The Servilia tomb: an architecturally and pictorially important Roman building

One hundred and eleven samples from the important Servilia Roman tomb have been analysed for the first time by Raman spectroscopy, resulting in a complete characterisation of the pigment palette used for its remarkable wall paintings: 73 different pigment mixtures have been identified for the composition of its 11 colours and their tonalities. Dyer’s weld, an ancient organic yellow pigment, which was described by Vitruvius, has been identified and characterised for the first time in Roman wall paintings. Distinctive Raman spectroscopic signals which differentiate between haematite and caput mortuum (a violet colour from haematite which has been subjected to thermal treatment) are also reported. The use of the very expensive lazurite for a balance relates the importance of this otherwise ordinary instrument with psychostasia (the human soul weighing process) and is not found elsewhere in the tomb. The distribution of white minerals alone or in admixture is not related to any particular colouring pigment or figure; this possibly indicates that there was no specific use for each white mineral and that several craftsmen worked on the paintings, perhaps in different periods, or that the frescoes have been subjected to unrecorded restoration. We conclude that Raman spectroscopy is a valuable analytical technique for the unambiguous identification of mixtures of both organic and inorganic compounds, to study the degree of mineral crystallinity and for identifying treatment. These data are relevant for the holistic interpretation of the artwork in its historical, economical and social context.     

Performing postcolonial identities at the United Nations’ climate negotiations

This study aims to understand how postcolonial identities were performed in the negotiations that led to the new climate agreement signed in Paris in December 2015. Based on interviews, the analysis of documents and participant observation of the negotiations it was possible to identify the legal, economic and scientific discourses mobilised by both global North and South countries. In all three discourses, it was possible to identify a systematic effort of the Northern parties to unmake the identity of Southern parties as ‘developing countries’ as a way to erase the ontological difference between emerging and established industrialised economies. At the same time, in the context of the convention Southern parties reaffirmed their identities as ‘developing countries’ and demanded from the North a strong commitment to tackle climate change and the transfer of more financial resources to the South. In this process, it was also possible to identify an inversion of the position usually taken by mainstream and critical postcolonial scholars that see the deconstruction of categories such as ‘developing countries’ as key for the emancipation of the global South. Finally, this invites postocolonial scholars to look more closely at how postcolonial identities are being instrumentalised, discursively and politically.     

Book reviews

Australian Politics

Eric Aarons, What's Left? Memoirs of an Australian Communist (Ringwood, Melbourne: Penguin, 1993)pp.260. $14.95 ISBN 014 015704 2.

Andrew Hede, Scott Prasser and Mark Neylan (eds), Keeping Them Honest: Democratic Reform in Queensland (St Luda: University of Queensland Press, 1992) pp.312. $17.95 ISBN 0 7022 24871.

Richard Lucy, The Australian Form of Government: Models in Dispute (Melbourne: Macmillan, second edn. 1993) pp.386. $34.95 ISBN 0 73291294 6.

Phillip Mendes, The New Left, The Jews and the Vietnam War, 1965–1972 (North Caulfleld: Lazare Press, 1993) pp.236. $n.p. ISBN 0 64613389 6.

Audrey Oldfleld, Woman Suffrage in Australia: Gift or Struggle? (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.263. $29.95 ISBN 0 521436117.

Derek Parker, The Courtesans: The Press Gallery in the Hawke Era (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1991)pp.203. $16.95 ISBN 0 04 442343 8.

Comparative and International Politics

Elise Boulding (ed.), New Agendas for Peace Research: Conflict andSecurity Reexamined (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1992) pp.199. $US35.00 ISBN 15587 290 5.

T.M. Boyce, Infrastructure and Security: Problems of Development in the West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 93 (Canberra: Canberra Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, RSPacS, Australian National University, 1992) pp.231. $23.00 ISBN 0 7315 1417 3.

John F.N. Bradley, Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution: A Political Analysis (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992) pp.139. $US29.59 ISBN 0 88033 242 5.

Nigel Swain, Hungary: The Rise and Fall of Feasible Socialism (London: Verso, 1992) pp.264. $45.00 ISBN 0 86091569 7.

David Butler and Austin Ranney (eds), Electioneering: A Comparative Study of Continuity and Change (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992) pp.294. $80.00 ISBN 0 19 827375 4.

Joseph A. Camilleri and Jim Falk, The End of Sovereignty: The Politics of a Shrinking and Fragmenting World (Aldershot: Edward Elgar Publishing, 1992) pp.297. $n.p. ISBN 185228 032 0.

Helena Catt, Paul Harris and Nigel S. Roberts, Voter's Choice: Electoral Chance in New Zealand (Palmerston North: The Dunmore Press, 1992) pp.143. $n.p. ISBN 086469 147

John Davis, Exchange (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1992) pp.100. $27.95 ISBN 033515583 9.

Gilbert R. Winham, The Evolution of International Trade Agreements (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992) pp.155. $Canl5.95 ISBN 0 8020 7691 2.

Patrick Dunleavy, Helen Margett and Stuart Weir, Replaying the 1992 General Election: How Britain Would Have Voted Under Alternative Electoral Systems. LSE Public Policy Paper No. 3 (London: Public Policy Group, London School of Economics, 1992) pp.20. £5.00 ISBN 085 328147 5.

Werner Feld, The Future of European Security and Defence Policy (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1993) pp.177. $n.p. ISBN 155587 353 7.

Gary P. Freeman and James Jupp(eds), Nations of Immigrants: Australia, the United States and International Migration (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992) pp.250. $24.95 ISBN 019 553483 2.

Peter Godwin and IanHancock, Rhodesians Never Die (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) pp.400. $130.00 ISBN 019 820365 9.

Colin S. Gray, House of Cards: Why Arms Control Must Fail (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992) pp.242. $n.p. ISBN 0 8014 2703 7.

Richard Higgott and J.L. Richardson (eds), International Relations: Global and Australian Perspectives on an Evolving Discipline (Canberra: Australian National University, 1991) pp.479. $n.p. ISBN 0 7315 1284 7.

Steve Hoadley, The South Pacific Foreign Affairs Handbook (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, in association with the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1992) pp.258. $19.95 ISBN 186373 176 8.

Andrew Hurrell and Benedict Kingsbury (eds), The International Politics of the Environment (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992) pp.492. $34.95 ISBN 019 827778 4.

Robin Jeffrey, Politics, Women and Well‐being?: How Kerela became ‘a model’ (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1992) pp.285. $89.95 ISBN 0 333 54808 6.

Paul Keal(ed.), Ethics and Foreign Policy (Sydney: Allen & Unwin/ANU, 1992) pp.259. $24.95 ISBN 186373 396 5.

Sebastian Mallaby, After Apartheid (London: Faber and Faber, 1992) pp.210. $40.00 ISBN 0 57116560 5.

Philip Mattar, The Mufti of Jerusalem (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988) pp.191. $US17.00 ISBN 023106463 2.

Baruch Kimmerllng and Joel S. Migdal, Palestinians: The Making of a People (New York: The Free Press, 1993) pp396. $n.p. ISBN 0 02 9173213.

Ian McNeill, To Long Tan: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War 1950–1966 (Canberra: Allen & Unwin in association with the Australian War Memorial, 1993) pp.614. $49.95 ISBN 186373 282 9.

Alison Dundes Renteln, International Human Rights: Universalism versus Relativism (London: Sage Publications, 1990) pp.205. £13.95 ISBN 0 8039 3506 4.

Eric Rolls, Sojourners: The Epic Story of China's Centuries‐old Relationship with Australia (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1992) pp.531. $49.95 ISBN 0 7022 24782.

Chlh‐yu Shin, China's Just World: The Morality of Chinese Foreign Policy (Boulder and London: Lynnc Rienner, 1993) pp.223. $US37.00 ISBN 155587 350 2.

Rachel Walker, Six Years that Shook the World: Perestroika—The Impossible Project (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1993) pp312. $35.00 ISBN 0 719032873.

Political Theory and Methodology

Richard Bellamy, Liberalism and Modern Society: An Historical Argument (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992) pp310. $39.95 ISBN 0 7456 0533 8.

Chilla Bulbeck, Social Sciences in Australia: An Introduction (Marrickville: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993) pp.494. $34.95 ISBN 0 72951260 6.

Robert E. Goodin, Motivating Political Morality (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1992) pp.201. $34.95 ISBN 1 55786 247 8.

Preston King (ed.), Thomas Hobbes. Critical Assessments, 4vols (London and New York: Routledge, 1993) $n.p. ISBN 0 415 02004 2.

Chandran Kukathas and Philip Pettit, Rawls: A Theory of Justice, and Its Critics (London: Polity, 1990) pp.169. $32.95 ISBN 0 7456 0282 7.

Michael J. Lacey and Knud Haakonssen (eds), A Culture of Rights: The Bill of Rights in Philosophy, Politics, and Law—1791 and 1991 (Cambridge: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.474. $99.00 ISBN 0 52141637 X.

Gene Outka and John P. Reeder Jr. (eds), Prospects for a Common Morality (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993) pp.254. $34.95 ISBN 0 69102093 0.

Elisabeth Porter, Women and Moral Identity (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1991) pp.223. $22.95 ISBN 004 442332 2.

Alan Ryan (ed.), Justice: Oxford Readings in Politics and Government (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) pp.200. $28.95 ISBN 019 878038 9.

Peter Vallentyne (ed.), Contractarianism and Rational Choice: Essays on David Gauthier's Morals by Agreement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.339. $39.95 ISBN 0 52139815 0.

Teaching in Higher Education

Paul Ramsden, Learning to Teach in Higher Education (London: Routledge, 1992) pp.290. £12.99 ISBN 0 415 06415 5.

Video Review

Frank RJjavec (director), Exile and The Kingdom (Lindfield, Sydney: Film Australia, 1993). Co‐produced by Rljavec and Aboriginal people from Injibandi/Ngaluma Tribes, Western Australia (screened recently by the ABC). $164.95.     

A sweet and amnesic present: the postcolonial landscape and memory makings in Cape Verde

The construction of memory in landscapes is a complex process which is embedded in webs of political and economic power. Often history is twisted and bended to better serve the current interests of the hegemonic forces at play. In this paper I attempt to explore how memory is at work in three different sites in Santiago Island, Cape Verde: an old fort and a historical town; a concentration camp; and a global resort. The three sites participate in the erasure, maintenance and creation of memory in different ways, forging new forms of collective identity, which are embedded in local as well as global forces and processes. Through an analysis of the changes taking place on these sites, this paper suggests that while the country lives on foreign aid and attempts to embrace neo-liberal practices, it fails not only to provide basic services to the population but to engage critically with its history and geography.     

Seismic Tests and Numerical Modeling of a Rolling-ball Isolation System

For the seismic isolation of light structures, the use of laminated rubber bearings is neither economical nor, for most cases, technically suited. For the isolation of this type of structure a new system, consisting of steel balls rolling on rubber tracks, has been developed at TARRC (Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre).

This article presents the results of experimental tests carried out for the characterization of the behavior of this new device. A numerical model is also proposed that can be used to assess the seismic response of structures with this isolation system.

Comparison of the predictions of the numerical model with the experimental data shows that the model is adequate to perform the correct assessment of the seismic response of isolated structures. The results of the experimental campaign of shaking-table tests, as well as the numerical simulations, show that there is an effective reduction of the acceleration levels induced in the isolated structures.     

Statistical Characterization of Structural Demand under Earthquake Loading. Part 1: Robust Estimation of the Central Value of the Data

This article is the first of two companion articles addressing the statistical characterization of seismic demand. Performance-based earthquake engineering methodologies often require the characterization of central value estimates of structural demand. Since outliers can occur in the data, central value estimates should be determined by robust estimation methods. The performance of 50 robust central value estimators is evaluated, for different sample sizes, using the chord rotation, curvature, shear force, and inter-story drift demands obtained after analyzing five reinforced concrete structures under real earthquake records scaled to several intensities. Based on the results, seven estimators are proposed for different sample sizes.