Why the Kanak Don't Fear Sharks: Myths as a Coherent but Dangerous Mirror of Nature

This study focuses on the important role of sharks in the Melanesian mythology. Based on unpublished stories essentially originating from New Caledonia, we show how strong the links are between myths and the physical environment in which Kanak live. As prevalent mythical animals, sharks can indifferently play the role of avengers and righters of wrongs, or vehicles for the spirits of living or dead people. They can be either allies or enemies in wars, and their role as potential man-killers is never overlooked. However, when humans are attacked and killed by a shark, it is always for a material reason: the victim broke a rule or a tabu, the shark was an enemy, the sharks withdrew protection, the event allowed a pregnant woman to reach a new territory, etc. Beyond arbitrary metaphysical justifications, such perceptions reflect respect for social and natural order. For Kanak ni-Vanuatu and other Pacific Islander peoples, sharks are part of a coherent Nature that includes natural and social hazards. In the quest for sustainable development of the planet, more in harmony with Nature, so-called ‘developed societies’ might draw inspiration from such perceptions. Indigenous understandings could also help change the globally negative perception of sharks, and support shark conservation efforts in Oceania and worldwide.     

Palaeogeographical reconstructions of Lake Maliq (Korça Basin,Albania) between 14,000 BP and 2000 BP

Since the early 1990s, excavations of a protohistoric lakeside settlement in the Korça basin carried out by a French–Albanian archaeological team have induced geomorphological and palynological studies about the sedimentary records of Lake Maliq. These studies allow us to distinguish a series of centennial-scale high and low lake level events between 4200 and 4000 cal BP (2899–2637 BC/2843–2416 BC) and 2600 cal BP (822–671 BC), probably due to large-scale climate changes (in the Mediterranean basin). In addition, the sediment sequence also gives evidence of a millennial-scale trend of lake level rise. It appears to be an interplay between lake level rises and falls against tectonic subsidence of the basin allowing accommodation space for sediment deposition.The variations of the lake's level and the lake's surface area influenced the development and the abandonment of the nearby lakeside settlements (like the tell of Sovjan). In order to prepare an archaeological survey around the now dried up lake, we made a 3D model of the Holocene deposit from the lake including these lake level results, geomorphological mapping, excavation data, numerous core logs, AMS ¹⁴C dating and SRTM DEM data. The GIS model allowed us to propose four palaeogeographical reconstructions of the extension of Lake Maliq: around 14,000 BP, during the Mesolithic (around 9000 BP – 8781–8542 BC), the Early/Middle Bronze Age transition (around 3800 BP – 2310–2042 BC) and the Iron Age (2600 BP – 822–671 BC). A map of the thickness of the sediments above potential archaeological layers is also proposed.     

Avestique janiiaoš

Sans résumé     

“Suffer Not the Evil One”: Unitarianism and the 1826 Maryland Jew Bill

The 1826 Maryland Jew Bill was the most protracted and heated fight over Jewish political rights in the United States. For eight years, in the legislature, in newspapers, and in elections, Marylanders debated whether Jews should be allowed to hold government office or positions of public trust, a struggle that garnered journalistic coverage from throughout the country. Historians have not explained why Maryland, a state with very few Jews in the early nineteenth century, was the site of the country's largest debate over their legal status. This study argues that Unitarianism, which did not claim many adherents in Maryland at the time of the Jew Bill but occupied an outsized role in the state's debates about religious rights and Christian orthodoxy, is a key part of the story of Jewish rights in Maryland; the state's unique experience with Unitarianism is one of the causes of the state's unique place in the story of Jewish rights in the United States.