Doing is Learning: Analysis of an Unsuccessful Attempt to Adapt TEK/IK Methodology to Norwegian Sámi Circumstances

Abstract

This article describes a case where an attempt was made to introduce TEK/IK into a conflict between Sámi reindeer owners and environmental institutions. The conflict was brought on by the establishment of a national park in Southern Sámi areas in Norway. At first, the Sámi were in favour of the park, but later on their attitudes changed as the content of planned national park developed. The reindeer owners discovered that the size of the park would be reduced, leaving out what they thought were significant areas in need of protection. They saw the encouragement of increased tourism activities as a threat to reindeer herding and felt alienated by the number of representatives they received in the park management structures. On the basis of these observations reindeer owners protested, but were ignored. As researchers well-established in the Southern Sámi area, we were brought into conversations regarding the park as the local reindeer owners searched for ways of bringing new arguments into the process. At this point we thought TEK/IK represented an opportunity to add weight to Sámi perspectives. As the title of this article indicates, as push came to shove we did not succeed in making room for local participation in our TEK/IK project, despite these existing on-going relations. The article attempts to understand what happened. Our analysis is based upon a perception of TEK/IK as not one, but at least two co-constituted knowledge practices. The premise is that research failures are as important to publish as successes. Our joint ethnographic experience has methodological implications for future TEK/IK research.     

The man within the breast,the supreme impartial spectator,and other impartial spectators in Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Adam Smith infused the expression ‘impartial spectator’ with a plexus of related meanings, one of which is a super-being, which bears parallels to monotheistic ideas of God. As for any genuine, identified, human spectator, he can be deemed impartial only presumptively. Such presumptive impartiality as regards the incident does not of itself carry extensive implications about his intelligence, nor about his being aligned with benevolence towards any larger whole. We may posit, however, a being who is impartial and who holds higher levels of intelligence and of benevolence, and then converse over what her sentiments would be about the matter under discussion. It is natural to conceive of a being who is unsurpassable in such qualities, who is morally supreme, and who naturally takes the definite article the without having been definitized by the writer (because unnecessary, just as we speak of ‘the world’). Signal passages, new to edition 6, suggest that Smith formulates the man within the breast as a representative of the always present and everywhere morally supreme impartial spectator. When Smith speaks of the man within the breast as ‘the supposed impartial spectator’ (all new to edition 6), we interpret ‘supposed’ as sup-pos-ed (purported), not sup-pos’d (posited).     

What is ‘First Philosophy’? Comments on Richard Velkley's Heidegger,Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy

In a noteworthy new study, Richard Velkley brings together Martin Heidegger and Leo Strauss as part of a reexamination of the foundations and nature of philosophical questioning. In what follows, I critically reflect on this shared search for foundations, and particularly on the role of Plato in Strauss's effort to forge a new path for philosophy which moves away from Heidegger without losing sight of him.     

秦俑陶质彩绘原始工艺和剥落过程的探索性研究

为了制作陶俑彩绘的仿真样品,探索失传两千年的秦人制作陶质彩绘的原始工艺,根据已知的各种信息,探讨了秦俑彩绘制作的传统工艺,包括生漆添加猪血的作用、生漆层的配方、颜料层的配方、生漆层和颜料层的制作方法、基底陶块的选择等。制作了陶俑彩绘的仿真样品:生漆层厚度为35~68μm;颜料层厚度:红色20~50μm,白色55~70μm、绿色50~70μm、蓝色55~65μm,与秦俑生漆层和彩绘层的真实厚度相近。生漆层中猪血的最适应比例为4%,颜料层中所用粘合剂适宜浓度:明胶:水为1:32,蛋清:水为1:2。仿真样品经过加速老化破坏循环后,可以大体重现彩绘从陶块上起翘脱落的过程。研究结果为进一步研究病害机理,开展彩绘加固或回贴实验等研究提供了基础方法。     

文物防震措施研究初探

台北故宫博物院珍藏中国历代名瓷和玉器其数量和种类居全世界博物馆之冠,目前陈列柜内瓷器及玉器的防震措施仍有改善的空间,因此运用现代科学方法和仪器研究文物防震措施,更突显其重要性和迫切性。本研究使用的方法为传统文物防震措施(使用微晶蜡固定、铁弗龙、橡胶垫和防震塑料垫衬底)、柜内型隔震台减震和电磁铁固定陈列柜功能性测试;运用台湾地震工程研究中心的人工地震台执行上述不同方法之实验。实验结果,传统方法抗震优劣顺序为:微晶蜡>铁弗龙>塑料垫>橡胶垫;柜内型隔震台消能减震功效可达60％;至于电磁铁固定陈列柜防震在加速度超过800gal时,才显现摇摆现象,未装电磁铁的陈列柜,加速度超过300gal时,即有自震现象。然而在瓷器、玉器陈列柜内实务执行防震措施的层面,宜使用微晶蜡固定最为经济有效,柜内型隔震台亦可使用,但需考量柜内可滑动空间是否充裕的实际状况执行。     

安徽巢湖放王岗出土西汉漆器漆膜测试分析

为了解放王岗出土漆器的髹漆技术,采用了漆膜切片技术、X射线衍射粉末法、傅立叶红外光谱法和显微镜等分析方法对漆器残片进行了分析。实验结果表明:大部分的漆膜包含1～3层髹漆层,一些漆膜中存在着漆灰层;采用了HgS作为漆膜的红色呈色颜料;可能采用了混合大漆和其它有机物的漆料;特别是漆膜中发现了含量约在5%左右的石英颗粒,其成因和作用值得现代漆器业去研究。     

破损丝绸服饰文物的保护与修复研究

为探索出土破损丝绸服饰文物的保护与修复方法 ,以一批出土的明代破损丝绸服饰为研究对象 ,根据文物的破损状况 ,采用传统的手工衬补缝合法 ,运用不同的针法技能 ,完成了破损百褶裙 ,素缎广袖长袍等的修复工作。修复后的服饰仍能保持真丝柔软特性。研究表明 ,本方法是目前最为适宜的方法。     

中国传统文化与环境保护关系初探

加强环境保护是世界各国面临的一项迫切任务。中国传统文化中\"天人合一\"的观点促进了环境的保护,但\"多子多福\"、\"不孝有三、无后为大\"等观念又强烈统治着人们的思想,人口的膨胀导致人们不得不以牺牲环境为代价来满足生活的基本需求。因此,正确认识和评价传统文化对环境保护正反两方面的影响,吸收古文化的精髓,剔除糟粕,对我国环境保护的改善有重要意义。