Some approaches to traditional Māori knowledge

In this essay I review two books of rather different focus, but with a common thread that is oral tradition: age-old tales passed orally down the generations to maintain the histories and used to educate the young. The focus of the Metge book is traditional methods of education, while McRae’s focus is on the stories themselves.     

Evidence of the Emergence of “Modern” Behavior in the Middle and Later Stone Age Lithic Assemblages at Shurmai Rockshelter (GnJm1) and Kakwa Lelash Rockshelter (GnJm2) in the Mukogodo Hills of North-Central Kenya

The Shurmai (GnJm1) and Kakwa Lelash (GnJm2) rockshelters are located in the Mukogodo Hills region of north-central Kenya. Sondages excavated at both sites allow preliminary reconstruction of their geological and archaeological histories. A total of 4782 lithic pieces were recovered from Shurmai, and 7862 from Kakwa Lelash. The earliest materials from Shurmai date to the late African Middle Stone Age (sometime before ca. 40,000 years bp), and those from Kakwa Lelash apparently date to the African Later Stone Age (sometime after ca. 40,000 bp). The raw material composition, technomorphological characteristics, and style of assemblages from these sites do not reveal whether modern human behavior emerged first in the Middle or in the Later Stone Age. However, the greater sophistication, systematization and efficiency evident in the patterns of resource use, tool manufacture, and style in the Later Stone Age components at Shurmai and Kakwa Lelash rockshelters is consistent with the view that the origins of modern human behavior are to be found in the Later, rather than the Middle, Stone Age in Africa.Les abris de Shurmai (GnJm1) et Kakwa Lelash (GnJm2) sont situés dans la région de collines de Mukogodo du Kenya nord-central. Les sondages creusés aux deux sites permettent la reconstruction préliminaire de leurs histoires géologiques et archéologiques. Un total de 4782 objets lithiques étaient récupérés de Shurmai, et 7862 à Kakwa Lelash. Les matériaux les plus tôt de Shurmai datent au fin de l'Age de la Pierre Moyen d'Afrique (avant ca. 40,000 ans avant le présent), et ceux de Kakwa Lelash datent apparemment au l'Age de la Pierre Récent d'Afrique (après ca. 40,000 ans avant le présent). La composition de matière première, les caractéristiques techno-morphologiques et le modèle des assemblages de ces sites ne révéle pas si le comportement moderne humain a émergé d'abord dans l'Age de la Pierre Moyen ou Récent. Cependant, la plus grand sophistication, systématisation et efficacité évident dans les configurations de l'utilisation de la ressource et dans la fabrication et style des outils de l'Age de la Pierre Récent des abris de Shurmai et Kakwa Lelash se conforme avec l'opinion que les origines de comportement moderne humain se trouvent dans l'Age de la Pierre Récent plutôt que dans l'Age de la Pierre Moyen dans Afrique.     

Production technology and knowledge transfer of calcite-tempered grey ware bowls from 2nd- to 5th-century ce Noricum (Austria)

Aspects of 2nd- to 5th-century ce Roman production technology and knowledge transfer in southern Austria (known as Noricum) were examined. With no evidence for workshops identified in the study area, 44 grey ware bowls from two sites at Aguntum and Lavant were studied macroscopically, and combined with optical microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, prompt gamma activation, neutron activation and scanning electron microscopy, in order to understand whether one (large) workshop supplied these bowls, or whether the bowls were produced by several (small) workshops nearby. Combined with information from the geological background, the results were used to tentatively indicate the production location. The results indicate that the grey ware bowls from Aguntum and Lavant were produced by local workshops nearby. The bowls were manufactured with similar clay sources, tempered with crushed calcite-marble rocks from the Tauern Window, their surface smoothed and burnished, and fired between 800 and 850°C in a reducing atmosphere of an open fire. This is taken to suggest that Roman potters, who were located at Aguntum and Lavant, shared strategies of raw materials selection, paste preparation, finishing and firing, and transferred technological knowledge through time.     

Indigenous biocultural rights and the Blue Mountains: Local and international policy challenges

Indigenous knowledges play a critical role in addressing the environmental crisis, and the United Nations system has adopted a suite of international treaties to protect and strengthen Indigenous peoples’ rights, which are often described as biocultural rights. Because World Heritage Areas are nominated and monitored by UNESCO, an initial hypothesis in this study was that such areas would be subject to higher than normal standards in regard to Indigenous people’s biocultural rights. By reference to the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, Australia, this research examined how the international legislative framework influences conservation practices. We held semi-structured interviews with conservation and Indigenous local experts and compared park management practices in the Area against those used in an Indigenous Protected Area. Findings align with the literature and suggest that Indigenous and scientific knowledge systems can generate new insights for the Area and other sites. Yet, Indigenous knowledges are only marginally applied in practice. Some barriers to full participation of Indigenous people are specific to the colonial history of the area. Yet, findings point to a lack of action by Australian governments and UNESCO, and that needs to be redressed. The study calls attention to the need to support and resource Indigenous people to enable collaborative partnerships to yield significant benefits for biodiversity and protection of Country.     

In the Shadow of the 1919 Total Solar Eclipse: The Two British Expeditions and the Politics of Invisibility**

This paper addresses the legendary total solar eclipse of 29 May 1919. Two British teams confirmed the light bending prediction by Albert Einstein: Charles R. Davidson and Andrew C. C. Crommelin in Sobral, Brazil and Arthur S. Eddington and Edwin T. Cottingham on the African island of Príncipe, then part of the Portuguese empire. By jointly analyzing the two astronomical expeditions supported by written and visual sources, I show how, despite extensive scholarship on this famous historical episode and the historiographical emphasis on the plural dimensions of knowledge construction, many human and non-human actors have been kept in the shadow of the eclipse. I do so by focusing on what I call knowledge from the periphery together with knowledge from below, grounded literally on how localities (sites) affect choices and events, and growing outward to encompass a wide range of participants. I show how the geopolitical status of the two nations where the observational sites were located, and specifically Portugal's condition of colonial power, affected main decisions and events, while highlighting the active role of participants, ranging from experts from the peripheries and those involved in the travels to local elites and anonymous peoples, some of whom contributed to the observation of totality.     

多维视角下中国饮食的地理学解读——以《舌尖上的中国》中的美食为例

本文融合了人地关系认识论与西方饮食地理学的相关成果,基于“自然—社会—文化—经济”四个维度,构建了饮食地理的多维视角分析框架,将饮食的基本属性解读为人与自然交互作用的产物、社会关系的纽带、地方文化的载体、全球化的地方商品等四个方面,进而以《舌尖上的中国》解说词为基础数据,通过语义网络分析,探析了中国美食的地理特征与多重属性。研究发现：(1)中国美食主要集中在胡焕庸线以东,并呈现南多北少、东多西少的基本格局,与农耕文化区和城市群的分布高度一致。(2)在自然属性方面,气候条件被认为是影响中国美食地域性的关键因子;在社会属性方面,美食对增进家庭凝聚力具有重要作用;在文化属性方面,美食是产生地方认同和地方依恋等情感的催化剂;在经济属性方面,美食可以促进地方就业和全球化的深化。     

The Political Forest in the Era of Green Neoliberalism

Nancy Peluso and Peter Vandergeest first used the term “political forest” to denaturalise forests, refiguring them as political-ecological entities. Across three moments of colonialism, post-colonial independence, and counter-insurgency struggles, they analyse how states in Southeast Asia (re)made forests as a means of territorialising power. More recently, they identify a fourth, contemporary moment characterised by the entry of diverse non-state actors into the making of forests, and a shift in the rationalities and technologies of forest management. We label this fourth moment “green neoliberalism” to identify an era of global environmental governance characterised by market-based solutions to socio-ecological problems, biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration priorities, and new moral and scientific claims to forests spanning a variety of sites and scales. The papers in this symposium transport the analytic of the political forest to Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Indonesia, Madagascar, Singapore, and Thailand to examine how green neoliberalism’s discourses and practices have created new sites and expressions of territorialisation, governance, knowledge production, and subject formation. In doing so, they illuminate the multiplicity of actors (re)making political forests at a moment when forests’ virtues as carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots draw massive flows of capital and justify remaking socio-ecological relations across the globe.     

Gaming on the edge: Mobile labour and global talent in Atlantic Canada's video game industry

Diminishing returns and advances in telecommunications have prompted large video game firms to seek new locations, outsource production, and develop niche studios, including on Canada's East Coast. In this paper, we examine emerging occupational cultures and trace the origins and evolution of video game production in Canada's Atlantic provinces—a critical yet peripheral space economy in the gaming sector. Our findings are drawn from 30 interviews with gameworkers, studio managers, government officials, and other industry experts. We find this industry to be driven by the confluence of three major factors: (i) provincial governments have supported video game development as a strategic industry via financial incentives; (ii) firms are benefiting from a return migration effect and are repatriating Atlantic Canadian talent from media hubs by selling “home,” work‐life balance, and an alternative to the punishing gamework culture associated with Silicon Valley; and (iii) post‐secondary institutions in the region have improved their talent pipelines through computer science, digital media, and video game development programs.     

马克斯·舍勒的知识观及其生成基础解析

从现象学精神直观出发,舍勒认为知识是一种存在关系,知识分为宰制知识、教化知识和救赎知识,这三种知识处于紧密联系而又不能相互替代的不同的层级之中,是＂有教养的人＂的生成基础③;舍勒的这种知识观的生成自有其生成的哲学和基督教信仰基础。     

李大钊论历史知识普及问题

李大钊从对历史学功用的重新定位与全新阐述,指出史学"最要紧的用处,是用他来助我们人生的修养"。因此,历史学的功用不能只强调政治性而不重视文化性;只关注社会而不顾及人生。这是历史知识需要普及而且能够普及的社会基础与广阔前提。在如何普及历史知识的问题上李大钊认为:首先,只有把历史看成"活的东西",才能把历史写活;只有把历史写活,才能引人入胜。其次,需要"历史研究的本身亦含有艺术的性质"。要"把历史研究的结果用文学的美文写出来"。第三,充分利用一切可以利用的机会与手段进行历史的普及。