George Orwell on Political Realism and the Future of Europe

George Orwell perceived the possibility of a postwar united Europe, based on regional integration along social-democratic lines, as a means of survival in a world struggle rather than as a preamble to peace. This was the logical conclusion of his understanding of political realism: his endorsement of its assumption that violence is endemic to social life and that the force-wielding sovereign cannot be done away with. Yet Orwell also had reservations about realism. He argued that a purely realist analysis that was not normatively connected to any values outside itself would go astray because analysts would be unable to factor in their own positions and would thus lose the analytic distance from their objects of study. Orwell was thus as suspicious of a politics managed by experts as of the utopian anticipation of a violence-free world. His world-view, rooted in realist necessity while leaving room for the values of democracy and socialism, offered a vision of a postwar united Europe that fostered the spirit of solidarity and could endure the existential struggles of world politics.     

Penetrating the ‘black‐box’ of ‘remembrance day’ playlist: bereavement and the induction mechanisms of glocalization – a study in cultural sociology

This article examines the musical repertoire broadcast on Israeli state radio stations on Remembrance Day. Commencing with the first Remembrance Day, Israeli radio stations have refrained from broadcasting songs that do not contribute to the glorification of the military mythology or failure to reinforce the consensual perception of national loss. In view of globalization – it might be assumed that Remembrance Day songs would undergo changes in tune with the times. From a musical point of view, new songs that belong to what Regev and Seroussi classify as ‘globalizing Israel’ penetrated into the nationalist arena. But, following Inglehart and Baker, these songs, despite their seemingly secular façade, remain limited hegemonic enclosures organized around the core of founding values. Apparently, this is an example of the process of glocalization of culture. The article seeks answers to the strategies employed to accommodate these new songs to the traditional ideology of the classical Remembrance Day songs and examines whether the mechanisms of legitimacy that enable the inclusion of new voices on Remembrance Day, can be identified. We argue that their choice is not arbitrary and that they illustrate the manner by which voluntary cultural entrepreneurs (musical editors) are co‐opted in the postnational condition.     

Stone projectiles from the siege of Alcalá la Vieja (Spain) and likely trebuchet placement

Investigations of the siege of Islamic Alcalá la Vieja (Madrid, Spain) by Christian forces in the 12th century ce have depended on secondary sources proven to be unreliable and error-laden. In a search for possible locations of trebuchets used by the Christian attackers, the option was for an interdisciplinary approach combining elements from archaeology, physics and spatial analysis. The discovery of stone projectiles near the Islamic fortress allowed for the application of projectile physics to the calculation of several effective firing ranges for each stone. Those outcomes, in combination with geographical information system (GIS) data, have revealed a possible location where Christian forces could have effectively deployed hybrid trebuchets as siege engines.     

The application of ancient DNA analysis to identify neolithic caprinae: a case study from the site of Hatoula,Israel

The evidence for wild sheep (Ovis orientalis) in archaeological sites from the southern Levant is examined through the application of ancient DNA analysis to specimens from the Pre‐Pottery Neolithic A (8300–7500 uncal. BC) site of Hatoula, Israel. The results indicate that at least one of the bones from this site, previously identified as sheep, is in fact goat. To date this is the earliest faunal sample to have yielded DNA in the region. This study highlights the problems in applying morphological criteria to distinguish between caprine species, and illustrates how ancient DNA analysis can serve as a powerful tool in resolving questions of species attribution. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing the Efficiency of Simple Flakes,Retouched Flakes and Small Handaxes During Butchery

Handaxes, simple flakes and retouched flakes are three types of stone tools whose adaptive advantages are highly debated. Interpretations of these technologically different tools suggest that their adequacy for butchery is uneven. Although some experimentation has been made in this regard, further research is needed to understand which of these tool types are more efficient for butchery, thus granting adaptive advantages to the hominins who used them. The present experimental work shows that small handaxes provide higher return rates in butchery activities than simple and retouched flakes. Efficiency (measured in time) is significantly positive in handaxes compared to the other tools when defleshing. In contrast, when comparing the three stone tool sets (simple flakes, retouched flakes and handaxes), the return values obtained for disarticulation are very similar. This study also shows that cut marks do not occur randomly and are less stochastic than previously assumed. Defleshing leaves a preferential cluster of cut marks on mid‐shafts from long bones and even on these sections, depending on element type, patterns are statistically demonstrable.