Provincializing Albert Schweitzer's Ethical Colonialism in Africa

Unlike many commentators who tend to see Schweitzer's mission one-sidedly, I show the coexistence of liberal and conservative elements in his mission. While his mission intent was mostly motivated by the former, his mission practices largely show the latter. In this essay, I analyze them in detail in three parts. I first explain how such opposite elements can coexist by applying Dipesh Chakrabarty's notion of provincializing Europe. Like most nineteenth-century Western liberals, Schweitzer advocated Enlightenment rights for Europeans, but denied them to the colonized. I then argue that Schweitzer's mission was motivated by the liberal elements of his theology. When his critical theology led him to deny the divinity of Jesus, he found a new basis for Christianity in Jesus’ ethical activism, which led him to become a medical missionary to Africa. I then examine Schweitzer's conservative practices in Africa: by applying the developmental model of Hegelian-Marxist historicism to African society, Schweitzer opposed both decolonization and advanced learning to Africans. Schweitzer's missionary practices in Africa, I therefore conclude, were more conservative than those of the typical European missionary.     

XRF analysis of glass beads from the Mycenaean palace of Nestor at Pylos,Peloponnesus, Greece: new insight into the LBA glass trade

In recent years there has been a growing interest in Mycenaean glass among archaeologists and scientists. Scholars have traditionally thought that all Mycenaean glass was imported either in finished form or as ingots and simply shaped or worked at the Mycenaean sites. Chemical studies of other Mycenaean glass (50 and 43) support the hypothesis that glass was imported into Mycenaean Greece, but there is also indication for glass production in mainland Greece at the palace of Thebes (Nikita and Henderson, 2006). There is no evidence for glass making or working at the Palace of Pylos, yet there is an abundance of glass beads there. The aim of this paper is to identify the technology and source for the glass of these beads and thus to ascertain how Pylos was connected to the broader Mycenaean and Mediterranean economies. The composition of the glasses was determined by means of portable XRF analysis and compared to that of other Late Bronze Age glasses from Egypt, Mesopotamia and mainland Greece. Four blue beads coloured with cobalt and one blue bead coloured with copper have Ti and Zr compositions consistent with an Egyptian origin of manufacture while five other beads show Ti and Zr concentrations consistent with a Mesopotamian origin (Shortland et al., 2007). Based on the dearth of Egyptian and Mesopotamian imports in Pylos, the presented data support the hypothesis that Pylos was receiving via internal Greek trade routes foreign-produced glass, which may have been worked abroad or in Greece.     

Millerocaulis tekelili sp. nov., a new species of osmundalean fern from the Aptian Cerro Negro Formation (Antarctica)

Vera, E.I. iFirstarticle. Millerocaulis tekelili sp. nov., a new species of osmundalean fern from the Aptian Cerro Negro Formation (Antarctica). Alcheringa, 1–10. ISSN 0311-5518.

Ezequiel Ignacio Vera [evera@macn.gov.ar] División Paleobotánica, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales 'Bernardino Rivadavia', Av. Angel Gallardo 470, C1524DJR, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Also affiliated with Área de Paleontología, Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EGA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Received 29.10.2010, revised 14.3.2011; accepted 24.3.2011.

A new species of the osmundalean fossil morphogenus Millerocaulis Tidwell emend. Vera, Millerocaulis tekelili sp. nov. is defined, based on several permineralized stems recovered from exposures of the Lower Cretaceous Cerro Negro Formation on Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. This new species is characterized by the presence of an ectophloic–dictyoxylic siphonostele, inner parenchymatic and outer sclerotic cortices, heterogeneous sclerotic ring in the petiole bases, absence of sclerenchyma associated with the petiolar xylem trace, petiolar inner cortex with sclerenchyma strands and stipular wings having a large sclerenchyma bundle and several smaller ones. The presence of non-homogeneous sclerotic rings in the petiole bases allows this new species to be clearly distinguished from other Antarctic Millerocaulis, and suggests that it may represent an intermediate form in the evolutionary lineage leading from Millerocaulis to subgenus Claytosmunda of Osmunda.