The European Sky-God.

Traditional beliefs and customs concerning pregnancy and childbirth are still numerous and vivid in Romania and among Romanian inhabitants in neighbouring countries. Fieldwork on this theme carried out over several decades has resulted in a large body of material showing the special position of a pregnant woman in traditional Romanian society. This paper deals specifically with Moldovan birth tradition and concentrates on society's view of the pregnant woman and her unborn child as indicated by the large variety of beliefs and traditions aimed at protecting her and her child. It is evident from this material, that both the prospective mother and society are expected to be aware of, and to engage with, traditional precepts concerning the healthy development of the foetus and the achievement of an unblemished birth. It is also clear that the role and influence of the former untrained midwife in the magical protection of the mother and her child are still part of cultural memory in Moldova. The idea that a pregnant woman has the ability to bring rain in times of drought seems to emanate from a traditional perception of her as embodying fertility powers linked or analogous to the earth's germinative capacity.     

THE EFFECTS OF AGGLOMERATION ON WAGES: EVIDENCE FROM THE MICRO‐LEVEL

This paper estimates individual wage equations to test two rival non‐nested theories of economic agglomeration, namely New Economic Geography (NEG), as represented by the NEG wage equation and urban economic (UE) theory, in which wages relate to employment density. In the U.K. context, we find that for male respondents, there is no significant evidence that wage levels are an outcome of the mechanisms suggested by NEG or UE theory, but this is not the case for female respondents. We speculate on the reasons for the gender difference.     

The national center of social research in greece

Elie Dimitras. Enquêtes sociologiques sur les émigrants grecs. Premiere enquête: “Avant le départ de Grèce.” Athens: Centre national de recherches sociales, 1971. viii + 117pp. Tables, notes, and appendix. $3.00.

Elie Dimitras. Enquêtes sociologiques sur les émigrants grecs. Deuxième enquête: “Lors du séjour en Europe occidentale.” Athens: Centre national de recherches sociales, 1971. viii + 219 pp. Tables, notes, and appendix. $3.00.

Elie Dimitras in collaboration with Evan Vlachos. Sociological Surveys on Greek Emigrants. Third survey: “Upon the return to Greece.” Athens: National Centre of Social Research, 1971. xii + 131 pp. Tables, figures, notes, and appendix. $3.00.

Bernard Kayser, Pierre‐Yves Pechoux, and Michel Sivignon. Exode rural et attraction urbaine en Grèce. Athens: Centre national de recherches sociales, 1971. 233 pp. Tables, figures, photographs, map, and appendixes. $7.00.

John I. Baxevanis. Economy and Population Movements in the Peloponnesus of Greece. Athens: National Centre of Social Research, 1972. 86 pp. Tables, figures, maps, illustrations, notes, appendix, and bibliography. $7.00.     

Healing the nation: royalist visionaries,Cromwell, and the restoration of Charles II

ABSTRACT

The radical visionaries of the civil war era had several royalist counterparts, today often overlooked. This article examines the three most significant: John Sanders of Harborne, Walter Gostelo, and Arise Evans. God, they claimed, had directed them to press Cromwell to restore Charles II, perhaps through a marriage alliance. This alone could settle the nation, and it would usher in a millennial age of peace. Sanders combined support for the crown and Church with a remarkable call for the nailers of Birmingham to strike against their oppressive employers. His family responded to his visionary mission with deep hostility. Evans attracted far greater public interest; he and Gostelo were able to present their ideas to Cromwell in person, and Gostelo travelled to the exiled royal court. The visionaries’ message, if ultimately unacceptable, spoke to the concerns of many contemporaries anxious and uncertain about the future.     

Further Thoughts on Imperial Absent-Mindedness

When my The Absent-Minded Imperialists was published in 20041 [1]. Oxford University Press added a by-line to the dust-jacket of The Absent-Minded Imperialists which read, in place of the formal sub-title, ‘What the British really thought about empire’. That was without my sanction. I would not have been so assertive. it stimulated – or provoked – a great deal of discussion. Among those most provoked were Antoinette Burton, who dismissed the book as not ‘worth arguing either with or about’,2 [2]. I understand that this review has attained a kind of celebrity for its virulence. and John MacKenzie: ‘some reviewers may be taken in by this, but I am not’.3 [3]. I tried to persuade OUP to include that with all their ‘puffs’ on the back cover of the paperback edition, in order to warn potential readers that it was controversial, but they declined. Other reviews, of course, were more positive. This paper is partly a reply to some of the more critical ones, but also seeks to place the general debate on the domestic impact of British imperialism in context, and will finish with a suggestion for moving it forward in a new way.