External Knowledge,Territorial Inertia and Local Development: An Exploratory Case Study

This study examines the relationship between an entrepreneur's absorptive capacity, the spiral of knowledge and local development. Although a great number of theoretical and empirical studies have pointed out the importance of local networking and informal contacts when spreading knowledge locally, very few of them have provided robust evidence on the role of the entrepreneur's absorptive capacity and external knowledge in local development. This paper tries to explain the reasons why this problem can no longer be ignored and provides a preliminary examination, through an exploratory case study, of the role that the entrepreneur's absorptive capacity and external knowledge play in overcoming territorial inertia and enhancing local development.     

Heritage and national identity: Exploring the relationship in Romania

Abstract

Within heritage studies the relationship between national heritage and national identity is frequently taken as axiomatic. The construction of a national heritage is an important part of nation‐building, and historic buildings and monuments can be powerful symbols of a nation's aspirations and identity. Yet this relationship has received relatively little empirical investigation. This paper reports an exploratory study of the heritage/national identity relationship in Romania which focuses on just one Roman monument – Trajan's bridge. For many Romanians the monument is a powerful symbol of their identity representing Dacian and Roman origins, Latinity, and the continuity of Romanian settlement in Transylvania. The monument was also seen by some as an important symbol of Romania's attempt to construct a post‐Communist identity, and to forge closer links with western Europe. However, the meanings of the monument are not shared by all Romanians, and in particular are strongly contested by Romania's Hungarian minority.     

Roman double-layered crucibles from Autun/France: a petrological and geochemical approach

Eighteen double-layered crucible fragments found in an archaeological excavation site of the Lycée militaire (Autun/France), which dates to the Gallo-Roman period, were analysed with a series of classical mineralogical techniques in order to obtain knowledge about the raw materials of the individual layers. This work focuses on the usage of the crucibles as well as technical aspects of their production. The crucible fragments were studied by using petrographical (optical microscopy), elemental (SEM-EDS, EMPA, XRF-WDS) and mineralogical (XRD) techniques.     

Early Maya Ritual Practices and Craft Production: Late Middle Preclassic Ritual Deposits Containing Obsidian Artifacts at Ceibal,Guatemala

This article examines Preclassic Maya ritual practices and craft production by means of a study of ritual deposits containing obsidian artifacts dated mostly to the late Middle Preclassic period (700–350 b.c.) at Ceibal, Guatemala. New ritual practices developed at Ceibal during this period, possibly through political interactions and negotiation involving emerging elites and other diverse community members. Common objects in ritual deposits in the public plaza shifted from greenstone celt caches to other artifacts, including those made of obsidian. The inhabitants of Ceibal engaged in various kinds of craft production, including the manufacture of obsidian prismatic blades. They also conducted public rituals in the Central Plaza, depositing exhausted polyhedral obsidian cores and other artifacts with symbolic significance in caches and as offerings in incipient elite burials and interments of sacrificed individuals. These cores clearly demonstrate the use of a sophisticated blade technology. Like greenstone objects, exhausted polyhedral obsidian cores deposited in cruciform arrangements along the east–west axis of the central E-Group plaza were used as symbols and markers of the center and four cardinal directions within the Maya cosmos. Public rituals were important for creating collective identities and for processes of political negotiation within the community. Emerging elites likely came to play an increasingly important role in public rituals as principal performers and organizers, setting the stage for later public events centered on rulers.     

The last ‘never again’? Srebrenica and the making of a memory imperative

Abstract

Controversy overshadowed preparations for the twentieth anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, as conflict arose over the adoption of a number of commemorative resolutions: while motions in the Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the United Nations Security Council were blocked, the US House of Representatives and the European Parliament did adopt declarations. The article outlines how the memory of Srebrenica was de-contextualized from particular interpretations of the past and re-contextualized in favour of universal frames of interpretation. Starting from the interpretations pertaining to Srebrenica from the early 1990s, processes of dealing with the massacre in reports have made it possible to process the lessons learnt from the experience as a narration of progress. In parallel with efforts to establish legal accountability and a local memorial for the massacre’s victims, there has been a series of resolutions commemorating Srebrenica contributing to the formation of a Srebrenica memory regime. That regime mirrors the Holocaust-based global cultural memory imperative, a set of norms and rules of behaviour that was re-actualized and expanded on by Srebrenica as a symbol for the unfulfilled hope of a final ‘never again’. The commemoration of Srebrenica has become a universal ethical imperative that has spread far beyond the actors involved in the 1995 events. The 2015 controversy has to be understood as a (local) act of resistance against the recognition of Srebrenica as genocide and against the selective character of the Srebrenica memory regime.     

Saʿdi-ye Shirāzi and Bono Giamboni in Dialogue: A Comparative Approach to Temperance

This article presents a study of two coeval works on morals: the first belongs to the classic Persian tradition, the Golestān (The Rose Garden) by Sa?di (Shirāz 1210–91 or 1292); the second, Il libro de’ vizî e delle virtudi (Book of Vices and Virtues) by Bono Giamboni (Florence 1240–92), belongs to the first didactic prose in vernacular Italian. The study will specially concern the theme of temperance ????? qanā?at, central to both Islamic and Christian morals. An analysis is made of passages dedicated to this theme in both texts, also through comparative observations, in order to identify the approach characteristic to each work.