Confessions of an Archaeological Tour Guide

This article examines the contradictions, responsibilities and opportunities that inhere when the authenticity of the tourist experience results at least in part from having an archaeologist guide. It is argued that archaeologists are always participants in tourism, through the visions of the past they offer in even the most scholarly of papers, that make their way to tourists and tour guides through a wealth of secondary literature. It is argued that, even if most are not aware of it, archaeologists are engaged with the cultural heritage industry and it would be irresponsible to try to step aside. It is argued that archaeologists should take responsible action in light of the undeniable influence of archaeologists in defining the routes and meanings of site tours.     

Approaching selfhood

Often overlooked is the fact that postmodern theory brought to the fore a crisis in the humanities. The implied universalism of the current “iconic turn” in postmodern thinking is a blow to the traditional sciences grouped around national literatures and cultures. In the 1980's, postmodern practitioners in the United States began to assault the discursive practices of the mainstream under the banner of cultural studies. The current crisis in the humanities surfaced in the emancipation of the various studies from their traditional fields in the humanities. The German Studies practiced today in the United States for instance, has no counterpart in Germany's traditional departments of Deutsche Philologie. Whereas the icon in the United States has become an object of investigation for the various studies, it has not yet displaced the littera in Germany's literary sciences. However in the 1990's, the historical sciences in Germany responded to the challenge of the various studies by directing their attention not to cultural studies, but to cultural history, with its well-defined set of methodologies. But what kind of cultural history is it? Is it built on 19th century German foundations, or is it grafted to current North American notions of post-industrial culture? In this paper I show that the supposed opposition between cultural studies and cultural history is artificial. Through a close reading of Hayden White's extremist questioning of historical practice in Metahistory (1973), I demonstrate that there is no opposition between the icon and the littera in this recent radical critique of mainstream humanistic science. The vehement German reaction to his North American assault on European Kultur is based on a misunderstanding of White's premises. Rather than being constructed on a hodgepodge of postmodern approaches, I show that White's postmodern history is in fact conventionally grounded in 19th century Nietzschean thinking.     

On the occurrence of the scimitar-toothed cat, Homotherium latidens (Carnivora; Felidae), at Kents Cavern,England

Teeth of Homotherium latidens recovered from late Pleistocene sediments, Kents Cavern, England have long been the source of controversy. H. latidens is conspicuously absent from other late Pleistocene cave deposits in Britain, and is widely thought to have been extirpated from the region during the isotope stage 10 glacial period. Here we present high spatial resolution analyses of fluorine and uranium uptake profiles in teeth of three species from the same cave. The H. latidens tooth is clearly distinguished from the unambiguously provenanced Late Pleistocene hyaena and Middle Pleistocene cave bear teeth. These results are consistent with the theory that the H. latidens teeth originated at an exogenous location, were probably transported to Kents Cavern as Palaeolithic trade goods, and were buried in Kents Cavern in Palaeolithic times.     

北京城市保障性住房居民的就医可达性研究——基于GIS网络分析方法

本文以北京市为例,采用GIS 网络分析方法,分析具有中低收入群体特征、居住在保障性住房居民通过公共交通和私家车方式,到达各类医疗设施的就医可达性。分析结果显示：从出行方式来看,采取私家车出行的就医可达性高于公共交通。从就医可达性的医院等级来看,三级医院的可达性明显低于社区医院。从就医可达性的空间分布来看,位于城市中心、北部和东部地区的保障性住房居民,其可达性相对较好;位于城市高速路沿线的保障性住房汽车出行可达性较高、但公共交通可达性相对较差。从就医可达性的时间上看,建设年代偏后的保障性住房就医可达性差。通过这些分析发现,居住在保障性住房、选择公共交通的保障性住房居民的就医出行更加不方便。     

Feminist Adventures in Hypertext

Through a discussion of the intentions behind two hypertext works, Ruth Tringham’s Chimera Web and Rosemary Joyce’s Sister Stories, we present an argument that the new digital media offer unique opportunities for feminist archaeology to realize some of its deepest values. Through the medium of hypermedia and hypertext (multilinear) narratives the complexities of the feminist practice of archaeology (including its multivocal interpretive process) can be grasped, enjoyed, and participated in by a non-archaeological audience more fluidly than in traditional linear texts. We draw attention to the way in which recent developments in digital technology, especially through the Internet, have transformed our ability to share freely the fruits of our creative thought with an ever-expanding audience.

Exile at home: A matter of being out of place

This article employs Hannah Arendt's theorizing about assimilation to consider how sovereign citizens of a nation state might nevertheless experience a sense of exile. It builds on Aziza Khazzoom's notion of a ‘chain of Orientalism’ to suggest that the assimilation of Europe's Jews to Enlightenment ideals has had ongoing repercussions among Jews in the modern state of Israel. The article focuses on what it means to be Jewish in terms of religious observance, and who feels at home in the Jewish state. Employing vignettes from recent ethnographic fieldwork, it raises questions about the modern nation state's capacity to create conditions in which its own ‘people’ can flourish. In this case, Israel has claimed to make it possible for the Jews to flourish, in Arendt's terms, ‘as Jews’, but it is far from clear what ‘as Jews’ would, could or should mean. This leads the author to suggest that Israel has a Jewish problem.