Moving agriculture onto the Tibetan plateau: the archaeobotanical evidence

The Tibetan Plateau has one of the least hospitable environments for agriculture on the planet; however, its inhabitants have developed an economic system based on agriculture and pastoralism suited to it’s geoenvironmental stressors. Little is known about the timing of the spread of agriculture onto the plateau or how agricultural systems were adapted to this environment. In this article, we present palaeoethnobotanical data from two sites, Changdu Karuo (c. 2700–2300 cal B.C.) and Kyung-lung Mesa (A.D. 220–334 and A.D. 694–880). In addition, we synthesize previously reported data (much of which has never been published in peer-reviewed journals). We argue that the earliest agriculture was based on millets (broomcorn and foxtail) and was accompanied by a pig-based economic system. This early economy, which likely originated in western China, was later replaced by a better adapted system, similar to those identified in Central Asia. The later system was based on crops such as wheat, barley, peas, and millets, as well as sheep and goat pastoralism. Wild resources obtained through hunting, fishing, and foraging appear to have been complements to the diet on the Tibetan Plateau.     

Sites,sacredness, and stories: Interactions of archaeology and contemporary paganism

Folklore has, until very recently, been at the fringes of archaeological research. Post-processual archaeology has promoted plurality in interpretation, however, and archaeology more widely is required to make itself relevant to contemporary society; so, contemporary folkloric practices vis-a`-vis archaeological remains are once again receiving attention. In this paper we examine contemporary Pagan understandings of and engagements with “sacred sites” in England. Specifically, we explore how Pagan meanings are inscribed and constituted, how they draw on “traditional” understandings of sites and landscapes, and instances in which they challenge or reify the “preservation ethic” of heritage management. From active interactions with sites, such as votive offerings and instances of fire and graffiti damage, to unconventional (contrasted with academic) interpretations of sites involving wights and spirit beings, Neolithic shamans, or goddesses, there are diverse areas of contest. We argue archaeology must not reject Pagan and other folklores as “fringe,” but, in an era of community archaeology, transparency and collaboration, respond to them, preferably dialogically.     

In Comes I: Performance Memory and Landscape

HANDWOERTERBUCH DES DEUTSCHEN MAERCHENS. Herausgegeben unter besonderer Mitwirkung von JOHANNES BOLTE und Mitarbeit zahlreicher Fachgenossen von LUTZ MACKENSEN. Band I. Berlin und Leipzig, 1931. Verlag Walter de Gruyter &; Co. Reviewed by M. Gaster.

THE HILL BHUIYAS OF ORISSA. By RAI BAHADUR SARAT CHANDRA ROY, M.A., B.L. Ranchi: Man in India Office, 1935. 8¾″x5¼″. Pp. iv+320+xxxviii, with 17 Plates. Price, Rupees 8. Reviewed by F. J. Richards.

ORPHEUS AND GREEK RELIGION: A STUDY OF THE ORPHIC MOVEMENT. By W. K. C. GUTHRIE, M.A., Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, with 16 plates and 19 text illustrations. Pp. xix, 287. Methuen and Co. Price 21s. nett. Reviewed by R. M. Dawkins.     

A Theory of Vernacular Rhetoric: The Case of the “Sinner's Prayer” Online

This paper seeks to rigorously define and illustrate the analytic category of “vernacular rhetoric” through an examination of the “Sinner's Prayer” as it appears on an amateur web page. In the online environment, this invitation to a traditional prayer performance seems to be a strategy for converting non-Christians. Through the application of the concept of vernacular rhetoric, however, it becomes clear that the deployment of the prayer can also function as an invitation for the already-converted to “testify” to their faith. In this way, the apparently evangelic prayer form also functions as an invitation for the already-converted to perform previously held values. By applying the concept of vernacular rhetoric to this example of online discourse, its value as an analytic category becomes clear because it can address the performative nature of World Wide Web-based documents.