Culture <Emphasis Type="Italic">Versus</Emphasis> Civilisation la Genèse D’une Opposition

Closely linked to the concept of history, the notion of culture becomes a collective singular during the last third of the xviii ^th century. The German idea of culture did not immediately come into opposition with the notion of civilization and both terms were for a long time almost identical in meaning. What does the polemical orientation of the German notion of culture reveal from 1880–1890? First, the crumbling of the idealistic neo-kantian pattern of self-determined cultivated person as an end in itself (the so-called Selbstbildung); second, the growing moral condemnation of the empty spirit of the time. This double process reaches its apogee full of hatred during World War I.     

Les horizons géographiques,entre continu et discontinu1

This article analyses the metaphor of education and politics, commonly referred to as the allegory of Plato's cave. It develops the geographic concept of the horizon of novelty and otherness as a ‘dialectic’ of continuity and discontinuity, as well as an articulation between human mobility and immobility. In return, it poses the question of horizontality, always shown but never stated, as a critique of a metaphor crushed by the verticality that institutes the political connection, not in relation to the other but as a transcendence, and bases human education on the crushing of emotion. Beyond these readings, Plato's text allows the articulation of philosophy and geography in a common ‘logos’ and thus constitutes not only one of the foundations of an anthropological approach to geography but also one of the bases of the Western world and Western thought.     

La fabrique de la perpétuité

TheTrésor des chartes is probably one of the best preserved single collection of archives of the ancient French monarchy. Paradoxically, however, it was never part of a central record office in the modern sense. This large and confused mass of documentation slowly emerged as a records collection during the XIII^th century. Although it seemed to follow the construction of a State administration, it was already inactive by the middle of the XIV^th century. Its records and charters, prestigious and inaccessible, were kept in the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris, close to the relics of the Passion bought by Louis the Ninth. As a record of the past it played a crucial role in the social construction of a notion of «perpetuity» suitable to the domanial and dynastic ideals of the monarchy. The ambiguities of this medieval heritage became obvious in the early modern period. Although there were a large number of inventories and classifications of theTrésor des chartes, it was never able to incorporate the other State records. The Republic inherited a majestic sanctuary which can certainly be described as a piece of shared memory, but which is unable to summarize the genesis of the Nation.     

Obsidian provenance studies in Colombia and Ecuador: obsidian sources revisited

The field occurrences, elemental compositions and formation ages of Colombian and Ecuadorian obsidians are revisited. It is shown that the regional sources of this raw material are linked to two major volcanic structures: the Chacana and the Paletara calderas, localised on the eastern cordillera of Ecuador and on the central Andean cordillera of south Colombia respectively. Seventy-two samples were analysed by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and/or particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE). The same 10 types of elemental compositions were identified independently from ICP and PIXE. Four of these types were previously unknown. The formation ages of these obsidians previously determined by fission tracks dating are in the range 0.17–1.58 Ma at Chacana and 3.46–4.27 Ma at Paletara. Most Colombian and Ecuadorian pre-Hispanic artefacts present elemental compositions compatible with a Chacana- or Paletara-derived origin of the raw material. However, some of them present fission track ages discordant with the present-day known obsidian occurrences, which implies that the regional source inventory is not yet exhaustive.     

Domesticating Animals in Africa: Implications of Genetic and Archaeological Findings

Domestication is an ongoing co-evolutionary process rather than an event or invention. Recent zooarchaeological and animal genetics research has prompted a thorough revision of our perspectives on the history of domestic animals in Africa. Genetic analyses of domestic animal species have revealed that domestic donkeys are descended from African ancestors, opened a debate over the contribution of indigenous aurochs to African domestic cattle, revealed an earlier and possibly exogenous origin of the domestic cat, and reframed our vision of African dogs. Genetic diversity studies and mapping of unique traits in African cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens indicate adaptations to regional environmental challenges and suggest hitherto unknown and complex patterns of interactions both among Africans and with Southwest Asia and other Asian regions on the Indian Ocean. This article argues against the static perspective on domestication as invention and for viewing it as a dynamic, locally based and continuing process.     

Bayesian Analysis of Knowledge Spillovers in European Regions*

Abstract. This paper estimates the effects of knowledge spillovers on patent growth rates across 335 European regions over the 1989–1999 period. We propose a dynamic model based on an innovation production function. A Bayesian approach is used to take into account area‐specific innovation and spatial spillovers. The estimation of the model proceeds via Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation. The results show significant positive and negative spatial effects on innovative activity. The model allows for a rich spatial specification, which we illustrate by incorporating transport proximity measured by transportation time between regions to augment the typical spatial proximity measure of connectivity between regions. Doing this produces more pronounced spatial spillovers that exhibit a more polarized spatial pattern than a model relying on spatial proximity alone.