A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing: What We Know about the Role of the Media in State Politics

Abstract

This article explores the intellectual itinerary of the contemporary French political philosopher Pierre Manent. In particular, it highlights his efforts to do justice to the three great “poles” of human existence: philosophy, politics, and religion. Manent is shown to be a philosophically minded Christian, one who thinks politically and who rejects the temptation to “despise the temporal order.” Manent's reservations about the European project in its present form are shown to be rooted in a understanding of politics that emphasizes the need to weave together “communion” and “consent” if Europeans are to avoid administrative despotism and those postpolitical fantasies that prevent them from thinking and acting politically. The article ends with a reflection on Manent's impressive history of “political forms” in the Western world.     

Tooth Wear Related to Marine Foraging,Agro‐Pastoralism and the Formative Transition on the Northern Chilean Coast

Occlusal surface wear scores were examined in a sample of 200 Formative period (1500 bc–ad 500) skeletons from the lower Azapa Valley in northwest Chile. Wear rate and plane (angle) were additionally evaluated using a subsample of paired first and second mandibular molars. The Formative period represents the transition from marine foraging to agro‐pastoral dependence in the region, and differences in oral pathology indicate that diet varied by site location (coast vs valley interior) but not by archaeological phase (early vs late). We predicted that occlusal wear would demonstrate similar patterns, resulting from differences in food consistency, and therefore hypothesised that in coastal groups consuming greater quantities of foraged foods, occlusal surfaces should wear faster and exhibit flat molar wear, whereas among valley interior groups consuming greater quantities of agro‐pastoral products, these should wear slower but exhibit more angled molar wear. Heavier posterior tooth wear was identified among coastal residents, but rate and angle of molar occlusal attrition did not differ significantly by location. Heavier overall wear and a steeper molar wear plane were identified during the early phase indicating that food consistency varied somewhat over the course of the Formative period. Overall, the results indicate that, although limited differences in tooth wear exist by site location, wear varied more over time likely reflecting a gradual transition from foraging to agro‐pastoral dependence in the lower Azapa Valley. Although oral health indicators point to differences in dietary investment by location, maintenance of a mixed subsistence economy likely sustained a comparative consistency of foodstuffs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thinking through “Vernacular Cosmopolitanisms”: Historical Archaeology in Senegal and the Material Contours of the African Atlantic

This article draws on recent archaeological research on coastal Senegal to examine how the concept of “vernacular cosmopolitanism” can contribute to scholarship about the construction of cultural hybridity in West Africa during the Atlantic era. It argues that Senegambia between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries was a vibrant theater of international exchanges, and that archaeological examinations of these processes can both assist our understanding of regional history and enrich discussions about the African diaspora, diasporic identities, French imperialism, and Atlantic modernity. The study of material experiences can also raise critical questions about our conceptual categories and limits to our understanding of the Atlantic past.     

Indo-Hispanic Dynamics: From Contact to Colonial Interaction in the Greater Antilles

Indo-Hispanic interaction is an essential issue in the colonial period in the Caribbean, but its study is currently marginalized as an offshoot of pre-Columbian archaeology. This state of affairs denies the indigenous contribution to the past and present ethnocultural composition of the region and privileges a colonial approach in scholarship. This paper reviews important aspects of the history of archaeological research on contact and colonial interaction in the Greater Antilles and its theoretical underpinnings. It also presents two recent archaeological case studies that show different facets of the interaction processes using new methodological approaches: El Cabo, Dominican Republic, with evidence of early contact, and El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba, a context of interethnic interaction under colonial conditions.     

German volunteers in the armed conflicts of the Italian Risorgimento 1834–70

Abstract

Between 1834 and 1870, Germans participated in the armed conflicts of the Italian Risorgimento in the ranks of both Mazzini and Garibaldi and of the Pope and Francis II of Naples. While acknowledging the difficulty in analysing the motives of historical actors, the essay compares the reasons that led these Germans to volunteer and fight. For those who fought for the cause of Italian unity, the networks created in exile in the 1830s remained decisive down to 1870, whereas the mobilization of volunteers in Germany for the Papal states reached its height only later between 1867 and 1870. Despite these chronological differences, the methods used in terms of the media and forms of organization to mobilize the volunteers and to legitimize war were very similar across the political spectrum. The foreign volunteers were described by their own side as brothers, but as mere mercenaries by the respective enemy side. At the same time, Germans and Italians brought their national stereotypes to the various armed groups and armies in which they served and in ways that made the latter important places for the staging of national ‘re-virilization’ achieved through heroic fighting.     

ATTENUATION RELATIONSHIP FOR LOW MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKES USING STANDARD SEISMOMETRIC RECORDS

Northwestern Italian weak-motion data were used to study attenuation characteristics of horizontal peak ground acceleration (PGA) and horizontal peak ground velocity (PGV) from earthquakes of local magnitudes (M _l ) up to 5.1. Data have been provided by the RSNI (Regional seismic network of Northwestern Italy) and RSLG (Regional seismic network of Lunigiana-Garfagnana) waveform database. The database consists of more than 14000 horizontal components recorded in the period 1999-2002 by both broadband and enlarged band seismometers. The accuracy of the procedure used to extract PGA values from the velocity recordings was verified comparing observed and derived PGA values at station STV2, which was equipped with both a temporary K2 Kinemctrtcs accelerometer and Guralp CMG40 broadband sensor. The attenuation of both peak ground acceleration and peak ground velocity was found to be logarithmically distributed with a strong attenuation for low distances (less than 50 km) and low M _l values (<3.0). The resulting equations are:

Log(PGA)=?3.19+0.87M?0.042M ²?1.92 Log(R)+0.249S,

Log(PGA)=?4.23+0.76M?0.018M²?1.56 Log(R)+0.230S,

where PGA is expressed in g, PGV is expressed in m/s, M is local magnitude, R is the hypocentral distance in kilometers and S is a dummy variable assuming values of 0 and 1 for rock and soil respectively. For increasing distance and magnitude, both PGA and PGV values show a linear distribution. The validity range of the obtained attenuation relationships is 0–200 km for distances and M _l up to 4.5. Sensitivity studies performed by analysis of residuals, showed that predicted PGA and PGV values are stable with respect to reasonable variations of the model and distances providing the data. Comparisons with attenuation relationships proposed for Italian region, derived from strong motion records, are also presented.     

Attenuation Relationships for Iran

The purpose of this study is to derive the attenuation relationships for PGA, PGV, and EPA parameters for areas within the seismic zones of Zagros, Alborz and Central Iran with rock and soil substructures. In order to do so, at first the available scientific data including the methods used for deriving attenuation relationships and the parameters involved have been gathered. Afterwards, all the efforts have been focused on gathering a thorough catalogue of earthquakes occurred in Iran. In this regard, a majority of the available catalogs in Iran have been gathered and corrected through different methods and finally a set of 89 earthquake events including 307 earthquake records with reliable data was chosen.

Since in order to derive the attenuation relationships it is essential to extract the parameters from the acceleration records, a great effort was placed on gathering the earthquake acceleration records of Iran. This resulted in building a database of a majority of the earthquake records up to the year of 2004. Afterwards, correction methods applicable to earthquakes records of Iran considering the type of machines used and the ground type were examined which resulted in certain guidelines for correction of earthquake acceleration record data related to Iran.

In the next step the needed parameters were extracted from the earthquake acceleration record data which were consequently divided into two seismic zones of Zagros, and Alborz and Central Iran according to tectonic conditions. After examination of the parameters and choosing the most appropriate among them, the attenuation relationships were derived for such parameters.     

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Pigments

The application of FT‐Raman spectroscopy and visible Raman microscopy to the non‐destructive analysis of pigment specimens excavated from Tell el Amarna by Flinders Petrie in the 1890s has provided information about the chemical composition of the materials used by XVIIIth Dynasty artists in the New Kingdom at the time of King Akhenaten, c. 1340 bc. Comparison of the Raman spectra of the samples labelled ‘red and yellow ochre’ with documented, archival material from geological collections provided a clear indication of the materials used in the iron(III) oxide/hydroxide system, including α‐hematite, goethite, maghemite, magnetite and lepidocrocite. The yellow–orange specimen labelled ‘realgar’ proved to be a mixture of realgar and pararealgar; since the specimen had been sheltered from light since its excavation, this could indicate that the ancient Egyptian artists recognized the colour variation and may have used this to effect in their decorations. A specimen of yellow ochre contained goethite, α‐FeO.OH, with particles of crystalline, highly ordered graphite; in contrast, the red ochre specimens contained amorphous carbon particles.