“Ceci n’est pas un fragment”: Identity,Intertextuality and Fictionality in Sappho’s “Brothers Poem”

In this article, Sappho’s Brothers Poem is re-evaluated and analysed from various perspectives that have not been addressed sufficiently in scholarship so far. First, some questions of principle regarding the role of the brothers and the Sapphic speaker are discussed. Secondly, the poem’s communicative situation is examined, and different options for the identification of the person addressed as “you” are considered. Thirdly, it is demonstrated how the poem establishes an intertextual dialogue with the Homeric Odyssey on various levels, and how this dialogue affects the general understanding of the poem. Finally, the commonly held view that the five transmitted stanzas do not represent the entire poem is challenged. The article concludes with some wider considerations about some of the most common assumptions regarding the nature and the fragmentary state of the Brothers Poem.     

Land-Use Planning in Norwegian Mountain Areas: Local Development or Nature Protection?

This article discusses how land-use planning and management can combine the aim of local development with the protection of mountain areas. The basis for this double approach comprises protected areas and the land-use element of the Municipal Master Plan according to the Nature Diversity Act and the Planning and Building Act (PBA), respectively. Case studies performed in six mountain municipalities show that the planning processes in general are performed by a combination of rationalistic and communicative rationality based on consensus and with little awareness of power structures. Today's two-part system is dominated by the interests backing protection, not only in the protected areas, but also in the buffer-zones. Though the conflicts are rather few, they nevertheless often seem deep-set and rooted in national–local power relations. We argue that a more agonistic and decentralized approach where the protection-area management is transferred to the PBA will, to a larger extent, be able to combine both use and protection and to stimulate local development in mountain municipalities.     

The intuitions of higher dimensional algebra for the study of structured space

Higher dimensional algebra frees mathematics from the restriction to a purely linear notation, in order to improve the modelling of geometry and so obtain more understanding and more modes of computation. It gives new tools for noncommutative, higher dimensional, local to global problems, through the notion of «algebraic inverse to subdivision». We explain the way these ideas arose for the writters, in extending first the classical notion of abstract group to abstract groupoid, in which composition is only partially defined, as in composing journeys, and which brings a spatial component to the usual group theory: An example from knot theory is used to explain how such algebra can be used to describe some structure of a space. The extension to dimension 2 uses compositions of squares in two directions, and the richness of the resulting algebra is shown by some 2-dimensional calculations. The difficulty of the jump from dimension 1 to dimension 2 is also illustrated by the comparison of the commutative square with the commutative cube-discussion of the latter requires new ideas. The importance of category theory is explained, and a range of current and potential applications of higher dimensional algebra indicated.     

LATE NEOLITHIC STENILDGÅRD GRAVE: RE-EXCAVATED,RE-ANALYSED AND RE-INTERPRETED

Occasionally, it becomes possible to re-excavate and re-analyse prehistoric monuments. Within the geographical area managed by Vesthimmerlands Museum, this happened in the case of the Late Neolithic Stenildgård grave on the western periphery of the town of Aars, Northern Danmark. The grave was excavated for the first time at the early 1930s and re-excavated in 2015 in connection with the construction of a ring road around the southern parts of Aars. In 2015, a series of state-of-the-art scientific analyses were conducted in relation to this grave. Following a detailed presentation of the original publication and later interpretations, this article presents the results of the new excavation and scientific analyses. The new results include identification of the human bones, the development of the stratigraphy, strontium isotope analysis, pollen analysis, macro-fossil analysis, and the analysis of pitch. Since the 1930s, the Stenildgård grave has been considered a burial, which, to a great extent, deviated from usual practice showing one of the earliest examples of cremation in prehistoric Denmark. Furthermore, the recent investigation revealed that the grave was equipped with a surrounding wooden structure and possibly influenced by West European Bell Beaker Cultures. Also, the grave seems to form part of an extensive Late Neolithic burial and settlement system, where complex rituals were carried out.     

A Late Neolithic Case of Pott's Disease from Hungary

The aim of this study was to present classic bone lesions caused by tuberculosis, as seen in a Late Neolithic–Early Copper Age osteoarchaeological sample deriving from the site of Alsónyék‐Bátaszék (the western part of Hungary from the 5th millennium bc ). In one particular case of an adult male skeleton, vertebral bodies' destruction, collapse, ankylosis and marked angulation in the lower thoracic and the upper lumbal region of the vertebral column were observed. The collapse resulted in a severe gibbus formation. The paleopathological analysis was carried out using morphological observation supported by radiological analyses. The results from this study increase our knowledge of the early occurrence of skeletal tuberculosis in past populations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Degradation Discourse and Green Governmentality in the Xilinguole Grasslands of Inner Mongolia

This article examines discourses about grassland degradation in China as expressed by herders, government officials and researchers, presenting findings from fieldwork in Xilinguole League, Inner Mongolia. Recognizing degradation discourse and grassland restoration policies as key sites of political contestation, this study does not try to arrive at the scientific facts about degradation, but rather seeks to illuminate the mechanisms by which grasslands are identified as degraded, and the implementation of policies to restore and protect the grasslands. A key finding is that policy outcomes are widely divergent and difficult to predict. This is not merely due to differences among actors in terms of their interests, access to resources, power, values or knowledge, but as much a result of contradictions and tensions inherent in key policy goals, opening up spaces for local resistance as well as selective policy implementation. This highlights the open‐ended and contested nature of China's environmental state project.     

Building G at Makaynūn: a late pre‐Islamic settlement above the ruins of a South Arabian town

This article presents the results of the excavation of a residence dated between the second and fourth centuries AD, constructed over the ruins of the South Arabian town of Makaynūn, in central Hadramawt (Yemen). The building yielded a large quantity of material including objects proving contacts between the central Hadramawt and regions located to the north‐east, such as central Oman, the Gulf area and India.     

Unions et désunions monétaires en Europe du Gold Standard au Système Monétaire Européen

La naissance de la Banque centrale européenne a suscité une discussion soutenue à propos des critères de convergence, de l'objectif d'inflation et de la flexibilitédes taux de change de l'euro par rapport aux autres monnaies-clés (dollar, yen). Un détour par les arrangements et unions/désunions monétaires passés s'avère pertinent en termes d'information à propos des conditions essentielles pour l'établissement et la gestion des politiques monétaires, non seulement du point de vue économique mais également du point de vue politique. Les lec¸ons principales qu'apporte l'Histoire indiquent que: inflation et taux de change constituent deux 'ancres', parmi d'autres, choisies en fonction d'une orientation idéologique plus marquée qu'il n'apparâ L t au premier abord; qu'àla fois les créditeurs et les débiteurs nets doivent être responsabilisés pour organiser un système durable; que l'intégration du marchéa toujours précédél'union monétaire; enfin, qu'un lien solide entre pays apporte une meilleure protection contre les chocs extérieurs qu'un ensemble de réactions individuelles non coordonnées. Néanmoins, une question importante reste en suspens: est-il possible pour une union monétaire de supporter la présence de parasites monétaires dans sa périphérie, hôtes indésirables qui ne participent pas au partage des coûts engendrés par l'union monétaire, mais qui s'invitent au sein du système et en profitent àtravers des alignements tacites sur la politique appliquée àla monnaie unique?