Feasting at Marj Rabba,An Early Chalcolithic Site in the Galilee

Feasting is a common part of human culture in the present and past that can serve a variety of roles such as creating and maintaining social identities within and between social groups. In zooarchaeology, feasting evidence, rather than the accumulated and mixed refuse from long‐term consumption, often gives us some of the only data from individual events at a site. A cattle bone refuse pit at the site of Marj Rabba, Israel, provides evidence for feasting from the early Chalcolithic (c.4500–3600 BC) in the southern Levant. The presence of cattle feasts at Marj Rabba provides a glimpse of cultural practices in this critical transitional period that may mirror practices from earlier periods.     

Public engagement in smart city development: Lessons from communities in Canada's Smart City Challenge

Quality of life is often touted as the main benefit of building smart cities. This, however, raises questions about the extent to which the public is engaged as part of the “smart” development process, particularly given the significant financial investments often required to meaningfully design smart city projects. To better understand approaches to public engagement in the context of smart city development, we draw upon three selected finalists of Infrastructure Canada's Smart City Challenge, which invited municipalities, regional governments, and Indigenous communities to enter a competition where the winning proposals would be awarded federal financial grants to complete their projects. Prizes of $5 million, $10 million, and $50 million were awarded. Specifically, we compare the public engagement experiences of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (Quebec), the City of Guelph, and the Region of Waterloo. We carried out semi-structured interviews and reviewed documents in each community to better understand how finalists in each category engaged residents in proposal development. The paper addresses how communities are approaching public engagement in smart city development and the implications of these approaches. We conclude that, despite earnest attempts to publicly engage and become citizen-centric, municipal governments continue to see civic participation as a top-down tool.     

‘Save our NHS’: activism,information-based expertise and the ‘new times’ of the 1980s

This article examines activism in defence of the National Health Service (NHS), which emerges in the 1960s to defend local hospitals from closure. From the mid-1980s, a new form of campaigning developed, which sought to protect the Service nationally. Tracing this campaigning illuminates, first, that small groups played a significant role in negotiating political change, and in contributing to cultural change which, in turn, has become politically powerful. Second, this demonstrates that the 1980s were ‘new times’ in welfare politics, as Thatcher’s changes fostered voluntary interest in information-led expertise, and a new vision of the NHS as a significant, much valued, national institution.     

Excavations and Survey at Bryn Cysegrfan,Llanfair Clydogau,Dyfed, 1979

THE EARTHWORKS of a group of pillow mounds in association with four buildings were surveyed and partially excavated during 1978 and 1979 in advance of destruction. Below the earthen mounds, on the former ground surface, were alignments of flat stones found to cover a network of artificial burrows for rabbits. A single radiocarbon date from burnt vegetation beneath one mound provided a date of a.d. 1375±60. The buildings were also excavated and found to be of typical Welsh upland form.     

‘Working for’ and ‘Working’ among Western Arrernte in Central Australia1

This article discusses some conflicts between kin‐ and market‐based society as they are reflected in the lives of Western Arrernte in and around Ntaria (Hermannsburg). Both political economy and cultural analysis provide accounts of concomitant ‘problems about work’ and training initiatives in remote communities. Neither brings together, however, the issues of economic marginalisation and a history of cultural difference with its own transformations. This discussion takes its departure from the Arrernte's attempts to reconcile kinship service (‘working for’) and paid employment (‘working’) in everyday practice. It demonstrates that this attempt is part of broader change concerning the ways in which hunter‐gatherer people in Australia have been compelled to adapt to a world of cash and commodities, and waged employment. In this discussion, the focus is on remote indigenous Australians today.     

Reviews

Hafez: Dance of Life Michael Boylan, et. al. Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 1987, 109 pp.

Once Upon a Time (Yeki Bud Yeki Nabud) Mohamad Ali Jamalzada. Translated by Heshmat Moayyad and Paul Sprachman. New York: Bibliotheca Persica, 1985. Modern Persian Literature Series, Number 6.

Banking and Empire in Iran: The History of the British Bank of the Middle East, Volume I Geoffrey Jones. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, xiii + 340 pp., plus 30 pp. of appendices, 36 of notes, and 12 of index.

Iranian Jewry's Hour of Peril and Heroism: A Study of Babai Ibn Lutfs Chronicle (1617–1662) Vera Basch Moreen. New York and Jerusalem: The American Academy of Jewish Research, 1987, xv + 247 pp. (American Academy for Jewish Research, Texts and Studies, Volume VI)

The Formation of Islamic Art Oleg Grabar. Revised and enlarged edition. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987, xix + 232 pp., 131 illustrations, bibliography, index.

Language, Status, and Power William O. Beeman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986, xx + 255 pp., bibliography (p. 213), notes (p. 236) and indices (p. 224).

Highlights of Persian Art Richard Ettinghausen and Ehsan Yarshater, eds. New York: Persian Art Series, no. 1, Bibliotheca Persica, 1982, xii + 391 pp, 250 illustrations in color and black and white.

The Iranian Military Under the Islamic Republic Nikola B. Schahgaldian, with the assistance of Gina Barkhordarian. Santa Monica: The Rand Corporation, 1987, 164 pp. $15.00.

The Origins of the Iranian‐American Alliance, 1941–1953 Mark Hamilton Lytle. New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 1987, xxi + 239 pp. $49.50

Cultural Foundation of Iranian Politics M. Reza Behnam. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1986, 188 pp. $19.95.

Sorayya in a Coma Esmail Fassih. London: Zed Books, 1985.

The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American‐Iranian Relations James Bill. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988, 520 pp.

The Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic Nikki Keddie and Eric Hoogland, eds. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1986, 246 pp. $14.95 paperback.

The Elementary Structures of Political Life: Rural Development in Pahlevi Iran Grace Goodell. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986, 344 pp., bibliography and index to p. 362.

Moralia: Les Notions Morales dans la Litterature Persane du 3el9e au 7ell3e Siecle Charles‐Henri de Fouchecour. Paris: Institut Francais de Recherche en Iran, 1986, 514 pp.

Iran and the West: A Critical Bibliography Cyrus Ghani. London and New York: Kegan Paul International (Methuen Inc., Routledge & Kegan Paul), 1987, viii + 967 pp., index. $85.00.

Workers and Revolution in Iran Assef Bayat. London: Zed Books Ltd., 1987, 227 pp., including notes, bibliography, index.

Letters and Essays, 1886–1913 Mirza Abü‐Fadl Gulpaygani Translated and annotated by Juan R. I. Cole. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1985, n.p;

The Master in ‘Akka (Reprinted from The Life and Teachings of ‘Abbas Effendi, 2nd rev. ed., New York; London: Putnam, 1912) Myron H. Phelps. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1985, n.p;

In Iran: Studies in Badi and Baha'i History, Volume 3 Peter Smith, ed. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1986, n.p.

Selections from the Writings of E. G. Browne on the Badi and Baha'i Religions Moojan Momen, ed. Oxford: George Ronald, 1987, 499 pp. $29.50.

The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 6, The Timurid and Safavid Periods, Peter Jackson and the late Laurence Lockhart, eds., Cambridge, 1986, xxiii, 1987 pp. 72 plates.

The Iran‐Iraq War and Western Security, 1984–1987: Strategic Implications and Policy Options Anthony H. Cordesman. London: Jane's Publishing Company Limited, 1987, 185 pp.

Mission to Tehran General Robert E. Huyser. New York: Harper and Row, 1986, ix + 298 pp., index to p. 306. $20.95.

Garden of the Brave in War Terence O'Donnell. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988, 216 pp.

Agriculture and Regional Development in Iran, 1962–1978 Nima Nattagh, Cambridgeshire, England: Menas Studies in Continuity and Change, Middle East and North African Studies Press Limited, 19, 105 pp. $7.00 paperback.

The Gulf War: The Origins and Implications of the Iran‐Iraq Conflict Majid Khadduri. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, 173 pp., notes, appendices, and index to p. 236. $24.95 hardback.

Gurgan Faiences Mehdi Bahrami. Cairo: Le Scribe Egyptien, 1949; reprint edition Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, 1988, 134 pp., 48 pls. $39.95 hardback.

Arda Wiraz Namag. The Iranian ‘Divina Commedia’. Fereydun Vahman. London and Malmo: Scandinavian Institue of Asian Studies Monograph Series no. 53, Curzon Press, 1986, 326 pp.     

Notice

The Imagination of Reality: Essays in Southeast Asian Coherence Systems. A. L. Becker and A. A. Yengoyan (eds). New Jersey. Ablex Publishing Company. 1979. Pp. XIII + 336.