Hindus: A Superior Race

Abstract. In this contribution I want to first examine some aspects of the influence of Orientalism and Christianity on the construction of a notion of Hinduism which could serve as the basis for nationalism. Second, I want to explore two influential claims about the uniqueness and superiority of the Hindu religion and its practitioners. The first claim is that Hinduism is the religion of a superior race, namely the Aryan race. The second claim is that Hinduism is a religion which is spiritually superior to other religions. These two claims are never completely separate from each other, but are differently emphasised by different Hindu movements.     

Does Race Matter?

Abstract. This essay contends that behaviour can only be understood within an evolutionary framework that gives equal weight to genes and environment. Our cultural environment itself evolved, in part through natural selection of genes and in part through other mechanisms. Racism, however, involves association of genetically caused differences in physical appearance with characteristics to which they are wholly unrelated. Yet this association has a biological cause: fitness maximisation through nepotism. This association, therefore, has an effect upon the life chances and reproductive success of genetically different groups and, therefore, upon the process of human evolution.     

New research on the Holocene settlement and environment of the Chad Basin in Nigeria

Recent investigations of three archaeological sites in the Nigerian part of the Chad Basin during the Holocene reveal key stages in the cultural development and environmental history of that region. At Dufuna, a dugout boat was dated to around 6000 BC, making it the oldest known boat in Africa and one of the oldest in the world. Boats may thus have contributed to the mobility of the population of the southern edge of the Sahara 8000 years ago and, thereby, to the cultural homogeneity of this period. The pottery site at Konduga is around a thousand years younger than Dufuna but still belongs to the time of Mega-Chad. The site is on the Bama Ridge, an old shoreline. Its pottery, decorated in the Saharan tradition, belongs to the earliest ceramic phase of the West African Later Stone Age, long before the beginnings of food production. Although this site was probably settled by pioneers advancing into a largely flooded landscape along the slightly raised shoreline, the human occupation of the area previously covered by Mega-Chad began along a broad front around 2000 BC. Archaeological and palaeoecological finds from two settlement mounds at Gajiganna are described as case studies for this phase, which predates the well-known site of Daima.

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Résumé Les résultats présentés proviennent de recherches récentes sur trois sites archéologiques, dont chacun représente un épisode clé du développement culturel et de l'histoire environnementale du Bassin nigérian du Tchad au cours de l'Holocène. A Dufuna, la découverte d'une pirogue monoxyle, datée d'environ 6000 ans BC, constitue le témoignage le plus ancien d'une embarcation en Afrique et l'un des plus ancien dans le monde. Ce moyen de transport indique la mobilité des populations de la marge sud du Sahara à l'Holocène inférieur et moyen; ce qui a dû contribuer à l'homogénéité culturelle de cette période. Le site à poterie de Konduga est le plus jeune d'un millénaire que Dufuna, mais appartient à l'époque du Méga-Tchad. Le site est installé sur une ancienne ligne de rivage, la Bama Ridge. Sa poterie, décorée selon la tradition saharienne, appartient à la plus ancienne phase à céramique du Later Stone Age ouest-africain, bien avant le début d'une production alimentaire. Vu que ce site ne devait étre occupé que par des pionniers aventurés dans un paysage largement amphibie à la faveur d'un mince cordon émergé, la colonisation de l'espace antérieurement couvert par le Méga-Tchad, débute le long d'un large front vers 2000 ans BC.Les trouvailles archéologiques et paléoécologiques de deux tertres anthropiques à Gajiganna sont décrites commes études de cas illustrant cette phase, qui précède celle du célèbre site de Daima.

     

Optimizing Productivity Through Privatization and Entrepreneurial Management

Efficiency and economy have become the forces driving both, public and private organizations in the 1990s. Competition and legal mandates constrict managers' abilities to use their traditional options in delivering goods and services to their citizens and customers. Privatization and entrepreneurial management are being utilized increasingly to improve productivity. This is creating a genuine transformation in the way we manage our organizations, it also changes the nature of the relationship between our organizations and their citizens, clients, and customers.
In this article we explore this unfolding transformation and analyze its significance. An entrepreneurial management productivity optimization model is also developed. Productivity is explored in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. The mechanisms for improving productivity, privatization, and entrepreneurial management are then examined. After noting the changing rotes that public policy and competition now play, the more prominent managerial models are explored, including reinventing and reengineering.
The article then presents examples of federal, state, and local entrepreneurial strategies and innovations. It concludes by alerting us to endangered public policy priorities and sets forth significant public management caveats to which we increasingly should become sensitive. The entrepreneurial management productivity optimization model has been developed to assist in clarifying and analyzing the issues involved in this article. It should also help those working in this arena to formulate optimal choices when building entrepreneurial management models for their own organizations or for those of their citizens, clients, or customers.     

Regional and interregional networks of ancient Eleon during the early 12th century BCE as seen from the petrographic and neutron activation analyses of pottery

In this article, we present the results of application of petrographic and neutron activation analyses to a group of pottery fragments dating to the 12th century BCE deriving from ancient Eleon (Boeotia, Greece) as a means of investigating regional and interregional networks in which the site participated. Production centres in Boeotia and central Euboea provided, as could be expected, the majority of sampled pottery across various shapes. A number of more distant areas, however, such as eastern Attica, the Cyclades, Macedonia, and western Crete, are also documented in the present study, suggesting their products were available to local consumers at ancient Eleon. These results are discussed with reference to consumer preferences and exchange networks operating at that time. Finally, some of the identified petrographic and chemical groups can be securely identified at the macroscopic level, allowing us to arrive at conclusions pertinent to a substantial part of the entire pottery assemblage.