The Imagineering of Resistance: Pollok Free State and the Practice of Postmodern Politics

The conflict over the construction of the M77 motorway in Glasgow, Scotland, is an example of a subculture of resistance which has emerged within Britain over the past fifteen years. The paper focuses upon the actions of Glasgow Earth First!, with whom the author has participated, and on the role of Pollok Free State – an ecological encampment located in the projected path of the motorway. Such resistance is characteristic of a postmodern political practice. It is heterogeneous, symbolic and extensively media-ted. It eschews the capture of state power but is a lived, immediate resistance, the experience of which may be transmitted over space and time.     

三门峡庙底沟M254出土瓷器年代商榷

《三门峡庙底沟唐宋墓葬》公布了M254出土的一件青瓷钵,关于该钵的年代似有可商榷之处。本文在原报告基础之上对其年代进行再探讨,认为其相对年代为金元时期,而非报告中公布的唐代。同时,推测其生产窑口可能是汝州东沟窑。     

Leo Fouché and history at Wits University, 1934–1942

Leo Fouché, the first Professor of History at Pretoria University, was the surprise choice to replace W.M. Macmillan, the first Professor of History at Wits University, following his resignation in 1933. Fouché served at Wits from 1934 to 1942, departing to take up the post of chairman of the South African Broadcasting Corporation. His tenure at both Pretoria and Wits was assessed negatively in the official histories of the two universities. In Ad Destinatum: Gedenkboek van die Universiteit van Pretoria 1910–1960, A.N. Pelzer ignored Fouché’s major contribution in building up history at Pretoria and focussed instead on his failure to serve the Afrikaans movement. In Wits: The Early Years, B.K. Murray represented the conservative Fouché as a major disappointment, both as a researcher and as a teacher, following his productive and progressive-minded predecessor. In this article, an attempt is made to present a more detailed and rounded assessment of his tenure at Wits. While he published little, and his syllabus changes, with their narrow focus on white South African history, did not outlast him, his tenure was generally a positive one for the Department of History. Student numbers grew substantially, an additional staff post was secured, and postgraduate research was actively promoted. Three of his postgraduate students went on to distinguished academic careers in history.     

ARCHAEOMETRY AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: CHARACTERIZATION OF SAMOAN BASALTS

The Elemental Analysis Laboratory provides research support for campus users and service analyses for the University, other state and governmental agencies and private industry. The laboratory's primary concern is the application of unique methodology to a wide range of analytical problems that arise in the course of efforts by University researchers. For the past decade or so, compositional analysis by neutron activation analysis of archaeological artefacts for the purpose of studying provenance, trade or cultural patterns of prehistoric populations has become an area of focus. The present communication will discuss the laboratory in general and the scope and significance of the archaeology work done within the organization. A brief example of a current project involving the study of geologic samples from prehistoric stone tool quarries from American Samoa is presented as an illustration.     

三门峡市李家窑四十四号墓的发掘

1995年5月,为配合三门峡市交警支队的工程建设,三门峡市文物工作队对位于李家窑村北的李家窑遗址进行了考古发掘.这次发掘共布5米×5米探方31个,发掘面积775平方米,清理西周时期墓葬14座.……     

The Pepper Wreck, an early 17th-century Portuguese Indiaman at the mouth of the Tagus River, Portugal

Found in 1993 of the rocks of the fortress São Julião da Barra, at the mouth of the Tagus River, the SJB2 shipwreck—or Pepper Wreck—was tentatively identified as the Portuguese Indiaman Nossa Senhora dos Mártires , lost at this location on its return voyage from Cochin, in India, on 14 September 1606. Its archaeological excavation disclosed a collection of artefacts from the late 16th and the early 17th centuries and allowed the study of the surviving hull structure. The evidence suggests that the Pepper Wreck was a typical Portuguese Indiaman, similar to those described in Portuguese 16th century ship treatises, with a keel of around 27.7 m and an overall length of nearly 40 m.     

‘The Cow is Still the Most Important Figure in Indian Politics!’: Religion,Imperial Culture and the Shaping of Indian Political Reform in the 1930s

This essay assesses the impact of imperial culture, particularly constructions of India and hinduism, on British responses to the Indian nationalist movement in the 1930s. The essay draws on personal and governmental papers, paying special attention to the language and vocabulary employed by British policy makers concerned with Indian affairs. The major issue addressed here is the British presumption that the 1935 Government of India Act, a plan for a federated India with British central control, would defuse nationalist agitation. Such a sanguine view of this proposal seemed misplaced, given the popular success of the nationalists, especially Gandhi, and given the explicit demands of Indians for full self‐government. However, such an optimistic assessment drew on presumptions about Indian political and social behaviour, and especially on conceptions of hinduism. Policy makers in Britain and India argued along well‐established lines, that hinduism inculcated moral and physical weakness, among other deficiencies, and that a British offer of compromise would attract many Indians who feared continuing confrontation with the Raj. Moreover, colonial advisors relied on a belief that social and caste divisions within hinduism would recur within the nationalist ranks as well. This sense that Indians would respond to half‐measures of reform persisted until the 1937 provincial elections. Though British administrators predicted only a moderate showing by the Indian National Congress, the polling proved otherwise, as Congress took power in the majority of the provinces. The Raj lasted another decade, but the confident cultural assumptions sustaining it took a fatal blow.     

Polarized light microscopy casts new light on plants used to make tapa

Information about plant materials of construction in artefacts advances knowledge about human history, agriculture, trade, migration and adaptation to new environments. Typically, materials identification in artefacts made from plants is problematic, since processing, age, dirt and surface treatments can mask identifying features, while ethical considerations relating to sampling limit the use of some analytical techniques. The study tests the usefulness of polarized light microscopy for identifying the New Zealand and Pacific plant species used to make tapa, indicating birefringent and morphological characteristics that can be used to differentiate fibres at the level Moraceae (Pacific; from genera Artocarpus, Broussonetia and Ficus) and Malvaceae (New Zealand; from genera Hoheria and Plangianthus).     

山西翼城大河口西周墓地M1034发掘简报

大河口墓地M1034是一座东西向长方形土坑竖穴墓,葬具为一棺一椁,椁下有两根垫木,墓底中部有一腰坑,坑内殉狗一只。墓主头向西,仰身直肢,男性,年龄为18~19岁。随葬品共计691件套,种类有青铜器、陶器、玉器、石器、蚌贝器、骨牙器和漆木器等。其中青铜礼器有鼎3件,簋2件,青铜兵器有戈、矛、剑、镞等,陶器仅有陶鬲1件。墓葬年代为西周中期早段,墓主为霸国中等贵族。     

Beyond the carrot and stick: the political economy of US military aid to China, 1945–1951

By applying the rent-seeking assumption and sifting through both the archival materials and published historical documents, this article revisits the US–China relationship during the Chinese Civil War (1946–1949) and the early Cold War period, when the United States was caught in the conundrum of aiding the Chinese Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek. As military aid is usually regarded as an important representation of broader economic aid, this research mainly concentrates on the US military assistance to postwar Nationalist China. This topic is important, as it signifies a direct American involvement in the Chinese Civil War, when the influence of the United States in postwar world politics was overwhelmingly predominant. As a result, postwar Chinese history might be reevaluated in a broader global postwar context. In addition, this article also tells the story about rent-seeking behaviors in the complicated US–China military relations during the early Cold War period at both micro and macro levels. When it came to US military assistance to China, the formulation of policy was perennially in the name of one's best interest.