The resurrection of the Inca: the role of Indian representations in the invention of the Peruvian nation

In the nineteenth century, after the separation from the Spanish Crown, the invention of the Andean nations required an autochthonous group, the independence of which could be celebrated. At first sight, it might seem that only the American Indians could play this role, but this idea rapidly ran into a fatal contradiction with the contempt for the Indians of the promoters of the new republics. In addition, it was necessary to build a new identity on many disparate elements to set oneself apart from European origins. In this manner, a suitable mythical autochthony has been invented, built on the image of the Imperial Indian, the descendant of the Incas. The indigenista movement of the 1920s has greatly contributed to the making of this national representation of Peru. This article traces the evolution of this tradition and its principal actors, and describes its underlying tenets. It attempts to picture recent neo‐Inca re‐inventions, especially the emergence of a ritual Inca king in the neo‐cult of the Sun, and the enthronement of the President of the Republic by shamans at the sacred site of Machu Picchu. Finally, it points at recent New Age extensions of this tradition. The article tries to show how mythological constructions of the past are instrumentalized to build the historical foundations of a present‐day nation, and how at the same time they are being taken over by a worldwide ideology.     

From Hope to Escape: Post‐Soviet Russian Memory and Identity

Drawing on letters written by citizens of the USSR to US Congressman James Wright following his 1987 congressional visit and Soviet television appearance as well as follow‐up interviews conducted by this author with many of the same individuals in 2002–2004, this paper will recount the memories of several Muscovites and argue that although the western collective memory of the Cold War is one of victory, the individual accounts of Russians reveals a created memory of the Soviet past which, when confronted with the dire socioeconomic conditions that exist in post‐1991 Russia, leads to a crisis of identity.     

Dual‐Use Technology In the Context of the Non‐Proliferation Regime

Many technologies have both vital legitimate uses and potent military applications. An international regulatory regime has been devised for the purpose of monitoring the use of the most dangerous of these technologies, namely chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Multiple examples of the use of chemical and biological weapons against members of the public, and evidence of prohibited state weapons development programs, demonstrate the vital need for a more effective enforcement regime. The authors discuss the concept and threat of dual‐use technology, the existing regulatory regime and its shortcomings, and propose enhancing this regime with powerful international judicial authorities to enable the prosecution of any state, group or individual who attempts to misuse dual‐use technology.     

Foreign Languages in the Elementary Schools of Richmond,Virginia

The medieval hunt and hunting manuals have been studied by historians as sources for the history of medieval science and geography, and for their insights into the daily lives of the elite societies that practiced hunting as a ritualized sport. This article examines two medieval hunting manuals, Juan Manuel’s Libro de la caza, and the Libro de la montería, commissioned by King Alfonso XI of Castile, and King Alfonso X’s law code, the Siete partidas, for their rhetorical and ideological portrayals of hunting and falconry as expressions of aristocratic power and sovereignty over the natural world. The article concludes with a study of an imagined debate between the merits of falconry and hunting with hounds in the Libro de la caza and Libro de la montería that sheds light on Juan Manuel and Alfonso’s competing views on nobility, informed by the political history of war and rebellion that shaped the lives of both men.     

Representative Ideas of the Deathwish in Nineteenth-Century French Literature

The extensiveness of Alfonso X’s Libro del saber de astrología created such a challenge that only one of the nine subsequent, variant copies attempted to copy it in its entirety: Vatican Library, Ms. Vat. lat. 8174. None of them, including this one, however, contains all of the original text. It is the intricacy of design of the first treatise, the Libro de las figuras de las estrellas fijas que son en el ochavo cielo, however, that posed the greatest challenge for copyists. The Vatican copy and Ms. 1197 of the Biblioteca Nacional de España approximated the design of text of the constellation to the left with a wheel diagram of the various stars to the right as found in the original. The way that Ms. 9-28-8 5707 of the Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia negotiated this arrangement by using two conjugate folios, placing the star wheel diagram across the interior two pages and the text on the first and fourth page, which left a considerable amount of blank space that invited over the years several kinds of writings—tallies, signatures, memorias (a record of transactions), and billet doux (essentially, love messages sent via a go-between). The billet doux form the greatest literary interest given their date, their content, and the name of the male protagonist—Felisardo, which aligns them with Lope de Vega’s work called Novelas a Marcia Leonarda, and in particular the one titled La desdicha por la honra—published in 1624.     

Gods from north‐eastern and north‐western Arabia in cuneiform texts from the First Sealand Dynasty,and a cuneiform inscription from Tell en‐Naṣbeh,c.1500 BC

A cuneiform archive in the Schøyen collection dated around 1500 BC, mainly in the reign of Ayadaragalama, a king of the First Sealand Dynasty in Babylonia, was published in 2009. The claim of that king to be ‘king of the world’ is assessed, with implications of finding an abbreviated version of his name inscribed on a broken bronze circlet from Tell en‐Na?beh in Palestine. Use of two divine names Anzak and Yau in personal names in the archive may be related to contacts between the Sealand king and Dilmun/Bahrain on the one hand, and ancient Midian on the other.     

“Wachstum” oder “Revolution”? Ernst Cassirer und die Wissenschaftsgeschichte

“Growth” or “Revolution”? Ernst Cassirer and History of Science. Ernst Cassirer's contributions to history of science have been long time neglected. The aim of this paper is to show the historical and philosophical framework of Cassirer's engagement in this field, starting from his seminal work about the problem of knowledge in science and philosophy of the modern age. Moreover the author suggests that Cassirer's late studies about Galilei and the origins of mathematical science are of some interest in order to comprehend both his commitment to contemporary history of science (from Burtt to Koyré) and his intellectual heritage for our agendas in a post‐Kuhnian era.     

From Militant Particularism to Anti‐neoliberalism? The Anti‐Enron Movement in India

Abstract: The memorandum of understanding between Enron and the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, signed on 20 June 1992, set in motion the Dabhol Power Project, the largest corporate‐led venture in Indian history. But even while the project was gaining official clearance, it attracted considerable local opposition on environmental and livelihood related grounds. Additionally, the fact that Enron was awarded the contract by the Congress Party led state government of Maharashtra, in the absence of procedural transparency and open bidding, entangled the project in deep controversy. This paper, based on fieldwork, examines opposition to the Dabhol Power Project. I particularly focus on the relevance of militant particularism, and the importance of counter‐hegemony of the working class and/or the subaltern counter‐public in the context of multi‐scaled manifestations of neoliberal power.      

Academic Freedom,Intellectual Diversity,and the Place of Politics in Geography

Abstract: This paper examines the conservative critique of higher education in the USA. I argue, first, that the right's call for greater “intellectual diversity” in American higher education should be understood as an attack on the professional self‐regulation and disciplinary autonomy that are central to academic freedom in this country. Second, I suggest that the right's politicization of politics in the academy brings to light the importance of our developing a vision of the university that accounts for rather than disavows the political nature of the work we do.     

Mapping the Middle East from Within: (Counter‐)Cartographies of an Imperialist Construction

Abstract: The “Middle East” is a readily accepted geographical category throughout much of the world. However, within this ambiguous geographic entity, both the term and the idea of the “Middle East” are often rejected as western‐imperialist constructs. Through a critical examination of an extensive sample of maps produced within several Arab states of the “Middle East”, I found that the regional designation “Middle East” is nearly nonexistent, while the Arab Homeland is unequivocally a more common regional category. However, the “Middle East” did occasionally appear in a few maps. This paper provides an explanatory examination of the normative cartographic discourses in this region, and more focused analysis of the atypical maps of the “Middle East”. My analyses render unique insights into how the “Middle East” is both contested and re‐created from within a western‐imperialist defined region.