The application of the tree-ring chronologies in assessing ecological requirements of Metasequoia glyptostroboides growing in southern Poland

Metasequoia glyptostroboides is considered to be a species highly resistant to harmful environmental factors. For this reason it has been introduced to the cities. The climate of Krakow differs from that in its natural range in China. The research was focused on 40-year-old trees, planted in Kraków on fertile alluvial soils with a low level of ground water, in the vicinity of the steelworks. During the period of the highest level of air pollution in the 1970s and 1980s, the radial increment of investigated trees showed an increasing trend. At the end of the 1980s, when the emissions were reduced, a decreasing trend in radial growth was recorded. Throughout the entire period of their life the investi-gated trees have shown high homogeneity of short-term growth reactions. The sensitivity chronology of the trees was characterized by a high representativeness and a strong high-frequency signal. This may indicate that the investigated trees have shown a large sensitivity to climatic factors. The positive effect on the radial growth of Metasequoia had a cold September in the previous year, and also a cold January, April and May in the year of ring formation. Positive impact on the growth of trees had also the high precipitation occurring in April and August, as well as high air humidity in the spring of the year of ring formation. In the period 1974–2011 fifteen signature years were found. The analysis of the climatic conditions in these years confirms the results of the statistical analyses.     

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.     

Geographical Analysis: Its First 40 Years

Geographical Analysis (GA), in cooperation with the Wiley‐Blackwell publishing business, undertook a project to complete the digitizing of all back issues of the journal and make those for the period 1969–2001 free to the academic community; the volumes for 2002–2005 already were, and continue to be, free. This article commemorates the completion of this event late in 2010, drawing upon this new resource to highlight important contributions made through the journal to the geography and spatial sciences community. Besides summarizing publication trends for the journal, in the tradition of Fenneman's Venn diagram conceptualization of overlaps between geography and its cognate disciplines, this article highlights prominent articles published in the journal that contributed to the four themes of urban and economic geography, transportation geography, spatial statistics, and geographic information science. Geographical Analysis (GA) en cooperación con publicaciones Wiley‐Blackwell llevo a cabo el proyecto de digitación de todos los números pasados de la revista, los cuales están ahora a disposición de la comunidad académica sin costo alguno; los volúmenes de los años 2000–5 ya estaban disponibles y continúan siendo gratis. El presente artículo conmemora la culminación de dicho evento a fines de 2010, recogiendo los aportes de esta nueva fuente de información y resaltando varias contribuciones importantes hechas vía GA a la comunidad de geografía y ciencias espaciales. Además de resumir las tendencia de las publicaciones de la revista, en la tradición de la conceptualización de traslapes entre la geografía y disciplinas afines de los diagramas Venn Fanneman, el presente artículo resalta, artículos prominentes publicados en GA que contribuyeron a los cuatro temas principales: geografía urbana y económica, geografía del transporte, estadística especial y ciencias (sistemas) de información geográfica. 地理分析（GA）和Wiley‐Blackwell出版商合作完成了对本刊1969‐2001年所有刊册数字化的项目,并向学术界免费开放。事实上,从2002年第5卷就已经开始并将一直持续免费。本文记述了2010年末完成的这一事件,并依托这一新的数据资源,重新回顾了本刊对地理学和空间科学研究群体做出的重要贡献。本文总结了本刊论文发表趋势,从Fenneman的韦恩图概念传统来看是地理学及其相关学科的交叉。此外还回顾了本刊发表的对城市与经济地理、交通地理、空间统计以及地理信息科学方法做出卓越贡献的论文。     

The crisis of cultural leadership in Britain

This article describes the circumstances surrounding the creation of a new training scheme for cultural leaders in the United Kingdom: the Clore Leadership Programme. The programme is a response to the contemporary crisis in cultural leadership in the United Kingdom, which is explained in terms of low morale produced by government underfunding, low pay, loss of status, ill‐defined career paths and over‐regulation. The ensuing crisis of cultural authority is compounded by reluctance to address issues of leadership training, which is poorly provided for in Britain. A typology of leadership is proposed: transactional, transformational and relational. The transformational, or “heroic”, leader may be of less value in the future than the relational leader who works with and through others. The appropriateness of the business school model of leadership training to the cultural sector is questioned where the crisis of leadership points to the emergence of new forms of leadership embracing non‐market driven values.