A palaeodietary investigation of carbon (C/C) and nitrogen (N/N) in human and faunal bones from the Copper Age cemeteries of Varna I and Durankulak,Bulgaria

Stable isotope analyses have been applied to human and faunal bone collagen from the Varna I and Durankulak cemeteries to explore palaeodietary adaptations in the Neolithic and Eneolithic (Copper Age). The results suggest both populations primarily utilised terrestrial, C₃-based diets, despite their proximity to the Black Sea. The wider δ¹⁵N range of the Durankulak humans likely indicates the differential utilisation of terrestrial meat sources, which is probably related to the degree to which primary and/or secondary ovicaprid products were consumed, particularly since ovicaprid δ¹⁵N values differ from other herbivores. The isotopic distribution of Varna I reflects a linear relationship between δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C, suggesting that a minority of individuals enriched in both isotopic parameters supplemented their diets with marine resources. These burials include the well known ‘chieftain’ (burial 43) and show notable material wealth by way of grave goods. At the population level, however, there is no significant correlation between stable isotope values and material wealth at Varna I, a fact with implications for theories regarding emergent social/economic hierarchies in Balkan prehistory. Five burials at Durankulak were found to have relatively enriched δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values with respect to the rest of the population. These burials reflect a prominently marine-based or mixed terrestrial C₃-based diet that included C₄ inputs, possibly from millet, for which the limitations of stable isotope analysis on bulk collagen are not able to differentiate. AMS dating has shown that these burials belong to a much later period.     

Anti-Machiavellism as constitutionalism: Hermann Conring's commentary on Machiavelli's The Prince

In his Animadversiones on Machiavelli's The Prince (1661), Hermann Conring, one of the most famous of the early modern German professors of politics, further developed the constitutional reading of Machiavelli's The Prince, following in the footsteps of Bodin and the German political theorists of the previous generation such as Arnisaeus, Contzen, and Besold. For Conring, Machiavelli's exaggerated analysis of tyranny and his heavy emphasis on popular liberty offered not so much a realist political science but a dangerous prelude to the monarchomachic theory of popular sovereignty and a fatalistic concession to sin. Conring, a committed Aristotelian with Arminian sympathies, preferred a more empirical constitutional analysis (and a theory of the state) which did not favor any particular faction of the state (i.e. the people over the nobility) as the unique source of stability or instability and which explained the necessity for wickedness as the result of poor constitutional design rather than a realistic view of human nature and fate.     

Anti-Machiavellism as constitutionalism: Hermann Conring's commentary on Machiavelli's The Prince

In his Animadversiones on Machiavelli's The Prince (1661), Hermann Conring, one of the most famous of the early modern German professors of politics, further developed the constitutional reading of Machiavelli's The Prince, following in the footsteps of Bodin and the German political theorists of the previous generation such as Arnisaeus, Contzen, and Besold. For Conring, Machiavelli's exaggerated analysis of tyranny and his heavy emphasis on popular liberty offered not so much a realist political science but a dangerous prelude to the monarchomachic theory of popular sovereignty and a fatalistic concession to sin. Conring, a committed Aristotelian with Arminian sympathies, preferred a more empirical constitutional analysis (and a theory of the state) which did not favor any particular faction of the state (i.e. the people over the nobility) as the unique source of stability or instability and which explained the necessity for wickedness as the result of poor constitutional design rather than a realistic view of human nature and fate.     

Une loi de l'Eglise et de l'Etat: Napoleon and the central administration of religious life, 1800 1815

In 1802 the Napoleonic government removed authority over religiousholidays from the Gallican Church. In Old Regime France bishopsdecided which holidays were observed in their dioceses. TheRepublican Calendar had eliminated official recognition of Catholicholidays but not their widespread observance. Napoleon reinstatedthe Gregorian Calendar but not the holidays of the Old Regime.At his request, a papal indult eliminated the weekday observanceof all but four Catholic holidays. The reform drew on the legacyof the Enlightenment, especially Montesquieu. The clergy ofthe Gallican Church oversaw the indult's execution, which wascomplicated by ambiguous wording. Napoleon attempted to mergereligious and political obedience, so the best Christians wouldalso be the best subjects, while making it clear that the governmentwas the dominant power. The Restoration subsequently kept theindult in place, neither adding more holidays nor relinquishingauthority over the matter.     

Shakespeare's Fault or Yours? Melzer's Maxim: A Guide to Tentative Omniscience for the Congenitally Hyperfallible

Abstract

Arthur Melzer's tremendous accomplishment is even greater than he may realize. The tradition of esoteric writing in political philosophy exists, as he convincingly demonstrates, and the consequences of this discovery are as significant as he claims. But the method of esoteric reading that he recommends applies more broadly than he seems to suggest. Applied liberally, moreover, as a corrective to nearly everything that's gone wrong with education in the humanities and social sciences over the last forty years, his humble heuristic—Melzer's Maxim, I call it—has the potential to reorient and renew the whole concept of Liberal Education for an age whose pedagogy is foundering. A boon to the sub-discipline of Political Theory in particular, Philosophy Between the Lines has even more to offer to classroom instruction in general. Read between the lines, Melzer's specialized work of scholarship promises nothing less than the opening of the American mind. It is the antidote to the poison of politically correct multiculturalism.     

‘Just Another Start to the Denigration of Anzac Day’: Evolving Commemorations of Australian LGBTI Military Service

This article examines key historical moments in 1982, 1996, 2013 and 2015 when current or formerly serving gay military personnel have publicly asserted their membership in Australia’s Anzac legend and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community. Through using the public spaces of Anzac Day and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, LGBTI service organisations have strategically positioned gay service personnel as past, present or future members of Australia’s Defence and LGBTI communities. Their public demonstrations have challenged Australians’ constructs of gay men’s masculinity, the Anzac legend, digger mythology and the Australian Defence Force.     

The Micropolitics of Indigenous Environmental Movements in the Philippines

Indigenous movements face what Stuart Kirsch has called the ‘risks of counterglobalization’, which can distort their objectives into an all‐or‐nothing position with respect to development. In this contribution, I explore a case from the Philippines, where a movement originally conceived in terms of indigenous rights grew to include a more diverse mix of constituents and claims. This trajectory has made the movement vulnerable to charges of inauthenticity, particularly since the corporation it opposes has sponsored a parallel indigenous group and fashioned itself as the noble custodian of a threatened marine ecosystem. Nevertheless, the movement's constituents do not evaluate their activities exclusively in terms of its formal objectives or identity politics. For them, organized protest is entangled with the ‘serious games’ of everyday life, including, for example, local elections, struggles to achieve upward social mobility and efforts to redefine ethnic identity. As a result, some constituents see their involvement primarily as a claim to socioeconomic parity and others as a pursuit of the exceptional rights that indigeneity confers. Without attention to such local‐level variation, we risk obscuring some of the most important motives and outcomes of indigenous movements — and, as a result, we may overlook the alternative visions of socio‐environmental justice that emerge from their day‐to‐day struggles for livelihood, dignity and empowerment.     

Charlemagne's peaches: a case of early medieval European ecological adaptation

What happened to the many ‘Mediterranean’ fruits the Romans brought to north‐west Europe when the empire that supported their dissemination ended? Charlemagne's capitulary De villis called for the cultivation of various fruit trees, including peach (Prunus persica). That fruit hits the sweet spot between plants that were rare in early medieval northern Francia, like date palm, and those that were commonplace, like plum. Thus, the peach is an excellent proxy for Charlemagne's imperial and ecological aspirations. Using both written and archaeobotanical evidence for peaches in Francia, this article analyses how adapting exotic plants to northern climates served the purposes of early medieval rulers.