Genocide for “Sanitary Purposes”? The Bogdanovka Murder in Light of Postwar Trial Documents

Drawing on Soviet and Romanian postwar trial material, this study offers a renewed exploration of the Bogdanovka mass murder, while highlighting the extemporaneous character of the most deadly single episode of the Romanian Holocaust. As this case demonstrates, even when there was no initial intent to slaughter Jews in a given area, other local circumstances and actors linked up to cause the obliteration of over 45,000 Jews in a matter of days. In the winter of 1941, the Romanian authorities’ search for solutions to two separate problems—a man-made sanitary crisis and Bucharest's intention of removing Jews from the territories under its control—closely intertwined to spark a genocidal decision. The documentation reviewed for this study provides rare insight into Romanian and German micro-cooperation on the ground, and reveals the “double functionality” logic, which formed the basis of the Axis powers’ jointly planned and implemented murder operation. Simultaneously, the paper discusses the entanglements between the issue of Jewish property, “sanitary considerations,” and the rationale for mass killings.     

Enemies of liberty? Nationalism,immigration, and the framing of terrorism in the agenda of the Front National

This paper systematises the framing of the terrorism issue in the programmatic agenda of the Front national (FN) by focusing on nationalism. We argue that the FN's position on terrorism constitutes part of its strategy to justify its anti‐immigrant agenda by offering ideological rather than biological rationalisations for national belonging. To test our argument empirically, we operationalise four categories of nationalism, including ethno‐racial, cultural, political‐civic, and economic, and code official FN materials published in reaction to seven terrorist attacks on French soil during the period 1986–2015. We find that whilst older documents draw on all four categories, Marine Le Pen documents draw almost exclusively on the cultural and political‐civic categories, confirming our argument. Building on the “normalisation” or “de‐demonisation” approach, our nationalism framework presents a distinct theoretical advantage by allowing us to conceptualise the shift in the party's programmatic agenda.     

波兰华商的发展历程与转型之困--基于华沙中国城的田野调查

论文以波兰华沙的中国城为案例,通过实地观察、访谈和问卷调查等田野方法,考察了其历史沿革和现状、转型困境以及未来前景。华沙中国城是中东欧地区最大的中国商品批发中心和波兰最集中、规模最大的华侨华人社区,也是华商在波兰乃至中东欧地区创业的历史缩影。近年来,随着同行竞争的加剧、税务矛盾、经营模式的掣肘等问题出现,波兰华商面临的挑战和考验日益严峻。从宏观视角而言,波兰华商的发展历程和转型困境也是中国传统制造业在海外发展与转型升级的缩影。从传统意义的输出“廉价货”到“质优价廉”,再到如何走向具有高附加值的“品牌化”发展道路,是当前从事贸易批发的波兰华商,乃至整个中东欧地区华商的主要发展方向。     

‘We disputed every word’: how Kyrgyzstan's moderates tame ethnic nationalism

In post‐violence Kyrgyzstan, a small group of civic‐minded nationalists are fighting to tame extremist voices by formulating their own reconciliation policies. These moderates have adopted several strategies, including persuasion and bargaining with nationalistic elites. This process is not without its limitations. Important issues, such as forging a civic identity for the majority ethnic group, remain unaddressed. Still, moderates' policy achievements and concrete actions are likely to continue to undercut nationalist rhetoric. The case of Kyrgyzstan offers one possible alternative to the Soviet paradigm of framing nationhood alongside citizenship.     

Tracking local dwelling changes in the Chittagong Hills: perspectives on vernacular architecture

Historically, geographers, anthropologists and colonial British administrators (1860–1947) frequently mentioned two ethno-geographical categories – khoungtha and toungtha – when referring to the tribal groups in the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh. Some of these early works considered the livelihood patterns of these groups and the nature of their social and economic interactions. However, a discussion of the changes to their vernacular built environment has escaped any serious investigation. Using empirical findings, this article examines the changes to architectural practices of lowland and highland groups in the socially and ethnically complex region of the Chittagong Hills. Narrowing the discussion to the toungtha Mru ethnic group, this article also examines religious patterns, building techniques and spatial changes in a remotely placed, relatively inaccessible part of the hills where the built environment is still a strong cultural priority.     

Defining Difference from China's Margins

Uniformities and discontinuities in Chinese culture have long animated anthropological debates. The books reviewed here reflect an emerging scholarly consensus about the diversity of China, expressed not only in religions and populations marginal to more mainstream Chinese culture, but among the Han Chinese themselves. Much of the discussion of China's diversity hinges on identity, a social phenomenon freighted with rhetoric and sentiment and inflected by the forces of local and national politics.     

Denied ethnicism: on the Walloon movement in Belgium

The Walloon movement is the lesser‐known counterpart to the Flemish movement in Belgium. In contemporary political debate it presents itself, and is usually perceived, as a civic and voluntaristic movement predicated on the values of democracy, freedom, openness and anti‐nationalism. As such it is contrasted against its Flemish counterpart, which accordingly is characterised as tending towards an ethnic exclusivist form of nationalism hinging on descent, culture and language. However, the historical record behind these representations shows that the Walloon movement is rooted in ethno‐cultural as much as social politics, and that it has always contained both civic and ethnic elements to varying degrees. This article highlights the Walloon movement in order to analyse the language and national stereotypes in which national movements are characterised both in political rhetoric and in scholarly analysis. The case is particularly relevant for the problematic usage of the ‘civic–ethnic’ opposition, slipping between the discourses of antagonism and analysis; one type of such slippage is here identified as ‘denied ethnicism’.     

务川、道真仡佬族民间雕刻艺术考察研究

务川、道真仡佬族民间雕刻有着广泛的存在,图案丰富,线条流畅,造型饱满,表达了仡佬族民族审美理想和民俗文化心理,承载着丰厚的民族文化内涵,具有深厚的民族文化价值。     

A Theological Response to ‘The Case for a Pre-emptive Strike’

Abstract

After the enlargement of the European Union at the beginning of 2007, Western Europe has seen an enormous migration of East European Roma people begging in the streets. In this article, I will focus on some juridical as well as moral dilemmas these street beggars, mostly Romanian Roma, have raised in the EU territory and especially in the Nordic countries. I will also reflect on the historical facts and on past legislation where it is necessary to provide the background for the current situation. I shall argue that to hinder the right to free movement of Roma beggars in the European Union territory by criminalizing their begging and camping violates their fundamental rights. Moreover, such treatment in this case is tantamount to ethnic discrimination.     

Trans-border Exchange between Russia and China: The Case of Blagoveshchensk and Heihe

Two Russian-trained geographers investigate the multiple and largely informal and illicit forms of exchange between two provincial cities of roughly similar size located on opposite banks of the Amur River, namely Blagoveshchensk, in Russia's Far East, and Heihe, in neighboring northeast China. The study is based on interviews and field observations from 2002 to 2009 in Blagoveshchensk, as well as official statistics from the relevant Russian and Chinese provincial governments. Particular attention is focused on the activities and treatment of Chinese guest workers comprising a material component of the labor force in Amur Oblast (e.g., in construction and agriculture), unregistered Chinese entrepreneurs in retailing and catering, and trans-border logging operations of Chinese timber/wood products companies. Also covered are the activities of visiting Russian nationals in Heihe and the extralegal activities of Russian entrepreneurs and bureaucrats. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F20, J61, O17, O18. 5 figures, 1 table, 50 references.