When DNA can't help: The osteobiographical profile and stable isotope analysis as auxiliary tools for refining genealogical relationships,on the example of the Swéerts-Sporck family

Research into the family of the Counts Swéerts-Sporck raised doubts regarding their biographical data, particularly concerning a child who died in 1817, later identified as Philipp Swéerts-Sporck, and his siblings Joseph and Barbara. These were alleged to include a pair of dizygotic twins, but DNA could not be used to clarify their relationships. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes were therefore measured in their first permanent molars, whereas Philipp's biological age was estimated based on his skeleton. Philipp died at an older age than the written sources claim; an isotopic similarity was found between Joseph and Barbara, but Philipp differed.     

Results of micrometallographic analysis of metalworking tools in graves of metallurgists in Moravia/Czech Republic

The number of finds relating to metalworking, without evidence of mining and processing facilities, is very limited. In Final Eneolith graves of specialized metallurgists that have occurred, they contain a metal-founding or metalsmithing toolkit, whose origins were from eastern Europe (the Maykop, Yamnaya Culture). Such metallurgical tools may have reached central Europe as part of the so-called Yamnaya Package before the onset of the Bee Beaker Culture (BBC); and unlike the Pontic region, these two types of metallurgy separated here. There are found an accumulation of metallurgists' graves in Moravia, where the complete metalworking toolkit is deposited in a predefined place in richly furnished male graves with a distinctive funerary architecture that exhibit a clear relationship to the grave goods. EDX-analysis detected a high content of metals (Cu, Ag, Au, Au–Ag alloy) on all working surfaces of stone tools, grinders, and boar tusks used for the final treatment of their metal products. This makes us believe that the used artefacts were laid as symbolical objects in the graves of these craftsmen who perfectly knew these advanced technologies. Due to their knowledge, their social significance gradually rose and finally reached the level of social elites, who were usually buried in a spectacular manner, including the quantity of grave goods (Überausstattung) and the pars pro toto deposition in one part of the finds.     

Determination of the Fineness of Medieval Coins—Evaluation of Methods in a Case Study of a Medieval Pfennig

The original fineness of coins is very important information that can help us to understand the commercial situation in a wide historical context. This paper deals with a comparison of analytical methods suitable for the evaluation of the actual and original fineness of coins based on a detailed case study of a medieval coin sample. Both non‐destructive (i.e., scanning electron microscopy/energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, X‐ray fluorescence, atomic force microscopy and hydrostatic weighing) and destructive (i.e., inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry and the Volhard titration method) techniques were used. The original fineness can be also deduced from knowledge of the internal structure of the coin (limited miscibility of copper and silver). A new analytical method based on a combination of a micrograph of the metallographic cross‐section with consequent image analysis was developed for determination of the original fineness. The proposed approach is relatively simple and provides reliable values. Sample heterogeneity and its impact on the determination of fineness are also discussed.     

Publications briefly noted

B. A. HUSSAINMIYA. The Brunei Constitution of 1959: an Inside History. Bandar Seri Begawan: Brunei Press, 2000. xvi, 81 pp. B$8.90, paper.

DAVID E. POLLARD. The Chinese Essay. Hong Kong: Research Centre for Translation, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. US$50.00, hardcover.

EVA HUNG (ed). City Women: contemporary Taiwan Women Writers. Hong Kong: Rendition Paperbacks, 2001. 160 pp. No price given, paper.

P. J. MOORE. A Concise History of Dutch Mauritius, 1598-1710: a Fruitful and Healthy Land. London: Kegan Paul International for the International Institute of Asian Studies, 1998. x, 127 pp. Illustrations. £55.00/US$93.50, hardcover.

HENRY YUHUAI HE. Dictionary of the Political Thought of the People's Republic of China. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2001. 727 pp. US$124.95, hardcover.

WILLIAM DUIKER. Historical Dictionary of Vietnam. Asian/Oceanian Historical Dictionaries No. 27, 2nd edition. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998. 512 pp. US$68.00, hardcover.

RIZAL SUKMA. Indonesia and China: the Politics of a Troubled Relationship. London: Routledge, 1999. xiv, 224 pp. £55.00, hardcover.

NICHOLAS TARLING (ed). Indonesia after Soeharto. Auckland: New Zealand Asia Institute, 1999. 168 pp. No price given, paper.

ROY DAVIS LINVILLE JUMPER. Orang Asli Now: the Orang Asli in the Malaysian Political World. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1999. US$48.00, hardcover.

LIANG XIAOSHENG. Panic and Deaf: two Modern Satires. Hanming Chen, trans; James O. Belcher, ed. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001. 157 pp. US$14.95, paper.

LEO DOUW, CEN HUANG and MICHAEL R. GODLEY (eds). Qiaoxiang Ties: interdisciplinary Approaches to ‘Cultural Capitalism’ in South China. London: Kegan Paul International, 1999. 346 pp. No price given, hardcover.

CYRIL BIRCH. Scenes for Mandarins: the Elite Theatre of the Ming. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xiii, 262 pp. US$20.50, paper.

JI GILES UNGPAKORN. Thailand: class Struggle in an Era of Economic Crisis. Hongkong: Asia Resources Monitor Center; Bangkok: Workers' Democracy Book Club, 1999. 118 pp. Thai baht 150.

JI UNGPAKORN. The Struggle for Democracy and Social Justice in Thailand. Bangkok: Arom Pongpangan Foundation, 1997. 130 pp. Thai baht 150.     

Habermas’s Theological Turn and European Integration

Abstract

Jürgen Habermas’s recent work is defined by two trends: an engagement with the realm of the sacred and a concern for the future of the European Union. Despite the apparent lack of connection between these themes, I argue that the early history of European integration has important implications for Habermas’s conclusions about the place of faith in public life. Although Habermas’s work on religion suggests that the sacred contains important normative resources for postsecular democracies, he continues to bar explicitly religious justifications from discourse within state institutions. I question this exclusion of faith by reconstructing the role that political Catholicism played in the foundation of the European project. By focusing on two of the most important actors involved in the creation of the first European Community, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, I show how explicitly religious reasons can broaden political perspectives, resulting in the creation of new, inclusive, postnational forms of communal life. Pushing Habermas to accept the implications of his theological turn, I argue that pluralistic, nondogmatic and nonauthoritarian religious claims should be allowed to enter into the formal public sphere through a discursively determined interpretation of secular translation.