus unravel unanticipated outcomes and inconsistencies between rhetoric and conduct.     

Cajal's Brief Experimentation with Hypnotic Suggestion

Spanish histologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, one of the most notable figures in Neuroscience, and winner, along with Camillo Golgi, of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries on the structure of the nervous system, did not escape experimenting with some of the psychiatric techniques available at the time, mainly hypnotic suggestion, albeit briefly. While a physician in his thirties, Cajal published a short article under the title, “Pains of labour considerably attenuated by hypnotic suggestion” in Gaceta Médica Catalana. That study may be Cajal's only documented case in the field of experimental psychology. We here provide an English translation of the original Spanish text, placing it historically within Cajal's involvement with some of the key scientific and philosophical issues at the time.     

Testing Methods of Record Linkage on Swedish Censuses

Abstract.

Research benefits a great deal when different kinds of registers can be combined. Record linkage is an important tool for connecting sources to create longitudinal databases of individual data. In this article, researchers test and evaluate different methods of record linkage used when linking two censuses. By comparing the results of the census linkage with other continuous Swedish parish registers, they find that applying constructed name variables and household links considerably increases the success rate without the risk of introducing bias. Missing links are mainly related to name problems, and appear most frequently among children and when the family structure has changed between the censuses. Faulty links are very few and must be regarded as only a marginal problem for analysis. The study underlines the importance of adapting the linkage process to the special characteristics of the sources.