The genetic signature of a shrunken head

The making of ritual shrunken heads, or tsantsas, was a common practice among the Jivaro-Shuar tribes of Ecuador and Peru during the post-Columbian period. The raising interest in the tsantsas in the late nineteenth through the twentieth century caused an increase in manufacturing of forged shrunken heads for profit. In the current study, we examined the authenticity and possible cultural provenance of the shrunken head displayed at the “Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv” using macro- and microscopic criteria together with DNA analyses. DNA analyses have revealed that the shrunken head represents a human male individual with a genetic profile compatible with an African ancestry and resembling that of modern South American populations.     

It all used to be better? Different generations on continuity and change in urban children's daily use of space

There is much speculation about children's changing space–time behaviour, yet little is actually known about it. The study reported on here, which was based on oral histories, statistical and archive research, and observations in Amsterdam, compared children's use of space during the 1950s and early 1960s with that of today. The public space of the street used to be a child space, but in two of the three streets studied it has been transformed into an adult space. Conversely, private home space—traditionally the domain of adults—has become a child space. Over time, children's geographies have become more diverse. In addition to the traditional childhood of outdoor children, we distinguish indoor children and children of the backseat generation. These two new types are characterized by a decrease in playing outdoors and an increase in adult supervision. Although this may be regarded as a loss, new children's activities have emerged, outdoors as well as indoors. Contemporary cities can be exciting places for children, but it is clear that inequality by class has become more manifest. Both new geographical childhoods have resulted in a decrease in children's agency, which may have a negative impact on segregation patterns.     

Middle-class childhood and parenting culture in high-rise Hong Kong: on scheduled lives,the school trap and a new urban idyll

This exploratory study seeks to understand childhood in Hong Kong in relation to the high-rise living environment and dominant parenting culture among middle-class professionals. The empirical results suggest that it is parenting culture rather than the built environment that creates children's busy, scheduled lives, high levels of adult supervision and limited outdoor play. Building on a strong portfolio is considered to be both necessary to enter the popular British educational system and to counterbalance a curriculum that is supposed to offer less structured learning compared to the local Cantonese schools. It is argued that this paradoxical situation must be understood in the context of parents' personal childhood histories and the highly competitive global labour market in Hong Kong. The paper ends with a reflection on new discourses of childhood that creates cities and its many consumption spaces as urban idylls for raising children.     

A Georgian Language Island in Iran: Fereydani Georgian

This article describes a dialectal variant of the Georgian language in Iran, Fereydani Georgian, which has survived in Iran for about 400 years. Various relevant aspects of the history and research on Fereydani Georgian are analysed. The choice of topics and sources focuses on previously unknown or, for the English-speaking reader, inaccessible authors. Since 2009, a large part of the linguistic data has been collected in several field studies in Fereydan. They serve as sources and show a revealing perspective on the origin, preservation and existence of the Georgian language island of Fereydani in Iran.     

The Forthcoming Congress of the Geographical Society of the USSR and its Program

A factual account of the economy of the Virgin Lands Kray, one of the Soviet Union's most Important wheat-growing areas, established in December 1960 as a distinct administrative entity within the Kazakh SSR. In addition to wheat farming, which suffers from unreliable rainfall, the kray plays an important role as a supplier of iron ore to the Urals and as a prospective producer of aluminum.     

The Psychological Basis of Historical Explanation: Reenactment, Simulation, and the Fusion of Horizons

In this article I will challenge a received orthodoxy in the philosophy of social science by showing that Collingwood was right in insisting that reenactment is epistemically central for historical explanations of individual agency. Situating Collingwood within the context of the debate between simulation theory and what has come to be called "theory theory" in contemporary philosophy of mind and psychology, I will develop two systematic arguments that attempt to show the essential importance of reenactment for our understanding of rational agency. I will furthermore show that Gadamer's influential critique of the reenactment model distinguishes insufficiently between the interpretation of certain types of texts and the explanation of individual actions. In providing an account of individual agency, we are committed to a realistic understanding of our ordinary scheme of action-explanations and have thus to recognize the centrality of reenactment. Nevertheless, Collingwood's emphasis on reenactment is certainly one-sided. I will demonstrate its limitations even for accounting for individual agency, and show how it has to be supplemented by various theoretical considerations, by analyzing the different explanatory strategies that Christopher Browning and Daniel Goldhagen use to explain the behavior of the ordinary men in Reserve Battalion 101 during World War II.     

Sind W?hler wetterfühlig? Ein Beitrag zur Nichtw?hlerdiskussion

Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland gilt für viele L?nder, vor allem für ehemals kommunistisch regierte, als ein Vorbild der modernen Demokratie. Dieser Vorbildcharakter drückte sich auch in den hohen Wahlbeteiligungen aus, mit denen die Bundesrepublik weltweit einen Spitzenplatz einnahm. Doch seitdem die W?hlerzahlen in den vergangenen fünfzehn Jahren teilweise drastisch zurückgegangen sind, wird die Wahlbeteiligung aufmerksam beobachtet. Oftmals finden sich nach Wahlen interessante Begründungen für die geringe Wahlbeteiligung: Bei der nordrhein-westf?lischen Kommunalwahl am 12. September 1999, die an einem Tag mit Sonnenschein und Temperaturen über 30 Grad stattfand, lag die Wahlbeteiligung bei nur 54 Prozent. Natürlich war das hei?e Badewetter für viele Politiker schuld daran, da? es eine so geringe, bisher ungekannt schlechte Wahlbeteiligung gab. ?hnlich auch die ?u?erungen nach einer „hei?en Kommunalwahl“ im Frühjahr 1992 in Berlin, die der Regierende Bürgermeister mit den Worten kommentierte: „Wir haben eins auf die Bademütze bekommen“ (vgl. Berliner Zeitung, 28.5.1992).     

German colonial plans for Africa in the Nazi era

The German colonial plans concerning Africa in the era of National Socialism ascribed a central role the sciences. Scientists of all possible fields launched into activities. Especially subjects which were directly related to the practice of colonial policies, e.g. African languages, ethnology, law, economic sciences, and medicine, were developed. There were colonial ambitions at nearly every German university, but there was one which designated to become the centre of colonial sciences: the university of Hamburg. It has to be realized that working in this field of studies protected scientists from being drafted by the army for a long time.