International relations and the Himalaya: connecting ecologies,cultures and geopolitics

ABSTRACT

This article examines international relations (IR)'s approach to the Himalaya. We argue that the possibility of violent conflict over contested international borders is not the region's primary international challenge. Rather, slow violence inflicted by state-building and militarisation, intimately connected to geopolitical tensions, threaten the region's ecologies, cultures and languages. The Himalaya is home to three biodiversity hotspots and a mosaic of ethnic groups, many of whom speak threatened languages. Its ice-deposits feed most of Asia's large rivers. In recent years, India and China have pursued large-scale infrastructure development in the region, enabling greater militarisation and extraction, and a tourist rush. These threats are amplified by climate change, which is occurring in the Himalaya at twice global averages, contributing to landslides, flooding, and droughts. However, the region's complexity is not matched by IR's theorisations, which overwhelmingly focus on the possibility of violent conflict between state actors. We argue that IR's analysis of the region must go beyond a states-and-security, Delhi-Beijing-Islamabad centred approach, to look at the numerous interconnections between its geopolitics, cultures and ecologies. We suggest this can be accomplished through incorporating more interdisciplinary analysis, and through focusing on the interaction between the organisation of political authority and the region's environment.     

Natural theology and ancient theology in the Jesuit China mission

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the proselytical use of ancient theology that developed in the environment of the Jesuit China Mission in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This period is roughly coeval with the European diffusion of deistic doctrines based on a secularized interpretation of natural theology. I argue that the threat posed by the spread of such doctrines produced a significant effect on the philosophy that Jesuits developed in order to relate to Confucianism. In particular, in the late seventeenth century, Jesuits belonging to the China Mission gradually abandoned Matteo Ricci’s natural theology and espoused an approach grounded in ancient theology. The situation changed, however, after the turn of the eighteenth century. Deism continued to spread, and even ancient theology came to be perceived as dangerously close the libertinism. The increasing suspicion towards ancient theology was reflected, in the China Mission, by the reception of the doctrines advanced by the so-called “Figurists”, a group of French Jesuits who proposed an interpretation of certain characters of the Chinese Five Classics as figurae of the Bible.     

The Environment and Subsistence of the Early Neolithic Settlement Area at Těšetice-Kyjovice,Czech Republic

This paper presents a reconstruction of environmental conditions and subsistence strategies in the Early Neolithic (6th Millenium BC) settlement area at Tě?etice-Kyjovice (Czech Republic). Our detailed reconstruction of the environment contributes to the unravelling of the genesis and spread of steppes and the formation of secondary anthropogenic forest-free areas in the Holocene in eastern-Central Europe. Mollusc shells, charcoals and plant macroremains were used as on-site evidence of a settlement environment. A relatively warm and dry anthropogenic forest-free area is reconstructed for the immediate vicinity of the Early Neolithic settlement. Communities of mixed deciduous forests are recorded in the surroundings of the settlement. Plant macroremains reflect the characteristic Neolithic range of cultivated plants (e.g. Triticum monococcum, Triticum dicoccon, Lens culinaris and Pisum sativum). Papaver somniferum seeds were also found, possibly constituting the oldest evidence of its presence and cultivation in the territory of the Czech Republic.     

Effect of natural polymers from cissus glauca roxb on the mechanical and durability properties of hydraulic lime mortar

The tradition of using lime as a binder has been in practice over the centuries and is cited in the architectural feats of all kinds of civilizations. Besides the basic ingredients of lime, sand and water, organic admixtures were also mixed into the mortars to modify fresh and hardened state properties as well as to enhance its durability. The motivation of the present study was to develop a replacement of synthetic admixtures by the bio-admixtures. The plant extract of Cissus glauca Roxb (CGR) which is being used in ancient temples and monuments in Kerala has been tested as admixture in varying concentrations and fermentation periods in lime mortar mix. The admixture is polysaccharide rich and a moisturizing agent.

Tests were conducted to measure changes in microstructure of the mortar; fresh state properties such as setting time and workability, mechanical properties such as compressive strength and flexural strength. Also, physical characteristics of admixture modified mortars such as bulk density, porosity and water absorption were also determined. Morphological analysis using SEM with EDX, mineralogical analysis using XRD and organic analysis adopting FT- IR have been done to validate the results of mechanical and physical tests. Capillary water and salt absorption by suction and resistance to salt crystallization cycles were measured as an indicator of durability properties.

The admixture modified mortar resulted in increased mechanical properties and reduced water absorption. It also limits the capillary rise of water and salt intrusion through the hydrophobic nature. The admixture modified mortar have also offered better resistance against the damaging action of deteriorating salts such as sodium chloride and sodium sulphate crystallization cycles. Polysaccharides and proteins in the plant extract interact with the calcium hydroxide of slaked lime and forms complexes. Hence the, natural polymer has increased the durability of hydraulic lime mortars used for repair and it could be a natural alternative to synthetic admixture.     

The commodity crisis of the 1970s: scarcity,vulnerability and the West German metal supply

ABSTRACT

The 1970s were a period marked by price hikes and fluctuations in the commodity markets, both of which had considerable economic and political repercussions. Although this refers to almost all kinds of raw materials, the case of oil dominates the memory. Metals, by contrast, have received little attention despite their crucial importance for both industrialized consumer states and ore-exporting developing countries. This article develops three main points. First, by highlighting the global metal markets from the late 1960s to the early 1980s it contextualizes the oil-price shock and points out the interactions between the markets for energy and other raw materials. Second, the article aims to draw attention to the sense of crisis in Western industrialized countries regarding their metal supply during this period. This is a topic which has been overshadowed by the case of oil, but which nevertheless deserves study, also because of the parallels to recent developments between 2004 and 2011. Third, the article analyses how notions of resource scarcity, vulnerability and crisis were constructed despite the fact that the commodity crisis proved to be a merely anticipated crisis with high and volatile prices, but no long-term disruptions of supply. Within this article West Germany serves as a case study for highly industrialized, import-dependent countries. The focus is on non-ferrous metals like copper, nickel and aluminium.     

湖南何家皂北宋墓出土纺织品附着灰蓝色物质的科学分析

出土于湖南衡阳何家皂北宋墓的纺织品上观察发现有灰蓝色固体物质附着,为查明其性质,采用扫描电镜-能谱法、激光拉曼光谱法和X射线衍射法结合能量色散X射线荧光光谱法和光学形貌观察等手段进行科学分析。结果表明,该物质为磷酸亚铁矿物——蓝铁矿[Vivianite:Fe_(3)(PO_(4))_(2)·8H_(2)O],其多形成于富铁、富磷、有机物含量较高且贫硫的缺氧还原沉积环境中,微生物活动亦对其生成有影响。该矿物的发现对墓葬环境特征与保存状态的研究有指示意义,在考古遗存中或可作为判断特殊埋藏条件的标志自生矿物之一。     

The “Commons” Versus the “Commodity”: Alter‐globalization,Anti‐privatization and the Human Right to Water in the Global South

Abstract: In response to the growth of private sector involvement in water supply management globally, anti‐privatization campaigns for a human right to water have emerged in recent years. Simultaneously, alter‐globalization activists have promoted alternative water governance models through North‐South red‐green alliances between organized labour, environmental groups, women's groups, and indigenous groups. In this paper, I explore these distinct (albeit overlapping) responses to water privatization. I first present a generic conceptual model of market environmentalist reforms, and explore the contribution of this framework to debates over ‘neoliberalizing nature’. This conceptual framework is applied to the case of anti‐privatization activism to elucidate the limitations of the human right to water as a conceptual counterpoint to privatization, and as an activist strategy. In contrast, I argue that alter‐globalization strategies—centred on concepts of the commons—are more conceptually coherent, and also more successful as activist strategies. The paper concludes with a reiteration of the need for greater conceptual precision in our analyses of neoliberalization, for both academics and activists.     

意大利环境管理与可持续发展体系的特点及启示

意大利环境管理和可持续发展体系具有政策务实、执法严格、层次化管理、市场化运作、全民参与、注重科技进步和科技创新等特点,这些成功经验为我国提供了很多可资借鉴的范例,值得我们认真思考和学习。     

Wild Birds of the Italian Middle Ages: Diet,Environment and Society

ABSTRACT

Wild birds are intrinsically associated with our perception of the Middle Ages. They often feature in heraldic designs, paintings, and books of hours; few human activities typify the medieval period better than falconry. Prominent in medieval iconography, wild birds feature less frequently in written sources (as they were rarely the subject of trade transactions or legal documents) but they can be abundant in archaeological sites. In this paper we highlight the nature of wild bird exploitation in Italian medieval societies, ranging from their role as food items to their status and symbolic importance. A survey of 13 Italian medieval sites corresponding to 19 ‘period sites’, dated from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, reveals the occurrence of more than 100 species (certainly an under-estimate of the actual number). Anseriformes and Columbiformes played a prominent role in the mid- and late medieval Italian diet, though Passeriformes and wild Galliformes were also important. In the late Middle Ages, there is an increase in species diversity and in the role of hunting as an important marker of social status.     

海洋条件下的水下文物埋藏环境概述

出水文物原本埋藏于水下环境,多种破坏因素协同作用,导致病害严重。在对其进行保护修复处理前,需要全面了解文物埋藏历程及病害机理。文物的腐蚀破坏是其与周围环境相互作用的结果。本研究从海水、海洋生物和底质等三大方面探究海洋条件下的水下埋藏环境,并就中国水下考古常见的出水文物类型如陶瓷器、石质、金属质及木质文物的病害类型及原因作简要阐述。