Sprachliches aus dem zweiten synopsisbuch der oribasiusübersetzungen

The author presents a sizable sample of examples (40) that have been labelled hysteron proteron (h.p.) by commentators on Vergil, in order to discuss the criteria underlying the use of the term and - not less importantly - to analyse how this alleged h.p. functions in its context. The interpretations offered will try to grasp the individual variations and not least to examine how the examples are embedded in their context. A basic tenet is that tense, mode and aspect must be taken into due account. Very few, if any, of the author's examples should in his view be treated as true cases of h.p. in future commentaries.     

Post-Communist Corruption: In a League of its Own?

Conventional wisdom has it that the post-communist countries are in a league of their own with regard to corruption. At first sight, the levels of corruption are, indeed, particularly high in both presently communist and formerly communist countries. However, this generalization dissolves as a mirage when the proper control variables are included into the explanatory model. Countries with a communist past or a communist presence are as corrupt as one would expect based on other structural characteristics such as the level of economic development, a Protestant cultural tradition and the dependency on natural resources. Ceteris paribus, then, the communist legacy has no direct effect on contemporary levels of corruption. At most, it is possible to argue that it has an indirect effect working through the variable of economic development.     

Harvesting the Seashores in the Late Mesolithic of Northwestern Europe: A View From Brittany

The shell middens of Brittany provide the last evidence of a Mesolithic way of life along the French Atlantic façade. This is partly a result of Holocene marine transgressions that prevent easy access to earlier coastal settlements. Nevertheless, the dependence on the sea seen in the Late Mesolithic seems to be a consequence of a long-established exploitation system. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures in human bone reflect a dominance of marine protein, while the zooarchaeological components of shell middens show a high species richness of exploited marine resources. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction suggests that more or less the whole range of resources exploited was accessible in the immediate vicinity of the sites. Seasonal aspects of the utilised and potentially available subsistence resources, along with stable isotope and lithic data, raise the possibility of restricted mobility for these populations, within relatively limited territories. The impression of extreme dependence of these coastal populations on the seashore might have been a key factor in their final disappearance, whether this is viewed as replacement or acculturation. Indeed, the Mesolithic communities of Brittany could have been caught between rising sea-levels and the arrival of Neolithic communities from the east and the south.     

Symbols of Cultural Identity: A Case Study from Tanzania

Cultural expressions and their contexts of use among two groups of Maconde form a basis for a discussion of cultural reproduction and the fluidity of ethnic boundaries. The material presented here is based on ethnoarchaeological fieldwork in Tanzania and Mozambique. Two groups, one based in Tanzania and the other in Mozambique, both identify themselves as one group, although they use and display material culture quite differently. The arguments in the paper are concerned with understanding the highly dynamic character of ethnicity in these East African societies and an attempt to look at shifting ethnic boundaries among the groups in the Rovuma Basin, in particular, over the last centuries. Here symbols of cultural identity have been manipulated and reintroduced into new contexts, as cultures change and groups adjust to their social environment.