The Hare Krishna's Transformation of Space in West Virginia

This study examines the transformative process of turning unordered space into cosmos, or place imbued with meaning. Through integration of specific physical qualities of a particular location into a traditional Hindu perspective of a sacred place and by performance of symbolic acts such as meditation, worship, founding and settling a site and the building of Prabhupada's Palace of Gold, the Hare Krishna have established a temple-oriented spiritual commune on a West Virginia landscape.     

New world warriors: 'Nation' and 'state' in the politics of the Zapatista and US Patriot Movements

During the 1990s scholars began to identify and study social movements organized to confront the 'new global order'. Such movements have emerged in Mexico, Japan, South Africa and the USA. In the emerging literature organized to study these movements scholars have noted two characteristics that hold constant across them. First, while such movements oppose globalization, they tend to focus their criticism against their own governments for ushering in its reforms. Second, while the state is regarded as the enemy, these movements frame their politics against the state in nationalistic terms. In this paper we compare and evaluate the projects of 'national' resistance in two social movements against the new global order--the Mexican Zapatista and the US Patriot Movements. To conduct our analysis we employ a post-structuralist approach. We argue that the category of nation is constructed and may take any number of forms, from the liberatory to the repressive. As such, we hold that the best way to evaluate nationalistic projects is to assess whether antagonism infuses constructions of 'nation' and its spatial policing. In our empirical analysis we argue that the nationalistic discourse of Zapatismo, though not without problems, is agonistically constructed, creating a plural space for nation re(building). In contrast, discourses of patriotism are antagonistically defined, fostering exclusive views of nation and a rigid policing of its borders. We conclude by noting potential pitfalls in the Zapatista identity politics and potential progressive openings within the Patriot identity politic. Au cours des années 1990, des chercheurs ont identifié et étudié différents mouvements sociaux qui cherchent à confronter le 'nouvel ordre global'. De tels mouvements ont émergé au Mexique, au Japon, en Afrique du Sud et aux États-Unis. Dans leurs travaux publiés sur ce récent phénomène, les scientifiques ont noté deux traits caractéristiques de ces mouvements. Premièrement, malgré qu'ils s'opposent à la mondialisation, ils ont tendance à diriger leur critique envers leur propre gouvernement qui ouvre la porte à des réformes globalisantes. Deuxièmement, alors que l'état est considéré comme étant l'ennemi, ces mouvements encadrent leurs politiques contre celui-ci selon des termes nationalistes. Dans cet article, nous comparons et évaluons les projets de résistance 'nationale' de deux mouvements sociaux contre le nouvel ordre global: le mouvement Zapatiste au Mexique et le mouvement Patriote aux États-Unis. Une approche post-structuraliste est utilisée dans notre analyse. Nous soutenons que la meilleure façon d'évaluer des projets nationalistes est de juger si les concepts de 'nation' et sécurité du territoire sous-entendent une perspective antagoniste. Dans notre analyse empirique, nous soutenons que le discours nationaliste des Zapatistes, même s'il demeure problématique, s'élabore selon une perspective 'agoniste' favorisant l'ouverture d'un espace pluraliste pour re(construire) la nation. Par contraste, les discours du patriotisme présentent un point de vue antagoniste encourageant une vision exclusive de la nation et du contrôle de ses frontières. Nous concluons en notant les pièges potentiels du discours identitaire Zapatiste et les ouvertures progressistes possibles au sein de son homologue Patriote. Durante los años noventa los especialistas empezaron a identificar y estudiar movimientos socials, organizados con el fin de enfrentarse con el 'nuevo orden global'. Estos movimientos han surgido en México, Japón, Africa del Sur y en los Estados Unidos. En la literatura que estásaliendo para estu diar estos movimientos los especialistas han notado que hay dos características que todos tienen en común. Primero, aunque estos movimientos se oponen a la globalización, tienden a criticar sus própios gobiernos por haber introducido las reformas. Segundo, aunque el estado es considerado el enemigo, estos movimientos construyen sus políticas contra el estado en términos nacionalistas. En este papel comparamos y evaluamos los proyectos de resistencia 'nacional' en dos movimientos sociales contra el nuevo orden global: el Zapatista de México y el 'US Patriot Movement' (Movimiento Patriota de Estados Unidos). Abordamos el análisis empleando un método pos-estructuralista. Sugerimos que la categoría de nación es construída y puede manifestarse de varias formas; de liberatoria a represiva. Por lo tanto, creemos que la major manera de analizar los proyectos nacionalistas es de evaluar si el antagonismo infunde construcciones de 'nación' y su orden espacial. En nuestro análisis empírico sugerimos que el discurso nacionalista del zapatismo, aunque no carece de problemas, es construído del punto de vista agnóstico y, por lo tanto, crea un espacio plural para la (re)construcción de la nación. Al contrario, los discursos sobre el patriotismo se definen de manera antagonística, la cual promueve puntos de vista exclusivos de lo que es la nación y promueve la rígida vigilancia de sus fronteras. Concluímos por mencionar las posibles desventajas de la política de identidad zapatista y las posibles aperturas dentro de la política de identidad Patriota.     

Cultural landscape protection in Australia: The Wingecarribee Shire study

Abstract

The concept of cultural landscapes as remarkable windows onto the past, and rich historical documents that can be read has gained increasingly wide acceptance in Australia over the past few years. Allied to this, and informing it. is the way in which landscape as a cultural construct plays a major role in attachment to place and sense of Australianness. The understanding of cultural landscapes as a setting where human history is on display is a community movement as well as a professional one. This paper reviews one particular study which focused on heritage evaluation of an historic rural landscape and moves for its protection.     

‘Eyes on where children play’: a retrospective study of active free play

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that influenced childhood active free play. Participants were 13 young adults who resided in one western Canadian city. They took part in semi-structured and walk-along interviews during which they were asked about their memories and experiences of play. Analysis showed that, whereas parental restrictions and safety concerns were limiting factors, a sense of community and safety in numbers facilitated their involvement in active free play. However, the young adults thought these factors had since become eroded from modern society. We concluded a reduced sense of perceived safety exists because there are fewer eyes on where children play.     

The Impact of AIDS on Rural Households in Africa: A Shock Like Any Other?

In areas where HIV prevalence is high, household production can be significantly affected and the integrity of households compromised. Yet policy responses to the impact of HIV/AIDS have been muted in comparison to outcomes of other shocks, such as drought or complex political emergencies. This article looks at the reasons for the apparent under–reaction to AIDS, using data from Zambia, and examines recent calls to mitigate the effects of AIDS at household level. Critical consideration is directed at proposals relating to community safety nets, micro–finance and the mainstreaming of AIDS within larger poverty alleviation programmes. It is argued that effective initiatives must attend to the specific features of AIDS, incorporating both an assault on those inequalities which drive the epidemic and sensitivity to the staging of AIDS both across and within households. A multi–pronged approach is advocated which is addressed not just at mitigation or prevention, but also at emergency relief, rehabilitation and development.     

Cosmopolitan Catterick? Isotopic evidence for population mobility on Rome’s Northern frontier

In order to investigate how the population diversity at major Romano-British urban centres compared to small towns and military outposts, we conducted multi-isotope (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium) analyses of bones (42 individuals) and teeth (26 individuals) of human skeletons from Cataractonium/Roman Catterick in North Yorkshire (U.K.). The results suggest a markedly less diverse population at Catterick than at the larger towns. Significant differences are observed between burials from the town and fort area and the suburb of Bainesse to the south, and it is suggested that these reflect a shift to more localised recruitment for the Roman army in the Late Roman period. Isotope data for the ‘Bainesse Eunuch’, an unusual 4th century burial that has been interpreted as the remains of a ‘transvestite’ priest of Cybele, are not ultimately conclusive but consistent with origins in Southern Britain or areas with a similar climate abroad.     

Religion and Realpolitik

Abstract

Enduring groups that seek to preserve themselves, as sacred communities do, face a structural contradiction between the interests of individual group members and the survival interests of the group. In addressing existential threats, sacred communities rely on a spectrum of coercive and violent actions that resolve this contradiction in favor of solidarity. Despite different histories, this article argues, nationalism and religiosity are most powerfully organized as sacred communities in which sacred violence is extracted as sacrifice from community members. The exception is enduring groups that are able to rely on the protection of other violence practicing groups. The argument rejects functionalist claims that sacrifice guarantees solidarity or survival, since sacrificing groups regularly fail. In a rereading of Durkheim's totem taboo, it is argued that sacred communities cannot survive a permanent loss of sacrificial assent on the part of members. Producing this assent is the work of ritual socialization. The deployment of sacrificial violence on behalf of group survival, though deeply sobering, is best constrained by recognizing how violence holds sacred communities in thrall rather than by denying the links between them.     

A strontium and oxygen isotope assessment of a possible fourth century immigrant population in a Hampshire cemetery,southern England

The aim of the project was to test the hypothesis, using oxygen and strontium isotopes, that a group of burials in the Late Roman cemetery of Lankhills, Winchester, southern England, were migrants from the Danube region of central Europe. The method assumes that the oxygen isotope composition of immigrants from this locale would be significantly more depleted that any one British origin and that the restricted range in Sr isotope compositions produced by chalk in the overlying biosphere of southern England would discriminate between the local population and settlers from elsewhere. As a control for the immigrant group a sample of Romano-British individuals were examined to provide a comparative data set. The results showed that the majority of the individuals used to define the “local” control group plotted in a restricted field of strontium and oxygen isotope composition that was consistent with the values expected for the Hampshire area of southern England. By contrast, the “exotic”, putatively immigrant population generated a much more dispersed field including four with δ¹⁸O drinking water values of −10‰ or less, which supports a non-British origin for these individuals. The study shows that the archaeological data suggesting that there is an exotic population buried at the Lankhills cemetery is generally supported by the isotope work, although the “exotic” group appears to a rather dispersed set of individuals rather than a single population from a restricted overseas location.     

Exemplary Cities in China: The Capitalist Aesthetic and the Loss of Space

ABSTRACT

Since the late twentieth century, the subject of China becoming urban has appeared in the scholarship across the disciplines while spectacular images of China’s cities, and narratives about their developmental achievements, have proliferated in global media. Simultaneously, the parallel “spatial turn” in social thought invigorated geographical approaches to cities and urban change. Yet at this promising meeting ground, between contemporary geographical thought and urban-industrial transformation in China, research has tended to demonstrate a “loss of space” through patterns of dependence on analog circulation of exemplar paradigms that derive from the history of the capitalist city and liberal political economy. What drives this condition and what do we know about its practices and proliferation? This inquiry challenges research design and the politics of theory to consider how routine adoption of capital-centric concepts for research on cities in China arguably reflects the priority of paradigms in the disciplines and their conjunctures with exemplarity in Chinese society and political philosophy. These interstices facilitate application of analog models, and selective adoption of empirical information to suit them, with the paradoxical result of portraying cities in China through multiple capitalist aesthetics including a relatively narrow range of empirics framed by market-based social thought.