A Late Neolithic Case of Pott's Disease from Hungary

The aim of this study was to present classic bone lesions caused by tuberculosis, as seen in a Late Neolithic–Early Copper Age osteoarchaeological sample deriving from the site of Alsónyék‐Bátaszék (the western part of Hungary from the 5th millennium bc ). In one particular case of an adult male skeleton, vertebral bodies' destruction, collapse, ankylosis and marked angulation in the lower thoracic and the upper lumbal region of the vertebral column were observed. The collapse resulted in a severe gibbus formation. The paleopathological analysis was carried out using morphological observation supported by radiological analyses. The results from this study increase our knowledge of the early occurrence of skeletal tuberculosis in past populations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

John Cain, John Cain's Years. Power, Parties and Politics (Carlton, Melbourne University Press, 1995) pp.323 $29.95 ISBN 0 522 34615 7.

Braham Dabscheck, The Struggle for Australian Industrial Relations (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1995) pp.194 $26.95 ISBN 0 19 553486 7.

Timothy Doyle and Aynsley Kellow, Environmental Politics and Policy Making in Australia (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1995) pp.296 $32.95 ISBN 0 7329 2794 5.

Roy Green and Rodin Genoff (eds), Making the Future Work: Crisis and Change in the South Australian Economy (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1993) pp.254 $26.95 ISBN 1 86373 526 7.

Comparative and international politics

Howard Adelman, Allan Borowski, Meyer Burstein and Lois Foster (eds), Immigration and Refugee Policy: Australia and Canada Compared. 2 Vols. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1994) pp.725 $34.95 @ Vol.1 ISBN 0 52285 559 2, Vol.2 ISBN 0 52284 560 6.

David Arase, Buying Power: The Political Economy of Japan's Foreign Aid (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1995) pp.307 $US49.95 ISBN 1 55587 447 9.

Mohammed Ayoob, The Third World Security Predicament. State Making, Regional Conflict, and the International System (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995) pp.216 $US18.95 ISBN 1 55587 567 9.

Bruce J. Berman and Colin Leys (eds), African Capitalists in African Development (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1994) pp.275 $US45.00 ISBN 1 55587 417 7.

Robert Ellas and Jennifer Turpin (eds), Rethinking Peace (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1994) pp.380 $US19.95 ISBN 1 55587 488 6.

John R. Faust and Judith F. Kornberg, China in World Politics (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1995) pp.281 SUS19.95 ISBN 1 55587 427 4.

Elie Kedourie, Nationalism, 4th ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993) pp.154 $US16.95 ISBN 0 63118 885 1.

Jan‐Erik Lane and Svante Ersson, Comparative Politics: An Introduction and New Approach (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994) pp.270 $35.95 ISBN 0 7456 1257 1.

Rosemary Righter, Utopia Lost: The United Nations and World Order (New York: Twentieth Century Fund Press, 1995) pp.420 $58.20 ISBN 0 87078 358 0.

Herbert F. Weisberg (ed.), Democracy's Feast: Elections in America (New Jersey: Chatham House, 1995) pp.353 $US29.95 ISBN 1 56643 011 9.

Spencer Zifcak, New Managerialism: Administrative Reform in Whitehall and Canberra (Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1994) pp.229 $39.95 ISBN 0 33519 304 8.

Political theory and methodology

R. Darcy and Richard Rohrs, A Guide to Quantitative History (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1995) pp.323 $35.25 ISBN: 0 275 95237 1.

Ernest Gellner, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and Its Rivals (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1994), pp.225 $35.00 ISBN 0 241 00220 6.

Jurgen Habermas, The Past as Future, interviews with Michael Haller (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994) pp.181 $34.95 ISBN 0 74561 454 X.

G.J. Mulgan, Politics in an Antipolitical Age (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994) pp.215 $US19.95 ISBN 0 745 60813 2.

Hugh Stretton and Lionel Orchard, Public Goods, Public Enterprise, Public Choice: Theoretical Foundations of the Contemporary Attack on Government (London: Macmillan Press, 1994) pp.301 $39.95 ISBN 0 33360 725 2.

Vernon Van Dyke, Ideology and Political Choice; the search for freedom, justice, and virtue (Chatham: Chatham House Publishers, 1995) pp.320 $US24.95 ISBN 1 56643 017 8.     

The First ‘Urnfields’ in the Plains of the Danube and the Po

Journal of World Prehistory - Archaeological research is currently redefining how large-scale changes occurred in prehistoric times. In addition to the long-standing theoretical dichotomy between...     

Historical Memory in Post-Cold War Europe

This article examines European memory and memory politics. Taking as my starting point the deepening divisions between the “old” and “new” members of the European Union since the 2004 and 2007 enlargements, I investigate whether differences in official memory concerning World War II on the one hand and communism on the other should be regarded as permanent. Using examples from the development of West-European postwar memory-regimes and comparing them to the current state in postcommunist Europe I suggest that with respect to historical memory the two parts of Europe underwent similar developments, crises and debates, thus making eventual convergence and consensus possible. However, there are various factors that complicate progress in this area: postcommunist countries have to contend not only with their wartime history but also with the experience of communism, which latter colours the assessment of the former.     

Hendrik de Man and Attila József: On Soft and Hard Conditions of Socialism

This article compares Hendrik de Man's (1885–1953) neo-Marxist approach with that of the Hungarian poet Attila József (1905–37). It suggests that de Man's “refinement” of Marxism amounts to foregrounding psychological aspects; he tends to replace “hard,” political or economic elements of Marxist and neo-Marxist theories with “soft,” psychological elements. For him Intellectual Socialism stands in opposition to Labor Socialism. This view may have challenged the synthesis-makers, including József, who sees himself as a “proletarian poet”: in his poetry he formulates the optimal relationship between the new intelligentsia and the proletariat, addressing the philosophical dilemmas raised by de Man. Whereas for de Man, Marx and philosophical Marxism are both of the past, demanding a mechanical interpretation, for József, Marxism—approached with no intention at revision—is a valid theory that calls for certain adjustments. His aspiration, even if unintended, is a correction and criticism of de Man's superficial categorization. Whereas de Man finds in Marxism the deterministic logic of eighteenth-century natural science, which analogy justifies its psychological refinement, for József the notion of law is always bound to society and history.     

Does mass psychology renaturalize political theory? On the methodological originality of “Crowds and Power”

The actual originality and radicalism of Canetti's mass psychology provides a comprehensive picture of humanity and society which could also accommodate a naturalized political domain. Proceeding according to a deliberate plan, Canetti discusses four “purely” political complexes on the basis of his mass‐psychological conception. These four complexes are completed, architecturally as it were, by the Schreber Case, the keystone, which legitimately unites and synthesizes the political and psychological domains in terms of power. His strategy does not involve the projection of already available psychological explanatory patterns onto the political subject‐matter. He chooses rather a political subject‐matter in the analysis of which the already elaborated mass‐psychological insights can resurface. The way leads, therefore, not from mass psychology to politics, but from politics to politics seen in a different way—via innovative mass‐psychological insights. The four case‐studies selected by Canetti display remarkable coherence in their conceptual structure. At the same time, they are also astonishingly diverse and variable. The Versaille Case describes a unique act involving the suppression of collective identity, while the Inflation Case captures the possibility of the shocking devaluation of individual and collective identity, a possibility which can in principle always become reality. The approach is yet again different in the Parliamentarianism Case: politics is shown to be wise enough to restrain political struggle by means of a taboo. Finally, for the case of socialism Canetti provides an original concretization and interpretation of a widely shared view, which is nevertheless seldom articulated with the required precision, namely that socialism and human nature run, at least latently, counter to one another, making their incompatibility predetermined.     

Characterization and textural analysis of Middle Bronze Age Transdanubian inlaid wares of the Encrusted Pottery Culture,Hungary: a preliminary study

Inlaid ceramics belonging to the Encrusted Pottery Culture and dated to the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1500 BC) are highly distinctive vessels with complex decorative motifs found in large numbers in the Transdanubia region of Hungary. Despite this considerable corpus of material there has been little systematic investigation of the composition of the inlays. Micro-analysis of Transdanubian inlaid wares by X-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Fourier transform infrared microscopy (FT-IR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) provides new compositional, structural and textural information on the inlays. In contrast to common statements in the literature regarding the materials used to make inlays, these new data show that the majority of inlays are composed of hydroxyapatite (bone) that was previously ashed, although some of the inlays are composed of calcium carbonate. Additional compositional and textural variation in the bone inlays suggests that bone material from different skeletal elements and/or of different age may have been used, and that contrasting recipes for inlay preparation were employed during fabrication. These results suggest that the production of inlaid vessels of the Encrusted Pottery Culture was more complex than has hitherto been thought.